THE

The collection of 307 seals is in fair condition, with only a handful showing signs of loss. As with bookplates, the designs range from armorial to classical. Among the few carrying English texts, are the seal of the 'ADJUTANT GENERALS OFFICE ROYAL ARTILLERY D', the great seal of the Borough of Marlborough ('SIGILLUM MAJORIS BURGI DE MARLEBERG'), the seal of the 'ROYAL MILITARY COLLEGE', the 'OFFICE FOR TAXES', the 'YEOMANRY OFFICE', and 'THE PATRON OF EDUCATION AND THE FRIEND OF THE POOR'. In original boxwood box, approximately 26 x 18 x 6 cm, worn and aged with lock but no key.

2pp., 12mo. 25 lines. Fair, on aged paper, with a few ink spots caused by clumsy blotting. He has 'gone through the papers referring to the case' in which Wyld is 'kindly interested', and finds 'that the decision of the Board is in accordance with its uniform rule in similiar cases. | Mr. Mayall received his appointment as Relieving Officer on the express stipulation that he should reside in Bodmin'. Mayall's 'removal would have been objected to by this Board without any adverse representation from Guardians of the District'.

From the papers of Rev. J. C. Fulton Hood who, having been Chief Chaplain British Forces in Norway in 1940, worked in Iceland between 1940 and 1941. A pencil note on the telegram (see below) refers to 'The Midnight Sun', the troops’ newspaper in Norway and Iceland which Hood founded and edited. He was made a Knight of the Icelandic Order of the Falcon in 1949. The telegram is in good condition, on lightly-aged paper, and bears an oval blue 'LANDSSIMINN' stamp. It is headed 'PRESSE PRODROME REYKJAVIK' ('Prodrome, Reykjavik' being the British Icelandic Legation's telegraph address).

An interesting correspondence by an author about whom little is known. The 54 items (including one TLS to Gardiner from Methuen & Co Ltd) are in fair condition, on lightly-aged and worn paper. Four letters are signed 'Chas. Inge' and the others 'Chas. I . Gardiner'. The earliest items (1904-1911) are on the letterhead of 'CHAS. I. GARDINER', Blenheim Mansions, Queen Anne's Gate, London; thereafter he moves to 9 Irving Mansions, Queen's Club Gardens, West Kensington, and thence, while serving in the First World War, to York.

1p., 4to. 31 lines. Fair, on aged paper. On paper with watermarked date of 1814. Initialled 'G. C.'; with the words 'Copy to Morris' in the top left-hand corner. Docketed on reverse 'Copy to Morris March 1815'. Colman writes that is is now his intention, 'as it ever has been, to use every effort in my power for the interest of the Theatre, by carrying on the business in the best manner that the continual obstacles opposed to my plans will permit'. He states that he is 'in treaty with various Performers for the approaching Summer'.

15pp., 8vo. Pamphlet. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with rusting staple, and strip from mount adhering to margin of title. A change in the order of ceremony has been marked in red ink, and the section on the Seaforth Highlanders has been indicated in blue ink. From the papers of Regiment's Colonel, Maj.-Gen. Sir C. J. Mackenzie, KCB. A scarce piece of Scottish military ephemera: the only copies on COPAC and WorldCat are at Oxford and the National Library of Scotland.

1p., 12mo. On aged and creased paper, with the second leaf of the bifolium (the lower part of which is torn away) carrying the address 'A Monsr | Monsieur. Mermet'. Reads: 'My Dear Mermet | I trust this will find you sufficiently well to enable you to come over here immediately on receipt of this from your's [sic] | [signed] Gorman Mahon | Monday Morg | 10 oClock A M. | April 23, 1832. | Hotel D<?>'.

Sent by Niven to his literary agent J. B. Pinker, whose date stamp is on the first of Secker's letters. All four items in fair condition, on aged and lightly-creased paper. Secker's first letter: 1p., 4to. He begins by praising 'Denny's display' [a window display of Niven's work in Denny's bookshop in the Strand]: 'I am wondering whether you managed to get the photograph into any of the papers. Shall I send it to the Bookman?' He continues: 'The sales [of Niven's novel The Porcelain Lady] up to date amount to 434 in England.

The letters provide a fascinating insight into the development of the transatlantic publishing industry. They are closely typed with single spacing, and both centre around Walton's employment situation and his complaints about the sending over from America of 'Mr. Russell', about whose 'absolute worthlessness to the business' he complains. Adair's letter: 2pp., 4to. Good, on lightly-aged paper.

