FOLKLORE

[Thomas Crofton Croker (1798-1854), Anglo-Irish antiquary.] Autograph Letter Signed (to the editor of the Gentleman’s Magazine, John Bowyer Nichols), regarding mistakes in an article on Winchester House, London, with reference to Thomas Baylis F.S.A.

Author: 
Thomas Crofton Croker (1798-1854), Anglo-Irish antiquary [John Bowyer Nichols (1779-1863), part-editor of the Gentleman’s Magazine; Winchester House; Thomas Baylis FSA, of Pryor’s Bank, Fulham]
Publication details: 
‘Admiralty [London] / 23rd. March 1839.’
£80.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, on lightly discoloured paper, with thin neat strip from windowpane mount adhering to edges. Sixteen lines in a neat and stylish hand. Signed ‘T. Crofton Croker’. The recipient is not named, but is clearly John Bowyer Nichols, editor of the Gentleman’s Magazine, in whose number for April 1839 appeared an article, with engraving, by ‘E. I. C.’, on ‘Winchester House, Broad-street, London.’ Croker begins his letter: ‘My dear Sir, / I return E. I. C’s account of Winchester House.

[Andrew Lang, Scottish author and collector of fairy tales.] Autograph Letter Signed, stating that he has no typing work, and that he is enclosing £3 ‘towards a new typing machine’.

Author: 
Andrew Lang (1844-1912), Scottish poet, author, folklorist and collector of fairy tales
Publication details: 
7 January [no year]. On letterhead of Alleyne House, St. Andrews, Scotland.
£56.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, and with a minor sooty smudge. Folded once for postage. The recipient is not named. Reads, in an atrocious hand, ‘Dear Sir / My typing work is all being done here, and I cannot take it away from my typist. / I enclose cheque (£3) towards a new typing machine. / Faithfully yours / A Lang’.

[Peter Opie, folklorist, with wife Iona Opie, of children's games and nursery rhymes.] Two Typed Letters Signed to W. J. MacQueen-Pope, on the music hall, John Dunn and 'Jump Jim Crow', the Great Macdermott and 'Jeremiah, blow the fire'.

Author: 
Peter Opie (1918-1982), folklorist who, with his wife Iona Opie (1923-2017), worked on children's games and literature, donating their collection to the Bodleian [W. J. MacQueen-Pope (1888-1960)]
Publication details: 
Opie's two letters on letterhead of 'IONA OPIE | PETER OPIE', Rockbourne House, 100 High Street, Alton, Hampshire. 20 and 25 January 1951. With carbon copy of a reply from MacQueen-Pope, 23 January 1951.
£150.00

The three items (two letters from Peter Opie to MacQueen-Pope and carbon copy of his reply to the first of these) are in fair condition, on aged and lightly-creased paper, with a slight nick at the head of the first letter. Inspired by the recent publication of MP's 'The Melody Lingers On: The Story of Music Hall' (1950), Opie writes to MP via his publishers W. H. Allen & Co, and signs both letters 'Peter Opie.' MP writes to Opie at Rockbourne House. ONE: TLS from Opie to MP. 20 January 1951. 1p, 4to.

[Andrew Lang, Scottish poet, author and collector of folk tales.] Autograph Letter Signed ('A. Lang') to 'Miss Roberts', regarding illness, 'Mudie's little game', an author's lack of remuneration, Sir Francis Bacon.

Author: 
Andrew Lang (1844-1912), Scottish poet, author, anthropologist and collector of folk and fairy tales
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Alleyne House, St Andrews, Scotland. 6 January [no year].
£35.00

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, aged and worn. Folded once. Wretched handwriting, resulting in the following tentative transcription. He begins by saying that he is sorry she has been ill, adding, 'I have no advantage over you in that matter. The [?] and [?] got hold upon me.' Regarding the celebrated circulating library, he writes that 'Mudie's little game is 'not to [buy?] another little [me?], knowing that he can weary out the public. | I have therefore to circulate my own copy among students, but it is out at present.

[Sir James George Frazer, author of 'The Golden Bough'.] Autograph Letter Signed ('J. G. Frazer') to 'Mr. Wright', regarding difficulty getting copies of his obituary of Australian anthropologist Lorimer Fison from publisher Alfred Nutt.

