Reed Autograph Letters Album A, no. 44: Admiral Robert Blake.
Reed inserted several hundred letters into albums, adding portraits where available, all supplemented with biographical notes and quotes in his calligraphic hand. The album which Reed considered the magnum opus of his autograph collection was prepared in the 1920s and is known as Album A. Arranged chronologically, it contains sixty letters by important historical figures.
This case features a letter written on 23 January 1652, on the eve of the First Anglo-Dutch War, by Admiral Robert Blake (1598-1657), a distinguished English military commander of the Commonwealth period. A transcription of the letter has been written in Reed’s hand.