CRIME

Official instructions for the carrying out of an execution at Prisons in a British Colony.

Author: 
William Stirling, 'Ancien Assistant au Laboratoire de Police Technique de Lyon' [executions; hanging]
Publication details: 
[Offprint from the 'Revue Internationale de Criminalistique', vol.6 (1934).] Lyon: Joannes Desvigne et Cie, Editeurs, 36 a 42 Passage de l'Hotel-Dieu. 1934.
£56.00

8vo: 4 pp (paginated 3-6). In original light-green printed wraps. Text in English, clear and complete. Good, on aged paper, with slight discoloration to wraps. Blind accession stamp of the British crime writer Jonathan Goodman (1931-2008). The following sentence is deleted in pencil: 'The above instructions have been observed at executions interessed [sic] by one.' A 'plan of the authorized scaffold' is said to be 'attached', but is not present. No copy recorded on COPAC or WorldCat.

Printed poster, headed 'Salt-Hill Society, (Instituted 1783) For the Protection of Persons and Property from Felons & Thieves, Within the Hundreds of Burnham and Stoke, In the County of Buckingham.', giving the 'Rules and Articles of this Society'.

Author: 
Edmund J. Craske, Treasurer, Salt-Hill Society, Burnham and Stoke, Buckingham [R. Ingalton Drake, printer, Eton; provincial printing]
Publication details: 
At a General Meeting, held at the ROYAL HOTEL, Slough, on Tuesday, the 13th day of April, and (by adjournment) on Tuesday, the 20th day of April, 1897'. ['R. INGALTON DRAKE, PRINTER, ETON.']
£120.00

Printed on one side of a piece of paper roughly 680 x 430 mm. Good, on aged paper with a little spotting and one short closed tear. Text complete and entirely legible. Heading printed in a variety of types and point sizes, with the Rules and Articles, dated 'Slough, April 20th, 1897. and 'Signed on behalf of the General Body of Subscribers, EDMUND J. CRASKE.', in double-column beneath. Final list of subscribers, in four columns, beginning with 'ABORN, Edwin, Eton' and ending with 'WOLLASTON, H. U., East Burnham'.

Testimonials of Commander George Yeats Paterson, R.N. Late Senior Lieutenant of H.M. Training Ships "Illustrious" and "Britannia.["]

Author: 
Commander George Yeats Paterson (fl. 1896)
Publication details: 
[1860, with manuscript emendations by Paterson in 1868] Printed by T. BRETTELL, Rupert Street, Haymarket, Westminster.
£200.00

4to: 6 pp. Unbound. Leaf dimensions 26 x 19.5 cm. A bifolium, with a third leaf attached. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper. With a few manuscript emendations by Paterson. One page is taken up with a copy of a letter, originally dated from Brockhurst House, Gosport, Hants, 1st May, 1860.', but with a manuscript label reading 'Victoria Lodge | Osborn Road, Fareham | Hants | April 15th. 1868' laid down over the printed text. In the original printed text Paterson offers himself as 'a Candidate for the Appointment as GOVERNOR of H.M.

Illustrated handbill poem, a street ballad entitled 'A New Song, entitled, Dear Peggy.'

Author: 
[Victorian London street ballad; broadsheet; handbill; death]
Publication details: 
Date and publisher not stated. [London; circa 1840?]
£38.00

Printed on one side of a piece of wove paper roughly 230 x 90 mm. On pitted, aged paper. Text complete. Approximate 30 x 50 mm piece torn away from top right-hand corner, causing loss to small illustration at head, which appears to be a crude woodcut of a woman lying in a coffin. The poem consists of thirty-six lines arranged in five stanzas. The first stanza reads 'Dear Peggy, read this letter, | its the last one I'll send, | Our long correspondence, | is now at an end.

Illustrated poem, a street ballad entitled 'The Wheel of Fortune'.

Author: 
[Victorian street ballad; broadsheet; handbill; death; nineteenth-century folk song]
Publication details: 
Date [circa 1840?] and publisher not stated.
£56.00

On one side of a piece of thin wove paper, roughly 260 x 95 mm. Aged and creased, with internal 25 mm closed tear affecting four words of text (all of which can be completed from the context) repaired on blank reverse with archival tape. Otherwise text and illustration clear and entire. Small (30 x 40 mm) woodcut at head, showing two early nineteenth-century country coves outside a cottage. The poem consists of ten four-line stanzas.

Illustrated Victorian handbill poem, a street ballad entitled 'The Golden Glove.'

Author: 
[Victorian street ballad; handbill poem; street ballad; broadsheet; nineteenth-century folk song]
Publication details: 
Publisher and date not stated. [Circa 1840?]
£56.00

Printed on one side of a piece of wove paper roughly 280 x 95 mm. Aged, creased and spotted, with chipping to extremities, but with text and illustration clear and entire. Curious small (roughly 40 x 65 mm) crude illustration at head, showing dove with olive branch and acorn. Forty-line poem arranged in five stanzas. Interestingly-garbled nineteenth-century folk song with ancient antecedents.

Autograph Card Signed ('Agnes Castle' and 'Egerton Castle').

Author: 
Egerton Castle (1858-1920) and his wife Agnes Castle, nee Sweetman (1860-1922), British historical novelists
Publication details: 
6 December 1901; place not stated [Brighton].
£30.00

Printed Post Card, dimensions three and a half inches by five and a half. Good, on aged paper, but with the reverse (showing the remains of a photograph of Brighton) damaged by its removal from an autograph album. Unobtrusive vertical crease. Reads (apparently in Egerton Castle's hand) 'Dear Miss Gray | Your letter has been forwarded to us here. We have much pleasure in sending you the autographs you desire'.

