S&SWM PR papers L1346

L1346

Davy

Tollard Royal | July 95

Gen P Rivers

Dear Sir

Allow me to address you a line or two on a matter of business. I was out to your museum a few days ago, and could one spend a week there: There are plenty of chances to obtain knowledge of the past, and the present, of the manners and customs of other nations. As you are fond of gathering Relics, from all parts of the world, I would like to inform you that I have the authority to sell one of the finest collections of Indian relics in North America. They were collected by a physician who wrote a history of the Indian massacres in the Wyoming valley he was forty years in getting them together, a little while before he died he became paralysed in his lower limbs and could not get around to see his patients. Before he passed away - over [sic presumably meaning PTO] He requested me to assist his widow to dispose of the collection as she would need their value more than the relics Among my letters in the United States I have a list of the articles which are all labelled and among them the skeleton of a man seven feet high. They are all packed up in boxes, and if you wish any correspondence upon the subject, a letter should find me at Tollard Royal.

Your respectfully

Address

Rev John Davy

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L1413

Scranton | Oct 14/95

Gen. Pitt Rivers

Dear Sir

I have not corresponded with your lady about those relics as I agreed to before leaving England the reason is the owner is in California and I thought I would wait until she returned but as she has not returned yet I will send you a list of the relics as I have them which the owner was 40 years in gathering which embrace 20,000 pieces representing every implement used in peace or war. Of the sling stone which since have mistaken for sinkers I have 2 or 300 weighing from 1 ounce to five pounds. The arrow and spear point I have many thousand from 1/4 to 12 inches in length of any possible finish & design. Of stone picks hoes and agricultural tools I have a vast number Of death dealing mauls I have two. Of tomahawks 30 or 40. Of skinning or scalping stones some 200 of beautiful workmanship & finish. Of Pestle from 80 pounds to 6 oz I have nearly 2000, Of Indian mortar or gristmills I have 2 singular beauty, Beautiful amulets 30 or 40 - stone birds - strings of wampum - elegant gouges for digging [illegible] from canoes - ornamental stone rings - ceremonial stones - and rare old stone and clay pipes fire stones for boiling venison corn & tobacco planters - pottery and of quoits I have 200 or 3000 awls & whetstones & sharpners [sic] and a thousand other things all stone found in the Lackauauna Valley every thing as marked by stencil plate but I have 17 things I do not know what they are or of what use they were put so these are numbered beside I have a collection of modern things from the Rocky Mountains Indian weapons medicine bags &c I also gave 7 Indian crania & one entire Indian skeleton 7 feet in length in a good state of preservation with 32 teeth in his jaw the one who buys it must see it to appreciate it it is one of the finest collections in America.

The price for the above collection is $ 5500 or a little less than 1200 pounds if you wish to correspond with me my address is

Rev John Davy
810 [illegible] Street
Scranton
Pennsylvania
North America

The items do not appear in the second collection according to the catalogue.

Transcribed for Rethinking Pitt-Rivers project by AP June 2011