BRITANNICA

[A. & C. Black, Edinburgh publishers, to Cambridge educationalist Oscar Browning.] Manuscript Letter, signed ‘A. &. C. Black’, granting Browning permission to use material from his Encyclopaedia Britannica articles in books on Dante and Goethe.

Author: 
A. & C. Black, Edinburgh and London publishers [Oscar Browning (1837-1923), Cambridge educationalist and historian]
Publication details: 
10 July 1891; on letterhead of A. & C. Black, 4, 5 and 6 Soho Square, London.
£45.00

See the entries in the Oxford DNB on Browning and firm’s founder Adam Black (1784-1874). 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased. Folded three times. Addressed to ‘Oscar Browning Esq’ and signed ‘A. &. C. Black’. The firm is replying to a note of Browning’s of 7 July 1891, ‘desiring our assent to the separate publication in book form of your Articles, from the Ency[lopaedi]a Brit[annic]a. on Dante & Goethe’. They ‘have pleasure in complying therewith, on the usual understanding that the sources of the articles is duly acknowledged & a copy of the book sent to us when published’.

[Sir Anthony Carey Lewis, Principal of the Royal Academy of Music.] Typed Letter Signed to the cellist Ambrose Gauntlett, thanking him for participating in the RAM 150th Anniversary Concert. With copy of the programme.

Author: 
Sir Anthony Carey Lewis (1915-1983), Principal of the Royal Academy of Music and founder of Musica Britannica [Ambrose Gauntlett (1889-1978), cellist, Professor of Cello at the Royal Academy of Music]
Publication details: 
LETTER: 1 June 1972; on letterhead of the Royal Academy of Music. Programme of Royal Academy of Music concert to be held 30 May 1972 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall [London].
£56.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. For Gauntlett see the excellent article on the ‘Semibrevity’ blog: ‘Ambrose Gauntlett, forgotten gamba player and continuo cellist’, beginning: ‘Although Ambrose Gauntlett (1889–1978) spent most of his career as a full-time orchestral principal, he was the most sought-after continuo cellist and gamba player in the UK for many years. In his obituary, published in The Times, Sir Anthony Lewis mentions “his beautiful playing of the important 18th-century viola da gamba obbligato roles”.’ Both items in good condition, lightly aged. ONE: Letter, 1 June 1972.

[Charles Bestland (Cantelowe Bestland), Royal Academy Schools artist.] Twelve Regency pencil portraits (for engraving?), middle-class sitters including James Millar, Encyclopaedia Britannica editor; Col. Serle; members of Trenchard family of Dorset.

Author: 
Charles Bestland (Cantelowe or Cantlo Bestland) of the Royal Academy Schools [Col. Serle; James Millar, Encyclopaedia Britannica editor; John Trenchard Pickard of Dorset]
Bestland
Publication details: 
English. The twelve dated in pencil between 1811 and 1829.
£950.00
Bestland

Twelve pencil portraits executed in the same extremely capable style, probably for the purposes of engraving. Each on a separate piece of 4to paper. All in good condition, with light signs of age and wear, a couple with minor flecking with red paint. All dated in pencil (between 1811 and 1829), and all but two captioned. (Several of the items with watermark date supporting the pencil dating.) Three of the portraits have the tiny signature at bottom left of 'Bestland', and all would appear to be the work of the same artist, although the last appears to be signed with the initials 'C H'.

[Macvey Napier, editor of Encyclopaedia Britannica.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Macvey Napier'), inviting the recipient to dinner after not being able to see him due to his 'occupations during the winter'.

Author: 
Macvey Napier [born Napier Macvey] (1776-1847), Scottish jurist, editor of Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Edinburgh Review, Professor of Conveyancing at the University of Edinburgh
Publication details: 
39 Castle Street [Edinburgh]. 26 March [no year].
£30.00

2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with remains of stub adhering to edge on reverse. Folded twice. He begins by apologising that his 'occupations during the winter' have prevented him from seeing the unnamed recipient. If he is 'disengaged next Friday', Napier will be happy to see him 'at dinner at six o'clock, to meet a small party'. Laid down at the foot of the last page is a newspaper cutting of an article titled 'Death of Professor Napier'.

[ Hugh Chisholm; Encyclopaedia Britannica ] Autograph Letter Signed 'Hugh Chisholm' to [Stephen] Wheeler, editor of Landor's Letters etc., about his current work on the Encyclopaedia and the past.

