CALLIGRAPHY

[‘According to Cocker’: Edward Cocker, calligrapher, engraver and arithmetician.] Engraved calligraphic Copy Slip in his customary exquisite style, with text beginning ‘No Instrument of Musicke’.

Author: 
Edward Cocker [Edoardus Coccerius] (1631-1676), English calligrapher, engraver and arithmetician (‘Philomath’), whose name became proverbial because of a work of arithmetic attributed to him
Cocker
Publication details: 
Without date or place. [London, mid-seventeenth century.]
£220.00
Cocker

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. He published two dozen works on calligraphy, and Pepys described him as ‘the famous writing-master’, and employed him to engrave his slide rule, but it is as an arithmetician that he is remembered: two works published shortly after his death, purportedly from his manuscript, gave rise to the expression ‘according to Cocker’. It has not been established which one of Cocker’s works the present item comes from (his earliest, ‘Pen’s Experience’, is lost). In black ink on one side of a 17 x 11 cm piece of laid paper.

[Arabic Calligraphy; handwritten] The Creed of Sheikh al-Dardiri in Arabic.

Author: 
[Arabic Calligraphy; Mohamed Ahmed Ibin Alhaj Mohamed Ahmed Abu Qaseesah, calligrapher] Sheikh al-Dardiri
Arabic
al-dardiri
Publication details: 
[My translator says the year 1797 appears in the script.]
£450.00
Arabic
al-dardiri

I am obliged to a multi-lingual friend for the information I give. Eight pages, pages 7/8 blank, not paginated,12mo, unbound, stains on title and its verso not affecting text. See images. Titled This is the creed of sheikh al-Dardiri. Al-Dardiri was born in 1715 AD in Asyoot in Egypt. He's one of the imams of the Sunni Islam of Maliki school of thought. This document was written by Mohamed Ahmed Ibin Alhaj Mohamed Ahmed Abu Qaseesah in 1797. It discusses the twenty attributes in Sunni Islam that are obligatory for God Almighty, according to Al-Dardiri.

[ Everard Meynell ] Autograph Letter Signed Everard Meynell, Corpl., R.A.F. to W.Downing | Birmingham (bookseller) about a Mr Johnston's examples of handwriting, samples of the pen used by Downing, and Downing's latest (book) catalogues.

Author: 
Everard Meynell (1882-1926), writer, journalist and book collector.
Publication details: 
c/o Mrs. Steptoe, Rosebank Cottages, Hillingdon, Uxbridge, Middlesex, 25 June 1918.
£180.00

One page, 8vo, laid down on sl. larger piece of stiff paper, edges v. slightly frayed, faint ink line through (clear) text, name of Everard Meynell stylishly printed (or more likely written calligraphically) at base. Text: I have written for the Examples of Handwriting required by you, and will probably get them if Mr. Johnston [Edward Johnston?] is selling any at present. But I know one is liable to disappointment in that quarter.

[ Pamphlets; calligraphy; handwriting ] De Ganzeveer [ 'Ganzenveer' = goose feather ]. With Autograph Note Signed "Jan Schalkwijk".

Author: 
Jan Schalkwijk, calligrapher and handwriting educationalist, 1920-92
Publication details: 
1/ [11]1973, handwritten on covers by Schalkwijk, no imprint, but at end of the second: "De Ganzeveer is het orgaan van Mercator. Inlichtingen: Brakenburghstr. 9. Haarlem."
£150.00

Two issues of "De Ganzeveer", 1973, 12 and 14pp, green card wraps, very good condition, with Autograph Note Signed "Jan Schalkwijk", paper 14 x 11cm, "Dear mr. Fairbank, may I wish you a good Christmas & a good 1970! ! I hopew, de Ganzeveer" enjoys you. | Yours sinc. | Jan Schalkwijk." Calligraphically written.

[ Edward Marjoribanks, biographer of Sir Edward Marshall Hall. ] Fine piece of calligraphy, on vellum, from the Marshall Hall papers: Marjoribanks's poem on Hall, 'A Great Advocate'

Author: 
Edward Marjoribanks (1900-1932), barrister and Conservative MP, biographer of the distinguished advocate Sir Edward Marshall Hall (1858-1927)
Publication details: 
Place and date not stated. [ London, 1927, 1928 or 1929. ]
£180.00

On one side of a 20 x 15 cm piece of vellum. Main text in black ink. Sonnet titled 'A Great Advocate', with author's name 'Edward Marjoribanks' at foot. From the papers of Sir Edward Marshall Hall, and presumably produced for his widow, possibly by the author. (Hall's widow is said to have claimed that on reading this poem he appeared to her in a vision - the Halls were keen spiritualists - directing that Marjoribanks write his biography. The book was published in 1929.) Title, capitals of octave and sestet, and author's name in red ink. In very good condition.

[Inscribed by Berthold Wolpe; From Evelyn Philip Shirley's Ettington Manuscript Library.] Contemporary calligraphic copy, in ornate binding, of the 1655 Plantin 'Series Chronologica Imperatorum Romanorum, a C. Iulio Caesare ad Ferdinandum III. Avg.'

Author: 
[ Christophe Plantin; Berthold Wolpe; Evelyn Phillip Shirley (1812-1882); Ettington Manuscript Library; William Staunton of Longbridge, Warwickshire ]
Publication details: 
Undated manuscript of work from 'Officina Plantiniana excudebat M.DC.LV. [ 1655 ]'
£320.00

The text of the printed volume is neatly and skilfully copied over 61pp., 4to., and ruled in red. Interspersed with a number of pages carrying only the red ruling. Internally good and tight, in worn brown morocco binding with front hinge nearly detached, with heavily-worn spine with no label and singeing at head and foot. Gilt dentelles, both internal and external, and the following stamped within decorative border at centre of both covers: 'SERIES CHRONOLOGICA | IMPERATORUM | ROMANORUM | 1655'.

Autograph itemised Receipt Signed by the Southwark stationer John Muggeridge, made out to 'Mr. Cromp' and listing five purchases including ink, blotting paper, wax and quills.

Author: 
John Muggeridge (d.1825), Stationer, Borough [Southwark, London]
Publication details: 
[Borough (Southwark), London.] 21 February 1777.
£35.00

1p., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Headed 'Mr. Cromp 21 Feby 1777 | Bought of John Muggeridge'. The first and most expensive of the six items, at £1 6s 0d, is 'a Book 6 qn fine Medium ruld. 9 lines Vellum <?> lind marbled & Alphabet'. Other items include '1/2 pind red Ink & Stone bottle', 'blotting paper', '1/2 pound supfine [sic] wax' and '400 best Quills'. The six items total £1 14s 6d. Docketed 'No.

Manuscript account book of an East London sign painter: 'F. J. L. Foot | Ledger & Journal | Business Commencing | Aug 27th 1934'.

Author: 
F. J. L. Foot, East London sign painter of the nineteen-thirties [sign writing]
Publication details: 
Dating from 27 August 1934 to 9 September 1937.
£220.00

286pp., foolscap 8vo, with 143 numbered double-page spreads. In sturdy ruled account book with stamp of the London stationers Parnell & Co. Very good, on lightly-aged paper, in worn black-cloth binding. Each entry gives the name and address of the business for which the work was done, with details of the job including the dimensions of the letters, and cost. Although some work is done in central London (Bedford College, Regent's Park), most is for firms in the E17 (Walthamstow) and E18 (Woodford) postcodes, suggesting Foot's location in the same neighbourhood.

[Printed book.] Rational Stenography; or, Short-Hand Made Easy, In a few familiar Lessons, founded on the Principles of the late John Byrom, Esq. M.A. F.R.S. With numerous improvements. By the Rev. J. Nightingale.

Author: 
Rev. J. Nightingale, Author of "A Comparative View of Mavor's and Byrom's Systems," and of several Works of History and general Science, &c. [Joseph Nightingale (1775-1824); John Byrom (1692-1763)]
Publication details: 
London: J. Robins and Co. Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row. 1823. [J. Robins and Co. Albion Press, London.]
£150.00

40 + 3 + 4 pp., 12mo. With frontispiece, and three plates on one fold-out strip. In original grey printed wraps (giving the price as 2s 6d). In good condition, on lightly-aged and spotted paper, in worn wraps. Excellent frontispiece portrait, with tissue guard, captioned 'Rev. Joseph Nightingale. | Drawn by Shoosmith - Engraved by R. Roffe. | Published by J. Robins & Co. London. Feby. 1. 1824.' Six-page preface, dated 'Southwark Square, 1823.' Three plates on one fold-out strip, facing p.12.

Calligraphic manuscript titled 'Menander | 345?-293 B.C. | Translations by various hands selected from "From the Greek" edited by T. F. Higham and C. M. Bowra', containing translations by C. M. Bowra, Lord Byron and Gilbert Murray.

Author: 
Anonymous [Sir Maurice Bowra (1869-1947); T. F. Higham [Thomas Farrant Higham] (1890-1975); George Gordon Noel (1788-1824), Lord Byron; Gilbert Murray (1866-1957); Menander]
Publication details: 
Without date and place, but after 1943.
£120.00

7pp., 4to. On three bifoliums and two single leaves of watermarked laid paper, all loose, with the bifoliums placed inside one another and the single leaves inserted after the title. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. Written out in black ink, with the titles in red ink, in an excellent uncial hand. The five translations are 'My Own, my Native Land' and 'The Family Dinner-Party', both by Bowra; 'This World is all a Fleeting Show' and 'This defileth a Man', both by Murray; and 'Whom the Gods love', by Byron.

Two printed texts, each illuminated by hand in colours.

Author: 
Elbert Hubbard [Elbert Green Hubbard] (1856-1915), American writer, publisher, artist, associated with the Arts and Crafts movement [Roycroft Press]
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated. Each carrying the Roycroft Press device.
£450.00

Each item is on a sheet of laid paper, 39 x 29 cm, and each with the Roycroft watermark. Both items are grubby, with wear and creasing to extremities, but with the design and much of the margin entirely undamaged. Both have an identical block of printed text (roughly 13.5 x 9 cm) at the centre: 'THE truth is that in human service there is no low or high degree: the woman who scrubs is as WORTHY of RESPECT as the man who Preaches | ELBERT HUBBARD'.

Autograph Letter Signed to J. Dixon Spain.

Author: 
Charles Chabot (1815-82), author and handwriting expert
Publication details: 
27. Red Lion Square | London. 3. Novr. 1881.'
£100.00

One page, octavo. Very good. Neatly written, as one might expect. 'My usual charge for comparing writings is 2 Gnas and for deciphering MSS. according to the time occupied therein'. He will be 'in Town week after next but as I have to attend at the Courts at Westminster it is uncertain at what hour you would find me here unless you made an appointment beforehand.' Chabot was the author of 'The handwriting of Junius professionally investigated by Charles Chabot, expert | With preface and collateral evidence by the Hon. Edward Twisleton' (1871).

Two autograph Notes Signed to I. Kyrle Fletcher, bookseller specialising in the theatre, ballet, etc.

Author: 
Randolph Schwabe.
Publication details: 
43A Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, 5 Jan. 1927 and The Slade School of Fine Art (printed heading), 27 May 1942.
£125.00

Draughtsman and printmaker. One page each, 8vo, in his normal calligraphic hand, some peripheral damage but mainly good condition. (1927) He acknowledges receipt of a cheque and the return of a parcel of prints - thanks. (1942) He informs Fletcher that "The lithograph Enrico Cecchetti was published by C.W. Beaumont . . . He may have a copy left. I have only one, and that is stored away in Bushey, Herts. It might be unearthed, but not immediately." Two items.

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