History

Speech delivered by Mr. G. A. L. Wilson, M.L.A., in the Legislative Assembly on Closer Settlement: Purchase of Bald Blair Estate. [From "Parliamentary Debates," 20th July, 1938.]

Author: 
G. A. L. Wilson [Bald Blair Estate, New South Wales, Australia]
Publication details: 
Sydney: David Harold Paisley, Government Printer - 1938.
£85.00

8vo: 6 pp. Stapled pamphlet. Text clear and complete. On aged and creased paper. For Wilson 'the most important aspect of the question' is 'the conversion of unsound country to sound country [...] It is a recent discovery, and, while ten or fifteen years ago one would have wiped the proposal before the House right off the slate, on the ground that the land is unsuitable for closer settlement, one to-day welcomes it.' Red-ink 1 cm accession stamp of the Webster Collection on reverse of blank final leaf, numbered 4188. No copy in the British Library, on COPAC, or on WorldCat.

The Deportation of the Norfolk Islanders to the Derwent in 1808. I. The Settlement of Norfolk Island. II. The Deportation to the Derwent.

Author: 
Jack Backhouse Walker [Norfolk Island deportation, 1808; Derwent; Tasmania; Van Diemen's Land]
Publication details: 
Tasmania: William Grahame, Jun., Government Printer, Hobart. 1895.
£75.00

12mo: 26 pp. In original printed wraps. Stapled pamphlet. Unopened. The only copies on COPAC at the British Library and Oxford. For more information about Walker (1841-1899) see his entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

Alteration of Constitution. Federal Referendums. The Case FOR and AGAINST. ['Aviation' and 'Marketing']

Author: 
[Australian Federal Referendums on Aviation and Marketing, 1937]
Publication details: 
By Authority: H. J. Green, Government Printer, Melbourne. [Canberra, 30th December, 1936.]
£56.00

4to: [iii] + 15 + [ii] pp. Ten-leaf stapled pamphlet. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Slight rusting to staples. In small hand in red ink at head of title: 'M.S. 834 - 21/1/37'. Giving the texts of two proposed constitution alterations, 'Aviation' and 'Marketing', with the cases for and against, the referendums on which are both to be taken on 6 March 1937. 1 cm stamp in red ink of the Webster Collection at foot of final page, numbered 4190.

Corrected galley proofs headed '125783 - BOOKLET - ONE | Queensland's Breach of Contract.'

Author: 
[Breach of Contract for Pastoral Leases in Queensland, Australia, 1923]
Publication details: 
In blue pencil at head '3. 12. 23 [3 December 1923] R. H. C.'
£75.00

On one side each of five 46 x 14.5 cm slips of paper. Good: slightly aged and with rusting to staple. Begins 'Much comment having appeared in the Press during the last three years on the subject of a breach by the Government of Queensland of the contracts contained in the Pastoral Leases issued by that State, it is thought that a clear [altered from 'careful'] statement of the facts of the case would be useful to Bankers, Brokers and others having financial interests in Queensland. The facts of the case are set out in the following statement: - [...]'.

Darkest Africa And An Easy Way Out.

Author: 
W. L. Warden [Harold Sidney Harmsworth (1868-1940, 1st Viscount Rothermere]
Publication details: 
[1940.] 'For Private Circulation Only.' ['Printed by Warden & Co. Ltd., 71, Church Road, Hendon, N.W.4.'] [Introductory note by Warden dated '38, Portland Place, London, W.1. March, 1940.']
£85.00

8vo: 12 pp (unpaginated). Wraps and stapled. Fair: on aged and lightly-creased paper. A few marks in pencil and red pencil (on two occasions 'my "Owner" ' in the text noted as 'Lord R.'). Stamped with limitation number 57. Printed in small type in double column. In his introductory note Warden explains that the text is 'made up of extracts from a diary, which I more or less kept, and letters sent home during a recent voyage of 20,000 miles.

Handbill poem entitled 'Baron Böhmbig [Bohmbig], or the Rival Jumpers.'

