WAR

Manuscript logbook, with diagrams, specifications and 'Diary of Way', of a First World War sailmaker in the Royal Navy's 3rd Cruiser Squadron.

Author: 
J. Ryan, AB, sailmaker [3rd Cruiser Squadron, Royal Navy; Battle of Dogger Bank, 1915]
Publication details: 
Government stamp: 'Supplied for the Public Service'. Diary entries dated from 29 July 1914 to demobilization on 31 May 1919.
£180.00

Landscape, with leaf dimensions 19 x 10.5 cm. The diary covers 48 pages at one end of the notebook, with the diagrams and specifications over 32 pp at the other end. In original sturdy brown leather binding, with brass clasp, empty wallet at front and pouch for pencil. Marbled endpapers. In good condition. Text clear and complete on lightly-aged paper. Binding worn and with split hinges. In pencil on fore-edge: 'J. RYAN.

Carbon copy of manuscript.

Author: 
Stunts by Fag End': contemporaneous account of first world war experiences by unidentified writer.
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£100.00

3 pages, 8vo. On three leaves of paper, all creased, discoloured and worn, with a few tears and pin holes. Lively, humorous, and well-written account of the army career of a skiver. 'Behold me then the next time in the trenches a Lewis Gunner, my-self to be about to kill Bosches in neat little trenches of 47. As a matter of fact I did not kill one as I never fired the gun but we had one or two thrilling times. [...] January 1st. 1917 I became a member of the now famous Tank Corps.

Autograph Letter Signed to Bobbie [?].

Author: 
George Cunningham [regarding rumours of Russian troop movements at the beginning of the 1st World War and other subjects]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Privy Council Office, Whitehall, S.W.; 3 September 1914.
£50.00

4 pages, 8vo. Creased and grubby but in good condition overall. Interesting letter in difficult hand. Opens by sending his deepest sympathy: 'I can sympathise having as you know been personally damaged by a falling branch last Xmas.' 'Officially we have given up contradicting the <?> prevalent rumours of Russian Troops moving through Great Britain. The Germans may hear of the rumours - may believe them: [^ that may do good;] but there is no truth in them at all. Barring a few Russian reservists who were in this country no Russian troops have been sent to France.

Manuscript Map, in colours, by Corporal A. Hunter, of the 'Bilstien [sic, for 'Bilstein'] Defences. scale 1/6250'.

Author: 
Bilstein (Germany) [Junkermuehle, Nassenstein]
Publication details: 
01/02/19
£85.00

Dimensions of paper roughly. Creased, with fraying to extremities, closed tears, and some staining and fading due to damp. A careful production, detailing the fortification to the towns of Bilstein (north-east of Cologne), Junkermuehle and Nassenstein, in black, yellow, red and green, with attractive lettering. 'References' are to 'barbed wire entanglements', 'main roads', 'Woods', 'stream', 'bye Roads' and 'Bridges'. Pencil additions include position of 'SNIPERS'. Ascribed at foot to 'Cpl. A. Hunter' and dated 'February 1919'.

"The true hero" and other poems.

Author: 
R. Eurog Jones [THE SINKING OF THE TITANIC]
Publication details: 
Without date [circa 1918?] or place ['Western Mail, Ltd., Cardiff.']
£175.00

64 pages, 16mo. In original printed wraps. In poor condition. Ownership inscription at head of front wrap. The two binding staples rusted, and the wraps in particular grubby, torn and worn. Photograph of 'Private JENKIN THOMAS' in what appears to be World War I uniform on front wrap. Illustration of the 'SINKING OF THE "TITANIC." ' on page 9; photograph of 'WILLIAM HERBERT HARRIS, A.L.C.M.' on page 47.

Faux-metallic embossed German [Prussian] military decoration with ribbon, consisting of black Imperial eagle (Reichsadler) with Landwehrkreuz motto, over silver and gold eight-pointed star.

