THE PRICES OF AUTOGRAPHS AND THEIR VARIATIONS 345
William Upcott and his contemporaries--Sale prices 1810-1910.
INDEX 378
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
A.L.S. of William Wilson, an Actor of the "Fortune" Theatre, to
Edward Alleyn, of Dulwich, 1620 _Frontispiece_
PAGE
Signatures of the Egyptian Clients of the Author, 1882-1888,
H.R.H. the Khedive Ismail; H.R.H. Prince Ibrahim Hilmy, his
Son, and Arabi Pacha 11
Last page of A.L.S. of Elizabeth Chudleigh, Duchess of Kingston,
at St. Petersburg, to Miss Chudleigh, at Bath 29
Warrant signed by Warren Hastings, Philip Francis, Edward
Wheeler, and Eyre Coote, May 31, 1780 30
A.L.S. obtained from Cardinal Newman by an Autograph-hunter,
September 4, 1870 43
Two pages of A.L.S. of Sir John Tenniel, of _Punch_, obtained by
an Autograph-hunter, October 13, 1903 45
From the Prelude of "Gerontius," MS. Bars signed by Sir Edward
Elgar, September, 1900 49
Facsimile of the Historic Letter from George Crabbe to Edmund
Burke 63
The Autograph of Ludwig van Beethoven 64
First page of A.L.S. of Dr. Johnson to Sir Joshua Reynolds on the
subject of Crabbe's Poems, 1783 74
Lines of Thomas Chatterton on Horace Walpole, which cost Sir
George White, of Bristol, £34 74
A Specimen of Ireland's Shakespearean Forgeries attested by
himself 77
William Ireland's Attestation of his Forgeries of Shakespeare's
Signature 79
Forged Letter of W. M. Thackeray, in which his later Handwriting
is imitated 83
Two pages of a Letter by Lord Brougham to E. Arago, offering to
become a Naturalised Frenchman and a Candidate for the French
Chambers 99
Specimen page of the Dumouriez MS. discovered by the Writer 102
Original Dispatch of Lord Cawdor to Duke of Portland describing
the Landing and Surrender of the French at Fishguard,
February, 1797 103
MS. Verses on Trafalgar in the Handwriting of Charles Dibdin,
1805 107
Bulletin issued a week after the birth of King Edward VII. and
signed by the Medical Men in attendance, November 16, 1841 114
Order to the Duke of Beaufort to destroy Keynsham Bridge, near
Bristol, on the approach of Monmouth, signed by King James
II., June 21, 1685 115
A.L.S. of the Electress Sophia of Hanover to the Duke of Leeds,
October 19, 1710 116
A.L.S. of King George III. on the Subject of the Defence of
England in the early stages of the Great Terror of 1796-1805 119
Commission signed by Oliver Cromwell, October 20, 1651 121
Signature of Lord Protector Richard Cromwell to a Commission,
January, 1658 122
Fourteen lines in the Writing of Napoleon on Military Order, with
his Signature, July 3, 1803 123
Autograph of Henry VII., King of England (1456-1509) 127
A.L.S. of King William III. from Camp before Namur, July 13, 1795
128
Last page of A.L.S. of Empress Catherine of Russia to Mrs. de
Bielke, of Hamburg, July 28, 1767 128
One of the earliest Signatures of Louis XIV. (aged six) 135
Interesting A.L.S. of Louis XVI. to the Chemist Lavoisier on the
subject of the Discovery of Inflammable Gas, Versailles,
March 15, 1789 136
A.L.S. of King George III. to Sir Samuel Hood (afterwards Lord
Hood), June 13, 1779 137
A.L.S. of King George III. written four days before the Battle of
Trafalgar 141
A.L.S. of Queen Alexandra to Mrs. Gladstone, December 7, 1888 145
Queen Victoria's Order on a Letter of Sir Henry Ponsonby, April
26, 1894 146
One of the last Letters written by Queen Victoria, addressed to
General Sir George White, of Ladysmith 147
Autograph Telegram from the late Prince Albert Victor of Wales to
his Grandmother, Queen Victoria 149
Holograph Telegram of the Duke of Connaught to Queen Victoria,
St. Petersburg, May 26, 1896 150
One page of A.L.S. of Queen Victoria to her elder Daughter, aged
six, October 21, 1846 153
First page of A.L.S. of the Duchess of Kent to her Grandson, King
Edward VII., aged eight, August 26, 1849 154
First page of A.L.S. of Queen Adelaide to her Great-niece, the
late Empress Frederick of Germany, circa 1848 157
Page of Register containing the Signatures of Contracting Parties
and Witnesses at the Marriage of King Edward VII. and Queen
Alexandra, 1863 158
Page from the MS. Remark-book of Prince William Henry (afterwards
King William IV.), in which he begins to describe New York,
January, 1781 159
Page of Exercise Book of King George IV. at the age of twelve 159
Drawing by Charlotte, Empress of Mexico, dated Lacken, 1850 160
A sheet from the Copy-book of the Emperor Alexander II. of
Russia when a boy 160
A.L.S. of Queen Charlotte to Mr. Penn, of Portland, November 19,
1813 163
First page of A.L.S. by Albert, Prince Consort, to General Peel,
1858 165
Exercise of the late King Edward VII. when ten years old,
December 17, 1851 166
Exercise of the late Duke of Coburg (Prince Alfred) at the age of
eight 166
One page of A.L.S. of King George V., when Duke of York to the
late Duchess Dowager of Manchester, February 22, 1886 167
One page of A.L.S. of Queen Mary, while Duchess of York, to a
friend, May 24, 1900 168
First page of A.L.S. of the Empress Frederick of Germany to Mr.
Prothero, February 22, 1889 168
Last page of unpublished Holograph Poem in Handwriting of William
Pitt, May, 1771 177
Last Whip issued by William Pitt and signed by him, December 31,
1805 178
Signature of Sir Isaac Heard, Garter, on Card of Admission to the
Funeral of William Pitt, 1806 178
A.L.S. of Earl of Chesterfield, October 8, 1771, describing the
Inaugural Ball at the new Bath Assembly Rooms 183
One page of A.L.S. from Mr. W. E. Gladstone at Balmoral to
Cardinal Manning, n.d. 188
One Page of A.L.S. of Mr. Disraeli (afterwards Lord Beaconsfield)
on Church matters, n.d. 191
The Signature of Shakespeare on the last page of his Will 196
Deed containing the Signature of Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, and
nearly all the Members of his Family, temp. James I. 199
A.L.S. of John Evelyn to Samuel Pepys, Deptford, September 25,
1790 200
Early Signature of John Milton on Documents now in possession of
Mr. Quaritch 203
Page of Dr. Johnson's Diary recording his impressions of
Stonehenge, &c., 1783 207
The two last pages of the MS. Journal of Mrs. Thrale's Tour in
Wales, July-September, 1774, describing the Dinner at Burke's 208
Holograph lines by Goethe on Blücher, circa 1812-13 213
A.L.S. of John Keats (three pages) to J. H. Reynolds, February
28, 1820 214
Letter of Lord Tennyson to Mr. Moxon 217
A.L.S. of Lord Byron to Mr. Perry, March 1, 1812 217
Illustrated Letter of W. M. Thackeray from Glasgow 218
Lines from the "Iliad." Specimen of the MS. of the late Mr.
George Meredith 219
A.L.S. of W. M. Thackeray to Count d'Orsay on fly-leaf of
circular announcing the Publication of a Picture, n.d. 221
Early A.L.S. of W. M. Thackeray to Mr. Macrone, Publisher,
discovered by Mr. George Gregory, of Bath 222
First page of one of Charles Dickens's last Letters, May 15, 1870 225
A.L.S. of Honourable Mrs. Norton containing an invitation to meet
Charles Dickens, the author of "Pickwick," at dinner 226
Early Letter of Charles Dickens to Mr. Macrone (1836) from
Furnival's Inn 227
A.L.S. of "Perdita" (Mary Robinson) to George, Prince of Wales,
January 19, 1785 228
Holograph Order of Admission of Thomas Carlyle to his Rectorial
Address at Edinburgh University, dated March 23, 1866 230
A.L.S. of John Wesley, June 14, 1788 232
A.L.S. of Duke of Montrose to the King 239
Part of A.L.S. of Earl Howe to Earl Spencer after his great
Victory of June 1, 1794 239
Official MS. Account of Expenses incurred at Funeral of Queen
Anne 240
One page of A.L.S. of General Byng, October 27, 1727 242
Signature of Admiral Byng on his Will a few days before his
death, March, 1757 242
A.L.S. of Lord Nelson to Earl Spencer, written with his right
hand, _Theseus_, May 28, 1798 245
A.L.S. of Nelson to Lady Hamilton about his wife, written with
his left hand, January 24, 1801 245
First page of A.L.S. of Lady Nelson to her Husband, December 10,
1799 246
Naval Commission signed by Lord Nelson, April 25, 1781 246
A.L.S. of Sir Thomas Hardy about Lord Nelson's Beer, Torbay,
February 20, 1801 251
Letter of Duke of Wellington to Mr. Algernon Greville, October
24, 1841, speaking of the necessity of his being present at
the Birth of King Edward VII. 251
Envelope directed by Duke of Wellington to Lady Sidmouth
enclosing lock of Napoleon's hair, 1821 252
A.L.S. of the Abbé Liszt to Secretary of Princess of Wales (Queen
Alexandra), April 16, 1886 258
A.L.S. of Joseph Haydn, the Composer, June 5, 1803 260
Signature of the nonagenarian Mrs. Garrick a few days before her
death 263
A genuine short Note signed by Edmund Kean, afterwards imitated
264
A.L.S. of R. B. Sheridan asking for time to pay a draft 265
A.L.S. of Charles Mathews, the Actor, proposing his son for
election to Garrick Club, n.d. 266
Last page of A.L.S. of Mrs. Siddons to Mrs. Piozzi after the Fire
at Covent Garden Theatre 268
Letter of the Chevalier d'Éon to Colonel Monson, Bath, January 7,
1796 271
Account for Supper given by the Chevalier d'Éon to Prince Henry
of Prussia, August 15, 1784 271
One of the last Letters ever written by Grimaldi, the great
Clown, December 20, 1829 272
A.L.S. of William Hogarth to his Wife, January 6, 1749 273
Last page of an A.L.S. by the painter George Romney 274
A.L.S. of Sir Joshua Reynolds to George Crabbe, March 4, 1783 275
A.L.S. of George Morland 275
Two pages of Illustrated Letter from the Honble. Mrs. Norton to a
Sister, July, 1854 276
Portion of Illustrated Letter by John Leech 279
Page of Illustrated A.L.S. from Mr. Wheeler to Sir F. Burnand 280
Illustrated A.L.S. of Fred Barnard relating to the plates of
"Dombey and Son," n.d. 281
Portrait of Charles Peace, the murderer, on A.L.S. of Sir Frank
Lockwood, who defended him, written in 1888 282
A.L.S. of George Cruickshank, September, 1836, about Dickens's
first call on him 283
Postcard of James Whistler from Lion Hotel, Lyme Regis,
circa 1888 284
First page of A.L.S. of the Painter Meissonier, July 25, 1861 284
Portraits of Sir R. Reid (now Lord Loreburn) and the late Sir
Frank Lockwood on an Illustrated Letter written by the latter
during the Parnell Commission 285
Two pages of Illustrated Letter by Hablot K. Browne 286
Two pages of a Letter from Richard Cobden in "The Forties" 287
Early Signature of Napoleon I. as "Buonaparte" on Military
Document, dated February 1, 1796 297
First page of A.L.S. of Admiral Villeneuve announcing to
the French Minister of Marine the Disaster of the Nile,
September, 1798 297
Signature of Empress Marie Louise as Regent, July, 1813 298
A.L.S. of Joseph Bonaparte, afterwards King of Spain, January,
1806 299
A.L.S. of Talleyrand in Paris to Napoleon I. at Bayonne
congratulating him on the Birth of Napoleon III., at which he
had been present, April, 1808 301
Letter signed by the Empress Josephine, 3 ventose an x [February
22, 1802] 302
A.L.S. of Marshal Ney, Paris, December 23, 1813 304
Exercise of the King of Rome, Duke de Reichstadt, circa 1827 305
Portion of Essay on Gunnery written by the late Prince Imperial
of France while a Cadet at the Woolwich Military Academy 307
Page of A.L.S. of Napoleon III. to Dr. O'Meara, March 9, 1836 308
Sketch by the late Prince Imperial, circa 1866 308
A.L.S. of Admiral Brueys, the French Admiral Commanding-in-Chief,
who was killed at Trafalgar, dated May 25, 1797 310
Two Signatures of Marie Antoinette on a Warrant, October, 1783 312
A.L.S. of Napoleon III. to Lord Alfred Paget from Wilhelmshohe,
October 29, 1870 313
First page of Letter in English from Voltaire to Earl of
Chesterfield, Ferney, August 5, 1761 314
The Signature and Writing of Button Gwinnett, the rarest
Autograph of the "Signers" 326
The last page of the Letter of Thomas Lynch, jun., one of the
American "Signers," which fetched 7,000 dollars 328
The last page of George Washington's splendid A.L.S., now
published through the kindness of Mr. T. C. S. Cuyler 333
A.L.S. of Benjamin Franklin to George Washington, March 2, 1778 334
Early writing of the late King Edward VII., circa 1850 344
I
ON AUTOGRAPH
COLLECTING
GENERALLY
[Illustration: LAST PAGE OF A.L.S. OF ELIZABETH CHUDLEIGH, DUCHESS OF
KINGSTON, AT ST. PETERSBURG, TO MISS CHUDLEIGH, AT BATH.]
