May 22, 2014 - Sale 2351

Sale 2351 - Lot 74

Price Realized: $ 1,920
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
SIGNED THREE TIMES (INVENTORS.) SAMUEL COLT. Autograph Letter Signed, "Sam'lColt" thrice, to milling machinery designer William Ball, retained draft, pleading for a reply to his letters and inquiring about the nature of Ball's business relationship with Mr. Ames. Signatures on verso, one in docketing written vertically at lower left, another marked out with horizontal line near end of text, the last in closing. 2 pages, 4to, written on the recto and verso of a single sheet, ruled paper; minor soiling at horizontal folds, several words marked out with horizontal line. New York, 9 March 1842
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"I have written you some two or three times on the subject of which we conversed on our passage to Hartford & sent my letters to you to the care of Mr Ames but as yet I have received no answer . . . . [I]s it that you do not consider a reply to an old friend any longer of importance. . . . I wish you to write to me . . . & till [sic] me exactly how you are situated--I wish to know if you have made any permanent arrangement with Mr. Ames & if so on what terms. If you have not agreed with him for a specefied [sic] time, let me know what is your understanding with him. . . ."
The Patent Arms Manufacturing Company that Colt had founded in 1836 in Paterson, NJ, failed in 1842. William Ball had been employed by Colt, who is, in the present letter, possibly inquiring about the status of Ball's employment at the Ames Manufacturing Company.