COLLECTING

Autograph Letter Signed William Blades, bibliographer, to the Earl of Ashburnham, Collector, with related autograph material.

Author: 
William Blades, Bibliographer and Printer [Ashburnham; William Caxton]
Autograph Letter Signed William Blades, bibliographer
Publication details: 
2 Montague St., Russell Square, 17 May 185[8?].
£350.00
Autograph Letter Signed William Blades, bibliographer

Two pages, 12mo, chipped and with small closed tears, with loss of half a line of text and some letters, bottom edge turned up. I beg to offer you according to your reque[st] a list of books printed by Caxton, in the library at Ashburnham House with their imperfections and sizes.

Correspondence about Gertrude Stein and related matters, and related photographs and other material.

Author: 
[Gertrude Stein] Robert E. Finlay, collector of Steiniana
Publication details: 
1957-2009
£580.00

A. CD, "Finley Stein Holdings 2009". A catalogue of the Finley Stein Collection. B. Letters from Addison M. Metcalf, also a major Collector of Steiniana: Three Autograph Letters and Three Typed Letters Signed with full name, "Addison" only, or humorously ("Baron de Thou" etc) or is it "camply", to Finley, 6 Sept. 1957- [c.6 Nov. 1962 from postmark), with original envelopes, headed "Addison M. Metcalf's Collection of Gertrude Steiniana", total 7pp., 4to.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J H Markland), to the printers 'Messrs Nichols & Son | 25 Parliament Sq.'' by the antiquary and book collector James Heywood Markland

Author: 
James Heywood Markland (1788-1864), antiquary and book collector [John Bowyer Nichols]
James Heywood Markland (1788-1864), antiquary and book collector
Publication details: 
Whitehall Place; 10 July 1834.
£56.00
James Heywood Markland (1788-1864), antiquary and book collector

12mo, 2 pp. Bifolium, addressed on reverse of second leaf. Fair, on aged paper. He does not think he received 'Part II of Collectanea Topog. & Geneal.' 'As I believe that receipts are taken on delivery of that Work be so good as to send me any memorandum of the fact - if you do not possess it perhaps the Part may not have been left at my House'. Docketed, with details of the receipt, at head of first page.

Autograph Note Signed ('J Raine') by the antiquary John Raine.

Author: 
John Raine, Vicar of Blyth, Nottinghamshire, antiquary and book collector.
John Raine, Vicar of Blyth, Nottinghamshire, antiquary and book collector
Publication details: 
'Sunday' [no date, but c.1879].
£45.00
John Raine, Vicar of Blyth, Nottinghamshire, antiquary and book collector

12mo, 1 p. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with minor traces of mount on blank reverse. He only has 'time for a single line before Post'. He is adopting the recipient's 'suggestion of putting my name among the Vicars | "47. John Raine. Presented November 1834', and is sending copy. The note concerns an entry on Raine in the following: 'Reports and Papers Read at the Meetings of the Architectural Societies of the Counties of Lincoln and Nottingham, County of York, Archdeaconries of Northampton and Oakham, County of Bedford, Diocese of Worcester, and County of Leicester', Vol. 15 (1879).

[printed Belgian numismatic auction catalogue] Catalogue des Monnaies, Médailles, Méreaux, etc. formant les Collections delaissées par feu M. le Major A. Daufresne de la Chevalerie et provenant de divers autres amateurs.

Author: 
[Major Auguste Daufresne de la Chevalerie (1818-1881); H. Cordemans-de Bruyne; Charles Dupriez; Belgium; printed Belgian numismatic auction catalogue]
Catalogue des Monnaies, Médailles, Méreaux, etc.
Publication details: 
Malines: Imprimerie L. & A. Godenne, Editeurs, 28, Grand' Place, 28. 1896. [To be sold 26 May 1896, 'sous la direction de H. Cordemans-de Bruyne & Ch. Dupriez, Experts, à la Salle Bluff, 10, Rue du Gentilhomme, 10, Bruxelles'.
£95.00
Catalogue des Monnaies, Médailles, Méreaux, etc.

