OF

[Princess Marie Radziwill, French noblewoman at the Prussian court.] Autograph Letter Signed (‘Marie Radziwill’), in French, inviting an unnamed princess to a ‘bazar de charité’.

Author: 
Princess Marie Radziwill [née Marie Dorothée Élisabeth de Castellane] (1840-1915), French noblewoman, granddaughter of the Duchess of Dino, a leading figure at the Prussian court
Marie
Publication details: 
2 February 1878; Berlin [Prussia].
£45.00
Marie

1p, 8vo. On grey laid paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Reads: ‘Madam / Permettez-moi de joindre à cette lettre l’annonce du bazar de charité que va avoir lieu dans notre maison et que j’espère sera visité par Votre Altesse Royale. / Designez agréer, Princesse, mes plus respectueux hommages. / Marie Radziwill’.

[Sir Aston Webb, architect of the facade of Buckingham Palace.] Typed Letter Signed to Rev. A. R. F. Hyslop of Glenalmond College, clarifying the position of the Board of Architectural Education on the question of ‘geometrical drawing’.

Author: 
Sir Aston Webb (1849-1930), architect of Buckingham Palace and the Victoria and Albert Museum, President of the Royal Academy
Publication details: 
29 March 1909; on letterhead of the Board of Architectural Education.
£50.00

See Webb's entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. In fair condition, aged and worn with traces of glue from mount at head. Folded twice. Addressed to ‘Rev. A. R. F. Hyslop, M.A. / Warden, / Glenalmond College, PERTHSHIRE.’ Following on from previous correspondence, Webb is ‘desired to explain’ that ‘the Board feels strongly the advantage of a training in freehand drawing as a preliminary to architectural training’, and that they do not consider ‘the geometrical drawing of architecture more particularly from plates’ ‘generally helpful’.

[Lord Roberts of Kandahar, Boer War commander.] Autograph Letter Signed (‘Fred Roberts’) to Sir Richard Temple, explaining how he proposes to obtain preferment for Temple’s son.

Author: 
Lord Roberts [Frederick Sleigh Roberts; Field Marshal Earl Roberts of Kandahar, V.C.] (1832-1914), Boer War commander [Sir Richard Temple (1826-1902); his son Sir Richard Carnac Temple (1850-1931)]
Publication details: 
14 June 1889; Simla. On letterhead of the ‘Commander in Chief in India’.
£56.00

See the entries for the two men in the Oxford DNB, as well as that of the subject of the letter, Sir Richard Temple’s eldest son Captain Richard Carnac Temple (1850-1931), the future second baronet. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Aged, with the gutter repaired with archival tape, and the reverse of the second leaf adhering to part of its mount. Headed ‘Private’ and addressed to ‘Dear Sir Richard’.

[Charles Henry Alexander Paget, 6th Marquis of Anglesey, soldier and courtier.] Autograph Letter Signed (‘Anglesey’), thanking A. C. Cox for offering ‘the Commissions in the name of the Marquess of Anglesey’.

Author: 
Marquis of Anglesey [Charles Henry Alexander Paget, 6th Marquis of Anglesey (1885-1947)], Lord Chamberlain to Queen Mary, soldier with Royal Horse Guards, courtier and landowner, patron of Rex Whistle
Publication details: 
26 January 1937; on letterhead of Plas Newydd, Llanfairpwll, Isle of Anglesey, with stamp ‘GUARDS 2 / RECEIVED’.
£38.00

2pp, 12mo. In good condition, folded once. Headed by him ‘Guards & Cavalry’. He is obliged to Cox for his ‘courtesy in offering me the Commissions in the name of the Marquess of Anglesey’, and will be ‘very grateful for them and they will be with all the family papers of which there are a great many & well cared for & catalogued’.

[Queen Victoria’s third daughter Princess Helena, later Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein.] Autograph Letter Signed (‘Helena’), explaining the delay in thanking ‘Col: Colville’ for sending an ‘excellent’ sketch.

