I also seem to recall we have what may be the only surviving identified letter from Fritz to Knobelsdorff, thanks to felis? I would still like to get that information out there into the world, which reminds me I was going to contact Dr. Martin Engel now that I've finished the deciphering I'm going to do. He wanted to know what happened to Knobelsdorff's library after Peter died, and wrote, "Unfortunately, not much is known about Lt. Col. von Keith, so the trail of Knobelsdorff's library quickly runs out."
I don't have abundant data, but I have some! And maybe he has information about unidentified Knobelsdorff sketches.
Speaking of sketches, I keep meaning to send a couple to you and Cahn. I don't want to post Knyphausen papers online without their permission, but there are two sketched-out caricatures of Peter's sons: one of Karl Ernst and one of both Peter's sons in 1763. No, I don't know who drew them, but someone held onto them until Karl Ernst died in 1823. Given how little was preserved from the Keith papers, mostly only the official documents, plus correspondence from famous people, I wonder if someone important sketched this!
Can't be Knobelsdorff, as he's dead, but...any guesses?
ETA: Having a closer look, I think the placename is "Gottn", which might be short for Göttingen, which is where the boys went to university 1760-1762. The date seems to be 1763, but close enough. So maybe it was a schoolfriend, not anyone famous--although of all the things to survive 60 years, I'm surprised a random school sketch was one of the few to make the cut. Maybe a schoolfriend became famous!
Anyone famous at university in Göttingen ca. 1763?
Sketches
I also seem to recall we have what may be the only surviving identified letter from Fritz to Knobelsdorff, thanks to
I don't have abundant data, but I have some! And maybe he has information about unidentified Knobelsdorff sketches.
Speaking of sketches, I keep meaning to send a couple to you and Cahn. I don't want to post Knyphausen papers online without their permission, but there are two sketched-out caricatures of Peter's sons: one of Karl Ernst and one of both Peter's sons in 1763. No, I don't know who drew them, but someone held onto them until Karl Ernst died in 1823. Given how little was preserved from the Keith papers, mostly only the official documents, plus correspondence from famous people, I wonder if someone important sketched this!
Can't be Knobelsdorff, as he's dead, but...any guesses?
ETA: Having a closer look, I think the placename is "Gottn", which might be short for Göttingen, which is where the boys went to university 1760-1762. The date seems to be 1763, but close enough. So maybe it was a schoolfriend, not anyone famous--although of all the things to survive 60 years, I'm surprised a random school sketch was one of the few to make the cut. Maybe a schoolfriend became famous!
Anyone famous at university in Göttingen ca. 1763?