List Seven, Signed (2 results)

GUADELOUPE. The Caribbean island of Guadeloupe is a French overseas department.DS. 2 pg. 6 x 8. February 16, 1759. Guadeloupe. A document signed Geo. Highton Lieu in the 68th Regiment of Foot. The document is signaling the Return of the Men at Work of the 63: Regt Commanded by Colo Watson. The front of the document provides a list of the soldiers involved in the work party. They are organized by their company. A bill for their work is listed on the front: three shillings for the one officer (most likely Watson), two shillings for the lieutenant, one shilling and six pence for one corporal, two shillings for one mason, and two pounds and one shilling cumulative for 41 privates. The back of the document indicates that Highton is ordering a paymaster, John Barnes Esq, to pay the above bill by me. David Watson was a Scottish officer and military engineer in the British Army tasked with the colonelcy of the 63rd Regiment of Foot. This regiment took part in the successful invasion and seizure of French Guadeloupe in the West Indies in 1759. Guadeloupe was so economically important to the French that they willingly traded French Canada to the British in the Treaty of Paris in order to reacquire it. This document was written just weeks into the invasion, and so it is likely that some of the men listed on this document were among the nearly 800 British that died on the island that year. Known examples listed who were later KIA include Lieutenant-Colonel P. Debrisay, Major John Trollop, and Lieutenant George Highton himself, who died of disease. The document is in fine condition with some folds.

Letter. This 7 September 1925 autograph letter from T. E. Lawrence "of Arabia" to John G. Wilson, "the most famous English bookseller of his time", a critical supporter of the legendary 1926 Subscriber's edition of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, and one of the select few to receive a complimentary copy from Lawrence. The letter is noteworthy not only for the association, but for timing and content, as Lawrence was struggling to fill subscriptions for his magnum opus."your free copy shall be distinguished somehow beyond the ordinary copies I owe you the very greatest thanks for your help"The letter is addressed and dated at the top right of the first panel "338171 AC II Shaw | Hut 105 | R.A.F. Cadet College | Cranwell | Lincs. | 7. IX. 25". Following Lawrence's salutation "Dear Wilson" the letter reads: "My "sample" has only choked off one subscriber, to date. It can't be helped. I see you have put yourself down for a paying copy. But you must also lend me your bibliophilic experience so that your free copy shall be distinguished somehow beyond the ordinary copies. We can write in it, or add or subtract something, to make it quite peculiar. I owe you the very greatest thanks for your help when I was low in the list. One of your subscribers puzzles me. I have bookedF. R. Richmond Esq.8A Kensington Palace GardensLondon W. 8. and alsoF. R. Richmond Esq.Holm FoundryCathcartGlasgow.Are these two men, or one? There were two Richmonds, you told me: but surely not to F. R.'s. That seems almost incredible. Lord Bute didn't get a copy: because Lady Bute is giving him one:"Following his valediction "yours sincerely" and signature "T E Shaw." there is a postscript: "My move to the Air Force has broken the thread of my proof-correcting, & thrown me back."Condition The letter is written in black ink on a single sheet of laid, watermarked ("ORIGINAL BLACKFRIARS MILL") paper measuring 8.875 x 6.9375 inches, folded once to form four 4.375 x 6.9375 inches panels. Lawrence wrote on the first and third of these panels. Condition is very good. The paper is complete, with no loss, tears, or appreciable wear other than an additional horizontal fold from original posting. The paper shows light overall soiling to the first and fourth (outer) panels and perhaps a faint hint of spotting to the lower front panel. Lawrence's ink remains clear and unfaded. The letter is protected within a clear, removable, archival sleeve housed within a rigid crimson cloth folder."Lawrence of Arabia"During the First World War, Thomas Edward "T. E." Lawrence (1888-1935) experienced a transformative odyssey as instigator, organizer, hero, and tragic figure of the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire, which he began as an eccentric junior intelligence officer and ended as "Lawrence of Arabia". He spent the rest of his famously short life struggling to variously reconcile, reject, share, and repress this indelible experience, which was eventually recounted in his magnum opus, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Hiding and writing in the R.A.F.As part of his effort to evade his celebrity, in August 1922 Lawrence enlisted in the Royal Air Force first under the name "John Hume Ross" and, later, "Thomas Edward Shaw" a name he used until his death. Hence, from that time forward, he seldom signed with his original surname. By December 1922, Lawrence had, with a close circle of friends, "decided to produce 100 copies of the Seven Pillars, at thirty guineas a copy, if so many subscribers can be found." So September 1925 found Lawrence officially Aircraftsman Shaw, residing in "Hut 105" of the R. A. F. Cadet College at Cranwell trying to both duck and recount the events that had made him so uncomfortably famous. By the time Lawrence wrote this letter to Wilson in 9 September 1925, he was well into the elaborate preparation of, and corresponding expenses for, his famous Subscriber's edition of Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Subscribers were fewer than had been hoped and Wilson was to prove of material help.