HORTICULTURE

[Alfred Parsons, landscape painter and garden designer.] Autograph Letter Signed to 'Miss Lewis'

Author: 
Alfred Parsons [Alfred William Parsons] (1847-1920), landscape painter, illustrator, and garden designer
Publication details: 
24 January [no year]. On letterhead of 54 Bedford Gardens, Kensington, W. [London]
£35.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once.Addressed to 'Dear Miss Lewis' and with good firm signature 'Alfred Parsons'. He will be very pleased to dine with her the following Friday, '& dance one set of Lancers after; I feel much complimented at being asked with the young people'.

[Alfred Parsons, landscape painter and garden designer.] Original pen and ink drawing of a clump of daffodils growing in front of mass of other foliage. Monogram signature on the drawing ‘AP.’, and with second full signature and date on mount.

Author: 
Alfred Parsons [Alfred William Parsons] (1847-1920), landscape painter, illustrator, and garden designer
Alfred Parsons
Publication details: 
‘Alfred Parsons. / Loseley Park. May 26th. 1893.’
£1,000.00
Alfred Parsons

An attractive and highly-finished production, in black ink, on 17.5 x 20.5 cm piece of wove paper, glued on the reverse at the four corners to a leaf extracted from the autograph album of the novelist George Meredith and his daughter Marie Eveleen (Mariette; 1871-1933), wife of Henry Parkman Sturgis (1847-1929), American-born banker and Liberal politician. Parsons' monogram signature 'AP. in its two-bordered square is at the bottom left of the drawing, and there is an additional autograph signature with date to the right of the drawing on the leaf of the Meredith album: 'Alfred Parsons.

[Henry Doubleday, pioneering Quaker horticulturalist of Coggeshall in Essex.] Five Autograph Letters Signed to the entomologist Bernard Piffard, discussing various topics in natural history, common acquaintances and personal news.

Author: 
Henry Doubleday (1810-1902), pioneering Quaker horticulturist of Coggeshall in Essex [Bernard Piffard (1833-1916), entomologist]
Publication details: 
Between 1860 and 1874. All from Epping [Essex].
£180.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. From the Piffard papers. A total of 10pp, 12mo. Aged and worn, with the first letter on creased grey paper, the second with one leading edge rolling inwards, and the last with a 2cm closed tear; but with text clear and entire. The recipient named as ‘B. Piffard Esq’. All signed ‘Henry Doubleday’. ONE: 14 July 1860. 2pp, 12mo. With reference to an excursion by Piffard to Maldon, and also stating that he ‘took a very fine female Deilephila Galei in our garden on Wednesday - it was at rest on a strawberry plant’. TWO: 7 March 1890. 1p, 12mo.

[The Chelsea Physic Garden, London.] Printed invitation ‘at the Opening of the Garden’, and Laboratory andn Lecture Rooms by Earl Cadogan, made out to Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Sir William Thiselton-Dyer, and his wife.

Author: 
The Chelsea Physic Garden, London [Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer (1843-1928), botanist, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew]
Chelsea
Publication details: 
At the Opening of the Chelsea Physic Garden, London, 25 July 1902.
£180.00
Chelsea

See Thiselton-Dyer’s entry in the Oxford DNB. Printed on one side of a 10 x 13 cm piece of paper, and made out in manuscript to ‘Sir William Thistleton [sic] Dyer (and Lady)’. Text size in good condition, lightly aged, with the blank reverse of the card with slight damage from mounting. The recipient has written in a close hand in red ink at top left: ‘accepted. / 18. 7. 02.’ The text reads: ‘The Chelsea Physic Garden.

[‘Mrs. C. W. Earle [Maria Theresa Earle], horticulturalist.] Autograph Letter Signed regarding the publisher Kegan Paul.

