BRITISH

[Drop-head title:] LETTER, No. 1. To the Editor of the Naval & Military Gazette. [LETTER, No. 2. To the Editor of the Naval & MIlitary Gazette. "The Duke and the Storming of Towns."] [LETTER, No. 3. (Confidential.) 26th August, 1839.]

Author: 
W. D. B. [Naval and Military Gazette; Duke of Wellington; Birmingham Riots of 1839]
Publication details: 
Dated 'W. D. B. | 4th September, 1839.' Printer not stated.
£120.00

12mo (leaf dimensions 22.5 x 14 cm): 12 pp paginated [3] to 14. Lacking (presumed) title-leaf. Unstitched, and consisting of one sheet of paper, 45 x 28 cm, folded twice to make four leaves; and one half sheet, 22.5 x 28 cm, folded to make two leaves. Text clear and entire, on heavily aged and spotted paper chipped at extremities. In an attempt to defend a perceived attack on his honour, W. D. B. prints, with commentary, three letters written by him to the editor of the Naval and Military Gazette, only the first of which was published (6 August 1839).

Printed circular letter from Auchinleck 'To all officers whether belonging to the Staff or to the Services who are working in Headquarter Offices in this Command'. Consisting of a celebrated (and spurious) quotation from Wellington, and two cartoons.

Author: 
Field Marshal Sir Claude John Eyre Auchinleck, Commander in Chief, Middle East Command [Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington; military history; Second World War; British Army]
Publication details: 
01/05/42
£75.00

A celebrated and scarce piece of Second World War ephemera. Printed on one side of a piece of paper 33.5 x 21.5 cm. Text and illustrations clear and complete. In good overall condition, on lightly-aged and creased paper with small damp stain to top left-hand corner and repair on reverse to small closed tear. The text consists of a supposed 'Extract from a letter written by The Duke of Wellington from Spain, about 1810.

Studi d'Indianistica in Italia dal 1911 al 1938. [Indian studies in Italy from 1911 to 1938.]

Author: 
Giulia Porru [India; Indian studies in Italy; Italian bibliography]
Publication details: 
Pubblicazioni della R. Universita degli Studi di Firenze Facolta di Lettere e Filosofia. - III Serie - Volume X. Firenze [Florence] - Felice le Monnier - Editore - MCMXL-XVIII'.
£85.00

4to: viii + 257 pp. In original grey printed wraps. Internally tight, on lightly-aged and foxed paper. Wraps spotted and worn, with chipping to extremities. The preface describes the work as 'una bibliografia descrittiva degli studi di Indianistica fatti in Italia nel periodo che va dal 1911 al 1937.' A descriptive bibliography of Indian studies in Italy, 1911 to 1937. Scarce in Britain: COPAC lists copies at the British Library, Oxford and SOAS.

Five printed items relating to the Co-operative Holidays Association, including the first three issues in a series of 'Co-Operative Holidays Association General Notes'.

Author: 
Co-operative Holidays Association, Manchester [the co-operative movement]
Publication details: 
General Notes': October and December 1918, and February 1919. ['Published at the Offices of The Co-operative Holidays Association, College House, Brusnwick Street, Manchester. Printed by The Edgeley Press Ltd., Stockport.' Other items 1918 and 1920.
£220.00

Items One to Three: three 'Co-operative Holidays Association General Notes' pamphlets, all 4pp, on unbound 8vo bifoliums. Text clear and complete, on aged and worn paper, with a 3 cm closed tear to both leaves of the second number. Each issue ends with a long list of 'Rambling Clubs and Secretaries'. Headings of notes include 'One Shilling Literature Subscription', 'Sir William Mather', 'Canadian Guests', 'Personalia'. Also a report of the annual general meeting.

Printed programme of the 'Arrangements for the Ceremony of the Presentation of the Freedom of the City of London to The Right Hon. Lord Milner of St. James' and Cape Town, G.C.B., G.C.M.G.'

