* Geological cabinet. A 4-drawer Victorian cabinet of geological specimens and receipted bills relating to the estate of William Capel Clarke-Thornhill of Rushton Hall, Northamptonshire, 1850s/1860s, the top tray containing various dried exotic seed pods and fruits, with a shark’s tooth, rattlesnake tail with rattle, and others similar, lined with a sheet of 18th-century manuscript accounts, the second tray with approximately 100 receipted bills addressed to William Capel Clarke-Thornhill, the third tray with a quantity of approximately 60 shells, including top shells, scallops, cone shells, oysters, murexes, turbans, cowries, olives, turrets, clams, abalones, conches, and others, the bottom tray contains a selection of approximately 90 minerals, several with manuscript labels (several detached), dated 1851, 1852 etc., including: ‘Granulated copper’, ‘Fibrous manganese’ labelled on the rear ‘Cornwall’, ‘Green phosphate of lead, from… lead mine’, ‘Antimony from Sarawak, Borneo, bought by J. L. W. for Sir James Brooke’s store… 1850 - H.M.S Amazon, given to me Aug: 1851...’, the trays in a fitted contemporary mahogany box (key missing), 27 x 42 x 21 cm (Qty: 1)NOTESWilliam Capel Clarke-Thornhill (1832-1898) was a J.P., and Captain in the 23rd Regiment of Fusiliers. The agent for Clarke-Thornhill, whose name appears on a number of the bills, and who came into possession of the cabinet was John Higgins. John Higgins (1795/6-1872) had acted as Charles Darwin's land agent from 1845, when Robert Waring Darwin (Charles Darwin's father) bought, on Charles Darwin's behalf, a farm in Beesby, near Claythorpe and Alford in Lincolnshire. Higgins managed the farm and collected the rent for Charles Darwin. Higgins lived at Alford Manor House, Alford, Lincolnshire. He also acted as agent for Darwin's sister Susan and their father Robert. Sir James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, KCB (1803-1868), was a British soldier and adventurer who founded the Raj of Sarawak in Borneo. He ruled as the first White Rajah of Sarawak from 1841 until his death in 1868.
