POLITICIAN

[Lawrence Dundas, 1st Marquess of Zetland.] Thirty-three Autograph Letters Signed (all 'Zetland') to the portrait painter Shirley Slocombe. With eight letters from Lady Zetland, and drafts of two of Slocombe's letters and two accounts by him.

Author: 
Lawrence Dundas (1844-1929), 1st Marquess of Zetland, of Aske Hall, Richmond, Yorkshire, British Conservative politician [Charles Llewellyn Shirley Slocombe (1872-1935), portrait painter]
Publication details: 
Twenty-two on letterhead of Aske, Richmond, Yorkshire; eight on letterhead of 10 Arlington St, London SW. The other eleven from various addresses. Between 1897 and 1911.
£450.00

The collection is in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Zetland's letters total 26pp., 8vo; 19pp., 12mo; 1p., 16mo. The theme is the painting and engraving of a portrait of Zetland by Slocombe, and the correspondence casts an interesting light on the relations between patron and artist in late nineteenth-century England, with the drafts of Slocombe's two letters, and his accounts for painting and engraving, adding to its value.

[Robert Grosvenor, 1st Marquess of Westminster.] Autograph Note Signed ('Grosvenor'), undertaking to match the Earl of Wilton's contribution of fifty pounds to the Metropolitan Society.

Author: 
Robert Grosvenor (1767-1845), 1st Marquess of Westminster [2nd Earl Grosvenor], politician and landowner [Earl of Wilton; Metropolitan Society]
Publication details: 
Heaton House [Cheshire]. 21 October 1811.
£38.00

1p., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Reads: 'Sir | I have been requested by the Earl of Wilton, who is indisposed, to say that he shall be glad to contribute fifty Pounds to the Metropolitan Society & I shall be happy to do the same, & am, Sir | Yr obedt. Servt. | Grosvenor'.

Autograph Letter Signed (both 'WE Gladstone') from Liberal Prime Minister William Eward Gladstone, thanking Miss A. de Grasse Evans (a relation of his friend and colleague Sir Francis Henry Evans) for sending a book.

Author: 
William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898), Liberal statesman, four-time Prime Minister of the United Kingdom [Sir Francis Henry Evans (1840-1907), Liberal Member of Parliament (Southampton, Maidstone)]
Publication details: 
Hawarden; 8 December 1888.
£100.00

2pp., 12mo. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. Addressed to 'Miss A. de G. Evans'. He thanks her for sending the book, adding: 'Both your kindness and the subjects to which it refers have made me very desirous to lose no time in examining it: and if, when I am able do to this, I find that I have any thing to say which can be useful (it will be no reproach to the work if I have not) you may depend upon hearing from me.' From the papers of Sir Francis Henry Evans (1840-1907), who served as Liberal MP for Southampton, 1888-1895 and 1896; and Maidstone, 1901-1906.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W W.') from the Whig politician William Windham to 'Robert', regarding a controversial 'question' at Oxford University, regarding which he has seen the Prince of Wales and Duke of Clarence.

Author: 
William Windham (1750-1810), British Whig politician [Dr David Hughes (c.1753-1817), Principal, Jesus College, Oxford]
Publication details: 
Place not stated. 1 July [1800s?].
£75.00

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium, with the blank second leaf laid down on page removed from album, which bears on the reverse a biography of Windham in a nineteenth-century hand. The letter begins: 'Dear Robert | I have seen the Pr. of Wales, & have written to the D. of Clarence, as well as to some others - It just occurs to me, that you shd get at University the address of Simpson formerly Tutor there who has a living somewhere in Dorsetshire, & endeavour to learn whether he is likely to be affected by the <?> question. Some of those on the spot will perhaps write, & explain why I have not.

A pressed flower, picked from the grave of the American politician Daniel Webster by Marie de Grasse Stevens [later Lady Evans].

