Earlier lots included a 1656 first edition of a description of the islands of ...Guernzey and Jarsey (and neighbouring parts of France) compiled by Peter Heylyn whilst chaplain to the islands’ governor, the Earl of Danby, at £950 (Channel Islands Galleries), and a 1694 first of the Rev. Philip Falle’s An Account of the Island of Jersey, bound in contemporary speckled calf and containing an outline coloured map, at £700 (Burden).
There were several legal texts in the collection. W.F. Franklyn’s Laws and Customs of the Channel Islands..., bound in later half calf with another 1857 title, Abraham Jones’ The Constitution of Jersey made £420 (Ozanne), while an 1848 Second [Parliamentary] Report ...into the State of Criminal Law in the Channel Islands sold at £440 (Le Cornu). William Williamson’s account of the ...Trial of Moses Corbet, a Lieutenant Governor of Jersey who was court martialled (but later acquitted) for ordering his troops to surrender to a surprise French attack in 1781, was sold at £400 (Quaritch). A Major Francis Pearson of the 95th Foot had refused to obey the order and defeated the French.
In addition to the Moss collection pictured above right, the pictorial lots also included P.J. Ouless’ Royal Jersey Album of 1847, containing 11 tinted plates, at £800 (Scally).
A French view on the islands, one of 250 sets of Gustave Dupont’s four vol. Histoire du Cotentin et de ses Iles published in Caen in 1870-85, was bound in modern buckram (preserving the original soiled and creased wrappers) but it was also a presentation copy and it sold at £480 (Falle).
Left: one of 29 ink drawings found in an album compiled by artist John Claude Nattes during a five day sketching tour of Jersey in 1818. It sold at £4000 (Wavell).
Some Account of Channel Islands…
UK: A CHANNEL Islands collection formed by Sir Martin Le Quesne occupied the first 108 lots of the catalogue issued by Bloomsbury Book Auctions for their March 15 sale.
