GEORGIAN

The work of a cultured and witty man, but not by the author of 'Sandford and Merton', who died in 1789. While possible authors include the 'Mr. Thomas Day, solicitor, Woburn, Bedfordshire', whose death at the age of 47 on 18 February 1824 was reported in The Times (5 March 1824), and the Thomas Day who lived around this time at Montague Street, Russell Square, the most likely candidate, considering the references to 'Romney' and 'Wyatt' is the Thomas of 'DAY William, and Thomas Day, of No. 95, Gracechurch-street, in the city of London, oilmen', who went bankrupt in 1841.

Bifolium (leaf dimensions 24.5 x 18 cm), 3 pp, on paper watermarked 1817. Text and image clear and complete on grubby and lightly-creased paper. The two leaves have been gummed to one another along a thin vertical strip, and it may be that they were originally separate. An unusual and scarce piece of ephemera. At the head of the first page is a characteristic neo-classical engraving (roughly 7.5 x 11.5 cm) showing a group of five cherub-artists, holding portolio, palette and bust, appealing to a winged goddess on a cloud, with a temple in the background.

Sitwell and Renishaw collaborated on the play 'Gentle Caesar' (published in 1942), and the last two letters would appear to concern a possible film adaptation. All three items very good on lightly aged paper. Letter One ('Friday Renishaw'): 12mo, 2 pp. 18 lines of text. Apparently written around the time of the play's composition. Sitwell is 'delighted' that Minney is 'already immersed in Pares's book. I have just read the Czar and Empress Marie's Letters.' He has 'marked (in the preface mostly) what I thought helpful for atmosphere, or amusing'.

4to bifolium: 4 pages. Closely written. Very good, on aged paper. Address on the reverse of the second leaf, which carries two postmarks and a strong impression of his red wax seal. Wolff's letter to Combes covers the whole of the recto of the second leaf. His father-in-law Edward Weston having died eight years before, he desires 'the Business touching Mr Westons Legacy to my Children to be finally concluded on'.

8vo: 47 pp. Disbound. A tight copy, with the text clear and complete, on aged paper with light waterstaining throughout. The title continues: 'To which are added, a sketch of her benevolent exertions in favour of the widow and the orphan. - Comprising the history of the Widows' Society, and the Orphan Asylum; together with the last scenes of her pious life.' WorldCat reveals eighteen copies in American libraries, but scarce in Europe: no copy on COPAC (microfiche at University of Scotland).

Paper dimensions 25.5 x 19 cm. Plate dimensions 22 x 16 cm. The head-and-shoulders portrait itself is oval, 7 cm high and 5.5 cm wide, contained in a square 11 x 9.5 cm, and with the caption beneath it. Printed on aged paper, with the image itself and the caption are clean and crisp, but the paper carries a crease to the margin, and there is light staining intruding into the surrounding square. Dibdin gives an account of Miller, whose son was the noted bookseller William Miller of Albemarle Street, in his 'Bibliomania' (1811 ed., pp.630-31).

On one side of a piece of wove paper 19 x 14.5 cm, and with the image extending almost to the edges. Lightly aged and creased, but good overall. An usual design, with the coat of arms within a fleece held up by two figures of Hercules, both on pedestals, the one of the left marked 'HUMUS' and that on the right 'SUMUS'. The fleece folds over the left-hand Hercules's right shoulder and reads 'LE CULTE EN' with 'DIFFICULTE' over the left-hand Hercules's left shoulder. Topping the whole design, above a coronet, is a harpy, and at the foot of the paper is 'Hereson de Brecksel'.

Printed in red, black, blue, gold, orange and green on one side of a piece of paper, dimensions 20 x 12.5 cm. Good, on lightly-aged and spotted paper. Minor traces of stub on blank reverse. Attractive item, with twenty-six lines of rubricated text, surrounded by an ornated decorative border of foliage and birds in imitation of an illuminated manuscript. Headed 26, Queen's Row, Pimlico opposite the Royal Mews.', beneath which: 'Valentine Elkins Bookseller &c. of Baker St. Portman Sqe. Begs most respectfully to inform the Nobility & Gentry inhabitants of Belgrave Sqre.

The label is printed on one side of a piece of paper roughly 15 x 9.5 cm. On heavily-worn, discoloured paper, with some loss of text. Six-line decorative heading: 'THIS BOOK | Belongs to | JOHNSTON'S | Circulating Library | English Stt. | CARLISLE.' The rest in copperplate. Firstly, five lines, including the request that 'BOOKS be not TRANSFERRED'. Followed by the 'Terms' (Yearly Supscription, Half-yearly, Quarterly and Monthly). This followed by seventeen lines. Includes the announcement that 'R. J. has always on hand a good assortment of Books departments of Literature'.

