Bidspirit auction | (AMERICAN-JUDAICA).   BENJAMIN GRATZ Autograph

(AMERICAN-JUDAICA).   BENJAMIN GRATZ Autograph Letter Signed, written in English to his brother, Simon Gratz. Business matters. Two pages, with integral blank attached, autograph address panel on verso. Fredericksburg, VA. 10th August 1812.     In this letter Benjamin Gratz apprises his older brother Simon Gratz of business news and information he has gathered on a trip to Norfolk to meet with an associate named Mr. Brooke. Shortly to return to Philadelphia via steamer, he signs “your awaited brother, Benj. Gratz.”     Simon Gratz (1773-1839) and Benjamin Gratz (1792-1884) were sons of Michael Gratz (1740-1811), one of two brothers who in the years before the American Revolution birthed an influential Philadelphia Jewish family actively involved in American civic and commercial life, as well as the Jewish community and education.     Simon was a founder of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Later an attorney in Lexington, Kentucky, at this time the considerably younger Benjamin was participating in the family business, a mercantile and land-ownership firm founded by father Michael and his father-in-law Joseph Simon and run by Simon Gratz and another brother, Hyman Gratz.