TWENTIETH-CENTURY

Two Typed Letters Signed to G. K. Menzies, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Sir Ambrose Heal [Heal's Department Store]
Publication details: 
7 October 1918 and 15 May 1919; both on letterhead of Heal & Son Ltd. 195 to 198 Tottenham Court Road, London.
£75.00

Art historian, designer and founder of department store (1872-1959). Both items very good though somewhat dusty. One docketed and both bearing the Society's stamp. ITEM ONE (one page, quarto, 7 October 1918). He encloses (not present) a letter he has received from a woman named Evelyn James. 'I do not know what facilities you have for getting publicity but Miss James has done a good deal of this kind of thing and done it very well. She is a thoroughly capable young woman.' Her help may be sought regarding the meeting on 28 October.

Typed Letter Signed to Pete Goodyer.

Author: 
Carl Ronald Giles
Publication details: 
16 March 1978; on Daily Express letterhead.
£125.00

Probably the most famous of the Fleet Street cartoonists (1916-95). One page, quarto. Folded twice. Good, but lightly creased. He thanks him for the 'very nice letter and compliments', but feels he 'must administer a small but friendly reprimand. The Jean Rook [a noted Daily Express columnist] originals you refer to were ones concerning her article of the day and were a personal presentation.' Discusses charity commitments, before remarking 'It may surprise you that I spend more time in the studio working for charities than I do earning my living!

Autograph Note Signed to M[arion]. H[arry]. Spielman[n].

Author: 
Sir Aston Webb
Publication details: 
9 December 1903; on letterhead 19 Queen Anne's Gate, Westminster, London, S.W.
£45.00

English architect (1849-1930), responsible for many notable London buildings, including the Victoria and Albert Museum. The recipient Spielmann (1858-1948) was an art historian. One page, 12mo. Grubby, and with pin holes in top left-hand corner, as well as small closed tear at foot of leaf (not affecting text). Reads 'I regret that having to be in Manchester on Friday next I shall be unable to attend the art Committee of the St. Louis Exhibition'. Signed 'Aston Webb'.

Three Autograph Letters Signed to Mark [Bonham-Carter].

Author: 
George Malcolm Young
G.M. Young
Publication details: 
14 July 1945, 1 December 1946, 8 May 1947; all on letterhead 'THE OLD OXYARD, | OARE, | MARLBOROUGH, | WILTS.'
£120.00
G.M. Young

English historian (1882-1959). All three items, two pages, quarto. All good, though grubby and lightly creased. Three intimate and revealing letters. ITEM ONE apparently sent to Bonham-Carter in America. 'You will soon be back, I think. Are you now occupied in assembling and correlating your observations? [...] I should guess it was quite impossible to think when a Presidential election is going on. | I have been spending a fortnight in Oxford and I asked some of the early-middle-aged dons what the undergraduates were thinking.

Typed Letter Signed to Kenneth Luckhurst, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts, together with unsigned copy of letter to Luckhurst from G. Hollewell, carbon copy of Luckhurst's reply to Hollewell, and carbon copies of two letters from Luckhurst to Capey.

Author: 
Reco Capey [Yardley and Company; Perfume; Perfumery]
Publication details: 
All items 1947: Capey's letter, 18 March, on letterhead of Yardley and Co. ('Perfumery and Fine Soap Makers'); copy of Hollewell's letter, 7 March, Lincolnshire; copy of Luckhurst to Hollewell, 20 March; copies of Luckhurst to Capey, 11 and 20 March.
£100.00

British industrial designer (1895-1961); Chief Instructor, Design, Royal College of Art, 1925-35. The two carbons to Capey from Luckhurst, one page, 12mo; the other three letters, one page, quarto. All very good, though somewhat dusty and lightly creased, and with staple holes to the top left-hand corners. Throwing useful light on the state of post-war art education, the correspondence concerns a request to Luckhurst from 'one-time Fellow of the Society' Hollewell for 'information and advice in regard to my daughter's future training'.

Typed Letter Signed to G[eorge]. K[enneth]. Menzies, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Lieutenant-Colonel John Herbert Boraston [Field-Marshal Sir Douglas Haig; Earl Haig]
Publication details: 
27 June 1919; on letterhead 'G[eneral]. H[ead]. Q[uarters]. The Forces in Great Britain, | Horse Guards, | London, S.W.1.'
£45.00

English soldier and military historian (1885-1969). One page, quarto. Folded twice. Good, but with minor discoloration and some ink smudging along one edge (not affecting text). Bearing the Society's stamp. Replying, as Haig's private secretary, to a letter electing Haig a fellow of the Society. 'Sir Douglas Haig has asked me to thank you very much for your letter of the 25th instant and will be glad if you will convey to the Council and members of your Society his great appreciation of the honour they have done him.