12mo, [ii] + 28 pp. In original pink printed wraps. Card frontispiece in three panels, folding out to 18.5 x 37.5 cm., carrying facsimiles of 48 numbered coins in collotype. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with minor damp staining at foot, in chipped and faded wraps. 893 lots, beginning with 'Monnaies Grecques et Gauloises', and ending with 'Jetons' and 'Médailles'. Excessively scarce: no copy on COPAC, and the only copy on WorldCat in the Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art, Collections Jacques Doucet, Paris.

Autograph Letter Signed C Bemont [Charles Bemont, French scholar and autograph-collector] to unnamed correspondent [M. Kirkaldy, ref. to Madame Kirkaldy within], with Alfred Dreyfus calling card and autograph message and his own card with message

Author: 
Charles Bemont, French scholar and autograph-collector [Alfred Dreyfus message on calling card]
ALS Charles Bemont, French scholar & Dreyfus calling card message
Publication details: 
[Printed heading] 9 Rue du Condé, 27 Oct. 1902.
£800.00
ALS Charles Bemont, French scholar & Dreyfus calling card message

Four pages, 12mo (letter), all items in good condition. He will fulfil his promise of some autograph letters, le plus notable et vivid, which had been relegated to the country but retrieved the day before. He describes a Michelet manuscript, notes taken après la lecture d'un ouvrage de M. Dupanloup before he became bishop. He discusses Dupanloup's character and achievements at length. He continues J'ajoute une lettre . . . Saul Meyer [NOT present] et une carte de visite . . .

Autograph Letter Signed Henrietta E.V. Stannard, novelist [pseud. John Strange Winter] to indecipherable name about collecting.

Author: 
H.E.V. Stannard [Mrs Arthur Stannard; pseud. John Strange Winter], novelist
Autograph Letter Signed Henrietta E.V. Stannard, novelist
Publication details: 
Charleville Road, West Kensington, [London], W, 20 [July?] 1903.
£56.00
Autograph Letter Signed Henrietta E.V. Stannard, novelist

One page, 4to, good condition. She doesn't disapprove of any kind of collecting and is ahppy to send her signature. She adds I collect all sorts of odds & {?] from which she gets much satisfaction. She describes a bangle made up of about 60 sixpences given to her by a celebrity.each with the name of the celebrity on it. She stopped adding to it because it became too heavy/ Her eldest girl collects stamps her second autographs and youngest tea spoons.

Lists Nos. 10 and 11 of 'COINS WANTED - NOT WORN OR SCRATCHED' by W. W. Smout & Son, Jewellers and Pawnbrokers, Rhyl.

Author: 
W. W. Smout & Son, Jewellers and Pawnbrokers, Queen Street, Rhyl [Wales]
Lists Nos. 10 and 11 of 'COINS WANTED - NOT WORN OR SCRATCHED'
Publication details: 
[c. 1960'; Rhyl, Wales]
£56.00
Lists Nos. 10 and 11 of 'COINS WANTED - NOT WORN OR SCRATCHED'

Both lists 4to, but not uniform in size. List No. 10: Printed in black. 4to, 1 p. Fair, lightly-aged and creased. Coins divided into ten sections (from Farthings to Crowns) and three columns. The latest dated item is a 1960 crown. List No. 11: Printed in blue. Mainly advertising 'English Coin Sets in their original cases', but with 'ENGLISH SILVER' in three columns. Text clear and complete. On lightly aged paper, with some foxing along creases, and dogeared, creased edge.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Samuel Hey') to Twining, giving details of an arson attack [on his church?].

