CHARLES

Paper dimensions roughly 6.5 x 12 cm. Good, with one dogeared corner. Recto reads '<...> has been lost - unless indeed your's meant to suggest a version of that explanation. I hope the enclosed will be found correct'. Verso reads '<...> Truly [with cropped 'T'] yours | [signed] C. R. Cockerell | J. P. Knight Esqe.'

Two pages, 12mo. Mourning border. Damp stained. Cowper has told 'P[rofesso]r. Wheatstone' [Sir Charles Wheatstone (1802-1875), Professor of Experimental Philosophy at King's College, pioneer of the telegraph, and seller of musical instruments] of Novello's 'wish to have a little conversation with him'. Gives dates when Wheatstone will be available to see Novello at ''King's College (in the Museum)'. '[H]e will very shortly go to Switzerland & therefore the earlier you meet him the better'.

4to: 1 p. Very good. Tipped in by reverse edge to leaf removed from autograph album. Envelope similarly mounted, with almost-intact seal and two postmarks, including a circular one in black ink stating 'MORE TO PAY'. He met John Grant the previous day at Wycombe Quarterly Meeting, and was told by him that Lucas had 'enquired of him the Terms of Admission to my school'.

8vo: 1 p. Good, with slight wear to outer edge, and strip from previous mount neatly adhering to reverse. With name of recipient at head, and docketed on reverse. He has 'seen some charming & useful Leaflets advocating Humanity to Animals' and has been 'led to understand they may be obtained through' his correspondent. He would like a hundred of the leaflets to be sent to him, 'for which I will gladly send stamps'. Hall was a sanctimonious figure, supposedly the model for Dickens's Pecksniff.

On piece of creased and lightly spotted paper roughly 11 x 11 cm. Reads '<...> for half a Century. | Believe that I remain | Dear Barry | Your's faithfully | [signed] Joseph Kay | Charles Barry Esqr. Kt. | &c &c &c'.

8vo: 1 p. Good, on creased paper with 1 cm closed tear to right of central horizontal crease (not affecting text). He thanks him for his 'kindness and courtesy'. 'I shall not fail to ask for you at Guildhall tonight'. Postscript refers to the 'pother they are making in the Times about a poor Dead and gone book of mine, called Captain Dangerous [published in 1863] Bless their hearts! I invented the whole story of Lord Francis Villein's death "out of my own head."' Docketed with four numbers in pencil.

Letter One (12mo: 4 pp, to 'My dear Mr Nichols', good, on discoloured paper): Explains that he has given 'a note of introduction to a most particular friend of mine Mr Lawrence of Ipplepen near Totnes and Launceston Cornwall'. Lawrence 'was a great friend of the late Mr Arundel of Landulph' and is 'a great friend of Mr Bray of Tavistock'. He is 'a man of ancient Cornish descent & from its first families'. Spence thinks Nichol will find Lawrence 'a valuable West Country Correspondent, well up in County history and nothing loth in the pursuit of antiquarian lore[.

8vo (each leaf roughly foolscap) bifolium: 3 pp. Well printed on good thick watermarked laid paper. Good, though a little grubby and lightly creased. Thirty-five pieces of business (signed in type by 'CHARLES ABBOT, Speaker'), from the 'Strensham (Worcester) Inclosure Act Amendment' to the 'Irish Lunatic Poor Committee', followed by seven Notices of Motions, ten Orders of the Day and the second reading of a Private Bill ('Dublin Gas Light Bill').

Folio: sixteen leaves on laid paper. Unbound and stabbed, with two staples (now rusted) added subsequently. Good, with first leaf lightly discoloured. Title-leaf, and text on next fifteen paginated 1131-1159.

12mo: 2 pp. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Headed 'Private' and addressed to 'My dear Henry'. Describes Lennox (a close friend of Benjamin Disraeli) as 'a sanguine man'. 'If you thought as I do of the result of the "hundred days" between the present time and the trial of strength in Dec. you would hardly care to move.' He has 'heard nothing from Disraeli of his intentions about the Irish office', but if the opportunity arises he will do what he can to help Lennox. In 1866 Stanley had become Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in his father's third administration.

