AUTOGRAPH

Taylor is noticed in his brother’s entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of bifolium, the second leaf carrying the address (‘R. S. MacKenzie Esqr / Chesterfield’), and a seal in black wax, beneath which is a corner of the leaf, cut away in opening the letter, the leaf also being annotated ‘James Taylor of Bakewell / author of “What is Money?”. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of brown paper mount along inner edge of second leaf. Good signature, with expansive flourish, ‘Jas Taylor’.

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly aged and discoloured. Folded twice. The salutation ‘Dear Sir Courtenay’ and valediction ‘Yours v. truly / Devonshire’ in his autograph, the rest type. Addressed to ‘Sir Courtenay Ilbert, G.C.B.’ He is ‘hoping to arrange a small and informal gathering to consider the future of the Law School at the Universities of Leeds and Sheffield’, and asks Ilbert to join ‘a certain number of gentlemen’ who will be lunching with him at Devonshire House on a named date, ‘With that object in view’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 16mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and ruckled. Addressed to ‘Dear Maurice’ and signed ‘A Black’. For Lothian see ‘Memoirs of Adam Black’ (1885). He asks him to ‘glance at the inclosed’: ‘The description appears to me abundantly broad. And I hope to get the legion of proprietors in a trim to sign.’ He concludes by stating that he will ‘send for it’ that evening, ‘as Mr Bruce wishes to have it to send to Dymock tomorrow morning’. ‘Mr Bruce’ may be the future Sir James Knight Bruce (1791-1866); ‘Dymock’ is William Dymock, the Edinburgh advocate.

See his entry, those of his sons Philip and Robert, and that of Taylor, in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, on discoloured and lightly-worn paper. Addressed to ‘My Dear Mr Taylor’ and signed ‘Alfred P. Graves’. He begins by enquiring after the state of the recipient’s health, before giving details of when Parliament ‘will probably be up’: ‘Otherwise I have no political news to interest you.

An interesting letter regarding the man who was regarded as Ireland's national poet before the appearance of William Butler Yeats. See Croker’s entry, and that of Thomas Moore, in the Oxford DNB. The former contains a paragraph discussing the association between the two men, the conclusion of which explains the context of the present item: ‘At the end of his life Croker (by his own account) was working on a biography of Moore, whom he termed 'an actor—a hypocrite—a swindler—a sensualist and a habitual liar' (Irish Book Lover, 50).

See the various entries in the Oxford DNB. Typed carbon copy. 1p, foolscap 8vo. Text complete, on aged piece of carbon paper, worn and chipped at edges. No signature. Addressed at foot to ‘E. F. Benson Esq.’ Thirty-one lines of text. He begins by stating that Benson, in his ‘work on Charlotte Brontë’, has ‘made a very correct study of her’. After discussing a point about Branwell Bronte, he states: ‘We cannot rely on Charlotte’s assertion that he knew nothing whatever of their ventures in publishing.

See Sitwell’s entry in the Oxford DNB. In his 1999 biography Philip Ziegler describes how the ‘doggerel polemic Rat Week’ ‘excoriated’ the supporters of the Edward VII and Mrs Simpson: ‘Osbert realised that this diatribe, if published, might land him in a flurry of libel actions, but he could not resist having a few copies made and distributed to his closer cronies; Mrs. Greville, Lady Aberconway, Lady Cholmondeley and Philip Frere among them.

The present item is on a 12mo bifolium of light gray paper, with Kate Crowe’s letter on the two outer pages, and Tom Taylor’s unrelated pencil notes on the two inner pages. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. There is an engraved portrait of ‘Miss Kate Bateman’, with a long biographical footnote, on pp.160-161 of ‘The Reminiscences of J. L. Toole’, ed. Hatton (1889). That footnote states, with regard to the subject of this letter: ‘Miss Bateman appeared on the first night of the reopening of Sadler’s Wells under the management of [her mother] Mrs.

See the entries on Grey and Lady Ilbert's husband (who was Clerk of the Commons) in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. In an elegant hand. Reads: '15. 2. 15 / Dear Lady Ilbert / Many thanks: I shall be very glad to dine on Wednesday / Yours sincerely / E Grey.'