Author: 
Samuel Hey (1739-1828), eccentric bibliophile vicar of Steeple Ashton, Wiltshire, known as 'The Hermit' [Richard Twining (1749-1824), tea and coffee merchant]
Publication details: 
17 January 1822; 'Steeple-Ashton near Trowbridge | Wiltshire'.
£85.00

12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium. Forty-nine lines of text, clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. In a neat, childish hand. Begins by asking for ten pounds to be paid to the bearer, Thomas Fairfax Carlile, on Hey's account. A 'hand bill' has been 'published on the occasion - but without effect', and fifteen of his 'near neighbours' have - 'without consulting me' - subscribed ten pounds each. 'A man was apprehended - but for want of sufficient evidence he was liberated to appear before the magistrate when called for, upon penalty of 40£.

The first sixteen volumes of 'The Autograph Collectors' Journal', retitled, from vol.5 no.4 (Summer 1953), 'Manuscripts'.

Author: 
National Society of Autograph Collectors; The Manuscript Society
Publication details: 
Vol.1, no.1 (Chicago: The Norman Press, 'Published by The National Society of Autograph Collectors', October 1948) to vol.16 no.4 (Chicago: 'Published Quarterly by the Manuscript Society', Fall 1964).
£450.00

Sixteen vols, the first seven quarto and last nine octavo. Index to vols.1-11 loosely inserted. Good (apart from issue for Summer 1957 which has slight damp damage), crudely bound in eight volumes of blue cloth, with titles in neat manuscript on white label on spine (one of the bindings stained and two in a lighter shade of blue with titles stamped in gilt). Well produced and profusely illustrated, with informative and scholarly articles, advertisements, and sections on 'the auction market' and 'manuscripts in the news'.

Sammlung historisch-beruehmter Autographen, oder Facsimile's von Handschriften ausgezeichneter Personen alter und neuer Zeit.

Author: 
Ad. Becher [German autograph collecting; autographs; facsimiles]
Publication details: 
Erste Serie. [all published] Stuttgart: Ad. Becher's Verlag. 1846.
£60.00

Quarto. Not paginated, but consisting of around 240 leaves containing approximately 280 numbered and well-executed facsimiles. In original brown cloth decorative binding. On aged paper in worn binding, with front board detached with first seven leaves. No letterpress, apart from title and alphabetical index. Apparently published in England under the title 'A Collection of three hundred Autograph Letters of Celebrated Individuals of all Nations, from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. [...]'. COPAC only lists a copy at Aberdeen.

Autograph Letter Signed ('James Donnet') to Mrs Hollingworth, discussing autograph collecting.

Author: 
Sir James Donnet [Sir James John Louis Donnet] (1816-1905), inspector-general of hospitals and fleets [autograph collecting]
Publication details: 
24 March 1895; on letterhead of 5 Park Road, Bognor, Sussex.
£38.00

12mo, 4 pp. Text clear and complete. Very good on lightly-aged paper, with thin strip from stub still adhering. Thanking her for 'sending me the acceptable autographs you have. Though seemingly scraps of paper they possess for the initiated a value, for I believe every individual to be possessed of a romance which opportunity and occasion bring to the fore and make of him a personage whose writing is worthy of preservation. The diamond in its mine is of no value, but when found, cut, and set in its golden framework, it is prized and esteemed'. Defends 'the collector' against criticism.

Autograph Letter Signed ('S. Lane Poole') to Mrs. Hollingworth.

Author: 
Stanley Lane-Poole (1854-1931), British orientalist and archaeologist
Publication details: 
10 June 1896; on letterhead of 3 Newham Road, Bedford.
£38.00

12mo, 4 pp. In bifolium. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. He has forgotten which letters he has sent her for her autograph collection, 'but I daresay some of the list written at the back of this are new to you'. He will send any she wants. Asks for any duplicates she may have to spare. The list covers the last two pages, and consists of 39 names, from 'Sir John Burgoyne, R.E.' to 'Count Zamorgski'.

Alnwick Scientific and Mechanical Institution. Fine Art Exhibition in Corn Exchange, Alnwick, November 1882, Collection of Coins, Eggs of Farne Islands, Native and Foreign Curiosities, &c., &c., collected and exhibited by Mr. J. J. Horsley, Alnwick.

