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Lot 58

HOLST (THEODORE VON)

10 November 2009, 11:00 GMT

London, New Bond Street

Sold for £432 inc. premium

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HOLST (THEODORE VON)

Autograph letter signed (T.M von Holst"), to the painter Richard Rothwell, written in his most sulphurous vein: "What you was so Kind to inform my Father with so much Discretion, is as Base as it is False. was it I, that forced the girl on you? – or was it not you that beg'd me to introduce you to her? I shall not recapitulate all that I might say, but must add that I despise a Character so devoid of Honour and Gentlemanly feeling", one page, integral address leaf, 4to, 14 Howlands Street [London], Saturday Morning, 21 August 1830

Footnotes

THE ILLUSTRATOR OF FRANKENSTEIN TO THE PORTRAITIST OF MARY SHELLEY. Von Holst was a close follower of Fuseli, possibly even outdoing his master in graphic eroticism; added to which he was a friend of Wainewright the poisoner: the present letter being written in Holst's most flamboyant and spikily calligraphic hand. According to William Bell Scott, von Holst later contracted an open marriage but his wife was 'a wild creature' who 'returned him an unconquerable jealousy' (Max Browne, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). He was also the first person to illustrate Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; while ten years later his much put-upon correspondent, Richard Rothwell, was to paint the best-known portrait of its author (now in the NPG). Matthias von Holst, the father to whom the letter refers, was himself a composer. Von Holst's great-nephew was Gustav, a composer who, in his own less sulphurous way, also had leanings towards the occult.

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ARCHITECTURE - ST PAUL'S CATHEDRAL
Manuscript planning brief for work under the supervision of Inigo Jones, [c.1631]

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for 'The Suffragette' newspaper, [c.1913-1914]

ARCHITECTURE - STUART (JAMES) AND NICHOLAS REVETT
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BANK NOTES - MANUFACTURING
BRADBURY (HENRY) On the Security and Manufacture of Bank Notes, FIRST EDITION, Bradbury and Evans, 1856