Pamphlets and Books

A Unique and Extremely Important Collection of Autograph Letters of the World's Greatest Painters of the XVth, XVIth, XVIIth and XVIII Centuries.

Author: 
J. Pearson & Co., dealers.
Publication details: 
5 Pall Mall Place, London, S.W., [1911?].
£80.00

48pp., 8vo, folding plates (facsimiles), cream printed wraps, title in red and black, wraps showing wear and tear, some foxing, mainly good. The date, 1911, and a limitation to 1000 copies, are indicated in a pencil note inside the from cover. Entries include; Michelangelo, Veronese, Rubens, and so on.

"Sotheby Autograph Sales. 14-15 March. - 1911[1912]. Priced" [title on spine]

Author: 
[Bibliotheca Lindesiana; Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, auctioneers].
Publication details: 
London, 1912.
£75.00

53pp., 8vo, red cloth, spine gilt, original printed wraps bound in,orners bumped, minor defects, mainly good condition. (Sotheby's) "Catalogue of Autograph Letters and Historical Documents", 14 & 15 March 1912. Priced with the names of buyers. With bookplate "Bibliotheca Lindesiana". The binding is similar to those of the Broadley Collection (See xxxx) and was part of the same lot purchased by the cataloguer. However it could well be the standard binding provided by the Sotheby's service providing marked catalogues.

At Private Sale, November, 1859. Catalogue of the Entire Private Collection of Autograph Letters, &c. gathered during several years, with much care and expense, by Mr. T. H. Morrell. [..] nearly every Prominent Character in the Revolutionary War [..]

Author: 
T. H. Morrell [Bangs, Merwin & Co, auctioneers; autograph collecting; auction catalogues; Declaration of Independence; American Presidents]
Publication details: 
New York: Bangs, Merwin & Co., At the Trade Sale Rooms, 13 Park Row. 1 November 1859.
£150.00

Octavo: 28 pp. Stabbed. In original blue printed wraps. Advertisements on back. On browning high-acidity paper, in chipped and worn wraps with damp staining to edges at rear. 298 items. Items 95-141: 'Signers of the Declaration of Independence and Presidents of the United States.' Scarce: no copy on COPAC, which does record one copy of a catalogue of a sale of Morrell's books by the same firm in 1866, and two copies of a catalogue of a further sale in 1869.

Autographs [Reprinted from The Concise Encyclopaedia of Antiques Volume IV by kind permission of The Connoisseur].

Author: 
P. J. Croft [Winifred A. Myers (Autographs) Ltd]
Publication details: 
London: Winifred A. Myers (Autographs) Ltd, 80 New Bond Street, W1. [c.1954].
£45.00

Quarto: 10 pp (paginated 236-41). Stapled. In original printed green card wraps. Good, though lightly creased. Five plates, examples of the hands of Queen Elizabeth I, Sir John Harington, Admiral Lord Nelson, together with an original and a faked Burns letter. While the offprint is undated, the Encyclopaedia itself was published in 1954.

"Valuable Books | Autograph Letters | and Manuscripts" with one similar catalogue and another devoted ot books..

Author: 
G.H. Last, dealer.
Publication details: 
21a High Street, Bromely, Kent, 1940, 1946, 1946.
£100.00

Catalogue nos. 248, 267 and 268, printed wraps, one chipped and partially detached, but all in good condition otherwise, 32; 28; 24 pp. respectively (including wraps), 8vo. Manuscript material occupies a few pages of each catalogue, and might be described as interesting rather than "extraordinarily important" (as Michelmore below)..

Autographs of One Hundred Celebrities 1456-1901.

Author: 
J. Pearson & Co., dealers.
Publication details: 
5 Pall Mall Place [, London], no date; printed by the Chiswick Press.
£80.00

64pp., 8vo, grey printed wraps, title in red and black, edges of wraps sunned, mainly good condition. Highlights include: Aretino, Goldsmith, Handel, Keats, and so on.

Some Reminiscences and Reflections on Collecting Autographs.

Author: 
Charles King Wadham [autograph collecting; Yale University Press]
Publication details: 
Dalton, Massachusetts: Maisonette. ['Privately printed, The Printing-Office of the Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, March 1931'.]
£45.00

Octavo: 32 pp. Stitched. In original printed wraps. Internally clean and tight, but wraps dogeared and grubby, with closed tear and pen mark. Tissue-guarded frontispiece of Wadham, with small dogear to top corner (not affecting image). Facsimile of Whittier's autograph. Read before the 'Saturday Evening Club of Dalton'. 'My collection today is so comprehensive [sic] that I have no hesitation in soliciting the most distinguished personages; in fact, I feel that I am conferring an honor rather than offering an insult in asking them.

Catalogue of the Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson Hogg (1792-1862), Consisting principally of Letters from Percy and Mary Shelley. Sold by Order of his Great-Nephew Major R. J. Jefferson Hogg, M.C. of Norton-on-Tees, Co. Durham.

Author: 
Thomas Jefferson Hogg [Sotheby & Co.; Percy Bysshe Shelley; autograph letters; auction catalogue]
Publication details: 
London: Messrs. Sotheby & Co., 34 and 35 New Bond Street, W.1.; 30 June 1948. [Printed by Kitchen & Barratt, Ltd., Park Royal Road, N.W.10.]
£80.00

Octavo: 21 pp. Leaf of prices and buyers' names loosely inserted. Stapled. In original yellow printed wraps. Somewhat creased and chipped, on aged, spotted paper. Two-page foreword. Maggs were the main buyers, but the three highest sellers among the 105 lots, all Shelley letters, went to other dealers: lot 13, 'quoting 36 lines of original verse', for £155 to Pickering; lot 55, 'describing the origins and method of his elopement with Mary Godwin', £175 to Quaritch; lot 65, 'dealing with many topics', £360 to W. H. Robinson.

Catalogue of a Superb Collection of Holograph Manuscripts, Holograph Correspondences and Holograph Letters of British and Continental Celebrities of Five Centuries.

Author: 
J. Pearson & Co., dealers.
Publication details: 
5 Pall Mall Place, London, S.W., [1918?].
£80.00

154pp., 4to, folding plates (facsimiles), grey printed wraps, slightly chipped and worn, title in red and black, some foxing, contents mainly good. Note inserted: war-time paper restrictions compel "very brief descriptions" but typewritten full descriptions may be requested.

[No. 36.] Catalogue of Interesting, Choice and Rare Historical Documents and Autograph Letters, [...] And a Choice List of Modern Names [...] George Cattermole [...] Charles Dickens [...] William Cowper [...] Lord Nelson. [...]

Author: 
Samuel J. Davey [booksellers' catalogues; George Cattermole; Charles Dickens; William Cowper; Isaac Newton; Lord Nelson]
Publication details: 
London: On Sale by Samuel J. Davey, 47, Great Russell Street, Opposite the British Museum, W.C. 1892.
£80.00

Quarto: 50 + [2] pp. Fold-out frontispiece giving eighteen examples of handwriting from items in the catalogue. In original orange printed wraps. Good, though a tad dusty, and in worn and faded wraps with some glue staining to back and wear to spine. Well printed, with lengthy extracts from most items. A scrap of paper which acts as a bookmark has the words "Listed Walpole entries to W.S. Lewis || Nov 1953" in Winifeed Myers [?] hand (from her reference library). The first item is 'A Series of Pencil Sketches by George Cattermole, illustrating Dickens' Works' (£60).

Unpublished Correspondence of James Abbott McNeill Whistler . . .

Author: 
[James Abbott McNeill Whistler ;The American Art Association; Auction Catalogue].
Publication details: 
NY, 13 Jan. 1922
£80.00

. . . togther with autograph letters of notable authors, writers and illustrators of his day comprising the correspondence addressed to William Heinemann, Esq., deceased formerly of London, England[.] Also Books by and relating to Whistler, the property of Miss Susan Minns of Boston, Mass. [90]pp., 8vo, frontis, printed wraps, title in red and black, spine slightly damaged, some wear and tear, mainly good.

Katalog 1: Autographen.

