HOUSE

2 Autograph Letters Signed and 1 Typed Letter Signed to Mrs Roscoe.

Author: 
Mabel Constanduros
Publication details: 
18 April 1944 and 17 April 1945, both handwritten on letterhead 9 Wetherby Gardens, London, S.W.5; typewritten letter of 11 November 1947, on letterhead 10 Egerton Gardens, S.W.3.
£100.00

Humourist, actress and radio comedienne, originator of the Buggins Family. All three letters are 8vo, and in good condition, but all have damage to one corner caused by rusting paperclip. In the first letter she thanks her correspondent for 'the little books [...] I am a great lover of poetry, and like learning verse by heart. I used to do it in the early days of war to keep myself from worrying too much'. She has visited Stationers' Hall. Letter 2 is a note declining an invitation to a party.

Frank and letter.

Author: 
George Canning and Stratford Canning, 1st Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe
Publication details: 
The frank without date or place; the letter 30 June [no year], Grosvenor Street.
£85.00

George Canning (1770-1827), English Tory politician. The frank consists of only the central part of the front of the envelope, without stamp or postmarks, dimensions approximately 2 1/2 inches by 4 inches. Reads 'To D. O'Brien Esqre | 21 Craven Street | Geo: Canning'. Affixed at the foot of the recto of a letter written by his cousin Stratford Canning (1786-1880) in the third person (2 pages, 16mo, in good condition), reading 'Lord Canning begs that in the Votes distributed tomorrow morning the 2d. Reading of the Oxford University Bill may be fixed for Thursday the 6th. July.

Autograph Signature to House of Commons order.

Author: 
Rt Hon. James Abercromby [CALTHORPE STREET RIOT, COLD BATH FIELDS MEETING]
Publication details: 
26/07/33
£85.00

Politician (1776-1858; DNB), later Speaker of the Commons, later 1st Baron Dunfermline. The Committee investigated the riot which took place behind Cold Bath Fields Prison in London on 15 May 1833, during which three policemen were stabbed, one of them fatally. 1 page, 8vo. Not in the best of condition: grubby, worn and creased with several closed tears. Rear repaired with archival tape. Reads 'House of Commons. | Select Committee on Cold Bath Fields Meeting | Veneris, 26o die Julij, 1833. | Right Honble Jas. Abercromby in the Chair | Ordered, | That Mr.

Autograph Signature on fragment of letter.

Author: 
George Howard, 6th Earl of Carlisle
Publication details: 
26 September 1830; Castle-Howard.
£20.00

English aristocrat and Tory politician (1773-1848). Conclusion of letter cut into slip of paper, dimensions approximately 1 inch by 5 inches. In good condition with three small glue stains from mounting on reverse. Reads 'Believe me | ever faithfully yrs | Carlisle | Castle-Howard | Sepber 26 . 1830'. Reverse reads '<...> knowledge <...> it is singular that so much opposition should exist to so'.

Typed Note Signed to author and journalist M[yer]. J[ack]. Landa.

Author: 
Sir Donald Maclean
Publication details: 
10 February 1932; on Board of Education letterhead.
£25.00

British Liberal politician (1864-1932; DNB). 1 page, 4to. In good condition though dusty. 'My dear Landa, | Thank you very much for your kind note, which I greatly appreciate. [manuscript interpolation: '^ It was a difficult Parliamentary job.'] I also appreciate the [kind] note about the speech in your papers.' The reference may be to what the DNB calls Maclean's success in soothing the teachers, 'at that time furious at the cuts in their salaries'. He died of a heart attack brought on by overwork a few months later.

Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
John Charles Spencer, Viscount Althorp and 3rd Earl Spencer
Publication details: 
12 December 1833; Downing Street.
£45.00

Whig politician (1782-1845). 2 pages, 16mo. Dusty but in good condition. 'Dear Sir, | I have stated to Mr. Grant your desire for a for your son. But I could not express myself to him so as to make the appointment a favour to myself because I had before applied to him to give such an appointment to a friend of mine for his son, & I could not in justice withdraw this application. I stated however to him that I considered that the service you did in the Boundary Commission gave you a claim upon the Government, which my friend had not.' Signed 'Althorp'.

