GEORGIAN

[Lord Vere Beauclerk, Senior Naval Lord at the Admiralty and Member of Parliament.] Autograph Signature (‘Vere’) to Exchequer receipt for £30. With signature of witnesses Henry Woodall and ‘Ogborn’.

Author: 
Lord Vere Beauclerk [latterly Lord Vere (Vere Beauclerk, Baron Vere of Hanworth)] (1699-1781), Royal Navy officer, Senior Naval Lord at the Admiralty and Member of Parliament ; Henry Woodall; Ogborn
Vere
Publication details: 
3 May 1750. [His Majesty's Exchequer, London.]
£65.00
Vere

See his entries in the Oxford DNB and History of Parliament. The signature (‘Vere’) is good and bold, at the bottom right of the document, as is that of first witness Henry Woodall (‘Hez Woodall’), but there is slight loss at the beginning of the signature of the second witness ‘[...] Ogborn’, and the left side of the document has been torn away also causing loss to printed text, and there is wear and pitting along the top and left edge. The customary printed document, completed in manuscript. 1p, 8vo.

[Lord Craig on the Earl of Chesterfield.] Autograph Manuscript of revised draft of early part of essay by Scottish judge William Craig, Lord Craig, on the celebrated Earl of Chesterfield, author of ‘Letters to his Son’.

Author: 
Lord Craig [William Craig, Lord Craig] (1745-1813), Scottish judge and essayist, involved with Henry Mackenzie in periodicals ‘The Mirror’ and ‘The Lounger’ [Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield]
Publication details: 
Without date or place. [Late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. Edinburgh?]
£180.00

See Craig’s entry, and that of Chesterfield, in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 4to. Bifolium. The second leaf had been neatly inserted into a windowpane mount. On brittle and aged paper; complete, but coming away at foot from torn remains of mount, with slight chipping at foot of first leaf, the central horizontal fold of which has closed tears along its crease. The item is unsigned, but ‘Lord Craig’ is identified as the author in pencil in nineteenth century hand twice on the mount. Ninety-two closely-written lines, with extensive revision and amendation.

[George Sinclair, gardener to the Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey.] Parts of two Autograph Letters Signed to different seedsmen, both with good content, one relating to the subscription to Sinclair’s ‘Hortus gramineus Woburnensis’.

Author: 
George Sinclair (1786-1834), Scottish horticulturalist, gardener to the Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey who conducted experiments under Sir Humphrey Davy
Publication details: 
One dated by recipient 1816, the other undated but also from 1816. Places not stated, but the undated letter from Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire.
£280.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Large fragments, both with interesting content, from the beginning of letters to unnamed seedsmen (both addressed to ‘Dear Sir’, but the two docketed by different individuals, suggesting different recipients). Neither has the signature present (presumably supplied to autograph hunters for placement in Sinclair’s ‘Hortus gramineus Woburnensis’, described in the ODNB as‘an expensive folio volume containing dried specimens of the grasses’). Both items in good condition, lightly aged, and with creases from having been folded up.

[Simond and Hankey, London bankers involved in the West Indian sugar and slave trade.] Two manuscript bills in French, ‘A Messieurs Messrs. Ante. & Dan. Bierens a Amsterdam’, each signed by ‘Pre: Simond’ and endorsed by ‘Jean Hankey’.

Author: 
Simond and Hankey, London bankers deeply involved in the West Indian sugar and slave trade; Peter Simond (1691-1785); John Hankey (1741-1792)
Publication details: 
Both dated from ‘Londres ce 15e. Decembre 1758’ [London].
£100.00

With the surge of interest in the slave trade attention has lately been directed at Simond and Hankey, a ‘past constituent’ of the NatWest Bank. These two items are nice artefacts of the firm. Both are in good condition, lightly aged, and laid out in the same way, with the bill written out on one side of a 22.5 x 9 cm slip of laid paper. One is for ‘Deux Cent Livres Sterling a trente quatre Sols neuf deniers de gros’ and the other for ‘Cent Soixante Sterling a Trente quatre Sols dix deniers de gros’. Both drawn on ‘Messrs. Vernede & Co’.

[Lord Bute, builder of Cardiff Docks: John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute.] Autograph Letter Signed to A[lexander]. Milne, regarding legal opinions he has received, and a ‘complete abstract of the title to all the family estates’.

Author: 
Lord Bute, builder of Cardiff Docks: John Crichton-Stuart (1793-1848), 2nd Marquess of Bute [Lord Mount Stuart, 1794-1814], aristocratic landowner and industrialist, developed the Welsh coal industry
Publication details: 
‘Luton Hoo 24 Novr 1830’.
£56.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with slight damage to the blank reverse of the second leaf from mount. Folded three times, with a short closed tear at the edge of one crease. The recipient is named by Bute as ‘A. Milne Esq’ (the Aberdeen merchant Alexander Milne of Crimonmogate?). The letter is signed ‘Bute’.

[‘The Hanging Judge’: the Earl of Norbury, Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas.] Autograph Signed endorsement, with that of Nathaniel Alexander, Bishop of Meath, to manuscript recommendation of ‘Alexander Hawthorne of Sackville Street, Glover’.

Author: 
John Toler, 1st Earl of Norbury (1745-1831), Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas between 1800 and 1827, known as ‘the Hanging Judge’ [Nathaniel Alexander (1760-1840), Bishop of Meath]
Norbury
Publication details: 
7 February 1829. Dublin.
£280.00
Norbury

Within a couple of years of his death Norbury’s nickname was given as ‘the hanging judge’ (see ‘The Georgian Era’, vol.2, 1833), and yet no mention is made of the fact in his entry in the Oxford DNB. The present document is 1p, 4to. On the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged.

[Henry Hawkins, English artist.] Autograph Letter Signed to William Loney of Macclesfield, regarding a ‘successful’ portrait he is painting of ‘Mr Roe’, and upsetting a bottle of varnish over a letter.

Author: 
Henry Hawkins (c.1796-c.1881), English landscape artist and portraitist [James Holmes (1777-1860), miniature and genre painter; William Loney, Macclesfield surgeon]
Publication details: 
No date [franked 3 July 1838]. 11 Bulstrode Street, Manchester Square [London].
£75.00

An uncommon signature of a neglected artist. Hawkins was a founding member of the Society of British Artists, exhibiting there prolifically from 1824 to 1881. He also showed at the Royal Academy eight times between 1822 and 1849. (See Holmes's entry in the Oxford DNB.) On 14 cm square piece of watermarked wove paper, cut from a frank. The letter is written on the reverse of the cover, which is laid out in the customary way: ‘London third July 1838 / Wm. Loney Esq / Macclesfield.’ With red dated postmark, and signed in the customary way at bottom left: ‘John [Baron?]’.

[Sir John Beckett of Somerby Park, as Under-Secretary of State for Home Affairs.] Autograph Letter Signed, to Col. Torrens, giving view of Home Secretary Richard Ryder on ‘The Commander in Chief’ (Prince Frederick, Duke of York) and ‘Mr Sonnenberg'.

Author: 
Sir John Beckett (1775-1847) of Somerby Park, Lincs, Tory politician [Col. Robert Torrens (1780-1864); Richard Ryder (1766-1832), Home Secretary; Prince Frederick, Duke of York; Sir Robert Peel]
Publication details: 
‘Whitehall 26th. March 12’ [i.e. 1812].
£80.00

See Beckett’s entry in the History of Parliament, according to which he held the position of Under-Secretary of State for Home Affairs from 1806 to 1817. 1p, foolscap 8vo. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased at the foot, with strip of discoloration at the head. Folded twice into a packet. Addressed to ‘Colonel Torrens’.

[The Marquis of Lansdowne, as Lord Henry Petty.] Autograph Note in the third person, arranging a meeting in Downing Street with ‘Mr Gray’. With the recipient’s note of what passed at the meeting.

Author: 
Marquess of Lansdowne [Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne (1780-1863), known as Lord Henry Petty 1784 -1809], Whig Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer, and connoisseur
Publication details: 
29 September 1806. No place.
£45.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged, with several creases on folding into packet, one of which has a short closed tear to the edge. Minor traces of mount on reverse. Reads: ‘Lord Henry Petty will be obliged to Mr Gray, if he can make it convenient to call in Downing Street to-morrow at 2 oClock. / September 29th. 1806.’ Minuted by recipient on reverse: ‘29. Sept. 1806 / Lord Hy. Petty. / To be with His Ldp tomorrow. / 30th. went & recd. Instructions to work out the appointmt. of One Messenger to attend the Chancellor, whose allowce is to be 4s. P diem.’

[King George III.] Seven examples of the king's signature on a page, six of them cut from parchment documents, the last two made while insane, with the last on a fragment of a warrant.

Author: 
King George III (1738-1820) of Great Britain and of Ireland, the mad monarch who lost America
George III
Publication details: 
One with annotated with date 28 March 1792, the others undated. None with place.
£1,250.00
George III

See image. It is hard to see how this collection could be bettered, the range of signatures from sanity to madness being of particular interest. All seven examples laid down on a folio leaf extracted from an album. The leaf is in poor condition, creased and with closed tears, but the parchment and paper bearing the signatures themselves in good condition, the six parchment items having the usual discoloration, but the example on paper in excellent condition.

[Theodore Hook, wit and hoaxer.] Autograph Letter Signed, to ‘Barker’, explaining the circumstances that free him to accept a dinner invitation.

Author: 
Theodore Hook [Theodore Edward Hook] (1788-1841), author, wit and hoaxer, accountant-general and treasurer of Mauritius, 1813-1817
Publication details: 
‘Friday Evg’ [no date or place].
£45.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, on an 11 x 14 cm piece of paper cut down from 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, with minor traces of glue from mount adhering to the blank reverse. The letter reads: ‘My dear Barker / I shall be most happy to join your agreeable party - Croker to whom I was engaged for Monday goes on from Apethorpe to Belvoir instead of coming home[,] so I am at liberty - Milne is I believe on a visit to the Marquess of Bute at Luton. / Yrs most truly / Theodore S Hook’.

[William Westall, artist and engraver.] Autograph Letter in the third person to ‘Miss Macirone’ [the composer Clara Angela Macirone], anticipating ‘the greatest pleasure’ in attending her morning concert.

Author: 
William Westall (1781-1850), ARA, artist and engraver, who in his youth travelled to Australia as artist on Matthew Flinders’ HMS Investigator [Clara Angela Macirone (1821-1895), pianist and composer]
Publication details: 
7 June 1847; 7 Pavilion Place, Battersea.
£50.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded twice for postage. Begins: ‘Mr. Westall presents his compliments to Miss Macirone & begs to assure her how very much obliged to her he feels for the honor she has done him in sending him two tickets for her morning concert’. He will have ‘the greatest pleasure in attending’ the concert, and is ‘quite sure he shall be very much delighted’.

[Percival Stockdale, author, editor of the Critical Review and radical abolitionist.] Stipple engraving by James Fittler from portait of Stockdale by John Downman.

Author: 
Percival Stockdale (1736-1811), author, editor of the Critical Review and Universal Magazine, and radical abolitionist [James Fittler (1758-1835), engraver; John Downman (1749-1824), portrait painter]
Publication details: 
[London, 1809.]
£50.00

Sitter, artist and engraver all have entries in the Oxford DNB. No copy in the National Portrait Gallery. In good condition, lightly aged, on good paper with small embossment of castle. Dimensions of paper, 14.25 x 22.5cm. Dimensions of print, 12.5 x 17.75cm. Oval portrait, 10 cm wide and 13 cm high. Without date or place, but produced as the frontispiece to Stockdale’s 1809 memoirs. A half-length portrait of Stockdale, his face turned to the left, with white cravat and powdered hair, loosely wrapped in a coat.

[John Jackson, Northumbrian wood engraver who was apprenticed to Bewick.] Autograph Letter Signed to the printers and publishers Vizetelly, Branston & Co, asking to be sent four copies of ‘The Young Lady’s Book’ (presumably containing his work).

