There were several autograph sales at "Sotheby's" in 1903. The late Mr. Frederick Barker was good enough to price for me the catalogue of the sale of June 23rd-24th. On the first day five long letters of Samuel Richardson to the Rev. Mr. Lobb (1743-56) averaged about £12 12s. A conveyance signed by Guido Fawkes (reputed to have been picked up for 10s.) fetched £101, and a 6½-pp. letter of Nelson to Sir Alexander Ball was sold for £30 10s. Throughout this sale prices ruled very high—quite a short note of Thackeray's realising £7 5s. A fine series of letters by Earl St. Vincent averaged about £2, but one of these (dated January 17, 1801), in which he wrote: "Nelson was very low when he came here, the day before yesterday, appeared and acted as if he had done me an injury, and felt apprehensive that I was acquainted with it. Poor man! he is devoured with vanity, weakness and folly, was strung with ribbons, medals, &c., and yet pretended he wished to avoid the honours and ceremonies he everywhere met with on the road," brought no less than £9 5s. A number of letters by Edward Fitzgerald, the translator of Omar Khayyám, addressed to Joseph Fletcher ("Posh"), averaged about 30s., and several letters of Charles Dickens £2 2s. each.
The two-days' sale of June 8th and 9th in this year brought no less than £1,963 9s. 6d. for only 618 lots.
Amongst the autographs disposed of at this sale were:—
Another autograph sale was held at "Sotheby's" on July 23, 1903, and the following days, when some fine letters by Oliver Cromwell, Burns, Dickens, and "George Eliot," were sold at good prices. The last sale of this season took place in Wellington Street on the 19th of November and two following days. The 738 lots in this sale brought a total of £971 12s. 6d.
Amongst the autographs sold were:—
| £ | s. | d. | ||
| A.L.S. Lord Byron | (1819) | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| D.S. Sir Francis Drake | (1593) | 18 | 10 | 0 |
| D.S. Sir R. Hawkins | (1615) | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| A.L.S. Elizabeth Browning | (1844) | 3 | 10 | 0 |
| A.L.S. William Penn | (1684) | 34 | 0 | 0 |
| Twenty letters of Charles Dickens averaging only | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| A.L.S. Colley Cibber | (1742) | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| A.L.S. Samuel Johnson | 6 | 15 | 0 | |
| A.L.S. Walter Scott to Thomas Moore (enclosing Notes on Byron) | (1829) | 37 | 10 | 0 |
| A.L.S. Marat | 13 | 0 | 0 | |
| A.L.S. Andrew Marvel | 11 | 0 | 0 | |
The first autograph sale of 1904 in Wellington Street lasted two days only (13th and 14th of May), but it included No. 218, the A.L.S. of Nelson to Lady Hamilton (September 25, 1805), 4 pp. 4to, which realised £1,030, possibly still the record price for a single letter. Other letters of Nelson at this sale fetched £16, £13 (two), £6 15s., and £4 15s. A letter of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, beginning with the emphatic words, "Ay, ay, as you say my dear, men are vile inconstant toads," was sold for 15s. only. A great many letters of great interest were included in this catalogue. Amongst them may be noted A.L.S. Beethoven, £30; A.L.S. Sir Stamford Raffles, nearly 25 pp. 4to, described as "giving a most lively and interesting description of the interior description of St. Helena with Napoleon Buonaparte, and Napoleon's answers to certain charges commonly brought against him, etc., marked 'private,' probably unpublished. Off St. Helena, May 20, 1816." This is now in my collection.
It was at this sale that a letter of the Duke of Wellington fetched the record price (as far as his autographs are concerned) of £101. It was thus described:—
127. Extremely interesting Letter written the day after the Battle of Waterloo. Letters written at this period by the Great Duke are extremely scarce.