AND

[Lord Brougham, Lord Chancellor.] Autograph Letter Signed, insisting that ‘M. D’ [‘M. P’?] visit the family estate in Westmoreland, where his mother awaits.

Author: 
Lord Brougham [Henry Peter Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux] (1778-1868), Lord Chancellor, Scottish Whig politician and leading light of the Edinburgh Review
Publication details: 
'Brougham [i.e. Brougham Hall, Westmoreland] / [morning?] [?] Oct [no year, but before his mother's death in 1839]'.
£45.00

2pp, 12mo. On grey paper. In good condition, lightly aged, in neatly-trimmed remains of windowpane mount. Headed ‘Private’, addressed to ‘My dear M. D [M. P?]’, and signed ‘H. Brougham’. Thirty-four lines of text, in a somewhat challenging hand, resulting in the following tentative reading. (In his 1995 biography of Brougham’s later life, Trowbridge H.

[George E. Dunn, author and editor.] Autograph Letter Signed to theatre historian W. Macqueen-Pope, discussing the perils of the proof-reading process, with reminiscences.

Author: 
George E. Dunn, author and editor [Walter James Macqueen-Pope (1888-1960), theatre historian]
Publication details: 
5 July [year?]. Three Corners, Watledge, Gloucestershire.
£65.00

From the Macqueen-Pope papers. (See his entry in the Oxford DNB.) 2pp, foolscap 8vo. In fair condition, lightly-aged, with creasing at head, which is annotated by MP ‘(author)’. After thanking him for his letter he writes: ‘It is fatal to have a book published without seeing a proof. In my “G[ilbert] & S[ullivan] Dictionary” I had occasion to mention “The Yeomen of the Guard” 14 times. The comp[ositor], aided by the reader, deliberately channged them to “Yeoman”.

[‘Ralom and Rosa’, English clown routine.] Typed Letter Signed from ‘Rosa’ to theatre historian W. Macqueen-Pope, singing the praises of their act, and threatening to leave for the continent if they cannot find ‘the right recognition’ in England.

Author: 
‘Ralom and Rosa’, English clowns (‘International Comedy Musicans with Concertinas & Piano’) [Walter James Macqueen-Pope (1888-1960), theatre historian]
Publication details: 
16 December 1956; on letterhead of ‘International Comedy Musicans with Concertinas & Piano / Clown / Ralom and Rosa’, 29 Hibbert Road, Leyton, London E17.
£120.00

From the Macqueen-Pope papers. (See his entry in the Oxford DNB.) 1p, 4to. On light-blue paper, with letterhead in dark-blue and red. Signed ‘Ralom’, with ‘RALOM & ROSA’ typed beneath. In good condition, lightly aged. Writing to MP at the Evening News, London. ‘There has [sic] been quite a few remarks passed by critics of the “paucity” of Acts in the Variety profession.

[Humphrey Joel, commercial photographer (Humphrey and Vera Joel).] Autograph Letter Signed to theatre historian W. Macqueen-Pope, threatening, since his last three letters have been ignored, to make new prints of photographs he is withholding.

Author: 
Humphrey Joel (fl. 1914), commercial photographer,‘Special Photographer to Fry's Magazine’ [Humphrey and Vera Joel, Photographers; Walter James Macqueen-Pope, theatre historian]
Publication details: 
7 December 1951; on letterhead of ‘Humphrey and Vera Joel / Photographers / Dryden Cottage, Radlett / Hertfordshire’.
£90.00

From the Macqueen-Pope papers. (See his entry in the Oxford DNB.) For several decades Humphrey Joel was a leading British commercial photographer, providing the London magazines with scenic and architectural views. In 1914 he was described as the ‘Special Photographer to Fry's Magazine’. 2pp, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased. The letterhead incorporates a reproduction of a drawing of Dryden Cottage. Signed ‘Humphrey Joel’.

[Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh in Rattigan’s ‘Sleeping Prince’.] Duplicated typescript of article by W. Macqueen-Pope: ‘This is Real Theatre / The Oliviers Return to Town’, with carbon of covering TL, and commissioning ALS by Barbara Beauchamp.

