R.

Autograph Letter Signed ('R. Brimley Johnson') [to Swan Sonnenschein], proposing a work for publication, and outlining his literary achievements.

Author: 
R. Brimley Johnson [Reginald Brimley Johnson] (1867-1932), English author and editor [Swan Sonnenschein, London publishers]
Publication details: 
19 February 1893; on embossed letterhead of Llandaff House, Cambridge.
£65.00

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. He was introduced to the recipient 'by Mr. Philip Malleson of Croydon, when I wanted to send an Essay to The Albemarle'. Asks if he 'might be disposed to let me write a volume on Jane Austen or Leigh Hunt for your Dilettante Library', Austen being 'specially before the public just now'. He has edited Austen's novels and two 'well received' volumes of selections from Hunt for 'Mr. Dent's Temple Library'. 'If you do not care to arrange for either of these authors I would suggest Miss Burney[,] Hazlitt or T. L. Peacock.

Farmer Brown's Blunders; and the London Director's Report of Wheal Blue Bottle.

Author: 
J. T. Tregellas [John Tabois Tregellas (1792-1863)] [Cornwall; Cornish dialect poetry; the West Country]
Publication details: 
[1860] Truro: Printed by James R. Netherton, 7, Lemon Street. ['Third Edition. - Price Sixpence.']
£220.00

12mo: 26 pp paginated 101-126. Stitched. In original worn, creased and grubby green printed wraps. Internally clean, except for the first two leaves, both of which are grubby, with loss to the first leaf affecting two lines of text. 'Farmer Brown's Blunders' is a dialect poem, with explanatory footnotes; the other item is a spoof letter by 'Hannibal Hollow'. There are no records of first or second editions of this item, or of any other edition in which the two pieces are printed together. Scarce: the only copy on COPAC, dated to 1860, at the British Library.

Three Autograph Letters Signed (all 'Osbert') to 'My dear James' [the film producer R. J. Minney].

Author: 
Osbert Sitwell (1892-1969) [R. J. Minney]
Publication details: 
Letter One: 'Friday Renishaw' [c.1942]; on letterhead of 2 Carlyle Square, SW3. Letter Two: 5 April [c.1942?]. On illustrated letterhead of 'Renishaw Hall, Derbyshire [last word deleted]'. Letter Three: 4 January 1944; on Renishaw Hall letterhead.
£165.00

Sitwell and Renishaw collaborated on the play 'Gentle Caesar' (published in 1942), and the last two letters would appear to concern a possible film adaptation. All three items very good on lightly aged paper. Letter One ('Friday Renishaw'): 12mo, 2 pp. 18 lines of text. Apparently written around the time of the play's composition. Sitwell is 'delighted' that Minney is 'already immersed in Pares's book. I have just read the Czar and Empress Marie's Letters.' He has 'marked (in the preface mostly) what I thought helpful for atmosphere, or amusing'.

Menu and programme for the 'Stourbridge Shakespearean Celebration. First Annual Dinner.'

Author: 
Stourbridge Shakespearean Celebration [Henry Irving; Herbert Beerbohm Tree; J. Forbes Robertson; Sidney Lee; Frank R. Benson]
Publication details: 
Talbot Hotel, Stourbridge, Wednesday 23rd April, 1902. J. T. Ford, Printer, Stourbridge.
£100.00

12mo: 20 pp. On art paper. Attached with yellow string in decorative printed card wraps. Good: lightly foxed in dusty wraps, with minor staining to blank inside wrap. The wraps, printed in red, blue and gold, feature a photo of Shakespeare's funerary bust within an embossed decorative border. Nicely printed with photos of Shakespeare's birthplace. Features the menu, a 'Toast List', a programme of music, lists of committee and patrons and extracts. Of interest are the three pages of letters, including dated communications from Henry Irving, J.

Typed Note Signed ('Geo R Sims') to F. Leslie Moreton.

Author: 
George R. Sims [George Robert Sims] (1847-1922), English journalist and writer.
Publication details: 
24 March 1900; on letterhead of 12, Clarence Terrace, Regents Park. N.W. [London].
£45.00

4to: 1 p. Text complete and clear, on aged, spotted and lightly-creased paper. He has exchanged letters with 'Mr Morell' 'with reference to "Faust up to Date" ', but does not believe any contract has yet been arranged. He does not have a copy of 'the Score and Band Parts': 'I should say Mr Geo. Edwardes or Mr Meyer Lutz has these.' Sims co-wrote 'Faust up to Date' with Henry Pettitt. The music was by Lutz. It was produced by Edwardes, and first performed at the Gaiety Theatre, London, on 30 October 1888.

Typed Letter Signed ('R. L. S. Bruce-Mitford') to Miss Robin Place.

Author: 
R. L. S. Bruce-Mitford [Rupert Leo Scott Bruce-Mitford] (1914-1994), archaeologist and art historian [T. D. Kendrick [Sir Thomas Downing Kendrick]; the British Museum]
Publication details: 
14 October 1947; on letterhead of the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities, British Museum, London.
£28.00

4to: 1 p. 22 lines. Text clear and entire on lightly aged and creased paper, with one 1.5 cm closed tear (not affecting text). Congratulating Place on her 'Assistant Principalship'. He considers she was 'very wise to take the opportunity'. He has discussed 'the house-key question with the Keeper [T. D. Kendrick]', who regards Saturday afternoons 'as a sacred time reserved for peaceful work, undisturbed by ones colleagues'. Consequently 'it would be rather difficult to accommodate you as a helper on Saturdays and after your week's work at the ministry'.

Discourse, On the Objects and Importance of the National Institution for the Promotion of Science, Established at Washington, 1840, Delivered at the First Anniversary.

Author: 
Joel R. Poinsett, Secretary of War and Senior Director of the National Institution for the Promotion of Science [Smithsonian Institution]
Publication details: 
Washington: P. Force, Printer. 1841.
£35.00

8vo: 52 pp. Stitched pamphlet in marbled paper wraps. On aged, damp-stained paper, with foxing to last leaf. The Institution was later renamed the National Institute and eventually became a part of the Smithsonian Institute.

7-inch extended play 45 rpm vinyl record entitled 'Tobacco Chant - Part 1 | The Song of the Auctioneer' ['Tobacco Chant - Part 2' on the b-side].

Author: 
Bob Cage [Produced by G. J. Ashton; Recorded by C. U. Krieger; Tobacco Auctions Ltd, Southern Rhodesia; Halifax, Virginia]
Publication details: 
Tobacco Auctions Limited, Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia.
£100.00

Undated. Dusty, but veryy good, on black vinyl with yellow label and triangular insert. In lightly worn, creased and grubby original sleeve printed in green and yellow, carrying a lengthy note by G. J. Ashton, beginning 'On this record you can hear parts of an actual sale of tobacco held on the floor of Tobacco Auctions Ltd., Salisbury, introduced by BOB CAGE. Mr. Cage, a native of Halifax, Virginia, has been auctioneering tobacco for over fifteen years in the United States and Rhodesia.

Epigrams on Sappho and other famous Greek Lyric Poetesses Englished by G. R. Woodward, M.A. (sometime Scholar of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge).

Author: 
George Ratcliffe Woodward (1848-1934) ['Rev. G. R. Woodward, Mus. Doc. (Sometime Vicar of Walsingham)'] [private printing; Highgate Village; Walsingham]
Publication details: 
Privately Printed at 48 West Hill, Highgate Village, 1931.
£15.00

12mo (dimensions of leaf 12.5 x 9.5 cm): 10 pp. Stitched. In original brown printed card wraps (dimensions of wrap 13.5 x 10 cm). Edition limited to 120 copies, of which this is No. 23. Good.

Five & Forty Examples of The Epigram Sepulchral turned out of Greek into English Verse by the Reverend G. R. Woodward, M.A.

Author: 
George Ratcliffe Woodward (1848-1934) ['Rev. G. R. Woodward, Mus. Doc. (Sometime Vicar of Walsingham)'] [private printing; Highgate Village; Walsingham]
Publication details: 
Privately Printed at 48 West Hill, Highgate Village, 1931.
£15.00

12mo (dimensions of leaf 12.5 x 9.5 cm): 20 pp. Stitched. In original brown printed card wraps (dimensions of wrap 13.5 x 10.5 cm). Edition limited to 120 copies, of which this is No. 103. Good, in slightly bumped wraps.

Gleanings from Ancient Olive-yards Greek & Roman by the Rev. G. R. Woodward, Mus. Doc. (Sometime Vicar of Walsingham).

Author: 
George Ratcliffe Woodward (1848-1934) ['Rev. G. R. Woodward, Mus. Doc. (Sometime Vicar of Walsingham)'] [private printing; Highgate Village; Walsingham]
Publication details: 
London: 'Privately Printed at 48 West Hill, Highgate Village, 1928'.
£15.00

12mo (dimensions of leaf 17.5 x 10.5 cm): Stitched. In original brown printed card wraps (dimensions of wrap 19 x 11.5 cm). Edition limited to 136 copies, of which this is No. 100. Good, in lightly worn and bumped wraps.

Greek Witticisms told in English Verse by the Rev. G. R. Woodward.

Author: 
George Ratcliffe Woodward (1848-1934) ['Rev. G. R. Woodward, Mus. Doc. (Sometime Vicar of Walsingham)'] [private printing; Highgate Village; Walsingham]
Publication details: 
Printed at 48 West Hill, Highate, MCMXXIX [1929].
£15.00

12mo (dimensions of leaf 12.5 x 9.5 cm): 22 pp. Stitched. In original brown printed card wraps (dimensions of wrap 14 x 11 cm). Edition limited to 120 copies, of which this is No. 14. Good, with light crease to front wrap.

Tales of Sea-Sorrow from The Greek Anthology Englished by the Reverend G. R. Woodward, M.A.

Author: 
George Ratcliffe Woodward (1848-1934) ['Rev. G. R. Woodward, Mus. Doc. (Sometime Vicar of Walsingham)'] [private printing; Highgate Village; Walsingham]
Publication details: 
Privately Printed at 48 West Hill, Highgate Village, 1931.
£15.00

12mo (dimensions of leaf 12.5 x 9.5 cm): 19 pp. Stitched. In original brown printed card wraps (dimensions of wrap 13 x 10 cm). Edition limited to 136 copies, of which this is No. 97. Good.

Seven Typed Letters Signed (all 'R. W. Dana', and one of the signatures cyclostyled) to Sir Henry Trueman Wood, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Robert Washington Dana (1868-1956), British naval architect, assistant to Barry on the construction of Tower Bridge, London, and 'Resident Engineer for reconstruction of Kew Bridge'
Publication details: 
1911 (3 letters) and 1913 (4 letters); all on letterhead of the Institution of Naval Architects (of which Dana was the Secretary).
£100.00

Six of the letters are 4to, 1 p; the other is 12mo, 1 p. All good, on lightly aged paper. All bearing the Society's stamp and most docketed. On a variety of subjects: a proposed paper by 'Herr Frahm', the use by the Institution of the Royal Society's library for a council meeting, the delivery to the Society of a 'model tank that is coming from Germany' ('the reader of the paper is sending his representative over from Germany to superintend matters'), and a 'Proposed Memorial to the late Sir William White' ('with reference to Mr. Bailey Saunders and Mr. C. R. Graves.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J. R. Planché') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
James Robinson Planché [J. R. Planché] (1796-1880), English playwright and herald
Publication details: 
Saturday [no date]; Michael's Grove Lodge [Brompton].
£40.00

12mo, 1 p, 11 lines. Very good. He begins by giving R. J. Smith's Brompton address. He was 'delighted to hear of Lord Powis' and hopes 'there is no mistake about it'. 'Remember in printing his Title he is a Knight of the Garter. - On the back of our 2nd. No. I see Lord Southampton printed as "the Earl of Southampton"!' Asks the recipient's view of the previous day's 'Times': 'And look at the Morning Post to day.'

Prospectus for 'An Exact Reprint of the Roman Index Expurgatorius. The only Vatican Index of this kind ever published.'

Author: 
Richard Gibbings, A.B., Scholar of Trinity College, Dublin.
Publication details: 
[Dublin: 1836.]
£100.00

Octavo: 4 pp. Unbound bifolium. On aged paper, with loss at head and gutter of both leaves, creases and closed tears. Entirely legible, with the only damage to the text being partial loss of the numeration and the first word of the title ('AN'). Loss at head damaging manuscript inscription to 'Francis Scot<...>sement | <...> | Margt. Scott | Decr. 11. 1836.' The work itself was published in Dublin in 1837 by Milliken. '[...] 'It surely cannot be considered an unimportant matter to attempt to direct in any way the attention of Protestants to the novelty of Popery.

Famous Literary Impostures, A Series of Essays.

Author: 
H. R. Montgomery [Henry Riddell Montgomery, 1818-1904] [Thomas Chatterton; James Macpherson; George Psalmanazar; Richard Bentley]
Publication details: 
London: E. W. Allen, 4, Ave Maria Lane, Paternoster Row. [1884]
£56.00

12mo: iv + 132 pp. Unbound. In original red printed wraps. Stapled. A poor copy of a scarce item (COPAC only lists copies at the British Library and National Library of Scotland). Dog-eared and grubby, with wraps faded and with loss to extremities and spine repaired with tape. Staples rusted and worn through prelims. Text complete and entirely legible. Five essays: 'Chatterton and the Rowley Poems', 'Macpherson's Poems of Ossian', 'The Shakspeare Forgery', 'Psalmanazar and the Formosa Imposture' and 'Bentley and the Epistles of Phalaris'.

Autograph Letter Signed to Sir Francis Freeling (1764-1836), Secretary to the Post Office.

Author: 
Rev. R. H. Whitelock [Whitelocke] of Manchester [Sir Francis Freeling; Lavinia Robinson; Suicide]
Publication details: 
[March 1814; Manchester.]
£85.00

Two pages, quarto. On slightly stained, aged paper, with a few closed tears and some wear to extremities. Black wax seal adhering to second leaf of bifolium. Docketed 'March 1814 | Manchester | Revd. R. H. Whitelocke', but the signature appears to read 'Whitelock'.

A co-operative [booksellers'] catalogue' entitled 'Detective Fiction: A Century of Crime: First and Early Editions'.

Author: 
R. A. Brimmell; Boris Harding-Edgar (Charles Rare Books)
Publication details: 
Hastings and Hildenborough; [circa 1966].
£120.00

Forty-four pages, octavo, with two-page leaf of addenda loosely inserted. Four pages illustrating seventeen pictorial covers on art paper. In printed card wraps. A worn and creased copy of an influential catalogue, issued at a time when, as the introduction points out 'catalogues devoted to detective fiction [were] something of a rarity in the book trade'.

Printed Advertisement Leaf containing list of books printed by him.

Author: 
R. Helder, Bookseller and Printer, 10, Duke Street, West Smithfield, London.
Publication details: 
R. HELDER, Printer, 10, Duke Street, Smithfield.' [circa 1820]
£450.00

Two pages, on a rough-edged leaf approximately seven inches by four. Good, though aged and a lightly stained. A highly interesting list of twenty-seven titles by a radical publisher. Several works relating to Robert Wedderburn and Thomas Davison. Also 'The Cast-Iron Parson', 'A Peep after Hell' and 'GREAT GORGY: giving a Humourous Description of his Journey to Westminster, on Giff, the Ch-lor's Grey Mare'. Ends 'The Trade Supplied with all the Popular Works of the Day. | Printing & Bookbinding | NEATLY AND EXPEDITIOUSLY EXECUTED. | NEWSPAPERS SERVED IN TOWN AND COUNTRY.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W. Rhys Roberts') to Sir Frederick George Kenyon (1863-1952), Director of the British Museum.

Author: 
William Rhys Roberts (1858-1929), Professor of Classics at Leeds University, and associate of J. R. R. Tolkien
Publication details: 
28 January 1918; on letterhead of the University, Leeds.
£85.00

Three pages, octavo. Very good on lightly aged paper. Kenyon's paper was 'much enjoyed' when read on Saturday, and there was 'a good attendance'. '[T]he pleasantries were not missed': '1. the confusion of the inexhaustible emender; 2. the thrift of the canny Odysseus in his role of wooer; 3. Burne Jones's Law.' 'At the end some interesting questiosn were asked', for example, 'why second-rate Greek annalists shd. seemingly have been preferred to Herodotus & Thucydides'.

Quo musa tendis?

Author: 
J[ames]. K[enneth]. Stephen [JACK THE RIPPER]
Publication details: 
Cambridge: Macmillan and Bowes. 1891.
£22.00

First edition. 12mo. Pages: 2 ('BIBLIOGRAPHY OF LAPSUS CALAMI.') + x + 84 + 4 pages of publishers' advertisements. Very good in original worn light-blue cloth with heavily-worn label on spine. Ownership inscription of Richard E. Benson (1892) on front free endpaper. Stephen was first put forward as Jack the Ripper in Michael Harrison's biography of Prince Albert Victor, 'Clarence' (1972).

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