ART

See his entries in the Oxford DNB and History of Parliament. Frank cover, laid out in the customary fashion, on 12.5 x 7 cm panel cut from front of envelope. In fair condition, on lightly aged paper. Usual red frank postmark: ‘FREE / 29JA29 / 1831’. Reads: ‘London January twenty nine 1831 / Willm. Smith Esqr. / at Smith Wright’s Esqr / Kempston / Loughboro Notts / per / R Bernal’. See Image. On reverse, in contemporary hand: ‘R. Bernal. MP for Rochester / Chairman of the Committee / of the House of Commons / on the Reform Bill.’

These five items are part of a collection of correspondence (the rest is offered separately) relating to a supposed portrait of a young Percy Bysshe Shelley by George Romney, which was in a group of paintings donated to the Shakespeare Memorial Association by the appropriately-named anatomist Evan Marlett Boddy. (The Shelley portrait is reproduced in ‘The Magazine of Art’, 1901, with the caption ‘Reputed portrait of Shelley as a boy, by Romney. In the Shakespeare memorial, Stratford-on-Avon.’, in an article on ‘Portraits of Shelley at the National Portrait Gallery’, p.

A jaunty missive. Lady Eastlake and her husband have separate entries in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 16mo. Eighteen lines. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Addressed to 'Dear Mrs Ford' and signed 'Eliz Eastlake'. A 'kind friend in the country' is insisting on sending her 'early strawberries & grapes' and she asks Mrs Ford not to 'commit the extravagance of orderg any yourself, but trust to me to have the offering transferred to 123 Park Street'. She will be sending for the fruit at Euston Station around 2 o'clock on the Saturday, '& they shall be shortly after that with you'.

See his entry, and that of Taylor, in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. On bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Only the sculptors heavily inked signature ‘John Adams-Acton’ is in his hand, the rest more lightly written by an amanuensis. Addressed ‘To, Tom Taylor Esqr.’ Begins: ‘I address you as a representative of the press to solicit you to pay my studio a visit.’ He lists the names of five ‘public and distinguished men’ whose busts he can show, beginning with ‘The Right Honble W. E. Gladstone - Premier’ and including ‘Isaac Holden Esqr.

2pp, 16mo. Thirty lines of text. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Addressed to ‘My dear Gordon’ and signed ‘love to you all / D.’ The letter concerns the noted ceramic manufacturers Royal Doulton, whose headquarters were at Lambeth in London. Begins: ‘My dear Gordon, / I looked in at Doultons on Tuesday morning on my way down to Corfe Castle & saw “the living skeleton” & Mr Wackrill. He told me that you had been there & taken a tile with you. Which one did you choose?

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Reads: ?Dear Yonge / Will you bring your rod & try the river this morning / Yours always / Thomas Fairbairn / Saturday?.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient would appear to have been an impudent autograph collector. Addressed to ‘Grant Reid / Esq’ and signed ‘Herbert Maxwell’. Begins: ‘Dear Sir / I have directed a copy of Post Meridiana to be sent to you according to your desire.’ He cannot however comply with Reid’s other request. ‘I have no time to give to drawing now, and my family have possessed themselves of all my old drawings.’

A nice set of documents relating to the London émigré art scene. A copy of the engraved portrait to which these two items refer, titled ‘Louis Joseph de Bourbon, prince de Condé, prince du sang’, is BM P&D 1850,0211.17, and carries the information M.de de Tott pinx., F. Bartolozzi RA sculp., and her details, as publisher: London Publish'd by M.de de Tott Octo. 1 1802. De Tott’s original painting is in the Musée Condé in Paris. See Bartolozzi’s entry in the Oxford DNB and the second (1885) edition of Tuer’s monograph on him. The two items are attached with a wafer at top inner corner.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. Fourteen lines. The recipient is not named. Written in a large loose hand, rendering the following reading tentative. In fair condition, lighty aged and worn, with minor traces of grey paper mount on reverse. Reads: ‘Dear Sir.

