CENTURY

The Art of Poetry, Written in French by The Sieur de Boileau. In Four Canto's. Made English By Sir William Soames, Since Revis'd by John Dryden, Esq;

Author: 
Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux; Sir William Soames; John Dryden; Henry Hills junior, London printer
Publication details: 
London: Printed and Sold by H. Hills, in Black-fryars near the Water-side. 1710.
£400.00

12mo: 40 pp. Disbound. Good, on lightly aged paper. Contemporary ownership inscription of 'William Francklyn" on title-page. This edition is scarce: no copy in the British Library, and the only copy on COPAC at Liverpool.

Victorian type-facsimile [by John Camden Hotten or H. J. Bellars?] of 'Joe Miller's Jests Or, The Wits Vade-Mecum. [...] now set forth and published by his lamentable Friend and former Companion, Elijah Jenkins, Esq. [i.e. John Mottley]

Author: 
Joe Miller's Jests; 'Elijah Jenkins' [John Mottley] [H. J. Bellars; John Camden Hotten]
Publication details: 
Title-page reads 'London: Printed and Sold by T. READ, in Dogwell-Court, White-Fryars, Fleet-Street, MDCCXXXIX. [1739]', but in fact a type facsimile [by John Camden Hotten or H. J. Bellars?], circa 1861].
£45.00

8vo: [ii] + 70 pp. Internally sound and tight, on lightly-aged paper. In worn contemporary burgundy quarter-binding with heavily-worn spine, recased with repair to rear endpapers. COPAC lists an entry for a copy in Cambridge University Library described as 'Probably the Lithographic facsimile by H.J. Bellars. London, reprinted 1861'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Geo. T. Gell') to 'Dear Walter'.

Author: 
George T. Gell [I.O.G.T.; IOGT International; Independent Order of Good Templars; International Order of Good Templars; temperance movement; abstinence; prohibition; Sydney, Australia]
Publication details: 
25 February 1889; 15 Little's Lane, Nicholson Street, Balmain, E. Sydney, Australia [on I.O.G.T. letterhead].
£28.00

8vo: 4 pp. Bifolium. 66 lines. Text clear and complete, on aged, spotted and worn paper. Letterhead with printed mottos in decorative borders: 'Total Abstinence is the only certain Preventive of, or Remedy for Intemperance.' and 'INDIVIDUAL ABSTINENCE. | STATE PROHIBITION.' In conclusion Gell apologises for 'what you no doubt will stigmatize as an absurd letter', and to the modern reader this item is certainly unintentionally-amusing. Since his correspondent 'went up', 'one of my Tasmanian friends along with Mrs.

The Unhappy Princesses. In two Parts. Containing First, The Secret History of Queen Anne Bullen. [...] Secondly, The History of the Lady Jane Grey. [...] Adorn'd with Pictures.

Author: 
R. B.' [i.e. 'Robert Burton', pseudonym of Nathaniel Crouch (c.1640-1725?), London printer and bookseller]
Publication details: 
London: Printed for N. Crouch, at the Bell against Grocers-Alley, in the Poultry, near Cheapside. 1710.
£250.00

12mo: 159 + [9] pp. (Publisher's catalogue of 'Books Printed for Nath. Crouch at the Bell against Grocers-Alley in the Poultrey near Cheapside.' begins at foot of p.159 and continues for nine unpaginated pages, ending 'FINIS.') Lacks frontispiece. Woodcuts on pp.26, 61 and 121. In worn original calf binding. No endpapers. Aged and with worn fore-edge. Separate title to second part on p.89 ('The Secret History of the Lady Jane Gray', 'London: Printed for Nath. Crouch. 1710.') Scarce: COPAC only lists reproductions, with the note: 'R.B.

Number Four in the series of Christmas cards printed by the Favil Press for the Poetry bookshop, containing the poem 'The Curate's Christmas Eve' by Monro, and two coloured engravings by Stewart, one entitled 'Decorations'.

