AUTOGRAPH

The twelve items are in fair condition, on lightly-aged paper, folded into packets, with all texts clear and complete. The first of the General Annual Statements, that for '1863 & 64', is representative. Its two pages are on one side each of two landscape sheets of grey paper, both 67 x 42 cm. Both are printed forms, with columns in red, headed '25th & 26th of Victoria, Cap. 61 GENERAL STATEMENTS of RECEIPTS and EXPENDITURE on Account of the HIGHWAYS of each Parish, Township &c.

12mo, 1 p. Ten lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. He does not have 'sufficient information' to give an opinion on the question his unnamed correspondent refers to, 'namely whether a 5 days a week system would be preferable to Miners to an uniform 8 hours a day work'. The question is 'quite new' to him, and he 'must reserve an opinion till I know more about the subject'. Later in 1892 Shaw-Lefevre would be appointed First Commissioner of Works in Gladstone's government.

12mo, 2 pp. 24 lines. Text clear and complete. He finds, 'upon reconsideration', that the conversation he referred to that afternoon took place two days later, and regrets that he gave Barrow 'the unnecessary trouble of sending for papers in error; & possibly attributing an inattention to the Gentleman employed at the time as a Reporter'.

12mo, 2 pp. 13 lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. His unnamed correspondent has 'done no end of good by rousing the attention of the Engineering World to the Portsmouth Question'. He is engaged on 20 April, and so will be prevented from availing himself of 'Col Grey's Offer'.

12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium. 26 lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with traces of blue paper mount adhering to the blank reverse of the second leaf. Apologises for being unable to 'attend a meeting of Managers of St. John's Schools' that week: 'Miss Wilbraham will be away from home the following week & Lord Skelmersdale does not arrive till the 20th.' Gives dates when he can attend, if his unnamed correspondent thinks it 'advisable to have the meeting without them'.

Folio, 1 p. On paper watermarked 'J WHATMAN | 1818'.

The Earl of Darnley's four letters (all signed 'Darnley') total 27 pp in 12mo; Lady Darnley's eight letters (all signed 'H. Darnley') total 26 pp in 12mo. All items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Darnley's first letter, 16 September 1853 (12mo, 12 pp), is unusually blunt for the period, and revealing on the etiquette of the period. It begins: 'I trust that the change in your mode of addressing me was accidental, and I have therefore not imitated it, and have used one word which you omitted [presumably 'Dear'].

8vo, 4 pp. Seventy lines of text. Clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with the outer pages browned. The identity of the recipient is suggested by the following, written in the margin of the first page: 'Ces Dames vous supplient d'agréer l'hommage de leurs souvenirs. Mesdames de Vaublanc et veulent elles me permettre de leur offrir ici la mienne?' His correspondent is writing his memoirs, and de Marchangy considers that he has 'mille fois raison de vivre dans le passé, s'il vous console du present'.

Reproduction of black and white drawing in Blake's inimitable style. 4to (34 x 29.5 cm). Good, with a little light creasing. Reproduction of black and white drawing in Blake's inimitable style. Depicts anthropomorphic bear, pig, chicken, squirrel and hedgehog in a line from largest to smallest, all with party hats, smiles on their faces and forepaws and other front limbs aloft. Blake's address, as part of printed piece, written upwards along left-hand margin.

Typescript of 'The Balloon': landscape 8vo, 24 pp. Text clear and complete. On aged paper. With pencil emendations (including the deletion of a number of passages) on practically every page. Described by Cross as a 'radio composition' and a 'fantasy for broadcasting', 'The Balloon' presents an absurd take on T. S. Eliot's verse plays. It was transmitted on the Scottish Home Service of the BBC in 1946, with music by Cedric Thorpe Davie (1913-1983). There is no record of it having been published. The five typed letters total seven 4to pages. The autograph letter is landscape 12mo, 1 p.

