EDWARDIAN

[W. W. Jacobs, short story writer of tales of the sea and the macabre.] Autograph Note Signed to the commercial artist D. H. Denselow, thanking him for sending a letter with an illustration.

Author: 
W. W. Jacobs [William Wymark Jacobs] (1863-1943), English short-story writer, noted for his tales of the sea and ghost stories [Douglas Harold Hellier-Denselow, commercial artist]
Publication details: 
9 May 1899; 112 Manor Road, Stoke Newington, N [London].
£45.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. The recipient, whose name Jacobs gives as ‘D. H. Denselow Esq’, was the commercial artist and autograph hunter Douglas Harold Hellier-Denselow, whose studio was in Gunnersbury, West London. The note reads: ‘Dear Mr. Denselow / I am much obliged for your letter & its accompanying illustration. I shall not follow your example & affix my eye to my autograph / Yours very truly / W. W. Jacobs’.

[Stanley J. Weyman, popular English novelist of the ‘cloak and dagger school’.] Autograph Signature on inscription for collector.

Author: 
Stanley J. Weyman [Stanley John Weyman] (1855-1928), popular English Victorian and Edwardian novelist of historical romance
Weyman
Publication details: 
2 November 1899. Place not stated.
£30.00
Weyman

Weyman was, as his entry in the Oxford DNB states, ‘one of the most popular and skilled of the historical romance novelists of the cloak and dagger school’. Oscar Wilde recommended his novels as reading for convicts. The present item is on an 11 x 9 cm piece of watermarked laid paper. In good condition. A neat attractive two-line inscription for an autograph collector, underlined and sloping upwards. Reads: ‘Stanley J. Weyman | Nov. 2. 1899’. See image.

[Sir Arthur Wing Pinero, leading late-Victorian and Edwardian playwright.] Autograph Inscription Signed, with quotation from his play ‘Lady Bountiful’.

Author: 
Sir Arthur Wing Pinero (1855-1934), leading English late-Victorian and Edwardian playwright, after beginning as an actor in Sir Henry Irving’s company at the Lyceum Theatre, London
Publication details: 
23 February 1897. On letterhead of 63 Hamilton Terrace, N.W. [London.]
£56.00

See his appreciative entry in the Oxford DNB, concluding with praise of his ‘undeniable’ achievements. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with the blank reverse carrying very slight staining to one edge from glue from mount. Folded once. Neatly and firmly written, with the underlined signature with a deliberate upwards slope. Clearly sent in response to a request for an autograph. Reads: ‘ “A man dies but once, a woman twice - the first time when she marries, and then, as at the last, wondering at the thereafter.” / Lady Bountiful. / Act IV. / Arthur W. Pinero. / 23rd. February 1897.’

[Julia Emilie Neilson, actress and theatre manager with her husband Fred Terry.] Two affectionate Typed Letters Signed to ‘Popie’ [the theatre historian W. J. Macqueen-Pope], discussing her poor health, contentment in old age, and birthday.

Author: 
Julia Emilie Neilson (1868-1957), actress and theatre manager with her husband Fred Terry (1863-1933) [W. J. Macqueen-Pope [Walter James Macqueen-Pope], theatre historian]
Publication details: 
7 July 1952 and 19 June 1953. Both from 4 Primrose Hill Road NW3 [London].
£60.00

See her entry and that of Macqueen-Pope in the Oxford DNB. The two items are in fair condition, on aged and lightly-worn paper. Both with the valediction and signature in a large flowing hand, and the second letter also with an autograph postscript. Both are 1p, 4to, and folded three times. ONE (7 July 1952): Addressed to ‘Popie my dear’ and with autograph valediction ‘Yours always / Julia’. She has ‘not been too well for over a year’, and the previous year her ‘stupid heart did foolish things’, and she was ‘ordered to bed for six weeks or more’. She is still ‘not allowed to do too much’.

[‘Pray destroy this letter.’ Hall Caine, English novelist, regarding his war work for the B.ritish Government.] Long ‘Strictly Private’ Autograph Letter Signed to Douglas Sladen, also assessing the position of the man of letters in his England.

