Printed Ephemera

Printed Circular ('To Her Majestys Consul') Signed 'Aberdeen'.

Author: 
George Hamilton Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen (1784-1860), Scottish Tory politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1852-55
Publication details: 
Foreign Office, [London]; 30 April 1846.
£60.00

One page, large octavo. Aged and with light staining. Docketed on second leaf of bifolium: 'Requesting Consuls not to receive Copies of books as presents to Her Majesty'.

Lithographic caricature of Panizzi by 'Ape' ['Men of the Day. No 77'], with letterpress.

Author: 
Ape' [Carlo Pellegrini (1838-89)], Victorian caricaturist; Sir Anthony Panizzi (1797-1879), Chief Librarian at the British Museum
Panizzi
Publication details: 
[London]: published in 'Vanity Fair', 17 January 1874.
£80.00
Panizzi

Paper dimensions roughly fifteen inches by ten and a half wide; print dimensions twelve inches by seven and a quarter wide. Good clear image with border a little dusty and aged. Full-length image of a dour Panizzi standing at a desk holding a book. Page of letterpress on separate leaf of same dimensions, containing spirited account ['he sought refuge in Switzerland, but he was expelled discreditably from that country, [...] Keeper of the Printed Books [...] the man in all Europe most competent to fill it.

Engraved trade card with illustration.

Author: 
[PRINTING] Henry Sandon, Victorian engraver
Publication details: 
Without date [circa 1850?]; 60, Wellington Street, Goswell Street, London.
£65.00

On good thick wove paper, roughly six and a quarter inches by four and three-quarters wide. Dimensions of plate indentation five inches by three wide. Good, on aged and lightly-foxed paper, left edge irregular indicating extraction. A very attractive card, carrying an engraving of a sylvan scene giving a very good idea of Sandon's qualities. Reads, in a variety of hands, 'EVERY | Description | OF | ENGRAVING & PRINTING | Neatly executed. | [vignette] | HENRY SANDON, | 60, Wellington Street, Goswell Street, | London.' Sandon does not feature in BBTI. is he real?

Advertisement leaf containing list of architectural books.

Author: 
A. Webley, bookseller, at the Bible and Crown in Holborn, near Chancery-Lane
Publication details: 
Undated [circa 1765].
£200.00

Dimensions roughly eight inches by five and a half. Very good on aged paper. All but top edge rough. One page, blank reverse.

Engraved Trade Card in form of receipt.

Author: 
James Crokatt, Fleet Street bookseller
Publication details: 
Undated [circa 1740]
£225.00

Dimensions roughly one and a half inches by two inches. One page, blank verso. Tipped in on piece of yellow paper. Within ruled border. An attractive item, with an illustration of key at head. Beneath this, in copperplate, 'Bought of I: Crokatt | at the Golden Key near | ye. Inner-Temple-Gate | Fleet-Street.' Crokatt, an associate of Dodsley, with whom Samuel Johnson worked, traded from the 1720s to the 1750s.

Sixteen Receipted Invoices. printed heading, signed "W. Gotelee", "G. Gotelee" and W.J. Gotelee", accounts of the "Surveyors of Binfield", the "Overseers of Binfield Parish", the "Churchwardens of Binfield"

Author: 
[PROVINCIAL]W. Gotelee, bookseller, printer and stationer.
Publication details: 
Wokingham and Market Place, Wokingham, Berks,1850[-1866].
£200.00

Sixteen invoices, all 8vo, good condition. They bought account books and stationery relevant to their function. The overseers, for example, bought a "Poor Rates Book", had "Rate Receipt books" and "Poor Rate Notices" printed by Gotelee. The surveyors' invoices listed "Printing 200 Highway Rate Receipts". The churchwardens had a "Book of Common Prayer" bound.

Printed Advertisement Leaf, with illustration.

Author: 
William and Joseph Marshall, Bookseller and Stationer, 'At the Bible in Newgate-street, over against the Blue-Coat Hospital Gate'
Publication details: 
Undated [circa 1720].
£250.00

Dimensions roughly six inches by three and a half. Wormed (but only affecting two letters of text) on aged paper. One page, blank reverse. Wood cut at head, roughly one and a quarter inches square, illustrating a leather-bound book with clasps. Thirty-three lines of text, beginning 'At the Bible in Newgate-street, over against the Blue-Coat Hospital Gate.

Printed handbill advertising the publication of Kirby's 'Monographia Apum Angliae'.

Author: 
William Kirby [John White, bookseller; Stephen Couchman, printer]
Publication details: 
London: 'Printed for the AUTHOR, and Sold by J. WHITE, Fleet-Street. Printed by S. Couchman, Throgmorton-Street.' [1802].
£120.00

One page, on rough-edged grey wove paper, roughly nine inches by six wide. An attractive production of twenty-two lines, with ornamental rules top and bottom, headed 'This Day is Published, | IN TWO VOLUMES OCTAVO, | PRICE ONE GUINEA IN BOARDS, | Monographia Apum Angliae; | [...] | By WILLIAM KIRBY, B.A. F.L.S. | RECTOR of Barham in Suffolk. | [...]'. According to BBTI John White traded between 1785 and 1816 and Stephen Couchman between 1774 and 1825.

Engraving of bearded man walking while reading a book.

Author: 
John Thomas Smith (1766-1833), artist and antiquary
Publication details: 
London Published as the Act directs December 31st 1815 by John Thomas Smith No 4 Chandos Street Covent Garden.'
£80.00

On wove paper roughly eleven inches by seven and three-quarters; dimensions of print roughly seven inches by four and a half. Image clear and unaffected, on paper aged and creased, with some staining to extremities. Smith's monogram in bottom left-hand corner. The figure is formally dressed, in frock-coat and stockings, with his hat tucked under his left arm. Clearly a portrait, but of whom is uncertain: it is not among the six works by Smith catalogued by the National Portrait Gallery. A charming evocation of print culture in the early part of the nineteenth century.

Two printed (italic) invoices with receipts, part manuscript part printed, for Alfred Simpson.

Author: 
[Samuel Lewis & Co., publishers [BBTI}.
Publication details: 
London, 13 Finsbury Place, 1845 and 13 Finsbury Place South, 1847, one receipt (1845) headed 16 New Broad Street [add to BBTI]
£35.00

Invoices, one page each, 4to, good condition. Receipts of conventional size, both signed "R. Toley" [not in BBTI]. The subjects are subscruiption editions of Lewis's Topographical Dictionaries of England and Wales (1845), Scotland and Ireland (1847), with prices, including "colouring Atlas[es]".

Engraved portrait by Augustus Fox [from painting by Nathaniel Drake].

Author: 
Thomas Gent (1693-1778), printer and topographer of York [Thomas Thorpe (1791-1851), London bookseller]
Publication details: 
Published by T. Thorpe, 38, Bedford Street, Covent Garden.' [1832]
£45.00

Dimensions of paper roughly eight inches by five; dimensions of print four and a quarter inches by three and a half. Good clean image, on paper aged and creased at extremities only. A wild-haired octogenarian Gent leans on a pile of books in a stone archway, holding open a copy of his History of Rippon (1733). Taken from Thorpe's edition of Gent's 'Life', published in 1832.

Trade Card

Author: 
William Curtis, bookseller, stationer, music seller (BBTI 1812-1836)
Publication details: 
No date.
£65.00

Card, c.4 x 3", soiled, remnants of album page on verso (four corners). Within the Royal Arms of the Duke of Clarence is printed "William Curtis / Bookseller / To H.R.H. the Duke of Clarence / Plymouth". At the botton "Harps, Pianofortes &c. on Sale or Hire."

Engraved portrait of Gutenberg by Gaywood, mounted on piece of paper with painted decorations.

Author: 
Johannes Gutenberg, German printer; Peter Stent (fl.1643-67), London printseller; Richard Gaywood (fl.1644-68), English engraver
Gutenberg
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£100.00
Gutenberg

Good clean image of a seventeenth-century engraving, from an earlier idealised portrait of the putative 'father of printing'. It is of irregular shape, the background having been carefully cut away. Neatly mounted on piece of beige paper, illustrated with a brown pseudo-frame with decorative book devices in the four corners. Half-length portrait of a bearded Gutenberg in fur-lined hat and coat, with composing stick in left hand and stylus in right. Dimensions roughly eight and a quarter inches by seven wide. Engraved beneath is 'P Stent Excudit: R Gaywood fecit'.

Trade card.

Author: 
[John] Sudlow, engraver and printer (BBTI)
Publication details: 
Wrights Court, opposite new Cannon Street, Market Street, Manchesterno date [c.1824]
£28.00

c.3 x 4.5, creased and slightly soiled. Re. BBTI in Market Street in 1824 - further detail to add.

Portrait, 'Engraved by H. Meyer, from an original Drawing by J. Jackson'.

Author: 
Thomas Fanshaw Middleton (1769-1822), D.D., F.R.S., Lord Bishop of Calcutta [Henry Hoppner Meyer; John Jackson]
Publication details: 
[London; 1815.]
£45.00

Dimensions of paper approximately 36 x 25 cms. Good, though lightly foxed and with corners a little dog-eared. His Lordship, in full-sleeved clericals, is seated, and bare-headed, looking to his right with a piercing stare. Dated 1815 by the National Portrait Gallery.

Handbill of 'Rules for conducting the six-pence <...> Society, In Aid of the Funds for defraying the <Expence> of carrying on the Worship of God, In York-street Chapel, Manchester.'

Author: 
York Street Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Todmorton, Manchester
Publication details: 
To commence from the first of January, 1820. [...] W. Cowdroy, printer, Manchester.'
£45.00

On one side of a piece of paper roughly 22 x 14 cms. Good, apart from some repaired damage at head from scorching, resulting in loss to two lines of text. Title followed by the eight rules of the Society over twenty-one lines of text. At foot names of the sixteen members of the Committee (eight ladies and eight gentlemen), together with those of the treasurer and secretary. According to BBTI William Cowdroy Jr was a printer, publisher and newspaper proprietor between 1795 and 1824.

Bookplate.

Author: 
Sir Richard Burton of Sacketts Hill House, Isle of Thanet, Kent
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated [c.1820].
£10.00

On piece of paper roughly three and a half inches by three wide. Good, lightly aged with a little creasing to one corner. Pleasant armorial design within floral arrangement. Motto 'VIGILANS' on scroll above 'Sir Richard Burton' in copperplate at foot. Indentation of plate around edge.

Programme, with signatures, entitled 'The Centenary Meeting of the Reading Lodge of Union No. 414, held at the Masonic Hall, Greyfriars Road, Reading, on Thursday, Twenty-sixth day of October, Nineteen Hundred and Thirty-three.'

Author: 
Reading Lodge of Union No. 414 [Freemasons; Freemasonry; Masonic]
Publication details: 
Printed at The Crown Press. Caxton Street, Reading, by Bradley & Son, Ltd. [1933.]
£45.00

Octavo, 16 pages. In original cream wraps, tied with blue ribbon, and with the insignia of the Lodge printed on the front. Good, if a little aged. Creased where folded in half. With the signatures of seven of the Lodge's members in pencil on front wrap (Bob Bradley, P. H. Crozier, Herbert L. Hawkes and others). From the collection of the pamphlet's printer Robert W. Bradley, who is listed among the Lodge's Officers as 'Organist', and who signs 'Bob Bradley'.

[Wedgwood] Three different bookplates.

Author: 
Josiah Clement Wedgwood (1872-1943), 1st Baron Wedgwood, British Liberal and Labour politician
Wedgwood
Publication details: 
[1890s to 1930s.]
£80.00
Wedgwood

Arranging the three in what appears to be chronological order, the first (good, roughly four inches by two and three-quarters wide) has 'Josiah C. Wedgwood' in copperplate beneath a straightforward Victorian armorial design, with shield, coronet and motto 'OBSTANTIA DISCINDO'. The second (three and a half inches by three wide) dates from after Wedgwood's election as a Member of Parliament in 1906, having 'EX-LIBRIS JOSIAH C. WEDGWOOD, M.P.' on a scroll beneath a more modern armorial design, with helmet and leaves. It has slight damage to the bottom right-hand corner.

Apocalypse block-book; Caxton's Golden Legend.

Author: 
J. & J. Leighton, booksellers.
Publication details: 
1910; J. & J. Leighton, 40 Brewer St., Regent St., London W.
£125.00

Proof with manuscript changes in pencil and printed additions pasted onto p.viii. 14 pages, folio. Five plates and five illustrations in text. In original green printed wraps. In good condition: paper discoloured and with some creasing at head; wraps grubby, creased and worn, with small closed tear along top end of spine. An attractive production, 'reprinted from J. & J. Leighton's illustrated catalogue of early-printed books, manuscripts, &c. part xiv.' Describes the edition of the Golden Legend published by Caxton in 1483, and a block-book published in Germany around 1470.

Handbill headed 'STOLEN POSTAL ORDER FORMS | STOLEN POSTAGE STAMPS NEGOTIATED BY MEANS OF STAMP SAVINGS SLIPS'.

Author: 
E. H. Bourne, Director, Investigation Branch, Personnel Department [THE POST OFFICE; ROYAL MAIL; POSTAL HISTORY]
Publication details: 
[London,] 20 January 1939.
£56.00

Two pages. On both sides of a piece of paper roughly twelve and a quarter inches by eight inches wide. Illustrated on both sides. An unusual piece of Post Office ephemera, and something of a period piece, on aged paper, with fraying to extremities. Begins 'The object of these instructions is to secure the apprehension of men and women who are negotiating stolen postal order forms and stolen penny stamps, the proceeds of thefts from Post Office. [...]'.

A Mother's Historical Chart, or an Outline of the History of the World . . .

Author: 
ANON.
Publication details: 
[London, no date [watermark 1832]] Published by A. Douglas (Portman Square) and printed by J. Wilson (Piccadilly)
£125.00

[Title continued] . . . Divided into Centuries and Millennial Periods, from the Creation to the Present Time., Broadsheet, 32 x 41cms, some marking, nicks tears at folds, text complete and clear comprising approximate dates and events during six millennia, during three "Dispensations" - the "Patriarchal", Mosaic", and Christian. An aid the a child's learning of history. BBTI records Wilson and Douglas but expresses doubt whther he was a publisher and restricts his activity ot 1827 (now by this item, [1832]. No copy found on COPAC or BLC.

Print headed 'Termina diocletians', showing ruined Roman arches with figures in the foreground.

Author: 
Hieronymous Cock (c.1510-1570), Flemish northern renaissance engraver
Publication details: 
No date; place not stated. 'H. Cock excudebat' in top right-hand corner.
£120.00

On piece of aged, laid paper roughly six inches by eight and a quarter wide. Two inch closed tear at head, and three-quarters of an inch closed tear, with a little loss, to the right. Quarter-inch hole towards top right-hand corner, in sky above archway. Mounted on piece of grey paper. Negligible wear to bottom left-hand corner.

Prospectus for an edition of Johnson's 'THE VANITY OF HUMAN WISHES', with sample illustration by Tegetmeier.

Author: 
Rampant Lions Press [Denis Tegetmeier; Samuel Johnson]
Publication details: 
To be published this summer 1984 by the | RAMPANT LIONS PRESS | 12 Chesterton Road, Cambridge, England'.
£23.00

Unbound. Large Octavo bifolium on grey wove paper. Good only, with creasing to corners (that would carefully iron out), and some marking to front cover. Title in large gold letters on front, details of edition on versos of both leaves, and specimen page on recto of second leaf. Illustration ('The author | A reproduction of Tegetmeier's frontispiece') on Arches paper (twelve and a half inches by nine wide) loosely inserted, together with printed 'Book order' leaf.

Illustration entitled 'THE ROLL OF FAME. 1800-1900.', with key.

Author: 
Linley Sambourne [Punch, or the London Charivari; Caricature]
Publication details: 
Dated in facsimile October 1899.
£45.00

Sambourne (1844-1910) contributed illustrations to Punch for more than forty years. On good laid paper, dimensions roughly 22 inches by 17 1/2. With facsimile signature and date. Folded twice. Slightly discoloured and a little creased, but suitable for framing. Depicts Mr Punch, with his dog Toby, sitting atop a pile of the 'evolutions of the century' (including a bicycle and typewriter), and waving to 116 of the century's worthies, including Bismark, General Tom Thumb and the jockey Fred Archer, but without Karl Marx.

Engraving by Lewis, after Cooke, of 'CALAIS PIER'.

Author: 
Edward William Cooke (1811-80), marine painter; Charles George Lewis (1808-80), engraver
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£265.00

On India paper roughly three and a half inches by six and a half wide, mounted on a thick piece of wove paper ten inches by fourteen and a half. Cooke's name is engraved on the illustration, and printed on the mount are the title, Lewis's name and a double ruled border. Good clear impression. The mount is a tad grubby, with foxing to the extremities. Atmospheric representation of a populated pier snaking to the left, with a number of sailing ships and a row boat taking advantage of the low tide nearby. No reference found.

Printed Memorandum of Agreement with Anthony Blond Ltd, signed 'Ellen Wright', for the English publication rights of her husband's 'Lawd Today'; with a typed agreement between Blond and Hamilton & Co. for the English paperback rights.

Author: 
Ellen Wright (nee Poplar) (1912-2004), second wife and widow of the American author Richard Wright (1908-60)
Publication details: 
Memorandum, London, 29 June 1964; paperback rights, London, 15 May 1964.
£56.00

The Memorandum is a four-page folio (leaf size roughly fourteen inches by nine and a half) bifolium. In very good condition, lightly creased and folded. It details Mrs Wright's royalties (as 'proprietor'), advance and percentages. The paperback rights agreement consists of four typewritten pages, on four leaves, each roughly thirteen inches by eight, stapled together at the head beneath green tape. Very good, though lightly creased and with some fraying to tape. It is signed by the Hamilton & Co. chairman Joseph and witnessed by his secretary E. M. Holloway.

Engraved portrait by Vertue captioned 'RICHARDUS GRAVES | de Michleton in Com[itatis] Gloucestriae Armiger | Obiit: 1731, A[nn]o. Aetat[is]: 51.'

Author: 
Richard Graves the elder ('the antiquary', 1677-1729), of Mickleton Manor, Gloucestershire [George Vertue]
Publication details: 
Extracted from Nash's 'History of Worcestershire' (London, 1781-2).
£55.00

On good-quality thick wove paper, roughly fifteen inches by eleven wide. Dimensions of plate roughly eleven inches by six and a half wide. Good, clean impression, with blank borders a tad grubby. Attractive portrait of a handsomely dressed Graves, a bookcase behind him, leaning between two tables, on one of which is a manuscript and on the other another manuscript, coins and books. Graves's dates are corrected in the Dictionary of National Biography.

Engraved bookplate headed 'LA FELICITA' DELLE LETTERE'.

Author: 
Antonio Visentini (Venice, 1688-1782), Italian (Venetian) engraver
Publication details: 
Without date or place, but with 'Ant. Visentini Inu. Del. et Sculpsit.' at foot.
£180.00

Dimensions of plate roughly four and a half inches by six and a half wide. Dimensions of paper roughly five inches by seven wide. Clear image on stained, grubby laid paper. Shows mythological figure with helmet and shield holding up a book, within a monumental border with coins, ivy, statuary, etc. This bookplate has been found in conjunction with another reading "Ex Libris Alexandri Torrigiani Med. Doct. Coll. Parmensis", and this may provide a clue to the provenance.

Proof engraving of 'Harrietta Bowdler' by Scriven, after a drawing by Slater.

Author: 
Harrietta Bowdler (nee Hanbury, died 1829) of Eltham, Kent (wife of John Bowdler the elder, 1746-1823) [Joseph Slater (c.1779-1837), artist; Edward Scriven (1775-1841), engraver]
Publication details: 
Without date or place. [London: Colnaghi & Co., July 1830?] 'J. Slater. delt. 1817. Edwd. Scriven. sculpt.'
£80.00

The word 'Proof' is engraved in the bottom right-hand corner. Dimensions of paper roughly ten inches by seven and a half. Good clean image on lightly aged paper. Head and shoulders portrait, in which a dolorous old biddy in cap stares vacantly at the viewer. Presumably a companion piece to an engraving in the National Portrait Gallery by Isaac W. Slater of a drawing by Scriven of Henrietta Maria Slater, published by Colnaghi in July 1830. This item is not present in the National Portrait Gallery online catalogue.

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