Autograph Letters

Typed Letter Signed to "Mrs Chapman".

Author: 
Harold Vinal, poet and editor of "Voices".
Publication details: 
110 Mt. Vernon St., Boston, USA, [no date]
£75.00

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.

Typed Note Signed to Stanley Unwin.

Author: 
Arnold Bennett (1867-1931), English novelist [Sir Stanley Unwin (1884-1968), publisher]
Publication details: 
9 December 1930; 97 Chiltern Court, Clarence Gate, NW1.
£65.00

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.'

Typed Letter Signed ('Basil Blackwell') to Secker.

Author: 
Sir Basil Blackwell (1889-1984), Oxford bookseller [Martin Secker (1882-1978), publisher]
Publication details: 
17 December 1969, on illustrated Blackwell's letterhead.
£35.00

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.

Autograph Quotation Signed ('A. Maffei').

Author: 
Alessandro Maffei, Italian Minister to Austria, 1859-67, and Ambassador to the United States, 1867-71
Publication details: 
14 April 1866. Place not stated.
£56.00

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.'

Autograph Letter Signed to John William Stuart, on the occasion of his brother Benjamin Whitworth's death.

Author: 
Robert Whitworth, philanthropist [Benjamin Whitworth (1816-1893), Liberal M.P. for Drogheda, Manchester cotton merchant; Whitby Lifeboat; temperance; Sunday observance]
Publication details: 
2 October 1893. 14 Brown Street, Manchester.
£95.00

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.

Autograph address and short note.

Author: 
John Cowper Powys (1872-1963), Anglo-Welsh writer
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£75.00

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'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('von Bülow'), in English, to 'Jon Shelly Esq | Yarmouth'.

Author: 
Heinrich Ulrich Wilhelm von Bulow [von Bülow; von Buelow] (1791-1846), Baron von Bulow, Prussian Minister in London, 1827-1845; and Wilhelm von Humboldt's son-in-law
Publication details: 
2 October 1825; Hull [Kingston upon Hull].
£56.00

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.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Dr. v Martius'), in English, to 'James Murray jun. Esq.', son of the London bookseller John Murray the second.

Author: 
Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius (1794-1868), German botanist and South American explorer [John Murray II (1778-1843); Rudolph Oldenbourg (1811-1903); Johann Georg Cotta, Baron von Cottendorf]
Publication details: 
Munich 21. April 1841.'
£350.00

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.

Autograph Note Signed "Chris. Hodgson" to the Rev. R.H. Barham, minor canon of St Paul's and author of the "Ingoldsby Legends".. With the text for a memorial stone.

Author: 
Christopher Hodgson, "Chapter Clerk", Secretary of Queen Anne's Bounty [
Publication details: 
Bounty Office, Great Deans Yard, 26 November 1824.
£100.00

Two pages (of a bifolium), folio, one page with the ANS, the other with the text for the memorial stone, grubby, fold marks, text clear and complete. Hodson informs Barham that he is "desired by the Dean & Chapter of St Paul's to inform you that they give permission to the Parishioners of St Gregory to put down a plain flat stone in front of the West Entrance of St. Pauls in the manner proposed by them". The text is in Hodgson's hand and consists of a series of statements about Churches destroyed or damaged by the Great Fire of London of 1666.

Autograph Note in the third person to William Henry Kearsley Wright (1844-1915), Plymouth Borough Librarian, naval historian and antiquary.

Author: 
John George Edward Henry Douglas Sutherland Campbell, Marquis of Lorne [Marquess of Lorne] and Duke of Argyll (1845-1914), Governor-General of Canada
Publication details: 
21 October 1875. Kensington [i.e. Kensington Palace].
£25.00

12mo: 1 p. Very good on lightly-aged paper. Reads: 'The Marquis of Lorne presents his compliments to Mr Wright and thanks him for the copy he has sent him of "The Spanish Armada." Wright's 'The Spanish Armada: a descriptive historical poem' was published in Plymouth by G. P. Friend in 1874.

Autograph Card Signed ('Joseph Hatton') to Edward Draper of Vincent Square.

