THE

[DICKENSIANA. Set of six ‘Pickwick Papers’ shadow casters (Mr Pickwick; Mr. Weller, Senr., Sam Weller, Jingle, [J]ob Trotter, Fat Boy) on card, four of them with dark areas carefully cut away, of which one is completed.

Author: 
DICKENSIANA. Six ‘Pickwick Papers’ shadow casters. [Charles Dickens; Magic Lantern Show]
DICKENSIANA
Publication details: 
No date. [Edwardian?] London?
£400.00
DICKENSIANA

A set of six scarce pieces of unusual Dickensiana. Difficult to date: the nature of the illustrations (printed in negative) gives them a modernist feel, but their purpose would place them before the 1920s. The six items, printed in black on pieces of grey-white card, range in size from 12 x 16.5 cm (‘SAM WELLER.’) to 4.5 x 6 cm (‘JOB TROTTER’). In good condition, lightly aged. Four of the six have soot stains on their blank reverses, presumably caused by the hot lantern.

[George Peachey, London Piano Forte Manufacturer.] Quarto Bifolium Leaflet Advertisement, printed in black and red with royal arms, advertising Peachey’s ‘City of London Piano-Forte Manufactory’, with much information in small print.

Author: 
George Peachey, 73 Bishopsgate Street, Within, nineteenth-century London Piano Forte Manufacturer, ‘By Appointment to Her Majesty’
Peachey
Publication details: 
No date, but on Saunders laid paper with 1856 watermark. George Peachey, Piano Forte Manufacturer, 73, Bishopsgate Street, Within, Opposite the Marine Society, London.’
£150.00
Peachey

Scarce: no other copy traced. Bifolium of laid 1856 Saunders paper. 4pp, 4to. Unpaginated. The front cover carries is headed ‘City of London Piano-Forte Manufactory.’ Beneath this are engraved the royal arms, flanked by the words ‘By Appointment / to the Queen.’ Peachey’s address is engraved beneath the arms in large letters. At the foot of the page, in red ink, are three lines relating to ‘Harmoniums.’, with the second page headed by another two lines in red. The two central pages carry much information in small type.

[The man whose name became synonymous with bank notes.] Autograph Signature of Abraham Newland, Chief Cashier of the Bank of England, to part of receipt for annuities, witnessed by ‘R Ettie’.

Author: 
Abraham Newland (1730-1807), Chief Cashier of the Bank of England, whose name became synonyous with banknotes
Newland
Publication details: 
July 1789. [Bank of England, London.]
£50.00
Newland

An interesting autograph in economic history. Newland’s entry in the Oxford DNB states that ‘His signature on Bank of England notes became so familiar that they were known as Abraham Newlands. His fame in this respect was commemorated in several popular jingles’. A good firm signature, ‘A Newland’, with that of the witness ‘R Ettie’, at the foot of printed form, completed in manuscript, paying Newland £33 15s 0d as assignee to an executor.

[English Social History: A working-class London cinema-goer.] Two exercise books, filled with 385 manuscript entries by ‘Miss Renee Fish’ of Catford, detailing ‘Films I have seen’, between 1930 and 1934, and 1939 and 1943, at various London cinemas.

Author: 
[English Social History: A working-class London cinema-goer in the 1930s and 1940s; the movies; the pictures; the flicks]
Publication details: 
‘Miss Renee Fish, / 112, Allerford Road / Catford, / S.E.6. [London]’ First exercise book: 272 entries between 3 January 1930 and 27 October 1934. Second exercise book: 113 entries between 12 June 1939 and 20 March 1943.
£450.00

An interesting agglomeration of ephemera London cinematic information. The author is working-class or lower-middle-class. Two sturdy ruled small 4to exercise books, with black covers of ribbed watered cloth and spine of red cloth. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. ONE: 150pp. Ownership inscription on inside of front cover: ‘Miss Renee Fish, / 112, Allerford Road / Catford, / S.E.6.’ The first page is headed: ‘31. 12. 29. Films I have seen during 1930.’ Each of the volume’ The entries are numbered from 1 to 272, with an additional numeration for each year from the second year onwards.