Author: 
Christian M. Nebehay, Austrian dealer in autographs
Publication details: 
Wien 1. (Vienna, Austria) Annagasse 18. [1950s?]
£50.00

Quarto: 40 pp. In original printed wraps, decorated with various facsimiles. Facsimiles in text, and portrait of Beethoven on rear inner wrap. Good, on browned paper. Sections on painters, writers, poets, architects, sculptors, musicians. Nods towards the American market, with some entries in English and Dollar conversions. Together with Nebehay's attractive bifoliate trade card, carrying a photograph of his premises.

Autographs and Manuscripts. Catalogue of a Selection of Important Historical, Literary and other Autographs, being the Third Portion of a Collection for Sale.

Author: 
Holloway & Son (M. M. Holloway) [autographs; sale catalogues; Thomas Jefferson]
Publication details: 
London: Holloway & Son, 25 Bedford Street, Strand, W.C. 1864. [G. Norman, Printer, Maiden Lane, Covent Garden.]
£60.00

Octavo: 53 pp. Stitched and unbound. Complete in itself, in alphabetical order, but lotted 554 to 846. Good, though grubby, and with the outer leaves somewhat creased. Includes letters and documents by Burns, Charles I and II, Maria Edgeworth, Frederick the Great, Garrick, Lady Hamilton, Handel, Dr Johnson, Southey, Wordsworth. The high spot is a letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Earl of Buchan, described over one page.

Catalogue of Interesting, Choice and Rare Historical Documents and Autograph Letters

Author: 
Samuel J. Davey, dealer, writer on autograph-collecting, and editor of "The Archivist [, and Autograph Review]".
Publication details: 
[Catalogue] No.40, 47 Great Russell Street, London, W.C., 1895.
£80.00

[58]pp., 4to, printed wraps, three errata slips (one ascribing errors - mainly omission of prices - to Davey's illness during the catalogue's preparation), some prices absent from printed text and errata leaves added in pencil, spine damaged, edges of covers dusted, corners bumped, slight hinge strain, contents mainly good. Highlights include Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Marie Antoinette, Thomas Chatterton, "A Unique Collection of Letters from Frederick the Great to Voltaire", and "a Collection of Distinguished American Names".

Catalogue of a valuable and interesting collection of Autograph Letters from the Royal Archives of France, and the illustrious Family of Turenne . . .

Author: 
[Sotheby's; John Yonge Akerman copy]
Publication details: 
"Mr Sotheby, at his House, Wellington Street, Strand | On Wednesday, July 18, 1827 . . ."
£120.00

. . . To which are added | A Series of AUTOGRAPHS of the most celebrated Characters during | the Revolution; and that singularly curious and highly | valuable Historical Document the | Original Scottish Covenant in 1638 | With the signatures of all the most distinguished Covenanters among the Nobility, Gentry, and Clergy. . . .". 35pp., 8vo, disbound, minor defects, mainly good condition.

The Cult of the Autograph Letter in England

Author: 
A.N.L. Munby,
Publication details: 
Athlone Press, London, 1962.
£45.00

117pp., 8vo, dustwrapper, price-clipped, minor defects, mainly very good condition. Still the pioneer study of this subject,at least in English (see Fontaine 1834).

Autographs and Manuscripts. Catalogue of a Selection of Important Historical, Literary and other Autographs, being the second portion of a Collection for Sale.

Author: 
M. M. Holloway, London autograph dealer [autographs; sale catalogues]
Publication details: 
London: M. M. Holloway, 25 Bedford Street, Strand, W.C. 1862.
£60.00

Octavo: 52 pp. Stitched and unbound. Good, if a tad grubby. In alphabetical order from Queen Adelaide to the Duchess of York, but lotted 236 to 553. Tastefully printed, and including letters of Charles I, Coleridge, Dr Johnson, Samuel Richardson, Rossini, Sir Walter Scott, Laurence Sterne and Horace Walpole.

A collection of twenty cuttings from American newspapers mostly relating to autograph collecting.

Author: 
American Autograph Collecting [New York; the Declaration of Independence]
Publication details: 
[Boston, New York and other places]; 1867-1893.
£150.00

Varying in size from a few lines to a column nineteen inches in length, and on aged high-acidity paper. In good condition, though frail, and with a few closed tears. Texts clear and complete. In the remains of a stamped envelope (postmarked Philadelphia, 21 February 1912), addressed to E. H. Lauer of the Cadmus Book Company. Fewer than half the items are dated. The dated items include a long and interesting article on a forgotten English-born Philadelphian forger, headed 'A FORGER OF AUTOGRAPHS. | ROBERT SPRING'S SUCCESS IN BOLD LITERARY FRAUDS.

