TRADE

[Robison, Reed & Shuttleworth, Georgian dry goods merchants.] ‘General statement of the concern of Messrs. Robison Reed & Shuttleworth from June 1st., 1803 to December 1st., 1804.

Author: 
Robison, Reed & Shuttleworth, Georgian dry goods merchants; William McRae; Napper & Co., London callico printers; John Serrell [carpenter?]
Publication details: 
[Robison, Reed & Shuttleworth, merchants.] Manuscript ‘General statement of the concern of Messrs. Robison Reed & Shuttleworth from June 1st., 1803 to December 1st., 1804.’ On a single extremely large piece of paper.
£180.00

This is a document which would certainly repay investigation. No record of this firm of merchants has been discovered, or even of where they traded. Robison is a Scottish name, and there is an undated reference to a ‘James Robison, merchant in Dumfries’; most Shuttleworth’s hail from the north-east of England, and there is mention of a John Shuttleworth in Manchester in 1820. Other clues in the document suggest a London location: in 1793 Napper and Co.

[Sir Walter Gibbons, theatre impressario who built the London Palladium.] Auction catalogue of his effects, with a bookseller’s bids in pencil: ‘A Catalogue of the Contents of Kensington House, Bayswater, W.2’

Author: 
Sir Walter Gibbons (1871-1933), theatre impressario, founder of the London Palladium and owner of around forty music halls [Kensington House, Bayswater; Knight, Frank & Rutley; auction catalogue]
Publication details: 
10 to 13 March 1931. Knight, Frank & Rutley, 20 Hanover Square, London, W.1. Printed by J. Davy & Sos, Ltd., 8-9 Frith Street, London.
£180.00

As the Great Depression hit Gibbons found himself over-extended, and was forced into bankruptcy. The present item is scarce. The only copy on JISC is at the Paul Mellon Centre Library. 68pp, 8vo. In grey printed wraps, and with purchase slip tipped in. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. At head of title-page: ‘By Direction of Lieut.-Col. SIR WALTER GIBBONS, K.B.E., D.L. Following the Sale of the Freehold, and the proposed conversion of the Property into high-class Residential Flats.’ ‘Conditions of Sale’ on reverse of title. 974 lots.

[William Bentinck, 4th Duke of Portland, Tory politician.] Autograph Letter Signed, giving instructions to his London bookseller ‘Mr Booth’ [William Booth].

Author: 
William Bentinck, 4th Duke of Portland [William Henry Cavendish-Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck; from 1768 to 1809 Marquis of Titchfield] (1768-1854), Tory politician [William Booth, London bookseller]
Publication details: 
‘Buxton Septr 12. 1821’.
£50.00

For William Booth (1779-1840) of 32 Duke Street, Manchester Square [Portland Place], see the British Book Trade Index. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Neatly placed in remains of windowpane mount. Signed ‘Scott Portland’. With regard to the newspaper the Globe, he asks that it be ‘sent here till further orders - The Sun to be continued to be sent to Welbeck’. He is sending ‘the first volume of Horace Walpole’s private correspondence to be changed’, as it is incomplete: ‘It contains a portion of its pages twice over - & another portion wholly omitted’.

[John Mills, author and agriculturalist.] Autograph Letter Signed to his bookseller John Nourse, describing French books he wishes him to procure, one ‘on account of some matters relative to Agriculture, which I have in my head’.

Author: 
John Mills (c.1717-c.1794), author and agriculturalist whose Fellowship of the Royal Society was sponsored by Benjamin Franklin [John Nourse (1705-1780), scientific bookseller in the Strand, London]
Publication details: 
12 April 1765. Welbank Street [London].
£180.00

The recipient is not named, but can be identified as the Strand bookseller John Nourse, from Notes and Queries, 3 September 1881, which has as its first article a transcription, with commentary of five long letters from Mills to John Nourse, the noted scientific bookseller in the Strand, and the present item clearly belongs to the same correspondence, predating the first, which is dated 15 May 1765.

[Printed pamphlet poem with note by ‘A. H. M.’, i.e. Alfred H. Mayhew, bookseller at 56 Charing Cross Road, London.] St. Patrick’s Breastplate [Adapted by Katherine M. Buck]. ['Made for the Wayland-Dietrich Saga'.]

