WIT

['four thousand Years of amusement': Sydney Smith, ‘The Smith of Smiths’, cleric, author and celebrated wit.] Autograph Letter Signed to 'Mrs. William Smith', itemising the pleasures that some persons might be punished with hereafter for their sins.

Author: 
Sydney Smith (1771-1845), ‘The Smith of Smiths’, English cleric, author and celebrated wit
Publication details: 
No date. Postmark of 28 May [1817]. On wove paper with watermark 'RUSE & TURNERS / 1814'.
£85.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. On recto of first leaf of bifolium, the verso of the second leaf addressed, with two postmarks, to 'Mrs. William Smith / Park Street / Westminster'. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Annotations in pencil in a modern hand. He begins by apologising for not being able to 'come to your party on Monday', as he was 'forced to go to Bed[.] I always knock up the 2d or 3d Week of London - There is nothing in this World so fatiguing, and horrible as pleasure -'.

[Sydney Smith, ‘The Smith of Smiths’, cleric, author and celebrated wit.] Autograph Note Signed, conveying thanks.

Author: 
Sydney Smith (1771-1845), ‘The Smith of Smiths’, English cleric, author and celebrated wit
Publication details: 
11 May 1844. No place.
£35.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On 9 x 11 cm piece of Whatman wove paper. Somewhat worn and creased, with a small nick to one edge, and slight damage from erasure of note on reverse. Folded. Reads ‘Dear Sr / many thanks / yours truly / Sydney Smith / May 11 1844.’

[Henry Luttrell [born Henry King], wit and poet.] Autograph Note Signed to Lady Theresa Lewis, accepting a dinner invitation.

Author: 
Henry Luttrell [born Henry King] (1768-1851), wit and poet [Lady Theresa Lewis (1803-1865), author]
Publication details: 
'B[rompton]. Square [London] / Monday March 20 [no year, but on paper watermarked 1847]'.
£50.00

See his entry and hers in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 16mo. In good condition, lightly aged, folded once for postage. Written in the shaky hand of an old man, and reads: 'My dear Lady Teresa, [sic] / I accept, with very great pleasure your kind invitation to dinner on Saturday April 1st / ever faithfully Yours / H. Luttrell'.

[Theodore Hook, wit and hoaxer.] Autograph Letter Signed, to ‘Barker’, explaining the circumstances that free him to accept a dinner invitation.

Author: 
Theodore Hook [Theodore Edward Hook] (1788-1841), author, wit and hoaxer, accountant-general and treasurer of Mauritius, 1813-1817
Publication details: 
‘Friday Evg’ [no date or place].
£45.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, on an 11 x 14 cm piece of paper cut down from 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, with minor traces of glue from mount adhering to the blank reverse. The letter reads: ‘My dear Barker / I shall be most happy to join your agreeable party - Croker to whom I was engaged for Monday goes on from Apethorpe to Belvoir instead of coming home[,] so I am at liberty - Milne is I believe on a visit to the Marquess of Bute at Luton. / Yrs most truly / Theodore S Hook’.

[Theodore Hook, author and hoaxer.] Autograph Letter Signed (‘Theo S Hook’) [to his publishers Whittaker & Co.], reporting missing text in the revises of his ‘Gilbert Gurney’, and requesting the return of ‘the MS of the page in question’.

Author: 
Theodore Hook [Theodore Edward Hook] (1788-1841), author, wit and hoaxer, accountant-general and treasurer of Mauritius, 1813-1817
Publication details: 
No date or place, but on paper with 1834 watermark.
£75.00

Hook’s entry in the Oxford DNB descibes his novel ‘Gilbert Gurney’ (1836) and its sequel ‘Gurney Married’ (1838) as made up of ‘thinly disguised portraits and a string of anecdotes from real life’. 1p, 12mo. On bifolium. In good condition, folded twice. On wove paper with C. Ansell watermark of 1834. The signature ‘Theo E Hook’ does indeed have a strange ‘hook’ on the end of it, which has led to a pencil note on the blank second leaf: ‘try Thos. E. Boot / Booth / author of “Gilbert Gurney”’.