Author: 
Joseph Hatton [Joseph Paul Christopher Hatton] (1841-1907), English novelist and journalist
Publication details: 
On the <Maille?>' [postmarked Nijmegen, 17 August 1895].
£35.00

Fourteen lines on the back of two-tone Dutch postcard, the front being tined light blue. Addressed to 'Edw Draper Esq, 3 Vincent Square, Westminster, London, England'. Aged and grubby, with two creases and slight traces of previous mount on front. Hatton's hand is difficult, but the note, addressed to 'My dear Friend', defending his use in a story of the following version of the celebrated quotation: 'When Greeks joined Greeks". Concludes 'You are right about the tinder box of course.'

Autograph Letter Signed to Rupert Simms.

Author: 
John Kinsman (born 1826), bookseller of Penzance, Cornwall [Rupert Simms (1854-1937), Staffordshire bookseller and bibliographer]
Publication details: 
21 January 1884; Penzance.
£65.00

12mo (leaf dimensions 18 x 11 cm): 2 pp. Twenty-one lines of text, complete and legible. On aged paper with some wear at head. Casting interesting light on the workings of the provincial Victorian booktrade.

Autograph Note Signed ('E R Fremantle') to William Henry Kearsley Wright (1844-1915), Plymouth Borough Librarian, naval historian and antiquary.

Author: 
Sir Edmund Robert Fremantle (1836-1929), English naval officer, Commander-in-Chief at Devonport
Publication details: 
9 August 1898. On embossed letterhead of the Commander in Chief's Office, Devonport.
£28.00

12mo, 1 p. Very good on lightly-aged paper. Reads 'Dear Mr Wright, | I am sending you a photograph which I hope you will like, | Yours faithfully, | [signed] E R Fremantle'.

Documents: Subject: Statue in London

Author: 
[ Oliver Goldsmith ]
Publication details: 
1912-1914
£150.00

A correspondence with Clement Shorter concerning the placing of a statue of Oliver Goldsmith (a replica of Foley's in Dublin) somewhere in London. Shorter had suggested this in "The Sphere", etc. The collection comprises ten letters and three related newspaper clippings, dating 7 June 1912 to 27 February 1914.

Autograph Signature and two black and white Photographs.

Author: 
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), American composer, pianist and conductor
Publication details: 
Edinburgh, 1973.
£120.00

All three items in very good condition. Clear, bold signature, on a cropped piece of paper three inches by five wide, reading 'Leonard Bernstein | Edinburgh | <'73>'. The first photograph (six and a half inches by eight wide, and with the stamp of the Scottish Tourist Board on the reverse), shows a smiling Bernstein in a Prince of Wales check double-breasted jacket with a bespectacled old gentleman in a single-breasted pinstripe jacket, admiring a bagpiper in full regalia at a British railway station (Edinburgh Waverley?).

Autograph Letter Signed ('J A Froude') to Adolphus.

Author: 
James Anthony Froude (1818-1894), English historian [John Leycester Adolphus (c.1794-1862), barrister and writer]
Publication details: 
12 November [no year, but before 1863]. On embossed letterhead of 8 Clifton Place, Hyde Park, London.
£35.00

12mo: 2 pp. Sixteen lines of text. Good. He is 'very anxious to be introduced' at the Literary Society and 'to take advantage of [Adolphus's] kindness in proposing' him. Gives reasons for not having attending any of the Society's dinners.

Autograph Letter Signed to Helen Frances Church [née Bennett].

Author: 
Robert Scott (1811-1887), Dean of Rochester, lexicographer [Liddell & Scott's Greek-English Lexicon; Richard William Church (1815-1890), Dean of St Paul's]
Publication details: 
23 July 1875. Deanery of Rochester.
£30.00

12mo, 2 pp. Fourteen lines of text. He has put her 'memorandum' with 'the others of a like kind', and does not doubt that he will 'be able to vote for your Orphan Boy -'. The Scotts are 'on the point of escaping to Folkestone', and hopes that Mrs Church is 'going to some place which [will] do you all much good'. Sends kind regards to Mrs Church '& the Dean'.

Typed Note Signed ('Geo R Sims') to F. Leslie Moreton.

