Handwritten Letter of George Cruikshank to Horace Mayhew, probably, Dated January 29, 1869, from Amwell (Hertsfordshire)

NA. Very Good. The letter is both substantive, relating very clearly to the printing process to be used on some project and perhaps more generally, and to a frequent collaborator with Cruikshank, in all probability. We can't say that the letter is entirely lucid to us, and there would be no reason it would have to be, as regular correspondents have their own private language and shorthand, so to speak. As the letter was surely dashed off quickly, it isn't written with the care something meant for publication would be. We can see from the letter, though, that Cruikshank was articulate and erudite generally. We can also see, arguably, why he is remembered for his artwork rather than being a "man of letters". Here are the words of the letter verbatim" "My dear Horace, I am compelled to go out this morning but should be at your service anytime after three [today (? -- word unclear but clearly his intent] to go into this golden notion of ours of which, my fear is, that I shall never move much --for although I certainly have -- and can move "a little below" -- out of copper or steel -- of gold, I have made "[less] than nothing" and I begin to think that there is some mysterious nefarious agent between that metal and the hair of . . . Your [truly,] Geo. Cruikshank." On the side of and below Cruikshank's signature is the following postscript (without the signalling of such with a "P.S."). "Walter Phillips has returned from Paris and is burning to see you - he will be here this afternoon." Horace Mayhew, to whom this letter almost certainly was sent, was a collaborator of Cruikshank's. Mayhew (1816-1872) was a journalist, a contributor to "Punch", and most pertinently, a frequent Cruikshank collaborator, contributing to Cruikshank's "Table Talk", the Comic Almanacs, of which he was an editor, and the author of the choice Cruikshank work, "The Toothache". among other things. It is unknown what exactly the two were working on when this letter was written. The letter is on a single folded sheet measuring 18 by 11 cm. It is folded horizontally in the center and again, a quarter of the way down. The paper is a bit age toned around the edges, where there are also a few light, inconsequential stains and two shallow chips or incursions into the paper. The letter has no loss of content, and in our view, easily legible, except a few words that are difficult to make out given Cruikshank's handwriting in those instances.