Author: 
Katherine M. Buck; ‘A. H. M.’ [i.e. Alfred H. Mayhew, bookseller at 56 Charing Cross Road, London] [the Wayland-Dietrich Saga]
Buck
Publication details: 
‘PUBLISHED BY ALFRED H. MAYHEW / At the Sign of “The Smithy,” 56, Charing Cross Road, London, W.C.2. / 1926. / Printed in Great Britain by R. Stockwell, Baden Place, Crosby Row, S.E.1.’
£56.00
Buck

Five copies listed on JISC. Now scarce. 8pp, 16mo. Stitched pamphlet, on good wove paper. In fair condition, lightly aged, with small closed tear at head of first leaf. First two leaves with light crease. Enfolded in ‘wallet’ of the same paper, repeating the title on the front (differently positioned), and also giving the price as sixpence. The poem, covering pp.2-7, is in small print, and the first stanza reads: ‘I bind upon myself to-day / The Strength of the Holy Trinity: / That mighty Breastplate be my Stay! / I here invoke . . . I here confess . . .

[Compton Mackenzie and Christina Foyle.] Seven items relating to a ‘Foyles Literary Lunch’ for . Macqueen-Pope: Two Typed Letters Signed from CM to MP, TLS from Foyle to MP, and carbons of three letters from MP, and four related carbons.

Author: 
Sir Compton Mackenzie (1883-1972), novelist; Christina Foyle (1911-1999), owner of Foyles bookshop, London, who put on the ‘Foyles Literary Lunches’ [W. Macqueen-Pope, theatre historian]
Publication details: 
Dating from between 26 February and 15 May 1951. Mackenzie’s two letters on Denchworth Manor letterhead; Foyle’s letter on letterhead of W. & G. Foyle Ltd., Booksellers, 119-125 Charing Cross Road, London.
£120.00

From the Macqueen-Pope papers. (See his entry, and those of Foyle and Mackenzie, in the Oxford DNB.) Apart from damage and rust staining from paperclips, the seven items are in good condition. The correspondence mainly concerns a Foyles Literary Lunch for Macqueen-Pope, which Mackenzie was unable to chair because of an attack of bronchitis. All items 1p, 8vo. Mackenzie’s two letters signed ‘Compton Mackenzie’ and Foyle’s signed ‘Christina Foyle’. ONE: Foyle to MP, 26 February 1951. She is forwarding a letter from Mackenzie.

[Ifan Kyrle Fletcher, theatre historian and antiquarian bookseller.] Typed Letter Signed to fellow theatre historian W. J. Macqueen-Pope, regarding theatrical ephemera he is supplying for ‘the redecoration of the Whitbread house in Covent Garden’.

Author: 
Ifan Kyrle Fletcher (1905-1969), theatre historian and antiquarian bookseller [Walter James Macqueen-Pope (1888-1960), theatre historian]
Publication details: 
16 March 1951; on letterhead of Ifan Kyrle Fletcher, Rare Books, 12 Lansdowne Road, Wimbledon, SW20, London.
£45.00

From the Macqueen-Pope papers (see his entry in the Oxford DNB). 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once, with one dogeared corner. He thanks him for ‘having mentioned my name in connection with the playbills, prints, etc., needed for the redecoration of the Whitbread house in Covent Garden’. He believes MP will be ‘seeing my selection within the next few days’, and hopes that, ‘in general, you will approve of it’.

[‘I like to see myself all original authorities’: Sharon Turner, historian, author of the ‘History of the Anglo-Saxons’.] Autograph Letter Signed (‘Sh.n Turner’), instructing his booksellers to procure a rare book for him.

Author: 
Sharon Turner (1768-1847), historian, author of a four-volume ‘History of the Anglo-Saxons’, 1799-1805
Publication details: 
11 March 1836. ‘Cottage / Winchmore Hill’.
£90.00

An idiosyncratic letter, revealing something of his working practices, and the relations between client and bookseller in the early nineteenth century. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. From the collection of a painstaking Victorian autograph collector, who has unobtrusively repaired slight damage to a central fold. On lightly discoloured paper, with a thin neat strip from the windowpane mount adheres to the edges. The letter is signed ‘Sh.n Turner’ and the recipients are not named.

One Autograph Letter Signed, Four Typed Letters Signed, and one Autograph Postcard Signed to Frank Marcham, Antiquarian Bookseller. With unsigned copy of one typed letter Marcham to Muir.