Author: 
Alfred Milner (1854-1925), 1st Viscount Milner [Lord Milner] [The Corporation of the City of London; freedom of the city; Guildhall]
Publication details: 
Tuesday, 23rd July, 1901.'
£45.00

4tp bifolium: 3 pp. Text clear and complete on aged and lightly-creased paper. The first page is headed by the crest of the City of London. Gives the timetable for the ceremony, and the routes to be followed by the holders of 'three distinct Cards [white, pink and blue] assigning seats in different localities'. 'The Prime Warden and Wardens of the Fishmongers' Company will present Lord Milner with the Freedom.

Large advertising board, bearing a 'SPECIMEN PLATE' ('The Shadow of Death': 'Holman Hunt, Pinx. The Art Journal. Goupilgravure.'), for 'The Life and Work of W. Holman Hunt. By Archdeacon Farrar.'

Author: 
William Holman Hunt; Archdeacon Frederic William Farrar [Dean Farrar; Pre-Raphaelite; The Art Journal; Alice Meynell; J. S. Virtue & Co. Ltd.; Goupilgravure]
Publication details: 
[1893.] 'London: J. S. Virtue & Co. Ltd.' [The Art Journal.]
£85.00

Printed on one side of a piece of cream paper, roughly 33.5 x 25.5 cm. Laid down on card. Clear and complete, with a good impression of the plate (22.5 x 17.5 cm), on lightly-aged, grubby paper, with slight wear to extremities. Presumably produced for display in a shop window. The title ('THE LIFE AND WORK OF | W. HOLMAN HUNT. | BY ARCHDEACON FARRAR.') at head, and 'SPECIMEN PLATE.' at foot, in large orange letters; the rest printed in black. Beneath the plate: 'THE SHADOW OF DEATH. | BY PERMISSION OF MESSRS. T. AGNEW & SONS. | LONDON: J. S. VIRTUE & CO.

Typed Note Signed ('Phillips Oppenheim') to Lawrence Mack, editor of Everybody's Weekly.

Author: 
E. Phillips Oppenheim (1866-1946) [Lawrence Mack; Everybody's Weekly]
Publication details: 
26 April 1928; on letterhead of Villa Deveron, Cagnes, Alpes-Maritmes, France.
£56.00

8vo: 1 p. Good, on lightly-creased paper, with a faint 4cm pink stain in the right-hand margin. Reads 'Many thanks for the copy of your interesting paper, and the kindly reference to my novel.'

Engraving ('ACTS XXVII XXXV') by Eric Gill from a drawing by David Jones; with long typewritten transcript from a letter from Jones to Evan Gill.

Author: 
David Jones; Eric Gill; Evan Gill
Publication details: 
The engraving dated by Jones (in the letter) to around 1935. The letter dated 22 November 1957.
£400.00

The engraving illustrates the biblical passage describing an incident during the wreck off Crete of a ship carrying Saint Paul. Acts 27:35: 'And when he had thus spoken, he took bread, and gave thanks to God in presence of them all: and when he had broken it, he began to eat.' Printed on one side of a piece of paper, 28 x 19 cm, with one rough edge. A striking image, irregularly shaped, with white lines against a black background, showing centurions and others on the deck of a ship on a stormy sea, with land in the distance.

Prompt copy typescript, with manuscript stage directions, titled 'Excerpt from Act 3. "Man and Superman" by BERNARD SHAW'.

Author: 
George Bernard Shaw [Alec Clunes; Arts Theatre Club, London; May Hemery Ltd]
Publication details: 
[London: May Hemery Ltd for the Arts Theatre Club, 1946.]
£125.00

From the collection of Alec Clunes, who performed as Don Juan in this excerpt from 'Man and Superman' ('Don Juan in Hell') at the Arts Theatre Club in 1946. Carbon copy of typescript by May Hemery Ltd, paginated 1 to 60, on the rectos of sixty leaves, preceded by title leaf ('Excerpt from Act Three | "MAN AND SUPERMAN" | By | BERNARD SHAW'. In original blue paper wraps, with yellow tape spine and label on front wrap. Grubby and worn, and with light staining to wraps, but tight, complete and clear. Numerous manuscript stage directions, mostly on the facing versos.

