MEYNELL

[Wilfrid Meynell] Autograph Letter Signed Wilfrid Meynell to Massingham (H.J. or H.W.?)

Author: 
Wilfrid Meynell (1852 – 1948), newspaper publisher and editor.
Publication details: 
[Headed] Greatham, Pulborough, Sussex, 9 July 1915.
£28.00

Two pages, 12mo, good condition. Your kind thought in writing has been much appreciated [underlined] by all of us. Would that we had really earned the thanks! - some day, somehow you must let us try to do so. Meanwhile you must think of your visit here as a pleasure - conferred. I only wish we had been able to take a longer advantage of it. | 'Share'[?] joins all the family in kindest regards to you both, [...].

[Joseph Sams of Darlington, bookseller and traveller.] Two Autograph Letters Signed (both 'J. Sams'), to prospective customer Godfrey Meynell, describing the merits and deficiencies of 'a rare edition of Chaucer', and another book, in his catalogue.

Author: 
Joseph Sams (1784-1860) of Darlington, bookseller, dealer in antiquities, traveller in Egypt and Palestine [Godfrey Meynell]
Publication details: 
Both from Darlington. 15 and 17 August 1847.
£280.00

See Sams's entry in the Oxford DNB. Two letters providing an interesting glimpse of the practicalities of Victorian antiquarian bookselling. Both letters 3pp, 12mo, and bifoliums addressed on reverse of second leaf, with broken seals and postmarks, to 'Godfrey Meynell Esqre | at Mr Stamp's, | Surgeon, | Seaton Carew, | nr Hartlepool.' Both addressed to 'Respected Frd.' In fair condition, aged and worn. ONE: 15 August 1847. He begins by explaining that he was 'from home in the city of Durham' when Meynell's letter came.

[Robert Harling, typographer who may have served as model for James Bond.] Typed Letter Signed ('Luv Robert') to the bookseller Percy Muir, on his eightieth birthday, discussing their lives and criticising their old friend, Ian Fleming's wife Ann.

Author: 
Robert Harling [Robert Henry Harling] (1910-2008), typographer, designer, journalist and novelist, friend of Ian Fleming and possible model for James Bond [Percy Muir (1894-1979), bookseller]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of The Glebe House, Godstone, Surrey. 17 January 1975.
£450.00

See Harling's entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 4to. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded twice. The salutation ('My dear Percy'), valediction ('Luv Robert'), and one additional word in autograph; the rest typed. He begins by thanking Muir for a copy of 'PHM 80', the volume celebrating Muir's eightieth birthday.

[ Everard Meynell and his 'Serendipity Shop': catalogue by J. & E. Bumpus Ltd. ] Catalogue of the Books of the Late Everard Meynell including the most interesting items from his "Serendipity Shop".

Author: 
[ Everard Meynell (1885-1956), author, and his 'Serendipity Shop' ] J. & E. Bumpus Ltd., London booksellers [ J. G. Wilson (John Gideon Wilson); Coventry Patmore ]
Publication details: 
Now offered for sale at the instruction of the Executors by Messrs J. & E. Bumpus Ltd. 350 Oxford Street, London, W.1. [ Circa 1956. ]
£220.00

120 pages (unpaginated), 12mo. Stitched without covers. In fair condition: worn (particularly the first two leaves) and aged. A marvellous collection, described in a carefully printed and compiled catalogue of 901 lots. A two-page 'Prefatory Note' has a long quotation from one of Meynell's catalogues, beginning: 'My books must at my death be turned to account.

[ Tanganyika Territory in the nineteen-thirties; Big Game Hunting ] Six long Autograph Letters Signed from Hugo Meynell to his father F. H. Lindley Meynell, including a sixteen-page letter describing a safari in the Serengeti.

Author: 
Hugo Meynell (1909-1960), son of Francis Hugo Lindley Meynell (1880-1941) of Hoar Cross, Burton-on-Trent [ Tanganyika Territory in the nineteen-thirties; big game hunting in Africa; African Safari]
Publication details: 
Four of the letters on letterheads of Mtotohovu, Tanga, Tanganyika Territory; one on letterhead of Union-Castle Line SS 'Durham Castle', and another from Thaba Bosigo, Fouriesburg Rail, Orange Free State. Between 1 September 1932 and 4 January 1933.
£250.00

A total of 46pp., mostly on 4to Mtotohovu letterheads. In fair condition, aged and worn. From the Meynell family papers. In the first letter he describes his preparations for an elephant shoot on the Serengeti: 'I a taking a 400 elephant gun a 300 high velocity gun, and a shot gun. My escort consists of a gun bearer, cook, tent boy lorry driver & skinner.' Of the participants in the '"Ngoma" native dance games' he writes: 'they really were awful, covered in red & yellow clay or mud - they really did look maniacs & I am sure are more than half Savages'.

[Wilfred Meynell (1852-1948), newspaper publisher and editor.] Autograph Letter Signed to Anglo-Irish poet Sylvia Lynd, thanking her for a review of his 'Memoirs', and urging her and her family to visit him in Sussex.

Author: 
Wilfred Meynell ['John Oldcastle'] (1852-1948), newspaper publisher and editor [Sylvia Lynd (1888-1952), Anglo-Irish poet, wife of the essayist Robert Lynd (1879-1949)]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Greatham, Pulborough, Sussex. 'Friday' [no date],
£45.00

2pp., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. He thanks her 'for the Daily News review. Such touching appreciation, and from you, repays us for the anxiety attending the publication of the Memoir [...] This part of Sussex seems very forsaken since you & your husband left it. If you are ever near, what a pleasure a call from you would be - or a visit, if your freedom allowed it.

