BOOK

Autograph Letter Signed ('Laurence W. Meynell') to 'Miss Card'.

Author: 
Laurence Meynell [Laurence Walter Meynell] (1899-1989), English children's writer
Publication details: 
19 April 1937; on letterhead of Lime Tree Cottage, Great Kingshill, Buckinghamshire.
£35.00

12mo, 2 pp. Creased, and with an unobtrusive 1 cm closed tear. He thanks her for her 'charming letter of appreciation'. He is delighted that she 'so enjoyed' 'The Door' ['The Door in the Wall' (1937)]: 'a similar story (or rather one dealing with Phillip Markham & Baikie) will be appearing in the autumn probably in early October'. 'It always cheers an author up to know that he has pleased his readers - & if they do him the good turn of recommending his book to their friends he is vastly obliged!'

Autograph Letter Signed ('M. F. T.') to his printer Thomas Brettell, 25 Rupert Street, Haymarket, London.

Author: 
Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810-1889), English poet [P. T. Barnum; John Leech; Thomas Brettell; Henry William Pickersgill]
Publication details: 
Undated, but docketed 'Jan. 31 1851'.
£75.00

12mo: 2 pp. 28 lines. Good, on lightly aged paper, with unobtrusive small spike hole and traces of mounts adhering to four corners. Interesting animated letter between a Victorian author and his printer. Relates to Tupper's 'A hymn for All Nations; translated into thirty languages; nearly fifty versions; the music composed expressly by S. Sebastian Wesley.' (1851). Asks his printer to 'Attend to Hymn as within' (not present). 'We cannot help all this trouble'. Tupper has written to Dr Gavassi, but has had no answer: 'get Rossetti's as soon as you can.

Bill, in French, for work 'imprime pour le Citoyen Duprat, par Crapelet' [i.e. printing 'Memoire sur la reunion de l'artillerie et du genie, adresse au premier consul de la republique francaise' by 'A.A.'

Author: 
Charles Crapelet (1762-1809), French printer based in Paris, father of the printer Georges-Adrien Crapelet [Jean-Louis Duprat, Professeur a l'Ecole centrale du departement du Tarn]
Publication details: 
9 Nivose an 9e [30 December 1800]
£100.00

On one side of piece of laid paper roughly 16 x 19.5 cm. Good, though lightly aged, and with a few small pin holes in one corner (not affecting text). 12 lines. Headed 'imprime pour le Citoyen Duprat, par Crapelet, 9 Nivose an 9e'. The first of four entries reads 'Memoire sur la reunion de l'artillerie & du Genie [published in Paris in 1800 by Duprat], contenant cinq feuilles & demie in-8o. Cicero, tirees a 500 exempl. a raison de 24th la feuille'. Second entry gives cost of 'Remaniement de toutes les feuilles & corrections extraordinaires'.

Autograph Letter Signed "B Corney" to an unnamed publisher.

Author: 
Bolton Corney, critic and antiquary
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£85.00

Two pages, 12mo, good condition, blank bifolium sl. damaged. "I have got out to day for the first time, and hope soon to be more fit for work. I see no objection to the advertisment - but it might be as well to leave the subsequent editions - without all - as you cannot wish to appear to make my allusion to [Pitts?] Ed | Though I send you only scraps, I read Spencer Anecdotes by Singer in a day - not choosing to trust to the Index, though Allan Cunningham had assistance from his son, and writes well as to style he has made many random [assertions?].

Autographs and Manuscripts. Catalogue of a Selection of Important Historical, Literary and other Autographs, being the second portion of a Collection for Sale.

Author: 
M. M. Holloway, London autograph dealer [autographs; sale catalogues]
Publication details: 
London: M. M. Holloway, 25 Bedford Street, Strand, W.C. 1862.
£60.00

Octavo: 52 pp. Stitched and unbound. Good, if a tad grubby. In alphabetical order from Queen Adelaide to the Duchess of York, but lotted 236 to 553. Tastefully printed, and including letters of Charles I, Coleridge, Dr Johnson, Samuel Richardson, Rossini, Sir Walter Scott, Laurence Sterne and Horace Walpole.

