Lot 211 email save

Pictorial Lettersheet with letter from SF 1850

Sign In to see what this sold for

Title: The Grand Plaza, San Francisco
Author: **
Description: Two-page letter on 4-page pictorial lettersheet on green wove paper. 10½x8½.The Grand Plaza in San Francisco, with various hotels and businesses surrounding an open area with statue and flag. These include Atwill & Co. Music Store; Post Office; Lithography, Butler; [Jac]kson House; El Dorado; Parker House; Hall & Crandall Stage Office, etc. The letter itself is quite interesting, as young Frank Casas (just turned 21) writes to his parents in Boston: "...The truth is Cala. is not fit place for any save blacklegs - and that is the reason, why so many are discontented on their return to the States, having lived in a place where every thing and any thing is tolerated, & where gamblers & prostitutes are thought more of than sober, honest, straight-forward people - verily this world is turned upside down, & if each succeeding generation degenerates as rapid, as the last two, the 20th century, in fact the present will see a race which far outshines the ancient ones in iniquity..." Later, he turns to practical matters of earning a living, "Well Mr. Leavitt & myself have entered into partnership for the purpose of doing a general produce business, we have hired a rancho, about 35 miles up the bay - & shall try & do someting - I shall of course at present remain where I am untill I learn wether it will pay or not - if it don't why then I think I shall let California alone. It has mined more men than it ever made or can make... I am as ever Frank, by name & nature." The lettersheet, with a significant San Francisco scene, is quite rare. Baird records only one copy of it on green wove paper (as this one) - at the California Historical Society - in addition to three on gray wove and three on white wove.
Heading: (Pictorial Lettersheet with letter)Place Published: San Francisco
Publisher: Joseph F. Atwill
Date Published: December, 1850