AUTOGRAPH

[Pierce Egan the Younger] Autograph Letter Signed Pierce Egan to My dear Kenney [Charles Lamb Kenney (1821 ? 1881), journalist, dramatist and writer.]

Author: 
Pierce Egan the Younger (1814 ? 1880), journalist and novelist.
Publication details: 
Marylebone Mercury | Office | 25th Nov. 1873.
£65.00

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 [...].

[Countess of Blessington] Autograph Letter Signed M. Blessington to [F. Mansell Reynolds, novelist and editor of The Keepsake(?)]. See description below.

Author: 
Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington (n?e Power; 1789?1849), Irish novelist, journalist, and literary hostess
Publication details: 
Monday Ev[enin]g [4 March 1833]. See description below.
£350.00

Three pages, 12mo, bifolium, good condition, in her sprawling hand, 1/4in. strip of glue from previous laying down on blank page 4. My dear Sir | Pray do not think me forgetful towards you in not answering your note received many days ago, but I am so occupied and fatigued with writing that I have not a [moment?] to myself, and after all I fear it will be impossible for me to fulfill [sic] my engagement with [publisher] Mr Bentley - | Excuse the brevity of this, I thank you for the [?], and I expect your book is universally read and as universally praised - | Always sincerely yours | M.

[John Murray II, Scottish publisher] Autograph Note Signed Jno Murray to Gentlemen [Messrs Bell & Bradfute, publishers, Edinburgh = addressees]

Author: 
John Murray II (1778 ? 1843), Scottish publisher and member of the John Murray publishing house.
Murray
Publication details: 
No place given, Decr 8 - 1806
£150.00
Murray

One page, 16mo (11 x 12cm), bifolium, apparently trimmed with loss of text only of docketed information in another hand, minor defects, but complete. See Image. Text: Gentlemen | Be so good as to forward the above as early as convenient & oblige [...].

[John Forster; Dickens' friend & biographer] Autograph Letter Signed John Forster to [Alexander Ireland, (1810?1894) Scottish journalist, man of letters, and bibliophile] about donation of his book to the London Library etc.

Author: 
John Forster (1812-1876), biographer and critic, friend of Charles Dickens
Publication details: 
Waterloo Hotel - Manchester - | 15th March 1868.
£180.00

Four pages,16mo, bifolium, good condition. Dear Mr Ireland, | I will gladly be the means of transmitting your handsome volume [see Note b.] to the London Library. | I thank you for enabling me thus, even before my return, to glance over its pages. Such are my engagements here - that for the present I can do little more; but it has shown me for how much more I shall be indebted to you than I at first supposed.

[?Ulster Scot? [Rev. J. C. F. Hood, Deputy Assistant Chaplain-General to the Forces.]] Newspaper cutting of letter to The Times from Hood, with Manuscript Letter from ?Ulster Scot? thanking him, and note [from W. Vance Packman] disputing facts.

Author: 
?Ulster Scot? [Rev. John Charles Fulton Hood (1884-1964), Deputy Assistant Chaplain-General to the Forces, husband of harpist Helen Patuffa Kennedy-Fraser; W. Vance Packman]
Publication details: 
Letter (Postmark: Belfast) dated 30 October 1929. Newspaper cutting of Hood's letter to The Times dated 28 October 1929. Undated anonymous note from 19 Sutton Court Road, Chiswick, London.
£150.00

Hood was married to the harpist Helen Patuffa Kennedy-Fraser (1889-1967), daughter of Marjory Kennedy-Fraser (1857-1930), the celebrated collector and singer of Hebridean songs. The two items are in good condition, lightly aged. ONE: Manuscript Letter Signed by 'Ulster Scot.' 1p, 8vo. Begins: ?Dear Rev Sir / Glad to see you took up the cudgels on behalf of the Ulster Scot.The writer of the letter considers that the part played by this group in building industry &c. was surpassed by their efforts in cristainising [sic] and civilising the nations of the world.

