VICTORIAN

Autograph Letter Signed to Mrs R<?> Harvey.

Author: 
Robert Harkness (1816-1878), English geologist
Publication details: 
29 January 1869; on letterhead of Queen's College, Cork.
£28.00

12mo, 1 p. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with slight damage to one corner from removal from mounting, small glue stains from which are evident on the reverse. She was prevented from obtaining his autograph 'during the Meeting of the British Association at Norwich', and he is sending it to her now.

Autograph Letter Signed ('C J Mathews') to Hollingshead.

Author: 
C. J. Mathews [Charles James Mathews] (1803-1878), son of Charles Mathews, English actor and playwright [John Hollingshead (1827-1904), English journalist and theatre manager]
Publication details: 
23 November 1865; 25 Pelham Crescent, London.
£38.00

12mo, 1 p. Fair, on aged paper, with traces of previous mount adhering to the corners of the blank reverse. Of course Hollingshead should 'wait till the last night of "used up" ' before writing to Mathews, who has 'hunted up Buckstone - hunted up Turpin - but in vain. Not a box to be had'. He has sent 'the best I could get': '3 Dress Circle to Mrs Smiles with "Mr Hollingshead's best compliments." '. In a postscript states that if Hollingshead wants 'a box for the "Overland Route" before the last night' he will be 'too happy'. 'There is always a run on last nights.'

Autograph Signature ('Maurice OConnell').

Author: 
Sir Maurice O'Connell [Sir Maurice Charles O'Connell] (1812-1879), Irish soldier, administrator, and politician in Australia [Daniel O'Connell]
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£23.00

On a piece of paper, 2 x 8 cm, cut from a letter. Neatly laid down on a piece of paper, 4 x 9 cm. Good, on aged paper. The signature reads 'Maurice OConnell'. In a contemporary hand, on the mount, 'Maurice O'Connell. MP. | (nephew of King Dan)'. According to the Oxford DNB, Daniel O'Connell ('The Liberator') was a cousin of Maurice's father Sir Maurice Charles Philip O'Connell (1768-1848).

Autograph Signature on part of document

Author: 
Sir Charles Yorke (1790-1880), General in the British Army
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£28.00

A piece of laid paper, roughly 8 x 20 cm, cut from a document by an autograph collector. Yorke's signature, large (4.5 x 7 cm) and bold, is in the bottom right-hand corner. The surviving text is in a secretary's hand, and reads: '<...> of Our Reign. | By His Majesty's Command. | C Yorke | Our Trusty and Wellbeloved William Gordon Esqr General in Our Army & Col of Our 71st (Highland) Regiment of Foot or to the Officer appointed by him to raise Men for Our said Regiment'.

Frank, with signature ('J Lawrence'), seal, and autograph address to Northcote

Author: 
John Laird Mair Lawrence (1811-1879), 1st Baron Lawrence, Viceroy of India from 1864 to 1869 [Sir Stafford Northcote]
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£23.00

Cut from an envelope into a 'T' shape, with the front panel bearing the address and signature roughly 8.5 x 22.5 cm, forming the cross stroke, and the area from the back of the letter bearing the seal, cut into a roughly 6.5 x 5.5 cm rectangle, hanging down from this like the vertical stroke of the letter. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper. Reads 'To the Right Honorable, | Sir Stafford Northcote, Bart | Secretary of State for India | London | J Lawrence'. The circular red wax seal is 3.5 cm in diameter.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Adolphus') concerning the newly-completed St Mary's Hospital, Paddington.

Author: 
Prince Adolphus Frederick (1774-1850), Duke of Cambridge, son of King George III [St Mary's Hospital, Paddington]
Publication details: 
15 March 1850; Cambridge House.
£35.00

12mo, 3 pp. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with a little damage to the four corners of the second leaf caused by removal from mount. Thirty-five lines of text. Clear and complete. He has been afforded 'very great satisfaction' by the announcement that the Hospital 'is now so nearly completed' that it will 'a few weeks hence be delivered into the possession and management of the Governors'. It is a 'new, capacious and very necessary addition to our metropolitan Hospitals'.

Part of Autograph Letter, with signature ('James Wilson').

Author: 
James Wilson (1805-1860), Scottish economist and politician
Publication details: 
Place and date not stated.
£23.00

On one side of a piece of wove paper, roughly 5 x 18.5 cm, cut from letter by an autograph collector. Aged, and with staining from the glue used in mounting. Reads '<...> upon it. | I hope you are quite recovered. | Yours trly | James Wilson'.

Autograph Note Signed ('Eleanor M Sidgwick') to 'Miss Chittenden, Cambridge Training Corps, Wollaston Road, Cambridge'.

Author: 
Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick [née Balfour] (1845-1936), Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge
Publication details: 
16 August 1907; on letterhead of Newnham College, Cambridge.
£28.00

16mo, 1 p. In a bifolium. Seven lines. Clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. In stamped, addressed envelope. Asks if Chittenden will 'come to luncheon' on one of the two following days, as Sidgwick 'hardly saw' her on the previous day.

Printed Receipt, completed in manuscript and signed, for five works by Williamson legally deposited in the Library of the British Museum.

Author: 
Department of Printed Books, British Museum, London [George Charles Williamson (1858-1942), writer on art and historian of Guildford; George Bell & Sons]
Publication details: 
6 October 1904; Department of Printed Books, British Museum, London.
£25.00

On one side of piece of paper 23.5 x 16 cm. With perforated edge. Good, on aged paper, with traces with strip of glue from previous mount on reverse. Printed in copperplate. The deposited works are 'Notes on the Maces, Insignia of Office, and Town Plate of the Town of Guildford', 'Progress of Catholic Work', 'Token Pamphlet', 'Guildford Shakespeare' and 'County Town'. Ostensibly signed by the 'Keeper', but the signature is not decipherable (''). In his obituary in The Times, 6 July 1942, Williamson was praised as 'a highly industrious and versatile writer on art'.

Engraved copperplate Certificate, completed in manuscript and signed by E. Gilbert Highton, with a long 'Private note' by him, notifying Williamson of his election to Fellowship in the Royal Society of Literature.

Author: 
Edward Gilbert Highton, Fellow and Secretary, Royal Society of Literature [George Charles Williamson (1858-1942), writer on art and historian of Guildford; George Bell & Sons]
Publication details: 
3 January 1890, on letterhead of the Royal Society of Literature.
£28.00

4to bifolium (leaf dimensions 26 x 20.5 cm). The notification certificate is on the recto of the first leaf, and Highton's letter is on the recto of the second. Versos of both leaves blank. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper, with 5 cm closed tear to margin of second leaf caused by removal of letter from stub, traces of which still adhere to the verso of the second leaf. The certificate is tastefully printed in black, with the Society's crest in red in the top left-hand corner.

Autograph Letter Signed ('N Card. Wiseman'), in French, to 'Mons Castermann, Editeur, Tournai'.

Author: 
Cardinal Wiseman [Nicholas Patrick Stephen Wiseman] (1802-1865)
Publication details: 
16 August 1856; Brussells.
£56.00

12mo: 1 p. On the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium, with the address, with postmark, on the reverse of the second. On brittle, aged paper. The letter has been neatly folded three times, and there are a few closed tears along the crease lines, including one through the initial 'N' of the signature. Wiseman thanks Castermann for the copy he has sent of 'votre nouvelle édition en Français de "Fabiola". Not only is the 'execution typographique de l'ouvrage' deserving of his praise, but also the translation, which leaves nothing to be desired.

Manuscript notebook, titled 'Anecdotes &c.', containing several hundred humorous stories (transcribed and 'Related'), with a few newspaper and magazine cuttings.

