Autograph Letters

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Autograph Letter Signed ('E. Cortambert'), in French, to 'Monsieur le Directeur de l’Athenæum français, Rue Mazarine, 9 | Paris'.

Author: 
Pierre-François Eugène Cortambert (1805-1881), French geographer, Conservator of the Geographic Section of the Bibliothèque Nationale
Publication details: 
21 August 1853; Paris postmark.
£35.00

12mo, 2 pp. Bifolium, addressed, with circular postmark in black ink, on otherwise-blank second leaf of bifolium. Correcting 'une petite erreur' which he committed in 'le Comte rendu de la dernière Séance de la Société de Géographie', and which he wishes changed in the report which will be appearing in 'l’Athenæum français'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('H Fournel'), in French, to unnamed correspondent.

Author: 
Henri Fournel [Henri-Jérôme-Marie Fournel (1799-1876), French civil engineer, geologist and disciple of Saint-Simon] (1799-1876)
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£150.00

4to: 3 pp. Bifolium. Good on lightly aged and creased paper. Text clear and entire. Eighty lines of text, beginning abruptly, without salutation, 'Vous m'avez demandé ma pensée sur le prospectus que vous avez proposé.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Cte Jaubert'), in French, to 'Messieurs Pichon & Didier, Libraires Commissionaires, quai des Augustins No. 47. Paris.'

Author: 
Comte François Jaubert (1758-1822), Conseiller d'Etat à Vie; Gouverneur de la Banque de France under the First Empire [Pichon et Didier, Paris printers]
Publication details: 
Givry, près Fourchambault, par Nevers (Nièvre) 3 Juin 1827'.
£56.00
jaubert

12mo, 1 p. Eighteen lines of text. Good, on aged paper. Address, with broken wafer and two circular postmarks (one in red ink and the other in black) on verso of second leaf of bifolium. Making an order for a periodical publication, and giving instructions for delivery and payment.

Five Autograph Letters Signed (all 'E. Contambert'), in French: three to Ange de Saint-Priest and one to 'Monsieur le Caissier' of 'L'Encyclopédie'.

Author: 
Pierre-François Eugène Cortambert (1805-1881), geographer, Conservator of the Geographic Section of the Bibliothèque Nationale [Ange de Saint-Priest, editor of 'L'Encyclopédie du Dix-Neuvième Siècle']
Publication details: 
1852, 1874 and two undated.
£125.00

All items in good condition, on lightly aged paper, with text clear and entire. Letter Two with a little light spotting to the recto of the first leaf. Written in a crabbed hand. Concerning contributions by Cortambert to 'L'Encyclopédie'. Letter One (12mo, 3 pp): To 'Monsieur et honorable directeur', 9 July 1852. Letter Two (12mo, 3 pp): To 'Monsieur et honorable directeur', 7 June 1874. Letter Three (12mo, 1 p): To 'Mr de St Priest', undated. Letter Four (8vo, 1 p): To 'Monsieur le Caissier de Encyclopédie du 19e Siècle', Paris, Rue de Saintonge, 64.

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.

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.

3 ALsS, 1 ANS and 1 ACS (all 'Robert Speaight') to Kyrle Fletcher.

Author: 
Robert Speaight [Robert William Speaight] (1904-1976), actor, author and Roman Catholic apologist [Ifan Kyrle Fletcher (1905-1969), bookseller and author]
Publication details: 
12 September to 16 December 1951; variously from the Garrick Club; Campion House, Benenden, Kent; and 44 Onslow Gardens, London.
£100.00

The collection is in good condition, with items on lightly aged and creased paper. Letter One (12 September 1951, Onslow Gardens; 12mo, 1 p, in envelope): As Kyrle Fletcher 'may have seen', Speaight is engaged in a biography of William Poel, and is 'anxious to trace the letters he received from Shaw & which were sold about 1930'. Kyrle Fletcher has docketed the envelope with a precis of his reply. Card (postmarked 14 September 1951): Thanking Kyrle Fletcher for his 'letter & most useful suggestions'.

Typed Letter Signed to "Mr Drucker", bookseller.

