CLAPHAM

[John Venn, Anglican cleric, abolitionist and central figure in the Clapham Sect of social reformers.] Autograph Signature to the conclusion of a letter.

Author: 
John Venn (1759-1813), Church of England clergyman and abolitionist, a central figure in the Clapham Sect of social reformers
Venn
Publication details: 
‘Clapham 10 Sepr. 1810’.
£56.00
Venn

Venn features in the Oxford DNB article on his father Henry Venn (1725-1797). In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper. Two rectangles cut from a letter, laid down on one side of a 14 x 5.5 cm piece of thicker paper. The first rectangle, 12.5 x 2.5 cm, carries the conclusion of the letter: ‘[...]ain are truly I am my dear / your ever faithful & affect Friend / J Venn’. At the foot of the slip, in pencil in a Victorian hand: ‘X (Son of “Complete duty of Man”). Beneath this slip is the second one, 9 x 1.5 cm, which gives the date: ‘Clapham 10 Sepr. 1810’.

[Thomas Gisborne, Anglican cleric and author, leading member of the abolitionist Clapham Sect.] Three Autograph Letters Signed to Archdeacon John Woodhouse, praising his edition of the Apocalypse, and discussing his own on 'Sunday Drilling'.

Author: 
Thomas Gisborne (1758-1846), Anglican cleric, leading member with William Wilberforce and Thomas Babington of abolitionist Clapham Sect [John Chappel Woodhouse (1749-1833), Archdeacon of Salop]
Publication details: 
All three from Yoxall Lodge. 24 February and 2 May 1806; and 25 June 1828.
£220.00

The three letters are in good condition, lightly aged and worn, with minor evidence of previous mounting in an album. ONE: 24 February 1806. 1p, 4to. Signed 'Thomas Gisborne.' The subject of the letter is Woodhouse's translation of the Apocalypse, prefixed by 'a dissertation on the divine origin of the book', published the previous year. Gisborne writes that on his 'return from Leicestershire' the previous Friday, he found Woodhouse's 'very obliging present'.

[ Thomas Gisborne, abolitionist and member of the Clapham Sect. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('T: Gisborne') offering the unnamed recipient his 'trifling interest' in 'the Staffordshire election'.

Author: 
Thomas Gisborne (1758-1846) of Yoxall Lodge, abolitionist, member of the Clapham Sect, Prebendary of Durham Cathedral [ the slave trade ]
Publication details: 
Yoxall Lodge [ ]. 12 July 1823.
£120.00

2pp., 12mo. With mourning border. In fair condition, but with thin strip lacking along one edge, resulting in slight loss of text. A stylish letter. He finds it 'almost ludicrous' that 'a person whose property, such as it is, lies chiefly in another County' should have anything to say 'about the Staffordshire election', but he 'had wished' that the recipient of the letter 'might fill the present vacancy when I had not ever seen your name connected with it'. He would be pleased to be given 'an opportunity of offering' him his 'vote & the singularly trifling interest'.

[Sir Michael Clapham, while proprietor of the Cloanthus Press, Cambridge.] Scrapbook of Sir Michael's wife Elisabeth, containing forty examples of items either printed by him, or with woodcuts by his sister Christiana, or a combination of both.

Author: 
Sir Michael Clapham (1912-2002), printer and industrialist; his sister Christiana Muriel Clapham (d.1967), engraver; children of Sir John Harold Clapham (1873-1946) [Cloanthus Press, Cambridge]
Publication details: 
Items dating from between 1932 and 1937; many from the Clapham family home, Storey's End, Cambridge.
£850.00

The 40 items range in size from 25 x 19cm to 5 x 4.5cm. All in good condition, lightly-aged, and all but five laid down on the grey paper leaves of a heavily-worn album, with back cover loose, and with ownership signature of Sir Michael's wife Elisabeth Clapham at head of first page. The couple married in 1935, and one of the 40 items is a card with text in red featuring Elisabeth's maiden name. It conveys 'Good wishes for Christmas & the New Year from Elisabeth Rea | 6 Barton Street, S.W.1'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('N: Vansittart') from Chancellor of the Exchequer Nicholas Vansittart to Whig MP William Smith, discussing James Walker's 'Letters on the West Indies', and voicing approval for the spread of Walker's 'mild system' of slavery.

Author: 
Nicholas Vansittart, 1st Baron Bexley (1766-1851), Tory Chancellor of the Exchequer [William Smith (1730-1819), Whig abolitionist; James Walker, Commissioner for Crown Estates in Berbice, Guyana]
Publication details: 
Downing Street [London]; 16 February 1818.
£325.00

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. An important letter, in which the serving Chancellor of the Exchequer puts his position concerning slavery (a subject of extreme importance to the British Treasury), siding with a prominent apologist for the practice, James Walker, one of the commissioners managing the Crown Estates at Berbice.

Autograph Letter Signed from Catharine Cecil, daughter of the evangelical clergyman Rev. Richard Cecil, offering the copyright of a book ['Memoirs of Mrs Hawkes, late of Islington' (1838)] to an American publisher [Joseph Whetham of Philadelphia?].

Author: 
Catharine Cecil, writer, daughter of Rev. Richard Cecil (1748-1810), member with William Wilberforce of the Clapham Sect and founding member of the Eclectic Society [Joseph Whetham of Philadelphia]
Publication details: 
5 Little James Street, Bedford Row, Holborn; March 1837.
£400.00

3pp., 4to. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with minor traces of previous mounting on reverse of second leaf. She writes 'as a stranger' to the recipient: 'the person who now addresses you is a Daughter of the late Revd. Richd. Cecil, whose works you are probably well acquainted with'. She is about to publish a book which she is 'induced to think would have a very good sale in America' and has been recommended to apply to the recipient 'as a Person likely to be willing to enter into negociation with me on the subject'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Robt Buchanan') to Fenn.

Author: 
Robert Buchanan [Robert Williams Buchanan] (1841-1901), English playwright, poet and novelist [George Manville Fenn (1831-1909), English novelist; Harriett Jay (1863-1932), Scottish actress and write]
Publication details: 
18 December [no year]; 5 Larkhill Rise, Clapham.
£45.00

12mo, 1 p. Text clear and entire, on lightly creased blue paper, with a thin docketed strip neatly cut away at the foot of the letter. Traces of cream paper mount adhering to the blank reverse. Presumably refers to the play 'Alone in London', which debuted at the Olympic Theatre in 1885. Buchanan trusts that Fenn 'will be present in production of my new play & Miss Jay's debut on Wednesday next'. He asks whether to send the stalls, 'or do you get them from the Office? It will be indeed disappointing if you do not come, this time.'

Autograph Signatures on fragment of document.

Author: 
Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy, John Allnutt of Clapham
Publication details: 
28 November 1843; Clapham.
£38.00

Vulliamy (1780-1854) was a London clockmaker. Allnutt (1773-1863) was a wealthy wine merchant, a patron of Constable and Turner with a noted collection of paintings. Reads 'B L Vulliamy | Jn Allnutt, Clapham | 28 Nov. 1843'. From a collection of material relating to the Artists' General Benevolent Fund.

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