Lot 121
Royalty, politicians and soldiers
Autograph album with Royal Artillery and Waterloo interest, 19th century
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 21 September 2023 at 10:00 BST
Description
including:
George IV (1762-1830). Autograph letter in the third person from Henry Paget, Marquess of Anglesey as master-general of the ordnance to George IV, 1827, requesting George's signature on a general order, signed at head 'entirely app[rove]d GR'; fragment of autograph letter possibly from Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington as major-general of the ordnance, 1827, signed at head 'app[rove]d GR'; and 3 clipped signatures;
William IV (1765-1837). Letter to William recommending the appointment of Major General Richard Dickenson as colonel commandant Royal Artillery, 1834, signed at head 'William R'; warrant approving the court martial of Gunner and Driver Thomas Prentice, Royal Artillery, 'For deserting from his quarters at Woolwich ... and proceeding to Spain in the service of that state', with wafer seal, signed at head 'William R'; and 10 clipped signatures;
Victoria (1819-1901). Letter signed from Henry Hardinge, 1st Viscount Hardinge as master-general of the ordnance, 1852, recommending the appointment of Major General Frederick Campbell as colonel commandant, Royal Artillery, signed at head 'Victoria R'; autograph letter signed from FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan as master-general of the ordnance, 1854, requesting Lieutenant-Colonel St Aubin Molesworth be placed on the retired list, signed 'Victoria R' at foot; and 29 clipped signatures;
approx. 30 further letters to and from various 19th-century politicians and soldiers, including a letter from the Marquess of Anglesey to the Earl of Mulgrave as master-general of the ordnance, 1816, soliciting his favour towards an unnamed wounded soldier who 'was at Waterloo in Col. Whinyate's troop', a letter from Benjamin Bloomfield, 1st Baron Bloomfield as colonel commandant, Royal Artillery to Sir Hussey Vivian (commander of the 6th cavalry brigade at Waterloo) as master-general of the ordnance, 1839, reporting the suicide of a recruit by gunshot ('So effectual was the discharge that the skull was actually blown out of the window'), other letters to and or from Mulgrave, Anglesey, Vivian, Joseph Hume, Methuen, Raglan, etc., and various clipped signatures including Canning, Beresford, Adolphus Frederick Duke of Cambridge, Arthur Wellesley 1st Duke of Wellington, and a copy of The Times, No. 6572, Thursday, 7 November, 1805, containing Collingwood's official dispatch on the battle of Trafalgar (single bifolium, chipped and browned, torn in half).
In an oblong 4to half skiver album (spine defective), letters and signatures either pasted down or tucked via corners or edges behind glassine ribbons (these apparently not pasted to the letters or signatures themselves but some adhesion possible), several items loose or missing