DEATH

[National Council for the Abolition of the Death Penalty, London.] Printed pamphlet by NCADP Secretary Frank Dawtry: ‘Bulletin No. 26 / Public Opinion and the Death Penalty’.

Author: 
National Council for the Abolition of the Death Penalty, London; Frank Dawtry [Frank Dalmeny Dawtry] (1902-1968), General Secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers
Publication details: 
March 1948. National Council for the Abolition of the Death Penalty, 14 Victoria Street, London, SW1. ‘Printed for Edgar G. Dunstan & Co., Draycot House, Gordon Street, W.C.1, by The Hereford Times Ltd., London and Hereford.
£80.00

See Dawtry’s entry in the Oxford DNB. The present item is scarce: no copies traced on JISC or WorldCat. 4pp, 4to. Bifolium printed in small type. In fair condition, lightly aged, with creasing and nicking to both leaves at bottom outer edge.

[Michael Frankael, writer associated with Henry Miller.] Printed item: leaflet advertising his various publications, with ‘Press Opinions’ including Aldous Huxley, Havelock Ellis and Henry Miller.

Author: 
Michael Fraenkel (1896-1957), avant-garde writer and proprietor of the Carrefour Press, associated with Henry Miller
Publication details: 
No date [early 1940s]. Order from The Argus Book Shop, Chicago.
£50.00

6pp, 8vo: with three pages beside one another on each side of a strip that folds in on itself. In fair condition, on lightly worn and discoloured paper. Front page with ‘Michael Fraenkel’ and list of five publications: ‘Death Is Not Enough / (Essays in Active Negation) / Werther’s Younger Brother / (The Story of an Attitude) / Death In A Room / (Poems 1927-1930) / Bastard Death / (The Autobiography of an Idea) / Hamlet, Volumes I and II / with HENRY MILLER’.

[Michael Frankel, writer associated with Henry Miller.] Three printed items: prospectus for ‘Bastard Death’; leaflet advertising his publications, with press opinions and manuscript additions; invitation to a French Henry Miller exhibition.

Author: 
Michael Fraenkel (1896-1957), avant-garde writer and proprietor of the Carrefour Press, associated with Henry Miller
Publication details: 
ONE ('Bastard Death' prospectus): [1946.] Carrefour, 342 E. 19th Street, New York City. TWO (Advertisement for Fraenkel's publications): No date [early 1940s]. Order from The Argus Book Shop, Chicago. Three (Henry Miller exhibition invitation): 1994.
£180.00

ONE: Prospectus for ‘Bastard Death / The Autobiography of an Idea / By / Michael Fraenkel’. 4pp, small 4to. Bifolium leaflet with prospectus on recto of first leaf, ‘press proof’ on two central pages, and list of other works, with reviews, and order form on verso of second leaf. In fair condition, on lightly-creased browning wove paper. The prospectus begins: ‘This is an uncorrected press proof of the new limited edition of BASTARD DEATH, showing hand-set 12 point Cheltenham type, size and set-up of page, etc.

[ C.B. Phipps; Prince Albert's death ] Autograph Letter Signed C B Phipps to the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, about the University's condolences on the death of Albert, Chancellor of said University.

Author: 
C.B. Phipps [Sir Charles Beaumont Phipps (1801 – 24 February 1866), soldier and courtier.]
Publication details: 
Osborne, 2 January 1862.
£280.00

Black-bordered, three pages, 12mo, bifolium, fold marks, good condition. Text: I have not failed to lay before Her Majesty the Queen the purport of your letter of the 31st Ult. | Her Majesty was well assured that the University of Cambridge was not likely to be backward in any expression of Sympathy with Herself in Her overwhelming grief or to be wanting in any mark of respect for their Chancellor.

[Captain George Richards, Royal Marines.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Geo. Richards'), sending his likeness and describing his service: '23 Actions' including 'the death of Nelson and Abercrombie', serving under Wellington in Peninsular War.

Author: 
Captain George Richards (d.1866), Royal Marines, meritorious British Army officer [Solihull, Warwickshire]
Publication details: 
16 September 1863. Solihull [Warwickshire].
£150.00

1p, 12mo. In fair condition, aged and creased. Folded twice. Written in a shaky hand, as explained by the text: 'My dear Sir / | Agreeable to promise I send my Likeness, I wish it was something worthy of your acceptance - suffice it to say the original saw the death of Nelson and Abercrombie. Served under Wellington in the Spanish peninsular War, attended his funeral, and from 1797 to 1814 was by Sea and Land in 23 Actions[.] I am well in health but cannot see what I write - My sincere love to Mrs. Macwey - God bless you'.

