CENTURY

14 x 10.5 postcard with 7 x 10 cm matte black and white metallic photographic portrait print by Studio Virgine of Paris to the right, and blank space to the left, in which Chevalier has written in blue ink, ‘Thanks to you both. Everything went fine. / Maurice’. The phtograph shows an urbane Chevalier in evening dress, hands in pockets, smiling. Somewhat aged and worn, with crease to top right corner going through Chevalier's head. See IMage.

LETTER ONE (to Wolfestan): 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Damage to text (including signature 'E. A. Storey') along inner edge of last page by clumsy removal from mount, repaired with archival tape. Otherwise in good condition, lightly aged. Folded. Wolfestan's letter is 'capital' and he hopes he will send it 'as it exactly backs up my own statement'.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of a bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with the blank second leaf damaged on removal from mount. Addressed to an unnamed woman (‘Chère Madame’) and boldly signed ‘A. Legros’. He accepts her dinner invitation with ‘le plus grand plasir’.

A successful member of an English artistic family. See the Oxford DNB entries on his father Joseph Severn, brother Walter Severn and sister Mary Newton. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium on grey wove paper. In good condition, lightly aged, with traces of paper from mount adhering to the blank verso of the second leaf, and details typed at head. Folded once.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, on both sides of a 9 x 10.5 cm piece of paper. Aged and worn, with a corner cut away, but the text complete.Nineteen lines in a close and difficult hand. Addressed to 'My dear Mgnr [i.e. Monsignor]' and signed 'E B Pusey'. Interpretation of Pusey's execrable handwriting is challenging. He appears to be ‘lecturing on the Psalms’, and may be requesting ‘combined lectures’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage. Reads: ‘Dear Mr Scarr: / I’m sorry but I have already engaged myself for three talks besides my offical three and, not being an extemporizer, can’t undertake any more. / Yours sincerely / Robert Graves’. See Image.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Both items are somewhat sunned, but in good overall condition. ONE: ALS. 1p, 4to. Folded three times for postage. Signed ‘John Masefield’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. An unillustrated post card, apart from the letterhead. Addressed, with stamp and Paddington postmark, to ‘Dr William Roberts / Briarlea / Mortimer / Berks.’ The message reads: ‘I vote for Osbert S. [i.e. Osbert Sitwell] as next chairman Soc. Authors [etc?] / Yrs / C. Day Lewis’. Image on request.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The three items are in good condition, each with his firm signature ‘Compton Mackenzie’. Each is 1p, 4to, in good condition, folded for postage.Despite being scored through, one can see that the first and last salutation are addressed to ‘Mrs Raymont’, and the second to ‘Mr Raymond’. ONE: 23 November 1961. He is pleased that she enjoyed his book ‘Mezzotint’: ‘The setting is really the Seychelles but of course I had to lay it in the South Atlantic instead of the Indian Ocean.’ He agrees with her ‘about these efforts at modernity by some of my contemporaries.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Sneyd-Kinnersley is the headmaster who is alleged to have subjected a naked seven-year-old Winston Churchill to repeated beatings. 3pp, 12mo. With mourning border. Letterhead (no doubt designed by Waterhouse himself) in characteristic style. On grey paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Good expansive signature ‘A Waterhouse’, and the letter written in a stylish hand. Addressed to ‘The Rev: H. W Sneyd Kinnersley’.

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, on the first leaf of bifolium. (There are extensive pencil annotations in a later hand on the second leaf.) Very neatly written. Addressed to ‘J. G. Wilson Esqre.’ and signed ‘Anstey Guthrie’. He has ‘much pleasure’ in answering Wilson’s question. ‘‘Shut Out’ is a short story of mine which was published in Longmans Magazine about 1895 or 6, afterwards included in a volume of short stories under the title of “The Talking Horse”. I think published by Messrs. Smith & Elder - but now long out of print.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The present item was enclosed in a letter from Serjeant Shee (the future Sir William Shee), offered separately, sent from the House of Commons on 17 February 1854, in which he writes: ‘I enclose Mr. Cobdens own handwriting to send to the Papers -’. Attached to a corner at the head of the first page of the present item is a cutting from the Morning Herald newspaper, 18 February 1854, reproducing the details in the manuscript.

