REGENCY

[Marsden Squares: William Marsden, orientalist and numismatist, First Secretary to the Admiralty who broke the news of Trafalgar.] Autograph Signature to printed Admiralty 'Circular' directing ships' captains to send information on 'Coasts and Ports'

Author: 
William Marsden (1754-1836), Anglo-Irish orientalist, numismatist, and linguist, and Royal Navy official, Second Secretary to the Admiralty, 1795-1804, First Secretary, 1804-7 [Marsden Square mapping]
Publication details: 
London. ’ 'Printed by G. Roberts, Admiralty Office.' Undated, but issued during Marsden's tenure as First Secretary, 1804-7.
£320.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, which states that ‘it fell to him in October 1805 to wake Lord Barham, as first lord of the Admiralty, with the news of victory at Trafalgar and the death of Nelson’. The present document is an interesting artefact in the history of data collection: Marsden’s important innovation, the system of information-gathering known as ‘Marsden Squares’ or ‘Marsden Square mapping’. 1p, folio. Discoloration and wear along inner edge, otherwise in good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice into a packet. All printed, except for Marsden’s firm signature.

[William Marsden, orientalist and numismatist, First Secretary to the Admiralty who broke the news of the victory at Trafalgar.] Autograph Signature ‘Wm Marsden’ to printed Admiralty circular, sent to HMS Kemphaan.

Author: 
William Marsden (1754-1836), Anglo-Irish orientalist, numismatist, and linguist, and Royal Navy official, Second Secretary to the Admiralty, 1795-1804, First Secretary, 1804-7; HMS Kemphaan; Trafalgar
Publication details: 
London. ‘Admiralty Office, 7 July, 1800.’ 'Printed by G. Roberts, Admiralty Office.'
£120.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, which states that ‘it fell to him in October 1805 to wake Lord Barham, as first lord of the Admiralty, with the news of victory at Trafalgar and the death of Nelson’. 1p, folio. Discoloration and wear along gutter, otherwise in good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice into a packet. On recto of first leaf of bifolium, the second leaf being blank, apart from one word of docketing in manuscript ‘Kemphaan’.

[William Marsden, orientalist and numismatist, First Secretary to the Admiralty who broke the news of the victory at Trafalgar.] Autograph Signature ‘Wm Marsden’ to printed Admiralty circular, sent to HMS Staunch.

Author: 
William Marsden (1754-1836), Anglo-Irish orientalist, numismatist, and linguist, and Royal Navy official, Second Secretary to the Admiralty, 1795-1804, First Secretary, 1804-7 [HMS Staunch; Trafalgar]
Publication details: 
London. ‘Admiralty Office, 7 July, 1800.’ 'Printed by G. Roberts, Admiralty Office.'
£120.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, which states that ‘it fell to him in October 1805 to wake Lord Barham, as first lord of the Admiralty, with the news of victory at Trafalgar and the death of Nelson’. 1p, folio. Discoloration and wear along gutter, with two leaves half detached from head; otherwise in good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice into a packet. On recto of first leaf of bifolium, the second leaf being blank, apart from one word of docketing in manuscript ‘Staunch’.

[William Marsden, orientalist and numismatist, First Secretary to the Admiralty who broke the news of the victory at Trafalgar.] Autograph Signature ‘Wm Marsden’ to printed Admiralty circular, sent to HMS Steady.

Author: 
William Marsden (1754-1836), Anglo-Irish orientalist, numismatist, and linguist, and Royal Navy official, Second Secretary to the Admiralty, 1795-1804, First Secretary, 1804-7 [HMS Steady; Trafalgar]
Publication details: 
London. ‘Admiralty Office, 7 July, 1800.’ 'Printed by G. Roberts, Admiralty Office.'
£120.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, which states that ‘it fell to him in October 1805 to wake Lord Barham, as first lord of the Admiralty, with the news of victory at Trafalgar and the death of Nelson’. 1p, folio. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice into a packet. On recto of first leaf of bifolium, the second leaf being blank, apart from one word of docketing in manuscript ‘Steady’.

