CENTURY

Autograph Letter Signed ('C J Mathews') to Hollingshead.

Author: 
C. J. Mathews [Charles James Mathews] (1803-1878), son of Charles Mathews, English actor and playwright [John Hollingshead (1827-1904), English journalist and theatre manager]
Publication details: 
23 November 1865; 25 Pelham Crescent, London.
£38.00

12mo, 1 p. Fair, on aged paper, with traces of previous mount adhering to the corners of the blank reverse. Of course Hollingshead should 'wait till the last night of "used up" ' before writing to Mathews, who has 'hunted up Buckstone - hunted up Turpin - but in vain. Not a box to be had'. He has sent 'the best I could get': '3 Dress Circle to Mrs Smiles with "Mr Hollingshead's best compliments." '. In a postscript states that if Hollingshead wants 'a box for the "Overland Route" before the last night' he will be 'too happy'. 'There is always a run on last nights.'

Autograph Note Signed ('Eleanor M Sidgwick') to 'Miss Chittenden, Cambridge Training Corps, Wollaston Road, Cambridge'.

Author: 
Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick [née Balfour] (1845-1936), Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge
Publication details: 
16 August 1907; on letterhead of Newnham College, Cambridge.
£28.00

16mo, 1 p. In a bifolium. Seven lines. Clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. In stamped, addressed envelope. Asks if Chittenden will 'come to luncheon' on one of the two following days, as Sidgwick 'hardly saw' her on the previous day.

Autograph Signature ('Maurice OConnell').

Author: 
Sir Maurice O'Connell [Sir Maurice Charles O'Connell] (1812-1879), Irish soldier, administrator, and politician in Australia [Daniel O'Connell]
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£23.00

On a piece of paper, 2 x 8 cm, cut from a letter. Neatly laid down on a piece of paper, 4 x 9 cm. Good, on aged paper. The signature reads 'Maurice OConnell'. In a contemporary hand, on the mount, 'Maurice O'Connell. MP. | (nephew of King Dan)'. According to the Oxford DNB, Daniel O'Connell ('The Liberator') was a cousin of Maurice's father Sir Maurice Charles Philip O'Connell (1768-1848).

Autograph Signature on part of document

Author: 
Sir Charles Yorke (1790-1880), General in the British Army
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£28.00

A piece of laid paper, roughly 8 x 20 cm, cut from a document by an autograph collector. Yorke's signature, large (4.5 x 7 cm) and bold, is in the bottom right-hand corner. The surviving text is in a secretary's hand, and reads: '<...> of Our Reign. | By His Majesty's Command. | C Yorke | Our Trusty and Wellbeloved William Gordon Esqr General in Our Army & Col of Our 71st (Highland) Regiment of Foot or to the Officer appointed by him to raise Men for Our said Regiment'.

Frank, with signature ('J Lawrence'), seal, and autograph address to Northcote

Author: 
John Laird Mair Lawrence (1811-1879), 1st Baron Lawrence, Viceroy of India from 1864 to 1869 [Sir Stafford Northcote]
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£23.00

Cut from an envelope into a 'T' shape, with the front panel bearing the address and signature roughly 8.5 x 22.5 cm, forming the cross stroke, and the area from the back of the letter bearing the seal, cut into a roughly 6.5 x 5.5 cm rectangle, hanging down from this like the vertical stroke of the letter. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper. Reads 'To the Right Honorable, | Sir Stafford Northcote, Bart | Secretary of State for India | London | J Lawrence'. The circular red wax seal is 3.5 cm in diameter.

Part of Autograph Letter, with signature ('James Wilson').

Author: 
James Wilson (1805-1860), Scottish economist and politician
Publication details: 
Place and date not stated.
£23.00

On one side of a piece of wove paper, roughly 5 x 18.5 cm, cut from letter by an autograph collector. Aged, and with staining from the glue used in mounting. Reads '<...> upon it. | I hope you are quite recovered. | Yours trly | James Wilson'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Adolphus') concerning the newly-completed St Mary's Hospital, Paddington.

Author: 
Prince Adolphus Frederick (1774-1850), Duke of Cambridge, son of King George III [St Mary's Hospital, Paddington]
Publication details: 
15 March 1850; Cambridge House.
£35.00

12mo, 3 pp. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with a little damage to the four corners of the second leaf caused by removal from mount. Thirty-five lines of text. Clear and complete. He has been afforded 'very great satisfaction' by the announcement that the Hospital 'is now so nearly completed' that it will 'a few weeks hence be delivered into the possession and management of the Governors'. It is a 'new, capacious and very necessary addition to our metropolitan Hospitals'.