Author: 
Arthur Koestler, author of "Darkness at Noon" and other works..
Publication details: 
8 Montpelier Square, London, SW7, 15 November 1975
£55.00

One page, 8vo, good condition. He is responding to news that Drucker has found the thtree books he requested. One of the books [Louis Fisscer's] "Men and Politics" "was intended for a mutual friend of the late Louis Fischer amd myself: Mrs Agnes Walker (she was once Agnes Knickerbocker, if you remember the famous journalist who died in an aircrash in India)." He gives an address in NY for the book to be sent to her and asks for the other books to be sent to the above address with an invoice for all three with airmail postage added.

Autograph Letter Signed to her husband George Purefoy Jervoise.

Author: 
Eliza Jervoise (nee Hall, died 1821) [George Purefoy Jervoise (1770-1847), M.P. and Sheriff of Hampshire, of Herriard House, Basingstoke]
Publication details: 
The Moat Thursday - | March 9th. 1815 -'.
£55.00

4to bifolium: 3 pp. Good, on lightly aged laid paper, with slight damage to second leaf caused by the breaking of the red wax seal, parts of which still adhere. Address, with black ink Salisbury postmark, on verso of second leaf. The 58 lines of text clear and entire. A chatty, spirited and interesting letter, casting valuable light on the doings of the better class of Hampshire society in Jane Austen's time. Addressing 'My Dear Mr. Jervoise' she begins by explaining that she 'wrote in such a hurry yesterday to save the Post, that I can scarcely know what I said'.

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.

Autograph Letter Signed to an unnamed correspondent.

Author: 
Thomas Phillipps, collector
Publication details: 
M.H. [Middle Hill], 13 N[ovember?] 1854
£250.00

Three pages, 8vo, creased and slightly stained, but clear and complete. He's been sent a copy of Seymour's lectures on Convents (pub. 1852), pays for it with stamps, makes one or two points for the next edition, refers to Wiseman (who published a response in 1853) as the "Cardinal of Impudentiana", and gives references to other works on nunneries ("evidences against"). He promotes a campaign to petition for the repeal of the Emancipation Act, and concludes with further suggestions for a new edition (typography etc).

Autograph Note Signed to Thomas Hood, journalist, editor and poet.

Author: 
Cyrus Redding, journalist and editor (DNB)
Publication details: 
3 Hill Road, [St John's Wood], "Monday morning", undated [1846 or before?].
£100.00

One page, 8vo, corners frayed, one spot, text clear and complete. "I feared the objection you mentioned in your note, but I was willing to try 'The Spanish Page' [Velasco [or memoirs of a page, 3 vols, 1846?], as has been sometimes done, piecemeal, for it will be a long time before I shall be able to complete the three volumes. / I send you a small light article purely my own.

Letter Signed "Sidmouth" to an unnamed correspondent.

Author: 
Viscount Sidmouth, statesman (DNB), here "Home Secretary".
Publication details: 
Whitehall, 8 Dec. 1817.
£120.00

Two pages, 4to, copperplate text by secretary, fold marks, marks of sellotape (half inch square at most) at edge, small chip bottom corner,m text cleqar and complete. Sidmouth, who has received a letter in favour of the condemned John Vartie, forger, informs his correspondent that "the Case of this unfortunate Person had the most full and deliberate consideration, at the time when the Report was made to the Prince Regent in Council.

Autograph letter signed ('L'abbe Contrafatto'), in French, to Félix Barthe (1795-1863), French Minister of Justice.

Author: 
Joseph Contrafatto (b.1798) [l'abbé Contrafatto], Sicilian-born French priest; sentenced to hard labour for an 'affaire de mœurs'; imprisoned, 1827; released, 1845 [Félix Barthe; paedophilia]
Publication details: 
Brest le 15 Juin 1831' [Bagne de Brest].
£300.00

4to: 2 pp. Eighteen lines of text. Very good on aged paper. Docketed. Written while a convict at the Bagne de Brest. Titled by Contrafatto in top left-hand corner 'Direction des affaires Criminelles et des grâces.' Begins with a Latin quotation on the subject of crime and innocence, to which he adds the comment 'Quel est celui qui, plus que moi, ait le droit d'invoquer ce principe tutélaire?' In a six-line paragraph attempts to flatter Barthe ('[...] l'ornement du Barreau avant d'être appelé dans le conseil du Roi.

