STUDIO

Both items are laid down on a leaf removed from an autograph album. Both in good condition, with light signs of age. The photographic print of Gladstone measures 9 x 5.5, with the head and shoulders image in an oval 7.5 cm high by 5 cm wide, and showing a middle-aged Gladstone with dark bow tie and frock coat, staring to the right.

Beales, also a sign painter and picture framer, was a successful and prolific photographer (he boasts on two of the items below of '3,400 Testimonials'), whose Parade Studio was at 5 South Bar, Banbury, from 1888 to 1911, with a secondary business at the County Studio, George Row, Northampton at around the same time. Beales claimed the Royal patronage of both Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales, and aimed at the upper end of the market. Seven of the eight items in good condition, lightly-aged, but Item Four with minor damage (see description).

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Watermarked 'JOYNSON | 1876'. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with minor staining from mount at foot of second leaf. Written in a hasty, untidy hand. The recipient appears to be 'My dear Hornby', 'Horley' or 'Howley'. Faed writes that he is 'slaving away chopping and changing sometimes worse and sometimes better (I hope) on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. 7th.

Image roughly 7 x 9.5 cm, on piece of paper 8 x 10.5 cm, mounted on recto of second leaf of a cream card bifolium, with a window frame through first leaf. Printed label on reverse of second leaf reads: 'This photograph is copyright and mahy not be copied or reproduced in any way whatsoever. Legal proceedings may be taken against any infringement. | YVONNE GREGORY.' In very good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Head and shoulders three-quarters profile, from Gibbons' right, showing the novelist in a tailored jacket with padded shoulders.

All three letters 12mo: the first of three pages, and the last two one page apiece. Texts clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Letter One: Sir Henry Vansittart Neale will be pleased to allow Grundy 'a look at his pictures' at Bisham Abbey. Gives directions. Discusses Grundy's letter in the Daily Express, complaining about the 'crowding out' of pictures at the Royal Academy.

Possibly a presentation to Radcliffe and his wife. 4to photograph album, in heavily-worn leather binding, all edges gilt, lacking clasp and spine, containing a total of 113 photographs, including 108 albumen cartes-de-visite, each print approximately 9 x 5.5 cm, and each laid down on a gilt-edged card mount roughly 10.5 x 6 cm. The large majority of the photographs are in excellent condition, with some carrying a small pinhole at the head (obscured by their mounts). Three pages of the album carry minor damage, otherwise good and tight internally. Almost all from the studio of Alfred D.

ITEM ONE: Photograph of Gladstone, 14 x 10 cm, by Thomas Fall (1833-1900). In very good condition, laid down on the photographer's worn printed card, 16.5 x 11 cm. Showing Gladstone seated outdoors, with his grandson on his knee. NPG x22229 (the entry for which describes it as a 'carbon cabinet card', taken on 14 September 1881). ITEM TWO: Photograph of Gladstone, 14.5 x 10 cm, by Samuel Alexander Walker (1841-1922). Laid down on the photographer's printed card ('Portraits "At Home" A new Application of Photography introduced by Samuel A. Walker'), 16.5 x 11 cm.

12mo, 2 pp. Good, on lightly aged paper with two punch holes to the the outer edge of the first page. He apologises for troubling Rogers: 'I have not heard from yet.' Asks if Rogers would mind 'writing to ask him why he wont pay up.' Hopes Rogers is 'quite well by this time. | My panel is in the frame and finished. I want you to come and have a look at it one Sunday morn.'

The studio photograph, with printed label of 'Walter Baker, 159, Mosely Road, Birmingham. Highgate Studios.' on reverse, and the manuscript number '24704 | 98'. is a good clear head and shoulders portrait (dimensions roughly three and a half inches by two and a quarter wide), in very good condition. Although untitled, it seems to be Carl, as represented on the title-page of his book, without the moustache and a little younger. The book is twenty-eight pages, octavo, in original coloured printed boards. Numerous line drawings.

Presumably taken on Dickens's second reading tour of the United States. Roughly 2 1/4 by 3 3/4 inches. Slightly faded, but a good, clear image, though somewhat grubby and with minor ink spotting, mainly around the subject's arms. Mounted on photographer's card, which has on reverse charming illustration of cherub with palette in hand sitting on book and painting the photographer's details onto board on easel. Traces of previous black-paper mount adhering to reverse (not affecting image), which is docketed in pencil.