A Short History of St Bartholomew’s Hospital 1123-1923, Specially Bound on the Occasion of the 800th Anniversary of Its Foundation.

POWER, Sir D'Arcy and H.J. Waring [King Edward VIII].

$1,800.00

Item Number: 36018

London: Charles Whittingham and Griggs, Ltd, 1923.

Elaborately bound presentation copy, belonging to King Edward VIII. Octavo, full tan morocco, elaborately gilt tooling to the spine, front and rear panels with black morocco inlays, cornerpieces of thistles and flowers, front panel with central crown and gilt medallion portraits of Rahere and Harvey, silk endpapers. Full-color frontispiece illustration of The Tomb of Rahere in the Church of Saint Bartholomew the Great, thirty-four black and white plates with tissue guards. Presentation plate to rear free endpaper, “Presented on the Occasion of the Eight Hundredth Anniversary of the Foundation of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. Stanmore, Treasurer. On Behalf of the Governor’s of the Hospital. June 1923.” From the Library of the Edward, The Duke of Windsor. Rare and desirable.

Founded in 1123 by Anglo-Norman monk Rahere, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital was granted to the Corporation of London in 1546 which endowed it with income entitlements. The Hospital has a rich history as a hub of medical and surgical research from the 17th century to present day, including the development of the principles of modern surgery by Percivall Pott and John Abernethy and the advancement of the nursing profession by Mrs. Bedford Fenwick. In 1843, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College was established and the present School of Nursing and Midwifery was formed in 1994. Edward VIII was King of the United Kingdom from January 1936 until his abdication in December the same year. Only months into his reign, he caused a constitutional crisis by proposing marriage to Wallis Simpson, an American who had divorced her first husband and was seeking a divorce from her second. When it became apparent that he could not marry Wallis and remain on the throne, Edward abdicated. He was succeeded by his younger brother, George VI. With a reign of 326 days, Edward was one of the shortest-reigning monarchs in British history.