LADY

[Lady Burne-Jones [Georgina Burne-Jones, née Macdonald], wife and biographer of Pre-Raphaelite artist Sir Edward Burne-Jones.] Her calling card (‘Lady Burne-Jones’) with autograph addition.

Author: 
Georgina Burne-Jones [née Macdonald, known as ‘Georgie’], Lady Burne-Jones (1840–1920), wife and biographer of Pre-Raphaelite artist Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£220.00

See her entry by Jan Marsh in the Oxford DNB, added in 2022 after the publication of Marsh’s ‘Pre-Raphaelite Sisters’ (2019). 9 x 5.5 calling card, engraved in copperplate. In fair condition, lightly aged. Laid out in the customary fashion, with centred ‘Lady Burne-Jones.’, and at bottom left: ‘The Grange, / 49, North End Road, / West Kensington, W.’ In her autograph at head: ‘with sincere thanks / from’, and beneath her engraved name ‘& family’. See image.

[Lady Knightley [Louisa Mary Knightley], Anglican churchwoman and Conservative suffragist.] Autograph Letter Signed to ?Phoebe?, asking her to design a bookplate for volumes presented to her by the Girls? Friendly Society, Peterborough Diocese.

Author: 
Lady Knightley [Louisa Mary Knightley, n?e Bowater] (1842-1913), prominent Anglican churchwoman and Conservative suffragist [Girls? Friendly Society, Peterborough Diocese]
Publication details: 
9 June 1904; on letterhead of Fawsley Park, Daventry.
£50.00

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo, with the first page also bearing the conclusion of the letter and signature ?L M Knightley?, cross-written. On bifolium of grey paper. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded for postage. She begins by asking for a favour, explaining that she has had ?a most lovely present from my G. F. S.

[Countess of Elgin and Kincardine [Mary Louisa Bruce, née Lambton], Vicereine of India.] Autograph Letter in the third person to Sir Cuthbert Sharp, as Lady Mary Lambton, hailing him as a friend of her deceased father.

Author: 
Countess of Elgin and Kincardine [Mary Louisa Bruce, née Lambton] (1819-1898), Vicereine of India, 1862-1863, daughter of the Earl of Durham [Sir Cuthbert Sharp (1781-1849), historian]
Publication details: 
22 October 1844; Lambton Castle [County Durham].
£56.00

See her husband’s entry, and those of her father the Earl of Durham, and Sir Cuthbert Sharp, in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with small closed tear to blank area at foot of second leaf. Folded for postage. Laid down on leaf removed from album. Begins: ‘Lady Mary Lambton presents her Compliments to Sir Cuthbert Sharp, and begs to express her grateful sense of the kind message, conveyed to her through Mrs. Brodie, concerning Sir C. Sharps small pamphlet -’.

[Sibell, Lady Wyndham (previously Countess Grosvenor).] Autograph Letter Signed (‘Sibell Grosvenor’) to the opera singer Madame Albani, discussing the death of her father-in-law the Duke of Westminster.

Author: 
Lady Wyndham [previously Sibell Mary Grosvenor (née Lumley, daughter of the Earl of Scarborough), Countess Grosvenor] (1855-1929), wife of George Wyndham [Dame Emma Albani (1847-1930), opera singer]
Publication details: 
‘Epiphany [6 January] 1901’; on letterhead of the Chief Secretary’s Lodge, Phoenix Park, Dublin.
£60.00

See the entry on her second husband George Wyndham in the Oxford DNB. Wyndham had been appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland a few months previously (October 1900). His plans were ambitious, but after some success they would flounder, leading to a nervous breakdown: within four years of the present letter the Prime Minister Arthur Balfour would write to Lady Wyndham that was ‘utterly ruined’ and ‘really hardly sane’. See also the ODNB entry on the recipient. 4pp, 12mo, with text concluding crossways at top of first three pages. Bifolium with mourning border. In fair condition, lightly aged.

