Autograph receipt signed "Will Congreve" and dated March 24, 1718
Text reads: "Rec’d these twenty-one pound for a dividend South Sea Stock due at Christmas last past by me.” Oblong octavo (70 x 185 mm.). Double matted in dark green/light brown in double window. Framed in dark brown and gilt wood and glazed.
Small ink blot to upper margin just touching one letter; 20th century dealer's description taped to verso.
Congreve was a noted English dramatist and librettist of the Restoration period, author of Love for Love and The Way of the World. He was a lifelong friend of Jonathan Swift (1667-1745). "His stage career began with two comedies for the United Company at the Theatre Royal, The Old Batchelour (1693) and The Double-Dealer (1694), both with music by Henry Purcell. He left the company with the senior actors in 1695, and their makeshift theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields opened with his Love for Love, one of the biggest successes of the period. He became close friends with the house composer, John Eccles, and his protégée, the actress-singer Anne Bracegirdle. ... During the period 1705–6 he wrote Semele, possibly the finest libretto in the English language." Curtis Price, revised by Margaret Laurie in Grove Music Online
Congreve makes reference in the present document to the South Sea Company, a British joint-stock company founded in 1711 with a monopoly on the supply of African slaves to the islands in the South Seas and South America. The Company initially attracted many English investors and the value of its stock rose significantly, peaking in 1720 but collapsing shortly thereafter, ruining thousands in what became known as the "South Sea Bubble."
Item #39094
Price: $1,850.00 other currencies