ROBERT

See the Oxford DNB entry of the recipient James Payn (1830-1898), at the time of this letter the editor of the Cornhill Magazine. More significantly, Payn had since 1874 been a reader for Smith, Elder, and the present letter stems from the firm?s interest in Forrest?s ?tale of the Indian Mutiny? which they would publish in 1891 under the title ?Eight Days?. 2pp, 16mo. Bifolium with mourning border. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, with short closed tear at edge of postage fold. Addressed to ?James Payn Esqr.? and signed ?R. E. Forrest?.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, landscape 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged, with four small gummed squared as mounts adhering to the four corners. Folded for postage. Large firm signature and handwriting. Reads: 'Dear Miss Thompson / The piece is not mine and I am sorry I cannot inform you to whom the acting rights, if any, belong. / Your sincerely / Geo R Sims'.

See the two men's entries in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged. Folded for postage. Reads: ‘Jany 30. / My Dear old Boy / Ill come on Thursday with great pleasure to the free masons / Yrs faithfully / Robt Liston / W. Jerdan Esq’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with strip of mount adhering to inner margin. Folded once for postage. Reads 'My dear Miss Stuart / I don't think Mr. Bridges brings us much forrider with Keats. Many thanks for the article but I am a little disappointed that his criticism seems so flat. I return your paper with many thanks - / Every yours very truly / Robert H Hutton'.

See the two men's entries in the Oxford DNB. Stevenson was president of the Cambridge Union in 1928. The material is in good condition, lightly aged. ONE: Manuscript notice of vote. On one side of a piece of thick 8vo paper, with small nick at one top corner. At the head, one above the other, are the signatures: 'J. B. S. Haldane. / R. E. Stevenson / P. M. [Wright?]'. At the foot of the page, in a fourth hand: 'Ayes. 184. / Noes. 310.' TWO: Duplicated circular of typed notice. 1p, 12mo. Laid down on reverse of leaf carrying Item One. Headed: 'Cambridge Union Society / Easter Term, 1927.

Note: a. He also chaired the board of the London-based South Australian Colonisation Commission created by the South Australia Act 1834 to oversee the new colony of South Australia. He also chaired the board of the London-based South Australian Colonisation Commission created by the South Australia Act 1834 to oversee the new colony of South Australia, before the colony went bankrupt and he was sacked in 1841.

Berggruen was awarded the French Legion of Honour and the German Order of Merit. Among those attending his funeral were German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Horst Köhler. One of his sons is the US billionaire investor and philanthropist Nicholas Berggruen. In the year this letter was sent Erskine opened his influential St Georges Gallery Prints off Cork Street. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, but with slight damage and creasing at the centre of the right-hand margin. Highly stylized signature, ‘Heinz Berggruen’. Folded once for postage. Reads: ‘Dear Mr.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, with Pettigrew’s. 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of a bifolium. Reads: ‘Sir Robert Gardiner presents his compliments to Mr Pettigrew - / He begs Mr Pettigrew will forgive his taking the liberty of asking whether he is acquainted with General Anderson, and if so, he begs Mr. Pettigrew will do him the favor of calling here as soon as convenient in his round of Professional calls this morning’.

1p, 4to. On lightly aged and somewhat creased paper. Folded twice for postage. Addressed to ‘Leonard Hyman, Esq.’ and signed ‘Clarence Raybould’. He has received his Catalogue No. 87 and is sorry to learn of his ‘impending retirement from your business’. ‘The world is always the poor when someone of your integrity decides he has had enough of the intrigues of present-day life!’ He wishes him ‘a happy period of quieter days’: ‘I myself cease to bulk of my work in June of this present year, when I terminate a long association with the Senior Orchestra of the Royal Academy of Music.

1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded for postage. Addressed to ‘Mr. J. G. Gillman / 50 High Street / Chislehurst, Kent / England’. Good firm signature, ‘W R Anderson’, with ‘Commander, U.S. Navy / Written following the Nautilus’s arctic transit, 3 August 1958: ‘Thank you for your letter and kind appreciation. The people of England have given us a truly wonderful welcome and we are all deeply appreciative.’ He asks him to accept the signature that he is attaching, for his autograph collection. See Image.

