Autograph letter signed [manuscript].

[Norwich], 24 April 1590.

1 item

Text in English

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Corsini archive (Christies Robson Lowe 4 September 1984)

Great Britain -- England.

FAST ACC 272107

Purchase made possible by The Albert H. and Shirley Small Acquisitions Endowment Fund. From dealer's description: "4. NORRYS, John. [Autograph letter signed to “hys lovynge frynde Fhillip Corsyni marchant stranger in London” concerning transactions in the Norwich cloth market.] [Norwich.] 24 April 1590. Autograph letter signed, ink on single sheet of paper. Folio (21.5 x 30cm) [1] page, in English, verso with manuscript address panel, residues in margins from red sealing wax (not affecting text), light even toning, old folds, edges uncut, very good. Dated 24 April 1590 from Norwich, this letter in English in an Elizabethan secretary hand was penned by cloth merchant John Norrys, writing to the London-based Florentine merchant Filippo Corsini (1538-1601). The letter opens addressed to “Mr Barnard”, Corsini’s nephew Barnardo Gerini, with mention of Louis Cantyn, another East Anglian merchant, then advising that “Hendry Barker the marchant so sayth that Derrick Rayner hath 55 broade clothes in hys hands.” Norrys is sending “by the fyrst cartes 7 or 8 peyces” of English baize (coarse woolen cloth). Arrangements for the delivery of 10 bags of alum are also detailed, with mention of the prices of cloths (“sayes be here at 39s pr piece”), another merchant named Thomas Rudd and a “shipes load of malt”. By the 1590s many Calvinist weavers and cloth traders from the Low Countries had emigrated to Norwich, Colchester and other locations in East Anglia, fleeing Roman Catholic persecution. Amongst the approximately 3,600 letters of the Corsini archive only 374 are recorded as having originated in the British Isles (see: P. Beale, A. Almond, M. Scott Archer, The Corsini Letters, 2011, p.98). Provenance: Corsini archive (dispersed Christies Robson Lowe, 1984-1988)." Ordered from Samuel Gedge, D9420, 2020-11-23, Cat. 30 item #4.

272107