AUTOGRAPH LETTERS & HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS MAGGS 1449 No. 79, of Lorraine

Front cover: No. 27, George VI and Queen Elizabeth (detail) AUTOGRAPH LETTERS

&

HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS

MAGGS 1449 No. 1, John of Lancaster

At this period of royal celebration, we are pleased to open our catalogue by offering a selection of British royal letters and documents from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries, covering, in chronological order, all the from the to the . We follow this with a selection of our stock in the fields of history, literature, music and art, arranged in our usual chronological order. We hope that in these two sections our readers may find items to interest, entertain, and even amuse them.

Catalogue compiled by Hinda Rose and Polly Beauwin

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Access/Mastercard and Visa: Please quote card number, expiry date, name, security code and invoice number by mail, fax or telephone. EU members: please quote your VAT/TVA number when ordering. Items may be subject to VAT within the EU; EU customers outside the UK may not be subject to VAT if they provide a VAT number at time of purchase. The goods shall legally remain the property of the seller until the price has been discharged in full. ©Maggs Bros Ltd. 2011 Printed by Purely Print HENRY V’S BROTHER AS REGENT OF 1. [JOHN OF LANCASTER, Duke of Bedford (1389-1435). Protector of England and Regent of France after the death of his brother Henry V]. Document in his name as Regent of France, directing his Treasurer Hamon de Bellknap to settle the account of the English merchant John Cutberd, who had supplied goods to the Duke’s household and had not been paid in spite of his “great pursuit and diligence” in the matter. 1 page oblong folio on vellum, in French, 16 long lines, lacks seal, subscribed at the foot by the official R. Veret followed by a decorative flourish which may incorporate, in the hand of the scribe, the letters of the Duke’s name in French, ‘Jehan’. Mantes [Normandy], 14 July 1423. £2400 It appears that Cutberd had supplied goods to the Duke when Bellknap was Treasurer of his Household, before his promotion to the important position of Treasurer General “of our finances in France and Normandy”, as he is described here. The sum of nine pounds fifteen shillings sterling was due to him, and he had made “humble supplication “ to the Duke for it, as his previous “diligence” in pursuing the matter had not succeeded. The Duke, after consideration, now asks Bellknap to settle the matter through Pierre Surreau, the Receiver General of his finances. The Duke of Bedford was with his brother Henry V when he died at Vincennes in August 1422. Devoted to the interests of his young nephew Henry VI, he organized his as of France in Notre Dame. It was Bedford who purchased Joan of Arc from her Burgundian captors and caused her to be burnt as a heretic in Rouen in May 1431. As he later spoke of her as a ‘disciple and leme (lover) of the fiend’ he may really have believed that she was a witch. A collector and patron of the arts, Bedford bought the Louvre library after the death of Charles VI of France, which then contained 843 books. Two months before the date of this document, on 13 May 1423, Bedford married Anne, sister of the Duke of Burgundy. The magnificent ‘Bedford Hours’, now in the , was commissioned in celebration of the marriage. Produced in , it has portraits of the bride and groom in elegant court clothes. Anne died in 1432 and soon after Bedford married Jacquetta of Luxembourg, twenty-five years his junior. After his death, Jacquetta married the son of his chamberlain, Richard Woodville. Their daughter was the glamorous and ambitious Elizabeth Woodville, wife of Edward IV. Documents in the name of John of Lancaster as Regent of France are very rare. Slightly dusty, but in clear and legible condition. 2. RICHARD, DUKE OF YORK (1411-1460). Claimant to the throne; father of Edward IV and Richard III. Document Signed (an elegantly written “R York”), a grant to Ralph, Lord Cromwell, Lord Treasurer of England, who had fought at Agincourt in Henry V’s retinue; Sir William Oldhall, Richard’s Chamberlain and a future Speaker of the House of Commons; William Boerly of Bromcroft and his wife Margaret; and John Wynnesbury and Thomas Hopton; of the manors of Cressege [Shropshire] and Arley [Staffordshire]. 1 page oblong folio in Latin on vellum, fourteen lines of text in an accomplished scribal hand with a decorative initial letter “S” (of “sciant”) and flourished ascenders in the first line, signed clearly by Richard at the foot and with a substantial proportion (about two thirds) of his royal armorial seal in red wax attached by the original vellum tag. 20 December 27 Henry VI [1448]. £8000 Richard Duke of York, like his cousin Henry VI a descendant of Edward III, was the richest nobleman in the land, and before the birth of a son to Henry VI in 1453 was in effect the heir to the throne. Always turbulent, he maintained a show of loyalty until September 1460, when he formally claimed the throne, inaugurating the bloody era of the “Wars of the Roses”. He is a major character in Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part 1, where he significantly declares “I will be King, or die.” His ascendancy lasted only three months, until December 1460, when he was beheaded after losing the Battle of Wakefield to Henry VI and Queen Margaret. The Yorkist claim to the throne was (for a time) successfully carried to fruition by his sons. In December 1448 Richard was, officially, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, but as he regarded the appointment as an unwelcome form of banishment he did not actually arrive there until July 1449. After some indeterminate skirmishing he returned to England without permission a year later, giving as his excuse that he did not have enough funds to maintain himself and his forces. The signature and seal of the Duke of York are extraordinarily rare; as far as we are we are aware, no examples have been offered for sale for more than twenty years. Provenance: The Lyttelton Collection (Viscount Cobham), dispersed in 1978. An attractive document in clear fresh condition. Lightly laid down on maroon board, glazed, and in a plain gilt wood frame, measuring in all c. 17¾ x 17 ins. See inside back cover illustration. 3. [EDWARD VI (1537-1553). King of England]. Letters Patent in the name of Edward VI, a confirmation (inspeximus) of a decree of the Court of Augmentations allowing the Bishops of Worcester to continue to enjoy the pensions and revenues deriving from some of the possessions, in the city of Worcester and elsewhere, of many dissolved monasteries and convents in several counties. 1 page large oblong folio on vellem, c. 14½ x 30 ins, 46 lines in Latin in a good secretarial hand with a large decorative initial ‘E’ (of the flourished first word ‘Edwardus’). The official ‘duke’, evdently the scribe, has written his name at the end of the last line. A fine impression of the rare Great Seal of Edward VI in brown wax, c. 4 ins in diameter, with on one side the King on the throne and on the other the King on horseback, is attached by the original vellum tag. The seal is complete apart from some minor loss at the upper and lower edges, and the detail on both sides is clear and attractive. Westminster, 31 May 1 Edward VI [1547]. £3950 A document issued only three months after Edward VI’s accession to the throne. The Court of Augmentations had been established by Henry VIII in 1536 to administer monastic properties and revenues at the of the monasteries. On the evidence of this document, the Bishopric of Worcester (now, of course, firmly Protestant) was being greatly favoured. Among the revenues of which they were to enjoy a share were those of Whitnuns, Evesham and Malvern in Worcestershire; Winchcombe and Tewkesbury (which was saved from destruction by becoming a parish church) in Gloucestershire; Bath in Somserset; Eynsham in Oxfordshire; Maiden Bradley in Wiltshire; and Sheen in Surrey. Apparently unrecorded; not in the Calendar of Patent Rolls. Some rubbing along original creases, and a little dusty, but a handsome document in clear condition, legible throughout.

4. [JAMES I and VI (1566-1625). King of Scotland from 1567 and of England from 1603]. Document in his name as King of England, a confirmation (inspeximus) of Letters Patent of Henry VIII of 1543 granting adjacent tenements in Fleet Street, formerly belonging to the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England, to William Lambe. 1 page large folio on vellum c. 19 x 27 ins, 45 lines in Latin in an accomplished secretarial hand with a large decorative initial letter J (of “Jacobus”) and other decorative letters with elaborate strapwork in the first line. A major portion (about two thirds) of the second Great Seal of James I, with on one side the King on the throne and on the other the king on horseback, an unusually clear impression, is attached by the original vellum tag. Westminster, 11 November, in the 20th year of James’s reign as King of England and the 56th year of his reign as King of Scotland [1622]. £700 The extensive English properties of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England, a branch of the mediaeval Knights Hospitallers, had been managed from their Priory in Clerkenwell. Henry VIII dissolved the Order in 1540, and distributed their properties among his supporters. The locations of the tenements in question here are carefully described, and it is stated that this Inspeximus has been made at the request of William Tothill, one of the six Clerks of Chancery. This would most probably have been to confirm the entitlement of the current owner. The Letters Patent which granted these, and a large number of other properties in London, to William Lambe, described as the King’s servant, are summarised in Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, 1543, pp. 201-2. A large and handsome document in clear fresh condition. Usual original fold creases.

5. CHARLES II (1630-1685). King of Great Britain. Letter Signed (“Charles R”) addressed to the Keeper of the Great Seal Heneage Lord Finch, ordering the Great Seal to be affixed to a commission appointing “Our Deare Cousin Prince Rupert” as well as Finch himself, Thomas, Earl of Danby, James, Duke of Monmouth, John Duke of Lauderdale, Henry, Earl of Arlington, Henry Coventry and Sir Joseph Williamson, Commissioners to treat with the Ambassador Extraordinary and Sir John Leyenberg, Envoyé Extraordinaire from the King of to conclude a Treaty between the two nations “as well for the renewing what shall be found fitting of a former Treaty made in the year 1664 . . .” Countersigned by Sir Joseph Williamson, secretary of state and privy councillor. 2 pages folio with integral blank leaf and wafer seal, Whitehall, 24 September 1674. £1850 The negotiations appear to have been swift and successful, as Britain and Sweden signed a treaty of alliance and commerce on 10 October of that year. Sweden was, at the time, the dominant power in the Baltic, controlling not only present-day Sweden, but also what is now , the Baltic states and Western Pomerania. Britain’s principal commercial rival was the Dutch republic, with whom she had recently fought three wars, the outcome of which did not prove of great advantage to Britain. Sir Joseph Williamson, who has countersigned the document, was a close ally of the Earl of Arlington. An able and ambitious man, he did much to reform government administration. He was also particularly well versed in the gathering of intelligence, and is considered by some to be a worthy successor of Sir Francis Walsingham. An attractive document in very good condition.

6. CHARLES II (1630-1685). King of Great Britain. Autograph Letter Signed (“Charles R”) to “Ma Soeur” [Marie-Jeanne of Savoy-Nemours, Regent of Savoy], telling her that he is sending “Sieur Somes” as his envoy, and assuring her of his esteem and desire to further the interests of the Duke of Savoy. 1 page 4to in French with integral address leaf, two small red wax seals and remains of pale blue silk cords, in a red cloth slipcase with gold lettering, London, 20 December 1677. £2750 Trans: “As the Count of St. Maurice has informed me of the satisfaction you would have if you had with you someone sent by me to look after our mutual interests, I felt it right to send you Sir Somes as my envoy extraordinary to this purpose, and in whom you will kindly place your trust as required by the events which present themselves, and most of all when he assures you of the great esteem which I have for you and of the pleasure I will always have in seizing any occasion to further the interests of my brother the Duke of Savoy, your son . . .” The nine-year-old Victor Amadeus II succeeded to the Duchy of Savoy in 1675. Savoy, strategically important as it was between France and the Italian states, had been occupied by the French on several occasions in the past, but Victor Amadeus’s mother proved a capable Regent. In later years, he was to prove a staunch ally of Britain during the War of the Spanish Succession. Victor Amadeus was eventually to marry Charles’s niece, the daughter of his beloved sister Henrietta Anne. Sir Somes is most probably Sir William Soame who was later appointed ambassador to Constantinople, and was the dedicatee of a poem by Robert Herrick. In very good condition. 7. JAMES II (1633-1701). King of Great Britain. Autograph Letter Signed (“Jacques”) to “Mon Cousin” [probably Louis XIV], assuring him of his gratitude and hoping for his correspondent’s continued marks of friendship. 2 pages 4to in French with integral blank leaf, Brussels, 23 September 1659. £2750 A year after the death of Oliver Cromwell, James was encouraged to hope for his brother’s restoration to the throne by an uprising in Cheshire, led by Sir George Booth in August of 1659. He travelled to Boulogne in anticipation of a return to Britain, but returned to Brussels when the rebellion was crushed. James had fought for France under one of their greatest military leaders, Turenne, whom he greatly admired. However, when France signed a treaty with Cromwell, he was forced to leave and, much to his dismay, found himself fighting his old comrades, serving the Spanish in Flanders. By 1659, France’s victory over the Spanish brought peace and the possibility of the renewal of ties of friendship with France for James. Still uncertain, at this juncture, of his hopes for a restoration of the monarchy in England, one can sense in this letter his eagerness to ensure French support, and a quite sincere desire to declare his own affection for his friends in France. Trans: “I have received so many proofs of your friendship whilst I was in France, that I have no reason to doubt the assurances that some of my friends have given me since then that you still have [friendship] for me which has led me to hope that in this great moment of peace that you will continue thus and that you will not forget someone whom you will find not ungrateful and who will be very pleased to owe you yet more obligations, as I do not lose hope of one day, with your help, being able to show you the depth of my gratitude, and that I will never forget the kindness which you have shown me, which is why I send you as my envoy Sieur de Berkley, Cap[tain] of my guards who will relay to you everything which concerns me. [I] beg you to believe everything he tells you from me, as I only lacked the means to assure you that I value your friendship above all other things and that I am in truth My Cousin your very affectionate Cousin. . . “ Sir John Berkeley was an ardent Royalist and had undertaken an important diplomatic mission to Queen Christina of Sweden for Charles I before the war. After assisting Charles I in his flight to the Isle of Wight, Berkeley fled to France where he became a close confidant of the Duke of York, with the designation of “intendant des affaires de son altesse royale”. He served under Turenne alongside James, and later fought for the Spaniards. After the Restoration, he was granted part ownership of New Jersey. His house on Piccadilly was later to result in the naming of the London square in which Maggs now has its premises. 8. [WILLIAM III (1650-1702), and MARY II (1662-1694). King and Queen of Great Britain]. Document in both their names, an “Exemplification of Common Recovery” [a legal instrument used to allow the transfer of land], by which Richard Cridland acquires the manor of Gerberston in Somerset from George Palmer. 1 page large oblong folio in Latin on vellum, c. 27 x 30 ins, the manuscript text written in an elaborate court hand on lines ruled in red ink. Within the large engraved initial letter “G” [of Gulielmus] there is a fine engraved double portrait of William and Mary with a above, surrounded by elaborate strapwork. The engraved decoration continues along the large upper border, portraying the lion, unicorn and birds amid curling wreaths. The original vellum seal tag is present, but only a small fragment [of the Seal of the Court of Common Pleas] remains. Westminster, 12 February in the first year of the reign [1690]. £695 Common Recovery documents were in essence a fictitious legal device to allow consenting parties to collude to break an ‘entail’ which would restrict the inheritance or sale of a particular piece of land. This form of ‘recovery’ agreement was not abolished until 1833. The document would be pre-engraved with the royal portrait and the elaborate border, and then the lengthy and complicated legal agreement would be entered by a professional scribe. The manor of Gerberston was evidently substantial, with 12 messuages [dwelling houses with outbuildings and land], 30 gardens, 350 acres of arable land, 130 acres of meadow, and 80 acres of pasture, as well as woodland and moor. A large and handsome document. Usual original fold creases. THE BIRTH OF A PRINCESS 9. GEORGE III (1738-1820). King of Great Britain and Ireland and FOX, Charles James (1749-1806). Politician. Letter Signed and subscribed (“Bonus Frater Consanguineus et Amicus Georgius R” and “C.J. Fox”) to Ferdinand IV of Naples, announcing the birth of a new prince [the Princess Amelia] the day before. 1½ pages folio in Latin with integral address leaf and paper seal, St. James’s, 8 August 1783. £1200 The short-lived Fox-North coalition caused George III tremendous anguish, to the extent that he considered abdication. Charles James Fox, the greatest of the Whig politicians, but also a gambler and a bon viveur was very likely the man most hated and despised by the King. There is a certain piquancy in the sight of their two signatures so closely juxtaposed. Princess Amelia, whose birth is announced, was the youngest and favourite of George III’s daughters. Despite his obvious affection, her brief life – she died in her mid-twenties – was as unhappy as that of her sisters, largely because of her mother’s unreasonable possessiveness. The recipient of the letter, Ferdinand IV of Naples, had married Maria Carolina, sister of . Fifteen years later, he was to be rescued from advancing French forces by Horatio Nelson. There is a seal tear at a blank portion of the address leaf, but the letter is otherwise in very good condition.

10. GEORGE III (1738-1820). King of Great Britain and Ireland. Document Signed (“George R” – blind signature), a licence permitting “Messrs. Gordon and Murphy, Messrs. Reid, Irving and Co. and other British Merchants . . . on board the Portuguese Ship “Indiano” . . . to Export and Convey from the port of Cadiz notwithstanding the present Blockade . . . to Vera Cruz in South America . . .” 3 pages folio with paper seal, countersigned by Lord Spencer, St. James’s, 6 June 1806. £750 The merchants in question were to transport British manufactured goods, as well as “quicksilver, paper and Cards of spanish Manufacture, Wines, Brandies, and all other innocent articles . . . not being military or Naval Stores nor otherwise prohibited to be exported”. The present licence grants their vessels safe-conduct “without molestation by any of Our Ships of War or privateers, either on account of the existing War or of any other Hostilities . . .” In May 1806, Britain blockaded the ports of Europe from the Elbe to Brest. Known as Fox’s Blockade, after the great Whig politician Charles James Fox, this increased the pressure on France’s already precarious financial position. Later that year, when military success was followed by the subjugation of Prussia, proclaimed the Berlin Decree, banning British imports to any countries under French control. Harsh as they appeared, these blockades and bans were in fact circumvented by smuggling and laxity bordering on corruption.

11. GEORGE III (1738-1820). King of Great Britain and Ireland and CANNING, George (1770-1827). Prime Minister 1827. Document Signed (“George R” – “blind” signature), addressed to the Lord Chancellor, Lord Eldon, a warrant for affixing the Great Seal to the “Full Power” appointing Anthony Merry “to treat and agree with the Minister . . . of Our Good Brother The King of [Christian VII] . . .” 1½ pages folio, with Royal paper seal, signed at the head by the King and countersigned at the end by the Foreign Secretary George Canning. A copy of the Full Power, 3 pages folio in Latin, is attached with the original indigo silk ribbon. St. James’s, 23 September 1807. £995 An interesting document, relating to a little-known conflict at the time of the . Danish neutrality was threatened by both the French and the British, who feared that the French would attempt to block their access to trade routes in the Baltic. Denmark refused to enter into an alliance with Britain and, even more understandably, refused to hand over its fleet. The tenor of Denmark’s refusal was taken by the British to be equivalent to a declaration of war, and for three days at the beginning of September 1807, the British fleet bombarded . On 7 September, a peace was signed between England and Denmark, with the Danes agreeing to surrender their navy in exchange for the departure of the British from their territory. In spite of this, the war continued until 1814. Christian VII of Denmark, to whom Mr. Merry was being sent, had married George III’s sister, the unfortunate Caroline Matilda. The marriage ended in a scandalous separation following her affair with the physician and reforming minister Johann Friedrich Struensee, and she died in exile in 1775. George has signed the document with a laboured ‘blind’ signature. Cataract had been diasgnosed in 1805; an operation was suggested but never attempted. The diplomat Anthony Merry (1756-1835) had a distinguished career and is best remembered as the first British Minister to reside in the new American capital of Washington. He was there for three years, 1803-6, and as a stickler for protocol found the etiquette of Jefferson’s administration rather too “democratic.”

RECRUITING FOR THE EAST INDIA COMPANY 12. GEORGE IV (1762-1830). King of Great Britain and Ireland. Document Signed (“George R”), addressed to Captain John Paterson, “Recruiting for the Service of the East India Company”, authorising him “to raise so many Men in any County within . . . Great Britain, as are, or shall be wanting to Recruit the Force of the United Company of Merchants trading to the East Indies” and requiring Magistrates, Justices of the Peace and other officials to assist him “in providing Quarters, impressing Carriages, and otherwise . . .” 1 page folio, printed and completed in manuscript, signed at the head by King and countersigned at the foot by the Secretary at War and future Prime Minister Lord Palmerston. Carlton Palace, 25 March 1822. £550 The East India Company, under the name of “Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies”, had been granted a Royal Charter by Elizabeth I in 1600. Originally a trading organisation dealing mainly in cotton, silk, indigo dye, tea, and opium, the Company came to rule large areas of India, assuming administrative functions and exercising military power. Company rule in India, which effectively began in 1757 after Clive’s victory at Plassey, lasted until 1858, when following the Indian Mutiny the British Crown assumed direct rule of India as the British Raj. The Company itself was finally dissolved in 1874.

