BYRON

[Cornelius Elliot, Writer to the Signet.] Autograph Letter Signed to Charles Erskine, Writer, of Melrose, regarding a planned meeting in Edinburgh of the trustees of the estate of his brother-in-law Adam Ogilvie, Factor to the Duke of Buccleugh.

Author: 
Cornelius Elliot (1732-1821) of Wollee, Writer to the Signet, brother-in-law of Adam Ogilvie, Factor of the Duke of Buccleugh
Publication details: 
Teviotbank [Roxburghshire]. 5 February 1810.
£150.00

2pp., 4to. Bifolium. In good condition, on lightly aged and creased paper. The letter begins: 'For your letter of November you gave me to think that a Meeting of Adam Ogilvies Trustees would be after Martinmas. I now see that could not take place, but I want to see how his matters stand as your Rents and the Roup Bills will all be come in.

[Chandos Leigh, 1st Baron Leigh.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Leigh') to 'Mr. Brodie', regarding a 'rather singular letter' he has received from one of his parishoners, offering his services as a shoemaker at a prison.

Author: 
Chandos Leigh (1791-1850), 1st Baron Leigh, of Stoneleigh Abbey, Warwickshire, minor poet, cousin of Jane Austen and friend of Byron and Leigh Hunt
Publication details: 
57 Portman Square, London. 14 July 1849.
£150.00

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. The recipient presumably held a living near Leigh's Warwickshire mansion Stoneleigh Abbey (said to be the model for Sotherton Court in his cousin Jane Austen's 'Mansfield Park'). Leigh apologises troubling Brodie 'with the enclosed rather singular letter which I have received from one of your Parishioners'.

[Book; poem] To Prosperous Hellas. A Forecast.

Author: 
A.H. Crosfield
Publication details: 
Athens, 'Pyrsos' S.A., 1933
£220.00

28pp., 8vo, unopened, paper wraps with damaged cellophane cover (some loss), damage to top of spine,mainly good condition. Dedicated to Philip Ivanoff and the the Shareholders of Thracian Mineral Products Ltd: "One day an alchemist walked o'er the land [...]" No other copy recorded.

Manuscript indenture on parchment, with signatures and seals: 'Conveyance of Lands of Stapleton in the County of Leicester. Mr. Joseph Knight and Mr. John Edwards to The Baroness Noel Byron [Anne Isabella, Lady Noel Byron], and others'.

Author: 
Anne Isabella Noel Byron (1792-1860), 11th Baroness Wentworth and Baroness Byron [Lady Byron], wife of poet George Gordon Noel, 6th Baron Byron of Rochdale [Lord Byron]; John Edwards; Joseph Knight
Publication details: 
1 August 1853. [Indenture by Fry & Son, London, Law Stationers.]
£200.00

On two skins, with the usual seals and tax stamps, and further text and signatures on the reverse of the first skin, including a witnessed receipt for £450 from Knight; also a memorandum, 2 August 1853, 'Exparte The right Honorable Anne Isabella Baroness Noel Byron Widow', 'Before me | Wm. Cowdell. | A Master Extraordinary in Chancery'. The first skin carries a plan of the property (8 acres 3 rods 33 perches), to the west of the East Shilton road to Stapleton, and of Wigstones Farm, Stapleton and Kirkby Lordship, and with the road from Barwell to Kirby going through it, coloured in green.

Autograph Letter Signed from the journalist and author Peter Bayne to an unnamed recipient, stating that he cannot try his hand 'on Byron or Browning [...] without more chance of continuous work'.

Author: 
Peter Bayne [pseud. Ellis Brandt] (1830-1896), English journalist and author
Publication details: 
33 St. Julian's Road, Kilburn, London N.W. 30 November 1881.
£45.00

1p., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The letter reads: 'My Dear Sir, | I ought to have thanked you sooner for your kind note of the 21st., but I have been much occupied. It would be pleasant for me to try my hand on Byron or Browining, but I could not dare do so without more chance of continuous work than I can hope for at present.'

Holograph extract of a translation from the German of Wieland's 'Oberon' by the English poet William Sotheby, beginning 'Sweet Isle! methinks once more I hear'.

Author: 
William Sotheby (1757-1833), English poet and translator [Christoph Martin Wieland, German author of 'Oberon']
Publication details: 
No place. 26 September 1804.
£120.00

1p., 8vo. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with traces of previous mounting along two edges. Headed, in a contemporary hand: 'Given to Mrs. Richards by Miss Calhoun Fanshawe'. 22 lines of verse, in couplets. Signed in the bottom right-hand corner, apparently at a later date than the rest of the text: 'William Sothbey | Sepr 26 - 1804'. The extract - possibly written out by Sotheby for an acquaintance - begins: 'Sweet Isle!

