DC/LW/6

DC/LW/6

Item

Letter from Laurence Whistler

20 Oct 1992

2 sheet

Letter addressed from Windmill Farm House, High Street, Watlington, OX9 5PZ to "Christopher" (presumably Christopher McCall KC) and dated 20 Oct 1992, signed "Laurence" (Laurence Whistler). The subject of the letter is a request to Laurence Whistler to make an obelisk or some other item for an undisclosed purpose, a request that Whistler declines: "I fear time is too short for me, at my age to do anything but straightforward jobs . . . An obelisk has to be specially designed, & made, and given a base etc. And the Egyptian theme wouldn't look right on a goblet". Whistler goes on to talk about Tel el Amarna (an Egyptian city of the Eighteenth Dynasty which flourished briefly, 1346-1332 BC) and how "I still think it involved an early attempt to think 'universally', the single transendence, something applicable to all mankind". On a separate sheet, Whistler writes, "On further thought - a three-sided pyramid wouldn't need a base for stability . . . I could see if I could get one made". A small drawing of such a pyramid, bearing apparently Egyptian emblems, is pasted onto the sheet.

English