12mo: 1 p. Lacking strip (two inches by four) at foot, bearing text. Otherwise good. A formal letter in the third person. Asks Colburn to 'send him an answer to his last [underlined] Communication'. He has 'completed the Manuscript of the Work [presumably 'Narrative of the war in Germany and France, in 1813 and 1814', 1830], except the winding up in a few Pages <...>'.

American physician and explorer of Africa (1866-1939). The recipient was Assistant Secretary at the Natural History Museum, London. One page, 12mo. Good, on slightly discoloured paper, and with remains of stub still neatly attached to one edge. A significant letter, sent on the eve of Donaldson Smith's most notable expedition. 'Just a line in haste to tell you I & Dodson [a taxidermist engaged for the expedition] are ready to start for Rudolph Gillitt [another taxidermist] having left for England after hearing of his father's death.

Harper (1863-1943) was a writer and charming 'pen-artist'. His 'The Hardy country: literary landmarks of the Wessex novels' was published by A. and C. Black in 1904 and reprinted in 1911 and 1925. Quarto scrapbook of approximately fifty leaves. Leather half-binding in poor condition, worn and with much loss to spine. Internally very good, with minor spotting and discoloration. The cuttings, from newspapers as diverse as the Weymouth Telegraph and the New York Post, are mostly laid down, with several on slips of the Author's Clippings Bureau.

See 'The club of 'Nobody's Friends' 1800-2000: a memoir on its two-hundredth anniversary' by Geoffrey Rowell (2000). Four-page bifolium. Good, on grubby, discoloured paper, with some creasing and wear at foot. Gives details of the election between 1820 and 1877 of fifty-nine Actual Members, and of eighteen Honorary Members. Includes the Rev. Charles Burney, the artist George Richmond and the publisher John Murray.

Three pages on octavo bifolium. On creased, aged paper with pinholes and a little staining at head, but with text clear and entire. An interesting and intriguing document, docketed 'Rough idea of title.' The intention is to produce a 24-page magazine the size of Dickens's 'All the Year Round', to be priced at sixpence. 'Two pictures only - One on cover under title to be changed every week by Phiz - Large two page picture in centre to be hand coloured.

Three pages, 12mo. Good, on aged and lightly stained paper. She is writing because her husband, who is 'on the eve of starting for Scotland', 'is very far from well today'. He asks her to thank her correspondent 'for the Translations & the Pamphlet on the Revelation' [Fleay's 'The Book of Revelation symbolic not special, being the substance of Sermons [...]', 1864]. 'The latter he feels is written on the only rational method & he likes it very much, as he does the Catullus' [Fleay's 'The poetry of Catullus, to which is added The vigil of Venus', 1864].

Three pages, 12mo. Very good. The blank verso of the second leaf of the bifolium laid down on remains of leaf detached from autograph album. Begins 'At length by certain Proofs 'tis plain (to quote a hymn familiar to my childhood but forgotten now all but that first line) that the readers of Macmillan will know all that is to be known about the mistletoe, thanks to your labours, before Christmas.' He hopes she has received the proofs, and says that 'Grove, the Editor, writes to me that they are in type & he is forwarding them to Ickleton'.

Three pages, 12mo. On aged paper, with some foxing, a few closed tears and wear to extremities. Glue and strip of mount adhering to blank verso of second leaf of bifolium. Text clear and entire. He is in 'a maelstrom of work and worry' and asks Ross 'a question which you are almost certain not to be able to answer!' Asks if he has 'seen Tom Smith's crackers', and if so, whether he observed 'anything specially and eminently notable'.

Seven pages. On four skins of vellum, each roughly eleven inches by nine wide. Attached with green ribbon, and with various stamps and two wax seals. Good: lightly aged and creased. The premises are at 77 and 79 North End, Croydon.

On one side of the card. Dimensions, 8.5 x 11 cms. Very good. Neat inscription reading 'For Charles Wilson | with Alec Waugh's best wishes | July. 31. 1948 /.'