Five illustrated handbills: 'Adam & Eve in Paradise'; 'The Sun of Righteousness', 'A Supposed Conference between a King and a Christian', 'The Rose of Sharon' and 'The Last Day! "Prepare to meet thy God.' Christ coming to Judge the World.'

Author: 
James Catnach, broadsheet printer, 2 Monmouth Court, Seven Dials, London [ephemera; handbills; broadsides; Victorian printing]
Publication details: 
All undated and printed by James Catnach, 2 Monmouth-Court, Seven Dials.
£500.00

Each of the five items printed on one side of a piece of wove paper roughly 50 x 37 mm. All five good, on aged and lightly-spotted paper, with text and illustrations clear and entire, and with some wear, chipping and short closed tears to the edges. Each item with a central vertical fold. All five items with ornately decorated titles, and all of a devotional nature. Item One: 'Adam & Eve in Paradise.' ('Printed by J.

Handbill headed 'An Account of a Grand Fete at St. Ives, On 23rd of April, 1702, in honor of Queen Anne's Coronation; Taken from a Manuscript Book compiled by Edmund Pettis, at the time.'

Author: 
Joseph Harris [St Ives, Cornwall; printed ephemera; handbill]
Publication details: 
Note by Harris at foot dated 'St. Ives, 29th June, 1814.'; 'CROFT PRINTER, &c. ST. IVES.'
£150.00

On one side of a piece of wove paper, dimensions roughly 365 x 255 mm. Laid down on a larger leaf. Lightly creased and a little spotted, but good overall, and with the text entirely legible. The upper part of the item consists of the quotation from Pettis's manuscript book, consisting of nineteen lines in single column and twenty-six lines in double column. It begins 'The day was usher'd in with Ringing, Music, and Versing from door to door. At Eleven o'Clock a Cavalcade was formed in the Court Yard, West of the Church, which made a gallant appearance, in manner and form following'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J A Froude') to Adolphus.

Author: 
James Anthony Froude (1818-1894), English historian [John Leycester Adolphus (c.1794-1862), barrister and writer]
Publication details: 
12 November [no year, but before 1863]. On embossed letterhead of 8 Clifton Place, Hyde Park, London.
£35.00

12mo: 2 pp. Sixteen lines of text. Good. He is 'very anxious to be introduced' at the Literary Society and 'to take advantage of [Adolphus's] kindness in proposing' him. Gives reasons for not having attending any of the Society's dinners.

Autograph Letter Signed to Wheatley.

Author: 
Edwin Norris (1795-1872), linguist and Assyriologist [Henry Benjamin Wheatley (1838-1917), bibliographer, editor and London topographer; Frederick James Furnivall]
Publication details: 
17 August 1865. Brompton.
£35.00

12mo, 2 pp. Thirteen lines of text. Good. The letter possibly relates to Furnivall's Early English Text Society, founded in 1865. He is enclosing a Post Office Order for a guinea, but, as he 'said to Mr Furnivall last year', he does not consider himself a subscriber, 'wishing to reserve the right of withdrawal in case of finding it inconvenient to pay, which will certainly be the case when I give up my official position'. Nevertheless asks Wheatley to remind him 'when the time comes for collection'.

The Seven Pilgrims: An Allegory. Published by Request.

Author: 
Rev. Frederic Charles Skey, M.A. [vicar of Weare, Somerset; Yarmouth; provincial printing]
Publication details: 
Yarmouth: Printed by George Nall, 182, King Street. 1860.
£150.00

12mo: 16 pp. Unbound. Stitched as issued. Aged and a little dogeared. From the Skey family archives, and inscribed by the author at the head of the title 'For my dear Mother.' A prose allegory, in small print, beginning, 'I thought there was an island whose rough craggy sides were lashed by the unwearying ocean.' Excessively scarce: no copy on COPAC or WorldCat. Skey was vicar of Weare for forty-five years, until his death at the age of 83.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Justin Mc.Carthy') to 'F. H. Hill Esq'.