Author: 
J. J. Horsley of Alnwick, collector of coins and eggs of the Farne Islands [Alnwick, Northumberland; birds' eggs; ornithology; numismatics]
Publication details: 
1882. Alnwick: Printed by C. E. Moore.
£75.00

12mo, 11 pp. Stitched and unbound. First and last leaves loose, otherwise in fair condition, on lightly-aged paper with grubby title. The section of 'Eggs of the Farne Islands' consists of fifteen entries on pp.8-9, from '1. Eider or St. Cuthbert's Duck (Somateria mollissima)' to '15.

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.

Autorgaph Letter Signed ('W Fairburn') to 'Mrs Sumner' [daughter-in-law of Bishop Charles Sumner?].

Author: 
Sir William Fairburn (1789-1874), Scottish engineer
Publication details: 
21 June 1866; Manchester.
£120.00

Three pages. On aged, ruckled paper, with traces of mount adhering to damaged second leaf of bifolium. Text entirely legible. He has 'selected autograph letters from some of my scientific friends, and from a distinguished philosopher and mathematician General Poncelet, and the other from an eminent Military Engineer Genl Morin at the head of the "Conservation des Art et Metiers".' He also sends 'notes from Lord Stanley, Sir D. Brewster, Dr. Robinson the Astronomer of Armagh, and my excellent friend Mr Hopkins the Geologist and Mathematician of Cambridge'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Balcarres') to 'Everard'.

Author: 
David Lindsay (1871-1940), politician and future 27th Earl of Crawford [Lindsay Library; Bibliotheca Lindesiana]
Publication details: 
16 October 1895; Haigh [Lancashire].
£65.00

12mo: 3 pp. Bifoilum. Thirty-six lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with several pin holes, light spotting, and a 1 cm closed tear along a fold. A lighthearted epistle, beginning 'Dear Everard, Dear Everard | The Cistercians make an awful mistake in giving free meals. My Charity-organisation Society temperament rises in wrath: if they wd only apply the labour test for an hour or less - but free meals! I have watched the moral ravages of free meals and feel more strongly abt that kind of thing than about Home rule or Mediaeval Brases.

Autograph Letter Signed ('A Francis Steuart') to 'Miss Graham'.

Author: 
Archibald Francis Steuart (1872-1942), Scottish advocate, genealogist and historian [AUTOGRAPH COLLECTING]
Publication details: 
Hotel Grande Bretagne, Florence; 11 March 1923.
£75.00

Two pages, octavo. Good, with traces of stub adhering to one uneven edge. He feels there is 'surely telepathy in the world' as, 'only last night tired of the dull inaction after a bout of 'flu', he was assembling autographs for his correspondent. '[T]hey all explain themselves except perhaps Boardman Robinson the American cartoonist and Rose Bradley the writer on teh 19th. Century. I send one too from Lord Seaforth who only died last week.

Large engraved armorial bookplate of Hereson de Brecksel.

Author: 
Hereson de Brecksel [bookplate]
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated. [Eighteenth century?]
£50.00

On one side of a piece of wove paper 19 x 14.5 cm, and with the image extending almost to the edges. Lightly aged and creased, but good overall. An usual design, with the coat of arms within a fleece held up by two figures of Hercules, both on pedestals, the one of the left marked 'HUMUS' and that on the right 'SUMUS'. The fleece folds over the left-hand Hercules's right shoulder and reads 'LE CULTE EN' with 'DIFFICULTE' over the left-hand Hercules's left shoulder. Topping the whole design, above a coronet, is a harpy, and at the foot of the paper is 'Hereson de Brecksel'.

I Want! I Want! Printed, not Published, for the Friends of A. Edward Newton.

