A SIGNED AUTOGRAPH LETTER FROM JOHN RUSKIN TO Alfred James Woodhouse. Presented with an Engraved Photographic Portrait of the Author.

Ruskin John

Published by [London] By Hand [Circa 1870]

About this Item

A one page undated handwritten note from Ruskin to his dentist, signed "ever affectionately yours J Ruskin" on cream paper in black/brown ink. Presented with an engraved portrait of Ruskin with facsimile signature at bottom from the circa 1870 Elliot and Fry Ruskin photograph. Octavo, the portrait roughly 4.5 by 3 inches, presented together with the letter and matted under sage board, glazed and in a fine gilt frame. A very fine letter, perfectly preserved and handsomely presented. A SIGNED AUTOGRAPH NOTE FROM RUSKIN TO the dentist who cared for him from 1866 to 1883. Ruskin's diary reveals his view of the importance of a dentist in his life, and is a reminder that to patients the retirement or death of a dentist can be a form of bereavement. When he lost his dentist, Dr. Rogers of Sackville Street, he quickly found a replacement in Alfred Woodhouse, who was in practice at 1 Hanover Square. In the letter Ruskin informs Dr. Woodhouse that his back tooth feels all right, but that, "the front one is very tender to pressure and hinders eating." He informs the doctor that he has remained in town and asks if he should come in the next day or wait. Woodhouse made a name for himself as one of the foremost practitioners of his day. In 1880 he became President of the Odontological Society of Great Britain, and he was a founder member of the British Dental Association, of which he became vice-president. Ruskin was one of the foremost thinkers and writers of his day. He was a renown social theorist, art critic, artist, architect and gardener. From 1858 onward Ruskin was involved in a complex courtship of Rose La Touche, a courtship initially very much disapproved of by her parents on various grounds. (When Ruskin first proposed marriage Rose was 17 and he 50). It has been suggested that Ruskin chose Woodhouse because he was the dentist of the La Touche family, but it is more convincing from their long association that he found in Woodhouse a sympathetic and expert practitioner. Two letters from Ruskin to Woodhouse are preserved in the Ruskin archive in the Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum, New York.

Seller Inventory # 29417

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A SIGNED AUTOGRAPH LETTER FROM JOHN RUSKIN TO Alfred James Woodhouse. Presented with an Engraved Photographic Portrait of the Author.
• Publisher: [London] By Hand [Circa 1870]
• Binding: Hardcover
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)