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. On worn and aged paper, with L-shaped closed tear at left-hand edge. Folded for postage. Addressed to her at Bebington in the Wirral. Loose, smudged signature ‘St John Ervine’. He thanks her for her ‘letter and its enclosure, which I return. If I were to rebuke every cub reporter who wrote so stupidly as the young man to whom you refer, I should fill The Observer with my reproofs, apart altogether from the fact, that I should be giving the young man an exaggerated sense of his importance.

An unusually forthright communication for the period. See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. At the time of writing, Fitzgerald was President of the Board of Control under Sir Robert Peel. 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and ruckled. Signed ‘Vane Londonderry’. Begins: ‘My Dear Ftizgerald / I had not an opportunity to thank you as I would in the H of Lords for all your kind attention to my wishes.

Thomas broadcast many of his programmes from the Hammersley Hill estate, overlooking the Catskills. 1p, foolscap 8vo. On cream paper with letterhead in green. In good condition, folded twice for postage. Thomas’s bold signature, also in green, rises at an angle. Reads: ‘Dear Mr. McCormick, / I’ve entirely forgotten. / If you know of an extra copy I would like to add it to my collection. / With best wishes. / Sincerely, / Lowell Thomas’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Addressed to ‘W. S. Dallas Esq’ and signed ‘P. Cunliffe Owen’ [sic, no hyphen]. Begins: ‘There will be no Ladies on the 13th. Inst & the card I will send you will be personal. I am sorry, that this rule exists, but it affects my own family as well as all the Gentler Sex.’ He concludes with brief details of the plans for the evening. In a postscript which he has initalled he asks Dallas to ‘do some more translation from German’.

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. For the context, see the 1863 pamphlet ‘Clare versus the Queen’, in the slug to which John Clare (1820-1885) is described as ‘THE KING OF METAL SHIP BUILDERS’. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with folds. Docketed ‘Fitzhardinge / Lord -’. Signed ‘Fitzhardinge’ (sic). In a difficult hand.

See the entry on the Murray family in the Oxford DNB. In fair condition lightly aged and worn. Folded for postage, with short closed tears to the edges of central horizontal fold. Small biographical slip laid down at top left. Addressed to ‘Dear Colonel Fellows’ and signed ‘John Murray junr.’ Reads: ‘Our binders have done the best they can with your Volumes, short of rebinding, but as you know patching up leather bindings in a really satisfactory way is not easy. / However, I hope that you will be satisfied with the volumes which I am sending on to you today.’

A biography of Pearson (‘a notable figure within the church’) is appended to that of his father in the Oxford DNB. Each of these letters is 2pp, 12mo (the second with cross writing at the head of a further two pages), and both are on bifoliums. In fair condition, lightly aged. The two have been extracted from an autograph album, and are lightly attached along the inner edge, with further light traces of the brown paper mount on the reverse of the last leaf of the second letter.

In fair condition, lightly aged and creased, laid down on part of page from album. Folded for postage. Neatly written. Reads: ‘6 Oct 1867 / Mr Pauer begs to inform Mrs Paget that the Austrian Piano maker will attend to her Piano tomorrow or Wednesday / In haste.’

A good informative letter. See Abse's entry in the Oxford DNB, along with that of Gaston Berlemont, proprietor of the French House (the nickname of the York Minster), Soho. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded one for postage. On a leaf of light-grey paper, in matching stamped envelope with postmark, addressed to Furness in Battersea. One of a number of letters from British poets in response to enquiries from Furness with regard to their pub memories.

See his entry, and that of Collier, in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, on worn and spotted paper. Folded twice for postage. The recipient is not named. Addressed to ‘Dear Sir’ and signed ‘C. M. Ingleby’. He offers ten pounds for ‘yr. copy of the Encycl: Metropolitana’, and will pay the carriage if he sends it. ‘I don’t actually want it: but its a good book, & I’ll give that as an investment.’ He will send a cheque, once he receives ‘a Post Card: with “yes” on it’. Ends: ‘Other matters in yr. excellent Catalogue I postpone.’

