The daughters of George III. and Queen Charlotte were all excellent letter writers, but their ordinary letters fetch absurdly low prices, although many of them are historically important. Queen Adelaide, the consort of William IV., was fond of writing texts on cards edged with filigree to be sold for philanthropic purposes. Her autographs are, in consequence, exceedingly common. The copy-book, page, and drawing of the still-living Empress Charlotte of Mexico have a melancholy interest. Her autograph and that of her ill-fated husband sell well abroad. The late Comte de Chambord and the late Comte de Paris wrote better hands as boys than the King of Rome or the Prince Imperial, of whose autographs I shall speak in connection with Napoleonic MSS. The rough sketch of soldiers drawn by the Prince Imperial and the artillery essay written by him at the Royal Military College, Woolwich, certainly form interesting items in that portion of my autograph collection which I label the Copy-books of Kings.
While the present volume was going through the press a most important sale of Royal autographs took place at Sotheby's. At the sale of May 4, 1910, no less a sum than £5,446 6s. was realised for 195 lots. Amongst the letters of Royal personages then dispersed, an A.L.S. of Mary Queen of Scots, dated Chatsworth, June 13, 1570, and addressed to her brother-in-law, Charles IX. of France, fetched £715; a D.S. of Edward VI., £370; an A.L.S. of Queen Mary I., £205; an A.L.S. of Queen Elizabeth, £160; 7 A.L.S. of Catherine de Medicis, £145; a L.S. of Henry VII., £24; a L.S. of Henry VIII., £25; three A.L.S. of Charles I., £55, £49, and £39 respectively, and three A.L.S. of Charles II., £25, £23 10s., and £22 respectively. The account of the expenses incurred at the "Meeting of the Field of the Cloth of Gold," signed by Francis I., was sold for £130.
The following examples of the handwriting of the late Prince Consort, the late King Edward VII., the late Duke of Coburg, King George V., Queen Mary, and the late Empress Frederick of Germany may prove interesting to my readers, as well as useful to collectors:—
FIRST PAGE OF A.L.S. BY ALBERT, PRINCE CONSORT, TO GENERAL PEEL, 1858.
EXERCISE OF THE LATE KING EDWARD VII. WHEN TEN YEARS OLD, DECEMBER 17, 1851.
(By permission of Harper Brothers.)