Adams Papers Digital Edition

Papers of John Adams, volume 20

To Thomas Welsh

From William Temple Franklin
To John Adams from Nicolaas & Jacob van Staphorst & Nicolaas Hubbard, 11 October 1790 Staphorst, Nicolaas & Jacob van (business) Hubbard, Nicolaas Adams, John
From Nicolaas & Jacob van Staphorst and Nicolaas Hubbard
Amsterdam 11. October 1790.

We beg leave to introduce to your Excellency’s acquaintance, the Bearer Mr. Joseph Ceracchi Native of Rome & an eminent Sculptor, requesting your Excellency to render him every Service and civility in your Power, under our assurance of his being well worthy of them, and that your Excellency will thereby particularly oblige those who on similar & all other occasions are with great regard & respect.1 / Your Excellency’s. / Most obidt. & humble Servants

N & J. Van Staphorst & Hubbard

RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “His Excelly. John Adams Esqr. Vice President of the / United States.—”

 1.

Italian sculptor Giuseppe Ceracchi (1751–1801) arrived in Philadelphia by March 1791. He created terra-cotta or marble busts and medallions of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton, among others. AA likely donated Ceracchi’s medallion of JA to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1794, but both the medallion and the bust have since been lost ( AFC , 10:284; Oliver, Portraits of JA and AA , p. 211–213; Oxford Art Online).