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Lot 17
17. Evelyn (John, diarist, founding member of the Royal Society, antiquarian, numismatist and garden historian, 1620-
1706) au t o g r a p h le t t e r s i g n e d “Jev e ly n” to ra l p h th o r e s b y, w r i t t e n f r o m h i s s o n’s h o u s e in do v e r st r e e t, 1p., folio,
address panel on verso with red wax seal, Dover Street, 27th June 1702, concerning two coins which Thoresby had asked
him about, and with Thoresby’s autograph notes identifying the pieces as, “Lord Fairfax enameled upon Gold” and “a crown
and 12d obsidional peices”, reporting that he and his wife had examined them and they have proved to be what Thoresby had
mentioned, and sending “The Curiosity which you mention” as a gift from his wife as “a piece of art worthy [of] yr Collection”;
he also informs Thoresby that, having failed to arrange the delivery with Mr Kird [Thoresby’s friend, the vituoso], he has left
them with Mr Hunt, “operator of the [Royal] Society at Gresh[am] Colledge”, “to be delivered to whomsoever comes in your
name for them”, folds, browned. £3,000 - £4,000
*** The gift was probably made as a consequence of Thoresby’s visit to the Evelyns the previous year, which he recorded
in his own diary, “The famous Mr Evelyn, who has published a great number of very rare books, was above measure civil
and courteous, in showing me many drawings and paintings of his own and his lady’s doing; one especially of enamel was
surprisingly fine, and this ingenious lady told me the manner how she wrought it, but I was uneasy at his too great civility in
leaving an untold heap of gold medals before me &c.”
Ralph Thoresby (1658-1725), antiquary and topographer, author of Ducatus Leodiensis, or, The Topography of Leeds, 1715,
whose father, having served under Fairfax during the Civil War, was able after the general’s death, to purchase Fairfax’s coin
collection and library for £185, which he used to create a private museum, the Musaeum Thoresbyanum.
LONDON
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