PAINTING

An interesting letter, dealings with the practicalities of the artist’s profession in late Victorian/Edwardian England. Hemy was regarded as the leading English marine artist of his generation, with his paintings often selling for in excess of a thousand pounds. With the proceeds he built a grand house which he named Churchfield in Falmouth. 2pp, 16mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded twice. The recipient - presumably his agent - is not named and there is no salutation. Signed ‘C. Napier Hemy.’ Begins: ‘Thanks for cheque enclosed. for which I send over page formal receipt.

An interesting glimpse into the late-Victorian world of English art. Corbet and Swan were close friends - one of Corbet’s paintings remained in Swan’s family until the 1990s. See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. The three letters are addressed to ‘Dear Swan’ and signed ‘M. R. Corbet’. All three on grey paper, lightly aged and worn, with creasing to Letter One.

A good example of Nash’s attractive and distinctive signature ‘John Nash’ on a very light dotted line, a piece of paper cut into an oval roughly 5 cm wide and 2.5 cm high. In good condition, lightly aged, laid down on an irregularly-shaped piece of card. See Image

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On bifolium with mourning border. In good condition, lightly aged, and folded once for postage. The recipient is the novelist George Meredith's daughter Marie Eveleen (Mariette; 1871-1933), wife of Henry Parkman Sturgis (1847-1929), American-born banker and Liberal politician. Addressed to ‘Mrs Sturgis’ and signed ‘Frank Dicksee’. He is sorry to hear of her illness, but ‘fortunately the summer is coming & long before it is here I trust you will be yourself again’.

Two letters providing an insight into the relationship between artist and patron in nineteenth-century England. See the the Duke?s entry, and Eastlake?s, in the Oxford DNB, as well as James Lees-Milne?s biography ?The Bachelor Duke? (1991).

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On 9.5 x 10 cm piece of paper, laid down on 11 cm square piece of card. In good condition, lightly browned and aged. The letterhead is printed in red. The inscription reads ?Faithfully yours / Solomon J Solomon?.

After serving in the Great War, Burn (son of Sir Joseph Burn) studied at the Slade between 1918 and 1922, winning six prizes. After teaching in London at the Royal College, and in Boston, he offered his services to the war effort. After the war he went back to the Royal College, as a senior tutor. The four ot the items here are in fair condition, lightly worn and discoloured. Each is folded once for postage. Although only one is dated, the others appear to date from around the same time. ONE (‘Monday’): 1p, 4to. Unsigned.

An uncommon signature. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On one side of 18 x 10 cm piece of paper. Discoloured and worn, with spike hole. Good firm signature, full of character. Reads: ?174 Edgware Road / Maida Hill / 27 April 1832 / Please deliver to Mr Green or [aide? drdee?order?] my picture not received for the Exhibition / Henry Jutsum / To / Mr. Vaughan / Royal Academy?. See Image.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The letter is addressed from the house of Frederick Goodall (also see ODNB), which at other times was occupied by Laurence Alma Tadema and James Murray. 2pp, 12mo. On the first leaf of a bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Addressed to ?My dear Mrs. Calkin? and signed ?Frank Holl?. Twenty-six lines of text in a hurried hand. He thanks her for her ?kind trouble - & for the rifle which my model called for and brought with him this morning?. He is sorry that her son George has been injured.

See their separate entries in the Oxford DNB. On 12.5 x 9.5 cm piece of light-grey paper, cut from. The large signatures are written one on top of the other on one side of the paper, with the only other writing the date at the head: ‘Alfd. Edwd. Chalon / Jno. Jas Chalon’. On the reverse is the beginning of an application to the Artists’ General Benevolent Institution: ‘Gentlemen, Your Petitioner Elizth. Debh. Bone, only Daughter of the late Mr Bone R.A.

See the entry in the Oxford DNB for his father the 1st Marquis. 2pp, 12mo. On the first leaf of a bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and discoloured, with thin strip of glue from previous mount on reverse of second leaf. The recipient is not named, and he signs ‘Hastings’. The letter begins: ‘Dear Sir, / I made the necessary enquiries as to the entry in the Leicester registry (through a friend of our clergyman) & enclose his reply [not present] - I fear it is not what you wished for.’ He might get ‘more satisfactory information’ if the recipient can give a ‘better clue to go by’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On 13 x 8 cm piece of paper, cut from the end of a letter. The valediction, firmly written in Angerstein’s hand, reading: ‘I am / D. Sir / Your Mt Obt Sert / J J. Angerstein’. First initial of the signature lightly inked. In good condition, lightly aged.

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.

Some of Williamson’s papers are held by Boston College. These two items are each 1p, 4to, on aged and worn paper, the first letter with blotting to signature. The two are held together by strip of paper mount. Written little more than a year before Williamson’s death. ONE: 16 October 1941. Begins: ‘Dear Miss Cruse, / I am delighted to have your letter of October 9th, and so glad that my epistle to you gave you any pleasure.’ He finds her books ‘very delightful’, and names ‘the other two’, of whose existence he was ignorant.

