BRITISH

Autograph Letter Signed ('Alexr Peddie MD. F.RCP.'). A letter of recommendation [reference] for Speer.

Author: 
Alexander Peddie (1810-1907), of the Minto House Hospital and Dispensary, Edinburgh [Dr Stanhope Templeman Speer]
Publication details: 
1 August 1848; Edinburgh.
£56.00

12mo, 2 pp. 28 lines of text. Clear and complete. Folded into a packet 5 x 6.5 cm. With envelope addressed by Peddie as 'from | the Minto House Hospital | Edinburgh.' Fair, on aged paper with some short closed tears to the folds. Speer has been an assistant at Minto House since the previous 1 May, 'during which period he has witnessed a great amount of medical and surgical practice, has had under his own care a very considerable number of patients [...]'.

Two Autograph Letters Signed (both 'H W Kennard') to Beresford Hope, the first providing information useful to an Edwardian British attaché in Washington.

Author: 
H. W. Kennard [Sir Howard William Kennard] (1878-1955), British diplomat [Beresford Hope; James Bryce (1838-1922), 1st Viscount Bryce, British Ambassador to the United States, 1907-1913]
Publication details: 
2 December 1907 and 16 August 1909; both on letterhead of the British Embassy, Washington [second letterhead amended to 'N. E. Harbor'].
£56.00

Hope had returned to the Foreign Office from Tehran in May 1907, but had moved to the Washington Embassy, as second secretary, that October. The recipient is presumably one of the ten children of the Tory politician A. J. B. Beresford Hope (1820-1887). Letter One: 12mo, 8 pp. Very good on lightly-aged paper. Addressed to 'My dear Beresford Hope'. A teasing, friendly letter, intresting for the information it provides on the situation of a minor attaché in Edwardian Washington.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Harold Butler') to 'Harlech'.

Author: 
Harold Beresford Butler (1883-1951), Deputy Director (1920-1932) and Director (1932-8), International Labour Office; British Minister to USA (1942-6) [William Ormsby-Gore (1885-1964), Baron Harlech]
Publication details: 
11 June 1938; on letterhead (in English and French) of the International Labour Office, League of Nations.
£38.00

8vo, 2 pp. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. He is 'sorry' that Harlech has 'left the Colonial Office, upon which you have produced such a profound and salutary effect'. From the point of view of the I.L.O.

Two Autograph Cards Signed (both 'H M Durand') to Sir Henry Trueman Wood, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Sir Mortimer Durand [Sir Henry Mortimer Durand] (1850-1924), British diplomat and civil servant,, Foreign Secretary of India, 1884-1894
Publication details: 
Received 19 July 1916 and 7 June 1917.
£28.00

Both cards plain with printed stamp and 9 x 11 cm. Both bearing the Society's oval purple stamp. Card One: He is 'leaving town on business for two or three days' and so cannot attend the meeting of the Indian Section Committee. Card Two: He will 'with pleasure support Abney if in town', but may not be there on the day.

Under Southern Skies. A series of articles conveying the impressions of the writer during the course of a visit to Australia and New Zealand as a member of the Imperial Press Conference, 1925.

Author: 
J. W. Dafoe [John Wesley Dafoe], Editor-in-Chief, Manitoba Free Press [Australia; New Zealand]
Publication details: 
Winnipeg, Canada: The Free Press. ['Reprinted in order as they appeared from day to day on the editorial page of the Manitoba Free Press, November, 1925'.]
£85.00

8vo: [iv] + 43 pp. Stapled pamphlet. Inscribed at head of title 'With regards | J W Dafoe'. Text clear and complete. On grubby, aged paper, with wear to outer leaves. An introduction explains that of the seventeen articles, 'the first seven [...] are merely comments on certain aspects of the New Zealand scene as they appeared to a passer-by', while 'the ten articles devoted to Australia deal with the same subject from various angles. They constitute an attempt at a study of Australia's political developments in the social and economic field.' No copy in the British Library or on COPAC.

A Letter to the Editor of the British Review, occasioned by the notice of "No Fiction," and "Martha," in the last number of that work. [Annotated copy of Francis Barnett (the 'Lefevre' of Reed's 'No Fiction') bound up with a review of the two books.]

