HUMOUR

[Printed periodical, in original illustrated wraps.] The Month. A View of passing Subjects and Manners, Home and Foreign, Social and General. By Albert Smith & John Leech. [Issues I, II, III and V.]

Author: 
Albert Smith [Albert Richard Smith] (1816-1860), editor; John Leech (1817-1864), illustrator [Bradbury & Evans, Printers, Whitefriars]
Publication details: 
Published at the Office of 'The Month,' No. 3, Whitefriars Street. [Bradbury & Evans, Printers, Whitefriars.] [Issues I, II, III and V, dated July, August, September and November 1851.]
£180.00

16mo, with the first three issues continuously paginated to 240, and issue V paginated 321-400. Each volume with a frontispiece by Leech, and numerous illustrations by him in text. Three of the four issues (I, III and V) with an initial four-pages of advertisements, and more advertisements on the wraps. The four volumes in fair condition, on aged paper, in worn wraps, with the first volume lacking its spine. Each with the small and neat ownership inscription of 'L Jackson' in the top right-hand corner of its front wrap.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W J Prowse') from the English humorist W. J. Prowse [William Jeffrey Prowse] to the solicitor Edward Draper, written as he sets out for France to convalesce during his final illness, regarding a legal action against him.

Author: 
William Jeffery Prowse (1836-1870), English humorist, leader writer on the Daily Telegraph [Edward Draper of Vincent Square, London, Honorary Solicitor of the Savage Club]
Publication details: 
College, Camberwell New Road. 14 October 1869.
£80.00

2pp., 16mo. 22 lines of text, closely and neatly written. In fair condition, on aged paper, with small pinholes and a spot of glued paper from previous mounting. The letter begins: 'My dear Draper, | I sail early tomorrow morning. | Enclosed is a ten pound note, and the summons referred to. - I cannot help thinking that a compromise might be effected it it were shown to the summoner by a "lawyer" that I have left England, have no house or furniture of my own, and that the most valuable of my books are gone with me. You will deeply oblige me if you will see whether this can be done'.

Two Autograph Letters Signed from Thomas Archer, editor of the Hornet, to the London solicitor Edward Draper, asking for contributions to the magazine; the first signed with a picture of a hornet and the second signed 'Th Archer'.

Author: 
Thomas Archer (1830-1893), author and journalist, editor of the Hornet [Edward Draper of Vincent Square, London, Honorary Solicitor of the Savage Club]
Publication details: 
Both letters on letterheads of 'The Hornets Nest, 86, Fleet Street [London]. Neither dated.
£60.00

The letterhead features an image of an hornet seated at a writing table. Letter One: 1p., 12mo. Bifolium. Fair, on aged paper. The letter reads: 'Friday | Dear Draper | Have you made up your mind to let me have a conceit or two for Ye Hornet. I can only offer 5/- a column but then Column is but a very brief affair. | Yours always | [signature in the form of a drawing of a hornet]'. Letter Two: 2pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with slight traces of previous mount on reverse of second leaf. Addressed to 'My dear Draper'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('F. C. Bernand') from the humorist Sir Francis Cowley Burnand to the illustrator Harry Furniss, lamenting that there will be 'no dinner for the Punch boys' in Christmas week, and discussing an unsuccessful illustration.

Author: 
F. C. Burnand [Sir Francis Cowley Burnand] (1836-1917), English humorist and dramatist, a main contributor to 'Punch' [Harry Furniss (1854-1925), 'Punch' caricaturist and illustrator]
Publication details: 
On Burnand's letterhead, 27 The Boltons, SW [London], 8 December 1891.
£56.00

2pp., landscape 12mo. Addressed to 'Dear Furniss'. He is glad to hear of Furniss's success: 'Your tour ends after the last dinner but one of the year. No dinner Xmas week! awful that isn't it? When all are feasting no dinner for the Punch boys!!' He hopes Furniss will be 'here with us'. Had Furniss been 'on the spot' Burnand would have got him 'to substitute something for your John Bull picture in almanack which no one (I do not speak of "The Table" but of our best friends outside) comprehends.

Autograph Letter Signed ('F. Anstey') from the humorist Thomas Anstey Guthrie to the Editor of 'The Academy', responding to a request for comment on a list of suggested members for an 'Academy of Letters'.