Author: 
German (Prussian) military decoration [Reichsadler; Landwehrkreuz; World War; Germany army]
Publication details: 
[First World War or earlier.]
£120.00

An attractive and delicate piece of ephemera, dusty and slightly tarnished, but in very good condition overall. Skilfully manufactured and giving a convincing metallic appearance. 15 cm wide from opposing points of the star, which is of gold card overlaid with silver silver card, both types embossed in a pattern of pearls of different sizes radiating out from the centre, over which sits the Reichsadler, of embossed black card, 6 cm high by 7 cm wide, crowned, with wings outstretched, orb and sceptre in its talons.

Le Bon Anglais Text de Roger Boutet de Monvel. Images de Guy Arnoux.

Author: 
Roger Boutet de Monvel; Guy Arnoux (1886-1951), French illustrator
Publication details: 
Chez Devambez 43 boulevard Malesherbes à Paris.
£165.00

Landscape 12mo (leaf dimensions 12 x 16 cm): 27 pp. Stitched with no jacket as issued. Covers a little grubby, but a good copy of a scarce item. Title page and twelve delightful full-page pochoir illustrations by Arnoux, all hand-coloured: 'En temps de Paix', 'Premier contact', 'Le sous-lieutenant', 'Les Indiens', 'Black-Watch', 'Le capitaine et l'infirmiere', 'Les Irlandais', 'Le Major', 'La Mascotte', 'Ship ahoy!!', 'Le bon Ecossais' and 'God save the King'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Stanley Buckmaster') to [F.] Meade[, Secretary, Official Press Bureau].

Author: 
Stanley Owen Buckmaster, 1st Viscount Buckmaster (1861-1934), Liberal politician and Lord Chancellor [the Official Press Bureau; Great War; censorship]
Publication details: 
12 April 1915; on embossed government letterhead of the Official Press Bureau, Whitehall.
£35.00

12mo, 3 pp, 26 lines. Good, with tiny pin holes at head and foot of both leaves of the bifolium, and one corner roughened by removal of mount. Buckmaster has learnt that Meade is 'contemplating leaving [his] work in this Office', and would 'greatly regret any such step' as Meade's work is 'of great assistance and is much appreciated by all of us in this room'. While Buckmaster realises that there is little opportunity for advancement, he feels that 'we all do render considerable service to the state'.

Autograph Letter Signed.

Author: 
Letter to Sir James Rennell Rodd from H. Nelson gay
Publication details: 
Palazzo Orsini, Rome, 'Xmas 1916'.
£45.00

The author is obscure, but the letter is addressed to 'Sir Rennell' [Sir James Rennell Rodd (1858-1941), diplomat and author]. 2 pages, 16mo, creased but in good condition. A florid missive beginning 'In this tempest of egotism and hate which has plunged us all into Teutonic darkness, you will not have forgotten, my dear Sir Rennell, the lines of Coleridge: | [...]'.

Manuscript Itinerary headed "H.M.S. Mindful" at Buncrana June 1918.

Author: 
A member of the crew of H.M.S. Mindful, destroyer.
Publication details: 
25 June -14 Dec. 1918.
£400.00

Manuscript, 8 pages, 4to, chipped (with minor textual loss) and slightly stained, text clear. Convoy and anti-submarine activity. Usually one line description per day but there is a long description of action involved while on convoy duty, encounters with submarines, reinforcements, damaged ships, etc. Their first move was to leave Base on 27th June "in search of Submarine D.6. (overdue) and then carried on to Lamlash". [D.6.

Typed Letter Signed ('Oliver Locker Lampson') to Dr E. E. Lewis.

Author: 
Oliver Stillingfleet Locker-Lampson (1880-1954), British Conservative Member of Parliament for North Huntingdonshire, Commander of an Armoured Car Unit in the First World War
Publication details: 
23 July 1913; on embossed House of Commons letterhead.
£100.00

One page, folio. Very good on lightly creased paper. Headed 'FIGHTING FUND' and listing the members of the 'PROVISIONAL COMMITTEE' (including Lampson as Honorary Secretary, and the Duke of Westminster and Earl of Malmesbury). Communication of twenty-seven lines, with decided proto-fascistic overtones.

