Autograph letter signed by US Sculptor Hiram Powers 1859

POWERS, Hiram (1805-1873). Autograph letter signed responding to a request for his autograph. Florence, 15 April 1859.
 
Single sheet, 115 x 180 mm, written on one side. Old fold and some wear to the corners and edges, otherwise very good.
 
Powers responds to a request for his autograph. He explains that he had hoped to accompany it with a suitable expression of thanks for the compliment paid to him, but that every phrase he considered seemed commonplace. 
 
Hiram Powers was a leading American Neoclassical sculptor who spent much of his career in Florence. He is best known for The Greek Slave, one of the most celebrated and controversial American sculptures of the nineteenth century. Any correspondence from him is scarce.