Author: 
[Jonathan Blewitt (1782-1853), English composer] [The Flying Dutchman]
Publication details: 
Without date or place. [London, 1850s?]
£75.00

Printed on one side of a piece of wove paper, 32.5 x 24 cm. Text clear and complete, on aged paper with chipping and closed tears to edges. The only copy of this title on COPAC is at the British Library (folio, 4 pp, published by Zenas T. Purday), where it is ascribed to Blewitt and tentatively dated to around 1850. Six eight-line stanzas with chorus 'Jump high, jump low, jumping we go.' Possibly written with satiric intent.

The Dominions National Days Historical Celebration Movement. The Australia Day Historical Addresss. To be read on board P. & O. Australia Line Steamers at Sea on 26th January. [Inscribed to H. T. B. Drew.]

Author: 
D. Hope Johnston [Douglas Hope Johnston (1874-1957)], '(Founder and ex-President of the Australasian Pioneers' Club, Sydney, N.S.W.)'
Publication details: 
Date and publisher not stated. Inscription by Johnston dated 'London | Nov 1933.'
£125.00

4to, 8 pp. Stapled. In original brown printed wraps. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Bumped at head of spine. Inscription on inside of front wrap reads 'To - Captain H. T. B. Drew In appreciation of his unfailing interest & support - from the first of this Movement, & in the London Memorial to the Founder of Australia, Admiral Arthur Phillip RN | From, - his grateful friend [signed] D. Hope Johnston. of The Royal Empire Society London & The Pioneers Club. Sydney N.S.W.' Phillip was Johnston's great-grandfather. Drew was a New Zealand author.

One Autograph Letter Signed ('E. H.' twice) with the first four pages of another (lacking signature), both to 'My dear Gop'.

Author: 
Esme William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Penrith (1863-1939), British diplomat [Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon; Pixton Park, Dulverton]
Publication details: 
Complete Letter: 12 September 1908; on letterhead of The Tides, Bar Harbor, Maine. Incomplete Letter: 4 November 1908; on letterhead of Pixton Park, Dulverton.
£56.00

Both items in good condition, on aged paper. Complete Letter (12 September 1908): 12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium with mourning border. He thanks Gop [Goss?] for the 'letter of great length extended exclamation marks but otherwise agreeable & genial'. Howard 'can understand that vowing to keep silence the next best thing is to write to someone'. Gop's 'instinct is sound': Howard has 'abandoned Presque Isle which is a 12 hrs journey from here'. Gives a date for his return to Manchester.

The Class Nature of the Soviet Union. Two Articles by Leon Trotsky: 'Once Again; the U.S.S.R. and its Defence.' [...] 'The U.S.S.R.; Non-Proletarian and non-Bourgeoise State?' [With anonymous foreword discussing Trotsky's 'political tendency'.]

Author: 
Leon Trotsky [Trotskyite; W.I.R. Publications; British Communism Party; Communist]
Publication details: 
[Early 1960s.] 'Printed in Swansea by voluntary labour.' Published by W.I.R. Publications, 374, Grays Inn Rd., London W.C.I [cancelled to 'Order from W.I.R. Publications, 197, Kings Cross Road, London, W.C.1.']
£125.00

Mimeographed and stapled. [i] + iii + 17 pp. Printed on eleven leaves, the first two and last two 26 x 21 cm, and the middle seven leaves 25.5 x 20 cm. Fair, on foxed paper with wear to extremities. It would appear that the leaves of the two articles had been printed previously, and were newly bound up here with the preliminary matter. The first articles is, according to the title 'Taken from "Fourth International", July Aug 1951. (American edition)' and the second 'Taken from "Workers International News", Sept-Oct 1946.

Autograph Letter Signed ('R. Bruce Lockhart') to 'Max', on the death of his father Lord Beaverbrook.