Author: 
[Daniel Webster (1782-1852), American politician; Marie de Grasse Evans (d.1920), Lady Evans [nee Marie de Grasse Stevens, daughter of Hon. Samuel Stevens of Albany, New York]
Publication details: 
Picked from the Old Winslow Burial Ground section of the Winslow Cemetery, near Marshfield, Massachusetts. August 1859.
£80.00

Small sprig (6cm long), pinned to 8 x 5 cm piece of ruled paper, torn from a notebook. The paper carries the note by Stevens: 'Grave of Daniel Webster | August 1859.' Placed in a 9.5 x 12 cm envelope, docketted in pencil: 'From Daniel Webster's grave | M. F. B'. Marie de Grasse Stevens, daughter of the Hon. Samuel Stevens of Albany, New York, friend and colleague of Daniel Webster, and widow of Irving Van Wart, married the English banker Francis Henry Evans in 1872. She became Lady Evans on his being knighted in 1893. From the Evans papers.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Philip Fothergill') from the Yorkshire textile magnate Charles Philip Fothergill to Mark Bonham Carter, discussing the 'sudden crisis' that may follow the defeat of the Liberal Party at the next general electi

Author: 
Charles Philip Fothergill (1906-1959), Yorkshire textile magnate and Liberal Party politician [Mark Bonham Carter (1922-94), Baron Bonham-Carter, publisher and Liberal politician]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Eastburn House, Park Road, Dewsbury. 11 July 1948.
£120.00

4pp., 4to. 75 lines of neatly-written text. On creased aged paper, with a few closed tears (one of them 11cm long). He begins by praising Bonham-Carters 'objective & informed comments on American opinion' ('I hope you will feel encouraged to publish more of your findings'). 'But gratitude & a thirst for information & about American politics are not my only reason [sic] for writing. I wish you were in England, for I would very much enjoy an exchange of views with you about the position of the Party.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Welby') from Lord Welby [Reginald Earle Welby, Baron Welby] to Col. E. S. E. Childers, regarding his biography of his father the Liberal politician Hugh Culling Eardley Childers, 'the great Colonies' and the British Empire.

Author: 
Reginald Earle Welby (1832-1915), Baron Welby, Permanent Secretary to the Treasury and President of the Royal Statistical Society [Hugh Culling Eardley Childers and his son Col. E. S. E. Childers]
Publication details: 
11 Stratton Street, London. 18 March 1901.
£80.00

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. With mourning border. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. At the time of writing the biography of the Liberal politician Hugh Culling Eardley Childers (1827-1896) by his son Col. Edmund Spencer Eardley Childers (1854-1919) had just been published, and Welby begins by thanking the Colonel for the gift of the book.

Autograph Signature of the Irish politician and traveller, John Talbot Dillon, Baron Dillon.

Author: 
Sir John Talbot Dillon (1739-1805), 1st Baronet, Baron Dillon, Irish politician, traveller and author
Publication details: 
Madrid. 1 July 1777.
£120.00

1p., 12mo. An autograph note, apparently written at the head of the detached fly-leaf of a book. Fair, on aged paper, laid down on a torn page from an autograph album. Reads: 'This is a Curious & very Scarce Book. - | Madrid 1st. July 1777. | [signed] John Talbot Dillon | Knt. & Baron of the S. R. Empire.' The abbreviation stands for 'Sacred Roman Empire'.

Typed Letter Signed from Cahir Healy to Lieutenant C. H. Glendinning, discussing George Lansbury's support in the House of Commons for his case of wrongful imprisonment, and hinting at a cover up.

Author: 
Cahir Healy (1877-1970), Nationalist Party Member of Parliament for Fermanagh and Tyrone in the British House of Commons [George Lansbury (1859-1940), Labour Party politician; Lieut. C.H. Glendinning]
Publication details: 
Enniskillen. 16 August 1924.
£120.00

1p., 4to. Eighteen lines. On creased and lightly-aged paper. On 21 February 1924, in the House of Commons, Lansbury 'asked the Secretary of State for War if his attention has been called to the fact that the Officers' Association have sent in a claim to the Army Council for compensation on behalf of Lieutenant C. H. Glendinning, 3rd Battalion Royal Irish Rifles, on the grounds of the false imprisonment, conspiracy and persecution to which this officer was subjected whilst serving in India during 1917'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Brassey') from Brassey to 'P. Michelli [later Sir Pietro James Michelli], Esq | Secretary | Seaman's Hospital', regretting that he was not able to visit the Albert Docks.

