SOTHEBY

[‘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

Author: 
Thomas Gray (1716-1771), poet, author of 'Elegy written in a Country Churchyard' [Mary Antrobus; Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, London auctioneers; Sarah Turpin, wife of organist Edmund Hart Turpin]
Publication details: 
Eleven items dating from 1914 and 1915. Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, Auctioneers, 13 Wellington Street, Strand, London, W.C.
£450.00

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.

[ Sotheby and Co., London, auction catalogue. ] Catalogue of the Well-known Collection of Relics of Samuel Pepys | The Property of the late John Pepys Cockerell (Sold by Order of his Widow).

Author: 
[ Samuel Pepys; John Pepys Cockerell; Sotheby and Co., London auctioneers ]
Publication details: 
Sotheby and Co. 34 & 35 New Bond Street, London, W.(1). 'On Wednesday, the 1st day of April, 1931, immediately following the Sale of the Paston Letters at One o'clock.'
£120.00

The full title reads: 'Catalogue of the Well-known Collection of Relics of Samuel Pepys | The Property of the late John Pepys Cockerell | (Sold by Order of his Widow) | comprising Samuel Pepys' superb silver-gilt Porringer and Salver, King James II's Gaming-Table and Pieces, Portraits by Sir Godfrey Kneller of Pepys and his Circle, and of James II, Books from Pepys' Library, including a Nautical Almanack on vellum, c.

[ Printed auction catalogue. ] Catalogue of Twenty-six Illuminated Manuscripts and Eight Fifteenth Century Books printed on vellum, the property of Henry Yates Thompson, of 19, Portman Square, London.

Author: 
[ Henry Yates Thompson; Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, London auctioneers ]
Publication details: 
Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, at their Large Galleries, 34 & 35 New Bond Street, W. On 23 March 1920.
£56.00

v + [65] pp., 4to, paginated 67-131. With 49 collotype plates. Internally in good condition, lightly aged and worn, in worn binding. National Book League Library bookplate on reverse of title-leaf, and traces of the NBLL bookplate. A careful catalogue of the second portion of the sale of Thompson's sumptuous collection of manuscripts (the first portion having been sold by Sotheby's on 3 June 1920), with a two-page introductory note ('Preliminary') by him. The collection had previously been catalogued in four volumes by M. R. James and others.

[Typed signed 'Certified Copy'.] A Catalogue & Valuation of the Art Treasures & Books at Buckminster Park in the County of Lincolnshire. The Property of the Trustees [of William Tollemache, 9th Earl of Dysart] made for the purposes of Insurance.

Author: 
[Charles des Graz, Director, Sotheby & Co., 34-35 New Bond Street, London, W1; Buckminster Park, Lincolnshire, seat of William Tollemache, 9th Earl of Dysart (1859-1935)]
Publication details: 
[Sotheby & Co., 34-35 New Bond Street, London, W1. 'Ch. des Graz, Director. | December, 1930.'] Certified Copy by Hasties, 65 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, WC2, signed and dated 27 October 1937.
£120.00

32pp., foolscap 8vo. The leaves attached with green ribbon, and the whole folded into the customary packet, with typed title with Hasties' details on reverse of last leaf. The document begins with a three-page 'Index | Inventory of Buckminster Park, Grantham'; this is followed by 'An Inventory and Valuation of the principal Furniture and Works of Art at Buckminster Park, Grantham | the property of the Trustees, made for the purposes of Insurance'. The total valuation is £17,692.

Manuscript copy of letter from William Lock to Alexander Murray, complaining from Italy about the result of the sale of his books and prints, discussing his estate, and planning the sale by Sotheby of his own paintings and those of Henry Fuseli.

