EPHEMERA

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Transfer document for shares in television pioneers Radiovisor Parent Limited, signed by Alan James Macnab.

Author: 
[Radiovisor Parent Limited, London; Alan James Macnab; television]
Publication details: 
Undated [1920s]; H. Howes & Co., Ltd, Stock Exchange Stationers, London.
£56.00
Radiovisor Parent Limited, London

Folio, 1 p. A printed document, with specific details typed in. Fair, on aged paper, with some wear to extremities. Signed 'Alan J. Macnab', and witnessed by G. Perry of Tokenhouse Yard. A pioneer in the field of television, Radiovisor Parent Co., Ltd. was formed on 31st May, 1928, with a capital of £276500, and owned the rights in a selenium light bridge patented in 1927 and 1928. It had made history in 1927 with the invention of the first ever infra-red beam, this technology being used to protect the Shah of Persia's jewels at an exhibition in 1929.

[Printed poster.] Ordo Baccalaureorum Determinantium. In Universitate Oxon. per Quadragesim. Ann. 1805. Collectoribus Dno Mackensie, ex Aede Christi. Dno Hudson, è Coll. Magd.

Author: 
'Scheme of Determining Bachelors in Oxford (Lent 1805)' [The Clarendon Press, Oxford University]
Publication details: 
E Typographeo Clarendoniano. [1805.]
£125.00
Ordo Baccalaureorum Determinantium

On one side of a piece of laid paper, 55 x 44 cm. Good, on lightly-aged paper. 131-box table giving the tutors (and their colleges) over twelve weeks for each of eleven subjects from 'Nat. Phil.' to 'Ling.' Among the many tutors the following only in capitals: 'Ds HEWITT ex Aede Christi', 'Ds HANMER ex Aedi Christi', 'Ds JOYCE e Aul. S. Edm.', 'G. C. AGAR ed Aede Christi', 'Ds MACDONALD ex Aede Christie', 'Ds MACKENSIE ex Aede Christi', 'Ds CRAWLEY e Coll. Pemb.', 'Ds HUDSON e Coll. Magd.' and 'Ds G. BOWYER, Bart. ex Aede Christi'.

Manuscript Letter, with price list, from the nurserymen Thomas Bunyard & Sons of Maidstone, Kent, to the naturalist Rev. Charles William Shepherd of Trotterscliffe. With list of plants by Shepherd.

Author: 
Thomas Bunyard & Sons, The Nurseries, Maidstone, Kent, Victorian 'Nurserymen, Seedsmen and Florists' [Rev. Charles William Shepherd (1838-1920) of Trotterscliffe, near Maidstone, Kent, naturalist]
Publication details: 
18 February 1869; on letterhead of The Nurseries, Maidstone [Kent].
£95.00
Thomas Bunyard & Sons

12mo, 2 pp. Bifolium. With two pages of lists of plants by Shepherd. Good, on aged paper. In remains of original envelope. The letterhead advertises that the firm also has a branch at Ashford. Begins: 'We can supply you with the shrubs &c you kindly enquire about at the Prices named on other side - your orders for which will have our careful attention'. Three are marked with a cross, being 'very critical trees to move' for which the firm 'can undertake no responsibility as to their success'. Prices given for fifteen types, from 'Spruce Trees - 4 ft.

Folder of eight 'Progressive Proofs' of an illustration of German enamelled glasses, in four colour separation.

Author: 
Burlington Engraving Co. Ltd [The Connoisseur] [antique German glass]
Publication details: 
Executed for the Connoisseur magazine, April 1937.
£120.00
Burlington Engraving Co. Ltd [The Connoisseur] [antique German glass]

The eight proofs, each 24 x 38 cm, some with tissue guards, are bound into a blue folder with triangular printed Burlington Engraving label. In pencil on the folder: 'Connoisseur | April 1937 | German Enamelled Glasses | 4 colour'. In fair condition, on lightly worn and aged paper. The final illustration (first in the folder) shows the six glasses, enamelled in various colours, against a black background.

[Printed on playbill sheet.] (Copy of a Letter in "THE TIMES" of Tuesday, February 14th, 1854.) Mr Charles Mathews and the Lyceum Theatre. To the Editor of the Times. [On his difficulties with creditors and the temporary closure of the theatre.]

Author: 
Charles James Mathews (1803-1878), British actor-manager [The Lyceum Theatre, London; Covent Garden]
Publication details: 
Dated 'Lyceum, Feb. 12. [1854] C. J. MATHEWS'.
£280.00
Charles James Mathews (1803-1878), British actor-manager

Printed for display, on one side of a piece of paper 24.5 x 49.5 cm. Text clear and complete. On aged and creased paper, with one closed tear and bottom right-hand corner lacking, causing slight loss to the last letter of Mathews' name at foot of document. Heading in bold type in a variety of point sizes. Giving a 'brief statement of my fourteen years' struggle and of my latest difficulty'.

Scrapbook of the lawyer Sir William Charles Croker ('the Sherlock Holmes of the insurance world'), containing caricatures and memoranda by him, photographs, newspaper and magazine cuttings, seating plans, invitations and other ephemera.

Author: 
Sir William Charles Crocker (1886-1973), 'the Sherlock Holmes of the insurance world', President of the Law Society, Deputy Director of MI5, investigator of insurance fraud, Mosleyite Nazi sympathiser
Publication details: 
Beginning with newspaper cuttings anouncing Crocker's knighthood in 1955, and ending in 1956. A few items from 1955 to 1964 loosely inserted.
£450.00

Crocker made his name in the 1930s investigating and prosecuting insurance fraud (and in particular the activities of the Leopold Harris arson gang, convicted mainly through his efforts in 1933). In 2000 it emerged that at the outbreak of the Second World War he served as Deputy Director of MI5, despite being a 'Nazi sympathiser opposed to war with Hitler [...] active in Truth, a journal openly supportive of Sir Oswald Mosley' (Independent, 30 July 2000). The folio scrapbook and its contents are lightly aged and in good condition.

[Printed items.] Prospectus and application form for 1897 flotation of London United Laundries, Limited, with poster carrying fifteen photographs of 'Businesses to be acquired by the Company' and publicity flier headed 'A Great Laundry Amalgamation'.

Author: 
The London United Laundries, Limited [Directors: The Hon. Reginald Brougham, A. C. Lyster, Murray Marshall, F. A. Baldwin, Ernest Honey]
Publication details: 
Prospectus 'Dated May 27th, 1897, London'; Roberts & Leete, Ltd., Printers, London. Other three items contemporaneous.
£180.00
The London United Laundries, Limited

All items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. ONE: Prospectus. Folio, 7 pp. To raise share capital of £230,000. Lists the '13 modern Steam Laundries', four 'Receiving Depots', 'Dyeing and Cleaning Works' and 'recently-established Laundry Supply Stores' the company was being 'formed to acquire as going concerns, and still further develop'. Includes section on 'Advantages of the Amalgamation', auditors' and valuers' reports and memorandum of association. TWO: Application form. Folio, 1 p. Perforated, with 'Bankers' Receipt'. THREE: Publicity flier. Folio, 2 pp.

Scrapbook containing two hundred engravings and photographs of mainly Victorian and Edwardian traction engines, road rollers and locomotives, with one blueprint.

Author: 
[Victorian and Edwardian traction engines]
Publication details: 
The scrapbook undated (collection assembled in 1920s?).
£325.00
Victorian and Edwardian traction engines

The scrapbook is landscape 8vo (28 x 18.5 cm), and contains 28 leaves of brown paper tied together with ribbon, on which, together with the inside of the back cover, the images (dating from between 1860 and 1928) are laid down. The scrapbook lacks the front cover, and its leaves are worn, but the images are in good overall condition, with occasional wear and creasing. Ranging in size from 14.5 x 11 cm ('Fowler 8/c Traction About 1875. Jointed Horn Plates.') to 7.5 x 5.5 cm ('S/c Traction (About 1875-80)'.

[Printed pamphlet.] Coffee. History. Growth and Cultivation. Preparation. Effect on the System. Medical Opinions. Influence on Society.

Author: 
[ offee]
Publication details: 
['Birmingham, 1894.'] Birmingham, Leicester, and Leamington: The Midland Educational Company, Ltd. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., Ltd. [Birmingham: Paul Hicks and Co., Printers, 132 1/2, Broad Street.]
£56.00
 Coffee.

12mo, 14 + [i] pp. Stitched. Fair, on aged paper with slight spotting to cover; and with a central vertical fold. In a preface dated 'Birmingham, 1894', the author indicates that the preface is intended for the general public, rather than 'the Botanist and Trader'. Sections on 'Early History', 'Roasting', 'The Growth and Cultivation', 'Preparing for Table', 'The effect of Coffee drinking' and 'Medical Opinions' ('On November 2nd 1894, Dr.

[Printed pamphlet by 'The Directors of the well known Strand Electric and Engineering Company Limited'] A Completely New Glossary of Technical Theatrical Terms [...] With an Appendix of the Colours used for Lighting the Plays [...]

Author: 
[Theatrical Terms]
Publication details: 
'Commencing Novr. 1st. 1947, and thereafter so long as supplies shall last!'] 'Smudgeham & Fowlem, Steam Printers, The Cut, Waterloo.' [i.e. The Strand Electric & Engineering Co., Ltd., 24 Floral St, Covent Garden, London.]
£80.00
A Completely New Glossary of Technical Theatrical Terms

Irregular (12 x 23.5 cm), 32 pp. In fair condition, aged and lightly worn. In original wraps, with cover design, in a variety of types and point sizes, imitating an early nineteenth-century handbill, stating that 'all Profits for the Benefit of the Deserving Actors' Orphanage. | Free list entirely suspended | Fees payable in advance are 2s. per copy'.

Mimeographed handbill for the 'LEMAR (Legalise Marijuana)' campaign, headed 'Free Marijuana Prisoners'

Author: 
Ed Saunders/Allen Ginsberg
Publication details: 
'LEMAR (Legalise Marijuana) | c/o Peace Eye Book Store | 383 East 10th Street | New York City, NY 10009'. Dated '1-10-65' [10 January 1965].
£350.00

8vo (A4) handbill, printed on one side. The heading 'FREE MARIJUANA PRISONERS' and part of the text reproduces handwriting (printed not cursive so to speak - see image on my website - Ginsberg's or Saunder's?) , the rest is typed. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged and creased paper. The part of the text reproducing manuscript reads 'Many New Yorkers are arrested each year for possession of the harmless herb marijuana. Woman prisoners are kept in the Women's House of Detention. NYC Lemar will demonstrate at the Women's House of Detention Greenwich Ave. & W.

5 items: J. E. Beale 'Blackmore Doll's Pattern'; 'Dolls And How To Make Them' by Winifred M. Ackroyd; two different copies of 'A Dolls' House Designed and Built by the late Mr. T. Batty of Drighlington, Near Bradford', June 1985 Sasha Dolls booklet.

Author: 
[Dolls and dolls' houses; Winifred M. Ackroyd; T. Batty of Drighlington, near Bradford; J. E. Beale, Bournemouth (The Blackmore Fashion Co.); Sasha Dolls Ltd, Stockport]
Publication details: 
Pattern from the 1920s? Ackroyd's book from the 1930s? The Batty book from 1948? Sasha catalogue June 1985.
£180.00
Dolls and dolls' houses

All items in good condition, on aged paper. ITEM ONE: 'Blackmore Doll's Patterns | One-Piece Dress, Bonnet, Petticoat, Bodice, Chemise and Drawers.' By J. E. Beale, Ltd. Doll Department, Bournemouth. [1920s]. Pattern in pieces of brown paper, in envelope printed with instructions and illustrations. The envelope also contains an illustrated advertisement for the Blackmore catalogue, on blue paper. ITEM TWO: 'Dolls And How To Make Them' by Winifred M. Ackroyd. At foot of title-page: 'To my fellow workers of the W.V.S. (Girlington Hospital Supplies Depot).

[Printed pamphlet.] Explication des Tableaux, Statues, Bustes, etc. composant les Galerie [sic] du Palais de la Chambre des Pairs de France.

