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Fine and Rare Wines
21 Nov 2009, San Francisco and Los Angeles |
Antique Arms and Armor and Modern Sporting Guns
23 Nov 2009, 220 San Bruno Avenue, San Francisco |
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23 Nov 2009, Los Angeles and San Francisco |
Decorative Arts and Glass
24 Nov 2009, Chester |
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24 Nov 2009, Chester |
British and Continental Collectable Ceramics
24 Nov 2009, Chester |
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24 Nov 2009, Chester |
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24 Nov 2009, Knightsbridge |
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24 Nov 2009, Knightsbridge |
British & Continental Pictures
24 Nov 2009, Knightsbridge |
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Long-Lost Jacobean Play Comes to Light in Old Trunk and Offers Intriguing Insight Into Court of James I - For Sale at Bonhams
http://www.bonhams.com/magazine
An extremely rare Jacobean manuscript, a hitherto unknown play by Lord Edward Herbert, a close friend of John Donne, has been found in a folder marked 'Old Poems' and buried in a trunk that had been stored in an attic in Powis Castle.
Writing in the latest edition of Bonhams Magazine, Felix Pryor, of Bonhams Book Department discusses how he found the manuscript which will be sold at Bonhams Sale of Books and Manuscripts on 10th November in New Bond Street, London.
The manuscript was uncovered during a valuation at Powis Castle, when Lord Powis, the owner of the Castle, showed Felix into a room, where he had two trunks of manuscripts.
Felix says: "They contained the usual mixture. There were typed letters from the estate's archive and the like mixed in with 17th century property deeds, themselves not without interest. It turned out later that everything in the trunks had been meticulously listed, item by item. But with one exception. This was a folder, marked, 'Old Poems'. Some of these were just 17th century copies – others were clearly in the hand of Lord Powis's forebear, Lord Herbert of Cherbury. He was the elder brother of the poet George Herbert and a close family friend of John Donne, writing poems in his 'metaphysical' style. He was also a friend of Ben Jonson. But Lord Cherbury is best known for his works on philosophy and an extremely lively autobiography which Horace Walpole published in the 18th century.
"This tells us a great deal about his military prowess and how attractive women found him, but next to nothing about his literary ambitions (something of this comes across in the glorious miniature of him as a young-man-about-court by Isaac Oliver, with seemingly spiked and gelled hair). And in this folder, there it was. A play. And clearly the draft of a play. It had lots of crossings out. It even had a heading: 'The Amazon'. "
When Felix Pryor got home very late that evening, he immediately looked it up and found that there had been a masque of that name due to be performed before James I and his court on New Year's Day in 1618. But for some reason it had been cancelled.
"The manuscript itself, which is written in a sort of pre-bound booklet of foolscap size, is set out in the manner that one can identify as typical of professional dramatists of the period. It didn't seem likely that Herbert of Cherbury was trying his hand in writing for the commercial theatre?"
Also in Bonhams Magazine:
Interview with Nicholas Penny, The Director of The National Gallery
The Hoffmeister Collection: Why porcelain sent strong men mad
Dr Who: the BBC sells the monsters at Bonhams
A pair of Hilliard minatures of Queen Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester: do they hold the key to their tortured relationship?
The Arts Club sells part of its Collection. John Walsh writes about the riotous history of the club in Piccadilly
Philip Pullman's Favourite Room
To read these stories see www.Bonhams.com/magazine
For further press information and pictures please contact Julian Roup on 0207 468 8259 or julian.roup@bonhams.com or press@bonhams.com
NOTES FOR EDITORS
Bonhams, founded in 1793, is one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. The present company was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son and Neale UK. In August 2002, the company acquired Butterfields, the principal firm of auctioneers on the West Coast of America. Today, Bonhams offers more sales than any of its rivals, through two major salerooms in London: New Bond Street, and Knightsbridge, and a further seven throughout the UK. Sales are also held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Boston in the USA; and Switzerland, France, Monaco, Australia, Hong Kong and Dubai. Bonhams has a worldwide network of offices and regional representatives in 25 countries offering sales advice and valuation services in 50 specialist areas. For a full listing of upcoming sales, plus details of Bonhams specialist departments, go to www.bonhams.com. (January 2009)
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