COUNTESS

See his entry, and hers, in the Oxford DNB. From the papers of her relation Lady Theresa Lewis. 2pp, 8vo. On the first leaf of a bifolium, the recto of the second leaf being addressed by him to ‘Countess of Jersey / &c &c &c’. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded for postage. Written in high eighteenth-century style.

An interesting range of content. See her entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient Philip Dosse was proprietor of Hansom Books, publisher of a stable of seven arts magazines including Books and Bookmen and Plays and Players. See ?Death of a Bookman? by the novelist Sally Emerson (editor of ?Books and Bookmen? at the time of Dosse?s suicide), in Standpoint magazine, October 2018. The letter, with her printed letterhead, is somewhat worn and creased, the other four items are in good condition. Three items (including the letter) signed ?Doris Moore? and one ?DLM?.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. On bifolium In fair condition, lightly aged, with stub from mount adhering to the inner margin of the recto, and obscuring a few words of text. The male recipient is not named: the letter is signed ‘Agnes Strickland / Historian of the Queens of England and Queens of Scotland’. By the advice of the publisher, Daldy, she is enquiring after ‘quiet comfortable lodgings at Warwick next Monday 25th till Tuesday August 2nd during the Archaeological Meeting in your antient historical town at which I have promised to be sent’.

The Pulskys had fled Austria-Hungary during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, and while in London the Countess had published her well-received ‘Memoirs of a Hungarian Lady’. They would only be allowed back under an imperial amnesty in the year after this letter in 1866. The recipient, Sabilla Novello, was the daughter of London music publisher Vincent Novello, and sister of Alfred and Clara Novello [the ‘Countess Gigliucci’ referred to in the letter], all three of whom have entries in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. On bifolium.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. An interesting letter, whose circumstances are intriguing. 3pp, 12mo. On two leaves of letterheaded paper. In pencil. From the Asquith papers, and possibly a draft letter to her son Anthony (‘Puffin’). In good condition, lightly creased. Folded once. The signature is a short squiggle. The handwriting is challenging, and the following interpretation is tentative. She begins: ‘My Darling, I felt rather guilty after leaving you about abusing yr. love of blue in yr. pictures. - I can see that nothing I say can alter yr. love of this colour, & I hate hurting yr.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, long 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged. Headed ‘TORRINGTON SQUARE. / To the EDITOR of The TIMES’. Whether the letter was published or not, and if so whether it appeared in its entirety, is unclear. Clearly a carbon, but with her characteristic signature at end in black ink ‘Margot Oxford’. The forty-seven-line text has four autograph emendations.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB, which states that ‘During his periods of ‘madness’, George III imagined that he was married to Lady Pembroke. Apparently, 'his infatuation went back to the days when he was only seventeen and she, of the same age, was Elizabeth Spencer'. The king went so far as to make 'her handsome offers if she would be his mistress.’ [...] In 1804 the king suffered another attack of dementia and again announced his desire for Lady Pembroke. This situation aroused some amusement among younger courtiers since she was by this time almost seventy years old.” 1p, 12mo.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. On bifolium. A thin strip (no more than 1 cm deep) has been cut away at the head of the first leaf, with no loss of text, otherwise in good condition. Folded once. Written a few months after Wallace’s return from his duties as Private Secretary to the future King George V on his world tour on HMS Ophir, and during the Second Boer War. Wallace has just been struck by the thought that ‘though I returned the Volume on South Africa to the address in Victoria Street’ he forgot to give her his opinion of it.

The Earl's wife was a mistress of Lord Byron. Her infidelities let to her children being jokingly referred to as 'The Harleian Miscellany'. 1p, 4to. Heavily aged and worn, with spike hole at centre. Folded several times. 'Sir | As Naples is now open for the English I beg you will send the Carriage to Naples for me by the first Ship that Sails from England for that Country. We are going there immediately. & shall [the]refore want it. I hope therefore you will lose no time in sending it. I will thank you to call on Wh.

