[Cumberbatch, Benedict] Cumberbatch, Henry Arnold / Rees, Helen / Basil Benwell Rees / William Benwell Rees / Etheldreda Blanche Barker / [Sir Winston Churchill / Sir Anthony Arthur Duncan Montague Browne [Private Secretary to Sir Winston Churchill]].

Large Family Archive of the Benwell Rees – Family, including William Benwell Rees (brother to actor Benedict Cumberbatch’s grandmother Helen Rees, by marriage to British Diplomat Henry Arnold Cumberbatch, who was Consul in Romania, Turkey and Lebanon ). The archive includes at least one manuscript letter by Henry Arnold Cumberbatch and around one thousand documents chronicling the lives of the ex-patriate Benwell Rees family from 1890-1970 in Alexandria and Monaco, including William Benwell Rees, whose marriage to Etheldreda Blanche Barker cemented the family’s role in the highest circles of Alexandria life. The archive also charts their son Basil Rees’ decade in Monaco under Princess Grace and Prince Rainer III where he served as President of the British Association in the 1950’s-‘60s and solicited a letter written by Sir Anthony Arthur Duncan Montague Browne, on Winston Churchill’s behalf on Chartwell headed paper in which the former Prime Minister declined to attend an event in Monaco [signed by Montague Browne]. The archive is held in five heavy volumes, bursting with a plethora of amazing and wonderful historical letters, ephemera, emotional messages and telegrams, old images, theatre-programmes, and especially also includes programmes of plays in which ancestors of Benedict played (J.M.Barrie, Shakespeare etc.). The original letters and documents paint an interesting picture of Benedict Cumberbatch’s grandmother’s side of the family history in the Levant, their service in the Middle East and their social lives. The five volumes are bound in bespoke red morocco over textured paper-covered-boards and they contain at least one reference to Helen Rees next to a newspaper-clipping and dozens of wonderful handwritten letters and cards. Each volume about four inches across spine with title in gilt to upper cover and around 100 leaves in each with documents mounted recto and verso throughout, with photographs, invitations, business materials and clippings that chart the family’s life in their service for the British Colonial Office. The five Volumes include for example: Volume 1: The Benwell Rees’: begins with Egyptian Gazette, 1890 and a programme for a performance c1900 at the Port Theatre, Marina, Alexandria of Rumpelstilkskin; visiting cards and contemporary reports of the marriage of W B Rees and Etheldreda Blanche Barker in Alexandria, February 1901; Windsor Hotels prospectus and flyer (a WBR enterprise); 1913 Casino de Monte Carlo ticket for Ethel Rees; Kings School Canterbury ephemera and St Johns’ College, Cambridge for Basil Rees from 1920’s, graduated June 1924. Volume 2: The Benwell Rees’ Vol II, 1920’s-1990’s: includes J M Barrie, Quality Street programme for English Girls’ School, Alexandria, 1941; invitations from Princess Grace of Monaco etc Volume 3: Basil Rees Vol III, cover nearly detached, 1953- Basil Rees living at 2 Rue Origene, Alexandria, and covering period of move to Palais Majestic, Monaco after which he served as President of the British Association and his sudden death in 1967. Invitations to dinner and place settings with the Prince and Princess of Monaco. Birthday greetings; international stamp collecting societies. Photographic ‘Permis de Sejour’ for William Benwell Rees in Monaco, October 1918. Volume 4: Basil Rees Vol. IV Begins with telegram from Rees to the Queen; mostly very extensive formal correspondence concerned with Rees’ Presidency of he British Association in Monaco; invitations, notes, printed volume of Statutes of association from 1950, royal correspondence with Monaco and Britain. Volume 5: Basil Rees 4-5 1902 Vol II; William Basil Benwell Rees; Royal Navy ID card, British Forces, September 1943 – other material relating to Rees’ work as Duty Defence Officer at the Royal Navy Defence Base in Alexandria, HMS Nice. Volume begins in 1902 and includes Alexandria Dog Show, W B B Rees at Jesus College, Cambridge; Egypt NAAFI permits; lock of Basil Rees’ hair, aged 2 etc.

