HISTORY

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Autograph Note Signed "RBL" to [Frederick or his son, William?] Shoberl

Author: 
Rosina Bulwer-Lytton, novelist
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£280.00

One page, 12mo, chipped, discoloured andf oxed but text clear and complete, if eccentrically presented: "My Dear Sir | Not at all the same idea - Roses and Thorns are very Namby Pamby and I meant keep the Tares and the wheat. [Space with "To Lady Lytton" written in large and different hand - recycling?] and will answer for its being a better because a higher - and more sensible title | In Great Haste | Yours very Truly | RBL". She has written the address on the reverse ("Mr | Shoberl Esq | 20 Great Marlboro'".

Autograph Letter Signed to "Dr [John?] Bowring". 5 Millman Street, London.

Author: 
Thomas Dick Lauder.
Publication details: 
Relugas, 15 June 1830.
£250.00

Author (see DNB). Six pages, 4to, with hole and chip causing small loss of text, some staining, pahes attached at margin, obscuring a word or two, text clear. Profuse thanks for his "kind letter from the canal" and a later note and present. He enjoyed his short visit, regretting the loss of a day when he attended "the wrangling of a dull county meeting". More on his enjoyment of his company, and hope that he'll fulfil his promise to visit again. He goes on: "A change . . .

[MS] Articles of Agreement signed by Draper and Richmond concerning "a large quantity of ice now stowed in [Draper's] houses at Horn Pond".

Author: 
Daniel Draper and W.C. Richmond, both of Boston, Mass., peddlers of ice.
Publication details: 
05/03/51
£325.00

Two pages, folio, bifolium (second leaf blank apart from a summary of the document), small closed tears on fold marks, mainly good condition. Witness signature indecipherable. Richmond wishes to peddle ice in Woburn, Mass. and surrounding towns.

Autograph Letter Signed ('G Denman') to his cousin Elphinstone, giving details of family history.

Author: 
George Denman (1819-1896), judge and politician [Sir Howard Craufurd Elphinstone (1829-1890), army officer]
Publication details: 
Undated. On letterhead of Stony Middleton, Sheffield.
£45.00

4to, 4 pp. Text clear and complete. On aged and grubby paper. Begins 'Our Uncle i.e. my uncle & yr gt uncle Thomas Elphinstone was born at Higher Efford, 3 miles from Plymouth he died on the 13th. of March 1821 at the age of 57'. Includes information told him by Milly Holloway. Describes a couple of the 'pranks' of 'Uncle Tom'. The connection between the two individuals and their families is not noted in their entries in the Oxford DNB.

Handbill headed 'Funeral Reform Conference. July 23, 1884. The Earl of Shaftesbury, K.G., Presiding.', reporting Haden's views on 'the desirablilty of greater simplicity in the conduct of funerals'.

Author: 
Funeral Reform Conference, 1884 [London Necropolis Company; Seymour Haden]
Publication details: 
1884. Printer not stated.
£56.00

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.

An Address on Temperance Societies.

Author: 
A FRIEND.' [Joseph Livesey, printer, Church-street, Preston, Lancashire; provincial printing; temperance societies]
Publication details: 
Undated [1850?]. Printed and Sold by J. Livesey, Church-street, Preston.
£65.00

12mo, 4 pp. Disbound bifolium. Text clear and complete. On aged and foxed paper, with some wear and chipping. 'The distillers, merchants, and dealers; the landlords, the brewers, and the owners of licensed houses - not to say the government itself - actuated by interested motives, have all done honour at the shrine of Bacchus; and when it is understood that about a million of persons are enriched or supported by this nefarious traffic, no wonder that the happy soil of England should be deluged with this liquid fire.' Following slug: '(1s. 4d.

A file of twenty-two Autograph Letters, most signed "The Editor", otherwise "Reginald Smith", or, not in his hand, "Smith Elder & Co" to W.A. Shenstone, F.R.S., populariser of science (obit, "Nature" 77, 348-349 (13 Feb. 1908). With related items.

Author: 
Reginald Smith, sometime barrister, later editor of "The Cornhill Magazine" from 1898, in charge of publishers, Smith Elder from 1899
Publication details: 
[Cornhill Magazine headed notepaper], 18 May 1902-1 March 1907
£750.00

All letters 8vo, total pp.35, good condition, some letters tipped in, others loose, not in chronological order.

Autograph Note in the third person, with signature ('Wrothsley') on frank.

