Search results

Author, Title, Summary	Subject	Price
Sir John Gielgud [Arthur John Gielgud] (1904-2000), distinguished English actor [Florence Van Wyck Doubleday, wife of New York publisher Frank Nelson Doubleday] [Sir John Gielgud, distinguished English actor.] Autograph Letter Signed to 'Mrs. Doubleday', wife of the publisher. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. On grey paper. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded once for postage. The year is given in pencil, and a note in the same hand identifies the recipient as ‘Mrs Florence Doubleday (wife of publisher) in Oyster Bay’. Ten lines of text, in a...		£80.00
Sir Stanley Matthews (1915-2000), great English footballer who played outside right for Stoke City and Blackpool [Sir Stanley Matthews, great English footballer.] Autograph Signature on postcard with Blackpool Football Club letterhead. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The postcard, which is blank on the reverse, has been cut down into an irregular shape, roughly rectangular and approximately 11 x 7.5 cm. At the head is the printed Blackpool FC letterhead (‘All communications to BLOOMFIELD ROAD GROUND, BLACKPOOL). Two strips of...		£23.00
Terence Hodgkinson [Terence William Ivan Hodgkinson] (1913-1999), art historian and Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London [Giles Henry Robertson (1913-1987), Italian Renaissance expert] [Terence Hodgkinson, art historian and Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum.] Two Autograph Letters Signed to renaissance art expert Giles Robertson, regarding a relief attributed to Grinling Gibbons. See his entry in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. A year before these letters Hodgkinson had become an assistant keeper in the Department of Architecture and Sculpture at the Victoria and Albert, where his first task had been to organize the display of the Hildburgh collection of English...		£50.00
Thomas Guthrie (1803-1873), Scottish divine and philanthropist, one of the most popular preachers of his day in Scotland, where he was a leader of the temperance and Ragged School movements [Dr Thomas Guthrie, Scottish divine and popular preacher, leader of the temperance and Ragged School movements.] Autograph Letter Signed, acknowledging a 'Kind Gift of £1 to the Original Ragged School'. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 16mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, and folded twice for postage. Firmly written in a somewhat florid hand. Reads: ‘Dear Sir / Accept my Grateful thanks for your Kind Gift of £1 to the Original Ragged School & believe me with much respect...		£50.00
William Brodie (1815-1881), Scottish sculptor, creator of the Greyfriars Bobby Fountain in Edinburgh, brother of the sculptor Alexander Brodie (1830-1867) [William Brodie, Scottish sculptor who made the Greyfriars Bobby Fountain in Edinburgh.] Autograph Signature to conclusion of a letter. See his entry, and that of his brother, in the Oxford DNB. 11 x 6 cm rectangle of paper, cut from the end of a letter, laid down on 13.5 x 7 cm piece of thicker paper. Reads: ‘[...] will see to them for you. / Kind regards to all / Thine / W. Brodie’.		£25.00
Conquest of Cayenne, 1809 [French Guiana conquered by the Portuguese under British leadership]; Sir Thomas Sevestre (1784-1842) [Sir James Lucas Yeo (1782-1818)] [Conquest of Cayenne, 1809.] Manuscript Petition to King George III, signed by Thomas Sevestre, surgeon of HMS Confiance, asking permission to 'enjoy the Privileges' of a Portuguese order. With seal of Portuguese ambassador Sousa Coutinho. The Conquest of Cayenne - part of Britain’s strategy of using its naval power to attack French colonial interests in the Napoleonic Wars - is described in the fifth volume of William James’s ‘Naval History of Great Britain’ (1827). Britain was only able to contribute HMS Confiance, but its...		£250.00
Dame Margot Fonteyn [stage name of Dame Margaret Evelyn de Arias, née Hookham (1919-1991)], prima ballerina assoluta with the Royal Ballet [previously Sadler’s Wells Ballet], London [Dame Margot Fonteyn, prima ballerina.] Autograph Signature to printed programme of a performance by the Sadler’s Wells Ballet at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. See her entry in the Oxford DNB. The programme is 8pp, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, with minor rust to staples. The cover consists of the royal crest printed in red, and the rest in black: ‘ROYAL OPERA HOUSE / COVENT GARDEN’ above the crest, and ‘THE SADLER’S WELLS / BALLET / 1947’...	Music and Theatre	£80.00
Duke of Devonshire [Spencer Compton Cavendish (1833-1908), 8th Duke of Devonshire, styled Marquis of Hartington between 1858 and 1891, aristocrat and statesman [Derby Grammar School] [Duke of Devonshire [Spencer Compton Cavendish (1833-1908), 8th Duke of Devonshire].] Autograph Letter Signed regarding prizegiving at Derby Grammar School See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Outer sides somewhat grubby, otherwise in good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Addressed ‘Dear Sir’ and signed ‘Devonshire’. In reply to the unnamed recipient’s letter he explains that he would ‘find it very difficult to...		£50.00
Edwardian corsetry [W. B. Corsets; ‘Davey Brothers, Corset Specialists, The Drapery Emporium, Faversham [Kent]’; trade catalogues] [‘There’s a charm about W. B. Corsets’: Edwardian corsetry.] Trade catalogue for ‘Davey Brothers, Corset Specialists, The Drapery Emporium, Faversham [Kent]’, with numerous illustrations of ‘W. B. Nuform’ corsets. A nice piece of Edwardian trade ephemera. It would appear that W. B. Corsets were running a franchise scheme, providing suppliers with their catalogue and printing the franchisee's name on the back cover: little is to be discovered about either firm. No other copy traced. Hard to date: the...	Social history	£180.00
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836-1917), English physician and suffragist, co-founder of the first hospital staffed by women and first female mayor in Britain [Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, English physician and suffragist.] Autograph Initials (‘E. G. A.’) and address to envelope addressed by her to ‘Mrs. J. J. Stevenson / The Red House / 3 Bayswater Hill / W’. See her entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient of the letter that this envelope contained was born Jane Omond (1839-1932). She was the wife of the architect John James Stevenson (1831-1908), whose first wife was Elisa Anderson, the cousin of Skelton Anderson, husband of Elizabeth Garrett...	Science, Medicine and Technology	£45.00