COLLEGE

Autograph Letter Signed ['J. Arthur Thomson'] to an unnamed firm of publishers.

Author: 
Sir John Arthur Thomson (1861-1933), Professor of Natural History at the University of Aberdeen, 1899-1930
Publication details: 
10 August 1914; his letterhead from the Natural History Department, Marischal College, The University, Aberdeen.
£100.00

One page, octavo. On aged paper, with slight chipping to corners, but text clear and entire. He is afraid that he 'did not answer your second letter in regard to a book on Sex.' 'After careful consideration', Thomas and 'Prof. Geddes' [Sir Patrick Geddes, 1854-1932] have come to the conclusion that 'if we wrote another book on that subject it should be published either by "Walter Scott" (who has 'The Evolution of Sex') or by Williams and Norgate (who have 'Sex')' [both books, 1889 and 1914 respectively, also by Geddes and Thomson].

Autograph Letter Signed to Joseph Procter.

Author: 
John Clayton, junior (1780-1865), Minister of Poultry Chapel, London
Publication details: 
29 December 1826; Devonshire Square.
£56.00

Four pages, 12mo. Very good, with strip of brown paper adhering at the head. Text clear and entire. A long letter, casting light on the effects on the English middle classes of the financial crisis of 1825. Clayton begins by thanking Procter for the 'card case'. He 'will gladly do any thing that may fall within [his] power, to assist the Associate Fund', but does not think that he can 'do much'. 'The times are such, that Cases of <?> distress so multiply in our different communities, as to swallow up a large proportion of our pecuniary means'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Walter L. Clay') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Walter Lowe Clay, of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Victorian social scientist
Publication details: 
1 November 1866; on letterhead of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, 1 Adam Street, Adelphi, W.C. [London].
£45.00

Two pages, small octavo. Good, on lightly aged paper and ruckled paper, with some staining to the verso of the blank second leaf of the bifolium. His correspondent's 'paper on the high death rate in Liverpool' was not returned to Clay after being read at Manchester, 'nor can the Secretary of the Department (Captain ) obtain any intelligence of it from the reporters'. One of the reporters has sent the Captain an abstract prepared by the author. Clay asks whether he has the manuscript in his possession, and if so, whether he will send it to him.

Autograph Letter Signed ('F W Farrar') to [Herbert Armitage] James[, Headmaster of Rossall School].

Author: 
Frederic William Farrar (1831-1903), Dean of Canterbury and Master of Marlborough College, 1871-6 [Herbert Armitage James; Rossall School; Rugby School]
Publication details: 
21 September 1875; on letterhead of The Lodge, Marlborough College.
£100.00

Four pages, 12mo. Very good, on lightly aged paper, with minor traces of two mounts adhering to verso of second leaf of bifolium. Praises 'the excellent Sermon'. 'You will doubtless have a difficult work at Rossall, but every term will render it less difficult' [...] One can't ask for a greater blessing than difficult work when it is also - as yours is & will be - entirely hopeful & immensely useful.

The Source of "The Ancient Mariner."

Author: 
Ivor James, Registrar of The University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire [Samuel Taylor Coleridge]
Publication details: 
Cardiff: Daniel Owen and Company, Limited. 1890.
£125.00

12mo: [iv] + 88 pages. Unbound. In original olive printed wraps. PRESENTATION COPY to 'Dr. Elliott | With kind regards', with around a dozen manuscript emendations. On aged paper, with loss to front wrap and spine. Each page, including the front wrap, within ruled red border. COPAC lists only five holdings.

Autograph Card Signed ('Lamb') to Ian Treg. Jenkyn, Slade School of Fine Art, University College London.

Author: 
Lynton Harold Lamb (1907-1977), British painter, book illustrator and designer
Publication details: 
[Venice; 1970].
£85.00

Postcard with painting of Rialto Bridge by Canaletto. Postmarked 1970. Ruckled with damp but entirely legible. An amusing communication, beginning 'Thought I would let you know that we were not involved in the great tornado that sunk a voporetto [sic] on Lirica 4, and that the Hotel alla Fava is still very comfortable.' Refers to the Lambs' 'self-contained eyrie' and 'the weak fast coffee which tastes of mud; but clearly and obviously isn't'.