Author: 
George R. Sims [George Robert Sims] (1847-1922), English journalist and writer.
Publication details: 
24 March 1900; on letterhead of 12, Clarence Terrace, Regents Park. N.W. [London].
£45.00

4to: 1 p. Text complete and clear, on aged, spotted and lightly-creased paper. He has exchanged letters with 'Mr Morell' 'with reference to "Faust up to Date" ', but does not believe any contract has yet been arranged. He does not have a copy of 'the Score and Band Parts': 'I should say Mr Geo. Edwardes or Mr Meyer Lutz has these.' Sims co-wrote 'Faust up to Date' with Henry Pettitt. The music was by Lutz. It was produced by Edwardes, and first performed at the Gaiety Theatre, London, on 30 October 1888.

Typed Note Signed ('A. C. Fox-Davies') to H. S. Vade Walpole.

Author: 
Arthur Charles Fox-Davies (1871-1928), English writer on heraldry, and Gold Staff Officer at the Coronation of King George V
Publication details: 
8 June 1899; on letterhead of Hastings House, Norfolk Street, Strand, London.
£35.00

4to: 1 p. Good, on lightly aged and spotted paper. Regarding 'certain verses concerning this street', Walpole will 'find an explanation of the whole circumstance in this week's Notes & Queries'.

Autograph Letter Signed (with accent: 'Hugh de Sélincourt') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Hugh de Sélincourt [Hugh de Selincourt] (1878-1951), English journalist and author
Publication details: 
3 December [1916]; 12 Hill Road, St. John's Wood, N.W.
£35.00

4to: 1 p. Fourteen lines of text. Aged and worn, with closed tears along the fold lines, but with text clear and complete. He thanks his correspondent for the letter ('It is always a great delight to me to know that people like my work.') and gives details of where the 'little book I published on "Pride of Body" ' can be purchased. Ends with the details of his 'new novel "A Soldier of Life" ': 'I mention it, as you say it is difficult for you to get hold of books and I should like you to read it.'

Autograph Letter Signed to Wheatley.

Author: 
Edwin Norris (1795-1872), linguist and Assyriologist [Henry Benjamin Wheatley (1838-1917), bibliographer, editor and London topographer; Frederick James Furnivall]
Publication details: 
17 August 1865. Brompton.
£35.00

12mo, 2 pp. Thirteen lines of text. Good. The letter possibly relates to Furnivall's Early English Text Society, founded in 1865. He is enclosing a Post Office Order for a guinea, but, as he 'said to Mr Furnivall last year', he does not consider himself a subscriber, 'wishing to reserve the right of withdrawal in case of finding it inconvenient to pay, which will certainly be the case when I give up my official position'. Nevertheless asks Wheatley to remind him 'when the time comes for collection'.

Autograph Signature.

Author: 
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£56.00

On a piece of wove paper, cut into a shape roughly corresponding to a 5 x 8 cm rectangle. Aged, discoloured and worn, with some of the autograph slightly smudged with blotting. The autograph of one of America's greatest poets. In Longfellow's small, tight hand, reads: 'With regards | Henry . W . Longfellow .' Thin slip of paper laid down on the reverse reads 'S. ENGLEFIELD COLLECTION | HENLEY ON THAMES'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('C Crapelet'), in French, to 'Monsieur Deterville'

Author: 
Charles Crapelet (1762-1809), French printer, based in Paris
Publication details: 
27 October 1807. [Paris.]
£75.00

12mo: 1 p. Eight lines of text. On a piece of grey laid watermarked paper. Complete and clear. Lightly aged and creased. Unusually frank business communication. He is angry at having to tell Deterville that he cannot have 'd'exemplaire des Rudimens'. He will do his best to let him have them soon. However weak the excuse, it is nevertheless true that the 'ouvriers ne m'ont pas tenu parole'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('F Carruthers Gould') to 'Mrs Whyte'.

Author: 
Francis Carruthers Gould (1844-1925), English caricaturist, politician, and assistant editor of 'The Westminster Gazette'; temperance; the Liberal Publication Department]
Publication details: 
23 April 1908. On letterhead of The Westminster Gazette.
£45.00

12mo: 2 pp. On the rectos of the two leaves of a bifolium. Good, on lightly aged and spotted paper. Her letter has been handed to him by 'Mr Spender'. He would be 'very pleased to have the temperance cartoons circulated as post cards', and has asked 'the manager here' for a costing. 'Some of the cartoons I believe are being produced as posters by the Liberal Publication Department and by Temperance organisations.'

