Vincent Novello (1781-1861)
Autograph letter signed ('V. Novello') to Thomas Attwood, Lincoln’s Inn, 29 October [1828]
3 pages, 162 x 195mm, laid down onto card. With a letter from Anne Calcott Baldwin to Novello, n.p., 1828, Provenance: Sotheby's, 12 May 1981, lot 162.

On the matter of raising funds for Mozart’s unwell sister. Opening the letter, Novello discusses his visit to England for the purpose of ‘obtaining authentic materials for my intended “Life of Mozart”’. Continuing, he is ‘shocked’ to hear that the sister of Mozart, Maria Anna, is, at eighty years old, almost blind and ‘in distress’. Having already contributed £10, Novello intends to ‘make a little private collection in her favour’ for those ‘who respect the memory of her illustrious brother’, asking Attwood if he would do the same. Concluding with a postscript: ‘As a matter of delicacy towards the Lady above alluded to – I am very anxious that her present melancholy situation should not become known to the public in general’ and asks for him to keep this correspondence ‘confidential’. The letter to Novello from Anne Calcott Baldwin declining an invitation to a rehearsal of one of the Philharmonic Concerts, ‘trust that before the season ends I shall be able to enjoy a treat which I now so reluctantly forego’.

An older sister of Mozart, Maria Anna became blind in 1825 and died four years later. The organist and composer Thomas Attwood (1765-1838) had studied composition with Mozart in Vienna in 1785: see lot 203 for his description of the composer.