The Wildenstein Galleries, increasingly known as the prime spot for socialite artists to exhibit their wares, had a teaparty last week to open their swankiest show of the season. Visitors with slightly buttery fingers wandered through three rooms to see drawings, water colors, etchings and oil paintings by Prince Henry XXXIII of Reuss, his cousin the Countess Regina Felide Héléne Louise Amadée zu Stolberg-Stolberg, and a Mr. Purcell-Jones.
Mr. Purcell-Jones, apparently another member of Britain's languid gentry, contributed a roomful of slightly improper drawings of ladies and gentlemen in fancy dress in which he combined the manners of Aubrey Beardsley, Botticelli, Benozzo Gozzoli and Florenz Ziegfeld. His pictures bore such titles as: La Chevalier (sic) de la Jarretière, Lady Woudnaught, Sir Adam Coudnaught, Odalisque, Lady Couch. Prince Henry and his cousin-countess showed views of France, Africa, Egypt and New York, painfully wrought.
Though they have yet to make their mark in the world of art, the Princes of Reuss (Germany) are the delight of genealogists. More spectacular is the fact that ever since the 14th Century all male members of the House of Reuss have been named Henry and numbered serially. There are two systems of numerology. The elder branch of the House of Reuss names its Henrys from 1 to 100, then starts in with 1 again. This branch is now extinct in the male line. The first and second limbs of the junior branch name their Henrys according to the centuries: the first male Reuss born after New Year's day of 1600, 1700, 1800 and 1900 was Henry I again.
Prince Henry XXXIII, who exhibited his paintings last week, married Mrs. Allene Tew Hostetter Burchard of New York in 1929. He is a member of the second limb of the younger branch of the House of Reuss, and his son, born 1916, is Henry II. If possible he is not to be confused with the head of his branch of the house, his cousin, Prince Henry XXXIX who married the Countess of Castell-Castell (at Castell) and whose sons are Henry IV, Henry VI and Henry VII.