[‘Nor will I lose a farthing for all the Generals in the Kings dominions’.] Autograph Letter Signed from future Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Dashwood, concerning prize money for the Danish ship the Venus, captured by him at the Battle of Copenhagen, 1807

Author: 
Sir Charles Dashwood (1765-1847), Royal Navy Vice-Admiral who served during the American War of Independence, French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and War of 1812 [Battle of Copenhagen, 1807]
Publication details: 
‘Franchise [HMS Franchise], Spithead / 16th Feby. 1808.’
£250.00

See his long obituary in the Gentleman’s Magazine, December 1847. This letter, which concerns the prize money for the capture of the 36-gun Danish fifth-rater the Venus, captured by Dashwood at the Battle of Copenhagen, 1807. 2pp, 4to, on the first leaf of a bifolium, the reverse of the second leaf is addressed, with two postmarks, to ‘James Sykes Esqe / Arundle St / London’, and docketed ‘C. Dashwood / 16 Feb 1808 / Recd 17 do’. In good condition, lightly aged, with slight damage to second leaf from breaking open of the wafer. Folded for postage.

[‘The Sicilians are not quite so well disposed towards us’: Edward Foord Bromley, Royal Navy surgeon and source of Tasmanian scandal.] Autograph Letter Signed to Sir Sidney Smith, from HMS America at Palermo, describing the unsettled state of Sicily.

Author: 
Edward Foord Bromley (1776-1836), Royal Navy surgeon and Naval Officer at Hobart Town, Tasmania, putative embezzler [Sir Sidney Smith; HMS America; Sicily; Sicilians]
Publication details: 
‘H M Ship America Palermo. / Septr 11. 1813.’
£180.00

An excellent letter, describing the state of affairs in Sicily during the period of British occupation, 1806-1814. The recipient Sir Sidney Smith (see Oxford DNB) was second in command to Sir Edward Pellew, head of the Mediterranean squadron which included Bromley’s ship HMS America, a 76-gun third-rater, launched only three years before, in 1810. The present letter is written with the ship on the verge of a notable engagement (described in the European Magazine, March 1814, pp.245-247, quoting from the London Gazette). From Bromley’s entry by P. R.

[Prize Ships; Royal Navy: Admiralty; Napoleonic War.] Manuscript Letter from Edmund Hurry & Co to the London marine Charles Cox, offering to ‘take charge of the disposal of the Ships and their Cargoes’ in Gosport.

Author: 
[Prize Ships; Royal Navy; Admiralty; Napoleonic War.] Edmund Hurry [Edmund Cobb Hurry (1762-1808)] of Gosport [Charles Cox and Co., London marine agents]
Publication details: 
‘Gosport May 30th 1803.’
£220.00

An interesting piece of Royal Navy and Napoleonic War ephemera, casting light on the implementation of Admiralty Prize Law. See the reference to the writer of this letter in the 1926 ‘Memorials of the family of Hurry of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, and of America, Australia, and South Africa’: ‘Edmund Cobb [Hurry], born at Great Yarmouth, in 1762, admitted a freeman by birthright, 23rd of August, 1782. He settled as a merchant and banker, at Gosport, where he married a Miss Liddell.

[James Smith, humorist, co-author with his brother Horace Smith of the celebrated ‘Rejected Addresses’ (1812).] Autograph Letter Signed to John Wilson Croker, regarding his post as Assistant Solicitor to the Board of Ordnance.

Author: 
James Smith (1775-1839), humorist, co-author with his brother Horace Smith [Horatio Smith] (1779-1849) of the ‘Rejected Addresses’ (1812) [John Wilson Croker (1780-1857), politician and diarist]
Publication details: 
‘18 Austin Friars [London] / 26 June 1826’.
£120.00

See his entry, and those of his brother and the recipient, in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 4to. Bifolium. The letter had been torn in half, with loss of a strip of paper from the second leaf, resulting in damage to a couple of words from the valediction; it has been carefully repaired with archival tape, and is otherwise in fair condition, lightly aged, with slight fading of the ink on the first page. The large signature ‘James Smith’ is clear and undamaged. Addressed to ‘J. W. Croker Esq’. An interesting letter, casting light on the workings of the Georgian civil service.

[Georgian Northumberland: legal documents.] Two printed lists of justices of the peace, in extracts from the Commission of the Peace for Northurmberland, one of them amended in manuscript; and two lists of grand juries, magistrates and counsel.