Author: 
Sir J. G. Frazer [Sir James George Frazer] (1854-1941), Scottish anthropologist, author of 'The Golden Bough' [Alfred Trübner Nutt (1856-1910); Lorimer Fison (1832-1907), Australian anthropologist]
Publication details: 
St Keyne's, Cambridge. 7 April 1910.
£400.00

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged, with two fold lines. Thin strip of stub from mount adhering to one edge. The subject of the letter is Frazer's obituary of 'the Rev. Lorimer Fison and Dr. A. W. Howitt' (their deaths being 'two heavy losses' suffered by 'Australian anthropology in particular'), published in Folklore, Vol. 20, No. 2 (Jun. 30, 1909), pp. 144-180. Frazer begins by thanking Wright 'for the copy of my article which you have succeeded in wringing from the clutches of young Mr Nutt', i.e. the publisher of 'Folklore' Alfred Nutt (himself a folklorist).

[Sir James George Frazer, Scottish anthropologist and folklorist, author of 'The Golden Bough'.] Autograph Letter Signed ('J. G. Frazer') discussing 'the marriage rules of savages' and their 'aversion to inbreeding'.

Author: 
Sir J. G. Frazer [Sir James George Frazer] (1854-1941), Scottish anthropologist and folklorist, author of 'The Golden Bough'
Publication details: 
No. 1 Bride Court, Temple, E.C. [London] 7 May 1918.
£500.00

3pp, landscape 16mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip from stub of mount still adhering. The male recipient is not named. Thirty-five lines of closely and neatly written text.

[Charles Causley, Cornish poet.] Three Typed Letters Signed (all 'Charles Causley') to Ian McPherson, discussing proposed readings, and the difficulty of fitting in 'teaching and writing comitments with other activities'.

Author: 
Charles Causley [Charles Stanley Causley] (1917-2003), Cornish poet [Ian McPherson]
Publication details: 
All three on Causley's letterhead, 2 Cyprus Well, Launceston, Cornwall. 9 December 1974; 20 July 1975; 2 December 1976.
£80.00

All three 1p, landscape 12mo. All in good condition, lightly aged. ONE: 9 December 1974. He thanks him for 'the invitation […] But as I'm teaching full-time here now, this would be very difficult to arrange as far as schools visits would be concerned. (I asked the Arts Council to take my name off the schools list, but they don't seem to have done so).' He suggests a 'reading during the holiday break, perhaps. One aimed principally at adults, I mean.' The 'London Poetry Secretariat/Arts Council link-up' might 'provide some kind of subsidy'.

[Sir Edgar MacCulloch, Bailiff of Guernsey, folklorist.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Edgar MacCulloch') to 'Chepmell' [society homeopathist Edward Charles Chepmell], discussing the arrangements for his forthcoming adoubement.

Author: 
Sir Edgar MacCulloch (1808-1896), Bailiff of Guernsey, expert in Guernsey Folklore, and founding member of La Société Guernesiaise [Edward Charles Chepmell (1820-1885), society homeopathist]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Tavistock Hotel, London. 30 April 1886.
£90.00

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged. He begins by thanking him for his 'kind note and ticket for the Private View at the Academy'. He explains that he 'must pay a visit to the Home Office at noon to report myself', and from there he will find his way to Burlington House. He hopes 'to learn from Mr Childers or one of the Under-secretaries when there is a likelihood of a day being fixed by the Queen for dubbing knights, and am in hopes that it may not be far distant, as I don't wish to be kept here for any lengthened time.' He explains that he came up to London 'on Genl.

