Chapter IX: Autographs of Music, the Drama, and Art

=Illustrated letters=

We pry
In the dark archives and tenacious scrolls
Of written thought.--HARTLEY COLERIDGE.

On December 17, 1907, four-and-twenty letters of Ludwig van Beethoven were sold at Sotheby's for £660, notwithstanding the fact that the autographs of musicians, artists, and actors, are not even mentioned by the chronicler of prices in 1827! For the solitary letter of Beethoven in my collection I paid M. Noël Charavay £10, and it was at the same outlay I acquired in England an interesting letter of Joseph Haydn's. In extra-illustrating the "History of the Festivals of the Three Choirs," of which my ancestor, William Hayes, Mus. Doc. (1707-1777), was one of the founders and subsequently a conductor, I acquired considerable experience in the market prices of all sorts of musical MSS.

In this particular class of autographs "album specimens" have often considerable value, for musicians have always been the target of the autograph-hunter, especially so of those of the fair sex.[58] It is no uncommon sight after a "star" concert to see the tired-out central attraction in a state of autograph siege, either for inscriptions in albums or signatures to photographs. The plaintive autograph letter of Franz Liszt tells the tale of the request made on behalf of the owner of a Royal Album to the exigencies of which he gracefully surrendered. A few bars of music written and signed by Handel would now be worth quite £20 or £25; and some day the musical autographs of Edward Elgar will fetch very high prices. William and Philip Hayes rank in the first class of English composers of Church music, although the father was overshadowed by his loyal friendship for Handel, and the latter by his admiration for Haydn. I have acquired (with one or two trifling exceptions) the MSS. of their compositions, several of which have never been published. Like most musicians, the Hayeses were humourists. They wrote anthems and chants, but they won fame in their generation by catches, canons, glees, madrigals, and fugitive pieces of all sorts. The tuneful airs of Philip Hayes [1738-1797] re-echoed amidst the glades of Blenheim, and were often heard at Ranelagh, Vauxhall, and "Marybone."[59] Musical autographs have risen considerably in price during the past thirty years, as shown at the comparatively recent Taphouse Sale. A very fine letter of Chopin's was offered for sale at 250 francs last year by Madame Veuve Gabriel Charavay. Letters of Mendelssohn and Wagner are in great request. The former vary in price from £3 to £10. Although Richard Wagner was a prolific letter-writer, any letter of his is worth £5 or thereabouts, and many have sold at from £20 to £50. I have never seen an A.L.S. of Handel's in the sale-rooms. A good one will probably fetch £50. A fragment of one of his compositions, once in the possession of William Hayes, lately realised £100. Much of his music seems to have been written out by Smart.

In 1876 Mr. Waller offered a letter of Beethoven's for sale at £3 10s.; one by Dr. Blow for £1 and 2 pp. of one of William Boyce's compositions for 7s. 6d.! The latter would certainly fetch 40s. to-day, but thirty years ago autographs of Catalani, Bishop, Cooke, Holmes, Hummel, Michael Kelly, Lablache, Loder, Meyerbeer, Offenbach, Louisa Pyne, Rossini, Rudersdorff, Tamburini, and Samuel Wesley averaged about 3s.! I lately gave £3 3s. for the signed MS. of Wesley's "Ode on the Death of Boyce," the bicentenary of whose birth occurs this year (1910), in which also the centenary of the birth of Wesley's musical son, Samuel Sebastian Wesley, might appropriately be celebrated at Gloucester. Amongst Mr. Frank Sabin's autographic _rariora_ is the MS. of the original score of Thomas Moore's "Last Rose of Summer." There is a great demand in America just now for Moore MSS. of this sort, although ordinary letters rarely fetch high prices. Charles Burney's letters (of which I have many) are to my mind always interesting, although they only bring from 15s. to 30s. in the sale-rooms.

For some collectors the Drama offers a peculiar fascination. I have already described the letter of William Wilson of the "Fortune" Theatre, with whom Shakespeare possibly played.[60] The great dramatist himself, from the autograph point of view, has been alluded to. In turning over the catalogues of 1876-86 one is struck with the high prices of letters of David Garrick and Sarah Siddons. Garrick rarely wrote a dull letter. When Paul Sandby asked for a box he replied--

I will maintain Good Master Sandby
And with my blood, the Fact will stand by,
The trifle ask'd is no great favour,
And you and your's are wellcome ever

D GARRICK

Here are some examples of Garrick's letters to Mrs. Montagu not generally known:--

_Mr. Garrick to Mrs. Montagu._

DRURY LANE THEATRE.