13. GEORGE IV (1762-1830). King of Great Britain and Ireland. Document Signed (“George R”) addressed to the Lord Chancellor Lord Eldon, requiring him to affix the Great Seal to the Commission appointing Robert Francis Jameson, Joseph Egan, and Sir Christopher Robinson, Doctor in Civil Law, to be “Our Commissioners of Arbitration . . . between Us and Our Good Brother the King of Spain.” 2 pages folio with Royal paper seal, signed by the King at the head and countersigned at the end by the Foreign Secretary, George Canning. A copy of the Commission, 11½ pages folio, is attached by the original indigo silk ribbon. Windsor Castle, 24 July 1826. £825 The King of Spain at the time was the weak Ferdinand VII, who had been restored to the throne in 1813 after the expulsion of Napoleon’s brother Joseph. A “Convention” between England and Spain had been established in 1823 “for the amiable adjustment of complaints respecting the Capture and detention of British Vessels and Property by Spanish Authorities” (in the words of the copy of the Commission document, here attached), and to decide on any compensation. A “mixed Commission”, consisting of members from each nation, should decide disputed cases; if agreement could not be reached, appeal could be made “to the Spanish Envoy at the Court of London, and a Law Officer of the Crown, with the provision that “if these Arbitrators should also be divided in opinion, it shall be determined by Lot which of the Two shall definitely decide the question.” The idea of deciding international legal disputes by lot would seem to have much to recommend it. “UNDER SENTENCE OF TRANSPORTATION” 14. GEORGE IV (1762-1830). King of Great Britain and Ireland. Document Signed (“George R”), addressed to the Keeper of the City Gaol of Worcester, granting a Free Pardon to Mary Beanes, who was “under Sentence of Transportation for Life. . . she having been convicted of stealing from the person”, and ordering her release from prison. 1½ pages folio with paper seal, signed at the head by the King and countersigned at the foot by the Home Secretary and future Prime Minister Robert Peel. St. James’s, 26 May 1828. £575 The first shipment of convicts to Botany Bay was in 1783, the last in 1840. Convicts continued to be sent to Tasmania until 1853, and the practice was not formally abolished until 1864. Convicts were liable to be transported for what would now be regarded as minor theft offences. There was no system which allowed for the reduction of sentences, so the only alternative if a convict appealed, presenting extenuating circumstances, was the upholding of the sentence or release with a “Free Pardon.” In the case cited here, Mary Beanes had been held in Worcester Gaol since 1826. The wording of her pardon follows the usual formula: “We in consideration of some circumstances humbly represented unto Us, are graciously pleased to extend Our Grace and Mercy unto her, and to grant her Our Free Pardon for her said Crime.” Although many such pardon documents must have been issued, few seem to have survived. Glazed, and in a plain narrow wood frame. Some wearing along the original horizontal folds, and the lower blank half of the verso is somewhat browned, but in acceptable condition and entirely legible.

15. ERNEST AUGUSTUS (1771-1851). Fifth Son of George III; Duke of Cumberland and King of . Autograph Letter Signed (“E”) to an unnamed correspondent, identified in German on the verso of the integral leaf in a nineteenth century hand as the Marchioness of Conyngham, the last favourite of George IV. 1 page 8vo with integral blank leaf, n.p., Wednesday, n.d. £110 “I now send you what I promised you, & am sure you will value it, knowing whose it was. I hope that the country air may have fortified your nerves which appeared to us to be so much shattered by all you have of late gone through.” From the content it is possible that Ernest is sending Lady Conyngham some memento of his late brother George IV. Unpopular in England because of his violent temper and extremely reactionary views, Ernest was suspected on very little evidence of a series of lurid crimes, including the murder of his valet, incest with his sister, and plotting to assassinate his niece Victoria. He became King of Hanover in 1837 when Victoria succeeded to the British throne, as a version of the excluded women from reigning there.

16. WILLIAM IV (1765-1837). King of Great Britain and Ireland, and HARDY, Thomas Masterman (1769-1839). Nelson’s flag-captain on the Victory. Document Signed by both (“William R” and T.M. Hardy”) appointing George Bruce Puddicombe a Captain in the Corps of Royal Marines. 1 page oblong folio on vellum with blue revenue stamp at the left, engraved and completed in manuscript, signed at the head by the King and at the foot by Hardy and George Barrington as Lords of the Admiralty, and by Sir George Barrow, traveller, explorer and Secretary to the Admiralty. Windsor, 12 October 1832. £525 Hardy had a distinguished career after Trafalgar, becoming an Admiral and in 1834 Governor of Greenwich Hospital, where he instituted several reforms. From 1830-34 he held the important position of First Sea Lord on the Admiralty Board, the non-political official ranking directly below the First Lord of the Admiralty, who was always a member of the Cabinet. Documents signed by both the King and Hardy are rare.

17. VICTORIA (1819-1901). Queen of Great Britain and Ireland. Document Signed (“Victoria R”), addressed to the Justices of Gaol Delivery for the Northern Circuit and the High Sheriff of Lancaster, granting a ‘Conditional Pardon’ to Girolomo Capella, who had been sentenced to death for murder, “on Condition of his being Transported beyond the Seas for the term of his Natural Life.” 1½ pages folio with paper seal and integral blank leaf, signed at the head by the Queen and countersigned by the Home Secretary Sir James Robert George Graham. St. James’s, 7 September 1841. £750 The wording of the pardon follows the usual formula: “We in Consideration of Some Circumstances humbly represented unto Us are graciously pleased to extend our Grace and Mercy unto him . . .” According to the Times report of this tragic case, a photocopy of which is included, “Girolomo Capella was indicted for the wilful murder of Antonio Capella, by scalding him to death with hot gruel.” The men were described as Italian itinerant musicians, and “partners” [but probably not related, in spite of the shared , as this no doubt would have been mentioned]. Antonio owed Girolomo money, which he could not pay, and after being scalded, was heard by a witness to ask why he was murdered for nothing. The victim survived for ten days and was able to give a statement to the police. In view of the circumstances and evidence of premeditation, it is perhaps surprising that the jury on finding Girolomo guilty of murder made a recommendation for mercy on the grounds of his “former good character” and “kindness to his comrade.”

18. [VICTORIA (1819-1901). Queen of Great Britain and Ireland.] Document in her name granting a patent to John Hilliar of Balsall Heath in Worcestershire, for his invention of “Improvements in Ventilating and in the exclusion of dust or draught, insects or other Animals from Apartments, Carriages or other confined spaces”. 2 pages large oblong folio, c. 21 x 30 ins., with elaborately engraved border decorations of acanthus leaves, cornucopias, the figure of Britannia before the sea, and the figure of Justice holding the scales. The Great Seal of Victoria in yellow wax is attached with a red silk cord and held in the original skippet, the whole housed in a black leather box bearing the royal . n.p. [London], 8 December 1862. £695 A very decorative item, in excellent condition. See back cover illustration.

19. BUCKINGHAM PALACE PROGRAMME Programme for a concert held at Buckingham Palace, printed in blue ink on white, the lion and unicorn royal crest embossed at the top in gold, red and blue. The text is surrounded by a wide lacy floral border. c. 10 x 8 ins, Buckingham Palace, 23 June 1869. £150 The programme commenced with von Weber’s Jubilee Overture, followed by a selection of arias by Meyerbeer (Robert le Diable and Les Huguenots), Rossini (Il Barbiere), Mendelssohn (Athalie), Gounod (Mirella) and Mozart (Il Seraglio). A most attractive piece of Victorian memorabilia.

20. VICTORIA (1819-1901). Queen of Great Britain and Ireland. Letter Signed and subscribed (“Sir my Brother, Your Imperial Majesty’s good Sister Victoria RI”) to the Emperor of Austria [Franz Joseph] congratulating him on the marriage of his son, Crown Prince Rudolph to Princess Stephanie of Belgium. 2 pages 4to with integral blank leaf on black edged writing paper, together with the envelope, bearing the intact red wax seal, Balmoral, 14 June 1881. £1500 Thanking the Austrian Emperor, Franz Joseph, for his letter informing her of the marriage, Victoria continues, “In offering to Your Imperial Majesty my cordial Congratulations on this auspicious event, I avail myself with great pleasure of the opportunity which it affords me to express to Your Imperial Majesty my best wishes for the uninterrupted happiness of the Illustrious newly- married pair. . .” A letter which unwittingly seems to touch a moment when the optimism of the Victorian age was to dissolve in the disasters of the early twentieth century. Far from happy, the marriage proved a disaster. Rudolph’s mother, the beautiful Empress Elizabeth found the bride clumsy and unattractive. By the time their only child Elizabeth was born, the young couple were already estranged. Catastrophe stalked the family. Rudolph indulged in excessive drinking, drugs and mistresses, the last of whom was to be Marie Vetsera with whom he died at Mayerling in 1889. Whether the deaths were suicide or politically motivated murder remains a matter of debate. Nine years later, Rudolph’s mother was to be assassinated by an anarchist in Geneva. Rudolph’s death meant that the position of heir to the throne eventually passed to his cousin Franz Ferdinand, who was himself assassinated at Sarajevo in 1914. Stephanie herself remarried some years after Rudolph’s death, and lived until 1945. Tears at the folds have been repaired under our direction. 21. EDWARD VII (1841-1910). King of Great Britain and Ireland. Letter Signed (“Arthur Edward P”) as Prince of Wales, to A[lexander] C[ampbell] Mackenzie, requesting his services for the Royal College of Music’s Annual Examination for 1887. 2½ pages 4to, Royal College of Music, Kensington Gore, 20 December 1886. £375 “As the end of the fourth year of the Royal College of Music is approaching when several of the Scholarships expire, as President of the Council I . . . hope that you may be able to render the College the aid of your valuable services, in connection with the Annual Examination for 1887. . .” The Prince of Wales had been instrumental in the establishment of the Royal College of Music in 1882. The composer and conductor Alexander Campbell Mackenzie was also a distinguished teacher and in 1887 he was appointed principal of the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal College’s main competitor. Old tape repair to the central horizontal fold has been removed under our direction.

22. EDWARD VII (1841-1910). King of Great Britain and Ireland. Menu Signed (“ER / au revoir”) in pencil, identified on the front of the menu as being from the “Kurhaus- Restaurant / G. Zischka / Hoftraiteur S.M. des Königs von England”. The front has a stylized image of fruit and flowers, inside is a tipped in head and shoulders photograph of Edward VII in profile, with his paraph below, with a printed menu on the facing page. 4 pages, 5½ x 3½ ins, n.p. [but Marienbad], n.d. £145 Edward VII made annual visits to the fashionable spa resort of Marienbad, where he would make serious attempts to lose weight. He generally succeeded in losing several pounds, much to his delight. The present menu features such delicacies as “Truites de ruisseau frites”, “Jambon de Prague a la Gelée” and “Aubergines à l’Eduard VII”. The menu has been very slightly trimmed at the bottom and the inner pages are slightly foxed, but it is nevertheless a very attractive item.

23. EDWARD VII (1841-1910). King of Great Britain and Ireland. Letter Signed (“Edward R & I”) to the President of the Republic of Bolivia, whom he addresses as “Our Good Friend”, announcing the marriage of his niece Princess Victoria Eugenie Julia Ena, daughter of his sister Princess Beatrice and Prince Henry of Battenberg, to King Alfonso XIII of Spain. 2 pages folio on the recto and verso of one leaf, headed by the royal arms embossed in gold, the text in a neat secretarial hand. Countersigned by the Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey. Buckingham Palace, 15 June 1906. £575 The marriage, which was not univerally popular in England beause of the requirement of the Princess to convert to Roman Catholicism, took place in Madrid on 30 May 1906. Though originally a union of affection, it did not bring happiness to either of the couple. It began inauspiciously when an anarchist threw a bomb at the royal carriage as it was returning from the ceremony. Alfonso and ‘Ena’, as she was known in the family, went into exile in 1931 when a Republic was declared and never lived in Spain again. Alfonso was flagrantly unfaithful from the beginning of the marriage, and the couple soon separated in exile. Ena lived out her life in England and , surviving until 1969. She is the grandmother of the present King of Spain, Juan Carlos. An unusual document in clear condition. Original filing holes at the left edge of the recto (and therefore at the right of the verso) not touching the text, and the edge a little crinkled. Red Bolivian stamp at the top right of the first page, acknowledging that the letter was received on 21 September.

“COMFORTABLE SEATS FOR THE CORONATION” 24. EDWARD VIII (1894-1972). King of Great Britain and Ireland 1936; later Duke of Windsor. Autograph Letter Signed (“Edward”) at the age of seventeen as Prince of Wales, to a Mr. Cookson, asking for information about the “Declaration of London” and referring to the Coronation of his parents King George V and Queen Mary, which had taken place a weeek earlier, on 22 June. 2½ pages 8vo, Buckingham Palace, 28 June 1911. £425 Will you be so very kind as to write a short note on the “Declaration of London” for me? It started just at a very busy time, & both Mr. Hansell [Edward’s tutor] and I have failed to get the “hang of it.” . . . I hope both you & Mrs. Cookson got comfortable seats for the Coronation in the household stand. The whole ceremony went off very well. We were indeed lucky with the weather.” The Declaration of London was an international code of maritime law, first proposed in 1909. Dealing with important issues such as blockade, contraband and prizes, it never officially came into effect. It was debated in Parliament shortly after the Coronation, which explains Edward’s interest.

“THESE 5 YEARS OF CRUEL WAR” 25. ALEXANDRA (1844-1925). Queen Consort of Edward VII. Autograph Letter Signed (“Alexandra”), as Queen Mother, to Mrs. [Charlotte] Sclater, Honorary Secretary of Queen Alexandra’s Field Force Fund which sent gifts to the troops on all fronts, about the winding up of the Fund at the end of the First World War. 4 pages 8vo with the original autograph envelope, written on black-edged paper with Queen Alexandra’s embossed monogram of silver entwined A’s beneath a crown at the top left, Marlborough House, 20 March 1919. £325 Queen Alexandra’s fund, which sent parcels of ‘comforts’ to the troops such as board games, cigarettes, books and handkerchiefs, was opened in October 1914, with the public invited to contribute. Charlotte Sclater, who had organised a similar fund during the Boer War, was the very efficient Honorary Secretary. Her work was honoured when in 1917 she was appointed one of the first Commanders of the newly established Order of the British Empire. “As the time of closing and winding up of our Field Force Fund is now approaching – I cannot refrain from expressing my most deep felt appreciation and thanks to all the members for their wonderful and splendid work during these 5 years of cruel War – Indeed all our brave Soldiers and Sailors, can never be grateful enough to its hard working members for all the splendid benefits they have received, at their hands – And now, dear Mrs Sclater may I express to you personally my full admiration for all the truly wonderful energy devotion and power of administration you have displayed during these long and critical years.” Slight splitting at the edges of the centre horizontal folds had been repaired under our direction. Together with a contemporary postcard photograph of ‘Alexandra, the Queen Mother’, an elegant oval head and shoulders image. 26. GEORGE VI (1895-1952), King of Great Britain and Ireland; and his consort Queen ELIZABETH (1900-2002). Fine pair of photographs of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, signed by each on the beige mount beneath the image “George R.I. 1937” and “Elizabeth R 1937”. By Dorothy Wilding, with her imprint at the foot of each image and her attractive label, with her address, 22 Old Bond Street, on the verso of each portrait. Though these photographs are obviously a pair, with sequential numbers on the labels, the King’s portrait is c. 11 x 8½ ins, while the Queen’s is c. 11½ x 9½ ins. With the mounts, the king’s portrait measures in all c. 12½ x 9¼ ins, and the Queen’s c. 13¼ x 10½ ins. £950 Outstanding head and shoulder portraits. The King is in military dress with decorations, and the Queen wears a formal embroidered gown, a tiara, and six rows of large pearls. Dorothy Wilding (1893-1976) was the first woman to be appointed as an offical royal photographer. She was known for posing her sitters in high key lighting against a light background. Her archive is in the National Portrait Gallery, which holds a print of this image of the King, as well as a portrait of the Queen evidently taken at the same sitting, but with her head turned slightly to the right. According to the Gallery, the sitting took place in 1937, the year these portraits were signed and the year of the Coronation. 27. GEORGE VI (1895-1952). King of Great Britain and Ireland; and his consort Queen ELIZABETH (1900-2002). Their 1939 Christmas card signed by both (“George R.I. 1939” and “Elizabeth R”), a folded cream card with the crowned cipher “GRE” embossed in gold on the front. Inside is a loose folded sheet, with on the left a printed greetings message and on the right a laid down sepia photograph of the Royal couple with the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret in a Buckingham Palace interior. The King and Queen have signed on the pale cream border beneath the photograph, below the tiny pencilled signature of the photographer Marcus Adams. Together with the original envelope addressed by the King to The Rev. F.J. Stone, M.V.O, Virginia Water Cottage, Windsor Great Park. The King has initialled the envelope “GRI” at the lower left. £1100 A very pleasing image by a noted photographer. The National Portrait Gallery holds forty-one Royal photographs by Adams, including a larger version of this one. The Queen has linked arms with the King, and holds the hand of Princess Margaret, while the King has an arm round Princess Elizabeth’s waist. The Princesses, aged thirteen and nine in 1939, wear identical dresses and shoes. This portrait of the includes their pet corgi Dookie, who was lured into the composition with a biscuit. This photograph, issued at the beginning of the war, still radiates a sense of security and graciousness; the King and Queen’s next Christmas card, for 1940, was to be very different, showing them standing in the rubble of the damaged wing of Buckingham Palace, which had been hit by a German bomb. See front cover illustration.

28. GEORGE VI (1895-1952). King of Great Britain and Ireland. Typed Document Signed (“George R.I.”), to the Governor of Wormwood Scrubs Prison, pardoning and remitting the remainder of the twelve months prison sentence passed at Leicester on Harry James Gordon Croxtall who had been “convicted of an offence against the National Service Act. 1941”, and ordering his immediate release. 1 page folio with blue paper seal, signed at the head by the King and countersigned by the Home Secretary Herbert Morrison. St. James’s, 4 April 1942. £245 Croxtall had evidently refused the ‘call-up’, a serious offence in wartime. His release was ordered because “of some circumstances humbly represented unto Us.” The circumstances are not stated; the prisoner may have been released on health or compassionate grounds, or because of acceptance of his status as a conscientious objector. In good condition; slightly dusty at edges of lower and right margins. 29. ABERDEEN, George Gordon, Earl of (1784-1860). Prime Minister 1852-55. Autograph Letter Signed (“Aberdeen”) as Foreign Secretary in Sir Robert Peel’s Tory government, to the young W.E. Gladstone, then Vice- President of the Board of Trade. 1 page 12mo, Argyll House, 6 November 1842. £85 “I hope you will come to the Foreign Office tomorrow at twelve oclock, as Peel wishes to have an opportunity of talking over the subject of the Spanish Treaty.” In 1842 Gladstone, then a high Tory, was only a junior minister without a seat in the cabinet; Peel however thought so highly of him that he often consulted him on matters of great importance. Lord Aberdeen, a capable Foreign Scretary, later proved an ineffectual Prime Minister of a coalition government. A little frayed along the left-hand edge.

30. BARRAS, Paul, Vicomte (1755-1824). French Revolutionary Leader. Autograph Note Signed (“Barras”) as the leader of the Directoire government, on a Letter Signed (“Lanchere fils”) complaining about his treatment at the hands of the authorities whilst supplying horses for the army. 3 pages folio in French, n.p., 18 floreal an 7 [7 May 1799]. £395 The lengthy document vividly outlines the problems faced by suppliers at a moment when France faced the Austrian threat and still existed in a state of some chaos. Lanchere explains that he had supplied horses to the artillery on the understanding that they would be fed by the government. Once the agreement had been ratified, he proceeded to buy horses and their necessary equipment, incurring debts of over two million. Two months later, the Minister insisted that Lanchere should also look after feed for the horses. Although Lanchere protested, the alternative was that the government would withdraw the contract, leaving him bankrupt, and he agreed. The upshot of the whole affair appears to be one of utter mismanagement on the part of the authorities, leaving Lanchere in a state of limbo and the horses, no longer under his immediate control, badly cared for. Barras, in his bold and sweeping hand, has written at the left margin “Returned to the minister of finance to be promptly examined. . .” “MY HAPPY ARRIVAL IN SWEDEN” 31. BERNADOTTE, Jean Baptiste Jules (1763-1844). French Marshal; later King of Sweden. Autograph Letter Signed (“Charles Jean”) to La Princesse Pauline [Pauline B o n a p a r t e ] , informing her of the warm reception he has had in Sweden, and assuring her of his gratitude towards the Emperor. 1¾ pages 4to in French, with integral blank leaf, Stockholm, 11 November 1810. £1750 Trans: “The goodness which your Imperial Highness has always shown me in all things leads me to hope that she will learn with interest of my happy arrival in Sweden. I was greeted by the King and the Royal family of his house in the most affectionate manner, and the Nation has given me most touching signs of its love and devotion. I owe this glory to the particular case which the Emperor has deigned to allow for me, and so my happiness will be complete if someday I can give him notable marks of my profound and absolute gratitude. I hope that your health maintains itself; it will never be as good as I would wish it to be. . .” In the spring of 1810, the Crown Prince of Sweden died suddenly, leaving an ageing monarch and no possible successor. In a bizarre twist, the Swedish Morner took it upon himself to offer the succession to the Gascon, Bernadotte, whose only known contact with Swedes prior to this had been with prisoners taken during the conflict the previous year, which had proved disastrous for Sweden. Bernadotte’s primary qualification for the post appears to have been his abilities as a military commander, something which Morner astutely saw as invaluable in these times of conflict throughout Europe. Although the offer initially caused a scandal, Bernadotte received a warm welcome upon his arrival in Sweden, where he was officially adopted by King Charles XIII under the name Karl Johan. Sweden’s Royal House to this day remains the House of Bernadotte. Bernadotte served his adopted country well, and in 1813, despite his assurances to Pauline, he entered into an alliance with Britain and Prussia against Napoleon. A tear at the bottom left of the letter has been professionally repaired under our direction.

