Autograph request
Sent by Bray to (Cigarette card featuring George Frederic Watts) on 26th June 1901 requesting his autograph.
This is the joint-earliest recorded instance where Bray decided to change his tactics and attach an unalterated cigarette card to an envelope instead of a postcard or lettercard. Whilst he was successful in having his request delivered safely he was less so with his quest for Watt's autopgraph who was known to detest autograph hunters and already had pre-printed responses ready to send back to the collectors. Watts "mutilated" the envelope and returned it with a rejection note.
George Frederic Watts, OM RA (London 23 February 1817 - 1 July 1904) was an English Victorian painter and sculptor associated with the Symbolist movement. He said "I paint ideas, not things." Watts became famous in his lifetime for his allegorical works, such as Hope and Love and Life. These paintings were intended to form part of an epic symbolic cycle called the "House of Life", in which the emotions and aspirations of life would all be represented in a universal symbolic language.