Alexandria / Monaco / etc., c. 1902 – 1967. Octavo. Half Morocco. Bindings stronger rubbed and slightly damaged.

Foster, Sir Augustus [British Ambassador to the United States of America] / Sir Charles Stuart [Britain’s Ambassador to France and Russia, Charles Stuart, 1st Baron Stuart de Rothesay] / [Lady Bess Foster, (née Lady Elizabeth Christiana Hervey), later Duchess of Devonshire (1759-1824)] / [Vere Henry Louis Foster] / [Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington].

Archive of a fantastic series of 42 Autograph Letters (signed) / Manuscript Letters (signed) by Sir Augustus Foster, British Diplomat and British Ambassador to the United States of America, prior and at the outbreak of the War of 1812, Recipient of the ‘Declaration of War’ on the “HMS Colibri” (June 28th, 1812), Ambassador to Denmark (1814-1825) and Ambassador to Sardinia (1824-1840). The letters were written between 1815 and 1841, during his time as Ambassador of Denmark (Copenhagen) and from his posting in Turin, as Ambassador to the Kingdom of Savoy-Sardinia [Piedmont-Sardinia]. Fortyone (41) of the letters are addressed to his friend, Sir Charles Stuart, Baron Stuart de Rothesay (1779-1845), Secret Agent, Diplomat, privy councilor as well as British Ambassador to France and Ambassador to Russia and the Duke of Wellington’s distinguished administrator in Europe during the Napoleonic Wars. The 42nd letter in the Archive, is a meaningful, three-page-letter, written by Sir Augustus Foster from Copenhagen in the year 1818, to his mother, Lady Elizabeth (″Bess”) Foster” [(née Lady Elizabeth Christiana Hervey), later Duchess of Devonshire (1759-1824)]. The Letters comprise of sizes between Octavo and Quarto and amount to 130 pages in total, written from Turin (27) & other places, including Copenhagen, Stockholm, London, Calais and Geneva, 1815-1841 / Important: The Archive includes also three important publications which touch on the work of Sir Augustus Foster in America: [1.Richard Beale Davis: “Jeffersonian America – Notes on the United States of America – Collected in the years 1805-1806-1807 and 1811 and 1812 by Sir Augustus Foster, Bart. San Marino, The Huntingdon Library, 1954 / 2. An Extra-Illustrated Version of the publication “The Two Duchesses”, by Vere Foster (son of Sir Augustus Foster), in which an american collector injected a plethora of original engravings, portraits of british and american personalities like Alexander Hamilton, George Washington as well as other contemporaries of Sir Augustus Foster (see 80 photographs of this breathtaking set, bound in red-morocco, on our website) / 3. [James Madison / James Monroe / Sir Augustus Foster – War of 1812] – “Three messages, from the President of the United States, to Congress, in November 1811, together with Documents accompanying the same”. Washington; printed 1811. Re-Printed for J.Hatchard, Bookseller to her Majesty, opposite Albany, Piccadilly, 1812 – The material here relates directly to the war of 1812; much of it is in the form of correspondence between Sir Augustus John Foster, H.M. Minister in America and James Monroe, Secretary of State under James Madison from 1811 to 1817. Other significant contributors include Mr. Pinkney and Lord Wellesley. Extremely scarce original edition. (No copy of the 1811 edition located. Not in COPAC or Sabin)] See more than 200 Images for all these books and manuscript letters in the Augustus Foster Archive on our website under “Libraries & Collections” /

Turin / London / Stockholm / Copenhagen / Calais / Geneva, 1815 – 1841. Octavo – Quarto. The Letters are housed in a beautiful, bespoke Solander-Chemise. The original books are either bound in Morocco (″Two Duchesses”), original cloth with dustjacket (″Jeffersonian America”) or in the publisher’s original interim-wrappers (the rare 1812-printing of “Three messages, from the President of the United States, to Congress, in November 1811, together with Documents accompanying the same”). Very good condition with some minor signs of wear only.