Both items (previously pinned together) in good condition, with text clear and entire, on aged paper. Woollett's letter (one page, 12mo, 'Reading, Bay') places at Prenderville's disposal the letter 'which you have seen in the Library here from Captn. Ross of the Northumberland when conveying Napoleon to St. Helena [...] I have no objection to your sending the copy to any periodical for publication'. Prenderville has copied the letter onto five pages (each c. 32 x 20.5 cms) of around thirty lines each, spread over the rectos of three bifoliums.

Two pages, 12mo. On gray paper. Good, though lightly ruckled and aged. He thanks her for the 'information about the silk', and accepts her invitation. He haad intended to call on her the day before, but was prevented by the weather.

Octavo, 216 pages. One of 'only fifty copies printed, on thick paper'. Title-page in red and black. Aged and a little stained, in recent half-leather rebinding. 9670 items listed, 'for the most part second-hand'.

Roughly twelve and half inches by nine and a quarter. Neatly mounted on piece of cream paper, with surrounding ink rules. Good, with some ruckling and wear to corners. Characteristically arresting arrangement of type. Reads: 'CAUTION. | THE ONLY CORRECT COPY | OF DONIZETTI'S OPERA | THE FAVOURITE | AS PERFORMED IN ENGLISH AT THE | THEATRE ROYAL DRURY LANE, | IS PUBLISHED BY | JEFFERYS AND CO.

One page. Dimensions of slip roughly four inches by five and a quarter wide. Somewhat aged, but entirely legible. Reads 'British Quarterly Review | Can you tell me what was the last part of this issued, if it is possible to get a title-page and index to vol 83. My last part is 166 April 1886'. Docketed note of reply states that no title was published to the volume containing April 1886.

Octavo. Pages: ix + 339. Frontispiece and eight plates (including three of London's Caledonian Market). Nine fold-out 'Charts or Tables'. Good, tight copy in original blue cloth gilt, with small stain at head of rear back board and another on gilt top edge. Includes sections on 'The ignorance of dealers and collectors', 'The curiosities of the curiosity-shops', 'Thefts in the art world', 'The tricks of dealers and collectors' and 'The "Knock-out" and other customs of the sale-room'.

Paper dimensions roughly ten and a half inches by eleven and a half; print dimensions eight and a half inches by ten and a half. Aged and with three inch strip, roughly half an inch wide, torn away from surface of print in top left-hand corner. Depicts a crowded and rather grand hall, containing a long horseshoe-shaped table around which are crowded connoisseurs of both sexes contemplating engravings and illustrated books or engaged in discussion. Arti et Amicitiae is an Amsterdam society of artists and art lovers, founded in 1839.

Dimensions roughly nine inches by three and a half wide. Creased and somewhat aged, with traces of previous blue paper mount on reverse. The cartoon, which occupies just under the top half, shows three hillbillies watching a fourth chalk crosses onto a farmyard wall, with the caption 'Somebody told him 'bout a old age pension . . . he's practicin' to sign up fer it.' Beneath this 'ATTENTION! | C. A. STONEHILL, Inc. | Rare Books and Manuscripts | IS NOW LOCATED AT | 198 1/2 YORK ST. | SECOND FLOOR | NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT | Come In and Browse'.

Dimensions of paper roughly eight and a half inches by six and a half wide. Illustration roughly five and a half inches by five wide. Good on slightly aged and creased paper. A grey-haired Gregory, fashionably dressed in striped waistcoat and cravat, and wearing a white apron, stares at the viewer while holding a book in his left hand and writing its details in a ledger with a quill in his right hand. BBTI gives Robert Loder's trading dates as 1822-39, and Gregory's as 1793-1851.

12mo: xxxv + 177 pp + three pages of advertisements. Portrait frontispiece. Good, on aged paper. In remains of contemporary calf binding, rebacked with new spine label. Bookplate of Ralph Lindsay, with his signature, dated 15 July 1811, on title-page. Modern ownership inscription on reverse of frontispiece. The first advertisement is for 'Buckingham Boarding School for Young Gentlemen' ('The Rev. G. G. SCRAGGS takes Boarders at Eighteen Guineas per Annum, (Washing excluded) [...] Mr. SCRAGGS has been above 16 years engaged in teaching youth. [...]').