Wein - - Mitscher & Caspary.

Wine - - Mitscher & Caspary. Extensive partial archive of the wine shop founded in Berlin in 1785. Preserved are: 11 strong account books, 4 of which are from the early period, 5 with name indexes. 1785-1877. somewhat different folio formats. Half-leather bindings of the time, 4 covered with burlap and with handwritten cover titles, 1 paperback (partly heavy wear). - Over 200 mostly handwritten individual documents relating to the founding of the company and its development in the 19th century. 1779-1923. mostly single or double sheets, but also booklets and folders. Various formats. - Several hundred detailed handwritten letters and counter-letters, mostly between Heinrich Caspari in Traben-Trarbach and his cousin Johann Marx Hack in the Berlin office. 1847-62, 1869 and 1873-75. Most in large quarto format, many on bluish paper. Folded lengthwise and bundled. - Yearly bundled receipts, invoices, deposit slips, tax vouchers, bills of exchange, etc. 1847-77, the first 3 years fragmentary. Various formats, folded under old labeled wrappers. - Oak barrel lid, centerpiece with carved equestrian statue (Frederick the Great?) under crown, royal initials "FW" and trade mark "M & C". 19th century, wing pieces with laurel wreath added, old barrel number "36" re-engraved to "1736". Diameter 69 cm (chipping at the bung holes, dowel connection of the left wing loose). In 1784, Frederick the Great allowed the cousins Johann Nicolaus Caspary (1758-1839) and Johann Justus Mitscher (1755-1802), who were born in Traben-Trarbach, to import 12000 liters of Moselle wine duty-free into Prussia. With this capital stock, the wine shop was founded in March 1785, which, according to the enclosed newspaper clippings, was still family-owned in 1955, until 1927 in the house at Königstraße 40 at the corner of Klosterstraße. As can be seen from the business books, Mitscher & Caspary very quickly built up an international supply network and, in addition to Moselle wines, supplied a wide range of varieties, including the obviously popular Médoc or products from Moet & Comp. in Epernay. Accordingly, the clientele spread from the royal cellars to the military aristocracy and the upper middle classes. The lists of names in the business books are long, but we need only mention the royal castellan Fiernkrantz, court caterer Jager, commander von Clausewitz, adjutant general von Kleist, privy councillor Uhden, privy councillor and doctor Hufeland, state councillor Nicolovius, the banquiers Bendix and Bendemann. - Mitscher married a daughter of the Berlin estate and vineyard owners Wollank, and after both of them died in 1802/03, the business became the sole property of the Caspary family. At about this time Johann Marx Hack from the Traben family joined the company. - The business books include "Calculation Buch" 1785-1822, "Brief-Copier-Bücher" 1785-98 and 1810-21, Kassenbuch 1785-98, Kundenkonten 1811-21, Soll und Haben der Handelsbeziehungen 1823-66. In addition, the documents include 3 early Kassenkladden 1785/87, 4 informative general inventories of the business (furniture, tools, wines, debtors, creditors, etc.), each at the time of the balance sheet spring 1786, 1790/91, 1802) as well as several separate cellar inventories from the years 1791-99. Also preserved are Caspary's engraved craftsmen's customer (Trarbach 1779, damaged), copy of the royal import permit 1784, rental contract for the house Klosterstraße 40 with interest receipts 1785-93, freight invoices to the royal storage cellar in Potsdam 1787 and in Berlin 1799 (1 Fuder Mosel), 3 pre-printed passports for Mitscher (2) and Caspary 1788-99, several supplications for customs remission and their notices, business contract between Mitscher and Caspary 1788, rental contract for tiled cellars in the house 1795, pre-printed citizens' letters for Mitscher (1790) and Caspary (1802), three-year tax exemption by Friedrich Wilhelm II. 1790, double draft as well as print of the death notice of Mitscher 1802 and print of that of his wife 1803, trade license for Caspary in Potsdam 1810, "Theilzettel" (division of inheritance) Caspary 1818, 2 lithographed price-courants around 1840 (1 torn through), 2 engraved business cards, notary's instrument about the inheritance of Hack 1857, wine auction lists, several bills of exchange, etc. Of particular interest in this section also numerous contracts for purchases of vineyards in the Moselle region. Some of the documents were collected around 1955 and, together with excerpts from the account books, made into a lecture or exhibition tour, of which a typescript copy has been preserved. - The very detailed correspondencebetween the cousins Caspari in Traben and Hack in Berlin deals, according to a superficial view, with both business and personal matters, as well as with the events of the time. The 1852 volume, with the exception of the water-margined volume