Vertu

Shakespeare portraits: James Hain Friswell novelist and essayist. Autograph Letter Signed to the publishers Virtue & Co regarding their ‘fine print of the Chandos Portrait’ and his ‘certain status as a critic on that special subject’.

26371 — 18 January 1873; on letterhead of Fair Home Bexley Heath Kent. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Friswell was described by Tennyson as ‘the would-be poet / Friswell Pisswell - a liar and a twaddler’. 1p 16mo. With mourning border. In good condition lightly aged. Folded once. Fourteen lines of text. Addressed to ‘Messrs Virtue & Co.’ Signed ‘J. Hain Friswell’. Begins: ‘Gentlemen / Many thanks for your fine print of the Chandos Portrait of Shakspere which I will notice in the P. C. & perhaps elsewhere.’ He declares that his ‘book on the Shakspere Portraits is now out of print’ but that it gave him ‘a certain status as a critic on that special subject’. He will be very happy to furnish the publisher with ‘a page or so of the result of my enquiry into the portraits for your new & worthy work’. 18 January 1873; on letterhead of Fair Home, Bexley Heath, Kent. unknown