See Fairholt’s entry in the Oxford DNB. The letters on either side of a 12mo leaf. In good condition, neatly placed in windowpane mount. On one side is the response: ‘Wednesday / Dear Mr Keet / I find I must not go out at night for a week to come. I ventured last night & am worse to day in consequence / You must excuse me with many thanks for your intentions / Yours very try / F. W. Fairholt’. On the reverse is a hurried and smudged ALS signed ‘Edwin Keet’ and addressed to ‘Dr. Bell F R. S. / F. S.

See Fairholt’s entry in the Oxford DNB. ONE: Receipt by Fairholt. 1p, landscape 12mo. In good condition, in windowpane mount. Good firm signature. Reads: 'Received of Mr Clements the sum of fifteen shillings for a drawing in wood of a Candelabra. / F. W. Fairholt / £- 15s . 0d'. TWO: IOU by Rimbault. 1p, 16mo. In good condition, in windowpane mount. Reads: 'I. O. U. / Thirty pounds / Oct 20 . 1883 / C. Rimbault / to F. W. Fairholt'. Rimbault's identity (a relation of the musicologist Edward Francis Rimbault?) has not been established. See Image.

Berggruen was awarded the French Legion of Honour and the German Order of Merit. Among those attending his funeral were German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Horst Köhler. One of his sons is the US billionaire investor and philanthropist Nicholas Berggruen. In the year this letter was sent Erskine opened his influential St Georges Gallery Prints off Cork Street. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, but with slight damage and creasing at the centre of the right-hand margin. Highly stylized signature, ‘Heinz Berggruen’. Folded once for postage. Reads: ‘Dear Mr.

John Stanton Ward was a noted portrait painter, who resigned his membership of the Royal Academy in protest at the ‘Sensation’ show of 1997. See his obituaries in the Telegraph, Times, Guardian and Indpendent. Patric Dickinson has not received his due. A self-styled ‘poet and impresario of poetry’, Dickinson occupied a central position in the cultural landscape of post-war Britain.

The Pippets of Solihull were a Roman Catholic family that worked closely on ecclesiastical designs with the Gothic Revival firm Hardman & Co (whose archives are held by the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery). Wilfrid also collaborated with J. B. Trinick on the striking illustrations to A. E. Waite’s rosicrucian ‘Album of the Great Symbols of the Paths’ (1917-21; copy in the British Museum Department of Prints and Drawings). Eleven attractive illustrations in black ink (over pencil draft).

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once.Addressed to 'Dear Miss Lewis' and with good firm signature 'Alfred Parsons'. He will be very pleased to dine with her the following Friday, '& dance one set of Lancers after; I feel much complimented at being asked with the young people'.

English Camden Town Group Painter (1878-1914). Dimensions seven inches by ten inches. Grubby, but in good condition. From the Mark Bonham Carter collection. Captioned 'Spencer Gore | Freddy', with an arrow pointing to impressionistic representation of figure, nine inches high, of the artist in a suit, with high-collared shirt, holding a palette in his left hand and with his right hand outstretched and painting onto a canvas. Around the figure dabs of watercolour and a representation of a foot. Crude drawing of seascape on reverse. Together with scrap of paper reading 'MR.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, and folded once for postage. Clearly responding to a request for an autograph. Boldly written, with the merest smudging to the surname: 'with compliments / of Stanhope A. Forbes / 5th March 1935'.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, and folded once for postage. The male recipient is not named, and the letter is signed ‘Stanhope A. Forbes’, with slight smudging to the ‘o’ of ‘Forbes’. As he is obliged to him for his letter ‘& the kind things you are good enough to say about my work’, he is happy ‘to accede to your request to append my signature’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. A protege of Prince Albert, Bell worked for the Privy Purse from the time of the Great Exhibition, and served as Permanent Secretary to the Keeper of the Privy Purse from 1876 to his death. Signed ‘John Gilbert’ and addressed to ‘Doyne C. Bell Esquire / &c &c.’ 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Reads: ‘Dear Sir, / I remember the small picture painted in 1851. H M The Queen holding a drawing Room at St James’s Palace. / I did not intend to paint a larger picture and never did’. See Image.

