DEATH

The case was fully reported in The Times, with the issue for 14 April 1842 reporting the pronouncing of the sentence of death on 'Robert Sandys, a stout built Irishman, having a pale and haggard appearance, who was found guilty at the last assizes for this county [Chester] of the diabolical murder of his children by poison, in order to obtain a few pounds from a burial society of which he was a member'. 4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Headed 'Private' by Graham.

[2] + 8 + [1] pp., small (18 x 14 cm.) 4to. Sewn with green ribbon into white wraps, with 'Pattie's Christmas Tree' in gilt on front. In good condition, with the wraps slightly sunned in panels. Inscribed at head of title-page 'With kind regards'. The pamphlet contains a single poem titled 'Pattie's Christmas Tree', printed on eight pages each with decorative border in gilt. Printer's slug on revers of title, and colophon on last page. The beginning and end of the poem indicate the theme.

2pp., 16mo. On first leaf of bifolium of watermarked laid de la Rue paper. In good condition, on aged and lightly-creased paper. A fair copy, neatly written out in a delicate hand. The poem is 28 lines long, arranged in four 7-line stanzas. Short and effective, with no hint of Christian piety to lighten the unremitting gloom.

3pp., folio, on three leaves stapled together. Fair, on aged paper. All in all a curiously positive account, with the possible explanation that Mrs Robinson's two informants chose to hide the worst from her. It is also pointed out at the foot of the first page that 'owing to the size of the Camp and the way it was divided up, it is not easy for the escaped men to give details of all the members of the Camp.

Original cutting, 53 cm long, from The Times, of an article titled 'Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington. By Alfred Tennyson.' This poem, one of Tennyson's finest and best-known, was published on 16 November 1852 (two days before Wellington's funeral) by the London publisher Edward Moxon, who had offered Tennyson £200 for 10,000 copies. As Edgar F. Shannon, Jr.

1p., 4to. 14 lines of text. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Addressed in manuscript to 'Dear Chorley'. Silverman has been 'considering the position which will arise on the assumption which I think we may now make with some confidence that the Death Penalty Abolition Bill will soon pass its third reading in the House of Commons'. He has had a number of letters of support from the House of Lords, 'in particular from Astor and Templewood'.

Possibly submitted by the 'Mr William Crosbie, wine and spirit merchant', whose death at Castle Douglas on 15 March 1821 is recorded in Blackwood's Magazine, April 1821. 1p., 8vo. Neatly written out on watermarked laid paper. Headed 'Fanny Wilson for fathers funeral | To William Crosbie | 1810'. Eleven entries for the funeral on 1 October 1812, including two plum cakes, '11 Cakes Short Bread'; '2 Gallons <?> Rum' and '2 1/4 ditto Whisky'; '6 Bottles Old Port' and '6 ditto Sherry'. Receipt of payment on 5 November at foot, signed by Crosbie.

12mo, 164 pp. In vellum notebook, with brass clasp and marbled endpapers. Text clear and complete, in several hands. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. Binding grubby, endpapers split. Index on first four pages, with each of the subsequent pages devoted to a single account. Each entry dated, with name and address of client (often the executors of the deceased), and itemised description of work done, date of payment, and other information. Includes renovations of tombs in a number of churchyards. The second is representative: 'Mrs. Wootton | Rosedene, Chislet | 1921. c.p. 360 | Oct. 8.

4to, 169 pp. Limitation details on reverse of title, with firm signature by Fraenkel. Internally sound and tight, on aged paper; in original printed wraps over boards, with binding strained and worn. In worn and damaged original slipcase. A few annotations in light pencil in the margin, possibly by Fraenkel's wife Daphne. Loosely inserted are the book's prospectus (4to bifolium, 4 pp), and by an order form for the books, with reviews, to the Motive Book Shop of Waco, Texas. From the Carrefour Press Archives, and with a long pencil note by its owner Michael Harris on the front board.

12mo, 2 pp. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with one dog-eared corner. Quoting Haden's views, which appear distinctly progressive. He finds the 'retention in a dwelling-house for as long as possible of a body, which ought to be committed to the earth as soon as possible', and the need for a 'strong coffin' great evils.

8vo: 93 [+1] pp. In original grey wraps with printed label on front and yellow wrap-around band ('Une pièce à verser au Dossier Miller | Variété a Paris'). Covered in glassine. Good, on lightly-aged paper. From the archives of Michael and Daphne Fraenkel's Carrefour Press.

8vo: paginated 3-38. Four full-page reproductions of Miller's paintings. In original yellow printed wraps. On brittle, aged paper, with the body of the book detached from the wraps, which are worn and with one corner at front creased. Title taken from front wrap. One of 950 numbered copies, signed by the publisher on the final page (beneath 'Publisher's Addendum') 'Bern Porter | 25 South St | Houlton Maine | Copy # 296'. Shifreen &Jackson A37a. Uncommon. Apart from the British Library, COPAC only lists copies at Cambridge, Manchester, Oxford and Bristol.

12mo, 2 pp. Bifolium with mourning border. 39 lines of text, 12 of which have been damaged, presumably on the removal of the item from an autograph album, which has resulted in a large hole to the upper half of the second leaf of the bifolium. Begins 'My Dear Mr.

Printed on one side of a piece of wove paper roughly 230 x 90 mm. On pitted, aged paper. Text complete. Approximate 30 x 50 mm piece torn away from top right-hand corner, causing loss to small illustration at head, which appears to be a crude woodcut of a woman lying in a coffin. The poem consists of thirty-six lines arranged in five stanzas. The first stanza reads 'Dear Peggy, read this letter, | its the last one I'll send, | Our long correspondence, | is now at an end.

On one side of a piece of thin wove paper, roughly 260 x 95 mm. Aged and creased, with internal 25 mm closed tear affecting four words of text (all of which can be completed from the context) repaired on blank reverse with archival tape. Otherwise text and illustration clear and entire. Small (30 x 40 mm) woodcut at head, showing two early nineteenth-century country coves outside a cottage. The poem consists of ten four-line stanzas.

Printed on one side of a piece of wove paper roughly 280 x 95 mm. Aged, creased and spotted, with chipping to extremities, but with text and illustration clear and entire. Curious small (roughly 40 x 65 mm) crude illustration at head, showing dove with olive branch and acorn. Forty-line poem arranged in five stanzas. Interestingly-garbled nineteenth-century folk song with ancient antecedents.

12mo, 2 pp, and 8vo, 1 p. A little grubby and creased, but with text clear and entire. He is sorry that Shorter was not able to visit the Chateaux of the Loire, but hopes that 'the sea air of Dieppe' has done him good. The year before Shorter's death, Hammerton writes: 'But you must really cease this brink-of-the-grave touch! Ten years hence, from an inglenook at Knockmoroon [where Shorter would die], you will wonder why you were anticipating the "closing down" of C.K.S.

12mo, 1 p, 12 lines. Good, on lightly aged paper. Drawing the recipient's attention to 'une demande qui a été adressée a M. le Prefet de la Seine, par M. Burnet [an inhabitant of Neuilly], homme infiniment estimable qui sollicite un emploi dans l'administration des pompes funèbres'. Giraud knows Burnet very well, 'et je lui porte un interet particulier'.

Wigwam Club flier on one side of piece of paper, roughly 20 x 13 cm. Very good. Headed with humourous illustration of crowded wigwam on which is written 'No admission except on business'. Jealous, as Honorary Secretary, states that the club, with William Hughes in the Chair, will meet at Anderton's, in Fleet Street, on 19 July 1892. 'In Memoriam' card on both sides of card roughly 9 x 11 cm. Good, though a little grubby, with traces of grey paper mount at foot of reverse. Small sepia photograph of Jealous, roughly 3 x 2 cm, in top left-hand corner of recto.

Miscellaneous writer on subjects such as angling, ports and harbours, tobacco, wood-engraving - and playing cards (see below(DNB):Three ALs, signed (1) and initialled (2) to Smith, [1848], total 4pp., various formats, one in poor condition with minor loss of text.(March) Chatto asks Smith for specific books.

Major Francis Pierson died driving the French from the Market Place of Saint Helier in the Island of Jersey, 6 January 1781. Dimensions of paper roughly ten inches by eight. Dimensions of print roughly six inches by four and a half. Surrounded by six tiny vignettes: two of soldiers and four of battle scenes. Very good and clean. Suitable for framing. Mounted on a larger sheet of paper torn from an autograph album. The original painting is in London's Tate Gallery, and the item is accompanied by an early twentieth-century colour postcard of it, with some damage to the reverse.

Offprint. (From the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, vol.LXXIII pt 1, 15 January 1910, 'printed for private circulation', 13pp.) Presentation copy, in grubby condition, with ALS from Yule to Chick, 10 December 1909, on letterhead of the City and Guilds of London Institute, discussing a point bearing on Yule's work in Chick's paper "An investigation of the laws of disinfection" (1908). He encloses a ticket of admission (not present) for Chick to the reading of the paper, in a footnote to the first sentence of which Chick's paper is referred (p.1).