History

Autograph Letter Signed ('Verney') to Rev. Charles William Tonyn (d.1805) of Radnage, Bucks.

Author: 
Ralph Verney (1714-1791), 2nd Earl Verney, politician
Publication details: 
12 April 1784; Curzon Street, London.
£80.00

8vo: 1 p. 7 lines of text. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper, with the address on the reverse of the second leaf of the bifolium, to which Verney's red wax seal adheres. A graceful letter of thanks. 'It gives me no small satisfaction to think that my general Conduct has hitherto merited your approbation.' Informs Tonyn of the date of the general election. Verney would lose his seat, and with it his immunity from prosecution for debt, forcing him to flee to France.

Two Letters in a Secretarial Hand, one of them signed by Amherst ('Amherst'), both to the Rev. Charles William Tonyn (d.1805) of Radnage, Bucks.

Author: 
Jeffrey Amherst, first Baron Amherst (1717-1797), field-marshall, conqueror of Canada
Publication details: 
The signed letter: 18 June 1781, Whitehall. The unsigned letter: 9 March 1782, Whitehall.
£220.00

The signed letter: 4to, 1 p. 11 lines of text. With the address on a separate and similarly-sized leaf. Franked 'War Office | ', and bearing two circular postmarks, one of them in red with the word 'FREE'. Good, on aged and creased paper. Assuring Tonyn that it will give him 'much pleasure' to recommend Tonyn's nephew George Augustus Tonyn for an army commission, 'as soon as I may be able to do it consistently with the very great number of Applications which I have already on my hands'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Le Despencer') to a member of the Tonyn family.

Author: 
Francis Dashwood (1708-1781), 11th Baron Le Despencer, politician and rake; member of the Hellfire Club; founder of the Monks of Medmenham Abbey
Publication details: 
24 February 1774; Manchester Square, London.
£300.00

4to: 1 p. 9 lines of text. Good, on lightly aged paper, with a light stain affecting a couple of words. Text clear and entire. Docketed on the reverse of the otherwise-blank second leaf of the bifolium. Concerning his and Tonyn's positions as magistrates. 'I never can conveniently at this time of the year stay above a day at W Wycombe at one time'. Were he in the county he would 'attend you on Saturday in Easter Week, and I believe I shall, but to make a journey on purpose to attend a petty sessions at my time of life cannot be expected'.

Six Autograph Letters Signed by Hume-Campbell (all 'A: Hume-Campbell') to his 'Couzin' (a member of the Tonyn family).

Author: 
Alexander Hume-Campbell (1708-1760), Member of Parliament and Lord Clerk Register from 1756 to 1760 [Hugh Hume-Campbell, 3rd Earl of Marchmont]
Publication details: 
All six letters dated from London in 1759.
£150.00

All six letters in quarto; good, on aged paper; and with text neatly-written, clear and entire. Letter One: 3 May 1759. 2 pp. 40 lines of text. Giving advice regarding a will to be drawn up by a Mrs Robertson. 'As to the place where Mrs. Robertson makes the Disposition it is absolutely immaterial, [...] and then her will wrote in her own hand writing without witnesses will be as good as with twenty witnesses [...]'. Valediction from 'your affectionate friend & Cousin'. Letter Two: 30 June 1759. 1 pp. 24 lines.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Le Despencer') to a member of the Tonyn family.

Author: 
Francis Dashwood (1708-1781), 11th Baron Le Despencer, politician and rake; member of the Hellfire Club; founder of the Monks of Medmenham Abbey [Admiral Charles William Paterson (c.1756-1841)]
Publication details: 
8 February 1776; Hanover Square, London.
£350.00

4to: 1 p. 7 lines of text. Docketed on the reverse. Good, on lightly aged paper. That day he went to the Admiralty 'in hopes of meeting Lord Sandwich in order to recommend Mr Paterson [later Admiral Charles William Paterson] to his good will', but he did not see him. When he does, he will 'certainly say everything in that young Gentlemans favor', and he will 'say the same to Lord Howe if I can catch sight of him'. 'Our last news from America are not unfavorable in some respects.'

Manuscript Leave or Licence of Absence ('Leave to come to Great Britain'), signed by King George II ('George R.'), and by Henry Fox ('H Fox').