[Pamphlet] The Economics of Reparation

Author: 
Sir George Paish [Pelican Press; Francis Meynell
Publication details: 
London: THe Challenge, Limited, Effingham House, Arundel Street, Strand, WC2, Printed at the Pelican Press [1921?]
£90.00

[13]pp., cream printed wraps, staples as issued (rusted), good condition. Scarce.

[Pamphlet] Race Renewal. The Ideal of a Ministry of Health.

Author: 
Dr. C.W. Saleeby [Pelican Press; Francis Meynell; Stanley Morison]
Publication details: 
Published by the National Council of Public Morals for Great and Greater Britain and the National Birth-Rate Commission [...], Printed at the Pelican Press, [1918].
£135.00

10pp., 8vo, printed paper wraps, stapled as issued (rusty), The officers of the National Council of Public Morals are listed on the back cover, Publications, inside back cover. good condition. Saleeby's significant achievements in the world of medicine are described in the DNB. The printers of this pamphlet were the significant firm of the Pelican Press, founded by Francis Meynell, but run at this time (1918) by Stanley Morison.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Vera Meynell') from Lady Vera Meynell, wife of the typographer Sir Francis Meynell, to 'Dear Jack' [the anthropologist J. H. Driberg], asking him to 'let bygones be bygones' and visit her at Toppesfield, 'Hitler permitting'.

Author: 
Lady Vera Meynell [née Vera Rosalind Wynn Mendel] (1895-1947), wife of Sir Francis Meynell (1891-1975), publisher and typographer, founder of the Nonesuch Press [Jack Herbert Driberg (1888-1946)]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 39 Woburn Square, WC1 [London]. 5 July [no year, but during the Second World War].
£65.00

1p., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. The letter begins: 'Dear Jack | It is a long time since we met - but perhaps that is my fault. If so, will you let bygones be bygones - and come over to Toppesfield some time?' She suggests a date, 'Or any Sunday lunch in the immediate future', stating that 'after July, all plans are "Hitler permitting"!' Driberg has noted his acceptance of the invitation up one margin. [Driberg was a Lecturer in Anthropology at Cambridge University from 1934 to 1942. His brother was the colourful Labour MP Tom Driberg.

Large advertising board, bearing a 'SPECIMEN PLATE' ('The Shadow of Death': 'Holman Hunt, Pinx. The Art Journal. Goupilgravure.'), for 'The Life and Work of W. Holman Hunt. By Archdeacon Farrar.'

Author: 
William Holman Hunt; Archdeacon Frederic William Farrar [Dean Farrar; Pre-Raphaelite; The Art Journal; Alice Meynell; J. S. Virtue & Co. Ltd.; Goupilgravure]
Publication details: 
[1893.] 'London: J. S. Virtue & Co. Ltd.' [The Art Journal.]
£85.00

Printed on one side of a piece of cream paper, roughly 33.5 x 25.5 cm. Laid down on card. Clear and complete, with a good impression of the plate (22.5 x 17.5 cm), on lightly-aged, grubby paper, with slight wear to extremities. Presumably produced for display in a shop window. The title ('THE LIFE AND WORK OF | W. HOLMAN HUNT. | BY ARCHDEACON FARRAR.') at head, and 'SPECIMEN PLATE.' at foot, in large orange letters; the rest printed in black. Beneath the plate: 'THE SHADOW OF DEATH. | BY PERMISSION OF MESSRS. T. AGNEW & SONS. | LONDON: J. S. VIRTUE & CO.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Laurence W. Meynell') to 'Miss Card'.

Author: 
Laurence Meynell [Laurence Walter Meynell] (1899-1989), English children's writer
Publication details: 
19 April 1937; on letterhead of Lime Tree Cottage, Great Kingshill, Buckinghamshire.
£35.00

12mo, 2 pp. Creased, and with an unobtrusive 1 cm closed tear. He thanks her for her 'charming letter of appreciation'. He is delighted that she 'so enjoyed' 'The Door' ['The Door in the Wall' (1937)]: 'a similar story (or rather one dealing with Phillip Markham & Baikie) will be appearing in the autumn probably in early October'. 'It always cheers an author up to know that he has pleased his readers - & if they do him the good turn of recommending his book to their friends he is vastly obliged!'

Autograph Letter Signed ('John Freeman'), with envelope, to Hodgson at 20 Bromley Common, Bromley, Kent.

Author: 
John Freeman [John Frederick Freeman] (1880-1929), English Georgian poet [Sidney Hodgson, book auctioneer of Hodgson's, Chancery Lane, London]
Publication details: 
7 April [no year]; on embossed letterhead of 29 Weighton Road, Anerley, [London,] S.E.
£56.00

8vo: 1 p. 7 lines. Good, but with some foxing, and with a corner of the blank reverse tipped in onto a card mount on which the envelope is laid down. He thanks him 'for the catalogue containing the Moore item'. Would be 'very glad' if Hodgson 'could call here on Thursday next & join us in a meal at 7 o'clock [...] I suggest Thursday because then we shall not be alone, nor dull'. Hodgson was the author, in 1927, of 'Brief notes on the history of the hamlet of Penge with Anerley'.

Illustrated handbill for two of his publications.

Author: 
[CLAUD LOVAT FRASER]
Publication details: 
Without date or place [1916].
£85.00

Printed on unwatermarked tissue paper. Dimensions of paper roughly seven and a half centimeters by eleven and a half. A very good copy of a frail and ephemeral item. An attractive illustration by Fraser of an ivy-clad wall memorial topped by a cherub encloses the following 'There are Published | I. Farewell to the Faeries, by Richard Corbett. | II. Three Poems, by Kenneth Hare. | Decorated and Published by C. Lovat Fraser, and can be obtained from Everard Meynell, 46 Museum Street, W.C. | [short rule] | Price SIXPENCE each, net.'

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