[‘How brilliant of you’: ‘E. M. Delafield’, pseudonym of the novelist Edmée Elizabeth Monica Dashwood, author of ‘The Diary of a Provincial Lady’.] Autograph Card Signed (‘E. M. D.’) to Martin Bretherton, commending him for finding ‘Willow Brook’.

Author: 
‘E. M. Delafield’, pseudonym of novelist Edmée Elizabeth Monica Dashwood [née de la Pasture (1890–1943), prolific novelist, best known for ‘The Diary of a Provincial Lady’ (1930)
Publication details: 
15 January 1943. Printed at head: ‘From Mrs. DASHWOOD, Croyle, Cullompton, Devon.’
£35.00

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. On post card with red stamp printed on it, addressed to ‘Martin Bretherton Esq. / Wakefield / Mortimer / Berks.’ The message reads: ‘How brilliant [last word underlined] of you to have found Willow Brook! Please bring it to Whitchall at all costs, & let me see it. I never have. / E. M. D. / 15. 1. 43.’

[Lady Hosie [Dorothea Hosie], amateur film maker and writer on China.] Autograph Letter Signed (‘Dorothy [sic] Hosie’) to ‘Mr. Burdett’, describing reviews she is writing and the critical response to her ‘Portrait of a Chinese Lady’.

Author: 
Lady Hosie [Dorothea Hosie, née Soothill] (1885-1959), amateur film maker and writer on China, wife of the diplomat and explorer Sir Alexander Hosie (1853-1925)
Publication details: 
11 December 1929. 4 Bradmore Road, Oxford.
£90.00

For information about the Lady Hosie and her husband see his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage, and with a minor closed tear to edge of fold at head of leaf. Addressed to ‘Dear Mr. Burdett’ and signed ‘Dorothy [sic] Hosie’. Forty-one lines of closely-written text. The letter concerns a review she has written for a periodical whose title is difficult to decipher (‘The L[?]’). She was ‘going to type out a fair copy’, but thinks Burdett ‘may like it at once’. If he feels ‘portions of it unsuitable’, he ‘can then delete’. ‘Mr.

[Lady Charlotte Bury, Regency novelist of the ‘Silver Fork’ school.] Autograph Letter in the third person, requesting that Sir William Hamilton subscribes to a forthcoming work by her.

Author: 
Lady Charlotte Bury [Lady Charlotte Susan Maria Bury, née Campbell] (1775-1861), Regency ‘Silver Fork’ novellist and diarist, lady in waiting to George IV’s wife Queen Caroline
Bury
Publication details: 
26 August 1831. 3 Park Square, London.
£50.00
Bury

The daughter of the fifth Duke of Argyll, Lady Charlotte bore eleven children to her two husbands, and was forced to write novels by her first husband’s death and second husband’s profligacy. See her entry in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 16mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Neatly attached by a paper hinge to part of a leaf from an album. Begins: ‘Lady Charlotte Bury presents her Compts to Sir William Hamilton, & takes the liberty of soliciting for the honor & favor of his name, as a subscriber to a work by Lady Charlotte of which the enclosed Prospectus gives every particular.

[Hannen Swaffer, Fleet Street journalist and spiritualist.] Typed Letter Signed to theatre historian W. Macqueen-Pope, with carbon of the reply, regarding the music hall artiste Belle Bilton, who became Lady Dunlo.

Author: 
Hannen Swaffer [Frederic Charles Hannen Swaffer] (1879-1962), Fleet Street journalist and spiritualist [Walter James Macqueen-Pope, theatre historian; Belle Bilton, music hall artiste [Lady Dunlo]]
Publication details: 
Swaffer’s letter: 9 May 1951; 8 St Martin’s Place, Trafalgar Square, WC2 [London]. Carbon of Macqueen-Pope’s letter: 11 May 1951; 359 Strand, WC2 [London].
£45.00

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. From the Macqueen-Pope papers. Each item in good condition, lightly aged, with creasing and rust staining to one corner from a paperclip. ONE: Swaffer to MP. TLS, signed ‘Swaff’. 1p, 4to. ‘Dear Popey, / Do you know anything about this woman? [From the context he is sending MP an enquiry he has received from ‘Mr. Le Poer Trench’] I presume she was a legitimate actress.