Author: 
Percy Muir, Bookman
Publication details: 
Taylors, Takeley, Essex (but on Elkin Mathews of 37a Duke Street or Grosvenor Street headed notepaper, with lines through the old addresses], 1939-1942, giving a picture of Britain and the Book Trade during the 2nd WW etc
£125.00

Total 5pp., 8vo, some chipping but texts clear and complete, signed variously, P, Percy Muir, Percy, PCM. (1939) Your letter cheered me up no end. It was just like being in the office & listening to you laying down the law in your usual style. | We hardly know there's a war on down here, except for black-outs & an unusual number of children in the village. We even manage to sell a few books from time to time - about one a week so far - made 3/- profit on a sale this morning. Well, I hope to live to see you commander in chief.

Two Autograph Postcards Signed, one John Carter, the other John to Lord Ritchie of Dundee about Minding My Own Business etc.

Author: 
John Carter, Bookman
Publication details: 
No place, 8 Jan. 1968 and no date readable [postmark obscured].
£80.00

Good condition. [1968] About an appointment. [obscured date] Well, yes, I suppose some of the fun & games of those days ought to be recorded before we're all dead. I must think about it. Percy Muir covered some of the ground in his Minding my own Business [title underlined], 1956, ch.8 [= Sherry and Shibboleths], but he got a good many things wrong. He discusses the place where Ritchie lives, saying the aounts who also live there were worth knowing.

[Sir Samuel Romilly, abolitionist and legal reformer.] Autograph Letter in the third person to ‘Mr. Williams’, explaining that he will be finishing ‘the Bill in this Cause’ while out of town.

Author: 
Sir Samuel Romilly (1757-1818), abolitionist and legal reformer of Huguenot descent
Publication details: 
15 September 1794. Lincoln’s Inn [London].
£50.00

See his long entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, with negligible remnants of windowpane mount adhering at edges of blank reverse. Reads: ‘Mr. Romilly presents his compliments to Mr. Williams and informs him that he is obliged to go out of Town tomorrow & that he has not been able to finish the Bill in this Cause but he will take it with him into the Country & send it to Mr. W. in two or three days’.

[Earl of Carnarvon, Secretary of State for the Colonies; Gold Coast (Ghana)] Substantial Autograph Letter Signed Carnarvon to Mr [John Thadeus] Delane, Editor of 'The Times' about trade (and its political side effect) in the Gold Coast.

Author: 
Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon, politician
Publication details: 
[Embossed address] Highclere Castle, Newbury, 3 April 1874. Private.
£90.00

Four page, 12mo, in very narrow frame of stiffer paper, good condition. DELANe has introduced him to a Mr Moylan involving future employment. He'll contact Moylan. He continues: The whole question of our future position as regards the Gold Coast is very difficult and I wish much that I knew - as one important consideraiot in the case - what are the [rulings?] of the trade. I cannot learn with any certainty; but I have recently heard that Messrs. Swanzy, who, as you know, enjoy by far the largest share of the Coast trade w[oul]d be inclined to prefer the withdrawal of all Govt.

[Lord Grey and immigration to British West India Colonies, 1850.] Two printed Colonial Office circular dispatches: on ‘Coloured Emigrants from United States’, and ‘Immigration’ of ‘Coolies’, ‘Kroomen’ and Africans taken from captured Slavers’.

Author: 
Lord Grey [Henry George Grey, 3rd Earl Grey] as Secretary of State for the Colonies, 1850 [Colonial Office; slavery; the United States]
Publication details: 
ONE: ‘Coloured Emigrants from United States’, Downing Street, 16 October 1850. TWO: ‘Immigration’, Downing Street, 30 October 1850.
£150.00

Two interesting items from the period leading up to the American Civil War. Both items are scarce: no other copy of either traced. In good condition, lightly aged. Disbound from a volume and paginated in manuscript.Both printed in copperplate font. ONE: Printed ‘Circular’ dated from Downing Street, 16 October 1850. Headed in manuscript ‘Colonial Emigrants from United States’. In manuscript at end (not in Grey’s hand) ‘/sd/ Grey’. 2pp, 8vo. Paginated in manuscript 239-240.

[Timothy D’Arch Smith, bibliographer and bookseller.] Typed Letter Signed (‘Tim’) to London bookseller Andrew Block, thanking him for books including ‘Corvos’.