Author: 
Georgian Northumberland: Justices of the Peace, 1820 and 1830; Grand Juries, 1834 and 1836 [R. Walker, Printer, Newcastle.]
Publication details: 
The two printed items by R. Walker, Printer, Newcastle, 1820 and 1830. The manuscript lists from 1834 and 1836.
£250.00

ONE: Printed document in the person of King George IV, containing a list of several hundred men appointed as justices of the peace, with extensive manuscript emendations and deletions in red and black ink. (A few names are added, but mostly the names of the dead are struck out.) Dated 16 November [1820] and signed in type ‘BATHURST.’ The first page is headed ‘Extracted from the Commission of the Peace for Northumberland.’ Aged and worn, with closed tear along fold-line of second leaf, the bottom corner of which is torn away, resulting in loss from around sixteen lines of text.

[John Wilson, the 'Christopher North' of Blackwood's.] Autograph Note Signed requesting a copy (for review) of Madame Cottin's romance about Saladin'.

Author: 
‘Christopher North’ [John Wilson (1785-1854)], Scottish literary critic and essayist with Blackwood’s magazine, Professor of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh [Madame Cottin [Marie Cottin (1770-1807]]
Publication details: 
No date or place [1805. Edinburgh?].
£35.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. On recto of first leaf of bifolium. Addressed on reverse of second leaf: ‘123456 / [T. W. Naellz?] Esqr / Ambleside’. Aged and worn, with closed tears along folds, and damage to second leaf from breaking of seal. Reads: ‘Dear Sir / If you can send me Madame Cottin’s romance about Saladin you will much oblige me. / Yours truly / John Wilson’. Good large signature. The first edition of ‘The Saracen; Or, Matilda and Melek Adhel: A Crusade Romance, From the French of Madame Cottin, with an Historical Introduction, by J.

[John Roget [Jean Roget], Geneva-born pastor in London, father of Peter Mark Roget (of the ‘Thesaurus’) and brother-in-law of Sir Samuel Romilly.] Autograph Notebook in French, with apparently-original compositions and extracts from other authors.

Author: 
John Roget [Jean Roget] (1751-1783), Geneva-born pastor of two French protestant churches in London, father of Thesaurus compiler Peter Mark Roget and brother-in-law of Sir Samuel Romilly (1757-1818)
Publication details: 
Undated, but probably started after 1773, and in part written after his arrival in London from Geneva in 1775.
£800.00

See the entries in the Oxford DNB for his brother-in-law Sir Samuel Romilly and his son Peter Mark Roget, as well as Joshua Kendall’s 2008 biography of the latter, ‘The Man Who Made Lists’. From the Roget family papers, and certainly of later date than the two schoolboy commonplace books by Jean Roget offered separately. Roget is not named as the author, but the handwriting is his, and the spine bears the remains of a blue paper label with the words ‘MSS of the Rev. J. Ro[get]’ on it the same nineteenth-century hand (P. M. Roget's?) as the two commonplace books.

[George Sinclair, gardener to the Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey.] Parts of two Autograph Letters Signed to different seedsmen, both with good content, one relating to the subscription to Sinclair’s ‘Hortus gramineus Woburnensis’.

Author: 
George Sinclair (1786-1834), Scottish horticulturalist, gardener to the Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey who conducted experiments under Sir Humphrey Davy
Publication details: 
One dated by recipient 1816, the other undated but also from 1816. Places not stated, but the undated letter from Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire.
£280.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Large fragments, both with interesting content, from the beginning of letters to unnamed seedsmen (both addressed to ‘Dear Sir’, but the two docketed by different individuals, suggesting different recipients). Neither has the signature present (presumably supplied to autograph hunters for placement in Sinclair’s ‘Hortus gramineus Woburnensis’, described in the ODNB as‘an expensive folio volume containing dried specimens of the grasses’). Both items in good condition, lightly aged, and with creases from having been folded up.

[Theodore Hook, wit and hoaxer.] Autograph Letter Signed, to ‘Barker’, explaining the circumstances that free him to accept a dinner invitation.