32. BERNHARDT, Sarah (1844-1923). French Actress. Autograph Letter Signed (“Sarah Bernhardt”) to “Monsieur le President”, explaining that she is unable to attend a hearing at the Police Court as she is rehearsing every day and performing every evening. 3 pages 4to in French on her monogrammed writing paper, with the motto “Quand meme”, n.p. [but Paris], n.d. [but 1903]. £225 A letter written late in the Divine Sarah’s illustrious career. Her reference to performances of Sardou’s La Sorcière would indicate that the letter was written in 1903. Fifteen years earlier, she had scored one of her greatest successes in another Sardou play, La Tosca. Trans: “Having been convoked by Monsieur Lacote to attend the hearing at the Police Court on the seventh inst., I must beg the Court to excuse me if I cannot comply with this summons. I do not wish to ask to what end nor by what right Monsieur Lacote, who has . . . slandered and insulted me, names me in a business in which I am the plaintiff. But I hope it would suffice for the Court to do me no wrong and to hold no grudge against me for my absence, knowing that performing every evening in La Sorcière and rehearsing every day from noon to six o’clock the new play which is to open shortly; I could not, without exceeding my reserves of stamina, attend the Police Court. I am counting on your kind courtesy, Monsieur le President, and send you, together with my excuses, the assurance of all my gratitude.” Victorien Sardou’s play La Sorcière was set during the Inquisition in the 16th century. The central pages of the letter have some slight offsetting from the envelope [no longer present] which had once evidently been placed inside the letter, but it is otherwise in very good condition. 33. BERTHIER, Louis Alexandre, Prince of Wagram and Neuchatel (1753-1815). French Marshal. Letter Signed (“Ml Berthier”) to the Inspector in Chief of Revenues for the Grande Armée, informing him which servicemen will or will not be eligible for bonuses paid at the end of the Austerlitz campaign. 1 page folio in French, Munich, 14 March 1806. £525 Trans: “. . . regarding the payments of campaign bonuses. 1. All officers who rejoined the army since the 1st of January, that is to say after the ratification of the peace treaty, should not receive any bonuses for the campaign; this decision is based on the fact that an officer only has a right to his appointment and his campaign bonus from the time he joins his corps, he only acquires his equipment after he has joined . . . 2. All the officers who were promoted in the army after the Battle of Austerlitz equally have no right to the campaign bonus, nor to the supplement, because they were aware of the preliminaries to the peace, and will certainly not have incurred any costs to increase their equipment for the campaign.” The bonuses in question were evidently paid to help defer the costs of the various items officers would have had to purchase before rejoining their regiments. The Treaty of Pressburg, signed at the end of 1805 after the French victory at Austerlitz, marked the zenith of the French Empire. Very slightly frayed at the top, and a little browned at the edges, but otherwise in sound condition.

34. BISHOP, Isabella Lucy Bird (1831-1904). Traveller and Writer. Autograph Correspondence Card Signed (“I L Bishop”) to Mrs. Barbour in Tatenhall, Cheshire, 1 page oblong 8vo with address and postal markings on the verso, 5 Howard Square, Eastbourne, 26 December 1893. £135 Thanking her for “the photograph of my father’s church” [Isabella’s father Edward Bird had been a vicar] and explaining “I am within ten days of sailing for Korea, and instead of sending Xmas cards am just writing to let my friends know of this great move and to ask them for their good wishes . . .” The adventurous Isabella, who had suffered from poor health, and especially migraine and a bad back, in her youth, discovered that only constant travel to far-flung places could alleviate her condition. To modern minds, this indicates a psychological basis for her ill-health. Her books include The Hawaiian Archpelago (1875), Unbeaten Tracks in Japan (1880), and Korea and her Neighbours (1898). According to her doctor husband John Bishop, she had the appetite of a tiger and the digestion of an ostrich. In 1892 she was elected the first woman Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. 35. BONAPARTE, Pauline, Princess Borghese (1780-1825). Sister of Napoleon. Letter Signed (“Pauline Psse Borghese”) to Monsieur Vanontelli, expressing confusion at some accounts she has received and asking him to look into the possibility of purchasing the Villa Montalto, where she can be quiet. 2 pages 4to in French with integral blank leaf, Frascati, 23 July 1816. £625 Trans: “. . . I always rely on your care. The Baron will give you a large parcel, which I have just received, I know nothing of this account . . . I thought I owed them nothing. When you return, you will bring back everything which I am sending you herewith, with your remarks. I am also sending you the bill for the jewels, the valuation was done at Livorno, I don’t understand it at all; please let me have a note of the difference between this and that done in Rome. All these accounts which I cannot make out – . . . I am very tired, since coming here I am less well than I was at Rome, the noise is such that I realize it is essential for me to have a villa, where I can rest. See if the Villa Montalto might be for sale, when you can. I feel that there is too much noise here, I fear I will never get used to it, because of the dreadful nights I have. Draw up a brief resume of everything, for it seems that there are some matters which are contradictory . . .” A year after her brother’s defeat at Waterloo, Pauline obtained a legal separation from her husband, Camillo Borghese, on favourable terms. Renowned for her extravagance, she was nevertheless generous to those close to her, especially her beloved brother Napoleon. Pauline was equally noted as a perpetual invalid, forever complaining of ill-health, which never prevented her from attending balls or taking lovers. Her apartments at the Villa Borghese were admired by all who saw them, and she delighted in receiving visitors from all countries, including, by now, England, though with a preference for Whig politicians and peers A wormhole affects two words of the letter, which is otherwise in very good condition. 36. BOOTH, Edwin (1833-1893). American Actor; elder brother of John Wilkes Booth. Autograph Letter Signed (“Edwin Booth”) to a Mr. Goodale, 2 pages 8vo on separate leaves with a brief postscript on the verso of the first page, Southboro’, Massachusetts, 24 August 1888. £125 “Constant moving from place to place, in a ‘grip-sack’, has caused me to neglect your note – recd some weeks ago. The very day it reached me I met a nephew of the author of the ‘Actor’, whose name was Vail – I forget his first name. He was rather eccentric, I fancy. (I met him but once – some years ago) for when I referred to his book he seemed annoyed and abruptly changed the subject and left me . . . I am with Barrett for a few days – he also sends his kind regards.” According to an unsigned pencil note beneath the postscript, evidently by the recipient, “This letter refers to a little volume in my collection of books entitled “The Actor” being practically an anonymous sketch of Junius Brutus Booth, father of Edwin.” Edwin Booth, regarded as the greatest American actor of the 19th century, particularly in Shakespearean roles, came from a theatrical family. He left the stage for a time because of the infamy associated with the Booth name after the assassination of Lincoln by his brother, but his popularity soon enabled him to resume his successful career. The Barrett mentioned in the letter is evidently the actor Lawrence Barrett, a friend and fellow actor; on tour, he and Booth would alternate the parts of Othello and Iago. Browned at the right edge of the first page, with one or two rust marks and a small split in the centre horizontal fold. Perfectly legible, with a strong signature.

37. BRUCH, Max (1838-1920). German Composer. Autograph Letter Signed (“Max Bruch”) to a Ms. Phipps, 2 pages 8vo in German with integral blank leaf, 18 Crompton Avenue, , 24 January 1881. £425 Trans: “I find that I am unable to accept your invitation for Monday, the 31st of this month. I am always occupied on Mondays, for that is the day devoted to the Philharmonic Chorus. I would be freer another day of the week during February. My wife and I would be pleased to dine with you.” In 1880 Bruch succeeded Sir Julius Benedict as conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic Society. He stayed in England until 1883, when he returned to Germany to take charge of the Breslau Orchestverein. He remains best known for his Violin Concerto in G minor, recently voted by the British public as the most popular single work in the classical repertoire. “OUR SHAMEFUL FLIGHT FROM TOULON” 38. BURKE, Edmund (1729-1797). Statesman, Writer and Political Theorist. Autograph Letter Signed (“Edm Burke”) to “My dear Sir [William Windham, MP for Norwich], discussing the fall of Toulon, “not only a calamitous, but . . . a most disgraceful affair”, and putting forth his views as to the mistakes made by the British. 2¼ pages 4to, n.p., n.y. [docketed 8 January 1794]. £3200 The three-month long siege of Toulon ended on 18 December 1793 with a capitulation of the British-backed Royalist rebels to the republican army. The republican victory was largely thanks to the brilliant tactics of a young artillery captain, Napoleon Buonaparte. For the British it was a humiliation, for the royalists a disaster. “Taking it for granted that Business of importance called you to Norfolk & has kept you there I did not choose to heap in upon your Business . . . if I had done so, I could perhaps have done little myself, & perhaps you could not have done much more to prevent the disasters which are likely to fall upon Europe. Toulon is not only a calamitous, but in my Mind a most disgraceful affair. We really stand in need of men of Capacity for Matters of the least difficulty. The whole stock of abilities in Europe perhaps is not equalto the demand; but we had resolved not to profit of what there was. I have a strong opinion that Frenchmen are best for French affairs. I have an opinion too, which I dont know whether I can make equally evident, it is, that the Emigrants have better parts than the people among whom they have taken refuge. This I know would be reputed Heresy, Blasphemy, Madness ... But I am almost convinced that such is the fact & that we have suffered all that we have suffered in these two campains [sic], by repelling them, & refusing to consult, & as much as possible in any way to use them, in their own affairs. To this I attribute amongst other causes, but to this principally our shameful flight from Toulon. . . I really wish you here before the Birthday [the Queen’s official birthday on 18 January] . . . I am not very sanguine about the effect of anything – but it is not our Hopes, but our duty, that is to call forth our Exertion . . . I do not believe the Christian army yet done up. But we do not make a movement towards them – we expect them to do everything for us – & then we will condescend to take the command of them & make them act under us & for our purposes.” Writing at the time of the siege, in his Remarks On the Policy of the Allies with Regard to France. Begun in October 1793, Burke remarks that “If we wish to make an impression on the minds of any persons in France . . . it is impossible that they should not be more easily led . . . [than] by those who speak their language, are acquainted with their manners, who are conversant with their usages and habits of thinking . . . than with a body congregated from all tongues and tribes.” Burke’s correspondent, William Windham, had been a supporter of the Revolution, and was an eye-witness to its beginnings in 1789. He travelled to France again in 1791, and his opinion soon moved closer to Burke’s. By the time of this letter he was one of the strongest advocates of military intervention in France to be found in Parliament. In the summer of 1794 he was offered the cabinet post of Secretary at War, giving his support to the cause of an emigre army. This letter has been published in The Correspondence of Edmund Burke, vol. 7. 39. CANNING, George (1770-1827). Prime Minister 1827, and former resident of 50 Berkeley Square. Letter Signed (“George Canning”) as Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, his first government post, to Sir William Hamilton, the British Envoy at Naples, saying he is sending him “by Lord Grenville’s direction [Lord Grenville was the Foreign Secretary] a Copy [not present] of the Declaration which his Majesty [George III] has been pleased to order to be published respecting the abrupt termination of the Negociation at Lille.” 1 page folio with integral blank leaf, Downing Street, 28 October 1797. £525 In a little remembered episode in the long war with Revolutionary and then Napoleonic France, a British delegation led by Lord Malmsbury met representatives of the led by Hughes Maret, Duc de Bassano to attempt to negotiate a peace treaty. The negotiations took place at Lille from July to October 1797. The main reason for their failure was the British refusal to grant France territorial concessions, including the transfer of the Channel Islands. Sir William Hamilton had been the British Envoy at Naples since 1764; in 1791 he married the beautiful Emma Hart, who was to become the mistress of Lord Nelson. Together with two portrait engravings of Canning.

40. CHESTERFIELD, Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of (1694- 1773). Letter-Writer, Wit, and Politician. Autograph Letter Signed (“Your sure and decayed friend Chesterfield”) to Mr. Fisher, 1 page 4to with integral autograph free frank address leaf signed (“To Mr. Fisher at his House in Derby, Free Chesterfield”). London, 5 September 1771. £850 A late letter, evidently to a senior member of his household, givinga neighbour leave to fish in his stream, and ordering barrels of beer. After a successful period as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and a less successful one as Secretary of State for the Northern [i.e. Foreign] Department, Chesterfield retired into private life in 1748, largely because of hispoor health. In fact he had twenty-five years of life left, which he was able to fill productively. He was inclined to exaggerate his ailments, but by 1771 he was indeed rather weak, and died eighteen months after the date of this letter. Polite to the end, his last words were a request to give a visitor to his sickbed a chair. “Sr Harry Harper has applied to me for leave to Fish in a Stream that rises from Breltby [?] through his Park, to which I have no objection therefore pray give orders accordingly. I take it for granted that he will not suffer any of his servants to abuse that permission. Pray order me this season one Barrel of Ale the same as the last, and two Barrels of small beer, one of them the same as the last, and the other of them not so strong as the last, but the same as what I had two years ago and let the barrels be marked accordingly, with an S for stronger, and a W for weaker. I break now very fast, but am your sure and decayed friend Chesterfield.” Slight splitting along centre horizontal folds has been repaired under our direction.

41. CHRISTIAN VII (1749-1808). King of Denmark and . Letter Signed (“Christian R”) to an unnamed fellow monarch, whom he addresses as “Illustrious sovereign, friend and dear cousin”, announcing his marriage to Caroline Matilda, Princess of Great Britain. 2 pages 4to in German with paper seal, the text in a neat calligraphic hand, Copenhagen, 10 November 1766. £675 The proxy marriage between the fifteen year old Caroline Matilda, sister of George III, and the seventeen year old Christian VII took place at St. James’s on 1 October 1766; the marriage ceremony itself took place in Copenhagen on 8 November. The marriage was a tragic disaster even by the standards of arranged Royal marriages; Christian, mentally unstable and already debauched, soon made it clear that he did not want ‘to be troubled’ with Caroline Matilda, as it was ‘unfashionable to love one’s wife.’ She bore a son in 1768, but by the end of 1769 she had begun her liaison with the court physician Johann Friedrich Struensee, who through her influence, became the most important minister in the kingdom. He introduced important reforms, including freedom of the press and reduction in peasant labour service, but conservative elements staged what was in effect a coup in January 1792 and Struensee was arrested and barbarically executed. Caroline Matilda was detained at Kronborg, but George III used his influence on her behalf and she was allowed to go into exile at Celle in Hanover. She was parted from her two young children; her daughter, Louisa, was probably Struensee’s. There she died three years later, aged only twenty-four, possibly of scarlet fever, but poison was suspected. Trans: “. . . Since we have entered a Royal Union of marriage with the serene highness, Madam Carolyn Mathilda, Princess of Great Britain, France and Ireland and have anchored this in London on the first of October by means of a clerical confirmation by procurement [i.e. a proxy wedding at which the King was not present], ratified this on the eighth of this month at our Royal Residence of Christiansburg, so we take herewith the liberty to inform you my dear friend and cousin and we feel assured of your participation in this occurrence . . .” “N0-ONE CAN FORESE THE DURATION OF THIS WAR” 42. CHURCHILL, Sir (1874-1965). Statesman. Letter Subscribed and Signed (“Yours v[er]y sincerely Winston S. Churchill”), as First Lord of the Admiralty two months after the outbreak of the First World War, to “My dear Hedworth” [Admiral Sir Hedworth Meux, Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth], asking him not to resign his position. 1½ pages 8vo with integral blank leaf, Admiralty, Whitehall, 3 November 1914. £2950

“I hope you will not consider yr tenure of the Portsmouth Command terminated by yr promotion to Admiral of the Fleet in the Spring. No-one can foresee the duration of this war, but it will be greatly in the public interest if you continue to be responsible for Portsmouth after you have hoisted your Union Flag, until some much more favourable opportunity offers for releasing you than is at present in sight.” Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty from October 1911 until May 1915, when he lost his position in the wake of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign. Deeply upset by being given the more junior post of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, he resigned from the coalition government and served on the western front as Colonel of the 6th Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers. The loss of the Admiralty was the greatest setback of Churchill’s career, and he was so upset that for a time Clementine feared that he would die of grief. Sir Hedworth Meux, born Lambton, (1856-1929), became famous during the Boer War for having led the Naval Brigade to the relief of Ladysmith. Shortly afterwards he met Valerie Lady Meux, a wealthy widow with a colourful past, to thank her for her generous contribution to the war effort. She was so impressed by him that she made him the heir to her substantial fortune, the only condition being that he changed his surname to Meux. As Commander- in-Chief, Portsmouth, Meux’s main responsibility was defending the lines of communication with the BEF in France. He stayed in the Navy until 1916, when he became the Conservative M.P. for Portsmouth. 43. CHURCHILL, Sir Winston (1874-1965). Statesman. Typed Letter Signed (“Winston S. Churchill”) to the Mayor of Colchester, 1 page 4to, 28 Hyde Park Gate, 30 June 1951. £995 A letter written four months before Churchill became Prime Minister for the second time on the defeat of Attlee’s Labour government. He declines an invitation to the annual Colchester Oyster Feast, held every October to celebrate the famous oyster fisheries at the mouth of the Colne. In this year, 1951, the planned date of the Feast, 25 October, clashed with the General Election, and so the Feast was postponed until 9 November. “Thank you for your letter of June 18 and invitation to the Oyster Feast at Colchester next October. I fear that I am still unable to fix a date to come to Colchester, as my Parliamentary and other commitments are extremely pressing now. . . Nevertheless I still hope for an opportunity to occur when I may come to receive the Honorary Freedom of your Borough.” Three filing holes at the left blank margin of the page, far from the text.

44. COCKERELL, Sir Sydney (1867-1962). Collector; Curator of the . Autograph Letter Signed (“Sydney C. Cockerell”) to “Dear Mr. Norman” sending him some autographs of William Morris as well as a “printed form of the same lecture, with WM’s corrections.” 2 pages 8vo with integral blank leaf, Richmond, 11 November 1900. £150 As a young man, Sydney Cockerell had been offered the post of secretary to the Kelmscott Press and became William Morris’ own private secretary until the latter’s death in 1896. He was eventually appointed his literary executor. It would appear that he had been invited by Mr. Norman to celebrate Morris’ life, and he writes here, in his neat and very beautiful hand, to thank him. “I am sending you a lecture by Morris [not present] . . . together with the first printed form of the same lecture, with WM’s corrections. An addition towards the end is so characteristic that I think you would rather have this sentence in his handwriting than some scrap of a letter containing nothing in particular. I have enclosed two old cheques for the sake of the signatures. Let me thank you again for bringing us together last Thursday . . . It is interesting to consider what varieties of upbringing and of habits of thought were represented in that little gathering and what a bond of union we have in our love & veneration of the good and great man whose health you invited us to drink.” There is a slight stain at the top of the letter, perhaps from a mug or glass, not affecting the text. “I WISH WE COULD PROVOKE BONAPARTE” 45. COLLINGWOOD, , Lord (1748-1810). Admiral; Nelson’s second-in-command at Trafalgar. Autograph Letter Signed (“Collingwood”) to “My dear Sir” [identified within the text as Mr. Reay], complaining that he has not received letters which he knows have been sent to him, and continuing that “I wish we could provoke Bonaparte to hoist his flag. . .” 3 pages 4to, Queen, 4 April 1806. £1400 “ . . . For the subject of your letter Mr. Richard, I know him very well – his father was mate of my watch when I was Lieutenant more than 30 years since . . . when his father died, I understood the family was not very well provided for and proposed to keep this youngster with me, and take care of him – but his friends provided otherwise for him . . . My wife tells me that several letters have been written to me from my friends and townsmen of Newcastle, of congratulation to me – from the Mayor – from Sr. Mathew Ridley & the Trinity house, and I am quite provoked that not one of them has come to me – they will naturally expect my thanks, and gratefull acknowledgements for so great an honour – it is the approbation & regard of my countrymen, I have looked up to all my life – but you know my dear Sir how difficult it is to answer a letter before you receive it . . Though the deed was not done by myself in person, I think you will be highly gratified at the success of Sr. John Duckworth – one of my Admirals whom I detached from hence in quest of the Enemy – I knew him an officer of skill & perseverence and he has justified my opinion fully – those frenchmen my dear Reay must be content to fight onshore – I wish we could provoke Bonaparte to hoist his flag – and try some of his Grand Manoeuvres at sea – I do not wish a happier day than to get alongside of his Majestueux – Tell my dear Admiral I congratulate him – for I know how much pleasure every one of those affairs gives to his good heart . . .” The letters of congratulations were no doubt for the honours bestowed upon him after Trafalgar, when he was promoted to Vice-Admiral of the Red and created Baron Collingwood. In spite of his hopes that he could provoke Bonaparte, after Trafalgar, Collingwood never again faced a French fleet. His efforts over the coming years would centre on diplomacy with the Ottoman Porte, stubbornly allied to France, and the protection of shipping routes in the eastern Mediterranean. Duckworth’s success to which Collingwood refers was no doubt his victory over the French in the West Indies, off the coast of Hispaniola on 6 February. This effectively ended French hopes of increasing its power in the Western Hemisphere. Duckworth was honoured with a promotion to Vice-Admiral of the White in April 1806.

