COWPER

[Albert Reginald Powys, architect and Secretary of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Burdett’ regarding ‘corporate action’ taken by the Art Workers Guild.

Author: 
Albert Reginald Powys (1881-1936), architect and Secretary of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, sibling of John Cowper Powys, Llewelyn Powys, Theodore Francis Powys, Philippa Powys
Publication details: 
11 November 1922. 5 Clarendon Road, Harrow on the Hill, on letterhead of The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, 20 Buckingham Street, Adelphi, London WC2.
£60.00

In good condition, lightly aged and creased. With fold for postage. Begins: ‘S.P.A.B. decided it could not take corporate action but I think A W G is doing so. We have therefore passed our papers to Mr Basil Oliver of 148 High St Kensington, who is the Hon Secty. Please write further information to him. / A R Powys.’ Note: Siblings included John Cowper Powys, Llewelyn Powys, Theodore Francis Powys and Philippa Powys.

[ Andrew Cowper Lawson, Professor of Geology at the University of California. ] Two Autograph Field Notebooks of an American geologist, including notes of Californian surveys conducted with E. F. Davis and A. R. Whitman while studying under Lawson.

Author: 
A. C. Lawson [ Andrew Cowper Lawson ] (1861-1952), Professor of Geology, University of California; E. F. Davis [ Elmer Fred Davis ] (1887-1974); A. R. Whitman [ Alfred Russell Whitman ] (1881-1940)
Publication details: 
Mostly relating to the San Francisco Bay Area of California, but also to other parts of the state. Between 1912 and 1950.
£1,500.00

The two volumes contain a total of 239pp., 12mo, in ink and pencil, with entries dating from between 29 November 1912 and 28 March 1950. In fair overall condition, with light signs of age and wear. In two Keuffel & Esser notebooks, each in remains of brown calf binding, the first with 'MINING | TRANSIT BOOK | 363' stamped on front cover, and the second with 'Cross Section Book | 375 S'. In manuscript on cover of first volume: '19<...> Dec. | The Psilomelane D | of the Francis <....> | by | Don <...> | Under Prof. A. C. L <...>'.

[T. F. Powys [Theodore Francis Powys], novelist and short-story writer,] Neat Autograph Signature for an autograph hunter.

Author: 
T. F. Powys [Theodore Francis Powys] (1875-1953), novelist and short-story writer, brother of John Cowper Powys and Llewellyn Powys
Powys
Publication details: 
No date or place.
£25.00
Powys

For Powys and his two literary brothers see the Oxford DNB. On 11 x 9 cm piece of wove paper. The paper is discoloured with heavy spotting aroudnd the signature. Clearly a response to a request for an autograph, neatly written and centred on the paper, the only writing is the signature: ‘Theodore Frances Powys’. See image.

[John Cowper Powys (1872-1963), novelist and poet.] Envelope addressed by Powys in Autograph to his London bookseller G. L. Lewin, with his name and address written by him on the reverse.

Author: 
John Cowper Powys (1872-1963), novelist and poet [George Lionel Lewin (1890-1970), bookseller of Great Russell Street, London]
Publication details: 
'From / J. C. Powys / Corwen / Merioneth / N. Wales'. Oxford postmark dated 13 August 1941.
£35.00

An evocative artefact of the interesting connection between Powys and the man who supplied him with the books for his translation of Rabelais. Writing on 24 September 1940, in 'Letters to Sea-Eagle', Powys gives a lengthy account of 'Our Jew Book-Pedlar' and the bombing by the Germans of his Russell Street address.

[John Cowper Powys to his 'Jewish Book-Pedlar'.] Nine envelopes, all addressed in autograph by Powys to 'G. L. Lewin Esq' of 41 Great Russell Street, London, eight with Powys's signature and address on reverse.NO LETTERS PRESENT.

Author: 
John Cowper Powys (1872-1963), novelist and poet [George Lionel Lewin (1890-1970), 'Jewish Book-Pedlar' of Great Russell Street, London]
Publication details: 
Between 1945 and 1959. All from Merioneth, North Wales (the first four from Corwen and the last five from Blaenau Ffestiniog).
£220.00

Evocative artefacts of the interesting connection between Powys and the man who supplied him with the books for his translation of Rabelais. On 24 September 1940, in 'Letters to Sea-Eagle', Powys gives a lengthy account of 'Our Jew Book-Pedlar' and the bombing by the Germans of his Russell Street address.

