This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/27/2021
Offered is a two page handwritten and signed letter from legendary author Charles Dickens. The letter is neatly housed in a frame with a transcription of the letter as well. The letter expresses thanks from Dickens for the care the recipient gave to Dickens' son. The author laments that at least one, if not both, of the letters he wrote his son have been lost at sea after the ship carrying them "foundered at sea with nearly all her passengers and crew." The letter, dated "Thursday Eighteenth January 1866", reads in full:
My dear Sir, I am greatly obliged to you for your kind interest in the prospects of my son Alfred, and for the invaluable assistance you have rendered him in so generously supporting him with your advice and credit. It is scarcely necessary to add that I have accepted and paid the bill drawn on me, with your guarantee for sixty pounds; and I thank you heartily. Immediately on the receipt of Alfred's letter informing me of the Bush life opening before him I wrote back to him by the Mail expressing my unqualified approval of his taking to it, if he could. A duplicate of that letter I consigned to the care of one of the officers of the Steam Ship London, whom Alfred entrusted with a letter to me. Unhappily that devoted ship has foundered at sea with nearly all her passengers and crew. Perhaps both my letters have gone down in her; one certainly has. Allow me to repeat my thanks to you, and to wish you many happy years. My dear Sir, Yours faithfully and obliged. Charles Dickens
The frame measures 21 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches. The letter pages measure 4 1/2 x 6 3/4 inches and present Near Mint condition.