Search results

Author, Title, Summary Subject Price
Jane Elizabeth Hornblower [née Jane Elizabeth Roscoe] (1797-1853), poet and novelist, daughter of Liverpool connoisseur and abolitionist William Roscoe (1753-1831)

[Jane Elizabeth Hornblower, poet and novelist, daughter of Liverpool abolitionist William Roscoe.] Holograph Manuscript of ‘Sonnet / written in a young lady’s album’, signed ‘J E R.’

1p, 12mo. On recto of first leaf of bifolium of pink patterned paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. The sonnet, which does not appear to have been published, begins: ‘Midst the young eyes that on this book shall shine / Kindling with genius or with feeling bright, / Lit up with...

Literature £100.00 hornblower
Joan Sutherland [Dame Joan Alston Sutherland] (1926-2010), Australian coloratura soprano, one of the greatest opera singers of the twentieth century

[Joan Sutherland, one of the greatest opera singers of the twentieth century.] Autograph Signature.

Underlined signature on 9 x 1.5 cm piece of wove paper, apparently cut from letter. In good condition. Reads ‘Joan Sutherland.’ Reverse blank. See image

Music and Theatre £15.00 Sutherland
John Cam Hobhouse [Lord Broughton] (1786-1869), Whig politician and friend and executor of Lord Byron

[John Cam Hobhouse (Lord Broughton), Whig politician and friend and executor of Lord Byron.] Autograph Note Signed authorizing entry to the gallery of the House of Commons.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On 13 x 8 cm piece of laid paper. In fair condition, but with small sections torn away on removal from mount, at corners and at centre of top and bottom edges, damaging the first two numerals of the year. Reads: ‘May nine - <18>21 / Please to admit the...

History £56.00 Hobhouse
Kenneth Hopkins [Hector Kenneth Hopkins] (1914-1988), poet, critic and crime writer [Andrew Block, London bookseller]

[Kenneth Hopkins, poet, critic and crime writer.] ‘Three Sonnets’ by Kenneth Hopkins in ‘The Grasshopper Broadsheets’ series of publications, with Signed Autograph Inscription to London bookseller Andrew Block.

See Hopkins’s entry in the Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry in English. His papers are in the Harry Ransom Center of the University of Texas. The obituary of the recipient Andrew Block (1892-1987) in ‘The Private Library’ was subtitled ‘the doyen of booksellers’; his business was...

£56.00
Major M. Churchill, 2nd Northampton Regiment, Master of the Staff College Drag Hunt, established 1869 [Royal Military College, Sandhurst; fox hunting; field sports]

[Royal Military College, Sandburst.] Printed handbill poem titled ‘The Staff College Drag Hunt Song. / By Major M. Churchill, 2/Northampton Regiment, / Master, S.C.D.H., 1885-86’.

The present item is excessively scarce: there is no record of it on either OCLC WorldCat or JISC. The Staff College Drag Hunt at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, was established in 1869 as a private pack which drag-hunted twice a week in the area surrounding Camberley, and after more than...

Social history £180.00 Drag
Margot Asquith [Emma Margaret Asquith, Countess of Oxford and Asquith, née Tennant] (1864-1945), wife of Liberal Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, author and socialite

[Margot Asquith, Countess of Oxford.] Autograph Letter Signed (Draft?), urging her ‘Darling’ to overcome the ‘love of blue in yr. pictures’ and ‘do an oil sketch of white on white’. With reference to Selwyn Image.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. An interesting letter, whose circumstances are intriguing. 3pp, 12mo. On two leaves of letterheaded paper. In pencil. From the Asquith papers, and possibly a draft letter to her son Anthony (‘Puffin’). In good condition, lightly creased. Folded once. The...

£50.00
Mrs Beerbohm Tree [Maud Tree; Lady Tree; born Helen Maud Holt] (1863-1937), actress, wife of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, mother of Viola Tree [Sir Oswald Stoll; Sir Alfred Butt; George Grossmith]

[Maud Tree, actress and wife of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Mrs. Le Blond’, regarding her efforts to stage a matinée, with reference to Sir Oswald Stoll, Sir Alfred Butt, George Grossmith and various London theatres.

See the entries on the various members of the Tree family in the Dictionary of National Biography. 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Thirty-eight lines of text. In good condition, lightly aged, with pin holes to corner. Folded once. Good firm signature ‘Maud Tree’. She does not want her to think that she is...

£50.00
Percy Nash (1869-1958), British film producer and director, key figure in the creation of Elstree Studios [W. J. Macqueen-Pope, theatre historian]

[Percy Nash, British cinema pioneer.] Eight Typed Letters Signed to theatre historian W. J. Macqueen-Pope, with personal reminiscences. With carbons of two replies, and typescript of reminiscences titled ‘The Tragic Comedians / Laughter and Tears’.

Nash made around 70 films between 1912 and 1927, and was a key figure in the creation of Elstree Studios. His career as a film maker was effectively ended following the screening of his 1921 film 'How Kitchener was betrayed'. See Bernard Ince, ' “For the Love of the Art”: The Life and Work of...

£450.00
Samuel Parr (1747-1825), author, divine and pedagogue, known as ‘the Whig Dr Johnson’ [Kelynge Greenway, Mayor of Warwick]

[‘The Whig Dr Johnson’: Samuel Parr, author, divine and pedagogue.] Autograph Card in the third person to the Mayor of Warwick, ‘Keeling Greenway’ [Kelynge Greenway]. In envelope with red wax seal.

An almost miraculously legible example of Parr’s normally atrocious hand. (His entry in the Oxford DNB states that ‘Parr was flogged only once at Harrow, for bad handwriting, and to no effect. His writing remained atrocious all his life, so much so that on an occasion when he wrote to ask for '...

Literature £56.00 Parr
Timothy D’Arch Smith (b.1936), bibliographer, bookseller and chronicler of the ‘Uranian’ group of paedophile poets, manager of The Times Bookshop [Andrew Block, London bookseller; Baron Corvo]

[Timothy D’Arch Smith, bibliographer and bookseller.] Typed Letter Signed (‘Tim’) to London bookseller Andrew Block, thanking him for books including ‘Corvos’.

For the background to this letter see D’Arch Smith’s memoir ‘The Times Deceas’d: The Rare Book Department of The Times Bookshop in the 1960s’ (2003). The obituary of the recipient Andrew Block (1892-1987) in ‘The Private Library’ was subtitled ‘the doyen of booksellers’; his business was...

£56.00