[Illustration: WARRANT SIGNED BY WARREN HASTINGS, PHILIP FRANCIS,
EDWARD WHEELER, AND EYRE COOTE, MAY 31, 1780.]
CHATS ON AUTOGRAPHS
CHAPTER I
ON AUTOGRAPH COLLECTING GENERALLY
=Autograph collecting in relation to kindred hobbies--The
genesis of the autograph--Examples of the _alba amicorum_ of
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries--The conscript fathers
of autograph collecting--Franks and their votaries--Album
specimens and their value--The autograph-hunter and his
unconscious victims--Anecdotes of some recent autograph
"draws"=
There can be no doubt that the handwriting of a man is related
to his thought and character, and that we may therefore
gain a certain impression of his ordinary mode of life and
conduct.--GOETHE TO CARDINAL PREUSKER.
My friend Judge Philbrick, for some time President of the Royal
Philatelic Society of London, tells me that the stamps known to
collectors as the Post Office Mauritius "fetch anything." In his
opinion a pair of fine examples of the 1d. red and 2d. blue would
easily make £2,500. He believes the King, when Prince of Wales, gave
£1,500 for a single specimen. A set of the rarest issues of Sandwich
Island stamps would be worth from £1,500 to £2,000, and there are
at least twenty or thirty varieties which sell at something between
£50 and £100. As a matter of fact, I believe the single "Mauritius
Post Office" referred to exchanged hands in January 1904, at no less
a figure than £1,950, and that at a moment when much excitement was
caused in autographic circles by the appearance at Sotheby's of
thirty-three pages of the MS. of "Paradise Lost," once the property
of Jacob Tonson the publisher. The ultimate fate of this precious
MS. will be referred to in connection with the subject of Milton's
autographs, but it may be noted that in the same month a series of
seven superb folio holograph letters of Napoleon, written during his
first campaign in Italy, when his handwriting was still legible and his
signature not the perplexing variation of scratches and blots of later
days, was knocked down at the comparatively modest figure of £350, or
less than one-fifth of the sum paid for the "Mauritius Post Office"!
Before me lie several of the priced catalogues of the Sotheby autograph
auctions of six years ago. Very few of the totals realised at these
sales approached the price paid for this single stamp. At one of them
Nelson's original letter-book of 1796-97, including the original drafts
of 67 letters (many of them of first-rate importance) failed to fetch
more than £190, while a two days' sale (that of December 5 and 6, 1904)
brought only an aggregate sum of £1,009 16s., notwithstanding the fact
that the 416 lots disposed of comprised a splendid series of Johnson
and Thrale letters, a series of S. T. Coleridge MSS., and fine examples
of letters by Pope, Richardson, Marvell, Burke, Boswell, Goldsmith,
Garrick, Nelson, and Lady Hamilton, together with historical documents
signed by Queen Elizabeth, the two Charleses, Oliver Cromwell, and
Queen Anne. The items thus disposed of would in themselves have made a
fine collection if acquired by any one owner, for they represent the
most interesting phases of our national annals, and they might have
been acquired _en bloc_ for £940, less than half the cost of that one
most expensive stamp. Far be it from me to disparage a sister "hobby."
All I seek to prove is that autograph collection has moderation in
price to recommend it, as well as that inherent interest which Mr.
Joline alludes to as "the gentlest of emotions."
In theory, at any rate, the lover of autographs can claim for his
favourite pursuit an antiquity of origin which no print collector or
philatelist, however enthusiastic, can possibly pretend to. In some
shape or another MSS. were highly prized by the ancient Egyptians as
well as the Greeks and Romans. The word "autograph" first occurs in the
writings of Suetonius. We learn on good authority that Ptolemy stole
the archives of the Athenians and replaced the originals with cunningly
devised copies; Pliny and Cicero were both collectors after the manner
of the time in which they lived; Nero recorded his impressions in
pocket-books, and manuscripts of untold importance are supposed to
lie buried in the lava-covered dwellings of Herculaneum. The Chinese,
too, at a very remote period of their national existence were wont to
decorate their temples with the writing or the sign-manuals of their
defunct rulers. The Emperors Justinian and Theodoric are both reputed
to have affixed their signatures by the aid of a perforated tin plate;
and the mystery which attaches itself to the Epistles of Phalaris
still awaits some definite solution. These, and a dozen other similar
topics, may concern the history of writing in the abstract, but they
are strange to the question of the genesis of the modern autograph
in the sense already sufficiently defined and as considered from the
collector's point of view.
By the irony of fate the origin of autograph collecting, as we now
understand it, is clearly traced to the _alba amicorum_ of the latter
part of the sixteenth and the first decades of the seventeenth century.
Men and women of light and leading were accustomed to carry about
oblong volumes of vellum, on which their friends and acquaintances were
requested to write some motto or phrase under his or her signature.
Several interesting examples of these _alba_ are to be seen amongst the
Sloane MSS. in the British Museum. The earliest of them (No. 851) bears
the date 1579. It commences with the motto and signature of the Duc
d'Alençon, the suitor of our Virgin Queen. He has attempted a sketch,
something like a fire, under which are the words "Fovet et disqutit
Francoys," and below, "Me servir quy mestre Farnagues."
No. 3,416 is bound in green velvet with the arms of the writers
beautifully emblazoned on each page. On one of these the Duke of Holst,
brother-in-law of James I., has written:--
Par mer et par terre
Wiwe la Guerre.
It was in the _album amicorum_ of Christopher Arnold, Professor of
History at Nuremberg, that the author of "Paradise Lost" wrote
In weakness I am made perfect.
To that most learned man, and my courteous friend, Christopher
Arnold, have I given this, in token of his virtue, as well as
of my good will towards him.
JOHN MILTON.
_London, A.D. 1651, Nov. 19._
To the album of Charles de Bousy (No. 3,415) Edward Sackville,
afterwards Earl of Dorset, has contributed a motto neatly written in
six languages. Late in the nineteenth century these ancient _alba_ had
their counterpart in the books of questions which, for a brief period,
found favour in the eyes of the British hostess with a literary turn
of mind. A page thus filled up by the late Duke of Coburg (Prince
Alfred of England) is in my collection. In it the writer with perfect
frankness discloses his ideas of happiness and misery, his favourite
poets, painters, and composers, his pet aversions and the characters
in history he most dislikes. The sheet of this modern _album amicorum_
fetched one sovereign in the open market, and in many ways the views
of the Duke are as interesting as those of the princes and poets who
yielded to the entreaties of Charles de Bousy and Christopher Arnold.
In these early _alba_ the interest of the handwriting formed the
predominant attraction, but with the succeeding generations of
collectors who gathered together stores of priceless MSS. the point
of interest was almost entirely historical. It was reserved for the
nineteenth century connoisseur to combine the interest which is purely
historical with that which centres in the writer and the writing of
any given letter or document. The value of the services rendered to
the cause of history by men like Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (1571-1631),
John Evelyn (1620-1706), Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford (1661-1724),
Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford (1689-1741), and Sir Hans Sloane
(1660-1753) cannot possibly be over-estimated.
Robert Harley purchased the papers accumulated by Fox, Stow, and
D'Ewes, and the Harleian and Sloane MSS. form to-day a most important
portion of the national collection in the British Museum. Thomas Hearne
(1678-1735) laboured industriously at Oxford on the same lines as
Robert Harley and Hans Sloane. He is said to have made each important
discovery of autographic treasure-trove the subject of a devout
thanksgiving.
Good work was done about the same time by Ralph Thoresby (1658-1725)
and Peter Le Neve (1661-1729). Manuscripts entered largely into the
"Museum of Rarities" formed by the first named, and the MSS. of the
latter are now in the Bodleian Library and the Heralds' College. A
little later came James West (1704-1772). Between 1741 and 1762 he held
the office of Joint-secretary to the Treasury, and from 1746 till his
death he was Recorder of Poole. Among other curiosities he got together
a large number of valuable MSS. Born four years before West, James
Bindley lived till 1818, thus becoming a contemporary of Upcott, Dawson
Turner, and other early nineteenth-century collectors who prepared the
way for the great work since accomplished by Mr. Alfred Morrison and
others.
It now becomes necessary to say something of the "frank," which for
more than an entire century exercised the minds of men and women in
every condition of life to an extent it is now almost impossible
to understand. The interest in the "frank" was philatelic as well
as autographic, but no "frank" ever attained the high position now
held by a Post Office Mauritius or early Sandwich stamp. The story
of the "frank" is briefly thus: The right to send letters free of
charge was claimed by Members of Parliament as far back as the reign
of James I. It was fully discussed in the Commons immediately after
the Restoration, and the claim was affirmed, although the Speaker,
Sir Harbottle Grimston, refused to put a motion which he stigmatised
as "a poor mendicant proviso unworthy of the honour of the House."
The Lords rejected the Bill, because apparently the privilege was not
to be extended to them, but it was eventually conceded to members of
both Houses. The grossest abuses were soon committed. Under the cover
of the "frank" fifteen couple of hounds were sent to the King of the
Romans; "two maid-servants going out as laundresses" were forwarded
to "My Lord Ambassador Methuen," two bales of stockings found their
way, "post free," to our representative at the Court of Portugal. The
"frank" was continually used for the transit of live deer, turkeys, and
haunches of venison. In Queen Anne's time its operation was limited to
packets weighing two ounces or less, and in the fourth year of George
III. it was enacted that the "franking" Peer or M.P. should write the
whole address and date on each letter. In 1795 the maximum weight
of a "franked" letter was reduced to one ounce, and in 1840, on the
institution of Sir Rowland Hill's penny postage system, the privilege
(except in one or two special cases) was entirely abolished. Mr.
Bailie, of Ringdufferin, Killyleagh, Co. Down, was one of the last of
the frank-collecting enthusiasts. About twenty years ago he thus wrote
to the _Archivist_:--
"Although no further limitation or alteration was made between 1795 and
1840, great abuses still existed. Members supplied larger packets of
franks to friends and adherents; some sold their privilege for large
sums to banking and business firms; they also accepted _douceurs_ for
allowing letters to be directed to them, although intended for other
persons, and servants' wages were frequently paid by franks, which were
subsequently sold by them to tradesmen and others. It was computed
that a banking house, having one of the firm an M.P., effected thereby
a saving of £700 a year. In one week of November, 1836, about 94,700
franks passed through the London post alone, and in 1837 there were
7,400,000 franked letters posted. From 1818 to 1837 it was estimated
that £1,400,000 had been lost to the Post Office through the franking
system." The privilege was abolished on July 10, 1840, the only
exception made being in favour of the late Queen's own letters and a
few Government Departments.
The Inspectors of Franks in London, Dublin, and Edinburgh were highly
paid and important officials. Mr. William Tayleure, of Adelaide Street,
West Strand, headed a long list of dealers in "franks." "Frank"
auctions, prior to 1840, were as common as stamp auctions are to-day,
and amongst the best known "frank" collectors were Lady Chatham (the
daughter-in-law of the "Great Commoner"), Lord William FitzRoy and Mr.
Blott, Inspector of Franks at the G.P.O. Mr. Bailie eventually became
possessor of the Chatham and FitzRoy collections. He could boast of
possessing the "frank" of every Peer since the Union, with the single
exception of F. A. Hervey, Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry.
For three generations at least one of the principal objects in life
seems to have been the gratuitous acquisition of "franks." When James
Beattie visited the Thrales of Streatham, his supreme delight lay
in having secured six "franks" and the promise of a further supply;
millionaires excused their epistolary silence on the plea of the
difficulty to "get" a "frank," and even late in the "eighteen-thirties"
Benjamin Disraeli wrote to his sister that he was sure that the
sight of an unprivileged (_i.e._, unfranked) letter on the Bradenham
breakfast-table would cause the death of his venerable father.
The witty letters of Joseph Jekyll abound in amusing allusions
to "franks." One day he writes, "Don't go into histericks at a
Radical frank of Burdett's"; on another occasion, "I have bribed the
Attorney-General for this frank," and again, "I postponed payment till
the immaculate electors of Stockbridge had agreed to save _ninepence_
out of your pin-money." Writing to Lady Blessington the Nestor of
_beaux esprits_ says: "I trust this will reach you if the Post Office
can decipher my friend Wetherell's hieroglyphical frank, but Tories
always make a bad hand of it."
Collections of "franks" like those of Mr. Bailie must still have some
value. It is now difficult to obtain isolated examples, and to my mind
they are infinitely more interesting, from every point of view, than
detached signatures of individuals, however celebrated, and the great
majority of "album specimens."
An "album specimen" is a letter or signature obtained in answer to a
request for an autograph. If the demand is made point-blank, the reply
is rarely of any real value.
There are, of course, many exceptions to the rule. I have already
alluded to the page of the "Confessions" Book filled up by the late
Duke of Coburg. Bismarck is said to have been requested to add
something on the page of an autograph album which already contained
the autographs of Guizot and Thiers. The former had written, "I have
learned in my long life two rules of prudence. The first is to forgive
much; the second, never to forget." Thiers had placed below this the
sentence, "A little forgetting would not detract from the sincerity
of the forgiveness." Bismarck continued, "As for me, I have learnt to
forget much, and to be asked to be forgiven much." I should not be
surprised if the page of that album with the conjunction of these three
great names yielded a record price.
It is the persistent seeker for "album specimens" who is known in
America as the "Autograph Fiend," and on this side as the "Autograph
Hunter." Possibly in the United States this type of collector is more
aggressive than his English _confrère_. Longfellow was an early victim
of the "A. F." In his diary he plaintively mentions the necessity of
complying with thirty or forty requests of this kind. On January 9,
1857, matters reached a climax. On that day he made the following
entry in his journal: "To-day I wrote, sealed, and dictated seventy
autographs." Other celebrities were less complacent than the persecuted
poet. "George Eliot" generally instructed Mr. Lewes to write a
point-blank refusal, and an Archbishop of York intended to follow her
example, but unintentionally delighted his tormentor with the signed
reply, "Sir, I never give my autograph, and never will." Frowde was in
the habit of replying after this fashion:--
DEAR SIR,--Mr. Weller's friend (or perhaps Mr. Weller himself)
would say that "autographs is vanity!"--but since you wish for
mine, I subscribe myself,
Faithfully yours,
J. A. FROWDE.
Mr. Joline shows little mercy to such applicants.
Lord Rosebery replies to a similar application:--
Lord Rosebery presents his compliments to Miss C., and would
rather not make her collection and himself ridiculous by
sending _it_ the autograph of so insignificant a person.
An exceptionally considerate type of autograph-hunter succeeded in
extracting the following charming note from the late R. L. Stevenson:--
VAILIMA, UPOLU, SAMOA.
You have sent me a slip to write on; you have sent me an
addressed envelope; you have sent it me stamped; many have done
as much before. You have spelled my name right, and some have
done that. In one point you stand alone: you have sent me the
stamps for my post office, not the stamps for yours. What is
asked with so much consideration I take a pleasure to grant.
Here, since you value it, and have been at the pains to earn it
by such unusual attentions--here is the signature,
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.
For the one civil autograph collector, Charles R.
Poe, like Longfellow, was merciful to his autograph-seeking
correspondents, and their name was legion. In his opinion, "The
feeling which prompts to the collection of autographs is a natural and
rational one." Thackeray and Dickens were equally considerate in the
matter of these autograph petitions. More years ago than I care to
recollect a young cousin of mine wrote to the former, and received,
almost by return of post, a signed and dated card with a clever little
sketch of a young lady inspecting an album. At the present moment this
particular "specimen" is worth at least £10.
The most successful type of "Autograph Fiend" is the man who is able,
on some clever pretence, to extract a letter of real interest and
importance from his unconscious victim. Since I began to collect I
have carefully watched the operation of these pious frauds, and am
often astonished at the ease with which political, literary, and
artistic celebrities fall into an all too transparent trap. Portrait
painters are ready to send estimates to persons they never heard of;
grave theologians are led by impostors into discussions on abstruse
questions of faith and belief; astute statesmen like Mr. Chamberlain
are induced to enlarge on burning problems of the hour; and venerable
artists like Sir John Tenniel are apparently ready to furnish two
pages of reminiscences for the mere asking. In the "eighteen-fifties"
a swindler named Ludovic Picard acquired a really valuable series of
autographs by writing to men like Béranger, Heine, Montalembert, and
Lacordaire letters in which he posed as one of "the odious race of
the unappreciated who meditated suicide, and sought in his hour of
sore distress for valuable counsel and advice." Lacordaire sent him
ten closely-written pages of earnest appeal, and Charles Dickens,
who happened to be at Boulogne, fell an easy victim to the wiles
of "Miserrimus," who was finally unmasked by Jules Sandeau while
carousing with a party of boon companions at a tavern. Dickens wrote as
follows:--
Voici encore de bons remèdes contre votre affliction! Surtout,
on doit se souvenir constamment de la bonté du grand Dieu,
des beautés de la nature, et de si touchantes félicités et
misères de ces pauvres voisins dans cette vie de vicissitudes.
Voici encore une manière de s'élever le cœur et l'âme, depuis
les ténèbres de la terre jusqu'à la clarté du ciel. Courage,
courage! C'est le voyageur faible qui succombe et qui meurt.
C'est le brave homme qui persévère, et qui poursuit son
voyage jusqu'à la fin. Votre cas a été le cas d'une immense
foule d'hommes, dont les cœurs courageux ont été victorieux,
triomphants, heureux.
[Illustration: A.L.S. OBTAINED FROM CARDINAL NEWMAN BY AN
AUTOGRAPH-HUNTER, SEPTEMBER 4, 1870.]
A query sent to Sir John Tenniel on the subject of the private
theatricals at Charles Dickens's elicited this interesting letter:--
_October 13, 1903._
DEAR SIR,--With many apologies for the delay, absolutely
unavoidable, I have much pleasure in offering you such
information as the only surviving representative of the "Guild
of Literature and Art" and a memory of over fifty years may be
able to supply in answering your polite letter of the 8th inst.
received on Saturday.
The first performance of "Not so Bad as we Seem," at Devonshire
House, in the presence of the Queen, the Prince Consort, and
the Court, most certainly took place on the _16th_ of May,
1851, just five months after I had joined the _Punch_ staff.
But there was also a _second_ grand performance of the
play on the _27th_, to which the friends of the actors and
distinguished people were invited by special invitation of the
Duke.
Happily, after an almost hopeless search, I have found the bill
of the play (which please to return when done with) of that
performance, which is identical with the first except that the
farce of "Mr. Nightingale's Diary," by Dickens and Mark Lemon,
was _not_ produced for the delectation of "Royalty"! Bill will
also give you the names of the _dramatis personæ_, and you
will see that the names of Maclise and Leech are not included
in the list.
The last-named characters, some with only a line, some with
none, were alluded to, and cheerfully, except by certain
literary celebrities, and for myself "Hodge" was quite a good
little part.
In the following year, however, owing to Forster's illness, the
part of "Hardman" (a most important one) was at once assigned
to me, and it is to that which Dickens alludes in his letter to
Forster from Sunderland, August 29, 1852. I can hardly suppose
that this letter can be of the least use to you, but
I am,
Faithfully yours,
JOHN TENNIEL.
[Illustration: TWO PAGES OF A.L.S. OF SIR JOHN TENNIEL, OF _PUNCH_,
OBTAINED BY AN AUTOGRAPH-HUNTER, OCTOBER 13, 1903.]
Within a month this letter figured in an autograph catalogue at the
modest price of 12s.
A candid friend writes to the Earl of Rosebery that he is sorely
troubled in conscience as to some difficulty which has arisen in
connection with the Premier's patronage of the race-course. He obtains
a reply, seemingly after some demur:--
_October 13, 1895._
MY DEAR ----, I did not the least in the world mean to imply
the slightest shadow of blame to you for asking the question,
which I do not doubt many other people are also asking. But
for all that I am not able to answer it, and therefore you are
unfettered in your treatment of it. It is strange, as regards
my own position towards the Sporting League, Liberal candidates
are abused on the ground that Liberals are opposed to sport,
and then, on the other hand, the Nonconformist Conscience fires
a broadside into him for what is thought to be too much allied
to sport.
Yours very truly,
ROSEBERY.
Lord Rosebery's views on the elasticity of the Nonconformist conscience
were sold for a crown, and the same price was asked and obtained for a
letter most ingeniously obtained from Mr. Chamberlain in the very early
days of Tariff Reform Agitation:--
_September 18, 1903._
DEAR SIR,--My correspondence is so enormous that I am compelled
to dictate my letters even to my most intimate friends and
relations, and the uncharitable suggestion that I am too proud
to reply to workmen in my own handwriting is quite uncalled for.
I greatly appreciated your friendly letter and the compliment
which you and your wife propose to pay me and which I readily
accept. Tell me when the baby is to be baptized and exactly
what you mean to call him, and I will see if I can find some
little memento which may remind him in after years of his
namesake.
Meanwhile I am glad to know that the tariff question is being
discussed in your workshop. The time will come before long when
all the working men will see how seriously their employment is
threatened, and how necessary it is for them that the Colonial
Markets should be kept open. The future of our trade depends on
our relations with our kinsfolk across the seas, and if we do
not seize the opportunity offered to us by them of increasing
our trade with them we may not have another chance, but when
we desire it may find that they have ceased to be willing. The
Big Loaf cry is a sheer imposture. Nothing that I have proposed
would increase the cost of living to any working man, and on
the other hand it would give him the certainty of better trade
and more employment. Wages, which depend upon employment, would
tend to rise, and labour would gain all round.
We have had wonderfully good trade during the last two years,
but there are signs approaching at present, and if they are
fulfilled and every trade in London suffers from the free
import of the surplus of foreign countries, the most bigoted
Free Trader will regret that he was not wise in time and
content to make preparation against the evil day.
Truly yours,
JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN.
The "Autograph Fiend" in this case certainly deserves his name. He not
only succeeds in obtaining an interesting letter, signed and carefully
corrected by an ex-Cabinet Minister, which he is able to convert into
five shillings, but he receives with it a promise that the writer will
become the godfather of his real or supposed child!
Mr. Ruskin's total lack of sympathy with the autograph-hunter
was notorious. He was also known to entertain a strong antipathy
to a certain conventicle. The following response to a demand for
subscription elicited a very characteristic reply, which was promptly
converted into ten pounds. In the presence of such recent examples of
successful autograph "draws" as these, there is no need to repeat the
old story of the Duke of Wellington's reply to a fictitious demand for
the payment of a washer-woman's bill said to be due from Lord Douro.
Mr. John Ruskin to a correspondent:--
I am scornfully amused at your appeal to me, of all people in
the world, the precisely less likely to give you a farthing. My
first word to all men and boys who care to hear me is, Don't
get into debt. Starve and go to heaven--but don't borrow. Try
first begging--I don't mind, if it's really needful, stealing.
But don't buy things you can't pay for. And of all manner of
debtors, pious people building churches they can't pay for, are
the most detestable nonsense to me. Can't you preach and pray
behind the hedges--or in a sand-pit--or a coal-hole first? And
of all manner of churches thus idiotically built, iron churches
are the damnablest to me. And of all sects of believers in
ruling spirit--Hindoos, Turks, Feather Idolaters, and any
Mumbo-jumbo, Log and Fire Worshippers, your modern English
Evangelical sect is the most absurd, and entirely objectionable
and unendurable to me. All which they might very easily have
found out from my books--any other sort of sect would--before
bothering me to write to them. Ever, nevertheless, and in all
this saying, your faithful servant,
JOHN RUSKIN.
[Illustration: FROM THE PRELUDE OF "GERONTIUS," MS. BARS SIGNED BY SIR
EDWARD ELGAR, SEPTEMBER, 1900.]
Autograph-hunting on the basis now exposed is only pursued in the hope
of gain from the sale of the letter thus obtained. To attempt to form a
collection in such a manner might lead to very unpleasant consequences.
The only innocent form of autograph-hunting is that so frequently
witnessed at concerts and musical festivals, and the albums thus
filled are ultimately sold for a price which would sadly disappoint
the original owner. In the next chapter I shall endeavour to give the
beginner in autograph collecting such information as will enable him
not only to purchase genuine letters at the lowest possible price, but
to arrange and classify them when so arranged to the greatest possible
advantage. My firm conviction that at the present moment the judicious
buying of autographs is one of the best possible investments, does not
lessen the pleasure which we feel in examining those still-speaking
relics of the past which enable us to say with Thomas Moore--
Thus shall memory often in dreams sublime
Catch a glimpse of the days that are over;
Thus sighing look through the waves of time
For the long faded glories they cover.
II
THE MODERN
AUTOGRAPH
COLLECTOR
AND HIS
EQUIPMENT
CHAPTER II
THE MODERN AUTOGRAPH COLLECTOR AND HIS EQUIPMENT
=Useful books on autographs--Collections of autograph
facsimiles--The autograph markets of London and
Paris--Variations in price--Autograph catalogues and
dealers--The treatment and classification of autographs=
Letters are appendices to History--the best instructors in
History and the best histories in themselves.--LORD BACON.
Scripta ferunt annos.--OVID.
