LONDON

Lonsdale’s entry in the Oxford DNB has the following to say: ‘In 1925 The Last of Mrs Cheyney was produced at the St James's Theatre, with the leading roles played by Gladys Cooper, Ellis Jeffreys, Ronald Squire, and Sir Gerald Du Maurier. This, Lonsdale's most famous play, ran for 514 performances [from 22 September 1925] in London, and enjoyed comparable popularity in New York, Berlin, and Paris.

ONE: ‘The National Front and the Jews / A briefing document by the Anti Nazi League / March 1978’. Stapled pamphlet of 8pp, 8vo. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased. Striking cover with title in large letters printed in black onto strips of green. Two-page introduction followed by two pages of illustrations (‘merely intended as a sample of the National Front’s continual argument by innuendo. All are taken from the National Front monthly, Spearhead’); page headed ‘Before the National Front / 1959-67’, followed by two pages titled ‘The National Front / 1967-’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. On a bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with strip of mount adhering to blank reverse of second leaf. Signed 'Sidney Colvin'. The recipient is not named, but is addressed as ‘Dear Madam’. The letter begins: ‘I am afraid I made a mistake yesterday, in addressing you as E. M. Sharpe Esqr. - but it was the address of the Natural History Museum which misled me.’ In order to make sure this time, he is addressing the present letter ‘to the care of Mr.

With the surge of interest in the slave trade attention has lately been directed at Simond and Hankey, a ‘past constituent’ of the NatWest Bank. These two items are nice artefacts of the firm. Both are in good condition, lightly aged, and laid out in the same way, with the bill written out on one side of a 22.5 x 9 cm slip of laid paper. One is for ‘Deux Cent Livres Sterling a trente quatre Sols neuf deniers de gros’ and the other for ‘Cent Soixante Sterling a Trente quatre Sols dix deniers de gros’. Both drawn on ‘Messrs. Vernede & Co’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On a bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with strip of mount adhering to blank reverse of second leaf. Addressed to ‘Dear Mr Fagan’ and signed ‘Sidney Colvin’. He begins by informing him that of the ‘various volumes and packets of prints’ he has been good enough to send, ‘the best is that containing portraits engraved by Ficquet, Savard, & [Marchay de Glury?]. But even of these, we have almost all in the collections here already: so that it will not be worth while to break up the albums by extracting any for the museum’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. LETTER: 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, in remains of windowpane mount. Folded twice. Addressed to ‘Dear [Derrick?]’ and signed ‘J: R: Planché’. The year has been supplied in another hand in pencil. He informs him that ‘Charles Dance is out of town’, and that ‘the price would be one guinea - but I am sure that being for a benefit he will make no charges’. Planché is ‘of course not authorized to say so’, but he has ‘no doubt upon the subject’ and will tell Dormer so on his return.

See the two men's entries in the Oxford DNB. Russell's papers are in the Harry Ransom Center at Texas. 1p, 4to. Aged and worn, with creasing and closed tear along left edge. Folded one. Carrying a neat and controlled signature, ‘Leonard Russell.’ He has ‘just come across’ the books Wilson lent him, ‘buried under a mass of books and papers’, and apologises. He ends by asking how Wilson’s ‘Notes from a Bookshop’ are going. ‘Copy as soon as you like.’ Wilson has ticked across the two paragraphs to signify action taken.

See the entries in the Oxford DNB on Browning and firm’s founder Adam Black (1784-1874). 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased. Folded three times. Addressed to ‘Oscar Browning Esq’ and signed ‘A. &. C. Black’. The firm is replying to a note of Browning’s of 7 July 1891, ‘desiring our assent to the separate publication in book form of your Articles, from the Ency[lopaedi]a Brit[annic]a. on Dante & Goethe’. They ‘have pleasure in complying therewith, on the usual understanding that the sources of the articles is duly acknowledged & a copy of the book sent to us when published’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The postcards are bromide prints, and 9 x 14 cm. The two identical images of Scott, dressed for the theatre, with curled moustache and flower in his buttonhole, are both inscribed. In the bottom margin of one he has written ‘late of the D. T.’; in the same position on the other, and rather poignantly considering his later history, ‘Remember me / Clement Scott / 1902’. The former card is addressed by Scott on the reverse, with Ingatestone postmark dated 27 February 1904, to ‘Mr S. Le Sage / Maisonette / Ingatestone / Essex’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. In fair condition, lightly aged and with slight wear at base. Typed address to ‘Mr. J. A. Neuhuys, / 37, Dean Road, / Willesden Green, / N. W. 2’. Reads: ‘Will you please send me on approval No. 582a, from your catalogue No. 29. / R. W.’ Recipt marked with red date stamp of 1 January 1924, and message lightly crossed out in pencil.

41 items from the papers of the railway economist C. E. R. Sherrington [Charles Ely Rose Sherrington] (1897-1973). Sherrington was the son of the Nobel-prize winning physiologist Sir Charles Scott Sherrington (1857-1952). Having served in France with the Oxfordshire Light Infantry and the Railway Transport Establishment of the British Expeditionary Force, Sherrington was lecturer in Economics and Transportation at Cornell University from 1922 to 1924. Returning to Britain, he was Secretary of the Railway Research Service from 1924 to 1962.

Despite the fact that Reynolds and Crookes’s X-ray apparatus is now in the Science Museum at South Kensington, Reynolds has no entry in the Oxford DNB, although Crookes’s entry can be consulted. The two items are in good condition, lightly aged and worn. Both folded several times. Both 1p, 4to, and both signed ‘Russell J. Reynolds’. ONE: Addressed to G. K. Menzies of the Royal Society of Arts. With recipient's red pencil tick.

An interesting item, casting light on Victorian London publishing of periodical literature. For Passmore Edwards, to whom London is indebted for innumerable public libraries (many now closed), see his entry in the Oxford DNB. ‘The Biographical Magazine’ was founded in 1852, and the first two volumes were published by ‘J. Passmore Edwards, 2, Horse-shoe Court, Ludgate Hill’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, on an 11 x 14 cm piece of paper cut down from 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, with minor traces of glue from mount adhering to the blank reverse. The letter reads: ‘My dear Barker / I shall be most happy to join your agreeable party - Croker to whom I was engaged for Monday goes on from Apethorpe to Belvoir instead of coming home[,] so I am at liberty - Milne is I believe on a visit to the Marquess of Bute at Luton. / Yrs most truly / Theodore S Hook’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded twice for postage. Begins: ‘Mr. Westall presents his compliments to Miss Macirone & begs to assure her how very much obliged to her he feels for the honor she has done him in sending him two tickets for her morning concert’. He will have ‘the greatest pleasure in attending’ the concert, and is ‘quite sure he shall be very much delighted’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. On recto of the first leaf of a bifolium, the verso of the second leaf of which carries the address to ‘Messrs Vizetely [sic] Branston & Co / 135 Fleet St’. The firm, who traded between 1827 and 1837, were not only ‘engravers and oriental printers’, but publishers too: the item referred to in this letter, ‘The Young Lady’s Book’, had two editions published in 1829 and a third in 1832, and Jackson presumably contributed work. In fair condition, discoloured and worn.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Both items 1p, 12mo, and both in good condition, lightly aged, with slight evidence of previous mounting on the blank reverses. Both folded once for postage. Both letters during the tenure as Lord Mayor of London of Sir John Charles Bell (1843-1924). ONE (8 March 1907): ‘Sir Claude Macdonald has the honour to accept the kind invitation of the Lord Mayor to Luncheon on March 13th.

Two pieces of uncommon Edwardian bibliographical ephemera. Both items worn and aged, and the catalogue somewhat dogeared. Both with some pencil marking. ONE (1909 catalogue): 32pp, 12mo. Drophead title on first page: ‘Macmillan’s Three-and-Sixpenny Library of Books by Popular Authors / Crown 8vo.’ The first two pages carry a description of the series, which ‘comprises over four hundred volumes in various departments of Literature. Prominent among them is a new and attractive edition of The Works of Thackeray, issued under the editorship of Mr. Lewis Melville.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. On the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium, and addressed in autograph on the reverse of the second to ‘Mr. Raymond / Chester Street / Grosvenor Place / No. 3. / Hyde Park Corner’, with three postmarks and broken wafer. In fair condition, lightly aged, with spike hole through both leaves. Folded twice for postage. He is sorry Raymond had ‘so much trouble’ looking for him: ‘but the truth is I waited at home for you this morning till 12 -’. He explains that ‘the Copy Right of the Comedy’ is ‘purchas’d by Mr.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. On a bifolium the blank second leaf of which is laid down on part of a leaf from an album. Folded twice for postage. The recipient is ‘Henry Spicer Esq’, presumably a relation of the artist of the same name (d.1804; see ODNB), several of whose theatrical portraits are in the Garrick Club collection.

The present item is rare, and its interest is heightened by the fact that it is accompanied by a press release and has the covers covered in what are clearly notes on how to film the ceremony by a press cameraman. Only three copies on COPAC: at the British Library, Sheffield Hallam and the Bishopsgate Institute. An 8vo stitched pamphlet of twenty unpaginated pages in printed card wraps. Internally very good.

Two pages, bifolium, good condition despite some dustiong, text clear. I am down here for a short time with my father. Directly I return to town I shall be only too happy to call & see you. I have some fresh adventure 'Rides round Parnassus' which I think would suit your paper.- I should makeeach stand on his own legs yet in your volume [they might?] seem serial. | At all events I trust I might do something for you about art or travelling. | Dickens haas, since Iwrote, accepted X [ten?] of my American Sketches [...undeciphered].

See Armstrong’s entry in the Oxford DNB. For Gauntlett, who was Professor of Cello at the RAM from 1947 to 1965, see the excellent article on the ‘Semibrevity’ blog: ‘Ambrose Gauntlett, forgotten gamba player and continuo cellist’, beginning: ‘Although Ambrose Gauntlett (1889-1978) spent most of his career as a full-time orchestral principal, he was the most sought-after continuo cellist and gamba player in the UK for many years.

The Gilbert Miller production of ‘Pride and Prejudice’, designed by Rex Whistler, and starring Celia Johnson as Elizabeth Bennet and Hugh Williams as Mr Darcy, was a great success. It opened at the St James's Theatre, London, on 27 February 1936, and closed on 21 November 1936; with a Christmas revival between 26 December 1936 and 16 January 1937. There was a royal performance before Queen Mary on 15 February 1937, and the production went on tour for the rest of the year.

It is perhaps appropriate that we should have been left such a collection by an author who made a name for herself with pioneering works on the social history of English literature.

Seventeen items, each 12mo, 8pp. All uncommon, and two (7 and 17 below) not listed on WorldCat or JISC LHD. All disbound and stabbed as issued. The collection in fair overall condition: some creasing and wear, and a few items discolored. Item 14 with grey staining to front cover. The first item with no illustration; the other sixteen each with a vignette on the front page. One item (4) with a second illustration in text. Item 2 with device of the RTS on the final page.

Scarce. xx + 123pp, 8vo. With erratum slip following prelims. Internally good and tight, on slightly-discoloured brittle paper, with one leaf among the prelims with small grease stain in margin; in heavily worn half-calf binding, with loosening boards. The introduction begins, p.ix: ‘The present volume comprises ten of the Charters which were granted to our early American Colonies.

See Mackenzie’s entry in the Oxford DNB. Gauntlett was later appointed Professor of Cello at the Royal Academy of Music. See Sir Anthony Lewis’s appreciative Times obituary. 2pp, 4to. On bifolium of good paper, with letterhead printed in black with the College’s arms in red. A very good facsimile of Mackenzie’s autograph and signature, with twenty-five lines of text. Addressed in manuscript to ‘A. Gauntlett, Esq. / 12 Fairholme Road / W Kensington / W.’ Begins: ‘You will doubtless have heard of our intention to celebrate the centenary of the R. A. M.

See his entry, and that of Colburn, in the Oxford DNB. Campbell agreed to edit Colburn’s ‘New Monthly Magazine’ in 1820, his first number in the post being that of January 1821, and the letter was presumably written between this period and Mrs Campbell’s death in 1828. The reference to ‘Mr Ollier’ would close the dates even further: the Oxford DNB’s entry for Charles Ollier (1788-1859) stating that, after financial difficulties, ‘by the autumn of 1825 he returned to the publishing trade as the chief literary reader and adviser to Henry Colburn in New Burlington Street’. 1p, 12mo.

Excessively scarce, with no copy listed on either WorldCat or JISC LHD, and absent from Parrish (1940). Not only a desideratum of a leading Victorian author (at his height only equalled in financial success by Dickens, George Eliot and Wilkie Collins), but also a fine example of eccentric Victorian zeal pushed almost to the point of insanity. The earnestness of the present item suggests that it is satirical in intent, but this is not the case.