REID

The two items are in good condition, lightly aged, and both folded for postage. Both 1p, 12mo. ONE (evidently to Grant Reid, editor of the Northern Figaro, Aberdeen): Signed ‘E. W. Nye’. Recipient not named. ‘My dear Sir / Your favor of the 9- asking for a photograph to be used in your admirable publication is just received.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient would appear to have been an impudent autograph collector. Addressed to ‘Grant Reid / Esq’ and signed ‘Herbert Maxwell’. Begins: ‘Dear Sir / I have directed a copy of Post Meridiana to be sent to you according to your desire.’ He cannot however comply with Reid’s other request. ‘I have no time to give to drawing now, and my family have possessed themselves of all my old drawings.’

On both sides of a 14.5 x 10.5 cm plain postcard. In good condition, with large firm signature ‘Richard Ingrams’. He thanks him for ‘the interesting Cobbett item’ and would like ‘your Elgar postcard’ if available. Ends: ‘Enclose cheque. Cobbett always welcome. Also G. K. Chesterton.’ Ingram had published an anthology of Cobbett in 1974, and would publish a biography of him in 2005, and a book on Chesterton in 2021.

8pp, 12mo. On two bifoliums. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Signed 'Mayne Reid', and written from the sprawling 'Rancho' which he built at Gerrards Cross, in imitation of a Mexican hacienda. The recipient is named by Reid as 'J. Froebel', i.e. Julius Froebel, and the subject is arrangements for the translation translation of his book 'Aus Amerika' (Leipzig, 1857), which would be published in London by Richard Bentley in 1859 under the title 'Seven Years' Travel in Central America, Northern Mexico, and the Far West of the United States'.

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged. He is sending a copy of a note his secretary has 'just sent about an opera box for the next season. | The box we were able to get this year contrasted so poorly with my old "loge entre les colonnes" in Paris that I am afraid my personal tastes would be about as well satisfied without one!' He feels sure that 'with this long notice and with a friendly word' from Higgins, 'something better can be done'. One of the grandest residences in London, Dorchester House was rented by Reid as the American Embassy from 1905.

There has been a recent resurgence of interest in Mona Inglesby and her International Ballet (1942-1951). In 2008 Kay Hunter published a study of the troupe, titled 'Ballet in the Blitz'; then in 2012 BBC Radio 4 aired a documentary about Mona Inglesby and International Ballet, titled 'Black-Out Ballet: The Invisible Woman of British Ballet'. The writer of the documentary, Ismene Brown, gave the following explanation of her motives: 'In 2006 an elderly dancer died in Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex. She was 88, and had once been one of Britain's most recognised ballerinas.

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, on aged paper, with light offsetting from another letter. Written in a difficult hand. Concerns 'the Club meeting' at 'Macdougall's Hall'. The recipient is addressed as 'My dear Capt Bond', and at the foot of the letter as 'Capt <?> Bond | &c. &c.'

The six items in fair condition, on aged and worn paper. With stamps, shelfmarks and labels of the Board of Education Reference Library. The four calendars of 'Special Arrangements' are all 1p., foolscap 8vo, and signed in type at the foot by T. Gregory Foster, Principal, and Walter W. Seton, Acting Secretary. They give details of lectures and other information including the 'Reception of new Students by the Principal and the respective Deans' and the 'Last Day for receiving Essays'. The other two documents only carry Foster's signature in type.

1p., 12mo. Seventeen lines of neatly-written text. Good, on lightly-aged paper. He apologises for the delay in replying to Reid's letter, and knows 'nothing about the staircase you mention as coming from a house in Holborn, & now in a house in Bishopswood.' He 'looked it up in R[oyal]. C[ommision]. H[istorical]. M[onumments]., (Vol. II) Hertfordshire (par. of Walford-on-Wye) but Bishopswood is only mentioned re some romann remains.' He hopes Reid is 'enjoying the Herefordshire countryside', and is himself finding life 'rather hectic'.

1p., 12mo. On letterhead of the New York Tribune. Very good. Addressed to 'J. R. Howard | No. 39 Park Row'. Reid writes that he 'came down' after 'our first side had been stereotyped', and so was 'unable to insert in the Financial column the items of news you were good enough to send'. He hopes 'it will not be too late to use them on Monday'. The photographic portrait of Reid ('Copyright, 1902, by Rockwood') is taken from a magazine, and is captioned 'Hon. Whitelaw Reid, next Ambassador to the Court of St. James'.

1 p, folio. On grey paper. Fair, on aged paper, with slight spotting and chipping to extremities affecting a few words of text. A whole page of the manuscript, numbered '9' and written entirely in Reid's hand, with a few minor emendations by him, from Chapter XXVI, 'Treed by an Alligator'. Begins with the reported speech: '"That would be anything but pleasant - perhaps more so [last word emended from 'unpleasant'] to those who are waiting for us, than to ourselves.

One page, 12mo. On blue paper discoloured from glue by previous mounting. Seven-line printed biographical cutting in top right-hand corner. 'I am very happy to comply with your request [for an autograph].'

Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum (1819-87). One page, 12mo. Docketed in ink on blank second leaf of bifoliate. 'I feel it my duty to publish a second edition of our Catalogue of Duplicates before the Sale takes place as there are so many mistakes. | As you went through the prints so carefully I should be glad to avail myself of your notes if you would kindly lend them to me for a day at the same time, I should wish to fullhy acknowledge the favour'. Signed 'Geo. Wilm Reid'.