WILLIAM

Autograph Letter Signed ('W Edmondstoun de Aytoun') to James Simpson.

Author: 
William Edmonstoune Aytoun [William Edmondstoun de Aytoun] (1813-1865), Scottish poet
Publication details: 
26 January 1865; 16 Great Stuart Street, Edinburgh.
£280.00

12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium. Twenty-eight lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with evidence of previous mount on reverse of second leaf. Certainly genuine, and of interest as bearing a variant spelling of Aytoun's name in a signature written from his home a few months before his death. (The spelling 'Edmondstoun de Aytoun' is not noted in Aytoun's entry in the Oxford DNB.) In the latter part of the letter Aytoun comments on his poetic practice. He is 'much flattered' by Simpson's 'selection of my poem for a public reading', and is 'glad to hear that it was appreciated'.

Mezzotint engraving [of Orde-Powlett], 'Painted by G. Romney' and 'Engraved by In Jones'.

Author: 
Thomas Orde-Powlett, 1st Baron Bolton (1746-1807), British politician; George Romney (1734-1802), artist; John Jones (1745?-97), engraver
Publication details: 
[London; 'Pubd as the Act directs July 6 1786'.]
£200.00

National Portrait Gallery no: NPG D913 (only acquired in 1966). Dimensions of paper roughly nineteen and a half inches by fourteen wide. Dimensions of print roughly seventeen and a half inches by thirteen and three-quarters wide. Backed by a piece of cream card. Heavily aged and spotted, and with one small worm hole. Slight loss to lower right-hand corner, not affecting print. Closed tears to mount. Apparently printed before the name, and very likely a proof.

Excerpta Cantiana; Being the Prospectus of a History of Kent, Preparing for Publication by the Rev. Thomas Streatfeild, F.S.A.'; with two other prospectuses of the same; four prospectuses for Toovey's 'History of Kent'; Autograph Letters Signed.

Author: 
Thomas Streatfeild (1777-1848) [William Nicol, Shakspeare Press; James Toovey; F. C. Brooke; T. G. Godfrey Tempest]
Publication details: 
Excerpta Cantiana' (dated 'Chart's Edge, Westerham, 1 January, 1836'): London: William Nicol, Shakspeare Press, Pall Mall. [1836.] 'History of Kent': London, James Toovey, 177, Piccadilly. [1871].
£250.00

The collection in a contemporary green leather quarter-binding, with grey paper boards and title in gilt on spine. Good, in heavily worn binding splitting at rear hinge. The letters are expertly mounted on leaves in the volume. 'Excerpta Cantiana': folio: 23 pp of letterpress, with illustrations and with three full-page engravings by J. S. Agar and one fold-out pedigree. PRESENTATION COPY from Streatfeild to the antiquary and historian Charles James Palmer of Great Yarmouth.

Autograph Letter Signed to Lockyer.

Author: 
William Black (1841-1898), Scottish journalist and novelist [Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer (1836-1920), Alexander Macmillan (1818-1896); astronomer; Altnaharra Hotel; angling; fishing]
Publication details: 
29 March [no year]; Altnaharra, Lairg, N.B. [Scotland]
£38.00

16mo bifolium (leaf dimensions 11 x 9 cm): 2 pp. 17 lines of text. Very good on lightly aged paper. Wonders whether Lockyer would like to spend his Easter holidays at Altnaharra, for a fortnight from 14 April. (The Altnaharra Hotel was used by anglers visiting the nearby lochs.) 'It is an expensive journey; but the sport is good - at least it has been good this last fortnight, but now we are sadly in want of rain. The weather is like June, only more so.' Forty salmon have been killed 'in these two weeks, averaging 11 lbs each'. Black's publisher was Alexander Macmillan.

Signed Letter in secretarial hand to the Quartermaster General, Horse Guards.

Author: 
Sir William Schaw Cathcart, 10th Baron and 1st Viscount and Earl Cathcart
Publication details: 
Salton Hall January 27 1810'.
£125.00

Scottish soldier and diplomat (1755-1843). Four pages, octavo. Good, though grubby on discoloured paper, and a little frayed about the edges. Concerns 'the Subject of Issues which are made by the Barrack Department in North Britain to the Forces stationed in this Part of the United Kingdom, but which are not sanctioned by The King's Warrant'. '[...] | I conceive the Establishment of Regimental Schools to be highly conducive to the good of His Majesty's Service, and peculiarly so in the case of 2d.

Autograph Letter Signed ('David S. Meldrum') to unnamed female correspondent.

Author: 
David Storrar Meldrum (1864-1940), novelist and partner in the publishing house of Blackwood's
Publication details: 
4 September 1897; on company letterhead '37, Paternoster Row, London, E.C.'
£56.00

8vo: 3 pp. On grubby, lightly creased paper. The recipient has made Meldrum a 'pretty present' of her edition of Burns (COPAC provides no clue as to her identity). He finds the volumes 'very dainty', and will read her notes 'with interest'. He has already read her 'Introductions' with 'great pleasure'. He comments on her assessment of a couple of poems and finds her 'standpoint' on 'the man & the poet' 'capital'. 'But you must allow me one criticism: you read into the poems a political significance which I'm sure wasn't there.

Autorgaph Letter Signed ('W Fairburn') to 'Mrs Sumner' [daughter-in-law of Bishop Charles Sumner?].

Author: 
Sir William Fairburn (1789-1874), Scottish engineer
Publication details: 
21 June 1866; Manchester.
£120.00

Three pages. On aged, ruckled paper, with traces of mount adhering to damaged second leaf of bifolium. Text entirely legible. He has 'selected autograph letters from some of my scientific friends, and from a distinguished philosopher and mathematician General Poncelet, and the other from an eminent Military Engineer Genl Morin at the head of the "Conservation des Art et Metiers".' He also sends 'notes from Lord Stanley, Sir D. Brewster, Dr. Robinson the Astronomer of Armagh, and my excellent friend Mr Hopkins the Geologist and Mathematician of Cambridge'.

Autograph Letter Signed to Dawson [William] Turner (1815-85), philanthropist and educational writer.

Author: 
Sir William Turner (1832-1916), anatomist and Principal of Edinburgh University
Publication details: 
Thursday' [no date]; on letterhead of the University of Edinburgh.
£56.00

Two pages, 12mo. Aged, grubby and creased, with closed tear repaired with archival tape. 'The second plate arrived too late unfortunately for the April number of the Journal as we had to print off at the end of the week.' He is busy with examinations and does not finish till the Monday, but 'would like much to see your work'. Signed 'W Turner'.

Signed Manuscript 'Precept of Clare Constat by the Commissioner for The Duke of Portland in favor of Joseph Kennedy'.

Author: 
William John Cavendish Bentinck Scott, 5th Duke of Portland; Joseph Kennedy, carpet weaver of Lasswade, Kilmarnoch; James Moncrieff Melville; James Lindesay; William Bett
Publication details: 
Edinburgh; 7 April 1857.
£45.00

Three pages. On vellum bifolium made from skin roughly fourteen inches by twenty wide. Three official stamps. Signed twice by 'Jas M Melville', Writer to the Signet, and his partner James Lindesay ('Jas. Lindesay'), and witnessed by their clerk William Bett ('W. Bett').

Autograph Letter Signed ('W Beattie') to R. Hepburn.

Author: 
William Beattie (1793-1875), M.D., poet and biographer
Publication details: 
Friday mg.' [date not stated]; Upper Berkeley Street.
£35.00

One page, 12mo. Black bordered. Very good and with the verso of the blank second leaf of the bifolium laid down on a leaf detached from an autograph album. Nine lines. He thanks him for 'a brace of splendid grouse - which are now so rare as not to be had for money. It was therefore doubly generous [...] Endulging [sic] the pleasing hope of "Revenge" - & with kind regards to your House circle'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W Beattie. MD.') to the editor of the 'Naval and Military Gazette'.

Author: 
William Beattie (1793-1875), Scottish physician and poet
Publication details: 
13 August [1858]; St James's Street, London, on embossed letterhead of the Conservative Club.
£56.00

16mo (11 x 9 cm) bifolium, 3 pp, 16 lines of text. Mourning border. Good, with slight discoloration to the external pages. He is sending a manuscript 'At the suggestion of the Author, an officer residing in Paris'. If 'on examination' the recipient considers it 'unsuitable for the pages' of the Gazette, he asks for it to be returned to him at 13 Upper Berkeley Street 'when your messenger happens to pass that way'. The author 'is a man of high character and well acquainted with Paris & the Parisians'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W Maccall') [to the publishers W. S. Sonnenschein & Co.].

Author: 
William Maccall (1812-1888), Scottish writer and lecturer [W. S. Sonnenschein & Co.]
Publication details: 
14 November 1882; Stanhope Cottages, Bexley Heath.
£85.00

4to, 1 page and 12mo, 2 pp (single 4to leaf, folded as to give two 12mo pp on one side). Thirty-seven lines of text. Maccall is 'willing to accept any proposal which is reasonable and just' concerning his 'Christian Legends' (published by Sonnenschein in 1882), and also 'to make sacrifices for the sake of obliging [...] As the one manuscript is about twice the length of the other - I speak from memory, - it might honestly claim better remuneration'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Geo: D. Ballingall') from Ballingall to Shorter, as editor of 'The Sphere' newspaper, regarding a legal action involving Crooke, Scots Pictorial Publishing Co. Ltd. and Hodge & Co.

Author: 
William Crooke (c. 1849-1928), Scottish photographer [Scots Pictorial Publishing Co. Ltd., Edinburgh publishers; George D. Ballingall, solicitor; Hodge & Co., printers; Clement King Shorter, author]
Publication details: 
26 August 1905; on letterhead 'Edinburgh, 16 Castle Street.'
£23.00

Two pages, 12mo. Very good. In a case involving ['The Sphere'?] newspaper, Crooke has accepted the judgement in the case of the printers Hodge & Co., but he has appealed 'to the Inner House of the Court of Session' against the judgement in the case against the publishers. 'If the appeal is proceeded with it is not likely to be heard sooner than about December.'

Autograph Letter Signed to his publisher and friend Alexander Macmillan.

Author: 
William Black (1841-1898), Scottish journalist and novelist [Alexander Macmillan (1818-1896), publisher; Colin Hunter (1841-1904), Scottish painter]
Publication details: 
1 February [no year]; on letterhead of Paston House, Paston Place, Brighton.
£28.00

12mo, 1 p. Six lines of text. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper. Inviting Macmillan to join him and 'some of the lads' in a dinner at the Reform Club, 'on the occasion of Colin Hunter's being made an Associate'.

Memorial to the Right Honourable W. E. Gladstone, M.P., First Lord of the Treasury, on the Proposed Scottish University Commission and Increase of State Endowment of Theology in Scotland.

Author: 
Executive Committee of the Scottish Disestablishment Association[, William Henderson, Chairman].
Publication details: 
3 March 1883; 10 St Andrew Square, Edinburgh.
£35.00

4to bifoliate pamphlet; four paginated pages. Neatly folded twice. Some wear along creases, and with top half of recto of first leaf grubby and with one pinhole, otherwise in good condition. Begins 'THE University Chairs of Theology in Scotland are sectarian, in the sense of being restricted to one section of the Presbyterians of Scotland - the Church Established. This restriction has been felt as a very injurious and offence part of Church Establishment in Scotland, because in all other respects the Scottish Universities are national and catholic.'

Four Autograph Letters Signed to [?] Macphail; copy, with MS corrections and additions, of proposed report on Bill by committee of the Faculty of Advocates; 'COPY LETTER, Mr P. W. Campbell, P.C.S., to Sir William S. Haldane, Crown Agent'; Bill.

Author: 
Charles Scott Dickson [Parliamentary Bill: Clerks of Session (Scotland) Regulation Acts, 1889 and 1912]
Publication details: 
The four letters, December 1812 to 1813; the Advocates' report, 14 January 1913, Advocates Library; Campbell's letter, 23 December 1912, Edinburgh; Bill, 9 December 1912.
£180.00

Dickson (born 1850) was Tory M.P. for Glasgow, Lord Advocate and Lord Justice Clerk. The four letters, all 12mo and all on House of Commons Library notepaper, are dusty and creased. Three are dated (30 and 31 December and 2 January) and signed; the other letter is undated and initialed. LETTER ONE: 'I spoke to the Lord Advocate to-day & he then definitely informed me that the Lord President entirely approved of the Bill.' LETTER TWO: 'I have spoken to the Advocate about the date of the committee stage & we will I believe have some weeks yet.

Twelve Typed Letters Signed and one Autograph Letter Signed to George Kenneth Menzies, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts; two Typed Letters Signed by Menzies with manuscript reply by Denny; one initialed Autograph Note by Denny; one R.S.A. circular.

Author: 
Sir Archibald Denny
Publication details: 
1917 to 1926; the first three letters on William Denny & Brothers, Dumbarton, letterhead; the last ten letters on letterheads of Spencer House, Park Side, Wimbledon, S.W.19.
£200.00

Scottish naval architect (1860-1936) and shipbuilder, President of the Institute of Marine Engineers. Seventeen items, various formats. In good condition though dusty and creased. Several items docketed and bearing the R.S.A. stamp. Correspondence indicates Denny's involvement in the R.S.A. matters (lecturing, serving on council, etc). LETTER ONE (30 January 1917): Asks for a dozen copies of the R.S.A. Journal. 'We have in our Works here Committees of Workmen collecting money for war charities and I am anxious to let them read Mr.

Autograph Letter in the third person to 'Dr. Taylor', accepting election to the Society of Arts.

Author: 
William Henry Cavendish Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck (1768-1854), 4th Duke of Portland, British politician [Charles Taylor, Secretary, Society of Arts]
Publication details: 
9 July 1812; Fullarton.
£28.00

12mo, 1 p. Fair, on aged paper. Reads 'The Duke of Portland presents his Compliments to Dr. Taylor, and has the honor to acquaint him that he will be very proud of the honor of being elected a member of the Society of Arts -'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J. L. Hatton.') to Bennett.

Author: 
John Liptrot Hatton [J. L. Hatton] (1809-1886), English composer and conductor [William Cox Bennett (1820-1895)]
Publication details: 
26 October 1859; 3 Goswell St. E.C. [London], on cancelled letterheada of 13 Park Village West, Regents Park.
£36.00

12mo, 2 pp. Ten lines of text. Good. Asks 'upon what terms' he may 'publish some of the songs I have set from the charming volume you sent me'. He is 'acquainted with the Gentleman' to whom Bennett has dedicated his book: 'it was in his shop I was introduced to Longfellow'. Possibly referring to Bennett's 'A Sea Song' and 'The Sea-Boy's Dream', set to music by Hatton and both published in 1861.

Autograph Manuscript musical score of 'The Curates Gavotte', signed 'W G. Webber'.

Author: 
William George Webber, English organist and composer [Royal College of Music]
Publication details: 
Dated 'Feb 1928'.
£100.00

On one side of a piece of printed music paper, roughly 21 x 22 cm. Laid down on a page removed from an album. Good, with one dogeared corner. Seventeen grand staff bars, arranged on four levels, followed by 'Yours sincerely, W G. Webber | Feb 1928'. Webber was at the Royal College of Music at the same time as the father of Andrew and Julian Lloyd Webber, who changed his name from W. S. Webber to W. S. Lloyd Webber to avoid confusion with him. No record of "The Curate's Gavotte" found.

The Royal Society. Sir William Huggins, K.C.B., O.M., D.C.L., President. Conversazione. June 19th, 1903.

Author: 
[Sir William Huggins, President of the Royal Society; Conversazione, 1903]
Publication details: 
[1903.] Burlington House. [Harrison & Sons, Printers in Ordinary to His Majesty, St. Martin's Lane.]
£75.00

8vo, 24 pp. Stitched as issued. Well printed on good laid paper. Creased and aged. A programme, describing, often in detail, the forty-six exhibits, in the various rooms, from 'Photographs illustrative of the Coronation Naval Review, 1902' by Dr W. J. S. Lockyer, to 'Examples illustrating the Scientific and Educational Applications of the Bioscope.' Exhibitors include Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir William Crookes, Rutherford and Soddy ('The condensation of the radio-active emanations of radium and thorium by liquid air.') and the Solar Physics Observatory, South Kensington.

Some Correspondence on the Subject of the Grant of £1,800, made to the National School of the Hamlet of Highgate, by the Committee of Privy Council for Education.

Author: 
[Highgate National School] [John Holmes, of the British Museum; Nathaniel Basevi; Robert Lingen; Harry Chester; Lewis Vulliamy; William Ford]
Publication details: 
Privately printed [1853?]. [Printed by Cox (Brothers) and Wyman, Great Queen Street, Lincoln's-Inn Fields.]
£85.00

8vo: 30 pp. on sixteen leaves (including final blank). Unbound and stitched as issued. Text clear and complete. A scarce item (the only copies on COPAC at the British Library, Lambeth Palace and the Guildhall). On aged, worn and damp-stained paper, with chipping to extremities. Regarding the ' "rumours" alleged against' Ford and Chester ('in reality a definite statement made by a gentleman on the authority of Mr.

[Pickering's Diamond Classics.] Quintus Horatius Flaccus.

Author: 
The Pickering Horace' [Quintus Horatius Flaccus; William Pickering, London publisher; Charles Corrall, printer; Pickering's Diamond Classics; miniature books]
Publication details: 
Londini: Typis C. Corrall; Impensis Gul. Pickering, 31, Lincoln's Inn Fields. MDCCCXX.' [London: William Pickering, 1820. Printed by Charles Corrall.]
£450.00

A bibliographical landmark: the first issue of the first volume in Pickering's series of 'Diamond Classics' 32mo: [ii] + 185 + [i] + [i]. Engraved frontispiece portrait of 'Horace' by R. Grave, facing engraved titlepage, which precedes the letterpress titlepage. On the reverse of the leaf with p.185 on its recto is a portrait of Sir Francis Bacon, captioned 'Advancement of Learning.' On the page facing this are the 'Corrigenda.' Tight copy, on aged paper, with a few dogeared pages, in contemporary black russia binding with boards and spine ornamented in gilt and title 'HORATIUS'.

Poems of Rural Life in Common English.

Author: 
William Barnes [Dorset dialect poetry]
Publication details: 
London: Macmillan and Co. 1868. [London: Printed by Spottiswoode and Co., New-Street Square and Parliament Street.]
£65.00

First edition. 8vo: xii + 200 + [iv] pp. (the last four pages an unpaginated publisher's catalogue). In original blue cloth, gilt. Fair, tight copy, on lightly-aged paper, with some spotting to endpapers. Binding with dulled spine and minor spotting. Bookplate of the Rev. English Crooks. Binders ticket ('BOUND BY BURN & CO.') to rear pastedown. Half-title reads 'RURAL POEMS'. The 'translation' of the three collections beginning with 'Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect' (1844).

Autograph Letter Signed ('Wm. Cairns.') to 'Mr. Logan'.

Author: 
William Cairns, schoolmaster of Oldcambus, brother of John Cairns (1818-1892), Scottish United Presbyterian minister and theologian
Publication details: 
28 March 1882; 10 Spence St. Edinburgh.
£28.00

12mo, 2 pp. Bifolium with mourning border. 39 lines of text, 12 of which have been damaged, presumably on the removal of the item from an autograph album, which has resulted in a large hole to the upper half of the second leaf of the bifolium. Begins 'My Dear Mr.