According to his entry in the Oxford DNB, Shee entered the House of Commons as Member for County Kilkenny in 1852, and promptly took charge of the Irish Tenant Right Bill. ‘On 16 February 1854 Shee brought in a bill which, with the exception of three clauses, was the exact counterpart of Sharman Crawford's bill of the previous session, but it met with little encouragement.’ Shee’s speech is reproduced in his ‘Papers, Letters, and Speeches in the House of Commons, on the Irish Land Question’ (London, 1863).

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Lightly aged and worn. With central horizontal and vertical crease for postage, each quarter with double pinholes at the centre (from attachment of an enclosure?). Signature unaffected (it starts close to vertical crease). Reads: 'Dear Mrs. Lord / With the greatest pleasure - and with ten thousand apologies. I thought I had answered long ago. But letters lie in heaps in my tray & on my table - everywhere! and I carry them about in bags labelled carefully Unanswered until I dare no longer look inside.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB: ‘In the 1840s Peto had thirty-three railway contracts worth £20 million, the largest number held in the kingdom; according to Brunel he was the largest contractor in the world.’ 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded three times. Begins: ‘Sir Morton Peto presents his Compliments to Lady Hooker and begs to acknowledge the receipt of her not of the 9th. Inst. on his return from the Continent’. He regrets that ‘it will not be in his power to assist the Case of Dr.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, and those of his children the writers John Lehmann and Rosamond Lehmann. 1p, 12mo, with mourning border. In fair condition, on aged paper. Folded once, and with biographical information in small type at head. Addressed to ‘Messrs. Henry & Co’, publishers of his recently published book: ‘Dear Sirs / I am obliged for the two Copies of “In Cambridge Courts” which you sent me. Will you kindly send my further Copies to me at / 15 Berkeley Square / London W. / May I take this opportunity of congratulating you on the get up of the book. It is charming.’

See his entry, together with that of Benjamin Britten, in the Oxford DNB, the latter explaining the context of the last letter, which is an attack on Britten and Peter Pears for not returning from the United States to wartime England. From the Scott papers. Each letter 2pp, 12mo, on a single leaf (a total of 8pp, 12mo). In good condition, lightly aged. Each letter folded for postage. All four letters addressed to ‘Miss Scott’, and each signed ‘Gordon Jacob’. ONE (1 April 1929): He will be ‘most delighted’ to give her ‘any information you may require about my work’.

Reade was a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1836 to his death. According to his entry in the Oxford DNB: ‘in the years of his fame, and particularly in the early 1860s, he did much of his writing in his rooms at Magdalen, using them as a retreat. His tenure of the fellowship was contingent on his remaining unmarried, a stipulation he complained of bitterly but continued to put up with, even when he was earning thousands a year as a writer’. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly discoloured, on thin wove paper. Folded once.

See Smirke’s entry, and those of Cooke and Heath, in the Oxford DNB. His most celebrated design is the Reading Room of the British Museum. 2pp, 12mo. With monogram and mourning border. On first leaf of a bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded for postage. Begins: ‘My dear Sir, / Vernon Heath, of Piccadilly, has made me a photograph of our new front, which is I think fairly satisfactory.’ He has told Heath to deliver a copy ‘addressed to you at the R. Academy’. As it is ‘rather large’, he did not like to send it ‘by post or Parcel’, as it ‘might get crushed on its way to you.

One of the great figures in world history. See his entries in Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Oxford DNB. On one side of piece of laid paper rougly 11 cm squarer, with partial watermark ‘J G’. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased, with traces of mount on blank reverse. Folded twice. Reads: ‘London March 7 1842 / F M The Duke of Wellington presents his Compliments to Miss Busby / Not being resident at Oxford he has no Controul [sic] over any matter relating to the Bodleian Library. / Miss Busby should apply to the Vice Chancellor.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Lightly aged and worn. With central horizontal and vertical crease for postage, each quarter with double pinholes at the centre (from attachment of an enclosure?). Signature unaffected (it starts close to vertical crease). Reads: 'Dear Mrs. Lord / With the greatest pleasure - and with ten thousand apologies. I thought I had answered long ago. But letters lie in heaps in my tray & on my table - everywhere! and I carry them about in bags labelled carefully Unanswered until I dare no longer look inside.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB: ‘In the 1840s Peto had thirty-three railway contracts worth £20 million, the largest number held in the kingdom; according to Brunel he was the largest contractor in the world.’ 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded three times. Begins: ‘Sir Morton Peto presents his Compliments to Lady Hooker and begs to acknowledge the receipt of her not of the 9th. Inst. on his return from the Continent’. He regrets that ‘it will not be in his power to assist the Case of Dr.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. In fair condition, aged and worn, with slight loss to two of the corners, and a trace of paper from the mount adhering on the reverse. Addressed to 'Jas Thomson Esq'. Reads: 'Dear Sir / I have forwarded your list of names to the Land Tax Office / & remain Dear Sir / faithfully Yours / Richd Cobden'. Pencil note, in a contemporary hand, at the foot of the letter: 'The Great Anti Corn Law man. / Mr. Thompson [sic] to whom it was written was proposed by Cobden & seconded by Bright, of the Free Trade Club. A Club in St. James Square, London, of 400 or 500 members.

