Autograph Letters

Typed Letter Signed ('P. Morley Horder') to W. Perry, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Percy Richard Morley Horder (1870-1944), English architect
Publication details: 
3 March 1931; on letterhead 5 Arlington Street, St. James's.
£23.00

One page, 12mo. Very good; lightly creased with staple holes to one corner. 'I beg you to publish the letter which I have addressed to the Journal. There is no point in withholding it.' Horder, who designed Lloyd George's house, as well as Mallory Court and Greys, is, according to one authority, 'one of a group of early twentieth century architects who were highly influential in re-introducing the romantic vernacular styles of the Elizabethan period. Many of his homes were in the style of Edwin Lutyens, having gables, stone dressings, mullioned windows and inglenooks.'

Autograph Letter Signed ('Florence Warden') to the actor and dramatist Wybert Reeve.

Author: 
Florence Warden (pseudonym of Florence Alice Price James, 1857-1929), English novelist
Publication details: 
17 May 1904; Beach House, Islandgate.
£36.00

Four pages, 12mo. Very good, with unobtrusive remains of stub along one edge. In interesting letter discussing the state of the English stage. Her tardy response is due to 'pressure of work". 'What you say about the present condition of the stage is only too true.

autograph note signed to [Tom] Bass of Manchester,

Author: 
Phyllis Neilson-Terry
Publication details: 
without date or place.
£12.00

English actress (1892-1977), daughter of actor Fred Terry (1864-1932) and his wife the actress Julia Emilie Neilson (1868-1957). One page, 4to, in a large hand. "Dear Mr. Bass. / Many thanks for yr. kind letter & the present. / It was nice of you. / Yours very truly / Phyllis Neilson-Terry". Paper somewhat discoloured.

Autograph letter signed to Mr [?] Ball,

Author: 
Maria Foote, Countess of Harrington
Publication details: 
no date or place.
£75.00

Actress, singer and dancer (1797?-1867), a great beauty whose amours were the subject of a number of pamphlets. "Thursday 2 o'clock", 3 pp, 12mo. She sent him a dinner invitation that morning but he had gone. "Thank Ferdinand for his Book which I return - and for the apple - which I shall cut up with some curiosity". In a postscript she thanks him for "I cannot sing". Signed "M H", so dating from after her marriage to Harrington in 1831. In good overall condition, despite negligible water staining, tears and traces of mount.

Archive of papers relating to his employment.

Author: 
George Hazlehurst (1867-1941); Millwall Dock Company; Manchester Ship Canal Company
Publication details: 
1867-1932.
£450.00

20 items. Various formats (see below). Showing signs of age, and with some foxing, fraying and creasing, but in very good condition overall. Collection indicates that Hazlehurst, who was born in Grappenhall, Lancashire, to an illiterate mother, was a capable individual entrusted with responsible positions. ITEMS 1 TO 5: Certified Copies of Hazlewood's birth and marriage certificates (birth certificate in poor condition, but with text entirely legible), his wife's birth and death certificates, and his parents' marriage certificate.

Autograph Letter Signed to [Edward] Draper.

Author: 
Henry Sambrooke Leigh (1837-83), English dramatist [THE SAVAGE CLUB]
Publication details: 
16 July 1879; on letterhead of the Savage Club, Adelphi Terrace, W.C.
£38.00

One page, 12mo. Very good, if a tad grubby. Thanks Draper for his 'amiable but unconvincing' note. 'Do you not know that I was irritated into bad language by being accused of "d - d impertinence? This, too, before I said a discourteous word. - Goodman [the writer Edward John Goodman], of course, rules the Committee [of the Savage Club] and even you have listened to the voice of that Israelitish charmer.' Concludes 'Mais n'importe. Either this evening or tomorrow I send in my resignation. I will neither apologize, nor renew the matter in cold blood.' Signed 'Henry S. Leigh'.

Autograph Letter Signed to Fanny [Brough].

Author: 
Amy Mayhew [daughter of the journalist Henry Mayhew (1812-87)]
Publication details: 
Undated; on letterhead '22, Berners Street. | W.'
£28.00

Three pages, 12mo. Very good. The letterhead, in red, carries Mayhew's crest, with his initials 'HM' and motto 'LABOR VINCIT'. An insight into doings within the Mayhew family. As her correspondent has 'not been here', she is concerned that she 'must have offended you in some way or another'.

Autograph Letters Signed (x 3) to Col. Harvey

Author: 
Margot Asquith,
Publication details: 
1913 and 1915
£300.00

Wife of Prime Minister. 2-5pp., 8vo. Extensive eulogising of her husband, H.H. Asquith, and condemnation of his enemies. (Asquith was replaced by Lloyd George in 1916.) Three items,

Autograph Letter Signed by the Society's secretary W. E. Page to Messrs Coutts & Co, Bankers.

