HOUSE

Typed Letter Signed ('Oliver Locker Lampson') to Dr E. E. Lewis.

Author: 
Oliver Stillingfleet Locker-Lampson (1880-1954), British Conservative Member of Parliament for North Huntingdonshire, Commander of an Armoured Car Unit in the First World War
Publication details: 
23 July 1913; on embossed House of Commons letterhead.
£100.00

One page, folio. Very good on lightly creased paper. Headed 'FIGHTING FUND' and listing the members of the 'PROVISIONAL COMMITTEE' (including Lampson as Honorary Secretary, and the Duke of Westminster and Earl of Malmesbury). Communication of twenty-seven lines, with decided proto-fascistic overtones.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Le Despencer') to a member of the Tonyn family.

Author: 
Francis Dashwood (1708-1781), 11th Baron Le Despencer, politician and rake; member of the Hellfire Club; founder of the Monks of Medmenham Abbey
Publication details: 
24 February 1774; Manchester Square, London.
£300.00

4to: 1 p. 9 lines of text. Good, on lightly aged paper, with a light stain affecting a couple of words. Text clear and entire. Docketed on the reverse of the otherwise-blank second leaf of the bifolium. Concerning his and Tonyn's positions as magistrates. 'I never can conveniently at this time of the year stay above a day at W Wycombe at one time'. Were he in the county he would 'attend you on Saturday in Easter Week, and I believe I shall, but to make a journey on purpose to attend a petty sessions at my time of life cannot be expected'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Le Despencer') to a member of the Tonyn family.

Author: 
Francis Dashwood (1708-1781), 11th Baron Le Despencer, politician and rake; member of the Hellfire Club; founder of the Monks of Medmenham Abbey [Admiral Charles William Paterson (c.1756-1841)]
Publication details: 
8 February 1776; Hanover Square, London.
£350.00

4to: 1 p. 7 lines of text. Docketed on the reverse. Good, on lightly aged paper. That day he went to the Admiralty 'in hopes of meeting Lord Sandwich in order to recommend Mr Paterson [later Admiral Charles William Paterson] to his good will', but he did not see him. When he does, he will 'certainly say everything in that young Gentlemans favor', and he will 'say the same to Lord Howe if I can catch sight of him'. 'Our last news from America are not unfavorable in some respects.'

Inadvertencies collected from the works of several eminent authors.

Author: 
E. G-H.' [i.e. Edward Gathorne-Hardy], editor [The Mill House Press]
Publication details: 
Stanford Dingley: The Mill House Press, 1963.
£105.00

Number 174 of 'Two hundred numbered copies [...] printed by hand on mould-made paper.' 8vo: [ii] + 9 pp. Stitched pamphlet of twelve leaves, with four vignettes giving it a distinct chap-book feel. COPAC only lists copies at the British Library and Oxford. Prefatory note by 'E. G-H.' [Eddie Gathorne-Hardy].

Autograph Letter Signed ('Alexr Peddie MD. F.RCP.'). A letter of recommendation [reference] for Speer.

Author: 
Alexander Peddie (1810-1907), of the Minto House Hospital and Dispensary, Edinburgh [Dr Stanhope Templeman Speer]
Publication details: 
1 August 1848; Edinburgh.
£56.00

12mo, 2 pp. 28 lines of text. Clear and complete. Folded into a packet 5 x 6.5 cm. With envelope addressed by Peddie as 'from | the Minto House Hospital | Edinburgh.' Fair, on aged paper with some short closed tears to the folds. Speer has been an assistant at Minto House since the previous 1 May, 'during which period he has witnessed a great amount of medical and surgical practice, has had under his own care a very considerable number of patients [...]'.

Typed Letter Signed ('Salisbury') to 'Miss Niggeman', responding to her comments on 'the Showing of the House at Hatfield'.

Author: 
Robert Arthur James Gascoyne-Cecil (1893-1972), 5th Marquess of Salisbury [Hatfield House; Elvira Niggeman, secretary to Sir Harold Nicolson]
Publication details: 
5 April 1948; on embossed House of Lords letterhead.
£35.00

4to, 3 pp. 42 lines of text. Good, on aged paper. He is sorry not to have known about Niggeman's bank holiday visit to Hatfield House: 'it would have been an immense pleasure to us all to see you. Do come down and pay us a private call some other time.' The 'points' she makes 'are just the kind of thing we want to know'. Salisbury did not 'go round the Hosue with the visitors, for I did not wish to embarrass the guides; but clearly there is a good deal more organisation needed before our machinery works smoothly'.

Two Autograph Drafts of reviews and one Autograph Letter Signed to Philip Dossé of Hansom Books, Artillery Mansions, 75 Victoria Street, London SW1.

Author: 
Tom Driberg [Thomas Edward Neil Driberg, Baron Bradwell of Bradwell-juxta-Mare] (1905-1976) [crossword puzzled]
Publication details: 
Both reviews undated [both c. 1974]. Letter of 14 March 1974; 601 Mountjoy House, Barbican, London, on cancelled House of Commons letterhead.
£100.00

All three items lightly aged but good. Driberg has written 'TOM DRIBERG' at the head of the first page of both reviews. First Review (8vo, 7 pp) with slight wear at head (not affecting text) of first four leaves; last three leaves on House of Commons letterheads. With corrections. The subject is Daphne Fielding's 'The Rainbow Picnic' (1974). Second Review (8vo, 7 pp, on House of Commons letterheads) of four books about crossword puzzles, including Roger Millington's 'The Strange World of the Crossword' (1974). With corrections.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J. S. Clouston') to 'A. Atkinson'.

Author: 
Sir Thomas Smith Clouston (1840-1915), physician-superintendant of the Royal Edinburgh Asylum, and editor of the 'Journal of Mental Science'
Publication details: 
17 October 1904; on letterhead of Tipperlinn House, Morningside Place, Edinburgh [Scotland].
£65.00

12mo: 1 p. On lightly spotted and creased paper. Quintessential doctor's handwriting. He is sorry he cannot be present 'to hear Dr 's paper', and that he cannot find time to write a paper himself. 'The subject is an interesting & important one, & is part of a still larger one <...?> physiologically considered'.

Four Autograph Letters Signed to [?] Macphail; copy, with MS corrections and additions, of proposed report on Bill by committee of the Faculty of Advocates; 'COPY LETTER, Mr P. W. Campbell, P.C.S., to Sir William S. Haldane, Crown Agent'; Bill.

Author: 
Charles Scott Dickson [Parliamentary Bill: Clerks of Session (Scotland) Regulation Acts, 1889 and 1912]
Publication details: 
The four letters, December 1812 to 1813; the Advocates' report, 14 January 1913, Advocates Library; Campbell's letter, 23 December 1912, Edinburgh; Bill, 9 December 1912.
£180.00

Dickson (born 1850) was Tory M.P. for Glasgow, Lord Advocate and Lord Justice Clerk. The four letters, all 12mo and all on House of Commons Library notepaper, are dusty and creased. Three are dated (30 and 31 December and 2 January) and signed; the other letter is undated and initialed. LETTER ONE: 'I spoke to the Lord Advocate to-day & he then definitely informed me that the Lord President entirely approved of the Bill.' LETTER TWO: 'I have spoken to the Advocate about the date of the committee stage & we will I believe have some weeks yet.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Le Despencer') to an unnamed correspondent (a neighbouring landowner?).

Author: 
Francis Dashwood (1708-1781), 11th Baron Le Despencer, politician and rake; member of the Hellfire Club; founder of the Monks of Medmenham Abbey
Publication details: 
Hanover Square, London, 5 May 1779
£350.00

4to: 1 p. 15 lines of text. Good, on lightly aged paper, with a light stain affecting but not obscuring a couple of words. Text clear and entire. Docketed on the reverse of the otherwise-blank second leaf of the bifolium.

Offprint from the Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature: 'On Two Events which occurred in the Life of King Canute the Dane.'

Author: 
John Hogg, Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society of Literature [John Lee (ne Fiott) (1783-1866), of Hartwell House]
Publication details: 
London: Printed by W. Hughes, King's Head Court, Gough Square. 1855.
£75.00

8vo: [ii] + 18 pp. In worn original buff wraps with white printed label on front. Clear and complete. On aged, damp-stained paper. Presentation copy, with note on title-page: 'To John Lee Esqre. L.L.D. | with the Author's kind regards.' Ownership inscription of 'J. Lee. Hartwell. 3 May 1856.' also on title. Scarce.The only copies on COPAC at the British Library and the Society of Antiquaries.

[The Writings of Leo Tolstoy. Edited by V. Tchertkoff. No. 2.] The Spirit of Christ's Teaching.

Author: 
Leo Tolstoy [V. Tchertkoff (Vladimir Grigorevich Chertkov), 1854-1936]
Publication details: 
Purleigh, Essex: Free Speech Publishing House. 1899.
£56.00

12mo: [iv] + 35 pp. In original green cloth printed wraps. Text clear and complete. On aged high-acidity paper, and with four staple holes throughout. Creasing to front wrap and slight loss at head of title (not affecting text). In the 'Editor's Preface' (p.iii, dated 'V. TCHERTKOFF.

Numbers One and Two in 'The Kingsway Series of Work and Time Tables'; number one titled 'Scheme of Work for a Rural School' and number two 'Time-tables for a Rural School. (Complementary to "Scheme of Work for Rural School." '

Author: 
Kingsway Series, Evans Brothers, Sardinia House [rural schools; twentieth-century British education]
Publication details: 
[1916.] Evans Bros., Ltd., Sardinia House, Kingsway, London. [Number Two printed by 'St. Clements Press, Ltd., Portugal Street, Kingsway, W.C.']
£56.00

Both items 4to, 4 pp. Each a bifolium. Text clear and complete on aged, foxed and lightly-creased paper. Both items in small print, the first covering topics from Clay-Modelling to Needlework. Of interest is the section on 'Hygiene (Bare Outline)' which warns against ' "Chewing," harm of "bolting" food, over-eating, dangers of alcoholic liquors'. Number Two contains four time-tables divided into two groups: 'I. - Mixed Department' and 'II. - Infants'; and 'For a Rural School of 40 Scholars.', 'I. - Upper Division' and 'II. - Lower Division'. Scarce.

Autograph Letter Signed ('L. B. Walford.') to 'Dr. Macmillan' [a member of the publishing house?].

Author: 
L. B. Walford [Lucy Bethia Walford, daughter of John Colquhoun (1805-1885)] (1845-1915), novelist and artist
Publication details: 
Undated [between 1873 and 1885]. On letterhead Hawthornden, Willaston, Chester, cancelled and amended in manuscript to 'Arrochar House, Arrochar, N.B. [Scotland]'
£30.00

12mo: 4 pp. Bifolium with mourning border. 30 lines of text. Good. She has heard that he has 'been good enough to speak kindly of "Pauline" so far as it has gone', and wonders whether he would distribute, to 'such of yr. Friends as belong to Circulating Libraries', cards 'to let people know in time to order the book before it is out'. Her family are pleased that Macmillan has 'been able to spend a night at this beautiful sad home - It did my Father good, I know.

Anonyma.

Author: 
T. F. Cattley [Thomas Frank Cattley (1874-1958)], House Master (1914-30) and School Librarian (1942-58) at Eton College
Publication details: 
1941. Eton College: Spottiswoode, Ballantyne & Co. Ltd. ['Printed at Eton College by Spottiswoode, Ballantyne & Co. Ltd.']
£75.00

12mo: 36 pp. Stitched. In original blue printed wraps. Internally tight and clean, in worn and creased wraps. Signed 'T F Cattley' on title-page. In pencil at head of front wrap 'one of only 60'. A collection of jeux d'esprit, addressed to individuals only identified by their initials. Uncommon: copies on COPAC at the British Library, Oxford, National Library of Scotland and Trinity College Dublin.

Printed Order in Council, signed in type 'C. L. PEEL', making changes to the Assize Circuit, headed 'At the Court at Osborne House, Isle of Wight, The 28th day of July, 1893. Present, The Queen's Most Excellent Majesty in Council.'

Author: 
Sir Charles Lennox Peel (1823-1899), Knight Clerk of the Council [Order in Council]
Publication details: 
i 78316 7400. - 9/93. [September 1893] Wt. P. 953. E. & S. [Eyre & Spottiswoode.]
£56.00

8vo, 8pp. Unbound. Stitched as issued. Text complete and clear. Good: lightly-aged and creased. The order is on pp.1-3. Followed by (over five pages): 'SCHEDULE', consisting of 'Circuits of the Judges. Civil and Criminal.', 'Autumn Circuit. Criminal Business Only, except where otherwise stated.' and 'Easter Circuit.'

Autograph Signature ('Frank Barrington Foote').

Author: 
Francis Barrington Foote [Frank Barrington Foote] (born c.1850; fl. 1911), English singer
Publication details: 
Undated.
£30.00

On piece of laid paper (roughly 13 x 11 cm). Aged and chipped. Reads 'Yours truly | Frank Barrington Foote'. Chipping to the outer edge, very close to the last couple of letters of the signature. Foote, who frequently sang with Adelina Patti at Covent Garden, ended his days destitute in New York City.

Autograph Signature ('Steuart Wilson').

Author: 
Sir James Steuart Wilson (1889-1966), English tenor and musical administrator
Publication details: 
Undated.
£30.00

On a fragment, roughly 11 x 16 cm, of a page of laid paper from a diary. Good, on lightly aged paper. Two signatures, under the heading 'July 22': 'Spencer <?> | Steuart Wilson.' Lightly docketed in pencil.

A speech delivered in the House of Commons in the debate on the North American blockade, Tuesday, March 7, 1862.

Author: 
Sir Roundell Palmer, M.P., Her Majesty's Solicitor-General [the Earl of Selborne; American Civil War]
Publication details: 
London: James Ridgway, Piccadilly. W. 1862.
£150.00

Octavo: 29 + [2] pp. Unbound, stabbed and stitched. Slightly dogeared, on grubby, lightly-spotted paper. Loss to top right-hand corner of title-leaf (not affecting text). Two pages of advertisements at rear, headed 'Important pamphlets, etc. Recently published by James Ridgway, Piccadilly.'

Speech delivered in the House of Commons on the "Alabama" Question, on Friday, March 11, 1863.

Author: 
Sir Roundell Palmer, M.P., Her Majesty's Solicitor-General [the Earl of Selborne]
Publication details: 
London and Cambridge: Macmillan and Co. 1863. [R. Clay, Son, and Taylor, Printers, London.]
£150.00

Octavo: 28 pp. Unbound, stabbed and stitched. Slightly dogeared, on grubby, lightly-spotted paper. Loss to top right-hand corner of title-leaf (not affecting text). Marked up in ink in a contemporary hand. COPAC lists copies at the British Library, Manchester and National Library of Scotland. The 'Alabama Question' related to what indemnity should be paid by Great Britain for damage done to United States commerce by the Alabama and other confederate cruisers built in British ports.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Ellenborough') with pencil draft of Nichols's reply.

Author: 
Edward Law, 1st Earl of Ellenborough (1790-1871), Tory politician; Governor-General of India [John Gough Nichols (1806-1873), printer and antiquary; Southam House, Southam Delabere, Gloucestershire]
Publication details: 
17 November 1832; Southam House.
£38.00

12mo bifolium. Ellenborough's letter (15 lines of text) occupies the first leaf; with the pencil draft of Gough's reply (also 15 lines), with additions and deletions, on the recto of the second leaf. Very good, with traces of grey paper mount adhering in a thin strip to the reverse of the second leaf. Ellenborough will 'afford' Nichols 'every facility for the making of tracings from the Tiles at Southam'. If Nichols will let him know when he is coming he will 'make it a point to be here'. Suggests that Nichols might come 'after Church, about 2 o'clock, on Sunday next'.

Typed Letter Signed ('Walter Besant') to Mrs [Alice] Westlake.

Author: 
Sir Walter Besant (1836-1901), novelist and historian of London [Alice Westlake (nee Hare); Adam and Charles Black, publishers; The Survey of London; Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea; Frognal]
Publication details: 
13 February 1897; on Adam and Charles Black 'Survey of London' letterhead.
£45.00

12mo, 2 pp. Seventeen lines of text. On lightly aged and creased paper. Attractive arts and crafts letterhead. Sending his 'mosts profound sympathy in the danger which threatens Chelsea'. He will sign 'the paper [...] with the greatest of pleasure', although he anticipates 'very little good as a possible result'. Suggests a time at which the paper can be sent to him.

Some Account of the Character of the late Right Honourable Henry Bilson Legge (DNB, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Irish Secretary, etc)

Author: 
[John Butler (1717-1802), Bishop of Hereford]
Publication details: 
London: Printed for J. Almon, opposite Burlington-House in Piccadilly. 1764.
£150.00

4to, 20 pp. The last page carries advertisements for the publisher Almon. Unbound; stitched. Good, with first and last leaves somewhat aged and chipped. Central vertical fold. A relatively uncommon item, with most of the entries on COPAC turning out to be for a microfilm reproduction.

Six documents including Signed Articles of Agreement for Johnson ('of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew') to perform Government 'service as Gardener in India'; with two testimonials and letters from Mary, Countess of Minto, and Cecil Allanson.

Author: 
John Thomas Johnson, Assistant Curator of the Botanical Gardens, Calcutta, India [Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Mary, Countess of Minto]
Publication details: 
1904-1935.
£250.00

The collection in good condition, with all but one of the six items carrying ring-binder punch holes. Item One, Articles of Agreement: Foolscap bifolium, 3 pp. Dated 16 September 1904. Printed seventeen-point agreement in the form of a manuscript facsimile. Signed by Johnson, Sir John Edge and Sir Stewart Colvin Bayley, and witnessed by 'W. Watson | R[oyal]. G[ardens] Kew' and 'Frank R. Marten | India Office'. Items Two and Three both with mourning border on letterhead of Minto House, Hawick. Item Two, Mary Countess of Minto ('M Minto') to Johnson. 4to: 1 p. 14 September 1914.

Pamphlet, beginning with 'An exact list of those who voted against bringing in the Excise-Bill', followed by a section titled 'The Lords Protest', ending with an illustrated satirical poem, in two parts, titled 'Britannia Excisa: Britain Excis'd.'

Author: 
[Sir Robert Walpole; Excise Bill of 1733; Houses of Parliament; Parliamentary; Georgian political satire]
Walpole
Publication details: 
[London, 1733.]
£220.00
Walpole

Ten pages printed on a total of the six leaves of three folio bifoliums (leaf dimensions roughly 40.5 x 25 cm). The first part, apparently intended to fold around the others, is unpaginated, and printed on the recto of the first leaf and the verso of the last leaf of the bifolium. Each page consists of a list, divided into three columns of small print, giving details of the vote, with the names of the members, their constituencies, and a key revealing biographical information (e.g. 'Privy-Counsellors' [sic] and 'for and against Maintaining the Hessian Troops').

Unsigned coloured caricature of the Duke of Wellington, entitled 'The Hampshire Hog, or the Virtuous General retreating from his Position'.

Author: 
S. W. Fores, London printseller [Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington; English political satire; satirical prints; Georgian caricature]
Publication details: 
Pub Jan. 29 1821 by S W Fores 41 Piccadilly'.
£200.00

NOT in George. Dimensions of paper 27.5 x 41 cm. Dimensions of image 20.5 x 31.5. On aged, grubby paper with wear to extremities. Image entire, but with one closed tear intruding from right across 3 cm of the blue background, and three closed tears (the longest 4cm) horizontally across a central vertical crease. A splendid full-length figure of Wellington (entirely undamaged), in full military uniform, with boots, red coat with gold epaulettes, white breeches, gloves, and sword, flees, hands in air and plumed hat falling to the ground, from a giant pig with three human heads.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Walpole') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Horatio Walpole (1723-1809), 4th Baron Walpole, 2nd Baron Walpole of Wolterton, created Earl of Orford in 1806
Publication details: 
09/10/67
£105.00

4to: 3 pp. A bifolium, mounted onto a larger piece of paper by a strip along the inner margin of the verso of the second leaf. Separated horizontally into two parts by a central tear which has been neatly repaired with archival tape, but with the 39 lines of text clear and entire. A signficant letter regarding the political climate in the County of Norfolk in the period preceding the general parliamentary election of 1768.

Autograph Letter Signed "W. Hone" to an unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
William Hone, Radical bookseller and publisher (DNB).
Publication details: 
5 Bolt Court, 18 June 1840.
£150.00

One page, minor staining not affecting text, laid down on grey coarse paper. "Here is the Cape Shipping List [perhaps including slavers?]. It's business-like details of murders by wholesale tell the cold blooded tales of horror more effectually than eloquent language. They [leave?] & lead the mind to imagine the terrible scenes enacted with poetical power which minute detail fails to [word excised "affect"] produce. I admire this brevity - it is inoffensively offensive. / I am grateful to you, my dear Sir, for your care of my daughter - your help to the helpless.

Autograph Note Signed ('Elisabeth') in English to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Elisabeth [Elizabeth] Ludovika of Bavaria (1801-1873), Princess of Bavaria and later Queen consort of Prussia as wife of King Frederick William IV of Prussia (1795-1861)
Publication details: 
Friday' [date not stated]; on letterhead of York House, Twickenham, S.W. [London].
£125.00

16mo (roughly 11 x 8 cm), 1 p. Creased and ruckled, and with slight discolouration from previous mounting, and with a piece of the mount adhering to the blank reverse. Reads 'My dear Sir | I thank you for your letter and the information it contained. I write to Paris to have PP' book as soon as it is out. | Yours truly | [signed] Elisabeth'. Signature stylized to the point of illegibility. Piece of mount docketed in contemporary hand 'Elizabeth late Queen of Prussia'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J. Stansfeld') to Henry Fawcett.

Author: 
Sir James Stansfeld (1820-1898), English politician [Henry Fawcett (1833-1884), English economist and politician]
Publication details: 
Friday [no date] on House of Commons Library letterhead.
£28.00

12mo, 2 pp. On foxed and aged paper. He has not seen Fawcett that night, despite 'looking out' for him. He would like to talk with him before the following Monday, and if Fawcett writes, he can visit him 'at any time'. 'I can easily drive over, if you will give me your new address.'

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