JOHN

Map by A. B. Becher showing 'The Course of the Quorra, (the Joliba or Niger of Park) from the Journals of Messrs. Richard and John Lander. With their Route from Badagry to the Northward, in 1830.'

Author: 
Alexander Bridport Becher, 1796-1876 [Hugh Clapperton (1788-1827); Richard Lemon Lander (1804-1834); John Lander (1807-1839); Niger [Quorra] River, Nigeria; Africa]
Map by A. B. Becher showing 'The Course of the Quorra
Publication details: 
'A. B. Becher, del. J. & C. Walker, Sculpt.' [Produced to accompany the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, vol. 1, 1831.]
£65.00
Map by A. B. Becher showing 'The Course of the Quorra

Approximately 27.5 x 31 cm. Printed in black and white, with relief shown by hill shading. A detailed map, showing the routes of the 1830 expeditions in Nigeria of the Landers' and of Captain Clapperton. Lightly aged, with closed tears unobtrusively repaired with archival paper. Small vignettes of 'Eboe House' and 'Hut called in Borgoo, Catambo.'

[Printed pamphlet.] [Carta de Junius Lusitanus] A. S. Excellencia Lord Palmerston, Ministro e Secretario d'Estado dos Negocios Estrangeiros da Grã-Bretanha.

Author: 
'Junius Lusitanus' [P. Midosi?] [Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston; Septembrist Revolt in Portugal, 1846]
[Printed pamphlet.] [Carta de Junius Lusitanus] A. S. Excellencia Lord Palmersto
Publication details: 
Date and publisher not stated. [Lisboa [Lisbon], Na Imprensa Nevesiana, 1847.]
£135.00
[Printed pamphlet.] [Carta de Junius Lusitanus] A. S. Excellencia Lord Palmersto

4to, 24 pp, paginated 3-27. Lacking title-leaf; otherwise with text clear and complete under drop-head title (lacking the initial 'Carta de Junius Lusitanus' which would have been part of the missing title leaf) with Latin motto ('Palmam qui mecuit ferat.'). Disbound. On aged paper with slight wear to extremities. Addressing British Foreign Secretary Palmerston with regard to the United Kingdom's position on the Septembrist Revolt in Portugal in 1846. COPAC and WorldCat only lists three copies: at the British Library, Harvard and King's College London.

Autograph Letter Signed from Abbott Lawrence, United States Minister to the Court of St James, to James Wyld, Member of Parliament for Bodmin, concerning his gift to the American people of his 'New Map of Central America'.

Author: 
Abbott Lawrence (1792-1855), United States Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of St James, 1849-1852, founder of Lawrence, Massachusetts [James Wyld (1812-1887), mapmaker]
Abbott Lawrence (1792-1855), United States Envoy Extraordinary...
Publication details: 
28 February 1850; 138 Piccadilly, London.
£225.00
Abbott Lawrence (1792-1855), United States Envoy Extraordinary...

4to, 1 p. Text clear and complete. In original envelope, addressed by Lawrence and with his red wax seal and frank ('Abbott Lawrence'), 'To | James Wyld Esqre M.P. | &c &c &c | Charing Cross East'. On aged and stained paper. He thanks him for his 'New Map of Central America', which he will 'transmit to Washington, where I believe it will be thought, that you have made ample provision for the "Mosquito Indians"'. The following year Wyld would erect his 'Great Globe' in Leicester Square, where it would remain until 1862.

Autograph Letter Signed, in the third person, from Lord Montagu of Dilton Park, Buckinghamshire, requesting that 'Mr. Wilde' send a set of Foden's maps of Spain to Lord John Scott.

Author: 
Henry Montagu-Scott (1776-1845), 2nd Baron Montagu of Boughton, of Dilton Park, Buckinghamshire [Lord Montagu; Lord John Scott; William Faden (1750-1836), cartographer]
Autograph Letter Signed, in the third person, from Lord Montagu of Dilton Park
Publication details: 
26 March 1826. [Dilton Park, Buckinghamshire.]
£65.00
Autograph Letter Signed, in the third person, from Lord Montagu of Dilton Park

4to, 1 p. Nine lines. Text clear and complete. On aged, creased and worn paper. He asks Wilde to send, by a Leicester coach, 'the four Sheet Map of Spain published by the late Mr. Faden, fitted into a travelling Case, to Lord John Scott, Aylestone', billing Montagu 'at Dilton Park near Windsor'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('(Thomas Hyde Hills) | John Bell & Co') from Thomas Hyde Hills of John Bell & Co [later John Bell & Croyden], Oxford Street, to the M.P. James Wyld, regarding jury exemption for pharmaceutical chemists.

