CLAY

[Sir Charles Travis Clay, Librarian of the House of Lords, antiquary and genealogist.] Autograph Letter Signed (‘Charles Clay’) to the mediaevalist Austin Lane Poole, regarding his work on the entry on the Percy family in the Complete Peerage.

Author: 
Sir Charles Clay [Sir Charles Travis Clay] (1885-1978), antiquary and Librarian of the House of Lords [Austin Lane Poole (1889-1963), British mediaevalist, son of historian Reginald Lane Poole]
Publication details: 
26 February 1942; on House of Lords Library letterhead.
£56.00

2pp, 4to. 34 lines of closely-written text. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Addressed to ‘Mr. Poole’. After expressing a hope that they will be meeting Poole now that they are both on the council of the Royal Historical Society, he explains that he is writing in relation to his redrafting of ‘the early part of Percy for the Complete Peerage’, noting that ‘the present draft is certainly alarming’. He is taking it ‘down to 1245’ and finds it ‘full of snags’. He has ‘just finished a draft of Jocelin, Agnes de Percy’s husband’, and L. C.

[ Macleod Yearsley and the Thinker's Library. ] Copy of Yearsley's book 'The Folklore of Fairy-Tale' with extensive autograph emendations (two notes initialled 'M. Y.') and two proof specimens for intended republication in the Thinker's Library.

Author: 
Macleod Yearsley [ Percival Macleod Yearsley ] (1867-1951), surgeon, author, folklorist and eugenicist [ The Thinker's Library, published by Watts & Co. for the Rationalist Press Association, London ]
Publication details: 
Book: London: Watts & Co., Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, E.C.4. 1924. Specimen proofs by Richard Clay & Sons, Bungay, Suffolk: June and July 1936.
£280.00

The item provides an interesting insight into the editing process of the Thinker's Library, 140 volumes of which Watts & Co. published for the Rationalist Association between 1929 and 1951. The book is xiii + 240pp., 8vo, in red cloth binding, gilt. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper, with slight wear to one corner. A couple of leaves have been neatly torn out, evidently in the process of revision. Stamp of the Rationalist Press Association Ltd on reverse of title.

[ Printed volume. ] Recollections of a Literary Life; and Selections from my Favourite Poets and Prose Writers. By Mary Russell Mitford, Author of "Our Village," "Belford Regis," etc.

Author: 
Mary Russell Mitford, Author of "Our Village," "Belford Regis," etc. [ Jane Porter; James Maclehose, Glasgow bookseller; Edmonds & Remnants, binders; Richard Clay, London printer ]
Publication details: 
New Edition. London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street. Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty. 1859. [ R. Clay, printer, Bread Street Hill, London. ]
£60.00

xii + 516pp., 16mo. Frontispiece portrait of author. In red cloth binding with embossed patterning and gilt spine. Internally in good condition, in heavily-worn binding with split hinges. Ownership inscription on front free endpaper of 'The Misses Porter', presumably Mitford's friend Jane Porter and her sisters (an example of Jane Porter's handwriting being loosely inserted in the volume). Ticket on front pastedown of 'JAMES MACLEHOSE | Bookseller & Stationer | 61 St. Vincent St. | GLASGOW'. Ticket on rear pastedown of 'EDMONDS & REMNANTS, BINDERS.'

[Lauren R. Stevens.] Autograph Letter Signed and Typed Letter Signed (both 'Lauren') to English literary critic A. Alvarez ('Al'), discussing his decision to leave Harvard and his first novel, 'The Double Axe', an inscribed copy of which is included.

Author: 
Lauren R. Stevens (b.1938) [A. Alvarez [Al Alvarez] (b.1929), English literary critic; H. C. Baker [Herschel Clay Baker] (1914-1990), Professor of English Literature at Harvard University]
Publication details: 
TLS: 430 W. Allen's Lane, Philadelphia 19, Pennsylvania. 5 October 1960. ALS: on his (cancelled) letterhead 1717 Cambridge Street, Cambridge 38, Massachusetts. 31 January 1961. Book: New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1961.
£250.00

TLS: 2pp., 12mo. In good condition. The letter begins: 'Dear Al: | Last Thursday morning, while sitting in a barbar chair, I asked myself a question which a number of people have been asking me recently, namely, What are you doing at Harvard? I couldn't come up with a very satisfactory answer, so I went to a friend's house on Cape Cod for the weekend. Monday I saw the head of the English Department at Harvard, H. C. Baker. He said, "Follow your star," which seemed to me a little romantic, but all the same good advice.