Autograph Letter Signed to Sir Henry Trueman Wood, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Frank Clowes (1848-1923), Principal, University College Nottingham, and Professor of Chemistry and Metallurgy
Publication details: 
6 January 1915; on letterhead 'THE GRANGE, | COLLEGE ROAD, | DULWICH.'
£23.00

One page, 12mo. Good. Docketed and bearing the Society's stamp. Concerns 'Sir Alexander Redler's being brought up by Crookes for election to the Athenaeum by the Committee under Rule II [...] you [...] intimated that you knew Redler & that I need not descant on his virtues: he is a most clubbable man & I trust you may be able to support him'.

Autograph Letter Signed and Typed Letter Signed to Wilson Clayton.

Author: 
Arthur Lionel Smith (1850-1924), historian and Master of Balliol College, Oxford
Publication details: 
Letter One (manuscript), 12 August 1919; Bamburgh, Northumberland [on Balliol letterhead]; Letter Two (typed), 10 January 1920, on Balliol Letterhead.
£36.00

LETTER ONE (manuscript): Two pages, 12mo. Good on aged paper with a little light foxing. Is 'glad of the opportunity' to tell Clayton 'how highly appreciated on the Committee was the assistance you gave it, your assiduity & attention, your fairness, & your practical wisdom. Besides your kindliness & unvarying good temper were an invaluable element. For myself personally I feel I have made a new friend; wh. in old age is not so easy, & therefore is all the more agreeable.' Signed 'Arthur L Smith'. LETTER TWO (typed): three pages, octavo. Good, though slightly dogeared.

Autograph Signature on fragment of document.

Author: 
Sir John Pratt (1657-1725), Lord Chief Justice of England
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£33.00

Dimensions of paper roughly five inches by three-quarters of an inch. Signed 'John Pratt' between writing in a seventeenth-century chancery hand. Docketed with biographical details in a minute nineteenth-century hand, and enclosed in a piece of paper with further biographical details in another nineteenth-century hand.

Typed Letter Signed to the editor of the Journal of the Rontgen Society.

Author: 
Sir Richard Arman Gregory, Professor of Astronomy, Queen's College, London (1864-1952)
Publication details: 
25 July 1918; on letterhead of the British Science Guild (British Scientific Products Exhibition, 1918).
£33.00

Signed 'R. A. Gregory'. One page, folio. Good, with one dogeared corner. Bearing the stamp of the Royal Society of Arts. Circular letter referring to an enclosure (not present) relating to an exhibition which 'will shew that by the combination of science and industry we have done nearly as much in four years of war as the Germans did in the preceding forty. More than 250 manufacturers are sending exhibits, and the Air Ministry will make a large display, as well as the Food Production Department.' Asks for 'a sympathetic editorial note or article'.

Autograph Letter Signed to J.T.J. Hewlett, author of "Peter Priggins" and other books.

Author: 
William Naisby.
Publication details: 
[1843].
£45.00

William Naisby (1; [1843]), giving a detailed and hostile critique of Hewlett's College Life. Originally from a larger archive, the residue of which is described in #3157 (Hewlett's papers), this and other items appear in my ABE inventory in book id#s 3124-3156.

Autograph Letter 'To the Editor', entitled 'Phrenology', and signed 'Apollonius'.

Author: 
PHRENOLOGY [Wiveliscombe; Somerset Country Gazette]
Publication details: 
Wiveliscombe Decr 18th, 1840'.
£65.00

Two pages, quarto. On a discoloured piece of brittle, thin wove paper, with some fraying, several closed tears and a little loss (affecting three words). A long, able and closely-written defence of the discipline. '[...] | X appears decidedly opposed to an alarmed at the science, and feels himself awfully degraded with the comparisons drawn by Phrenologists between the human species and the lower animals - that they should exist, breathe, and partake of, in a limited degree, corresponding qualities with the human race.

