Lot 188
Autographs
3 autograph albums
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 07 February 2024 from 10:00 GMT
Description
1) Black morocco album with signatures of King George V ('George R.I.', dated 20th May 1919), Queen Mary ('Mary R', 20th May 1919), King George VI ('Albert', dated 4th November 1921), Field Marshal Douglas Haig ('Haig of Bemersyde', 26 January 1920), John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown (makers of the first non-stop translatlantic flight), Robert Baden-Powell (24th September 1919), Jose Raul Capablanca (Cuban chess player, dated 8th October 1919), Ivor Maxse (army officer), David Lloyd George and Margaret Lloyd George, H. A. L. Fisher (historian and politician), Admiral Wemyss, Purachatra (prince of Siam), Yehudi Menuhin (violinist), Malcolm Sargent (conductor), Nina Milkina (pianist), these all direct onto the album pages, together with the clipped and mounted signatures of Herbert Sutcliffe (cricketer), Maréchal Foch (supreme allied commander in World War One), William Ewart Gladstone, John Betjeman, Harriette Chick (microbiologist), and an autograph noted signed by John Bright (also clipped and mounted), and numerous other signatures. With ownership inscription of Jessie Margaret Irons, Park Grange, Sheffield, and laid-in note (not in the same hand) reading: 'This autograph book started in record [of] the visits to Sheffield of Royalty & celebrates when old William Irons was Lord Mayor & Ada Irons Lady Mayoress in their year of office starting on 1st November 1918. It was later used for other signatures'.
2) Green cloth album with approx. 45 engraved armorial bookplates of Scottish peers including Admiral Keith, the dukes of Argyll, Sutherland, Atholl, Gordon, etc., and numerous other families including Drummond, Forbes, Fraser of Lovat, Clanranald, Macdonell of Glengarry, Macleod of Rasay, etc., 2 very large engraved bookplates of the Earls Spencer and the Earls of Radnor, approx. 300 varicoloured embossed crests, 52 clipped signatures of Scottish peers and other notables including Sir David Brewster (scientist), Charles Lyell (geologist), etc.
3) Red cloth album including autographs of Yorkshire county cricketers for 1938 (e.g. Herbert Sutcliffe, Hedley Verity, Arthur Wood, Arthur Brian Sellers, Maurice Leyland, etc.), Gracie Fields, masters of Birkdale School (Sheffield), other Sheffield figures, etc.
(3)
Footnote
Provenance: David R. Wilson (1926-2020), bookseller and ornithologist (obituary: British Birds, vol. 113, issue 9, pp 560–561).