Autograph Letter Signed to Alfred Hill.

Author: 
John Somerset Pakington, 1st Baron Hampton
Publication details: 
19 June 1857; Eaton Square.
£25.00

English Conservative politician (1799-1880). 4 pages, 16mo. Creased and somewhat grubby, with minor damage at head of one leaf caused by previous mounting, but in good condition overall. He has received his correspondent's note and will 'be glad to aid the objects of the conference in any manner in my power'. He cannot however 'comply with the request of the Committee that I will preside over Section B. on Tuesday next'. He has to 'present the prizes at the Society of Arts on that morning'. There is also 'important evidence in a Committee of the H. of Coms.

Typed Letter Signed to the journalist and author M[yer]. J[ack]. Landa.

Author: 
Sir Lewis Gluckstein
Publication details: 
1 February 1937; 39 Elm Tree Rd, N.W.8, but on blindstamped House of Commons letterhead.
£50.00

Soldier and Tory politician (1893-1996), at 6 ft 7 inches the tallest ever Member of Parliament. 1 page, 16mo. Dusty but in good condition. He asks Landa to forgive him for not having thanked him earlier for assisting him with his lecture 'The Jew in Parliament'. He is grateful for 'the extremely valuable notes which you allowed Mrs. Knollys to take, and I feel that I can face my audience with equanimity and confidence.' Pencil notes on reverse giving addresses of W. A. Rutkowski, Samuel Lipman and Aaron Samuels.

1 Typed Letter Signed and 3 Autograph Notes Signed to journalist and author [Myer Jack] Landa.

Author: 
Isaac Leslie Hore-Belisha, Baron Hore-Belisha
Publication details: 
Letter, 1 May 1939, on Secretary of State for War letterhead; note 1 undated [docketed 'Nov 1931?'], on blind-stamped Commons letterhead; note 2, 4 June 1935; note 3, 6 November 1936; notes 2 and 3 on blindstamped Ministry of Transport letterheads.
£80.00

British politician (1893-1957), who gave his name to the 'Belisha Beacon'. All four items signed 'Leslie Hore-Belisha'. In the letter (1 page, 4to, in good condition) he thanks Landa for his note and says he 'should be most happy to do anything I could for you in the matter of the Tribunals. These, however, will come under the Ministry of Labour and not under the War Office. I think, therefore, it would be well if you get into touch with Ernest Brown.' All three notes 1 page, 16mo, and all three in good condition.

ALS, 2pp, 16mo, to unnamed correspondent

Author: 
Laurence Parsons, 4th Earl of Rosse (DNB), astronomer
Publication details: 
12 June 1890, on House of Lords paper, with blind stamp scored through and address given as 23 Hans Place, S.W.
£25.00

Gives details of where he is to be found in the coming week ("from 4 to 5 on each of those days at the Athenaeum club, I think at any rate by appointment, or I could call on you at the Temple at 4-15 on one of those days"). With marks and remains of gummed paper on reverse of otherwise-blank second leaf.

2 Autograph Letters Signed.

Author: 
[THE BRITISH MUSEUM] T. House of the Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, The British Museum, to Mrs [Frances?] Epps
Publication details: 
6 June 1951 and 2 April 1952; both on departmental letterheads.
£20.00

Both 1 page, 12mo. Both in good condition, although the first creased in two corners. It is unlikely that House held a senior position in his department as neither letter bears testimony to a good education. In the first letter he says he will be away from the Museum on a certain date, and suggests another day when, if convenient, he will 'bring the two ushabti figures from home and perhaps may be able to find others'. He saw Mr Epps on the previous day but 'we were too busy to talk'.

Autograph Letter Signed to A. E. Lidgett.

Author: 
Harry {Henry] Snell, Baron Snell
Publication details: 
9 September 1942; on letterhead of the Athenaeum, Pall Mall, S.W.1.
£30.00

British Labour politician (1865-1944), leader of the Labour Party in the House of Lords, 1935-40. 1 page, 16mo. In good condition, although creased and a little worn at head. 'I am sorry that you found it difficult to reach me. I leave here fairly early on the days that the House is in session & I must be there practically all the time.