Autograph Letter Signed ['to Pinkham'].

Author: 
Sir William Reynell Anson
Publication details: 
20 August 1902; on letterhead 'GLENTROMIE, | KINGUSSIE, N.B.'
£45.00

English jurist (1843-1914), Warden of All Souls college, Oxford. Two pages, 12mo. On discoloured, grubby, creased paper, with a small closed tear and some bleeding due to damp on the verso. Extensive damp damage to blank second leaf of bifoliate. Docketed as 'To Pinkham'. Before leaving Oxford the previous week he 'ordered a somewhat miscellaneous collection of books' to be sent to his correspondent's library. 'It was a small collection - a few biographies, some college histories and one or two books which chanced to be in the booksellers catalogue & which looked interesting.

Three Autograph Letters Signed to Mark [Bonham-Carter].

Author: 
George Malcolm Young
G.M. Young
Publication details: 
14 July 1945, 1 December 1946, 8 May 1947; all on letterhead 'THE OLD OXYARD, | OARE, | MARLBOROUGH, | WILTS.'
£120.00
G.M. Young

English historian (1882-1959). All three items, two pages, quarto. All good, though grubby and lightly creased. Three intimate and revealing letters. ITEM ONE apparently sent to Bonham-Carter in America. 'You will soon be back, I think. Are you now occupied in assembling and correlating your observations? [...] I should guess it was quite impossible to think when a Presidential election is going on. | I have been spending a fortnight in Oxford and I asked some of the early-middle-aged dons what the undergraduates were thinking.

Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
John Abel Smith
Publication details: 
Chelsea Squ[are]. | Augt. 29. [1866]'.
£36.00

British banker and politician (1801-71). Four pages, 12mo. Good, but dusty and on discoloured paper, with traces of stub adhering to verso of second leaf. Docketed with date.

Four Autograph Letters Signed and one Typed Letter Signed to G[eorge]. K[enneth]. Menzies, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
William Arthur Bone [THE COAL INDUSTRY]
Publication details: 
31 Oct. 1913 and 6 Feb., 2 March, and 5 and 12 Oct. 1919.; the first three on Imperial College of Science and Technology letterhead, the fourth from St Albans and the fifth from Stockton on Tees.
£80.00

English scientist (1871-1938), Professor of Chemical Technology at the Imperial College of Science and Technology. All items quarto and very good, though lightly grubby, creased and stained in places. All five docketed and bearing the Society's stamp. LETTER ONE (one page): He will be happy to give 'a course of Cantor lectures [...] on the subject of "Surface Construction" provided that you will put in the requisite gas & air services at your cost for the practical Demonstration'.

Typed Letter Signed to Kenneth Luckhurst, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts, together with unsigned copy of letter to Luckhurst from G. Hollewell, carbon copy of Luckhurst's reply to Hollewell, and carbon copies of two letters from Luckhurst to Capey.

Author: 
Reco Capey [Yardley and Company; Perfume; Perfumery]
Publication details: 
All items 1947: Capey's letter, 18 March, on letterhead of Yardley and Co. ('Perfumery and Fine Soap Makers'); copy of Hollewell's letter, 7 March, Lincolnshire; copy of Luckhurst to Hollewell, 20 March; copies of Luckhurst to Capey, 11 and 20 March.
£100.00

British industrial designer (1895-1961); Chief Instructor, Design, Royal College of Art, 1925-35. The two carbons to Capey from Luckhurst, one page, 12mo; the other three letters, one page, quarto. All very good, though somewhat dusty and lightly creased, and with staple holes to the top left-hand corners. Throwing useful light on the state of post-war art education, the correspondence concerns a request to Luckhurst from 'one-time Fellow of the Society' Hollewell for 'information and advice in regard to my daughter's future training'.

