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Lot 1114
An exceedingly well-documented and poignant Great War group of three awarded to 2nd Lieutenant W. H. Blades, The Rifle Brigade, late Honourable Artillery Company (Infantry), who was killed in action in May 1917 1914-15 Star (4130 Pte., H.A.C.); British War and Victory Medals (2 Lieut.), in their card forwarding boxes and registered envelope, virtually as issued (3) £2000-3000 William Henry ‘Harry’ Blades was born in September 1897 and was employed as a clerk at a bank in Kensington on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914. Having then considered the merits of whether to apply for a commission, and indeed which regiment to join, he attested in the Honourable Artillery Company (H.A.C.) in August 1915, and was embarked for France as a Private in ‘C’ Company, 3rd H.A.C. Infantry Battalion, at the end of the year. For the first few months his unit was employed on garrison duty at St. Omer, but by the summer of 1916, his letters home reveal service of a more active nature on the Somme: ‘We are getting r ady to spend the next few days in a manner not at all comfortable and free from care. I never knew I was so fond of life until recently, when there seemed a chance of losing it ... It seems absolutely absurd to think so many men should be formed up along the line trying to kill each other; and the sun shining overhead, birds singing and green woods in the distance ... The trench mortars are one of the most worrying inventions. They are fired from the trenches, and go high up into the air, dropping somewhere near the trench. You can see them dropping and have to run up and down dodging them, which might be quite interesting if the things didn’t explode with such force.’ Shortly after these operations, Blades applied for a commission and was despatched to a Cadet School, but fell ill with jaundice. It was not, therefore, until February 1917 that he was finally appointed a 2nd Lieutenant in the 8th Battalion of his favoured regiment - the Rifle Brigade. And towards the end of the following month, his unit moved up to the front line: ‘Things are not so pleasant now; and in a few hours we shall be in the trenches, some of the many Fritz has presented us with. If they are the same as the villages he has left, he can keep them. I have just seen one of them, and it is as desolate a sight as one can imagine - not a vestige of a building - just a gate or railings here and there ... It is awfully noisy here ... This morning we had a unique and rather touching sight of an aeroplane catching fire. The pilot lived to reach the ground, but gradually the flames gained until the plane shrivelled up and dropped. We could see the pilot throw himself out ... My respect for the Church of England has gone; and with the influence of the War, I have become materialistic - everything is chance. If you and a shell arrive at the same place together, that is chance.’ At long last, for he had not been home to Gateshead since he had been embarked for France at the end of 1915, Blades was given 10 days leave at Easter 1917 - ‘I am glad I had eave,’ he wrote on returning to his unit, ‘It won’t be quite so bad now I have seen everybody I wanted to.’ Just a few days later, on 3 May, he led his men over the top in a dawn attack near Cheresy. On the 7th, his Company Commander, Captain W. A. Crebbin, wrote to his father: ‘It is with great regret that I have to inform you that your son is wounded and missing. Much as I should like to, I’m afraid I can’t give you any hope for his safety. The Battalion went into action on May 3rd and shortly after we advanced your son was wounded: one of my stretcher bearers bound up his wounds but the stretcher bearer informed me that Blades had been grievously wounded and that there was very little chance of his living. the enemy counter attacked us heavily after our advance and we had to return to our original line and we were unable to get further information concerning your son. To be quite candid, though I hate being so, I’m afraid it is hoping against hope to think otherwise than that he has been killed in action. It is the best death that we are allowed out here, to fall at the head of one’s men; but it is those at home who have the biggest part of the war to bear, and their’s is the aftermath to suffer. i was your son’s Company Officer and though I have only taken over the Company recently, I know his loss will be greatly felt. His men looked up to him, loved him and would have done anything for him. His will be a great loss to the company. if I hear anything further concerning Blades I will contact you immediately, but in any case if there is any way in which I can help you, please don’t hesitate to write. I will do my best.’ Harry Blades has no known grave and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial. He was 21 years old. in addition to the archive described below, his awards are also sold with a wonderful biography of some 30,000 words, written by his sister, in which she draws upon some of his correspondence, in addition to many other family sources. Perhaps most moving of all is her account of the occasion that her brother - on his last leave home - confessed that he would never return: ‘He sought her out in the drawing room, where she was sitting alone in the twilight in front of a glowing fire. He walked round the back of the settee and put his hand on her shoulder. As she clasped it in her own, he said slowly and distinctly, ‘I know that I won’t come back. I want you to remember me and tell your children about me.’ The girl felt a lump rise in her throat and the hot tears well up in her eyes. She knew if she tried to speak she would burst into tears, and she must not do that at all costs. She clung to his hand and inclined her head in reply. Her brother waited for a few seconds, and then abruptly strode out of the room ... She felt she had somehow failed him in his hour of need, and that she ought to have been able to give him some words of comfort; but he had spoken with such grave conviction that no words of hers could have dispelled his gloom.’ It was not until September 1984 that she finally made the pilgrimage o see his name on the Arras Memorial. the Archive: (a) An impressive run of postcards, nearly 60, the whole to his family in Gateshead in the period 1913-15, written prior to his volunteering, and detailing his activities in London, not least many visits to the opera, art exhibitions and museums; together with three letters from the same period, with W. Kensington stamp marks, these dated 2 December 1914, 18 July and 21 July 1915. (b) His enlistment form on joining the H.A.C. (Infantry) on 4 August 1915; his Soldiers’ Pay Book (Active Service), with entries ‘In the Field’ covering the period August 1915 to February 1917; his related discharge form on obtaining a commission and official notification for his appointment to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant, dated 18 February 1918; together with some miscellaneous souvenirs from his time in France, among them a cinema programme from Rouen Camp, December 1915, a Christmas dinner menu 1916, signed by four Rifle Brigade officers, and detailed annotated maps of trenches and positions, both dating from January 1917, when he was attending a Cadet School for his commission. (c) A quantity of letters home from the H.A.C. Training Camp at Richmond (9), dated between August 1915 and November 1915, and other examples sent from Kensington and Bisley in the same period. (d) A superb run of letters home from France, approximately 60, covering the period December 1915 right through until his death in action in 1917, most of them in ‘On Active Service’ green envelopes and similarly bearing ‘Passed by Field Censor’ stamps, together with a silk embroidered H.A.C. postcard and the occasional field postcard, and, most poignantly, the telegram he sent home reporting his E.T.A. at Gateshead on his last leave, dated 2 April 1917, his last lett
Lot 1397
An important Rhodesian pioneer’s C.M.G. group of four awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel Hugh Marshall Hole, onetime Private Secretary to Dr. Leander Jameson, and a friend of Cecil Rhodes, who described him ‘as one of the best and most loyal servants the Charter has had the good fortune to employ’: an acclaimed author, too, he wrote a definitive history of the ‘Jameson Raid’ in addition to his classic - The Making of Rhodesia the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, C.M.G., Companion’s neck badge, converted from breast wear, silver-gilt and enamel; British South Africa Company Medal 1890-97, reverse Rhodesia 1896, no clasp (Lieut. & Adjt. H. Marshall Hole, S.F.F.); Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 1 clasp, Rhodesia (Lieut. H. Marshall-Hole, S. Rhoda. Vol.); Coronation 1902, silver, edge bruising and contact marks, otherwise generally very fine (4) £3000-3500 ex A. A. Upfill-Brown collection, December 1991. c.M.G. London Gazette 1 January 1924. hugh Marshall Hole was born in Tiverton, Devon in May 1865 and was educated at Blundell’s School and Balliol College, Oxford. Having then failed to gain entry to the Chinese Consular Service, he sailed for South Africa, where, in 1889, he found employment in a Kimberley law firm. As it transpired, the same firm represented Cecil Rhodes and Dr. Leander Jameson, and, in the following year, on gaining their confidence, he became the first member of clerical staff to be appointed to the newly formed British South Africa Company. moving from the Cape to the company’s Mashonaland office in Salisbury in 1891, he was appointed Private Secretary to Jameson, while in 1893 he achieved another ‘first’ when he became a Civil Commissioner and Justice of the Peace for Salisbury District. However, on news of the Matabele raid on Victoria in July of the latter year, Jameson refused Hole permission to accompany the Mashonaland Horse, of which he was a member, instead insisting that he remain in Salisbury as Magistrate. But as Hole would later recall in his unpublished memoirs, this latter post actually led to his own chapter of ‘active service’: ‘Then came the Wilson disaster