DAY 2 OF “TWELVETIDE” CATALOGUE HIGHLIGHTS
We’re rather proud of our new 40th Anniversary catalogue.
Over these twelve days of “Twelvetide” we thought we would share with you 12 highlights.
#2
Signed First English Edition of LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL
Inscribed in the Month of Publication
Winston Churchill’s first work of biography was an impassioned two-volume defense of his maligned father’s posthumous reputation. This First English edition set is signed and inscribed in ink on the first free endpaper of Volume I to: ”F. Smith from Winston S. Churchill, 13 Jan. 1906” (the month of publication). Laid-into the book is a presentation slip on embossed Chancellor of the Exchequer notepaper, with a written presentation in ink, in Churchill’s hand: “For Lord Colwyn.”
Frederick Henry Smith, 1st Baron Colwyn (1859-1946) was a manufacturer, investor and banking executive from Churchill’s constituency of Manchester; an influential Liberal figure in Manchester politics at a time when Winston Churchill was a recent new member of the Liberal party. In fact, January 1906 — the month of Lord Randolph Churchill’s publication — also was the month of the great Liberal landslide of 1906 that carried Churchill to his first election victory as a Liberal in Manchester.
In other words, a fascinating association.
More tomorrow.