EIGHTEENTH

Sitter, artist and engraver all have entries in the Oxford DNB. No copy in the National Portrait Gallery. In good condition, lightly aged, on good paper with small embossment of castle. Dimensions of paper, 14.25 x 22.5cm. Dimensions of print, 12.5 x 17.75cm. Oval portrait, 10 cm wide and 13 cm high. Without date or place, but produced as the frontispiece to Stockdale’s 1809 memoirs. A half-length portrait of Stockdale, his face turned to the left, with white cravat and powdered hair, loosely wrapped in a coat.

This is a document which would certainly repay investigation. No record of this firm of merchants has been discovered, or even of where they traded. Robison is a Scottish name, and there is an undated reference to a ‘James Robison, merchant in Dumfries’; most Shuttleworth’s hail from the north-east of England, and there is mention of a John Shuttleworth in Manchester in 1820. Other clues in the document suggest a London location: in 1793 Napper and Co.

See the articles on Antes by Donald M. McCorkle in the Musical Quarterly, 1956, and Richard D. Claypool, in the Moravian Music Foundation Bulletin, 1978. Seven copies listed on JISC (only three in deposit libraries); now scarce. 8pp, 12mo. Disbound. In fair condition, worn and discoloured. Vignette on cover shows Osman Bey sitting cross-legged while two of his followers whip the unfortunate Antes, while a third looks on. Drophead title, p.2: ‘Anecdotes in the Life of John Antes, A Moravian Missionary.’

A friend of Horace Walpole, she was described by Boswell, after a dinner with her and Dr Johnson, as ‘the beautiful, gay, and fascinating Lady Craven’. See her entry in the Oxford DNB. The three items are laid down with eight other items (see the end of this description) on pieces of paper cut down from two leaves of an album. Somewhat discoloured with age, but in fair overall condition. The recipient or recipients of the second and third letters (laid down on the same piece of paper) are not named, although the third is written to a member of her ‘fishing gentry’.

JISC records copies in five Scottish libraries, Birmingham University and the BL. Duplicated typescript. 50pp, 4to. Five-page introduction paginated, the rest not. Leaf of addenda loosely inserted. Printed on versos of leaves and stapled into buff paper wraps with title printed on the front. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. The forty-four pages of the catalogue proper carry a total of 106 scholarly entries on exhibits.

See his long entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, with negligible remnants of windowpane mount adhering at edges of blank reverse. Reads: ‘Mr. Romilly presents his compliments to Mr. Williams and informs him that he is obliged to go out of Town tomorrow & that he has not been able to finish the Bill in this Cause but he will take it with him into the Country & send it to Mr. W. in two or three days’.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB, which states that ‘During his periods of ‘madness’, George III imagined that he was married to Lady Pembroke. Apparently, 'his infatuation went back to the days when he was only seventeen and she, of the same age, was Elizabeth Spencer'. The king went so far as to make 'her handsome offers if she would be his mistress.’ [...] In 1804 the king suffered another attack of dementia and again announced his desire for Lady Pembroke. This situation aroused some amusement among younger courtiers since she was by this time almost seventy years old.” 1p, 12mo.

For information about this brave and gallant man, who offered himself to be hanged in place of his fellow officers during the Nore Mutiny, see his entry in the Oxford DNB. The presence of these four items together may indicate a Victorian autograph dealer as the source, or perhaps a family member wishing to distribute keepsakes. Some with tantalizing fragments of surviving text. All four in good condition, some with fold lines. ONE: 14.5 x 6.5 cm. On one side: ‘[...] Ever your truly obliged and / Affectionate Friend / Edward O’Bryen’.

According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, it was de Calonne’s efforts at reform, which precipitated the crisis which let to the French Revolution. The present item is on a 31 x 22 cm piece of parchment. In good condition, lightly aged, with a couple of closed tears.

See Powell’s entry in the Oxford DNB. While presiding over the 1712 trial of Jane Wenham for witchcraft he ruled that there was ‘no law against flying’. 1p, long 8vo. On recto of first leaf of bifolium. Folded twice. On laid paper with government watermark, with two blind-stamped sixpenny tax stamps at head of page. Text intact, but with wear, closed tears and slight loss to some edges and a crease. Text by Powell himself, signed ‘John Powell’, with red wax seal (without any impression). Signed at foot of page: ‘Wittness | W Price’. Endorsed with date on reverse of second leaf.

