ACADEMY

1p., 4to. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. The letter reads: 'Dear Sir/ | I am very pleased to hear you like my pictures and seem so well acquainted with them - | I hope you will go on taking an interest in Art. | I am | Yours Sincerely | Arthur Hacker'.

2pp., 8vo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn.

On 10 x 11.5 cm piece of paper, cut down from a longer letter. Aged and worn, with traces of glue and grey paper mount adhering to the reverse, which is addressed by Elmes to Howard at the Royal Academy. Reads: 'I send with this one drawing for Exhibition with my name at the back of which the following is the description | "Design for a National Museum comprised in a space of two Acres | H. Lonsdale Hunter | 11 Park Street | Westminster'. Note: Perhaps he was quoting for St George's Hall(?).

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium on grey paper. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased. He writes: 'It really costs me a great deal to say no to any wish that you and the Academy may express: but I do not like to alter my conclusion, at all events at present, in regard to the pictures. I hope you will not think me illiberal, but I have so great an objection to their incurring the risk of an unnecessary journey that I hope you will not ask me.'

Susan Euphemia Beckford, daughter of William Beckford of Fonthill, had married the 10th Duke of Hamilton in 1810. The recipient Charlotte Stuart (d.1867) was the daughter of Margaret, Lady Pulteney, by her first husband Andrew Stuart of Torrance. In 1830 she married Robert Harington, son of Sir John Edward Harington of Ridlington, 8th Baronet. The present item is two closely written pages, 4to. On bifolium of wove paper with watermark 'C WILMOT | 1822'. In good condition, lightly aged. Closely and neatly written over 63 lines.

Pritchard was Architect to the Commission on Ancient Monuments in Wales. His collection of 71 volumes of atlases and early geographies was purchased by the National Library of Wales in 1940. After study at Bangor University, he was articled in 1903 to Joseph Owen of Menai Bridge. Moving to London, he studied at the Architectural Association and Royal Academy schools and trained as assistant to a succession of architects: Walter Frederick Cave (1863-1939), Louis Amber (1862-1946) and Messrs Henry Victor Ashley (1872-1948) and Francis Winton Newman (1878-1953), before qualifying in 1911.

The present item is a puzzle. Farington joined the Incorporated Society of Artists at the age of twenty-one, and played an active part in its affairs until his resignation in 1773.

8vo: 53 pp. In modern green wraps with white paper label. Text clear and complete. On aged, stained paper with slight wear to extremities. Pencil addition of one name. One page 'Advertisement', dated August 1844, by 'W. D. N.' (i.e. William Dummer Northend), and four-page anonymous 'Preface', giving a history of the Academy. 22-line newspaper cutting loosely inserted, headed 'Dummer Academy', and with dates March and April 1845 on reverse. Excessively scarce. According to WorldCat no copy in America, and the only copy on COPAC at the British Library.

5pp., folio. Duplicate typescript on three leaves. In fair condition, on aged paper. The first article, produced on the eve of Indian independence, begins: 'Moscow radio broadcast an account of a lecture given by Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences Zhukove on "The Situation in India" at the Polytechnical Museum in Moscow.' It proceeds with a summary of Zhukov's lecture, the view he expounds including the following: 'Britain's new policy derives from the economic changes which took place in India during the years of the Second World War.

On 7.5 x 11 cm slip cut from the end of a letter. In fair condition, lightly aged. On one side reads: 'Gentlemen | Your Obt. Servt. | Fred R Pickersgill | 36 Mornington Crescent | 24 May 1853.' and on the other '[...] at the ensuing half yearly distribution of the Funds of the Institution - | Mr. Varrall is not personally known to me but from the representation of Mr WIlliams ARA [...]'.

2pp., 16mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and with slight smuding at head of first page. There is nothing he should have liked more than to accept Sladen's invitation to 'what will be a delightful Gathering, at your house at Richmond on the 9th.', but he has a previous engagement. 'Some other time, if you extend the hand of friendship in this charming way I shall be delighted to come and see you.'

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.

MANUSCRIPT: 1p., folio. On the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium. On good watermarked laid paper, with pencil text written over an elegantly printed page divided into five columns ('Class', 'Studies', 'Order', 'Names', 'Remarks'), headed (with manuscript additions in square brackets): 'Monthly Return of the Classes under the First drawing Master at the Royal Military Academy. [March] 1st. 17[39 Paul Sandby Esqr.]'. The manuscript text is written both across the page and lengthwise. At the foot is a stave of music, with the words 'Violoncelloe [sic] de la music militaire'.

Four pages, 12mo, bifolium, good condition. "Many thanks to you for the photographs- they are delightful remembrances or rather they recall a delightful visit for if truth must be told, I don't think the Photo by any means a successful one - you look dreadfully ill, your son worse Mrs Spiers a Mulatto, Hull [or Hall] - all four, Mrs Hull[Hall] & Mrs Hawthorne very [?underlined] would not be made frights of.

Both items in fair condition, bifoliums on lightly aged paper. ONE: 16 December 1883. 3pp., 12mo. Telling the story of the 'Wallingford Belles', beginning with the family of 'Thomas Clark [...] landlord of the Lamb Hotel, formerly called the Bell' When Grant visits him the following summer he will give him 'lessons in painting & as much Lawn Tennis as you like and there is no end to the Archaeology of the neighbourhood'. TWO: 23 December [1883]. 4pp., 12mo. He begins by offering to aid Grant's researchehs by search the parish registers.