[The Artists’ Rifles, British Army regiment.] Privately printed booklet: ‘Artists’ Rifles. Songs for Marching & Camp.’ With ownership signature of ‘J W Mackay’ [James Waite Mackay].

Author: 
The Artists’ Rifles, regiment of the British Army, raised in London by Edward Sterling in 1859, now the 21 Special Air Service Regiment (Artists) (Reserve) [James Waite Mackay]
artists
Publication details: 
Undated, but around 1916. [The Artists’ Rifles, London.] ‘For Private Circulation only.’
£220.00
artists

A scarce piece of regimental ephemera: no copies found on JISC or WorldCat. 32pp, 16mo. Stitched into grey paper wraps, with the regiment’s Minerva and Mars device and the title printed on the cover, and with ‘For Private Circulation only’ at bottom left. Inscribed at top right ‘J W Mackay’. (For James Waite Mackay (fl.

[Viscount Sydney [John Robert Townshend, 1st Earl Sydney], Liberal politician, twice Lord Chamberlain of the Household and twice Lord Steward.] Part of Autograph Letter, with Signature, regarding the killing of rabbits.

Author: 
Viscount Sydney [John Robert Townshend, 1st Earl Sydney] (1805-1890), Liberal politician, twice Lord Chamberlain of the Household and twice Lord Steward
Sydney
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£50.00
Sydney

On 11 x 6 cm piece of aged paper, with patches of discoloration and traces of mount on reverse. Good clear firm and undamaged signature on front: ‘[...] I am Sir / Yr Obt. Sert. / Sydney’. The reverse reads: ‘[...] ristricted from killing rabbits on the land lately taken on lease from me and also from ploughing up any part of it but I hereby give you leave to kill rabbits or any [...]’. See Image.

[Sir John Barrow, Second Secretary to the Admiralty.] ‘Duplicate’ of Secretarial Letter, Signed by Barrow, to ‘The Senior Officer at Rio Janeiro’, on Rear Admiral Sir Michael Seymour’s discharge with disgrace of ‘Henry Wood, Seaman of the Blonde'.

Author: 
Sir John Barrow (1764-1848), geographer and author, Second Secretary to the Admiralty, 1804-1845 [Rear Admiral Sir Michael Seymour (1768-1834)
Barrow
Publication details: 
‘Admiralty [Whitehall, London] / 8th September 1834.’
£100.00
Barrow

See the entries for Barrow and Seymour in the Oxford DNB. On laid Whatman paper dated 1833. Having served for four years as Commissioner at Portsmouth, Seymour had sailed out to South America in 1833 as commander-in-chief, dying of ‘low fever’ at Rio de Janeiro two months before the writing of the present letter. 1p, foolscap 8vo. In good condition, folded twice. At top left: ‘Duplicate, / No 50.’ Initialed at bottom left: ‘J. P.’ Good firm and attractive signature ‘John Barrow’. Writing with regard to ‘the late Rear Admiral Sir Michael Seymour’s letter of the 16th.

[The Royal General Theatrical Fund Association, London.] Three copies of drafts of an advertisement, composed by theatre historian W. Macqueen-Pope, with copy of covering letter to Secretary J. Mayhew Allen; and later corrected draft of circular.

Author: 
Royal Theatrical Fund, London, for retired actors, founded 1839 with Charles Dickens as its first chairman [J. Mayhew Allen, Secretary]; W. Macqueen-Pope (1888-1960), theatre historian
Theatrical Fund
Publication details: 
Copy of Macqueen-Pope’s letter: 15 May 1953. Circular: 27 November 1957; on letterhead of the Royal General Theatrical Fund Association, 11 Garrick Street, London WC2.
£180.00
Theatrical Fund

See Wendy Trewin, ‘The Royal General Theatrical Fund: a history, 1838-1988’ (1989), and Macqueen-Pope’s entry in the Oxford DNB. ONE: Carbon copy of letter from Macqueen-Pope to Allen, 15 May 1953, with three drafts of advertisement. 4pp, 4to. On four leaves. The letter, on the first page, is somewhat grubby, with rust spotting from paper clip, the other three leaves, each of which carries a proposed version of the advertisment, in good condition, lightly aged. The letter begins: ‘Dear Jack Allen, / Herewith three rough samples for the proposed advertisement concerning the Fund.