[Stan Barstow, working-class Yorkshire novelist and playwright, author of ‘A Kind of Loving’.] Typed Letter Signed to Paul Furness, discussing the literary group in The Fenton pub in Leeds, connected with the BBC radio programme 'The Northern Drift'.

Author: 
Stan Barstow (1928-2011), working-class Yorkshire novelist and playwright, author of the novel ‘A Kind of Loving’, which was made into a ‘kitchen sink’ film
Publication details: 
5 November 1982. With his printed address label from Goring House, Goring Park Avenue, Oldham, West Yorkshire.
£100.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, foolscap 8vo. Thirty lines of text. Signed ‘Stan Barstow’. One of a number of letters to Furness by writers, responding to his enquiry about socialist authors and British pubs. Barstow begins by discussing ‘The Fenton in Woodhouse Lane, Leeds’, which had ‘proximity to the BBC, where Alfred Bradley ran the radio drama studio.

[William Manning, Governor of the Bank of England, West Indian merchant, slaveowner.] Autograph Letter Signed to Francis Freeling of the Post Office, regarding a 'communication' indicating 'the delusion which prevails in the public mind' on a subject

Author: 
William Manning (1763-1835), Governor of the Bank of England, West Indian merchant, slaveowner, Tory MP, father of Cardinal Manning [Francis Freeling (1764-1836), Secretary of the General Post Office]
Publication details: 
‘Bank of England, / April 28th. 1818.’ London.
£50.00

See his entry, and Freeling’s, in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. Aged and worn, with nicks and closed tears around the edges, but not near the valediction ‘Yours very faithfully / W: Manning.’ Addressed to ‘Francis Freeling, Esqr.’ Begins: ‘My dear Sir, / Your Letter of yesterday I have just received & am exceedingly obliged to you for the communication it contains - it is quite distressing to see the delusion which prevails in the public mind on this subject -’. He is ‘submitting the Extract of the Norwich paper sent by Mr.

[Pat Lawlor, New Zealand journalist and book collector.] Two Typed Letters Signed, or signed carbon copies, to Malcolm Muggeridge, praising his biography of Hugh Kingsmill and discussing his own association with him.

Author: 
Pat Lawlor [Patrick Anthony Lawlor] (1893-1979), New Zealand Roman Catholic journalist, author and book collector [Malcolm Muggeridge; Hugh Kingsmill]
Publication details: 
12 September 1955 and 21 January 1956; both addressed from Box 965, Wellington, New Zealand. On the reverse of a letterhead of New Zealand Literary Fund Advisory Committee, Wellington.
£120.00

See his entry in the Encylopedia of New Zealand, and those of Muggeridge and Kingsmill in the Oxford DNB. Each item 1p, foolscap 8vo. Both addressed to ‘Dear Mr Muggeridge’. ONE (12 September 1955): In good condition, on air mail paper, lightly aged and creased. Signed in pencil with calligraphic squiggle. Begins: ‘I want to write something about Hugh Kingsmill. About 20 years ago we exchanged a few letters during a flare up in the Wilde-Douglas business at a time when Robert Sherard was busy fanning the flames and G. B. S.

[Lord St Helens [Alleyne Fitzherbert, Baron St Helens], diplomat, Ambassador to Russia and Chief Secretary for Ireland.] Autograph Letter Signed from St Petersburgh to General Bentham, introducing 'Mr. Vaxel', who is coming to study in England..

Author: 
Lord St Helens [Alleyne Fitzherbert, Baron St Helens (1753-1839], diplomat, Ambassador to Russia, Chief Secretary for Ireland, for whom Mount St Helens is named [General Bentham]
Publication details: 
'St. Petersburgh 26th. Jany. 1802.'
£80.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. For the context see Irina and Dmitri Gouzevitch, ‘Travelling interchanges between the Russian Empire and Western Europe / The Travels of Engineers during the First Half of the Nineteenth Century’, in Simões, Carneiro and Diogo eds, ‘Travels of Learning / A Geography of Science in Europe’ (Boston, 2003). 1p, 8vo. Nineteen lines of closely-written text. On aged and worn paper. The item has been torn away from a mount, resulting in damage to the two outer corners, with the area immediately to the right of the signature ‘St Helens’ lacking.