Author: 
Timothy D’Arch Smith (b.1936), bibliographer, bookseller and chronicler of the ‘Uranian’ group of paedophile poets, manager of The Times Bookshop [Andrew Block, London bookseller; Baron Corvo]
Publication details: 
5 October 1962. On letterhead of The Times Bookshop, 42 Wigmore Street, London W1.
£56.00

For the background to this letter see D’Arch Smith’s memoir ‘The Times Deceas’d: The Rare Book Department of The Times Bookshop in the 1960s’ (2003). The obituary of the recipient Andrew Block (1892-1987) in ‘The Private Library’ was subtitled ‘the doyen of booksellers’; his business was established in 1911. 1p, 4to. Aged and lightly creased. Signed ‘Tim’, with Block writing ‘D’ARCH SMITH’ beside this. Begins: ‘My dear Andrew: / Thanks so much for looking after me so well on Saturday.

[A.. N. L. Munby, Librarian of King’s College and historian of British book collecting.] Autograph Letter Signed to London bookseller Andrew Block, sending a collection of ‘Lyceum ballad-operas’ for his perusal.

Author: 
A. N. L. Munby [Alan Noel Latimer Munby] (1913-1974), Librarian of King’s College, bibliographical historian and book collector [Andrew Block, London bookseller]
Publication details: 
11 January 1954. On letterhead of King’s College Library, Cambridge.
£56.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The obituary of the recipient Andrew Block (1892-1987) in ‘The Private Library’ was subtitled ‘the doyen of booksellers’; his business was established in 1911. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged. Signed ‘A N L Munby’ and addressed to ‘Dear Block’. Folded twice. He is sending ‘the volume of playbills, all Lyceum ballad-operas’, which he estimates comprises fifty-eight in total. ‘Send me along whatever they are worth to you.’

[‘He as good as called me a liar: Sir Walter Newman Flower, proprietor of London publishers Cassell’s.] Autograph Letter Signed and two Typed Letters Signed to Sir James Marchant, complaining of treatment by Thomas B. Wells of New York firm Harpers.

Author: 
Sir Walter Newman Flower (1879-1964), proprietor of London publishers Cassell & Co, biographer and literary editor [Thomas Bucklin Wells (1875-1944) of Harper & Co., New York; Sir James Marchant]
Publication details: 
First TLS: 3 January 1928. Second TLS: 11 December 1928. Both on letterheads of Cassell & co. Ltd., La Belle Sauvage, London, EC4. ALS: 18 December 1928, on letterhead of Idlehurst, Sevenoaks.
£150.00

Publishing history does not get more vivid than this. See Flower’s obituary in The Times, and Wells’s in the New York Times. The three items in good condition, lightly aged. All three folded once and signed ‘Newman Flower’. First TLS (3 January 1928): 1p, 12mo. He writes that although ‘a very apologetic letter from Mr. Wells of Harpers’ has ‘cleared the air entirely’, ‘a reply from Holt’ received at the same time is not very satisfactory’, and ‘in view of the fact that Cassell’s and Harpers will be coming together again, it would, perhaps, be as well not to do anything at present’.

[Louis Bondy, London antiquarian bookseller.] Printed handbill, with biography and photograph, endorsing ‘Louis W. Bondy’ in the 1953 Holborn Borough By-Election, ‘South Bloomsbury Ward - E’. With Autograph Note Signed to Andrew Block.

Author: 
Louis Bondy [Louis Wolfgang Bondy] (1910-1993), London antiquarian bookseller and local politician, Labour Party councillor for Holborn in the Greater London Council [Andrew Block]
Publication details: 
Thursday 25 June 1953; ‘Printed by J. Stafford Thomas, Ltd., (T.U.), 177 Bermondsey Street, S.E.1 and Published by John Peel, 78 Witley Court, W.C.1.’
£65.00

See Nicolas Barker’s obituary of Bondy in the Independent, 27 June 1993. The obituary of the recipient Andrew Block (1892-1987) in ‘The Private Library’ was subtitled ‘the doyen of booksellers’; his business was established in 1911. An evocative piece of booktrade and London local government ephemera. 2pp, 8vo. Printed on a leaf of shiny art paper. Worn and creased; folded twice. On one side ‘L. W.