Two Manuscript Diaries, covering the years 1916 and 1917.

Author: 
Geoffrey Clifford Tyndale [Divorce Law; Legal History; Reading Lists; The Times of London]
Publication details: 
1 January 1916 to 3 January 1918.
£450.00

Two 8vo diaries, by Charles Letts, the first 'improved' and the second 'self-opening'. Both in heavily worn covers, lacking spines, but internally clean, on aged paper, and with the text entirely legible. Both diaries end with a brief set of accounts. The diaries are filled with details of the life of a young English lawyer in London during the Great War, including references to the many legal cases in which he was involved.

Two Letters in a Secretarial Hand, one of them signed by Amherst ('Amherst'), both to the Rev. Charles William Tonyn (d.1805) of Radnage, Bucks.

Author: 
Jeffrey Amherst, first Baron Amherst (1717-1797), field-marshall, conqueror of Canada
Publication details: 
The signed letter: 18 June 1781, Whitehall. The unsigned letter: 9 March 1782, Whitehall.
£220.00

The signed letter: 4to, 1 p. 11 lines of text. With the address on a separate and similarly-sized leaf. Franked 'War Office | ', and bearing two circular postmarks, one of them in red with the word 'FREE'. Good, on aged and creased paper. Assuring Tonyn that it will give him 'much pleasure' to recommend Tonyn's nephew George Augustus Tonyn for an army commission, 'as soon as I may be able to do it consistently with the very great number of Applications which I have already on my hands'.

Autograph Signature ('Roger Keyes').

Author: 
Sir Roger Keyes [Roger John Brownlow Keyes, 1st Baron Keyes] (1872-1945), British naval officer
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£18.00

On a leaf of pink paper (roughly 16 x 20 cm) removed from an autograph album. Firm signature, 6 cm long, with the initial 'R' blotted by Keyes. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. The page bearing the signature is headed, in another hand, 'Famous Men Military and Naval'.

Thirty-one items: including fourteen Signed Letters and Notes (all 'E. F Crowe'), Typed and in Autograph, mostly written to various Secretaries and officials of the Royal Society of Arts. With enclosures, drafts and copies of replies.

Author: 
Sir Edward Crowe [Sir Edward Thomas Frederick Crowe] (1877-1955), public servant, Vice-President (1937-60), President (1942-3), and Chairman of the Council (1941-3) of the Royal Society of Arts
Publication details: 
Dating from between 27 June 1940 and 26 March 1943. Most of Crowe's letters from his London address: 12A Ennismore Gardens, SW7.
£125.00

The collection of thirty-one items is in good condition, with the texts (in a variety of formats) clear and complete. Includes nine Typed Letters Signed, one Autograph Letter Signed, two Autograph Notes Signed, one Autograph Card Signed, one Typed Note Signed by Crowe, with a Typed Letter and a Typed Note signed on his behalf. The first item is an Autograph Card Signed from Crowe accepting his election as the Society's Vice-President.

Two Autograph Cards Signed (both 'H M Durand') to Sir Henry Trueman Wood, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Sir Mortimer Durand [Sir Henry Mortimer Durand] (1850-1924), British diplomat and civil servant,, Foreign Secretary of India, 1884-1894
Publication details: 
Received 19 July 1916 and 7 June 1917.
£28.00

Both cards plain with printed stamp and 9 x 11 cm. Both bearing the Society's oval purple stamp. Card One: He is 'leaving town on business for two or three days' and so cannot attend the meeting of the Indian Section Committee. Card Two: He will 'with pleasure support Abney if in town', but may not be there on the day.

Four illustrated broadsheets. Three with words and music, to songs: 'Oh, Brother, did you weep?' by MacColl; 'Lament of the Soldier's Wife', 'words: Claudi Paley'; and 'Nam Bo', 'by an American'. The fourth with McColl's words to 'Yankee Doodle'.