Author: 
Justin McCarthy (1830-1912), Irish politician and writer [Frank Harrison Hill (1830-1910)], editor of the Daily News]
Publication details: 
6 February 1872, on letterhead of 48 Gower Street, Bedford Square, W.C. [London.]
£56.00

12mo: 1 p. Fourteen lines of text, neatly and closely written. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper. 1 cm closed tear to a margin (not affecting text). He accepts Hill's proposal 'with regard to the Parliamentary leaders of the Daily News'. He hopes the 'condition [...] as to notice of termination [...] will prove as much of a formality without consequence as certain claims for "consequential damages" '.

Handbill poem entitled 'After Fifty Years! | September 20, 1874.' With Hall's autograph signature ('S. C. Hall').

Author: 
Samuel Carter Hall [S. C. Hall] (1800-1889), journalist, editor and author
Publication details: 
Date not stated [1874?]. At foot: 'M. W. & CO., ENT. STA. HALL.'
£56.00

Attractively produced on a piece of thin card, dimensions 17 x 11 cm. The recto of the card has a shiny, light-blue coating, on which the text and design is printed in gold and bronze. The verso is blank and white. Very good, with minor damage to the blank reverse caused by removal from mount. The poem, of thirty-one lines, is enclosed within a grecian-style border. A tender poem addressed to his wife, and reviewing their years together, beginning 'YES!

Liberal League Publications, No. 124. Hints on Successful Farming for Mr. Chamberlain and other Protectionist Farmers.

Author: 
Liberal League Publications [Westminster Gazette; Protectionism; Joseph Chamberlain, Chancellor of the Exchequer]
Publication details: 
Westminster Gazette, January 30th, 1904.' ['Published by the Liberal League, 34, Victoria St., S.W., and printed by Wightman & Co., Ltd., 43, Essex Street, Strand, W.C., and Regency Street, Westminster, S.W.']
£20.00

On both sides of a piece of wove paper, dimensions 21.5 x 14 cm. On browned high-acidity paper, lightly creased and with closed tears to the margins. Text clear and complete. Begins 'One of the best and most effective statements of the farmer's case against Protection was that made by Mr. Legh, of Adlington Hall, one of the oldest Conservative landowners in Cheshire, at a Free Trade meeting at Adlington.' The headings are 'About Butter', 'About Cheese', 'About Corn', 'About Pigs' and 'About the Farmer's Bill'.

Autograph Signature.

Author: 
Joseph Gulston (1744/5-1786), British book collector and connoisseur
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£20.00

On a piece of paper cut from a letter, roughly 3.5 x 9.5 cm. On lightly aged and slightly grubby paper. Good firm signature, beneath which, in a contemporary hand, 'I knew his daughter Stepny'. Gulston's wife Bridgetta (1749/50–1780) was the second daughter of Sir Thomas Stepney.

Short Poems and Sacred Verses. Third Series.

Author: 
A. S. [minor Victorian poetry; nineteenth-century devotional verse]
Publication details: 
London: 1895. [Printed for Private Circulation.]' [London: G. E. Waters, Printer, 97, Westbourne Grove, Bayswater, W.'
£100.00

12mo: iv + 164 pp. In original green cloth, with the title in gilt on the front cover. All edges gilt. Slightly foxed. Good and tight, in lightly worn cloth. A curious collection, with the index of first lines containing such entries as 'Sweet Edgbaston bells' [this poem dated 1844], 'Dear Varinka', ' 'Twas a boy in a cut-off jacket' and 'They call me little Trottie'. All three series are excessively scarce. The only copy of this third series on COPAC is in the British Library, and the only copy on WorldCat in California.

Two issues of 'The Literary Fly'.