Autograph Letter Signed by the Scottish poet Thomas Campbell, author of 'Gertrude of Wyoming', writing in memorable style on presenting a book to an American visitor about to return home.

Author: 
Thomas Campbell (1777-1844), Scottish Romantic poet, author of 'The Pleasures of Hope' and 'Gertrude of Wyoming'
Publication details: 
61 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London. 16 July 1840.
£180.00

2pp., 4to. An excellent letter, stylish and charming, and a lucky survival. In poor condition, apparently as a result of fire damage: with wear and chipping repaired with archival tape.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Christopher Sykes') from the author and aesthete Christopher Hugh Sykes to the social anthropologist J. H. Driberg, arranging a meeting in Cambridge.

Author: 
Christopher Sykes [Christopher Hugh Sykes] (1907-86), English author, biographer of Evelyn Waugh, and traveller with Robert Byron across Central Asia [Jack Herbert Driberg (1888-1946), anthropologist]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Badlingham Manor, Chippenham, Ely, Cambridgeshire. Undated [late 1930s].
£95.00

2pp., 12mo. Very good on blue paper, with letterhead printed in red. He begins: 'I must write to tell you how very much indeed I enjoyed the course at Cambridge and particularly your lectures.

[Printed handbill.] Works or Editions of William Carew Hazlitt of the Inner Temple chronologically arranged 1858-1882.

Author: 
William Carew Hazlitt (1834-1913), lawyer, author and book collector, grandson of the essayist William Hazlitt (1778-1830)
Publication details: 
Without place or date. [London, c. 1882.]
£120.00

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Nicely printed on good paper. A little worn and lightly-aged; folded counts. 42 numbered entries, from '1. British Columbia and Vancouver's Island. Map. 12mo. 1858.' to '43. Bibliographical Collections and Notes. SECOND SERIES. 1876-82. Medium 8vo. 1882. | Uniform with First Series.

Part of letter ('Ju: Milbank') from Lord Byron's mother-in-law the Hon. Lady Judith Milbanke, requesting the recipient's support for her husband in 'the approaching Election for the County of Durham'.

Publication details: 
Seaham. 27 October 1806.
£120.00

Lower part of letter with ruled border, laid down on part of leaf from autograph album. Dimensions: 7.5 x 18.5 cm. Lightly aged and ruckled. Reads: '<...> your support at the approaching Election for the County of Durham - having for so long possessed the confidence of this County, it is his utmost ambition to have it continued and should he be honoured with yours, it will be considered the highest obligation | I am Sir | Your faithful Servant | [signed] Ju: Milbank | Seaham | Octr: 27. 1806.' Contemporary ink note reads: '[Lady Milbanke afterwards Lady Noel Milbanke, mother of Lady Byron.]'

Calligraphic manuscript titled 'Menander | 345?-293 B.C. | Translations by various hands selected from "From the Greek" edited by T. F. Higham and C. M. Bowra', containing translations by C. M. Bowra, Lord Byron and Gilbert Murray.

Author: 
Anonymous [Sir Maurice Bowra (1869-1947); T. F. Higham [Thomas Farrant Higham] (1890-1975); George Gordon Noel (1788-1824), Lord Byron; Gilbert Murray (1866-1957); Menander]
Publication details: 
Without date and place, but after 1943.
£120.00

7pp., 4to. On three bifoliums and two single leaves of watermarked laid paper, all loose, with the bifoliums placed inside one another and the single leaves inserted after the title. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. Written out in black ink, with the titles in red ink, in an excellent uncial hand. The five translations are 'My Own, my Native Land' and 'The Family Dinner-Party', both by Bowra; 'This World is all a Fleeting Show' and 'This defileth a Man', both by Murray; and 'Whom the Gods love', by Byron.

Autograph Signature of Samuel Rogers ['Saml Rogers'], 'the Banker Poet', on cheque drawn on his own bank, Messrs Rogers, Olding, Sharpe & Co.

Author: 
Samuel Rogers (1763-1855), 'the Banker Poet', friend of Wordsworth, Coleridge and Byron
Autograph Signature of Samuel Rogers ['Saml Rogers'], 'the Banker Poet'
Publication details: 
30 July 1849. Messrs Rogers, Olding, Sharpe & Co, 29 Clements Lane, Lombard Street.
£125.00
Autograph Signature of Samuel Rogers ['Saml Rogers'], 'the Banker Poet'

Around the size of a modern cheque. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. A nice item, considering Rogers' background. A printed cheque for £40 cash, written out to himself (as 'S R'). With a lattice of five lines over Rogers' signature ('Saml Rogers') indicating payment. Denominations to be paid indicated on back.