Author: 
‘Mrs. C. W. Earle’ [Maria Theresa Earle, née Villiers] (1836-1925), horticulturalist [Charles Kegan Paul (1828-1902), London publisher]
Publication details: 
5 February 1918; on letterhead of Woodlands, Cobham, Surrey.
£50.00

See her entry and that of Kegan Paul in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. The recipient is not named. Reads: ‘Dear Sir. / Mr. Kegan Paul was a great friend of mine, & when it came out he gave me a book called “Rabbi Jeshua” 1881. published by the firm. I should be so much obliged if you might tell me the name of the writer if I am asking what is never done please forgive me. / Yrs truly / Maria Theresa Earle’. At top right, in her hand: ‘Mrs C. W. Earle’.

[Charles Vandeleur Creagh, Governor of North Borneo and botanist.] Autograph Note Signed, requesting a price list for ‘Teacher’s Patent Lantern Microscope’ from Manchester maker of optical instruments W. J. Chadwick.

Author: 
Charles Vandeleur Creagh (1842-1917), Governor of North Borneo and botanist who donated his collection of Borneo plants to Kew Gardens, London [W. J. Chadwick, Manchester maker of optical instruments]
Publication details: 
25 December 1890; on letterhead of Government House, Sandakan [North Borneo].
£80.00

1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded three times. In order to mark the request as dealt with, the recipient has written a thin ink line across the page. Reads: ‘W J Chadwick Esqre / Sir / Please send me price list of your Teacher’s Patent Lantern Microscope / Yours truly / C. V. Creagh / Governor of North Borneo / Address / Sandakan / North Borneo / via Singapore’.

[Alphonse Karr, French critic, novelist and editor of Le Figaro.] Autograph Note Signed ('Alphonse Karr'), renewing a request for a meeting with 'Monsieur le ministre de la marine'.

Author: 
Alphonse Karr [Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr] (1808-1890), French critic, journalist, novelist and floriculturalist, editor of Le Figaro
Publication details: 
No date. Rue de Clichy 5 [Paris].
£50.00

On one side of an irregular piece of thin paper, roughly 12.5 x 13.5 cm. From the celebrated autograph collection of Richard Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton), and neatly mounted on a leaf extracted from an album. He writes that a few days previously he wrote to ask 'Monsieur le ministre de la marine' for 'une audience de q[uel]ques instants'. He fears that the letter did not reach him, and so renews his request. Signed 'salut et paternité | Alphonse Karr'.

[Rider Haggard writes to Rudyard Kipling's wife.] Autograph Letter Signed ('H . Rider Haggard') to 'Mrs. Kipling', discussing in detail the flowers he has sent her.

Author: 
H. Rider Haggard [Sir Henry Rider Haggard] (1856-1925), author of adventure novels including 'King Solomon's Mines' and 'She' [Caroline Starr Balestier Kipling (1862-1939), wife of Rudyard Kipling]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Ditchingham House, Norfolk. 13 December 1909.
£320.00

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, with one central vertical fold, and patch of small holes at head of second leaf. Interesting letterhead, with image of Egyptian hieroglyphics. Someone (probably Mrs Kipling) has written 'orchid' on the first page. The letter begins: 'Mr dear Mrs. Kipling, | I sent you a few flowers today by post, also (by rail to Etchingham) a Cypripedium Insigne, a Blush Rambler & a Lady Gay rose. The Cyp: Insig: is very fairly hardy but I should not stand it in too violent a draught.

[ Margaret Armstrong, Lady Armstrong, gardener. ] Autograph Letter in the third person to 'Messrs Carr' [ of the Newcastle Daily Journal ], asking them to insert a notice of the death of 'Mr. John Pratt', one of her family's servants at Jesmond Dene.

Author: 
Margaret Armstrong [ née Margaret Ramshaw ], Lady Armstrong (1807-1893), gardener, wife of William George Armstrong (1810-1900), 1st Baron Armstrong [ Algernon Percy, 4th Duke of Northumberland ]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Jesmond Dene, Newcastle on Tyne. 26 December 1865.
£40.00

Margaret Ramshaw of Bishop Auckland married the industrialist William George Armstrong (1810-1900), 1st Baron Armstrong, in 1835. She played an important role in the design of the gardens at Jesmond Dene, the couple’s house in Newcastle, and later at Cragside, which is now a National Trust property. 2pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice, and with traces of mount on blank second leaf.

