AUTOGRAPH

Rare: The BL has a copy (not annotated) and there's a copy on JISC at Reading, with the entry stating that consists of 104pp, rather than the 231pp of the present copy. See Elton’s entry in the Oxford DNB. He first served as a Conservative MP for Somerset in 1884-5, and the present item was composed during his second term, 1886-92. No title-leaf: drop-head title. At foot of first page: ‘A 55729. 30.?1/89. Wt. 6590,’. Introductory section credited on p.30 to 'Charles Elton. / B. F. C. Costelloe, / Assistant Commissioner.' Folio, 231pp.

One page, 12mo, fold marks, good condition. Dear Baroness | I will send the picture as you dsire & shall be ready to finish Miss de Rothschild when convenient to her to sit.Note: a. A particularly significant portrait was of the 23 year old Hannah de Rothschild painted in 1874, four years before her marriage to Lord Rosebery. The small portrait (it was only 10×12) gave Lord Rosebery such pleasure that, after Hannah’s early death in 1890, he told Watts that he carried it wherever he moved as he could not bear to be parted from it; b.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. ONE: Autograph draft of conclusion of description of his meeting with Mehmet Ali (‘Mehemet Ali’). The ODNB states that in July 1836 Cobden produced a pamphlet ‘which analysed the Russo-Turkish dispute [...] attempting to play down the Turcophilia that was rife in Britain in the 1830s.

An interesting and informative item in postal history, which in 1956 received the endorsement of being exhibited at the Pall Mall headquarters of the Society of Postal Historians (see below). Manuscript title-page reads: ‘The Posts in Norfolk. / Related under the headings of the respective Towns and Villages. / With various Post Town Lists, Introductory Notes, and Illustrated with Letters, Covers, Stamps, Postmarks, Cuttings, and other Postal Material. / Compiled and Arranged by / A. E. Strout / South Cave. E. Yks.’ 173pp, 4to.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, together with A. N. L. Munby’s entertaining ‘The Cult of the Autograph Letter in England’ (1962). 1p, 4to. No fold. In good condition, on lightly aged paper extracted from a notebook. Signed at foot: ‘William Upcott / London Institution, / Finsbury Circus. Jan. 18. 1834.' Very neatly written out in Upcott’s best hand, which is more like type (including the signature) than the document offered separately, on the same watermarked paper.

Fowler’s entry in the DNB states that he resigned his tutorship in 1910, when he ‘retired to Kingham, where, since 1873, he had enjoyed a country home and entertained his pupils. From 1899 he lived there with his sister Alice’. On both sides of what was an 8vo leaf, the lower part of which has been torn away, leaving a piece roughly 20 cm square, with 26 typed lines and the autograph valediction, in a large bold hand, ‘Yours sincerely / W. Warde Fowler’. Aged and worn, but with the remaining text clear. A nice letter, combining Fowler’s main interests.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, together with A. N. L. Munby’s entertaining ‘The Cult of the Autograph Letter in England’ (1962). 1p, 4to. No fold. In good condition, on lightly aged paper extracted from a notebook. Signed at foot: ‘William Upcott / a collector and preserver of Autographs. / London Institution / Finsbury Circus. / January 17. 1834’. The four memoranda are neatly written out over fifteen lines in Upcott’s distinctive hand.

Something akin to a CV in a neat contemporary hand (perhaps Ord’s own, in pursuit of preferment or a pension?). A useful summary of Ord’s career features in ‘Commissary Wilson’s Orderly Book. Expedition of the British and Provincial Army, under Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Amherst, against Ticonderoga and Crown Point. 1759.’ (New York, 1857): ‘THOMAS ORD was appointed Captain in the Royal Artillery on 1st March, 1746. He was an excellent Officer, and stood high in the Duke of Cumberland’s esteem, by whom he was selected to Command the Artillery in Braddock’s Expedition.

One of the great figures in British history. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Good neat signature 'W E Gladstone' on 7 x 2.5 cm slip of card. In good condition, lightly aged. See Image.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 4to. Bifolium. Fifty-eight lines of text. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded three times. Minor traces of grey-paper mount adhering to the blank reverse of the second leaf. Addressed to ‘George Anderson Esq / M.P. / House of Commons’, and signed ‘W. G. Dickson’. Two annotations in a contemporary hand, one beneath the signature. The first paragraph reads: ‘My dear Sir / I have to thank you for the copy of your bill “to extend the jurisdiction of Sheriff Courts in Scotland,” which I received this morning.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. It was in October of 1806 that a sixteen year-old Sinclair was arrested as a spy near Jena, and brought before Napoleon, who examined him and ordered his release. 1p, 16mo. On heavily aged, creased and worn paper with light staining above the signature, and strip torn away at bottom left. Addressed on reverse to 'The Editor of the / Mirror of Parliament.' Signed ‘George Sin Clair [sic]’. He thanks him for his kindness ‘in sending yesterday for a copy of the remarks which I made as to the [Prussian?] loan’.