Author: 
[Pierre Didot, l'ainé, printer; Musée national du Luxembourg, France ]
Publication details: 
A Paris, de l'Imprimerie de P. Didot l'Ainé, Imprimeur de la Chambre des Pairs de France, rue du Pont de Lodi, no 6. 1814.
£125.00
 Explication des Tableaux, Statues, Bustes, etc.

12mo, 72 pp. Stitched. In remains of original grey wraps, with front wrap present (though worn at extremities), but only a trace of rear wrap remaining. Text clear and complete. On aged paper with many dog-eared corners. An ephemeral item by one of the greatest of French printers: COPAC only lists three copies, at Oxford, University College London, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. None of these record the misprint in the title of 'les Galerie' for 'les Galeries', and it is not present in the Harvard copy either.

Offprint of article in the 'Penrith Observer' by A. W. Rumney, concerning his ancestor Thomas Rumney, Mellfell, Watermillock, titled 'Old Time Local Life. A Cumberland Farmer's Out-goings A Hundred Years Ago.'

Author: 
A. W. Rumney [Thomas Rumney, Mellfell, Watermillock; Cumberland farming in the Georgian period; Miss Emma Clark Abraham (1850-1934) of Liverpool and Swarthmoor Hall, Ulverston; T. F. Hofland]
Publication details: 
From the Penrith Observer, 14, 21 and 28 November and 5 December 1911.
£180.00
Cumberland farming in the Georgian period

Five columns of text, each 51 cm long, on one side of piece of paper, 42 x 57 cm. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. An autograph note on the reverse by Miss E. C. Abraham of Swarthmoor Hall, Ulverston, states that the item was sent to her its author A. W. Rumney, whose presentation inscription ('With best wishes for Xmas | AWR') is at the head of the article. The first column discusses the accounts which cover the remaining four columns, dating from 'the year of Waterloo' 1815. The entry 'Sept. 2, Pd. for Mrs. Hofland's packages per wagon ... ... ...

[Printed pamphlet.] The Crypt of the Priory Church of St. John at Clerkenwell. A Paper read before the Knights, Ladies, Chaplains, and other Members of the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, in England, [...] on St. John's Day 1896.

Author: 
Charles R. Baker King [London topography; Priory Church of St John at Clerkenwell]
Publication details: 
Dated 'June 23, 1896.'
£85.00
The Crypt of the Priory Church of St. John at Clerkenwell

4to, 4 pp. Printed on thin paper. Text clear and complete. Originally a bifolium, but the pages had been separated and the margins trimmed. Repaired with archival paper. With a list of members of the 'Restoration Committee'. Scarce: no copy in the British Library, and the only copies on COPAC at King's College London and the Guildhall.

[Printed prospectus.] The General Apothecaries' Company, (Limited.) Capital, £10,000., with Power to Increase to £100,000., in shares of £10. each.

Author: 
[The General Apothecaries' Company, (Limited.)]
Publication details: 
Office, Laboratories, and Central Wholesale and Retail Depot, 49, Berners Street, Oxford Street, London. 1856.
£280.00
The General Apothecaries' Company

Folio, 3 pp. Bifolium. Text clear and complete. On aged and creased paper. Giving a list of the Company's officers, including the six directors. Incorporated in 1856, and wound up by liquidators in 1861. Setting out the Company's aims and purposes, beginning 'This Company has been established to meet the urgent public demand for pure Drugs and Chemicals, and for Medicines prepared by the aid of the present advanced state of science.' Containing a long quotation from The Times regarding 'the evils arising from the prevalence of adulteration of Drugs and Chemicals employed in Medicine'.

[Printed handbill.] Programme of the Soirée at the Royal Institution, Colquitt-street, top of Bold-street, [...] On Thursday, the 22nd of April, 1852. Joseph Brooks Yates, Esq., F.S.A., M.R.G.S., F.P.S., President.

