(TRAVEL) Group of 3 travel letters describing New York Joice

Sale 2517 - Lot 223

Price Realized: $ 375

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600

(TRAVEL.) Group of 3 travel letters describing New York, Joice Heth, and a visit to President Van Buren. 3 Autograph Letters Signed from two parties to Alfred S. Taylor of Regent's Park in London; moderate wear including tears at seals. Vp, 1835 and 1838

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The earliest of these letters was from Thomas Dell[?] of England, visiting New York, on 8 October 1835. He comments on Joice Heth, P.T. Barnum's first great hoax and attraction, here described as "an old negro woman whose excessive modesty will not permit her to claim less than 161 years of life. In appearance she somewhat resembles a mummy, but a little more animated. She was nurse to General Washington." He also describes the recently opened New York University campus: "An university has lately been erected here (by private subscription) partly in the Tudor Gothic style, but the effect is grievously marred by the combination of various other styles."
The other two letters were sent by S.B. Taylor to his brother during a trip to America in October 1838. The 3 October letter discusses New York: "I am quite delighted. . . . It is like a universal warehouse. Streets are filled with carts, bales and boxes, and every corner teems with industry. There are no unproductives or loafers . . . you see nothing in the shape of a professor, an artist or a mechanic." Taylor next visited Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, where he ran into an old deaf Irish colonel and conceived a plan to visit Martin Van Buren, "king of this glorious country." Both were dirty from long travels, Taylor "had lost a button off a conspicuous part of my coat" and, lacking a calling card, wrote his name on a blank scrap of paper. They were shocked by their prompt and friendly reception: "Our cards were handed in, and in a few minutes we were passed by a black man in plain clothing through a few rooms, nearly furnished, and found the president in his study. We were received by him in a very courteous manner, shaking us by the hand & placing chairs for us. . . . He spoke highly of England & her institutions . . . he was particularly pleased with the honor that England was showing to his son [John Van Buren]. . . . Van Buren has a fine head & a nicely proportioned face." Sadly, those majestic side-whiskers were not mentioned.