AUTOGRAPH

[Major-General Sir Noel Galway Holmes, Irish soldier in British Army.] Four signed letters to him, typed and in autograph; from Major-General Macan Saunders, Robert Fellowes, Sir William Heseltine, Sir Alan Lascelles. John Michael Avison Parker.

Author: 
Robert Fellowes [Lord Fellowes], Sir William Heseltine, Sir Alan Lascelles; Major-General Macan Saunders [Major-General Sir Noel Galway Holmes, Irish soldier; Sir John Michael Avison Parker]
Fellowes
Publication details: 
Items dated from between 1938 and 1981. Four items on letterheads of Buckingham Palace, London. One item on the letterhead of the Head Quarters, Lahore District.
£150.00
Fellowes

Seven items in good overall condition, lightly aged and worn. See the obituary of the recipient Major General Sir Noel Galway Holmes (1891-1982) in the Daily Telegraph, 29 December 1982. ONE: Robert Fellowes (b.1941), Baron Fellowes [Lord Fellowes], Private Secretary to Queen Elizabeth II. TLS to NGH (‘Dear Sir Noel’). 15 December 1981; on letterhead of Buckingham Palace. 1p, 12mo. Signed ‘Robert Fellowes’. He has been commanded by the Queen to thank him, ‘and all survivors from the XVIIIth The Royal Irish Regiment, for your Christmas card’.

[Richard Cobden, Radical Liberal politician who led the fight to abolish the Corn Laws.] Three Autograph Items, including part of draft manuscript of account of his 1837 meeting in Egypt with Mehmet Ali.

Author: 
Richard Cobden (1804-1865), English Radical Liberal politician and author, a leading figure in the fight to abolish the Corn Laws [Mehmet Ali [Muhammad Ali] (1769-1849), Ottoman governor of Egypt]
Publication details: 
The draft of the meeting with Mehmet Ali after his return from his travels in April 1837, and published in November of that year. One of the other items dated 18 April 1841, from 103 Westbourne Terrace [London]. Another from Midhurst, 20 June 1856.
£280.00

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.

[Charles Isaac Elton,and B. F. C. Costelloe; Markets.] Printed work, inscribed by Elton to William Bliss.] ‘Royal Commission on Market Rights and Tolls. Report on Charters and Records relating to the History of Fairs and Markets [UK]'.’

Author: 
Charles Isaac Elton (1839-1900), lawyer, antiquary and Conservative politician, and B. F. C. Costelloe, Assistant Commissioner [William Bliss]
Publication details: 
Drophead title with printed date at foot of page '1/89', i.e. January 1890. [London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office.] Inscription by Elton dated 14 January 1890.
£600.00

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.

[G.F. Watts, painter and sculptor; Rothschild] Autograph Note Signed G.F. Watts to Dear Baroness [Juliana, wife of Baron Mayer de Rothschild] co9ncerning his portrait of Miss [Hannah] de Rothschild later married to the Earl of Rosebery

Author: 
G.F. Watts [George Frederic Watts (1817 – 1904) painter and sculptor associated with the Symbolist movement.]
Publication details: 
Little Holland House, 5 Feb. 1873.
£250.00

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.

[Norfolk postal history.] Autograph Album titled ‘The Posts in Norfolk Related under the headings of the respective Towns and Villages’, ‘Compiled and Arranged by A. E. Trout / South Cave. E. Yks’; franks, stamps, covers and other matter inserted.

Author: 
[Norfolk postal history; British Post Office in East Anglia] A. E. Trout of South Cave, East Yorkshire [Society of Postal Historians, London]
Publication details: 
Written in 1950s. Introductory note dated April 1956; from Church Street, South Cave, East Yorkshire. Volume begins around 1952, and latest item is from December 1959. Contains Norfolk franks from 1829, 1835 and 1884.
£1,500.00

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.

[‘Collector and preserver of Autographs’: William Upcott, antiquary and autograph collector, Assistant Librarian of the London Institution.] Autograph Document Signed, with four pieces of advice in life.

Author: 
William Upcott (1779-1845), antiquary and autograph collector, Assistant Librarian of the London Institution
Publication details: 
‘London Institution / Finsbury Circus. / January 17. 1834’. On paper watermarked ‘GATER / 1815’.
£120.00

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.

[William Upcott, antiquary and autograph collector, Assistant Librarian of the London Institution.] Autograph Document Signed, listing English sovereign, to show that 'not one has ascended the Throne in the blooming month of May'.

Author: 
William Upcott (1779-1845), antiquary and autograph collector, Assistant Librarian of the London Institution
Upcott
Publication details: 
‘London Institution, / Finsbury Circus. Jan. 18. 1834.' On paper watermarked 'GATER / 1815'.
£180.00
Upcott

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.

[William Warde Fowler, historian and ornithologist, tutor at Lincoln College, Oxford.] Typed Letter Signed to ‘Bridge’, discussing 'the diminution of corn-growing' and an ornithological excursion.

Author: 
William Warde Fowler (1827-1941), classical historian and ornithologist, tutor at Lincoln Colege, Oxford
Publication details: 
‘Kingham, April 13 1913’.
£80.00

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.

[Thomas Ord, Colonel Commandant of the 4th Battalion of the Royal Artillery.] Manuscript document detailing his ‘Services’ in the West Indies, Flanders and America.

Author: 
Thomas Ord (d.1777), British Army officer who served with distinction in the West Indies, Flanders and America, latterly as Colonel Commandant of the 4th Battalion of the Royal Artillery
Publication details: 
Entries between 1740 and 1762, regarding the West Indies, Flanders and America. In a contemporary hand (Ord's own?).
£180.00

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.

[William Ewart Gladstone, Liberal Prime Minister and the ‘Grand Old Man’ of Victorian politics.] Autograph Signature cut from document.

Author: 
William Ewart Gladstone ['The Grand Old Man'] (1809-1898), Liberal Prime Minister under Queen Victoria
William Ewart Gladstone
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£45.00
William Ewart Gladstone

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.

[William Gillespie Dickson, Scottish legal writer and lawyer, Advocate-General of Mauritius.] Autograph Letter Signed to Glasgow Member of Parliament George Anderson, regarding his bill for extending the ‘jurisdiction of Sheriff Courts in Scotland'.

Author: 
William Gillespie Dickson (1823-1876), Scottish legal writer and lawyer, Procureur and Advocate-General of Mauritius [George Anderson (1819-1896), Liberal MP for Glasgow]
Publication details: 
‘Sheriff Chambers / Glasgow 4 March / ’75 [1875]’.
£180.00

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.

[Sir Richard Runciman Terry, musicologist and choirmaster at Westminster Cathedral.] Autograph Letter Signed to Dr. W. J. Phillips, with ‘Copy of Testimonial’ in favour of Phillips' application as organist and choirmaster at Salisbury Cathedral.

Author: 
Sir Richard Runciman Terry (1864-1938), organist, choir master and musicologist, Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral [Dr William James Phillips (1873-1963)]
Publication details: 
ALS from Terry to Phillips, 'at Cronkley / Horley Bridge / Aug 31. 1916'. Testimonial: 'Westminster Cathedral / August 31. 1916'.
£120.00

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.

[Street Ballads: ‘T. BROOKS, Song Publisher’ of Bath.] Handbill with three street ballads (the first two with crude woodcut vignettes): ‘Could you lend my Mother a Saucepan. / Silver Threads among the Gold / Death of Nelson.’

Author: 
Street Ballads: ‘T. BROOKS, Song Publisher’ of Bath, nineteenth-century seller of handbills [Eben Eugene Rexford and Herbert Peas Danks]
Street Ballads
Publication details: 
No date [1870s or 1880s]. ‘T. BROOKS, Song Publisher, 4, Kingsmead Square, Bath.’
£90.00
Street Ballads

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.