at Shangani. Just before Christmas 1893, the natives in Lomagunda District became troublesome, and had a fracas with some white men, in which one - Arthur Stanford - was fatally wounded. As Magistrate I was sent out to investigate, and in view of the disturbed condition of the country a detachment of 25 men, under Lieutenant Randolph Nesbitt (Now Major Nesbitt, V.C.), with a maxim gun, was sent as my escort. The wet season was on, and the country was in a fearful condition. I outstripped my escort and had finished my enquiry - including the dying deposition of young Stanford - before they joined me ... We were returning when we got information of the Shangani fight, and orders to proceed towards the Zambesi, in which direction it was thought that King Lobengula was fleeing with Wilson in pursuit. Nesbitt and I picked out 10 or 12 of the best mounted men in the escort and turned back. We spent many days in fruitless search, and among the Lomagunda natives, all of whom were panicky, and who gave us a lot of false information to get rid of us. The weather was awful, and for two weeks we could get nothing but kaffir food, and marched through, and slept, in mud. We had to swim rivers. Eventually, I got back to Salisbury, after three weeks of the roughest experience I have ever endured. I left on Christmas Eve and returned on 17 January. I gained nothing except a bad dose of fever; but I made a life-long chum in Randolph Nesbitt.’ Following his experiences in the troubles of 1893, and a period back in the U.K. to recover from his fever, Hole remained actively employed in Salisbury in the period leading up to, and including, the ill-fated ‘Jameson Raid’ of December 1895, a period about which, as a result of his first hand knowledge, he later wrote his much acclaimed history - as he put it in his private memoirs, ‘Rhodes was constantly in and out of our offices, and Jameson was there in the intervals between his rapid trips to the North.’ It was, however, in the following year, that he himself officially witnessed military service, for in March 1896, on the outbreak of rebellion, he attested for the Salisbury Field Force (S.F.F.): ‘On the outbreak of the rebellion, I was at once promoted from Trooper to Lieutenant in the Rhodesia Horse, and shortly afterwards, when the Salisbury Field Force was formed, I was made Adjutant of the left wing. I took part in a good many patrols at the outset and had my first experience of being under fire ... I remember one little expedition in which Colonel Alderson, my wife Ethel (mounted on one of his horses), the Judge and I went to visit some rebel villages about eight miles out ... Alderson’s action in allowing a lady to go beyond the town limits were severely criticised in the local press!’ Following further leave back in England, Hole was appointed Secretary of the company’s offices in Bulawayo in 1898, while in August of the following year he joined the newly formed Southern Rhodesia Volunteers (S.R.V.). And with the advent of hostilities a few weeks later, he departed with two S.R.V. squadrons and some B.S.A.P. to the Bechuanaland line to guard the border. Struck down by dysentery at the end of the year, he was invalided back to Bulawayo, but afterwards served as a Transport Officer for Carrington’s Field Force (The Bushmen Corps), before returning to civilian employ as Government Secretary for Matabeleland in the course of 1900. residing in Bulawayo, it was his responsibility to find a way around the great currency shortage then being experienced as a result of the war. Holding large stocks of postage stamps, he introduced his now famous ‘Money Cards’, bearing on one side his signature and the stamp of the Administrator’s Office, and on the other side a B.S.A. postage stamp of varying denominations - sold with this lot is an original example of a one shilling card. another of his duties in the Boer War was to administer native labour, and to that end he was invited to carry out talks with the new Transvaal Government at Johannesburg, in order to establish a mutual arrangement for recruitment: ‘Johannesburg was in military occupation and the war was at its height. At Wolve Hoek we were held up in the train for some hours, and were eye-witness of a big drive intended to round up General de Wet, but although a large number of Boers were captured, de Wet was not among them. Lord Kitchener was there and seemed much annoyed. Our journey to and from Johannesburg took a fearful time owing to the numerous stoppages and delays due to military operations. At one time near Mafeking, our train was shelled by Boers but they were turned by fire from the armoured train which escorted us.’ In April 1901, at Kimberley, Hole had one of his last meetings with Cecil Rhodes: ‘I was a good deal shocked at his appearance, which had altered for the worse since I had last seen him, shortly after the relief of Mafeking. Dr. Jameson was staying with him and also General Pretyman. I had some long talks with Rhodes, about the native labour question in Rhodesia mainly. We played bridge every evening and I lost £5 to Rhodes, at which he was greatly pleased, though it didn’t amuse me so much!’ Rhodes died in early 1902, following Hole’s trip to Aden, at Rhodes’ behest, in order to bring back 200 Arab coolies: ‘I was placed in charge of the arrangements for the national funeral in the Matopo Hills, and had a good deal of responsibility. For this duty I received the thanks of the Administrator, the Chartered Company and the Rhodes Trustees.’ Returning to the U.K. on leave, Hole was offered a place in the Rhodesian Coronation Contingent: ‘At once I went to the Colonial Camp at Alexandra Palace. The Contingent was composed of the B.S.A.P. and the same number of my own regiment