Author: 
Andrew Reed (1787-1862), Congregational minister [Francis Barnett (b.1785)]
Publication details: 
[1823?] London: Printed by H. Teape, Tower-hill: Sold by Francis Westley, Stationers' Court, and the other booksellers.
£850.00

Excessively scarce, with no copy in the British Library and the only copy on COPAC at Cambridge, where it is tentatively dated to 1823. 8vo: 80 pp. Followed by five leaves (pp.373-382) from 'The Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle' for 1839, in which an anonymous review of Reed's two books features on pp.378-382. Interleaved (all blank). In simple contemporary blue-grey half-binding with cloth spine and corners and marbled boards. Tight copy on aged paper in worn binding. Neat contemporary repair to blank reverse of title. The circumstances of this publication are as follows.

One Autograph Letter Signed ('E. H.' twice) with the first four pages of another (lacking signature), both to 'My dear Gop'.

Author: 
Esme William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Penrith (1863-1939), British diplomat [Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon; Pixton Park, Dulverton]
Publication details: 
Complete Letter: 12 September 1908; on letterhead of The Tides, Bar Harbor, Maine. Incomplete Letter: 4 November 1908; on letterhead of Pixton Park, Dulverton.
£56.00

Both items in good condition, on aged paper. Complete Letter (12 September 1908): 12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium with mourning border. He thanks Gop [Goss?] for the 'letter of great length extended exclamation marks but otherwise agreeable & genial'. Howard 'can understand that vowing to keep silence the next best thing is to write to someone'. Gop's 'instinct is sound': Howard has 'abandoned Presque Isle which is a 12 hrs journey from here'. Gives a date for his return to Manchester.

Autograph Letter Signed to Mrs [Cecilia] Perkins.

Author: 
Edmund Yates
Publication details: 
23 July [no year]; on letterhead of Moorhurst, Holmwood, Surrey.
£28.00

12mo, 1 p. The purple ink of the letter has bled, otherwise in good condition. He does not 'think it likely that we shall soon see this neighbourhood again'. They have had 'frequent bad weather, constant illness, & general discomfort'. The Yateses 'hope to meet you at Hamburg, where we expect to arrive on Wednesday 5th. August. So be it!' Mrs Perkins was the wife of the wealthy brewer Augustus Frederick Perkins.

The Class Nature of the Soviet Union. Two Articles by Leon Trotsky: 'Once Again; the U.S.S.R. and its Defence.' [...] 'The U.S.S.R.; Non-Proletarian and non-Bourgeoise State?' [With anonymous foreword discussing Trotsky's 'political tendency'.]

Author: 
Leon Trotsky [Trotskyite; W.I.R. Publications; British Communism Party; Communist]
Publication details: 
[Early 1960s.] 'Printed in Swansea by voluntary labour.' Published by W.I.R. Publications, 374, Grays Inn Rd., London W.C.I [cancelled to 'Order from W.I.R. Publications, 197, Kings Cross Road, London, W.C.1.']
£125.00

Mimeographed and stapled. [i] + iii + 17 pp. Printed on eleven leaves, the first two and last two 26 x 21 cm, and the middle seven leaves 25.5 x 20 cm. Fair, on foxed paper with wear to extremities. It would appear that the leaves of the two articles had been printed previously, and were newly bound up here with the preliminary matter. The first articles is, according to the title 'Taken from "Fourth International", July Aug 1951. (American edition)' and the second 'Taken from "Workers International News", Sept-Oct 1946.

Sketchbook filled with pencil drawings by Wright of the English countryside, some captioned and two signed 'HBW'. Four pages finished in watercolour.