Two typed Letters Signed, successively to G[eorge]. K[enneth]. Menzies and W. Perry, Secretaries, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Sir Alfred Charles Bossom, 1st Baronet [British Art in Industry Exhibition, 1935; Royal Society of Arts; Royal Academy]
Publication details: 
22 June and 1 October 1935; both on House of Commons embossed letterheads, and from 5, Carlton Gardens, S.W.1.
£100.00

English politician (1881-1965) and architect, much of whose work was done in the United States. Both letters two pages, quarto. Both letters docketed (the first heavily so), bearing the Society's stamp, and with pin and staple holes in top left-hand corner. Second letter good, first lightly creased and grubby. Revealing documents relating to the Royal Society's 'British Art in Industry' exhibition, held at the Royal Academy in 1935. The Society's website describes this as a 'resounding success', but as these letters show, the matter was not so clear cut.

Autograph Postcard Signed to Kenneth Bredon, of Bredon's Bookshop in Brighton.

Author: 
Nicolas Bentley
Publication details: 
Postmarked 24 September 1974; 'The Old School, Downhead, Shepton Mallet, Somerset.'
£35.00

One page, very good. Postcard illustration of Marie Taglioni. In Bentley's distinctive neat hand. 'If & when Angus & Robertson's traveller shows you a book called Dead Funny, illus. by Bill Tidy, pubs. Ask & Grant, I hope you'll feel compelled to place a huge order: The Grant is Arabella's husband, just breaking into publishing (mad!) How are you & Billie? We should love to see you both, but I doubt that you ever come this way. If you do, you can count on a warm bed & reception. Try & make it sometimes.' Signed 'Nick'.

Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed male correspondents.

Author: 
Léon Goossens
Publication details: 
BBC. | Evesham. | Ware. | 18/3/42'.
£45.00

English oboist (1897-1988). One page, octavo. Good, on thick laid paper. Pin marks in one corner and neat red stamp '20 MAR 1942'. He 'would like to see the proofs of the Mozart Quartet to check up the crescendo's and diminuendos just in case they are not correct.' He agrees with the 'scheme of marking only the parts'. 'With regard to Boughton's times I have them safe, I hope to play them in the near future but am rather at the mercy of the BBC.'

Thirty-four Autograph Letters Signed to the Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Vice-Admiral Sir (Henry) Percy Douglas
Publication details: 
1935-8; on letterheads including 18 Dealtry Road, Putney, and 34 Waterloo Mansions, Dover.
£180.00

British sailor (1876-1939), hydrographer of the Royal Navy (1924-32), inventor of the Douglas Protractor and the Douglas-Appleyard Arcless Sextant. Various formats from 12mo to octavo. Very good, some docketed and/or bearing the Society's stamp. Relating to the business of the Society, and in particular to a lecture by Douglas involving film of the Manchester Ship Canal.

Three Autograph Letters Signed, Three Typed Letters Signed, to Sir Harry Lindsay and C. Buchanan-Dunlop of the Royal Society of Arts, together with three carbons of replies and a newspaper cutting.

Author: 
William Ernest Frank Ward [GHANA]
Publication details: 
1948-9; Ward's six letters on Colonial Office letterheads.
£45.00

English educationalist (born 1900) and authority on West Africa. Various formats from 12mo to quarto. Very good. Some items stamped or docketed. Mainly relates to a lecture to the Society by Ward, provisionally entitled 'Mass education in the colonies'. Letter of 1 November 1948: 'I am leaving for Beirut in a fortnight to attend the UNESCO conference, and am straining to get the next issue of 'Overseas Education' off to the press before I go.

Typed Letter Signed to the Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Herbert Sammons [D. Napier & Son]
Publication details: 
22 August 1947; on letterhead of D. Napier & Son Limited, Acton.
£35.00

Scottish engineer (died 1967), noted for his innovative design of a gas turbine engine. One page, 12mo. Very good. Pinholes to one corner and bearing a date stamp. He is honoured to be nominated as a fellow of the Society, and encloses the proposal and a cheque (neither present), thanking the Council 'for the kind invitation extended to me'. Signed 'H. Sammons'.