[Foster, Sir Augustus] / [Madison, James / Monroe, James / Sir Augustus Foster – War of 1812]

“Three messages, from the President of the United States [James Madison], to Congress, in November 1811, together with Documents accompanying the same”. Washington; printed 1811. [Including very interesting exchanges of letters between Foster and Monoe regarding “The Floridas” / Further printed correspondence on “List of Vessels Condemned” / “Letter by Lord J. Townshend to Mr. Croker on His Majesty’s ship ‘Eolus’ – Signed by Herbert Sawyer and Rear-Admiral H.W.Somerville” etc. etc.].

London, J.Hatchard, 1812. Octavo. 260 pages. Softcover / Original, publisher’s interim-wrappers in its very rare and pure original form, even with the original, publisher’s printed spine-label. Very good condition with some minor signs of wear only. Some minor signs of foxing. A publication of utmost rarity. With some interesting text-markings.

Stuart de Rothesay, Charles Stuart, Baron (1779-1845) / Hay, Robert William (1786-1861) / Jean-Baptiste Rousseau (1780 – 1831) [Baron de Rousseau – French Orientalist and French Consul at Tripoli] / Alexander Gordon Laing (1794 – 1826) [Scottish explorer and the first European to reach Timbuktu] / Hanmer Warrington / Foreign Secretary for Prime Minister Wellington, George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen [Lord Aberdeen].

Original, unpublished and meaningful letter by British official and Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, Sir Robert William Hay, addressed with urgency to former secret agent in Spain and Portugal, Sir Charles Stuart de Rothesay, Scottish nobleman, and English ambassador to France (1815-1830); alerting Ambassador Charles Stuart of Hay’s arrival in Paris and his wish to ask him if he has “anything to communicate to me in regard to that Royal [Baron] Rousseau, The Barbary Consul”. Hay is in this letter preparing Stuart in order to investigate the situation around the death of explorer Alexander Gordon Laing in Africa. Under-Secretary for the Colonies, Sir R[obert] W.Hay, who had been informed about the situation around Laing’s missing Journals per private letter from the British Consul in Tripoli, Hanmer Warrington, announces his arrival in Paris to protest to the French government and advices ambassador Stuart:″I conclude that he [Baron Jean-Baptiste Rousseau] is by this time out of guarantiae, but I hope that by ensuing at Paris he will only get out of the frying Pan with the fire”. Hay continues: “I hope you will go with me (in case it be necessary) to the Minister, whoever he may be, in [?] Departement this ….were incredibly false for it. The French Govt. are really disposed & prosecute the Enquiry bon a fide. I think that same may acq…[….]…..on the other hand, if the French Govt. do not enter into y. enquiry with a good spirit, it will be in Rousseau’s …..to baffle me with the utmost facility in all our attempts to get at the truth. I spoke to Lord Aberdeen [George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, Foreign Secretary for Prime Minister Wellington] on the day I left London, & he gave me full permission to conduct measures with you for the …of this affair. Yours very truly R.W.Hay”.

[London], [1829]. 5 octavo – pages on 2 sheets, folded. Excellent condition. Signed by Hay and dated probably “Monday, 19 Oct. [1829]”.

Pugilism (Boxing) – Baert-Duholant, Charles-Alexandre-Balthazar-François de Paule baron de / Jean-Denis Barbié du Bocage.

Tableau de la Grande-Bretagne, De L’Irlande et des Possessions Angloises dans les quatre parties du Monde. [Large Paper Copy / Better Paper Copy / Exemplaire de Luxe] [With five (5) large, folded Maps by Jean-Denis Barbié du Bocage: Large, oblong folded Map/Plan of Gibraltar / England / Scotland / Ireland / India] / [With four (4) stunning copper-engravings: Grotte de Fingal, Chaussée des Géants / Plan et vue de Gibraltar / Combat de Boxe (Pugilists)] / [With two (2) portraits: 1.Portrait of William Pitt (after William Owen) and 2. Portrait of Charles Jacques Fox (after Karl Anton Hickel)].

