Autograph Letters

On 11.5 x 7.5 cm calling card. In good condition, lightly aged. The calling card is printed in copperplate font, with the name ‘Mrs. Neville Chamberlain.’ centred, and the address ‘10, Downing Street, / S.W.1.’ at bottom left. Two lines of the inscription are written above the name and the rest beneath. Reads: ‘Thank you so [sic] & Major Cripps so much for those more lovely carnations which I appreciated so much. / Anne Chamberlain’. See image.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. An 11.5 x 7 cm piece of paper, cut from the front of an envelope. In fair condition, laid down on a piece of grey paper cut from an album. Faint franking postmark in red ink. Laid out in Palmerston’s neat and stylish hand in the customary way, and reading: ‘London February Twenty 1826 / Peter Legh Esqr. Junr / Haydock Lodge / Warrington’, with the signature ‘Palmerston’ at bottom left. See image.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The postcard, with stamp printed on it, has the typed address: ‘The Rev. A. H. Sayers, / Orchard Close, / Monmouth’. Aged and worn, with a dog-eared corner and minor rust spotting from a paperclip. Stylised signature. Reads: ‘Many thanks for your offer to send a car to meet me at Severn Tunnel Junction, on November 20th. I will look out for it. / Yours / L Housman’. From the Sayers papers, with other material indicating that Housman was giving a talk for the Union. See image.

See his long entry in the Oxford DNB, which sums up his achievements as ‘very substantial’ and ‘a source of enduring inspiration to others’. 1p, 16mo. On bifolium with thin mourning border. In good condition, folded twice. Written in his characteristically-inky hand, and signed ‘Shaftesbury’. Reads: ‘Dear Mr Rowley / I did not forget your request. I trust that, by the blessing of God, your [fears?] are [removed?]. / Yours tr[ul]y / Shaftesbury’. Seee image.

Weyman was, as his entry in the Oxford DNB states, ‘one of the most popular and skilled of the historical romance novelists of the cloak and dagger school’. Oscar Wilde recommended his novels as reading for convicts. The present item is on an 11 x 9 cm piece of watermarked laid paper. In good condition. A neat attractive two-line inscription for an autograph collector, underlined and sloping upwards. Reads: ‘Stanley J. Weyman | Nov. 2. 1899’. See image.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On one side of 19 x 5.5 cm piece of laid paper. In good condition, lightly ruckled and with traces of mount on reverse. Clearly cut from a letter for an autograph hunter. Reads: ‘Captain Wynguard who has [...] is fit to succeed to that situation. / I am, Dear Mr Harrison, / Yours most sincerely / Frederick / Colonel 2d. L. Gds.’ The ‘2’ of ‘2d.’ looks like a ‘1’, but the signature is certainly his.

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 'two lobsters' his friend read the words as “two eggs”.’) On one side of blank card. In envelope with indistinguishable seal in red wax, addressed by Parr to ‘Keeling Greenway Esqr / Mayor of Warwick’.

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 bearer & his friend to the gallery of the House of Commons. / John C. Hobhouse’. See image.

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

The present autographs were taken within a few years of the quartet’s formation in 1931. Accompanying the item is an 11 x 9 cm newspaper cutting of a photograph of the youthful members of ‘THE FAMOUS GRILLER QUARTET - often heard over the wireless - which created a very favourable impression last night at the first concert for the season of the Aberdeen Chamber Music Club.’ The autographs are on one side of a 16 x 11 cm leaf with rounded edges, extracted from an autograph album. The signatures are one above the other, with Sidney Griller’s large and bold.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. Clearly written in response to a request for an autograph. On 11.5 x 5.5 piece of wove paper, cut from an album. In good condition. Reads: ‘Yours very truly / Ada Ellen Bayly / “Edna Lyall.” ’.

On 9 x 13.5 cm newspaper cutting of photographic portrait of Jarred. In good condition, lightly aged. Reads: ‘Mary Jarred / 1935.’ The photograph shows Jarred posing in a black dress and pearls, with left hand arranging her white fur coat to tastefully emphasize her bust. See image.

