MEXICO

[W. H. Prescott [William Hickling Prescott], celebrated American historian of the conquest of Mexico and Peru.] Two Autograph Letters Signed, written while in England to ‘Lady Theresa [Lewis]’ regarding a stay at Grove Mill House, Watford.

Author: 
W. H. Prescott [William Hickling Prescott] (1796-1859), celebrated American historian of Spain and the conquest of Mexico and Peru [Lady Maria Theresa Lewis (1803-1865)]
Publication details: 
2 September [1850], from Trentham [Staffordshire]; and 4 September [1850], from London.
£200.00

Written during Prescott’s 1850 visit to England, where he was greatly feted and lionized. Both items in good condition, lightly aged and worn. Both folded for postage. Both to ‘Dear Lady Theresa’ and signed ‘Wm. H. Prescott’. See the Oxford DNB entry for the recipient Lady (Maria) Theresa Lewis (1803-1865), whose family home was the Grove, Watford, but who lived in Kent House in Knightsbridge with her second husband Sir George Cornewall Lewis, Bart, her first husband having been the novelist Thomas Henry Lister (1800-1842). ONE ‘Trentham / Sep. 2d.’ 1p, 12mo.

[Mrs Alec Tweedie [Ethel Brilliana Tweedie, née Harley], travel writer, author and society figure.] Three substantial volumes of newspaper cuttings, collected by her, relating to her life, work and travels in Iceland and Mexico.

Author: 
Mrs Alec Tweedie [Ethel Brilliana Tweedie, née Harley] (1862–1940), travel writer, author and society figure
Tweedie
Publication details: 
1887-1909. England, Iceland, Mexico, USA. Vol.1: January 1887 to July 1899. Vol. 2: February 1900 to January 1909. Vol. 3: July 1906 to January 1909.
£950.00
Tweedie

See her entry in the Oxford DNB, which carries a quotation pointing out her ‘unerring sense of admiration for herself’. What the present collection of well over a thousand cuttings assembled by her from newspapers and magazines appears to indicate is that the admiration was to a certain extent also felt by the general public; and taken as a whole the collection serves as a memorial to a once-celebrated English public figure, a woman making her mark on society in the age of suffrage. The first volume (1887-1899) is 117pp, folio: firm and tight in brown leather half binding.

[Mayne Reid, Irish novelist on American themes.] Autograph Letter Signed to 'J. Froebel' [Julius Fröbel] regarding arrangements for the translation, editing and publication of his book 'Aus Amerika'.

Author: 
Mayne Reid [Thomas Mayne Reid] (1818-1883), Irish novelist who lived for long periods in America and wrote on American themes [Julius Fröbel [Froebel] (1805-1893), German geologist and traveller]
Publication details: 
23 November [1858]; Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire.
£250.00

8pp, 12mo. On two bifoliums. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Signed 'Mayne Reid', and written from the sprawling 'Rancho' which he built at Gerrards Cross, in imitation of a Mexican hacienda. The recipient is named by Reid as 'J. Froebel', i.e. Julius Froebel, and the subject is arrangements for the translation translation of his book 'Aus Amerika' (Leipzig, 1857), which would be published in London by Richard Bentley in 1859 under the title 'Seven Years' Travel in Central America, Northern Mexico, and the Far West of the United States'.

[ Mexican Revolution and British interests. ] Typed Letter Signed from Robert Vansittart, Foreign Office, to Sir Richard Harington, regarding 'Mexican Railways'. With two printed documents: one ('Confidential') on 'Anglo-Mexican Claims Convention'.

Author: 
Robert Gilbert Vansittart, Baron Vansittart (1881-1957), diplomat [ Sir Richard Harington of Ridlington (1861-1931) 12th Baronet; the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1920; railways of Mexico; Thomas Linton ]
Publication details: 
The three items from 1927. Vansittart's letter on letterhead of the Foreign Office [ Whitehall, London ]. The second ('Confidential') document a Foreign Office press statement. The third document from Finsbury Pavement House, London.
£180.00

ONE: Typed Letter Signed from 'Roger Vansittart' to 'Sir Richard Harington, Bart., | Whitbourne Court, | Worcester.' Foreign Office; 13 April 1927. 1p., foolscap 8vo. In fair condition aged and worn. He is 'directed by Secretary Sir Austen Chamberlain to refer to your letter of the 5th instant regarding the possibility of a claim being preferred against the Mexican Government in respect of your holding in Mexican Railways'.

[ Thomas McKenny Hughes, Woodwardian Professor of Geology, Cambridge University. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('T McKenny Hughes') to his mother, from New Mexico, while attending the 1891 International Geological Congress, with description of 'natives'.

Author: 
Thomas McKenny Hughes (1832-1917), FRS, Woodwardian Professor of Geology, Cambridge University, 1873-1917 [ Margaret Hughes, née McKenny, daughter of Sir Thomas McKenny, Lord Mayor of Dublin ]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the San Felipe Hotel, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 23 September 1891.
£125.00

Hughes's mother Margaret - wife of Rev. Joshua Hughes (1807-1889) - was the daughter of Sir Thomas McKenny (1832-1917), Lord Mayor of Dublin. According to his entry in the Oxford DNB, Hughes and his wife 'attended the International Geological Congress of 1891 in the USA, where they were part of a small group which visited the national parks of North America, including the Grand Canyon, into which descent was made from the north rim. Much of the journey was made on horseback, through territory still under Native American occupation.' 2pp., 8vo. In ink and pencil.

[Frederick Huth, Victorian banker.] Six secretarial letters to him, in French, each signed by the Duke of Terranova and Monteleone, on the news from Mexico and his financial affairs, with an Autograph Letter Signed by Joseph Gonfalon Agati.

Author: 
Frederick Huth [John Frederick Andrew Huth; Johann Friedrich Andreas Huth] (1777-1864), German-born London banker [Giuseppe Pignatelli Aragona Cortes (1795-1859), Duke of Terranova and Monteleone]
Publication details: 
All seven letters from Palermo, Italy. Agati's letter dating from 1831, and the Duke's letters from 1832 (3), 1833, 1836 and 1846.
£450.00

All seven items are in good condition, on aged and lightly-creased bifoliums, and all docketted by the recipient. The Duke's letters total 13pp., 4to. Each is addressed, with postmarks, on the reverse of the second leaf, with one bearing part of a red wax seal. The letters all deal with the financial management of his affairs, with reference to substantial sums, with mention of Naples and Rothschild. The references to Mexican affairs in the correspondence are of particular interest, coming from a descendant of Hernan Cortes, and presumably still a substantial landowner in the country.

Two Autograph Letters Signed ('Maurice') from writer and British Council official Maurice Cardiff to Felicity Rhodes, the first letter accompanied by a typed poem by Cardiff, and the second by an Autograph Poem by him titled 'A Winter Casualty'.

Author: 
Maurice Cardiff [Maurice Henry Cardiff] (1915-2006), writer and British Council officer, friend of Patrick Leigh Fermor, Peggy Guggenheim, Edward James and Lawrence Durrell [Constantine P. Cavafy]
Publication details: 
The two letters both on letterheads of Stones Farm, Little Haseley, Oxford, and dated 29 May 1995 and 4 February 1996. The poems without place or date.
£120.00

All items in good condition. The letters on blue paper, and each in a stamped, postmarked envelope, addressed to 'Mrs Felicity Rhodes | North Lodge | 128 Banbury Road | Oxford'. Letter One (29 May 1995): 2pp., 12mo. He thanks her for typing the poem, which is 'only just the first part of a rather long one and doesn't really quite stand on its own - not that the whole thing comes off except for a few lines here and there.' he has 'never thought of having any Poems published', as he is 'only too aware of how sadly they limp along'. He has only shown them to 'one or two friends'.

Hamlet [first edition of vol. II, inscribed by Miller].

Author: 
Henry Miller and Michael Fraenkel [Carrefour Press]
Publication details: 
Carrefour, 92 Horatio Street, New York City. May, 1941. [Printed in Mexico.]
£280.00

Vol. II: 8vo, 465 pp., good condition. Inscription on fly-leaf: 'To | Guy Repp | from | [signed] Henry Miller | 3/4/42'. With R. J. Stanewick's ownership inscription in pencil on reverse of front wrap. (Miller signatures from this period are uncommon. The recipient Guy Repp was an actor associated in the 1930s with Orson Welles's Mercury Theater of the Air, who also featured in 'Citizen Kane'.) Internally tight and sound on aged paper, in worn and chipped wraps, with broken spines.. A few light pencil underlinings (by Stanewick?). The second volume is scarcer than the first.

Manuscript 'expert's Report of the Malacate Mines' in Mexico by metallurgist Edward Halse, ARSM, MIMM, prepared for Messrs Bourke, Sandys & Co, London, with three Typed Letters Signed from the firm, to R. Hanrott (2), and Hon. M. E. M. Sandys.

Author: 
Edward Halse (d.1935), ARSM, MIMM, metallurgist [The Malacate Syndicate Limited; Malacate Mines, Mexico]
Publication details: 
The three letters all from 7 Austin Friars, London, and all dating from August 1895. Halse's report undated, but slightly earlier.
£280.00

Halse's report, to Messrs Bourke, Sandys & Co., London, is headed 'Malacate'. 16pp., 8vo. Neatly written out, with marginal chapter headings, beginning: 'Situation of Mines', 'Roads', 'Freight Rates', 'Mining Claims', 'Timber and Water', 'History of the Property and Titles'.

Folder of mimeographed typed advertising and promotional reports and memoranda assembled by the firm's London office on behalf of the Watchmakers of Switzerland.

Author: 
Foote, Cone & Belding Ltd, advertising agency [Watchmakers of Switzerland]
Publication details: 
Between 1949 and 1950.
£165.00

All items clear and complete, in a brown card folder, and in good condition on lightly-aged paper, with occasional rust marking. Items are often accompanied by covering letters from members of the agency. Includes, among other items: 'Outline Proposals for Action in the British Market', August 1949 (8vo, 9 pp); 'The British Watch Market', August 1949 (8vo, 19 pp); 'Jewelry News Digest Number 19 | For The Swiss Federation of Watch Manufacturers', November 1949 (8vo, 13 pp); 'Swiss Watch Repair Parts Programme' (8vo, 19 pp); 'Report of F. H. Publicity Montreal Office | Jan. 30th to Feb.

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