bookselling

Autograph Letter Signed ('M. F. T.') to his printer Thomas Brettell, 25 Rupert Street, Haymarket, London.

Author: 
Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810-1889), English poet [P. T. Barnum; John Leech; Thomas Brettell; Henry William Pickersgill]
Publication details: 
Undated, but docketed 'Jan. 31 1851'.
£75.00

12mo: 2 pp. 28 lines. Good, on lightly aged paper, with unobtrusive small spike hole and traces of mounts adhering to four corners. Interesting animated letter between a Victorian author and his printer. Relates to Tupper's 'A hymn for All Nations; translated into thirty languages; nearly fifty versions; the music composed expressly by S. Sebastian Wesley.' (1851). Asks his printer to 'Attend to Hymn as within' (not present). 'We cannot help all this trouble'. Tupper has written to Dr Gavassi, but has had no answer: 'get Rossetti's as soon as you can.

Typed Invoice (docked in manuscript 'Copy') from Francis Edwards Ltd to Wreden.

Author: 
William P. Wreden; Francis Edwards Ltd, London booksellers
Publication details: 
6 December 1954; on Francis Edwards letterhead ('Booksellers since 1855') in red and black ink.
£30.00

One page. Dimensions of paper roughly six and a half inches by eight wide. Spotted, aged and creased, and with some closed tears. Addressed to Wreden at 'Box 56, Palo Alto, Cal., U.S.A.' For '3 reg'd bookpost parcels', and headed 'Hodgson's Sale 25th Nov. 1954'. Lots 204 and 205 purchased for a total of £27 9s 9d, including an apparent commission of 15% on an item under ten pounds, and 10% on one over that sum. Items ('French Documents & Autograph Letters' and 'Autograph Letters from Lord Brougham and contemporaries') described in nine lines.

Katalog 1: Autographen.

Author: 
Christian M. Nebehay, Austrian dealer in autographs
Publication details: 
Wien 1. (Vienna, Austria) Annagasse 18. [1950s?]
£50.00

Quarto: 40 pp. In original printed wraps, decorated with various facsimiles. Facsimiles in text, and portrait of Beethoven on rear inner wrap. Good, on browned paper. Sections on painters, writers, poets, architects, sculptors, musicians. Nods towards the American market, with some entries in English and Dollar conversions. Together with Nebehay's attractive bifoliate trade card, carrying a photograph of his premises.

[No. 36.] Catalogue of Interesting, Choice and Rare Historical Documents and Autograph Letters, [...] And a Choice List of Modern Names [...] George Cattermole [...] Charles Dickens [...] William Cowper [...] Lord Nelson. [...]

Author: 
Samuel J. Davey [booksellers' catalogues; George Cattermole; Charles Dickens; William Cowper; Isaac Newton; Lord Nelson]
Publication details: 
London: On Sale by Samuel J. Davey, 47, Great Russell Street, Opposite the British Museum, W.C. 1892.
£80.00

Quarto: 50 + [2] pp. Fold-out frontispiece giving eighteen examples of handwriting from items in the catalogue. In original orange printed wraps. Good, though a tad dusty, and in worn and faded wraps with some glue staining to back and wear to spine. Well printed, with lengthy extracts from most items. A scrap of paper which acts as a bookmark has the words "Listed Walpole entries to W.S. Lewis || Nov 1953" in Winifeed Myers [?] hand (from her reference library). The first item is 'A Series of Pencil Sketches by George Cattermole, illustrating Dickens' Works' (£60).

Autograph Letter Signed ('J. Clunie') to an unnamed male autograph collector.

Author: 
John Clunie (1784-1858), Principal of Leaf Square and Seedley Grove Academies, 1812 to 1837
Publication details: 
20 June 1836; Seedley Grove, near Manchester.
£50.00

One page, on piece of lightly aged paper, roughly six and a half inches by seven. Strip neatly torn away at head (not affecting text, but perhaps bearing recipient's address). Good, with a little damage from breaking of wafer and slight evidence of previous mounting on revese. Thirteen lines. He is sending the selected autographs, and will 'be happy to receive, at your leisure, those of Currie, Daubeny, Mc.Culloch, Flowers, Woodville & Phillips & Jones - or such 5 of them as you can best spare'.

Fragment of Typed Letter Signed to unnamed correspondent.

Author: 
C. Maguire [autograph dealer?]
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£80.00

On piece of paper roughly seven inches by eight wide. On aged paper with closed tears and fraying to extremities. Top part of document torn away, leaving ten complete lines of text. Lays out the conditions under which an archive of letters is offered for sale.

Autograph Letter Signed to the autograph collector Thomas Thompson of Church Street, Liverpool.

Author: 
John Russell Smith (1810-94), English bookseller [Dawson Turner]
Publication details: 
13 June 1840; 'No. 4. Old Compton Street, Soho, London'.
£200.00

Two pages, quarto. Very good. With traces of blue paper mount adhering to addressed verso of second leaf of bifolium. Dawson Turner having declined to buy a collection on the grounds that it is 'wholly out of his line of collecting', Russell now offers it to Thompson. They are 'not so interesting' as he anticipated when he 'bought them at an auction without looking at them till they were on the table'. Gives details of the purchase and describes the volumes, estimating their cost in binding.

Typed Letter Signed ('Walter Runciman') to L. P. Jacks.

Author: 
Walter Runciman, 1st Viscount Runciman of Doxford (1870-1949), English Liberal politician [paper making; the book trade; publishing]
Publication details: 
21 February 1916; on letterhead of the Board of Trade, Whitehall Gardens, London, S.W.
£56.00

12mo, 3 pp, 35 lines. Good, on lightly aged paper, and with a thin strip from mount adhering at head of blank verso of second leaf of bifolium. Discusses 'the restriction on the importation of paper and paper making materials', imposed 'with the object of securing more tonnage space in incoming vessels'.

Autograph Note Signed ('John Murray') to 'my dear Williams'.

Author: 
Sir John Murray (1884-1967, 'the fifth'), member of a notable London firm of publishers
Publication details: 
4 June 1932; 'as from 50 Albemarle St W.1', on letterhead of Tithe Farm, Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire.
£45.00

8vo: 1 p. Good, with creasing towards right-hand margin. 'Very many thanks, my dear Williams, for your most kind congratulations. I feel that my honour is some recognition of the publishing trade & I take it as such'. Murray was created KCVO in 1932, following his publication of the ninth and final volume of the letters of Queen Victoria.

Autograph Letter Signed ('R Seeley') to [John Lucas] Tupper.

Author: 
Robert Benton Seeley (1798-1886; DNB), English publisher and author
Publication details: 
3 July 1871; 54 Fleet Street [London].
£56.00

12mo: 2 pp. Very good. Relates to the photographic series 'English Artists of the present day', published by Seeley with accompanying essays 'by J. B. Atkinson, S. Colvin, F. G. Stephens, T. Taylor, and J. L. Tupper'. He is sending 'a copy of No. 3. The other we count as a presentation copy.' 'The Woolner photo. will I hope not be thought so bad by those who have not seen Elliott & Fry's. I was glad to find this morning that it had not struck Mr.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W. H. Mallock') to 'Mrs Nesbit'.

Author: 
William Hurrell Mallock (1849-1923), English author [Edith Nesbit]
Publication details: 
10 October 1879; 15 Savile Row, London.
£35.00

12mo: 1 p. On discoloured paper with wear at head and traces of previous mount adhering to blank reverse. He sent the publishers Chatto & Windus her novel the previous Monday, 'begging them to write to you on the matter, and giving your work my best recommendation'. He has not heard anything from them himself, but expects it will 'take a week or two, before they can give an opinion'. The recipient may be Edith Nesbit, although this is unlikely as Nesbit was her maiden name. She became Edith Bland in 1880. None of her works appear to have been published by Chatto & Windus.

Autograph Card Signed ('Marshall P. Wilder') to the English publisher [William Swan] Sonnenschein (1855-1934).

Author: 
Marshall Pinckney Wilder (1859-1914), American humourist
Publication details: 
19 August 1889; on Marshall's letterhead from 'The Alpine', 55 West 33rd. Street, New York.
£28.00

8.5 x 11 cms. Grubby and lightly spotted. Reads 'My dear Mr Sonnenschein | Kindly send draft as I can collect here - | Merrily Yours | Marshall P. Wilder'. Presumably refers to the English printing of his 'The people I've smiled with: recollections of a merry little life' (1889).

A Catalogue of Engraved Portraits, English and foreign, together with a Collection of Miscellaneous Prints, the greatest portion accompanied with concise biographical and descriptive notices. Part V. London.

Author: 
A. Nicholls, London printseller ('Upwards of 25 years Assistant to Messrs. Evans of 1, Great Queen Street, and 403, Strand.') [prints; engravings]
Publication details: 
London: A. Nicholls, 5 Green Street, Leicester Square, W.C. [no date, but post 1848] ['A. Munro, Printer, New Yard, Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields.']
£85.00

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.

Catalogue No. 26: 'Early Newspapers | From 1625 to 1850'.

Author: 
Birrell & Garnett, Ltd., 30 Gerrard Street, London W.1 [booksellers' catalogues; bookselling]
Publication details: 
Harding & Curtis, Ltd., Somerset Street, Bath. [1929.]
£56.00

Octavo: 32 pp. Stapled and unbound. Rather worn, particularly at first and last leaves. A few pencil marks and notes, and slight ink staining at head of first leaf. Twenty illustrations. 168 items; three-part index on final page. Influential catalogue, the collection sold in its entirety to Duke University. One of Birrell & Garnett's managers was Graham Pollard, co-author of the book which unmasked T. J. Wise as a forger.

Two autograph Notes Signed to I. Kyrle Fletcher, bookseller specialising in the theatre, ballet, etc.

Author: 
Randolph Schwabe.
Publication details: 
43A Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, 5 Jan. 1927 and The Slade School of Fine Art (printed heading), 27 May 1942.
£125.00

Draughtsman and printmaker. One page each, 8vo, in his normal calligraphic hand, some peripheral damage but mainly good condition. (1927) He acknowledges receipt of a cheque and the return of a parcel of prints - thanks. (1942) He informs Fletcher that "The lithograph Enrico Cecchetti was published by C.W. Beaumont . . . He may have a copy left. I have only one, and that is stored away in Bushey, Herts. It might be unearthed, but not immediately." Two items.

Receipted Invoice Signed "S. Hodgson", Account of "Mr Charnley" (BBTI, William Charnley) bookseller, stationer, publisher, bookbinder, librarian/owner of circulating library

Author: 
[NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE] S[olomon] Hodgson, Printer, bookseller, stationer, print seller, newspaper proprietor (BBTI 1785-1800), also publisher of Bewick.
Publication details: 
Newcastle, no date.
£350.00

One page, 4to, somewhat grubby and worn at the edge, but text clear and complete. Account total £7.16.11 paid in cash. Twenty two items listed with prices, multiple copies from "6 Hist of All Nations" to 200 Maclaurin's Spelling", subjects including educational (as above) and children's ("Mother Goose", "Mothers Chits Chats Tales"). Other items include "Traders Guide", "Robinson Crusoe", "London Cries", "Lottery Books", "Tom Thumbs Play Bills".

Printed Advertisement Leaf.

Author: 
Robert Akenhead, bookseller, 'at the Bible and Crown upon the Bridge, Newcastle' [provincial printing]
Publication details: 
Undated [circa 1723 re. pencilled note on reverse; Akenhead in businessc.1716-1768 re. BBTI]
£200.00

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.

Printed Receipt with ms. adds ({J.M. Farquhar for Mr Bruce}).

Author: 
Archibald Constable & Co.
Publication details: 
Edinburgh, {4 April }18{15} (bracketed = ms.)
£75.00

One page, from larger sheet, c.8 x 6.5, fold marks, some marking mainly good. "Edinburgh {6 April} 18{15}/{J.M. Farquhar Esq/ for Mr Bruce}/ Bought of Archd. Constable & Co./ { Bewick Birds --£1.4.0/ <?> Saxon and Gaul 17 /6 April 1815'/ Recd / for A. Constable &Co/ }" Verso note: "6 April 1815/ account/ by/ A Constable & Co/ 7/."

Mortgage Indenture (No. 13992), printed, manuscript, typewritten, and signed, between Smith, his wife Millicent Smith and the Burnley Building Society.

Author: 
William Russell Smith, Oldham 'Book Manufacturer and Auctioneer'
Publication details: 
9 October 1922. Printed by 'George Anderson (Burnley) Limited.'
£35.00

Eight pages, quarto. Unbound and stitched on six leaves. Good, with recto of first leaf and verso of last somewhat more aged. With company and tax stamps. 'Mortgage, [a leasehold plot of land and messuage Numbered 26 in Barker Street Oldham in the County of Lancaster to secure £450 and interest.' Typewritten acknowledgment of payment, 25 February 1929, signed by company secretary W. Harvey and director J. Brown.

Invoice (and stamped Receipt) Signed.

Author: 
Bernard Quaritch.
Publication details: 
15 Piccadilly, W., London, 26 June 1888.
£75.00

Printed and manuscript. Invoice made out to Rev. Dr. Eccleston of Cambridge, 9 x 5.5", defects but text clear and complete.

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.

Invoice, printed heading, account of Lord Glenbervie.

Author: 
Budd & Calkin, booksellers, stationers (add bookbinding and "To their Royal Highnesses The Prince Regent & Duke of Kent"
Publication details: 
"At the Crown & Mitre, No. 100, Pall Mall", March-Sept. 1813.
£30.00

One page, 8vo, defects but text clear and complete. "State Trials" and "Cobbett's Register".

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.

Manuscript invoice/receipt Signed to Lord Glenbervie.

Author: 
[George Wickins for George & William Nicol, publishers and booksellers (BBTI)
Publication details: 
58 Pall Mall, 1814[-1815].
£45.00

One page, c.8 x 6", minor defects, mainly good condition. 17s 6d received in payment of an invoice for "Philosophical Transactions" for 1814.

A file of material including a Catalogue issued by Thomas Arthur, bookseller,and correspondence

Author: 
Gillyatt Sumner, antiquary and collector, Beverley, Yorks.
Publication details: 
1860
£320.00

File of papers giving insight inot the buying and record-making procedures of an antiquary and collector.They are crudely sewn together, with some damage and staining, texts clear and complete except railway receipt (trimmed), collection comprising: a. Catalogue ("Part Fifty-Three", Feb. 1860, from Thomas Arthur, 45 Booksellers' Row, Strand, London, W.C. ( some items ticked by Sumner, including item 454 Ratsall's History of . . . .Southwell" which is also marked "Ordered"). b. Invoice from Thomas Arthur, 13 Feb.

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]".

Autograph Letter Signed to the Rev. Henry Blunt, Pau, Pyrenees (DNB)

Author: 
Thomas Hatchard, bookseller, publisher (BBTI - 1856 ADD 1842), son of John Hatchard.
Publication details: 
London, 15 March 1842.
£200.00

Two pages, fol., fragile, sl. chipped, inch round hole in second page with some loss of text. Hatchard reports on the distribution of copies of his book ["A Family Exposition of the Pentateuch: Genesis" (J. Hatchard, 1841)] as "From the Author", giving a substantial list occupying the second page (c.80 names consisting of the great and the good, with excisions, corrections and additions, with six names ticked and three show multiple copies). He tells him how many copies have been printed of the first and second editions, the issuing of the second he expects to give the first "a lift".

Coloured advertisement featuring cartoon by P. Webb.

Author: 
C. A. Stonehill, Inc., booksellers of New Haven, Connecticut [Charles Archibald Stonehill]
Publication details: 
Undated; 'PRINTED BY BROWN & BIGELOW, ST. PAUL, MINN., U.S.A.'
£45.00

Dimensions roughly nine inches by three and a half wide. Creased and somewhat aged, with traces of previous blue paper mount on reverse. The cartoon, which occupies just under the top half, shows three hillbillies watching a fourth chalk crosses onto a farmyard wall, with the caption 'Somebody told him 'bout a old age pension . . . he's practicin' to sign up fer it.' Beneath this 'ATTENTION! | C. A. STONEHILL, Inc. | Rare Books and Manuscripts | IS NOW LOCATED AT | 198 1/2 YORK ST. | SECOND FLOOR | NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT | Come In and Browse'.

Receipted Invoice, part printed, Signed, account of [Lechbury? - in pencil]

Author: 
David Ferrier, Scottish bookseller.
Publication details: 
Bible Depository, 17 Leith Street, Edinburgh, 29 March 1860
£30.00

One page, 8vo, good condition. A "Sederunt Book".

[Prospectus] The History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham . . . by G. Lipscomb.

Author: 
[Sir Thomas Phillipps, antiquary and bibliophile].
Publication details: 
[London, 1847]
£85.00

Two pages, 4to, slightly foxed and soiled, small tear at fold. INSCRIBED in the hand of John Bowyer Nichols, the book's printer, "Respectfully submitted to Sir Thomas Phillipps Bart."

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