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On the first leaf of a bifolium, the second leaf being blank, apart from the end of the signature ‘Jas Sant’, which has extended across from the bottom right corner of the reverse of the first leaf. In good condition, lightly aged, with the reverse of the second leaf laid down on a rectangle of grey paper cut from a leaf of an album. Addressed to ‘G. Lance Esqr.’ The letter begins: ‘My Dear Sir / My best thanks for your note. Depend upon it I will look to myself and in doing so look to yr.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient Philip Dosse was proprietor of Hansom Books, publisher of a stable of seven arts magazines including Books and Bookmen and Plays and Players. See ‘Death of a Bookman’ by the novelist Sally Emerson (editor of ‘Books and Bookmen’ at the time of Dosse’s suicide), in Standpoint magazine, October 2018. The present item is 2pp, 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Signed ‘John Rothenstein’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. On a bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with strip of mount adhering to blank reverse of second leaf. Signed 'Sidney Colvin'. The recipient is not named, but is addressed as ‘Dear Madam’. The letter begins: ‘I am afraid I made a mistake yesterday, in addressing you as E. M. Sharpe Esqr. - but it was the address of the Natural History Museum which misled me.’ In order to make sure this time, he is addressing the present letter ‘to the care of Mr.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On a bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with strip of mount adhering to blank reverse of second leaf. Addressed to ‘Dear Mr Fagan’ and signed ‘Sidney Colvin’. He begins by informing him that of the ‘various volumes and packets of prints’ he has been good enough to send, ‘the best is that containing portraits engraved by Ficquet, Savard, & [Marchay de Glury?]. But even of these, we have almost all in the collections here already: so that it will not be worth while to break up the albums by extracting any for the museum’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. In fair condition, lightly aged and with slight wear at base. Typed address to ‘Mr. J. A. Neuhuys, / 37, Dean Road, / Willesden Green, / N. W. 2’. Reads: ‘Will you please send me on approval No. 582a, from your catalogue No. 29. / R. W.’ Recipt marked with red date stamp of 1 January 1924, and message lightly crossed out in pencil.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded twice for postage. Begins: ‘Mr. Westall presents his compliments to Miss Macirone & begs to assure her how very much obliged to her he feels for the honor she has done him in sending him two tickets for her morning concert’. He will have ‘the greatest pleasure in attending’ the concert, and is ‘quite sure he shall be very much delighted’.

The circumstances surrounding this extraordinary original composition in Latin verse are obscure. See Phillips’s entry in the Oxford DNB, which notes that there was ‘an air of Proust’ about him, and quotes Oliver Brown’s description of him as ‘a stout man, immaculately dressed and heavily scented, who talked continuously while he looked at the pictures'. It may be that Phillips and the author of the poem had been educated together, or that they were members of the same club (the Athenaeum for example).

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, slightly discoloured, with traces of grey paper mount adhering to the blank reverse. Folded once for postage. The year is not given, but the water mark appears to read ‘[18]21’. Good clear signature. Fielding writes: ‘My Dear Madam, / I shall have much pleasure in shewing you the pictures which I have prepared for the Exhibition, should it be agreeable to Mrs. Sharp & yourself to come to Newman at any hour on Monday or Tuesday next, & I hope you will do me the favour of persuading Mr Sharp to accompany you.

A good illustrated article on Groves and his boats is to be found in the magazine ‘The Gull’, March 2013, pp.19-26 (available online), emphasizing his ‘brilliant line drawings in British Seagull’s early post-war advertising’. 1p, 4to. In fair condition, lightly aged. Neatly folded twice. Twenty typed lines beneath the heading ‘A Bird Sanctuary for Lymington.’ Some lines and passages lightly underlined in red pencil. Signed at foot by Groves, as ‘Organiser and (Sec: pro-tem)’. Begins: ‘An Important Meetings is to be held in / The Assembly Room. Angel Hotel. Lymington. / on / Friday.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. In fair condition, aged and creased. Folded twice for postage. She begins by thanking her for her letter on her ‘portrait in the Daily Express’, which ‘is not finished yet and I have possibly another two months to do on it, but the Daily Express (because of the Liberace case) thought it would be nice to do it so I had to accede to their request’. Referring to her campaign to improve the quality of British paints she states that her ‘trouble with my paints is not yet over.

1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased, with one dog-eared corner. He writes that he has ‘had the engraving photographed’, and can ‘return it together with the casting’, with ‘very many thanks to you for being so kind as to lend it to me’.

6pp, 12mo, on two bioliums. A long letter, neatly and closely written. In stamped envelope, with stamps and postmark, addressed to ‘Miss Sprott / Magavelda / Blakeney / Holt [Norfolk]’ and signed ‘John Bacon’. The letter and envelope are in fair condition, on slightly discoloured paper and with short closed tears along the folds made for postage. He begins: ‘Dear Miss Sprott.

1p., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with minor traces of mounting on the blank reverse. The letter reads: 'I shall be happy to execute your orders, and shall be obliged if you kindly forward me the blocks and Copy, with your directions upon what style you wish these drawings to be done: to my address as above.'

1p, 16. On the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium of grey paper, with simple drawing in the same ink as the text of a straight plain walking stick stuck in the ground and running up the left-hand margin, with the handle hooked to the right at the top with the dating to its right. In good condition, lightly aged. Reads: ‘le 25 Decembre 89.

As a naturalized British subject, resident in England from the 1850s to 1903, Haag has an entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage. Reads: ‘Mr. Carl Haag presents his compliments to Mr. & Mrs. Arbuthnot Guthrie, and very much regrets not being able to accept their polite invitation for Wednesday next, having already accepted a previous engagement for that day.’

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On a leaf of grey paper. In good condition, lightly aged. The recipient was studying at the Royal Academy Schools. Begins: ‘Dear Miss Towgood / Thanks for your letter and enclosed statement by Mr Percy Young.’ He asks to be sent ‘the names of the authors of the various “Cartoons” and “Creswick”’, so that he may have all his material ‘ready for the Council on Tuesday next’. He intended to ask her for the names in ‘the Schools’ (of the Royal Academy at Burlington House), ‘but a sudden attack of Influenza confines me to my room by the Doctor’s order’.