Stamped Autograph Receipt Signed ('R C Dallas') for an advance from his publishers Cadell & Davies.

Author: 
Robert Charles Dallas (1754-1824), English writer [Cadell & Davies, London booksellers]
Publication details: 
23/12/00
£65.00

On a piece of paper 7.5 x 18 cm. Neatly mounted (windowpane mount) on leaf of paper 27 x 23 cm. Neatly written out by Dallas, and reading 'Received Decr. 23d. 1800 the sum of Ten Pounds on account from Messrs Cadell and Davies. | [signed] R C Dallas. - | £10.-.-' On the right a blind-stamped government two pence stamp, 'FOR RECEIPTS'. Dallas published several works with Cadell & Davies, and the receipt may possibly relate to his 'Annals of the French Revolution' (1800), or his 'Natural History of Volcanoes' (1801).

Autograph Note Signed ('S. Rogers.') to unnamed man.

Author: 
Samuel Rogers (1763-1855), English banker and poet
Publication details: 
06/07/48
£45.00

16mo (13.5 x 9 cm), 1 p. On recto of first leaf of bifolium. Good, on aged paper. Traces of brown paper mount adhering to reverse of second leaf. Reads 'You & the young Ladies will be welcome whenever it suits you best. After 2 oClock you will be least liable to Interruption.'

Autograph Letter Signed to the Birmingham inventor Samuel Timings (active between 1853 and 1869).

Author: 
Henry Warren (1794-1879), English painter of Biblical and oriental themes
Publication details: 
28 March 1863; on letterhead of 24 Upper Phillimore Place, Kensingon, W.
£120.00

12mo, 4 pp. Good, on aged paper with a little light staining at head. A significant letter, in which Warren gives information of those of Warren's 'poor works' which have been engraved: 'they have been chiefly for book illustration and are spread through many publishers'. Begins by describing how 'Murray's Childe Harold has many vignettes, very well engraved from my drawings'. Ends by saying that 'There is also a print in the mixed style of considerable size engraved by Humphreys but not yet published. It is from my picture of a story teller reciting in a coffee house of Damascus'.

Autograph Letter Signed to Edward Draper.

Author: 
Byron Webber, English novelist and journalist [The Sporting Gazette, London]
Publication details: 
15 September 1871; on letterhead of The Sporting Gazette, 135 Strand, London W.C.
£56.00

12mo, 2 pp. Text complete and legible, on grubby and creased paper. Trace of grey paper mount adhering to blank verso of second leaf of bifolium. Crude caricature of a man's face in top left-hand corner of first page. Draper 'bolted from the Club last night' - Webber can 'guess the cause' - 'thereby depriving the committee of the unit necessary to form a quorum'. Had he not done so 'Marks would have shown you the drawing which he had brought down, finished, for your inspection.' Webber will 'bring it with me to the Circle to-morrow.

Catalogue of an Interesting Collection of Autograph Letters, selected from the Portfolios of Several Distinguished Amateurs [...] Family of George the Third [...] Some curious Shaksperian Papers [...] Oxford, Cambridge, Eton, and Winchester Scholars.

Author: 
Puttick and Simpson, London auctioneers [autographs; sale catalogues; Shakespeare; George Washington]
Publication details: 
Messrs. Puttick and Simpson, Auctioneers of Literary Property and Works of Art, At their House, No. 47, Leicester Square, W.C.; 23 March 1864.
£80.00

Octavo: ii + 51 + [1] pp. Stitched and unbound. Grubby, and with loss to final leaf, affecting a couple of lots and an advertisement, from removal of label. 521 lots. Postmarked penny red postage stamp. Letters of Burns, Byron, Coleridge, Frederick the Great, Haydn, Rousseau, Voltaire. The high point of the sale undoubtedly three letters from George Washington to Sir Edward Newenham.

Catalogue of Books, Manuscripts, Autographs and Drawings.

Author: 
Alexander Denham and Co. [Charles Whittingham; Chiswick Press; autographs; booksellers' catalogues]
Publication details: 
London: For Sale by Alex'r Denham and Co., 23 Haymarket, S.W.; 1902. [Chiswick Press: Charles Whittingham and Co. Tooks Court, Chancery Lane, London.]
£75.00

Quarto: 65 pp. Numerous plates. In original grey printed wraps. Internally good, with a little spotting and creasing to the ruckled edges; wraps worn and stained. A beautifully printed item, on thick laid paper. Among the printed matter are books of hours, breviaries, psalters, and letters (with facsimile plates) by Byron, Keats, Johnson and Sterne; and manuscripts of Fielding and Horace Walpole.

