JOHN

A nice piece of Sherborne ephemera, in unusually good condition. Between 1855 and 1860 Ransam House had been used to board boys from Sherborne School. ‘The Sherborne Academy’ to which the present card refers was run by John Kidd (c.1834-1891), FRAS, MCP, at Ransam between the end of 1861 and 1868, when it reverted to Sherborne School. The present item is printed in black ink on both sides of a x cm piece of white card. In very good condition, lightly aged.

Sitter, artist and engraver all have entries in the Oxford DNB. No copy in the National Portrait Gallery. In good condition, lightly aged, on good paper with small embossment of castle. Dimensions of paper, 14.25 x 22.5cm. Dimensions of print, 12.5 x 17.75cm. Oval portrait, 10 cm wide and 13 cm high. Without date or place, but produced as the frontispiece to Stockdale’s 1809 memoirs. A half-length portrait of Stockdale, his face turned to the left, with white cravat and powdered hair, loosely wrapped in a coat.

An interesting letter, revealing the nuanced position of a liberal cleric on a difficult question. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. On bifolium. Signed ‘J. F. Oxon:’. Text clear and entire, on creased and worn paper, with two short closed tears at edges. Folded twice for postage. Minuted (by the recipient) at top of first page: ‘I read this at the Cler[ical]. meeting - (part of it)’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. On recto of the first leaf of a bifolium, the verso of the second leaf of which carries the address to ‘Messrs Vizetely [sic] Branston & Co / 135 Fleet St’. The firm, who traded between 1827 and 1837, were not only ‘engravers and oriental printers’, but publishers too: the item referred to in this letter, ‘The Young Lady’s Book’, had two editions published in 1829 and a third in 1832, and Jackson presumably contributed work. In fair condition, discoloured and worn.

An interesting letter, indicating the networks of sympathisers who assisted those fleeing to England in the years following the revolutions of 1848. In the July 1895 edition of the Atlantic, the subject of this letter, the Christian Socialist J. M. Ludlow, in reviewing Nadaud’s memoirs, described him as ‘a friend of my own, of many years’ standing’. The present item was written in the seventh of the eighteen years of Nadaud’s English exile, part of which was spent as a teacher in Wimbledon under the name ‘Henri Geo. Nadaud’. The identity of the recipient is not known. 4pp, 16mo.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Written large at the foot of a page on a 4to leaf. In good condition, lightly aged and creased, with a short closed tear to the outer edge just below Glubb’s sprawling signature, which consists of an illegible line of curls. Folded once for postage. At the head of the page is Diane Richard’s Typed Note Signed, addressed to ‘General Glubb’ and requesting that he sign ‘two pictures from my collection’. Glubb replies: ‘Dear Miss RICHARD, / I return your two pictures herewith with much pleasure. / All good wishes, / Your sincerely / [signature]’.

The last paragraph of McKenny Hughes’s entry in the Oxford DNB deals with his marriage, noting that his wife was ‘a keen amateur archaeologist, a botanist, and a distinguished artist, and under his tuition she became a valuable geologist’, and that the couple ‘travelled together on field excursions’, being accompanied on a trip to the Balkans by an armed guard. Six boxes of her papers are among the rest of those of the Hughes family in the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge. The present item is 64pp, 4to, mostly on the rectos of a ruled ‘Universal Exercise Book.

In addition to his pastoral duties, Newman was a noted orator and lecturer. In 1870 eleven thousand people crammed into the Salt Lake City Tabernacle, to hear him debate the question of polygamy with Orson Pratt, and transcripts of the debate were carried throughout the American papers. On a 14 x 7 cm slip of wove paper. The reverse bears traces of glue from its display in an album, and there is slight loss and a short closed tear at the foot from its removal. The signature and text are firm and clear: ‘John P. Newman / Chaplain of the Senate. / Aug 17 - / 69.’

Three contemporary engravings, now scarce. All three items are in good condition, each laid down in a nineteenth-century mount. All have been trimmed (the information concerning each comes from another source), and all are partially tinted. ONE: ‘The Honble Horatio Gates, Major General of the American Forces’. From ‘An impartial history of the war in America, between Great Britain and her colonies’ (R. Faulder, London, 1780). 9 x 16 cm; in 21 x 27 cm mount. A full-length portrait of Gates, with right hand on chest and left hand holding the ‘Articles of Capitulation’.

