EDWARDIAN

All six items in good condition, with light signs of age and wear. In 1886 Hester, the author of the first two reports, had been described in the London St James's Gazette as 'a miner of experience in the Quicksilver mines of California'. His two reports are crude in comparison with those of Mallett and Irvine. ONE: Autograph Report Signed by 'Sam L Hester | Manager'. Kilkivan, 8 April 1898, on letterhead of the Freehold Goldfields of Queensland, Limited. 3pp., 4to. Addressed to 'C E Morton Esqr | Secretary | D-Albevelle Estate'. Receipt stamp dated 12 April 1898.

1p., landscape 8Vo. In fair condition, aged and with a number of vertical crease lines. Reads: 'Dear Mr Clarkson, | Will you please give instructions that any wigs that are being made for Sir Arthur Pinero's new play should be here not later than 11 o'clock on Monday morning next. Our Dress Parade is at 12 o'clock.' The play Boucicault refers to is 'The Widow of Wasdale Head'.

2pp., 4to. In good condition, lightly-aged. Unsigned copy of typed letter., with one autograph emendation. Addressed to 'My dear Harry'. He begins by explaining that he is in Eastbourne recuperating from the flu. 'As I did not rise until Monday last I missed the Sunday papers including alas, the Referee. [ amended in autograph from 'the Rat' ] | A cutting, however (from the Ref) reached me here today containing an article of yours, wherein you place me among your Hebrew musical collaborators.

In good condition, on loose leaves, with light signs of age and wear. ONE: 'Green Roomers by the Rags Wags.' A large collection of original jokes. Around 140pp., mostly 8vo. On different papers, including letterheads of 212 Finchley Road, London, the Burlington in Folkestone, and the Hermitage Hotel, Le Touquet. Hundreds of unconnected gags, each of them framed as a rhetorical question, mostly relating to the London entertainment world. The humour is now mostly impenetrable. Individuals referred to include: C. B. Cochran, H. G.

On aged and worn paper, with some staining at head. A somewhat grand memorial of English censorship. The license is printed in engraved copperplate beneath the royal crest on a 31.5 x 21 cm piece of watermarked laid paper.

Both items nicely printed and in good condition, with light signs of age and wear. ONE: 'The Encyclopaedia Britannica Dinner given by Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace. Hotel Cecil, Friday Evening, November 21st, 1902. Plan of Tables.' 28.5 x 80 cm, folding up into a 28.5 x 13.5 cm packet. Printed in black and red on the whole of one side, with the other side carrying a 'Programme of Music' ('M. G. Fericescu, Musical Director'), an alphabetical table, and a cover with engraved illustration. Made out in pencil to 'Mr. A. Williams | K24' (i.e. the Liberal MP Aneurin Williams).

The four items present here are the prompt books for performances of Shakespeare plays by the 'Young Ladies of the University of Vermont', under the direction of New York actor Ernest Elton. BACKGROUND: Professor George B. Bryan, in a 'History of Theatre at the University of Vermont' writes that around the turn of the century 'The women students launched their own dramatic activities. If the men could stage their frivolities at the Howard Opera House, the ladies would perform classical plays on the lawn of Grasse Mount.

ONE: The earlier of the two drafts, titled 'It Was Top of the Bill | The Story of Music Hall. | by | W. Macqueen-Pope.' 14pp., 4to. Paginated 1-12, with two further pages carrying material to be inserted. With a few autograph emendations, including an addition to the ending. Macqueen-Pope writes knowledgeably and with a passion for his theme, which is that 'Music Hall reflected public taste even more accurately than did the "legitimate" Theatre because it was created by the people themselves. The basis of the Drama of the Theatre - was religion.

[1] + 32pp., 4to. Bound with brass clasps in grey paper wraps. On aged paper, in worn binding. A 'Duplicate Carbon Copy', with the stamp of Miss Dickens's Type Writing Office, 3, Tavistock Street, Strand. The first of the play's four acts. Text typed on rectos only, with stage directions in pencil on facing versos, and with numerous emendations (presumably by Brandon) in pencil throughout, including the deleting of a number of passages. Facing the first page is a pencil diagram of the stage setting.

Collier was the author of a number of melodramas and farces in the period between the Boer War and the Great War, including one written in conjunction with F. H. Dudley, but little is to be discovered about him, with no mention of these three titles. All three items in fair condition, on aged paper, in aged and worn bindings. ONE: '"In the Hands of the Mormons" Or "The Mormon Peril" A Drama in FOUR acts written by Hal Collier'. [1] + 45pp., 4to. Stitched into grey paper wraps. With pencil emendations throughout, including extensive deletions.

