MUSEUM

[Sir Robert Smirke, RA, architect of the British Museum.] Autograph Note Signed to Charles Fowler, a vice-president of the Artiists' General Benevolent Institution, enclosing a cheque.

Author: 
Sir Robert Smirke (1780-1867), RA, architect of the British Museum
Publication details: 
'Stanmore / April 20. 1843'.
£45.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, torn along the inner edge on removal from mount. Addressed to ‘Chas. Fowler Esqr:’ (a vice-president of the Artists’ General Benevolent Institution) and signed ‘Rob. Smirke.’ Reads: ‘Dear Sir / May I request you will have the goodness to add the amount of the enclosed cheque for me to the collection recently made for the Artists Genl. Benevolent Institution.’

[Sir Aston Webb, RA, Buckingham Palace, the Victoria and Albert Museum and Admiralty Arch.] Autograph Letter Signed Aston Webb .

Author: 
Sir Aston Webb (1849-1930), President of the Royal Academy and Royal Institute of British Architects, who worked on Buckingham Palace, the Victoria and Albert Museum and Admiralty Arch
Publication details: 
8 October 1922. On letterhead of 1 Hanover Terrace, Ladbroke Square, W. [London]
£50.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with small and slightly rusted staple holes to one corner. Folded once. Addressed to ‘My dear [Gern?] King / A. G. B. I’ (i.e. the Artists’ General Benevolent Institution) and signed ‘Aston Webb / Presd. A G B I -’. He is writing at the request of ‘the Council’, ‘to express to you on their behalf & my own our sincere regret at your resignation from our Council’.

[Alfred Waterhouse, RA, Victorian Gothic Revival architect who designed Manchester Town Hall and the Natural History Museum, London.] Autograph Letter Signed to his son's headmaster Rev. H. W. Sneyd-Kynnersley, regarding the boy's deficiencies.

Author: 
Alfred Waterhouse (1830-1905), RA, Victorian Gothic Revival architect of Manchester Town Hall and the Natural History Museum,[Rev. Herbert William Sneyd-Kynnersley, headmaster of St George's, Ascot]
Publication details: 
28 July 1874; on letterhead of Fox Hill, Reading.
£65.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Sneyd-Kinnersley is the headmaster who is alleged to have subjected a naked seven-year-old Winston Churchill to repeated beatings. 3pp, 12mo. With mourning border. Letterhead (no doubt designed by Waterhouse himself) in characteristic style. On grey paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Good expansive signature ‘A Waterhouse’, and the letter written in a stylish hand. Addressed to ‘The Rev: H. W Sneyd Kinnersley’.

[Sir Aston Webb, RA, who worked on Buckingham Palace, the Victoria and Albert Museum and Admiralty Arch.] Two responses to congratulations: one an Autograph Note Signed to Walter Spiers, the other an Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Mr. Baldwin’.

Author: 
Sir Aston Webb (1849-1930), RA, who worked on Buckingham Palace, the Victoria and Albert Museum and Admiralty Arch
Publication details: 
ONE (ANS to Spiers): 27 March 1899; 1 Hanover Terrace, Ladbroke Square. TWO (ALS to Baldwin): 20 June 1903; on Hanover Square letterhead.
£90.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Both items in good condition, lightly aged, on grey paper, with central horizontal fold. Each signed ‘Aston Webb’. ONE: ANS to ‘Dear Walter Spiers’, 27 March 1899. 1p, 16mo. Thanking him for his congratulations on his election. TWO: ALS to ‘Dear Mr Baldwin’, 20 June 1903. 1p, 12mo. After thanking him for his congratulation he continues: ‘We had a most delightful dinner with you the other evening.’

[Sydney Smirke, RA, architect of the British Museum Reading Room.] Autograph Letter Signed to fellow Royal Academician Edward William Cooke, regarding a photograph by Vernon Heath.

Author: 
Sydney Smirke (1797-1877), RA, architect of the British Museum Reading Room [E. W. Cooke [Edward William Cooke] (1811-80), RA, marine painter; Vernon Heath (c.1819-95), photographer]
Publication details: 
'The Hollies / Tunbridge Wells / Aug: 7 [no year]'.
£50.00

See Smirke’s entry, and those of Cooke and Heath, in the Oxford DNB. His most celebrated design is the Reading Room of the British Museum. 2pp, 12mo. With monogram and mourning border. On first leaf of a bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded for postage. Begins: ‘My dear Sir, / Vernon Heath, of Piccadilly, has made me a photograph of our new front, which is I think fairly satisfactory.’ He has told Heath to deliver a copy ‘addressed to you at the R. Academy’. As it is ‘rather large’, he did not like to send it ‘by post or Parcel’, as it ‘might get crushed on its way to you.

[Alfred Waterhouse, RA, Victorian Gothic Revival architect who designed Manchester Town Hall and the Natural History Museum, London.] Autograph Letter Signed to Thomas Haigh, regarding designs for a house in Keston.

Author: 
Alfred Waterhouse (1830-1905), RA, Victorian Gothic Revival architect who designed Manchester Town Hall and the Natural History Museum, London
Publication details: 
'Manchester / 2 : Aug : 1856'.
£50.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB: ‘In 1848 he was articled to the staunchly Quaker P. B. Alley, then in partnership with Richard Lane, the leading neo-classical architect of Manchester. In 1853 his education was completed with a ten-month tour of France, Italy, and Germany, after which he set up in practice as an architect in Manchester.’ (Waterhouse’s first success would come with his winning design for the Manchester assize courts in 1859.) 1p, 12mo. On the first leaf of a grey-paper bifolium. In good condition. Folded for postage. Addressed to ‘Thomas Haigh Esq:’ and signed ‘A Waterhouse’.

[Alfred Waterhouse, RA, Victorian Gothic Revival architect who designed Manchester Town Hall and the Natural History Museum, London.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Horsley’ [John Callcott Horsley?], responding to an appeal and requesting no 'mystery'..

Author: 
Alfred Waterhouse (1830-1905), RA, Victorian Gothic Revival architect who designed Manchester Town Hall and the Natural History Museum, London [John Callcott Horsley (1817-1903), painter]
Publication details: 
8 August 1878; on letterhead of 20 New Cavendish Street, Portland Place, W. [London]
£50.00

See his entry, and that of his fellow Academician Horsley, in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. On the first leaf of a bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage. Signed ‘A Waterhouse’. Reads: ‘Dear Horsley. / You are quite right. No “mystery” between us if you please. / I say “yes” to your query to the extent of 2 guineas. / I hope you will soon gain the sum you desire without any great trouble to yourself’.

[Sir Anthony Panizzi [Antonio Genesio Maria Panizzi], Principal Librarian at the British Museum.] Autograph Signature.

Author: 
Sir Anthony Panizzi [born Antonio Genesio Maria Panizzi in Italy] (1797-1879), Principal Librarian at the British Museum, London
Panizzi
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£25.00
Panizzi

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Now viewed in a favourable light, Panizzi was a controversial figure in his own time, being dubbed a ‘fat pedant’ by Thomas Carlyle, who was moved to press for the creation of the London Library as a result of the Italian’s high-handed behaviour. On 7 x 4 cm piece of grey paper, presumably cut from an album. No othe writing on the slip other than Panizzi's compact and disciplined signature 'A Panizzi.' In good condition, lightly aged, Strips of sunning at top and right edge, but nowhere near the signature. See scan.

[Sir Francis Chantrey [Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey], sculptor.] Autograph Letter Signed to Edward Hawkins, recommending the artist William Beetham for permission to draw at the British Museum.

Author: 
Sir Francis Chantrey [Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey] (1781-1841), sculptor [Edward Hawkins (1780-1867), Keeper of Antiquities at the British Museum; William Beetham (1809-1888), artist]
Publication details: 
‘Belgrave Place [London] / 15th. June 1830’.
£56.00

See his entry, and Hawkins’s, in the Oxford DNB. The subject of the letter, William Beetham, was an early emigrant to New Zealand, where he was one of the colony’s first European artists. 1p, 12mo. With mourning border. In fair condition, aged and worn, with a tiny piece of loss to one corner. Traces of paper mount adhering to blank reverse. Folded twice for postage. Addressed to ‘Edwd. Hawkins Esqr.’ and signed ‘F Chantrey’. Begins: ‘My Dear Sir / The bearer Wm.

[Philip Cunliffe Owen [Sir Francis Philip Cunliffe-Owen], Director of the South Kensington Museum.] Autograph Letter Signed to the zoologist W. S. Dallas, about a forthcoming event from which women will be barred, Dr Bredermann and German translation

Author: 
Philip Cunliffe Owen [Sir Francis Philip Cunliffe-Owen] (1828–1894), Director of the South Kensington Museum [William Sweetland Dallas (1824-1890), zoologist]
Publication details: 
2 May 1876. On embossed letterhead of the Council on Education, Kensington Museum.
£56.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Addressed to ‘W. S. Dallas Esq’ and signed ‘P. Cunliffe Owen’ [sic, no hyphen]. Begins: ‘There will be no Ladies on the 13th. Inst & the card I will send you will be personal. I am sorry, that this rule exists, but it affects my own family as well as all the Gentler Sex.’ He concludes with brief details of the plans for the evening. In a postscript which he has initalled he asks Dallas to ‘do some more translation from German’.

[John Mitford, editor of the Gentleman's Magazine.] Autograph Letter Signed, giving permission to print verses, and discussing an individual ('Lang') who was 'very unfit for the British Museum'.

Author: 
John Mitford (1781-1859), cleric and editor of the Gentleman's Magazine [The British Museum, London]
Publication details: 
1 April 1847. No place.
£60.00

See Mitford's entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 32mo. On first leaf of bifolium. Text complete on somewhat grubby and worn paper. The recipient (‘My dear Sir’) is not named, and the letter is signed ‘JMitford’. Closely written, with the result that a few word are difficult to decipher, unfortunately including the name of the subject. It reads: ‘My dear Sir / I can see no objection to you printing the lines that I return, as I presume they are but little known. / I think [Lang?] was a very good sort of Man, as well as a very [clear?] [shrewd?] one . .

[C. B. Oldman [Cecil Bernard Oldman], bibliographer and musicologist, Principal Keeper of Printed Books at the British Museum.] Autograph Letter Signed to the music bookseller Leonard Hyman, regarding his promotion and Hyman’s latest catalogue.

Author: 
C. B. Oldman [Cecil Bernard Oldman] (1894-1969), bibliographer and musicologist, Principal Keeper of Printed Books at the British Museum from 1948 to 1959 [Leonard Hyman, music bookseller]
Publication details: 
30 December 1947; on letterhead of 3 Cromwell Road, Kensington, S.W.7 [London].
£60.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and creased. Folded for postage. Addressed to ‘Dear Hyman’ and signed ‘C. B. Oldman.’ He begins by thanking him for his ‘kind congratulations’ (on his promotion to at the British Museum, following the retirement of Sir Henry Thomas): ‘I have been laid up with a bad cold over Christmas otherwise I should have written before’. Hyman’s latest catalogue interested him very much, and he hopes that ‘the fact that I don’t buy much nowadays will not deter you from sending me future issues.

[Stuart Poole [Reginald Stuart Poole], numismatist and Egyptologist.] Signed Secretarial Note, on behalf of the British Museum, declining to purchase ‘the coin of Egbert’.

Author: 
Stuart Poole [Reginald Stuart Poole] (1832-1895), numismatist and Egyptologist, Keeper of the Department of Coins and Medals at the British Museum
Publication details: 
7 March 1885; on embossed British Museum letterhead.
£45.00

1p, 12mo. On first leaf of bifolium. In good condition, with slight wear at foot of gutter. Folded once for postage. The signature ‘Reginald Stuart Poole’ is large and expansive. The text, in another hand, reads: ‘Sir, / I regret to say that I cannot entertain the purchase of the coin of Egbert which you showed me the other day’.

[Sir Henry Ellis, Principal Librarian at the British Museum.] Autograph Letter in the third person to Lady Theresa Lewis, informing her that he has information relating to Lady Catherine Gray.

Author: 
Sir Henry Ellis (1777-1869), Principal Librarian at the British Museum, 1827-1856 [Lady Theresa Lewis (1803-1865), author]
Publication details: 
‘British Museum [London] / May 19. 1852’.
£90.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, with that of the recipient Lady [Maria] Theresa Lewis (1803-1865), who lived in Kent House in Knightsbridge with her second husband Sir George Cornewall Lewis (1806-1863), Bart, Liberal Chancellor of the Exchequer, her first husband having been the novelist Thomas Henry Lister (1800-1842). 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded for postage. ‘Sir Henry Ellis presents his Compliments to Lady Theresa Lewis he has at last found the Letter, from the incumbent of Foxford, which gives the date of the Burial there of Lady Catherine Gray.

[Sir Henry Ellis, Principal Librarian at the British Museum.] Autograph Letter Signed to Sir George Cornewall Lewis, regarding a reader's ticket for Henry Christian, and sending information for the recipient's wife the author Lady Theresa Lewis.

Author: 
Sir Henry Ellis (1777-1869), Principal Librarian at the British Museum, 1827-1856 [Sir George Cornewall Lewis (1806-1863), Bart, Liberal Chancellor of the Exchequer]
Publication details: 
‘British Museum [London] / April 15. 1853’.
£120.00

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo, on first leaf of a bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage. Signed ‘Henry Ellis’ and addressed to ‘G. Cornewall Lewis Esq’. Begins: ‘My dear Sir / Mr Henry Christian will have a Card for our Reading Room sent to him this morning, and I will speak to Sir Frederic Madden to afford Mr. Christian the accommodation which he wishes to have in the MS.

[Henry Francis Cary, translator of Dante, poet, author and Assistant Librarian at the British Museum.] Autograph Letter Signed [to the novelist Thomas Henry Lister], expressing thanks for the placing of one of his sons in a good situation.

Author: 
Henry Francis Cary (1772-1844), translator of Dante, poet, author and Assistant Librarian at the British Museum [Thomas Henry Lister (1800-1842), novelist]
Publication details: 
‘Brit. Museum. [London] / Decr 11th. 1837’.
£45.00

See Cary's entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On the first leaf of a bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged and folded for postage. The recipient is not named, but the item is from the papers of Lady Maria Theresa Lewis, and the letter is written to her first husband, the novelist Thomas Henry Lister (1800-1842), whose father Thomas Lister of Armitage Park was a childhood friend of Cary's (see his 1847 biography by his son).

[Beilby Porteus, Bishop of London.] Five Autograph Letters Signed (all ‘B. London’) to Thomas Maurice of the British Museum, two with detailed criticism of Maurice’s poem on Pitt the Younger.

Author: 
Beilby Porteus (1731-1809), Bishop of London [Thomas Maurice (1754-1824), Assistant Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum, Anglican cleric and oriental scholar]
Publication details: 
1798, 1800 (2), 1806 and 1807 (the last apparently a mistake for 1806). The first from St James’s Square, the last from Clifton, the others from Sundridge [Kent].
£250.00

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. The five items are in good condition, lightly aged, with each on a 4to bifolium, and all folded for postage. In a neat and attractive hand. The text of each letter is on the first leaf, and the first two letters are addressed by Porteus on the reverse of the second leaf, each with broken seals in red wax. In Letters Four and Five Porteus lays out his objections to Maurice’s ‘Elegy on the late Right Honourable William Pitt’, published in 1806 under the name ‘T. M.’ ONE (St James’s Square, 10 April 1898): 1p, 4to. Addressed to ‘Revd. Mr Maurice / No.

[William Carruthers, FRS, Scottish botanist and paleobotanist.] Autograph Letter Signed [to Bernard Piffard] in his capacity as Keeper of the Botanical Department at the Natural History Museum, London, regarding the identification of specimens.

Author: 
William Carruthers (1830-1922), FRS, Scottish botanist and paleobotanist, Keeper of the Botanical Department at the Natural History Museum, London [Bernard Piffard (1833-1916), entomologist]
Publication details: 
19 December 1888. On letterhead of the ‘British Museum (Natural History), / Cromwell Road, / London: S.W’.
£56.00

2pp, 12mo. On the first leaf of bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged (blank second leaf slightly damaged). Folded twice. Recipient not named, but is from the Piffard papers. Good bold signature ‘W. Carruthers’. Reads: ‘Dear Sir / The enclosed specimens are all certainly fish coprolites. / I would have returned them sooner but I was anxious to see Mr Etteridge who I understood from Mr Brody said they were cones. / I have only to-day been able to see him, and hee says that he has no doubt about the these [sic] specimens being Coprolites.’

[Sir Anthony Panizzi [Antonio Genesio Maria Panizzi], Principal Librarian at the British Museum, London.] Autograph Signature to ornate printed copperplate receipt, completed to acknowledge a ‘Present’ by Bernard Piffard of Nova Scotia specimens.

Author: 
Sir Anthony Panizzi [born Antonio Genesio Maria Panizzi in Italy] (1797-1879), Principal Librarian at the British Museum, London [Bernard Piffard (1833-1916), entomologist; Nova Scotia]
Panizzi
Publication details: 
17 November 1858. On letterhead with royal crest of the British Museum, London.
£100.00
Panizzi

Now viewed in a favourable light, Panizzi was a controversial figure in his own time, being dubbed a ‘fat pedant’ by Thomas Carlyle, who was moved to press for the creation of the London Library as a result of the Italian’s high-handed behaviour. From the Piffard papers. 1p, 4o. On recto of the first leaf of a bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with short closed tears to both leaves on fold. Folded four times.

[Cosmo Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury during the Abdication Crisis.] Typed Letter Signed ('Cosmo Cantuar:') to the Provost of Oriel [Sir David Ross], regarding his nomination of ‘Mr. Randall Cooper’ as a British Museum Assistant Cataloguer..

Author: 
Cosmo Lang [William Cosmo Gordon Lang, 1st Baron Lang of Lambeth] (1864-1945), Archbishop of Canterbury during the Abdication Crisis [Sir David Ross [W. D. Ross] (1877-1971), Scottish philosopher']
Cosmo Lang,
Publication details: 
22 November 1933; on letterhead of Lambeth Palace, S.E.1. [London]
£45.00
Cosmo Lang,

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage. Addressed to 'The Provost of Oriel' and with sprawling signature 'Yours vy trly / Cosmo Cantuar:'. Reads: 'Dear Provost, / I have received your letter of November 20th about Mr. Randall Cooper. I am sorry to say that your letter came too late for the appointment of the first batch of Assistant Cataloguers. They have now been appointed but I am informed that there may be further appointments in the Spring.

[Cosmo Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury during the Abdication Crisis.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Lang of Lambeth / Abp.') to the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford [Sir David Ross],

Author: 
Cosmo Lang [William Cosmo Gordon Lang, 1st Baron Lang of Lambeth] (1864-1945), Archbishop of Canterbury during the Abdication Crisis [Sir David Ross [W. D. Ross] (1877-1971); Lord David Cecil]
Publication details: 
18 March 1944; on embossed letterhead of The King's Cottage, Kew Green, Richmond, Surrey.
£45.00

See the entries for Lang and Ross in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo, on light-grey paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Begins 'Dear Vice Chancellor. / Some time ago I proposed Sir David Cecil for election to the Athenaeum. His name has produced a remarkable number of supporters, but no one has been put down as seconder to my proposal.' He asks Ross to second Cecil's nomination, before writing a sentence which is hard to decipher. He concludes by suggesting that he inform the club secretary accordingly, if Ross is willing.

[‘Mirbel the naturalist’: Charles-François Brisseau de Mirbel, French botanist.] Autograph Signature (‘Mirbel’) over printed device of the Museum d’Histoire Naturelle au Jardin du Roi.

Author: 
Charles-François Brisseau de Mirbel (1776-1854), French botanist, a founder of cytology, plant histology and plant physiology in France, on the staff of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris
Mirbel
Publication details: 
No date. [Museum d’Histoire Naturelle au Jardin du Roi.]
£90.00
Mirbel

See his entry in the Encylopaedia Britannica. The signature ‘Mirbel’ is written on a clear area of a circular printed device of 4.5 cm diameter, in grey tone, within decorative border. The text reads: ‘MUSEUM / D’HISTOIRE NATURELLE / AU JARDIN DU ROI / Entrée aux Jours et Heures / consacrés à l’Etude. / Prof. Admin.’ Laid down on a 7 x 7.5 cm piece of paper, on which is written, in a neat early nineteenth-century hand, ‘Mirbel the naturalist’. See image.

[Terence Hodgkinson, art historian and Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum.] Two Autograph Letters Signed to renaissance art expert Giles Robertson, regarding a relief attributed to Grinling Gibbons.

Author: 
Terence Hodgkinson [Terence William Ivan Hodgkinson] (1913-1999), art historian and Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London [Giles Henry Robertson (1913-1987), Italian Renaissance expert]
Publication details: 
20 and 31 December 1947. Both on letterheads of the Victoria & Albert Museum, South Kensington, London.
£50.00

See his entry in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. A year before these letters Hodgkinson had become an assistant keeper in the Department of Architecture and Sculpture at the Victoria and Albert, where his first task had been to organize the display of the Hildburgh collection of English medieval alabasters. Also in 1946 Robertson had begun his long career at Edinburgh University, having worked through the war at Bletchley Park, before joining the unit assigned to track down works of art looted by the Nazis.

[W. E. S. Turner, chemist and pioneer of scientific glass technology.] Eight Typed Letters Signed and one Autograph Letter Signed to George Menzies, Secretary, Royal Academy of Arts.

Author: 
W. E. S. Turner [William Ernest Stephen Turner] (1881-1963), chemist and pioneer of scientific glass technology, founder of the Turner Museum of Glass, Sheffield University [Royal Society of Arts]
Publication details: 
1919, 1920, 1922 (2), 1923 (4) and 1924. Seven on letterheads of the Department of Glass Technology, The University, Darnall Road, Sheffield; the first two (1919 and 1920) on letterheads of the Society of Glass Technology, The University, Sheffield.
£220.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The fibre-glass dress in which his second wife Helen married him is exhibited in his museum at the University of Sheffield, and was included in the 2010 BBC radio series A History of the Word in 100 Objects. The recipient George Kenneth Menzies (1869-1954) was Secretary to the Royal Society of Arts between 1917 and 1935. The nine items are in good condition, on lightly aged paper, and are folded for postage. All nine are signed 'W. E. S. Turner'. Each bears the stamp of the RSA, some with manuscript docketting.

[Doris Langley Moore, fashion historian and Byron scholar.] Typed Letter Signed, three Typed Cards Signed and Typed Note to Philip Dosse, publisher of Books and Bookmen, discussing Byron's family, reviews, and a 'personal disclosure'.

Author: 
Doris Langley Moore [n?e Doris Elizabeth Langley Levy] (1902-1989), fashion historian and founder of the Fashion Museum at Bath, authority on Lord Byron [Philip Dosse (1925-1980), publisher]
Publication details: 
1976 and 1977. All items with her printed address 5 Prince Albert Road, London NW1.
£180.00

An interesting range of content. See her 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 letter, with her printed letterhead, is somewhat worn and creased, the other four items are in good condition. Three items (including the letter) signed ?Doris Moore? and one ?DLM?.

[[Act of Parliament; establishment of the Science Museum, etc.] [Printed] An Act for releasing the Lands of the Commissions for the Exhibition of 1851, upon Repayment of Monies granted in aid of their Funds. [12th July 1858]

Author: 
[Act of Parliament; establishment of the Science Museum, etc.]
Publication details: 
Eyre and Spottiswoode, Printers to the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, 1858.
£250.00

Four pages, sm. fol., bifolium. damaged at join not affecting text, removed from bound volume. Whereas the Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851 have purchased Lands at Kensington Gore with a view to secure adequate space in the Metropolis for Institutions connected with Science and Art [...].

[[Act of Parliament; establishment of the Science Museum, etc.] [Printed] An Act for releasing the Lands of the Commissions for the Exhibition of 1851, upon Repayment of Monies granted in aid of their Funds. [12th July 1858]

Author: 
[Act of Parliament; establishment of the Science Museum, etc.]
Publication details: 
Eyre and Spottiswoode, Printers to the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, 1858.
£250.00

Four pages, sm. fol., bifolium. damaged at join not affecting text, removed from bound volume. Whereas the Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851 have purchased Lands at Kensington Gore with a view to secure adequate space in the Metropolis for Institutions connected with Science and Art [...].

[Sir Sidney Colvin, British Museum curator, biographer of Keats and friend of R. L. Stevenson.] Autograph Letter Signed to an unnamed woman, regarding a drawing ‘of small value or none’, copied from Giulio Romano.

Author: 
Sir Sidney Colvin (1845-1927), literary and art critic, Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, biographer of John Keats and friend of Robert Louis Stevenson
Publication details: 
5 January 1894; on embossed letterhead of the British Museum, London, W.C.
£45.00

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.

[Sir Sidney Colvin, British Museum curator, biographer of Keats and friend of R. L. Stevenson.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Mr Fagan’, declining any item from the ‘various volumes and packets of prints’ he has sent.

Author: 
Sir Sidney Colvin (1845-1927), literary and art critic, Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, biographer of John Keats and friend of Robert Louis Stevenson
Publication details: 
22 May 1895; on embossed letterhead of the British Museum, London, W.C.
£50.00

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’.

[Russell John Reynolds, radiologist and inventor.] Two Typed Letters Signed to the Secretary, Royal Society of Arts, London, the first concerning the Röntgen Society and the second agreeing to become a Fellow of the Society.

Author: 
Russell John Reynolds (1880-1964), radiologist, inventor with his friend Sir William Crookes of a type of cineradiography (x-ray) machine [G. K. Menzies, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts, London]
Publication details: 
ONE: 14 January 1926; on letterhead of the Röntgen Society, London. TWO: 9 July 1947; on his letterhead (‘Dr. Russell Reynolds’), 30 Welbeck Street, W1 [London].
£180.00

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.

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