SOCIETY

[The man who coined the term ‘scientist’: William Whewell, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.] Autograph Letter Signed to Rev. J. E. Dalton of the British and Foreign Bible Society, declining the position of chairman of the Cambridge committee.

Author: 
William Whewell (1794-1866), polymath who coined the word ‘scientist’, Master of Trinity College Cambridge and authority on the history of science [Rev. J. E. Dalton; British and Foreign Bible Society
Publication details: 
‘Trin. Lodge, [Trinity College, Cambridge] Oct 26 1849’.
£50.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, and the entry for ‘scientist’ in the OED. Whewell first used the word in 1834 in the Quarterly Review, stating that ‘some ingenious gentleman proposed that, by analogy with artist, they might form scientist, and added that there could be no scruple in making free with this termination when we have such words as sciolist, economist, and atheist’. It is probable that the ‘ingenious gentleman’ is Whewell himself. 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of a bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with the blank second leaf slightly damaged by removal from mount.

[James Copland, Scottish physician and medical writer, President of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society..] Autograph Signature on part of form signed as Professor (‘pro temp.’) of Surgery at University College Hospital, London.

Author: 
James Copland (1791-1870), Scottish physician and prolific medical writer, editor of the ‘London Medical Repository’, President of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society
Publication details: 
No date or place.
£35.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Slip of paper, roughly 18 x 2.5 cm, cut from form. Somewhat discoloured by the glue with which it is laid down on irregularly-cut backing card. Good firm signature ‘James Copland’, followed by the lithographed word ‘Professor.’ in gothic script, which is followed by ‘pro temp.’ in Copland’s autograph. See Image.

[Cecil Day-Lewis, poet laureate; Nicholas Blake.] Autograph Card Signed to D. Kilham Roberts, casting his vote for Osbert Sitwell as the next chairman of the Society of Authors.

Author: 
Cecil Day-Lewis [C. Day-Lewis] (1904-1972), Anglo-Irish poet and British Poet Laureate who wrote crime fiction under the pseudonym of Nicholas Blake [D. Kilham Roberts, Society of Authors, London]
Publication details: 
9 August 1944. Letterhead of ORION, 26 Manchester Square, London, W.1. (with address cancelled)
£50.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. An unillustrated post card, apart from the letterhead. Addressed, with stamp and Paddington postmark, to ‘Dr William Roberts / Briarlea / Mortimer / Berks.’ The message reads: ‘I vote for Osbert S. [i.e. Osbert Sitwell] as next chairman Soc. Authors [etc?] / Yrs / C. Day Lewis’. Image on request.

[China exploration; Sir Clement Markham, geographer and explorer, President of the Royal Geographical Society.] Autograph Letter Signed re author of an account of a journey in Chih-l (china)..

Author: 
Sir Clements Markham [Sir Clements Robert Markham] (1830-1916), English geographer, explorer and writer, President of the Royal Geographical Society who organised Scott’s Antarctic expedition
Publication details: 
18 April 1905; 21 Eccleston Square S.W. [London]
£150.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged. Folded twice, with spots of discoloration around the creases and slight nick at head of leaf. On monogram (Order of the Bath?) letterhead with motto ‘Tria juncta in uno’. Addressed to ‘Dear Mr. Townshend’ and signed ‘Clements R Markham’. Acknowledging receipt ‘of a paper by your brother-in-law Mr.

[China exploration; Sir Clement Markham, geographer and explorer, President of the Royal Geographical Society.] Autograph Letter Signed re author of an account of a journey in Chih-l (china)..

Author: 
Sir Clements Markham [Sir Clements Robert Markham] (1830-1916), English geographer, explorer and writer, President of the Royal Geographical Society who organised Scott’s Antarctic expedition
Publication details: 
18 April 1905; 21 Eccleston Square S.W. [London]
£150.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged. Folded twice, with spots of discoloration around the creases and slight nick at head of leaf. On monogram (Order of the Bath?) letterhead with motto ‘Tria juncta in uno’. Addressed to ‘Dear Mr. Townshend’ and signed ‘Clements R Markham’. Acknowledging receipt ‘of a paper by your brother-in-law Mr.

[Religious Tract Society.] Two uncommon printed pamphlets: ‘The Blind Schoolmistress of Devonshire. A True and Interesting Story.’ and ‘Scotch Betty: A True Story of a Poor Woman, who was run over by a Waggon’.

Author: 
Religious Tract Society, London; W. Clowes and A. Applegarth, publishers
Publication details: 
'Scotch Betty': c.1818. London: A. Applegarth for the Religious Tract Society. 'The Blind Schoolmistress'. c. 1830. London: W. Clowes for the RTS.
£50.00

Two nice ephemeral items. Both now quite scarce: the first (four copies on COPAC) more than the second. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Disbound and stabbed as issued. ONE: ‘No. 592. / The Blind Schoolmistress of Devonshire. / A True and Interesting Story.’ 8pp, 12mo. Slug at foot of p.8 (beneath the RTS’s dove-and-olive-branch device): ‘London: Printed by W. Clowes, Stamford-street, for The Religious Tract Society; and sold at their Depository, 56, Paternoster-row; also by J. and C.

[Joan of Arc: Rev. Dr Walter Sidney Scott of Shortfield House, Frensham.] Autograph and Typescript material by him relating to Joan of Arc (talk, paper, article, dramatic ‘Reverie’), with material relating to his family pedigree.

Author: 
[Joan of Arc] Walter Sidney Scott (1900-1980) [Rev. Dr W. S. Scott of Shortfield House, Frensham], English cleric, author and biographer of Joan of Arc [Jeanne d’Arc]
Publication details: 
Between 1956 and 1974. (Genealogical material earlier?)
£580.00

Scott was the author of books on subjects as diverse as the bluestockings and metaphysical poets. He produced two works on Joan of Arc: first, in 1956, the Folio Society published his edition of ‘The trial of Joan of Arc, being the verbatim report of the proceedings from the Orleans Manuscript’; then, in 1974, appeared his biography ‘Jeanne d’Arc’, published by Harrap. With regard to the present material, Items One to Five are all typed, and Item Seven contains exclusively-autograph material.

[Norfolk postal history.] Autograph Album titled ‘The Posts in Norfolk Related under the headings of the respective Towns and Villages’, ‘Compiled and Arranged by A. E. Trout / South Cave. E. Yks’; franks, stamps, covers and other matter inserted.

Author: 
[Norfolk postal history; British Post Office in East Anglia] A. E. Trout of South Cave, East Yorkshire [Society of Postal Historians, London]
Publication details: 
Written in 1950s. Introductory note dated April 1956; from Church Street, South Cave, East Yorkshire. Volume begins around 1952, and latest item is from December 1959. Contains Norfolk franks from 1829, 1835 and 1884.
£1,500.00

An interesting and informative item in postal history, which in 1956 received the endorsement of being exhibited at the Pall Mall headquarters of the Society of Postal Historians (see below). Manuscript title-page reads: ‘The Posts in Norfolk. / Related under the headings of the respective Towns and Villages. / With various Post Town Lists, Introductory Notes, and Illustrated with Letters, Covers, Stamps, Postmarks, Cuttings, and other Postal Material. / Compiled and Arranged by / A. E. Strout / South Cave. E. Yks.’ 173pp, 4to.

[Lady Diana Cooper, English society beauty, actress and memoirist.] Autograph Signature on publicity photograph of her dressed as a nun, from the play 'The Miracle'.

Author: 
Lady Diana Cooper [née Lady Diana Olivia Winifred Maud Manners, later, as wife of Duff Cooper, Viscountess Norwich] (1892-1986), English society beauty, actress and memoirist
Diana
Publication details: 
1932. No place.
£45.00
Diana

See her entry in the Oxford DNB, which describes how she accepted Max Reinhardt's offer ‘to play the Madonna in a mime play, The Miracle. This was first staged in the USA from November 1923 to the following May, and again for the following three autumns and winters. It toured Europe in 1927, and London and the provinces in 1932; the last performance was in January 1933.

[Charlotte Bronte ‘did not always tell the truth’ and guilty of ‘deceit’.] Copy of Typed Letter to E. F. Benson [from her editor John Alexander Symington], criticising her, with reference to C. W. Hatfield and T. J. Wise.