The recipient is not named, but can be identified as the Strand bookseller John Nourse, from Notes and Queries, 3 September 1881, which has as its first article a transcription, with commentary of five long letters from Mills to John Nourse, the noted scientific bookseller in the Strand, and the present item clearly belongs to the same correspondence, predating the first, which is dated 15 May 1765.

An interesting letter casting light on the Victorian provincial press. Scott’s entry in the Oxford DNB states that, while he was living in Birmingham, ‘H. J. Palmer offered him a staff appointment on the Birmingham Gazette; but he had to leave when he stipulated that, as a Liberal, he should write nothing in support of the Conservative cause. He was working again as a freelance when, in 1887, he was invited by W. T. Stead to join him on the Pall Mall Gazette. He worked for six years on that paper under Stead and then Edward T. Cook.’ 4pp, 12mo. On bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged.

6pp, 12mo, on two bioliums. A long letter, neatly and closely written. In stamped envelope, with stamps and postmark, addressed to ‘Miss Sprott / Magavelda / Blakeney / Holt [Norfolk]’ and signed ‘John Bacon’. The letter and envelope are in fair condition, on slightly discoloured paper and with short closed tears along the folds made for postage. He begins: ‘Dear Miss Sprott.

On one side of a 12mo a piece of grey-green paper; creased, worn and torn at the bottom. A fifteen-line poem in five three-line stanzas, titled ‘REST’. At end: ‘JOHN GAWSWORTH’. Proof directions in pencil to convert a full-stop at the end of the fourth stanza to a comma. While the poet's attempt at direct simplicity verges on triteness, one should recall that he served manfully in the RAF: ‘Beneath the oaks the soldiers lie / Staring at the open sky / Drowsily, lazily. / Like England is this plot of green / But in the mountains all unseen / The guns’ complaint affects the scene.

See the articles on Antes by Donald M. McCorkle in the Musical Quarterly, 1956, and Richard D. Claypool, in the Moravian Music Foundation Bulletin, 1978. Seven copies listed on JISC (only three in deposit libraries); now scarce. 8pp, 12mo. Disbound. In fair condition, worn and discoloured. Vignette on cover shows Osman Bey sitting cross-legged while two of his followers whip the unfortunate Antes, while a third looks on. Drophead title, p.2: ‘Anecdotes in the Life of John Antes, A Moravian Missionary.’

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Colour Kodac print on matte paper: 3 and 3/8 x 5 inches (8.5 x 12.5 cm). In good condition, with light indentation of paperclip at head. A smiling elderly Hunt stands, with plaid shirt and hands in pockets of brown trousers, looking to his right, in front of a range of mountains. On the reverse is stuck a label signed ‘John Hunt’. See images.

From the Macqueen-Pope papers. (See his entry in the Oxford DNB.) A nice piece of theatre and photographic ephemera. Vickers has five items in the National Portrait Gallery, which provides the following information: ‘John Vickers began his career by working as assistant to photographer Angus McBean in the 1930s. From 1939 until the time of his death, he ran his own studio. After the war he became well known as a theatre photographer working for theatres including the Old Vic.

From the Macqueen-Pope papers. (See his entry in the Oxford DNB.) 1p, 16mo. Signed ‘Bill Owen’. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased. Hailing him as ‘the greatest living authority on British Theatre’, he asks for advice. ‘My job is acting, and it has always been an ambition of mine to portray the life of Dan Leno, either on film or TV.

From the Macqueen-Pope papers. See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. Poke’s two letters are in good condition, lightly aged, the second with slight rust spotting from paperclip; the carbons of MP’s letters to Poke on aged, worn and discoloured cartridge paper. ONE: Poke to MP, 12 March 1951. 3pp, small 4to.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, on lightly discoloured paper, with thin neat strip from windowpane mount adhering to edges. Sixteen lines in a neat and stylish hand. Signed ‘T. Crofton Croker’. The recipient is not named, but is clearly John Bowyer Nichols, editor of the Gentleman’s Magazine, in whose number for April 1839 appeared an article, with engraving, by ‘E. I. C.’, on ‘Winchester House, Broad-street, London.’ Croker begins his letter: ‘My dear Sir, / I return E. I. C’s account of Winchester House.

