SAUNDERS

[Duke of Montrose [James Graham, 3rd Duke of Montrose], Scottish nobleman and Tory politician.] Autograph Letter Signed to Robert Saunders Dundas (the future Viscount Melville), regarding the amending of a ‘very insufficient’ act of parliament.

Author: 
Duke of Montrose [James Graham, 3rd Duke of Montrose; until 1790 Marquis of Graham] (1755-1836), Scottish nobleman and Tory politician [Robert Saunders Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville (1771-1851)]
Publication details: 
5 January 1809; Grosvenor Square [London].
£65.00

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly-aged, with small triangle cut away from letter in opening red wax seal, of which minor traces remain. Folded and addressed in the customary manner. Franked to ‘Right Honble / Robert S: Dundas &c &c &c / Downing Street / Montrose’, sent from ‘Grosvr: Sq: 5th Jan 1809’ and signed ‘Montrose’. Begins, without salutation: ‘I wish you would look to this act, as it appears to require attention.

[Irving Wardle, theatre critic.] Autograph Letter Signed to Gerald Wynne-Rushton, giving advice on offering a play, with reference to a letter he has received from Emyr Humphreys, producer of BBC TV production of Saunders Lewis’s ‘Siwan’.

Author: 
Irving Wardle [John Irving Wardle] (born 1929), theatre critic and champion of Harold Pinter [Gerald Wynne-Rushton (1894-), Catholic writer]
Publication details: 
16 March [no year, but between 1960 and 1963]; on letterhead of the Observer, London.
£45.00

Wardle worked as Kenneth Tynan’s deputy on the Observer between 1959 and 1963. Wynne-Rushton had published a play titled ‘The Gull’s Way’ in 1930, and a book on the papacy for Catholic publishers Burns, Oates and Washburne two years later. 2pp, 4to. In fair condition, folded three times, with wear and loss along one fold line of the second leaf, resulting in loss of a few words of text. Signed ‘Irving Wardle’ and addressed to ‘Dear Mr. Rushton’, identified as G. W. Wynne-Rushton by associated correspondence.

[National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.] Five items: Programme ('A Short Account of the Library and the Scheme of Buildings') on George V laying foundation stone; invitation card; admission tickets; pamphlet 'A Description of the Permanent Building'

Author: 
National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth; William Saunders of Llandrundod Wells
Publication details: 
[National Library of Wales.] Aberystwyth: 1911 and 1914.
£220.00

A nice selection of ephemeral material connected with the foundation of one of Britain's six Legal Deposit libraries. The collection in good overall condition, lightly aged and worn (but see description of Item One). The first two items end with signatures in type of: John Williams, President; J. Herbert Lewis, Vice-President; Henry Owen, Treasurer; Evan Davies Jones, Chairman of Building Committee; John Ballinger, Librarian.

[William Heberden, Physician-in-Ordinary to George III.] Autograph Letter Signed ('W. Heberden') on putting 'Dr Halloran's proposal' on administering arsenic to the king to the mad-doctors Robert Darling Willis, Thomas Monro and Samuel Foart Simmons.

Author: 
William Heberden the younger (1767-1845) [the madness of King George III; Robert Darling Willis; Thomas Monro; Samuel Foart Simmons; William Saunders Hallaran]
Publication details: 
Pall Mall [London]. 7 November [no year, but between 1810 and 1820].
£350.00

The present item dates from the final period of the king's mental instability, 1810-1820. Heberden – the son of the 'father of rheumatology' William Heberden the elder (1710-1801) – had been appointed Physician-Extraordinary to the queen in 1795, and by 1809 was Physician-in-Ordinary to both queen and king.

[ Howard Saunders, ornithologist. ] Autograph Letter Signed to E. L. Arnold, asking for more particulars about the piratical-looking birds' referred to in his 'Indian Hills', and explaining that gulls and terns are his 'speciality'.

