CHRISTMAS

[William Bright, Regius Professor of Ecclesiatical History at Oxford and Canon of Christ Church.] Two Autograph Letters Signed to Philip Jacob, Archdeacon of Winchester., one with long discussion of Christmas. With signed conclusion of third letter.

Author: 
William Bright (1824-1901), D.D., Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the University of Oxford, Canon of Christ Church
Publication details: 
One dated 'Univ[ersity] Coll[ege, Oxford] / Innocents Day [28 December] 1866'. Another, on letterhead of Christ Church, Oxford, 'Whitsun Monday'. The last without date or place.
£85.00

Excellent affectionate and eloquent content, including a moving expression of the conventional Victorian view of Christmas. See Bright's entry in the Oxford DNB. A total of eight pages, six of which are closely written. Items One and Two addressed to ‘My dear Jacob’. Item Three is incomplete. ONE: ‘Univ Coll / Innocents Day 1866.’ 5pp, 12mo. On bifolium. Bright’s signature ‘W. Bright’ and the conclusion of the letter (i.e. the fifth page) are written crosswise at the head of the first page.

[Sir Emile Littler, theatrical impressario.] Two Typed Letters Signed, asking theatre historian W. J. Macqueen-Pope whether he did more London pantomimes than Julian Wylie. With carbon of reply.

Author: 
Sir Emile Littler [born Emile Richeux] (1903-1985), theatrical impresario based at the Palace Theatre, London, producer of over two hundred British pantomimes [W. J. Macqueen-Pope, theatre historian;]
Publication details: 
15 and 19 November 1957. Both on his letterhead. Carbon of Macqueen-Pope’s reply, 18 November 1957, from Coventry House, 5/6 Coventry Street, W.1.
£90.00

For information on Littler see the entry in the Oxford DNB of his brother Prince Frank Littler (1901-1973), who did not share Emile’s ‘affection for plays or players individually’. Also see Macqueen-Pope’s entry in the same work. The three items in fair condition, lightly aged and creased. Both signed ‘Emile’. ONE: TLS of 15 November 1957. 1p, 4to. Reads: ‘My dear Popie, / You know about everything in the Theatre, and I am wondering if you could tell me how many London pantomimes Julian Wylie did, either by himself or as the Wylie-Tate organisation.

[Henry Cole as sub-commissioner under the Record Commission; Exchequer Records] Incomplete Autograph Letter or Draft in Cole's Handwriting about an impediment in the arrangement of the Miscellaneous Records of the Exchequer.

Author: 
[Henry Cole][Sir Henry Cole (1808 – 11882), civil servant and inventor who facilitated many innovations in commerce & education in the 19th century in the U.K.]
Cole
Publication details: 
No place, 4 March 1835.
£450.00
Cole

Two pages, 4to, good condition, lacking at least a signature page. An impediment in the arrangement of the Miscellaneous Records of the Exchequer which I feel it my duty to submit to the notice of the Board.

[Christopher Fry, playwright.] Typescript of a cinematic 'Story Treatment' of 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens: 'A 90 Minute Animated Color Version', 'Adapted by Christopher Fry'.

Author: 
Christopher Fry (1907-2005), playwright; Charles Dickens
Publication details: 
With address of Fry's agent: ACTAC (Theatrical & Cinematic) Limited, 16, Cadogan Lane, London S.W.1'. Without date [1970s or 1980s?].
£400.00

In addition to his distinguished career as a playwright, Fry had some success in Hollywood. He completely rewrote (uncredited) the screenplay of 'Ben-Hur' (1959), and was responsible for the screenplay of the Dino De Laurentiis epic 'The Bible: In the Beginning' (1966), directed by John Houston. The present item is a treatment for a film that did not make it into production. It is [1] + 71pp, 8vo. Each page on a separate loose leaf. With thin card covers, also loose, the front cover carrying a duplication of the title-page, and the back cover blank. In good condition, lightly aged.

[Christmas Card from the British Expeditionary Force, France, 1939.] Lithographed Christmas Card, with 'B.E.F.' and Spearhead Badge of 1 British Corps, and illustration by 'L. D. C.' of White Cliffs of Dover, France, military convoy, army camp.

Author: 
[British Expeditionary Force (B.E.F.), France, 1939; 1 British Corps; British Army]
Publication details: 
British Expeditionary Force [France]. Christmas 1939.
£100.00

A nice piece of Second World War ephemera, of which no other copy has been traced. 1 British Corps formed part of the B.E.F., travelling to France in September 1939, and withdrawing from Dunkirk at the 'Darkest Hour' in May 1940. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Lithographed in black on the four sides of a 9.5 x 15 cm bifolium. Two parallel diagonal red lines printed at top left of front cover, which also carries the Spearhead badge of 1 British Corps at centre, above 'B.E.F.' in a scroll, with 'Christmas – 1939' at bottom left.

