SIR

Of his activities around this time the Oxford DNB writes: 'he 'wrote film scripts in Hollywood in 1934–5 for classics such as David Copperfield (MGM, 1935), in which he played a bit part, and Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936)'. The subject of the letter may be his novel 'The Inquisitor', published by Macmillan in 1935. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded once. Reads: ‘Dear Mr. Hunt / Here is a proof. The quotations are from the [?] Version. to me the only [last word underlined] version. / Yours sincerely / Hugh Walpole’.

See her entry in Grove. The letter can be dated by the reference to Sir William Mitchell (see Oxford DNB) and the operetta 'The Rival Beauties', which he produced in London and then Plymouth. The letter is on one side of the paper, has been cut down to 11 x 9 cm, and laid down on a piece of card. Aged and worn, with slight loss at top right, affecting one word of text. Thirteen lines of close and neatly-written text, addressed to ‘Dearest Mrs. Sprague’ and signed ‘Yours affectionately, / Erminia Rudersdorff’, with a little of the flourish beneath the signature cut away.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded for postage. Reads: ‘Dear Miss Jennings / Thank you for your letter. There was however no half crown in the envelope. I searched carefully. / Yours sincerely / Hugh Walpole’.

The first two items are scarce pieces of unpublished ephemera, neither showing up on JISC. See her entry in the Oxford DNB. The three items in good condition, on discoloured and lightly-worn paper. The first two items are written by Rev. John R. Magrath, D.D., Provost of Queen’s College, Oxford, as Chairman of the Dorothea Beale Memorial Committee. ONE: ‘For Subscribers only. Dorothea Beale Memorial’. By ‘John R. Magrath, / Chairman. / Cheltenham, / 1 April, 1909.’ 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Folded once.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Now viewed in a favourable light, Panizzi was a controversial figure in his own time, being dubbed a ‘fat pedant’ by Thomas Carlyle, who was moved to press for the creation of the London Library as a result of the Italian’s high-handed behaviour. On 7 x 4 cm piece of grey paper, presumably cut from an album. No othe writing on the slip other than Panizzi's compact and disciplined signature 'A Panizzi.' In good condition, lightly aged, Strips of sunning at top and right edge, but nowhere near the signature. See scan.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Signed 'Oliver Lodge' in pencil at foot of 10 x 11 cm piece of paper, in which slits have been made for loose insertion of the cigarette card. The signature is clear and clean, but the paperr and card are spotted, and the paper is worn with border of discoloration made by tape. The caricature is in colour, by Alick P. F. Ritchie. No 38 out of 50 in a series titled 'Straight Line Caricatures', issued by John Player & Sons. Scan on application

Fourteen items from the papers of Sir Noel Galway Holmes, all but the last relating to his three decades of service in the British Army, with reports and recommendations by superior officers from 1920 to 1939.

Lauder was the highest-paid entertainer in the world in 1911, and the first British artist to sell a million records (by 1928 he had sold two million). See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 14 x 9 cm plain postcard, addressed (by the recipient) to ‘Norman Wetton / 7 Claremont Road / Forrest Gate.’ On the blank reverse Lauder has written: ‘ “D’you Know this ” / Yours very truly / Harry Lauder’. A little grubby and discoloured, but in fair condition. Scan on application.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On 10 x 12 cm leaf removed from an autograph album. He signs and dates floridly at the foot of the page: 'Austen Chamberlain / 4. 3. 27'. Slits have been cut into the leaf to loosely insert the cigarette card. In poor condition, worn and spotted, with border of discoloration (extending over the end of the signature) caused by tape. The caricature, in colour, by Alick P. F. Ritchie is No. 11 of 50 in the 'Straight Line Caricatures' series of cigarette cards by John Player & Sons.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. A 10 x 3 cm slip of paper, cut from the end of a letter in response to a request for an autograph. In good condition, lightly aged. Reads: ‘Yours Sincerely / Percy Scott’. Beneath this, in contemporary hand, in pencil: ‘Admiral Sir Percy Scott (Terrible)’.

Two very interesting unpublished documents, the first giving an assessment of Churchill by a colleague who worked closely with him throughout the Second World War, and the second describing the important part that individual himself played in the logistical management of the war, from before Dunkirk to after D-Day. This material is from Sir Noel Galway Holmes’s private papers, another batch of which, comprising confidential reports on him, recommendations by superior officers, and particulars of his service, is offered separately.