1p, 12mo. Bifolium. Addressed on reverse of the second leaf, with broken seal in red wax, 'To / | S. C. Hall Esqre | 59 Sloane Street'. In fair condition, on aged paper. Folded by Blessington into a diamond-shaped packet. Reads: 'Saturday Evening. | Lady Blessingtons Compts. To Mr Hall, and requests that he will call on her, as soon as may suit his convenience, as she wishes to consult him, about having an Enquiry executed.'

1p., 12mo. On grey paper. In fair condition, lightly aged. She is returning Cond's bookplate, which she has signed with great pleasure, and is very glad Cond has enjoyed 'A Calabash of Diamonds', which 'really was a thrilling adventure and I don't suppose we shall ever experience anything quite so exciting again'. The book was subtitled 'An African Treasure Hunt', and involved the search for a Zulu chief's burial place. Apparently 'Eileen Cond was a book collector who sent out her bookplate to her favorite authors, many of whom signed and returned them to her.'

1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Reads: 'Thank you very much for yr. letter & the book | Yrs | Margot Asquith | 13 Feb 36'.

[1] + 8pp., 4to. On one side each of nine leaves, held together with a brass stud. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with the first page (carrying only the title and with pencil note 'Ordered') detached.

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged. In a close, disciplined hand. Reads: 'My dear Sister | Edmond and Eugenie will pass this evening by us. If the preparations of your travel do not trouble you too much, we should be extremely glad to see you also in our house with your dear children - at half past 6 o'clock'. Note in a contemporary hand at foot: 'July 1864 | To the Baroness de Linden | from the Minister her Brother in law'.

5pp., 4to, typed on five leaves stapled together. With a few minor manuscript corrections. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. The introduction reads: 'Bio-crystallography of the blood rests on the premise that the motive force which directs the processes of crystallisation is a Psychosomatic activity inherent in the blood stream.

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In very good condition, lightly-aged. She begins by explaining that as she is 'obliged to leave London', she will not be able to 'draw any more at his House this year'. She asks him to inform her how much she owes him 'for the Lessons he has been so obliging as to give - Lady Katherine Douglas & Miss Stuart will be at Mr. Parris's this Morning - | Ly Eastnor is desired by Lady Selkirk, & Lady Stuart de Rothesay, to enquire from Mr. Parris, what they are indebted to him for the Lessons to these two young Ladies'.

1p., on 20.5 x 8.5 cm slip, headed by the Prime Minister's official letterhead. Sayer's apology is headed 'Mrs Attlee', and she writes that she feels she 'must apologise in writing for the mistake I made over the arrangements for giving your two seats to the Misses Trevor', hoping that it did not cause inconvenience and promising not to do the like again. Violet Attlee's reply, headed 'Miss Sayer', is at the head of the letter: 'Please don't worry. It is quite a relief to me to find that somebody besides myself makes mistakes! | W H A 30/3'.

The Countess of Clarendon had inherited the Mesopotamia Estate from her previous husband John Foster Barham (1799-1838), who had died a certified lunatic year before her marriage to the Earl. The Estate had been in the hands of the Barham family for more than a century. The four items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. All four with notes by the recipients. ONE: Letter signed by George J. Nicholson of the London soliticitors Vizard & Leman, in secretarial hand, to Messrs Thomson Hankey & Co. Lincolns Inn Fields; 7 July 1845 ('Mesopotamia Estate'). 1p., 4to.

1p., 8vo. In fair condtion, on lightly aged and creased grey paper. 'J'ai recu votre Robert Emmet; j'en rendrai compte le plus promptement possible et je ne dirai pas que le <?> est de Madam D'Haussonville.' (The Countess of D'Haussonville is the subject of a celebrated portrait by Ingres. Her novel 'Robert Emmet' was published in Paris in 1858.)

The engraving, which is not in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, is on a piece of 19 x 14 cm paper, with tissue guard. The image measures around 8 cm square, and shows Landor's head in profile, looking to the left, with 'A. D'Orsay' beneath to the left, and 'H. W. Smith' beneath to the right. In good condition, lightly-aged, with small stain to one edge of border. Attached to a piece of paper, along with the piece of Landor's autograph, which is on a 1 x 18.5 cm strip of grey paper cut from a letter, and is in fair condition, lightly-creased.