Author: 
Victorian notebook filled with humorous anecdotes [A. S. S. Sidney, Wobaston House, Wolverhampton; nineteenth-century English social history; jokes; humour]
Publication details: 
English. Dated between 1866 and 1911.
£150.00

Quarto (leaf dimensions roughly 19.5 x 15.5 cm). Ruled with twenty-eight lines to the page. Written in a close, neat hand, covering the first ninety-one pages of the notebook. Loosely inserted are twelve pages containing a further thirty stories, on three bifoliums each headed 'Anecdotes &c'. In black-leather half-binding, marbled boards. Good and tight, with text clear and complete on lightly aged paper. Calligraphic design printed on front free endpaper. A charming collection, casting amusing and entertaining light on nineteenth-century English social history.

Excerpta Cantiana; Being the Prospectus of a History of Kent, Preparing for Publication by the Rev. Thomas Streatfeild, F.S.A.'; with two other prospectuses of the same; four prospectuses for Toovey's 'History of Kent'; Autograph Letters Signed.

Author: 
Thomas Streatfeild (1777-1848) [William Nicol, Shakspeare Press; James Toovey; F. C. Brooke; T. G. Godfrey Tempest]
Publication details: 
Excerpta Cantiana' (dated 'Chart's Edge, Westerham, 1 January, 1836'): London: William Nicol, Shakspeare Press, Pall Mall. [1836.] 'History of Kent': London, James Toovey, 177, Piccadilly. [1871].
£250.00

The collection in a contemporary green leather quarter-binding, with grey paper boards and title in gilt on spine. Good, in heavily worn binding splitting at rear hinge. The letters are expertly mounted on leaves in the volume. 'Excerpta Cantiana': folio: 23 pp of letterpress, with illustrations and with three full-page engravings by J. S. Agar and one fold-out pedigree. PRESENTATION COPY from Streatfeild to the antiquary and historian Charles James Palmer of Great Yarmouth.

Lithographed document entitled 'Estimate For the Erection of Proposed New Isolation Hospital at Leavesden Asylum, near Watford, Herts, for the Managers of the Metropolitan Asylum District.'

Author: 
Captain C. E. Dance, R.E.R., Surveyor to the Board [Metropolitan Asylums Board; Leavesden Asylum]
Publication details: 
September 1902. Rich & Co. Electrographers & Lithographers, 12 Furnival St. E.C.
£100.00

Unbound and stapled. Sixty-four pages. Dimensions of leaf roughly thirteen inches by eight wide. Lithographed facsimile handwriting throughout. Aged and with some wear to extremities, but text clear and entire. 'Clerk of Writ Copy' in red ink manuscript at head of first page. An interesting and informative document, compiled on behalf of the Metropolitan Asylums Board, giving in detail the specifications for builders tendering for the contract for the erection of the new hospital.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W Edmondstoun de Aytoun') to James Simpson.

Author: 
William Edmonstoune Aytoun [William Edmondstoun de Aytoun] (1813-1865), Scottish poet
Publication details: 
26 January 1865; 16 Great Stuart Street, Edinburgh.
£280.00

12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium. Twenty-eight lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with evidence of previous mount on reverse of second leaf. Certainly genuine, and of interest as bearing a variant spelling of Aytoun's name in a signature written from his home a few months before his death. (The spelling 'Edmondstoun de Aytoun' is not noted in Aytoun's entry in the Oxford DNB.) In the latter part of the letter Aytoun comments on his poetic practice. He is 'much flattered' by Simpson's 'selection of my poem for a public reading', and is 'glad to hear that it was appreciated'.

The Strand Magazine [containing 'Mr. Andree's Balloon Voyage to the North Pole' by Alfred T. Story]

Author: 
Salomon August Andrée [Andree] (1854-1897) [Strand Magazine, arctic exploration, Conan Doyle; William Le Queux; Alfred W. Porter]
Publication details: 
London: George Newnes, Ltd. July 1896.
£150.00

8vo: xxiv + 120 + viii pp. In original blue printed wraps. Good, in grubby, lightly worn wraps. Thumbprint in margin of one page. Numerous illustrated advertisements at front and rear. Front wrap headed 'TO THE NORTH POLE BY BALLOON! Special Interview with Mr. Andrée.' Many illustrations. Story's piece on Andrée's balloon voyage covers fifteen pages (77-91) and features 25 illustrations and diagrams. Among the other contributions are an installment of Conan Doyle's 'Rodney Stone' and an early illustrated article on X-ray photography, 'The New Photography' by Alfred W. Porter.

Fac-Simile of Autographs of Subscribers to the Picturesque Views of Seats of Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland.

Author: 
[Francis Orpen Morris; list of subscribers; autographs]
Publication details: 
London: A. Clarke, 1880.
£350.00

Quarto. 135 pages of skillfully executed autographs followed by a 45-page printed 'INDEX TO AUTOGRAPHS', ranging from 'H.R.H. The PRINCE of WALES, K.G.' to 'Zillwood, A., The Abbey, Romsey, Hants.'. Attractive title in gold, purple, blue, yellow and green, with illustration of Osborne House. A handsome, if somewhat flashy, production. Maroon morocco binding, with a large crest stamped in gilt within a decorative border on the front board. All edges gilt. Tight copy, rebacked with new endpapers. Offsetting to fly leaf and a little damp damage to corner of title.

Letter 'by the hand of an amanuensis' to the poet and biblical scholar the Rev. Henry Alford (1810-1871).

Author: 
Charles Mackay (1814-1889), Scottish poet and journalist
Publication details: 
7 March 1853; 21 Brecknock Crescent, Camden Road Villas, [London].
£45.00

Three pages, 12mo. Very good: lightly aged and with the merest glue spot to blank verso of second leaf of bifolium. Mackay's 'signature' appears to be in the same hand as the rest of the letter. He has had a 'severe attack of inflammation of the eye', and this has prevented him from reading or writing during the previous week. For the same reason he is replying to Alford's letter of 1 March through an amanuensis. Three weeks previously Mackay 'received a packet from Mr.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J. Caird') to James MacLehose.

Author: 
John Caird (1820-1898), Church of Scotland minister, theologian and Principal of Glasgow University [James MacLehose (1811-1885), Glasgow publisher and bookseller; Rev. Dr James Paterson]
Publication details: 
July 6 [no year, but accompanied by an envelope postmarked 29 July 1881]; Venlaw Bank, Peebles, on cancelled letterhead of The University, Glasgow.
£56.00

12mo, 2 pp. Good, on lightly aged paper with slight creasing at head. He is enclosing a letter (not present) apologising 'for absence from Dr. Patersons funeral'. Asks if MacLehose can help him find the address of 'A. Craig Paterson'. 'I know that one of the sons is an English clergyman, but am not sure whether this is he.' The envelope, addressed by Caird to 'Jas. MacLehose Esq. | St. Vincent St. | Glasgow', bears a purple penny stamp, postmarked '159' beside a circular postmark in black ink, containing '4 H | GLASGOW | JU 29 | 81'

Autograph Letter Signed to his publisher and friend Alexander Macmillan.

Author: 
William Black (1841-1898), Scottish journalist and novelist [Alexander Macmillan (1818-1896), publisher; Colin Hunter (1841-1904), Scottish painter]
Publication details: 
1 February [no year]; on letterhead of Paston House, Paston Place, Brighton.
£28.00

12mo, 1 p. Six lines of text. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper. Inviting Macmillan to join him and 'some of the lads' in a dinner at the Reform Club, 'on the occasion of Colin Hunter's being made an Associate'.

Signed Manuscript 'Precept of Clare Constat by the Commissioner for The Duke of Portland in favor of Joseph Kennedy'.

Author: 
William John Cavendish Bentinck Scott, 5th Duke of Portland; Joseph Kennedy, carpet weaver of Lasswade, Kilmarnoch; James Moncrieff Melville; James Lindesay; William Bett
Publication details: 
Edinburgh; 7 April 1857.
£45.00

Three pages. On vellum bifolium made from skin roughly fourteen inches by twenty wide. Three official stamps. Signed twice by 'Jas M Melville', Writer to the Signet, and his partner James Lindesay ('Jas. Lindesay'), and witnessed by their clerk William Bett ('W. Bett').

Autograph Letter Signed to Mrs Wedderburn; and Autograph Note to Mr and Mrs G. Wedderburn.

Author: 
Catherine Sinclair (1800-1864), Scottish novelist
Publication details: 
Letter, 13 February [no year or place]; Note, 23 March [no year], 133 George Street [Edinburgh].
£28.00

LETTER: One page, 12mo. Good, on aged, creased paper, with trace of stub on blank verso. Crest at head. 'It will give my brother & me much pleasure to accept your kind invitation for Tuesday evening the 16th. - I dine that day with Lady Sempill which will make me later than I should wish, but I hope to reach your house soon after 10'. NOTE: One page, 12mo, good, with fraying at head and traces of mount adhering to blank verso. A formal note written in the third person. 'Miss Catherine Sinclair will be happy to have the honor of accepting Mrs. Wedderburns & Mr.

Autograph Letter Signed to Lockyer.

Author: 
William Black (1841-1898), Scottish journalist and novelist [Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer (1836-1920), Alexander Macmillan (1818-1896); astronomer; Altnaharra Hotel; angling; fishing]
Publication details: 
29 March [no year]; Altnaharra, Lairg, N.B. [Scotland]
£38.00

16mo bifolium (leaf dimensions 11 x 9 cm): 2 pp. 17 lines of text. Very good on lightly aged paper. Wonders whether Lockyer would like to spend his Easter holidays at Altnaharra, for a fortnight from 14 April. (The Altnaharra Hotel was used by anglers visiting the nearby lochs.) 'It is an expensive journey; but the sport is good - at least it has been good this last fortnight, but now we are sadly in want of rain. The weather is like June, only more so.' Forty salmon have been killed 'in these two weeks, averaging 11 lbs each'. Black's publisher was Alexander Macmillan.

Autograph Letter Signed to Dawson [William] Turner (1815-85), philanthropist and educational writer.

Author: 
Sir William Turner (1832-1916), anatomist and Principal of Edinburgh University
Publication details: 
Thursday' [no date]; on letterhead of the University of Edinburgh.
£56.00

Two pages, 12mo. Aged, grubby and creased, with closed tear repaired with archival tape. 'The second plate arrived too late unfortunately for the April number of the Journal as we had to print off at the end of the week.' He is busy with examinations and does not finish till the Monday, but 'would like much to see your work'. Signed 'W Turner'.

Autograph Letter to the Editor of Debrett's.

Author: 
Sir Evan MacKenzie, 2nd Baronet of Kilcoy [DEBRETT'S; BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA]
Sir Evan MacKenzie
Publication details: 
Exmouth | 23d. Decr. 1871' on letterhead 'Belmaduthy | Munlochy | N. B.'
£66.00
Sir Evan MacKenzie

Mackenzie (1816-83) was the founder of the Australian city of Brisbane. One page, 12mo. Good, but with two-inch glue stain, and with traces of mount adhering to verso of blank second leaf of bifolium. Unsigned formal letter in the third person. 'Sir Evan MacKenzie would feel obliged by the Editor of Debrett's restoring the two Highlanders /the supporters to Sir Evan's shield/ which are suppressed in all the editions of Debrett that have hitherto appeared. They appear in "Burke" & the Scutcheon looks bold without them.'

Autograph Letter Signed ('Balcarres') to 'Everard'.

Author: 
David Lindsay (1871-1940), politician and future 27th Earl of Crawford [Lindsay Library; Bibliotheca Lindesiana]
Publication details: 
16 October 1895; Haigh [Lancashire].
£65.00

12mo: 3 pp. Bifoilum. Thirty-six lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with several pin holes, light spotting, and a 1 cm closed tear along a fold. A lighthearted epistle, beginning 'Dear Everard, Dear Everard | The Cistercians make an awful mistake in giving free meals. My Charity-organisation Society temperament rises in wrath: if they wd only apply the labour test for an hour or less - but free meals! I have watched the moral ravages of free meals and feel more strongly abt that kind of thing than about Home rule or Mediaeval Brases.

Three items (a printed announcement, invoice and receipt) relating to Johnstone & Hunter's edition of Dr John Owen's 'Works'.

Author: 
John Johnstone & Robert Hunter [Johnstone & Hunter], printers, binders and publishers, 15 Princes Street and 104 High Street, Edinburgh [James Alsop of Leek, Stafford]
Publication details: 
June and July 1855;
£100.00

All three items in good condition, a little grubby and lightly creased. Three pieces of nineteenth-century Scottish book trade ephemera. Item One (12mo, 1 p, nine lines of text): printed announcement that the 'concluding Volumes of our Edition of OWEN'S WORKS [...] will not be sent to Subscribers in arrear'. On the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium, with the verso of the blank second leaf docketed by Alsop. Item Two (12mo, 1 p, on grey-paper printed form): invoice, 'To JOHNSTONE & HUNTER, 15 PRINCES STREET.', dated June 1855. The subscription of 'J. Allsop Esqr.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W Maccall') [to the publishers W. S. Sonnenschein & Co.].

Author: 
William Maccall (1812-1888), Scottish writer and lecturer [W. S. Sonnenschein & Co.]
Publication details: 
14 November 1882; Stanhope Cottages, Bexley Heath.
£85.00

4to, 1 page and 12mo, 2 pp (single 4to leaf, folded as to give two 12mo pp on one side). Thirty-seven lines of text. Maccall is 'willing to accept any proposal which is reasonable and just' concerning his 'Christian Legends' (published by Sonnenschein in 1882), and also 'to make sacrifices for the sake of obliging [...] As the one manuscript is about twice the length of the other - I speak from memory, - it might honestly claim better remuneration'.

Autograph Letter Signed to unknown male correspondent; Autograph Signed endorsement of 'Dr. Dick of Dundee'; and facsimile of letter of thanks to his 'Birth-day Benefactors'.

Author: 
James Montgomery (1771-1854), Scottish hymnwriter and poet
Publication details: 
The letter dated 29 May 1835, 10 New Palace Yard, Westminster; the endorsement dated 'The Mount, September 19. 1850'; the facsimile dated 'The Mount nr Sheffield, Nov. 4. 1851.'
£220.00

The letter (8vo, 1 p) is foxed, but otherwise very good. Had he not been 'engaged for ten days past to dine three or four miles off with an old acquaintance', whom it is too late to disappoint, he would have been happy to avail himself of the kind invitation. Sends best wishes and prayers to the recipient's family, 'from the elder to the youngest'.

Autorgaph Letter Signed ('W Fairburn') to 'Mrs Sumner' [daughter-in-law of Bishop Charles Sumner?].

Author: 
Sir William Fairburn (1789-1874), Scottish engineer
Publication details: 
21 June 1866; Manchester.
£120.00

Three pages. On aged, ruckled paper, with traces of mount adhering to damaged second leaf of bifolium. Text entirely legible. He has 'selected autograph letters from some of my scientific friends, and from a distinguished philosopher and mathematician General Poncelet, and the other from an eminent Military Engineer Genl Morin at the head of the "Conservation des Art et Metiers".' He also sends 'notes from Lord Stanley, Sir D. Brewster, Dr. Robinson the Astronomer of Armagh, and my excellent friend Mr Hopkins the Geologist and Mathematician of Cambridge'.

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