CENTURY

Engraving ('Benjamin Green sculpt.') in red and black, with explanatory letterpress, titled 'A View Of The Library Founded In 1429 By RICHARD WHITTINGTON.'

Author: 
Benjamin Green ('Pott') [Thoams Pennant; Richard ('Dick') Whittington; London topography; Christ's Hospital; libraries]
Publication details: 
London Pubd. Jany. 1 1793 by N Smith Gt. Mays Buildings St. Martins Lane.'
£56.00

Printed on one side of a piece of thick wove paper, 21 x 17.5 cm. At the head of the page is the engraving, enclosed in an oval 12.5 cm high and 15 cm wide. A clear impression of a scarce print, on grubby, spotted paper. Within the border is engraved in red 'Part of Christs Hospital taken from the Stewards Office 1765.' According to the six lines of copperplate text at the foot of the page 'It was 129 feet long and 31 feet in breadth, [...] It was furnished with Books at the expence of £556 . 10s of which £400 were given by the founder, and the remainder by Dr.

Two Christmas keepsakes: 'Literary Characters', with drawings by Edwin Baker; and 'Imaginary Conversations', with cover design by Hans Tisdall.

Author: 
Jonathan Cape Limited, London publishers [Edwin Baker; Hans Tisdall; Alden Press, Oxford]
Publication details: 
Literary Characters': 1954, 'Printed in the City of Oxford at the Alden Press on paper mould-made supplied by Spalding & Hodge Ltd.' 'Imaginary Conversations', 1956, 'Printed in Great Britain in the City of Oxford at the Alden Press'.
£50.00

Literary Characters'. 12mo (leaf dimensions roughly 18 x 12.5 cm): 32 pp. Stitched with brown thread. Fore-edge and top-edge rough. Unbound as issued. Very good. Cartoon in red ink of man seated at typewriter on front cover, and another, in black ink, of a hatted-figure skulking away with a walking stick held behind his back on back cover. Initial note, with publisher's colophon, on p.2: 'This series of Literary Characters appeared in Now & Then numbers 77-87 and is here reprinted by Jonathan Cape Limited for their friends | Christmas 1954'.

Steel engraving captioned 'Birds Eye View of the City and County of New-York with Environs.'

Author: 
Charles Magnus (1826-1900), German-born American engraver and printseller [New York; steel engraving; maps; travel; topography]
Publication details: 
[circa 1855] 'Sold by Charles Magnus, 12 Frankfort Street, New York.'
£80.00

Dimensions of print 11.5 x 19.5 cm. At the head of the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium (leaf dimensions 28 x 22.5 cm). The print itself is clear and undamaged, on aged paper. With traces of cuttings mounted onto the internal pages, and closed tear to the blank second leaf. An impressively detailed engraving, showing the bustling port and layout of the city, with church spires and prominent buildings. A copy of the item survives used as a letter home from a German girl in 1855. The copy in the New York Public Library is ascribed to 'C. Magnus, Lith. 22 N. William St.'

Original coloured Kronheim 'Baxter' engraving, captioned 'New York Bay from Staten Island'.

Author: 
Joseph Martin Kronheim (1810-1896) [George Baxter; New York; Staten Island; engraving; prints; maps; topography]
Publication details: 
[1850s?] 'J. M. Kronheim & Co. London'.
£56.00

Dimensions of print 6.5 x 11 cm. On a piece of paper 7.5 x 12 cm. Neatly laid down on a piece of cream paper 20 x 27.5 cm. Good clear impression on paper with foxing to margins at extremities. A series of three concentric red borders on the mount surround the print. Charming image, with a couple of fashionable couples looking out over a bay with a steamship and sail boats.

Original steel engraving, drawn by G. F. Sargent and engraved by G. Greatbach, captioned 'City of New York'.

Author: 
William Rae McPhun, Glasgow printseller and bookseller; G. F. Sargent; George Greatbach, London engraver [New York; prints; engravings; maps]
Publication details: 
[1850s?] 'W. R. McPhun & Son. Publishers, Glasgow.'
£56.00

Dimensions of print 12.5 x 19.5 cm. On paper 16 x 24.5 cm. Good clean impression, with six or seven spots of foxing in the margin and a little wear in the bottom left-hand copy. Striking detailed view of the city with sailboats and steamships in the harbour, and the major buildings and layout of the streets clearly portrayed, with the environs in the distance. Scarce: there is little information to be gleaned concerning this print.

