212

King George III

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:1,500.00 - 2,000.00 USD
King George III

Bidding Over

The auction is over for this lot.
The auctioneer wasn't accepting online bids for this lot.

Contact the auctioneer for information on the auction results.

Search for other lots to bid on...
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
ALS signed “George R,” one page both sides, 7.25 x 9.5, May 4, 1783. With great melancholy, King George III writes about the death of his favorite son, Prince Octavius, who had passed away two days earlier at the tender age of four. In part: "Lord Aylesbury is I trust much convinced of my regard for Him as well as of my humanity to attribute my silence on the Severe blow he has sustained to any other cause but a wish of letting his own good leave calm his sorrow before I expressed any sentiments on so distressing an Occasion…the Sad event that has befallen me and to which I had but little preparation makes me perhaps more able to set before his Eyes the light in which I see the loss of a darling Child who I vainly hoped would have been a prop in my Old Age if I should last till then, and at least who would have filled the Melancholy last Offices I am now performing for Him; I owne the wound is deep for I did not only love him with the tenderness of a Father for his Child, for that Dear Infant seemed to have no joy equal to being with Me and with a delicacy above his Years felt my Affection; but I feel it is my Duty to bear with Submission the Decrees of Heaven to the All Wise Director and Creator & I bend my thoughts and turn to Religion as the only balm for what I feel; the Queen I thank Heaven is well as I can expect…I owne that it is to me so natural an idea that every spot where I have ever seen my lost Child I shall love as it will bring to remembrance what gave me infinite pleasure and what the thinking of thought it may at the moment make me melancholy must be accompanied with at least the pleasing thought that for above four years I possessed that blessing." In very good condition, with a few fold splits, and old tape surrounding the signature where, evidently, it had once been cut off and later reattached.

King George III was already mourning the loss of his two-year-old son Prince Alfred, who had died of smallpox in August 1782. Eight months later, the death of Prince Octavius—also from smallpox—came as a devastating blow. King George's later bouts of madness would involve hallucinatory conversations with both of his youngest sons.