MURDER

[J. S. Fletcher [Joseph Smith Fletcher], notable writer in the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.] Autograph Letter Signed to D. Webster, bookseller, commenting on ‘two Chichester pamphlets’ and ordering an item from his catalogue.

Author: 
J. S. Fletcher [Joseph Smith Fletcher] (1863-1935), prolific author, a notable writer in the Golden Age of Detective Fiction [D. Webster, bookseller]
Publication details: 
24 October 1923; on embossed letterhead: Hambrook, Emsworth, Hants.
£120.00

In a letter to ‘John O’London’s’ in 1921, Fletcher boasted of having ‘written (and published) seventy-three novels, twelve volumes of collected short stories, and fifteen historical and topographical works, the last-named mostly of considerable length’. 3pp, 12mo. On bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Annotated by recipient with date of response. Addressed to ‘Mr D. Webster.’ and signed ‘J. S. Fletcher.’ He thanks him for ‘the two Chichester pamphlets duly to hand’, noting that one was ‘The Accompt Cleared’ by Roger L’Estrange.

[Fitzroy Kelly; attempted murder is as bad as murder] {Part of?] Autograph Letter OR Note Signed with initials (probably a Postscript?) 'FK [FitzRoy Kelly]', later Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, to an unknown correspondent defining murder.

Author: 
Sir Fitzroy Edward Kelly (1796-1880), Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, judge and Conservative politician [Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd (1795-1854), writer, judge and politician]
Publication details: 
No place or date. See Image.
£150.00

One page, 8vo, strip on left edge from origins in an album(?), fair condition, completely legible if hasty. Text: I will let you off now - but you had better let me ask Gunning whether he has further occasion for you.| I think too that an attempt to murder is as bad as murder - But inasmuch as punishment is not to revenge [underlined] but to deter [underlined]; as long as murder is punishable with deat you have all the security that you can have against attempts to murder. | JK.

[Angela Lansbury, Hollywood actress, star of TV series ?Murder, She Wrote?.] Typed Card Signed to Kenneth [Sephton], stating that 'the show' ['Gypsy', at the Piccadilly Theatre'] has ?turned into more of a success than I could have ever hoped for?.

Author: 
Angela Lansbury [Dame Angela Brigid Lansbury] (1925-2022), stage and screen actress, born in Britain of partly Irish extraction, who settled in America and starred in the TV series ?Murder, She Wrote'
Lansbury
Publication details: 
9 July 1973. [London.]
£45.00
Lansbury

On one side of 15 x 10 cm grey-blue card, with facsimile of her signature at the head. Addressed to ?Dear Kenneth?, and with bold stylish signature at bottom right. The subject of the letter is the Piccadilly Theatre production of ?Gypsy?, which had opened a few days before on 29 May 1973. She thanks him for his ?kind letter?, adding ?Thank god you were right about the show and it has turned into more of a success than I could have ever hoped for.? She is sorry he couldn?t attend the first night, as ?it was a good show and I know you would have enjoyed it?.

[ Policing in Victorian England: Essex County Constabulary. ] Manuscript volume containing 332 General Orders by reforming Chief Constable Major W. H. Poyntz, including one relating to the murder of Inspector Thomas Simmonds.

Author: 
[ Essex County Constabulary; Major William Henry Poyntz (1838-1892). Chief Constable; the murder of Inspector Thomas Simmonds, 1885; Rochford ]
Publication details: 
[ Rochford, Essex Police Constabulary. ] Entries dated from the Chief Constable's Office, Chelmsford. 6 December 1881 to 30 October 1885.
£500.00

179pp., foolscap 8vo, and contains 332 general orders by 'W. H. Poyntz | Major and Chief Constable'. The volume is entirely in manuscript, but is not in Poyntz's handwriting. It comprises 168 paginated pages, followed by an eleven-page index giving a one-line summary of the 'Purport' of each order. The volume is a ruled notebook, in original quarter binding of black cloth spine and marbled boards, with the words 'GENERAL ORDERS' printed on a label on the cover, with 'Rochford' written in manuscript beneath.

[ Spencer Cowper, judge and Member of Parliament. ] Autograph Signature ('Spencer Cowper') to Exchequer receipt.

Author: 
Spencer Cowper (1670-1728), judge and Member of Parliament, tried for the murder of Sarah Stout in 1699
Publication details: 
[ Receipt of His Majesty's Exchequer, London. ] 6 May 1715.
£125.00

1p., on 15 x 17.5cm. Aged and worn, with loss to edges, and laid down on part of a leaf removed from an album. The usual printed text, completed in manuscript, recording a payment of £25. Note: An account of the 1699 Sarah Stout murder trial, at which Cowper 'called expert medical testimony, including the famous physicians Samuel Garth and Hans Sloane, together with the anatomist William Cowper (not related)' is given in his entry in the Oxford DNB.