[Lord Ullswater [James William Lowther, 1st Viscount Ullswater], Speaker of the House of Commons.] Autograph Letter Signed to Sir Courtenay Ilbert, Clerk of the Commons, regarding telegrams he has ready to send after the Prime Minister’s ‘intimation’

Author: 
Lord Ullswater [James William Lowther, 1st Viscount Ullswater (1855-1949)], Conservative politician, Speaker of the House of Commons, 1905-1921 [Sir Courtenay Ilbert (1841-1924), Clerk of the Commons]
Publication details: 
18 August [no year, but during his tenure as Speaker]. On letterhead of Campsea Ashe High House, Wickham Market.
£45.00

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 16mo. Eighteen lines. On first leaf of bifolium. In good condition, on lightly aged paper. Folded once. Addressed to ‘Dear Ilbert’ and signed ‘James W Lowther’. He has ‘prepared a series of telegram [sic] to all the news agencies and to the Clerk of the Works at Westminster’, and will dispatch them as soon as he receives ‘any intimation from the P.M’. He has another telegram ready for the London Gazette. ‘I think we can reasonably expect that, with 48 hrs notice, all M Ps and the staff would have sufficient notice’.

[Louis-Arsène Delaunay, French actor with the Comédie Française.] Autograph Letter Signed, in French, to Tom Taylor, playwright and editor of Punch, in enveloped addressed by him to 'Sir Tom Taylor'.

Author: 
Louis-Arsène Delaunay (1826-1903), French actor who over four decades created almost two hundred parts with the Comédie Française [Tom Taylor (1817-1880), playwright and editor of Punch]
Publication details: 
'London July 4 1879 / Upper Montagu st. W'.
£50.00

See his entry in Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Taylor's in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, and folded once. In worn envelope with Penny Red stamp and postmark, and slight loss around flap. The envelope was no doubt retained because it was addressed by Delaunay to 'Sir Tom Taylor / Lavender Sweet [sic] / Wandsworth'. A neatly laid written and laid out communication, addressed to ‘Cher Monsieur Taylor’ and signed ‘Yours truly / L Delaunay / de la Comedie française’.

[Lord Simon [John Allsebrook Simon, 1st Viscount Simon], Chancellor of the Exchequer and Lord Chancellor.] Autograph Letter Signed to Joyce, daughter of Sir Courtenay Ilbert, regarding arrangements for her wedding.

Author: 
Lord Simon [John Allsebrook Simon, 1st Viscount Simon] (1873-1954), Liberal Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Chancellor [Sir Courtenay Ilbert, Clerk of the Commons]
Publication details: 
4 June 1912. On letterhead of 'Headquarters: / The London Scottish, / 59, Buckingham Gate, / London, S.W.' [During the British enquiry into the Titanic sinking, at this venue.]
£35.00

A tenuous Titanic item: at the time of writing Simon, as solicitor-general, was representing the Board of Trade at the British enquiry into the sinking, at the address on the letterhead. See his entry and Ilbert's in the Oxford DNB. Joyce Violet Ilbert (1890-1957) was the youngest of Sir Courtenay's five daughters. 3pp, 12mo. On bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded twice. Written in pencil. Signed ‘John Ilbert’.

[Lord St Helens [Alleyne Fitzherbert, Baron St Helens], diplomat, Ambassador to Russia and Chief Secretary for Ireland.] Autograph Letter Signed to Charles R. Broughton, authorizing a charge on refunded Land Tax as retired Foreign Ministers.agent.

Author: 
Lord St Helens [Alleyne Fitzherbert, Baron St Helens (1753-1839], diplomat, Ambassador to Russia, Chief Secretary for Ireland, for whom Mount St Helens is named [Charles R. Broughton]
Publication details: 
‘Grafton Street [London] / 2 May 1810’.
Upon request

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 8vo. Sixteen lines of closely-written text. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with short closed tears along the five creases from the folding of the item into a packet. Docketed on the reverse of the leaf: ‘May 2d 1810 / Lord St Helens / Authy to charge Agency at the rate of 1 P Ct on Monies recovered on accot of Land Tax refunded to Foreign Ministers &cr.’ Signed St Helens.

[Lord Brassey [Thomas Brassey, 1st Earl Brassey], Liberal party politician and Governor of Victoria.] Autograph Letter Signed quoting three ‘maxims’ that he uses.

Author: 
Lord Brassey [Thomas Brassey, 1st Earl Brassey] (1836-1918), Liberal party politician, Governor of Victoria in Australia and yachtsman
Publication details: 
18 December 1911. On two letterheads of Sand Hill, Winslow, Bucks.
£45.00

See his entry, and that of his father the civil engineer, in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On separate letterheads. The recipient is not named and there is no salutation (though the letter is complete). Signed ‘Brassey’. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Begins: ‘I have two maxims for [hourly?] use. / I do the little I can do and leave the rest to thee / What thou livest live well. The rest commit to Heaven / Nor should the last message of the greatest sailor since the world began ever be forgotten / England expects that every man this day will do his duty’.

[Lord Canning [Charles John Canning, Earl Canning], Governor-General and first Viceroy of India.] Autograph Letter Signed to Lord Fitzgerald, as Under-Secretary to Lord Aberdeen at the Foreign Office, concerning Baron Brunow.

Author: 
Lord Canning [Charles John Canning, Earl Canning (1812-1862)], Governor-General and first Viceroy of India [Lord Fitzgerald [William Vesey Fitzgerald (1783-1843)], Anglo-Irish politician]
Publication details: 
'F. O. [Foreign Office, Whitehall] Nov 11. 41 [1841]'.
£120.00

Showing signs of the early stirrings of the Great Game. See Canning's entry, and that of Fitzgerald, in the Oxford DNB. At the time of the letter Canning was serving in his first governmental appointment, as Under-Secretary to Lord Aberdeen in the Foreign Office, in Peel’s administration, while Fitzgerald was President of the Board of Control. The ‘Baron Brunow’ referred to in the letter is Russian Ambassador in London, Philipp Graf von Brunnow (1797-1895). 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of a bifolium. Docketed on second leaf, ‘Lord Canning / respecting Baron Brunow Novr 11/41’.

[Lady Catharine Long, novelist and religious writer.] Latter part of Autograph Letter Signed [to Mr. Harris], discussing her view of the state of the soul after death, and Mrs Jervoise’s ‘troubled married life’.

Author: 
Lady Catharine Long (1797-1867), novelist and religious writer, daughter of Horatio Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford
Publication details: 
No date or plafe.
£90.00

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. Twenty-three lines of text. In fair condition, lightly aged, but with slight creasing at head of leaf. Folded twice. Financial calculations written lengthwise underneath signature, with light smudging.

[Lady Eastlake [Elizabeth, Lady Eastlake], author, wife of Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, President of the Royal Academy.] Autograph Letter Signed to the widow of the travel writer Richard Ford, offering a gift of 'early strawberries & grapes'.

Author: 
Lady Eastlake [Elizabeth, Lady Eastlake, née Rigby] (1809-1893), author, wife of painter Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, President of Royal Academy and first Director of the National Gallery [Richard Ford]
Publication details: 
'7 Fitzroy Sqr [London] / May 4. 1864.'
£45.00

A jaunty missive. Lady Eastlake and her husband have separate entries in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 16mo. Eighteen lines. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Addressed to 'Dear Mrs Ford' and signed 'Eliz Eastlake'. A 'kind friend in the country' is insisting on sending her 'early strawberries & grapes' and she asks Mrs Ford not to 'commit the extravagance of orderg any yourself, but trust to me to have the offering transferred to 123 Park Street'. She will be sending for the fruit at Euston Station around 2 o'clock on the Saturday, '& they shall be shortly after that with you'.

[Lady Salisbury [Georgina Gascoyne-Cecil, Marchioness of Salisbury, wife of Conservative prime minister Lord Salisbury.] Autograph Letter Signed to 'Miss Faithfull'

Author: 
Lady Salisbury [Georgina Gascoyne-Cecil, Marchioness of Salisbury, née Alderson (1827-1899)] wife of Conservative prime minister Lord Salisbury [Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury]
Publication details: 
25 November [no year, but between 1887 and 1892]. On letterhead of Hewell Grange, Bromsgrove.
£45.00

Lady Salisbury is referred to in her husband’s entry in the Oxford DNB as ‘a buoyant and forceful woman who could share his intellectual interests and encourage and facilitate his career’. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage. Written in a good firm hand. Addressed to ‘Dear Miss Faithfull’ and signed ‘G Salisbury’.

[Jacob Schwartz, American-born proprietor of the Ulysses Bookshop in London, dealer in James Joyce and the Modernists.] Autograph Letter Signed

Author: 
Jacob Schwartz [Jake Schwartz] (b. 1899, fl. 1960), New York dentist who turned to bookselling and founded the Ulysses bookshop in London, dealing largely in James Joyce and the Modernists
Publication details: 
23 October [no year]. On letterhead of the Ulysses Bookshop, 20 Bury Street, London WC1.
£80.00

Several James Joyce scholars have turned their attention to Schwartz, an early dealer in his books and manuscripts, as well as publisher of a couple of pirated editions. See William S. Brockman, 'Jacob Schwartz - The Fly in the Honey' in Joyce Studies Annual, Summer 1998. 1p, 4to. On the Ulysses Bookshop letterhead, printed on green paper. Addressed to 'Dear Sir:' and with valediction 'Au Revoir / Dr J Schwartz / prop / Ulysses Books'.

[John Adams-Acton, English sculptor.] Letter in a Secretarial Hand, Signed by him, inviting the editor of Punch Tom Taylor to visit his studio, with a list of six works to be seen there, including a bust of the prime minister Gladstone.

Author: 
John Adams-Acton (1830-1910), English sculptor [Tom Taylor (1817-1880), playwright and editor of Punch]
Publication details: 
‘Margutta House. / 103. Marylebone Road / March 28th. 1873.’
£56.00

See his entry, and that of Taylor, in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. On bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Only the sculptors heavily inked signature ‘John Adams-Acton’ is in his hand, the rest more lightly written by an amanuensis. Addressed ‘To, Tom Taylor Esqr.’ Begins: ‘I address you as a representative of the press to solicit you to pay my studio a visit.’ He lists the names of five ‘public and distinguished men’ whose busts he can show, beginning with ‘The Right Honble W. E. Gladstone - Premier’ and including ‘Isaac Holden Esqr.

[Joseph Peter Thorp, journalist and typographer.] Two Autograph Letters Signed: one with personal news to Sir Evelyn Wrench (and with note by Wrench), the other to ‘Miss Wrench’, filled with information about printing.

Author: 
Joseph Peter Thorp (1873-1962), journalist and typographer [Sir Evelyn Wrench [Sir John Evelyn Leslie Wrench] (1882-1966), imperialist and biographer]
Publication details: 
ONE (to Sir Evelyn Wrench): 14 May 1954; on letterhead of The White Cottage, Portmeirion, Penrhyndeudraeth, N. Wales. TWO (to 'Miss Wrench'): Undated, but written shortly after One; from the White Cottage, Penrhyndeudraeth, N. Wales.
£120.00

Two good substantial letters, filled with personal and professional content. See the entries for Thorp and Wrench in the Oxford DNB. Both letters in brown ink in Thorps calligraphic hand. ONE (to Sir Evelyn Wrench): 2pp, 8vo. On cream paper with brown italic letterhead. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded twice. Signed ‘Peter’. Begins: ‘My dear Evelyn / We are going to make a great change in our way of life. For a long time I have felt that both physically & financially this house is beyond our strength.

[Henry Livings, working-class Lancastrian playwright, screenwriter and actor.] Typed Letter Signed to Paul Furness, discussing the pubs he has frequented.