[David Low, London bookseller.] Typed Card Signed to ‘Dear Rock’ (the bookseller Andrew Block), regarding oriental prints and ‘Teddy’.

Author: 
David Low (1903-1987), London bookseller whose 1973 autobiography ‘With All Faults’ has an introduction by Graham Greene [Andrew Block (1892-1987)]
Low
Publication details: 
29 January 1977; on letterhead of David Low Booksellers, Ltd., Emmington, Chinnor, Oxford.
£45.00
Low

In his obituary of Low’s partner Robin Waterfield (Independent, 12 February 2002), James Fergusson describes Low as a ‘Scottish Polish Jewish bouquiniste’. The recipient Andrew Block’s obituary in ‘The Private Library’ was subtitled ‘the doyen of booksellers’; his business was established in 1911. Plain orange-yellow card, with Reynolds Stone oval medallion letterhead. Signed ‘David’ in red ink. Addressed, with postmark and stamp, to ‘Mr. Andrew Block / 30, Barter Street / London W.C.1.’ He enquires whether the ‘coloured drawings on rice paper’ he is sending are ‘merely Chinese’.

[Ben Weinreb, London bookseller and editor of ‘The London Encyclopedia’.] Autograph Note Signed [to fellow bookseller Andrew Block] on attractive printed invitation card for the opening of the new ‘Weinreb + Douwma’ print and map shop.

Author: 
Ben Weinreb (1912-1999), London bookseller and authority on architecture, first editor of ‘The London Encyclopedia’ [Robert Douwma, printseller; Andrew Block, bookseller]
Weinreb
Publication details: 
Invitation to shop opening, 26 January 1970; 93 Great Russell Street, London WC1.
£45.00
Weinreb

See Nicolas Barker’s appreciative obituary in the Independent, 7 April 1999, which notes that after selling his entire stock to the University of Texas in 1968, ‘He moved his business to the other side of Great Russell Street, and briefly opened another shop, selling prints in partnership with Rob Douwma.’ (The British Museum website states that ‘Weinreb & Douwma was on the corner of Great Russell Street and Bloomsbury Way during the 1970s and 1980s.’) The obituary of the recipient Andrew Block (1892-1987) in ‘The Private Library’ was subtitled ‘the doyen of booksellers’; his business w

[Cecil Woolf, bookseller and publisher, nephew of Leonard and Virginia Woolf.] Autograph Card Signed to bookseller Andrew Block, regarding his offer of ‘two Thomas Moore letters’.

Author: 
Cecil Woolf [Cecil James Sidney Woolf] (1927-2019), bookseller and publisher, nephew of Leonard and Virginia Woolf [Andrew Block, London bookseller]
Woolf
Publication details: 
27 August 1959; on letterhead of ‘Cecil Woolf, Bookseller, 24 Victoria Square, London, S.W.1.’
£56.00
Woolf

See his obituary in the Guardian, 26 June 2019. The obituary of the recipient Andrew Block (1892-1987) in ‘The Private Library’ was subtitled ‘the doyen of booksellers’; his business was established in 1911. Plain postcard, with his letterhead and the following printed at the foot: ‘WANTED. Any English book, or any book printed in England, before 1700.’ Signed ‘Cecil Woolf.’ Aged and worn, with central vertical fold. Addressed, with stamp and postmark, to ‘Andrew Block, Esqre., / 20, Barter Street, / Holborn, W.C.1’.

[John Cowper Powys (1872-1963), novelist and poet.] Envelope addressed by Powys in Autograph to his London bookseller G. L. Lewin, with his name and address written by him on the reverse.

Author: 
John Cowper Powys (1872-1963), novelist and poet [George Lionel Lewin (1890-1970), bookseller of Great Russell Street, London]
Publication details: 
'From / J. C. Powys / Corwen / Merioneth / N. Wales'. Oxford postmark dated 13 August 1941.
£35.00

An evocative artefact of the interesting connection between Powys and the man who supplied him with the books for his translation of Rabelais. Writing on 24 September 1940, in 'Letters to Sea-Eagle', Powys gives a lengthy account of 'Our Jew Book-Pedlar' and the bombing by the Germans of his Russell Street address.

[André Deutsch, Hungarian-born British publisher, the original of John Le Carré’s ‘Toby Esterhase’.] Typed Letter Signed to Louis B. Frewer, Keeper of Rhodes House Library, Oxford, commenting on an ‘amusing’ postcard featuring Herr von Papen.

