Autograph Letters

On piece of grey wove paper cut into a rough rectangle, 5 x 8 cm. Good, but with light traces of glue from previous mounting on reverse. Reads '<...> | I have honour to remain | Dear Sir | Yr obt. & hble. Servt | F. Palgrave', with the flourish to the 't' of 'Servt' forming the top horizontal stroke to the 'F.' in Palgrave's signature. Reverse reads '<...> | In conformity <...> | my letter to you <...> | July last, I requir<...> | my name may be <...>'.

12mo, 1 p. Twelve lines of text. Clear and complete. On aged and grubby paper. A formal letter in the third person. He has 'received with surprise the enclosed invoice. [not present] He has given no orders for any copies of the work & must therefore decline to accept the parcel, should it have been sent out to him in Australia.' If it is 'lying at his London house' he will forward it to the firm 'on his return home'.

The work of a cultured and witty man, but not by the author of 'Sandford and Merton', who died in 1789. While possible authors include the 'Mr. Thomas Day, solicitor, Woburn, Bedfordshire', whose death at the age of 47 on 18 February 1824 was reported in The Times (5 March 1824), and the Thomas Day who lived around this time at Montague Street, Russell Square, the most likely candidate, considering the references to 'Romney' and 'Wyatt' is the Thomas of 'DAY William, and Thomas Day, of No. 95, Gracechurch-street, in the city of London, oilmen', who went bankrupt in 1841.

Good, bold signature on slip of laid paper (presumably cut from letter) roughly 3.5 x 11.5 cm. In good condition. Simply reads 'Beatrice Webb'.

12mo, 1 p. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Thanking them for the cheque, and returning the 'form of permission to reprint the four poems, signed' (not present).

12mo, 1 p. 7 lines of closely-written text. Clear and complete. On aged and slightly-grubby paper. He has received their letter regarding his 'Life of Thackeray', and appreciates 'the reason for your delay in deciding whether or no to issue a cheap edition. Undoubtedly the inclusion of my book in a series would benefit us both, & I hope Mr Lee may be able to make me an offer.'

12mo, 2 pp. 13 lines of text. Good, on light-aged paper. He has been 'asked by many persons for copies of his speech at the Cambge. Union Socy.', and if 'Messrs. Macmillan cared to print it, he would revise it, no report having been correct'. He wonders 'whether the whole proceedings should not be added, with some of the newspaper letters which have been carried'. Milnes was created Baron Houghton in 1863. In 1866 Macmillan published 'The Cambridge Union Society, Inaugural Proceedings', edited by G. C. Whiteley.

12mo, 2 pp. 9 lines of text. With mourning border. Good, on lightly-aged paper. He is glad that Macmillan and 'Mr Doulton' are coming to dine with him, but sorry that they 'will be obliged to leave so soon; but it cannot be helped'.

An interesting collection of material relating to an extraordinary woman whose exploits deserve recognition. According to one obituary Mitchell (sister of American General 'Billy' Mitchell) was 'he only foreign woman to serve with the Chetniks', for whom she acted as a dispatch rider. Captured by the Gestapo while swimming at Dubrovnik, 'still in her bathing suit, and with papers on her that would have caused her to be executed without trial, she turned to the agents and asked: "Gentlemen, you will permit me to change my trousers?" They agreed.

12mo, 1 p. Four lines of text. Good, on aged paper with watermarked date '<...>864'. 'If the "Macaulays" have not gone yet, would you send them here, directed to me.' Trevelyan was nephew of the historian Thomas Babington Macaulay, of whom he published a biography in 1880.

12mo: 4 pp. Bifolium with mourning border. 30 lines of text. Good. She has heard that he has 'been good enough to speak kindly of "Pauline" so far as it has gone', and wonders whether he would distribute, to 'such of yr. Friends as belong to Circulating Libraries', cards 'to let people know in time to order the book before it is out'. Her family are pleased that Macmillan has 'been able to spend a night at this beautiful sad home - It did my Father good, I know.