46. CONGREVE, William (1670-1729). Poet. Document Signed (“Wm Congreve”), acknowledging receipt of £125 from Thomas Snow & John Paltock, “wch they rec[eive]d of Paunceford Miller ye 14 Aug last for my Use.” 4 lines written on a narrow slip of paper, apparently cut from a larger page, 14 October 1723. £1200 Congreve’s last major work, The Way of the World, had been first performed in 1700. As well as earning income from his writings, Congreve held various government posts, culminating in the lucrative position of Secretary of Jamaica, which brought him about £700 a year. The £125 of this document may well have been for part of his salary or expenses. 1723 was a significant year for Congreve personally, as in November his only child Mary was born, the offspring of his liaison with Henrietta Godolphin, Duchess of Marlborough. On the verso there is a clear ‘Bishop Mark’ – 14 Oc[tober] – presumably indicating that the receipt was part of a letter from Snow & Paltock. Bishop Marks were the first postmarks, introduced by the Postmaster General Henry Bishop in 1661. The mark showed only the day and month of posting, and its purpose was to ensure that the letter carriers did not delay the mail. Traces of mounting on verso. Autograph material of Congreve in any form is very rare. 47. D’ORSAY, Alfred, Count (1801-1852). Artist and Dandy. Autograph Letter Signed (A d’Orsay”) to an unnamed correspondent, probably an art publisher, 1 page 8vo on gilt-edged paper with integral blank leaf, Gore House [Kensington], 30 August 1848. £395 “I think that you will find that I have much improved the likeness. Lady Blessington and the Misses Power [evidently relatives of Lady Blessington, whose maiden name was Power] are of this opinion – I hope that you will let me have a few copies of it, when printed. Lord Chesterfield gave me an engraving from Mr. Clive’s picture which I find admirable.” Count d’Orsay, the son of one of Napoleon’s generals, made his home in England in the early 1820’s. Very good-looking and an artist of minor but genuine talent, he was a friend of Dickens, Disraeli, Thackeray, and the the exiled Louis Napoleon. His ménage a trois with the beautiful Margaret, Lady Blessington and her husband gave rise to great scandal, a scandal only intensified by his unconsummated marriage to Margaret’s stepdaughter Harriet. In 1849, a year after the date of this letter, his extravagance and debts forced him to flee to France. His friend Disraeli based the character of Count Alcibiades de Mirabel in his novel Henrietta Temple on d’Orsay.

“I AM ALREADY A BELIEVER IN DESTINY” 48. DISRAELI, Benjamin (1804-1881). Statesman and Novelist. Autograph Letter Signed (“B Disraeli”) to “Dear Mrs. Bulwer”, also named at the end of the letter as “Mrs Lytton Bulwer” [evidently Elizabeth Lytton Bulwer, later Bulwer Lytton, mother of Disraeli’s friend the the novelist Edward Bulwer Lytton] assuring her of his continued regard and continuing that “it was odd that my electioneering struggles should terminate in being MP for Maidstone”. 8 pages 8vo, Bradenham, High Wycombe, n.d. [1837]. £1100 A long and revealing early letter, written from his parents’ home at Bradenham. After several unsuccessful attempts at gaining a seat as a radical, in 1837 Disraeli had been elected as Tory M.P. for Maidstone. It was a two member constituency, and his fellow Tory M.P. was the wealthy Wyndham Lewis. Lewis died suddenly in March 1838, and the next year Disraeli married his widow, the impulsive Mary Anne. In this letter Disraeli is most probably referring to this couple when he writes of “the Wyndhams.” “. . . I assure you it required not the sight of your handwriting to remind me of your existence. I have never forgotten the agreeable hours I have spent under your roof, or the many kindnesses I have received from you. I hope we may yet & quickly meet again. It was odd that my electioneering struggles sho[ul]d terminate in being M.P. for Maidstone. As I am already a believer in destiny, it required not this strange occurrence, & doubly strange from the manner in which it took place, to confirm me in my oriental-creed. The Wyndhams have paid us a visit here within these few days, of which the only fault was, that it was too short. I hope you have not forgotten that you are not a stranger to any beneath this roof. It affords me sincere gratification, that my family have had an opportunity of making your charming acquaintance . . . But we are the children of the Gods & are never more the slaves of circumstances than when we deem ourselves their masters. What may next happen in the dazzling farce of life, the Fates only know. Perhaps in the rapid & unexpected change of the scene, it may allow me to express to Mrs. Lytton Bulwer how very sincerely & heartily I am her obliged servant & sincere friend B Disraeli”

“IF YOUR LITTLE GIRL . . .” 49. DODGSON, Charles Lutwidge (1832-1898). The writer ‘Lewis Carroll’. Autograph Letter Signed (“C.L. Dodgson”) to Mrs. Baly, the mother of his child friend Gladys, 1 page oblong 8vo with Mrs. Baly’s name written on the verso, “Upstairs” [Eastbourne], Monday, n.d. [but we know from Dodgson’s diary that the letter was written on 5 October 1891]. £1400 A delightful invitation. “If your little girl would like to pay a visit to my little girl, we should be very glad to see her & I daresay could find something to show her – Any time after 11:20 would be convenient.” During his annual summer holidays at Eastbourne in the 1880’s and 1890’s Dodgson often had child friends staying with him singly. As he wrote in 1892 to his friend Louisa MacDonald, wife of the writer George MacDonald: “In my old age I have begun to set ‘Mrs. Grundy’ entirely at defiance, and to have girl-friends to brighten, one at a time, my lonely life by the sea: of all ages from 10 to 24. Friends ask, in astonishment, ‘did you ever hear of any other elderly clergyman having young lady-guests in this way?’ and I am obliged to confess that I never did : but I don’t really see why they shouldn’t.” It would have been perfectly natural for him to ask the child- friend in the lodgings below his to visit the friend staying with him. In this case the friend he had asked to stay at his summer lodgings at 7 Lushington Road, Eastbourne, was the 17 year old actress Isa Bowman. The letter, originally folded into a small triangle, was evidently delivered by hand to the floor below. Together with some Baly family photographs and a photograph of the announcement in the Times of Gladys Baly’s mariage to Edward Hayes on 7 May 1913.

50. DREYFUS, Alfred (1859-1935), French Army Officer; the central figure in the ‘Dreyfus Affair’. Autograph Letter Signed (“A Dreyfus”) to “Chere Madame et amie” [most probably the widow of Emile Zola], discussing “la cérémonie du Panthéon” [the reburial of Zola in the Pantheon, the most honoured resting-place in France]. Half page 8vo in French with integral blank leaf, 101 Boulevard Malesherbes, Tuesday, n.d. [1908]. £1600 Trans: “Today I met Madame de St. Prix (the daughter of Emile Loubet) who expressed the wish to be present at the Panthéon ceremony. Would you be kind enough to see she gets a card.” Emile Zola had died mysteriously in 1902, from asphyxiation due to a blocked chimney flue in his bedroom. It is possible that he was murdered by a right-wing nationalist, incensed by his campaign to establish the innocence of Dreyfus, wrongly convicted in 1894 of selling French military secrets to Germany. President Emile Loubet pardoned Dreyfus in 1899, and his innocence was finally fully established in 1906. Zola had originally been buried in Montparnasse cemetery, and his reburial in the Pantheon took place with great ceremony on 4 June 1908. Albertine Zola gave her agreement with deep reluctance, knowing that she herself would not be able to rest beside her husband. Dreyfus escorted Madame Zola, to whom he was greatly attached, to the ceremony. Outside the Pantheon Dreyfus was wounded in the arm, fortunately not seriously, by two shots fired in an assassination attempt by Louis Gregori, a right- wing journalist and convinced ‘anti-Dreyfusard’. Although Gregori was immediately seized and arrested, he was later acquitted by a jury at the Paris Assize Court, demonstrating that the wounds opened in French society by the Dreyfus case had not yet healed.

51. ELGAR, Edward (1857-1934). English Composer. The Apostles, An Oratorio, by Edward Elgar, Novello’s original edition of the score, 214 pages, publishers’ printed paper boards, 1903. Signed and dated on the title page “Edward Elgar / Birmingham / Oct 16. 03”. £700 A commission from the Birmingham Festival gave Elgar the opportunity to write his oratorio The Apostles, with text from the bible, a project he had been considering since the 1880’s. Written for soloists, chorus and orchestra, it was frst performed to critical acclaim on 14 October 1903. The front free endpaper, opposite the title page, has a later inscription in another hand: “Lady Stainer / Oxford / to J.F.R. Stainer / Christmas – 1908”. Presumably this is the widow of the composer Sir John Stainer, best known for his sacred cantata The Crucifixion. It is said that Sir Thomas Beecham, when asked his opinion of “Stainer’s Crucifixion”, replied that he was “all in favour” of it. A handsome volume. 52. ELIOT, George (1819-1880). Pseudonym of the novelist Marian Evans. Autograph Letter Signed (“ME Lewes”) to “Dear Mrs. Malleson” [the educational pioneer Elizabeth Malleson] thanking her for the gift of a plant. 2½ pages 8vo, The Priory, Regents Park, 26 December 1863. £1100

“The bearer of a beautiful plant to my door did not leave word from whom he had brought it, but I feel persuaded that I am not mistaken in feeling grateful to you for that sweet attention. In any case I have reason to thank you, for if I owe that plant to some one else, I owe to you many other precious things – feelings such as spring up when kind deeds are done to me. All blessings that Christmas & the new year can bring wait on you & yours!” The new year was to bring an important development in Elizabeth Malleson’s life, with the founding of the Working Women’s College in Bloomsbury. Energetic and unconventional, she proved a good friend to George Eliot. Eliot and G.H. Lewes had moved to The Priory only a month earlier, and they were soon to host regular gatherings of some of the foremost thinkers and artists of the time. There is a spindle hole at the top left of the letter, not affecting the text. 53. FORSTER, Edward Morgan (1879-1970). Novelist. Autograph Letter Signed (“E M Forster”) to “Dear Gladys” [the name “Sykes” has been added in pencil, evidently by a former owner]. 2 pages 8vo, King’s College, Cambridge, 6 August 1956. £275 “. . . I am so sorry to hear that you are obliged to take a cure at Bath, and hope it will be a cure. My own health keeps satisfactory considering my age [Forster was 77 at the time], though I have this afternoon been stung on the finger by a wasp, which makes my writing worse than usual. The nasty little creature was sitting on a tree and when I touched a twig in passing, it took action. However I am now much better. I have had some pleasant correspondence with Sir Richard Sykes. He says he would like to have (after my death) the picture of Mary Ann Sykes which you gave me. I hope by the way that you thought she reproduced well in my book about Aunt Marie.” “My book about Aunt Marie” is Marianne Thornton, Forster’s “domestic biography” of his great-aunt, published in this year, 1956. Marianne Thornton died at the age of ninety in 1897 leaving Forster enough money to attend Cambridge, travel, and pursue a literary career. The Sykes family were related to the Thorntons and therefore to Forster.

54. FOUCHE, Joseph, Duke of Otranto (1763-1820). Napoleon’s Minister of Police. Letter Signed (“Fouché”) to M. Eschasseriaux, French Minister Plenipotentiary to the court at Lucca, an irate letter regarding export duties unexpectedly imposed on a shipment of Carrara marble. 3 pages folio in French, Paris, 10 September 1809. £475 The sumptuous Empire style had an obvious need for marble, be it for statues or for building. The famous quarries at Carrara came under the jurisdiction of the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Napoleon’s sister Elisa. Elisa appears to have been an energetic and capable administrator of the territory, and maintained close and cordial relations with the Emperor. It is therefore likely that this situation was provoked by a difficult official. Trans: “. . . I have just been informed that M. Henraux . . . has encountered many problems and irritations from M. Gonolet, Director of the Elisiane Bank in Carrara, regarding the export of the marbles which this agent is buying on behalf of the French government. M. Gonolet is trying to force him to pay enormous duties . . . he had impounded eighteen blocks belonging to the Government; he even dared rub out the initial letters of the French Empire, and substitute the mark of his bank. . . I have given orders to M. Henraux to purchase . . . all the marble which it is to acquire for the Government, but this will only happen on condition 1. that the expropriation of the blocks belonging to France will be lifted without delay; 2. that the verdicts delivered against the French regarding the right to export will be regarded as void; 3. that no charges will be payable with regard to these verdicts; 4. that all the marbles . . . will not be subject to export duty; 5. finally, that the Bank will supply the marble at the same price and of the same quality as those which it has purchased heretofore from the owner of the quarries. . .” Old tape repairs have been removed under our direction.

55. FOX, Charles James (1749-1806). Politician. Autograph Letter Signed (“C.J. Fox”) to “Dear OBryen” [presumably his cousin by marriage, the actor and playwright William O’Brien], inviting him to call on him at South Street. 1 page 4to, St. Anne’s Hill, “Friday” n.d. £325 “I shall be in town in a few hours after you receive this, & shall be very glad to see you if you will call in South Street Sunday morning. The earlier you come, the more chance you will have of finding me disengaged.” He adds in a postscript “Mrs Armitstead desires to be remembered to you.” William O’Brien, a very successful actor who worked with Garrick’s company, eloped in 1764 with Lady Susanna Fox-Strangways, niece of Henry Fox and the young Charles James Fox’s first cousin. The couple, in disgrace with the bride’s family, spent some years in America before returning to Britain. Fox’s own lack of regard for convention and his affection for his cousin would no doubt have led to continued friendly relations with the couple. Fox lived with his companion Mrs. Armitstead at her house, St. Anne’s Hill, in Chertsey, where they enjoyed a contented rural life. They were married in 1795, but the marriage remained secret for seven years and scandalised the less liberal members of society when revealed. There is a slight tear at the fold, but the letter is otherwise in very good condition. 56. FRANKLIN, Sir John (1786-1847). Arctic Explorer, lost in search of the North West Passage. Autograph Letter Signed (“John Franklin”) to Mrs. Skene, advising her on the situation in Greece and the advisability of acquiring property there. 2 pages 4to with integral address leaf, 4 Clarendon Place, 4 June 1835. £875 “I am much obliged by your kind wishes and enquiries respecting Lady Franklin – who I trust is leaving Leamington with improved health. I am not certain of Mr. Bracebridges address in Town – but I think a letter will reach him if addressed before Monday next to – Wingfield Esqr. Bloomsbury Square. I wish it were in my power to give you any information respecting the purchase and occupation of Land in Greece. At the time I was stationed before the shores of that country, the whole . . . was in a very disorganized state. The King had not arrived more than a year, and there had been no edicts issued by the Regency relative to Landed Property. I had therefore no opportunity of forming any opinion respecting the advantage of purchasing Land – or whether good titles good (sic) be obtained. I sincerely trust after the King has assumed the entire Government that he will apply his best energies to allay the excitement which has caused the numerous disturbances by which Greece has been torn – which of course would give security and encouragement to the occupiers and proprietors of the Land. . .” Sir John Franklin had served as a commander off the coast of Greece during the Greek War of Independence. Greece achieved independence in 1832, with 17-year-old Otto von Wittelsbach its first king, but faced an unsettled period as an emerging nation led by a ruler who was still a minor. Charles Bracebridge, referred to in this letter, lived in Greece during the second half of the 1830s. He later published Letter on the Affairs of Greece and twenty years later achieved more lasting fame, together with his wife Selina, as a friend and assistant of Florence Nightingale in the Crimea.

57. FREDERICK II of Prussia (1712-1786). ‘Frederick the Great’. Letter Signed (“Federic”) to the King of the Two Siciles [the Bourbon Charles VII, later King of Spain as Charles III], congratulating him on the birth of a son. 1 page folio in French with integral blank leaf and the original letter cover, the text in an attractive calligraphic hand, Berlin, 8 July 1747. £1450 Trans: “It is with great pleasure that We have received the news of the happy delivery by the Queen, Your Majesty’s wife, of a Prince . . . and as We are always glad to share in all the happy events whch take place in the August House of Your Majesty, We cannot fail to congratulate You on the present increase to Your Royal Family, hoping that Divine benevolence will preseve the new Prince for the satisfaction of Your Majesty . . .” Charles VII (1716-1788), son of Philip V of Spain, seized Naples and Sicily from the Austrians in 1734. Regarding himself as an ‘enlightened despot’, he instituted some limited internal reforms. In 1759 he renounced Naples and Sicily in favour of his third son Ferdinand when he succeeded his half- brother Ferdinand VI as King of Spain. The son whose birth is the subject of this letter, Felipe, was excluded from the succession because of his weak health. Like Charles, Frederick II considered himself a proponent of enlightened despotism. A patron of the arts and a talented musician, he had invited Johann Sebastian Bach to visit him in Potsdam in May 1747, two months before the date of this letter. During his visit Bach improvised a fugue on a theme composed by Frederick, and on his return to Leipzig he developed Frederick’s theme into a more elaborate Musical Offering. He sent the composition to Frederick with a dedication, dated 7 July 1747, to “a sovereign admired in music as in all the other arts of war and peace.” The page is evenly toned, but this is an attractive letter with a fine large signature.

58. FRERE, Sir Bartle (1815-1884). Colonial Administrator. Autograph Letter Signed (“HBE Frere”) to the MP Thomas Baring [at the time under-secretary at the India Office], introducing “Mr. Robt. Knight, who is by far the ablest writer on Statistics & Political Economy in this part of India”. 4 pages 8vo on black-edged paper, Bombay, 14 April 1864. £195 “. . . He has edited the Times of India with great ability & success & I was much struck by a series of several articles on Land Tax & Prices which seemed to me (though I widely differed from some of his conclusions) so much more fully argued more able & fair than any I had read . . . He has also done much good here by preventing the spread of that race antagonism which will be one of your most serious difficulties someday. . . I venture to introduce him to you as one of the clearest thinkers & ablest writers on a very important class of Indian topics & above all well informed & careful as to the facts on which his Statistics & Pol: Economy proceeds. . .” Frere spent over thirty years in India, during the course of which he founded the modern Indian postal service. At the time of writing, he was serving as Governor of Bombay. 59. FUAD PASHA (1815-1869). Ottoman statesman. Autograph Letter Signed (“Fuad”) to “My lord” [possibly Sir Stratford Canning, British Ambassador at Constantinople], informing him of Omer Pasha’s plans. 1 page 8vo in French with integral blank leaf, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 18 August 1855. £240 In the mid-nineteenth century, Fuad Pasha was one of the leading advocates of westernization in the Ottoman empire. When Turkey found herself allied with Britain and France at the time of the Crimean War, Fuad Pasha led the Turkish troops on the Greek border. Trans: “I told Your Excellency yesterday that Omer Pacha’s departure was to be today, I saw him yesterday evening, he told me that, not having finished his preparations he would only be able to leave on Monday. Before his departure he will have the honour of seeing Your Excellency . . .” The Turkish General Omer Pasha, who together with Britain’s Lord Raglan and the French Marshal St. Arnaud led the Allies, began life as Croatian- born Michael Lattas. However, after some time in Bosnia, he converted to Islam and moved to Constantinople, where his outstanding military abilities were soon recognized.

“A CROWD OF SOME HUNDREDS CAME IN A DISORDERLY MANNER TO MY HOUSE” 60. GLADSTONE, William Ewart (1809-1898). Statesman. Autograph Letter Signed (“W E Gladstone”) as a member of the Liberal opposition to Disraeli’s Conservative government, to Signor Mateucci [the Italian interior minister], assuring his correspondent that he had not been in any real danger when his house had been attacked by a hostile crowd. 3½ pages 8vo, [73 Harley Street] London, 2 March 1878. £450 A remarkable letter demonstrating Gladstone’s bravery and determination. He had resigned the leadership of the Liberal party to Lord Hartington in 1875, but retained his seat in the Commons and greatly opposed Disraeli’s position on the war between Russia and Turkey which broke out in 1877. Russia had attacked Turkey (after much provocation) and government and public opinion was generally pro-Turkish. Gladstone’s vociferously pro- Russian stance made him unpopular, and for a time he required police protection. He here seeks to make light of the physical danger, which was real enough; he was however deeply hurt when the Duke of Cambridge, Queen Victoria’s cousin, refused to shake hands with him and he was described in public as a Russian agent. “I have to thank you cordially for the gratifying assurances contained in your letter . . . The statement to which it refers was wholly without foundation nor have my personal movements at any time been restrained or in any way affected by feeling entertained among any portion of the people. Last Sunday however a crowd of some hundreds cane in a disorderly manner to my house, & alarmed my household with cries and uproar; some windows were broken, but after a short time the police got them entirely under restraint. I cannot greatly blame these ignorant men. Their proceedings were I think due to the violent language of men in high station . . . It would be the greatest mistake to interpret a disorderly proceeding of this kind, and thus instigated, as exhibiting the sense of the nation. I have been compelled for eighteen months to pursue an active and prominent course on the Eastern Question; and at no period of a very long public life have I received such large varied and enthusiastic tokens of approval in all parts of England. This can only have been due to my having been an organ however feeble of the true sentiments of the people.” Some light foxing throughout, but perfectly clear and legible.

61. GLADSTONE, William Ewart (1809-1898). Statesman. Autograph Letter Signed (“WE Gladstone”) to the editor of the Express in Leeds, expressing his views on the value of political histories and the true motivations of the electorate. 2¼ pages 8vo, together with the front of the holograph envelope, Dollis Hill, 16 July 1887. £375 A heartfelt letter, written just one year after Gladstone had been driven out of office by his defeat on his Irish Home Rule. “I thank you for the Review; and I am of opinion that surveys of the political history of the reign are of great utility. They enable the nation to judge the professions and promises of the eminent in the light supplied by the prior conduct of those who make them. They show that nine tenths of the beneficial laws on great subjects have been carried by the Liberal party, and thus powerfully accredit its claim to support. But the Liberal party has suffered mainly from its own successes. Numbers of electors, and especially of the well to do, are moved, not so much by a cordial love of improvement for its own sake as by the sense of grievance; and when grievance has been removed, and ease follows, such persons lapse into Conservatism. Thus the Liberals have recruited for the Tory party. Had the Tories had their way, the country would have been in revolution long ago; but the conservative name is borne by those whose policy has been destructive, just as the Unionist name is borne by those who, however honestly and unconsciously, Labour to disunite the British and the Irish nations.” The letter is accompanied by a page taken from a publication, quoting the letter in full, and explaining that it was prompted by “the Rev. Edgar Sanderson’s “Popular Review of Political Work during the Reign of Queen Victoria,” republished from the Leeds Express.” Gladstone had already published selections of his own articles in 1879, and was to compile a supplementary volume in 1897. Tears at the folds have been repaired under our direction.

