Autograph of the Week

There is a wonderful book by John Julius Norwich (he is a great favourite of mine) called France from Gaul to de Gaulle. He is very entertaining, while also having a sound knowledge of what he is talking about, so I was must sit up and take note when he comes up with an unexpected assertion. "Louis-Philippe, it comes as something of a...

The 18th of June - a memorable day for several reasons, but most of all for the events 209 years ago at Waterloo.That day marked the end of an era which had started a quarter of a century earlier.The number of anecdotes around that day seems endless, some of them truer than others.The Earl of Uxbridge lost his leg while...

Anyone interested in art will know of Pierre Auguste Renoir. one of the leading lights of impressionism. And anyone interested in film history will remember his son Jean, director of La Grande Illusion.But Jean's brother Pierre was an actor, working mostly in theatre, and successful though he may have been in his day, that fame passes.The picture dealer Ambroise Vollard,...

Sir Denis Gauden obviously had quite a lot to say in this very closely-written very long letter.Who was Sir Denis Gauden you ask? An honest man, it seems, and victualler to the Navy in the late 17th century. A friend of Samuel Pepys, and well-known to Pepys through his work. In fact, Pepys spent the last days of his life...

Henry Williams Wynn, the writer of this letter, seems to have been a fairly blameless gentleman. An MP and later ambassador to Switzerland, and as far as I can discover no great scandal attached to his name.His correspondent, however, was an entirely different matter. The Comte d'Antraigues was a Royalist intriguer of the most conservative sort. That didn't stop him...

The grand old Duke of York / He had ten thousand men / He marched them up to the top of the hill / And he marched them down again.Most people remember Frederick Duke of York from the rhyme. His most notable military experience was in Flanders, which is exceptionally flat, so the rhyme may or may not have anything...

Josiah Burchett may hold the title of being one of the founders of the civil service as we know it today.A protege of Samuel Pepys, he rose to become Admiralty Secretary. This had usually been a political appointment, so as administrations changed or new monarchs came to the throne, you could expect to be replaced by someone favoured by those...

There's a strange thing about 18th century England. For anyone who had enough money to live in moderate comfort, and especially for those who had the means to live comfortably and participate in "society", it must have been a very pleasant time. Society was polite, witty and full of delicate sentiment.All of which makes it seem, in retrospect, rather dull.There...

If Ian Fleming is famous, it is as creator of James Bond and therefore responsible for the film franchise based on the character.But . . . Ian Fleming had a brother. And his brother, Peter Fleming, was an adventure story of his own. A great traveller (unexplored regions of Brazil, Central Asia, China), a travel writer, soldier, and generally always...

William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire had the most glamorous mother in 18th century England. Little wonder, therefore, that his own story is overshadowed by Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire.But he has more than enough to his credit. A prominent Whig, very much in the mould of his mother's friend Charles James Fox, he was a supporter of the abolition of...

2024 beckons! May it be a happy, joyful and peaceful year. I wish you all good friends, good cheer and good fortune. But most of all, good friends.    View This Autograph .  

There's something about the ecclesiastical and the mediaeval that connects with the Christmas period. These are later wax impressions of mediaeval seals, but they are still evocative. And the last image is of the murder of Thomas a Becket in Canterbury Cathedral ... which took place four days after Christmas. The details are wonderful.  VIEW THIS AUTOGRAPH