Notes on Autographs, No. 1

Author: 
Maggs Bros, dealers.
Publication details: 
34 & 35 Conduit St, London, W., 1934.
£80.00

Pamphlet, 52pp., 8vo, printed wraps, soiled, spine damaged, mainly good condition. "It has for a long time been our wish to give more interesting information about the important Autograph Letters and Documents in our Collection, and consequently we propose to issue from time to time a publication entitled NOTES ON AUTOGRAPHS, of which this is the first Number." It is distinguished by lengthier descriptions than normal but, with a price list masquerading as an index, is in reality an upmarket trade catalogue.

[Catalogue 550] A Selection of Books, Manuscripts, Engravings and Autograph Letters remarkable for their Interest & Rarity, being the five hundredth catalogue issued by Maggs Bros [...].

Author: 
Maggs Brothers [booksellers' catalogues]
Publication details: 
London: Maggs Bros, 34 & 35 Conduit Street, W. 1928.
£100.00

[viii] 237 pp., fol.m, original grey and red printed wraps, numerous plates and illustrations in text, some staining of cover around spine, a few pencil markings, top of spine damaged, mainly good condition. It includes Cortes, "Carta de Relacion" (1522), other important Americana, and the first edition of "Don Quixote".

The Collection of Autograph Letters and Historical Documents formed by Alfred Morrison (Second Series, 1882-1893). The Blessington Papers.

Author: 
[Alfred Morrison (1821-1897), English collector of autograph material; Marguerite, Countess of Blessington; Alfred Guillaume Gabriel, Count D'Orsay; Gore House]
Publication details: 
Printed for Private Circulation. 1895. [London: Printed by Strangeways & Sons, Tower Street, Cambridge Circus, W.C.]
£100.00

Quarto: ii + 234 pp. In original grey boards and cloth spine, with chipped white label. Unopened. Good, with slightly discoloured endpapers. Extensive transcriptions from the Countess of Blessington's correspondence, the writers ranging from Mrs Abell ('Napoleon's pet English child at St. Helena') to Nathaniel Parker Willis.

[Catalogue 555] A Selection of Books, Manuscripts, Bindings and Autograph Letters remarkable for their Interest & Rarity, being the five hundred and fiftyfifth catalogue issued by Maggs Bros [...].

Author: 
Maggs Brothers [booksellers' catalogues]
Publication details: 
London: Maggs Bros, 34 & 35 Conduit Street, W. 1931.
£100.00

Folio: iv + 237 pp. In original grey and red printed wraps. Numerous plates and illustrations in text. Grubby and spotted, in heavily-worn wraps. One plate slit along fold and repaired with tape. Presentation copy, inscribed 'With Compliments from E U Maggs'. Covetable items, accurately described, from a complete set of Addison and Steele's 'Spectator' (£105) to the first edition of both volumes of Wordsworth's 'Lyrical Ballads' (£185). Contains 'twenty-four autograph letters signed [by Charles Dickens] on "The Village Coquettes" to John P. Hullah, the musical composer' (£650).

Spaziergange im Reiche des Autographen. Ein Anregung zum Autographensammeln. Mit einer Titelzeichnung von Hans Thoma und 58 anderen Abbildungen.

Author: 
Professor Dr. Eugen Wolbe (1873-1938), Studientrat [autograph collecting; autographs]
Publication details: 
Berlin: Richard Carl Schmidt & Co. 1925.
£120.00

Quarto: 196 + xii pp. 58 facsimiles in text, but lacking frontispiece. No dustwrapper. In original cloth binding, decorated on the front board in yellow, grey and black. Good, with spotting to edges and boards. Concentrating exclusively on German autographs. Wolbe was removed from his teaching post by the Nazis in 1933.