Author: 
Princess Helena [Helena Augusta Victoria] (1846-1923) of the United Kingdom, later Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, daughter of Queen Victoria [Colonel Sir William James Colville (1827-1903)]
Publication details: 
24 January 1898; on letterhead of Cumberland Lodge, Windsor Great Park.
£45.00

The princess was the third daughter and fifth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. See her entry in the Oxford DNB. Colville, who was ‘Master of the Ceremonies’ to Queen Victoria, was a talented amateur watercolourist. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium with mourning border. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. She apologises for the delay in thanking him for ‘the Sketch you so kindly have sent me. Believe me I am not ungrateful. I have had the house full for the last 10 days have not had a moment to myself.’ She considers the sketch ‘excellent’.

[Harry Harkness Flagler, fabulously-wealthy son of the founder of Miami and Palm Beach, Florida.] Autograph Letter Signed to Mrs Helen Lossing Johnson, explaining why he declines to buy the New York diaries and other material she has sent him.

Author: 
Harry Harkness Flagler (1870-1952), President of Philharmonic Symphony Society of New York, son of Henry Morrison Flagler (1830-1913), founder of Standard Oil and of Miami and Palm Beach, Floriida
Publication details: 
5 January 1933; on letterheads of 32 Park Avenue [New York].
£120.00

Harry Harkness Flagler was son and heir to one of America’s greatest fortunes, inheriting the sumptuous Whitehall estate in Florida (now the Flagler Museum). The recipient was the wife of Frank Edgar Johnson, whose obituary is in New York Times, 5 December 1932 (‘Yonkers life insurance man was an authority on birds’). 6pp, four of which in 12mo and two in 8vo. On two bifoliums, each with the final page of text written lengthwise across the central opening. In envelope, with post mark and stamp, addressed by Flagler to ‘Mrs.

['The old friends leave us soon or late’: a poignant lyric by the author of ‘Danny Boy’, set to music within days of the composer’s death.] Signed Autograph Score by Frederic Nicholls Löhr, of his setting of ‘Friends’ by Frederic E. Weatherly.

Author: 
Frederic N. Löhr [Frederic Nicholls Löhr] (1844-1888), composer with Plymouth connections, father of Hermann Löhr; Frederic Edward Weatherly (1848–1929), songwriter and barrister
Publication details: 
Dated by Löhr to 20 November 1888. No place.
£150.00

Painfully appropriate words (‘The old friends leave us soon or late’), set to music within days of the composer’s death. Among Weatherly’s many lyrics are ‘Danny Boy’ and ‘Roses of Picardy’. See his obituary in the Oxford DNB, and Löhr’s three-page obituary, with portrait, in the Musical Herald, London, February 1889. Löhr was the father of the composer Hermann Löhr (1871-1943). 2pp, 4to, on the facing pages of a bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged, with a couple of closed tears unobtrusively repaired with archival tape. At head of first (left-hand) page: ‘Friends.

[Oxford Militia; Col. William Gore-Langton, M.P. for Somerset.] Autograph Letter in the third person to army agents Messrs Cox and Greenwood, enquiring about arrangements for winter quarters for the Oxford Militia on their return from Ireland.

Author: 
Colonel William Gore-Langton [William Gore until 1783] (1760-1847) of Newton Park,, for 45 years Whig Member of Parliament for, successively, Somerset, Tregony and Somerset East [Oxford Militia]
Publication details: 
9 December 1799; Newton Park, near Bath [Somerset].
£38.00

See his entry in the History of Parliament, which quotes a contemporary source describing him as ‘one of the oldest reformers in the House’, ‘in favour of the ballot and the immediate abolition of slavery’. 1p, 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded four times. Begins: ‘Colonel Gore Langton presents his Compliments to Messrs: Cox and Greenwood, and as the Oxfordshire Regiment of Militia are expected to return from Ireland about Christmas, he is very desirous of being informed whether any arrangement has been made respecting their Winter Quarters’.

[Thomas O'Hagan, 1st Baron O'Hagan.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Thomas O'Hagan') to 'T. Streatfield Esq', regarding a memorandum.

