Robert Browning (1812-1889) and others
Two autograph albums, chiefly 19^th century
An autograph collection spanning literature, art, politics and English royalty. Containing letters, notes, documents signed, and cut signatures by: Robert Browning (autograph letter signed to John Gray, Arran, 12 August 1879, 2 pages, autograph envelope, about his reaction to critics and particularly to one castigator to whom he may have reacted too strongly when warning him not to come ‘within boots’ reach’); Walter Pater (26 June 1880, 2 pages, concerning his Imaginary Portraits); John Ruskin (9 February 1881, 4 pages, giving his views on music); Ford Madox Brown (24 November 1887, 4 pages, on the Gambier Parry fresco method); Edward Burne-Jones (2 items); John Millais; W.E. Henley; Michael Field [the shared pseudonym of Katherine Harris Bradley and her niece, Edith Emma Cooper] (sonnet titled ‘Stonehenge’, March 1894, one page); George IV (document signed as Prince Regent, 1820); George III (document signed, counter-signed by Lord North, 1778, split); Charles I (cut signature); Wellington; Palmerston; and many more (items removed from both volumes across the years, instances of splitting, tears and surface soiling throughout). Laid down or tipped into two albums (covers detached). Provenance: Compiled by Sir James Balfour Paul, Lyon King of Arms (1846-1931), his bookplate in both volumes; Sotheby's, 18 December 1985, lot 98.