[ Watts Phillips, artist and playwright. ] Autograph Letter Signed to 'Chatterton' [ the actor-manager F. B. Chatterton ], urgently pushing a 'first-rate piece' he feels 'may fill up the gap till Black Mail is completed'.

1p., 12mo. On aged and ruckled paper, with closed tear unobtrusively repaired. In the author's distinctive, heavily-inked hand. He writes to inform him that he has 'the MS of the piece I wrote about', and that if it meets with his approval 'it may fill up the gap till Black Mail is completed'. He continues: 'I repeat it is a most powerful drama as strong as the Dead Hearts | Will you and Churchill come and hear me read it? [last two words underlined three times] | If so - when? | Will you drive over tomorrow???? | If so - at what hour? - Telegram back and I will be in Price and condition. | Make no mistake - the piece is a first-rate one.' He concludes: 'And also make no mistake. I am doing my very best (such as my best is) with Black Mail. It will be a novelty at any rate.' E. Watts Phillips's 'Watts Phillips: Artist and Playwright' (1891) quotes a letter, written by Watts Phillips around this time, stating that Chatterton does not have a theatre 'at his command' for 'Black Magic': 'When he ordered it he had the Princess', and the Adelphi, and mine was to have been a continued engagement - but in a week, the whole bright edifice crumbled in. No small theatre will reimburse Chatterton's outlay for "Black Mail," and so time goes on, and what was fresh becomes antiquated' (p.142). Watts Phillips's declining health meant that these projects would not arrive at fruition.