[George Augustus Sala: 1881 Christmas Day menu by 'Sala & Co | Refreshment Contractors'.] Hand-written menu on decorative card.

Author: 
George Augustus Sala (1828-1895), journalist, author and bon viveur, associated with the Illustrated London News (as G. A. S.) and the Daily Telegraph, founder of the Savage Club,
Publication details: 
'Sala & Co | Refreshment Contractors | 46 Mecklenburgh Sq. | W.C.' 1881.
£100.00

An attractive item, neatly written out in black ink on one side of a 13 x 8.5 cm piece of shiny card, with printed decorative border of flowers in gold and blue. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, with traces of mount adhering to reverse. As a joke, at the foot, in block capitals, the menu is attributed to 'Sala & Co | Refreshment Contractors', at Sala's address. An interesting artefact of the Victorian Christmas. The menu reads:'[fleuron] Menu. | CHRISTMAS DAY | 1881 | oysters on the half shell.

[ Margaret L. Woods, novelist and author. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('M. L. Woods.') to 'Mr Sladen' [ i.e. the author Douglas Sladen ], regarding a bereavement, 'Captain Christmas', Horace Annesley Vachell and the publisher John Lane.

Author: 
Margaret L. Woods [ Margaret Louisa Woods, née Bradley ] (1855-1945), novelist and poet [ Douglas Sladen [ Douglas Sladen [ Douglas Brooke Wheelton Sladen ] (1856-1947), author ]
Publication details: 
Southwold. 14 November [ 1914 ].
£90.00

2pp., 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged. She condoles with her over her 'sad loss last June. I had no idea of it, or I should have written to express my sympathy at the time. I was so much interested to meet your son, & hear how splendidly he had done.' On receiving Sladen's letter she wrote to her neice Betty Brichenough, and wonders if 'Captain Christmas', i.e. Danish sea captain and author Captain Walter Christmas (1861-1924), has heard from her. Fearing that she has mislaid Christmas's card she asks Sladen to write to him on her behalf.

[ Vita Sackville-West ] Small Printed Card Signed in her hand "Vita. | For Diana and Nigel"

Author: 
Vita Sackville-West, author and gardener
Vita
Publication details: 
No place or date
£180.00
Vita

White Card, 6 x 4.5cm, a little grubby but otherwise good condition. Printed text as follows: "I am going abroad so am not sending Christmas cards this year, but I should not like you to think I had forgotten you." Followed by her signature etc (as detailed above.

[ A. F. Tschiffely, Argentine adventurer. ] Printed humorous postcard of 'Santa Claus in Patagonia', with photograph of Patagonian native clutching a bottle of Bols.

Author: 
A. F. Tschiffely [ Aimé Félix Tschiffely ] (1895-1954), Swiss-born Argentine adventurer and author
Publication details: 
[ London. ] Christmas 1938-1939.
£150.00

The card is printed in brown ink on one side of an 18 x 13 cm piece of thin beige card. An 8.5 x 6 cm black and white photograph has been tipped in within a printed square. In fair condition, with signs of age and wear. The text, in capitals, reads 'Santa Claus in Patagonia. | [Photograph.] | With best wishes for Christmas and the New Year from Mr. & Mrs. A. F. Tschiffely. | 1938 - 1939.' The photograph shows the supposed subject of the card, a Patagonian native with white hair and beard, in morth-eaten jumper, clutching a bottle of Bols as he stares at the camera.

[ Gerald Bullett, author and broadcaster. ] Christmas card containing his poem 'White Frost', signed by him and printed by James Guthrie's Pear Tree Press.

Author: 
Gerald Bullett (1893-1958), writer and broadcaster; his wife Rosalind Bullett [ Edith Marion Rosalind Barker, née Gould ] (1887-1982) [ James Guthrie, The Pear Tree Press, Bognor Regis ]
Publication details: 
'This is one of 75 copies of White Frost a copyright poem by Gerald Bullett printed by James Guthrie at The Pear Tree Press Flansham Bognor Regis December 1936'. [ The Old Farm, East Harting, Sussex. ]
£180.00

On piece of laid paper folded twice to make a 19 x 14 cm. card. In good condition, with light signs of age. Tiny printer's device on back cover the only illustration. Front cover in black ink reads: 'Christmas Greetings from Rosalind & Gerald Bullett The Old Farm East Harting Sussex'. Colophon in brown ink on left-hand side of opening. Right-hand opening carries the sixteen-line poem, in four four-line stanzas, the first of which reads: 'I went to the window, where the morning was, | And saw innocence scattered on the grass.