Author: 
Theodore Hook [Theodore Edward Hook] (1788-1841), author, wit and hoaxer, accountant-general and treasurer of Mauritius, 1813-1817
Publication details: 
‘Friday Evg’ [no date or place].
£45.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, on an 11 x 14 cm piece of paper cut down from 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, with minor traces of glue from mount adhering to the blank reverse. The letter reads: ‘My dear Barker / I shall be most happy to join your agreeable party - Croker to whom I was engaged for Monday goes on from Apethorpe to Belvoir instead of coming home[,] so I am at liberty - Milne is I believe on a visit to the Marquess of Bute at Luton. / Yrs most truly / Theodore S Hook’.

[William Westall, artist and engraver.] Autograph Letter in the third person to ‘Miss Macirone’ [the composer Clara Angela Macirone], anticipating ‘the greatest pleasure’ in attending her morning concert.

Author: 
William Westall (1781-1850), ARA, artist and engraver, who in his youth travelled to Australia as artist on Matthew Flinders’ HMS Investigator [Clara Angela Macirone (1821-1895), pianist and composer]
Publication details: 
7 June 1847; 7 Pavilion Place, Battersea.
£50.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded twice for postage. Begins: ‘Mr. Westall presents his compliments to Miss Macirone & begs to assure her how very much obliged to her he feels for the honor she has done him in sending him two tickets for her morning concert’. He will have ‘the greatest pleasure in attending’ the concert, and is ‘quite sure he shall be very much delighted’.

[Lord Farnborough (formerly Sir Charles Long), Pittite politician and connoisseur.] Autograph Letter Signed regarding an aggrieved response to ‘the Widows Remonstrance’.

Author: 
Lord Farnborough [Charles Long, 1st Baron Farnborough; Sir Charles Long] (1760-1838), Pittite politician and connoisseur of the arts
Publication details: 
‘Bromley Hill [Kent] / Jany. 10th / private’ [no year].
£45.00

See his entries in the Oxford DNB and History of Parliament. A loyal Pittite (‘publicity agent for the ministry’, and founder of the Tory ‘Sun’ newspaper) who served as Irish Secretary. As a connoisseur he had a strong influence on the taste of the Prince of Wales, besides recommending the purchase for the nation of the Elgin Marbles. He bequeathed fifteen paintings to the new National Gallery. 2pp, 12mo. Signed ‘Farnborough’. The circumstances of the present item are unknown. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded twice.

[Copley Fielding, English landscape painter.] Autograph Letter Signed, suggesting that an unnamed lady bring 'Mrs Sharp' to see 'the pictures which I have prepared for the Exhibition'.

Author: 
Copley Fielding [Anthony Vandyke Copley Fielding] (1787-1855), English painter noted for his watercolour landscapes, born in Sowerby, Yorkshire
Publication details: 
11 April [1821?]. 26 Newman Street [London].
£45.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, slightly discoloured, with traces of grey paper mount adhering to the blank reverse. Folded once for postage. The year is not given, but the water mark appears to read ‘[18]21’. Good clear signature. Fielding writes: ‘My Dear Madam, / I shall have much pleasure in shewing you the pictures which I have prepared for the Exhibition, should it be agreeable to Mrs. Sharp & yourself to come to Newman at any hour on Monday or Tuesday next, & I hope you will do me the favour of persuading Mr Sharp to accompany you.

[Lady Charlotte Bury, Regency novelist of the ‘Silver Fork’ school.] Autograph Letter in the third person, requesting that Sir William Hamilton subscribes to a forthcoming work by her.

Author: 
Lady Charlotte Bury [Lady Charlotte Susan Maria Bury, née Campbell] (1775-1861), Regency ‘Silver Fork’ novellist and diarist, lady in waiting to George IV’s wife Queen Caroline
Bury
Publication details: 
26 August 1831. 3 Park Square, London.
£50.00
Bury

The daughter of the fifth Duke of Argyll, Lady Charlotte bore eleven children to her two husbands, and was forced to write novels by her first husband’s death and second husband’s profligacy. See her entry in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 16mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Neatly attached by a paper hinge to part of a leaf from an album. Begins: ‘Lady Charlotte Bury presents her Compts to Sir William Hamilton, & takes the liberty of soliciting for the honor & favor of his name, as a subscriber to a work by Lady Charlotte of which the enclosed Prospectus gives every particular.