The modern autograph collector has certain advantages over his
predecessors of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries which
will compensate him in some measure for the difficulty of procuring
choice specimens at the prices which ruled twenty and even ten years
ago. Foremost amongst these advantages is facility of access to such
autographic treasure-houses as the British Museum, the Record Office,
and the National Library at Paris. It was as recently as the late
"eighteen-fifties" that the priceless archives of the old India Office
were ruthlessly sacrificed by the lineal successors of "John Company."
Amongst other valuable MSS. the archives of the Indian Navy went _en
bloc_ to the paper-mills. A single letter, blown accidentally from
one of the carts used by the contractors who carried out this work of
desolation, turned out to have been written in the reign of James I.
by the Duke of Buckingham, and brought £5 to its finder. To-day it is
probably worth at least five times as much again. The Record Office, in
which such State documents and official correspondence as have survived
the ignorance, carelessness, or iconoclasm of the past, now find a
home, is, comparatively speaking, a modern institution. Notwithstanding
the havoc wrought by the _sans-culottes_ of the Terror and the
Communists of forty years ago, the National Library in Paris is to-day
the home of one of the most interesting collections of autographs in
the whole world, including, it is said, something like ten thousand
letters and documents written or signed by Napoleon. It is probably the
result of the social upheavals of the past, and the wholesale dispersal
of the contents of public and private muniment rooms towards the close
of the eighteenth century, that autograph "finds" are more frequently
made in Paris than anywhere else. It was there that I acquired the
marriage settlement of Pamela FitzGerald,[1] executed at Tournay on
December 26, 1792, and a sixteenth-century deed in which mention is
made of a Royal Commission for the further exploration of Canada--_La
Canadie_. Both of these documents cost less than 10s., and one of them,
presented by me through Mr. Ross Robertson to the Public Library at
Toronto, has now been framed, and is shown to visitors as a curiosity
of the greatest interest and rarity. These great public institutions
carry on in the twentieth century the good work commenced long ago by
men like Evelyn, the Harleys, and Sloane.
The first thing I should advise an intending collector to do is
to procure the "Guide to the MSS., Autographs, &c., exhibited in
the Department of MSS. and in the Grenville Library of the British
Museum."[2] This useful little volume contains no less than thirty
plates of various descriptions, ranging from the articles of the
Magna Charta and a page from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to Nelson's
last letter to Lady Hamilton, and examples of the handwriting of
Marlborough, Wellington, Washington, Chatham, and Keats. At the end
is a list of the different series of autograph facsimiles issued at
intervals since 1895, and sold at a very moderate price. Next to
the careful study of original MSS., nothing is so important to the
collector as the careful and constant examination of well-executed
facsimiles like those obtainable at the British Museum, where, at the
cost of 7s. 6d., you can get thirty plates. The first in order contains
facsimiles of autograph letters by Queen Catharine of Aragon, 1513;
Archbishop Cranmer, 1537; Bishop Hugh Latimer (marginal notes by Henry
VIII.), about 1538; Edward VI., 1551; Mary, Queen of Scots, 1571;
English Commanders against the Spanish Armada, 1588; Queen Elizabeth,
1603; Charles I., 1642; Oliver Cromwell, 1649; Charles II., 1660;
James, Duke of Monmouth, 1685; William III., 1689; James Stuart, the
Pretender, 1703; John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, 1706; William
Pitt, Earl of Chatham, 1759; George III., 1760; George Washington,
1793; Horatio, Viscount Nelson, and Emma, Lady Hamilton, 1805; Arthur
Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, 1815; General Charles George Gordon,
1884; Queen Victoria, 1885; John Dryden, 1682; Joseph Addison, 1714; S.
T. Coleridge, 1815; William Wordsworth, 1834; John Keats, 1820; Charles
Dickens, 1870; W. M. Thackeray, 1851; Thomas Carlyle, 1832; and Robert
Browning, 1868.
Numerous collections of facsimiles have been published in England,
France, and Germany, and the prudent collector must secure one or
more of these invaluable aids to the identification of MSS. Most
of the best catalogues issued, both in London and Paris, contain
several facsimiles, but that does not lessen the utility of books
like "Autographs of Royal, Noble, Learned, and Remarkable Personages
conspicuous in English History from the Reign of Richard II. to that of
Charles II., with some illustrious Foreigners; containing many passages
from important letters" (engraved under the direction of Charles
John Smith and John Gough Nichols: London, 1829, 1 vol. 4to); or "A
Collection of One Hundred Characteristic and Interesting Autograph
Letters written by Royal and Distinguished Persons of Great Britain
from the XV. to the XVIII. Century, copied in perfect facsimile from
the originals by Joseph Nethercliff" (London, 1849). Several useful
facsimiles are to be found in "A Guide to the Collector of Historical
Documents, Literary MSS., and Autograph Letters," by the Rev. Dr.
Scott and Mr. Samuel Davey, published in 1891. Dr. H. T. Scott is also
responsible for a handy little volume, entitled "Autograph Collecting,
a Practical Manual for Amateurs and Historical Students," brought out
three years later than the larger volume by Mr. Upcott Gill.
It must be confessed, however, that our French neighbours are far
ahead of us in the matter of facsimiles, as well as in other details
connected with autograph collecting. With us the subject is only now
beginning to receive the treatment it merits. In the opinion of our
neighbours the cult of the autograph has for some generations held
rank as a science. I cannot too strongly impress upon beginners the
expediency of carefully watching the Paris autograph market, and
giving special attention to the catalogues issued monthly by M. Noël
Charavay, of 3, Rue Furstenberg, and Madame Veuve Gabriel Charavay, of
153, Faubourg St. Honoré. At the Fraser Sale (April, 1901) I purchased
three huge volumes forming an extra-illustrated copy of a portion of
the famous "Letters of Madame de Sévigné," compiled quite a century
ago at the cost of several hundred pounds, and finally acquired by
Miss Eliza Gulston. In it, in addition to an enormous number of prints
and portraits, were several genuine autograph letters, supplemented
by a large number of facsimiles. Under the genuine letters the maker
of the book wrote their source and history; he divided the facsimiles
into "tracings," "imitations by hand," and so forth. A copy of the
"Isographie des Hommes Célèbres," in two 4to volumes, is now worth
between £3 and £4, and the late Mr. Étienne Charavay prepared two
supplements to it which are also extremely valuable. Between March,
1888, and December, 1894, the late Mr. Davey published a quarterly
journal--the _Archivist_--which bid fair to become as indispensable
to the English collector as the _Amateur d'Autographes_, founded in
the early "eighteen-forties" and now admirably edited by M. Noël
Charavay, is to his French colleague. Every true lover of autographs
must deplore its untimely end, and the young collector is indeed
fortunate if he can obtain a set of it. In it Dr. Scott, who was from
the first its principal contributor, places quite a mine of information
at the disposal of his readers. I regard the two bound volumes of
the _Archivist_ in my possession as one of the most useful books of
reference obtainable in the matter of autographs. In the forty odd
volumes of the _Amateur d'Autographes_[3] the student will discover a
liberal education, as far as his special subject is concerned, ready at
hand. The Charavay Sale-catalogues are of great value in the matter of
arrangement and description, as well as for the facsimiles they give in
abundance. One of the finest is that of the Alfred Bovet Collection,
dispersed during the spring and early summer of 1884. It was prepared
by M. Étienne Charavay, and fills over 800 4to pages plentifully
illustrated with sketches and numerous facsimiles. A very useful book
for beginners who read French is "Les Autographes en France et le goût
des Autographes en France et à l'étranger" (Paris, 1865), by M. de
Lescure. It contains a useful list of the numerous books on autographs
published up to that date, together with the various collections of
facsimiles, many of which can now be picked up on the bookstalls by
the side of the Seine or the adjoining streets for a few francs. As
far back as 1820 the Maison Delpech commenced the publication of their
various "Iconographies," of which the "Isographie des Hommes Célèbres"
was the natural successor. There are one or two German books of
facsimiles, like the "Album von Autographen" (Leipzig, 1849) and the
"Sammlung histor: berühmter Autographen" (Stuttgart, 1846-47). There
is also a collection of five hundred facsimiles, published in 1846 by
F. Bogaerts. I do not, of course, pretend to provide my readers with
a complete autographic bibliography, but amongst the works I have
mentioned he will find all that is necessary to set about collecting in
earnest, and without fear of making many initial blunders.
Having handled and carefully examined a number of genuine autographs
and having, by the study of facsimiles, familiarised himself with the
handwriting of many famous men and women, the collector in embryo may
begin to buy, but it must be a case of _festina lente_. How cautiously
he should proceed he will realise when, in the next chapter, I come to
consider the critical question of autograph frauds and forgeries. All
respectable autograph dealers are ready to guarantee any specimen they
offer for sale, and to take it back if found to be "doubtful." It is
from the careful reading of the catalogues[4] issued from time to time
by dealers like Mr. Bernard Quaritch, of Grafton Street, Dr. Scott,
of 69, Mill Lane, West Hampstead, Mr. W. V. Daniell, of 53, Mortimer
Street, Messrs. Sotheran, of 37, Piccadilly, Messrs. Maggs, of 109,
Strand, Messrs. Ellis, of 29, New Bond Street, and Messrs. Pearson, of
Pall Mall Court, that one obtains an insight into the current value
of autographs of every description. Mr. Frank Sabin, of 172, New Bond
Street, does not, as a rule, issue catalogues, but he possesses one of
the most valuable stocks of autographs in existence. His Thackeray,
Civil War, and Nelson collections are alone worth many thousands of
pounds. While this volume was going through the press Mr. Sabin paid
the record sum of £8,650 for a collection of seventeenth-century MSS.
relating to America belonging to Mr. R. W. Blathwayt. In the provinces
autograph catalogues are published now and then by Mr. W. Brown, of
Edinburgh, and Messrs. Simmons & Waters, of Leamington Spa. All these
gentlemen will readily send their catalogues on application. I have
already mentioned the two excellent catalogues issued monthly in
Paris. That of M. Noël Charavay, entitled _Bulletin d'Autographs_,
has appeared ever since 1847. The _Revue des Autographs_ of Madame
Veuve Gabriel Charavay dates from 1866. It is only right to say that
autograph collecting is pursued so keenly just now in France, that
unless they can arrange to obtain advance copies of these catalogues,
the best items in them will probably be sold before their order
arrives. Catalogues are sometimes published by Herr Émile Hirsch, of
6, Carl Strasse, Munich. The American dealers will be spoken of in the
chapter devoted to the subject of autograph collecting in the United
States.
English autographs of exceptional interest are often obtained abroad
at far lower prices than in London, and that fact makes it very
necessary to look carefully through the foreign catalogues. The same
remark doubtless applies to French and German autographs in England. I
obtained in Germany a fine autograph letter of Charles I. for £10. It
would have fetched three times that amount in a London auction-room.
The same remark applies to a fine letter of the Young Pretender, which
came from Paris and was priced only at 55 francs. On the other hand
I obtained in London for 15s. each letters of Madame de Geoffrin and
Madame du Deffand, which would have cost twice or thrice as much in
Paris. In one of the latest French catalogues which reached me, an
English letter was priced at 20 francs. In an English catalogue, a
less lengthy letter by the same writer was offered for sale at £5. For
12 francs I once succeeded in purchasing in Paris a letter of Lord
Shelbourne, covering ten pages and throwing quite new light on the
relations between the French and English Courts at a certain epoch.
The prices for fine autographs in London are far higher than in Paris
and Germany. A Paris dealer could hardly realise the possibility
of a Keats letter fetching £500 (12,500 francs), as at the Louis J.
Haber sale. It was thought quite wonderful when a phenomenally early
letter of Napoleon--I believe the earliest known--was sold for 5,000
francs. This figure is, I believe, the highest ever given in Paris for
a single letter. In any case this unique relic of the young Napoleon
only fetched about one-tenth of the price obtained for the Post Office
Mauritius stamp which caused so much excitement in the philatelic world
six years since.
[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF THE HISTORIC LETTER FROM GEORGE CRABBE TO
EDMUND BURKE.
(See also p. 210.)]
In the case of MSS. of every description it is necessary to read them
carefully. It is only by so doing that you can hope to ascertain
anything like the real value. This remark applies particularly
to holograph letters. The cataloguer often omits the name of the
person to whom it is addressed, or some sentence or allusion which
adds materially to its value. Thus a letter of Franklin addressed
to Washington, or letters by any of the French marshals written to
Napoleon, would be far more valuable than ordinary letters of any
of these personages. A letter signed by the Russian Emperor Paul
would not be intrinsically valuable. But one addressed to Nelson was
lately priced at £14. The time at which a letter is written is often
an important factor in determining its price. An ordinary letter of
Wellington, who wrote at least a hundred thousand letters during his
public career, can be bought for 3s. 6d. A note written on the evening
of June 18, 1815, not long since realised £105. Then again, letters
acquire additional value when forming part of a series. I purchased
a letter of Sir Joshua Reynolds to the poet Crabbe, mentioning a
communication he was sending him for Dr. Johnson. Years after
I secured the precious enclosure. The two together are obviously
worth more than when taken singly. I possess the splendid letter of
George Crabbe, appealing for help to Burke, which once belonged to
Sir Theodore Martin. I failed to secure Burke's reply, which went,
I believe, to the British Museum. I gave a few francs in Paris for
a letter of Anne Darner's asking Madame de Staël to meet her at
Miss Berry's (the friend and literary executrix of Walpole). Quite
accidentally, in turning over a pile of autographs in London, I came
across the reply, and a very characteristic one it was. At the present
moment both letters face the account of the reunion in question in my
extra-illustrated copy of "The Journals and Correspondence of Miss
Berry."