Original coloured Kronheim 'Baxter' engraving, captioned 'New York Bay from Staten Island'.

Author: 
Joseph Martin Kronheim (1810-1896) [George Baxter; New York; Staten Island; engraving; prints; maps; topography]
Publication details: 
[1850s?] 'J. M. Kronheim & Co. London'.
£56.00

Dimensions of print 6.5 x 11 cm. On a piece of paper 9.5 x 16 cm. Neatly laid down on a piece of cream card 15.5 x 21.5 cm. Good clear impression on lightly-aged paper. Charming image, with a couple of fashionable couples looking out over a bay with a steamship and sail boats.

Original steel engraving, drawn by G. F. Sargent and engraved by G. Greatbach, captioned 'City of New York'.

Author: 
William Rae McPhun, Glasgow printseller and bookseller; G. F. Sargent; George Greatbach, London engraver [New York; prints; engravings; maps]
Publication details: 
[1850s] 'W. R. McPhun & Son. Publishers, Glasgow.'
£56.00

Dimensions of print 12.5 x 19.5 cm. On paper 16 x 24.5 cm. Good clean impression, with six or seven spots of foxing in the margin and a little wear in the bottom left-hand copy. Striking detailed view of the city with sailboats and steamships in the harbour, and the major buildings and layout of the streets clearly portrayed, with the environs in the distance. Scarce: there is little information to be gleaned concerning this print.

Original hand-coloured engraving by H. Adlard, from a drawing by W. H. Bartlett, captioned 'View from Gowanus Heights, Brooklyn. | Vue prise des hauteurs de Gowanus, Brooklyn | Prospect von der Gowanus Hohe, bei Brooklyn'.

Author: 
William Henry Bartlett (1809-1854), American artist; Henry Adlard, English engraver; George Virtue, London printseller [Brooklyn; New York; engravings; prints; maps; travel; topography]
Publication details: 
London. Published for the Proprietors by Geo: Virtue, 26, Ivy Lane, 1839.'
£56.00

Dimensions of print 12 x 18 cm. Dimensions of paper 19 x 24 cm. Good, clear image on aged and foxed paper. A pleasant rural view over the harbour, with a house nestling between trees and a couple walking among the hills. Tastefully coloured in light blue, green, red and pink.

Large advertising board, bearing a 'SPECIMEN PLATE' ('The Shadow of Death': 'Holman Hunt, Pinx. The Art Journal. Goupilgravure.'), for 'The Life and Work of W. Holman Hunt. By Archdeacon Farrar.'

Author: 
William Holman Hunt; Archdeacon Frederic William Farrar [Dean Farrar; Pre-Raphaelite; The Art Journal; Alice Meynell; J. S. Virtue & Co. Ltd.; Goupilgravure]
Publication details: 
[1893.] 'London: J. S. Virtue & Co. Ltd.' [The Art Journal.]
£85.00

Printed on one side of a piece of cream paper, roughly 33.5 x 25.5 cm. Laid down on card. Clear and complete, with a good impression of the plate (22.5 x 17.5 cm), on lightly-aged, grubby paper, with slight wear to extremities. Presumably produced for display in a shop window. The title ('THE LIFE AND WORK OF | W. HOLMAN HUNT. | BY ARCHDEACON FARRAR.') at head, and 'SPECIMEN PLATE.' at foot, in large orange letters; the rest printed in black. Beneath the plate: 'THE SHADOW OF DEATH. | BY PERMISSION OF MESSRS. T. AGNEW & SONS. | LONDON: J. S. VIRTUE & CO.

Typed Letter Signed ('G. N. S. Hunt') to Mrs Steward of Beckenham, Kent.

Author: 
G. N. S. Hunt [Geoffrey Hunt] [Oxford University Press; Geoffrey Cumberlege; Amen Corner; Christ Church, Newgate Street]
Publication details: 
2 December 1955; on Oxford University Press letterhead (Amen House, London).
£28.00

4to: 1 page. Twenty-one lines of text. Good, on creased and lightly-aged paper. An impressively-considered letter, declining Mrs Steward's manuscript 'I had rather be a Doorkeeper'. 'As you point out, Christ Church, Newgate Street, is a near neighbour of Amen House, and its ruins are a pathetic sight.

