History

Autograph Signature ('Arlington') on fragment of document.

Author: 
Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington (bap. 1618; d.1685), English politician and member of the celebrated 'Cabal' ministry
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£28.00

On a piece of paper roughly 4 x 7 cm. Very good, on slightly discoloured paper. Reads '<...> 34 years of His Maies <...> | [signed] Arlington'. The second of the two versions of Arlington's signature reproduced by Rawlins ('Five Hundred Years of British Autographs', p.63, no.8). Arlington was the first 'A' in the CABAL ministry, the name made up of the initials of the five privy councillors who conducted Charles II's government after the fall of Clarendon in 1667: Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley and Lauderdale.

Legends of the West.

Author: 
James Hall
Publication details: 
Philadelphia: Published by Harrison Hall, 130, Chesnut Street. 1832. [Philadelphia: James Kay, Jun. & Co., Printers, No. 4, Minor Street.]
£150.00

8vo: [viii] + 265 + [ii] pp. Printers slug on page following 265, followed by a full-page advertisement by Harrison Hall, Philadelphia, and Collins & Co., New York, for 'Wilson's Ornithology', dated 'Philadelphia, July 1832'. In original brown paper boards, with brown cloth spine carrying white printed label. Tight, but in poor condition, with light spotting and damp-staining. Unobtrusive repair to closed tear on reverse of title-leaf. Ownership inscription of Joseph Malcomson (mill owner of Portlaw, County Waterford) to rectos of first four leaves, including title.

Letter Signed "C Bradlaugh" to The Editor, Weekly Echo

Author: 
Charles Bradlaugh, radical
Publication details: 
"The National Reformer," 20 Cricus Road, St John's Wood, London, N.W., 12 March 1885 (headed notepaper).
£45.00

One page, 8vo, good condition. Boddy of letter in secretrarial hand, signed "Yours sincerely | C Bradlaugh". Text: "Protest against war in the Sudan. | Dear Sir | I should be obliged if you would kindly add to the letter you have received from me that S Storey Esq MP & Professor Beesly have also consented to attend & speak at the St James Hall meeting on April 2nd."

Autograph Letter Signed ('W Scott') to his son-in-law Viscount Sidmouth.

Author: 
Sir William Scott [William Scott, Baron Stowell; Lord Stowell] (1745–1836), judge and politician [Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth (1757-1844), British prime minister]
Publication details: 
25 July 1818; Earley Court [Berkshire].
£28.00

12mo: 3 pp. Good, on lightly aged paper. Small spike hole through both leaves of the bifolium. Text clear and entire. Execrable hand. Begins 'I certainly shall not secede from my conditional Promise'. Paragraph describing the weather ('The Heat of the Weather here is intolerable.') 'I agree entirely with respect to the Character of our worthy departed friend. It is a great loss to this Part of the Country.'

Autograph Letter Signed ('le Cte de Montalembert'), in French, to an unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Charles Forbes René de Montalembert (1810-1870), French historian
Publication details: 
3 March 1849; Paris.
£56.00

12mo: 2 pp. Very good on lightly aged paper. Asks if it might be possible, as previously, to forward a packet to 'Mr. d'Abbadie': 'depuis deux ans je suis sans nouvelles de lui'. It is six months since he had the honour of forwarding a similar packet via the French legation at Lisbon. Good firm signature, but with the words '(Le comte de Montalembert)' in another hand beneath it, and interfering with the flourish (paraph).

Document signed, "Palmerston", addressed to "E. Biscoe Eyre"

Author: 
Viscount Palmerston
Publication details: 
30/06/12
£100.00

War Office Circular No. 121. One page, fol. Printed with manuscript additions. The document refers to "certain Fines, Penalties, and Forfeitures" which should be remitted to the Bank of England and placed to the account of "the Agent-Genral for the Local Militia". The addressee (Eyre) is to levy and remit, notifying Palmerston.

Autograph note signed to illegible correspondent

Author: 
Robert Peel
Publication details: 
3 Feb. (no year).
£75.00

Prime Minister. One page, 8vo, laid down on same sized paper: "Private. . . . My Dear sir/ Nothing has been heard at the Home Office respecting Hayward. He stands for [place name? indecipherable]. I this morning received the enclosed letter . . . Robert Peel". Hayward is probrably the prolific writer and Peelite, Abraham Hayward but I have no information on his running for Parliament although he was very political.

