COWAN

[The richest woman in Victorian England: Angela Burdett-Coutts, philanthropist.] Autograph Letter Signed to Mrs [Charlotte] Cowan, wife of the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, declining an invitation connected with ‘The Blind System’.

Author: 
Angela Burdett-Coutts [Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts, Baroness Burdett-Coutts] (1814-1906), the richest woman in Victorian England, prominent philanthropist [James Cowan (1816-1895); Blind System]
Publication details: 
25 November 1873. Palace Hotel [place not stated].
£45.00

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage. Addressed to ‘My dear Mrs Cowan’ and signed ‘Burdett Coutts -’. Thirty lines of text. The ‘blind system’ appears to have been a form of education for the blind, possibly involving a precursor of braille. (An advertisement by ‘A Lady, who has the care of a Blind Child’ in the Medical Times, 25 March 1876, offers ‘First-class education given under the blind system.’).

[1909 Handel-Mendelssohn Festival Crystal Palace, 1909.] Printed ‘Book of Words & Programme for the Rehearsal Day’.

Author: 
The Great Handel Festival and Mendelssohn Centenary at the Crystal Palace, London,1909 [Dr Frederic Cowan, conductor; Walter W. Hedgcock, organist]
Crystal Palace
Publication details: 
Sydenham: The Crystal Palace Company, 1909.
£450.00
Crystal Palace

A scarce item: the only other copy located is at the Foundling Hospital, London. 30pp, 4to, with a further 7pp of advertisements at the back. Stapled into grey wraps printed in red. A delicate survival, on browing high-acidity paper, in worn wraps chipped around the edges. On the front cover the item is described as ‘Book of Words & Programme for the Rehearsal Day’.At top right-hand corner of the title-page are the pleasing ownership initials of ‘A. G.

[ 'Engineering', London journal. ] Autograph register of contributions compiled by editor Thomas Walley, in form of table of articles and authors, with meticulous printing and publication details.

Author: 
Thomas Walley (1872-1947), editor of 'Engineering', London journal founded in 1866 [ Lieut-Col. Percy John Cowan (1876-1954) and Herbert Henry Johnson (c.1875-1957), joint editors ]
Publication details: 
[ London: Engineering. ] Entries dating from 27 November 1925 to 17 January 1934.
£750.00

Walley has converted one volume of a printed diary ('The Business Year Book' for 1923, by the R. C. Maxwell Co., Trenton, New Jersey) into a continuous table listing all the articles contributed between 27 November 1925 and 17 January 1934. Entries are compiled with the meticulous attention to detail one would expect from an engineer, giving a range of information including the times of receipt of material to the minute, and even the typeface in which an article was printed.

[ Joseph Cowan, Anglo-Jewish radical Liberal journalist and MP. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('Jos Cowan') to autograph collector F. W. Finch of Birmingham, expressing relief at being freed from the 'restraints & embarrassments' of Parliament..

Author: 
Joseph Cowan (1829-1900, nicknamed 'the Blaydon Brick'), Anglo-Jewish radical Liberal journalist and Member of Parliament, friend of Mazzini, Herzen, Bakunin. Garibaldi and Kossuth.
Publication details: 
Blaydon on Tyne. 29 March 1887.
£50.00

1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Addressed to 'Mr. F. W. Finch, | Woodbridge Row | Mosley | Birmingham'. He thanks him for his letter and continues: 'I am sorry that you have not been so successful as you wished in collecting autographs, but I hope you will be more fortunate in future.' He is 'engaged in other and equally useful work outside of Parliament', and is 'glad to be freed from its restraints & embarrassments'.

[ 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.

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