[Death of Lord Bryce (Liberal politician and jurist James Bryce, Viscount Bryce of Dechmont).] Autograph Letter Signed ('E. Marion Bryce') from his widow Lady Bryce [Elizabeth Marion Bryce, née Ashton] to 'Mrs Clifford', describing his death.

Author: 
Lady Bryce [Elizabeth Marion Bryce, née Ashton] (1854-1939), wife of James Bryce [Lord Bryce; Viscount Bryce of Dechmont] (1838-1922), Liberal politician, historian and jurist
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£100.00

2pp, 12mo. On paper with mourning border. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Replying to a letter of condolence from Mrs Clifford, she writes that she has been 'a good deal stunned with the shock & am still overwhelmed with a mass of unanswered letters. The blow fell, as you know, with absolute suddenness - no illness & no warning. After a day spent as usual in work, & a walk with me in the afternoon, my husband went to bed that last night apparently perfectly well, & I awoke next morning to find him gone.

[Official announcement of the death of King George III.] Printed periodical: 'The London Gazette Extraordinary', announcing the king's death.

Author: 
[Death of King George III] The London Gazette
Publication details: 
'Published by Authority. | Monday, January 31, 1820.' [Niumb. 17559.] London: 'Printed by Robert George Clarke, Cannon-Row, Parliament-Street.'
£150.00

3pp, small 4to. Bifolium on wove paper. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with closed tear at head of gutter. Customary tax stamp in red on first page. Each page with mourning border. In small print and double column.

[ John Villiers Stuart Townshend, 5th Marquis Townshend, as Viscount Raynham. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('Raynham') to an unnamed party, regarding 'Mr. Ewart's motion [...] for the abolition of the punishment of death'.

Author: 
John Villiers Stuart Townshend, 5th Marquis Townshend (1831-1899), styled Viscount Raynham [ Lord Raynham ] between 1855 and 1863 [ William Ewart (1798-1869), Radical politcian; capital punishment ]
Publication details: 
11 Grosvenor Square [ London ]. 14 June 1856.
£50.00

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with some glue staining to blank reverse of last leaf. He presented, as requested, 'on the day of Mr. Ewart's motion the petitions which you forwarded to me for the abolition of the penalty of death', and apologises for not informing the recipient of the fact sooner: 'it has led you to believe that I have not received them.

[Sir James Graham, Home Secretary.] Autograph Letter Signed ('J R G Graham') to unnamed recipient, announcing his decision to remit the death sentence passed on Robert Sandys of Stockport, convicted of poisoning his children.

Author: 
Sir James Graham [Sir James Robert George Graham] (1792-1861), 2nd Baronet, Tory Home Secretary, 1841-1846 [Robert Sandys of Stockport, poisoner]
Publication details: 
Whitehall. 24 April 1842.
£180.00

The case was fully reported in The Times, with the issue for 14 April 1842 reporting the pronouncing of the sentence of death on 'Robert Sandys, a stout built Irishman, having a pale and haggard appearance, who was found guilty at the last assizes for this county [Chester] of the diabolical murder of his children by poison, in order to obtain a few pounds from a burial society of which he was a member'. 4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Headed 'Private' by Graham.

[Presentation copy of a printed pamphlet containing a poem on the death of his young daughter.] Pattie's Christmas Tree. By J. A. Langford, LL.D.

Author: 
J. A. Langford, LL.D. [John Alfred Langford (1823-1903); the Herald Press, Birmingham]
Publication details: 
Printed for private circulation. 1892. [Printed by Wright, Dain, Peyton & Co., at the Herald Press, Birmingham]
£80.00

[2] + 8 + [1] pp., small (18 x 14 cm.) 4to. Sewn with green ribbon into white wraps, with 'Pattie's Christmas Tree' in gilt on front. In good condition, with the wraps slightly sunned in panels. Inscribed at head of title-page 'With kind regards'. The pamphlet contains a single poem titled 'Pattie's Christmas Tree', printed on eight pages each with decorative border in gilt. Printer's slug on revers of title, and colophon on last page. The beginning and end of the poem indicate the theme.

