EMPIRE

Autograph Letter Signed ('C Merivale') from the historian Charles Merivale, Dean of Ely Cathedral, to Rev. A. Williams.

Author: 
Charles Merivale (1808-1893), Dean of Ely Cathedral, author of 'A History of the Romans under the Empire' (1850-1862)
Publication details: 
Dawlish. 15 July 1885.
£35.00

2pp., 12mo. 15 lines. In very good condition. He begins by apologising for not being able to assist Williams. 'I do not know of any book on the subject of the Teachers of the Apostolical age - of course very little indeed can be known about them. The ecclesiastical historians such as and of course a hundred others would I suppose give you all the references that would be of use to you.'

Autograph Signature of the Irish politician and traveller, John Talbot Dillon, Baron Dillon.

Author: 
Sir John Talbot Dillon (1739-1805), 1st Baronet, Baron Dillon, Irish politician, traveller and author
Publication details: 
Madrid. 1 July 1777.
£120.00

1p., 12mo. An autograph note, apparently written at the head of the detached fly-leaf of a book. Fair, on aged paper, laid down on a torn page from an autograph album. Reads: 'This is a Curious & very Scarce Book. - | Madrid 1st. July 1777. | [signed] John Talbot Dillon | Knt. & Baron of the S. R. Empire.' The abbreviation stands for 'Sacred Roman Empire'.

Printed paper headed 'Preliminary Examination in Arabic. Cavalry, Artillery, Camel Corps, Infantry, and Sudan Civil Administration.' Answered and marked in pencil.

Author: 
Sudan Civil Administration [Anglo-Egyptian Sudanese Protectorate; Ottoman Empire]
Publication details: 
'1st February, 1904.'
£120.00

2pp., foolscap 8vo. On wove paper with the star and crescent watermark of the 'GOUVERNEMENT EGYPTIEN'. Aged and creased, but in fair overall condition. Questions in English and Arabic script, requiring translation between the two languages. Answers in pencil, and marking along both margins in red and blue. Scarce: no copy on COPAC.

Printed paper on 'Occupation', giving the position on 'annexation' and 'settlement' of a 'civilised State' in international law, with a section on 'The West African Conference of 1884-1885', and a reference to 'the original uncivilised inhabitants'.

Author: 
[Thomas Joseph Lawrence (1849-1920), Fellow and Tutor of Downing College, Cambridge, and authority on International Law; The West African Conference of 1884-1885]
Publication details: 
Without date or place. [Cambridge. 1890.]
£150.00

A significant document, providing a clear exposition of the late-Victorian colonialist position on the two branches of occupation: annexation and settlement. Untraced. T. J. Lawrence of Downing College is the probable author, as the section on 'annexation' also features in his 'Handbook of Public International Law' (1890). 1p., 8vo. Printed in landscape on one side of a piece of unwatermarked laid paper. In fair condition, lightly-aged and creased. The document begins: 'Occupation in International Law applies only to territory not previously held by a civilised State.

Mimeographed typed list of amendments to the articles of the Dar es Salaam Club, with proxy voting slip and amendment slip

Author: 
Dar es Salaam Club, Tanzania [Forodhani Hotel Training Institute; Court of Appeal building; Evelyn Waugh; Tanganyika]
Publication details: 
[Forodhani Hotel Training Institute, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.] Undated.
£90.00

In fair condition, on aged and creased paper. Comprising seven folio pages, each in two columns: 'Existing Articles' on the left, and 'Proposed Amended Articles' on the right. These seven pages are each on separate leaves, and all stapled to a proxy voting slip (not filled in) and an amendment slip. The Dar es Salaam Club, 'solidly built with much fine joinery in dark African timber and heavy brass fittings on doors and windows', was housed in what became the Forodhani Hotel Training Institute building, Dar es Salaam.

