GEORGIAN

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

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

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

This collection of 113 items, dating from the middle of the eighteenth century, relates to a notable London landmark. Until the end of the nineteenth century the Old South Sea House, headquarters of the South Sea Company (Company of Merchants Trading to the South Seas and other Parts of America), stood on the corner of Threadneedle Street and Bishopsgate Street. A young Charles Lamb worked here for nearly six months in 1792, and wrote the first of the ‘Essays of Elia’ about the place.

Bligh’s entry in the Oxford DNB does not note his service on HMS Wasp, to which he was appointed in October 1774. According to one authority the ship ‘saw service out of Passage, County Cork, Ireland from [November 1774]. In October 1775 [Bligh] brought sixty volunteers from Ireland into Plymouth, and in June 1776 sailed from Portsmouth to Plymouth with money for the dockyard artificers.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. While shunning the limelight, Newcastle was an influential figure in British politics; it was through his lobbying that his cousin Sir Henry Clinton was appointed commander-in-chief of the British forces in America during the American Revolution. According to Timothy Mowl's 1996 biography of Horace Walpole, Newcastle was 'famed for an unusually large penis', which he deployed on both sexes. On one side of a 12 x 19 piece of laid paper, with large triangle cut at top right (not near signature).

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

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

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

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

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, which notes his unpopularity at his college Christ’s, which terminated his fellowship in 1783. According to Fanny Burney he was ‘dullness itself’. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, on lightly aged and browned paper. Folded for postage. Signed ‘A. Shephard Plume’s Profr. / Camb.’ The recipient is not named.

All 18 items are in very good condition, with slight signs of age and wear. Items One and Eighteen are letters (Eighteen being a ‘triplicate’), the other sixteen items are accounts, with items Five to Eighteen relating to the firm of the New York merchant Lewis Simond. Items Seven, Nine and Twelve are copies (i.e. written out afresh but containing the same text) of Items Six, Eight and Eleven. ONE: Henry Hough (overseer of the Bounty Hall estate, Jamaica) to ‘William Fairclough / Green Park’: Autograph Letter Signed.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Removed from album, and closely trimmed, having been cut down to 9 x 7 cm, with corners cropped. Lightly aged, with one fold for postage. In neat close hand, reads: ‘My dear Lady Burdett / I am very sorry indeed that an Engagement from which I cannot release myself will deprive me of so great a pleasure. Yours ever / S Rogers.’ See image

Abercorn was characterized by Walpole as ‘his taciturnity, the Earl’. His entry in the Oxford DNB describes him as ‘a patron of the arts, a builder, and the consolidator of the family's property and influence’. 1p, 4to. On recto of first leaf of bifolium, with verso of second leaf docketed and with 1884 date stamp. In good condition, lightly aged. An excellent example of Abercorn’s bold hand and signature. Reads: ‘London March 10. 1768.

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

See his entries in the Oxford DNB and History of Parliament. The signature (‘Vere’) is good and bold, at the bottom right of the document, as is that of first witness Henry Woodall (‘Hez Woodall’), but there is slight loss at the beginning of the signature of the second witness ‘[...] Ogborn’, and the left side of the document has been torn away also causing loss to printed text, and there is wear and pitting along the top and left edge. The customary printed document, completed in manuscript. 1p, 8vo.

See Craig’s entry, and that of Chesterfield, in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 4to. Bifolium. The second leaf had been neatly inserted into a windowpane mount. On brittle and aged paper; complete, but coming away at foot from torn remains of mount, with slight chipping at foot of first leaf, the central horizontal fold of which has closed tears along its crease. The item is unsigned, but ‘Lord Craig’ is identified as the author in pencil in nineteenth century hand twice on the mount. Ninety-two closely-written lines, with extensive revision and amendation.

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

With the surge of interest in the slave trade attention has lately been directed at Simond and Hankey, a ‘past constituent’ of the NatWest Bank. These two items are nice artefacts of the firm. Both are in good condition, lightly aged, and laid out in the same way, with the bill written out on one side of a 22.5 x 9 cm slip of laid paper. One is for ‘Deux Cent Livres Sterling a trente quatre Sols neuf deniers de gros’ and the other for ‘Cent Soixante Sterling a Trente quatre Sols dix deniers de gros’. Both drawn on ‘Messrs. Vernede & Co’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with slight damage to the blank reverse of the second leaf from mount. Folded three times, with a short closed tear at the edge of one crease. The recipient is named by Bute as ‘A. Milne Esq’ (the Aberdeen merchant Alexander Milne of Crimonmogate?). The letter is signed ‘Bute’.

Within a couple of years of his death Norbury’s nickname was given as ‘the hanging judge’ (see ‘The Georgian Era’, vol.2, 1833), and yet no mention is made of the fact in his entry in the Oxford DNB. The present document is 1p, 4to. On the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged.

An uncommon signature of a neglected artist. Hawkins was a founding member of the Society of British Artists, exhibiting there prolifically from 1824 to 1881. He also showed at the Royal Academy eight times between 1822 and 1849. (See Holmes's entry in the Oxford DNB.) On 14 cm square piece of watermarked wove paper, cut from a frank. The letter is written on the reverse of the cover, which is laid out in the customary way: ‘London third July 1838 / Wm. Loney Esq / Macclesfield.’ With red dated postmark, and signed in the customary way at bottom left: ‘John [Baron?]’.

See Beckett’s entry in the History of Parliament, according to which he held the position of Under-Secretary of State for Home Affairs from 1806 to 1817. 1p, foolscap 8vo. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased at the foot, with strip of discoloration at the head. Folded twice into a packet. Addressed to ‘Colonel Torrens’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged, with several creases on folding into packet, one of which has a short closed tear to the edge. Minor traces of mount on reverse. Reads: ‘Lord Henry Petty will be obliged to Mr Gray, if he can make it convenient to call in Downing Street to-morrow at 2 oClock. / September 29th. 1806.’ Minuted by recipient on reverse: ‘29. Sept. 1806 / Lord Hy. Petty. / To be with His Ldp tomorrow. / 30th. went & recd. Instructions to work out the appointmt. of One Messenger to attend the Chancellor, whose allowce is to be 4s. P diem.’

See image. It is hard to see how this collection could be bettered, the range of signatures from sanity to madness being of particular interest. All seven examples laid down on a folio leaf extracted from an album. The leaf is in poor condition, creased and with closed tears, but the parchment and paper bearing the signatures themselves in good condition, the six parchment items having the usual discoloration, but the example on paper in excellent condition.

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

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

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.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. On recto of the first leaf of a bifolium, the verso of the second leaf of which carries the address to ‘Messrs Vizetely [sic] Branston & Co / 135 Fleet St’. The firm, who traded between 1827 and 1837, were not only ‘engravers and oriental printers’, but publishers too: the item referred to in this letter, ‘The Young Lady’s Book’, had two editions published in 1829 and a third in 1832, and Jackson presumably contributed work. In fair condition, discoloured and worn.

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