11. [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.

12. Barwise, Lucy Weston / [Lucy Chapman, George Chapman, Henry Chapman]

Manuscript Autobiography, Diary and vintage photo album of the Chapman – Barwise Family. A cultured London woman’s autobiography and diary including a first hand account of ‘Fiesche’s attempt to assassinate Louis Phillippe’ which she observed while at school in Paris as a child. The manuscript has a mournful postscript by the man she left behind, her husband: ‘Alas! that I George Chapman should have to finish the record of so dear a Life…’ by Lucy Weston Barwise (1822-1876) wrote in a lockable, lined octavo notebook, crushed morocco, marbled endpapers and edges. Her autobiography was begun in January 1872 at one end of the book (16 pages); her diary appears at the other end of the book from October 22 1871-April 1874 with her husband’s postscript dating from June 1880. There is a second volume of family accounts in a lockable octavo sized ledger and a folio sized volume of family photographs, most unlabelled. Barwise’s autobiography recounts her education in Paris in the Rue Taitbout where she witnessed ‘Fiesche’s attempt to assassinate Louis Phillippe’ while watching from her music master’s house opposite the Porte St Martin, noting ‘the Duc D’Orleans [who] looked very handsome’ but shortly afterwards ‘heard a loud report and then a shout… general commotion but the crowd was so thick and immoveable’ and then ‘the King and stiff rode slowly back along the line but looking very white.’ It was only later that she discovered the casualties of ‘Fieschi’s infernal machine… It was a row of gun barrels arranged along a window so as to be discharged all at once.’ Barwise also watched the subsequent funeral from her attic window, the ‘open hearse with its draperies of black and silver’. The highlight of Chapman’s diary is a detailed account of the deaths she witnessed during the ‘Thanksgiving Day for the recovery of the Prince of Wales’ on February 27th, 1872, as seen from her husband George Chapman’s ‘office windows in Cockspur St’ behind Trafalgar Square which overlooked the procession. There she witnessed the lack of barriers and observes with horror the police charging into the surging crowd ‘The big policemen threw themselves against the men; the horses even made to dance and back heel it was a fearful struggle’with a baby almost crushed to death in front of her. There is an interesting secondhand account of Paris under the Commune via one of her daughters and frequent visits to London art exhibitions as on July 8 1871 where she saw an ‘exhibition of old masters at the Royal Academy… Crome, Ruysdael, heads by Moroni, of Titian’s Schoolmaster, Burgomaster by Rembrandt… the two heads.. by Giorgine belonging to Lord Ashburton, such colour and such expression. There are trips to Ascot and the Boat Race, a curry with friends in Wandsworth and a recitation by ‘Mr Bradman [of] the Merchant of Venice for the benefit of the Workman’s Club. It was very clever… Shylock was good but my recollection of actors, Charles Kemble, C.Kean &c made this more familiar and perhaps a little more like ranting’.

[London], c. 1871 – 1872. Octavo. Diary I: 44 pages / Diary II: 24 pages / Photoalbum: 48 pages with 120 original cabinet photographs (including a photograph of a british Forest School). Hardcover / Original full leather. All three Volumes slightly rubbed but all in very good condition. The cabinet photographs all in excellent condition and from dozens of different victorian photographers in Bath (Friese Greene), Bonn (Emil Koch), Astley (Photograpic Landscape Artist in Astley, Essex), and many others. The one diary is really a cash ledger of George Chapman where he kept track for the Chapman family with listings of expenses for Hampstead House, Henry Chapman, Edward Chapman, Oswald D. Chapman, Mrs. Barrett Chapman, Edith Louisa Chapman.

13. [Boyle, Family] Budgell, Eustace / [Theobald, Lewis].

Memoirs of The Lives And Characters of The Illustrious Family of The Boyle’s. Containing Many Curious Pieces of English History, not extant in anyother author. The Whole Extracted From Original Papers And Manuscripts. [Including an Epistle to the Right Hon. John Earle of Orrery, by Lewis Theobald]. Also an impartial Account of the Life, Character and parliamentary Conduct of the Right Honourable Henry Boyle, Esq.; Speaker of the Hon. House of Commons, one of his Majesty’s most honourable Privy Council, and twelve Times sworn one of the Justices of Ireland. Dedicated to his Grace the Duke of Dorset, &c.

