CARDS

[ W. Gurney Benham; Playing Cards ] Substantial Autograph Letter Signed "W. Gurney Benham" to a "Mr Leftwich" [presumably B.R. Leftwich, author of "Customs and Excise History", etc], answering a question about duty on playing cards at length.

Author: 
Sir William Gurney Benham (1859–1944) was a newspaper editor, published author and three times Mayor of Colchester.
Publication details: 
[Printed heading] Essex County Standard Office, Colchester, 22 Nov. 1941.
£280.00

Two pages, 8vo, tipped on top slightly larger backing page, information about author typed under the letter, good condition. He thinks an author is wrong in a statement, saying "The duty levied under Charles I (fixed in 1628) was 36 pence [underlined] per gross on all playing cards, not 36 shillings [underlined]. Actually the duty was 2s. pergross but there was a further 1s. pergross payable to the Officer appointed as Receiver of the Duty.

[De La Rue Company Limited, manufacturers of playing cards and currency.] Typed Letter Signed from company chairman Bernard C. Westall to Viscount Portal, presenting a copy of the company history.

Author: 
Bernard C. Westall [Bernard Clement Westall] (1893-1970), President of the De La Rue Company, manufacturers of playing cards [Charles Portal, 1st Viscount Portal, Marshal of the Royal Air Force]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of The De La Rue Company Limited, De La Rue House, 84/86 Regents Street, London W.1. 19 July 1963.
£45.00

1p., 4to. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased. Salutation ('Dear Lord Portal') and valediction ('I hope you are well. | Kindest regards | Yours sincerely | Bernard C. Westall') in autograph, the rest typed. Addressed to 'Marshal of the Royal Air Force, | the Rt. Hon.

[ Evelyn Jamison, Vice-Principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. ] Around 40 calling cards by the Army and Navy Stores, in box, of 'Miss Evelyn Jones | Lady Margaret Hall | Oxford'.

Author: 
Evelyn Jamison (1877-1972), Vice-Principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, mediaevalist [ Army and Navy STores Limited, London ]
Publication details: 
Army and Navy Stores Limited, Westminster, S.W.1. No date (Edwardian?).
£120.00

The forty cards are printed in black on one side, engraved in the customary copperplate, and laid out in the conventional way. Dimensions 5.5 x 8.5 cm. In good condition, lightly aged. Most are arranged in pairs, separated with tissue leaves. In 'drawer' inside 9.5 x 6 x 2 cm box, printed on all sides with the firm's details. On front: '50 Finest Quality De La Rue's Thin Ivory Visiting Cards' and the firm's address. Written on the front, presumably by Jamison is 'Lady Margaret Hall Oxford'.

[ Printed item with ownership signature of John Carter. ] The Cardboard Court. Playing Cards Through History.

Author: 
Frank N. Jones, Director, Peabody Institute Library [ Peabody Institute of the City of Baltimore; John Carter [ John Waynflete Carter ] (1905-1975), diplomat and bookman ]
Publication details: 
'An Exhibition on the History of Playing Cards, Peabody Institute Library, Baltimore. 1 November - 31 December 1960.
£56.00

42pp., 8vo. Duplicated stapled typescript, with text on rectos only. Not illustrated. Introduction by Jones, in which he explains that 'the list is arranged chronologically under the country of origin, plus special types of cards as, for example, transformation, etc. A selected bibliography has been included for those who may wish to go into these matters more extensively.' A scholarly production, with 264 entries and four-page bibliography. Aged and worn, with printed card cover (on which a playing card has been laid down as part of design) detached and chipped.

[ 'The Arrangement', 1969 film directed by Elia Kazan. ] Folder of publicity material, including duplicated typescripts ('The Story', 'Notes of Interest', 'The Cast', 'Biography of Elia Kazan') and nine black and white lobby cards.

Author: 
Elia Kazan directs 'The Arrangement' (1969); Kirk Douglas; Faye Dunaway; Deborah Kerr; 'The Arrangement', a Warner Brothers Film
Publication details: 
'Warner Bros. presents An Athena Production released through Warner-Pathe.' [ 1969 ]
£56.00

The material is in good condition, lightly aged, in a 12 x 9 inch white folder with 'The Arrangement' printed in red on cover. Each A4 page of duplicated typescript carries a similar title in the right-hand margin. 'The Arrangement', 1969 film directed by Elia Kazan. ] Folder of publicity material, including duplicated typescripts 'The Story' is 2pp., beginning 'Eddie Anderson (KIRK DOUGLAS), a brilliant advertising executive, has everything; all the accoutrements of success and affluence. Everything that is, except self-respect.

