https://archive.neruda-archives.org/api/items/1661
type: Item
type: Letter
id: 1661
is public: true
owner: https://archive.neruda-archives.org/api/users/1
resource class: https://archive.neruda-archives.org/api/resource_classes/66
resource template: https://archive.neruda-archives.org/api/resource_templates/2
title: Letter from Gilbert Davis to Otard, Dupuy & Co ordering five half-pipes of brandy and discussing quality and reputation, 1841-11-05
created: 2026-08-09T15:34:15+00:00
modified: 2026-08-09T15:41:06+00:00
primary media: https://archive.neruda-archives.org/api/media/1662
media: https://archive.neruda-archives.org/api/media/1662
media: https://archive.neruda-archives.org/api/media/1663
item set: https://archive.neruda-archives.org/api/item_sets/1509
site: https://archive.neruda-archives.org/api/sites/1
identifier: NRA-L-000425
description: Gilbert Davis orders five half-pipes of fuller-flavoured brandy from Otard, Dupuy & Co for shipment from Bordeaux, criticizes the quality of a previous consignment, reports damage to the house's reputation in New York and comments on weak demand during the temperance movement.
date: 1841-11-05
temporal: Newyork Novr 5' 1841
sort date: 1841-11-05
item sequence: 000425
type: Commercial correspondence
language: English
language: en
creator: Gilbert Davis
recipient: Otard, Dupuy & Co
place sent: New York, New York, United States
spatial: New York, New York, United States
spatial: Cognac, Charente, France
spatial: New York–Cognac; requested shipment Bordeaux–New York
subject: Cognac trade
subject: Commercial correspondence
subject: Brandy orders
subject: Brandy quality
subject: Brand reputation
subject: Temperance movement
subject: Otard, Dupuy & Co
subject: Gilbert Davis
subject: New York
subject: Bordeaux
subject: Otard Dupuy
subject: United States
incipit: (Duplicate)
public transcript: [[label: Address panel]] Messrs Otard, Dupuy & Co Cognac France [[notes]] Editorial notes: Address and trade-house wording were verified against the authoritative address-panel image and are preserved as one entity.
public transcript: [[label: Letter text - page 1]] (Duplicate) Newyork Novr 5' 1841 Messrs Otard Dupuy & Co Cognac Gents I wish you to send me by the first good vessel from Bordeaux Five half pipes of your best Brandy, at Ten francs the velte the last I had cost 9.40 this is not good enough for me I want better Brandy, the article is of dull sale I am sorry to say see much or rather some of your Brandy last Summer sold in this city at low prices and the quality rather common indeed I rather doubted the genuineness of the mark for it had your brand on the cask which I supposed was a counterfeit but was told afterwards it was from yr house, since that time much has been said in regard to yr brandy, Mess Stevens & Son, Mr John Caswell & myself, have permitted to use yr name upon so poor an article I want Five half pipes of good, and not to cost over Ten francs the velte I want a full rich flavoured Brandy, such as I had the first time from you and such as you we usually bought from houses here, Ten years since Brandy is dull sale owing to our Temperance mania and will remain so for a long time no doubt. I cannot pay any commission or higher price Yours Respectfully (Signed) Gilbert Davis
public translation: [[label: Address panel]] Messrs Otard, Dupuy & Co Cognac France [[notes]] Editorial notes: Address and trade-house wording were verified against the authoritative address-panel image and are preserved as one entity.
public translation: [[label: Letter text - page 1]] (Duplicate) New York November 5, 1841 Messrs Otard Dupuy & Co Cognac Gentlemen I wish you to send me by the first good vessel from Bordeaux Five half pipes of your best Brandy, at Ten francs the velte. The last I had cost 9.40, this is not good enough for me. I want better Brandy, the article is of dull sale. I am sorry to say I see much or rather some of your Brandy last Summer sold in this city at low prices and the quality rather common indeed. I rather doubted the genuineness of the mark for it had your brand on the cask which I supposed was a counterfeit but was told afterwards it was from your house. Since that time much has been said in regard to your brandy, Messrs Stevens & Son, Mr John Caswell & myself, have permitted to use your name upon so poor an article. I want Five half pipes of good, and not to cost over Ten francs the velte. I want a full rich flavoured Brandy, such as I had the first time from you and such as we usually bought from houses here, Ten years since. Brandy is dull sale owing to our Temperance mania and will remain so for a long time no doubt. I cannot pay any commission or higher price. Yours Respectfully (Signed) Gilbert Davis
source: Original item in Neruda Archives.
provenance: Private collection, Neruda Archives.
rights: Publicly available images, transcriptions, translations, metadata and descriptions may be copied, shared, reproduced and republished, in whole or in part, for non-commercial purposes, provided that Neruda Archives is clearly credited and the relevant item identifier and stable URL are preserved. This permission includes non-commercial scholarly, educational, editorial, exhibition, website and social-media use. Automated machine use, including crawling, indexing, text and data mining, retrieval, embeddings and AI training by commercial and non-commercial systems, is permitted, provided provenance is retained where technically feasible and the item identifier and stable URL are preserved in source records or associated documentation. Commercial publication, commercial reproduction, resale, advertising use, paid access to a database or dataset and bulk redistribution of images require prior written permission. For the avoidance of doubt, permission is not required merely because an AI system or its operator is commercial. The images displayed and downloadable on this page are public access copies, and the permissions above apply to those files. Access to non-public source scans (preservation masters) or files specially prepared for print, where available, requires prior written agreement. Attribution may not be removed or replaced by false or misleading attribution.
access rights: Open public access. The images displayed and downloadable on each item page are public access copies. Non-commercial reuse of those images and of public transcriptions, translations, metadata and descriptions is permitted with clear credit to Neruda Archives and preservation of the relevant item identifier and stable URL. Automated use and AI training are permitted for commercial and non-commercial systems with provenance retained where technically feasible. Commercial republication, resale, advertising, paid database or dataset access and bulk image redistribution require prior written permission. Access to non-public source scans (preservation masters) or files specially prepared for print, where available, requires prior written agreement.
rights category: Open metadata and AI use; non-commercial public reuse
rights holder: Neruda Archives
bibliographic citation: Neruda Archives, NRA-L-000425.
research status: Every complete capture, documentary role, address panel, date, names, commercial evidence and postal evidence was directly checked against the authoritative images; unresolved readings remain explicitly marked. Date evidence: The dateline reads Newyork Novr 5' 1841 and the address-side docketing repeats the date. Origin evidence: New York is written in the dateline.
transcription status: Image-checked raw transcription
translation status: Image-checked English translation
catalogue period: 1825–1849
date certainty: Exact
extent: 2 documentary sides: Address panel and postal evidence; Letter text - page 1; 2 digital images.

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