['The notorious Lady Craven', i.e. Lady Elizabeth Craven, Margravine of Anspach.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Elizabeth'), explaining (to her publisher Henry Colburn?) a passage from her 'Memoirs' regarding the 'Pye […] Calld Paté de Peregeux'.

Author: 
Elizabeth Craven, Lady Craven, Margravine of Anspach [Margravine of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Bayreuth; born Lady Elizabeth Berkeley] (1750-1828), courtesan [Henry Colburn, London publisher]
Publication details: 
No place. 'Saturday | 5 Mar 14 [i.e. 1814]
£150.00

1p, 8vo. On laid paper with watermarked date 1811. In good condition, lightly aged, with stub from mount adhering. In a contemporary hand at head: '0 15', and at foot '5 Mar 14' and 'Margravin Anspach'.

[‘The Beautiful Lady Craven’: Elizabeth, Margravine of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Bayreuth, playwright, travel writer and source of scandal.] Three Autograph Letters Signed, one asking ‘Mrs. Roe’ to look out for flannel and a mantua maker.

Author: 
Elizabeth, Margravine of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Bayreuth [ [née Lady Elizabeth Berkeley; Elizabeth Craven, Lady Craven] (1750-1828), playwright, travel writer and source of scandal
Publication details: 
No dates or places..
£180.00

A friend of Horace Walpole, she was described by Boswell, after a dinner with her and Dr Johnson, as ‘the beautiful, gay, and fascinating Lady Craven’. See her entry in the Oxford DNB. The three items are laid down with eight other items (see the end of this description) on pieces of paper cut down from two leaves of an album. Somewhat discoloured with age, but in fair overall condition. The recipient or recipients of the second and third letters (laid down on the same piece of paper) are not named, although the third is written to a member of her ‘fishing gentry’.

[Lady Elizabeth Craven, Margravine of Anspach.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Elizabeth. M of B. A & B | Ps. Berkeley -') to coachbuilder 'Mr. Thomas', regarding the delivery of 'a well seasond [sic] Carriage' to Brandenburg House, Hammersmith.

Author: 
Lady Elizabeth Craven, Margravine of Anspach [Brandenburg-Anspach-Bayreuth] [née Lady Elizabeth Berkeley; also Princess Berkeley] (1750-1828), travel writer and society hostess [Thomas, coachbuilder]
Publication details: 
4 June 1800; no place [Brandenburg House, Hammersmith].
£120.00

For Lady Craven's colourful life see her entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 8vo. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. Folded four times. Begins: 'Mr. Thomas, I will thank you to send my Carriage by a Western Waggon, immediately here - directed to Hr. S. Highness The Margravine of Anspach Brandenburg house, near Hammersmith, and I hope as I have waited so long for it that it will be a well seasond [sic] Carriage - & reasonable in Price, which if it is, and finish'd to my Satisfaction, you may depend ont that it will not be the last by many which you will make'.

[Lady Mary Jane Jemima Shelley [née Stopford], wife of Sir Charles Shelley.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Mrs. Hollingsworth’, regarding their children and Wellington College.

Author: 
Lady Mary Jane Jemima Shelley [née Stopford] (1851-1937), wife of Sir Charles Shelley, 5th Baronet, and daughter of the Earl of Courtown
Publication details: 
29 March [no year, but circa 1897]. On letterhead of Avington, Alresford, Hampshire.
£56.00

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Folded once for postage. In good condition, lightly aged, with unobtrusive line of discoloration on blank reverse of second leaf. Signed ‘Mary. J. J. Shelley’ and addressed to ‘Dear Mrs. Hollingsworth’. With envelope with stamp torn away, addressed in another hand to ‘Mrs. Hollingsworth / The Glen / Gurnard / Cowes.’ She begins with instructions for filling in a form for 'Mrs. Acland', and ends with a reference to the recipient’s son, whose ‘two friends are still both at Wellington College’.