Author: 
William Lock (1767-1847), painter, son of the connoisseur William Lock [Locke] (1732-1810) of Norbury Park, Surrey [Henry Fuseli; Samuel Sotheby; Alexander Murray; John Julius Angerstein]
Publication details: 
2 June 1821. Florence, Casa Quaratesi, Piazza Ognissanti.
£150.00

1p., 4to. Neatly written out in a contemporary hand (presumably the recipient's), with 'Copy' at the head. In very good condition, on lightly-aged laid paper with watermark of 'W D WELLS'. Signature transcribed as 'Wm. Lock'. Lock has just received Murray's letter of 18 May, 'giving me an Account of the Sales of my Books and Prints which is so much below what I had reason to expect, that I must beg you to apply only One thousand to the Payment of my Debt to my Fathers Executors'.

Holograph extract of a translation from the German of Wieland's 'Oberon' by the English poet William Sotheby, beginning 'Sweet Isle! methinks once more I hear'.

Author: 
William Sotheby (1757-1833), English poet and translator [Christoph Martin Wieland, German author of 'Oberon']
Publication details: 
No place. 26 September 1804.
£220.00

1p., 8vo. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with traces of previous mounting along two edges. Headed, in a contemporary hand: 'Given to Mrs. Richards by Miss Calhoun Fanshawe'. 22 lines of verse, in couplets. Signed in the bottom right-hand corner, apparently at a later date than the rest of the text: 'William Sothbey | Sepr 26 - 1804'. The extract - possibly written out by Sotheby for an acquaintance - begins: 'Sweet Isle!

Catalogue of the Valuable Collection of Coins and Medals, of the late General Ainslie, Author of "Illustrations of the Anglo-French Coinage," [...] The collection comprises his entire [...] series of Anglo-French coins.

Author: 
[Samuel Leigh Sotheby, London auctioneer; General Sir Robert Ainslie (1776-1839), army officer and numismatist]
Catalogue of the Valuable Collection of Coins and Medals
Publication details: 
At S. Leigh Sotheby's, 3 Wellington Street, Street, London, 3 to 6 June 1840.
£265.00
Catalogue of the Valuable Collection of Coins and Medals

4to, 31 pp. In original grey printed wraps, with the bookseller's ticket of Messrs. Bolster of Cork. Text clear and complete. A fair, tight copy, on aged paper. In worn red calf quarter-binding, red cloth. Neatly priced up in manuscript (the sale totalled £803 4s 6d), and ruled with red lines.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J. C. Ewing.') from James Cameron Ewing, Librarian, Baillie's Institution, Glasgow, to the London auctioneers Sotheby, Wilkinson, and Hodge, discussing an edition of Burns's poems.

Author: 
James Cameron Ewing (b. 1871), Librarian, Baillie's Institution, Glasgow [Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge; Robert Burns]
Publication details: 
13 July 1910; on letterhead of Baillie's Institution.
£85.00

12mo, 3 pp. 28 lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on aged paper. He does not understand how they can have 'a record of a second edition [of Burns's poems] dated 1786, for the book was not published until April 1787'. He describes the two issues of the second edition ('a stinking or a skinking issue') and concludes that he will be glad to hear from them, should they 'meet with a 1786 second edition, or with a copy having the addenda incorporated in the list of subscribers, or one having Roxburgh spelled correctly'.

Catalogue of the well-known and very valuable library formed at the Durdans, Epsom, by the late Rt. Honble. the Earl of Rosebery, K.G., K.T. Sold by order of his daughter Lady Sybil Grant. The first and second portions.

Author: 
Archibald Philip Primrose (1847-1929) , 5th Earl of Rosebery, British Prime Minister [Lady Sybil Grant; the Durdans, Epsom; Sotheby & Co.]
Publication details: 
Sotheby & Co., 34 & 35, New Bond Street, W.(1). On Monday, the 26th day of June, 1933, and four following days.
£100.00

TWO COPIES, both octavo: iv + 158 pages. Several collotype plates, several in red and gold. In original green printed Sotheby wraps. Both items sound internally, with some wear to the wraps. One item has extensive pencil annotations to the front wraps, and the other has a few ink marks to the reverse, with minor wear to the last couple of leaves. Both catalogues partially priced with some names by the London booksellers Myers & Co. of New Bond Street, one on the second day of the sale and the other on the fifth.