1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with stub from mount adhering along one edge. From the celebrated manuscript collection of Richard Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton). In 1787 Didot published Florian's 'Mélanges de poésie et de littérature'. A courtly and characteristic response to a request for information, reading: 'Mr. de florian a l'honneur de souhaiter le bon jour a monsieur Firmin. [a contemporary hand glosses this as 'Didot'] il arrive de la Campagne, et ne peut lui donner aucun détail sur cequ'il [sic] demande. demain il s'en informera, ou priera qu'on s'en informe.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On one side of a 12 x 11 cm piece of paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Reads: 'Lincoln's Inn Fields | 23d. June 1829 | Sir Wm. Grant will have the honor of joining the Old Fish Dinner party on Saty. the 27th. of June.'

Four sets of travel instructions by George III, all in his autograph, none dated but seemingly relating to the same journey, taking in the Highfield House estate of General Sir William Augustus Pitt (c. 1728-1809), and also referring to Egham, Basingstoke, Winsdsor, Andover. A referring to the novelist Fanny Burney (1752-1840), narrows the date of at least one of the documents to between 1786 and 1790, the period during which Burney was a Keeper of the Robes. On four leaves, and totalling 5pp, ranging in size from 4to to long narrow 8vo (see descriptions below for dimensions).

A very nice artefact of one of the best-loved books in the England language, Gilbert White's 'Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne', which at one point was claimed to be the fourth most-printed book after the Bible, Shakespeare, and Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress'. White's entry in the Oxford DNB concludes by describing the book as 'an expression of universal thanksgiving, treasured by all'.

On one side of a slip of laid paper cut from the end of a letter: roughly 4 x 17 cm, the reverse being blank. In good condition, lightly aged. Good neat signature to the valediction of a letter. Reads: 'I am my d [Phippen?] | (in great haste | Yours very truly | Jos: S: Munden'. Munden eas the subject of one of the "Essays of Elia" (Charles Lamb).

On one side of 8 x 18.5 cm piece of paper, torn from the end of a letter. In fair condition, aged and worn, with traces of brown paper from mount adhering to the blank reverse. The item would appear to be entirely in the hand of the Earl, but the matter is not quite certain, and it may be in a secretarial hand, with only Cork's signature in autograph. It reads: '[...] | Sir | Your Royal Highness's | very obedient | and very humble Servant | Cork | Col | [Som.?] Reg.] Addressed to 'His R. H. | The Duke of York | &c &c &c'. Annotated, in two separate contemporary hands: 'Novr. 1795' and 'Nov.

1p, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. From the celebrated manuscript collection of Richard Monckton Milnes (Baron Houghton). Addressed by Girodet on reverse 'préssée | A Monsieur | Monsieur Gros peintre d'histoire rue des champs Elissés la 1ere or 2e porte cochere a droite'.

14pp, 4to. Stitched into grey printed wraps. In good condition, lightly aged, with one corner slightly dog-eared. 143 lots, divided into two sections: 'Miniatures and Enamels' and 'Objects of Vertu'. The snuff-boxes feature in the latter, and include: '112 A Louis XVI. plain oblong gold snuff-box, with rounded ends and reeded borders - bearing the mark of Henri Clavel, Paris 1778 - the rim engraved "DU PETIT DUNKERQUE"' and '122 A LOUIS XV.

St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics was founded in 1750 by City of London philanthropists to treat mental illness among the poor of London. In 1786 it moved from Moorfields to Old Street, where it remained until 1916. Simmons was appointed physician to the hospital in 1781. 6pp, 16mo. A piece of laid watermarked paper has been neatly torn into three 16 x 10 cm leaves: a bifolium, with the single leaf loosely inserted. In good condition, lightly aged. A poignant artefact. Simple, brief notes, giving age, name, date [of admission], address, some with follow-up notes. The six women are 'Eliz.

The three leaves are worn, aged and stained. Two of the leaves carry the four pages of 'The Epistle to the Reader', by the editor Daniel Burgess, and at the head of the first of these pages is the ownership inscription: 'Ex dono Tho. Hollis'. The third leaf is the title, and the title-page has two ownership signatures at the head, neither of them legible. Sotheby sold the united library of Hollis, Thomas Brand Hollis and John Disney in 1817.

1p, 8vo. Aged and worn, with closed tears, chipping and creasing. Several folds. The full heading reads: 'Case on Mr. Chrisr. Blacketts Will & Mr. Ords Opinion | See Copy of Will'. Endorsed on reverse: '1750 June 13th - | Copy | Mr. Ords Opinion on Mr. Blacketts Will'. Twenty-eight lines of neatly-written text, arranged as two queries, each with its answer. Contains a couple of corrections by Ord. The case concerns the various claims on a freehold of 'Mrs. Eliz: Smart and Mrs. Martha Maria Bellassyse' and 'Mrs. Blackett'. The various families in the case hailed from the north-east of England.