[Lady Margaret Sackville, poet and children's author, mistress of Ramsay MacDonald.] Typescript of juvenile novel 'Sylvia Thistledown', with autograph emendations, regarding the advetures in Fairy-land of Amelia Egerton and the fairy of the title.

Author: 
Lady Margaret Sackville (1881-1963), English poet and children’s author, who had an affair with Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, daughter of Earl De La Warr, cousin of Vita Sackville-West
Publication details: 
On front cover: 'Margaret Sackville | 22. Lansdowne Terrace | Cheltenham'. Undated, but date stamped 30 November 1945.
£450.00

According to the Daily Telegraph, 2 November 2006 (see the end of this description), Lady Margaret Sackville was 'a poet who mixed with writers such as W B Yeats and Wilfred Scawen Blunt, was a friend of Lady Ottoline Morrell, a leading member of the Bloomsbury Set'. 167pp., 4to. Each page on the recto of a separate leaf, the whole bound with green thread through punch holes in margins. The first page worn and with label (of literary agent?) removed from head, otherwise in good condition, lightly aged and worn.

[Lady Salisbury, wife of the Prime Minister.] Autograph Letter Signed to Charlotte Mary Yonge, discussing ‘the original casket letters’ of Mary Queen of Scots found by Dr Brewer at Hatfield House.

Author: 
Lady Salisbury, wife of Prime Minister the Marquis of Salisbury [Georgina Caroline Gascoyne-Cecil [née Alderson] (1826-1899), Marchioness of Salisbury; Charlotte Mary Yonge (1823-1901), author]
Publication details: 
10 September [circa 1882]. From Castel du Parc, Royat-les-Bains, Clermont Ferrand, Puy de Dome, France; on cancelled Hatfield House letterhead.
£150.00

See her own entry in the Oxford DNB, as a ‘political wife’, and that of Yonge, whose ‘Unknown to History: A Story of the Captivity of Mary of Scotland’ was published in 1882. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Signed ‘G Salisbury’ and addressed to ‘Miss Yonge’. In good condition, with negligible remnants of windowpane mount adhering at edges. ‘One of the original casket letters was found at Hatfield some years ago by Dr Brewer who was then looking over the papers on behalf of the Record Office to which he belonged - Also a copy of another - of the same date.

[Women’s National Anti-Suffrage League: Frances J. Balfour, Hon. Sec. of Sheffield & District Branch.] Autograph Letter Signed (possible spoof) to ‘Mr. Sayers’ [A. H. Sayers], requesting contribution so branch can become ‘influential & successful’.

Author: 
Women’s National Anti-Suffrage League; Frances J. Balfour, Hon. Sec. of the Sheffield & District Branch [Rev. A. H. Sayers of Monmouth]
Publication details: 
Dated ‘Sheffield & District Branch / Arcadia / March 31st. 09’. On letterhead of Women’s National Anti-Suffrage League, Caxton House, Tothill Street, Westminster, London, S.W.
£120.00

1p, 4to. In fair condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Considering the tone of the letter, the similarity between the signatories name and that of the prominent suffragist Lady Frances Balfour (1858-1931), and the fact that there is no record of a Sheffield branch of the WNASL, nor of a place in Warrington called ‘Arcadia’, nor of any Balfours living there, one must strongly suspect that this letter is a spoof, perhaps written by in some such scenario as a pro-suffrage child of a member of the WNASL, having got hold of one of the organisations blank letterheads. Or perhaps not.

[Lady Maud Wilbraham, President of the Silver Thimble Fund.] Autograph Card Signed to ‘Mrs Allan’ [Mrs Evelyn Julia Allan] of the Red Cross, thanking her for a contribution, and deploring the state of the times.

