Autograph letter signed by UK Prime Minister Lord Aberdeen dated 1847

Hamilton-Gordon, George, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, United Kingdom Prime Minister (1784-1860). Autograph letter signed requesting engraved portraits of William Pitt and Lord Melville from the printsellers Colnaghi.
 
Haddo House, Aberdeen, 13 September 1847.
 
1 sheet folded, 190 x 120 mm. Old fold lines, light edge toning, mounting residue to the reverse side; very good condition.
 
A letter written from Haddo House in which Aberdeen asks the London printsellers Colnaghi to obtain high-quality impressions of two engraved portraits. He requests "a good impression of the engraving of Hopfgarten's portrait of Mr Pitt, as well as of Lawrence's picture of the late Lord Melville", further instructing that both prints should be framed of maple wood and dispatched by the earliest Aberdeen steamer.
 
The reference to the engraving after Hopfgarten almost certainly relates to Franz Xaver Hopfgarten's engraved portrait of Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger after the painting by John Hoppner, widely circulated in the early nineteenth century. The second portrait refers to Thomas Lawrence's celebrated portrait of Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, the powerful Scottish statesman and close political ally of Pitt. 
 
Written several years before Aberdeen himself became Prime Minister (1852-1855), at a time when he had already served twice as Foreign Secretary and was one of the most senior Conservative statesmen of the period.