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[Alphonse de Lamartine, French poet and leading Second Republic politician.] Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed recipient regarding his legal affairs in his home town of Mâcon.

Author: 
Alphonse de Lamartine (1790-1869), French poet and politician who played a leading role in the foundation of the Second Republic
Publication details: 
‘25 mars. (43 rue ville L’évèque)’.
£80.00

Lamartine is one of the greatest of French poets, and often counted as an early figure in that country's Romantic movement. His influence was extensive, from Verlaine and the Symbolists to Tolstoy. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Addressed to ‘Mon cher collegue’, with good firm signature ‘Lamartine.’ He suggests that the recipient send to his notary in his home town of Mâcon all the documents relating to the estate of ‘Mlle Martin’. He has need of his advice and suggests a time for meeting.

[Alphonse de Lamartine, French poet and leading Second Republic politician.] Autograph Letter Signed, responding to a letter and petition from 'Messieurs Hubert' with the assurance that he will try to be of use to them.

Author: 
Alphonse de Lamartine (1790-1869), French poet and politician who played a leading role in the foundation of the Second Republic
Publication details: 
'Paris 9 mai 1838'.
£80.00

Lamartine is one of the greatest of French poets, and often counted as an early figure in that country's Romantic movement. His influence was extensive, from Verlaine and the Symbolists to Tolstoy. 1p, 4to. In fair condition, in faded ink, on aged and lightly worn paper. Previously folded into a packet, but now laid down on brown-paper backing. Addressed to ‘Messierus Hubert’, with signature ‘Lamartine’. He has read with great interest the letter they sent him, and the petition which accompanied it.

[Duc de Vincence [General Armand-Augustin Louis, 5th Marquis de Caulaincourt.] Autograph Letter Signed, in French, following the Congress of Châtillon and Treaty of Fontainebleau, asking Lord Aberdeen to deliver a letter to Viscount Castlereagh.

Author: 
Duc de Vincence [General Armand-Augustin Louis, 5th Marquis de Caulaincourt] (1773-1827), Napoleon’s head diplomat, Ambassador to Russia [Lord Aberdeen; Viscount Castlereagh; Treaty of Fontainebleau]
Vincennes
Publication details: 
‘Chatillon sur Seine / le 7. Mai 1814.’
£450.00
Vincennes

Something of an historic document. In February and March of 1814 Vincence had led the French delegation at the Congress of Châtillon peace conference, at which his counterpart was Lord Aberdeen, with the British Home Secretary Lord Castlereagh arriving partway through. On behalf of Napoleon, Vincence had led, with little success the subsequent negotiations with Russia, Prussia and Austria which resulted in Napoleon’s abdication and exile to Elba, by the signing of the Treaty of Fontainbleau, a month before the present letter, on 11 April 1814, which was ratified by Vincence.

[Marshal Petain [Marechal Philippe Petain], French general, 'the lion of Verdun' in WW1 and head of the collaborationist Vichy regime in WW2.] Calling card of 'LE MARECHAL PETAIN / Ministre de la Guerre', with autograph inscription by him.

Author: 
Marshal Petain [Marechal Philippe Petain; Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Petain; Petain] (1856-1951), French general, 'the lion of Verdun' in WW1 and head of the collaborationist Vichy regime in WW2
Petain
Publication details: 
No date or place (but in 1934, while Petain was Minister of War).
£85.00
Petain

There can be few greater falls from grace than Petain's in the whole of human history. A 10 x 6.25 calling card. In good condition, lightly aged and ruckled, with glue and traces of paper mount on the blank reverse. The engraved text ('LE MARECHAL PETAIN / Ministre de la Guerre') is centred, with the top line in shaded block capitals and the bottom in copperplate. Beneath this Petain writes: 'avec ses remer'. See Image.

[Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvray, French novelist, playwright and journalist and Girondin during the French Revolution.] Autograph Manuscript of seven political memoranda, titled ‘un mot sur notre situation.’