[Illustration: THE AUTOGRAPH OF LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN.
(See p. 257.)]
Dr. Scott hopes I will impress upon my readers the necessity of mending
autographs as little as possible. To clip or trim them is rank heresy,
and gives them at once the appearance of counterfeits. Autographs
must be treated with the greatest tenderness. You can best strengthen
decaying paper by the careful application of diluted solution of
gelatine. There are several methods of rendering faded writing again
legible. According to one authority the most effective agent is very
finely powdered chlorate of potash added to a decoction of galls,
_dabbed_, not rubbed, over the MS. When dry, the surface should be
sponged with lime-water. Another expert advises that the paper should
be moistened, and a brush passed over the faded portion wetted with a
solution of sulphide of ammonia, an infusion of galls, or a solution
of ferrocyanide of potassium slightly acidulated with hydrochloric
acid.[5] Personally I have found the "A.P." brand of transparent
adhesive tape invaluable both in mending and hinging autographs,
but worthless imitations must be avoided. It can be bought of all
stationers, and with it I always use Higgins's Photographic Paste.
This may possibly be a little extravagant, and an expert gives me the
following recipe for a useful paste in connection with autographs:--
"Take a tablespoonful of Glenfield's Patent Starch and mix with a
little cold water in an ordinary jam-pot, then fill with boiling water.
When cool it will be ready for use."
The classification of autographs has given rise to endless discussion.
On this subject I am at issue with Mr. Joline. Personally, I regard
extra-illustration as the most effective and interesting plan of
arranging and preserving autographs. Mr. Joline, on the other hand,
"meditates" upon extra-illustration as only an incident or contingent
possibility in autograph collection. I hope to deal with (to me) the
most fascinating subject of Extra-Illustration or Grangerising in a
separate volume. In an article in _The Country Home_ I have given
examples of the effective use of autographs in extra-illustration,[6]
and I can conceive no form of "the gentle emotion" more enjoyable
than that which one experiences when one sees an appropriate
autograph placed in apposition to a fine portrait facing some text
which they combine strikingly and felicitously to illustrate. In my
"Chesterfield's Letters" I have a letter in English from the Sage of
Ferney to the Hermit of Blackheath, together with a portrait of the
same date, opposite Chesterfield's account of his meeting with and
friendship for Voltaire. In an "extended" Clarke and McArthur's "Life
of Nelson," in immediate contiguity to the account of one of his most
daring adventures, and the honours it brought him, may be seen Nelson's
original letter of thanks to George III. (as touching an epistle as he
ever penned), together with a contemporary portrait in water-colours.
There is no better way of preserving autographs than to house them
between the leaves of well-bound and carefully tended volumes. There
is no worse method than to frame them as a picture, and expose them
to the fading influence of a strong light. I have seen autographs
actually gummed to a glass before being framed! If an accident occurs
the autograph generally shares the fate of the glass. For the orderly
keeping of the autographs and MSS. which I have not utilised in the
forty or fifty books I have extra-illustrated since 1900, I employ a
deep folio-sized receptacle known as a Stone's "filing" cabinet, with
alphabetical divisions.[7] It enables me to find any given paper at a
moment's notice.
I have made the necessities of extra-illustration the mainspring, as
it were, of my autograph collecting. If the young autograph collector
has no specific object of this kind in view (and in the course of ten
years' hard work in the vineyard of grangerising there are few kinds
of autographs I have not required) I should strongly recommend him to
begin with some specific line, be it soldiers or sailors, painters or
poets, actors and actresses, men of letters, worthies of a particular
city, county, or college, and so forth. If this course is adopted an
interesting collection can be formed without incurring enormous cost,
and the value of good autographs is sure to rise. It is given to few
men in a generation, or even in a century, to form collections of a
cosmopolitan and all-embracing character like that made by the late
Mr. Alfred Morrison between the years 1865 and 1882, the catalogue of
which, prepared with the utmost care by M. A. W. Thibaudeau, fills
six folio and seven imperial octavo volumes, and costs £60. French
collectors pay great attention to classification, and each letter is
generally placed in a _chemise_ or cover bearing some heraldic or
other appropriate device. In the case of a small collection like that
which Sir George White, Bart., has acquired, of letters and documents
relating solely to Bristol, an alphabetical arrangement is preferable.
If, however, one gathers autographs of all conceivable kinds, and "of
all nations and languages," subdivisions become absolutely essential
if you want to find any particular specimen without difficulty. I have
already referred to the Alfred Bovet Catalogue, prepared on scientific
lines by M. Étienne Charavay. In this collection the many thousand
items of which it consisted were divided into--(1) Heads of Government;
(2) Statesmen and Political Personages; (3) The French Revolution; (4)
Warriors; (5) Men of Science and Explorers; (6) Actors and Actresses;
(7) Writers; (8) Painters, Sculptors, Engravers, and Architects; (9)
Huguenots; and (10) Women. There was a further subdivision according
to nationalities, and these were finally arranged chronologically.
The preface to the Bovet Catalogue, admirably written by M. Étienne
Charavay, has been published separately under the attractive title of
"The Science of Autographs." It deserves to be translated and published
in English, for no more thoughtful essay on the value of historical
letters and the cult of the autograph has ever appeared. It is now time
to consider the application of the legal maxim of _caveat emptor_ to
the acquisition of MSS. of every description. The presence of a forgery
will often discredit an otherwise interesting and valuable collection.
Not long ago I was shown an album of autographs which represented
the gleanings of two or three generations of a highly respectable
county family. The moment I opened it I recognised my old friend the
Byron-Galignani facsimile, which is offered to dealers as a rare
specimen at least once a week. The owner, who had paid several pounds
for it, declared he could vouch for its genuineness beyond the shadow
of a doubt! He never quite forgave my taking down the Paris edition of
Byron's poems to convince him of his error.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] It was fortunately catalogued under the name of "Genlis, Félicité
Ducrest, Comtesse de," and so escaped attention. The principal
witnesses are Philippe Égalité, Duc d'Orléans, and General Valence.
The bride is described as "Citizen Anne Caroline Stéphanie Sims, aged
19, living in Paris, known in France by the name of Pamela, a native
of Fago in Newfoundland and daughter of William Brixeij (_sic_) and
Mary Sims." The bridegroom is said to be "Edward FitzGerald, aged 29,
generally living in Dublin, Ireland, a native of Whitehall, London,
and the son of James FitzGerald de Leinster and Dame Amélie Lennox de
Leinster." The Duke of Orléans figures in the deed only as Citizen
Louis Philippe Égalité.
[2] Published by order of the Trustees in 1906; price 6d.
[3] Issued every month at a yearly subscription of 10 francs. The
office is at 3, Rue de Furstenberg, Paris. Amongst M. Charavay's
collaborators are M. Anatole France, of the French Academy, and M.
George Cain, of the Musée Carnavalet. Each number contains one or more
facsimiles and a list of sale prices.
[4] The publisher of Autograph Catalogues invariably adopts the
following convenient abbreviations: A. L. S. (autograph letter signed),
A. L. (autograph letter unsigned), A. N. S. (autograph note signed), D.
S. (document signed). In France L. A. S. indicates an autograph letter
signed and P. S. (_pièce signée_) a signed document.
[5] Dr. Scott says: "Various suggestions have been offered for the
restoration of vanished writing and of ink which has faded, such as a
solution of sulphide of ammonium washed over the writing, previously
moistened with water or a decoction of nut-galls, but great care must
be exercised so as not to injure valuable documents. Indeed, I cannot
too often repeat the warning that the less autographs are manipulated
or altered from their original state the better. The way in which so
many fine old letters have had their margins trimmed to remove the
ragged edges years ago is a dreadful eye-sore to the collector, who,
of course, likes to see the sheets of paper of the proper orthodox
size, with large spaces around the writing. Damping the ink should, if
possible, be carefully avoided, for there is something precious and
inimitable in the fine, indescribable tint which age alone gives to
writing."
[6] See _The Country Home_, vol. iv., February, 1910, pp. 254-58.
[7] Many varieties of these cabinets are obtainable at the
establishment of Terry & Co., Ltd., wholesale stationers, Hatton Garden.
III
THE
_CAVEAT EMPTOR_
OF AUTOGRAPH
COLLECTING
[Illustration: FIRST PAGE OF A.L.S. OF DR. JOHNSON TO SIR JOSHUA
REYNOLDS ON THE SUBJECT OF CRABBE'S POEMS, 1783.]
[Illustration: LINES OF THOMAS CHATTERTON ON HORACE WALPOLE, WHICH COST
SIR GEORGE WHITE, OF BRISTOL, £34.]
CHAPTER III
THE _CAVEAT EMPTOR_ OF AUTOGRAPH COLLECTING
=Forgeries and fakes--Cases of mistaken identity--Some famous
autograph frauds--Practical methods of detection=
The success of an imposture depends chiefly upon the
receptive disposition of those who are selected as its
victims.--_Introduction to_ "Ireland's Confessions."
Oui, il y a de faux autographes, comme il y a de faux antiques.
Mais est-ce-qu'on devra supprimer le musée des antiques
parce qu'on a découvert de faux bronzes.--ÉTIENNE CHARAVAY,
"L'Affaire Vrain-Lucas."
I must resist a strong temptation to enlarge on such interesting
topics as W. H. Ireland's wholesale manufacture of Shakespearean MSS.;
Thomas Chatterton's ingenious fabrication of Rowley's poems, and James
Macpherson's alleged translations from Ossian. The main object of
Ireland and Chatterton was obviously to deceive the world of letters
rather than the then little-known autograph collector with whose
interests I am solely concerned. By the irony of fate, however, there
are at the present moment very few rarer or more costly autographs
than that of Thomas Chatterton, who might very well have lived for a
twelvemonth on the price paid by Sir George White for four or five
lines of his handwriting scrawled on the back of a letter. Chatterton
died by his own hand, with starvation staring him in the face, but
Ireland lived to make money by the "Confessions"[8] of his misdoings,
and more than thirty years ago £50 was paid for the scathing letter
addressed to Macpherson by Samuel Johnson. The forger of autograph
letters for the purpose of entrapping the over-trustful or ignorant
collector is the product of the nineteenth century, although some of
the French imitations may possibly be a little older. The modern forger
obtains important aid from photography, but by way of compensation
the enlargement of any given specimen by the same means is invaluable
for the purposes of detection. The earliest imitations of autograph
letters I have ever seen are of French origin, and are contained in
the extra-illustrated copy of Madame de Sévigné's Letters already
alluded to. They are frankly labelled as "tracings," "engravings,"
"lithographs," and so forth, and many of them seem to have been
executed on old paper in order to simulate more completely the
originals.
[Illustration: A SPECIMEN OF IRELAND'S SHAKESPEAREAN FORGERIES ATTESTED
BY HIMSELF.
(By permission of the owners, Messrs. Sotheran.)]
The inexperienced collector must, in the first instance, beware
of facsimiles of letters which have been published _bonâ fide_ as
illustrations of works of biography, and, having been extracted from
them, are offered for sale (sometimes innocently) as genuine specimens.
The most familiar instance of this is a letter of Byron's addressed
to "Mr. Galignani, at 18, Rue Vivienne, Paris." A facsimile of
this, with address, &c., was prefixed to an edition of Byron's poems
published in Paris. Not long ago I saw this lithographed facsimile
figuring as genuine in a valuable collection of holograph letters, the
rest of which were above suspicion.
This letter commences with the words:--
"Sir,--In various numbers of your journal I have seen mentioned a
work entitled 'The Vampire' with the addition of my name as that
of the author. I am not the author, and never heard of the work in
question until now," and ends with the sentence, "You will oblige me
by complying with my request of contradiction. I assure you that I
know nothing of the work or works in question, and have the honour to
be (as the correspondents to magazines say), 'your constant reader'
and very obedient servant, Byron." To this is added the date, "Venice,
April 27th, 1819." There is a well-known facsimile of a letter of Lord
Nelson which occasionally does duty as an original. Some years ago I
saw it in a catalogue priced at several pounds! It is inserted after
the preface in T. O. Churchill's "Life of Nelson," published in 1808,
and the paper is therefore not unlike that of the period at which the
letter is supposed to have been written, and bears on the back the
address, "To Thomas Lloyd, Esq., No. 15, Mary's Buildings, St. Martin's
Lane, London." The original would be worth quite ten guineas. Buyers of
Nelson letters should remember that this dangerous facsimile begins as
follows: "Bath, January 29th, 1798. My dear Lloyd,--There is nothing
you can desire me to do that I shall not have the greatest pleasure in
complying with, for I am sure you can never possess a thought that is
not strictly honourable. I was much flattered by the Marquis's[9] kind
notice of me, and I beg you will make my respects acceptable to him.