Autograph card signed to W. A. Dowding,

Author: 
William Ewart Gladstone
Publication details: 
postmarked 19 April 1880.
£70.00

Liberal Prime Minister (1809-98). One page, 12mo, the verso, with printed stamp, addressed in autograph to "Mr W. A. Dowding / 47 Mary Street / Bristol". "With compliments & best wishes, as well as thanks. W E Gladstone / Ap. 19. 80". Gladstone had just concluded his celebrated electioneering campaign involving speeches at stations between London and Edinburgh.

[Chapbook] The Art of Swimming rendered easy; with Directions to Learners. To which is prefixed, Advice to bathers, by Dr. B. Franklin.

Author: 
Benjamin Franklin [Scottish Chapbook]
Benjamin Franklin
Publication details: 
Glasgow: Printed for the Booksellers. 81. [sic] [1840-50?]
£350.00
Benjamin Franklin

Unbound, on six loose leaves folded to make bifoliums. Good, though grubby and with rough edges (particularly the head). Text clear and entire. 12mo, 24 pages. Cover features woodcut of eighteenth-century gentleman (Franklin?) leaning on stick. Sections on 'Swimming like a dog', 'To beat the water', 'To show both feet out of the water', 'To suspend yourself by the chin', etc. Scarce: Copac only lists copies at Glasgow and in the National Library of Scotland. Dated 1840-50 by the NLS 'from examination of text and style [of] Illustration on title page'.

Typed Letter Signed ('Walter Besant') to Mrs [Alice] Westlake.

Author: 
Sir Walter Besant (1836-1901), novelist and historian of London [Alice Westlake (nee Hare); Adam and Charles Black, publishers; The Survey of London; Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea; Frognal]
Publication details: 
13 February 1897; on Adam and Charles Black 'Survey of London' letterhead.
£45.00

12mo, 2 pp. Seventeen lines of text. On lightly aged and creased paper. Attractive arts and crafts letterhead. Sending his 'mosts profound sympathy in the danger which threatens Chelsea'. He will sign 'the paper [...] with the greatest of pleasure', although he anticipates 'very little good as a possible result'. Suggests a time at which the paper can be sent to him.

The Landlord's Budget Addressed to the Right Hon. The Earl of Rosebery

Author: 
[Charles Baron Clarke] C.B. Clarke, eminent botanist but also writer on politics and economics.
Publication details: 
Kew, 21 April 1896
£56.00

Printed pamphlet, 8pp., 8vo, unbound, some candle-wax droppings, otherwise good. Clarke dissents from Rosebery's proposal "to spend one-and-a-half-million of National income in paying half agricultural rates". No copy found listed on COPAC or WorldCat.

Documents Signed by Campbell and Clifford relating to an Officer in the Government of the Falklands Islands, with related material.

Author: 
Colin Campbell and Miles Clifford.
Publication details: 
Stanley, Falklands, 1952-1954.
£150.00

A small archive, items one page folio (unless ow stated) comprising: (1952) appointment of J.E. Briscoe to be Deputy of officer administering the Colony, royal stamp, signed by Colin Campbell (Colonial Secretary) ND Briscoe; (Jan.

Post Office Telegraph to Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer.

Author: 
Leopold Rothschild
Publication details: 
Handed in at Mayfair'; 3 June 1904.
£20.00

From the third son (1845-1917) of Baron Lionel de Rothschild to the noted botanist (1843-1928), Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew (1885-1905). Stamped, printed Post Office telegraph on discoloured high-acidity paper, roughly twenty-centimeters by thirteen centimeters. Mounted on larger piece of better-quality paper, also discoloured with age. Reads 'TO { Thiselton Dyer | Kew Gardens | Very many thanks Kind congratulations | Leopold Rothschild'. The reason for congratulations is unclear.

Subscription of letter, clipped, including signature, from letter to J.I. Webster.

Author: 
Jared Sparks, author of a Life of Washington.
Jared
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£50.00
Jared

Part of letter, 4 x 1.5", good condition, saying "I have the honor to be, / Sir, / Your most obt. sert / Jared Sparks / [opp.] J.I. Webster, Esq."

Three Autograph Letters Signed (all 'E. Beulé'), in French, to (severally) Messieurs Jalabert and Duvivier, and an unnamed woman.

