1853 The Private Letters of Sir James Brooke, K. C. B. Rajah of Sarawak, Narrating the Events of His Life, from 1838 to the Present Time

Description

First Edition, Leather Binding, Signed Binding, Very Scarce

First edition. 

Including Volume I and Volume II of this three-volume work, containing the correspondence of Sir James Brooke.

Uniformly bound in signed full calf by Holloway, with armorial gilt stamp the front boards and decorative gilt to the spines and dentelles. Personalised binding is for that of the High Duke of Westminster.

James Brooke was a British soldier and adventurer who founded the Raj of Sarawak in Borneo, where he ruled as the first White Rajah from 1841 until his death in 1868. These letters offer fascinating insight into his life from 1838 (the year he arrived in Kuching) to the time of publication, with early impressions of the inhabitants and his plans for suppressing the widespread piracy in the region.

Edited by John C. Templer, an English barrister who became a close friend of Brooke through his elder brother, James Lethbridge Templer. James commanded the Minerva on a tea voyage to China in 1835 and Brooke accompanied him. 

From the library of Hugh Grosvenor (1825-1899), 1st Duke of Westminster and known as The Marquess of Westminster, an English landowner, politician and racehorse owner who spent much of his fortune developing Eaton Hall in Cheshire and land in Mayfair and Belgravia. He developed the stud at Eaton Hall and achieved success in racing his horses, who won the Derby on four occasions. Bearing the Duke's armorial bookplate to both front pastedowns, dated Eaton 1884.