LEGAL

Incomplete (probably missing initial bifolium of four pages!), Two Pages, 4to, bifolium, damage around removed seal area, fold marks aged, small closed tears, but clear text as follows: to make any complaints. Mrs H and myfour children (two boys and two girls) are also upon the whole in good health; as with due care, I also am myself.

One page, cr. 8vo, residue of tipping in, but text good and complete, as follows: The Chancellor, with his humble duty to your Majesty, submits for Your Majesty's signature, if your Majesty shall so please, two Warrants for enabling Your Majesty's Justices Serjeants and Counsel and others therein named to go their respective circuits.

2pp., 12mo, bifolium, fold mark, good condition. Text: Forgive my not answering your note sooner. I should be delighted to help you to the appointment you speak, & fel sure you would make an excellent magistrate, but the competition for these places is enormous, & I fear that actual experience is criminla practice is looked upon as essential. I think it best to tell you candidly where the difficulty lies, but if in any way I have the opportunity of serving you it shall not be lost [...].

Photograph, 24 x 18cm, verso sl. spotted, photo good and clear. See Image. On verson stamped Fotodienst de Arbeiderspers Amsterdam, with pencil notes Inaugural Meeting [?] 18April 1946 and my note about the Foudation in 1945.

See his entry, and Sharpey?s, in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. Bifolium with mourning border. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of tape from mount adhering to blank second leaf. Folded for postage. Addressed to ?Dr. Sharpey Secy F S.? and signed ?Fred Pollock?. Begins: ?My dear Dr. Sharpey / I have nearly completed the abstract - I intend to dine at the Club & be present at the meeting to day & I shall ask you when you require the abstract?? He explains that he is ?presiding in the nisi prius C[our]t.?, and that he would like to have ?the leisure of a Sunday to finish it?.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded for postage. Docketted in pencil in a contemporary hand: ?1853 [sic] / Duke of Wellingtons funeral? (on 18 November 1852). Signed ?W: Bovill?. Begins with reference to the family business (corn factors) in Milford Lane, City of London: ?My dearest Wife. / I have just seen George & find that there is the large bed room at the top of the house in Milford Lane unoccupied & we can have it - they can arrange something for the two boys & I dare say Mr.

See his entry, and those of his brother and Kenney, in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Twenty-two lines of text, addressed to ?C. L. Kenney Esq? and signed ?Aug: Mayhew?. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of glue from mount adhering to blank reverse of second leaf. Begins: ?Dear Charlie/ Of course, we have to act under legal guidance.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Dosse was the proprietor of Hansom Books, publishers of ‘Books and Bookmen’ and six other arts magazines. 1 p, 8vo. In good condition, folded for postage. Addressed to ‘Mr. Dossé’ (Dosse did not spell his name with an accent) and signed ‘Louis Blom-Cooper’ (the hyphen, if hyphen it is, consisting of a tiny dot). He is flattered by the request that he ‘contribute occasionally to Books & Bookmen’, and ‘in principle’ he is ‘very willing to review appropriate books’, having written ‘one or two reviews way back in the 1950s’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 4to. Bifolium. Fifty-eight lines of text. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded three times. Minor traces of grey-paper mount adhering to the blank reverse of the second leaf. Addressed to ‘George Anderson Esq / M.P. / House of Commons’, and signed ‘W. G. Dickson’. Two annotations in a contemporary hand, one beneath the signature. The first paragraph reads: ‘My dear Sir / I have to thank you for the copy of your bill “to extend the jurisdiction of Sheriff Courts in Scotland,” which I received this morning.

