Autograph Letters

Autograph Signature ('John Hullah.').

Author: 
John Hullah [John Pyke Hullah (1812-1884), Worcester-born English composer and teacher of music, who wrote an opera to words by Charles Dickens]
Publication details: 
Place and date not stated. [Parkins & Gotto, London.]
£20.00

On a piece of paper roughly 3.5 x 9 cm, with embossed details of stationers. Good, with tiny crease to one corner. A clear signature, in pencil.

Autograph Signature.

Author: 
Noel Coward (Sir Noel Pierce Coward, 1899-1973), English actor, playwright and song writer
Coward
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£35.00
Coward

On leaf of light blue paper, 8.5 x 12 cm, removed from an autograph album. Very good.

Autograph Note Signed ('J. J Stewart Perowne') to 'Mr Lewis'.

Author: 
John James Stewart Perowne (1823-1904), Bishop of Worcester
Publication details: 
9 March 1882; on government letterhead embossed with royal crest.
£28.00

12mo: 2 pp. On first leaf of bifolium. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper, with dogeared corners. Nine lines of text. The 'man for your purpose' is 'Mr G. Gray, the Diocesan Registry Peterboro''. 'He is intelligent & will do the work well I doubt not on receiving your instructions.' Loosely inserted is a leaf carrying biographical information in a contemporary hand.

Autograph Signature ('J B. Hobbs.').

Author: 
Jack Hobbs [Sir John Berry Hobbs, 1882-1963], English cricketer
Hobbs
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£18.00
Hobbs

On piece of paper roughly 2.5 x 5 cm. Laid down on leaf of cream paper, 8.5 x 12 cm, from an autograph album. In slightly faded blue ink, and with a crease to the bottom left-hand corner, affecting the lower loop of the 'J'.

Autograph Signatures ('Laurence Olivier' and 'Gladys Cooper').

Author: 
Laurence Olivier (1907-1989), English stage and film actor; Gladys Cooper (1888-1971), English actress
Olivier
Publication details: 
Dates and places not stated.
£48.00
Olivier

On piece of cream paper, roughly 8.5 x 12 cm, removed from an autograph album. Good, on paper with a few light marks. Bold, firm signatures in pencil, one on each side of the leaf. Two signatures,

Autograph Note Signed [to Chapman].

Author: 
John Bigelow (1817-1911), American lawyer, newspaper editor (New York Evening Post) and statesman
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£56.00

8vo: 1 p. Good, on lightly creased and aged paper. Good firm hand. Five lines of text and large, bold signature. Reads 'Enclosed please find the note of the General | With compliments to Madam and to Miss Chapman I remain | Very truly yours | [signed] John Bigelow'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Tho. Roffen.') to Thomas Adams of Alnwick, Northumberland; with the Bishop of Rochester's episcopal seal, in red wax.

Author: 
Thomas Dampier (c.1749-1812), Bishop of Ely and book collector [Bishop of Rochester from 1802 to 1808]
Publication details: 
Harley Street, Septr. 14. 1802.'
£80.00

4to: 1 p. Very good on the first leaf of a bifolium. A third quarto leaf carries the address, in Dampier's hand, with his franking signature 'free | T. Rochester.' Also the oval seal, c.3 cm high, a clear impression in red wax. 24 lines of text. Interesting letter. Dampier begins by thanking Adams for 'your Congratulations to me on my Promotion to the See of Rochester.

Signed Letter ('Php Stephens'), in a secretarial hand, to the Duke of Clarence.

Author: 
Sir Philip Stephens (1723-1809), Admiralty official [William IV (1765-1837), King of England (as Duke of Clarence); Royal Navy; Valiant; Andromeda]
Publication details: 
Admiralty Office 22d. June 1790.'
£80.00

Foolscap bifolium: 1 p. Worn, and on discoloured paper, but with text clear and entire. Thirteen lines of text.

Autograph Letter Signed (Sr. D. W. Smith') to Messrs Thorp & Dickson, Alnwick.

Author: 
Sir David William Smith (1764-1837), property manager for the Duke of Northumberland [Farne Islands, Northumberland]
Publication details: 
21 July 1834; Alnwick.
£60.00

4to bifolium: 2 pp. Good, with slight loss to second leaf from breaking of red wax seal, traces of which still adhere. Twenty lines of text. Docketed in pencil and ink on second leaf. Asks them to furnish him with 'all the particulars relative to the Farne Islands [...] who the Lessee? - their estimated quantiy or extent? - Rent? length of lease? - [...] whether Birds, feathers, down, Eggs, Rabbits - Kelp, or Seaware, fish &c? all which I should hope you would be able to obtain from some of your Bamburgh friends? - or from Blackett, at N. Sunderland? - how they are protected?

