1. [Buckingham Palace] Wardrop, Colonel F.M. [C.B. abd Military Attache to the British Embassy in Vienna (1900-1909) as well as Aide de Camp during the Egyptian War].

Original Luncheon-Invitation-Ticket-List, published in Book-Form with original Ivory-Head-Pencil by Johann Faber (Bavaria), attached on the occasion of King Edward VII’s Coronation Dinner at : “Hotel Belgravia / Buckingham Palace” – Original Ticket-Book: “List of Guests for Luncheon and Dinner – 1902 for King Edward VII’s Guests Colonel F.M.Wardrop, C.B., Colonel Commandant Johann von Belnay, Lieutenant-Colonel Ludwig Koch and Captain Adalbert Guilleaume”.

[London], Buckingham Palace / Hotel Belgravia, 1902. Oblong Octavo (14.6 cm wide x 11.8 cm high). 40 pages with partial perforation for detaching of Luncheon- and Dinner-Tickets. Hardcover / Original Royal Blue Publisher’s cloth with gilt lettering on cover and pencil-satchet attached to the binding. Some minor staining to the binding only. Overall in very good condition with only minor signs of wear. With the pencil included and the original elastic ribbon which allows the booklet to be closed. Wonderful example of the wealth of the Coronation-Event at the end of the Victorian and the beginning of the Edwardian Age (printed ticket-books for 4 attendees seem very luxurious indeed). Five tickets were used for Dinner at the Belgravia and each remaining stub was signed / monogrammed by Colonel F.M.Wardrop.

2. Congo / Kongo – Leopold II of Belgium (1835-1909) – King of the Belgians and Owner / Absolute Ruler of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908.

Collection of four very important and meaningful manuscript letters by Leopold II to his administrator and Foreign Minister of the Congo – Free-State, Baron Adolphe de Cuvelier (1860-1931) with a total of 16 pages filled with Leopold’s instructions on pressing issues regarding a warning about an imminent visit by the Rector of the Mill-Hill Missionaries [probably Herbert Alfred Henry Vaughan (1832 – 1903)] and Leopold’s qualification of the visit of being detrimental to the Congo Free State (″ne travaillent pas pour l’État”). Leopold continues in another letter to talk about the hostile positions of english officials (consuls) and missionaries (″que les consuls anglais et les missionnaires anglais se conduisent bien mal envers l’État”). Interestingly, Leopold also touches on the nuisance of the german press criticizing Belgian Railway Lines and he is of the opinion that this is all happening in order to force the german parliament [″Reichstag”] to finance the building of the Tanganyika Railway [between Dar es Salaam and Kigoma]: (″cherche à effrayer l’opinion [en] Allemagne à propos de mes chemins de fer afin d’obtenir du Reichstag des fonds pour la ligne allemande vers le Tanganika”.

16 pages of MLS, Manuscript Letters (signed) on 10 leaves of Leopold’s official stationery “Château de Laeken” and “Palais de Bruxelles”. Laeken / Brussels, Château de Laeken [Palace of Laeken], 1901 – 1906. The leaves with different sizes (13,5 cm x 9 cm) and (18 cm x 11,5 cm). Excellent condition. Unsigned. Tremendously rare to find original letters by Leopold II on the open market in which the Colonial Free State and the protection against inquisitive visitors is discussed in such clear and instructive fashion. Leopold’s correspondence with Adolphe de Cuvelier shows how he is very much trying to still protect and influence the narrative of his Colonial Slavery Outpost even in the final years of his life.

3. [Earl of Southesk, Charles Noel Carnegie, 10th] [Provenance: Adam Smith, Lady [Janet] and subsequently the Alpine Club London] / Carnegie, V.M.

A Kenyan Farm Diary – With Illustrations. [From the library of eminent scottish Writer, Mountaineer and Literary Critic, Janet Adam Smith and subsequently the Alpine Club in London for which Janet Adam Smith was Vice-President during the years 1978-1980 and to which she possibly had donated this book (our company has purchased a large stock of fantastic books and periodicals from the famous Alpine Club through Forum Auctions several years ago)].

Second Impression. Edinburgh and London, William Blackwood & Sons Ltd., 1931. Octavo. Frontispiece, XII, 271 pages. With seven photographic illustrations on four plates. Original Hardcover with the very rare original dustjacket in protective collector’s mylar. Very good condition with only minor signs of wear and foxing to the edges and several pages. This book is very rare in its original dustjacket. Inscribed and signed by Charles Noel Carnegie, 10th Earl of Southesk (1854-1941): “To Lady Adam Smith from the Earl of Southesk – Jan 1934”. With a newspaper-clipping on an event of Inverness Central School loosely inserted and with a newspaper-clipping shopwing the elderly “Earl of Southesk and Mr. Donald Steuart-Fothringham going out to shoot over Petterden Moor, Angus”. A wonderful association copy !

4. Marryat, Frederick [Admiral Sir Arthur Cavenagh Leveson].

Poor Jack. Illustrated by Clarkson Stanfield.

London, Henry G. Bohn, 1859. 18 cm. VIII, 500 pages. Illustrations, including frontispiece, in black and white. Original illustrated hardcover. Good condition with only very minor signs of external wear. There is noticeable rubbing to the spine and it has become slightly frayed at its top and bottom; also, an inside page has been cut/torn. Inscribed and signed by Admiral Sir Arthur Cavenagh Leveson to Charles E. Hoyle in 1928.

5. [Nonus Parker Provenance] Rycaut, Paul.

The Lives of the Popes, From the time of our Saviour Jesus Christ, To the Reign of Sixtus IV. Written Originally in Latin by Baptista Platina, Native of Cremona, And Translated into English. And the same History continued from the Year 1471 to this present time ; wherein the most remarkable Passages of Christendom, both in Church and State, are Treated of and Described. By Sir Paul Rycaut, Kt.

The Second Edition, Corrected. Two Volumes in one (complete). London, Printed for C.Wilkinson, and are Sold by A.Churchil at the Black Swan in Ave-Mary Lane, 1688. Folio (22.5 cm wide x 33.2 cm high). Pagination: Volume I: Includes the Rare Portrait-Frontispice of “Paul Rycaut, late Consul of Smyrna & fellow of the Royal Society” by R.White, [15], 416 pages / Volume II: “A continuation of the Lives of the Popes”, 394 pages plus 18 unnumbered pages of an Index. Hardcover / Original bookblock was bound by a Master-Binder into a Modern half-leather in the style of the 17th century. In protective Mylar. The original Portrait was pasted on paper. New endpapers. Marbled-Paper-covered boards. Very good condition with only minor signs of wear. Provenance: Working-copy of Yorkshire Landowner Nonus Parker [signed in the book as “Ubiq. Veritatem Nonus Parker 1693”, 17th-century English gentleman who purchased an estate called “Gowk-Hill” (also referred to as Gawkhill or Cuckoo Hill) in the mid-1660s. Upon taking ownership of the land, he renamed it “Park Hill”, a historic estate located near Firbeck and Laughton-en-le-Morthen in South Yorkshire, England. Heavily annotated by Nonus Parker in ink, with personal comments on Papal History, ridiculing the entry of “Pope Joan” [John VIII]. Nonus PArker writes about Pope Joan: “Theis relation is affirmed as well as denyed by several writers, yet no fire can be ‘tis belived, without a Smoke”. Includes also a lengthy manuscript-note by Nonus Parker [verso an envelope sent to him] on “whether the Story of the wandring Jew be true”

6. 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]”.

7. 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.