Author: 
Howard Saunders (1835-1907), ornithologist [ E. L. Arnold [ Edwin Lester Linden Arnold ] (1857-1935), author ]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 7 Radnor Place, Gloucester Square, W. [ London ] 18 December 1881.
£56.00

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Forty-eight lines of text. Arnold's 'On the Indian Hills, or Coffee-Planting in Southern India' had been published in London earlier in the year, and Saunders writes that '[a]s an ornithologist' he has been 'much interested by the numerous allusions to the birds observed [...] but most of all by your remarks on the outward voyage (pp.101-3) on the gulls &c of the Red Sea'.

[ General John Hope, 4th Earl of Hopetoun, Scottish politician and soldier. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('Hopetoun') to Viscount Melville, respecting the fitting up of a part of the Old Palace at Linlithgow for the county meetings.

Author: 
General John Hope, 4th Earl of Hopetoun [ Lord Niddry ] (1765-1823), Scottish politician and British Army officer [ Robert Saunders Dundas, Viscount Melville ]
Publication details: 
Hopetoun House. 23 May 1819.
£150.00

3pp., 4to. In good condition, lightly-aged, on two leaves each neatly cut out of a windowpane mount. Headed 'Private'. Docketted by the recipient: 'Resp[ectin]g. the fitting up a part of the Old Palace at Linlithgow for the County Meeting'. He describes the applications he has made to the Lords of the Treasury and the Prince Regent, and a correspondence between the Keeper of the Palace and the Secretary of State. 'Your Lordship is aware that the Building is a complete Ruin; & of no use whatever, it its present state to any one [...]'.

[Trelawney Saunders, cartographer and map seller.] First part of long Autograph Letter to Commander James Mangles, RN, discussing his 'Illustrated Geography & Hydrography' and other works, and his desire for a London 'depot' for the sale of maps.

Author: 
Trelawney William Saunders (1821-1910), FRGS, book and map seller, 6 Charing Cross, London; Geographical Assistant, India Office; cartographer [Captain James Mangles (1786-1867); Edward Stanford]
Publication details: 
6 Charing Cross [London]. 14 May 1846.
£650.00

Four pages, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, on aged paper, with small pinholes to both leaves and slight loss at the head of the second. Substantial first part of long letter, and hence lacking the signature. BBTI has Trelawny [for Trelawney] William Saunders at 6 Charing Cross between 1846 and 1853, and Edward Stanford's entry in the Oxford DNB records that he was an apprentice there, returning as partner in 1852 ('The partnership was dissolved by mutual consent in July 1853.'), and that it was Saunders who proposed Stanford for membership of the Royal Geographical Society.

Autograph Letter Signed from the playwright Ben Travers to 'Miss Saunders', reporting that he is 'in the thick of this "Week in the Country" business', but that he will contribute to the 'Grand Magazine', despite being 'a rotten short story writer'.

Author: 
Ben Travers (1886-1980), English playwright, best-known for his farces at the Aldwych Theatre in London in the 1920s and 1930s
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Queen's Hotel, Southsea. 29 June 1927.
£50.00

1p., 12mo. On aged and ruckled paper, with pinholes to one corner. He is 'in the thick of this "Week in the Country" business'. 'When I come to town I'll come & see you about your proposition of the series for the Grand Magazine, but I'm a rotten short story writer, you know.'

Autograph Letter Signed ('Westland Marston') from the playwright John Westland Marston, inviting Robert Cole to 'a Bachelor party' for the National Magazine.

Author: 
John Westland Marston (1819-1890), poet and playwright, friend of Dickens and Dante Gabriel Rossetti [John Saunders (1811-1895), editor with Marston of the 'National Magazine'; Robert Cole]
Publication details: 
November 1856.
£65.00

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. The letterhead has been cut away from the first leaf, taking with it the number of the month, but not affecting the text; otherwise fair, on lightly-aged paper. Marston invites Cole to 'a pleasant little meeting of some of our friends and contributors at the Office': 'We are altogether a Bachelor Party and as free from formality as a set of Australian Bush Men or Gold-diggers'. Saunders has also written 'begging the pleasure' of Cole's company. He ends by sending his regards to Cole's daughter, whom he hopes has 'recovered from her cough'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Syd Smirke') from the architect Sydney Smirke, advising 'Mr. Lloyd' [William Watkiss Lloyd?] not 'to be made instrumental in dunning', in a case involving Saunders & Co. and 'Sir Robert' [his brother Sir Robert Smirke?].

