RENISHAW

[Dame Edith Sitwell and John Freeman's 'Face to Face' BBC TV interview. ] Two items: Autograph Letter Signed ('Edith Sitwell') to producer Hugh Burnett; & Typescript (printer's copy) of the section on the interview in Burnett's book of the series.

Author: 
Dame Edith Sitwell (1887-1964), iconic poet and critic [Hugh Burnett; John Freeman; Face to Face, BBC Television series]
Publication details: 
Letter with letterhead of Renishaw Hall, near Sheffield, in envelope on which Sitwell gives her address as Castello di Montegufoni, Montagnana, Val di Peso [near Florence, Italy]. 18 August 1959. Typescript undated (for book published in 1964).
£750.00

Two items relating to Sitwell's interview with John Freeman (1915-2014), broadcast in the BBC series 'Face to Face' on 6 May 1959. The two items are from the papers of the programme's producer Hugh Burnett (1924-2011). ONE: Autograph Letter Signed to Burnett. Signed 'Edith Sitwell'. On letterhead of Renishaw Hall, Renishaw, nr. Sheffield. 18 August 1959. 3pp., 12mo. In envelope with Italian stamp and postmark, addressed by Sitwell to 'Hugh Burnett, Esqre. | Television Studio | Lime Grove | London. W.12'.

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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'.

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Autograph Letter Signed ('Osbert') to 'My dear James'.

Author: 
Osbert Sitwell [Sir Francis Osbert Sacheverell Sitwell, 5th Baronet] (1892-1969), English writer and aesthete
Publication details: 
Monday' [no date]; on illustrated letterhead of Renishaw Hall, Derbyshire (amended by Sitwell to 'Renishaw | N[ear]. Sheffield').
£120.00

12mo, 2 pp. Very good. Attractive letterhead with engraved illustration of 'Renishaw Hall | Derbyshire' (last word crossed out by Sitwell). Written in purple ink. Asks if there is 'anything to be made of a curtain-raiser, or short film, which wd. show Napoleon catching the cold, which lost him the Battle of Waterloo? . . It is an amusing idea.' He considers that it is 'sure to have been some very silly person who sneezed at him . . . Or is the idea nonsense!'

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