"I EXPECT TO BE SETTLED AT MONTICELLO BY THE MIDDLE OF JANUARY": FINE 1793 THOMAS JEFFERSON AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED WHILE SECRETARY OF STATE, MENTIONING MONTICELLO AND THE PURCHASE OF STOCKS, BEAUTIFULLY FRAMED

JEFFERSON, Thomas. Autograph letter signed. Philadelphia, PA: December 8, 1793. One leaf, measures 7-1/2 by 9 inches, written and signed on recto for one page, handsomely matted and framed with large engraved portrait; entire piece measures 30 by 24 inches. $22,500.

Fine Thomas Jefferson signed autograph letter, written near the end of his tenure as Secretary of State, addressed to James Brown, a merchant from Richmond who handled many of Jefferson's financial dealings, including his extensive imports from Europe. The letter records the status of a Mr. Short's endeavor to convert his property into stock, and mentions Monticello, Richmond, and "TM Randolph"—Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., Jefferson's son-in-law, who was living at Monticello at the time.

The letter reads in full: "I have duly received your favor of Nov. 25. as also a letter from Mr. Hopkins covering certificates of stock of the property of Mr. Short, of the following descriptions and amount, to wit,

From the loan office of Virginia

Mr. Hopkins also transmitted me an account of interest received by you from Mr. Short amounting to D2,221.09. Being uninformed of the transactions between yourself and Mr. Short, I am unable to judge whether that sum or any part of it stands as a balance with you in his favor, or has been absorbed by corresponding sums to his debet. Mr. Short's desire being to convert all his sums of interest as fast as they arise into principal stock, I have only to observe that any balance which may remain in your hands if paid at your convenience, shall be converted according to the desires of Mr. Short.

I thank you for your interesting yourself for me with Mr. Hague & Lister. I had left it in charge with Mr. TM Randolph to have my furniture removed. I expect to be settled at Monticello by the middle of January, and shall take the earliest opportunity of going to Richmond to see about several matters which my business here has obliged me too much to neglect. I am with great esteem Dear Sir, your friend & servt, Th: Jefferson."

"Early in January, 1794, the former Secretary of State left Philadelphia—for good, as he believed… He commonly used the letter D [when writing dollar amounts, as in the present letter], through which he was beginning to run horizontal lines after the analogy of the symbol for the British pound… At Fredericksburg, by prearrangement, he was met by horses of his own, brought by his servant Bob, and after a pause there, he proceeded to Monticello, arriving on January 16. He had escaped to the hills and finally come home to the red-clay country… He expected to do little further traveling. Soon he was to write: 'The length of my tether is now fixed for life between Monticello and Richmond.' The prophecy was accurate for three years anyway" (Malone, Jefferson and the Ordeal of Liberty, 167-68).

Lightly age-toned, faint fold lines, signature bold and clear. A fine Jefferson autograph letter, handsomely framed.