“Never confuse a client, my dear Philippe. Decide what you want him to do and make him believe that what he thinks is his own idea, when actually it is yours.”
It was a principle that had made Philippe Dubucheron the most important and certainly the most successful art dealer in Paris.
Yet, because he had an original mind, he found it very boring to confine himself entirely to pictures.
The men whom he came to know in the course of business were Noblemen from every part of Europe and he found that they were interested not only in art but in anything that appealed to their senses.
It was a game he played with himself and that he should provide every man with what he most desired gave him a satisfaction that was as pleasant as backing a theatrical show and finding it a success.
His clie