Author: 
Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvray (1760-1797), French novelist, playwright and journalist and Girondin during the French Revolution
Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvray,
Publication details: 
No date or place. [During the French Revoultion: 1780s or 1790s.]
£450.00
Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvray,

See his entry in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1p, 16mo. Twenty-two lines. On watermarked laid paper. Seven numbered memoranda, possibly an aide-mémoire for a speech. Begins: ‘1o. la loi égale pour tous.’ Later on: ‘1o Ce n’est point un droit que la loi accorde; c’est un devoir qu’elle impose. et pour imposer ce devoir, elle n’a vue que son interêt. / une fonction publique n’est pas le droit de tous; elle est le devoir de quelques uns.’ And later: ‘5o. Quoi le Pere est b[?] . . . . les Dieux de l’oncle sont confisqués.’ The seventh and last memorandum concerns ‘Les malheureux!

[Marie Descorches, French revolutionary diplomat, formerly Marquis d`Escorches de Sainte Croix.] Two communications as ‘Préfet du Département de la Drome’: a Secretarial Letter Signed by him to Mayor of ‘Commune de Propiac’, and printed decree.

Author: 
Marie Descorches [Marie Louis Henri Descorches] (1749-1830; Marquis d`Escorches de Sainte Croix), French soldier and revolutionary diplomat, Ambassador to Poland and Ottoman Empire, Prefect of Drôme
DESCORCHES
Publication details: 
Both on revolutionary letterheads. Secretarial letter: ‘Valence, le 20 frimaire, an 12 de la République française. [i.e. 12 December 1803]’ Printed decree: ‘Valence, le 7 brumaire, an 12 de la République française. [i.e. 30 October 1803]’
£180.00
DESCORCHES

The two items are on variations of the revolutionary letterhead of the Prefect of the Drôme Department, with oval medallion illustration of a seated liberty with a phrygian cap on a stick, forearm leaning on the fasces and the words ‘Libérté’ and ‘Égalité’. The printed decree is in good condition, lightly aged, with slight foxing and discoloration. The secretarial letter is in fair condition, with darker patches of discoloration.

[Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian, French poet, author and fabulist.] Autograph Text of his poem ‘Le charlatan | fable’.

Author: 
Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian (1755-1794), French poet, author and fabulist
Florian
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£220.00
Florian

A nice original item, unsigned but certainly in Florian’s distinctive hand. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with neat white-paper mount adhering to one edge on the blank reverse. Foliated 93. Sixteen-line poem, beginning ‘Sur le pont-neuf, entouré de badauds, / un charlatan criait a pleine tete, / venez, messieurs, accourez faire emplette / du grand remede a tous les maux.’ In the last line the remedy is revealed as ‘un peu de poudre d’or’.

[Poisoned on the orders of the French government? François-Antoine Chevrier, satirist.] Autograph Letter Signed to Dom Ambroise Pelletier, praising his recent work, and attacking the powerful and the church.

Author: 
François-Antoine Chevrier [François-Antoine de Chevrier] (1721-1762), satirical French author, who fled to Holland [Dom Ambroise Pelletier (1703-1757), curate of Senones, genealogist and illustrator]
Chevrier
Publication details: 
‘Pais le 7. Xbre. [October] 1756.’
£500.00
Chevrier

An excellent letter, exhibiting precisely the sort of indignation one would wish for from such a renowned satirist. As a result of the furore caused by the publication in 1762 of his best-known work, ‘Le Colporteur’, Chevrier fled to Holland. The French government attempted to have him extradited, and his death that same year was rumoured to have been caused by poisoning. 3pp, 4to. On bifolium. Thirty-nine lines of text. In good condtion, lightly aged. The item has been expertly mounted, and the thin white-paper mount still adheres to reverse of the final leaf.

[Victor de Cottens, French dramatist and director, associated with the Folies Bergère in Paris.] Two Autograph Letters Signed and an Autograph Note Signed, in French, one from London to ‘Monsieur Clarkson’, and the other two to the same recipient.

