WILDE

[H. Montgomery Hyde, authority on Oscar Wilde and Ulster Unionist MP.] Autograph Letter Signed to Philip Dosse, publisher of ‘Books and Bookmen’, regarding a review by Lord O’Neill of his book on Carson, a trip to North America, and money owed.

Author: 
H. Montgomery Hyde [Harford Montgomery Hyde] (1907-1989), writer, Ulster Unionist politician and authority on Oscar Wilde [Philip Dosse (1925-1980), publisher of ‘Books and Bookmen’]
Publication details: 
30 September 1974; on letterhead of Westwell House, Tenterden, Kent.
£120.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient Philip Dosse was proprietor of Hansom Books, publisher of a stable of seven arts magazines including Books and Bookmen and Plays and Players. See ‘Death of a Bookman’ by the novelist Sally Emerson (editor of ‘Books and Bookmen’ at the time of Dosse’s suicide), in Standpoint magazine, October 2018. The present item is 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, and folded once for postage. Thirty-one lines of text. Signed ‘H.

[Lord John Russell on the General Assembly of the Leeward Islands, 1840, 1841.] Two printed Colonial Office documents: copy of letter to him by J. Campbell and T. Wilde, ‘Her Majesty’s Attorney and Solicitor General’, and covering circular dispatch.

Author: 
Lord John Russell as Secretary of State for the Colonies, 1841 [General Assembly of the Leeward Islands; John Campbell (Lord Campbell), Attorney General; Thomas Wilde (Lord Truro), Solicitor General]
Publication details: 
ONE: Letter of Campbell and Wilde from Temple [London], 9 December 1840. TWO: Campbell’s covering dispatch from Downing Street [London], 15 April 1841.
£120.00

Both items scarce: no other copy of either traced. Disbound from a volume and paginated in manuscript. In good condition, lightly aged. ONE: ‘Copy’ of letter to ‘The Right Honorable Lord John Russell’, signed in type ‘J. CAMPBELL, / T. WILDE.’ 2pp, 8vo. Paginated in manuscript 27-28. Printed in copperplate font. Begins: ‘My Lord, / We have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Mr. Vernon Smith’s letter of the 3d inst.

[Sir William Rothenstein, artist.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Will Rothenstein'), to 'Horder', i.e. the architect Percy Morley Horder, giving a humorous spoof autobiographical entry, as a jokey suggestion of how Horder should approach the topic.

Author: 
Sir William Rothenstein (1872-1945), painter, printmaker, draughtsman, lecturer, and writer on art [Percy Richard Morley Horder (1870-1944), architect ]
Publication details: 
'Chelsea – Glebe Place | Sunday'. No place.
£220.00

1p, 8vo. Text clear and complete, on heavily chipped and worn thin paper, with loss to extremities. An unusual and revealing letter, in which Rothenstein gives his own jokey suggestion of how Horder should approach a biographical entry he has been asked to write, begins: 'My dear Horder – of course you will do it! “Mr W. R.

[ Charles Robert Maturin, author of 'Melmoth the Wanderer'. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('C. R. Maturin') to William Spooner, writh reference to a 'friendly letter' by Sir Walter Scott, and his family's 'romantic' history.

Author: 
Charles Robert Maturin [ C. R. Maturin ], Irish writer of gothic novels and plays, best-known for 'Melmoth the Wanderer'
Publication details: 
No place [ Dublin, Ireland ]. 15 August [ no year ].
£600.00

1p., 4to. In fair condition, aged and worn. The breaking open of the wafer has resulted in slight loss at the beginning of Maturin's signature. Addressed on reverse to 'William Spooner Esqre | at Mr Millikin's | Grafton Street'. (His not writing of 'Dublin' implies that he is writing from the same place.) Maturin was the great-uncle of Oscar Wilde, who adopted the name 'Sebastian Melmoth' during his self-exile on the continent.

[ Allan Aynesworth [ Edward Abbot-Anderson ], actor. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('Allan Aynesworth'), a letter of condolence to Lady Hall on the death of Sir Edward Marshall Hall.

