[‘Gray’s Desk on which he wrote the Elegy’: Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, London auctioneers.] Letters and accounts from Sotheby’s to Mrs Sarah Turpin, relating to the 1915 sale of ‘Letters and Relics’ by Thomas Gray, including priced catalogue entries

A nice collection of ephemera, relating not only to one of England’s best-loved poets, but also to Sotheby’s auction practice during the Great War. The provenance of the Gray letters put up for auction by Mrs Turpin is given in a New York Times article of 27 June 1915 (‘To sell relics of Thomas Gray; many letters by the poet will also be put up at auction at Sotheby's’), which stated in a report on the forthcoming sale that the letters ‘were transmitted to the present owner, Mrs. Turpin, from her father, John Hobbs, to whom they came in about 1840 through the marriage of a relative to a connection of the Antrobus family’ (this information coming from p.39 of the auction catalogue, see Item Eleven). The consignor Sarah Turpin was the second wife of the organist Edmund Hart Turpin, who has an entry in the Oxford DNB. Eleven items. The material is in fair condition, with the Sotheby letters lightly aged; the other items are more heavily discoloured, and the title leaf of the catalogue (Item Eleven) has been torn into two pieces. ONE to SEVEN: Correspondence from Sotheby’s to Mrs Turpin, dating from between 28 July 1914 and 9 July 1915. The seven items are each 1p, 12mo; the first and last are in manuscript, four in typescript, and the last is a printed form. Begins with a simple receipt, 28 July 1914: ‘Received of Mrs Turpin / Bundle of Grays letters / Knife & fork in Leather Case / Sotheby Wilkinson & Hodge’. In the second letter, 22 July 1914, the auction house states that ‘Gray’s Desk on which he wrote the Elegy, his knife & fork and other personal items you mention should certainly be of interest, and, if you have authentic evidence as to pedigree, they should realise a good price at auction. Could you bring them down to us one day for inspection at an early date? We should be happy to give you our opinion as to value without charge provided, if satisfactory, they are left with us for sale. The volume of Gray’s Poems 1775 would, we fear, be of small value.’ On 6 January 1915 the firm reports that ‘we have now found the knife and fork and letters of Thomas Gray the poet which you left with us early in August. Gray’s letters are very uncommon and those you have sent us are of importance though the majority of them are not unfortunately of much general interest in themselves. One of our principals will be very pleased to come down and see you to discuss matters relating to the sale & to examine the bureau’. On 22 April 1915 Sotheby’s states that they ‘have not however as yet thought it advisable to hold any sales of books, manuscripts or relics since the War began’. A month later they state that they propose to include ‘your letters and relics of Thomas Gray the Poet in a good sale which we hope to arrange for the beginning of July’, sending a description for correction and asking for Mrs Turpin’s father’s ‘full name and the approximate date at which he came into possession of the Relics’. A printed for completed on 9 July 1915 records the sale of the material on 8 July, for the gross amount of £66 8s 0d. In the final letter, 12 July 1915, the firm states that it is ‘sorry that you are disappointed at the result of your sale last week though we think that in the present circumstances the result of the sale was fairly satisfactory’. The letter concludes: ‘We shall be glad to sell your first editions of Dickens if they are clean copies though of course they have been greatly reduced in value through having been bound.’ EIGHT: Undated printed receipt, completed without date, giving the amount received by Mrs Turpin as £57 18s 6d. NINE: Manuscript accounts sent to Mrs Turpin, giving the ‘Gross amount of Sale’, £66 8s 0d; charges for ‘Carriage, Men’s time &c removing’, 3s 6d; ‘Commission @ 12½ per cent, £8 9s 6d, and amount recieved as per Item Nine. Written lengthwise on the recto of the second leaf of an 8vo bifolium, with the recto of the first leaf carrying an ornately-printed covering page for items Ten and Eleven, around which the bifolium is stitched. The sixteen lines of printed text are also printed lengthwise, and boast of the firm’s business as ‘Auctioneers for the disposal of Libraries, Collections of Prints, Pictures, Drawings, Coins, Medals, Porcelain, Pottery, Silver, Antiquities’, stating at the end that ‘The original series of Sale Catalogues from the year 1744 is open for reference in the British Museum.’ In manuscript: ‘July 7. 1915’ and ‘Mrs. Turpin, in a/c with’. TEN: Printed form, completed for sale of 8 July 1915, stating that Mrs. Turpin ‘is the proprietor of the following lots in the enclosed Catalogue’ (lots 371 to 384). ELEVEN: Cover (torn in two), title-leaf, first two pages and two leaves carrying pp.39-42 of the Sotheby’s sale catalogue for 7 and 8 July 1915. Lots 371 to 384 on pp.39 to 41 are ‘Relics of Thomas Gray, the Poet, 1716-1771, and unpublished Autograph Letters from him to his favourite cousin, Mary (Molly) Antrobus, to whom he addressed his last recorded words: “Molly, I shall die.” | The Letters and Relics have been transmitted to the present owner from her father, John Hobbs, F.R.C.S. to whom they came about 1840, through the marriage of a relative to a connexion of the Antrobus family.’ Lot 377 made the most at £11 5s 0d: ‘A. L. s. 1 p. 4to, May 3, 1759, Gloucester Street, to the same, asking her to join him in town, and referring to Bob and Dolly, her brother and sister. In a postscript he alludes to Mrs. O. (the poet’s paternal aunt, Mrs. Olliffe, whom he once called “the Spawn of Cerberus upon the Dragon of Wantley”), who / is never good for anything, but when she is laid up, and can do nothing: as she recovers, she recovers her Tantrums, etc.’