PUBLISHER

[John Cumberland, London theatrical publisher.] Autograph Letter Signed ('J Cumberland') to Charles Thompson, declining to take on his unpublished play, and discussing the question of copyright.

Author: 
John Cumberland (1787-1866), London theatrical publisher [Charles Thompson; Cumberland's British Theatre]
Publication details: 
27 October 1834. 'No. 2 Cumberland Terrace | Camden New Town' [London].
£180.00

1p, 8vo. Aged and worn. Four folds. Panel from envelope attached to reverse, with postmark and address to 'Chas. Thompson Esqr. | 34 Bedford Street | Covent Gard.' He has 'already so many unpublished Plays' in which he has 'the right of Representation', that he must 'decline making any further purchases at present'. But even if he were 'inclined to make further purchases, it would most certainly be in Copyright and not in rights to print - which I suppose is what you mean by the term Printing Copyright'. He is however still 'much obliged to you for the offer'.

[Edmond Xavier Kapp, artist and caricaturist.] Two Autograph Letters Signed to Holbrook Jackson, complaining about payment for work for the magazine 'To-day', and 'contributor's copies'. With carbon copies of Jackson's forthright replies.

Author: 
Edmond X. Kapp [Edmond Xavier Kapp] (1890-1978), British artist and caricaturist, of German-Jewish extraction [George Holbrook Jackson (1874-1948), author, journalists, publisher and bibliophile]
Publication details: 
Kapp's two letters: 20 and 25 January 1920; each on letterhead of The Studio, 32A Queen's Road, St. John's Wood, N.W.8 [London]. Holbrook Jackson's replies: 22 and 28 January 1920; neither with place.
£280.00

A splendidly intemperate correspondent between contributor and publisher, almost worthy of one of Jackson's own bibliophile volumes. The four items are in fair condition, on aged and worn paper, one with paperclip stain, another with brass stud, and a third with staple holes; creasing to carbon copies. Kapp's handwriting is 'artistic', and his letterheads are unusually long 8vos. ONE: Kapp to Jackson, 20 January 1920. Signed 'E X Kapp'. 1p, 8vo. Begins: 'My dear Holbrook-Jackson, | Don't you feel you'd like to send me a copy or two of "To-Day" each time? I buy one or two as well, you know!

[Walter H. Page, American ambassador to the United Kingdom during the First World War.] Typed Letter Signed ('Walter H. Page') to Lady Lloyd, regarding a letter she wants to be sent to Berlin about a missing British officer.

Author: 
Walter H. Page [Walter Hines Page] (1855-1918), journalist and publisher, American ambassador to the United Kingdom during the First World War
Publication details: 
2 November 1916. On letterhead of the Embassy of the United States, London.
£50.00

1p, 4to. In fair condition, lightly aged, with tissue labels from mount adhering to the reverse. Folded twice. Embossed letterhead with US seal. Salutation and valediction in Page's autograph, with addition of an exclamation mark. Addressed to 'Lady Lloyd, | 26, Great Cumberland Place, | W. | Enclosure.' He has had 'two moods' about the 'touching letter' that she is enclosing, but believes that 'the best thing to do is not to send it to Berlin'.

[John Colbatch: anonymous pamphlet on Trinity College, Cambridge.] A Vindication of the Lord Bishop of Ely's Visitatorial Jurisdiction over Trinity-College In General and over the Master thereof in Particular.

Author: 
[John Colbatch (1664-1748)] Trinity College, Cambridge; Thomas Green (1658-1738), Bishop of Ely
Publication details: 
London: Printed for T. Cooper, the Corner of Ivy-Lane, next Pater-Noster-Row. MDCCXXXII. [1732]
£120.00

44pp, 4to. In poor condition, worn and stained, in damaged remains of vellum-paper wraps. Library stamp carelessly cut away from blank part of title, causing closed cut to second leaf. Six copies on JISC LHD (COPAC); now uncommon. The date of publication is mistakenly given in Colbatch's entry in the Oxford DNB as 1729.

[Chiswick Press, London.] Small printed pamphlet: 'A List of Typographical and Bibliographical Works by Chas. T. Jacobi | Managing Partner of the Chiswick Press'.

Author: 
'Chas. T. Jacobi, Managing Partner of the Chiswick Press' [Charles Whittingham and Co., London publishers and printers]
Publication details: 
London: At the Chiswick Press | Tooks Court, Chancery Lane'. [Colophon: 'Chiswick Press: Charles Whittingham and Co. Tooks Court, Chancery Lane, London.'] No date [1909].
£120.00

[16]pp, 16mo (11.5 x 7.5 cm). Stitched unpaginated pamphlet, tastefully printed with decorative headpiece to title, and the Press's celebrated device to the colophon. A frail survival, aged, worn and spotted, with one corner of last leaf dogeared. At foot of title-page: 'Any volume will be sent on receipt of Postal Order in advance.' Following the title-page are two pages with a history of 'The Chiswick Press. | Founded 1789.' Then a full-page advertisement for 'A Practical Treatise on the Art of Typography', with a full page containing 'Some Press Opinions'.

[A. H. Bullen [Arthur Henry Bullen], Elizabethan scholar, proprietor of the Shakespeare Head Press.] Autograph Letter Signed ('A. H. Bullen'), making arrangements for a meeting with F. A. H. Eyles of the Observer.

Author: 
A. H. Bullen [Arthur Henry Bullen] (1857-1920), Elizabethan scholar, editor and publisher, proprietor of the Shakespeare Head Press [F. A. H. Eyles of the Observer]
Publication details: 
26 November 1915; The Old George Inn, 77 Borough High Street, London, on letterhead of the Shakespeare Head Press, Stratford-upon-Avon.
£35.00

1p, 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. He thanks him for his letter of the previous day, and looks forward to seeing him on the Monday 'at the “Shakespeare Head Press” about 11.20 (and afterwards to the pleasure of your company at lunch)'. With the envelope, addressed to 'F. A. H. Eyles, Esq. | “The Observer” Office, | Newton Street, | High Holborn, W.C'.

[Édouard Guillaume, Paris printer; George Routledge & Sons, London publishers.] Printed promotional 'Catalogue of Guillaume's Nelumbos 1893'. With illustrations and specimen pages 'on vellum of the paper-mills of Le Marais'.

Author: 
Édouard Guillaume, Paris printer [George Routledge & Sons Ltd, London publishers
Publication details: 
London: George Routledge & Sons, Limited, Broadway, Ludgate Hill, Manchester and New York. 1893. Printed by Édouard Guillaume, 105, Boulevard Brune, Paris.
£150.00

The only copy of this item on OCLC WorldCat is in the Canadian National Archives. An attractive and characteristic piece of late nineteenth-century French printing. The present copy is 14 + [1] pp, 16mo. With frontispiece and eight illustrations and vignettes. Stitched booklet (13 x 7.5 cm). In wraps printed in black and red. In fair condition, lightly aged, in grubby wraps.

[Edward Moxon, publisher and poet, son-in-law of Charles Lamb.] Holograph 'Sonnet' on William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy, beginning 'There is in Rydal's vale a river sweet', signed 'Edward Moxon'.

Author: 
Edward Moxon (c.1801-1858), publisher and poet, son-in-law of Charles Lamb, associated with Wordsworth, Tennyson and the printers Bradbury and Evans
Publication details: 
London. 5 January 1847.
£450.00

See Moxon's entry in the Oxford DNB, which describes his association with William Wordsworth as 'arguably his most important publishing relationship'. The present poem was published as 'The Two Streams' in the 'Literary Souvenir' of Alaric Watts in 1830, a year before Moxon published his first volume of Wordsworth's verse. The present item is 1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged, and laid down on a leaf removed from an album. Folded three times. Entirely in Moxon's autograph, titled 'Sonnet', and signed at the end 'Edward Moxon | London Jan. 5th | 1847'.

[Sir Rupert Hart-Davis, publisher.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Rupert') to antiquarian bookseller Percy Muir, praising his catalogues as his 'favourite reading', and ordering items while 'saving up' for his daughter's wedding.

Author: 
Rupert Hart-Davis [Sir Rupert Charles Hart-Davis] (1907-1999), publisher, editor and letter-writer [Percy Muir [Percy H. Muir] (1894-1979), leading bookseller with firm Elkin Mathews]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Bromsden Farm, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon. 20 April 1963.
£90.00

1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, with three punch holes to margin, and endorsement of number in a circle. The letter begins: 'My dear Percy | Your catalogues – especially the literary parts of them – are my favourite reading. You find such unusual books, and describe them with such care and skill.' He asks him to send him, 'to Soho Square', the two Rothenstein items nos 260 and 260 a'. He explains that while he longs 'for some of the Blunts', his daughter is getting married that June, and he is 'saving up for that'.

[Arthur James Lewis, artist and illustrator.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Arthur J Lewis') to publisher Ernest Gambart, regarding the disposal of the disposal of the remaining copies of 'Hood's Poems'.

Author: 
Arthur James Lewis (1824-1901), artist and illustrator, promoter of the Junior Etching Club [Ernest Gambart (1814-1902), London art publisher; James Abbott McNeill Whistler]
Publication details: 
43 [?] Street. 10 November 1860.
£35.00

2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Addressed to 'E Gambart Esq' and endorsed by the recipient. Two years earlier Gambart had published 'Passages from the Poems of Thomas Hood', illustrated with 34 plates by the Junior Etching Club (of which Whistler was a member between 1857 and 1862). The book had been well-received, but the letter makes clear that it had not covered its costs.

[Rita Spurr, poet.] Autograph Letter Signed to playwright Christopher Fry, with copy of her Guild Press poetry pamphlet 'Footprint in Snow', and New Year card with photographic print.

Author: 
Rita Spurr, Manchester poet and social worker [John Hoffman, proprietor of the Poetry Guild, Holymoorside, Chesterfield, whose imprint was The Guild Press; Christopher Fry (1907-2005), playwright]
Publication details: 
Letter: Flat 4, 7 Netherhall Gardens, Hampstead [London]; 31 December 1954. Pamphlet (in 'The Guild Poets' series): The Guild Press, Holymoorside, Chesterfield; August 1954. New Year card for 1954 / 1955.
£120.00

Three items (letter, photographic card, and pamphlet), all in good condition. ONE: ALS. 31 December 1954. 1p, 8vo. Signed '(Mrs.) Rita Spurr.' and addressed to 'Dear Mr. Christopher Fry'. She begins by thanking him 'for the very great pleasure & stimulus' which she derived 'during the year that is passed' from his play 'The Dark is Light Enough'.

[Samuel Tuke of the York Retreat, asylum reformer.] Autograph Letter in the third person to the medical publisher John Churchill, instructing him to send a copy of his book to German psychiatrist Maximilian Jacobi.

Author: 
Samuel Tuke (1784-1857), Quaker minister, asylum reformer at the York Retreat [John Churchill (1801-1875), London medical publisher; Carl Wigand Maximilian Jacobi, German psychiatrist]
Publication details: 
York; 14 September 1841.
£400.00

2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to one edge. Begins: 'Samuel Tuke having been disappointed of an opportunity of sending by a private hand a parcel to his friend Dr Max. Jacobi will be much obliged to J. Churchill to send to him four copies of the translation of his work'.

[Malcolm Flemyng, Scottish physiologist and medical author.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Malcolm Flemyng') [to his London publisher John Nourse], ordering books, discussing his 'Lectures', and requesting news of a 'Discovery' by William Hunter.

Author: 
Malcolm Flemyng (c.1700-1764), Scottish physiologist and medical author [John Nourse (1705-1780), London scientific bookseller and publisher; William Hunter (1718-1783), anatomist]
Publication details: 
Caistor [Lincolnshire]; 23 April 1758.
£500.00

The recipient of the present letter is not named, but it is the scientific bookseller and publisher John Nourse (1705-1780), who the following year would published the 'Lectures' referred to in the letter: 'An Introduction to Physiology, being A Course of Lectures upon The most important Parts of the Animal Oeconomy', 'Printed for J. Nourse at the Lamb opposite Katherine-Street in the Strand.

[Sir Alexander Crichton, personal physician to Tsar Alexander I of Russia.] Three Autograph Letters Signed (all 'Alr. Crichton') to his London publisher John Churchill, regarding publishing arrangements and review copies of his 'Commentaries'.

Author: 
Sir Alexander Crichton (1763-1856), Scottish physician and author, personal physician to Tsar Alexander I of Russia [John Churchill (1801-1875), London medical publisher]
Publication details: 
All from The Grove, near Sevenoaks [Kent]. 23 July 1842; 20 August 1842; 13 June 1850.
£1,000.00

The subject is all three letters is Crichton's 'Commentaries on Some Doctrines of a Dangerous Tendency in Medicine', published by Churchill in 1842, and the three cast light on publishing practices for medical publications in the booktrade in early Victorian London. All three with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to one edge. ONE: 23 July 1842. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, with slight damp stain to one corner. Chrichton begins by asking to be sent 'the two bound Copies of my work to the Bolt and Tun Fleet St. before three oCl on the day you receive this viz. Monday'.

[John Manby Gully, Malvern physician who pioneered 'water cure' treatment.] Two Autograph Letters Signed (both 'J M Gully') to the publisher John Churchill, one on patients including Lord Francis Egerton, the other on a vacant post.

Author: 
James Manby Gully (1808-1883), physician with pioneering 'water cure' treatment (hydropathy) at Great Malvern [John Churchill (1801-1875), London medical publisher]
Publication details: 
Great Malvern; 19 December [no year]. Malvern; 6 August [no year].
£650.00

Both items in good condition, lightly aged, and each with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to reverse. ONE: Great Malvern; 19 December. 2pp, 12mo. Now that he has returned to Malvern, having been 'on a visit to Mr W. Whitman', he thanks Churchill for his 'kindness which I may say, I never found at fault'. He continues: 'Though away from Malvern I have not been idle: most of the neighbouring gentry came to Dudmaston to consult me'.

[Francis Clifton, physician to Frederick, Prince of Wales.] Autograph Note Signed ('Fr. Clifton') to 'Mr Rousse', directing copies of his 'State of Physick' to be sent to 'Dr Shaw & Mr Hawksbee'.

Author: 
Francis Clifton (d.1736), physician to Frederick, Prince of Wales [John Nourse, London publisher]
Publication details: 
No place. 23 April 1733.
£220.00

On one side of 8 x 18 cm piece of paper. In fair condition, lightly aged. Neatly laid down on a leaf of cream paper. Reads: 'Mr Nourse | Pray let Dr Shaw & Mr. Hawksbee have each of 'em a Copy of my State of Physick upon my acct. | Yr humble Sert | Fr. Clifton'. The publisher of 'The Stater of Physic', which had appeared the previous year, was John Nourse. From the distinguished autograph collection of the psychiatrist Richard Alfred Hunter (1923-1981), whose collection of 7000 works relating to psychiatry is now in Cambridge University Library.

[Henry Cockton, Victorian novelist, author of 'The Life and Adventures of Valentine Vox, the Ventriloquist'.] Autograph Note Signed ('Henry Cockton') to his publisher Richard Bentley, arranging a meeting.

Author: 
Henry Cockton (1807-1853), Victorian novelist, author of 'The Life and Adventures of Valentine Vox, the Ventriloquist' [Richard Bentley (1794-1871), London publisher]
Publication details: 
Bury St Edmunds; 8 December 1841.
£80.00

1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Addressed to 'R Bentley Esqre.' Reads: 'My Dear Sir | I this day received the note which you directed to be sent to me and will do myself the pleasure of calling upon you on Friday Morning at eleven'. Having previously appeared as a serial, Cockton's first novel 'Valentine Vox' was published in book form by Robert Tyas in 1840. Bentley commissioned Cockton's second novel 'Stanley Thorn' for 'Bentley's Miscellany', and published it in book form in 1841.

[Philip Yorke, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke, Whig politician and writer of the 'Athenian Letters'.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Hardwicke'), asking Thomas Astle to request the aid of John Topham on a projected third volume of his 'Miscellaneous State Papers'.

Author: 
Philip Yorke, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke (1720-1790), Whig politician and author [Thomas Astle (1735-1803), antiquary; Thomas Cadell the elder (1742-1802), publisher; John Topham (1746-1803), antiquary]
Publication details: 
Bath. 22 November 1783.
£500.00

The Athenian Letters, primarily written by Hardwicke and his brother Charles, enjoyed considerable vogue on the publication in 1781 of the second edition (a first edition of ten copies had appeared in 1741). The present item relates to a projected third volume of the 'Miscellaneous State Papers', the first two volumes of which had been published by Strahan and Cadell in 1778. John Topham (later Librarian to the Archbishop of Canterbury) and Thomas Astle worked together on the public records at Westminster. The present item is 1p, 4to. Bifolium.

[A nineteen-thirties 'action song' about the British police.] Sheet music (Curwen Edition 1329): 'Our Model Policemen | Humorous Character Sketch for Boys | Words and Music by J. Frise'.

Author: 
J. Frise [Jesse Frise]; J. Curwen & Sons, London publisher
Publication details: 
Curwen Edition 1320. London: J. Curwen and Sons Ltd., 24 Berners Street, W.1. [1930]
£120.00

7 + [1]pp, 4to. On two loose bifoliums. In fair condition, worn and aged. Stamped twice on cover: 'CORRECTION COPY' with date 1 July 1938, and second date, 29 November 1946. On the cover is an attractive stylized children's illustration, Curwen press style, hand-coloured in blue and orange, depicting three policemen walking in a line, truncheon aloft, before a row of houses and a church. The second page is blank; the third carries 'Hints for Performance', including 'Directions for Marching'. The musical score (for voice and piano) and words cover the four pages 4-7.

['The notorious Lady Craven', i.e. Lady Elizabeth Craven, Margravine of Anspach.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Elizabeth'), explaining (to her publisher Henry Colburn?) a passage from her 'Memoirs' regarding the 'Pye […] Calld Paté de Peregeux'.

Author: 
Elizabeth Craven, Lady Craven, Margravine of Anspach [Margravine of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Bayreuth; born Lady Elizabeth Berkeley] (1750-1828), courtesan [Henry Colburn, London publisher]
Publication details: 
No place. 'Saturday | 5 Mar 14 [i.e. 1814]
£280.00

1p, 8vo. On laid paper with watermarked date 1811. In good condition, lightly aged, with stub from mount adhering. In a contemporary hand at head: '0 15', and at foot '5 Mar 14' and 'Margravin Anspach'.

[Martin Farquhar Tupper critiques three poems by Walter Chalmers Smith.] Three Autograph Letters Signed (all 'Martin F. Tupper'), one to Smith and two to his publisher MacLehose, on 'Olrig Grange', 'Borland Hall' and 'Hilda Among the Broken Gods'.

Author: 
Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810-1889), poet and author, best known for his 'Proverbial Philosophy' [Walter Chalmers Smith (1824-1908), Scottish poet; James MacLehose & Sons, Glasgow publishers]
Publication details: 
Two on letterheads of Albury House, near Guildford, Surrey. 4 and 12 December 1874. The third from Western Villa, North Park, Croydon. 23 June 1878,
£150.00

Three 12mo letters in good condition, lightly aged and worn. An interesting batch of letters, in which one minor Victorian poet critiques the work of another, both to the author himself and to his publisher. The three books by Smith which are the subjects of Tupper's letters are 'Olrig Grange' (1872), 'Borland Hall' (1874) and 'Hilda Among the Broken Gods' (1878), all of which were published by the Glasgow publishers James MacLehose and Sons. ONE: Addressed 'To the unnamed Author of Olrig Grange'. 4 December 1874. On letterhead of Albury House, near Guildford. 4pp., 12mo.

[ Catherine Gaskin, Irish-Australian author of romantic fiction. ] Typed Letter Signed ('Catherine Gaskin Cornberg') to 'Miss Cord [sic]' [ i.e. Eileen M. Cond ], discussing her former publisher William Hope Collins and his family.

Author: 
Catherine Gaskin [ Catherine Gaskin Cornberg ] (1929-2009), best-selling Irish-Australian novelist in the field of romantic fiction [ William Hope Collins (1903-1967), Glasgow publisher ]
Publication details: 
On her letterhead, Ballymacahara, Wicklow, County Wicklow, Ireland. 14 June 1970.
£80.00

1p., 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. She begins by agreeing to inscribe Cond's bookplate, before continuing: 'Ye, I did know Hope Collins – not particularly well, since he was based in Glasgow, and I lived in New York and the West Indies from 1955 to 1967 and so our visits to London rarely co-incided.' She remembers Collins as 'a most kindly and courteous man', and he is 'greatly missed.

[ Richard Bentley the younger. ] Two Autograph Letters Signed to Sir Ambrose Heal, 're Writing Masters' and Buckinghamshire local history. With presentation copy of 'Some Stray Notes upon Slough and Upton collected from Various Sources'.

Author: 
Richard Bentley the younger (1854-1936), London publisher and antiquary [ Sir Ambrose Heal (1872-1959) furniture designer and proprietor of a celebrated London store, Heal's of Tottenham Court Road ]
Publication details: 
Both letters on letterheads of Upton, Slough, Bucks. 4 May 1927 and 4 June 1928. Book limited to 200 copies: 'Privately Printed | 1892'.
£120.00

All three items are in good condition, lightly aged. Both letters are signed 'Richard Bentley'. ONE (ALS, 4 May 1927): 2pp., landscape 12mo. Annotated by Heal at head of first page: 're Writing Masters'. Begins: 'My dear Sir | I thought you MUST have the mezzo of Tomkins! The private schools being adjacent to that of St. Pauls is hardly accidental? It would seem to imply a connection of duties (though not of schools.) and in former times people lived close to their work. No railways – no omnibuses even then. Stage Coaches, pre-Palmer, also slow'.

[ Richard Bentley the younger, London publisher: author's own copy. ] A Brief Note upon the Battles of Saintes and Mauron 1351 and 1352.

Author: 
[ Richard Bentley the younger (1854-1936), London publisher and antiquary ]
Publication details: 
Edition limited to 100 copies. Printed at Guildford in 1918. [ Billing and Sons, Ltd., Printers, Guildford, England. ]
£120.00

Bentley is without a doubt the author of this anonymous work, and the present copy comes from the Bentley Archives. viii + 67 + [1]pp., 8vo. In attractive paper-vellum quarter-binding, with red cloth boards on the cover of which the title is stamped in gilt. In good condition, lightly aged. Attractively printed, with title-page in black and red. Divided into six parts: 'Events in the Reign of Edward III', 'English Governors of Brittany'; 'Introductory: The Attack on Vannes', 'The Battle of Saintes', 'The Battle of Mauron' and 'After Mauron'.

[ Pollock's Toy Museum, London. ] Three letters from Benjamin Pollock's daughter Louisa (Miss E. L. Pollock), as manager, to W. H. Prince, including list of books and itemised receipt. With price list and engraving of the front of the original shop.

Author: 
Pollock's Toy Museum, London [ Miss E. L. Pollock [Louisa Pollock ]; Benjamin Pollock's Toy Shop; founded by John Redington (1819–1876), and continued by his son-in-law Benjamin Pollock (1856-1937)]
Publication details: 
[ Pollock's Toy Museum. ] The three letters (all 1944) dated from 73 Hoxton Street, London, N1. The price list and illustration of the Hoxton shop front undated.
£320.00

Five items. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. ONE: Three Autograph Letters Signed (all 'E. L. Pollock') to W. H. Prince. A total of 6pp. The writer, 'Miss E. L. Pollock', is Benjamin Pollock's daughter Louise, who with her sister Selina managed the shop after his death. All three letters are written in 1944, the year in which the sisters sold the stock to the bookseller Alan Keen. The letters respond to enquiries regarding the stock, and one (12 May 1944) includes an itemised bill of twelve items 'Bought of Pollock's late B Pollock | 73. Hoxton St. London.

[ Printed booklet. ] The Idea of a British Book Trade Association. An Address given to The Society of Bookmen by Basil Blackwell.

Author: 
Basil Blackwell [ Sir Basil Blackwell (1889-1984), Oxford bookseller and publisher ] [ The Society of Bookmen, London ]
Publication details: 
The Society of Bookmen, 3 Henrietta Street, London, W.C.2. June 1937. [ Unwin Brothers Limited, London and Woking, Printers. ]
£35.00

12pp., 8vo. Stapled into light-brown printed wraps, with title in dark-brown on white label on front wrap. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Blackwell's address is on pp.3-10; p.11 carries a 'List of Members 30th June 1937', in two columns, including R. Cobden-Sanderson, Geoffrey Faber, Rupert Hart-Davis, Harold Macmillan, Stanley Unwin and Sir Hugh Walpole. The final page carries details of the Society's officers, committee, secretary and offices. Blackwell begins his address: 'I have nothing new or strange to propose to-night.

[ George Brodie, Scottish historian. ] Autograph Letter Signed to Richard Griffin and Co., discussing Lord Brougham and the last volume of his 'Lives of Men of Letters of the Time of George III'.

Author: 
George Brodie (c.1786-1867), Scottish Whig historian and lawyer [ Lord Brougham [ Henry Peter Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux ] (1778-1868), Lord Chancellor ]
Publication details: 
20 Northumberland Street [ London ]. 4 December 1856.
£50.00

6pp., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly aged paper. Brodie's hand is not easy to decipher, but the letter is fulsome in its praise of Brougham and his latest work. Brodie begins by acknowledging the receipt of 'the last volume of Lord Brougham's Works published by you', a copy of which he had 'previously got as a subscriber'. He continues: 'In my poor apprehension it is even, if possible, superior to its predecessor, & more than justifies the character I formerly ventured to sketch of that illustrious individual', He continues in his praise, with reference to 'Dean Swift', 'Captn.

[ Presentation copy from 'R. B.', i.e. the publisher Richard Bentley, to his assistant-editor H. E. G. Evans. ] Lord Althorp. By Ernest Myers.

Author: 
Ernest Myers [ Richard Bentley, London publisher; his assistant-editor H. E. G. Evans ]
Publication details: 
London: Richard Bentley and Son. Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen. 1890. [ Printed by William Clowes and Sons, Limited, London and Beccles. ]
£80.00

v + [2] + 240pp., 8vo. In original dark-blue cloth binding, gilt. Grey on brown printed endpapers with Bentley's 'Fide et Fiducia' motif. In good condition, in like binding, with bookplate neatly removed from front pastedown. Binder's ticket of Burns & Co. at rear. At the head of the reverse of the front free endpaper Bentley has written: 'H. E. G. Evans from R. B. | 19 Octr.

[ Richard Royston, 'bookseller to three kings'. ] Autograph Signature, with that of 'Jo Smyther', to a Latin bond (by Giles Horsington for Hercules Comander, both signing), with English memorandum, regarding an obligation to pay Anne Blofeild.

Author: 
[ Richard Royston (1601-1686), 'bookseller to three kings'; Joseph Smyther; Hercules Comander, scrivener; Giles Horsington; Henry Lacock; the Court of Chancery ]
Publication details: 
[ The Court of Chancery, London. ] 1664, 1665 and 1669.
£950.00

1p., folio. On the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium, with the neat, controlled signature of 'Richard Royston' at the foot, with that of 'Jo Smyther' above it. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with two seals cut from the first leaf. The document was produced in the Chancery suit 'Kensey ads Smythyer': there is a note by 'Heydon' of the Court on the reverse of the first leaf, and the following docketing – written at different points in different hands – on the reverse of the second: 'Mr.

[ Col. Thomas Wentworth, Adjutant-General. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('Tho: Wentworth') to his brother [ Sir William Wentworth of Bretton ], giving 'particulars of our family' for 'the publisher of the Baronettage of England [ Thomas Wotton ]'.

Author: 
Colonel Thomas Wentworth (c.1693-1747) of Sunninghill, Berkshire, Adjutant-General [ his brother Sir William Wentworth of Bretton (Yorkshire), 4th Baronet (1686-1763); Thomas Wotton, London publisher]
Publication details: 
London. 26 October 1726.
£180.00

2pp., 4to. In poor condition, on brittle, aged paper, with closed tears and chipping to extremities causing slight loss to some words of text; repaired long since with archival tape. 2pp., 4to. Addressed to his 'Dear Brother', i.e. Sir William Wentworth of Bretton.

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