Ten manuscript business letters, seven in English and two in French, from six different British wine merchants, to the French cognac house Messrs. Otard Dupuy & Co., placing orders, reporting news of the Brandy trade in Britain and shipping.

The ten items total 19pp., 4to. Each is a bifolium, with the address and postmarks on the reverse of the second leaf. Each is docketed by Otard Dupuy. All ten are in excellent condition, on lightly-aged paper. The six firms are: Bevan & Smith, Liverpool, two letters (both 1850); Christopher Bushell & Co., Liverpool (1859); John Currie, two letters, both in French: London (1828) and Stockton (1828); A. Leveau, three letters: Aberdeen (1849), Exeter (1850) and Sunderland (1850); William Strachan & Co, London (1828); George Wildes & Co., London (1828). Leveau would appear to have acted as Otard Dupuy's British agent, as his three letters give information of the settling of accounts with other firms. On 5 June 1850 he writes: 'I find the Brandy trade quite at a stand still as far has [sic] ordering is concerned, but at this time of the year presume it is always so. I paid Messrs. Jackson of Hull £3 - 15 - 0 which please credit my a/c'. On 18 January 1828 John Currie writes in French, with quotations in English relating to the loss of stock on a voyage: 'properly stowed but leaked from a head in consequence of the heading being too short' and 'leaked from a head being shifted apparently from the pressure of the Puncheons stowed above it'. On 6 December 1859 the firm of Christopher Bushell writes that 'there is no House in Cognac with whom we would have allied ourselves more readily, because we believe there is none more honorable and respectable than your own; but, notwithstanding that we have undertaken a somewhat arduous task in the introduction of a new Brand, we have, nevertheless, worked most happily and harmoniously with our present friends, and we have every reason to hope and to believe that our connexion with them will long continue.'