Jefferson, Thomas, Third President

Autograph letter signed twice in text ("Th: Jefferson"; "Th: J."), one page on a half-sheet of laid paper (4 1/2 x 7 5/8 in.; 115 x 194 mm), [Philadelphia,] 26 March 1793, to William Barton, autograph address panel on integral blank, seal remnant; lightly browned, two small mounting remnants on verso.

Autograph letter signed twice in text ("Th: Jefferson"; "Th: J."), one page on a half-sheet of laid paper (4 1/2 x 7 5/8 in.; 115 x 194 mm), [Philadelphia,] 26 March 1793, to William Barton, autograph address panel on integral blank, seal remnant; lightly browned, two small mounting remnants on verso.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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A misdirected letter and a missing almanac. Johann Rodolph von Valltravers, an anglophilic philologist and amateur scientist from Switzerland was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1792. In acknowledgement, Valltravers dispatched to the Society a copy of Le vrai Calendrier perpetual &c., which he described as a "perpetual almanach ... Sett, in all its Parts, for the first Day of January 1793; after which Time it must be moved, with the Point of the Needle, agreeable to the printed Directions" (Valltravers to Jefferson, 8 November 1792; Papers of Thomas Jefferson 24:597). Valltravers evidently sent the almanac through the offices of Charles William Frederick Dumas, a Swiss national resident in the Netherlands, where he acted as a secret agent for the United States, for on 30 November Dumas's correspondence with Jefferson noted that he was enclosing "a box and two packages from Vall-Travers to be delivered to their respective addresses" (Papers of Thomas Jefferson 24:613).

One of these packages was intended for William Barton, but was mistakenly sent to his brother, Benjamin Smith Barton. By the time Valltravers's letter reached the correct Barton, "A small box marked R.V. described as accompanying the letter" had been separated from it, and Barton wrote to Jefferson for assistance in recovering the box (Papers of Thomas Jefferson 25:445).

Jefferson's somewhat evasive reply has been hitherto untraced and unpublished: "Th: Jefferson presents his compliments to mr Barton and informs him that the letter addressed to him was left at the house of Th: J. during his absence, he knows not by whom. a box was left at the same time for the Philosophical society, which he presented at the last meeting. it contained a paste-board almanac only, somewhat in the style of those mr Barton may have seen. the society desires mr Peale to take it & keep it in his museum."

It is not known if Barton ever received his perpetual almanac, but the copy Valltravers intended for the APS was presented at a meeting of the Society on 15 March 1793. As Jefferson's letter indicated, the Society placed it on deposit in Charles Willson Peale's museum "for the examination of the curious" (APS, Proceedings, 22, part 3: 213–14).