CENTURY

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Manuscript Pay Warrant and Receipt, with Autograph Signature.

Author: 
John Murray, 2nd Earl of Dunmore (1685-1752); [Horatio?] Walpole.
Publication details: 
28 March 1740; Whitehall.
£56.00

Two pages. Dimensions of paper fourteen and a half inches by nine inches. Aged and stained, with fraying to extremities and some loss to one corner (not affecting text). Order to 'deliver and pay of such his Majesty's Treasure as remains in your Charge unto John Earl of Dunmore or his Assigns the Sum of Two hundred and Fifty Pounds', on Dunmore's 'Annuity or yearly Pension of One Thousand Pounds as one of the Gentlemen of his Majesty's Bedchamber'. With signatures of 'Winnington', 'G Earle' and <?>. Docketed 'Mr. Yorke I pray pay this Order out of Addl.

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]
Publication details: 
Glasgow: Printed for the Booksellers. 81. [sic] [1840-50?]
£850.00

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.

An archive representing his bookselling activities (first year of business) in 1951.

Author: 
[MID-CENTURY BOOKSELLING] Lt-Col. W.N. Pettigrew, bookseller,
Publication details: 
193 Kimbolton Road, Bedford, 1951.
£450.00

The archive comprises c. 150 items, the vast majority letters but also postcards, and manuscript and typewritten lists, some substantial, usually of Kiplingiana. [One in Pettigrew's hand, returned by Rota, has individual suggestions of prices attached and the final price offered by Pettigrew.] The letters are either manuscript or typewritten, in various formats, and mainly 1 or 2 pages. The archive breaks down into three sections: letters from booksellers (two from auctioneers); letters from collectors/bookbuyers; and personal/business papers.

Catalogue of the well-known and very valuable library formed at the Durdans, Epsom, by the late Rt. Honble. the Earl of Rosebery, K.G., K.T. Sold by order of his daughter Lady Sybil Grant. The first and second portions.

Author: 
Archibald Philip Primrose (1847-1929) , 5th Earl of Rosebery, British Prime Minister [Lady Sybil Grant; the Durdans, Epsom; Sotheby & Co.]
Publication details: 
Sotheby & Co., 34 & 35, New Bond Street, W.(1). On Monday, the 26th day of June, 1933, and four following days.
£100.00

TWO COPIES, both octavo: iv + 158 pages. Several collotype plates, several in red and gold. In original green printed Sotheby wraps. Both items sound internally, with some wear to the wraps. One item has extensive pencil annotations to the front wraps, and the other has a few ink marks to the reverse, with minor wear to the last couple of leaves. Both catalogues partially priced with some names by the London booksellers Myers & Co. of New Bond Street, one on the second day of the sale and the other on the fifth.

The Splendid Library of the Late Edwin B. Holden, at one time President of the Grolier Club, New York City. To be sold at unrestricted public sale by order of Mrs. Holden.

Author: 
Edwin Babcock Holden (1861-1906) [AUCTION CATALOGUE; THOMAS E. KIRBY, AUCTIONEER; GROLIER CLUB]
Publication details: 
28, 29 and 30 April, and 1 May 1920; At the American Art Galleries [Lent & Graff Co, New York].
£150.00

Quarto. Unpaginated (circa 240 pages?). 1789 lots. Numerous plates. Good, in worn contemporary olive cloth binding, with black label. Front wrap, printed in black and red, bound in at rear. Most lots priced in manuscript. Many fine bindings, privately printed, association and Kelmscott Press items. Preceded by four-page Prefatory Note giving a resume of the collection.

Her Royal Highness; A Romance of the Chancelleries of Europe.

Author: 
William Le Queux
Publication details: 
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1914.
£56.00

Octavo: 190 pp. In original red cloth binding. First edition. Lacks rear free endpaper. On aged paper and in heavily worn binding. INSCRIBED by author on creased front free endpaper 'Much that is contained in this book is founded on fact | [signed] William Le Queux | Oct 1916'.

Catalogue of a Valuable and Interesting Collection of Books formed by a Prominent American Playwright, [i.e. Daly] [...] relating to the Drama [...] Original Drawings. Including [...] A Very Valuable Series by W. Blake, Etc., Etc.