See Terry’s entry in the Oxford DNB. At the time of writing Dr. W. J. Phillips was the organist at St Barnabas, Pimlico; he was unsuccessful in the present application, but was subsequently organist of the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court. See his entry in Humphreys and Evans, ‘Dictionary of Composers for the Church in Great Britain and Ireland’ (1997). These two items are uniform on a total of three leaves of light paper. Both discoloured and worn, and folded three times. ONE: ALS from Terry to Phillips. 1p, 4to. He is ‘most pleased to have opportunity of supporting’ Phillips’s application.

The second of these ballads, 'Silver Threads Among the Gold', by the American Eben Eugene Rextord (1848-1916), was immensely popular on its release in 1873 with music by Hart Peas Danks (1834-1903). The earliest reference to the first ballad, 'Could you lend my mother a saucepan?' is in an 1885 number of 'All the Year Round'. The song is an absolute hoot, but its text is not to be found anywhere on the internet.

The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre was founded through the efforts of local brewer Charles Edward Flower (1830-1892), after whose death its management was taken over by his brother Edgar Flower (1833-1903), also Chairman of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. On Edgar’s death these duties fell to his son Archibald Flower (1865-1950), several times mayor of Stratford-upon-Avon. The present correspondence concerns a gift to Shakespeare Memorial Association by the appropriately-named anatomist Evan Marlett Boddy.

Hodgson’s entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography omits to mention the fact that the territory named Eton Vale which he squatted with his brother Christopher Pemberton Hodgson (1821-1865), was taken by force from the Barunggam people, and that, as the brother recalled in 1848, ‘so many hundreds of these poor creatures’ were ‘sacrificed’ in the struggle over the territory. From the papers of Evan Marlett Boddy (c.1847-1934), who is presumably the recipient ‘Marcian’, author of the named ‘brochure’, published in Birmingham in 1901. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, folded once.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. On 12.5 x 3 cm slip of paper cut from letter. Aged and worn, with nick lost from left side, and remains of mount on reverse. Reads: ‘I remain / Yours very truly & affectionately / Sarah Trimmer’. See Image.

See his entries in the Oxford DNB and History of Parliament. Frank cover, laid out in the customary fashion, on 12.5 x 7 cm panel cut from front of envelope. In fair condition, on lightly aged paper. Usual red frank postmark: ‘FREE / 29JA29 / 1831’. Reads: ‘London January twenty nine 1831 / Willm. Smith Esqr. / at Smith Wright’s Esqr / Kempston / Loughboro Notts / per / R Bernal’. See Image. On reverse, in contemporary hand: ‘R. Bernal. MP for Rochester / Chairman of the Committee / of the House of Commons / on the Reform Bill.’

Bailey’s entry in the Oxford DNB describes the ‘remarkable popularity’ of the second edition of Festus in America: ‘seventeen ‘editions’ of a version pirated in Boston were called for in the first nine years, and it was also reprinted numerous times in Philadelphia, Louisville, and New York. Bailey became something of a 'lion' for visiting Americans of the transcendental stamp’, with Hawthorne visiting in the 1850s. 1p, 8vo. On brittle woodpulp paper, now discoloured with chipping to edges (resulting in loss to the word ‘Festus’ at the head) and with closed tears to the two folds.

2pp, 4to. 41 lines, including postscript, in green ink. On aged and brittle air mail paper, with chipping and discoloration at the head, resulting in some loss to printed letterhead, but with text clear and entire. Addressed to ‘Mon cher ami’ and with valediction from ‘Ton très dévoué ami’. The recipient is unidentified, but would appear to have been a former colleague at the Russian legation in Tehran, Persia. Signed ‘Geo. S. Romanovsky’. He begins by thanking him for his congratulations. The recipient is right: ‘les choses ont changé’.

Launched at Frindsbury in 1811 as HMS Asia, played an active role in the War of 1812: in the bombardment Fort McHenry, and the attack on New Orleans, and sharing in the proceeds of the capture of the American vessels in the Battle of Lake Borgne in 1814. She was renamed HMS Alfred in 1819. By the time of this item she had been reduced to a 50-gun fourth rate Frigate. She was eventually broken up in 1865. 1p, small 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. On reverse: ‘Armament / of / H. M. Ship / Alfred’. The front page, in the same hand, is headed: ‘Armament of H. M.