Author: 
Sir John Wrothsley [Wrottesley; James Ridgeway, bookseller, Piccadilly, London]
Publication details: 
9 September 1835 [Doncaster].
£28.00

12mo, 1 p. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with thin strip of stub adhering to the reverse of the second leaf. Reads 'Sir John Wrothsley requests Mr. Ridgway will direct his Newspapers [corrected from 'Letters'] Post Office Scarborough. The frank reads 'Doncaster September ten 1835 | Mr. Ridgway | Piccadilly | London | [signed] Wrothsley'. Divided circular Doncaster postmark in black, and frank ('FREE | 11SEP11| 1835') in red.

"Description of a new Species of Agama, brought from the Columbia River by Mr. Douglass

Author: 
Thomas Bell
Publication details: 
From Trans.Linn. Soc.
£50.00

(Dentist and natural historian).Vol.xvi, pp.105-107, plate, sm. fol., sewn in blue wraps. INSCRIBED by the author: "J.G. Children Esqre [see DNB] with the Author's king regards". Perhaps never bound in to its volume. (Bell has also written the name of Children on the fr. cover.)

Chief Officer's Rough Log of the 'Government Transport Service' of HM Transport 'Clan Macrae' in the Mediterranean as part of the Gallipoli Campaign.

Author: 
Log book of HM Transport Clan Macrae (Captain Alex R. Weir) during the Gallipoli Campaign, 1916 [Clan Line Association of Steamers, Glasgow]
Publication details: 
5 April 1915 to 14 June 1916. Departing from Liverpool and returning to Glasgow, refitted at Alexandria, and taking in Imbros, Kephalo Bay, Port Said, Port Murdro and other destinations.
£950.00

4to, 346 pp. Divided into two sections, each on different printed forms, bound together in contemporary red calf 4to half- binding (with ticket of Smith & Lane, Printers, 15 Bridge St, Sydney. Text clear and complete, on aged and foxed paper. Binding worn and stained. Part One: 5 April 1915 to 31 January 1916. 4to (leaf dimensions 30 x 25 cm), 252 pp. Part Two: 1 February to 14 June 1916. 4to (leaf dimensions 32 x 25 cm), 94 pp. In a variety of hands, the second section being described as being kept by 'The officers of s/s 'Clan Macrae''.

Autograph Letter Signed ('F. Madras.') to 'My dear Venables'.

Author: 
Frederick Gell (1820-1902), Anglican Bishop of Madras, India
Publication details: 
14 April 1871; 56 Friar Gate, Derby.
£85.00

12mo, 2 pp. 24 lines of text. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Laid down on a leaf from an album, in such a way as the first line of the second page can only be read in mirror image by holding the item up to the light. Marvellously indicative of the patronising attitude of the governing British classes to their Indian subjects. On visiting Venables he will 'venture to bring with me my native servant' who 'does not require much in the way of accommodation'. If Venables 'has no corner for him' in his house, asks if he can recommend 'a little room somewhere near'.

Circa 40 printed items relating to the Van Diemen's Land Company, including forms, circulars, notices, prospectuses, reports, press reports, letterheads, etc.

Author: 
The Van Diemen's Land Company [The Burnie (Tasmania) Timber & Brick Company Limited]
Publication details: 
[31 Finsbury Circus and Blomfield House, London Wall, London, England.] Dating from between 1897 and 1954.
£100.00

The Van Diemen's Land Company was formed in 1824 by a group of London merchants, including Charles Richard Fenwick (1822-1888) and Thomas Dyer Edwardes (d.1912), to supply wool for the British textile industry. It received a Royal Charter the following year. In 1826 it was granted 350,000 acres in the northwest of the country. It established its headquarters at Circular Head. The company retains much of the original land grant and is believed to be the last chartered company still operating in Tasmania.

The History of the Church of Rome. to the End of the Episcopate of Damasus, A.D. 384 (with related items).

Author: 
Edward John Shepherd, Rector of Luddesdown.
Publication details: 
London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1851
£450.00

Author's own copy. Pp.vxi.541, cr. 8vo, with additional "Corrections" page, hf-lea, raised bands, worn, contents good, interleaved with additional blank pages, a few of which have notes in Shepherd's hand. The book derives from the residual archive of the family of E.J. Shepherd. No copy recorded in Lambeth Palace Library Catalogue. With (from the same archive): the Accounts, 1851-1853, prepared by Longmans giving costs and sales, these in MS. but they are on the reverse of a lengthy printed statement by Longman's headed "Paternoster Row, London | January 1843. | Messrs.

Poems

Author: 
I. M. C.' [i.e. Isabella M. Cronyn] (Lady Couchman)
Publication details: 
Privately printed: The Westminster Press, 1942.
£25.00

Wife of railway engineer and administrator in India and Burma. Stitched 8vo pamphlet, in printed card wraps. In good condition. 16 pages.

