WILLIAM

See the entries of Bentinck and FitzRoy Somerset in the Oxford DNB. On approximate 11 x 6 cm rectangle cut from cover of letter. In good condition, lightly aged, with minor traces of grey paper mount adhering to blank reverse. Addressed by Bentinck in the customary staggered way: ‘Lieut: Genl. / Lord FitzRoy Somerset G.C.B. / Horse Guards’. Bentinck’s signature ‘G. Bentinck’ is at bottom left, underlined but without the line above the signature. The merest slither of the bottom of the loop of the initial ‘G’ has been cropped. See image.

2pp., 8vo. Single-spaced. In fair condition, on two leaves of lightly-aged air mail paper, with punch holes to left-hand margins and at head. Made out to be signed by 'Keitel | Generalfeldmarschall | (Field Marshal)'. The five questions are: 'What was your estimate in 1939 of the speed and capabilities of the U.S. to build up a war machine? Did the U.S. exceed your expectations in producing war material and training an army?' (26 line response), 'On what basis did you estimate that Germany could complete its campaign in Europe before the U.S.

An uncommon signature of a neglected artist. Hawkins was a founding member of the Society of British Artists, exhibiting there prolifically from 1824 to 1881. He also showed at the Royal Academy eight times between 1822 and 1849. (See Holmes's entry in the Oxford DNB.) On 14 cm square piece of watermarked wove paper, cut from a frank. The letter is written on the reverse of the cover, which is laid out in the customary way: ‘London third July 1838 / Wm. Loney Esq / Macclesfield.’ With red dated postmark, and signed in the customary way at bottom left: ‘John [Baron?]’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The postcards are bromide prints, and 9 x 14 cm. The two identical images of Scott, dressed for the theatre, with curled moustache and flower in his buttonhole, are both inscribed. In the bottom margin of one he has written ‘late of the D. T.’; in the same position on the other, and rather poignantly considering his later history, ‘Remember me / Clement Scott / 1902’. The former card is addressed by Scott on the reverse, with Ingatestone postmark dated 27 February 1904, to ‘Mr S. Le Sage / Maisonette / Ingatestone / Essex’.

41 items from the papers of the railway economist C. E. R. Sherrington [Charles Ely Rose Sherrington] (1897-1973). Sherrington was the son of the Nobel-prize winning physiologist Sir Charles Scott Sherrington (1857-1952). Having served in France with the Oxfordshire Light Infantry and the Railway Transport Establishment of the British Expeditionary Force, Sherrington was lecturer in Economics and Transportation at Cornell University from 1922 to 1924. Returning to Britain, he was Secretary of the Railway Research Service from 1924 to 1962.

Despite the fact that Reynolds and Crookes’s X-ray apparatus is now in the Science Museum at South Kensington, Reynolds has no entry in the Oxford DNB, although Crookes’s entry can be consulted. The two items are in good condition, lightly aged and worn. Both folded several times. Both 1p, 4to, and both signed ‘Russell J. Reynolds’. ONE: Addressed to G. K. Menzies of the Royal Society of Arts. With recipient's red pencil tick.

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Addressed to ‘Dear Mr Paxton’ and signed ‘Morpeth’. Much of the letter comprises a twenty-three line quotation from a letter Morpeth has received ‘from a great friend of mine in Dublin, Mr Hamilton’ (After the transcription of Hamilton’s letter Morpeth gives his name as ‘William Tighe Hamilton Esqre [1807-1886] / Donnybrook / Dublin’.

An interesting item, casting light on Victorian London publishing of periodical literature. For Passmore Edwards, to whom London is indebted for innumerable public libraries (many now closed), see his entry in the Oxford DNB. ‘The Biographical Magazine’ was founded in 1852, and the first two volumes were published by ‘J. Passmore Edwards, 2, Horse-shoe Court, Ludgate Hill’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded twice for postage. Begins: ‘Mr. Westall presents his compliments to Miss Macirone & begs to assure her how very much obliged to her he feels for the honor she has done him in sending him two tickets for her morning concert’. He will have ‘the greatest pleasure in attending’ the concert, and is ‘quite sure he shall be very much delighted’.

A nice piece of Sherborne ephemera, in unusually good condition. Between 1855 and 1860 Ransam House had been used to board boys from Sherborne School. ‘The Sherborne Academy’ to which the present card refers was run by John Kidd (c.1834-1891), FRAS, MCP, at Ransam between the end of 1861 and 1868, when it reverted to Sherborne School. The present item is printed in black ink on both sides of a x cm piece of white card. In very good condition, lightly aged.

See his entries in the Oxford DNB and History of Parliament. A loyal Pittite (‘publicity agent for the ministry’, and founder of the Tory ‘Sun’ newspaper) who served as Irish Secretary. As a connoisseur he had a strong influence on the taste of the Prince of Wales, besides recommending the purchase for the nation of the Elgin Marbles. He bequeathed fifteen paintings to the new National Gallery. 2pp, 12mo. Signed ‘Farnborough’. The circumstances of the present item are unknown. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded twice.

Four surviving pages, lacking signature page, bifolium, first and last page dusted but text clear and complete. My dear Sir Sidney, | It is with sincere pleasure I [?] your safe & happy meeting with Lady Smith and her amiable daughters. I am [?] in the enjoyment of similar feelings sailing as fast as [?] Caledonia can go with a fair wind to embrace my own family among whom thank God I may now hope to live in happiness and [Dye?] in Peace, which neither you or I expected, when we last parted.

Five galley-proofs of articles written during the high-point of the Raj by leading Victorian journalist in India W. Martin Wood (editor of the Times of India, founder and editor of the Bombay Review). Ephemeral items, creased and worn, but with text clear and entire. ONE: Headed ‘ALLEN’S INDIAN MAIL / THE LATE MR. EDWARD BROOME, C.E. / Mr. M. Martin Wood writes to us as follows: -’. Sixty-two lines in small print follow, beginning: ‘Some little time back your “Domestic Occurrences” contained the name of Mr.

Two galley-proofs of articles by leading Victorian journalist in India W. Martin Wood (editor of the Times of India, founder and editor of the Bombay Review). Ephemeral items, creased and worn, but with text clear and entire. ONE: Headed ‘ALLEN’S INDIAN MAIL / THE LATE MR. EDWARD BROOME, C.E. / Mr. M. Martin Wood writes to us as follows: -’. Sixty-two lines in small print follow, beginning: ‘Some little time back your “Domestic Occurrences” contained the name of Mr. Edward Broome, Civil Engineer, as having died at Southport, something under 60 years of age.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage. Reads: ‘Dear Miss Cond, / I have pleasure in sending you my signature. As you will see, it is quite an ordinary one. / Yours very truly / William Plomer’. The signature is in fact rather stylish in an understated way, and the underlining has two small curls in it. In ink on otherwise-blank reverse, by someone who misread the signature: 'William Ploms'. See Image.

Two pieces of uncommon Edwardian bibliographical ephemera. Both items worn and aged, and the catalogue somewhat dogeared. Both with some pencil marking. ONE (1909 catalogue): 32pp, 12mo. Drophead title on first page: ‘Macmillan’s Three-and-Sixpenny Library of Books by Popular Authors / Crown 8vo.’ The first two pages carry a description of the series, which ‘comprises over four hundred volumes in various departments of Literature. Prominent among them is a new and attractive edition of The Works of Thackeray, issued under the editorship of Mr. Lewis Melville.

See the entries on Tonyn and Paterson in the Oxford DNB, the latter stating of the recipient of this letter: ‘On 28 December 1799 he married, at St Pancras chapel, London, Jane Ellen Yeats (1771/2–1846), daughter of David Yeats, formerly registrar of East Florida, and sister of his first cousin, the physician Grant David Yeats.’ Paterson’s mother was a Tonyn, and he was also related to the Marchmont family, the Earl having been his early patron. The present item is 3pp, 4to, and a bifolium.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with neat ruled border from remains of windowpane mount. Folded twice for postage. Reads: ‘My dear Sir / I shall be at home tomorrow till two or will call on you any hour afterwds. do not delay the matter beyond this. / Yrs. very truly / H. L Bulwer’.

Macready's entry in the Oxford DNB states that he destroyed his diary and personal papers after the publication of his memoirs in 1924, and that of his father notes that he dealt with William Charles Macready's ‘copious and uninhibited diaries’ in similar fashion in 1914 - two years after the appearance of Toynbee’s edition. The present collection of eighteen items is in good condition, lightly aged, and folded for postage. All signed 'C F N Macready' and addressed to 'My dear Toynbee'. The text of the letters totals 35pp (compising 1p, 8vo; 25pp, 12mo; 9pp, 16mo).

Macready’s entry in the Oxford DNB states that he destroyed his diary and personal papers after the publication of his memoirs in 1924. If the present gossipy specimen is anything to go by, the loss of this material is most regrettable. (The ODNB entry for his father notes that he dealt with William Charles Macready's ‘copious and uninhibited diaries’ in similar fashion in 1914 - two years after the appearance of Toynbee’s edition.) See also the entry for Millicent, Duchess of Sutherland (1867-1955). 2pp, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged and folded for postage.