Author: 
[Sir Herbert Croft (1751-1815), editor] 'The Literary Fly' [Christopher Etherington, bookseller, printer and typefounder, No. 25, St. Paul's Church-Yard]
Publication details: 
Number 13: 10 April 1779. Number 14: 17 April 1779. 'Printed and Published by Etherington, at No 25, opposite the South Door of St. Paul's'.
£100.00

Both issues 8vo (roughly 30.5 x 19.5 cm), 6 pp (each a loose leaf in a bifolium). Both printed on brittle watermarked laid paper. Both unbound, and stabbed as issued, and both on aged and chipped paper, but with the text clear and entire. Each issue with the title in an expansive calligraphic design. The full slug, at the bottom of the last page of both issues, reads: 'Printed and Published by ETHERINGTON, at No 25, opposite the South Door of St. Paul's (where Letters, post-paid, to the LITERARY FLY will be received).

Printed publicity material relating to the insertion of an advertisement in 'The Manchester Weekly Times'.

Author: 
The Manchester Weekly Times [Victorian newspapers; nineteenth-century provincial periodicals]
Publication details: 
Undated [late Victorian]. Place [Manchester] not stated.
£56.00

The main text is printed on one side of a piece of paper roughly 28 x 13.5 cm, headed 'Upwards of Thirty Thousand Copies Of the "Manchester Weekly Times," with Eight-page Literary Supplement, are Issued Every Saturday.' The main block of text, in a variety of types and point sizes, consists of 27 lines ending 'The Proprietors respectfully solicit instructionsn to insert your Advertisement.' Describes the newspaper's merits and boasts that it is 'one of the Largest and most complete Weekly Papers published'.

Four mid-eighteenth-century printed forms relating to English county militia: 'A Protection', 'Summons for Absentees or other Offenders', 'Mittimus on Refusal to Pay the Penalties', 'A Certificate of a Militia Man changing his Place of Abode'.

Author: 
[the county militia in eighteenth-century England; Hanoverian English magistracy; warrant; Justice of the Peace]
Publication details: 
The 'Summons' dated '175[ ]' and therefore from the 1750s, the other three items dated '17[ ]' and so eighteenth century. Three of the four 'Printed by J. TOWERS, near Air-Street, Piccadilly.'
£225.00

All four items well printed on one side of a piece of watermarked laid paper. All four lightly-aged but good. None of them filled in. The third item more dusty than the rest. Item One (15.5 x 20.5 cm): Headed 'No. VII. A PROTECTION.' To be signed by one of the 'Deputy Lieutenant, | Captain, | Commanding Officer.' Exempting the bearer, as a militia man, 'from doing any Highway Duty, commonly called Statute Work'.

Autograph Note Signed to an unnamed correspondent ("Dear Friend")

Author: 
Anna Swanwick (1813-1899), English author, feminist, and translator of Goethe, born in Liverpool
Publication details: 
No place or year (6 June).
£36.00

One page, 12mo, asking her friend to dinner "to meet a friend from the country", fearing that "there is small chance of finding you disengaged" with such late notice.

Super Detective Library No. 78. All in Pictures. Sherlock Holmes meets the Hound of the Baskervilles and the Missing Heiress [Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles]

Author: 
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; Sherlock Holmes; Super Detective Library [Sherlockiana; comic books, strips]
Publication details: 
No date [1950s]. London: The Amalgamated Press, Ltd., The Fleetway House, Farringdon Street, EC4.
£75.00

Dimensions: 17.5 x 13.5 cm. 64 pp. In original coloured paper covers. Priced at 10d, and thus the British edition and not one produced for the foreign market. Good and tight, on browned paper. Attractive image on front cover showing a bemused Holmes puffing on his pipe as he wanders down a country-house corridor whose walls are covered in paintings, while the spectral figure of the hound's head looms above him.Covers lightly worn and slightly damaged by the rusting of the staples. Both stories are told in comic strip form.

