[Sir Francis Chantrey [Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey], sculptor.] Autograph Letter Signed to Edward Hawkins, recommending the artist William Beetham for permission to draw at the British Museum.

See his entry, and Hawkins’s, in the Oxford DNB. The subject of the letter, William Beetham, was an early emigrant to New Zealand, where he was one of the colony’s first European artists. 1p, 12mo. With mourning border. In fair condition, aged and worn, with a tiny piece of loss to one corner. Traces of paper mount adhering to blank reverse. Folded twice for postage. Addressed to ‘Edwd. Hawkins Esqr.’ and signed ‘F Chantrey’. Begins: ‘My Dear Sir / The bearer Wm. Beetham is a young man from Doncaster in whose welfare I feel some interest and I shall be much obliged if you will put him in the way of obtaining permission to draw in the British Museum. He resides at No 16 Warburton Street and I believe him to be in all respects most reputable’.