System Number: 13283
Date: 30 October 1878
Author: James Anderson Rose[1]
Place: London
Recipient: Martin Colnaghi[2]
Place: [London]
Repository: Library of Congress
Call Number: Manuscript Division, Pennell-Whistler Collection, PWC
Document Type: PD/Ms
THIS WRIT WAS ISSUED BY
James Anderson Rose
Plaintiffs Solicitor
11 Salisbury Street Strand
in the County of Middlesex
[p. 2] 1877. - W. - NO. 818 '9[3]'
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE.
Queens Bench DIVISION.
BETWEEN
James Abbott McNeill Whistler
PLAINTIFF
AND
John Ruskin[4]
DEFENDANT
VICTORIA, BY THE GRACE OF GOD OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, QUEEN, DEFENDER OF THE FAITH, TO Martin Colnaghi and John Doe
GREETING: WE COMMAND YOU, AND EVERY OF YOU, THAT ALL THINGS SET ASIDE, AND CEASING EVERY EXCUSE, YOU AND EVERY OF YOU BE AND APPEAR IN YOUR PROPER PERSONS, AT THE SITTINGS OF THE Queens Bench DIVISION OF OUR HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE, HOLDEN IN Middlesex AT Westminster Hall ON Saturday THE Second DAY OF November ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-eight BY TEN OF THE CLOCK IN THE FORENOON OF THE SAME DAY, AND SO FROM DAY TO DAY, DURING THE SAID SITTINGS, UNTIL THE ACTION HEREINAFTER MENTIONED BE TRIED, TO TESTIFY THE TRUTH, ACCORDING TO YOUR KNOWLEDGE, IN A CERTAIN ACTION NOW IN THE SAID DIVISION OF OUR HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE, DEPENDING BETWEEN
James Abbott McNeill Whistler
PLAINTIFF AND
John Ruskin
DEFENDANT ON THE PART OF THE Plaintiff
AND AT THE DAY AFORESAID, BETWEEN THE PARTIES AFORESAID, TO BE TRIED; AND THIS YOU NOR ANY OF YOU SHALL IN NO WISE OMIT, UNDER THE PENALTY OF EVERY OF YOU OF ONE HUNDRED POUNDS. WITNESS, HUGH MacCALMONT EARL CAIRNS, LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF GREAT BRITAIN, AT WESTMINSTER, THE thirtieth DAY OF October IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-eight
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. James Anderson Rose
James Anderson Rose (1819-1890), solicitor [more].
2. Martin Colnaghi
Martin Enrico ('Henry') Luigi Gaetano Colnaghi (1821-1908), art dealer [more]. Colnaghi was approached as a possible witness on JW's behalf at the trial of Whistler v Ruskin (see note below). He was required to prove JW's established professional standing as an artist although in the end Colnaghi was not called. See also similar writs issued by Rose, #13282, #11916.
3. '9'
Written in another hand in upper right-hand corner of sheet. The number may be one of a sequence assigned by Rose to the legal documents he kept from the Whistler v Ruskin trial.
4. John Ruskin
This is a document relating to JW's libel suit against John Ruskin (1819-1900), critic, social reformer and artist [more]. The suit was in response to Ruskin's criticism of JW's works, especially Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket (YMSM 170) in his periodical Fors Clavigera. On 2 July 1877, he accused JW of 'flinging a pot of paint in the public's face' in a review of the I Summer Exhibition of the Grosvenor Gallery, London. See Ruskin, John, 'Letter the Seventy-ninth' Fors Clavigera, 2 July 1877, pp. 181-213. The trial took place at the Queen's Bench of the High Court on 25-26 November 1878.