Gwyn, Eleanor [Nell].

i) a group of 7 Treasury Orders signed by Henry Guy, Purveyor of the King's Secret Money, for payments out of excise income, each including a payment to "Elianor Gwynne" (on one occasion corrected from "Nelly Gwynne"), usually a direct payment of £250 but on one occasion a payment of £60 to "Mr Griffin for Mrs Gwynne" (10 May 1681) and on another a payment of £750, also including a wide range of other payments such as to the secret service, "Mr Fox for the Forces", "Mr Barce the Chirurgeon for sicke & wounded", charities and hospitals, various professors, the Queen, and the King's illegitimate children, 7 pages, folio, with three integral address leaves, 24 March 1680 to 5 July 1684



ii) 14 sets of household accounts, in most cases covering one week, providing a detailed breakdown of Nell Gwyn's day-to-day expenditure, including purchases of basic foodstuffs,  fruit ("For oringes & lemons – 2s 6d"), considerable quantities of meat and fish (she was purchasing up to three barrels of oysters a week at 3 shillings a barrel), tarts and cheesecakes, drink, carriage, mostly by sedan chair ("For a Chaire carring my lo: from the dutches of Portsmou[th] – 1s"), the occasional book (and on one occasion "6 mappes"), charitable gifts ("For a poor man at the play house – 6d"), plays, clothes, and other luxuries, toys for her sons ("2 Colering broshes") and the occasional more unusual expenditure ("For milking the Asse – 5s"), 24 pages in total, narrow folio, in groups dating from 13 October to 27 November 1675 (six sets of accounts), 31 January to 20 March 1676 (six sets of accounts), and 12 February to 12 March 1676/7 (two sets)



iii) 37 bills charged for work performed for Nell Gwyn by workmen and merchants, namely: the silversmith John Cooques (2 bills, one "for a new stand ditch weighing 21 onces ... £7 01s 07d" and other items, the other being a lengthy bill for her famous bedstead, quoted below), the miniature painter peter cross (charging £23 9s for a locket picture and gold case), harness-makers, drapers (5 bills), poulterers (5 bills), chairmen (3 bills, providing details of carriage such as "for Careing you to Mrs Knights [Maria Knight] and to Maddam younges and to maddam Churchfillds [Arabella Churchill] and wating fowre oures – 5s"), butchers (8 bills), dyers, farriers, milliners (for the purchase of several coifs and coronets), ironmongers, coachmakers, glove-makers (2 bills, "for 12 pare of Childrns gloves colerd and w[hi]tt – 12s"), vintners, colliers (2 bills), chandlers (2 bills), dressmakers (for several nightgowns, dresses, and  "a pinke & white Lutestring Coate – 12s"), greengrocers (revealing her partiality for china oranges), and hosiers, most bills subscribed with acknowledgement of payment and signed by the merchant, 38 pages, various sizes, 4 July 1674 to March 1677, but chiefly between July and December 1675



iv) 14 receipts by various merchants and workmen for monies received from Gwyn, including the silversmith John Cooques (two receipts acknowledging total payment of £500), Anthony Montinge for "a large picture of flowers & fruite", Nathaniel Baker and Peter Hall "for the gilding and painting of a roome", £130 "in part for a silver Frame for a Glass weighing 600. Ounces", £1 "for a carved frame for a Picture on a Copper plate", as well as for ironwork, candles, and other unspecified items, most payments made by Thomas Groundes, Gwyn's steward, 15 pages, various sizes, 23 September to 12 November 1675



v) 4 bills for flock, silk and other costs for quilts and other bedding, including one for furnishing the ship the Royal Charles, 5 pages, 26 October 1661 to 16 October 1662; a bill for velvet for the King, 1 page, 28 September 1660; a bill for "mending his late Ma[jes]ties shirts, and for eight laced Rideing cravatts", 6 March 1688; a silkman's bill, 3 pages, October 1661 to March 1662; the accounts of a tailor ("Mr Watts in bedford street") recording purchases by many figures at court including the Duke of Monmouth, Thomas Killigrew, Lord Arlington, and the King, 7 pages, folio, October to December [no year]; the tailoring accounts of various courtiers, 8vo, 1662-1666, namely: thomas killigrew, 17 pages; the duke of monmouth, 13 pages; Antoine Hamilton, 4 pages; Sir Edward Spragge, 1 page; Sir Gilbert Garret, 8 pages; Lord Abercorn, 2 pages; Lord Musgrave, 9 pages; Lord Culpepper, 4 pages; "Sir Richard Belling", 2 pages, together with a note signed by him; James Hamilton, 8 pages; Lord Napier, 4 pages; and also Sir Robert Howard, Comptroller of the Exchequer, 4 pages, 4to, 1692-93; also a document signed by Charles II, counter-signed by Danby, November 1674, cut signatures of the First Duke of St Albans (son of Nell Gwyn and Charles II), the 2^{nd Duke of Buckingham, and the Earl of Rochester, a number of prints, and cuttings (mostly articles by Peter Cunningham from The Gentleman's Magazine)}



