Previous Lot Next Lot

Auction: 16043 - Autographs, Historical Documents, Ephemera and Postal History
Lot: 64

(x) Documents
John Ruskin
1872-76, a series of seven A.L.S. to John Pakenham Stillwell thanking him for the donations to the St. George's Fund and giving him the code number "7". The final letters concern an error made in listing the donations and asking Stilwell to list the sums he had sent (a copy is included); in one letter he writes, "it is one of the plagues of my work here that I have to keep two account books - and this is the second mistake I have made in the printed accounts". One letter has been initialled, the others are signed "J Ruskin" and have been sent fron Corpus Christi College Oxford or Herne Hill. Photo

John Ruskin (1819 – 1900) was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and political economy. His writing styles and literary forms were equally varied. Ruskin penned essays and treatises, poetry and lectures, travel guides and manuals, letters and even a fairy tale. The elaborate style that characterised his earliest writing on art was later superseded by a preference for plainer language designed to communicate his ideas more effectively. In all of his writing, he emphasised the connections between nature, art and society. He also made detailed sketches and paintings of rocks, plants, birds, landscapes, and architectural structures and ornamentation.



Ruskin founded his utopian society, the Guild of St George, in 1871 (although originally it was called St George’s Fund, and then St George’s Company, before becoming the Guild in 1878). Ruskin purchased land initially in Totley, near Sheffield, but the agricultural element of his scheme met with only moderate success after many difficulties. Donations of land from wealthy and committed Companions eventually placed land and properties in the Guild’s care: Wyre Forest, near Bewdley, Worcestershire; Barmouth in north-west Wales; Cloughton in North Yorkshire; and Westmill in Hertfordshire.

Subject to 5% tax on Hammer Price in addition to 20% VAT on Buyer’s Premium. For more information please view Terms and Conditions for Buyers.

Sold for
£2,200