REGENCY

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, with that of the presumed recipient, the Manchester bookseller William Ford. 1p, 4to. On recto of first leaf of bifolium, the verso of the second addressed, with two postmarks, to ‘Mr. Wm. Ford / 11 Strangates / Lambeth.’ In good condition, lightly aged, with spots of paper from mount at corners on address page. Folded for postage. Signed ‘Geo: Chalmers’. He begins by thanking him for his ‘obliging Note’ of the previous day, before stating that he has ‘the curious Tract, which was printed, by Raban of Aberdeen’.

See Astley's entry in the History of Parliament (he was created a baronet at the end of the year in which this letter was written). The ‘Lavender’ mentioned in the letter is Bow Street Runner Stephen Lavender (fictionalized in a series of books by Karen Charlton), who was leaving to take up the position of Deputy Chief Constable at Manchester.1p, 4to. On recto of first leaf of bifolium. Verso of second docketed: ‘Chas. Humphreys / recomn to be an Officer’ and in another hand ‘Dugdale Asteley [sic]’. In good condition, lightly aged, with reverse of second leaf slightly grubby.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. On recto of first leaf of bifolium, the verso of the second leaf addressed, with two postmarks, to 'Mrs. William Smith / Park Street / Westminster'. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Annotations in pencil in a modern hand. He begins by apologising for not being able to 'come to your party on Monday', as he was 'forced to go to Bed[.] I always knock up the 2d or 3d Week of London - There is nothing in this World so fatiguing, and horrible as pleasure -'.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On 9 x 11 cm piece of Whatman wove paper. Somewhat worn and creased, with a small nick to one edge, and slight damage from erasure of note on reverse. Folded. Reads ‘Dear Sr / many thanks / yours truly / Sydney Smith / May 11 1844.’

See his entry, and that of George Doo, engraver, in the Oxford DNB. The four items are in good condition, lightly aged and worn The items of 1832 and 1838 are in the third person; those of 1837 and 1839 are signed, 'D. Wilkie' and 'David Wilkie' respectively. The 1832 letter, accepting a dinner invitation from 'Dr and Mrs Baillie', is 1p, 16mo; the other three items are each 1p, 12mo. In 1838 he writes to 'Capt Seymour' to ask for 'the present address of Sir William Knighton'.

See her entry, and that of Whittaker, in the Oxford DNB. 1p, landscape 12mo. A corner of the letter carrying a few words of text has been torn away on opening; it is still attached, beneath a red wax seal, so that the entire document is present in two parts. Otherwise in fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Addressed by Mitford 'To / Messrs. Baynes & Son / 23 Paternoster Row'. Begins: 'Miss Mitford presents her Compts. to Mr.

See her husband’s entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 16mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with traces of mount on blank reverse of second leaf. Addressed to ‘Dear Mr. Stirling’ and signed ‘Jane Davy’. She begins by asking him if he considers Jose Medina, the courier he had in Spain, ‘intelligent, active, & willing’. She adds: ‘I should now & then like my own way; will he allow me such an indulgence?’ She also wants to know if Medina is ‘fairly honest’, by which she means ‘that he will not allow others to cheat me.

Two nice ephemeral items. Both now quite scarce: the first (four copies on COPAC) more than the second. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Disbound and stabbed as issued. ONE: ‘No. 592. / The Blind Schoolmistress of Devonshire. / A True and Interesting Story.’ 8pp, 12mo. Slug at foot of p.8 (beneath the RTS’s dove-and-olive-branch device): ‘London: Printed by W. Clowes, Stamford-street, for The Religious Tract Society; and sold at their Depository, 56, Paternoster-row; also by J. and C.

[Copy, from the 'Barrack Office' at Chatham, printed ] 4to: 120 + [19] pp. The last 19 unpaginated pages comprise the appendix, divided into 18 parts. Text clear and complete. On aged and foxed paper. Original boards rebacked in leather, with title on spine and new free endpapers. Title-leaf carries no date or printing details. In manuscript scored through on reverse: 'Adjutants Office by order | [signed?] T. G. Gascoigne | Adjutant', with crude drawings.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, together with A. N. L. Munby’s entertaining ‘The Cult of the Autograph Letter in England’ (1962). 1p, 4to. No fold. In good condition, on lightly aged paper extracted from a notebook. Signed at foot: ‘William Upcott / a collector and preserver of Autographs. / London Institution / Finsbury Circus. / January 17. 1834’. The four memoranda are neatly written out over fifteen lines in Upcott’s distinctive hand.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, together with A. N. L. Munby’s entertaining ‘The Cult of the Autograph Letter in England’ (1962). 1p, 4to. No fold. In good condition, on lightly aged paper extracted from a notebook. Signed at foot: ‘William Upcott / London Institution, / Finsbury Circus. Jan. 18. 1834.' Very neatly written out in Upcott’s best hand, which is more like type (including the signature) than the document offered separately, on the same watermarked paper.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. It was in October of 1806 that a sixteen year-old Sinclair was arrested as a spy near Jena, and brought before Napoleon, who examined him and ordered his release. 1p, 16mo. On heavily aged, creased and worn paper with light staining above the signature, and strip torn away at bottom left. Addressed on reverse to 'The Editor of the / Mirror of Parliament.' Signed ‘George Sin Clair [sic]’. He thanks him for his kindness ‘in sending yesterday for a copy of the remarks which I made as to the [Prussian?] loan’.

