NINETEENTH

1p, 12mo. In fair condition, on lightly-aged and worn paper. Folded once for postage. Addressed to ‘Mr. Cummings’ and with large bold signature ‘Algernon Ashton.’ He writes: ‘I venture to express a hope that whenever there should be a vacancy for a Pianoforte Professorship at the Guildhall School of Music, of which you are now the honoured Principal, that you may kindly think of me.’

3pp, 12mo. On bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Forty-eight lines of text. Addressed to 'Miss Burgess[,] Norwich' and with smudged signature 'Michael McCartan'.

Lord Longueville's once-celebrated judgement was that 'of all bad men he is the worst'. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. From the collection of Irish nationalist autographs of Miss Burgess of Norwich. On a neat piece of cream paper, 7 x 3 cm. In good condition, lightly aged. Nothing on the reverse. Reads: ?Faithfully yours / Arthur O?Connor.?

See her entry and her brother?s in the Oxford DNB. The item is from the collection of Irish nationalist autographs assembled by Miss Burgess of Norfolk in the 1890s, who has endorsed one leaf in her distinctive hand ? ?Post Mortem? / By Fanny Parnell?. Undated. 3pp, 4to. On two leaves of paper with Dollard watermark. Poem of twenty-eight lines, in seven stanzas, titled ?Post Mortem?. From a comparison with a letter in the National Library of Ireland certainly not in Fanny Parnell?s hand. A fair copy, with one mistake (corrected) confirming transcription: ?loveliness? for ?loneliness?.

Parnell had died around ten weeks before, on 6 October 1891. See Harrison's entry in the Oxford DNB: 'After the party broke in two in December 1890, Harrison campaigned with his chief in Ireland, constituting himself a bodyguard and aide-de-camp. After Parnell's death in October 1891 Harrison, young though he was, hastened to Brighton to put his services at the disposal of Parnell's widow. It was then that he heard from her a very different account of the circumstances surrounding her divorce from that given in court.

See his entry, and that of his elder brother, in the Oxford DNB. From the collection of Irish nationalist autographs of Miss Burgess of Norwich. On 16.5 x 7.5 cm piece of paper, cut down from a larger document. In fair condition, lightly aged and spotted. Folded three times. Written in a large bold hand: ? ?One in name, one in fame / Are the Sea-divided Gaels.? / A. M. Sullivan / St Patricks Day / 1884?. See Image.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Reads: ?Mr S Cooper?s compts to the Board of Curators and will be obliged if they will favour him with a ticket for the Library for his friend Mr M. Foster for 6 months / For Mr Michael Foster / of Holywell Bedfordshire / June 14 1833. / 7, Woburn Place?. A pencil note in a contemporary hand at the head of the page gives a list of works by ?Prof. Samuel Cooper F.R.S.?

See the two men?s entries in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 4to. Bifolium. In fair condition, on aged paper with slight discolouration to top corners of second leaf, with a panel along the bottom of the second leaf cut away. Folded for postage. Addressed in the customary manner on reverse of second leaf, to ?T. J. Pettigrew Esqr. Dr. Phil. F.R.S. &c / Saville [sic] Row / London?, and signed ?Josh Bosworth.? With two postmarks (one of ?Dockhead / 1D. PAID?), and seal with small impression in red wax. He is happy to have received Pettigrew?s ?interesting Autobiography?: ?I sat down & cd.

See his entry, and that of Ross, in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo, on first leaf of bifolium. Aged and worn, with small sections torn away at top corners, damaging the first letter of the text. Addressed on reverse of second leaf to ?Captn. Ross.? Neatly written in an elegant hand with a good firm signature. Unusually punctuated. The letter presumably relates to botanical illustrations made during Ross?s Antarctic explorations, from 1839 onwards. Reads: ?My Dear Sir / There are some friends of mine Lord Mountnorris & his Sister & The King & Queen of New Zealand.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. On recto of first leaf of bifolium of grey paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. The subject is Conquest?s ?Letters to a Mother on the Management of Herself and her Children in Health and Disease?, published in 1848, which had reached a fourth edition by 1852. ?Dr. Conquest presents his compliments to Mr. Bullock & begs to say that the ?Letters? may be obtained at the publisher Longman & Co. Paternoster Row, & of Gladding Booksellers opposite Bunhill Fields City Road, & through any other bookseller.?

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On one side of a 12 x 7.5 cm post card. On brittle, discoloured card, with chipping to corners and some repair with archival tape. Self-printed with stamp, addressed, with postmark, to 'Percy Fitzgerald, Esq. / 37 St. George's Road / SW.' On other side, with letterhead in fancy type, regarding Fitzgerald's book 'London City Suburbs', which he has just published, reads: 'See todays & last Saturdays Daily Telegraph new no. (June) of Art Journal for notices L. C. Suburbs. Stamped at bottom right: 'The Leadenhall Press, Ltd:' See Image.

Shrewsbury was Disraeli’s Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms from 1875 to his death. 1p, 16mo. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded three times for postage. With traces of wax from mounting at corners of blank reverse. Reads: ‘Mr. Rogers be so good as to correct enclosed list & take it to Mr. Parker immediately you have corrected it / - Yours truly / Ingestre / Tell them you have corrected it.’

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly aged, but with unobtrusive part of paper mount still adhering to one corner. Good bold signature ‘Walter Bache’. Reads: ‘Dear Mrs. Lewis / It is most kind of you to keep me still in your remembrance! I am teaching every day & all day - alas! & Friday is just my afternoon at the Academy. So I cannot possibly accept your most welcome invitation, for which please accept my best thanks.’

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’.

See the Oxford DNB entry for Samuel Butler, which describes his close friendship with Jones (‘It has been said that for twenty years they shared the favours (for a consideration) of the same woman, on different days of the week.’) and musical collaborations. Signed ‘Henry Festing Jones’. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, on aged and lightly creased paper. As he is ‘intending to be out of England by 1 July’, he asks him to ‘ask Lord Tennyson not to nominate me as Steward of the Royal Literary Fund & assure him that at the same time I am sensible of the honour he proposed’.

Biographical information relating to the deceased is to be found in Rev. George Crabbe, ‘Some Materials for a History of the Parish of Thompson in the County of Norfolk’ (Norwich, 1892): ‘John Baseley Tooke of Thompson, Esq., only son [of John Greene Basely [sic], sometime Mayor of Norwich’], an acting magistrate for Norf., assumed the additional surname of Tooke by royal lic. in Oct. 1802, pursuant to the will of Wm. Tooke, Esq., his great-uncle; b. 15th Mar. 1779; d. unmar. 12th Nov. 1841; bur.

See is noticed in her the entry for her father Derwent Coleridge in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, on grey paper. Folded once. In a vigorous and youthful hand, considering the fact that she would be dead in a few months. Reads: ‘Miss Christabel Coleridge presents her compliments to the Secretary of the Royal Literature [sic] Fund, but is compelled to decline the honor they have done her, as she is unable to travel to London. She will endeavour to send a small subscription later on’.

For most of his life Palmer was Vicar of Holy Trinity Church, South Woodford. He was the father of the composer Geoffrey Molyneaux Palmer. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Signed ‘A. Smyth Palmer’. He offers to supply a copy of his ‘Word-hunter’s Note-book’ at a cheaper price than it can be got from the publisher Trübner. ‘I am sorry I cannot help you to A.K.HB’s address - He is a clergyman (I think) of the Church of Scotland - probably “N. B.” [i.e. addressing the letter with this abbreviation for ‘North Britain’] would find him.’

16pp., 8vo. In good condition, lightly-aged, no wraps, disbound. Several copies on COPAC, none of this edition on market currently.

3pp, foolscap 8vo. On laid paper with watermark: 'GOLDING | & | SNELGROVE | 1811'. Aged and worn, with closed tears along folds, but with text complete and clear. The document includes two passages written in red ink which has faded but is still legible. The background to the present letter is given in Lambert's entry in the Oxford DNB: 'On 4 June 1813 Lambert was promoted major-general, and was appointed to a brigade of the 6th division. [?] Having been sent to America, he joined the army under Sir Edward Pakenham below New Orleans on 6 January 1815, with the 7th and 43rd foot regiments.

English Camden Town Group Painter (1878-1914). Dimensions seven inches by ten inches. Grubby, but in good condition. From the Mark Bonham Carter collection. Captioned 'Spencer Gore | Freddy', with an arrow pointing to impressionistic representation of figure, nine inches high, of the artist in a suit, with high-collared shirt, holding a palette in his left hand and with his right hand outstretched and painting onto a canvas. Around the figure dabs of watercolour and a representation of a foot. Crude drawing of seascape on reverse. Together with scrap of paper reading 'MR.

One page, on paper roughly four and a half inches by seven wide. Very good on lightly aged paper. She is enclosing her husband's signature. '[H]e desires me to thank you for your clever and truthful verses of An appeal to the Protestants of England [Plymouth, 1873]; which he has seen before; and which we both most highly approve of.' The Cruikshanks are glad to hear that the Wrights have 'arrived Home safely'. George Cruikshank has written G.C. | born | Sep 27th 79. See Image

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, and folded once for postage. Clearly responding to a request for an autograph. Boldly written, with the merest smudging to the surname: 'with compliments / of Stanhope A. Forbes / 5th March 1935'.

A document of some historical significance.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On one side of 9 x 6 cm piece section from a letter and laid down on slightly larger and thicker piece of paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Reads: '[...] / to subscribe myself / Your faithful Servant / W. Harrison Ainsworth. / Kensal Manor House, / Harrow Road. / March Four. 1843.' See IMage

The subject of this article is discussed by William M. Johnston, in his article ‘William Kinglake’s “A Summer in Russia”: A Neglected Memoir of Saint Petersburgh in 1845’ (TSLL, Spring 1967). The memoir was published anonymously by Ainsworth in the New Monthly Magazine, of which he was editor and proprietor, in three parts, but a German translation in the same year revealed Kinglake’s identity. See the entries for Ainsworth and Kinglake in the Oxford DNB. An interesting letter, casting light on Victorian journalistic practices. 4pp, 12mo. Forty lines of text. On a bifolium.

See his entry and hers in the Oxford DNB. Both items in good condition, lightly aged, and both on bifoliums folded for postage. Both signed ‘Robert Murchison’ and addressed to ‘Dear Lady Theresa’. The subject of the first letter is Sir Thomas Villiers Lister (1832-1902), son of Lady Theresa Lewis by her first husband the novelist Thomas Henry Lister (1800-1842). ONE (‘Monday Mng’): 3pp, 12mo. On his arrival at Burnham Beeches the previous afternoon he ‘found all the party sported with young Ladies in riding habits & your boy looking very well & in high spirits, but without a voice’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient is not named, but the item is from the papers of the author Lady Theresa Lewis (1803-1865), and it may well be her first husband Thomas Henry Lister (1800-1842), who had Scottish connections. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage. Addressed to ‘My dear Sir’ and signed ‘W. Hamilton’. Atrocious handwriting. ‘My dear Sir / I have been much occupied of late in [?] requested the honour of your company. If you are disengaged on the 7th. January (Thursday) it will give great pleasure to see you at 6 oclock.’ See Image.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, and folded once for postage. The male recipient is not named, and the letter is signed ‘Stanhope A. Forbes’, with slight smudging to the ‘o’ of ‘Forbes’. As he is obliged to him for his letter ‘& the kind things you are good enough to say about my work’, he is happy ‘to accede to your request to append my signature’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. A protege of Prince Albert, Bell worked for the Privy Purse from the time of the Great Exhibition, and served as Permanent Secretary to the Keeper of the Privy Purse from 1876 to his death. Signed ‘John Gilbert’ and addressed to ‘Doyne C. Bell Esquire / &c &c.’ 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Reads: ‘Dear Sir, / I remember the small picture painted in 1851. H M The Queen holding a drawing Room at St James’s Palace. / I did not intend to paint a larger picture and never did’. See Image.