One Typed Letter Signed, one Autograph Letter Signed, one Autograph Postcard initialled, all to Harry Paynter (one also to Paynter's wife), and a typescript annotated in Young's hand.

Author: 
Francis Brett Young, novelist.
Publication details: 
107 East 70th Street, 21 Nov. 1928, Esthwaite Lodge, Hawkshead, Nr. Ambleside, 31 March 1930, and (Postcard) Mamounia Hotel, Marrakesh, [1935?].
£400.00

Both letters, two pages, 8vo, stained and marked, but texts clear and complete. The Postcard is grubby (view of Marrakesh on front).

Seven Autograph Letters Signed and the unsigned first part of an eighth letter, all to his second son Charles John Manning (1799-1880); also a manuscript transcription of a memorial tablet to him.

Author: 
William Manning (1763-1835), Governor of the Bank of England, 1812-14; Deputy-Governor, 1810-12; Director, 1792-1831; West Indian merchant; father of Cardinal Henry Edward Manning [slavery]
Publication details: 
Five of the letters dated between 1827 and 1831.
£350.00

The collection is lightly aged and in good condition. Letter One (12mo, 3 pp), Oxford, 1 November 1827, signed 'W: M.': Begins by saying that he will be pleased to join Charles 'in the Lodging you propose or any other more to your mind - I had not fixed upon any plan, but thought once of being at Ellis's Hotel - (the Colonial Club House, St. James St.) Your proposal, however, I like much better.' He will 'much prefer being in the Regent Street on late Nights in the Ho. of Commons [Manning was also a Member of Parliament], as I found Wimpole St.

Autograph Letter Signed "W. Hone" to an unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
William Hone, Radical bookseller and publisher (DNB).
Publication details: 
5 Bolt Court, 18 June 1840.
£250.00

One page, minor staining not affecting text, laid down on grey coarse paper. "Here is the Cape Shipping List [perhaps including slavers?]. It's business-like details of murders by wholesale tell the cold blooded tales of horror more effectually than eloquent language. They [leave?] & lead the mind to imagine the terrible scenes enacted with poetical power which minute detail fails to [word excised "affect"] produce. I admire this brevity - it is inoffensively offensive. / I am grateful to you, my dear Sir, for your care of my daughter - your help to the helpless.

Autograph Note Signed ('Elisabeth') in English to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Elisabeth [Elizabeth] Ludovika of Bavaria (1801-1873), Princess of Bavaria and later Queen consort of Prussia as wife of King Frederick William IV of Prussia (1795-1861)
Publication details: 
Friday' [date not stated]; on letterhead of York House, Twickenham, S.W. [London].
£125.00

16mo (roughly 11 x 8 cm), 1 p. Creased and ruckled, and with slight discolouration from previous mounting, and with a piece of the mount adhering to the blank reverse. Reads 'My dear Sir | I thank you for your letter and the information it contained. I write to Paris to have PP' book as soon as it is out. | Yours truly | [signed] Elisabeth'. Signature stylized to the point of illegibility. Piece of mount docketed in contemporary hand 'Elizabeth late Queen of Prussia'.

Pollard: Eleven Autograph Letters Signed (all 'Alan Pollard.') to G. K. Menzies, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts. Walker: Two Typed Letters Signed (both 'Emery Walker') to S. Digby of the Royal Society of Arts. With 23 printed diagrams.

Author: 
Alan Faraday Campbell Pollard (1877-1948) of Imperial College, Vice-President of the Society for International Bibliography; Sir Emery Walker (1851-1933), process engraver and typographer
Publication details: 
Pollard: All 1922; one from "Brancepeth", Hampton-on-Thames, the others on Imperial College letterheads. Walker: 4 and 29 August 1922; both on letterheads of Emery Walker Limited ('formerly Cockerell and Walker'), 16 Clifford's Inn, Fleet Street.
£250.00

Pollard's eleven letters: one 12mo (1 p); the other ten 4to (eight 1 p and two 2 pp). The first has a small spike hole affecting one word, otherwise the collection is in good condition. Four docketed and seven bearing the Society's stamp. Pollard was 'Professor of Instrument Design (Mechanical)' (later 'Optical Engineering') at Imperial College, and the correspondence relates to the publication of his 1922 Cantor Lectures to the Society on 'The Mechanical Design of Scientific Instruments'. Emery Walker's two letters: both 12mo, 2 pp (one of 15 and the other of 19 lines).

Autograph Note Signed "E. Scribe" to an unnamed friend and collaborator

Author: 
Eugene Scribe, playwright and librettist
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£200.00

One page, c.10 x 13cm, creased and dulled but text clear and complete. "Mon cher ami/ Voila tout ce wue j'ai et prenez garde d'egarer ce scenario du second acte - je n'en ai pas d'autre copie et s'il la perdait, je ne pourrai jamais me rappeler un seul mot du contiens.- / Mille [?] tendres amitiés et remerciements de votre aimable billet -"

Autograph Letter Signed "Ch. Lemire" to Jules Gros, "Publiciste, Paris".

Author: 
Charles Lemire, Administrateur colonial, Explorateurauthority on Indo-China [Vietnam; Cambodia; Laos]
Publication details: 
Trelage pres Angers, 21 Octobre 1883. In French.
£225.00

Two pages, 8vo, good condition. He has sent Gros a brochure "sur l'Instruction publique en australie." Also, on the advice of his editor, Challamel, he has sent Gros his volumes on Indo-China, Caledonia and Australia further to a promise that he would cite them in his studies on "les mouvements geographiques.". He wants to be informed when they have arrived. He is also about to publish another book on Indo-China and one on Caledonia with maps and illustrations.

Two Autograph Letters Signed "Augte Viquesnel" to an unnamed correspondent. In French [En Francais]

Author: 
[TURKEY] Auguste Viquesnel (1803-1867), author of "Voyage dans la Turquie d'Europe"
Publication details: 
Paris, 7 June 1847 and Seaux, 14 August [1854?].
£120.00

One page each, 8vo, minor stains and creasing, good condition. (1847) He describes a colleague, a "M. de La Roquette", for some years Secretary to the "Societe de geographie". whom he understands to be working on Turkey. "Je me [?] de lui indiquer un ouvrage Special sur Constantinople, son historie, ses monuments . . . " He wishes to avail himself of his correspondent's knowledge of "bibliographie" to help his colleague.

Three Autograph Letters Signed (all 'J. H. Stocqueler') to Philippart.

Author: 
Joachim Hayward Stocqueler (1800-1885), English traveller and writer [Sir John Philippart (c.1784-1875), editor of the United Services Gazette
Publication details: 
Two letters from 6 Wellington Street, Strand, London, both undated (one 'Thursday' and the other docketed by Phillipart 'Novr 1848'; the third letter 10 August 1870, 8 Henley Street, Kentish Town.
£180.00

Letter One (November 1848; folio, 1 p; on discoloured, creased and worn paper): Availing himself of Philippart's 'kind permission to contribute to the U. S. Magazine', Stocqueler is sending 'the commencement of a Historical Sketch' he has 'long meditated writing'. 'A note in this month's Dublin University Mag. has afforded the text - & the pretext'. It 'will be calculated to please the India Office', and will contain 'a good deal of personal sketch'. Addressed on reverse to Philippart at the Magazine's office at 19 Catherine Street, Strand, and docketed by Philippart.

Autograph Letter Signed to "Miss Pye-Smith".

Author: 
George Clausen, painter
Publication details: 
[Printed heading] 61 Carlton Hill, N.W., 10 January [19]11.
£165.00

One page, 4to, good condition, discussing Claude and explaining the nature of the "Claude mirror" giving insights into his theory of painting.

Two Letters Signed "Ducros" (body of letters secretarial) to "Monsignor" and (presuambly the same party) Monsignor Pacca "maestro di Camera di Sua Santita".