Lot 1398
A rare Great War East Africa operations C.M.G. group of nine awarded to Colonel C. U. Price, Indian Army, C.O. of Jacob’s Rifles and a successful Column Commander whose forces captured Dar-es-Salaam in September 1916 the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, C.M.G., Companion’s neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel; East and Central Africa 1897-99, 1 clasp, Uganda 1897-98 (Lieut., 3/Baluch L.I.); China 1900, no clasp (Captain, 30/Baluch L.I.); 1914-15 Star (Lt. Col., 1/130 Baluchis); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Col.); Delhi Durbar 1903, impressed naming, ‘Colonel C. V. Price, 130th Baluchis’; Delhi Durbar 1911, unnamed as issued; Russian Order of St. Anne, 3rd class breast badge, with swords, by Osipov, St. Petersburg, gold and enamel, manufacturer’s initials on reverse, ‘56’ zolotnik mark for 1909-17 on eyelet, and other stamp marks on sword hilts, generally good very fine (9) £3500-4000 c.M.G. London Gazette 26 June 1916. mention in despatches London Gazette 30 June 1916, 7 March 1918 and 6 August 1918 (all East Africa). russian Order of St. Anne London Gazette 15 February 1917. charles Uvedale Price was born in May 1868 and was educated at the United Services College, Westward Ho! and the R.M.C., Sandhurst. Originally commissioned into the Royal Dublin Fusiliers in February 1888, he transferred to the Indian Army in January 1890 and served in the Zhob Valley on the North West Frontier in the same year, afterwards gaining an appointment as a Wing Officer in the 30th Regiment of Bombay Infantry (3rd Baluchis). in January 1897, however, he was attached to the 27th Bombay Infantry (1st Baluchis) as Adjutant, and went on to win his first campaign medal with them in the Uganda operations of 1897-98. During this latter campaign he was engaged against the Sudanese mutineers, including the operations at Jeruba and Kijangute, and in Budda and Ankoli, gaining a mention in despatches. shortly afterwards he sailed for China, and served as a Captain in the course of the Boxer Rebellion. Then in 1903, back in India, Price attended the Delhi Durbar, attached as a Political Officer to His Highness the Mir of Khairpur. He was advanced to Major in February 1906. appointed a Double Company Commander in the 130th K.G.O. Baluchis (Jacob’s Rifles) in October 1911, Price assumed command of the regiment in the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in April 1915, and went on to serve with distinction in the operations in East Africa. in July 1915, in the fighting in the Mbuyuni region, he was appointed to the command of the flanking column, comprising Jacob’s Rifles, the 4th K.A.R. and Cole’s Scouts, sent by Brigadier-General Malleson to envelop the enemy’s left. Carrying out a well timed circuitous night march, Price attacked at daybreak on the 14th, but by 8 a.m. his force was checked by strong enemy resistance, and it became necessary to await more positive news from the main attacking force to the Germans’ front. This initiative, however, also lost momentum, and by the time Malleson’s order to call off the assault reached Price, his force had been under a lively hostile fire for at least an hour. Unperturbed, Price disengaged and ‘brought away his force in a steady and well-executed withdrawal, with slight loss’ (Official history refers). in early July 1916, as C.O. of a 500-strong force, comprising the 5th Light Infantry and a company of the 101st Grenadiers, Price was given the task of capturing Tanga. Carrying out a successful landing on the southern shore of Manza Bay on the 5th, he moved his force inland towards Amboni, ‘which was reached next day after disposing of some slight resistance on the way’. And on the 7th, he and his men crossed the Zigi River, the final natural barrier between them and their goal. Tanga, however, was found to have been deserted by the enemy, although some had remained behind in the surrounding bush from where they sniped at the British with good effect. Flushing out such opposition by means of frequent patrolling, Price moved on to Kange on the 17th. then in early August, he was given overall command of two columns, numbering in total some 1400 men, to secure the crossings of the Wami River. This he successfully accomplished in little more than a week, thereby assisting in opening up the way forward to attack Dar-es-Salaam. For the final advance on the seat of government and principal port