ADAMS ON HIS PEAR TREES AND A LOST PORTRAIT BY SALEM ARTIST HANNAH CROWNINSHIELD. ADAMS, JOHN. 1...

ADAMS ON HIS PEAR TREES AND A LOST PORTRAIT BY SALEM ARTIST HANNAH CROWNINSHIELD. ADAMS, JOHN. 1735-1826. Autograph Letter Signed ('John Adams') to Rev. William Bentley noting a portrait by Bentley's friend, artist Hannah Crowninshield, 'the only portrait of me that ever was made with any appearance of Wisdom or Dignity...,' 1 p, 228 x 183 mm, Quincy, MA, November 10, 1810, old folds, minor foxing, remnants of seal. ADAMS PRAISES A PORTRAIT BY BENTLEY'S FRIEND 'THAT YOUNG LADY' HANNAH CROWNINSHIELD, AND HIS BELOVED ENDICOTT PEAR TREES. Reverend William Bentley both baptized Hannah Crowninshield and presided at her wedding, and in between she was his most favored pupil, becoming in time an accomplished portraitist. In the spring of 1810, Bentley sent to Adams cuttings from the famed Endicott pear tree, followed by a drawing of the tree by Hannah Crowninshield. Adams' reply to Bentley in May appears to note the delivery of the portrait, apparently elaborately decorated, with some humor, 'The Ladies say that the little Urchin of a Cupid who holds up the wreath, a little fat broad faced square headed spright, resembles me more than the Portrait he holds in his hand. This looks too much like Lord Cokes sad men whom he represents as having more Wisdom, more Gravity as well as more melancholy than I have. They are however admirably well done. I hope you will have occasion to tread this way again with that Lady and call upon us' ('From John Adams to William Bentley, May 1810,' Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-5528). Examples of Crowninshield's work are held at the Peabody Essex Museum, but the portrait of Adams is not noted. The pear tree so central to the Adams-Bentley correspondence of 1809-1810 is, of course, the famous 'Endicott Pear Tree' planted by Governor John Endicott sometime around 1632. Adams indeed planted the scions sent by Bentley, and here notes eloquently, 'I have several young Endicotts ... in my garden. They are very flourishing and if I can guard them from accident I hope they will be an ornament to this farm and a comfort to some good citizens 200 years hence.' While Adams' cuttings do not seem to have survived, Endecott's original tree still stands in Danvers, having inspired Longfellow and poet Lucy Larcom among others, as the oldest living cultivated fruit tree in North America. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing