MAY

[Gladys Cooper [Dame Gladys Constance Cooper], English actress, star of stage and screen.] Signed Autograph Inscription to ‘Minna May’ from ‘“Auntie” Gladys’, removed from autograph album.

Author: 
Gladys Cooper [Dame Gladys Constance Cooper (1888-1971), English actress, star of stage and screen whose career spanned seven decades
Publication details: 
1935. No place.
£25.00

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. On 15.5 x 5.5 cm slip of paper, cut from an autograph album. In good condition, lightly aged, with some show-through from the writing on the reverse. Reads ‘To Minna May / With my love / “Auntie” Gladys / Gladys Cooper / 1935’. See Image.The writing rises slightly across the page, and a small section at the bottom of the initial ‘G’ and the ‘y’ of ‘Gladys’ have been trimmed away. On the reverse is the following, in an unidentified hand: ‘Philatelic Minna May / Came to lunch with me today: / took my box of stamps away, / Says she’ll bring ’em back – some day!

[Eric Coates, composer of 'The Dam Busters March'.] Autograph Signed Inscription to May Hirst, on reverse of a 'Photograph of Original Full Score of The Three Bears.

Author: 
Eric Coates [Eric Francis Harrison Coates] (1886-1957), English composer of light music, best-known for 'The Dam Busters March'
Publication details: 
No date (but 1926 or after) or place.
£80.00

On reverse of 11.25 x 8.25 cm card carrying a black and white print of the autograph score of Coates's second 'phantasy', 'The Three Bears' (1926). In good condition, lightly aged. Reads: 'To May Hirst | with best wishes | from | Eric Coates | Photograph of | Original Full Score of | The Three Bears'.

[ Camilla Urso, 'The great violin virtuoso': pamphlet issued by the United States Lyceum Bureau. ] Drophead title: 'Camilla Urso. | A Tribute.' Title on front wrap: 'A Tribute | Charles Barnard | Camilla Urso'.

Author: 
Charles Barnard [ Camilla Urso, French violinist and child prodigy who settled in America; Harry St. Ormond, Business Manager; United States Lyceum Bureau ]
Publication details: 
'Compliments of United States Lyceum Bureau, 757 Broadway, New York.' No year, but back cover gives details of 'Transcontinental Tour. | 1885 - Season - 1886.'.
£50.00

[32]pp., 16mo. Not paginated. Stapled in brown wraps, with text on front and back covers in gold and dark brown, with closed tear at foot of spine. Contains one full-page engraving: 'Testimonial Presentation to Mme. Camilla Urso in the Town Hall, Melbourne.' Cheaply printed on browned high-acidity paper, in aged and worn wraps. The wraps are attractively designed, with the violinist's name printed in large decorative type diagonally across the centre of the front cover. The back cover gives details of Urso's 'Transcontinental Tour.

[ Naomi Mitchison, Scottish author. ] Typed Letter Signed to 'Mrs. Magraw' [ children's author Beatrice Irene Magraw ], giving advice on how to approach the BBC with 'school broadcasts'.

Author: 
Naomi Mitchison [ Naomi Mary Margaret Mitchison, Baroness Mitchison; née Haldane ] (1897-1999), Scottish author [ Beatrice Irene Magraw [ B. I. Magraw, born Beatrice Irene May ] (c.1888-1970), author]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of River Court, Hammersmith Mall, London W.6. 24 October 1938.
£180.00

2pp., 4to. Forty-four lines of text. She thanks her 'for returning the plays, and thte nice things you say about them'. Mitchison's entry in the Oxford DNB has no reference to her working for the BBC, but from the context of the letter it is clear that she wrote scripts for radio broadcasts for children. Regarding the BBC she suggests that Magraw writes to 'Miss Edith MacQueen, and if I were you I think I should write out one or two synopses of broadcasts which you propose to do'.

[ Beatrice Irene Magraw, children's author as "B.I. Magraw". ] Collection of personal papers, including autobiographical account, an article, newspaper cuttings, portrait photograph, publicity material, letters from Richard Church and Norman Fulton.

Author: 
Beatrice Irene Magraw [ B. I. Magraw, born Beatrice Irene May ] (c.1888-1970), author, wife of Charles Magraw (d.1973), deputy headmaster, Bishop Cotton School, Simla [ Richard Church; Norman Fulton ]
Publication details: 
London and Bristol. Between the 1930s and 1960.
£350.00

Eleven items, in good overall condition. ONE: Autograph biographical account, on form headed 'National Service'. 4pp., folio. Bifolium. Includes personal and academic details, details of publications and political views. As her 'Literary Pseudonym she gives '(occasionally) "MARY PADESON". She has, she states, no academic qualifications, 'But read economics in youth (Society of Oxford Home Students) Ill-health prevented continuance of studies & examination'.

[ George Denholm Armour, English artist. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('G Denholm Armour'), a letter of condolemce to the widow of composer Herman Finck.

Author: 
George Denholm Armour (1864-1949), English artist associated with Phil May and Joseph Crawhall, and horse breeder [ Herman Finck [ born Hermann Van Der Vinck ] (1872-1939), composer and conductor ]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of The Old Court House, Tetminster, Dorset. 22 April 1939.
£35.00

1p., 12mo. In good condition. He is writing 'as an old brother savage' (i.e. a member like Finck of the Savage Club), and asks her to accept his 'most sincere sympathy in the loss' of her husband, and his regret that he cannot be present at his funeral. Headed by Mrs Finck 'Answered'. Finck's 'In the Shadows' was one of the last songs played as RMS Titanic went down.

[ H.M. Patent Office, London. ] Manuscript document containing 'Searches' into the 'Novelty' and 'Validity' of around 150 patent applications, with diagrams and index.

Author: 
H.M. Patent Office, London (now the Intellectual Property Office) [ Sir Henry Bessemer; Sir John Coode; Gusttav Overbeck; Crosse & Blackwell; Wedgwood; Bryant & May ]
Publication details: 
H.M. Patent Office, 25 Southampton Buildings, London, WC. 13 March 1878 to 19 December 1882.
£450.00

The Patent Office - now the Intellectual Property Office - was established by the Patent Law Amendment Act of 1852, which simplified the procedure for obtaining patents of invention and reduced costs. In 1883 another Act of Parliament brought into being the office of Comptroller General of Patents, with, according to the National Archives, 'a staff of patent examiners to carry out a limited form of examination; mainly to ensure that the specification described the invention properly, but without any investigation into novelty'.

[ Luigi Pirandello and his translator Frederick May. ] Duplicated typescript of 'Right you are! | (If you think so) | by Luigi Pirandello | (translated by Frederick May)'. With Cox's ownership signature and a few notes in his autograph.

Author: 
Arthur Cox (b.1934), Irish actor; Frederick May (1921-1976), Professor of Italian, University of Sidney, Australia, and translator [ Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936), Italian Nobel-Prize-winning author ]
Publication details: 
Without place or date [circa 1962?].
£280.00

103pp., 4to. Title-page and cast of characters followed by first act (paginated to 43), second act (paginated to B26) and third act (paginated to C32). In plain brown paper wraps with signature of 'Arthur Cox' in pencil on cover. Stained and worn. A handful of notes to third act in pencil and ink. The volume contains a copy of a duplicated typed form titled 'Prospect Account Particulars', in an envelope addressed in manuscript to 'Signor <?> | Valdano | Italy.' According to COPAC May's translation of the play was published by Penguin Books in 1962 and 1969.

Manuscript account [by Rev. Richard Lyne?] headed 'Humphry May an old Man of Back in Egloshayle parish brought a parcel to Little Petherick, and the following are some of his 'xpressions [expressions]', giving a transcript in West Country dialect.

Author: 
[Rev. Richard Lyne, Rector of Little Petherick, Cornwall?; Humphry May of Back in Egloshayle Parish]
Publication details: 
Without place or date. [Little Petherick, Cornwall; 1830s?]
£120.00

2pp., 4to. 50 lines of text. On a single leaf of wove paper. Good: lightly worn on aged paper with slight damage to two words. A delightful exchange, with May's reply to the offer of a glass of rum beginning: 'Thanky Maister tis a nice dram. Ive agot the rousy cum stoundrums in my ears with the could. I pute a man to smoke perbacky in mun, and I rousted a Tryan and squeery cum squaten in till I sweat again with the hett and pain'.

Six printed promotional items for 'The Collected Works of William Morris, to be issued in twenty-four volumes under the editorship of Miss May Morris' by Longmans, Green & Co, comprising prospectuses, specimen pages and engravings, and an order form.

Author: 
[William Morris; May Morris; Kelmscott Press; Dante Gabriel Rossetti; Longmans, Green & Company; fine printing; typography]
Publication details: 
London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1910.
£380.00

An interesting collection of typographical ephemera. ONE: Landscape 8vo wood engraving, captioned 'This illustration, entitled "Psyche in Charon's Boat," was engraved on wood by William Morris from a design by Edward Burne-Jones and forms one of a series in illustration of the story of Cupid and Psyche in "The Earthly Paradise." It is proposed to issue one or two of these designs, which have never been published, though one of them formed the frontispiece to the "Note on the Kelmscott Press" by Mr. S. C. Cockerell.' In good condition, on lightly-aged paper.

[Printed handbill.] A few Tingling Rhymes On Much Wenlock Chimes.

Publication details: 
Without place or date [1868].
£120.00

1p., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged pink wove paper. Within fancy border. Beneath the title a four-line epigram by 'Cook', beginning 'The School-boy remembers his holiday ramble'. The poem proper, of twenty lines, is signed in type at the end 'J. H.' It begins: 'Oh! Wenlock Chimes, the dear old Chimes, | You carry us back to by-gone times,' and ends, 'And 'ere your notes their rest have found, | Cheer all our Friends the Wrekin round.' The word 'your' in the penultimate line is printed 'you', with the final 'r' added in manuscript.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Geo. S. Hillard') from George Stillman Hillard (later District Attorney for Massachusetts) to the abolitionist Rev. Samuel Joseph May, describing his acquaintance with the first Harvard Professor of German, Charles Follen.

Author: 
George Stillman Hillard (1808-1879), Massachusetts District Attorney [Rev. Samuel Joseph May (1797-1871), abolitionist; Charles Follen [Karl Follen] (1796-1840), first Professor of German at Harvard]
Publication details: 
Boston; 11 March 1840.
£280.00

4pp., 4to. Bifolium. 89 lines of text. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Addressed, with red circular postmark, on reverse of second leaf, to 'Revd. Samuel J. May | South Scituate'. Hillard describes 'Dr. Follen' as 'an intimate and dear friend to me'. He looks back 'with melancholy pleasure upon the happy hours' he spent in the society of 'so pure and elevated a being'. He has 'never known a better man; I do not know that I may not say, that I have never known so good a man.

Autograph Letter Signed ('E Meriam') from the meteorologist Ebenezer Meriam to the abolitionist and Unitarian minister Samuel J. May of Syracuse, New York, on the education of Onondaga Indian Children.

Author: 
Ebenezer Meriam (1794-1864), American meteorologist, statistician, pamphleteer and philanthropist [Samuel Joseph May (1797-1871), Harvard-educated Unitarian minister and abolitionist]
Publication details: 
New York; 8 April 1854.
£150.00

1p., 4to. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Meriam is enclosing a 'copy of bill appropriating $350 per annum for two years for the education &c of Onondaga Indian Children which was signed by the Governor on the 5th Inst'. The letter ends with Meriam reporting the receipt of two letters. Syracuse University Library holds a collection of 'Ebenezer Meriam Letters on Onondaga Indian Education', including eight from May.

Prompt copy typescript, with manuscript stage directions, titled 'Excerpt from Act 3. "Man and Superman" by BERNARD SHAW'.

Author: 
George Bernard Shaw [Alec Clunes; Arts Theatre Club, London; May Hemery Ltd]
Publication details: 
[London: May Hemery Ltd for the Arts Theatre Club, 1946.]
£125.00

From the collection of Alec Clunes, who performed as Don Juan in this excerpt from 'Man and Superman' ('Don Juan in Hell') at the Arts Theatre Club in 1946. Carbon copy of typescript by May Hemery Ltd, paginated 1 to 60, on the rectos of sixty leaves, preceded by title leaf ('Excerpt from Act Three | "MAN AND SUPERMAN" | By | BERNARD SHAW'. In original blue paper wraps, with yellow tape spine and label on front wrap. Grubby and worn, and with light staining to wraps, but tight, complete and clear. Numerous manuscript stage directions, mostly on the facing versos.

Autograph Letter Signed ('F C B.') to 'My dear Phil' - the publisher of 'Punch' Philip Leslie Agnew (1863-1938).

Author: 
Sir Francis Cowley Burnand (1836-1917), editor of 'Punch' [Phil May; Philip Leslie Agnew]
Publication details: 
31 July 1893; on letterhead 'Whitefriars, London.'
£56.00

12mo: 2 pp. On creased, discoloured paper, with small closed tear and traces of previous mount adhering to reverse. An amusing, playful letter in a smudged, expansive hand. Reads 'My dear Phil | The other Phil Phil May will Phil the page in Xmas No. This will fill up & give it a fillip. ergo no Caran d'Ache | With Phil we're full. | Ought to be a fine number. | Have asked Phil May to contribute previously - | Well Phil May - but will Phil? | perhaps a wilfil person'. Accompanied by long typed commentary, giving provenance 'From a group of letters to Phil Agnew.

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