Handbill carrying two satirical political poems, 'A New W[h]ig Song, To a Barbarous OLD Tune.' and 'The Ballad of the Burgesses, To BOBBING ADAIR. | Tune - "ROBIN ADAIR." '

Author: 
[Victorian political satire; Liberal Party; John Bright; Robert Alexander Shafto Adair, MP for Cambridge 1847-1852, 1854-1857; Sir Hugh Edward Adair of Flixton Hall, MP for Ipswich 1847-74]
Publication details: 
Date, place and printer not stated. [1850s?]
£180.00

Two pages, printed on the recto of the first leaf and verso of the second of a yellow wove-paper bifolium. Leaf dimensions 22.5 x 14.5 cm. Grubby and creased, but with text clear and complete. The first poem, 'A New W[h]ig Song', begins 'In our town there's a street, with a chapel and shop, | Where a gay pole once hoisted of late is let drop, | There a fam'd Barber deals with his w(h)ig as he wills, | From full bottom'd P----r to little scratch M--ls.' References to 'shot-yellow A---r [Adair]' and 'M----y, the close button'd Barber'.

Satirical political handbill, in the form of a funeral service, entitled 'Death & Burial of the Whigs, and Resurrection of the Tories.'

Author: 
T.' [English political satire; Sir Robert Peel; British General Election of 1841; Lord John Russell]
Publication details: 
No date, but produced following the General Election of 1841. 'Lowe pr. Dorrington st. Leather-lane.'
£125.00

Printed in three columns of small type on one side of a piece of wove paper roughly 22.5 x 18 cm. Text clear and complete on grubby, worn, creased and foxed paper.

Northcliffe: The Facts.

Author: 
Louise Owen [Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, Viscount Northcliffe; Harold Sidney Harmsworth, Viscount Rothermere]
Publication details: 
London: 22 Buckingham Gate, S.W.1. [Preface dated 'September, 1931.'] ['Printed in Great Britain by Louise Owen, 2, Johnson's Court, London, E.C.4.'
£45.00

8vo: 334 pp. Portrait of Northcliffe as frontispiece. Three facsimiles of letters in text and fold-out with facsimiles of three of Northcliffe's letters. Inscribed by Owen on front pastedown 'To Elaine from Louise and Northcliffe. | Nov. 1938'. (The reference to 'Northcliffe' is explained by the fact that Owen considered herself a spirit medium, in contact with the deceased Viscount.) Internally good: sound and tight, on lightly aged paper. In original worn red cloth, with slight bloom on front.

Autograph Signature ('Edgar T. Cook').

Author: 
Edgar Thomas Cook (1880-1953), organist of Southwark Cathedral
Publication details: 
Undated.
£20.00

On piece (15 x 16 cm) of laid-paper cut from a page of a diary. Creased and worn at head. Signature under heading 'March 18'. Lightly docketed in pencil.

The signatures of the four musicians on one leaf.

Author: 
Cedric Sharpe (1891-), cellist and composer; Ethel Hobday (1872-), pianist; Marjorie Hayward, violinist; Dora Stevens, soprano [autographs of British classical musicians]
Publication details: 
Docketed 'Autumn 1924'.
£56.00

On light-yellow page (roughly 11 x 14 cm) removed from autograph album. Four glue stains showing through from the reverse (not affecting the signatures), otherwise good. Reads 'Dora Stevens | Ethel Hobday | Marjorie Hayward | Cedric Sharpe'. Lightly docketed in pencil.

Autograph Signature ('Frank Barrington Foote').

Author: 
Francis Barrington Foote [Frank Barrington Foote] (born c.1850; fl. 1911), English singer
Publication details: 
Undated.
£30.00

On piece of laid paper (roughly 13 x 11 cm). Aged and chipped. Reads 'Yours truly | Frank Barrington Foote'. Chipping to the outer edge, very close to the last couple of letters of the signature. Foote, who frequently sang with Adelina Patti at Covent Garden, ended his days destitute in New York City.

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