BOWES | Three calligraphic manuscripts, 17th century

BOWES, JOSHUA

Three calligraphic manuscripts:

i) autograph manuscript verse epistle, addressed to Sir Robert Vyner, Lord Mayor of London, in a calligraphic hand, headed with a couplet in red ink ("From greif, from care, from sorrow, paine & strife: | your Lady's gone, unto her crown of life.") and the upper margin also decorated with skeletons with arrows and putti holding a crown and motto ("Haec est corona vitae"), heightened in red and blue ink, the text in two columns, 1 page, folio, integral address leaf, [?1674], framed and glazed;

ii) autograph manuscript verse epistle, addressed to Bridget Hyde, a panegyric on her virtues, concluding "And those who doe att your renown repine | May their estates run parallel with mine. | which amounts to 00000 p: annum", in a calligraphic hand, red ink, all margins lavishly decorated with coloured illustrations of flowers (including tulips and roses), insects, a horse and a unicorn, 1 page, folio, integral address leaf with calligraphic design including putti holding a crown, heightened in gold ink, 26 February 1674, framed and glazed;

iii) autograph letter signed, to Bridget Hyde, pleading that she use her rights to make him a Freeman of the City of London, in a calligraphic hand, red ink, 1 page, with decorated address leaf incorporating a crown, heightened in gold and blue ink, 31 March 1675, framed and glazed

FINE EXAMPLES OF RESTORATION CALLIGRAPHY. Joshua Bowes wrote a number of verses in a calligraphic hand - at least another half-dozen are recorded - but very little of his work was consigned to print. He worked closely with Elkanah Settle, another poet closely connected to the City of London who, like Bowes, regularly offered verses to potential patrons. In 1682 Bowes was prosecuted for a libel against the Duke of York but he told the authorities that he was simply circulating copies of work by Settle to leading Whigs, at Settle's instruction. Settle was never prosecuted and this affair does not appear to have ruined the men's relationship as a copy of Settle's poem in praise of the Act of Union, Carmen Irenicum (1707), with an additional manuscript epistle by Bowes, came to light in 2014 (See Bernard Quaritch, English Books and Manuscripts, Autumn 2014, item 75)

These three items are addressed to members of London's mercantile elite. Sir Robert Vyner (1631-1688) was one of the leading bankers of Restoration England. Bridget Hyde was his step-daughter and a considerable heiress in her own right through her father, Sir Thomas Hyde of Aldbury in Hertfordshire.