Folio, 1 p. On bifolium. Docketed on reverse of second leaf. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Martin having written to him on 16 September, 'renewing [his] application to be permitted to retire with the Rank and Half pay of Captain', Somerset is 'directed by the General Commanding in Chief [Rowland Hill, 1st Viscount Hill]' to acquaint Martin 'that His Lordship can only repeat the Substance of the communication which I was desired to address to Mr. Daly on the 4th. Instant on the same subject, viz - that it is wholly out of Lord Hill's power to comply with your request'.

Folio, 1 p. Text clear and complete. Lightly-aged and creased. Remains of red wafer in left margin. Folded into a packet, and docketed on reverse 'Case for Mr. Wheler | 1 G[uine]a. | Martin & Hay for Nevill'. The upper half of the document consists of eighteen lines in the hand of the enquirer (presumably one of a firm of solicitors named 'Martin & Hay", acting for one 'Nevill'), with the last two lines posing the question; the lower half consists of fifteen lines in Wheler's hand, signed by him 'Frans Wheler', and dated by him in the bottom left-hand corner.

12mo, 1 p. On bifolium. Thirteen lines of text. Clear and complete. Fair, on aged and creased paper, with slight rust marking from hooks. Semi-literate, and redolent of the area and period. He asks Devon (not Captain Thomas Barker Devon, RN, who had died in 1846) to 'pardon the Liberty I have taken in writen [sic]' to him. He knows 'the Great difficulty that Gentlemen have in Getting good made peal [sic] Flys and firm Tied ones', and is enclosing 'a few of my Own Making & you will Greatly Oblidge me by your Trying of them'.

More information about this Society (founded in 1863 and incorporated in 1875) is to be found in the report in The Times, 20 September 1892 ('Suspension Of Another Building Society'), of the announcement of its dissolution 'in consequence of the commercial panic'. See also 'The Stoppage Of Building Societies', Times, 21 September 1892, which reports the reversal of the decision to wind up the Society. Folio, 248 pp. Disbound. Text clear and complete. Foxing and slight wear to first and last few leaves of volume, otherwise in good condition on lightly-aged paper.

One page, 12mo, slightly marked but text cleear and complete. "I must refer you to the publisher, Messrs Routledge, Broadway, London, for a reply to your question." Suitable for framing.

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. Forty-eight lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on aged paper. Begins 'One must needs be a churl indeed to be a laggard in his response to a letter containing words of so sweet breath composed as yours!' He thanks Baron for his 'kind & encouraging letter', and considers that an author 'has no keener or more lawful pleasure than to find that the errors of his song or tale has [sic] lodged (as Longfellow says) in the heart of some far-off and unknown friend'.

Seven items, all in very good condition on lightly-aged paper. Trevelyan's idiosyncratic and hypochondriacal character comes through strongly in this correspondence, ostensibly concerned with his application to become a magistrate, but largely devoted to the state of his health. ONE and TWO. Manuscript copies of short letters from Trevelyan to Thorp and the Duke of Northumberland. Both dated 22 October 1832, and both 4to, 1 p. Requesting 'a Dedimus, as a commencing Magistrate'. THREE. Manuscript copy of letter from Trevelyan to Thorp. 23 October 1832; Netherwitton, Morpeth. 4to, 1 p.

108 items, in a variety of formats, and including 17 Autograph Letters Signed; 14 Typed Letters Signed; 47 telegrams (on 51 leaves), a 'Statement of Election Expenses', a mimeographed 'Agent's Report. Year 1932' (4to, first 3 pp only); 3 election fliers; an 'Admission Ticket' to Davis's 'Adoption Meeting'; a printed notice by Davis 'To All Primrose Leaguers'; and seventeen black and white photographs. All but a few items laid down in a folio cloth scrapbook by W. Straker Ltd, London. All texts clear and complete, with the collection in fair condition on aged paper.

12mo, 2 pp. Twenty-six lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. Having examined Mrs Damon in her bed, he now finds her 'up & down stairs', and requests Coffin to 'kindly give her a look up & control her & force her to be an invalid for a few days'. Ends with the news that his wife is 'still most seriously & dangerously ill'. For some of Jones's many achievements see his entry in Who Was Who, and also his obituary, British Medical Journal, 4 May 1918, pp.521–522

12mo, 1 p. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. Docketed by Blanchard in top left-hand corner: 'Sent to Sat.

