WALLACE

[H. W. Bates, naturalist and explorer] Autograph Letter Signed H.W. Bates to Piffard [Bernard Piffard, companion to Bates (and perhaps A.R. Wallace) in S. America (see Notes below)] reviving acquaintance with recollection.

Author: 
H. W. Bates [Henry Walter Bates (1825 – 1892 in London) naturalist and explorer]
Publication details: 
[Headed] 11 Carleton Road, Tufnell Park, N. , 4 Feb. 1888.
£150.00

Two pages, 12mo, bifolium, fold marks, good condition. With envelope addressed by Bates to Piffard (Royal Geographical Society insignia). Text: It gave me great pleasure to find that you had not forgotten me. Your memory with us is kept alive by occasional news of you given to us by Dr or Mrs Knaggs [see Note below]. Thankls for the Report of your Nat.Hist. Society. The accounts of your excursions are extremely interesting & I have found much that is new to me in the explanation of ancient British place-names given by the local antiquarians who guided your parties.

[Lord Grenfell [Francis Wallace Grenfell], British Army soldier, Governor of Malta, Commander-in-Chief, Ireland.] Autograph Signature (‘Francis Grenfell / Maj Genl’) cut from a letter for an autograph hunter.

Author: 
Lord Grenfell [Field Marshal Francis Wallace Grenfell, 1st Baron Grenfell (1841-1925)], British Army soldier, victor at Suakin and Toski in Mahdist War; Governor of Malta; Commander-in-Chief, Ireland
Lord Grenfell
Publication details: 
16 April 1892. No place.
£45.00
Lord Grenfell

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On 13 x 6.5 cm piece of thin paper, apparently cut from the end of a letter for an autograph hunter. In good condition, lightly aged and creased, folded twice. Reads: ‘Francis Grenfell / Maj Genl / April 16 / 1892.’ See image.

[‘Reeking of the dungheap’: Sir Claude Phillips, first Keeper of the Wallace Collection.] Anonymous original manuscript poem in Latin, with English translation in same hand, attacking him as a ‘lustful’ user of ‘language planted with dirty refuse'.

Author: 
Sir Claude Phillips (1846-1924), first Keeper of the Wallace Collection, art critic of the Daily Telegraph [Albert Curtis Clark (1859-1937), Corpus Christi Professor of Latin at Oxford?]
Publication details: 
No date [circa 1920?] or place, but circa 1920? On paper watermarked ‘The Club Note | Thomas & Sons | London’.
£100.00

The circumstances surrounding this extraordinary original composition in Latin verse are obscure. See Phillips’s entry in the Oxford DNB, which notes that there was ‘an air of Proust’ about him, and quotes Oliver Brown’s description of him as ‘a stout man, immaculately dressed and heavily scented, who talked continuously while he looked at the pictures'. It may be that Phillips and the author of the poem had been educated together, or that they were members of the same club (the Athenaeum for example).

[Robert Smith Candlish, Free Church of Scotland minister and theologian.] Autograph Letter Signed to Rev. W. Wallace Allan, regarding the ‘rude abuse’ he receives, and Allan’s views on ‘monumental inscriptions in Christian communities’.

Author: 
Robert Smith Candlish (1806-1873), Free Church of Scotland minister and theologian, a leading figure in the Disruption of 1843 [Rev. W. Wallace Allan]
Publication details: 
18 June 1863; Edinburgh.
£56.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Sixteen closely- and neatly-written lines. After thanking him for his ‘kind and seasonable letter’, he states that he is ‘not much affected by rude abuse in parliament or through the press’ as he is ‘pretty well hardened in that respect’, and that he ‘may possibly have an opportunity’, in his own ‘proper place’, ‘of explaining & vindicating’ his position, for the purpose of which he asks Allan ‘for somewhat more particular information in regard to monumental inscriptions in Christian communities’.

[Noah Beery Sr [Noah Nicholas Beery], American movie star beginning in the silent era.] Signed Autograph Inscription, with ‘stamp’ bearing his portrait.

Author: 
Noah Beery Sr [Noah Nicholas Beery] (1882-1946), American movie actor who appeared in films from 1913 and 1946, older brother of Wallace Beery and father of Noah Beery Jr
Publication details: 
Christmas [1936].
£35.00

Clearly produced for an autograph collector. On one side of a 12.5 x 8.5 cm cream card. In good condition, lightly aged. The inscription reads: ‘For Janis / Merry Xmas to you / Sincerely / Noah Beery’. Affixed in the top right-hand corner, partially covering the word ‘you’ in the inscription, is a black and white stamp, with photographic portrait captioned at foot ‘NOAH BEERY’. Dated in pencil at bottom-right ‘Dec 1936’.

[‘Not well fitted for stimulating the Imperial British sentiment’: Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace, Times foreign correspondent, assesses a volume on South Africa with ‘Cape Dutch’ sympathies.] Autograph Letter Signed (‘D. M. Wallace’) to Lady Jersey.

Author: 
Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace (1841-1919), Scottish journalist, foreign correspondent of The Times, Private Secretary to future King George V [Margaret Villiers (1849-1945), Countess of Jersey]
Publication details: 
14 February 1902; on letterhead of St. Ermin’s Mansions, Caxton Street, S.W. [London]
£45.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. On bifolium. A thin strip (no more than 1 cm deep) has been cut away at the head of the first leaf, with no loss of text, otherwise in good condition. Folded once. Written a few months after Wallace’s return from his duties as Private Secretary to the future King George V on his world tour on HMS Ophir, and during the Second Boer War. Wallace has just been struck by the thought that ‘though I returned the Volume on South Africa to the address in Victoria Street’ he forgot to give her his opinion of it.

[Incorporated Society of Musicians and British music on eve of First World War.] Signatures of thirteen composers (including Havergal Brian, Monk Gould, Julius Harrison) and musicians at 1912 Birmingham Conference, seven with autograph bars of music.

Author: 
[Incorporated Society of Musicians, Birmingham Conference, 1912] Havergal Brian, Monk Gould, Julius Harrison, Edgar L. Bainton, H. Balfour Gardiner, William Wallace, C. Warwick-Evans, Harry A. Keyser
Publication details: 
Signatures given at the Birmingham Conference of the Incorporated Society of Musicians, 1912-1913.
£320.00

For a detailed report of the Incorporated Society of Musicians conference at which these autographs were given, and which took place in Birmingham over the five days between 30 December 1912 and 3 January 1913, see Musical Times, 1 February 1913, pp.113-114. Thirteen signatures of British pre-war musical figures, on ten pieces of paper, ranging from 16 x 19 cm to 7 x 13 cm, nine of them on parts leaves of various colours cut from an album. In good condition, lightly aged. In only two cases are the signatures on both sides of the paper, on the other eight the reverse is blank.

[Claude Phillips; Wallace Collection ] Two Autograph Letters Signed "C.P." to an unnamed correspondent ("Dear Friend")

Author: 
Claude Phillips, Art Historian, first Curator of the Wallace Collection.
Publication details: 
One from 40 Ashburn Place, SW, 9 May [no year given]; the other from a hotel in Munich, 24 Aug. [1910 written in another hand].
£135.00

Total 7 pp., 8vo, bifoliums, sl. battered but text clear and complete, if a bit of a scrawl. Letter One (Ashburn Place): He wants to meet up soon, and gives response to a performance of Gotterdammerung - "no impression". But he goes again "for his sins". Letter Two (Munich): He wonders if his "Friend" has been suffering, wondering what cure he's tried (active or "peace and rest"). He describes his reponse to such a situation. "I fidget and worry too much about things, and wear myself to death when my mind is not occupied". He's been away from Engand for three weeks, "suffering".

[Sir Claude Phillips, art historian.] 'Confidential' Autograph Letter Signed ('Claude Phillips') to the musicologist R. A. Streatfeild, asking, on behalf of 'poor Lady Elgar', what to do about 'the treatment of the two great oratorios'.

Author: 
Sir Claude Phillips (1846-1924), eminent Victorian art historian and art critic, first keeper of the Wallace Collection [Richard Alexander Streatfeild (1866-1919), musicologist; Sir Edward Elgar]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 40 Ashburn Place, S.W. [London] 24 April [no year].
£60.00

He asks Streatfeild to advise him in a matter 'which speaks for itself'. He reports that 'poor Lady Elgar is greatly distressed – and not without reason – at the treatment of the two great oratorios'. Phillips does not 'quite see what is to be done in the way of protest', although he finds that the 'statement that they “fail with audiences &c” is certainly false in fact, [last three words underlined] and therefore almost libellous'. Phillips considers 'the rest […] a matter of opinion. Perhaps even more false and absurd is the statement, or opinion, that they appeal only to the intellect.

[ Printed illustrated newsletter. ] Old Girls' Association. Albemarle House, Wimbledon Common. [ With 'List of Members, 1931' and '1931 Chronicle'. ]

Author: 
Albemarle House Girls School, Wimbledon Common [ Miss Parratt; Mrs. Hugh Wallace, II (Gertrude Watts); Miss M. Notley; Mrs. Tom Mott (Helga Baumann); Miss Irene Fenwick ]
Publication details: 
Albemarle House, Wimbledon Common. Undated [ with 'List of Members, 1931.' ]
£120.00

Scarce: no other copy traced, either on OCLC WorldCat or on COPAC. 16pp., 12mo. With an additional two central pages of illustrations on shiny art paper. Stapled and unbound. In fair condition, aged and worn, with light pen mark at foot of cover. A final page headed 'A Sunset Abroad. | (From a Tourist's Diary)' is preceded by eight numbered sections: 'List of Members, 1931' (pp.3-5); '1931 Chronicle' (pp.6-9); 'Other News', 'Obituary', 'The Old Albemarlian Association', 'The Year at Albemarle' (pp.11-14), 'Games Notice' and 'Editor's Notes'. On the final page is an appeal for 'St.

[ Bookseller's catalogue. ] First Editions of Jack London, Thorne Smith, Erskine Caldwell, William Saroyan, John Steinbeck, Illustrated.

Author: 
The El Dorado Bookstore, San Francisco, California [ props Roskie & Wallace of Oakland; Philip M. Roskie (1921-93) ] [ Jack London, Thorne Smith, Erskine Caldwell, William Saroyan, John Steinbeck ]
Publication details: 
Catalogue No. 1, 1948. The El Dorado Bookstore, 309 Kearny Street, San Francisco 8, California.
£120.00

32pp., 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged. A previous owner has thought well enough of this item to have it put in a sturdy binding of black cloth, with title in gilt on spine. The binding is in very good condition, but a bookplate has been removed from the front pastedown. An interesting catalogue (especially when compared with the staid British book catalogues of the period), with each of the 108 items presented, four to a page, each with accompanying photograph of the covers of the book. The most expensive item, at $100, is a 1902 first edition of 'The Cruise of the Dazzler'.

[ Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace, foreign correspondent of The Times. ] Autograph Note Signed ('Donald M Wallace') to 'Sir Robert' [ Sir Robert Herbert ] regarding a meeting of the Breakfast Club.

Author: 
Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace (1841-1919), foreign correspondent of The Times of London [ Sir Robert Herbert (1831-1905), first Premier of Queensland ]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of St. Ermins Mansions, Caxton Street, SW [ London ]. 11 June [ no year ].
£56.00

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, with light signs of age. He hopes to make his Breakfast Club 'debut' the following Saturday morning.

'The Encyclopaedia Britannica Dinner given by Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace': 'Plan of Tables' and menu., attended by A.J. Balfour and all the great and the good. (up to 300 of them).

Author: 
[ Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace (1841-1919), Foreign Correspondent of The Times of London; Encyclopaedia Britannica
Publication details: 
Dinner held at the Hotel Cecil, London, 21 November 1902.
£60.00

Both items nicely printed and in good condition, with light signs of age and wear. ONE: 'The Encyclopaedia Britannica Dinner given by Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace. Hotel Cecil, Friday Evening, November 21st, 1902. Plan of Tables.' 28.5 x 80 cm, folding up into a 28.5 x 13.5 cm packet. Printed in black and red on the whole of one side, with the other side carrying a 'Programme of Music' ('M. G. Fericescu, Musical Director'), an alphabetical table, and a cover with engraved illustration. Made out in pencil to 'Mr. A. Williams | K24' (i.e. the Liberal MP Aneurin Williams).