Author: 
THE LONDON FEMALE GUARDIAN SOCIETY
Autograph Letter Signed by the Society's secretary
Publication details: 
2 October 1901, on printed letterhead of the Society, 191, High Street, Stoke Newington, N.
£35.00
Autograph Letter Signed by the Society's secretary

The society's letterhead has a circular engraving, 1 1/2 inches in diameter, of Jesus and a fallen woman, surrounded by the quotation ':JESUS SAID UNTO HER, NEITHER DO I CONDEMN THEE: GO, AND SIN NO MORE.' It describes the Society as 'Being "THE LONDON FEMALE PENITENTIARY," founded at Pentonville, 1807, and "THE GUARDIAN SOCIETY," founded 1812, for the RESCUE, RECLAMATION, and PROTECTION of BETRAYED and FALLEN WOMEN from all parts of the United Kingdom, and now united under one management." 1 page, 8vo. Grubby, with staple marks and a closed tear affecting two words of text.

Autograph letter signed to Mrs Milner Gibson

Author: 
Georgiana Fullerton
Publication details: 
27 Chapel Street, Park Lane, W., 20 June (no year)
£60.00

Novelist and philanthropist. Mrs Milner Gibson, wife of the statesman, Thomas Milner Gibson, was a society hostess of note (see DNB). 2pp., 8vo. She says "It is very cruel to pounce upon those just arrived but [?] the Tale of our poor gentlemen the belongs most to be pitied perhaps of all sufferers. I take advantage of hearing that you are expected in London to beg of you to help us next week. We remember well all you did for us on a former occasion".

Parts of two letters, one from George Bentley, publisher, to Montgomery, the other vice versa.

Author: 
Florence Montgomery
Publication details: 
One dated 25 April (no year).
£25.00

Novelist (1843-1923). Both scraps laid down on 8vo-sized page. George Bentley says " . . . & I find this commodity scarce already./Truly Yrs / George Bentley". Montgomery says " . . . Believe me /Truly Yrs/ Florence Montgomery".

Part of Autograph Note, third person, to Richard Bentley, publisher.

Author: 
Maria Edgeworth
Publication details: 
Edgeworthtown, 11 Nov. 1833.
£125.00

Part of letter, c. 4 x 4",somewhat roughly trimmed with loss of bottom half of text. Surviving text as follows: Miss Edgeworth informs Mr Bentley that by some mistake in the way of sending the packet containing the proof sheet of Helen it came by mail coach & cost 9/10 - / To avoid similar mistakes in future" [text ends]. Bentley published "Helen" in 1834.

Autograph Letter Signed, to an unnamed correspondent.

Author: 
Ruby M. Ayres.
Publication details: 
Corner Ways, Sheepcote Road, Harrow, 16 Nov. 192[4?]
£56.00

Novelist. One page, 8vo, minor defects, text clear and complete. She explians her tardy response ot his letter by saying she was abroad. She acknowledges familiarity with the works of Calverley but "I am ashamed to admit that when I wrote "The Road that Bends" [pubd 1916] = some ten years ago, I did not remember that one quotation came from his "First Love"." She thanks him for the "connection".

Autograph Note Signed "Josephine Preston Peabody (Mrs Lionel Marks)" to The Four Seasons Company, publishers.

Author: 
Josephine Preston Peabody.
Publication details: 
192 Brattle Street, Cambridge, Mass., 8 Jan. 1916.
£56.00

American children's author, etc. One page, 8vo, good condition. "I beg to enclose my subscription to 'The Poetry Journal' for 1916."

Autograph Letter Signed and Typed Letter Signed to Wilson Clayton.

Author: 
Arthur Lionel Smith (1850-1924), historian and Master of Balliol College, Oxford
Publication details: 
Letter One (manuscript), 12 August 1919; Bamburgh, Northumberland [on Balliol letterhead]; Letter Two (typed), 10 January 1920, on Balliol Letterhead.
£36.00

LETTER ONE (manuscript): Two pages, 12mo. Good on aged paper with a little light foxing. Is 'glad of the opportunity' to tell Clayton 'how highly appreciated on the Committee was the assistance you gave it, your assiduity & attention, your fairness, & your practical wisdom. Besides your kindliness & unvarying good temper were an invaluable element. For myself personally I feel I have made a new friend; wh. in old age is not so easy, & therefore is all the more agreeable.' Signed 'Arthur L Smith'. LETTER TWO (typed): three pages, octavo. Good, though slightly dogeared.

Autograph Letter Signed to 'Mr. Woodward'.

Author: 
Eliot O'Hara (1890-1969), American watercolour artist
Publication details: 
March 12? 1936' [deleted] 'Thursday'; 10 East Taylor St, Savannah Gardens.
£125.00

Three pages, small octavo. Good, though a little aged. He is having an exhibition of his 'new Mexican things [...] and teaching a small class' in Savannah. He is pleased that Woodward is going to Chapel Hill ('They need a breath of fresh air.'). The rest of the letter consists of an interesting assessment of the artistic situation in the area, beginning, 'In N.

Autograph note signed to an unnamed artist

Author: 
Agnes Berry.
Publication details: 
Curzon Street, 18 April (no year).
£55.00

Friend of Horace Walpole, Mary Berry's sister and constant companion (1764-1852). Text as follows: "Will you be so good as let your door be open to us tomorrow about 4 oclock, as our days in London are now so few that we are unwilling to delay any longer our last visit to your Studio."

Autograph letters signed (x 2) to the Rev. F. Langbridge

Author: 
C.L. Lewes
Publication details: 
7 Oct. 1887 and 12 March 1888
£100.00

Son of G.H. Lewes, partner of Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot). Total 5pp., 8vo, damp-staining and marking affecting the text without obscuring it, rust marks from paper-clips marginally obscuring the text. (1887) Blackwoods had forwarded his correspondent's request to quote some passages from the works of George Eliot in a book of "Readings" [perhaps" What to read at winter entertainments ... Edited and arranged by ... F. L" (1888)]. He gives his permission for this.

Autograph letter signed to [Caroline Fox? - item derives from collection of letters addressed to "Miss Fox"]

Author: 
Agnes Berry
Publication details: 
Richmond <?>6 June (no year).
£75.00

Friend of Horace Walpole. One page, trimmed 12mo. She cleverly expresses an invitation to visit. The wit is obvious, some of the words not. With: autograph note, trimmed 12mo, Richmond Hill, 2 Aug. (no year), saying simply "Yes certainly pray come to us tomorrow - We dine at 9 - this is all the Post hour will give me leave to day". Two items,

Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
George William Frederick Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon (1800-70)
Publication details: 
Grosvenor Crescent; 11 July 1852.
£36.00

Three pages, 12mo. Good. He did not receive the letter till his return from the continent the previous week. '"The Grove" is a comfortable mansion but there is nothing in any way remarkable about it - Clutterbuck's history of Hertfordshire contains all that is known respecting the persons who have possessed it. There is a fine collection of pictures, many of them by Vandyke & Sir P. Lely, wch. belonged to the Chancellor Clarendon & of them you will find an accurate description in the 3d. Vol. of the "Clarendon Gallery" published a few months ago by my sister Lady Theresa Lewis.

Autograph Letter Signed to 'Mrs. Samuel'.

Author: 
Edward Tennyson Reed (1860-1933), Punch cartoonist
Publication details: 
20 December [no year]; on letterhead '17, FITZ-GEORGE AVENUE, | WEST KENSINGTON, | W.'
£56.00

One page, 12mo. Good, if a little aged and lightly creased. He apologises for the delay in 'sending the drawing that now I ask you to please me by accepting' (not present). He asks her to accept it as a present for 'that almost superannuated festivity' of Christmas. 'I send you a coat-of-arms as that includes a certain amount of letterpress which you will I think prefer to a simple drawing'. He has delivered all the drawings bought by Mrs Samuel's friend and has received his thanks.' Signed 'E. T. Rees'.

Autograph Signature on fragment of document.

Author: 
Sir John Pratt (1657-1725), Lord Chief Justice of England
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£33.00

Dimensions of paper roughly five inches by three-quarters of an inch. Signed 'John Pratt' between writing in a seventeenth-century chancery hand. Docketed with biographical details in a minute nineteenth-century hand, and enclosed in a piece of paper with further biographical details in another nineteenth-century hand.

Two Autograph Cards Signed to Roger Powell, Slade House, Froxfield, Petersfield.

Author: 
Sir Adrian Cedric Boult (1889-1983), English conductor
Publication details: 
One without date and place [but after 1952], the other postmarked London, 2 August 1955.
£45.00

Both cards self-stamped. CARD ONE is very good and has printed on it a stamp of Queen Elizabeth II. Addressed to Powell and his wife, it does not appear to have gone through the mails. 'Most kind of you to write - we led a quick <?> in the car, & then a meeting in the afternoon. We <?>: Jill also, who we havent seen lately. | Many thanks | [signed] Adrian C. B.' CARD TWO is somewhat aged, with a stain and some wear on the address side. It reads 'I too have written to Kellogg's! | [signed] Adrian C Boult'.

Autograph Letter Signed, in French, to Monsieur Van Santen.

Author: 
William Roberts (1767-1849), editor of the 'British Review'
Publication details: 
Without date or place [but before 1811?].
£38.00

One page, 12mo. Very good. He presents his correspondent with 'deux petits ouvrages sortis de ma plume'. The first was mentioned by 'Mr. Burgess' and the second is 'un petit traite qui a eu le bonheur il y a quelques ans de remporter le prix annuel dans l'Universite d'Oxford'. Signed 'Willm. Roberts'. In a postscript asks to be recommended to any acquaintances Van Santen may have 'a Rotterdam Anvers ou Bruxelles'. Address, with broken wafer, on second leaf of bifolium. Roberts is perhaps best remembered for the controversy brought on by a passage in Byron's 'Don Juan'.

[Gladstone] Autograph Signature on fragment of letter.

Author: 
William Ewart Gladstone (1809-98), British Liberal Prime Minister
Gladstone
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£35.00
Gladstone

Dimensions of paper roughly four and a half inches by one and a quarter. Good, on ruckled and slightly discoloured paper, with traces of glue adhering to reverse. Reads 'Very sincerely yours | W E Gladstone'.

[Lydia Howard Sigourney] Autograph Signature on fragment of letter.

Author: 
Lydia Howard Sigourney (1791-1865), American popular writer called 'the sweet singer of Hartford'
Lydia Howard Sigourney
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£20.00
Lydia Howard Sigourney

On paper roughly three and a half inches by three quarters of an inch. Neatly cut but lightly foxed and slightly discoloured with age. Reads 'with the love of her friend, | L. H. Sigourney.'

Autograph Letter Signed to Mrs Locker.

Author: 
Mrs Elizabeth Charles [nee Rundle] (1828-1896), English author
Publication details: 
Thursday | Combe Edge | Hampstead Heath'.
£28.00

Two pages, 12mo. Good, but with some light glue stains on reverse, to which a small printed strip giving a printed list of Mrs Charles's works is attached. 'I was hoping to hear your boy was better - & I am very glad he is - thanks - but I am engaged on Thursday, & for some little time to come - so many people from all quarters coming just now & I hope you may be able to come & see me before very long'. Signed 'Bettie Charles'.

[W.G. Wills] Autograph Letter Signed to 'My dear Scott'.

Author: 
William Gorman Wills (1828-91), Irish dramatist
Publication details: 
No date; on embossed letterhead of the Garrick Club.
£50.00

One page, 12mo. Good, though aged and foxed. 'My best thanks & gratitude for your noble notice | Were you ever in low spirits If so sympathise with me I feel as if I would never wish to be acted again . . Chastelard the first night my god almighty ! ! ! - | Your sincere friend | W G Wills'. Chastelard is a character in Wills's play 'Marie Stuart' (1874).

Typed Letter Signed to the editor of the Journal of the Rontgen Society.

Author: 
Sir Richard Arman Gregory, Professor of Astronomy, Queen's College, London (1864-1952)
Publication details: 
25 July 1918; on letterhead of the British Science Guild (British Scientific Products Exhibition, 1918).
£33.00

Signed 'R. A. Gregory'. One page, folio. Good, with one dogeared corner. Bearing the stamp of the Royal Society of Arts. Circular letter referring to an enclosure (not present) relating to an exhibition which 'will shew that by the combination of science and industry we have done nearly as much in four years of war as the Germans did in the preceding forty. More than 250 manufacturers are sending exhibits, and the Air Ministry will make a large display, as well as the Food Production Department.' Asks for 'a sympathetic editorial note or article'.

Archive of correspondence with the Royal Society of Arts, consisting of twenty-one letters from Gray, one copy, and carbons of fifteen replies.

Author: 
Milner Connorton Gray, industrial artist and graphic designer (1899-1997) [The Royal Society of Arts]
Publication details: 
1947-1962; London.
£280.00

The collection is in very good condition, with a few staple and pin holes. Gray's letters are signed 'Milner Gray' and occasionally 'Milner'. All but the first two, which are on Society of Industrial Artists letterheads, are on Design Research Unit letterheads. An early letter (5 April 1949), to Kenneth Luckhurst, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts, apologises for and explains a 'difficulty' which has arisen 'over the fees we estimated for completing the necessary working drawings and supervising construction of the permanent display screens for the Society's headquarters'.

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