HALE

43pp., 8vo. In good condition, on aged paper, with small label (with manuscript '7') on first page. In tasteful modern grey paper wraps with white printed label on front. Bell's presentation inscription, with the first line slightly trimmed at head, is on the title page: 'Lord Egerton | with the compliments of | Alexander Graham Bell' and '(Senate Document)'. Bell has also written, above the drop-head title (p.3): 'Suggestions by Alex. Graham Bell with regard to Defective Classes, Paper 31'. Bell's contribution, the longest in the volume, is on pp.31-37, with six tables in text.

Seal on stone oval just over 1cm wide; in brass mount just over 3cm high, with handle in shape of a pillar topped with a ring (presumably for attaching to a chain or necklace). Wrapped in a 5.5 x 11 cm packet, made from folding a piece of 17 x 21.5 cm paper (with watermark of R. Turner of Kent), with the following written on it in a Victorian hand (presumably that of Eleanor Avena Blackburne, to whom the item was presented): 'Part of the Ocean Monarch burnt off the coast of Wales | August 1848 | Presented by Mr John Neilson'.

23pp., 12mo. Stitched pamphlet. In fair condition, on aged and chipped high-acidity paper with floral watermark. Elegantly letterpress printing. Priced at 6d on front cover. The third page carries an 'Index to Music', at the end of which the address in the following - 'Copies of the Music may be obtained at 7, Harpur Street, London, W.C., Price 2s.' - has been altered in manuscript to 'from Miss C. E. Few | Shalford | Guildford'. Excessively scarce: no copies on COPAC or OCLC WorldCat.

The two items are in very good condition, on lightly aged paper. Item One: Secretarial Letter, in French, by 'C Vaublanc', Vincent-Marie Viénot, Count of Vaublanc (1756-1845), 'Le Ministre Secretaire d'Etat de L'Intérieur' [French Minister of the Interior]. Paris, 13 April 1816. He is sending the 'fac simile De la Lettre de notre Infortunée Reine', and in order to dispel any doubts as to authenticity has initialled the foot of the third page.

4pp., folio. Bifolium. Complete, on aged and worn paper.

Two documents, with covering leaf (1p., 8vo) carrying the following note by the recipient: 'Advice from John Blackburne of Orford - to his grandson J B of Hale & Orford 1770'. The first document is 2pp., 8vo.; the second 5pp., 8vo. In fair condition, on aged paper, with wear and chipping to extremities. Both documents in the elder Blackburne's remarkably neat and close hand, with occasional emendations. Both document with 'By my Grandfather' by the recipient at the end.

1p., 4to. Bifolium. Addressed, with broken seal in red wax, on reverse of second leaf to 'Sir Foster Cunliffe Bar - | Acton | Wrexham'. Chester postmark dated 27 April [1821?]. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. He is enclosing 'the Blackburnian poem which arrived this morning by the Carrier -' (the poem is not present). The second paragraph reads: 'Classical Rats are voracious - they read with a vengeance - yet I hope that the breach is not beyond the powers of reparation'. From the papers of John Blackburne, through the antiquary Dr James Kendrick.

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.

1p., 4to. 18 lines of text. Fair, on aged paper, with a few closed tears. Addressed on the reverse, with three postmarks and Pusey's seal in black wax broken in two, to 'Rev. Wm. H. Hale | Charter-house'. Writing in a tight, difficult hand, Pusey begins with a reference to an 'intended present' from Hale (from the context clearly a copy of Hale's edition of Jeremy Taylor's 'Doctrine and Practice of Repentence'). Pusey praises 'the earnest, energetic truth-speaking language of Bp. Taylor', which he considers 'a voice as from another world'.

1p., 4to, on recto of first leaf of bifolium, with verso of the second addressed by Hale to 'Henry Vose jr. Esq | Counsellor at Law | Springfield | Mass', and carrying Hale's red wax seal, broken into two parts, and a red postmark. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Hale writes that he is enclosing 'the sum with which you were so kind as to accommodate me last week - I don't know how I should have "got along" without it'. 'I have no news for you to-day, as our steamer has not yet arrived, and I dare not venture uponn the vast perturbed sea of our politics'.

All three items in good condition. Letter One: 22 December 1882. 7 pp, 12mo. On two bifoliums. In this letter Hale explains his reasons for turning down, despite the urging of his friends, the invitation to give 'six lectures, suitable for a Lowell Institute course'. He begins by apologising for not answering as a result of illness: 'this is the first time for ten years that I have been kept from attending my office by such a cause'. Since his 'Indian researches have become known' he has had many calls upon his time: 'I now find that I have been attempting too much.

Fourteen pages, quarto. In letter book by Philpott & Collins (and with their label on front pastedown) On aged paper, with some chipping to extremities, but with text clear and entire, though faded in places. In heavily worn leather half-binding. The first five leaves carry Hale-Helps' dated oval despatch stamp, as Honorary Secretary of the 1896 Volunteers. In ONE (to Viscount Gladstone, 9 March 1914, two pages) Hale-Helps requests that his 'Rhodesian Medal for the 1896' is sent to him.