DODD

Dodd’s entry in the Oxford DNB by Michael Billington concludes with the assessment that he was ‘the greatest theatrical comic of his age and the last link with the hallowed days of music hall’. The two items are in good condition, lightly aged. ONE: TLS, 9 October 1957. 1p, 4to. Good large signature ‘Ken Dodd’. The male recipient is not named. He apologises for the late reply to the recipient’s letter. ‘May I also thank you for the compliments paid to my performance on Television. / I am a Liverpudlian, residing in Knotty Ash Liverpool.

1p., 16mo. On bifolium. On aged paper with small strip of damp at foot, affecting the signature. Reads: 'Dear Sir | I beg you will accept my sincere thanks for the great favour you have conferred upon me, this morning, a privilege I cannot here sufficiently acknowledge | I am your obedient | James Faed'.

1p., 4to. On pink paper. In fair condition, lightly aged, worn and creased. With Dodd's personal oval stamp in purple ink. Reads: 'Mr J Gulliver | Sir | Will you kindly forward to me at the above the subscription on Bible you had of us in September | In so doing you will save the expences of sending a man'

Both letters in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. ONE: 12 November 1931. 2pp., 12mo. Written lengthwise. He heard from 'Father Bone last night that the Epstein party was over & I had not attended it as I promised to. I hadn't got a ticket so I forgot the date'. TWO: 14 April [no year]. 1p., 12mo. Written lengthwise.He is sending him a private view ticket for the Royal Academy, 'where you will have an opportunity to see the portrait of Sir Frederick Richmond that you so kindly interested yourself in'.

[16]pp., landscape 12mo. With nine full-page photographic views ('Cherwell Hall - South East View', 'The Gateway', 'Cherwell Hall - The South Lawn', 'Porch at Front Door', 'The Entrance Hall', 'The Library, Cherwell Hall', 'The Iris Walk', 'A View in the Grounds, Cherwell Hall, showing Magdalen Tower', 'Cherwell Hall, The Oak Room'). In cream wraps printed in green. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Shelfmark, stamp and label of the Board of Education Reference Library. Can be roughly dated from the fact of the College's principal being Catherine I.

On 17 x 19cm piece of paper. In fair condition, on aged paper, with trace of previous mount on blank reverse. Embossed with the four-penny government stamp. Reads: 'October 13th. 1791 | Recd. of the Rt. Honble John Boydell Twenty two pounds fourteen Being the Ballance [sic] in full for Engraving | Robt Dodd | £22 .. 14 . 0'.

Three pages, octavo. Very good on lightly aged paper. Kenyon's paper was 'much enjoyed' when read on Saturday, and there was 'a good attendance'. '[T]he pleasantries were not missed': '1. the confusion of the inexhaustible emender; 2. the thrift of the canny Odysseus in his role of wooer; 3. Burne Jones's Law.' 'At the end some interesting questiosn were asked', for example, 'why second-rate Greek annalists shd. seemingly have been preferred to Herodotus & Thucydides'.

The engraver and painter Ward (1769-1859) and the artist Jackson (1778-1831). Dimensions of paper roughly five inches by two inches. Good. From a collection of material relating to the Artists' General Benevolent Fund. The reverse reads '<...> <...> | Daughters of the late Robert <...> | Painter Engraver & Publishe <...>'. Clearly a petition on behalf of the two women, and with Georgiana Dodd's cropped signature above those of 'James Ward R.A. | John Jackson R.A.'.