BLACK

The Peace with Ireland Council was founded in November 1920 by Lord Henry Cavendish Bentinck, following a meeting at the House of Commons by a group concerned at the deteriorating situation in Ireland following the introduction of the Black and Tans, and spurred on by the treatment of former MP Annan Bryce and his wife Violet. Among those involved were the historian Basil Williams, who acted as treasurer, and the suffragette Margaret Buckmaster (daughter of Lord Buckmaster) who served as honorary secretary. From the Sylvia and Robert Lynd papers.

The Peace with Ireland Council was founded in November 1920 by Lord Henry Cavendish Bentinck, following a meeting at the House of Commons by a group concerned at the deteriorating situation in Ireland following the introduction of the Black and Tans, and spurred on by the treatment of former MP Annan Bryce and his wife Violet. Among those involved were the historian Basil Williams, who acted as treasurer, and the suffragette Margaret Buckmaster (daughter of Lord Buckmaster) who served as honorary secretary. From the Sylvia and Robert Lynd papers.

On piece of pink paper roughly 13.5 x 9.5 cm. Reads: ‘Every good wish / Paul Robeson.’ No other writing, and the good firm signature with plenty of space around it. In good condition lightly aged, with thin strip of discoloration running through the ‘E’ of ‘Every’. Scan on application.

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.

Onyeama was the second black boy to go to Eton, and the first to complete his education there. See his obituary in the Guardian, 11 February 2022. His hugely-controversial 1972 book ?Nigger at Eton?, which resulted in him being banned from the school, was reprinted by Penguin Books in 2020 under the title ?Black Boy at Eton?. Philip Dosse, the recipient of the first two letters, was proprietor of Hansom Books, publisher of a stable of seven arts magazines including Books and Bookmen and Plays and Players.

See the entries in the Oxford DNB on Browning and firm’s founder Adam Black (1784-1874). 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased. Folded three times. Addressed to ‘Oscar Browning Esq’ and signed ‘A. &. C. Black’. The firm is replying to a note of Browning’s of 7 July 1891, ‘desiring our assent to the separate publication in book form of your Articles, from the Ency[lopaedi]a Brit[annic]a. on Dante & Goethe’. They ‘have pleasure in complying therewith, on the usual understanding that the sources of the articles is duly acknowledged & a copy of the book sent to us when published’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage, and in envelope with stamp and Leeds postmark addressed in autograph to ‘Mrs. Stopford / Sussex Lodge / Horsham / Sussex’. Addressed to ‘Dear Mrs. Stopford’ and signed ‘J B. Baillie’. He begins in almost philosophical terms: ‘Dear Mrs. Stopford, / How very kind of you to remember this little request. It was such a pleasure to receive the cutting.

From the Macqueen-Pope papers. (See his entry in the Oxford DNB.) 2pp, 4to. Signed ‘Michel Kovatchévitch’. On aged and worn paper. Folded twice for postage, with closed tears at edges of vertical fold, and nicks and creasing along one edge. He is working on a biography of Frederick Aldridge, ‘tragédien noir de langue anglaise (1807-1867)’, and asks for help in establishing the date of his debut, ‘dans le rôle d’Othello, au Royalty Theatre’.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB, which describes her passionate opposition to fascism, but omits the fact that her name featured among those in the Nazi ‘Black Book’. Waterston was Bute Professor of Anatomy at the University of St Andrews from 1914 to 1942. In 1913, while Professor of Anatomy at King's College, London, he was the first authority to debunk the Piltdown Man hoax.

On 11 x 17.5 piece of shiny art paper, cut from a programme. The signature ?Paul Robeson? is written across Robeson?s front, beneath his smiling face in a black and white photograph. Beneath the photograph is the caption: ? ?A voice like his is worth waiting ten years to hear, and an art like his comes once in a generation.? / THE TORONTO EVENING TELEGRAM?. On the reverse are part of the lyrics from two songs, the second being ?Short?nin? bread?.

1p, 12mo. On aged and creased paper. Folded twice. Written in purple ink. Firm signature, underlined with diagonal downstroke. Reads: 'Decr. 18 | My dear Williams, | What are you doing this Christmas? Will you come down here? | Your always | William Black'. The reverse carries pencil notes of Italian and French musical compositions in another hand.