Author: 
Thomas Brassey, 1st Earl Brassey [Lord Brassey] (1836-1918), Liberal politician [Sir Pietro James Michelli (1853–1935), Secretary, Seaman's Hospital; Albert Dock Seaman's Hospital]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 24 Park Lane, W. [London]. 16 July 1889.
£56.00

1p., 12mo. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with short closed tear to one edge and traces of mount on blank second leaf of bifolium. Signature slightly smudged. Brassey writes that he has been 'detained at the House of Lords, where I have been acting as chairman of a private committee', and as a result 'found it impossible to go down to the Albert Docks yesterday afternoon'. The letter almost certainly relates to the Albert Dock Seaman's Hospital, which was officially opened the following year, as a branch of the Dreadnought Seamen's Hospital, Greenwich.

Autograph Letter in the third person from Edward Henry Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby, to the Secretary of the Royal Zoological Society [Philip Lutley Sclater], enquiring as to 'which steps are necessary to be taken' to become a member.

Author: 
Edward Henry Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby, British Conservative politician [Philip Lutley Sclater (1829-1913), Secretary, Zoological Society of London]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Knowlsey, Prescot. 10 November 1869.
£30.00

1p., 12mo. With mourning border. (On his father' sdeath in October Derby had acceded to the title.) The letter reads: 'Lord Derby presents his compliments to the secretary of the Royal Zoological Society, and beign desirous of becoming a member of that body, would be much obliged to the secretary if he would inform him which steps are necessary to be taken for that object.'

Typed Letter Signed ('James Bryce') from the historian and Liberal politician James Bryce, Viscount Bryce, to E. Byrne Hackett of Yale University Press, discussing the American Booksellers Association banquet.

Author: 
James Bryce (1838-1922), Viscount Bryce, jurist, historian and Liberal politician [Edmond Byrne Hackett (1879-1953), Director of Yale University Press; American Booksellers Association]
Publication details: 
The British Embassy, Washington; 14 April 1911.
£90.00

1p., 4to. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Bryce writes that he has not forgotten Hackett's 'invitation to the American Booksellers Association's banquet' in New York, but that it is unlikely that he will be able to attend 'seems to be extremely small, so that I must ask you not to announce me as being present.

Typed Letter Signed from the Conservative Home Secretary Sir William Joynson-Hicks to Morley Stuart, editor of the 'Cambridge Daily News', on the subject of teetotalism and revolution.

Author: 
Sir William Joynson-Hicks [later 1st Viscount Brentford] (1865-1932), Conservative Party Home Secretary, 1924-1929 [Morley Stuart, editor of the 'Cambridge Daily News']
Sir William Joynson-Hicks
Publication details: 
17 February 1927; on letterhead of the Home Secretary, Whitehall, London.
£38.00
Sir William Joynson-Hicks

4to, 1 p. Eleven lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Laid down on a leaf removed from an album. Stuart has sent him copy from his newspaper, with the remark of some un-named clergyman that "Teetotalism, at any rate in hard times like these, is dangerously likely to help on unrest and revolution". Far from being the 'cause of revolution', teetotalism enables people, in Joynson-Hicks's view, 'to save money which they would otherwise spend on alcoholic liquor', and so 'helps them to acquire a stake in the country and so forces a real bulwark against revolution.'

Autograph Letter Signed ['G Shaw Lefevre'] from George John Shaw-Lefevre, later 1st Baron Eversley, regarding working conditions of miners.