DEAR MADAM,--I take up ye first piece of paper to answer
your note. I feel for you and for poor amiable Miss Gregory
from my heart of hearts! These exquisite feelings are too
often tortured not to wish them changed for the less sensible
dispositions and were mortal matters balanc'd and calmly
considered it would be a question whether Mrs. Montagu is more
to be envied than a late female cousin of mine who being told
of a favourite Brother's death said she foresaw it long ago
for he would not leave drinking Punch and then she bespoke her
mourning. I shall take care that you have your refusal of a box
next Friday if I am able to perform. If you should be engaged
pray let it revert to me. I must desire you not to say a word
to anybody of my intentions....

Mrs. Garrick and I shall do ourselves the honour of attending
you on Sunday.

Most faithful ever and ever Yours,
D. GARRICK.

_David Garrick to Mrs. Montagu._

MY DEAR MADAM,--We are unfortunately engaged on Sunday next but
if we are able to quit our Company, may we be permitted to pay
our respects to you? If you should be engaged we will wait upon
you ye first opportunity. I have made bold to answer for you a
subscription to Mr. Capel's School of Shakespeare. I will tell
you more of this when I have the honour and pleasure of seeing
you.

I am most devotedly yours,
D. GARRICK.

I have in my collection a Drury Lane box-ticket dated and signed by Mrs. Garrick a few days before her death. In the last decade of the nineteenth century the late Mr. Thomas Knox Holmes told me he had danced with Mrs. Garrick in her drawing-room at the Adelphi when she was past ninety. She was actually engaged in inspecting her dress for the theatre when Death once more "eclipsed the gaiety" of the brilliant little côterie in which Garrick's widow moved.

The letters of Sarah Siddons fetched quite as much or even more in the "eighteen-seventies" than they do now. As a matter of fact, the charming letter to Mrs. Piozzi, now reproduced, exchanged hands in 1876 at £2 2s. more than I gave for it in 1910.

_Mrs. Siddons to Mrs. Piozzi, Westbourne Farm, Paddington, January 29, 1809._

MY DEAR FRIEND,--I am merely anxious to know how you and
Mr. Piozzi are, and the distance between me and your fair
daughters, are now so great that I get no accounts of you.
You know of old, my distaste of writing, and I know full well
my inability of amusing you, so that my letter has nothing to
recommend it, except the true love of the writer, which knows
no change. Often, very often, do I think of you, and most
sincerely do I lament your suffering, but there is nowhere but
heaven I believe that is exempt from affliction; but dear Soul
let me hear from you. You have heard of the fire in which I
lost every stage ornament so many years collecting, and at so
great expense of time and money. All my Jewels, all my lace,
and in short nothing left. The Duke of Northumberland has given
my Brother Ten thousand pounds! and the manner of bestowing
this noble gift was so great as anything I have ever heard or
read of,

"The lucky have whole years and those they choose
Th' unlucky have but hours and those they lose"

but poor fellow he is I fear in a wretched state of health,
yet he looked the other night in Macbeth as beautiful as ever;
he is never now without his cough, which they say is gouty
(certainly the disorder is flying about him) and if it would
come to a good fit that he woud be well. It seems a strange
thing to say that a man recovers his health by the loss of his
limbs. So thinks poor Mr. Piozzi I suppose, poor dear Soul, how
he has suffered from it! and _you_! You will perhaps scarcely
believe how often and how tenderly I think of you, and how
deeply I regret the distance between us, but it is nevertheless
true. Pray dear Soul let me hear from you very soon and tell
me truly how your health and spirits hold out the incessant
claims upon them. I have got Cecilia home from school, she is
very well at present, but to keep her well she must have sea
bathing in the summer. Is there any place of that sort near
Brynn Bella? if so, I shoud hope I might be able to see you
sometimes. I have got a genteel well principled young woman as
a Governess for her, and my family which would consist of seven
or eight persons would perhaps be too large to be accommodated
very near you. Oh that you were again at Streatham! Remember
me very kindly to dear Mr Piozzi. God bless and support you my
very dear friend. I am unalterably

