MOTOR

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[The Morgan Motor Company Limited, Malvern.] Double-column account book of 'The Morgan Motor Company, Limited, in account with Lloyds Bank Limited, Malvern', detailing disbursements to companies and individuals, mainly within the motor industry.

Author: 
The Morgan Motor Company Limited, Malvern, Worcestershire, established in 1910 [Henry Frederick Stanley Morgan (1881-1959), English sports car manufacturer]
Publication details: 
The Morgan Motor Company, Limited, Malvern, Worcestershire. From May 14 1927 to May 31 1929. [Printed by Lloyds Bank Limited, Malvern]
£850.00

[4] + 288pp., 8vo. In vellum-style cream cloth binding with flap and front pocket. Internally in good condition, lightly-aged, in somewhat grubby binding. In manuscript across front cover: 'May 1927 May 31 1929 | Morgan Motor Company Limited'. The volume gives a valuable sidelight into the finances of an iconic British firm, during a boom period in its history, and place the company squarely at the centre of a network of other firms within the motoring industry.

[Captain G. Skeffington Smyth, Adjutant, The Motor Volunteer Corps.] Typed Letter Signed, a circular requesting that the recipient 'assist the Admiralty [...] by helping to drive the Officers of the French Fleet from London to Maidenhead'.

Author: 
Captain G. Skeffington Smyth [Lt-Col. Geoffrey Henry Julian Skeffington Smyth [FitzPatrick] (1873-1939], DSO, Adjutant, The Motor Volunteer Corps [The Admiralty, London; the Entente Cordiale, 1904]
Publication details: 
29 Sackville Street, London, W. 25 July 1905.
£56.00

1p., 8vo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. An interesting document, from the period immediately following the signing of the Entente Cordiale.

Typed and signed 'Contract for the supply of a Motor Ambulance and accessories' between 'The Vulcan Motors (London) Ltd & The Urban District Council of Chiswick'. With three blueprints and two sets of specifications.

Author: 
Vulcan Motor and Engineering Co. Ltd., Southport [The Urban District Council of Chiswick]
Publication details: 
London. 12 Setpember 1923.
£120.00

Six items stitched together with green ribbon. Heavily aged and with extensive damp damage. ONE: Typed agreement between The Vulcan Motors (London) Limited and The Urban Distric Council of Chiswick, dated 12 September 1923, signed by the directors of Vulcan Motors and their secretary. 2pp., folio. TWO: Typed 'Specification of Ambulance Body to be securely attached in an approved manner to Vulcan One Ton Chasis. As shown on the blue print attached.' By 'Engineer's Dept., Town Hall, Chiswick.' Dated 1 May 1923. 2pp., 8vo.

[Printed document.] Motor Cars. Memorandum of the Cheltenham Rural District Council to the President of the Local Government Board, With reference to the recent Report of the Royal Commission on Motor Cars.

Author: 
Gilbert McIlquham, clerk to the Cheltenham Rural District Board [The Local Government Board; The Royal Commission on Motor Cars, 1905-1907]
Publication details: 
Stamped '13th September 1906'.
£75.00

2pp., folio. Bifolium. In small type. Containing two copies of a printed circular by McIlquham, on Cheltenham Rural District Council letterhead, dated 14 September 1906. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. The memorandum is divided into five sections, and begins by putting the Council's position that 'Motor Cars travelling at high speed in dry weather along the unwatered roads of country districts occasion an intolerable dust nuisance to other users of the highway, and seriously prejudice the comfort and even the health of the inhabitants of road-side dwellings'.

[Dame Ethel Locke King and Winifred Bidwell.] Autograph Letter Signed to Miss Martin Wood from Bidwell, enclosing another to Bidwell from Dame Ethel Locke King, regarding the employment of Wood at Caens Hill Auxiliary Military Hospital.

Author: 
Dame Ethel Locke King (1864-1956), Vice-President of the North Surrey Division, British Red Cross; Winifred Bidwell [Miss Martin Wood; Caens Hill Auxiliary Military Hospital; Brooklands]
Publication details: 
Both on (different) letterheads of the British Red Cross Society, North Surrey and Kingston Division. Dame Ethel Locke King's letter, 21 September [1915]. Winifred Bidwell's letter, 22 September [1915].
£120.00

Caen's Hill was the property of Mrs Locke King's husband, and opened as a hospital with 32 beds in 1914, with Mrs Locke King as Commandant of the Voluntary Aid Detachment. Two years later it had 44 beds. It shut in 1919. After the war the Locke Kings developed motor racing in the area, with the celebrated Brooklands track. For more on Locke King and her distinguished war work, see her entry in the Oxford DNB and two articles in The Times, 6 and 14 August 1956. Both items 1p., 4to, in good condition, on lightly-aged paper.