Author: 
Folksingers for Freedom in Vietnam [Ewan MacColl; Claudia Paley; Karl Dallas; Gordon McCulloch; Audrey Seyfang; 'Catchpole'; English folk revival; sixties protest singers; Yankee Doodle]
Publication details: 
All four items 'FOLKSINGERS FOR FREEDOM IN VIETNAM/BROADSHEET KING 1967' [London].
£80.00

According to Karl Dallas (Morning Star, 16 November 2007) it was he who 'first mooted the idea' of an anti-Vietnam War 'campaign in the folk scene', with the 'singers' group' being formed by Dallas in conjunction with Ewan MacColl and Gordon McCulloch. The four items are excessively scarce survivals, with no copies of any of them appearing on COPAC. All are printed on one side of a leaf roughly 25 x 20 cm. Each leaf is differently coloured. The items are in fair condition, dogeared and with light creasing and chipping to extremities.

Autograph Signature ('Roberts, F.M.').

Author: 
Field-Marshal Frederick Sleigh Roberts (1832-1914), 1st Earl Roberts [Lord Roberts of Kandahar]
Publication details: 
28 April 1908; on letterhead of Englemere, Ascot, Berks.
£25.00

On rectangle of paper roughly 8 x 11 cm, with small triangles neatly cut away from corners. Aged and with traces of glue and paper from previous mounting. The letterhead has Roberts's Garter crest in the top left-hand corner and his address at top right. Firmly written: '[signed] Roberts, F.M. | 28. April 1908.' Slight smudging to the 'rt' of 'Roberts'.

Reports and Translations No. 234. The Hydrodynamical Fundamentals of Heat Transfer.

Author: 
Alexis von Baranoff [Ministry of Supply (Air), Völkenrode]
Publication details: 
M.O.S.(A) [Ministry of Supply (Air)], Völkenrode: June 1946.
£150.00

Not published. Cyclostyled on the rectos only. 8vo: 165 pp followed by 28 pages of 'figures'. Contained in a buff 'Apex Vertical Filing Folder'. Very good, on aged paper. Complete and clear. Stamped 'UNCLASSIFIED' on front cover, with manuscript reference 'GVC/54T'. Preface reads 'The present work is the English rendering of a partly revised German manuscript which the Author prepared for the Leipzig publishers Bibliographisches Institut to be published as volume 49 of their series Meyers kleine Handbücher.

Autograph Letter Signed to "Lennox" (Sir Wilbraham Oates Lennox, Royal Engineers (see DNB)). WITH related material.

Author: 
C.W. Wilson and some important papers [CHARLES WILLIAM WILSON], Major-General.
Publication details: 
War Office, 12 May 1873.
£450.00

Director of the Topographical Department at the War Office (1836-1905)(see DNB). Two pages, 8vo, fold marks but good condition. "I send you today the remainder of the plans you left with me; and a translation of the letter press on those of the environs of Vienna. The plans of the defences of Vienna during the war of /66 are very interesting and I should be glad to have them for the Topo: if you will present them to the Dept: after you have finished with them.

Three Typed Letters Signed (the first two in full and the third 'E P Gorini') the first two to Violet Bonham Carter and the last to her son Mark, the first in English and the last two in Italian.

Author: 
Edvige Pesce Gorini, Italian poet, editor of the 'Giornale dei Poeti' [Violet Bonham Carter (1887-1969); Mark Raymond Bonham Carter (1922-1994), Baron Bonham-Carter, Liberal politician]
Publication details: 
21 February 1946; 15 May 1947; and 28 July 1948. All three from Via Angelo Poliziano No. 69, Rome.
£120.00

Text of all three items clear and complete. All three on lightly aged paper, creased and with some wear to extremities. Letter One (8vo, 1 p; 20 lines of text): She thanks Bonham Carter for her 'kind and appreciative letter' and 'will see that through the English Embassy' she receives 'a copy of my short story: "I due prigionieri", of which your son is the protagonist'. (An officer in the Grenadier Guards, during the war Mark Bonham Carter had escaped from a prison camp in northern Italy.) Describes material she is sending relating to her 'literary career'.