Autograph Letter Signed "R.F. Littledale" to an unnamed correspondent.

Author: 
Richard Frederick Littledale, Anglican controversialist (DNB)
Publication details: 
(embossed) 9 Red Lion Square, London, W.C., 14 July 1884.
£50.00

Two pages, 8vo, bifolium, good condition. Colonel Hardy, Secretary of the English Church Union, has assured him that his correspondent can help in the matter in hand. Nameky, Dr Von Dollinger has informed him that "Padre Curci" [Jesuit, sometime ed.

Autograph Signature ('Jules Benedict').

Author: 
Sir Julius Benedict (1804-1885), Anglo-German conductor and composer
Publication details: 
January 1866; on letterhead of 2, Manchester Square, W. [London].
£18.00

12mo: 1 p. Very good. Reads 'January 1866 | [signed] Jules Benedict'.

Autograph Signature with classical quotation.

Author: 
Samuel Warren (1807-1877), English novelist
Publication details: 
23 January 1866; 16 Manchester Square, W. [London].
£56.00

On one side of a piece of laid paper, dimensions 11.5 x 17.5 cm. Good, lightly creased with one small spot at head and a light thumbprint (Warren's?) in top right-hand corner. Clearly responding to a request for an autograph. Reads 'The Heavens declare the glory of God, and the Firmament sheweth His handy work. Ps. XX, I. | [signed] Samuel Warren | 16 Manchester Square | W. | 23d January 1866.'

Autograph Letter Signed to William Smith, bookseller and printseller, 24 Lisle Street, Leicester Square, London.

Author: 
Sir Cuthbert Sharp (1781-1849), historian of Hartlepool
Publication details: 
18 November 1826; Sunderland.
£50.00

12mo bifolium: 2 pp. On laid paper, with strip from previous mount in right-hand margin of recto of first leaf. Good, with a little wear at gutter, and slight damage (not affecting text) to second leaf from breaking open of red wax seal, parts of which still adhere. Twenty-two lines of text, clear and entire. Smith's uncle 'Mr ' is 'very glad to hear that you are well & desires to be remembered'. Asks if Smith has 'ever found me a portrait of Sr yet'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('A. P. Stanley') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (1815-1881), Dean of Westminster
Publication details: 
16 April 1877; Deanery, Westminster.
£45.00

12mo: 2 pp. Thick mourning border. Good. The recipient has provided a partial interlinear transcription of what the New DNB describes as 'Stanley's execrable handwriting'. Stanley is 'much obliged for having [his] attention called to anything in the Abbey Services which requires rectification', and will 'make inquiry into the cause of [his correspondent's] complaint'. The 'inattention [...] will be remedied, so far as the nature of the case admits'.

Autograph Note Signed ('S. R. Lushington') to unnamed Post Office official, and with official directions on reverse.

Author: 
Stephen Rumbold Lushington (1776-1868), English politician and administrator in British India
Publication details: 
21 August 1836; Norton Court, Feversham [Faversham], Kent.
£28.00

On one side of an irregular piece of paper, dimensions 13.5 x 18 cm. Ruckled, and with traces of glue from mounting on reverse. Signature clear and complete, but with minor damage to signature caused by removal from mount. Reads 'I request that you will be pleased to order that all Letters for me may be sent here.' Docketed on reverse (with slight cropping along right-hand edge), '21 Augt. 1836. Feversham Rt Hon S. Lushington M.P.', beneath which, 'Mr Johnson | to be attended t specially | 22 Augt.', and 'ansd 22nd Augt | DWP316 | Attended to | [signed] <?> Laurence | 23 Augt 1836.'

Signature ('William P. Lennox') on frank to the Hon. Cecil Lawless.

Author: 
Lord William Pitt Lennox (1799-1881), English Member of Parliament and novelist
Publication details: 
9 December 1833; London. With red ink postmark.
£25.00

The front of a wove-paper envelope, 8 x 12.5 cm. Good. Reads 'London December | Ninth 1833 | Honble. Cecil Lawless | The Wick | Brighton | [signed in bottom left-hand corner] William P. Lennox'. The postmark, in red ink in the top right-hand corner, is circular, topped with a crown, and reads '9 DE 9 | 1833'.

Autograph Signature ('Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe'), written for autograph hunter J. H. Hall.

Author: 
Stratford Canning, Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe (1786-1880), English diplomat
Publication details: 
Without place or date (but after his ennoblement in 1852).
£28.00

On piece of paper, 11 x 17.5 cm. Lightly creased, and with a little spotting at head. Reads 'Autograph | of | Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe | given to Mr J. H. Hall | at his request.' It is curious that Canning should have thought it necessary to emphasize that the autograph was not unsolicited.