Author: 
Henry Livings (1929-1998), working-class Lancastrian playwright, screenwriter and actor in the first 'Carry On' film and the 'Coronation Street' television series
Publication details: 
Undated [1982 or 1983]. 49 Grains Road, Delph, ‘via Oldham’ [Lancashire].
£80.00

Livings’s entry in Encyclopaedia Britannica notes that his farces ‘convey serious truths’ with ‘both a dazzling comic flair and an unexpected force and profundity that is heightened by his use of colloquial language’. 1p, foolscap 8vo. Twenty-two lines of text. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased, with four light ink underlinings. Signed ‘Yours, / Henry Livings’. One of a number of letters to Furness by writers, responding to his enquiry about socialist authors and British pubs.

[Earl Grey [Henry George Grey, 3rd Earl Grey], Liberal politician.] Autograph Letter Signed to Tom Taylor, editor of Punch, praising a performance of his play ‘The Ticket-of-Leave Man’.

Author: 
Earl Grey [Henry George Grey, 3rd Earl Grey], Secretary of State for War in two Liberal administrations [Tom Taylor (1817-1880), playwright and editor of Punch]
Publication details: 
2 June [no year, but 1863, and on paper watermarked with that date]; on letterhead of 13 Carlton House Terrace.
£65.00

See the entry for Grey and Taylor in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Begins: ‘Dear Mr Taylor - / I am just come home from seeing “the ticket of leave man,” & before I go to bed I must thank you for an evening of very great enjoyment.’ It pleased him ‘to see so good a play, not taken from the French, but really English, [the play was in fact adapted from the French] & teaching the public what is true instead of encouraging a popular delusion of the day’.

[' the beginning of confusion & will end in chaos': Cardinal Manning [Henry Edward Manning], Roman Catholic prelate, second Archbishop of Westminster.] Conclusion of Autograph Letter Signed ('Henry. E C. Archbp'), with reference to women in politics

Author: 
Cardinal Manning [Henry Edward Manning] (1808-1892), Roman Catholic prelate; second Archbishop of Westminster, 1865-1892
Publication details: 
No date or place.
£60.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. Twenty-six lines of text, in a close and disciplined hand. Signed 'Henry. E C. Archbp'. In fair condition, lightly aged, with small dap of light red ink at head of last page. Folded once. Begins: 'the Guardians of the Poor. Not a Catholic Child would they give up 24 years ago. Now all the 33 Boards give us our Children, & give us their maintenance out of the Rates. They Visit our Schools and are perfectly content: & we are on the fairest & friendliest terms.

[Charles Philip Yorke, Tory politician, Home Secretary.] Autograph Signature, as Paymaster-General and Secretary at War, to printed form filled in by a secretary, placing Captain Henry Shelley, 20th Regiment of Foot, on half pay.

Author: 
Charles Philip Yorke, Tory politician, Home Secretary and Minister at War [Captain Henry Shelley, 20th Regiment of Foot; British Army]
Publication details: 
16 August 1803; War Office [Whitehall].
£56.00

See his entries in the Oxford DNB and History of Parliament. 1p, foolscap 8vo. In fair condition, aged and worn, with small piece of paper torn away at foot of page, resulting in some loss of text of slug, also wear and a few nicks at head and a stain to one edge. Good firm signature ‘C Yorke’ and its surroundings unaffected. A printed form letter, signed by Yorke as ‘Right Honble. the Pay-Master General, / &c. &c. &c.’, and completed in a secretarial hand, and addressed to ‘Gentlemen’.

[‘Now do you understand why authors leave the country?’: Beverley Nichols, novelist and poet.] Typed Letter Signed to ‘Mr. Bryon’, regarding an interview, and conclusion of Typed Letter Signed joking about heavy correspondence.

