BLOOMSBURY

[Logan Pearsall Smith, American-born British essayist and literary critic associated with the Bloomsbury Group.] Autograph Letter in the third person regarding the dinner of the Royal Literary Fund.

Author: 
Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946), American-born British essayist and literary critic associated with the Bloomsbury Group
Publication details: 
14 June 1921. On letterhead of 11 St Leonard’s Terrace, Chelsea [London].
£50.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Written in the year in which Smith made his one return to America after becoming a British citizen in 1913. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. On grey paper. Reads: ‘Mr. L. Pearsall Smith regrets that he will be away from London on July 6th & will not be able to attend the Dinner of the Royal Literary Fund on that date.’

[Lady Margaret Sackville, poet and children's author, mistress of Ramsay MacDonald.] Typescript of juvenile novel 'Sylvia Thistledown', with autograph emendations, regarding the advetures in Fairy-land of Amelia Egerton and the fairy of the title.

Author: 
Lady Margaret Sackville (1881-1963), English poet and children’s author, who had an affair with Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, daughter of Earl De La Warr, cousin of Vita Sackville-West
Publication details: 
On front cover: 'Margaret Sackville | 22. Lansdowne Terrace | Cheltenham'. Undated, but date stamped 30 November 1945.
£450.00

According to the Daily Telegraph, 2 November 2006 (see the end of this description), Lady Margaret Sackville was 'a poet who mixed with writers such as W B Yeats and Wilfred Scawen Blunt, was a friend of Lady Ottoline Morrell, a leading member of the Bloomsbury Set'. 167pp., 4to. Each page on the recto of a separate leaf, the whole bound with green thread through punch holes in margins. The first page worn and with label (of literary agent?) removed from head, otherwise in good condition, lightly aged and worn.

[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.

[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.

[Sir William Beveridge, ‘Architect of the Welfare State’.] Five Typed Letters Signed to educationalist T. Lloyd Humberstone, discussing Charles Holden’s Senate House design for London University's ‘Bloomsbury Site and, the ‘Toynbee days’,

Author: 
Sir William Beveridge (1879-1963), ‘Architect of the Welfare State’, Liberal Party social reformer and economist [T. Lloyd Humberstone (1876-1957), educationalist; Beveridge Report, 1942]
Publication details: 
The five letters dating from 1933, 1937, 1948, 1953, 1954. Three from Oxford (Master’s Lodgings, University College; two from Staverton House) and two from London (London School of Economics; Voluntary Social Service Report).
£250.00

See Beveridge’s entry in the Oxford DNB. Humberstone was a prominent member of the Convocation of the University of London. The five items are in good condition, lightly aged. All five signed ‘W H Beveridge’. ONE: 29 June 1933; The London School of Economics and Political Science, Aldwych, London. 1p, 4to. Folded twice. Thanking him for his book on ‘the Bloomsbury Site’. He does not agree with his ‘objection to Holden’s design (so far as I can judge I think it is very remarkable and very fine)’, but thinks that ‘the stirring up of discussion and interest in the matter is a good thing’.

[Dora Carrington; Bloomsbury; bookplates; art] Autograph Letter Signed Noel Carrington to King [?], about his sister's work (Carrington) and Lytton Strachey's library.

Author: 
[Dora Carrington] Noel Carrington [Noel Lewis Carrington (1895 – 1989), book designer, editor, publisher, and the originator of Puffin Books.]
Publication details: 
Long Acre Farm, Lambourn, Berks, RG16 7UH
£220.00

Two pages, cr. 8vo, fold marks, good condition. Text: Your enquiry about woodcuts and bookplates made by my sister Dora Carrington for Lytton Strachey and others: You will find in the book on her Letters & Diaries edited by David Garnett (Cape 1970) and Paper Back OUP, several reproductions of her work in that medium, either for Hogarth Press, or for book plates for friends. It was John Nash who taught her, he himself being an experienced engraver. I have one of two original proofs but value them too highly to spare them.

[ George Hooper, artist ] Three substantial Autograph Letters Signed George Hooper and George to Brom [ John Bromfield Gay Rees, Welsh artist ] about his experiences in galleries in Englsnd and on continent.

Author: 
George Hooper, artist
Publication details: 
One from his Redhill address (18 April 1935), the second from a Hotel in Amsterdam (16 June 1935) and the third from Urbino , 17 August 1935. All with original envelopes.
£220.00

LETTER ONE (April): Three pages, 12mo, good condition. He discusses their respective illnesses, him recuperating at Minehead. The district round about Minehead is very stimulating, & inspiring. Watchet, a romantic port near by, immediately took my fancy. I tried to do some watercolours here but my efforts met with indifferent success. I learned later that Watchet is the traditional place from which Coleridge's 'Ancient Mariner' sailed. A fellow artist ('Scott') 'assailed' him when he was 'back to school', saying, he was down at Chelsea , & there was quite a group of artists there now.

[Mary Stocks (Lady Stocks), author and supporter of women's suffrage and social reform.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Mary Stocks') to J. Samson of the Royal Society of Arts, regretting that she is 'too senile' to chair a meeting.

Author: 
Mary Stocks [born Mary Danvers Brinton; Lady Stocks] (1891-1975), writer and worker in fields of women's suffrage, welfare state and social work; linked to Strachey, Wedgwood and Ricardo families
Publication details: 
31 August 1973. On letterhead of 'The Lady Stocks', Aubrey Lodge, Aubrey Road, W8 [London].
£60.00

1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with pin hole to one corner. Folded twice. The surname in Stock's signature underlined in green. She is 'greatly honoured' by Samson's invitation, '& it is a thing I should have loved to do. But the sad fact is, I am getting too senile to be sure of being able to keep a discussion in hand as a competant [sic] chairman should'. The letter concludes: 'I fear I am a bad example of an 82 year-old in view of what Sybil Thorndike does at 90!'

[Bloomsbury, London.] Auction catalogue: 'Particulars, Plans and Conditions of Sale of the Freehold Foundling Estate, Bloomsbury, W.C.1 […] all embracing an area of about 11 acres in Central London'.

Author: 
Foundling Estate, Bloomsbury, London [Dominion Students' Hall Trust; Knight, Frank & Rutley, auctioneers and estate agents]
Publication details: 
By Direction of Dominion Students' Hall Trust. Auction by Knight, Frank & Rutley at the Royal Hotel, Woburn Place, W.C.1. [London] 26 and 27 November 1958.
£500.00

Full title: 'By Direction of Dominion Student's [sic] Hall Trust. | Particulars, Plans and Conditions of Sale of | The Freehold Foundling Estate Bloomsbury, W.C.1 | producing a Gross Income of about £112,000 per ann. increasing in the near future to about £118000 per ann. and comprising Ground Rents, Rack Rents and Tenancies secured on Shops, offices, private hotels, flats, institutional hostels and other residential properties. Cleared building sites. Vacant possession of Lot 118, viz.

[Lady Margaret Sackville, poet and Ramsay MacDonald's lover.] Manuscript score of song titled 'Pierrot', with 'Words by Lady Margaret Sackville' and 'Music by Ann Pearce'.

Author: 
Lady Margaret Sackville (1881-1963), English poet and children’s author, lover of Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, daughter of Earl De La Warr, cousin of Vita Sackville-West [Ann Pearce]
Publication details: 
Without words and music.
£280.00

4pp., 4to. In red ink on bifolium of printed music paper. In fair condition, on lightly aged and worn paper, with a few minor smudges. The song is andante, and the lyrics begin: 'Pierrot, lovesick And out of tune, Took his guitar and sang to the moon. Sang all night With mouth awry, Whilst light clouds drifted across the sky.' Also included is a Post Office Telegram from 'Aunt Margery' to 'Lady Catherine Sackville Fishers gate Withyham', 29 July 1946: 'Terribly disappointed held up missed train by one minute best love'..From the Sackville papers.

[Lady Margaret Sackville, poet and children's author, mistress of Ramsay MacDonald.] Typescript of juvenile novel 'Sylvia Thistledown', with autograph emendations, regarding the advetures in Fairy-land of Amelia Egerton and the fairy of the title.

Author: 
Lady Margaret Sackville (1881-1963), English poet and children’s author, who had an affair with Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, daughter of Earl De La Warr, cousin of Vita Sackville-West
Publication details: 
On front cover: 'Margaret Sackville | 22. Lansdowne Terrace | Cheltenham'. Undated, but date stamped 30 November 1945.
£950.00

According to the Daily Telegraph, 2 November 2006 (see the end of this description), Lady Margaret Sackville was 'a poet who mixed with writers such as W B Yeats and Wilfred Scawen Blunt, was a friend of Lady Ottoline Morrell, a leading member of the Bloomsbury Set'. 167pp., 4to. Each page on the recto of a separate leaf, the whole bound with green thread through punch holes in margins. The first page worn and with label (of literary agent?) removed from head, otherwise in good condition, lightly aged and worn.

[ Vita Sackville-West ] Small Printed Card Signed in her hand "Vita. | For Diana and Nigel"

Author: 
Vita Sackville-West, author and gardener
Vita
Publication details: 
No place or date
£180.00
Vita

White Card, 6 x 4.5cm, a little grubby but otherwise good condition. Printed text as follows: "I am going abroad so am not sending Christmas cards this year, but I should not like you to think I had forgotten you." Followed by her signature etc (as detailed above.

[ Rosamund Lehmann ] Autograph Letter Signed "Rosamund Lehmann" to a "Miss Murray"

Author: 
Rosamond Lehmann (1901-1990), British novelist, associated with the Bloomsbury Group
Publication details: 
[Headed] Llanstephan House, Llyswen, Brecon, 13 August 1939.
£56.00

Three pages, 12mo, good condition."Mrs Lynd's [ Sylvia Lynd, author ] letter about the Femina Committee followed me here where I am spending a few days. The onlky objection I can see to inserting the word 'formerly' before F.V.H. [Femina - Vie Heureuse ] is that the title of the Prize Committee would be even more unwieldy than it already is!- but of course I am in favour of trying to settle the difference between the two French committees, and hope Mrs Lynd will write the letter she suggests in her letter. I must admit that I didn't realize there were two [underlined] French committees."

[ Rosamond Lehmann, novelist. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('R.') to 'Dearest Geoffrey', regarding an unnamed woman's conviction that he is 'Pourponne'.

Author: 
Rosamond Lehmann (1901-1990), British novelist, associated with the Bloomsbury Group
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 70 Eaton Square, London SW1. 17 March 1972.
£56.00

2pp., 8vo. On aged and worn paper. The letter begins: 'Dearest Geoffrey | She is quite convinced you were Pourponne! - says it was given to her before she saw your photographs - (about which she says some very gratifying things!) How does this strike you?!' The woman is 'hunting for a confirmatory portrait'. While Lehmann herself has 'only the haziest impression of Pourponne', she does know that 'they were mutually devoted' She exclaims: 'Oh do hurry up & start this book!

[ Roger Senhouse, member of the Bloomsbury Group. ] Autograph annotations on his (and Lytton Strachey's) Byron books, in 'Byron and Byroniana' catalogue, and on Rayner Heppenstall's BBC telepathy experiment, with copy of printed BBC 'Findings'.

Author: 
Roger Senhouse [Roger Henry Pocklington Senhouse] (1899-1970), English publisher, member of Bloomsbury Group [ Elkin Mathews Ltd; Rayner Heppenstall (1911-81); Giles Lytton Strachey; BBC ]
Publication details: 
Catalogue: Elkin Mathews Ltd, 33 Conduit St, London W1. January 1930. BBC 'Findings', stamped with date 3 December 1945.
£220.00

ONE: Elkin Mathews catalogue. xii + 125pp., 8vo. 776 items, with a number of facsimiles. In grey printed wraps. Internally in fair condition, on aged paper, cocked at foot, in heavily-worn wraps with repair to rear cover. Containing numerous annotations in Senhouse's close, neat hand, mostly in pencil, giving bibliographical information relating to various entries, with reference to his own collection. Next to the entry for a first edition of 'English Bards and Scotch Reviewers' Senhouse writes: 'my copy "H S" Sold to Quaritch'.

[Lord Annan and Virginia Woolf's cousin Dorothea Jane Stephen.] Three Autograph Letters Signed from 'N. G. Annan' to 'Miss Stephen', on his biography of her uncle Sir Leslie Stephen. With autograph notes by her, including a childhood reminiscence.

Author: 
Noel Gilroy Annan (1916-2000), Baron Annan [Lord Annan] [Dorothea Jane Stephen (1871-1965), daughter of James Fitzjames Stephen, niece of Sir Leslie Stephen and cousin of Virginia Woolf]
Publication details: 
All three on letterhead of King's College, Cambridge. The three dated by the recipient to 'Spt. or Oct. 1951', '2/10. [2 October] 1951' and '29/2/52' [29 February 1952].
£320.00

The three letters in very good condition; the first two attached to one another in one corner by a stud. Also included is Dorothea Stephen's copy of Annan's biography ('Leslie Stephen: His Thought and Character in Relation to his Time', 1951), worn and without dustwrapper, with her ownership signature ('D J. Stephen'), and a page of autograph notes critical of the book at the rear.

[Baptist Wriothesley Noel, evangelical clergyman.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Baptist W Noel') to unnamed female, explaining that he 'cannot aid the circulation of a book without knowing its principles'.

Author: 
Baptist Wriothesley Noel (1798-1873), English evangelical minister of St John's Chapel, Bedford Row, and then at John Street Baptist Church in Bloomsbury
Publication details: 
'Walthamstow | 18th April [no year]'.
£56.00

1p., 4to. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper, with traces of mount on blank reverse, and short closed tear in one corner. He apologises for having to 'hesitate' regarding her 'slight request', but he 'cannot aid the circulation of a book without knowing its principles'. He continues: 'I rejoice to hear that your daughter & yourself, are still seeking to secure your highest interests'.

[Beryl de Zoete, dance critic and orientalist.] Autograph Card Signed ('Beryl de Z.) to the anthropologist Erich Alport, regarding peonies and 'flower viewing'.

Author: 
Beryl de Zoete [married name Beryl de Sélincourt] (1879-1962), dance critic, orientalist and translator, partner of the sinologist Arthur Waley [Erich Adolph Alport (1903-1972), anthropologist]
Publication details: 
50 Gordon Square, WC [London]. Postmarked date 28 May 1950.
£65.00

In good condition, on aged card. Addressed to 'Erich Alport Esqe. | 195 Woodstock Rd. | Oxford'. The card reads: 'By dint of putting them up to their necks in water every night, all the peonies came out & are only just scattering their petals. I have been flower viewing all the week - two magnificent gardens & the Chelsea show. It was very nice to see you. I hope you will propose yourself again - after I get back from abroad.'

[Thomas Macwhirter, bookseller.] Manuscript itemised invoice for medical books, headed 'Mr. Thos. Macwhirter | To A. Barklimore'. With signed receipt at foot by the surgeon Archibald Barklimore.

Author: 
Archibald Barklimore (d.1851), surgeon, Charlotte-street, Bloomsbury, London; Thomas Macwhirter (London medical bookseller?
Publication details: 
Macwhirter's invoice for books purchased on 26 April 1814 and 31 March 1818. Barklimore's receipt dated 25 April 1818.
£65.00

One one side of 16 x 11 cm piece of ruled paper. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. The invoice is for six books totalling £3 17s 0d, the first three purchased in 1814 and the others in 1818: 'Abernethy's Works', '[Abernethy's] Lectures', 'Hey's Lectures', 'Adam's life of Hunter', 'Scudamore on Gout', 'Reid on Insanity'. Barklimore's receipt reads: 'Resd. [sic] 25th. April 1818 from Mr Dunlop | Archd. Barklimore'. Docketted on reverse: Mem[orandu]m of Disbursements on acct Dr. McWhirter by Dr. Barklimore.' Macwhirter does not feature in BBTI.

[Robert Peake, London coach builder, father of Archibald Henry Peake, Premier of South Australia.] Printed handbill with anecdotes, a poem ('The Troubles of Lord Alphonsius Fitz Noodle'), and two jeux d'esprit.

Author: 
Robert Peake, coach maker, Bloomsbury, London, born in Yorkshire in 1815, died in Australia in 1889, father of Archibald Henry Peake (1859-1920), Premier of South Australia
Publication details: 
[London. 1840s or 1850s.]
£250.00

2pp., 12mo. Printed on facing pages on one side of a landscape 8vo leaf, with blank reverse. In fair condition, on aged paper, laid down on part of a leaf removed from an album. The left-hand page carries three items: 'The Confidence Trick. A scene in Oxford Street.' (a series of puns with a purpose now lost, beginning 'A stout "Nave," | Met a green "Felloe"'), 'Anecdotes of the old Coaching Days' (beginning 'Talleyrand bought a new coach, but did not pay for it.') and 'Lord Lyndhurst'. The last reads in full: 'Ordered Robert Peake to build him a Chariot. It was finished and approved of.

Typed Note Signed from the novelist Naomi Mitchison to 'Miss Steele', asking her to forward a letter.

Author: 
Naomi Mitchison [Naomi Mary Margaret Mitchison, née Haldane], Lady Mitchison (1897-1999), novelist and social activist [The Bournemouth Little Theatre Club, founded 1919]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of River Court, Hammersmith Mall, W6. 12 December 1932.
£40.00

1p., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper. She writes that she is enclosing a letter, which she would like sent on 'to the Manager of the Bournemouth Little Theatre Club if you will, as I do not know the address'.

Two Autograph Drafts of reviews and one Autograph Letter Signed to Philip Dossé of Hansom Books, Artillery Mansions, 75 Victoria Street, London SW1.

Author: 
Tom Driberg [Thomas Edward Neil Driberg, Baron Bradwell of Bradwell-juxta-Mare] (1905-1976) [crossword puzzled]
Publication details: 
Both reviews undated [both c. 1974]. Letter of 14 March 1974; 601 Mountjoy House, Barbican, London, on cancelled House of Commons letterhead.
£100.00

All three items lightly aged but good. Driberg has written 'TOM DRIBERG' at the head of the first page of both reviews. First Review (8vo, 7 pp) with slight wear at head (not affecting text) of first four leaves; last three leaves on House of Commons letterheads. With corrections. The subject is Daphne Fielding's 'The Rainbow Picnic' (1974). Second Review (8vo, 7 pp, on House of Commons letterheads) of four books about crossword puzzles, including Roger Millington's 'The Strange World of the Crossword' (1974). With corrections.

Lines Drawn and ornamentally inscribed on a White Silk Riband with which [...] the Editor was decorated [...] by the Baron and Baroness Von Sass, at their seat of Tadaiken, in the Duchy of Courland, on 21st November, 1790, [...].

Author: 
[William Tooke the younger (1777-1863)] [Russia; Russian; Bloomsbury Inns of Court Association; rifle clubs; George Bramwell; private printing; St Petersburg]
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£250.00

12mo: 8 pp. Leaf dimensions 18 x 11.5 cm. Unbound. Stitched as issued. Good, on lightly-aged paper with foxing to first page. Complete: paginated [1] to 8, and with 'Finis.' at the end.

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