Author: 
Lady Maud Wilbraham [Lady Alice Maud Bootle-Wilbraham] (1861-1922), President of the Silver Thimble Fund [Mrs Evelyn Julia Allen of the Chelsea Red Cross; Mrs Hope Elizabeth Hope Clarke of Wimbledon]
Publication details: 
1 June 1918. With printed details of ‘The “Silver Thimble” Fund’, its Wimbledon address deleted and replaced by Wilbraham’s: 26 Lower Sloane Street, SW1 [London].
£35.00

An evocative artefact of one of the most successful British charities of the Great War. The Silver Thimble Fund was founded by Hope Elizabeth Hope Clarke of Wimbledon in 1915, and run from her house. Damaged trinkets made of precious metals, including 60,000 silver thimbles, were collected and melted down, paying for fifteen ambulances for the front and other medical transportation and equipment. The recipient is Mrs. Evelyn Julia Allan, listed in 1918 in the London Gazette as Honorary Secretary, Chelsea Division, British Red Cross.

[Isobel Cripps [Lady Cripps], overseas aid organizer.] Two duplicated Second World War handbills, in the form of facsimiles of Autograph Letters Signed, regarding the British United Aid to China Fund.

Author: 
Isobel Cripps [Lady Cripps; née Swithinbank] (1891-1979), overseas aid organizer, wife of Labour politician Sir Stafford Cripps [British United Aid to China Fund]
Publication details: 
Neither printed handbill dated, but both dating from the Second World War. Both on London letterheads: one for 13 Regent Street, SW1; the other for 57 New Bond Street, W1.
£50.00

Two scarce pieces of wartime ephemera. See her entry, and that of her husband, in the Oxford DNB. The former explains how, during the Second World War, Lady Cripps was president of the British United Aid to China Fund, and that in 1946 ‘she undertook an extensive and arduous tour of China’, being entertained by both Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong. The journey was ‘one of 30,000 miles which included travel by air, sea, road, rail, and truck. Most of the great cities of China were visited and to see co-operative work in rural areas the Gansu Desert was crossed by lorry.

[Ethel Snowden, Fabian socialist and suffragist.] Seven Typed Letters Signed and one Autograph Letter Signed, to Rev. A. H. Sayers, regarding a talk by her to the League of Nations Union, Monmouth; with one after her husband’s death.

Author: 
Ethel Snowden, Viscountess Snowden [née Ethel Annakin] (1881-1951), Fabian socialist, suffragist, temperance and peace campaigner, wife of first Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Snowden
Publication details: 
The ALS and six of the TLsS from 1934, one TLS from 1937 and another undated (but from November 1934), All eight items from Eden Lodge, Tilford, with four on letterheads.
£280.00

She her entry, and that of her husband, in the Oxford DNB. Throughout her life she inspired a range of responses. The ‘Labour Leader’ described her as a ‘second Annie Besant’, while Manny Shinwell dismissed her as ‘the would-be Sarah Bernhardt of the party’; to Lord Reith, during her time as a BBC governor, she was ‘the Scarlet Woman’. The present eight items are in good condition, lightly aged, and all folded for postage. A total of eleven typed pages (4to, 12mo and 16mo) and one page in 4to autograph. All signed ‘Ethel Snowden’.

[Maud Tree, actress and wife of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Mrs. Le Blond’, regarding her efforts to stage a matinée, with reference to Sir Oswald Stoll, Sir Alfred Butt, George Grossmith and various London theatres.

