Arizona weekly citizen., 1886-08-07
PRICES OF PAINTINGS.
A HARD MATTER TO FIX A FINANCIAL
 EQUIVALENT FOR PLEASURE.

Eighteen Thousand Dollars Seems n Big
 Price for Mrs. Morgan's Little Peach
 Blow vase-How the Cost Might He Jus
 tifed-ProRts of Dealers.
 The dispersal of the great collections made by the late Mrs. Morgan, and com prising pictures, silverware, porcelain, ,, bric-a-brac, etchings. books and Oriental oddities, is the talk of all the studios at at present, and exhibits the phases oi a nine days wonder People ask 1T Jules Breton's ~CommunicantS' was really worth over $44, ,OOO, and if the little peach blow vase had an actual value of Sls,OUO- Well, they must have possessed those values To their buyers, suppose, or they would not have been bought. Forty thou- sand dollars worth of enjoyment to Hch man Is no more than so worth to a poor man; indeed, question if it be often us much, and it is a hard matter to nN financial equivalent for pleasure-especi' ally the higher pleasures that are con ferred by poetry. music and art.
 SEEMS A RECKLESS USE OF CASH
 Much has been said and some things have been written about the actual crimi- nality of paying Sls,OOO for the little peach blow vase in Mrs. Morgan's collec- tion. It does seem reckless use of cash to put in the value of first-class city house and lot into a little piece of Chinese pottery. People are prone to observe Ht such times, What a shameful waste ot money. when so many people are in rags and suffering from hunger" That IS true but if the buyers of these high priced daln- ties fOrbOre their purchase, do the phllan- thrOpists imagine for moment that the money they did not spend in that way would be given tO the ragged and the hungryi Not a bit of it. The rich are usually stingy and selfish. There are not a dozen rich men in this big city of Brook lyn who are otherwise. The more they get the more they want The more is con ceded to their tastes and appetites the more they demand.
 Even if they did bestOw their charities on the poor it would not abolish poverty. The conditions that admit of excessive riches and excessive want are to blame, and not the facts Of wealth and poverty. If you wish to know why slS,0OO can be spent for little bottle whose maker got about 8 for 1t and thought himself well paid. inquire of John Swinton and Henry George. If anything so precious Is bought at such a price it would seem just to place il in a public museum where l, ,SUO, ,OOO peo- pie could obtain from it cents wOrtl of enjoyment each, and thereby justify its cost.
 To many people painting is a thing of as definite ealue as a ton of coal or a tub of butter l confess that l never saw picture that I thought was worth over SlO.OOO. and, if the matter was thoroughly canyassed. think it would appear that not half dozen pictures were ever painted for more than that sum. Whatever they have Brought more than this has accrued to the benefit of speculators an. Cealers. If had Si4 600 that I was willing Co give for an example of Jules Breton would spend less than Sl. .OOO of that money in trip To France, and. going to NJ Breton. would hand him 5000 and say, Paint for me the master work of your life, which haven't doubt M. Breton would try to do. Then l would put S33,OO0 in the bank, or buy other pictures with it.
 PROFITS OF THE PICTURE DEALERS.
 A story was related the other evening by a gentleman who is in position to know whereof he speaks. He was in Paris at lnt ODCulHE Dl AlG s,etAAAAs anu AAA "sAAANANA ing through the vast gallery he encoun- tered NIT. $, a well-known New York dealer, looking critically at a picture called ~The Helping Hand.- He said; You ought to buy that, S.' The dealer answered, Perhaps l will Before the exhibition closed MT. :. did buy it, and paid sl 800 for il. He brought 1t to New York and sold it immediately to Mir. George I. Seney for Sl3,OoO. When MT Seney heard what the picture had cost originally he waXed wrOth and asked NIT. $. 's representative if that wasn't a pretty stiff price he had paid for q 500 picture. The representative sent message tO MT. $, and received this answer: Give NIT. Seney our check for Sl3.OO0, and tell him that hereafter the price of the picture will be s25,OOO- Mr. Seney kept the work, and it brought about 5000 at the sale of his collection.
 A speculative American saw e picture in shop fin Paris that he liked pretty well and asked the price. It was Sl5O. He went to his hotel to sleep on 1t, and in the morning returned to the shop to see if he could beat the proprietor down to SlOO. 4 man never disputes charge of 90 cents a pound for oleomargarine, but he seems to think it duty that he owes to society never to pay more than half price for picture, if he can avoid 1t. To his surprise and regret, somebody had bought the picture whi'e he was thinking about it. On returning to New York he visited the well-known shop of Mr. A. and, behold! there was the picture. What do you ask for that,7 he inquired. The dealer said in a confidential tone: -We can afford to make that pretty low for you, MT. B., and we'll sell it to you for sl .JOOn And profit of 9OO per cent. is not deemed extravagant by many of the dealers.-~C. NJ. ST in Brooklyn Eagle.