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Addressed ‘Revd. F. Damstini Cremer / The Rectory / Keighley / England’. Signed ‘A. B. Bruce’. He begins by confirming that Cremer has has not mistaken his meaning ‘on p. 32 “The Kingdom of God”’, reaffirming over a paragraph what it is he was saying regarding the temptation of Christ. ‘It seems a considerable liberty, but then the Scripture writers do take liberties in their quotations & use of Holy Writ’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded for postage and in stamped and postmarked envelope (with Wesker’s address printed on it), addressed to Furness in Battersea. One of a number of letters from British poets in response to enquiries from Paul Furness with regard to their pub memories. Addressed to ‘Dear Mr Furness’ and signed ‘Arnold Wesker’.

Although he later repudiated his position, Mackintosh is notable for having defended the French Revolution from Edmund Burke's strictures. See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. With regard to Maurice's oriental studies, it is worth noting that Mackintosh was Recorder of Bombay, 1804-1811. The three items are in good condition, lightly aged and worn and folded for postage. The last two show slight evidence of the breaking of the wafer, and the last has minor traces of brown paper mount. All three are bifoliums, and all are signed ‘James Mackintosh’.

In the obituary of Zachary Clarke, husband of the recipient, in the Gentleman's Magazine for September 1815, it is stated that he also 'established a free school on Dr. Bell's system, and has since employed a teacher to superintend it'. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 8vo. Thirty-eight lines of text. The other leaf or leaves of the letter are missing. The cover leaf, addressed on reverse with two illegible postmarks, 'To / Elizabeth Clarke - / at Zachary Clarkes / Downham / Norfolk -'. Signed 'J. Lancaster'.

Napoleon’s Egyptian Campaign, 1798-1801, inspired a period of ‘Egyptomania’ culminating in Champollion’s decipherment of the Rossetta Stone. The contribution of the author of this letter to this outpouring of scholarly activity is an offer to the President of the Society of Antiquaries of London to blow up one of the pyramids, in order to extract their contents. See the recipient’s entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 8vo. Bifolium of laid Britannia paper, watermarked 1805. Fifty-five lines, well laid out and written in a neat and stylish hand.

The two items are in good condition, lightly aged, and both folded for postage. Both 1p, 12mo. ONE (evidently to Grant Reid, editor of the Northern Figaro, Aberdeen): Signed ‘E. W. Nye’. Recipient not named. ‘My dear Sir / Your favor of the 9- asking for a photograph to be used in your admirable publication is just received.

See the entry for the ‘Sailor King’ in the Oxford DNB. On 12 x 7 cm piece of paper, cut from the cover of a frank. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with slight smudging and a small patch of light discoloration at centre (away from signature). Set out in customary fashion, and addressed by the future king (with the year cropped): ‘London. December fourth [...] / Dr: Carmichael Smith / M. D. / Upper [?] / Near Staines / Middlesex’. Firm signature at bottom left, with slight smudging to loops of the initial ‘C’: ‘Clarence’. See Image.

See her daughter’s entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, on worn and sunned paper. Large sprawling signature in pencil, written diagonally across the length of the page, with date beneath the underlining: ‘Victoria Sackville / 1919’. See IMage.

Weyman was, as his entry in the Oxford DNB states, ?one of the most popular and skilled of the historical romance novelists of the cloak and dagger school?. Oscar Wilde recommended (in all seriousness) Weyman's novels as reading for convicts. 1p, 16mo. In fair condition, lightly creased and worn. Folded for postage. From the collection of Rosemary Barron, autograph collector. Reads: 'Dear Miss Barron / I am sorry that your letter has remained unanswered so long but I have been laid aside by illness.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In fair condition, on lightly aged and spotted paper. Folded for postage. The recipient is not named. Signed ?Bute and Dumfries.? ?I should with pleasure have renewed to you a general permission to shoot upon my lands in Galloway, but having this year restricted other gentlemen in the neighbourhood on account of the condition of my muirs, [sic] I feel myself under the necessity of confining my permission to you within those which [match?] immediately with Mr Adair?s.?

See his father?s entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 16mo. On first leaf of bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded for postage. The recipient?s full name is not give. Signed ?Walter H Pollock?. The ?Ajax business? referred to in the letter is the performance of the first of the Cambridge Greek plays, organised by the archaeologist Sir Charles Walston [formerly Waldstein] (1856-1927).