Journal written by Admiral John Byng, estimate £8000-15,000 at Charles Miller.
Numbering 120 pages, it includes daily reports of the Mediterranean weather, orders given and received, the political situation and the progress of the war. It would have been used as the basis for his official logbook. Among the longest passages is Byng’s personal account of a Franco-Spanish attack on Savona on March 15 which his ships helped repel.
The journal, last sold as ‘the property of a lady’ at Bloomsbury Auctions in December 2007, has a guide of £8000-12,000.
In May 1756, Byng was sent to relieve a besieged garrison at Minorca but, with his ships in poor condition, opted instead to return to regroup in Gibraltar. Found guilty of failing to ‘do his utmost’ to prevent the island falling to the French, he was court marshalled and then shot – by his own signal – on the quarterdeck of his flagship Monarch on March 14, 1757.
Wine glass marking Byng’s execution, estimate £1000-1500 at Woolley & Wallis.
While the execution of such a high-ranking officer divided the country (and continues to provoke discussion today), at the time a series of popular commemoratives were produced mocking Byng’s perceived cowardice.
On April 30 the Woolley & Wallis sale of Ceramics & Glass in Salisbury includes a wine glass engraved with an officer hanging from a gibbet flanked by the initials AB and the word Justice. It is estimated at £1000-1500 at Charles Miller.