8vo: xvi + 400 + [xxiv] pp. (Part I ends at p.142 and Part II begins, after a half title, at p.127.) The last twenty-four pages consist of an index and three pages of 'BOOKS Lately Published'. Frontispiece portrait of Butler by J. Van der Gucht. Hogarth's seven illustrations (including three that fold out) face pp. 1, 75 (fold out), 88 (f. o.), 100, 122, 130 (f. o.), 131 and 182 (f. o.). Internally tight on spotted and aged paper. Good impressions of illustrations, with a little light foxing.

12mo (dimensions of leaf roughly 15.5 x 10.5 cm). Fifteen leaves each with a page of letterpress, and twelve engravings. Uncoloured. Foxed and slightly dogeared, in aged, worn and spotted wraps. Each of the twelve engravings is accompanied by a leaf carrying a page of letterpress with an illustrative quotation from Scott's work. First leaf with printed page listing four works 'Designed, Etched, and Published by G. Cruikshank', with prices; printed title; final leaf with printed page listing six priced 'Works Illustrated by George Cruikshank.

8vo: 224 pp. Errata on last page. Frontispiece and portrait of the author on p.65 by Lodge. In original brown calf binding, with red label with 'Kisses of Secundus' in gilt, on spine. A tight copy, with the flyleaves becoming detached, the frontispiece foxed and with a closed tear at the head of the hinge, and a 4mm ink stain spreading upwards along the leaves along the bottom edge. Elegantly printed, with a four-page preface by the unnamed translator, followed by a 32-page 'Essay on the Life and Writings of Secundus'.The poems are on the versos, with the translations on the facing rectos.

BM 13489. Landscape. On a piece of wove paper, roughly 215 x 305 mm. Good, on heavily-aged paper and with strip of blue paper mount adhering to the blank reverse. The title 'BERNADOTTE' is at the head, and the publication details and caption at the foot. Shows Bernadotte in martial pose and uniform, riding his white horse over a fearsome serpent. He wears a sash on which are written the words 'Leipsic' and 'Victory'.

On one side of a piece of wove paper, dimensions roughly 365 x 255 mm. Laid down on a larger leaf. Lightly creased and a little spotted, but good overall, and with the text entirely legible. The upper part of the item consists of the quotation from Pettis's manuscript book, consisting of nineteen lines in single column and twenty-six lines in double column. It begins 'The day was usher'd in with Ringing, Music, and Versing from door to door. At Eleven o'Clock a Cavalcade was formed in the Court Yard, West of the Church, which made a gallant appearance, in manner and form following'.

All three items 4to. All good, on lightly aged and creased paper. Letter One (2 pp, 14 lines), addressed to 'My Lord'.

Stitched notebook, in original marbled wraps, containing 19 manuscript pages on ten leaves. Leaf dimensions 32.5 x 20.5 cm. On laid paper with Britannia watermark. Good, on aged paper, in worn and creased wraps. Text closely and neatly written, clear and complete. From the Tonyn and Paterson family papers, but not in Paterson's hand. Contains transcriptions, in Paterson's hand, of thirty-three orders, twenty-four of which are addressed to him personally, the other nine being general orders 'To the respective Captains Commanders & Commanding Officers of H.M. Ships & Vessels'.

4to: 1 p. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper. 'I have great satisfaction in acquainting you that a Commission has this day been signed promoting you to the Rank of Rear Admiral of the Blue.' Docketed by Paterson twice on the otherwise-blank reverse '12 Augt. 1812 | Lord Melville informing me I am made Rear Admiral of the Blue'.

Four paginated pages of small type in a quarto (25 x 20 cm) bifolium. Attractively printed on paper watermarked 'T EDMONDS | 1834'. Unbound. Good: lightly aged and creased. On the first page the author announces the publication of the second part, 'with great regret for the delay which has unavoidably intervened in the publication, from causes impossible for him to have forseen'. The succeeding three pages consist of the double-column list of subscribers, headed by 'Patron.

12mo: iv + 164 pp. In original green cloth, with the title in gilt on the front cover. All edges gilt. Slightly foxed. Good and tight, in lightly worn cloth. A curious collection, with the index of first lines containing such entries as 'Sweet Edgbaston bells' [this poem dated 1844], 'Dear Varinka', ' 'Twas a boy in a cut-off jacket' and 'They call me little Trottie'. All three series are excessively scarce. The only copy of this third series on COPAC is in the British Library, and the only copy on WorldCat in California.

On a piece of paper cut from a letter, roughly 3.5 x 9.5 cm. On lightly aged and slightly grubby paper. Good firm signature, beneath which, in a contemporary hand, 'I knew his daughter Stepny'. Gulston's wife Bridgetta (1749/50–1780) was the second daughter of Sir Thomas Stepney.