A signed 'True Copy', in manuscript, of a letter of recommendation from Captain D. W. K. Barr, 'Pol[itical]: Ag[en]t Baghelkhund [Bagelkhand] & Superintendent of Rewah [Rewa]' to 'The First Assistant to the Agent Governor General for C. J. Indore'.

Author: 
Lieut-Col Sir David William Keith Barr (1846-1916), Indian Army [Surgeon Charles Lowdell; Bagelkhand; Baghelkhand]
Publication details: 
Letter, on Government of India letterhead, dated from the 'Baghelkhund [Bagelkhand; Baghelkhand] Agency, Sutua; 31 July 1883.
£80.00

3 pp, folio. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Supporting the application of 'Surgeon [Charles] Lowdell, Officiating Agency Surgeon Baghelkhund, [sic] applying for the Acting Appointment of Medical Officer in Charge Bhopal Battalion in the event of a vacancy occurring in October next'. Lowdell is holding his current post while Surgeon Goldsmith is on furlough, and on his return will be without an appointment. 'His duties in connection with the special charge of the young Maharaja have been difficult and have required the exercise of tact and patience.

[Printed pamphlet.] Observations on the Use and Abuse of Red Tape for the Juniors in the Eastern, Western, and American Departments. [Inscribed by the author Sir Thomas Henry Sanderson, and with two marginal notes by Sir V. Wellesley.]

Author: 
'T. H. S.' [Sir Thomas Henry Sanderson (1841-1923) of the Foreign Office] [Sir Victor Wellesley (1876-1954), diplomat]
Observations on the Use and Abuse of Red Tape for the Juniors
Publication details: 
Dated 'October 1891.'
£120.00
Observations on the Use and Abuse of Red Tape for the Juniors

8vo, 14 pp (followed by blank leaf). Unbound and stitched. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. Drophead title. With 'PRIVATE' in print in the top left-hand corner of the first page, and '[285]' in the bottom left-hand corner. Dated in type at end 'T. H. S. | October 1891.' Sanderson's inscription, at the head of the first page, reads 'From the Author | [signed] S | Sept. 1918'. From the collection of Sir Victor Wellesley, and with two marginal notes by him.

Typed Letter Signed from Sir Charles Prestwood Lucas, on behalf of the Secretary of State for the Colonies Joseph Chamberlain, to W. P. Meldrum 'on the subject of the appointment of District Surgeon in the Federated Malay States'.

Author: 
Sir Charles Prestwood Lucas (1853-1931), KCB, KCMG, Welsh civil servant, head of the Dominion Department, and Principal of the Working Men's College [Joseph Chamberlain; Federated Malay States]
Typed Letter Signed from Sir Charles Prestwood Lucas
Publication details: 
15 October 1901; from Downing Street, on letterhead of the Under Secretary of State, Colonial Office, London.
£56.00
Typed Letter Signed from Sir Charles Prestwood Lucas

Folio, 2 pp. Thirty-three lines in eight numbered paragraphs. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged and worn paper, with pinholes at head of both leaves. The first page with mourning border for Queen Victoria. Responding to a letter to Chamberlain written four days previously, and giving details of the appointment (pension, furniture, horse allowance).

[Printed British Parliamentary paper.] Report of the British Delegates to the International Opium Conference held at the Hague, December 1911-January 1912. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of His Majesty. November 1912.

Author: 
[1912 Report to the British Parliament of the British Delegates to the International Opium Confer.ence, the Hague, 1911-1912] [HMSO]
Publication details: 
'Miscellaneous. No. 11 (1912).' London: Printed by His Majesty's Stationery Office.
£25.00

Folio, [ii] + 39 + [i]. Stitched. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with slight staining to fore-edge. Title-page bearing stamp and withdrawal stamp of the University of Hull.

[Printed British parliamentary report.] Australasia. Correspondence relating to the Naval Defence of Australia and New Zealand. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of His Majesty, October, 1908.

Author: 
[British Parliamentary report into the naval defence of Australia and New Zealand, 1908] [HMSO]
Publication details: 
London: Printed for His Majesty's Stationery Office, by Darling & Son, Ltd, London. 1908.
£75.00

Folio, iv + 56 pp. Stitched. In original blue printed wraps. Text clear and complete. Internally good, on lightly-aged high-acidity paper. Wraps worn and a little chipped, with a few closed tears. Wraps carrying Hull University withdrawal stamps.

[Printed British parliamentary paper, 1913.] British Trade in Certain Colonies. Reports on British Trade in British West Africa, Straits Settlements, British Guiana, and Bermuda. Furnished to the Board of Trade by the Honorary Correspondents [...]

Author: 
[British parliamentary reports on British trade in British West Africa, Straits Settlements, British Guiana, and Bermuda, 1913.]
Publication details: 
London: Published by His Majesty's Stationery Office. Printed by Darling and Son, Ltd, London. 1913.
£95.00

Folio, 59 pp. Stitched. In original blue printed wraps. Good, on lightly-aged paper, in lightly-worn wraps. Title ends: '[...] by the Honorary Correspondents of their Commercial Intelligence Branch in those Colonies. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of His Majesty.' Title-page carries shelf-mark and stamp of the Bibliotheque du Palais de la Paix. Scarce.

[Printed British parliamentary paper.] Report from the Select Committee on Colonisation; together with the Proceedings of the Committee, Minutes of Evidence, and Appendix. Ordered, by The House of Commons, to be Printed, 31 July 1890.

Author: 
[House of Commons Committee Select Committee Report on Colonisation, 1890.] [Hansard]
Publication details: 
London: Printed by Henry Hansard and Son; and Published by Eyre and Spottiswoode, London. [1890.]
£30.00

Folio, xiv + 499. Stitched. In original blue printed wraps. Text clear and complete. Internally good, on aged high-acidity paper. Front wrap (with small paper label in top corner) detached, and spine chipped.

[Printed British parliamentary report.] Trade of Canada. Report to the Board of Trade on the Trade of the Dominion of Canada, for the period from July 1st, 1906, to March 31st, 1910. By His Majesty's Trade Commissioner fro the Dominion of Canada.

Author: 
Richard Grigg, His Majesty's Trade Commissioner for the Dominion of Canada [Report to the British Board of Trade on the Trade of the Dominion of Canada, 1911]
Publication details: 
London: Published by His Majesty's Stationery Office. Printed by Darling and Son, Limited, London. 1911.
£80.00

Folio, 88 pp. Large fold-out coloured map at rear. Stitched. In original printed wraps. Text clear and complete. Internally good. Map in excellent condition. Wraps worn and chipped. Title-page carrying shelf-mark and stamp of the Bibliotheque du Palais de la Paix. No copy listed on COPAC or WorldCat.

Five coloured posters by Australian artist Ellis Silas, each in the style of a frieze or panorama, depicting eleven 'British' explorers, from the Cabot brothers to Captain Oates, before scenic backgrounds.

Author: 
Ellis Silas (1883-1972), Anglo-Australian artist, official war artist with ANZAC forces in the First World War [British poster art]
Ellis Silas (1883-1972), Anglo-Australian artist
Publication details: 
[1930s? Place and publisher not stated.]
£250.00
Ellis Silas (1883-1972), Anglo-Australian artist

The five posters, presumably produced for the classroom, are scarce, with no reference to them on the internet or elsewhere. They are attractively painted in a bold and vivid panoramic frieze style. Each carries a single illustration showing two (counting the Cabot brothers as one) explorers in front of groups of men, with a merged background behind them.

Signature (with another word) F.R. Wingate, Colonial Governor.

Author: 
Sir Francis Reginald Wingate, Bt. (1861-1953), Army officer & colonial governor
F.R. Wingate, Colonial Governor.
Publication details: 
No place or date surviving.
£23.00
F.R. Wingate, Colonial Governor.

Paper clipped from letter, c.8 x 2cm, tipped onto larger piece of paper, good condition.

Elegant ink drawings of fashionable young ladies, said to be unused illustrations by Edward Burney for his cousin Fanny Burney's 'Evelina'.

Author: 
Edward Burney (1760-1848), English artist, and cousin to the novelist Fanny Burney (1752-1840)
Edward Burney (1760-1848), English artist
Publication details: 
The first page of three drawings, young women posed separately,is dated in a contemporary hand '1815-16' and the other page, with four interacting figures is dated '1816-17'.
£1,200.00
Edward Burney (1760-1848), English artist

In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Dimensions are approximate. The three illustrations (1815-6), each 8.5 x 4 cm, form three panels on a 10 x 13.5 cm piece of paper.

Signature ('J. F. Burgoyne | Lt Genl.') on part of letter to Stratford Canning.

Author: 
Field Marshal Sir John Fox Burgoyne (1782-1871), English army officer [Stratford Canning (1786-1880), 1st Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe; Crimean War]
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£23.00

On the lower part of a letter, cut to form a rectangle, 11.5 x 18 cm. In good condition, with traces of stub from mounting along one edge, and a thin strip of paper, with Burgoyne's name in manuscript neatly laid down beneath the signature. Reads 'I have the honor to be | Your Excellency's | Most Obedient | Humble Servant | [signed] J. F.

Autograph Letter Signed ('A. C Lyall') to Lane-Poole.

Author: 
Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall (1835-1911), Indian civil servant, poet and historian [Stanley Lane-Poole (1854-1931), British orientalist and archaeologist,]
Publication details: 
Undated; Flitwick, Swift Hill (on cancelled letterhead of 16 Queen's Gate, London S.W.
£28.00

12mo, 1 p. Nine lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with a neat cut (not affecting text) neatly repaired on reverse. The Registrar at the India Office has informed Lyall that Lane-Poole's name is 'on the list of those to whom the India Archaeological Reports are sent'.

Three Autograph Letters Signed (all 'J Rose Innes') from Sir James Rose Innes, and one letter from his wife ('Jessie Rose Innes'), all to Lady Bower.

Author: 
Sir James Rose-Innes (1855-1942) and his wife, born Jessie Dods Pringle (d.1943) [Lady Maud Bower (born Maude Laidley Mitchell), wife of Sir Graham Bower (1848-1933)]
Publication details: 
Sir James's letters: 1935, 1936 and 1939. His wife's letter: 1937. All four on letterheads of Kolara Farm, Gibson Road, Kenilworth [South Africa].
£180.00

All items good, on aged paper, with Lady Rose-Innes' letter in its envelope. Bower and Rose-Innes had worked together when the former was Imperial secretary to the High Commissioners for Southern Africa at the time of the Jameson Raid. Rose-Innes three letters are dated 17 October 1935 (12mo, 4 pp), 9 July 1936 (12mo, 4 pp) and 13 April 1939 (12mo, 4 pp). All are closely and neatly written. In the first letter Rose-Innes describes a journey 'through the S.

Signed ('Geo Wroughton') printed circular letter, addressed to T[homas]. Adams [of Alnwick, Northumberland].

Author: 
George Wroughton of Wilcott, Wiltshire [Bengal; the East India Company]
Publication details: 
25, Berners Street, London; May 12 1813'.
£125.00

4to bifolium: 2 pp. Good. Soliciting Adams's 'Vote and Interest' when he is 'enabled to proceed to a ballot', having 'lately presumed to offer myself to the Proprietors of East-India Stock, as a Candidate for a Seat in their Direction, upon some future vacancy'. (Feeling 'that their suffrages will have been very generally engaged to an earlier Candidate for the next appointment which a casualty may occasion', he does not want to 'interfere with that Election'.) He was resident in Bengal for thirteen years, and the final paragraph describes his other qualifications.

List of Different Houses' (docketed 'List of Houses and Correspondences established by the House of Gopaldoss'), signed '/A true copy/ | Jno White | <?>'.

Author: 
[East India Company; British Raj; the House of Gopaldoss]
Publication details: 
Without place or date [circa 1820?].
£120.00

One page, octavo. Very good. On paper with 'C TAYLOR' Britannia watermarked paper. Possibly an East India Company document. Of obscure meaning, headed 'List of Different Houses', and consisting of two columns (the left-hand one of sixteen lines, and the right-hand of eleven). Includes 'Moorshedabad', 'Massulipatam', 'Poona, the Money paid to Mr. Mallet', 'Ahumabad the Residency of their Correspondent's' and 'The Mahratta Army'. With 'Exd: W D' in bottom left-hand corner. Docketed on reverse of second leaf of bifolium, with reference 'No. 149. A. | Entd at Dell <?d.> | " - MS'.

Financial Reform Tracts. Nos. 11 and 12. Speech of Sir Wm. Molesworth, Bart., M.P., in the House of Commons, on Tuesday, 25th July, 1848, On Colonial Expenditure and Government.

Author: 
Sir William Molesworth [The Financial Reform Association, Liverpool]
Publication details: 
[Financial Reform Association, Harrington Chambers, North John-street, Liverpool, March, 1849.] Printed at the Office of the "Standard of Freedom," 335, Strand, London.
£65.00

8vo: 32 pp. Pamphlet. Bound in modern marbled boards with paper label. Fair, on aged paper with top outer corner of last few leaves slightly dogeared and with reverse of last leaf a little grubby. An important speech, another edition of which exists, published by Ridgway in 1848. A reply by John Towne Danson was also published by Ridgway in 1848, going through two editions.

Official instructions for the carrying out of an execution at Prisons in a British Colony.

Author: 
William Stirling, 'Ancien Assistant au Laboratoire de Police Technique de Lyon' [executions; hanging]
Publication details: 
[Offprint from the 'Revue Internationale de Criminalistique', vol.6 (1934).] Lyon: Joannes Desvigne et Cie, Editeurs, 36 a 42 Passage de l'Hotel-Dieu. 1934.
£56.00

8vo: 4 pp (paginated 3-6). In original light-green printed wraps. Text in English, clear and complete. Good, on aged paper, with slight discoloration to wraps. Blind accession stamp of the British crime writer Jonathan Goodman (1931-2008). The following sentence is deleted in pencil: 'The above instructions have been observed at executions interessed [sic] by one.' A 'plan of the authorized scaffold' is said to be 'attached', but is not present. No copy recorded on COPAC or WorldCat.

Autograph Signature ('John Dillon').

Author: 
John Dillon (1851-1927), Irish politian, Parnellite Member of Parliament for County Tipperary, Home Rule activist and land reform agitator
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£23.00

On piece of paper roughly 5.5 x 11.5 cm. Cut away from a letter for an autograph hunter. Laid down on a piece of paper removed from an album. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. Reads '<...> | Yours sincerely | John Dillon'.

Two Autograph Cards Signed (both 'H M Durand') to Sir Henry Trueman Wood, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Sir Mortimer Durand [Sir Henry Mortimer Durand] (1850-1924), British diplomat and civil servant,, Foreign Secretary of India, 1884-1894
Publication details: 
Received 19 July 1916 and 7 June 1917.
£28.00

Both cards plain with printed stamp and 9 x 11 cm. Both bearing the Society's oval purple stamp. Card One: He is 'leaving town on business for two or three days' and so cannot attend the meeting of the Indian Section Committee. Card Two: He will 'with pleasure support Abney if in town', but may not be there on the day.

Under Southern Skies. A series of articles conveying the impressions of the writer during the course of a visit to Australia and New Zealand as a member of the Imperial Press Conference, 1925.

Author: 
J. W. Dafoe [John Wesley Dafoe], Editor-in-Chief, Manitoba Free Press [Australia; New Zealand]
Publication details: 
Winnipeg, Canada: The Free Press. ['Reprinted in order as they appeared from day to day on the editorial page of the Manitoba Free Press, November, 1925'.]
£85.00

8vo: [iv] + 43 pp. Stapled pamphlet. Inscribed at head of title 'With regards | J W Dafoe'. Text clear and complete. On grubby, aged paper, with wear to outer leaves. An introduction explains that of the seventeen articles, 'the first seven [...] are merely comments on certain aspects of the New Zealand scene as they appeared to a passer-by', while 'the ten articles devoted to Australia deal with the same subject from various angles. They constitute an attempt at a study of Australia's political developments in the social and economic field.' No copy in the British Library or on COPAC.

One Autograph Letter Signed ('E. H.' twice) with the first four pages of another (lacking signature), both to 'My dear Gop'.

Author: 
Esme William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Penrith (1863-1939), British diplomat [Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon; Pixton Park, Dulverton]
Publication details: 
Complete Letter: 12 September 1908; on letterhead of The Tides, Bar Harbor, Maine. Incomplete Letter: 4 November 1908; on letterhead of Pixton Park, Dulverton.
£56.00

Both items in good condition, on aged paper. Complete Letter (12 September 1908): 12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium with mourning border. He thanks Gop [Goss?] for the 'letter of great length extended exclamation marks but otherwise agreeable & genial'. Howard 'can understand that vowing to keep silence the next best thing is to write to someone'. Gop's 'instinct is sound': Howard has 'abandoned Presque Isle which is a 12 hrs journey from here'. Gives a date for his return to Manchester.

Frank, with signature ('J Lawrence'), seal, and autograph address to Northcote

Author: 
John Laird Mair Lawrence (1811-1879), 1st Baron Lawrence, Viceroy of India from 1864 to 1869 [Sir Stafford Northcote]
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£23.00

Cut from an envelope into a 'T' shape, with the front panel bearing the address and signature roughly 8.5 x 22.5 cm, forming the cross stroke, and the area from the back of the letter bearing the seal, cut into a roughly 6.5 x 5.5 cm rectangle, hanging down from this like the vertical stroke of the letter. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper. Reads 'To the Right Honorable, | Sir Stafford Northcote, Bart | Secretary of State for India | London | J Lawrence'. The circular red wax seal is 3.5 cm in diameter.

Typed Letter Signed ('Aberdeen') to 'Peter Cavanagh, Esq., At/ The Empire Theatre, Edinburgh.'

Author: 
George Gordon, 2nd Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair (1879-1965) [Peter Cavanagh (1914-1981), impressionist billed as 'The voice of them all']
Publication details: 
22 February 1952; on deleted letterhead of 16 Westbourne Street, London W.2, with embossed address Braehead, Bridge of Don, Aberdeen.
£35.00

4to, 1 p, 17 lines. He 'deeply appreciate[s] the spirit undlying the contents' of Cavangh's letter, which he found waiting for him on his return the day before 'after attending our beloved late King's Funeral'. 'As you say, the sword and scabbard must have belonged to my great Grandfather, the 4th Earl of Aberdeen, who was Prime Minister during theh Crimea War by the express command of Queen Victoria. He accepted the Premiership on the condition that he should be allowed to resign at the conclusion of the war.' Suggests a meeting in Aberdeen.

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

Author: 
Sir George Duff-Sutherland-Dunbar
Publication details: 
12 November 1915; on War Office letterhead.
£23.00

British soldier and historian (1878-1962). One page, quarto. Very good. Bearing the Society's stamp. '[...] I will be permitted by my duties to have the honour of attending at the Royal Society of Arts on the 17th. Instant at 4.30 pm in order to receive the Medal awarded to me by the Society. | I have also to acknowledge with thanks the kind invitation of the Council to attend in the Council Room before the Meeting [...]'. Signed 'G Duff Sutherland Dunbar'.

Syndicate content