[Sir George Sinclair, 2nd Baronet, Scottish Whig politician, schoolfriend of Byron, interrogated by Napoleon Bonaparte.] Autograph Letter Signed to James Cockell, editor of the Mirror of Parliament, regarding copies of parliamentary speeches by him.

Author: 
Sir George Sinclair (1790-1868), 2nd Baronet, Scottish Whig politician and author, friend of Bryon’s at Harrow, personally interrogated as a spy by Napoleon Bonaparte
George Sinclair
Publication details: 
‘62 St James’s Street / June 23. 1832 -’.
£90.00
George Sinclair

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’.

[Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon.] 37 items, including 21 ALsS from librarian W. S. Brassington to one of the Theatre’s governors, Dr E. M. Boddy, regarding his gift of portraits to Shakespeare Memorial, and resulting disagreement.

Author: 
Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon [William Salt Brassington (1859-1939), archaeologist; Evan Marlett Boddy (c.1847-1934), FRCS; Stewart Dick; Edgar Flower; Archibald Flower]
Publication details: 
20 of Brassington’s 21 letters from between 1899 and 1902, and on letterheads of Shakespeare Memorial, Stratford-upon-Avon; the other is from 1910. Among the other items are ones dated from between 1899 and 1928.
£650.00

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.

[Sir Arthur Hodgson, Australian squatter and politician.] Autograph Letter in the third person, thanking ‘Marcian’ [Evan Marlett Boddy?] for his ‘brochure’ ‘Relics of the late William Shakespeare’.

Author: 
Sir Arthur Hodgson (1818-1902), Australian squatter and politician involved in the deaths of hundreds of aborigines, and later Mayor of Stratford-upon-Avon [Evan Marlett Boddy (c.1847-1934)]
Publication details: 
1 September [1901]. On embossed letterhead of Clopton House, Stratford-on-Avon.
£60.00

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.

[Sarah Trimmer, author, educationalist and editor.] Autograph Signature with valediction to a letter.

Author: 
Sarah Trimmer [née Kirby] (1741-1810), educationalist, author, educationalist and editor of ‘The Family Magazine’ and ‘The Guardian of Education’
Sarah Trimmer
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£50.00
Sarah Trimmer

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.

[Ralph Bernal, Whig politician, slave owner and art collector.] Autograph Signature to frank addressed to William Smith, with postmark.

Author: 
Ralph Bernal (1783-1854), Whig politician of Sephardic Jewish extraction, archaeologist, slave owner and art collector
BERNAL
Publication details: 
‘London January twenty nine 1831’.
£28.00
BERNAL

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.’

[Philip James Bailey, Victorian ‘spasmodic’ poet.] Autograph Document Signed, giving a ten-line extract from his celebrated poem, ‘Festus’.

Author: 
Philip James Bailey (1816-1902), Victorian poet, author of ‘Festus’ and considered the father of the ‘spasmodic’ school of verse
FESTUS
Publication details: 
‘Blackheath / May 14th. 1888.’
£220.00
FESTUS

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.

[Prince George Sergeievitch Romanovsky, Imperial Russian Consul General at San Francisco, 1917-1923.] Autograph Letter Signed, in French, written on eve of Russian Revolution, recalling times in Tehran, Persia [at the Russian Legation?].

Author: 
Prince George Sergeievitch Romanovsky, Imperial Russian Consul General at San Francisco, 1917-1923 [Russian Legations in Tehran, Persia?]
Publication details: 
18 May 1917; on letterhead of the Russian Consulate, San Francisco, California [United States].
£250.00

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’.

['Be fair to yourself - Be decent to yourself': Lord Leverhulme [William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme], soap manufacturer, industrialist and philanthropist.] Signed Typescript of his reflection on 'Vision and Service'.

Author: 
Lord Leverhulme [William Hesketh Lever (1851-1925), 1st Viscount Leverhulme], soap manufacturer, industrialist and philanthropist
Publication details: 
No date or place. [Circa 1919?]
£120.00

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.

[Scottish peer who planted millions of trees: John Murray, 4th Duke of Atholl.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Captn Ross [Rayley?] R. N.’, apparently regarding the sale and transportation of timber.