Author: 
[Laurence Olivier [Lord Olivier] and Vivien Leigh] W. J. Macqueen-Pope [Walter James Macqueen-Pope] (1888-1960), theatre historian; Barbara Proctor Beauchamp (1909-74), journalist and novelist
Publication details: 
Beauchamp’s commissioning TLS: 15 September 1953; on letterhead of publishers Newnes & Pearson’s, London. Carbon of MP’s covering TL: 24 September 1953. MP’s article undated, but contemporaneous.
£150.00

From the Macqueen-Pope papers. The occasion of the article was the forthcoming premiere of Rattigan’s play ‘The Sleeping Prince’, Olivier’s production of which, at the Phoenix Theatre in London, opened on 5 November 1953. The movie rights were bought by Marilyn Monroe, and the Hollywood film appeared in 1957 as ‘The Prince and the Showgirl’, with Olivier reprising his stage role, and Rattigan also writing the filmscript. See the entries on the Oliviers and Macqueen-Pope in the Oxford DNB. Interest in Beauchamp’s novels has grown in recent years.

[Basil Ashmore, theatre and music director.] Typed Letter Signed to theatre historian W. J. Macqueen-Pope, regarding work on his film on the actor Edmund Kean.

Author: 
Basil Ashmore [Basil Norton Ashmore] (1915-1998), British theatre and music director and author, associated with Glyndbourne, Covent Garden, the Chiltern Festival, and Birmingham and Wycombe Repertory
Publication details: 
8 March [no year, 1950s]; Far Corner, Stubbs Wood, Amersham, Bucks.
£80.00

From the Macqueen-Pope papers (see his entry in the Oxford DNB). 1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged and folded three times. Signed ‘Basil Ashmore’. Begins: ‘Dear Mr MacQueen Pope, / Im [sic] sorry to keep bothering you about this film on Kean. Last time I saw you, you said “see me in March”[.] This week you said “leave it until they start in April”[.] / You may remember that I am a director, who has recently worked with Michael Powell on his new film.’ Ashmore is ‘anxious to contact the producer of your Kean film in case I can assist on this.

[Osborne Gordon, influential tutor at Christ Church, Oxford.] Autograph Letter Signed discussing a letter by Lord Brougham concerning the likelihood of war, Louis Napoleon of France, Goldwin Smith and the British colonies.

Author: 
Osborne Gordon (1813-1883), English cleric and tutor at Christ Church, Oxford [Lord Brougham [Henry Brougham (1778-1868), 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux], Lord Chancellor; Goldwin Smith (1823-1910)]
Publication details: 
‘Saturday’ [no date]; Easthampstead.
£65.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, with those of Brougham and Goldwin Smith. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, with thin strip from windowpane mount adhering to the blank reverse of the second leaf. Signed ‘O Gordon’ and addressed to ‘Dear Mr Da [Qeue?]’. An interesting letter, full of content. He begins by thanking him for ‘Ld Broughams letter which I have disposed of as directed’.

[Robert and Andrew Foulis.] Printed catalogue of ‘University of Glasgow / Robert and Andrew Foulis / An Exhibition in the Hunterian Museum / to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of the British Record Association’.

Author: 
Robert and Andrew Foulis, printers and publishers of Glasgow, Scotland (‘the Elzevirs of the North’), with the Foulis Press [Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow]
Publication details: 
Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow. 10 to 29 March 1958.
£180.00

JISC records copies in five Scottish libraries, Birmingham University and the BL. Duplicated typescript. 50pp, 4to. Five-page introduction paginated, the rest not. Leaf of addenda loosely inserted. Printed on versos of leaves and stapled into buff paper wraps with title printed on the front. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. The forty-four pages of the catalogue proper carry a total of 106 scholarly entries on exhibits.

[Typography.] Handsomely-printed address titled ‘The Romance of Printing / Address by R. A. Austen-Leigh, M.A. / At Stationers’ Hall, London, E.C.4.’

