#MB73
1841
Quarto (ca. 25x20,5 cm). 2 pp. Brown ink on watermarked laid paper. Clear and complete text in secretarial hand, signed by “Your obedient much servant J. Hammer-Purgstall”. Addressed, sealed and with the postal stamps on the 4th page. Paper soiled and slightly worn on folds, a hole on the 4th page after opening, not affecting the text, overall a very good letter.
Interesting scientific correspondence between two European Orientalists: Joseph Freiherr von Hammer-Purgstall, founder and the first president of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (1847-1849) and British archaeologist and traveller in Asia Minor Sir Charles Fellows (1799-1860).
In the letter Hammer-Purgstall informs his correspondent, that Mr Arneth, director of the Vienna Imperial Cabinet of Antics “has just transmitted to me in a small box sealed with the seal of the cabinet, the cast of all the coins which you desire and which the cabinet is possessed of. I’ll deliver this small box immediately at our Secretary of State’s office, to be forwarded with the next messenger”. He advices Fellows about the fastest way of the parcel’s delivery to London and later notes: “If you mention in our work the Vienna coins, be so good as to record Mr. Arneth’s name in order to encourage him to further communications of this kind. I am myself eager for the appearance of your work, of which I promise myself much pleasure and information”.
The letter most likely relates to one of the Fellows’ works about the archaeology of ancient Lycia: “An Account of Discoveries in Lycia, being a Journal kept during a Second Excursion in Asia Minor”, published later that year, or “Coins of Ancient Lycia before the Reign of Alexander; with an Essay on the Relative Dates of the Lycian Monuments in the British Museum” (1855).