[ Raphael Tuck & Sons Victorian christmas card. ] Coloured Christmas card with illustration by 'E M W' on one side, and poem by 'SAMUEL K. COWAN M.A.' on the other.

Author: 
Raphael Tuck & Sons, Moorfields, London publishers known for their postcards; Samuel K. Cowan (d.1918), Irish lyricist
Publication details: 
Raphael Tuck & Sons [ London ]. 'RTS Artistic Series' and 'Series 430.' Undated [ late nineteenth century? ]
£35.00

On a gilt-edged piece of card, 13 x 11.5 cm., with rounded edges. In good condition, lightly aged. The illustration by 'E M W' on one side is printed in silver, yellow, light blue, grey and brown, and shows a snowy country scene with two tiny figures beneath a shining sun on a stone bridge over a stream. Captioned 'The Joy of Christmas be in your heart.' Cowan's eight-line poem, on the other side, is printed in grey, in variety of gothic fonts. It begins: 'Only its best and brightest history | May Memory relate you!

Printed Victorian Christmas card with the poem 'Christmas Greeting' by 'S. K. Cowan M.A.' on one side, and a coloured chromolithographic illustration by J. N. Drummond on the other.

Author: 
'S. K. Cowan M.A.' [ Samuel Kennedy Cowan ]; J. N. Drummond
Publication details: 
Without date or place. [ England, 1880s? ]
£25.00

On a thick piece of shiny card, with rounded edges, 12.5 x 18cm. Aged, and with two dog eared corners and a 3cm closed tear (not affecting illustration). On one side is the chromolithographic illustration, with 'J. N. Drummond' in the bottom right-hand corner, showing an English rural landscape - more autumnal than winter - with river in the foreground and trees and viillage with church in the background.

[ Mary Knox, illustrator. ] Printed illustrated Christmas card 'from E. V. & Mary Knox.' With manuscript address and telephone number at foot.

Author: 
Mary Knox [née Mary Shepard] (1909-2002), illustrator; E. V. Knox [ Edmund George Valpy Knox ] (1881-1971), poet and satirist ('Evoe'), editor of Punch magazine, 1932-1949
Publication details: 
[London, 1930s or 1940s.]
£85.00

Printed in black on one side of a 12.5 x 16.5 cm piece of card. A charming image, framed within the drawn curtains of a theatre stage, showing four snowmen, dressed as toff in top hat, flat-capped figure with spade, lady with shawl and umbrella, and bowler-hatted figure with muffler and broom. At head of image 'A Merry Christmas', and at foot, 'from E. V. & Mary Knox'. In blue ink in border at foot of page: '110 Frognal. N.W.3.' and 'Hampstead 7330.' Mary Knox's father E. H. Shepard was the illustrator of the Winnie the Pooh books.

[Street ballad; Christmas] The Black Decree, &c

Author: 
Anon.
Publication details: 
'Printed by J. Evans and Sons, Long-lane, London", c.1795 [see BBTI]
£100.00

One page, 4to, c.35 x 24cm, folded (with marks), creased slightly at edges and on folds, some foxing and pinholes, blank reverse grubby, with two small woodcuts at top. A sheet containing a number of Christmas songs: The Black Decree (Herod); O see man's Saviour in Bethlehem born; While Shepherds watch'd their Flocks by Night; On Christmas Night all Christians sing. No other copy traced.

[Rev. Dr Henry Christmas.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Henry Christmas') to Arthur Hall, discussing the plan of a magazine, with the names of contributors and sub-editors of sections, for a prospectus, and describing a section of 'Lyra Evangelica'.

Author: 
Rev. Dr Henry Christmas [Noel-Fearn] (1811-1868), editor and numismatist [Arthur Hall, London publisher [Arthur Hall, Virtue & Co., Paternoster Row]
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£90.00

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, on aged and unevenly-sunned paper. He begins by giving six numbered points which 'will do for the Introduction' to a prospectus for a magazine. The first reads: 'The biographical & archaeological portion of the Magazine will be placed under the superintendance of the Revd Professor Christmas, M.A.

Typescript, with autograph corrections, of an essay titled 'A Thought About Christmas. Laurens van der Post', written for a magazine edited by Rev. Austin Williams, Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, and with two Typed Letters Signed to Williams.

