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Lot 97: Thomas Fitzsimmons Signed Letter

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:500.00 - 700.00 USD
Lot   97: Thomas Fitzsimmons Signed Letter
<b>Autographs</b><hr><b>The 'Alcoholic' Republic</b>

<b>THOMAS FITZSIMMONS, Irish-born Signer of the Constitution, and a leading Philadelphia merchant.</b>
Autograph Letter Signed, 2 pages, recto and verso, 7.5 ' x 9.5Õ', Philadelphia, June 16, 1785. To Nicholas Law. Very Fine; some light sepia-hued discoloration at margins, and internally at one fold. In part: 'I should apologize for not replying sooner to your favor of the 13th. I was in hopes Price would arrive that I might advise everything respecting the wine. I suppose the quality will be the same as that by Byrd which is indeed very inferior. I will pay you you off for 12 [pounds].10 charges I hope to be...furnishd in making good my engagement for the wine but would not choose to give a note as it is impossible in the present state of our business to rely upon much...'

If, as Benjamin Franklin put it, God had intended man to drink water, He would not have made him with an elbow capable of raising a wine glass. That which was 'good for navigation' was thought, in the early third of the 19th century, to be bad for humans. Other beverages - like milk, tea and coffee - were either potential health risks, or more expensive than fermented beverages . Between 1790 and 1840, Americans drank more alcoholic beverages - nearly a half pint of hard liquor per man per day - than at any other time. Wine, thought to be more healthful than distilled spirits, was favored by the upper classes...

Those inclined to crush numbers along with their grapes will calculate that with wine costing one dollar a gallon, and the pound being worth $4.35 - here Fitzsimmons buys 52 gallons of Madeira, the favorite American wine.