Autograph Album Featuring Great and Good of Victorian Society Sold for £26,000

A descendent of Edward Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby and former UK Prime Minister, consigned an autograph album to Chiswick Auctions which has been bought for £26,000 by a private collector based overseas.

The vendors were the great-great-grandchildren of the Lord Stanley, to date the longest-serving leader of the Conservative party who spent three terms in 10 Downing Street in 1852, 1858-59 and finally from 1866-68.

The family are descended from Lord Stanley’s only daughter, Lady Emma Stanley, who was disinherited when she turned down her father’s choice for a husband and instead married his private secretary, Patrick Talbot. One of the few family possessions Lady Emma retained was this autograph collection. It was later augmented by Lady Alice Stanley, wife of the 17th Earl of Derby and lady in waiting to Queen Alexandra, wife of Edward VII.  

Connections to high society made for an exemplary collection. It comprises letters to and from the great and the good of Victorian society including members of the British royal family, European royalty, British, European and American politicians, authors and celebrities. The autographs range from clipped signatures and brief notes accepting or declining a dinner invitation to much more personal or revealing correspondence.

Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederate States from 1861-65, contributes a long letter to a Reverend Arthur Talbot, written on September 19, 1868 – a year after he had moved to Quebec after two years in a prison in Richmond, Virginia. “In our last interview you asked me whether I thought the independence of the clergy in the matter of reproving sin would be diminished by dependence on their congregations for support. My reply was complete from the standpoint at which I have been accustomed to seeing the subject; but in connection with the discussions now prevalent in this country, I might have properly added that from ‘disestablishment’ I should fear little for the Church but much for the Government of England”.

Two letters from Queen Victoria include one dated August 4, 1873, in which she personally thanks Lady Stanley “for your writing to me on the occasion of my son Alfred’s engagement to the Grand duchess Maria of Russia”. She adds: “All I hear of the young lady is most favourable and I have therefore every reason to hope that the marriage will be happy one”.

Prince Albert wrote on April 18, 1843: “I have received your letter and beg you will not delay going out of town. As it is, the Queen is very much distressed that people in office should on her account be prevented from taking advantage of the only holidays they have”.

A note from the Irish republican and Home Rule advocate Michael Davitt dated September 7, 1892, references media coverage of the General Election in July when, after elected as the MP for North Meath, the result was overturned on petition because he had been supported by the Roman Catholic hierarchy. He says: “The Daily Independent…has told its readers that the sketch of me which precedes the article in the Revue was written by myself! The Tory papers have copied this as they are endeavouring to make merry at my expense over this malicious act of the Independent!” 

In an autograph letter written in Italian from Caprera on March 25, 1860 before the Italian Unification, Giuseppe Garibaldi says he will soon leave for Nizza and asks the recipient to inform the English he won’t allow them to take control of his country.