Printed Receipt, completed in manuscript and signed, for five works by Williamson legally deposited in the Library of the British Museum.

Author: 
Department of Printed Books, British Museum, London [George Charles Williamson (1858-1942), writer on art and historian of Guildford; George Bell & Sons]
Publication details: 
6 October 1904; Department of Printed Books, British Museum, London.
£25.00

On one side of piece of paper 23.5 x 16 cm. With perforated edge. Good, on aged paper, with traces with strip of glue from previous mount on reverse. Printed in copperplate. The deposited works are 'Notes on the Maces, Insignia of Office, and Town Plate of the Town of Guildford', 'Progress of Catholic Work', 'Token Pamphlet', 'Guildford Shakespeare' and 'County Town'. Ostensibly signed by the 'Keeper', but the signature is not decipherable (''). In his obituary in The Times, 6 July 1942, Williamson was praised as 'a highly industrious and versatile writer on art'.

Engraved copperplate Certificate, completed in manuscript and signed by E. Gilbert Highton, with a long 'Private note' by him, notifying Williamson of his election to Fellowship in the Royal Society of Literature.

Author: 
Edward Gilbert Highton, Fellow and Secretary, Royal Society of Literature [George Charles Williamson (1858-1942), writer on art and historian of Guildford; George Bell & Sons]
Publication details: 
3 January 1890, on letterhead of the Royal Society of Literature.
£28.00

4to bifolium (leaf dimensions 26 x 20.5 cm). The notification certificate is on the recto of the first leaf, and Highton's letter is on the recto of the second. Versos of both leaves blank. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper, with 5 cm closed tear to margin of second leaf caused by removal of letter from stub, traces of which still adhere to the verso of the second leaf. The certificate is tastefully printed in black, with the Society's crest in red in the top left-hand corner.

Manuscript notebook, titled 'Anecdotes &c.', containing several hundred humorous stories (transcribed and 'Related'), with a few newspaper and magazine cuttings.

Author: 
Victorian notebook filled with humorous anecdotes [A. S. S. Sidney, Wobaston House, Wolverhampton; nineteenth-century English social history; jokes; humour]
Publication details: 
English. Dated between 1866 and 1911.
£150.00

Quarto (leaf dimensions roughly 19.5 x 15.5 cm). Ruled with twenty-eight lines to the page. Written in a close, neat hand, covering the first ninety-one pages of the notebook. Loosely inserted are twelve pages containing a further thirty stories, on three bifoliums each headed 'Anecdotes &c'. In black-leather half-binding, marbled boards. Good and tight, with text clear and complete on lightly aged paper. Calligraphic design printed on front free endpaper. A charming collection, casting amusing and entertaining light on nineteenth-century English social history.

Autograph Letter Signed ('N Card. Wiseman'), in French, to 'Mons Castermann, Editeur, Tournai'.

Author: 
Cardinal Wiseman [Nicholas Patrick Stephen Wiseman] (1802-1865)
Publication details: 
16 August 1856; Brussells.
£56.00

12mo: 1 p. On the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium, with the address, with postmark, on the reverse of the second. On brittle, aged paper. The letter has been neatly folded three times, and there are a few closed tears along the crease lines, including one through the initial 'N' of the signature. Wiseman thanks Castermann for the copy he has sent of 'votre nouvelle édition en Français de "Fabiola". Not only is the 'execution typographique de l'ouvrage' deserving of his praise, but also the translation, which leaves nothing to be desired.

Autograph Note [to Jerdan?].

Author: 
Barry Cornwall' [Bryan Waller Procter (1787-1874)], English poet and friend of Charles Lamb [William Jerdan, editor of the Literary Gazette]
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated [London; circa 1820?].
£38.00

On upper half of a piece of quarto paper, unevenly torn to make a piece roughly 11 x 18.5 cm. Fair: on aged paper. Part of address from previous letter to 'W. Jerdan <...> | 267 Strand <...>' on reverse, which is docketed 'Procter | Miss Proby | Cornwalls poems'. Reads 'I inclose you a note left here for you | George says he will review the book for you next week - in the meantime give a flourish in your notice - 'The time does not admit of doing just to the vol. &c &c We are all a Party in this success -'.

Lithographed document entitled 'Estimate For the Erection of Proposed New Isolation Hospital at Leavesden Asylum, near Watford, Herts, for the Managers of the Metropolitan Asylum District.'

Author: 
Captain C. E. Dance, R.E.R., Surveyor to the Board [Metropolitan Asylums Board; Leavesden Asylum]
Publication details: 
September 1902. Rich & Co. Electrographers & Lithographers, 12 Furnival St. E.C.
£100.00

Unbound and stapled. Sixty-four pages. Dimensions of leaf roughly thirteen inches by eight wide. Lithographed facsimile handwriting throughout. Aged and with some wear to extremities, but text clear and entire. 'Clerk of Writ Copy' in red ink manuscript at head of first page. An interesting and informative document, compiled on behalf of the Metropolitan Asylums Board, giving in detail the specifications for builders tendering for the contract for the erection of the new hospital.

Prospectus for 'The Gehenna Shakespeare'.

Author: 
The Gehenna Press [Leonard Baskin]
Publication details: 
[Northampton, Massachusetts, 1972 or 1973.]
£45.00

Folio bifolium (leaf dimensions approximately 50.5 x 34 cm). Unbound. Creased, with worn central horizontal fold, and somewhat dogeared at head and foot. Four pages, printed in black, with the first and fourth pages carrying a few words in red.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W Edmondstoun de Aytoun') to James Simpson.

Author: 
William Edmonstoune Aytoun [William Edmondstoun de Aytoun] (1813-1865), Scottish poet
Publication details: 
26 January 1865; 16 Great Stuart Street, Edinburgh.
£280.00

12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium. Twenty-eight lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with evidence of previous mount on reverse of second leaf. Certainly genuine, and of interest as bearing a variant spelling of Aytoun's name in a signature written from his home a few months before his death. (The spelling 'Edmondstoun de Aytoun' is not noted in Aytoun's entry in the Oxford DNB.) In the latter part of the letter Aytoun comments on his poetic practice. He is 'much flattered' by Simpson's 'selection of my poem for a public reading', and is 'glad to hear that it was appreciated'.

Printed Indenture of Apprenticeship, in two identical parts.

Author: 
Apprentice's Indenture [Apprenticeship; London; printed ephemera]
Publication details: 
[circa 1810] London: 'Sold by COLES, KNIGHT and DUNN, Stationers, No. 21, Fleet Street. Printed by W. SMITH, and Co. King Street, Seven Dials.
£26.00

A bifolium, with the text printed landscape on the recto of the two leaves, each of which are 21 x 33.5 cm. On laid Britannia paper watermarked 'G. PIKE | 1809'. The first two words in gothic script, nine-line marginal note in italic, and the rest in roman. Thirty-three lines of text, with spaces for manuscript insertions. Neither of the two parts (presumably one for the master and the other for the apprentice's family) has been filled in. Prepared for completion in the 1810s ('in the Year of our Lord 181[gap]').

Archive of thirty-four Autograph Letters Signed and fifty-two Typed Letters Signed, to Baker, with two Autograph Letters Signed from Campion's wife, and drafts of three of Baker letters (two autograph and one typed), exhibition catalogue, etc.

Author: 
Sidney Ronald Campion (1891-1978), O.B.E., F.R.S.A., English sculptor, painter and author [Edward Cecil Baker (1902-), M.B.E., Post Office Librarian [Archivist?]]
Publication details: 
1953 to 1978. 22 Erridge Road, Merton Park, Wimbledon (until 1971); 13 Argyle Court, Argyle Road, Southport (from 1972).
£250.00

The archive is in very good condition, with very slight creasing and aging, and with all items entirely legible. Most items quarto, and most of two pages or more (one running to seven pages). One letter has the head and first paragraph cut away. All but the first two items, which date from 1953 and are signed 'Sidney R Campion', are signed 'Sidney'. The bulk of the correspondence dates from the 1970s. An important archive consisting almost exclusively of long, interesting and discursive letters addressed to a close and trusted friend.

No. 271. Essai sur le Plaisir, considéré relativement a la Médecine; Thèse présentée et soutenu a la Faculté de Médecine de Paris, le 28 novembre 1820, pour obtenir le grade de Docteur en medecine.

Author: 
Augustin Haguette, de Saint-Denis, Départment de la Seine [Didot le jeune, Paris printer]
Publication details: 
A Paris, De l'Imprimerie de Didot le Jeune, Imprimeur de la Faculté de Médecine, rue des Maçons-Sorbonne, no. 13. 1820.
£40.00

4to: viii + 47 pp. Disbound. On foxed paper with occasional light staining. On the title-page Haguette is described as 'Bachelier-ès-lettres; ex-Officier de santé des armées; ancien Elève de l'Ecole pratique et des hôpitaux civils de Paris.' 'No. 9.' in manuscript at head of the title-page. Dedicated, somewhat unusually for a thesis, 'Au meilleur des pères. A la mère la plus tendre. Leur fils reconnaissant. A Monsieur Fouquier, [...] Hommage de respect et de reconnaissance. Aug. Haguette, son élève.

