HOLMES

[Henry Hawkins, English artist.] Autograph Letter Signed to William Loney of Macclesfield, regarding a ‘successful’ portrait he is painting of ‘Mr Roe’, and upsetting a bottle of varnish over a letter.

Author: 
Henry Hawkins (c.1796-c.1881), English landscape artist and portraitist [James Holmes (1777-1860), miniature and genre painter; William Loney, Macclesfield surgeon]
Publication details: 
No date [franked 3 July 1838]. 11 Bulstrode Street, Manchester Square [London].
£75.00

An uncommon signature of a neglected artist. Hawkins was a founding member of the Society of British Artists, exhibiting there prolifically from 1824 to 1881. He also showed at the Royal Academy eight times between 1822 and 1849. (See Holmes's entry in the Oxford DNB.) On 14 cm square piece of watermarked wove paper, cut from a frank. The letter is written on the reverse of the cover, which is laid out in the customary way: ‘London third July 1838 / Wm. Loney Esq / Macclesfield.’ With red dated postmark, and signed in the customary way at bottom left: ‘John [Baron?]’.

[J. S. M. Fonblanque, legal writer and Commissioner of Bankruptcy.] Autograph Letter Signed

Author: 
J. S. M. Fonblanque [John Samuel Martin de Grenier Fonblanque] (1787-1865), legal writer and Commissioner of Bankruptcy [Henry Holmes Joy (1805-1875)?; Lord Brougham
Publication details: 
5 August 1844. No place.
£120.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged, with closed tear (not affecting text) to a fold on second leaf, which also carries traces of mount on its blank reverse. Small printed slip relating to the Court of Bankruptcy, bearing Fonblanque’s name, laid down at head of first page. Folded four times for postage. Signed ‘J S M Fonblanque’.

[?I feel his animosity so strongly.? Sir Donald Wolfit complains about the News Chronicle theatre critic Alan Dent.] Autograph Letter Signed (?Donald?) to the theatre critic W. J. Macqueen-Pope (?Popie?), explaining why he is barring Dent.

Author: 
Sir Donald Wolfit (1902-1968), English Shakespearian actor-manager [W. J. MacQueen-Pope [Walter James MacQueen-Pope] (1888-1960), theatre historian; Alan Holmes Dent (1905-1978), Scottish critic]
Publication details: 
4 November 1948. On his letterhead, from the New Theatre, Hull.
£45.00

See the entries on author and recipient in the Oxford DNB. The subject of the letter Alan Dent, began his career as a prot?g? of James Agate. Although a somewhat histrionic figure, Wolfit's reputation rivalled that of Gielgud and Olivier, and his influence was acknowledged by both Harold Pinter and Peter O?Toole, and Ronald Harwood based his play and film ?The Dresser? on him. 1p, 4to. In fair condition, on lightly-aged and wrinkled paper, with slight nick to bottom-right, and evidence of paper clip. Folded once.

[Malcolm Elwin, biographer. critic; Detective Fiction; bibliography] Holograph Manuscript entitled The Vogue of the Detective Story Signed T.M.E.11/11/26. WITH: holograph review of new edn ( Collins, c.1930?) of The Murders in the Rue Morgue.

Author: 
Malcolm Elwin [( 1903-1973), prolific biographer, literary critic and editor.
Publication details: 
[1926]. N.B. The Golden Age of the Detective Story usually spans the 20s and 30s, so Elwin is perhaps the first analyst of the genre..
£950.00

Pp.1, 2, 4 [missing 3] with additional unnumbered page entitled bibliography of [...] the Detective Story, folio, connected with stud creating hole which only marginally affects the text, good condition. Lightly corrected MS. An early, pioneering study of the genre as it developed, as a phenomenon similar to literary predecessors (Elizabethan drama). He associates the craze for the detective story with the (post) First World War, but (obviously) finds topoi in Sherlcok Holmes and Murders in the Rue Morgue, citing R.

[Arthur Holmes, geologist, and Robert W. Lawson, Einstein's English translator.] Offprint, inscribed by the authors to Prof. C. G. Curtis: 'Lead and the End Product of Thorium. (Part II.)'

Author: 
Arthur Holmes, A.R.C.S., B.Sc., F.G.S., Imperial College, London, and Robert W. Lawson, M.Sc., Radium Institute, Vienna
Publication details: 
'From the Philosophical Magazine [London], vol. xxix. May 1915.'
£120.00

16pp, 8vo, paginated 673-688. Stitched into brown wraps, with typed white label on front cover. At the head of the front cover, in manuscript: 'II | Prof C. G. Curtis | With the Authors' Compliments.' The offprint in good condition, on lightly aged paper, the brown wraps aged and chipped, with small of back wrap torn away at rear. The only other copy of this offprint on OCLC WorldCat at Durham University.

Richard Doyle ['Dickie Doyle'] (1824-1883), Victorian illustrator, from the first closely associated with Punch magazine, uncle of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes.] Autograph Signature ('Richard Doyle.').

Author: 
Richard Doyle ['Dickie' Doyle] (1824-1883), Victorian illustrator, from the first closely associated with Punch magazine, uncle of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£30.00

On 3.5 x 5 cm slip, laid down on slightly larger rectangle of paper, removed from an album. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. A neat, firm signature, on a small slip of paper. Presumably cut from a letter, in response to a request for an autograph.

