SPOOF

Printed in black on piece of purple paper, 27 x 14 cm. In good condition, laid down on a leaf removed from a contemporary album, with the date '1881' written beside it. The first paragraph sets the tone: 'LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL rose to ask Her Majesty's Government a question as to the state of Public Business, and the probable date of the Prorogation of Parliament.

W1, Some Customs and Institutions of the Inhabitants of Mayfair:An unpublished 1930s parody of an anthropological study, with satirical force, of London's wealthiest district, by J. H. Driberg, Lecturer in Anthropology at Cambridge University.Unpublished manuscript parody by Jack Herbert Driberg (1888-1946), Lecturer in Anthropology, Cambridge University, 1934-42, author of several mainly anthropological works; and brother of the Labour MP and gossip columnist 'William Hickey' Tom Driberg (1905-1976), written under the pseudonym of Ludwig H.

On one side of a piece of wove paper, roughly 400 x 250 mm. Dimensions of engraving roughly 130 x 180 mm. Good, on heavily-foxed and lightly-creased paper. The sketch shows a well-dressed flautist playing his instrument in a market square, with money, clothes and food drawn to him from onlookers as if by magnetism. Beneath the print, in a variety of types and point sizes: 'Speedily will be Published, Inscribed to all Lovers of Tweedledum Tweedle, The Art of Playing upon People: or, Memoirs of the German Flute. Interspersed with The Character of Baron Steeple; [...]'.

8vo, 16 pp. Unbound. Evidence of previous stitching, but with no remains of thread,. Aged, worn, and with outer leaves somewhat dusty. Preface, dated 'London, June 1864', by 'THE MANUFACTURERS OF THOMSON'S CRINOLINES', states that the judges of the best of 'the immense number of manuscripts received' were 'B. Webster, Esq., J. Sterling Coyne, Esq., Andrew Halliday, Esq., George Rose, Esq., and Thos.

16mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. Text clear and complete. On aged and creased paper, lightly discoloured. A typographical curiosity, and interesting social document, the background to which is not easily discoverable. Three columns to a page, with the text divided into short sections including Marriages, Deaths, Shipping and Railways. The first section, 'BIRTHS', reads 'Jan. 1, at the residence of the Proprietor, The First Number of the Cosaque Times. Friends will please accept this intimation.' Spoof advertisements.

On one side of a piece of wove paper, roughly 400 x 250 mm. Dimensions of engraving roughly 130 x 180 mm. Good, on heavily-foxed and lightly-creased paper. The sketch shows a well-dressed flautist playing his instrument in a market square, with money, clothes and food drawn to him from onlookers as if by magnetism. Beneath the print, in a variety of types and point sizes: 'Speedily will be Published, Inscribed to all Lovers of Tweedledum Tweedle, The Art of Playing upon People: or, Memoirs of the German Flute. Interspersed with The Character of Baron Steeple; [...]'.

Dimensions of leaf roughly seven and a half inches by ten. Good, though grubby and with archival repair to verso. That the piece is a spoof is indicated by the printers slug, in the bottom right-hand corner: '[Spottisnotwood & Co, Printers, London.', the reference being to the leading London printers Spottiswoode & Co.

On a piece of brown card roughly 250 x 200 mm. Designed to be hung from two punch holes at head. Worn and aged, but with text (printed in red and black within a decorative border) clear and entire. A clever and amusing spoof, deliberately old-fashioned typographically in a parody of 'improving' texts. Reads '£50,000 | A Wireless Dealer aged 82, died - He left £50,000; thanks to long hours, close attention to business, strict economy, and - a bequest of £49,650 from an Uncle in Australia | T. N. MITCHELL | Benson, Oxford.' Inscribed on the reverse 'Xmas. 1930.

Three issues, 12-8-1928, 13-8-1928 and 4-9-1928 (incomplete), 12 pp., 4to, not bound, loose pages as issued (with paper clip), marked by paper-clip rust, mainly good. The first two are also headed "Final Edition", and are vil. 1, nos.1,2. The third has only a title. Much of it is spoof with the rest light-hearted, making copy out of events and people that occur during a holiday. J. Jefferson Farjeon features frequeently with a sprained ankle, breaking the golf-course record (a 6 hole course), and there is news of other members of the family and friends who visit inc.

While Dowsing was a sixteenth-century Puritan iconoclast who kept a journal of his various depredations, this 'account of a similar visitation at some later date' which the editors claim 'has recently come into our hands', would appear to be a spoof, a suspicion perhaps strengthened by the dedication (p.3) to Ronald Knox's brother Wilfred Laurence Knox. In printed green wraps. With pseudo-sixteenth-century title and with the long s used throughout: both features being signal warnings against similar attempts at such whimsy. 12 pages, 8vo.