Stanley Baldwin items in sale

Items from the estate of Edward Baldwin, the grandson of Stanley Baldwin (1867-1947), the 1st Earl of Bewdley and the three-times British Prime Minister during the 1920s and 30s, will go under the hammer at Oxfordshire auction house Mallams.

Items from the estate will be featured across two sales: the September 21 Oxford Library Sale and the October 12 Picture Sale.

Included in the Oxford Library Sale are two red leather despatch boxes, previously owned by Baldwin, with ‘10 Downing Street’ to the top in gold lettering, one estimated at £4000-£6000, dates from the George V era and was manufactured by John Peck and Son, the other is an Edward VII, First Lord of the Treasury despatch box manufactured by Wickwar & Co and estimated at £3000-£5000.

Elsewhere in the sale, a striking bronze bust of Stanley Baldwin by the English sculptor Newbury Abbot Trent (1885-1953) has been signed by the artist and dated 1927. It stands at 58cm high and is expected to achieve £2,000-£3,000.

Also in the Oxford Library Sale, and of interest to historical clothing collectors, is a court dress uniform worn by Baldwin, estimated at £300-£500. This lot comprises a sword, two bicornes, a dark blue velvet coat and breeches with polished steel buttons, a white silk waistcoat and a pair of cut steel shoe buckles. Presented in a tin with a brass name badge for The Hon Arthur Howard.

Two pairs of black stockings, once the property of Stanley’s cousin Rudyard Kipling (and with his name tag sewn in), are also an interesting lot, and carry an estimate of £80-£120.

Included in the October 12 Picture Sale are two portraits of Stanley Baldwin, including a painting of a youthful Baldwin dating from 1891, showing him holding a tennis racket and accompanied by a small dog. Painted and signed by Baldwin’s cousin, Philip Burne-Jones (1861-1926), this oil on panel work measures 43 x 33cm and is estimated at £6000-£8000.

A second oil on canvas portrait depicting Baldwin reading a newspaper, by John Seymour Lucas (1849-1923), is also featured in the October sale and carries an estimate of £3000-£5000.

Stanley Baldwin was from an extraordinary family which included Rudyard Kipling (Stanley’s first cousin) as well as the painters and designers Edward Burne-Jones and Edward Poynter (Stanley’s uncles).