Up for Auction!
As most of you know, I love auctions! And this one has really got my attention!
I was notified by a private individual, who has been following our blog, that she has an auction I might be interested in.
One part of our history really caught her attention, that of Thomas Lomax Hunter. Thomas Lomax Hunter was the grandson of Carolinus Turner, the gentleman planter who owned the plantation from 1839 until his death in 1876. Carolinus was responsible for the architectural changes that took Belle Grove’s mansion from the simple Federal plantation house to the grand Greek Revival mansion that it is today. Thomas’s mother, Susan Rose Turner, known as Rose Turner, was born here as was her son, Thomas. Thomas would later go on to become a Virginia State Poet Laureate.
This individual is in possession a number of original copies of poetry, signed photographs, book, newspaper clippings and one unpublished poem. She has recently put these items up for auction on ebay. She was kind enough to notify me of this auction. Sadly, the starting bid is well out of our price range right now with all the purchases we still need to make to complete the mansion.
Below is the information from the ebay auction of the items.
Historical Papers – Poetry – Virginia – Poet Laureate –
Thomas Lomax Hunter ’48
One never published poem – Signatures – 1940’s – More
THOMAS LOMAX HUNTER
HISTORIC VIRGINIA POETRY COLLECTION – ORIGINAL TYPED
AND HANDWRITTEN POEMS
POET LAUREATE OF VIRGINIA – 1948
ONE UNPUBLISHED – UNTITLED – THIS IS THE ONLY COPY IN EXISTENCE, THERE WILL NEVER BE ANOTHER
IT BEGINS… “FAR OVER A SEA OF AZURE BLUE…” (BEAUTIFUL POEM! YEARNING FOR LOST PLACE, YOUTH, LOVE.) “…THE ISLAND OF LONG AGO.”
SIGNED PHOTO
INSCRIBED AND SIGNED BOOK – COLUMNS FROM THE CAVALIER (RICHMOND, VIRGINIA; THE DIETZ PRESS, 1935
ONE VERSION OF “ABI SHAG” FROM 1917
NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS
FRAGILE PAPERS – A FEW HAVE RIPS – FOLDS – SEE PICTURES
BIO AND INVENTORY LISTED BELOW
(I photographed these by starting with a few and adding to the pile.)
Thomas Lomax Hunter
(1875-1948)
Virginia
Poet Laureate of Virginia
1948
The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography 218-219 (New York: James T. White & Company, 1953)(Vol. 38):
Hunter, Thomas Lomax, lawyer and poet, was born in King George County, Va., Mar. 6, 1875, son of Frederick Campbell Stewart and Susan Rose (Turner) Hunter and a descendant of James Hunter, a native of Scotland, born there in 1661, who immigrated to Virginia. . . . His father, a judge, served in the rank of captain in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. After receiving his preliminary education with private tutors, the son attended William and Mary College and Georgetown University, where he studied law. Admitted to the bar of Virginia in 1908, he began practice in King George and continued there independently until the close of his life. Outside of his legal activities, his influence was felt in Virginia through a column, “As It Appears to the Cavalier,” which he contributed to the Richmond Times-Dispatch from 1929 until his death. Concerned with state and national affairs, a selection of these writings was published in book form as “Columns from the Cavalier” in 1935. He was a frequent contributor to literary magazines and was best known as a poet. . . . In 1948 he was named poet laureate of Virginia by the general assembly. In 1918 and 1920 Hunter represented King George and Stafford counties in the Virginia House of Delegates, where he supported the causes of woman suffrage, improved roads, compulsory education, and higher education for women, and opposed prohibition. During the First World War he served as food administrator for King George County. . . . Gardening and farming were his chief recreations. . . . He died in Fredericksburg, VA., June 19, 1948.
Poetry
Thomas Lomax Hunter, Poems (Richmond, Virginia: The Dietz Printing Co., 1947)
Forbidden Fruit, and Other Ballades (East Aurora, New York: Printed by The Roycroft Shops, 1923)
Writings
Thomas Lomax Hunter, The President’s Camp on the Rapidan (Richmond, Virginia: Virginia State Commission on Conservation and Development, 1931)
Columns from the Cavalier (Richmond, Virginia: The Dietz Press, 1935)
Bibliography: Articles
Paul M. Pruitt, Jr., Virginia’s Latter-Day Cavalier: Thomas Lomax Hunter of King George County, 44 (4) Virginia Cavalcade 160-173
A return to ones roots can be liberating. Hoping these items find their way home!
Let’s hope.
How nice if at least one item could be donated or at the very least given as a loan.
It really would be.
You always find the most interesting things at auctions 🙂
Yes you really do!
I wish I was rich, rich, rich and I’d just buy the stuff up and donate to you!
Aw you are so sweet. I wish we could do that.
It’s an impressive collection. Hopefully it can find its way home.
It really is. If it doesn’t, my hope it that it will go to a good home.
Oh, my. It’s too bad it’s above your price point, but I hope it all goes to a good home, too.
Yes I know. But we have hope it will.