ENGLISH

ALS, on letterhead of 28 Mallord Street, Chelsea; 11 March 1923. Regarding an invitation, he cannot 'promise to come' as he is 'going to America very soon and in consequence my time is very crowded; - in addition, I am preparing for an exhibition at the end of the month'. With note by MG concerning the Lynd's home at 32 Queen's Gate.

Eight typed letters, total nine pages, 4to, varying in length from 2 or 3 lines to a page and a half.

Piece of paper, 12 x 8cm, with message "Florence Just | with all good wishes, | Aldous Huxley | 1955", essentially framed by sellotape (with staining), c.7mm, stain extruding once into white space, sellotape and staining covering without concealing the "ey" of Huxley and the tail of the "9". Image available.

1p., 4to. On a piece of watermarked laid paper. Aged, and with chipping and loss along the fold lines, which have been repaired on the reverse with (nineteenth-century?) tape. The words 'Cromwells Protector' in a later hand at the head of the reverse, which is otherwise blank. Accompanied by a autograph transcript (3pp., foolscap 8vo) by Beamont, 'Copied from the original Mar. 15, 1878', and an Autograph Letter (2pp., 12mo) from him to 'Miss Blackburne', on letterhead of Orford Hall, Warrington, also dated 15 March 1878. Beamont begins his letter: 'I return your paper with a transcript.

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. The name of the addressee is indistinct, and appears to be 'S. Algernon'. The letter reads: 'Dear Sir | I regret that I am unable to give the Lecture you ask for. I really have no business to undertake any kind of public speaking & except in very special circumstances, I keep out of it'.

1p., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with minor traces of glue from mount on blank reverse. He informs Walford that he is returning 'the notes of my career having made some slight alterations'. He suggests that it would be 'well for me to compare the proof with the drafts'.

1p., 4to. In good condition, on a lightly aged and worn leaf removed from an album. The poem is twenty lines long, arranged in five four-line stanzas. The first stanza reads 'Dear Sister, Christian Heroine! | Stranger to me thy form & voice - | I venerate that zeal of thine, | And while I blush, for thee rejoice'. The second stanza is somewhat heretical: 'Nor Male nor Female is in Him | Who Born of Woman, both hath sav'd: | She conquers every terror grim, - | She thousand deaths for Him has brav'd!' The third stanza begins: '"A woman slew him:" Gideon'ss son'.

4pp., 12mo. On bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The last page docketed in pencil: 'Animal Painter | To D. Colnaghi'. He apologises for the fact that 'the portrait of Sam Darling that I have begun with a view of sending it up to you is but scarcely indicated and I amsure would rather lead you wrong than otherwise. He gave me but a short squint at his mug and went away with a promise to return but did not do so.

2pp., 4to. Bifolium. In very good condition, on lightly-aged paper, with minor evidence of previous mounting. Apparently addressing an autograph hunter, she writes: 'I beg to forward you a specimen of my "pothooks and hangers" trusting you will "admire" if you honestly can. Believe I have pleasure in gratifying your request and am with truth my dear | Ever yours faithfully | Eliza Cook'. The poem, also signed 'Eliza Cook', is four lines long, beginning 'That stroke indeed would deeply gash'. There is no indication that the poem was published.

On 20 x 24 cm piece of thick laid paper. A spirited and highly-finished cartoon, apparently unpublished. The two photographers have emerged from neighbouring doorways to solicit a portly Englishman, attired like John Bull, who holds his hands up in a gesture of exasperation or refusal. He is accompanied by a young boy, hands in pockets. The photographer on the left is dressed in the French or Italian style, back to the viewer, waving his cartes de visite around.

1p., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The letter is addressed to 'T. Hellier Denselow Esq.', but the accompanying envelope (with stamp and postmark) is addressed by him to 'D. [sic] Hellier Denselow Esqre | 137 Hurlingham Road | London S.W.' Owen thanks Denselow 'for all the nice things in your letter', adding that he is 'glad you like the sketches. I do myself occasionally - not often.' Denselow would himself appear to have been a commercial artist, with a studio in Gunnersbury Lane in west London.

