This is an excellent, highly desirable and highly collectible gentleman's vanity case with a very interesting provenance.

Please see the attached photographs which are an integral part of this description.

As can be see, the case and contents are all in very good condition. There is limited wear from use and there is also no damage to the case or its contents.

The case has a working lock and key. There is a brass cartouche to the lid with 'Algernon E West' engraved in it. The bottles, pots and containers have bright chromed patterned lids with the initial GET engraved on them. There is a variety of manicure tools and scissors inside the inner lid which has a brass fastening.

The provenance of the case is most interesting and this sale includes two books regarding Sir Algernon Edward West GCB (4 April 1832 – 21 March 1921) who held the position of Principal Private Secretary to Prime Minister Gladstone.

He was the son of Martin John West and Lady Maria Walpole, daughter of the second Earl of Orford. His father was a cousin to William Pitt, through alliance with the Temple family, and his mother was a great-granddaughter of Sir Robert Walpole, the prime minister. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. He married Mary Elizabeth Caroline Barrington, daughter of Hon. George Barrington and Lady Caroline Grey (daughter of Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, also a prime minister), on 12 August 1858.

He was Private Secretary to Gladstone between 1861 and 1894. He was a Progressive Party Alderman of London County Council from 1898 to 1907. He held the office of Justice of the Peace (JP) for Middlesex. He held the office of Chairman of the Board of the Inland Revenue. He was invested as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) on 30 July 1886. He was promoted to a Knight Grand Cross of the order (GCB) in the 1902 Coronation Honours list published on 26 June 1902, and was invested by King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace on 8 August 1902. He was later invested as a Privy Counsellor (PC).

From 1880, he lived at the manor at Wanborough, Surrey. West entertained many political figures at the manor including Gladstone, Queen Victoria and Bismarck.

West was also a director of the South Eastern Railway and he caused a new station, named Wanborough but actually at Normandy, to be opened in 1891. In 1900, Wanborough Manor was passed on to H. H. Asquith until he became Prime Minister. In 1908, West returned to stay in the manor until his death in 1921.

This is a rare chance to own an antique item which has had a real 'life' in the ownership of a high ranking and highly regarded government official who lived through the reign of Queen Victoria.

Dimensions: 23cm x 16cm x 10cm


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