A VICTORIAN AUTOGRAPH ALBUM OF AUTOGRAPH LETTERS SIGNED, SIG...

Hammer

£10,000

A VICTORIAN AUTOGRAPH ALBUM OF AUTOGRAPH LETTERS SIGNED, SIGNED PIECES AND SIGNATURES, 18TH AND 19TH C including AUTOGRAPH LETTERS SIGNED: Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge (Duchess of Teck) with envelope in her hand, Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar, Princess Louise of Sweden (Queen of Denmark), Giuseppe Garibaldi (Palermo, 28 May 1860), Field Marshal Lord Roberts, Arthur Wellesley Duke of Wellington (Dublin Castle, November 5 1808), Alexandre Dumas (two stanzas), William Edmondstoune Ayton, William Makepeace Thackeray (to the Baroness de Rothschild), Edward Bulwer-Lytton, W. E. Gladstone (Government House, Isle of Man, October 4, 1878), Sir Robert Peel, Roundel Palmer (Lord Chancellor), Richard Bethel (Lord Chancellor), William Wilberforce (York, November 7, 1806, to Abel Chapman, "I have the satisfaction to inform you that yesterday Mr Fawkes & I were nominated without opposition to represent this county in Parliament..."), William Cobbett (to Henry Hunt, Farnham, Tuesday night, 21 November, 1815, with envelope in Cobbett's hand), Cardinal Manning, Cardinal Wiseman, James Fraser Bishop of Manchester (headed "Private"), Reginald Coplestone Bishop of Calcutta, Connop Thirlwall Bishop of St. Davids, Charles Locke Eastlake, Solomon Alexander Hart, George Frederic Watts, David Roberts, John Ruskin (Denmark Hill, 16 November, 1865, on Ruskin's discharging a debt of Henry Wentworth Monk's), Edward William Cooke, John 'Spanish' Philip, John Harrison, General Charles Gordon (January 17, 1874), Rustem Pacha (né Chimelli de Marini, in French), Robert Lowe, Ralph Bernal, Sir Stafford Northcote, W. H. Smith (with envelope in Smith's hand), Sir Spencer Walpole, Sir Richard Owen, Austen Henry Layard, Archibald Sayce, Charles Darwin (4, Bryanston Street, Portman Sqr, on mourning notepaper, Down, Beckenham address scored through, to Thomas Huxley, "My Dear Huxley, I wd very much like to see you whilst we are here. Therefore, unless I hear that you are engaged, I will call on Sunday morning, i.e. if I keep brisk - ever yours, Ch. Darwin"), Thomas Huxley (Home Department notepaper, May 4, 1863, in purple ink to Sir Spencer Walpole), Thomas Crofton Croker (with envelope in Croker's hand), John Tyndall (to E. W. Cooke), Michael Faraday (Hampton Court, 7 October, 1858, a fine letter to Captain Close, "...when the Thames Tunnel broke in, Brunel had above a hundred plans sent in to him, to remedy the evil. Not one of the proposers trusted him" and "...it is only by experience that one learns to be consistent & do what is right in these cases; to do indeed unto others as we would they should do to us"), Herbert Spencer, Lord Randolph Spencer-Churchill, Henry Cecil Raikes, John Arthur Roebuck, Sir George Trevelyan, John Morley, John Eliot Burns, Sir William Vernon Harcourt, Frederick Temple Archbishop of Canterbury, William Connor Magee Bishop of Peterborough, Anthony William Thorold Bishop of Winchester, Harvey Goodwin Bishop of Carlisle, The Earl of Shaftesbury (the social reformer, and envelope in his hand), Evelyn Ashley (second son of the preceding), Archibald Campbell Tate Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Thomas Longley Archbishop of Canterbury (with envelope in his hand), Frances Ridley Havergal (Perry Barr, February 12, on the rival merits of 'Hymns Ancient and Modern' and her and C. B. Snepp's 'Songs of Praise and Glory'. The former being the "thin end of the wedge of popery"), William Cholmondley (third Marquess), Charles Haddon Spurgeon (part als), Reginald Radcliffe (the revivalist), Edmund Beckett, Roland Arthur Cross (two als and an envelope in his hand), John Jackson Bishop of London, John Charles Royal first Bishop of Liverpool, Richard Durnford Bishop of Chichester, Robert