Author: 
Thomas O'Hagan, 1st Baron O'Hagan (1812-1885), Lord Chancellor of Ireland, 1868-1874, 1880-1881.
Publication details: 
34 Rutland Square, Dublin. 9 May 1870.
£75.00

2pp., 12mo. On leaf with mourning border. In good condition, lightly-aged, with neat repair to a short closed tear. He is returning a memorandum, 'which is quite correct & may be acted on', and has made a payment of £380 to his account with Drummonds Bank.

[‘I feel rather as a brother than as a client’. Captain George Jones, RA, Librarian of the Royal Academy.] Autograph Letter Signed (‘George Jones’) to his close friend Sir Francis Chantrey, explaining his embarrassment at selling him a painting.

Author: 
Captain George Jones (1786-1869), RA, Librarian and acting President of the Royal Academy, and army officer, close friend and executor of J. M. W. Turner and Sir Francis Chantrey
Publication details: 
Without date or place, but before Chantrey's death in 1841, and probably from London.
£150.00

See the entries for Jones and Chantry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. On bifolium. An interesting letter of 39 lines with text intact, in poor condition, aged and with closed tears, and discoloration from tape used in repair, and ink blot to first page. The surname of the recipient is not given, but the close friendship between the two men (Jones published a memoir of Chantrey in 1849) puts Chantrey’s identity beyond doubt.

[Adalbert, Prince of Bavaria.] Autograph Letter Signed (‘Adalbert | Prince de Bavière.’), in French, to Lady Cullum, discussing the benefits of dehorning livestock, and presenting her with two gold medals for her efforts in promoting the practice.

Author: 
Adalbert, Prince of Bavaria (1828-1875), ninth child of King Ludwig I, and uncle of the ‘mad king’ Ludwig II [Lady Ann Cullum (1807-1875), wife of Sir Thomas Gery Cullum (1777-1855) of Hardwick House.
Publication details: 
4 November 1861; Munich [Germany].
£180.00

Written while his brother Maximilian II was on the throne. (Following Maximilian’s death in 1864 Bavaria would be ruled by the celebrated ‘mad king’, Adalbert’s nephew Ludwig II.) The recipient is Lady Ann Cullum (1807-1875), widow of Rev. Sir Thomas Gery Cullum (1777-1855), 8th Baronet, of Hardwick House, Bury St Edmunds, who is referred to as ‘botanist and antiquary’ in his eponymous father’s entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 4to. Thirty-six lines, neatly and closely written. On first leaf of bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged and creased. Folded twice.

[Barbara Castle, Labour politician.] Autograph Note Signed to ‘Pip’, accompanying signed press photograph to him, the other side of the note carrying an Autograph Note from deaf Labour politician Jack Ashley.

Author: 
Barbara Castle [Barbara Anne Castle, Baroness Castle of Blackburn, née Betts] (1910-2002), Labour politician [Jack Ashley [John Ashley, Baron Ashley of Stoke] (1922-2012)]
Publication details: 
Barbara Castle’s note dated 11 July 1973; no place. The ‘British Official Photograph’ dated on accompanying leaf to 1974.
£76.00

See their entries in the Oxford DNB. Castle was a pioneer for woman in British politics and a champion of the welfare state; and Ashley, said to have been the first totally deaf democratic representative in the world, was a campaigner for the rights of the disabled.. Both items in good condition. The ANS is on a 16mo leaf of pink paper. On one side: ‘To Pip / who has lightened our load and brightened our lives for so many years. / Bless you! / Barbara Castle / 11. 7. 73.’ On the other: ‘To PIP THE POPular / With every good wish / Jack Ashley / P.S. And lots and lots of fun. / JA’.

[6th Marquis of Donegall, as President of the Nation Federation of Jazz Organisations. On behalf of.] Autograph Signature to circular to the Kent County Army Cadet Force, offering tickets for the 1951 jazz concert at the Royal Festival Hall.

Author: 
[6th Marquis of Donegall] Edward Arthur Donald St George Hamilton Chichester, 6th Marquess of Donegall (1903-1975), President of the Nation Federation of Jazz Organisations [W. P. MacQueen Pope]
Publication details: 
31 May 1951. On letterhead of Kent County Army Cadet Force Welfare, 16 Hyde Park Gate, London.
£120.00

A nice piece of ephemera, associated with a landmark concert in the history of British popular music. 1p, 8vo. Twenty-three-line typed circular, with perforated order slip for tickets at end. In fair condition, lightly aged. Signed ‘Donegall’ and with autograph address to ‘Dear Mac Queen Pope’ (i.e. the theatre historian W. P. MacQueen Pope). The circular begins: ‘I am writing to you because H. R. H.