[ Sarony Virginia Cigarettes. ] Printed 'Travel Album' titled 'A Day on the Airway', with foreword by Sir Alan Cobham, containing complete set of 25 cigarette cards depicting a journey from Croydon Aerodrome to Amsterdam.

Author: 
[ Nicolas Sarony & Co., New Bond Street, London; Sir Alan Cobham; Imperial Airways; British aviation; Croydon Aerodrome; Amsterdam, Holland ]
Publication details: 
Issued by Nicolas Sarony & Co., New Bond Sreet, London, W.1. [ 1928 ]
£100.00

A charming and evocative production. Cards in very good condition; album in good condition, with light signs of age and wear. Initial note: 'This Travel Album is issued without charge to hold a complete set of twenty-five "A Day on the Airway" pictures, as issued with all packings of Sarony Virginia Cigarettes, plain or cork tipped.' The album comprises eight pages printed in black and green, on thick paper, stitched into black card wraps. Embossed on the front cover in faded gold is the title and an illustration of the plane (an Imperial Airways 'Argosy') flying in clouds.

[ Raphael Tuck & Sons Victorian christmas card. ] Coloured Christmas card with illustration by 'E M W' on one side, and poem by 'SAMUEL K. COWAN M.A.' on the other.

Author: 
Raphael Tuck & Sons, Moorfields, London publishers known for their postcards; Samuel K. Cowan (d.1918), Irish lyricist
Publication details: 
Raphael Tuck & Sons [ London ]. 'RTS Artistic Series' and 'Series 430.' Undated [ late nineteenth century? ]
£35.00

On a gilt-edged piece of card, 13 x 11.5 cm., with rounded edges. In good condition, lightly aged. The illustration by 'E M W' on one side is printed in silver, yellow, light blue, grey and brown, and shows a snowy country scene with two tiny figures beneath a shining sun on a stone bridge over a stream. Captioned 'The Joy of Christmas be in your heart.' Cowan's eight-line poem, on the other side, is printed in grey, in variety of gothic fonts. It begins: 'Only its best and brightest history | May Memory relate you!

[Ornate engraved advertisement for 'James Salmon Cambridge Carrier, Sets out from the Green Dragon Inn Bishopsgate Street London [...]'.

Author: 
James Salmon, Cambridge Carrier [Eighteenth-century transport; Norfolk; East Anglia]
Publication details: 
Without publication details or date. [1780s?]
£90.00

12.5 x 16 cm. Irregularly-cut and laid down on paper backing. Lightly-aged and worn. Slight loss to extremities. Crisply printed, with characteristic eighteenth-century engraved border of floral and architectural details. Text reads: 'James Salmon | Cambridge Carrier, | Sets out from the Green Dragon Inn Bishopsgate street | London | evry [sic] Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday, in ye. Forenoon, & carry Goods as usual For | [list of places in four columns] Cambridge Ely Lynn Wisbeach Holbeach March Downham Dereham Watton Fakenham Swaffham Walsingham | And all other adjacent Places.

[Publication Committee, Presbyterian Church of England, 18 Paternoster Square, London.] Engraved card announcing that the Committee have taken possession of the premises and made them into a shop and offices; with plan of premises on reverse.

Author: 
Publication Committee, Presbyterian Church of England, 18 Paternoster Square, London
Publication details: 
[Publication Committee, Presbyterian Church of England, 18 Paternoster Square, London.] [Circa 1882.]
£60.00

The text is engraved in copperplate on one side of a piece of card, with plan on reverse of the the premises at 18 Paternoster Square, with Newgate Street, Warwick Lane, Rose Street and Paternoster Row also shown. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper, with unobtrusive vertical crease. A nice piece of nineteenth-century London book trade ephemera. The text reads: 'Publication Committee | Presbyterian Church of England, | 18 Paternoster Square.

Calling card of 'Mrs. Byam Shaw [the artist Evelyn C. E. Shaw, born Evelyn Eunice Pyke-Nott].

