CHANTREY

[Sir Francis Chantrey [Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey], sculptor.] Autograph Letter Signed to Edward Hawkins, recommending the artist William Beetham for permission to draw at the British Museum.

Author: 
Sir Francis Chantrey [Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey] (1781-1841), sculptor [Edward Hawkins (1780-1867), Keeper of Antiquities at the British Museum; William Beetham (1809-1888), artist]
Publication details: 
‘Belgrave Place [London] / 15th. June 1830’.
£56.00

See his entry, and Hawkins’s, in the Oxford DNB. The subject of the letter, William Beetham, was an early emigrant to New Zealand, where he was one of the colony’s first European artists. 1p, 12mo. With mourning border. In fair condition, aged and worn, with a tiny piece of loss to one corner. Traces of paper mount adhering to blank reverse. Folded twice for postage. Addressed to ‘Edwd. Hawkins Esqr.’ and signed ‘F Chantrey’. Begins: ‘My Dear Sir / The bearer Wm.

[Allan Cunningham, Scottish poet associated with the London Magazine, secretary to sculptor Sir Francis Chantrey.]

Author: 
Allan Cunningham (1784-1842), Scottish poet and author associated with the London Magazine, superintendant and secretary to the sculptor Sir Francis Chantrey (1781-1841)
Allan Cunningham
Publication details: 
19 December 1835; 30 Belgrave Place [London].
£50.00
Allan Cunningham

See his entry and Chantrey's in the Oxford DNB. On one side of a trimmed-down piece of paper, roughly 11 cm square. Discoloured, and with damage to the corners (affecting one word at top right) from removal from mount. With postage folds, and evidence on otherwise-blank reverse that Cunningham was re-using an envelope: part of address in another hand to 'Mrs Pa[...]'. Reads: 'Mr. Allan Cunninghams respects to Mr. Tindal and begs to inform him that Sir Francis Chantrey is at Holkham at present and will not likely be back till after Christmas: should he come sooner Mr A. C.

[Sir Francis Chantrey, sculptor, and his secretary Allan Cunningham, poet.] Manuscript Letter, written and signed by Cunningham on behalf of Chantrey, to William Tindal, regarding a monument to Colonel Page, with letter from Tindal to Mrs Page.

Author: 
Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey (1781-1841), sculptor; his secretary Allan Cunningham (1784-1842), Scottish poet and author; William Tindal [Colonel Frederick Page (1769-1834), Royal Berkshire Militia]
Chantrey
Publication details: 
Cunningham (signing as Chantrey) to Tindal: 'Belgrave Place [London] 7 January 1836'. Tindal to Mrs Page, 'Temple 7 Jany 1835'.
£350.00
Chantrey

An excellent document, providing an invaluable view of the practicalities of commissioning and executing public monuments in the Georgian period. See Chantrey's entry in the Oxford DNB, and Cunningham's, which states: 'In 1814 he was engaged by Chantrey as superintendent of his establishment, and gave up writing for newspapers. He lived afterwards at 27 Lower Belgrave Place, Pimlico. He acted as Chantrey's secretary, conducted his correspondence, represented him during his absence, and occasionally offered artistic assistance. He became a favourite of Chantrey's sitters and visitors.

[Allan Cunningham, Scottish poet and author.] Signed Autograph Manuscript of the words to his ‘The Mariners Song’ (‘A wet sheet and a flowing sea’).

Author: 
Allan Cunningham (1784-1842), Scottish poet and author, superintendant and secretary to Sir Francis Chantrey (1781-1841)
Publication details: 
Without date (any time from 1822) or place (London?).
£100.00

See Cunningham’s entry in the Oxford DNB. Neatly written out in his distinctive hand. The present holograph gives the words to one of his most popular songs (an American version substitutes ‘Columbia’ for ‘Old England’). It was first published in the London Magazine in August 1822, and by 1834 was well-enough known to be discussed - and dismissed as ‘Puling nonsense’ - in ‘Sailors and Saints, by the Author of the Naval Sketch Book [i.e. William Nugent Glascock]’ (1834). 1p, 4to, on gilt-edged leaf of wove paper extracted from an album.

[‘I feel rather as a brother than as a client’. Captain George Jones, RA, Librarian of the Royal Academy.] Autograph Letter Signed (‘George Jones’) to his close friend Sir Francis Chantrey, explaining his embarrassment at selling him a painting.

Author: 
Captain George Jones (1786-1869), RA, Librarian and acting President of the Royal Academy, and army officer, close friend and executor of J. M. W. Turner and Sir Francis Chantrey
Publication details: 
Without date or place, but before Chantrey's death in 1841, and probably from London.
£150.00

See the entries for Jones and Chantry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. On bifolium. An interesting letter of 39 lines with text intact, in poor condition, aged and with closed tears, and discoloration from tape used in repair, and ink blot to first page. The surname of the recipient is not given, but the close friendship between the two men (Jones published a memoir of Chantrey in 1849) puts Chantrey’s identity beyond doubt.