Author: 
Thomas Hyde Hills (c.1852-1902), pharmaceutical chemist with John Bell & Co, 338 Oxford Street, and Mayor of Cambridge [James Wyld (1812-1887), cartographer and Member of Parliament for Bodmin]
Thomas Hyde Hills (c.1852-1902), pharmaceutical chemist with John Bell & Co
Publication details: 
2 August 1862; 338 Oxford Street, London.
£75.00
Thomas Hyde Hills (c.1852-1902), pharmaceutical chemist with John Bell & Co

12mo, 2 pp. Fifteen lines. Text clear and complete. Thanking Wyld for his 'Support on Thursday in the House of Commons, agreeing with the Lords' Amendment for the exemption of Pharmaceutical Chemists serving on Juries'. He hopes that the exemption will prove 'a Stimulus to Pharmaceutical education and thereby be of great service and increased safety to the Public'. Hills was Mayor of Cambridge from 1894 to 1895.

Two Autograph Letters Signed (both 'Eversley') from to 'Mr Yonge' [Julian Bargus Yonge of Otterbourne House?], the second with reference to the British Museum.

Author: 
J.B. Yonge
J.B. Yonge
Publication details: 
20 March 1868 and May 24 1873, the first from 69 Eaton Place, London, and the second on the letterhead of the British Museum.
£75.00
J.B. Yonge

Both 12mo, 2 pp. On bifoliums, the first with mourning border. Both texts clear and complete. Aged and lightly creased, with the first item bearing traces of being mounted in an album. Letter One: He hopes to be 'present at the next Sessions', and will be 'quite prepared after the County business is over, to attend the Committee of Subscribers to Sir William Heathcotes Portrait'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('E. Herbert') from Lady Elizabeth Herbert to 'My dear Bishop' [probably Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford], regarding a vote in the House of Lords, and 'base & ungenerous treatment' of Lord Sydney.

Author: 
Lady Elizabeth Herbert
Lady Elizabeth Herbert
Publication details: 
11 May 1858; on letterhead of 49 Belgrave Square.
£56.00
Lady Elizabeth Herbert

12mo, 2 pp. Fair, on lightly aged and creased paper. Although it is 'unnecessary' , she is writing 'in Sidney's name to implore for your Vote & interest on Friday next as against the Govt. - Independently of the grave question at issue as regards India no friend of Lord Canning's can be indifferent to the base & ungenerous treatment he has received'. Sidney is writing to the Bishop of Salisbury 'in the same sense', and if he cannot come to London for the vote, he will, she hopes, 'send his proxy'. Docketed on reverse 'Authoress'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W. J. Newton') from the miniature painter Sir William John Newton to James Lakyn, regarding damage to his house in Argyle Street caused by building works.

Author: 
Sir William John Newton (1785-1869), miniature painter to King William IV and Queen Victoria [Richard Westmacott (1799-1872); Burrell & Valpy, architects]
Sir William John Newton (1785-1869), miniature painter to King William IV and Qu
Publication details: 
19 October 1864; 6 Argyle Street, London.
£60.00
Sir William John Newton (1785-1869), miniature painter to King William IV and Qu

12mo, 3 pp. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. 'Mr Westmacott [the sculptor Richard Westmacott the younger?]' has called on him, and he has 'shown him the settlement all down my Wall - I told him that you had seen it but did not contemplate any immediate danger - he said that Mr Valpy [Henry Valpy (fl.1851-1885) of the architects Burrell & Valpy] was out of town'. Westmacott will write to Valpy, as he thinks there ought to be 'a conference with' Lakyn, who 'should be requested to make a report'.

Autograph Letter in the third person from Sir Robert Inglis to 'Mr Barrow' [J. H. Barrow, editor of the 'Mirror of Parliament'], regarding a recent speech by him in the House of Commons.

Author: 
Sir Robert Inglis
Autograph Letter in the third person from Sir Robert Inglis
Publication details: 
12 August 1831; Manchester Buildings, Westminster.
£66.00
Autograph Letter in the third person from Sir Robert Inglis

12mo, 2 pp. 24 lines. Text clear and complete. He finds, 'upon reconsideration', that the conversation he referred to that afternoon took place two days later, and regrets that he gave Barrow 'the unnecessary trouble of sending for papers in error; & possibly attributing an inattention to the Gentleman employed at the time as a Reporter'.