Author: 
André Deutsch (1917-2000), Hungarian-born British publisher, the original of John Le Carré’s ‘Toby Esterhase’
Publication details: 
3 July 1952; on letterhead of Andre [sic] Deutsch Limited Publishers, 12 Thayer Street, Manchester Square, London W1.
£45.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, on lightly aged and creased paper. Folded twice. Signed ‘André Deutsch’ (but note that there is no accent to the name on the letterhead). He thanks him for his letter, and hope that ‘the enclosed postcard [not present] will be of some help. It is rather an amusing one, as Herr von Papen gives a literal translation of the German expression for the appendix’. Here Deutsch adds in autograph: ‘(Physical).’ He ends by stating that he is enclosing ‘a copy of our list for your information’ (also not present).

[Provincial Georgian Art Connoisseurs.] Two Autograph Memoranda, both signed by ‘W. Hayward’, recording an exchange of paintings (by Correggio, Hobbima, Du Jardin, et al) with ‘Dr. Maddy’ [Edwin Maddy, LLD, Mayor of Gloucester].

Author: 
[Provincial Georgian Art Connoisseurs: ‘Dr Maddy’, i.e. Edwin Maddy, LLD, Mayor of Gloucester, and W. Hayward]
Publication details: 
Both dated 'Gloster 20th. Octr. 1841'. [Gloucester.]
£56.00

Interesting artefacts of provincial Georgian connoisseurship and picture dealers. If genuine (unlikely, given the period) the paintings would be of considerable interest. Given the exchange of cash, ‘W. Hayward’ could well be a visiting picture dealer. Both memoranda in good condition, lightly aged. ONE: 1p, 8vo. Folded four times. Reads: ‘Gloster 20th. Octr. 1841 | Exchanged with Dr. Maddy the following pictures viz / Waterfall &c. - Berghem / Landscape - Hobbema / for / Landscape - K. Du Jardin / Perseus & Andromeda - S. Rosa / and / Cash - £100 / W. Hayward’. TWO: 1p, landscape 12mo.

[Douglas Cleverdon, Bookseller, BBC producer of Dylan Thomas’s ‘Under Milk Wood’.] Typed circular from ‘The Bookshop of Douglas Cleverdon’, with ‘order form’, printing appeal by ‘James S. Cox, Antiquary’ for material relating to Ilchester.

Author: 
Douglas Cleverdon (1903-87), BBC radio producer of ‘Brains Trust’ and Dylan Thomas’s ‘Under Milk Wood [James Stevens-Cox (1910-97), antiquary; Ilchester, Somerset]
Publication details: 
Undated, but dated in manuscript to 1937. From ‘The Bookshop of Douglas Cleverdon / 18 Charlotte Street, Bristol, England’.
£90.00

For information on Cleverdon, see his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient is the subject of an obituary by Nicolas Barker in the Independent, 18 March 1997. 2pp, 8vo. On tastefully-printed letterhead (Cleverdon’s shop sign was by Eric Gill) headed ‘DOUGLAS CLEVERDON / WISHES TO BRING TO YOUR NOTICE’, and printed in the same font (as is the order form on the reverse) at foot: ‘The order form on the reverse of this sheet should be sent to / THE BOOKSHOP OF DOUGLAS CLEVERDON / 18 CHARLOTTE STREET, BRISTOL, ENGLAND’. in fair condition, a little creased.

[Sir Robert Peel, father of the Prime Minister of that name, industrialist] Autograph Letter Signed to David Scott, recommending to the East India Company a firm for ‘the cleaning and washing of India piece Goods’.

Author: 
Robert Peel Sir Robert Peel, (1750 – 1830), father of Prime Minister. politician and industrialist and one of early textile manufacturers of the Industrial Revolution.
Publication details: 
‘No 8 Milk Street [London] | 7th Septr 1799’.
£180.00

A neat item, providing an insight into the great statesman’s mercantile roots. See his entry in the Oxford DNB, together with those of his father the first baronet (Lancashire calico printer and politician) and the recipient Scott. 2pp, 4to. On watermarked laid paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded three times. The recipient is named as ‘David Scott Esqr’.