Catalogue of a Highly Interesting and Valuable Collection of Autograph Letters, English and Foreign Historical Manuscripts, and other Documents

Author: 
John Gray Bell
Publication details: 
11 Oxford Street, Manchester, 1856
£60.00

With a book supplement. Pp.[88].12., 8vo, front wrap missing, some chipping, damage around stitching, one gathering partly detached, and other minor defects, library stamp (Ford Collection, NY Public Library), a few pencil markings throughout. It comprises an 87-page autograph and manuscript catalogue to which is appended a 12-page list of books at low prices, "Random List of Books"

Catalogue of Books, Manuscripts, Autographs and Drawings.

Author: 
Alexander Denham and Co. [Charles Whittingham; Chiswick Press; autographs; booksellers' catalogues]
Publication details: 
London: For Sale by Alex'r Denham and Co., 23 Haymarket, S.W.; 1902. [Chiswick Press: Charles Whittingham and Co. Tooks Court, Chancery Lane, London.]
£75.00

Quarto: 65 pp. Numerous plates. In original grey printed wraps. Internally good, with a little spotting and creasing to the ruckled edges; wraps worn and stained. A beautifully printed item, on thick laid paper. Among the printed matter are books of hours, breviaries, psalters, and letters (with facsimile plates) by Byron, Keats, Johnson and Sterne; and manuscripts of Fielding and Horace Walpole.

Offprint of article entitled 'Protection Against Lightning. What is a lightning conductor? How does it protect against lightning? And how should it be applied to be effective?'

Author: 
Alfred Hands [J. W. Gray & Son, Lightning Conductor Experts]
Publication details: 
Reprinted from "The Field" newspaper, May 16th, 1914.'
£28.00

8vo: ii + 14 pp. Unbound. Stapled and in original brown printed wraps. Very good on art paper. Six photographic illustrations, including 'Clothing of a man struck by lightning' and 'Farm-house at Whaddon, near Stamford, struck and practically wrecked by lightning.' Hands is described as 'Member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society, Member of the Astronomical Society of France, Senior Partner of J. W.

A Drama of Two Lives. The Snake-Witch. A Canadian Summer-Night and other Poems

Author: 
E.J. Chapman
Publication details: 
London, 1899
£35.00

Orig. bds, worn and stained, foxing on eps, contents g-vg. Inscribed "With the author's compliments

The causes of death among the assured in the Scottish Widows' Fund and Life Assurance Society from 1874 to 1894 inclusive.

Author: 
Claud Muirhead, M.D., F.R.C.P.E.
Publication details: 
Edinburgh: R. & R. Clark, Limited. 1902.
£50.00

4to. Pages: viii + 103. Appendix consisting of nine detailed actuarial tables. Tight copy, in grubby, stained and worn printed paper boards. From the library of the librarian of the Medical Society of London, Nehemiah Asherson, and with the Society's oval stamp on the verso of the title. Small circular label on front board.

Famous Literary Impostures, A Series of Essays.

Author: 
H. R. Montgomery [Henry Riddell Montgomery, 1818-1904] [Thomas Chatterton; James Macpherson; George Psalmanazar; Richard Bentley]
Publication details: 
London: E. W. Allen, 4, Ave Maria Lane, Paternoster Row. [1884]
£56.00

12mo: iv + 132 pp. Unbound. In original red printed wraps. Stapled. A poor copy of a scarce item (COPAC only lists copies at the British Library and National Library of Scotland). Dog-eared and grubby, with wraps faded and with loss to extremities and spine repaired with tape. Staples rusted and worn through prelims. Text complete and entirely legible. Five essays: 'Chatterton and the Rowley Poems', 'Macpherson's Poems of Ossian', 'The Shakspeare Forgery', 'Psalmanazar and the Formosa Imposture' and 'Bentley and the Epistles of Phalaris'.

Excelsior: Helps to Progress in Religion, Science, and Literature.

Author: 
James Hamilton, ed. [Stonehenge; druids]
Publication details: 
No. I - January. London: James Nisbet and Co. Berners Street. [Printed by G. BARCLAY, Castle St., Leicester Sq.]
£100.00

8vo: 44 + 8 + 80 pp. Three engravings by Pearson ('Stonehenge', 'The Walrus' and 'Infusoria'). In original brown printed wraps. Good, though a touch dusty and dogeared, in creased and worn wraps, with loss to one corner at rear (not affecting text).

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