Beschreibung:

Wolsey (Thomas, 1470/71-1530). English archbishop, statesman and cardinal of the Catholic Church. Lord High Chancellor of England 1515-29. A very fine manuscript Document Signed, ‘Thomas Wulcy’, Richemount [Richmond], 25 November [1513], boldly penned in black ink in a secretarial hand on laid paper, being a Privy Council Warrant ordering [John Dauntesey] ‘Daunce’ to make payments in Flanders to Richard Fermour and William Brown merchants of the Staple at Calais, of £1000 to be paid to William Copland for the purchase of ‘artillerye and other habilymentes of Warre’ and a further £1000 to be paid to Alan Kyng ‘for provision of Wyne for the kynges use’, a holograph receipt by Fermour and Brown (per me Rychard Fermer; per me Wyll[ia]m Browne junior) on the lower half of the document, dated 6 December 1513, Wolsey’s signature appears at the centre of the document alongside those of Thomas Howard 2nd Duke of Norfolk (1443-1524, English soldier and statesman, Lord High Treasurer 1501-22, Earl Marshal 1509-24; signed ‘T. Norfolk’), Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester (c.1460-1526, Lord Chamberlain 1509-26; signed ‘C. Som[m]ersete’), Richard Foxe (1447/88-1528, Bishop of Winchester 1501-28, Lord Privy Seal 1487-1516, the founder of Corpus Christi College, Oxford; signed ‘Ri Wynton’) and Sir Thomas Lovell (c. 1449-1524, English soldier and administrator, Speaker of the House of Commons and Treasurer of the royal household; signed ‘Thomas Lovell’), filing hole touching one letter in second line, incorrectly dated at the head of the document in a hand of c.1800, some light browning and overall age wear, one short split to left upper margin not touching text,1 page, 4to (210 x 180mm), endorsed: ex[aminat]ur p[er] Dalison (examined by Dalison) [George Dalison, Auditor of the Exchequer] (Qty: 1) Provenance: collection of Sir Joseph Dimsdale – ‘D’ (blind-stamp monogram collector’s mark with crest above to lower margin; not located in Lugt); subsequently part of the Ray Rawlins Collection of Historical Documents and Letters. The present document is illustrated in full in The Guinness Book of World Autographs by Rawlins (1977, p. 241). The document was included in the auction of the Rawlins Collection by Sotheby’s, June 1980 (Lot 67, £1,300, Thomas) and the small circular stamp of the Rawlins collection has been neatly removed from the lower left corner leaving a light, minor stain. Docketed in Rawlins’ hand in pencil to the verso as formerly part of the collection of Sir Joseph Dimsdale; XII 265; Alan G. Thomas (1911-1992) bookseller; Sotheby’s, London, 13 December 1993 (Lot 306, £2,000); International Autograph Auctions Ltd., 3 April 2011 (Lot 609, £5,600). In pencil, at top, c1850: Pl 2 No 1 implying illustration as Plate 2, number 1. The same hand has annotated the signatures of the privy councillors 1-5, and the same hand has written lines at right-angles below them, suggesting that the lower half of the document was not illustrated. Above the box formed by these lines is a short inscription of which only the words Thereabouts to be … can be made out. The left and bottom margins have been trimmed – note the straight cuts, the tightness of the trace of the circular stamp to the margin and the loss of a word in the left margin. Sir John Dauntsey (Daunce) (c.1484-1545) of Thame, Oxfordshire and London, rose from humble origins to the highest offices in King Henry VIII’s financial administration by way of the London company of Goldsmiths. ‘Richard Fermor (1480/84-1551) of Isham and Easton Neston, Northamptonshire and London, merchant of the Staple of Calais, merchant. Fermor was given a share in the contract for victualling the royal army during the Tournai campaign of 1513, and he exported large quantities of wheat, flour, beer barrels, cannonballs, harness, and saltpetre. As a reward he was given licences to export wool direct to Italy. … In 1524 Fermor was in Florence and gave financial assistance there to John Clerk Wolsey's agent,