ECCENTRIC

[ 'The Chevalier Sir Frederick Bowman, K.C.E.' ] 'Shakespeare Souvenir' pin badge, depicting Bowman as the Bard of Avon, attached to a Typed Letter Signed ('Frederick H.-U. Bowman') to Barry Duncan, regarding the actress Edith Loraine and her career.

Author: 
Frederick Bowman [ Frederick H. U. Bowman; The Chevalier Sir Frederick Bowman K.C.E. ] (1893-1969), Liverpool music hall actor, eccentric and author [ William Shakespeare; Count Potocki de Montalk ]
Publication details: 
Letter on letterhead of 'The Chevalier Sir Frederick Bowman K.C.E.', Humanimal House, Sandown Lane, Liverpool, with date stamp 1 June 1964. Pin badge undated, but contemporaneous.
£56.00

Letter: 1p., 8vo. In fair condition, lightly creased and aged. With a few autograph emendations. In a characteristically eccentric letter he writes that their common friend Jimmy Linton has told Bowman that Duncan 'may be able to give me some particulars and perhaps a photo of Edith LORAINE who played Godiva in F. B. Woulfe's Company, presenting the famous historical play by Max Goldberg, (John F. Preston.) He refers to Mabelle F. Barlow, Lady Astor and his own play 'Divorce or Dishonour'. As a boy he was greatly impressed by Loraine's performance, and it 'started my interest in Coventry.

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£.

Syndicate content