The Charles Dickens Letters Project

Advanced Search

Theme

Correspondent

How to cite:

Individual letter:

Dickens, Charles. To [addressee], [date of letter]. Charles Dickens Letters Project, ed. Leon Litvack, Emily Bell, Lydia Craig and Jeremy Parrott (London: Dickens Fellowship). [URL of individual letter], [date of access].

Database:

Charles Dickens Letters Project, ed. Leon Litvack, Emily Bell, Lydia Craig and Jeremy Parrott (London: Dickens Fellowship), DickensLetters.com.

Find us on social media:

Period:

1851-1860

Theme(s):

public recognition

visual arts

celebrity

speeches

To JOHN JAFFRAY,1 2 APRIL 1853

Text from Winifred A. Myers Ltd catalogue(aa) and R. & R. Enterprises catalogue, 26 April 2005; MS 1 p.; dated Tavistock House, 2 April 1853; with envelope addressed John Jaffray, Journal Office, Birmingham.

Dear Sir,

I have read your agreeable letter with much interest, and accept with gratification the honor conferred upon me.2 It gives me great pleasure to hear that the Banquet3 has been attended with good results and I very cordially reciprocate your friendly feeling.

Believe me, very faithfully yours, | CHARLES DICKENS

1. John Jaffray (1818-1901), baronet 1892; Chairman, Committee of the Fine Arts Prize Fund Association. Newspaper proprietor, including the Birmingham Journal; High Sheriff, Warwickshire, 1865; a founder of the Birmingham Free Libraries; founder of Jaffray Hospital.
2. CD had been elected one of 20 Patrons at the annual meeting of the Fine Arts Prize Fund Association; also elected were Ruskin, Sir Charles Eastlake and David Cox (Birmingham Journal, 2 Apr).
3. The banquet, 6 Jan 53, was designed to publicise the Birmingham Society of Artists and its proposed prizes in the fine arts. The opportunity had also been taken to make a presentation to CD beforehand and he then spoke at the banquet: see The Speeches of CD, ed. K. J. Fielding, 1960, pp. 154-61.