CHARLES

ONE: Brooks's letter to Leitch Ritchie: 4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. He thanks him for his 'kind and courteous communication', and is pleased that 'the article I sent seems to you adapted to the purpose'. Brooks has, he explains, 'availed myself of your suggestions in reference to the additions'. He continues with references to Vauxhall and 'The Highland Lamp'.

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, on aged paper. With envelope addressed by Woodin to 'W. C. M. Kent Esqr | Sun Office', on which is written 'Your Card of course will admit any Friends'. The letter begins: 'My very dear Sir, | I have taken the Salle Robin and called it The Myriographic Hall, now I intend inviting the gentlemen of the Press on Thursday Evening March 3rd.

1p., 8vo. On grey paper. Aged and worn, with chipping, glue stains and remains of gummed label. Laid down on leaf removed from album. The document reads: '548 [i.e. the number of the despatch] | Kabul 28 Decr | To O.C. Jagdalah. | In continuation of this office No 544 the O.C. is directed to request he will at once arrange to send a sufficient party to hold Seh Baba. | He is also to arrange to escort the <?> sent with Capt Tucker as far as Lataband or Butkhak if necessary, on their return journey. | They should return on Wednesday'.

After leaving Dulwich College Mortimer was a classical scholar at Brasenose College, Oxford. In 1933 he was received into the Roman Catholic Church, after which he became a schoolmaster in Catholic schools, most notably Stonyhurst. According to his profile in the Catholic Herald, 5 August 1938, Mortimer was 'well-known as a composer and lyric writer, and his work has been broadcast from the early days of broadcasting. | Recently he has contributed " uncle-duty " to the [BBC] Children's Hour.

Spencer was a sharp operator (see Mandelbrote ed., 'Out of Print and into Profit', pp.285-287) and the present items give an hint of his methods. (The two letters are addressed from the premises at which his staff were said to practice their 'sophistications'.) His two letters (both signed 'W. T. Spencer') are in good condition, on lightly-aged and worn paper, with the second dated by Bois to 1931. Bois's letter (signed 'Winifred Bois') is in fair condition, with a short closed tear along one edge. Letter One: Spencer to Bois, 23 February [1931].

2pp., 8vo. In fair condition, on aged paper, with wear to extremities. He begins by discussing his own holiday, Fagan's and that of Porteous, before describing the weather on his trip to Argentina from England, with news of his plans ('I will try & get home for B.M. meeting 10th Janry.' Changing the subject, he writes: 'Hope you are getting to work in the Spirit room. It is a pity we cant have Oliver Lodge on the Sub Cttee. His address bored me & I think it most disappointing. I hoped for something much more exciting. It was only anti-cock-sure-Schafer.

28pp., 12mo. In grey printed card wraps. Wear to spine from disbinding, otherwise in very good condition. Printed compliments slip loosely inserted. Copies at the British Library and seven other locations on COPAC.

2pp., 12mo. In very good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Declining, in polite terms, to comply with her request that he consent to put his signature to 'a paragraph about myself, for the purpose of publication'. He explains that he would be 'very sorry that anything should be printed about me which I myself had [not] dictated or signed'.

A significant letter, filling gaps in the provenance of Bellini's Crucifixion, now in the Louvre. All that has been known hitherto about the painting's provenance is that at the beginning of the twentieth century it was in the Paris collection of the banker Rodolphe Kann, and that before the Second World War it was owned by the Florentine dealer Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, from whose heirs it was acquired by the Louvre in 1970.

32pp., 12mo. Stapled. In cream printed wraps. Reprinted 13 articles by a number of authors, with a preface by Beresford. With stamps, shelfmarks and labels of the Board of Education Reference Library. Scarce: no copy in the British Library or on COPAC.

68pp., 12mo. Stapled. In light-blue printed wraps. Reprinting 26 articles by a number of different authors. With stamps, shelfmarks and label of the Board of Education Reference Library, otherwise in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Scarce: no copy in the British Library or on COPAC.

Eight items, in good condition on aged paper, with the three photographic illustrations darkened. In blue card folder. ONE: Mimeographed typed biography of 'Ronald Victor Brian Branston'. On BBC Press Service letterhead; May 1965. 1p., 4to. TWO: Mimeographed typed 'Who's Who'. 2pp., foolscap 8vo. With entries on nine balloonists (from Albert van den Bemden to Anthony Smith, and including Charles Dollfus, 'curator of France's air museum') and two passengers. THREE: Mimeographed typed 'Topographical Background'. 2pp., foolscap 8vo.

LETTER: 3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, on aged and worn paper. Kitton writes that he has received two copies of the Book Buyer for March, and is 'much interested' in it for two reasons: 'Mrs. Garlands flattering comments upon myself and my work', and 'a very generous notice of my latest Dickens production'. He finds illustrations 'excellently reproduced', and praises 'the careful attention that has obviously been bestowed upon the preparation of both blocks and letterpress'. Turning to another matter, he notes 'a query (no.

A substantial letter, 3pp., foolscap 8vo. 100 lines of text. Bifolium. In very good condition, on aged paper, with one closed along crease line neatly repaired with archival tape. Addressed on reverse of second leaf, with Chatham postmark, frank, and black wax seal, to 'Viscount Ingestrie M:P. | 2 Wilton Crescent | Belgrave Square | London'. An interesting document, in which a distinguished Victorian naval architect makes detailed criticisms of an innovation in his field. (HMS Gorgon was designed by Sir William Symonds and launched in 1837.

