FLOWER

[Cecil Day-Lewis, Poet Laureate.] Autograph Card Signed to Geoffrey Parsons, regarding the publication of his poetry book 'Peter's Progress' and a 'H[odder] & S[toughton]' 'ordeal'.

Author: 
Cecil Day-Lewis [C. Day-Lewis] (1904-1972), Anglo-Irish poet and British Poet Laureate who also wrote crime fiction under the pseudonym of Nicholas Blake [Geoffrey Parsons (1910-1987), poet]
Publication details: 
30 September 1953; 'from Mrs. [last word deleted] C. Day-Lewis, 96 Campden Hill Road, W.8. [London]'
£80.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient is presumably the lyricist Peter Claremont Parsons. Plain postcard, apart from letterhead. In good condition, lightly aged. Image on request.Postmarked (from Paddington), stamped and addressed to ‘Geoffrey Parsons esq. / 22 Westbourne Park Road / W.2’. Small signature: ‘C. D. L.’ Reads: ‘Many thanks for Peter’s Progress. [Parson’s poetry book, published that year by Hand & Flower] I’ve read it with great pleasure & amusement, & fallen foul of little except ‘legacies’ rhyming with exegesis. My memory of those H. & S.

[Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon.] 37 items, including 21 ALsS from librarian W. S. Brassington to one of the Theatre’s governors, Dr E. M. Boddy, regarding his gift of portraits to Shakespeare Memorial, and resulting disagreement.

Author: 
Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon [William Salt Brassington (1859-1939), archaeologist; Evan Marlett Boddy (c.1847-1934), FRCS; Stewart Dick; Edgar Flower; Archibald Flower]
Publication details: 
20 of Brassington’s 21 letters from between 1899 and 1902, and on letterheads of Shakespeare Memorial, Stratford-upon-Avon; the other is from 1910. Among the other items are ones dated from between 1899 and 1928.
£650.00

The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre was founded through the efforts of local brewer Charles Edward Flower (1830-1892), after whose death its management was taken over by his brother Edgar Flower (1833-1903), also Chairman of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. On Edgar’s death these duties fell to his son Archibald Flower (1865-1950), several times mayor of Stratford-upon-Avon. The present correspondence concerns a gift to Shakespeare Memorial Association by the appropriately-named anatomist Evan Marlett Boddy.

[‘He as good as called me a liar: Sir Walter Newman Flower, proprietor of London publishers Cassell’s.] Autograph Letter Signed and two Typed Letters Signed to Sir James Marchant, complaining of treatment by Thomas B. Wells of New York firm Harpers.

Author: 
Sir Walter Newman Flower (1879-1964), proprietor of London publishers Cassell & Co, biographer and literary editor [Thomas Bucklin Wells (1875-1944) of Harper & Co., New York; Sir James Marchant]
Publication details: 
First TLS: 3 January 1928. Second TLS: 11 December 1928. Both on letterheads of Cassell & co. Ltd., La Belle Sauvage, London, EC4. ALS: 18 December 1928, on letterhead of Idlehurst, Sevenoaks.
£150.00

Publishing history does not get more vivid than this. See Flower’s obituary in The Times, and Wells’s in the New York Times. The three items in good condition, lightly aged. All three folded once and signed ‘Newman Flower’. First TLS (3 January 1928): 1p, 12mo. He writes that although ‘a very apologetic letter from Mr. Wells of Harpers’ has ‘cleared the air entirely’, ‘a reply from Holt’ received at the same time is not very satisfactory’, and ‘in view of the fact that Cassell’s and Harpers will be coming together again, it would, perhaps, be as well not to do anything at present’.

[Flora Klickman' Girls' Own Paper] Autograph Note Signed Flora Klickman to unnamed male correspondent, making a financial contribution.

Author: 
Flora Klickman [Emily Flora Klickmann (1867 – 1958), journalist, author and editor].
Publication details: 
[Printed heading] The Flower-Patch, Near Tintern, Chepstow. Brockweir (holograph), 14 October 1933.
£35.00

One page, 12mo, very good condition. I enclose a guinea towards the Prize for the Flower Show, & hope you will have a very successful day. With all good wishes [...]. Note: She was the second editor of the Girl's Own Paper, but became best known for her Flower-Patch series of books of anecdotes, autobiography and nature description.

Commemorative card In Sacred Memory of the Officers, Crew and Passengers of the British Airship R.101 which crashed in France on Sunday Morning OCT. 5th 1930 with a loss of 48 lives . . .

Author: 
[ Airship disaster ; R101 ]
Publication details: 
[1930]
£35.00

Card, 4 pages, c.4 x 3, signs of wear but mainly good condition. First page a device of a cross in flowers and the phrase Thy Will be done; second page image of airship with a brief account of the disaster; thrid page In Sacred Memory . . .

[ Sir William Henry Flower, anatomist. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('W. H. Flower') to 'Miss Buchanan'

Author: 
Sir William Henry Flower (1831-1899), anatomist and surgeon, Director of the Natural History Museum, London
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, London. 13 April 1896.
£56.00

2pp., 12mo. In fair condition, on aged and lightly-creased paper, with traces of glue from mount at head of second page. Annotated at head in a contemporary hand. If mention of his name 'can in any way help you for the Welsh University or for any other post, by all means use it'. Regarding the 'next years cataloguing', plans are only in consideration, 'with the preparation of the estimates at end of the summer'. He explains that in the previous year these were 'framed by Dr. Smith', and that her application 'came just too late'.

[Beryl de Zoete, dance critic and orientalist.] Autograph Card Signed ('Beryl de Z.) to the anthropologist Erich Alport, regarding peonies and 'flower viewing'.

Author: 
Beryl de Zoete [married name Beryl de Sélincourt] (1879-1962), dance critic, orientalist and translator, partner of the sinologist Arthur Waley [Erich Adolph Alport (1903-1972), anthropologist]
Publication details: 
50 Gordon Square, WC [London]. Postmarked date 28 May 1950.
£65.00

In good condition, on aged card. Addressed to 'Erich Alport Esqe. | 195 Woodstock Rd. | Oxford'. The card reads: 'By dint of putting them up to their necks in water every night, all the peonies came out & are only just scattering their petals. I have been flower viewing all the week - two magnificent gardens & the Chelsea show. It was very nice to see you. I hope you will propose yourself again - after I get back from abroad.'

[Desmond Flower.] Three Autograph Catalogues of his book collections: first, 'MSS., autograph letters, first & early editions by & relating to François Marie Arouet de Voltaire'; second and third, 'French Literature in first and early editions'.

Author: 
Desmond Flower [Desmond John Newman Flower] (1907-1997), director of London publishers Cassell & Co, 1931-1971, and book collector [Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) (1694-1778)]
Publication details: 
Neither catalogue with place or date. [London, from the 1940s?]
£420.00

All three items in very good condition, in superior bindings. ONE (Voltaire catalogue): Written out by Flower in his neat, calligraphic hand, on the rectos only of 102 leaves, 8vo, with some blanks. In very good condition, in a lightly-wrn red morocco quarter binding, with grey boards and gilt title on spine. Entries are short and businesslike, as the following two examples indicate: 'Commentaire sur le livre des Délits et des Peines, s.l., 1766. Bengesco 1724. pp. viii + 120. A pretty copy in contemporary scarlet morocco. Ex libris Mortimer L. Schiff. | Ditto, s.l., 1766. pp. 104 + iii.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Chrisr. Heath') from Christopher Heath to 'Flower' [the Zoologist Sir William Henry Flower], regarding the qualifications required by 'a young man entering your department'.

Author: 
Christopher Heath (1835-1905), FRCS, English surgeon, Holme Professor of Clinical Surgery, University College Hospital [Sir William Henry Flower]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 36 Cavendish Square, W. [London]. 6 July 1895.
£30.00

1p., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with part of stub from mounting adhering to the reverse. The letter reads: 'Dear Flower, | Can you direct one of your subordinates to send me the documents relating to a young man entering your department? I have been asked to find out all about it & so venture to trouble you. Yours truly | Chrisr. Heath'. Docketted by Flower in the top left-hand corner: 'Schedules relating to Assistants - Attendants & Boy-Attendants sent | 8/vii/95.'

Autograph Letter Signed ('F Barham Zincke') from the antiquary and radical Foster Barham Zincke to 'My dear Mr Flower' [Sir William Henry Flower], regarding the latter's five-month stay in Egypt.

Author: 
Rev. Foster Barham Zincke (1817-1893), English antiquary and radical pamphleteer, educated at Wadham College, Oxford [Sir William Henry Flower (1831-1899), Director of the Natural History Museum]
Publication details: 
Wherstead Vicarage, Ipswich. 28 May <1874?>.
£220.00

4pp., 12mo. Very good, on lightly-aged paper, with minor traces of stub adhering to margin. He has received Flower's 'catalogue'. 'I was sure you wd. be delighted with Egypt. It has so much to tell us about man & nature. The early stages of mans progress, & the variety of nature.' Zincke would like 'time to look into things & to think about them': he was in Egypt 'only as many weeks as you were months'.

Two Autograph Letters signed from the Sussex antiquary Mark Antony Lower (both signed 'M: A: Lower') to John Wickham Flower.

Author: 
Mark Antony Lower (1813-1876), English antiquary and local historian, founder member of the Sussex Archaeological Society [John Wickham Flower (1807-1873), Croydon geologist and archaeologist]
Two Autograph Letters signed from the Sussex antiquary Mark Antony Lower
Publication details: 
27 April and 9 November 1865; on letterheads of St Anne's House, Lewes, Sussex.
£125.00
Two Autograph Letters signed from the Sussex antiquary Mark Antony Lower

Both items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Letter One (27 April 1865): 12mo, 2 pp. Bifolium. Seventeen lines. He is sorry not to have been able to accept Flower's hospitality: 'Let us hope to meet about Whitsuntide for the pilgrimage to Firle'. He is eager for information for his 'Sussex Worthies'. 'My eldest dau[ghte]r's marriage & the starting of my eldest son on his professional career cost money, & every 30s. [subscription) will help.' Letter Two (9 November 1865): 12mo, 1 p. 13 lines. He has received the 30s.

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