Nov 20, 2014 - Sale 2367

Sale 2367 - Lot 34

Price Realized: $ 1,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
WASHINGTON WANTS BLANK LETTER BOOKS FOR CHRISTMAS (WASHINGTON, GEORGE.) LEAR, TOBIAS. Autograph Letter Signed, to Superintendant of Military Stores Col. Samuel Hodgdon, ordering blank letter books for George Washington: 4 quires of good quality paper, 14 1/2 inches long and 9 inches broad. 1 page, 4to, with detached address leaf; left edge trimmed with few letters of text truncated, faint scattered dampstaining, folds. (MRS) Mount Vernon, 24 December 1798

Additional Details

"The Commander in Chief has directed me to apply to you for three or four Blank Books for recording his Military letters &c. . . . [H]ave them sent on as soon as is convenient."
The possibility of war with France after the XYZ Affair prompted President Adams to appoint George Washington Commander-in-Chief, which he reluctantly accepted in July of 1798.
Lear (1762-1816) was George Washington's personal secretary during the last years of his life.