[Religious Tract Society, London.] Seventeen uncommon printed tracts, variously in poetry and prose, including ‘Give it up? - No, never! or, The History of John Brook’ and ‘The Two Colliers; or, The Power of Religion in the Hour of Danger.’

Author: 
Religious Tract Society, London; W. Clowes and Sons; A. Applegarth; J. and C. Evans; J. Davis
Publication details: 
None dated (1820s and 1830s). All 17 titles sold by The Religious Tract Society, at the Depository, 56 Paternoster-row, London. A total of seven with three London printers: W. Clowes and Sons; A. Applegarth; J. and C. Evans. (J. Davis, bookseller.)
£250.00

Seventeen items, each 12mo, 8pp. All uncommon, and two (7 and 17 below) not listed on WorldCat or JISC LHD. All disbound and stabbed as issued. The collection in fair overall condition: some creasing and wear, and a few items discolored. Item 14 with grey staining to front cover. The first item with no illustration; the other sixteen each with a vignette on the front page. One item (4) with a second illustration in text. Item 2 with device of the RTS on the final page.

[Vendôme Column; entry into Paris of Prussians and Russians, 1814.] Hand-coloured engraving: ‘Wie die verbündeten Heere, an ihrer Spitze der Kaiser von Russland, und der König von Preussen, unter dem Iubel des Volks’.

Author: 
[Vendôme Column; entry of Prussians and Russians into Paris, 1814] Friedrich Campe (1777-1846), Nuremberg print and book publisher [Napoleon Bonaparte]
Publication details: 
Circa 1815. [‘Nurnberg bei Friedrich Campe’.]
£65.00

An uncommon illustration: no other coloured copy traced. Rovinsky 1889, No. 773 (p.151); and Morozov 1912, No. 782 (p.125). Approximately 21.5 x 17 cm, with dimensions of plate 21.25 x 15.5 cm. Tightly cropped, and without the publisher’s details at the foot, and the number 552 at top right. Tastefully coloured in blue, yellow, brown and red. Discoloured and spotted, with closed tear at head over blank area of design, and other damage to blank areas repaired on reverse with archival tape.

[Abbé Jean Nicholas Voyaux de Franous (1760-1840), founder of St Mary’s Church, Cadogan Street, ‘the father of Roman Catholicism in Chelsea'.] Autograph Letter Signed regarding 'a place in the Chapel' for 'Miss Harvey'.

Author: 
Abbé Jean Nicholas Voyaux de Franous (1760-1840), founder of St Mary’s Church, Cadogan Street, ‘the father of Roman Catholicism in Chelsea'
Publication details: 
Dated 9 April 1837.
£50.00

According to the Victoria County History, Jean Nicholas Voyaux de Franous (1760-1840), a Frenchman, is ‘traditionally seen as the father of Roman Catholicism in Chelsea’. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Signed ‘Abbé Voyaux de Franous’ and addressed to 'Dear Madam'. Indisposition is the cause of his delayed response. He was without ‘the least idea that Miss Harvey was without a place in the Chapel and gave immediate orders to have her accommodated with one.

[William Bentinck, 4th Duke of Portland, Tory politician.] Autograph Letter Signed, giving instructions to his London bookseller ‘Mr Booth’ [William Booth].

Author: 
William Bentinck, 4th Duke of Portland [William Henry Cavendish-Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck; from 1768 to 1809 Marquis of Titchfield] (1768-1854), Tory politician [William Booth, London bookseller]
Publication details: 
‘Buxton Septr 12. 1821’.
£50.00

For William Booth (1779-1840) of 32 Duke Street, Manchester Square [Portland Place], see the British Book Trade Index. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Neatly placed in remains of windowpane mount. Signed ‘Scott Portland’. With regard to the newspaper the Globe, he asks that it be ‘sent here till further orders - The Sun to be continued to be sent to Welbeck’. He is sending ‘the first volume of Horace Walpole’s private correspondence to be changed’, as it is incomplete: ‘It contains a portion of its pages twice over - & another portion wholly omitted’.