“TIMES ARE BAD IN LONDON FOR MODELS” 62. GRANT, Duncan (1885-1978). Painter and Decorative Artist. Autograph Letter Signed (“Duncan Grant”) to the artist and designer Eileen Mayo, who had been sitting to him as a model. 2 pages 4to with the original autograph envelope addressed to Eileen Mayo in Wiesbaden, Germany. Charleston, Susex, 8 January 1932. £425 Duncan Grant had been living with Vanessa and Clive Bell at Charleston since 1916. [Dame] Eileen Mayo, painter, wood-engraver and print-maker, then in her late twenties, had been trying to earn money as a model and was spending some time in Germany. “. . . I was glad to know what had become of you because when I got back to London I heard you had gone to Germany. It doesn’t sound terribly nice I’m afraid – but perhaps as you say at the moment one ought to be thankful for warmth and food. I’m afraid times are bad in London for models – but I miss your sittings very much. When you do come back I must go on with some of the things I’ve begun of you. Another person who complains bitterly of your going away is Wogan Phillips who is in London at the moment painting in Fitzroy St [Wogan Phillips, painter, farmer and Communist, later 2nd Baron Milford and the only Communist peer in the House of Lords]. I hope you may get to Berlin soon & will find a more interesting job there, where you will find time to hear some music. Anyway its a great thing to have learned some German . . .”

63. HARDY, Thomas (1840-1928). Novelist and Poet. Autograph Letter Signed (“Thomas Hardy”) to “Dear Mr. Lane” (identified on the accompanying envelope as John Lane), making arrangements for a visit from Mr. Strang [the artist William Strang]. 1½ pages 8vo with integral blank leaf on black-edged paper, together with the autograph envelope, Max Gate, 29 July n.y. [postmarked 1892]. £1500 “It would be convenient to us to have Mr. Strang almost any day next week. I may be away Wednesday morning but only for a few hours. I suggest the train leaving Waterloo at 2.20p.m. Wednesday, which reaches Dorchester at 6.13. There will be nobody else staying here, & Mr. Strang can arrange his own times & do as he chooses.” The Scottish painter and engraver William Strang was responsible for a well-known portrait of Thomas Hardy, now in the National Portrait Gallery, which he produced in 1893. Strang’s etching of Hardy illustrated Lionel Johnson’s The Art of Thomas Hardy, published by John Lane with a bibliography by Lane. The letter is in excellent condition.

64. HAWKINS, Anthony Hope (1863-1933). Author of The Prisoner of Zenda. Autograph Letter Signed (“Anthony Hope Hawkins”) to his cousin Edith, responding to a request for a charitable donation. 1½ pages 8vo, Savoy Mansions, 2 October 1907. £65 Hawkins explains his modest response to her request by pointing out that “. . . I have so very many calls made on me . . . If I met all I should soon cease to belong to the class of men “who have a little spare cash”! . . . I am sorry to hear Archie has been seedy . . . Lots of oil of cloves is the best remedy . . .” Anthony Hope had already published five novels when the extraordinary success of his 1893 romance, The Prisoner of Zenda enabled him to abandon his work as a barrister to concentrate on writing. Kenneth Grahame, author of The Wind in the Willows, was his cousin. The bottom half of the second page of the letter has been cut away, directly under the signature, but the text is complete. 65. ISHERWOOD, Christopher (1904-1986). Writer. Two Autograph Letters Signed (“Christopher Isherwood”) to Fredric Kroll in Wiesbaden, discussing the work and views of Klaus Mann [author of Mephisto and son of Thomas Mann]. 2 pages folio on aerogram forms, Santa Monica, California, 9 September 1978 and 23 September 1979. £625 “. . . I cannot even remember the short story called ‘Speed’ to which you refer. Yes, it is true that Klaus and I discussed my pacifism when we were both in California in 1939. He, of course, didn’t agree with me. I should . . . be most interested to know what he wrote about this. . . he dedicated the English version of his Tchaikovsky novel to me chiefly because I had liked the German version so much . . .” A year later, Kroll had evidently sent Isherwood one of Mann’s novels: “Thank you so much for sending me the passages from Klaus Mann’s last novel . . . As you say, the Kenneth-Wystan character is composite. Auden is described physically, with some of his mannerisms . . . But Auden was never a pacifist. I was and still am a pacifist, but my interpretation of pacifist was and is somewhat different from the ideas Klaus puts into his character’s mouth. . . Later I joined the Quakers.” In 1939, Isherwood had emigrated to America together with Auden. A conscientious objector to the war, Isherwood spent some time working with European refugees under the aegis of a Quaker organisation. Klaus Mann, who became a naturalized American citizen and served with the US forces during the Second World War, was the author of the scandalous Mephisto, a roman a clef about an actor who renounces his principles in order to further his career under the Nazi regime.

“IT HAS BEEN A SORE STRUGGLE” 66. JAMES, Henry (1843-1916). Novelist. Autograph Letter Signed (“Henry James”) to Mrs. Yates Thompson [probably Elizabeth, wife of the philanthropist and collector of illuminated manuscripts Henry Yates Thompson]. 4 pages 8vo, 34 De Vere Gardens, Friday, n.d. [c. 1886?]. £675 James explains, in his usual convoluted manner, that “I have had wholly to renounce the practice of dining out.” “. . . It has been a sore struggle – but a stern necessity: a dilemma between doing so & leaving London altogether. Excuse these plaintive confidences, which sound so ungracious – & please believe that my recovery of a certain margin in existence cheers me with the prospect of more time to come & see you without the bribe of your charming circle. I hope to do so at an early day . . .” 67. JANACEK, Leos (1854-1928). Czech Composer. Draft Circular Signed (“Leos Janacek”) in Czech, two pages evidently taken from a large notebook or ledger. 2 pages folio on one sheet, Brno, 16 November 1885. £375 On the page marked “2”, is the note “The request for a state stipendium has to be delivered not later than October 31, 1888. Please enclose an official form proving your poverty.” followed by four names. The statement on the verso, marked at the top “3” reads “On Thursday, November 19 there will be a mass served to celebrate a birthday of our empress Queen Elizabeth, the mass will take place in our church. After the mass we will have a monthly conference.” This is signed by eleven persons, including Janacek. Janacek first went to Brno at the age of eleven as a student, and remained there for many years, as music teacher, choirmaster, editor, and collector of folk songs. His lessons at the Teacher’s Institute inspired his pupils with enthusiasm, awe, and occasionally fear. Although Janacek composed throughout his teaching career, it was not until 1918, with the success of his opera Jenufa, that he would achieve fame as a composer, fifteen years after he had retired from teaching. The Queen Elizabeth whose birthday was being celebrated was Empress Elizabeth of Austria, and Queen of Hungary, celebrated as the most beautiful woman of her day, a great lover of Hungary and the mother of Rudolf of Hapsburg who died at Mayerling. As her birthday fell on Christmas eve, the mass was most likely celebrated a month early in order to avoid conflict with the Christmas celebrations. Rare. Browned and slightly brittle, but in sound condition.

“NOTHING FRESH IN THE WAY OF PORTRAITS” 68. JOHN, Augustus (1878-1961). Artist. Autograph Letter Signed (“Augustus John”) to the portrait painter Maurice Codner, responding to a request to lend a portrait for an exhibition. 1 page 8vo, 14 Percy Street, 24 October 1950. £295 “. . . I have a picture on the stocks which I had hoped to get finished in time for the coming Exhibition but two successive colds have intervened and prevented this. It will have to wait for the next show. I am sorry to have nothing fresh in the way of portraits. Lady Melchett has a portrait I like which is, I think, not well known, although I think it was in the R.A. It is of Martin Conway who became Lord Conway later. I could borrow this no doubt if you think it adviseable – or admissable. At the moment I can think of no others available . . .” Martin Conway, later Lord Conway of Allington (1856-1937), art historian, collector, mountaineer, and the first director of the Imperial War Museum, was painted by Augustus John in 1934. Maurice Codner, John’s correspondent, was a prolific and successful portrait painter; in 1951 he painted the last portrait of George VI, in Field Marshal’s uniform and Garter robes, for the Honourable Artillery Company. On the verso of Augustus John’s letter Maurice Codner has drafted his reply in pencil, saying “we shall be so glad to have your portrait of Martin Conway.”

“THE JOY WITH WHICH THE CHILDREN UNDERTOOK THEIR WORK” 69. KIPLING, Rudyard (1865-1936). Writer. Autograph Letter Signed (“Rudyard Kipling”) to Lady [Edith] Hulse, thanking her for “sending us the book of your boy’s letters. It will be put away with our other treasures.” 1½ pages 8vo on separate leaves, written on Kipling’s usual grey-green paper, lightly mounted at the left edge onto a page bound into a burgundy leather folder with gilt tooling on the upper cover and marbled endpapers, in the original buckram slipcase. Bateman’s, Burwash, Sussex, 17 January 1917. £1100 A poignant letter from one bereaved parent to another, each of whom had lost an only son in the First World War. Captain Sir Edward Hulse, Scots Guards, was killed at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in March 1915, six months before the death of the eighteen-year-old Lieutenant John Kipling, Irish Guards, at the Battle of Loos. A resourceful and capable officer, and by all accounts a man of much charm and many friends, Hulse’s vivid letters from the front to his mother were privately printed in 1916, and include an important account of the ‘Christmas Truce’ of 1914. “ . . . I think the most wonderful thing in all these letters is the joy with which the children undertook their work and the way they lived their splendid lives out to the last. There is nothing one can say; but perhaps, when it is time to talk of peace, we who have lost may be able to do something towards making that peace a firm one. I hope summer will see us well on the road towards the end, and that Mrs Kipling and I will be able to come to Breomore. At present, like all the world, it is difficult for us to move about aywhere.” Kipling never really recovered from his intense grief at his son’s death. In John’s memory he devoted himself to two major public tasks – the writing of The Irish Guards in Wartime, not finished until 1923, and the inspection of war graves. A calligraphic title page in the leather folder states that this letter was “Presented to the Salisbury Public Library, 1936.”

“WITH COMMUNIST REGARDS . . .” 70. KRUPSKAYA, Nadezhda (1869-1939). Russian Revolutionary; wife of Lenin. Autograph Letter Signed (“N. Krupskaya”) to Comrade Kuchinsky, asking him, in forceful terms, to “raise the matter of the retired teachers”, in particular the case of teacher Lutko. 1 page 4to in Russian, on paper printed with her name in cyrillic lettering at the top left., n.p., 6 October 1932. £875 Trans: “Please, pay attention to the matter of teacher Lutko – 50 years of service – and the matter of Leonovich. You know how serious the situation is for retired teachers. I sent you a number of letters, and I already spoke with you – it is necessary that Tsekirov raise the matter of the retired teachers. By all means, something must be done before the 15th of July. I tried to call G. Shumskom, but I have not at all been able to reach him. Call me sometime and let me know whether you will take action on this matter. With communist regards . . .” Nadezhda Krupskaya dedicated herself to the struggle for a communist Russia, though her personal beliefs were inevitably subordinate to those of her husband. After his death, her principles were a cause of some friction with Stalin. Libraries, Krupskaya’s primary concern, were seen as essential to educate the masses, and a vital tool to promote communist thought. She was sufficiently ruthless in her aims to advocate censorship which would see frivolous or the (in her view) wrong-headed publications banned from libraries. In his 1974 play, Travesties, Tom Stoppard captures Krupskaya’s serious and rather hectoring tone, much in evidence in this letter. These traits are unsurprising from this austere and intense woman. One was more surprised to discover that the best-selling brand of Soviet chocolate was named after her. In his obituary of Krupskaya in 1939, Trotsky called her “an irreproachable revolutionist and one of the most tragic figures in revolutionary history”. The letter has several barely visible pin-holes at the top left, not touching the text, but is otherwise in very good condition. Letters of Krupskaya are rare. “I’VE BEEN HAVING A TUSSLE WITH MY NOVEL” 71. LAWRENCE, David Herbert (1885-1930). Novelist. Important Autograph Letter Signed (“D.H.L.”) to “Dear Juliette” [Huxley, the Swiss wife of the biologist Julian Huxley], describing his difficulties in publishing his novel [Lady Chatterley’s Lover], telling her he has sent some of his paintings to be exhibited in London, and alluding to strains in the Huxley marriage. 2 pages closely written large 4to, Villa Mirenda, Scandicci, Florence, 17 April 1928. £3500 Lawrence had finished the final version of Lady Chatterley’s Lover in Florence in 1927, and immediately faced publication problems because of its supposed immorality. He ultimately decided to publish it himself, with the help of the Florentine bookseller Pino Orioli, and the first edition, for subscribers, was printed in and distributed from Florence by Tipographia Giuntina in 1928. 1000 copies were printed, each signed by Lawrence. Rather to Lawrence’s surprise, this edition actually made him money and helped to ease his last years. A much abridged version was published by Knopf in this same year, 1928, but a full unexpurgated version was not available to the public until the celebrated Penguin publication of 1960. Juliette Huxley and her family had read the text early in 1928; she had been been rather shocked and expressed worries lest her son Anthony (the future botanist, then aged eight) might read it. In the course of this long letter Lawrence assures her that he is taking her concerns seriously, and that “I don’t laugh at you”. “. . . I was so relieved when you said it was better with you & Julian now, & that something had come free. I’m so glad . . . Why do you say I laugh at you? I may laugh at some things about you. I laugh at you when you say “What if Anthony were sixteen, & read this novel!” He’d be bored at 16: but at twenty of course he should read it. Was your mind a sexual blank at sixteen? is anybody’s? and what ails the mind in that respect is that it has nothing to go on, it grinds away in abstraction . . . I’ve been having a tussle with my novel: publishers, agents etc in London holding up hands in pious horror (because it may affect their pockets) & trying to make me feel disastrously in the wrong. Now the Knopfs write from New York they like it very much, & hope to be able to get it into shape to offer to the public. I doubt they can’t. But it’s nice of them. I’m in the midst of the proofs – hope to finish them this week. But I still haven’t chosen the cover paper [Lawrence in the end chose mulberry coloured boards]. The orders came in very nicely from England. Are you risking a copy, or not? . . . I’m busy finishing off my pictures – think I shall send them to Dorothy Warren for her to exhibit in the Gallery in Madox Street – she wants to. But don’t go & see them – you’d only be in a rage . . .” The exhibition of Lawrence’s paintings took place in London in the summer of 1929, but he was too ill to attend. The exhibition was raided by the police, much to Lawrence’s distress, and the paintings seized; court hearings were necessary before he could recover them.

72. LANDSEER, Sir Edwin (1802-1873). Artist. Card Signed (“E Landseer”), an engraved ticket, completed in manuscript in another hand, admitting Sir Thomas Lowe and his party of three to view Landseer’s “Collection of Pictures” at 50 . 2½ x 3½ ins, 17 June 1847. £145 In the 1840’s Landseer was at the height of his fame and success, producing many of his most celebrated animal pictures. The underlying cruelty of many of these pictures cannot be ignored, but it would be wrong to think of Landseer as a sadist; he rather regarded the cruelty and tragedy of animal life as a sad reflection of the lot of man.

73. LANGTRY, Lillie (1853-1929). Actress and Beauty. Autograph Note Signed (“Lillie Langtry”) on the verso of a letter from W. James Wintle, Assistant Editor of the London Magazine, asking her whom he should contact in order to photograph the curtain at the Imperial Theatre to accompany an article on Great Triumphs in Needlework. Half page 4to, n.p. [London], n.d. [November 1902]. £120 The management of the Imperial Theatre, near Westminster Abbey and the Royal Aquarium, had been taken over in 1900 by Lillie Langtry, who immediately had the theatre renovated. Despite the presence of Langtry, and productions by innovative playwrights such as Ibsen and Shaw, the venture did not prove to be a success. On the verso of Wintle’s typed letter, Langtry hastily scrawled a note “Dear Miss Wade, I enclose this letter in great haste / Lillie Langtry”.

74. LESSEPS, Ferdinand de, Vicomte (1805-1894). Builder of the Suez Canal. Letter Signed (“Ferd. de Lesseps”) to the French naturalist Henry Milne- Edwards at the Museum d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris, sending him a coral snake which he has just received from Panama. 1 page 4to, with integral blank leaf, in French on letterhead of the Compagnie Universelle de Canal Interocéanique [i.e., Panama Canal Company], Paris, 6 October 1881. £325 Trans: “I have just received from the Isthmus of Panama a rather curious coral snake which I am delighted to send to you, thinking that this could be of some interest to the collection of the Museum of Natural History. . .” Following the completion of the Suez Canal, de Lesseps embarked on the building of a canal across the isthmus of Panama. The project was plagued by by bad weather and tropical diseases. A dozen years and a great deal of money later, it was abandoned, amid allegations of corruption. Henry Milne Edwards, the French-born son of an English father, was a celebrated zoologist and naturalist. In 1841, he was appointed Professor of Entomology, and later Zoology, at the Museum of Natural History in Paris. Although venomous, central American coral snakes appear to be rather retiring creatures, and are responsible for very few fatalities. “CHARLOTTE IS LESS UNWELL” 75. LEOPOLD II (1835-1909). King of the Belgians. Autograph Letter Signed (“Léopold”) to “Ma Chère Cousine”, thanking her for her kind wishes for his sister, the Empress Carlotta of Mexico, who had been seriously ill since returning to Europe, discussing her health and the situation in Europe. 4 pages 4to in French on black-edged paper with Leopold’s embossed crowned monogram at the head, Laeken, 3 December 1866. £1250 Trans: “Please accept my thanks for your kind and affectionate letter of 1 December. I am touched by your thoughtfulness and grateful for your enquiries about the terrible illness and misfortunes of my poor sister. Since her arrival at Miramar [near Trieste] Charlotte, thank God, is less unwell, she recently wrote me a letter which was just as before, however, the doctors fear that her complete recovery may not be as quick as we would wish. As for Stephen [Archduke Stephen of Hungary], about whom you are also, dear Cousin, kind enough to enquire, he is at Menton and his condition is unfortunately far from satisfactory. . . My wife and my brother thank you, dear Cousin, for the messages which you asked me to pass to them and join me in sending you all our best wishes for the year which is so soon to begin . . .” Leopold II’s younger sister, Charlotte, married to the Austrian Archduke Maximilian, had become Empress of Mexico in 1864. Two years later, she was forced to return to Europe to beg for help for her husband, in Paris, Vienna and Rome, to no avail. The immense stress finally caused a complete breakdown, and she spent her remaining days first at Miramar and later at Meise in her native Belgium. Her illness at this date may possibly have been exacerbated by other factors. Rumours persist that Charlotte had an affaire with an army officer and gave birth to their son in January 1867. The boy in question grew up to be Maxime Weygand, a distinguished French military commander in World War I, whose parentage has remained mysterious.

76. LOUIS XV (1710-1774). King of France. Document Signed (“Louis”), a naturalization certificate for George Gabriel Hitschler, a cooper from Roth u/Riburg in Durlach, who had taken up residence in Colmar [Alsace] and wished to remain there permanently, enjoying the privileges and protection of a French subject. 1 page large oblong folio, c. 14” x 25½” with the major portion of the seal in green wax, slightly rubbed but showing a clear impression of the King with his sceptre on one side and the arms of the French monarchy on the verso, attached by a red and green silk cord, Versailles, May 1764. £1950 A most attractive document. French royal seals are more difficult to find than those of English monarchs and this one, with less than a quarter missing, is a very good example. The document has been signed “Louis” by a secretary, but the King himself has also signed, quite visibly on the lower border. Colmar is the capital of the Alsace wine region, and one may assume that Hitschler found profitable work there. 77. LEHAR, Franz (1870-1948). Hungarian Composer of The Merry Widow. Autograph Musical Quotation Signed (“F Lehar”), four bars from his operetta The Count of Luxemburg. 1 page oblong 8vo, written on a card, Vienna, 3 April 1924. £425 An attractive quotation. Lehar’s most enduring operetta remains The Merry Widow but he once declared that his own favourite of all his works was The Count of Luxemburg, which he wrote five years later and was first perfomed in 1909.

