I was interested to read Reto Tschan's message about the sale of its archive
by Equitable Life. Guildhall Library has been much involved, and I am happy
to summarise the story so far.

Equitable Life Assurance Society (ELAS), founded in 1762, is a major City of
London life assurance company, with a fine archive. It falls within the
collecting policy of Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section, which is the
local record office for the City of London other than the Corporation of
London's own archives, which are separately administered by the Corporation
of London Records Office (now part of the Joint Archives Service with London
Metropolitan Archives).

The archive of Equitable Life has never been deposited at Guildhall Library,
though since the mid-1990s we have held on loan the archives of three of its
subsidiary companies, all founded in the 19th century. These are the
University Life Assurance Society (ULAS), the Reversionary Interest Society
(RIS) and the Equitable Reversionary Interest Society (ERIS).


Equitable Life, founded 1762, was the first scientifically-based life
assurance company. For brief details of its archive, and for the
significance of the company in the history of 18th century life assurance,
see HAL Cockerell and Edwin Green, "The British Insurance Business: A Guide
to its History and Records" (Sheffield, 1994). The archive is especially
interesting for the early years of the company, and includes the
revolutionary mathematical/actuarial calculations which made the company
distinct and important, plus quite a few rare printed manuals and tracts. It
is now with Christie's, the auctioneers, who have been commissioned by ELAS
to negotiate a private treaty sale, i.e. the sale of the archive as a block
and not in separate lots.


ELAS has been much in the news recently, after unfortunate decisions some
years ago about guaranteed annuities, hence the sale.

ELAS contacted Guildhall Library on 13 August because it was just about to
move offices within the City. At that stage it was enquiring about
depositing the archive with us on loan. As a result, I spent around 8 hours
with a member of ELAS staff, examining the archive on site, and selecting ms
and printed material which Guildhall Library would be interested to hold.
This amounted to around 40 linear yards. Subsequently, I discussed various
scenarios with senior staff of the company. These involved variations on the
theme of gift or deposit, permanent or temporary, and with or without a cash
endowment. The suggested cut-off date was 1950, i.e. well before current
problems.

After all this, ELAS decided to sell the archive. Christie's are now its
agents, and have valued the archive at between £150,000 and £200,000. They
are looking for a private treaty sale, i.e. to sell the archive as a block.
No buyer was lined up in advance that I know of. Guildhall Library has
offered a substantial (5-figure) sum, which we have explained would very
likely be doubled by central government grants. This offer has been
rejected.

ELAS is also selling its library of printed books, together with various
memorabilia including the boardroom portraits, one of which is a
Gainsborough commissioned by ELAS from the artist. Christie's are not the
only auctioneer involved in these other sales. Some of the printed books are
early and interesting mathematical texts, including a signed copy of a work
by Charles Babbage, presented by him to the company. These printed items are
already starting to appear in sale catalogues, piecemeal. However it is
important to remember that the archive is not - so far as I know - destined
for auction in penny numbers at present.

Our offer was intended to secure a quick sale to everyone's benefit, and
most importantly before the company moved offices. We feared that this move
might scramble all the work already done on separating and labelling the
wheat from the chaff. In this we were unsuccessful. However we did stress to
Christie's that the archive should be gathered up carefully, and that the
'dross' should be kept separate. I believe this has been done - the ELAS
staff member with whom I worked offered to supervise the packing of the
archive personally, over a weekend, as his last act before redundancy.

I assume the archive is now at Christie's at Nine Elms, being
shelved/displayed for viewing by potential bidders.


Guildhall Library has no plans to increase its offer for the archive, or to
make a Lottery application. Lottery applications are not made swiftly, and
also we are reluctant to bid up the price using Lottery money, to the
possible detriment of future collecting within the City. In any case, it
seems clear to us that ELAS's current course of action is prompted by
current needs: the full valuation for their archive is a small sum in
corporate terms, no more than a gesture to shareholders and policyholders.
ELAS also appears to be in a minority in seeking to raise money from its
archive. In several other instances in recent years, Guildhall Library has
received archives as a gift from old-established City businesses and
business organisations, including at least one insurance company (Eagle
Star), together with a cash endowment. These cash sums so far total over
£70,000.


We naturally hope that in due course Equitable Life and Christie's have no
better offer, and come back to us. (In a similar episode a few years ago, we
refused to buy the archives of the well-known City publisher, Hodder &
Stoughton, at a valuation (not by Christie's) of £210,000. We eventually
bought them for around one tenth of that figure, all of which we received in
outside grants, so that the cost to the Library was zero, other than
incidentals.) However nothing is certain. I imagine that an Export Licence
is unlikely, so any other purchaser will be a UK institution.

The fate of the archives of the three subsidiaries (ULAS, RIS and ERIS) is
unresolved. We have c.16 linear yards of these, all catalogued, and all
still in our stores. To make matters worse, various ULAS/RIS/ERIS items
discovered since, plus several continuations of series past the cut-off date
applied at deposit, are amongst the material now offered for sale. We do not
plan a separate offer for any of these, but hope to secure them if at all as
part of a purchase of the main archive. Christie's have suggested informally
that their cash value is not great.

Finally, let me place on record that, in spite of the overall situation,
which is beyond our control, we have nothing but gratitude and thanks for
the ELAS staff and the staff of Christie's, who have all been extremely
pleasant to deal with throughout. It has been an enormous relief to be able
to work with people who share our concerns, and who have gone out of their
way to help us wherever they could.

Stephen Freeth
Keeper of Manuscripts
Guildhall Library

-----Original Message-----
From: Reto Tschan [mailto:[log in to unmask]]

Sent: 22 October 2004 12:36
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Sale of Equitable Life Archives


Hello All,

It has been brought to my attention that the Equitable Life is planning on
selling its entire archive at auction in November. The records include
minutes, policy registers etc and cover 1762 to 1950. This was reported in
the Telegraph last week (12 Oct). The article also mentions that the archive
is to be "sold by private treaty". Does this mean that a buyer has already
been lined up?

If anyone has any information on this sale, I would be very interested, as I
am sure would the wider archival community in the UK.

Reto Tschan
Assistant Archivist
HBOSplc Group Archives

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