CENTURY

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and folded twice for postage. One corner very slightly cropped. Signed ‘Tho. Hughes’. In response to a request for an autograph he writes: ‘My dear Madam / I have only just returned to town where I find your note, with the request contained in which I have much pleasure in complying & sending you my signature below, though it is not a good specimen as I have got hold of a rascally bad pen.’ See Image.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 16mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Signed ‘W. L. Wyllie.’ He is sorry that he will be unable to avail himself of ‘the kind invitation to dinner sent me by the Master of the Salters Company’. He is starting for Norway on the last day of the month, and will not return until the end of July.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly aged. Good firm attractive signature ‘John Betjeman.’On irregularly-shaped corner (approximately 9 x 7 cm) torn from a letter on cartridge paper. Reads ‘[...] pho[...] / [...]ed to se[...] / [...] author in this [...] / never be too hope[...] / [...]urs faithfully, / [...]HELL-MEX and B. P. LIMITED. / [signed] John Betjeman. / [...]urn of post unless otherwise stated’. Perhaps something to do with Shell Guides(?)See Image.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly aged. Good firm signature ‘John Betjeman’ on 9 x 3 cm slip of paper. Laid down at the foot of one side of a 12mo leaf (extracted from an edition of his poems), at the foot of the Betjeman poem ‘Henley-on-Thames’. On the reverse, paginated 24, is his poem ‘East Anglian Bathe’. See Imagew

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, but lightly discoloured, with a large rectangle of sunning covering most of the lower part, and a neat crease at bottom right (not affecting the signature, which is partially sunned). Annotated in pencil by a later hand on the reverse. Betjeman’s handwriting is bad, so the following reading is tentative. ‘Dear Lady Jones, / I meant to write to you long ere this to tell you how grateful I was to you & Sir Roderick [Jones, her husband] for letting us [house?] this prize in your capacious drawing room.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Strip of glue from mount adhering to one edge of the blank reverse. Folded for postage. Addressed to ‘J M Hare Esqr’. Reads: ‘Dear Sir / I have to acknowledge the receipt of the Patent you have kindly sent me, pray accept my thanks for your attention / I am dear Sir / Yrs faithfully / S. Morton Peto’. In Victorian hand at foot: ‘M P. Norwich 1851’.

See his entry, and that of George Doo, engraver, in the Oxford DNB. The four items are in good condition, lightly aged and worn The items of 1832 and 1838 are in the third person; those of 1837 and 1839 are signed, 'D. Wilkie' and 'David Wilkie' respectively. The 1832 letter, accepting a dinner invitation from 'Dr and Mrs Baillie', is 1p, 16mo; the other three items are each 1p, 12mo. In 1838 he writes to 'Capt Seymour' to ask for 'the present address of Sir William Knighton'.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Wilkie was in a good position to assist Waagen, who was touring England making notes on significant art collections, for use in his ‘Kunstwerke und Künstler in England und Paris’ (3 vols, Berlin, 1837–39), which formed the basis for his influential ‘The Treasures of Art in Great Britain’ (translated by Lady Eastlake, 4 vols, London, 1854 and 1857). Wilkie had strong connections with Wellington. His 1822 painting ‘The Chelsea Pensioners reading the Waterloo Dispatch’ had been commissioned by the Duke, and was sold to him for the unheard-of sum of 1,200 guineas.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition. The letterhead describes the firm (‘formerly Walker and Cockerell’) as being ‘Process and General Engravers, Draughtsmen, Map Constructors Copper-plate Printers Collotypers and Photographers of Works of Art’. Signed ‘Emery Walker’. He is sending Wright ‘proofs of the plan from Coutts’ Bank’, and is sending a duplicate to ‘Mr. Fayle’, asking him ‘to let me have the lettering, that is, if he wishes on seeing the plan to vary it’. He is having ‘proofs of the title page from Messrs.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. In 1787 he had been appointed equerry to the Duke of York, and he accompanied him to the Netherlands as Aide-de-Camp. The present item was written a three months before the Battle of Villers-en-Cauchies, at which Craufurd, at the head of two squadrons, is said to have captured three guns and a thousand men. 1p, 12mo. On watermarked laid paper. In good condition, lightly aged, with creases from having been folded into a packet. Docketed on reverse. Reads: ‘Major Craufurd’s Account. / Paid to the Russian Minister at Brussels for a Pellice for the Duke ..