Author: 
Horace Boardman Wright (1888-1915), English artist from Beckenham, Kent [Royal College of Art; Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers]
Publication details: 
Dated by Wright: 'July 28th. 1904. [signed] H Boardman Wright | Technical Institute School of Art | Beckenham | Kent'. [Sketchbook by D. W. Richard & Co., 29 High Street, Croydon, Artist Colourmen and Picture Frame Makers.]
£250.00

Landscape sketchbook of eighteen leaves. Leaf dimensions roughly 17.5 x 13 cm. One leaf loose. A further leaf has been removed. Drawings on twenty-five pages and the rear pastedown. Bound in rough grey cloth with printed design on front board. Printed stationer's ticket (label) on front pastedown. Grubby, and with the inevitable pencil offsetting, but good and tight on good paper, lightly-aged but unaffected by damp or stain. Contains some charming images, showing the promise that would win Wright a scholarship to the Royal College of Art three years later.

Autograph Letter Signed ('R. Bruce Lockhart') to 'Max', on the death of his father Lord Beaverbrook.

Author: 
Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart [Sir Robert Hamilton Bruce Lockhart] (1887-1970), Scottish diplomat and writer [William Maxwell Aitken (1879-1964), 1st Baron Beaverbrook; his son Max Aitken (1910-1985)]
Publication details: 
10 June 1964; on letterhead of the Gyllyngdune Hotel Ltd., Falmouth.
£85.00

12mo, 2 pp. Twenty-eight lines of text. Good, on lightly-creased paper. Lockhart's signature has been docketed in ink (by Aitken?) 'Sir Robert'. A letter of condolence on the death of Aitken's father. Reminisces about the 'moment I came into his life', a 'luncheon at Charkley' soon after the First World War: 'The only other guest was Augustus John. [...] as you know, I learnt much from him. Indeed, it was he who taught me how to write, and in his house I met numerous people whom, but for him, I should never have known.' He considers that Beaverbrook treated him 'nobly'.

Four illustrated broadsheets. Three with words and music, to songs: 'Oh, Brother, did you weep?' by MacColl; 'Lament of the Soldier's Wife', 'words: Claudi Paley'; and 'Nam Bo', 'by an American'. The fourth with McColl's words to 'Yankee Doodle'.

Author: 
Folksingers for Freedom in Vietnam [Ewan MacColl; Claudia Paley; Karl Dallas; Gordon McCulloch; Audrey Seyfang; 'Catchpole'; English folk revival; sixties protest singers; Yankee Doodle]
Publication details: 
All four items 'FOLKSINGERS FOR FREEDOM IN VIETNAM/BROADSHEET KING 1967' [London].
£80.00

According to Karl Dallas (Morning Star, 16 November 2007) it was he who 'first mooted the idea' of an anti-Vietnam War 'campaign in the folk scene', with the 'singers' group' being formed by Dallas in conjunction with Ewan MacColl and Gordon McCulloch. The four items are excessively scarce survivals, with no copies of any of them appearing on COPAC. All are printed on one side of a leaf roughly 25 x 20 cm. Each leaf is differently coloured. The items are in fair condition, dogeared and with light creasing and chipping to extremities.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Oliver A. Fry') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Oliver Armstrong Fry (b.c.1855), editor of 'Vanity Fair' from 1889 to 1904
Publication details: 
20 April 1898; 141 Portsdown Road, W. [London], on 'Vanity Fair' letterhead.
£35.00

12mo, 1 p. On first leaf of a bifolium. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. In reply to the recipient's note, by which he is 'much worried', Fry does not know that he can offer him 'any more than the few short notes <?> for us in "Men & Women of the Times". Little is known about Fry, apart from the fact that he was born in Van Diemen's Land, the son of the Church of England clergyman Henry Phibbs Fry (c.1807-1874).

Autograph Letter Signed ('Rose Kingsley') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Rose Kingsley [Rose Georgina Kingsley], author and daughter of Rev. Charles Kingsley (1819-1875) ['Lucas Malet', pen name of her sister the novelist Mary St Leger Kingsley (1852-1931)]
Publication details: 
16 November [no year]; on letterhead of 40 Sloane Street, [London] S.W.
£56.00

16mo, 2 pp. On first leaf of bifolium. Mourning border. She has just received his letter, 'forwarded through Mr Fisher Unwin'. 'I am not "Lucas Malet" - but I am forwarding the letter to her. She is my sister - | Mrs. William Harrison | Clovelly Rectory | Bideford | North Devon'.

Autograph Card Signed to unnamed male correspondent [the headmaster of Harrow School?].

