GERMAN

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. Addressed to ‘R. Rost Esq Ph.D’ and ‘Dear Dr Rost’, and signed ‘Walter Elliot’. He thanks him for taking the trouble to ‘hunt out the books. I gave a large number in 1866 & some in subsequent years but it is difficult to recal [sic] to mind the details of transactions of so distant a date’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On bifolium. Thirty-lines of text in his distinctive close hand. Addressed to 'Dear Miss Hall' and signed 'S. B. Gould'. In fair condition, lightly aged, with slight loss to the upper corners of the second leaf from removal from mount. Folded twice for postage. He begins by stating that he will be writing to 'the Chaplain & also to some cousins of mine who are at Freiburg, & who are nice cheerful people - the Snows'. He informs her of the death of 'Herr v.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. With mourning border. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. He apologises for an engagement that will keep him ‘out of Town’ on the date proposed. Reads: ‘My dear Joyce / I should so much have enjoyed coming to your party, & it was very kind of you & Olive to think of it / Yours affec[tion]ately / Milner’.

2pp, 16mo. Twenty-eight lines of text, in purple ink. With contemporary English translation on both sides of a separate 16mo leaf. Both items in fair condition, on aged paper, with slight damage to corners from mounts. Trust the translation, the letter is addressed to a 'Dear friend', and begins: 'My friend Graf [i.e. the antiquities dealer Theodor von Graf] arrived yesterday from Venice and brought many most interesting antiquities - His visit prevented my writing to you - but then I hope to show you some of his treasures, next time we meet. He came early and stayed late.

See her husband’s entry in the Oxford DNB. The couple married in Rome in 1817, ‘in the chapel of Niebuhr's residence, the Palazzo Savelli. The couple had ten children, five sons and five daughters, including the biblical scholar Ernest Christian Ludwig de Bunsen. Born at Dunston Park, Berkshire, on 4 March 1791 and educated by her mother at Llanofer, Frances von Bunsen did not visit her native country for twenty-one years after her marriage.’ The recipient is presumably an in-law: her younger sister Augusta had married Benjamin Hall, 1st Baron Llanover. 3pp, 16mo. Bifolium.

All three in black and white. The first and third item lightly aged and creased; the first stained on reverse; the second item lightly aged. ONE: Half-length portrait. 8 x 12.5 cm. Stamped on reverse ‘4 JAN 1950’. A Seated Wilhelm, grey-haired and tight-lipped, with hands joined in front of him, wearing suit and tie and light-grey tweed jacket. TWO: Half-length portrait, apparently from the same shoot as One, with autograph signature. 8 x 11 cm. Written on reverse: ‘HECKINGEN. / SEP. 7. 1951’. Same outfit as One, but with cigarette in right hand.

Both in black and white, and in good condition, lightly aged. ONE: Half-length portrait. 10 x 14 cm. A Seated Wilhelm, grey-haired and tight-lipped, with hands joined in front of him, wearing suit and tie and light-grey tweed jacket. On reverse, a typed note addressed to 'Mr. James Dandy / England.', and dated from 'Hechingen, Zezember 1949': 'Herzlichen Dank für Ihr liebes Paket, es hat mich sehr gefreut. / Beste Wünsche u. Grüse'. TWO: View of Hechingen Castle. 8.5 x 13 cm. Typed message on reverse, also signed by him: ‘Herzlichen Dank für das freundliche Gedenken zu Weihnachten.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly aged, but with unobtrusive part of paper mount still adhering to one corner. Good bold signature ‘Walter Bache’. Reads: ‘Dear Mrs. Lewis / It is most kind of you to keep me still in your remembrance! I am teaching every day & all day - alas! & Friday is just my afternoon at the Academy. So I cannot possibly accept your most welcome invitation, for which please accept my best thanks.’

Card by Gordon Fraser Fine Arts, Bedford, with nice colour reproduction of centre panel of the Master of Frankfurt 'Adoration' triptych. Signed by her 'Brigid', beside which, by him, '& Frederich.' In good condition, in worn stamped and postmarked envelope addressed to 'Mr. James Dandy. / Brook Lane, / Rixton, / Nr. Warrington. / Lancs.' See Image.

Fox agreed to the film on condition that von Stroheim was limited to shooting 85,000 feet of film (around an hour and a half of screen time). The studio was pleased when he brought it in on time (he tied a thread around lead actor James Dunn’s genitals, and tugged on it every time he wanted him to show emotion) and on budget, but a screening left them appalled at the morbid content. Von Stroheim was sacked and the film was rewritten and renamed ‘Hello, Sister!’, with three-quarters of the original retained. It was a flop and von Stroheim chose never to direct again.

Written while Bunsen was Ambassador in London, 1841-1854. The recipient Lady Theresa Lewis (1803-1865) was the sister of the Liberal Foreign Secretary the 4th Earl of Clarendon, and successively the wife of the novelist Thomas Henry Lister (1800-1842) and the Liberal politician Sir George Cornewall Lewis (1806-1863), all of whom also have entries in the Oxford DNB. Both items in good condition, lightly aged, on pieces of gilt-edged paper, folded for postage. Bunsen is writing from part of what was known as ‘Prussia House’. ANS (‘Tuesday 24.’): 1p, 32mo.

There can be few greater falls from grace than Petain's in the whole of human history. A 10 x 6.25 calling card. In good condition, lightly aged and ruckled, with glue and traces of paper mount on the blank reverse. The engraved text ('LE MARECHAL PETAIN / Ministre de la Guerre') is centred, with the top line in shaded block capitals and the bottom in copperplate. Beneath this Petain writes: 'avec ses remer'. See Image.

Written on both sides of an 11.5 x 9 cm card, which has her armorial crest printed in black and gold at the top right of the first page. In a large flowing hand reads: ‘For my dear little Godchild Fredericà Taylor with affte. xmas Greetings / from her loving God-mother / Fredericà / Xmas 1909.’ See Image of verso (signature).

There is a record of one 'Heinrich Ernst Seiffert aus Altona bei Hamburg' in 1787. The letter is clearly addressed to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, whom, we may be sure, were not taken in by what was either the production of a madman or a clumsy confidence trickster. 3pp, foolscap 8vo. On bifolium of gilt-edged paper. In fair condition, on lightly aged paper with slight wear and short closed tears to extremities. Folded twice.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The National Portrait Gallery possesses a carte-de-visite another portrait of Manns by Negretti & Zambra, which it dates to 1898, but does not hold the present item, which is a head and shoulders shot showing a white-haired Manns, bald on top, with bushy eyebrows and walrus moustache looking to one side in dark jacket and white shirt and tie. A 10 x 14.5 cm albumen print, presented in the customary style on a grey cabinet card, with the firm?s details embossed in white at foot, and the usual photographers? details printed on the reverse.

Sentiment? and signature, in corner of shiny paper, 14 x 15.5cm, edges somewhat unevenly cut, good condition. I'd appreciate input from someone who can read the script to establish whether this was part of a letter or document.

The signature - ‘Schonbein / June, 1842’ - is on a 4 x 1.5 cm slip of greyish paper, laid down over the bottom left-hand corner of a 10 x 6 cm piece of the same, carrying the address ‘To the President of the Chemical Section of the [British] Association / Manchester’. The slip with the address is in its turn laid down on a piece of paper cut from a leaf of an autograph album. There is some difference between the handwriting of the signature, which is looser, and the address, which is more formal; and whether hte latter is also by Schönbein is unclear.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium on grey paper, with mourning border. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, folded for postage. With good large firm signature. The main body of the letter reads: ‘Dear Mrs Dickens / I shall be very glad to sing one number, my “Young Dietrich” at your Hospital Matinée on June 14th. With love from house to house / Sincerely / Yours / Geo. Henschel’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The items are unrelated. Both are in good condition, lightly aged, and each folded once for postage. LETTER: 2pp, 12mo. On grey paper. Addressed to ‘The London Correspondent of the Birmingham Daily Post’ and signed ‘George Henschel’.

Grafe’s putative intelligence work during the war is referenced in Helen Fry’s ‘The Walls Have Ears | The Greatest Intelligence Operation of World War II’ (2019). He worked as translator and editor from as early as 1950 (for Phaidon) and 1986 (for Thames and Hudson). Nigel Spivey, in his ‘Phaidon 1923-98’ (1999), describes how, during the ‘Harvey Miller period’ at the firm, ‘Steady editorial continuity within the workforce at Cromwell Place was provided by an ex-Viennese scholar called Innocenz Grafe (who for a perhaps obvious reason preferred to be known as simply ‘Dr G.’ ’.

A close, controlled hand, on a slip of paper 10 x 1 cm. See Image. In good condition, lightly aged with a little light red spotting. Reads: ?Believe me / faithfully yours / Brunnow?.

See his entries in the Oxford DNB and Australian Dictionary of Biography. The recipient George Kenneth Menzies (1869-1954) was Secretary to the Royal Society of Arts between 1917 and 1935. The nine items are in good condition, lightly aged, and are folded for postage. Each bears the stamp of the RSA, some with manuscript docketting. Letters of 4 April and 18 September 1925 are in autograph, the rest typed; all nine are signed ‘Walter Rosesnhain’.

3pp, 12mo. On bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Strip of paper from mount adhering to blank reverse of second leaf. Folded once for postage. He thanks him ?for kind lines with the information? (regarding his biography of Emma, Lady Hamilton). The mistake his recipient points out, regarding ?the Douglas case?, will be ?put right in any subsequent edn.? Regarding ?the Duchess & Lady H?s marriage?, he has ?now put it more hypothetically?, but he considers ?the inference justified by Lady H?s letter (Morison M.S.

See his long and appreciative entry in the Oxford DNB, concluding with the praise of his ‘pioneering achievements, especially in the fields of Vedic studies and comparative philology’. 2pp, 12mo. Aged and discoloured, with hole at foot caused by removal from mount, causing loss to words ‘to show’. Addressed to ‘Dear Sir’ and signed ‘Max Müller’. Begins: ‘I am not a Servian scholar, and I know of no Servian Grammar except one by Wuk Stephanowitch, translated into German by Jacob Grimm.

2pp., 8vo. Single-spaced. In fair condition, on two leaves of lightly-aged air mail paper, with punch holes to left-hand margins and at head. Made out to be signed by 'Keitel | Generalfeldmarschall | (Field Marshal)'. The five questions are: 'What was your estimate in 1939 of the speed and capabilities of the U.S. to build up a war machine? Did the U.S. exceed your expectations in producing war material and training an army?' (26 line response), 'On what basis did you estimate that Germany could complete its campaign in Europe before the U.S.

Bosselt was a student of Joseph Kowarzik at the Städel Institute in Frankfurt. He studied at the Académie Julian in Paris, then assisted in founding the Darmstadt artists’ colony. From 1904 he taught at the art school at Dusseldorf. He received an honourable mention at the 1898 Salon des Artistes Français in Paris, and his work was part of the sculpture event in the art competition at the 1932 Summer Olympics. These two letters are neatly and closely written, and both signed ‘Rudolf Bosselt’. Each letter is 1p, 4to. The first letter is 18 lines long, the second 15 lines long.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. The letter was torn in two vertically, and has been taped back together, with the tape going over the downstroke of the ‘y’ in Bryce’s signature. It also has a spike hole. Otherwise in fair condition. Addressed to ‘Dear Mr. Marshall’ and signed ‘Bryce’. Marshall’s telegram has followed him into the country, ‘& it is now too late to express the opinion you ask for’, although that would in any case ‘be really superflous because I said upon Tuesday the 14th. Novr.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin neat strip from windowpane mount adhering to edges. Folded twice for postage. Twenty-four hands of text in secretary hand, addressed to ‘W. A. Lock Esqre’, and signed in autograph ‘Sir C Trevelyan’. He thanks him for his ‘very interesting Letter’, and hopes he will ‘never think it necessary to make any excuse for writing to me [other such?]’. He has asked ‘Mr. Farr’ for ‘any observations he might have to offer on the early part of it; and his answer is enclosed’ (not present).

As a naturalized British subject, resident in England from the 1850s to 1903, Haag has an entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage. Reads: ‘Mr. Carl Haag presents his compliments to Mr. & Mrs. Arbuthnot Guthrie, and very much regrets not being able to accept their polite invitation for Wednesday next, having already accepted a previous engagement for that day.’

Meyerbeer is said to have been the most frequently performed opera composer during the nineteenth century. He encouraged and supported the young Wagner, who turned on him viciously later in life. Lady Molesworth (née Andalusia Carstairs, d.1888) had herself been a professional singer. She was the widow of Sir William Molesworth (1810-55), founder of the London Review and owner, under the editorship of John Stuart Mill, of the Westminster Review.