HOUGHTON

[Richard Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton), poet, author and Liberal politician.] Holograph poem (signed 'Richd M Milnes.'), titled 'The Fifteenth of December, 1840' [published as 'The Funeral of Napoleon']

Author: 
Richard Monckton Milnes [Lord Houghton] (1809-1885), poet, author, Liberal politician and book collector [Napoleon Bonaparte]
Publication details: 
Dated by Milnes at end: 'Paris. Jan. 1841.'
£220.00

2pp, 8vo. On a gilt-edged leaf of umwatermarked wove paper. In good condition, lightly aged. A fair copy in Milnes's autograph. A curious poem, in which Milnes's Napoleon-worship wins through over considerations of the futility of war. Retitled 'The Funeral of Napoleon', the poem was first published in 1841 in the Spectator, and in slightly different form in Milnes's 1844 collection 'Poems, Legendary and Historical'. There are a number of differences between the present version and that published in the Spectator. The final stanza is entirely recast.

[Lord Stanhope [Philip Henry Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope], historian and politician.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Mahon') to Richard Monckton Milnes, regarding writing about Walpole and Queen Caroline, supposedly by the Earl of Chesterfield.

Author: 
Lord Stanhope [Philip Henry Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope] (1805-1875) [styled Viscount Mahon between 1816 and 1855], historian and politician [Richard Monckton Milnes, later Lord Houghton]
Publication details: 
'Grosvenor Place [London] | Friday morning.' No date, but on paper with watermarked year 1852.
£75.00

1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with stub from mount adhering to reverse of blank second leaf of bifolium. The subject is an item acquired by Milnes for his celebrated collection of manuscripts, which Milnes considered the present letter worthy of joining. The letter begins: 'My dear Milnes | Of the paper you have sent me, the first paragraph about Queen Caroline & the last about Sir Robert Walpole have already appeared, & you will find them in my Edition.

[Francisco Martínez de la Rosa, Prime Minister of Spain.] Autograph Letter Signed ('F. Martinez de la Rosa'), in French, to unnamed (English?) minister, on a piece of writing he has sent, the news of his marriage, and a list of embassy staff.

Author: 
Francisco Martínez de la Rosa [Francisco de Paula Martínez de la Rosa y Cornejo] (1787-1862), Prime Minister of Spain, the first to be styled President of the Council of Ministers, and dramatistt
Publication details: 
12 October [no year]. Place not stated.
£280.00

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with white paper stub from mount still adhering. From the distinguished autograph collection of Richard Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton). The letter begins: 'Mon cher Ministre, | J'ai lu avec un vif interêt l'écrit que vous avez eu la bonté de me communiquer'. He had told him, the other day, that it was 'une belle question à traiter', and he was certain that the recipient would deal with it 'supérieurement'.

[Philip Hofer, book collector and curator at the Houghton Library, Harvard University.] Autograph Letter Signed and Typed Note Signed to Stephen Harrison, regarding his collection of drawings by Edward Lear

Author: 
Philip Hofer (1898-1984), book collector and founder of the Department of Printing and Graphic Arts in the Houghton Library of Harvard University [Stephen Harrison; Edward Lear]
Publication details: 
Both on letterheads of The Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Autograph letter dated 19 October 1966. Typed note dated 28 November 1966.
£100.00

See Hofer's obituary in the New York Times, 12 October 1984, in which it is stated that 'Mr. Hofer, who was secretary of the Fogg Museum at Harvard for 12 years, was a recognized book collector focusing on 18th-century German, Iberian and Italian publications. Mr. Hofer put together an Italian book collection considered the finest outside Italy. | Konrad Oberhuber, professor of fine arts at Harvard, said of Mr. Hofer: ''He was one of the most farsighted collectors that Harvard ever had. [...]”'. Two airmail letters, both in good condition.

[Printed pamphlet.] An Account of Warrington Siege, A.D. 1643; and of some manuscripts of that period recently discovered at Houghton Green, near Warrington.

Author: 
James Kendrick, M.D. [the Siege of Warrington, 1643; Houghton Green; English Civil War]
Publication details: 
'Read before a Meeting of the Lancashire and Cheshire Historic Society, on the Evening of Thursday, December 11th, 1852 [corrected to '1851'].' Liverpool: T. Brakell, Printer, Cook Street, 1852.
£75.00

15pp., 12mo, with six plates on art paper. In grey printed wraps with title on front cover. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. The plates include engravings by H. C. Pigeon of illustrations by S. Holden and a plan by T. B. Ryder.

Autograph Note, in the third person, to his publisher Alexander Macmillan.

Author: 
Richard Monckton Milnes, Baron Houghton (1809-1885), author and politician [Alexander Macmillan (1818-1896), publisher]
Publication details: 
8 November [no year, but after 1863]; 16 Upper Brooke Street [London].
£20.00

12mo, 2 pp. 13 lines of text. Good, on light-aged paper. He has been 'asked by many persons for copies of his speech at the Cambge. Union Socy.', and if 'Messrs. Macmillan cared to print it, he would revise it, no report having been correct'. He wonders 'whether the whole proceedings should not be added, with some of the newspaper letters which have been carried'. Milnes was created Baron Houghton in 1863. In 1866 Macmillan published 'The Cambridge Union Society, Inaugural Proceedings', edited by G. C. Whiteley.

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