The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-07-16
SET OF DICKENS COSTING $87,O0O
 CAUSES LAWSUIT

New York July 16.-Thirteen parch- ments, symbolicaI of the original thir- teen States, and an ss7,000 set of Char les Dickens figured in proceedings in the Supreme court yesterday when Judge Bischoff signed an order direct ing the Garfield Safe Deposit Company Hoxie, of Chicago, to examine cer- tain tablets and papers in its posses sion.
 Mrs. Hoxfe, who is the widow of one of the founders of the Chicago Stock Yards, was recently sued in the Mun1- cipaI court Of Chicago by the Uniyer- sfty Press of Boston, on three notes, amounting to about T,000 which, it IS alleged, were given by her in 19O! in part payment on 130 volumes of Dick ans which she purchased through George D. Sproul, of No. 150 Fifth avenue. [
 J. A. Hatch, a lawyer, of No. 49 Wall street, who represented Mrs Hoxie, contended that the books were not as represented when the contract was signed and that after a large payment had been made the order was can celled. MT. Sproul, according to Mrs. Hoxie's counsel agreed to substitute for the books thirteen illuminated tab lets of, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, which, he represented, were the iSt.
 Mrs Hoxie agreed to this plan, but the paintings were not removed from the safe deposit vaults where they had been stored by MT. sproul: The oo- ject of yesterdays proceedings was to enable Mrs. Hoxie's counsel to exam inc the paintings and to determine their value before she is compelled to pay the amount due on notes given to Mr., Sproul at the time of the pur- chase of the set of Dickens. B. Jer- main Savage, a lawyer, of No. 35 Wall street, was named by the Municipal court of Chicago as commissioner to take testimony, and the paintings will be examined at the Garfield Safe De- posit vaults today.
 The paintings were brought to this country in 1902 and were exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They are patterned after work of the Middle Ages. Aften ten years of ex- perimenting, Leoni, a young Italian artist, it is said, discovered the tech nique of what was thought to be lost art, and set out upon what was to be the great work of his 1fe-pafnting the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States in ancient text, with illuminated margins, on thirteen parchmentS thirty-one inches high and twenty-three inches wide. Five years were consumed in completing the work. The artist de voted a month to each portrait of the founders of the United States and the Presidents, each scarcely larger than a, half dollar.
 Battle scenes of the three American wars and other important events in the nations history are also shown. The work met with unbounded praise from Queen Helena, of Italy; President Roosevelt and General di Cesnola, who, until his death, was head of the Mu- scum of Art.
 MT. Sprou1 said last night that Mrs. Hoxie had agreed to pay $47,0O0 for the paintings, but that she paid only s15, 900 in cash, giving her notes for the balance. The set of Dickens which she purchased, he said, was of a very rare edition printed on parchment and limited to thirteen sets, eight of which were sold to Americans. The work was Illustrated by Ross Turner, of Boston.