[Dame Rose Macaulay, novelist.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Rose Macaulay') to C. V. Wedgwood's companion Jacqueline Hope-Wallace. With 'The Christmas Card Planned by Rose Macaulay for 1958', illustrated by Simon Fleet, in copy of 'Pleasure of Ruins'.

Author: 
Dame [Emilie] Rose Macaulay (1881-1958), English novelist [Jacqueline Hope-Wallace, lifelong companion of the historian C. V. Wedgwood [Dame Cicely Veronica Wedgwood] (1910-1997); Simon Fleet]
Publication details: 
Macaulay's letter from '20 H. H. [Hinde House, Hinde Street, London]', 29 April [no year]. The Christmas card 'planned by Rose Macaulay for 1958' and 'Sent in her memory'. 'Pleasure of Ruins' published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1953.
£180.00

Macaulay's Autograph Letter Signed: '20 H. H. | 29 April'. 2pp., landscape 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Written, in a shaky and difficult hand, in blue ink and signed 'Rose', with 'Macaulay' added in black ink. Addressed to 'Dear Jacqueline'. Apparently written during or immediately after the Second World War, and concerning petrol coupons 'issued so lavishly to the generous & amiable young nobleman

Two press photograph of racing driver Mike Hawthorn, one showing him cutting a ribbon, and the other posing indoors astride a motorcycle, as delighted spectators including five schoolboys, look on.

Author: 
Mike Hawthorn [John Michael Hawthorn] (1929-1959), English racing driver with the Ferrari Team, friend of Peter Collins and rival of Luigi Musso [Le Mans 24 Hour Race]
Publication details: 
Both stamped on the reverse: '"CHESTER CHRONICLE" | COPYRIGHT | PHOTOGRAPH'. [1950s.]
£80.00

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.

Attractive and colourful 1930s scrapbook, compiled by G. H. Manchester of Ashton-under-Lyne, mainly devoted to motoring, but with pages of footballers, boxers, cricketers, tennis players, aircraft, film and radio stars, pretty girls, dandies.

Author: 
[Geoffrey H. Manchester of Ashton-under-Lyne; 1930s scrapbook; motoring; transport; motor sports; football; Hollywood stars]
Publication details: 
Mostly compiled between 1934 and 1937, with a few pages at the end from the 1950s and 1980s.
£160.00

Several hundred images (most illustrations rather than photographs and most in colour), many carefully cut out, all laid down on 68pp. in an album made up from a ruled exercise book roughly 20 x 16 cm, including three fold-outs (the first, beneath a decorative flap that reads 'Birds Unfeathered | Worth A Bit Of Study', carrying eight 1930s illustrations women in underwear). The album has been attractively customised with printed illustrations of motor racing over board covers.

Printed circular, in the form of a facsimile letter from A. Fleming Nisbett, Secretary, The London Steam Omnibus Company LImited, designed to accompany 'an advanced copy' of the Company's prospectus, and offering 'a Founder's Share'.

Author: 
[A. Fleming Nisbett, Secretary, The London Steam Omnibus Company Limited [later the Motor Traction Company], 133 Finsbury Pavement, London, EC.]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of The London Steam Omnibus Company Limited, 133 Finsbury Pavement, London, EC. July 1898.
£80.00

2pp., 4to. Bifolium. Heavily-aged and worn. Addressed 'Dear Sir', and with facsimile of signature 'For the London Steam Omnibus Co. Ltd. | A. Flemg Nisbett | Secretary.' The circular begins with the reason for sending an advance copy of the prospectus. 'My object in giving you this early intimation is that you may, if you desire, secure beforehand a Founder's Share in the profits of the coming Steam Traffic upon the Roads - which Traffic appears likely to become one day as popular as Steam on Railways'.

Typewritten draft ('Provisional Specification') by George William Dennistoun Scott of his patent application for 'Improvements in or relative to variable speed reducing gears', with manuscript descriptions of the invention, initialed by him.

Author: 
George William Dennistoun Scott, engineer and inventor [Patents Office; inventions;motor car bicycles; bicycling]
Publication details: 
Draft dated 26 May 1905. [London.]
£165.00
George William Dennistoun Scott, engineer and inventor

A native of Derby, Scott is a notable figure in the history of the development of the bicycle. In 1878, together with George Henry Phillott, he seems to have received the first practicable patent (No. 860 of 1878) for an epicyclic change-speed gear for cycles. All items clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The typewritten draft, in blue ink, with a few manuscript corrections, covers two folio pages.

Printed 'List of Members' of 'The Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland, with which is incorporated The Self-Propelled Traffic Association', October 1901.

Author: 
[The Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland, list of members, 1901; Royal Automobile Club]
Publication details: 
October 1901. The Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland, 4 Whitehall Court, London, S.W. [Printers: F. KING & Co., Ltd., 62, St. Martin's Lane, London, W.C.']
£150.00
Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland, list of members, 1901

4to, 15 pp. In small type. Text clear and complete. On brittle green high-acidity paper, with chipping and loss to extremities and three of the leaves detached. Begins by listing 'General Council of the Automobile Club | (appointed to confer with the Club Committee on questions affecting Automobilism generally).' Headed by 'His Grace the Duke of Sutherland'; followed, on second page by Club Committee and officers, and then (pp. 3-10) the list of members in three columns, giving name, optional address, and date of election; ends (pp.11-15) with lists of 'Members of Affiliated Clubs'.

Typed Letter Signed to the Secretary, Royal Society of Arts, together with unsigned carbon copy of letter by him to T. Thorne Baker.

Author: 
Selwyn Edge
Publication details: 
The letter: 17 December 1913, on letterhead '7, HERTFORD STREET, | MAYFAIR, W.'; the carbon copy: 17 December 1913, no place.
£50.00

Motorcycle, motorboat and motorcar racer (1868-1940), leading figure in the motor business, 'in farming established the largest pedigree pig-breeding business in the United Kingdom [...] winner of many classic cycle races, the only British winner of the Gordon Bennett race, the International Harmsworth Motor Boat Trophy and the Championship of the Sea at Monaco [...] holder for over 17 years of 24 hours' motor-car record of 1581 miles' continuous driving, in this country, and then beaten by his own car' (Who's Who). Both items one page, quarto.

Autograph Letter Signed to Don Wauchope.

Author: 
General Sir George Keith Buller Elphinstone
Publication details: 
10 January 1891; on letterhead '86, CANONBURY ROAD'.
£36.00

Engineer (1865-1941) whose inventions include the speedometer for motor-cars. Two pages, 12mo. Good, though slightly grubby. Docketed on reverse. Small ink smudge beneath letterhead. Reads 'Dear Don Wanchope | Thanks for your letter. My full name is/ | George Keith Buller Elphinstone and by profession I am an Electrical Engineer & Maker of Electrical Instruments | So I hope that will be full enough information for you'. Signed 'G K B Elphinstone'.

Seven Typed Letters Signed and one Autograph Letter Signed to G. K. Menzies, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Sir James Fortescue Flannery, 1st Baronet
Publication details: 
1924-5; typed letters on letterhead of Flannery, Baggallay & Johnson, Ltd., consulting engineers; autograph letter on letterhead of the Grand Hotel, Harrowgate.
£150.00

Ulster unionist politician and civil engineer (1851-1943). The collection is in very good condition. The seven typed letters are quarto and the autograph letter 12mo. All signed 'J. Fortescue Flannery', mostly docketed and carrying the Society's stamp. Mainly concerns the delivery and publication of a 'Paper on Diesel Engines'. 2 February 1925: 'I note with great interest that you expect a large and influential attendance on the 11th inst.' 5 February 1925: 'it occurs to me that the name of the Rt. Hon. Lord Montagu of Beaulieu K.C.I.E.

Four Typed Notes Signed to the Secretary, Royal Society of Arts and the editor of the R.S.A. Journal.

Author: 
Sir Francis Philip Armstrong, 3rd Bt [ROYAL AUTOMOBILE CLUB]
Publication details: 
21 October, 21 November and 9 December 1927; 1 May 1929; all on Royal Automobile Club letterhead.
£76.00

General manager of the Royal Automobile Club (1871-1944). All four items one page, quarto. All four in good condition and signed 'F. P. Armstrong'. All four docketed and two bearing R.S.A. stamp. Note one asks for '100 stamped envelopes' for sending to 'Members of the Committee and others who would be interested in the papers that are to be read before the Royal Society'. Note two thanks the editor of the R.S.A. Journal for the 'copies of Mr. O'Gorman's paper'.

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