“THE NET INDUSTRIAL OUTPUT OF GREAT BRITAIN DECLINED . . . BY A HUNDRED MILLIONS” 78. LLOYD GEORGE, David (1863-1945). Prime Minister 1916-1922. Typescript Signed (“D Lloyd George”), a carbon copy of his article for the Sunday Pictorial, published in June 1934, commenting on the violence which errupted at a gathering of Oswald Mosley’s blackshirts at Olympia, and setting out his views on the source of the popularity of right-wing parties throughout Europe. 6 pages folio, n.p., n.d. [1934]. £950 A particularly interesting article. Defending Mosley’s right to free speech on the basis that “I belong to a party which fought . . . for the right to give free expression to every kind of opinion . . .” Lloyd George soon moves on to an analysis of the reasons why Mosley and other European right-wing parties achieved substantial support. He points out that “. . . from 1924 to 1930, the net industrial output of Great Britain declined in value by a hundred millions sterling. . .” Seeing the menace from the impoverished middle classes, he reminds readers that “. . . neither Lenin nor Trotsky were horny-handed sons of toil. . . This same class. . . carried through the Fascist revolution in Italy. Hitlerism triumphed in Germany because the middle classes had been bankrupted . . . The black- shirt movement in Britain . . . derives such strength as it possesses from the same kind of economic and psychological malaise . . .” Two years later, Lloyd George travelled to Germany where he met Hitler. He unwisely published an article praising him, yet also campaigned for rearmament and against appeasement.

79. LORRAINE, Leopold Charles, Duke of (1679-1729). Grant of Arms (Lettres de noblesse) from Leopold, Duke of Lorraine and Barrois, to the lawyer Estienne Alexis Roguier. 1 page large oblong folio in French on vellum, c. 19½ x 31 ins, with at the top left the large coloured decorative initial letter L (of “Leopold”) incorporating a shield bearing his arms in red, blue, gold and black. At the lower left Roguier’s arms are painted in black and silver with touches of red. Leopold’s fine complete seal in red wax, c. 4½ ins in diameter, portraying him on horseback, is attached by the original coloured woven entwined theads, ending in two large and splendid gold and red tassels. Luneville, 2 February 1708. £825 A very handsome document with two accomplished armorial paintings. At the time of Leopold’s birth, Lorraine had been occupied by the French forces of Louis XIV. However by the Treaty of Ryswick of 1797 the Duchies of Lorraine and Bar were restored to the and Leopold became the reigning independent Duke. His whole reign was focused on the policy of neutrality and on not annoying his powerful neighbour, and in this he was generally successful. He was the father of the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and the grandfather of Marie Antoinette. Text a little rubbed, but legible throughout. See inside front cover illustration. THE PLANT COLLECTION ON ST. HELENA 80. LOWE, Sir Hudson (1769-1844). Governor of St. Helena during Napoleon’s imprisonment. Letter Signed (“H: Lowe Lt Genl”) as Governor of St. Helena, to Dr. Wallich, Superintendant of the Botanic Garden at Calcutta, thanking him for forwarding plants through Captain Manning, and explaining his difficulties in maintaining the St. Helena plant collection. 2½ pages 4to, St. Helena, 11 July 1820. £525 “. . . The length of the Voyage however in general has proved extremely unfavorable to the preservation of the plants, whilst the want of a regular systematic arrangement, & the decease of the only individual on the Island, whose particular province it was to attend to such matters, has, I regret to say, not enabled me to profit so fully, as I could have desired, of your truly public-spirited endeavours to assist us . . . Our collection which comes from every quarter of the Globe is already pretty numerous. – I have received of late in particular some rare plants of the Brasils from Mr. Langsdoff [the German-born naturalist George Heinrich von Langsdorff, who led an Amazon expedition] whose name may be known to you as a writer on natural history; and if all we have was properly arranged, the Collection, I have no doubt would appear very important. – It is with the hope that I may some time or other derive scientific aid in making such arrangements, I beg the continuance of your kind consideration towards us . . .” In July 1820 the fussy and pedantic Lowe had much more on his mind than plants. Napoleon’s last cycle of illness had begun, with headache, nausea, fevers, painful breathing and swollen legs and feet. In September the former Emperor wrote to the Prime Minister Lord Liverpool requesting a period of recuperation at a spa in England or some other part of Europe, a request implacably opposed by Lowe.

81. MACREADY, William Charles (1793-1873). Actor. Autograph Leter Signed (“W.C. Macready”) to “My dear Brookfield” [most probably the clergyman and inspector of schools William Henry Brookfield], saying he is delighted with a print Brookfield has sent him, presumably a portrait of Brookfield himself. 1 page 8vo with integral blank leaf, with at the head Macready’s monogram in blind of a hand grasping a serpent above the letter ‘M’. 6 Wellington Square, Cheltenham, 23 October 1863. £95 “. . . It is beautiful, and a great, and most agreeable likeness. I have one conspicuous place left on the walls of my crowded little home, to which it is destimed, and where I shall be proud to see it, and enjoy all its remembrances.” Brookfield had been a close friend of Tennyson at Cambridge, and with his wife Jane, who maintained an influential literary salon, was at the centre of London literary and artistic circles. Thackeray was in love with Jane Brookfield for many years, and the character of Amelia Sedley in Vanity Fair was partly based on her.

82. MARIE LOUISE (1791-1847). Empress of the French; second wife of Napoleon I. Document Signed (“Maria Louisa”) as Duchess of Parma, granting a pension to the widowed Anna von Collin and an annual contribution to the education of her daughter. 1 page folio in German with paper seal and integral address leaf, also signed by her chief minister and morganatic second husband Count Adam von Neipperg. Parma, 1 January 1825. £525 After the fall of Napoleon Marie Louise had been granted the Italian Duchies of Parma, Piacenza asnd Guastalla, which she ruled with unexpected ability and clemency. There seems little doubt that the charming and able half- French, half-Austrian general Count Adam de Neipperg was the real love of her life. Their liaison started shortly after Napoleon’s first abdication in 1814 and was the real reason for her refusal to join him on Elba. According to some sources their first child was born as early as 1815, and their son Guillaume, born in August 1821, was obviously conceived in Napoleon’s lifetime. It is believed that Marie Louise and Neipperg were privately married in September 1821, although the marriage was never announced. Some splitting along centre horizontal folds has been professionally repaired.

83. MARTINEAU, Harriet (1802-1876). Journalist. Autograph Quotation Signed (“H. Martineau”), an epigram “translated from the Persian by Sir William Jones”. One page 4to with integral blank leaf on letterhead with an attractive engraving of a house, stream and ducks. The Knoll, Ambleside, 5 March 1855. Together with a Carte-de-Visite Photograph Signed (“Harriet Martineau.”) showing her seated in an armchair, sewing. £795 Martineau has copied out an epigram:- “On parents’ knees, a naked, newborn child, Weeping thou sat’st, while all around thee smiled. So live that, sinking in thy last long sleep, Calm thou may’st smile while all around thee weep.” Harriet Martineau wrote tirelessly on the issues which concerned her, feminism, social commentary, political economy, in spite of recurring ill- health. Although she had ostensibly been cured through mesmerism some years before, in 1855 she began to suffer with heart trouble, which no doubt turned her attention once again to her own mortality. In fact, she lived for another twenty years, during which time she completed her autobiography. Traces of mounting remain, but these are nevertheless a particularly attractive pair of items.

84. MASSENA, André, Duc de Rivoli and Prince d’Essling (1758- 1817). French Marshal. Letter Signed (“Massena”) to [Paul] Barras, sending him a letter [not present] from a priest in Grasse, proving unidentified allegations concerning priests and emigrés. 1 page folio in French, Padua, 24 fructidor an 5 [10 September 1797]. £750 Trans: “I am passing to you, Citizen Director, a letter from a priest in Grasse named Pagan, you will see that the purported allegations of the emigrés and rebellious priests who have returned are now a certainty . . . Will this plague sully the soil of liberty for much longer? and will we have met all these dangers, run all these risks, borne all this exhaustion purely for the benefit of these gentlemen? Certainly not, Citizen Director, sooner or later, the Directoire will take vigorous measures to drive away these traitors to the nation, these intolerant and perfidious fanatics. I beg you, Citizen Director, to rest assured of my esteem and affection for you which will always remain constant.” Massena had become a national hero in France after his military triumphs in northern Italy and into Austria, and he was nearing Vienna when a truce was declared. Upon his return to Paris, he was feted by the crowds and by the Directoire. The latter, led by Barras, went so far as to consider him as a useful counterpoise to Bonaparte, whose independence and obvious ambitions gave them cause for concern. A wonderful letter, in excellent condition.

85. MASSENET, Jules (1842-1912). French Composer. Autograph Musical Quotation Signed (“Massenet”) from his opera Manon, two bars with the dedication in French “En respectueux sentiments” addressed to Mrs. Tania Berger in Vienna on the verso of a postcard showing a head and shoulders photograph of the composer. 1 page 8vo, Paris, 16 June 1907. £695 A handsome quotation, in very good condition. The four postmarks at the top of the card do not touch the text at all and the photograph on the recto shows Massenet in his younger days, looking dashing and romantic. Massenet was a prolific composer, whose reputation today is somewhat uneven, but Manon remains the most appreciated of all his operas.

“DOES A FOREIGNER ENJOY PROTECTION FROM ENGLISH LAWS?” 86. METTERNICH, Clemens Lothar von (1773-1859). Austrian Diplomat. Autograph Letter Signed (“Metternich”) to “mon cher Neumann” [the diplomat Philipp von Neumann, then attached to the Austrian embassy in London], asking him to report on what measures can be taken in England to curb the activities of Bettera [the Croatian patriot Vito Bettera]. 2¾ pages 4to in French, Vienna, 12 January 1817. £1500 Eighteen months after the defeat of Napoleon, the deeply conservative Austrian diplomat was still concerned with his nation’s security. The Croatian aristocrat, Vito Bettera, once an officer in the Russian army, was agitating for the independence of his native Dubrovnik, at the time under Austrian rule. Like many revolutionaries, he had evidently sought refuge in England, but was soon forced to move on. Metternich finally succeeded in having Bettera imprisoned, without trial, for the last fifteen years of his life. Trans: “. . . Bettera’s little brochure is what one would expect of him . . . it is villainous. . . Cappellini is determined not to be implicated with impunity on the charge of having poisoned Mallia. I would therefore ask you to take in hand what legal measures one can take. Is it possible to bring B. to court in order to force him to prove that which he claims? . . . Is it possible to attack him for having attempted to establish the fact of this poisoning through this libel, printed and signed by him? Does a foreigner enjoy protection from English laws? I ask you to answer these various questions as soon as possible. In the meantime, I am having prepared material which will help Cappellini prove that B. was all along a spy for Bonaparte and who tried, at the time of the death of Mallia, to seize secret papers which he [Mallia] had as part of a long-standing secret work which he had undertaken on behalf of Russia. . .” Split at central fold has been repaired under our direction.

“I HAVE PUBLISHED A SMALL VOLUME ON LIBERTY . . .” 87. MILL, John Stuart (1806-1873). Philosopher and Reformer. Autograph Letter Signed (“J. Stuart Mill”) to Doctor Edward Lowenthal, referring to several of his published works, including On Liberty. 3½ pages 8vo in French, Avignon, 24 January 1868. £1800 Trans: “I take the liberty of writing to you in French in reply to your letter of the 10th. If by any chance I have m i s u n d e r s t o o d your letter, the fault will lie in my lack of practice with German cursive script. There is no collection of my speeches. Only two have been printed separately, one on the political suffrage of women, the other on personal representation; and I send you copies of each of these by the same post. I have written nothing “uber die Freiheit der Wissenschaft” [on the freedom of science]. I have published asmall volume on Liberty, of which I believe there is a German translation, and which would probably discourage your Society from publishing another in your publication. But perhaps the work in question in your letter might be my Address upon my accession as Honorary Rector of the University of Saint-Andrews, which deals solely with education. If you would like to clear up my doubts, I would have great pleasure in sending you a copy of one or the other work. . .” Mill’s progressive views on women’s rights were heavily influenced by his relationship with Harriet Taylor. After their marriage, they were in the habit of spending part of every year in Avignon for her health, and Mill continued to do so after her death in 1859.

88. MONTGOMERY, Bernard, Viscount Montgomery of Alamein (1887-1976). Field-Marshal. A collection of Field-Marshal Montgomery’s Personal Messages to 21 Army Group, 18pp folio, bound in black leather with “21 Army Group” and its badge embossed in gilt on the front cover. Inscribed and signed “To: Kirkie : 1 Corps / with all good wishes / B.L. Montgomery Field-Marshal / Germany / 20 – 6 – 45”. £750 The collection of Personal Messages from Montgomery to 21 Army Group commences with his D-Day message, dated 5 June 1944 and ends with his victory message of 8 May 1945. Each message bears Montgomery’s facsimile signature. It is interesting to see the pattern of Montgomery’s messages to the troops, each of which is designed to inspire and move the men. Three times he quotes from Psalm 118, “This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.” A quotation from Kipling’s If seems appropriate, though one wonders whether Eisenhower might have had doubts about Montgomery’s assertion that “The proper motto for Allies should be: “One for all, and all for one.” And that is our motto.” in August 1944. The dedicatee of the volume is General Sir Sidney Chevalier Kirkman (1895-1982), known as “Kirkie”, Montgomery’s artillery commander at El Alamein and afterwards commander of the 50th Northumbrian division at the invasion of Sicily. The spine is cracked and a portion at the head of the spine has been lost, but the volume is otherwise in good condition. 89. MONTGOMERY, Bernard, Viscount Montgomery of Alamein (1887-1976). Field-Marshal. Photograph Signed (“Montgomery of Alamein F.M.”), a large black and white photograph showing Montgomery, wearing an overcoat and his famous beret, saluting at a war memorial which has been partly covered by a large wreath of lillies, British officers behind him, another officer wearing a kepi to his right, and a large crowd watching above a flight of stone steps. 9½” x 11¾”, n.p. [but France or Belgium], n.d. [but after January 1946] £525 The monument has a plaque of which the first two lines read “Aux Heros de la Guerre / 1940 – 1945”. A clear image, signed in blue pen on a clear portion of the image, in excellent condition.

90. MOORE, Henry (1898-1986). English Sculptor. Coloured Postcard Reproduction Signed (“Henry Moore”) of his elmwood sculpture Reclining Figure of 1939, signed by him at the upper right, above the image. 4 x 6 ins. £220 The reclining figure was one of Moore’s favourite subjects and he created versions in marble, cast bronze, and, as in this case, elmwood. This large sculpture is on a plinth against a terracotta background. It is now in the Detroit Institute of Arts.

91. NAPOLEON I (1769-1821). Emperor of the French. Letter Signed (“Bonaparte”) as Commander of the Army of Italy, to General Baraguey d’Hilliers informing him of the arrival of the Commissary with funds for the purchase of supplies for the army. 1 page large 4to in French, with integral address leaf with the red wax seal of the army of the Republic, Verona, 30 brumaire an 5 [20 November 1796]. £2600 A letter written just three days after Napoleon’s great victory at Arcola. Trans: “Citizen Garreau, Government Commissary, is going to Milan . . . The Commissary and you will agree in order to procure for the army what is requires, mainly in shoes and clothing, arrange matters so that the army will lack nothing. I still hope to go to Milan myself.” The painting by Antoine-Jean Gros of Napoleon on the bridge at Arcola is one of the most stirring images in Napoleonic iconography. His victory over the Austrians at the end of a three day battle was one of the earliest examples of his military abilities. But his impact on France and on Europe rested as much on his administrative attention to the minutest detail, something much in evidence in this energetic missive. The letter is in excellent condition, and the seal is very nearly intact.

“I HAVE NEAR TWENTY THAT LOOK UP TO ME” 92. NELSON, Horatio, Lord (1758-1805). Victor of Trafalgar. Autograph Letter Signed (“Nelson & Bronte”) to John W. Willet in Grosvenor Square, regretting that he is not able, in peace time, to find employment for John Adye, a Lieutenant who had served with him on board the Vanguard at the battle of the Nile. 1½ pages 4to with integral blank leaf and the original autograph address panel signed “N & B” with seal tear and traces of seal. n.p., [Piccadilly or Merton], 15 March 1803. £7500 A letter written during the short-lived Peace of Amiens, which was to end in May when Nelson was appointed Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean and hoisted his flag on the Victory. During the peace a certain amount of naval demobilization was put in train, which made it difficult for Nelson to excercise patronage. John Adye, from a distinguished military family, had been wounded at the Nile. During this period Nelson was dividing his time between Sir William and Lady Hamilton’s rented house in Piccadilly and his own newly purchased country house, Merton Place in Surrey. He felt himself rather pressed for money, and on 8 March 1803, one week before the present letter, he wrote to the Prime Minister Henry Addington listing his services, debts and assets, and asking for rewards equal to those which had been granted to Admirals St. Vincent and Duncan. In the event, his appeal was ignored. “. . . The conduct of Mr. Adye was irreproachable and he certainly exerted himself on every occasion as much as a wretched state of health would allow and solely on account of his bad health he left the Vanguard. But from that period I have been so much employ’d and at the Peace having left a set of L[ieutenan]ts it is I am sorry to say entirely out of my power to receive Lt. Adye into my ship at present, for I have near twenty that look up to me, I have to repeat my apology for not having return’d your last kind visit but I have been not only very unwell but as you may believe fully occupied . . .” In clear and attractive condition. Not in Nicolas, and apparently unpublished.

93. NEAVE, Airey (1916-1979). British Politician. Typed Letter Signed (“Yours sincerely Airey Neave”) to Frank Blair, thanking him for his letter sympathising with the efforts to erect a memorial to the Katyn massacre. 1 page large 8vo on House of Commons letterhead, London, 11 December 1972. £125 “. . . I assure you that we are pursuing the Katyn Memorial proposal with the Kensington & Chelsea Borough Council. I was very interested indeed to hear that you sympathise. I would certainly sign a Colditz postal cover for your son if he would be good enough to send one to me.” In 1942, Neave became the first escapee from the notorious Colditz prison to reach home. He first entered Parliament in 1953 and by 1972 was closely identified with efforts to erect a memorial to the Katyn massacre, a cause which became embroiled in controvery as the government sought to protect the sensitivites of the Russian and Polish regimes. The memorial was eventually unveiled in Gunnersbury in 1976. There are minor traces of previous mounting, but the letter is otherwise in good condition. 94. NEWCASTLE, Sir Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of (1693- 1768). Prime Minister 1754-56. Document Signed (“Holles Newcastle”), and the other Lords Justices, “W. Cant.” [William Wake, Archbishop of Canterbury], “Parker C.” [the Lord Chancellor, George Parker, later Earl of Macclesfield], “Kingston P.”, [Evelyn Pierrepont, Duke of Kingston upon Hull, Lord Privy Seal], “Kent, C.P.S.” [Henry Grey, Duke of Kent, Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal], “Roxburghe” [John Ker, Duke of Roxburghe] and “J. Craggs” [James Craggs the elder, later implicated in the South Sea Bubble scandal], a warrant for paying Captain Clealand 2/6 per day out of the half pay of Major Bucknall. 3 pages folio, the Cock Pitt [the Treasury offices, London], 28 May 1719. £495 The Lords Justices were evidently called upon to decide a relatively minor dispute. Captain Clealand had “upon a Misunderstanding that happened between his Colonel and him in the Year 1709 he was first suspended, and afterwards without Tryal Superceeded . . . Major Edward Bucknall who succeeded him was to pay him Two Hundred Pounds as a Consideration for his Commission . . . and altho’ Major Bucknel . . . is now upon the Half Pay of that Regiment is not yet payd.” The justices ruled that half of Major Bucknell’s pay should go to Captain Clealand until he has paid Clealand the two hundred pounds with interest. The “Lords Justices” of this document were not lawyers, as would usually be implied by this term. In 1719 George I paid an extended visit to Hanover, and on his departure appointed thirteen “Lords Justices”, chosen from the leading political figures of the time, to excercise power in his absence. The Duke of Newcastle although only twenty-five, was already influential because of his vast landholdings, which enabled him to control several constituencides. Some slight discolouration at the fold on the last page and minor tears at the folds have been repaired under our direction. The document is otherwise in very good condition.

FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE AND THE CATHOLIC NUNS 95. NIGHTINGALE, Florence (1820-1910). Reformer of Hospital Nursing. Autograph Letter Signed (“Florence Nightingale”) to Benjamin Hawes, Deputy Secretary at War, discussing the problems she faced with the Irish Roman Catholic nuns and requesting that he send out three nuns from the Bermondsey Sisters of Mercy to the serve in the hospital. 4 pages 4to marked “Private”, Barrack Hospital, Scutari, 26 November 1855. Together with an incomplete Autograph Letter from Florence Nightingale, presumably also to Hawes. 4 pages 4to marked “Private”, Barrack Hospital, Scutari, 21 January 1856. £2995 Two remarkable letters, revealing Florence Nightingale incandescent with rage at the undermining of her authority by a group of Irish Catholic nuns. Mother Frances Bridgeman (referred to in the letter are “Mrs.”) had run a soup kitchen in County Cork during the Great Famine and later oversaw a workhouse during the cholera epidemic. She arrived in the Crimea with a group of nurses and 15 Roman Catholic nuns, an experienced nurse but also keen to preach the Catholic gospel. Her arrival provoked an anti-Catholic outcry in England and infuriated Florence, who saw her authority threatened. At the root of the problem was Mother Bridgeman’s determination to accept only her bishop, and not Florence Nightingale, as her superior. Although Florence Nightingale would eventually choose to attempt a rapprochement with Mother Bridgeman, this was viewed as an attempt to bring her under Florence’s control, and she resisted all such attempts until the end of the war. 6 November 1855: “. . . to answer . . . your Dispatch . . . which states the disapproval by the War Office of the Irish R. Catholic rebellion at Balaclava – viz. the withdrawal of thirteen Irish R. Catholic Nuns by one of the[ir] Number (their spiritual superioress Mrs. Bridgeman), without the knowledge or consent of the Commandant in the Bosphorus, of myself, or of the Secretary at War – from the Hospitals of Scutari & of Koulali – & the placing them in the General Hospital in Balaclava without any admixture of Protestants . . . – & the excessive proportion of 13 Nuns . . . It is the old story repeated, ever since the time of Queen Elizabeth, of the impatience in the Irish R. Catholic mind of secular authority. These nuns are against it all – their language & that of their priest . . . savouring somewhat of disaffection. . . the young Irish recruits are now, as you are well aware, in such numbers as to supply nearly one-half of the Patients in Hospital. And “great is the noise thereof”. I think it really of importance . . . to have friendly nuns instead of unfriendly ones. . . Because we all know how great is the influence over the minds of the Irish of their nuns & priests. I would therefore suggest that . . . it would be a wise . . . measure to send out three Nuns from the Bermondsey “Sisters of Mercy” to join the other five from that English Order . . . who have been friendly to us throughout, & indeed the main-stay of the work. Should you think it right to sanction this, will you inform Dr. Grant, the R. Catholic Bishop of Southwark of your consent, who will forward them immediately to me at Scutari . . . I perhaps need hardly add that these Nuns take no salaries & that I should be more than willing to pay their passages out, provided rations be granted them here. . .” 21 January 1856: “. . . what mode of proceeding I should recommend in the matter of Mrs. Bridgeman’s “insurrection” at the General Hospital, Balaclava. While I am unwilling to propose anything that might bring down the “Brass Band” & all the Irish Brigade upon us at home, I ought to keep you informed of the impediments which I continue to meet with . . . Encouraged . . . by Mrs. Bridgeman having gained her object . . . unreproved – Miss Wear, at the Monastery Hospital . . . has written with Dr. Hall’s concurrence, & without any reference to me, to desire two Nurses to be sent to her from Smyrna altho’ my instructions from the War Office were distinct, viz. that no nurses were to be placed in any of the Hospitals under my superintendence except by myself, without which provision, indeed, it is obvious that nothing but confusion & perplexity can ensue. I have already made this the subject of a Dispatch to the War Office . . . I have written to Miss Wear that such a proceeding must not be repeated. The War Office will, I hope, support me in carrying out its own instructions . . . It appears to me that the only remedy to such aggressions is to signify to Dr. Hall the definite powers entrusted to me, & to put in “General Orders” (if I, having joined the Army these fifteen months, may be allowed a military term), exactly what I am to do . . .” The letter of 26 November 1855 is very slightly dusty on the last leaf at the folds, but both are otherwise in very good condition.

“WHO HAS ABSCONDED FROM SERVICE HERE” 96. NORTON, Caroline (1809-1877). Novelist, Poet, and Campaigner for Women’s Rights. Autograph Letter Signed (“C. Norton”) to an unidentified lady, enquiring about a servant suspected of thieving. 3 pages 8vo, Chesterfield Street, n.d. [but probably before 1836]. £275 A letter probably written before Caroline’s separation from her husband, George Chapple Norton, an unsuccessful barrister. The Major Norton here mentioned was most likely a connection of his. After their final separation in 1836, George Chapple Norton was ableto deprive his wife of custody of their children and even attempted to seize her literary earnings as his own property. Largely due to Caroline’s campaigning, the first act protecting married women’s property was passed in 1857. “Major Norton called some time ago, when you were unfortunately out of town, at a time of gt. trouble & perplexity about the character of a person called Caroline Blakely who has absconded this evening from service here, on its being notified to her that the inventories of house linen under her charge would be taken. She boasted of an Aunt in your service who would uphold her. I can only beg of you, if that be true, to endeavour to ascertain her address – as I cannot tell what may be missing here, and I am sorry to say the letters from other ladies with whom for very brief periods she lived have been sadly unsatisfactory. . .” A very small portion of the letter is frayed and darkened at the bottom edge. “THAT MONSTER, HALF MONKEY AND HALF TIGER” 97. O’MEARA, Barry Edward (c. 1770-1836). Napoleon’s doctor on St. Helena, 1815-18. Autograph Letter Signed (“Barry O’Meara”) to the Comtesse de Surveillers [Survilliers, Julie Bonaparte, née Clary, wife of Napoleon’s brother Joseph], asking her to pay the pension she had promised him, in order to defray the expenses of a libel action brought against him by Hudson Lowe following the publication of O’Meara’s book on Napoleon’s detention on St. Helena. 3 pages 4to in French, with integral address leaf, an annotation by a recipient at the top of the first page, Strand, 18 June 1823. £2250 In October 1818, Barry O’Meara left St. Helena. Over the previous three years, his relationship with Napoleon had developed from that of doctor to that of confidant and admirer. At the same time, his relationship with Hudson Lowe had deteriorated from one of professional courtesy to open hostility, until Lowe finally forbade O’Meara to leave Longwood House, forcing O’Meara’s resignation. As a result of these tensions, O’Meara’s name was removed from the Navy List, losing him his pension. He wrote three works on his time in St. Helena, and the last, Napoleon in exile, or a voice from St. Helena, published in 1822, was an explosive exposé of the treatment which he felt Napoleon had received from the British, and particularly Hudson Lowe. Trans: “Having published a work entitled “Napoleon in exile, or a voice from St. Helena”, the main object of which was to defend the reputation of the late Emperor Napoleon, your illustrious brother . . . also to depict this great man . . . expiring under the claws of that monster, half monkey and half tiger, who had been chosen as his warder, this man [Hudson Lowe] charged me, five months ago, with defamation of character. In my defence, I was obliged to send people to Paris, to Scotland and to Ireland in order to take depositions from Frenchmen who had the honour to share his exile, as well as those from several officers of the 53rd and 66th Regiments who had been witness to the infamous treatment which he was forced to endure. I succeeded in obtaining several very strong [depositions], among others . . . from the Count of Las Cases and from Montholon, from the Baron de Las Cases and Messrs. Antommarchi, Marchand, etc., who testified to the truth of my work. . . although the judges were forced to find against my accuser, nevertheless. . . they refused to compel him to pay the expenses, something which was heretofore virtually unheard of in such cases. The costs come to over eight hundred pounds sterling. Your Majesty . . . was good enough to bestow on me an annual pension of 1200 francs for life (as compensation for the loss of my pension due for services to the Royal Navy) commencing in 1819. If I am not mistaken, I believe I only twice had the benefit of your generosity, in 1819 and 1820. Therefore please allow me, Madame, to take the liberty of now drawing those pensions for the years 1821, 1822 and the current year in three letters of change of 1200 francs each, in order to deal with the heavy expenses which this case has incurred for me. . .”

At the top of the first page, in another hand, possibly the Countess’, is a note which would have disappointed O’Meara, “Replied on 3 July that it is impossible to satisfy his demand before having consulted with the Count, that we are writing to him, and that when we have his reply we will pass it on to Mr. O’Meara.” After the French defeat at Waterloo (five years to the day before the writing of this letter), emigrated to America, where he lived happily for many years in New Jersey under the name Comte de Survilliers. His wife Julie was deemed to be too delicate to attempt the Atlantic crossing, and remained in Brussels. In fact, O’Meara’s financial circumstances were not quite as difficult as he suggests. In February of that year, he had married Theodosia-Beauchamp. Some years his senior, she had inherited a fortune on the death of her brother, who had allegedly been poisoned by her first husband, who was executed for the crime. The letter is slightly, evenly browned and has traces of guard on the address leaf, but it is nevertheless in very good condition.

“THE CHEVALIER CANOVA WILL EXPECT AND DESIRE . . .” 98. OWEN, William (1769-1825). Portrait Painter. Autograph Letter Signed (“William Owen”) to an unnamed correspondent, written on behalf of the Royal Academy, on a future exhibition of works by the Italian sculptor Antonio Canova. 2 pages 4to, Leicester Square, 17 January 1817. £110 “At a meeting of Council on Wednesday evening, I communicated to the members present, the intimation which I had received from you, that it was probable some works of Canova (now under your care) could be sent to the Royal Academy for the ensuing exhibition. I am desired to express the great pleasure and satisfaction which is felt by the Council, at the prospect of having the Statues for that purpose; it is confidently believed that the Chevalier Canova will expect and desire that his works shall be exhibited to the British Public, at the Royal Academy, as a matter of course, in preference to ny other arrangement; . . .” William Owen, R.A., a successful portrait and genre painter, had been appointed portrait painter to the Prince of Wales in 1810. Antonio Canova (1757-1822), the greatest Italian sculptor since the Renaissance, was very much esteemed in England. His heroic undraped statue of Napoleon is now in Apsley House, London, and his Three Graces is jointly owned by the Victoria and Albert Museum and the National Gallery of Scotland. A little browned, and traces of guard at the left edge of the recto, right edge of the verso.

99. PAGET, Henry, Earl of Uxbridge, later Marquess of Anglesey (1768-1854). Second-in-command at Waterloo. Autograph Letter Signed (“Anglesey”) sending a message to Newgate on behalf of “Butler who had charge of my Stables at Walcheren & in 1815” and was facing a capital charge. 2 pages 8vo, Hastings, 8 June 1826. £425 “I want the inclosed to go immediately to Newgate. Butler who had charge of my Stables at Walcheren & in 1815, is there on a capital charge. I had so good an opinion of Him that I have sent a testimonial of character. Wakely who knew Him, might take it & speak of Him as He thinks He deserves. It would be most inconvenient to me to give testimony personally upon his trial, nevertheless I will do so, if it is thought adviseable. You might ask Mr. Worstner(?) about this.” The Earl of Uxbridge’s dashing style did not win favour with Wellington, nor did his elopement with the Duke’s sister-in-law. On 18 June 1815, however, he distinguished himself time after time and had at least eight horses shot under him. While riding next to Wellington, his right leg was hit by grapeshot, leading to the famous exchange “By God, sir, I’ve lost my leg!” to which Wellington reputedly replied “By God, sir, so you have!” The conjugate leaf has been cut away and replaced by an engraving of a head and shoulders portrait of Anglesey with his coat of arms below. The engraving is heavily foxed but the letter itself is in very good condition. 100. PASSPORT, 1843 British Passport, issued in the name of the Foreign Secretary and future Prime Minister Lord Aberdeen, for Charles McDowall, “Gentilhomme Anglais”, travelling on the continent. 1 page folio in French, engraved and completed in manuscript, with the Royal Arms at the head and Aberdeen’s arms at the foot, signed by Aberdeen at the lower right. As usual, there are several visas stamped on the verso. The folded passport page is laid into a brown leather wallet, which incorporates several blank pages for more visas and notes. London, 31 March 1843. £110 Passports for international travel were not generally compulsory until the First World War in western Europe, but affluent British travellers would often obtain one as it would help to emphasise their status. From 1794 passports were issued under the authority of the Foreign Office rather than the King and were in French. Until 1858 each one was signed personally by the Foreign Secretary; after this date passports were in English and because of greater demand bore the Foreign Secretary’s facsimile signature. Pre-1858 passports are now rather uncommon.

101. PEEL, Sir Robert (1788-1850). Prime Minister 1834-5 and 1841- 46. Autograph Letter Signed (“Robert Peel”) to an unidentified correspondent, responding to an enquiry about the post of Police Magistrate. 1 page 4to, Whitehall Gardens, 10 February 1828. £425 Robert Peel was one of the most successful Home Secretaries Britain has known, and his crowning achievement was the establishment in 1829 of a structured, disciplined police force. “I do not recollect at this moment the exact state of my engagements with respect to the Office of Police Magistrate, but I have such entire confidence in any Recommendation proceeding from you, and I must add should have so much pleasure in doing anything which would be agreeable to you – that I have every disposition to avail myself of the services of Mr. Thomas Walker at the earliest period that it may be in my power to do so.” Thomas Walker was eventually to obtain the post of police magistrate, but he was better known for his periodical, The Original. The articles therein were meant to ‘raise the national tone’, and he appears to have chosen a particularly apt subject in gastronomy, which became the most popular of his articles. Minor tears at the top of the page, not touching the text, have been repaired under our direction. 102. PIPER, John (1903-1992). Artist. Autograph Letter Signed (“John Piper”) to “Dear Mr. Ensor”, returning “a few of the sketches for ‘Job’”. 1 page 8vo, Fawley Bottom, 6 September 1948. £85 “I hasten on to you a few of the sketches for ‘Job’ which Sir K. Clark’s secretary has returned. I hope they are the right kind of thing? Thank you for the poster. It’s rather nice? & very flattering of them! I’m off on Monday to Norfolk for ten days or so, to draw.” Ninette de Valois’s 1931 ballet, Job, with a libretto based on William Blake and music by Ralph Vaughan Williams was revived for the Royal Ballet in 1948 with new decors by Piper.

“ON MY WAY TO AMERICA” 103. PROKOFIEV, Serge (1891-1953). Russian Composer. Autograph Letter Signed (“Serge Prokofieff”) to “Dear Mr. Schwerke” [Irving Schwerke, the American pianist and music critic]. 1½ pages 4to in English written on deep cream paper with the letterhead in red “French-Line, S.S. Paris”, 12 January 1937. £1850

“I am very sorry not to have answered your letter in time. But I wanted to find for you somebody who could correspond for the Musical Courier from Moscow, and this was not so easy. Yet I believe to have found now the right person; this is Prof Kouznetsov, a serious musician and a serious man who knows English – he used to give articles on music to the “Moscow Daily News”. I asked if he would write for Moscow Daily Courier, and he said he would . . . I write you this letter on the S/S “Paris” on my way to America. On Feb. 15th I expect to return to Paris for a week and then go to Russia . . .” Prokofiev left Russia in 1918, after the Bolshevik Revolution, fearingan atmosphere unsympathetic to his experimental music. Living first in America and then in Europe, he enjoyed success with his orchestral music, his opera The Love of Three Oranges and his ballet The Prodigal Son. However his homesickness led him to return permanently to Russia in 1935, and he soon found himself, with Shostakovich, subject to scrutiny and criticism by the regime for his “formalism”. In 1938, the year after he wrote this letter, Prokofiev collaborated with the Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein, writing the very fine score for his epic Alexander Nevsky.

“VIVA VERDI” 104. PUCCINI, Giacomo (1858-1924). Italian Composer. Autograph Musical Quotation Signed (“Giacomo Puccini”) and dated by him February 1911, two bars of music on a hand-drawn stave, captioned by Puccini “Viva Verdi”. Boldly written on an oblong 8vo page, probably from an album. £1750

While still in his teens, Puccini had the position of organist and choirmaster at Lucca, and it is said that he was inspired to compose opera after walking 18 miles to see a performance of Verdi’s Aida at Pisa. Puccini, thirty-five years Verdi’s junior, always deeply revered the older composer. He was regarded as Verdi’s only worthy successor in Italy, and the baton was held to have passed in 1893, which saw the premieres of Verdi’s last opera, Falstaff, and Puccini’s first successful opera, Manon Lescaut. A very attractive tribute, most likely written to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Verdi’s death. Page very slightly browned, but Puccini’s hand is bold and clear. 105. RACKHAM, Arthur (1867-1939). Artist and Illustrator. Autograph Letter Signed (“Arthur Rackham”) to “My dear Heronbrand”, 1 page 8vo, Stilegate, Limpsfield, Surrey, 3 May 1937. £375 Saying “I sent off Barbara’s [his daughter’s] M.S. to you some days ago. I should like to hear if you got it – I did not register it – though no doubt it would have been wiser.” Rackham was most celebrated as the illustrator of such children’s classics as Grimms’ Fairy Tales and Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle. His style, angular and full of stylised Gothic detail, can be deliciously frightening.

106. ROBERTS, Frederick Sleigh, Lord Roberts of Kandahar (1832- 1914). Field Marshal. Autograph Letter Signed (“Roberts”) to Sir Alfred Milner, discussing the “announcement of my taking over the office of President of the N[ational] S[ervice] League”. 2 pages 8vo with integral blank leaf, 47 Portland Place, 15 December 1905. £125 “. . . your idea about delaying the announcement of my taking over the office of President of the N.S. League quite falls in with the views I hold. The members at various places are clamouring for some announcement being made . . . but I will do nothing until you feel yourself in a position to help me. I feel the importance of the matter, and of no mistake being made.” The National Service League was founded in 1902, arguing for compulsory military service in order to boost Britain’s military inadequacy in the face of possible invasion. Sinister threats to Britain’s security were sensationally depicted in the following year’s popular novel, The Riddle of the Sands, but the League remained a minor pressure group until later in the decade, under Lord Roberts’ leadership.

107. ROBERTS, Frederick Sleigh, Lord Roberts of Kandahar (1832- 1914). Field Marshal. Typed Letter Signed (“Roberts F.M.”) to R.B. Winch in Edenbridge, thanking him for his “kind response to my appeal for field glasses”. 1 page 4to, Ascot, 13 October 1914. £145 “I write a line to thank you warmly for your kind response to my appeal for field glasses. Your glasses will be of the greatest possible service to our Non-Commissioned Officers in the field. I am asked by the Commanding Officers of Units which are shortly expected to go to the front to convey their gratitude to the owners of the glasses which will be distributed amongst their men.” At the outbreak of the war, Lord Roberts was appointed commander in chief of the overseas forces serving in France. The contribution he might have made to averting the blunders of the military hierarchy during that conflict will remain one of history’s might-have-beens; he died of pneumonia in November 1914.

108. ROSSINI, Gioacchino (1792-1868). Italian Composer. Autograph Letter Signed (“Rossini”) to “Carlino”, 1 page 8vo in Italian, n.p. [probably Paris], n.d. £975 Asking Carlino to look for a letter from Aguado, Marquis de las Marismas, allowing entry to his (Aguado’s) box at the Grand Opera, and to give it to the porter. The Paris banker Alexandre Aguado, Marquis de las Marismas, was a notable patron of the opera and close friend of Rossini. He was also the owner of the celebrated Chateau Margaux vineyards. Rossini was for many years director of the Italian Theatre in Paris. A little browned, but clear and legible.

109. ROUAULT, Georges (1871-1958). French Artist. Autograph Letter Signed (“G. Rouault”) to Monsieur [Louis] Vauxcelles, the influential art critic. 1 page 8vo in French written on a letter card, with address and portion of stamp on the verso. 77 Rue Blouet, Paris, n.d. [postmarked January, rest of date illegible, but probably c. 1930]. £495 A hastily written letter. Trans: “Can you have returned to me what you have of mine, since my return I have been meaning to pop over to you or at least rue Taitbout. Are you still there? And on what day? At what time? Give me this information. I need the little albums. Rest assured of my good wishes and I am counting on a swift answer if possible. Forgive me for insisting but I am rather rushed.” Rouault’s designs for the Balanchine ballet The Prodigal Son, presented in Diaghilev’s 1929 season, exhibited two of his distinguishing features: a concern with religious imagery, and the strong influence of his early work with stained glass. Indeed, the influence of Rouault’s training as a stained glass designer is evident in all his work, with its characteristic glowing colours, generally outlined with black. In his early career he was also close to artists such as Matisse, Gaugin and Derain, known as the Fauves [wild beasts], a description given to them by the art critic Louis Vauxcelles, to whom Rouault here writes. Slight loss of paper at the head, evidently when the letter was opened, but not affecting the text. Minor mounting trace on address leaf. 110. ROOSEVELT, Franklin Delano (1882-1945). Thirty-second President of the United States, 1933-45. Fine Photograph Inscribed and Signed (“for Robert M. Barker in memory of a delightful day Franklin D Roosevelt”), a handsome sepia head and shoulders portrait. c. 9¾ x 8 ins, clearly inscribed and signed on the beige lower border beneath the image. By Ortho of New York. Undated, but probably c. 1930, when Roosevelt was Governor of New York. £1250 A striking image, showing the clear-eyed, energetic personality of the man who said in his Inauguration Address of 1933 that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” 111. SHAW, George Bernard (1856-1950). Playwright. Autograph Postcard Signed (“G. Bernard Shaw”) to Hans v[on] Briesen in New York, informing him that “The Devil’s Disciple is not yet published. Later on, probably, it will form part of a new volume of plays, mostly unwritten as yet.” 1 page 8vo, written on a postcard issued by the “Union Postale Universelle”, 29 Fitzroy Square, 4 August 1898. £250 The Devil’s Disciple, Shaw’s eighth play but first financial success, had its first performance in New York in 1897. A subversive melodrama set in colonial America during the struggle for independence, it features a real historical figure, General John Burgoyne. The play was not published until 1901, when it was joined by Captain Brassbound’s Conversion and Caesar and Cleoptra; the plays were published together as Three Plays for Puritans.