Autograph Signature ('Napier of Magdala').

Author: 
Robert Cornelis Napier (1810-1890), 1st Baron Napier of Magdala, British army officer, Commander-in-Chief in India, 1870-1876.
Publication details: 
March 1884; place not stated.
£18.00

On piece of laid paper, dimensions 6 x 11 cm. Good. Clearly complying with a request for an autograph. Reads 'With much pleasure | [signed] Napier of Magdala | March 1884'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('S. C. Hall') to autograph hunter J. H. Hall.

Author: 
Samuel Carter Hall (1800-1889), Anglo-Irish author and journalist, editor of The Amulet and Art Union Monthly (afterwards Art Journal), said to be the model for Dickens's Pecksniff
Publication details: 
18 November 1883; on letterhead of Sussex Villas, 3, Sussex Place, Victoria Road, W., Kensington [London].
£56.00

8vo: 1 p. Very good. He has 'pleasure in complying' with his correspondent's request. 'You may have seen a book I have recently published - "Retrospect of a Long Life" - and have learned that I am in the 84th year of my age - born on the 9th May 1800. | I am thankful to God for good health and for many other blessings.'

Autograph Letter Signed 'To | the Revd: Doctor Shipley | Canon of Xt: Church | Oxford | by way of London'.

Author: 
Catherine Douglas (née Hyde), Duchess of Queensberry and Dover (1701-1777), aristocratic beauty and literary patron [Jonathan Shipley (1713-1788), Bishop of St Asaph]
Publication details: 
Ambresbury [Amesbury]; 22 January [13 February] 1755.
£180.00

4to: 3 pp. Bifolium. On neatly-repaired aged paper, with archival paper covering the two inner pages. Fifty-four lines of text, all clear and entire. Remains of black wax seal, with crest, on verso of second leaf, which carries the address and is docketed 'Maragna Mohammed'. A long letter in two parts, the second part beginning on the verso of the first leaf, which is headed 'now Febry: 13'.

Autograph Note in the third person, on the back of a note from J. H. Hall, Ruxley House, Bromley, Kent, asking for an autograph.

Author: 
Sir Henry Bartle Edward Frere [Bartle Frere], first baronet (1815-1884), colonial governor
Publication details: 
Hall's note, 4 December 1883, on Ruxley House letterhead; Frere's reply, 17 December 1883, Wimbledon.
£56.00

12mo bifolium, with the second leaf blank. Very good. Hall's request, on the recto of the first leaf, reads 'Mr. J. H. Hall presents his Compliments to Sir Bartle Frere G.C. Bart & would feel extremely obliged by the favour of his autograph to add to a collection.' Frere's reply, on the verso, reads 'Wimbledon Decr 17th. 1883. | Sir Bartle Frere presents his compliments to Mr. J. H. Hall; He has received Mr. Hall's letter of Decr. 4: desiring to have his Autograph -'.

Autograph Note Signed ('Roland L. Vaughan Williams') to autograph hunter A. Hall.

Author: 
Sir Roland Lomax Bowdler Vaughan Williams (1838-1916), English judge
Publication details: 
3 August 1892; on letterhead of St. George's Hall, Liverpool.
£23.00

8vo: 1 p. Very good. Letterhead with crest. Reads 'Dear Sir | I understand from my son that you do me the honour to wish to have my autograph It gives me great pleasure to comply with yr request. | your's faithfully. | [signed] Roland L. Vaughan Williams | A Hall Esqre'.

fragment of letter to unnamed correspondent, with engraving of Martineau's residence

Author: 
Harriet Martineau
Publication details: 
2pp, 16mo, 2 August 1856, Church Hill, Ambleside
£45.00

English economist and novelist. The letterhead engraving of 'The Knoll Ambleside' by W. Banks of Edinburgh is circular, around two inches in diameter,with printed signature. The fragment of text - comprising ten lines - is on the reverse. Creased, grubby and stained.

Autograph Letter Signed ('R Seeley') to [John Lucas] Tupper.

Author: 
Robert Benton Seeley (1798-1886; DNB), English publisher and author
Publication details: 
3 July 1871; 54 Fleet Street [London].
£56.00

12mo: 2 pp. Very good. Relates to the photographic series 'English Artists of the present day', published by Seeley with accompanying essays 'by J. B. Atkinson, S. Colvin, F. G. Stephens, T. Taylor, and J. L. Tupper'. He is sending 'a copy of No. 3. The other we count as a presentation copy.' 'The Woolner photo. will I hope not be thought so bad by those who have not seen Elliott & Fry's. I was glad to find this morning that it had not struck Mr.