Author: 
Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart [Sir Robert Hamilton Bruce Lockhart] (1887-1970), Scottish diplomat and writer [William Maxwell Aitken (1879-1964), 1st Baron Beaverbrook; his son Max Aitken (1910-1985)]
Publication details: 
10 June 1964; on letterhead of the Gyllyngdune Hotel Ltd., Falmouth.
£85.00

12mo, 2 pp. Twenty-eight lines of text. Good, on lightly-creased paper. Lockhart's signature has been docketed in ink (by Aitken?) 'Sir Robert'. A letter of condolence on the death of Aitken's father. Reminisces about the 'moment I came into his life', a 'luncheon at Charkley' soon after the First World War: 'The only other guest was Augustus John. [...] as you know, I learnt much from him. Indeed, it was he who taught me how to write, and in his house I met numerous people whom, but for him, I should never have known.' He considers that Beaverbrook treated him 'nobly'.

Two Autograph Letters Signed (both 'Londonderry') one to Lord Ashbourne and the other to Lady Ashbourne.

Author: 
Charles Stewart Vane-Tempest-Stewart (1852-1915), 6th Marquess of Londonderry, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1886-1889 [Edward Gibson, 1st Baron Ashbourne; his wife Frances Marie Adelaide Gibson]
Publication details: 
15 May (to Lady Ashbourne)and 11 August (to Lord Ashbourne) [years not stated, but between 1886 and 1889]; on letterheads of the Vice Regal Lodge, Dublin.
£75.00

Both items good, on lightly-aged paper. Letter One (15 May, to Lady Ashbourne): 16mo, 2 pp. Nine lines. Accepting an invitation to a garden-party. 'I have two Cricket Matches [...] I have promised to go for an hour to the Unionists Cricket Match, but could come on to you after that, if that day suited you.' Letter Two (11 August, to Lord Ashbourne): 12mo, 2 pp. Fourteen lines. He thanks him for the 'Letters & enclosed Draft'. 'I had to send my Letter off before it arrived, as the takes place to-day, but fortunately it was drawn on almost identical lines as yours, so it is all right.

Autograph Signature ('Walter Runciman').

Author: 
Walter Runciman (1870-1949), 1st Viscount Runciman of Doxford, English Liberal politician
Publication details: 
6 March 1911. On Board of Education card.
£20.00

On a piece of card roughly 9 x 11.5 cm. With embossed government crest of the Board of Education in the top left-hand corner. In fair condition, lightly-aged and with small triangular areas of discoloration to two opposing corners caused by previous mounting. Good bold signature, presumably sent in response to a request for an autograph. Reads '[signed] Walter Runciman. | 6 March | 1911.'

Part of Autograph Letter, with signature ('James Wilson').

Author: 
James Wilson (1805-1860), Scottish economist and politician
Publication details: 
Place and date not stated.
£23.00

On one side of a piece of wove paper, roughly 5 x 18.5 cm, cut from letter by an autograph collector. Aged, and with staining from the glue used in mounting. Reads '<...> upon it. | I hope you are quite recovered. | Yours trly | James Wilson'.

Autograph Signature ('Maurice OConnell').

Author: 
Sir Maurice O'Connell [Sir Maurice Charles O'Connell] (1812-1879), Irish soldier, administrator, and politician in Australia [Daniel O'Connell]
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£23.00

On a piece of paper, 2 x 8 cm, cut from a letter. Neatly laid down on a piece of paper, 4 x 9 cm. Good, on aged paper. The signature reads 'Maurice OConnell'. In a contemporary hand, on the mount, 'Maurice O'Connell. MP. | (nephew of King Dan)'. According to the Oxford DNB, Daniel O'Connell ('The Liberator') was a cousin of Maurice's father Sir Maurice Charles Philip O'Connell (1768-1848).

Autograph Letter Signed to Messrs Charles Cox & Son, Royal Marine Agency Office, Buckingham Street, Strand, London.

Author: 
Major John Lodington, Royal Marines, Aide-de-Camp to the Governor of Dominica, the Earl of Huntingdon [Hans Francis Hastings (1779-1828), 12th Earl of Huntingdon; Windward Islands; West Indian]
Publication details: 
12 and 13 February 1824; Roseau, Dominica.
£250.00

8vo bifolium (leaf dimensions 30 x 18 cm): 4 pp. Fair, on aged paper with slight wear to extremities, and minor damage to the area around the breaking of the black wax seal, which adheres, with a clear impression of a crest, to the reverse of the second leaf. Damage to a couple of words: otherwise text clear and complete. Circular 'F' postmark in red ink. Docketed. An impassioned, anguished letter, long and unguarded, and unusual in the valuable light it casts on the state of West Indian colonial affairs.

Autograph Letter Signed to "Lennox" (Sir Wilbraham Oates Lennox, Royal Engineers (see DNB)). WITH related material.

Author: 
C.W. Wilson and some important papers [CHARLES WILLIAM WILSON], Major-General.
Publication details: 
War Office, 12 May 1873.
£450.00

Director of the Topographical Department at the War Office (1836-1905)(see DNB). Two pages, 8vo, fold marks but good condition. "I send you today the remainder of the plans you left with me; and a translation of the letter press on those of the environs of Vienna. The plans of the defences of Vienna during the war of /66 are very interesting and I should be glad to have them for the Topo: if you will present them to the Dept: after you have finished with them.

Mezzotint engraving [of Orde-Powlett], 'Painted by G. Romney' and 'Engraved by In Jones'.

Author: 
Thomas Orde-Powlett, 1st Baron Bolton (1746-1807), British politician; George Romney (1734-1802), artist; John Jones (1745?-97), engraver
Publication details: 
[London; 'Pubd as the Act directs July 6 1786'.]
£200.00

National Portrait Gallery no: NPG D913 (only acquired in 1966). Dimensions of paper roughly nineteen and a half inches by fourteen wide. Dimensions of print roughly seventeen and a half inches by thirteen and three-quarters wide. Backed by a piece of cream card. Heavily aged and spotted, and with one small worm hole. Slight loss to lower right-hand corner, not affecting print. Closed tears to mount. Apparently printed before the name, and very likely a proof.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W Edmondstoun de Aytoun') to James Simpson.

Author: 
William Edmonstoune Aytoun [William Edmondstoun de Aytoun] (1813-1865), Scottish poet
Publication details: 
26 January 1865; 16 Great Stuart Street, Edinburgh.
£280.00

12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium. Twenty-eight lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with evidence of previous mount on reverse of second leaf. Certainly genuine, and of interest as bearing a variant spelling of Aytoun's name in a signature written from his home a few months before his death. (The spelling 'Edmondstoun de Aytoun' is not noted in Aytoun's entry in the Oxford DNB.) In the latter part of the letter Aytoun comments on his poetic practice. He is 'much flattered' by Simpson's 'selection of my poem for a public reading', and is 'glad to hear that it was appreciated'.

Printed paper serviette, illustrated in colour, headed 'Souvenir in Commemoration of the King of Portugal's Visit to England, November 15 to 20, 1909.'

Author: 
Mrs S. Burgess, printer, Bishopsgate, London [the visit of King Manuel of Portugal to England, 1909; royal souvenir; ephemera; King Edward VII]
Publication details: 
MRS. S. BURGESS, 14, Artillery Lane, Bishopsgate, E.C.' [1909]
£25.00

Printed in black, blue, red, green and gold on one side of a piece of tissue paper roughly 37 cm square. Good, on lightly creased paper with a little wear to extremities. The text, with a woodcut portrait of the king (10 x 8.5 cm) in black at its centre, is enclosed in a coloured border of flags and flowers. The text descibes the 'programme of the first week' of the King's visit, with the 'route to be taken by King Manuel on his visit to the Guildhall', and a list of the 'distinguished guests who have been inivited to the reception and luncheon'.

Autograph Letter Signed "Ch. Teste" to "Monsieur le redacteur de la Trib[une]" [Deroche?]. In French.

Author: 
Charles Teste
Publication details: 
Paris, 5 May 1831.
£250.00

Two pages, folio, chipped with small loss of letters (e.g. the end of "Tribune"), mainly clear. He says: "Mon nom a figure ces jours-ci dans le moniteur et par suite dams plusieurs autres journaux de la capitale. Cette publicite m'oblige a parler de moi . . .

Autograph Note Signed " "C. Cochelet" to "Monsieur Le President de la Chambre des Deputes". WITH autograph letter signed "Cochelet" to Mocquard (?)

Author: 
Charles Cochelet
Publication details: 
Paris 24 November 1821 and Paris, 31 [October?] [1859?]
£100.00

Author of "Naufrage du Brick francais la Sophie, et captivite des naufrages dans le desert de Shara . . ." (published Paris 1821). One page, folio. IN FRENCH. He has the honour of sending them a copy of his book (as above) with his respects. He describes himself as "ancien payeur general en Catalogne".

Autograph Letter Signed to 'My dear Smith'.

Author: 
Alexander Innes Shand (1832-1907), Scottish journalist, novelist and military historian
Publication details: 
Oakdale - Eden Bridge - Kent - 2 July' [no year]; on cancelled letterhead of the Windham Club, St James's Square, S.W.
£35.00

12mo bifolium: 3 pp. Good, though lightly creased. Tipped in on the blank verso of the second leaf, to a green paper folder on which an eight-line biographical entry of Shand has been laid down. He has left the packet containing the letters which Mrs Smith 'values' so 'highly' at the Reform Club, not wishing, in case it has changed, to send them to Smith's 'address in the Blue Book'. As he cannot 'make a decent excuse' for the delay in returning them, he throws himself on Smith's mercy.

Autograph Letter to the Editor of Debrett's.

Author: 
Sir Evan MacKenzie, 2nd Baronet of Kilcoy [DEBRETT'S; BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA]
Sir Evan MacKenzie
Publication details: 
Exmouth | 23d. Decr. 1871' on letterhead 'Belmaduthy | Munlochy | N. B.'
£66.00
Sir Evan MacKenzie

Mackenzie (1816-83) was the founder of the Australian city of Brisbane. One page, 12mo. Good, but with two-inch glue stain, and with traces of mount adhering to verso of blank second leaf of bifolium. Unsigned formal letter in the third person. 'Sir Evan MacKenzie would feel obliged by the Editor of Debrett's restoring the two Highlanders /the supporters to Sir Evan's shield/ which are suppressed in all the editions of Debrett that have hitherto appeared. They appear in "Burke" & the Scutcheon looks bold without them.'

Typed Letter Signed ('Aberdeen') to 'Peter Cavanagh, Esq., At/ The Empire Theatre, Edinburgh.'

Author: 
George Gordon, 2nd Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair (1879-1965) [Peter Cavanagh (1914-1981), impressionist billed as 'The voice of them all']
Publication details: 
22 February 1952; on deleted letterhead of 16 Westbourne Street, London W.2, with embossed address Braehead, Bridge of Don, Aberdeen.
£35.00

4to, 1 p, 17 lines. He 'deeply appreciate[s] the spirit undlying the contents' of Cavangh's letter, which he found waiting for him on his return the day before 'after attending our beloved late King's Funeral'. 'As you say, the sword and scabbard must have belonged to my great Grandfather, the 4th Earl of Aberdeen, who was Prime Minister during theh Crimea War by the express command of Queen Victoria. He accepted the Premiership on the condition that he should be allowed to resign at the conclusion of the war.' Suggests a meeting in Aberdeen.

Autograph Letter Signed to Dr Thompson, Edinburgh.

Author: 
James Thomson (1768-1855), editor of Encyclopaedia Britannica (1795-6); from 1805 parish minister in Eccles, Berwickshire [Rev. Thomas Lewis (d.1852) of the Union Chapel, Islington]
Publication details: 
Date not given (before 1852). 17 Stamford Street, Blackfriars.
£56.00

12mo, 2 pp. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with thin strip of black mount adhering at head on reverse (not affecting text). He has received Thompson's note 'intimating to me the necessity under which the Revd Mr Lewis and the Committee of Union Chapel find themselves reluctantly placed, to refuse our deputation an opportunity of pleading the Cause of our Society on the present occasion'. Refers to the 'great liberality of the Members of the Union Chapel' and 'their attachment to the good Cause'.

Signed Letter in secretarial hand to the Quartermaster General, Horse Guards.