[Catalogue 550] A Selection of Books, Manuscripts, Engravings and Autograph Letters remarkable for their Interest & Rarity, being the five hundredth catalogue issued by Maggs Bros [...].

Author: 
Maggs Brothers [booksellers' catalogues]
Publication details: 
London: Maggs Bros, 34 & 35 Conduit Street, W. 1928.
£100.00

[viii] 237 pp., fol.m, original grey and red printed wraps, numerous plates and illustrations in text, some staining of cover around spine, a few pencil markings, top of spine damaged, mainly good condition. It includes Cortes, "Carta de Relacion" (1522), other important Americana, and the first edition of "Don Quixote".

Katalog 1: Autographen.

Author: 
Christian M. Nebehay, Austrian dealer in autographs
Publication details: 
Wien 1. (Vienna, Austria) Annagasse 18. [1950s?]
£50.00

Quarto: 40 pp. In original printed wraps, decorated with various facsimiles. Facsimiles in text, and portrait of Beethoven on rear inner wrap. Good, on browned paper. Sections on painters, writers, poets, architects, sculptors, musicians. Nods towards the American market, with some entries in English and Dollar conversions. Together with Nebehay's attractive bifoliate trade card, carrying a photograph of his premises.

[Catalogue 555] A Selection of Books, Manuscripts, Bindings and Autograph Letters remarkable for their Interest & Rarity, being the five hundred and fiftyfifth catalogue issued by Maggs Bros [...].

Author: 
Maggs Brothers [booksellers' catalogues]
Publication details: 
London: Maggs Bros, 34 & 35 Conduit Street, W. 1931.
£100.00

Folio: iv + 237 pp. In original grey and red printed wraps. Numerous plates and illustrations in text. Grubby and spotted, in heavily-worn wraps. One plate slit along fold and repaired with tape. Presentation copy, inscribed 'With Compliments from E U Maggs'. Covetable items, accurately described, from a complete set of Addison and Steele's 'Spectator' (£105) to the first edition of both volumes of Wordsworth's 'Lyrical Ballads' (£185). Contains 'twenty-four autograph letters signed [by Charles Dickens] on "The Village Coquettes" to John P. Hullah, the musical composer' (£650).

[No. 36.] Catalogue of Interesting, Choice and Rare Historical Documents and Autograph Letters, [...] And a Choice List of Modern Names [...] George Cattermole [...] Charles Dickens [...] William Cowper [...] Lord Nelson. [...]

Author: 
Samuel J. Davey [booksellers' catalogues; George Cattermole; Charles Dickens; William Cowper; Isaac Newton; Lord Nelson]
Publication details: 
London: On Sale by Samuel J. Davey, 47, Great Russell Street, Opposite the British Museum, W.C. 1892.
£80.00

Quarto: 50 + [2] pp. Fold-out frontispiece giving eighteen examples of handwriting from items in the catalogue. In original orange printed wraps. Good, though a tad dusty, and in worn and faded wraps with some glue staining to back and wear to spine. Well printed, with lengthy extracts from most items. A scrap of paper which acts as a bookmark has the words "Listed Walpole entries to W.S. Lewis || Nov 1953" in Winifeed Myers [?] hand (from her reference library). The first item is 'A Series of Pencil Sketches by George Cattermole, illustrating Dickens' Works' (£60).

Spaziergange im Reiche des Autographen. Ein Anregung zum Autographensammeln. Mit einer Titelzeichnung von Hans Thoma und 58 anderen Abbildungen.

Author: 
Professor Dr. Eugen Wolbe (1873-1938), Studientrat [autograph collecting; autographs]
Publication details: 
Berlin: Richard Carl Schmidt & Co. 1925.
£120.00

Quarto: 196 + xii pp. 58 facsimiles in text, but lacking frontispiece. No dustwrapper. In original cloth binding, decorated on the front board in yellow, grey and black. Good, with spotting to edges and boards. Concentrating exclusively on German autographs. Wolbe was removed from his teaching post by the Nazis in 1933.