Four printed items relating to the election of fellowships.

Author: 
All Soul's College, Oxford
Publication details: 
May, October and November 1946.
£56.00

From the archive of Mark Bonham Carter. Good, but on lightly creased, worn, discoloured paper with a few closed tears, stains and pencil marks. ITEM ONE: one page (8 3/4 inches by 11 1/4), headed 'UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD | ALL SOULS COLLEGE | ELECTION TO FELLOWSHIPS'. Begins: 'As announced in the University Gazette in September and October (Nos. 2485 and 2487) All Souls College will hold an examination from 1 to 4 May 1946, for the election of not more than three Fellows, if candidates of sufficient merit offer themselves.' States 'conditions of candidature and terms of the Fellowships'.

My friend Henry Miller.

Author: 
Alfred Perles
Publication details: 
London: Neville Spearman, 1955.
£120.00

8vo. Pages: xi + 242. 11 plates. Good, despite one bump at head of back board. Dustwrapper good, despite fraying at head and tail of spine and show-through sellotape discolouration . Dustjacket discoloration to free endpapers. Neat inscription, presumably by Perles, in green ink on front free endpaper 'To | Jack Mitchell | from Alfred Perles | & | Henry Miller | London March, 56.'

Five Autograph Letters Signed and one Typed Letter Signed to G. K. Menzies, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Sir Charles Herbert Armstrong
Publication details: 
1927-30; Elmhyrst, Guildford.
£120.00

British railway magnate and industrialist in India (1862-1949). The collection is very good. The five autograph letters are 12mo, and printed on letterheads. All items signed 'C H Armstrong'. Several items docketed and bearing the Society's stamp. Mainly concerned with Society committee matters, but two letters of interest. The first (autograph, 15 February 1928, 2 pages, 12mo): 'You will no doubt have seen the remarks of the Lord Chief Justice in the Mitchell Hedges case - Times of 14 inst page 5 column 2 - on "learned societies . . . .

Three Typed Letters Signed, two of them to G. K. Menzies, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts, together with three leaflets relating to the 'THE AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS LTD.'

Author: 
Alfred Henry Angus [ADVERTISING]
Publication details: 
The letters, 30 November, 3 and 7 December 1931; the first on the letterhead of the Audit Bureau of Circulations Ltd, and the last two on the letterhead of the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers Ltd.
£85.00

Founder and first editor of The British Advertiser (1873-1957). The collection in very good condition, with rust marks from a paperclip to one item. All items quarto. All items signed 'Alfred H. Angus'. The first letter invites 'The Managing Editor' of the Society's Journal to become a member of the A.B. of C. 'It is felt that your co-operation would be of the utmost value to the Bureau in the achievent of its objectives.' Letter three states that the I.S.B.A. executive have 'unanimously elected' W. D. H. McCullough as their representative to the R.S.A. committee.

The cruise of the gyro-car.

Author: 
Herbert Strang [pseudonym of George Herbert Ely and C. J. L'Estrange]
Publication details: 
London: Henry Frowde, Hodder & Stoughton. [No date, but circa 1914.]
£20.00

Octavo. 243 pages. Frontispiece illustration. In original red cloth embossed binding. Poor copy: rear endpapers split, binding grubby, pages foxed. Presentation inscription on verso of flyleaf dated October 1914.

Four Typed Letters Signed, one Autograph Letter Signed, and one Autograph Note Signed, to (successively) Menzies, Perry and Luckhurst, Secretaries, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Thomas Cantrell Dugdale
Publication details: 
1925 to 1938.
£120.00

English painter (1880-1952) and member of the International Socialist Organization. All items in good condition, though variously grubby or discoloured with age, lightly creased or with pin holes to corners. All items signed either 'T C Dugdale' or 'T. C. Dugdale'. Several items docketed and/or bearing the Society's stamp. LETTER ONE (typed, 23 June 1925, one page, 12mo, on letterhead '9 AVENUE STUDIOS, 76 FULHAM ROAD, LONDON, S.W.3.'): He hopes to 'be able to accept your invitation to act as Judge in the same section as last year'. Asks for the date.

Autograph Letter Signed to [G. K.] Menzies[, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts].

