History

Part of an Autograph Letter, missing signature page, to "Wellesley", prob. a Richard Wellesley.

Author: 
Stratford Canning. The Treaty of Vienna.
Publication details: 
Vienna, 21 February 1815.
£850.00

Four pages, 4to, incomplete, fold marks, some tears on folds, complete and legible, as follows: "It is perfectly true. I am indeed, my dear Wellesley, the most faithless of correspondents. And towards you too! You, who deserved so different a treatment at my hands. . . . My time has passed away for the last four months in such an odd sort of bustling, hurrying, half occupied, half dissipated way . . . Will you believe that till yesterday I had not written a syllable to Gally Knight [see DNB] for the last four months?

The Constitutional Convention. The Constitution of New Hampshire as amended by the Constitutional Convention held at Concord on the first Wednesday of December, A. D. 1876: with the Several Questions involving the amendments proposed [...].

Author: 
T. J. Smith, Secretary to the Convention, et al. [New Hampshire]
Publication details: 
Concord: Edward A. Jenks, State Printer. 1877.
£50.00

Octavo: 31 pp. Stitched and unbound, with front of the original printed wraps, which bears the title-page, still present. Text clear and entire, on aged paper with some dogearing and chipping to top outer corner. Front wrap creased and lightly stained, with a little chipping, but with text clear and entire. Pencil ownership inscription in contemporary hand at head of title. Reproduces the proposed amended constitution and various resolutions regarding a referendum on the subject.

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

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

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

[Printed] Prospectus for "Skelton's Antiquities of Oxfordshire" with related ms. material.

Author: 
[OXON.] [Joseph Skelton]
Publication details: 
Magdalen Bridge, Oxford, Jan. 1824.
£450.00

Two pages, 4to, stabbed, minor foxing, mainly good condition. It announces that Skelton is preparing a !series of Engraved Illustrations of the Antiquities of the County of Oxford", anticipating 50 plates "from Original Drawings made purposely by Mr. F. Mackenzie" with letterpress by a Member of the University. There will be 12 quarterly parts in Elephant or Atlas 4to. He adds a long list of subscribers from HRH the Duke of Ambridge to "Wykeham, Miss, Thame Park, Oxon." and including the Duke of Marlborough and booksellers (Arch, Major, Munday & Slatter, Simcoe).

[Prospectus] The History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham . . . by G. Lipscomb.

Author: 
[Sir Thomas Phillipps, antiquary and bibliophile].
Publication details: 
[London, 1847]
£85.00

Two pages, 4to, slightly foxed and soiled, small tear at fold. INSCRIBED in the hand of John Bowyer Nichols, the book's printer, "Respectfully submitted to Sir Thomas Phillipps Bart."

Printed Circular ('To Her Majestys Consul') Signed 'Aberdeen'.

Author: 
George Hamilton Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen (1784-1860), Scottish Tory politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1852-55
Publication details: 
Foreign Office, [London]; 30 April 1846.
£60.00

One page, large octavo. Aged and with light staining. Docketed on second leaf of bifolium: 'Requesting Consuls not to receive Copies of books as presents to Her Majesty'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J L Motley') to the English historian James Anthony Froude (1818-94).

Author: 
John Lothrop Motley (1814-77), American historian, author of 'The Rise of the Dutch Republic' (1856).
Publication details: 
Paris; 28 March [no year, but between 1856 and 1870]. 'My address is always Baring, brothers & Co.'
£85.00

Three pages, octavo. Very good on lightly aged paper. Interesting communication from one of the nineteenth-century's leading historians to another, with an evaluation of Froude's work by Motley. He is disappointed that Froude's visit to London precedes his own. He has been in Brussels since January, 'occupied with an important <?> correspondence', and is on his way to join his family in Nice. Gives plans for the summer (Switzerland, Germany and London). Thanks the Warrens for their kind remembrance.

A Letter to the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone upon a Land Scheme for Ireland.

Author: 
Charles Baron Clarke (1832-1906), British botanist [William Ewart Gladstone]
Publication details: 
London: Macmillan and Co. 1881.
£56.00

Octavo: twenty pages. Unbound and stitched. Good, but with outer leaves a little grubby and creased. The word 'rack-rent' on page six has been underlined and three exclamation marks placed beside it in ink. As well as important botanical works, Clarke numbered political economy and education among his interests.

Three different bookplates.

Author: 
Josiah Clement Wedgwood (1872-1943), 1st Baron Wedgwood, British Liberal and Labour politician
Publication details: 
[1890s to 1930s.]
£80.00

Arranging the three in what appears to be chronological order, the first (good, roughly four inches by two and three-quarters wide) has 'Josiah C. Wedgwood' in copperplate beneath a straightforward Victorian armorial design, with shield, coronet and motto 'OBSTANTIA DISCINDO'. The second (three and a half inches by three wide) dates from after Wedgwood's election as a Member of Parliament in 1906, having 'EX-LIBRIS JOSIAH C. WEDGWOOD, M.P.' on a scroll beneath a more modern armorial design, with helmet and leaves. It has slight damage to the bottom right-hand corner.

Autograph Fragment of essay, initialed 'W. R.'

Author: 
William Roscoe (1753-1831), English historian of the Renaissance
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£56.00

Dimensions roughly four and a quarter inches by eight wide. Good on lightly aged paper, and with traces of previous grey-paper mount adhering to reverse, which is docketed, in a nineteenth-century hand, 'Handwriting of the Author of Lorenzo de Medici'. Also docketed in left-hand margin of recto. Begins 'One of the most fatal enemies to the tranquility & happiness of human life is that jealous & timid apprehension which foresees evils at too great a distance, & often imagines them when they do not exist'. Initialled in top left-hand corner.

Autograph Letter Signed "Le Duc de Basano" to William Smith, English Member of Parliament

Author: 
Hugues-Bernard Maret, duc de Bassano, French statesman and journalist.
Publication details: 
Paris, 17 October 1814.
£125.00

In French. Three pages, 4to, poor condition but little of text lost or obscured. There is a note, probably in Smith's hand, on the address panel "acknowledgment of the letter by Genl Macaulay". He wants to revisit England and is grateful for the hospitality expended to his wife. by the Smith family. A "M. Guillon negociant de bourgogne et l'ami de mes amis" is to visit England and de Bassano asks for his good offices on his behalf.

Typed Letter Signed to Sir Francis Peek.

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

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

Autograph Note, third person, to "Monsieur le President de l'Assemblee Nationale"

Author: 
E.A.J. Anisson Duperon (Anisson-Duperon).
Publication details: 
Paris, 27 August 1790.
£280.00

Director of the Imprimerie Royale, Paris, and later met his end on an "echafaud revolutionnaire" (1794). One page, 8vo, good condiiton "M. Anisson Duperon, Directeur de l'Imprimerie Royale, a l'honneur de presenter son respect a Monsieur le President de l'Assemblee Nationale"; il a celui de les prevenir qu'en vertu du Decret de l'Assemblee il a fait remettre au M. Baudouin son [to the Assemblee] Imprimeur Douze cents Soixante Exemplaires de cinq nouvelles Lois, dont il [joint..?] Deux Exempls de chacune pour la disposition particulaiere de Monsieur le President."

Autograph Letter Signed ('W. Rhys Roberts') to Sir Frederick George Kenyon (1863-1952), Director of the British Museum.

Author: 
William Rhys Roberts (1858-1929), Professor of Classics at Leeds University, and associate of J. R. R. Tolkien
Publication details: 
28 January 1918; on letterhead of the University, Leeds.
£85.00

Three pages, octavo. Very good on lightly aged paper. Kenyon's paper was 'much enjoyed' when read on Saturday, and there was 'a good attendance'. '[T]he pleasantries were not missed': '1. the confusion of the inexhaustible emender; 2. the thrift of the canny Odysseus in his role of wooer; 3. Burne Jones's Law.' 'At the end some interesting questiosn were asked', for example, 'why second-rate Greek annalists shd. seemingly have been preferred to Herodotus & Thucydides'.

A Mother's Historical Chart, or an Outline of the History of the World . . .

Author: 
ANON.
Publication details: 
[London, no date [watermark 1832]] Published by A. Douglas (Portman Square) and printed by J. Wilson (Piccadilly)
£125.00

[Title continued] . . . Divided into Centuries and Millennial Periods, from the Creation to the Present Time., Broadsheet, 32 x 41cms, some marking, nicks tears at folds, text complete and clear comprising approximate dates and events during six millennia, during three "Dispensations" - the "Patriarchal", Mosaic", and Christian. An aid the a child's learning of history. BBTI records Wilson and Douglas but expresses doubt whther he was a publisher and restricts his activity ot 1827 (now by this item, [1832]. No copy found on COPAC or BLC.

Document Signed "[?] Decazes" to "M. Gaillard Senainville, agent de la Societe d'encouragt".

Author: 
Elie, Duc Decazes, French Statesman.
Publication details: 
Ministere de l'Interieur, Paris, 14 April 1819.
£350.00

In French. Two pages, fol., secretarial hand, signed by Decazes. He is appoijmting Inspectors ("travail" and "surveillance" to ensure the proper operation of the Exposition "des produits de l'industrie francaise, qui doit avoir lieu au Louvre le 25 Avril prochain". He recalls that his correspondent was responsible, at the Exposition of 1806, for "toutes les operations concernant la classification des produits, et leur distribution . . .".

Autograph Signature on fragment of letter.

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

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

Coloured lithographic portrait engraving of 'THE RIGHT HONBLE. WILLIAM PIT. | From an original drawing by the late Mr. Sayers in the possession of Francis Turner Esqr. | Drawn on Stone by R. J. L. [i.e. Richard James Lane]'.

Author: 
William Pitt the younger [James Sayers (1748-1823), artist; Richard James Lane (1800-72), line engraver and lithographer; Graf & Soret]
Publication details: 
(not Published) | Printed by Graf & Soret.'
£450.00

EXCESSIVELY RARE. Apparently not present in the National Portrait Gallery collection. The portrait is on a piece of India paper roughly four and a half inches by three and a half wide, mounted on a piece of thick wove paper roughly eleven inches by eight and a half wide. The mount bears the text. Good, though somewhat grubby, and with the mount lightly creased and foxed. While Sayers is best-known as a Pittite caricaturist this image is certainly not a caricature.

Autograph letter signed to the Lord Mayor

Author: 
George Grenville, Lord Nugent
Publication details: 
Wardour Castle nr. Salisbury, 2 Nov. 1825
£45.00

Statesman and writer (1788-1850). 3pp., 8vo. He has heard that his name has been used in the prospectus for the Gwennap mining company. H explains that he was approached but decioded not to allow his name to be used or to buy any shares in it. He hopes the Lord Mayor will take any opportunity of saying this.

The Fettes Endowment.

Author: 
Various.
Publication details: 
1883-1886.
£450.00

A Collection of approximately 40 items, both printed and manuscript from the papers of J. Calder Macphail, Minister and activist, in good conditon, all with fold marks. The printed material includes: "Statement by the Educational Endowments Committee of the Free Presbytery of Edinburgh of their objections to the Draft Scheme for the Administration of the Fettes Endowment . .

Autograph letter signed to [?] Young,

Author: 
Thomas Brassey, 1st Earl Brassey of Bulkeley,
Publication details: 
13 September 1905, with letterhead "SUNBEAM RYS".
£45.00

Politician and maritime administrator (1836-1918). 3pp,12mo. "If you could postpone the date for a week, it would afford me the greatest pleasure to present the testimonial to Canon Simpson. Kindly send me list of a few leading subscriptions as a guide, addressed to Chapel Wood / Nutley / Uckfield. / I am at Milan International Maritime Conferrence last week Septr / Yours faithfully / Brassey"..

Facts relative to William Oldys, Esq., Norroy King at Arms.

Author: 
[Bolton Corney]
Publication details: 
London: F. Shoberl, [1837}.
£56.00

[Title continued] "Comprising an attempt to vindicate him from the vindication published by I. D'Israeli". Pamphlet, 15pp., 8vo, soiled and chipped, not sewn or stapled. According to the BLC "Being art,23 of Corney's 'Curiosities of Literature by I. D'Israeli . . . Illustrated.'" Scarce.

[ A Manuscript Valuation of Ecclesiastical Preferments and Royal Patronages in England and Wales]

Author: 
Anon.
Publication details: 
Circa 1700.
£750.00

Manuscript, 221pp., 4to, recased, qtr lea., marbled boards, worn. The Index in the front lists the preferments in the bestowal of twenty-six Bishops from Canterbury to Durham (pp. 1-123), the Dean of Lincolnshire, the Duke of Devonshire, Earl of Burlington, the Duke of Rutland (pp.124-129), Royal Patronages in forty-eight Counties, pp.131-221 (incl. "Dignities in the Royal Patronage", pp.135-141). The body of the work gives details of the above including columns of figures headed "First Fruits". Two printed works have a relationship with this manuscript.

Document Signed by Rouland and de Berty, Administration des Cultes. Decret.

Author: 
Rouland, Ministre Secretaire . . . [and] Nigon de Berty, [Pour] Le Conseiller d'EtatDirecteur general de l'Administration des Cultes
Publication details: 
Vichy [in ms.], 10 July 1861.
£56.00

Part printed, a decree in the name of Napoleon, one page, folio, slightly chipped, faintly foxed but clear and complete, decree in manuscript as follows: La nomination faite par L'Archeveque de Paris de l'abbe [Bour?](Michel), aumonier de Ste Perine a Chaillot, au canonicat vacant dans son eglise metropolitaine par la promotion de M. L'abbe Ravinet a l'Eveche de Troyes, est agree." WITH: an official copy of the confidential letter from the Archbishop of Paris describing the circumstances of the promotion and recommending Bour.

A List of the Wardens Assistants and Livery of The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, London.

Author: 
The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, London.
Publication details: 
London; 1859 [carried on in manuscript to 1862].
£180.00

12mo. In original worn red morocco binding, gilt, with loose front free endpaper. Good, with EXTENSIVE MANUSCRIPT CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS. Eight blank leaves bound in front and back, on which are laid down forty-nine illustrations of arms of London livery companies, each approximately one and a half inches square, and apparently dating from the mid-eighteenth century.

Autograph Letter Signed to an unnamed correspondent.

Author: 
Edouard Servan de Sugny.
Publication details: 
Cessy, pres Gex, 15 Juillet 1850
£150.00

Author/translator of "La Muse ottomane ou chefs-d'oeuvre de la poésie turque" (Paris, 1853). Three pages, 8vo, good condition. He thanks his correspondent for a copy of "l'Anthologie arabe de M. Grangeret de Lagrange" [first published 1828]. He explains his great interest in the book and the excellent job done by the compiler. He praises his correspondent for enriching the book with Latin and notes which derive from their discussions.

Autograph Letter Signed to James Finn.

Author: 
Stratford Canning
Publication details: 
25 September 1867; Westbrook.
£85.00

Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe, British diplomat (1786-1880; DNB), for many years Ambassador to the Sublime Porte. The recipient, James Finn (died 1872), was British consul at Jerusalem from 1849–1858. 2 pages, 16mo. In good condition. He has sent his correspondent's 'memorandum respecting Abyssinia' to Lord Stanley, 'who is a better judge than I can presume to be of any advantage which might result from putting into practice the suggestions it contains'. He has 'a due sense of the confidence you have shewn me'. Signed 'Stratford de R.'

Printed Exchequer Receipt, with Manuscript insertions, and Autograph Signature.

Author: 
William Bouverie, 1st Earl of Radnor of the Second Creation (1725-76)
Publication details: 
09/07/70
£50.00

One page. Dimensions of paper roughly thirteen inches by eight. Very good on aged paper, with slight loss at head and small closed tear (neither affecting text). Headed 'Annuity for Life, 1746.' '[...] Received the [19] Day of [July] 17[70] by me [William Earl of Radnor Asse. to Robert Lord Romney] Of George Grenville, junr. Esq; One of the Four Tellers of His Majesty's Receipt of Exchequer, the Sum of [Three hundred pounds] in full for [Six] Months Annuity, due the [fifth] Day of [July] last past, of [£600] per Annum, during the Life of [me William Earl of Radnor] [...]'.

Autograph Letters Signed (x 3) to Col. Harvey

Author: 
Margot Asquith,
Publication details: 
1913 and 1915
£300.00

Wife of Prime Minister. 2-5pp., 8vo. Extensive eulogising of her husband, H.H. Asquith, and condemnation of his enemies. (Asquith was replaced by Lloyd George in 1916.) Three items,

Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
George William Frederick Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon (1800-70)
Publication details: 
Grosvenor Crescent; 11 July 1852.
£36.00

Three pages, 12mo. Good. He did not receive the letter till his return from the continent the previous week. '"The Grove" is a comfortable mansion but there is nothing in any way remarkable about it - Clutterbuck's history of Hertfordshire contains all that is known respecting the persons who have possessed it. There is a fine collection of pictures, many of them by Vandyke & Sir P. Lely, wch. belonged to the Chancellor Clarendon & of them you will find an accurate description in the 3d. Vol. of the "Clarendon Gallery" published a few months ago by my sister Lady Theresa Lewis.

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