REEVES

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Even towards the end of his life Bernard Shaw could remark that ‘he can still leave the next best tenor in England an immeasurable distance behind’. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with minor traces of mount to inner margin. Folded once. Very nice embossed letterhead, printed in gold, brown, green and red, with bird perched on top of a treble clef, entwined with foliage and a twisted branch in the shape of the ‘R’ of ‘Reeves’. Reads: ‘Sir / This autograph with pleasure, according to your request / Yours faithfully / June 1872 / J. Sims Reeves’.

24pp., 12mo. Disbound without covers. In fair condition, on aged paper, with slight damage at margin of title leaf. He concludes by reviewing the events of the previous four years: 'From one end of the country to the other the workers have been in a state of ferment. Great and numerous strikes have taken place. For the first time a National Strike Federation has been attempted, and with gratifying evidences of success. Our relations with the workers abroad have become closer and more cordial. Slowly and painfully the son of man has been marching to victory.

63pp., 12mo. Disbound without covers. In fair condition, on aged paper. Signed in type at end 'A. W.' First page of text headed: 'The state of the Farm Labourers and Labourers generally, and their wants, adn theh neeed there is of an alteration in the present Land System.'

1p., 12mo. In very good condition, lightly-aged, with parts of red wax wafer at each corner. Reads 'En route | Royal Hotel Cardiff | Sir | Here is my autograph according to your wish. | Yours faithfully | J. Sims Reeves | April 21st. 1876.' Good, strong signature, with a final flourish continuing in a circle, and enclosign the whole of it.

37pp., 12mo (including two irrelevant pages at the rear), of pencil notes, with some diagrams. In a spiral-bound 'No. 430 Reporter's Note Book' by Brown Knight & Truscott, Ltd, London. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. On cover: 'G. Reeves Atom'. The notes were made at meetings or lectures held at roughly fortnightly intervals. (The last page records 'No meetings' on 9 and 23 June.) Topics include: 'Types of Shelter', 'Refuge Room', 'Long range rocket', 'Antipersonnel Bomb' ('When a bomb is found a red flag in a stick is to be placed 3 paces to the North so that B[omb].

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. On aged and lightly-creased paper, with one stain in margin. This offprint is scarce: the only copies on COPAC at the National Library of Scotland and St Andrews.

12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium. Spike hole through both leaves, not affecting text. Fair, on aged paper. She states that 'The story would be ready to commence the 2nd. week in March.' She then gives a list of her five 'other works besides Comin' thro the Rye'. The first two in the list are said to have passed through '3 editions', and of the second in the list 'a further is in preparation'.

all octavo, in worn nineteenth-century binding, with front hinge loose, lacking spine. New endpapers. All items good, on aged paper with occasional foxing. An invaluable collection, providing a snapshot of secondhand bookselling in provincial Victorian England within an extremely short timescale. Several of the booksellers are not represented in the British Library collection, and others are only represented by catalogues of a later date. Of note are the two catalogues published by Sotheran's Manchester arm, the existence of which is not mentioned in Andrew Block's 'Short History' (1933).

One page, folio. Aged and with fraying to extremities and some repair to blank verso. Text clear and complete, except for a couple of letters shaved in right-hand margin. With signatures of witnesses William Digby and Daniel Cummine. Signed 'Digby'.