Author: 
Allan Aynesworth [ Edward Abbot-Anderson] (1864-1959), English actor who had a leading role in the first production of 'The Importance of Being Earnest' by Oscar Wilde [ Sir Edward Marshall Hall ]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 78 Portland Place, W.1. [ London ] 24 February 1927.
£100.00

1p., 4to. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Addressed to 'Dear Lady Hall', and sending his 'sincere condolences on the death of Dear Ted', from whom he 'had received [...] so many acts of true friendship & kindness'. The loss is great to him and many of Hall's friends. The letter concludes: 'May it be of some solace to you & your Daughter to know how beloved he was!'

[ Sir Edward George Clarke, barrister who represented Oscar Wilde. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('Edward Clarke'), reminiscing about a trial at which he considers his client was wrongly convicted, and commenting on his son William Francis Clarke.

Author: 
Sir Edward Clarke [ Sir Edward George Clarke ] (1841-1931), Conservative Solicitor-General who represented Oscar Wilde against the Marquis of Queensbury [ William Francis Clarke (1883-1961) ]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Peterhouse, Staines [ Middlesex ]. 22 December 1927.
£90.00

1p., 4to. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. He begins by expressing pleasure at having been asked to write his name in Tyrrell's copy of his book (probably 'Benjamin Disraeli', published in 1926). He also thanks him for 'the kind things said about me in your letter'. He has 'tried to be useful in various ways', and remembers 'the case you mention.

[ Printed item. ] Catalogue of Choice Books including a Collection of First & Rare Editions of the Works of Oscar Wilde. [ Including reproduction of caricature of Wilde by George Finch Mason. ]

Author: 
H. Gray & Co., London booksellers [ Oscar Wilde; George Finch Mason (1850-1915), English illustrator ]
Publication details: 
[Number Sixteen, New Series, 1930. ] H. Gray & Co. 188 Lewisham Road, London, S.E.13, and 8 Royal Parade, Blackheath, S.E.3.
£60.00

24pp., 8vo. Pagination includes the wraps, which carry the last two pages. With frontispiece plate: 'Oscar Wilde | Unpublished Caricature | By Finch Mason | [item 31]'. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper, in worn and chipped wraps. Wilde's name has been underlined in red pencil on cover.

[ Thomas Wilde, 1st Baron Truro, Lord Chancellor of England. ] Autograph Signature ('Tho. Wilde').

Author: 
Thomas Wilde, 1st Baron Truro (1782-1855), Lord Chancellor of England
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£20.00

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.

[ William Edward Frost, English artist. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('W. E. Frost') to Joseph B. Cooke, regarding family illness and the gift of a photograph.

Author: 
W. E. Frost [ William Edward Frost ] (1810-1877), English artist specialising in female nudes, Royal Academician [ Joseph B. Cooke; Oscar Wilde ]
Publication details: 
46 Fitzroy Square [ London ]. 30 January 1875.
£45.00

1p., 12mo. On aged and worn paper. He regrets to inform him that 'we have still a sick house'. His 'dear Sister' has been 'very ill', but he trusts they are 'both mending'. He concludes: 'I have pleasure in enclosing a Photo of myself, and shll be pleased to be admitted to your collection'. Professor Joseph Bristow, in his paper 'Homosexual Blackmail in the 1890s', describes how, twenty years later (on 11 August 1894), at a party hosted at 46 Fitzroy Square by John Watson Preston, twenty men were arrested, including two dressed in women's clothing.

'Ballade de la Geôle de Reading'. [Numbered copy of livre d'artiste': a French prose translation of Oscar Wilde's 'Ballad of Reading Gaol', with drypoint engravings by Robert Fonta.

Author: 
Oscar Wilde; Robert Fonta (1922-1976), illustrator; Société des Bibliophiles et Graveurs d'Aujourd'hui, Paris [Jacques Le Désert; Jean Brisset; Fequet et Baudier; Georges Visat]
Publication details: 
[Paris.] Bibliophiles et Graveurs d'Aujourd'hui. 1950.
£150.00

80 + [1]pp., 8vo. Unstitched signatures with brown paper wraps and grey boards, both with text in red. In plain black paper-covered slipcase. On reverse of half-title: 'Il a été tiré de cet ouvrage, imprimé sur Vélin de Rives, 110 exemplaires numérotés de 1 à 110, réservés aux Membres de la Société des Bibliophiles et Graveurs d'Aujourd'hui. | En outre, dix exemplaires numérotés de I à X ont été réservés à l'artiste et aux divers collaborateurs de l'édition. | Exemplaire No 35 imprimé pour M. Jacques Le Désert'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Tho Wilde') from the Solicitor General Sir Thomas Wilde to an unnamed individual, on 'The Lithgon Case'.

Author: 
Thomas Wilde, first Baron Truro (1782-1855), Lord Chancellor
Publication details: 
Dover Street; 9 January [1841].
£120.00

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'.

Two Autograph Letters Signed from the Oxford Professor of Fine Arts, Selwyn Image, to 'My dear Barnard' [Rev. P. M. Barnard?], regarding funghi and moths.

Author: 
Selwyn Image (1849-1930), Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford University [Rev. Percy Mordaunt Barnard (1868-1941) of Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, antiquarian bookseller]
Publication details: 
Both from 20 Fitzroy Street, W.; 12 and 17 August 1908.
£175.00

Both items good, on aged paper. Written in Image's distinctive calligraphic hand. Letter One (12 August 1908): 1 p, 12mo. The 'Galatheas' arrived the previous evening 'quite safe'. 'Fancy your being at The Warren as well as at Deal! The Warren [Folkestone] is famous for being stocked with good things. You are indeed in the very heart of the richest entomological country in England.' Letter Two (17 August 1908): 2 pp, 12mo. He is delighted with 'these beautiful ochroleuca, which arrived this afternoon quite safely'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Wm: Melmoth') to 'my very dear Sophia [Walters]', exhibiting a warmth unusual in one writing 'at the advanced Age of eighty five'.

Author: 
William Melmoth the Younger (c.1710-1799), translator of Pliny and Cicero, and author of 'Fitzosborne's Letters' (1748, 1749) [Sophia Walters]
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated. Docketed in a contemporary hand: '1798 Written at the advanced Age of eighty five [sic, for 88]'.
£180.00

1 p, landscape 12mo (18.5 x 11.5 cm). Eleven long lines in a small neat hand. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. Tipped in onto a piece of paper, 21 x 13 cm. The reference to Melmoth's 'advanced Age' is at the foot of the page. Docketed on reverse in a contemporary hand: 'From Mr. Melmoth to Mrs. Walters'. Begins: 'Believe me, my very dear Sophia, I am so truely [sic] your obedient servant in every affectionate & friendly sense of those terms, that there is no office in which you can employ me I shd.

[Printed] The Soul of Man under Socialism

Author: 
Oscar Wilde
Publication details: 
London, Privately Printed, 1904.
£100.00

[ii].87pp., printed paper wraps, light brown paper letters in red, No. 78 of 250 copies, on last page date in pencil 12/7/3, sl. chipping and fraying at edges which are sl. sunned

Typed Letter Signed to "Sydney Gutman. The Bermondsey Book[shop]".

Author: 
Frank Harris, author
Publication details: 
C/o The American Express Company, 2 rue du Congres, Nice. A.M. December 15, 1925.
£235.00

One page, 4to, punchholes, edges discoloured, mainly good condition. Two small additons in his hand. He thanks Gutman for his cheque and order for "three sets of Oscar Wilde" of which he can immediately supply two, the other to come from storage. One copy sent is the "Brentano's edition of New York" and he wonders if Gutman would prefer "my German editon. He has written to "Heath" [bookseller, partner of Gutman's] about copies of James Thomson's poems on his hands.

Autograph Signature, in roman script ('A. N. Roussoff').

Author: 
Alexandre Nicolaievich Roussoff [Alexandre Nicolaïevitch Roussoff or Volkoff-Muromsoff] (1844-1928), Russian artist and rival of Whistler
Publication details: 
Dated 'Cairo 1892'. On letterhead of the Cairo Continental Hotel.
£56.00

On piece of watermarked laid paper 12.5 x 13.5 cm. In fair condition: lightly-aged and creased. Clearly in response to a request for an autograph. Firmly written, with the signature 5.5 cm long. Reads 'A. N. Roussoff | Cairo 1892'. Roussoff famously wagered that he could produce a dozen pastels indistinguishable from those of Whistler. He lost the bet, and was 'obliged to take a course of mud baths after his defeat'.

A folio leaf containing seven 'Specimen Pages from Books made at the Walpole Printing Office in New Rochelle, N.Y, including the title-page and frontispiece of the limited edition of T. S. Eliot's 'John Dryden'.