Artist, author, diplomat and horseman, present at Sir John Moore’s death in Corunna, knighted by the king of Sweden, historical painter to Tsar Alexander, British consul in Venezuela: see the entry on this renaissance man in the Oxford DNB. Both in good condition, with folds for postage. Both signed ‘R Ker Porter’. The recipient (known to her family as the ‘Queen Bee’) was the widow of the Hon. George Villiers, who resided with her family at Kent House, Knightsbridge, home of her brother the Earl of Morley.

2pp, foolscap 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to one edge. Folded twice. Large heavily-smudged signature of the king ('George R.') at head of first page, which has the royal seal under paper in the left-hand margin. Signed at end of document ('By His Majesty's Command') by the Home Secretary and future Prime Minister: 'R Peel'.

On one side of an irregular piece of paper, roughly 18 x 9 cm, torn from the foot of a document. Heavily discoloured, but neatly laid down on a 19 x 13.5 cm piece of grey paper, with the typed caption: ‘Signture [sic] of: / Sir Robert HOWARD (1626-1698) P.C. / Auditor of the Excheq: and Dramatist / (part-author, with Dryden, of ‘The Indian Queen’ etc.)’. At the head: ‘pray pay this Order out of Customes’; and beneath this the Latin draft, with date and sum (but not the name of the payee). Howard’s signature, written large and bold, is at bottom left: ‘Exam[inatus] P[er]. Howard’.

Written following the premature end of his political career in 1852. See Senior’s entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. On bifolium. Addressed to ‘N. W. Senior Esqe.’ and signed ‘Robt. C. Winthrop.’ In good condition, lightly aged, and folded for postage. Begins: ‘My Dear Sir, / You may, perhaps, remember that I owed the pleasure of your acquaintance in 1847, to a letter of introduction from our late distinguished Statesman, Mr. Webster. [i.e. the celebrated Daniel Webster (1782-1852)] - Were Mr. W.

4pp., folio. Broadsheet bifolium. On aged high-acidity paper, folded once vertically, and once horizontally, and with wear along the fold lines and crease. Lynd's article is the main one on the front page, covering 80 and a half column inches across all seven columns. The article begins: 'Among the many conflicting views which the English have of the Irish character, two are, perhaps, more popular than the rest. One - the sturdy Saxon view - is that we are a gay and generous people, the drink-dispensers of the world, amiable buffoons, a race of eloquent and lying beggars.

4pp., folio. Broadsheet bifolium. On aged high-acidity paper, folded once vertically, and once horizontally, and with wear along the fold lines. Lynd's article is the main one on the front page, covering 74 column inches across five of the seven columns. The article begins: 'I do not know what exactly can have been in my mind when I gave Literature and Politics to the secretary of the Irish Literary Society of London as the subject of a paper I had promised to deliver.

8pp., folio. On aged and creased high-acidity paper, with closed tears and chipping. The two articles most likely to be the work of Lynd are 'The Viceregal Microbe' on pp.2-3, and 'The Future of the Language Movement' on p.2; both are anonymous.

‘Scouting for Boys’ did not begin its serialized publication until January 1908, but Baden-Powell’s entry in the Oxford DNB states that it was Haldane, as Secretary for War, who ‘persuaded him that character training should be at the centre of any scheme of boy instruction’, following a ‘major inspection’ of the Boys’ Brigade by him as Vice-President at Glasgow in April 1904. 1p, 4to. In fair condition, lightly aged, with slight creasing and a short closed tear to one edge. Reads: ‘Dictated. / 23rd. May 1906. / Dear General Baden-Powell, / Thank you for your letter.

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.

Providing a good view of the day-to-day practicalities of Nelson's navy. Middleton was the nephew of Admiral Lord Barham. In 1795 he removed from the Lowestoffe to the Flora, serving under the Nelson off Genoa in support of the Austrian Army, and during July 1796 at the occupation of Porto Ferrajo. All three 1p, foolscap, and somewhat discoloured and worn, the first and last with chipping at head, but all with text entire.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of a bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with the blank second leaf carrying some traces of pink paper mount. Written a couple of months before Haldane’s acceptance of a peerage, so that he could become leader of the Liberals in the House of Lords, and in response to Hurd’s essay ‘The New Policy of Imperial and Home Defence’, published in the January 1911 number of ‘The Nineteenth Century and After’.