[ Robin Wallace, British artist in the Second World War. ] Ten items including three Typed Letters Signed from Arnold Palmer of the Committee on the Employment of Artists in Wartime, Pilgrim Trust Grant, and the War Office and Ministry of Labour.

Author: 
Robin Wallace (1897-1952), English landscape artist [ Arnold Nottage Palmer (1886-1973), artist and arts administrator; the Committee on the Employment of Artists in Wartime, Pilgrim Trust Grant ]
Publication details: 
Palmer's three letters on letterheads of the Committee on the Employment of Artists in Wartime, Pilgrim Trust Grant, The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London. Also items from the War Office and Ministry of Labour.
£200.00

Wallace, a well-known painter of landscapes and still life subjects in oil and water-colour, was born at Kendal in the Lake District and studied in Kensington at the Byam Shaw and Vicat Cole School of Art. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1922, and at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the Royal Institute of Watercolour Painters, and with the Lake Artists' Society. He was a full member of the Royal Society of British Artists. The present collection casts an interesting light on the efforts of a good English artist to be of use to the war effort. Ten items.

[ Oliver Hall, RA, English artist and engraver. ] Drypoint etching titled 'Hayling Island' (in Hampshire). One of an edition of 40, signed by Hall and inscribed by him to Robin Wallace.

Author: 
Oliver Hall (1869-1957), RA, English landscape artist and engraver [ Robin Wallace (1897-1952), English artist from Kendal, Westmoreland ]
Publication details: 
Without place or date. The subject is Hayling Island in Hampshire.
£65.00

On watermarked laid paper. Dimensions of paper: 23 x 32cm. Dimensions of plate: 14 x 20cm. In fair condition, aged and lightly stained, with creasing and short closed tear to right-hand margin, but with the engraving good and clear. A windy scene, with a turbulent cloudy sky weighing heavily over a disheveled windswept landscape, in which two small figures can be made out on a bridge. Inscribed in pencil beneath the plate: 'Oliver Hall | To R. Wallace | Ed: 40.' The title 'Hayling Island' is in pencil in the bottom right-hand corner.

[ Robin Wallace, English landscape painter. ] Drypoint etching titled 'The River'. Inscribed to 'Father Richard' and described as a 'working Proof'.

Author: 
Robin Wallace (1897-1952), English artist from Kendal, Westmoreland
Publication details: 
Signed by the artist and dated by him 'July 1927'.
£56.00

On F. J. Head & Co. laid paper. Dimensions of paper: 23 x 29cm. Dimensions of plate: 17.5 x 25cm. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased. A wonderful watery view of a winding country river and trees. Inscribed in pencil on the reverse: 'To Father Richard. This is working Proof for drypoint "The River" | Robin Wallace July 1927'. Wallace, a well-known painter of landscapes and still life subjects in oil and water-colour, was born at Kendal in the Lake District and studied in Kensington at the Byam Shaw and Vicat Cole School of Art.

[ Edgar Wallace, thriller writer. ] Autograph Signature.

Author: 
Edgar Wallace [ Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace ] (1875-1932), English thriller writer
Publication details: 
Without place or date.
£25.00

On 5 x 11cm. piece of paper, torn from the conclusion to a typed letter. In good condition, lightly aged. Reads: '[...] myself, you would write to me. | Yours very truly, | Edgar Wallace'.

[Marianne Moore, American modernist poet.] Printed invitation to 'A Poetry Reading and Commentary' by 'Marianne Craig Moore | Distinguished Alumna of Bryn Mawr College'.

Author: 
Marianne Moore [Marianne Craig Moore] (1887-1972), American Modernist poet and editor of 'The Dial'
Marianne
Publication details: 
At Cooper Union, 7th Street and 4th Avenue, New York. 20 January 1958.
£56.00
Marianne

Printed on one side of a 9.5 x 15 cm piece of green paper. In good condition, lightly-aged and sunned, with one corner slightly-dogeared. The text reads: 'Marianne Craig Moore | Distinguished Alumna of Bryn Mawr College | will present | A Poetry Reading and Commentary | on Monday, January 20, 1958 | at 8:30 o'clock | at Cooper Union | 7th Street and 4th Avenue, New York | Admission free'.