Printed programme of the 'Arrangements for the Ceremony of the Presentation of the Freedom of the City of London to The Right Hon. Lord Milner of St. James' and Cape Town, G.C.B., G.C.M.G.'

Author: 
Alfred Milner (1854-1925), 1st Viscount Milner [Lord Milner] [The Corporation of the City of London; freedom of the city; Guildhall]
Publication details: 
Tuesday, 23rd July, 1901.'
£45.00

4tp bifolium: 3 pp. Text clear and complete on aged and lightly-creased paper. The first page is headed by the crest of the City of London. Gives the timetable for the ceremony, and the routes to be followed by the holders of 'three distinct Cards [white, pink and blue] assigning seats in different localities'. 'The Prime Warden and Wardens of the Fishmongers' Company will present Lord Milner with the Freedom.

Three Autograph Letters Signed (all 'Osbert') to 'My dear James' [the film producer R. J. Minney].

Author: 
Osbert Sitwell (1892-1969) [R. J. Minney]
Publication details: 
Letter One: 'Friday Renishaw' [c.1942]; on letterhead of 2 Carlyle Square, SW3. Letter Two: 5 April [c.1942?]. On illustrated letterhead of 'Renishaw Hall, Derbyshire [last word deleted]'. Letter Three: 4 January 1944; on Renishaw Hall letterhead.
£165.00

Sitwell and Renishaw collaborated on the play 'Gentle Caesar' (published in 1942), and the last two letters would appear to concern a possible film adaptation. All three items very good on lightly aged paper. Letter One ('Friday Renishaw'): 12mo, 2 pp. 18 lines of text. Apparently written around the time of the play's composition. Sitwell is 'delighted' that Minney is 'already immersed in Pares's book. I have just read the Czar and Empress Marie's Letters.' He has 'marked (in the preface mostly) what I thought helpful for atmosphere, or amusing'.

Typed Note Signed ('Phillips Oppenheim') to Lawrence Mack, editor of Everybody's Weekly.

Author: 
E. Phillips Oppenheim (1866-1946) [Lawrence Mack; Everybody's Weekly]
Publication details: 
26 April 1928; on letterhead of Villa Deveron, Cagnes, Alpes-Maritmes, France.
£56.00

8vo: 1 p. Good, on lightly-creased paper, with a faint 4cm pink stain in the right-hand margin. Reads 'Many thanks for the copy of your interesting paper, and the kindly reference to my novel.'

Engraving ('ACTS XXVII XXXV') by Eric Gill from a drawing by David Jones; with long typewritten transcript from a letter from Jones to Evan Gill.

Author: 
David Jones; Eric Gill; Evan Gill
Publication details: 
The engraving dated by Jones (in the letter) to around 1935. The letter dated 22 November 1957.
£400.00

The engraving illustrates the biblical passage describing an incident during the wreck off Crete of a ship carrying Saint Paul. Acts 27:35: 'And when he had thus spoken, he took bread, and gave thanks to God in presence of them all: and when he had broken it, he began to eat.' Printed on one side of a piece of paper, 28 x 19 cm, with one rough edge. A striking image, irregularly shaped, with white lines against a black background, showing centurions and others on the deck of a ship on a stormy sea, with land in the distance.

Autograph Letter Signed ('T. M. Stone') to Mrs Metcalfe, on an 'eulogium' to her father Frederic Carpenter Skey, delivered by the President of the Royal College of Surgeons, Henry Hancock.

Author: 
Thomas Madden Stone (d.1894), Librarian to the Royal College of Surgeons of England, London [Henry Hancock (1809-1880); Frederic Carpenter Skey (1798-1872), surgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital]
Publication details: 
28 February 1873; on the letterhead of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, London.
£56.00

12mo: 2 pp. 18 lines of text. Good. Reporting that 'Mr. Hancock our President' has 'paid such a well deserved eulogium to your honoured sire in his Hunterian Oration published fully in "the Medical Times & Gazette" of last Saturday'. Stone was 'much moved by it', and said to himself 'how pleased I should have been, had his children been present to hear and see how well it was rec[eive]d.' Makes a Latin quotation that has been 'truly [...] said of your noble father'. Skey is not mentioned by name, but the item is from the Skey family archives.