Author: 
Hall Caine [Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine] (1853-1931), hugely-popular Victorian and Edwardian Isle of Man author [Douglas Sladen [Douglas Brooke Wheelton Sladen] (1856-1947), author and academic]
Publication details: 
10 April 1917; on letterhead of Heath Brow, Hampstead Heath.
£220.00

An excellent letter, in which Caine evaluates his wartime activities, criticises those of others, and gives his opinion of the the standing of the man of letters in the England of his time. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. On bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. A long letter: forty-two lines in Caine’s distinctive close hand, with the first two pages on the rectos of the leaves, and the third page written lengthwise on the verso of the first leaf. Signed ‘Hall Caine’ and addressed to ‘My dear Sladen’.

[Sir George Power, operatic D’Oyly Carte tenor in Gilbert and Sullivan productions.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Mrs Lane’, inviting her to join a ‘small orchestra’ which his friend Rev. Eric O. Norman is forming.

Author: 
Sir George Power (1846-1928), tenor in early D'Oyly Carte productions of Gilbert and Sullivan operas, including Ralph Rackstraw in H.M.S. Pinafore, and Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance
Publication details: 
16 April [1920]; on letterhead of 31 Addison Road, Kensington, W.14 [London].
£45.00

2pp, 12mo. Seventeen lines of text, with a few lines and the signature written lengthwise on the second page. On bifolium. Accompanied by the letter’s stamped and postmarked envelope, addressed by Power to ‘Mrs Lane / 67 Addison Road / W14’. (Note that she lives in the same street.) Both letter and envelope in good condition, lightly aged. Letter folded once. Signed ‘Geo. Power’. He explains that a friend of his, Rev. Eric O. Norman’, ‘who is a fine musician & pianist is trying to get together a small orchestra for a concert on the 24th. May’ and he wonders whether she would ‘care to join’.

[Herbert Edward Ryle, as Bishop of Winchester.] Typed Letter Signed (‘Herbert. E. Winton:’) to ‘Mr. de Winton’, praising his ‘investigation’, which will ‘avert the indignation of the Northerners’.

Author: 
Herbert Edward Ryle (1856-1925), successively Dean of Westminster, Bishop of Exeter and Bishop of Winchester; biblical scholar
Publication details: 
30 September 1905. On letterhead of Farnham Castle, Surrey.
£28.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, landscape 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and with slight creasing to one edge. Folded once. In his view de Winton’s ‘investigation will certainly successfully appease Lord Cross, & avert the indignation of the Northerners. It certainly most satisfactorily justifies your suggestion.’ He ends in the hope that ‘we are now fairly well advanced towards the completion of our Scheme.’

[Dame Ellen Terry.] Autograph Note Signed (‘Ellen Terry:’), announcing that she has ‘found it!’

Author: 
Ellen Terry [Dame Alice Ellen Terry] (1847-1928), leading English actress of the late-Victorian and Edwardian periods
Publication details: 
7 December 1897; on letterhead of the Grand Hotel, Manchester.
£32.00

See her entry in the Oxford DNB, and in particular the section headed ‘A great actress’. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Very nice letterhead with engraving of the imposing hotel. In her large, bold hand, the note reads: ‘I have found it! / & am so glad - / Hoping you are much better / Yrs. sincerely / Ellen Terry: / 7 December . 97:’.

[W. H. Berry (William Henry Berry), English comic actor and BBC broadcaster.] Two long Autograph Letters Signed to theatre historian W. J. Macqueen-Pope, full of reminiscence.

Author: 
W. H. Berry [William Henry Berry] (1870-1951), English comic stage actor associated with George Grossmith and George Edwardes, and BBC broadcaster [W. J. Macqueen-Pope, theatre historian]
Publication details: 
30 December 1947; on letterhead of Poplar Cottage, Beltinge Cliffs, Herne Bay. 6 March 1948; from Poplar Cottage.
£180.00

Berry was hugely popular during the Edwardian period and into the First World War. His greatest success was as ‘Mr Meebles’ in ‘The Boy’ (1917). See the recipient’s entry in the Oxford DNB. Both letters signed ‘W. H. Berry’, and the second with long postscript on separate 12mo leaf signed ‘W. H. B’. In fair condition, aged and worn. ONE: 30 December 1947. 4pp, 4to. ‘This letter will be quite a “rat-tat from the past” (as Geo. Graves used to say), & its many a long year since I last saw you - & much has happened since “those were the days” & carriages were at 11.

