CLUB

[Sir John Charles Robinson, as Hon. Sec. of the Fine Arts Club, London.] Letter, in a secretarial hand, signed by Robinson ('J C Robinson'), informing Rev. James Beck that he has been elected a member.

Author: 
Sir John Charles Robinson [J. C. Robinson] (1824-1913), painter, etcher, art collector, curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, first President of the Burlington Fine Arts Club, London [James Beck]
Publication details: 
Fine Arts Club, 13 Foulis Terrace, Brompton, S.W. [London] 23 February 1863.
£35.00

2pp, folio. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice.

[Arthur James Lewis, artist and illustrator.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Arthur J Lewis') to publisher Ernest Gambart, regarding the disposal of the disposal of the remaining copies of 'Hood's Poems'.

Author: 
Arthur James Lewis (1824-1901), artist and illustrator, promoter of the Junior Etching Club [Ernest Gambart (1814-1902), London art publisher; James Abbott McNeill Whistler]
Publication details: 
43 [?] Street. 10 November 1860.
£35.00

2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Addressed to 'E Gambart Esq' and endorsed by the recipient. Two years earlier Gambart had published 'Passages from the Poems of Thomas Hood', illustrated with 34 plates by the Junior Etching Club (of which Whistler was a member between 1857 and 1862). The book had been well-received, but the letter makes clear that it had not covered its costs.

[Herbert Whittaker, Canadian theatre critic, designer and director.] Eight long Signed Letters (six typed and two in autograph) to English playwright Christopher Fry, on theatre matters including a reading at the Toronto Arts and Letters Club.

Author: 
Herbert Whittaker (1910-2006), Canadian theatre critic, designer and director [Christopher Fry (1907-2005), playwright; Canadian Players; Hart House Theatre; Crest Theatre; Montreal Repertory Theatre]
Publication details: 
From his address in Lamport Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; between 11 July 1998 and 7 April 2002.
£850.00

An interesting correspondence on theatre matters, from one of Canada's most influential critics and designers to 'a favourite poet', the English verse dramatist Christopher Fry. Whittaker discusses, among other matters, mutual acquaintances including Sir John Gielgud and Leonard White, past productions of Fry's plays, a 1998 meeting with the playwright at his West Dean home, and a reading he organises of Fry's 'A Ringing of Bells' at the Toronto Arts and Letters Club. The eight letters are in good condition, lightly aged.

[Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent, son George III, brother of George IV and father of Queen Victoria.] Secretarial Letter, Signed ('Edward'), requesting Sir Francis Freeling to take particular pains in sending a letter to Germany.

Author: 
Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (1767-1820), fourth son of George III, brother of George IV, father of Queen Victoria [Sir Francis Freeling (1764-1836), Secretary, General Post Office]
Publication details: 
'Castle hill Lodge [Ealing] | 30th. June 1803'.
£250.00

3pp, 4to. Bifolium. Signature ('Edward') in the prince's hand, the rest of the letter by a secretary. In good condition, lightly aged, with slight damage to one corner of first leaf, and thin strip of paper from mount adhering to reverse of second leaf, which is franked 'Kent & Strathearn', with postmark, and addressed to 'Francis Freeling Esquire | &c &c &c | Genl. Post Office | Lombard Street | London'. Folded four times.

[Leonard Welsted, poet and 'Dunce'] Autograph Signature "Leond Welsted"

Author: 
Leonard Welsted, poet and 'Dunce'
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£120.00

Piece with signature cut from larger document, c.9 x 3cm, edges indiate it's the bottom left of a document, part image, decorative, of a key and the letters ML with his signature beside. Note: Welsted married a daughter of Henry Purcell, antagonistic towards Scriblerians etc. See DNB.

[Edmund Burke, Irish statesman.] Autograph Signature ('Edm Burke'), with seal in red wax, cut from legal document.

Author: 
Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Irish statesman, orator and author, Whig Member of Parliament in the British House of Commons, member of the circle of Doctor Samuel Johnson
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£180.00

On one side of a 7 x 12.5 cm piece of paper, cut from the end of a legal document. In good condition, lightly aged. Laid down on 11 x 16.5 cm piece of cream paper, cut from the leaf of an album. The seal, in red wax, is at bottom right, and is crisp and clear, despite being lightly cracked. The excellent signature ('Edm Burke') is to the left of seal. The surviving text is above the signature, in another hand, and reads: '[...]ed remain in full force and Virtue - | [...]ourble. Edmund Burke'.