86pp., 4to. With each of the three acts bound into separate grey wraps, with typed labels on covers. Internally in good condition, on aged paper, in worn and aged wraps. This unpublished anonymous translation predates the one by Sara Tracy Barrows, with an introduction by Ludwig Lewisohn, published in New York by Doubleday in 1916. There is no record of an English production.

106pp., 4to. In good condition internally, on lightly-aged paper, in worn grey-cloth binding, with large and wordy French label on front cover. Rubens's score is not present. The text is preceded by twelve pages carrying: a 'List of Scenery and Properties', 'a 'Scene Plot', 'Light Plots', 'Property Plot', 'Hand Properties', 'Prompter's Cues' and 'Costumes and Wigs'. Possibly a prompt copy, with a number of passages deleted, and a few minor emendations made, in pencil, as well as call notes typed on the versos of some leaves, opposite the relevant text.

Item Three below does not name the translators, while Items One and Two do not. Item Three has the characters' names anglicised and the text more stilted than that of One and Two. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. ONE: Typescript of the whole play, with each of the three acts bound separately. 127pp., 4to. The first two acts bound in grey card wraps, with typed labels on covers, the unbound leaves of the third act attached with a brass stud. First two acts with stamp of Miss Christian of the Trafalgar Type Writing Office, London.

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Written in pencil. A long and interesting complaint, casting an interesting light on the journalistic practices of the period. Hurd begins without preamble, pointing out, with reference to a previous letter, that he 'never promised 35000 words', and stating that the publisher 'would doubtless be able to put in a few extra illustrations to fill it out'.

60pp., 12mo. Stitched pamphlet. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper, with slight staining to back cover. Illustrated catalogue, with titles including 'Fifty Years of Philately' , 'Postage and Telegraph Stamps of British India' and 'The Stamp King'. No copy of this edition found on either OCLC WorldCat or on COPAC.

Printed in black and blue on both sides of a 28 x 43 cm piece of paper. Discoloured and aged, with small strip cut at head of leaf. Carrying 18 engravings of the firm's designs for lurries, carts and vans, usually giving dimensions, weight and load. Among the designs are a 'Bottler's Lurry', 'Mineral Water Van', 'Mineral Water Lurry', 'Farmer's Lurry', 'Brewer's Float', 'Furniture Van', 'London Mail Van', 'Bread Van', 'Parcel or Bread Van', 'Farmer's Cart', 'Miller's Cart' and 'Contractor's Cart'.

15 x 21 cm print laid down on 17.5 x 23.5 cm piece of card. Faded and aged, with wear to extremities of card (not print) and staining to reverse. The men are posing in four rows, in front of a large window in a brick wall. They are hatless, and wear single-breasted jackets with seven gilt buttons at the front, with black belt and metal buckle. Four numbers embroidered on either side of collars. In the centre of the group is a sergeant. Most of the men sport moustaches, and many pomaded hair and centre partings. From the papers of the gunsmith C.

The four letters all in good condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. ONE: 22 July 1902. 2pp., 12mo. Rearranging a meeting, following his absence 'at my cottage in Norfolk'. TWO: 6 August 1902. 3pp., 12mo. Regarding a drawing titled 'The little Chest', which 'Mr Macquarie' would like Slocombe to being at once. With postscript signed 'S. L.' THREE: 4 June 1904. 2pp., 12mo. He was 'on the point of writing', to ask when he could 'buy those delectable pipes', when Slocombe's 'most acceptable present' arrived. He ends by asking to be reminded to send him a 'soiree ticket'. FOUR: 1p., 12mo.

All four items in fair condition, on aged and worn paper. LETTER: 1p., 4to. 13 June 1904. On the firm's printed letterhead, with 6 x 8.5 cm engraving at head of the firm's premises ('cover an area of 1 1/2 acres'), surrounded by text at head and along length of left-hand margin. The typed letter concerns the opening of an account: 'It is usual to open a/cs on monthly terms for new a/cs, but I will make an exception in your case, [...] but you must not take more than 2 or 3 months credit at the outside.' RECEIPT: Signed receipt for 4s 6d. On small stub with the firm's printed details.

20pp., 12mo. Stapled, in grey wraps, printed in purple and green. An interesting artifact indicative of women's growing economic power in Britain at the beginning of the nineteenth century. An elegant little production, including six full-page tables, 'Press Notices' (two pages, on inside covers) and a section of 'Other Features attaching to "The Business Woman's" Investment Policy', including 'Advances on House Property' and 'Temperance Section'. Scarce: no copies traced, either on OCLC WorldCat or on COPAC.

