MURDER

A watercolour drawing in ink, coloured in yellow, blue and red, against a sepia ground. The drawing is on a 24.5 x 18.5 cm piece of thick white paper, laid down on a 28.5 x 29.5 cm piece of grey paper. In good condition, with light signs of age. In pencil in a contemporary hand on the grey-paper mount: 'Mrs Mackinnon - hanged | done by Charles K. Sharpe Esq | She had been a great beauty | murdered a man'. The drawing is not signed, but is in much the same style as other examples of his watercolours (for example those in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London).

Full title: 'Killing no Murder, Briefly Discours'd, In Three Questions, fit for Publick View, To Deter and Prevent Tyrants from Usurping Supreme Power. Writ by Col. Titus, under the Name of William Allen, and Dedicated to Oliver Cromwel. Now Reprinted, and Address'd to the French King.' 28pp., small 4to. Disbound. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper, with slight damage to last few leaves, affecting text. The original version was published in 1657, and advocated the assassination of Oliver Cromwell. Six copies on COPAC. Now scarce.

On piece of 12 x 22.5 cm paper. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Mounted on backing paper. An amusing and attractive engraving, in an English caricature style, the significance of which is now unclear.

ESTC R19392. Wing B3502. 23pp., 2o. Disbound. Paginated: [1-2] 3-12 9-12 17-19 [20] 21-23. The title-page, printed in red and black, reads: 'THE | PAPISTS | Bloody OATH of Secrecy, | AND | Letany OF Intercession | For the Carrying on of | This Present Plot. | WITH THE | Manner of Taking the Oath, upon their Entring | into any Grand Conspiracy against the Protestants. | As it was Taken in the Chappel belonging to Barm- | bow-Hall, the Residence of Sir Thomas Gascoigne, from William | Rushton, a Popish Priest, by Me Robert Bolron.

56pp., 4to. On wove paper watermarked 'E & S | 1840'. In ruled notebook, in contemporary brown calf half-binding, with marbled boards. In very good condition, lightly-aged and worn. Neatly written out, with a few emendations in pencil. Signed at the end 'H. E. H.' (either the initials of the author or of the narrator 'Emma').

The diary is 66pp., 4to. In red buckram binding with 'Diary Oct-Dec 1907 Plowden Wardlaw' in gilt on spine. In very good condition, on lightly-aged paper, in good tight binding. Plowden Wardlaw's devoutness is apparent throughout. For example, on 17 October, he appears to be consecrating his own private chapel: 'At home to-day. Most of the day was spent in cleaning and preparing the Chapel for the dedication tomorrow. Father Maturin the former <?> father, who received Edith into the Church in 1898 came down by the 5.40. I met him in the motor. He is a gentleman, & a man of the world.

These volumes bear tragic testimony to a diseased mind. A native of Argentina, Hume saw service in the First World War with the 1st County of London Yeomanry at Gallipoli, before transferring to the Royal Flying Corps (66 Squadron, RFC and RAF). In May 1917, while on his second patrol, he was shot down over France. It was while incarcerated in several POW camps (he escaped from one) that Hume's mental illness appears to have begun to manifest itself, and he was exchanged for German prisoners in August 1918.

On one side of a 43 x 31.5 cm piece of laid paper, with 'JL GRAN | MASSO' watermark. On stained paper with slight wear along head and slight pitting affecting a few words of text. An attractive official communication, in two columns (English on left and Italian on right) beneath the British royal crest. Begins: 'WHEREAS it has been represented to HIS HONOR THE LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR, that, Giuseppe Pace, of Casal Luca, having, about half-past eight o'Clock, on the evening of the Twenty-eighth instant, repaired to certain premises belonging to his family, situate in Strada St.

140 lines of text, written out on both sides of a strip of ruled paper, with one side forming two outside 12mo pages (each 13 x 10 cm) by the folding the strip horizontally halfway down, and the reverse carrying one continuous column over a 13 x 20 cm single page. Text clear and complete. Good, on aged paper. Tozer had shone in his training as a pharmacist, with the British Medical Journal reporting his winning in 1881 of a medal in practical pharmacy and dispensing, and a certificate in botany. By 1889 he was working in Castle Street, Liverpool, for A. C. Abraham's firm of Clay & Abraham.

Indenture, 55 x 35cm, some damage at folds but mainly good, text clear and complete. It gives information about the court including the people who were to enquire into the murder, all of whom have signed the document. The Coroner was John Cattlow. A person unknown had poisoned some bread with white arsenic.

Letter: 4to, 1 p. Twenty-six lines. Text clear and complete. On aged and worn paper, with a couple of holes, light staining and indentations. Addressed to 'Jon', whose book, with a 'chapter pertaining to the Taylor case' Long 'would like very much to see'. Long encloses the copy of 'Taylorology', of which he writes, 'Despite my intentions, there was only one issue due to very poor response -- only a dozen subscribers.' He boasts that his 'collected material on this case', 'primarily newspaper clippings', 'weighs over 30 lbs., with more information coming in every week'.

All six letters in quarto; good, on aged paper; and with text neatly-written, clear and entire. Letter One: 3 May 1759. 2 pp. 40 lines of text. Giving advice regarding a will to be drawn up by a Mrs Robertson. 'As to the place where Mrs. Robertson makes the Disposition it is absolutely immaterial, [...] and then her will wrote in her own hand writing without witnesses will be as good as with twenty witnesses [...]'. Valediction from 'your affectionate friend & Cousin'. Letter Two: 30 June 1759. 1 pp. 24 lines.

Printed on one side of a piece of wove paper roughly 230 x 90 mm. On pitted, aged paper. Text complete. Approximate 30 x 50 mm piece torn away from top right-hand corner, causing loss to small illustration at head, which appears to be a crude woodcut of a woman lying in a coffin. The poem consists of thirty-six lines arranged in five stanzas. The first stanza reads 'Dear Peggy, read this letter, | its the last one I'll send, | Our long correspondence, | is now at an end.

On one side of a piece of thin wove paper, roughly 260 x 95 mm. Aged and creased, with internal 25 mm closed tear affecting four words of text (all of which can be completed from the context) repaired on blank reverse with archival tape. Otherwise text and illustration clear and entire. Small (30 x 40 mm) woodcut at head, showing two early nineteenth-century country coves outside a cottage. The poem consists of ten four-line stanzas.

Printed on one side of a piece of wove paper roughly 280 x 95 mm. Aged, creased and spotted, with chipping to extremities, but with text and illustration clear and entire. Curious small (roughly 40 x 65 mm) crude illustration at head, showing dove with olive branch and acorn. Forty-line poem arranged in five stanzas. Interestingly-garbled nineteenth-century folk song with ancient antecedents.

Judge (1669-1728), and Attorney-General to the Prince of Wales on the accession of George I. Grandfather of the poet William Cowper, and brother of William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper (1665-1723), Lord Chancellor of England. One of the defendants, in 1699, in the celebrated trial for the murder of Sarah Stout. Dimensions of paper roughly six and a half inches by six inches. On discoloured, spotted paper, with slight wear and loss to one corner (not affecting text). Right edge slightly trimmed, with partial loss to one word'.

Author and politician (1806-63). The recipient (1802-76) was author of a dictionary of English artists, and successively private secretary to several English statesman. Two pages, 12mo. An odd request. 'I have been asked by a friend to ascertain for him whether any person has ever been tried in England for suffocating a human being supposed to be affected by hydrophobia. If you shd. be in possession of any information which throws light upon the subject, would you have the kindness to enable me to answer the question'. signed 'G C Lewis'.