Lengthy amusing autographed letter signed to fellow artist Francis Hopkinson Smith
New Jersey: 1890.
Remarkable letter that is complete with misspells, slang, humor, and insults thrown at E.W. Kemble, John Truslow, and the Royal Family. 4 pages (front and back), each measuring 9.5 x 6.25 inches, Monesunk (an Indian name he invented), New Jersey, December 12, 1890, to best friend and fellow artist Francis Hopkinson Smith, in part: "...I think you will think I am a pretty poor sort of a low down kind of cuss-any-how, to send a man a boss drawing and then have to write and ask him if he got it? The drawing came Wednesday: Lord only knows how long the U.S. Express Co. hugged it to its bosom, but on Wednesday I got it...You are an old Angel that's what you are: I will frame my Lovely Islander in solid gold -- if I have to hire a policeman to sit alongside it forever more to watch it! Thank you very much old man, and so much again for the kind thought of yours that made you put the nice little signature in the corner. If you should ever see any drawing of mine inside a magazine or elsewhere that you think you would like to have -- just holler and you shall have it!...I be damned if I like [E.W.] Kemble's Col. Carter, he may look like a Southerner but he does look like an unsentimental old chump and not like the Col. Carter you have drawn in cold type, and as far as the other two!!! Hell!...[John] Truslow is a brick, he comes out often and was here yesterday and today, to my boys birthday party; and is conducting himself like a secular old fussy that he is...How in blazes do you get through the amount of work you do paralyzes me! You and [Frank] Millet make me feel like an infant. I work about all the time and I don't seem to do anything; but then neither of you own farms!...Can I catch hold of you some time and get you out here for a Sunday? I will kill the fatted venison saddle and uncork some cherry bounce that I made in 1886!! And which is boss." (With a Postscript) Potato Ration to H.R.H The Prince of Wales and the Royal Family! Note: all the characters mentioned in this letter were intimate friends as is evident in a History of the Salmagundi Club (Pages 120 - 121), January, 1899. Frost was nicknamed "the icicle," Truslow "the boarder," Hopkinson Smith "the owl," and Millet "the Bulgarian." In 1891 Hopkinson Smith released his first popular book "Col. Carter of Cartersville," for which E.W. Kemble completed the illustrations. In 1885 Hopkinson Smith designed and built the foundation for the Bartholdi Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. This letter is in good condition, as there is discoloration and remnants of mounting at the margins, including four small punch holes, a damp-stain, and small chips. Priced accordingly
American cartoonist, painter, and one of the great illustrators in the "Golden Age of American Illustration."
Binding: Unbound
Condition: Good
Language: English
Price: $600.00
Item #280121