CHARLES

All three letters good, on lightly aged paper. Close's first letter (12mo, 2 pp): He is pleased to hear 'that Professor O. T. Jones is convalescent and back at work'. Close will write to him to ask if he will take part in the 'Commission' on the 'Terrasses littorales'. Having none 'handy', he is writing to the Admiralty Hydrographer for a 'list of Admiralty Charts'. The Closes have 'settled to take a house in Jersey for the children's holidays', so there is 'little chance of our being at Oxford for the British Association meeting'.

12mo, 1 p, 20 lines. On grey paper, good, with a line of light offsetting from another document on the blank reverse. He wanted to read the work he has been sent before writing to acknowledge its receipt. 'Je suis trop peu de chose pour qu'un compliment de moi vous soit sensible'. He awaits the reprint with impatience, and regrets not having received a copy sooner. As for the introduction, he does not see how it could be changed. 'Ce que vous y dites sera toujours vrai et est aussi nouveau qu'il y a 19 ans'. The form is what one would expect 'd'un littérateur'.

12mo (18 x 11 cm): 1 p. 15 lines of text. On aged paper with one light stain at centre. Corner on reverse tipped in onto card mount. No signature. Introducing 'Miss Napier who has just returned from the Cape of Good Hope - She has one or two M.SS which she wishes to submit to your notice [...] you will kindly assist the lady in her literary efforts'. Miss Napier's address is given as '4 Beech View Villas, South Penge Park | Penge Surrey SE.' It is perhaps significant that Sir George Thomas Napier (1784-1855) was Governor of the Cape of Good Hope from 1837 to 1843.

On one side of piece of laid paper roughly 16 x 19.5 cm. Good, though lightly aged, and with a few small pin holes in one corner (not affecting text). 12 lines. Headed 'imprime pour le Citoyen Duprat, par Crapelet, 9 Nivose an 9e'. The first of four entries reads 'Memoire sur la reunion de l'artillerie & du Genie [published in Paris in 1800 by Duprat], contenant cinq feuilles & demie in-8o. Cicero, tirees a 500 exempl. a raison de 24th la feuille'. Second entry gives cost of 'Remaniement de toutes les feuilles & corrections extraordinaires'.

12mo, 2 pp, letter of 8 lines, resolution of 9 lines. Good, on lightly spotted paper with small pin holes to top inner corner. He is appending 'a copy of a resolution agreed to at a Meeting of Committee held this afternoon at No 1 Station St., the Baroness Burdett-Coutts presiding'. The resolution, on the recto of the second leaf of the bifolium, thanks Middleton, 'for services rendered to the Art Student Home, & for the constant interest he has displayed in advancing its welfare'.

Quarto: 50 + [2] pp. Fold-out frontispiece giving eighteen examples of handwriting from items in the catalogue. In original orange printed wraps. Good, though a tad dusty, and in worn and faded wraps with some glue staining to back and wear to spine. Well printed, with lengthy extracts from most items. A scrap of paper which acts as a bookmark has the words "Listed Walpole entries to W.S. Lewis || Nov 1953" in Winifeed Myers [?] hand (from her reference library). The first item is 'A Series of Pencil Sketches by George Cattermole, illustrating Dickens' Works' (£60).

One page, 12mo. Very good: lightly aged and creased. 'You are welcome to my autograph for what it is worth.' From the collection of the Rev. E. J. F. Davies.

One page, 12mo. Good but with paperclip spotting at head (not affecting text). Three-line quotation clearly sent in response to a request for an autograph. 'Broadmindedness, so called, is generally no more than the silly fear of being thought narrow-minded - | [signed] Charles Oman'.

Octavo: 32 pp. Stitched. In original printed wraps. Internally clean and tight, but wraps dogeared and grubby, with closed tear and pen mark. Tissue-guarded frontispiece of Wadham, with small dogear to top corner (not affecting image). Facsimile of Whittier's autograph. Read before the 'Saturday Evening Club of Dalton'. 'My collection today is so comprehensive [sic] that I have no hesitation in soliciting the most distinguished personages; in fact, I feel that I am conferring an honor rather than offering an insult in asking them.

One page, roughly four and a half inches by seven wide. Grubby, and with one inch closed tear at foot, caused by removal from mount, traces of which, and of another autograph adhere to reverse. Reads ' "How good it is to live, even at the worst" | "Christ in Hades" by Stephen Phillips | [signed] Charles Warner | 1902'. Small neat green circle containing number in bottom right-hand corner.

One page, octavo. Very good, on lightly aged paper, with embossed blue ink monogram at head. 'Dear Sir | My Sister Isabella, just arrived, tells me you desire my autograph, I have great pleasure in complying with your flattering request. [...]' The blank second leaf of the bifolium is carefully attached to a larger piece of neatly-docketed paper, and has the two newspaper cuttings partially laid down on it. The short Times obituary, dated 17 March 1908, states that 'She must surely have been the last person alive to whom Charles Lamb addressed a poem'.

Four pages, 12mo. Mourning border. Aged and spotted, with remains of three mounts adhering to one edge. She is enclosing a note from 'Miss Yonge', and 'one from Miss Roberts [Margaret Roberts] who wrote "Madlle Mori", "In the Olden Time", "The Atelier du Lys" &c. She refers to Miss Yonges mother in her note'. She is also sending a note 'from Mr. Dodgson too. Who is "Lewis Caroll'. (Alice in Wonderland) - & one from Isa Craig - now Mrs. Knox.

Two pages, 12mo. Good, on spotted paper. Folded twice.He is obliged to his correspondent for 'sending me a copy of the Disraeli letter in your possession'. He will not trouble his correspondent for a loan of the original 'as the contents are rather of private than of public interest'.