Author: 
Charles William Tonyn of University College, Oxford, 'Chaplain to the British Factory at Algier' [King's Chaplain at Algiers]; King George II; Henry Fox (1705-1774), 1st Baron Holland of Foxley
Tonyn
Publication details: 
12 April 1756; 'Given at Our Court at St: James's'.
£350.00
Tonyn

2 pp, on the first leaf of a bifolium of gilt-edged watermarked laid paper. Leaf dimensions 30 x 19 cm. Text clear and entire. On lightly aged, worn and creased paper. The king's signature is in the top left-hand corner of the first page, above the royal seal, which is embossed on a folded square of paper over red wax. The seal covers the downstroke from the 'g' of 'George' and the final stroke of the 'R' in the royal signature. The document carries three blind-stamped 2s 6d tax stamps in the left-hand margin of the first page.

Autograph Signature ('Jules de Polignac') on part of letter to 'mon cher Baron'.

Author: 
Jules Auguste Armand Marie, Prince de Polignac (1780-1847), French Prime Minister under Charles X.
Publication details: 
17 September [no year].
£28.00

On rectangle of paper roughly 9 x 17 cm. Cut from the head of a letter for an autograph hunter. Fair, on aged paper, with traces of previous mount on the reverse. Above the signature a florid five-line valediction in the best courtly style. Date and beginning of letter on reverse.

Thirty-one items: including fourteen Signed Letters and Notes (all 'E. F Crowe'), Typed and in Autograph, mostly written to various Secretaries and officials of the Royal Society of Arts. With enclosures, drafts and copies of replies.

Author: 
Sir Edward Crowe [Sir Edward Thomas Frederick Crowe] (1877-1955), public servant, Vice-President (1937-60), President (1942-3), and Chairman of the Council (1941-3) of the Royal Society of Arts
Publication details: 
Dating from between 27 June 1940 and 26 March 1943. Most of Crowe's letters from his London address: 12A Ennismore Gardens, SW7.
£125.00

The collection of thirty-one items is in good condition, with the texts (in a variety of formats) clear and complete. Includes nine Typed Letters Signed, one Autograph Letter Signed, two Autograph Notes Signed, one Autograph Card Signed, one Typed Note Signed by Crowe, with a Typed Letter and a Typed Note signed on his behalf. The first item is an Autograph Card Signed from Crowe accepting his election as the Society's Vice-President.

Two copies of the typescript of a humorous poem titled 'Lines Written in Contemplation of the King's Bodyguard for Scotland 1937.'

Author: 
T. B. S.' [T. B. Simpson; Thomas Blantyre Simpson (1892-1954), author and Sheriff of Perth and Angus] [The King's Bodyguard for Scotland]
Publication details: 
1937. [One copy headed in manuscript: 'From T. B. SIMPSON | 11/6/49.']
£75.00

Each of the two typescripts is on one side of a piece of A4 paper. One is signed in type at end 'T. B.S.' and the other (which appears to be mimeographed) carries what is presumably Simpson's signature at head in the manuscript note: 'From T. B. SIMPSON | 11/6/49.' Text of each clear and complete, on creased and aged paper. Apart from the typed signature to the one copy, and the fact that one copy has square brackets and the other curved, the two texts are identical.

Autograph Signature ('John Dillon').

Author: 
John Dillon (1851-1927), Irish politian, Parnellite Member of Parliament for County Tipperary, Home Rule activist and land reform agitator
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£23.00

On piece of paper roughly 5.5 x 11.5 cm. Cut away from a letter for an autograph hunter. Laid down on a piece of paper removed from an album. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. Reads '<...> | Yours sincerely | John Dillon'.

Printed Edinburgh Assize paper, a summons to be served to those accused of 'Mobbing and Rioting', 'Obstructing a Presbytery' and 'Assualt', in which Neave sets out the case against them. With 'List of Witnesses' and 'List of Assize. Edinburgh'.

Author: 
Charles Neaves, A.D. [The Black Isle Riot, 1843; Royal Burgh of Cromarty, Scotland; Scottish law; Edinburgh assizes]
Publication details: 
[Edinburgh: 1843.]
£100.00

Ten quarto pages (paginated 1 to 10) on three loose bifoliums. Stabbed as issued. Text clear and complete. On aged paper with chipping and short closed tears to edges.

To Mr. Law. ['One of thirty copies reprinted from the original edition in the Library of Worcester College, Oxford.']

Author: 
Allan Ramsay. [Worcester College, Oxford; Oxford University Press; John Law; South Sea Bubble]
Publication details: 
[1924.] [With facsimile of title of the original anonymous Edinburgh edition of 1720.]
£125.00

Folio pamphlet: 8 pp. In brown wraps with 'TO MR. LAW. BY ALLAN RAMSAY.' on the front wrap and the publication details on its reverse. On aged and lightly-creased paper, in worn, creased wraps. Nicely printed, with the long s, at the University Press. Originally published anonymously in 1720. Facsimile of title ('EDINBURGH: Printed for the AUTHOR at the Mercury, opposite to Niddrey's-Wynd, MDCCXX.'). A scarce (unattributed) Oxford University Press item: of the thirty copies COPAC lists four: at the British Library, Oxford, Cambridge and the National Library of Scotland.

Two Autograph Letters Signed (both 'H W Kennard') to Beresford Hope, the first providing information useful to an Edwardian British attaché in Washington.

Author: 
H. W. Kennard [Sir Howard William Kennard] (1878-1955), British diplomat [Beresford Hope; James Bryce (1838-1922), 1st Viscount Bryce, British Ambassador to the United States, 1907-1913]
Publication details: 
2 December 1907 and 16 August 1909; both on letterhead of the British Embassy, Washington [second letterhead amended to 'N. E. Harbor'].
£56.00

Hope had returned to the Foreign Office from Tehran in May 1907, but had moved to the Washington Embassy, as second secretary, that October. The recipient is presumably one of the ten children of the Tory politician A. J. B. Beresford Hope (1820-1887). Letter One: 12mo, 8 pp. Very good on lightly-aged paper. Addressed to 'My dear Beresford Hope'. A teasing, friendly letter, intresting for the information it provides on the situation of a minor attaché in Edwardian Washington.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Harold Butler') to 'Harlech'.

Author: 
Harold Beresford Butler (1883-1951), Deputy Director (1920-1932) and Director (1932-8), International Labour Office; British Minister to USA (1942-6) [William Ormsby-Gore (1885-1964), Baron Harlech]
Publication details: 
11 June 1938; on letterhead (in English and French) of the International Labour Office, League of Nations.
£38.00

8vo, 2 pp. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. He is 'sorry' that Harlech has 'left the Colonial Office, upon which you have produced such a profound and salutary effect'. From the point of view of the I.L.O.

Alteration of Constitution. Federal Referendums. The Case FOR and AGAINST. ['Aviation' and 'Marketing']

Author: 
[Australian Federal Referendums on Aviation and Marketing, 1937]
Publication details: 
By Authority: H. J. Green, Government Printer, Melbourne. [Canberra, 30th December, 1936.]
£56.00

4to: [iii] + 15 + [ii] pp. Ten-leaf stapled pamphlet. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Slight rusting to staples. In small hand in red ink at head of title: 'M.S. 834 - 21/1/37'. Giving the texts of two proposed constitution alterations, 'Aviation' and 'Marketing', with the cases for and against, the referendums on which are both to be taken on 6 March 1937. 1 cm stamp in red ink of the Webster Collection at foot of final page, numbered 4190.

Corrected galley proofs headed '125783 - BOOKLET - ONE | Queensland's Breach of Contract.'

Author: 
[Breach of Contract for Pastoral Leases in Queensland, Australia, 1923]
Publication details: 
In blue pencil at head '3. 12. 23 [3 December 1923] R. H. C.'
£75.00

On one side each of five 46 x 14.5 cm slips of paper. Good: slightly aged and with rusting to staple. Begins 'Much comment having appeared in the Press during the last three years on the subject of a breach by the Government of Queensland of the contracts contained in the Pastoral Leases issued by that State, it is thought that a clear [altered from 'careful'] statement of the facts of the case would be useful to Bankers, Brokers and others having financial interests in Queensland. The facts of the case are set out in the following statement: - [...]'.

The Deportation of the Norfolk Islanders to the Derwent in 1808. I. The Settlement of Norfolk Island. II. The Deportation to the Derwent.

Author: 
Jack Backhouse Walker [Norfolk Island deportation, 1808; Derwent; Tasmania; Van Diemen's Land]
Publication details: 
Tasmania: William Grahame, Jun., Government Printer, Hobart. 1895.
£75.00

12mo: 26 pp. In original printed wraps. Stapled pamphlet. Unopened. The only copies on COPAC at the British Library and Oxford. For more information about Walker (1841-1899) see his entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

Speech delivered by Mr. G. A. L. Wilson, M.L.A., in the Legislative Assembly on Closer Settlement: Purchase of Bald Blair Estate. [From "Parliamentary Debates," 20th July, 1938.]

Author: 
G. A. L. Wilson [Bald Blair Estate, New South Wales, Australia]
Publication details: 
Sydney: David Harold Paisley, Government Printer - 1938.
£85.00

8vo: 6 pp. Stapled pamphlet. Text clear and complete. On aged and creased paper. For Wilson 'the most important aspect of the question' is 'the conversion of unsound country to sound country [...] It is a recent discovery, and, while ten or fifteen years ago one would have wiped the proposal before the House right off the slate, on the ground that the land is unsuitable for closer settlement, one to-day welcomes it.' Red-ink 1 cm accession stamp of the Webster Collection on reverse of blank final leaf, numbered 4188. No copy in the British Library, on COPAC, or on WorldCat.

Darkest Africa And An Easy Way Out.

Author: 
W. L. Warden [Harold Sidney Harmsworth (1868-1940, 1st Viscount Rothermere]
Publication details: 
[1940.] 'For Private Circulation Only.' ['Printed by Warden & Co. Ltd., 71, Church Road, Hendon, N.W.4.'] [Introductory note by Warden dated '38, Portland Place, London, W.1. March, 1940.']
£85.00

8vo: 12 pp (unpaginated). Wraps and stapled. Fair: on aged and lightly-creased paper. A few marks in pencil and red pencil (on two occasions 'my "Owner" ' in the text noted as 'Lord R.'). Stamped with limitation number 57. Printed in small type in double column. In his introductory note Warden explains that the text is 'made up of extracts from a diary, which I more or less kept, and letters sent home during a recent voyage of 20,000 miles.

Handbill poem entitled 'Baron Böhmbig [Bohmbig], or the Rival Jumpers.'

Author: 
[Jonathan Blewitt (1782-1853), English composer] [The Flying Dutchman]
Publication details: 
Without date or place. [London, 1850s?]
£75.00

Printed on one side of a piece of wove paper, 32.5 x 24 cm. Text clear and complete, on aged paper with chipping and closed tears to edges. The only copy of this title on COPAC is at the British Library (folio, 4 pp, published by Zenas T. Purday), where it is ascribed to Blewitt and tentatively dated to around 1850. Six eight-line stanzas with chorus 'Jump high, jump low, jumping we go.' Possibly written with satiric intent.

The Dominions National Days Historical Celebration Movement. The Australia Day Historical Addresss. To be read on board P. & O. Australia Line Steamers at Sea on 26th January. [Inscribed to H. T. B. Drew.]

Author: 
D. Hope Johnston [Douglas Hope Johnston (1874-1957)], '(Founder and ex-President of the Australasian Pioneers' Club, Sydney, N.S.W.)'
Publication details: 
Date and publisher not stated. Inscription by Johnston dated 'London | Nov 1933.'
£125.00

4to, 8 pp. Stapled. In original brown printed wraps. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Bumped at head of spine. Inscription on inside of front wrap reads 'To - Captain H. T. B. Drew In appreciation of his unfailing interest & support - from the first of this Movement, & in the London Memorial to the Founder of Australia, Admiral Arthur Phillip RN | From, - his grateful friend [signed] D. Hope Johnston. of The Royal Empire Society London & The Pioneers Club. Sydney N.S.W.' Phillip was Johnston's great-grandfather. Drew was a New Zealand author.

One Autograph Letter Signed ('E. H.' twice) with the first four pages of another (lacking signature), both to 'My dear Gop'.

Author: 
Esme William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Penrith (1863-1939), British diplomat [Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon; Pixton Park, Dulverton]
Publication details: 
Complete Letter: 12 September 1908; on letterhead of The Tides, Bar Harbor, Maine. Incomplete Letter: 4 November 1908; on letterhead of Pixton Park, Dulverton.
£56.00

Both items in good condition, on aged paper. Complete Letter (12 September 1908): 12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium with mourning border. He thanks Gop [Goss?] for the 'letter of great length extended exclamation marks but otherwise agreeable & genial'. Howard 'can understand that vowing to keep silence the next best thing is to write to someone'. Gop's 'instinct is sound': Howard has 'abandoned Presque Isle which is a 12 hrs journey from here'. Gives a date for his return to Manchester.

The Class Nature of the Soviet Union. Two Articles by Leon Trotsky: 'Once Again; the U.S.S.R. and its Defence.' [...] 'The U.S.S.R.; Non-Proletarian and non-Bourgeoise State?' [With anonymous foreword discussing Trotsky's 'political tendency'.]

Author: 
Leon Trotsky [Trotskyite; W.I.R. Publications; British Communism Party; Communist]
Publication details: 
[Early 1960s.] 'Printed in Swansea by voluntary labour.' Published by W.I.R. Publications, 374, Grays Inn Rd., London W.C.I [cancelled to 'Order from W.I.R. Publications, 197, Kings Cross Road, London, W.C.1.']
£125.00

Mimeographed and stapled. [i] + iii + 17 pp. Printed on eleven leaves, the first two and last two 26 x 21 cm, and the middle seven leaves 25.5 x 20 cm. Fair, on foxed paper with wear to extremities. It would appear that the leaves of the two articles had been printed previously, and were newly bound up here with the preliminary matter. The first articles is, according to the title 'Taken from "Fourth International", July Aug 1951. (American edition)' and the second 'Taken from "Workers International News", Sept-Oct 1946.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Bill') to Astor ('Max'), on the death of his father Lord Beaverbrook.

Author: 
William Waldorf Astor (1907-1966), 3rd Viscount Astor [Sir John William Maxwell Aitken (1910-1985), 2nd Baronet; Max Aitken
Publication details: 
9 June 1964; on Cliveden House letterhead.
£56.00

4to, 2 pp. Very good. Small ink tick at head of first page (not affecting text).

Autograph Letter Signed ('R. Bruce Lockhart') to 'Max', on the death of his father Lord Beaverbrook.

Author: 
Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart [Sir Robert Hamilton Bruce Lockhart] (1887-1970), Scottish diplomat and writer [William Maxwell Aitken (1879-1964), 1st Baron Beaverbrook; his son Max Aitken (1910-1985)]
Publication details: 
10 June 1964; on letterhead of the Gyllyngdune Hotel Ltd., Falmouth.
£85.00

12mo, 2 pp. Twenty-eight lines of text. Good, on lightly-creased paper. Lockhart's signature has been docketed in ink (by Aitken?) 'Sir Robert'. A letter of condolence on the death of Aitken's father. Reminisces about the 'moment I came into his life', a 'luncheon at Charkley' soon after the First World War: 'The only other guest was Augustus John. [...] as you know, I learnt much from him. Indeed, it was he who taught me how to write, and in his house I met numerous people whom, but for him, I should never have known.' He considers that Beaverbrook treated him 'nobly'.

Two Autograph Letters Signed (both 'Londonderry') one to Lord Ashbourne and the other to Lady Ashbourne.

Author: 
Charles Stewart Vane-Tempest-Stewart (1852-1915), 6th Marquess of Londonderry, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1886-1889 [Edward Gibson, 1st Baron Ashbourne; his wife Frances Marie Adelaide Gibson]
Publication details: 
15 May (to Lady Ashbourne)and 11 August (to Lord Ashbourne) [years not stated, but between 1886 and 1889]; on letterheads of the Vice Regal Lodge, Dublin.
£75.00

Both items good, on lightly-aged paper. Letter One (15 May, to Lady Ashbourne): 16mo, 2 pp. Nine lines. Accepting an invitation to a garden-party. 'I have two Cricket Matches [...] I have promised to go for an hour to the Unionists Cricket Match, but could come on to you after that, if that day suited you.' Letter Two (11 August, to Lord Ashbourne): 12mo, 2 pp. Fourteen lines. He thanks him for the 'Letters & enclosed Draft'. 'I had to send my Letter off before it arrived, as the takes place to-day, but fortunately it was drawn on almost identical lines as yours, so it is all right.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Robt. Walpole'), in French, to 'J. Fr. Ostervald Esq'.

Author: 
Robert Walpole (1736-1810), Clerk of the Privy Council and British Ambassador to Portugal (nephew of the Prime Minister) [J. F. Ostervald; the French Revolution]
Publication details: 
30 October 1792; Clifford Street [London].
£180.00

4to, 3 pp. Bifolium. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper with damp staining causing the fading of ink in some parts, and a little chipping to bottom edge. Since writing there has been no packet from Falmouth, and the news from the continent are reported with sufficient detail in the gazettes, so 'il est inutile de vous en parler. Les procedes du Duc de Brunswick [he led an invading German army into France], et le systeme du Roi de Prusse sont egalement mysterieux [...] Les Emigrants [...] sont reduits a la derniere necessite'.

Autograph Signature ('Walter Runciman').

Author: 
Walter Runciman (1870-1949), 1st Viscount Runciman of Doxford, English Liberal politician
Publication details: 
6 March 1911. On Board of Education card.
£20.00

On a piece of card roughly 9 x 11.5 cm. With embossed government crest of the Board of Education in the top left-hand corner. In fair condition, lightly-aged and with small triangular areas of discoloration to two opposing corners caused by previous mounting. Good bold signature, presumably sent in response to a request for an autograph. Reads '[signed] Walter Runciman. | 6 March | 1911.'

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 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).

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