Autograph letter signed ("GLichtenberg").
Large 8vo. 2 pages on bifolium. With autogr. address.
€ 12,500.00
To the engraver and illustrator Daniel Chodowiecki (1726-1801), about producing a series of engravings.
Lichtenberg's landlord, publisher, bookseller, wine merchant, and friend Johann Christian Dieterich (1722-1800) was also publisher of the "Musenalmanach", continued after the death of its editor Erxleben by Lichtenberg (as "Göttinger Taschen Calender"). The periodical targeted a wide audience of limited education. Shrewdly, Dieterich had made it a point from the beginning to include engravings, and the engagement of Chodowiecki, one of the most-sought illustrators of his time, was an additional factor that appealed to the picture-hungry audience. The issue discussed here by Lichtenberg was published in 1781, containing 2 fashion engravings and 12 monthly engravings by Chodowiecki on the subject of "Twelve Ways to Propose".
Slight defect to f. 2 due to broken seal. Such early letters by Lichtenberg are uncommon: auction records list no similarly early letters, nor any part of Lichtenberg's correspondence with Chodowiecki.