Autograph Letter Signed ['G Shaw Lefevre'] from George John Shaw-Lefevre, later 1st Baron Eversley, regarding working conditions of miners.

Autograph Letter Signed ['G Shaw Lefevre'] from George John Shaw-Lefevre
Publication details: 
21 March 1892; on letterhead of 18 Bryanston Square.
£56.00
Autograph Letter Signed ['G Shaw Lefevre'] from George John Shaw-Lefevre

12mo, 1 p. Ten lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. He does not have 'sufficient information' to give an opinion on the question his unnamed correspondent refers to, 'namely whether a 5 days a week system would be preferable to Miners to an uniform 8 hours a day work'. The question is 'quite new' to him, and he 'must reserve an opinion till I know more about the subject'. Later in 1892 Shaw-Lefevre would be appointed First Commissioner of Works in Gladstone's government.

[Pamphlet.] "'The Stench of Nazism . ." [Including 'The Appalling Story Of Rzhev' and John Gibbons's 'Scenes Of Horror Never To Be Forgotten'.]

Author: 
[The Communist Party of Great Britain; John Gibbons; Sergeant Air-Gunner J. A. Clough]
The Stench of Nazism . .
Publication details: 
Published by the Communist Party of Great Britain, 16 King St., London, W.C.2, and printed by the Farleigh Press Ltd. (T.U.), Beechwood Works, Watford. [29 April 1943]
£65.00
The Stench of Nazism . .

12mo, 8 pp. Staining and slight damage to first leaf from rust from staples, otherwise good on aged paper. (Two words of text are lacking, but easily supplied in the following: 'to die the struggle' and ve this message to my friends'). Slug carries code 'CP/C/29/4/43.', the last three elements indicating the date of publication. The front page carries a photograph of Clough, a twenty year-old 'reported missing from an operational flight', and reproduces a letter left by him for his parents.

4 Autograph Letters Signed from John Stuart Bligh, 6th Earl of Darnley, and 8 Autograph Letters Signed, Autograph Card Signed, and 5 invitations from his wife Harriet Mary, Countess of Darnley, all to Rev. Charles William Shepherd of Trotterscliffe.

Author: 
John Stuart Bligh (1827-1896), 6th Earl of Darnley, of Cobham Hall, Kent, and his wife Harriet Mary (1829-1905) [née Pelham], Lady Darnley [Rev. Charles William Shepherd (1838-1920) of Trotterscliffe]
6th Earl of Darnley
Publication details: 
1853, 1855, 1889; from various addresses including the House of Lords and Cobham Hall, Gravesend, Kent.
£225.00
6th Earl of Darnley

The Earl of Darnley's four letters (all signed 'Darnley') total 27 pp in 12mo; Lady Darnley's eight letters (all signed 'H. Darnley') total 26 pp in 12mo. All items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Darnley's first letter, 16 September 1853 (12mo, 12 pp), is unusually blunt for the period, and revealing on the etiquette of the period. It begins: 'I trust that the change in your mode of addressing me was accidental, and I have therefore not imitated it, and have used one word which you omitted [presumably 'Dear'].

Corrected typescript of Scottish science-fiction writer John Keir Cross's unpublished BBC radio verse play 'The Balloon', with five Typed Letters Signed and one Autograph Letter Signed from Cross to the Faber production manager Montague Shaw.

Author: 
John Keir Cross (1911-1967), Scottish writer of science fiction and fantasy [BBC radio; Cedric Thorpe Davie (1913-1983), composer]
John Keir Cross (1911-1967), Scottish writer of science fiction
Publication details: 
Script of 'The Balloon', c. 1946. Letters dating from between 1948 and 1966; the first three from Muswell Hill, London; the last three from South Brent, Devon.
£150.00
John Keir Cross (1911-1967), Scottish writer of science fiction

Typescript of 'The Balloon': landscape 8vo, 24 pp. Text clear and complete. On aged paper. With pencil emendations (including the deletion of a number of passages) on practically every page. Described by Cross as a 'radio composition' and a 'fantasy for broadcasting', 'The Balloon' presents an absurd take on T. S. Eliot's verse plays. It was transmitted on the Scottish Home Service of the BBC in 1946, with music by Cedric Thorpe Davie (1913-1983). There is no record of it having been published. The five typed letters total seven 4to pages. The autograph letter is landscape 12mo, 1 p.

