BIB_ID
420539
Accession number
MA 1352.413
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1855 March 30.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (2 pages) ; 20.1 x 12.3 cm + envelope
Notes
Signed with initials.
Written on the stationery of the Office of Household Words.
Envelope with stamps and postmarks: "Miss Burdett Coutts / Stratton Street / Piccadilly."
Two of Ball's letters to Charles Dickens and Angela Burdett-Coutts have been preserved and are cataloged as MA 1352.629 and MA 1352.630.
The letter is part of a collection, MA 1352, which consists of letters from Charles Dickens to the Baroness, to her companion Hannah (Meredith) Brown, or the latter's husband, William Brown; with 70 letters written by others to Miss Coutts or to Dickens in his capacity as her unofficial almoner; and a few others. See the collection-level record for more information.
Written on the stationery of the Office of Household Words.
Envelope with stamps and postmarks: "Miss Burdett Coutts / Stratton Street / Piccadilly."
Two of Ball's letters to Charles Dickens and Angela Burdett-Coutts have been preserved and are cataloged as MA 1352.629 and MA 1352.630.
The letter is part of a collection, MA 1352, which consists of letters from Charles Dickens to the Baroness, to her companion Hannah (Meredith) Brown, or the latter's husband, William Brown; with 70 letters written by others to Miss Coutts or to Dickens in his capacity as her unofficial almoner; and a few others. See the collection-level record for more information.
Provenance
The letters formed part of the Burdett-Coutts sale (Sotheby, 17 May 1922); they were purchased for Oliver W. Barrett in whose collection they remained until it was sold by his son (Parke-Bernet, 31 October 1951).
Summary
Describing in detail the case of an individual (identified by the editors of the correspondence as Charles Ball) who has appealed to her for assistance; saying that he did not warm to Ball personally, but he has made inquiries and found that Ball is "intelligent, modest, and industrious;" mentioning that Ball wrote for "the inferior class of newspaper" and that his daughter intended to open a school, but that scheme has failed: "There is no doubt that he is poor and sufficiently meritorious. If you think it well to give him any small sum, I will, of course, gladly take charge of it."
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