[ Anthony Berkeley Cox, crime writer. ] Eleven Typed Letters Signed (nine 'Francis Iles' and two 'A. B. Cox') and one Typed Postcard Signed to Margaret Greenwood, on her wish to adapt 'Malice Aforethought' for film, with copies of her letters to him.

Author: 
Anthony Berkeley Cox (1893-1971), British crime writer under the pseudonyms 'Francis Iles', 'Anthony Berkeley', and 'A. Monmouth Platts', best-known for 'Malice Aforethought' [ Margaret Greenwood ]
Publication details: 
Nine on letterheads of 86 Hamilton Terrace, NW8 [ London ]; and two on letterheads of Linton Hills, Welcombe, Bude. Between 8 June 1949 and 13 July 1950.
£750.00

A total of 30 items. Cox's eleven letters total 16pp., and Greenwood's eighteen letters total 28pp. (several written on drafts of pages of her writing). In good condition, lightly aged, held together with a brass stud. An amusing correspondence, with Cox responding with amused bewilderment to the inexperienced approaches of his enthusiastic correspondent. Greenwood – who writes from 15 Horsham Road, Bexleyheath, Kent – is something of a bluffer.

[ Murder mystery concerning crime writers in 1950s London. ] Two typewritten drafts of the play '"Death in Act IV" by Basil Francis', accompanied by Typed Letter Signed from the author to theatre historian W. Macqueen-Pope.

Author: 
Basil Francis [ W. Macqueen-Pope [ Walter James Macqueen-Pope ] (1888-1960), theatre manager and historian ]
Publication details: 
Letter on Francis's letterhead of 115 Kenilworth Court, S.W.15. 14 November 1950. Both typescript with same address; neither dated.
£320.00

ONE: Letter. 1p., landscape 12mo. Aged and creased. Addressed to 'My dear Popie'. He is sending the revised version of the play, 'which has been tightened up considerably from the earlier draft', asking whether it has 'commercial possibilities', or 'stinks'. He feels that five minutes with Pope gives him 'more practical dope on the theatre than 5 years at the RADA!' TWO: Early typescript of 'Death in Act IV'. The letter ends with a reference to 'Fanny K', Francis's 1950 biography 'Fanny Kelly of Drury Lane'. 68pp., 8vo. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper.

[ The Camden Town Murder, 1907. ] Printed Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey) press card, signed by sheriff Charles Cheers Wakefield, and annotated by representative of the Pall Mall Gazette.

Author: 
Charles Cheers Wakefield (1859-1941), 1st Viscount [ The Camden Town Murder, 1907; Emily Dimmock; Robert Wood; the Central Criminal Court [ Old Bailey ]; Edward Marshall Hall; Walter Sicket ]
Publication details: 
The Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey), London. Stamped first day of trial, 12 December 1907.
£120.00

On one side of a 10 x 12.5 cm piece of card. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Signed 'C C Wakefield' and granting admission to 'the representative of the [ Pall Mall ]', the trial beginning on 12 December 1907. Annotated around Wakefield's signature: 'For the trial of Robert Wood for the murder of Emily Dimmock, of St Paul's Road, Camden Town | Judge - W Justice Grantham | Leading Conuncil - Sir Charles Mathews for the prosecution; Mr Marshall Halll for the defence. | Verdict - Not guilty.'

[ Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Scottish antiquary and artist. ] Watercolour drawing of Edinburgh murderer Mrs Mary Mackinnon with a young girl in her condemned cell, attributed to him in a contemporary hand.

Author: 
Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe (1781-1851), Scottish antiquary, artist and collector, and friend of Sir Walter Scott
Publication details: 
Without date or place. (Mackinnon was hanged 16 April 1823.)
£400.00

A watercolour drawing in ink, coloured in yellow, blue and red, against a sepia ground. The drawing is on a 24.5 x 18.5 cm piece of thick white paper, laid down on a 28.5 x 29.5 cm piece of grey paper. In good condition, with light signs of age. In pencil in a contemporary hand on the grey-paper mount: 'Mrs Mackinnon - hanged | done by Charles K. Sharpe Esq | She had been a great beauty | murdered a man'. The drawing is not signed, but is in much the same style as other examples of his watercolours (for example those in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London).

[Printed pamphlet.] Killing no Murder, Briefly Discours'd, In Three Questions, fit for Publick View, To Deter and Prevent Tyrants from Usurping Supreme Power. [...]. Now Reprinted, and Address'd to the French King.