On 11 x 6 cm piece of aged paper, with patches of discoloration and traces of mount on reverse. Good clear firm and undamaged signature on front: ‘[...] I am Sir / Yr Obt. Sert. / Sydney’. The reverse reads: ‘[...] ristricted from killing rabbits on the land lately taken on lease from me and also from ploughing up any part of it but I hereby give you leave to kill rabbits or any [...]’. See Image.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, and folded once for postage. With the item’s worn envelope, with ‘British Embassy, / Berlin.’ printed on the damaged flap, addressed by Malet to ‘Sir Robert Head Bt. / 97 Zimmer Strasse’, and initialed by him at bottom-left, ‘R B Malet’. The letter, which is signed ‘Edward B Malet’, begins: ‘Dear Sir Robert Head, / My wife will be very happy to take you and Lady Head to Countess Brockdorff’s on Monday at 3 1/2.

1p, 12mo. On grey paper. In fair condition, lightly aged and with slight creasing. Large firm signature. Presumably responding to a request for an autograph. Reads: ‘With my most abject apologies - but I have been away for three months / Robert Morley. See Image.

See his obituary in The Times, 16 June 1987. 1p, 4to. On aged and lightly creased and worn paper. Folded twice, with short closed tears to edges of central horizontal crease. Addressed to ‘Dear Hide’ and ‘Lieutenant G. Hide, R.N.V.R. / 700 Squadron / TWATT.’ Signed ‘Robert Neville’. He feels ‘very guilty’ that he did not write to thank Hide ‘for the Walrus, which was, of course, an absolute Godsend to me. Sargent could not have been a more delightful or obliging pilot.

See the entries for Hamilton and McCheyne in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. On the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium, with the verso of the second leaf addressed by Hamilton, with broken seal in black wax, to ‘Rev. R. M. McCheyne / Dundee’. Addressed to ‘My dear Friend’ and signed ‘James Hamilton’. In fair condition, lightly discoloured. Folded three times for postage. In the hope that his prayers will give McCheyne strength, Hamilton will ‘venture down to-morrow’ by coach. If he is unable to ‘reach Dundee in time’, he gives the time when he will be ‘in St Peter’s Vestry’.

Two Manuscript Letters from the London banking house Robert Herries & Co. to the former Governor of West Florida George Johnstone, the first ‘with Account Current’ and the second regarding delivery of ‘the plate to Mr Maxwell. Both items in good condition, lightly aged and worn. ONE: 2pp, 8vo. On the inner sides of a bifolium, with the reverse of the second leaf bearing the address (with postmark) ‘Commodore Johnstone / M. P. / Portsmouth’, and endorsement ‘Sir Robert Harries [sic] & Co. / 19th Feby. 1781. / with Account Current. / Balance due the Governor / £697 .. 18/3’.

The 1812 HMS Dublin was the third Royal Navy ship of that name. At the time of this document she was a 40-gunner, and the flagship of the Commander-in-Chief of the South American station Vice-Admiral Sir Graham Hamond (1779-1862). See the entries on Barton, Hamond and Tait in O’Byrne’s ‘Naval Biographical Dictionary’ (1849), and Hamond’s in the Oxford DNB. 1p, landscape foolscap 8vo. Aged and creased. Docketed on reverse: ‘Dublin / Treasure conveyed. / 31. March 1838. / E1/1 / Entd 2d. April. / W Let’.

Real Hornblower stuff: a breathless letter full of interesting content. The Oxford DNB entry for Sir Peter Parker the younger (1745-1814) gives the background: ‘in January 1812 he joined Sir Edward Pellew at Port Mahon, where he remained for the greater part of the year, attached to the in-shore squadron before Toulon. There he had more than one opportunity of distinguishing himself in a brilliant skirmish with the enemy's advanced ships.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Both letters are in good condition, lightly aged, and both folded once. Both addressed to ‘Mrs Sturgis’, and both signed ‘R B Haldane’. The year in both cases is in the first decade of the twentieth century, but the last digit is hard to decipher. ONE: 27 January [1901?]. 2pp, 12mo. On the first leaf of a bifolium. He fears that he will not reach Leatherhead (where the Sturgis had a country house) before ‘the late train after dinner on Sat. the 21st.’ He plans to ‘send down a servant ahead’, and himself ‘come at bedtime’.