PLAYER

[Sir Robert Howard, playwright and politician.] Two Autograph Signatures (both ‘Ro: Howard’) among extensive manuscript endorsements of Exchequer document regarding ‘Sr Thomas Player in repaymt. of Loane.’

Author: 
Sir Robert Howard (1626-1698) of the Receipt Office, royalist politician, playwright, poet and friend of John Dryden [Sir Thomas Player (d.1686) of Hackney]
Sir Robert Howard
Publication details: 
[Exchequer Office, Whitehall.] 20 May 1679.
£120.00
Sir Robert Howard

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB and History of Parliament. Howard was Auditor of Receipt from 1673 to his death. The document is damaged, with the lower part torn away, leaving an area 23cm high and the same wide, but with part of one lower corner torn away. The paper is aged, and there are chipping and closed tears to edges. Howard’s two signatures (both ‘Ro: Howard’) are both undamaged, and the item is of some interest. On the front is the printed form, completed in manuscript, with ‘Sr. Thomas Player in repaymt. of Loane./’ in manuscript in right-hand margin.

[Giuseppe Antonio Taruffi, Italian author, diplomat and chess player.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Taruffi'), in English, to 'a matchless Nobleman', regarding individuals including 'Canon Ghigiotti', 'Valiani, & Corallis', and 'the strangest varlet'..

Author: 
Giuseppe Antonio Taruffi (1715-1786), Italian author, diplomat and chess player
Publication details: 
Vienna. 18 April 1768.
£250.00

1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. Written in a clear and attractive hand. The recipient is not named. Begins: 'My dear & ever-honoured Friend! | Some business of great importance kept me nine days absent from this Capital. At my return I found your most obliging Letter of the 7th. instant, & was exceedingly delighted with your Kindness. You are indeed a matchless Nobleman.' He asks if the recipient is acquainted with Prince Charles of [Cunandia?], adding: 'I swear you knew the strangest varlet that ever was. It is pity.

[ John Player & Sons, tobacco manufacturers. ] Six substantial ledgers of itemised and audited accounts of the firm's Dublin plant ('Summary of Stock. No. 1', 'Private Ledger No. 2', 'Private Journal No. 5 [6]', and two 'Impersonal Ledger').

Author: 
John Player & Sons [ Player's ], tobacco and cigarette manufacturer, based in Nottingham, now part of the Imperial Tobacco Group: the firm's Dublin cigarette manufacturing plant, 1924-1960
Publication details: 
John Player & Sons, Dublin, Ireland. The ledgers dating from between the firm's foundation in Ireland in 1924 and 1960.
£2,500.00

Six substantial ledgers (the heaviest 37 x 41 x 8 cm, and the widest 39 x 52 x 3 cm), containing itemised accounts providing a mass of information regarding the tobacco industry and economic history in Ireland, and one of Dublin's notable employers, whose sales in the 1950s were in the tens of millions. (On 9 December 2004 the Irish Times described the closure of the plant as marking 'the end of an era'. The firm's first Dublin factory, at 56-75 Botanic Road, was constructed by G. & T. Crampton in 1923, and is now the Botanic Business Centre.

[ Martin Fischer, German classical musician. ] Duplicated copies of autobiography 'Martin Fischer erzählt aus seinem Leben' and book of poems '"Oden", Briefe lyrischen Charakters aus dem Blickfeld eines Musikers', both inscribed to Richard Hutchins.

Author: 
Martin Fischer (b. c. 1931), viola player with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, husband of soprano Helga Fischer [ Richard Hutchins of Waynflete ]
Publication details: 
The autobiography dated from 'Berlin, im Oktober 2008', with inscription dated November 2008. The poems without place or date, but with inscription dated from London, 27 May 1981.
£320.00

Both items in good condition, lightly aged, and both in yellow wraps, with plastic clamp at spine holding the loose leaves together. ONE: Autobiography. [3] + 46pp., 8vo. Illustrated with two full-page photographs of Fischer, one showing him as a ten-year-old boy, with autograph caption. The item is signed at the end 'Martin', and has the following inscription on a leaf of green paper at the front: 'Dear Richard, | Times went by, I promised to send you these pages because always the memories of our friendship and your Kindness are a big joy for us.

Three Typed Letters Signed, one Autograph Poem Signed, and Two Typed Letters signed by his Private Secretary.

Author: 
Wavell Wakefield
Publication details: 
All five Typed Letters on House of Commons notepaper, 1961-2; the poem April 1962.
£120.00

Politician and rugby player (DNB). The five letters all one page, 16mo, and each with two staple holes and in good condition. The autograph poem is on a printed bifoliate menu for the Cricket Society Spring Dinner (6 April 1962), 16mo, slightly discoloured. The letters relate to various Cricket Society Dinners. He agrees to attend the 1961 Spring Dinner at the Lords Tavern, but his private secretary P. Barling declines on his behalf an invitation to the autumn dinner as he is out of the country recovering from an operation.

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