Author: 
'Writ by Col. Titus, under the Name of William Allen, and Dedicated to Oliver Cromwel.' [ Louis XIV of France, 'the Sun King' ]
Publication details: 
London: Printed, and Sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster, 1708.
£120.00

Full title: 'Killing no Murder, Briefly Discours'd, In Three Questions, fit for Publick View, To Deter and Prevent Tyrants from Usurping Supreme Power. Writ by Col. Titus, under the Name of William Allen, and Dedicated to Oliver Cromwel. Now Reprinted, and Address'd to the French King.' 28pp., small 4to. Disbound. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper, with slight damage to last few leaves, affecting text. The original version was published in 1657, and advocated the assassination of Oliver Cromwell. Six copies on COPAC. Now scarce.

Handcoloured Victorian engraving showing images in a row of six bottles: a girl carrying a drink on a tray; a young woman drinking, a hanged man, an old woman tied to a stake, a man feeding a baby and a girl thrashing a boy.

Author: 
[Victorian engraving]
Publication details: 
Without date or place. [London, 1850s?]
£100.00

On piece of 12 x 22.5 cm paper. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Mounted on backing paper. An amusing and attractive engraving, in an English caricature style, the significance of which is now unclear.

['H. E. H.'] A melodramatic murder story, written for Blackwood's Magazine but unpublished, entitled 'Recollections of a Governess | My first Friend', and purporting to be the work of 'Emma', daughter of 'Henry Darrel [...] an Officer in Dragoons'.

Author: 
'H. E. H.', soi-disant daughter of 'Henry Darrel [...] Officer in Dragoons' [Blackwood's Magazine, Edinburgh]
Publication details: 
Place and date not stated. [England; 1840s.]
£450.00

56pp., 4to. On wove paper watermarked 'E & S | 1840'. In ruled notebook, in contemporary brown calf half-binding, with marbled boards. In very good condition, lightly-aged and worn. Neatly written out, with a few emendations in pencil. Signed at the end 'H. E. H.' (either the initials of the author or of the narrator 'Emma').

[James Tait Plowden Wardlaw, barrister and Church of England cleric.] Autograph diary, including descriptions of visits to Camden Town Murder trial at the Old Bailey. With large bundle of family correspondence, original poems, photographs, cuttings.

Author: 
James Tait Plowden Wardlaw [James Tait Plowden-Wardlaw] (1873-1963), rector of Beckenham, vicar of St Clement's, Cambridge, barrister-at-law [The Camden Town Murder trial, 1907; Wilfred Philip Ward]
Publication details: 
The diary dating from the period October to December 1907. The letters from 1925 to 1927, except for one from 1905; and mostly from Hove, Sussex.
£450.00

The diary is 66pp., 4to. In red buckram binding with 'Diary Oct-Dec 1907 Plowden Wardlaw' in gilt on spine. In very good condition, on lightly-aged paper, in good tight binding. Plowden Wardlaw's devoutness is apparent throughout. For example, on 17 October, he appears to be consecrating his own private chapel: 'At home to-day. Most of the day was spent in cleaning and preparing the Chapel for the dedication tomorrow. Father Maturin the former

Autograph Letter Signed from the chemist Frederick Early Tozer ('Fred. E. Tozer') to his former employer Alfred Clay Abraham, of Clay and Abraham, Liverpool pharmacists, comparing New York and Ohio in 1889 with England.

Author: 
Frederick Early Tozer (d.1940) [Alfred Clay Abraham (1853-1942), Liverpool pharmacist]
Publication details: 
15 December 1889. 'c/o H. Waterman, Esq. Ravenna - Ohio'.
£125.00

140 lines of text, written out on both sides of a strip of ruled paper, with one side forming two outside 12mo pages (each 13 x 10 cm) by the folding the strip horizontally halfway down, and the reverse carrying one continuous column over a 13 x 20 cm single page. Text clear and complete. Good, on aged paper. Tozer had shone in his training as a pharmacist, with the British Medical Journal reporting his winning in 1881 of a medal in practical pharmacy and dispensing, and a certificate in botany. By 1889 he was working in Castle Street, Liverpool, for A. C.

Typed Letter Signed by Bruce Long, concerning the William Desmond Taylor murder case, together with the first issue of Long's pamphlet 'Taylorology'.

Author: 
Bruce Long [William Desmond Taylor (1872-1922); Taylorology]
Bruce Long [William Desmond Taylor (1872-1922); Taylorology]
Publication details: 
Letter: 10 January 1986; Mesa, Arizona. Pamphlet: Number 1, Fall 1985.
£350.00
Bruce Long [William Desmond Taylor (1872-1922); Taylorology]

Letter: 4to, 1 p. Twenty-six lines. Text clear and complete. On aged and worn paper, with a couple of holes, light staining and indentations. Addressed to 'Jon', whose book, with a 'chapter pertaining to the Taylor case' Long 'would like very much to see'. Long encloses the copy of 'Taylorology', of which he writes, 'Despite my intentions, there was only one issue due to very poor response -- only a dozen subscribers.' He boasts that his 'collected material on this case', 'primarily newspaper clippings', 'weighs over 30 lbs., with more information coming in every week'.

