Lot 57
Eminent Victorians
The Kinnear family autograph album
£6,048
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 28 September 2022 from 10:00 BST
Description
containing 70 complete autograph letters and 28 clipped signatures, sentiments or signed postal covers, mounted rectos and versos in c.1890 maroon skiver album (spine defective), gift inscription 'Winifred D. Kinnear, from her mother, Christmas 1893' to front free endpaper. The complete letters all 1 p. unless stated, recipients include Charles George Hood Kinnear (1830-1894, Scottish photographer and architect, and from 1884 colonel of the Midlothian Coastal Artillery Volunteers, addressed variously as 'Mr Kinnear', 'Colonel Kinnear' and similar), George Lillie Craik (1798-1886, Scottish writer and critic), S. C. Hall and 'Mrs Hall' (probably Samuel Carter Hall, 1800-1889, journalist, and his wife, Anna Maria Hall, novelist, 1800-1881), the Lord Advocate, and others, authors in order of appearance include:
Earl of Rosebery (1847-1929), prime minister, 1888, 'My dear Colonel ... We make a rule of never having anything to do with bazaars on principle, & I could not well make an application to the Queen under present circumstances ...', 2 pp.;
William Clark Russell (1844-1911), writer of nautical fiction, 1890, 'Yet another question - in how many chapters would you wish the story written: taking 56,000 words as the basis of the subdivisions?';
William Howitt (1792-1879), historian, 1859, on a response to a request for literary anecdotes ('The late John Murray the very last time I saw him told me a very good anecdote ...'), 3 pp.;
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863), undated, 'Dear Mr Coutts, Will you kindly keep 4 places for 4 ladies, friends of mine who wish to hear my last words before going to America, faithfully yours, W M Thackeray';
Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864), 1844, fair copy of the poem 'To Major General W. Napier', 2 pp.;
Harriet Martineau (1802-1876), Ambleside, 1862, on the misuse of charitable funds, 4 pp.;
Robert Browning (1812-1889), dated Hatcham, 24th May, no year, 'Dear sir, I am unluckily engaged this morning. Do what seems best about the entitling-business. Pray remember to send proof copy';
Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington (1789-1849), author, 1848, 2 pp.;
Earl of Aberdeen (1784-1860), 1856, on Scottish marriage laws, written a year after his resignation as prime minister over his prosecution of the Crimean War, 2 pp.;
Charles Lyall (1797-1875), geologist, undated, 'My dear Lord Advocate, Tomorrow at the hour you mention Sir J. Lubbock, Mr C. Darwin and two others expect me to a geological appointment in Kent. Never the less if you cannot change it for this day at any hour you like ... I will sacrifice my other engagement ...';
Richard Monckton Milnes (1809-1885), author, 'I find I have not a scrap of Keats's unpublished writings in town ...';
Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859), historian and politician, Albany, London, 1833, to the Lord Advocate, concerning Liberal electors in Edinburgh, 4 pp.;
Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873), novelist and politician, a letter of thanks, signed 'ELB';
Caroline Norton (1808-1877), writer and campaigner for marriage reform, apologising for 'the delay respecting Mr Lane's curious and valuable drawing', 2 pp.;
Sir Charles Locke Eastlake RA (1793-1864), artist and author of Hints on Household Taste, 1879;
George Henry Lewes (1817-1878), philosopher, critic, and partner of George Eliot, 186[?], to John Boyd Kinnear, on Fortnightly Review stationery;
William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877), pioneer of photography, undated, addressed on verso to 'Mr Kinnear', almost certainly Charles George Hood Kinnear, 'D[ea]r Sir, I could send you if wished, 20 or 30 more of the steel [?] for distribution to individual members of the phot. soc[iet]y but they are for the same plates as those already sent, as I have no others here at present. I am glad you think they promise well, and remain, yours truly, H. F. Talbot', 2 pp.;
Charles Dickens (1812-1870), Royal Hotel, Glasgow, 8 October 1858, in the third person, 'Mr Charles Dickens is happy to have the honor of accepting the invitation for the 19th of the present month, with which he is favoured by the mayor of Birmingham';
Ada Ellen Bayly, 'Edna Lyall' (1857-1903), writer and suffragette, [18]96;
William Powell Frith RA (1819-1909), artist, 1874, concerning a private view, 3 pp.;
Frederick Tennyson (1807-1898), poet and brother of Alfred, St Ewolds, Jersey, 1891;
Thomas Faed RSA (1826-1900), artist, 2 pp.
William Holman Hunt OM (1827-1910), artist, Draycott Lodge, Fulham, 1886, to George L. Craik, 'I have written a letter .. which explains my views as to the of the plate now ... I will work on the proofs in two or three places with brown, but we will talk of this afterwards ...', 2 pp.;
and others.
Other signatures (not full letters) include: Queen Victoria ('Victoria R), Walter Besant, Lord Palmerston ('I have not the least intention of agreeing to Cowars motion' P 16/2-54'), William Ewart Gladstone, and similar
Footnote
Provenance: The Kinnear family of Kinloch House, Collessie, Fife, thence by descent to Elizabeth Hay (née Kinnear, 1924-2017), godmother of the vendor. See lot 60 for further material from the same source.