Autograph Letter Signed ('de Tessan'), in French, to 'Monsieur Pingard, Chef du Secretariat de l'Institut'.

Author: 
Urbain Dortet de Tessan (1804-1879), French geographer who between 1836 and 1839 circumnavigated the world
Publication details: 
Paris le 11 Avril 1866'.
£56.00

12mo, 1 p. Good, on lightly aged paper. Asking Pingard, as Secretary of the Institut de France, to convene a meeting of the members of the 'Section de Géographie et Navigation'. Postscript: 'P.S. Je suis, connais vous, près <?> une Jambe.'

Autograph Letter Signed ('Mel. Alcan'), in French, to 'Monsieur le Conseiller d'Etat Commissaire Général'.

Author: 
Michel Alcan (1801-1877), French politician and engineer who made numerous innovations in the field of textiles [Exposition Universelle de 1867, Paris, France]
Publication details: 
Paris le 13. Dbre 1866'.
£65.00

4to (27 x 21 cm), 1 p. Nine lines of text. Text clear and complete on lightly aged, creased and foxed paper. Small closed tear at edge along crease line (not affecting text). Bearing the numbered stamp of the Exposition Universelle de 1867, Commission Imperiale. Accepting the position, conferred on him by the Commission, of 'membre de Jury de l'Exposition dans la 55me. classe': 'J'accepte cette tâche de confiance, et ferai tous mes éfforts pour la remplir avec l'activité reclamée par le reglement concernant les travaux du Jury'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('S. Bannister'), in French, to 'Monsieur de Monglave, l'Institut Historique'.

Author: 
Saxe Bannister (1790-1877), English writer and lawyer, the first Attorney-General of New South Wales [Eugène Garay de Monglave (1796-1873)]
Publication details: 
Au Mai, Jouy, Près Versailles, 23 Juin 1834'.
£85.00

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. Good, on lightly aged paper. Addressed to 'Monsieur et Confrère'. He replied to de Monglave's last letters a couple of days previously, and he has addded 'deux ou trois propositions que je vous de traduire en bon François, et de lire à notre comité, au Conseil'. He wants to get to know 'quelques uns de mes voisins dans ce village où j'ai l'intention de passer six mois', and asks for letters of introduction. Lists four families he wishes to get to know and names some individuals with whom he is a little acquainted.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Philippe de Larenaudière'), in French, to unnamed male editor of a journal.

Author: 
Philippe de Larenaudière [Philippe François de La Renaudière], nineteenth-century French mining engineer, geographer and traveller in the Americas
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£65.00

4to, 1 p. Fourteen lines of text, on the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium. Text clear and complete, on lightly aged and creased paper. Slight staining at foot of text (affecting part of signature), and on the reverse of the second leaf of the bifolium, which is docketed 'la renaudié | A. S.' He is sending an article on 'la Bibliotheque des voyages'. Asks that the article on the work entitled 'Des Beaux arts en Angleterre', 'que Buisson vous adressa il ya prés de Deux mois', be inserted. 'Je vous prie en grace de laisser ma Signature en entier.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Justin Mc.Carthy') to 'F. H. Hill Esq'.

Author: 
Justin McCarthy (1830-1912), Irish politician and writer [Frank Harrison Hill (1830-1910)], editor of the Daily News]
Publication details: 
6 February 1872, on letterhead of 48 Gower Street, Bedford Square, W.C. [London.]
£56.00

12mo: 1 p. Fourteen lines of text, neatly and closely written. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper. 1 cm closed tear to a margin (not affecting text). He accepts Hill's proposal 'with regard to the Parliamentary leaders of the Daily News'. He hopes the 'condition [...] as to notice of termination [...] will prove as much of a formality without consequence as certain claims for "consequential damages" '.

Autograph Signature.

Author: 
Joseph Gulston (1744/5-1786), British book collector and connoisseur
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£20.00

On a piece of paper cut from a letter, roughly 3.5 x 9.5 cm. On lightly aged and slightly grubby paper. Good firm signature, beneath which, in a contemporary hand, 'I knew his daughter Stepny'. Gulston's wife Bridgetta (1749/50–1780) was the second daughter of Sir Thomas Stepney.

Syndicate content