Newspaper cutting from The Times, 15 November 1852, of an article titled 'Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington. By Alfred Tennyson.' [Predating the publication of the poem by a day, and quoting more than half of it.]

Author: 
[Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892), Poet Laureate; Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852); Edward Moxon; The Times of London]
Publication details: 
From The Times, Monday 15 November 1852.
£50.00

Original cutting, 53 cm long, from The Times, of an article titled 'Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington. By Alfred Tennyson.' This poem, one of Tennyson's finest and best-known, was published on 16 November 1852 (two days before Wellington's funeral) by the London publisher Edward Moxon, who had offered Tennyson £200 for 10,000 copies. As Edgar F. Shannon, Jr.

Signed autograph itemised receipt by William Croslie [wine and spirit merchant, Castle Douglas?], for food and drink provided to 'Fanny Wilson for fathers funeral' in Scotland.

Author: 
William Crosbie, wine and spirit merchant, Castle Douglas [Fanny Wilson; funerals in Scotland]
Publication details: 
1 October 1810.
£56.00

Possibly submitted by the 'Mr William Crosbie, wine and spirit merchant', whose death at Castle Douglas on 15 March 1821 is recorded in Blackwood's Magazine, April 1821. 1p., 8vo. Neatly written out on watermarked laid paper. Headed 'Fanny Wilson for fathers funeral | To William Crosbie | 1810'. Eleven entries for the funeral on 1 October 1812, including two plum cakes, '11 Cakes Short Bread'; '2 Gallons <?> Rum' and '2 1/4 ditto Whisky'; '6 Bottles Old Port' and '6 ditto Sherry'. Receipt of payment on 5 November at foot, signed by Crosbie.

Handbill headed 'Funeral Reform Conference. July 23, 1884. The Earl of Shaftesbury, K.G., Presiding.', reporting Haden's views on 'the desirablilty of greater simplicity in the conduct of funerals'.

Author: 
Funeral Reform Conference, 1884 [London Necropolis Company; Seymour Haden]
Publication details: 
1884. Printer not stated.
£56.00

12mo, 2 pp. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with one dog-eared corner. Quoting Haden's views, which appear distinctly progressive. He finds the 'retention in a dwelling-house for as long as possible of a body, which ought to be committed to the earth as soon as possible', and the need for a 'strong coffin' great evils.

The Plight of the Creative Artist in the United States of America.

Author: 
Henry Miller [Bern Porter]
Publication details: 
[Houlton, Maine: Bern Porter, 1944.]
£75.00

8vo: paginated 3-38. Four full-page reproductions of Miller's paintings. In original yellow printed wraps. On brittle, aged paper, with the body of the book detached from the wraps, which are worn and with one corner at front creased. Title taken from front wrap. One of 950 numbered copies, signed by the publisher on the final page (beneath 'Publisher's Addendum') 'Bern Porter | 25 South St | Houlton Maine | Copy # 296'. Shifreen &Jackson A37a. Uncommon. Apart from the British Library, COPAC only lists copies at Cambridge, Manchester, Oxford and Bristol.

Défense du Tropique du Cancer. Avec des inédits de Miller. Traduction de E. M. F. Rosé et de L. M. Rivière.

Author: 
Michael Fraenkel [Henry Miller]
Publication details: 
Paris: Variété, 108 Avenue du Maine. 1947.
£56.00

8vo: 93 [+1] pp. In original grey wraps with printed label on front and yellow wrap-around band ('Une pièce à verser au Dossier Miller | Variété a Paris'). Covered in glassine. Good, on lightly-aged paper. From the archives of Michael and Daphne Fraenkel's Carrefour Press.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Wm. Cairns.') to 'Mr. Logan'.

Author: 
William Cairns, schoolmaster of Oldcambus, brother of John Cairns (1818-1892), Scottish United Presbyterian minister and theologian
Publication details: 
28 March 1882; 10 Spence St. Edinburgh.
£28.00

12mo, 2 pp. Bifolium with mourning border. 39 lines of text, 12 of which have been damaged, presumably on the removal of the item from an autograph album, which has resulted in a large hole to the upper half of the second leaf of the bifolium. Begins 'My Dear Mr.

Illustrated handbill poem, a street ballad entitled 'A New Song, entitled, Dear Peggy.'

