AGUTTES
6
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AUDUBON, Jean-Jacques (1785–1851).
See original version (French)
6
-
AUDUBON, Jean-Jacques (1785–1851).
See original version (French)
Estimate €2,000 - €2,500
Voluntary lot
Description
AUDUBON, Jean-Jacques (1785–1851).
Autograph letter signed ‘John J. Audubon’, St Francisville (Louisiana), 22 November 1829, to the engraver William H. LIZARS in Edinburgh (Scotland); 1 page, quarto size, addressed with remnants of a red wax seal (the lower part of the address page is missing, with no loss of text); in English.
Description:
A rare letter to the engraver of his *Birds of America*.
He had written to him before his departure from Philadelphia, concerning the anatomical copies (“respecting the Anatomical copies you have sent to him some years since”) that Lizars had sent a few years earlier to Mr BERTHOUD (bookseller and Audubon’s brother-in-law). He passed through Louisville, where he saw his sons and Mr Berthoud, but his time was so limited at that point by the preparations for the steamboat journey that he scarcely had time to attend to Lizars’s affairs (‘ ‘I passed through Louisville on my way here, saw Mr Berthoud and my sons, but my time was then so limited due to the arrangements for the steamboat that I had scarcely time to enquire after your business’”). He handed Lizars’s letter to his son Victor, who would deal with the order immediately; he promised that Lizars would soon hear from Berthoud and receive the parcel as soon as possible. Victor did not think that more than one copy had been sold, and was not even certain of that… Audubon had the box dispatched via his friend Rathbone in Liverpool and hopes it will arrive in good condition. He is back home, but in a month’s time he will be moving eastwards and heading for New York or Boston, as soon as Mrs Audubon is fit enough to make the journey. They hope to be in England very early next spring: ‘I am once more at home but in one month we move Eastwards and will reach either New York or Boston as soon as Mrs Audubon can well bear the journey and we hope to be in England very early next Spring’. In a few days’ time, he will send a box of plants to his friend Selby: “In a few days I will ship a box of plants to Friend Selby”…
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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