Bickersteth Bishop of Ripon, William Boyd Carpenter Bishop of Ripon, Max Muller, William Hepworth Thompson, Sir Joseph Paxton (Chatsworth, May 21, 1852, short als in third person), Prince Sir Ghulam Muhammad, Thomas Keble, George Howard Wilkinson Bishop of Truro, Arthur Penrhyn Stanley Dean of Westminster, Sir Arthur Sullivan (9, Albert Mansions, 16 September 1879, in third person), Tom Taylor, William Charles Macready, Dame Genevieve Ward, Herman Merivale (a.n.s.), Henry Reeve, Richard Monckpon-Milnes, Sir James Knowles, Matthew James Higgin (a.k.a Jacob Omnium). SIGNED PIECES including Queen Victoria (letter signed at head "Appd Victoria RI"), Edward VII, George V, Victoria Princess Royal (Empress of Prussia), Prince Alfred, Prince Arthur, Prince George Duke of Cambridge, Princess Mary Adelaide Duchess of Teck (greetings card 1887 and envelope in her hand), Francis Duke of Teck, King Francesco II of the Two Sicilies, Maria Sophie Queen Consort of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Princess Edward of Saxe-Weimar, Henri d'Orleans Duke of Aumale and his wife Princess Maria Caroline of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, George Oruigbiji  Pepple King of Bonny, Count Cavour, the Aga Khan, ink impression of General Gordon's Chinese seal, the Earl of Dundonald, William Harrison Ainsworth, George Augustus Sala, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Mary Younge, Catherine Sinclair, Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Derby, Cardinal Antonelli, Carlo Pellegrini, Lord Kitchener, Paul du Chaillu (c.d.v. signed), Charles W. Dilke, John Wodehouse 1st Earl of Kimberley and Joseph Chamberlain FREE FRONTS SIGNED AND ENVELOPES SIGNED including Prince Frederick Duke of York, Prince William Frederick Duke of Gloucester, Prince George Duke of Cambridge, Prince Augustus Frederick Duke of Sussex, Arthur Wellesley Duke of Wellington, W.E. Gladstone , Lord Palmerston, Sir Robert Peel, Lord John Russell, The Duke of Newcastle (when Earl of Lincoln), Daniel O'Connell, Lord George Bentinck, Lord William Bentinck Governor General of India, Sir Francis Burdett, Stratford Canning 1st Viscount, Charles Grey (Prime Minister) and Samuel Wilberforce, all hinged or laid down on linen hinged leaves (36 x 28cm) many with contemporary portrait photographs (albumen prints), engravings and press cuttings, half maroon roan, spine torn, aeg  
Provenance: The Right Reverend Rowley Hill, DD, Bishop of Sodor and Man (1836-1887); thence by family descent to the present owners
Ordained in 1860 Rowley Hill's ascendancy in the Church of England was swift.  He became the youngest Bishop in the Anglican Communion when he was consecrated seventeen years later at the age of 41.  This album and those in the two following lots constitutes an increasingly scarce example of a Victorian autograph hunter's collection of considerable scope augmented by photographs.  Bishop Hill's pursuit of the handwriting of royal and distinguished persons began long before his ten years residence of Bishopscourt on the Isle of Man.  Other letters testify to the familial connections of his first and second wives, Caroline Maud Chapman (1839-1882 and especially Alicia (Alice) Probyn (1842-1930) whom he married in 1884.  Alice Probyn's brother, General Sir Dighton Probyn, VC (1833-1924) was the distinguished soldier and famous courtier,  Keeper to the Privy Purse, Secretary to the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) and Comptroller of the Household.  On his death Queen Alexandra paid a touching tribute, her handwritten card attached to the flowers on the General's coffin reading "For my beloved General Probyn with thanks for all he has been to me all these ... 52 years.  We shall miss him so much; but he will draw us up to heaven where he is sure to go. God Bless from his devoted ALEXANDRA"