Heinrich Heine | Autograph letter signed, to Ferdinand Friedland, [1846]

Heinrich Heine

Autograph letter signed ("H. Heine"), to Ferdinand Friedland, about money matters

a good-natured letter, telling him that if he has a lot of uncounted money on him, then in that case he has lost 20 Francs, but that if he has little money on him and could count it he would find that he gave him eight Napoleons instead of seven

...Hatten Sie aber wenig Geld in der Tasche und konnten es nachzählen, so werden Sie finden, daß ich Ihnen in der Eile 8 statt 7 Napoleons zugestellt habe...

1 page, 8vo (18 x 11.5cm), integral address panel, traces of seal, no place, 'Wednesday 4 o'clock [trans.]' [February 1846], large tear to integral; together with Friedrich Firth, ed., Heinrich Heine. Deutschland Ein Wintermärchen [facsimile edition], Berlin, 1915, blue textured boards

Heine's correspondent was the speculator Ferdinand Friedland (brother-in-law of Heine's friend the jurist and politician Ferdinand Lassalle), who in 1846 led Heine into an ill-starred business venture, a project to finance gaslighting in Prague.

LITERATURE:

HSA, vol.22, p.207

PROVENANCE:

Antiquariat V.A. Heck (Vienna), Catalogue 61 (1936), p.15 (lot 178)