['Wee Georgie Wood', i.e. George Wood, music hall performer.] Autograph Letter Signed ('George.') to 'C. B.' [impressario C. B. Cochran?], regarding two photographs and a 'cutting from the NY Daily Mirror'.

Author: 
'Wee Georgie Wood', i.e. George Wood (1894-1979), popular English music hall performer
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Savage Club, 1 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1. 25 September 1947.
£60.00

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, with slight rust staining at head from paperclip. Reads: 'Dear C. B/ | Choice of two photographs with pleasure that you so flatter me as to want one. | Thought the enclosed cuttings from the NY Daily Mirror would interest you. Dont trouble to retain them. | Yours | George.' Wood was a screen and stage actor and comedian. A dwarf, he usually performed as a child. He wrote a weekly column in The Stage, and was a stalwart of the Savage Club. He is mentioned by John Lennon in the Beatles song 'Dig It'.

[George John Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer, politician and bibliophile.] Document in a secretarial hand, signed 'Spencer', to a peer, regarding 'the pay and allowances to the Lamerton and Milton Abbott Corps'.

Author: 
George John Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758-1834), politician and bibliophile, first President of the Roxburghe Club, owner of the Althorp Library (now at the John Rylands Library in Manchester)
Publication details: 
Whitehall. 15 April 1806.
£65.00

1p., 8vo. Slight damp damage along left-hand margin, otherwise in fair condition. Reads: 'My Lord, | I have been honoured with your Lordship's Letter of this day's date; and I will lose no time in giving fresh authority to the Secretary at War to issue the pay and allowances to the Lamerton and Milton Abbott Corps, according to the amended return now transmitted to me by your Lordship.' Docketed on reverse.

[C. J. Traviès, Swiss-born French artist and engraver.] Hand-coloured proof of his lithograph 'Club jesuitique'.

Author: 
C. J. Traviès [Charles Joseph Traviès de Villers] (1804-1859), Swiss-born French artist, lithographer and caricaturist
Publication details: 
[Paris, 1830.] Only the title beneath the engraving; no publication details.
£220.00

On one side of a 38 x 24 cm piece of wove paper with watermarked date 1828. In fair condition, lightly worn and creased. The engraving is roughly 21 cm square, and shows three figures gathered around a table, their arms tangled as they reach forward to sign a document.

[The Campden Hill Club, London.] Three manuscript volumes, comprising minute book, day book and visitors book to the Club's exhibition at Leighton House, with signature of Duncan Grant, Roy Plomley and others.

Author: 
The Campden Hill Club, London [Sir Miles Fletcher de Montmorency (1893-1963), Chairman, writer and art historian; Byan Shaw; Vicat Cole; Leighton House, Kensington]
Publication details: 
The Campden Hill Club, London. Minute Book, 1946-1958; Day Book, 1956-1972; Leighton House Visitors book, 1958-1976.
£450.00

The Campden Hill Club was founded in 1907, 'in affectionate memory of Byam Shaw, and as a tribute to his teaching', and comprised, according to the Studio magazine in 1922, 'mainly of past and present students of the Byam Shaw and Vicat Cole School of Art, with which it keeps closely and stimulatingly in touch'. The three items are in good condition, on lightly-aged paper, in worn bindings. ONE (Visitors Book, 1958-1976): 190pp., 4to. Ruled notebook bound in red cloth, with 'Visitors' stamped in gilt on the front cover.

[William Gorman Wills, Irish dramatist, novelist and painter.] Autograph Letter Signed ('W G Wills') to 'Chepmell' [i.e. the society homeopathist Edward Charles Chepmell], expressing thanks for 'the cure you accomplished'.

Author: 
W. G. Wills [William Gorman Wills], Irish dramatist, novelist and painter [Edward Charles Chepmell (1820-1885), society homeopathist]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Garrick Club [London]. No date.
£56.00

1p., 12mo. In fair condition. He has 'from week to week been purposing a visit to you to express my gratitude & sincere thanks for your kindness to me & the cure you accomplished'. He can only write his thanks, having been overwhelmed by 'the arrears of work that followed my illness', and leaving for Paris the following day.

[Oxford University Labour Club: appeasers, trades unions and the Spanish Civil War, 1938.] Eight numbers of 'Oxford Forward', with articles by Raymond Postgate, Naomi Mitchison; John Strachey, Derek Tasker, Christopher Thornycroft, Philip Toynbee.