[Lilian Baylis, manager of the Old Vic and Sadler’s Wells theatres in London.] Three Typed Letters Signed, to different recipients, on a topics including her health and need to ‘appear ruthless’. With Autograph Signature to publicity portrait (Photo)

Author: 
Lilian Baylis [Lilian Mary Baylis] (1874-1937), lessee and manager of the Old Vic and Sadler’s Wells theatres in London
Baylis
Publication details: 
TLsS from 1921, 1932 and 1936; the first on letterhead of ‘Royal Victoria Hall (“The Old Vic.”)’, the other two on letterhead of The Old Vic (‘The People’s Theatre’ and ‘The Home of Shakespeare and Opera’), London. Post Card dated 14 March 1934.
£180.00
Baylis

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. The three TLsS (Items One to Three), each signed ‘Lilian Baylis’, are all 1p, 4to. They are in fair condition, creased and lightly aged, with Item Three having two punch holes for a binder. The portrait postcard is in good condition, lightly aged. ONE: TLS, 15 November 1921. Addressed to ‘Miss Ingham’. ‘I do hope you will have a big success with the enclosed card.

[Major-Gen. Sir Robert Neville, soldier with the Rl Marines and later Governor of the Bahamas] Typed Letter Signed to Lieut. G. Hide, asking for assistance in getting back to Edinburgh after a trip to Scapa.

Author: 
Major-General Sir Robert Neville [Robert Arthur Ross Neville] (1896-1987), British soldier with the Royal Marines in both world wars; Governor of the Bahamas, 1950-1953; Combined Operations, Whitehall
Publication details: 
15 August 1943; on letterhead of the Combined Operations Headquarters, 1A Richmond Terrace, Whitehall, SW1 [London].
£120.00

See his obituary in The Times, 16 June 1987. 1p, 4to. On aged and lightly creased and worn paper. Folded twice, with short closed tears to edges of central horizontal crease. Addressed to ‘Dear Hide’ and ‘Lieutenant G. Hide, R.N.V.R. / 700 Squadron / TWATT.’ Signed ‘Robert Neville’. He feels ‘very guilty’ that he did not write to thank Hide ‘for the Walrus, which was, of course, an absolute Godsend to me. Sargent could not have been a more delightful or obliging pilot.

[Cyril Falls, military historian and journalist.] Autograph Letter Signed to military historian Antony Brett-James, regard the possibility of Brett-James writing a chapter ‘on Waterloo in the Great Battles Series I am editing’.

Author: 
Cyril Falls [Cyril Bentham Falls] (1888-1971), Anglo-Irish military history and journalist [Antony Brett-James (1920-1984), military historian]
Publication details: 
16 June 1962. 16 Archery Close, Hyde Park, London W2.
£50.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly-aged. Folded once for postage. Addressed to ‘Dear Mr Brett-James’ and signed ‘Cyril Falls’. He is ‘delighted to hear from Brigadier Peter Young’ that Brett-James will, ‘he feels sure, take on Waterloo in the Great Battles Series I am editing’. He explains that the book’s chapters ‘are brief’, and is enclosing an explanatory sheet. Ends: ‘Please, however, let me have your reply at the earliest possible moment.’ The volume ‘Great Military Battles’, edited by Falls, appeared in 1964.

[Edward William Cox (‘Serjeant Cox’), lawyer and publisher.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Rev P Tuckwell’ (in fact the ‘radical parson’ William Tuckwell), regarding his education at the College School, Taunton, and future plans.

Author: 
Edward William Cox (1809-1879), ‘Serjeant Cox’, lawyer and publisher [William Tuckwell (1829-1919), ‘radical parson’ and headmaster of the College School, Taunton]
Publication details: 
9 February 1865; 1 Essex Court, Temple [London].
£50.00

See the entries for Cox and Tuckwell in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. On bifolium blind-stamped with the device of the Conservative Club. Addressed to ‘Rev P [sic] Tuckwell / College School / Taunton’, and signed ‘Edwd Wm Cox’. In good condition, on aged paper. Folded twice for postage. He begins: ‘Dr Sir / It gives me very great pleasure to aid the fund of the College School. After its long hybernation 43 years ago, I was the first pupil received on its revival. & within its walls I obtained the larger portion of my education, following the then master, (Rev H Forster) to Oxford.

[Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey, Scottish judge and literary critic, editor of the Edinburgh Review.] Autograph Signature on envelope sealed in red wax, and Autograph address to James Gibson Craig.

Author: 
Francis Jeffrey (1773-1850), Lord Jeffrey, Scottish judge and literary critic, editor of the Edinburgh Review [Sir James Gibson Craig (1765-1850), lawyer and politician]
Jeffrey
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£35.00
Jeffrey

See his entry, and Craig’s, in the Oxford DNB. 13 x 9 cm envelope, with seal (no impression of any kind) in red wax over the broken flap. In good condition, lightly aged. On the front of the envelope, in Jeffrey’s hand, ‘To / James Gibson Craig Esqre / 7. North St Andrew Street’. Beneath this, at bottom left and between the customary lines is the signature ‘F. Jeffrey’.

[Alan Bennett, playwright, screenwriter and author.] Autograph Card Signed, with reference to 'Sam Barnett (ex History Boys)', the Nottingham Playhouse and his health.

Author: 
Alan Bennett (b.1934), playwright, screenwriter and author whose career began in the Cambridge Footlights, and includes the script for the film 'The Madness of King George'
Publication details: 
[2021.] Place not stated.
£35.00

In good condition. Printed on one side of the card is one of Bennett's self-caricatures, and printed on the other, on a left hand panel, a note apologising for not writing in autograph, as answering so much mail would take away 'time which I would like to spend working'. On the right-hand panel, in actual autograph, is the following: 'Thank you for yr letter and I hope 2021 is a better year for you. I gather from Sam Barnett (ex History Boys) that the Nottingham Playhouse is keeping going. I'm getting slower but still coming to my desk every day. / All good wishes / Alan Bennett.'

[Badly beaten on the Senate floor: Charles Sumner, abolitionist, United States Senator for Massachusetts.]

Author: 
Charles Sumner (1811-1874), American abolitionist, United States Senator for Massachusetts, badly beaten on the Senate floor in 1856 by fellow-senator Preston Brooks
Sumner
Publication details: 
Dated by another on reverse: ‘M.S.S. 22d. Apl 1853 / Massachusetts’.
£120.00
Sumner

On 13 x 7.5 piece of paper, cut down from the label of a packet containing a manuscript (see the annotation on the reverse). On discoloured paper, with glue staining from mount on reverse. Sumner's signature 'C. Sumner' is at top left, with the top of the S slightly cropped. The address, by Sumner, reads 'W. S. Law Magazine / New York / N. Y.' Annotated in pencil on reverse: 'Charles Sumner / M.S.S. 22d Apl 1853 / Massachusetts / Lawyer'. See Image

[Alan Bennett, playwright, screenwriter and author.] Autograph Card Signed to Robert J. Drury of Cleethorpes, regarding the Academy Awards.

Author: 
Alan Bennett (b.1934), playwright, screenwriter and author whose career began in the Cambridge Footlights, and includes the script for the film 'The Madness of King George'
Bennett
Publication details: 
1 August 1995. Place not stated.
£35.00
Bennett

On a ‘Lion Brand’ plain post card. In good condition, but with the hurriedly-written text somewhat smudged, and a small staple at one corner. Addressed to ‘Robt J Drury / 141 Chichester Rd / Cleethorpes / S. Humberside / DN35 OJL.’ The message on the other side is hurriedly written: ‘August 1 1995 / Dear Mr. Drury / I’ve no thought on the Academy Awards I’m afraid. Some are well deserved some not - but thats true of a [?] Alan Bennett.’

[John Buckworth, Charles Duncombe, James Hoare; Royal Mint; counterfeit coins] Coppye Letter Signed by Buckworth, Duncombe and Hoare, as Commissioners for the Mint, to Lords of the Treasury[?], about a report of counterfeit gineys.

Author: 
J. Buckworth, Ch. Duncombe, Ja. Hoare, Commissioners for the [Royal] Mint
Guineas
Publication details: 
[Royal Mint], 19 Nov. [16]81.
£580.00
Guineas

One page, sm. folio, bifolium, closed tears repaired, fold marks, aging, and sl. foxing, BUT text clear and complete, if obscure at times, and semi-literate. SEE IMAGE. Text: May it please yr Lo[rdshi]ps | In obedience To your Lordships [referr...?] of ye 7th Instant, Re [?] to the offer of Mr Rog[e]r Haws[k]head.