Both issues 8vo (roughly 30.5 x 19.5 cm), 6 pp (each a loose leaf in a bifolium). Both printed on brittle watermarked laid paper. Both unbound, and stabbed as issued, and both on aged and chipped paper, but with the text clear and entire. Each issue with the title in an expansive calligraphic design. The full slug, at the bottom of the last page of both issues, reads: 'Printed and Published by ETHERINGTON, at No 25, opposite the South Door of St. Paul's (where Letters, post-paid, to the LITERARY FLY will be received).

4to, 8 pp. Unbound and unstitched. Grubby, worn and stained, but with text clear and entire, except for words on a couple of lines of the heavily-stained final leaf. The reverse of the title reproduces 'The Church-Wardens Oaths. On Coming into Office.' and 'In Delivering Presentments.' Mainly consisting of two sections (both clear and entire): 'Concerning Churches and Chapels; the Fabrick, Furniture, and Ornaments thereunto belonging.' (pp.3-4) and 'Concerning the Church-Yard, and the Houses, Glebe, Tithes, and other Dues belonging to the Church.' (pp.4-6).

Dimensions of all four items 18 x 14 cm. Two landscape and two portrait. The margins of the plates have been cut away, so that each illustration covers the whole piece of paper. All four items are in good condition, although one has a small patch of the top-left hand corner damaged from removal from mount, and another has a 1 cm closed tear to an edge. Attractive colouring. All four are night scenes with a full moon depicted, holding up to the light intensifying the effects.

On one side of a leaf (roughly 11 x 16 mm), removed from an autograph album. Good, on lightly aged paper, with some show-through from amusing drawing on reverse by L. E. H. Phipson. Bold signature reads 'Yours Sincerely | Marie Novello'. Drawing on reverse depicts a monocled old fogey protesting his love to a pretty young thing regarding herself in a handmirror. Captioned 'I'd rather be a young man's slave!' Signed by the illustrator 'L. E. H. Phipson | 6/12/1917'. Docketed in pencil.

8vo: 8 pp. Unbound. Stabbed as issued. Very good, on rough-edged wove paper. The seven-page advertisement, signed in type by Cobbett, is succeeded by a page headed 'New Books, published by COBBETT and MORGAN'. (Eight titles are listed.) The advertisement is a personal address from Cobbett, the second paragraph casting valuable light on his motives and intentions: 'When I first undertook the Register, I was fully persuaded, that the plan, which, indeed, I had long thought of, was well calculated to ensure a wide circulation, and to produce an extensive as well as a lasting effect.

BM 12123. Landscape. On piece of paper roughly 245 x 375 mm. Dimensions of engraving roughly 220 x 330 mm. A good, complete image on lightly aged and spotted paper, with slight loss to the top left-hand corner of the margin and a few pin holes to the margins. Napoleon, in martial regalia, stands at the rostrum, gavel in hand, leaning on a piece of paper which says 'Speedily will be sold the Thirteen CANTONS OF SWITSERLAND'. Napoleon is saying 'What no bidding for the Crown of Spain There take the other crowns and lump them into one lot'. One of those present replies 'That a CROWN!

BM 12195. Landscape. On a piece of wove paper. Originally a rectangle roughly 240 x 340 mm, but with an arc cut away beginning in the top left-hand corner and ending at bottom right. This loss has no effect on the text, and only the merest effect on the image, only trimming the outer edge of some very lightly-painted clouds. Apart from this good, on lightly spotted paper, with a thin strip from blue paper mount adhering to the blank reverse.

On one side of a piece of wove paper. Dimensions of paper roughly 25.5 x 35.5 cm; dimensions of image 23.5 x 35 cm. Image clear and entire on lightly aged and creased paper with a little spotting. The margins of the print have been trimmed, resulting in the loss at the foot of the leaf of the printer's slug ('Printed and Published by G. Drake, 12, Houghton-Street, Clare-market.').

Printed on one side of a piece of laid paper roughly 320 x 190 mm. On light-aged paper, with slight discoloration, and wear to the fold line repaired on the reverse with archival tape. Twenty-one lines of text, clear and entire, with 'Hinkford Hundred, in Essex}' in the left-hand margin.

Folio bifolium (dimensions of leaf roughly 32 x 20 cm): one page, with the reverse of the leaf and the whole of the second leaf of the bifolium blank. Unbound. Good, on lightly aged and creased laid paper with a Britannia watermark. Eighteen lines of text, mostly taken up with comments on the teaching at the College of Latin and Greek, followed by an 'Extract from the General Report transmitted to the Admiralty Office' with room for the Student's name, his date of admission, and progress in mathematics, English, Latin and Greek, History and Geography, French and Drawing.