COMMISSION

[ John Caley, English antiquary. ] Autograph Letter Signed to Dr Adam Clarke, admonishing him regarding engravings for a new edition of Rymer's 'Foedera'.

Author: 
John Caley (1760-1834), English antiquary, Secretary to the First Record Commission [ Dr Adam Clarke (1760-1832) of Milbrook, Lancashire, Methodist minister and antiquary ]
Publication details: 
Grays Inn [ London ], 19 March 1811.
£40.00

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, on aged paper, with negligible traces of mount adhering to the blank reverse of the leaf. Addressed to 'Dr Clarke | Harper St.' After explaining that the Commissioners of the Public Records want lists of the new plates for the first volume of 'Foeder', and another list of 'the old ones necessary to be re engraved', reminds him that he promised the latter list 'in September last'.

[Charles Stewart Parnell and the Parnell Commission.] Offprint from The Times: 'Parnellism and Crime. | Facsimile Page from the "Irish World." | Reprinted from The Times of June 7, 1887.

Author: 
[Sir Robert Anderson; The Times of London; Charles Stewart Parnell; The Parnell Commission; Patrick Ford; Patrick Egan; Irish Land League]
Publication details: 
London: Printed and published by George Edward Wright, at The Times office, Printing-House Square. 1887.
£280.00

For the context of this item see Parnell's entry in the Oxford DNB, and T. W. Moody's study 'The Times versus Parnell and Co., 1887-90' (in 'Historical Studies VI', ed. Moody; London: RKP, 1968). Moody notes that the first three Times articles (7, 10 and 14 March) 'were quickly reprinted in pamphlet form (price one penny)', but makes no mention of the present item. On both sides of single 60.5 x 47.5 cm leaf (on wove paper with 1887 watermark of 'The Times Taverham Mill'). Folded four times to make a packet with 15 x 12 cm title, which reads in full: 'Parnellism and Crime.

[Printed document.] Motor Cars. Memorandum of the Cheltenham Rural District Council to the President of the Local Government Board, With reference to the recent Report of the Royal Commission on Motor Cars.

Author: 
Gilbert McIlquham, clerk to the Cheltenham Rural District Board [The Local Government Board; The Royal Commission on Motor Cars, 1905-1907]
Publication details: 
Stamped '13th September 1906'.
£75.00

2pp., folio. Bifolium. In small type. Containing two copies of a printed circular by McIlquham, on Cheltenham Rural District Council letterhead, dated 14 September 1906. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. The memorandum is divided into five sections, and begins by putting the Council's position that 'Motor Cars travelling at high speed in dry weather along the unwatered roads of country districts occasion an intolerable dust nuisance to other users of the highway, and seriously prejudice the comfort and even the health of the inhabitants of road-side dwellings'.

[Royal Commission on Capital Punishment, 1950.] Published 'Minutes of Evidence' on Day 13 ('Howard League for Penal Reform Dr. Denis Hill and Dr. F. H. Taylor') and Day 27 ('Howard League for Penal Reform').

Author: 
[Royal Commission on Capital Punishment, 1948-1953] [Sir Ernest Gowers, chairman; Gowers Report, 1953; British parliamentary papers; hanging]
Publication details: 
Both items: London, His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1950.
£80.00

Two stapled pamphlets, uniform in layout, each with the ownership signature of M. Rooff at head of title. Day 13: [2] + 35pp., paginated 279-313, folio. Day 27: [2] + 25 pp., paginated 591-616. Substantially Howard League views, and mainly concerned with 'The Experience of Abolition in other Countries'. Both in fair condition, aged and worn, and each with particular wear to the title leaf.

[MS. Accounts; military papers] A Collection of c.50 MS. letters and other material relating mainly to the financial life of Captain John Williamson of the 25th Regiment

Author: 
Captain John Williamson, 25th Regiment, later of Dollar Mains, Alloa & Lawhill, Clackmannanshire.
Publication details: 
1783-1794.
£600.00

The collection contains the following:1. To John Williamson, 25th Regt: 5 Autograph Letters Signed "Alex[ander] Adair" Army Agent with 'extensive business' (of Pall Mall, London, and Flixton Hall; obit. Gent.Mag.

[Printed British civil service paper.] Open Competition for registration as Boy Copyist (New Class) in the Civil Service, August, 1898. Regulations, Examination Papers, and Table of Marks.

Author: 
[Civil Service Commission, 1898; British civil service; Her Majesty's Stationery Office; Eyre and Spottiswoode]
Publication details: 
'Civil Service Commission. [All Rights Reserved.]' London: Printed for Her Majesty's Stationery Office, by Eyre and Spottiswoode, Printers to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty. 1898.
£45.00

24pp., foolscap 8vo. With 3pp. of lithographed plates ('Copying MS.') between pp.6 and 7, giving two examples of uncorrected manuscripts for the contestants to copy out. Stitched and unbound. On aged paper, with the first and last leaves and fore-edges of plates worn and chipped at extremities. Divided into three sections: 'Regulations, &c.', 'Examination Papers' and 'Table of Marks'.

A List of the Flag-Officers of His Majesty's Fleet.

Author: 
[Royal Navy List, 1779; naval and maritime]
Publication details: 
January 1, 1779.
£300.00

12mo (dimensions of leaf 18 x 8 cm): [iii] + 16 + 34 pp. No title leaf and publisher not stated. Printed on the versos only of 53 leaves. Unbound. In contemporary marbled-paper and cloth-spine wraps. Text clear and entire, on aged and lightly stained paper. Loss and staining to rear wrap. A few annotations in pen and pencil in contemporary hands (for example 'Horatio Nelson' is marked out as 'Lord Nelson'). Ownership inscription of Jane Hume. From the papers of her relative, Charles William Paterson, Admiral of the White.

[Printed pamphlet.] A Retrospect of the Education of the Deaf, on the occasion of the Clerc Centennial Commemoration. December 28th, 1885. With numerous illustrations engraed by Wm. R. Cullingworth.

Author: 
Henry Winter Syle, M.A. Pastor of All Souls' Church for the Deaf, Missionary of the Pennsylvania Diocesan Commission on Church Work among Deaf Mutes [William R. Cullingworth of Philadelphia]
Publication details: 
Philadelphia: Wm. R. Cullingworth, 517 Locust Street, 1886.
£100.00

36pp., 12mo. In fair condition, on aged paper, with historic repairs to last leaf, and slight damage to spine from disbinding. Printed grey front wrap only. With stamp and label of the Educational Library, Science & Art Department, London. An attractive production, with numerous illustrations including several sign-language alphabets. Scarce: no copy on COPAC or OCLC WorldCat.

[Printed pamphlet.] Saorstát Éireann. Report of the Commission on the Relief of the Sick and Destitute Poor, including the Insane Poor.

Author: 
[Saorstát Éireann, Commission on the Relief of the Sick and Destitute Poor, including the Insane Poor]
Publication details: 
Baile Atha Cliath. Dublin. Foillsithe ag Oifig an rSolathair. Published by the Stationery Office. To be purchased through Messrs. Eason and Son, Litd., 40 and 41 Lr. O'Connell Street, Dublin. 1927.
£100.00

163pp., crown 8vo. xiv + [1] + 163pp. Stitched. In cream printed wraps. In fair condition, on lightly aged paper in worn wraps. With shelfmark, stamp and label of the Board of Education Reference Library.

[Printed parliamentary paper.] Dublin Commission (Irish Universities Act, 1908). Final Report of the Dublin Commissioners appointed by the Irish Universities Act, 1908. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of His Majesty.

Author: 
[Dublin Commission (Irish Universities Act, 1908)]
Publication details: 
London: Published by His Majesty's Stationery Office. Printed by A. Thom & Co., Ltd., Abbey Street, Dublin, 1911.
£80.00

14pp., crown 8vo. Stitched. In fair condition, on aged and lightly-worn paper. Stamp of the Science Museum Board of Education Science Library, and label of the Board of Education Reference Library, London. Scarce.

[Printed pamphlet.] Church Assembly. Third Report of the Education Commission.

Author: 
G. R. Wakefield [George Rodney Eden, Bishop of Wakefield], Chairman, Church Assembly Education Commission
Publication details: 
Printed by J. B. Nichols & Sons, Parliament Mansions, Orchard Street, Vicctoria Street, Westminster, SW1. October 1926.
£40.00

10pp., 12mo. Stapled and unbound. With Stamps, shelfmarks and label of the Board of Education Reference Library. Scarce: no copy in the British Library or on COPAC.

[James Smith.] Two Autograph Letters Signed (both 'Ja Smith'), the first headed 'Note for Alexr. Blair Esqr. Treasurer of the Bank of Scotland', and docketted 'Report on City [of Edinburgh] Improvements'.

Author: 
James Smith [Alexander Blair, Treasurer, Bank of Scotland; George Smith (1793-1877), architect to the Edinburgh Improvement Commissioners]
Publication details: 
First Letter: No place. 25 July 1837. Second Letter: Edinburgh. 31 July 1837.
£250.00

Both 1p., foolscap 8vo, and disbound. Both in good condition, on aged paper, with loss at edge from disbinding, causing slight loss of text in second letter. Letter One: Docketed on reverse of second leaf 'James Smith | July 25 1837 | Report on City Improvements.' The document begins: 'Having carefully examined the state No. IV. made up by the Improvement Commissioners, and submitted to the Bank of Scotland &c, and also, inspected the works with Mr Geo. Smith Architect for the Commissioners, I take leave to submit the following observations thereon'.

[Fitzroy Somerset, Lord Raglan.] Secretarial Letter, signed 'Fitzroy Somerset', informing 'Ensign Bickerstaff' [Robert Bickerstaff] that he may purchase a lieutenancy in the 64th Foot Regiment.

Author: 
Field Marshal Fitzroy Somerset [FitzRoy James Henry Somerset], 1st Baron Raglan [Lord Raglan] (1788-1855), British commander in Crimean War [Lt-Col. Robert Bickerstaff (d.1894), 6th Dragoon Guards]
Publication details: 
Horse Guards [London]. 18 November 1846.
£120.00

1p., 4to. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper. Raglan signs and addresses Bickerstaff at the foot of the letter, otherwise it is in a secretarial hand. It reads: 'Horse Guards | 18 November 1846 | Sir, | I am directed by The Commander in Chief [the Duke of Wellington] to acquaint you, that, on your lodging the Sum of £250 - in the hands of Messrs. Cox & Co of Craigs Court His Grace will submit your name to Her Majesty for the purchase of a Lieutenancy in the 64th Foot - | I have the honor to be, | Sir, | Your humble Servant, | Fitzroy Somerset | Ensign Bickerstaff | 64th Foot'.

Binder containing forty mimeographed typed documents from the Control Commission School (Air), Regent's Park, London, a top secret wartime organisation to prepare Allied officers for the occupation of Germany. With an autograph paper by a student.

Author: 
Air Vice-Marshall D. M. T. MacDonald (1909-1988), Officer Commanding, Control Commission School (Air), Regent's Park [F/o A. H. Reeve]
Publication details: 
[Control Commission School (Air), Viceroy Court, Prince Albert Road, Regent's Park, London.] February and March 1945.
£1,250.00

A significant collection of documents relating to the secret effort, at the end of the Second World War, to prepare officers of the British and allied armed forces for the coming occupation of Germany. Excessively scarce: the only other holdings appear to be in the British National Archives, and the Maurice M. Goodner papers (OAC), the latter relating to a later Parisian branch of the school.

Holograph Poem (signed 'Henry van Dyke') by the American author and educator Henry Jackson van Dyke, a sonnet titled 'Richard Watson Gilder'.

Author: 
Henry van Dyke [Henry Jackson van Dyke] (1852-1933), American author, educator and clergyman [Richard Watson Gilder (1844-1909) of New York City, poet and editor of 'The Century Magazine']
Publication details: 
Without place or date [written on Gilder's death in 1909].
£280.00

1p., 4to. A fair copy, on a piece of aged high-acidity paper, with chipping and loss to edges (not affecting text). Signed at foot. The poem begins: 'Heart of a hero in a poet's frame, / Soul of a soldier in a body frail, - / Thine was the courage clear that did not quail / Before the giant champions of shame'. Gilder is praised as a 'poet, patriot, friend', the poem concluding: 'Thou leavest two great gifts that will not die, - / Amid the city's noise, thy lyric cry!

Some Ulster Handbills

Author: 
[Ulster]
Publication details: 
1920-1924
£250.00

1. Ulster Facts and the Ulster Question (From the "Belfast Telegraph," July 9. 1924, printed by W. & G. Baird, Belfast), handbill, 4pp., 8vo, bifolium, very good condition. It includes "facts" about N. Ireland (agriculture, industry, etc) and reasons to reject the Boundary Commission.2. Ulster and Peace (Reprinted from "Belfast Telegraph," August 2, 1924, printed by W. & G. Baird, Belfast), handbill, 2pp. 8vo, bifolium, very good condition.3. The Attacks on Ulster (Reprinted from "Belfast Telegraph," August 4, [1924?], printed by W. & G. Baird, Belfast4. The Case for Ulster.

[Printed pamphlet; signed presentation copy.] Observations on the Public Records of the Four Courts at Westminster, and on the Measures recommended by the Committee of the House of Commons in 1800; For rendering them more accessible to the Public.

Author: 
William Illingworth (c.1764-1845), F.S.A., Deputy Keeper of the Records in the Tower of London, c.1805-1819
Observations on the Public Records of the Four Courts at Westminster,
Publication details: 
[One of fifty copies, privately printed.] 'For William Illingworth, of the Honorable Society of Gray's Inn, F.S.A. and Late Deputy Keeper of His Majesty's Records in the Tower.' [London: 1831.]
£450.00
Observations on the Public Records of the Four Courts at Westminster,

8vo, 67 pp. Signed by author 'W: Illingworth' at head of title page, with inscription in another hand: 'Presented to the Law Institution by me | 12th April 1838'. The blank reverse of the contents leaf carries the stamp of the Incorporated Law Society (also on blank verso of last leaf), and the withdrawal stamp of the Law Society. In modern calf half-binding, marbled boards, gilt. A good, tight copy on aged paper; with binding in excellent condition. Around 1805 Illingworth was appointed Deputy Keeper of the Records in the Tower of London; he resigned in 1819.

Nine prints of group photographs of inmates at the first Borstal Prison [at Borstal, near Rochester, Kent] and six of inmates at the second Borstal Prison, at Feltham in Hounslow. With two of a portrait of a prison officer. With the six negatives.

Author: 
Maurice Lyndham Waller (1875-1932), Chairman of the Prison Commission 1921-1928; Prison Commissioner, 1910-1921; Feltham Young Offenders Institution; Captain W. V. Eccles, Governor of Borstal Prison]
Nine prints of group photographs of inmates at the first Borstal Prison
Publication details: 
[Pre-First World War.]
£250.00
Nine prints of group photographs of inmates at the first Borstal Prison

All photographic prints and negatives roughly 8.5 x 14.5 cm. Prints all black and white. The collection aged, but in good condition overall. The pictures of inmates all landscape, and the two of the officer portrait. The boys are arranged in three or four rows, with as many as forty present in one image. The images are all taken outdoors and in front of prison buildings, the windows in the Feltham images being barred, and the windows in the Borstal images plain glass.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J Würtz'), in French, to 'mon cher Martin'

Author: 
J. Würtz [Commission Scientifique pour l'exploration des Antiquités Américaines, Paris]
Publication details: 
19 September 1851; on letterhead of the Commission Scientifique pour l'exploration des Antiquités Américaines, Paris.
£45.00

8vo, 3 pp. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. In a difficult hand. Apparently relating to a proposed meeting and dinner for 'tous les trois' (including ''). It is curiously difficult to discover anything, either about Würtz or about the Commission.

Water as a National Problem. This was the land! What have we done with it?