Handbill headed 'STOLEN POSTAL ORDER FORMS | STOLEN POSTAGE STAMPS NEGOTIATED BY MEANS OF STAMP SAVINGS SLIPS'.

Author: 
E. H. Bourne, Director, Investigation Branch, Personnel Department [THE POST OFFICE; ROYAL MAIL; POSTAL HISTORY]
Publication details: 
[London,] 20 January 1939.
£56.00

Two pages. On both sides of a piece of paper roughly twelve and a quarter inches by eight inches wide. Illustrated on both sides. An unusual piece of Post Office ephemera, and something of a period piece, on aged paper, with fraying to extremities. Begins 'The object of these instructions is to secure the apprehension of men and women who are negotiating stolen postal order forms and stolen penny stamps, the proceeds of thefts from Post Office. [...]'.

Typed letter signed "Lionel Britton" to Joan Jefferson Farjeon, scene designed daughter of J. Jefferson Farjeon, detective novelist and playwright. WITH: related correspondence.

Author: 
Lionel Britton.
Publication details: 
Park House, 66 Tufnell Park Road, London, N7, 1956 - 1959
£450.00

Novelist and playwright, author of the "flawed masterpiece" "Hunger and Love". Two pages, 8vo, fold marks but good condition, one ms. correction. A substantial letter dated 30 Oct. 1956, in which he reports on a letter from "Miss Black of Curtis Brown Ltd" (literary agents) in which she reports that Miss Farjeon does not want to sign a second agreement for "The Impossible Guest" (novel by Joseph Jefferson Farjeon published in 1949 which Britton presumably adapted for the stage).

Autograph Letter Signed to S[amuel]. Redgrave.

Author: 
Sir George Cornewall Lewis, 2nd Baronet
Publication details: 
Kent House | 4 April' [no year].
£56.00

Author and politician (1806-63). The recipient (1802-76) was author of a dictionary of English artists, and successively private secretary to several English statesman. Two pages, 12mo. An odd request. 'I have been asked by a friend to ascertain for him whether any person has ever been tried in England for suffocating a human being supposed to be affected by hydrophobia. If you shd. be in possession of any information which throws light upon the subject, would you have the kindness to enable me to answer the question'. signed 'G C Lewis'.

Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Mary Carpenter
Publication details: 
Red Lodge House | Bristol Sept. 6. 62'.
£36.00

English educationalist and philanthropist (1807-77). One page, 12mo. Good, but on discoloured paper and with remnants of three labels from previous mounting adhering. Reads 'Dear Sir | The parcel went off to-day by Luggage train. It can be opened if more convenient to pack. | Please to let me know which sketch you prefer. The Red Sea, the Distant Pyramids or Garibaldi's Island.'

Family (holiday) newspaper, typescript, "The Frinton Some-times". And another item.

Author: 
A member of the Farjeon Family, prob. Joan Jefferson Farjeon, later a set designer.
Publication details: 
1928
£225.00

Three issues, 12-8-1928, 13-8-1928 and 4-9-1928 (incomplete), 12 pp., 4to, not bound, loose pages as issued (with paper clip), marked by paper-clip rust, mainly good. The first two are also headed "Final Edition", and are vil. 1, nos.1,2. The third has only a title. Much of it is spoof with the rest light-hearted, making copy out of events and people that occur during a holiday. J. Jefferson Farjeon features frequeently with a sprained ankle, breaking the golf-course record (a 6 hole course), and there is news of other members of the family and friends who visit inc.

A memorial service for Dorothy Leigh Sayers (Mrs. Atherton Fleming) M.A. (Oxon.): Hon. D.Litt. (Durham) Born 13th June, 1893 Died 17th December, 1957

Author: 
[Dorothy Leigh Sayers]
Publication details: 
ST. MARGARET, WESTMINSTER [...] on WEDNESDAY, 15th JANUARY, 1958 at 12.30 p.m.'
£75.00

Unbound bifoliate. Four unpaginated pages. Dimensions of leaf roughly 8 inches by 5 inches. In very good condition, but with two instances of light creasing. The lessons were read by Val Gielgud and Judge Gordon Clark, and the panegyric was by C. S. Lewis.

Statistics of Crime in England and Wales for the Years 1842, 1843, and 1844.

Author: 
F.G.P. Neison.
Publication details: 
[1846].
£100.00

Read before the Statistical Section of the British Association at Southampton, 15 Sept. 1846. Pp.1-54, 8vo, disbound, some pages loose, some soiling particularly last page. INSCRIBED by the author: "To Alexander Robertson Esq / With [Mr?] Neison's Compts."

Typed letter signed to Josephine Bell, detective story writer, and Chairman of the Crime Writers Association.

Author: 
Hillary Waugh.
Publication details: 
Chestnut Cottage, Flimwell, Wahurst, Sussex, no date.
£50.00

American Crime Writer. One page, 4to. He refers to his just having been welcomed into the Crime Writers' Association but has been too busy to reply sooner. He has ben packing and trying to "finish a novel (which failed)". He very much appreciates meeting CWA members. He adds that "the book is now en route for Crime Club" giving him the opportunity to look about him. He would welcome CWA visitors and prmises a good cup of tea from his Australian mother-in-law".

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