[Joseph Jekyll, Regency politician and wit.] Autograph Letter Signed to George Agar-Ellis, on missing the 'Academy Dinner' by dining with the king; and manuscript copy of pun-laden account of ‘Bazaar in Mr Penn’s Garden for Charing Cross Hospital’.

Author: 
Joseph Jekyll (1754-1837), Welsh lawyer, Whig politician and wit, Master in Chancery and Solicitor-General to the Prince of Wales [George James Welbore Agar-Ellis, 1st Baron Dover]
Publication details: 
Letter written on 'Sunday Morning'
£100.00

The first item is fairly witty, while the second exhibits the sort of ‘excruciating puns’ for which Jekyll is, according to his entry in the Oxford DNB, largely remembered. See also Agar-Ellis’s entry in the same work. The two items are in good condition, lightly aged. ONE: Letter of ‘Sunday Morning’ to ‘Dear Ellis’. 2pp, 12mo. Signed ‘Joseph Jekyll’. Folded twice. Minuted by recipient at head of first page: ‘May 1825 / Jekyll’.

[Henry Luttrell, wit and poet.] Autograph Letter Signed, thanking Agar Ellis for the gift of one of his books, and discussing the preparing for the press of one of his own.

Author: 
Henry Luttrell [born Henry King] (1768-1851), wit and poet, friend of Sydney Smith, illegitimate son of the , second Earl of Carhampton [Agar Ellis [George James Welbore Agar-Ellis, 1st Baron Dover]]
Publication details: 
18 February [no year, but between 1822 and 1833]. Albany [Piccadilly, London].
£180.00

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. ‘Many many thanks, my dear Ellis, for the kind present of your book, which, as soon as I am released from a torment of which you have had some experience, - correcting the press, I promise myself much pleasure and instruction in perusing. /As soon as my doggerel is printed, you may rely on having a copy. My best remembrance if you please to Lady Georgiana / Ever faithfully Yours / Henry Luttrell.’ Which of Luttrell’s or Ellis’s books are referred to here is unclear.

[Charles Stuart Calverley, poet, classical scholar and wit.] Autograph Letter Signed ('C S. Calverley') to Charles R. Steggatt, declining to order cigars with the comment: 'I never by any chance smoke a cigar.'

Author: 
Charles Stuart Calverley [born Charles Stuart Blayds] (1831-1884), poet, classical scholar and wit
Publication details: 
18 December 1880. 12 Mostyn Terrace, Grand Parade, Eastbourne.
£45.00

1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. In envelope with penny red stamp and postmark, addressed to Steggatt at 53 Norwich Street, Cambridge. The letter reads: 'Dear Sir | I regret that I cannot give you an order. I have no doubt of the excellence of the cigars, but I never by any chance smoke a cigar. | Believe me | Yours truly | C S. Calverley'. A nice Cambridge association, given that Calverley's most famous poem is 'Ode to Tobacco', and that it features in Cambridge on a brass plaque on the wall of the former Bacon's tobacconists.

[Sydney Smith, 'The Smith of Smiths', wit and author.] Four Autograph Letters Signed to 'Mrs Cunliffe' [Elizabeth Emma Cunliffe Offley, daughter of Lord Crewe], good natured and vivacious.

Author: 
Sydney Smith (1771-1845), 'The Smith of Smiths', wit, author and cleric [Elizabeth Emma Cunliffe Offley (1780-1850), daughter of Lord Crewe and wife of MP Foster Cunliffe Offley]
Publication details: 
Three letters from London addresses: 3 Weymouth Street [Portland Place], no date [c. 1835]; 33 Charles Street, Berkeley Square, 31 April 1839; 56 Green Street, Grosvenor Square, 18 February 1842. Last letter with no place or date [London, c. 1824].
£450.00

The four items in good condition, lightly aged, with stubs from mounts still adhering. The first three are bifoliums, carrying seals in red wax (that to the third letter broken). The second letter is addressed to her at Grosvenor Square; the third and fourth to her at Upper Brook Street. ONE: No place or date. [London, on paper with watermark of 'J GREEN & SON | 1824'.] 1p, 12mo.