Large engraved armorial bookplate of Hereson de Brecksel.

Author: 
Hereson de Brecksel [bookplate]
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated. [Eighteenth century?]
£50.00

On one side of a piece of wove paper 19 x 14.5 cm, and with the image extending almost to the edges. Lightly aged and creased, but good overall. An usual design, with the coat of arms within a fleece held up by two figures of Hercules, both on pedestals, the one of the left marked 'HUMUS' and that on the right 'SUMUS'. The fleece folds over the left-hand Hercules's right shoulder and reads 'LE CULTE EN' with 'DIFFICULTE' over the left-hand Hercules's left shoulder. Topping the whole design, above a coronet, is a harpy, and at the foot of the paper is 'Hereson de Brecksel'.

Menu for a dinner of the Worshipful Company of Stationers at Brusnwick Hotel, Blackwall. With ornate doily cut border.

Author: 
The Worshipful Company of Stationers [Stationers' Company; paper doily]
Publication details: 
London: 18 July 1855.
£65.00

On one side of a piece of wove paper roughly 23.5 x 19 cm. A delicate and scarce piece of ephemera, in a remarkably good state of repair. Possibly a proof, as a thin blank strip along one of the vertical edges, intended to be detached and discarded, still adheres. The menu itself is crisply printed in the centre, covering a space roughly 17 x 13.5 cm.

Obituary notice headed 'MR. JOHN CASSELL. Born January 23rd, 1817. Died April 2nd, 1865.'

Author: 
Cassell, Petter, & Galpin, London publishers [John Cassell (1817-1865)]
Publication details: 
Dated 'CASSELL, PETTER, & GALPIN. LA BELLE SAUVAGE YARD, April 3rd, 1865.'
£25.00

On one side of a piece of paper 21 x 14 cm. Mourning border. Very good, on lightly aged and spotted paper. Twenty-four lines of text announcing the 'death of our esteemed partner [...] for so many years [...] our fellow-labourer in the field of literary enterprise'. Cassell is described as 'a man of vigorous intellect and untiring energy, whose constant aim it was to render effectual assistance towards moral, social, and religious elevation of the people'.

A Catalogue of New & Popular Works, And of Books for Children, Suitable for Presents, Sunday School Libraries, and Prizes.

Author: 
E. P. Dutton & Co., publishers, New York [book catalogue; children's books; juvenile]
Publication details: 
[October 1881] New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 713, Broadway. Griffith & Farran, St. Paul's Churchyard, London.
£30.00

12mo. 32 pages. Unbound. On browned high-acidity paper. Loss to margins of first and last leaves, but text clear and complete, save for the dating in bottom left-hand corner of the title: <...> 8. 81. Cancelling all previous Editions of this Catalogue.' Line in blue pen around the words 'for Children' in the title, and pencil markings (by a child) to p.30. Circular engraving beneath title captioned 'Goldsmith introduced to Newbery by Dr.

Hudibras. In Three Parts. Written in the Time of the Late Wars. Corrected and Amended: with Additions. To which is added, Annotations, With an exact Index to the Whole. Adorn'd with a new Set of Cuts, Design'd and Engrav'd by Mr. Hogarth.

Author: 
Samuel Butler; William Hogarth, illustrator
Publication details: 
1739. London: Printed for D. Midwinter, A. Bettesworth [...] C. Rivington, W. Innys, T. Woodward, [...], J. and P. Knapton, T. Longman, R. Hett, J. Shuckburgh, H. Lintot, [...] R. Chandler, J. and R. Tonson, R. Wellington and C. Bathurst.
£200.00

8vo: xvi + 400 + [xxiv] pp. (Part I ends at p.142 and Part II begins, after a half title, at p.127.) The last twenty-four pages consist of an index and three pages of 'BOOKS Lately Published'. Frontispiece portrait of Butler by J. Van der Gucht. Hogarth's seven illustrations (including three that fold out) face pp. 1, 75 (fold out), 88 (f. o.), 100, 122, 130 (f. o.), 131 and 182 (f. o.). Internally tight on spotted and aged paper. Good impressions of illustrations, with a little light foxing.

