Autograph (?) letter to a con man about a portrait, 1845

Sir Willoughby GORDON Bt

About this Item

Third-person letter, presumed to be in the author's hand, to Thomas Collins, a con man: 1p. 4to, Niton, 29 October 1845. "Sir Willoughby Gordon presents his Compliments to Mr Collins, and in reply to his very obliging communication (without date) expressive of his desire to introduce Sir Willoughby's Portrait in a Work dedicated to the Members of the Carlton Club, takes leave with many thanks for the kind intention, to decline that honor . . ." This innocent, and handsomely penned, third-person letter conceals a strange, even sensational story. In July August 1852 Thomas Collins, "a man 60 years of age", reported The Times, appeared in court in London charged with "fraudulently obtaining an immense number of portraits of the nobility and gentry". His practice was to solicit the loan of a portrait that a copy might be engraved for inclusion in a projected publication, Portraits of Conservative Statesmen (or, if the subject was of the other sex, The Female Aristocracy of the Reign of Queen Victoria). The pictures were then pawned. The Earl of Desart was the first to give evidence against him - other grandees (or their butlers) followed. James Willoughby Gordon (1772-1851), of Niton, Isle of Wight, was a career army officer who served as Quartermaster-General to the Forces, 1811-51; he was created a baronet in 1818. An informal chalk, graphite and watercolour sketch of him by David Wilkie is in the Tate collection (a pen-and-ink variant of the same was sold by Bonhams in 2003). Seller Inventory # TM00030

Bibliographic Details

Title: Autograph (?) letter to a con man about a ...

Binding: No Binding

Condition: Very Good

Signed: Inscribed by Author(s)