Author: 
Sir William Schaw Cathcart, 10th Baron and 1st Viscount and Earl Cathcart
Publication details: 
Salton Hall January 27 1810'.
£125.00

Scottish soldier and diplomat (1755-1843). Four pages, octavo. Good, though grubby on discoloured paper, and a little frayed about the edges. Concerns 'the Subject of Issues which are made by the Barrack Department in North Britain to the Forces stationed in this Part of the United Kingdom, but which are not sanctioned by The King's Warrant'. '[...] | I conceive the Establishment of Regimental Schools to be highly conducive to the good of His Majesty's Service, and peculiarly so in the case of 2d.

Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed male correspondent [Henry Petrie?].

Author: 
Patrick Fraser Tytler
Publication details: 
30 November 1840; 34 Devonshire Place.
£85.00

Scottish historian (1791-1849). Three pages, 12mo. In good condition, with second leaf of bifolium attached by blank verso to larger piece of docketed grey paper. An interesting, chatty letter relating to his 'History of Scotland' (1828-43), and the State Paper Office. He hopes his correspondent has received the seventh volume which 'cost me much labour - but if it is even an approach nearer to the truth the time has not been thrown away'.

Four Autograph Letters Signed to [?] Macphail; copy, with MS corrections and additions, of proposed report on Bill by committee of the Faculty of Advocates; 'COPY LETTER, Mr P. W. Campbell, P.C.S., to Sir William S. Haldane, Crown Agent'; Bill.

Author: 
Charles Scott Dickson [Parliamentary Bill: Clerks of Session (Scotland) Regulation Acts, 1889 and 1912]
Publication details: 
The four letters, December 1812 to 1813; the Advocates' report, 14 January 1913, Advocates Library; Campbell's letter, 23 December 1912, Edinburgh; Bill, 9 December 1912.
£180.00

Dickson (born 1850) was Tory M.P. for Glasgow, Lord Advocate and Lord Justice Clerk. The four letters, all 12mo and all on House of Commons Library notepaper, are dusty and creased. Three are dated (30 and 31 December and 2 January) and signed; the other letter is undated and initialed. LETTER ONE: 'I spoke to the Lord Advocate to-day & he then definitely informed me that the Lord President entirely approved of the Bill.' LETTER TWO: 'I have spoken to the Advocate about the date of the committee stage & we will I believe have some weeks yet.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Le Despencer') to an unnamed correspondent (a neighbouring landowner?).

Author: 
Francis Dashwood (1708-1781), 11th Baron Le Despencer, politician and rake; member of the Hellfire Club; founder of the Monks of Medmenham Abbey
Publication details: 
Hanover Square, London, 5 May 1779
£350.00

4to: 1 p. 15 lines of text. Good, on lightly aged paper, with a light stain affecting but not obscuring a couple of words. Text clear and entire. Docketed on the reverse of the otherwise-blank second leaf of the bifolium.

A Memorial of the Proceedings of the Late Ministery [sic, for 'Ministry'] and Lower House of Parliament. With An Account of several secret Correspondences [...] To which is added, A short History of a Plot to dethrone Queen Anne, [...].

Author: 
by the Author [i.e. Charles Povey] of An Inquiry into the Miscarriages of the Last Four Years Reign' [Queen Anne; Jacobite; House of Stuart]
Publication details: 
1715. London: Printed for the Author, and Sold by J. Roberts in Warwick-lane, A. Bell in Cornhill, R. Robinson in St. Paul's Church-yard, Mr. Robinson against Serjeants-Inn, [...] and Mrs. Boulter, next Old-Man's Coffee-House at Charing-Cross.
£450.00

12mo: 44 pp. Unbound. Text clear and complete on aged paper. Ten paragraphs on pp.7-10 have terse, sardonic phrases added at the end, apparently by a Jacobite sympathiser. For example, 'by <?> the old cause' added to one ending 'a Country brought to Ruin, or in a fair way to it.'; 'in this world' added to one ending 'will never come to Light.'; 'in a publick manur' added to one ending 'the secret Treaty now concluded.'; also 'much adoe about nothin'. Scarce: all but a handful of the entries on COPAC are for facsimiles. No 'finis' at end, but complete according to COPAC entries.

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