Author: 
'Oxford Forward', journal of Oxford University Labour Club [Naomi Mitchison; Raymond Postgate; Michael Sheldon; Nigel Harvey; John Strachey; Derek Tasker; Christopher Thornycroft; Philip Toynbee]
Publication details: 
New Series 1-8. 'Published by The Editorial Board of Oxford Forward, St. Michael's Hall, Oxford, and printed by The Alden Press (Oxford) Ltd., Oxford.' Eight issues. 23 April 1938 to 11 June 1938. New Series, Nos. 1, 2, 21, 4, 22, 6, 7, 8.
£400.00

'Oxford Forward' was the journal of the Labour Club in Oxford, which had 730 members in 1937. Eight sequential issues, with nos. 21 and 22 misnumbered for 3 and 5. [12 + 8 + 16 + 8 + 12 + 8 + 8 + 8 =] totalling 80pp., 4to. With illustrations and cartoons. In good condition, lightly aged, in green cloth binding lightly spotted with paint. Each number with the masthead in red, three issues also including the words 'Edition of University' in small print in the title. The front page of number 21 (7 May 1938) has 'ARMS FOR SPAIN' in large red letters at the foot.

[Vilhjalmur Stefansson, Canadian Arctic explorer, regarded by Roald Amundsen as 'the greatest humbug alive'.] Typed Letter Signed ('V. Stefansson') to English author Clifford Bax; regarding plans for a meeting in New York.

Author: 
Vilhjalmur Stefansson [Vilhjálmur Stefánsson] (1879-1962), Canadian Arctic explorer of Icelandic extraction, ethnologist and archaeologist [Clifford Bax (1886-1962), English author; the Harvard Club]
Publication details: 
On his letterhead, 67 Moreton Street, New York. 25 March, 1935.
£120.00

Stefansson was involved in two disasters: the loss of the Karluk during the Canadian Arctic Expedition 1913–1916 to explore the regions west of Parry Archipelago for the Government of Canada, which he led; and the Wrangel Island fiasco, 1921. 1p., 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. He writes to Bax 'c/o Hill & Peters'. The letter begins: 'Just as I am starting on a lecture tour, a letter comes from Marjorie Humphreys saying you are about to arrive and asking that I do something for you.

[ London Press Club and James Nicol Dunn.] Presentation volume on Dunn's departure for South Africa during the Boer War, in luxury leather binding, with full-page calligraphic address by 'L.J.S.', signed by more than 150 Fleet Street figures.

Author: 
London Press Club [ James Nicol Dunn (1856-1919), editor of Morning Post; Harry Levy-Lawson, 1st Viscount Burnham (1862-1933), Fleet Street press baron; Harry Lawson, Lord Burnham; Hannen Swaffer ]
Publication details: 
[ The London Press Club. 1911. ]
£320.00

In a luxury binding: navy-blue straight-grain morocco covers, watered silk endpapers, internal gilt dentelles and leather hinges. Initial calligraphic address by 'L.J.S.' mounted in card frame, followed by 14pp.of signatures (numbering in excess of 150), on the rectos of 14 pieces of gilt-edged card. In good condition, with slight wear to corners and at head and tail of spine.

[ Cholera; Charles Greville, celebrated diarist and first-class cricketer. ] Autograph Signature ('C Greville') to part of letter.

Author: 
Charles Greville [ Charles Cavendish Fulke Greville ] (1794-1865), English diarist ('The Greville Memoirs') and first-class cricketer
Publication details: 
No place. 28 November 1831.
£150.00

The Greville Memoirs caused an uproar on its publication in 1874. Queen Victoria described it as a 'dreadful and really scandalous book' which should be 'severely censored and discredited'. Disraeli characterised its author as 'the vainest being—I don't limit myself to man—that ever existed; and I don't forget Cicero and Lytton Bulwer […] when he was not scandalous, he was prolix and prosy—a clumsy, wordy writer […] a more verbose, indefinite, unwieldy affair, without a happy expression, never issued from the pen of a fagged subordinate of the daily press'.

[ Sir Henry Newbolt, poet. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('Henry Newbolt') to 'Simpson' [ Dr Henry Simpson ], giving his reasons for resigning the presidentship of the Poets' Club.