[The Curwen Press, Plaistow.] Two keepsakes: [Basil Harley, James Shurmer] ‘Unicornucopia: A study of the Natural History of the amazing Unicorns living at The Curwen Press’ and [Basil Harley, John Miles] ‘The Curwen Press / A Short History’.

Author: 
The Curwen Press, Plaistow [Basil Hurley, John Miles, James Shurmer]
Curwen
Publication details: 
Unicornucopia: Dated in text to 1973. 'Booklet designed by / James Shurmer / printed at / The Curwen Press / London E13 9HJ'. 'The Curwen Press / A Short History' with final section dated 'August 1970'.
£120.00
Curwen

Two attractive pieces of Curwen Press ephemera. 'Cornucopia' is scarce: no copy at the British Library, and the only two copies on JISC at Lancaster and Aberystwyth. The 'Short History' is better represented. ONE: 'Cornucopia'. 12pp, landscape 12mo. Stapled into illustrated wraps. Printed in brown on cream paper. Booklet designed by James Shurmer, with text by Basil Harley. Many illustrations of unicorns arranged in eight 'plates'. Internally in good condition, but front cover grubby, and blank back cover stained. TWO: 'The Curwen Press / A Short History'. 39pp, small 4to.

[Napoleonic Wars: the arming of six British merchant ships, c.1807.] Manuscript ‘Account of Sundry Stores received from the Pilot Boates [sic]’, ‘Respecting Arming Pilot Boates / Account of Stores’.

Author: 
Napoleonic Wars: the arming of six British merchant ships, c.1807 [Brittania, Stephen Brown; Sloop Neptune, John Hurry; Syren, William Jackson; Fox, Thomas Lundie; Rover, Robert Jackson]
Publication details: 
Entries dated between May 1805 and June 1809. On paper watermarked ‘J WHATMAN / 1807’.
£280.00

None of the boats and captains named in the present item are present in contemporary Navy Lists, so they would appear to be merchant ships. 2pp, foolscap 8vo. Aged and worn, with slight loss along edges and faded to a small portion of text. Folded four times into a packet, named (on the reverse): ‘Respecting Arming Pilot Boates / Account of Stores’. The whole of the recto is filled with text, divided into six rectangles in two columns of three rectangles each, under the heading ‘Account of Sundry Stores received from the Pilot Boates’.

[Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, 1796.] Appointment of John McKenzie ‘to Command His Majesty’s Gun Boat the Morwelham’, signed by Sir Philip Stephens, James Gambier, Sir William Young, and Secretary to the Board Evan Nepean.

Author: 
Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, 1796 [signed by Sir Philip Stephens, James Gambier, Sir William Young, and by Evan Nepean, Secretary to the Board of Admiralty; John McKenzie of the Morwelham]
Publication details: 
16 September 1796. [The Admiralty, Whitehall, London.]
£280.00

1p, foolscap 8vo. On piece of wove paper with Britannia watermark. Lightly aged and in fair condition, but with some creasing and nicking at the head. Folded three times into a packet. A printed document, completed in manuscript.

[The Earl of Rosebery, Liberal Prime Minister.] Letter in a Secretarial Hand, signed by him, regarding appointment to a post at the Treasury, with a dinner invitation to Sturgis and his wife (George Meredith’s daughter).

Author: 
The Earl of Rosebery, Liberal Prime Minister [Archibald Philip Primrose (1847-1929), 5th Earl of Rosebery; Henry Parkman Sturgis (1847-1929), American-born banker and Liberal politician]
Publication details: 
27 April 1895; on letterhead of The Durdans, Epsom.
£56.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. With mourning border. On first leaf of a bifolium. In good condition, folded once for postage. All in a secretarial hand, except the signature ‘Rosebery’. Addressed to ‘My dear Sturgis’ - the item is from the autograph album of Sturgis’s wife, George Meredith’s daughter Marie Eveleen (‘Mariette’; 1871-1933). He regrets that he has ‘disposed of the vacancy of the secretaryship at the Treasury’. Had he not, he ‘would gladly have considered the claims of your candidate’. Ends: ‘I wonder if you and Mrs Sturgis would come and dine here some evening.’