“I HAVE NEVER AUTOGRAPHED A BOOK FOR SALE” 112. SHAW, George Bernard (1856-1950). Playwright. Typed Letter Signed (“G. Bernard Shaw”) to the novelist [Margaret] Storm Jameson, forcefully declining her appeal to contribute to the Red Cross, evidently by donating one of his manuscripts to be sold for its benefit. 1 page oblong 4to, Ayot St. Lawrence, 13 February 1942. £525 The prolific and successful novelist Storm Jameson (1891-1986), prominent in the anti-fascist and pacifist movements of the 1930’s, abandoned her pacifism with Germany’s attack on France and did her best to contribute to the war effort. Her appeal to Shaw to support the Red Cross here meets his strongly expressed and controversial objection to giving to ‘charity’. “. . . I am no use in charitable matters. The work of the Red Cross should be done by the Government and paid for out of the National Revenue to which everyone has to contribute. This line in preaching is my line. I have never bought a poppy: the whole rosebud garden of girls has rattled its tins at me; but I have run the gauntlet of them all. I have never autographed a book for sale nor allowed a play of mine to be performed without payment of author’s fees. Would you have me, at 85, break this glorious record to enable our warmongers to exploit your generous heart and pay their way by private cadging? Since the winter of 1939 they have had £50,000 from me [by taxation, presumably] I tear up all MSS that I do not publish. My Irish Protestant stock revolts against relics. Anyhow my MSS are all in shorthand. The printed ones are all in the shop window. So you must write me off as N.[o] B.[loody] G.[ood].” 113. SHERIDAN, Richard Brinsley (1751-1816). Playwright and Politician. Autograph Letter Signed (“RS”) to W. Downes at Golden Square saying that “Everything, is safe, ‘till I see Mrs Hudson on Thursday.” 1 page 8vo with integral address leaf, n.p., n.d. [but annotated at the bottom “Recvd Tuesday 2 July 1808”]. £160 This brief note was written at a difficult time for Sheridan. Struggling with debts, things would become dramatically worse for him a year later, when he watched the Theatre Royal Drury Lane burn to the ground from a nearby coffee house. In an exemplary show of sang froid, he commented that “A man may surely take a glass of wine by his own fireside”. Old repair to central horizontal fold on both leaves of the verso. A small oval engraving of Sheridan has been glued to the verso of the text page.

“AN ACTION ON THE 4th ADVANTAGEOUS TO THE ALLIES” 114. SMITH, Sir William Sidney (1764-1840). Admiral. Autograph Letter Signed (“W. Sidney Smith”) to Lord Keith, expressing concern about his belongings and ending with a postscript stating that he has heard from Berlin of “an action on the 4th advantageous to the Allies”. 3½ pages 4to, marked Private, Admiralty waiting room, 27 December 1805. £625 “. . . Mr. Marsden . . . informs me that I shall immediately receive their Lordship’s orders to hoist my flag in the Pompee in Cousand Bay. I have not hesitated under this notification of its being signed to give Captain Bazely orders to haul down my flag on board the Antelope . . . a proportion of my things I find are going round on the Decks of the Explosion much exposed to wet – the rest are left at Dover there not being room for them, may I beg that . . . any other vessel bound to the Westward may be deviated to take them as I . . . shall be inconvenienced without my stores & furniture . . . P.S. Letters from Berlin speak positively of an action on the 4th advantageous to the Allies saying the anxiety had been very great there but that a courier from Hangwitz to the Queen had tranquilised her – further that the Prussian troops had received definitive orders to act.” Napoleon’s most spectacular victory was at Austerlitz on 2 December 1805, when he defeated the combined forces of Austria and Russia. However, in order to allay the fears of the gallant Queen Louise of Prussia, a message was sent to her implying that the Allies had been victorious, and it is no doubt this erroneous information which had been conveyed to Smith. 115. SOULT, Nicolas Jean de Dieu, duc de Dalmatie (1769-1851). French Marshal. Letter Signed (“Soult”) to Marshal Ney telling him of his projected route and requesting information from Ney, together with Ney’s autograph draft reply at the top of the letter. 1 page 4to in French, Eppingen, 6 vendemiaire an 14 [28 September 1805]. £895 Trans: “I thought . . . that your corps was before Pfhorzheim, when an officer from your headquarters, who brought me the despatches from H.E. the Minister of War, told me that at noon you were still at Durlach. Perhaps you will find it appropriate that we agree that [we] enlighten each other with each other’s communications. Today, we saw a few enemy patrols on our right, and tonight a picket of thirty horses which we pursued along the road to Heilbronn. Tomorrow I expect to be at Heilbronn with my divisions. Be good enough, my dear Marshal, to send me news every now and then, and believe my sincere attachment . . . P.S. I beg you to kindly pass the enclosed despatches to the Minister of War.” Immediately above Soult’s message, Ney has drafted the reply, in his own hand: [trans:] “acknowledge receipt of this letter and enclose the route and the position of the army for the 8 behind without however giving any details. Say that the first division is going towards Heidesheim towards Stuttgart and the 2nd and 3rd via Vahnigen in the same direction.” In spite of Soult’s apparently waspish tone in addressing Ney, it was the latter who was to distinguish himself barely a fortnight later withhis victory against the Austrians at Elchingen, whence he derived one of his titles. Two months later, Soult was to play a key role in the Grande Armée’s most impressive victory at Austerlitz. 116. ST. VINCENT, John Jervis, Earl (1735-1823). Admiral. Autograph Letter Signed (“St. Vincent”) to “your Royal Highness” [probably the Prince of Wales], acknowledging that he has received his commands. 1 page oblong 8vo, Gibraltar, 26 July 1799. £350 “I was very happy to receive your Royal Highness commands (through a Channel always partial to me) and I shall be proud to obey them, upon all occasions, having the honor to be . . .” Though still dedicated in his service, St. Vincent’s health had been failing for some time, and he reluctantly relinquished his command of the Mediterranean fleet in July of 1799. After some months rest in England, he was soon given command of the Channel Fleet. Minor remains of mounting on the verso.

117. STEWART, Sir Charles (1778-1854). Army Officer and Ambassador to Vienna. Autograph Letter Signed (“Stewart LGl”) to The Lord Burghersh [minister plenipotentiary in Florence and later founder of the Royal Academy of Music], informing him that “all Posts from France should be stopped and that all Persons in the employment of Buonaparte should be arrested”, in the wake of Napoleon’s return from Elba. 3 pages folio on separate leaves, Vienna, 15 April 1815. £1800 When news of Napoleon’s escape from Elba reached the diplomats assembled at Vienna in March 1815, they immediately declared him an outlaw, effectively making the Emperor a common criminal. Wellington departed for Belgium, leaving Sir Charles Stewart, later Marquess of Londonderry and half-brother of Lord Castlereagh, to deal with matters on behalf of the British delegation. “I have the Honour to inform Your Lordship, that the Respective Cabinets here in Conference have determined to send Orders immediately to the Frontiers, that all Posts from France should be stopped, and that all Persons in the employment of Buonaparte should be arrested. Other individuals who may be travelling, are to proceed to Places, that are to be agreed on in Austria & Prussia, until further orders. It is thus determined to exclude all Communications with the existing French Government. Information has been received, that two Parties exist in Alsace and the neighbouring Country against the Present Government of France, the strongest being in Favour of a Republick, the other for Louis the eighteenth. . . Despatches arrived from England last night to the 3rd of April. The Anglo-Hanoverian & Dutch Army, occupy a line from Alth, by Engheim, to Soignees. A Prussian Corps of 40,000 men are between the Meuse, and Jemappes; It appears, Buonaparte does not seem to be collecting as yet in that quarter. Mr. de Montion’s [Montholon?] arrival has given rise to various Histories. I hope all is as it should be. There is a Project in agitation for another declaration of all the Powers, when anything is decided, you shall have it as early as possible. I hope the affairs of Congress are nearly brought to a Settlement. Austria & Bavaria are very nearly agreed. Italy is settled, and I believe every one will be contented, but the Spanish Plenipotentiary. I have the honour to be. . . “ The Prussians, under Blucher, very soon arrived at Liège, whence he was able to move quickly in an attempt to block Napoleon’s advance. The battle at Ligny on 16 June resulted in Blucher’s defeat and was Napoleon’s last military victory. The letter has been very slightly trimmed at the left margin. “THE RETURN OF THE MASTER TO THE SEA SHORE” 118. SWINBURNE, Algernon Charles (1837-1919). Poet. Autograph Letter Signed (“A. C. Swinburne”) to “Madame” [the Russian- born writer Tola Dorian], 2 pages large 8vo in French on separate leaves, The Pines, Putney Hill, 23 June 1881. £795 A fine letter in which Swinburne expresses his deep admiration ofthe “Maitre”, Victor Hugo. Tola Dorian had evidently informed Swinburne of Hugo’s return to Guernsey, where he had lived in exile until Napoleon III’s overthrow in 1870. However, she may well have been mistaken, as according to the chronology in Gregory Stevens Cox’s authoritative Victor Hugo in the Channel Islands (1996), Hugo visited Guernsey for the last time in 1878. At the end of his life Hugo was widely regarded as the greatest living French writer and a symbol of republicanism. Swinburne’s veneration was deep, and a year after Hugo’s death in 1885 he published a penetrating study of his life and work. “I have delayed for a day or two expressing the thanks which I owe you, in order to be able to send you a taste of my ode ‘To the Statue’ which I did not finish until yesterday. It seemed to me that that would be the best way of acknowledging the present of your beautiful verses, which I have read with a profound feeling of sympathy and admiration – especially those in which you have saluted the return of the Master to the sea shore. It is there, rather than in Paris, that I always like to think of him, as in the days of my adolescence when I read and reread Les Chatiments [Hugo’s great satirical poem on France under Napoleon III] on the shore of that same sea [Swinburne’s family home was on the Isle of Wight] – ‘the good sea’, as M. Lethierry says, and and my father used to say, an old sailor who knew it well. But, the only time when I went to Guernsey, I only saw the eyrie of the . Perhaps one day I will be allowed to return to pay homage in person, but I would not permit myself to disturb him without an invitation . . .” This letter is unpublished, but other letters from Swinburne to Tola Dorian, the wife of a Parisian banker, are in Cecil Lang’s six volume edtion of Swinburne’s letters, published 1959-62.

119. TALLEYRAND, Charles Maurice, Prince de Bénévent (1754- 1838). French Statesman. Document Signed (“ch mau talleyrand”), as Napoleon’s Foreign Minister, a passport for Citizen Belleteste, secretary-interpreter to the Envoy Extraordinary (i.e., Ambassador) to the Bey of Tunis, travelling to Marseille. 1 page large folio with a large and impressive vignette showing the figure of liberty holding the tablets of the laws of the Republic, a lion at her feet with a scroll of the laws, a globe beside her and an angel carrying an olive branch holding a scroll with the words “Alliance / Sureté / Protection / Chez l’Etranger”. 1 page large folio, c. 18 x 12 ins., Paris, 8 floreal an 11 [28 April 1803]. £900 A most attractive document. The Citizen Belleteste who was travelling to Marseille was a noted orientalist, and one of the scholars who had gone to Egypt with Napoleon in 1798. The work produced by these scholars, the Description de l’Egypte was perhaps the only worthwhile lasting monument to Napoleon’s adventure in the Middle East. Belleteste eventually joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as an interpreter. He produced translations of various works written in Arabic, including a treatise on precious stones. At the time, travellers required a passport for journeys undertaken within France as well as to foreign parts. The document has been inlaid and is somewhat weak at the folds, but this does not detract from its overall attractive appearance. 120. TELEGRAPHY, 1799 Letter Signed (“Dinant”), a copy of a telegraphic communication from the Director of Telegraphic Communication at Strasburg to the Chief of Staff, imparting the information that he has just received from the head of the Army of the [Massena] that the enemy has been driven from Switzerland. 1 page 4to in French, with an attractive vignette of a small pyramid with a telegraphic arm on top, and specifying that it is from the Telegraphic Line from Basle to Strasburg. Strasburg, 20 vendemiaire an 8 [12 October 1799]. £695 Trans: “Telegraphic Transmission. The General in Chief of the Army of the Danube announces by his note of today that the enemy are entirely driven from Helvetia.” In the summer of 1799, France was once again threatened by Austria and Russia. Massena was brought back into active service and in March 1799 was given the command of the French troops in Switzerland. On 25 September, he achieved a decisive victory at the Battle of Zurich, an event which was acclaimed as having saved the Republic and the revolution. A system of telegraphy based on semaphores, transmitted via mechanisms placed on towers and hills at regular intervals, was developed by Claude Chappe in 1793. Although very basic, and falling prey to fog and bad visibility, it nevertheless proved a significant improvement in communications. It was estimated that a message from Paris could reach Strasburg in six hours. Construction of these structures increased greatly after Napoleon’s coup d’etat in November 1799. A most unusual letter. 121. TENNANT, Stephen (1906-1987). Aesthete. Group of Autograph Letters to his nephew Simon Blow, 1972 – 1980s, many undated, and five autograph envelopes. In all, 16 pages primarily small 4to. Wilsford Manor, or unidentified. Together with an autograph essay “Some thoughts on Religion”, 5 pages 4to., n.d. £1500 The letters, many taking the form of casual notes, betray a mind both creative and, perhaps, confused. Written with a striking abundance of underlinings, the first letters are written with a thick felt-tip pen. A series of “jingles”, as he calls them, include “Jane Austen the Diplomat supreme / She wrote prose like Devonshire Cream”. Later, he counsels him on his writing and his life: “I guessed you were struggling and groaning over the Poe book. To do your Best Writing you must Discipline your Days. . . . Exclude trivial people, only see Wise, Rich- Natured friends. Yes, Emily D. – wooing the Infinite! . . . So Alive! one swoons at her Passion! . . . Use colourful phrases – think of your Art, as a Wild, blithe, Mustang which only you can tame. . . one day you must visit Mexico.” Writing to “Dearest Naughty Simon” who was then in Brighton, Tennant quotes Anna de Noailles, “my Beloved Anna” and asks him “Is there a Sailor’s Tattoo Parlour in Brighton’s Babylon by the Sea?” In November 1974, Tennant asks if he went to the Anita Loos luncheon, adding “I long to know Sandy Wilson – of Boyfriend fame . . . Im putting Real terror into this Novel, Simon a Roman à Clef. sombre appalling in its sadistic stealth . . .also Im studying Coptic Amulets, gnostic charms, Omens . . .” In another scrawled missive, he writes “. . . Max E. thinks your volm. on SS [Siegfried Sassoon] should recieve [sic] all your attention . . .Christopher (now 80!) has just gone; he is so dynamic! Alive! Sage – so loveable . . . Sometimes my odd Marseilles Thriller; Lascar haunts me” . . .” A series of notes, or thoughts, on religious belief appear scribbled on the verso of the last page of a letter from Sandra Jobson, evidently seeking information for her biography of Lady Ottoline Morrell. “Mystical faith is Inexpressible . . . Some people feel more free if they have no religious faith. Atheism gives them a wider scope to discover – to become more truly themselves . . . To be quite sure of anything is to be fooled by everything.” In five pages of notes entitled “Some thoughts on Religion”, Tennant proposes some idiosyncratic ideas. “. . . Only with pleasure can we approach the great mysteries. . . I think we mean that all truth is errant, fugitive, Like Euridice, – melting away from the embrace of Orpheus . . . Certainly very stupid, dense, opinionated people, often seem serene . . . Ethics and Morals are fascinating, mystical awe, prayer (not religious mania) are an intrinsic part of Human Nature . . . life would be bleak if Ascetic renunciation ruled the world in toto . . . Asceticism must not be over-praised . . .”

122. THELWELL, Norman (1923-2004). Artist and cartoonist. Card Signed and inscribed (“Best wishes to Daniel Weller from Norman Thelwell”), with a printed Thelwell cartoon of his famous little girl on a plump pony racing along with the words “Good luck from me and Mr. T”. 1 page oblong 8vo, n.p., n.d. [but after 1978]. £70 Norman Thelwell’s cartoons cover a range of subjects, and he was also an accomplished artist. However, he will always be best-loved and remembered for his scenes of plump little girls on plump little ponies, which hefirst started drawing for Punch in the early 1950s.

123. VENICE, 1480 Document in the name of Joannes [Giovanni] Mocenigo, Doge of Venice, a passport for his ‘ductor’ [waggoner], Gaspar of Perugia, who is going to Perugia “pro nonnullis eius negotiis” [for some of his business] and asking that he be given free pasage through lands, castles, towns and bridges, with ten horses, his arms, and all his baggage. 1 page oblong folio in Latin on vellum, the text in an accomplished humanistic hand. The small lead Dogal seal is attached by the original brown cord. Dogal Palace, Venice, 25 January 1480. £1950 The Mocenigo were a distinguished Venetian family, seven of whose members became Doges. Giovanni Mocenigo ruled from 1478 until his death in 1485. In the year of this document,1480, he was painted by Gentile Bellini. In the same year he supported the Papal forces in opposing the invasion of Italy by Mehmet II, the conqueror of Constantinople. A handsome and unusual document in fine condition. One or two small holes at the top, far from the text, and a short split at the right blank margin.

124. WALTON, William (1902-1983). English Composer. The printed vocal score of Walton’s opera Troilus and Cressida, 360 pages folio, black cloth, Oxford University Press, 1954. Signed and dated by the composer on the title page “William Walton 1980”. £375 Troilus and Cressida, with a libretto by Christopher Hassall and based on Chaucer’s poem rather than Shakespeare’s play, had its premiere at Covent Garden on 3 December 1954, conducted by Malcolm Sargent. It was only moderately successful, and Walton revised the score for its reviival in 1976. The first production had fine singers – Richard Lewis as Troilus and Magda Laszlo as Cressida – but Walton appears to have been disappointed both with them and the conductor, whom he felt had not properly learned the score.

125. WELLINGTON, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of (1769-1852). Victor of Waterloo. Document Signed (“Arthur Wellesley M G”), as the Major General “Commanding the Troops serving in Mysore, in the provinces of Malabar, & Canara”, a warrant appointing Lieut. Col. William Harness “President of a General Court Martial . . . in Camp at Poonah” on the 18th of May 1803. 1 page large oblong folio, with small paper seal, countersigned by Robert Barclay, Deputy Adjutant General, Mysore. Poonah, 17 May 1803. £1950 Harness is instructed to “hear, try and determine all matters and informations touching the misbehaviour of any Commission Officer, Soldier, or other person, or persons, belonging to his Majesty’s or the Honorable Company’s Forces under my Command, by Mutiny, Desertion or otherwise . . .” Wellesley had entered Poonah at the end of April, and swiftly restored the Peshwah. Peace proved elusive, however, and it was only with his remarkable victory at Assaye in September of this year that order would be restored in India. Lieut. Col. William Harness (1762-1840) spent most of his military career in India, where he was sufficiently well regarded by Wellesley to be entrusted with command of the army for a period after the battle of Seringapatam. He later distinguished himself at the battle of Assaye. His nephew, also called William, was a distinguished literary scholar and school friend of Byron. An exceptional document, in excellent condition. Letters and documents from the peiod of Wellington’s campaigns in India are rare.

126. WELLINGTON, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of (1769-1852). Victor of Waterloo. Letter Signed (“Wellington”), confirmation of an exchange of prisoners between M. Robert, commissary in the French Army and Mr. Larpent, Deputy Judge Advocate in the British Army. 1 page folio with red wax seal, “Headquarters of the British Army”, 29 S e p t e m b e r 1813. £995 “. . .The Exchange of these Officers having been a r r a n g e d , Mons. Robert is permitted to return to the French Army, and will consider himself at liberty to serve as soon as Mr. Larpent returns to the British Army.” Wellington has added in his hand “Given under my hand and Seal at the HeadQuarters of the British Army this twenty ninth day of September 1813.” The exchange of prisoners in this instance was between two non-combatants, which presumably explains the respective armies’ readiness to allow them to return to service. As Deputy Judge Advocate, Larpent would primarly have dealt with court martials. Francis Seymour Larpent had been serving on the western circuit when he was appointed Deputy Judge Advocate in the Peninsula in 1812. He served until 1814. An interesting document, in very good condition, with the greater part of the red wax seal, slightly cracked, at the lower left. 127. WELLINGTON, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of (1769-1852). Victor of Waterloo. Autograph Letter Signed (“Wellington”), five days after becoming Prime Minister, to the Duke of Argyll [here spelt by Wellington “Argyle”], Keeper of the Great Seal in Scotland, requesting him to resign from his post. 2 pages 4to, London, 27 January 1828. £625 Wellington had succeeded his fellow Tory Viscount Goderich as Prime Minister on 22 January 1828. It was hoped that he could keep his fractious party together and find a way to deal with the two most contentious issues of the day, Catholic Emancipation and Parliamentary reform. Wellington did indeed achieve Catholic Emancipation in 1829, but Parliamentary refom had to wait for Lord Grey’s Whig government, which took office in 1830. Every new Prime Minister, even if of the same Party as his predecessor, wishes to fill important posts with his own supporters or those to whom he owes obligations. As Argyll could not possibly have refused to resign his post, this is in effect a letter of dismissal, albeit an extremely tactful one. Wellington and Argyll had been friendly acquaintances for years, and indeed had both, at the same time, been lovers of the notorious courtesan Harriet Wilson. “No duty I have performed since I have been charged with the reconstruction of the Administration, has given me half the Half the [sic] Pain which I feel in making this communication to you; and I sincerely wish that the task had fallen upon somebody else. The King’s Service requires that I should ask you to resign Your Office of Keeper of the Great Seal in Scotland, and you may be assured and what I have above stated will prove it to you that if I was not convinced of the necessity of making this Request, I would not have made it.”

128. WOOD, Haydn (1882-1959). Composer. Autograph Musical Quotation Signed (“Haydn Wood”), two bars from his Roses of Picardy, identified and initialled at the top by the composer, and with the lyric below “Ro-ses are shining in Picardy”. 1 page small 8vo, 5 April 1949. £145 Haydn Wood composed over two hundred songs and was a noted violinist, but he is remembered today for this well-loved sentimental song of the First World War, composed in 1916 with lyrics by Fred Weatherly. There are minor traces of mounting on the verso, but this is a very attractive musical quotation. No. 2, Richard, Duke of York No. 18, [Queen Victoria]