I write you this letter today with all my love and devotion to you. I never realized how much I meant to you, all that you did for me, and how much you cared. Your love was unconditional, you spent so much time spending your last moments of your precious life devoted to me, and I can't explain the wonderful feeling I get in my heart, but also the sadness that comes along with it. I wish that you could have been with me, witnessing me evolve into a grown respectable man. Now, I want you to know, the way I grew up, the truth behind everything, and why I am the way I am today.
Beginning with my early years, I lived with a dreadful family, the Laphams, but now as I am older, I look back and see the people who I disliked were having a rough time as well as me.
Underside of a hand-hammered silver dish, intended...
English: Michael Ripoll, silversmith, member of Th...
Band made of silverMr. Lapham, my apprentice, was a silversmith. He was old and frail, and his work in the shop was never anything impressive. The family was poor, barely any food for all the women and men living in it. But, with my passion to become a successful silversmith, I made sure that everything went the way it was supposed to, and I was looked upon as the leader of the household
35 x 28 1/2" (88.9 x 72.3 cm)
The Moscow Kremlin's Armoury Museum
English: A simple silver bolo tie made by Navaho s...