AND

One page, 12mo. Good, on aged paper with a little paperclip spotting. Laid down on piece of card. 'It is with considerable misgiving that I thrust my autograph upon the distinguished company you cite in your letter. Since, however, it is unthinkable to refuse the request of a lady, I have the honour to subscribe myself, | Yours faithfully, | W. P. Drury.'

All items good, though on dusty and aged paper. Five items are addressed to sellers of manuscripts (probably the same individual). ONE (to H. Barker, 23 April 1885, on letterhead of 'The Antiquarian Magazine and Bibliographer', one page, octavo): Asks to be offered Wellesley autographs purchased at a recent Sotheby sale, of which he sent an account to 'The Times', which was 'crowded out'. TWO (to F. Barker, 25 April [1885], 'at T.

The letter: one page, 12mo. Good, but with removal from mount having thinned the paper in places, and with traces of brown paper mount still adhering. He is sending the autographs of 'Henry Seton Merriman (Hugh Scott); Gertrude Atherton; Miss Fowler; and Douglas Sladen. Also a photo from Ted (not a good one, but the only one I have left).' He enjoyed himself 'so much' at Langford. 'It was a week of real enjoyment to me.' The fragment: one page, four inches by four and a half wide.

On wove paper, with watermark '179< >'. Dimensions roughly 22.5 x 39 cm. Very good on lightly aged paper. One small unobtrusive spot of foxing. The illustration is within an oval roughly 21.5 cm wide, enclosed in a decorative box of dimensions 18 x 27.5 cm. A couple of bishops with croziers and a mass of nobles in ermine look on in a vaulted castle hall while Henry II presents what looks like a pie to his bemused offspring, who is seated beneath a canopy.

Three pages, 12mo. Very good on lightly aged paper with slightest trace of previous mount adhering to blank verso of second leaf of bifolium. He has 'looked out' and is sending 'a few interesting Autographs', and would have sent them before, had he not been 'a great invalid all summer'. 'I will get Miss Chapman a good collection of the autographs of literary men. I am now very closely connected with Punch & other publications and shall have frequent opportunities.' Agnew's family, as partners in Bradbury & Agnew, were for many years the publishers of 'Punch'.

All three items very good, and the first bearing the Society's stamp. Item One (15 June 1928, foolscap, 1 p, 12 lines): He has received a notice of a meeting by 'the Dominions and Colonies Section Committee' and asks Perry to 'please explain the position to me'. 'I am not quite clear why I am being asked as I cannot remember ever having been put on this Committee. True, Sir Humphrey Leggett suggested over a year ago that I should join the Society again as he thought I might be of some use to your Committee.

On one side of a piece of laid paper, with pot watermark, 26 x 20 cm. On sound, crisp paper, heavily foxed, and with slight wear to extremities, and remains of previous mounting at corners of reverse. Two small oval stains beneath text, and small clipping from autograph dealer's catalogue laid down in bottom left-hand corner. Firm signature. Fifteen lines of text beneath two-line date in Latin.

12mo bifolium: 2 pp. On laid paper, with strip from previous mount in right-hand margin of recto of first leaf. Good, with a little wear at gutter, and slight damage (not affecting text) to second leaf from breaking open of red wax seal, parts of which still adhere. Twenty-two lines of text, clear and entire. Smith's uncle 'Mr ' is 'very glad to hear that you are well & desires to be remembered'. Asks if Smith has 'ever found me a portrait of Sr yet'.

4to: 3 pp. Bifolium. On neatly-repaired aged paper, with archival paper covering the two inner pages. Fifty-four lines of text, all clear and entire. Remains of black wax seal, with crest, on verso of second leaf, which carries the address and is docketed 'Maragna Mohammed'. A long letter in two parts, the second part beginning on the verso of the first leaf, which is headed 'now Febry: 13'.

4to. Pages: viii + 103. Appendix consisting of nine detailed actuarial tables. Tight copy, in grubby, stained and worn printed paper boards. From the library of the librarian of the Medical Society of London, Nehemiah Asherson, and with the Society's oval stamp on the verso of the title. Small circular label on front board.

On irregular piece of paper roughly 4.5 x 4.5 cm. Good, on lightly discoloured paper. With part of signature '[S]mith' below. Docketed on reverse 'Sir Wm. Trumbull Statesman Wm 3d'.

The notes, on three 12mo bifoliums, cover three pages, with a few lines on a couple of others. In excess of eighty lines. Very good. Brief chronology and list of notable residents, presumably an outline for the description of the district in Besant's 'London' (1892) or another of his many writings on the city.

12mo: 1 p. Somewjhhat grubby, but with text clear and entire. Caulfield 'has been misled in supposing Mr Coutts is inclined to collect Hogarth's or any other pictures as he has hardly ever had any taste or inclination for that Line.'

On piece of paper roughly 3.5 x 5.5 cm. Good firm signature, on lightly discoloured paper. Reads '<...> date hereof. | [signed] J. Aislabie'. Lightly docketed in pencil 'of South Sea notoriety'.

8vo: 4 pp. Good. Difficult handwriting. He wants him to keep the cheque, which he considers 'only a compromise between our different expectations'. 'I know that you deserve the larger sum that you spoke of - but it is a tight squeeze to make the & expenses for the year of the New Englander come out even, and I do the best I can.' With seven-line postscript.

Octavo: 16 pp. Stitched and unbound. Grubby and a tad creased. Items, in alphabetical order from H (beginning with the Earl of Hardwick) to J (ending with Dorothy Jordan), with a few miscellaneous items on the last page, numbered 3002 to 3837. Interesting for the information it provides about minor English celebrities ('3651 JACKSON, Joseph, letter founder, nat. Old-street, 1733, res. Cock-lane and Dorset-street, London, ob.

[Vatican Librarian; Archivist of the Vatican Secret Archive; subject of Shane Leslie's biography;Three pages, octavo. Good, on lightly aged and spotted paper, with crease to second leaf of bifolium. Regarding Rev. J. R. McKee's translation of Arnold Oskar Meyer's 'England and the Catholic Church under Queen Elizabeth'. He has received McKee's letter. 'When I promised this to the Professor more than two years ago I did not contemplate having to leave England altogether & still less had I any dream of the war, which has interrupted all relations with German friends'.

Octavo: 18 pp. Unbound: stabbed and unstitched. First leaf and leaves with pp. 15/16 and 17/18 loose. Leaves with pp.3/4 and 15/16 half-separated. Paper discoloured and chipping at edges. Extends to 918 lots. The odd number of leaves implies the loss of a final leaf, possibly bearing text. Stamp of the Public Library Ford Collection. Docketing in pencil notes a duplicate at the New York Public Library. No other copy traced.

Association founded in England in 1921 to promote the interests of writers worldwide. First item, two pages, 12mo; next four, one page, 12mo; last item, one page, octavo. All good, though lightly creased and on discoloured paper. All have two punch holes. Item one with staple marks in top left-hand corner. The collection consists of instructions to the printer of the association's journal 'P.E.N. News'.

Wit (1657-1717), mistress of James II. One leaf, dimensions roughly seven inches by ten and a half. Printed text with manuscript additions on recto with calculations in a contemporary hand on the reverse. Good, but grubby. Receipt 'of the Right Honourable James Vernon Esq; One of the Four Tellers of the Receipt of Her Majesty's Exchequer', of sixty pounds for three months interest on £4000 lent by the Duchess and Sir Henry Furnesse on 19 January 1706. Signed 'Dorchester'.

One page, quarto. Aged, and trimmed along one margin, with minimal loss of text. Interest on moneys 'Lent unto Their Majesties upon the Credit of an Act of Parliament, (Intituled, An Act for Granting to His Majesty An Aid of 4 Shillings in the Pound for One Year'. Witnessed, with Autograph Signature, by George Cheret. Signed 'M Orford'.

Dimensions roughly three and a half inches by three. One page, blank reverse. On aged paper, with some staining along one edge and crude ink marking, including 'Bookes bound', in a contemporary hand. Twenty-seven lines, beginning 'ROBERT AKENHEAD [...] sells the Goods followsng, [sic] viz. | BIBLES, Common-Prayers, and all other Sorts of Books of Divinity, History, Physick, Mathematicks.

4to. Pages: [4] + 30. Uncut and in large part unopened, in original plain grey wraps. Stabbed as issued, but with thread worn away and signatures loose within wraps. Grubby and with some offsetting, but overall a very good survival of a scarce and fragile item. A handsome production which does great credit to its place of origin. Half-title, with vignette of castellated building. Title-page with circular medal of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne (before whom the work was read). Engraving on page one by Isaac Nicholson ('I. NICHOLSON, DEL.

All five items good, on lightly aged paper. All five bifoliums, bearing traces of previous grey paper mount on the verso of the second leaf. LETTER ONE (one page, 12mo, 30 May 1865): He is 'very poorly', with a 'bad bilious attack which has threatened to turn into jaundice'. 'Yesterday I met Mr Herbert in Regent Street. We talked for a few minutes at cross purposes, my thoughts running on his journalistic prospects and projects, while he was thinking and speaking about his election at the Savage Club.

One page, octavo. On aged paper, with slight chipping to corners, but text clear and entire. He is afraid that he 'did not answer your second letter in regard to a book on Sex.' 'After careful consideration', Thomas and 'Prof. Geddes' [Sir Patrick Geddes, 1854-1932] have come to the conclusion that 'if we wrote another book on that subject it should be published either by "Walter Scott" (who has 'The Evolution of Sex') or by Williams and Norgate (who have 'Sex')' [both books, 1889 and 1914 respectively, also by Geddes and Thomson].

One one side of a piece of laid paper, 26.5 x 21 cms. Aged and creased, with chipping to extremities and staining on reverse from repair to one of two closed tears. Thirty-six lines, with facsimile of Housman's signature at foot. An appeal for 'money for the Library - your Library'. Somewhat poignant, considering the present neglected state of the British library service. '[...] The question is - do you want to give money to your Library? [...] But, for my own part, I ask - why, why Libraries? What are they for? What there do you read?

One page, 12mo. Black border. Good, on aged and ruckled paper, with small glue stain at head (not affecting text). Asks to be released from 'coming to Oldham Road' on 4 July, as 'Saturday is an evening wich I usually make a rule of keeping to myself for the purposes of preparation for the Sunday'. Docketed at head in contemporary hand, 'Revd Arthur Mursell, Manchester'. Mursell's most interesting work would appear to be 'Bright Beads on a Dark Thread; or visits to the haunts of vice, etc.' (London, 1873).

Two pages, on letterhead of roughly 13.5 x 17.5 cms. He has sent a wire accepting the 'kind invitation'. '[A]s you can imagine we are rehearsing all day and every day at the present [...] The only thing thaht could stop me being with you is that we are, I understand, to record the "Fanny" music for a long-playing record on that Saturday'.

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

Roughly twelve and half inches by nine and a quarter. Neatly mounted on piece of cream paper, with surrounding ink rules. Good, with some ruckling and wear to corners. Characteristically arresting arrangement of type. Reads: 'CAUTION. | THE ONLY CORRECT COPY | OF DONIZETTI'S OPERA | THE FAVOURITE | AS PERFORMED IN ENGLISH AT THE | THEATRE ROYAL DRURY LANE, | IS PUBLISHED BY | JEFFERYS AND CO.