SIR

INSCRIBED to 'James R. Fergusson Esq with the kind regards of James Ballantine | Edin[burg]h 16th May 1870'. With Fergusson's armorial bookplate on front pastedown. 8vo: 311 pp. Plates throughout (not listed) and numerous illustrations in text. In original printed grey boards with grotesque illustration on front and blue cloth spine (New Edition" - only on cover). Stabbed as issued (bound up by the publisher from parts?). Tight, but on aged paper with occasional light staining, and wear to extremities. Boards heavily worn, with 3 cm closed tear at head of rear.

On one side of a piece of vellum, dimensions 28 x 33 cm. Folded three times to make eight rectangles. Red wax seal under paper in top left-hand corner, embossed with the Admiralty anchor. One blue 5s stamp in left-hand margin, with '£5: 7: 6' and an illegible signature above it in manuscript. Small paper stamp on the reverse. Text clear and complete on lightly discoloured vellum. The body of the document is printed over thirteen lines, with the specific information added in manuscript.

One one side of a piece of vellum, dimensions 28.5 x 33 cm. Neatly folded to make eight rectangles. Red wax seal under paper 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 lightly discoloured vellum, with one small hole (not affecting legibility of text) caused by wear to a fold. The body of the document is printed over fifteen lines, with the specific information added in manuscript.

12mo, 1 p. Very good on lightly-aged paper. Reads 'Dear Mr Wright, | I am sending you a photograph which I hope you will like, | Yours faithfully, | [signed] E R Fremantle'.

One page on the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium of laid watermarked paper. Leaf dimensions 32 x 20 cm. Text clear and entire on aged and lightly-spotted paper.

12mo: 1 p. Nine lines of text. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper. Suggests a convenient time for a meeting 'with you, Dr. Masters and Profr. Allman.' Looks forward to hearing from the recipient, once he has 'fixed the hour and the place'.

8vo: 1 p. A bifolium (leaf dimensions roughly 270 x 185 mm), on thin wove paper, with the printed page on the recto of the first leaf, the rest being blank. Very good, on lightly aged paper. Attractive item printed in red, blue, black and gold. Text reads 'Vol I in the Press. Burke's Colonial Gentry. A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Principal Families residing in the British Colonies by Sir Bernard Burke, C.B., LL.D., Ulster King of Arms.

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).

Printed in three columns of small type on one side of a piece of wove paper roughly 22.5 x 18 cm. Text clear and complete on grubby, worn, creased and foxed paper.

Three pages in a bifolium on art paper. Leaf dimensions 22.5 x 14.5 cm. Aged and worn, with chipping to extremities, but with text and illustrations clear and complete. Cover carries a photograph of Cowan (10.5 x 6.5 cm) enclosed within a golden border, surrounded by eight British flags, and flanked by illustrations of a soldier and sailor. It is headed 'PEACE | RETRENCHMENT | and | REFORM!', with the photograph flanked by 'An Efficient Army.' and 'A Powerful Navy.' At the foot of the page: 'MR. W. H.

Dimensions roughly 26 x 20 cm. Four printed pages, in a bifolium, stapled into coloured illustrated covers. A scarce piece of theatre ephemera, in reasonable condition: creased, with rusted wraps and with one short closed tear to front cover, which carries the words 'Adelphi Theatre. Sole Proprietors, A. & S. Gatti.' and an illustration, painted in an impressionist style, of a fashionable group dining. Stamped 'Saturday Feb 19'. The back cover, also in colour, carries an advertisement for 'Vinolia Toilet Preparations', with an illustration, entitled 'Envy', by 'W.

Dimensions: 17.5 x 13.5 cm. 64 pp. In original coloured paper covers. Priced at 10d, and thus the British edition and not one produced for the foreign market. Good and tight, on browned paper. Attractive image on front cover showing a bemused Holmes puffing on his pipe as he wanders down a country-house corridor whose walls are covered in paintings, while the spectral figure of the hound's head looms above him.Covers lightly worn and slightly damaged by the rusting of the staples. Both stories are told in comic strip form.

Two pages, printed on the recto of the first leaf and verso of the second of a yellow wove-paper bifolium. Leaf dimensions 22.5 x 14.5 cm. Grubby and creased, but with text clear and complete. The first poem, 'A New W[h]ig Song', begins 'In our town there's a street, with a chapel and shop, | Where a gay pole once hoisted of late is let drop, | There a fam'd Barber deals with his w(h)ig as he wills, | From full bottom'd P----r to little scratch M--ls.' References to 'shot-yellow A---r [Adair]' and 'M----y, the close button'd Barber'.

On a leaf (roughly 21.5 x 14) removed from a programme. Grubby, worn and with a central vertical fold. Laid down on a leaf (22 x 18 cm, and ruckled and spotted) removed from an autograph album. The autographed page only carries Wood's photographic portrait (12.5 x 8 cm), captioned 'Sir Henry J. Wood'). Bold signature in bottom right-hand corner of photograph: 'Sincerely yours | Henry J. Wood'.

On a light-green leaf (11 x 14 cm) removed from an autograph album. Lightly aged and creased. Reads 'Hugh P. Allen | Nov 8. 1928'. Lightly docketed in pencil. Two other autographs on reverse.

On a fragment, roughly 11 x 16 cm, of a page of laid paper from a diary. Good, on lightly aged paper. Two signatures, under the heading 'July 22': 'Spencer <?> | Steuart Wilson.' Lightly docketed in pencil.

Octavo: 29 + [2] pp. Unbound, stabbed and stitched. Slightly dogeared, on grubby, lightly-spotted paper. Loss to top right-hand corner of title-leaf (not affecting text). Two pages of advertisements at rear, headed 'Important pamphlets, etc. Recently published by James Ridgway, Piccadilly.'

On a piece of yellow wove paper roughly 565 x 455 mm. Text and illustrations clear and entire on creased and spotted paper with some wear to extremities. The order of the procession is given in three columns, divided by decorative rules. At the foot is an illustration (120 x 195 mm) of the queen's coach reaching Westminster Abbey, with crowds and a banner reading 'LONG LIVE VICTORIA'.

12mo: 1 p. Ten lines of text. Bifolium. Grubby, and with the text of the letter faint. Letterhead printed in red with illustration of the firm's headquarters. Written in, or faded to, lilac, and could well be a carbon. Sending copies of the two newspapers as 'we think it probable you would like your newly published works noticed or reviewed' in them.

12mo: 1 p. Seven lines of text. On creased and lightly-aged watermarked wove paper. Regarding Sir Henry Bate Dudley's farce 'At Home', performed 'with universal approbation' at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, in 1813. 'Should the Box of the Prince Regent be disengaged on Monday next at Covent Garden Lady Landsdowne [sic] (the Dow-) is anxious to see "At Home" Could she have it?'

On a piece of yellow paper (roughly 7.5 x 10 cm), laid down on a light-green page (roughly 14 x 8 cm) torn from an autograph album. Lightly aged and spotted, but good overall. Reads ' "Remember that if you are in the right you can afford to keep your temper. When you are in the wrong you can't afford to lose it" | [signed] J B. Hobbs.' And in a smaller hand, diagonally in the bottom right-hand corner 'Best wishes to Peter Briggs | [signed] JBH'.

Text of all three letters clear and entire. A well-written and well-informed correspondence relating to 'locomotive matters'. Letter One (14 October 1942): Manuscript. Foolscap, 4 pp. Good, on aged high-acidity paper. 'Knowing, and to some extent, at least, sharing' King's 'interest in loco matters', Pimm informs him that the Ministry of Supply 'have ordered 360 L.M.S. mixed traffics generally like the 227 that AW's [Armstrong Whitworth] bill as their last order'.

12mo: 3 pp. Good, on lightly aged paper. Small spike hole through both leaves of the bifolium. Text clear and entire. Execrable hand. Begins 'I certainly shall not secede from my conditional Promise'. Paragraph describing the weather ('The Heat of the Weather here is intolerable.') 'I agree entirely with respect to the Character of our worthy departed friend. It is a great loss to this Part of the Country.'

12mo, 2 pp. Good, on lightly creased paper. Lists four books about the 1924 Everest expedition. Suggests that the recipient 'ask the librarian of the Alpine Club, 74 South Audley Street London W.1. for the name of the bookseller who specializes in second-hand mountaineering literature'.

Both items concern John Littlejohn's 'British Watercolour Painting and Painters of Today' (Pitman, 1931). Note of 18 December 1930: 12mo, 1 p. Five lines. Good on lightly aged paper. Thanking the publishers for sending 'the prints of my drawings [...] they are really very well done!' Letter of 13 February 1931: 12mo,1 p. Eight lines. Good, on lightly creased paper. Thanking the publishers for four presentation copies of the book. 'It is a handsome book and the drawings are well reproduced: I am particularly pleased with those of my own drawings.' Two items,

Landscape 12mo: 1 p. Headed 'Stage and Film Decor.' He thanks her for her letter of 4 November. 'I eagerly await book. If you could spare me more than one [last three words underlined] I should be appreciative.'

4to: 1 p. 22 lines. Text clear and entire on lightly aged and creased paper, with one 1.5 cm closed tear (not affecting text). Congratulating Place on her 'Assistant Principalship'. He considers she was 'very wise to take the opportunity'. He has discussed 'the house-key question with the Keeper [T. D. Kendrick]', who regards Saturday afternoons 'as a sacred time reserved for peaceful work, undisturbed by ones colleagues'. Consequently 'it would be rather difficult to accommodate you as a helper on Saturdays and after your week's work at the ministry'.

Good clear signature on aged and creased paper, 5.5 x 8 cm, with one rough edge and a small triangle torn away from one corner. Glue staining from previous mounting on reverse.