Letter from Horace Vachell Concerning His Novel The Face of Clay and the Misidentification of a Death Mask.
Bath, England: 1931. Letter dated October 26, 1931 from Horace Vachell of Widcombe Manor, Bath, with his signature, to Mary M. Mackinnen of Northcote, Victoria, Australia. Lord Horace Annesley Vachell (1861–1955) was a prolific novelist, playwright and essayist. He moved to Southern California for a time in 1882 and is credited with introducing polo there. "It was very pleasant reading your nice letter from so far away. Very many thanks. Do, please, tell Mr. Brown how much I appreciate his charming verses, which I have pasted into my copy of The Face of Clay. After writing that romance (believe the current story), I spent some money in routing out the truth. The cast was taken from the face of a young girl, this daughter of a sculpter named Saulier. She died (an old lady) in 1865---!!!!!" The Face of Clay (1903) is the story of Tephany Lane, who after 10 years being separated from her childhood crush, Michael Ossory, returns home to find "a shadow" has fallen over the young painter. The Face of Clay is a death mask Ossory has made of a mysterious girl who he had asked to pose nude for him. She drowns and he blames himself for her downfall. The mask seems to change its expression to reflect the mood of whomever gazes upon it. Vachell took his inspiration from La Femme Inconnue, an 1840 mask that was commonly seen hanging from the wall in artist's studios that was said to be the death mask of a girl who had drowned in the Seine. A note in red ink on the verso of the letter reads: "Mr. Brown was the headmaster of Grimwadd House. At the time, it was believed that the face was that of a young girl found drowned in the Seine." In a profile of Vachell in with The Books News Monthly (December 1913), the author recalls that "after I had finished The Face of Clay I made some effort to discover the truth about La Femme Inconnue. The result of my labors -- rather protracted -- revealed the fact the the original was a Mademoiselle Saulier, daughter of a French sculptor, who made the cast while the girl was alive. This was in 1840 and--here our romance comes toppling to the ground -- our little friend survived the ordeal for 25 years, dying in the odor of sanctity in 1865!" The headmaster of Grimwade House in Melbourne (a private grammar school) at the time was Harold Down; Vachell may have gotten the name wrong. Approx. 8 x 8" Item #16941
Price: $45.00