Author: 
Victor de Cottens (1862-1956), French dramatist, librettist and director, associated with the Folies Bergère, Olympia music hall and Théâtre du Vaudeville in Paris
Publication details: 
ONE (ANS to 'Monsieur Clarkson): 14 May [no year]. On illustrated letterhead of the Queen's Hotel, Leicester Square, London. TWO: ALS, 26 [March? 1910?]; on letterhead of the Olympia, 8 Rue Caumartin, Paris. THREE: ALS, 22 Mai [no year or place].
£50.00

The material is in fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Items Two and Three are addressed to ‘Cher ami’. De Cottens’ handwriting is somewhat opaque. ONE: ANS, 14 May [no year]. The letterhead includes an engraved illustration of the Queen’s Hotel in Leicester Square. 1p, 12mo. ‘Cher Monsieur Clarkson / tous mes bien vifs remerciements pour votre aimable envoi de tickets. / Bien votre / Victor de Cottens.’ TWO: ALS, 26 [March? 1910?]. 1p, 12mo. He wonders whether the recipient might put his ‘experience à la disposition’ of a named colleague from Brussels. THREE: ALS, 1p, 16mo.

[‘Mirbel the naturalist’: Charles-François Brisseau de Mirbel, French botanist.] Autograph Signature (‘Mirbel’) over printed device of the Museum d’Histoire Naturelle au Jardin du Roi.

Author: 
Charles-François Brisseau de Mirbel (1776-1854), French botanist, a founder of cytology, plant histology and plant physiology in France, on the staff of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris
Mirbel
Publication details: 
No date. [Museum d’Histoire Naturelle au Jardin du Roi.]
£90.00
Mirbel

See his entry in the Encylopaedia Britannica. The signature ‘Mirbel’ is written on a clear area of a circular printed device of 4.5 cm diameter, in grey tone, within decorative border. The text reads: ‘MUSEUM / D’HISTOIRE NATURELLE / AU JARDIN DU ROI / Entrée aux Jours et Heures / consacrés à l’Etude. / Prof. Admin.’ Laid down on a 7 x 7.5 cm piece of paper, on which is written, in a neat early nineteenth-century hand, ‘Mirbel the naturalist’. See image.

[Baron de Barante [Amable Guillaume Prosper Brugière], French liberal politician and historian.] Autograph Letter Signed, in French, asking for assistance in getting a letter to the daughter of Madame Bouvier, who is with Princess Sapieha’.

Author: 
Baron de Barante [Amable Guillaume Prosper Brugière] (1782-1866), French liberal politician and historian
Publication details: 
18 July 1847. No place.
£50.00

1p, 16mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, with three creased from folding into envelope. Neatly written out in Barante’s distinctive neat and tiny hand. Addressed to ‘Monsieur’ and signed ‘Barante’. He is writing on behalf of Madame Bouvier, who wishes to find out where the Princess Sapieha is residing at present, as her daughter is ‘attachée à la princesse’, and she would like the enclosed letter (not present) to reach her. He would be most obliged if the recpient could help Madame Bouvier’s letter reach its destination.

[Alphonse Daudet, distinguished French author.] Affectionate Autograph Letter Signed (‘Alph Daudet’), in French, to ‘notre cher Mérédith’ [George Meredith], ‘grand romancier Anglais’, after visiting him at Box Hill.

Author: 
Alphonse Daudet (1840-1897), distinguished French author, noted for ‘Le Petit Chose’ and ‘Lettres de mon Moulin’ [Georges Meredith, Victorian novelist and poet]
Publication details: 
[1896.] ‘31 Rue de Bellechasse à Paris’.
£220.00

An excellent letter, linking leading nineteenth-century writers of the French and English nations. See Daudet's entry in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Meredith’s in the Oxford DNB. Daudet’s association with Meredith during his ‘first and only visit to England’ is described on pp.122-124 of the 1911 edition of J. A. Hammerton’s ‘George Meredith, his Life and Art’, which also quotes extensively from Madame Daudet’s account of the Englishman, referred to in the letter. 2pp, 16mo. Twenty-one lines of closely- and neatly-written text. On the rectos of the leaves of a bifolium.

[Pablo de Sarasate [Pablo Martín Melitón de Sarasate y Navascués], Spanish violin virtuoso and composer.] Signed Autograph Inscription, in a large hand, on a page from the album of George Meredith’s daughter Mrs Sturgis.

Author: 
Pablo de Sarasate [Pablo Martín Melitón de Sarasate y Navascués] (1844-1908), Spanish violin virtuoso and composer
Sarasati
Publication details: 
20 December 1893. No place.
£280.00
Sarasati

On one side of a 35 x 24 cm leaf of gilt-edged wove paper, extracted from the autograph album of novelist George Meredith's daughter Marie Eveleen (Mariette; 1871-1933), wife of Henry Parkman Sturgis (1847-1929), American-born banker and Liberal politician. In fair condition, lightly aged, with a small closed tear and slight creasing to extremities. Reads: ‘Recuerdo de un humilde artista en todas las Españas, y admirador de las bellísimas hijas de la Hermosisima Albiòn / Sarasata / 20 - 12 - 92’.

[Prince Philippe d’Orléans, Comte de Paris, Orléanist claimant to the French throne as King Louis Philippe II or Philippe VII.] Autograph Note in English, in the third person, to the novelist George Meredith.

Author: 
Prince Philippe d’Orléans, Comte de Paris (Louis Philippe Albert (1838-1894), Count of Paris], Orléanist pretender to the throne of France from 1848 as King Louis Philippe II or Philippe VII
d'Orleans
Publication details: 
‘Claremont 31/5/63’. 31 May 1863; Claremont House, Esher, Surrey.
£100.00
d'Orleans

From the autograph album of the novelist George Meredith's daughter Marie Eveleen (Mariette; 1871-1933), later the wife of Henry Parkman Sturgis (1847-1929), American-born banker and Liberal politician. Queen Victoria lent Claremont House to the Count of Paris’s father Louis-Phillipe, after his abdication and flight from France. On one side of an 11 x 7.5 cm piece of grey paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Written in a neat hand, it reads: ‘With the compliments of the Count de Paris and his thanks for the books send [sic] by Mr. Meredith. / Claremont 31/5/63’.

[French science in the early nineteenth-century.] Substantial collection of manuscripts, in French, with illustrations, describing aspects of science: chemistry (from Fourcroy), botany, physics, hydrostatics, mechanics, pneumatics, optics.

Author: 
French science of the early nineteenth century [Antoine François de Fourcroy; Jean-Antoine Nollet; Pierre Bulliard; Jean-Paul Marat; Hyacinthe Bonnet]
French Sciences
French Sciences2
Publication details: 
Undated, but circa the 1820s. [Paris, France.]
£3,500.00
French Sciences
French Sciences2

The anonymous author of this material is evidently a well-educated individual, and well-versed in the sciences. He has taken great care over the material, and it can be presumed that his intention was either to try for publication, or use it while lecturing.

[ Sir Henry Mendelssohn Hake, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, London.] Typed Letter Signed (‘H M. Hake’) to S. Hodgson recording portraits of George Cruikshank and Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson.

Author: 
Sir H. M. Hake [Sir Henry Mendelssohn Hake] (1892-1951), Director of the National Portrait Gallery, London, 1927-1951 [George Cruikshank (1792-1878), caricaturist; Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson]
Publication details: 
11 June 1937; on letterhead of the National Portrait Gallery, London.
£56.00

1p, 4to. On discoloured and somewhat grubby paper, folded twice for postage. Addressed to ‘S. Hodgson Esq.’ and signed ‘H M. Hake’. Hodgson has sent Hake ‘a manuscript fragment’, which does not seem to indicate either of ‘the portraits in the Gallery’. He has ‘looked up the record of portraits offered in the past but there is no mention of Mrs. Cruikshank or her executors.’ He asks a related question before turning to the subject of the physician Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson (1828-1896), who was in Hake’s opinion ‘more of a professional worthy than a national one’.

[Sir Stratford Canning, Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Mr Lelane’ (sic, i.e J. T. Delane, editor of The Times), regarding the ‘hot water’ the ‘Sultan’ of Turkey finds himself in.

Author: 
Sir Stratford Canning [Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe] (1786-1880), diplomat, Envoy to the United States, Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire [John Thadeus Delane (1817-1879), editor of The Times]
Publication details: 
‘Grosvenor Square [London] / Friday Aug 19.’ No year, but seemingly written after his retirement in 1858.
£120.00

See his entry, and that of Delane, in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with neat remains of a windowpane mount adhering to the blank reverse of the second leaf. Addressed to ‘Dear Mr Lelane’ (sic) and signed ‘Stratford de R.’ Having heard that Delane was in town he writes to say that he was ‘gratified by the complimentary terms in which I was mentioned in the Times two or three days ago.

[Douglas Cooper, English art critic, friend of Picasso and champion of cubism.] Typed Letter Signed to Philip Dosse, publisher of ‘Art and Artists’, covering a number of subjects, personal and political.

Author: 
Douglas Cooper (1911-1984), English art critic, friend of Picasso, lover of Sir John Richardson, with whom he created a gallery of cubist art at the Chateau de Castille [Philip Dosse (1925-1980)]
Publication details: 
12 June [1979]. On letterhead of the Chateau de Castille, 30 Argilliers, T 10 Vers (par Nimes).
£180.00

See the entries for Cooper (born Arthur William Douglas Cooper) and Richardson in the Oxford DNB. From the papers of the recipient, Philip Dosse, who was proprietor of Hansom Books, publisher of a stable of seven arts magazines including Art and Artists and Books and Bookmen. 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. 2pp, 8vo, on a single leaf of air mail paper. Forty-six lines of text. Somewhat worn and creased, but in fair condition overall.

[A.E.F. Horniman; Abbey Theatre, Dublin, etc.] Autograph Letter Signed to unknown correspondent (Madam. See note below), about her past, the great fire in the Crystal Palace and the historical lack of orchestral concerts.

Author: 
A.E.F. Horniman [Annie Elizabeth Fredericka Horniman CH (1860 ? 1937), English theatre patron and manager. She established the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, etc.]
Horniman
Publication details: 
I [H?] Montagu Mansions, W.1., 12 June,1932.
£400.00
Horniman

One page, cr. 8vo, fold marks, faint foxing, good condition. See Image. Text: It is delightful to read that August Manns [conductor - see Wiki] is still remembered. I was born within sight of the Crystal Palace and can even remember the great fire on one Sunday afternoon when part of the 'Tropical End' was burned to the ground. Those Courts [with?] the fine casts of statues of all periods taught me how to look at their originals in many places.

[John Ruskin.] Carte de visite by Elliott & Fry, London, with facsimile signature.

Author: 
John Ruskin, pre-eminent Victorian art critic; Elliott & Fry, nineteenth-century London photographers noted for their cartes de visite
Ruskin
Publication details: 
1867 or 1869. Elliott & Fry, 55, Baker Street, Portman Square, London, W.
£150.00
Ruskin

Rather long for a carte de visite: 6 x 9 cm albumen print laid down on 6.5 x 10.5 cm card. In fair condition, lightly discoloured and worn. On the card beneath the photograph is a facsimile of Ruskin’s signature (‘John Ruskin’) and ‘ELLIOTT & FRY Copyright. 55. BAKER ST.’ Printed on the reverse is the royal crest and the firm’s address. A copy of the present item was offered by Sotheby’s in 2021, dated to 1867, with the claim that it was ‘signed on the mount’. That claim is erroneous: the signature to that copy is identical with the present lithographed one.

[Joseph Masclet; Lamartine; SNCF; Railway History] Autograph Letter Unsigned, ascribed to Joseph Masclet, with attributable content (Note below), to a Monsieur Mollard about early English Railways and his article of use to 'l'institut'.

Author: 
[Amé Thérèse Joseph Masclet (1760 - 1833) was a French diplomat and an author of letters to Lafayette.]
railway
Publication details: 
No place, 22 Avril [1829]
£120.00
railway

One page, 12mo, unsigned, bifolium, good condition. Note by another hand in top left corner, lettre de Masclet. Text (unsigned): J'envoye a Monsieur Mollard la copie du memoire sur la place du chemin de fer entre Liverpool et Manchester. | On pourra annoncer a l'institute un autre memoire plus developpe sur l'etat actuel du chemin de fer entre Darlington et Stockto: j'en enverrais une copie si on la desire. | Je [?] de me rendre [la france jeudi?] a 2 h 1/2: serait il [possible?] a Mondieur Moll;ard de m'envoyer un second billet pour mon support, car j'ai besoin d'en avoir [un?].