Two Autograph Letters Signed and Two Typed Letters Signed to Perry (1), Luckhurst (2) and Menzies (1), Secretaries, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Sidney John Duly
Publication details: 
[18 August], 19 and 25 October 1937 and 31 January 1938; the first on letterhead of Canadian Pacific Hotels, the other three on City of London College letterheads.
£45.00

English traveller, writer and Governor of City of London College (1891-1991). First and last letters, two pages quarto; middle two letters, one page quarto. All in good condition and either docketed or bearing the Society's stamp. In first letter, further to a conversation, Duly asks if he can give a lecture on 'Ships sweat & condensation'. 'I have been away with a Leverhulme Fellowship on Carriage of Goods by Sea & am now on the Pacific Coast again where I find v. great interest in my previous papers & requests for a further account of more recent work.

The lawfulness and obligation of oaths. A dissertation which obtained the Hulsean Prize for the year 1844.

Author: 
F. J. Gruggen, Scholar of Saint John's College, Cambridge
Publication details: 
Cambridge: printed at the University Press [...]. 1845.
£100.00

Octavo. 84 pages. A disbound pamphlet from the Churchill Babington collection. Very good with light foxing to prelims. 'Amongst all the institutions which contribute to strengthen the bonds of society, by establishing and confirming that mutual trust and confidence among men which is necessary to its very existence, there is none which exercises a more considerable and beneficial influence than that of oaths, when applied to those purposes for which it was intended.' Scarce: only three copies on COPAC.

Four printed items relating to the election of fellowships.

Author: 
All Soul's College, Oxford
Publication details: 
May, October and November 1946.
£56.00

From the archive of Mark Bonham Carter. Good, but on lightly creased, worn, discoloured paper with a few closed tears, stains and pencil marks. ITEM ONE: one page (8 3/4 inches by 11 1/4), headed 'UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD | ALL SOULS COLLEGE | ELECTION TO FELLOWSHIPS'. Begins: 'As announced in the University Gazette in September and October (Nos. 2485 and 2487) All Souls College will hold an examination from 1 to 4 May 1946, for the election of not more than three Fellows, if candidates of sufficient merit offer themselves.' States 'conditions of candidature and terms of the Fellowships'.

The sabbath. A paper read at the conference of the Evangelical Alliance, held at Geneva, September 2. 1861.

Author: 
Andrew Thomson, D.D., Edinburgh [pref. Rev. J. C. Ryle, Christ Church, Oxford]
Publication details: 
London: James Nisbet & Co. 21 Berners Street. 1863. '200th Thousand.'
£22.00

Octavo. 16 pages. Disbound pamphlet from the Churchill Babington collection. Very good, though paper somewhat discoloured and lightly foxed.

Autograph Note Signed to the Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
George Armitage-Smith [BIRKBECK COLLEGE]
Publication details: 
14 December 1917, on crested Birkbeck College Letterhead.
£28.00

Economist (c.1844-1923), Principal of Birkbeck College, 1896-1918. One page, octavo. Very good. Docketed and bearing R.S.A. stamp. Asks for Professor Campbell Swinton's address 'in any form'. 'If it is published in the Journal that wd. be very convenient.' Signed 'G. Armitage-Smith'.

Typed Note and Typed Letter Signed, one to the Editor and the other to the Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Charles Crowther
Publication details: 
20 February and 14 March 1940; both on crested letterhead of the Harper Adams Agricultural College, Newport, Hampshire.
£36.00

Agricultural chemist (1876-1964). Both one page, quarto, and very good, though lightly creased. The letter carries a few light carbon-paper stains. The note informs the editor of the R.S.A. journal that Crowther is returning the 'corrected copy of my remarks in the discussion on my paper. | I presume that you will be sending me a supply of reprints when the Journal comes out'. The letter thanks the secretary for the copies of the journal.

Autograph Letter Signed to [the Secretary, Royal Society of Arts].

Author: 
James Fuller Blumhardt
Publication details: 
Toynbee | St. Peter's Road | Bournemouth | 18 March /13' [1913].
£35.00

Linguist (died 1922), Professor of Hindustani and Reader of Hindi and Bengali, University College, London, and Teacher of Bengali at Oxford University. Two pages, 12mo. Very good though a little grubby. Docketed and bearing the Society's stamp. 'As I have not heard from you I am afraid there are no candidates for Hindustani - I have come here for a much needed rest, and, as no letters will be sent on from Gerards Cross, will you kindly write direct to this address in case a paper is required.' Signed 'J F Blumhardt'.