1p, 12mo. In fair condition, aged and worn. Folded twice. 68 lines of text, written in a minute, neat hand. Folded twice. Black has numbered the page at top right '206'. The text begins: '[...] seemly and maidenly thing [...]', and ends 'she seemed to know beforehand what he had to say.' Black's entry in the Oxford DNB describes his 1884 novel 'Judith Shakespeare: A Romance' (published in America with the subtitle 'Her Love Affairs and Other Adventures') as 'a romance about the dramatist's daughter'.

2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Addressed: 'To W. J. P. Monckton Esq. | Publisher | "Black & White," | London'. He has just received Monckton's letter, and is enclosing a 'little pamphlet', which will give him 'a full account of the incident depicted in "Saving the Colours"'. If all is well Gibb hopes to be in London on the Monday or Tuesday of the following week, and will 'have the pleasure of calling upon you as promised'. His address will be the Thackeray Hotel, Great Russell Street.

56pp, 8vo. With fold-out 'Chart indicating the suggested arrangement of buildings etc:' at rear, 29.5 x 53.5 cm. In grey printed wraps. Internally in good condition, lightly aged, in worn and torn wraps which are becoming detached. With label, stamp and shelfmarks of the Board of Education Reference Library. Black's preface (pp.5-6) begins by explaining that 'The ideas embodied in the following pages are the product of some eight months incarceration in Germany.

In blue ink on one side of 10.5 x 14 cm. leaf torn from autograph album. Good bold signature. Reads: 'With best wishes | to you | & thanks | Paul Robeson | Mar 16/60'.

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium on grey paper. Aged and worn. Addressed on reverse of second leaf by Black, with his initials, to 'J B Nichols, esq | 25 Park Street.' An interesting glimpse of the editorial workings of the Gentleman's Magazine and Georgian periodical publication in general. Black complains that he has been 'waiting some days for the concluding sheet (as I suppose) of that part of which contains the Ferrar, - the end of the quarto MS. copy'.

1p., 8vo. On aged paper worn at head. Customary printed Exchequer receipt, completed in manuscript, headed (manuscript text in square brackets): 'Annuities, 3700l. per Week. | Record' [19 Janu. 1715]'. Calculations in right-hand margin and clerical sign on reverse. Recording the payment by Sir Richard Onslow of £100 to 'Awnsham Churchill Attorney for mr ffra: Bennett & for selfe'.

vii + 141 + [1]pp., 8vo. Final leaf with Chiswick Press device of dolphin and anchor and lion. In sturdy nineteenth-century black leather half-binding, with marbled boards and 'Russell's Catalogue 1856' in gilt on spine. Ownership stamp of 'Alfred H Maurais' on fly-leaf. A characteristically-elegant Chiswick Press item, with 408 items listed, the titles in black letter. Three-page anonymous preface, dated 'May, 1856.' Tight copy, but aged and lightly damp-stained, in worn binding.

The three letters are addressed to the translator of Forel's book, the surgeon and free-thinker Percival Macleod Yearsley (1867-1951). Forel's letter: 4to, 1 p. Twenty lines. In French. Text clear and complete. On browned and chipped high-acidity paper. Laid down on the front pastedown. In the first paragraph he thanks the translator, Macleod Yearsley, for the book, which he praises in fulsome terms. He is sending a copy of his 'Question Sexuelle'.

1p., folio. On aged and worn paper. In top right-hand corner: 'N. 4.' Twelve lines of text, followed by signatures 'Domingo Rodrigz.', 'Conception de Velasco de la Forre' and 'Pose Ma. de la Forre'. Begins: 'D. Domingo Rodriguez vende a la Sra. Da. Conception de Velasco de la Forre, un negro nombrado Andres de oficio calesero y cocinero [ by trade a coachman and cook ], sano y sin tachas [ healthy and without blemishes ]'.