Tell him that I possess his place in Mr. Palmer's Box, but his Lordship
did not tell me all its charms, that generally some of the handsomest
Ladys at Bath are partakers in the Box, and was I a bachelor I would
not answer for being tempted, but as I am possessed of everything that
is valuable in a wife I have no occasion to think beyond a pretty
face"--and so forth.
[Illustration: WILLIAM IRELAND'S ATTESTATION OF HIS FORGERIES OF
SHAKESPEARE'S SIGNATURE.]
If either of these facsimiles had been touched with the end of a sable
brush moistened with muriatic acid and water the print would remain
unaffected. In a genuine letter the writing if so touched would grow
faint or disappear. The same test may be applied to photographs or
imitations in sepia. I once purchased a quaint note written by Edmund
Kean, of which a reproduction is now given. Nearly a year later I saw
an autograph, identical in every particular, offered for sale. I sent
for it, and on applying the dilution of muriatic acid test found it to
be a copy in sepia of the note already in my possession. The owner of
the genuine note had sent it to two or three applicants for inspection.
It had been traced over and then worked up in sepia. I once discovered
a letter of William Pitt the Elder to be a forgery by the mere accident
of the sun falling on it, and showing a narrow rim round each letter.
In this case the basis was a photograph, touched up with black paint.
The autograph collector soon becomes accustomed to the appearance of
genuine letters, for the creases and stains of time cannot be perfectly
imitated any more than the old-world appearance of seventeenth- and
eighteenth-century ink. Watermarks are a good, but not an infallible,
test of genuineness. The thick, gilt-edged letter paper of quarto
size used by our ancestors cannot be satisfactorily counterfeited,
and the inexperienced buyer should eschew documents of all sorts
written on morsels of paper of irregular size, which may have been
torn from books, and lack the usual tests of authenticity. Collectors
of autographs should bear in mind the facts that "franks" ceased to
be used after the introduction of the penny postage in 1840; that
envelopes were first used about ten years earlier, and that the letters
denoting the various London postal districts did not form part of the
postmark till some time after the invention of the adhesive stamp. A
forged letter of Thackeray was detected by the appearance of the letter
W. after London in the counterfeit postmark quite ten years before it
could have legitimately done so. If hot water is applied to a genuine
watermark, it becomes clearer and stronger; if to a fabricated one
it disappears. The autograph collector should carefully study a book
which has quite recently been published on the subject of forgery and
fabricated documents.[10] One chapter is devoted to the subject of
forged literary autographs, but those who desire to acquire an expert
knowledge of this important question should master the whole of its
contents, and this is no difficult task, for the volume only contains
seventy-seven pages. In proportion to the constant rise in the value
of autographs the temptation to forgery increases, and the gradual
absorption of genuine specimens is sure to bring into existence a
number of shams. As the authors very rightly point out, "It is not
surprising the profitable and growing autograph market should have
attracted the fraudulent, for the prizes when won are generally of
a substantial character, and amply repay the misapplied effort and
ingenuity demanded. The success which has attended too many of these
frauds may be largely accounted for by the fact that in many cases the
enthusiasm of the collector has outrun his caution."
The letters of Washington, Franklin, Burns, Nelson, Byron, Keats,
Shelley, and Scott were the first to attract the attention of the
autograph forger in England. Thackeray and Dickens have been recently
the object of his unwelcome attentions. Most of the Thackeray
forgeries, like the example reproduced, are the work of one man, who
uses an ordinary pen and has a fondness for half-sheets of paper.
His feeble attempts to imitate Thackeray's wit and style are alone
sufficient to excite suspicion. If the counterfeit is carefully
compared with a genuine specimen like the one given, deception will be
impossible. I possess a small collection of forged autograph letters to
use for detective purposes, and as a warning to others. There are five
of these "duffer" Thackerays amongst them. The forger apparently finds
the upright hand Thackeray adopted later in life more to his taste than
the less angular calligraphy of his youth. A few years ago the London
autograph market was inundated with forged letters of Thackeray and
Dickens. At present they are kept out of the light of day, and sold to
the unwary in all sorts of out-of-the-way places, often in shops at the
sea-side. The Dickens forgeries are generally betrayed by the printed
address at the top of the letter being lithographed and not embossed.
The gentleman to whom Dickens is said to have addressed his last
letter is supposed to have had a certain number of facsimiles made for
distribution amongst his friends. These are now used occasionally like
the Galignani-Byron or the Churchill-Nelson. It is here a clear case of
_caveat emptor_.
[Illustration: FORGED LETTER OF W. M. THACKERAY, IN WHICH HIS LATER
HANDWRITING IS IMITATED.]
Very often a letter is offered for sale which is in no sense of the
word a forgery, but which was never written by the person the buyer
supposes. In nine cases out of ten the seller is as ignorant of the
true state of the case as the buyer. I allude to letters written by
persons bearing the same name, but whose autographs possess a very
different value. In addition to the kings and queens whose names are
identical, we have two Oliver Cromwells, two Horace Walpoles, two
Sarah Siddonses, two Charles Dickenses, and many other "doubles." I
have within the last few months seen a letter of the less-known Horace
Walpole catalogued as one of the owner of Strawberry Hill, and a letter
of Sarah Siddons the younger, whose usual signature is "S. M. Siddons,"
described as a "long and pleasing" specimen in the handwriting of
her mother. In these cases there is no sort of resemblance in the
calligraphy of the two persons. The error arises solely from the
similarity of the name, and a lack of care or knowledge on the part of
the cataloguer. As a matter of fact, the letter of Sarah Martha Siddons
is an exceedingly interesting one, and was written about two years
before her death under the tragic circumstances graphically described
by Mr. Knapp in his "Artist's Love Story." I never saw any other
letter of Sarah M. Siddons, and I give it _in extenso_ to show how
careful one should be in studying an autograph before purchasing it. It
should be remembered that "Sally" Siddons promised her younger sister
Maria, who died in 1798 at Bristol Hot Wells "all for the love" of the
handsome painter, that under no circumstances would she ever marry him.
The letter gives a striking picture of the Kemble-Siddons "circle" at
Bath in the first year of the nineteenth century.
_Miss Sarah M. Siddons at Bath to Miss Patty Wilkinson,[11] Blake
Street, York._
_BATH, July 19, 1801._
Indeed my dear Patty I am extremely concerned to hear of your
mother's serious illness which you may believe is not a little
augmented by the necessity I cannot but feel there is, for your
staying with her if she does not soon get the better of this
alarming attack, but you know my dear I am by nature (_and
heartily do I thank nature for it_) dispos'd to see the fairest
side of things, and I am flattering myself with the hopes that
your next letter will bring me good tidings, and that I shall
see my dear Patty arrive with my Mother[12] at Bath in less now
than a fortnight. Heaven be prais'd, _if I should but be well_
to receive you both, it will be one of the happiest days of my
life. Did I tell you how sociable we all were while my uncle
and Mrs. Kemble[13] were in Bath? dining every day together,
either at our own or the Twiss's house. I never saw my Uncle so
cheerful and like other people, and she was quite agreeable and
did not overwhelm us with Lords, Ladies, Balls and Suppers.
Mrs. Twiss[14] too is become quite kind, nay _affectionate_
to me _since I got well_, but _one smile, one tender word, or
attention_ has more effect on me when I am ill and miserable
than all the kindness and attention I can meet with, when I am
well, and able (at least in some degree) to return pleasure
for pleasure. I have heard Betty Sharp sing several times, and
think she is very much improved in manner and I hope her voice
will improve in power, at present it is often too weak to have
much effect in a large room, crowded with people. She is good
humour'd and unaffected as far as I have seen her, and her
person as I told you before improv'd most astonishingly. While
my uncle and Mrs. Kemble were here, we spent an evening at Mrs.
Palmer's[15] which was rather dull, and one at Miss Lee's[16]
which was a little better. I am sure they both would have been
very tiresome to me if it had not been for _my own people_.
Pray remember me very kindly to poor Mrs. Wilkinson, who is I
hope recovering every day--and to your friend Miss Brook. I
should like to see Cora in all her glory. I present by you a
salute to her Ladyship's divine parts. George[17] will still
be with us when you come. Cecy[18] will be gone to school and
it is almost time she should, for she is got so riotous nobody
can manage her when I am not in the way, for Patty is too good
natured ... and tho' she continually threatens to tell me, she
never does and Cecilia knows she never will. Adieu my dear
girl. I shall hear from you surely in a day or two, till when,
I am impatiently
Your ever sincere and affectionate
S. M. SIDDONS.
Of the forged letters in my private "pillory" that of Keats is by
far the most cleverly executed. The facsimiles of Byron and Nelson
were never intended to be used for the purposes of deception. The
Keats and Thackeray counterfeits, on the other hand, are the work of a
professional fabricator of spurious autographs. In the Keats letters
(dated Wentworth Place, Hampstead, December 8, 1818) the postmarks, the
creases, the faded colour of the paper, and the seal with the clasped
hands and motto are all carefully imitated, but it would not for a
moment deceive an experienced hand. Collectors should carefully examine
all Keats letters offered for sale--particularly those addressed
to "My dear Woodhouse." The same remark applies to correspondence
by Burns, Scott, Shelley, and Byron, for those much-prized and
eagerly-sought-after letters have been each in turn the subject of
ingenious and carefully prepared forgeries. The Byron forger (who
claimed relationship with the poet) escaped the punishment he richly
merited, but the wholesale manufacturer of Burns and Scott MSS. was
sent to jail for a twelvemonth.
The most extraordinary case in the annals of autograph forgery
occurred in France--the country _par excellence_ of cunningly devised
facsimiles--on the eve of the Franco-Prussian War. It is known as the
_Affaire Vrain-Lucas_, and an excellent account of it was published
at the time by M. Étienne Charavay.[19] Vrain-Lucas was a needy
adventurer; Michel Chasles was a scientist of European reputation.
Incredible as it may appear, Vrain-Lucas, in the course of a few years,
induced one Chasles to purchase from him at the aggregate price of
about £6,000 no less than 27,000 autographs, nearly the whole of which
were forgeries of the most audacious description. Vrain-Lucas bestowed
on his counterfeits little of the care and attention to detail which
characterises some of the Keats, Byron, Shelley, and Scott forgeries.
Beginning with a supposed correspondence between the youthful Newton
and Pascal, which Sir David Brewster proved conclusively to be
impossible, he proceeded to fabricate letters of Rabelais, Montesquieu,
and La Bruyère. Before he had finished M. Chasles became the possessor
of letters _in French_ and written on _paper made in France_ of Julius
Cæsar, Cleopatra, Mary Magdalene, and even of Lazarus, after his
resurrection. On February 16, 1870, Vrain-Lucas was brought before a
Paris Criminal Court (_Tribunal Correctionnel_). Amongst the forged
MSS. produced on behalf of the prosecution were 5 letters of Abélard,
5 from Alcibiades to Pericles, 181 of Alcuin, 1 of Attila to a Gallic
general, 6 of Alexander the Great to Aristotle, to say nothing of
examples of the private correspondence of Herod, Pompey, Charles
Martel, Judas Iscariot, Mary Magdalene, Sapho, Pontius Pilate, and Joan
of Arc. Another long alphabetical list of these fictitious _rariora_
began with Agnès Sorel, Anacreon, and the Emperor Adrian, and ended
with St. Theresa, Tiberius, Turenne, and Voltaire.
Here is a delicious example of this farrago of transparent fraud.
_Letter of Queen Cleopatra to Julius Cæsar._
Cléopatre royne à son très amé Jules César, Empereur.
Mon très amé, nostre fils Césarion va bien. J'espère que
bientôt il sera en estat de supporter le voyage d'icy à
Marseilles, où j'ai besoin de le faire instruire tant à cause
de bon air qu'on y respire et des belles choses qu'on y
enseigne. Je vous prins donc me dire combien de temps encore
resterez dans ces contrées, car j'y veux conduire moy même
nostre fils et vous prier par icelle occasion. C'est vous dire
mon très amé le contentement que je ressens lorsque je me
trouve près de vous, et ce attendant, je prins les dieux avoir
vous en consideration. Le xi Mars l'an de Rome VCCIX.(!)
And next came a safe-conduct pass written by Vercingetorix in favour
of "the young Trogus Pompeus on a secret mission to Julius Cæsar"!
Vrain-Lucas was promptly sentenced to two years' imprisonment for
fraud, together with a fine of 500 francs and the costs of the trial.
The only excuse for M. Michel Chasles, mathematician of renown and
Member of the Academy of Sciences, is to be found in his numerous
preoccupations and advanced age. He was seventy-six in 1870.
