49 HASTINGS, Warren. Framed engraved entrance ticket for the trial of Warren Hastings. [1788] An engraved ticket to attend the trial of Warren Hastings, in an early sitting for the twenty-third day. The trial, among the most important political trials in British history, was also a significant moment in the imperial project, instigating a very public debate about British India, the morality of British rule, and the country’s imperial future. Warren Hastings was the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and consequently the de facto Governor-General of British India, from 1774 to 1785. In 1787 he was accused of corruption and embezzlement and began an impeachment trial under the House of Lords in Westminster Hall that would last from 1788 to 1795, with Richard Sheridan and Edmund Burke leading the prosecution. The trial of Hastings, at least in its early stages, was a major social event, with most of London high society turning out in attendance; Edward Gibbon and Joshua Reynolds watched alongside the Queen and the Prince of Wales. As Hastings’s biographer records, “there was an enormous demand for tickets of admission to the Hall, and it is said that as much as 50 pounds was offered for a single ticket” (Lawrence, p. 104). The tickets became such well-known objects that James Gillray produced two caricatures of them. However, as the trial dragged on over multiple years and endless sittings, public interest diminished. At last, in 1795, in somewhat of a damp squib, Hastings was overwhelmingly acquitted. Engraved permit printed in black with armorial device and motto, 14.8 × 10.4 cm; mounted in gilt frame, 35.5 × 31 cm. Contemporary note “Sheffield” to verso, presumably original owner; lightly creased and soiled, one corner chipped, still in very good condition. ¶ Charles Lawrence, The Private Life of Warren Hastings , 1905. £650 [149527]
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of those works that transcend their immediate context. The book’s historical significance is that it marks a moment of paradigmatic breakthrough, a major revision of English political theory and history in the light of concepts drawn from civic humanism and Machiavellian Republicanism” (Pocock, p. 384). Harrington wrote the work between 1654 and 1656, with publication hindered by political obstruction under the British Commonwealth, despite the author’s fervent republicanism and the dedication of the book to Oliver Cromwell. Typeset by three different printers to avoid seizure, the work was published with two variant title pages, one having the imprint “printed by J. Streater for Livewell Chapman”, the other “printed for D. Pakeman”. A portrait frontispiece is sometimes found, but most known copies, including this one, do not have it. Folio (268 × 175 mm). Contemporary speckled and ruled calf, rebacked and recornered, spine richly gilt with red morocco label. Title page printed in black and red. Trimmed early armorial bookplate to front pastedown, occasional annotations in pencil and orange crayon to text. Patches of restoration to calf, scratch to rear cover. A few small peripheral chips, marginal tears, and minor paper faults, none of these affecting text; contents browned throughout as usual, light central crease, some marginal worming (more substantial towards end). A very good copy. ¶ ESTC R18610; Pforzheimer 449; Sowerby, Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson , 2335; Wing H809. John Greville Agard Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment , 2016; David Maxwell Walker, The Oxford Companion to Law , 1980. £7,500 [142407]
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All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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