Menu and programme for the 'Stourbridge Shakespearean Celebration. First Annual Dinner.'

Author: 
Stourbridge Shakespearean Celebration [Henry Irving; Herbert Beerbohm Tree; J. Forbes Robertson; Sidney Lee; Frank R. Benson]
Publication details: 
Talbot Hotel, Stourbridge, Wednesday 23rd April, 1902. J. T. Ford, Printer, Stourbridge.
£100.00

12mo: 20 pp. On art paper. Attached with yellow string in decorative printed card wraps. Good: lightly foxed in dusty wraps, with minor staining to blank inside wrap. The wraps, printed in red, blue and gold, feature a photo of Shakespeare's funerary bust within an embossed decorative border. Nicely printed with photos of Shakespeare's birthplace. Features the menu, a 'Toast List', a programme of music, lists of committee and patrons and extracts. Of interest are the three pages of letters, including dated communications from Henry Irving, J.

Autograph Letter Signed to John William Stuart, on the occasion of his brother Benjamin Whitworth's death.

Author: 
Robert Whitworth, philanthropist [Benjamin Whitworth (1816-1893), Liberal M.P. for Drogheda, Manchester cotton merchant; Whitby Lifeboat; temperance; Sunday observance]
Publication details: 
2 October 1893. 14 Brown Street, Manchester.
£95.00

8vo, 4 pp. Bifolium. Sixty-eight lines of text. Complete and legible, but damaged: grubby and creased, with short closed tears and small hole at gutter. Interesting and informative letter. Stuart's message of condolence on Benjamin Whitworth's death is one of many which 'have been very acceptable more especially to his widow who has been laid aside so long with bad health, his daughters have been quite worn out'. Describes how his brother's health 'began to break down after a slight attack of paralysis some two or three years ago when at John Brown & Co Ld.

Autograph address and short note.

Author: 
John Cowper Powys (1872-1963), Anglo-Welsh writer
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£75.00

On one side of a piece of wove paper, cut into a rectangle approximately 4.5 x 9 cm. Good, on lightly-creased paper with one vertical fold. Cut from an envelope, with traces of the postmark over the autograph, and a section of the gummed strip on the reverse. Reads 'From | John Cowper Powys | Waterloo | Blaenau - F Festiniog | Merionethshire | North Wales | I enjoyed thinking of you in Italy'.

Autograph Letter Signed to 'Mr Disspain'.

Author: 
John Cowper Powys (1872-1963), Anglo-Welsh writer [William Blake; Denis Saurat]
Publication details: 
8 November 1958. 1 Waterloo, Blaenau-FFestiniog, Merionethshire, North Wales.
£180.00

8vo, 4 pp. Bifolium. Very good on lightly aged paper. Written in Powys's distinctive, sprawling hand. Concerns William Blake and the monograph on him (1954) by Denis Saurat, who 'must indeed be a wonder considering the scope of his interests.' 'Yes I was brought up by my mother on the Poems of Blake; so I am always interested by any reference to them or any reproduction of them. Indeed and indeed I can fully understand your being so hypnotized by the pictures of Blake that you find yourself going to see them when you had decided to go somewhere else'. Powys is 'in excellent health'.

Receipt, signed 'B Nichols, 25 Parliament Street', for a guinea subscription to Forby's 'Vocabulary'. Countersigned by Fletcher.

Author: 
John Bowyer Nichols and Son, Printers and Booksellers; John Kitson; Simon Wilkin, Norwich bookseller; Josiah Fletcher, Norwich bookbinder [The Gentleman's Magazine]
Publication details: 
11 December 1829. On printed company letterhead.
£25.00

On one side of a piece of wove paper roughly 10.5 x 17.5 cm. Good. Printed in top left-hand corner: 'To J. B. Nichols and Son. Printers and Booksellers. 25, Parliament Street, Westminster. ***Office, 10, King Street, Westminster.' Asks that the 'Subscription to Forby's Vocabulary 1 1 0' be paid to him or to 'Mr Wilkin, Bookseller, herewith'. Countsigned crosswise 'Received for S. Wilkin | [signed] Josiah Fletcher | Jan 25/30'. Docketed on reverse. BBTI has Wilkin as a bookseller in Norwich from before 1821 to 1830; and Fletcher as a binder and printer there from around 1820 to 1835.

