William Duke of Clarence declaration and seal, estimate £3000-5000 at Moore Allen & Innocent.
The third son of George III, in 1830 he succeeded his elder brother George IV as the last British king of the House of Hanover. The objects come by direct descent from the family of John Barton, one of William’s advisers and a lawyer.
Pictured here is a declaration dated December 17, 1799 signed by William as the Duke of Clarence appointing Barton “as his true and lawful attorney”. The letter bears a wax seal and comes with the original silver and ivory seal itself.
William Duke of Clarence declaration and seal, estimate £3000-5000 at Moore Allen & Innocent.
The seal is one of a relatively small number of solid ivory items that have come to auction in the UK since the Ivory Act was implemented in 2022. On the payment of £250 and its submission to a committee, it had been granted an exemption on the grounds of its ‘outstanding artistic, historical or cultural value’.
At the Cirencester saleroom this lot has an estimate of £3000-5000.