Author: 
Anna Swanwick (1813-1899), English author, translator and social reformer [Reginald Bosworth Smith (1839-1908), Housemaster of Harrow School]
Publication details: 
20 March [no year, but after 1892]; on letterhead of 23 Cumberland Terrace, Regents Park, N.W.
£75.00

On both sides of the gilt-edged card, which is roughly 9 x 11.5 cm. Aged, but in fair condition. 'Mr Bosworth Smith' has informed her that her book 'Poets the Interpreters of Their Age' (1892) 'will be acceptable to the pupils of Harrow School', and she has 'great pleasure in presenting a copy to your library, & hoping that a kind welcome will be accorded to my little offering'. A postscript explains that the volume 'will be forwarded by an early post'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('E. Watkin.') to the Rev. Edward Price.

Author: 
Sir Edward Watkin [Sir Edward William Watkin] (1819-1901) of Northenden, Victorian railway entrepreneur and politician
Publication details: 
31 October 1885; Northenden.
£75.00

12mo, 2 pp. On first leaf of a bifolium. Text clear and complete. On slightly grubby, aged and lightly-creased paper. As they are '[i]n the midst of the Elections, which we shall not finally get rid of till, perhaps, the middle of December', he is 'quite unable' to do as Price wishes. 'I could not condense what ought to be condensed, without a good deal of reference & reading taking time - which is scarcest of articles with me, at the moment'. The subject of recent biographies by J. N. Greaves ('The Last of the Railway Kings', 2008) and D. J.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Roundell Palmer') to Sedgwick, mainly on the subject of the Walton Convalescent Institution.

Author: 
Roundell Palmer (1812-1895), 1st Earl of Selborne, Lord Chancellor [Daniel Sedgwick (1814-1879), hymnologist; Walton Convalescent Institution]
Publication details: 
4 August 1866; 6 Portland Place [London].
£45.00

12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium. Fair, on aged and lightly-creased paper. He would have answered Sedgwick's letter punctually, had he been able to help him. 'But I have not only no notes for the Walton Convalescent Institution of my own available, but I have been (before your application) desirous of obtaining one for a young man known to me personally, and have not (as yet) succeeded in the object.' He hopes to send him 'a letter about hymns in the course of this autumn'. [Palmer edited a selection.]

Four copies (on white, blue, pink and yellow paper) of a printed handbill titled 'Copy of a Letter from S. F. a Member of the Society of Friends, to a Young Woman, a Short Time before her Marriage.'

Author: 
S. F.' [Society of Friends; Quakers; Victorian women; nineteenth-century marriage]
Publication details: 
Undated [1840s?], and without publication details [English].
£225.00

Each copy is identically printed, on a piece of paper roughly 22.5 x 19.5 cm. Title and 56 lines of text (ending 'S. F.'), within a decorative border. Three of the four have a lightly-embossed stationery crown mark in a top corner. All four with text clear and complete, and in good condition, on lightly-aged and creased paper. Begins 'HAVING heard thou art shortly to enter a garden enclosed, and knowing thou art at present a stranger to this garden, permit an old friend to give thee an account of it.

Printed handbill on green paper titled 'Copy of a Letter from S. F. a Member of the Society of Friends, to a Young Woman, a Short Time before her Marriage.'

Author: 
S. F.' [Society of Friends; Quakers; Victorian women; nineteenth-century marriage]
Publication details: 
Undated [1840s?], and without publication details [English].
£56.00

On a piece of green paper roughly 22.5 x 19.5 cm. Title and 56 lines of text (ending 'S. F.'), within a decorative border. Lightly-embossed stationery crown mark in top left-hand corner. Text clear and complete. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper with creasing to bottom righ-hand margin. Begins 'HAVING heard thou art shortly to enter a garden enclosed, and knowing thou art at present a stranger to this garden, permit an old friend to give thee an account of it. I have travelled every path and part thereof, and know the productions of every kind, it can possibly yield.

Satirical handbill for work entitled 'Popular characters of Worthing'.

