Lot 233

[THE] GLADIATOR - [A TORRIDON GAZETTE] - [DARROCH OF TORRIDON]

A LONG RUN OF A RARE PRIVATELY PRODUCED ROSS & CROMARTY "GAZETTE"

Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photography

Auction: 31 January 2019 at 11:00 GMT

£3,000

Description

commencing May 5th 1884 - December 1892, c. 118 numbers, each number comprising from 4 - 20pp, folio, lithographed throughout, "Printed by Prutchkin at Torridon in the County of Ross", c. 600 pages in all, profusely illustrated, the "title-page" by Marion Coleridge, contemporary half calf

Footnote

Note: A very rare, privately produced, "Gazette", supposedly printed by "Prutchkin & Co. at Torridon in the County of Ross", one number with statement "N.B. For Private Circulation only" . The quality of the illustrations, and the length of the contributions, increase over the 9 year period of production. The work is almost certainly that of a member of the Darroch family, resident at Torridon between 1873 and 1910. Many of the stories and pieces of "fashionable intelligence" relate to members of the Darroch family and the indices give the names of numerous contributors, including D. Darroch, C.B. Scott, GT.D. Coleridge, H. Troubridge, R.F. Reynard, M.C. Dixon, D. Maclachlan & others, and illustrations by A.A Sykes, M. Coleridge, C.J. Davidson, & others. The text is often highly amusing, and gives great insights into the life of a cultured family in a remote part of the Highlands in the 1880's and 90's. The only reference found onloine to the "Gladiator" is of a single number discovered in a time capsule found in 2015 hidden in the wall of Coire Church, Torridon.

Provenance: Torridon House, Earls of Lovelace; signature to front endpaper of Alasdair R. Darroch. Torridon House was built by Duncan Darroch, Baron of Gourock who bought the Torridon estate in 1873, and died in 1910 at Torridon House.