Author: 
[Victorian London street ballad; broadsheet; handbill; death]
Publication details: 
Date and publisher not stated. [London; circa 1840?]
£38.00

Printed on one side of a piece of wove paper roughly 230 x 90 mm. On pitted, aged paper. Text complete. Approximate 30 x 50 mm piece torn away from top right-hand corner, causing loss to small illustration at head, which appears to be a crude woodcut of a woman lying in a coffin. The poem consists of thirty-six lines arranged in five stanzas. The first stanza reads 'Dear Peggy, read this letter, | its the last one I'll send, | Our long correspondence, | is now at an end.

Illustrated poem, a street ballad entitled 'The Wheel of Fortune'.

Author: 
[Victorian street ballad; broadsheet; handbill; death; nineteenth-century folk song]
Publication details: 
Date [circa 1840?] and publisher not stated.
£56.00

On one side of a piece of thin wove paper, roughly 260 x 95 mm. Aged and creased, with internal 25 mm closed tear affecting four words of text (all of which can be completed from the context) repaired on blank reverse with archival tape. Otherwise text and illustration clear and entire. Small (30 x 40 mm) woodcut at head, showing two early nineteenth-century country coves outside a cottage. The poem consists of ten four-line stanzas.

Illustrated Victorian handbill poem, a street ballad entitled 'The Golden Glove.'

Author: 
[Victorian street ballad; handbill poem; street ballad; broadsheet; nineteenth-century folk song]
Publication details: 
Publisher and date not stated. [Circa 1840?]
£56.00

Printed on one side of a piece of wove paper roughly 280 x 95 mm. Aged, creased and spotted, with chipping to extremities, but with text and illustration clear and entire. Curious small (roughly 40 x 65 mm) crude illustration at head, showing dove with olive branch and acorn. Forty-line poem arranged in five stanzas. Interestingly-garbled nineteenth-century folk song with ancient antecedents.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J A Hammerton') to 'My Dear Shorter' [Clement King Shorter (1857-1926)].

Author: 
Sir John Alexander Hammerton (1871-1949), author and editor of reference works
Publication details: 
6 November 1925; on letterhead of 54 Shepherd's Hill, Highgate, London.
£45.00

12mo, 2 pp, and 8vo, 1 p. A little grubby and creased, but with text clear and entire. He is sorry that Shorter was not able to visit the Chateaux of the Loire, but hopes that 'the sea air of Dieppe' has done him good. The year before Shorter's death, Hammerton writes: 'But you must really cease this brink-of-the-grave touch! Ten years hence, from an inglenook at Knockmoroon [where Shorter would die], you will wonder why you were anticipating the "closing down" of C.K.S.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Ch Giraud de l'institut'), in French, to an unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Charles Giraud [Charles-Joseph-Barthélémy Giraud] (1802-1881), French jurist and historian
Publication details: 
29 February [no year]; no place.
£35.00

12mo, 1 p, 12 lines. Good, on lightly aged paper. Drawing the recipient's attention to 'une demande qui a été adressée a M. le Prefet de la Seine, par M. Burnet [an inhabitant of Neuilly], homme infiniment estimable qui sollicite un emploi dans l'administration des pompes funèbres'. Giraud knows Burnet very well, 'et je lui porte un interet particulier'.

Autograph letters and notes to John Russell Smith, publisher

Author: 
William Andrew Chatto
Publication details: 
[1848]
£250.00

Miscellaneous writer on subjects such as angling, ports and harbours, tobacco, wood-engraving - and playing cards (see below(DNB):Three ALs, signed (1) and initialled (2) to Smith, [1848], total 4pp., various formats, one in poor condition with minor loss of text.(March) Chatto asks Smith for specific books.

Engraving by H. Bond of 'THE DEATH OF MAJOR PIERSON.'

Author: 
John Singleton Copley [BATTLE OF JERSEY]
Publication details: 
Undated, but mid-nineteenth century. Printed by 'JOHN TALLIS & COMPANY, LONDON & NEW YORK'.
£25.00

Major Francis Pierson died driving the French from the Market Place of Saint Helier in the Island of Jersey, 6 January 1781. Dimensions of paper roughly ten inches by eight. Dimensions of print roughly six inches by four and a half. Surrounded by six tiny vignettes: two of soldiers and four of battle scenes. Very good and clean. Suitable for framing. Mounted on a larger sheet of paper torn from an autograph album. The original painting is in London's Tate Gallery, and the item is accompanied by an early twentieth-century colour postcard of it, with some damage to the reverse.

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