[Printed booklet by K. M. Briggs.] Stories Arranged for Mime | By K. M. Briggs | Number 2 | Whuppity Stoorie'

Author: 
K. M. Briggs [Katharine Mary Briggs] (1898-1980), English folklorist, author of the Dictionary of English Folk-Tales [Capricornus press, Dunkeld, Perthshire]
Publication details: 
Made and printed in Great Britain by Capricornus, Dunkeld, Perthshire. [No date.]
£35.00

[16]pp., 12mo. Stapled. In green printed wraps with illustration on cover. In very good condition, very lightly-aged with slight rusting to the two staples. The thirteen Capricornus items on COPAC indicate that the press was connected with K. M. Briggs, or at least with her family, who had moved to Perthshire with their father in 1911. Uncommon. Copac lists sets of the three volumes in the series at the British Library, National Library of Scotland and Oxford, and a single copy of this number at the National Library of Wales.

[Printed booklet by Elspeth Briggs, sister of the folklorist K. M. Briggs.] The Constant Gardener | A Play in One Act | By Elspeth Briggs'.

Author: 
Elspeth Briggs, sister of the folklorist K. M. Briggs [Katharine Mary Briggs] [Capricornus press, Dunkeld, Perthshire]
Publication details: 
Capricornus, Dunkeld, Perthshire. No date.
£35.00

36pp., 12mo. In cream printed wraps with illustration on the front cover. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper with slight spotting to covers. The thirteen Capricornus items on COPAC indicate that the press was connected with K. M. Briggs, or at least with her family, who had moved to Perthshire with their father in 1911. Uncommon. Copies on COPAC at the British Library, National Library of Scotland, Oxford and Trinity College Dublin.

[ 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.

[ William John Thoms, antiquary. ] Autograph Signature ('William J. Thoms.').

Author: 
William J. Thoms [ William John Thoms ] (1803-1885), English antiquary, founder and editor of 'Notes and Queries', and coiner of the word 'folklore'
Publication details: 
Place and date not stated.
£20.00

On 1 x 5.5 cm. slip of paper. In good condition, with light signs of age. Presumably cut from a letter in response to a request for an autograph.

[ James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, Shakespeare scholar and folklorist. ] Autograph Signature ('J O Halliwell').

Author: 
James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps [ born James Orchard Halliwell; J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps ] (1820-1889), English Shakespeare scholar and folklorist
Publication details: 
Place and date not stated, but before his name change in 1872.
£23.00

On 1.5 x 5.5 cm. slip of paper. In fair condition, with light signs of age. Presumably cut from a letter in response to a request for an autograph.

[Frederick York Powell, historian and folklorist.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Frck York Powell') to an unnamed recipient, regarding Samuel Laing's 'Sea Kings of Norway', a 'final settlement of terms' and 'complete program of work'

Author: 
Frederick York Powell (1850-1904), Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford
Publication details: 
Christ Church, Oxford, on cancelled letterhead of the Reading School. 7 July 1888.
£38.00

1p., 12mo. In very good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Headed: 're Laing's Sea Kings of Norway'. In an attractive and distinctive hand, he writes: 'Dear Sir / I am quit of my Examn. work at Oxford and propose to call on you with reference to final settlement of terms on Friday morning next. I shall bring with me complete program of work etc | I am yours faithfully | Frck York Powell'.

[Printed Play] The Garrulous Lady

Author: 
K.M. Briggs [Katharine Mary Briggs] Folklorist.
Publication details: 
The Golden Vista Press, Fetter House, Fetter Lane, London, EC4, 1931.
£120.00

29pp., 16mo, paper wraps (covered in tissue), very good condition. Three copies on COPAC (copyright libraries) and three on WorldCat (USA). Scarce.

[Album of black and white photographs.] Souvenir de Bretagne. Les Noces en Cornouailles. Étude des différents costumes de Fête.

Author: 
[Victorian photographs of folk costume of Brittany; Cornish weddings; customs]
Publication details: 
'Villard Photographe - Editeur | Quimper | Dépôt G. Le Bras, Libraire. Heliotype E. La Deley, Paris.' Undated [late nineteenth century].
£220.00

The album is landscape, 13 x 19 cm. Internally clean on lightly-aged paper, stapled into worn and spotted printed covers. It contains 26 photographs (10 full-page and 16 half-page), on 18 leaves separated by tissue guards, a mixture of indoor and outdoor scenes, and some posed. Images include: 'Les Mariages de Plougastel-Daoulas. - Le Défile des Mariés'; 'La Gavotte Bretonne'; 'DOUARNENEZ. - Toilette de la Mariée'; Arrivée du Cortege au Bourg'; 'Le Repas de Noces.

