HART

[Henry Hart Milman, historian, Dean of St Paul’s and Professor of Poetry at Oxford.] Autograph Letter Signed to the novelist Thomas Henry Lister.

Author: 
Henry Hart Milman (1791-1868), historian, Dean of St Paul’s and Professor of Poetry at Oxford [Thomas Henry Lister (1800-1842), novelist]
Publication details: 
‘Cloisters [Westminster Abbey] / Decr 31st. 1841 -’.
£45.00

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly aged and folded for postage. 2pp, 16mo. Signed ‘H H Milman’ and addressed to ‘My dear Mr Lister’ (the item is from the papers of Lister’s wife Lady Theresa Lewis (1803-1865; ODNB). He begins by congratulating Lister on the birth of his daughter ‘and the safety of Lady Theresa’.

[Henry Hart Milman, historian, Dean of St Paul’s and Professor of Poetry at Oxford.] Autograph Letter Signed to Sir George Cornewall Lewis, regarding his desire to build a church.

Author: 
Henry Hart Milman (1791-1868), historian, Dean of St Paul’s and Professor of Poetry at Oxford [Sir George Cornewall Lewis (1806-1863), Chancellor of the Exchequer]
Publication details: 
‘Cloisters West[minste]r. Abbey / March 20th’ [no year].
£45.00

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly aged and folded for postage. 2pp, 12mo. Signed ‘H H Milman’ and addressed to ‘G. C. Lewis Esq’. Written in a crabbed hand. Begins: ‘My dear Lewis / I think that I mentioned to you my great wish to build a Church for the [?] of St Margarets.

[‘Gray’s Desk on which he wrote the Elegy’: Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, London auctioneers.] Letters and accounts from Sotheby’s to Mrs Sarah Turpin, relating to the 1915 sale of ‘Letters and Relics’ by Thomas Gray, including priced catalogue entries

Author: 
Thomas Gray (1716-1771), poet, author of 'Elegy written in a Country Churchyard' [Mary Antrobus; Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, London auctioneers; Sarah Turpin, wife of organist Edmund Hart Turpin]
Publication details: 
Eleven items dating from 1914 and 1915. Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, Auctioneers, 13 Wellington Street, Strand, London, W.C.
£450.00

A nice collection of ephemera, relating not only to one of England’s best-loved poets, but also to Sotheby’s auction practice during the Great War. The provenance of the Gray letters put up for auction by Mrs Turpin is given in a New York Times article of 27 June 1915 (‘To sell relics of Thomas Gray; many letters by the poet will also be put up at auction at Sotheby's’), which stated in a report on the forthcoming sale that the letters ‘were transmitted to the present owner, Mrs.

[Sir William Stirling Maxwell, art historian and book collector.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Mr. Dean’ (i.e. Henry Hart Milman, Dean of Saint Paul’s), regarding the drafting of their dissent to the parliamentary ‘Report of the Oaths Commission’.

Author: 
Sir William Stirling Maxwell (1818-78), 9th Baronet of Pollok, Scottish author, art historian, book collector [Henry Hart Milman (1791-1868), Dean of St Paul’s; Edward Pleydell Bouverie; Lord Lyveden]
Publication details: 
6 June 1867. On embossed letterhead of the House of Commons Library.
£50.00

See the entries on the two men in the Oxford DNB. The document to which Stirling Maxwell refers in this letter can be read as ‘Dissent (No. III.)’ on pp.xiii to xxii of the parliamentary ‘Report of the Oaths Commission. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty.’ (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1867). There were five dissenters to the report: alongside Stirling Maxwell and Milman were Robert Lowe, Lord Lyveden, and Edward Pleydell Bouverie. 3pp, 12mo. On bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with traces of glue from mounting to blank reverse of second leaf.

[Lord Thomson, Minister for Air in Ramsay MacDonald’s Labour Government.] Typed Letter Signed (‘Thomson’) to Sir Reginald Hart, praising his ‘advanced views on politics’.

Author: 
Lord Thomson [Christopher Birdwood Thomson] (1875-1930), army officer and Minister for Air in Ramsay MacDonald Labour Government, killed in R101 airship disaster [Sir Reginald Clare Hart (1848-1931)]
Publication details: 
2 April 1924; on letterhead of 12 St James’s Court, Buckingham Gate, S.W.1 [London]
£38.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Addressed to ‘Dear Sir Reginald’. After sympathizing with him on his indisposition he writes: ‘I always felt that you really had more advanced views on politics than most of the Generals in the British Army, and what you say in your letter does not surprise me therefore in the least.’ He ends with regards to Lady Hart and the Harts’ daughter. Autograph postscript: ‘Ps. Ps. forgive type written letter.’

[Herbert Whittaker, Canadian theatre critic, designer and director.] Eight long Signed Letters (six typed and two in autograph) to English playwright Christopher Fry, on theatre matters including a reading at the Toronto Arts and Letters Club.