Author: 
Evelyn C. E. Shaw (1870–1959) [born Evelyn Eunice Pyke-Nott], artist, wife of the painter Byam Shaw (1872-1919)
Publication details: 
Undated.
£38.00

Measuring 9 x 6 cm. With 'Mrs.. Byam Shaw' in larger type in centre, with '62, Addison Road, W.' in bottom left-hand corner, and '2nd. Wednesday &| 2nd. Thursday' diagonally in top left-hand corner. On aged paper, with the address '21 Wilton Street | S. W. 1 | Wednesday' in ink at head, and '88 Brook Green' in pencil on the reverse. A pencil name and telephone number ('Vic. 3583') have been erased.

Trade card for 'Frederick Bentley & Co. (Late Thomas Harrild.) Printers, Engravers, Designers and Lithographers, Shoe Lane, Fleet Street, London', with engraved illustration of works on one side and 'Almanack for 1870' on the other.

Author: 
Frederick Bentley & Co. (Late Thomas Harrild.) Printers, Engravers, Designers and Lithographers, Shoe Lane, Fleet Street, London [trade cards; printing]
Frederick Bentley & Co. (Late Thomas Harrild.) Printers
Publication details: 
Frederick Bentley & Co., Shoe Lane, Fleet Street, London. [1869.]
£56.00
Frederick Bentley & Co. (Late Thomas Harrild.) Printers

Landscape card, 7.5 x 11.5 cm. Designed to show off the firm's capabilities, and printed on one side in purple, green, light brown and gold, with fancy lettering within florally-decorated body and border, around a small central illustration of three men working a press. Printers' details in small letters at foot, reading 'F. Bentley & Co. Lth' and 'Shoe Lane, London.' The almanac on the reverse is a more restrained affair, stylishly printed in purple and gold. Fair: lightly-aged, with small closed hole to one corner, and slight wear at foot of almanac.

[Printed trade card for Folkard & Son (G. E. Mann), Jewellers, 355 Oxford Street, London, illustrated with 'The Connoisseur Chart of China Marks' and featuring a poem on 'Birth Stones'.]

Author: 
Folkard & Son (G. E. Mann), jewellers, Oxford Street, London [trade cards]
Printed trade card for Folkard & Son
Publication details: 
Undated [early twentieth century]. Folkard & Son, London.
£28.00
Printed trade card for Folkard & Son

12mo, 2 pp. Printed on thin card. Fair: aged and worn. The front of the card gives contact details, including phone number, for the firm, which is stated to have been 'Est[ablishe]d. in the Reign of King George III, 1814'. Its goods are listed as 'Jewellery, Gold and Silver Boxes, Diamonds, Pearls, Emeralds, etc.

[Printed item a black and white steel engraving by John Thompson, from a design by W. Harvey, described by Buday as a candidate for 'The First Christmas Card']

Author: 
John Thompson; W. Harvey; Allan Cunningham
Autograph Signature of George William Frederick Villiers
Publication details: 
London: John Sharpe, 1829.
£180.00
Autograph Signature of George William Frederick Villiers

8vo, 1 p. Image clear on aged paper, with the leaf loosely attached to the letterpress title of the work whence it comes (see below), that title being laid down in a folder with a window cut into the front for viewing the card through. The dimensions of the engraved illustration are roughly 12.5 x 8 cm, with the main feature of the elaborate design being contained in a circle 8 cm in diameter.

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).

The History of Playing Cards and Card-Conjuring. Les Cartes a Jouer et la Cartomancie par P. Boiteau D'Ambly. (Illustrated with forty curious woodcuts.)

Author: 
P. Boiteau D'Ambly [John Camden Hotten]
Publication details: 
London: John Camden Hotten, Antiquarian Bookseller, Piccadilly. 1859.
£125.00

12mo: [ii] + ii + 390 pp. In contemporary quarter-binding with burgundy leather spine ('CARTES A JOUER' in gilt) and red paper boards. Top edge gilt. Binder's ticket of Bone & Son, Fleet Street. Tight copy, on aged and spotted paper, in worn binding with damage and loss to spine. In French, with Boiteau's preface dated 'Juin 1854'. Evidently the sheets of the French edition, with Hotten's new title-leaf. An interesting and informative work, with attractive engravings in text by Coppin. Scarce: the only copies on COPAC at the British Library and the National Library of Wales.

Printed Advertisement Leaf.

Author: 
Robert Akenhead, bookseller, 'at the Bible and Crown upon the Bridge, Newcastle' [provincial printing]
Publication details: 
Undated [circa 1723 re. pencilled note on reverse; Akenhead in businessc.1716-1768 re. BBTI]
£200.00

Dimensions roughly three and a half inches by three. One page, blank reverse. On aged paper, with some staining along one edge and crude ink marking, including 'Bookes bound', in a contemporary hand. Twenty-seven lines, beginning 'ROBERT AKENHEAD [...] sells the Goods followsng, [sic] viz. | BIBLES, Common-Prayers, and all other Sorts of Books of Divinity, History, Physick, Mathematicks.