Nine items relating to the film 'Antonio Gaudi, The Unfinished Vision', from the estate of its producer Michael J. Cooper, including a treatment by Cooper, a story outline with covering artwork, a signed contract, a legal letter and five receipts.

Author: 
Michael J. Cooper [Prof. Juan Bassegoda Nonell; Hedger Wallace; Mark Wenborn; John Alaimo; Fernando Rey]
Publication details: 
Mostly from Cooper's company: Michelangelo Productions Ltd., 50 Gray's Inn Road, London. 1973 and 1974.
£320.00

Regarded as lost for 35 years this drama documentary, directed by John Alaimo, was discovered in a Barcelona bank vault in 2009, and has recently been released on DVD. The nine items are in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. One: 'Gaudi | Treatment by Michael J. Cooper | April 1974'. [i] + 4pp., foolscap 8vo, in plastic folder. Two: 'Story Outline' for 'Antonio Gaudi | The Unfinished Vision | A Special Television Film Production'.

Autograph Letter Signed from the 'actor-dramatist and film adapter' Forbes Dawson to the naval writer 'Bartimeus' [Captain Sir Lewis Anselmo da Costa Ricci], describing his credentials for adapting stories for film.

Author: 
Forbes Dawson (b.1866), English 'actor-dramatist and film adapter' ['Bartimeus' [Captain Sir Lewis Anselmo da Costa Ricci [in 1941 altered to Ritchie] (1886-1967)]
Publication details: 
On his letterhead, 15 Merton Hall Gardens, SW20. 14 August 1934.
£150.00

1p., 4to. On aged paper. Printed in block capitals at head of letter: 'Experienced actor-dramatist and film adapter. Author of plays and films produced in England and America. Expert in "Dramatic Construction" gained in years of practical experience on the stage, and in films. Adapts stories to the talking films, the bigger the story with opportunities of being developed on a large scale, the better.' Addressed to 'Commander L. A. da Costa Ricci | Naval & Military Club, | 94 Piccadilly | W'.

Three Autograph Letters Signed (all 'A. L. Baldry') to C. R. Grundy, editor of the Connoisseur, on the subject of the Royal Academy.

Author: 
Alfred Lys Baldry (1858-1939), painter and art critic (Globe, Studio), author of a work on the Wallace Collection [Cecil Reginald Grundy (1870-1944), editor of the Connoisseur; the Royal Academy]
Publication details: 
5, 10 and 27 May 1921. All three on letterhead of Wolmer Road, Marlow Common, Marlow, Bucks.
£125.00

All three letters 12mo: the first of three pages, and the last two one page apiece. Texts clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Letter One: Sir Henry Vansittart Neale will be pleased to allow Grundy 'a look at his pictures' at Bisham Abbey. Gives directions. Discusses Grundy's letter in the Daily Express, complaining about the 'crowding out' of pictures at the Royal Academy.

Autograph Note Signed ('Donald Mackenzie Wallace') to unnamed female correspondent.

Author: 
Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace (1841-1919), foreign correspondent of the London 'Times' who published an important work on Russia
Publication details: 
29 June 1907; on letterhead St Ermin's Mansions, Caxton Street, S.W. [London].
£25.00

One page, 12mo. Good, on aged and lightly spotted paper, but with blank verso showing traces of previous mounting. Nine-line printed biographical cutting laid down in top left-hand corner. Reads 'Madam, In accordance with your request I enclose my autograph'.

Typed Letter Signed to Leslie Bloom of the Gallery First Nighters' Club.

Author: 
Ian Wallace (born 1919), English baritone singer connected with Flanders and Swann
Publication details: 
29 October 1956; on letterhead 27 Stormont Road, Highgate, London, N.6.
£18.00

Two pages, on letterhead of roughly 13.5 x 17.5 cms. He has sent a wire accepting the 'kind invitation'. '[A]s you can imagine we are rehearsing all day and every day at the present [...] The only thing thaht could stop me being with you is that we are, I understand, to record the "Fanny" music for a long-playing record on that Saturday'.

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