[ Rev. Thomas Arthur Preston of Marlborough College, botanist. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('T. A. Preston') to J. Ramsay, regarding 'the connection between Vegetation & Climate', a subject 'in its infancy'.

Author: 
T. A. Preston [ Rev. Thomas Arthur Preston ] (1833-1905) of Marlborough College, botanist
Publication details: 
On letterhead of The College [amended by Preston to 'Green'], Marlborough. 28 May 1881.
£250.00

12pp., 12mo. On three bifoliums. In good condition, lightly aged. A long speculation - of great interest in the light of subsequent developments - on 'the connection between Vegetation & Climate', beginning with a discussion of 'the case of the Hawthorn'. 'The whole subject', he notes, 'at present is in its infancy and there are so many varied questions for wh. we seek answers that at present I do not think we can state any certain conclusions. | Botanically, the constitution of each species is an interesting source of investigation.

[ Printed periodical. ] The first number of 'The Gardening World'.

Author: 
[ Brian Wynne, FRHS, publisher of 'The Gardening World', London ]
Publication details: 
'No. I. - 1884.' London: 'Printed by Thomas Harper Meredith, and Published by Brian Wynne, at the Office [ of the Gardening World ], 17, Catherine Street, Covent Garden, in the Parish of St. Paul's, County of Middlesex. Saturday, September 6, 1884.'
£80.00

16pp., large 8vo (36 x 26.5 cm). In fair condition, aged and worn, and on rag paper rather than newsprint. Illustrations throughout. Advertisements at front and back. An editorial gives the aims of the paper, and includes the following: 'Who can doubt but that in the United Kingdom there are at the present moment fully one million of adult persons deeply imbued with a love for gardening. [...] Who, twenty years ago, would have believed that over 100,000 readers of gardening papers were possible?

[ The English garden. ] Manuscript plan of unnamed garden, with bloom calendar table showing the blooming patterns of more than a hundred flowers.

Author: 
[ The English garden; gardening; ecology ]
Publication details: 
Place not stated [ England ]. 1928.
£120.00

The table or bloom calendar is in a makeshift table, ruled out in pencil over 2pp., folio. It is in poor condition, heavily-aged, divided into two sections along central horizontal fold line, and with slight loss to text from chipping.

[ James Lothian, Scottish gardener. ] Autograph Letter Signed to Daniel Mctaggart of Kilkerran, sending a book on the 'Potatoe question'.

Author: 
James Lothian (1817-1871), Scottish gardener, author of the first English book on the cultivation of Alpine plants [ Daniel McTaggart [ Mactaggart ] of Kilkerran, Argyll, Scotland
Publication details: 
No place. 19 June 1854.
£56.00

2pp., 16mo. Bifolium. Addressed on reverse of second leaf to 'Daniel McTaggart Esq: of Kilkeran [sic]'. In fair condition, on lightly aged paper. He is sending him 'Keith' (i.e. a book by George Skene Keith), which contains 'some facts bearing on the Potatoe question'. He has other works on the same matter, but they are 'out', with the exception of 'Vol: 2 of the Gardener which I send down'. In his opinion 'Works on Forrest [sic] trees and Landscape Gardening throw no light on either disease or Longivity [sic] of Plants.

[Printed newspaper, with halfpenny tax stamp.] Gore's Liverpool General Advertiser.

Author: 
John Gore, proprietor of Gore's Liverpool General Advertiser [John Blackburne (1754-1833) of Hale Hall, near Liverpool, and Orford Hall, Warrington, Member of Parliament for Lancashire, 1784-1830]
Publication details: 
['Advertisements taken in by J. Gore, Castle-Street, Liverpool'.] No. 1260. - Vol. XXV. Thursday, February 18, 1790. Price Three Pence Halfpenny.
£85.00

4pp., folio. Bifolium. Complete, on aged and worn paper.

Autograph Note, third person, tp "[Mr Ward?]", about a box at Drury Lane and busines involving his agent.

