EIGHTEENTH

A valuable artefact of the American War of Independence: a leaf from a British War or Colonial Office ledger detailing payments to officials in General Leslie’s administration in Carolina in 1782.

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).

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, 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.

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 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.

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 image. A nice item, linking two important figures in French history. 1p, foolscap 8vo, on the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium of unwatermarked gilt-edged wove paper. Aged and lightly creased, with short closed tears and wear at the head. The ten lines of neatly written text are neatly and clearly signed ‘Louis’, and there is a wavy and almost vertical line from the king’s signature to that of ‘Chateaubriand’ at bottom right of the page.

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).

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.