Author: 
Harold Monro (1879-1932); Alistair Stewart; The Favil Press; The Poetry Bookshop
Publication details: 
No date [circa 1928]. Printed 'by The Favil Press, 152 Church Street, Kensington, W.8 and published, in collaboration with the printers, by The Poetry Bookshop, 38 Great Russell Street, London, W.C.1.'
£45.00

Printed on one side of a piece of paper roughly 46 x 32 cm, folded twice to make a 23 x 16 cm card. Good, on lightly aged and spotted paper. On the front is a small illustration in green and black, roughly 7.5 x 6 cm, showing a picture of a domestic Christmas interior in an ivy-topped frame. Inside the card, on the left-hand page, is Monro's poem, of 18 lines arranged in three stanzas, beginning, 'The Curate and the Spinster sit.

Poems of Rural Life in Common English.

Author: 
William Barnes [Dorset dialect poetry]
Publication details: 
London: Macmillan and Co. 1868. [London: Printed by Spottiswoode and Co., New-Street Square and Parliament Street.]
£65.00

First edition. 8vo: xii + 200 + [iv] pp. (the last four pages an unpaginated publisher's catalogue). In original blue cloth, gilt. Fair, tight copy, on lightly-aged paper, with some spotting to endpapers. Binding with dulled spine and minor spotting. Bookplate of the Rev. English Crooks. Binders ticket ('BOUND BY BURN & CO.') to rear pastedown. Half-title reads 'RURAL POEMS'. The 'translation' of the three collections beginning with 'Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect' (1844).

Three Typed Letters Signed (the first two in full and the third 'E P Gorini') the first two to Violet Bonham Carter and the last to her son Mark, the first in English and the last two in Italian.

Author: 
Edvige Pesce Gorini, Italian poet, editor of the 'Giornale dei Poeti' [Violet Bonham Carter (1887-1969); Mark Raymond Bonham Carter (1922-1994), Baron Bonham-Carter, Liberal politician]
Publication details: 
21 February 1946; 15 May 1947; and 28 July 1948. All three from Via Angelo Poliziano No. 69, Rome.
£120.00

Text of all three items clear and complete. All three on lightly aged paper, creased and with some wear to extremities. Letter One (8vo, 1 p; 20 lines of text): She thanks Bonham Carter for her 'kind and appreciative letter' and 'will see that through the English Embassy' she receives 'a copy of my short story: "I due prigionieri", of which your son is the protagonist'. (An officer in the Grenadier Guards, during the war Mark Bonham Carter had escaped from a prison camp in northern Italy.) Describes material she is sending relating to her 'literary career'.

[drophead title] The Conversion of Martin Luther.

Author: 
James Macaulay (1817-1902), doctor, editor and author of devotional works [Martin Luther; The Religious Tract Society]
Publication details: 
[circa 1890] London: The Religious Tract Society, 56 Paternoster Row, 65 St. Paul's Churchyard, 164 Piccadilly.
£85.00

12mo: 12 pp. Stitched and unbound. Fair, on lightly-aged paper with slight wear to extremities. Numbered 1355 at foot of first page. On first page 9 x 7 cm engraving of the monk Luther reading in a library. Beneath the title the author is described as 'James Macaulay, Esq., M.A., M.D., Author of "Luther Anecdotes," [published c.1883] etc. etc.' Curiously scarce considering the publishers: no copy in the British Library or on COPAC. For more on Macaulay see his entry in the Oxford DNB.

A Detail of the Wonderful Revolution at Paris; Or, An Exact Narrative of All that passed in the Capital of France, particularly the Siege and Capture of the Bastille, from the 11th of July, 1789, to the 23d of the same Month.

Author: 
M. D** C** [i.e. Monsieur de Courtive] [translated by 'S. M.'] [James Ridgway, London publisher; the fall of the Bastille, 1789]
Publication details: 
London: Printed for James Ridgway, No. I, York Street, St. James's Square. 1789.
£450.00

8vo: [iv] + 48 pp. Stabbed as issued. In modern brown paper wraps. Good, on lightly aged paper. Beneath the author's name on title-page: 'Dedicated to the District of PETIT ST.

The Traveller's Oracle; Or, Maxims for Locomotion: Containing Precepts for Promoting the Pleasures and Hints for Preserving the Health of Travellers. [Part II: 'By John Jervis, An Old Coachman.] [Including sheet music of eight songs by Kitchiner.]