Author: 
Mrs Beerbohm Tree [Maud Tree; Lady Tree; born Helen Maud Holt] (1863-1937), actress, wife of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, mother of Viola Tree [Sir Oswald Stoll; Sir Alfred Butt; George Grossmith]
Publication details: 
Undated (after 1901). On letterhead of 7 Adam Street, Adelphi [London].
£50.00

See the entries on the various members of the Tree family in the Dictionary of National Biography. 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Thirty-eight lines of text. In good condition, lightly aged, with pin holes to corner. Folded once. Good firm signature ‘Maud Tree’. She does not want her to think that she is ‘losing sight of the Sunday Matinée’. She had to wait for Sir Oswald Stoll’s answer, ‘& it was kind, but it said regretful No’. She then wrote to Sir Alfred Butt ‘for the Palace or the Empire. His answer was also a sad No. - But now Mr. George Grossmith has offered me His Majestys or the Winter Garden.

[Margot Asquith, Countess of Oxford.] Autograph Letter Signed (Draft?), urging her ‘Darling’ to overcome the ‘love of blue in yr. pictures’ and ‘do an oil sketch of white on white’. With reference to Selwyn Image.

Author: 
Margot Asquith [Emma Margaret Asquith, Countess of Oxford and Asquith, née Tennant] (1864-1945), wife of Liberal Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, author and socialite
Publication details: 
12 March 1932; on letterhead of 44 Bedford Square, W.C.1. [London.]
£50.00

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. An interesting letter, whose circumstances are intriguing. 3pp, 12mo. On two leaves of letterheaded paper. In pencil. From the Asquith papers, and possibly a draft letter to her son Anthony (‘Puffin’). In good condition, lightly creased. Folded once. The signature is a short squiggle. The handwriting is challenging, and the following interpretation is tentative. She begins: ‘My Darling, I felt rather guilty after leaving you about abusing yr. love of blue in yr. pictures. - I can see that nothing I say can alter yr. love of this colour, & I hate hurting yr.

[Catherine, Duchess of Cleveland, mother of the Prime Minister Lord Rosebery.] Autograph Signature (‘C Clevd.’) to Typed Note urging ‘Dear Jim’ to visit her.

Author: 
Duchess of Cleveland [Catherine Lucy Wilhelmina Powlett; née Stanhope; also Lady Dalmeny, Lady Harry Vane] (1819-1901), aristocrat, historian, genealogist, mother of Earl of Rosebery, Prime Minister
Cleveland
Publication details: 
‘May 24 Wednesday [no year]’; on letterhead of Osterley Park, Southall.
£45.00
Cleveland

On one side of 19 x 9 cm slip of paper with Osterley Park letterhead with her crested monogram in gold and black. In fair condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Somewhat shaky and curiously-antiquated signature. Typed note in capitals. One word and a few minor corrections to text in autograph. Reads: ‘May 24 Wednesday / My dear Jim / I am here at the receipt of custom - will you come & when? Come to dine & sleep - or stay.

[Margot Asquith, Countess of Oxford.] Autograph Signature ('Margot Oxford') to Copy of Typed Letter to the Editor of The Times, regarding the plans of the University of London with regard to the preservation of Torrington Square, Bloomsbury.

Author: 
Margot Asquith [Emma Margaret Asquith, Countess of Oxford and Asquith, née Tennant] (1864-1945), wife of Liberal Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, author and socialite [University of London; Birkbeck]
Publication details: 
Without date or place. [Circa 1935.]
£120.00

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, long 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged. Headed ‘TORRINGTON SQUARE. / To the EDITOR of The TIMES’. Whether the letter was published or not, and if so whether it appeared in its entirety, is unclear. Clearly a carbon, but with her characteristic signature at end in black ink ‘Margot Oxford’. The forty-seven-line text has four autograph emendations.

[Princess Basma bint Talal of Jordan.] Typed Letter Signed to Lady Monckton, thanking her for sending’Comfrey roots’ for her family the ‘Royal Stables’.