1p., 4to. On laid paper watermarked 'G & R TURNER | 1829'. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. Docketed on the reverse 'Bayley [sic] | 1830' and 'By Thomas Haynes Bayly, Poet | Author of "I'd be a butterfly etc etc'. The poem is sixteen lines long, and begins: 'My own Love! my true Love! here's health & joy to you Love, | A happy year without a tear & sweet smiles not a few Love! | Of all my anniversaries, I prize your Birth day best.

2pp., 8vo. Neatly written out on two leaves of laid paper with watermark of Caxton Superfine Vellum. In very good condition, on lightly-aged paper. The poem consists of twenty-eight lines arranged in seven four-line stanzas, the first reading: 'On lake and fell the loud rains beat, | And August closes rough and rude.

6pp., 12mo. In very good condition, adhering to leaves removed from an album. Helps begins: 'My dear Martin, | This is one of the things you excel in - the giving, in a comparatively short memoir, the real aim and end of a life: so that after reading your "In memoriam", one does not care to hear any more details.' Helps 'really cannot find any fault' in Martin's piece. 'H[er]. M[ajesty] [i.e. Queen Victoria] must, I think, be exceedingly pleased with the book - I mean your work.

1p., 4to. Bifolium, addressed by Alison on reverse of second leaf to 'The | Lady Charlotte Campbell | D<?>cks Hotel'. Good, on aged paper, with label at head in a contemporary hand attributing the letter to Alison, who was seventeen at the time of writing, but already at Edinburgh University. Docketed by Campbell 'from Mr. Alison | recevd Edinh. | March Seven 1809'. An interesting letter, casting light on the reading practices of the upper classes in Georgian Scotland. Alison's conceit is that he is writing a letter of introduction for a real person.

Both items in excellent condition, on lightly-aged paper. Letter One (22 December 1902): Addressed to 'Dear Sir'. He has asked Van Wisselingh 'to send the bronzes as I have none here', and he is waiting for a reply: 'if the bronzes have not arrived please wire and you shall have them before Xmas.' Letter Two (25 December 1902): He hopes that his mistake in addressing her as 'Sir' has 'amused and not annoyed you'. He has just had a reply from Van Wisselingh: 'as the notice was so short I could not get new bronzes cast by Xmas; so I sent your letter at once to Mr. V.

The three items in good condition, on lightly-aged and worn paper. ONE: Typescript. 5pp., 4to. Paginated 1 to 5, with the first three pages and last two forming separate sections, the second section headed 'P.S.' C. A. Maginn's signature in type on pp.3 and 5, and his address given on p.3. The second page contains the subscription list to the proposed memorial, with eleven contributions listed in type (headed by three guineas from Messrs BLackwood & Sons, and including a guinea apiece from Professor Saintsbury, A. P.

Both photographs in black and white, and both 25.5 x 20.5 cm. One landscape and the other portrait. The two in good condition, showing light signs of age and wear. Both clearly taken at the same event, as in both Hawthorn wears the same suit. Both taken indoors. In the first (portrait) he is seen cutting a ribbon, while a group of smartly-dressed men and women look on approvingly behind him. Signs for 'Silver Exide' and 'Mobilgas Special' are mounted on a wall.

Both items in very good condition, on aged paper, and both with minor traces of mount. The letter is 1p., 12mo, on a bifolium. The envelope is a leaf of paper, also 1p., 12mo. It is addressed by Eldon to 'John Cross Esq | 19 Lincolns Inn', franked in the bottom left-hand corner 'Eldon', and is without postmarks. It carries the seal in black wax, with the barest of impressions. Docketed in pencil in a contemporary hand '1819'.