Autograph Letter Signed ['G Shaw Lefevre'] from George John Shaw-Lefevre
Publication details: 
21 March 1892; on letterhead of 18 Bryanston Square.
£56.00
Autograph Letter Signed ['G Shaw Lefevre'] from George John Shaw-Lefevre

12mo, 1 p. Ten lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. He does not have 'sufficient information' to give an opinion on the question his unnamed correspondent refers to, 'namely whether a 5 days a week system would be preferable to Miners to an uniform 8 hours a day work'. The question is 'quite new' to him, and he 'must reserve an opinion till I know more about the subject'. Later in 1892 Shaw-Lefevre would be appointed First Commissioner of Works in Gladstone's government.

Autograph Letter in the third person from Sir Robert Inglis to 'Mr Barrow' [J. H. Barrow, editor of the 'Mirror of Parliament'], regarding a recent speech by him in the House of Commons.

Author: 
Sir Robert Inglis
Autograph Letter in the third person from Sir Robert Inglis
Publication details: 
12 August 1831; Manchester Buildings, Westminster.
£66.00
Autograph Letter in the third person from Sir Robert Inglis

12mo, 2 pp. 24 lines. Text clear and complete. He finds, 'upon reconsideration', that the conversation he referred to that afternoon took place two days later, and regrets that he gave Barrow 'the unnecessary trouble of sending for papers in error; & possibly attributing an inattention to the Gentleman employed at the time as a Reporter'.

Autograph Letter Signed ['C S Lefevre'] from Charles Shaw-Lefevre, 1st Viscount Eversley

Author: 
George John Shaw-Lefevre
Autograph Letter Signed ['G Shaw Lefevre'] from George John Shaw-Lefevre
Publication details: 
14 April [no year]; House of Commons.
£45.00
Autograph Letter Signed ['G Shaw Lefevre'] from George John Shaw-Lefevre

12mo, 2 pp. 13 lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. His unnamed correspondent has 'done no end of good by rousing the attention of the Engineering World to the Portsmouth Question'. He is engaged on 20 April, and so will be prevented from availing himself of 'Col Grey's Offer'.

Autograph Letter Signed ['Lathom'] from Edward Bootle-Wilbraham, 1st Earl of Lathom, to 'Mr. Brearley', concerning a 'meeting of Managers of St. John's Schools'.

Author: 
Edward Bootle-Wilbraham (Lathom)
Autograph Letter Signed ['Lathom'] from Edward Bootle-Wilbraham
Publication details: 
8 September 1895; Lathom House, Ormskirk.
£28.00
Autograph Letter Signed ['Lathom'] from Edward Bootle-Wilbraham

12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium. 26 lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with traces of blue paper mount adhering to the blank reverse of the second leaf. Apologises for being unable to 'attend a meeting of Managers of St. John's Schools' that week: 'Miss Wilbraham will be away from home the following week & Lord Skelmersdale does not arrive till the 20th.' Gives dates when he can attend, if his unnamed correspondent thinks it 'advisable to have the meeting without them'.

Two Typed Letters Signed ('Ernest Hatch') from Sir Ernest Hatch to Sir Henry Trueman Wood, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Ernest Hatch [Sir Ernest Frederic George Hatch] (1859-1927), British Conservative politician
Two Typed Letters Signed ('Ernest Hatch') from Sir Ernest Hatch
Publication details: 
Both 1915, and both on letterhead of the Government Commissioner for Belgian Refugees, London.
£38.00
Two Typed Letters Signed ('Ernest Hatch') from Sir Ernest Hatch

Both good, on aged paper. Both docketed and with the Society's stamp. ONE: 14 October 1915. Folio, 1 p. Regarding a 'special examination in English, for Belgian refugees'. TWO: 21 October 1915. 4to, 1 p. Headed 'Examination for Belgians in the English Language'.

Autograph Signature of George William Frederick Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon.

Author: 
George William Frederick Villiers (1800-1870), 4th Earl of Clarendon, British Liberal politician
Autograph Signature of George William Frederick Villiers
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£23.00
Autograph Signature of George William Frederick Villiers

On a square of paper, circa 10 x 11.5 cm. Aged and lightly-creased. Evidently a reply to a request for an autograph. Bold signature, with the whole reading 'Your's faithfully | Clarendon'. Docketed with a few biographical details on reverse.