Author: 
John Jackson (1801-1848), Northumbrian wood engraver, apprenticed to Thomas Bewick, whom he left after a quarrel, going to work under William Harvey in London
Publication details: 
'[70?] Clarendon st [London] / Monday Morng [1829?]'.
£120.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. On recto of the first leaf of a bifolium, the verso of the second leaf of which carries the address to ‘Messrs Vizetely [sic] Branston & Co / 135 Fleet St’. The firm, who traded between 1827 and 1837, were not only ‘engravers and oriental printers’, but publishers too: the item referred to in this letter, ‘The Young Lady’s Book’, had two editions published in 1829 and a third in 1832, and Jackson presumably contributed work. In fair condition, discoloured and worn.

[Lord Farnborough (formerly Sir Charles Long), Pittite politician and connoisseur.] Autograph Letter Signed regarding an aggrieved response to ‘the Widows Remonstrance’.

Author: 
Lord Farnborough [Charles Long, 1st Baron Farnborough; Sir Charles Long] (1760-1838), Pittite politician and connoisseur of the arts
Publication details: 
‘Bromley Hill [Kent] / Jany. 10th / private’ [no year].
£45.00

See his entries in the Oxford DNB and History of Parliament. A loyal Pittite (‘publicity agent for the ministry’, and founder of the Tory ‘Sun’ newspaper) who served as Irish Secretary. As a connoisseur he had a strong influence on the taste of the Prince of Wales, besides recommending the purchase for the nation of the Elgin Marbles. He bequeathed fifteen paintings to the new National Gallery. 2pp, 12mo. Signed ‘Farnborough’. The circumstances of the present item are unknown. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded twice.

[Copley Fielding, English landscape painter.] Autograph Letter Signed, suggesting that an unnamed lady bring 'Mrs Sharp' to see 'the pictures which I have prepared for the Exhibition'.

Author: 
Copley Fielding [Anthony Vandyke Copley Fielding] (1787-1855), English painter noted for his watercolour landscapes, born in Sowerby, Yorkshire
Publication details: 
11 April [1821?]. 26 Newman Street [London].
£45.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, slightly discoloured, with traces of grey paper mount adhering to the blank reverse. Folded once for postage. The year is not given, but the water mark appears to read ‘[18]21’. Good clear signature. Fielding writes: ‘My Dear Madam, / I shall have much pleasure in shewing you the pictures which I have prepared for the Exhibition, should it be agreeable to Mrs. Sharp & yourself to come to Newman at any hour on Monday or Tuesday next, & I hope you will do me the favour of persuading Mr Sharp to accompany you.

[Lady Charlotte Bury, Regency novelist of the ‘Silver Fork’ school.] Autograph Letter in the third person, requesting that Sir William Hamilton subscribes to a forthcoming work by her.

Author: 
Lady Charlotte Bury [Lady Charlotte Susan Maria Bury, née Campbell] (1775-1861), Regency ‘Silver Fork’ novellist and diarist, lady in waiting to George IV’s wife Queen Caroline
Bury
Publication details: 
26 August 1831. 3 Park Square, London.
£50.00
Bury

The daughter of the fifth Duke of Argyll, Lady Charlotte bore eleven children to her two husbands, and was forced to write novels by her first husband’s death and second husband’s profligacy. See her entry in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 16mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Neatly attached by a paper hinge to part of a leaf from an album. Begins: ‘Lady Charlotte Bury presents her Compts to Sir William Hamilton, & takes the liberty of soliciting for the honor & favor of his name, as a subscriber to a work by Lady Charlotte of which the enclosed Prospectus gives every particular.

[Religious Tract Society, London.] Seventeen uncommon printed tracts, variously in poetry and prose, including ‘Give it up? - No, never! or, The History of John Brook’ and ‘The Two Colliers; or, The Power of Religion in the Hour of Danger.’