1p, foolscap 8vo. In good condition, on watermarked laid paper. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased and chipped at edges. Folded twice. A printed form in a grid headed (with Bunting's autograph in square brackets): 'WEEKLY RETURN of the Sick and Wounded of His Majesty's [Sloop Comet] between [4th] Day of [September 1811] and the [11th.] Day of [September], employed in [at Sea]'. A grid of nine columns, from 'Disease' to 'Invalided' (subdivided into 'Harbour Duty' and 'Unserviceable'.

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Thirty-six lines of text, signed ‘Atholl’. Text complete (except for address of recipient), on grubby and worn paper. Folded three times. The letter has been trimmed at the foot, resulting in some loss to the address of the recipient, which appears to read ‘Captn Ross R. N. / 160 New Bond Street’. This is presumably the ‘Rayley, [sic] Captain, R.N. 160, Bond-street’, who in 1832 was listed among the proprietors of shares in London University. The Duke’s handwriting is execrable.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. For the context see Irina and Dmitri Gouzevitch, ‘Travelling interchanges between the Russian Empire and Western Europe / The Travels of Engineers during the First Half of the Nineteenth Century’, in Simões, Carneiro and Diogo eds, ‘Travels of Learning / A Geography of Science in Europe’ (Boston, 2003). 1p, 8vo. Nineteen lines of closely-written text. On aged and worn paper. The item has been torn away from a mount, resulting in damage to the two outer corners, with the area immediately to the right of the signature ‘St Helens’ lacking.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 8vo. Sixteen lines of closely-written text. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with short closed tears along the five creases from the folding of the item into a packet. Docketed on the reverse of the leaf: ‘May 2d 1810 / Lord St Helens / Authy to charge Agency at the rate of 1 P Ct on Monies recovered on accot of Land Tax refunded to Foreign Ministers &cr.’ Signed St Helens.

See his entries in the Oxford DNB and History of Parliament. 1p, foolscap 8vo. In fair condition, aged and worn, with small piece of paper torn away at foot of page, resulting in some loss of text of slug, also wear and a few nicks at head and a stain to one edge. Good firm signature ‘C Yorke’ and its surroundings unaffected. A printed form letter, signed by Yorke as ‘Right Honble. the Pay-Master General, / &c. &c. &c.’, and completed in a secretarial hand, and addressed to ‘Gentlemen’.

Printed on one side of a piece of laid paper, watermarked with date 1808, roughly 34.5 x 21 cm. Very good. Illustration at head, coloured in red and green, roughly 6.5 x 10 cm.

See Taylor’s entry, and that of Princess Sophia’s brother William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh (1776-1834), in the Oxford DNB. Bagshot Park was the residence of her brother the duke (Silly Billy’), to whom she was very much attached. The siblings were not entirely accepted by the Royal Family due to the unequal nature of their parents’ marriage. 3pp, 12mo. On bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded for postage. Taylor, who is not named but is clearly the recipient, has marked the letter as ‘Private’. Good firm signature ‘Sophia Matilda’.

See his entry and Chantrey's in the Oxford DNB. On one side of a trimmed-down piece of paper, roughly 11 cm square. Discoloured, and with damage to the corners (affecting one word at top right) from removal from mount. With postage folds, and evidence on otherwise-blank reverse that Cunningham was re-using an envelope: part of address in another hand to 'Mrs Pa[...]'. Reads: 'Mr. Allan Cunninghams respects to Mr. Tindal and begs to inform him that Sir Francis Chantrey is at Holkham at present and will not likely be back till after Christmas: should he come sooner Mr A. C.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient is Lady Theresa Lewis (1803-1865), whose first husband was the novelist Thomas Henry Lister (1800-1842). The present letter is written before her marriage to her second husband the Liberal politician Sir George Cornewall Lewis (1806-1863). 2pp, 32mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, with traces of stub from mount adhering to one edge. Folded once for postage. A charming missive. Reads: ‘My dear Mrs Lister / I shall be delighted to come to you, if I can make my escape from where I shall be, in any decent time.