[Maud Tree, actress and wife of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Mrs. Le Blond’, regarding her efforts to stage a matinée, with reference to Sir Oswald Stoll, Sir Alfred Butt, George Grossmith and various London theatres.

Author: 
Mrs Beerbohm Tree [Maud Tree; Lady Tree; born Helen Maud Holt] (1863-1937), actress, wife of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, mother of Viola Tree [Sir Oswald Stoll; Sir Alfred Butt; George Grossmith]
Publication details: 
Undated (after 1901). On letterhead of 7 Adam Street, Adelphi [London].
£50.00

See the entries on the various members of the Tree family in the Dictionary of National Biography. 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Thirty-eight lines of text. In good condition, lightly aged, with pin holes to corner. Folded once. Good firm signature ‘Maud Tree’. She does not want her to think that she is ‘losing sight of the Sunday Matinée’. She had to wait for Sir Oswald Stoll’s answer, ‘& it was kind, but it said regretful No’. She then wrote to Sir Alfred Butt ‘for the Palace or the Empire. His answer was also a sad No. - But now Mr. George Grossmith has offered me His Majestys or the Winter Garden.

[Oda Slobodskaya, Russian soprano and Professor at the Royal College of Music.] Signed Autograph Inscription.

Author: 
Oda Slobodskaya (1888-1970), Russian soprano who became a British citizen, Professor of Singing at the Royal College of Music and Guildhall
Oda
Publication details: 
No date or place.
£25.00
Oda

On 17.5 x 11.5 cm leaf of pink paper, with rounded edges, removed from autograph album. In good condition, lightly aged. Written in a large, expansive hand, diagonally and upwards. Reads: ‘With all / good wishes / Oda Slobodskaya’. See image.

[John Masefield, Poet Laureate.] Autograph Card, ordering a book from a booksellers’ list.

Author: 
John Masefield (1878-1967), Poet Laureate and author
Masefield
Publication details: 
Pinbury Park, Cirencester. No date.
£80.00
Masefield

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly aged. In the following transcript, the parts in Masefield’s autograph are in square brackets, and the first printed sentence (‘I [...] letter.’) has been scored through: ‘PINBURY PARK, / CIRENCESTER. / Dear [Sirs,] / I thank you for you letter. / [I shall be obliged if you will send me No 98 of your list / Du Maurier. Trilby / London, 1895.] / With all good wishes, / Yours sincerely, / John Masefield.’ (Note that this ‘signature’ is printed.) See image.

[Clement Shorter, author and journalist.] Typed Letter Signed, responding to two letters from Manningham Sayers.

Author: 
Clement Shorter [Clement King Shorter] (1857-1926), author and journalist, editor of the Illustrated London News, founder and editor of the Sketch, the Sphere and the Tatler
Publication details: 
23 February 1921; on letterhead of The Sphere, London.
£56.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. On aged and worn paper; folded four times. Signed ‘Clement Shorter’. The letter is headed with Sayers’ Totnes address. He begins by explaining that the Sphere’s ‘Children’s Supplement’ has been abandoned due to ‘the high cost of paper’. Turning to Sayers’ other letter, he thanks him for offering to lend him a copy of Baring Gould’s ‘Strange Survivals’, but that he will obtain his own copy. He ends by thanking him for ‘the various information’.

[‘Too serious an affair for the taste of the ordinary playgoer’: Sir Arthur Wing Pinero, English playwright.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Mrs. Hughes’, regarding matters including his play ‘The Thunderbolt’.

