TRURO

On 1 x 4.5 cm. slip of paper, cut from a letter. In good condition, lightly aged. A good clear signature, neatly underlined, with the cross-stroke of the initial T looping down in calligraphic style. A few words of text from the letter on the reverse.

The two volumes contain transcriptions of a total of 65 original autograph poems, most of them unpublished, with extensive explanatory and biographical notes (sometimes running to several pages) composed especially for the recipient of the volumes, Mrs Ball of the City Hotel, Truro. In two uniform 4to notebooks with waxed black cloth bindings. The first volume is in fair condition, on aged and worn paper, in worn binding with loss of spine. The second volume has damp affecting the first 60pp., causing slight loss to text, and damage to the binding. ONE: On front free endpaper: 'Vol I.

1p., 4to (31 x 32 cm). 26 lines, signed at end 'Montague Smith | Temple | 9 Dec 1862'. In fair condition, on lighly-aged paper, with minor damp damage to one edge. Docketed on reverse '1862 | Case for the Opinion of Mr. Montague Smith', with 'Took 3 Gu[ine]as' (Smith's fee) and initials in another hand. At foot, in a third hand: 'Thomas B. Knight | 34 Lime Street | City. E.6.', and beneath this, in a fourth 'Cox | Honiton'.

3pp., 12mo. Fair, on aged and worn paper. Wilde explains that he had previously written regarding the case, but 'by some accident the Letter has been mislaid (I believe) among my mass of papers, and I therefore fear it may not have reached you as I cannot learn who among the Servants dispatched it'.

12mo: 26 pp paginated 101-126. Stitched. In original worn, creased and grubby green printed wraps. Internally clean, except for the first two leaves, both of which are grubby, with loss to the first leaf affecting two lines of text. 'Farmer Brown's Blunders' is a dialect poem, with explanatory footnotes; the other item is a spoof letter by 'Hannibal Hollow'. There are no records of first or second editions of this item, or of any other edition in which the two pieces are printed together. Scarce: the only copy on COPAC, dated to 1860, at the British Library.