Author: 
Herbert Whittaker (1910-2006), Canadian theatre critic, designer and director [Christopher Fry (1907-2005), playwright; Canadian Players; Hart House Theatre; Crest Theatre; Montreal Repertory Theatre]
Publication details: 
From his address in Lamport Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; between 11 July 1998 and 7 April 2002.
£850.00

An interesting correspondence on theatre matters, from one of Canada's most influential critics and designers to 'a favourite poet', the English verse dramatist Christopher Fry. Whittaker discusses, among other matters, mutual acquaintances including Sir John Gielgud and Leonard White, past productions of Fry's plays, a 1998 meeting with the playwright at his West Dean home, and a reading he organises of Fry's 'A Ringing of Bells' at the Toronto Arts and Letters Club. The eight letters are in good condition, lightly aged.

[ Evacuation of Queen Mary College, University of London, to King's Cambridge. ] Autograph Journal of Jean Kilgour Hart, undergraduate of Queen Mary College, in two volumes, kept over a year during its evacuation to King's College, Cambridge.

Author: 
Jean Kilgour Hart (1921-2001), civil servant [ Queen Mary College, University of London; King's College, Cambridge; Girton College ]
Publication details: 
Cambridge [ Queen Mary College, University of London ]. First volume: 1 January 1942 to 9 May 1943. Second volume: 10 May 1942 to 29 April 1943.
£1,500.00

The two volumes of diaries of Jean Kilgour Hart cast light on the interesting wartime crossover between the Universities of London and Cambridge. On the evacuation of Queen Mary College to Cambridge at the beginning of the Second World War, both the College administration and male staff and students were accommodated at King’s College. Women staff and students were initially provided with accommodation at Girton College, but from 1940 they were housed in two private houses in Hills Road.

[ Solomon Alexander Hart, the first Jewish member of the Royal Academy. ] Autograph Signature ('S: A: Hart RA | Secy to the Committee') to document in another hand, to the physician Sir W. H. Allchin regarding an exhibition of 'the old Masters'.

Author: 
Solomon Hart [ Solomon Alexander Hart; S. A. Hart ] (1806-1881), English artist, the first Jewish member of the Royal Academy [ Sir William Henry Allchin (1846-1912), physician ]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, W. London. 1 December 1869.
£45.00

1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Addressed to 'W. H. Allchin Esq'. The 'arrangements for the intended Exhibition of the works of the old Masters have already progressed too far' for 'any further works offered [...] on loan' to be considered for acceptance.

[ Sir James N. Dick, Royal Navy Inspector-General of Hospitals and Fleets. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('J N Dick') to 'Hart' [ Ernest Hart, editor of the British Medical Journal ], regarding the post of 'Admiralty Surgeon & Agent at Hull'.

Author: 
Sir James Nicholas Dick (1831-1920), Royal Navy Inspector-General of Hospitals and Fleets, and Honorary Surgeon to King Edward VII [ Ernest Abraham Hart (1835-1898), editor, British Medical Journal ]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Medical Department of the Admiralty, Avenue House, Northumberland Avenue, W.C. [ London ] 18 October [ no year ].
£120.00

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, aged and worn, with minor traces of stub adhering to the blank reverse of the second leaf. Headed 'Private'. In reply to his letter he informs him that 'the post of Admiralty Surgeon & Agent at Hull has already been filled up by the appointment of Dr Roe who was formerly in the Navy'. He ends by informing him that he sent his nephew 'a permit to fish some little time ago'.

[ Charles Henry Hart on the portrait of Benjamin Franklin at the Royal Society. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('Charles Henry Hart') to Sir Henry Trueman Wood, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts, discussing his discovery and attribution of the portrait.

Author: 
Charles Henry Hart (1847-1918), American art expert and author [ Sir Henry Trueman Wood, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts; Benjamin Franklin; Caleb Whitefoord ]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Royal Societies Club, St. James's Street, S.W. [ London ] 26 August 1914.
£130.00

2pp., 12mo, and 1p., 8vo. On a 12mo bifolium, with the opening written lengthwise as one page. In good condition, lightly aged, with the Society's oval date stamp. He regrets 'exceedingly' that he was not able to meet Wood on the previous day 'when I was at the Hall'. He thanks him for 'recalling to me the Whitefoord Correspondence which I had forgotten altho I used it in writing my monograph on the Unique Portrait of Franklin at the Royal Society that was presented by Caleb Whitefoord and which the Royal Society did not know by whom it was painted until I discovered it & wrote my paper'.

[ Printed item. ] Bodleian Library. Staff-Kalendar 1907. [ Together with ] Bodleian Library. Supplement to the Staff-Kalendar 1907.

Author: 
[ Bodleian Library, Oxford; Bodley's Librarian; Horace Hart, Printer to the University ]
Publication details: 
Both items: Oxford: Horace Hart, Printer to the University. [ 1907. ]
£180.00

16mo volume. In printed card covers with green cloth spine. The 'Staff-Kalendar' proper unpaginated (circa 200pp.). Title on cover. The supplement, 111pp., printed upside-down at the back of the volume, with its own cover bearing the title. Internally in good condition on aged paper; binding somewhat worn and aged. In small type. Gives a charming insight into the running of a historic institution. As an example, the entry for 1 July commences: 'Dusting begins. | Accession-register for June to be made up. | Fire-buckets to be refilled. | To be cleaned out: - | 1. Hot water channels in Bodley.