Your affte
S. SIDDONS[61]

I lost in the fire a Toilette of the poor Queen of France, a
piece of beautiful point Lace an ell wide and five yards long
which having belonged to so interesting a person of course I
regret more than all other things. It could not have cost at
first less than a thousand pounds. I us'd to wear it _only_ in
the trial scene of Hermione in the Winters Tale, it covered me
all over from head to foot. I suppose my losses could not be
repaired for Twelve hundred pounds, but God be praised that the
fire did not break out while the people were in the house!!!

Fine letters from Mrs. Siddons fetch from £10 to £20. A specimen may be obtained for £5 or even less, for I note an invitation "to dine at pretty Westbourne" has just been sold (February 28, 1910) for £2 14s. The letters of the brother of the great actress, J. P. Kemble, sell at from £1 to £3 each. He evidently (according to one of the specimens in my collection) moved in very high circles. This letter is addressed to Sir Thomas Lawrence, whose fatal relations with the Siddons family circle have already been alluded to:--

MY DEAR LAWRENCE,--I am this moment come from Carlton House. I
did not myself see the Prince of Wales; but His Royal Highness
desired Mr. McMahon to tell me how highly pleased he is with
the Drawing; but would submit to your consideration whether
or not the forehead is a little too round and in obedience to
His Royal Highness I do submit it to your consideration. The
Prince, my dear Lawrence, is charmed with the Portrait. Mr.
Smirke writes to-night to the Engraver at Birmingham

Yours,
J. P. KEMBLE

Friday, _October 28, 1808_.

The most curious letters of that mysterious personage the Chevalier d'Éon in my collection relate to two public exhibitions of his skill as a fencer, given in Bath during the year 1796. While staying in his native Tonnerre the _ex-chargé d'affaires_ gave a supper in honour of Prince Henry of Prussia. In a bundle of his MSS. I bought in France I found the bill for the historic feast. It was not expensive, and must surely have been enjoyed _tête-à-tête_.

The letters of artists do not as a rule command large prices, but there are many exceptions. I have never seen a letter from Sir A. Vandyke or Sir P. Lely, but Mr. W. V. Daniell prices the following letter of William Hogarth to his wife in Dorset at £35:--

_LONDON, June 6 1749_

DEAR JENNY,--I write to you now, not because I think you may
expect it only, but because I find a pleasure in it, which is
more than I can say of writing to any body else, and I insist
on it you don't take it for a mere complement; your last letter
pleased more than I'll say, but this I will own if the postman
should knock at the door in a week's time after the receipt of
this, I shall think there is more musick in't than the beat of
a kettle drum, and if the words to the tune are made by you
(to carry on metafor) and brings news of your all coming soon
to Town, I shall think the words much better than the musick,
but don't hasten out of a scene of pleasure to make me one.
You'll find by the enclosed that I shall be glad to be a small
contributer to it. I don't know whether or no you know that
Garrick was going to be married to the Violetta when you went
away. I supt with him last night and had a deal of talk about
her. I can't write any more than what this side will contain;
you know I won't turn over a new leaf I am so obstinate, but
then I am no less obstinate in loving you

Your affectionate Husband,
WM. HOGARTH.

Letters of Sir Joshua Reynolds, George Romney, and George Morland always fetch from £3 to £10 or more. I gave £7 7s. for the letter of Reynolds to Crabbe, covering Dr. Johnson's criticism of the poem submitted to him. The examples of Romney and Morland I possess are placed behind the frontispieces of standard works on their Art. The letter of poor Morland is melancholy reading, and suggestive of the squalor in which he moved and died:--

_George Morland to Mr. Graham._

DEAR GRAHAM,--I am worse than ever. Had an opium pill to take
last night, and as I thought two must do me more good than one,
I took them both. I expected it was _up_.

However I am not quite so bad, but I will use my best endeavour
to get on for you this week the whole of which I must keep
quiet.

Good bie,
G. MORLAND.