2pp., 4to. On bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Addressed to 'Wm. Hamilton Esq'. Streatfeild has received directions from 'Mr. Secretary Bruce' granting Hamilton 'the Dignity of a Knight Bachelor of the United Kingdom'. Hamilton is to place £96 14s 6d in Streatfeild's account at Drummond's Bank in Charing Cross, 'being the Account & the Expenses attending the passing of the Patent under the Great Seal'. Streatfeild will 'proceed with the Patent as soon as you inform me whether the enclosed is your proper description'.

2pp., 4to. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Addressed by Elton, on reverse of second leaf, to 'John Taylor Esq.' (Taylor had assumed the editorship of the London Magazine on the death by duel of John Scott in February 1821.) Elton begins by informing Taylor that he has 'not been able yet to manage the Batrachomyomachia to my mind'. (Elton's translation of 'The Battle of the Frogs and Mice' would appear anonymously in the issue of October 1821, as the second of a series named 'Leisure Hours'.) He has instead 'sent some chit-chat to serve as an introduction'.

12mo: viii + 40pp. As a fold-out tipped-in onto p.23 is 'A Synopsis of Drinking, formed according to the Categories of Aristotle' (1p., folio); and following the text is a four-page catalogue of 'Books published by J. Vincent, Oxford; Whittaker and Co.; Simpkin and Marshall; and Sherwood, Gilbert, and Piper, London.' Side-stitched, in original grey printed wraps. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with small burn-hole to dogeared front wrap, which carries the ownership inscription of 'F. Saunders / Trin Coll'. A satire on the dissolute ways of the Oxford undergraduate.

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium.Good, on lightly-aged paper. In stamped envelope, with London and Blackburn postmarks, addressed by Smith to 'J. T. Baron, Esq. / 18, Griffin Street, / Witton, / Blackburn.' He is only able to reply to Baron's not now, having been 'ill & confined to bed'. He thanks him 'for the kind expressions you use respecting my Life of Gladstone, which I am glad you like so much. I suppose you are aware that I have recently published (through Messrs. Hodder & Stoughton) a companion work, the Life of Mr.

4pp., 12mo. Good, on aged paper, with one small spot at head of first page. He feels sure that 'if Canon Creighton [Mandell Creighton, then Canon of Worcester] could be persuaded to undertake the Lectures he would do the work far better and far more worthily than I can hope to do it', but he does not know Creighton well enough to ask him to take his place. 'And so, in view of your letter, I think that I had better look forward to coming and doing my best: though I greatly fear that the work may be less thoroughly prepared than it shold be'.

1p., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged grey paper. He notes an advertisement for Campbell's 'Lives of the Chief Justices' in that morning's Athenaeum. 'Had I been earlier aware of the preparation of the work it would have afforded me much pleasure in offering for your Lordships acceptance a Copy of the probate Copy Will of the Lord Chief Justice Fitzjames which I have in my collection of M.S.S. &c.' The will is very long and contains 'much curious matter'.

2pp., 4to. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Black wax seal adhering to reverse of second leaf, which is addressed, with postmarks, by Rigaud to 'Revd. W. T. Hopkins / Elmdon House / Coventry'. He explains, with two diagrams, a geometrical mistake by Hopkins, the letter beginning: 'Your difficulty arises entirely from your imagining that the squares of lines are proportionate to the lines themselves - This is by no means the case'.

89pp, 4to; consisting of half-title, title, three-page introduction by Rylands, seventy-three page unpaginated facsimile of the main work on consecutive pages, and eleven pages (each with a blank reverse), each carrying a hand-coloured plate. On watermarked wove paper, with top edge gilt, and other edges deckled. Good, on aged paper (first and last pages dusty), in recent black-cloth quarter binding, with grey boards and white label on spine.

99pp., in 'Army & Navy Octavo Scribbling Diary (with a week on an opening) for 1910'. Good, on aged paper, in worn boards, with some preliminary leaves torn out, and a few childish scrawls by Irene and Pauline Knott (grandchildren of the author?) at beginning and end (not affecting text) . The author is intelligent and well-educated, pious and with a keen interest in sport, but there are few clues regarding his identity: his family is from Staines, and he trained at the Royal Naval College, Osborne. The itineraries of the two ships mentioned in this diary are as follows.

1p., 12mo. On piece of aged and lightly-creased laid paper. The engraving, at the head of the page, is 7 x 9.5 cm., is a stylised full-length depiction of a young man in eighteenth-century dress, wearing a cravat, with hands on hips, standing between two trees. The poem reads 'Dear He - / Or She - / This from me, / Victor B. / Neuburg, to thee.' Second stanza: 'Not me: we, / I forgot, you see.' In bottom left-hand corner, in italics, 'Christmas, 1921.' And in italics in bottom-right: 'The Vine Press, / Steyning, / Sussex.' No other copy found listed.

The whole article, on eight long strips, with the appendixes on two folio sheets, numbered One to Ten, and each headed ‘Royal Econ. Soc. – Irish Fiscal Autonomy’. The article was published in The Fiscal Relations of Great Britain and Ireland. Papers read at the Congress of the Royal Economic Society, January 10th, 1912 (London: Royal Economic Society, 1912).

Manuscript diary of the purser of the Royal Navy Armoured Cruiser HMS Cornwall, describing Mediterranean and Baltic tours of duty (while Captain W. R. Hall was spying for Britain), with descriptions of golf and other sports and recreations. 'Letts's No. 46 Indian and Colonial Rough Diary Giving Half a Page a Day. 1909'. 12mo, 161pp. Good, on aged paper, in worn boards. Diary proper consists of 210pp., with entries on three-quarters (159pp.) of them (few entries for periods of leave), preceded by two pages with lists of family birthdays and of books read.

1p., 8vo. 22 lines. Fair, on aged and worn paper. Addressed on reverse to 'William Jerdan Esqr | Grove House'. On wove paper watermarked 'G & R TURNER | 1826'. The letter can thus be dated from between 1826 and 1829, the year 'Ackermann's Repository of the Arts' ceased publication. Written in a difficult, hurried hand. She has received a letter from 'Mr Ackermann', saying that the package which Jerdan was 'kind enough to promise should go in your bag yesterday I having given it to you too late for the boy on Monday, has not reached him'.

Items Two to Four are in good condition, on aged paper; with Item One worn and creased, repaired with strips of white paper. Items Three and Four are attached to one another by a stub, and all four items show evidence of having been removed from a letterbook. Items One and Four are statements describing Lady Nairne's financial affairs, with Items Two and Three letters to Spring Rice and the Civil List committee on the matter, the first anonymous and the second by Lady Nairne's solicitor John Mackenzie Lindsay, Writer to the Signet.

Both items good, on lightly-aged paper. Rosa Hood's sister Adelaide Fanny was the wife of Herbert F. Gye, and letter and reply are written informally. Hood's letter: 3pp., 12mo. She received Mrs Gye's letter that morning, 'and the Queen has read it' and is 'quite pleased with your reply'.

3pp., 4to. Bifolium. 56 lines. Good, on aged paper. Addressed on reverse of second leaf to 'Mrs. Curling'. Casamajor is taking 'the earliest opportunity' to inform Mrs Curling 'by the last Packet', that he has 'received an Acc[oun]t. from my agent in Antigua, that the Court of Chancery in that Island had disallowed all Charges of Interest on the Arrears of the Annuities on the late Mathew Christians Estates amounting to £2567.2.5 also the Trustees Commission of £50 a year for 16 years, to this our Counsel'.

1p., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Neatly placed in a paper windowpane mount. As Wade will 'probably be engaged' the following day, Lardner will not trouble him to send the ticket to him. He requests instead that Wade will 'Leave the ticket if you get one enclosed for me at your lodgings and I will call for it in the course of the day.' He concludes: 'Mention in your note at what hour I shall take the gig for you on Sunday'.

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The letter concerns Goodrich's 'The Tribute Book: A Record of the Munificence, Self-sacrifice and Patriotism of the American People during the War for the Union' (1865). He is sending 'proofs of the pages Corson desires to see. 'The first few pages are printed & cannot be changed: in the others, anything vital can be corrected.'; He thinks Corson 'will find that I have fallen into none of the errors you are apprehensive of'. To do so would have been 'unpardonable', as Goodrich 'had full information from which to make my articles'.

4pp., 12mo. Very good, on lightly-aged paper, with minor traces of stub adhering to margin. He has received Flower's 'catalogue'. 'I was sure you wd. be delighted with Egypt. It has so much to tell us about man & nature. The early stages of mans progress, & the variety of nature.' Zincke would like 'time to look into things & to think about them': he was in Egypt 'only as many weeks as you were months'.

1p., 12mo. Very good, neatly tipped-in onto a piece of card. On sending the 'notices of House and Boulger', Griffis finds 'little or nothing to commend in the latter, and its title is misleading'. He asks to be sent other works 'as you receive them'.

1p., 4to. On aged and grubby paper. The letter provides an interesting insight into the niceties of Regency theatrical practice. Colman peremptorily addresses it to 'Madam', before expressing his displeasure and defending his imposition of a penalty, as a result of the non-attendance of the recipient (apparently an actress) at a performance at the Haymarket.