Author: 
David P. Thomson, M.D., &c., Hon. Secretary to the Executive Committee [Liverpool Royal Institution]
Publication details: 
Dated 'Liverpool, April, 1852.'
£225.00
Programme of the Soirée at the Royal Institution

4to, 1 p. Dimensions 20.5 x 25 cm. 42 lines of text, in a variety of point sizes. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged and creased paper. A varied bill, more entertainment than instruction, beginning 'The Museum will be thrown open at six o'clock', with references to 'the electric light', 'the large Bird-room [...] Mr. State, the Patentee', 'Mr Hobbs [...] his celebrated lock', 'a Welsh Harper', 'Mr. J. Hallett Sheppard [...] on the Grand Piano-forte', 'Mr. Henry Haydn Rogers, Pupil of Chopin', 'Miss Glyn [...] will read Macbeth.', 'Mr. Waldie, F.C.S.', 'Mr.

Collection of nineteen manuscript and printed documents, including accounts, relating to the Liverpool Apothecaries Company, and to the resignation of John Abraham, head of its Dispensing Department from 1838 to 1843.

Author: 
John Abraham (1813-1881), head of the Dispensing Department of the Liverpool Apothecaries Company, 1838-1845, and latterly of Clay & Abraham, pharmaceutical chemists
Publication details: 
Liverpool and London, between 1838 and 1843.
£800.00
Liverpool Apothecaries Company

The Liverpool Apothecaries Company was founded in 1836 with a capital of £100,000, its premises comprising a warehouse, chemical and pharmaceutical laboratories, and a retail shop in Seel Street. John Abraham ran the dispensing department from 1838 until his resignation in 1843, going on in 1845 to found, as junior partner, the pharmaceutical chemists Clay & Abraham.

[Printed handbill.] Liverpool Chemists' Association. Conversazione and Opening of the Museum of Materia Medica and Chemistry, Belonging to the Association, on Thursday, December 18, 1856. John Abraham, Esq., President of the Association, in the Chair

Author: 
Nathan Mercer, Hon Sec., Liverpool Chemists' Association [John Abraham; Later Liverpool Chemists' Association and the Liverpool and District Branch of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain]
Publication details: 
[Liverpool, 1856.]
£300.00
 Liverpool Chemists' Association. Conversazione

Folio, 1 p. Dimensions 21 x 33 cm. 51 lines of text, in a variety of types and point sizes, both single and double column. Text clear and complete. On lightly-aged and creased paper, with one short marginal closed tear. The 'Programme for the Evening', including 'Photographs of Saturn, the Moon, and the Crater of Copernicus', copied by 'Mr.

Trade card for 'Frederick Bentley & Co. (Late Thomas Harrild.) Printers, Engravers, Designers and Lithographers, Shoe Lane, Fleet Street, London', with engraved illustration of works on one side and 'Almanack for 1870' on the other.

Author: 
Frederick Bentley & Co. (Late Thomas Harrild.) Printers, Engravers, Designers and Lithographers, Shoe Lane, Fleet Street, London [trade cards; printing]
Publication details: 
Frederick Bentley & Co., Shoe Lane, Fleet Street, London. [1869.]
£56.00
Frederick Bentley & Co. (Late Thomas Harrild.) Printers

Landscape card, 7.5 x 11.5 cm. Designed to show off the firm's capabilities, and printed on one side in purple, green, light brown and gold, with fancy lettering within florally-decorated body and border, around a small central illustration of three men working a press. Printers' details in small letters at foot, reading 'F. Bentley & Co. Lth' and 'Shoe Lane, London.' The almanac on the reverse is a more restrained affair, stylishly printed in purple and gold. Fair: lightly-aged, with small closed hole to one corner, and slight wear at foot of almanac.

Manuscript volume titled 'The Life and Adventures of Walter Venning Southgate, by his Father [the London auctioneer Henry Southgate].' Containing original manuscript letters, drawings, engravings and other material.

Author: 
Henry Southgate (1818-1888), London auctioneer with premises in the Strand, and anthologist; his son Walter Venning Southgate (b. 1844, fl. 1884)
Publication details: 
Manuscript title date 'London. MDCCCXLIV [1844]', but containing material from between 1844 and 1883.
£1,250.00

Folio, 110 pp, comprising [i] + 68 + [ii] + 39 pp. Handsome volume in slipcase, tight and internally in very good condition, on lightly-aged thick Whatman paper. Well bound in black leather morocco, all edges gilt. Binding blind-tooled and with 'Early Days' and 'W. V. S.' in gilt on spine and motto on front board: 'Nourish the sentiments thy principles approve and put thy trust and confidence in God.' Binding worn and rebacked, in worn black cloth slipcase.

