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Lot Number
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81
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Author
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BACH, CARL PHILIPP EMANUEL.
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Title
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FINE AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED ("BACH") TO THE PUBLISHER ENGELHARDT BENJAMIN SCHWICKERT
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Year Published
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1787
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Place Printed
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Hamburg
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Description
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FINE AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED ("BACH") TO THE PUBLISHER ENGELHARDT BENJAMIN SCHWICKERT, ABOUT THE VERSUCH, HIS ESSAY ON KEYBOARD PLAYING in which he rounds on Schwickert's request for him to look over and make any necessary revisions to his Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen, reminding Schwickert that the book is perhaps freer of any flaws than any book in the world and certainly does not need looking at, much less correcting; he points out that, given his age and health, he always leaves such production matters to his publishers and will not be undertaking this in person "at any price" ("...daß ich Ihnen von dem Ihnen abgetreten Versuche sagte: daß dies Buch so ganz rein von aller Fehlern sey, als vielleicht kein einziges andere in der Welt...") 1 page, small 4to (c.19.5 x 16cms), "Pro-Patria" watermark, integral address panel, annotated by the recipient on verso, remains of red seal, Hamburg, 17 November 1787
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Lot Note
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E. Suchalla, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Briefe und Dokumente Kritische Gesamtausgabe, II (1994), no.580; S. Clark, The Letters of CPE Bach, (Oxford, 1997), no.325 ("This letter is lost"). CATALOGUE NOTE Unpublished. This letter is hitherto only known from a brief summary given in a catalogue for an auction in Berlin in 1922, transcribed by Suchalla and Clark: since then it has been untraced. It concerns what is arguably C.P.E. Bach's most famous work. The Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen (1753) is one of the best-known eighteenth-century music treatises. Originally published under the composer's auspices in Berlin in 1753, the second and third editions were brought out by the Leipzig firm of Schwickert in 1780 and 1787. In fact the 1787 edition that Bach deals with here, proclaimed the addition of "sechs neue Clavierstücken" and other revisions.
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Estimated Price
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GBP 15,000.00 - 20,000.00( USD 22800.00 - USD 30400.00)
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Actual Price
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GBP 103,250.00 ( USD 156940.00)
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