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Thirty-six lines of text, signed ‘Atholl’. Text complete (except for address of recipient), on grubby and worn paper. Folded three times. The letter has been trimmed at the foot, resulting in some loss to the address of the recipient, which appears to read ‘Captn Ross R. N. / 160 New Bond Street’. This is presumably the ‘Rayley, [sic] Captain, R.N. 160, Bond-street’, who in 1832 was listed among the proprietors of shares in London University. The Duke’s handwriting is execrable.

1p, foolscap 8vo. In good condition, on watermarked laid paper. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased and chipped at edges. Folded twice. A printed form in a grid headed (with Bunting's autograph in square brackets): 'WEEKLY RETURN of the Sick and Wounded of His Majesty's [Sloop Comet] between [4th] Day of [September 1811] and the [11th.] Day of [September], employed in [at Sea]'. A grid of nine columns, from 'Disease' to 'Invalided' (subdivided into 'Harbour Duty' and 'Unserviceable'.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. Eighteen lines of typed text, under the heading ‘VISION AND SERVICE.’ Undated, but certainly written after 1918, since the document is responding to changes since ‘the pre-war world of yesterday’. The final reference to a ladder, echoes a passage in Leverhulme’s 1919 tract ‘The Six-hour Day and other Industrial Questions’. Large bold signature at bottom right: ‘Leverhulme’. The signature and its environs are in good condition, on a document of aged and worn paper, with tearing to a central horizontal fold repaired with archival tape.

4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. A long letter of eighty-seven lines, in a neat close hand. Signed ‘Edward S Byam’. The recipient is not identified.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, folio. Text clear and entire, on worn and grubby paper, with chipping to edges and slight loss to one corner, with one closed tear repaired with archival tape. Embossed tax stamps at head. Good firm signature at bottom right ‘David Dundas.’, beside small seal in red wax, with crumbling impression. At bottom left: ‘Signed Sealed and Delivered (being first duly stampt) in the Presence of us / John Landon / M King’. Downwards in left-hand margin: 'Entered in the Office for Auditing the Public Accounts the 9th of February 1797 / Thos Gibbes’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Autograph Signature and valediction to letter on 11 x 4.5 cm slip of paper: 'My dear Sir / Yours most truly / David Welsh'. In good condition on lightly-aged laid paper, with neat vertical fold. Tiny slip of paper with pencil note in contemporary hand laid down on blank space at left of slip.

The Cymru Estate in Dimbula was established in 1870. The invaluable ‘History of Ceylon Tea’ website only has data regarding the estate up to the year 1929. The present item provides a mass of statistical information for the years 1964 to 1972. It is entirely in manuscript, in several hands, and comprises 73pp, 16mo, written with portrait orientation in a 12.5 x 8 cm ruled notebook (with 69pp in blue and red ink at the front, and the other four pages in pencil at the back). In rough black cloth, with brown patterned endpapers, and cloth pencil-holder.

These five items are part of a collection of correspondence (the rest is offered separately) relating to a supposed portrait of a young Percy Bysshe Shelley by George Romney, which was in a group of paintings donated to the Shakespeare Memorial Association by the appropriately-named anatomist Evan Marlett Boddy. (The Shelley portrait is reproduced in ‘The Magazine of Art’, 1901, with the caption ‘Reputed portrait of Shelley as a boy, by Romney. In the Shakespeare memorial, Stratford-on-Avon.’, in an article on ‘Portraits of Shelley at the National Portrait Gallery’, p.

Two pages, 8vo. bifolium, small closed tear not affecting text, good condition. He apologises for not remembering today to call on you as proposed, till it was too late. Pary forgive my heedlessness, and also excuse me for to-morrow evening, when I have to meet Mr Dickens at a small dinner party. I shall take an early opportunity of looking in upon you, in the hope of being brought into personal; contact with Mr Stephenson [Robert Stephenson, presumably], and trust me I shall not fail, if opportunity serves, to take advantage of your truly frank and kind offer.

Two pages,12mo, bifolium, good condition. Embossed heading Perseverantia et Fortitudo. My dear Kenney | In acknowledgment of Mrs Kenney's note Wednesday that between two and four [each] day except Saturdays & Mondays I am to be found here Wednesday I have most leisure & shall be happy to see you here tomorrow between 2 & 4 o'clock if convenient to you [...].