Author: 
William Kitchiner ['John Jervis, An Old Coachman.']
Publication details: 
London: Henry Colburn, New Burlington Street. Second Edition, 1827. [London: Printed by J. Moyes, Took's Court, Chancery Lane.] [Sheet music engraved by Sidney Hall, Bury Street, Bloomsbury.]
£300.00

2 vols, 12mo. Vol.1: viii + 264 pp. Vol.2: viii + 336 pp. Complete, with all the engravings of sheet music listed in the contents (vol.1: five two-page plates and one four-page plate, with one more piece of music 'printed with the letterpress'; vol.2: one two-page plate). Both volumes good and tight, on lightly-aged and spotted paper. In worn contemporary half-calf binding, marbled boards, with the first volume rebacked. Each volume with bookplate of Frederic Perkins, Chipstead Place, Kent.

Secretarial Letter, Signed by Murray ('A. H. Hallam Murray'), to C. J. Holdsworth, responding to a criticism of an entry in one of 'Murray's Guides'.

Author: 
Alexander Henry Hallam Murray (1854-1934), son of the London publisher John Murray the third (1808-1892) [50 Albemarle Street; Murray's Guides]
Publication details: 
28 January 1898; on letterhead of 50 Albemarle Street.
£28.00

12mo, 2 pp. 12 lines of text. Very good on lightly-aged paper. He has received Holdsworth's letter, and is 'sorry to hear that you found our description of the Royal Hotel not justified'. Note will be taken of Holdsworth's 'experiences' and 'whatever alterations are necessary' will be made, 'when next we reprint the Index & Directory of the Handbook'. 'Notes such as [Holdsworth's] are most acceptable.'

Letter, in a secretarial hand, signed by Cuvier ('Bn G Cuvier'), to 'Mr. Raynal, Proviseur du college Royal de Nismes'. With engraved portrait of Cuvier by T. Richomme, from a drawing by 'Mme Lizinka de Mirbel'.

Author: 
Baron Georges Cuvier [Baron Georges Léopold Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert Cuvier] (1769-1832), French naturalist [Theodore Richomme; Aimée Zoe Lizinka de Mirbel]
Publication details: 
Letter of 2 April 1822; on letterhead of the Conseil royal de l'Instruction publique. Engraving undated (circa 1840?).
£225.00

Letter: Folio (30.5 x 20 cm), 1 p. Bifolium, with text on recto of first leaf and address (with several postmarks) on reverse of second. Five lines. Text clear and complete, with good clear signature. Fair, on aged and lightly-creased paper, with 1.5 cm closed tear in top left-hand corner (not affecting text). The 'Objet de la lettre' is given as 'Envoi d'un Brevet de Pension'. The pension will be paid 'par la Caisse d'Amortissement'. Engraving: Original, on paper 24 x 15.5 cm. Captioned 'G. CUVIER.' A good clear impression on grubby, spotted and lightly-creased paper.

Autograph Letter Signed to Sonnenschein.

Author: 
James Samuelson, editor of 'Subjects of the Day' [George Routledge & Sons Limited; William Swan Sonnenschein [Stallybrass] (1855-1934), publisher]
Publication details: 
22 September 1890; Trevenna, Grosvenor Road, on letterhead of 'GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS LIMITED | "SUBJECTS OF THE DAY." | (EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.)'
£30.00

8vo, 1 p. Good, on lightly-aged paper. In response to a 'kind note', Samuelson informs Sonnenschein that 'the next number of our Review, which will appear shortly, is to deal with the Irish question'. He has 'a very copious list of publications' and although he would have welcomed Sonnenschein's assistance, he hardly thinks it is worth his while at the present time to trouble himself over the matter, 'for reasons which I will explain to you some day'.

Copyright publishing agreement for two songs by 'Mr Blanchard' [Thomas Blanchard?], in a secretarial hand, signed by Brewer.

