1848

[Nassau William Senior, English political economist notorious for his supposed callousness during the Irish Potato Famine.] Autograph Signature (‘N W Senior’) to envelope addressed by him to ‘The / Lady Theresa Lewis / Kent House’.

Author: 
Nassau William Senior (1790-1864), English political economist notorious for his supposed callousness during the Irish Potato Famine
Nassau William Senior
Publication details: 
No date or place.
£100.00
Nassau William Senior

The claim that Benjamin Jowett reported Senior as saying that ‘the famine of 1848 in Ireland would not kill more than a million people, and that would scarcely be enough to do much good’ appears to have been made up by Cecil Woodham-Smith. It is certainly not mentioned in Senior’s entry in the Oxford DNB, along with the entry for the recipient Lady (Maria) Theresa Lewis (1803-1865), who lived in Kent House in Knightsbridge with her second husband Sir George Cornewall Lewis, Bart, her first husband having been the novelist Thomas Henry Lister (1800-1842).

[François Guizot, Prime Minister of France, historian and statesman.] Autograph Letter in the third person, in French, to ‘Mesdemoiselles Berry’ [i.e. Horace Walpole’s friends Agnes and Mary Berry]

Author: 
François Guizot [François Pierre Guillaume Guizot] (1787-1874), Prime Minister of France, historian and statesman [Agnes and Mary Berry]
Publication details: 
‘Vendredi 10 Avril’ [no year and no place].
£80.00

See Mary Berry’s entry in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly aged and folded for postage. 1p, 16mo. Neatly written in his distinctive close hand: ‘M. Guizot regrette beaucoup qu’un engagement antérieur ne lui permette pas d’accepter, pour le 11 avril, l’aimable invitation de Mesdemoiselles Berry. Il a l’honneur de leur envoyer deux volumes qui les amuserons peut-être quelques momens, et de leur offrir ses hommages respectueux’. The item is from the papers of Lady Maria Theresa Lewis (1803-1865), to whom Mary Berry left her papers for publication.

[Martin Nadaud, French revolutionary in exile as Wimbledon teacher ‘Henri Geo. Martin’.] Autograph Letter Signed, as ‘Martin’, in French, telling ‘Mons Delabussière’ to seek assistance from his ‘bon ami’ the Christian Socialist J. M. Ludlow.

Author: 
Martin Nadaud (1815-1898), French revolutionary who spent 18 years in exile in England after 1848, under the name ‘Henri Geo. Martin’ [John Malcolm Forbes Ludlow (1821-1911), Christian Socialist]
Publication details: 
‘18bre [sic] 1855’ [Wimbledon, London].
£180.00

An interesting letter, indicating the networks of sympathisers who assisted those fleeing to England in the years following the revolutions of 1848. In the July 1895 edition of the Atlantic, the subject of this letter, the Christian Socialist J. M. Ludlow, in reviewing Nadaud’s memoirs, described him as ‘a friend of my own, of many years’ standing’. The present item was written in the seventh of the eighteen years of Nadaud’s English exile, part of which was spent as a teacher in Wimbledon under the name ‘Henri Geo. Nadaud’. The identity of the recipient is not known. 4pp, 16mo.

[Countess Theresa Pulszky, wife of Hungarian nationalist Count Ferenc Pulszky.] Autograph Letter Signed, in English, to Sabilla Novello, describing her ‘Dante festivals’ and artistic activities in Florence.

Author: 
'Theresa Pulszky [Terézia Pulszky; née Walter] (1819-1866), Austro-Hungarian wife of the Hungarian nationalist Count Ferenc Pulszky (1814-1897) [Sabilla Novello; Clara Novello [Countess Gigliucci]
Publication details: 
‘Villa Petrovitz Sulla Cos[ta] / Florence June 3d 1865’.
£280.00

The Pulskys had fled Austria-Hungary during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, and while in London the Countess had published her well-received ‘Memoirs of a Hungarian Lady’. They would only be allowed back under an imperial amnesty in the year after this letter in 1866. The recipient, Sabilla Novello, was the daughter of London music publisher Vincent Novello, and sister of Alfred and Clara Novello [the ‘Countess Gigliucci’ referred to in the letter], all three of whom have entries in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. On bifolium.

[François Guizot, Prime Minister of France, in exile in London following the Revolution of 1848.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Guizot'), in French, to Lady Cullum, explaining his reasons for declining an invitation to visit Hardwick House.

Author: 
François Guizot [François Pierre Guillaume Guizot] (1787-1874), French historian and statesman, Prime Minister of France [Lady Ann Cullum (1807-1875) of Hardwick House]
Publication details: 
'Brompton [London] 14 Sepr 1848'.
£100.00

The recipient is Lady Ann Cullum (1807-1875), widow of Sir Thomas Gery Cullum (1777-1855) of Hardwick House, Bury St Edmunds. 1p, 12mo. On grey paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. The salutation of the letter ('My dear Lady Cullum') is in English, the rest in French. Written at a turbulent period in Guizot's life, following the Revolution in 1848, with the overthrow of the monarchy and its ministry of which he himself was head.

[William Smith O'Brien [Liam Mac Gabhann Ó Briain], Irish nationalist.] Autograph Signature ('W S Obrien') cut from document.

