WILLIAM

Printed certificate ('Diploma'), completed in manuscript and signed by the Secretary James Tod, admitting William Murray of Henderland as a Member of the Society of Arts for Scotland.

Author: 
[James Tod, Secretary, Society of Arts for Scotland; William Murray of Henderland; W. H. Lizars, engraver]
Publication details: 
Edinburgh; 22 January 1834.
£100.00

Printed on the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium. Leaf dimensions 29 x 23.5 cm. Clear and complete. Grubby, and with closed tears to folds and slight damp staining. An attractive production. Ornate heading, with engraved portrait of Minerva in circular medallion (5.5 cm diameter) surrounded by laurel leaves, 'Drawn & Engd. by W. H. Lizars'. Text engraved in copperplate. Reads (with manuscript part in square brackets): 'Edinburgh [23d. January] 18[34,] | At a meeting of the Society held here on the [22d.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Harold. W. Wilson') to Noon.

Author: 
Harold W. Wilson [Harold William Wilson] (1880-1959), consulting surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital [Charles Noon (d.1957), senior surgeon to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital]
Publication details: 
31 January 1946; on his Great Yarmouth lettehead.
£38.00

12mo, 2 pp. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with two punch-holes to the top left-hand corner. Noon 'won't regret' employing Michael Harmer. 'Please give me news of yourself; I hear nothing but vague, disturbing rumours'.

Typed Letter Signed ('Douglas Harmer') to Noon.

Author: 
William Douglas Harmer (1873-1962), surgeon, of St Bartholomew's Hospital, pioneer in radium treatment of throat cancer [Charles Noon (d.1957), senior surgeon to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital]
Publication details: 
19 November 1945; The Radium Institute (on his cancelled Harley Street letterhead).
£56.00

4to, 1 p. Nineteen lines. Text clear and complete. On aged paper with slight staining, and punch hole to top left-hand corner. Pressing the claims of his son Michael ('also a Bart's man') for a post at Noon's hospital. 'He has done very well at Bart's, is a Fellow of the College, missed M.Ch. (Cambridge) by a few marks just before the war, was Harold Wilson's Assistant for the first two years and has been Squadron Leader in the Air Force in charge of the surgical wards at a big hospital at Hoylake since.'

Autograph Letter Signed ('Y. Smythies') to Twining, including two translations of 'Bishop Lowth's Maria's Elegy'.

Author: 
Rev. William Yorick Smythies (1816-1910), husband of the Victorian novelist Mrs Gordon Smythies [née Harriette Maria Gordon] (1813-1883) [Richard Twining (1749-1824), tea and coffee merchant]
Publication details: 
17 October 1838; Colchester.
£95.00

4to, 3pp. Bifolium. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with slight loss to second leaf caused by opening of red wax seal (part of which still adheres), and minor nicking to edges. Begins: 'The task you set me was a task indeed [...] my first attempt at translation'. He comments on some of the difficulties involved ('The Cara so often repeated in the original is beautiful in repetition while it's angliciz'd Dear is so degraded by vulgar use').

Autograph Letter Signed ('Jos: Thackwell') to Hayter.

Author: 
Sir Joseph Thackwell (1781-1859), English army officer [Sir William Goodenough Hayter (1792-1878), Liberal politician]
Publication details: 
2 February 1855; 16 Montague Square, London [United Services Club].
£56.00

12mo, 1 p. Fair, on lightly-aged and creased paper. Written while Hayter was Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury under Palmerston. Thanking him for his letter, and informing him that he will be communicating Hayton's 'kindness' to William Ryan, who, he is sure, 'will gladly accept the appointment'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Thos Dick Lauder') to William Mitchell of Parsons Green.

Author: 
Sir Thomas Dick Lauder of Fountainhall (1784-1848), Deputy Lieutenant of Moray and Haddington, Scottish writer and academic
Publication details: 
7 January 1840; The Grange House.
£75.00

4to, 3 pp. Bifolium. 61 lines of text; clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. Having recovered from 'the surprise which I received from the communication made to me today by our mutual friend Sir James Gibson Craig', his 'first idea was to go directly to Parsons Green to give full vent to my gratitude' for Mitchell's generosity. The rest of the letter gives fulsome expression Lauder's his feelings at 'the generous - the magnificent gifts' (unspecified) which Mitchell is 'dispensing - with so little parade'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W. M. Bucknall') to MacLehose

Author: 
W. M. Bucknall [William Miles Bucknall], Librarian to the Board of Trade [James MacLehose (1811-1885), Glasgow bookseller and publisher]
Publication details: 
10 January 1861; on Board of Trade letterhead.
£35.00

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Discussing 'Mr Sterling's Pamphlet on Banks', which MacLehose has sent him ('a work so difficult to obtain elsewhere'). While not recognising 'the existence of any really national Banking System', he considers Sterling's 'remarks most judicious'. Mentions the Banking Act of 1844, before concluding with a reflection on credit. Bucknall published his 'Catalogue of the Library of the Board of Trade' in 1866.

Itemised financial accounts, in Shepherd's hand and initialled by him ('C. Wm. S.'), for the expedition described by him in his book 'The North-West Peninsula of Iceland'.

Author: 
Rev. Charles William Shepherd, of Trinity College, Cambridge, and the Alpine Club [G. G. Fowler; H. M. Upcher; Iceland]
Publication details: 
Dated from 14 June to 7 July [1862].
£350.00

4to, 5 pp, on five loose and uniform leaves. Very good, on lightly aged paper. The first leaf is headed 'C. W. S. Acc' and is initialled at the foot 'Rt C. Wm. S.' The second is headed 'Sheet (2)', with the rest numbered 3 to 5. It is clear from sheets 2 to 5 that one leaf - what should have been 'Sheet (1)' - is lacking.

Autograph Note Signed ('Geo W McCrary') to Evarts.

Author: 
George Washington McCrary (1835-1890), United States Secretary of War, Iowa Republican Congressman and judge [William Maxwell Evarts (1818-1901), US Secretary of State]
Publication details: 
16 December 1878. On letterhead of the War Department, Washington.
£48.00

12mo, 1 p. Good, on ruled paper. A note of introduction for the bearer, Miss Ward [Genevieve Ward, actress]..

Autograph 'Proposal for an Alteration in the Introductory Rule of the Unitarian Association', in a letter to Watson.

Author: 
William Alexander (1763-1857) of Great Yarmouth, Unitarian minister, schoolmaster and bookseller [John Watson of Holborn Hill; Unitarianism]
Publication details: 
18 May 1832; Great Yarmouth.
£200.00

Small folio, 1 p. Twenty-seven lines of text. Clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged and worn paper, with thin strip from previous mounting adhering at head of reverse, which, with two small red wax seals and two postmarks, is addressed to 'John Watson Esqr. | No. 55 & 56 | Near St. Andrew's Ch. | Holborn Hill | London'. The text is entirely devoted to the subject under the heading. In a neat exposition of his position, Alexander proposes and defends three changes. The substitution of 'promulgation' for 'promotion' would, 'as our worthy friend Dr.

The Democrat. A Weekly Journal for Men and Women. [first issue]

Author: 
William Saunders (1823-1895), newspaper publisher and editor and British Liberal politician [William George; Hackney]
Publication details: 
No. 1. Saturday, November 15, 1884. [Printed and Published for the Proprietors by J. C. DURANT, Clement's House, Clements Inn Passage, London, W.C.
£165.00

Broadsheet, 8 pp. A single sheet, folded twice and unopened. No stapling. Text clear and complete, on aged and spotted paper (not high-acidity newsprint), with wear and chipping to extremities. Articles include 'The American Elections' by Henry George; ''The Crofter Revolt', and 'The "Pall Mall Gazette" Panic'. Also 'Metropolitan Constituencies No. I. - Hackney'. Scarce: no copy at the British Library (Colindale) and the only run on COPAC at the University of London.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W Russell Flint') to L. Carpenter of Leigh-on-Sea, discussing his artistic development.

Author: 
Sir William Russell Flint (1880-1969), British artist
Publication details: 
8 July 1948; on his Peel Cottage, Campden Hill, letterhead.
£280.00

4to, 2 pp. Twenty-three lines of text, clear and complete. In fair condition, creased and lightly-worn. With stamped envelope addressed by Flint. In reply to a question from Carpenter ('I very, very freqently receive letters such as yours') Flint writes: 'Dont worry about not receiving art instruction in painting because I never had a lesson in my life.' He believes he inherited the skill he 'started with', but constant study of the works of masters & constant practice have brought me (with the aid of a kindly Providence) to my present position'.

Printed pamphlet (with 'P.T.O.' in large letters on cover) and handbill notice, with autograph covering letter to an unnamed clergyman [Rev. Charles William Shepherd], in which he describes himself as 'the "Doyen" of Ecclesiastical Agents'.

Author: 
Edward Broughton-Rouse, Sheffield solicitor, 'Ecclesiastical Agent' (agent for the purchase and sale of advowsons)
Publication details: 
None of the items dated. Pamphlet from circa 1897.
£120.00

The three items indicate a brashness approaching hucksterism on the part of a Victorian professional, in addition to marketing techniques advanced for the period. Letter: 12mo, 2 pp. Stamped at head: 'Edw. Broughton Rouse, M.A., LL.D. | 436, GLOSSOP ROAD, | SHEFFIELD.' Twenty-five lines of text. Clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. Many hundreds of this letter must have been copied out and sent to clergymen throughout England.

Twenty-two bookseller's catalogues

Author: 
James Coleman, Genealogical & Topographical Bookseller, of High Holborn and Tottenham
Publication details: 
22, High Street, Bloomsbury, London, W.C.: 1867, 1873 (2), 1874; 9, Tottenham Terrace, White Hart Lane, Tottenham, N.: 1881, 1882 (4), 1883 (4), 1884 (2), 1885 (2), 1886 (4), 1887. S. and J. Brawn, printers.
£300.00

All items octavo, stitched and unbound. Page range between 16 and 32. Each catalogue carrying an illustration on the front cover. The condition of the collection is variable. All items on aged paper: some dogeared or with closed tears, and a handful with damp and other staining. Several catalogues annotated in a contemporary hand, and one with an entry cut out. Coleman's speciality was 'Heraldry, Genealogy, Topography', and the first three catalogues are headed 'Pedigrees!

Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed correspondent.

Author: 
William Everett (1839-1910), American Democratic congressman for Massachusetts' Seventh District, [Charles William Eliot (1834-1926); Harvard University]
Publication details: 
15 January 1869; 96 Washington Street.
£75.00

12mo, 3 pp. 42 lines of text. Clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Small ink stain at foot of reverse of blank second leaf (not affecting text). Interesting letter, revealing of the politics surrounding appointments within nineteenth-century Harvard. The 'Lectureship' having been 'carried throough', Everett repeats his 'very special request that in some way the Undergraduates may have an opportunity of attending the course - This I regard as vital'. Reports the view of 'Mr. Eliot' on the idea that Everett 'desired to be on the staff of instructors at Harvard'.

Dorothy Sweete. A Novel.

Author: 
W. I.' [W. Ingram]
Publication details: 
Edinburgh: J. Gardner Hitt, 37 George Street. 1901.
£95.00

12mo, iv + 203 pp. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. Rebound in worn green paper wraps, with 'W. I. INGRAM' in manuscript along spine. Unobtrusive 'Sale Duplicate' stamp of the 'BIBLIOTHECA | <?> | EDINENSIS'. The dedication provides a clue to the author: 'To the memory of Jeannie E. D. S. Ingram, once a student in the University of Aberdeen.' Scarce: COPAC only lists copies at the British Library, National Library of Scotland, and Aberdeen.

Autograph Letter, in the third person, to Mrs Wallack, on the occasion of the Wallacks' Paris performances.

Author: 
John Y. Mason [John Young Mason] (1799-1859), U.S. Minister Plenipotentiary to France, 1853-1859 [James William Wallack (1764-1864), Anglo-American actor]
Publication details: 
15 June 1855; 13 Rye Beaujon (on letterhead of the Paris Legation of the United States).
£85.00

4to, 1 p. Twenty lines. Text clear and complete. On aged and lightly-creased paper. Responding to 'the kind note of his esteemed Country woman Mrs. Wallack'. He is 'gratified to learn, that Mr. Wallack will present to the Parisian public representations in the English language, of the best of our Tragedies & Comedies'. He wishes the Wallacks 'the most complete success, and will with pleasure attend the performances, when his health will permit him & his family to do so'. Two of Mason's family will take up Wallack's offer of tickets for the opening.

Autograph Letter Signed to Stratford Canning.

Author: 
George William Frederick Villiers (1800-1870), 4th Earl of Clarendon, Liberal politician [Stratford Canning (1786-1880), 1st Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe]
Publication details: 
10 January 1858; The Grove.
£28.00

12mo, 1 p. In a bifolium. Docketed by Stratford Canning on the reverse of the second leaf. Very good, on lightly-aged paper, with thin strip of stub from mount adhering to one edge. He 'cannot resist' staying there the next day, 'as Lady C. & I hope to bring our Daughter up to London on Tuesday', a day on which, if convenient, he will be 'most happy' to see Stratford Canning at the Foreign Office.

Autograph Signature ('Waddington') and address in frank to Fritz Cunliffe Owen, and with an Autograph Note Signed by Owen to 'friend Leckie'.

Author: 
William Henry Waddington (1826-1894), Prime Minister of France in 1879 [Fritz Cunliffe Owen]
Publication details: 
Undated.
£28.00

On one side of a piece of paper, an irregular rectangle cut from the front of a letter (10 cm x 13 cm at head and 16 cm at foot). On aged paper with pinholes from mounting. Small signature boxed in to the bottom left-hand corner by Waddington. Addressed to 'Fritz Cunliffe Owen Esqre | 4 Grafton Street | Piccadilly'. Owen's note, above the address, reads 'Dr. friend Leckie. Your sister may like to have this autogr. of the French ambassador Mr. Waddington as you know, a great French statesman - au revoir a Bologna on Sunday morning. Yours affect. [signed] Fritz Cunliffe Owen'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('John Trotter') to Hay, with signed 'List of Payments made to Sir William Forbes of Hunter & Co. by the undermentioned partners of the East Lothian & Merse Whalefishing Company Since the 6th of March 1805'.

Author: 
John Trotter [The East Lothian & Merse Whale Fishing Company; James Hay, Writer to the Signet, Edinburgh; Sir William Forbes (1739-1806) of Pitsligo]
Publication details: 
6 April 1805; Dunbar.
£165.00

4to bifolium. Very good on aged paper. The letter covers the whole of the recto of the second leaf, the reverse of which carries the address and docketing: '6th. April 1805 | John Trotter - with List of payments to Sir Wm. Forbes & Co. on acct. of the whale fishing Cy.' Trotter quotes at length from a 'paragraph' in a letter he has received from William Forbes & Co, explaining why a credit 'does not appear in the annexed statement, as the receipt has not been delivered up to us'.

A Broadside for July, 1911. [No. 2. Fourth Year] ['Blow, Bullies, Blow (Halliards Chanty)' with three illustrations by Jack B. Yeats.]

Author: 
Jack B. Yeats; Cuala Press
Publication details: 
1911. E.C. Yeats at the Cuala Press, Churchtown, Dundrum, County Dublin.
£100.00

4to bifolium (27.5 x 18.5 cm): 3 pp. 300 copies only. In fair condition: a little grubby, with a couple of light folds and slight wear to extremities. Hand-coloured illustrations on first (7.5 cm square) and second (7 x 10 cm) pages; full-page black and white illustration ('Derby Day') on third page. Final page blank.

A Broadside for March, 1914. [No. 10. Sixth Year] [the poems 'Nora Creina' and 'The Tan-Yard Side' with three illustrations by Yeats.]

Author: 
Jack B. Yeats; Cuala Press
Publication details: 
1914. By E. C. Yeats at the Cuala Press, Churchtown, Dundrum, County Dublin.
£100.00

4to bifolium (27.5 x 18.5 cm): 3 pp. 300 copies only. Good, on aged paper with a light vertical fold. Hand-coloured illustrations on first (7.5 x 10 cm) and second (9.5 x 7.5 cm) pages; full-page black and white illustration ('The Metropolitan Regatta Dublin') on third page. Final page blank.

Poems and Ballads of Young Ireland 1888. [Inscribed by the contributor Rose Kavanagh.]

Author: 
Rose Kavanagh (1860-1891), John Todhunter, Katherine Tynan, W. B. Yeats, Patrick Henry, T. W. Rolleston, Charles Gregory Fagan, Ellen O'Leary, Frederick J. Gregg, George Noble Plunkett, contributors
Publication details: 
Dublin: M. H. Gill and Son, O'Connell Street. 1888.
£600.00

Wade A289. 12mo: viii + 80 pp and errata slip. In original cream buckram binding, with title and harp decoration in gilt on front board. Black endpapers. Internally tight, on aged and spotted paper. Binding grubby, stained and worn, with slight damage at head and foot of spine. Some ink marking to the fourth stanza of the dedicatory poem to John O'Leary (p.1). Housed in a green solander box. Inscribed at head of title: 'Elizabeth Monteagle from Rose Kavanagh | June 21. 88'.

A Broadside for February, 1914. [No. 9. Sixth Year] [Hyde's poem 'I shall not die for thee' and Guthrie's poem 'Paternoster Callaghan' with three illustrations by Yeats.]

Author: 
Jack B. Yeats; James Guthrie; Douglas Hyde; Cuala Press
Publication details: 
1914. By E.C. Yeats at the Cuala Press, Churchtown, Dundrum, County Dublin.
£200.00

4to bifolium (27.5 x 18.5 cm): 3 pp. 300 copies only. Good, on aged paper with a light vertical fold. Hand-coloured illustrations on first (7 x 10 cm) and second (8 x 7.5 cm) pages; black and white illustration ('Drowned Sailor', 12 x 10 cm) alone on third page. Final page blank. The first poem is not ascribed, but is known to be by Hyde.

Printed examination paper headed 'LLANDOVERY. | June, 1862. | WELSH EXAMINATION.'

Author: 
Llandovery College, Carmarthenshire, Wales [Rev. William Done Bushell (1838-1917)]
Publication details: 
[Carmarthenshire, Wales?] 1862.
£28.00

Printed on one side of a piece of paper, 22 x 14 cm. Text clear and complete. Good, on aged paper, and still laid down on a leaf from an album. Twelve questions, the eleventh being ten lines to translate from Welsh into English, and the twelfth being ten lines to translate from English into Welsh. From the album of Rev. William Done Bushell (1838-1917).

Two Autograph Letters, one "Anonymous" the other signed, to the Bovey Coal Pottery Company

Author: 
Joseph Cottle, bookseller and publisher (of "Lyrical Ballads", etc)
Publication details: 
Bristol and Fairfield House near Bristol, 1850 and 20 Dec. 1850.
£250.00

One page and two pages, both 8vo, bifolia, some staining but text clear and complete. In the first letter to which (as he explains in the second letter) he didn't add his name, he says that he visited "your Bovey Coal Pits" as a geologist (!), made observations and concluded that it was a "real Coal district, the current coal mined [an internet site informs me of poor quality] being of a "comparatively recent formation". Real coal was produced in an earlier period.

Note, in a secretarial hand, signed by Blomfield ('Reginald . Blomfield'), to Dollman.

Author: 
Sir Reginald Blomfield [Reginald Theodore Blomfield] (1856-1942), British architect and garden designer [John Charles Dollman (1851-1934), English illustrator; Frederick William Pomeroy (1856-1924)]
Publication details: 
7 November 1906; on letterhead of 1 New Court, Temple [London].
£33.00

12mo, 1 p. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. From the context of other items in the same collection, this letter relates to an 'Artists general Benevolent Banquet' (for which Dollman was acting as steward). Blomfield would be pleased to join Dollman, but has 'already promised my subscription to Pomeroy' (presumably acting as steward for a rival dinner). Addressed to Dollman at Hove House, Newton Grove, Bedford Park.

Collection of nine items (eight printed and one in manuscript) relating to Cambridge University, six of them giving examination results, two of University accounts, and the last a lithographic plan of a visit by a dignitary to the Fitzwilliam Museum.

Author: 
Cambridge University, 1861 to 1865 [Fitzwilliam Museum; William Done Bushell]
Publication details: 
[Cambridge.] Eight of the items dated between 1861 and 1865; the other undated.
£450.00

The collection assembled by William Done Bushell (see Item Nine), later a senior master at Harrow School. All nine items clear and complete. On aged paper, discoloured by the glue used in mounting. The first eight are printed, and the last is in manuscript. ITEM ONE: 'Classical Tripos. | 1861.' 4to, 1 p. Names the examiners, and those of the students (with colleges), under columns for the first, second and third classes. ITEM TWO: Headed 'List of Honors at the Bachelor of Arts' Commencement, January 26, 1861.' 4to, 1 p.

Unpublished manuscript poem, titled 'The lament of a gyp', humourously recounting the 'troubles of a Cambridge man, a careful hardworked gyp' on the disappearance of Bushell on a mountaineering trip.

Author: 
[William Done Bushell (1838-1917) of St John's College, Cambridge University; later assistant master and honorary chaplain at Harrow School; Victorian mountaineering
Publication details: 
Undated (around 1861).
£65.00

From Bushell's own collection, and possibly in his hand. On both sides of a piece of light-blue paper, 27 x 22 cm. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with four labels from previous mounting (one with small closed tear) on the reverse. A delightful item, casting light on the social history of Victorian Cambridge. Thirty-six lines in couplets. Written from the point of view of Bushell's 'gyp' (college servant). Begins 'Oh! listen to me now all ye who give anyone the slip.

Autograph Signature, removed from letter.

Author: 
William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898), British Liberal Prime Minister
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£25.00

On piece of paper roughly 2.5 x 7.5 cm. Mounted on piece of 7.5 x 13 cm card. In fair condition, with both card and paper aged and slightly discoloured. Good firm underlined signature ('W E Gladstone'). The card carries the following caption, in a contemporary hand: 'Autograph of | The Right Honorable William Ewart Gladstone, M.P., | Premier Minister and | Chancellor of the Exchequer.'

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