Autograph letter signed.

8vo. 1 p. on bifolium with integral address panel. Includes an engraved portrait. Folio (312 x 220 mm). To "Professor Becker", probably the art historian Wilhelm Gottlieb Ernst Becker (1753-1813), in German: "My dearest professor. As you appear to have agreed to the first part of the deal only in hopes that the second part might also be concluded, I feel obligated to tell you right now that it is very unlikely or indeed impossible that I ever should part with the said brown pieces. Therefore, I return to you your two drawings, as I am not in a position to give you those items which, you will admit, were the only true objects of your desire. I value Bausen's friendship too highly; and if I have any breeding at all, I must dispose of none of his pieces that he gave me himself, unless I have them in duplicate. And that is the case not even with all black impressions. Forgive my weakness, and tell nobody of it [.]". - Remains of a seal; slight tear to counter-leaf from opening. The enclosed portrait of Platner (engraved by Johann Friedrich Bause in 1790 after the painting by Anton Graff) a little dust-stained in the margin.