ocrity, also named Vermeer, but
hailing from Haarlem. (He died in 1691.) This confusion of names may
have had something to do with the obscuring of the great Vermeer. But
he had no vogue in 1696, as the prices at the sale prove only too
well.

Vanzype gives the list, and its importance in any research of the
Vermeer pictures is paramount. Here are the 21 canvases that are
extant, and the prices paid: No. 1--A young woman weighing gold, 155
florins; 2--A milk girl, 175 florins; 3--The portrait of the painter
in his studio, 45 florins; 4--A young woman playing the guitar, 70
florins; 5--A gentleman in his chamber, 95 florins; 6--A young lady
playing the clavecin, with a gentleman who listens, 30 florins; 7--A
young woman taking a letter from her servant, 70 florins; 8--A servant
who has drunk too much asleep at a table, 62 florins; 9--A merry
company, 73 florins; 10--A young lady and a gentleman making music, 81
florins; 11--A soldier with a laughing girl, 44 florins; 12--A young
lacemaker, 28 florins; 13--View of Delft, 200 florins; 14--A house at
Delft, 72 florins; 15--A view of some houses, 48 florins; 16--A young
woman writing, 63 florins; 17--A young woman, 30 florins; 18--Young
woman at a clavecin, 42 florins; 19--A portrait in antique costume, 36
florins; 20 and 21--Two pendants, 34 florins.

The subsequent history of these pictures, while too copious for
transcription here, may be skeletonised. This may answer the question
posed at the beginning of this little story. Gustave Vanzype asks:
What has become of the young woman weighing gold, which reappeared at
a sale in the year 1701, which Buerger thought he had found in the
canvas, The Weigher of Gold. And the Intoxicated Servant? The latter
is in the Altman collection; the former at Philadelphia, in Mr.
Widener's gallery. But let us see how the wise doctors of paint
dispute among themselves. How many Vermeers are there in existence,
that is, known to the world, for there may be others, for all we know,
hidden in the cabinets of collectors or sporting other names? Buerger,
who called Vermeer the Sphinx among artists, has generously attributed
to him 76 pictures. This was in 1866, and since then a more savant
authority has reduced the number to 40. Havard admits 56. The Vermeer
of Haarlem was to blame for this swollen catalogue. Bredius and De
Groot have attenuated the list. The Morgan Vermeer in the Metropolitan
Museum, a Vermeer of first-class quality, is not in