12mo: 1 p. Eight lines of text. Good, though creased. Letterhead printed with the words 'Joan Hassall' and a 5 cm short rule decorated with a tiny dove. She apologises for the delay in sending 'this signature': 'I lost your nice little piece of paper, and then I broke my pen.' Disspain's 'letters of appreciation' give Hassall 'very real pleasure' and she is 'most grateful' for his 'good opinion'.

On one side of a piece of watermarked laid paper, 22.5 x 29 cm, folded to make an envelope, 9 x 21 cm. A thin strip of paper (not affecting text) has been torn away in the breaking open of the wafer, under which it still adheres. On aged, grubby paper, with a couple of pin holes and a few closed tears to extremities. Address reads 'London, May thirty first 1822. | Mrs: Manning, | West Cliff. | Brighton.' Signature, in bottom left-hand corner: 'Wm Manning.' Autograph note to one flap: 'I will take Measures about Mr: Mundy immediately | W: M/'.

It is a singular circumstance that no information whatsoever is available on the Heywood Brotherhood (whose President was the Reverend F. Gordon Mee) on the internet. The five items clear and complete on lightly-aged paper. All leaves of the three letters on the Brotherhood's letterhead (featuring the names and addresses of five of its officials). Letter One (2 pp, one 8vo and one 12mo, with small ink stain at head of first leaf): 18 November 1930. Ramsden asks to 'have the subject of the address you propose to give at our "Brotherhood Sunday" on Sunday, Nov. 30/30'.

Tow pages, 8vo, good condition. "I was at Mitchells' today on my way to you- and proceeded as far as the end of Piccadilly - but time failed me, & I returned at 1/2 of 3 - I had business on the way which I thought to put through - So I send the scraps - which I had put into the envelope & in the right place - though not directed to you - I mean to be with you very soon after you get this - but, for the fear of some unlooked for hundrance I send - I have seen the notice in the Ill[usterated] Lond[on] News - very nice."

Sitwell and Renishaw collaborated on the play 'Gentle Caesar' (published in 1942), and the last two letters would appear to concern a possible film adaptation. All three items very good on lightly aged paper. Letter One ('Friday Renishaw'): 12mo, 2 pp. 18 lines of text. Apparently written around the time of the play's composition. Sitwell is 'delighted' that Minney is 'already immersed in Pares's book. I have just read the Czar and Empress Marie's Letters.' He has 'marked (in the preface mostly) what I thought helpful for atmosphere, or amusing'.

12mo bifolium: 3 pp. Good on slightly grubby paper. He wishes to be informed 'which branch of the family the enclosed represent'. 'They are part of a large collection of persons connected with the Stock Exchange & mercantile world. The collection - some hundreds - was saved from the wreck of the "Oneida" in 1850', and is the work of August Edouard, 'who served under the first Napoleon'. He has 'the history of them, and a very interesting one it is'.

12mo: 2 pp. 18 lines of text. Good. Reporting that 'Mr. Hancock our President' has 'paid such a well deserved eulogium to your honoured sire in his Hunterian Oration published fully in "the Medical Times & Gazette" of last Saturday'. Stone was 'much moved by it', and said to himself 'how pleased I should have been, had his children been present to hear and see how well it was rec[eive]d.' Makes a Latin quotation that has been 'truly [...] said of your noble father'. Skey is not mentioned by name, but the item is from the Skey family archives.

4to: 1 page. Twenty-one lines of text. Good, on creased and lightly-aged paper. An impressively-considered letter, declining Mrs Steward's manuscript 'I had rather be a Doorkeeper'. 'As you point out, Christ Church, Newgate Street, is a near neighbour of Amen House, and its ruins are a pathetic sight.