This is a document which would certainly repay investigation. No record of this firm of merchants has been discovered, or even of where they traded. Robison is a Scottish name, and there is an undated reference to a ‘James Robison, merchant in Dumfries’; most Shuttleworth’s hail from the north-east of England, and there is mention of a John Shuttleworth in Manchester in 1820. Other clues in the document suggest a London location: in 1793 Napper and Co.

For William Booth (1779-1840) of 32 Duke Street, Manchester Square [Portland Place], see the British Book Trade Index. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Neatly placed in remains of windowpane mount. Signed ‘Scott Portland’. With regard to the newspaper the Globe, he asks that it be ‘sent here till further orders - The Sun to be continued to be sent to Welbeck’. He is sending ‘the first volume of Horace Walpole’s private correspondence to be changed’, as it is incomplete: ‘It contains a portion of its pages twice over - & another portion wholly omitted’.

2pp, 4to. Bifolium, annotated on second leaf ‘Mr Sargt. Frere’. Watermark: ‘STAINS & CO | 1819’. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded for postage. Addressed to ‘Captain Munby &c &c’, and signed ‘William Frere’. He apologises for not answering sooner ‘the communications I have been honored with from you respecting a house at Yarmouth’. He has been in London, where he has suffered ‘some uncertainty as to accepting or declining the offer’.

An interesting letter casting light on the Victorian provincial press. Scott’s entry in the Oxford DNB states that, while he was living in Birmingham, ‘H. J. Palmer offered him a staff appointment on the Birmingham Gazette; but he had to leave when he stipulated that, as a Liberal, he should write nothing in support of the Conservative cause. He was working again as a freelance when, in 1887, he was invited by W. T. Stead to join him on the Pall Mall Gazette. He worked for six years on that paper under Stead and then Edward T. Cook.’ 4pp, 12mo. On bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged.

Now scarce. Among the six copies listed on JISC, only three (BL, Cambridge, NLW) are in the deposit libraries. Unpaginated 12mo pamphlet, w Iith page of contents, four pages of ‘Explanatory Note’ and three pages of facsimiles, on six leaves of shiny art paper, stitched into grey printed wraps with title on cover and two pages of advertisements at rear. In fair condition, lightly aged, in grubby wraps with tiny nick lost from bottom corner of front wrap.

Weld and Vaughan both have entries in the Oxford DNB. The notice is printed in copperplate on the recto of the first leaf of a 4to bifolium. In fair condition, aged and lightly worn, with short closed tear to one edge, and slight damage to the second leaf from the cutting of the seal, which is present on the verso, with a good impression, in red wax, together with two postmarks and the address, in Weld’s hand, to ‘W. Vaughan Esq - [F.R.S.] / 70 Fenchurch Street / [Royal Society.]’ The notice, signed ‘C. R.

From the Macqueen-Pope papers. See his entry, and that of Power, in the Oxford DNB. The seven items are in good condition, lightly aged and worn. ONE: Typed article titled ‘The Other Tyrone Power / by / W. Macqueen-Pope.’ Undated. 11pp, 4to, paginated 1-9, with two-page ‘Inset’. With a few minor autograph emendations. Begins: ‘At the present moment, Mr Tyrone Power, “in person”, is appearing at the London Coliseum in a play called “Mr Roberts”.

From the Macqueen-Pope papers. (See his entry in the Oxford DNB.) 1p, 16mo. Signed ‘Bill Owen’. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased. Hailing him as ‘the greatest living authority on British Theatre’, he asks for advice. ‘My job is acting, and it has always been an ambition of mine to portray the life of Dan Leno, either on film or TV.

From the Macqueen-Pope papers. See both their entries in the Oxford DNB. The four items in good condition, lightly aged and creased, with slight spotting to one corner of Item. Folded for postage. ONE: ALS dated 28 December 1950. 2pp, 12mo. Before sending seasonal greetings she begins: ‘My dear Popie / I returned home to find your wonderful book waiting for me.

An interesting letter, casting light on the workings of Victorian literary criticism. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The subject of the letter, ‘Friendship’s Offering’, was one of the four great nineteenth-century London ‘gift books’, appearing between the 1820s and the 1840s, for some of the period at least under the editorship of Thomas K. Hervey. 1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin neat strip of windowpane mount adhering to edges. Folded four times for postage. Thirteen lines of text. Signed ‘W. Jerdan’, with recipient (‘Dear Sir’) not named.