MT used this full-dress signature, in several variants, when he wanted to live up to or take advantage of his fame. This 1876 letter is a response to someone named Harriet, presumably a girl, who apparently asked for the signatures of both the co-authors of The Gilded Age (1873), which suggests MT may have been a very long time answering her. The pieces of red wafers at the corners indicate how the letter, with the two signatures of one co-author, was preserved in an album.
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