MANUSCRIPTS

12mo, 2 pp. Bifolium. Fair, on aged paper with a little light staining. The recto carries the seventeen-line letter to a 'Gentilissima Dama', in response to a request for an autograph. On the reverse of the second leaf is a four-line poem, signed and dated by Negri, beginning 'Come un Nume che si adora'. In the letter Negri writes that he does not have 'la presunzione di credere che il mio autografo meriti di essere conservato'.

On rectangle of paper roughly 9 x 17 cm. Cut from the head of a letter for an autograph hunter. Fair, on aged paper, with traces of previous mount on the reverse. Above the signature a florid five-line valediction in the best courtly style. Date and beginning of letter on reverse.

12mo, 1 p. 20 lines of text. Clear and complete. On aged paper and lightly-creased paper. Writing to ask how the recipient wishes to deal with 'traités de Botanique et de Chimie' in his reviews. Written during the first of several incarnations of the 'Revue', this one beginning around 1836.

Envelope (dimensions 6.5 x 12 cm) with mourning border. Lacking flap, but good. Penny red stamp with two circular postmarks in black ink. Docketed 'Dean Stanley' in neat contemporary hand above address, which reads 'George Moore Esq. | 15a. Court | Bayswater W.' Moore was a lace manufacturer and philanthropist.

4to, 3 pp. Bifolium. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper with damp staining causing the fading of ink in some parts, and a little chipping to bottom edge. Since writing there has been no packet from Falmouth, and the news from the continent are reported with sufficient detail in the gazettes, so 'il est inutile de vous en parler. Les procedes du Duc de Brunswick [he led an invading German army into France], et le systeme du Roi de Prusse sont egalement mysterieux [...] Les Emigrants [...] sont reduits a la derniere necessite'.

A piece of laid paper, roughly 8 x 20 cm, cut from a document by an autograph collector. Yorke's signature, large (4.5 x 7 cm) and bold, is in the bottom right-hand corner. The surviving text is in a secretary's hand, and reads: '<...> of Our Reign. | By His Majesty's Command. | C Yorke | Our Trusty and Wellbeloved William Gordon Esqr General in Our Army & Col of Our 71st (Highland) Regiment of Foot or to the Officer appointed by him to raise Men for Our said Regiment'.

On one side of a piece of wove paper, roughly 5 x 18.5 cm, cut from letter by an autograph collector. Aged, and with staining from the glue used in mounting. Reads '<...> upon it. | I hope you are quite recovered. | Yours trly | James Wilson'.

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.

On one side of a piece of pink paper, roughly 18 x 23.5 cm, removed from an autograph album. Good, on lightly aged paper. Eight bars of music and libretto, with staves for 'Soprani', 'Alti', 'Tenori' and 'Bassi'. Covering most of the page, and followed by 'From "The Waters of Babylon" (Psalm 137) | (May 1935.) | E. Phyllis Roberts. | June 15th, 1935.' Twenty-nine line poem 'To the Gentle Owner of this Album' on the reverse, signed 'Moir Carnegie | 21-6-10'. (in whose name a "prestigious" prize was given).

4to, 1 p. Fourteen lines of text, on the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium. Text clear and complete, on lightly aged and creased paper. Slight staining at foot of text (affecting part of signature), and on the reverse of the second leaf of the bifolium, which is docketed 'la renaudié | A. S.' He is sending an article on 'la Bibliotheque des voyages'. Asks that the article on the work entitled 'Des Beaux arts en Angleterre', 'que Buisson vous adressa il ya prés de Deux mois', be inserted. 'Je vous prie en grace de laisser ma Signature en entier.

On both sides of a piece of wove paper, dimensions roughly 8.5 x 20 cm. Cruikshank's signature is approximately 9 cm long, with the final letter of his Christian name in superscript. Paper aged and creased, with central vertical fold, and wear to one edge (not affecting text). Recto reads '<...> in the interim - | That 2 door Mats be ordered for the use of the Society | Adjourned till Thursday 7th June - | [signed] Geoe Cruikshank | Monday June 4. | General Meeting of the Society | Mr Parsonage in the Chair.

On a piece of laid watermarked paper roughly 11.5 cm square. Good firm underlined signature, about 8 cm long. On aged paper, with pin holes above and below, and a vertical fold about 1 cm above.

8vo: 1 p. 14 lines of text. On aged and spotted paper, laid down on a piece of card, and with the head of the letter (not affecting the text but causing the loss of the top half of the letterhead) worn away. Originally a 2-page 12mo bifolium, but with the text from the second page laid down below the first.

16mo (11.5 x 9 cm): 1 p. On aged paper with a diagonal crease towards top right-hand corner. In a shaky hand. Reads 'With much pleasure I accept your hospitable invitation for Nov. 20, at 1/4 to 8; - and am | Very truly Your's | [signed] J. Doran'.

12mo: 1 p. Good, on aged and lightly-ruckled paper. Text clear and entire. Difficult hand. Asks the recipient to 'allow the Bearer to see the L<?> Papers laid on the Table yesterday'. Also asks that the papers 'be printed as soon as possible as I shall mention them in the house'.

12mo, 2 pp, 32 lines. Good. Docketed in a nineteenth-century hand in pencil in top left-hand corner 'Lacretelle (Charles) à Lenormand, réd. du J. de Saone & Loire à Mâcon' and in another hand 'Acad. Fr'. Asks to be verbally informed of the news of 'Mr. Ochier, à supposer qu'il vous eut enfin révélé le motif de son long silence au milieu des prodiges qui s'opérent aujourd'hui pour les moyens de communication entre les deux hémisphères, je n'aurais jamais pensé que celle de Mâcon et de Cluny, présentassent de telles difficultés'.

12mo: 2 pp. 11 lines of text. The Bishop's note has reached him 'just as I am about to set out for Cambridge to spend the week there'. When he returns he will 'search for any papers we may have relative to Dr. Walker'. He will let him 'know the result of my enquiries'.

Quarto: ii + 234 pp. In original grey boards and cloth spine, with chipped white label. Unopened. Good, with slightly discoloured endpapers. Extensive transcriptions from the Countess of Blessington's correspondence, the writers ranging from Mrs Abell ('Napoleon's pet English child at St. Helena') to Nathaniel Parker Willis.

Quarto: 196 + xii pp. 58 facsimiles in text, but lacking frontispiece. No dustwrapper. In original cloth binding, decorated on the front board in yellow, grey and black. Good, with spotting to edges and boards. Concentrating exclusively on German autographs. Wolbe was removed from his teaching post by the Nazis in 1933.

Octavo: 53 pp. Stitched and unbound. Complete in itself, in alphabetical order, but lotted 554 to 846. Good, though grubby, and with the outer leaves somewhat creased. Includes letters and documents by Burns, Charles I and II, Maria Edgeworth, Frederick the Great, Garrick, Lady Hamilton, Handel, Dr Johnson, Southey, Wordsworth. The high spot is a letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Earl of Buchan, described over one page.

12mo: 45 pp. In original light-green printed wraps. Very good on lightly aged paper, with some sunning to wraps. Inscribed by the author "For Mary | with love & all good wishes for Christmas and the New Year, especially the show' | Th." Besterman attempts to demonstrate that the taste for autographs, 'tres loin d'etre malsaine, est au contraire pure et bienfaisante'.

Octavo: 21 pp. Leaf of prices and buyers' names loosely inserted. Stapled. In original yellow printed wraps. Somewhat creased and chipped, on aged, spotted paper. Two-page foreword. Maggs were the main buyers, but the three highest sellers among the 105 lots, all Shelley letters, went to other dealers: lot 13, 'quoting 36 lines of original verse', for £155 to Pickering; lot 55, 'describing the origins and method of his elopement with Mary Godwin', £175 to Quaritch; lot 65, 'dealing with many topics', £360 to W. H. Robinson.

Octavo: 52 pp. Stitched and unbound. Good, if a tad grubby. In alphabetical order from Queen Adelaide to the Duchess of York, but lotted 236 to 553. Tastefully printed, and including letters of Charles I, Coleridge, Dr Johnson, Samuel Richardson, Rossini, Sir Walter Scott, Laurence Sterne and Horace Walpole.

One page, octavo. Good on aged and lightly creased paper. 'As you see by the enclosed it was returned to Mme D'Alvarez. | She is so sorry, but hopes it will now reach you. | Yours Truly | [signed] Evelyn Woolf | Secretary'.

Quarto: 10 pp (paginated 236-41). Stapled. In original printed green card wraps. Good, though lightly creased. Five plates, examples of the hands of Queen Elizabeth I, Sir John Harington, Admiral Lord Nelson, together with an original and a faked Burns letter. While the offprint is undated, the Encyclopaedia itself was published in 1954.

On piece of paper roughly seven inches by eight wide. On aged paper with closed tears and fraying to extremities. Top part of document torn away, leaving ten complete lines of text. Lays out the conditions under which an archive of letters is offered for sale.

One page, on piece of lightly aged paper, roughly six and a half inches by seven. Strip neatly torn away at head (not affecting text, but perhaps bearing recipient's address). Good, with a little damage from breaking of wafer and slight evidence of previous mounting on revese. Thirteen lines. He is sending the selected autographs, and will 'be happy to receive, at your leisure, those of Currie, Daubeny, Mc.Culloch, Flowers, Woodville & Phillips & Jones - or such 5 of them as you can best spare'.

One page, octavo. Good, on aged paper with some loss to extremities repaired with archival tape. Fifteen lines of text clear and complete. On learning of Dawson Turner's celebrated collection of autographs from her son, Elizabeth Palgrave's 'kind old neighbour' Lady Bentham asked her 'some questions which led to the enclosed note & the letters I send' (none present).

12mo. In original worn red morocco binding, gilt, with loose front free endpaper. Good, with EXTENSIVE MANUSCRIPT CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS. Eight blank leaves bound in front and back, on which are laid down forty-nine illustrations of arms of London livery companies, each approximately one and a half inches square, and apparently dating from the mid-eighteenth century.

Behnes (died 1864) was a sculptor, and Robins (1778-1847) a flamboyant auctioneer. Very good, on piece of paper roughly two inches by three and a half. From a collection of Autograph Signatures cut from petitions to the Artists' General Benevolent Fund. Blank reverse.