• 125 bills, accounts and receipts, including:

- accounts of the Earls of Salisbury, 1663-1724;

- records of the 5th Earl of Bedford, 1660-1700;

- a group of late 17th century documents from the National Library of Scotland;

- art-related Secret Service payments, 1679-88;

- accounts of Sir Stephen Fox (1627-1716);

- brief notes of documents at Belvoir, Alnwick, Chatsworth and elsewhere.

• 38 letters, including

- John Michael Wright's correspondence, 1676-7, that provides "the most vivid glimpse we have of the circumstances, ambitions and pretentions of an English 17th century painter." (David Howarth);

- letters of 1st Viscount Hatton, 3rd Marquess of Worcester and Thomas Walker of Newton, as buyers and sellers of pictures in late 17th century London.

• Diaries

Charles Beale's notebooks (1671, 1672, 1674 and 1676) with a commentary by the late Richard Jeffree.

• Court Papers

A very detailed lawsuit of 1670 concerning a dispute between Isaac Fuller and Thomas Killigrew, the theatre manager, over payments for scene painting at Drury Lane.

• 9 sale catalogues, including

the drawing master John Smith of Christ's College,1702;

the dealer and collector Simon du Bois, 1709;

dealers Edward Gouge, 1715, and Peter Motteux, circa 1714-17;

a 1728 sale annotated with prices and buyers' names.

• Inventories

An early 17th century inventory of paintings for sale from an Italian collection, annotated in the mid 1690s with current owners;

An inventory of the pictures at Narford Hall, 1738;

An inventory of the Duke of York's pictures, 1674;

An inventory of Vice-Chamberlain Coke's pictures, 1724.

• 140 names added to the index of People, chiefly comprising

- picture salesmen and their clients mentioned in the financial papers published here

- buyers at the 1711 Streeter sale and the Philipp sale of 1728

- early 18th century collectors of prints and drawings recorded by Fritz Lugt and Pond and Knapton

Sep 23, [16]76

Your pictures will be all finished ye next week. The Queen's, Prince's [Rupert], and Ld Dorset's are ready. I dare not hazard them in my little house, least ye sea coale smoke this winter shou'd spoyle them. Had ye Queen's picture hung a little longer at Thanet House, it wou'd have been quite spoyled, for ye cloth wase primed wth tobacco pipe clay, and it wou'd have pilled all of. As soon as the durt wase wash'd of, ye cracks appeared. But Mr.Baptist engages he hath secured it for ever. He highly admires my Ld Dorset's picture, sath it is every stroake of Van Dyke and of his best painting; and ye priming of ye cloath is very good. Van Dyke was very neglectfull in ye priming of ye cloths he painted on. Some were primed wth water colours, as ye fine crucifix at Mr Lillyes, some wth tobacco pipe clay, as ye famous picture of ye late King and Queen [above], at Whitehall, wch is now allmost all pilled of, and yr Queen's picture; but yt is now secured. Vandyke wase much pleased wth that priming, for it wase smooth as glasse; and he did not live to see ye inconvenience of it by being soe little durable, unlesse care be taken by some skillfull artist to fix it afterwards, either by varnishing it on ye backe side with a varnish wch will passe quite through and fix ye colour, or else wth a strong size and clap on another cloth. Here is noe news.

Yr Lopps truly affect. Brother to serve you,

C.HATTON.