Letter, in a secretarial hand, signed by the Whig politician William Huskisson ('W. Huskisson'), to John Sweetland on Treasury business.

Author: 
William Huskisson (1770-1830), British Whig politician [John Sweetland, Principal Commissary of Stores and Provisions at Gibraltar; Stephenson's Rocket; railways; locomotives]
William Huskisson (1770-1830), British Whig politician
Publication details: 
11 August 1807; Treasury Chambers [London].
£125.00
William Huskisson (1770-1830), British Whig politician

Folio, 1 p. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Removed from an album, and with docketing on second leaf slightly obsucred by thin strip of paper in margin. Written while Huskisson was Secretary to the Treasury, and requiring Sweetland to provide to the Lords Commissioners 'an account of the Revenues of Gibraltar for the last three Years distinguishing the amount under each head of Revenue and also a Statement fo all Payments charged upon the said Revenue'. Despite his achievements, Huskisson is now best-remembered as the first railway fatality.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Eustace G Cecil') to 'Mr. Chittenden'.

Author: 
Lord Eustace Cecil [Lord Eustace Brownlow Henry Gascoyne-Cecil] (1834-1921), British Conservative politician
Publication details: 
10 October [no year]; on letterhead of Knowsley, Prescot.
£28.00

12mo, 3 pp. Good, on lightly-aged and creased paper. Recomending shares in three companies of which he is chairman, before discussing personal matters. 'Evelyn is prospering as much as an expectant & comparatively briefless barrister can [...] Arthur Balfour is doing very well - & is holding his own - & more than his own - spite of misrepresentation - downright falsehood - & the tricks which politicians in these days seem so proud'. Laments the 'standard of morality', and apologises for the 'long sermon'.

Autograph Letter Signed to Stratford Canning.

Author: 
George William Frederick Villiers (1800-1870), 4th Earl of Clarendon, Liberal politician [Stratford Canning (1786-1880), 1st Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe]
Publication details: 
10 January 1858; The Grove.
£28.00

12mo, 1 p. In a bifolium. Docketed by Stratford Canning on the reverse of the second leaf. Very good, on lightly-aged paper, with thin strip of stub from mount adhering to one edge. He 'cannot resist' staying there the next day, 'as Lady C. & I hope to bring our Daughter up to London on Tuesday', a day on which, if convenient, he will be 'most happy' to see Stratford Canning at the Foreign Office.

Engraved armorial bookplate, designed by Charles Catton and engraved by Francis Chesham, for Lord Camelford.

Author: 
Thomas Pitt, 1st Baron Camelford (1737-1793), politician and art collector [Charles Catton the elder (1728-1798), R.A., painter; Francis Chesham (1749–1806), engraver; bookplates; ex libris]
Publication details: 
Undated [1770s?].
£35.00

Steel-engraving, on a piece of thick laid paper, 12.5 x 17.5 cm. Fair, on lightly-aged and foxed paper. Never mounted, and so with no glue staining or other marking to blank reverse. Depicts Camelford's armorial crest, flanked by two birds, with motto 'PER . ARDUA . LIBERI .' At foot, in copperplate, 'Camelford.', with 'C. Catton R.A. del. F. Chesham Sculp.'

Autograph Letter Signed ('Verney') to Rev. Charles William Tonyn (d.1805) of Radnage, Bucks.

Author: 
Ralph Verney (1714-1791), 2nd Earl Verney, politician
Publication details: 
12 April 1784; Curzon Street, London.
£200.00

8vo: 1 p. 7 lines of text. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper, with the address on the reverse of the second leaf of the bifolium, to which Verney's red wax seal adheres. A graceful letter of thanks. 'It gives me no small satisfaction to think that my general Conduct has hitherto merited your approbation.' Informs Tonyn of the date of the general election. Verney would lose his seat, and with it his immunity from prosecution for debt, forcing him to flee to France.

Two Autograph Letters Signed (both 'Herbert Fisher') to 'My dear Gore', the first conferring upon him an honorary fellowship, and the second containing an assessment of Ormsby-Gore's son David.