Author: 
[J.] Ducros, ingénieur
Publication details: 
Hotel de la Minerva, Rome, 23 avril 1857 and 5 octobre 1857
£50.00

One page each, 4to, sl. chipped. (avril)He requests an audience with a Cardinal and concludes with a statement about himself: "Ingénieur en chef au Corps impérial des Ponts et Chausées; ingénieur en chef de la Compagnie du Chemin de fer de Rome à Ceprano." (octobre) requesting another (?0 audience (or is it the same one?)

Autograph Letter Signed to the Birmingham inventor Samuel Timings (active between 1853 and 1869).

Author: 
Henry Warren (1794-1879), English painter of Biblical and oriental themes
Publication details: 
28 March 1863; on letterhead of 24 Upper Phillimore Place, Kensingon, W.
£120.00

12mo, 4 pp. Good, on aged paper with a little light staining at head. A significant letter, in which Warren gives information of those of Warren's 'poor works' which have been engraved: 'they have been chiefly for book illustration and are spread through many publishers'. Begins by describing how 'Murray's Childe Harold has many vignettes, very well engraved from my drawings'. Ends by saying that 'There is also a print in the mixed style of considerable size engraved by Humphreys but not yet published. It is from my picture of a story teller reciting in a coffee house of Damascus'.

Autograph Letter Autograph Letter Signed to an unnamed woman.

Author: 
Ernest Lacan, sometime Secretaire de la Redaction du journal La Lumière, writing on behalf of Niepce, pioneer photographer.
Publication details: 
"Mardi" [no other information about place and date].
£250.00

Two pages, 8vo, good condition. Text as follows (accents not on my keyboard!): M. Niepce est venue hier, un peu inquiet, me dire qu'on venait de lui apprendre que l'organisation militaire des chateaux inferieurs etait a peu pres decidee. N'ayant rien aucune nouvelle en ce qui le concerne, il craint d'avoir ete tout a fait oublie au milieu des preoccupations que les evenements recents ont fait [naitre?]. / Oserai, je vous prie, Madame, de demander a Monsieur Le Fevre, qui a deja tant fait pour lui, de vouloir bien rappeler a l'Empereur notre pauvre officier savant. / Ce sera pour M.

Autograph Letter Signed to "___Harrison Esq".

Author: 
W.C. Taylor [William Cooke Taylor], Irish miscellaneous writer, author of "The History of Mohammedanism", etc (DNB, 1800-1849.
Publication details: 
97 Upper Seymour Street, Euston Square, [London], 21 May [1834?]
£150.00

One page, 8vo, some spotting but mainly good condition, complete and legible. "I send you a translation of an Arabian Tale written by Al Mohdi, an employé [underlined] of the French govt during the time that Egypt was occupied by the French Army. It has been modified & abridged for some of the details were unfit for European eyes & others would not be understood without lengthened notes. I had at one time designed to transate the entire collection, for in my opinion many of the stories surpass those of the Arabian Nights.

Autograph Letter Signed to an unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Stéphane Flachat, Ingénieur, Engineer.
Publication details: 
No place, 12 Janvier 1830.
£280.00

One page, minor damage and staining marginally affecting text, which has lost one letter, as follows: "D'après l'autorisation que mon frère [Eugène Flachat, eminent engineer] m'a transmise de votre part, je prends la liberté de vous demander un rendez-vous, pour vour entretenir du Canal maritime, et vous soumettre notamment la partie des plans de cette entreprise qui interesse plus spécialement la ville de Paris.

[Billet Autographe Signée] Autograph Note Signed "F Barry" with a cover note by Eugene Philippe (on its verso) and a Letter Signed "[Etienne] Dujardin-Beaumetz" (1852-1913), sous secrétaire d'Etat aux Beaux-Arts, about Barry's works.

Author: 
François Barry, French artist
Publication details: 
No place for the former, but the docketing previously beneath the Note says 22 Aout 1805.
£300.00

{Note/Billet} One page, c.16 x 11cm, some marking but text clear and complete, but partly illegible as follows: "Il faudrait . . . fut . . . merci un . . . je te ferais alors un bien joli tableau / FBarry/" This note has been soake away from a larger piece of paper in poor condition. at the foot of which an unknown hand explained that "Ces quelques lignes sont les dernieres que Monsieur Barry aient ecrits. Elles datent de 22 Aout 1905.

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