Author: 
Sir Arthur Wing Pinero (1855-1934), leading English playwright, after beginning as an actor in Sir Henry Irving’s company at the Lyceum Theatre, London
Publication details: 
12 May 1908. On letterhead of 14 Hanover Square, W. [London.]
£50.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. The valediction reads ‘Yours alway faithfully / Arthur W. Pinero’, and it is written with quite a flourish: the ‘y’ of ‘faithfully’ hooks downwards in a long squiggle, exrending downwards past the right of the termination of Pinero’s signature, which rises upwards, being dotted above and below the signature’s underlining. He feels that her ‘kind letter is all the more welcome inasmuch as it gives signs’ that she is recovering from her recent illness.

[George du Maurier, novelist and Punch cartoonist, creator of ‘Svengali’.] Autograph Signature and valediction cut from letter.

Author: 
George du Maurier [George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier] (1834-1896), novelist and Punch cartoonist, creator of the character ‘Svengali’ in his novel ‘Trilby’; grandfather of Daphne du Maurier
Geo du Maurier
Publication details: 
26 April 1886. No place.
£25.00
Geo du Maurier

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On rectangular slip of paper, roughly 11 x 3 cm, cut from the end of a letter. In fair condition, lightly aged, slightly spotted and laid down along one edge on thicker piece of paper. In an elegant calligraphic hand he writes: ‘Believe me / Yours truly / Geo du Maurier / Apr. 26, 83’. The ‘eo’ of the ‘Geo’ of the signature is presented as a stylish squiggle, looking a little like a ‘W’. See image.

[Adrian Stokes, RA, English landscape artist.] Autograph Letter Signed (‘Adrian Stokes’), thanking ‘Mrs. Terrell’ for her congratulations on his election as an Associate of the Royal Academy.

Author: 
Adrian Stokes [Charles Adrian Scott Stokes] (1854-1935), RA, English landscape artist, husband of Marianne Stokes, part of St Ives artists’ colony, brother of Leonard Stokes and Sir Wilfred Stokes
Publication details: 
8 May 1910. On letterhead of Littleshaw, Woldingham, Surrey.
£56.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, and that of his brothers the architect Leonard Scott Stokes and the inventor of the ‘Stokes Gun’ Sir Wilfred Scott Stokes. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Signed ‘Adrian Stokes’. He has added the word ‘at’ above the letterhead, indicating that the residence is not his (it is in fact the house that his brother Leonard designed for himself).

[‘I have no desire to be a marked man’: Lord Simon, Liberal politician.] Two Typed Letters Signed to T. Lloyd Humberstone, on an ‘adverse vote’ at the National Liberal Club, and on prerogative, Parliamentary representation and ‘old Universities’.

Author: 
Lord Simon [John Allsebrook Simon, 1st Viscount Simon] (1873-1954), Liberal Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Lord Chancellor [Thomas Lloyd Humberstone, educationist]
Publication details: 
17 January and 8 November 1948. Both on government letterheads.
£75.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient, the educationist Thomas Lloyd Humberstone (1876-1957), was a prominent member of the Convocation of the University of London. Both items in fair condition, on lightly aged paper, the second with slight loss along one edge due to removal from mount. Both signed ‘Simon’. ONE: 17 January 1948. 1p, 12mo. Folded once. ‘I do not for a moment believe that the adverse vote carried at a depleted meeting of the General Committee represents the broad view of the Club [clearly the National Liberal Club] as a whole, but I have to take things as I find them.

[Ethel Henry Bird, soprano, pianist and tutor.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Miss Atkins’, thanking her for returning an ‘old book’ that is ‘very valuable to me’.

Author: 
Ethel Henry Bird (d.1942), soprano, pianist and teacher at the Trinity College of Music, London
Publication details: 
30 September [no year]. On letterhead of 8 Longridge Road, Earl’s Court, S.W. [London.]
£45.00

1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged, with unobtrusive grease stain stain to one blank corner. Folded twice. Good bold hand with large signature. ‘My dear Miss Atkins - / How very kind of you to return me my old book. It was very valuable to me, & I was wondering where it was - so I am very glad to have it back again. / Hoping we shall meet before long / With kindest regards & many thanks / Yours very sincerely / Ethel Henry Bird.’

[‘I may yet be a burden to the Royal Literary Fund’: Sir John Fortescue, military historian and Royal Librarian at Windsor.] Autograph Letter Signed, joking about his lack of success as an author while sending £5 to the Fund’s chairman Lord Curzon.

Author: 
Sir John Fortescue [Sir John William Fortescue] (1859-1933), military historian, Royal Librarian at Windsor Castle [Lord Curzon [George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston]; Royal Literary Fund]
Publication details: 
28 March 1913; on Windsor Castle letterhead.
£45.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Begins: ‘Dear Curzon, / I have sent, with great pleasure, a fiver to the Literary Fund in honour of your chairmanship; but not [last word underlined] as a successful man of letters.’ He explains that had he been dependant on his books for a livelihood, he would ‘long ago have starved, and, by the Grace of the present Government, I may yet be a burden to the Royal Literary Fund.’ Curzon has minuted the letter at the head of the first page: ‘Hon J Fortescue £5’.

[Charles Haddon Chambers, Australian dramatist in England, lover of Dame Nellie Melba.] Autograph Letter Signed to Malcolm Watson, Daily Telegraph drama critic, regarding a play he wrote in New York, and a German production of his ‘Tyranny of Tears’.

Author: 
Charles Haddon Chambers [Charles Haddon Spurgeon Chambers] (1860-1921), Australian dramatist who settled in England, where he had an affair with Dame Nellie Melba [Malcolm Watson; Daily Telegraph]
Publication details: 
13 March [after 1900]; on letterhead of L’Hermitage, Monte-Carlo.
£65.00

Chambers is not mentioned in Dame Nellie Melba’s entry in the Oxford DNB. She met him in London in 1895, and their affair ended for unknown reasons in 1904. It is clearly the ‘notorious’ affair in whose fame Chambers ‘rejoiced to the last’, according to Somerset Maugham’s devastating assessment of the man in ‘A Writer’s Notebook’ (1946). Harry de Windt gives a markedly kinder account of Chambers in his ‘My Note-Book at Home and Abroad’ (1923). 2pp, 8vo. Bifolium. Twenty-seven lines of text. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Signed 'C Haddon Chambers'.

[Edward Tennyson Reed, Punch political cartoonist.] Autograph Letter Signed (‘E: T: Reed.’) to ‘Mr. Denselow’, joking with him on sending an autograph (of no interest to anyone, ‘except my tailor (who seldom sees it!)’.

Author: 
E. T. Reed [Edward Tennyson Reed] (1860-1933), political cartoonist and illustrator, associated with Punch Magazine
Publication details: 
9 September [no year]; on letterhead of 3 St Paul’s Studios, West Kensington, W. [London]
£45.00

See his entry by E. V. Knox in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with dog-eared corner. Folded once. Reads: ‘Dear Mr. Denselow, / If my erratic and unenviable handwriting has any interest for anyone - except my tailor (who seldom sees it!) you are very welcome to a fragmentary example of it, at its word’. The signature is no doubt deliberately emphatic, with colons to the initials, and a period on each side of the end of the final flourish. In a postscript Reed expresses gratification to hear ‘that my work “touches the spot” occasionally, that’s what it’s “for!”’

[Charles Haddon Chambers, Australian dramatist in England, lover of Dame Nellie Melba.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘B. C.’, on subects including his performance with Herbert Beerbohm Tree before Queen Victoria at Balmoral.

Author: 
Charles Haddon Chambers [Charles Haddon Spurgeon Chambers] (1860-1921), Australian dramatist who settled in England, where he had an affair with Dame Nellie Melba
Publication details: 
No date [1894]; on letterhead of the Clarendon Hotel, 104 Prince’s Street, Edinburgh.
£80.00

Chambers is not mentioned in Dame Nellie Melba’s entry in the Oxford DNB. She met him in London in 1895, and their affair ended for unknown reasons in 1904. It is clearly the ‘notorious’ affair in whose fame Chambers ‘rejoiced to the last’, according to Somerset Maugham’s devastating assessment of the man in ‘A Writer’s Notebook’ (1946). Harry de Windt gives a markedly kinder account of Chambers in his ‘My Note-Book at Home and Abroad’ (1923). The recipient would appear to be Chambers’s agent. Regarding the content of this letter, see ‘The Theatre’, 1 November 1894: ‘Mr.

[Charles Haddon Chambers, Australian dramatist in England, lover of Dame Nellie Melba.] Autograph Letter Signed to Mrs Allhusen, giving plans for his visit to New York, in explaining why he cannot visit her country house Stoke Court, Buckinghamshire.

Author: 
Charles Haddon Chambers [Charles Haddon Spurgeon Chambers] (1860-1921), Australian dramatist who settled in England, where he had an affair with Dame Nellie Melba [Allhusen family, Stoke Court, Bucks]
Publication details: 
17 May 1911; on letterhead of 14 Waverton Street, Berkeley Square, W. [London.]
£65.00

Chambers is not mentioned in Dame Nellie Melba’s entry in the Oxford DNB. She met him in London in 1895, and their affair ended for unknown reasons in 1904. It is clearly the ‘notorious’ affair in whose fame Chambers ‘rejoiced to the last’, according to Somerset Maugham’s devastating assessment of the man in ‘A Writer’s Notebook’ (1946). Harry de Windt gives a markedly kinder account of Chambers in his ‘My Note-Book at Home and Abroad’ (1923).

[‘Christopher Marie St John’ [Christabel Gertrude Marshall], author and suffragist in menage à trois with Edith Craig and Clare Atwood.] Autograph Letter Signed (‘Christopher St. John.’), proposing an article to ‘Mr Walbrook’ of the Pall Mall Gazette

Author: 
‘Christopher Marie St John’, assumed name of Christabel Gertrude Marshall (1871-1960), author and campaigner for women’s suffrage, who lived in a ménage à trois with Edith Craig and Clare Atwood
Publication details: 
27 December 1913; 31 Bedford Street, Strand [London].
£120.00

The subject of the present letter is, as Marshall’s entry in the Oxford DNB explains, her ‘translation of a play by the first female dramatist, Hrotsvit. ‘Paphnutius’ was given a world première by Craig for the Pioneer Players in January 1914.’ The recipient, Henry Mackinnon Walbrook (1865-1941), was the drama critic of the Pall Mall Gazette. 2pp, 12mo. In fair condition, on dusty discoloured paper, with slight rust spotting from paperclip.

[Harry Plunket Greene, Irish baritone singer.] Autograph Signature and valediction cut from letter.

Author: 
Harry Plunket Greene (1865-1936), Irish baritone singer
Greene
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£28.00
Greene

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On strip of paper, roughly 10 x 3.5 cm, cut into an irregular rectangular shape. On one side is the valediction: ‘Yours very sincerely / Harry Plunket Greene’. On the other a fragment of three lines of the letter: ‘[...] I hope no [...] / started that things [...] / go on well. I am part[...]’. See image.

[‘Another lunatic!’ Spencer Leigh Hughes, Liberal politician and journalist.] Autograph Note Signed to ‘Armstrong’ regarding a critic of his use of the word ‘British’.

Author: 
Spencer Leigh Hughes (1858-1920), Liberal politician, journalist (the 'Sub Rosa' of the Morning Leader) and engineer.
Publication details: 
20 November 1904; on letterhead of the Morning Leader, Stonecutter Street, London.
£38.00

Hughes began as a journalist, writing the popular column ‘Sub Rosa’ in the Morning Leader, before descending from the Press Gallery onto the floor of the House of Commons. However short, the present item gives a faint echo of the verve for which he was renowned as a backbencher and after-dinner speaker. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Signed ‘Spencer Leigh Hughes’. Reads: ‘Dear Armstrong / Another lunatic! There are many about. I was lecturing in Scotland recently & had quite an ovation when I talked about the “British” parliament.’

[Sir Hubert von Herkomer, painter, film director and composer.] Autograph Note Signed (‘Hubert Herkomer’), asking for details of ‘your Ramblers’ before a visit from them.

Author: 
Sir Hubert von Herkomer [originally Hubert Herkomer] (1849-1914) German-born British painter, pioneering film director and composer
Publication details: 
28 February 1891; on letterhead of Dyreham, Bushy, Herts.
£45.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, but a little brittle and discoloured (unobtrusive repair to one corner with archival tape). The recipient is not named. Reads: ‘Dear Sirs / I shall be pleased to see your Ramblers June the 6th. Let me know details of them & numbers a week before. / Yours truly / Hubert Herkomer’.

[Sir Aston Webb, architect of the facade of Buckingham Palace.] Typed Letter Signed to Rev. A. R. F. Hyslop of Glenalmond College, clarifying the position of the Board of Architectural Education on the question of ‘geometrical drawing’.

Author: 
Sir Aston Webb (1849-1930), architect of Buckingham Palace and the Victoria and Albert Museum, President of the Royal Academy
Publication details: 
29 March 1909; on letterhead of the Board of Architectural Education.
£50.00

See Webb's entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. In fair condition, aged and worn with traces of glue from mount at head. Folded twice. Addressed to ‘Rev. A. R. F. Hyslop, M.A. / Warden, / Glenalmond College, PERTHSHIRE.’ Following on from previous correspondence, Webb is ‘desired to explain’ that ‘the Board feels strongly the advantage of a training in freehand drawing as a preliminary to architectural training’, and that they do not consider ‘the geometrical drawing of architecture more particularly from plates’ ‘generally helpful’.

[Lord Knutsford, as Secretary of State for the Colonies.] Autograph Letter Signed (‘Knutsford’) to ‘Rawlinson’ [Sir Henry Rawlinson; Hong Kong] regarding the claims of ‘Mr. Stephen Gatty’ to the Attorney Generalship of Hong Kong.

Author: 
Lord Knutsford [Sir Henry Holland; Henry Thurstan Holland] (1825-1914), Conservative politician, Secretary of State for Colonies [Sir Henry Rawlinson (1810-95); Sir Stephen Herbert Gatty (1849-1922)]
Publication details: 
28 August 1888; Wherstead Park, Ipswich. On Colonial Office letterhead.
£45.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. On bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. The body of the letter reads: ‘Dear Rawlinson / In the event of a vacancy in the appointment of Attorney General of Hong Kong, I will bear in mind your recommendation of Mr. Stephen Gatty; but I think it is probable that there may be candidates with stronger claims for consideration.’ In a postscript he adds that ‘Mr Gatty has only been 4 or 5 years in the Colonial Service’, and that in any case he thinks it ‘probable that there may be no vacancy in the Attorney Generalship of H Kong’.

[Sheena Tennant, Scottish composer and Margot Asquith's niece.] Two pieces of printed sheet music: her piano accompaniments of 'An Irish Cradle Song', 'From Poems by W. B. Yeats'; and Yeats's 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree'.

Author: 
Sheena Lilian Grant Tennant (1883-1974, later Kendall), daughter of James Tennant (1852-1933) of Fairlieburne, Fairlie, Ayrshire, Scotland, industrialist and cousin of Margot Asquith [W. B. Yeats]
Sheena
Publication details: 
Both items published by The Frederick Harris Company, London. 'An Irish Cradle Song' from 85 Newman Street, Oxford Street, W. [1914.] 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree' from 40 Berners Street, London, W1. [1917]
£350.00
Sheena

Both items in good condition, lightly aged and worn. Excessively scarce, with COPAC only listing one copy (at the British Library) of both items. ONE: 'An Irish Cradle Song. Words by W. B. Yeats. From Poems by W. B. Yeats, published by T. Fisher Unwin'. [1914.] 5 + [1]pp., folio. Title page carries the gaelic motto: Goth yani me von gilli beg, | N heur ve thu more a creena. TWO: 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree. Words by W. B. Yeats'. [1917.] 5 + [1]pp., folio. Illustration of tree on bank of lake on front cover.

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