Author: 
Princess Basma bint Talal (b.1951), daughter of King Talal and Queen Zein of Jordan, sister of Hussein of Jordan and paternal aunt of the current king Abdullah II [Lady Monckton]
Bint
Publication details: 
21 October 1986. On her royal letterhead.
£150.00
Bint

1p, 4to. Salutation and valediction in the princess’s autograph. Stylized signature with Roman lettering. Addressed to ‘The Viscountess Monckton of Brenchley’ at her estate in Maidstone, Kent. They are all ‘delighted’ with the ‘Comfrey roots’ which she sent as promised, and ‘look forward to seeing the results on the horses’. ‘My niece, Her Royal Highness Princess Alia was also pleased to receive her share for the Royal Stables’. The letter ends with the usual courtesies. See image.

[Lady Penelope Balogh [Penelope Gatty], psychotherapist and biographer of Sigmund Freud.] Autograph Letter Signed (‘Pen.’) to ‘Mash’[?], regarding her novel.

Author: 
Lady Penelope Balogh [previously Penelope Gatty; born Penelope Tower] (1916-1975), psychotherapist and biographer of Sigmund Freud, wife of Oliver Gatty (1907-1940), chemist and psychical researcher
Publication details: 
6 January 1949. On letterhead of 2 Rawlinson Road, Oxford.
£50.00

2pp, 4to. In fair condition, aged and creased. Folded once.

[‘Why don’t you ask me to do it for you?’: Sidney Webb, Fabian theorist.] Three Autograph Letters Signed to A. G. L. Rogers, one criticising a pamphlet he has a hand in, another declining to put himself forward for the Liberal candidacy in Stepney.

Author: 
Sidney Webb [Sidney JamesWebb, Baron Passfield] (1859-1947), Fabian Society theorist and socialist politician, literary collaborator with his wife Beatrice Webb (1858-1943) [A. G. L. Rogers]
Publication details: 
ONE: 22 September 1891; on letterhead of 4 Park Village East, N.W. TWO: 6 February 1892; 4 Park Village East, N.W. THREE: 8 June 1893; on letterhead of the London County Council, Spring Gardens, S.W.
£150.00

See Sidney Webb's entry in the Oxford DNB, now unaccountably placed within that of his wife. From the papers of Arthur George Liddon Rogers (1864-1944), son and editor of the economist Thorold Rogers [James Edwin Thorold Rogers] (1823-1890), for information regarding whom see his entry in the Oxford DNB. The three items in good condition, lightly aged. Each folded once. All three signed ‘Sidney Webb’; the first to ‘Sir’, the second to ‘My dear Rogers’, and the third to ‘Dear Rogers’. ONE: 22 September 1891. 4pp, 12mo.

[Lady Pembroke, object of the affections of the insane King George III.] Autograph Letter Signed (‘Eliz: Pembroke’) to her nephew the Hon. George Ellis, having received permission from the Queen to allow him to ‘cut a dash abroad’.

Author: 
Lady Pembroke [Elizabeth Herbert [née Spencer], Countess of Pembroke and Montgomery] (1737-1831), object of the affections of King George III during his first bout of insanity [Hon. George Ellis]
Publication details: 
'Saturday morning. 29th. June. [no year]'
£60.00

See her entry in the Oxford DNB, which states that ‘During his periods of ‘madness’, George III imagined that he was married to Lady Pembroke. Apparently, 'his infatuation went back to the days when he was only seventeen and she, of the same age, was Elizabeth Spencer'. The king went so far as to make 'her handsome offers if she would be his mistress.’ [...] In 1804 the king suffered another attack of dementia and again announced his desire for Lady Pembroke. This situation aroused some amusement among younger courtiers since she was by this time almost seventy years old.” 1p, 12mo.

[‘Not well fitted for stimulating the Imperial British sentiment’: Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace, Times foreign correspondent, assesses a volume on South Africa with ‘Cape Dutch’ sympathies.] Autograph Letter Signed (‘D. M. Wallace’) to Lady Jersey.