Autograph Letter, in the third person, to 'Mr. Lee [sic]', giving commission bids on eight lots in a forthcoming sale.

Author: 
Mr Howell of Craven Street, the Strand, London [Leigh and Sotheby; Sotheby's; book auctions; auctioneering; auction catalogues]
Publication details: 
Feb. 2d. 1815. Craven Street.'
£56.00

12mo bifolium: 1 p, on recto of first leaf, with address on verso of second leaf. Grubby, and with spike hole and tear to outer edge through both leaves, that on the first neatly repaired on the reverse with archival tape. Text complete and entirely legible. 'Mr. Howell will be obliged to Mr. Lee if in addition to the Douglass case Lot 708, He will purchase Lot 213 'Discovery Witches' [...]'. A further seven bids follow. The note ends 'Mr Howell will thank Mr Lee will [sic] bear in mind, that these purchases will be upon condition of the books being in good order and perfect'.

Catalogue of the Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson Hogg (1792-1862), Consisting principally of Letters from Percy and Mary Shelley. Sold by Order of his Great-Nephew Major R. J. Jefferson Hogg, M.C. of Norton-on-Tees, Co. Durham.

Author: 
Thomas Jefferson Hogg [Sotheby & Co.; Percy Bysshe Shelley; autograph letters; auction catalogue]
Publication details: 
London: Messrs. Sotheby & Co., 34 and 35 New Bond Street, W.1.; 30 June 1948. [Printed by Kitchen & Barratt, Ltd., Park Royal Road, N.W.10.]
£80.00

Octavo: 21 pp. Leaf of prices and buyers' names loosely inserted. Stapled. In original yellow printed wraps. Somewhat creased and chipped, on aged, spotted paper. Two-page foreword. Maggs were the main buyers, but the three highest sellers among the 105 lots, all Shelley letters, went to other dealers: lot 13, 'quoting 36 lines of original verse', for £155 to Pickering; lot 55, 'describing the origins and method of his elopement with Mary Godwin', £175 to Quaritch; lot 65, 'dealing with many topics', £360 to W. H. Robinson.

Autograph Letter Signed ('S. Leigh Sotheby') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Samuel Leigh Sotheby (1805-61), British auctioneer and antiquary
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£200.00

Three pages, 12mo. On aged paper, with a few closed tears and rust marking to blank verso of second leaf of bifolium. He thanks him for sending the books for examination. 'Mrs. Sotheby will take a photograph of the phiz of Peter Schoeffer, But as to the woodcut being of that I do not at present believe it - | The letters & papers are not of the time.' He asks him to translate a passage, comments further on Schoeffer, and asks if his correspondent has 'any new of Paper Factory for me.' Concludes 'Write me the full particulars of what Dutch Collection in the library of Sir Ths.

Autograph Letter Signed [to his bankers].

Author: 
Herbert G. Sotheby
Publication details: 
18 October 1901; blindstamped letterhead '26, Green Street, Park Lane, W.'
£20.00

Son of Admiral Sir Edward Southwell Sotheby (for whom see DNB). 1 page, 16mo. In good condition. 'Gentlemen | I beg to inform you that for the future I shall draw my own cheques instead of my brother Mr. Alfred Sotheby.' Docketed in red ink along both long edges.

CATALOGUE OF THE WELL-KNOWN COLLECTION OF BALLOONING AND AERONAUTICAL PRINTS AND DRAWINGS The Property of Col. R. L. Preston, C.B.E.

Author: 
[BALLOONING AND AERONAUTICAL PRINTS AND DRAWINGS] Sotheby & Co's auction catalogue of Col. R. L. Preston's collection
Publication details: 
[sale of 20 March 1962]; London: Sotheby & Co. 34 and 25 New Bond Street, W.1.
£50.00

8vo. Pages [2 +] 120. In good condition. Printed green wraps with crease along length of front wrap. Many illustrations. 'INDEX OF AERONAUTS' on verso of last leaf. An invaluable scholarly resource.

Syndicate content