Four Volumes (complete set). Paris, Chez H.J.Jansen, L’An 8me [1800]. Octavo (21.5 cm x 14 cm). Collation: Volume I: (8), 459, (1), 11 pages with Eleven (11) copper-engravings of which are: 5 Maps / Plans and 4 Engravings: The folded view of Fingals Cave (″Grotte de Fingal dans l’Ile de Staffa” – (20.5 cm x 31.5 cm) / “Folded Plate of the Giants Causeway (″Vue occidentale de la Chaussee des Geans et des Caps voisins” (20.5 cm x 39 cm)) / Fantastic, large Map/Plan of Gibraltar by Jean-Denis Barbié du Bocage, with a Birds-Eye-View of the Ville de Gibraltar (20.5 cm x 65.5 cm) [also showing the Ville Irlandaise on Gibraltar] / Scenic View of Gibraltar (″Vue de Gibraltar, prise du cote de l’Espagne” (20.5 cm x 33 cm) / Large Fold-Out-Map of England by Jean-Denis Barbié du Bocage with an Inset-View of Stonehenge (47 cm x 51 cm) / Large Fold-Out-Map of Scotland by Jean-Denis Barbié du Bocage, including the Western Isles and Shetland, with a stunning Inset-View of the irish pilgrimage-mountain Croagh Patrick [Craig-Phadrick] in Westport, Ireland (37 cm x 50 cm)/ Large Fold-Out-Map of Ireland with an Inset-View of the Lakes of Killarney (39 cm x 44.5 cm) / Volume II: 532, (1), 12 pages with Large Fold-Out-Map of India (″Possessions Anglaises”) by Jean-Denis Barbié du Bocage – the large India-Map showing areas as far as Tibet, Siam, Sumatra and the Andaman Islands, Ceylon, Burma (48 cm x 43 cm) / Volume III: 502, 48, (2) pages with two portraits: Guillaume Pitt [William Pitt] & Charles Jacques Fox (each 20.5 cm x 12.5 cm)/ Volume IV: 486, 22, (2) pages with the very famous Fold-out-Illustration of Pugilists / Boxers at Odiham in Hampshire [″Combats de Boxers a Odiham”] showing a boxing-match between Humphrey and Mendoza (32 cm x 20.5 cm). Hardcover / Original, very decorative original half leather bindings with gilt lettering and ornament on spine. Volume One professionally rebacked by an english master bookbinder. All four Volumes in protective Collector’s Mylar. Excellent condition with only minor signs of external wear. From the library of François-Xavier de Valenzi with his bookplate / exlibris to the pastedowns of each Volume. Maps in this de Luxe Edition are all considerably larger than in the normal-paper-edition and all the maps and illustrations are in superb condition. An underestimated collectable.

Staunton, Sir George / Lord Macartney.

An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China [First Dublin Edition with 34 full-page-plates]; Including Cursory Observations Made, and Information Obtained, in Travelling Through That Ancient Empire, and a Small Part of Chinese Tartary. Together with a Relation of the Voyage undertaken on the Occasion by his Majesty’s Ship ‘The Lion’, and the Ship ‘Hindestan’ in the East India Company’s Service, to the Yellow Sea, and Gulf of Pekin [sic]; as well as of their return to Europe. With Notices of the several places where they stopped in their way out and home: being the Islands of Madeira, Teneriffe and St.Jago, the Port of Rio de Janeiro in South America; the Islands of St.Helena, Tristan da Cunha and Amsterdam, the Coast of Java and Sumatra, the Nanka Isles, Pulo-Condore and Cochin-China. Taken chiefly from the Papers of his Excellency, the Earl of Macartney, Knight of the Bath, his Majesty’s Embassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Emperor of China; Sir Erasmus Gower, Commander of the Expedition and other Gentlemen in the several Departments of the Embassy.

Two Volumes (complete set). Dublin, Printed for P.Wogan, R.Cross, P.Byrne and others, 1798. Octavo. Volume I: XV, 449 pages with 8 full-page plates / Volume II: XVIII, 430 pages, with 26 full-page-plates and including an Appendix. Hardcover / Original, early 19th century half leather with original spinelabels. Bindings firm and strong but rather worn. Bookplate of Richard Meade, Ballymartle, to the pastedown of Volume I. Overall in very good condition with some stronger signs of wear but with all the illustrations / engravings, called for in the Dublin Edition.

