LONGMANS

[The first English travelling chess set, invented by Peter Mark Roget; TWO from Family archive] The Roget family copies of ‘The Economic Chess-Board, Being a Chess-Board provided with a complete set of Chess-Men,’

Author: 
[The first English travelling chess set.] P. M. Roget, M.D. [Peter Mark Roget (1779-1869), doctor, scientist, inventor and lexicographer, compiler of the celebrated ‘Thesaurus’]
Chess
Publication details: 
Invented by P. M. Roget, M.D. And Registered according to Act of Parliament, November 10th 1845.
£1,500.00
Chess

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, and the biography by Joshua Kendall, ‘The Man Who Made Lists’ (2008). Roget’s travelling chess set was first marketed in April 1846 by De La Rue. Roget had parted company with the firm by October of the same year, moving to Longmans, while De La Rue continued to market their own rival version. Rarely found complete and undamaged.

Autograph Letter Signed ('John Murray') from John Murray II to the Edinburgh publishers Bell & Bradfute, concerning his account with them for Thomas Thomson's 'System of Chemistry'.

Author: 
John Murray II (1778-1843), London publisher [Bell & Bradfute, Edinburgh publishers]
Publication details: 
11 July 1810; London.
£65.00

4to, 1 p. Fourteen lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. He has been 'extremely unwell', and is sending '3 bills for the account of Thomsons Chemistry £1100'. 'I trust that you will not be dis-satisfied with this as I can assure you conscientiously that I could not afford to give them shorter.' Reference to Longmans, and to his anxiety, 'as you left the settlement to my own conscience'.

Statements of account of the sales of books by 'Owen Meredith' [Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton], by the London publishers Messrs. Macmillan & Co., Ltd., and Longmans, Green & Co.

Author: 
Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton (1831-1891), Viceroy of India and poet under the pseudonym Owen Meredith
Publication details: 
Dating from between 1890 and 1916. Longmans, Green & Co., 39 Paternoster Row, London, EC. June 1893 to June 1916. Messrs. Macmillan & Co., 29 & 30 Bedford Street, Covent Garden [later St. Martin's Street], London. April 1890 to June 1900.
£350.00

On forms printed in red and black, totalling 1p., folio; 40pp., landscape 8vo; 6pp. (of which four in landscape), 12mo. The seven accounts from Messrs. Macmillan & Co., all relating to 'The Ring of Amasis', are on seven sheets, landscape 8vo, dating from between 1889 and 1900.

[ Annotated by Author ]The History of the Church of Rome. to the End of the Episcopate of Damasus, A.D. 384 (with related items).

Author: 
Edward John Shepherd, Rector of Luddesdown.
Publication details: 
London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1851
£250.00

Author's own copy. Pp.vxi.541, cr. 8vo, with additional "Corrections" page, hf-lea, raised bands, worn, contents good, interleaved with additional blank pages, a few of which have notes in Shepherd's hand. The book derives from the residual archive of the family of E.J. Shepherd. No copy recorded in Lambeth Palace Library Catalogue. With (from the same archive): the Accounts, 1851-1853, prepared by Longmans giving costs and sales, these in MS. but they are on the reverse of a lengthy printed statement by Longman's headed "Paternoster Row, London | January 1843. | Messrs.

[ Longmans, London publishers. ] Prospectus for Clarke Abel's 'Personal Observations, made during the Progress of the British Embassy through China', and list of Longmans books 'Published in the Course of August and September [1817]'.

Author: 
Clarke Abel, Physician and Naturalist to the Embassy [ Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, of Paternoster-row, London Booksellers; Longmans; East India Company ]
Publication details: 
Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster-row. The prospectus is undated; the list of publications is dated 'Oct. 1817.'
£60.00

The two items are disbound, but attached to one another. On aged and worn paper. PROSPECTUS: 1p., 12mo. Reads: 'Mr. Abel's Account of the Embassy to China. | In the press, and immediately will be published, | In One Volume, Quarto, illustrated by Maps and other Engravings, of Landscape, Natural History, Geology, &c.