Dublin, J.Esdall, 1754. 17,3 cm x 11 cm. VIII, pages XVII -XXIII, 268 pages. [Lacking the list of Subscribers (IX – XII) and Start of Content-pages (XIII-XVI)]. Later, 19th century Hardcover / Half – leather with gilt lettering and ornament to spine. Good condition with only minor signs of external wear. Spine slightly damaged and broken. Bookblock tight and clean besides a faded dampstain and some lesions to outer margiuns of several pages. Needs some attention from a bookbinder. Exlibris / Bookplate of Henry J.B.Clements on pastedown [Clements was landowner in County Mayo and County Galway (Rosshill House connection)].

14. Verney, Frances Parthenope.

Memoirs of the Verney family during the seventeenth century.

Second edition. Two Volumes (complete set). London, Longmans, 1904. 14 cm x 20cm. Volume I: XXI, 582 pages / Volume II: X, 574 pages. Original Hardcover (red cloth) with spinelabels. Very good condition with only minor signs of external wear. Spines of both volumes slightly rubbed. Spine-labels slightly detached.

15. [O’Nolan Family History] Nolan, Rev. John / Kavanagh, Art.

O’Nolan – The History of A People. By Rev. John Nolan and Art Kavanagh. With extended notices of other great Gaelic, Anglo Norman and English families of South East Leinster.

Bunclody (Coounty Wexford), Published by “Irish Family Names”, 2000. Large Octavo. VI, 360 pages. Illustrated Softcover. Excellent, close to new condition with only minor signs of wear. Signed by Art Kavanagh.

16. Aylmer, Captain James Evans Freke / Colonel F. A. Aylmer.

Pedigree of The Family of Aylmer of England and Ireland. Compiled by the Late Captain James Evans Freke Aylmer. With some additional Notes by Colonel F.A. Aylmer. [and with several manuscript annotations completing or correcting some of the Pedigrees (surely in the hand of Gerald Percy Vivian Aylmer)].

London, Mitchell Hughes and Clarke, 1909. Quarto. 26 pages. Softcover / Original printed wrappers. The binding a little frayed but overall still in good condition. From the library of Gerald Percy Vivian Aylmer (1856-1936) of Walworth Castle, with his signature to the front wrapper. Extremely Rare !

17. [English History Collection] – Whitaker, J.

Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage.

London, J. Whitaker and Sons Ltd., 1936. 21.7 cm x 14 cm. X, 747 pages, XXXI. Original Hardcover. In protective mylar. Very good condition with only minor signs of external wear. Blue cloth boards, gilt lettering and decoration on front and spine.

18. [Saunders, Richard] Rider, Cardanus.

Rider’s British Merlin: For the Year of our Lord 1799. Being the Third after Bissextile or Leap-Year. Adorned with many delightful and useful Verities, fitting all Capacities in the Islands of Great Britain’s Monarchy. With notes of Husbandry, Fairs, Marts, High Roads and Tables for many necessary uses. Compiled for the Country’s Benefit by Cardanus Rider. [With: “The Arms of the Peers, Peeresses &c. of England, Scotland & Ireland the Insignia of the Different Orders of Knighthood with the Baronets of Great Britain and the Dates of their Creations” [With: “Heraldry in Miniature” / Including a small section to the end of the publication with “British Governments in America and the West-Indies with Upper Canada – Lower Canada – Cape Breton – Virgin Island – Montserrat – Grenada – Jamaica – Leeward Islands – Barbados [Barbadoes]” etc.]. [ With a section on “Peers, Peeresses and Bishops of Ireland – That are Not Peers of England”].

London, Printed for the Company of Stationers, 1799. Slim-Octavo (9,5 cm x 16 cm). Collation complete with parts of the book interleaved: 60, XXXVI, [122 + 4 misbound planches with coats of arms, pagination incorrect but all plates available that are called for], plus 321 pages [House of Peers of Great Britain with misprinted pagination to the beginning of the 321 pages]. Original Hardcover / 18th century or early 19th century red leather. Stronger rubbed but firm and intact binding. Interior with tear to page 15/16, some minor foxing and browning only, some writing to interleaved pages in a child’s hand. All plates with Heraldic Bearings, Coat of Arms, Emblemata, Badges etc. included. Here the rare 1799 publication with over 500 examples of Heraldry of Ireland, Scotland and England. Includes Irish Earls, Irish Barons, Irish Archbishops, Irish Viscounts, etc. [Coat of Arms of Fingal, Glandore, Lisburne, Winterton, Arran, Barrymore, Marq. Donegall, Clanricarde, Fife, Lowth, Upper Ossory etc. etc.]