Author: 
John Murray (1755-1830), 4th Duke of Atholl, Scottish peer who planted millions of trees by firing seeds from cannon
Publication details: 
‘Dunkeld [Perthshire, Scotland] Novr: 3d 1828’.
£80.00

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.

[HMS Alfred [originally HMS Asia] (1811), a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy.] Manuscript statement of ‘Armament of H. M. Ship Alfred June 26th. 1833.-’

Author: 
HMS Alfred [originally HMS Asia] (1811), a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy
Publication details: 
26 June 1833.
£250.00

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.

[HMS Comet (1807), Royal Navy ship: 'Sick List'.] ‘Weekly Return of the Sick and Wounded of His Majesty’s Sloop Comet’ on printed form completed in autograph and signed by ‘John Bunting Surgeon’.

Author: 
HMS Comet (1807), Royal Navy Thais-class fireship, re-rated as a sloop in 1808, re-rated again in 1811 as a 20-gun sixth rate, an East Indiaman from 1816 [John Bunting, RN, surgeon]
Publication details: 
HMS Comet, 'at Sea'. Weekly return between 4 and 11 September 1811. On paper watermarked 'W & T CHANDLER / 1809'.
£120.00

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'.

[David Welsh, Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Edinburgh University, then Free Church of Scotland minister and Professor at New College.] Autograph Signature and valediction to a letter.

Author: 
David Welsh (1793-1845), Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Edinburgh University, then Free Church of Scotland minister and first Professor of Ecclesiastical History at New College
Publication details: 
No date or place.
£50.00

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.

[General Sir David Dundas, Scottish soldier, British Army officer and military author, Commander-in-Chief of the Forces.] Manuscript Document regarding Alexander Adair and the clothing of his regiment, Signed by him with his seal.

Author: 
General Sir David Dundas (c.1735-1820), Scottish soldier, British Army officer in the Seven Years' War and French Revolutionary Wars and military writer, Commander-in-Chief of the Forces
Publication details: 
23 June 1796. 'Entered in the Office for Auditing the Public Accounts the 9th of February 1797'.
£320.00

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’.

[Edward Samuel Byam, genealogist, Chief Magistrate of Mauritius.] Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed party, regarding his restoration of family monuments.

Author: 
Edward Samuel Byam (1788-1869), genealogist, Chief Magistrate of Mauritius
Publication details: 
‘The Grove Weston super Mare / 9 September 1868’. On cancelled letterhead of Petersham, Surrey.
£50.00

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.

[Ceylon Tea Plantation: Cymru Estate, Dimbula [Sri Lanka].] Manuscript containing detailed statistical tables (by British overseer) of every aspect of tea cultivation on the estate.

Author: 
Ceylon Tea Plantation: Cymru Estate, Dimbula [Sri Lanka]
Publication details: 
1964 to 1972. Cymru Plantation, Dimbula, Ceylon [Sri Lanka].
£450.00

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.

[Percy Bysshe Shelley: supposed portrait by George Romney.] Five Autograph Letters Signed from William Salt Brassington, Librarian of the Shakespeare Memorial, to the donor of the picture Evan Marlett Boddy.

Author: 
[Percy Bysshe Shelley; George Romney] William Salt Brassington, archaeologist and librarian of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon; Evan Marlett Boddy; Richard Garnett
Publication details: 
Three of the five from 1900 (28 and 31 August, and 4 September); and two from 1901 (5 and 13 December). All on letterheads of the Shakespeare Memorial, Stratford-upon-Avon.
£450.00

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.

[Robert Chambers, Scottish publisher, geologist, evolutionary thinker, etc] Autograph Letters Signed R. Chambers to an unnamed correspondent mentioning a meeting with Dickens and a prospective meeting with Mr Stephenson

Author: 
Robert Chambers [Robert Chambers (1802 ? 1871), Scottish publisher, geologist, evolutionary thinker, author and journal editor]
Publication details: 
45 Park Street, [London]. Monday, n.d.
£180.00

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.

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