Author: 
Laurens van der Post (1906-1996), South African author [Rev. Austin Williams (1912-2001), Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields]
Publication details: 
The two letters both from 13 Cadogan Street, Chelsea [London]; 11 May 1959 and 12 October 1962.
£450.00

The three items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper; the essay and first letter having punch-holes in the margin. The essay is 3pp., foolscap 8vo. The title, corrections and emendations are all in van der Post's hand. 'To someone like myself who believes that coincidence is the manifestation of a great law of which we are not yet properly aware, this timing of the birth of Christ is not accidental.

Mimeographed copy of sermon to the British Eighth Army, headed 'CHRISTMAS 1942. | SERVICE BROADCAST FROM BETHLEHEM | "Of His Kingdom there shall be no end." St. Luke, I, v.33.'

Author: 
[Frederick Llewelyn Hughes (1894-1967), Archdeacon of the Forces and Dean of Ripon, 1961-1967; General Montgomery of Alamein; British Eighth Army]
Publication details: 
[British Eighth Army, Bethlehem, Palestine.] Christmas 1942.
£280.00

2pp., foolscap 8vo. On two leaves stapled together. In good condition, on lightly aged and creased paper. This item is discussed in M. F. Snape's 'God and the British Soldier: Religion and the British Soldier in the First and Second World Wars' (London: Routledge, 2005). Montgomery described Hughes as 'the ideal of what an Army padre should be', and according to Snape: 'A major theme which seemed to emerge from the collaboration of Montgomery and Hughes in 1942 was the notion of the consecration of British arms to a higher purpose.

Galley proof of magazine article 'Christmas in America Fifty Years Ago' by Augusta de Grasse Stevens, with note from 'E. Lowe' to her mother Mrs Butterworth; and manuscript biography of 'the young and rising novelist' in her sister Lady Evans's hand.

Author: 
Augusta de Grasse Stevens (1852-1894), daughter of Samuel S. Stevens (d.1854) of Albany, New York, and his wife, nee Mary Frances Smith [later Mrs John Fowler Butterworth] (d.1890)
Publication details: 
Neither item dated. [1890s.] Lowe's note on the proof from 7 Harley Gardens, SW [London].
£400.00

Both items in very good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Item One (galley proofs): On piece of 13 x 49 cm. paper. In manuscript at head: '7 Harley Gardens SW | Monday | Dear Mrs Butterworth | The Printer will send you a proper proof tomorrow | Yours in haste | E Lowe'. The first part only, in small type, with one minor correction. The article is attributed to Augusta de Grasse Stevens in Helen O. Black's 'Notable Women Authors of the Day' (1893). Item Two (manuscript biography): 4pp., 4to. With a few minor emendations.

[Printed item a black and white steel engraving by John Thompson, from a design by W. Harvey, described by Buday as a candidate for 'The First Christmas Card']

Author: 
John Thompson; W. Harvey; Allan Cunningham
Autograph Signature of George William Frederick Villiers
Publication details: 
London: John Sharpe, 1829.
£180.00
Autograph Signature of George William Frederick Villiers

8vo, 1 p. Image clear on aged paper, with the leaf loosely attached to the letterpress title of the work whence it comes (see below), that title being laid down in a folder with a window cut into the front for viewing the card through. The dimensions of the engraved illustration are roughly 12.5 x 8 cm, with the main feature of the elaborate design being contained in a circle 8 cm in diameter.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Godfrey Turner') from Turner to [Charles Henry] Ross (1842?-1897).

Author: 
Godfrey Wordsworth Turner (1825-1891), English art critic and journalist, connected with the 'Daily Telegraph'
Publication details: 
15 December 1880; on letterhead of the Daily Telegraph.
£38.00

Three pages, 12mo. On aged paper, with some foxing, a few closed tears and wear to extremities. Glue and strip of mount adhering to blank verso of second leaf of bifolium. Text clear and entire. He is in 'a maelstrom of work and worry' and asks Ross 'a question which you are almost certain not to be able to answer!' Asks if he has 'seen Tom Smith's crackers', and if so, whether he observed 'anything specially and eminently notable'.

Typed message (to departing employee?), on printed letterhead, with thirty-eight signatures (of work-colleagues?).

Author: 
Medici Society [Cobden-Sanderson]
Medici Society
Publication details: 
Without date; on the company's Grafton Street letterhead.
£100.00
Medici Society

Company founded in 1908 by Philip Lee Warner and Eustace Gurney, 'to bring artists' work to the appreciation of a wider public'. One page, quarto. Folded twice. Good, but slightly foxed and lightly creased. The typed message reads ' "The best of Prophets of the future is the Past" | With the best of wishes for future success.' The signatures are arranged in four columns. The inclusion of 'Cobden-Sanderson' is unexplained.

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