A scarce item: no copies on WorldCat or JISC, nor at the Caird Library, National Martime Museum (though the latter does have a signed print of one of the illustrations). Twenty-six broadsheet pages, on news stock paper, in shiny paper covers printed in red, blue and brown. Filled with illustrations and topical advertisements for everything from corsetry to bicycles, from a full-page one on the inside front cover for ‘Brickwoods Jubilee Brew / 4d. per Small Bottle in Public Bars’, to one on the back cover reading ‘On Review / United Ales & Stout Are Supreme’.

This offprint is scarce. The only copy on WorldCat at the Caird Library of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. See Watt's entry in the Oxford DNB, which underlines his pre-eminence: 'At the battle of Jutland (31 May 1916) twenty-nine of the thirty-four British battleships and battle cruisers engaged were of Watts's design.' The item is an offprint from the Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects, vol. 61 (1919). 65 + [1]pp, 4to. Side-stapled, with no covers.

A contemporary manuscript note to the present item reveals for the first time the identity of ‘Niger’, one of the two correspondents of whose letters it consists. (And minor manuscript corrections to the last of the four letters would seem to suggest the involvement of the author.) This is Sir James Robert Carmichael (1817-1883), 2nd Bart, who was intimately connected with British Guiana through his father Sir James Carmichael-Smyth (1779-1838).

St Aubyn’s entry in the Oxford DNB makes no mention of Plymouth or the Royal Navy. 9pp, foolscap 8vo, on nine leaves of laid paper with fleur-de-lys watermark. In poor condition: an attempt has been made to burn the document, and the left-hand side of each leaf has been badly damaged, with much of it crumbled away in burnt flakes, and the surviving text badly marked on that side. The description on the outside of the packet states that the draft is ‘For the perusal of Mr. Jones’ (presumably St Aubin’s lawyer).

A good letter, not the least of whose interest lies in the fact that it provides first-hand information about the Duke of Wellington. See Martin’s entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Begins: ‘Dear Mrs. Thomas, / Your variant of the King Lear story will, I am sure, delight Mr. Furness. Unfortunately King Lear has already been dealt with by him. It forms one volume of his magnificent Edition. But he loves every thing that concerns old England.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Both items are in good condition, and each folded once. The second carries the merest trace of grey paper from a mount at one corner. ONE: To E. B. Nicholson, 3 November 1881. 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of bifolium. Nicholson’s letter has been forwarded to him ‘here in my country house, where I am for a few days’. It is out of his power ‘to promise any assistance to your proposed Magazine.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Both items are in good condition, and each folded once. The second carries the merest trace of grey paper from a mount at one corner. ONE: To E. B. Nicholson, 3 November 1881. 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of bifolium. Nicholson’s letter has been forwarded to him ‘here in my country house, where I am for a few days’. It is out of his power ‘to promise any assistance to your proposed Magazine.

A large, attractive printed certificate, somewhat in the style of an early Victorian public notice, with heavily leaded font. Printed in black on one side of a 32 x 41 cm piece of cream vellum paper. Discoloured and ruckled from having been rolled up, but in good overall condition, and highly suitable (once flattened out) for framing. At bottom left, signatures of six ‘Commissioners, and Members of the Board’, one above the other: ‘Adolphus Fieldmarshal / W. H. Clinton / Thomas Bradford A Gnl / J Gardiner DAG / G Scovell Govr. M. Genl. / T W Taylor Col: Lt Governor’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, which states: ‘After the death of his first wife he married second, on 24 June 1933, Caroline Maud Abadie (1863–1948), the widow of General Sir Henry Richard Abadie; she was the daughter of Colonel Fanshawe Gostling, of the Royal Berkshire regiment.’ In addition to the two letters apiece from Sir Reginald and Lady Tupper, the material includes, as Item Five, a leaf carrying a 26-line postscript from Lady Tupper to a lost letter. All but Item Five below are on uniform 12mo leaves of grey paper.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. It was in October of 1806 that a sixteen year-old Sinclair was arrested as a spy near Jena, and brought before Napoleon, who examined him and ordered his release. 1p, 16mo. On heavily aged, creased and worn paper with light staining above the signature, and strip torn away at bottom left. Addressed on reverse to 'The Editor of the / Mirror of Parliament.' Signed ‘George Sin Clair [sic]’. He thanks him for his kindness ‘in sending yesterday for a copy of the remarks which I made as to the [Prussian?] loan’.

