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Lot 19

DICKENS (CHARLES)
Autograph letter signed ("Charles Dickens"), to Mr Couchman: "Please to ease the coach house doors, and to put up some pegs agreeably to George Belcher's directions"; Gad's Hill, 5 November 1868

14 June 2017, 13:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £625 inc. premium

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DICKENS (CHARLES)

Autograph letter signed ("Charles Dickens"), to Mr Couchman: "Please to ease the coach house doors, and to put up some pegs agreeably to George Belcher's directions"; with address leaf ("Mr Couchman"), 1 page, written in turquoise ink, with several ink-smudges along right-hand edge (evidently made by Dickens himself), engraved heading, some foxing and light staining, 8vo, Gad's Hill, 5 November 1868

Footnotes

The recipient, John Couchman, was a carpenter and undertaker hailing from 1 High Street, Strood. He was employed by Dickens in making extensions to Gad's Hill. He himself recorded: 'Mr Dickens was always very straightforward, honourable, and kind, and paid his bills most regularly. The first work I did for him was to build a dog-kennel; I also put up the châlet at Gad's Hill' – this being the famous summer-house, where Dickens was at work writing Edwin Drood the day he died (see W. Teignmouth Shore, Charles Dickens and His Friends, 1909). George Belcher was Dickens's servant, who had been taken on that year. Published in the Pilgrim Edition of Dickens's letters.

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