Author: 
[John Augustin Daly (1838-99), American playwright] [J. W. Bouton; Geo. A. Leavitt & Co., Auctioneers; William Blake; John Camden Hotten]
Publication details: 
No date [1878]; 'GEO. A. LEAVITT & CO., Auctioneers, Clinton Hall, New York.'
£75.00

Octavo: viii + 201 pages. Good and tight, on aged high-acidity paper, with some chipping and a little light staining at foot. A few pencil marks. In original printed grubby and chipped wraps cloth-taped to spine. Front wrap annotated in pencil. Four-page introduction entitled 'A PLAYWRIGHT'S WORKING LIBRARY.' Even considering the importance and interest of the theatrical collection, the high point is undoubtedly item 102: 'BLAKE, WILLIAM. ORIGINAL DRAWINGS IN WATER COLOURS and INDIA INK by the celebrated WILLIAM BLAKE (Pictor Ignotus).

18-line handbill advertisement, beginning 'W. Viney, Angel Hill, Tiverton, Begs leave to inform the Families and Inhabitants of this Town and its Neighbourhood, that he has just received a supply of the Bridgwater Red Ware, [...]'

Author: 
W. Viney, Angel Hill, Tiverton; James Pope; William Bragg, printer, of Cheapside, Taunton [nineteenth-century ceramics; Bridgwater Red Ware]
Publication details: 
Dated 23rd. April 1827. | W. BRAGG, PRINTER, &c. CHEAPSIDE, TAUNTON.'
£85.00

On one side of a piece of wove paper, watermarked 'BRIDGE MILL | 1826', roughly 24 x 19 cm. In a variety of types and point sizes. Good, with text clear and entire, on slightly grubby and lightly discoloured paper . Two spike holes at centre, puncturing one large letter (the 'W' of 'WARE'). Serving as a proof, with printer's manuscript corrections in pencil. The first three lines ('W. VINEY, | ANGEL HILL, | TIVERTON," have been cancelled, with the text that is intended to replace them ('James Pope Street ') at head of page.

Three Autograph Letters Signed (all 'Terrick Williams'): two to John Littlejohns and one to Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons Ltd.

Author: 
Terrick Williams [Terrick John Williams] (1860-1936), English landscape painter [John Littlejohns]
Publication details: 
First Letter (to Littlejohns): 15 June 1929. Second Letter (to [Littlejohns]): 20 December 1930. Third Letter (to Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons): 14 February 1931. All three on letterhead of 89, Gunterstone Road, W. Kensington, W14 [London].
£150.00

All three items concern Littlejohns' 'British Watercolour Painting and Painters of Today' (London: Pitman, 1931)'. First Letter: 12mo, 3 pp. 43 lines. Text clear and entire. On two leaves attached to one another in a corner by a pin. Good, on lightly-creased paper. Interesting and informative letter concerning 'two watercolours' which Williams would 'like to be 'reproduced in [Littlejohn's] work on water colours'. Gives details of the titles of the works and the name and address of the owner, 'who has consented to send them'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Felicity Hill'). Together with autograph signature (also 'Felcity Hill').

Author: 
Air Commodore Dame Felicity Hill [Felicity Barbara Hill] (1915-?), Director, Women's Royal Air Force, 1966-1969
Publication details: 
Undated; from Worcester Cottage, Mews Lane, Winchester, Hants.
£35.00

The six-line letter, which is laid down on a slightly larger piece of lilac paper, was originally on one side of an octavo leaf, but it has had a strip (presumably carrying the name and address of the recipient) beneath the address cut away. It is now in two pieces: 5 x 15.5 and 12 x 15.5 cm. Otherwise very good. Laid down on the top piece is a slip of paper in Hill's hand, reading 'From: Air Commodore Dame Felicity Hill D.B.E. WRAF (retd)'. In the bottom right-hand corner of the second piece of paper is a strip carrying Hill's autograph.

Handbill, amended in manuscript for reprinting, beginning 'Taunton Branch Missionary Society, In aid of the London Missionary Society, instituted 1795.'

Author: 
William Bragg, Printer, Cheapside, Taunton, Devon [London Missionary Society; Taunton Branch Missionary Society; Wivelscombe]
Publication details: 
Dated October 29th. 1826. | W. Bragg, Printer, Cheapside, Taunton.'
£95.00

On both sides of a piece of wove paper, roughly 23 x 18 cm. On lightly discoloured and creased paper, with central spike hole affecting two words. Two manuscript changes in ink on the recto: 'TAUNTON' amended to 'Wivelscombe' and the twenty-one names of the Society's officers cancelled. A handful of changes, in ink and pencil, on reverse. Mainly taken up with ten 'Principles and Regulations'. Seven-line footnote in small print on recto, concerning a 'FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE'. BBTI lists William Bragg as active in Taunton before 1830.