Catalogue of an Interesting Collection of Autograph Letters, selected from the Portfolios of Several Distinguished Amateurs [...] Family of George the Third [...] Some curious Shaksperian Papers [...] Oxford, Cambridge, Eton, and Winchester Scholars.

Author: 
Puttick and Simpson, London auctioneers [autographs; sale catalogues; Shakespeare; George Washington]
Publication details: 
Messrs. Puttick and Simpson, Auctioneers of Literary Property and Works of Art, At their House, No. 47, Leicester Square, W.C.; 23 March 1864.
£80.00

Octavo: ii + 51 + [1] pp. Stitched and unbound. Grubby, and with loss to final leaf, affecting a couple of lots and an advertisement, from removal of label. 521 lots. Postmarked penny red postage stamp. Letters of Burns, Byron, Coleridge, Frederick the Great, Haydn, Rousseau, Voltaire. The high point of the sale undoubtedly three letters from George Washington to Sir Edward Newenham.

Typed Invoice (docked in manuscript 'Copy') from Francis Edwards Ltd to Wreden.

Author: 
William P. Wreden; Francis Edwards Ltd, London booksellers
Publication details: 
6 December 1954; on Francis Edwards letterhead ('Booksellers since 1855') in red and black ink.
£30.00

One page. Dimensions of paper roughly six and a half inches by eight wide. Spotted, aged and creased, and with some closed tears. Addressed to Wreden at 'Box 56, Palo Alto, Cal., U.S.A.' For '3 reg'd bookpost parcels', and headed 'Hodgson's Sale 25th Nov. 1954'. Lots 204 and 205 purchased for a total of £27 9s 9d, including an apparent commission of 15% on an item under ten pounds, and 10% on one over that sum. Items ('French Documents & Autograph Letters' and 'Autograph Letters from Lord Brougham and contemporaries') described in nine lines.

Catalogue of the Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson Hogg (1792-1862), Consisting principally of Letters from Percy and Mary Shelley. Sold by Order of his Great-Nephew Major R. J. Jefferson Hogg, M.C. of Norton-on-Tees, Co. Durham.

Author: 
Thomas Jefferson Hogg [Sotheby & Co.; Percy Bysshe Shelley; autograph letters; auction catalogue]
Publication details: 
London: Messrs. Sotheby & Co., 34 and 35 New Bond Street, W.1.; 30 June 1948. [Printed by Kitchen & Barratt, Ltd., Park Royal Road, N.W.10.]
£80.00

Octavo: 21 pp. Leaf of prices and buyers' names loosely inserted. Stapled. In original yellow printed wraps. Somewhat creased and chipped, on aged, spotted paper. Two-page foreword. Maggs were the main buyers, but the three highest sellers among the 105 lots, all Shelley letters, went to other dealers: lot 13, 'quoting 36 lines of original verse', for £155 to Pickering; lot 55, 'describing the origins and method of his elopement with Mary Godwin', £175 to Quaritch; lot 65, 'dealing with many topics', £360 to W. H. Robinson.

Catalogue of Books, Manuscripts, Autographs and Drawings.

Author: 
Alexander Denham and Co. [Charles Whittingham; Chiswick Press; autographs; booksellers' catalogues]
Publication details: 
London: For Sale by Alex'r Denham and Co., 23 Haymarket, S.W.; 1902. [Chiswick Press: Charles Whittingham and Co. Tooks Court, Chancery Lane, London.]
£75.00

Quarto: 65 pp. Numerous plates. In original grey printed wraps. Internally good, with a little spotting and creasing to the ruckled edges; wraps worn and stained. A beautifully printed item, on thick laid paper. Among the printed matter are books of hours, breviaries, psalters, and letters (with facsimile plates) by Byron, Keats, Johnson and Sterne; and manuscripts of Fielding and Horace Walpole.

Autographs and Manuscripts. Catalogue of a Selection of Important Historical, Literary and other Autographs, being the Third Portion of a Collection for Sale.