Ornate engraved invitation from the Lord Provost and Corporation of the City of Glasgow to 'Mr. & Miss Munro-Fraser', inviting them to 'a Highland Reception to meet the Members of An Comunn Gaidhealach' in the City Chambers on 30 October 1907.

Author: 
[The Lord Provost and Corporation of the City of Glasgow; An Comunn Gàidhealach, the oldest Gaelic Language organisation, founded in Oban in 1891; Marjory Kennedy-Fraser ( 1857-1930)]
Publication details: 
City Chambers, Glasgow, October 1907.
£28.00

Printed in grey half-tone on one side of a piece of 13 x 20.5 card. In fair condition: aged and a little grubby. With Gaelic-style lettering and design, with vignette engraving of Bishop's Castle in top right-hand corner. The words 'Mr & Miss Munro-Fraser' neatly added in manuscript. From the papers of the Hebridean folklorist Marjory Kennedy-Fraser and her daughter Patuffa.

Chapbook entitled 'The History of the Earl of Derwentwater Containing His Life, Trial, Sentence, & Execution, Also A Copy of Pathetic Verses ['Lines on the Fate of Lord Derwentwater'].'

Author: 
William Reay Walker, Newcastle printer [James Ratcliffe, Earl of Derwentwater; Charles Lolley; chapbooks]
Publication details: 
No date [c.1862]. 'Newcastle-on-Tyne: Wm. R. Walker, Printer, Arcade.'
£120.00

12mo (roughly 16.5 x 9.5 cm): 24 pp. Good, on aged paper, with slightly dogeared corners. No stitching or stapling binding the leaves together. An attractive production, more sophisticated than is usual with a chapbook. Crisply printed in small type. Title enclosed within a decorative border and containing vignette of the royal coat of arms. Headed, in a small neat contemporary hand, 'Purchased at Whitby. | 30 Aug 1862'. The poem 'Lines on the Fate of Lord Derwentwater' (pp.18-19, 24 lines in six stanzas) begins 'How mournful feeble Nature's tone, | When Dilston Hall appears;'.

Cnuasachd bheag amhrán. Le haghaidh aos óg na Gaedhilge d'foghluim ins na sgoileannaibh. An t'Athair Pádraig Breathnach do chruinnigh. [Cuid a tri.]

Author: 
Pádraig Breathnach [Father Patrick Walsh (c.1885-1927), Irish cleric, republican and folklorist]
Publication details: 
Dublin: Muinntir Bhrúin & Nualláin do chlódh-bhuail. [circa 1920?]
£120.00

16mo (15 x 12 cm), 32 pp. Stapled pamphlet, in original green printed wraps. Text complete and clear, on aged and dogeared paper. Wraps worn and stained. Part three only of an annotated collection of ballads. Six-page English glossary at rear. Scarce: the National Library of Ireland only appears to have Part Five, and the only record on COPAC is of Parts One and Three at Trinity College, Dublin.

Autograph Note in his hand (NOT signed). "Alexander Ross", written top right above the note, appears to be the addressee.

Author: 
Joseph Ritson.
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£185.00

Antiquary (DNB). Piece of paper, c. 4 x 4", discoloured byt text clear, bottom edge rough from tearing. Text: See another song by this author in Johnson's 'Scots Musical Museum'. If 'The Rock and the wee pickle tour' were written before the publication of Ramsay's 'Tea-table miscellany' (1724), there being a song to the tune in that book, the author must have been a great age in 1768. / Those poems are in the broad Buchan dialect." This is followed by the note "The above is in the hand-writing of Joseph Ritson.", an attribution confirmed by comparison with known examples in the BL.

Autograph Letter Signed to H.C. Bowen, American publisher and editor.

Author: 
Edward Clodd
Publication details: 
Tufnell Park, 6 June1878.
£45.00

Banker and writer (1840-1930). 2pp., 8vo, good. He is asking friends to his home for “chat and supper”, including Bowen.He gives minute directions how to get to his house in Tufnell Park.

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