Author: 
Samuel Brewer, London publisher of sheet music
Publication details: 
27 February 1849; 23 Bishopsgate St. Within [City of London].
£75.00

4to, 1 p. Bifolium, addressed with postmarks, penny red stamp, and remains of black wax seal, on reverse of second leaf to 'Mr Blanchard, 5 Hackney Terrace, South Hackney'. Text clear and complete. In poor condition, on aged, ruckled and stained paper. Following their 'conversation of Saturday Morning' Brewer agrees 'to purchase the Copyrights of the "City Polka's [sic] & also the Song entitled "Ever the Same" upon the following terms [...]'.

Typed Letter Signed ('John G. Murray') to 'Mrs. Norsworthy'.

Author: 
John Murray the sixth [John Grey Murray; Jock Murray; John Arnaud Robin Grey Murray (1909-1993), London publisher
Publication details: 
9 March 1936; on the firm's 50 Albemarle Street letterhead.
£28.00

4to, 1 p. Eight lines in typescript and one line in manuscript. Good, on lightly-aged paper. With stamped Envelope addressed in manuscript. The firm is 'sorry to hear' that she intends to 'take two volumes' over her book on Henry III, not considering that 'a biography of him could succeed in more than one complete volume. To take him to 1237 in the first volume would spoil the completeness of what we feel should be a one-volume biography.' He adds in manuscript: 'I hope we will not prove too unwieldy.'

Business communication on partly printed form, regarding the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta.

Author: 
Williams & Norgate, London booksellers [Sir John Philippart (1784-1875); The Asiatic Society of Calcutta]
Publication details: 
30 May 1870; on letterhead of 14, Henrietta-Street, Covent Garden ('Also at 20, South Frederick-Street, Edinburgh.').
£28.00

12mo (21 x 13 cm), 1 p. On green paper. Clear and complete. On aged, creased and grubby paper. Reads (manuscript text in square brackets): Messrs. Williams & Norgate present their compliments to [Sir John Philippart] and beg to inform [him that the Asiatic Socy Calcutta send them the Journal, as it is published to be forwarded to him, if he does not require it, W & N will return the numbers to Calcutta'. Docketed in a contemporary hand at head: '10 packets returned 31st May 1870'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('R. Brimley Johnson') [to Swan Sonnenschein], proposing a work for publication, and outlining his literary achievements.

Author: 
R. Brimley Johnson [Reginald Brimley Johnson] (1867-1932), English author and editor [Swan Sonnenschein, London publishers]
Publication details: 
19 February 1893; on embossed letterhead of Llandaff House, Cambridge.
£65.00

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. He was introduced to the recipient 'by Mr. Philip Malleson of Croydon, when I wanted to send an Essay to The Albemarle'. Asks if he 'might be disposed to let me write a volume on Jane Austen or Leigh Hunt for your Dilettante Library', Austen being 'specially before the public just now'. He has edited Austen's novels and two 'well received' volumes of selections from Hunt for 'Mr. Dent's Temple Library'. 'If you do not care to arrange for either of these authors I would suggest Miss Burney[,] Hazlitt or T. L. Peacock.

Autograph Letter Signed ('George A Lawrence') to an unnamed publisher [George Routledge?].

Author: 
George A. Lawrence [George Alfred Lawrence] (1827-1876), English novelist [Miss Caulfield; George Routledge]
Publication details: 
22 March 1858; Plymouth.
£35.00

16mo (leaf dimensions 13 x 10 cm), 3 pp. Bifolium. Twenty-eight lines. Text clear and complete. On aged and lightly creased paper with small closed tear in margin (not affecting text). He has been asked by 'Miss Caulfield' to 'perform the ceremony of "introduction" with a view to your publishing (if you approved of it) a work she has lately written [...] <"Janet de Rinzy?">'.

Autograph Note Signed ('D. Lysons.') to unnamed publisher.

Author: 
Sir Daniel Lysons (1816-1898), English army officer
Publication details: 
11 January 1893; on letterhead of 22 Warwick Square, London S.W.
£56.00

12mo, 1 p. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Large bold signature. He has 'no present intention of publishing any book on [his] career'. It may be that the correspondence planted a seed, as three years after the writing of this note Lysons published 'Early Reminiscences' (John Murray, 1896).