Author: 
Holloway & Son (M. M. Holloway) [autographs; sale catalogues; Thomas Jefferson]
Publication details: 
London: Holloway & Son, 25 Bedford Street, Strand, W.C. 1864. [G. Norman, Printer, Maiden Lane, Covent Garden.]
£60.00

Octavo: 53 pp. Stitched and unbound. Complete in itself, in alphabetical order, but lotted 554 to 846. Good, though grubby, and with the outer leaves somewhat creased. Includes letters and documents by Burns, Charles I and II, Maria Edgeworth, Frederick the Great, Garrick, Lady Hamilton, Handel, Dr Johnson, Southey, Wordsworth. The high spot is a letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Earl of Buchan, described over one page.

At Private Sale, November, 1859. Catalogue of the Entire Private Collection of Autograph Letters, &c. gathered during several years, with much care and expense, by Mr. T. H. Morrell. [..] nearly every Prominent Character in the Revolutionary War [..]

Author: 
T. H. Morrell [Bangs, Merwin & Co, auctioneers; autograph collecting; auction catalogues; Declaration of Independence; American Presidents]
Publication details: 
New York: Bangs, Merwin & Co., At the Trade Sale Rooms, 13 Park Row. 1 November 1859.
£150.00

Octavo: 28 pp. Stabbed. In original blue printed wraps. Advertisements on back. On browning high-acidity paper, in chipped and worn wraps with damp staining to edges at rear. 298 items. Items 95-141: 'Signers of the Declaration of Independence and Presidents of the United States.' Scarce: no copy on COPAC, which does record one copy of a catalogue of a sale of Morrell's books by the same firm in 1866, and two copies of a catalogue of a further sale in 1869.

Autographs [Reprinted from The Concise Encyclopaedia of Antiques Volume IV by kind permission of The Connoisseur].

Author: 
P. J. Croft [Winifred A. Myers (Autographs) Ltd]
Publication details: 
London: Winifred A. Myers (Autographs) Ltd, 80 New Bond Street, W1. [c.1954].
£45.00

Quarto: 10 pp (paginated 236-41). Stapled. In original printed green card wraps. Good, though lightly creased. Five plates, examples of the hands of Queen Elizabeth I, Sir John Harington, Admiral Lord Nelson, together with an original and a faked Burns letter. While the offprint is undated, the Encyclopaedia itself was published in 1954.

A collection of twenty cuttings from American newspapers mostly relating to autograph collecting.

Author: 
American Autograph Collecting [New York; the Declaration of Independence]
Publication details: 
[Boston, New York and other places]; 1867-1893.
£150.00

Varying in size from a few lines to a column nineteen inches in length, and on aged high-acidity paper. In good condition, though frail, and with a few closed tears. Texts clear and complete. In the remains of a stamped envelope (postmarked Philadelphia, 21 February 1912), addressed to E. H. Lauer of the Cadmus Book Company. Fewer than half the items are dated. The dated items include a long and interesting article on a forgotten English-born Philadelphian forger, headed 'A FORGER OF AUTOGRAPHS. | ROBERT SPRING'S SUCCESS IN BOLD LITERARY FRAUDS.

Autograph Letter Signed to the autograph collector Thomas Thompson of Church Street, Liverpool.

Author: 
John Russell Smith (1810-94), English bookseller [Dawson Turner]
Publication details: 
13 June 1840; 'No. 4. Old Compton Street, Soho, London'.
£200.00

Two pages, quarto. Very good. With traces of blue paper mount adhering to addressed verso of second leaf of bifolium. Dawson Turner having declined to buy a collection on the grounds that it is 'wholly out of his line of collecting', Russell now offers it to Thompson. They are 'not so interesting' as he anticipated when he 'bought them at an auction without looking at them till they were on the table'. Gives details of the purchase and describes the volumes, estimating their cost in binding.

Fragment of Typed Letter Signed to unnamed correspondent.

Author: 
C. Maguire [autograph dealer?]
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£80.00

On piece of paper roughly seven inches by eight wide. On aged paper with closed tears and fraying to extremities. Top part of document torn away, leaving ten complete lines of text. Lays out the conditions under which an archive of letters is offered for sale.

Typed Letter Signed ('Walter Runciman') to L. P. Jacks.