[‘Cambridge is particularly wet & dirty’. A future Viceroy of India as undergraduate.] Autograph Letter Signed (‘Napier’), from Francis Napier (the future 10th Lord Napier) to his mother Lady Napier, giving Cambridge news on a visit from his sister.

Author: 
[Lord Napier, Viceroy of India.] Francis Napier (1819-1898), 10th Lord Napier of Merchistoun and 1st Baron Ettrick [his mother Lady Napier (1784-1883), née Elizabeth Cochrane-Johnstone; Cambridge]
Publication details: 
‘Trin. Coll. Sunday 12 o’clock’. [24 November 1839; Trinity College, Cambridge.]
£180.00

See Napier’s entry, and that of his sister Maria’s husband John Gellibrand Hubbard (1805-1889), 1st Baron Addington, in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged and discoloured, with small closed tear to a crease. Part of letter torn away on opening, and now under small black wax seal (good impression of crest with letter N). Folded four times. Addressed, with three postmarks, on reverse of second leaf, to ‘The Rt Honble | The Lady Napier | Kew Green’. Minuted by Lady Napier: 'Cambridge Novr. 1838’. 64 lines of neatly-written text.

Printed facsimile of Autograph Letter Signed ('Palmerston') from the Liberal Prime Minister Lord Palmerston, requesting attendance in the House of Commons by Liberal Members of Parliament.

Author: 
Henry John Temple (1784-1865), 3rd Viscount Palmerston [Lord Palmerston], Liberal Prime Minister, 1855-1858, 1859-1865
Publication details: 
'Downing Street 20 November 1857'.
£85.00

4to, 1 p. Nine lines. Text clear and complete. On bifolium of paper watermarked 'J WHATMAN | 1855'. Aged and lightly-stained. Reads 'I have the Honor to inform you that Parliament having been called to meet on Thursday the 3d of December Business of great Importance will then immediately be brought forward, and I trust that it may be consistent with your Convenience to attend in your Place in the House of Commons on that Day'. From the papers of James Wyld (1812-1887), cartographer and Member of Parliament for Bodmin.

[Ren? Louiche Desfontaines, Professor of Botany at the Jardin des Plantes.] Autograph Letter Signed (?Desfontaines?) [to the negotiator of the Louisiana Purchase, the Marquis of Barb?-Marbois], thanking him for his ?Histoire de la Louisiane?.

Author: 
Ren? Louiche Desfontaines (1750-1833), French botanist, Professor of Botany at the Jardin des Plantes [Fran?ois, Marquis de Barb?-Marbois (1745-1837), French negotiator of Louisiana Purchase]
Publication details: 
Erroneously dated ?paris 21 decembre 1888? [1829?].
£180.00

The letter is addressed to ?Monsieur Le marquis?, and the recipient is undoubtedly Barb?-Marbois. The letter presumably dates from 1829, the year of publication of Barb?-Marbois?s ?Histoire de la Louisiane?. The other work referred to, ?Le Complot d?Arnold et de Sir Henry Clinton contre les Etats-Unis?, was published in 1816.

[‘Snub him & send him home.’ President Woodrow Wilson is a ‘Bally Ass’ and ‘distinctly Socialistic’.] Autograph Letter Signed from Republican politician A. H. Olmsted to P. A. Currie, attacking Wilson on the eve of the Paris Peace Conference.

Author: 
A. H. Olmsted [Albert Henry Olmsted] (d.1842-1929), banker and Republican party politician, half-brother of ‘father of landscape architecture’ Frederick Law Olmsted [President Woodrow Wilson]
Publication details: 
26 January 1919; on letterheads of the Hotel Del Monte, California.
£650.00

Having made the first state visit to the United Kingdom by an American President, 26 to 28 December 1918, Wilson was in Europe at the opening of the Paris Peace Conference, which would result in the League of Nations and Treaty of Versailles. The present letter presents in forthright terms the Republican position on his activities in the aftermath of the First World War. 5pp, 12mo. On five leaves of letterheads of the Hotel Del Monte, California (‘Carl S. Stanley, Manager’). In postmarked envelope from the Hotel (stamps torn away), addressed to ‘Mr. P. A.