Typed Note Signed to Sir Harry Lindsay, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Thomas Sherrer Ross Boase
Publication details: 
28 November 1947; on letterhead of Magdalen College, Oxford.
£32.00

English mediaeval and art historian (1898-1974), Director of the Courtauld Institute of Art. One page, landscape octavo. Good, but with one corner creased and grubby, and with staple holes in another. 'I should be much honoured to be nominated as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and should much appreciate association with that body and all the work it does.' Signed 'T. S. R. Boase.'

Two Typed Letters Signed to [K. W. Luckhurst,] the Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Sir Edward Charles Dodds
Publication details: 
24 October 1938; 30 December 1947; both on letterhead of the Courtauld Institute of Biochemistry, the Middlesex Hospital.
£45.00

English scientist (1899-1973), Professor of Biochemistry at the University of London, and President of the Royal College of Physicians, 1962. Both items one page, 4to, and both good, though creased and with a few small staple holes. First item addressed to 'The Secretary' and second to Luckhurst. Both signed 'E. C. Dodds'. ITEM ONE: He has signed the form and is 'very glad to have an opportunity of being considered for Fellowship by your Council'. Asks whether his subscription is required with the application. ITEM TWO: Requests that 'the necessary forms' be sent to 'Mr.

Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
John Morris
Publication details: 
St Beuno's College, S: Asaph. | October 27, 1875.'
£30.00

English Jesuit (1826-93). Two pages, 12mo. Very good. He found what his correspondent had to say about Nicholas Roscarrock (an Elizabethan Roman Catholic versifier) very interesting, and is 'glad to hear that you have materials for a memoir of him.' He provides detailed answers to the two questions his correspondent has asked, but 'cannot add to the information you have so industriously collected'. Looks forward to his correspondent's memoir and thanks him for promising to send it.

Printed invitation to the 'opening of the Cosmo Melvill Herbarium'.

Author: 
Sir James Cosmo Melvill [THE MANCHESTER MUSEUM, OWENS COLLEGE]
Publication details: 
31 October 1904; printed by Cuthbertson & Black of Manchester.
£35.00

Melvill was a noted English botanist (1845-1929). 8vo bifoliate. Four unpaginated pages. In very good condition, with some discolouration from age and remains of stub from previous mounting adhering to verso of second leaf. Decorative vignettes on all four sides. Engraving of Museum on recto of first leaf. 'PROGRAMME' (reception; tea and coffee; address by Sir William Turner Thiselton Dyer; inspection) on verso of first leaf. Description of 'AN EXHIBITION | of | A SERIES OF SPECIMENS | from the Herbarium' on both sides of second leaf.

Autograph Letter Signed to [Osbert Guy Stanhope] Crawford.

Author: 
John Reginald Homer Weaver [DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY]
Publication details: 
7 September 1955; on letterhead of the Athenaeum Club, Pall Mall.
£35.00

One of the editors of the Dictionary of National Biography (born 1882). The recipient (1886-1957) was a noted archaeologist. Two pages, 12mo. In poor condition: creased, grubby, worn, stained and repaired. Weaver has just been reading Crawford's 'extremely interesting autobiography with its most original title' ('Said and done.

The pillar of the cloud: "lead, kindly light": Cardinal Newman, 1833. A translation into Latin elegiacs.

Author: 
Richard Horton Smith [Cardinal John Henry Newman]
Publication details: 
A reprint from 'Notes and Queries,' ninth series, vol. x. p. 425.; November 1902.
£65.00

Horton Smith is described on the title as 'K.C., M.A., late Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge'. Attractively printed 12mo bifoliate on good quality paper, but with the blank verso of the second leaf still adhering to piece of the paper on which it was mounted. Newman's poem of 1833 and Smith's translation of 1902 facing.

Syndicate content