Author: 
J. L. Callaghan, Chairman of the Rural Development Board and Member of the Irrigation Commission [Brisbane; Queensland; Australia; Percy Pease (1876-1940)]
Publication details: 
[1939.] David Whyte, Government Printer, Brisbane. ['Vital Problems Queensland has to Solve'.]
£75.00

12mo (24 x 15 cm), 8 pp. Unbound stapled pamphlet. Text clear and complete. On aged and creased paper, with minor loss to blank area of corner of first leaf. Two stamps on front page: 'With the Compliments of P. Pease, M.L.A.' (in 1932 Pease had become Deputy Premier and Lands Minister') and 'Enclosure' box with manuscript dates 14 June and 24 July 1939. Red-ink 1 cm accession stamp of the Webster Collection on last page, numbered 4189.

Memorial to the Right Honourable W. E. Gladstone, M.P., First Lord of the Treasury, on the Proposed Scottish University Commission and Increase of State Endowment of Theology in Scotland.

Author: 
Executive Committee of the Scottish Disestablishment Association[, William Henderson, Chairman].
Publication details: 
3 March 1883; 10 St Andrew Square, Edinburgh.
£35.00

4to bifoliate pamphlet; four paginated pages. Neatly folded twice. Some wear along creases, and with top half of recto of first leaf grubby and with one pinhole, otherwise in good condition. Begins 'THE University Chairs of Theology in Scotland are sectarian, in the sense of being restricted to one section of the Presbyterians of Scotland - the Church Established. This restriction has been felt as a very injurious and offence part of Church Establishment in Scotland, because in all other respects the Scottish Universities are national and catholic.'

Printed authority completed in manuscript, 'To the Aldermen, Deputy, and Common-Council of the Ward of Queenhithe', signed by the City of London Commission of Lieutenancy, authorising the collection of a tax to pay the expenses of the City militia.

Author: 
Stuart Knill, Lord Mayor of London [The Ward of Queenhithe in the City of London; livery companies; tax; economic history]
Publication details: 
25/05/91
£150.00

On the recto of the first leaf of a folio bifolium (leaf dimensions 42.5 x 27.5 cm). On grey watermarked laid paper. Good, with slight offsetting from the ten red wafers placed beside the signatures. Headed 'LONDON. To the ALDERMEN, DEPUTY, and COMMON-COUNCIL of the Ward of [Queenhithe]'. Fifty-two lines of text, with manuscript additions, including the name of the ward ('Queenhithe') and the sum assessed (£89 15s 6d). At the foot of the page are large, bold signatures of the ten members of the Commission of Lieutenancy, including that of the Lord Mayor, Stuart Knill.

Typed Letter Signed to G[eorge]. K[enneth]. Menzies, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Joseph Bucklin Bishop [PANAMA CANAL; ISTHMIAN CANAL COMMISSION]
Publication details: 
5 November 1913; on letterhead of the Isthmian Canal Commission (Canal Zone).
£56.00

New York journalist (1847-1928) and biographer of Theodore Roosevelt; Secretary, Isthmian Canal Commission. One page, quarto. Very good, but lightly creased a little grubby. Docketed and bearing the Society's stamp. He has received the letter 'asking me if I can furnish you with material on the social side of the work at Panama. It would give me much pleasure to supply this, were it in such form as to make it possible to do so. There has been a great deal written about it, but nothing in concrete form, so far as my knowledge goes.

Autograph Letter Signed to Joshua Sharpe.

Author: 
Edward Blakeney
Publication details: 
Mahon the 8th. November 1753', Mahon, Minorca.
£125.00

The recipient Joshua Sharpe (c.1716-86) was a solicitor of Lincoln's Inn, and counsel for various American colonies before the Board of Trade and Privy Council. His brother Horatio was Lieutenant Governor of Maryland. Two pages, folio. Grubby, frayed and worn, with some closed tears and minor fraying and loss to extremities, and minor loss to text. Appears to concern the investigation into a case brought against an English ship by the owners of the Spanish vessel Sancta Barbara ('Patron Joseph de la Torre').

Syndicate content