Home

updated April 1, 2005

Clarence Mackay's Art, Armor & Tapestry

Images displayed below are courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Attribution: Henry II of France Date purchased: Dec. 1929 Dealer: Joseph Duveen. Cost: $137,500

Here is the crown jewel of Mr. Mackay's entire arms and armor collection! This suit of armor was purchased by Mr. Mackay two months after the stock market crash of 1929. He had been trying to buy it since 1921. It was  originally chosen by the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of the 1932 purchase it made from Mr. Mackay to help him weather his most severe financial crisis of the Great Depression. However it remained in his Harbor Hill collection until after his death in November 1938 because he could not bear to part with it. It was subsequently sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Germain Seligman acting as agent for the Mackay estate in 1939.

Armor for Henry II of France, ca. 1555 After designs by Etienne Delaune (1518/19-1583) French (Paris) Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1939 (39.121)

Source of purchase information here is Stuart W. Pyhrr's article, "Clarence H. Mackay as an Armour Collector" and the files of Seligman & Company in the Smithsonian.

Home