CENTURY

Autograph Letter Signed ('C Crapelet'), in French, to 'Monsieur Deterville'

Author: 
Charles Crapelet (1762-1809), French printer, based in Paris
Publication details: 
27 October 1807. [Paris.]
£75.00

12mo: 1 p. Eight lines of text. On a piece of grey laid watermarked paper. Complete and clear. Lightly aged and creased. Unusually frank business communication. He is angry at having to tell Deterville that he cannot have 'd'exemplaire des Rudimens'. He will do his best to let him have them soon. However weak the excuse, it is nevertheless true that the 'ouvriers ne m'ont pas tenu parole'.

Calendar, with colour illustrations and quotations, issued by the 'Ejército Argentino. Dirección General del Instituto Geográfico Militar', for '1950 Ano del Libertador General San Martin'.

Author: 
[Ejército Argentino. Dirección General del Instituto Geográfico Militar; General San Martin; Argentina; Argentinian; South America]
Publication details: 
10.000 - XII. - 49' [i.e. one of ten thousand copies printed in December 1949]. Ejército Argentino. Dirección General del Instituto Geográfico Militar.
£100.00

Landscape. Unbound. On thirteen pieces of paper, each 17 x 23 cm. Each leaf with two punch holes at head, and all held together by a piece of blue string. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The calendar has been printed on the reverses of old coloured maps. Covering leaf (illustrating the "Antartida Argentina"), followed by one leaf for each month. Each month carries a quotation from General San Martin (January: 'La calumnia como todos los crimenes, no es sino obra de la ignorancia y del discernimiento pervertido').

Printed authority completed in manuscript, 'To the Aldermen, Deputy, and Common-Council of the Ward of Queenhithe', signed by the City of London Commission of Lieutenancy, authorising the collection of a tax to pay the expenses of the City militia.

Author: 
Stuart Knill, Lord Mayor of London [The Ward of Queenhithe in the City of London; livery companies; tax; economic history]
Publication details: 
25/05/91
£150.00

On the recto of the first leaf of a folio bifolium (leaf dimensions 42.5 x 27.5 cm). On grey watermarked laid paper. Good, with slight offsetting from the ten red wafers placed beside the signatures. Headed 'LONDON. To the ALDERMEN, DEPUTY, and COMMON-COUNCIL of the Ward of [Queenhithe]'. Fifty-two lines of text, with manuscript additions, including the name of the ward ('Queenhithe') and the sum assessed (£89 15s 6d). At the foot of the page are large, bold signatures of the ten members of the Commission of Lieutenancy, including that of the Lord Mayor, Stuart Knill.

Coloured advertisement for 'Burke's Colonial Gentry'.

Author: 
Sir Bernard Burke, C.B., LL.D., Ulster King of Arms [Burke's Peerage; English genealogy]
Publication details: 
1890 [1891]. [London.]
£45.00

8vo: 1 p. A bifolium (leaf dimensions roughly 270 x 185 mm), on thin wove paper, with the printed page on the recto of the first leaf, the rest being blank. Very good, on lightly aged paper. Attractive item printed in red, blue, black and gold. Text reads 'Vol I in the Press. Burke's Colonial Gentry. A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Principal Families residing in the British Colonies by Sir Bernard Burke, C.B., LL.D., Ulster King of Arms.

Liberal League Publications, No. 124. Hints on Successful Farming for Mr. Chamberlain and other Protectionist Farmers.

Author: 
Liberal League Publications [Westminster Gazette; Protectionism; Joseph Chamberlain, Chancellor of the Exchequer]
Publication details: 
Westminster Gazette, January 30th, 1904.' ['Published by the Liberal League, 34, Victoria St., S.W., and printed by Wightman & Co., Ltd., 43, Essex Street, Strand, W.C., and Regency Street, Westminster, S.W.']
£20.00

On both sides of a piece of wove paper, dimensions 21.5 x 14 cm. On browned high-acidity paper, lightly creased and with closed tears to the margins. Text clear and complete. Begins 'One of the best and most effective statements of the farmer's case against Protection was that made by Mr. Legh, of Adlington Hall, one of the oldest Conservative landowners in Cheshire, at a Free Trade meeting at Adlington.' The headings are 'About Butter', 'About Cheese', 'About Corn', 'About Pigs' and 'About the Farmer's Bill'.

Offprint entitled 'Two Remarkable Letters to Lord Beaconsfield on Trade and Peace.' ['Lord Beaconsfield and Trade' by 'JEW', and 'Lord Beaconsfield and Peace' by 'RABBI'.]