Author: 
Worthing, Sussex [Victorian humour, satire, Spottiswoode & Co]
Publication details: 
Without date; London.
£125.00

Dimensions of leaf roughly seven and a half inches by ten. Good, though grubby and with archival repair to verso. That the piece is a spoof is indicated by the printers slug, in the bottom right-hand corner: '[Spottisnotwood & Co, Printers, London.', the reference being to the leading London printers Spottiswoode & Co.

Autograph Letter Signed to Mrs R<?> Harvey.

Author: 
Robert Harkness (1816-1878), English geologist
Publication details: 
29 January 1869; on letterhead of Queen's College, Cork.
£28.00

12mo, 1 p. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with slight damage to one corner from removal from mounting, small glue stains from which are evident on the reverse. She was prevented from obtaining his autograph 'during the Meeting of the British Association at Norwich', and he is sending it to her now.

Autograph Letter Signed ('C J Mathews') to Hollingshead.

Author: 
C. J. Mathews [Charles James Mathews] (1803-1878), son of Charles Mathews, English actor and playwright [John Hollingshead (1827-1904), English journalist and theatre manager]
Publication details: 
23 November 1865; 25 Pelham Crescent, London.
£38.00

12mo, 1 p. Fair, on aged paper, with traces of previous mount adhering to the corners of the blank reverse. Of course Hollingshead should 'wait till the last night of "used up" ' before writing to Mathews, who has 'hunted up Buckstone - hunted up Turpin - but in vain. Not a box to be had'. He has sent 'the best I could get': '3 Dress Circle to Mrs Smiles with "Mr Hollingshead's best compliments." '. In a postscript states that if Hollingshead wants 'a box for the "Overland Route" before the last night' he will be 'too happy'. 'There is always a run on last nights.'

Autograph Signature on part of document

Author: 
Sir Charles Yorke (1790-1880), General in the British Army
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£28.00

A piece of laid paper, roughly 8 x 20 cm, cut from a document by an autograph collector. Yorke's signature, large (4.5 x 7 cm) and bold, is in the bottom right-hand corner. The surviving text is in a secretary's hand, and reads: '<...> of Our Reign. | By His Majesty's Command. | C Yorke | Our Trusty and Wellbeloved William Gordon Esqr General in Our Army & Col of Our 71st (Highland) Regiment of Foot or to the Officer appointed by him to raise Men for Our said Regiment'.

Frank, with signature ('J Lawrence'), seal, and autograph address to Northcote

Author: 
John Laird Mair Lawrence (1811-1879), 1st Baron Lawrence, Viceroy of India from 1864 to 1869 [Sir Stafford Northcote]
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£23.00

Cut from an envelope into a 'T' shape, with the front panel bearing the address and signature roughly 8.5 x 22.5 cm, forming the cross stroke, and the area from the back of the letter bearing the seal, cut into a roughly 6.5 x 5.5 cm rectangle, hanging down from this like the vertical stroke of the letter. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper. Reads 'To the Right Honorable, | Sir Stafford Northcote, Bart | Secretary of State for India | London | J Lawrence'. The circular red wax seal is 3.5 cm in diameter.

Printed Receipt, completed in manuscript and signed, for five works by Williamson legally deposited in the Library of the British Museum.

Author: 
Department of Printed Books, British Museum, London [George Charles Williamson (1858-1942), writer on art and historian of Guildford; George Bell & Sons]
Publication details: 
6 October 1904; Department of Printed Books, British Museum, London.
£25.00

On one side of piece of paper 23.5 x 16 cm. With perforated edge. Good, on aged paper, with traces with strip of glue from previous mount on reverse. Printed in copperplate. The deposited works are 'Notes on the Maces, Insignia of Office, and Town Plate of the Town of Guildford', 'Progress of Catholic Work', 'Token Pamphlet', 'Guildford Shakespeare' and 'County Town'. Ostensibly signed by the 'Keeper', but the signature is not decipherable (''). In his obituary in The Times, 6 July 1942, Williamson was praised as 'a highly industrious and versatile writer on art'.

Manuscript notebook, titled 'Anecdotes &c.', containing several hundred humorous stories (transcribed and 'Related'), with a few newspaper and magazine cuttings.