Author: 
Charles Ernest Beulé (1826-1874), French archaeologist and politician [Jalabert; Duvivier]
Publication details: 
The letters to Jalabert and Duvivier without date or place; the letter to the woman dated '<?>, 16 Novembre [no year]'.
£100.00

All three letters 12mo. The letter to Jalabert (with a mourning border) is 2 pp, the others 1 p each. All three in good condition. The Jalabert letter (18 lines) mentions his wife and 'M. Goupil'. The Duvivier letter (6 lines) is a letter of introduction to a 'Monsieur Pietsch, artiste distingue de Berlin'. Asks him to give the artist 'toutes les facilités pour visiter l'Hémicycle de Delaroche et la galérie des Plâtres'. The letter to the woman (11 lines). His return has been delayed by the death of the King of Portugal.

Two Autograph Letters Signed (both 'Jaubert') to 'monsieur le Baron Grenier, Procureur général de la Cour Imperiale, membre de la Légion d'honneur à Riom'.

Author: 
Comte François Jaubert (1758-1822), Conseiller d'Etat à Vie; Gouverneur de la Banque de France under the First Empire [Jean, Baron Grenier (1753-1841), Premier Président de la Cour Royale de Riom]
Publication details: 
Letter One: 'Paris, le 27 mai 1811', on letterhead of 'Le Comte de l'Empire, Conseiller d'Etat à Vie, [...]'. Letter Two: 'Paris ce 12 Janvier 1814'.
£150.00

Both items 4to,1 p. Both items good, on lightly aged and foxed paper. Both bifoliums, with the second item addressed, with broken wafer, on verso of second leaf. Both docketed in pencil in a nineteenth-century hand. Letter One (nineteen lines of text): He is grateful to Grenier for sending 'le procès verbal de l'installation de votre Cour'. Grenier was right to think that Jaubert would be interested in 'l'historique d'une cérémonie qui rend aux Cours la dignité convenable à la magistrature, et qui vous touche particulièrement'.

Secretarial Letter Signed ('Le Vte. de La Rochefoucauld'), as 'Aide de Camp du Roi, chargé du Département des Beaux Arts', in French, to the editor in chief of the Parisian newspaper 'Le Pilote'.

Author: 
Frédéric Gaëtan, marquis de La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt (1779-1863), French aristocrat and polititian [Charles X, Roi de France; 'Le Pilote']
Publication details: 
Paris le 21 Mai 1825', on letterhead of the Ministère de la Maison du Roi. Département des Beaux Arts.
£150.00

Foolscap (roughly 31.5 x 20 cm): 2 pp. Bifolium with blank second leaf. Thirty-one lines of text. On lightly aged and creased paper, with some discoloration and chipping in a thin strip at head (roughly 1.5 cm deep), affecting the date and letterhead but not the text. Text clear and entire. Casting interesting light on early nineteenth-century news management by the authorities in the continental Europe. The letter concerns the coronation of Charles X.

Secretarial Letter Signed ('Conde de Funchal'), in French, to 'Mr. Falconet, Avocat Celebre a Paris'.

Author: 
Domingo Antonio de Souza-Coutinho, Conde de Funchal (fl 1803-1833), Portuguese diplomat, Ambassador to England, and botanist [Ambroise Falconet? Jacques Récamier?]
Publication details: 
1 March 1816; Florence, Italy. Carrying postmarks and seal in red wax with impression of family crest.
£85.00

8vo, 2 pp. Twenty-two lines of text. Bifolium. Address, postmark and seal on reverse of otherwise-blank second leaf of bifolium. On aged and lightly creased paper, chipped and foxed. Text clear and entire. Acting on Falconet's advice, the Count has sent 'une Procure en regle à Mr Recamier [husband of the celebrated Madame Récamier?] à fin qu'il puisse retirer l'argenterie des mains de Mr Delamarre à l'expiration des trois mois'. He is grateful for Falconet's assistance in terminating 'cette facheuse affaire'.

Pamphlet, beginning with 'An exact list of those who voted against bringing in the Excise-Bill', followed by a section titled 'The Lords Protest', ending with an illustrated satirical poem, in two parts, titled 'Britannia Excisa: Britain Excis'd.'

Author: 
[Sir Robert Walpole; Excise Bill of 1733; Houses of Parliament; Parliamentary; Georgian political satire]
Walpole
Publication details: 
[London, 1733.]
£220.00
Walpole

Ten pages printed on a total of the six leaves of three folio bifoliums (leaf dimensions roughly 40.5 x 25 cm). The first part, apparently intended to fold around the others, is unpaginated, and printed on the recto of the first leaf and the verso of the last leaf of the bifolium. Each page consists of a list, divided into three columns of small print, giving details of the vote, with the names of the members, their constituencies, and a key revealing biographical information (e.g. 'Privy-Counsellors' [sic] and 'for and against Maintaining the Hessian Troops').

