Social history

Autograph Letter (signed 'Anon') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Mrs. Manning [The Red Cross Sale at Christie's, 1916]
Publication details: 
26 February 1916; Tavistock, Salisbury, Wiltshire.
£28.00

One page, 4to. Good, but creased and with slight damage to reverse from caused by removal from mount. Despite signing 'Anon' the author has written her name and address at the head of the letter. 'Since sending you the two ancient Documents & two Autographs which you courteously acknowledged (816) I have found This Programme which was used by Queen Victoria on Feby 7th. 1891. It was given to me by a friend who was staying at The Old George Hotel, Salisbury & I enclose her letter which accompanied it.

Autograph Letter Signed to [Edward] T[racy]. Turnerelli.

Author: 
Daniel Gilbert, President of the Providence-Row Night Refuge in Finsbury, London
Publication details: 
22 Finsbury Circus | Feb 4/64.'
£50.00

The recipient, E. T. Turnerelli (1813-96), was an artist and leading member of the Conservative party. One page, 12mo. Grubby and creased. Mounted on a piece of grey paper, at the foot of which a newspaper cutting expaining the circumstances of the letter. Reads 'Dear Mr Turnerelli | I am most grateful for the cheque of £10. - from a "Traveller", - & forwarded by the Editor of the "Telegraph" for the Providence Row Night Refuge. Your efforts on behalf of the "Homeless" deserve every praise. - Hoping you are better. I am Yours Most Truly | Daniel Gilbert'.

Autograph Letter Signed to Edward Frederick Lecks[, Secretary, St Ann's Society].

Author: 
Thomas Denman, 1st Baron Denman
Publication details: 
Guildhall Feb 24 | 1838'.
£25.00

Judge (1779-1854) and Lord Chief Justice of England. 'I must not defend one neglect by another; but I fear that other applications of the same kind as that from yourself respecting the St Ann's Schools remain also unanswered. My well known engagements will form some apology but I regret to add that I have found it absolutely necessary to decline acting as a steward at any public dinner'. Signed 'Denman'.

Signed Letter in secretarial hand to Francis B[roxholme]. G[rey]. Jenkinson[, House of Commons Clerk].

Author: 
Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke [CHILD LABOUR; COAL MINING]
Publication details: 
19 April 1900; on letterhead '76, Sloane Street, S.W.'
£80.00

Second baronet (1843-1911), politician and author. Three pages, 12mo. In good condition although grubby and with a few stains. 'My Coal Mines Prevention of Child Labour Underground Bill grew out of the Eight Hours debate and a challenge to the Coal Owners, so I did not put metalliferous mines in, and excluded them by any title. There are very few boys under 13 in them, but the principle might be the same'. He has been consulted on the matter by the Home Office, and has spoken to Lord Grey about it.

Autograph Letter Signed, Henry Collins, to "Brigham"

Author: 
General Annual Licensing Meeting, North Yorkshire.
Publication details: 
Thursday afternoon (no date - watermark 1833).
£50.00

Two pages, 3 x 8", sl. soiled buy mainly good condition. He encloses "the precepts [not present] which he had printed at "Pratts" [printer] and in which he made a correction. He also encloses [PRESENT] "notices to be given by the respective constables to the Innkeepers and labelled then for the different townships soo that you will only have to enclose them inside your precepts to the constables of the townships as laabelled . . . The jury lists will leave to be delivered as stated in the cards . . .

A collection of manuscript invoices and receipts relating to Church expenditure.

Author: 
St George's in the East
Publication details: 
1777-1852.
£500.00

Parish of St George's Middlesex also known as St George's-in-the-East to distinguish it from other St George's in London. It was designed by Hawksmoor. Approximately 50 (fifty) invoices and receipts ranging from scraps of 2 x 2" to 4to and folio pages, most approx. 3 x 6".

Handbill resolution.

Author: 
Arthur Nicholson, Chairman of Meeting of Silk Manufacturers and Representatives, Leek, Staffordshire
Publication details: 
1902; 'THOMAS GRACE, PRINTER AND STATIONER, LEEK.'
£25.00

One page. Roughly 13 inches by 8 inches. In good condition, although slightly discoloured, creased from folding and with one very small closed tear. Reports the resolution of a meeting held at the Town Hall in Leek on 30 December 1901, that beginning on 1 January 1902 'the operatives shall give up the five minutes grace now allowed on entering Mills at 6.30 and after dinner'. Also states the working hours for week-days and Saturdays.

Printed notice, signed 'AMBROSE MOORE' regarding 'Children in Silk Mills', together with covering manuscript letter, signed 'Grout & Co.', and envelope, addressed to William Wilshere, M.P.

Author: 
The Victorian Silk Trade [Child Labour, Factories' Act].
Publication details: 
The notice: 'LONDON, Milk Street, | 8th March, 1844.'; the letter: 'Silk Mills | Gt.. Yarmouth | 9th.. March 1844'.
£95.00

Wilshere (1804-67) was M.P. for Great Yarmouth William, MP for Great Yarmouth between 1837 and 1846). The notice: 2 pages, 4to. In very good condition despite minor spotting and two closed tears caused by folding. The letter: 1 page, 8vo. In very good condition. The envelope (addressed to 'W. Wilshere Esqr. M. P. | 12 Stratton Street | Piccadilly | London') in very good condition with red wax lion seal and postmarks. Postage stamps removed. The letter urges Wilshere to 'support the view of the Case of of [sic] the Silk trade taken by the writer Mr Ambrose Moore'.

Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Alexander Baring, first Baron Ashburton (1773-1848).
Publication details: 
Dated 'Saturday night'.
£50.00

Merchant and banker (1773-1848). 2 pages, 8vo. Creased, grubby and discoloured. 'The proclamation has been made this morning and the Poll [presumably a parliamentary election, as Baring sat in the Commons from 1806] will open on Thursday next. I request therefore that our counsel may be here at latest Wednesday evening. The officers appear very & have sent for an decidedly in the interest of Mr Seymour. We may expect therefore a hard struggle & every of attempt against us.' In a postscript he asks his correspondent to 'fix the fee'.

Two autograph Documents in Frankland's hand, one initialled "T.F." addressed to "Mr Chas Walker"

Author: 
Sir Thomas Frankland.
Publication details: 
1785 and 1819.
£200.00

M.P. for Thirsk, d. 1831. Document A, two page, 4to, chipped, one hole, with marginal textual loss, headed "York Courant / Tuesday Aug. 23d 1785 / City of York", measures taken against "Highwaymen, Housebreakers, Pickpockets, Horse--stealers, Common Thieve, Cheats, Sharpers, and other offenders with their confederates, resort topublic places & Fairs to meet their accomplices, & perpetrate their villainies . . ." described (presumably in the newspaper in the heading) by "Geo. Townend / Common Clerk".

Autograph Note to the Editor of Debrett's Peerage.

Author: 
William Jacobson, Bishop of Chester
Publication details: 
28 October 1875; Chester.
£25.00

English cleric (1803-84). 1 page, 16mo. In good condition. Formal letter written in the third person. Reads 'Chester, October 28, 1875. | The Bishop of Chester presents his Compliments to the Editor of Debrett's Peerage, &c, and has the satisfaction of stating that he has found no occasion to offer any remark on the inclosed Paper.'

Autograph Letter Signed to his agent [unnamed].

Author: 
Frederick Keppel, Bishop of Exeter
Publication details: 
5 March 1773; Deanery House, Windsor.
£60.00

English ecclesiastic (1729-77; DNB). 2 pages, 8vo. On paper stained and discoloured, with several small closed tears. Amusingly bad-tempered missive.

Typed Letter with cyclostyle signature to A. D. Snow of St Leonards-on-Sea.

Author: 
George Cadbury
Publication details: 
19 December 1911; letterhead 'BOURNVILLE. | BIRMINGHAM.'
£45.00

Quaker confectioner, social reformer and philanthropist (1839-1922). 1 page, 8vo. A little grubby and creased but in good condition overall, with the blank reverse attached to remains of another piece of paper. He thanks his correspondent for his letter and states that 'The Friends' Meeting House at Stirchley has been used for very many years by the Friendly Societies instead of the liquor shop. I believe that one society of 700 members [manuscript addition: 'the largest branch in the Midlands'] and another of 400 members have payments made in one of the rooms connected with it.

Autograph Signature in copy of The Collected Poems of John Masefield (London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1935).

Author: 
Marie Stopes
Publication details: 
1935; Norbury Park.
£85.00

Marie Carmichael Stopes (1880-1958), British paleobotanist and eugenicist, influential advocate of birth control. Clean neat inscription on recto of front free endpaper reads 'Marie C. Stopes | Norbury Park | 1935'. The volume is in good condition, in a grubby dustwrapper worn at the head and tail of the spine. Pages 324-5 and 339 have been marked up in soft pencil.

A Letter to the . . .Lord Bishop of Durham . . . on the Principle and Detail of the Measures now under consideration of Parliament for promoting and encouraging Industry and for the Relief and regulation of the Poor.

Author: 
Thomas Bernard.
Publication details: 
London, Printed for J. Hatchard, 1807.
£250.00

See DNB for Bernard's activites on behalf of the Poor. Half-title, blank, titlepage, imprint, pp. [1]-62, 8vo. Disbound, poor condition, frayed, soiled, worm-holed in parts, some pages detached or semi-detached, but text clear and complete. INSCRIBED "Geo. Vansittart Esq. from the author" i.e. Bernard. Note: see DNB for George Vansittart, nephew of theSecretary to the Treasury to whom Bernard addressed "Letter to the Right Hon. N. Vansittart on Repeal of the Salt Duties". A scarce pamphlet.

Printed handbill headed 'TABLES TURNED; | OR THE | Tories reduced to the Workhouse, | Being the First Examination of Paupert before the Commissioners of the New Poor Law'

Author: 
POOR LAW
Publication details: 
Without date or place, but circa 1834; printed by 'BIRT, Printer, 39, Great St. An- | drew St. Seven Dials. [London]'.
£100.00

In 3 columns on a sheet of thin unwatermarked wove paper, 10 inches by 7. Creased and grubby, but in good condition overall. Lightly attached at head to a sheet of paper. Satirical report of examination of a Beadle, Bob Orange Peel [Sir Robert Peel], Old Nosey [Wellington?], Cumberland Griffin from Kew [?], Jack Cobley [?], Winchester Rat (a mayor) [?], Sailor Bill [William IV], and Madame Addle-head [?].

Autograph Letter Signed to [R. N. Freakes].

Author: 
David Seth-Smith
Publication details: 
10 March 1934, on embossed letterhead 'CURATORS HOUSE | ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, N.W.8.'
£35.00

Presenter of 1930's show on BBC radio, 'The Zoo Man'. 1 page, 12mo. Folded twice. In good condition. 'All you can do for your parrot is to paint the jaws with iodine, but I am afraid the trouble may be with the kidneys & in that case you cannot do much. | Give quite simple food, nothing fattening | Yours truly, | D. Seth-Smith "The Zoo Man". Seth-Smith's book 'The Zoo Man Speaking' was published by Thomas Nelson in 1937. In grubby stamped envelope addressed in autograph to Freakes.

Two Autograph Letters Signed to Charles B. Walker of Thirsk.

Author: 
Reverend Doctor T. Newton, Wesleyan Minister, on the administration of the poor law
Publication details: 
Both from Coxwold, the first 3 May 1824 and the second 10 March 1825.
£50.00

A newspaper cutting attached to the white paper folder in which these items are placed carries a short obituary of Newton, who died 30 April [1854]. The first letter is 1 page, 4to, addressed on reverse, and the second 1 page, 12mo, with address on reverse of second leaf of bifolium. Both grubby but in good condition. Letter 1: 'I am sorry the very stormy morning will not allow me to join my Brother Magistrates in answering the enclosed Queries.

Signature only.

Author: 
Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence.
Publication details: 
No place [1930].
£20.00

Suffragette. "Yours affectionately, [typed] Emmeline Pethick Lawrence [autograph], c.4 x 1".Year added in another hand.

Autograph Letter Signed to Dr [?] Frazer.

Author: 
Charles Dibdin
Publication details: 
14, John Street, Adelphi, W. C., 24 November 1896.
£35.00

Charity administrator (1864-1938). Two pages, 16mo, on letterhead of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. 'This is the latest Chart published. It came out this month. We do not issue a larger copy or I would send it to you.'

autograph letter signed to James Hartford

Author: 
Samuel Lambert, S. L. & Co., varnish makers [Pratt & Lambert?]
Publication details: 
2pp, 8vo, 17 August 1892, on printed letterhead headed 'From S. L. & Co.'
£100.00

Long and unusually entertaining account 'Re Varnish', addressed to an American correspondent. A fascinating insight into the nature of Victorian entrepreneurship. 'It has long been an idea of mine that of all the Trades the most profitable one is Varnish [...] the Germans, clever as they are, can't make Varnish at all [...] nor for that matter can the Americans'.

two typed letters signed to Malcolm Mackenzie of the Empire Art Council

Author: 
David Eccles, later Viscount Eccles
Publication details: 
both 1p, one large and one small 8vo; the first (on Minister of Works letterhead), 25 April 1952; the second (on House of Commons letterhead), 1 June 1953
£50.00