[‘Gray’s Desk on which he wrote the Elegy’: Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, London auctioneers.] Letters and accounts from Sotheby’s to Mrs Sarah Turpin, relating to the 1915 sale of ‘Letters and Relics’ by Thomas Gray, including priced catalogue entries

Author: 
Thomas Gray (1716-1771), poet, author of 'Elegy written in a Country Churchyard' [Mary Antrobus; Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, London auctioneers; Sarah Turpin, wife of organist Edmund Hart Turpin]
Publication details: 
Eleven items dating from 1914 and 1915. Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, Auctioneers, 13 Wellington Street, Strand, London, W.C.
£450.00

A nice collection of ephemera, relating not only to one of England’s best-loved poets, but also to Sotheby’s auction practice during the Great War. The provenance of the Gray letters put up for auction by Mrs Turpin is given in a New York Times article of 27 June 1915 (‘To sell relics of Thomas Gray; many letters by the poet will also be put up at auction at Sotheby's’), which stated in a report on the forthcoming sale that the letters ‘were transmitted to the present owner, Mrs.

[Sir Arthur Wing Pinero, leading late-Victorian and Edwardian playwright.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Arthur W. Pinero') to the daughter of the writer George Meredith, regretting that he cannot visit her and her father at Box Hill.

Author: 
Sir Arthur Wing Pinero (1855-1934), leading English late-Victorian and Edwardian playwright, after beginning as an actor in Sir Henry Irving’s company at the Lyceum Theatre, London [George Meredith]
Publication details: 
25 June 1891; on copperplate letterhead of 64 St John's Wood Road, London N.W.
£56.00

See his appreciative entry in the Oxford DNB, concluding with praise of his ‘undeniable’ achievements.2pp, 12mo. On bifolium. In good condition; folded once for postage, and with the blank reverse of the first leaf laid down on part of a leaf from the autograph album of 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 'Miss Marie E. Meredith' and signed 'Arthur W. Pinero'. Begins: 'It is with a heavy heart that I tell you I am pledged, wit h Mrs.

`[HMS Beacon, HMS Britannia and HMS St Vincent.] Three separate returns of armaments for three Royal Navy ships, each in manuscript, two on printed forms.

Author: 
HMS Beacon, HMS Britannia, HMS St Vincent [Royal Navy ships in the nineteenth century; the Admiralty, Whitehall]
Publication details: 
Return for HMS St Vincent dated 31 July 1833; the other two from the 1830s. [to the Admiralty, Whitehall]
£280.00

HMS Beacon (launched in 1820 as HMS Meteor and renamed in 1832) was a survey ship (having been under her previous name a Hecla-class bomb vessel), sold in 1846. HMS Britannia, the third of the name, was launched in 1820. She took part in the Siege of Sebastopol, and later in 1854 was driven ashore on the Russian coast, thereafter serving as a training ship until being sold for breaking in 1869.

[Evelyn Laye, English actress and singer, star of stage and screen.] Autograph Signature added at foot of pencil sketch of her by Kenneth Sephton.

Author: 
Evelyn Laye [née Elsie Evelyn Lay] (1900-1996), English actress and singer, star of stage and screen, associated with Noel Coward [Kenneth Sephton]
Laye
Publication details: 
No date or place. [1950s]
£90.00
Laye

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. After a stint as one of George Edwardes’ Gaiety Girls, she made her name in a number of revues, her performance in the lead role of the 1929 Broadway production of ‘Bitter Sweet’ prompting Coward to praise her grace and charm and assurance, which he said provoked one of the most prolonged outbursts of cheering I have ever heard in the theatre. She was less successful in Hollywood, starring in the Romberg/Hammerstein musical ‘One Heavenly Night’ (1931), a failure for Samuel Goldwyn.

[Hall Caine, Victorian author.] Signed Autograph Inscription, 'With much admiration', to fellow-novelist George Meredith.