[Hyde Park: Rotten Row in the reign of George IV.] Autograph Letter Signed by J. King, complaining at length about ‘Patricians’ whose horses trample the grass of the ‘People’s Park’, leaving the place ‘like a Sandy Desert the Verdure all destroyed’.

Author: 
[Hyde Park: Rotten Row in the reign of King George IV.] J. King of Cadogan Place, Belgravia, London. [Lord Sydney; Lord Northumberland]
Publication details: 
‘Cadogan Place. May. 31. 1824’.
£180.00

A nice piece of London ephemera, the subject being Rotten Row, which runs along the south side of Hyde Park. 2pp, 4to. On wove paper with watermark ‘J WILMOT / 1823’. Forty-one lines of text. Having been torn in two vertically (presumably by the irate recipient) the item has been repaired in an unusual way: with the two pieces sewn back together from top to bottom. Otherwise in fair condition, lightly aged and creased, with slight loss to one edge from breaking of seal or wafer. Folded for postage.

['The notorious Lady Craven', i.e. Lady Elizabeth Craven, Margravine of Anspach.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Elizabeth'), explaining (to her publisher Henry Colburn?) a passage from her 'Memoirs' regarding the 'Pye […] Calld Paté de Peregeux'.

Author: 
Elizabeth Craven, Lady Craven, Margravine of Anspach [Margravine of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Bayreuth; born Lady Elizabeth Berkeley] (1750-1828), courtesan [Henry Colburn, London publisher]
Publication details: 
No place. 'Saturday | 5 Mar 14 [i.e. 1814]
£150.00

1p, 8vo. On laid paper with watermarked date 1811. In good condition, lightly aged, with stub from mount adhering. In a contemporary hand at head: '0 15', and at foot '5 Mar 14' and 'Margravin Anspach'.

[ Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood. ] Contemporary manuscript official copy letter to Vice Admiral Duckworth, regarding Royal Navy ships in the Mediterranean respecting the neutrality of Portuguese ships. With manuscript extract from treaty.

Author: 
Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood (1748-1810), 1st Baron Collingwood, commander at Trafalgar after Nelson's death [Sir William Richard Cosway; Sir John Thomas Duckworth (1748-1817), 1st Baronet]
Publication details: 
'Given on board the Ocean off Cadiz |12th. August 1806'.
£180.00

Both items in very good condition, on lightly-aged paper. ONE: Copy letter. 2pp., folio. On paper with watermark 'JOHN HOWARD | 1804'. Ends: 'To | Sir J. T. Duckworth K.B. | Vice Admiral of the White | &ca. &ca. &ca. | Given on board the Ocean off Cadiz | 12th. August 1806 | (signed) Collingwood | By Command of the Vice Admiral | (signed) W R Cosway | A Copy'.

[Sir Thomas Baring, 2nd Baronet, banker and Member of Parliament.] Autograph Letter Signed (‘Tho. Baring’) regarding the sending of his ‘Pictures’ to his estate at Stratton.

Author: 
Sir Thomas Baring (1772-1848), 2nd Baronet, banker, Member of Parliament, Art Collector.
Publication details: 
5 August 1818. Cowes, Isle of Wight.
£50.00

See the entries in the Oxford DNB for his father Sir Francis Baring (1740-1810) and his son Thomas Baring (1799-1873). At the time of writing he was working with the merchant bankers Hope & Co. in Amsterdam, but growing 'so disgusted with the drudgery of the counting house' that he wanted to abandon commerce for the law. 1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged, with neat traces of windowpane mount adhering to the edges of the blank reverse. Folded for postage. Signed ‘Tho. Baring.’ Recipient not named. Reads: ‘Dear Sir / As I observe in the papers that the British [?] is to be closed on ye.

[‘It is never desirable to say any thing on the subject’: Charles Greville, diarist.] Autograph Letter Signed regarding the desirability of allowing ‘poor Douglas’ (i.e. John Douglas of Newmarket Palace) to rest in peace.