On 17.5 x 11.5 cm leaf of pink paper, with rounded edges, removed from autograph album. In good condition, lightly aged. Written in a large, expansive hand, diagonally and upwards. Reads: ‘With all / good wishes / Oda Slobodskaya’. See image.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. The letters concern Manning’s second novel, ‘Artist among the Missing’ (1949). Both in fair condition, on lightly aged and spotted paper. Both 2pp, 12mo, and both signed ‘Olivia Manning’. ONE (15 May 1949): Twenty-four lines of text. She thanks him for his review of her book in the Hendford Herald: ‘I feel you have understood the point & purpose of the book a great deal more deeply than most of the regular reviewers who dealt with it for the literary weeklies’.

See the entries for Warner and Macqueen-Pope in the Oxford DNB. Such was the popularity of Warner’s portrayal of George Dixon, that the Queen told him it had become part of ‘the British way of life’, and he was carried to his grave by six real officers from Paddington Green Police Station. LETTER: 1p, 4to. Folded twice. In good condition, lightly aged. Signature ‘Jack.’ and salutation to ‘My dear Popie’ in Warner’s hand; the rest typed. Letterhead with his name. He is sending ‘the long promised photos’, delayed because he ‘had to get some new prints of the “pipe” one.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly aged. In the following transcript, the parts in Masefield’s autograph are in square brackets, and the first printed sentence (‘I [...] letter.’) has been scored through: ‘PINBURY PARK, / CIRENCESTER. / Dear [Sirs,] / I thank you for you letter. / [I shall be obliged if you will send me No 98 of your list / Du Maurier. Trilby / London, 1895.] / With all good wishes, / Yours sincerely, / John Masefield.’ (Note that this ‘signature’ is printed.) See image.

The Catholic Encyclopedia declares him to be ‘one of the great preachers of modern times’.On one side of a 10.5 x 6 cm calling card, with slightly larger envelope. Card in good condition, lightly aged; envelope in fair condition. Printed on the card is ‘Le Cardinal Mermillod’, and beneath this he has written: ‘Présent au cher Mr. de la Bire Mr. & Mme. Jenner de Londres, il lui demande pour eux son cordial acceuil.’ Card is addressed to ‘Monsieur / Théodor de la Bire / hôtel d’Angleterre/’. See image

[Bilbao letter. SEE IMAGE for its contents, a request for going into exile on Waldegarve's ship] One page, 4to, part of bifolium of which Waldegrave's reply (presumed to be in his hand) is p.3, as follows: Sir | I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your lketter of this day sating that the Gov[ernment] of Chili had ordered you to quit the country and requesting of me a passage to Callas [Peru] and promnising me that you will not leave my ship [at Coquimbo [Chile] when she calls at Coquibo.

Incomplete (missing signature page at least), leaving 4pp., 4to, remnants of tipping on to something, minor stains around address, small hole causing minor loss, text clear, as follows: Sir, | beg your Royal Highness to accept my best thanks for the able, succinct & lucid memorandum which I have just had the honor to recieve [sic] & a copy of which I propose to forward the Mr.

See the recipient's entry in the Oxford DNB. Both letters signed ‘Elsa’. ONE (7 December 1951): 1p, 8vo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded three times. Thirty-eight lines of text. She received his letter while wishing to contact him, and wonders if this is a coincidence. ‘And my wanting to write you grew out of an intense yearning to be in London again’.

In his obituary of Low’s partner Robin Waterfield (Independent, 12 February 2002), James Fergusson describes Low as a ‘Scottish Polish Jewish bouquiniste’. The recipient Andrew Block’s obituary in ‘The Private Library’ was subtitled ‘the doyen of booksellers’; his business was established in 1911. Plain orange-yellow card, with Reynolds Stone oval medallion letterhead. Signed ‘David’ in red ink. Addressed, with postmark and stamp, to ‘Mr. Andrew Block / 30, Barter Street / London W.C.1.’ He enquires whether the ‘coloured drawings on rice paper’ he is sending are ‘merely Chinese’.

