May 22, 2014 - Sale 2351

Sale 2351 - Lot 51

Price Realized: $ 1,625
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,500 - $ 3,500
SHEPHERDING HIS FLOCK BROWN, JOHN. Autograph Letter Signed, twice, to Samuel Whitman, stating that he has left 300 cattle in the care of Col. Wells, requesting that Whitman prepare the sheep he left with him as he would return next week, stating that he purchased 400 sheep, and reporting that he expects to remain in New England one month. Additional signature and holograph return address on verso. 1 page, tall 4to; complete separations at folds with one vertical fold affecting "B" of recto signature, backed with translucent tissue (affecting holograph address). Fairview, NY, 8 April 1839
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"I set out two weeks ago in company with Col Wells of New Hartford with a drove of a little more than 300 head of cattle, gave up the present care of them this morning to Col. Wells, & intend to come directly on. I shall be obliged if the sheep I left with you can be put in as good condition as may be consistently with your own convenience as I shall want to return home as soon as I can get my business properly arranged. I hope to see you . . . some time next week. . . . I purchased about 400 sheep before I left home. . . . I may probably remain in New England about one month."
In a letter to Henry L. Stearns on July 15, 1857, Brown wrote that shepherding had been for him "a calling for which in early life he had a kind of enthusiastic longing."
Whitman (1786-1888) was a sheep breeder in Hartford, CT, whose father, Samuel, was a Captain in the Revolution.