1 Autograph Letter Signed from W[illiam?] Maugham to Percy Gye.

Author: 
William Maugham
Publication details: 
14 December 1874; Charter House.
£100.00

Provides invaluable information on the traditions of Charterhouse, the ancient charitable London institution. Maugham may well be the translator of Charles Tilt's 1828 edition of Friedrich Christian Accum's A Practical Essay on Chemical Re-agents. 4 pages, 16mo, grubby but in otherwise good condition. The first page has a mourning border. 'Saturday was the anniversary of the feast devoted to the memory of the founder, and the brothers, in health, feasted in the banquetting hall, and I dare say enjoyed themselves. I am on the sick list and was happily excused.

Three Typed Letters Signed, one Autograph Poem Signed, and Two Typed Letters signed by his Private Secretary.

Author: 
Wavell Wakefield
Publication details: 
All five Typed Letters on House of Commons notepaper, 1961-2; the poem April 1962.
£120.00

Politician and rugby player (DNB). The five letters all one page, 16mo, and each with two staple holes and in good condition. The autograph poem is on a printed bifoliate menu for the Cricket Society Spring Dinner (6 April 1962), 16mo, slightly discoloured. The letters relate to various Cricket Society Dinners. He agrees to attend the 1961 Spring Dinner at the Lords Tavern, but his private secretary P. Barling declines on his behalf an invitation to the autumn dinner as he is out of the country recovering from an operation.

autograph letter signed to W. D. Cooke

Author: 
Lord Cleveland on Battle Abbey, Sussex
Publication details: 
4pp, 8vo, Battle Abbey, 11 November 1869
£100.00

Is not sure whether he can find a ground plan of the Abbey before his alterations, but provides a detailed description of them, e.g. 'I took down some parts which were not old but added by Sir Godfrey Webster, built very badly of brick & cemented over to look like stone, and have rebuilt it of stone with a slight alteration so as to render it more in character'. He refers in detail to the rebuilding of the library 'which is 76 feet long is substantially the same building as the former one erected by Sir Anthony Brown after the dissolution of the monastery and its cession to him'.

fragment of autograph letter signed, correspondent unnamed

Author: 
Henry Richard Vassall Fox, 3rd Baron Holland (Lord Holland)
Publication details: 
2pp, 16mo, without date or place
£45.00

Whig statesman. 'Sir | I find that some persons have been to see Colonel Fox's house in Addison road & objected that the number of bedsteads, & quantity of kitchen utensils & crockery were scanty - I <...> & effects [last word deleted] common ware goods with [last word deleted] from which they may be supplied - I would sooner buy a <?> him such common things than lose a rest [last two words deleted] the opportunity of letting his house to a respectable tenant - | Vassall Holland'. Recto discoloured by glue from attachment to album. Several crease lines. With closed tear.

autograph letter signed to an unnamed male correspondent,

Author: 
Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt on George IV (1762-1830) as Prince Regent
Publication details: 
no date, but with watermark "1805", "Carlton House. / Tuesday night."
£50.00

One page, 8vo. "My dear Sir, / I have dined with the Prince alone & well weighed all that can happen at Plymouth, & am prepared to meet it. / The most material Point seems this Will L. vacate on Monday? for as the House has now adjourned till that day, He cannot now accept Office before that day. / Gl Baker breakfasts with me at ten, & if you will meet him or as soon after as shall suit your convenience I shall be most happy to see you. / Very truly yours / Thomas Tyrwhitt". Tyrwhitt was knighted in 1812, and was Usher of the Black Rod from that year until 1832.

Autograph letter signed to an unnamed reviewer,

Author: 
Sidney Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Lea
Publication details: 
23 May 1838, Wilton House, Salisbury.
£45.00

Politician (1810-61), friend and supporter of Florence Nightingale. 4 pp, 12mo. Difficult handwriting. "[...] I feel that I cannot undertake to do what you proposed to me; in such a manner as it ought to be done to do justice to the Review and to the subject. I must therefore ask you to cut me off at any rate for the next number. I hope this will not inconvenience you." Creased and grubby.

Syndicate content