Wyeth, Andrew

Autograph letter signed ("Andy"), 3 pages (10 x 7 in.; 257 x 180 mm, sight), n.p. (? Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania), 2 March 1968, to Francis Bosworth ("Bozie"), thanking him for sending four toy soldiers in eighteenth-century uniforms, also encloses a photo of a new tempera painting he had just finished. Matted, glazed, and framed with a reproduction of a watercolor featuring four toy soliders on a windowsill ("The British at Brandywine," 1962).

Autograph letter signed ("Andy"), 3 pages (10 x 7 in.; 257 x 180 mm, sight), n.p. (? Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania), 2 March 1968, to Francis Bosworth ("Bozie"), thanking him for sending four toy soldiers in eighteenth-century uniforms, also encloses a photo of a new tempera painting he had just finished. Matted, glazed, and framed with a reproduction of a watercolor featuring four toy soliders on a windowsill ("The British at Brandywine," 1962).
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

"HOW I DO LOVE THESE FOUR LITTLE MEN OF THE PAST (?ARMIES) AND WHAT REAL BEAUTIES THEY ARE—what a thoughtful thing for you to send them. Now I must get paint and do a job on them ..."  Just above his salutation to his friend Francis "Bozie" Bosworth, Wyeth has sketched a frieze of the four soldiers. Two soldiers wear tricorn hats and carry muskets. The third figure wearing a tricorn holds a spontoon, a pole arm carried by all officers on foot. The spontoon, a symbol of authority as well as a combat weapon, was preferred to muskets, for there was no loading and firing to detract attention from the troops. The second figure is a grenadier as denoted by his conical helmet and his musket.