Author: 
Walter Runciman, 1st Viscount Runciman of Doxford (1870-1949), English Liberal politician [paper making; the book trade; publishing]
Publication details: 
21 February 1916; on letterhead of the Board of Trade, Whitehall Gardens, London, S.W.
£56.00

12mo, 3 pp, 35 lines. Good, on lightly aged paper, and with a thin strip from mount adhering at head of blank verso of second leaf of bifolium. Discusses 'the restriction on the importation of paper and paper making materials', imposed 'with the object of securing more tonnage space in incoming vessels'.

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.

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 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.

Two hundred books from the libraries of the world's greatest book collectors : Grolier (1479-1565) to Beckford (1759-1844)

Author: 
J. Pearson & Co. (Booksellers: London)
Publication details: 
London : J. Pearson & Co., [1910]
£100.00

vi, 126 p., 1 l : plates (partly fold.) facsim, covers worn and soiled, weat and tear to the deckle-edges, hinge strain, contents complete and clear. Printed by the Chiswick Press. From the Reference Library of (Albert) Winifred Myers, autograph-dealer, note by a company hand inserted with basic details of the catalogue and the price "15/-" crossed out. Note (introductory remarks): "...

Autograph Letter Signed ('W. H. Mallock') to 'Mrs Nesbit'.

Author: 
William Hurrell Mallock (1849-1923), English author [Edith Nesbit]
Publication details: 
10 October 1879; 15 Savile Row, London.
£35.00

12mo: 1 p. On discoloured paper with wear at head and traces of previous mount adhering to blank reverse. He sent the publishers Chatto & Windus her novel the previous Monday, 'begging them to write to you on the matter, and giving your work my best recommendation'. He has not heard anything from them himself, but expects it will 'take a week or two, before they can give an opinion'. The recipient may be Edith Nesbit, although this is unlikely as Nesbit was her maiden name. She became Edith Bland in 1880. None of her works appear to have been published by Chatto & Windus.

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'.

Prospectus announcing the publication of 'the First number of the PALL MALL MAGAZINE' on 25 April 1893.

Author: 
[The Pall Mall Magazine; George Routledge & Sons]
Publication details: 
[London: George Routledge & Sons, 1893.]
£56.00

Quarto: 4 pp. Unbound bifolium. Grubby and creased, with a couple of pin holes and small closed tears, and a little ink staining to the margins (not affecting text). Five illustrations, including full page engraving of two cherubs, entitled 'L'Enfance de l'amour'. Claims that 'neither labour nor expense will be spared to achieve and maintain the highest standard of literary and artistic excellence', and that the magazine will be 'strictly non-political, in the sense that it will champion the views of no particular party'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Tom Gallon') and Typed Letter Signed to Ernest Pertwee.

Author: 
Tom Gallon (1866-1914), English novelist, dramatist and humourist [George Routledge & Sons, Ltd.]
Publication details: 
TLS, 16 July 1903; ALS, 13 August 1903; both on embossed letterhead 190, Adelaide Road, St. John's Wood, N.W. [London.]
£56.00

Both items quarto. On worn, discoloured paper, with a couple of closed tears to the folds. Pertwee was the author of numerous anthologies for recitation, and these letters presumably relate to his 'Reciter's treasury of prose and drama: serious and humorous' (Routledge, 1904). TLS: 'Provided, of course, that Messrs. Routledge have actually agreed with you to publish the book of humorous prose recitations, I shall be very willing to allow you to reprint any one of the stories the titles of which I give below.

Fragment of Letter to Colburn in the Third Person.

Author: 
Charles William Vane, 3rd Marquis of Londonderry (1778-1854) [Henry Colburn, publisher]
Publication details: 
No date [docketed at head 'Nov 9 1829'].
£28.00

12mo: 1 p. Lacking strip (two inches by four) at foot, bearing text. Otherwise good. A formal letter in the third person. Asks Colburn to 'send him an answer to his last [underlined] Communication'. He has 'completed the Manuscript of the Work [presumably 'Narrative of the war in Germany and France, in 1813 and 1814', 1830], except the winding up in a few Pages <...>'.

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