[William Ewart Gladstone ['The Grand Old Man'] (1809-1898), Liberal Prime Minister.] Autograph Signature ('W E Gladstone') on part of Autograph Letter Signed (to Mr Robson?).

Author: 
William Ewart Gladstone ['The Grand Old Man'] (1809-1898), Liberal Prime Minister under Queen Victoria
Gladstone
Publication details: 
No date or place.
£42.00
Gladstone

Fragment of letter in Gladstone’s autograph, with his signature, on both sides of 10 x 6 cm rectangle. In good condition, with one vertical fold. Five lines on recto read: ‘<...> It was most kind of you to send me the delightful pearl studs - & to write so friendly a letter. Lady Paget gave me a set’. Recto reads: ‘<...> & preserve your kind thought | With many thanks to you & Mrs Robson | Always | W E Gladstone’. See image.

[R. H. Tawney, historian, socialist and educationalist.] Autograph Signature (‘R H Tawney’) on slip cut from letter.

Author: 
R. H. Tawney [Richard Henry Tawney] (1880-1962), influential English economic historian, social critic, ethical socialist, Christian socialist, and proponent of adult education
Tawney
Publication details: 
No date or place.
£28.00
Tawney

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The valediction of a typed letter, on slip of paper, 8.5 x 3.5 cm. Somewhat creased, and with two thin printed slips ‘DIRECTOR | R. H. TAWNEY, B.A.’ and ‘London School of Economics’) laid down near the signature (‘R H Tawney’), above which is typed ‘Yours very sincerely,’.

[Sir Charles Travis Clay, Librarian of the House of Lords, antiquary and genealogist.] Autograph Letter Signed (‘Charles Clay’) to the mediaevalist Austin Lane Poole, regarding his work on the entry on the Percy family in the Complete Peerage.

Author: 
Sir Charles Clay [Sir Charles Travis Clay] (1885-1978), antiquary and Librarian of the House of Lords [Austin Lane Poole (1889-1963), British mediaevalist, son of historian Reginald Lane Poole]
Publication details: 
26 February 1942; on House of Lords Library letterhead.
£56.00

2pp, 4to. 34 lines of closely-written text. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Addressed to ‘Mr. Poole’. After expressing a hope that they will be meeting Poole now that they are both on the council of the Royal Historical Society, he explains that he is writing in relation to his redrafting of ‘the early part of Percy for the Complete Peerage’, noting that ‘the present draft is certainly alarming’. He is taking it ‘down to 1245’ and finds it ‘full of snags’. He has ‘just finished a draft of Jocelin, Agnes de Percy’s husband’, and L. C.

[Paul-Henri Spaak, Prime Minister of Belgium and ‘Mr Europe’.] Typed Letter Signed (‘P. H. Spaak’), in French, as Belgian Foreign Minister, to Sir George Rendell, regarding the success of a mission to Singapore and a paper on a mysterious subject.

Author: 
Paul-Henri Spaak (1899-1972), Prime Minister of Belgium, nicknamed ‘Mr Europe’ because of his work towards European integration [Sir George Rendell (1889-1979), British diplomat]
Publication details: 
26 May 1954. On letterhead of the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Brussells.
£90.00

Rendell had served as Ambassador to Belgium between 1947 and 1950. At the time of writing he was heading the Commission which resulted in the 1955 Constitution of Singapore. 1p, long 8vo. Folded twice. In fair condition, lightly aged. Endorsed with action taken in red ink. Twenty lines of text, addressed to ‘Sir Georges [sic] RENDELL’ in London as ‘Mon cher ami’. Having once again ‘repris mon job avec plaisir et intérêt’, he has not spent much times in the Belgian capital, instead ‘faisant la navette entre Genève, Strasbourg et Bruxelles’.

