Chats on Autographs

PREFACE

Mr. T. Fisher Unwin has asked me to "chat" on autographs and autograph collecting. Fifteen years ago the late Dr. George Birkbeck Hill "talked" on the same subject in compliance with a similar request. Still more recently Mr. Adrian H. Joline, of New York, has given the world his "meditations" on a pursuit which another American unkindly describes as "that dreadful fever," but which Mr. Joline, as well as the present writer, regards in the light of "the most gentle of emotions." Mr. Joline expressed, on the first page of his interesting book, a profound conviction that nobody could by any possibility be persuaded to read it unless already interested in the topic with which it so effectively deals. One of the principal objects of the causeries I have undertaken to write is to reach, if possible, a public to which the peculiar fascination and indescribable excitement of the autograph cult are still unknown, and to demonstrate (to a certain extent from my own personal experience), the practical utility, as well as the possibilities of material profit, inherent in this particular form of literary treasure-trove. For the benefit of the uninitiated (and in this case the uninitiated are in a vast majority) it is necessary at the onset to differentiate between the "Autograph Fiend" (the phrase is, I believe, American in its origin), who pesters, often with unpardonable persistence, well-known personages for their signatures in albums or on photographs, and the discriminating collector who accumulates for the benefit of posterity either important documents or the letters of famous men. "Nothing," writes Horace Walpole, "gives us so just an idea of an age as genuine letters, nay history waits for its last seal from them."

Adopting the words of one of the most gifted letter-writers who ever lived as a text, let me clearly define an autograph for the purposes of these pages to be:—

A letter or document written or signed by any given person.

An autograph collector, as I understand the term, is one who acquires and arranges documents of the sort now described. A collector of autograph signatures has nothing in common with the scientific autograph collector. Those who deliberately cut signatures from important letters are in reality the worst enemies both of the autograph collector and the historian. Vandalism of this kind (often committed in happy unconsciousness of the consequences) brings with it its own punishment, for detached signatures are almost worthless. Many years ago a dealer was offered sixteen genuine signatures of Samuel Pepys, their owner naïvely remarking that "he had cut them from the letters to save trouble." As a matter of fact he had in the course of a few seconds depreciated the value of his property to the extent of at least £150. The letters (if intact) would have fetched from £15 to £20 each! "Album Specimens"—the results of the misplaced energy of the "autograph hunter," are of very little value as compared with holograph letters, and collections of this kind, although often elaborately bound up and provided with a lock and key, generally prove a woeful disappointment to the representatives of those who bestowed so much time and trouble on their formation. Collections of "franks," or the signatures in virtue of which Peers and Members of the House of Commons prior to 1840 could transmit letters through the post free of charge, must not be classed with those of "clipped" or isolated signatures. "Frank Collections" were often very interesting, and in the early years of the nineteenth century many well-known people devoted much time and trouble to their completion. The subject will be further alluded to in my text.

Although a personal element must of necessity pervade to some extent, at least, my chats on autographs, it is obvious that the subject is one which necessitates the greatest discretion. I shall carefully refrain from using any letter which has ever been addressed to me personally, although I have ventured to reproduce the signature of H.R.H. Ismail Pacha, one of the most remarkable men of his time, and that of Arabi Pacha, for whom I acted as counsel before the court-martial held at Cairo on December 2, 1882. Between 1884 and 1889 I was in constant correspondence with the late ex-Khedive Ismail, and from 1883 down to the present day I have frequently exchanged letters with my once celebrated Egyptian client, who returned from exile some five years ago to spend the rest of his life in Cairo. Nor shall I, with one or two exceptions, give in extenso the letters of any living person, or letters which can possibly give pain or concern to others. Those who carefully study, as I do, the catalogues issued from time to time by dealers in autographs, both in this country and abroad, must often be astonished at the rapidity with which the letters of Royal and other illustrious personages "come into the market." At the death of a well-known authoress a few years ago the whole of the letters addressed to her were sold en bloc. I was not surprised to learn that the appearance of these "specimens" was the cause of much consternation and many heart-burnings.

The present age is essentially one of "collecting," and I hope to convince those who are interested in collecting generally, but have not yet included autographs in their sphere of operations, that a great opportunity awaits them, and that no form of collecting, either from a literary or antiquarian point of view, possesses greater charm or greater possibilities. In his recent works on the private life of Napoleon, M. Frédéric Masson has shown the inestimable value of autograph letters to the historian, and it is from unpublished and hitherto unknown MSS. in public and private collections that Dr. J. Holland Rose has obtained much of the new information which will give exceptional value to his forthcoming "Life of Pitt." If there is, as Mr. Adrian Joline points out, an abundance of "gentle emotion" to be found in the cult of the autograph, there is also no lack of pleasurable excitement. If autograph frauds, forgeries, and fakes are abundant, autograph "finds" are equally so. There is an indescribable pleasure in the detection of the former, and an amount of enjoyable excitement connected with the latter, which none but the keen collector can entirely realise. Having convinced the antiquarian of the quite exceptional value of the autograph as a collecting subject, I shall hope to show my readers how they may most rapidly and most economically obtain that special knowledge necessary to become an expert. The autograph market, as at present constituted, is a very small one, but it is growing rapidly, and there is at this moment no better investment than the highest class of historical and literary autographs, provided one exercises proper discretion in purchasing and is content to wait for opportunities which often occur. The truth of my assertion as to the possibilities of profit in autograph collecting was never more clearly demonstrated than at the sale, in December, 1909, of the library of Mr. Louis J. Haber, of New York City, which was conducted by the Anderson Auction Company. Two days were exclusively devoted to autographs, and Mr. Haber has subsequently communicated to me a complete list of the prices at which he bought and sold the literary rariora now dispersed. The sensation of the sale was the selling of a letter of John Keats for £500. For this letter (an exceptionally fine and interesting one) Mr. Haber originally paid £25. Nevertheless, as I shall have occasion to point out, the English collector might have picked up some bargains at the Haber sale. An autograph poem by Edmund Burke, written in 1749, was sold for £4 8s., and I envy the purchaser of the characteristic letter of Lord Chesterfield, knocked down to some fortunate bidder for £3 8s. I do not hesitate to say that the Burke poem and the Chesterfield letter would have fetched double the prices realised at Sotheby's. A letter of Mrs. Piozzi's (not improved by inlaying) fetched £8 12s. Mr. Haber gave £2 8s. for it, and I have bought a dozen equally good Piozzi letters at considerably less than that.

