FAIRFAX

[Mary Somerville, Scottish scientist after whom Somerville College, Oxford, is named.] Autograph Signature ('Yours truly | Mary Somerville') cut from letter.

Author: 
Mary Somerville [née Fairfax, sometime Greig] (1780-1872), Scottish scientist and author after whom Somerville College, Oxford, is named
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£35.00

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. Since 2017 she has been depicted on the Scottish ten pound note. On 2.5 x 8.5 cm slip of paper, cut from letter. In good condition, lightly aged. Laid down on 4 x 9.5 cm piece of paper. Reads 'Yours truly | Mary Somerville'.

[Charles Fairfax Murray.] Autograph Letter Signed ('C. F. Murray') to 'Fisher' [barrister Richard C. Fisher?] regarding his purchase of the Bellini Crucifixion, now in the Louvre, with reference to Duveen. Rodolphe Kann, von Bode, Volpi, Bonacossi.

Author: 
Charles Fairfax Murray (1849-1919), art connoisseur and artist [Sir Joseph Duveen; Rodolphe Kann; Wilhelm von Bode; Elia Volpi; Alessandro Contini Bonacossi]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 'Via Marsilio Ficino 12 | Firenze'. 24 September 1913.
£950.00

A significant letter, filling gaps in the provenance of Bellini's Crucifixion, now in the Louvre. All that has been known hitherto about the painting's provenance is that at the beginning of the twentieth century it was in the Paris collection of the banker Rodolphe Kann, and that before the Second World War it was owned by the Florentine dealer Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, from whose heirs it was acquired by the Louvre in 1970.

Two Autograph Letters Signed (both 'Reg: F. Wells') from the English sculptor and potter Reginald F. Wells to 'Miss Bellis', regarding her purchase of two bronzes, and the art dealer E. J. Van Wisselingh.

Author: 
Reginald Fairfax Wells [Reginald F. Wells] (1877-1951), English sculptor and potter [Miss Bellis; Elbert Jan Van Wisselingh, Dutch art dealer with premises in London]
Publication details: 
Both from Trosley, West Malling, Kent. 22 and 25 December 1902.
£90.00

Both items in excellent condition, on lightly-aged paper. Letter One (22 December 1902): Addressed to 'Dear Sir'. He has asked Van Wisselingh 'to send the bronzes as I have none here', and he is waiting for a reply: 'if the bronzes have not arrived please wire and you shall have them before Xmas.' Letter Two (25 December 1902): He hopes that his mistake in addressing her as 'Sir' has 'amused and not annoyed you'. He has just had a reply from Van Wisselingh: 'as the notice was so short I could not get new bronzes cast by Xmas; so I sent your letter at once to Mr. V.

Autograph (Facsimile?) Letter Signed ('Jas. R. Fairfax') to male correspondent.

Author: 
Sir James Reading Fairfax (1834-1919), Australian newspaper proprietor [The Sydney Morning Herald; The Sydney Mail]
Publication details: 
11 May 1884; on letterhead of the Sydney Morning Herald and Sydney Mail.
£56.00

12mo: 1 p. Ten lines of text. Bifolium. Grubby, and with the text of the letter faint. Letterhead printed in red with illustration of the firm's headquarters. Written in, or faded to, lilac, and could well be a carbon. Sending copies of the two newspapers as 'we think it probable you would like your newly published works noticed or reviewed' in them.

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