Author: 
The Walpole Printing Office, in New Rochelle, N.Y. [Peter Beilenson; Edmund B. Thompson; Peter Pauper Press; Herb Roth; American fine printing; typography; T. S. Eliot]
Publication details: 
1929-1932. The Walpole Printing Office in New Rochelle, N.Y.
£120.00

Printed in black and sepia on both sides of a leaf of watermarked wove paper, 45 x 30 cm. On lightly-aged paper with one vertical and two horizontal fold lines. The seven sample pages feature a total of six illustrations, in a variety of styles, two by Herb Roth. The arrangement is as follows. Recto: Title ('Specimen Pages from Books made at the Walpole Printing Office in New Rochelle, N.Y. 1929-1932') with vignette of Walpole. Specimen One, titled 'Piratical Barbarity, &c.', with illustration of pirate ship by Roth. Specimen Two, title-page of T. S. Eliot's 'John Dryden. The Poet.

Autograph Letter Signed ('L. C. Purser') to the classical scholar John Percival Postgate (1853-1926).

Author: 
Louis Claude Purser (1854-1932), Classical scholar, President of the Royal Irish Academy, a fellow pupil of Oscar Wilde and close friend of Yeats's sister Lollie [Trinity College, Dublin]
Publication details: 
22 February 1915; 35 Trinity College, Dublin.
£80.00

4to, 1 p, 22 lines. On aged paper, with chipping at extremities neatly repaired with archival tape. Text clear and entire. He thanks him for his 'interesting paper', commenting on the 'Lucretian passage'. Postgate's 're-arrangement [...] is undoubtedly more attractive & logical than the ordinary arrangment, and as such I welcome it: but must we suppose always that artists do as well instinctively as they might if they had taken counsel?' 'Ex silentio I judge that all is well with you, as far as anything can be well for any of us these terrible times.

No. 3. Important and Precious Autographs and Authors' Original MSS. from Froissart (1338 to 1404) to Clemenceau. Over five Centuries.

Author: 
G. Michelmore & Co., London autograph dealers [Chiswick Press; Oscar Wilde]
Publication details: 
London: G. Michelmore & Co., 5 Royal Opera Arcade, Pall Mall, S.W.1. [early 1920s] [Charles Whittingham and Griggs (Printers), Ltd. Chiswick Press, Tooks Court, Chancery Lane.]
£100.00

Octavo: ii + 174 pp. Stitched. In original grey printed wraps. Internally clean and tight, in grubby and worn wraps. A first class catalogue, with excellent entries on items including letters and documents by Byron, Carlyle, Dickens, Disraeli, Edward Fitzgerald, Garibaldi, Pitt the Younger, Sir Walter Scott, Tennyson, Horace Walpole, George Washington. Fifteen books from the library of Mrs Piozzi.

A London Comedy and Other Vanities. With seven reproductions of pictures by Maurice Greiffenhagen.

Author: 
Egan Mew [Maurice Greiffenhagen; Elkin Mathews]
Publication details: 
London: George Redway. Printed by William Clowes and Sons, Limited, Stamford Street and Charing Cross. 1897.
£175.00

AUTHOR'S COPY, WITH HIS MANUSCRIPT REVISIONS FOR THE SECOND EDITION. Octavo: 96 pages. Seven plates (of eight). Original olive cloth gilt, with pierrot on front board. Numbered copy twelve in the edition. One leaf (pages 49-50) removed. Aged, and in heavily worn boards. Carrying manuscript changes on twenty-two pages, as well as on a plate and the front board. Cutting loosely inserted, regarding a couplet by 'E. V. L.' of Brighton (clearly E. V. Lucas) addressed to Mew regarding the word 'hyperbole'. Six of Greiffenhagen's seven illustrations are present.

Autograph Note Signed to [?] Locker [Arthur Locker or Frederick Locker-Lampson]

Author: 
Charles Hamilton Aidé [Aide, Aïdé]
Publication details: 
Without date; on letterhead 'Aston Clinton, | Tring.'
£25.00

Author and musician (1826-1906), described by Louise Jopling as 'a rich bachelor' and 'a noted figure in the seventies'. 1 page, 16mo. In good condition despite slight creasing and discoloration. Letterhead in green and black ink. Reads 'My dear Locker, | Many thanks - I will meet you at the Athenaeum at 3 o'Ck. on Tuesday - I have done, & shall do nothing till then. | Every yrs. | Hamilton Aïdé'.

Syndicate content