Author: 
Charles Cavendish Fulke Greville (1794-1865), diarist [John Douglas (1774-1838) of Newmarket Palace]
Publication details: 
31 March 1839. Newmarket [Cambridgeshire].
£120.00

See Greville’s entry in the Oxford DNB, and Douglas’s in the History of Parliament, which explains the context: ‘Gambling losses, largely accruing from his turf accounting activities at Newmarket - Douglas laid the blame on ‘Peel and Huskisson ... tampering with the currency’, problems raising capital from his property and ‘keeping too large establishment of servants’ - had reduced his fortune’. 4pp, 4to. Bifolium. 44 lines of text. In good condition, lightly aged, with negligible remains of windowpane mount neatly adhering to reverse of second leaf. Folded three times for postage.

[Marquess Camden [John Jeffreys Pratt, 1st Marquis Camden], Tory politician.] Autograph Letter Signed reminding the recipient of his offer to send him a sketch of Holwood House.

Author: 
John Jeffreys Pratt, 1st Marquis Camden [Marquess Camden; formerly Viscount Bayham and 2nd Earl Camden] (1759-1840), Tory politician
Camden
Publication details: 
25 July 1824. Holderness House [London].
£45.00
Camden

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The present item is not in the best of condition: it is aged and creased (including dog-eared corner on which the signature ‘Camden’ is written), with contemporary repair to two long tears by the laying down on the blank reverse of strips from a contemporary manuscript. Docketed on the otherwise blank second leaf: ‘25th July 1824 / Marquis Camden’.

[Francis Horner, Scottish Whig politician, journalist and political economist; Slave Trade] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Harrison’, regarding ‘Stephen’s book’, a pardon for thieves, the Attorney General, ‘Thorpe’, and the General Assembly.

Author: 
Francis Horner (1778-1817), Scottish Whig politician, Member of Parliament and political economist, one of the founders of the Edinburgh Review [Harrison]
Publication details: 
1 April 1815. Taunton [Somerset].
£220.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. At the time of writing, a year and a half before his death, Horner was Member of Parliament for St. Mawes in Cornwall. 1p, 4to. Eighteen lines, neatly written. Addressed to ‘My dear Harrison’ and signed ‘Fra Horner.’ In good condition, lightly aged, with negligible remnants of windowpane mount adhering at edges of blank reverse. Folded for postage. He has received both of Harrison’s letters, and is ‘particularly obliged’ to him for ‘sending the copy of Stephen’s communication.

[‘The Grand Old Duke of York’: Prince Frederick Augustus, Duke of York and Albany.] Autograph Signature (‘Frederick / Colonel 2d. L. Gds.’) and conclusion of letter to ‘Mr Harrison’ regarding Captain Wyngard.

Author: 
Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany [Frederick Augustus] (1763-1827), brother of King George IV, reformer of the British Army commemorated in the nursery rhyme ‘The Grand Old Duke of York’
Frederick
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£25.00
Frederick

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On one side of 19 x 5.5 cm piece of laid paper. In good condition, lightly ruckled and with traces of mount on reverse. Clearly cut from a letter for an autograph hunter. Reads: ‘Captain Wynguard who has [...] is fit to succeed to that situation. / I am, Dear Mr Harrison, / Yours most sincerely / Frederick / Colonel 2d. L. Gds.’ The ‘2’ of ‘2d.’ looks like a ‘1’, but the signature is certainly his.

['The most perfect ode in the English language': Charles Wolfe, Irish poet.] Photographic facsimile of Autograph Letter Signed to John Taylor, containing the text of his celebrated poem ‘The Burial of Sir John Moore at Corunna’.

Author: 
Charles Wolfe (1791-1823), Irish poet, of the family of General James Wolfe and Wolfe Tone, author of the celebrated poem ‘The Burial of Sir John Moore at Corunna’
Moore
Publication details: 
With facsimile of postmark dated 6 September 1816. No place (but from Ireland).
£120.00
Moore

The present item gives the text of the poem described by Byron as 'the most perfect ode in the English language' before its first publication in the Newry Telegraph in April 1817. See Wolfe’s entry in the Oxford DNB. The source of the present item is unclear. It is a photographic facsimile, many decades old, on both sides of a 4to leaf. In fair condition, slightly creased on browned paper, with negligible loss to margin at head. With five creases from folding. Addressed to ‘John Taylor Esqe / at the Revd Mr. Armstrong’s / Clonoully / Cashel’.

Syndicate content