Autograph Signature ('Isabel Somerset') on piece of paper.

Author: 
Lady Isabel Somerset [Lady Isabella Caroline Somerset; Lady Henry Somerset] (née Somers-Cocks) (1851-1921), Temperance activist and campaigner for women's rights
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£23.00

On irregularly shaped piece of paper, roughly 3 x 7 cm, cut around the signature and its double underlining. Good signature, with slight smudging to a couple of letters.

Autograph Signature ('John Wilkes') on piece of paper.

Author: 
John Wilkes (1725–1797), English whig politician, rake and author; Lord Mayor of London, 1774; supposed member of Dashwood's Hell Fire Club
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£75.00

Good clear signature on aged and creased paper, 5.5 x 8 cm, with one rough edge and a small triangle torn away from one corner. Glue staining from previous mounting on reverse.

Fairburn's Genuine Edition of the Death-Bed Confessions of the late Countess of Guernsey, to Lady Anne H*******; developing a series of mysterious Transactions connected with the most illustrious Personages in the Kingdom: to which are added, [...].

Author: 
Francis Villiers, Countess of Jersey [spurious, attributed to] [Queen Caroline; King George IV; Lady Anne Hamilton]
Publication details: 
London: Printed and Published by John Fairburn, Broadway, Ludgate-hill.
£45.00

8vo: iv + 48 + [ii] pp. Last leaf carries advertisements for works by Fairburn. In marbled wraps. Text clear and entire. On aged paper with slight wear and fraying, small holes and light stains to first four leaves. Title continues '[...] to which are added, The Q-'s last letter to the K-, Written a few Days before Her M-'s Death, and other Authentic Documents, never before published. | [quotation] I am the Viper that has been secretly wounding you both.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Marsy'), in French, to 'Monsieur le Président et Cher Confrère' [Monsieur Théodore Hippert].

Author: 
Arthur, Comte de Marsy (1843-1900), archaeologist, director of the Société française d'Archéologie pour la Conservation des monuments historiques
Publication details: 
15 January 1894; on letterhead of the Société.
£75.00

12mo: 4 pp. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper. 65 lines of text. Discusses, among other matter, the recipient's 'Exposition de Dentelles', a 'voyage à Bruxelles', a 'très agréable reunion à Abbeville', and a trip by 67 members to Kent. Accompanied by a ten-line manuscript biography of de Marsy, in French in a contemporary hand, tipped in onto another slip of paper cut away from the letter's envelope, and bearing the address in de Marsy's hand.

Papers on Literature and Art.

Author: 
S. Margaret Fuller [Sarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli]
Publication details: 
Two volumes. London: Wiley & Putnam, 6, Waterloo Place. 1846.
£250.00

8vo: [viii] + 164 pp; [iv] + 183 pp. Bound together in contemporary half calf binding, gilt, marbled boards and endpapers. A tight copy, printed on aged, spotted paper, with occasional light damp-spotting, in worn binding. Bookplate of Aemiliani Reich, on spotted, aged paper, by Gordon Browne, on front pastedown. The first volume has a four-page preface by 'S.M.F.', dated 'New York, July, 1846.' Both volumes contain eight essays.

Autograph Letter Signed, in French, to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Jacques Herz (1794-1880), French pianist and composer [Sir Charles Lock Eastlake (1793-1865), President of the Royal Academy and first Keeper of the National Gallery]
Publication details: 
Vendredi 11 Mars' [no year]; 23 Bentinck Street, Manchester Square, London.
£56.00

12mo, 2 pp. 12 lines of text. Creased and ruckled, with a little smudging. Difficult hand. Asking the recipient 'd'aller passer une soirée avec nous'. Laid down on a piece of paper which is attached to the blank reverse of the second leaf of the bifolium is a slip of paper (roughly 2 x 9 cm) carrying Eastlake's signature ('always truly yours | [signed] C. L. Eastlake').

Secretarial Letter Signed ('Victor Meunier') to an unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Victor Meunier (1817-1903), French author and journalist; editor of 'Cosmos', the 'Revue Synthétique', and 'L’Ami des Sciences'
Publication details: 
Undated; on letterhead of the Revue Synthetique, Paris.
£25.00

12mo, 1 p. Five lines of text. Very good on lightly aged paper. Good firm signature. He is sending the first issue of the 'Revue Synthétique' and proposes an exchange of that magazine for the one that the recipient edits.

Anno Terito & Quarto Victoriae Reginae. Cap. XXIX. An Act to extend the Practice of Vaccination. [23d July 1840.]

Author: 
[smallpox vaccination; medical history; Victorian medicine; Act of Parliament, 1840]
Publication details: 
London: Printed by George E. Eyre and Andrew Spottiswoode, Printers to the Queen's most Excellent Majesty. 1840.
£25.00

8vo, 3 pp, paginated [225] to 227. Disbound bifolium. Two stab holes. Good, on lightly aged paper, with closed tear at head of crease line and slight loss along it. A piece of landmark legislation in the field of medical provision.

Collection of the firm's estimates, invoices and receipts, mainly addressed to Percy Young of Messrs. H. Young & Co. Ltd., Constructional Engineers, and concerning items for a 'House at Sheen' designed by the architect H. V. Milnes Emerson.

Author: 
Doulton & Co. Limited, Manufacturers of Sanitary Equipment, Lambeth [Royal Doulton Potteries; bathroom fixtures and fittings; Percy Young; H. V. Milnes Emerson]
Publication details: 
1930-1931.
£100.00

A collection of twenty-two items, with one printed envelope, all in good condition, and relating to a complex order to one of the United Kingdom's best-known business concerns. Interesting for the light it casts on the best business practice in the British building industry of the 1930s. Includes typed two-page foolscap estimate, dated 1 November 1930, initialed and on the firm's letterhead, addressed to H. V.

Collection of six items, including publicity material, invoice and receipt, some relating to an order for a house in East Sheen, Surrey.

Author: 
J. W. Gray & Son, Limited. 'Lightning Conductor Experts. Electrical Engineers. Steeplejacks. Chimney Shaft Builders & Repairers. Church Steeple Restorers. Flagstaff Makers & Erectors.'
Publication details: 
1930
£85.00

The collection of six items, with an envelope, is in good condition. An interesting sidelight into 1930s business practice, and an insight into an unusual business concern. First, copy of letter, 14 November 1930 (4to: 1 p), to the firm from Percy L. Young of Messrs H. Young & Co. Constructional Engineers, confirming a verbal order 'for the installation and supply of lightning conductors' to 2 Orchard Rise, Sheen Common Drive, East Sheen.

Proof of a printed prospectus for the British Piscicultural Company, Limited, 'formed for the purpose of carrying out on a large scale and on commercial principles in this country, the modern system of propagating fresh water and marine fish'.

Author: 
[The British Piscicultural Company, Limited.; Jean Jacques Marie Cyprien Victor Coste (1807-1873)]
Publication details: 
Undated, but the company 'Incorporated under the Companies' Act, 1862.'
£56.00

On both sides of a folio leaf (dimensions 42 x 26.5 cm). On aged and lightly creased and spotted paper. Proposing to raise 'CAPITAL, £50,000, in 5,000 SHARES of £10 each.' Details of Directors; Bankers; Auditors; Brokers; Solicitors; Secretary, (pro tem.); and Offices left blank.

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.

An Article on the Debts of the States from the Christian Review for March, 1844.

Author: 
[Boston; The Christian Review; <T Nayland? or Wayland?>; Sir E. F. Bromhead; nineteenth century economics; economic history]
Publication details: 
Boston: Printed by William S. Damrell, 11 Cornhill. 1844.
£150.00

8vo: 24 pp. Unbound and stitched. With printed grey front wrap, inscribed to 'Sir E. F. Bromhead | Bassingham | Lincolnshire | from the author | '. On aged paper, grubby at extremities and a little dogeared, but tight and with text clear and entire. 'The general fact has been long before the public, that the several States in the Union are indebted to various individuals in Europe, to the amount of about two hundred millions of dollars. At the time when this debt was incurred, very few persons, either in or out of the indebted States, gave themselves any trouble about it.

Manuscript and Typescript sections of an apparently unpublished work on 'British music and its present state'; 2 Typed Letters Signed, 3 Autograph Cards Signed, 1 Typed Card Signed to Mary Eversley, Covent Garden Opera, with copies of two replies.

Author: 
Scott Goddard (c.1895-1965), British musicologist
Publication details: 
1931-1932.
£400.00

The collection as a whole is in good condition on aged paper. ITEM ONE: 90-page typescript headed 'II | ANTECEDENT', beginnning 'It has become a commonplace of musicology, at least in this country, that the first two decades of the Twentieth Century show an immense increase of creative activity in the composition of works of music by an astonishingly rich group of their [sic] young composers.

Handbill entitled 'The Recruiting Officer's Speech.'

Author: 
The Recruiting Officer' [evangelical Christianity; handbills; Salvation Army; George Brimmer, London printer; G. and I. Offer, booksellers; ephemera]
Publication details: 
[c. 1818] London: Printed by G. Brimmer, 15, Water-lane, Fleet-street; and sold by G. and I. Offer, Postern Row, Tower Hill, and J. Higham, 6, Chiswell Street.
£150.00

On one side of a piece of unwatermarked wove paper, 32 x 25 cm. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper. Attractively produced within a decorative border, with the title in gothic script and the text beginning in a single column before splitting into two. Printer's and publishers' details at foot, with advertisement of five works published between 1815 and 1817.

Offprint entitled 'Notice sur Mr. F.-G. Maurice, l'un des Rédacteurs de la Bibliothèque Britannique et Universelle.'

Author: 
[Fréderic-Guillaume Maurice (1750-1826), French-Swiss savant, one of the founders in 1796 of the Bibliothèque Britannique [Bibliothèque Universelle]
Publication details: 
Tiree de la Division Litterature de la Bibl. Univ. [Bibliothèque Universelle] Nov. 1826'.
£75.00

8vo, 13 pp. Paginated I-XV. Eight-leaf unbound bifolium. Unbound and unstitched, the whole held together by a pin in the gutter. Good, on wove paper, but with title-page somewhat discoloured with damp. Separate printed title, 'NOTICE SUR Mr. F. G. MAURICE.' Inscribed [to?] at head of title-page, 'Msr Marshall Newton-Kyme, Tadcaster, Yorkshire'.

Handbill headed 'GENERAL ELECTION, 1859', listing 'Books and Forms' supplied by the firm to 'Under Sheriffs, Town Clerks, Election Auditors, Parliamentary Agents, Election Agents, Clerks to Justices and Solicitors during the ensuing Election.'

Author: 
A. W. Digby & Co., Parliamentary, Law, and General Stationers, and Printers, 90, Chancery Lane, London, (W.C.)' [United Kingdom General Election, 1859]
Publication details: 
A. W. Digby & Co., 90 Chancery Lane, London W.C. 1859.
£28.00

On both sides of a piece of laid paper roughly 39 x 24 cm. Good, on lightly creased paper with a little chipping and a few closed tears to extremities. Seventy-three items are listed, ranging from 'Proclamation of Election in Counties' to 'Certificate of Appointment', under six headings: 'Under Sheriffs (in Counties)', 'Returning Officers in Cities and Boroughs', 'Election Auditors', 'Election Agents in Counties', 'Election Agents in Cities and Boroughs' and 'Clerks to Justices in Cities and Boroughs'. Reverse gives four 'Specimens of Poll Books'.

Six documents including Signed Articles of Agreement for Johnson ('of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew') to perform Government 'service as Gardener in India'; with two testimonials and letters from Mary, Countess of Minto, and Cecil Allanson.

Author: 
John Thomas Johnson, Assistant Curator of the Botanical Gardens, Calcutta, India [Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Mary, Countess of Minto]
Publication details: 
1904-1935.
£250.00

The collection in good condition, with all but one of the six items carrying ring-binder punch holes. Item One, Articles of Agreement: Foolscap bifolium, 3 pp. Dated 16 September 1904. Printed seventeen-point agreement in the form of a manuscript facsimile. Signed by Johnson, Sir John Edge and Sir Stewart Colvin Bayley, and witnessed by 'W. Watson | R[oyal]. G[ardens] Kew' and 'Frank R. Marten | India Office'. Items Two and Three both with mourning border on letterhead of Minto House, Hawick. Item Two, Mary Countess of Minto ('M Minto') to Johnson. 4to: 1 p. 14 September 1914.

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