Autograph letter signed.
8vo. 1½ pp. on bifolium.
€ 350,00
To the women writers and initiators of "The Bouquet culled from Marylebone Gardens", a monthly miscellany, expressing his wish first to further study this publication before he might grant his support: "Ladies, permit me in answer to your very kind application for my name as one of the supporters of The Bouquet to say that I really esteem it a great honour that you should for a moment think of placing my name in such a position and I shall leave it entirely in your hands to do as you think proper when I have stilled my objections [...]".
Around the year 1850 Linnell purchased a property at Redhill, Surrey, where he lived until his death, devoted to landscape painting, with his leisure dedicated to a study of the Bible in the original languages. He was one of the best friends and kindest patrons of William Blake.
The "Bouquet" was a literary magazine run by aristocratic women based on the far side of Regent's Park. Only subscribers were allowed to contribute, and each had to choose the name of a flower to sign her work: Jean Middlemass was "Mignonette", Lady Hester Browne "Bluebell", and the Knatchbull sisters "Kingcups". The young Christina Rossetti contributed Italian verses under the name of "Calta".
A few small ink smudges and traces of old mounting of the verso.
