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ADAMS, JOHN QUINCY. Original Ink press copy of autograph letter, signed.[London, circa 1815.]. Nine lines of text on 1 leaf unsized tissue stock, 21 x 1 cm. ¶ The original letter was apparently addressed to an arctic voyager: "I congratulate you upon your arrival from the North Pole to the temperate zone, where I hope you will find the magnet equally and still more powerfully attractive to the needle of American commerce." Autograph letter of John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), composed in London, probably while Adams was minister to the Court of Saint James's (1815-17). The note is a copy produced on a "letter copying press," an early method of mechanical reproduction invented by James Watt in the 1780s. The letter copying press became quite popular in America. George Washington, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson were all enthusiastic practitioners, and Benjamin Franklin boasted that he could get three good copies out of it instead of the usual one. The method involved laying a dampened piece of unsized tissue over a fresh document written out in a prescribed ink, and sandwiching the two sheets into a table-top press. The ink adheres to the tissue, producing a readable copy. Ink press copies were early on considered legal representation of original documents. See Barbara Rhodes, "Before Photocopying: the art and history of mechanical copying, 1780-1938" (New Castle: Oak Knoll, 1999). In 1815, Adams was in Europe to negotiate commerce and navigation treaties with England, France and Russia.
Offered for US$ 600.00 by: Rodger Friedman Rare Book Studio - Book number: 2058
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