8vo: 1 p. Good, on lightly-creased paper, with a faint 4cm pink stain in the right-hand margin. Reads 'Many thanks for the copy of your interesting paper, and the kindly reference to my novel.'

4to: 1 p. Twenty-four lines of text. On a bifolium of laid paper, and docketed on the reverse of the second leaf. Good, in faded ink on lightly-aged paper. Begins 'La france republicainne [sic] me fait perdre des renttes [sic] viageres'. She complains of the attack on her 'legitimes droits a mes biens de Corses que le roy de france garrante par un Contract', and speaks of 'droits inalterables et inprescriptible'. She asks for a 'paquet' to be passed to 'Milord Hood'.

Three pages, cr. 8vo, foxed and grubby, but text clear and complete. The subject is his book, Bidcombe Hill, with other rural poems published by William Miller whose Albemarle Street premises were taken over by John Murray I in 1812.

One page, 8vo, partly sunned but mainly good, text clear and complete. He's having "a fearful time" with VOICES and wonders if she knows anybody who'll keep from going on the rocks. "For the first time the magazine is ready to go to press and absolutely no money in the special Voices purse. He had thought to suspend production for an uissue but the printer can only give seven days grace. "It costs two hundred dollars to get out an issue" so he's looking for "eight king hearted individuals who will donate . . ." He hopes she knows someone.

4to: 1 p. Ten lines of text. Heavily stained, but a neat link between two giants of the twentieth-century British book trade. 'I give myself the pleasure of saluting you, I really believe for the first time'. He is happy for the opportunity of telling Secker how much he admired his 'flair and enterprise in earlier years'. He hopes he 'may write as firmly and with as lively a mind as you in six years' time'. 'Alas that we must disappoint you': the books Secker has requested are all out of print. 'Just possibly one or more may come into our hands secondhand.

4to: 3 pp. A bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged and creased paper. Thin strip of brown paper mount still adhering in inner margin of reverse of second leaf. Forty-six lines of text, clear and complete. A small square of paper, bearing Von Bulow's red wax seal (with clear impression) has been cut away from the second leaf and neatly placed beneath the signature. Address, with circular Hull postmark in black ink, on reverse of second leaf.

4to, 1 p. Four lines of text. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with slight staining from paperclip in top left-hand corner. He thanks him for his 'very interesting letter': 'The photograph shows an agreeable, and perhaps distinguished building. I return the picture thereof, and wish you every success therein.'

8vo, 4 pp. Bifolium. Sixty-eight lines of text. Complete and legible, but damaged: grubby and creased, with short closed tears and small hole at gutter. Interesting and informative letter. Stuart's message of condolence on Benjamin Whitworth's death is one of many which 'have been very acceptable more especially to his widow who has been laid aside so long with bad health, his daughters have been quite worn out'. Describes how his brother's health 'began to break down after a slight attack of paralysis some two or three years ago when at John Brown & Co Ld.

On one side of a piece of laid paper, 11 x 18 cm. Laid down on a slightly larger piece of paper. Good: lightly aged with three neat vertical folds. Reads 'Oh! land of beauty - sun-lit Italy! How often do I fondly think of thee, | And of the days gone by . . . . . ! | [signature] A. Maffei | April 14th | 1866.'

On one side of a piece of wove paper, cut into a rectangle approximately 4.5 x 9 cm. Good, on lightly-creased paper with one vertical fold. Cut from an envelope, with traces of the postmark over the autograph, and a section of the gummed strip on the reverse. Reads 'From | John Cowper Powys | Waterloo | Blaenau - F Festiniog | Merionethshire | North Wales | I enjoyed thinking of you in Italy'.

4to (leaf dimensions roughly 27 x 21.5 cm): 1 p. Fifteen lines of text. On the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium, with the address on the reverse of the second leaf. Text complete and legible, on aged paper, grubby, worn and creased paper. An unusual and interesting letter of introduction, pointing out the international links in the European booktrade of the early nineteenth century.