Fac-Simile of Autographs of Subscribers to the Picturesque Views of Seats of Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland.

Author: 
[Francis Orpen Morris; list of subscribers; autographs]
Publication details: 
London: A. Clarke, 1880.
£350.00

Quarto. 135 pages of skillfully executed autographs followed by a 45-page printed 'INDEX TO AUTOGRAPHS', ranging from 'H.R.H. The PRINCE of WALES, K.G.' to 'Zillwood, A., The Abbey, Romsey, Hants.'. Attractive title in gold, purple, blue, yellow and green, with illustration of Osborne House. A handsome, if somewhat flashy, production. Maroon morocco binding, with a large crest stamped in gilt within a decorative border on the front board. All edges gilt. Tight copy, rebacked with new endpapers. Offsetting to fly leaf and a little damp damage to corner of title.

First printing of his essay '[Ur-Gerausch]' ['Primal Noise'].

Author: 
Rainer Maria Rilke
Publication details: 
In 'Das Inselschiff' (Leipzig: Im Insel-Verlag, October 1919).
£35.00

The magazine consists of 48 pages, octavo, in original yellow printed wraps. Dogeared, and on aged paper, and with the grubby wraps quite heavily worn. 12mo publicity handbill loosely inserted. Rilke's contribution, dated 'Soglio, am Tage Mariae Himmelfahrt 1919', is on pp 14-20.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W Beattie. MD.') to the editor of the 'Naval and Military Gazette'.

Author: 
William Beattie (1793-1875), Scottish physician and poet
Publication details: 
13 August [1858]; St James's Street, London, on embossed letterhead of the Conservative Club.
£56.00

16mo (11 x 9 cm) bifolium, 3 pp, 16 lines of text. Mourning border. Good, with slight discoloration to the external pages. He is sending a manuscript 'At the suggestion of the Author, an officer residing in Paris'. If 'on examination' the recipient considers it 'unsuitable for the pages' of the Gazette, he asks for it to be returned to him at 13 Upper Berkeley Street 'when your messenger happens to pass that way'. The author 'is a man of high character and well acquainted with Paris & the Parisians'.

Autograph Letter Signed to his publisher and friend Alexander Macmillan.

Author: 
William Black (1841-1898), Scottish journalist and novelist [Alexander Macmillan (1818-1896), publisher; Colin Hunter (1841-1904), Scottish painter]
Publication details: 
1 February [no year]; on letterhead of Paston House, Paston Place, Brighton.
£28.00

12mo, 1 p. Six lines of text. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper. Inviting Macmillan to join him and 'some of the lads' in a dinner at the Reform Club, 'on the occasion of Colin Hunter's being made an Associate'.

Autograph Letter Signed to unknown male correspondent; Autograph Signed endorsement of 'Dr. Dick of Dundee'; and facsimile of letter of thanks to his 'Birth-day Benefactors'.

Author: 
James Montgomery (1771-1854), Scottish hymnwriter and poet
Publication details: 
The letter dated 29 May 1835, 10 New Palace Yard, Westminster; the endorsement dated 'The Mount, September 19. 1850'; the facsimile dated 'The Mount nr Sheffield, Nov. 4. 1851.'
£220.00

The letter (8vo, 1 p) is foxed, but otherwise very good. Had he not been 'engaged for ten days past to dine three or four miles off with an old acquaintance', whom it is too late to disappoint, he would have been happy to avail himself of the kind invitation. Sends best wishes and prayers to the recipient's family, 'from the elder to the youngest'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('David S. Meldrum') to unnamed female correspondent.

Author: 
David Storrar Meldrum (1864-1940), novelist and partner in the publishing house of Blackwood's
Publication details: 
4 September 1897; on company letterhead '37, Paternoster Row, London, E.C.'
£56.00

8vo: 3 pp. On grubby, lightly creased paper. The recipient has made Meldrum a 'pretty present' of her edition of Burns (COPAC provides no clue as to her identity). He finds the volumes 'very dainty', and will read her notes 'with interest'. He has already read her 'Introductions' with 'great pleasure'. He comments on her assessment of a couple of poems and finds her 'standpoint' on 'the man & the poet' 'capital'. 'But you must allow me one criticism: you read into the poems a political significance which I'm sure wasn't there.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J. Caird') to James MacLehose.