Six Autograph Letters Signed by Hume-Campbell (all 'A: Hume-Campbell') to his 'Couzin' (a member of the Tonyn family).

Author: 
Alexander Hume-Campbell (1708-1760), Member of Parliament and Lord Clerk Register from 1756 to 1760 [Hugh Hume-Campbell, 3rd Earl of Marchmont]
Publication details: 
All six letters dated from London in 1759.
£150.00

All six letters in quarto; good, on aged paper; and with text neatly-written, clear and entire. Letter One: 3 May 1759. 2 pp. 40 lines of text. Giving advice regarding a will to be drawn up by a Mrs Robertson. 'As to the place where Mrs. Robertson makes the Disposition it is absolutely immaterial, [...] and then her will wrote in her own hand writing without witnesses will be as good as with twenty witnesses [...]'. Valediction from 'your affectionate friend & Cousin'. Letter Two: 30 June 1759. 1 pp. 24 lines.

Illustrated handbill poem, a street ballad entitled 'A New Song, entitled, Dear Peggy.'

Author: 
[Victorian London street ballad; broadsheet; handbill; death]
Publication details: 
Date and publisher not stated. [London; circa 1840?]
£38.00

Printed on one side of a piece of wove paper roughly 230 x 90 mm. On pitted, aged paper. Text complete. Approximate 30 x 50 mm piece torn away from top right-hand corner, causing loss to small illustration at head, which appears to be a crude woodcut of a woman lying in a coffin. The poem consists of thirty-six lines arranged in five stanzas. The first stanza reads 'Dear Peggy, read this letter, | its the last one I'll send, | Our long correspondence, | is now at an end.

Illustrated poem, a street ballad entitled 'The Wheel of Fortune'.

Author: 
[Victorian street ballad; broadsheet; handbill; death; nineteenth-century folk song]
Publication details: 
Date [circa 1840?] and publisher not stated.
£56.00

On one side of a piece of thin wove paper, roughly 260 x 95 mm. Aged and creased, with internal 25 mm closed tear affecting four words of text (all of which can be completed from the context) repaired on blank reverse with archival tape. Otherwise text and illustration clear and entire. Small (30 x 40 mm) woodcut at head, showing two early nineteenth-century country coves outside a cottage. The poem consists of ten four-line stanzas.

Illustrated Victorian handbill poem, a street ballad entitled 'The Golden Glove.'

Author: 
[Victorian street ballad; handbill poem; street ballad; broadsheet; nineteenth-century folk song]
Publication details: 
Publisher and date not stated. [Circa 1840?]
£56.00

Printed on one side of a piece of wove paper roughly 280 x 95 mm. Aged, creased and spotted, with chipping to extremities, but with text and illustration clear and entire. Curious small (roughly 40 x 65 mm) crude illustration at head, showing dove with olive branch and acorn. Forty-line poem arranged in five stanzas. Interestingly-garbled nineteenth-century folk song with ancient antecedents.

Printed Receipt Signed, with Autograph Signature and manuscript additions in another hand, for three months' governent annuities.

Author: 
Spencer Cowper [Sir William Cowper]
Publication details: 
7 November 1720; [London].
£180.00

Judge (1669-1728), and Attorney-General to the Prince of Wales on the accession of George I. Grandfather of the poet William Cowper, and brother of William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper (1665-1723), Lord Chancellor of England. One of the defendants, in 1699, in the celebrated trial for the murder of Sarah Stout. Dimensions of paper roughly six and a half inches by six inches. On discoloured, spotted paper, with slight wear and loss to one corner (not affecting text). Right edge slightly trimmed, with partial loss to one word'.

Autograph Letter Signed to S[amuel]. Redgrave.

Author: 
Sir George Cornewall Lewis, 2nd Baronet
Publication details: 
Kent House | 4 April' [no year].
£56.00

Author and politician (1806-63). The recipient (1802-76) was author of a dictionary of English artists, and successively private secretary to several English statesman. Two pages, 12mo. An odd request. 'I have been asked by a friend to ascertain for him whether any person has ever been tried in England for suffocating a human being supposed to be affected by hydrophobia. If you shd. be in possession of any information which throws light upon the subject, would you have the kindness to enable me to answer the question'. signed 'G C Lewis'.

Syndicate content