SIR

Three sketches, two in pencil and one in charcoal.

Author: 
Henry Wyatt (1794-1840), English artist, pupil of Sir Thomas Lawrence
Publication details: 
One of the pencil sketches on reverse of envelope addressed to Wyatt, and postmarked 1833.
£285.00

ITEM ONE: pencil sketch (roughly three inches square) of pensive woman in full dress seated on chair beside table with vase. Good. On reverse of part of envelope addressed to 'H. Wyatt Esqre. | Newman Street | Oxford Street' and postmarked in red ink oval '2 . A NOON . 2 | MY 4 | 1833'. Another postmark in black ink, and wafer still adhering. ITEM TWO: pencil sketch (roughly one inch by one and a half) of trees around long wall with spire in distance. On visiting card of 'Mr. Henry Wyatt' (the sketch over the word 'Wyatt').

Signed Letter ('Onslow') in a secretarial hand to 'Raglan' (George FitzRoy Henry Somerset, 3rd Baron Raglan, 1857-1921), on behalf of Joseph Chamberlain (1836-1914), Secretary of State for the Colonies.

Author: 
William Onslow (1853-1911), 4th Earl of Onslow, British Conservative politician (as Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies) [Joseph Chamberlain; Sir Alfred Milner]
Publication details: 
15 March [1901]; on Colonial Office letterhead.
£56.00

4to: 2 pp. Mourning border. Good, though a little grubby with fold lines and tear from spike hole at inner corners. Date, address and signature by Onslow, the rest in a secretarial hand. He received Raglan's letter of 25 February, 'forwarding an application from Mr. Llewllyn Phillips for employment in South Africa'. 'Mr. Chamberlain has hitherto refused to forward applications for employment to the High Commissioner, except in cases where Sir Alfred Milner has specially asked for candidates'.

Printed Receipt Signed, with Autograph Signature and manuscript additions in another hand, for three months' governent annuities.

Author: 
Spencer Cowper [Sir William Cowper]
Publication details: 
7 November 1720; [London].
£180.00

Judge (1669-1728), and Attorney-General to the Prince of Wales on the accession of George I. Grandfather of the poet William Cowper, and brother of William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper (1665-1723), Lord Chancellor of England. One of the defendants, in 1699, in the celebrated trial for the murder of Sarah Stout. Dimensions of paper roughly six and a half inches by six inches. On discoloured, spotted paper, with slight wear and loss to one corner (not affecting text). Right edge slightly trimmed, with partial loss to one word'.

Autograph Letter Signed to William Smith.

Author: 
Robert Saunders Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville
Publication details: 
2 July 1820; Wimbledon.
£135.00

Statesman (1771-1851); First Lord of the Admiralty, 1812-27, after whom Melville Sound was named. Three pages, quarto. Very good if a tad grubby.

Printed Receipt Signed, with Manuscript Additions in another hand, for money lent to Queen Anne.

Author: 
Sir David Colyear, 1st Earl of Portmore
Publication details: 
[London]; 19 May 1707.
£150.00

General (c.1656-1730) and Governor of Gibraltar, married to Catherine Sedley, mistress of James II (see item# ). One leaf, dimensions roughly seven inches by ten and a half. Printed text with manuscript additions on recto; docketed on verso. Good, but grubby, and with slight repair to head. Receipt 'of the Honourable [Lord ffitzharding]' (corrected from 'James Vernon Esq'); One of the Four Tellers of the Receipt of Her Majesty's Exchequer', of eighty pounds for twenty-four months interest on £500 lent by Portmore and 'My Ld Kent' on 14 August 1704. Signed 'Portmore'.

Printed Receipt Signed, with Manuscript Additions in another hand, for money lent to Queen Anne.

Author: 
Catherine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester
Publication details: 
[London]; 7 March 1706.
£200.00

Wit (1657-1717), mistress of James II. One leaf, dimensions roughly seven inches by ten and a half. Printed text with manuscript additions on recto with calculations in a contemporary hand on the reverse. Good, but grubby. Receipt 'of the Right Honourable James Vernon Esq; One of the Four Tellers of the Receipt of Her Majesty's Exchequer', of sixty pounds for three months interest on £4000 lent by the Duchess and Sir Henry Furnesse on 19 January 1706. Signed 'Dorchester'.

Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed male correspondent (John Tyndall?).

Author: 
Alexander Strahan
Publication details: 
21 January 1874; on letterhead '12, Paternoster Row, London'.
£65.00

Two pages, octavo. Good, apart from damage and loss to one edge caused by removal from mount. Would appear to relate to the controversy between the surgeon Sir Henry Thompson (1820-1904) and John Tyndall (1820-1893), held in the pages of Strahan's 'Contemporary Review'. Reads 'I herewith send you the proof of your reply to Sir Henry Thompson | Please revise and return it tomorrow.

Autograph Letter Signed to 'Miss Moseley'.

Author: 
Sir Henry Taylor
Publication details: 
7 January 1878; The Roost, Bournemouth.
£108.00

English poet, essayist and civil servant (1800-86), author of 'Philip van Artevelde' (1834). Four pages, 12mo. Very good, on somewhat grubby paper. He is glad that his correspondent's aunt 'is getting so well thro' the seventies of this winter & the changes, which are perhaps more trying than a constancy of coldness. Indeed what were in my time the established notions about the evil effects of cold weather seem to be subverted, & not without reason.

Autograph Letter Signed ['J. Arthur Thomson'] to an unnamed firm of publishers.

Author: 
Sir John Arthur Thomson (1861-1933), Professor of Natural History at the University of Aberdeen, 1899-1930
Publication details: 
10 August 1914; his letterhead from the Natural History Department, Marischal College, The University, Aberdeen.
£100.00

One page, octavo. On aged paper, with slight chipping to corners, but text clear and entire. He is afraid that he 'did not answer your second letter in regard to a book on Sex.' 'After careful consideration', Thomas and 'Prof. Geddes' [Sir Patrick Geddes, 1854-1932] have come to the conclusion that 'if we wrote another book on that subject it should be published either by "Walter Scott" (who has 'The Evolution of Sex') or by Williams and Norgate (who have 'Sex')' [both books, 1889 and 1914 respectively, also by Geddes and Thomson].

Autograph Letter Signed ('C S.Calverley') to Mrs [?] Lewis [of Ickleton?].

Author: 
Charles Stuart Calverley (1831-1884), English poet and wit [Sir George Grove]
Publication details: 
Bishopsbourne Rectory, Canterbury; 19 August [year not stated].
£100.00

Three pages, 12mo. Very good. The blank verso of the second leaf of the bifolium laid down on remains of leaf detached from autograph album. Begins 'At length by certain Proofs 'tis plain (to quote a hymn familiar to my childhood but forgotten now all but that first line) that the readers of Macmillan will know all that is to be known about the mistletoe, thanks to your labours, before Christmas.' He hopes she has received the proofs, and says that 'Grove, the Editor, writes to me that they are in type & he is forwarding them to Ickleton'.

Autograph Note Signed ('F. C. Burnand') to unnamed male individual.

Author: 
Sir Francis Cowley Burnand (1836-1917), English writer, editor of the magazine 'Punch' from 1880 to 1906 [Mark Lemon]
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated [but pre-1870].
£76.00

On irregular piece of lightly creased and aged paper (roughly seven and a half by four and a half inches), with some chipping to extremities. Headed 'Punch Photographs'. 'Mr Mark Lemon [1809-1870, Punch editor] wishes me to come up to you & be photographed. I propose being with you at one tomorrow Saturday, if I am not unavoidably detained in Westminster on a trial.'

Autograph Letter Signed ('A. E. Cockburn') to Thomas Cruttwell, solicitor, of Bath; together with Signed photograph of Cockburn, from the studio of Henry Dixon, Regent's Park, London.

Author: 
Sir Alexander James Edmund Cockburn (1802-1880), 12th Baronet, Lord Chief Justice of England.
Publication details: 
Letter dated 5 April 1846; Castle Taunton. Photograph undated.
£180.00

Letter: four pages, folio. Good, with a little aging and staining to verso of second leaf of bifolium. In Cruttwell's absence Cockburn has taken it upon himself 'to settle Richardson & . Taylor has communicated the result of his interview with Hellings the previous evening. 'He informed me that he had seen certain letters written by the D[e]f[endan]ts to Mrs. Richardson, in which he solicited her to leave her husband, and to bring away with her money and goods belonging to the husband'. Taylor recommends that Hellings' offer of £50 be accepted.