Signed Letter in secretarial hand from Sir William Brown, founder of the Liverpool Gallery of Inventions and Science, to chairman John Abraham, with printed 'Fifth Annual Report of the Committee, and Proceedings of the Aggregate Meeting [...] 1865.'

Author: 
John Abraham (1813-1881) of Clay & Abraham, pharmaceutical chemists, Chairman of the Liverpool Gallery of Inventions and Science [Sir William Brown (1784-1864) of Richmond Hill; Cuthbert Collingwood]
Publication details: 
Letter: Richmond Hill, Liverpool; 20 January 1863. Pamphlet: Liverpool: Printed by A. & D. Russell, Moorfields. 1865.
£120.00

ONE. Letter, signed 'Wm Brown'. 3 pp, 12mo. Bifolium. 25 lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. He is 'greatly disappointed' that, '[h]aving gone to the expense of building the Hall of Inventions & Science', 'the five Learned Societies' that 'induced' him 'to make that addition to the Library, have taken no effectual means to make it available for the purpose intended'. Brown 'promised £100 towards the fittings', and is sending a cheque for that amount.

Autograph Letter Signed from Henry Murray of Sydney to his wife Mary Abraham's brother, with copy of long letter by him describing the 1859 South Seas shipwreck of his children on the Ellenita, Captain 'Bully' Hayes, and transcript from third letter.

Author: 
Henry Murray of Sydney [Captain William Henry 'Bully' Hayes (1827 or 1829-1877), American blackbirder and bigamist, 'the last of the Buccaneers'; Ellenita shipwreck, 1859; Mary Abraham (1808-18]
Autograph Letter Signed from Henry Murray of Sydney
Autograph Letter Signed from Henry Murray of Sydney
Publication details: 
Murray's letter to his wife's brother: 20 April 1864; Sydney, New South Wales. Copy of letter by Murray: 21 December 1865; 20 Norton Street, Surry Hills, Sydney, New South Wales. Transcript: undated, on letterhead of Liverpool Polytechnic Society.
£450.00
Autograph Letter Signed from Henry Murray of Sydney
Autograph Letter Signed from Henry Murray of Sydney

From the papers of Alfred Clay Abraham (1853-1942), Liverpool pharmacist, and his daughter Emma Clarke Abraham (1850-1934) of Swarthmoor Hall, Ulverston. All items in fair condition, on aged paper, with texts clear and complete. ONE: Autograph Letter Signed from Henry Murray to his late wife Mary's brother. 8 pp, 12mo. On two bifoliums. Begins: 'Although a Stranger to you I perhaps need not apologise for the obtrusion of this communication upon you, when I inform you that I am the husband - or rather was the husband of your poor Sister Mary. for alas!

Autograph Letter Signed from the chemist Frederick Early Tozer ('Fred. E. Tozer') to his former employer Alfred Clay Abraham, of Clay and Abraham, Liverpool pharmacists, comparing New York and Ohio in 1889 with England.

Author: 
Frederick Early Tozer (d.1940) [Alfred Clay Abraham (1853-1942), Liverpool pharmacist]
Publication details: 
15 December 1889. 'c/o H. Waterman, Esq. Ravenna - Ohio'.
£225.00

140 lines of text, written out on both sides of a strip of ruled paper, with one side forming two outside 12mo pages (each 13 x 10 cm) by the folding the strip horizontally halfway down, and the reverse carrying one continuous column over a 13 x 20 cm single page. Text clear and complete. Good, on aged paper. Tozer had shone in his training as a pharmacist, with the British Medical Journal reporting his winning in 1881 of a medal in practical pharmacy and dispensing, and a certificate in botany. By 1889 he was working in Castle Street, Liverpool, for A. C. Abraham's firm of Clay & Abraham.