Engraved trade card with illustration.

Author: 
[PRINTING] Henry Sandon, Victorian engraver
Publication details: 
Without date [circa 1850?]; 60, Wellington Street, Goswell Street, London.
£65.00

On good thick wove paper, roughly six and a quarter inches by four and three-quarters wide. Dimensions of plate indentation five inches by three wide. Good, on aged and lightly-foxed paper, left edge irregular indicating extraction. A very attractive card, carrying an engraving of a sylvan scene giving a very good idea of Sandon's qualities. Reads, in a variety of hands, 'EVERY | Description | OF | ENGRAVING & PRINTING | Neatly executed. | [vignette] | HENRY SANDON, | 60, Wellington Street, Goswell Street, | London.' Sandon does not feature in BBTI. is he real?

Engraved Trade Card in form of receipt.

Author: 
James Crokatt, Fleet Street bookseller
Publication details: 
Undated [circa 1740]
£225.00

Dimensions roughly one and a half inches by two inches. One page, blank verso. Tipped in on piece of yellow paper. Within ruled border. An attractive item, with an illustration of key at head. Beneath this, in copperplate, 'Bought of I: Crokatt | at the Golden Key near | ye. Inner-Temple-Gate | Fleet-Street.' Crokatt, an associate of Dodsley, with whom Samuel Johnson worked, traded from the 1720s to the 1750s.

Printed Advertisement Leaf, with illustration.

Author: 
William and Joseph Marshall, Bookseller and Stationer, 'At the Bible in Newgate-street, over against the Blue-Coat Hospital Gate'
Publication details: 
Undated [circa 1720].
£250.00

Dimensions roughly six inches by three and a half. Wormed (but only affecting two letters of text) on aged paper. One page, blank reverse. Wood cut at head, roughly one and a quarter inches square, illustrating a leather-bound book with clasps. Thirty-three lines of text, beginning 'At the Bible in Newgate-street, over against the Blue-Coat Hospital Gate.

Typed message (to departing employee?), on printed letterhead, with thirty-eight signatures (of work-colleagues?).

Author: 
Medici Society [Cobden-Sanderson]
Medici Society
Publication details: 
Without date; on the company's Grafton Street letterhead.
£100.00
Medici Society

Company founded in 1908 by Philip Lee Warner and Eustace Gurney, 'to bring artists' work to the appreciation of a wider public'. One page, quarto. Folded twice. Good, but slightly foxed and lightly creased. The typed message reads ' "The best of Prophets of the future is the Past" | With the best of wishes for future success.' The signatures are arranged in four columns. The inclusion of 'Cobden-Sanderson' is unexplained.

Autograph letters and notes to John Russell Smith, publisher

Author: 
William Andrew Chatto
Publication details: 
[1848]
£250.00

Miscellaneous writer on subjects such as angling, ports and harbours, tobacco, wood-engraving - and playing cards (see below(DNB):Three ALs, signed (1) and initialled (2) to Smith, [1848], total 4pp., various formats, one in poor condition with minor loss of text.(March) Chatto asks Smith for specific books.

Engraving by Reynolds of Birmingham.

Author: 
James Bisset [ nineteenth-century illustrated list of Birmingham toy makers ]
Publication details: 
No date [1800?]; 'Publish'd, by J. Bisset, Museum Birmm. for his Magnificent Directory.'
£85.00

According to the British Library Bisset's Directory was published in 1800. Paper dimensions roughly 5 1/4 inches by 9 inches; print dimensions roughly 4 1/4 inches by 7 inches. In very good condition although somewhat grubby. Paper watermarked '<179?>9 | TMAN'. At head of plate: 'M'. At foot of plate: 'Reynolds. Sct. Birm'.

Valentine card.

Author: 
Ronald Searle
Publication details: 
1959
£35.00

Dimensions when folded roughly 4 3/4 inches by 6 inches. Somewhat grubby, but well printed and in good condition overall. Front of card printed in black with Searle's printed signature and 'to my Valentine -' in red at head. Cartoon illustration of bespectacled young lady with bouffant hair and hairband, in dainty skirt and heels, holding beribboned had in front of her, posing in front of wall on which she casts large shadow of horned devil with tail.

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