6394. (letterpress copy) Appointment of Light Keeper, Gay Head Light-House, Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. December 8, 1849.
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6394. (letterpress copy) Appointment of Light Keeper, Gay Head Light-House, Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. December 8, 1849.
6394. (letterpress copy) Appointment of Light Keeper, Gay Head Light-House, Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. December 8, 1849. Rare letter regarding appointment of the Light Keeper. [document – letterpress copy. 8” x 11”. 1 page.]. “[to] Hon. Joseph Grinnell, House of Representatives. December 8, 1849. Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 5th inst. recommending the appointment of Henry Robinson as Keeper of the Light House at Gay Head, Mass. and to inform you that he has been appointed to that office. I am very respectfully, Sir, Your Obt Servent, [signed] W. M. Meredith. Secretary of the Treasury.” Clean, crisp, unusually good condition. (VG+). $285.
[Letterpress copy was a method in use fairly early in the Nineteenth century for producing one file copy of a hand-written ink document; Thomas Jefferson made extensive use of it. The process involved dampening the surface of a freshly written original letter of document, placing over it a thin sheet of paper, and pressing this sandwich in a special press. Enough ink from the original would be absorbed by the thin paper for a copy of the letter to be made. It was possible to produce an excellent reference copy using this method. Signatures as well as the text are transferred in this method, producing one copy that is difficult to distinguish from the original. Since only one copy can be produced from an original using this method, one can be fairly certain that no other copies and possibly not even some of the originals exist today.]