In England the _Affaire Vrain-Lucas_ has to some extent its counterpart
in the literary forgery carried out with consummate skill by Dr.
Constantine Simonides, who managed to deceive that too ardent
collector, Sir Thomas Phillipps, with such tempting rarities from a
monastery on Mount Athos as part of the original Gospel of St. Matthew,
the Proverbs of Pythagoras, or a copy of Homer written on serpent's
skin. But enough has been said of these literary frauds.
There is, however, one more class of forged autographs. I refer to
letters fabricated in order to injure another, or in furtherance of
some political object. The Parnell letters, forged twenty years ago
by Richard Pigott, belonged to this class, but they raised many of the
questions which belong to forgeries of autographs. I was lately shown a
forged letter of Napoleon III., supposed to have been written in 1848,
which had evidently been fabricated many years later, possibly in 1865,
in order to discredit him when the Second Empire began to lose its
popularity. According to the document he had ordered the assassination
of some associate suspected of treason. Not only was the imitation
of the calligraphy of Napoleon III. faulty in many respects, but the
signature, "Napoleon Bonaparte," at once betrayed the falsity of the
document. It was, curiously enough, enclosed in an official envelope of
Prince Jérôme Bonaparte's addressed to Jules Favre!
The best-known dealers in autographs always guarantee what they
sell, and will readily take back any doubtful specimen. In the early
stage of autograph collecting it is a manifest advantage to confine
one's transactions to men of this class. Whenever the origin of an
autograph is suspicious or mysterious, it is always safest to obtain
expert opinion. As M. Charavay points out in dealing with the _Affaire
Vrain-Lucas_, the question of the source from which an article comes
is often of capital importance. Never omit to read carefully any given
letter, and consider it from an historical point of view, as well as
a mere specimen of handwriting. If M. Michel Chasles had done this he
would have saved his 140,000 francs. If the first Newton letter he
purchased had been submitted to the historical test, he would have
discovered that at the time the philosopher was supposed to discuss
problems of the greatest abstruseness he was only three years old. It
was on this deal that Vrain-Lucas built up his mountain of successful
fraud. Bear in mind all that has been said of watermarks, postmarks,
the shape and quality of paper, &c. Avoid notes written on scraps of
paper and ragged half-sheets. If you suspect a letter to be a facsimile
of some sort, touch the writing gently with diluted muriatic acid.
Forgeries effected by the use of water-colour paint yield at once to
the application of hot water. As yet the application of the useful
maxim of _caveat emptor_ is only necessary in the case of comparatively
rare autographs. Letters of no great intrinsic value have as yet not
proved remunerative to the forger, but it by no means follows that this
will always remain so.
FOOTNOTES:
[8] Editions of Ireland's "Confessions" appeared both in England and
America. My own copy is entitled "The Confessions of William Henry
Ireland. A New Edition with an introduction by Richard Grant White"
(New York, 1874).
[9] Marquis of Lansdowne.
[10] "The Detection of Forgery." A Practical Handbook, by Douglas
Blackburn and Captain Waithman Caddell (London, 1909).
[11] The daughter of Tate Wilkinson, of York, the "Wandering Patentee."
Miss Patty Wilkinson eventually became the companion of Mrs. Siddons,
and lived with her till her death.
[12] Mr. Siddons was now a resident at Bath, and his wife frequently
joined him there whenever her professional duties allowed of her doing
so.
[13] J. P. Kemble was playing at the Orchard Street Theatre in the
early summer of 1801.
[14] A married sister of Mrs. Siddons, who also resided in Bath. The
mother of Horace Twiss.
[15] The wife of the Lessee of the Bath Theatre and Director of Posts.
[16] The well-known Sisters Lee kept a school in Bath.
[17] George Siddons subsequently received an Indian cadetship from the
Prince Regent, and survived his mother.
[18] Cecilia Siddons--Mrs. Siddons' youngest daughter. Mrs. Piozzi was
her godmother. Lawrence's crayon drawing of Cecilia Siddons is now in
possession of Lady Seymour, 31, Eccleston Street. Cecilia Siddons also
survived her mother.
[19] "Faux Autographes. Affaire Vrain-Lucas. Étude Critique sur la
Collection Vendue à Mons. Michel Chasles et Observations sur les moyens
de reconnaître les Faux Autographes," par Étienne Charavay. (Paris:
Librairie Jacques Charavay Aîné, 1870.)
IV
SOME
FAMOUS
AUTOGRAPH
"FINDS"
CHAPTER IV
SOME FAMOUS AUTOGRAPH "FINDS"
=Personal reminiscences and experiences=
No pursuit is more exciting than that of Autographs.--_The
Archivist_, 1888.
If autograph collecting is, as Mr. Joline defines it, "one of the
gentlest of emotions," it certainly gives its votaries occasional
moments of harmless excitement. Many of my readers will doubtless
remember the faded handwriting on the battledores of our childhood,
which, it may be presumed, represented the periodical clearings-out
of lawyers' offices; but it requires a considerable stretch of the
imagination to credit the presence of a portion of one of the copies of
the Magna Charta on a drum-head, although the anecdote finds its place
in all autograph handbooks. Ample evidence, however, exists of the
strong natural affinity which once existed between ancient documents
and the callings of the grocer and the fishmonger, but the use for old
paper in this connection has almost entirely gone out of fashion, and
the greater part of the discarded MSS. go straight to the pulp-mills
for the purposes of reconversion. I will not attempt to disguise my
envy of the pleasurable sensations Dr. Raffles must have experienced
when he picked up the original account of the expenses incurred at
the execution of Mary Queen of Scots, duly attested by Burleigh, for
eighteenpence at a book-stall on Holborn Hill. Almost equally lucky
was the discoverer, on a printing-house file at Wrexham, of the MS.
of Bishop Heber's famous missionary hymn, which not very long ago
fetched forty guineas at Sotheby's; and still more so the traveller who
reclaimed the whole of the forty years' correspondence between James
Boswell and the Rev. W. J. Temple from the proprietor of a Boulogne
fish-shop.
As the value of autographs becomes more and more widely known, and the
search for them becomes keener, chances of important "finds" become
rarer, but the possibilities of this kind of treasure-trove are by no
means exhausted. English MSS. of great interest and value continually
come to light abroad. Letters of the early Reformers often turn up in
Holland. Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester, sent the whole of his MSS. to
his friend Bullinger, and as yet only a single letter of Tyndall has
ever come to light. Others, in all human probability, are hidden away
in the _bahuts_ and presses of the Low Countries, where letters of the
Duke of Marlborough are not unfrequently offered for sale. Fine Stuart
autographs constantly turn up both in Germany and Rome. It was in the
Eternal City that the priceless MSS. of Cardinal York were offered for
sale at the modest price of £20. The English collector _cannot too
carefully examine the catalogues regularly issued by foreign dealers_.
I have already alluded to my discovery of the marriage settlement of
Pamela FitzGerald and the sixteenth-century deed relating to a French
commission for the colonisation of Canada. It was in a Paris price-list
that I came across the following extraordinary letter of Sir Humphry
Davy on the subject of his quarrel with George Stephenson:--
_Sir Humphry Davy to John Buddle, Esq., Wallsend, Newcastle._
_LONDON, February 8, 1817._
DEAR SIR,--Newman appears dilatory and has not yet made the
apparatus to my mind; but I hope soon to send it you and to
give you your _new right_. I hope no one will try expts with
platinum in explosive atmospheres till my paper is published
for if _fine wire_ is used and suffered to _hang out_ of
the lamp so as to ignite to whiteness in the _external_ air
explosion will follow; but by the most simple precaution
security is absolute. Stevenson's Pamphlet has proved to the
satisfaction of every person who has looked at it in London,
that he _endeavoured_ to steal from what he had heard of my
researches, safety tubes and apertures: no one could have
established his piracy so effectively as himself.
It is stated in one of these malignant advertisements which are
below my contempt that I was in the coal district in the end of
September 1815. Whereas I left it two days after I saw you at
Wallsend which I think was the 23rd or 24th of August and went
to Bishop Auckland where I stayed only three days and I spent
the greater part of the month of September with Lord Harewood
and was in London working in my Laboratory early in October
and had discovered several apertures and tubes in the middle
of last month whilst Mr. Stevenson's absurd idea of _admitting
Hydrogen_ in undetached portions by a slider was fermenting in
his mind. I certainly never thought of employing _capilliary_
[_sic_] tubes. My tubes were merely _safe_ tubes for I knew
perfectly well and have proved by expts that no lamp could be
fed on air through real capilliary tubes. To make a lamp that
will burn on three capilliary tubes is as impossible as to make
it burn in a closed decanter. Stevenson's capilliary tubes are
evidently stolen from what Mr. Hodgson communicated early in
November of my small safe tubes and made capilliary to suit
Mr. Brandlings marvellous discovery that wire gauze is the
extremity of capilliary tubes.
I am my dear Sir,
Very sincerely yours,
H. DAVY.
A specimen of an advertisement suited to Mr. W. Brandling.
_Aladdin_ should sign his name _Assassin_ for he endeavours
to stab in the dark. An assassin is a proper associate for a
private purloiner. One may attempt to murder while the other
carries off the plunder. Mr. W. J. Brandling must be ashamed of
such friends as Aladdin and Fair play, at least he cannot wish
to be seen in public with them even though he should love them
as dearly as _himself_.
TRUTH.
One suited to Stevenson.
Mr. George Stevenson has changed his note from capilliary tubes
to small tubes. No one can doubt that he pilfered these from
Mr. Hodgson's communication of Sir H. Davy's discoveries. His
original principle to admit Hydrogen in small detached portions
(detached by a slider) is now kept out of sight. A man who in
the face of the whole world and in open day light steals the
_safety trimmer_ and a safe _top_ in Killingworth Colliery and
in the dark may endeavour to steal safety apertures and tubes.
But does he now know what is a safe aperture? Let those people
who use his lamp, his capilliary tube lamp, look to themselves.
VINDEX.
It is fit that great ingratitude and little malevolence should
be united in the same cause, fortunately in this case they are
associated with great ignorance.
From the same source came the correspondence between Lord Brougham and
his friend Arago, in the course of which the ex-Chancellor of Great
Britain proposed to abandon his own nationality, and, if elected, take
his seat in the French Assembly.
[Illustration: TWO PAGES OF A LETTER BY LORD BROUGHAM TO E. ARAGO,
OFFERING TO BECOME A NATURALISED FRENCHMAN AND A CANDIDATE FOR THE
FRENCH CHAMBERS.]
There is scarcely a country house or muniment-room in England which may
not afford a happy hunting-ground to the collector. It is only quite
lately missing originals of the Paston Letters (lost ever since 1789)
were recovered in the library of the descendants of Pitt's friend and
literary executor, Bishop Pretyman-Tomline. Although Moore, Murray,
and Hobhouse burned one copy of Byron's MS. autobiography in 1824, a
duplicate is supposed to be in existence, but its present whereabouts
is unknown. In a quiet corner of the Harcourt Library at Nuneham,
Whitelock's MS. was found quite unexpectedly, and Burckhardt's journal
of the Euphrates Expedition of 1811, and the MSS. of William Oldys are
still missing. A bundle of genuine Keats letters was disinterred at
Melbourne, and the letters of the Rev. George Crabbe to Miss Elizabeth
Charter, now in my possession, sojourned for many years in the
Antipodes.
Within the last half-century letters of Addison, Prior, and Mordaunt
Earl of Peterborough, and other MSS. of great value, were saved from
imminent destruction in a manor house, near Llangollen.
It was only seventy years ago that a dealer in Hungerford Market, named
Jay, purchased at £7 a ton a large accumulation of "waste-paper" from
the Somerset House authorities. By the merest accident it transpired
that amongst the MSS. thus unceremoniously treated were Exchequer
Office Accounts of the reign of Henry VII., Secret Service Accounts
signed by Eleanor Gwynne, and Wardrobe Accounts of Queen Elizabeth.
Several bundles of parchments were sold by Jay to a Fleet Street
confectioner, and turned into jelly, before any suspicion arose as to
their possible value or importance. It was seventeen years later than
this, in 1857, that three hundred tons of papers, including the records
of the Indian Navy, went from the old India House to the paper-mill.
Comparatively few of the Jay MSS. were recovered, for three tons of
paper which remained untouched were accidentally burned.
There is no more picturesque incident in the annals of literary
discovery than Sir H. Maxwell Lyle's account of his "find" in a loft at
Belvoir, the clue to which was afforded by a faded label on a rusty
key. "The disturbance of the surface," we are told, "caused a horrible
stench, and it soon became evident that the loft had been tenanted
by rats, who had done lasting damage to valuable MSS. by gnawing and
staining them. Some documents had been reduced to powder, others had
lost their dates or their signatures. The entire centre of a long
letter in the hand of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, had entirely
disappeared. Those that remained were of a very varied character. A
deed of the time of Henry II. was found among some granary accounts of
the eighteenth century, and gossiping letters of the Court of Elizabeth
among modern vouchers. Letters to Henry Vernon of Haddon from the Duke
of Clarence, the Earl of Warwick, and Kings Edward IV., Richard III.,
and Henry VII., written on paper and folded very small, lay hidden
between large leases engrossed on thick parchment."