Author: 
Hall Caine [Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine] (1853-1931), hugely-popular Victorian author from the Isle of Man [George Meredith, distinguished man of letters]
Caine
Publication details: 
23 September 1891; on letterhead fo Hawthorns, near Keswick.
£120.00
Caine

A nice item linking one of late Victorian England’s most popular novelists with its most critically admired. See the entries for Caine and Meredith in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Laid down on part of a leaf from the autograph album of Meredith’s daughter Marie Eveleen (Mariette; 1871-1933), wife of Henry Parkman Sturgis (1847-1929), American-born banker and Liberal politician. Reads: ‘To / George Meredith / With much admiration / Hall Caine / 23/Sept/91.’ See image.

[Ellen Terry, distinguished Shakespearian actress of the Victorian and Edwardian period.] Intimate Autograph Letter Signed (‘Nellaline’), sending her ‘very little heart [to George Meredith’s daughter]’.

Author: 
Ellen Terry [Dame Alice Ellen Terry] (1847-1928), distinguished Shakespearian actress of the late-Victorian and Edwardian periods, acted opposite Henry Irving
Publication details: 
17 March 1889; on letterhead of 22 Barkston Gardens, Earls Court, S.W. [London]
£80.00

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. An attractive and unusual item of correspondence, neatly written out in her distinctive handwriting. 1p, 12mo. On leaf of onion paper, carefully laid down on thicker backing. In good condition, slightly discoloured. Folded three times for postage. Reads: ‘A little little heart! So little! but anything “in the way of” a heart should not be flouted, nor scouted, & so I pray you to accept my very little heart - / It’s not worth the thanking for, only don’t send it back to me. / Nellaline. / March 17: 89:’.

[Elihu Burritt, ‘The Learned Blacksmith’, American abolitionist, Abraham Lincoln's consul to Birmingham, England.] Autograph Letter Signed, agreeing to give a lecture in Shrewsbury, while urging that it be delivered in a ‘neutral place’.

Author: 
Elihu Burritt (1810-1879), ‘The Learned Blacksmith’, American abolitionist and temperance campaigner, appointed consul to Birmingham, England, by Abraham Lincoln
Publication details: 
‘35 Exchange / Birmingham [England] March 22 / 1857’.
£150.00

See Merle Curti’s 1937 edition of Burritt’s letters and journals, titled ‘The Learned Blacksmith’. He was in England from 1846 to 1853. 2pp, 12mo. On a bifolium. 33 lines of text. In fair condition, lightly worn and spotted, with minor traces of mount at one edge. Folded once for postage. The recipient is not named, and the letter is signed ‘Elihu Burritt’. He has mislaid the letter the recipient sent a few days before, inviting him to deliver a lecture, ‘in behalf of your cause, sometime in the beginning of May, I think’.

[The Duke of Wellington, conqueror of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo.] Autograph Valediction to Letter, with signature 'Wellington' .

Author: 
The Duke of Wellington [Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington] (1769-1852), conqueror of the French in the Peninsular Campaign, and of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo; prime minister
Wellington
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£50.00
Wellington

One of the great figures of world history. On one side of 10 x 3.5 cm piece of wove paper, cut from the end of a letter, with blank reverse. In fair condition, lightly aged, with minor traces of glue at right (away from signature) and central horizontal fold (over signature). Evidently cut from the letter in response to a request for an autograph. Reads 'Your obedient servant / Wellington'. See Image.

[The Sherborne Mercury, or Weekly Advertiser, Dorset's first newspaper, a printed periodical predating The Times.] Number for ?Tuesday, April 29, 1740.?

Author: 
The Sherborne Mercury, or Weekly Advertiser, proprietor William Bettinson (d.1746), Dorset's first newspaper
Publication details: 
?Tuesday, April 29, 1740.? (Vol. IV, No. 167.) ?Printed at SHERBORNE, by WILLIAM BETTINSON, from LONDON.? [Dorset.]
£180.00

An important provincial publication, predating The Times by half a century. See the Oxford DNB entry of the later proprietor Robert Goadby, and the article by Roger Guttridge, ?Dorset?s first newspaper?, in ?Dorset Life?, August 2019. 4pp, folio. On two leaves, which originally formed a bifolium, but have now become detached from one another. Aged and worn, with chipping to extremities and along central horizontal and vertical folds, resulting in occasional loss of text.

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