Typescript of BBC radio programme 'Tomorrow's Doomsday. A biographical symposium to mark the centenary of the death of Thomas Lovell Beddoes 1803-1849' by John Keir Cross and Montague Shaw.

Author: 
John Keir Cross (1911-1967), Scottish writer of science fiction and fantasy; Montague Shaw, production manager at Faber & Faber Ltd [Thomas Lovell Beddoes, English poet]
John Keir Cross (1911-1967), Scottish writer of science fiction
Publication details: 
[Pencil note gives date of transmission on the BBC Third Programme as 29 January 1949.]
£150.00
John Keir Cross (1911-1967), Scottish writer of science fiction

Folio, [ii] + 16 pp. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged and spotted paper. First page headed in pencil 'Mr. John Keir Cross' and with the following, also in pencil, at foot: 'Transmission: Sat. 29th January, 1949. | 7.45-8.25 p.m. Third Prog.' First two pages give details of the production, including the names of the producer Noel Iliff and of the seven 'Speakers': Alan Wheatley, Laidman Browne, Valentine Dyall, Patricia Jessel, Anthony Jacob, Robert Marsden and Raf de la Torre. Second page includes instructions regarding the characters of the 'Voices' and a 'Production Suggestion'.

Manuscript 'Case for Mr. Wheeler', asking 'Whether Mrs. Boulton [Anne, wife of James Watt's partner Matthew Boulton] is or is not dowable of a Moiety of this Estate?' With Francis Wheler's signed autograph legal opinion on the question.

Author: 
Francis Wheler of Whitley, lawyer [Matthew Boulton (1728-1809), business partner of John Watt; Boulton's brother-in-law Luke Robinson; John Barker, Lichfield banker; Lunar Society of Birmingham]
[Matthew Boulton (1728-1809), business partner of John Watt]
Publication details: 
Wheler's opinion dated 'Temple July 12 1764'.
£125.00
[Matthew Boulton (1728-1809), business partner of John Watt]

Folio, 1 p. Text clear and complete. Lightly-aged and creased. Remains of red wafer in left margin. Folded into a packet, and docketed on reverse 'Case for Mr. Wheler | 1 G[uine]a. | Martin & Hay for Nevill'. The upper half of the document consists of eighteen lines in the hand of the enquirer (presumably one of a firm of solicitors named 'Martin & Hay", acting for one 'Nevill'), with the last two lines posing the question; the lower half consists of fifteen lines in Wheler's hand, signed by him 'Frans Wheler', and dated by him in the bottom left-hand corner.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Edmund C. Stedman') from the American man of letters Edmund Clarence Stedman to the Blackburn poet John Thomas Baron ('Jack O'Anns')

Author: 
Edmund Clarence Stedman (1833-1908), American poet, critic and essayist [John Thomas Baron (1856-1922), Blackburn dialect poet, writing under the pseudonym 'Jack O'Anns']
Publication details: 
31 January 1883; on letterhead of 71 West 54th Street, New York.
£350.00

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. Forty-eight lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on aged paper. Begins 'One must needs be a churl indeed to be a laggard in his response to a letter containing words of so sweet breath composed as yours!' He thanks Baron for his 'kind & encouraging letter', and considers that an author 'has no keener or more lawful pleasure than to find that the errors of his song or tale has [sic] lodged (as Longfellow says) in the heart of some far-off and unknown friend'.

Autograph Letter Signed from Raleigh Trevelyan ('R. Trevelyan') to Robert Thorp of Alnwick, agent to the Duke of Northumberland, with signed autograph draft of letter by Thorp, and manuscript copies of four Trevelyan letters, and of a cheque.

Author: 
Raleigh Trevelyan (1781-1865) of Netherwitton Hall [Robert Thorp of Alnwick; the Duke of Northumberland; John Abernethy; Sir John Richardson]
Publication details: 
October and November 1832.
£150.00

Seven items, all in very good condition on lightly-aged paper. Trevelyan's idiosyncratic and hypochondriacal character comes through strongly in this correspondence, ostensibly concerned with his application to become a magistrate, but largely devoted to the state of his health. ONE and TWO. Manuscript copies of short letters from Trevelyan to Thorp and the Duke of Northumberland. Both dated 22 October 1832, and both 4to, 1 p. Requesting 'a Dedimus, as a commencing Magistrate'. THREE. Manuscript copy of letter from Trevelyan to Thorp. 23 October 1832; Netherwitton, Morpeth. 4to, 1 p.