Author: 
Sir Frederick William Duke
Publication details: 
2 June 1923; on embossed letterhead 'INDIA OFFICE, | WHITEHALL, S.W.1.'
£35.00

British colonial administrator (1868-1924), Member of Council of India, 1914-19, and Permanent Under Secretary of State for India from 1919. Two pages, 12mo. Folded once. Very good, though lightly creased and a little discoloured. Docketed and bearing R.S.A. stamp. Referring to a previous letter he finds 'that the point that officials who have passed the advanced stage of your exam[inatio]n. in Book Keeping are exempted at the examination for Divisional Accountants in India is really not a new one,. You tell it yourself in your letter [...], so it was before the Govt. of India.

Typed Letter Signed to [Morley Stuart, editor of the Cambridge Daily News].

Author: 
Rose Macaulay
Publication details: 
13 April 1934; on letterhead '7, LUXBOROUGH HOUSE, | NORTHUMBERLAND STREET, | W.1.'
£53.00

English novelist (1881-1958). One page, roughly six and a half inches by five. Good, but on high-acidity paper discoloured with age. Attached to folio page from cuttings album. She thanks him for 'the cutting from the Cambridge Daily News about your lecture on Cambridge novels, which interested me. I do not suppose I could have said anything useful if you had written to me, as I can never think of anything to say in letters. I was interested in your comparison of Oxford & Cambridge novels.

Typed Note and Typed Letter Signed, one to the Editor and the other to the Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Charles Crowther
Publication details: 
20 February and 14 March 1940; both on crested letterhead of the Harper Adams Agricultural College, Newport, Hampshire.
£36.00

Agricultural chemist (1876-1964). Both one page, quarto, and very good, though lightly creased. The letter carries a few light carbon-paper stains. The note informs the editor of the R.S.A. journal that Crowther is returning the 'corrected copy of my remarks in the discussion on my paper. | I presume that you will be sending me a supply of reprints when the Journal comes out'. The letter thanks the secretary for the copies of the journal.

Four Typed Notes Signed to the Secretary, Royal Society of Arts and the editor of the R.S.A. Journal.

Author: 
Sir Francis Philip Armstrong, 3rd Bt [ROYAL AUTOMOBILE CLUB]
Publication details: 
21 October, 21 November and 9 December 1927; 1 May 1929; all on Royal Automobile Club letterhead.
£76.00

General manager of the Royal Automobile Club (1871-1944). All four items one page, quarto. All four in good condition and signed 'F. P. Armstrong'. All four docketed and two bearing R.S.A. stamp. Note one asks for '100 stamped envelopes' for sending to 'Members of the Committee and others who would be interested in the papers that are to be read before the Royal Society'. Note two thanks the editor of the R.S.A. Journal for the 'copies of Mr. O'Gorman's paper'.

Eleven Typed Letters Signed and one Autograph Letter Signed, variously to W. Perry and G. F. Menzies, Royal Society of Arts; and three-page typed 'brief statement of Dr. [Charles] Carpenter's qualifications', headed 'CONFIDENTIAL'.

Author: 
Edward Frankland Armstrong
Publication details: 
1927 to 1934; on letterheads including 'BUSH HOUSE, | ALDWYCH', 'BALDWIN HOUSE, | 67, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET', and that of the British Dyestuffs Corporation Ltd.
£120.00

British chemist (1878-1945), Vice-President of the Royal Society, 1942-3. All items in very good condition. All letters, one page, quarto. Subjects include an R.S.A. lecture by Armstrong on 'Hydrogen and its uses', the proof of another lecture, Armstrong's chairmanship of various R.S.A. meetings, his appointment as R.S.A. Vice-President, and the possibility of a 'paper on the hydrogenation of bituminous coal ('even though a good many people may be a little tired of the subject'): 'I suppose the man you ought to ask in the first place is K.

Typed Letter Signed to W. Perry, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Cecil Henry Desch
Publication details: 
2 February 1937; on letterhead (including map of environs) of the National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, Middlesex.
£45.00

Eminent British metallurgist (1874-1958). One page, quarto. Very good. 'I should have been pleased to take the chair at Professor Bragg's Lecture, but I have already undertaken to preside at a similar lecture by Professor Bragg [...] and to have the same Chairman on both occasions, the lectures dealing with the same subjects, would suggest that Metallurgy is very poorly represented in London. Would it be possible to get Sir Harold Carpenter to take the chair? I am sure that you will have a good Meeting, as Professor Bragg's lectures are always exceedingly interesting.' Signed 'C. H.