See Terry’s entry in the Oxford DNB. At the time of writing Dr. W. J. Phillips was the organist at St Barnabas, Pimlico; he was unsuccessful in the present application, but was subsequently organist of the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court. See his entry in Humphreys and Evans, ‘Dictionary of Composers for the Church in Great Britain and Ireland’ (1997). These two items are uniform on a total of three leaves of light paper. Both discoloured and worn, and folded three times. ONE: ALS from Terry to Phillips. 1p, 4to. He is ‘most pleased to have opportunity of supporting’ Phillips’s application.

Hodgson’s entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography omits to mention the fact that the territory named Eton Vale which he squatted with his brother Christopher Pemberton Hodgson (1821-1865), was taken by force from the Barunggam people, and that, as the brother recalled in 1848, ‘so many hundreds of these poor creatures’ were ‘sacrificed’ in the struggle over the territory. From the papers of Evan Marlett Boddy (c.1847-1934), who is presumably the recipient ‘Marcian’, author of the named ‘brochure’, published in Birmingham in 1901. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, folded once.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, folio. Text clear and entire, on worn and grubby paper, with chipping to edges and slight loss to one corner, with one closed tear repaired with archival tape. Embossed tax stamps at head. Good firm signature at bottom right ‘David Dundas.’, beside small seal in red wax, with crumbling impression. At bottom left: ‘Signed Sealed and Delivered (being first duly stampt) in the Presence of us / John Landon / M King’. Downwards in left-hand margin: 'Entered in the Office for Auditing the Public Accounts the 9th of February 1797 / Thos Gibbes’.

See his entry, and Freeling’s, in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. Aged and worn, with nicks and closed tears around the edges, but not near the valediction ‘Yours very faithfully / W: Manning.’ Addressed to ‘Francis Freeling, Esqr.’ Begins: ‘My dear Sir, / Your Letter of yesterday I have just received & am exceedingly obliged to you for the communication it contains - it is quite distressing to see the delusion which prevails in the public mind on this subject -’. He is ‘submitting the Extract of the Norwich paper sent by Mr.

A tenuous Titanic item: at the time of writing Simon, as solicitor-general, was representing the Board of Trade at the British enquiry into the sinking, at the address on the letterhead. See his entry and Ilbert's in the Oxford DNB. Joyce Violet Ilbert (1890-1957) was the youngest of Sir Courtenay's five daughters. 3pp, 12mo. On bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded twice. Written in pencil. Signed ‘John Ilbert’.

A jaunty missive. Lady Eastlake and her husband have separate entries in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 16mo. Eighteen lines. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Addressed to 'Dear Mrs Ford' and signed 'Eliz Eastlake'. A 'kind friend in the country' is insisting on sending her 'early strawberries & grapes' and she asks Mrs Ford not to 'commit the extravagance of orderg any yourself, but trust to me to have the offering transferred to 123 Park Street'. She will be sending for the fruit at Euston Station around 2 o'clock on the Saturday, '& they shall be shortly after that with you'.

Two good substantial letters, filled with personal and professional content. See the entries for Thorp and Wrench in the Oxford DNB. Both letters in brown ink in Thorps calligraphic hand. ONE (to Sir Evelyn Wrench): 2pp, 8vo. On cream paper with brown italic letterhead. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded twice. Signed ‘Peter’. Begins: ‘My dear Evelyn / We are going to make a great change in our way of life. For a long time I have felt that both physically & financially this house is beyond our strength.

Betjeman’s daughter Candida Lycett Green, in her edition of her father’s later letters, refers to Moore as the his ‘gentle secretary’, ‘whom he always called “Dorinda,” and who lived on the other side of the street’. She also states that after his stroke in 1981, the poet could no longer sign his name, and dictated letters to Moore. 1p, foolscap 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and creased. Folded once for postage. On his letterhead (‘Sir John Betjeman’ at top left, and address at top right) printed in brown ink on cream paper. Addressed to ‘Mr. Furness’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 8vo. Large bold signature - ‘Richard F. Phillimore / 1920.’, a third of the way down the page on what is clearly the fly leaf of a book. The rest of the leaf is blank. The side of the leaf with the signature is somewhat discoloured, the reverse not so much. In good condition otherwise.