On one side of 19 x 9 cm slip of paper with Osterley Park letterhead with her crested monogram in gold and black. In fair condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Somewhat shaky and curiously-antiquated signature. Typed note in capitals. One word and a few minor corrections to text in autograph. Reads: ‘May 24 Wednesday / My dear Jim / I am here at the receipt of custom - will you come & when? Come to dine & sleep - or stay.

See Nicolas Barker’s appreciative obituary in the Independent, 7 April 1999, which notes that after selling his entire stock to the University of Texas in 1968, ‘He moved his business to the other side of Great Russell Street, and briefly opened another shop, selling prints in partnership with Rob Douwma.’ (The British Museum website states that ‘Weinreb & Douwma was on the corner of Great Russell Street and Bloomsbury Way during the 1970s and 1980s.’) The obituary of the recipient Andrew Block (1892-1987) in ‘The Private Library’ was subtitled ‘the doyen of booksellers’; his business w

See his obituary in the Guardian, 26 June 2019. The obituary of the recipient Andrew Block (1892-1987) in ‘The Private Library’ was subtitled ‘the doyen of booksellers’; his business was established in 1911. Plain postcard, with his letterhead and the following printed at the foot: ‘WANTED. Any English book, or any book printed in England, before 1700.’ Signed ‘Cecil Woolf.’ Aged and worn, with central vertical fold. Addressed, with stamp and postmark, to ‘Andrew Block, Esqre., / 20, Barter Street, / Holborn, W.C.1’.

Dating from what his entry in the Oxford DNB describes as Askey’s ‘prime professional days’: ‘In 1938 Askey joined Powis Pinder's Sunshine concert party at Shanklin, Isle of Wight, where he performed successfully for the next eight years. In 1938 the BBC also engaged him for a new radio show called Band Waggon, in which his partner was Richard Murdoch. The show, first broadcast in January 1938, was an enormous success and its innovative style was perhaps Askey's greatest contribution to the entertainment business.’ On one side of a 12.5 x 8.5 cm piece of light-green card.

During Lahrbush’s lifetime William John Thoms, in his ‘Human Longevity’ (1873), described his claim to have been born in 1766 as ‘the most barefaced case of pretended centenarianism which has ever come under my notice’. ‘Capt. Lahrbush’, who claimed to have been born in 1766, ended his days in New York. He also claimed to have guarded Napoleon in St Helena, and to have obbained a lock of Bonaparte’s hair there. In fact he was court-martialled for fraud in 1818, and sent as a convict to Australia.

One page, bifiloium crdudely repaired at margin, fold marks, wear and tear at edges, but text clear: My dear Lady Blessington | I shall have great pleasure in accepting your very kind invitation.

Letter, basically three lines, short but significant, cr.8vo, crumpled, fold marks, text clear and complete. See Image. . Dear Nigel de Grey | How very kind of you to write to me. Both friend & stranger have done their best to break my fall. & I have no regret to complain, but I rather collapsed after the verdict. | Most surely yours, | Robert Ross. Note: A, Douglas and his friend Crosland began a campaign of libel against Robert Ross. Ross v. Crosland April-June 1914 Following a long campaign of harassment, Ross finally went to court.

The recipient is not named (the salutation is to ‘Mylord’), but William ends with compliments to ‘Lady Auckland’, and the letter also contains a reference to Eden Park. 1p, landscape 12mo. In fair condition, on aged paper, laid down on part of leaf cut from album. Signed ‘G. F. Pr Hed.d’Orange’. The mount is captioned, in a contemporary hand, ‘George [sic] Prince of Orange (Holland) date 1798’.

On 22 x 14 cm piece of laid paper, cut from the foot of a document. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased, with tiny closed tear to one edge. Folded three times. At head, in the kings hand: ‘[...] terrattelse lander. Stockholms Slott den 6 Maj 1847. / Oscar’. Directly beneath the firm, clear signature, is the embossed circular seal, under paper, 6 cm in diameter, with motto ‘OSCAR SVER NOR GOTH OCH W KONUNG / RATT OCH SANNING’.