Autograph Note Signed ('Fred Slade') to 'My dear Bee'.

Author: 
Lt-Gen. Frederick George Slade (1851-1910), Royal Artillery, Assistant Adjutant-General, Woolwich Arsenal
Publication details: 
24 February 1899; on letterhead of the Chief Staff Office, Woolwich.
£38.00

12mo, 1 p. 6 lines. Clear and complete. Fair, on aged and slightly grubby paper, with strip of glue from mount on blank reverse, which has laid down on it a ten-line biographical newspaper cutting referring to Slade ('[...] one of the youngest major-generals on the Staff in the Army [...] His most recent appointment was that of Assistant Adjutant-General at Woolwich'). He is sending 'a missed lot of Soldiers autographs. Some that you already have may be useful in exchanging for others'.

Eleven items from Fürth's scientific archives, including an autograph notebook written during his time as Associate Professor in Theoretical Physics at Prague University, two typewritten papers (one signed 'R. Fürth'), and offprints of papers.

Author: 
Professor Reinhold Fürth [Furth; Fuerth] (b. Prague, 1893; d.1979), FRSE, theoretical physicist, of the German University in Prague and Birkbeck College, assoicate of Max Born
Publication details: 
Dated items between 1935 and 1950. (Notebook earlier?)
£850.00

Fürth obtained his doctorate from the German University in Prague. From the beginning of the Second World War he was a research assistant to Max Born at Edinburgh University. After the war he became one of Born’s principal research collaborators, before moving to Birkbeck College in London. The archive as a whole is in good condition, on aged paper, with the text of all the items clear and complete. ITEM ONE: Quarto (28.5 x 22 cm) graph-paper notebook, with around 100 pages in German, apparently listing, with circuit diagrams, the results of electrical experiments. Occasional insertions.

Manuscript notebook, listing the infantry regiments of the British army, with brief descriptions of their mottos, uniforms, and periods of service.

Author: 
[British Army Regiments of Foot; Infantry; military]
Publication details: 
Undated [1840s?]. [English.]
£125.00

12mo (leaf dimensions 16 x 11 cm), 60 pp. Stitched notebook of thirty leaves, without covers. In fair condition, aged and with wear to extremities of outer leaves. On laid Italian paper, with the watermark of the Italian firm G. & C. Cini. Neatly written, with the body of the writing in one hand, and the mottos in another. Text clear and apparently complete. Begins: '1st. Regiment of Life Guards. | Peninsular Waterloo. | Scarlet, Facings Blue. | Returned from France, January 1816.' A typical entry reads '58th. (the Rutlandshire) Regt. of Foot. | Gibraltar, with the Castle and Key.

Autograph Letter Signed by Wood to unnamed recipient, recalling the Manchester treason trial of Thomas Walker and five others, 1794.

Author: 
Ottiwell Wood, radical Manchester fustian manufacturer [Thomas Walker (1749-1817), Manchester radical; Treason Trial of 1794; Luddites; Luddism]
Publication details: 
8 January 1844; Edge hill.
£150.00

12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged and creased paper. Wood begins by recalling 'the savage bigotry and infuriate hostility of the Manchestr. Tories at the time you mention towards the liberals'. He does not think an attempt was made to put the Oath of Allegiance to those on the recipient's list. 'The lives of 6-8 men of high Character and standing in the Town were placed in jeopardy by the perjury of two Villains and they were tried at Lancaster for either Treason or Sedition. I think for the former.

Manuscript headed 'Regulations for Direct Commissions Examination'.

Author: 
[Direct Commissions Examination; British Army; Victorian England]
Publication details: 
Undated [England, 1860s?].
£75.00

12mo (20.5 x 13.5 cm), 2 pp. Forty-one lines of text. Clear and complete. Good, with part of the leaf from the album in which the item was mounted still adhering to the blank part of the reverse of the leaf. Divided into six sections, the first reading 'Exam: quarterly or oftener if necessary in London. The no. of Candidates admitted to Exam: will depend on exigencies of service.' Other sections include: Age; Exam. by Medical Board; Marks & SUbjects of Exams; Obligations; mmarks in voluntary subjects..From the album of Rev. William Done Bushell (1838-1917).

Autograph album of the fashionable Knightsbridge booksellers Truslove & Hanson, containing more than three hundred of signatures of authors and literary figures, written over a period of more than sixty years.

