MARION

[Gordon Jacob [Gordon Percival Septimus Jacob], English composer.] Four Autograph Letters Signed about musical matters to the violinist Marion Margaret Scott, one, written during wartime, attacking Benjamin Britten and ‘young men who shelter abroad’.

Author: 
Gordon Jacob [Gordon Percival Septimus Jacob] (1895-1984), composer, for forty years professor at the Royal College of Music [Marion Margaret Scott (1877-1953), violinist with her own string quartet]
Publication details: 
Three of the four on letterhead of Mayfield, West Street, Ewell, Surrey: 1 April, 5 May and 13 August 1928. The other dated 14 August 1941; 75 West Street, Ewell Surrey.
£120.00

See his entry, together with that of Benjamin Britten, in the Oxford DNB, the latter explaining the context of the last letter, which is an attack on Britten and Peter Pears for not returning from the United States to wartime England. From the Scott papers. Each letter 2pp, 12mo, on a single leaf (a total of 8pp, 12mo). In good condition, lightly aged. Each letter folded for postage. All four letters addressed to ‘Miss Scott’, and each signed ‘Gordon Jacob’. ONE (1 April 1929): He will be ‘most delighted’ to give her ‘any information you may require about my work’.

[Gordon Jacob [Gordon Percival Septimus Jacob], English composer.] Four Autograph Letters Signed about musical matters to the violinist Marion Margaret Scott, one, written during wartime, attacking Benjamin Britten and ‘young men who shelter abroad’.

Author: 
Gordon Jacob [Gordon Percival Septimus Jacob] (1895-1984), composer, for forty years professor at the Royal College of Music [Marion Margaret Scott (1877-1953), violinist with her own string quartet]
Publication details: 
Three of the four on letterhead of Mayfield, West Street, Ewell, Surrey: 1 April, 5 May and 13 August 1928. The other dated 14 August 1941; 75 West Street, Ewell Surrey.
£120.00

See his entry, together with that of Benjamin Britten, in the Oxford DNB, the latter explaining the context of the last letter, which is an attack on Britten and Peter Pears for not returning from the United States to wartime England. From the Scott papers. Each letter 2pp, 12mo, on a single leaf (a total of 8pp, 12mo). In good condition, lightly aged. Each letter folded for postage. All four letters addressed to ‘Miss Scott’, and each signed ‘Gordon Jacob’. ONE (1 April 1929): He will be ‘most delighted’ to give her ‘any information you may require about my work’.

[Harry Furniss, Punch cartoonist.] Autograph Letter Signed to the editor of The Connoisseur Marion Spielmann, arranging a visit.

Author: 
Harry Furniss [Henry Furniss, pseud. Lika Joko] (1854-1925), Anglo-Irish Punch cartoonist, illustrator of Lewis Carroll’s ‘Sylvie and Bruno’ [Marion Spielmann, editor of The Connoisseur]
Publication details: 
‘Wednesday’, on 1880s letterhead of the Clef Club, Birmingham.
£65.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with minor traces of mount on blank reverse. Folded once. Addressed to ‘My dear Spielmann’ and signed ‘Harry Furniss’. He asks if Spielmann is ‘at home on Sundays’, as he will be in town between Saturday and might be able to ‘look in for a minute sometime but I’ll not say exactly when’. ‘I’ll have so much to do, but probably it will be sometime in the morning before noon. / Leave all till then. / You don’t say how you are’. Postscript: ‘Lectures going very well’ (last two words underlined four times).

[Sir George Henschel, baritone and conductor.] Two items: Autograph Letter Signed, thanking the London Correspondent of the Birmingham Daily Post for a complimentary review; and printed circular, signed and addressed to the musicologist Marion Scott.

Author: 
Sir George Henschel [Isidor Georg Henschel] (1850-1934), German baritone, conductor, pianist and composer, who settled in England, a close friend of Johannes Brahms [Marion Margaret Scott (1877-1953),
Publication details: 
LETTER: 30 April 1913; on embossed letterhead of The Athenaeum, Pall Mall, S.W. [London] PRINTED CIRCULAR from 6 Sutherland House, Marloes Road, W.8 [London] Dated by Henschel 27 February 1930.
£75.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The items are unrelated. Both are in good condition, lightly aged, and each folded once for postage. LETTER: 2pp, 12mo. On grey paper. Addressed to ‘The London Correspondent of the Birmingham Daily Post’ and signed ‘George Henschel’.

[Keith Falkner, English bass-baritone, Director of the Royal College of Music, London.] Two Autograph Letters Signed to ‘Miss Scott’ [the musicologist Marion Scott], the first agreeing to sing at an 'At Home', the second while at work for the RAF.

Author: 
Keith Falkner [Sir Donald Keith Falkner] (1900-1994), distinguished English bass-baritone, Director of the Royal College of Music, London [Marion Margaret Scott (1877-1953), musicologist]
Publication details: 
ONE: 10 June 1928, from 60 Mayfield Road, Sanderstead, Surrey. TWO: 18 August 1941, ‘as from R.A.F. Middle Wallop. / Nr. Stockbridge. Hants.’, on cancelled letterhead of the Officers Mess, RAF ‘Woodlands’, Clamp Hill, Stanmore, Middlesex.
£120.00

See his entry and hers in the Oxford DNB. The two items are in good condition, lightly aged, and each folded once for postage. Neatly and firmly written. Both addressed to ‘Dear Miss Scott’ and signed ‘Keith Falkner’. ONE: 2pp, 12mo. Eleven lines. He will be ‘pleased to sing in the “Peasant Cantata” at the Union “At Home” on June 28th’ and asks to know ‘which version you will be doing as soon as you decide?’ He ends with thanks for her ‘kind sympathy - I do appreciate it very much’. TWO: 2pp, 8vo. Twenty-three lines of text.

[Lionel Tertis, viola player, Professor of Viola at the Royal Academy of Music.] Autograph Letter Signed, thanking ‘Miss Scott’ [the musicoloigst Marion Scott] for ‘such a nice tea-party’ and urging her to come to lunch.

Author: 
Lionel Tertis (1876-1975), viola player, Professor of Viola at the Royal Academy of Music [Marion Margaret Scott (1877-1953), musicologist]
Publication details: 
8 December 1929. On letterhead of Smalldown, Belmont, Surrey.
£38.00

See his entry and hers in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased. Folded once for postage. Signed ‘Lionel Tetris.’ Begins ‘Dear Miss Scott / It was so kind of you to give us such a nice tea-party yesterday[.] We thoroughly enjoyed it and thank you very much indeed. / We hope you will come & see us soon[.] Won’t you come to Lunch one day?’

[Marjory Kennedy-Fraser, Scottish singer and folk song collector.] Autograph Letter Signed and Autograph Card Signed to ‘Miss Scott’ [Marion Scott], arranging an interview and sending the third volume of her ‘Songs of the Hebrides’ for review.

Author: 
Marjory Kennedy-Fraser (1857-1930), Scottish singer, collector of Hebridean folk songs [her daughter the harpist Patuffa Kennedy-Fraser (1889-1967); Marion Margaret Scott (1877-1953), musicologist]
Publication details: 
Neither item dated, but both apparently sent together in 1921. ONE: ALS, on letterhead of her ‘Permanent address’ 6 Castle Street, Edinburgh. TWO: ACS without place or date, but on card advertising the vol. 3 of her ‘Songs of the Hebrides’ (1921).
£150.00

See her entry and the recipient's in the Oxford DNB. The two items are in fair condition, lightly aged and worn. The letter is lightly creased and the card has a central vertical fold. ONE: ALS. 1p, 12mp. Signed ‘Marjory Kennedy-Fraser’. Once the recipient has ‘got what you want out of the Vol III herewith’, she asks her to ‘kindly return it to Mrs. Matthay at 96, Wimpole St’. TWO: ACS.

[John Calder, London avant-garde publisher.] Three Autograph Cards Signed and a Typed Letter Signed to Philip Dosse, publisher of ‘Books and Bookmen’, regarding reviews he is writing because of ‘financial troubles tempting enough to do a Stonehouse'.

Author: 
John Calder [John Mackenzie Calder] (1927-2018), London avant-garde publisher of Scottish-Canadian descent [Calder and Boyars; Better Books; Philip Dosse (1925-1980), publisher ‘Books and Bookmen’]
Publication details: 
TLS: 17 July 1974; on letterhead of Calder and Boyars Ltd, 18 Brewer Street, London. All three ACS on his letterhead, 6 Dalmeny House, 9 Thurloe Place, London SW7; one dated 15 January 1975 the others undated.
£180.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient Philip Dosse was proprietor of Hansom Books, publisher of a stable of seven arts magazines including Books and Bookmen and Plays and Players. See ‘Death of a Bookman’ by the novelist Sally Emerson (editor of ‘Books and Bookmen’ at the time of Dosse’s suicide), in Standpoint magazine, October 2018. The typed letter is in fair condition, aged and worn; the three cards are in very good condition. The signature on the four items is little more than a squiggle. Of the three cards, only Item Four below is addressed.

[C. L. Graves and Punch editor E. V. Knox.] Autograph Letter Signed from 'C L. G.' to 'Evoe', discussing in detail questions relating to his planned history of Punch, with long autograph 'Notes on your Memorandum'.

Author: 
C. L. Graves [Charles Larcom Graves (1856-1944), assistant-editor of Punch and the Spectator, uncle of poet Robert Graves [E. V. Knox [Edmund George Valpy Knox] (1881-1971, 'Evoe'), editor of Punch]
Publication details: 
Letter on letterhead of Kent Lodge, Westgate-on-Sea, Thanet. 30 May 1938. Memorandum undated.
£250.00

For information on Graves see the generous obituary of him in The Times, 18 April 1944. Both items in fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with minor staining from paperclip to first leaf of letter. The work was not published, and although Graves states in Item One that the greater part of the text is 'in the hands of my typist', there is no record of its survival, or of the thousand related documents he states were sent to him by M. H. Spielmann. ONE: ALS from 'C L. G.' to 'Dear Evoe'. 4pp., landscape 8vo.

[Death of Lord Bryce (Liberal politician and jurist James Bryce, Viscount Bryce of Dechmont).] Autograph Letter Signed ('E. Marion Bryce') from his widow Lady Bryce [Elizabeth Marion Bryce, née Ashton] to 'Mrs Clifford', describing his death.

Author: 
Lady Bryce [Elizabeth Marion Bryce, née Ashton] (1854-1939), wife of James Bryce [Lord Bryce; Viscount Bryce of Dechmont] (1838-1922), Liberal politician, historian and jurist
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£100.00

2pp, 12mo. On paper with mourning border. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Replying to a letter of condolence from Mrs Clifford, she writes that she has been 'a good deal stunned with the shock & am still overwhelmed with a mass of unanswered letters. The blow fell, as you know, with absolute suddenness - no illness & no warning. After a day spent as usual in work, & a walk with me in the afternoon, my husband went to bed that last night apparently perfectly well, & I awoke next morning to find him gone.

[Marion, Lady Bell, wife of Sir Charles Bell, Scottish physiologist.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Marion Bell') to her husband's 'old Pupil and Friend' Henry Davey of Yarmouth, discussing the publication of his letters to his brother.

Author: 
Marion Bell [Marion, Lady Bell, née Shaw] (1787-1876), wife of Sir Charles Bell (1774-1842), Scottish physiologist and surgeon [Henry William Robert Davey of Beccles, Yarmouth physician]
Publication details: 
[47?] Albany Street N.W. [London] 24 March [1870].
£600.00

Marion Shaw, daughter of Charles Shaw of Ayr, married Charles Bell in 1811. Following the death of her husband in 1842, she lived with her brother the surgeon Alexander Shaw (1804-1890), and their house became a centre of artistic and literary society. The recipient is a former pupil of Bell's at the Hunterian School of Medicine in Great Windmill Street, London, the surgeon Henry William Robert Davey (1798-1870), son of surgeon Henry Sallows Davey (1781-1855) of Beccles. The letter is written on the publication of 'The Letters of Sir Charles Bell, K.H., F.R.S.L.

[Punch history; C. L. Graves and Punch editor E. V. Knox.] Autograph Letter Signed from 'C L. G.' to 'Evoe', discussing in detail questions relating to his planned history of Punch, with long autograph 'Notes on your Memorandum'.

Author: 
C. L. Graves [Charles Larcom Graves (1856-1944), assistant-editor of Punch and the Spectator, uncle of poet Robert Graves [E. V. Knox [Edmund George Valpy Knox] (1881-1971, 'Evoe'), editor of Punch]
Publication details: 
Letter on letterhead of Kent Lodge, Westgate-on-Sea, Thanet. 30 May 1938. Memorandum undated.
£750.00

For information on Graves see his generous obituary in The Times, 18 April 1944. Both items in fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with minor staining from paperclip to first leaf of letter. The work was not published, and although Graves states in Item One that the greater part of the text is 'in the hands of my typist', there is no record of its survival, or of the thousand related documents he states were sent to him by M. H. Spielmann. ONE: ALS from 'C L. G.' to 'Dear Evoe'. 4pp., landscape 8vo.

[ Mabel H. Spielmann, author. ] Latter part of Autograph Letter Signed ('Mabel H Spielmann.')

Author: 
Mabel H. Spielmann [ Mabel Henrietta Spielmann ] (1862-1938), wife of art critic Marion Spielmann (1858-1948), author, sister of Liberal politician Herbert Samuel, Viscount Samuel (1870-1963)
Publication details: 
Place and date not stated. [ After 1919. ]
£28.00

2pp., 12mo. The last two pages of a letter, numbered 3 and 4. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper, with short closed tears at edges of central fold. The item begins with part of a sentence regarding 'dramatization in Paris', before turning to Spielmann's desire to have her novel 'The Sterndales of Sterndale House' (1919) filmed. She praises the recipient's 'critical faculty', adding 'The points taken are seldom just the points.' She will let the recipient's 'good opinion' of her be known 'in one or two quarters'.

[ George J. Firmage, literary critic. ] Folder of material relating to e. e. Cummings and his wife (christmas card from them, pamphlet by Holley Cantine inscribed by her, cuttings, offprint, photographs), with poem inscribed to him by Oscar Williams.

Author: 
George James Firmage (1928-2005), authority on e. e. Cummings [ Edward Estlin Cummings (1894-1962); Marion Morehouse Cummings (1906-69); 'Oscar Williams' [ pen-name of Oscar Kaplan (1900-1964)] ]
Publication details: 
Most items from New York City. Dating from between 1962 and 1972.
£320.00

George James Firmage was born in New York; attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1947-48) and College of the City of New York (1949); BA, New York University, 1952; pursued graduate study, University of Massachusetts, 1952-54; publications supervisor in advertising and marketing services department, First National City Bank, New York, 1954; wrote several books, including E.E. Cummings: a Miscellany (1958) and E.E. Cummings: a Bibliography; editor of A Garland for Dylan Thomas (1963) and of E.E. Cummings' Three Plays and a Ballet (1967).

The Defence of Guenevere and other Poems by William Morris. Illustrated by Jessie M. King.

Author: 
William Morris and Jessie M. King [ Isabel Bonus ]
Publication details: 
London and New York: John Lane The Bodley Head. 1904.
£280.00

8vo. 310pp. Red cloth, gilt extra, with ornate design to front board and spine. First edition with King's illustrations. A good copy of an extremely attractive book, in binding with light fading in parts, but gilt still bright, and with the merest wear at head of spine. Bookplate by Isabel Bonus for Annie C. Dolamore. Collated and complete. All of King's ninety-five illustrations are present, with twenty-four of them, including the frontispiece, on shiny art paper. A sumptuous item, produced at the high point of King's Art Nouveau period.

Two Typed Testimonials Signed (each 'T. Percy Nunn') by Sir Percy Nunn [Sir Thomas Percy Nunn], Professor of Education, University of London, for the artist and educator H. Clarence Whaite

Author: 
Sir Percy Nunn [Sir Thomas Percy Nunn] (1870-1944), Professor of Education, University of London [H. Clarence Whaite (1895-1978), Head of Art Department, University of London Institute of Education]
Publication details: 
The first, dated 28 June 1928, on London County Council letterhead. The second, dated 5 August 1937, from 83 Manor Drive, Wembley, Middlesex.
£120.00

Two extraordinarily positive testimonials, especially significant coming from one of the leading educationalists of his age, and also of interest considering the fact that Whaite would follow Nunn to the London Institute. (Whaite was first cousin twice removed of his more famous namesake. He was himself an excellent artist and teacher, and there is a large collection of his work at the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester.) ONE: Written by Nunn as Principal, London County Council, London Day Training College (University of London), Southampton Row, London, WC1. On College letterhead; 28 June 1928.

Autograph Signature of the English soprano Flora Marion Woodman ('Flora M. Woodman').

Author: 
Flora M. Woodman [Flora Marion Woodman] (d.1981), popular British soprano of the 1920s and 1930s
English soprano Flora Marion Woodman
Publication details: 
Undated.
£25.00
English soprano Flora Marion Woodman

On neat rectangle of grey paper, roughly 14.5 x 5 cm, laid down on piece of pink paper removed from autograph album. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Firm, bold signature: 'Flora M. Woodman./'

Autograph Letter Signed ('Rennell Rodd') to Harold Crawford (b.1888), son of Harold Marion-Crawford (d.1909).

Author: 
James Rennell Rodd, 1st Baron Rennell (1858-1941), British diplomat and classical scholar
Publication details: 
20 February [1902], on embossed letterhead of the British Embassy, Rome.
£38.00

12mo: 2 pp. Eleven lines of text. Very good. Having just received it from London, Rodd is sending Crawford the book he could not get in Rome which he wanted to send him as a birthday present. 'It is written by a great friend of mine who knows better than any one the history of the first voyages to America and the discovery of the Great Southern Sea. I think you will like it.' In an envelope, on aged paper, with postmarks and Italian postage stamp. Addressed to 'Harold Crawford, Villa Crawford, St Agnello di Sorrento'.

Autograph Note Signed to M[arion]. H[arry]. Spielman[n].

Author: 
Sir Aston Webb
Publication details: 
9 December 1903; on letterhead 19 Queen Anne's Gate, Westminster, London, S.W.
£45.00

English architect (1849-1930), responsible for many notable London buildings, including the Victoria and Albert Museum. The recipient Spielmann (1858-1948) was an art historian. One page, 12mo. Grubby, and with pin holes in top left-hand corner, as well as small closed tear at foot of leaf (not affecting text). Reads 'I regret that having to be in Manchester on Friday next I shall be unable to attend the art Committee of the St. Louis Exhibition'. Signed 'Aston Webb'.

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