Author: 
Beverley Nichols (1898-1983), novelist and poet, author of more than sixty books, writer on gardens and gardening
Publication details: 
ONE (TLS to 'Mr. Bryon'): 6 June 1934; on letterhead of Six New Street, Westminster, S.W.1. TWO (conclusion of TLS): without date or place.
£56.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The first letter, and probably the second, were written around the time when his ‘Down the Garden Path’ (1932) and its two sequels had made Nichols wildly popular, eliciting several parodies. ONE (TLS to ‘Mr. Bryon’): 1p, 12mo. Discoloration along top part of outer edge, otherwise in good condition. Folded once. Good clear signature ‘Beverley Nichols’. He thanks him for sending the interview. ‘I think it is admirably written, and expresses my views very clearly.’ TWO (conclusion of TLS): 1p, 12mo. Twenty-nine lines of text. In good condition, lightly aged.

[Sir John Betjeman, poet laureate.] Typed Letter Signed from Elizabeth Moore (‘Dorinda’), ‘Secretary to Sir John’, telling Paul Furness that he cannot help in his 'researches into pubs with connections with the Socialist movement’ due to ill health.

Author: 
[Sir John Betjeman (1906-1984), poet laureate] Elizabeth Moore (‘Dorinda’), ‘Secretary to Sir John’
Publication details: 
15 February 1982. 29 Radnor Walk, London, SW3.
£25.00

Betjeman’s daughter Candida Lycett Green, in her edition of her father’s later letters, refers to Moore as the his ‘gentle secretary’, ‘whom he always called “Dorinda,” and who lived on the other side of the street’. She also states that after his stroke in 1981, the poet could no longer sign his name, and dictated letters to Moore. 1p, foolscap 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and creased. Folded once for postage. On his letterhead (‘Sir John Betjeman’ at top left, and address at top right) printed in brown ink on cream paper. Addressed to ‘Mr. Furness’.

[Admiral Sir Richard Fortescue Phillimore, Royal Navy officer, Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth.] Autograph Signature (‘Richard F. Phillimore’) on a fly leaf removed from a book.

Author: 
Admiral Sir Richard Fortescue Phillimore (1864-1940), Royal Navy officer who served with distinction in the First World War, Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth
Publication details: 
1920. No place.
£25.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 8vo. Large bold signature - ‘Richard F. Phillimore / 1920.’, a third of the way down the page on what is clearly the fly leaf of a book. The rest of the leaf is blank. The side of the leaf with the signature is somewhat discoloured, the reverse not so much. In good condition otherwise.

[Bibliomania: ‘The Spendthrift Duke’, George Spencer-Churchill, 5th Duke of Marlborough, owner as Marquess of Blandford of the celebrated White Knights Library..] Autograph Letter Signed to London booksellers Smith & Elder. With frank.

Author: 
[Bibliomania, ‘The Spendthrift Duke of Marlborough’: George Spencer-Churchill, 5th Duke of Marlborough (1766-1840), styled Marquess of Blandford until 1817, extravagant book collector at White Knights
Publication details: 
24 November 1833; ‘Blenheim. Sunday.’ With frank and two postmarks.
£80.00

The purchase in 1821 by the 5th Duke of Marlborough, as Marquis of Blandford, of the Duke of Roxburghe’s copy of Valdarfer Boccaccio for £2260 caused a sensation, and was a high point of the bibliomania celebrated by Thomas Frognall Dibdin. His library at White Knights, also including the Bedford Missal, was legendary until its dispersal as a result of his extravagances. See the account of the duke in his father’s entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo.

[Sir Wentworth Dilke [Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, 1st Baronet], Leading Commissioner of the Great Exhibition.]

Author: 
Sir Wentworth Dilke [Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, 1st Baronet] (1810-1869), Leading Commissioner of the Great Exhibition of 1851,
Publication details: 
'76 Sloane Street [London] / 3. October 1856.'
£45.00

See his entry, with those of his father and son (all three named Charles Wentworth Dilke) in the Oxford DNB. With regard to the present item the ODNB states: 'His deep involvement in the project [i.e. the 1851 Great Exhibition] is demonstrated by his massive bequest of exhibition material now held at the Victoria and Albert Museum.' 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, with a crease to one corner. Folded twice for postage. Addressed to 'Henry Maudsley Esq' and signed 'C Wentworth Dilke'.

Syndicate content