Author: 
Sir Henry Newbolt [ Sir Henry John Newbolt ] (1862-1938), poet [ Henry Simpson (d.1939), founder and president of the Poets' Club, London ]
Publication details: 
No place. 12 October 1919.
£65.00

2pp., 4to. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. He begins by stating his great appreciation of 'the kindness of the Committee – I have had a long and sympathetic experience of the Club and the relationship has been to me a happy one from first to last'. Were he able to 'fulfil the duties of the President's office' he would be 'strongly tempted to accept their generous inviation and stand for re-election.

[ Reg Gammon illustrates, for the Cyclists' Touring Club, London. ] Printed publicity leaflet, with illustration on cover by Gammon, titled 'What Kind Of Cyclist Are You?'

Author: 
The Cyclists' Touring Club, London; Reg Gammon (1894-1997), illustrator
Publication details: 
The Cyclists' Touring Club, 3 Craven Hill, London, W.2. Undated [ 1930s? ]
£25.00

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium printed in black on light-blue paper. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Neat ownership signature at head of first page of Evelyn Parkes of 'Petronella'. Attractive illustration, with Gammon's facsimile signature at bottom right, of a 'wallpaper' of cyclists on front cover, with title. The reverse of the first leaf is headed 'There are Millions of Cyclists' Formed as the Bicycle Touring Club in 1878, it changed its name to the Cyclists' Touring Club in 1883, and was rebranded Cycling UK in 2016.

[ Lord Combermere, soldier and diplomat whose ghost is said to haunt Combermere Abbey. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('Combermere') to 'Wm. <Stranger?> Esq', regarding the political views of Bertie Williams Wynn and his desire to join the Carlton Club.

Author: 
Lord Combermere [ Field Marshal Stapleton Cotton (1773-1865), 1st Viscount Combermere ], soldier and diplomat, successively Commander in Chief in Ireland and India [ Combermere Abbey, Cheshire ]
Publication details: 
Combermere Abbey [ Cheshire ]. 25 February 1858.
£40.00

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, aged and worn. He writes to inform him that 'Mr Bertie Williams Wynn's political views are strictly Conservative & in accordance with those entertained by the great body of the Carlton Club'. Wnn is 'still anxious to become a Member of the Club', and Combermere gives his Shropshire address.

[ Philip Hermogenes Calderon), historical genre painter, ] Autograph Letter Signed and two Autograph Notes Signed (all 'Philip H Calderon') to Dr W. H. Allchin, one about a medical appointment and another Allchin's electinon as an Athenaeum member.

Author: 
Philip Hermogenes Calderon (1833-1898), English historical genre painter, of Spanish and French extraction
Publication details: 
One from Burlington House, and another on letterhead of the Athenaeum Club, Pall Mall, London. None dated with year.
£60.00

The three items in good condition, lightly aged. ONE: ALS. 'Saturday' [no date]. Burlington House. 1p., 12mo. On grey paper with mourning border. Addressed to 'Dear Doctor'. Allchin arranged to go to see him on the following Monday or Tuesday. 'I find I shall be receiving new students from 9.30 to 11 on Monday - Can you therefore keep your visit for Tuesday?' TWO: ANS. Addressed to 'Dear Dr Allchin'. Monday, 23 April [ no year ]. On Athenaeum letterhead, and clearly concerning Allchin's election as a member.

[ Peter Le Neve Foster, mathematican, photographer, and Secretary of the Royal Society of Arts. ] Autograph Note Signed ('P. Le Neve Foster') to George Ranken at Hull.

Author: 
Peter Le Neve Foster (1809-1879), mathematician, Secretary of the Royal Society of Arts, and photographer of the Calotype Club
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Society of Arts, Manufactures, & Commerce [ now the Royal Society of Arts ], John St, Adelphi, London. 11 March 1863.
£35.00

1p., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly aged paper. The note reads: 'Dear Sir, | All the Catalogues at my disposal have long since been distributed. | Yours faithfully | P. Le Neve Foster | Secy'.

[ Signed by Braithwaite and Keel. ] The Royal Hospital Chelsea | A paper read before The Sette of Odd Volumes At the [511]th meeting of the Sette held at the Savoy Hotel, London on February 23rd, 1937.

Author: 
Gen. Sir Walter Pipon Braithwaite, G.C.B. Governor of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea 'and Peltast to the Sette' [ The Sette of Odd Volumes, London; Shenval Press ] Frederick Keel (1871-1954), composer
Publication details: 
[ Copy 24 of 133. ] London | Imprynted by THE SHENVAL PRESS and sold to NO Bokesellers'. 1937.
£80.00

38pp., 16mo. Internally in very good condition, in red paper boards printed in gilt, with bubbling at front and back, and in chipped and aged glassine wrapper. The number of the meeting has been added to the title in manuscript ('511'), and the signatures of 'Frederick Keel | Singer' and 'Walter Braithwaite' are written in pencil beneath the limitation (no 24 of 133 copies). Scarce.

