Lot 452: SHED, CHARLES DYER. 1818-1893.

2 Autograph Letters Signed ("C.D. Shed"), 4 pp and 1 1/2 pp, 8vo, Alameda, January 14, 1885 and San Francisco, June 15, no year, to his daughter Alista ("Allie") Shed in Hawaii, the first splitting at folds. Together with a gelatin silver print of Alista Shed ostensibly reading a letter outside the Shed home at 1616 Alameda Avenue, Alameda, and an etching of the same house.

Charles Dyer Shed was a 49er, and worked as a ship chandler and scene painter for the theatrical producer David Robinson. His northern California landscapes and shipping scenes in the Bay area are well known. His daughter Alista later married Britton of Britton & Ray publishing fame.
The longer letter discusses the painter Jules Tavernier [1844-1889] who in 1884 fled his Californian creditors and headed for Honolulu. He produced many landscapes, working from his studio at Hilo. Shed describes him as "a Regular Bohemian ... never pays his bills, that's his reputation that between you and me he may want to borrow from some of you islanders."