Chapbook entitled 'The History of the Earl of Derwentwater Containing His Life, Trial, Sentence, & Execution, Also A Copy of Pathetic Verses ['Lines on the Fate of Lord Derwentwater'].'

Author: 
William Reay Walker, Newcastle printer [James Ratcliffe, Earl of Derwentwater; Charles Lolley; chapbooks]
Publication details: 
No date [c.1862]. 'Newcastle-on-Tyne: Wm. R. Walker, Printer, Arcade.'
£120.00

12mo (roughly 16.5 x 9.5 cm): 24 pp. Good, on aged paper, with slightly dogeared corners. No stitching or stapling binding the leaves together. An attractive production, more sophisticated than is usual with a chapbook. Crisply printed in small type. Title enclosed within a decorative border and containing vignette of the royal coat of arms. Headed, in a small neat contemporary hand, 'Purchased at Whitby. | 30 Aug 1862'. The poem 'Lines on the Fate of Lord Derwentwater' (pp.18-19, 24 lines in six stanzas) begins 'How mournful feeble Nature's tone, | When Dilston Hall appears;'.

Autograph Note Signed ('George A Lawrence') to unnamed publisher [Tinsley?].

Author: 
George A. Lawrence [George Alfred Lawrence] (1827-1876), English novelist
Publication details: 
Undated. On monogrammed letterhead of 25 Mount Street, Grosvenor Square, London.
£35.00

12mo, 1 p. Six lines. Mourning border. Text clear and complete. Aged, creased and a little grubby. Asking to be sent '4 copies of "The Butterfly", if ready', and if not to be told 'when it will be'. Lawrence published his 'Breaking a Butterfly; Or Blanche Ellerslie's Ending' anonymously by Tinsley in 1869.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Lewis Melville') to Messrs George Routledge & Sons, Ltd.

Author: 
Lewis Melville' [Lewis S. Benjamin (1874-1932)], English author and actor
Publication details: 
5 August 1903; 1 Doughty Street, Mecklenburgh Square, W.C., on cancelled letterhead of the Weekly Dispatch.
£28.00

12mo, 1 p. 7 lines of closely-written text. Clear and complete. On aged and slightly-grubby paper. He has received their letter regarding his 'Life of Thackeray', and appreciates 'the reason for your delay in deciding whether or no to issue a cheap edition. Undoubtedly the inclusion of my book in a series would benefit us both, & I hope Mr Lee may be able to make me an offer.'

Autograph Card Signed ('H C Beeching') to Messrs Swan Sonnenschein & Co., publishers.

Author: 
Henry Charles Beeching (1859-1919), Dean of Norwich and author
Publication details: 
Postmarked 21 June 1905; on letterhead '3, Little Cloisters, Westminster.'
£23.00

Plain card, roughly 8.5 x 11 cm. Five lines of text. A little grubby, but good. Asking for his manuscript, so that he can 'correct the proof of the Introduction to Crashaw. It was written so many years ago that I can't always recall what I wrote'.

Typed Letter, signed by 'C B', 'per W. & G. Foyle, Ltd, to C. F. Bradshaw, headmaster of the Council School at Cresswell, Worksop, Derbyshire.

Author: 
Foyles Bookshop [W. & G. Foyle Ltd of 119-125 Charing Cross Road, London booksellers]
Publication details: 
18 March 1939; on 'W & G FOYLE LTD' letterhead.
£22.00

4to, 1 p. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper with minor rust stain from paperclip at head. Letterhead, in light and dark blue, featuring globe and the mottos 'BOOKSELLERS TO THE WORLD' and 'STOCK OF NEARLY THREE MILLION VOLUMES'. Thirteen lines of text. Bradshaw is clearly unhappy at the price asked for a copy of Cox's 'Memorials of Old Derbyshire'. 'The writer would point out that we received six reports regarding this book from various clients, but in no case at a price allowing us to quote below 15/-.

Autograph Signatures of Colburn, Shee, North and Colnaghi, removed from Artists' Benevolent Fund application.