of German East Africa, Price’s force was bolstered in strength by some 500 men and equipped with 20 machine-guns. The whole was assembled at Bagamoyo at the end of the month, and on the 31st, in two columns, it advanced on Dar-es-Salaam, while two smaller parties penetrated north to secure the railway line and some important bridges. Just four days later, having encountered little opposition, Price’s main force was assembled on the heights near Mabibo, from which the port could be seen less than three miles away. And early on that morning, after the Royal Navy had despatched a delegation aboard the Echo with a formal summons to surrender, the 129th Baluchis, which had acted as Price’s advanced guard throughout the operation, entered and took over the town. Once again, the Germans had made a hasty retreat, leaving behind 80 hospital patients and 370 non-combatants. for his part in some of the above related operations in German East Africa, Price was awarded the C.M.G and mentioned in despatches, in addition to gaining appointment to the Russian Order of St Anne. And in the later operations of that theatre of war between 1917-18, he again distinguished himself and was twice more the recipient of a ‘mention’. The Colonel, who retired to South Africa, died in May 1956. £3500-£4000
Lot 145
Luigi Rossini (1790-1857) 'Avanzi del Teatro di Marcello' etching, published 1821, 39 x 51 cm (15 1/2 x 20 in), together with Charles Turner ARA (1773-1857), after Joseph Mallord William Turner, Scene on the French coast (also known as 'Flint Castle') etching with aquatint, from the Liber Studiorum (Finberg 4) 18 x 26 cm (7 x 10 in), Armin Landeck (American, 1905-1984) Hotel de Sens, Paris, aquatint, signed in pencil, 23 x 29 cm (9 x 7 in) Provenance: Knoedler & Co, New York, and T. F. S. (20th century, possibly French) A man walking on a dockside, an elevated bridge beyond, etching, signed and dated 1909 in the plate, signed again in pencil and with monogram in red stamp, 18 x 23 cm (7 x 9 in)
Lot 209
Horace Shipp - “Edward Seago - Painter in the English Tradition”, published by Collins, London 1952 (one volume in blue cloth binding), inscribed on fly leaf as a personal gift to Peter Cushing by Edward Seago - “To my ever dear Watson with every mark of affection and esteem from his guide and friend Sherlock, Baker Street, July 1900”, with small sketch of Sherlock Holmes wearing a deerstalker and a violin, also inscribed “The Dutch House, July 1958), bears the library stamp of Peter Cushing and remnants of paper dustcover, and two handwritten letters from Edward Seago, one on headed notepaper, “The Dutch House, Ludham, Norfolk” and dated 1.64, addressed to “Dear Helen”, the other addressed to “Dearest Peter and Helen” and dated 30th December 1964
Lot 829
A good Edward VII large Rose Bowl, of compressed circular baluster form, with shaped rim and applied “C” scroll border, with further pierced floral over replicating swags and raised on four stylised leaf and hoof feet, diameter 8 ½”, weight 26 oz, London 1904, Maker’s Mark Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Co Ltd, and further retailer’s stamp for Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Co Ltd, 112 Regent Street, London W
Lot 838
A good Victorian Four Piece Tea and Coffee Service, comprising Teapot, Coffee Pot, Sugar Basin and Milk Jug, each of baluster form, with all over engraved foliate decorations, to a contemporary armorial of a unicorn’s head, set with fleur-de-lys within an olive wreath over a ribbon marked “Persevere” and further hollow cast and applied Gothic style handles, and raised on spreading circular bases, to gilt interiors, weight combined 70 ½ oz all in, Coffee Pot marked for London 1854, remaining pieces London 1858, with Maker’s Mark for Edward & John Barnard and further retailer’s stamp for Widdowson & Veale (4)
Lot 960
A last quarter of the 19th Century Silver cased open faced Fob Watch, L R & Co, the frosted gilt and jewelled movement, with mono metallic balance, to a gilt highlighted and silvered engraved dial, with applied Roman numerals and blued steel spade hands, in a hinged and polished case, with all over floral foliate and C scroll decoration, centred with a vacant cartouche, Birmingham 1885, Makers Mark M S, 57219 and further retailers stamp L R & Co, width 1 5/8”
Lot 1066
After Josef Albers 1888-1976- "Homage to the Square"; screenprint in yellow and ochre and brown, 42x42cm: Anthony Benjamin 1931-2002- "Rope"; etching printed in colours, signed, titled, numbered 12/100 and dated 79 in pencil, bears publisher's blind stamp, 52.5x34.5m: together with one other smaller etching in colours by the same hand, signed and dated 81 in pencil, 12x10cm: Alberto Longoni b.1921- "Rush Hour"; etching, signed, titled, numbered 147/200 and dated 67, 59x39.7cm: together with two other artist's prints by different hands, both signed in pencil, (6). Note: The unidentified abstract print in this lot is by a student of Josef Albers when he was teaching at Yale in the 1960's (may be subject to Droit de Suite)
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