See his entry, and hers, in the Oxford DNB. From the papers of her relation Lady Theresa Lewis. 2pp, 8vo. On the first leaf of a bifolium, the recto of the second leaf being addressed by him to ‘Countess of Jersey / &c &c &c’. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded for postage. Written in high eighteenth-century style.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient is not named, but the item is from the papers of the author Lady Theresa Lewis (1803-1865), successively wife of the novelist Thomas Henry Lister (1800-1842) and the Liberal politician Sir George Cornewall Lewis (1806-1863), all with entries in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and folded for postage. Reads: ‘Many, many thanks for thinking of me! When I came to myself in the morning, I remembered something of a kind proposition you had made to me & resolved to call & learn more about it. / Monday the 9th.

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. The five items are in good condition, lightly aged, with each on a 4to bifolium, and all folded for postage. In a neat and attractive hand. The text of each letter is on the first leaf, and the first two letters are addressed by Porteus on the reverse of the second leaf, each with broken seals in red wax. In Letters Four and Five Porteus lays out his objections to Maurice’s ‘Elegy on the late Right Honourable William Pitt’, published in 1806 under the name ‘T. M.’ ONE (St James’s Square, 10 April 1898): 1p, 4to. Addressed to ‘Revd. Mr Maurice / No.

Jerningham’s entry in the Oxford DNB, states that he died unmarried, ‘despite habitual flirtations with young actresses’; the present letter indicates that the members of the other sex were not exempted from his attentions. 2pp, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged, on a leaf of laid watermarked paper, folded for postage. Twenty-six lines of text. Dated ‘1798’ at top right, with ‘From Edward Jerningham the Poet’ above it. Unsigned, but in Jerningham's distinctive hand.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On 10.5 x 5 cm strip of paper, with thin mourning border, cut from the end of a letter. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased, with thin strip of glue from mount to one edge, and thin strip of paper laid down on reverse, with manuscript note 'Sir Thomas Wyse, Minister to Greece'. Strong stylish signature to valediction reading: 'I beg you to believe me / My Dear Lord / Sincerely Yrs. / Thos. Wyse'. Fragment of letter on reverse: '[...] truly at his discretion to go on [...]'.

Providing a good view of the day-to-day practicalities of Nelson's navy. Middleton was the nephew of Admiral Lord Barham. In 1795 he removed from the Lowestoffe to the Flora, serving under the Nelson off Genoa in support of the Austrian Army, and during July 1796 at the occupation of Porto Ferrajo. All three 1p, foolscap, and somewhat discoloured and worn, the first and last with chipping at head, but all with text entire.

An interesting letter, providing a mass of interesting incormation relating to the stage in Georgian England, while responding to a request from London solicitors for information about the whereabouts of a provincial actor. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 4to. Forty lines of text, on bifolium addressed on reverse of second leaf ‘For / Messrs. Dowson, Capron and Rowley / Savile Place / near / Burlington Street / London’, and signed ‘S. Kemble.’ In fair condition, on discoloured and worn paper with minor damage at head, but text clear and entire.

The Clarendon Hotel was once - as ‘Routledge’s Popular Guide to London’ stated in 1862 - ‘the most fashionable place in London’, and the present collection of autograph signatures from its guestbook, all of them said to date from 1831, bear witness to the fact that - as ‘Gilbert’s Visitor’s Guide to London’ (1851) states - it was ‘frequented by the Nobility and Gentry, and Foreigners of rank’. Its reputation had been made during the Regency period, and in 1820 ‘Leigh’s New Picture of London’ stated that it ‘and Jaquiers are now one hotel’.

Conyers is curiously absent from the Oxford DNB. The present item is a frail survival. It is the customary form, printed under the heading ‘Annuities, 3700 l. per Week.’ Completed in manuscript with date, amount and record of payment to ‘Sr Gerard Conyers - Asignee of ye Execr. of S. [Leshieuller? Lechienller?] & Attorney to Jno. Burkin, Esqr Assignee of ye same’. Signed at bottom right ‘Gerard Conyer[s]’ and with the signature of ‘Witness E Clarke’ at bottom left. On aged, creased and worn paper, with one hole from wear, and the last letter of Conyer’s surname worn away. See Image.