Author: 
[Charlotte Bronte; John Alexander Symington (1887-1961), literary editor; E. F. Benson [Edward Frederic Benson] (1867-1940); Thomas James Wise (1859-1837), book collector and forger; C. W. Hatfield]
Publication details: 
25 April 1932.
£450.00

See the various entries in the Oxford DNB. Typed carbon copy. 1p, foolscap 8vo. Text complete, on aged piece of carbon paper, worn and chipped at edges. No signature. Addressed at foot to ‘E. F. Benson Esq.’ Thirty-one lines of text. He begins by stating that Benson, in his ‘work on Charlotte Brontë’, has ‘made a very correct study of her’. After discussing a point about Branwell Bronte, he states: ‘We cannot rely on Charlotte’s assertion that he knew nothing whatever of their ventures in publishing.

[The Abdication Crisis, 1936: Sir Osbert Sitwell.] Mimeographed copy, marked ‘Private’, of the unexpurgated version of the satirical poem ‘RAT WEEK. / by Osbert Sitwell’, the cause of a legal action with ‘Cavalcade’.

Author: 
The Abdication Crisis, 1936: Sir Osbert Sitwell [Sir Francis Osbert Sacheverell Sitwell, 5th Baronet] (1892-1969) [King Edward VIII and Mrs Wallis Simpson; Abdication, 1936; Cavalcade]
Sitwell
Publication details: 
Undated, but circa 1936. On paper watermarked 'BELFAST BOND / MADE IN CANADA'.
£180.00
Sitwell

See Sitwell’s entry in the Oxford DNB. In his 1999 biography Philip Ziegler describes how the ‘doggerel polemic Rat Week’ ‘excoriated’ the supporters of the Edward VII and Mrs Simpson: ‘Osbert realised that this diatribe, if published, might land him in a flurry of libel actions, but he could not resist having a few copies made and distributed to his closer cronies; Mrs. Greville, Lady Aberconway, Lady Cholmondeley and Philip Frere among them.

[Pyramids of Egypt.] Substantial Conclusion of Autograph Letter Signed from ‘William Lydiard - / Master’s Mate of HM Prison Ship San Ysidro’ to the Earl of Leicester, suggesting, after the fall of Alexandria, that ‘these mysterious piles’ be opened.

Author: 
[Pyramids of Egypt: William Lydiard, Master’s Mate of HM Prison Ship San Ysidro, Plymouth Dock [Earl of Leicester, President of the Society of Antiquaries; Egyptology; fall of Alexandria]
Publication details: 
Undated, but on Britannia paper watermarked 1805; and the San Ysidro was a prison ship at Plymouth between May 1805 and September 1814.
£380.00

Napoleon’s Egyptian Campaign, 1798-1801, inspired a period of ‘Egyptomania’ culminating in Champollion’s decipherment of the Rossetta Stone. The contribution of the author of this letter to this outpouring of scholarly activity is an offer to the President of the Society of Antiquaries of London to blow up one of the pyramids, in order to extract their contents. See the recipient’s entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 8vo. Bifolium of laid Britannia paper, watermarked 1805. Fifty-five lines, well laid out and written in a neat and stylish hand.

[Richard Herne Shepherd, Victorian bibliographer.] Autograph Letter Signed to C. Oscar Gridley, arranging for ?a stroll on the heath?, and enclosing a cutting relating to Froude?s life of Carlyle.

Author: 
Richard Herne Shepherd (1840-1895), Victorian bibliographer [Charles Oscar Gridley (1853-1941), Secretary of the Carlyle Society]
Publication details: 
?5 Bramerton-street, Kings road, / Chelsea, S. W. Oct. 11. 1884?.
£165.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Gridley was the Secretary of the Carlyle Society. He had visited Walt Whitman in America earlier in the year. 2pp, 16mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Addressed to ?C. Oscar Gridley, Esq.? and signed ?R H Shepherd?. ?Weather permitting (which is likely)?, he proposes to call on Gridley on the following day, ?for a stroll on the heath, &c.? He is ?quite well and on my legs again, since last Wednesday?. He ends by stating that he is enclosing a cutting which will interest him.

[J. B. S. Haldane [John Burdon Stevenson Haldane], geneticist; Robert Edward Stevenson, Hollywood film maker (‘Jane Eyre’, ‘Mary Poppins’).] Autograph Signatures to paper recording a vote at the Cambridge Union, with circular notice of 1927 meeting.

Author: 
J. B. S. Haldane [John Burdon Stevenson Haldane] (1892-1964), geneticist; Robert Edward Stevenson (1905-1986), Hollywood film maker (‘Jane Eyre’, ‘Mary Poppins’), President of the Cambridge Union
J. B. S. Haldane
Publication details: 
Cambridge Union Society notice of meeting on 2 May 1927 ('Easter Term, 1927').
£56.00
J. B. S. Haldane

See the two men's entries in the Oxford DNB. Stevenson was president of the Cambridge Union in 1928. The material is in good condition, lightly aged. ONE: Manuscript notice of vote. On one side of a piece of thick 8vo paper, with small nick at one top corner. At the head, one above the other, are the signatures: 'J. B. S. Haldane. / R. E. Stevenson / P. M. [Wright?]'. At the foot of the page, in a fourth hand: 'Ayes. 184. / Noes. 310.' TWO: Duplicated circular of typed notice. 1p, 12mo. Laid down on reverse of leaf carrying Item One. Headed: 'Cambridge Union Society / Easter Term, 1927.

[Elizabeth, Lady Eastlake, journalist and writer on art, wife of painter Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, President of the Royal Academy and first Director of the National Gallery.] Autograph Letter Signed to Lady Alderson, reporting a death in the family,

Author: 
Elizabeth, Lady Eastlake [née Rigby] (1809-1893), writer on art, wife of painter Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, President of Royal Academy and first Director of National Gallery [Georgina, Lady Alderson]
Publication details: 
‘7. FitzRoy Sqre. [London] / 27. Novr. 1867’.
£45.00

See her entry in the Oxford DNB, and that of the recipient’s husband, the judge Sir Edward Hall Alderson (1787-1857). 4pp, 16mo. Bifolium with thick mourning border. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded for postage. Begins: ‘Dear Lady Alderson / Fresh, & very heavy sorrow has befallen us, or I wd. sooner have answered yr ot of last Saturday. The death of Captn.

[The Cambridge Apostles, 1871.] Autograph Letter Signed from Frederic Ferrar, proprietor of the Star and Garter, Richmond, to Tom Taylor regarding arrangements for a dinner of the ‘Cambridge Conversazione Soc[iet]y’ [Apostles].

Author: 
The Cambridge Apostles, 1871; the Cambridge Conversazione Society; Frederic Ferrar, proprietor of the Star and Garter, Richmond; Tom Taylor (1817-1880), playwright and comic writer
Publication details: 
11 June 1871. On letterhead of the Star and Garter, Richmond Hill.
£200.00

A nice item relating to a famously secretive and influential society. See Taylor’s entry in the Oxford DNB (Ferrar is not to be confused with the Dean of Canterbury Frederic Farrar, who was an Apostle). 2pp, 12mo. On bifolium. Sixteen lines, very neatly written. On aged and creased paper, with part of the leaf torn away at top left (not affecting text). Folded for postage. Addressed to ‘Tom Taylor Esqre. / 8 Richmond Terrace / Whitehall / S.W.’ and signed ‘Fredc: Ferrar. / Genl.

[‘Hesba Stretton’ (Sarah Smith), evangelical novelist and writer of children’s books.] Autograph Letter Signed [to the Secretary of the Religious Truth Society] regarding a manuscript she has titled ‘From Bethlehem to Olivet’.

Author: 
‘Hesba Stretton’, pseudonym of Sarah Smith (1832-1911), evangelical novelist and writer of children’s books [Religious Truth Society, London]
Publication details: 
‘70 Lansdowne Road. W. [London] / Jan 30. 1884’.
£45.00

See her entry in the Oxford DNB, and Elaine Lomax’s 2016 book, ‘The Writings of Hesba Stretton: Reclaiming the Outcast’. 1p, 16mo. Cut down to 11.5 x 12 cm. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded once for postage. The recipient is not named, but is clearly the secretary of the Religious Truth Society (who appear to have published the MS referred to in the letter as ‘The Sweet Story of Old’ (see Lomax). Signed ‘Hesba Stretton’. ‘Dear Sir, / I forward by this post my promised M.

[Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, son of George III.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Augustus Frederick') [to Earl St Vincent], attacking the Prime Minister Lord Liverpool while discussing his election as President of the Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (1773-1843), sixth son of George III, bibliophile [John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent (1735-1823), naval hero; Ellis Cornelia Knight (1757-1837); Lord Liverpool]
Publication details: 
Kensington Palace; 3 February 1816.
£350.00

An interesting letter, attacking the serving Tory Prime Minister Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool (1770-1828), who had stood against the Duke of Sussex (noted for his liberal sympathies) in the election for President of the Royal Society of Arts. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded three times. The recipient is not named, but is identified in an endorsement on the reverse of the second leaf as 'Earl St Vincent'. Written in a hurried, untidy hand.

[Wife of George Cruikshank] Autograph Letter Signed from 'E. Cruikshank' to Wright with autograph initials of George.

Author: 
Eliza Cruikshank (wife of the English caricaturist George Cruikshank, 1792-1878); William Henry Kearley Wright (1844-1915), Plymouth antiquary and librarian and editor of the Ex Libris Society journal
Publication details: 
26 July 1877; 263 Hampstead Road.
£40.00

One page, on paper roughly four and a half inches by seven wide. Very good on lightly aged paper. She is enclosing her husband's signature. '[H]e desires me to thank you for your clever and truthful verses of An appeal to the Protestants of England [Plymouth, 1873]; which he has seen before; and which we both most highly approve of.' The Cruikshanks are glad to hear that the Wrights have 'arrived Home safely'. George Cruikshank has written G.C. | born | Sep 27th 79. See Image

['By consent of the Police? NO.': E. V. Knox, editor of 'Punch'.] Typed Card Signed from Cyril Clemens of the Internation Mark Twain Society, asking for Knox's 'definition of democracy', with carbon copy of Knox's reply.

Author: 
Cyril Coniston Clemens (1902-1999), founder of the International Mark Twain Society, the writer’s third cousin twice removed; E. V. Knox [Edmund George Valpy Knox, ‘Evoe’] (1881-1971), 'Punch' editor
Publication details: 
Clemens' TCS: 10 January 1969, with his stamp as president of the Internation Mark Twain Society, Webster Groves, Missouri. Carpon of Knox's reply, 1 March 1949.
£90.00

See Knox’s entry in the Oxford DNB. The two items are in fair condition, lightly aged and creased, each with a couple of lightly-rusted pin holes. Clemens’s plain card, with stamps and postmarks, is addressed to ‘E. V. Knox Esq / c/o Punch / London, England.’, and is signed ‘faithfully / C C Clemens’. The message reads: ‘Dear E.V. Knox / We hope the life of President Truman reached you safely? / The Society is arranging a symposium on democracy You may care to send your definition of democracy and a few comments.

[Mary Whitehouse, campaigner against the ‘permissive society’, founder and president of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association.] Two Autograph Notes Signed on compliments slips, and her ‘New Address’ in Autograph.

Author: 
Mary Whitehouse [née Constance Mary Hutcheson] (1910-2001), campaigner against the ‘permissive society’, founder and president of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association
Publication details: 
None of the items dated, but from the 1960s or 1970s.
£100.00

A controversial figure much-ridiculed by the media, but nevertheless wielding considerable influence. See her entry in the Oxford DNB. All three items in good condition. Items 1 and 2 are 11.5 x 9 cm compliments slips for ‘The Secretary’ of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, with the address in the bottom left-hand corner: ‘MRS. MARY WHITEHOUSE | Triangle Farm House | Far Forest | Nr. KIDDERMINSTER | Worcs.’ and her phone number at bottom right. ONE: ‘The Secretary’ crossed out by Whitehouse and replaced with her signature ‘Mary Whitehouse’. Autograph message: ‘In haste.

[John Marshall, President of the Royal College of Surgeons and Professor of Anatomy at the Royal Academy.] Autograph Letter Signed to Bernard Piffard, regarding evolution, respiratory problems, an award in Dublin and Mrs Pickard’s health.

Author: 
John Marshall (1818-1891), President of the College of Surgeons and Professor of Anatomy at the Royal Academy [Bernard Piffard (1833-1916), microscopist and entomologist]
Publication details: 
28 April 1886; on letterhead of 10 Savile Row, W. [London].
£65.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. From the Piffard papers. Marshall’s handwriting is hurried and in places difficult to decipher. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Addressed to ‘Dear Mr. Piffard’ and signed ‘John Marshall’. Piffard’s gift of ‘the Box of flowers, with [?]’ leads him to opine: ‘The Daffodils are lovely. - Why is Nature so beautiful? Can it be merely to please the Eye of Man?

[A young Englishman in 1960s Japan.] Typescript of an untitled novel by an unnamed individual, regarding the cultural and personal adventures in Japan of character Christopher Peter Butterworth, with numerous emendations, additions and corrections.

Author: 
[Japan in the 1960s; Japanese culture; English expatriate; unpublished typescript of novel]
Publication details: 
No place or date. But clearly written by an English writer, and containing references dating it to the late 1960s.
£450.00

The present item - presumably autobiographical and definitely unpublished - is in a disordered state, and certainly not in the best of condition, with some parts apparently missing; but it is certainly worthy of attention, as a well-written production over which the author has taken some pains, with numerous manuscript additions and emendations in green and black felt-tip pen, describing from the point of view of a young Englishman 1960s Anglo-Japanese culture shock. 239pp, all but two of which are 4to, the two being foolscap.

[‘The most fashionable place in London’: The Clarendon Hotel, Bond Street; Foreign 'Great and Good@] Around 180 entries in the hotel guestbook, on extracted leaves, the greater part of them signatures of ‘Nobility and Gentry, and Foreigners of rank’.

Author: 
‘The most fashionable place in London’: The Clarendon Hotel, Bond Street [Georgian England]
Publication details: 
The Clarendon Hotel, Bond Street, London. The entries all said to date from 1831.
£1,200.00

The Clarendon Hotel was once - as ‘Routledge’s Popular Guide to London’ stated in 1862 - ‘the most fashionable place in London’, and the present collection of autograph signatures from its guestbook, all of them said to date from 1831, bear witness to the fact that - as ‘Gilbert’s Visitor’s Guide to London’ (1851) states - it was ‘frequented by the Nobility and Gentry, and Foreigners of rank’. Its reputation had been made during the Regency period, and in 1820 ‘Leigh’s New Picture of London’ stated that it ‘and Jaquiers are now one hotel’.

[Sir David Chadwick, Indian Trade Commissioner.] Thirteen Signed Letters, eight Typed and five in Autograph, to Sir H. T. Wood and G. K. Menzies, Secretaries of the Royal Society of Arts, mostly regarding membership business.

Author: 
Sir David Chadwick [Sir David Thomas Chadwick] (1876-1954), British colonial civil servant, Secretary of the Imperial Agricultural Bureaux [Royal Society of Arts, London; Sir H. T. Wood; G. K. Menzies
Publication details: 
Between 22 December 1916 and 11 June 1930. Eight on London letterheads of: Indian Trade Commissioner, Department of Commerce and Industry, Government of India (5); and Imperial Agricultural Bureaux (3). Two from Beckenham, Kent.
£90.00

See his entry in Who Was Who. The thirteen items in good condition, lightly aged, most with RSA date stamp and annotations. A total of 12pp, 8vo, in autograph; and 5pp, 4to, typed. The first ten signed ‘D T Chadwick’ and the last three ‘David Chadwick’. The earliest letter, to RSA Secretary Sir Henry Trueman Wood on 22 December 1916, deals with the publication of Chadwick’s remarks ‘at the discussion on Prof. Todds paper before the Indian Section of the Society of Arts’.

[Pocahontas; Lyndon B. Johnson [Lyndon Baines Johnson; 'LBJ'], 36th President] Typed Letter Signed, as a senator, regarding a visit to America by 'the rector of St. George's Church at Gravesend' (in England, where Pocahontas is buried).

Author: 
Lyndon B. Johnson [Lyndon Baines Johnson, known as ‘LBJ’] (1908-1973), 36th President of the United States of America; a Democrat who succeeded John F. Kennedy, to whom he had served as Vice-President
Johnson
Publication details: 
24 September 1951. On letterhead of the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services [Washington, D.C.].
£450.00
Johnson

The present item is a genuine signature. It has been compared with a number of examples from the 1950s, including one from the same year of 1951, all of which differ, and Johnson is not known to have used an autopen until he became president (in 1968 it was dubbed ‘The Robot That Sits In For The President’ by the National Enquirer). 1p, 4to. On a leaf of wove paper, with US government American eagle watermark. In fair condition, lightly aged, and folded twice for postage. There is some light wear to the left of the signature, having a negligible effect on its final uptick.

[Solomon J. Solomon, RA, English artist.] Signed Autograph Inscription for an autograph hunter.

Author: 
Solomon J. Solomon [Solomon Joseph Solomon] (1860-1927), English painter of Jewish extraction, Fellow of the Royal Society, President of the Royal Society of British Artists
Solomon
Publication details: 
14 October 1894; on letterhead of 60 Finchley Road, N.W. [London]
£45.00
Solomon

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On 9.5 x 10 cm piece of paper, laid down on 11 cm square piece of card. In good condition, lightly browned and aged. The letterhead is printed in red. The inscription reads ?Faithfully yours / Solomon J Solomon?.

[H. Brereton Baker, distinguished English chemist.] Autograph Letter Signed [to Sir Henry Trueman Wood, Secretary of the Royal Society of Arts, London], agreeing to give three Cantor lectures.

Author: 
H. Brereton Baker [Herbert Brereton Baker] (1862-1935), distinguished English inorganic chemist [Sir Henry Trueman Wood (1845-1929), Secretary, Royal Society of Arts, London]
Publication details: 
30 July 1913; on letterhead of Latchmoor House, Gerrard?s Cross, Bucks.
£56.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightl aged. Folded once for postage. The recipient is not named, but the letter has at its head the date stamp of the Royal Society of Arts, London, and is docketed by Wood. Signed ?H. Brereton Baker?. He agrees to give ?the three Cantor lectures as you suggest, provided they can begin after the 3rd. week in February?. He gives the subject as ?Catalysis in its scientific and industrial aspects?. A pencil note at the foot gives dates for the lectures as ?Mch 16, 23, 30?.

[‘He walked across Africa’: Verney Lovett Cameron, the first European to cross equatorial Africa from coast to coast.] Autograph Signature to conclusion of a letter: ‘V. Lovett Cameron / Commander R. N.’

Author: 
Verney Lovett Cameron (1844-1894), explorer who ‘walked across Africa’, the first European to cross equatorial Africa from Indian Ocean to Atlantic
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£76.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. A good large bold signature, with the autograph valediction of a letter. On one side of a 20 x 9 cm piece of wove paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Reads: ‘Your’s [sic] very truly / V. Lovett Cameron / Commander R. N.’ See Image.

[Walter Rosenhain, distinguished metallurgist of German-Jewish extraction, grew up in Australia, lived in England.] Six Typed Letters Signed, Two Autograph Letters Signed, and one Typed Note Signed to G. K. Menzies, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Walter Rosenhain (1875-1934), distinguished metallurgist born in Germany of Jewish extraction, who grew up in Australia and moved to England in 1897 [Royal Society of Arts]
Publication details: 
1915, 1924 (3), 1925 (3) and 1926 (2). The nine items on letterheads of the metallurgy department of the National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, Middlesex.
£250.00

See his entries in the Oxford DNB and Australian Dictionary of Biography. The recipient George Kenneth Menzies (1869-1954) was Secretary to the Royal Society of Arts between 1917 and 1935. The nine items are in good condition, lightly aged, and are folded for postage. Each bears the stamp of the RSA, some with manuscript docketting. Letters of 4 April and 18 September 1925 are in autograph, the rest typed; all nine are signed ‘Walter Rosesnhain’.

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