![STERNE, Laurence. Autograph letter signed twice in text (“Tristam Shandy”), to Miss Tutte [Sally Tuting], Lanoue near Dijon, 24 May 1766. 1 page, 4to, written on the surviving fragment of Miss Tutte’s letter to her mother, silked, separated at folds, chipped along edges with loss of text. In a cloth folding case.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2015/NYR/2015_NYR_12435_0158_000(sterne_laurence_autograph_letter_signed_twice_in_text_to_miss_tutte_sa120227).jpg?w=1)
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STERNE, Laurence. Autograph letter signed twice in text (“Tristam Shandy”), to Miss Tutte [Sally Tuting], Lanoue near Dijon, 24 May 1766. 1 page, 4to, written on the surviving fragment of Miss Tutte’s letter to her mother, silked, separated at folds, chipped along edges with loss of text. In a cloth folding case.
IN THE MIDST OF HIS SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY THROUGH FRANCE, Sterne adds a flirtatious 13-line note in the body of Miss Tutte’s letter to her mother, as the young lady explains: “We have had a visit of three days from the famous docr Sterne. He is one of the most agreeable men…that I was ever in company with…I was obliged to go out of the room and in the meantime, Tristam Shandy took up my pen, and wrote what you see on the other side, he goes to England tomorrow and takes this letter to put in the office in London.” Sterne’s note reads: “Miss Tutte having gone out of the room (but on what occasion God knows) Tristam Shandy has thought meet, to profit by her absence, and the temptation this Void had laid in his way—of sending his best respects to the mother—not altogether for the sake of the daughter, (for that wd be uncivil) but in Testimony of his esteem for Mrs. Tutte and her worthy character, and at the same, in Homage to the Graces of her fair Offspring, which appear so lovely in the eyes of Tristam Shandy—that his will for the Goddesse that he is under a slight pre-engagement—indeed tis only marriage.”
LETTERS BY STERNE ARE EXTREMELY RARE. Provenance: Frank J. Hogan, his bookplate; his sale Parke-Bernet, 25 April 1945, lot 681; H. Bradley Martin, his bookplate; his sale, 24 May 1990, lot 3232.
IN THE MIDST OF HIS SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY THROUGH FRANCE, Sterne adds a flirtatious 13-line note in the body of Miss Tutte’s letter to her mother, as the young lady explains: “We have had a visit of three days from the famous docr Sterne. He is one of the most agreeable men…that I was ever in company with…I was obliged to go out of the room and in the meantime, Tristam Shandy took up my pen, and wrote what you see on the other side, he goes to England tomorrow and takes this letter to put in the office in London.” Sterne’s note reads: “Miss Tutte having gone out of the room (but on what occasion God knows) Tristam Shandy has thought meet, to profit by her absence, and the temptation this Void had laid in his way—of sending his best respects to the mother—not altogether for the sake of the daughter, (for that wd be uncivil) but in Testimony of his esteem for Mrs. Tutte and her worthy character, and at the same, in Homage to the Graces of her fair Offspring, which appear so lovely in the eyes of Tristam Shandy—that his will for the Goddesse that he is under a slight pre-engagement—indeed tis only marriage.”
LETTERS BY STERNE ARE EXTREMELY RARE. Provenance: Frank J. Hogan, his bookplate; his sale Parke-Bernet, 25 April 1945, lot 681; H. Bradley Martin, his bookplate; his sale, 24 May 1990, lot 3232.