12mo, 2 pp. Twenty lines. Text clear and complete. On aged and lightly-creased paper, with short closed tear at head. Begins: 'My Father & Grand Father & Family represented the City of Waterford for nearly 100 years before the Union. My Father represented the County off Wexford in the Imperial Parliament in 1806.'

4to, 2 pp. Sixteen lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. He congratulates her on her 'success in the Saturday Westminster Essay Competition'. He is grateful to her for 'guessing that I should be interested in this work of yours after having plied my scalpel upon your novel "The Sword of Love".' He regrets that 'for many a long year' he has 'done no general reviewing outside the publisher's office. There the flood of MSS. that poured in furnished effectual occupation.

On rectangle of paper, 11 x 5.5 cm, cut from front frank. Aged and spotted, with closed tear at head repaired on reverse with archival tape. The whole in Amherst's hand, with his signature (as usual on frank) in bottom left-hand corner between two horizontal lines. Launched in 1805, the Pomone was a 38-gun Leda-class fifth rate Royal Navy ship, built by Josiah and Thomas Brindley at Frindsbury. She saw action during the Napoleonic Wars, primarily in the Mediterranean, and was wrecked off the Needles in 1811.

Folio, 2 pp. On first leaf of bifolium, with the verso of the second leaf docketed, under the heading 'King's Warrant'. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. Headed '(Copy)', and with 'George R' in a bold hand in the top left-hand corner. Although the signature is almost certainly not in the hand of the king, the document is docketed in pencil: 'Signature of his late beloved Majesty King George III on Copy of a Warrant retained by General Saml. Townsend'.

12mo, 1 p. Mourning border. Twelve lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with small scrap torn away from top right-hand corner. By that evening's post, they have received 'the sad intelligence that my sister in law, Lady Camilla Sinclair has died at Thurso Castle'. Her brother Sir George Sinclair and his family 'are in great grief', and she is 'under the melancholy necessity of sending an apology' for cancelling 'our engagement to you which we had anticipated with so much pleasure'.

12mo, 1 p. Six lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. She will 'keep January free' for him, and they can 'arrange the details of programme later'. She agrees that 'a wholly-Brahms programme might be rather heavy'. See Florence's obituary, The Times, 7 November 1928.

12mo, 2 pp. Eighteen lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Addressed to 'My dear Reed'. He thanks him for his note and is glad he likes the cartoon on 'the Educational Model'. He had 'been hoping the Tories would tread on the Nonconformists' toes to shut them up and now they have done it.' He doubts whether his agent has sold the original drawing, and is writing to him 'to let you have an offer if possible'.

All items clear and complete, on aged paper. Letters totaling: 4to, 1 p; landscape 8vo, 5 pp. The two cards carry long messages, written in red ink in Grubb's close, neat hand; one is standard size, the other 27 x 13.5 cm. Five envelopes are stapled to their letters. Grubb ('one of the last survivors of the famous 1960s Hampstead coterie of writers, actors and critics') writes entertainingly in an emphatic, energetic manner marvellously evocative of the 1970s London literary scene.

12mo, 2 pp. Ten lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Jones's letter has been forwarded to him, but he cannot give him 'the information you are seeking', so he has sent to letter on to 'Mr. of the British Museum, asking him to reply to it'.

Surprisingly little is known about this British cinematographic pioneer, and these items are rare survivals, there being no reference to Walford on COPAC. Handbill: 8vo (27 x 21 cm). Printed on both sides. Clear and complete. Aged and creased, with damage at edges. In portrait 8vo on one side, with picture of British Army lancer and border of Union Flags. Headed 'Great Additions with Augmented Change of Artistes since last visit. | The Schoolroom, Watton. | Monday, February 10th.' 'Walford's Royal Military and Naval Warograph & Vocophone Co.