Autograph Letter Signed ('A. Picard') to Georges Berger (1834-1910), Directeur général de l'Exploitation de l'Exposition de 1889.

Author: 
Alfred Picard (1844-1913), Vice-Président du Conseil d'État [Exposition Universelle de 1889; Paris Exhibition]
Publication details: 
24 April 1890; Paris. On letterhead of the Conseil d'État.
£150.00

8vo: 3 pp. Bifolium. Very good. Written in French. After an 'etude attentive de rapport de M.M. de Lacretelle et Millas et des autres documents en ma possession' on the Exposition's foreign returns he finds 'certaines lacunes et certains points douteux' concerning which he hopes Berger can enlighten him. He gives a list of seventeen officially-participating countries, each with the subsidy it has received in francs, complaining that 'huit de ces chiffres sont douteux'. This is followed by a similar list of six countries which did not participate officially.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Anne B. Procter') to 'My dear Mr Rathbone'.

Author: 
Anne Benson Procter (1799-1888, née Skepper), wife of the poet Bryan Waller Procter ('Barry Cornwall') (1787-1874), and mother of the poet Adelaide Anne Procter (1825-1864)
Publication details: 
18 December 1872; 32 Weymouth St, Portland Place, W. [London].
£35.00

12mo: 1 p. Very good. 14 closely-written lines. 'A friend of mine was asked by our dear old kind friend Chorley to assist in procuring for a Protege of his a musical education. I think the young person was originally introduced to him by Lady Devonshire. A sum was promised for two years, and the time is approaching for the payment to be made.' Asks if she can tell her 'anything about this'. 'You will be glad to hear I know that my husband is still well - His birthday the 21st. Novr. found him 84.'

Autograph Letter Signed ('Depping') to Mathieu Guillaume Therese de Villenave (1762-1846).

Author: 
Georges Bernard Depping [Georg Bernhard Depping] (1784-1853), Franco-German historian and geographer
Publication details: 
05/06/19
£90.00

12mo: 4 pp. 78 lines. Very good. A highly interesting letter, addressed by Depping to his collaborator on an edition of the works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (8 vols, 1817) praised by Brunet as the most complete that had yet appeared. Written in French. Such is the strength of Depping's feeling that he cannot bring himself to address Villenave directly. He begins by stating that he hopes that evening to end an arrangement with Villenave which fills him with disgust (qui m'accable de degout).

Autograph Note Signed ('John Murray') to 'my dear Williams'.

Author: 
Sir John Murray (1884-1967, 'the fifth'), member of a notable London firm of publishers
Publication details: 
4 June 1932; 'as from 50 Albemarle St W.1', on letterhead of Tithe Farm, Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire.
£45.00

8vo: 1 p. Good, with creasing towards right-hand margin. 'Very many thanks, my dear Williams, for your most kind congratulations. I feel that my honour is some recognition of the publishing trade & I take it as such'. Murray was created KCVO in 1932, following his publication of the ninth and final volume of the letters of Queen Victoria.

Autograph ('A Helps') on order for copies of his 'Life of Las Casas' (1868).

Author: 
Sir Arthur Helps (1813-1875), English civil servant and author
Publication details: 
Undated (but post 1868); on Privy Council Office letterhead.
£25.00

12mo: 1 p. Good, with four fold lines. Helps held the post of Clerk of the Privy Council from 1860 until his death. In large letters beneath the oval blue Privy Council crest reads 'Life of | Las Casas | 2 copies for | [signature] A Helps'. The handwriting is bold and the signature is underlined with a flourish.

Autograph Letter Signed ('F. d'Olincourt.') to 'Monsieur Bance, aine, Editeur & Proprietaire, rue Saint-Denis, No. 271, a Paris.' In French.

Author: 
F. Gigault d'Olincourt, Ingenieur Civil [Lithographie, Imprimerie et Librairie]
Publication details: 
23 Janvier 1839; Bar-le-Duc. On elaborately printed letterhead.
£100.00

4to: 2 pp. Eleven lines. Good, on lightly creased and discoloured paper. Column of printed advertisements in left-hand margin of first page, which is headed by a printed description of d'Olincourt's qualifications, enclosed in an engraving of a jumble of disparate items including a book-press, beehive, scientific instruments, laurel wreath and sailing mast. He has begun to publish an 'immense ouvrage d'architecture', and he hopes Bance will subscribe for a number of copies which he will be able to sell 'chez vos clients'.

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