The Traveller's Oracle; Or, Maxims for Locomotion: Containing Precepts for Promoting the Pleasures and Hints for Preserving the Health of Travellers. [Part II: 'By John Jervis, An Old Coachman.] [Including sheet music of eight songs by Kitchiner.]

Author: 
William Kitchiner ['John Jervis, An Old Coachman.']
Publication details: 
London: Henry Colburn, New Burlington Street. Second Edition, 1827. [London: Printed by J. Moyes, Took's Court, Chancery Lane.] [Sheet music engraved by Sidney Hall, Bury Street, Bloomsbury.]
£300.00

2 vols, 12mo. Vol.1: viii + 264 pp. Vol.2: viii + 336 pp. Complete, with all the engravings of sheet music listed in the contents (vol.1: five two-page plates and one four-page plate, with one more piece of music 'printed with the letterpress'; vol.2: one two-page plate). Both volumes good and tight, on lightly-aged and spotted paper. In worn contemporary half-calf binding, marbled boards, with the first volume rebacked. Each volume with bookplate of Frederic Perkins, Chipstead Place, Kent.

The Art of Poetry, Written in French by The Sieur de Boileau. In Four Canto's. Made English By Sir William Soames, Since Revis'd by John Dryden, Esq;

Author: 
Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux; Sir William Soames; John Dryden; Henry Hills junior, London printer
Publication details: 
London: Printed and Sold by H. Hills, in Black-fryars near the Water-side. 1710.
£400.00

12mo: 40 pp. Disbound. Good, on lightly aged paper. Contemporary ownership inscription of 'William Francklyn" on title-page. This edition is scarce: no copy in the British Library, and the only copy on COPAC at Liverpool.

The first four numbers of 'The New Athenian Broadsheet'. No.1, 'Festival Issue - Scottish Poems of Place'. No.3: 'Spring and Summer Poems'. No.4: 'Scottish Lore and Legend'.

Author: 
The New Athenian Broadsheet [The Favil Press; Lewis Spence; William Soutar; Sydney Goodsir Smith; George Campbell Hay; Edwin Muir; Naomi Mitchison; Maurice Lindsay; Scotland; Scottish poetry]
Publication details: 
No.1: August 1947; No.2: Christmas 1947; No.3: April 1948; No.4: July, 1948'. All printed for 'The Editor, The New Athenian Broadsheets, 45 Plewlands Gardens, Edinburgh, 10' by The Favil Press Ltd., 152 Kensington Church Street, London.
£165.00

All four items printed on both sides of a piece of paper roughly 57 x 25 cm, folded twice to make 6 pp, each 19 x 25 cm. Aged and a little grubby and creased. The second number with title printed in red, the third with title in green, and fourth with title in blue. Each with engraving of park with neo-classical buildings by William McLaren. No.1: poems by Lewis Spence, R. L. Cook, Joe Corrie, W. H. Hamilton, Alexander Buist, A. V. Stuart, Hugh N. Maclachlan, A. A. C. Blackie, Dorothy Margaret Paulin and Helen B. Cruikshank. No.2: poems by William Soutar, Alexander Buist, A. V.

Autograph Letter Signed to Sonnenschein.

Author: 
James Samuelson, editor of 'Subjects of the Day' [George Routledge & Sons Limited; William Swan Sonnenschein [Stallybrass] (1855-1934), publisher]
Publication details: 
22 September 1890; Trevenna, Grosvenor Road, on letterhead of 'GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS LIMITED | "SUBJECTS OF THE DAY." | (EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.)'
£30.00

8vo, 1 p. Good, on lightly-aged paper. In response to a 'kind note', Samuelson informs Sonnenschein that 'the next number of our Review, which will appear shortly, is to deal with the Irish question'. He has 'a very copious list of publications' and although he would have welcomed Sonnenschein's assistance, he hardly thinks it is worth his while at the present time to trouble himself over the matter, 'for reasons which I will explain to you some day'.

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'.

Syndicate content