Coleridge was the nephew of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. See his entry, and that of Cranworth, in the Oxford DNB. The letter relates to Palmerston’s first ministry. 1p, 16mo (cut down to a 12 x 10 cm piece of wove paper). In fair condition, lightly aged and discoloured, with traces of glue from mount adhering to one edge of blank reverse. Signing himself ‘J. T C’, Coleridge writes: ‘My dear Awdry / I have been with the Chancellor in consequence of the above - & promised to send him a minute in writing - where we have had trouble. Can you help me with your recollection. / In haste.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Signed ‘J Fletcher Moulton’. Begins: ‘Dear Mrs Earle / Just at the worst moment of the fight your inspiring letter came to cheer me.’ He hopes he will be deserving of the ‘kind things’ she writes: ‘I could truthfully say things at least as kind in return but I fear my epistolary style does not lend itself thereto so I shall trust that you will take these as said.’ He ends by saying that he will retain the letter ‘as one of those which has [sic] given me most pleasure in my life’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 4to. On first leaf of bifolium. Forty-three lines of neat text. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with a few small closed tears. The author ('Sir') is unnamed, but is presumably the 'Editor' referred to in the text. Signed 'Wm Ballantine'. By recipient, at head of first page: 'Letter from Mr Sergeant [sic] Ballantine / United Club -'.

This forgotten case of identity fraud predates the celebrated Titchborne case by more than a decade.

One page, 8vo, strip on left edge from origins in an album(?), fair condition, completely legible if hasty. Text: I will let you off now - but you had better let me ask Gunning whether he has further occasion for you.| I think too that an attempt to murder is as bad as murder - But inasmuch as punishment is not to revenge [underlined] but to deter [underlined]; as long as murder is punishable with deat you have all the security that you can have against attempts to murder. | JK.

See Christian's entry in the Oxford DNB. (He was the newly-created Downing Professor of the Laws of England at Cambridge from 1788 to his death.) 1p, landscape 8vo. On one half of a 4to leaf that has been torn in two. In fair condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of tape at the right-hand edge, and two punch holes at the left-hand edge of Manington's side. ONE (Christian): Conclusion of autograph draft legal document, numbered '(9)' and signed at bottom left 'Ed. Christian'. With several deletions. Relates to 'Jno Hutchings & Son', who deny 'Combin[ation] & Confederacy &c'.

A spirited and characteristically-forceful letter, casting interesting light on the social side of London legal practice in the Victorian period. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 8vo. On Bifolium with thin mourning border. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with some nicking and light creasing at edges. Begins: ‘D[ea]r Aspinall, / I suppose from my not having heard from you no one knows of a case in point. So, unless you tell me there is some precedent - of danger, I’ll recommend my secretary to take his chance.

16pp., 8vo. In good condition, lightly-aged, no wraps, disbound. Several copies on COPAC, none of this edition on market currently.

The third letter gives an excellent indication of Birkett’s pride in his use of language. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient Vere Henry Collins (1872-1966), was an author and grammatical stickler. All three signed ‘Norman Birkett’. In fair condition, lightly aged and little grubby. The first letter with a small hole to one corner, and the two leaves of the last letter held together with a pin. ONE: ALS, 9 July 1953. 1pp, 4to. He is adding Collins’s book to his ‘select library on “words”’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. From the Piffard papers. 1p, 12mo. On first leaf of bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Reads: 'Lord Justice Fry would be obliged if Mr Piffard would send him a Micro-slide of Conidia bearing Hyphae of Eurotium repens, isolated & stained by a new application of Iodine Vapour. He encloses 2/- in stamps.'

See the entries for Cox and Tuckwell in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. On bifolium blind-stamped with the device of the Conservative Club. Addressed to ‘Rev P [sic] Tuckwell / College School / Taunton’, and signed ‘Edwd Wm Cox’. In good condition, on aged paper. Folded twice for postage. He begins: ‘Dr Sir / It gives me very great pleasure to aid the fund of the College School. After its long hybernation 43 years ago, I was the first pupil received on its revival. & within its walls I obtained the larger portion of my education, following the then master, (Rev H Forster) to Oxford.

