FACSIMILES OF MASTERPIECES.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
• have read with much interest the letter in your issue of August 18th from Mr. W. S. C. Copeman on the subject of facsimiles of masterpieces. May I be allowed to correct one statement made by him—namely, that "La Gioconda" is known to the wide public only through the medium of cheap photogravures. I would not venture to do this did Mr. Cope- man not use the name of The Medici Society to point his statement. This Society reproduced this picture in the year 1910, and the Medici Print is still available at the not very high price of 32s. 6d., but I am afraid that Mr. Copeman would find some difficulty in producing a Medici Print for 120.
That does not, however, at all stultify the force of his argument in favour of the formation of a gallery of reproduc- tions such as he suggests. This Society has, since the year 1908, been endeavouring to form a collection of this nature, and a large number of museums and galleries have availed themselves of Medici prints for the use of students, both in this country, in the colonies, and in the United States of America. Thus, a complete framed tet of the Medici prints may be found in the National Gallery of Canada, the Metro- politan Museum of Art, New York, the Library of Congress, Washington and Yale University, to mention but a few.
The ideals of this Society are sufficiently well known for it to be scarcely necessary for me to say that any scheme to form a collection such as Mr. Copeman suggests would receive the warmest support from the members of this Society.- ! am, Sir, &c., For and on behalf of The Medici Society, Ltd.,
NIGEL DE GREY, Director and Manager.
7 Grafton Sired, London, W. 1.
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