[Leslie Hotson and Norman Holmes Pearson on a George Washington letter.] Autograph Letter Signed from Hotson, and Typed Letter Signed from Pearson, both to Robert Beloe, discussing the proposed sale of his George Washington letter.

Author: 
Leslie Hotson [John Leslie Hotson] (1897-1992), authority on Elizabethan literature; Norman Holmes Pearson (1909-75), Yale academic [Robert Beloe (1905-84), educationalist; George Washington]
Publication details: 
Hotson's letter from Northford, Connecticut (but sent from a museum in Pieter Cornelisz Hooftstraat, Amsterdam), 29 January 1955. Pearson's letter from 233 Hall of Graduate Studies, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 1 February 1955.
£120.00

Two Air Mail letters, both in fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Both letters are addressed to Beloe (author of the 1960 Beloe Report - education at The Hill House, Queen's Road, Richmond, Surrey. The subject of the two letters is a letter from George Washington to Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie, Belvoir, 7 March 1754, beginning ''Honble. Sir | If the Vessel you Honour hir'd of Colo. Eyre has not left York'. The letter is now at Mount Vernon. ONE: Hotson's letter, signed 'Leslie Hotson'. 29 January 1955. 1p., 12mo.

[ Louis Tracy, writer of fiction who collaborated with M. P. Shiel. ] Autograph Note Signed ('Louis Tracy') to autograph hunter Montague Ball.

Author: 
Louis Tracy [ pseudonyms 'Gordon Holmes' and 'Robert Fraser'] (1863-1928), journalist and writer of fiction who collaborated with fantasy writer M. P. Shiel
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Fairlawn, Whitby, Yorkshire. 23 July 1914.
£50.00

1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. He writes: 'Dear Mr Montague Ball: - | I am very pleased to have your kind wishes & appreciation. | Yours very sincerely | Louis Tracy'.

[Printed magazine.] 'Sherlock Holmes Centenary' issue of John o'London's Weekly, with contributions by S. C. Roberts, Bernard Darwin, Frank Swinnerton, Anthony Howlett and Michael Pointer, and Winifred Paget.

Author: 
S. C. Roberts; Bernard Darwin; Frank Swinnerton; Anthony Howlett; Michael Pointer, Winifred Paget [John o'London's Weekly; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; Sidney Paget; Sherlock Holmes Centenary]
Publication details: 
London: George Newnes Limited, Tower House, Southampton Street, Strand, WC2. 19 February 1954.
£80.00

24pp., 8vo, paginated 161-184. In fair condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. Roberts contributes 'The Cult of Sherlock'; Frank Swinnerton, 'Holmes - World Figure'; Darwin, 'The Great Holmes Joke'; Howlett and Pointer, 'Holmes on Stage and Screen'; Paget, 'He made Holmes real' ('In this article Winifred Paget writes of her father, Sidney Paget, whose drawings, says Frank Swinnerton on another page, made Holmes "the most universally familiar imaginary figure in two hemispheres'.

Some Correspondence on the Subject of the Grant of £1,800, made to the National School of the Hamlet of Highgate, by the Committee of Privy Council for Education.

Author: 
[Highgate National School] [John Holmes, of the British Museum; Nathaniel Basevi; Robert Lingen; Harry Chester; Lewis Vulliamy; William Ford]
Publication details: 
Privately printed [1853?]. [Printed by Cox (Brothers) and Wyman, Great Queen Street, Lincoln's-Inn Fields.]
£85.00

8vo: 30 pp. on sixteen leaves (including final blank). Unbound and stitched as issued. Text clear and complete. A scarce item (the only copies on COPAC at the British Library, Lambeth Palace and the Guildhall). On aged, worn and damp-stained paper, with chipping to extremities. Regarding the ' "rumours" alleged against' Ford and Chester ('in reality a definite statement made by a gentleman on the authority of Mr.

Super Detective Library No. 78. All in Pictures. Sherlock Holmes meets the Hound of the Baskervilles and the Missing Heiress [Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles]

Author: 
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; Sherlock Holmes; Super Detective Library [Sherlockiana; comic books, strips]
Publication details: 
No date [1950s]. London: The Amalgamated Press, Ltd., The Fleetway House, Farringdon Street, EC4.
£75.00

Dimensions: 17.5 x 13.5 cm. 64 pp. In original coloured paper covers. Priced at 10d, and thus the British edition and not one produced for the foreign market. Good and tight, on browned paper. Attractive image on front cover showing a bemused Holmes puffing on his pipe as he wanders down a country-house corridor whose walls are covered in paintings, while the spectral figure of the hound's head looms above him.Covers lightly worn and slightly damaged by the rusting of the staples. Both stories are told in comic strip form.

A co-operative [booksellers'] catalogue' entitled 'Detective Fiction: A Century of Crime: First and Early Editions'.

Author: 
R. A. Brimmell; Boris Harding-Edgar (Charles Rare Books)
Publication details: 
Hastings and Hildenborough; [circa 1966].
£120.00

Forty-four pages, octavo, with two-page leaf of addenda loosely inserted. Four pages illustrating seventeen pictorial covers on art paper. In printed card wraps. A worn and creased copy of an influential catalogue, issued at a time when, as the introduction points out 'catalogues devoted to detective fiction [were] something of a rarity in the book trade'.

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