Copy of manuscript 'King's Warrant' [King George III], declaring 'Major General Saml. Townsend, discharged from further accounting for the Sum of £17464. 14. 8 received by him for Recruiting Service from the end of the year 1778, to 24th. June 1786.'

Author: 
[Major-General Samuel Irwin Townsend (1732-1794), 19th Foot; American War of Independence; King George III'; William Pitt the Younger; Edward James Eliot; Sir John Aubrey]
Major-General Samuel Irwin Townsend
Publication details: 
'Given at Our Court at Saint James's this First day of May 1787 in the Twenty Seventh Year of Our Reign.'
£180.00
Major-General Samuel Irwin Townsend

Folio, 2 pp. On first leaf of bifolium, with the verso of the second leaf docketed, under the heading 'King's Warrant'. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. Headed '(Copy)', and with 'George R' in a bold hand in the top left-hand corner. Although the signature is almost certainly not in the hand of the king, the document is docketed in pencil: 'Signature of his late beloved Majesty King George III on Copy of a Warrant retained by General Saml. Townsend'.

Autograph Letter Signed from the editor of the Cornhill Magazine Leonard Huxley to the novelist 'Moray Dalton' [Katherine Mary Dalton Renoir].

Author: 
Leonard Huxley (1860-1933), English author son of the zoologist Thomas Henry Huxley ['Moray Dalton', pseudonym of Katherine Mary Dalton Renoir (1882-1963), novelist]
Leonard Huxley (1860-1933)
Publication details: 
8 August 1917; on letterhead of the Cornhill Magazine, 50A Albemarle Street, London.
£85.00
Leonard Huxley (1860-1933)

4to, 2 pp. Sixteen lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. He congratulates her on her 'success in the Saturday Westminster Essay Competition'. He is grateful to her for 'guessing that I should be interested in this work of yours after having plied my scalpel upon your novel "The Sword of Love".' He regrets that 'for many a long year' he has 'done no general reviewing outside the publisher's office. There the flood of MSS. that poured in furnished effectual occupation.

Typed copy, with annotations, of depositions in the case Rex v. Mir Anwaruddin, heard at the Central Criminal Court, 1918, following a libel action against Horatio Bottomley. For 'Director of Public Prosecutions [Sir Charles Willie Mathews]'.

Author: 
[Mir Anwaruddin (b. 1888); Sir Charles Willie Mathews (1850-1920), Director of Public Prosecutions; Horatio Bottomley (1860-1933), proprietor and editor of the magazine John Bull, and fraudster]
Publication details: 
Headed 'Central Criminal Court, 25th June, 1918.' [The trial took place on 2 July 1918.]
£450.00

Folio, [i] + 49 pp. Text clear and complete. A mimeographed typescript, with text and manuscript annotations. Clear and complete, on aged and creased paper. Typed in bottom right-hand corner of covering title: 'Director of Public Prosecutions.' Anwarudding was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1913, and between that year and 1918 his marital difficulties caused him to appear before thirteen different High Court Judges in eight different courts.

[Printed pamphlet.] Cataclysm Has Begun! [With covering Typed Letter Signed from Williamson to George H. Brook.]

Author: 
J. J. Williamson [John Jacob Williamson], Founder-President, the Society of Metaphysicians Ltd, Hastings, Sussex [Nuclear proliferation; Cold War; Atomic Bomb]
 Cataclysm Has Begun!
Publication details: 
Pamphlet: 1955. The Society of Metaphysicians Ltd. Letter: 19 February 1955; on letterhead of the Society of Metaphysicians Ltd, Archers' Court, Stonestile Lane, Hastings, Sussex.]
£250.00
 Cataclysm Has Begun!

4to, vii + 21 pp. Stapled pamphlet, on two different paper stocks (white and grey), front cover detached Text clear and complete. Good, on aged paper, with crease to one corner of title-leaf. Title leaf printed, the rest mimeographed. Pp. v-vii consist of an appendix at the rear of the volume. Occult pseudo-science (the Society's logo is a pentacle), presaging the hippie 'retreat from reason' in the face of Cold War realities. Begins 'For ten years the Society of Metaphysicians has worked in the interests of human unity at all levels.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J Crowe') by John Crowe, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Norwich Union Fire & Life Insurance Societies, to Major-General John Hall, regarding 'the misconduct of the Secretary Mr Thos Bignold Senr.'