Autograph Signature.

Author: 
Stephen Lushington (1782-1873), English jurist, abolitionist, helped Lady Byron divorce the poet, and acted for Queen Caroline in her trial before the House of Lords
Publication details: 
2 April 1869; on letterhead of 18, Eaton Place, S.W. [London].
£25.00

12mo: 1 p. On recto of first leaf of bifolium. Very good. Shaky hand. Clearly responding to a request for an autograph. Reads '[signed] Stephen Lushington | April 2 69'.

MS. "Country Commissions by the Author of 'The Rejected Addresses." In the hand of Horatio [Horace] Smith.

Author: 
James Smith [Horatio Smith], author ("Rejected Addresses" et al).
Publication details: 
[Watermark 1822[ First published in James Smith, "Comic Miscellanies", edited by Horatio Smith (1840)
£280.00

Two pages, bifolium, 4to, fold marks and minor faint staining, good condition. An earlier draft of the satirical piece printed first in "Comic Miscellanies" (1840)(no other publication listed by LION, though one has to suspect an earlier periodical publication). Comparison with samples of Horatio's and James's hands (the latter is poorly represented by a hasty note in the BL collections) lead to my conclusion that Horatio wrote out this version in his neat hand with its flourishing capitals.

Autograph Letter Signed, in French, to Monsieur Van Santen.

Author: 
William Roberts (1767-1849), editor of the 'British Review'
Publication details: 
Without date or place [but before 1811?].
£38.00

One page, 12mo. Very good. He presents his correspondent with 'deux petits ouvrages sortis de ma plume'. The first was mentioned by 'Mr. Burgess' and the second is 'un petit traite qui a eu le bonheur il y a quelques ans de remporter le prix annuel dans l'Universite d'Oxford'. Signed 'Willm. Roberts'. In a postscript asks to be recommended to any acquaintances Van Santen may have 'a Rotterdam Anvers ou Bruxelles'. Address, with broken wafer, on second leaf of bifolium. Roberts is perhaps best remembered for the controversy brought on by a passage in Byron's 'Don Juan'.

Document signed "Anne Isabella Noel Byron" and others.

Author: 
Anne Isabella Baroness Noel Byron
Publication details: 
I August 1853.
£450.00

Conveyance of Lands at Stapleton in the County of Leicester, Joseph Knight and John Edwards (the other signatories) to Baroness Noel Byron, widow of the poet, and others (family). A vellum deed, 26" x 20", folded, 2 leaves, with a PL:AN including the land (coloured) involved in the agreement, c. 12 x 12", adjacent to Wigstones Farm Stapleton and Kirkby Lordship.. Good condition although front panel of folded item is stained without loss or obscuring.

The hero of his time; a theme in Russian literature.

Author: 
Henry Gifford
Publication details: 
London: Edward Arnold & Co. 1950.
£25.00

Octavo. 224 pages. Very good, with light spotting to top edge, front endpapers and prelims. In worn, torn dustwrapper with some loss. INSCRIBED COPY 'To Alan | 'at his own request' | with friendly greetings from | Henry Gifford | 7th November 1950'.

Autograph letter, third person, to Triphook.

Author: 
George Watson Taylor.
Publication details: 
No place, 31 Oct. (no year).
£100.00

Book Collector. One page, 4to, discoloured, sl. chipped, fold marks, mainly good, clear text. "Mr. Watson Taylor requests Mr Triphook to send him down Ld Byron's new Work as soon as it comes out. enquiring first whether he is in Town at the time. He also wishes to have "Hints on the formation of Gardens & pleasure Grounds royal 4to coloured 3 gs. - at Gale & Jenners also the Rejected Addresses on drawing paper hot pressed - 10/6d.

Autograph note signed to the Earl of <Belfort?>.

Author: 
John Cam Hobhouse.
Publication details: 
No place, 28 Feb. 1846[0?].
£35.00

Statesman, friend of Byron (1786-1869). One page, 8vo, staining, but text clear and complete: Alas my dear Lord I have not got such a thing as an Assistant Surgeoncy in my gift."

Autograph letter signed to John Burke, Irish genealogist.

Author: 
Henry Gally Knight.
Publication details: 
Lower Grosvenor St., 13 July 1841.
£65.00

Traveller, antiquary, writer on architecture (1786-1846). One page, 8vo with added page of verse, nick not affecting text, good. He responds to a request by sending an impression of a seal [not present] "which bears the armorial ensigns of the two families which I represent" - which he expands on.

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