Douglass, Frederick (1817/18-1895)
Autograph sentiment signed
£479
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 07 February 2024 from 10:00 GMT
Description
'Very sincerely yours, Frederick Douglass', in black ink on slip of wove paper (9.8 x 13.5cm)
Footnote
Provenance: In envelope addressed to Mr R. [?]I. W. Wilson, East Bank House, Sheffield' (franked 1926, docketed in pencil 'Frederick Douglas b1817, great negro orator'); thence by descent to David R. Wilson (1926-2020), bookseller and ornithologist (obituary: British Birds, vol. 113, issue 9, pp 560–561). The item may have originally come into the possession of the Wilson family via their connection to Sheffield abolitionist Mary Anne Rawson (1801-1887), a known correspondent of Douglass's, whose sister Elizabeth married William Wilson (1800-1866), Nonconformist radical and chairman of the Sheffield Anti-Slavery Committee (see Rawson/Wilson Anti-Slavery Papers, University of Manchester, GB 133 Eng MSS 414-415, 741-744).