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'.

Autograph Letter Signed to an unnamed clergyman, on the back of a printed handbill.

Author: 
Sir Oswald Mosley (1848-1915), 4th Baronet [Victorian Temperance Movement; John Garrett, D.D.; Robert Whitworth]
Publication details: 
Letter: Rolleston Hall; 15 December 1866. Handbill: '43, Market Street, Manchester, December 12th, 1866.'
£45.00

On a leaf roughly 17 x 12 cms. A small strip is missing from the foot, but this does not appear to affect the texts. Aged and ruckled, with a little staining from previous mount at head and foot of printed side. In the Letter Moseley opines that 'the closing of Public Houses during the whole of Sundays would be attended with great inconvenience to the public, and I cannot therefore agree to the object of Promoters of that scheme'. Docketed in the top left-hand corner 'Mark name on list as unfavourable'. The handbill, signed in type by John Garrett, D.D.

Autograph Letter Signed ('C. L. Eastlake') to Miss [?] Rogers.

Author: 
Sir Charles Lock Eastlake (1793-1865), English painter and President of the Royal Academy
Publication details: 
15 May [year not stated]; 13 Upper Fitzroy Street [London].
£56.00

Two pages, 12mo. On gray paper. Good, though lightly ruckled and aged. He thanks her for the 'information about the silk', and accepts her invitation. He haad intended to call on her the day before, but was prevented by the weather.

Lithographic caricature of Panizzi by 'Ape' ['Men of the Day. No 77'], with letterpress.

Author: 
Ape' [Carlo Pellegrini (1838-89)], Victorian caricaturist; Sir Anthony Panizzi (1797-1879), Chief Librarian at the British Museum
Publication details: 
[London]: published in 'Vanity Fair', 17 January 1874.
£80.00

Paper dimensions roughly fifteen inches by ten and a half wide; print dimensions twelve inches by seven and a quarter wide. Good clear image with border a little dusty and aged. Full-length image of a dour Panizzi standing at a desk holding a book. Page of letterpress on separate leaf of same dimensions, containing spirited account ['he sought refuge in Switzerland, but he was expelled discreditably from that country, [...] Keeper of the Printed Books [...] the man in all Europe most competent to fill it.

Twelve Typed Letters and one Autograph Letter relating to the printing of the 'Society of Arts Journal', addressed to Sir Henry Trueman Wood and George Kenneth Menzies, Secretaries, Royal Society of Arts, together with one printed circular.

Author: 
[PRINTING: FIRST WORLD WAR]William Archibald Clowes (1866-1937), Chairman, William Clowes & Sons Ltd, English printers
Publication details: 
10 August 1915 to 23 November 1917.
£500.00

Clowes is an eminent firm of English printers, founded in London in 1803, and still thriving in Suffolk. The twelve typed letters are each one page, quarto, on the firm's Duke Street letterhead. The autograph letter is one page, 12mo, with mourning border. The collection in good condition overall, with a few items aged and lightly creased. Most items docketed and bearing the Society's stamp. All items except the circular signed by 'W A Clowes', who (he informs Wood in his first letter) has taken over from his cousin, Captain W. C.

Autograph Letter Signed ('S. Kato') in English to [?] Beaufort.

Author: 
Shozo Kato (of Osaka, Japan, and 8 New Oxford Street, London, England), dealer in 'Japanese & Chinese Works of Art' [Japanese; Oriental art]
Publication details: 
3 April 1919; on business letterhead.
£28.00

One page, octavo. On aged, grubby paper with minor staining at foot. He has spent 'all his monney for prints & Books I bought at Sale last Week. I have no balance in my Bank at all. (ganz nichts) if you are not inconvenient [sic] Please bring some L. S. D. on Saturday next'. Postscript: 'My business is Ratton N. B. G.' It is thought that Kato obtained a large portion of the Japanese prints for Sir Edmund Walker's celebrated collection.

Bookplate.

Author: 
Sir Richard Burton of Sacketts Hill House, Isle of Thanet, Kent
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated [c.1820].
£10.00

On piece of paper roughly three and a half inches by three wide. Good, lightly aged with a little creasing to one corner. Pleasant armorial design within floral arrangement. Motto 'VIGILANS' on scroll above 'Sir Richard Burton' in copperplate at foot. Indentation of plate around edge.

Albert Rutherston: A Catalogue of the Illustrated Books, Periodicals, Pamphlets, Christmas Cards, Pantomimes, Diaries and Almanacks, Pattern Papers, Ornaments and Autographed Letters in the Collections of Manchester Polytechnic Library.

Author: 
Ian Rogerson [Albert Rutherston (1881-1953), artist and illustrator; Sir William Rothenstein]
Publication details: 
Manchester: Manchester Polytechnic Library, 1988.
£10.00

Quarto: ix + 21 pages. Stapled. In original cream wraps, with colour cover illustration by Helen Taylor. Full-page reproduction of drawing of Rutherston by his brother Sir William Rothenstein. Introduction places Rutherston in the tradition of Edward Gordon Craig and Claud Lovat Fraser. Copies of the second edition (1992) recorded by COPAC, but not at BL or Bodley.

Typed Letter Signed to Sir Francis Peek.

Author: 
Ralph David Blumenfeld
Publication details: 
8 July 1932; on letterhead of The Company of Newspaper Makers.
£36.00

American-born British journalist (1864-1948), editor of the Daily Express, 1904-32. One page, quarto. Good, but on slightly discoloured paper, with slight staining to the four corners from previous mounting. Reads 'As one printer to another I want to tell you what I think of your magazine "Change". It does you all great credit. It is exceedingly well produced, presented with remarkably good taste, and I am astonished at the knowledge and technique.

Autograph Letter Signed to William Symonds, R.N., with presentation copy of 'Some Remarks on the Rules to be observed in forming a Code of International Signals; with a comparative review of the systems proposed [...] by Captain Levin Joergen Rohde'.

Author: 
Henry Cranmer Phillipps [Henry Cranmer March Phillipps], R.N.; Captain Levin Joergen Rohde, of the Royal Danish Navy, Knight of the Dannebrog; Sir William Symonds
Publication details: 
LETTER: [Avebury, B[uckinghamshire]?], 3 November 1835; PAMPHLET: London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green & Longman, Paternoster-row. 1835. [Printed by Manning and Smithson, Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row.]
£120.00

Full subtitle: 'With a comparative review of the systems proposed by H. Cranmer Phillipps, R.N. and by Captain Levin Joergen Rohde, of the Royal Danish Navy, Knight of the Dannebrog, &c. &c.' The letter was previously attached by four small pieces of red sealing wax on the verso of its blank second leaf to the title-page of the pamphlet. Letter and pamphlet are now detached, with traces of wax adhering to both, but not affecting the text of either. LETTER: 12mo, one page. Good on aged paper.

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'.

On the Drawing Office. Received 13th March, 1895; Read 26th March, 1895.

Author: 
Sir Archibald Denny (1860-1936), Scottish shipbuilder who chaired a 1912 British committee to investigate the Titanic sinking [Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland (Incorporated)]
Publication details: 
Offprint 'Reprinted from the Transactions of the Institution.'; Glasgow: Wm. Asher, Central Printing Works, 80 Gordon St. 1895.
£85.00

Thirteen pages, octavo, and fold-out 'PLATE XXI' (eight and a half inches by twenty-two and a half wide), with nine illustrations, headed 'THE DRAWING OFFICE BY MR. ARCHIBALD DENNY.', by Robert Gardner & Co., Engineering Lithographers, Glasgow. Unbound and stapled. Good, on aged and lightly foxed paper. Original pink printed wraps detached, chipped and with minor loss. PRESENTATION COPY, with front wrap (which has minor offsetting in ink) headed in pencil 'With the Authors Compts'. Ownership inscription of 'H. J. Young | Nov: '95' at head of first page.

Manuscript debenture, signed 'Macclesfield' and 'Walpole'.

Author: 
George Parker (c.1697-1764), 2nd Earl of Macclesfield, astronomer; Robert Walpole (1701-1751), 2nd Earl of Orford (as Baron Walpole)
Publication details: 
3 November 1741; [Whitehall].
£56.00

Two pages. On piece of paper roughly five inches by nine wide. Aged and with a few nicks, but good overall. Seven lines, beginning 'Debentur Carolo Duci St. Alban Magro Austrag Dni Rs [...]'. 'Letter Money' in margin. Various docketings cross-wise on reverse, including signature of 'Jno: Bidleson' ('John Bidleson Atto. Int. J Dawson') and sums totalling £343 2s 6d.

Letter in secretarial hand signed by Webb ('Aston Webb') to Alice Bertha, Lady Gomme (1852-1938).

Author: 
Sir Aston Webb (1849-1930), English architect, best-known for Admiralty Arch, the Victoria Memorial and his work on Buckingham Palace
Publication details: 
1 March 1912; on letterhead '19, QUEEN ANNE'S GATE | WESTMINSTER | LONDON, S.W.'
£38.00

One page, octavo. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper. 'Pray use me as you think fit on Monday March 4th. & I will do what I can | Perhaps you would not mind telling me if it is to be in reply to a toast & if so what & also whether decorations are worn. I imagine it is more or less of a private dinner & therefore they will not be'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('S. Leigh Sotheby') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Samuel Leigh Sotheby (1805-61), British auctioneer and antiquary
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£200.00

Three pages, 12mo. On aged paper, with a few closed tears and rust marking to blank verso of second leaf of bifolium. He thanks him for sending the books for examination. 'Mrs. Sotheby will take a photograph of the phiz of Peter Schoeffer, But as to the woodcut being of that I do not at present believe it - | The letters & papers are not of the time.' He asks him to translate a passage, comments further on Schoeffer, and asks if his correspondent has 'any new of Paper Factory for me.' Concludes 'Write me the full particulars of what Dutch Collection in the library of Sir Ths.

For sale by order of the trustees of the will. Hampstead Heath. The well-known Freehold Estate of the late Sir Spencer Wells, Bart., a perfect Country Seat within five miles of Charing Cross. [...] known as Golder's Hill.

Author: 
Sir Thomas Spencer Wells [Hampstead Heath; Golder's Hill House; London topography]
Publication details: 
For Sale by Auction by Messrs. Debenham, Tewson, Farmer and Bridgewater | At the Mart, Tokenhouse Yard, near the Bank of England, in the City of London. On Tuesday, the 28th day of June, 1898.
£100.00

Two unbound bifoliums stapled together. Eight pages, on four leaves each roughly seventeen inches by eleven wide. A corrected proof, stamped at head of first page 'PROOF NO.' A frail survival of a significant document in London topographical history. Aged and worn, with several closed tears. A few manuscript emendations, notes and additions in different hands. For example, concerning a right of way, 'Messrs. Debenham can ascertain this from Mr. Pinder Simpson 20 Old Burlington St. W. the Collector'.

Autograph Signature on fragment of letter.

Author: 
Sir Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice (1780-1863), 3rd Marquis of Lansdowne, Whig politician and abolitionist
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£15.00

Dimensions of paper roughly one and three-quarter inches by five and a quarter wide. Aged, ruckled, and with traces of glue from previous mounting on reverse. Reads 'Your very faithful | servt | Lansdowne', and on reverse, '<...> as if I did so I shou<...> | be referred to the answer <...>'.

Autograph Signatures, with others, on fragment of document authorizing repairs.

Author: 
Vice Admiral Sir George Francis Seymour (1787-1870); Admiral Richard James Meade, Lord Gilford (1832-1907, ltr 4th Earl of Clanwilliam); Admiral Sir William Fanshawe Martin (1801-95) [THE ROYAL NAVY]
Publication details: 
Circa 1856; no place.
£76.00

On both sides of a piece of aged paper watermarked 1855, dimensions three inches by eight and a quarter wide. Good, though a tad grubby, with traces of previous brown paper mount adhering to reverse. Recto reads '[tick] H.C.L. | [in another hand] App? | [signature] . Captain | in Comd of Division. | [in another hand] [signature] C M Collins | 1st Class Asst. Engineer | [in another hand] [signature] Gilford | Lieut in Comd. | [in another hand] Approved for necessary Defects | to be made good. | [signature] G F Seymour | Vice Adml. and Commr. in Chief'.

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