19. [Freudenberg, Carl Johann / Freudenberg, Hermann Ernst] Freudenberg, Karl Johann (Hrsg.).

Schriften der Familie Freudenberg in Weinheim nach alten und neuen Berichten. 3 Bände (vollständige Ausgabe plus Festschrift). Band I – Schriften der Familie Freudenberg in Weinheim nach alten und neuen Berichten / Band II – Carl Johann Freudenberg (1819 – 1898) und die Seinen (Briefe und Blätter) / Band III – Hermann Ernst Freudenberg (1856 – 1923). Herausgegeben von Karl Joh. Freudenberg.

Privatdruck. Heidelberg, Als Manuskript gedruckt / Nicht im Handel, 1969 – 1971. Gross – Oktav – Format. Paginierung: Band I – 171 Seiten mit zahlreichen photographischen Abbildungen / Band II – 376 Seiten mit vielen Abbildungen und Tafeln / Band III – 335 Seiten mit vielen Abbildungen und einem gemeinsamen Register fuer alle drei erschienenen Baende. Original Hardcover / Alle Baende in originalem Ganzleder. Very rare complete set of this important and well researched Family History of the Founders of the Freudenberg Group / Guter Gesamtzustand mit vereinzelt staerkeren Stockflecken. Sehr selten ! Noch seltener sind alle drei Baende zusammen verfuegbar ! / Als Zugabe (Festschrift “100 Jahre Carl Freudenberg)).

20. Holme, Randle [Randle Holme III (1627–1700)] / [Provenance: Thomas Pennant].

The Academy of Armory, or, A Storehouse of Armory and Blazon. Containing the several variety of Created Beings, and how born in Coats of Arms, both Foreign and Domestick. With the instruments used in all Trades and Sciences, together with their Terms of Art. Also the Etymologies, Definitions, and Historical Observations on the same, explicated and explained according to our modern Language. Very usefel [sic] for all Gentlemen, Scholars, Divines, and all such as Desire any Knowledge in Arts and Sciences. By Randle Holme, of the City of Chester, Gentleman Sewer in Extraordinary to his late Majesty King Charles 2. And sometimes Deputy for the Kings of Arms. [With 48 Plates, showing hundreds of symbols].

First Edition. Chester, Printed for the Author, 1688. Folio (24 cm x 35 cm). Pagination: Engraved Titlepage by P. Edwards, Printed Titlepage, [10 unnumbered], [Book I]: 107, [9 unnumbered] pages / Book II: [1], 488 pages / Book III: [1], 501, [1 unnumbered] pages / Plus [Bound with the rare Index]: “Index of the Names of Persons contained in the Academy of Armory and Blazon by Randle Holme. Printed at Chester in One Volume, Folio, 1688”. London, McMillan / Robert Triphook, 1821. Pagination: [1], 46 pages. Hardcover / Modern Masterbinding with original endpapers bound in, bearing all the original ExLibris of previous owners. Stunning, modern half-leather with marbled-paper-covered Boards and gilt lettering on spine. All edges in original gilt. In protective Mylar. Provenance: From the library of welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant. Historically inherited from Thomas Pennant’s father, David Pennant of Bighton, who received it as gift from Randle Holme. Very good condition with only minor signs of wear. See original, tipped-in, sales-note from AUctioneer “Henry Young and Sons Ltd.”. See also extensive images on our company’s web site. An extremely rare book, purchased as Duplicate from the Historical Library of the Athenaeum in Liverpool, with an ExLibris of the “Public Libraries of Liverpool” decommissioned from the “Historic Society of Lancashire & Cheshire”, formerly presented with an original ExLibris from “Jacob Kendrick of Warrington” (with his original ExLibris). Titlepage by Edwards cropped and pasted on stronger paper. Original titlepage cropped and pasted on normal paper (these two defects were already indentified by auctioneer Henry Young & Sons” and are clear markers of this being the original Randle Holme-Pennant-copy. Contents-page slightly frayed only. Corner of one page in the contents section torn. An extremely scarce publication, especially with the addition of the later published Index of Names. Interior in excellent condition.