[Lord Graves confronts ‘the principal blackmailing editor’.] Autograph Letter in the third person from William Thomas Graves, 3rd Baron Graves, to Charles Molloy Westmacott, editor of ‘The Age’.

Author: 
Lord Graves [William Thomas Graves (1807-1870), 3rd Baron Graves of Gravesend] [Charles Molloy Westmacott (c.1788-1868), editor of ‘The Age’ newspaper]
Publication details: 
‘Berkeley Castle | October 25th. 1831’.
£60.00

Westmacott was notorious for accepting money for the suppression of stories: Michael Sadleir has described him as ‘the principal blackmailing editor of his day’. The present communication may be related to the scandal surrounding the death of Graves’s father the previous year: he had committed suicide on learning that his wife (mother of the couple’s twelve children) was having an affair with the Duke of Cumberland. 1p, 12m. Folded twice. In fair condition, lightly aged. Reads: ‘Lord Graves presents his Compliments to Mr. Westmacott, begs to return him his thanks for the explanation which Mr.

[Lord Roberts [Field Marshal Earl Roberts of Kandahar], British Boer War commander.] Autograph Letter Signed (‘Roberts.’), sending condolences to ‘Mrs. Tierney’, mentioning his time at 'Mills School' with Tierney and cricketer Alfred Torrens.

Author: 
Lord Roberts [Frederick Sleigh Roberts; Field Marshal Earl Roberts of Kandahar, V.C.] (1832-1914), British Army commander during Second Boer War [Alfred Torrens (1831-1903), cricketer]
Publication details: 
18 March 1903; on letterhead of 47 Portland Place, W. [London]
£56.00

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium, folded once. In good condition. 29 lines of text. He thanks her for her kindness, ‘in the midst of your great sorrow’, in writing to inform the Robertses of her husband’s death. ‘We have often talked of you both, and wondered where you were living.’ He had thought it was ‘somewhere in the valley of the Thames, at least I thought you told me so when last I met you both walking in Regent Street - some 10 years ago’. After a brief comment on Tierney’s ill health, he recalls how ‘He, Alfred Torrens, and I sat next to each other at Mills School.

[Hugh Dalton, Clement Attlee’s Chancellor of the Exchequer: ‘This is a proud honour’.] Two Typed Letters Signed to educationalist T. Lloyd Humberstone, noting that he is the first University of London Chancellor, criticizing ‘Harrovian Chancellors’.

Author: 
Hugh Dalton (1887-1962), economist, Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1945-7, one of ‘big five’ in Clement Attlee Labour Party postwar government [T. Lloyd Humberstone, educationist; University of London]
Publication details: 
21 September 1945 and 11 March 1946. Both from Treasury Chambers, the first from Whitehall and the second from Great George Street.
£75.00

See entry in Oxford DNB on Edward Hugh John Neale Dalton, Baron Dalton (1887-1962). Thomas Lloyd Humberstone (1876-1957) was a prominent member of the Convocation of the University of London. Both signed ‘Hugh Dalton’. Both in good condition and lightly aged. ONE (21 September 1945): 1p, 4to. Folded twice. He has found Humberstone’s letter ‘most interesting’, and sends delayed thanks for his congratulations (on Dalton’s appointment as Chancellor). He will also be ‘requiring a cheque in due course’, and notes the ‘suggestion of a tax rebate’.

[Harriet Parr, Victorian novelist encouraged by Charles Dickens.] Autograph Note Signed to ‘Miss Cameron’, regarding the return of ‘Fanny’ and the recipient’s forthcoming garden party, ‘one of my chief pleasures of the Season’.

Author: 
Harriet Parr [pseudonym, ‘Holme Lee’] (1828-1900), prolific British nineteenth-century author, admired and encouraged by Charles Dickens
Publication details: 
2 July [year not stated]; Whittle Mead [Shanklin, Isle of Wight].
£35.00

1p, 12mo. On laid paper, folded once. Informing her that ‘Fanny’ will be returning in a few days, and that ‘we shall be very happy to come to your Garden Party on Thursday 10th. which is one of my chief pleasures of the Season’.

[‘Mademoiselle Rachel’ [Elisabeth Félix], celebrated French actress.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Rachel') to ‘Madame Goreau’, about getting the Comte de Noailles or Marquis of Normanby to help in getting fabrics for costumes to Paris from London.

Author: 
‘Mademoiselle Rachel’ [Elisabeth Félix] (1821-1858), French actress of Jewish extraction, mistress of Napoleon III and others [Comte de Noailles; Marquis of Normanby]
Publication details: 
7 October 1847; no place [Paris?].
£120.00

2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of bifolium. Folded three times. In fair good condition, lightly browned. 36 lines, sloping upwards and written in an untidy hand, which renders the following report somewhat tentative. Signed ‘Rachel’. In French. She has been so busy since the resumption of the ‘théâtre français’ that she is only now able to tackle the need to get her ‘étoffes’. She reports that the ‘Comte de Noailles’ is in London, and asks the recipient, who also appears to be there, to go again to the embassy to ask him to send by two or three packets what she needs to make ‘mes robes’.

[Stephen King-Hall; Friends of Hansard; Hansard Society] Circular Letter sent to Friend[s] of Hansard with what looks like a stamped signature of Stephen King-Hall. See image

Author: 
Stephen King-Hall [William Stephen Richard King-Hall, Baron King-Hall of Headley (1893 -1966), naval officer, writer, politician and playwright, member of parliament for Ormskirk from 1939 to 1945.]
Hansard
Publication details: 
[Printed heading] The Friends of Hansard, War-time address: | 804 Hood | Dolphin Square | London, S.W.!, [Date handwritten] 18.5.44. With list of Officers inc. Margaret Bond and King-Hall himself.
£220.00
Hansard

Typed (cyclostyled or similar?) Letter Signed as above, three pages, 12mo. very good condition, apart from small rusty hole where formerly stapled.

Letterbook of Arthur Poyser, Master of the Lord Mayor's Players and Singers, founder of the Lord Mayor's Own 1st City of London B.P. Scouts, containing letters from a number of notable individuas, drawings, programmes, cuttings and other ephemera.

Author: 
Arthur Poyser, International Commissioner for Music, Master of the Lord Mayor's Players and Singers [the Boy Players], and founder in 1908 of the Lord Mayor's Own 1st City of London B.P. Scouts
Publication details: 
Dating from between 1904 and 1938.
£450.00

Poyser was the author of the first 'Official Song-book of the Scout Movement', 'The Scout Song Book' (1912). He published a history of the Tower of London in 1908, 'when I was Master of the Music of the Collegiate Church of Allhallows Barking-by-the-Tower, City of London'. For more information, see The Times, 3 August 1964 ('Roll of Honour for Scouts'). 125 items, including letters, programmes, drawings, postcards, invitations, newspaper and magazine cuttings, relating to the Boy Players and 1st City of London Scout Troop.

[Thomas Hughes, politician and judge, author of 'Tom Brown's School Days'.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Tho. Hughes') to 'Bricknell', regarding the threat of resignation (from the Athenaeum?) by 'the good but peppery & impulsive D[octo]r.'

Author: 
Thomas Hughes (1822-1896), politician and judge, author of 'Tom Brown's School Days'
Publication details: 
7 June 1875. On letterhead of the Athenaeum Club [London].
£100.00

2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Clearly and firmly written. The letter would appear to concern an individual who is threatening to resign his membership of the Athenaeum Club, and ends with reference to proxy voting for new members. Hughes begins by reporting that he has 'already written to the good but peppery & impulsive Dr. of whom I am as fond as you are'.

[Nina Hamnett Annotation; Queen of Bohemia; Periodical] Wales 3

Author: 
Keidrych Rhys, Editor [Nina Hamnett]
Nina
Publication details: 
January: February: March, 1944.
£100.00
Nina

Printed wraps, advts back and front, pp.[1]-116, wraps dulled, stained and sl. worn, Contents in good condition, including Daniel Jones, Vernon Watkins, John Betjeman, Ruthven Todd. The phrase Nina Hamnett annotation is written top of front wrap by an unknown hand. See image (includes Contents).

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