[Joseph Jekyll, lawyer, politician and wit.] Autograph jeu d'esprit, signed 'J Jekyll.', addressed to 'Mr Erskine' [i.e. Thomas Erskine, future Lord Chancellor], short poem regarding 'Mrs. Crewe' and Jekyll sitting 'on Lunacy'.

Author: 
Joseph Jekyll (1754-1837), Scottish lawyer, politician and wit [Lord Erskine [Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron Erskine] (1750-1823), Lord Chancellor]
Publication details: 
No place. Dated 30 June 1800.
£220.00

1p, 8vo. On bifolium addressed on verso of second leaf to 'Mr. Erskine'. In good condition, lightly aged. Autograph jeu d'esprit, signed at foot 'J. Jekyll. | June 30th. 1800'. A short poem reading: 'Tell Mrs. Crewe | I envy You. | But sit on Lu- | nacy. || Yet Mrs. Crewe | will think I'm stu | pid in my lu | -cid Intervals.' Jekyll's entry in the Oxford DNB concludes, perhaps unkindly: 'If he is remembered by later generations, it is chiefly as a wit. It has to be said, however, that his wit, which consisted in large measure of excruciating puns, has not lasted well.'

[ Margot Asquith, socialite and author, wife of Liberal Prime Minister H. H. Asquith. ] Autograph Note Signed ('Margot Oxford') acknowledging receipt of a letter and a book.

Author: 
Margot Asquith [ Emma Alice Margaret Asquith, Countess of Oxford and Asquith; née Tennant ] (1864-1945), Scottish socialite and author, wife of Liberal Prime Minister H. H. Asquith
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 44 Bedford Square, WC1 [ London ]. 13 February 1936.
£28.00

1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Reads: 'Thank you very much for yr. letter & the book | Yrs | Margot Asquith | 13 Feb 36'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Sydney Smith') from Rev. Sydney Smith to the future Lord Chancellor Henry Brougham, regarding his ambitions and 'objects in the Church'. With annotations by Brougham.

Author: 
Rev. Sydney Smith (1771-1845), author and wit ['the Smith of Smiths'], member of the Holland House Circle [Henry Brougham (1778-1868), Scottish lawyer, Whig politician and Lord Chancellor]
Publication details: 
Without place or date. Docketted by Brougham '1830 or 31', but in fact circa 1827.
£450.00

2pp., 4to. Bifolium. A thin strip has been torn from the head of the first leaf, resulting in loss to two lines of text, otherwise in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. A significant letter, in which Smith discusses his ambitions with a close and influential friend, and former colleague on the 'Edinburgh Review'.

Fragment of Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed correspondent.

Author: 
Theodore Edward Hook
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£23.00

Novelist and wit (1788-1841). On piece of paper roughly four inches square. Folded twice and lightly creased and with traces of glue and paper from previous mounting adhering to four corners of reverse, and affecting text. Typed title neatly attached at foot. Reads 'Will you give our kindest regards to Your Family and always believe me | Yrs Very Sincerely | The: E. Hook'. Reverse reads '<...> club.

Three Autograph Letters Signed to 'Dear Mat'.

Author: 
Edward Dubois [Du Bois]
Publication details: 
Two without date or place; the third dated 'Gower Place | Euston Sq[uar]e | Wedn[esda]y.'
£200.00

English wit and man of letters (1774-1850). All three letters in octavo and skilfully mounted onto quarto paper. Two letters of three pages and one of two pages. All three in very good condition. Playful, witty communications to an intimate friend, characteristic of a droll, caustic wit, 'capital at the dinner table', who 'loved a joke, even in court' (Dictionary of National Biography). LETTER ONE (2 pages): Declines an invitation.

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