Printed 'Proof of a Report - never issued' regarding 'the right of the Liverpool Library to the occupation of a certain part of the Lyceum', with a long manuscript memorandum and an Autograph Letter Signed from attorney John Robinson to John Abraham.

Author: 
John Abraham (1813-1881) of Clay & Abraham, pharmaceutical chemists [The Lyceum, Bold Street, Liverpool; Liverpool Library]
 Liverpool Library
Publication details: 
Robinson's letter: 20 February 1867; Coburg Terrace, West Derby Road, Liverpool. Other items undated [c. 1850?].
£750.00
 Liverpool Library

The subscription Liverpool Library within the Lyceum, founded in 1757, is believed to have been the first circulating or lending library in Europe, and the first two of these items provide a valuable insight into its status at the time when the advent of the public library system was undermining its position.

Seven Typed Letters Signed (one 'Charles Allom' and the other six 'Chas. C. Allom') to various secretaries (Wood, Menzies and Perry) of the Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Sir Charles Allom [Sir Charles Carrick Allom] (1865-1947), British architect and decorator, knighted for his work on Buckingham Palace
Publication details: 
1914, 1916, 1918 and 1921; all on letterhead of 15, George Street, Hanover Square, London W.
£165.00

All seven items 4to, 1 p. Each good, on lightly-aged paper. All bearing the Society's stamp, and six docketed. Letter Two to Sir Henry Trueman Wood, Three to Six to G. K. Menzies, and Seven to W. Perry. Letter One: 9 July 1914. Querying whether members of the Society can describe themselves as 'Fellows'. Letter Two: 22 March 1916. Being 'unable to get an earlier passage [to America] owing to cancellation of boats', he will be delighted to preside over a meeting.

Speech delivered in the House of Commons on the "Alabama" Question, on Friday, March 11, 1863.

Author: 
Sir Roundell Palmer, M.P., Her Majesty's Solicitor-General [the Earl of Selborne]
Publication details: 
London and Cambridge: Macmillan and Co. 1863. [R. Clay, Son, and Taylor, Printers, London.]
£150.00

Octavo: 28 pp. Unbound, stabbed and stitched. Slightly dogeared, on grubby, lightly-spotted paper. Loss to top right-hand corner of title-leaf (not affecting text). Marked up in ink in a contemporary hand. COPAC lists copies at the British Library, Manchester and National Library of Scotland. The 'Alabama Question' related to what indemnity should be paid by Great Britain for damage done to United States commerce by the Alabama and other confederate cruisers built in British ports.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Walter L. Clay') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Walter Lowe Clay, of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Victorian social scientist
Publication details: 
1 November 1866; on letterhead of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, 1 Adam Street, Adelphi, W.C. [London].
£45.00

Two pages, small octavo. Good, on lightly aged paper and ruckled paper, with some staining to the verso of the blank second leaf of the bifolium. His correspondent's 'paper on the high death rate in Liverpool' was not returned to Clay after being read at Manchester, 'nor can the Secretary of the Department (Captain ) obtain any intelligence of it from the reporters'. One of the reporters has sent the Captain an abstract prepared by the author. Clay asks whether he has the manuscript in his possession, and if so, whether he will send it to him.

Prospectus for 'MARIA EDGEWORTH | 1767-1849 | A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL TRIBUTE | BY | BERTHA COOLIDGE | SLADE | Demy 8vo. 42s. net.'

Author: 
Bertha Coolidge Slade [Maria Edgeworth; Constable and Company; Richard Clay and Sons]
Publication details: 
LONDON: | PRINTED IN AN EDITION OF TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY | COPIES BY RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED, | BUNGAY, SUFFOLK, FOR CONSTABLE AND COMPANY | LIMITED ORANGE STREET, LONDON, W.C.2. | 1937.'
£30.00

Stapled and unbound. Octavo: four leaves (eight unpaginated pages). On aged and lightly spotted paper. Vignette on title page. Includes list of plates and 'Specimen Entry' of pages 51-3. Verso of last leaf headed 'from CONSTABLE'S BIBLIOGRAPHICAL LIST', comprising 'THE CARTER-POLLARD DISCLOSURES', 'BIBLIOGRAPHIA SERIES' and 'DORMY HOUSE CATALOGUES'.

Syndicate content