[Percy Muir, Antiquarian Bookseller; ILAB; Pamphlet] Minutes of the First International Conference of Antiquarian Booksellers held at Amsterdam September 18-20, 1947

Author: 
[Percy Muir, Antiquarian Bookseller; ILAB]
Publication details: 
[1947 or 8]
£400.00

Pamphlet, printed wraps, 24pp., cr. 8vo, some staining and wear but good condition. 1 unnumbered leaf of plates (photograph of the representatives). Printed sticker inside front wrap From the Library of Percy Muir. Muir was the major force in the establishment of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, an organisation that still thrives. Transcription of minutes include comments of, then Conference Chair, P.H. Muir (Great Britain); five countries were represented at the Conference: Denmark, France, Great Britain, Holland, Sweden. The only copy recorded is at the Lilly, inevitably.

[Antoine Destutt de Tracy, French philosopher.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Dustutt-Tracy') to the French printer Firmin Didot, discussing the various editions of du Val's Aristotle with a view to obtaining a copy of one.

Author: 
Antoine Louis Claude, Comte Destutt de Tracy (1754-1836), French philosopher, politician, soldier, who coined the term 'ideology', admired by Jefferson [Firmin Didot (1764-1836), French printer]
Publication details: 
'A Anteuil ce 25 floreal an 11'. [i.e. 15 May 1803]
£450.00

An interesting letter, casting light on bibliographic and book trade practices in Consulate Paris. 2pp, 12mo. Forty-two lines of closely-written text on the first leaf of a bifolium, the recto of the second leaf being addressed 'Au Citoyen Firmin Didot | Rue du Regard | A Paris'. In good condition, lightly aged, with white paper stub of mount adhering to second leaf.

Autograph Letter Signed ('John Murray') from John Murray II to the Edinburgh publishers Bell & Bradfute, concerning his account with them for Thomas Thomson's 'System of Chemistry'.

Author: 
John Murray II (1778-1843), London publisher [Bell & Bradfute, Edinburgh publishers]
Publication details: 
11 July 1810; London.
£65.00

4to, 1 p. Fourteen lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. He has been 'extremely unwell', and is sending '3 bills for the account of Thomsons Chemistry £1100'. 'I trust that you will not be dis-satisfied with this as I can assure you conscientiously that I could not afford to give them shorter.' Reference to Longmans, and to his anxiety, 'as you left the settlement to my own conscience'.

[Sir James Craufurd [Sir James Gregan-Craufurd], diplomat. Autograph Letter in the third person, in French, to 'M. Dulau' [London foreign-language bookseller] ordering books required for 'le cours historique qu'il a commencé avec ses enfans'.

Author: 
Sir James Craufurd [Sir James Gregan-Craufurd] of Kilbirney, Stirling, 2nd Baronet (1761-1839), diplomat, British Ambassador to Denmark
Publication details: 
22 August 1806. Rushbrook Hall near Bury St. Edmunds.
£35.00

See his obituary in the Gentleman's Magazine, September 1839. B. Dulau & Co. was a firm of foreign language booksellers in Soho Square, London, founded by a Benedictine monk, Armand Bertrand Dulau, who had fled France during the revolution. 2pp, 4to. Thirty-two lines of text. In good condition, lightly aged, with stub from mounting adhering to one edge, and negligible damage at a corner. The letter begins: 'Sir James Craufurd prie M.

[Printed work of sensational popular fiction.] The Mysterious Avenger; or, The Trials of Love. [Followed by a reprinting of De Quincey's translation of 'Der Freischütz', under the title 'William, the Fatal Marksman; or, The Seven Charmed Bullets'.]

Author: 
[Thomas De Quincey; William Walker, printer, Otley, Yorkshire]
Publication details: 
London: Published by the Booksellers. William Walker, Otley. 1847. [Slug: 'WILLIAM WALKER, PRINTER, OTLEY.']
£250.00

256pp., 12mo. With frontispiece engraving and vignette on title. In original brown cloth binding, with blind-stamped decorative pattern on the boards, and title and design on the spine. Ownership inscription of 'Arthur Baxter | Runcorn | 1861' on piece of paper laid down on front pastedown. A tight copy, on stained paper (particularly the last few leaves) and aged paper, in worn binding with gilt almost dulled. An interesting production, reminiscent of previous Minerva Press publications, and looking ahead to the yellow-back.

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