4pp., 12mo. Fair, on lightly-aged paper with slight discoloration to inner margins from previous mounting. She thanks Alice for her 'sweet letter', and declares that she has had 'a very very pleasant visit here. I like my friends here extremely. They are my sort for all that they are strong conservatives, and they are so simple, so homely, so gentle, & I get on with them as well as - what shall I say? . as well as with you!

12mo, 1p. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. She is happy that her correspondent is enjoying himself, and looks forward to seeing him the following day, 'to take a friendly dinner'. An initialed pencil note in a contemporary hand at the head of the page reads 'The celebrated Lady who prosecuted Lord Wm Paget - Cassidy - others for getting into her Bed room at night in Paris to endeavour to carry her off & marry her for her large fortune to Cassidy | [signed] ' The incident - a great scandal of the age - was alluded to in 1844 in the Annual Register and other papers.

The Earl of Darnley's four letters (all signed 'Darnley') total 27 pp in 12mo; Lady Darnley's eight letters (all signed 'H. Darnley') total 26 pp in 12mo. All items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Darnley's first letter, 16 September 1853 (12mo, 12 pp), is unusually blunt for the period, and revealing on the etiquette of the period. It begins: 'I trust that the change in your mode of addressing me was accidental, and I have therefore not imitated it, and have used one word which you omitted [presumably 'Dear'].

4to: 1 p. Twenty-four lines of text. On a bifolium of laid paper, and docketed on the reverse of the second leaf. Good, in faded ink on lightly-aged paper. Begins 'La france republicainne [sic] me fait perdre des renttes [sic] viageres'. She complains of the attack on her 'legitimes droits a mes biens de Corses que le roy de france garrante par un Contract', and speaks of 'droits inalterables et inprescriptible'. She asks for a 'paquet' to be passed to 'Milord Hood'.

The collection in good condition, with all but one of the six items carrying ring-binder punch holes. Item One, Articles of Agreement: Foolscap bifolium, 3 pp. Dated 16 September 1904. Printed seventeen-point agreement in the form of a manuscript facsimile. Signed by Johnson, Sir John Edge and Sir Stewart Colvin Bayley, and witnessed by 'W. Watson | R[oyal]. G[ardens] Kew' and 'Frank R. Marten | India Office'. Items Two and Three both with mourning border on letterhead of Minto House, Hawick. Item Two, Mary Countess of Minto ('M Minto') to Johnson. 4to: 1 p. 14 September 1914.

Both items written in pencil and good, on lightly aged paper, with their stamped and postmarked envelopes addressed by Asquith. Both envelopes with traces of brown paper mount adhering to reverse, and both docketed by the Graphic's editor 'To me Harold Lawton'. Letter One (12mo, 4 pp, headed 'Private'): Amusingly outraged letter regarding a visit by 'two gentlemen' of whom Asquith 'had no sort of knowledge'. Graphic journalists, they assured Asquith 'that nothing wd. be written about me without my seeing it first [last five words underlined in red]'.

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'.

Dimensions of card roughly 8 x 12 cm. Very good though lightly aged. Asking her correspondent to dinner in the following week. Note, addressed to 'Cher tres Cher Coq', on one side of 8vo grey paper. Very good, though lightly creased. She will be 'enchante de vous voir chez moi' on Wednesday [6 July] at 1 o'clock. Both items written before the Asquiths 1919 move from Cavendish Square to 44 Bedford Square. Two items,

One page. Paper dimensions roughly fourteen inches by nine and a half inches. Good, with cream paper backing. 'Received then by me [Jane Countess Dowager of Bridgewater ass[ign] of Charles Bertie Esqr] [...] Of [James Vernon Esqr] One of the Four Tellers of the Receipt of His Majesty's Exchequer, the Sum of [Threescore pounds] being for [Twenty ffour] Months Interest of [ffive Hundred Pounds] [...]'. Signed 'J Bridgewater'. Witnessed by 'J Peirce'.