[B. H. Liddell Hart as 'defeatist'.] Two Typescripts of his 'Memorandum' titled 'The Prospect in this War', including 'P.S. to Memorandum of November 7th. 1939. From the papers of John Gordon, editor of the Daily Express.

Author: 
B. H. Liddell Hart [Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart] (1895–1970), military thinker and historian [John Rutherford Gordon (1890-1974), editor of the London 'Daily Express']
Publication details: 
Both typescripts have 'The Prospect in this War' dated 'B. H. L. H. 8th. [in one draft amended from '7th.'] November, 1939.', and the 'P.S. to Memorandum of November 7th. [sic] 1939' dated '14th November 1939.'
£950.00

This piece does not appear to have been published, and the only copy traced is in the Liddell Hart Papers at King's College London, with the original manuscript and an accompanying list of eighteen recipients including Lloyd George, H. G. Wells, and John Gordon of the Sunday Express, from whose papers the present two copies derive.

[Printed pamphlet.] Universities' Settlement in East London. Fourth Annual Report to the Members of the Association. (Private.)

Author: 
[Philip Lyttelton Gell, Chairman; Report of the Universities' Settlement in East London, 1888; Toynbee Hall]
Publication details: 
Oxford [Horace Hart, Printer to the University], 1888.
£100.00

15 + 1pp., 12mo. Stitched and unbound. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper, with shelfmark and red label of the Education Department, Reference Library. Four-page introduction by Gell followed by nine pages of 'Statements of Account for year ending June 30, 1888'. Included are four pages of accounts of the Endowment Fund, Foundation Fund, Literary Building Fund and Maintenance Fund at Toynbee Hall, and a page on the Spencer Ball and King-Harman Memorial Fund.

Autograph Letter Signed, in the third person, from 'Mrs Harford', guest of Mrs Martin of Camden, Chiselhurst, asking 'Mr Wilson' to procure her a ticket 'to see the preparations in the Abbey' [for the coronation of Queen Victoria?].

Author: 
Mrs Harford (possibly Louisa Harford, née Louisa Hart Davis, wife of John Scandrett Harford) [Mrs Frances Martin (d.1863) of Camden, Chislehurst, wife of John Martin (d.1832), MP for Tewkesbury]
Publication details: 
'Chislehurst [Kent]. | June 22 [1838?].'
£45.00

2pp., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Considering the fact that Mrs Harford states that she is staying at the home of Mrs Martin, and that Mr Martin died in 1832, it seems probable that the letter refers to the preparations for the coronation of Queen Victoria, which occurred on 28 June 1838. The letter reads: 'Mrs Harford understanding that people are admitted to see the Preparations in the Abbey & thinking it probable that Mr Gillen may have been employed in the decoration, will be very much obliged to Mr Wilson if he could procure her a Ticket to see them.

Autograph Letter Signed ('John S. Hart') from the American author and educator John Seely Hart, Principal of the Central High School, Philadelphia, to 'G. Harry Davis', accepting his election as an honorary member of the Irving Literary Institute.

Author: 
John Seely Hart (1810-1877), American author and educator, Professor of Languages at Princeton, Principal of Central High School, Philadelphia [G. Henry Davis, Secretary, Irving Literary Institute]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Central High School, Philadelphia; 15 May 1856.
£60.00

1p., 12mo. Fair, on aged paper. The letterhead features a steel engraving of the monolithic Central High School. Hart has received Davis' letter informing him that he has been 'elected an Honorary Member of the "Irving Literary Institute".' He asks Davis to 'communicate to the members of the Institute my thanks for the honor conferred, & say that I accept it with sincere pleasure.' Hart writes 'Mr. G. Harry Davis, | Secretary &c -', but the middle name is given as 'Henry' in printed texts.

Autograph Letter Signed from Rupert Hart-Davis ['Rupert'] to 'My dear Roger [Senhouse]' on his retirement.

Author: 
Rupert Hart-Davis [Sir Rupert Charles Hart-Davis] (1907-1999), publisher and writer [Roger Senhouse (1899-1970), publisher and translator]
Letter Signed from Rupert Hart-Davis
Publication details: 
19 November 1962; on 36 Soho Square letterhead.
£35.00
Letter Signed from Rupert Hart-Davis

12mo, 1 p. Nine lines. Text clear and complete. Begins 'Selfishly I can't help feeling sad at the announcement of your retirement', which means that he will see 'even less' of him. He rejoices at Senhouse's 'liberation' and sends him 'all love and blessings - not unmixed with envy'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J. Forshall') to Bishop Coleridge.

Author: 
Josiah Forshall (1795-1863), Keeper of Manuscripts and Secretary of the British Museum [William Hart Coleridge (1789-1849), bishop of Barbados and the Leeward Islands]
Publication details: 
B[ritish]. M[useum]. Oct: 2. 1848.'
£35.00

12mo: 2 pp. 11 lines of text. The Bishop's note has reached him 'just as I am about to set out for Cambridge to spend the week there'. When he returns he will 'search for any papers we may have relative to Dr. Walker'. He will let him 'know the result of my enquiries'.

Syndicate content