Author: 
Hugh Chisholm (1866–1924) journalist, and editor of the 10th, 11th and 12th editions of the Encyclopædia Britannica.
Publication details: 
(E.B. office | 125 High Holborn) 3 Ellerdale Road, NW3, 22 Nov. [no year, but ref. to War suggests 1914)
£300.00

Four pages, 12mo, bifolium, smallish hand, tightly written, good condition. "If I had been doing a complete new edition of the E.B. [Encyclopaedia Britannica] I should have certainly resorted to you in regard to Landor. But I am only doing some supplementary volumes, covering the later developments in 1910-1920, to add to those of the 11th Ed..; and I can't touch such things in themselves.

[Macvey Napier, editor of Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Edinburgh Reiew.] Autograph Letter Signed to his former pupil Robert MacFarlane (the future Lord Ormidale), regarding his book on the 'Practice of the Jury Court'.

Author: 
Macvey Napier (1776-1847), Scottish solicitor, editor of Encyclopaedia Britannica and Edinburgh Review, Professor of Conveyancing at Edinburgh University [Robert MacFarlane, Lord Ormidale (1802-1880)]
Publication details: 
Castle St. [Edinburgh] 30 March 1837.
£180.00

4pp, 12mo. Bifolium with mourning border. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, folded twice, with traces of glue from mount adhering to blank reverse of second leaf. Signed 'Macvey Napier' and addressed to 'Robert Macfarlane Esq'. After thanking him for sending a copy of his work on the 'Practice of the Jury Court', he explains that, although the subject 'is of great importance', it 'lies out of that department of the Law' to which Macvey finds it necessary, 'under the pressure of other avocations', to limit his studies.

[ Macvey Napier, editor of Encyclopaedia Britannica. ] Autograph Signature ('Macvey Napier.').

Author: 
Macvey Napier [ born Napier Macvey ] (1776-1847), Scottish scholar, editor of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Publication details: 
Place and date not stated.
£20.00

On 1.5 x 6.5 cm. strip of paper. In good condition, with light signs of age. Presumably cut from a letter in response to a request for an autograph.

'The Encyclopaedia Britannica Dinner given by Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace': 'Plan of Tables' and menu., attended by A.J. Balfour and all the great and the good. (up to 300 of them).

Author: 
[ Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace (1841-1919), Foreign Correspondent of The Times of London; Encyclopaedia Britannica
Publication details: 
Dinner held at the Hotel Cecil, London, 21 November 1902.
£60.00

Both items nicely printed and in good condition, with light signs of age and wear. ONE: 'The Encyclopaedia Britannica Dinner given by Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace. Hotel Cecil, Friday Evening, November 21st, 1902. Plan of Tables.' 28.5 x 80 cm, folding up into a 28.5 x 13.5 cm packet. Printed in black and red on the whole of one side, with the other side carrying a 'Programme of Music' ('M. G. Fericescu, Musical Director'), an alphabetical table, and a cover with engraved illustration. Made out in pencil to 'Mr. A. Williams | K24' (i.e. the Liberal MP Aneurin Williams).

[Prospectus of the Biographia Britannica Literaria WITH] An Essay on the State of Literature and Learning under the Anglo-Saxons; Introductory to the First Section of the Biographia Britanica Literaria of the Royal Society of Literature

Author: 
Thomas Wright
Prospectus of the Biographia Britannica Literaria
Publication details: 
London, 1839
£180.00
Prospectus of the Biographia Britannica Literaria

4; [iv],112pp., 8vo, plain brown wraps (original?), worn and nearly detached, contents good. Inscribed on half-title: Presented to the Rt Honble the Lord Brougham & Vaux by his obedt Servt Wm. Tooke | Russell Square 6 Augt 1839. Tooke was the major promoter of the Biographia Britannica Literaria.

Autograph Letter Signed to Dr Thompson, Edinburgh.

Author: 
James Thomson (1768-1855), editor of Encyclopaedia Britannica (1795-6); from 1805 parish minister in Eccles, Berwickshire [Rev. Thomas Lewis (d.1852) of the Union Chapel, Islington]
Publication details: 
Date not given (before 1852). 17 Stamford Street, Blackfriars.
£56.00

12mo, 2 pp. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with thin strip of black mount adhering at head on reverse (not affecting text). He has received Thompson's note 'intimating to me the necessity under which the Revd Mr Lewis and the Committee of Union Chapel find themselves reluctantly placed, to refuse our deputation an opportunity of pleading the Cause of our Society on the present occasion'. Refers to the 'great liberality of the Members of the Union Chapel' and 'their attachment to the good Cause'.

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