STRAWBERRY

[John Wilson Croker, Anglo-Irish politician and author.] Autograph Letter Signed to John Gibson Lockhart, asking him to make an enquiry to Miss Mary Berry regarding Horace Walpole.

Author: 
John Wilson Croker (1780-1857), Anglo-Irish politician and author [John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854), Scottish author and editor, biographer of his father-in-law Sir Walter Scott; Horace Walpole]
Publication details: 
‘W. M. [West Molsey, Surrey] 19 May 49.’ [1849]
£120.00

See his entry in the History of Parliament, and his and Lockhart’s entries in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, with thin strip of dried adhesive from mount along one edge, and tiny bit of loss at foot beneath the signature. Folded for postage.

[ Strawberry Hill Press. ] Engraving ('C. Grignion sculp.') depicting 'Earl Rivers presenting his Book & Caxton his Print to Edw. 4'.

Author: 
Charles Grignion the elder (1721-1810), Huguenot engraver [ William Caxton, English printer; Horace Walpole; the Strawberry Hill Press ]
Publication details: 
Frontispiece to Horace Walpole's 'Royal and Noble Authors', published by the Strawberry Hill Press, 1758 [ 1759 ].
£45.00

Printed in black ink on one side of a piece of 18 x 11 cm piece of laid paper. Dimensions of image 15.5 x 10 cm. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. The image forms the upper part of the engraving, within a decorative border, with the caption, covering eleven lines, as the lower part, within its own lapidary border. The image is, as the caption explains, from 'a curious M.S. in the Archbishop's Library at Lambeth'.

[George Robins, auctioneer.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Geo Robins') to the editor of the Morning Chronicle James Black, pushing for an article to be inserted in the paper, to tie in with his sale of the contents of Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill.

Author: 
George Robins [George Henry Robins] (1777-1847), celebrated London auctioneer [James Black (1783-1855), editor of the Morning Chronicle [Horace Walpole; Strawberry Hill]
Publication details: 
'Covent Garden [London] | Friday [1842]'.
£2,500.00

2pp., 12mo, bifolium. Very good, on lightly aged paper. The letter reads: 'Strawberry Hill is to the classic world much more important than the turmoil of everlasting Politics. It will be a little refreshing as a contrast to your readers to hear of Horace Walpole - the Inclosed is from Gallignani's Journal[.] in Paris they give a better attention to the Arts as well as the nuisance of everlasting Politics'. Postscript reads: 'Would you like to have a card to see'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('A Berry') from Agnes Berry, sister of the poet Mary Berry and friend of Horace Walpole, to the Berry sisters' landlady the Hon. Mrs George Lamb of Richmond, describing Mary Berry's ill health.

Author: 
Agnes Berry (1764-1852), sister and companion of the poet Mary Berry (1763-1852), and friend of Horace Walpole [Hon. Mrs George Lamb [Caroline 'Caro George' Lamb'] of Devonshire Cottage, Richmond]
Publication details: 
Curzon Street, London. 7 December [1840s?].
£90.00

2pp., 12mo. 30 lines. Good, on lightly-aged paper. She begins by explaining that it was 'by an entire mistake' that Mrs Lamb's money (presumably the rent for Devonshire Lodge, owned by Mrs Lamb) was not paid, and that the mistake is 'now cleared up, & the money is to be paid this very morning by Coutt's into your Banker's'. Her sister Mary is not able to pass on this information herself, as 'she has been for above a fortnight so very unwell as not to be able to write, or occupy herself in any way - a severe fit of & Influenza has confined her, & kept me in great agony about her'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('M Berry') from the diarist Mary Berry, sister of Agnes Berry and friend of Horace Walpole, [to her publishers Longman & Co] regarding proofs [of her book 'A Comparative View of the Social Life of England and France'].

Author: 
Mary Berry (1763-1852), author and diarist, sister and companion of Agnes Berry (1764-1852), and friend of Horace Walpole [Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green, publishers, of Paternoster Row, London]
Publication details: 
'Petersham Wedy. Mony' [1828].
£180.00

1p., 12mo. 12 lines. Good on lightly-aged paper. She is requesting 'an alteration to be made in the Contents of Chapr 9. to the necessity of which I had not adverted till I saw that Chapr. in Print'. After correcting the chapter she 'desired a Revise', but 'foolishly forgot to Revise the Contents of the Chapr.' 'It cannot however be too late & must be done, as the Chapr: ends with Mr Fox'. The work referred to is clearly Miss Berry's 'Comparative View', published by Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green in 1828, the ninth and last chapter of which does indeed end with Charles James Fox.

Autograph Letter Signed ('M Berry') from Horace Walpole's friend Miss Mary Berry to the politician and wit Richard 'Conversation' Sharp, commenting on his volume of 'Epistles in Verse'.

Author: 
Mary Berry ['Miss Berry'] (1763-1852), author and diarist; sister and companion of Agnes Berry (1764-1852), friend of Horace Walpole [Richard 'Conversation' Sharp (1759-1835), politician and wit]
Mary Berry ['Miss Berry']
Publication details: 
7 April 1828; Petersham.
£230.00
Mary Berry ['Miss Berry']

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Her 'constant practice' has always been to return her thanks for the gift of a poetry volume 'before I could possibly have had time to read it', but in this case 'this caution was impossible for I received your little Vol: in all the hurry of leaving town, & I may say England, for I shall not return to London before our departure'. She is glad she was not able to write before reading the poems 'with the attention they merit & with all the pleasure they have given me'.

[printed handbill] Prologue written by the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, And spoken by him at the opening of the Theatre, Strawberry Hill, Nov. 1800.'

Author: 
Richard Edgcumbe (1764-1839), 2nd Earl of Mount Edgcumbe [Anne Seymour Damer (1748-1828; née Conway), whose guardian Horace Walpole left her his villa at Strawberry Hill; Strawberry Hill Press]
[printed handbill] Prologue written by the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe
Publication details: 
Without place or date [Strawberry Hill Press? c.1804'].
£125.00
[printed handbill] Prologue written by the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe

4to, 1 p. On bifolium of wove paper, watermarked 'J LARKING | 1804'. Nicely printed. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The poem is thirty-four lines long, beginning 'Hold, hold! What's this? No prologue to our play? | Down with the curtain - let it down, I say; | Let me go forth - I must, I will have way!' It is preceded by title and 'Noise and disputing behind the Sccenes. - The Curtain begins to rise.

Syndicate content