Coloured engraving: 'Copy of the Transparency exhibited at Ackermann's Repository of Arts, During the Illuminations of the 5th and 6th of November, 1813, In Honour of the Splendid Victories obtained by The Allies over the Armies of France, at Leipsic

Author: 
Thomas Rowlandson [Rudolph Ackermann, Repository of Arts, Strand, London; Napoleon Bonaparte; Regency caricature]
Publication details: 
Date, place and publisher not stated. [London: R. Ackermann, 1813.]
£250.00

On a piece of good wove paper, roughly 415 x 260 mm. Dimensions of engraving 180 x 220 mm. On aged paper and with the margins of the leaf trimmed. Laid down along the right hand margin runs a strip of blue paper, 30 x 410 mm, which it may be possible for a professional restorer to remove. This edges the border of the print (which is clear and entire) and overlaps a few letters of the text. Neatly coloured in sombre tones.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J Bowles') to 'Mr Wright | Piccadilly', confirming his authorship of the 'Letters of the Ghost of Alfred'.

Author: 
John Bowles (1751-1819), barrister and author [John Wright (1770-1841) of Piccadilly, bookseller and publisher of Gifford's 'Anti-Jacobin']
Publication details: 
Tuesday' [no date, but circa 1798]. Place not stated.
£120.00

12mo, 2 pp. Bifolium with address on second leaf. Twenty-five lines. Text clear and complete. On aged, spotted and repaired paper. A significant letter, confirming Bowles's hitherto-tentative authorship of the 'Letters of the Ghost of Alfred', which was printed by Wright in 1798. Bowles informs Wright that he will 'receive some Copies of ye. Ghost of Alfred' the following morning. 'The price [I conceive] should be only 2/6 in boards there being but about 130 pages including thhe advertisements'.

Autograph Note Signed ('D. Lysons.') to unnamed publisher.

Author: 
Sir Daniel Lysons (1816-1898), English army officer
Publication details: 
11 January 1893; on letterhead of 22 Warwick Square, London S.W.
£56.00

12mo, 1 p. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Large bold signature. He has 'no present intention of publishing any book on [his] career'. It may be that the correspondence planted a seed, as three years after the writing of this note Lysons published 'Early Reminiscences' (John Murray, 1896).

Seven original aerial propaganda leaflets dropped by Bomber Command (six over Germany; one over France), 1939-1945; with copies of a further two (in German). All nine items with accompanying contemporary typewritten translations by W. A. Green.

Author: 
British propaganda leaflets dropped on Germany and France by Bomber Command, 1939-1945 [World War Two; Psywar; Political Warfare Executive]
Publication details: 
1939 to 1945.
£220.00

Seven scarce examples of English Second World War propaganda, six aimed at Germany and the last at France. Ephemeral and scarce. The seven are clear and complete, on lightly-aged paper with occasional minor rust spotting. Each consists of two pages printed on a leaf 21 x 13.5 cm, except for Five, the dimensions of which are 21 x 13 cm. Five (red and black) is the only item not printed simply in black and white. All seven in German, except Seven, which is in French. All translations in typescript and on A4 leaves.

Printed circular letter from Auchinleck 'To all officers whether belonging to the Staff or to the Services who are working in Headquarter Offices in this Command'. Consisting of a celebrated (and spurious) quotation from Wellington, and two cartoons.

Author: 
Field Marshal Sir Claude John Eyre Auchinleck, Commander in Chief, Middle East Command [Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington; military history; Second World War; British Army]
Publication details: 
01/05/42
£75.00

A celebrated and scarce piece of Second World War ephemera. Printed on one side of a piece of paper 33.5 x 21.5 cm. Text and illustrations clear and complete. In good overall condition, on lightly-aged and creased paper with small damp stain to top left-hand corner and repair on reverse to small closed tear. The text consists of a supposed 'Extract from a letter written by The Duke of Wellington from Spain, about 1810.