Wednesday
_On other side_--
John Graham Esqre
30 Red Lion Square London
_Postmark--May 6 1801_

In May, 1810, George Cruikshank, born in 1792, was in the thick of the fight which the caricaturists waged against Napoleon. It was seventy years later than the date of Morland's grotesque scrawl that there appeared in _The Times_ (December 30, 1871) a letter from "Glorious George" claiming to be the originator of the idea of "Oliver Twist." On the following day Charles Manby, a mutual friend of the writer and the artist, thus writes to the latter:--

60 WESTBOURNE TERRACE HYDE PARK
_December 30 1871_

MY DEAR OLD FRIEND,--I see with pleasure that, as I expected
you have in the "Times" of this day vindicated your claim to
originating the story of "Oliver Twist," which I have a notion
you told me of a long time ago. I am persuaded that Dickens
himself, would, with his inherent love of truth, have confirmed
your statement, and it is a pity that his historian should
have written vehemently on the subject. Be prepared with your
Sketches, etc. to maintain the position which will be hotly
contested, although in reality there is so much positive merit
in all that Dickens originated and did, that there is not
any necessity for laying claim to the works of others,--his
collaborateurs. I should much like someday to see the sketches
in question--that is if there is not any indiscretion in the
request. I will ask you to allow me to call upon you and look
over them.

With every good wish for the New Year believe me

Your's very sincerely
CHARLES MANBY

Lt Col: Cruikshank.

On January 2, 1872, Cruikshank replies as follows:--

263 HAMPSTEAD ROAD N W

MY DEAR OLD FRIEND,--It is so long since I illustrated "Oliver
Twist," that I do not at present know where the original
sketches are, but will look over the bundles of papers for them
and when found will let you know, and shall be highly pleased
if you will visit my studio and take a peep at them, although
some are so rough that they are hardly worth looking at,
having been done in such haste. The sketches that Dr. Sheldon
Mackenzie alludes to of "The Life of a London Thief" were made
about 50 years back, when Charles Dickens was a little boy, and
it is a chance if I ever see these sketches again, but I have a
list of the subjects which I will show you.

Wishing you and your's a happy New Year and many of them,

I am, Dear Friend, Your's truly
GEORGE CRUIKSHANK.

Charles Manby Esqre CE etc.

I often wonder that some zealous collector does not confine his attention solely to letters illustrated by the writers. I have already mentioned the achievements in this connection of Thackeray[62] and Sir Frank Lockwood. I have come across illustrated letters in the correspondence of Sir Joshua Reynolds and Mrs. Piozzi; Mrs. Norton embellished her letters with admirable sketches of a humorous character, and so did John Leech, Hablot K. Browne, Frederick Barnard, and, of course, George Cruikshank. In my three grangerised volumes relating to the history of _Punch_ are letters illustrated by Sir Francis Burnand (who delighted his friends with this kind of _jeu d'esprit_ before he left Cambridge), Mr. G. A. Sala, Mr. Linley Sambourne, Mr. H. Furniss, Mr. Phil May, and Mr. E. T. Reed. One of the most curious illustrated letters in my possession is a rough sketch of a projected bath at Windsor, made by King George III. for the benefit of Wyatt, the architect. Napoleon often added sketch-plans of battles and movements of troops to his letters, and Louis Philippe was fond of making quaint drawings, which are sometimes to be found even on the official documents which passed through his hands. It was from a rough sketch in a letter of Mr. Cobden, now in possession of Mr. T. Fisher Unwin, that we find the genesis of the idea of the "big" and "little loaf," which has achieved something very like political immortality.

(By courtesy of Mr. William Darby, Edgbaston.)]

FOOTNOTES:

[58] A fan covered with the drawings, signatures, and handwriting of modern artists and musicians was sold at Sotheby's on May 4, 1910, for £101.

[59] A great deal of interesting information on this head will be found in Dr. Mee's "History of the Oldest Music Room in Europe," which will shortly be published by Mr. John Lane.

[60] See _ante_, Chapter IV., p. 109, and Chapter VII., p. 196.

[61] For another exceptionally fine letter of Mrs. Siddons to Mrs. Piozzi see "Dr. Johnson and Mrs. Thrale," Chapter III., p. 148.

[62] See _ante_, p. 198.

X

AUTOGRAPH COLLECTING IN FRANCE