Several letters by Edward Lear were auctioned last September at Forum Auctions. I would be interested in knowing where they ended up, especially the two containing nonsense and pictures.
One from 1848 to Charles Church on their travels in Greece and Albania:
Lot 435
Letters.- Lear (Edward)Autograph Letter to Charles Church, 3pp., folio, Preveza, 10th November 1848, to his travelling companion in Albania and Greece, sketches, monasteries, his servant Giorgio etc.; and a shaken and worn copy of Lear’s “Journal of a Landscape painter in Albania & Illyria”, 20 lithographed plates, foxed and browned, 1851, folio & 8vo (2).
Lear (Edward, landscape painter and writer, 1812-88) Long Autograph Letter signed to Charles Church, 3pp., folio, Prévyza [Preveza, Greece], 10th November 1848, to his travelling companion in Albania and Greece, “O you vagabond… you been arunning about Mashydonia & Epirus, & I not able to catch you? However I hope still to find you obligd to come into Quarantine before I get out of it [in Santa Maura]”, reminding him of their plan to travel independently, “I long to see what sketches you have made. As for me – I have got 219 – bad & good… I could not hold a pencil for cold when at Janina [Ioannina]”, and monasteries in Albania/Greece and elsewhere he has visited, “Resnè [Resen], Ochrida (charming), Tiranna, Scutari, asking Church if he can travel to Egypt and Sinai and his servant Giorgio Kokali [Lear’s servant for twenty-five years, d. August 1883], “I have been most fortunate in my man Giorgio… had no fault to find with him in 2 months, his health, money etc.,folds, slightly creased and browned; and a copy of Lear’s Journal of a landscape Painter in Albania and Illyria, 20 tinted lithographed plates, foxed and browned, contents shaken and working loose, original blind-stamped cloth, edges rubbed, corners bumped, gilt spine, chipped at head with loss, 1851, folio & 8vo (2).
⁂ A fine letter chronicling Lear’s travels in Albania and Greece with his friend Charles Church.
There is “luxury and inconvenience on the one hand, liberty, hard living and filth on the other.” – Edward Lear on Albania.
Lot 436
Lear (Edward), Autograph Letter third person to Mrs Bond, 1p., sm. 8vo, 65 Oxford Terrace, Hyde park, [1859], thanking her for a letter and postal order order for 8 shillings and telling her that “the set of songs was sent yesterday…”, written on verso of the advert for “Songs and Poemsby Alfred Tennyson set to music…”, folds, slightly creased and browned; and 2 others, comprising another ALs by Lear, torn and repaired with tape, 1881, and a cut signature of Lear, v.s., v.d. (3).
Lear (Edward, landscape painter and writer, 1812-88) Autograph Letter third person to Mrs Bond, 1p., sm. 8vo, 65 Oxford Terrace, Hyde Park, [1859], thanking her for a letter and postal order for 8 shillings, telling her that “the set of songs was sent yesterday…”, but that he wishes he had kept them until he heard from her as he is worried about their safe arrival, written on verso of the advert for Poem and Songs by Alfred Tennyson…, small hole along folds, slightly creased and browned; and 2 others, comprising another ALs by Lear,torn and repaired with tape, 1881, and a cut signature of Lear’s, v.s., v.d. (3 pieces).
Lot 437
Letters.- Lear (Edward)2 part Autograph Letters to lady Wyatt, 4pp., 8vo, Southwold, 8th September 1869, & n.p., n.d., 2 parts of Nonsense Letters with 2 small pen and ink drawings, folds, some slight marking and browning.
Lear (Edward, landscape painter and writer, 1812-88) 2 part Autograph Letters to Lady Wyatt, 4pp., 8vo, Southwold, 8th September 1869 & n.p. & n.d., 2 parts of “Nonsense” letters with 2 small pen and ink drawings, “All at once the 183 little dogs by a Nimpulse, swam across the swollen flood, warbling in chorus the beautiful words of the poet, ‘Flow down cold revulet to the sea’ – &c &c, – till on reaching the 74 calves they seized their noses, ears, & tails, and… dragged the whole party to the shingly banks of the shore opposite where their almost despairing parients, cowed by their recent affliction and bullied by the impendious oxident which had occurred, were heiferlastingly stamping in the melancholy mud”, tipped-in on card mounts, folds, some slight marking and browning.
⁂ Mary Wyatt (d. 1894), daughter of Iltyd Nicholl of Ham, Glamorgan, wife of Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt (1820-1877), architect and writer on art. Secretary to the executive committee of the Great Exhibition in 1851 and later, first Slade Professor of Fine Arts in Cambridge.
Lot 438
Letters.- Lear (Edward)Autograph letter to Lady Wyatt, together 7pp., 8vo, Pervillium Otel [Pavilion Hotel], Phoaxtn [Folkestone], 9th December 1869 & Maison Guichard, Cannes, 15th January 1870, referring to subscriptions for one of his books, asking her if she has received a copy of the book he has sent her [Journal of a Landscape Painter in Corsica], small pen and ink drawing of a dog and a pig facing each other, last f. margin torn torn and crudely repaired with tape slightly affecting a few letters, folds, aslightly browned (2).
Lear (Edward, landscape painter and writer, 1812-88) 2 Autograph Letters signed to Lady Wyatt, together 7pp., 8vo, Pervillium Otel [Pavilion Hotel], Phoaxtn [Folkestone], 9th December 1869 & Maison Guichârd, Cannes, 15th January 1870, referring to subscriptions for one of his books, “all who see the book seem delighted with it, & really hope it may be a success… I shall now write for 23 months to produce a work wh. will certainly give gt pleasure & instruction to a heap of people”, asking her if “you have got my book & how you like it” [?Journal of a Landscape Painter in Corsica], reporting on his work, “I am hard at work on 2 5 feet pictures of Bavella & Valdoniello. No drawings sold, nor likely to be: nobody of the faintest taste at Cannes: Belgravia idlers – who make calls & go church daily”, and a domestic disaster, “Took in all my winter stock of wine: shelves bust – 80 bottles simultaneously squashed”, and with a small pen and ink drawing of a dog and a pig facing each other, last f. margin torn and crudely repaired with tape slightly affecting a few letters, folds, slightly browned (2).
Lot 439
Letters.- Lear (Edward), 2 Autograph Letters (1letter part only) to Lady Wyatt, not signed, 1874, 6pp., 8vo, Bengal, 24th January & 9th June 1874, from India, with some “Nonsense”, Matthew Digtby Wyatt’s health and travelling in India, folds; and a cut signature of Matthew Digby Wyatt, 8vo (3).
Lear (Edward, landscape painter and writer, 1812-88) 2 Autograph Letters (1 letter part only) to Lady Wyatt, not signed, 6pp., 8vo, Bengal, 24th January & 9th June 1874, from India, with some “Nonsense”, “No, I never rode on a Nelephant, & never intend to if I can avoid it – their trunkx frighten me so horridly”, the health of Matthew Digby Wyatt, “A day or two back I saw in an English paper that Digby had resigned his place as architect to the India House: – I hope this is from no increase of ill health, but merely a precautionary step towards avoiding overwork”, and a description of his travels, “Lucknow is always cold in the winter – abominably so… I went for 10 days walk to Narkanda near Thibet, but the vallies were too enormous & Swiss to please me, – the depths of pine too monstrous:- moreover the paths were simply terrible”, folds, slightly browned; and a cut signature of Matthew Digby Wyatt, v.s., v.d. (3).
The whole catalogue for the auction: Fine Books and Works on Paper, London 22 September 2016, is available for download in pdf format.
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