See his entry, and Craig’s, in the Oxford DNB. 13 x 9 cm envelope, with seal (no impression of any kind) in red wax over the broken flap. In good condition, lightly aged. On the front of the envelope, in Jeffrey’s hand, ‘To / James Gibson Craig Esqre / 7. North St Andrew Street’. Beneath this, at bottom left and between the customary lines is the signature ‘F. Jeffrey’.

See his entries in the Oxford DNB and History of Parliament. The present item is on one side of a 21 x 8.5 cm piece of wove paper. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with one fold. Minor traces of two red wafers from previous mounting on blank reverse. Written out by Harding in his attractive hand (he was a stylish fellow: his obituary in the Annual Register stated that ‘no one had a finer choice of words and few a more graceful delivery’), the note reads: ‘Received May 4th.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. From the papers of Arthur George Liddon Rogers (1864-1944), son and editor of the economist Thorold Rogers [James Edwin Thorold Rogers] (1823-1890), for information regarding whom see his entry in the Oxford DNB. A little grubby, but in fair condition, folded once. Good clear signature. Reads: ‘The 1st. of January 1926. / My dear Rogers, / Many thanks for your letter and information re the hostel. I have already brought it before The Bishop of St. David’s and hope that something may result. / With kind regards and best wishes.

ONE: Printed document in the person of King George IV, containing a list of several hundred men appointed as justices of the peace, with extensive manuscript emendations and deletions in red and black ink. (A few names are added, but mostly the names of the dead are struck out.) Dated 16 November [1820] and signed in type ‘BATHURST.’ The first page is headed ‘Extracted from the Commission of the Peace for Northumberland.’ Aged and worn, with closed tear along fold-line of second leaf, the bottom corner of which is torn away, resulting in loss from around sixteen lines of text.

See his 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 three items are in fair condition, lightly aged and creased (the last in particular, being on airmail paper), and folded for postage. All three signed 'Devlin'. ONE: 27 October 1974. 1p, foolscap 8vo.

2pp, 4to. Bifolium, annotated on second leaf ‘Mr Sargt. Frere’. Watermark: ‘STAINS & CO | 1819’. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded for postage. Addressed to ‘Captain Munby &c &c’, and signed ‘William Frere’. He apologises for not answering sooner ‘the communications I have been honored with from you respecting a house at Yarmouth’. He has been in London, where he has suffered ‘some uncertainty as to accepting or declining the offer’.

See his long entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, with negligible remnants of windowpane mount adhering at edges of blank reverse. Reads: ‘Mr. Romilly presents his compliments to Mr. Williams and informs him that he is obliged to go out of Town tomorrow & that he has not been able to finish the Bill in this Cause but he will take it with him into the Country & send it to Mr. W. in two or three days’.

See the account of his life in the entry for his father the serjeant-at-law John Humffreys Parry (1816-1880) in the Oxford DNB. Signed ‘faithfully yours / Edward Parry / April . 1930’, across the headline of a 22 x 21 cm. cutting of a newspaper article, with text in three columns, the headline reading: ‘BREACH OF PROMISE / THE LAW, THE LADY, AND SEX EQUALITY/ By His Honour SIR EDWARD PARRY’. In good condition, on browning high-acidity paper. Folded once and with one crease. Begins: ‘Marriage is not the gilt-edged security that it was. Its stock is not rising.

2pp., 12mo. On leaf with mourning border. In good condition, lightly-aged, with neat repair to a short closed tear. He is returning a memorandum, 'which is quite correct & may be acted on', and has made a payment of £380 to his account with Drummonds Bank.

See Powell’s entry in the Oxford DNB. While presiding over the 1712 trial of Jane Wenham for witchcraft he ruled that there was ‘no law against flying’. 1p, long 8vo. On recto of first leaf of bifolium. Folded twice. On laid paper with government watermark, with two blind-stamped sixpenny tax stamps at head of page. Text intact, but with wear, closed tears and slight loss to some edges and a crease. Text by Powell himself, signed ‘John Powell’, with red wax seal (without any impression). Signed at foot of page: ‘Wittness | W Price’. Endorsed with date on reverse of second leaf.