Author: 
[?] Baker; the Bolton Guardian [Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield; William Ewart Gladstone; Victorian anti-semitism; nineteenth-century judaism]
Publication details: 
Undated. 'Reprinted from The Bolton Guardian.'
£150.00

In three columns of small type on one side of a piece of unwatermarked wove paper, dimensions 39.5 x 29 cm. Text clear and complete, on aged and lightly creased paper. Four short closed tears at the extremities of folds. An unusual production, docketed in pencil in a contemporary hand at the head: 'These letters were written by Baker, Consul out in the Principalities & a great protege of Gladstone'. Begins 'We have been favoured with a copy of a remarkable letter addressed to the Premier by an old friend of his father's.

Short Poems and Sacred Verses. Third Series.

Author: 
A. S. [minor Victorian poetry; nineteenth-century devotional verse]
Publication details: 
London: 1895. [Printed for Private Circulation.]' [London: G. E. Waters, Printer, 97, Westbourne Grove, Bayswater, W.'
£100.00

12mo: iv + 164 pp. In original green cloth, with the title in gilt on the front cover. All edges gilt. Slightly foxed. Good and tight, in lightly worn cloth. A curious collection, with the index of first lines containing such entries as 'Sweet Edgbaston bells' [this poem dated 1844], 'Dear Varinka', ' 'Twas a boy in a cut-off jacket' and 'They call me little Trottie'. All three series are excessively scarce. The only copy of this third series on COPAC is in the British Library, and the only copy on WorldCat in California.

Autograph Signature.

Author: 
Joseph Gulston (1744/5-1786), British book collector and connoisseur
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£20.00

On a piece of paper cut from a letter, roughly 3.5 x 9.5 cm. On lightly aged and slightly grubby paper. Good firm signature, beneath which, in a contemporary hand, 'I knew his daughter Stepny'. Gulston's wife Bridgetta (1749/50–1780) was the second daughter of Sir Thomas Stepney.

Two issues of 'The Literary Fly'.

Author: 
[Sir Herbert Croft (1751-1815), editor] 'The Literary Fly' [Christopher Etherington, bookseller, printer and typefounder, No. 25, St. Paul's Church-Yard]
Publication details: 
Number 13: 10 April 1779. Number 14: 17 April 1779. 'Printed and Published by Etherington, at No 25, opposite the South Door of St. Paul's'.
£100.00

Both issues 8vo (roughly 30.5 x 19.5 cm), 6 pp (each a loose leaf in a bifolium). Both printed on brittle watermarked laid paper. Both unbound, and stabbed as issued, and both on aged and chipped paper, but with the text clear and entire. Each issue with the title in an expansive calligraphic design. The full slug, at the bottom of the last page of both issues, reads: 'Printed and Published by ETHERINGTON, at No 25, opposite the South Door of St. Paul's (where Letters, post-paid, to the LITERARY FLY will be received).

Printed publicity material relating to the insertion of an advertisement in 'The Manchester Weekly Times'.

Author: 
The Manchester Weekly Times [Victorian newspapers; nineteenth-century provincial periodicals]
Publication details: 
Undated [late Victorian]. Place [Manchester] not stated.
£56.00

The main text is printed on one side of a piece of paper roughly 28 x 13.5 cm, headed 'Upwards of Thirty Thousand Copies Of the "Manchester Weekly Times," with Eight-page Literary Supplement, are Issued Every Saturday.' The main block of text, in a variety of types and point sizes, consists of 27 lines ending 'The Proprietors respectfully solicit instructionsn to insert your Advertisement.' Describes the newspaper's merits and boasts that it is 'one of the Largest and most complete Weekly Papers published'.

Autograph Note Signed to an unnamed correspondent ("Dear Friend")

Author: 
Anna Swanwick (1813-1899), English author, feminist, and translator of Goethe, born in Liverpool
Publication details: 
No place or year (6 June).
£36.00

One page, 12mo, asking her friend to dinner "to meet a friend from the country", fearing that "there is small chance of finding you disengaged" with such late notice.

Five items relating to the appointment of Special Constables, 'in consequence of the unsettled state of the Metropolis', including a signed warrant appointing Cater a Special Constable, as 'a tumult or riot may be reasonably apprehended'.

Author: 
William Charles Cater, hatter, 56 Pall Mall, London [Parish of St James, Westminster; Riot Act; Chartism; Chartists; 1848]
Publication details: 
The five items produced between March and June 1848. One of them printed by T. Brettell, Rupert Street, Haymarket.
£350.00

A collection of items indicating the panic felt by the bourgeoisie around the time of the Great Chartism Meeting on Kennington Common, 10 April 1848. Items Two to Five are laid down on a piece of grey paper removed from a scrapbook. Item One: Printed warrant signed by two magistrates, appointing Cater a Special Constable, it appearing, 'upon the oath of a credible witness, that a tumult or riot may be reasonably apprehended'. On one side of a piece of laid paper roughly 320 x 210 mm. Watermarked 'W H FELLOWS 1847'.

Four mid-eighteenth-century printed forms relating to English county militia: 'A Protection', 'Summons for Absentees or other Offenders', 'Mittimus on Refusal to Pay the Penalties', 'A Certificate of a Militia Man changing his Place of Abode'.

Author: 
[the county militia in eighteenth-century England; Hanoverian English magistracy; warrant; Justice of the Peace]
Publication details: 
The 'Summons' dated '175[ ]' and therefore from the 1750s, the other three items dated '17[ ]' and so eighteenth century. Three of the four 'Printed by J. TOWERS, near Air-Street, Piccadilly.'
£225.00

All four items well printed on one side of a piece of watermarked laid paper. All four lightly-aged but good. None of them filled in. The third item more dusty than the rest. Item One (15.5 x 20.5 cm): Headed 'No. VII. A PROTECTION.' To be signed by one of the 'Deputy Lieutenant, | Captain, | Commanding Officer.' Exempting the bearer, as a militia man, 'from doing any Highway Duty, commonly called Statute Work'.

Two handbills relating to the Sudbury Municipal Election of 1877.

Author: 
Sudbury Municipal Election, 1877 [Suffolk; East Anglia; English council elections; county councillors in Victorian England]
Publication details: 
1877. One of the two items 'Printed at the Free Press Office, Sudbury.'
£56.00

Both items printed on one side of a piece of cheap wove paper. Both items aged and lightly creased, but with text clear and entire. Item One (23 x 12.5 cm): Headed 'Sudbury Election.

Five hand-coloured prints of French actors performing in French and Italian plays at the Comédie Française in the eighteenth century.

Author: 
Robert Sayer of Fleet Street, London printseller [theatrical prints; Comédie Française; Bellecour; Marie Favart, Trial, Clerval; Laurette]
Publication details: 
All five prints 'Publish'd by Robt. Sayer, No. 53 Fleet Street London, as the Act directs, 1st. Septr. 1772.'
£200.00

Each of the five on a piece of good laid paper, roughly 15 cm square. Wide margins, with indentation of plate 9.5 x 8 cm. All five good, with occasional light creasing to margins. The second and third items more aged that the others, but all good and suitable for framing. Delicately engraved and skillfully coloured. Item One: 'Mr. Bellecour. 3 Comed. Franc. Le Joueur. dans la Comédie du même nom.' Item Two: '19 Comed. Franc. Michau et Henri. dans la Partie de Chasse d'Henri IV. Qu'êtes-vous? allons, qu'êtes-vous?' Item Three: 'Made. Favart. 22 Coméd. Ital. La Vieille.

Le Chapitre des Accidents.

Author: 
Maurice Alhoy, French author; Victor Adam, lithographic engraver and artist [Le Figaro]
Publication details: 
1845. Paris: Soulié, Editeur, 10, Rue de Seine. [Paris. - Typographie Lacrampe et comp., Rue Damiette, 2.]
£100.00

Landscape 8vo (leaf dimensions roughly 15.5 x 23.5 cm): [iv] + 98 pp of letterpress, and 24 tipped-in full-page lithographic engravings ('taille-douce' over a tinted background), one illustrating each of the book's twenty-four chapters. Woodcut engraving on title-page. In contemporary brown cloth with green patterned endpapers. A tight copy, with the first few leaves somewhat grubby and worn at bottom outer corners. Occasional foxing throughout. Alhoy (1802-1856) was co-founder of 'Le Figaro'. Second and last edition.

Handbill carrying two satirical political poems, 'A New W[h]ig Song, To a Barbarous OLD Tune.' and 'The Ballad of the Burgesses, To BOBBING ADAIR. | Tune - "ROBIN ADAIR." '

Author: 
[Victorian political satire; Liberal Party; John Bright; Robert Alexander Shafto Adair, MP for Cambridge 1847-1852, 1854-1857; Sir Hugh Edward Adair of Flixton Hall, MP for Ipswich 1847-74]
Publication details: 
Date, place and printer not stated. [1850s?]
£180.00

Two pages, printed on the recto of the first leaf and verso of the second of a yellow wove-paper bifolium. Leaf dimensions 22.5 x 14.5 cm. Grubby and creased, but with text clear and complete. The first poem, 'A New W[h]ig Song', begins 'In our town there's a street, with a chapel and shop, | Where a gay pole once hoisted of late is let drop, | There a fam'd Barber deals with his w(h)ig as he wills, | From full bottom'd P----r to little scratch M--ls.' References to 'shot-yellow A---r [Adair]' and 'M----y, the close button'd Barber'.

Autograph Signature ('B. J. Dale').

Author: 
Benjamin James Dale (1885-1943), English composer, Warden of the Royal Academy of Music
Publication details: 
Undated.
£20.00

On piece of laid paper (roughly 8.5 x 16 cm) cut from diary. On aged paper with wear and 1 cm closed tear at head. Clear and clean signature, beneath the heading 'July 17'.

Autograph Signature.

Author: 
Hugo Rignold (1905-1976), British violinist and conductor
Publication details: 
Undated.
£30.00

On leaf (roughly 10 x 15 cm) torn from autograph album. Good, on lightly aged paper. Signed 'Hugo Rignold' with another signature ('John <?> | <?>') in pencil above it. Docketed in pencil.

Autograph Signature ('Edgar T. Cook').

Author: 
Edgar Thomas Cook (1880-1953), organist of Southwark Cathedral
Publication details: 
Undated.
£20.00

On piece (15 x 16 cm) of laid-paper cut from a page of a diary. Creased and worn at head. Signature under heading 'March 18'. Lightly docketed in pencil.

Autograph signature ('Henry J. Wood') with publicity photo.

Author: 
Sir Henry Wood [Sir Henry Joseph Wood (1869-1944); the proms; Royal Albert Hall]
Publication details: 
Undated, but after his knighthood in 1911.
£56.00

On a leaf (roughly 21.5 x 14) removed from a programme. Grubby, worn and with a central vertical fold. Laid down on a leaf (22 x 18 cm, and ruckled and spotted) removed from an autograph album. The autographed page only carries Wood's photographic portrait (12.5 x 8 cm), captioned 'Sir Henry J. Wood'). Bold signature in bottom right-hand corner of photograph: 'Sincerely yours | Henry J. Wood'.

The signatures of the four musicians on one leaf.

Author: 
Cedric Sharpe (1891-), cellist and composer; Ethel Hobday (1872-), pianist; Marjorie Hayward, violinist; Dora Stevens, soprano [autographs of British classical musicians]
Publication details: 
Docketed 'Autumn 1924'.
£56.00

On light-yellow page (roughly 11 x 14 cm) removed from autograph album. Four glue stains showing through from the reverse (not affecting the signatures), otherwise good. Reads 'Dora Stevens | Ethel Hobday | Marjorie Hayward | Cedric Sharpe'. Lightly docketed in pencil.

Autograph Signature ('Hugh P. Allen').

Author: 
Sir Hugh Allen [Sir Hugh Percy Allen (1869-1946)], English organist and director of the Bach Choir
Publication details: 
08/11/28
£30.00

On a light-green leaf (11 x 14 cm) removed from an autograph album. Lightly aged and creased. Reads 'Hugh P. Allen | Nov 8. 1928'. Lightly docketed in pencil. Two other autographs on reverse.

Autograph signature.

Author: 
Noël Eadie [Noel Eadie] (1901-1950), Scottish soprano
Publication details: 
Dated 21 January 1924.
£30.00

On a leaf of pink paper, roughly 13.5 x 11 cm, removed from an autograph album. Lightly creased and with a thin glue stain along inner margin (not affecting text). The inscription, in a top outer corner, reads 'Noël Eadie | 21. 1. 24'. It is somewhat smudged, either having bled or been badly blotted.

Autograph signature.

Author: 
Felix Swinstead (1880-1959), English composer
Publication details: 
Undated.
£25.00

On piece of laid paper paper (roughly 11 x 16 cm) cut from diary. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Under the heading 'June 25'.

Autograph Signature.

Author: 
Marie Novello (1898-1928, born Marie Williams), English pianist
Publication details: 
Undated, but around 1917.
£35.00

On one side of a leaf (roughly 11 x 16 mm), removed from an autograph album. Good, on lightly aged paper, with some show-through from amusing drawing on reverse by L. E. H. Phipson. Bold signature reads 'Yours Sincerely | Marie Novello'. Drawing on reverse depicts a monocled old fogey protesting his love to a pretty young thing regarding herself in a handmirror. Captioned 'I'd rather be a young man's slave!' Signed by the illustrator 'L. E. H. Phipson | 6/12/1917'. Docketed in pencil.

Coloured lithographic dioramic print, captioned 'Dawson's Diorama No. 4. The British Queen, a first rate Steem [sic] Ship, which on holding it up to the light changes to her Magesty [sic] Queen Victoria, attired in her Robes of State.'

Author: 
T. Dawson, London printseller [Queen Victoria; SS British Queen; diorama; dioramic print; optical illusion; naval and maritime]
Publication details: 
Undated, but between 1839 and 1844. 'London: Published by T. Dawson, 29, Bedeord [sic, for 'Bedford'] St. Covent Garden.'
£300.00

Dimensions of print roughly 13 x 17.5 cm. On original grey paper windowpane mount (22 x 28.5 cm). Engraved label (3 x 12.5 cm) beneath the print, with small remarque-style illustrations of the ship and the queen. The print itself is good, although aged and a little worn and spotted; the spotting and aging to the margins and mount is a little heavier. Attractive and unusual item, the image changing when held up to the light. The ship is depicted sailing on choppy seas, and the young queen seated with drapery around her on a verandah with stone balustrades and a landscape behind. Scarce.

Coloured lithographic dioramic print, captioned 'No. 17. Morgan's Improved Protean Scenery. Virginia Water. [...] upon holding it before the light, you will be presented with a splendid display of Fire-works, in honor of Her Majesty's Coronation.'

Author: 
William Morgan, printseller [the Coronation of Queen Victoria, 1838; Virginia Water, Runnymede, Surrey; Windsor Great Park; diorama; dioramic print; fireworks]
Publication details: 
Undated [1838]. 'London. Published by Wm: Morgan, 25, Bartlett's Buidgs. Holborn Hill, December 1st. 1838.'
£200.00

The portion of the caption, missing in the description above, reads '[...] Virginia Water. This Print at first represents this enchanting lake by day, and upon holding it before the light, you will be presented [...]'. Dimensions of print roughly 16.5 x 22.5 cm. On original grey paper windowpane mount (24.5 x 35.5 cm). Engraved label (4.5 x 18.5 cm) beneath the print. Good, bright impression, but with damage affecting an area roughly 2.5 x 2 cm in bottom right-hand corner. On lightly aged and spotted mount.

Coloured lithographic dioramic print, captioned 'Morgan's Improved Transformations. The Royal Magic Pear. This Print upon holding before the Light will undergo an entire change and will present [...] the Portraits of the Royal Bride and Bridegroom.'

Author: 
William Morgan, printseller [the Marriage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, 1840; diorama; dioramic print]
Publication details: 
London. Published by Wm Morgan, 68, Upper Harrison St. Grays Inn Rd. 15th. Feby. 1840.'
£300.00

Dimensions of print roughly 13 x 17.5 cm. On original grey paper windowpane mount (22 x 28.5 cm). Engraved label (3 x 12.5 cm) beneath the print, with small remarque-style Dimensions of print roughly 20 x 14.5 cm. On original grey paper windowpane mount (34 x 24 cm). Engraved label (5 x 19 cm) beneath the print. Worn and discoloured. An usual and attractive item, with a simple picture of a pear which transforms into a portrait of the royal couple, under drapes, when held up to the light.

Seven-page advertisement, written by Cobbett, and headed 'This Day is published, Cobbett's Annual Register, Vol. I. From January to June, 1802.'

Author: 
William Cobbett [Cox, Son, and Baylis, Great Queen Street]
Publication details: 
Dated 'Pall Mall. | October 11th, 1802. } W. COBBETT.' ['Printed by Cox, Son, and Baylis, Great Queen Street.']
£100.00

8vo: 8 pp. Unbound. Stabbed as issued. Very good, on rough-edged wove paper. The seven-page advertisement, signed in type by Cobbett, is succeeded by a page headed 'New Books, published by COBBETT and MORGAN'. (Eight titles are listed.) The advertisement is a personal address from Cobbett, the second paragraph casting valuable light on his motives and intentions: 'When I first undertook the Register, I was fully persuaded, that the plan, which, indeed, I had long thought of, was well calculated to ensure a wide circulation, and to produce an extensive as well as a lasting effect.

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