Author: 
William Smith O'Brien [Liam Mac Gabhann Ó Briain] (1803-1864), Irish nationalist MP, leader of the Young Ireland movement, deported to Van Diemen's Land after 1848 Young Irelander Rebellion
Publication details: 
Without place or date.
£120.00

On 4 x 5.5 cm piece of paper. In good condition, laid down on square of paper cut from leaf removed from album. An uncommon signature and an unusual one, consisting of a single line in a series of up and down strokes, diminishing in height, tapering off to the right before returning for the underlining.

[ King Ferdinand II of Naples. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('Ferdinando'), in Italian, to a nephew ('Carissimo Nipote').

Author: 
King Ferdinand II of Naples [ Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies ] (1810-1859), Bourbon monarch
Publication details: 
Place not stated. With docketed date 1850.
£50.00

2pp., 12mo. Fifteen lines of text. In fair condition, on aged paper. The second leaf of the bifolium is docketed, and has a small burn hole to it, but the leaf with the king's autograph on it is undamaged. Written during his exile following the revolution of 1848. Contains a reference to 'la Cujina Luisa' [María Luisa Fernanda de Borbón].

Eight Autograph Diaries of Frances Barbara Airey ['Fanny Airey'], daughter of Sir George Airey and his wife Catherine, daughter of Lord Talbot de Malahide, written in Paris, 1850-1866, with references to political events and expatriate high society.

Author: 
Frances Barbara Airey (1799-1870), daughter of Sir George Airey (1761-1833) and his wife Catherine, daughter of Lord Talbot de Malahide; sister of Sir Richard Airey and Sir James Talbot Airey
Publication details: 
The eight volumes written in Paris, and dating from 1850, 1851, 1852, 1853, 1854, 1856, 1857, 1866.
£450.00

Eight tall and thin 8vo diaries of unusual shape: the first six 34.5 x 13.5 cm, the last two slightly smaller. The first diary has 120pp., the others of similar length. With between two and four daily entries to a page, depending on the volume. The diaries are elegantly printed by a number of different Paris publishers (Dechamp; Pirmet; 'E. J.'; 'M. et H.'; 'F. G.'; 'B. L.'). Five are bound in light-brown cloth, with coloured paper labels stamped in gilt; the other three have printed paper boards.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Geo. S. Hillard') from the Harvard lawyer George Stillman Hillard (later District Attorney for Massachusetts) to W. W. Greenough, written from Paris in the 'Year of Revolutions' 1848, analysing the political situation there.

Author: 
George Stillman Hillard (1808-1879), Harvard-educated lawyer, writer on the law, United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts [William Whitwell Greenough (1818-1899), Boston merchant]
Publication details: 
Paris, France; 16 May 1848.
£320.00

4pp., 4to. Bifolium. Ninety lines of text. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with small hole on second leaf causing damage to a few words of text. Addressed with two postmarks (one French, one American) on the reverse of the second leaf to 'William W. Whitwell Esq | Boston. Mass. | United States of America'. A significant letter, written from Paris by an astute and cultured American jurist on the day following the demonstration of 15 May 1848.

Five items relating to the appointment of Special Constables, 'in consequence of the unsettled state of the Metropolis', including a signed warrant appointing Cater a Special Constable, as 'a tumult or riot may be reasonably apprehended'.

Author: 
William Charles Cater, hatter, 56 Pall Mall, London [Parish of St James, Westminster; Riot Act; Chartism; Chartists; 1848]
Publication details: 
The five items produced between March and June 1848. One of them printed by T. Brettell, Rupert Street, Haymarket.
£350.00

A collection of items indicating the panic felt by the bourgeoisie around the time of the Great Chartism Meeting on Kennington Common, 10 April 1848. Items Two to Five are laid down on a piece of grey paper removed from a scrapbook. Item One: Printed warrant signed by two magistrates, appointing Cater a Special Constable, it appearing, 'upon the oath of a credible witness, that a tumult or riot may be reasonably apprehended'. On one side of a piece of laid paper roughly 320 x 210 mm. Watermarked 'W H FELLOWS 1847'.

Autograph Letter Signed to Richard Byham, Secretary to the Board of Ordnance, Pall Mall.

Author: 
James Hammond of the Ordnance Office, Jersey [Revolutions of 1848; French Royal Family; Louis XVIII; Board of Ordnance; Ordnance Office, Pall Mall]
Publication details: 
2 March 1848; Jersey.
£150.00

12mo, 3 pp. Ruckled and stained, with the verso of the second leaf of the bifolium (carrying the address) laid down on a leaf detached from an autograph album. The 'Royal Family of France' are causing 'a very deep interest' and 'a portion of them have found their way to this Island'. He reports that the 'Duchesse d'Orleans and her two Sons, and the Duc de Montpensier have arrived here from Granville - they were brought over by a Jersey Boat the Master of which has been most liberally rewarded'.

Scrap of paper with a sentence in his hand.

Author: 
Louis Blanc.
Publication details: 
No date or place.
£45.00

French politician and historian (1811-1882). Poor condition, complete text:. "Mille remerciement de la part de Mr Louis Blanc. Il reviendra. --- I.e. he was in exile or about to go into exile.

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