"Two Thunder-Clouds, closing in conflict": the meeting of Madvig and Cobet at the tercentenary of Leyden University and its historical background. Authorised translation by H. J. Rose.

Author: 
B. A. Van Proosdij [H. J. Rose, translator; Johan Nicolai Madvig (1804-1886); Carel Gabriel Cobet (1813-1889); Leiden University]
Publication details: 
Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1954.
£50.00

8vo, 47 pp. In original grey printed wraps. With frontispiece portrait of Madvig and one plate. Good, in dusty wraps. Presentation copy, with card 'With the compliments of Dr B. A. Van Proosdij, Scientific Advisor to Messrs. Brill' loosely inserted. Divided into four parts: 'The Intellectual Background', 'Preparations and the Eve of the Day', 'The Dies Natalis' and 'Epilogue', with six appendices of passages from original sources, and a postscript of 'Four Letters from Madvig to Geel, Bake, and Cobet'.

Souvenir of the Visit of the King of Spain to England', printed as napkin or handkerchief on tissue paper, illustrated, and with coloured border.

Author: 
Burgess, William & Co., London printers [King Alfonso XIII of Spain; King Edward VII of the United Kingdom; typography; typographical]
Publication details: 
[1905] 'Burgess William & Co., Printers, 12, Mansell Street, Aldgate, London City.'
£200.00

An unusual, scarce and frail survival. Printed on one side of a piece of tissue paper, roughly 35 cm square. Surprisingly well preserved: heavily creased, with some wear to extremities, one small hole (not affecting text or image) and one closed tear of approximately 4 cm to coloured border.

Three Autograph Letters Signed (all three 'W. Elwin') to historian Alexander William Kinglake (1809-1891).

Author: 
Whitwell Elwin (1816-1900), English journalist, editor of the 'Quarterly Review'
Publication details: 
1875, 1883, 1887; all three from Booton Rectory, Norwich.
£250.00

All three letters 12mo, and closely written. All three with rusted pinholes at head. A valuable correspondence, in which one of Victorian England's leading critics describes his response to the work of one of the age's foremost historians. LETTER ONE (1 page, 26 lines, good): He thanks Kinglake for sending his 'new volume' [of 'The Invasion of the Crimea']. 'I am reading it with great delight. The work to me is unique both in military & literary history.

Map headed 'Position of the Fleet at Spithead on the 28th. June 1902.'

Author: 
Sir William James Lloyd Wharton (1843-1905), hydrographer [Naval Review by King Edward VII at Spithead, 28 June 1902; Royal Navy; Fleet Review]
Publication details: 
London. Published at the Admiralty, 13th. June 1902, under the Superintendence of Rear Admiral Sir W. J. L. Wharton, K.C.B.: F.R.S.: Hydrographer. Sold by J.D. Potter. Agent for the sale of Admiralty Charts, 145 Minories.
£56.00

In light blue, light brown and black on one side of a piece of wove paper roughly 38 x 56 cm. Good: lightly creased and with a little wear at foot. Folded three times. 'Corrections 14th. June' in bottom left-hand corner, and 'Malby & Sons, Lith.' in bottom right-hand corner. Faintly stamped on border at foot 'CHARPENTIER | PORTSMOUTH'. COPAC lists one copy (National Library of Scotland).

Manuscript, in French, entitled 'Notice Sur l'Etablissement industriel fondé par M. Cornillac à Châtillon-sur-Seine (Côte-d'Or), Pour la fabrication des Livres de Piété.

Author: 
Charles Cornillac, French publisher of Châtillon-sur-Seine, Côte-d'Or (active between 1834-1872)
Publication details: 
Without date or place [but between 1847 and 1859].
£180.00

12mo: 4 pp. On the first leaves of each of two bifoliums, which are neatly attached the one within the other to make a four-leaf pamphlet the last two leaves of which are blank. Around 150 lines of closely- and neatly-written French text with a few corrections and additions. Presumably intended for publication. Divided into three parts. Begins 'Sauf les Forges, situes a Sainte-Colombe (2 Kilom.

Handbill entitled "Extract from "The Times" of 21st August, 1848.", reproducing a petition to the House of Commons 'from Finnemoor', complaining of 'oppression on the part of the Bishop of Oxford' [Samuel Wilberforce, 1805-1873].

Author: 
[The Times of London; Samuel Wilberforce (1805-1873), Bishop of Oxford; Finnemoor, Lewknor Uphill, Oxfordshire; Hambleden; Sir William Robert Clayton; Francis Agar]
Publication details: 
Publisher not stated. [1848.]
£25.00

Quarto bifolium, 3 pp. Verso of second leaf blank. On greyish-blue paper. Good, though lightly creased and with a little spottting. Begins 'MR. D'ISRAELI [sic] presented a Petition from Finnemoor, a place forming part of Oxfordshire, but being wholly within the County of Buckingham. The Petiton complained of oppression on the part of the Bishop of Oxford.

Unsigned coloured caricature of the Duke of Wellington, entitled 'The Hampshire Hog, or the Virtuous General retreating from his Position'.

Author: 
S. W. Fores, London printseller [Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington; English political satire; satirical prints; Georgian caricature]
Publication details: 
Pub Jan. 29 1821 by S W Fores 41 Piccadilly'.
£200.00

NOT in George. Dimensions of paper 27.5 x 41 cm. Dimensions of image 20.5 x 31.5. On aged, grubby paper with wear to extremities. Image entire, but with one closed tear intruding from right across 3 cm of the blue background, and three closed tears (the longest 4cm) horizontally across a central vertical crease. A splendid full-length figure of Wellington (entirely undamaged), in full military uniform, with boots, red coat with gold epaulettes, white breeches, gloves, and sword, flees, hands in air and plumed hat falling to the ground, from a giant pig with three human heads.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Walpole') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Horatio Walpole (1723-1809), 4th Baron Walpole, 2nd Baron Walpole of Wolterton, created Earl of Orford in 1806
Publication details: 
09/10/67
£105.00

4to: 3 pp. A bifolium, mounted onto a larger piece of paper by a strip along the inner margin of the verso of the second leaf. Separated horizontally into two parts by a central tear which has been neatly repaired with archival tape, but with the 39 lines of text clear and entire. A signficant letter regarding the political climate in the County of Norfolk in the period preceding the general parliamentary election of 1768.

Printed circular (in the form of a facsimile of a handwritten letter) invitation to the 'Ceremony of laying the Foundation Stone [of the 'New Library and Museum' at the Guildhall]'.

Author: 
William Sedgwick Saunders [Guildhall Library; Corporation of London; the City]
Publication details: 
17 October 1870; Guildhall.
£55.00

4to: 1 p. Facsimile of a handwritten letter. With small embossed circular letterhead, in red and gilt, with crest enclosed by the words 'Bibliotheca civitatis Londoniarum'. Somewhat grubby bifolium, but with text clear and entire, reading 'The Committee appointed by the Corporation of London to carry out the works in connexion with their new Library and Museum having fixed Thursday, the 27th. Instant for the ceremony of laying the Foundation Stone of the buildings, it will afford them much pleasure to be favored with your company on the occasion, at Guildhall at 2. o'clock. p.m.

Some Account of the Character of the late Right Honourable Henry Bilson Legge (DNB, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Irish Secretary, etc)

Author: 
[John Butler (1717-1802), Bishop of Hereford]
Publication details: 
London: Printed for J. Almon, opposite Burlington-House in Piccadilly. 1764.
£150.00

4to, 20 pp. The last page carries advertisements for the publisher Almon. Unbound; stitched. Good, with first and last leaves somewhat aged and chipped. Central vertical fold. A relatively uncommon item, with most of the entries on COPAC turning out to be for a microfilm reproduction.

Handbill poem, with illustration, entitled 'Doodle, Doodle, Doo. A New Love Song in the Court Stile.'

Author: 
John Pitts, ballad printer of Seven Dials [Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany; Mary Anne Clarke (1776-1852)]
Publication details: 
Printed and Sold by J. Pitts, No. 14. Great Saint Andrew Street Seven Dials,'
£100.00

Printed on one side of a piece of rough laid paper, approximately 24.5 x 8.5 cm. Crude circular woodcut of pedlar at head, diameter 3.5 cm. Good, on aged paper with a little creasing at head and foot. Consists of four four-line stanzas with refrain 'Doodle, doodle, doo.' First stanza, heavy with double-entendre, reads 'HEAV'N bless my dearest little dear, | The wind is not quite fair, | From Portland Road I write this here - | Oh! bless your little hair. | Doodle, doodle, doo.' Clearly refers to a high society Regency scandal, possibly that concerning the Duke of York and Mary Anne Clarke.

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