Author: 
John Crowe, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Norwich Union Fire & Life Insurance Societies [Major-General John Hall (1770-1823) of Park Hall, Mansfield Woodhouse; Thomas Bignold (1761-1835)]
Publication details: 
16 November 1818; Union Office, Norwich.
£280.00

Folio, 2 pp. On the rectos of the two leaves of a bifolium. On laid paper watermarked 'Gilling & Allford 1816'. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The first page contains a letter addressed to 'General Hall' from 'Union Office | Norwich 16th Novr. 1818', forty lines long and signed 'J Crowe'. The second page is headed 'Norwich Union Life Insurance Society | Statement of the particulars of the misconduct of the Secretary Mr Thos Bignold Senr.' It contains a six-point indictment of Bignold, totalling thirty-seven lines.

Nine Typed Letters Signed, one Typed Note Signed and one Autograph Card Signed (all eleven 'Nicolette') from the author and artist Nicolette Devas to the military historian Antony Brett-James.

Author: 
Nicolette Devas [née Macnamara; other married name Shephard] (1911-1987), author and artist [Antony Brett-James (1920-1984), military historian and Sandhurst lecturer]
Nicolette Devas
Publication details: 
[1960-74?] All from West London. Card postmarked 11 October 1960, on cancelled letterhead of Anthony Devas, 12 Carlisle Square. Three items (none with year) on letterhead 18 Wetherby Gardens; seven (two from 1974) on letterhead 68 Limerston Street.
£550.00
Nicolette Devas

Apart from the card (12mo, 1 p), totalling 4to, 10 pp; 12mo, 2 pp. All items in good condition, with text clear and complete, on lightly-aged paper. All post-1960. Two of the eleven (20 January and 13 June 1974) are fully dated by Devas; another four have day and month. The card from 1960 is the earliest item; the three from Wetherby Gardens date from between this point and Devas's second marriage to Rupert Shephard in 1965, and the seven from Limerston Street from after the marriage. A good-natured correspondence, written in a chatty style.

Printed 'Proof of a Report - never issued' regarding 'the right of the Liverpool Library to the occupation of a certain part of the Lyceum', with a long manuscript memorandum and an Autograph Letter Signed from attorney John Robinson to John Abraham.

Author: 
John Abraham (1813-1881) of Clay & Abraham, pharmaceutical chemists [The Lyceum, Bold Street, Liverpool; Liverpool Library]
 Liverpool Library
Publication details: 
Robinson's letter: 20 February 1867; Coburg Terrace, West Derby Road, Liverpool. Other items undated [c. 1850?].
£750.00
 Liverpool Library

The subscription Liverpool Library within the Lyceum, founded in 1757, is believed to have been the first circulating or lending library in Europe, and the first two of these items provide a valuable insight into its status at the time when the advent of the public library system was undermining its position.

Autograph Letter Signed ('John Murray') from the London publisher John Murray IV to Colonel Spencer Childers, regarding his biography of his father the Liberal Chancellor Hugh Culling Eardley Childers.

Author: 
Sir John Murray IV (1851-1928), London publisher [Colonel Edmund Spencer Eardley Childers (1854-1919), son of Hugh Culling Eardley Childers (1827-96)]
Sir John Murray IV (1851-1928), London publisher
Publication details: 
April 1901; on letterhead of 50 Albemarle Street.
£56.00
Sir John Murray IV (1851-1928), London publisher

12mo, 4 pp. 40 lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Addressed to 'My dear Spencer'. He is sorry to have missed Childers: 'I came back early on Sat: morning fairly driven home by the weather.' Reports that 'Better reviews of the book are now appearing Athenaeum - evidently by Dilke: Tablet: Pall Mall &c.' Thinks 'Clarke will use his influence with the Times', the idea that 'King' has done so being 'entirely out of the question'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Fred Norgate') from the London publisher Frederick Norgate (of the firm Williams & Norgate) to [John] Lawler, concerning the printer William Caxton and bookseller Bernard Quaritch.

