NATURAL

[ William Bernhardt Tegetmeier, naturalist. ] Secretarial Letter, Signed 'W B Tegetmeier', to Charles Collette, thanking him for his 'friendly reception of me at the Club' [i.e. the Savage Club].

Author: 
William Bernhardt Tegetmeier (1816-1912), naturalist, friend of Charles Darwin, natural history editor of 'The Field' magazine, London [ Charles Henry Collette (1842-1924), actor ]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 'The Field', Windsor House, Bream's Buildings, London, E.C. 21 January 1903.
£45.00

2pp., 12mo. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper, with slight damage to second leaf caused by removal from mount. The letter is in a secretarial hand, with Tegetmeier writing the valediction: 'Very sincerely Yours | W B Tegetmeier | C Collette Esq'. He thanks him for his 'exceedingly kind and friendly reception of me at the Club last night', and encloses 'a slip of what I wrote in the Queen, as it may interest you'. He asks to be sent a post card to confirm receipt, 'as I am not quite certain whether you have any letters sent to the Club'.

[Richard Rathbun, Assistant Secretary, the Smithsonian Institution.] Typed Letter Signed ('R. Rathbun') to Charles Anthony, Junior, in Argentina, regarding 'the sending of packages [...] through the International Exchange Service'.

Author: 
Richard Rathbun (1852-1918), 'Assistant Secretary, in charge of the National Museum' [The National Museum of Natural History (The Smithsonian Institution), Washington, U.S.A.]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, U.S.A. 28 September 1909.
£80.00

2pp., 4to. In fair condition, on aged paper, with minor staining from paper clip at head of first leaf. Anthony's letter to Dr L. O. Howard, Secretary of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 'has been referred to the Smithsonian Institution for reply concerning the sending of packages to you through the International Exchange Service'. He sets out the state of affairs regarding the sending of 'three packages, contents unknown' to Anthony at the Town Hall, East London, Cape Colony. The final paragraph concerns publications sent to Anthony in Argentina.

[Pamphlet] The Shells of Ackworth and Went Vale

Author: 
Hugh Richardson
Publication details: 
York: William Sessions, Printer, 15 & 16 Low Ousegate, 1887.
£120.00

"Reprinted from the 'Natural History Journal', February, March [...] 1887", 30 leaves paginated on recto, folding map of Ackworth (frontis.), light grey-green printed wraps, foxed, sunned and sl. grubby, wear and tear, contents good. ENCLOSED: Autograph Letter Signed from Hugh Richardson, The Gables, Elswick Road, Newcastle-on-Tyne, to "Mr J.H. Nodal" Stockport [co-writer of 'A glossary of the Lancashire dialect', etc., 11 Sept.1888.

[Charles St John, sportsman and naturalist.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Charles St. John') to 'Miss Orret', regarding the rescheduling of an engagement.

Author: 
Charles St John [Charles George William St John] (1809-1856), sportsman and naturalist
Publication details: 
19 Rutland Street [Edinburgh, Scotland]. 'Tuesday' [no date].
£56.00

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper, with closed tear along gutter and traces of mount on black reverse of second leaf. He fears she will think him 'but faithless' when he asks that she does not wait for him that day, 'as if Lord B. comes in to Edinbh. as I expect him to I cannot depend on getting away from home as early as 2'. He suggests that they go to Arthur's Seat the following day, and in a postscript explains that his sons have delivered the present letter 'en passant to school', and that they will wait 'for a verbal answer' on their way home.

[Edmond de Sélys Longchamps, Belgian scientist and politician.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Edm. de Selys Longchamps'), in French, to 'Monsieur Stevens', regarding a collection of specimens he has offered him.

Author: 
Baron Michel Edmond de Sélys Longchamps (1813-1900), Belgian liberal politician and scientist, a great authority on dragonflies
Publication details: 
Liege. 26 March 1866.
£140.00

2pp., 12mo. In fair condition, on lightly aged and creased paper. He writes that he has received the collection of specimens safely, and that there are several that are new to him. He would like to make a selection, but pressure of work makes that impossible, so he is taking the lot at £8 18s 0d. He concludes by expressing pleasure at the news that 'Monsieur Dale' still enjoys good health.

[Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford, first Baron Redesdale.] Autograph humourous 'verses on the Battle of the Sunflower on "The Batsford Nondescript"', in the form of a dialogue between botanists A. H. Wolley-Dod and Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer.

Author: 
Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford, first Baron Redesdale (1837-1916), diplomatist and author, grandfather of the celebrated Mitford sisters [Anthony Hurt Wolley-Dod; Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Batsford Park, Moreton-in-Marsh. Dated in another hand 28 September 1896.
£180.00

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, with thin strip from stub adhering to edge of second leaf. The page is headed 'Private & Confidential', and the poem is preceded by the following note: 'I must send you the verses on the Battle of the Sunflower on "The Batsford Nondescript". A twenty-four line poem, in six four-line stanzas, on the theme of a disagreement over the naming of a specimen, between the botanist Anthony Hurt Wolley-Dod (1861-1948) and the director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer (1843-1928).

[[Book] Journal of the Birmingham Natural History & Philosophical Society, vols. I and II

Author: 
[Birmingham Natural History & Philosophical Society]
Publication details: 
Birmingham: Printed by Robert Birbeck & Sons, 313, Broad Street.
£450.00

Two Vols bound in one, hf. lea, faded and worn, marbled boards, worn, contents v.g.. Vol. I, pp.iv.174; Vol. II, iv.148 (inc. indexes and list of members). Honorary Vice-Presidents include Haeckel, Babington, Huxley, Lankester. Scarce.

[John Birkbeck Nevins, Consulting Physician to the Stanley Hospital, Liverpool, and anti-Darwinian.] Three autograph chapters presenting the teleological argument, with reference to meteorology, botany and surgery, with emendations and illustrations.

Author: 
John Birkbeck Nevins (1818-1903), surgeon and zoologist, Consulting Physician to the Stanley Hospital, Liverpool [Charles Darwin; Darwinism; theory of evolution]
Publication details: 
No place or date. [Liverpool, post 1854.]
£1,500.00

Nevins was a passionate opponent of Darwinism, and the present item, composed any time after 1854 (the latest date of the various works referred to in the text), reflects the crisis of faith in the period leading up to the publication of the 'Origin of Species'. Nevins would set out his position on 'Natural Selection, Sexual Selection, Evolution' in his 1872 inaugural address as President of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool (Proceedings, No. 26, 1872, pp.1-26), attacking the 'imperfect and one-sided view' put forward by 'the advocates of man's lowly origins'.

[Dr John M. Crawford, Charles Dury, Professor Herbert S. Osborn, American entomologists.] Thirteen Autograph Cards Signed (ten from Dury, two from Crawford and one from Osborn) to the Coleoptera expert Charles G. Siewers of Newport, Kentucky.

Author: 
Charles Dury of Cincinnati; John Martin Crawford of the Chickering Institute, Ohio; Professor Herbert S. Osborn [Charles G. Siewers of Newport, Kentucky; American entomologists; natural history]
Publication details: 
All sent from Cincinnati, Ohio. Six of the thirteen dated between 1880 and 1882 (the year of Siewers's death). The others undated.
£350.00

The thirteen cards are all 13 x 7.5cm. All with 'POSTAL CARD' printed on front, and all with Cincinnati postmarks, nine also carrying Newport postmarks. All thirteen addressed to Siewers at Newport. For information on Charles Dury (1847-1901) see his obituary by Annette F. Braun in the Ohio Journal of Science, November 1931, pp.512-514. Braun stresses Dury's wide correspondence, and association with individuals including Alfred Russell Wallace, E. D. Cope, Spencer F. Baird, George Horn, John L. LeConte, Robert Ridgway, Elliott Coues, and his 'companion of many field trips' Professor J. S.

"On the Structure and Use of the Submaxillary Odoriferous Gland in the Genus Crocodilus"

Author: 
Thomas Bell
Publication details: 
Offprint from Philosophical Transactions,
£50.00

7 pp., sm., fol., with plate, in blue wraps, sewn as issued. INSCRIBED by the author: A Mons. A. Brongniart [eminent French chemist, geologist and mineralogist] de la part de l'Auteur".

Autograph Letter Signed from Bartholomew Price, Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Oxford, proposing to Julian Yonge ('Yonge') that his sister Charlotte Yonge write a series of educational books for the Clarendon Press.

Author: 
Bartholomew Price (1818-1891), Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy and Master of Pembroke College, Oxford, mathematician [Julian Yonge (1830-1892), brother of writer Charlotte Mary Yonge]
Publication details: 
Bude, Cornwall. 24 July 1865.
£135.00

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. With mourning border. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The letter begins: 'My dear Yonge, | I dare say you remember my telling you of the proposed series of educational books to be issued from the Clarendon Press, Oxford, and asking whether your sister would be willing to undertake any English books, if the Delegates of the Press should make an offer to her.

Typed Letter Signed ('Oliver G. Pike') from the ornithologist Oliver Gregory Pike, offering his services as a lecturer.

Author: 
Oliver G. Pike [Oliver Gregory Pike] (1877-1963), FZS, FRPS, British ornithologist, wildlife photographer and documentary pioneer
Publication details: 
On his letterhead of 'The Birdland Lectures, The Bungalow, Leighton Buzzard.' May 1925.
£80.00

1p., 4to. In fair condition, aged and lightly-creased. The letterhead includes fourteen endorsements from newspapers in the left-hand margin, with Pike described as 'Author of the Birdland Books. | 100,000 copies sold.' Although bearing a genuine signature, the letter may be a circular. Pike is enclosing 'a copy of my Lecture Prospectus for next season' (not present). He goes on to discuss his 'new Lecture entitled: - "BIRDLAND CAMEOS"', before concluding: 'If your Society should decide to engage me, I can promise them a thoroughly interesting evening.'

Beekeeping Diary of Amy Mary Driberg of Uckfield Lodge, Crowborough, mother of Labour politician Tom Driberg, containing dated and initialled autograph entries, and detailed accounts of honey taken, sold and given away, with a few ephemeral items.

Author: 
Amy Mary Irving Driberg (d.1939) [née Bell], of Uckfield Lodge, Crowborough, wife of J.J.S. Driberg, and mother of Labour politician Tom Driberg (Baron Bradwell) (1905-76) [beekeeping; apiculture]
Publication details: 
[Uckfield Lodge, Crowborough, Sussex.] Dated between 1 July 1932 and 4 July 1938.
£450.00

142pp., 4to. In a ruled notebook, bound in black cloth, with marbled endpapers. In fair condition, on aged paper, in worn binding with loss to a corner of a board. Starting at one end of the notebook is the diary of autograph entries, each dated and initialled by Mrs Driberg. In 1932 Mrs Driberg, a formidable Scottish widow in the last years of her life, has five hives (numbered 1 to 4, with a fifth observation hive), with a sixth hive (No. 5) added by 1934.

Autograph Letter Signed ('H: B: Fielding') from Henry Borron Fielding, inviting the recipient to join the Earl of Burlington, Earl Stanhope and Professor Owen as trustees on presentation of his herbarium and library to London Royal Botanical Society.

Author: 
Henry Borron Fielding (1805-1851), botanist [Fielding Herbarium, University of Oxford; London Royal Botanical Society; Earl of Burlington; Earl Stanhope; Sir Richard Owen; James De Carl Sowerby]
Publication details: 
Bolton Lodge, Lancaster. 6 January 1842.
£180.00

2pp., 12mo. 29 lines. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with minor traces of previous mounting, and the annotation '13/19' in a contemporary hand. A significant letter relating to an important collection. Fielding bequeathed his herbarium and botanical library to the University of Oxford where, as the Oxford DNB explains, they formed for many years 'one of the key resources for the study of botany'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('F Barham Zincke') from the antiquary and radical Foster Barham Zincke to 'My dear Mr Flower' [Sir William Henry Flower], regarding the latter's five-month stay in Egypt.

Author: 
Rev. Foster Barham Zincke (1817-1893), English antiquary and radical pamphleteer, educated at Wadham College, Oxford [Sir William Henry Flower (1831-1899), Director of the Natural History Museum]
Publication details: 
Wherstead Vicarage, Ipswich. 28 May <1874?>.
£220.00

4pp., 12mo. Very good, on lightly-aged paper, with minor traces of stub adhering to margin. He has received Flower's 'catalogue'. 'I was sure you wd. be delighted with Egypt. It has so much to tell us about man & nature. The early stages of mans progress, & the variety of nature.' Zincke would like 'time to look into things & to think about them': he was in Egypt 'only as many weeks as you were months'.

Autograph Letter Signed from the wood-engraver Robert Gibbings to Mrs de Navarro in Canada, discussing his future plans.

Author: 
Robert Gibbings (1889-1958), Anglo-Irish wood-engraver and author
Publication details: 
On his letterhead, 91 Warwick Road, London, SW5. 1 January 1953.
£120.00

1p., 4to. Eight lines. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with slight discoloration to the blank reverse, caused by tape repair to a short closed tear. In envelope addressed by Gibbings to 'Mrs. de Navarro | P.O. Box 88 | Mont-Rolland | P.Q. | Canada'. He thanks her for her 'nice letter'. He is 'now hard at work on the engravings for my new book "Coming Down The Seine" to be published in the autumn; then I may be going back to Ireland again.' He ends in sending 'every good wish for 1953'.

Signed Autograph Memorandum ('Ro Greenhow') from the historian Robert Greenhow, produced as part of his duties as librarian at the Department of State in Washington, concerning a correspondence between Madison and Monroe on 'natural improvements'.

Author: 
Robert Greenhow (1800-1854), translator and librarian at the Department of State in Washington, and author of works including 'The History of Oregon and California' (1844)
Publication details: 
24 June [no year].
£60.00

1p., 4to. Ten lines. Fair, on aged paper, with one unobtrusive closed tear. Greenhow describes the surviving correspondence concerning 'natural improvements' between Madison and Monroe, and speculates regarding a discrepancy.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W Hamilton Gibson') from the American illustrator and naturalist William Hamilton Gibson to 'Mr Bramief', complaining about the printing of a letter.

Author: 
William Hamilton Gibson (1850-1896), American illustrator, author and naturalist
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Authors Club, 19 West 24th Street, New York; 27 January 1887.
£120.00

2pp., 8vo. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with two unobtrusive pinholes to second leaf (not affecting text). He is sending the 'matter' to Bramief 'as an earnest of my good nature, for I think I am somewhat justified under the circumstances in the impression that you have been a trifle <?> and exacting.' He still considers the form of is second letter 'was all that you could reasonably have asked for and that the request for so called "copy" was especially needless in the facce of the fact that it was in any event to be trusted turned, cut and otherwise subdued to suit your requirements'.

Autograph Manuscript of the American actor and poet John Howard Payne, either an original poem or a translation, entitled 'Ode the Sixteenth. | The Herb Rue'.

Author: 
John Howard Payne (1791-1852), American actor and playwright, best-known for his song 'Home, Sweet Home'
Publication details: 
Place and date not stated.
£165.00

2 pp, 4to. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with slight wear to extremities. On one leaf, with both sides ruled with red borders. In Payne's neat and distinctive hand, and attributed to him in pencil at head.

Autograph Note Signed from the historian Frederic G. Mather to R. E. Thompson, regarding his article on 'Buffalo' in the 'Encyclopaedia Americana'.

Author: 
Frederic G. Mather (1844-1925) [Rev. Robert Ellis Thompson (1844-1924), author]
Autograph Note Signed from the historian Frederic G. Mather
Publication details: 
15 November 1882; 315 Prospect St, Cleveland, Ohio, on cancelled letterhead of the Senate Chamber, Albany, State of New York.
£56.00
Autograph Note Signed from the historian Frederic G. Mather

8vo, 1 p. Good, on lightly-aged paper. A covering letter for 'the supplementary article on Buffalo' (in the 'Encyclopaedia Americana' supplements to 'Encyclopaedia Britannica', 1883-1885, the first two volumes of which Thompson was editor).

Contributions to the Fauna and Flora of Southwestern Asia

Author: 
R.A. Blakelock and others
Contributions to the Fauna and Flora of Southwestern Asia
Publication details: 
Florida : [... distributed privately by the author], 1955 (COPAC Entry; another adds Coconut Grove))
£225.00
Contributions to the Fauna and Flora of Southwestern Asia

With Papers by R.A. Blakelock, Robert H. Kanazawa, Arthur Loveridge, A.L. Rand and Staff of British Museum (Natural History). [22; 24; 6 inc. blanks and outside pages], 4to, unbound, stapled, p.12 inserted upsidedown, outside pages grubby, good condition. Four copies listed on COPAC (BL, Natural History Museum, SOAS, Oxford; four also listed on WorldCat (Harvard, Paris, Geneva, Basel).

4 Autograph Letters Signed from John Stuart Bligh, 6th Earl of Darnley, and 8 Autograph Letters Signed, Autograph Card Signed, and 5 invitations from his wife Harriet Mary, Countess of Darnley, all to Rev. Charles William Shepherd of Trotterscliffe.

Author: 
John Stuart Bligh (1827-1896), 6th Earl of Darnley, of Cobham Hall, Kent, and his wife Harriet Mary (1829-1905) [née Pelham], Lady Darnley [Rev. Charles William Shepherd (1838-1920) of Trotterscliffe]
6th Earl of Darnley
Publication details: 
1853, 1855, 1889; from various addresses including the House of Lords and Cobham Hall, Gravesend, Kent.
£225.00
6th Earl of Darnley

The Earl of Darnley's four letters (all signed 'Darnley') total 27 pp in 12mo; Lady Darnley's eight letters (all signed 'H. Darnley') total 26 pp in 12mo. All items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Darnley's first letter, 16 September 1853 (12mo, 12 pp), is unusually blunt for the period, and revealing on the etiquette of the period. It begins: 'I trust that the change in your mode of addressing me was accidental, and I have therefore not imitated it, and have used one word which you omitted [presumably 'Dear'].

Three Autograph Letters Signed (all 'Clifton') from Edward Henry Stuart Bligh, Lord Clifton (later 7th Earl of Darnley) to Rev. C. W. Shepherd of Trotterscliffe, all concerning Kent natural history. With 15 page list of 'Funghi, East Kent'.

Author: 
Edward Henry Stuart Bligh (1851-1900), of Cobham Hall, Gravesend, Kent, successively Lord Clifton and (from 1896) the 7th Earl of Darnley [Rev. Charles William Shepherd (1838-1920) of Trotterscliffe]
Edward Henry Stuart Bligh (fungi)
Publication details: 
4 October 1889 and 22 August and 14 September 1891. All from Dumpton Park, Ramsgate, Kent.
£250.00
Edward Henry Stuart Bligh (fungi)

All 4to, with the letters totalling 22 pp, and the list of 'Funghi, East Kent' of 15 pp. All items clear and complete. Three leaves with light staining (one with short closed tear), otherwise all in good condition, on aged paper. All three in envelopes (lacking stamps), addressed by Clifton and with his seal in red wax. ONE. 4 October 1889. 4to, 12 pp. Begins: 'It seems a long time since we had a ramble on the Cuxton and Ralling hills from Cobham, and when I killed a viper; and I have been much amused at the apparent incredulity of a brother B.O.U. at the Dumpton Park rarities!

Manuscript notebook, titled 'Calendar of British Moths & Their larvae and food Plants' and 'J[on]. Wilsons Lepidoptera Calendar'.

Author: 
Jonathan Wilson, Victorian lepidopterist of Kent, England [British moths]
Publication details: 
Undated [between 1870 and 1885]. Front cover with label of 'Letts Son & Co. Limited, London, E.C.'
£450.00

This item can be roughly dated from the fact that the firm of 'Letts Son & Co. Limited' only traded in this style between 1870 and 1885, the public company going into liquidation in the latter year. There is an indication (see below) that Wilson hailed from Kent, and the present volume provides a valuable first-hand record into the state of the moth population in England at the end of the Victorian period. 12mo, 158 pp. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, in worn brown leather quarter binding, marbled endpapers. Letts label on front cover reads 'J.

Autograph Letter Signed B. Gilliat-Smith (diplomat and naturalist) to Lady Findlay, wife of diplomat, Mansfeldt Findlay, about books on fungi.

Author: 
B. Gilliat-Smith, diplomat and naturalist
B. Gilliat-Smith, diplomat and naturalist
Publication details: 
British Consulate, Copenhagen, 17 August 1918.
£38.00
B. Gilliat-Smith, diplomat and naturalist

Three pages, 12mo, minor defects, text clear and complete. I fear I quite forgot to send you the names of the books on 'fungi', and now I have not got them with me. But as the messenger is going up to Christiania I am sending you some rather crude pictures, which may be of some use pending the arrival of better books which I shall recommend shortly. | But for heaven's sake be careful! Some are so poisonous that no doctor can be of any use.

"Description of a new Species of Agama, brought from the Columbia River by Mr. Douglass

Author: 
Thomas Bell
Publication details: 
From Trans.Linn. Soc.
£50.00

(Dentist and natural historian).Vol.xvi, pp.105-107, plate, sm. fol., sewn in blue wraps. INSCRIBED by the author: "J.G. Children Esqre [see DNB] with the Author's king regards". Perhaps never bound in to its volume. (Bell has also written the name of Children on the fr. cover.)

Nos. 85, 106 and 108 of 'The Naturalists' Leisure Hour and Monthly Bulletin.'

Author: 
A. E. Foote, editor (natural history bookseller of Philadelphia [geological reports]
Publication details: 
October 1884, July 1887 and March 1888. 1223 Belmont Avenue, Philadelphia, Pa.
£185.00

Each catalogue 8vo, 32 pp. Stapled and unbound. The text of all three items clear and complete. On aged and spotted paper. Each issue carries an editorial introduction, with that of October 1884 (no. 85) eight pages long, and boasting that it is 'the most complete catalogue of American Official Geological Reports ever published. The previous lists of Prime and Marsh have been consulted, but very many have been added during the period covered by Prime'.

Catalogues 1, 2, 5 and 16 of the 'Bibliothèque Entomologique'.

Author: 
Ed. André [Édouard François André (1840-1911)], editor [entomology; book catalogues]
Publication details: 
February and September 1883, October 1884 and January 1888. 21, Boulevard Bretonnière, a Beaune (Cote-d'Or)'.
£125.00

All four catalogues are stitched and unbound. All four are 8vo, with nos. 1 and 5 of 32 pp, no. 2 of 64 pp, and no 16 of 40 pp. The last leaf of catalogue 2, carrying advertisements is torn with some loss, otherwise the texts are clear and complete, on aged and spotted paper. Providing valuable bibliographical information, in a specialised scientific field.

Wytsman's catalogue no. 9, in French, titled 'Entomologie'.

Author: 
P. Wytsman, science bookseller, Brussels [entomology]
Publication details: 
P. Wytsman, Librarie Scientifique, 1, Rue de l'Arbre, Bruxelles.
£35.00

8vo, 8 pp. Unbound. An unopened leaf, folded twice to make four leaves. Text clear and complete. On aged and worn paper.

No. 20 of the 'Bibliotheca Entomologica'.

Author: 
Felix L. Dames, German natural history publisher and bookseller
Publication details: 
Berlin: Tasuben-Strasse 47. 1892.
£35.00

8vo, 90 pp. Stitched and unbound. 3328 priced items. Text clear and complete. On aged paper.

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