Manuscripts in a contemporary hand of two poems which won the University of Oxford Chancellor's Prize for Latin Verse, neither of them published. In 1789, Canning, as a Christ Church undergraduate, won the prize for the second of the two, 'Iter ad Meccam Religionis causa susceptum'; and in 1792 John Richardson, 'Scholar of University', won it for the first of the two, 'Maria Scotorum Regina'. The manuscript of the two poems totals 29pp, 8vo. The pages are written lengthwise on fifteen of the twenty leaves of a stitched booklet of laid paper with Britannia watermark.

For Brodrick's distinguished and eventful career, see his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, folio. In fair condition, aged and worn, with chipping to one edge carrying traces of grey paper mount, and closed tear at foot repaired on reverse with archival tape. Addressed at bottom left 'To the Honle: Board of Ordnance'. Reads: 'Gentlemen | I wrote you the 7th Inst: to desire that you would please to appoint an Armorer for his Majestys Ship the Phoenix under my Command and now that I am going to Longreach and my Smallarms Coming on Board I beg you Will appoint for me'. Endorsed: 'answer'd 26 August'.

See E. A. H. Webb, 'History of the 12th (The Suffolk) Regiment, 1685-1913' (1914). Picton was the uncle of 'the illustrious Picton', Lt-Gen. Sir Thomas Picton (1758-1815), who was his sole executor and residuary legatee. The year of Picton's birth is variously reported, but the Monthly Magazine, December 1811, is among several sources reporting his death in Bond Street at the age of 87. 4pp, folio. Bifolium. In fair condition, aged and with closed tears along the three fold lines. Endorsed on reverse of second leaf: '12th.

The letter is 1p, 12mo, and is accompanied by the covering 8vo leaf, addressed to 'John Atkins Esqre | Duke Street | Westminster', with a second signature for franking. The covering leaf is endorsed: 'Admiralty August 21 1806 | Adml. Markham concerning Miles Burn that it would be impossible to get him reinstated'. Both letter and covering leaf in good condition, lightly aged and worn, with fold lines. Markham could hardly be more decisive.

1p, 4to. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, and folded several times. The main text reads: 'Gentn | By inserting the following correct [last word underlined] Statement of Benefits at the Liverpool Theatre (this season) in your next Mirror you'll particularly oblige your most obt. Servt. | Edwd. Murray'. Beneath this is a list of the names of 15 individuals, with the amount of money made by each one's benefit, coming to a total of £2665. The list begins with 'Miss Murray £263' and ends with 'Mr Simmons 101'. The penultimate entry is for 'Mr Wild (Prompter) 103'.

1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. Written in a clear and attractive hand. The recipient is not named. Begins: 'My dear & ever-honoured Friend! | Some business of great importance kept me nine days absent from this Capital. At my return I found your most obliging Letter of the 7th. instant, & was exceedingly delighted with your Kindness. You are indeed a matchless Nobleman.' He asks if the recipient is acquainted with Prince Charles of [Cunandia?], adding: 'I swear you knew the strangest varlet that ever was. It is pity.

The recipient of the present letter is not named, but it is the scientific bookseller and publisher John Nourse (1705-1780), who the following year would published the 'Lectures' referred to in the letter: 'An Introduction to Physiology, being A Course of Lectures upon The most important Parts of the Animal Oeconomy', 'Printed for J. Nourse at the Lamb opposite Katherine-Street in the Strand.

See Manning's entry in Munk's Roll. The recipient was father of 'Broke of the Shannon', the naval hero Admiral Sir Philip Bowes Vere Broke (1776-1841). 1p, foolscap 8vo. On aged and worn paper, with tide staining at one edge, which is repaired with archival tape, and thin strip of paper from mount on the blank reverse. Addressed at foot to 'Ph: B: Broke Esqr: | Broke's Hall | Near Ipswich'.

The recipient is not named, but as the letter makes clear it is Thomas Cadell the elder (1742-1802), successor to the celebrated bookseller Andrew Millar (1705-1768) in the Strand. Millar was one of the booksellers concerned in the first edition of Monro's 'Account of the Diseases which were most frequent in the British Military Hospitals in Germany' ('London: Printed for A. Millar, D. Wilson, and T. Durham, in the Strand; and T. Payne, at the Mews-Gate.') The letter casts light on the relationship between author and publisher in the eighteenth-century London book trade. 2pp, 4to.