[James Anthony Froude, historian.] Autograhp Letter Signed ('J A Froude') to 'Conway' [Moncure D. Conway], regarding an article for the publishers Longmans.

Author: 
James Anthony Froude (1818-1894), historian [Moncure Daniel Conway (1832-1907), American abolitionist and Unitarian clergyman]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 5 Onslow Gardens, S.W. [London] 5 June [no year].
£56.00

2pp., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. He has 'desired Longman to send you half-a dozen copies of the magazine'. Conway can 'either sent them as they are, or cut your own article out'. Froude would prefer the first option, '& will of course bear the expense & the Postage'. The letter ends with Froude making a dinner invitation.

Six printed promotional items for 'The Collected Works of William Morris, to be issued in twenty-four volumes under the editorship of Miss May Morris' by Longmans, Green & Co, comprising prospectuses, specimen pages and engravings, and an order form.

Author: 
[William Morris; May Morris; Kelmscott Press; Dante Gabriel Rossetti; Longmans, Green & Company; fine printing; typography]
Publication details: 
London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1910.
£380.00

An interesting collection of typographical ephemera. ONE: Landscape 8vo wood engraving, captioned 'This illustration, entitled "Psyche in Charon's Boat," was engraved on wood by William Morris from a design by Edward Burne-Jones and forms one of a series in illustration of the story of Cupid and Psyche in "The Earthly Paradise." It is proposed to issue one or two of these designs, which have never been published, though one of them formed the frontispiece to the "Note on the Kelmscott Press" by Mr. S. C. Cockerell.' In good condition, on lightly-aged paper.

Manuscript itemised bill for books from 'Mr. John Nourse to Thomas Longman', with signed receipt by Longman at foot.

Author: 
Thomas Longman (1730–1797), London bookseller and publisher, nephew of the founder of the business Thomas Longman (1699-1755); John Nourse (1705-1780) bookseller at 138 Strand, London
Publication details: 
Nourse's bill is dated from London, for items purchased between 13 February and 5 October 1770. Longman's receipt is dated 4 April 1771.
£220.00

1p., landscape 8vo. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with small spike-hole (not affecting text), and minor traces of previous mount on reverse, which is docketed 'J. Nourse to T. Longman, 1770.' The bill lists five items, from 'Johnsons Dicty 2 V. folio' to 'Sherwin's Tables', with the date of purchase and price, coming to a total of £14 8s 4d. The receipt at the foot of the page reads 'April 4. 1771 Received the Contents - | [signed] Thos Longman'.

Autograph Letter Signed by 'J. B. Eardley-Wilmot L.L.D.', ostensibly requesting a book for review, but in fact the work of a fraudster.

Author: 
J.B. Eardley-Wilmot
Autograph Letter Signed by 'J. B. Eardley-Wilmot L.L.D.'
Publication details: 
20 May 1850; 133 Upper Grove Street, Gloucester Gate.
£65.00
Autograph Letter Signed by 'J. B. Eardley-Wilmot L.L.D.'

12mo, 1 p. 15 lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. He requests 'the favour of a copy of Dr 's work "The Hoe & the Canoe," for review'. He claims to be 'a friend of Lord Elgin the Governor', and to have been 'a long resident in the Canadas' in his 'official capacity', ending: 'it will afford me the utmost pleasure to say all I can in behalf in [sic] the reviewing publication with which I have the honour of being connected, of Dr 's work'. The truth about 'J. B.

Autograph Letter Signed ('A Lang') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Andrew Lang (1844-1912), Scottish man of letters
Publication details: 
15 December [no year, but after 1906]; on letterhead of Alleyne House, St. Andrews, Scotland.
£45.00

12mo: 3 pp. Bifolium. 27 lines, written in a shaky hand. On creased, discoloured paper, and with some damage to the second leaf caused by careless removal from mount. Two irregularly-shaped closed tears on the second leaf, one to the left of the signature, have been neatly repaired on the reverse with archival tape. He is glad that his correspondent likes 'our Odyssey: the Iliad is less attractive. [...] I dare not remember all my books, but will ask Messrs Longman to send a list of what they possess. All are very unpopular.' He doesn't write in 'T.

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