Author: 
H. A. L. Fisher [Herbert Fisher; Herbert Albert Laurens Fisher] (1865-1940), English historian and Warden of New College, Oxford [William George Arthur Ormsby-Gore (1885-1964), 4th Baron Harlech]
Publication details: 
7 October 1936 and 12 March 1937; both on letterheads of 'The Warden's Lodgings, New College, Oxford'.
£65.00

Both items good, on lightly-aged paper. Letter One: 4to, 1 p. Begins 'The College today at its Special General Meeting did itself the honour of electing you to an Honorary Fellowship. We trust that it may not be unacceptable to you to be thus associated with our Society. There are no duties, save that of wearing a surplice in Chapel on Sundays and Feasts of the Church.' He thanks Gore for his 'generous words' of the previous day. Letter Two: 4to, 2 pp.

Autograph Signature ('Walter Runciman').

Author: 
Walter Runciman (1870-1949), 1st Viscount Runciman of Doxford, English Liberal politician
Publication details: 
6 March 1911. On Board of Education card.
£20.00

On a piece of card roughly 9 x 11.5 cm. With embossed government crest of the Board of Education in the top left-hand corner. In fair condition, lightly-aged and with small triangular areas of discoloration to two opposing corners caused by previous mounting. Good bold signature, presumably sent in response to a request for an autograph. Reads '[signed] Walter Runciman. | 6 March | 1911.'

Autograph Letter in the third person to 'Dr. Taylor', accepting election to the Society of Arts.

Author: 
William Henry Cavendish Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck (1768-1854), 4th Duke of Portland, British politician [Charles Taylor, Secretary, Society of Arts]
Publication details: 
9 July 1812; Fullarton.
£28.00

12mo, 1 p. Fair, on aged paper. Reads 'The Duke of Portland presents his Compliments to Dr. Taylor, and has the honor to acquaint him that he will be very proud of the honor of being elected a member of the Society of Arts -'.

Signed Typescript ('Austen Chamberlain'), an address of thanks for his re-election as Rector of the University of Glasgow.

Author: 
Sir Austen Chamberlain [Sir Joseph Austen Chamberlain] (1863-1937), English politician, Rector of the University of Glasgow
Publication details: 
Geneva, Sept. 14. 1926.'
£75.00

On one side of a foolscap (32.5 x 20 cm) page. Eighteen lines. On aged and foxed paper with chipping at head and foot. Chamberlain was Rector between 1925 and 1928.

Autograph Note in the third person to 'the Lord Mayor elect and the Sheriffs' of the City of London.

Author: 
George Tierney (1761-1830), Anglo-Irish Whig politician [Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832) of Kyllachy]
Publication details: 
Monday 9th. Inst. [no date]'.
£56.00

On piece of paper roughly 5.5 x 12 cm. Neatly laid down on a quarto leaf removed from an autograph album. Autograph and mount both damp-stained. Reads 'Mr Tierney presents his Compts to the Lord Mayor elect and the Sheriffs. will have the honor of waiting upon them Monday 9th Inst.' The leaf on which the autograph is mounted carries thirteen lines of biographical information in a nineteenth-century hand. Laid down on the reverse of the mount is an oval engraved portrait (not stated, but by William Ridley, published by Vernor & Hood, after John Opie), c.

Two Autograph Letters Signed and two Autograph Card Signed (all 'W J Collins') to Sir Henry Trueman Wood, with offprint of lecture to Royal Sanitary Institute: 'The Chadwick School of Thought. (An appeal from the New Sanitarians to the Old.)'

Author: 
Sir William Job Collins (1859-1946), English ophthalmic surgeon and Liberal politician
Publication details: 
The letters and cards, 1914, 1915 and 1916; the offprint, 'Excerpt from Vol. XXXIV., No. 7 (1913) of the Journal of The Royal Sanitary Institute.'
£120.00

The collection is in good condition. Three of the communications bear the stamp of the Royal Society of Arts, of which the recipient Wood was the Secretary.

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