Typed Letter Signed ('Basil Blackwell') to Secker.

Author: 
Sir Basil Blackwell (1889-1984), Oxford bookseller [Martin Secker (1882-1978), publisher]
Publication details: 
17 December 1969, on illustrated Blackwell's letterhead.
£35.00

4to: 1 p. Ten lines of text. Heavily stained, but a neat link between two giants of the twentieth-century British book trade. 'I give myself the pleasure of saluting you, I really believe for the first time'. He is happy for the opportunity of telling Secker how much he admired his 'flair and enterprise in earlier years'. He hopes he 'may write as firmly and with as lively a mind as you in six years' time'. 'Alas that we must disappoint you': the books Secker has requested are all out of print. 'Just possibly one or more may come into our hands secondhand.

Typed Note Signed to Stanley Unwin.

Author: 
Arnold Bennett (1867-1931), English novelist [Sir Stanley Unwin (1884-1968), publisher]
Publication details: 
9 December 1930; 97 Chiltern Court, Clarence Gate, NW1.
£65.00

4to, 1 p. Four lines of text. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with slight staining from paperclip in top left-hand corner. He thanks him for his 'very interesting letter': 'The photograph shows an agreeable, and perhaps distinguished building. I return the picture thereof, and wish you every success therein.'

Printed handbill of Cambridge University 'List of Honours at the Bachelor of Arts' Commencement, January 25, 1868.'

Author: 
Cambridge University [Victorian degrees; nineteenth-century education]
Publication details: 
[Cambridge: 1868.]
£75.00

Printed on one side of a 4to leaf (dimensions roughly 24.5 x 21.5 cm). A frail survival among university ephemera: aged and lightly foxed and creased, with a couple of central vertical 5 cm closed tears. Beneath the heading are the names of the two Moderators (Frost and Hayward of St John's) and two Examiners (Cockshott of Trinity and Steel of Gonville and Caius).George Darwin included Second Wrangler. Arranged in numerical order across three columns: 'Wranglers', 'Senior Optimes' and 'Junior Optimes'. Names and colleges of 102 individuals given.

Printed Order in Council, signed in type 'C. L. PEEL', making changes to the Assize Circuit, headed 'At the Court at Osborne House, Isle of Wight, The 28th day of July, 1893. Present, The Queen's Most Excellent Majesty in Council.'

Author: 
Sir Charles Lennox Peel (1823-1899), Knight Clerk of the Council [Order in Council]
Publication details: 
i 78316 7400. - 9/93. [September 1893] Wt. P. 953. E. & S. [Eyre & Spottiswoode.]
£56.00

8vo, 8pp. Unbound. Stitched as issued. Text complete and clear. Good: lightly-aged and creased. The order is on pp.1-3. Followed by (over five pages): 'SCHEDULE', consisting of 'Circuits of the Judges. Civil and Criminal.', 'Autumn Circuit. Criminal Business Only, except where otherwise stated.' and 'Easter Circuit.'

Prompt copy typescript, with manuscript stage directions, titled 'Excerpt from Act 3. "Man and Superman" by BERNARD SHAW'.

Author: 
George Bernard Shaw [Alec Clunes; Arts Theatre Club, London; May Hemery Ltd]
Publication details: 
[London: May Hemery Ltd for the Arts Theatre Club, 1946.]
£125.00

From the collection of Alec Clunes, who performed as Don Juan in this excerpt from 'Man and Superman' ('Don Juan in Hell') at the Arts Theatre Club in 1946. Carbon copy of typescript by May Hemery Ltd, paginated 1 to 60, on the rectos of sixty leaves, preceded by title leaf ('Excerpt from Act Three | "MAN AND SUPERMAN" | By | BERNARD SHAW'. In original blue paper wraps, with yellow tape spine and label on front wrap. Grubby and worn, and with light staining to wraps, but tight, complete and clear. Numerous manuscript stage directions, mostly on the facing versos.

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