Author: 
F. Anstey [Thomas Anstey Guthrie] (1856-1934), humorist [James Sutherland Cotton (1847-1918), editor of the 'Academy', 1896-1903]
Autograph Letter Signed ('F. Anstey') from the humorist Thomas Anstey Guthrie
Publication details: 
8 November 1897; on lettehead of 16 Duke Street Mansions, Grosvenor Square, London.
£56.00
Autograph Letter Signed ('F. Anstey') from the humorist Thomas Anstey Guthrie

12mo, 1 p. Text clear and complete. Marked up for publication, with the first sentence deleted. On aged and stained paper. He 'can only say that your list seems to me as representative as any that could be drawn up', and that he does not 'feel in a position to offer any criticism upon it'. The edited version of Anstey's letter appeared with others in 'The Academy' in November 1897, in a piece with the opening sentence: 'We have received a large correspondence in response to our request for comment on the list of suggested members for an ACADEMY OF LETTERS published last week.'

Christmas illustration by Quentin Blake, for his own personal use, with an autograph inscription signed by him ('Q').

Author: 
Quentin Blake (born 1932), English children's book illustrator [Montague Shaw, Faber and Penguin]
Quentin Blake (born 1932), English children's book illustrator
Publication details: 
Undated [1970s?]; sent from his address 23 Gledhow Gardens, London SW5.
£250.00
Quentin Blake (born 1932), English children's book illustrator

Reproduction of black and white drawing in Blake's inimitable style. 4to (34 x 29.5 cm). Good, with a little light creasing. Reproduction of black and white drawing in Blake's inimitable style. Depicts anthropomorphic bear, pig, chicken, squirrel and hedgehog in a line from largest to smallest, all with party hats, smiles on their faces and forepaws and other front limbs aloft. Blake's address, as part of printed piece, written upwards along left-hand margin.

Christmas illustration by Quentin Blake, for his own personal use, with an autograph inscription signed by him ('Q').

Author: 
Quentin Blake (born 1932), English children's book illustrator [Montague Shaw, Faber and Penguin]
Publication details: 
Undated [1970s?]; sent from his address 23 Gledhow Gardens, London SW5.
£250.00

Reproduction of black and white drawing in Blake's inimitable style. 4to (34 x 29.5 cm). Good, with a little light creasing. Reproduction of black and white drawing in Blake's inimitable style. Depicts anthropomorphic bear, pig, chicken, squirrel and hedgehog in a line from largest to smallest, all with party hats, smiles on their faces and forepaws and other front limbs aloft. Blake's address, as part of printed piece, written upwards along left-hand margin. Genuine autograph inscription by Blake, in blue ink, at right of drawing, reading 'With best wishes for Christmas & love from Q'.

[Printed pamphlet.] England's Bards, 1864; or, The Three Poems which were awarded the one hundred guineas offered as prizes in the advertisement "Ho! For a Shakespeare!" which appeared about the time of Shakespeare's Tercentenary Anniversary.

Author: 
[The Manufacturers of Thomson's Crinolines; 'William Fulford'; 'Peter Quince'; William Shakespeare; Day and Son, Lithographers to the Queen; the Shakespeare Tercentenary Anniversary Celebrations]
England's Bards, 1864; or, The Three Poems
Publication details: 
London: Day and Son, Lithographers to the Queen, and to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, Gate Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, 1864.
£85.00
England's Bards, 1864; or, The Three Poems

8vo, 16 pp. Unbound. Evidence of previous stitching, but with no remains of thread,. Aged, worn, and with outer leaves somewhat dusty. Preface, dated 'London, June 1864', by 'THE MANUFACTURERS OF THOMSON'S CRINOLINES', states that the judges of the best of 'the immense number of manuscripts received' were 'B. Webster, Esq., J. Sterling Coyne, Esq., Andrew Halliday, Esq., George Rose, Esq., and Thos.

Two copies of the typescript of a humorous poem titled 'Lines Written in Contemplation of the King's Bodyguard for Scotland 1937.'

Author: 
T. B. S.' [T. B. Simpson; Thomas Blantyre Simpson (1892-1954), author and Sheriff of Perth and Angus] [The King's Bodyguard for Scotland]
Publication details: 
1937. [One copy headed in manuscript: 'From T. B. SIMPSON | 11/6/49.']
£75.00

Each of the two typescripts is on one side of a piece of A4 paper. One is signed in type at end 'T. B.S.' and the other (which appears to be mimeographed) carries what is presumably Simpson's signature at head in the manuscript note: 'From T. B. SIMPSON | 11/6/49.' Text of each clear and complete, on creased and aged paper. Apart from the typed signature to the one copy, and the fact that one copy has square brackets and the other curved, the two texts are identical.