One page, 12mo. Very good on lightly-aged grey paper. Reads 'Dear Sir. | Here is the autograph you require. | Faithfully your's | [signed] Edmund Yates'. The words 'Here' and 'to' are slightly smudged.

On wove paper, with watermark '179< >'. Dimensions roughly 22.5 x 39 cm. Very good on lightly aged paper. One small unobtrusive spot of foxing. The illustration is within an oval roughly 21.5 cm wide, enclosed in a decorative box of dimensions 18 x 27.5 cm. A couple of bishops with croziers and a mass of nobles in ermine look on in a vaulted castle hall while Henry II presents what looks like a pie to his bemused offspring, who is seated beneath a canopy.

On piece of paper roughly seven inches by eight wide. On aged paper with closed tears and fraying to extremities. Top part of document torn away, leaving ten complete lines of text. Lays out the conditions under which an archive of letters is offered for sale.

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).

One page, octavo. Good, on lightly creased and aged paper, with a little wear at foot. Purple ink. He thanks him 'for Cheque safely to hand for the Autograph Album. There is no question abot the Collection being a genuine one.' Details the provenance from the artist H. W. Pickersgill, to Charles Kingsley, to Kingsley's brother. 'I bought the Vol at the latters sale -'. He will send the two letters 'and the Kingslake in the morning'. He has been 'laid up ill for some days'.

On a piece of paper roughly 3.5 x 9 cm, with embossed details of stationers. Good, with tiny crease to one corner. A clear signature, in pencil.

On one side of a piece of laid paper, dimensions 11.5 x 17.5 cm. Good, lightly creased with one small spot at head and a light thumbprint (Warren's?) in top right-hand corner. Clearly responding to a request for an autograph. Reads 'The Heavens declare the glory of God, and the Firmament sheweth His handy work. Ps. XX, I. | [signed] Samuel Warren | 16 Manchester Square | W. | 23d January 1866.'

The cutting consists of the two outer columns of pp.11 and 12, measuring 42 x 15.5 cm, with the article on Marie Lloyd, consisting of forty-four lines of text, covering roughly 12 x 6 cm of the inner column. Good, though a little aged and frayed at extremities, with the article with one small spot covering a word, but with the text entirely legible. First sentence reads 'Percy Courtenay, of 196, Wickham-terrace, Lewisham High-road, was brought up on a warrant before Mr.

8vo: 1 p. Very good. He has 'pleasure in complying' with his correspondent's request. 'You may have seen a book I have recently published - "Retrospect of a Long Life" - and have learned that I am in the 84th year of my age - born on the 9th May 1800. | I am thankful to God for good health and for many other blessings.'

12mo: 1 p. Good, with four fold lines. Helps held the post of Clerk of the Privy Council from 1860 until his death. In large letters beneath the oval blue Privy Council crest reads 'Life of | Las Casas | 2 copies for | [signature] A Helps'. The handwriting is bold and the signature is underlined with a flourish.

8vo: 1 p. Good, with slight wear to outer edge, and strip from previous mount neatly adhering to reverse. With name of recipient at head, and docketed on reverse. He has 'seen some charming & useful Leaflets advocating Humanity to Animals' and has been 'led to understand they may be obtained through' his correspondent. He would like a hundred of the leaflets to be sent to him, 'for which I will gladly send stamps'. Hall was a sanctimonious figure, supposedly the model for Dickens's Pecksniff.

Letter One (12mo: 4 pp, to 'My dear Mr Nichols', good, on discoloured paper): Explains that he has given 'a note of introduction to a most particular friend of mine Mr Lawrence of Ipplepen near Totnes and Launceston Cornwall'. Lawrence 'was a great friend of the late Mr Arundel of Landulph' and is 'a great friend of Mr Bray of Tavistock'. He is 'a man of ancient Cornish descent & from its first families'. Spence thinks Nichol will find Lawrence 'a valuable West Country Correspondent, well up in County history and nothing loth in the pursuit of antiquarian lore[.

On piece of creased and lightly spotted paper roughly 11 x 11 cm. Reads '<...> for half a Century. | Believe that I remain | Dear Barry | Your's faithfully | [signed] Joseph Kay | Charles Barry Esqr. Kt. | &c &c &c'.

Folio: sixteen leaves on laid paper. Unbound and stabbed, with two staples (now rusted) added subsequently. Good, with first leaf lightly discoloured. Title-leaf, and text on next fifteen paginated 1131-1159.

12mo: 2 pp. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Headed 'Private' and addressed to 'My dear Henry'. Describes Lennox (a close friend of Benjamin Disraeli) as 'a sanguine man'. 'If you thought as I do of the result of the "hundred days" between the present time and the trial of strength in Dec. you would hardly care to move.' He has 'heard nothing from Disraeli of his intentions about the Irish office', but if the opportunity arises he will do what he can to help Lennox. In 1866 Stanley had become Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in his father's third administration.

12mo: 1 p. Lacking strip (two inches by four) at foot, bearing text. Otherwise good. A formal letter in the third person. Asks Colburn to 'send him an answer to his last [underlined] Communication'. He has 'completed the Manuscript of the Work [presumably 'Narrative of the war in Germany and France, in 1813 and 1814', 1830], except the winding up in a few Pages <...>'.

See 'The club of 'Nobody's Friends' 1800-2000: a memoir on its two-hundredth anniversary' by Geoffrey Rowell (2000). Four-page bifolium. Good, on grubby, discoloured paper, with some creasing and wear at foot. Gives details of the election between 1820 and 1877 of fifty-nine Actual Members, and of eighteen Honorary Members. Includes the Rev. Charles Burney, the artist George Richmond and the publisher John Murray.