Giacometti, Alberto (and others)

2 autograph letters, the first signed ("Tuo Alberto"), the second unsigned, to Diego Giacometti, in Italian dialect, (8 pages), one dated "Stampa. 27. V. 52"; one postcard showing an antique Egyptian statue of a scribe, offered by Diego to Alberto, later offered by Diego and Alberto's nephew Silvio to James Lord ; 2 autograph letters signed "Mamma", in Italian dialect, from Annetta Giacometti, the first one dated in "Maloja, 8/7/30" to his son Alberto; the second dated in "Stampa, 29/12/61" to both Alberto and Diego (5 pages); one autograph note from Annette to her husband Alberto Giacometti, signed "ta zozotte", in French, (one page); one autograph letter signed "Diego", in Italian dialect, to Alberto, dated "Stampa 11-1-60" about their mother health (one page); one unsigned early autograph manuscript, in Italian, unsigned and titled "L'Orlando Furioso" (3 pages on 2 sheets).
[with]
Jean Cocteau. 2 autograph letters signed ("Jean Cocteau"), in French, to Diego Giacometti, (2 pages) asking him for two chairs and their price: "Dites moi ce que je dois payer bien que l'élégance de ces chaises n'ai pas de prix (...) si je m'arrête à deux, c'est que je les trouve si belles qu'il me semble ne pas devoir les traiter comme un simple meuble, mais comme un objet d'Art". 
Jacques Dupin. 2 autograph letters signed ("Jacques Dupin"), in French, to Alberto Giacometti, dated "21 mai 1962" and "13 juillet 62" (4 pages) regarding the soon-to-be-published monograph of the artist, edited by Maeght. 

The estate of James Lord

Alberto Giacometti confides to his brother about his work, upcoming exhibitions, the bronze doors he created for the Kaufmann family mausoleum on the grounds of Fallingwater and his friend Henri Matisse.

In the first letter, from Stampa where he's visiting his mother with his wife Annette, he writes to his brother about his ongoing work, upcomming exhibition (it's unclear but it could be the exhibition Sculpture & paintings by Alberto Giacometti, in November 1953 at The Arts Club of Chicago) and his painting "Dark Landscape"
After writing he went to Maloja [Maloggia] to send "12 paintings and watercolors and drawings" he expresses his interest to see his work outside of his workshop: "I also sent the largest via truck and I very much look forward to seeing it out in another environment". He's working on some different works including a small bust of his mother and a bust of Silvio. 
He also explains to his brother that he's working on a landscape he is painting from his window: "I worked out the window and side of the atelier and the square of Tosta (...) The last day was a silent, freezing, and stormy day, all the better for the landscape, as I can I take a little time with it! This morning, the landscape begins to become more colorful!". Alberto Giacometti did only a few major landscape paintings and he probably refers here to "Dark Landscape [Stampa]", dated 1952 and currently at the Alberto and Annette Giacometti foundation in Paris. 

The second letter is almost exclusively about the bronze doors he created for the Kaufmann family mausoleum on the grounds of Fallingwater, the Kaufmann Residence designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935: "(...) Diego, you are curious about how it went with Kaufmann (...): K. came down to the atelier in the morning, but had already seen it the night before. I brought the models outside into the street. Susse [Fonder] came and was helpful in discussing the front of the doors. 
K. is very satisfied; I also find them very successful, and would be happy to adorn them with nothing else and immediately send on to New York all the necessary instructions so they go to the foundry here in October; I still want to see if one idea is better than the other (I doubt it) but in any case, by November they will be off! I also feel they works very well as it is, and Susse, they feel it’s absurd to consider anything more and would like to forge them right away! I expect that the rest will go well, even though you've raised some doubts, Diego. I do not know how to say how happy I am with the outcome of this visit". 
The Swiss sculptor was commissioned by Edgar J. Kaufmann to create the crypt's immense bronze doors. They depict two solitary sticklike figures in bas-relief, a woman sitting against a tree on the right and a man standing far away on the left, facing each other across a barren valley, its dark, stormy background branches evoking William Blake's ''Marriage of Heaven and Hell.''
After a visit of James Johnson Sweeney who is "preparing an exhibition and moaning about how much he likes the sleeping woman and other things (including) drawings by Matisse", Giacometti gives his brother news about Henri Matisse who was visiting the sculptor until the day before: "Matisse left today, having had lots of trouble this summer due to his daughter getting married and too many people around".

The archive also comes with a fascinating document: a pictorial postcard given by Diego to Alberto in 1927 following his trip to Egypt. It depicts the ancient Egyptian work Statue of a Scribe in the Cairo Museum. Alberto kept it tacked to the wall of his studio for the remainder of his life. He often spoke of the statue in conversation and in interviews, and described it as an example of sculptural perfection, in particular where the sitter’s gaze was concerned. It passed to Alberto and Diego’s nephew, Silvio who offered it to James Lord, following Diego’s death in 1986, as a memento..

Letters from Alberto to his brother and fonder Diego are of the utmost rarity on the market. We have no record of autograph letters to his brother at auction.

Very important archive from James Lord's estate reuniting Alberto and Diego Giacometti, Edgar J. Kaufmann and Frank Lloyd Wright, Henri Matisse and Jean Cocteau.