Author: 
R. A. Austen-Leigh, M.A. [Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh (1872-1961), printer and scholar; typography; Monotype; London School of Printing and Kindred Trades]
Publication details: 
Slug: ‘Monotype set and printed by students of the London School of Printing and Kindred Trades, 61, Stamford Street, London, S.E. Session 1926-27’.
£120.00

Of the five copies on JISC only that at the BL is from one of the deposit libraries. 21pp, 4to. Collotype of engraving of Caxton as frontispiece. Sewn into grey card wraps with Yapp-style edges and title repeated on cover. In good condition, lightly aged.

Autograph Letter Signed to B.[?] about Mapp and Lucia and satirical remarks involving Income tax.

Author: 
E.F. Benson, novelist
Publication details: 
[Headed] 25 Brompton Square, [London], SW3, 17 Dec. 1931.
£280.00

Four pages, 8vo, foxed but text clear and complete. I am so forgetful for I have no recollection of saying I would send for Mapp & Lucia. But here it comes to you, with many regrets that I did not send it before. I hope it may amuse you (this is the American edition) and I haven't got an English one). Anyhow our minds must have been moving (like all great ones0 in parallel lines, for I too am being as patriotic as you, & am trying to get together money which I shall devote to helping to pay off the National Debt & to balance the budget.

[Robert Lockhart Hobson, Keeper of the Department of Ceramics and Ethnography at the British Museum.] Autograph Letter Signed to Wilfred Seymour De Winton, describing the process of reopening the Museum in the wake of the Great War.

Author: 
R. L. Hobson [Robert Lockhart Hobson], ceramicist and cataloguer, Keeper of the Department of Ceramics and Ethnography at the British Museum and President of the Oriental Ceramic Society [De Winton of
Publication details: 
24 December 1918; on letterhead of the British Museum, London.
£45.00

See his obituaries in The Times, Burlington Magazine and elsewhere. Casting light on the process of reopening the British Museum in the wake of the Great War. From the papers of the recipient, Wilfred Seymour De Winton of Haverfordwest and Cardiff. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly worn and creased. Signed ‘R. L. Hobson’ and addressed to ‘Dear Mr. de Winton’. He has been ‘back at the Museum about 3 weeks & most of that has been spent in helping to get ready for the public some of the more accessible galleries’.

[Richard Redgrave, RA, landscape artist, as Keeper of Paintings at South Kensington Museum [now Victoria and Albert.]] Autograph Letter Signed declining to buy a painting as it is a portrait and they are in any case short of gallery space.

Author: 
Richard Redgrave (1804-1888), RA. English landscape artist, first Keeper of Paintings at the South Kensington Museum [now the Victoria and Albert], and Surveyor of the King’s Pictures
Publication details: 
22 March 1859; on letterhead of the Science and Art Department, South Kensington, London W.
£85.00

Redgrave’s entry in the Oxford DNB praises his ‘exceptional administrative skill’, and states that ‘Redgrave and Cole supervised the new South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum), for which Redgrave designed the innovative art gallery to house John Sheepshanks's extensive collection of British art, given to the state in 1857.’ 1p, 12mo. On grey paper. In good condition, laid down on part of a leaf from an autograph album. Pasted down at the head of the letter is a thin strip on which is printed ‘Inspector-General for Art. R. Redgrave, R.A.’ The male recipient is unnamed.

[Sir George Trenchard Cox, Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum.] Four Autograph Letters Signed to Peter Wiener, regarding the arrangements for a lecture he is giving in Ramsgate.

Author: 
Sir George Trenchard Cox (1905-1995), Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London [Peter Wiener of Ramsgate]
Publication details: 
12 January [1971], 23 February [1972], and 3 and 8 March [1972]. All three on letterhead of 33 Queen’s Gate Gardens, London SW7.
£80.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The first letter 2pp, 12mo; the other three 1p, 12mo. All four items in good condition, lightly aged; and all four folded once. Each with the stylized signature ‘Trenchard Cox’. None of the four gives the year, but the first is noted in pencil as being replied to on 14 January 1971, and the last is accompanied by its envelope, with 1972 postmark, addressed by Cox to ‘Peter Wiener Esqr / 2 Napoleon Road / RAMSGATE’. The middle two are from the same period as the fourth.