[Arthur Cowper Ranyard, astrophysicist and mathematician.] Autograph Letter Signed ('A. Cowper Ranyard') to 'Mr. Herbert', regarding 'the card with Shelley's philosophic verse', 'the loss of friends', and 'pleasure in useful work'.

Author: 
A. Cowper Ranyard [Arthur Cowper Ranyard] (1845-1894), astrophysicist and mathematician
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 25 Old Square, Lincoln's Inn, W.C. [London] 22 December 1883.
£56.00

2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. Folded twice. After thanking him for sending 'the card with Shelley's philosophic verse', he continues: 'I am sorry that you have so sad a memory connected with 1883 - the year gets with me sadder for the loss of friends and with hopes dashed too'. Nevertheless he looks forward, and hopes 'for pleasure in useful work for both of us'.

[Letter from William Hayley ('Blake's Hayley') to Miss Harriet Poole of Chichester, franked by the Earl of Egremont.] Unsigned Autograph letter from Hayley to 'Miss Poole' regarding 'the Sheffield Travellers'. Franked 'Egremont'.

Author: 
William Hayley (1745-1820), English author, friend of William Cowper and William Blake; George Wyndham (1751-1837), 3rd Earl of Egremont [Miss Harriet Poole of Chichester]
Publication details: 
London. 3 February 1795.
£60.00

1p., 4to. In fair condition, lightly aged. Franked on the other side, with broken seal in red wax and postmark: 'London Feby: the 3 1795 | Miss Poole | Chichester | Egremont'. Unsigned, and in Hayley's untidy hand. Reads: 'Tuesday | 5 oclock | I have not been able to call on the Sheffield Travellers today but having caught a Frank from my noble Friend of Petworth I will dispatch my Servant without losing another post | adio'. Hayley later introduced his friend Miss Harriet Poole (‘the Lady of Lavant’) to William Blake, who would join him on visits to her villa in Lavant.

[ Stationery for the Georgian House of Lords: William Cowper, Clerk of the Parliaments ] Manuscript Receipt, Signed twice by 'Wm Cowper', of stationery 'Delivered for His Majestys Service to The Honble. Wm. Cowper Esqre. Clerk to The House of Peers'.

Author: 
William Cowper, Clerk of the Parliaments [ i.e Chief Clerk of the House of Lords ], 1716-1740, uncle of the poet William Cowper (1731-1800) and son of the judge Spencer Cowper (1670-1728)
Publication details: 
[ Houses of Parliament, Westminster. ] Entries dated from June to August 1737.
£180.00

2pp., 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. On a single leaf of laid paper (with crown 'G R' watermark), signed at the foot of each page 'Wm Cowper'. Entries dating from 30 June to 2 August 1737. Around fifty items of stationery, placed together in twelve groups, the twelve totals amounting to £46 4s 0d. Items include paper, '5 hundred pens', ink, pencils, cloth bags, 'Tortoise penknives', 'Indian Sand', binding tape and wax.

[In original boards, with catalogue of Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, London booksellers.] Memoir of the Early Life of William Cowper, Esq. written by himself, And never before published..

Author: 
William Cowper [ Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, Paternoster Row, London. ]
Publication details: 
Second edition. London: Printed for R. Edwards, Crane Court, Fleet Street; and sold by all booksellers. 1816. [ Printed by R. Edwards, Crane Court, Fleet Street, London. ] With catalogue of Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, Paternoster Row, London, 1816.
£50.00

Subtitle: 'With an Appendix containing some interesting letters, and other authentic documents, illustrative of the memoir.' 130pp., 12mo. Frontispiece. Bound in at the end is a twelve-page catalogue, dated 1 October 1816, and with drophead title: 'Valuable Periodical Works, Published by Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, Paternoster Row, London. Beneath the drophead title is a woodcut of a lion. Only one copy of the trade catalogue traced on OCLC WorldCat.

[ Spencer Cowper, judge and Member of Parliament. ] Autograph Signature ('Spencer Cowper') to Exchequer receipt.

Author: 
Spencer Cowper (1670-1728), judge and Member of Parliament, tried for the murder of Sarah Stout in 1699
Publication details: 
[ Receipt of His Majesty's Exchequer, London. ] 6 May 1715.
£125.00

1p., on 15 x 17.5cm. Aged and worn, with loss to edges, and laid down on part of a leaf removed from an album. The usual printed text, completed in manuscript, recording a payment of £25. Note: An account of the 1699 Sarah Stout murder trial, at which Cowper 'called expert medical testimony, including the famous physicians Samuel Garth and Hans Sloane, together with the anatomist William Cowper (not related)' is given in his entry in the Oxford DNB.

Autograph notebook by the biographer and antiquary Thomas Wright of Olney, containing rough drafts of an apparently-unpublished story or novel ('My Little Lady. A Story without a Moral'), and of a lecture on Daniel Defoe and Stoke Newington.

Author: 
Thomas Wright ['Wright of Olney'] (1859-1936) of Olney, Buckinghamshire, biographer, editor and antiquary, founder of the Cowper, John Payne and Blake Societies
Publication details: 
[Edwardian. Olney, Buckinghamshire.]
£300.00

12mo, 134 pp each on one side of a ring-punched loose leaf, with the leaves attached by green thread within an original worn buckram binder with discoloured endpapers. The leaves themselves in good condition on lightly-aged paper; with those of the draft story ruled in red, and sometimes utilizing scrap paper (for example the blank reverses of prospectuses for Wright's books and scrap pages from Blake Society material).

[ Thomas Wright of Olney, biographer. ] Autograph Card Signed ('Thomas Wright') to Miss Alice A. Leith

Author: 
Thomas Wright (1859-1936), schoolmaster at the Cowper School, Olney, Buckinghamshire, writer and biographer of William Cowper and William Blake [ Alice A. Leith, editor ]
Publication details: 
Post card with his letterhead: 'from Thomas Wright | Cowper School . Oney . Bucks'. 8 July 1933.
£45.00

Neatly written out on one side of a stamped, postmarked postcard, the other side addressed by Wright to 'Miss Alice A. Leith | 10 C<?> Gardens | London | N.W 3'. He is 'very pressed with work', and refers her to his 'Life of Blake', which 'gives all I know respecting Blake's attitude to Bacon - or Coban (altering the letters) as he sometimes calls Bacon'.

[Handbill] The Cowper & Newton Museum Series. No. 4. The Kissing Candidate Letter from William Cowper to the Rev. John Newton March 29th, 1784

Author: 
[William Cowper, poet]
Publication details: 
A.H. Stanley, printer, Olney, [no year].
£56.00

Four pages, 16mo, grubby, small chip from first page, text clear and complete. Scarce. One copy only found on COPAC/WorldCat at Pittsburgh.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J. Boaden') from the playwright and biographer James Boaden to William Hayley, regarding an edition of Randolph's works 'honour'd by the handwriting of Pope'.

Author: 
James Boaden (1762-1839), biographer and playwright [William Hayley (1745-1820), poet and biographer, friend of William Cowper and patron of William Blake; Alexander Pope; Thomas Randolph]
Publication details: 
Warren Street, London; 30 April 1804.
£180.00

1 p, 4to. Bifolium. Sixteen lines, neatly written. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Addressed on reverse of second leaf to 'W. Hayley Esqre.' He begins by thanking him for 'the kind memorial' (a volume of music?); the gift expresses Hayley's 'sense of common civility' and acquaints Boaden 'with a composer of great merit'. 'I tried the effect of his divine art yesterday, Sunday, and could not but wish to hear it from the organ at Chichester'. The rest of the letter concerns 'the subject of Randolph, and the copy of his works honour'd by the hand-writing of Pope'.

[book] The Task. By William Cowper, of the Inner Temple, Esq. [printed by Whittingham and with illustrations from Westall]

Author: 
William Cowper; Charles Whittingham; the Chiswick Press; Richard Davey, book binder of Bristol
William Cowper
Publication details: 
London: Printed for John Sharpe, Duke Street, Piccadilly; by C. and C. Whittingham, Chiswick. 1825.
£45.00
William Cowper

12mo, 220 pp. Engraved title and six other plates, each carrying an engraving from Westall. In green calf binding, gilt, with spine in compartments. Marbled edges and endpapers. Internally tight, on lightly-aged paper, with the plates a little foxed. Rebacked and in worn and lightly-stained binding. Tasteful small bookplate, with the single word 'Simpson' in copperplate, an initial 'M.' added in manuscript. Pink ticket on front pastedown: 'GEORGE DAVEY, | Bookseller, Binder, | & STATIONER, | NO. 1 BROAD STREET, | BRISTOL.' An uncommon Chiswick Press item.

The Entermores. A Play by John Cowper Powys.

Author: 
John Cowper Powys [Paul Roberts]
Publication details: 
Written by Powys circa 1905. Roberts' transcript 'for a public reading of the play at the Powys Society's Annual Conference', 28 August 1994.
£150.00

8vo, [iii] + 66 pp. Computer printout in plastic binder. Text clear and complete. Creasing to first four leaves, otherwise in very good condition. On title-page: 'ACTING COPY ONLY'. Note by 'C. W.' on next page: 'This version of the script is taken from Paul Roberts' unedited first draft transcription for a public reading of the play at the Powys Society's Annual Conference, at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, at 7.30pm on Sunday, 28th August, 1994. | Where words have still not been deciphered in the transcript, temporary ones have been inserted.

The Powys Family. Being a lecture given by him to the Swansea and South Wales Bookman's Association in May, 1945, with some additions.

Author: 
Littleton C. Powys [John Cowper Powys; Llewelyn Powys; Theodore Powys]
Publication details: 
This reprint [of the original lecture] issued April, 1953.' Western Gazette, Yeovil.
£56.00

12mo: 27 pp. Stapled. In original brown printed wraps. Good, on lightly-aged paper with rusted staples. Divided into five sections: 'Our Ancestry', 'Our Father', 'Our Mother', 'Montacute' and 'The Children'. A scarce item, the only copies on COPAC being at the British Library, Cardiff and St Andrews.

[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).

Printed Receipt Signed, with Autograph Signature and manuscript additions in another hand, for three months' governent annuities.

Author: 
Spencer Cowper [Sir William Cowper]
Publication details: 
7 November 1720; [London].
£180.00

Judge (1669-1728), and Attorney-General to the Prince of Wales on the accession of George I. Grandfather of the poet William Cowper, and brother of William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper (1665-1723), Lord Chancellor of England. One of the defendants, in 1699, in the celebrated trial for the murder of Sarah Stout. Dimensions of paper roughly six and a half inches by six inches. On discoloured, spotted paper, with slight wear and loss to one corner (not affecting text). Right edge slightly trimmed, with partial loss to one word'.

Printed Exchequer receipt for annuities, with manuscript insertions, signed by the Duchess and a witness.

Author: 
Adelaide Talbot (died 1726), Duchess Dowager of Shrewsbury [Adelhida, daughter of the Marquis Palleotti of Bologna]
Publication details: 
12 January 1720; [London].
£80.00

One page, octavo. Good, on aged paper with slight fraying and a few small closed tears at extremities. 'Received by me [Adelaide Dutchess Dowager of Shrewsbury Ass[ign]ee of Wm. Harvey] of the Honourable George Parker Esq; One of the Four Tellers of His Majesty's Receipt of Exchequer, the Sum of [Twenty five pounds] [...]'. Signed 'Adelaide Shrewsbury' and witnessed by 'Hen: Gardie'. Adelaide was (according to the eleventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica) married to Charles Talbot, 1st Duke of Shrewsbury (1660-1718) in 1705.

Fragment of Autograph with Signature; and bookplate.

Author: 
William Cowper, Clerk of the Parliaments [BOOKPLATES]
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£100.00

Cousin (1690-1740) of the poet of the same name. Both fragment and bookplate are pasted to a piece of thin, discoloured card. The fragment, which is roughly 5 inches by 2 inches, is grubby annd rubbed. It reads, in Cowper's hand '13th July Exhibited to us under the Commission agt. Thomas Park | Wm Cowper'. Beneath this the signatures of 'Fr. Rookes' and 'Rd Maddock'. The bookplate (roughly 2 1/2 inches by 3 1/2, in good condition although somewhat grubby) is armorial, with the motto beneath reading 'FAX . MENTIS. HONESTAE. GLORIA | William Cowper Esqr.

Syndicate content