Author: 
Henry Colburn (1784-1855), bookseller and publisher; Sir Martin Arthur Shee (1769-1850), President of the Royal Academy; Peter North; Dominic Colnaghi (1790-1879), printseller
Publication details: 
1841
£28.00

On one side of a piece of paper roughly 8 x 12.5 cm. Good, lightly aged. Reads ' Henry Colburn | 13 Gt Marlborough Street | Martin Arthur Shee | Peter North 22 Soho Square | Dominic Colnaghi'. Fragment of docketed manuscript record of the case on the reverse: '<...> 830 | <...>nes O'Connor | <...>ent Case | <...>y 12th. 1841'.

Proclamation of His Majesty King Edward VII.' [i.e. his accession to the throne on the death of Queen Victoria]

Author: 
[Royal proclamation of the accession of King Edward VII to the throne on the death of his mother Queen Victoria]
Publication details: 
Given at the Court of St. James's this 23rd day of January, in the year of Our Lord 1901.'
£180.00

Printed on one side of a piece of vellum-style paper, dimensions roughly 270 x 205 mm. Ruckled and heavily discoloured: now light-brown in colour. Traces of previous paper mount adhering to blank reverse. Small triangle (edges shorter than 1 cm) chipped away, and repaired with archival tape. Text clear and entire.

Autograph Note Signed ('Henry Newbolt') to Routledge.

Author: 
Sir Henry Newbolt (1862-1938), English poet [George Routledge & Sons, publishers]
Publication details: 
13 October 1906; on letterhead of 23, Earl's Terrace, Kensington, W.
£28.00

12mo, 1 p. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Thanking them for the cheque, and returning the 'form of permission to reprint the four poems, signed' (not present).

Autograph Letter in the third person to the publishers Swan Sonnenschein & Co.

Author: 
Sir Charles Hallé [born in Germany as Carl Halle] (1819-1895), English conductor and pianist
Publication details: 
30 June 1890; Sydney, Australia.
£35.00

12mo, 1 p. Twelve lines of text. Clear and complete. On aged and grubby paper. A formal letter in the third person. He has 'received with surprise the enclosed invoice. [not present] He has given no orders for any copies of the work & must therefore decline to accept the parcel, should it have been sent out to him in Australia.' If it is 'lying at his London house' he will forward it to the firm 'on his return home'.

Autograph Signature ('F. Palgrave') on fragment of letter.

Author: 
Sir Francis Palgrave (1788-1861) [born Francis Ephraim Cohen], English historian and antiquary, best-known for his poetry anthology 'The Golden Treasury'.
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£25.00

On piece of grey wove paper cut into a rough rectangle, 5 x 8 cm. Good, but with light traces of glue from previous mounting on reverse. Reads '<...> | I have honour to remain | Dear Sir | Yr obt. & hble. Servt | F. Palgrave', with the flourish to the 't' of 'Servt' forming the top horizontal stroke to the 'F.' in Palgrave's signature. Reverse reads '<...> | In conformity <...> | my letter to you <...> | July last, I requir<...> | my name may be <...>'.

Two Deeds Indented (Indentures), relating to the purchase by Guy of various Yorkshire estates, and the sale by him of the same to Sir Cyril Wyche.

Author: 
Henry Guy (bap.1631 d.1711) of Tring, politician and courtier [Yorkshire topography; Sir Cyril Wyche; Richard Lightfoot; Francis, Lord Hawley; Sir Charles Harbord; Sir William Howard; Sir John Talbot]
Publication details: 
Indentures of 18 July 1672 and 11 March 1674; receipt of 12 August 1672; particular of 18 July 1672.
£450.00

INDENTURE OF 1672: 'ex[ecute]d. by Rich: Lighfoot Clerk to ye Trustees', on one side each of two large vellum skins. Wear at folds, affecting the occasional word or phrase. Docketed on grubby reverse of first skin. Borders in red, and with attractive hand-drawn Royal Crest within large initial at head. 'Betwene the right honourable ffrancis Lord Hawley Sr. Charles Harbord Knight his majesties Surveyor generall Sr. William Howard of Tandridge in the County of Surrey Knight Sr.

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