Beschreibung:

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA -- TRADE AND COMMERCE. Five letterbooks (partly autograph) of Thomas Appleton US Consul (1799-1824) at Livorno (Leghorn), Italy, comprising texts of over 1000 out-letters in full together with summaries of others, Livorno, 1798-1825, approximately 880 pages, plus blanks , his correspondents including: Thomas Jefferson (for whom Appleton procures marble for the building works at Monticello, wine, horticultural seeds and political pamphlets); James Madison; James Monroe; Joel Barlow (US minister at Paris); J.J.Astor; Benjamin Latrobe (for whom he buys marble for the south wing of the Capitol and selects the two Italian sculptors - Giovanni Andrei and Giuseppe Franzoni - to work on the new federal buildings in Washington); Philip Mazzei; US consuls and ministers throughout Europe and trading houses in US and Europe, providing a detailed account of American trade and commerce in Europe at the time and political negotiations to ensure its success, particularly during periods of Anglo-American hostilities, vellum, folio, in two full black morocco cases . Thomas Appleton was the son of Nathaniel Appleton of Boston, Suffolk, England and Massachusetts. Thomas Appleton established himself as a merchant in Philadelphia during which time he made extensive contacts with American consuls in Europe. After twelve years in France Appleton was appointed in 1799 US Consul at Livorno ('[Livorno] joins to the advantage of its being a free port... that it is regarded as the market of Italy, and from whom all Italy is supplied with foreign merchandise', 1798; '[Livorno]...has prov'd probably the most productive commerce of the U.S. for 18 months past', 1800). Throughout Appleton's correspondence there are references to opportunities for the expansion of American trade which he does not hesitate to pass on. Appleton corresponds with numerous American consular officials (William Eaton at Tunis, Gavino at Gibraltar, O'Brien at Algiers, Thomas Bulkly at Lisbon and Samuel Williams at London), also with American merchants (Valck and Co, Baltimore, Samuel Hodgson, Philadelphia, Thomas Halsey, Providence, George and Samuel Perkins, Smyrna and many others). It is evident that Appleton quickly established himself as a useful source of foreign intelligence. In 1801 he refers to the dispatch of letters for the State Department in Washington 'of much importance to the Government'. By 1802 he is corresponding with the US ministers at Paris and Madrid. The first mention of the shipment of marble (from the Carrara mountains near Livorno) occurs in 1804 in which year he corresponds with Robert Fagan of Rome about the engraving of a seal and the purchase of paintings and asks George Perkins in Smyrna to advise on the availability of classical statues. The long series of letters to Thomas Jefferson dates from 1805 when Appleton begins to play a major role in procuring marble both for Monticello and for the federal buildings in Washington from selected quarries near Carrara. His correspondence with Benjamin Latrobe (surveyor of public buildings, Washington) includes references to the two sculptors (Andrei and Franzoni) he selected to send to Washington, their fares paid by Albert Gallatin secretary of the Treasury. Some of the letters refer to a gesso bust in Appleton's possession of George Washington by Giuseppe Ceracchi (who had visited America to execute this bust and had also modelled Jefferson's head in terracotta in the early 1790s, probably in Philadelphia). The letters to Antonio Canova by Appleton make clear that the Ceracchi bust was used by the sculptor for the statue of Washington which was commissioned for the State Hall of North Carolina and executed in 1820, the vote of thanks for this not reaching the sculptor before his death in 1822. (The statue does not survive.) The letters to John Jacob Astor date from 1819 when Astor sought advice from Appleton during a commercial visit to Italy in search of furs and marble (includ