Richard Bentley.
The autographs of Royalty have, for more than a century, formed a favourite subject for collection, not only in the United Kingdom, but on the Continent and in the United States, where I am told the finest examples of this fascinating branch of the autograph cult (Mr. Adrian Joline calls it frankly a hobby) are to be found. Royal letters and signatures figure conspicuously and plentifully in all books of facsimiles, but the young collector would do well to study carefully two volumes devoted exclusively to this particular branch of calligraphy.[24] Examples of Royal handwriting abound in both the Record Office and the British Museum, although a good many were either turned into jelly, burned, or otherwise wasted in consequence of such regrettable transactions as the "waste-paper" deals between the officials of Somerset House and Mr. Jay, and those of the new India Office and the pulping-mills.[25] It is clear that Royal autographs may be looked for in all sorts of out-of-the-way and unexpected places. Henry VIII.'s love-letters to Anne Boleyn are said to be hidden away in the Vatican, and Sir H. Maxwell Lyte found the sign manuals of monarchs amongst the débris of the Belvoir hay-loft.
In no class of autographs is the rise of prices and increase of value so remarkable as in those now under discussion. I cannot precisely ascertain the present worth of the signature of Richard II., with whom the English series is supposed to commence, but M. Noël Charavay tells me that a document signed by John II., the first of the French Royal signers, would fetch £10. Before me lie some interesting details as to the value of Royal autographs in 1827, and a group of catalogues, containing a good many desirable items of this kind, issued in London between 1875 and 1885.
It will be instructive to note the prices which choice specimens fetched at these comparatively recent periods. In The Archivist of December, 1889, we are informed that according to the price-currents of 1827 the autographs of "Elizabeth the adored of her people" are worth £2 2s., while Charles I., "worshipped as a martyr," commands the same price. Charles II., with his Queen, Catharine of Braganza, thrown in, fetches no more than £1 5s. James II. is worth £3 8s., owing to a limited supply. William III. yields less than half that figure, but a whole letter of Queen Mary was knocked down for £3 10s.
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.
(By permission of Mr. John Lane.)
The expert of this excellent journal continues: "George I., 'a heavy, dull German gentleman,' is reckoned worth only £1 1s., and George II., I am ashamed to say it, only 14s. Our beloved monarch George III., being well remembered, rises to £3 10s. George IV., the most complete gentleman of his age,[26] rises above all his Royal predecessors and reaches £4 14s. 6d.; it is also curious to see how so great a king and so fine a gentleman wrote when he was a boy and to possess a leaf of his copybook. Here I fain would conclude this estimate of British rulers, but truth compels me to add that Oliver Cromwell is deemed worth £5 15s. 6d. French kings are sadly degraded. Five Grands Monarques, among whom are Francis I. and Louis XIV., are estimated at the average price of 4s. 1½d. each; Henry IV. advanced to 14s., but Napoleon, in the very teeth of French legitimacy, reaches 20s. higher. A French Queen, Anne of Austria, is worth 7s., while Josephine, the shadow of a French empress, is worth more than five times this sum. A great and wise Emperor of Russia, and the brave King of Prussia, require the aid of a French prince, an English princess, and seven English peers to push them up to 16s." These were indeed halcyon days for the collectors, but at that period they were few and far between. Mr. William Upcott, the doyen of modern autograph collectors, reigned almost supreme at "Autograph Cottage," Islington, his only possible competitors being Mr. Young and Mr. John Dillon.