Sobieski-Stuart Manuscript Abecebestiary

Scotland: n.p., 1842. Very good plus.. Stunning original manuscript abecedary, a serpentine and thistle-laden gift to credulous antiquary Sir Thomas Dick Lauder in the year of the artist's co-publication of the famous disputed VESTIARIUM SCOTICUM. The author of this virtuosic tribute, here styling himself Charles Eduard, born Charles Edward Manning Allen and widely known as Charles Edward Stuart, was one half of the notorious Sobieski Stuarts: brothers, poets, and Welsh-born claimants to the Stuart line. They were two gallant false pretenders who may or may not have been true believers in their own representations, who maintained their impostures to the very end and who had great instincts for making aristocratic friends and posing for romantic photographs. Their most famous publication - 1842's VESTIARIUM SCOTICUM, followed in 1845 by THE COSTUME OF THE CLANS - purported to be a copy of a copy of a lost 16th-century manuscript. It was denounced in some quarters as a forgery almost immediately, but made a powerful impact. Described by one modern historian as "shot through with pure fantasy and bare-faced forgery" (Trevor-Roper, 36), it nevertheless had immense influence on the history of Scottish tartans. The designs in the VESTIARIUM were taken up with enthusiasm, and many are in use today by the clans to whom they were attributed - among them, the Lauder tartan.

Sir Thomas Dick Lauder befriended the Sobieski Stuart brothers in the 1820s and soon set about to promote their claims and manuscripts. On the authenticity of the VESTIARIUM he consulted Sir Walter Scott, who allowed that the work was "cleverly done," but mistrusted the source: "These Hay Allans are men of warm imaginations," he recorded in his journal, and sent Lauder a long warning letter, both learned and tactful, "on the subject of these Allans and their manuscript." Despite this warning, Lauder chose to be persuaded, and when at long last the VESTIARIUM was published, this original abecedary was presented to Lauder by Charles Stuart, presumably in gratitude for his long backing and friendship. Lauder had a warm imagination of his own: the author of several historical romances, he was also the subject of an ungenerous footnote in the COMPLETE BARONETAGE, which records that having "utterly failed" to prove descent from certain other Lauders, he put up a monument regardless, stating that descent "as he wished it to be." In this the abecedary's owner appears to embrace the quip of one from a later century: It's not a lie, if you believe it. With our thanks to Bill Zachs for his initial identification of the artist. Folio. 16'' x 12''. Contemporary red morocco with large gilt Scottish coat-of-arms to both covers, with numerous additional ornate devices and fleurs-de-lys. Marbled endpapers. All edges gilt. Calligraphic and engrossed manuscript to fourteen leaves, rectos only, each signed at the foot. Plus preliminary dedication leaf. Housed in a custom archival clamshell box. Board slightly bowed. One leaf with short marginal tear (with very slight loss). Small scuff lower edge of top board. Mild wear. Minor expert repairs.