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Samuel L. Clemens, Winston Churchill, and More

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:10,000.00 - 15,000.00 USD
Samuel L. Clemens, Winston Churchill, and More

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Auction Date:2018 Dec 05 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Notable pairing of late Victorian grand tour albums from the personal collection of socialite Madeleine Smith Austin Lee, the wife of British diplomat Henry Austin Lee. The two albums, both approximately 9.75 x 12, cover Lee’s extensive touring of England, France, Russia, and Egypt between 1892–1898, and feature a total of 72 leaves that contain well over 500 signatures from notables of the day, with over 300 silver and albumen mounted photographs of lavish estate parties and views, approximately 25 paintings, sketches, or drawings, and several musical notations.

The earlier tour book, with front gilt stamped, “M. A. L. 1892,” is highlighted by fountain pen signatures of Samuel L. Clemens and Winston Churchill on adjacent pages. On the left page, Clemens writes: "This line is written by the 'real' one—but it can't be proven by the testimony of the next witness. Sincerely yours, Mark Twain Apl. 2/94," with Clemens drawing a downward pointing hand. Immediately below, Edith Beaumont playfully identifies herself as "Next Witness," with the lower right boasting a fantastic mounted half-length photo of Clemens cheerfully posing on a balcony.

The right page features a bold fountain pen signature, “Winston S. Churchill,” penned by the future prime minister when he was a 19-year-old cadet in the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst.

Also included is an autograph from famed explorer Henry Morton Stanley with a scare inscription quoting one of his favorite couplets from Tennyson’s 'Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington': "Not once or twice in our fair island-story, / The path of duty was the way to glory." Stanley famously often recited this to his men during the awful trek through the Ituri jungle. The adjacent page also features a photograph including Henry Morton Stanley, businessman Sir William Mackinnon, and explorer George Sutherland Mackenzie.

In addition to the “Twain,” the rare, young Churchill signature, and the Stanley quote, other highlights include: two signed ink and watercolor sketches by Victorian neoclassicist British painter Dorothy Tennant; three signed musical notations by German pianist and composer Jacques Blumenthal; a signed caricature by English illustrator Phil May; a signed prose manuscript by French novelist and 5-time Nobel Prize for Literature nominee Paul Bourget; a poem signed by controversial Irish politician Tim Healy; an autographed musical quotation by composer Alfred Scott-Gatty; and an autograph from Princess Catherine Radziwill.

Other notable signers include: David Bispham, Thomas Cochrane, René Doumic, Élie Halévy, Gerald Strickland, 1st Baron Strickland, Pier Desiderio Pasolini, Constance Wenlock, Arthur Ponsonby, 1st Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede, Dorothea Parry Ponsoby, Alan Johnstone, Marie, Clare Stuart Wortley, Charles Stuart-Wortley, 1st Baron Stuart of Wortley, Edward Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh, Rupert Guinness, 2nd Earl of Iveagh, Albert Spencer-Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, Sir William Mackinnon, 1st Baronet, Captain Herbert Spender-Clay, George William Spencer-Lyttleton, Frederick Milbank, Powlett Milbank, James Lowther, 1st Viscount Ullswater, Henry Anson Cavendish, 4th Baron Waterpark, George Venables-Veron, 7th Baron Vernon, Walter Beaupré Townley, Louis de Gramont, Augusta Hervey, Albert von Mensdorff-Pouilly-Dietrichstein, Arnold Morley, Robert Douglas Norton, Mathilde Hannah von Rothschild, Lucy Graham Smith, and many more. In overall fine condition.