Philip Van Artevelde by Taylor 1849 SIR STAFFORD NORTHCOTE's COPY

Philip Van Artevelde; a Dramatic Romance by Henry Taylor. Published by Edward Moxon, London, in 1849. Fifth edition. 307 pages plus 28 pages of introductory material. Measures about 3 1/2" x 5 1/2". Although the play has two parts, it is complete in this volume.

This copy is beautifully bound in full leather with gilt decoration and marbled edges. It is in very nice condition -- the binding is tight, the leather is well-preserved, and there are no pen or pencil notations.

There is a bookplate inside the front cover, but this adds to the volume's value because it's the bookplate of Sir Stafford H. Northcote, Bart. Stafford Henry Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh GCB PC FRS (1818 – 1887), known as Sir Stafford Northcote, Bt from 1851 to 1885, was a nationally known British Conservative politician. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1874 and 1880 and as Foreign Secretary between 1885 and 1886.

In 1843, Northcote became private secretary to William Ewart Gladstone at the Board of Trade. Northcote was afterward legal secretary to the Board and, after acting as one of the secretaries to the Great Exhibition of 1851, co-operated with Sir Charles Trevelyan in framing the Northcote–Trevelyan Report, which revolutionized the conditions of appointment to the Civil Service. He entered Parliament in 1855 as Conservative Member of Parliament for Dudley with the support of the influential local landowner Lord Ward.

Steadily supporting his party, he became President of the Board of Trade in 1866, Secretary of State for India in 1867 and Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1874. In 1870, during the interval between the last two appointments, he was the Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, North America's oldest company (established by an English royal charter in 1670), when it sold the Northwest Territories to Canada. Northcote was one of the commissioners for the settlement of the Alabama Claims with the United States, culminating with the Treaty of Washington in 1871.

On Benjamin Disraeli's elevation to the House of Lords as Earl of Beaconsfield in 1876, Northcote became Leader of the Conservatives in the Commons. As a finance minister, he largely continued the lines of policy laid down by Gladstone. However, he distinguished himself by his dealings with the debt, especially his introduction of the new sinking fund in 1876 by which he fixed the annual charge for the debt in such a way as to provide for a regular series of payments off the capital.

Northcote was elevated to the House of Lords in 1885, when Lord Salisbury became prime minister. Taking the titles of Earl of Iddesleigh and Viscount St Cyres, he was included in the cabinet as First Lord of the Treasury. In Lord Salisbury's 1886 ministry he became Foreign Secretary, but the arrangement was not a comfortable one, and his resignation had just been decided upon when on 12 January 1887, he died suddenly at the First Lord of the Treasury's official residence, 10 Downing Street.

Written in 1834, the play being auctioned here commemorates the life of Flemish patriot Philip van Artevelde (c. 1340 – 1382). Philip was a leader of Ghent in 1381 at the head of the burgher's rebellion against Count Louis II of Flanders. Early success after the Battle of Beverhoutsveld led to the capture of Bruges and most of Flanders by the rebels, but Philip perished in the crush of bodies at the Battle of Roosebeke in 1382.

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Our father was a bibliophile who collected rare books, letters, and ephemera for more than 60 years. For now and into the foreseeable future, we will be listing rare paper items from his estate.

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