In the first letter Eccles thanks Mackenzie for his congratulations on Eccles' 'scheme for forming a national collection of works of art'. Any help the EAC can give will be welcome, 'as the need for pictures and works of art for Government buildings, both at home and overseas, is really great'. In the second letter he thanks him for his telegram of congratulations 'on the Coronation decorations. Everyone in the Ministry of Works has tried hard to produce something worthy of the Queen and of our contemporary art'. Two items,

Two receipts signed, recipients "Messrs Herbert & Daniel"

Author: 
Tighe Hopkins
Publication details: 
Jan. and May 1912
£30.00

author. He has received royalties on account of his book "Wards of the State: an unofficial view of prisons and the prisoner" (1913). Two items,

ALS, 1p, 4to to Clement Shorter, editor of the Sphere newspaper

Author: 
Viscountess Lee of Fareham (see husband's DNB entry) on Chequers, the British Prime Ministers' country house
Publication details: 
30 October [no year, but between 1917 and 1921], on Chequers letterhead
£45.00

Says that Chequers has been "thoroughly photographed twice since our alterations" (1910 and 1917), but that she would be glad to allow Shorter to have other photographs taken. Country Life does not give the Lees copies of these photographs, but does sometimes allow other newspapers to reproduce them. "I remember very well the luncheon at Lord Curzon's about a year ago - Would you care to come to see Chequers before we leave?" The Lees acquired Chequers in 1909, the Chequers Estate Act was passed in 1917 and the couple left in 1921.

ALS in autograph addressed envelope, to Charles Williams of 28 Theobald's Road

Author: 
Montagu William Lowry Corry, Baron Rowton (DNB), politician and philanthropist
Publication details: 
2 October 1892, on letterhead "Ardverikie, | Kingussie, | N.B."
£50.00

Grubby and stained envelope addressed to Williams with "With a bag." in top left-hand corner. "The proof of your remembrance of your kind promise to me reached me just as I was leaving London, for a few days in this region. | I place your volumes on the shelves of my humble library with real satisfaction: for I am very pleased to have such a Token of your approval of my enterprize, and of your willingness to cooperate in making it a success. I hope to open - without any "ceremony" - possibly even in this month". Before they begin work he will ask him to visit Rowton House again.

ANS, 1 page, 16mo, addressed to "Mr. Williams | at [the wine merchants] Messrs. Clarke & Barlow's"

Author: 
Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd (DNB), judge and author
Publication details: 
Monday Morning [no date], 2 Elm Court Temple
£100.00

"Will you be so kind as to send me to this place, a dozen of the finest Champagne in the urse of the Morning? If you have any still Champagne I should prefer it provided it is of the best quality; but this, I fear is out of the question. Send the Bill with the Wine."

Hawaiian Grammar.

Author: 
Anon.
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£50.00

Typescript, 12pp., 4to, cover/title spotted, contents good.

Statistics of Crime in England and Wales for the Years 1842, 1843, and 1844.

Author: 
F.G.P. Neison.
Publication details: 
[1846].
£100.00

Read before the Statistical Section of the British Association at Southampton, 15 Sept. 1846. Pp.1-54, 8vo, disbound, some pages loose, some soiling particularly last page. INSCRIBED by the author: "To Alexander Robertson Esq / With [Mr?] Neison's Compts."

Autograph Letter Signed to W[illiam] Shackell, onetime owner, printer of "John Bull".

Author: 
Samuel Phillips.
Publication details: 
18 Sept. 1852.
£45.00

Glass manufacturer (1814-1854). 2pp., 8vo, good, admitting that he isinvolved with the Crystal Palace Company, but is not the secretary. He says that he has the interests of “Mr Woodfall” [the printer?] at heart, and his family is well. Phillips became literary diretor of the Crystal Palace Co. in 1853. He wrote Guide to the Crystal Palace and Park (1854).

Autograph Letters Signed, quantity.

Author: 
Samuel A. Barnett
Publication details: 
1886-1905.
£100.00

Founder of Toynbee Hall (1844-1913). 4 ALSs, 2pp. ea., 8vo,good, three to C.H. Grinling, socialist, , the fourth to “Trevelyan”. He describes a model of a curate, invites Grinling to a retreat of sorts,discusses a conversation he had had with Ramsay Macdonald on booksand workmen and how Macdonald wants to discuss the matter withothers.

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