[Leopold Lowenstam, English-based Dutch etcher.] Business letterbook, containing copies of several hundreds of his letters, over a twenty year period, to 72 individuals and institutions, including patrons and artists at home and abroad.

380pp., 4to. Carbon copies on rectos of numbered leaves. Preceded by an eleven-leaf thumb index (not complete). In original brown leather half-binding, marbled boards and endpapers. Internally sound and tight, in heavily-worn binding lacking spine. At the heart of the correspondence are eight letters to the artist with whom Lowenstam is most of all associated, Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema. These date from the 1890s, and are all addressed to 'My dear Tadema'. These are unusually cordial, but otherwise businesslike, being part of a correspondence which covers every aspect of Lowenstam's work, from preparation (including the requesting of pictures to copy), proposal of terms; various stages of its creation, from proofs to final state; dealing with printers; delivery of work; itemised receipts; soliciting of the opinion of the client (some of them private patrons from the nobility). Other aspects of Lowenstam's business also feature, down to the payment of house rent (to agents Martin, Farlow, Ederidge & Co.). The whole provides a marvellous snapshot of the career of a significant member of the British art community at the time of the 'Victorian Olympus'. Among the correspondents are artists and engravers (Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema; the French artist Rosa Bonheur; the Dutch artist Jozef Israels; the Tasmanian artist Robert Dowling; George W. H. Ritchie; Matthew Williams Webb; William Oliver Williams; W. Falconer Clark; William Dixon Galpin), publishers (Macmillan & Co; A. & C. Black; Cassell, Petter & Galpin, including some to Robert Turner; J. R. Seeley; Virtue & Co), authors (Herbert Minton Cundall; J. W. Comyns Carr; Frederick Alexis Eaton), members of the aristocracy (Countess of Mayo; Earl of Derby; Countess Russell; Marquess of Salisbury), art institutions (Art Union; Fine Art Society; Royal Academy), art dealers and publishers (M Knoedler & Co, Paris; Colnaghi & Co, including some addressed to Andrew Mackay; Pilgeram & Lefèvre; Louis Brall & Sons; W. Craibe Angus and Son, of Glasgow; Radtke, Lauckner & Co. of New York, addressed in German; T. P. Mendoza), printers (S. Hildersheimer & Co.) and the Dutch banker and philanthropist Abraham Carel Wertheim. A large proportion of the correspondence is in German, including several letters to Carl Bertrand (one accompanied by a pencil portrait) and Rudolph Strauch, both of Leipzig; with a few letters written in French. Of interest is the disproportionate number of letters relating to Scotland. Also present are copies of a number of itemised receipts for engravings (to Cassells; Colnaghi; A. & C. Black; Pilgeram & Lefèvre; Virtue & Co; William Mackenzie; Macmillan & Co; S. Hildersheimer & Co), and letters by Edward Pick (an assistant?). Also letters to: the Edinburgh Solicitor H. W. Cornillon; Brooker of Cavendish Square; P. Watson; C. Eastlake; W. Mackenzie; F. A. Eaton; H. G. Lugard of Percy Street. The remaining correspondents include (some identified tentatively): Frederick Gardener (asking for the loan of 'your picture "Tenderest Spring" by H. Ryland'; Laudeker, Lee & Brown of Worship Street; N. Braunschweig Reiß; J. W. Kaiser;W. S. Ashton; Berkeley; Carr; Douglas; Deuhamp; Edwards; F. A. Farlow Esq.; Col. Ellis; F. F. Frith; G. Forbes; P. Gowa; Goulding; Kilburne; Kramer; Rudolf Kyser; Lew. Kale; T. McLean; Morgan; Meyer; Meyerstein; William Mackenzie of Glasgow; W. Oliver; Charles J. Paton; W. Paterson; McQueen; Marheim Rickoff; W. Steelink; Salmon; Spalding; Major Shlessinger; Schmeier; Schmid; Wurden; T. Wilson; C. Van Kesteren; Henry Ward.