Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)

Los 91
11.12.2024 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
VeranstaltungsortVereinigtes Königreich, London
Aufgeldsee on Website%
ID 1349731
Los 91 | Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
Schätzwert
£ 6 000 – 9 000
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
Five autograph letters and autograph copies of reports sent to him by his brother Samuel, addressed to [William Petty], 2nd Earl of Shelburne [later 1st Marquess Lansdowne], chiefly Lincoln's Inn, 17 September 1779 - 10 June 1780
11 pages, various sizes; with a scribal copy of a report with 9-line autograph addition, and a letter from Lansdowne to Bentham, [16 June 1788], 4 pages. Provenance: Marquesses of Lansdowne; Bowood House sale, Christie’s, 12 October 1994, lot 1.
[and:]
Jeremiah Bentham. Autograph letter signed to [Lansdowne], 24 November 1789, 3 pages. Provenance: Marquesses of Lansdowne; Bowood House sale, Christie’s, 12 October 1994, lot 8.

The earliest known letters from Bentham to the Earl of Shelburne (later the 1st Marquess of Lansdowne), his close friend and patron; and a letter from Bentham's father to Lansdowne, sending a portrait of Jeremy as a 14-year old. The letters comprise: (1) 17 September 1779 (4 pages, signed): informing Lord Shelburne of news with extracts from his brother’s letter from Amsterdam; (2) 18 November 1779 (4 pages): report of news from Hamburg; (3) 10 June 1779 (6 pages): account of the Russian fleet, as sent from St Petersburg by his brother Samuel, with scribal copy of the account; (4) May/June 1780 (one page): extract from a letter from Samuel from St Petersburg regarding the Swedish fleet; (5) [July 1780] (one page): regrets that Bentham cannot take up Lord Shelburne’s invitation as he is about to leave London; with a half-page autograph fragment and two scribal copies of reports from Samuel Bentham. Lansdowne writes to Bentham in June 1788 ‘to tell you how much we wish to see you at Bowood’, going on ‘The accounts from France are wonderfully serious. Sanguine people imagine a civil war must ensue’. The letter from Jeremiah Bentham accompanied the gift of a portrait of Jeremy in childhood (now at the National Portrait Gallery, NPG 196). ‘Your acceptance of a Portrait of my Eldest Son is so flattering a Testimony of your Lordship’s friendship and regard for the Original'.

The young Jeremy Bentham was devoted to his brother Samuel, who shared his numerous interests and a common temperament. After their shared schemes and proposals failed to gain ground in Britain in the late 1770s, the brothers came to believe that in Russia their talents would not go unrecognised, with Bentham hoping that his special gifts for legislation and codification might be noticed by the Empress Catherine II and her circle. The brothers began to cultivate every friend and acquaintance connected with Russia; they won references from men of status including William Petty, Earl of Shelburne (created Marquess of Lansdowne in 1784), to whom Samuel was introduced through Bentham's legal acquaintance, the exchequer judge Francis Maseres. This contact was to bear fruit for both brothers, and Bentham kept Shelburne informed of Samuel's activities by sending him excerpts from Samuel's letters. Samuel left Britain in August 1779 to begin an odyssey in Russia which lasted for nearly twelve years until his return in May 1791.
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