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. All three items signed 'Linley Sambourne'. All three in good condition, lightly aged and worn, and all folded for postage. ONE: 10 April 1889. 2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Begins 'Dear Sir / Mr Furniss [Harry Furniss, Punch illustrator] has kindly written enclosed & I am sending a boy to you at / 5, Clarendon Place / Hyde Park'.

14 x 10.5 postcard with 7 x 10 cm matte black and white metallic photographic portrait print by Studio Virgine of Paris to the right, and blank space to the left, in which Chevalier has written in blue ink, ‘Thanks to you both. Everything went fine. / Maurice’. The phtograph shows an urbane Chevalier in evening dress, hands in pockets, smiling. Somewhat aged and worn, with crease to top right corner going through Chevalier's head. See IMage.

LETTER ONE (to Wolfestan): 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Damage to text (including signature 'E. A. Storey') along inner edge of last page by clumsy removal from mount, repaired with archival tape. Otherwise in good condition, lightly aged. Folded. Wolfestan's letter is 'capital' and he hopes he will send it 'as it exactly backs up my own statement'.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of a bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with the blank second leaf damaged on removal from mount. Addressed to an unnamed woman (‘Chère Madame’) and boldly signed ‘A. Legros’. He accepts her dinner invitation with ‘le plus grand plasir’.

A successful member of an English artistic family. See the Oxford DNB entries on his father Joseph Severn, brother Walter Severn and sister Mary Newton. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium on grey wove paper. In good condition, lightly aged, with traces of paper from mount adhering to the blank verso of the second leaf, and details typed at head. Folded once.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, on both sides of a 9 x 10.5 cm piece of paper. Aged and worn, with a corner cut away, but the text complete.Nineteen lines in a close and difficult hand. Addressed to 'My dear Mgnr [i.e. Monsignor]' and signed 'E B Pusey'. Interpretation of Pusey's execrable handwriting is challenging. He appears to be ‘lecturing on the Psalms’, and may be requesting ‘combined lectures’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage. Reads: ‘Dear Mr Scarr: / I’m sorry but I have already engaged myself for three talks besides my offical three and, not being an extemporizer, can’t undertake any more. / Yours sincerely / Robert Graves’. See Image.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Both items are somewhat sunned, but in good overall condition. ONE: ALS. 1p, 4to. Folded three times for postage. Signed ‘John Masefield’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. An unillustrated post card, apart from the letterhead. Addressed, with stamp and Paddington postmark, to ‘Dr William Roberts / Briarlea / Mortimer / Berks.’ The message reads: ‘I vote for Osbert S. [i.e. Osbert Sitwell] as next chairman Soc. Authors [etc?] / Yrs / C. Day Lewis’. Image on request.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The three items are in good condition, each with his firm signature ‘Compton Mackenzie’. Each is 1p, 4to, in good condition, folded for postage.Despite being scored through, one can see that the first and last salutation are addressed to ‘Mrs Raymont’, and the second to ‘Mr Raymond’. ONE: 23 November 1961. He is pleased that she enjoyed his book ‘Mezzotint’: ‘The setting is really the Seychelles but of course I had to lay it in the South Atlantic instead of the Indian Ocean.’ He agrees with her ‘about these efforts at modernity by some of my contemporaries.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Sneyd-Kinnersley is the headmaster who is alleged to have subjected a naked seven-year-old Winston Churchill to repeated beatings. 3pp, 12mo. With mourning border. Letterhead (no doubt designed by Waterhouse himself) in characteristic style. On grey paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Good expansive signature ‘A Waterhouse’, and the letter written in a stylish hand. Addressed to ‘The Rev: H. W Sneyd Kinnersley’.