Author: 
Victorian notebook filled with humorous anecdotes [A. S. S. Sidney, Wobaston House, Wolverhampton; nineteenth-century English social history; jokes; humour]
Publication details: 
English. Dated between 1866 and 1911.
£150.00

Quarto (leaf dimensions roughly 19.5 x 15.5 cm). Ruled with twenty-eight lines to the page. Written in a close, neat hand, covering the first ninety-one pages of the notebook. Loosely inserted are twelve pages containing a further thirty stories, on three bifoliums each headed 'Anecdotes &c'. In black-leather half-binding, marbled boards. Good and tight, with text clear and complete on lightly aged paper. Calligraphic design printed on front free endpaper. A charming collection, casting amusing and entertaining light on nineteenth-century English social history.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Mortimer Wheeler') to Fred Behrens, editor of the Bradford Observer.

Author: 
Robert Mortimer Wheeler (d.1936), journalist, father of Sir Mortimer Wheeler (1890-1976), English archaeologist [Sir Jacob Behrens; Fred Behrens; Bradford Observer; Yorkshire Observer]
Publication details: 
7 June 1900; on letterhead of the Bradford Observer.
£23.00

12mo: 1 p. Twenty-one lines. Clear and complete. Fair: on lightly-aged and ruckled paper. He 'turned up at the Executive this afternoon rather in the hope of seeing you than in the expectation of being useful'. He had 'intended amongst other things supporting a meeting of the Committee sometime next week'. He is 'only just emerging from the influenza you gave me last time, which proved of a rather virulent order!' He has 'a visitor in the house & must consult the home arrangements'. 'The absence of Fred Byles (on holiday) ties me somwhat more closely than usual.

Autograph Note [to Jerdan?].

Author: 
Barry Cornwall' [Bryan Waller Procter (1787-1874)], English poet and friend of Charles Lamb [William Jerdan, editor of the Literary Gazette]
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated [London; circa 1820?].
£38.00

On upper half of a piece of quarto paper, unevenly torn to make a piece roughly 11 x 18.5 cm. Fair: on aged paper. Part of address from previous letter to 'W. Jerdan <...> | 267 Strand <...>' on reverse, which is docketed 'Procter | Miss Proby | Cornwalls poems'. Reads 'I inclose you a note left here for you | George says he will review the book for you next week - in the meantime give a flourish in your notice - 'The time does not admit of doing just to the vol. &c &c We are all a Party in this success -'.

[Chinese Miners] Testimonial, in English, in the form of a printed poster, presented to Robinson on the occasion of his retirement as Senior Inspector of Mines, F.M.S., with list of names.

Author: 
The Chinese Miners of the F.M.S. [Federated Malay States]' [Charles Ingle Robinson, Senior Inspector of Mines, F.M.S.; Malaysia; Malaya]
Publication details: 
IPOH 11th MAY, 1933.' ['Printed at the Kuang Ming Press, Ipoh. [Malaya]']
£85.00

Printed in blue on one side of a piece of white paper roughly 60 x 40 cm. Good: lightly-aged and creased. The text is enclosed within an ornate decorative border, and is headed 'Charles Ingle Robinson Esqr., | B. Sc. (Lond.), Associate R. S. M., | M. I. C. E., M. I. M. M., | Senior Inspector of Mines, F. M. S.' This is followed by nineteen lines, expressing 'deep regret and genuine sorrow' at his 'departure for Europe on retirement'.

Autograph Letter Signed to the numismatist Ewald Junge, with papers relating to the artist and theatrical Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966).

Author: 
Sebastian Carter, printer and typographer (born 1941)
Publication details: 
Letter undated, on letterhead of Victoria House, 40 Oxford Road, Cambridge.
£60.00

LETTER: One page, quarto. Somewhat aged and creased. An attractive item in Carter's disciplined calligraphic hand. A damning assessment of Craig's son Edward Anthony Craig ('Edward Carrick', 1905-98). '[...] If you know him, you presumably also know what you are taking on! We had some dealings with Teddy over possibly printing old EGC's engravings of Robinson Crusoe, but Teddy sold them, [...] My impression is that the old rogue manufactured archives in order to sell them to someone - preferably twice.

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