Author: 
William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire, peer, courtier and Whig politician
Publication details: 
Lismore Castle, 7 Sept. 1812.
£45.00

One page, cr.8vo, faint staining (foxing?) but text clear and complete. "the Duke of Devonshire has only today received Mr Wards letter cponcerning the box at Drury Lane. Mr Heaton [his agent] Old Burlington St will transact the business with the committee upon this letter being shown to him." He succeeded to the title on the death of his father in 1811.

Manuscript Letter, with price list, from the nurserymen Thomas Bunyard & Sons of Maidstone, Kent, to the naturalist Rev. Charles William Shepherd of Trotterscliffe. With list of plants by Shepherd.

Author: 
Thomas Bunyard & Sons, The Nurseries, Maidstone, Kent, Victorian 'Nurserymen, Seedsmen and Florists' [Rev. Charles William Shepherd (1838-1920) of Trotterscliffe, near Maidstone, Kent, naturalist]
Thomas Bunyard & Sons
Publication details: 
18 February 1869; on letterhead of The Nurseries, Maidstone [Kent].
£95.00
Thomas Bunyard & Sons

12mo, 2 pp. Bifolium. With two pages of lists of plants by Shepherd. Good, on aged paper. In remains of original envelope. The letterhead advertises that the firm also has a branch at Ashford. Begins: 'We can supply you with the shrubs &c you kindly enquire about at the Prices named on other side - your orders for which will have our careful attention'. Three are marked with a cross, being 'very critical trees to move' for which the firm 'can undertake no responsibility as to their success'. Prices given for fifteen types, from 'Spruce Trees - 4 ft.

Autograph Note Signed ('Dorothy Nevill') to 'Mr <Descou?>'.

Author: 
Lady Dorothy Nevill [Lady Dorothy Fanny Nevill, née Walpole] (1826-1913), hostess and horticulturist
Publication details: 
Friday 18th' [no date]; on embossed letterhead of Dangstein, Petersfield.
£28.00

12mo: 1 p. 8 lines of text. On aged paper somewhat grubby around signature at foot. Asks when he will be 'able to come to us to meet the d[uke] of Wellington'. They are 'at liberty any time between the 4th and 11th of January'.

Typed Letter Signed ('Juliette') to 'Dick' [Frank Richard Cowell, b.1897], together with carbon of typed reply.

Author: 
Juliette Huxley [Lady Marie Juliette Baillot] (1896-1994), wife of the English scientist Julian Huxley (1887-1975) [Frank Richard Cowell]
Publication details: 
Letter, 27 January 1966; on letterhead 31, Pond Street, Hampstead, N.W.3. Reply, 29 January 1966.
£125.00

Juliette Huxley's letter is 4to: 2 pp. Good, though lightly creased and attached to the other items by a paperclip. The correspondence mainly concerns a book by Cowell's eventually published under the title 'The garden as a fine art: from antiquity to modern times' (1978). She begins by describing Mary Wellesley: 'quite a character [...] lives in a small house off St. James's Palace, and entertains by candlelight.

Autograph Letter Signed to J.C. Loudon c/o Longman & Co., Paternoster Row, London".,

Author: 
Samuel Taylor.
Publication details: 
Whittington Stoke Ferry, 15 Nov. 1833.
£100.00

Four pages, 4to, fold marks, discoloration, some damage with minor loss of text.

Typed Letter Signed to F. R. McQuown.

Author: 
Ian William Beresford Nye
Publication details: 
15 September 1964, on letterhead of the British Museum (Natural History), Department of Entomology.
£35.00

Entomologist (1924-), author of the monumental 'Generic names of moths of the world' (6 vols, 1975-91). The recipient is the author of several works on gardening. 1 page, 8vo. In good condition, but creased and with one closed tear and with sellotape stains at head and foot. He thanks his correspondent for the letter of 10 September enclosing a caterpillar, and compliments him on its preservation. '[I]t is in perfect condition for determination. It is very difficult to preserve the green coloration, as in life.' He identifies the specimen as a cabbage moth.

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