Author: 
Sydney Smirke (1798-1877), English architect, younger brother of Sir Robert Smirke (1780-1867) [William Watkiss Lloyd (1813-1893), antiquary]
Publication details: 
Grosenor St [London]. 5 March [1859].
£45.00

2pp., 12mo. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with minor water staining and a couple of spike holes. An intriguing communication, beginning: 'I would not, if I were you, allow myself to be so worried.' Smirke feels that, as 'Mess: Saunders & Co have not been backward in representing themselves as Principals in the matter', and as they 'are as largely as - or more largely, interested' than Lloyd himself 'in obtaining a payment, they had better themselves address Sir Robert'.

The Democrat. A Weekly Journal for Men and Women. [first issue]

Author: 
William Saunders (1823-1895), newspaper publisher and editor and British Liberal politician [William George; Hackney]
Publication details: 
No. 1. Saturday, November 15, 1884. [Printed and Published for the Proprietors by J. C. DURANT, Clement's House, Clements Inn Passage, London, W.C.
£165.00

Broadsheet, 8 pp. A single sheet, folded twice and unopened. No stapling. Text clear and complete, on aged and spotted paper (not high-acidity newsprint), with wear and chipping to extremities. Articles include 'The American Elections' by Henry George; ''The Crofter Revolt', and 'The "Pall Mall Gazette" Panic'. Also 'Metropolitan Constituencies No. I. - Hackney'. Scarce: no copy at the British Library (Colindale) and the only run on COPAC at the University of London.

Printed circular (in the form of a facsimile of a handwritten letter) invitation to the 'Ceremony of laying the Foundation Stone [of the 'New Library and Museum' at the Guildhall]'.

Author: 
William Sedgwick Saunders [Guildhall Library; Corporation of London; the City]
Publication details: 
17 October 1870; Guildhall.
£55.00

4to: 1 p. Facsimile of a handwritten letter. With small embossed circular letterhead, in red and gilt, with crest enclosed by the words 'Bibliotheca civitatis Londoniarum'. Somewhat grubby bifolium, but with text clear and entire, reading 'The Committee appointed by the Corporation of London to carry out the works in connexion with their new Library and Museum having fixed Thursday, the 27th. Instant for the ceremony of laying the Foundation Stone of the buildings, it will afford them much pleasure to be favored with your company on the occasion, at Guildhall at 2. o'clock. p.m.

Proof ('Saunders sculp.'), 'Engraved for Ashburton's History of England', of 'Henry II after having his Son crowned King serving the first dish to his Table'.

Author: 
[Charles Alfred Ashburton; Ashburton's History of England; Joseph Saunders, engraver; W. & J. Statford, Print Sellers, High Holborn, London]
Publication details: 
Published by W. & J. Stratfords, No: 112 Holborn Hill March 16, 1793.'
£28.00

On wove paper, with watermark '179< >'. Dimensions roughly 22.5 x 39 cm. Very good on lightly aged paper. One small unobtrusive spot of foxing. The illustration is within an oval roughly 21.5 cm wide, enclosed in a decorative box of dimensions 18 x 27.5 cm. A couple of bishops with croziers and a mass of nobles in ermine look on in a vaulted castle hall while Henry II presents what looks like a pie to his bemused offspring, who is seated beneath a canopy.

Autograph Letter Signed to William Smith.

Author: 
Robert Saunders Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville
Publication details: 
2 July 1820; Wimbledon.
£135.00

Statesman (1771-1851); First Lord of the Admiralty, 1812-27, after whom Melville Sound was named. Three pages, quarto. Very good if a tad grubby.

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