[ Edward William Wyon, sculptor. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('Edward W Wyon') to R. Redpath, praising Sir Francis Chantrey as a 'great Master of Portrait Sculpture', and his statue of 'a Bishop kneeling' [ Reginald Heber. ].

Author: 
Edward William Wyon (1811-1885), sculptor [ Sir Francis Chantrey (1781-1841); Reginald Heber (1783-1826), Bishop of Calcutta ]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 19A Stanhope Street, Hampstead Road, N.W. London. 1 March 1867.
£100.00

Wyon studied at the Royal Academy schools from 1829, and became a celebrated sculptor, exhibiting at the Royal Academy regularly from 1831 to 1876. Among his commissions were works intended for reproduction by Wedgwood as well as numerous portrait busts. 1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. The subject of the letter is Chantrey's 1847 statue of Reginald Heber (1783-1826), Bishop of Calcutta, now in St Paul's Cathedral in that city.

[ Sir Francis Chantrey, English sculptor. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('F Chantrey') giving instructions for the erection of a statue to an unnamed recipient.

Author: 
Sir Francis Chantrey [ Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey ] (1781-1841), English sculptor
Publication details: 
Belgrave Place [ London ]. 23 April 1836.
£100.00

1p., 4to. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper, laid down on a leaf removed from an album. The letter begins by directing the recipient to 'place the head stone upon the figure if you intend to place it before the rest of the figure is erected'. If the recipient's 'previous arrangements did not contemplate putting the whole figure together' he asks him not to do as he has directed. Chantrey is 'desirous that the figure should be in the best possible condition to be looked at' before the next Wednesday morning.

Six anaglypographic engravings, showing the two sides of three medals, depicting James Watt (by Chantrey), William Hogarth (Art Union of London) and Sir Christopher Wren (Art Union of London).

Author: 
[ Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey; William Wyon (1795-1851) of the Royal Mint; William Bain; numismatic; coins and medals; anglyptography; the Art Union of London ]
Publication details: 
The Watt medal dating from London, 1843. The Wren medal (1846) and Hogarth medal (1848), both by the Art Union of London.
£200.00

Each of the sets of two engravings on a separate strip of paper, each roughly 7 x 15.5 cm. Printed in black. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. The three strips laid down on the same side of a 35.5 x 26 cm leaf removed from an album. In pencil in a contemporary hand at head of page: 'Anaglyptographic Engravings', and beneath the second strip, 'William Hogarth 1697-1764', and beneath the third, 'Christopher Wren Born 1632. Died 1723'.

Autograph Note Signed ('F Chantrey') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Sir Francis Chantrey [Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey] (1781-1841), English sculptor [the Royal Academy]
Publication details: 
Tuesday morng' [no date].
£38.00

Seven lines on one side of a piece of aged wove paper, roughly 12.5 x 10 cm. A hurried, smudged communication. Reads 'My Dear Sir | I have the ill luck to be obliged to attend a Council of the Royal Academy. We commence business punctually [last word underlined] at 8 oClock - Confound the R.A.!!! | Truly yrs | [signed] F Chantrey | Tuesday Morng'.

Autograph Letter Signed to Alfred Edward Chalon.

Author: 
Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey
Publication details: 
Belgrave place | Thursday Ev[eni]ng.' [no year].
£66.00

English painter and sculptor (1781-1841). The recipient (1780-1860) was an English artist of Swiss descent. One page, quarto. Good, but with traces of previous brown-paper mount adhering to rear and minor damage to several corners. Reads 'My Dear Sir | When I asked you for an impression I had not seen the composition & had no idea that I was asking so much - believe me I feel very grateful for your kindness in putting me in possession of so very interesting a work - I do not mean to be understood as speaking of Lithography only.

Autograph Signatures on fragment of petition.

Author: 
Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey, William Frederick Witherington, John Jackson, James Lonsdale, Thomas Christopher Hofland, Robert Balmanno
Publication details: 
Without place or date (but before 1831).
£45.00

Four noted British artists of the earlier part of the nineteenth-century: Witherington (1785-1865), Jackson (1778-1831), Lonsdale (1777-1839), and Hofland (1777-1843), together with the sculptor Chantrey (1781-1841), and the art critic and connoisseur Balmanno (1780-1861), who left England for America in the early 1830s. Paper dimensions roughly three inches by four. Creased, and on paper discoloured with age, with show-through from remains of seal under Chantrey's signature. Reads 'J Chantrey | W. F. Witherington | John Jackson | James Lonsdale. | T. C. Hofland | Robert Balmanno'.

Autograph letter signed to Geo. R. Ward, engraver of portraits.

Author: 
Allan Cunningham.
Publication details: 
Belgrave House, 7 June 1831.
£45.00

Poet and man of letters (1784-1842). He reports that Chantrey (presumably the sculptor) left home and had "professional matters" to keep him away for some time. Asker[Asher?] might not be contactable, though he will"chance" a letter to him.

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