Manuscript Letter to Luis Jones

DateJune 14, 1836

Maker Edward Hicks (1780-1849)

MediumBrown ink on buff-colored wove paper

DimensionsOverall: 8 x 6 1/2in. (20.3 x 16.5cm)

Credit LineGift of Jane Edwards in memory of Susan Willets Carle Edwards, great-granddaughter of Edward Hicks

Object number2000.1400.1

DescriptionA manuscript letter in dark brown ink in a forward-slanting hand, written on both sides of a sheet of buff-colored paper.
InscribedIn ink in a forward slanting script is the following (with, within brackets, segments now missing from the original supplied from the published transcription of the same letter that appears on pp. 81-82 of Alice Ford, EDWARD HICKS: PAINTER OF THE PEACEABLE KINGDOM (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1952):

"Newtown 6 moth 14th 1836/Beloved friend/Luis Jones/An opportunity offering to send/thee a line I thought I would just say/that I have been uneasy abou[t giving]/thee the trouble of Selling th[em? Note: Ford has "my paintings" after the word "selling", but her interpretation does not account for the clear "th . . ." in the manuscript letter]. I have been very much disco[uraged a-/]bout them & indeed every th[ing else]. If/I can get rid of them at al[most any/rate I think will never p[aint any]/more[.] I thought veryly that [it was]/right for me to paint them [in order]/to raise the money to have m[y expenses]/in my journey[.] having no wo[rk, scarcely,]/to do but alas I fear the/ whole concern will come to naught &/the poor old good for nithing painter/sink down to his proper place the gulf/of oblivion. Dear Luis I dont want to/give thee trouble. The price I proposed [Note: Ford mistakenly gives "The friend proposed"] for/them would not give me as much profit/as plain painting but thee may sell them/[fo]r any thing, or nothing or give them/away or burn them dont give thy self/any more trouble. My family continues/poorly & my self quite so. In much love/[to thee & thine.] Farewell/Edward Hicks".
ProvenanceThe letter is believed to have descended from Edward Hicks to his daughter, Susan Hicks Carle; to her son Silas Carle; to his niece (name unknown, the mother of AARFAM's donor), to her daughter Jane Edwards, who gave it to AARFAM.