Author: 
Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace (1841-1919), Scottish journalist, foreign correspondent of The Times, Private Secretary to future King George V [Margaret Villiers (1849-1945), Countess of Jersey]
Publication details: 
14 February 1902; on letterhead of St. Ermin’s Mansions, Caxton Street, S.W. [London]
£45.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. On bifolium. A thin strip (no more than 1 cm deep) has been cut away at the head of the first leaf, with no loss of text, otherwise in good condition. Folded once. Written a few months after Wallace’s return from his duties as Private Secretary to the future King George V on his world tour on HMS Ophir, and during the Second Boer War. Wallace has just been struck by the thought that ‘though I returned the Volume on South Africa to the address in Victoria Street’ he forgot to give her his opinion of it.

[Duff Cooper, author and diplomat.] Autograph Letter Signed and Typed Letter Signed to ‘Tommy Earp’ of the Daily Telegraph, regarding the book ‘Voyage de Shakespeare’ (by Léon Daudet) and his own book on the same subject (‘Sergeant Shakespeare’).

Author: 
Duff Cooper [Alfred Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich] (1890-1954), author, diplomat and Conservative politician [Thomas Wade Earp (1895-1958), art critic and writer; Léon Daudet; Shakespeare]
Publication details: 
Typed letter, 9 January 1952; autograph letter, 11 April 1952. Both on letterhead of Château de St. Firmin, Vineuil, Oise.
£90.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Both letters in good condition, lightly aged. Both signed ‘Duff Cooper’ and the first addressed to ‘Thomas Earp, Esq., / Kitcombe House, / Newton Valence, / Alton, / Hants.’ ONE: TLS, 9 January 1952. 1p, 12mo. He will try to get hold of a copy of ‘Voyage de Shakespeare’ and is glad Earp liked his ‘little book on the same subject’. In an autograph postscript he writes: ‘I suppose you have tried the London Library.’ TWO: ALS, 11 April 1952. 2pp, 12mo.

[Adalbert, Prince of Bavaria.] Autograph Letter Signed (‘Adalbert | Prince de Bavière.’), in French, to Lady Cullum, discussing the benefits of dehorning livestock, and presenting her with two gold medals for her efforts in promoting the practice.

Author: 
Adalbert, Prince of Bavaria (1828-1875), ninth child of King Ludwig I, and uncle of the ‘mad king’ Ludwig II [Lady Ann Cullum (1807-1875), wife of Sir Thomas Gery Cullum (1777-1855) of Hardwick House.
Publication details: 
4 November 1861; Munich [Germany].
£180.00

Written while his brother Maximilian II was on the throne. (Following Maximilian’s death in 1864 Bavaria would be ruled by the celebrated ‘mad king’, Adalbert’s nephew Ludwig II.) The recipient is Lady Ann Cullum (1807-1875), widow of Rev. Sir Thomas Gery Cullum (1777-1855), 8th Baronet, of Hardwick House, Bury St Edmunds, who is referred to as ‘botanist and antiquary’ in his eponymous father’s entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 4to. Thirty-six lines, neatly and closely written. On first leaf of bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged and creased. Folded twice.

[F. Carruthers Gould [‘FCG’, Sir Francis Carruthers Gould], British caricaturist and cartoonist.] Autograph Letter Signed to Lady Maxwell Lyte, stating that he is ‘always conscious of failure’ when attempting to ‘put sentiment into a cartoon’.

Author: 
F. Carruthers Gould [Sir Francis Carruthers Gould; 'FCG'] (1844-1925), British caricaturist and political cartoonist [Lady Frances Lyte (d.1925), wife of Sir Henry Maxwell Lyte (1848-1940)]
Publication details: 
19 November 1916; Upway, Porlock [Somerset].
£35.00

See Gould’s entry in the Oxford DNB, with that of Lady Lyte’s husband. The Lytes were Somerset neighbours of Gould. 1p, 12mo. In good condition. He is glad to hear that ‘Mr Logsdail has done the drawing for you for he would be able to do far more justice to it than I could possibly have achieved’. On the occasions when he is called upon to ‘put sentiment into a cartoon’ he is ‘always conscious of failure and it is well to know one’s limitations’.

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