Typed Letter Signed to G. K. Menzies[, Secretary], Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Robert Atkinson
Publication details: 
24 November 1932; on letterhead '126 WIGMORE STREET | W.I'.
£38.00

British architect (1883-1952) who worked on 'the Bath Improvement Scheme, Saint Catherine's Church, Hammersmith, W., The Regent Theatre, Brighton, The Picture House, Edinburgh, Gresham Hotel, Dublin, and many private and other works' (Who's Who). One page, quarto. Very good. Docketed and bearing R.S.A. stamp. Headed 're Architectural Decoration Committee'. He assumes that 'the Agenda of a meeting of your Committee on the 30th November at 4 p.m.' has been sent to him in error, as he has written a letter declining the invitation to serve on it.

Autograph Letter Signed [to the Secretary, Royal Society of Arts].

Author: 
Francis Brett Young [ADMIRALTY RESEARCH LABORATORY]
Publication details: 
29 October 1935; on letterhead of the 'Admiralty Research | Laboratory, | Teddington, Middlesex.'
£45.00

Novelist, short story writer and poet (1884-1954). Two pages, quarto. Very good, though dusty and with small staple holes to one corner. Docketed. Apologises for the late reply to the invitation to join the Society ('the oversight was due to the intervention of leave and other causes'). 'Though I am afraid that I shall not be able to avail myself to any great extent of the advantage offered by your Society, staff members of this Laboratory will doubtless be glad to attend your lectures as they have already done in the past.' Consequently he will offer himself for election. Signed 'F. B.

Two Typed Letters Signed to J. Samson, Assistant Secretary, Royal Society of Arts, together with unsigned carbon copies of three letters from Samson to Morgan.

Author: 
Walter Thomas James Morgan
Publication details: 
Morgan's letters: 31 July 1964 and 20 November 1967, both on Lister Institute letterheads; Samson's carbon copies: 22 July and 5 August 1964 and 31 October 1967, none with place.
£175.00

British biochemist (1900-2003), Director of the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, London, 1972-5. All five items one page, quarto, and all five very good and stapled together by year. Correspondence for 1964 begins with Samson inviting Morgan to deliver a lecture in the Society's forthcoming session 'on the science and practice of immunology', and giving details of the requirements. Morgan declines, 'as my special studies and experiences have been almost entirely concerned with the more chemical aspects of the subject'.

Two Autograph Letters Signed and one Typed Letter Signed to [K. W. Luckhurst,] Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Sir Gilbert Thomas Morgan
Publication details: 
Typed letter: 11 Oct 1938, on letterhead of the Institute of Brewing; autograph letters: 11 Nov 1938 and 19 March 1939, both on letterhead '12, CATHCART ROAD, | REDCLIFFE GARDENS, | LONDON, S. W. 10.'
£100.00

British research chemist (1872-1940), Mason Professor of Chemistry, University of Birmingham, and author of numerous works. All three items very good; all three docketed and two bearing the Society's stamp. All three signed 'G. T. Morgan'. ITEM ONE (typed letter, one page, quarto, slightly creased, with one pin hole): His 'change of address and the recent crisis have both hindered my reply to your letter'. Would be honoured to be one of the Society's Cantor Lecturers, and suggests as title 'Achievements of British Chemical Industry in the last Twenty-five Years'.

Five Typed Letters Signed, and one letter in a secretarial hand signed in autograph, to the Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Rev. Allan Gairdner Wyon
Publication details: 
1916 to 1925; on letterhead '80, Boundary Road, | St. John's Wood, | London, N.W.'
£180.00

British sculptor (1882-1962) and 'MEDALLIST AND ENGRAVER | TO | HIS MAJESTY THE KING' (as per letterhead). All six items one page, quarto. All six signed 'Allan G. Wyon'. Five bearing the R.S.A. stamp and two docketed. All six very good though dusty (but see secretarial item below). ITEMS ONE (19 October 1916, typed) and TWO (21 October 1916, typed) discuss the practicalities and cost of repairing the R.S.A. 'broken Seal Press'.

Typed Note Signed to the Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Guy Morgan
Publication details: 
10 May 1966; on letterhead '12A, EATON SQUARE, | LONDON, S.W.1'.
£25.00

Architect, town planner and foxhunter (born 1902). One page, quarto. Very good, with staple holes to top left-hand corner. Docketed in pencil. He has 'just returned from a trip in Egypt, conducted by Leonard Cotterell'. 'It occurred to me that it would be a good idea for him to give a lecture at the Royal Society'.

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