Description

Zoffany (Johan Joseph, portrait painter, 1733-1810) Letter signed to Messrs. Raikes & Co., merchants, of 3 Bishopsgate Churchyard, 1p. with conjugate blank and address panel, sm. 4to, 17th July 1801, "In consequence of an order I received from General Claud Martin for a Machanical Shew-Box. I paid Mr. Weeks of Coventry Street the sum of £9:8:0 which had been laid out by him for sundry coloured views &c to be introduced in the Shew, his not having completed the machine before the news of Gen.l Martin's Death arrived. I stopped the order, and have settled with him by taking the Prints which he had bought, and which I herewith send and shall be obliged to you for the above sum of £9:8:0", and in Zoffany's autograph, "Being lame & indisposed, prevents me the pleasure of waiting on you personally", and docket on verso of conjugate blank, "1801 Sir John Zoffany 17 June Received 17 Do Answd.d"; small tear in conjugate blank where opened, folds, browned.

Extremely rare. "Zoffany wrote few letters... . It is not known whether he kept an account book or a diary; if so, they would have been destroyed with his other papers and the majority of his drawings, all of which are said to have been burnt after his widow and eldest daughter died of cholera in 1832." - Mary Webster, Zoffany, National Portrait Gallery, 1976, p. 19.

"The only other letter we have been able to discover respecting Martin and Zoffany we owe to the kindness of Mr. W. Westley Manning, who owns it. There are so few letters of Zoffany 's in existence, that this has peculiar interest, especially as it concerns his friend and patron [General Martin]. It is addressed to Messrs. Raikes and Co'; the letter in question being about 'an order I received from General Claud Martin for Shew a mechanical-Box' and dated 1801." - Lady Victoria Manners and G.G. Williamson, John Joffany RA: His Life and Works, 1920, pp. 108-109.

Martin (Claude (1735-1800), army officer in the East India Company and philanthropist; met and befriended Zoffany at Lucknow.

Provenance: This letter was lot 498 in the Westley Manning sale, Sotheby's, 25 January 1955. Pencil inscription on conjugate blank, "Bought at Rt: Cole's sale at Putticks [Puttick & Simpson] August 2. 1861. Henry Bicknell."

Lot 163

Zoffany (Johan) Autograph Letter signed to Messrs. Raikes & Co., merchants, 1p. with conjugate blank and address panel, sm. 4to, 17th July 1801, "In consequence of an order I received from General Claud Martin for a Mechanical Shew-Box. I paid Mr. Weeks of Coventry Street the sum of £9:8:0...," small tear in blank, folds, browned.

Hammer Price: £500

Description

Zoffany (Johan Joseph, portrait painter, 1733-1810) Letter signed to Messrs. Raikes & Co., merchants, of 3 Bishopsgate Churchyard, 1p. with conjugate blank and address panel, sm. 4to, 17th July 1801, "In consequence of an order I received from General Claud Martin for a Machanical Shew-Box. I paid Mr. Weeks of Coventry Street the sum of £9:8:0 which had been laid out by him for sundry coloured views &c to be introduced in the Shew, his not having completed the machine before the news of Gen.l Martin's Death arrived. I stopped the order, and have settled with him by taking the Prints which he had bought, and which I herewith send and shall be obliged to you for the above sum of £9:8:0", and in Zoffany's autograph, "Being lame & indisposed, prevents me the pleasure of waiting on you personally", and docket on verso of conjugate blank, "1801 Sir John Zoffany 17 June Received 17 Do Answd.d"; small tear in conjugate blank where opened, folds, browned.

Extremely rare. "Zoffany wrote few letters... . It is not known whether he kept an account book or a diary; if so, they would have been destroyed with his other papers and the majority of his drawings, all of which are said to have been burnt after his widow and eldest daughter died of cholera in 1832." - Mary Webster, Zoffany, National Portrait Gallery, 1976, p. 19.

"The only other letter we have been able to discover respecting Martin and Zoffany we owe to the kindness of Mr. W. Westley Manning, who owns it. There are so few letters of Zoffany 's in existence, that this has peculiar interest, especially as it concerns his friend and patron [General Martin]. It is addressed to Messrs. Raikes and Co'; the letter in question being about 'an order I received from General Claud Martin for Shew a mechanical-Box' and dated 1801." - Lady Victoria Manners and G.G. Williamson, John Joffany RA: His Life and Works, 1920, pp. 108-109.

Martin (Claude (1735-1800), army officer in the East India Company and philanthropist; met and befriended Zoffany at Lucknow.

Provenance: This letter was lot 498 in the Westley Manning sale, Sotheby's, 25 January 1955. Pencil inscription on conjugate blank, "Bought at Rt: Cole's sale at Putticks [Puttick & Simpson] August 2. 1861. Henry Bicknell."

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