A letter between 2 of Maurice’s nephews, discusses their childhood and memories of their relatives. The subject turns to Tom, Maurice’s brother, also a mosaicist and an uncle to the sender and recipient of the letter.
‘Jack’ tells of how he never worked with Maurice, but was taken up on scaffolding in London to see the mosaics in progress. Jack goes on to tell of how he later worked with Tom and on a particular occasion had seen an error in a mosaic that Tom was preparing to send to the Far East in order to win a commission. Jack was too afraid to say anything, but eventually Tom walked back to take a view of his work and realised his mistake and that it was too late to correct it. Jack tells of how he heard Tom utter language he had never before heard him use.
Jack goes on to say that in the full maturity of adulthood, he built up the confidence to tell Tom that he thought Maurice was the better artist.
With a sorrowful look, Tom asked, ‘How long have you known this, Jack?’
To which Jack replied, ‘Since I was a boy..’
Tom said, ‘Is it that obvious?’
Tom then told Jack that before he died, he must go to Droitwich and see the fantastic work that Maurice was capable of.
Jack’s final comment on Maurice concerns two oil paintings that he did of his parents (Richard and Elizabeth Josey). Jack wrote that he could not find fault in either of these portraits, and that Maurice was the supreme artist of the Josey family
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