Tobias Family Letters.

AUCTION 27 | Tuesday, February 08th, 2005 at 1:00
Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Autographed Letters, Manuscripts, Ceremonial & Graphic Art

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Lot 228
(AMERICAN JUDAICA)

Tobias Family Letters.

Collection of ten Autograph Letters Signed.

New York: Early 19th Century

Est: $1,000 - $1,500
These letters were penned by various members of the Tobias Family of New York (not to be confused with the Tobias Family of Charleston). The writers were prominent merchants who did a brisk trade, oftimes with fellow-Jews in Philadelphia, Richmond, Charleston, and New Orleans, as well as England. Although most of the letters are business correspondence, enough personal information is provided to allow a clear picture of family relations to emerge. We see letters of two generations of the family: the patriarch, Tobias or “T.J.”, born in Liverpool in 1785 (which explains letters from and to that destination), deceased 1861; his sons, Charles (1810-1855), Henry (1814-1846), and allusions to another son, Alfred (1823-1873), and daughters Sophia (1816-1892) and Amelia (1825-1906). Several of the Tobias siblings took to wed spouses from the notable Hendricks Family of New York. See M. H. Stern, Americans of Jewish Descent: A Compendium of Genealogy (1960) p. 213.