[Abbé Jean Nicholas Voyaux de Franous (1760-1840), founder of St Mary’s Church, Cadogan Street, ‘the father of Roman Catholicism in Chelsea'.] Autograph Letter Signed regarding 'a place in the Chapel' for 'Miss Harvey'.

Author: 
Abbé Jean Nicholas Voyaux de Franous (1760-1840), founder of St Mary’s Church, Cadogan Street, ‘the father of Roman Catholicism in Chelsea'
Publication details: 
Dated 9 April 1837.
£50.00

According to the Victoria County History, Jean Nicholas Voyaux de Franous (1760-1840), a Frenchman, is ‘traditionally seen as the father of Roman Catholicism in Chelsea’. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Signed ‘Abbé Voyaux de Franous’ and addressed to 'Dear Madam'. Indisposition is the cause of his delayed response. He was without ‘the least idea that Miss Harvey was without a place in the Chapel and gave immediate orders to have her accommodated with one.

[Comte d'Orsay; French Benevolent Society] Autograph Letter Signed Ct d'Orsay to M. le Chevalier, in French, thanks his correspondent for le charmante Poème, discussing the state and progress of the French Benevolent Society just founded.

Author: 
Count d'Orsay [Alfred Guillaume Gabriel Grimod d'Orsay, comte d'Orsay (1801 – 1852), French amateur artist, dandy, and man of fashion].
d'Orsay
Publication details: 
Gore House, Kensington Gore, 5 Dec. 1842. See image.
£180.00
d'Orsay

Four pages, 16mo, bifolium, in narrow frame of stiffer paper, good condition.

[J. S. M. Fonblanque, legal writer and Commissioner of Bankruptcy.] Autograph Letter Signed

Author: 
J. S. M. Fonblanque [John Samuel Martin de Grenier Fonblanque] (1787-1865), legal writer and Commissioner of Bankruptcy [Henry Holmes Joy (1805-1875)?; Lord Brougham
Publication details: 
5 August 1844. No place.
£120.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged, with closed tear (not affecting text) to a fold on second leaf, which also carries traces of mount on its blank reverse. Small printed slip relating to the Court of Bankruptcy, bearing Fonblanque’s name, laid down at head of first page. Folded four times for postage. Signed ‘J S M Fonblanque’.

[Henry Wace, ecclesiastical historian, Dean of Canterbury and Principal of King’s College, London.] Typed Letter Signed to ‘Mr de Winton’, regarding ‘the meeting of the Representative Church Committee’.

Author: 
Henry Wace (1836-1924), Dean of Canterbury and ecclesiastical historian, Principal of King's College, London [Wilfred Seymour De Winton of Haverfordwest]
Publication details: 
2 October 1905. On letterhead of Canford Manor, Wimborne.
£56.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Good firm signature: ‘Henry Wace.’ He thanks him for his letter of 23 September, ‘drawing my attention to the passage in the paper which you kindly enclosed’. He regrets that he was ‘in Ireland at the time of the meeting of the Representative Church Committee’, but he will be ‘glad to bear in mind what you say in reference to future meetings’. From the papers of Wilfred Seymour De Winton of Haverfordwest.

[Lady Margaret Sackville, poet and children's author, mistress of Ramsay MacDonald.] Typescript of juvenile novel 'Sylvia Thistledown', with autograph emendations, regarding the advetures in Fairy-land of Amelia Egerton and the fairy of the title.

Author: 
Lady Margaret Sackville (1881-1963), English poet and children’s author, who had an affair with Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, daughter of Earl De La Warr, cousin of Vita Sackville-West
Publication details: 
On front cover: 'Margaret Sackville | 22. Lansdowne Terrace | Cheltenham'. Undated, but date stamped 30 November 1945.
£450.00

According to the Daily Telegraph, 2 November 2006 (see the end of this description), Lady Margaret Sackville was 'a poet who mixed with writers such as W B Yeats and Wilfred Scawen Blunt, was a friend of Lady Ottoline Morrell, a leading member of the Bloomsbury Set'. 167pp., 4to. Each page on the recto of a separate leaf, the whole bound with green thread through punch holes in margins. The first page worn and with label (of literary agent?) removed from head, otherwise in good condition, lightly aged and worn.