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, on aged and lightly-creased paper. Clearly responding to an enquiry regarding what books had had a formative influence on his life, Piper writes: 'Vollard's Life of Cézanne, because it showed me, in my teens, that an artist can be dedicated, unbohemian, unworldly, against the tide and absolutely true to his instincts, which happened to be right. The book - by a dealer, too!

A supporter of William Pitt, and later of the Liverpool ministry, Blackburne was regarded as an assiduous - if lacklustre and increasingly eccentric - country member. The present collection provides a valuable insight into the network of mercantile figures (e.g. cotton magnate Henry Sudell) and members of the local gentry (Sir Nicholas Ashton, Sir Henry Philip Hoghton) required to return Blackburn to parliament at a particularly difficult election, with reports and advice coming from various quarters.

The poster, in the mixture of typeface and font size characteristic of the period, is 31 x 25 cm, and headed: 'TO THE | Gentlemen, | CLERGY, | AND | FREEHOLDERS | OF THE | County Palatine of Lancaster.' Signed and dated in type at foot: 'JOHN BLACKBURNE. | HALE, | November 12th, 1829. Printed on one side of a piece of wove paper, and with one central horizontal fold.

15pp., 12mo, with six plates on art paper. In grey printed wraps with title on front cover. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. The plates include engravings by H. C. Pigeon of illustrations by S. Holden and a plan by T. B. Ryder.

2pp., 16mo. Twenty-two lines of text, written in small, neat style. From the papers of the subject of the letter, Stephen John Aldrich. In an era when the making of such an appeal as Aldrich's father's was commonplace, this is a remarkably well-written response: a model of tact and consideration. It reads: 'My dear Sir, | I most sincerely wish that I could be of any use to you in finding some opening for your son, but I fear that it is out of my power to help you.

Letter: 1p., 12mo. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper. Neatly laid down on a page detached from an album, with border. In response to a note from the recipient, he explains that the 'hurry of professional business' has prevented him from making the following statement: 'I beg to assure you that on Monday Jany: 25th.

2pp., 4to. In good condition, on lightly aged and creased paper. He writes that he is sorry that he could not sing the song 'Nancy's Hair' at Preston. He had not brought it: '(I only got your letter on arrival at the concert hall.) Funnily enough I picked it up before leaving home to put in my case as a possible encore & then put it back.' He is 'delighted to know that your mother liked my singing of it, I most certainly enjoy singing it & I hope to be able to help it along'.

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, on aged paper, attached by a stub to a piece of brown paper cut from an album. A fine, firm signature, employing an alternative spelling of the surname (the Oxford DNB notes that it was in 1835 that Maclise abandoned 'other forms' of it). Trimmed down from a letter, and addressed by Maclise on the reverse to 'Henry Howard Esqr. | R.A. | Secy.' The note simply gives the title, with Maclise's signature and address, as follows, of the painting he entered in the Royal Academy exhibtion of 1835.

2pp., 12mo. 29 lines of neatly-written text. In very good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Addressing his letter to 'J: S: Buckingham Esqre.', Pollock writes that Buckingham's letter, 'enclosing the Rules &c. of the British and Foreign Institute', has been forwarded to him in Monmouth, where he is 'engaged on a long Circuit professionally, which comprehends all South Wales, and the West and South of England'. He is 'on the move continually', without 'time or opportunity to give sufficient consideration to the subject'.

2pp., 12mo. In good condition, on aged and worn paper. The letter reads: 'Dear Prof. Candy, | I think you would wish to see enclosed which please return after perusal. | If you hear of anything kindly let me know. It is the most pressing difficulty we have and we see no present way of surmounting it. | With renewed thanks, | always sincerely yours, | Mackenzie Bell'.

In black ink on 5 x 8 cm card, with rounded edges. In very good condition, lightly aged, with evidence of previous mounting on the marbled reverse. Reads 'Alicia Markova | 1933.'