The bonne camaraderie which exists amongst autograph collectors is exemplified by the ready assistance rendered me in the preparation of my "chats." Dr. H. T. Scott, who has devoted the greater part of his life to the practical study of the subject, has given me many valuable hints; Mr. Telamon Cuyler, the future historian of Georgia, has rendered me important help in the matter of American autographs and autograph collecting; Mr. Charles De F. Burns, of New York, has given me (through Mr. Cuyler) most interesting data concerning the development of a fondness for autographs in the United States; while Dr. Thos. Addis Emmet has sent me the catalogue of his unrivalled collection of American MSS. now in the Lenox Library, New York. I tender my best thanks for the aid in various directions which I have received from Mr. Bernard Quaritch; Mr. Turner, President of the Anderson Auction Company, New York; Mr. Goodspeed, of Boston; Monsieur Noël Charavay, of Paris; Messrs. Maggs, Mr. J. H. Stonehouse, of Messrs. Sotheran, and Mr. W. V. Daniell; while Professor M. Gerothwohl, Litt.D., of the University of Bristol, has kindly translated the important letter of the Empress Catharine of Russia, and one or two other difficult examples of eighteenth-century French. My acknowledgments are also due to Mr. John Lane and Messrs. Harper Brothers, who have kindly allowed me to use certain illustrations, originally given in my books published by them; as well as to the proprietors of The Country Home for allowing me to reproduce some of the autographs which first appeared in connection with the articles I have had the honour to contribute to that journal.

If I succeed in awakening an extended and more intelligent interest in autographs and autograph collecting, I shall have done something in my generation to help future historians, whose task must, of necessity, become increasingly difficult as time goes on. When I "commenced" collecting on my own account, to borrow an old-world, eighteenth-century phrase, I was literally groping in the dark, and necessity compelled me to buy my experience. I do not think I purchased it dearly. M. Noël Charavay thinks all good judges of autographs are near-sighted, and possibly this helped me in the early stages of my collecting career to distinguish the genuine article from a forged imitation. By attending to the hints which I shall give in the proper place the young collector will soon be able to recognise the original from the counterfeit. As the values of autographs increase (as they are sure to do) the temptation to forgery becomes greater, and consequently the application of the maxim caveat emptor more urgent. Respectable autograph dealers guarantee the letters they sell, but even experts are occasionally mistaken. Quite recently I lighted on a letter of Archbishop Fénelon in America, and thought I had secured a bargain. The source from which it came was unimpeachable, but M. Noël Charavay immediately confirmed my opinion that it was a lithographic forgery. There is, at any rate, one privilege that the autograph collector alone enjoys. It is difficult to say that any particular piece of china, medal, coin, print, or postage stamp is unique. There is always the danger of a duplicate turning up. With autograph letters, on the other hand, each specimen may fairly be described as "absolutely unique." I have only once met with an exception to this rule. Some twenty days before his death Charles Dickens wrote a letter in duplicate to Buckstone the actor. To avoid the possibility of its miscarrying one was addressed to the theatre, and the other to Sydenham. I have the former and should much like to know what has become of the other, but even in this case the letters are not precisely identical.

So vast is the range of autographs (taking the subject as a whole and the term in its broadest sense) that the collector of the rising generation will do well to limit his sphere of operations to one particular subject or locality. It is only by doing this he can hope to arrive at anything like finality, or to make his acquisitions really useful from an historical point of view. Let him make the worthies of his own county, or birthplace, or calling the objective of his researches, and he will soon feel encouraged to go further afield. As long ago as 1855 a writer in the Athenæum remarked that "the story of what history owes to the autograph collector would make a pretty book." The present and future possibilities of autograph collecting as the handmaiden of history-making cannot be more forcibly illustrated than by the perusal of the marvellous catalogue issued by Messrs. Pearson, of Pall Mall Place, while these pages were going through the press. Here we have a collection of autographs by English sovereigns valued at £1,600, one of musical composers priced at £2,500, and another of 105 letters by great artists, beginning with Antonio del Pollajuolo (born in 1426) and ending with Corot, who died in 1875, for which £3,500, or an average price of £35 each is asked. Modern historians will possibly be more interested in the portfolios of unpublished letters by Marlborough, Burke, and Pitt, of which the House of Pearson is at present the custodian. Without reference to them it will be impossible to say that the last word has been said about these three great men, who played in turn so important a part in our national annals. Their ultimate owner may have the opportunity of assisting the historian in the manner I have ventured to indicate.

A. M. BROADLEY.

CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS