READING

It is perhaps appropriate that we should have been left such a collection by an author who made a name for herself with pioneering works on the social history of English literature.

Reading Cooperative Society Limited came into existence in the 1860s, as ‘Reading Industrial Co-operative Society’. A nice piece of ephemera from the high-tide mark of the co-operative movement. No other copy has been traced. 50 x 68 cm. A striking and attractive production in six columns, printed in red, olive-green and grey-black, and black, with border of raspberry leaves, calendar split between the outer edges. Large illustration of ‘Llandudno and the Great Orme’ beneath the heading ‘Each for all, & all for each.

256pp., 12mo. With frontispiece engraving and vignette on title. In original brown cloth binding, with blind-stamped decorative pattern on the boards, and title and design on the spine. Ownership inscription of 'Arthur Baxter | Runcorn | 1861' on piece of paper laid down on front pastedown. A tight copy, on stained paper (particularly the last few leaves) and aged paper, in worn binding with gilt almost dulled. An interesting production, reminiscent of previous Minerva Press publications, and looking ahead to the yellow-back.

See the entry for Martin Hope Sutton in the Oxford DNB, and that for his grandson Martin Hubert Fouquet Sutton in Who Was Who. 2pp, 4to. I good condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded three times. With RSA date stamp. Signed 'Martin H F Sutton'. In reply to a letter from Menzies, Sutton expresses regret that 'it will be impossible for you to attend the Demonstration here on the 24th inst.' Sutton will be 'publishing certain particulars for the benefit of those present' and will be glad to send Menzies a copy.

Lauriston Leonard Batten studied at Trinity College, Cambridge (see his entry in Alum. Cantab.). He was admitted at the Inner Temple in 1882 and called to the bar four years later. KC, 1905. Bencher, 1914. The present collection is from the papers of his colleague on the Oxford Circuit, Sir Richard Harington (1861-1931), 12th baronet, who was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. Called to the Bar in 1886, he practised on the Oxford Circuit before taking up an appointment as a Puisne Judge in the High Court of Justice at Fort William in Bengal in 1899.

In 1882 Guille and Allès, childhood friends who had worked in New York as carpenters, bought the Assembly Rooms in Market Street, opening the building in 1888 as an extensive subscription library, with reading and meeting rooms. The library is still in operation, and is a much-loved local institution. The present items dates from two years later, both 1p., 16mo. On bifolium. In good condition, with remains of stub adhering to one edge. Written in a small, neat and dainty hand, the first letter reads: 'Guille-Allès Library, | April 23, 1890.

1p., landscape 12mo. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper, with closed tear and tape stain at head. Reads: 'British Museum | Sept. 12. 1842 | My dear Sir | I was not at home when Mr Justice Norton presented your Note of recommendation to our Reading Room. I lose no time in enclosing a Card for him, with our Regulations. | Yours very truly | Henry Ellis'.

See W. J. Langford's glowing obituary of Neville (described as 'the greatest of them all' from a pedagogical point of view) in the Mathematical Gazette, May 1964. 2pp., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. He begins by reassuring Harington that his books are 'safely here', but continues: 'I fear that every book I possess on numerical equations is on duty for the time being in the computing department of one of the RAF establishments.' He does not know of 'any book which gives an account of the processes actually used nowadays.

1p., 12mo. Heavily aged and worn, with closed tear along fold line at head, and remains of mount on reverse. Horner's note, on the upper part of the paper, reads: 'Dear Sir | Be so good as admit Mr Phillips to the privileges of the Reading Room at the British Museum - | Yours faithfully | Leonard Horner | University of London | 11 Feby 1830'. Beneath this Ellis has written: 'My Dear Sir | Mr. Phillips can be admitted at the Age of Eighteen, but is not eligible for our Reading Room at present | Ever faithfully Yours | H. Ellis | L. Horner Esqr'.

All but three of the silhouettes are laid down on 23 pages of an album of 32 leaves (leaf dimensions 31 x 25 cm) bound in worn brown buckram, with attractive metallic cobweb endpapers. In very good condition. The three silhouettes not in the album are laid down on a loose piece of blue paper (22 x 27 cm) and consist of three full length portraits of infant girls. One of these is the largest silhouette in the collection at 14.5 x 7 cm. The smallest, less than a centimeter high by half a centimeter wide, is of a golfer taking a swing. A delightful collection, including portraits of 'J.

3pp., 4to. Addressed on reverse of second leaf to 'Mr Offor | NB Please to pay the Twopenny Postage of the Letter to 169 Fleet St & charge it in my account.' Docketted 'Mr Keyworth. | Sleaford'.

ONE: 24pp., 12mo. In brown printed wraps. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper, with slightly rusted staples and chipping to covers. Labels, stamp and shelfmark of the Education Department Library, London. No copy found on COPAC or OCLC WorldCat. TWO: 26pp., 8vo. In light-blue printed wraps. In fair condition, on lightly aged and creased paper, with rusted staples. With label and shelfmark (of the Board of Education Reference Library, London). No copy on OCLC WorldCat, and the only copy on COPAC at Oxford University.

Both items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Stamp and label of the Education Department Reference Library, London. ONE: Pamphlet titled 'A Reformed Alphabet'. 10pp., 12mo. Stapled in grey printed wraps. The first four pages carry 'Phonetic Notation. The Reformed Alphabet. For teaching purposes only. Devised by R. W. Leftwich, M.D.' The last six pages carry an essay by Leftwich, beginning: 'The art of learning to read English, instead of being so easy as to form a stepping-stone to higher accomplishments, is really a very difficult task.

The label is printed on one side of a crudely-cut 6 x 8 cm piece of laid paper. In fair condition, aged. The item reads (with manuscript additions in square brackets): 'LEEDS | Circulating Library. | Entered [16 Sept] 180[8] | Allowed for reading the first Year, Weeks [2] Days [-] | - After the first year, Weeks [2] | Forfeiture per Day for keeping it beyond the Time, d. [2]'. At the head in manuscript is the number '1006', crossed out, and '671'.

In very good condition, on one side each of two skins of vellum. Robinson's signature and seal in red wax at the foot of the attached skins, and the customary embossed tax stamps on both. Ruled borders in red ink. Docketed on reverse of first skin. The document begins: 'To all to whom these Presents shall come. Moncure Robinson of the City of Philadelphia in the United States of America and now residing in Bond Street in the County of Middlesex in Great Britain Esquire sends Greeting'.

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In very good condition, on lightly-aged paper. An interesting piece of ephemera relating to a ground-breaking series in the nineteenth-century extension of the market for serious literature. An initial 27-line prospectus in small print is followed by a list of the details of the 35 'Volumes already Published' and of 20 works 'in progress'. The final page carries details of items 'Uniform with his STANDARD LIBRARY, price 3s. 6d.', under the headings 'Bohn's Extra Volume', 'Bohn's Scientific Library, Vol. 1', 'Bohn's Antiquarian Library' and 'Bohn's Classical Library'.

xviii + 384 pp., 8vo, orig.[?]green cloth covered boards, slightly "bubbled", endpapers stained, corners bumped, hinge strain, fair condition. With frontispiece of Don Carlos and plate (facing p.229) of Zumalacarréguy. In contemporary green cloth library binding with title in gilt on spine. Bookplate laid down on front pastedown, listing 'Members of the Iron Acton Reading Society. | Books to be kept fourteen days.' Twenty-eight members are listed, from 'Rev. Dr.

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. On aged and worn paper with small spike-hole to one leaf. The letter begins: 'A hare and a pheasant delivered here the other day with F.A.B. Reading upon the parchment card - the initials, I immediately concluded of my old friend Mr. Bulley and the first information that he still lives after a certain bloody deed performed upon him many months ago.

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, on aged paper with traces of previous mount. The nineteen rules begin with 'RULE I. | That this Society be called the Reading Pathological Society.' They end with 'RULE XIX. | That the Society be empoweredd to act at ordinary meetings, on any matters not comprehended in these rules, and that new rules may be added, or old ones modified, notice having been given at the previous meeting, but that such rules be submitted to the next Annual Meeting.' Scarce: no copies found on either COPAC or OCLC WorldCat. From the papers of F. A.

1p., 12mo. On trimmed wove paper. Aged and worn, with traces of mount on reverse. 24 lines, arranged in six four-line stanzas, beneath the title 'New Version to an Old Nursery Rhyme.' The poem - based on 'Sing a song of sixpence' - begins: 'Sing a song of Thousand Guineas, | Pockets full of brass; | Rate-payer's money's nought to me, | I'll squander it like an ass. | Sing a song of Royal Visit, | Ain't I a man of sense | To shake hands and sit with Royalty, | At Rate-payers expence.

Both volumes in good condition, on lightly-aged paper, in worn black leather bindings, marbled endpapers. Both 4to, the first volume smaller than the second. First Diary: 168pp., 4to. Titled by Few: 'Diary commencing May 30, 1858, and continued during residence at Henley on Thames Oxfordshire. Alverston Hampshire'. Includes two pages of addresses, page of 'Books Read' in 1860 and 1861, and page of accounts for 1861. Second Diary: 180pp., 4to.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. He begins by informing Alvarez that the periodical 'somehow made a sad hash of the printing of ye last No. which I have sent to the works | As you are now definitely engaged to read, I will tell you our system. | No high pointing, the other plan being both more scholarlike & less expensive. | All proofs read after my signature is attached (in page) to be only altered for literals.' He ends by informing Alvarez that he has 'sent on something of yrs'.

Nineteen items, in good condition, on lightly-aged paper, arranged in the following description into seven sections: ONE. Nine Autograph Letters Signed (two more are in sections Two and Three below) from DJ to ASB. Totalling 3pp., 4to; 15pp., 12mo (12 of them landscape); 5pp., 16mo. Four dating from 1963, one from 2004, and the other four undated (but apparently also from 1963). One signed 'Douglas', another 'D. J.', and the other seven signed in full. All but one, which is addressed to 'Alan', addressed to 'Baxendale'. Eight on letterheads of the School of History, Birmingham University.

12mo, 12 pp. In original light-blue printed wraps. Stapled. Text clear and complete. On aged paper with slight damage from rusting of staple, and a little wear and loss to the corners of the wraps. 202 titles, nicely printed. Excessively scarce: no copy in the British Library or on COPAC.

Two 8vo diaries, by Charles Letts, the first 'improved' and the second 'self-opening'. Both in heavily worn covers, lacking spines, but internally clean, on aged paper, and with the text entirely legible. Both diaries end with a brief set of accounts. The diaries are filled with details of the life of a young English lawyer in London during the Great War, including references to the many legal cases in which he was involved.

12mo: 1 p. Ten lines of text. Bifolium. Grubby, and with the text of the letter faint. Letterhead printed in red with illustration of the firm's headquarters. Written in, or faded to, lilac, and could well be a carbon. Sending copies of the two newspapers as 'we think it probable you would like your newly published works noticed or reviewed' in them.

All three items in very good condition. Interesting series of letters by an obscure 1890s poet. Letter One (12mo, 7 pp): Although he realises that some are 'rather poor', he is sending, through his brother (possibly the artist Alan Wright, 1864-1959), 'all the lyrics I have by me': 'I have not had time to "weed" yet, being veryy busily engaged writing lyrics for a Comedy-Opera ['Ethelinda, or a Philanthropic Fad' (1890), on which he collaborated with Hamilton O. Wylde] - & a libretto for Operetta; also been trying my hand at very sensational prose'.

The four items, all on aged and lightly spotted paper, are attached by four rusty staples. One (five pages, octavo): In reply to the firm's inquiry regarding 'the prevention of rising spaces in Monotype', Marshall states that, instead of giving information, he 'would rather send you the method and you try it out and prove for yourself its value, then pay me afterwards'.

One one side of a piece of laid paper, 26.5 x 21 cms. Aged and creased, with chipping to extremities and staining on reverse from repair to one of two closed tears. Thirty-six lines, with facsimile of Housman's signature at foot. An appeal for 'money for the Library - your Library'. Somewhat poignant, considering the present neglected state of the British library service. '[...] The question is - do you want to give money to your Library? [...] But, for my own part, I ask - why, why Libraries? What are they for? What there do you read?

Octavo, 16 pages. In original cream wraps, tied with blue ribbon, and with the insignia of the Lodge printed on the front. Good, if a little aged. Creased where folded in half. With the signatures of seven of the Lodge's members in pencil on front wrap (Bob Bradley, P. H. Crozier, Herbert L. Hawkes and others). From the collection of the pamphlet's printer Robert W. Bradley, who is listed among the Lodge's Officers as 'Organist', and who signs 'Bob Bradley'.