Inadvertencies collected from the works of several eminent authors.

Author: 
E. G-H.' [i.e. Edward Gathorne-Hardy], editor [The Mill House Press]
Publication details: 
Stanford Dingley: The Mill House Press, 1963.
£105.00

Number 174 of 'Two hundred numbered copies [...] printed by hand on mould-made paper.' 8vo: [ii] + 9 pp. Stitched pamphlet of twelve leaves, with four vignettes giving it a distinct chap-book feel. COPAC only lists copies at the British Library and Oxford. Prefatory note by 'E. G-H.' [Eddie Gathorne-Hardy].

Satirical handbill for work entitled 'Popular characters of Worthing'.

Author: 
Worthing, Sussex [Victorian humour, satire, Spottiswoode & Co]
Publication details: 
Without date; London.
£125.00

Dimensions of leaf roughly seven and a half inches by ten. Good, though grubby and with archival repair to verso. That the piece is a spoof is indicated by the printers slug, in the bottom right-hand corner: '[Spottisnotwood & Co, Printers, London.', the reference being to the leading London printers Spottiswoode & Co.

Manuscript notebook, titled 'Anecdotes &c.', containing several hundred humorous stories (transcribed and 'Related'), with a few newspaper and magazine cuttings.

Author: 
Victorian notebook filled with humorous anecdotes [A. S. S. Sidney, Wobaston House, Wolverhampton; nineteenth-century English social history; jokes; humour]
Publication details: 
English. Dated between 1866 and 1911.
£150.00

Quarto (leaf dimensions roughly 19.5 x 15.5 cm). Ruled with twenty-eight lines to the page. Written in a close, neat hand, covering the first ninety-one pages of the notebook. Loosely inserted are twelve pages containing a further thirty stories, on three bifoliums each headed 'Anecdotes &c'. In black-leather half-binding, marbled boards. Good and tight, with text clear and complete on lightly aged paper. Calligraphic design printed on front free endpaper. A charming collection, casting amusing and entertaining light on nineteenth-century English social history.

The Traveller's Oracle; Or, Maxims for Locomotion: Containing Precepts for Promoting the Pleasures and Hints for Preserving the Health of Travellers. [Part II: 'By John Jervis, An Old Coachman.] [Including sheet music of eight songs by Kitchiner.]

Author: 
William Kitchiner ['John Jervis, An Old Coachman.']
Publication details: 
London: Henry Colburn, New Burlington Street. Second Edition, 1827. [London: Printed by J. Moyes, Took's Court, Chancery Lane.] [Sheet music engraved by Sidney Hall, Bury Street, Bloomsbury.]
£300.00

2 vols, 12mo. Vol.1: viii + 264 pp. Vol.2: viii + 336 pp. Complete, with all the engravings of sheet music listed in the contents (vol.1: five two-page plates and one four-page plate, with one more piece of music 'printed with the letterpress'; vol.2: one two-page plate). Both volumes good and tight, on lightly-aged and spotted paper. In worn contemporary half-calf binding, marbled boards, with the first volume rebacked. Each volume with bookplate of Frederic Perkins, Chipstead Place, Kent.

Victorian type-facsimile [by John Camden Hotten or H. J. Bellars?] of 'Joe Miller's Jests Or, The Wits Vade-Mecum. [...] now set forth and published by his lamentable Friend and former Companion, Elijah Jenkins, Esq. [i.e. John Mottley]

Author: 
Joe Miller's Jests; 'Elijah Jenkins' [John Mottley] [H. J. Bellars; John Camden Hotten]
Publication details: 
Title-page reads 'London: Printed and Sold by T. READ, in Dogwell-Court, White-Fryars, Fleet-Street, MDCCXXXIX. [1739]', but in fact a type facsimile [by John Camden Hotten or H. J. Bellars?], circa 1861].
£45.00

8vo: [ii] + 70 pp. Internally sound and tight, on lightly-aged paper. In worn contemporary burgundy quarter-binding with heavily-worn spine, recased with repair to rear endpapers. COPAC lists an entry for a copy in Cambridge University Library described as 'Probably the Lithographic facsimile by H.J. Bellars. London, reprinted 1861'.