Author: 
[Truslove & Hanson, Knightsbridge booksellers; Bowes & Bowes; W. H. Smith & Sons; Rudyard Kipling; Hilaire Belloc; Dick Francis; Edith Sitwell; Dorothy L. Sayers]
Publication details: 
London. Dating from before 1924 to 1987.
£2,500.00

8vo landscape album, 21 x 26 cm. Morocco leather binding. Marbled endpapers; all edges gilt. 'TRUSLOVE & HANSON' stamped on the front board in gilt. Internally good, sound and tight; in fair binding with wear to hinges and corners and minor damp staining. Truslove & Hanson was always a fashionable bookshop, placing an emphasis on presentation. It was acquired by W. H. Smith & Son in 1923; the same firm acquired the Cambridge booksellers Bowes & Bowes in 1953.

Humorous pamphlet entitled 'Display of Knights in Tourney. Programme. 1. Jousting. 2. The two-handed Sword. 3. Melee with Battleaxes and Maces.'

Author: 
Ferozepore Brigade, Punjab [British Army in India; Firozpur; the Raj]
Publication details: 
Undated [early twentieth century]. Muir Press Brigade Printers, Ferozepore Area.
£45.00

4to (leaf dimensions 21.5 x 17.5 cm), 3 pp. Bifolium. On green paper. The central two pages carry a 'arms', 'motto' and 'biography' of each of the 'Dramatis Personae': 'Sir Attaboy de Walloper', 'Sir Kolynos Dent', 'Sir Bottholm Duster' and 'Sir Guinness Comme-Boisson'. The targets of this lighthearted satire are lost. Beside each character is an Indian name (the last being 'L/Def. Mohmed Sultan Khan'). There are also nine Indians named as playing herald, pages and varlets. No copy on COPAC.

Manuscript Account Book, with several documents loosely inserted.

Author: 
[THE WORSHIPFUL COMPANY OF COOKS; HAMMOND FAMILY; FARM SCHOOL, BISLEY, SURREY; VICTORIAN LONDON]
Publication details: 
1878 to 1903; London.
£250.00

Quarto: three hundred and thirty paginated pages, with index of twenty-four pages. In worn black leather half-binding, with 'LEDGER' on spine. Large label of Field & Tuer, Manufacturing Stationers, on front pastedown. Aged, but in good condition and complete. Detailed accounts of a well-to-do Victorian family, with significant interests in London and elsewhere, with seeming connections to the Worshipful Company of Cooks.

Printed Voting Paper on behalf of the parliamentary candidate Alexander Beresford Hope, in the 'Cambridge University Election, 1868'. Complete with the perforated stub.

Author: 
[Cambridge University, General Election, 1868; Sir Alexander James Beresford Beresford Hope (1820-1887)]
Publication details: 
[Cambridge, 1868.]
£45.00

Printed on one side of a piece of green paper, 28 x 21.5 cm, with vertical perforated line 6.5 cm in from the left-hand margin, dividing the paper into stub (28 x 6.5 cm) and paper (28 x 15 cm). Clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged and creased paper, with slight wear to extremities. Part of blank reverse laid down on leaf removed from album. From the collection of William Done Bushell (1838-1917), who received his B.A. from St John's in 1861 (later assistant master and honorary chaplain at Harrow School).

Printed pamphlet issued by the General Post Office, London, titled 'AIR MAIL', with table giving details of postal rates and services to various countries.

Author: 
General Post Office, London; Air Mail ,1927 [airmail; British postal history]
Publication details: 
P.635. Issued, June, 1927.' ['B. & F., Ltd.']
£125.00

Large 8vo (33 x 21 cm), 6 pp. Four-leaf pamphlet, with the final leaf blank. Clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged and worn paper, with minor rust marks from removed staples. On the first page are twelve sections under the headings 'Letter Air Mails' and 'Parcel Air Mails'. The following four pages carry the table of 'Letter Air Mails', in columns with headings including Route, Air Fee, and Observations. The final page contains a table of 'Parcel Air Mails' and further observations.

Autograph Signature ('W E Gladstone') on frank, addressed to Guillemard at 11 Downing Street.

Author: 
William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898), British Liberal Prime Minister [Sir Laurence Nunns Guillemard (1862-1951)]
Publication details: 
Without date.
£25.00

The front cover of the envelope, 9.5 x 12 cm, cut away and laid down on a ruled piece of paper cut from an autograph album. A little grubby, but good. Reads 'L N Guillemard Esq | 11 Downing St. | [signed] W E Gladstone'. Signature approximately 4.5 cm long, and underlined.

Autograph Letter Signed ('H. O. Coxe') to <Innes?>.

Author: 
Henry Octavious Coxe [H. O. Coxe] (1811-1881), Bodley's Librarian, 1860-1881 [The Bodleian Library, Oxford]
Publication details: 
16 January 1879; Bodleian Library.
£65.00

16mo, 3 pp. Bifolium. Thirteen lines of text. Clear and complete. On aged paper with heavy staining to outer pages. Clarifying the position regarding 'new editions with additions'. The Bodleian is entitled to copies of these, 'unless the additions are separate - then we can only claim the new matter'. Explains that the Library's 'agent in London', Eccles of Great Russell Street, 'receives for us, or collects, as it may be the of the Publishers'. Docketed in pencil in a contemporary hand on the blank reverse of the second leaf.

Warrant (commission), signed by 'Sandwich', 'J Buller.' and 'Bamber Gascoyne' as Lords of the Admiralty, and 'Php Stephens' as First Secretary, appointing Paterson 'Second Lieutenant of His Majesty's Ship the Alcide'.

Author: 
John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty; Bamber Gascoyne; John Buller; Sir Philip Stephens, 1st Secretary of the Admiralty [Admiral Charles William Paterson]
Publication details: 
[21 April 1780] 'Given under our hands and the Seal of the Office of Admiralty this Twenty first day of April 1780.'
£350.00

One one side of a piece of vellum, dimensions 28.5 x 32.5 cm. Neatly folded to make eight rectangles. Red wax seal beneath paper square in top left-hand corner, embossed with the Admiralty anchor. Two blue 2s 6d stamps in left-hand margin. Small paper stamp on reverse. Text entirely legible on discoloured vellum. Four small burn holes in vellum, affecting two words of text. The body of the document is printed over fifteen lines, with the specific information added in manuscript. Headed 'By the Commissioners for Executing the Office of Lord High Admiral of Great Britain and Ireland &c.

Printed (British government?) report entitled 'A Plan for China.'

Author: 
British Government Plan for China, 1925 [League of Nations; Great Britain; Foreign Office]
Publication details: 
Dated 'April, 1925.' [Foreign Office, London?]
£480.00

A curious document which, whether it emanates from the British Foreign Office or not, provides valuable insight into informed British opinion on China in the period following the First World War. Printed on fourteen 34 x 21.5 cm leaves, paginated 1-13 with title on fourteenth leaf. On paper with the Britannia watermark of Waterlow and Sons Limited, London. Stapled. Text clear and complete on aged and foxed paper.

6 Autograph Letters Signed and 4 Typed Letters Signed (all 'J. A. Hammerton) to Richards, with one Autograph Letter Signed to Richards' assistant Lyons, and a Typed copy of a letter from Richards to Hammerton.

Author: 
J. A. Hammerton [Sir John Alexander Hammerton] (1871-1949), Scottish editor of reference works including 'Harmsworth's Universal Encyclopaedia' [Grant Richards (1872-1948), English publisher]
Publication details: 
3 February 1903 to 15 April 1904 (two letters undated); seven on letterhead of 43 Hornsey Rise Gardens, three on letterheads of S. W. Partridge and Co, two on letterhead of 8 and 9 Paternoster Row.
£350.00

Twelve items. All texts clear and complete. In a variety of formats from 4to to 12mo. The collection is in fair condition, on aged and grubby paper. An interesting series of letters from one leading figure in the publishing circles of Edwardian London to another, revealing Hammerton's energetic no-nonsense approach. Much of the correspondence concerns the publication by Richards of Hammerton's 'Stevensoniana' (including a typed copy of a letter from Richards to Hammerton, 2 February 1903, stating terms). The discussion of the book includes references to 'Mrs R. L.

Two long typewritten letters, the first describing 'the King's Visit' to H.M.S. Revenge, and 'the surrender of the German Fleet' in 1918; the second describing the 1931 Spring and Summer Cruises of Royal Yacht, the Queen Elizabeth.

Author: 
Anonymous 'writer' on H.M.S. Revenge [The surrender of the German Fleet, 1918] [the royal yacht, The Queen Elizabeth]
Publication details: 
Letter One: 21 November 1918; H.M.S. "Revenge", at present off Inchkeith, N[orth]. B[ritain]. Letter Two: 14 December 1931; 'Office of the Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Station, Malta.
£325.00

A valuable eyewitness account of an historic event. H.M.S. Revenge was the flagship of Admiral Freemantle, and it was to its quarterdeck that Admiral Ludwig von Reuter would be brought in 1919, after issuing the order to scuttle the entire German fleet at Scapa Flow. The text of both items is clear and complete. Both good, on lightly-aged and spotted paper. Letter One (1918): Foolscap (32 x 20.5 cm), 4 pp. In manuscript at head of first page: 'Use this where you like, Dad! Tho' be careful of showing who wrote it.

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