ENGLISH

An idiosyncratic letter, revealing something of his working practices, and the relations between client and bookseller in the early nineteenth century. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. From the collection of a painstaking Victorian autograph collector, who has unobtrusively repaired slight damage to a central fold. On lightly discoloured paper, with a thin neat strip from the windowpane mount adheres to the edges. The letter is signed ‘Sh.n Turner’ and the recipients are not named.

1p., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with minor traces of mounting on the blank reverse. The letter reads: 'I shall be happy to execute your orders, and shall be obliged if you kindly forward me the blocks and Copy, with your directions upon what style you wish these drawings to be done: to my address as above.'

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, landscape 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Signed ‘Marie Belloc Lowndes’ and addressed to ‘My dear Mrs Doubleday’. Begins: ‘This is only a line of very very grateful thanks for our delightful stay with you and the Great Effendi!’ They ‘enjoyed every minute’ of their visit, and she wants the recipient to have their ‘London address and telephone no. so that we may meet at once when next you are in England!’ She will write if she has ‘any authentic news as to Lord Grays book’.

See his father’s entry in the Oxford DNB. 2p, 12mo. Neatly written over 26 lines. With mourning border. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage. Signed ‘E. G. Marsh’. Recipient not named (‘My dear Sir’). He explains that, having happened on the previous day to be in the chair ‘at the monthly meeting of our clerical society in Maidstone’, he was present when the recipient’s ‘two letters to Dr. Maitland’ were presented, and is requested to convey the meeting’s gratitude, not only for the letters, but for his history of Rome, ‘received by them on a former occasion’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Rectangle of paper, evidently cut from a letter for an autograph hunter. Reads: ‘Yours truly / Tom Hood’. See image.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded for postage. Signed ‘W Harrison Ainsworth’. Signed ‘W Harrison Ainsworth’ and reads: ‘Dear Mrs Barlow / My Daughters return on the 30th. May[.] I therefore hope to have the pleasure of seeing you and Mr. Barlow at Dinner at a quarter after 9 o’clock on Saturday, 30th?’ See image.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. For Gauntlett see the excellent article on the ‘Semibrevity’ blog: ‘Ambrose Gauntlett, forgotten gamba player and continuo cellist’, beginning: ‘Although Ambrose Gauntlett (1889–1978) spent most of his career as a full-time orchestral principal, he was the most sought-after continuo cellist and gamba player in the UK for many years. In his obituary, published in The Times, Sir Anthony Lewis mentions “his beautiful playing of the important 18th-century viola da gamba obbligato roles”.’ Both items in good condition, lightly aged. ONE: Letter, 1 June 1972.

Of the five copies on JISC only that at the BL is from one of the deposit libraries. 21pp, 4to. Collotype of engraving of Caxton as frontispiece. Sewn into grey card wraps with Yapp-style edges and title repeated on cover. In good condition, lightly aged.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. On bifolium with her current address in autograph on the reverse of the second leaf, which has slight traces of paper from a previous mount at its head. The recipient is not named. Reads: ‘Dear Sir / Will you give me some idea of the subscriptions made by the Committee, so that I may be [?] the amount to send, as I do not ish to send a cheque equal with the highest or below the lowest. / Faithfully yrs. / E. Lynn Linton’.

Four pages, 8vo, foxed but text clear and complete. I am so forgetful for I have no recollection of saying I would send for Mapp & Lucia. But here it comes to you, with many regrets that I did not send it before. I hope it may amuse you (this is the American edition) and I haven't got an English one). Anyhow our minds must have been moving (like all great ones0 in parallel lines, for I too am being as patriotic as you, & am trying to get together money which I shall devote to helping to pay off the National Debt & to balance the budget.

See Mellanby’s entry in the Oxford DNB. David Waterston (1871-1942) was Bute Professor of Anatomy at the University of St Andrews from 1914 to 1942. In 1913, while Professor of Anatomy at King's College, London, he was the first authority to debunk the Piltdown Man hoax. 1p, 4to. Signed ‘E. Mellanby’. In fair condition, lightly aged an slightly ruckled. He will be happy to see Dr Simpson on her visit to London, and has ‘raised the matter of the Mackenzie Institute with Professor Greenwood again and arranged to send a statistician, Dr. Teleky, to St.