Of his activities around this time the Oxford DNB writes: 'he 'wrote film scripts in Hollywood in 1934–5 for classics such as David Copperfield (MGM, 1935), in which he played a bit part, and Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936)'. The subject of the letter may be his novel 'The Inquisitor', published by Macmillan in 1935. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded once. Reads: ‘Dear Mr. Hunt / Here is a proof. The quotations are from the [?] Version. to me the only [last word underlined] version. / Yours sincerely / Hugh Walpole’.

Neither Curtis nor the 'Mr Recorder' named Preston mentioned in the letter feature in G. Roberts’s ‘History of Lyme Regis’ (Sherborne, 1823). Preston may be ‘Richard Preston Esq.’ of ‘Marino’ named as living near Barnstaple in Cary’s New Itinerary, 6th ed, 1815. The recipient’s name is not decipherable. Six years previously a parliamentary committee had examined ‘Mr. Follett, the town clerk of Lyme. He said, he had held that office fifty years.’ (Luders, Reports, 1789) 2pp, 4to. On first leaf of bifolium, the reverse of the second leaf being addressed to ‘Mr Wh[encon?] / Town Clerk / Lym’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded for postage. Reads: ‘Dear Miss Jennings / Thank you for your letter. There was however no half crown in the envelope. I searched carefully. / Yours sincerely / Hugh Walpole’.

See her entry in Grove. The letter can be dated by the reference to Sir William Mitchell (see Oxford DNB) and the operetta 'The Rival Beauties', which he produced in London and then Plymouth. The letter is on one side of the paper, has been cut down to 11 x 9 cm, and laid down on a piece of card. Aged and worn, with slight loss at top right, affecting one word of text. Thirteen lines of close and neatly-written text, addressed to ‘Dearest Mrs. Sprague’ and signed ‘Yours affectionately, / Erminia Rudersdorff’, with a little of the flourish beneath the signature cut away.

See his entry, together with that of Benjamin Britten, in the Oxford DNB, the latter explaining the context of the last letter, which is an attack on Britten and Peter Pears for not returning from the United States to wartime England. From the Scott papers. Each letter 2pp, 12mo, on a single leaf (a total of 8pp, 12mo). In good condition, lightly aged. Each letter folded for postage. All four letters addressed to ‘Miss Scott’, and each signed ‘Gordon Jacob’. ONE (1 April 1929): He will be ‘most delighted’ to give her ‘any information you may require about my work’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Sixty-one lines of text in Pusey’s distinctive minuscule (and not always easily decipherable) hand. Aged and worn. The item has been repaired after damp damage, with the second leaf laid down on a piece of thick paper. Loss of a few words of text. Pusey begins by stating that his pamphlet ‘God’s Prohibition of the Marriage with a Deceased Wife’s Sister’ (1860), which he believes is out of print, is ‘more readable than the longer book’ (‘Marriage with a Deceased Wife’s Sister’, 1849), of whose ‘very heavy form’ he gives a description.

[7] + 243pp., 8vo. On aged paper, with slight damage at top edge of first few leaves; in heavily-worn binding with blind-stamped decoration; corner torn away from front free endpaper, and glue spots to front pastedown. Described in an advertisement by the publisher in The Times, 16 July 1897, as 'A SOCIAL SATIRE.' Six copies on COPAC, but now a scarce item. Note: In Pantalas Mr. Jenkins is at his best.