Author: 
Religious Tract Society, London; W. Clowes and Sons; A. Applegarth; J. and C. Evans; J. Davis
Publication details: 
None dated (1820s and 1830s). All 17 titles sold by The Religious Tract Society, at the Depository, 56 Paternoster-row, London. A total of seven with three London printers: W. Clowes and Sons; A. Applegarth; J. and C. Evans. (J. Davis, bookseller.)
£250.00

Seventeen items, each 12mo, 8pp. All uncommon, and two (7 and 17 below) not listed on WorldCat or JISC LHD. All disbound and stabbed as issued. The collection in fair overall condition: some creasing and wear, and a few items discolored. Item 14 with grey staining to front cover. The first item with no illustration; the other sixteen each with a vignette on the front page. One item (4) with a second illustration in text. Item 2 with device of the RTS on the final page.

[Thomas Campbell, Scottish Romantic poet.] Autograph Letter, in the third person, to Campbell's publisher Henry Colburn, regarding an article by William Hazlitt.

Author: 
Thomas Campbell [Thomas Campbell(1777-1844), Scots Romantic poet; his wife, born Matilda Sinclair (c.1780-1828)] [Henry Colburn (1784-1855), London publisher; William Hazlitt, celebrated essayist]
Publication details: 
'Thursday 11 oclock / 10 Seymour St West [London] -'. [No year, but between 1825 and 1828.
£180.00

See his entry, and that of Colburn, in the Oxford DNB. Campbell agreed to edit Colburn’s ‘New Monthly Magazine’ in 1820, his first number in the post being that of January 1821, and the letter was presumably written between this period and Mrs Campbell’s death in 1828. The reference to ‘Mr Ollier’ would close the dates even further: the Oxford DNB’s entry for Charles Ollier (1788-1859) stating that, after financial difficulties, ‘by the autumn of 1825 he returned to the publishing trade as the chief literary reader and adviser to Henry Colburn in New Burlington Street’. 1p, 12mo.

[Robison, Reed & Shuttleworth, Georgian dry goods merchants.] ‘General statement of the concern of Messrs. Robison Reed & Shuttleworth from June 1st., 1803 to December 1st., 1804.

Author: 
Robison, Reed & Shuttleworth, Georgian dry goods merchants; William McRae; Napper & Co., London callico printers; John Serrell [carpenter?]
Publication details: 
[Robison, Reed & Shuttleworth, merchants.] Manuscript ‘General statement of the concern of Messrs. Robison Reed & Shuttleworth from June 1st., 1803 to December 1st., 1804.’ On a single extremely large piece of paper.
£180.00

This is a document which would certainly repay investigation. No record of this firm of merchants has been discovered, or even of where they traded. Robison is a Scottish name, and there is an undated reference to a ‘James Robison, merchant in Dumfries’; most Shuttleworth’s hail from the north-east of England, and there is mention of a John Shuttleworth in Manchester in 1820. Other clues in the document suggest a London location: in 1793 Napper and Co.

[Reading Cooperative Society Limited.] Large illustrated poster, in three colours, with 1913 ‘Members’ Calendar’ and information on the Society, from ‘Women’s Guild’ to ‘Artificial Teeth’.

Author: 
Reading Cooperative Society Limited [Co-operative Wholesale Society’s Printing Works, Longsight, Manchester]
Publication details: 
‘Members’ Calendar’ for 1913 [printed in 1912]. Co-operative Wholesale Society’s Printing Works, Longsight, Manchester.
£120.00

Reading Cooperative Society Limited came into existence in the 1860s, as ‘Reading Industrial Co-operative Society’. A nice piece of ephemera from the high-tide mark of the co-operative movement. No other copy has been traced. 50 x 68 cm. A striking and attractive production in six columns, printed in red, olive-green and grey-black, and black, with border of raspberry leaves, calendar split between the outer edges. Large illustration of ‘Llandudno and the Great Orme’ beneath the heading ‘Each for all, & all for each.

[Charles August, Crown Prince of Sweden.] Autograph Signature to document, as Danish prince Christian August of Augustenburg.

Author: 
Charles August (1768-1810), for less than a year Crown Prince of Sweden, previously Danish prince Christian August of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg
Publication details: 
1806. Friderichsteen.
£280.00

Not, one would imagine, a particularly common signature. In good condition, lightly aged. On 20 x 16.5 piece of watermarked laid paper: the lower half of a document dated in another hand to 1806. Another (illegible) signature at top right. The Crown Prince’s signature as ‘Attester’ is an excellent one, good and clear, reading ‘Christian August [lel?] Holstein’. He would serve as Crown Prince of Sweden between 15 July 1809 and 28 May 1810. After his death the line of succession would pass to the Frenchman Jean Bernadotte. See image.

[Abbé Jean Nicholas Voyaux de Franous (1760-1840), founder of St Mary’s Church, Cadogan Street, ‘the father of Roman Catholicism in Chelsea'.] Autograph Letter Signed regarding 'a place in the Chapel' for 'Miss Harvey'.

Author: 
Abbé Jean Nicholas Voyaux de Franous (1760-1840), founder of St Mary’s Church, Cadogan Street, ‘the father of Roman Catholicism in Chelsea'
Publication details: 
Dated 9 April 1837.
£50.00

According to the Victoria County History, Jean Nicholas Voyaux de Franous (1760-1840), a Frenchman, is ‘traditionally seen as the father of Roman Catholicism in Chelsea’. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Signed ‘Abbé Voyaux de Franous’ and addressed to 'Dear Madam'. Indisposition is the cause of his delayed response. He was without ‘the least idea that Miss Harvey was without a place in the Chapel and gave immediate orders to have her accommodated with one.

[William Bentinck, 4th Duke of Portland, Tory politician.] Autograph Letter Signed, giving instructions to his London bookseller ‘Mr Booth’ [William Booth].

Author: 
William Bentinck, 4th Duke of Portland [William Henry Cavendish-Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck; from 1768 to 1809 Marquis of Titchfield] (1768-1854), Tory politician [William Booth, London bookseller]
Publication details: 
‘Buxton Septr 12. 1821’.
£50.00

For William Booth (1779-1840) of 32 Duke Street, Manchester Square [Portland Place], see the British Book Trade Index. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Neatly placed in remains of windowpane mount. Signed ‘Scott Portland’. With regard to the newspaper the Globe, he asks that it be ‘sent here till further orders - The Sun to be continued to be sent to Welbeck’. He is sending ‘the first volume of Horace Walpole’s private correspondence to be changed’, as it is incomplete: ‘It contains a portion of its pages twice over - & another portion wholly omitted’.

[John Mills, author and agriculturalist.] Autograph Letter Signed to his bookseller John Nourse, describing French books he wishes him to procure, one ‘on account of some matters relative to Agriculture, which I have in my head’.

Author: 
John Mills (c.1717-c.1794), author and agriculturalist whose Fellowship of the Royal Society was sponsored by Benjamin Franklin [John Nourse (1705-1780), scientific bookseller in the Strand, London]
Publication details: 
12 April 1765. Welbank Street [London].
£180.00

The recipient is not named, but can be identified as the Strand bookseller John Nourse, from Notes and Queries, 3 September 1881, which has as its first article a transcription, with commentary of five long letters from Mills to John Nourse, the noted scientific bookseller in the Strand, and the present item clearly belongs to the same correspondence, predating the first, which is dated 15 May 1765.

[Lord Brougham, Lord Chancellor.] Autograph Letter Signed, insisting that ‘M. D’ [‘M. P’?] visit the family estate in Westmoreland, where his mother awaits.

Author: 
Lord Brougham [Henry Peter Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux] (1778-1868), Lord Chancellor, Scottish Whig politician and leading light of the Edinburgh Review
Publication details: 
'Brougham [i.e. Brougham Hall, Westmoreland] / [morning?] [?] Oct [no year, but before his mother's death in 1839]'.
£45.00

2pp, 12mo. On grey paper. In good condition, lightly aged, in neatly-trimmed remains of windowpane mount. Headed ‘Private’, addressed to ‘My dear M. D [M. P?]’, and signed ‘H. Brougham’. Thirty-four lines of text, in a somewhat challenging hand, resulting in the following tentative reading. (In his 1995 biography of Brougham’s later life, Trowbridge H.

[‘King of Redonda’: John Gawsworth, English poet.] Galley proof of his poem ‘Rest’ (‘Beneath the oaks the soldiers lie’) with one minor emendation.

Author: 
John Gawsworth [pseudonym of Terence Ian Fitton Armstrong (1912-1970)], English poet, author and ‘King of Redonda’ [New English Weekly, founded in 1932 by A. R. Orage]
Redonda
Publication details: 
No date [1940s]. Stamped ‘FOR & ON BEHALF OF / THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY. / 15 REGENT’S PARK TERRACE / GULiver 3875’.
£120.00
Redonda

On one side of a 12mo a piece of grey-green paper; creased, worn and torn at the bottom. A fifteen-line poem in five three-line stanzas, titled ‘REST’. At end: ‘JOHN GAWSWORTH’. Proof directions in pencil to convert a full-stop at the end of the fourth stanza to a comma. While the poet's attempt at direct simplicity verges on triteness, one should recall that he served manfully in the RAF: ‘Beneath the oaks the soldiers lie / Staring at the open sky / Drowsily, lazily. / Like England is this plot of green / But in the mountains all unseen / The guns’ complaint affects the scene.

[Charles Richard Weld, author.] Printed notice of the election of ‘the Council and Officers of the Royal Society’ and ensuing dinner, signed by Weld, and addressed by him to W. Vaughan. With the Society’s seal in red wax.

Author: 
Charles Richard Weld (1813-1869), historian of the Royal Society, London [William Vaughan (1752-1850), West Indian slave owner and co-founder of West India Dock, London]
Publication details: 
‘From the Apartments of the Royal Society [in Somerset Place, Strand], November 21st. 1844’.
£90.00

Weld and Vaughan both have entries in the Oxford DNB. The notice is printed in copperplate on the recto of the first leaf of a 4to bifolium. In fair condition, aged and lightly worn, with short closed tear to one edge, and slight damage to the second leaf from the cutting of the seal, which is present on the verso, with a good impression, in red wax, together with two postmarks and the address, in Weld’s hand, to ‘W. Vaughan Esq - [F.R.S.] / 70 Fenchurch Street / [Royal Society.]’ The notice, signed ‘C. R.

[Hyde Park: Rotten Row in the reign of George IV.] Autograph Letter Signed by J. King, complaining at length about ‘Patricians’ whose horses trample the grass of the ‘People’s Park’, leaving the place ‘like a Sandy Desert the Verdure all destroyed’.

Author: 
[Hyde Park: Rotten Row in the reign of King George IV.] J. King of Cadogan Place, Belgravia, London. [Lord Sydney; Lord Northumberland]
Publication details: 
‘Cadogan Place. May. 31. 1824’.
£180.00

A nice piece of London ephemera, the subject being Rotten Row, which runs along the south side of Hyde Park. 2pp, 4to. On wove paper with watermark ‘J WILMOT / 1823’. Forty-one lines of text. Having been torn in two vertically (presumably by the irate recipient) the item has been repaired in an unusual way: with the two pieces sewn back together from top to bottom. Otherwise in fair condition, lightly aged and creased, with slight loss to one edge from breaking of seal or wafer. Folded for postage.

[Lady Elizabeth Craven, Margravine of Anspach.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Elizabeth. M of B. A & B | Ps. Berkeley -') to coachbuilder 'Mr. Thomas', regarding the delivery of 'a well seasond [sic] Carriage' to Brandenburg House, Hammersmith.

Author: 
Lady Elizabeth Craven, Margravine of Anspach [Brandenburg-Anspach-Bayreuth] [née Lady Elizabeth Berkeley; also Princess Berkeley] (1750-1828), travel writer and society hostess [Thomas, coachbuilder]
Publication details: 
4 June 1800; no place [Brandenburg House, Hammersmith].
£120.00

For Lady Craven's colourful life see her entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 8vo. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. Folded four times. Begins: 'Mr. Thomas, I will thank you to send my Carriage by a Western Waggon, immediately here - directed to Hr. S. Highness The Margravine of Anspach Brandenburg house, near Hammersmith, and I hope as I have waited so long for it that it will be a well seasond [sic] Carriage - & reasonable in Price, which if it is, and finish'd to my Satisfaction, you may depend ont that it will not be the last by many which you will make'.

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