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, on the first leaf of bifolium. (There are extensive pencil annotations in a later hand on the second leaf.) Very neatly written. Addressed to ‘J. G. Wilson Esqre.’ and signed ‘Anstey Guthrie’. He has ‘much pleasure’ in answering Wilson’s question. ‘‘Shut Out’ is a short story of mine which was published in Longmans Magazine about 1895 or 6, afterwards included in a volume of short stories under the title of “The Talking Horse”. I think published by Messrs. Smith & Elder - but now long out of print.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The present item was enclosed in a letter from Serjeant Shee (the future Sir William Shee), offered separately, sent from the House of Commons on 17 February 1854, in which he writes: ‘I enclose Mr. Cobdens own handwriting to send to the Papers -’. Attached to a corner at the head of the first page of the present item is a cutting from the Morning Herald newspaper, 18 February 1854, reproducing the details in the manuscript.

According to his entry in the Oxford DNB, Shee entered the House of Commons as Member for County Kilkenny in 1852, and promptly took charge of the Irish Tenant Right Bill. ‘On 16 February 1854 Shee brought in a bill which, with the exception of three clauses, was the exact counterpart of Sharman Crawford's bill of the previous session, but it met with little encouragement.’ Shee’s speech is reproduced in his ‘Papers, Letters, and Speeches in the House of Commons, on the Irish Land Question’ (London, 1863).

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Lightly aged and worn. With central horizontal and vertical crease for postage, each quarter with double pinholes at the centre (from attachment of an enclosure?). Signature unaffected (it starts close to vertical crease). Reads: 'Dear Mrs. Lord / With the greatest pleasure - and with ten thousand apologies. I thought I had answered long ago. But letters lie in heaps in my tray & on my table - everywhere! and I carry them about in bags labelled carefully Unanswered until I dare no longer look inside.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB: ‘In the 1840s Peto had thirty-three railway contracts worth £20 million, the largest number held in the kingdom; according to Brunel he was the largest contractor in the world.’ 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded three times. Begins: ‘Sir Morton Peto presents his Compliments to Lady Hooker and begs to acknowledge the receipt of her not of the 9th. Inst. on his return from the Continent’. He regrets that ‘it will not be in his power to assist the Case of Dr.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, and those of his children the writers John Lehmann and Rosamond Lehmann. 1p, 12mo, with mourning border. In fair condition, on aged paper. Folded once, and with biographical information in small type at head. Addressed to ‘Messrs. Henry & Co’, publishers of his recently published book: ‘Dear Sirs / I am obliged for the two Copies of “In Cambridge Courts” which you sent me. Will you kindly send my further Copies to me at / 15 Berkeley Square / London W. / May I take this opportunity of congratulating you on the get up of the book. It is charming.’

See his entry, together with that of Benjamin Britten, in the Oxford DNB, the latter explaining the context of the last letter, which is an attack on Britten and Peter Pears for not returning from the United States to wartime England. From the Scott papers. Each letter 2pp, 12mo, on a single leaf (a total of 8pp, 12mo). In good condition, lightly aged. Each letter folded for postage. All four letters addressed to ‘Miss Scott’, and each signed ‘Gordon Jacob’. ONE (1 April 1929): He will be ‘most delighted’ to give her ‘any information you may require about my work’.

Reade was a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1836 to his death. According to his entry in the Oxford DNB: ‘in the years of his fame, and particularly in the early 1860s, he did much of his writing in his rooms at Magdalen, using them as a retreat. His tenure of the fellowship was contingent on his remaining unmarried, a stipulation he complained of bitterly but continued to put up with, even when he was earning thousands a year as a writer’. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly discoloured, on thin wove paper. Folded once.

See Smirke’s entry, and those of Cooke and Heath, in the Oxford DNB. His most celebrated design is the Reading Room of the British Museum. 2pp, 12mo. With monogram and mourning border. On first leaf of a bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded for postage. Begins: ‘My dear Sir, / Vernon Heath, of Piccadilly, has made me a photograph of our new front, which is I think fairly satisfactory.’ He has told Heath to deliver a copy ‘addressed to you at the R. Academy’. As it is ‘rather large’, he did not like to send it ‘by post or Parcel’, as it ‘might get crushed on its way to you.