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, on aged paper, laid down on part of a leaf from an album. He writes that he has 'carefully looked over the Copy of "Turner's England and Wales," that will be offered for Sale at Christies rooms on Tuesday next', and that while he finds it 'in all respects good of its kind, and applicable to the Library of a gentleman', it is 'not so well applicable to the Studio of an Artist, whose aim is to acquire from it, all the knowledge that a more refined class of impressions of places might impart to him'.

Previously laid down in an autograph album. On both sides of a 12 x 10.5 cm. piece of paper, cropped down from 12mo. In fair condition, but with some loss of text due to cropping, and with traces of glue on first page (i.e. the page without the signature). On the first page he approves the postponement of the recipient's visit to Edinburgh, and on the second he expresses admiration for 'the kind and generous sentiments displayed on both sides and described with such perfect simplicity' in 'the presented papers'.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, laid down on leaf removed from album. The note reads: 'The form of receipt is in the printers' hands. Addressed to Buller at the South Kensington Hotel.

3pp., 4to. Bifolium. On aged and worn paper. Arnald's appeal begins: Appealing to the 'known humanity' of Lawrence and the Council, Arnald writes on behalf of 'Mrs. Abigail Whitcombe, widow of Mr. Thos. Whitcombe late of Clarendon Square, marine painter, and for 40. Years an annual contributor to the Exhibition of the Royal Academy', who has previously received assistance, but is now 'almost totally deprived of sight, and otherwise afflicted', and is dependent on 'the assistance afforded by friends on whom she has no Claim'.

Wallace, a well-known painter of landscapes and still life subjects in oil and water-colour, was born at Kendal in the Lake District and studied in Kensington at the Byam Shaw and Vicat Cole School of Art. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1922, and at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the Royal Institute of Watercolour Painters, and with the Lake Artists' Society. He was a full member of the Royal Society of British Artists. The present collection casts an interesting light on the efforts of a good English artist to be of use to the war effort. Ten items.

On watermarked laid paper. Dimensions of paper: 23 x 32cm. Dimensions of plate: 14 x 20cm. In fair condition, aged and lightly stained, with creasing and short closed tear to right-hand margin, but with the engraving good and clear. A windy scene, with a turbulent cloudy sky weighing heavily over a disheveled windswept landscape, in which two small figures can be made out on a bridge. Inscribed in pencil beneath the plate: 'Oliver Hall | To R. Wallace | Ed: 40.' The title 'Hayling Island' is in pencil in the bottom right-hand corner.

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly-aged, and laid down on a piece of card. Reads: 'July 26 | My dear Faed, | Would you mind seconding me at the Athenaeum? I believe Tom Hughes has put down my name. | Yours faithfully | William Black.' According to Black's entry in the Oxford DNB, he 'studied landscape painting for a short time in the Glasgow School of Art, but, becoming connected with the Glasgow Citizen, gradually exchanged art for journalism'.

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly-aged and spotted, with minor traces of glue from mount on reverse. Reads: 'With the Compliments of the Season to all | from | Thomas Faed | 25 Der. 1881'. For information on Faed, see his entry in the Oxford DNB.

1p., 12mo. Nicely printed on one side of a piece of laid watermarked paper. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, with slight loss to one corner caused by removal from an album. Sixteen-line poem in four four-line stanzas. Signed in type at foot 'TOM FAED.' The poem is a lament by the betrothed of a sailor drowned in the Firth of Forth. The first stanza reads: 'Oh wae is me!

1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly-aged, with small piece of mount adhering at head. Accepting an invitation to dinner.

2pp., 16mo. In fair condition, lightly-aged, with trimmed margins and slight damage at head from removal from album. He asks her to accept a 'Copy of Titian's "Ascension of the Virgin". You seemed to like it and it may fill a corner in your Boudoir.' He apologises if the frame is 'not as it should be but some might prefer he quaint old pattern to a more modern one.' From the papers of Faed's nephew John Francis Faed, son of the Royal Academician Thomas Faed (1826-1900), and so probably addressed to a family member.

2pp., 16mo. Bifolium with black border. He writes that he had 'looked forward with great interest to seeing your academy pictures for this year', but that he is disappointed not to be able to do so, as a result of a heavy cold. 'I have no doubt they will more than sustain your reputation, and it will be a true pleasure to me to hail them on good places on the line in the R.A.' He ends by sending regards 'to Mrs. Faed & yourself'.

1p., folio. Good, on a lightly-aged piece of ruled paper. In two columns, with the left-hand column, written out by Roberts with his address at the foot, headed 'Name of Exhibition', and listing twelve international exhibitions between 1862 (Amsterdam) and 1898 (Brussels). The right-hand column, headed 'Picture Exhibition', carries Alma-Tadema's responses, some of which are written in darker ink than others, indicating that they were added at more than one point. Alongside 'Paris (EU) 1867' he writes '13 pictures amongst them.

One page, 12mo, bifolium, fold mark, good condition. £I have obtained a photograph of my Academy drawing before I coloured it, & beg to send you a copy." Postscript written at an angle, "I shall be very glad to go out with the working drawings of the first wing, when you say the word." Note: further enlightenment welcome.

Church was a leading authority on the chemistry of paintings. 4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In very good condition. Written in a neat and close hand in the spirit of a true antiquary. Addressed to 'My dear Friend'. He begins by discussing Roman coins ('by no means rare even when in good condition'), describing 'two gold Neros' in his possession, and 'aurei of Galba', before turning to his activitiies since leaving Cirencester. He has not been 'working at Britanno-Roman things', but has been through 'some very interesting specimens belonging to Mr. T. B.