Author: 
A. Edward Newton, American book collector of 'Oak Knoll', Daylesford, Pennsylvania
Publication details: 
Christmas, 1932.
£45.00

12mo: [ii] + 14 pp. Unpaginated. Frontispiece of Blake's celebrated print. Internally tight on lightly-aged and grubby paper, and with the reverse of the frontispiece slightly discoloured. Staples a little rusty. In grubby white wraps. A signed presentation copy. Boldly written on the front wrap: 'Lawrence Binyon C.H. with the compliments of [signed] H. Edward Newton'. A characteristic production by the boisterous author of 'The Amenities of Book-Collecting'. At end: 'A. EDWARD NEWTON | "Oak Knoll" | Daylesford, Berwyn P.O., | Pennsylvania'.

Catalogue of the well-known and very valuable library formed at the Durdans, Epsom, by the late Rt. Honble. the Earl of Rosebery, K.G., K.T. Sold by order of his daughter Lady Sybil Grant. The first and second portions.

Author: 
Archibald Philip Primrose (1847-1929) , 5th Earl of Rosebery, British Prime Minister [Lady Sybil Grant; the Durdans, Epsom; Sotheby & Co.]
Publication details: 
Sotheby & Co., 34 & 35, New Bond Street, W.(1). On Monday, the 26th day of June, 1933, and four following days.
£100.00

TWO COPIES, both octavo: iv + 158 pages. Several collotype plates, several in red and gold. In original green printed Sotheby wraps. Both items sound internally, with some wear to the wraps. One item has extensive pencil annotations to the front wraps, and the other has a few ink marks to the reverse, with minor wear to the last couple of leaves. Both catalogues partially priced with some names by the London booksellers Myers & Co. of New Bond Street, one on the second day of the sale and the other on the fifth.

Two Autograph Letters Signed "Augte Viquesnel" to an unnamed correspondent. In French [En Francais]

Author: 
[TURKEY] Auguste Viquesnel (1803-1867), author of "Voyage dans la Turquie d'Europe"
Publication details: 
Paris, 7 June 1847 and Seaux, 14 August [1854?].
£120.00

One page each, 8vo, minor stains and creasing, good condition. (1847) He describes a colleague, a "M. de La Roquette", for some years Secretary to the "Societe de geographie". whom he understands to be working on Turkey. "Je me [?] de lui indiquer un ouvrage Special sur Constantinople, son historie, ses monuments . . . " He wishes to avail himself of his correspondent's knowledge of "bibliographie" to help his colleague.

Autograph Note Signed "Perreaux" TO [J.B. Delestre, French artist and art historian].

Author: 
L. Gm Perreaux [Louis Guillaume Perreaux], French engineer and prolific inventor [motorbike etc]
Publication details: 
[Address blind-stamped] "L. Gm Perreaux/ Ingénieur Mécanicien/ 16 Rue Mr. de Prince/ Paris".
£400.00

One page, creasing and sunning but text clear and complete, as follows: Cher Monsieur/ Demain ou apres, je doit recevoir chez moi un grand amateur de livres manuscripts, seriez vous assez bon pour remettre au porteur les deux livres Arabes que je vous ai remis il y a quelques temps." Note: A note in another hand states: "Adressée a J.B. Delestre". Perreaux is said to be the inventor of the motorbike (the "motocyclette"). See http://www.moto-perreaux.com/tricycle.htm for information about his steam-driven "velocipede" and other inventions.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Ch Le Blanc'), in French, to the Leipzig bookseller Theodor Oswald Weigel.

Author: 
Charles Le Blanc (1817-1865), French art critic and authority on engraving [Theodor Oswald Weigel (1812-1881), Leipzig bookseller]
Publication details: 
24/01/51
£56.00

12mo, 1 p, 12 lines of text. Good, on lightly aged paper. The second leaf of the bifolium is docketed in a contemporary hand. Le Blanc has received Weigel's twenty-second catalogue, and it has given him pleasure. Like the others it is full of curious details, and is extremely useful to Le Blanc, being full of curious details. He orders several items (crossed through by the firm), the last of which he desires 'vivement' to own.

Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed male correspondent [probably William Upcott].

Author: 
John Gough Nichols (1806-1873), printer and antiquary [William Upcott (1779-1845), antiquary and autograph collector]
Publication details: 
30/05/29
£85.00

12mo, 3 pp. Very good. Nichols regrets not seeing the recipient 'again before I left the Institution on Tuesday, to thank you for your kind attention' [Upcott was sub-librarian at the London Institution]. He is sending him a proof (presumably of an article in the Gentleman's Magazine), 'that you may see what I have said about your Album, and also what about modern collectors, and make any emendation you think fit in either place'. Discussion of 'the earliest Album in the Museum', about the date of which the recipient has been misled by a misprint.

Autograph Postcard Signed "Cecil" to Kenneth Bredon, Brighton bookseller.

Author: 
Cecil Day-Lewis, writer
Publication details: 
[Mrs C. Day-Lewis's headed card - "Mrs" excised]
£35.00

Good condition. "Dear Kenneth / Many thanks for your congratulations - greatly appreciated. I hope all goes well with you & send best wishes for 1968." Day-Lewis had recently been appointed Poet Laureate.

Typed Note Signed "C Day -Lewis" to John Crosby, R.D.I., Waipukurai, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand..

Author: 
Cecil Day-Lewis, writer
Publication details: 
[Chatto and Windus Ltd, publishers, headed notepaper], London, 8 Feb. 1968.
£30.00

One page, 8vo, good condition. "I have pleasure in sending you my autograph."

Autograph Letter Signed ('Thos. H. Wyatt') to the connoisseur and print collector the Rev. Charles Henry Middleton (1828-1915); with manuscript 'resolution'.

Author: 
Thomas Henry Wyatt (1807-1880), English architect
Publication details: 
19 May 1881; on embossed letterhead of the Art Students' Home, 4 & 5 Brunswick Square, London W.C.
£100.00

12mo, 2 pp, letter of 8 lines, resolution of 9 lines. Good, on lightly spotted paper with small pin holes to top inner corner. He is appending 'a copy of a resolution agreed to at a Meeting of Committee held this afternoon at No 1 Station St., the Baroness Burdett-Coutts presiding'. The resolution, on the recto of the second leaf of the bifolium, thanks Middleton, 'for services rendered to the Art Student Home, & for the constant interest he has displayed in advancing its welfare'.

Autographs and Manuscripts. Catalogue of a Selection of Important Historical, Literary and other Autographs, being the second portion of a Collection for Sale.

Author: 
M. M. Holloway, London autograph dealer [autographs; sale catalogues]
Publication details: 
London: M. M. Holloway, 25 Bedford Street, Strand, W.C. 1862.
£60.00

Octavo: 52 pp. Stitched and unbound. Good, if a tad grubby. In alphabetical order from Queen Adelaide to the Duchess of York, but lotted 236 to 553. Tastefully printed, and including letters of Charles I, Coleridge, Dr Johnson, Samuel Richardson, Rossini, Sir Walter Scott, Laurence Sterne and Horace Walpole.

Autograph Signature on card, addressed to autograph collector Albert Millward.

Author: 
Murray Kash, Canadian-born British actor, announcer and author, compere of the BBC television programmes 'It Pays To Be Ignorant', starring Michael Bentine (1957)
Publication details: 
Undated; place not stated.
£35.00

One page. Dimensions of card roughly three and a half inches by four and a half. Right-hand side and bottom edge of card cropped. 'Autograph of' printed at head, and beneath this 'To Albert Millwa | With very best wi | Murray Kash'. The right-hand edges of the letter 'K' in Kash's name extend rightwards over the rest of the word, and may be very slightly cropped. Upper four lines of biographical cutting laid down at foot. Fragment of printed letter from Millward (and signed by him) requesting the autograph, beneath remains of plastic film on reverse.

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