Printed Victorian advertising handbill for 'Dispensing Chymist' Keith Longstaff of Fulham Road, London.

Author: 
Keith Longstaff, Dispensing Chymist [Chemist], Fulham, London [Victorian advertising]
Publication details: 
No date [1890s]. Keith Longstaff, Dispensing Chymist. Depot for New & Rare Drugs. 3, Hilton Terrace, Fulham Rd. [London.]
£95.00
Printed Victorian advertising handbill for 'Dispensing Chymist'

12mo, 2 pp. Aged, and with a small hole worn into the centre, without, however, any loss of text. With one side of the leaf printed in double column in the style of an eighteenth-century newspaper, and headed 'Quaint Newspaper Cuttings A.D. 1738. | Ye Fulhame Presse London. S.W.' The other side is laid out to be folded twice, making four small pages (one having 'Not to be cut.' at the foot). One of the four carries an advertisement for Longstaff, with an engraving of his sign, 'Ye stille'. Another puffs 'Keith Longstaff's Autumn Medicine'.

Victorian silk devotional 'Stevengraph' bookmark, in colours, depicting Jesus and Jerusalem, with a scriptural passage, with printed backing label of 'Thomas Stevens, Coventry & London, Inventor and Manufacturer of Pure Silk Woven Book Markers'.

Author: 
Thomas Stevens, Coventry & London, Inventor and Manufacturer of Pure Silk Woven Book Markers [Stevengraph]
Publication details: 
Undated [1880s].
£75.00
Victorian silk devotional 'Stevengraph' bookmark,

In excellent condition. Pinned to grey printed backing label, headed with engravings of a row of 'the highest prize medals & diplomas' awarded to Stevens, and of the 'Stevengraph Works' in Coventry, and Stevens' trade mark. Folded horizontally three times. The bookmark is headed 'A BLESSING' and carries a picture of Jesus with arms outstretched, ascending over Holy Land rooftops. A scriptural passage follows (Matt. 28.5-6), with 'IHS' within a decorative pattern at the foot, which carries a yellow tassel. In rich colours: purple, lilac, green, blue and yellow.

[printed pamphlet] The Edinburgh Annual Register from 1808 to 1823

Author: 
[Sir Walter Scott; Archibald Constable; Hurst, Robinson; The Edinburgh Annual Register]
Publication details: 
Edinburgh, [1823]
£75.00

12mo, 14pp, disbound, first leaf detached, good condition. Text clear and complete. In which the publishers outline their (historical) policy and ambitions for the various aspects of the periodical, and provide an Index by volume and subject. Sir Walter Scott took an almost proprietorial interest in this periodical. Scarce: COPAC lists NLS copy only (16pp).

[Printed British 1944 'Notice for posting' by the Baking Trade Board (England and Wales), on 'Proposal to vary minimum rates of wages for workers employed in the south western district'. [Including table of 'Proposed General Mimium Time Rates'.]

Author: 
G. H. Tregear, Secretary, Baking Trade Board (England and Wales) [Office of Trade Boards; Second World War]
Publication details: 
'3/44' [i.e. March 1944]. 'Issued by order of the Trade Board' [i.e. the Baking Trade Board (England and Wales)].
£56.00
Printed British 1944 'Notice for posting' by the Baking Trade Board

Printed on one side of a long sheet, equivalent to two leaves of landscape 4to on top of one another. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The opening paragraph lays out the purpose of the notice: 'The Baking Trade Board (England and Wales) hereby give notice that they propose to vary for certain classes of workers in certain areas the minimum rates at present operative in the trade and set out in the Trade Board's Notices BK. (SW.) and BK. (19).

Folder compiled in 1958 by William E. Appleby, containing a plan, a list, photographs, and newspaper cuttings, relating to Appleby's model for the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority of the 'Zeta' fusion device at Harwell, for the Brussels Fair.

Author: 
William E. Appleby [ZETA nuclear fusion device; Harwell; U.K. Atomic Energy Authority; Museum of Model Engineering & Science, Westcliffe-on-Sea]
Publication details: 
1958. All items laid down on pages headed 'Museum of Model Engineering & Science, Westcliffe-on-Sea'.
£350.00
A plan, a list, photographs, and newspaper cuttings, relating to Appleby's model

The collection is laid down on the rectos of 43 leaves of a 4to folder, on pages printed with borders and headed with the name of the Museum. Items in good condition, with the usual aging to newspaper cuttings, in worn folder. Folder in original buff wraps with, printed on front wrap, 'Compiled and Edited by WILLIAM E. APPLEBY', and with the subject given in manuscript as 'Atomic Models & Machines (MEL) Zeta.' Last page with note by Appleby: 'Zeta | Science Museum | Made by | [signed] William E Appleby'.

Around 130 items of ephemera relating to Harry Houdini, including a recording of his wife's last seance for him in 1936, 41 magazine articles, photographs, postcards, catalogues, cuttings, facsimiles.

Author: 
[Harry Houdini (1874-1926), magician and escapologist]
Publication details: 
Items dating from between 1909 and 1997.
£1,450.00

A fascinating archive, reflecting Houdini's immense iconic status. The collection is in good condition, with only a few items showing signs of aging, such as a handful of magazines with loose covers or other pages. Apart from two items (described first below) the collection is divided into two parts, A and B: Part A comprises general Houdini ephemera, and Part B magazines featuring Houdini, 1909-1997.

[Printed Victorian botanical handbill advertisement.] American Blackberry Rooted Cuttings, Kittatinny Variety. Imported by D. C. Lowber, 35, Chapel Walks, Liverpool. [Including text on 'THE AMERICAN BLACKBERRY.']

Author: 
D. C. Lowber [originally of New Orleans], Liverpool Merchant [American Blackberries, Kittatinny Variety; botanical ephemera]
Publication details: 
[Circa 1875.] D. C. Lowber, 35, Chapel Walks, Liverpool.
£28.00
American Blackberry Rooted Cuttings

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Attractive engraving of a blackberry cutting. The second page is headed 'THE AMERICAN BLACKBERRY', and begins 'There is scarcely a more wholesome fruit than this, and one that has been more improved by judicious cultivation on the American side of the water.' The text, which continues to the last page and is signed in type by Lowber, contains two quotations from 'Rev. E. P. Roe, one of the most celebrated small fruit culturists on the banks of the Hudson'. In manuscript at foot of third page: '15/- per doz.

Printed 'Contribution Card for 26 weeks ending 7th July, 1929', to the British 'National Health and Pensions Insurance', with 'Notice of Arrears', for E. A. Hughes of Batley.

Author: 
[United Kingdom National Health and Pensions Insurance, 1929; E. A. Hughes of Batley]
Publication details: 
London: 1929.
£23.00
National Health and Pensions Insurance

Both 'Contribution' and 'Notice' 16mo, 2 pp. Both on brown paper. Texts closely printed, clear and complete. Fair, lightly creased, but with rust stains at head caused by staple. Both items completed in manuscript for Hughes (a forty-five year old woman), the 'Notice' informing her that she is in arrears to the tune of five contributions out of fifty.

[Printed handbill] Metropolitian Borough of St. Pancras. Celebration in St. Pancras of the Coronation of their Majesties the King and Queen. [King George V and Queen Mary.]

Author: 
C. H. F. Barrett [Town Clerk, Metropolitan Borough of St. Pancras, London] [King George V and Queen Mary]
Publication details: 
London: 1911.
£28.00
Celebration in St. Pancras of the Coronation of their Majesties

4to, 1 p. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with chipping and closed tears to extremities. Specifically addressed to the 'District Committee for Ward 6. Comprising the Oakley Square and Ossulston Districts'. Summoning the recipient to the town hall, to deal with an 'Agenda' of six numbered points. Facsimile of the signature of Barrett, who is styled 'Honorary Secretary to the Central Executive Committee.' No copy on COPAC or in the British Library.

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