Cotmania. Vol. III. 1928-9

{Kitson's account}
May 10. Went with Pinhorn to Tusmore, Oxon. to sale of pictures there by Mawin Ltd. 223 Fulham Road. A terrible auctioneer; many London dealers, Parsons, Vicars, Bowden etc. & a strong contingent of Oxfordshire county & parsons. Prices reached high. Lot 1100 contained a 'Cotman' - gilt mount, with J. S. Cotman printed thereon. A very poor pupil's work; JSC's technique not even hinted at. Colling's, 49 Dover S[tree]t, bought the lot for 12.12.0, for the excellent Sutton Palmer.

{Sketch}
1096 Landscape with Castle in distance Sutton Palmer
Rainbow J. S. Cotman
St. Wulfran, Abbeville. W. Callow

{Letter from AP Oppé, recto}
BURLINGTON FINE ARTS CLUB,
17, SAVILE ROW, LONDON, W.1
Telephone Gerrard 6432
May 4. 1929
Dear Sydney,
The new blue Cotman is Rievaulx, etch[e]d Sept. 4. 1810 in the first part of the Yorkshire etchings. It is in reverse and differs in many ways, to its disadvantage, from the print. It has many astonishing features, but taken all in all, & with the signature, must be J. S. C. If so +& with Gormire I diagnose a decline, in company

{Letter from AP Oppé, verso}
with Paul Sandby Munn, in London, after Girtin's death.
Crook the robber chief in Ays... St. (n[ea]r Manchester Sq) where you went in the matter of Repton, secured at the same sale a doorway at Bayeux Cotman, perfectly right but dullish & in poor condition & a very good, large interior of a cave wh[ich] I venture to attribute to P. S. Munn at his height.
Yours ever
Paul Oppé.