All items laid down in an album of 115 leaves (various paper-stocks watermarked between 1850 and 1856), in half dark green morocco with a red morocco lettering piece ("M.S.S. | Nell | Gwyn's | Household | Accounts.| Watts | Court Taylor, | Courtiers' | Bills. | Temp. Chas. 2"), significant paper loss affecting text to eleven items, some repairs, damp staining, soiling, three leaves loose in the album and a few items crudely taped in, adhesive residue, nicks and tears, worn at joints

These bills and others belonged to "Mr Loddy and Mr Robert Cole" (Cunningham, p.126) in the 1850s; by the 1870s the collection had passed to Rev. Francis Hopkinson of Malvern Wells, Worcs, and was briefly calendared in the 3rd Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission (1872), in which Hopkinson's collection was described as "evidently a portion of the Exchequer Documents inadvertently dispersed some years ago" (pp.261-7); following the Rev. Hopkinson's death in 1898 the current volume was presented by his widow to Lord Osborne Beauclerk, later 12th Duke of St Albans (see letters loosely inserted in the volume); thence by descent

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate. If you require additional information we would recommend viewing the item during the exhibition or contacting one of the specialists for this sale.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

a vivid illumination of the restoration court and the lifestyle of nell gwyn, perhaps the best-remembered royal mistress in english history: the orange-seller who as "pretty witty Nelly" (so described by Pepys) became a comic star on the London stage before winning the King himself and remaining his lover for more than fifteen years. As the self-acknowledged "Protestant whore", Nell retained the King's affections as much through her wit as her looks. These papers provide a minutely detailed record of a moment in Nell's life: what she ate and drank ("For fruit at the kings play house - 3s"), her visits around London (mostly to other royal mistresses as well as her mother in Chelsea), what she bought to wear for herself and her children, and her extravagances. To take just one example, a short set of household expenses from February 1677 includes the hiring of sedan chairs, a visit to a play (the most expensive single item, at 12s), and the purchases of "a new book" (6d), "play things" and a spinning-top for her six year-old son (totalling 1s 8d), macaroons (1s), rum (1s 6d), brandy (8d), faggots (6d), and custard pots (2s 6d). Most of these records date from the mid-1670s, by which time Nell Gwyn was well established as a royal mistress. She had been the King's lover since the late 1660s and was now residing at 79 Pall Mall, a house backing onto St James's Park and therefore well suited for discreet royal visits. She was also being maintained from the public purse: this album includes records for her regular allowance from the King's excise income, while the bills and receipts were submitted to the exchequer.

The most remarkable individual item is unquestionably John Cooques's 1674 bill for £1135 3s 1d, mostly for Nell Gwyn's famous bedstead. This extraordinary bed is revealed by this bill to have had incorporated ornate baroque statuary and used over 2200oz of sterling silver, the centrepiece of the design being "the Kings head" (which alone was composed of nearly 200 oz of silver), which was supported by two "figures" (one with an unidentified symbol or "caracter", perhaps a monogram). It also incorporated "the slaves and the reste belonginge unto it", two eagles, four crowns, and four cupids, as well as - in a comic touch typical of Nell Gwyn - the figure of the famous rope-dancer (and alleged lover of Lady Castlemaine) Jacob Hall "dansing upon the robbe of weyer worck". The bill also includes payments to various workmen for assembling the bed, and a cabinet-maker "for the greatte bord for the head of the bedstead and for the other bord that comes under it and for the boorring the wholles into the head".  

manuscripts relating to nell gwyn are of the greatest rarity. She was at best semi-literate, and unable to write more than a crude "EG" for her initials. Only five letters signed by her appear to be recorded (to Lawrence Hyde later Earl of Rochester, the Duke of Ormond (2), the Earl of Arran, and Madam Jennings). There is no major archival holding of Gwyn papers, and financial and legal papers are the only surviving manuscripts other than the letters. The financial papers include two other albums somewhat similar to the present volume (both in private ownership) and various scattered individual documents. Seven documents signed by her were sold in these rooms between 1910 and 1944, but nothing has been sold at auction in the last 30 years. Some of these documents were printed by Peter Cunningham in The Story of Nell Gwyn (1851), and they are also discussed in Charles Beauclerk, Nell Gwyn: Mistress to a King (2005), Chapter 11.