Beschreibung:

ALBUM - STATESMENAlbum of over 130 autograph letters from eighteenth and nineteenth-century, politicians, statesmen and other notables, including all the signatories of the Treaty of Paris, 1856, to Hon. George Villiers, Theresa Villiers, Lady Lewis (or as Mrs Lister), her husband George Cornewall Lewis, Mary Berry and others, from the collection of Lady Maria Theresa Lewis (née Villiers) (1803-1865), some loose, including:
William Pitt the Younger (3, making arrangements, one with note by Theresa Villiers affixed "...in 1804 during the time of the King's recovery from an attack of insanity...", a longer letter enquiring as to the King's condition and requesting to see the Queen, with explanatory note ("...It was desirable not to permit the King's return to the Castle as he was full of plans for building & alterations...[she] replied to Mr Pitt 'That, Sir, is what I have done ever since I have been married to the King' and got up and left the room..."); William IV (regarding a position for her son); Lord Portland (to George Villiers, the King having approved his new post of "Management of the Property of the Crown...Surveyor of Crown Lands & of the Woods and Forests... salary of £2,000... & the use of the official house... this mark of His Majesty's Regard..."); Lord Grenville (5, one thanking him for a "snuffle-dog", another of 1830 regretting "the untoward state of politics"); Duke of Cambridge; William Windham; Lord Holland (two satirical verses); William Huskisson (3, regarding obtaining the use of Cranbourne Lodge and problems with a dilatory Wyatt "...I have at last been obliged to hold strong language..."); John Jervis 1st Earl St Vincent ("...unless we have a successful action with the combined fleet, there is no likelihood of any officer being promoted from hence...", 1800); Palmerston (4, "...The King and Guizot have rushed on their fate & deserved all they meet with... the English are coming away in shoals..."); Melbourne; Brougham (3); Warren Hastings; Duke of Wellington (with annotation "Sir L says this is the Dukes own writing"); Duke of Newcastle (4); Lord Lansdowne (7); Macaulay ("...I was married on Tuesday as well as Lord Clarendon – though to a less charming bride..."); Grey; Richard Cobden ("...I hope the Lords will have had the good sense to pass the government corn-bills, & we shall be able to congratulate each other... upon the happy issue of the free-trade struggles – a struggle which I believe... in its moral & social aspects greater consequences than any change that has occurred since the Reformation..."); Robert Peel (2); George Canning (4, one enclosing a note from Wilberforce [in Writers album, see lot 55]); envelope with signature of Ulysses S. Grant, U.S. Secretary of War and the department's red wax seal addressed to Benjamin Moran, Secretary of U.S. Legation in London; James Buchanan at the U.S. Legation (sending compliments of the season "although solitary & secluded myself", January 1856); Devonshire (enclosing "...an extract from a letter written by the clever authoress of a life of Charlotte Brontë [Mrs Gaskell, letter not present]..."; David Livingstone (autograph wrapper addressed to the Earl of Clarendon, signed "Dr Livingstone"); the cut signatures of all the signatories of the Treaty of Paris, 30 March 1856, affixed to a sheet by Lady Lewis in the order in which they signed, three red seals adjacent, with a sheet of "signatures of the attaches who accompanied the special missions at Paris engaged in arranging the peace with Russia after the Crimean War", and accompanying letter from K. Clarendon ("...Here are all the signatures of the Congress in the order in which they signed at last complete – The seals that actually signed the Treaty I could not manage... I have left these three on as they are only pasted..."); Indian silk diplomatic envelope with seal and paper label addressed to the Earl of Clarendon; interspersed with portrait prints, some pages annotated by Lady Lewis but remaining empty, loose index headed 'Distinguished Persons' on blue paper in front, 246 numbered leaves (many blank, some excised), half maroon roan gilt, decorative spine gilt stamped 'Autographs'/ 'Statesmen', worn, 4to (235 x 280mm.), [late eighteenth-century/nineteenth-century]Footnotes'HERE ARE ALL THE SIGNATURES OF THE CONGRESS IN THE ORDER IN WHICH THEY SIGNED': THE SIGNATORIES OF THE TREATY OF PARIS, WITH PITT, COBDEN, WILBERFORCE & LIVINGSTONE.
Lady Maria Theresa Villiers (1803-1865) was the daughter of the Hon George Villiers (1759-1827), courtier and politician and the Hon Theresa Parker (1775-1856), daughter of John Parker, Viscount Boringdon and Earl of Morley, named for Empress Maria Theresa, the godmother of her grandmother Theresa Robinson (1745-1775) who was born in Vienna whilst her father was serving as British Ambassador. Maria Theresa married firstly Thomas Henry Lister (1800-1842), an English novelist and playwright, an early exponent of the 'silver fork novel' genre which portrayed aristocratic life. In contrast to Lister, her second husband, Sir George Cornewall Lewis (1806-1863) was a statesman who held senior positions under Palmerston, including Chancellor of the Exchequer and Home Secretary, and was the editor of the Edinburgh Review. They had no children, so the collection passed to her son from her first marriage Sir Thomas Villiers Lister (1832-1902), and thus by descent in the Lister line.
As well as the political connections made through her husbands, the album additionally reflects the interests of her brothers, also at the centre of political affairs, who provided many of the letters for the collection. George William Frederick Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon (1800-1870) enjoyed a distinguished diplomatic career and served as secretary of state for foreign affairs under Palmerston and Gladstone, during which time he was the lead representative at the Congress of Paris which ended the Crimean War. Handsome and charming, he served as attaché to the British embassy in St Petersburg, spent six years in Spain and actively campaigned to end slavery in the Spanish colonies. Another brother, Charles Pelham Villiers (1802-1898) has the distinction of being the longest serving member of parliament, sitting as an MP for 63 years from 1835-1898. A radical and reformer, he was a prominent member of Anti-Corn law league and the Anti-Slavery movement, worked with Florence Nightingale towards the professionalisation of nursing, and was a campaigner for women's suffrage. Interestingly, out of the 246 numbered leaves, some 50 have been annotated by Lady Lewis in pencil, whether she had these letters in her collection and never stuck them in or was hoping to acquire them is not known.
Provenance: Hon. George Villiers (1759-1827) and the Hon. Theresa Villiers (née Parker) (1775-1856); Lady Maria Theresa Lewis (née Villiers) (1803-1865); her son Sir Thomas Villiers Lister (1832-1902); thence by descent.
Lady Lewis' collection was initially formed through the amalgamation of two significant collections of letters: royal and political correspondence from that of her mother the Hon. Theresa Villiers (1775-1856), and that of her close friend, the writer Mary Berry (1763–1852). Mary Berry's bequest included correspondence from Horace Walpole, most notably his correspondence with Thomas Chatterton and David Hume, hitherto thought lost, and three poems dedicated to her. To this inheritance Lady Lewis subsequently added her own correspondence and collection of autographs gathered through her wide circle of social, political and literary connections entertained at her home, Kent House, St James's. Not seen outside the family until now, the collection is a remarkable survival and tells the story of a family at the heart of English society. An intricate web of connections and alliances is revealed, bringing together the worlds of royalty and politics, the arts and literature. It is also a story of influential women both as collectors and as correspondents: Theresa Villiers as keeper of royal secrets, Mary Berry and her circle of intellectuals, and, importantly, Lady Lewis as collector and salonnière bringing them all together in one extraordinary collection.