[Illustration: SPECIMEN PAGE OF THE DUMOURIEZ MS. DISCOVERED BY THE
WRITER.
By permission of Mr. John Lane.]
The loft at Belvoir is certainly not the only place in the United
Kingdom where autographic treasure-trove lies hid, and no opportunity
should be missed of turning over collections of MSS., when the
occasion presents itself. Some five years ago an entry in one of
the catalogues of Mr. B. Dobell, of 77, Charing Cross Road, led me
to become the possessor of the holograph project for the Defence of
England drawn up in 1803-5 by General Dumouriez, on behalf of the last
Pitt Administration. The MS. covers nearly four hundred pages, and is
carefully bound in white vellum. Every page of it is in Dumouriez's
handwriting. From first to last the work done by Dumouriez cost the
Government quite £20,000. Only fragments of the scheme exist in the
archives of the War Office. This book contains the project in its
entirety. It cost me twenty-seven shillings, and formed the basis of
a book written in collaboration with Dr. Holland Rose.[20] I have
certainly been fortunate in acquiring a great many unknown documents
relating to Napoleon and the Napoleonic wars. While rummaging amongst
the miscellaneous papers in the possession of Mr. George Mackey, the
well-known Birmingham antiquary, I lighted on the whole correspondence
between Lord Cawdor and the Duke of Portland relating to the landing
in February, 1797, of the French "Black Legion" under Tate at
Fishguard, then an almost entirely unknown Welsh fishing village,
and now transformed by the Great Western Railway into an important
port-of-call. By the kind permission of Mr. J. C. Inglis, General
Manager of the G.W.R., a reproduction is now given of the important
Cawdor letter first published in the Company's travel-books, "The
Country of Castles." The unexpected recovery of these MSS. enabled me
to give an exhaustive account of the romantic occurrence with which
they deal in "Napoleon and the Invasion of England."[21]
[Illustration: ORIGINAL DISPATCH OF LORD CAWDOR TO DUKE OF PORTLAND
DESCRIBING THE LANDING AND SURRENDER OF THE FRENCH AT FISHGUARD,
FEBRUARY, 1797.
(By permission of the G.W.R.)]
But these were not the only discoveries I made in Mr. Mackey's
autographic store. I came upon a number of the original drafts of
unpublished patriotic songs by Charles Dibdin, including three in
honour of Trafalgar, of which the following is a specimen:--
When Nelson fell the voice of Fame
With mingled joy and pain
Lamented that no other name
So glorious could remain.
And worthily is Nelson loved;
Yet, ere a short month's dawn,
Fresh glory Britain's sons have proved,
Led on by gallant Strachan.
Pellew and Smith and Collingwood, fellows
Fine sailors yet exist;
But to name sailors good
I would take the Navy List.
Great Nelson's brothers called,
And who though for ever gone,
His spirit . . . . . . .
And such a tar is Strachan.
Then, Britons, be not out of heart,
Likewise of hopes bereft,
In twain did the sheet-anchor part,
Yet is the best "bower"[22] left.
Still Nelson's name inspires renown,
And though for ever gone,
His spirit shall in smiles look down
And point to gallant Strachan.
Great Nelson with his parting breath
Their character has drawn,
He called them brothers, and his death
They'll emulate like Strachan.
For some unaccountable reason the commonplace book of the unofficial
laureate of the Navy had drifted to Birmingham. It was found by me
in the same bin of literary odds and ends as the Cawdor dispatches,
which obviously ought to have been in the Home Office or the Record
Office. At the same time and place I lighted on the letters of Colonel
Digby, the "Mr. Fairly," of Fanny Burney's Journal, to the beautiful
sisters Margaret and Isabella Gunning, the first of whom he afterwards
married, thereby (if the Court gossip of the day may be trusted) sorely
disappointing the literary Assistant-Keeper of the Royal Robes.
[Illustration: MS. VERSES ON TRAFALGAR IN THE HANDWRITING OF CHARLES
DIBDIN, 1805.]
It was from Mr. Dobell that I obtained another of the MSS. in my
collection which I specially prize--I allude to the holograph copy of
Mrs. Robinson's "Memoirs," written nearly entirely on the covering
sheets of old letters upon which one reads the signatures of such
important and fashionable personages as the Duke of Clarence, Duchesses
of Ancaster and Dorset, the Earl of Jersey, the Marquis of Lothian,
the Duke of Grafton, and so forth. It is also curious to trace the
frequent flittings of the unfortunate "Perdita," the early love of
the Prince described in bitter irony as "the first gentleman in
Europe." From Berkeley Square she moves to Clarges Street, and thence
in rapid succession to Piccadilly, Curzon Street, St. James's Place,
Hill Street, Stanhope Street, and South Audley Street. Now she is at
the Ship Inn at Brighton; now at the Hôtel de Russie and the Hôtel
de Chartres at Paris; now at No. 10, North Parade, Bath. One or two
letters seem to have been addressed to Englefield Cottage, where she
died. On an ivy-grown tomb in Old Windsor churchyard one can still
decipher Samuel Pratt's lines beginning:--
Of Beauty's Isle her daughters must declare
She who sleeps here was fairest of the fair.
From this MS. the "Story of Perdita and Florizel" may some day be
re-written or re-edited.
By the kindness of Dr. Scott I added to my collection a genuine letter
of great Shakespearean interest, for it is addressed to Edward Alleyn,
the Founder of Dulwich College, by William Wilson, one of the actors in
Shakespeare's troop at the Fortune Theatre. It runs as follows:--
To my most dear and especial good friend Mr. Edward Alleyn at Dulwich.
Right worshipful, my humble duty remembered hoping in the
Almighty that your health and prosperity, which on my knees I
beseech Him long to continue, for the many favours which I have
from time to time received. My poor ability is not in the least
degree able to give you satisfaction unless as I and mine have
been bound to you for your many kindnesses so will we during
life pray for your prosperity. I confess I have found you my
chiefest friend in the midst of my extremities which makes me
loth to press or request your favour any further, yet for that
I am to be married on Sunday next and your kindness may be a
great help and furtherance unto me towards the raising of my
poor and deserted estate I am enforced once again to entreat
your worship's furtherance in a charitable request which is
that I may have your worship's letter to Mr. Dowton and Mr.
Edward Juby to be a means that the company of players of the
Fortune [may] either offer at my wedding at St. Saviour's
Church or of their own good nature bestow something upon me
on that day and as ever I and mine will not only rest bounden
unto yourself but continually pray for your worship's health
with increase of all happiness long to continue. I hope of your
worship's favour herein. I humbly take my leave. Resting your
Worship's during life to be commanded
WILLIAM WILSON.
From the registers of St. Saviour's, Southwark, it is clear that
Wilson's marriage took place there on _Sunday_, November 2, 1617, about
eighteen months after Shakespeare's death. Dowton, like Farren, is an
hereditary theatrical name, and the Wilson letter reveals another
actor Dowton, probably an ancestor of the Dowtons of a later time. Dr.
Wallace, the erudite discoverer of the new Shakespeare document at the
Record Office, writes me that he considers the letter of William Wilson
an excellent specimen of the epistolary style of Shakespeare's time,
and of singular interest to Shakespearean students.
Some of my most interesting "finds" are now placed in my Napoleonic
collection, which I have almost doubled in extent since the publication
of "Collectanea Napoleonica."[23] For £5 I obtained, some five years
ago at Sotheby's, the letter of 24 4to pages in which Sir Stamford
Raffles describes his visit to St. Helena and his interview with
Napoleon. As I received a very substantial sum for permission to
reproduce a portion of it in a daily paper, this interesting and
valuable MS. cost me nothing. At the Bunbury sale a great many letters
of historical importance fetched a comparatively low price. It was
at this sale that Mr. Frank Sabin bought the second and more lengthy
letter from George Crabbe to Edmund Burke now in my possession. It was
at the Bunbury "dispersal" that the late Mr. Frederick Barker bought
for me the extraordinary official letter and holograph proclamation
to the Vendéans penned by Louis Larochejaquelein on June 2, 1815, an
hour or two before his death. These documents would certainly have
fetched five times the price I paid for them in Paris, where I had to
pay £10 for a letter of his more famous brother Henry, killed in 1794.
I also purchased at the Bunbury sale two long letters of C. J. Fox
to his uncle, General Fox, and a confidential letter of Earl Bathurst
giving Bunbury his opinion of Gourgaud, and enclosing four sheets of
a private letter from Sir Hudson Lowe. The companionship of autographs
is curious. In a letter of the Marquis Montchenu, the garrulous French
Commissioner at St. Helena, I found an autograph of Sir Hudson Lowe,
written in 1780 at the London Inn, Exeter, when he was a boy-ensign
in the Devon Militia! It was Montchenu who caused a sensation at the
Courts of the Allied Powers by declaring that Lowe was about to make
Napoleon the godfather of his son, who in 1857 was one of the garrison
in the Lucknow Residence. In June, 1906, M. Noël Charavay bought for
me at the Dablin sale a number of Napoleonic _rariora_, amongst them
the Longwood Household Expenses Book kept by Pierron, the _maître
d'hôtel_, between March, 1818, and April 30, 1821. The entries are
always countersigned by Montholon, and in many cases are controlled by
Napoleon, who frequently made calculations as to the relative value
of pounds and shillings in francs. All these papers will, doubtless,
be useful to some one who desires to say the last word on the Last
Phase, and I am very grateful to Mr. Frank Sabin, who procured for me
the original copy of the elaborately-bound "Last Reign of Napoleon,"
which Mr. J. C. Hobhouse, afterwards Lord Broughton, sent out to Sir
Hudson Lowe for presentation to Napoleon, but which was never given to
him. On the flyleaf the author copied out a suggestive quotation from
Tacitus. The romance of these volumes belongs rather to the subject
of extra-illustration, which I hope to deal with in a future work.
I have already pointed out the utility of this interesting pursuit
for the proper preservation of valuable autographs. In America, where
so many collectors believe that "the political is ephemeral and the
literary eternal," thousands of autographs are inserted in as many
books, to which the special charm and value of "association" is thus
given. I need not say that I have placed a characteristic John Cam
Hobhouse letter in the second volume of this unique copy of "The Last
Reign of Napoleon." Some two years since I obtained through Messrs.
Maggs, of 109, Strand, two very interesting MSS. connected with the
Irish Rebellion of 1798. One of these is the Camolin Cavalry Detail
Book, May 25-October 8, 1798, and the other is made up of a collection
of the letters written between 1796 and 1815 by Arthur, Earl of Mount
Norris, a Royalist leader. With the new light obtained from them and
the MS. journal of a lady who was an eye-witness of the occurrences
she describes, Mr. H. F. B. Wheeler and the writer have endeavoured to
again deal with the story of the "War in Wexford." I have by no means
completed my list of "finds." I trust, however, I have said enough
to illustrate the utility of autograph-hunting and the pleasurable
excitement derivable from the unexpected running to earth of some
long-since forgotten letter or document which is not only of money
value, but can help to throw new light either on the life of the
writer, or the far-off times in which it was written.
FOOTNOTES:
[20] "Dumouriez and the Defence of England against Napoleon" (London,
1909. _Vide_ Preface, pp. xi-xiii).
[21] See "Napoleon and the Invasion of England," by H. Wheeler and A.
M. Broadley, vol. i. chapter ii. "A Three Days' War. The Invasion of
England by Hoche's Black Brigade, February 22, 23, and 24, 1797," pp.
31-74.
[22] _I.e._, strongest anchor.
[23] "Collectanea Napoleonica." A Catalogue of the Collection of
Autographs, &c., &c., relating to Napoleon I. formed by A. M. Broadley,
compiled by W. V. Daniell, with a preface by A. M. Broadley (London,
1905).
V
ROYAL
AUTOGRAPHS
PAST AND
PRESENT
[Illustration: BULLETIN ISSUED A WEEK AFTER THE BIRTH OF KING EDWARD
VII. AND SIGNED BY THE MEDICAL MEN IN ATTENDANCE, NOVEMBER 16, 1841.]
[Illustration: ORDER TO THE DUKE OF BEAUFORT TO DESTROY KEYNSHAM
BRIDGE, NEAR BRISTOL, ON THE APPROACH OF MONMOUTH, SIGNED BY KING JAMES
II., JUNE 21, 1685.]
[Illustration: A.L.S. OF THE ELECTRESS SOPHIA OF HANOVER TO THE DUKE OF
LEEDS, OCTOBER 19, 1710.]
CHAPTER V
ROYAL AUTOGRAPHS PAST AND PRESENT--THE COPY-BOOKS OF KINGS AND PRINCES
=Some unpublished specimens of the handwriting of Royal
Personages present and past=
The very dust of whose writings is gold.
RICHARD BENTLEY.