Duties Servants, Signed (3 results)

2pp, folio. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded twice. Excellent bold signature by the king ('George R.') in the customary position at the head of the first page. Signed at the end of the document by three of the six Lords Commissioners of the Treasury: 'B Paget | G C H Somerset | E A McNaghten'. Embossed tax stamp in left-hand margin of first page, together with remains of red wafer. Twenty-seven line document, written in a secretarial hand, and addressed 'To the Husband for taking up all Goods consigned from Barbadoes and the Leward Islands on Account of the Duties of 4 1/2 per Cent'. Order in another hand at foot of second page: 'Andrew Dickie Esqr. £54 . 10 . 0 Pensions to the late Servants of the Royal Dukes'. (Dickie was a confidential clerk and later partner in the banking firm of Messrs Coutts and Co., which handled the king's Privy Purse accounts.) The warrant states that the money is 'To enable him to pay one quarter allowance ended 5th July 1825 to the late Servants of our Dearly Beloved Brother Wm. Henry Duke of Clarence, Our late Dearly Beloved Brother Edward Duke of Kent and our Dearly Beloved Brothers Ernest Duke of Cumberland Frederick Augustus Duke of Sussex and Frederick Adolphus Duke of Cambridge'. From the distinguished autograph collection of the psychiatrist Richard Alfred Hunter (1923-1981), whose collection of 7000 works relating to psychiatry is now in Cambridge University Library. Hunter and his mother Ida Macalpine had a particular interest in the illness of King George III, and their book 'George III and the Mad Business' (1969) suggested the diagnosis of porphyria popularised by Alan Bennett in his play 'The Madness of George III'.

Full Calf. Condition: Good. Second Edition. Two volumes in one - [4], xvii, [1], vii, [1], 411pp, [1]; [4], vii [actually v], [1], 523pp, [1]. Contemporary full calf, raised bands, spine in six panels, second panel with green morocco title label, remaining panels with red morocco labels and differing central devices, first panel with an 'all seeing eye', third with volume numbers, fourth with a cross, fifth with a winged hour-glass device and sixth with a flower. Covers with a rope rolled border, large flower corner pieces with the same central winged hour-glass device surrounded by the motto on the upper cover, 'Let Every Virtue Shine and Every Bliss Be Thine', which is in turn surrounded by a circle made up of stars, with the lower cover continuing 'Humility and Peace Thy Name Shall Ever Grace' again with the surrounding circle, spot patterned marbled endpapers. Joints split but holding, small chip with loss to rear joint, corners bumped and rubbed, chip to head of spine with small amount of loss, covers slightly stained and lightly rubbed. Internally some light foxing / browning, corner excised from N4 in the second volume, but generally clean. Engraved frontispieces by J. Hall after E. Edwards. Presentation copy from Hanway to Ann Elizabeth Minster, with note to reverse of front marbled endpaper. Presentation copy in a presentation binding by Hanway's second binder (cf. Hobson), this copy is the same as the one in Maggs' Bookbinding in the British Isles (Catalogue 1212 - 1996 - [153]), where they note "Hanway used this style of binding, in calf with red goatskin or sheep skin spines, quite extensively, but they seldom come on the market". Other Hanway bindings are described in Nixon's 'Five Centuries of English Bookbindings' No. 78, and Maggs have had another binding inscribed to the same lady as here, in Maggs 1075 Part II, No. 182 Size: 4to. Presentation Copy from the Author.

Single sheet, 365 x 220 mm. This item may have at some time been mounted and will bear traces on the reverse of adhesive or removal of mounts. A rare commission for a surveyor of taxes, signed by [Lord] Aberdeen, Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury.