AUTOGRAPHS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18571, 1 December 1923, Page 1 (Supplement)

AUTOGRAPHS.

FAME AND ITS VALUE.

BY JOHN DOE.

A paragraph which appeared recently in the papers stated that we New Zealanders write more letters per head than any other people in the world; or in the Postal Union, which is nearly the same thing. While this may be gratifying to the Postmaster-General, it ought to make those of us who are, or hope to be, famous,' and desirous of posthumous greatness, consider the effect of all this letterwriting on tho value of our autographs. There are very many collectors of autographs, individuals as well as museums, and the fame and greatness of men and women, living and dead, is nicely calculated for these autograph -collecting people and institutions by their prolificness in signing their names and writing letters during lifetime; and this may not bear a direct relation to what the historian calls fame. What is the most valuable autograph wo have? Well, there are I think only two or three of Shakespeare's, scrawled so badly that the actual spelling is doubtful, for which many a collector in, and out of, the United States would give £50,000. But Shakespeare's autograph is probably unpurchasable. I have before me a catalogue of autograph letters and documents, containing the names of many famous people. . Famous Admirals': Autographs. ■■_■'.' " 'i For instance, Admiral Lord Nelson: "an autograph letter signed— to collectors as A.written on board his ship off Malta on October 24, 1798, to Sir William Hamilton— not to the beautiful Emma, Lady Hamilton—is worth £6. Had he then lost his right arm? Compare this price with that asked for the autograph of another Admiral,' Viscount Lord Jellicoe of Scapa Plow: ten shillings will buy "a telegram from Princess Louise containing her good wishes for the voyage of the New Zealand, with autograph pencil reply by Lord Jellicoe." One wonders how that telegram came into other hands, and pictures the telegram handed to the gallant Admiral as he sails, who hastily scribbles a reply on it, and hands it to a junior officer, who— perhaps a telegraphist—realises the commercial value of the hasty signature. Admiral Lord Charles Beresford ranks higher to the collector f-an- Lord Jellicoe: 14s is asked for a letter written on Christmas Day, 1889—with nO peaceful Message Charles Williams, the war correspondent, " I am delighted with the Undaunted, she is a fighting ship. The conflagration in Europe must come in two years." But there the Admiral was out in his reckoning by 23 years. A third Admiral, also sometime Governor of New Zealand, .Admiral Robert Fitzroy, is rated at 15s.

Signatures of Authors, The signatures of famous authors, who one' might "suppose have written them many times, are apparently worth more than those of men of action, and their autographic value is not the same as their literary value. Samuel Taylor Coleridge is worth only 15s, while Wilkie Collins is £1 4s, and, curious as it seems, Silas K. Hocking commands 12a 6tf. Do %heso modern authors: type their signatures as well as their MSS. ? Charlotte Bronte's' signature on a letter to her publisher's , reader is worth £30,, while " a long and i important letter to the , Bible Society respecting the translation. of the New Testament into Mancbu." sent by George j Borrow, that famous Bible colporteur, is j worthy only £2 2s. Thank . goodness, ! Borrow did not go to China, as then we would not -have 'had. " The Bible in Spain."' Lord Byron, in 38 lines of original verso, is worth £24, but why is an A.L.S. of William ''Wordsworth worth only £1 10s? ■ ..,'.....* I am glad to see Lewis ".. Carroll—who was the C. L. DodgsOn— appreciated. Of all theso .autographs, I would incline to choose his, and hand them down, written by the author of J V Alice in Wonderland " to my children as, an heirloom and a possession for ever. Six letters of his to the logician J. Weiton, on a disputed point in logic, are j cheap at £9 10:;. [Here is one curious puzzle of Lewis I Carroll's, in these letters: " There are three men in a house, Allen, Brown and Carr, who may go in and out, provided that (1) they never go out all at once and that (2) Allen never goes out without Brown. Can Carr ever go out? " Women's Signatures. How did the signatures of women comSare with those of men ? Well, that of [arie Antoinette, Qtieen of France, dated Paris, January 31, 1791, to her ,cousin Cardinal Borromeo, with the Royal seal, is worth £& 10fi; that of Madame Melba is worth 10s; and of Sarah Siddons £1 10s. Mrs. Thrale, later Mrs. Piozzi, the friend of Dr.. Johnson, at the age of 81, is quoted at £4 ss, Queen Anne's signature to a document is worth but a miserable 10s, while the autograph of Miss Gladys Cooper, the actress, ranks' with Miss Fay Compton and Francis Kernble and Mrs. Kendal and Irene Vanbragh. at 4s. Then why is Charlotte M. Yonge worth but 3s.' and also Frora Annie Steele, the novelist, and Jean Ingelow? '; 'j;',, Charles Dickens and King George V. ' Charles Darwin varies from £2 15? to 15s, while Charles Dickens, according to the length of letters, varies from £16 to £2 10s. Robert Browning writing' to a Mrs. T. Mayer in 1875, <r a most interesting letter, about his wife Elizabeth Barrett Browning*" fetches £6 15s: but his ordinary letters are worth 30$. only. His Majesty - King ' George < V. wrote " when aged 13, on picture-headed ,notepaper, July 28, 1878, to Lord C. Beresford, thanking him for the gift of an owl for his birthday,'* which letter is worth to-' day £1. Then Sir Hall <3aine ought to feel flattered that a letter of his is worth 18s. I should prefer Benjamin Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield, at 15s. or, at 12s, T. R. Malthus, .author of the famous "Essay on Population," and indirectly perhaps of modern birth-control, 'who wrote from what is now a famous public school, Haileybury, in March, 1827, to a Captain Hall, asking about the prolificness of married women, and whether there is any j difference in the fruitfulness of marriages in America. >;■

Here is a characteristic letter from Phil May, at 10s, " I enjoyed myself on Saturday very much—but oh! in "the morning!" A fine letter of seven pages from George Meredith is priced high, £B—more, you see, than Nelson, and only 10s less than two folio pages written by Samuel Pepys the immortal diarist. John Raskin wrote on September 30, 1870. "As a body, clergymen are at , present incapable of understanding the first conditions of social improvement" .for 10s, or, on the other hand, a letter from a clergyman, a bishop, to wit George Augustus Selwyn, Bishop of New Zealand, dated Auckland, September 6, 1862, .to "J. Patterson,". for 2s more than Buskin's. A letter from Swinburne in 1887 to Mr. Arnold in which he characteristically writes of the crowning audacity, of the Gladstonite press gang "'-.is worth £5 3s to any Tory and reminds me that some little time ago I found hidden away in one of the numerous Swinburnes in the fine Turnbull library in Wellington a letter from Swinburne, declining an invitation to the annual "Omar Khayyam Club dinner," saying that Fitzgerald's tlßubaiyat" wan the finest work in that line, being even hetter than th* Book of Job. Here is a letter from Oscar Wilde, £14, including the misquotation, from Paris, to a Mr. L. Wilkinson: " I am so glad that we are seemingly quite close to each otherat any rate without the ' Salt unplumbed estranging sea ' between us. ... . To read Greek and speak French are two of the greatest pleasures in the cultivation of life." But I must stop if I wish this article ever to be worth, say a Carlyle, £1 ss, or Nathanial Hawthorne, 18s. You never can tell. ; .