CLIMBING

[Sir John Hunt [Lord Hunt], mountaineer, leader of the successful 1953 British Expedition to Mount Everest.] Original print of non-commercial colour photograph of Hunt, with his Autograph Signature on a label on the reverse.

Author: 
Sir John Hunt [Brigadier Henry Cecil John Hunt, Baron Hunt, KG, CBE, DSO; Lord Hunt] (1910-1998), mountaineer and army officer who led the successful 1953 British Expedition to Mount Everest
Publication details: 
No date or place.
£80.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Colour Kodac print on matte paper: 3 and 3/8 x 5 inches (8.5 x 12.5 cm). In good condition, with light indentation of paperclip at head. A smiling elderly Hunt stands, with plaid shirt and hands in pockets of brown trousers, looking to his right, in front of a range of mountains. On the reverse is stuck a label signed ‘John Hunt’. See images.

[Thomas George Bonney, geologist, Alpine mountaineer.] Autograph Letter Signed ('T G Bonney'), urging a lady to abandon 'matters far too difficult and complicated' for her, to be 'useful to others in a less ambitious but more practical sphere'.

Author: 
T. G. Bonney [Thomas George Bonney] (1833-1923), geologist and Alpine mountaineer, President of the Geological Society of London and the Alpine Club
Publication details: 
8 October 1904. On letterhead of 23 Denning Road, Hampstead, N.W. [London]
£120.00

See Bonney's entry in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. The recipient is not named. It is unfortunate that the subject of the letter is not stated. Against the charge of misogyny, it should be noted that Bonney 'had the reputation of being a hard teacher, but also a generous man', and that he could equally well have written in the same way to a man he considered equally ill-equipped for a theological task.

[ Le Comité de Montagnards d'Ecosse. ] Manuscript 'Chopy' [Copy] of communication in French to 'Le Premier Gentilhomme de la Chambre du Roi', regarding the presentation of a volume of Ossian's poems 'en langue celtique' to the King of France.

Author: 
[ Comité de Montagnards d'Ecosse, 1815 [ Committee of the Mountaineers of Scotland; ]; nineteenth century Scottish mountain climbing ]
Publication details: 
'Paris le 27 December 1815'.
£320.00

1p., 8vo. Headed 'Copy' and with a Britannia watermark implying an official origin. On aged and worn paper with chipping and loss at head and tail. Reads: 'Monsieur | Le Comité de Montagnards d'Ecosse ayant deputé My Lord , Les Colls. Macdonall et Mackenham et Mr James Hamilton pour faire l'hommage a Sa M. Le Roi de France d'un exemplaire original des Poesies d'Ossian en langue celtique L'Ambassadeur d'Angleterre profitte de l'intervention de Mr. Le Premier Gentilhomme de la Chambre pour faire connaitre cette intention a Sa Majesté et prier S. Exce.

Autograph Note Signed "William T. Palmer", The Fell & Rock Climbing Club, to a "Mr Smith", about the 'Journal'.

Author: 
William T. Palmer, Editor of the Journal of The Fell & Rock Climbing Club of the English Lake District
Publication details: 
[Printed heading, "The Fell & Rock Climbing Club ", etc., Beechwood, Kendal, 22 Dec. 1916.
£56.00

One pager, fold marks, minor defects not affecting text. "Dear Mr. Smith, | The 'Journal' is in preparation, but will be greatly delayed this year. I will notify you later. | Yours faithfully, | William T. Palmer | Editor".

Autograph Letter Signed ('James Bryce') from James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce, former President of the Alpine Club, to E. W. Hallifax, endorsing 'a protest [...] raised against the ruin wrought in Switzerland by the construction of tourist railways'.

Author: 
James Bryce (1838-1922), 1st Viscount Bryce, British Liberal politician and author, President of the Alpine Club, London, 1899-1901 [E. W. Hallifax, master, Mill Hill School]
Autograph Letter Signed ('James Bryce') from James Bryce
Publication details: 
20 November 1905; on letterhead of Hindleap, Forest Row, Sussex.
£135.00
Autograph Letter Signed ('James Bryce') from James Bryce

12mo, 4 pp. 41 lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with slight discoloration to edges. 'It was high time that in England, whence so many mountain climbers and tourists go to the Alps, a protest should be raised against the ruin wrought in Switzerland by the construction of tourist railways up the slopes of the mountains'. Deplores the 'irretrievable harm' already done to 'some of the noblest landscapes in the world, [...] easily accessible from the populous cities of Central and Western Europe, such as those on the shores of the Lake of Lucerne'.

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