[‘I make no doubt will succeed in a very extensive degree’: Sir Robert Mends, distinguished Royal Navy officer.] Long Autograph Letter Signed to the British Envoy at Lisbon Charles Stuart, describing his Portuguese situation during the Peninsular War

Author: 
Sir Robert Mends (1767?-1823), distinguished Royal Navy officer in American War of Independence and Peninsular War [Charles Stuart (1779-1845), Baron Stuart de Rothesay, diplomat]
Publication details: 
‘His Majesty’s Ship Arethusa / Corunna 18th. August 1810’.
£450.00

See his entry and that of Stuart in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 4to. On bifolium. Sixty-six lines of neatly-written text, signed ‘R Mends’ and addressed ‘To / The Honble Chas. Stuart / His Majestys Envoy / Lisbon’. A vivid and substantial historical document.

[Ruth Mercier, nineteenth-century Franco-Swiss artist.] Autograph Note Signed (in her name and on behalf of Rozalia de Jackowska), in French, to ‘Monsieur et Madam Earle’. Incorporating an original ink drawing by her of a walking stick

Author: 
Ruth Mercier (fl.1880-1915), nineteenth-century Franco-Swiss landscape artist who painted Venice [her friend Rozalia de Jackowska]
Mercier
Publication details: 
25 December 1889.
£220.00
Mercier

1p, 16. On the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium of grey paper, with simple drawing in the same ink as the text of a straight plain walking stick stuck in the ground and running up the left-hand margin, with the handle hooked to the right at the top with the dating to its right. In good condition, lightly aged. Reads: ‘le 25 Decembre 89.

[Granville George Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville, as Gladstone’s Colonial Secretary.] Confidential unsigned Autograph Letter [to J. T. Delane, editor of ‘The Times’], regarding British involvement in the treaty following the Franco-Prussian war.

Author: 
Lord Granville [Granville George Leveson-Gower (1815-1891), 2nd Earl Granville], Colonial and Foreign Secretary in Gladstone’s first ministry [John Thadeus Delane (1817-1879), editor of The Times]
Publication details: 
‘July 13 / midnight. [1870]’ On embossed letterhead of the Colonial Office [Whitehall].
£450.00

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 4to. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with negligible remains of windowpane mount adhering at edges of reverse of second leaf. Folded for postage. The item - an immediate artifact with the feel of history in the making - is unsigned and headed ‘Confidential’.

[Family of Peter Mark Roget, compiler of the ?Thesaurus?.] Offprint paper by William de la Rive titled ?Pens?es Genevoises. [...] Fragments etraits des Papiers de Fran?ois Roget, Professeur a l?Academie de Gen?ve.? With signature of J. L. Roget.

Author: 
William de la Rive [Fran?ois Roget, Professeur a l?Academie de Gen?ve; John Lewis Roget, son of Peter Mark Roget, compiler of the ?Thesaurus?]
Publication details: 
[Geneva, Switzerland.] Tir? de la Biblioth?que Universelle. Decembre 1860. Avec autorisation de la Direction.?
£180.00

Information regarding the family of P. M. Roget are to be found in his entry in the Oxford DNB, and in Joshua Kendall?s 2008 biography of Roget, ?The Man Who Made Lists?. The present item is from the Roget family archive (other items from which are also offered for sale.) The full title is ?Pens?es Genevoises. Aper?us sur l?Ame, la Vie et la Soci?t?. Fragments etraits des Papiers de Fran?ois Roget, Professeur a l?Academie de Gen?ve.? 30pp, 8vo. Stitched. In plain blue paper wraps, carrying ownership inscription of ?John L. Roget. / Octr. 1885.? In fair condition, lightly worn and a little dogeared.

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