Historic Certainties respecting the Early History of America, developed in a Critical Examination of the Book of the Chronicles of the Land of Ecnarf.

Author: 
Rev. Aristarchus Newlight', pseud. [Richard Whately, Archbishop of Dublin re. COPAC; Beinecke says William Fitzgerald]
Publication details: 
London: John W. Parker, West Strand. 1851. [Savill and Edwards, Printers, Chandos Street, Covent Garden.]
£125.00

8vo: [viii] + 62 + [ii] pp. Good, though a little dogeared and discoloured, with slight wear at foot of final leaf. Half-title (with quotation from Strauss's 'Leben Jesu' on reverse) and (discoloured) final leaf of publisher's advertisements. Disbound. The author is described on the title-page as ''Rev. Aristarchus Newlight, Phil. Dr. of the University of Giessen; Corresponding Member of the Theophilanthropic and Pantisocratical Societies of Leipsig; Late Professor of All Religions in several distinguished Academies at home and abroad, etc. etc.

Autograph Letter Signed ('G. S. Layard') to Lieutenant-Colonel J. B. Gaskell.

Author: 
George Somes Layard (1857-1925), English biographical author; Shirley Brooks (1816-74), editor of 'Punch'
Publication details: 
9 August 1906; on letterhead 'BULLS CLIFF, FELIXSTOWE.'
£100.00

Four pages, 12mo. Very good on lightly aged paper. Docketed by Gaskell at head of first page 'This letter is written to myself in reply to my offer of the loan of 91 Shirley Brooks' letters. | J. B. Gaskell'. Acknowledges the receipt of the letters which Gaskell has 'so generously' placed at his disposal, and assures him that they will be 'treated with the greatest care' and returned as soon as possible, together with the photograph of 'Epicurus Rotundus' (Brooks's pen name), 'which is new to me'. Asks for 'any reminiscences, hearsay or otherwise of S. B.

Autograph Note Signed ('F. C. Burnand') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Sir Francis Cowley Burnand (1836-1917), English writer, editor of the magazine 'Punch' from 1880 to 1906
Publication details: 
10 December 1901; place not stated.
£30.00

One page. Dimensions of paper roughly four inches by seven. On piece of aged, stained paper, mounted on piece of card. Remains of biographical cutting in bottom right-hand corner. Reads 'Here you are Sir | Autographs cheap today | F. C. Burnand | F. C. B. | 10 Dec 1901'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Tom Gallon') and Typed Letter Signed to Ernest Pertwee.

Author: 
Tom Gallon (1866-1914), English novelist, dramatist and humourist [George Routledge & Sons, Ltd.]
Publication details: 
TLS, 16 July 1903; ALS, 13 August 1903; both on embossed letterhead 190, Adelaide Road, St. John's Wood, N.W. [London.]
£56.00

Both items quarto. On worn, discoloured paper, with a couple of closed tears to the folds. Pertwee was the author of numerous anthologies for recitation, and these letters presumably relate to his 'Reciter's treasury of prose and drama: serious and humorous' (Routledge, 1904). TLS: 'Provided, of course, that Messrs. Routledge have actually agreed with you to publish the book of humorous prose recitations, I shall be very willing to allow you to reprint any one of the stories the titles of which I give below.

Autograph Card Signed ('Marshall P. Wilder') to the English publisher [William Swan] Sonnenschein (1855-1934).

Author: 
Marshall Pinckney Wilder (1859-1914), American humourist
Publication details: 
19 August 1889; on Marshall's letterhead from 'The Alpine', 55 West 33rd. Street, New York.
£28.00

8.5 x 11 cms. Grubby and lightly spotted. Reads 'My dear Mr Sonnenschein | Kindly send draft as I can collect here - | Merrily Yours | Marshall P. Wilder'. Presumably refers to the English printing of his 'The people I've smiled with: recollections of a merry little life' (1889).

Autograph Letter Signed ('C S.Calverley') to Mrs [?] Lewis [of Ickleton?].

Author: 
Charles Stuart Calverley (1831-1884), English poet and wit [Sir George Grove]
Publication details: 
Bishopsbourne Rectory, Canterbury; 19 August [year not stated].
£100.00

Three pages, 12mo. Very good. The blank verso of the second leaf of the bifolium laid down on remains of leaf detached from autograph album. Begins 'At length by certain Proofs 'tis plain (to quote a hymn familiar to my childhood but forgotten now all but that first line) that the readers of Macmillan will know all that is to be known about the mistletoe, thanks to your labours, before Christmas.' He hopes she has received the proofs, and says that 'Grove, the Editor, writes to me that they are in type & he is forwarding them to Ickleton'.