See his long entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, with negligible remnants of windowpane mount adhering at edges of blank reverse. Reads: ‘Mr. Romilly presents his compliments to Mr. Williams and informs him that he is obliged to go out of Town tomorrow & that he has not been able to finish the Bill in this Cause but he will take it with him into the Country & send it to Mr. W. in two or three days’.

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. With mourning border. In good condition, with negligible remnants of windowpane mount adhering at edges of blank reverse. Written with a light touch, making the dating doubtful. Signed ‘F Egerton’ and addressed to ‘O. Blewitt Esq.’ Reads: ‘Sir / In reply to your letter I beg to state that it is my intention to vote for you in the election to the Secretaryship of the Literary Fund Society.’

2pp, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, fold marks. Twenty-nine lines of text in Kipling's neat and close hand. Text: Many thanks for your letter & enclosed slip. As you say, your competition is the First step in the right way: next comes the unknown range for the disappearing man. I am afraid you will find [masses?] of opposition from the 'crack' shots &c to whom the solemn ritual of [?] paint-box and all the rest of it has all the dignity of a 'sport'. Also the meagre scores will not 'look well in the papers'.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, which characterizes him as ‘the most remarkable pulpit orator of his time’, and that of his father. 3pp, 12mo. On bifolium. Somewhat aged and with the recto of the first leaf grubby, but with text clear and complete, with thirty-three lines of text in Parsons’ close and neat hand. Signed ‘James Parsons’ and addressed to ‘Revd. J. Rawlinson’. He ‘must, reluctantly, decline to comply’ with Rawlinson’s request. He wonders whether he has ‘seen, or heard of an announcement in “the Leeds Mercury” with reference to my intended retirement from my Pastorate in York’.

For Powys and his two literary brothers see the Oxford DNB. On 11 x 9 cm piece of wove paper. The paper is discoloured with heavy spotting aroudnd the signature. Clearly a response to a request for an autograph, neatly written and centred on the paper, the only writing is the signature: ‘Theodore Frances Powys’. See image.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged with patch of light sunning. Folded once. The recipient is not named. Reads: ‘Dear Madam / Forgive me for my delay in answering your letter. I have been laid up for a week or two with influenza & my correspondence has suffered in consequence. / And please believe that your words have given us sincere pleasure & that I am / Yours very faithfully / A. T. Quiller-Couch’. The hyphen in the signature is almost imperceptible. See image.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On a leaf of grey paper. In good condition, lightly aged. The recipient was studying at the Royal Academy Schools. Begins: ‘Dear Miss Towgood / Thanks for your letter and enclosed statement by Mr Percy Young.’ He asks to be sent ‘the names of the authors of the various “Cartoons” and “Creswick”’, so that he may have all his material ‘ready for the Council on Tuesday next’. He intended to ask her for the names in ‘the Schools’ (of the Royal Academy at Burlington House), ‘but a sudden attack of Influenza confines me to my room by the Doctor’s order’.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB, which does not accord her name a hyphen, although she does in this letter. 2pp, 12mo. On grey-paper bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Signed ‘M Bethan-Edwards’ and addressed to ‘Dear Miss Birkett’. She apologises for having to decline her kind invitation: ‘I never can lunch out being busy till 1 pm’. Since ‘the afternoons are now so very short’, and she does not like ‘climbing the hill in the dark’, she proposes calling on her at 4pm. ‘It will then give me much pleasure to see you.’

An attractive artefact of a pioneer of women’s rights. See her entry in the Oxford DNB. On 14 x 9 cm post card. In good condition, lightly aged. Addressed by Faithfull, with two stamps and postmarks, to ‘Miss Muriel Lewis / Greyhound Hotel / Carshalton / Surrey’. In neat hand and with good firm signature: ‘1 Campden Grove Kensington / I hope to see you to lunch to-morrow Monday at 1. pm. / Yrs. / L. M. Faithfull’.

See his long but strangely-cagey entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On a bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Signed ‘Frederic Harrison.’ The recipient is not named. The letter begins: ‘Madam, I am obliged to you for your interesting letter[.] I do not enter an argument because it is founded on a few sentences which give a very imperfect idea of what I said on Sunday last.’ He does not dispute many of her assertions and, as for ‘the usefulness of larger landlords’, he has ‘repeatedly urged it in my addresses’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 25 March [no year]; 12 St James’s Place [London]. 3pp, 12mo. On a bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged, with thin strip cut from top of first leaf (not affecting text). Signed ‘A W Kinglake’. The recipient is not named. Presumably writing during his period as Member of Parliament for Bridgewater, between 1857 and 1869, he begins ‘My dear Sir / I shall make a pint of being present at the discussion of the Bill which threatens to make Charities liable to local assessment’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. The recipient, whose name Jacobs gives as ‘D. H. Denselow Esq’, was the commercial artist and autograph hunter Douglas Harold Hellier-Denselow, whose studio was in Gunnersbury, West London. The note reads: ‘Dear Mr. Denselow / I am much obliged for your letter & its accompanying illustration. I shall not follow your example & affix my eye to my autograph / Yours very truly / W. W. Jacobs’.

Weyman was, as his entry in the Oxford DNB states, ‘one of the most popular and skilled of the historical romance novelists of the cloak and dagger school’. Oscar Wilde recommended his novels as reading for convicts. The present item is on an 11 x 9 cm piece of watermarked laid paper. In good condition. A neat attractive two-line inscription for an autograph collector, underlined and sloping upwards. Reads: ‘Stanley J. Weyman | Nov. 2. 1899’. See image.

See his appreciative entry in the Oxford DNB, concluding with praise of his ‘undeniable’ achievements. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with the blank reverse carrying very slight staining to one edge from glue from mount. Folded once. Neatly and firmly written, with the underlined signature with a deliberate upwards slope. Clearly sent in response to a request for an autograph. Reads: ‘ “A man dies but once, a woman twice - the first time when she marries, and then, as at the last, wondering at the thereafter.” / Lady Bountiful. / Act IV. / Arthur W. Pinero. / 23rd. February 1897.’

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Reads: ‘Dear Mr. Dean, / According to your request, I enclose a signed photo of myself for your collection. / With best wishes, / Yours sincerely, / Peter Gellhorn.’

Redgrave’s entry in the Oxford DNB praises his ‘exceptional administrative skill’, and states that ‘Redgrave and Cole supervised the new South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum), for which Redgrave designed the innovative art gallery to house John Sheepshanks's extensive collection of British art, given to the state in 1857.’ 1p, 12mo. On grey paper. In good condition, laid down on part of a leaf from an autograph album. Pasted down at the head of the letter is a thin strip on which is printed ‘Inspector-General for Art. R. Redgrave, R.A.’ The male recipient is unnamed.

An excellent letter, in which Caine evaluates his wartime activities, criticises those of others, and gives his opinion of the the standing of the man of letters in the England of his time. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. On bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. A long letter: forty-two lines in Caine’s distinctive close hand, with the first two pages on the rectos of the leaves, and the third page written lengthwise on the verso of the first leaf. Signed ‘Hall Caine’ and addressed to ‘My dear Sladen’.

According to Noël Coward’s entry in the Oxford DNB, his family moved through the suburbs of south London, before finally setting in Ebury Street, where his mother Violet ‘acquired a boarding-house on the fringes of Belgravia’. The letters are written on the verge of the huge success of the revue ‘Bitter Sweet’ (1929). The recipient of these letters Sewell Stokes was an author and broadcaster who also worked as a probation officer and prison visitor, writing several works on the British penal system.

2pp, 12mo. Seventeen lines of text, with a few lines and the signature written lengthwise on the second page. On bifolium. Accompanied by the letter’s stamped and postmarked envelope, addressed by Power to ‘Mrs Lane / 67 Addison Road / W14’. (Note that she lives in the same street.) Both letter and envelope in good condition, lightly aged. Letter folded once. Signed ‘Geo. Power’. He explains that a friend of his, Rev. Eric O. Norman’, ‘who is a fine musician & pianist is trying to get together a small orchestra for a concert on the 24th. May’ and he wonders whether she would ‘care to join’.