10 x 8.5 cm original print of black and white photograph. In frail condition, with slight loss to one corner, and another corner torn away and repaired with archival tape. A full-length view of the elegant artist, in long painter's robes, pointing a brush at a painting on an easel, with three paintings, including a miniature, on the wall behind her, and two paintings leaning against the same wall, and a small sculpture on a painted clock behind the easal. There is no representation of Gottschalk in the National Portrait Gallery collection.

2pp., 8vo. In very good condition, on lightly-aged paper. She begins by asking whether the recipient is 'the same gentleman who wrote to me from Bournemouth', and to whom she replied that she was 'unable to give the information required, for many years before my husband's death we were seperated [sic]'. She explains that when Fisher was not 'travelling about in the Country he lived with his Father I believe, who has now been dead some years. The whole thing was very tragic and painful, & I shall feel obliged to you not writing to me again on the subject'.

On 32.5 x 23 cm piece of thin wove paper. In fair condition only: aged, especially at extremities, and with loss to all four corners on removal from mount. The image (which is roughly 21 x 17 cm) and text are clear and clean, as is the signature 'James Tregaskis', in pencil in the bottom right-hand corner. A charming view, in Railton's characteristic style, of a somewhat decrepit eighteenth-century interior, with a plump young girl in voluminous late-Victorian smock playing on the stairs with a small dog.

ONE (Grant of 1908): 9 + [1]pp., 8vo. Unstitched and unbound. Properly printed and paginated, with marginal glosses. On aged and worn paper, with closed tears along fold lines. Containing 27 clauses, in an agreement for a term of seven years from 1 January 1909. Between the railway company and, on behalf of W. H. Smith and Son, the Honourable William Frederick Danvers Smith MP, Charles Awdry, Alfred Dyke Acland, Charles Harry St John Hornby and Charles Selwyn Awdry. W. H. Smith had opened their first railway bookstall almost exactly sixty years before, in November of 1848.

1p., 8vo. In fair condition, on aged paper with wear to extremities. Addressed to 'F. Gardner Esq | Little Coggeshall | Essex'. The letter is signed 'Wm Ford | Per Pro' and reads: 'Dear Sir | In reply to your kind enquiry the cost to improve the shooting of your little .410 would be about 10/- if a double gun as near as I can tell without seeing it. | Trusting to be favoured with your kind command'. The letterhead contains a mass of text at the head and filling the left-hand margin.

The fifteen items are in good condition, lightly aged and worn. Totalling 19pp., 12mo; 4pp., 8vo; 1p., 4to. Eleven signed 'Rudge', three 'J. Rudge Harding', and one 'J. Rudge H.' Ten addressed to 'My dear Alderson', four to 'My dear Horne', and one to 'My dear Alderson Horne'. A friendly, chatty correspondence.

1p., 8vo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. An interesting document, from the period immediately following the signing of the Entente Cordiale.

285pp., 8vo, including newspaper cuttings laid down on 24pp., and one loose cutting. In contemporary black leather half-binding, with brown cloth covers, and 'MINUTE BOOK' in gilt on front. Marbled endpapers. Ticket on rear pastedown of 'W. BLAIR, | Stationer, | Post Office Buildings | TONBRIDGE'. Internally in good condition, on lightly-aged paper, in worn binding with front hinge split. Manuscript title: 'Tonbridge Cricket Week. | 1894. | First Held 1890'.

Casting an interesting sidelight on the purchasing practices of the British Museum Manuscripts Department. All three items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Totalling 6pp., 12mo. On three bifoliums. ONE: ALS. 4 December 1912. 3pp., 12mo. As it is 'difficult to advise without further information as to the nature of the old papers' he invites her to 'send them up' so that he can 'report whether there is any probability of their purchase by the Trustees of the British Museum'. If they are 'bulky' he suggests sending 'specimens'.

Both items in fair condition, on lightly-aged paper. ONE: 3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. The letter begins: 'Dear Mr Lane, | Conscientious research in Titmarshian activities seems to point to the fact that you owe to the club the sum of 22/- for two dinners in October 1907.' He continues on this theme for a while, before turning to Reynolds: 'I am very glad to hear that you are going to bring out the Holy Mountain & Poor Mans House by Reynolds. As partly responsible for the suggestion of the Mountain & the location at Acton, I take some interest in the book & also in its author.