[ Hugh Foss, Bletchley Park codebreaker ] Draft Autograph Letter UNSIGNED with substantial corrections, all in Foss's hand, to a "Miss Kaye" thanking her fopr a "pleasant evening's dancing".

Author: 
Hugh Foss [ Hugh Rose Foss ] (1902-1971), British cryptanalyst, a Bletchley Park codebreaker [Japanese; Chelsea Reel Club (for Scottish country dancing); German Enigma Code; Japanese Naval Codes ]
Publication details: 
No place or date. Written on notepaper with printed heading "Hon. Secretary, London Fencing Club."
£90.00

Foss was a distinguished cryptanalyst, and his career is described in his entry in the Oxford DNB. At Bletchley Park during the Second World War he was the first person to decode a day's worth of the German Enigma Code (in 1940); and heading the Japanese Naval Section in Hut 7 (between 1942 and 1943). His wife Alison (née Graham, 1908-1979) inspired his interest in Scottish country dancing in the early 1930s. He was Vice-President of the Chelsea Reel Club on its formation in 1935; and became Chairman in 1938.

[ Hugh Foss, Bletchley Park codebreaker. ] Draft of Autograph Letter Signed ('Hugh Foss') as Vice Chairman, Chelsea Reel Club: a circular regarding 'the first meeting of the new season', including the meeting's 'Agenda' in six numbered parts.

Author: 
Hugh Foss [ Hugh Rose Foss ] (1902-1971), British cryptanalyst, a Bletchley Park codebreaker [Japanese; Chelsea Reel Club (for Scottish country dancing); German Enigma Code; Japanese Naval Codes ]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 37 Robyns Way, Sevenoaks, Kent. Undated. [ Shortly before 'the Ball at Chelsea Town Hall on Friday, 29th October, 1937'. ]
£220.00

Foss was a distinguished cryptanalyst, and his career is described in his entry in the Oxford DNB. At Bletchley Park during the Second World War he was the first person to decode a day's worth of the German Enigma Code (in 1940); and heading the Japanese Naval Section in Hut 7 (between 1942 and 1943). His wife Alison (née Graham, 1908-1979) inspired his interest in Scottish country dancing in the early 1930s. He was Vice-President of the Chelsea Reel Club on its formation in 1935; and became Chairman in 1938. While at Bletchley he taught a regular class on the subject.

[ H. Irene Champernowne, pioneer in the field of art therapy. ] Typescript of her Jungian paper 'Woman and the Community', with a personal reminiscence of the Jung circle.

Author: 
H. Irene Champernowne, pioneer in the field of art therapy, founder with her husband Gilbert Champernowne of the Withymead Therapeutic Centre, Oxfordshire [ Karl Gustav Jung; Toni Wolff ]
Publication details: 
Undated. 'A paper read to the Analytical Psychology Club, London, on 26th September, 1955.'
£350.00

Much of Tessa Adams's paper on Toni Wolff in 'The Feminine Case: Jung, Aesthetics and Creative Process', ed. Adams and Duncan (2003), concerns the 'remarkable woman' Irene Champernowne and her relations with Wolff and Jung, with a discussion of Champernowne's Withymead Therapeutic Centre in Oxfordshire, which operated from 1942 to the late 1960s.

[ John Disney, archaeologist. ] Autograph Letter Signed to 'Mr. P. Duncan of New Coll:',

Author: 
John Disney (1779-1857), archaeologist [ Philip Bury Duncan (1772-1863) of New College, Oxford, Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum ]
Publication details: 
The Hyde. 27 March 1828.
£220.00

2pp., 4to. He begins by reminding Duncan that he recently wrote to him, 'in reply to your letter on the subject of your book respecting Portugal'. That letter was directed to Oxford, but as Disney has not heard from Duncan since, he wonders whether it might have miscarried. He is now writing to remind Duncan of his 'kind expressions in my behalf as a candidate on the list at the Athenaeum'.