[Drop-head title:] LETTER, No. 1. To the Editor of the Naval & Military Gazette. [LETTER, No. 2. To the Editor of the Naval & MIlitary Gazette. "The Duke and the Storming of Towns."] [LETTER, No. 3. (Confidential.) 26th August, 1839.]

Author: 
W. D. B. [Naval and Military Gazette; Duke of Wellington; Birmingham Riots of 1839]
Publication details: 
Dated 'W. D. B. | 4th September, 1839.' Printer not stated.
£120.00

12mo (leaf dimensions 22.5 x 14 cm): 12 pp paginated [3] to 14. Lacking (presumed) title-leaf. Unstitched, and consisting of one sheet of paper, 45 x 28 cm, folded twice to make four leaves; and one half sheet, 22.5 x 28 cm, folded to make two leaves. Text clear and entire, on heavily aged and spotted paper chipped at extremities. In an attempt to defend a perceived attack on his honour, W. D. B. prints, with commentary, three letters written by him to the editor of the Naval and Military Gazette, only the first of which was published (6 August 1839).

Crown Deep Ltd. Insurance Plan', carbon printed on cloth, giving a detailed layout of the gold mine, keyed to seventy-seven entries. With Manuscript table of results of 'Crown Deep tube milling tests, 1907'.

Author: 
Crown Deep Ltd (gold mine) [South African Gold Mining; Mines]
Publication details: 
Insurance Plan' dated in manuscript 1898. Manuscript table covering the period from 1 August to 9 October 1907.
£225.00

The two items rolled into tubes. The 'Crown Deep Ltd. Insurance Plan' carbon printed on one side of a piece of cloth roughly 44 x 102 cm. In good condition: slightly discoloured and frayed. The keyed entries range from '1 No. 1 Headgear & all appurtenances' to '77 Shed near Feedwater tanks', and include '69 Coolie Compound at Dam' and '57 Stable Boy's House'. The table of results of the 'milling tests', approximately 37 x 74 cm, is clear and complete on discoloured paper with closed tears at head repaired with archival tape.

Five printed items relating to the Co-operative Holidays Association, including the first three issues in a series of 'Co-Operative Holidays Association General Notes'.

Author: 
Co-operative Holidays Association, Manchester [the co-operative movement]
Publication details: 
General Notes': October and December 1918, and February 1919. ['Published at the Offices of The Co-operative Holidays Association, College House, Brusnwick Street, Manchester. Printed by The Edgeley Press Ltd., Stockport.' Other items 1918 and 1920.
£220.00

Items One to Three: three 'Co-operative Holidays Association General Notes' pamphlets, all 4pp, on unbound 8vo bifoliums. Text clear and complete, on aged and worn paper, with a 3 cm closed tear to both leaves of the second number. Each issue ends with a long list of 'Rambling Clubs and Secretaries'. Headings of notes include 'One Shilling Literature Subscription', 'Sir William Mather', 'Canadian Guests', 'Personalia'. Also a report of the annual general meeting.

Printed programme of the 'Arrangements for the Ceremony of the Presentation of the Freedom of the City of London to The Right Hon. Lord Milner of St. James' and Cape Town, G.C.B., G.C.M.G.'

Author: 
Alfred Milner (1854-1925), 1st Viscount Milner [Lord Milner] [The Corporation of the City of London; freedom of the city; Guildhall]
Publication details: 
Tuesday, 23rd July, 1901.'
£45.00

4tp bifolium: 3 pp. Text clear and complete on aged and lightly-creased paper. The first page is headed by the crest of the City of London. Gives the timetable for the ceremony, and the routes to be followed by the holders of 'three distinct Cards [white, pink and blue] assigning seats in different localities'. 'The Prime Warden and Wardens of the Fishmongers' Company will present Lord Milner with the Freedom.

Syndicate content