Bonhams 1793 : BLACKBURNE (ANNA) Autograph Letter of Wishes appended to her will by the botanist Anna Blackburne, 1792

Autograph Letter of Wishes appended to her will by the botanist Anna Blackburne, signed ("Anna Blackburne"), headed "The paper refer'd to in my Will" and setting out the disposal of her property ("...To my nephew John Blackburne Mer.nt of Liverpoole I leave... my father's picture in Oil Colours that hangs over the dressing room fireplace... To my late Bro.r John's Daug.r I leave my Sudan Chair, the poles, straps , & cover & every thing that belongs to it. I leave to her any of my printed Books she chooses except my books of Natural History w.ch shou'd go to my nephew with the Colection..."), 6 pages, splitting at folds, 8vo, [Orford Hall, Warrington], 8 February 1792

Sold for £1,625 inc. premium

Footnotes

For a notice of Linnaeus's correspondent Anna Blackburne, see the Linnaeus letter below: she was to die on 30 December 1793, her bequests to her family and charities mounting to some £12,000 (see Ann B. Shteir in the ODNB).

Included in the lot is "Some Account of Insects taken in the Summer of 1768", with "Some Account of a few of the more rare plants growing in this Neighbourhood", 17 pages, some browning and minor wear, unbound in one gathering, folio. This has been identified in a contemporary hand as "Orford by J Bolton", suggesting that it is by the natural history artist James Bolton of Halifax (1735-1799), one of the foremost mycologist of the eighteenth century (see Mark Seaward, ODNB). In the same year that this manuscript was prepared, Bolton married a Sarah Blackburn or Blakeburn, which suggests a possible kinship, although, as son of a weaver, he was from a very different background to that of the Orford Blackburnes, who appear to have commissioned this work. It comprises descriptions set against two columns, the first with a date, the second bearing a number, the latter presumably indicating a matching drawing. It has something of the limpid appeal of White's Selborne notes: "July 6/ 79./ Sitting on the Grass in the plantation not plentifull in the hot Shine it Makes short and feeble flights from one blade of Grass to another... July 12/ 103./ "On the Dunghill in the Stable yard, flying about the leaves of an Aloe; (which being Sick was placed there to take its Chance of life or death,) & not elsewhere.../ Aug.t 1/ 138./ In rose wood they fly high and Swift and Settle in hot glemes upon the Bramble blossom in Cloudy weather they rest on the uppermost branches of the talles [sic] oakes...".

Category: Books / Books, Maps and Manuscripts

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