Griffith, Sir William Brandforth.

Ordinances of the Gold Coast Colony, and the Rules and Orders Thereunder in Force 31st March, 1903; An Appendix Containg the Letters Patent; The Imperial Orders in Council, And Various Acts of Parliament in Force in the Colony, And an Index. Also The Ordinances, & c., In Force in Ashanti and the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast. Prepared under the Authority of “The Reprint of the Statutes Ordinance, 1903” by Sir William Brandford Griffith, Chief Justice of the Gold Coast Colony.

Original / First Edition. 2 Volumes (complete set). London, Stevens & Sons, Limited, 1903. 15.5 cm x 24.5 cm Volume 1: XLVI, 878 pages. Volume 2: 907 pages. Interleaved with blank pages throughout for later annotations / notes. Hardcover/ Original, brown half-leather with gilt lettering on spine with raised bands. Massive, stunning set in overall very good condition with only minor signs of external wear (Leather-corner missing from front board bottom corner of Volume I). Minor gutter-split between front endpaper and half title of Volume I but binding still firm and strong. Binding of Volume II is very firm and strong. Boards are faded and carry minor stains. Board of Volume II has minor worming. Volume I carries occasional annotations. Some staining to edges of Volume I. Occasional inkstains and spotting to interiors but both volumes are sharp cornered, bright and for the most part clean. Very Rare, rather scarce original edition !

Stuart de Rothesay, Charles Stuart, Baron (1779-1845) / Strangford, Percy Clinton Sydney Smythe, 6th Viscount (1780 – 1855).

Original, unpublished letter by Anglo-Irish diplomat, Percy Clinton Sydney Smythe, 6th Viscount Strangford, to Sir Charles Stuart [Charles Stuart, 1st Baron Stuart de Rothesay], asking him for a favour to send a Lantern to an address in Paris [?]. Strangford writes from his post as British Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of Stockholm, where he was posted between 1817 and 1820.

Stockholm, 1819. 2 octavo – pages on 1 sheet, folded. Excellent condition. Signed by Strangford.

[Select Committee on Kafir Tribes / Henry Labouchere] [Freeman, Joseph John (J.J.) and others].

Report from the Select Committee on the ‘Kafir Tribes’ – Together with the Proceedings of the Committee, Minutes of Evidence, Appendix, and Index.

London, House of Commons, 1851. 15.5 cm25.5 cm. X, 607 pages with two manuscript pages preceding the printed report. The manuscript pages title and detail the content and are bearing in pencil the name “J.J.Freeman” [Reverend Joseph John Freeman was one of the people who were called in to give evidence]. Hardcover / Late 20th – century navy half-leather with gilt lettering on maroon spinelabel with raised bands. Marbled paper-covered boards. Excellent condition with only minor signs of external wear. Interior very clean and bright. Bookstamp of the ‘Incorporated Law Society of the United Kingdom’ on endpapers, titlepage and preliminary pages. Inked titling to endpapers.

Norris-Newman, Charles L.

In Zululand With The British Throughout the War of 1879.

London, W. H. Allen 1880. 14.5 cm x 23 cm. Frontispiece, XV, 343 pages. Illustrated throughout with portraits. Includes the vintage photograph of Sir Henry Bartle Edward Frere (including tissue-guard), 3 fold-out plans. With the often missing large fold-out Military Map of Zulu Land and Adjacent Parts of Natal and Transvaal. Hardcover [publisher’s original green cloth] with gilt lettering on spine. Design on front board. First layer, with frontispiece, slightly detached. Otherwise in very good+ condition with only minor signs of external wear. Interior bright and clean, with very minor spotting near front. Ink markings to first page of first chapter. Bookplate / Exlibris of Davenport House (Bridgnorth) to front pastedown with the printed motto “Audentes Fortuna Junat”. Extremely rare, rather scarce and even scarcer with the large folding-map included !