99 + [3] pp., 4to, of which 31pp. are original photographs, on grey card mounts, each with tissue guard and manuscript caption in white ink. A further five small photographs laid down on pages of the typed text. In very good condition, on aged paper, in modern green leather quarter-binding with cloth boards and misleading title on spine 'THE BUDGET | CAMBRIDGE' In a contemporary hand on leaf preceding title-page: 'Please return to | Chas Nunneley | (Room 1, 3rd Floor) | A & R Branch | A. G. Dept | General Post Office (North) | (London) | E.C. | or to | C. O.

Both items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. ONE (letter): 1p., 12mo. In a neat and elegant hand, it reads: 'Tuesday Night | Dear Laura | I send the tickets; as Goldsmith sent the portion of Lord Clare's haunch of venison to Sir Joshua - | "To paint it or eat it, whichever he pleased" | I am glad you like the Philharmonia | Your affecte. Friend | John Hullah'. TWO (cutting of sheet music): Written in pencil on one side of a 6.5 x 15 cm piece of paper, docketted 'Written by John Hullah 1861 | for

'. With a few words in Hullah's hand at head.

1p., 4to. 22 lines of text. In very good condition, on lightly-aged paper, with traces of mount on reverse.

1p., 4to. Bifolium, addressed on reverse of second leaf to 'The Revd Mr Cory | Blithfield'. In good condition, on aged paper, with small closed tear in top left-hand corner. He informs Cory that Lord Bagot and his family will be visiting him, and playfully reminds him: 'You will recollect you owe me a Visit, at least you said you wd. favor me with your Company some day or another - I think you will never find us so pleasant as when surrounded by your excellent Blithfield friends.' He concludes by urging him to 'come & try our Air, which is said to be good'.

The two documents are on 33 x 24 cm pieces of vellum, and are pinned together. Both in very good condition. Both are printed forms, made out by the signatory. Bramwell's certificate begins (with the manuscript portions in square brackets): 'These are to Certify that on the [Twenty eighth] day of [March] in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-[one] before me the undersigned [Sir George William Wilshere Bramwell Knight one of the Barons of Her Majestys Court of Exchequer] Appeared personally [Catherine Stein] the Wife of [Peter Stein] and produced a certain Indenture marked [A]'.

The certificate is 1p., 4to, on the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium. It reads: 'I hereby Certify that on the twenty-first day of April, One Thousand Eight hundred & sixty five, Walter Stevenson Davidson of No. 16 St. James's Street, Esquire, is a registered Proprietor in the Books of the Peel River Land & Mineral Company Limited of Sixty five thousand pounds (£65,000) Consolidated Stock. | C. A. Aylmer. | Secy.' The recto of the second leaf carries the following: '21st. Apl 1865 | Memo. | Mr.

2 vols: xix + [1] + 288; ix + 263. With frontispieces to both volumes (both with tissue guards) and the eleven other plates called for. First edition, first issue, with the plate facing p.238 of vol.2 in its first state (without the 'grotesque' border), and the 36-page undated publisher's catalogue bound-in at the end of vol.2. In primary binding of pink cloth with floral pattern, and the gilt titles on the spine held up by an image of a clown.

Both items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Purdie's letter: 4pp., 4to. Closely and neatly written on a bifolium, with the last page cross-written over the third. Addressed, with postmarks and red wax seal, to 'G. P. Nicholson Esqre. | Wath | nr Rotherham'.

5pp., 4to. Addressed, with postmarks, to 'John Purdie Esqre | Heriot Row | Edinburgh'. In good condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. Neatly and closely written.

1p., 4to. In very good condition, on lightly-aged paper. With envelope, addressed by Cubitt to 'C F Stuart Esqre | 20 New Norfolk Street | Park Lane', with red wax seal and postmarks, and docketted 'Mr Cubitt. Engineer'. He has received Stuart's letter of 17 May, and has 'since seen Mr. Buchanan with all the Reports Plans Instr[ucti]ons &c &c relative to the question of interference with Lord Blantyre's property', and he will 'more fully examine' them 'during the recess of Parliament'. He has 'also seen & consulted with Mr.

1p., 12mo. In very good condition, on lightly-aged paper. 'If you would ever care to look round King Edward's very archaic Oxford abode, I can shew you it, with engravings of its details in his day - coloured and otherwise. It is a nice old house - half Elizabethan, half Queen Anne.' He concludes by explaining that he is 'at Westminster all the middle days of the week, save in the recess', and so requires notice. From the H. E. Wortham papers.

[16]pp., 8vo, discreet stab-holes, good condition. Presumably this item was once bound in to an issue of a periodical. Four copies are listed on COPAC/WorldCat.

Printed in black on piece of purple paper, 27 x 14 cm. In good condition, laid down on a leaf removed from a contemporary album, with the date '1881' written beside it. The first paragraph sets the tone: 'LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL rose to ask Her Majesty's Government a question as to the state of Public Business, and the probable date of the Prorogation of Parliament.

1p., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper. 'Allow me to thank you and through you the members of the Hertfordshire Arts Society for your kind congratulations upon the honour the King confers upon me and upon the Gallery in the work of which I am privileged to assist'.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. He writes to apologise that he 'cannot get away to see the Holbein' at the previously arranged time, because he has a meeting with 'my accounting officer'. He suggests an alternative time, and apologises 'heartily for my mistake'.

On one side of slip of 6 x 18 cm paper. In fair condition, aged, and with traces of mount adhering to reverse. Apparently concerning an enormous sum of money, the receipt reads: 'Registered upon the Register appointed to be kept by the Act within mentioned & payable there upon of