Author: 
Frederick Norgate (1817-1908), British publisher, of the firm Williams & Norgate [Bernard Quaritrch; William Caxton; John Lawler]
Frederick Norgate (1817-1908), British publisher,
Publication details: 
29 July 1902; 7 Edith Road, London.
£56.00
Frederick Norgate (1817-1908), British publisher,

12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium. 47 lines. Text clear and complete. On aged paper, wear and fraying to extremities. The cutting which Lawler leant him 'has helped me to trace one stage further in the wanderings of more than one vagabond Caxton'. Refers to John Winter Jones's discovery of a copy in the British Museum of the 'Quatre Derrenieres Choses', 'now more than 50 years ago [...] it has remained absolutely unique until our old friend at 15 Piccadilly [Bernard Quaritch] came upon a 2nd copy'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('George Henry Glasse') from the classical scholar Rev. George Henry Glasse [to the editor of the Gentleman's Magazine John Nichols], offering his services 'as corrector of your press for any quantity of Greek'.

Author: 
Rev. George Henry Glasse (1761-1809), classical scholar, son of Dr Samuel Glasse (1734-1812) [John Nichols (1745-1826), editor of the Gentleman's Magazine; John Milton; James More]
Autograph Letter Signed ('George Henry Glasse')
Publication details: 
7 June 1791; Hanwell Rectory, Middlesex.
£95.00
Autograph Letter Signed ('George Henry Glasse')

4to, 1 p. 18 lines of text. Clear and complete. Fair, on aged and lightly-stained paper. Neatly laid down on a leaf removed from an album. Lightly marked-up in red pencil by the recipient. After professing respect for Nichols's 'literary character' and his 'valuable miscellany', Glasse offers his services 'as corrector of your press for any quantity of Greek you may incidentally have occasion to publish'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Charles Stirling') from Captain (later Vice-Admiral) Charles Stirling to the First Lord of the Admiralty, George John Spencer, Earl Spencer, docketed by Spencer with his response.

Author: 
Vice-Admiral Charles Stirling (1760-1833) [George John Spencer (1758-1834), Earl Spencer, First Lord of the Admiralty]
Publication details: 
13 November 1800; [on board H.M.S.] Pompée [at] Causand [i.e. Cawsand, near Plymouth].
£145.00

4to, 2 pp. Seventeen lines. On worn aged paper, with the cropping of one margin resulting in minor loss to a few words of text. Requesting inclusion in 'any arrangement which may be made' regarding 'a move from Halifax [Nova Scotia]' as a result of a 'late vacancy at the Navy Board'. He is writing despite having 'neither claim or pretension' to Spencer's 'goodness', but 'having received an answer not sufficient to banish hope, in an application about 3 years ago', he is induced to try again.

Signed black and white photograph by the Scottish silent movie star John Stuart, who starred in Alfred Hitchcock's first film (and another by the director), and in several Gainsborough Studios features.

Author: 
John Stuart [John Alfred Louden Croall] (1898-1979), Scottish silent movie actor [Alfred Hitchcock; Gainsborough Studios]
Publication details: 
'Photo by L. Protheroe.' Undated [1930s?].
£35.00

Black and white studio photograph, postcard format (14 x 9 cm). Laid down on leaf removed from autograph album. Good, on shiny photographic paper, with margin making dimensions of image 12.5 x 8 cm, captioned at foot 'JOHN STUART' and, in smaller type, 'PHOTO BY | L. PROTHEROE'. Stuart's inscription, in bottom right-hand corner, reads 'Best wishes | Sincerely yours | John Stuart'. Stuart's two Hitchcock films were the director's debut 'The Pleasure Gardens' (1925), and 'Number Seventeen' (1932).

Autograph Letter Signed by '<N. W. Lindley?>' of 35 Bedford Row, London, to unnamed male correspondent, concerning arrangements for a theatrical company mentioning John Oxenford, Helen Maltravers and Miss Aylmer.

Author: 
[Helen Maltravers, actress ; John Oxenford (1812-1877), English dramatist; the Princess's Company; the English stage; Victorian theatre; theatrical]
Arrangements for a theatrical company inc. John Oxenford, Helen Maltravers
Publication details: 
20 June 1864; 35 Bedford Row, W.C., London.
£23.00
Arrangements for a theatrical company inc. John Oxenford, Helen Maltravers

12mo, 3 pp. 30 lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged and creased paper. He sends a 'list of pieces' which he considers 'suitable for a Short Company'. The first piece named is 'The Silver Lining (the St James's Comedy)', in which he says there are 'only 4 Men & 3 women exclusive of Helen Maltravers'.

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