The two signatures are on a reproduction of a drawing of Robeson, on a 15 x 11 cm piece of shiny art paper, cut from a programme from Robeson's 1934 tour of Britain. In good condition, lightly-aged. The head and shoulders portrait shows a moody Robeson in collar and tie. The two signature are at the foot of the image, with Robeson's, in blue ink, slanting downwards, and Brown's, in green ink, slanting upwards, around the line of Robeson's lapels.

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly-aged, and laid down on a piece of card. Reads: 'July 26 | My dear Faed, | Would you mind seconding me at the Athenaeum? I believe Tom Hughes has put down my name. | Yours faithfully | William Black.' According to Black's entry in the Oxford DNB, he 'studied landscape painting for a short time in the Glasgow School of Art, but, becoming connected with the Glasgow Citizen, gradually exchanged art for journalism'.

13pp., 8vo, paginated 41-53. Stapled, in brown printed wraps. On aged and worn paper, with rusted staples. Largely unopened. A learned exposition, with quotations in the original, beginning: 'It is now possible for me to supplement my Arabic text of Ali Baba by printing in full the only other original version so far known. I shall add some further information which I have gathered on the identity of the scribe of the Bodleian MS. and various notes on the text of that version.' No copy in the British Library, and a total of six copies on OCLC WorldCat and COPAC.

These ten items were produced at the height of the surge of outrage with which the American left greeted the killing of four students by National Guardsmen at Kent State University, Ohio, on 4 May 1970. (As an example of the incident's wider cultural significance, see the song 'Ohio' by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.) Originating from New York, six of the items are dated from the end of the same month, and the other undated items date from the same period. All ten items are single leaves. Eight of them are 8vo, one is 21 x 18cm, and the other 35 x 21cm.

1p., 4to. Bifolium, addressed on the reverse of the second leaf to 'Messrs. Thomson Hankey <& Co> | Merchants | 7 Mincing Lane | London'. The second leaf is also docketed, and carries two circular postmarks, one from 'WEST BROMWICH'. Williams writes that he has returned to find 'an enquiry about the nails & chains'. He gives a price below which he cannot go, adding: 'I must be paid for the Casks: but if a quantity of nails had been wanted I would have given my trouble on the other things, as I should have made a profit on the nails'.

Nicely printed on thick watermarked laid paper, roughly 56 x 78 cm. Plate dimensions roughly 40.5 x 64 cm. Even creases from folding of map four times. Fair, with a little discoloration along folds and very slight wear and loss fold junctions. At foot of plate: 'The Scale is 96 Rods to One Inch.' Only two copies of this item located: the first, in the British Library Department of Maps describes it as showing 'existing and intended drainage systems. Engraving style and date suggests hand of Charles John Downes, engraver for maps accompanying Hasted's History of Kent'.

The four plates (each 29 x 23.5 cm) are loose and unframed, in fair condition, aged and worn, with no margins, chipping to the edges, and with the corners cut off at a diagonal. Each title written in pencil in a contemporary hand on the reverse of the print, each with a price of '6d'. The subjects are not depicted in unattractive style, and are certainly not grotesques, but they are shown as 'simple', untroubled individuals, with the usual happy, gleaming brown faces and shiny white teeth.

Handbill, 21 x 34.5cm, fold marks, tiny closed tear, mainly good condition. Nichols had visited Canterbury for a meeting of the Archaeological Association and made an accurate copy of the Epitaph (correcting "errors in all the printed copies"), with further antiquarian chit-chat.

2pp., 12mo, bifolium. Very good, on lightly aged paper. The letter reads: 'Strawberry Hill is to the classic world much more important than the turmoil of everlasting Politics. It will be a little refreshing as a contrast to your readers to hear of Horace Walpole - the Inclosed is from Gallignani's Journal[.] in Paris they give a better attention to the Arts as well as the nuisance of everlasting Politics'. Postscript reads: 'Would you like to have a card to see'.

An albumen print, mounted on a piece of plain white card. Dimensions of print: 94 x 57 mm. Dimensions of card: 104 x 64 mm. Aged and faded. The card is entirely blank, apart from the date '1853' written at the head of the reverse. Clearly an early portrait of black people: if the date on the reverse is correct it pre-dates by a year the patenting of the carte to visite by Disdéri. The couple are seated side by side, gazing slightly to the right of the camera.