[ William Cole, entomologist and founder of the Essex Field Club. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('Wm Cole | Hon. Sec.') [ to Alexander Ramsay ]

Author: 
William Cole (1844-1922), entomologist and founder of Essex Field Club [ Alexander Ramsay ]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of The Essex Field Club, Buckhurst Hill, Essex. 6 November 1885.
£40.00

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. He begins by thanking Ramsay 'for Copy of No 12 of the Scientific Roll, which I presented to the Club at our last meeting, and for which a vote of thanks was accorded to you'. He agrees with Ramsay that the 'subject of Phenological observation' is 'one of very considerable importance', but the Club has been 'so full of work of one kind and another that we have hardly had time to consider the matter' and it has 'not yet been taken up by the Club'. He will raise the subject, and thanks Ramsay for 'the reprint of your paper'.

[ William Joseph Denison (1770-1849), banker and politician, one of the wealthiest men in Britain. ] Autograph Notr Signed ('Wm.. Denison') to unnamed recipient, declining an invitation.

Author: 
William Joseph Denison [ William Denison ] (1770-1849), banker and Whig politician, a founder of the Reform Club [ Denison, Haywood, and Kennard, London bank ]
Publication details: 
P[all]. Mall [ London ]. 'Friday' [ no date, but 1836 watermark ].
£45.00

1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with minor tape stain at head. Reads: 'Dear Sir - | I have had an attack of gout - within the last few days, which I am sorry will prevent me from accepting your kind Invitation on Wednesday next.' According to his entry in the Oxford DNB, 'Denison spent his business career in his father's bank, Denison, Heywood, and Kennard of Lombard Street, becoming senior partner upon his father's death.

[ Aubrey de Vere, Irish poet. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('Aubrey de Vere') [ to Samuel Waddington ], giving permission to publish sonnets by him in an anthology, and commenting on Hartley Coleridge, William Wordsworth and Sir Aubrey de Vere.

Author: 
Aubrey de Vere [ Aubrey Thomas Hunt de Vere ] (1814-1902), Irish poet annd critic [ Samuel Waddington ]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Athenaeum Club, Pall Mall [ London ]. 2 July 1880.
£110.00

3pp., 16mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with traces of stub adhering to blank reverse of sevond leaf. He is 'very much flattered' at Waddington's 'wishing to include sonnets of mine in your proposed selection. You are quite welcome to those you have named, or any others of mine.' He hopes he will 'include some of Hartley Coleridge's beautiful sonnets', and asks him to accept 'a vol. of sonnets by my Father, the late Sir Aubrey de Vere. Wordsworth spoke of his sonnets (my Father's) as the best modern sonnets he was acquainted with'.

[ The Savage Club, London. ] 53 signatures of members, including those of James Agate, C. R. W. Nevinson, Aubrey Hammond, Reginald Arkell and John Ansell, sent to the composer Herman Finck in his final illness. ]

Author: 
[ The Savage Club, London; James Agate; C. R. W. Nevinson; Aubrey Hammond, John Ansell; Reginald Arkell; Herman Finck [ born Hermann Van Der Vinck ] (1872-1939), composer and conductor ]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of The Savage Club, 1 Carlton House Terrace, London, S.W.1. April 1939.
£250.00

4pp., 12mo. On bifolium of grey paper. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. 53 signatures over four pages, written after the following: 'April 1939 | Dear Herman: Keep up your Heart & Get well soon. We need your kingly, cheery presence'. One signatory has written a bar of music, another has drawn a face, another has written after his name 'now then – up beat!' The first signature is that of the Punch cartoonist Bert Thomas (1883-1966), after which he has written '(BLIMEY)'. Among the other signatories are the theatre critic James Agate (1877-1947), the artists C. R. W.

[ Victor Plarr, nineties poet. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('Victor G. Plarr') to H. T. Scott, author of "A Guide to the Collector of Historical Documents, etc", describing a selection of autographs he has just purchased for resale.

Author: 
Victor Plarr [ Victor Gustave Plarr; Victor G. Plarr ] (1863-1929), nineties poet, librarian of the Royal College of Surgeons, member of the Rhymers' Club
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 7 Eldon Road, Kensington, W. [ London ] 17 November 1900.
£220.00

3pp., 12mo. In good condition. Plarr's entry in the Oxford English Dictionary does not note that he dealt in autographs, but the present item suggests that he was more than just a collector who dabbled. At the time of writing, and until his death, he was Librarian of the Royal College of Surgeons. The letter is addressed to 'H. T. Scott Esqre., M.D.' and begins: 'Dear Sir | It is long since you have heard from me. | I have just bought several autographs which you may care to know of -'.

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