Two Autograph Letters Signed and two Autograph Notes Signed (all four 'J. Ashby-Sterry') to [Edward] Draper.

Author: 
Joseph Ashby-Sterry (c.1836-1917), English painter and author [Punch, or the London Charivari]
Publication details: 
1871, 1872, 1873 and 1880; the first three from 3 Plowden Buildings, Temple, and the last from 4 Marine Parade, Dover.
£75.00

ITEM ONE (note, one page, 12mo, 3 December 1871, remains of grey paper mount adhering to verso of blank second leaf of bifolium): Apologises for sending a undated note: 'I daresay you can manage to fix at about what period it was written'. ITEM TWO (note, one page, 8vo, 12 December 1872, on creased, aged paper): Declining a dinner invitation. ITEM THREE (letter, one page, 8vo, 21 November 1873, on aged paper heavily chipped at head and foot): He has just described Draper's paper to Blanchard, who 'thinks it just the very thing they want. They like to have dates.

Autograph Letter Signed, to unnamed correspondent [George Cruikshank].

Author: 
Frank E. Smedley
Publication details: 
Park, no date (watermark 1853)
£200.00

"Frank Fairleigh". Novelist (1818-1864). Three pages, 8vo, bifoliate, sl. dusted, mainly good. "Mr. Austen seems to have written word for word what you wished said abt. Tobacco, but if there is to be much attraction abt. the article, your clever pencil must put it in, for, as it stands it is dull as . . . I was going to add ditch-water ("water" underlined] but I beg to apologise for the inadvertence - as [page 2] the worst kind of fermented liquors! -/ I send by todays post a Prospectus to Mr.

Autograph Note Signed to unnamed correspondent, an autograph-hunter.

Author: 
Walter Lewis Emanuel [PUNCH]
Publication details: 
17 April 1910; on letterhead '17, Holland Park Avenue, W.'
£26.00

English humorist (1869-1915), a long-time contributor to 'Punch' magazine. One page, 12mo. Good on somewhat discoloured paper. Reads 'Dear Miss Manook. | No, of course I was not annoyed. I am sorry I have not a copy of any book of mine by me, and I have not time today to write one for you.' Signed 'Walter Emanuel'.

Typed Letter Signed to Pete Goodyer.

Author: 
Carl Ronald Giles
Publication details: 
16 March 1978; on Daily Express letterhead.
£125.00

Probably the most famous of the Fleet Street cartoonists (1916-95). One page, quarto. Folded twice. Good, but lightly creased. He thanks him for the 'very nice letter and compliments', but feels he 'must administer a small but friendly reprimand. The Jean Rook [a noted Daily Express columnist] originals you refer to were ones concerning her article of the day and were a personal presentation.' Discusses charity commitments, before remarking 'It may surprise you that I spend more time in the studio working for charities than I do earning my living!

Autograph Signature on fragment of letter.

Author: 
Sir Francis Cowley Burnand
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£15.00

Burnand (1836-1917) was editor of Punch between 1836 and 1917. Paper dimensions roughly 4 1/2 inches by 2 1/2 inches. In good conditon. Reads '<...> with you | faithfully | F. C. Burnand'. On verso '<...> be most <?> & happy & ought to get on well with his purser a straightforward <?> & gentlemanly <...>.

Valentine card.

Author: 
Ronald Searle
Publication details: 
1959
£35.00

Dimensions when folded roughly 4 3/4 inches by 6 inches. Somewhat grubby, but well printed and in good condition overall. Front of card printed in black with Searle's printed signature and 'to my Valentine -' in red at head. Cartoon illustration of bespectacled young lady with bouffant hair and hairband, in dainty skirt and heels, holding beribboned had in front of her, posing in front of wall on which she casts large shadow of horned devil with tail.

Autograph Signature.

Author: 
Sir Francis Cowley Burnand
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£15.00

Editor of Punch (1836-1917), and co-author with Sir Arthur Sullivan of 'Cox and Box'. In good condition. On slip, 1 inch by 2 1/2, cut from letter. Signed 'F C Burnand'.

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