CENTURY

A friend of Horace Walpole, she was described by Boswell, after a dinner with her and Dr Johnson, as ‘the beautiful, gay, and fascinating Lady Craven’. See her entry in the Oxford DNB. The three items are laid down with eight other items (see the end of this description) on pieces of paper cut down from two leaves of an album. Somewhat discoloured with age, but in fair overall condition. The recipient or recipients of the second and third letters (laid down on the same piece of paper) are not named, although the third is written to a member of her ‘fishing gentry’.

For Lady Craven's colourful life see her entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 8vo. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. Folded four times. Begins: 'Mr. Thomas, I will thank you to send my Carriage by a Western Waggon, immediately here - directed to Hr. S. Highness The Margravine of Anspach Brandenburg house, near Hammersmith, and I hope as I have waited so long for it that it will be a well seasond [sic] Carriage - & reasonable in Price, which if it is, and finish'd to my Satisfaction, you may depend ont that it will not be the last by many which you will make'.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient was a barrister and legal reformer. 2pp, 12mo. Signed ‘Stafford H. Northcote’ and addressed to ‘H. Bellenden Ker Esq’. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin neat strip from windowpane mount adhering to edges. Folded twice for postage. A few tiny calculations in another hand (Northcote’s?) at foot of second page. Twenty lines of neatly written text.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, on lightly discoloured paper, with thin neat strip from windowpane mount adhering to edges. Sixteen lines in a neat and stylish hand. Signed ‘T. Crofton Croker’. The recipient is not named, but is clearly John Bowyer Nichols, editor of the Gentleman’s Magazine, in whose number for April 1839 appeared an article, with engraving, by ‘E. I. C.’, on ‘Winchester House, Broad-street, London.’ Croker begins his letter: ‘My dear Sir, / I return E. I. C’s account of Winchester House.

An interesting letter, casting light on the workings of Victorian literary criticism. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The subject of the letter, ‘Friendship’s Offering’, was one of the four great nineteenth-century London ‘gift books’, appearing between the 1820s and the 1840s, for some of the period at least under the editorship of Thomas K. Hervey. 1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin neat strip of windowpane mount adhering to edges. Folded four times for postage. Thirteen lines of text. Signed ‘W. Jerdan’, with recipient (‘Dear Sir’) not named.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Signed ‘Lonsdale’. Recipient (‘Dear Sir’) not named. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin neat strip of windowpane mount at edges. Folded twice for postage. He has received the recipient’s letter, and is ‘sorry on different accounts the excavations have not arrived at a better success.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin neat strip from windowpane mount adhering to edges. Folded twice for postage. Twenty-four hands of text in secretary hand, addressed to ‘W. A. Lock Esqre’, and signed in autograph ‘Sir C Trevelyan’. He thanks him for his ‘very interesting Letter’, and hopes he will ‘never think it necessary to make any excuse for writing to me [other such?]’. He has asked ‘Mr. Farr’ for ‘any observations he might have to offer on the early part of it; and his answer is enclosed’ (not present).

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin neat strip from windowpane mount adhering to the outer edges. Folded twice for postage. Writing during the Siege of Paris, he begins by thanking him ‘for the specimen of the present Paris printing. Alas how different is this blurred & blotted mass of types from the beautiful pages of typography which that brilliant city afforded!

Peteris Cedrins possessed an interesting dual heritage: born in the US to exiles from communism, he grew up in Chicago, was educated at Bard College (NYS), and settled in Latvia on the fall of the Soviet Union. He published in English and Lavian in the US, UK and Latvia. See the appreciative obituary by Jeffrey Sommers, posted on the ‘Counterpunch’ website on 11 August 2022: ‘Memoriam: Latvia’s Peteris Cedrins, Last of the National Poets’.

An idiosyncratic letter, revealing something of his working practices, and the relations between client and bookseller in the early nineteenth century. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. From the collection of a painstaking Victorian autograph collector, who has unobtrusively repaired slight damage to a central fold. On lightly discoloured paper, with a thin neat strip from the windowpane mount adheres to the edges. The letter is signed ‘Sh.n Turner’ and the recipients are not named.

A poignant letter. See Delane’s entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 16mo. Bifolium. In good condition, with neat thin strip from Victorian windowpane mount adhering to edges of second leaf. Folded for postage. 32 lines, closely written. Presumably with reference to his ‘Life and Death of John of Barneveld’, Motley begins: ‘My dear Delane / Just before leaving England ten days ago in search of health (a fugitive very hard to catch) I begged Murray to send you a copy of a work which was to come out almost immediately.

An excellent letter, casting light on the relationship between the editor of The Times and a senior correspondent. See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. Brackenbury’s states that ‘During the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 Brackenbury was the Times correspondent with the Austrian army, and was at the battle of Königgrätz (Sadowa) — riding with Benedek under fire at Chlum — and reported the naval battle of Lissa.

The founder of the greatest of London’s ‘Great Estates’. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. In good condition, on light-grey paper, with thin neat strip of windowpane mount adhering to edges. Folded three times for postage. Good firm signature ‘Westminster’, and with the name of the recipient neatly cut away: ‘Major <...> / 1st Lancashire Eng[ee]r. Vol[un]t[ee]rs.

12mo, 53 + [iii] pp. Text clear and complete. Aged and worn, with loose original front cover, printed in green, remaining from the binding. Stamp of 'The Community of the Resurrection' on title-page. A few manuscript notes in light pencil. Scarce: five copies on COPAC, at the British Library, Oxford, Cambridge, the National Library of Scotland, and University of London, variously dated to 1909 and 1910.

See the entries in the Oxford DNB for his father Sir Francis Baring (1740-1810) and his son Thomas Baring (1799-1873). At the time of writing he was working with the merchant bankers Hope & Co. in Amsterdam, but growing 'so disgusted with the drudgery of the counting house' that he wanted to abandon commerce for the law. 1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged, with neat traces of windowpane mount adhering to the edges of the blank reverse. Folded for postage. Signed ‘Tho. Baring.’ Recipient not named. Reads: ‘Dear Sir / As I observe in the papers that the British [?] is to be closed on ye.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged, with closed tear (not affecting text) to a fold on second leaf, which also carries traces of mount on its blank reverse. Small printed slip relating to the Court of Bankruptcy, bearing Fonblanque’s name, laid down at head of first page. Folded four times for postage. Signed ‘J S M Fonblanque’.

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Folded once for postage. In good condition, lightly aged, with unobtrusive line of discoloration on blank reverse of second leaf. Signed ‘Mary. J. J. Shelley’ and addressed to ‘Dear Mrs. Hollingsworth’. With envelope with stamp torn away, addressed in another hand to ‘Mrs. Hollingsworth / The Glen / Gurnard / Cowes.’ She begins with instructions for filling in a form for 'Mrs. Acland', and ends with a reference to the recipient’s son, whose ‘two friends are still both at Wellington College’.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, landscape 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Signed ‘Marie Belloc Lowndes’ and addressed to ‘My dear Mrs Doubleday’. Begins: ‘This is only a line of very very grateful thanks for our delightful stay with you and the Great Effendi!’ They ‘enjoyed every minute’ of their visit, and she wants the recipient to have their ‘London address and telephone no. so that we may meet at once when next you are in England!’ She will write if she has ‘any authentic news as to Lord Grays book’.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB, which carries a quotation pointing out her ‘unerring sense of admiration for herself’. What the present collection of well over a thousand cuttings assembled by her from newspapers and magazines appears to indicate is that the admiration was to a certain extent also felt by the general public; and taken as a whole the collection serves as a memorial to a once-celebrated English public figure, a woman making her mark on society in the age of suffrage. The first volume (1887-1899) is 117pp, folio: firm and tight in brown leather half binding.

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’.

See Greville’s entry in the Oxford DNB, and Douglas’s in the History of Parliament, which explains the context: ‘Gambling losses, largely accruing from his turf accounting activities at Newmarket - Douglas laid the blame on ‘Peel and Huskisson ... tampering with the currency’, problems raising capital from his property and ‘keeping too large establishment of servants’ - had reduced his fortune’. 4pp, 4to. Bifolium. 44 lines of text. In good condition, lightly aged, with negligible remains of windowpane mount neatly adhering to reverse of second leaf. Folded three times for postage.

See his father’s entry in the Oxford DNB. 2p, 12mo. Neatly written over 26 lines. With mourning border. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage. Signed ‘E. G. Marsh’. Recipient not named (‘My dear Sir’). He explains that, having happened on the previous day to be in the chair ‘at the monthly meeting of our clerical society in Maidstone’, he was present when the recipient’s ‘two letters to Dr. Maitland’ were presented, and is requested to convey the meeting’s gratitude, not only for the letters, but for his history of Rome, ‘received by them on a former occasion’.

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium with mourning border. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded for postage. Large signature ‘Charles Eden’; addressed to ‘My dear Fanny’. Year and month added in pencil in another hand. He thanks her for her kind letter ‘and its enclosure from my dear, kind, old friend Mrs Quilter’. He will visit her later, but at present he has ‘several melancholy duties to attend to which prevent my leaving London’. He is also ‘wanted at the Admiralty next week - altho’!

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The present item is a valediction cut from a letter, clearly provided for an autograph hunter. On small rectangle of paper. Neatly written and in good condition. Reads: ‘A Austen Leigh / Provost of King’s / College, Cambridge / July 13, 1890’. Text on reverse (part of testimonial) reads: ‘[...] degree in 1889, being placed in the first division of the Second class of the Classical Tripos. He has always borne a high character; and his abilities, morals & manners [...]’.

All three items in good condition, lightly aged, with the book in worn and spotted binding. ONE: Letter from Hassall to 'Professor Huxley', in the hand of 'an amanuensis' and signed by him. 3pp., 12mo. Tipped-in onto the half-title of Item Three below. He begins by explaining that he has 'directed Messrs. Longmans' to forward a copy of his book (which he describes as 'a brochure') to Huxley.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and creased. Folded for postage. Signed ‘T. B. Smithies’ and addressed to ‘W. Allan Esq / 17 South Grove East’. The subject is Smithies’s monthly ‘improving paper’, the ‘British Workman, and Friend of the Sons of Toil’, which he had launched in 1855, and which Allan is clearly offering to distribute gratis.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Rectangle of paper, evidently cut from a letter for an autograph hunter. Reads: ‘Yours truly / Tom Hood’. See image.

1p, 16. On the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium of grey paper, with simple drawing in the same ink as the text of a straight plain walking stick stuck in the ground and running up the left-hand margin, with the handle hooked to the right at the top with the dating to its right. In good condition, lightly aged. Reads: ‘le 25 Decembre 89.

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.

Only two copies of any edition of this title on JISC: at the BL and Glasgow University. Cohen’s obituary in The Times describes him as ‘outstanding as a forthright, witty and courteous debater and lecturer’. This item is 30pp, 12mo. Stitched into wraps with title printed on the front and publicity material on the other three sides. Internally in good condition, lightly aged, in slightly spotted and worn wraps.