2pp, 12mo. Nineteen lines. Closely written in a neat hand. In fair condition, lightly aged, with strip of dried adhesive from mount along one edge. Folded for postage. Begins: ‘Mr Cunningham presents his Compliments to Lady Theresa Lewis and forwards to Kent House [her Knightsbridge home] the Copy of the Duchess of Newcastle’s Life of her Husband. If lady Theresa derives half the pleasure from its perusal which Mr C.

See his entry and hers in the Oxford DNB. From the papers of Lady Theresa Lewis, and written while she was married to her first husband, the novelist Thomas Henry Lister (1800-1842). 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, and folded once for postage.

See his entry, and Swan's, in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. Seventeen stylish lines with bold signature. On first leaf of a bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Addressed to 'Dear Mrs Swan' and signed 'Frank Dicksee'. Her letter gave him great pleasure and he has just had the opportunity of placing her 'very kind offer before the Council [of the Royal Academy]'. 'I need hardly tell you they are delighted to accept this valuable gift.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 16mo, on the first leaf of a bifolium. In good condition. Folded once for postage. Addressed to 'Douglas A. Wenslow Esq'. Reads: 'Dear Sir / Many thanks for your kind letter. / Here is the Autograph / yours truly / W L Wyllie'.

See his entry, and that of Swan, in the Oxford DNB. From the Swan papers. On both sides of an 11.5 x 9 cm card. In good condition, lightly aged, and with faint ink line at foot. Signed 'W L Wyllie'. Begins: 'Dear Miss Swan / Very many thanks for sending me the copy of Cape St Vincent. It is quite fine I will try if I cannot steal a bit for my big picture.' He turns to a 'roll' which is 'not long enough to make a panorama', but which he hopes to be able to 'drive round and look at' when the weather is warmer.

from the end of a letter. A good example of Crane's stylized and distinctive signature. Reads: 'Believe me, / Very truly yours, / Walter Crane'. The top part of a cropped 'P S' is present at bottom left. See Image.

He styles himslef on the letterhead as ‘Principal - Mr. Frank Spenlove-Spenlove / R.I. R.O.I. R.B.A. R.C.A. R.B.C. F.R.C.S. M.J.S. F.R.S.A.’ Large bold stylized signature. 1p, 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Reads: ‘Dear Miss Lalonde / It gives me pleasure to know you appreciate the picture, & I have put my name to your post card as you desire. I only wish the reproduction was more satisfactory! / Yours Sincerely. / Frank . Spenlove . Spenlove’. See Image.

See the entries for Dicksee and Lady Orchardson’s husband Sir William Quiller Orchardson (1832-1910), RA, in the Oxford DNB. Lady Orchardson (1853-1917) was the daughter of the London publisher Charles Moxon. The Orchardsons married in 1873. Among their four children was the painter Charles Moxon Quiller Orchardson (1873-1917), who studied in the Royal Academy Schools and was killed in action during World War One. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Signed ‘Frank Dicksee’.

An interesting item, providing valuable biographical information. The Gills were a prominent family of English painters, all puzzingly absent from the Oxford DNB. Edmund Gill’s father was the portrait painter Edmund Ward Gill (1794–1854) and among his brothers were the painters William Ward Gill (1823–1894) and George Reynolds Gill (1827–1904). After studying at the Royal Academy he fell under the influence of David Cox. The present item relates to Gill’s entry in the 1884 eleventh edition of the Routledge reference work by Thompson Cooper, ‘Men of the Time: A Dictionary of Contemporaries’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The letter is 1p, 16mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with slight discoloration to margin at head and light rust spot. Reads: ‘Dear Mr. Haynes King, / It was extremely kind of you to write & congratulate me on my election as R.A. & I appreciate the attention very much.

An attractive and highly-finished production, in black ink, on 17.5 x 20.5 cm piece of wove paper, glued on the reverse at the four corners to a leaf extracted from the autograph album of the novelist George Meredith and his daughter Marie Eveleen (Mariette; 1871-1933), wife of Henry Parkman Sturgis (1847-1929), American-born banker and Liberal politician. Parsons' monogram signature 'AP. in its two-bordered square is at the bottom left of the drawing, and there is an additional autograph signature with date to the right of the drawing on the leaf of the Meredith album: 'Alfred Parsons.