Author: 
John Caird (1820-1898), Church of Scotland minister, theologian and Principal of Glasgow University [James MacLehose (1811-1885), Glasgow publisher and bookseller; Rev. Dr James Paterson]
Publication details: 
July 6 [no year, but accompanied by an envelope postmarked 29 July 1881]; Venlaw Bank, Peebles, on cancelled letterhead of The University, Glasgow.
£56.00

12mo, 2 pp. Good, on lightly aged paper with slight creasing at head. He is enclosing a letter (not present) apologising 'for absence from Dr. Patersons funeral'. Asks if MacLehose can help him find the address of 'A. Craig Paterson'. 'I know that one of the sons is an English clergyman, but am not sure whether this is he.' The envelope, addressed by Caird to 'Jas. MacLehose Esq. | St. Vincent St. | Glasgow', bears a purple penny stamp, postmarked '159' beside a circular postmark in black ink, containing '4 H | GLASGOW | JU 29 | 81'

Autograph Letter Signed to Lockyer.

Author: 
William Black (1841-1898), Scottish journalist and novelist [Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer (1836-1920), Alexander Macmillan (1818-1896); astronomer; Altnaharra Hotel; angling; fishing]
Publication details: 
29 March [no year]; Altnaharra, Lairg, N.B. [Scotland]
£38.00

16mo bifolium (leaf dimensions 11 x 9 cm): 2 pp. 17 lines of text. Very good on lightly aged paper. Wonders whether Lockyer would like to spend his Easter holidays at Altnaharra, for a fortnight from 14 April. (The Altnaharra Hotel was used by anglers visiting the nearby lochs.) 'It is an expensive journey; but the sport is good - at least it has been good this last fortnight, but now we are sadly in want of rain. The weather is like June, only more so.' Forty salmon have been killed 'in these two weeks, averaging 11 lbs each'. Black's publisher was Alexander Macmillan.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W Maccall') [to the publishers W. S. Sonnenschein & Co.].

Author: 
William Maccall (1812-1888), Scottish writer and lecturer [W. S. Sonnenschein & Co.]
Publication details: 
14 November 1882; Stanhope Cottages, Bexley Heath.
£85.00

4to, 1 page and 12mo, 2 pp (single 4to leaf, folded as to give two 12mo pp on one side). Thirty-seven lines of text. Maccall is 'willing to accept any proposal which is reasonable and just' concerning his 'Christian Legends' (published by Sonnenschein in 1882), and also 'to make sacrifices for the sake of obliging [...] As the one manuscript is about twice the length of the other - I speak from memory, - it might honestly claim better remuneration'.

Letter 'by the hand of an amanuensis' to the poet and biblical scholar the Rev. Henry Alford (1810-1871).

Author: 
Charles Mackay (1814-1889), Scottish poet and journalist
Publication details: 
7 March 1853; 21 Brecknock Crescent, Camden Road Villas, [London].
£45.00

Three pages, 12mo. Very good: lightly aged and with the merest glue spot to blank verso of second leaf of bifolium. Mackay's 'signature' appears to be in the same hand as the rest of the letter. He has had a 'severe attack of inflammation of the eye', and this has prevented him from reading or writing during the previous week. For the same reason he is replying to Alford's letter of 1 March through an amanuensis. Three weeks previously Mackay 'received a packet from Mr.

Autograph Letter Signed ('A Lang') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Andrew Lang (1844-1912), Scottish man of letters
Publication details: 
15 December [no year, but after 1906]; on letterhead of Alleyne House, St. Andrews, Scotland.
£45.00

12mo: 3 pp. Bifolium. 27 lines, written in a shaky hand. On creased, discoloured paper, and with some damage to the second leaf caused by careless removal from mount. Two irregularly-shaped closed tears on the second leaf, one to the left of the signature, have been neatly repaired on the reverse with archival tape. He is glad that his correspondent likes 'our Odyssey: the Iliad is less attractive. [...] I dare not remember all my books, but will ask Messrs Longman to send a list of what they possess. All are very unpopular.' He doesn't write in 'T.

The Abbotsford Subscription.

Author: 
R. A. Dundas, Secretary, Royal Society of Literature [Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), Scottish novelist and poet]
Publication details: 
St. Martin's Place, Dec. 7, 1832.'
£80.00

Disbound. Octavo: four pages. Good: slightly aged and with some creasing to extremities. Thirty-one lines of text, followed by a double-column list of subscribers, and amounts subscribed.

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