A poignant letter. See Delane’s entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 16mo. Bifolium. In good condition, with neat thin strip from Victorian windowpane mount adhering to edges of second leaf. Folded for postage. 32 lines, closely written. Presumably with reference to his ‘Life and Death of John of Barneveld’, Motley begins: ‘My dear Delane / Just before leaving England ten days ago in search of health (a fugitive very hard to catch) I begged Murray to send you a copy of a work which was to come out almost immediately.

An excellent letter, casting light on the relationship between the editor of The Times and a senior correspondent. See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. Brackenbury’s states that ‘During the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 Brackenbury was the Times correspondent with the Austrian army, and was at the battle of Königgrätz (Sadowa) — riding with Benedek under fire at Chlum — and reported the naval battle of Lissa.

Both items in very good condition, on lightly-aged paper. ONE: Copy letter. 2pp., folio. On paper with watermark 'JOHN HOWARD | 1804'. Ends: 'To | Sir J. T. Duckworth K.B. | Vice Admiral of the White | &ca. &ca. &ca. | Given on board the Ocean off Cadiz | 12th. August 1806 | (signed) Collingwood | By Command of the Vice Admiral | (signed) W R Cosway | A Copy'.

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’.

See Greville’s entry in the Oxford DNB, and Douglas’s in the History of Parliament, which explains the context: ‘Gambling losses, largely accruing from his turf accounting activities at Newmarket - Douglas laid the blame on ‘Peel and Huskisson ... tampering with the currency’, problems raising capital from his property and ‘keeping too large establishment of servants’ - had reduced his fortune’. 4pp, 4to. Bifolium. 44 lines of text. In good condition, lightly aged, with negligible remains of windowpane mount neatly adhering to reverse of second leaf. Folded three times for postage.

See his father’s entry in the Oxford DNB. 2p, 12mo. Neatly written over 26 lines. With mourning border. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage. Signed ‘E. G. Marsh’. Recipient not named (‘My dear Sir’). He explains that, having happened on the previous day to be in the chair ‘at the monthly meeting of our clerical society in Maidstone’, he was present when the recipient’s ‘two letters to Dr. Maitland’ were presented, and is requested to convey the meeting’s gratitude, not only for the letters, but for his history of Rome, ‘received by them on a former occasion’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The present item is not in the best of condition: it is aged and creased (including dog-eared corner on which the signature ‘Camden’ is written), with contemporary repair to two long tears by the laying down on the blank reverse of strips from a contemporary manuscript. Docketed on the otherwise blank second leaf: ‘25th July 1824 / Marquis Camden’.

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’.

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. An interesting letter, linking two significant figures in the London theatre. Around the time of writing Hollingshead had given up his career in the clothing business to write full time, early on for Dickens at ‘Household Words’, then later for Thackeray at the ‘Cornhill’. The farce that is the subject of the present letter is possibly ‘Birth Place of Podgers’, the only one known to have been published by Hollingshead, a New York edition of which appeared around 1858. 2pp, 16mo.

An interesting letter, indicating the piety underlining Shaftesbury’s philanthropy. See his long entry in the Oxford DNB, which sums up his achievements as ‘very substantial’ and ‘a source of enduring inspiration to others’, together with those of Russell and Skinner, the last of which contains, regarding the part of the ‘Drummondite controversy’ relating to the Rev.

See both men's entries in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, folded twice for postage, and with negligible remnants of windowpane mount adhering at edges of blank reverse of second leaf. A pleasant specimen of ‘Vers de société’ (The recipient's entry in the Oxford DNB states that 'In the social circles which Delane frequented [...] he was welcomed as a delightful companion').The poem consists of twenty-two lines in heroic couplets, unsigned and without any other text. The poem reads as follows: ‘Oh! Mr. Delane, Oh! Mr.