[Sir George Power, operatic D’Oyly Carte tenor in Gilbert and Sullivan productions.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Mrs Lane’, inviting her to join a ‘small orchestra’ which his friend Rev. Eric O. Norman is forming.

Author: 
Sir George Power (1846-1928), tenor in early D'Oyly Carte productions of Gilbert and Sullivan operas, including Ralph Rackstraw in H.M.S. Pinafore, and Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance
Publication details: 
16 April [1920]; on letterhead of 31 Addison Road, Kensington, W.14 [London].
£45.00

2pp, 12mo. Seventeen lines of text, with a few lines and the signature written lengthwise on the second page. On bifolium. Accompanied by the letter’s stamped and postmarked envelope, addressed by Power to ‘Mrs Lane / 67 Addison Road / W14’. (Note that she lives in the same street.) Both letter and envelope in good condition, lightly aged. Letter folded once. Signed ‘Geo. Power’. He explains that a friend of his, Rev. Eric O. Norman’, ‘who is a fine musician & pianist is trying to get together a small orchestra for a concert on the 24th. May’ and he wonders whether she would ‘care to join’.

[‘The Grand Old Duke of York’: Prince Frederick Augustus, Duke of York and Albany.] Autograph Signature (‘Frederick / Colonel 2d. L. Gds.’) and conclusion of letter to ‘Mr Harrison’ regarding Captain Wyngard.

Author: 
Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany [Frederick Augustus] (1763-1827), brother of King George IV, reformer of the British Army commemorated in the nursery rhyme ‘The Grand Old Duke of York’
Frederick
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£25.00
Frederick

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On one side of 19 x 5.5 cm piece of laid paper. In good condition, lightly ruckled and with traces of mount on reverse. Clearly cut from a letter for an autograph hunter. Reads: ‘Captain Wynguard who has [...] is fit to succeed to that situation. / I am, Dear Mr Harrison, / Yours most sincerely / Frederick / Colonel 2d. L. Gds.’ The ‘2’ of ‘2d.’ looks like a ‘1’, but the signature is certainly his.

[Margot Asquith, Countess of Oxford.] Autograph Letter Signed (Draft?), urging her ‘Darling’ to overcome the ‘love of blue in yr. pictures’ and ‘do an oil sketch of white on white’. With reference to Selwyn Image.

Author: 
Margot Asquith [Emma Margaret Asquith, Countess of Oxford and Asquith, née Tennant] (1864-1945), wife of Liberal Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, author and socialite
Publication details: 
12 March 1932; on letterhead of 44 Bedford Square, W.C.1. [London.]
£50.00

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. An interesting letter, whose circumstances are intriguing. 3pp, 12mo. On two leaves of letterheaded paper. In pencil. From the Asquith papers, and possibly a draft letter to her son Anthony (‘Puffin’). In good condition, lightly creased. Folded once. The signature is a short squiggle. The handwriting is challenging, and the following interpretation is tentative. She begins: ‘My Darling, I felt rather guilty after leaving you about abusing yr. love of blue in yr. pictures. - I can see that nothing I say can alter yr. love of this colour, & I hate hurting yr.

[Les Nottle, ‘Magical Clown’ and Punch and Judy man.] Typed Letter Signed (‘Les’) advising bookseller Andrew Block, as ‘Secretary, Magic Circle Examinations & Certificate’, that he has elected to the Inner Magic Circle.

Author: 
Les Nottle, ‘Magical Clown’ and Punch and Judy man [The Magic Circle, London; Andrew Block, London bookseller]
Publication details: 
No date (early 1982); on letterhead of ‘The Magic Circle’ (motto: ‘Indocius Privata Locum’), London.
£100.00

The obituary of the recipient Andrew Block (1892-1987) in ‘The Private Library’ was subtitled ‘the doyen of booksellers’; his business was established in 1911. 1p, 4to. In poor condition, aged and worn. Folded three times.

[Walter Crane, Arts and Crafts artist.] Autograph Letter Signed to J. Stanley Little, with thirteen examples of Crane's work, including invitation cards, handbills, letterheads.

Author: 
Walter Crane (1845-1915), English illustrator, designer and painter, associated with the Arts and Craft Society, Fabian Society and Art Workers' Guild [James Stanley Little (1856-1940)]
Publication details: 
13 Holland Street, Kensington, and other London addresses. 1886 to 1912.
£450.00

The fourteen items are laid down on three pages, on two leaves of grey paper, removed from an album, on the reverse of one leaf are two coloured coaching scenes by Randolph Caldecott, one featuring a highwayman. The overall condition is fair, with creasing and signs of age. The Autograph Letter Signed is from Crane to 'My dear Stanley Little'. 1p., landscape 8vo. With letterhead of Beaumont Lodge, Shepherd's Bush, featuring an illustration by Crane of a shepherd and sheep. 20 September 1892.

[Oscar I, King of Norway and Sweden.] Part of document, with Autograph Signature (‘Oscar’), date and large embossed seal under paper.

Author: 
Oscar I, King of Sweden and Norway (born Joseph François Oscar Bernadotte; lived 1799-1859; reigned 1844-1859)
Oscar
Publication details: 
'Stockholms Slott [Stockholm Castle] den 6 Maj 1847.'
£56.00
Oscar

On 22 x 14 cm piece of laid paper, cut from the foot of a document. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased, with tiny closed tear to one edge. Folded three times. At head, in the kings hand: ‘[...] terrattelse lander. Stockholms Slott den 6 Maj 1847. / Oscar’. Directly beneath the firm, clear signature, is the embossed circular seal, under paper, 6 cm in diameter, with motto ‘OSCAR SVER NOR GOTH OCH W KONUNG / RATT OCH SANNING’.

[Margot Asquith, Countess of Oxford.] Autograph Signature ('Margot Oxford') to Copy of Typed Letter to the Editor of The Times, regarding the plans of the University of London with regard to the preservation of Torrington Square, Bloomsbury.

Author: 
Margot Asquith [Emma Margaret Asquith, Countess of Oxford and Asquith, née Tennant] (1864-1945), wife of Liberal Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, author and socialite [University of London; Birkbeck]
Publication details: 
Without date or place. [Circa 1935.]
£120.00

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, long 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged. Headed ‘TORRINGTON SQUARE. / To the EDITOR of The TIMES’. Whether the letter was published or not, and if so whether it appeared in its entirety, is unclear. Clearly a carbon, but with her characteristic signature at end in black ink ‘Margot Oxford’. The forty-seven-line text has four autograph emendations.

[Victor Silvester, bandleader and ballroom dancer.] Autograph Signature on ‘Souvenir Programme’ for the ‘Grand Empire Day Dance’ at the Alexander Hall, Halifax, with local band 'Harry Nicholl and his Alexandrians' .

Author: 
Victor Silvester [Victor Marlborough Silvester] (1900-1978), British bandleader and ballroom dancer [Harry Nicholl and his Alexandrians; Alexandra Hall, Halifax]
Silvester
Publication details: 
Date of the ‘Grand Empire Day Dance’: 24 May 1957. At the Alexandra Hall, Halifax, for T. F. Firth & Sons Ltd. Sports Club.
£25.00
Silvester

On 15 x 11 cm card, with vertical central fold making it into a bifolium with front and back covers, and central text across the opening. In fair condition, a little aged. Perforated outer corner removed from bottom of second leaf, no doubt as proof of use; with slight creasing to first leaf at same point. Printed at the head of the back cover is the word ‘AUTOGRAPHS’, and here in blue ink is the signature ‘Victor Silvester’. There are no other autographs. The front cover is headed ‘T. F. Firth and Sons Ltd.

[‘Why don’t you ask me to do it for you?’: Sidney Webb, Fabian theorist.] Three Autograph Letters Signed to A. G. L. Rogers, one criticising a pamphlet he has a hand in, another declining to put himself forward for the Liberal candidacy in Stepney.

Author: 
Sidney Webb [Sidney JamesWebb, Baron Passfield] (1859-1947), Fabian Society theorist and socialist politician, literary collaborator with his wife Beatrice Webb (1858-1943) [A. G. L. Rogers]
Publication details: 
ONE: 22 September 1891; on letterhead of 4 Park Village East, N.W. TWO: 6 February 1892; 4 Park Village East, N.W. THREE: 8 June 1893; on letterhead of the London County Council, Spring Gardens, S.W.
£150.00

See Sidney Webb's entry in the Oxford DNB, now unaccountably placed within that of his wife. From the papers of Arthur George Liddon Rogers (1864-1944), son and editor of the economist Thorold Rogers [James Edwin Thorold Rogers] (1823-1890), for information regarding whom see his entry in the Oxford DNB. The three items in good condition, lightly aged. Each folded once. All three signed ‘Sidney Webb’; the first to ‘Sir’, the second to ‘My dear Rogers’, and the third to ‘Dear Rogers’. ONE: 22 September 1891. 4pp, 12mo.

[Cardinal Wiseman, Archbishop of Westminster.] Autograph Note in the third person proposing a meeting with ‘Mr Blackett’ [bookseller Henry Blackett of London firm Hurst & Blackett].

Author: 
Cardinal Wiseman [Nicholas Patrick Stephen Wiseman] (1802-1865), Roman Catholic cleric, first Archbishop of Westminster on 1850 re-establishment of Catholic hierarchy in England [Henry Blackett]
Wiseman
Publication details: 
29 June 1857; Leyton. On his armorial letterhead with motto ‘Omnia pro Christo’.
£60.00
Wiseman

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient is the publisher Henry Blackett (1825-1871) of the leading London firm Hurst & Blackett, and the meeting was evidently to discuss terms, possibly for Wiseman’s ‘Recollections of the Last Four Popes’, which the firm published in 1859. 1p, 8vo. Laid down on another leaf. In fair condition, lightly aged, on thin paper, and with discoloration from the glue used in laying the item down. Small red armorial letterhead.

[‘Général Revanche’: Georges Boulanger, French army officer and politician.] Envelope with his Autograph Signature and address by him.

Author: 
Général Boulanger [Georges Ernest Jean-Marie Boulanger] (1837-1891), nicknamed ‘Général Revanche’, French general and politician who called for the defeat of the Franco-Prussian War to be avenged
Publication details: 
[18 November 1889.] No place.
£60.00

The present item dates from a year of turmoil for Boulanger. At the start of 1889 it had seemed likely that he would exploit his tremendous working-class support to become dictator, but by April a warrant had been issued for his arrest and he had fled first to Brussels and then to London, before setting in Victor Hugo style in Jersey. He would return to Brussels in 1891, to shoot himself dead at the grave of his recently-deceased mistress. Complete 12 x 9.5 cm white envelope. In fair condition, lightly aged, and with back flap torn.

[Benjamin Stoddert Ewell, sixteenth president of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.] Autograph Note Signed (‘Benj. S. Ewell’) to ‘Mr. Walter G. Webster’, in response to a request for an autograph.

Author: 
Benjamin S. Ewell [Benjamin Stoddert Ewell] (1810-1894), Confederate army officer, civil engineer, and sixteenth president of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia
Publication details: 
7 June 1872; on letterhead of the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia.
£150.00

William and Mary owes its survival to Ewell: he rebuilt it from ruins after the American Civil War, and every morning during several years of closure he is said to have rung the assembly bell to keep the memory of the college fresh. The present item is 1p, landscape 8vo. It is in poor condition, on brittle high-acidity paper, with significant chipping to all the edges except the bottom one, which has resulted in the loss of a few letters of text, and to the engraved illustration of the college in the letterhead. The letter reads: ‘Mr. Walter G.

[Lady Pembroke, object of the affections of the insane King George III.] Autograph Letter Signed (‘Eliz: Pembroke’) to her nephew the Hon. George Ellis, having received permission from the Queen to allow him to ‘cut a dash abroad’.

Author: 
Lady Pembroke [Elizabeth Herbert [née Spencer], Countess of Pembroke and Montgomery] (1737-1831), object of the affections of King George III during his first bout of insanity [Hon. George Ellis]
Publication details: 
'Saturday morning. 29th. June. [no year]'
£60.00

See her entry in the Oxford DNB, which states that ‘During his periods of ‘madness’, George III imagined that he was married to Lady Pembroke. Apparently, 'his infatuation went back to the days when he was only seventeen and she, of the same age, was Elizabeth Spencer'. The king went so far as to make 'her handsome offers if she would be his mistress.’ [...] In 1804 the king suffered another attack of dementia and again announced his desire for Lady Pembroke. This situation aroused some amusement among younger courtiers since she was by this time almost seventy years old.” 1p, 12mo.

[Sir Aston Webb, architect of the facade of Buckingham Palace.] Typed Letter Signed to Rev. A. R. F. Hyslop of Glenalmond College, clarifying the position of the Board of Architectural Education on the question of ‘geometrical drawing’.

Author: 
Sir Aston Webb (1849-1930), architect of Buckingham Palace and the Victoria and Albert Museum, President of the Royal Academy
Publication details: 
29 March 1909; on letterhead of the Board of Architectural Education.
£50.00

See Webb's entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. In fair condition, aged and worn with traces of glue from mount at head. Folded twice. Addressed to ‘Rev. A. R. F. Hyslop, M.A. / Warden, / Glenalmond College, PERTHSHIRE.’ Following on from previous correspondence, Webb is ‘desired to explain’ that ‘the Board feels strongly the advantage of a training in freehand drawing as a preliminary to architectural training’, and that they do not consider ‘the geometrical drawing of architecture more particularly from plates’ ‘generally helpful’.

[Lord Esher [Lionel Brett, 4th Viscount Esher], architect and town-planner.] Typed Letter Signed and Autograph Note Signed to the lutenist Desmond Dupré, discussing costs and options for new house.

Author: 
Lord Esher [Lionel Brett; Lionel Gordon Baliol Brett, 4th Viscount Esher (1913-2004), British architect and town-planner [Desmond Dupré (1916-1974), English lutenist]
Publication details: 
Both items on his letterhead, Wellington Park, Oxon, and New Town House, Hatfield, Herts. ANS: 22 October 1952. TLS: 28 October 1952.
£90.00

Dupré is thinking of retaining Brett as architect in the rebuilding of a house on an attractive site, and the two items deal with the practicalities. Both signed 'Lionel Brett', and both in fair condition, lightly aged. ONE: TLS. 2pp, 4to, Folded three times. Forty-two lines of text. Addressed to Dupré at The Lodge, Windlesham, Withyham, Sussex. Deals firstly with ‘the estimate for demolition’, with comments ‘On the technical side’, before moving on to the question of ‘salvage materials’.

Letterbook of Arthur Poyser, Master of the Lord Mayor's Players and Singers, founder of the Lord Mayor's Own 1st City of London B.P. Scouts, containing letters from a number of notable individuas, drawings, programmes, cuttings and other ephemera.

Author: 
Arthur Poyser, International Commissioner for Music, Master of the Lord Mayor's Players and Singers [the Boy Players], and founder in 1908 of the Lord Mayor's Own 1st City of London B.P. Scouts
Publication details: 
Dating from between 1904 and 1938.
£450.00

Poyser was the author of the first 'Official Song-book of the Scout Movement', 'The Scout Song Book' (1912). He published a history of the Tower of London in 1908, 'when I was Master of the Music of the Collegiate Church of Allhallows Barking-by-the-Tower, City of London'. For more information, see The Times, 3 August 1964 ('Roll of Honour for Scouts'). 125 items, including letters, programmes, drawings, postcards, invitations, newspaper and magazine cuttings, relating to the Boy Players and 1st City of London Scout Troop.

[Henry Cole as sub-commissioner under the Record Commission; Exchequer Records] Incomplete Autograph Letter or Draft in Cole's Handwriting about an impediment in the arrangement of the Miscellaneous Records of the Exchequer.

Author: 
[Henry Cole][Sir Henry Cole (1808 – 11882), civil servant and inventor who facilitated many innovations in commerce & education in the 19th century in the U.K.]
Cole
Publication details: 
No place, 4 March 1835.
£450.00
Cole

Two pages, 4to, good condition, lacking at least a signature page. An impediment in the arrangement of the Miscellaneous Records of the Exchequer which I feel it my duty to submit to the notice of the Board.

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