RUSSIAN

On a postcard with a bromide print of a modernist architectural image of a flight of outdoor steps and its stone surroundings. Creased and worn. Addressed to ‘M. Calvocoressi, Esq. / 5 Bramerton Str / London S. W. 3 / England / Europe’. Reads: ‘Dear Mr Calvocoressi, [19 words in Cyrillic script] Helas the score is lost. I am so sorry I could not send it to you. / [3 words in Cyrilic script]! / With kindest regards, / Yours sincerely / Nicolai Malko’

A Ukrainian Jew, Haffkine found his early career obstructed by his refusal to convert to the Russian Orthodox Church. He emigrated and worked at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, where he developed an anti-cholera vaccine that he tried out successfully in India. He is recognized as the first microbiologist to develop and use vaccines against cholera and bubonic plague. He tested the vaccines on himself. The three items in good conditon, lightly aged. ONE: ALS. 2pp., 12mo. He has been 'away from town', but now hopes to send 'a note on my work' within the week. 'It wd.

See the description of Caine’s political views in his entry in the Oxford DNB. He began as a communist, but became a Christian Socialist, and a supporter of the Liberal Party on the mainland of Britain (he was a member of the Isle of Man House of Keys from 1901 to 1908) and a follower of the Church of England. The present item would appear to relate to the ‘impassioned propaganda’ that Caine published in the Daily Telegraph from September 1914 (ODNB). It is 1p, 4to.

A close, controlled hand, on a slip of paper 10 x 1 cm. See Image. In good condition, lightly aged with a little light red spotting. Reads: ?Believe me / faithfully yours / Brunnow?.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On 13 x 8 cm piece of paper, cut from the end of a letter. The valediction, firmly written in Angerstein’s hand, reading: ‘I am / D. Sir / Your Mt Obt Sert / J J. Angerstein’. First initial of the signature lightly inked. In good condition, lightly aged.

On 17.5 x 11.5 cm leaf of pink paper, with rounded edges, removed from autograph album. In good condition, lightly aged. Written in a large, expansive hand, diagonally and upwards. Reads: ‘With all / good wishes / Oda Slobodskaya’. See image.

For Diaghilev Slobodskaya starred in the 1922 Paris premiere of Stravinsky's opera Mavra, and she toured Europe as principal soprano with Chaliapin’s company. For her serious operatic work she retained her real name, but she used the stage name ‘Odali Careno’ when performing in vaudeville and light entertainment. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Dated in another hand at foot: ‘24-6-30’ (the period of her appearance in a London Palladium production).

On 11 x 6 cm piece of paper cut from letter. In good condition, lightly aged. Reads: ‘Yours faithfully / Olga Novikoff.’

The two translations, in the same original red leather notebook, totalling 226pp., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper, in worn binding. The first translation in the volume is a fair copy, without corrections, of a work published in French in 1823 as 'La V?rit? sur l'Incendie de Moscou; par le Comte Rostopchine' (Paris: Ponthieu). Neither Curling's nor any other English translation appears to have been published. The second translation (the printed version of which is the first of the two pamphlets) is heavily corrected, with seven pages of additions loosely inserted.

1p, landscape 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. He thanks him for his letter containing 'kind words about my book, Your England'. He did not expect anyone to agree with all he wrote in it. His aim in writing was 'to pay a tribute to the English who are the most broad-minded, tolerant, and humane of all the numerous peoples among whom I have lived.'

1p, landscape 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. He thanks him for his letter containing 'kind words about my book, Your England'. He did not expect anyone to agree with all he wrote in it. His aim in writing was 'to pay a tribute to the English who are the most broad-minded, tolerant, and humane of all the numerous peoples among whom I have lived.'

Biographical details regarding Humphreys are hard to come by. He features in two Times reports of the indisposition of the pianist Cyril Smith in Moscow in 1956 (8 May and 9 June). On his award of the OBE in the 1958 New Years Honours List he was described as 'lately First Secretary and Medical Officer at Her Majesty's Embassy in Moscow'. On his retirement in 1987 he was described as 'Col. T. V. Humphreys, O.B.E., M.B., B.Ch., B.A.O.

On 7 x 10.5 piece of orange paper, removed from an autograph album. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Expansive signature, with surname underlined and dots to i's like dashes. Reads: 'Good luck to you! | Benno Moiseiwitsch | Decr. 1946'. Autographs on reverse, dated to 21 July 1946, of composer 'Charles Hambourg' and pianist 'Irene Kohler' (1909-1996).

3pp., 4to. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with slight traces of glue from mount along inner edge of reverse of second leaf, which is endorsed and carries pencil notes. Folded once. Signed by Thornton, with the rest of the document in the hand of a secretary. The recipient is named as T. W Smyth Esq | West Hartlepool Shipowners Society'.

Seventeen lines of text, on both sides of a piece of grey card. In good condition. Written in felt-tip pen, and difficult to decipher in places, as for example the Paris address and name of recipient. Begins: 'Surprise, surprise, dear [?], it is no longer true that I have not answered a single letter. Dear Nadia was so popular a person that I am still struggling with an Everest of condolences, and this far happier event has given me a momentary pause in my labours'.

After a twelve-year 'amitié amoureuse' with Phillips, Violet Trefusis died in 1972, appointing him her literary executor and leaving him her last home, La Tour de Saint Loup. The present item – only one other copy of which has been traced – is from a collection of Phillips's papers amassed by his friend Barbara Reed, containing pamphlets privately printed by him between 2009 and 2014.

The subject is all three letters is Crichton's 'Commentaries on Some Doctrines of a Dangerous Tendency in Medicine', published by Churchill in 1842, and the three cast light on publishing practices for medical publications in the booktrade in early Victorian London. All three with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to one edge. ONE: 23 July 1842. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, with slight damp stain to one corner. Chrichton begins by asking to be sent 'the two bound Copies of my work to the Bolt and Tun Fleet St. before three oCl on the day you receive this viz. Monday'.

Lower half of a 4to leaf. In good condition, lightly aged, with stub from mount adhering. Written in old-fashioned, and not entirely grammatical, French, the text reads: '[…] de la nation Polonoise a la quelle S. M. donneroit le garanties necessaires, sous le respect de la stabilité des droits qu'elle réclame et qui sont fondés sur deux besoins absolus: la religion e le [sic] liberté. | A greez M. le M. l'assurance de plus [?] consideration avec la quelle je suis &c Varsovie 12 Mars 1831. | Skygnecki | Monsieur le Comte | Le Genenral Lt.

Lower half of a 4to leaf. In good condition, lightly aged, with stub from mount adhering. Written in old-fashioned, and not entirely grammatical, French, the text reads: '[…] de la nation Polonoise a la quelle S. M. donneroit le garanties necessaires, sous le respect de la stabilité des droits qu'elle réclame et qui sont fondés sur deux besoins absolus: la religion e le [sic] liberté. | A greez M. le M. l'assurance de plus [?] consideration avec la quelle je suis &c Varsovie 12 Mars 1831. | Skygnecki | Monsieur le Comte | Le Genenral Lt.

2pp, 12mko. In fair condition, aged and worn, with slight discoloration along central horizontal fold. Addressed to 'Her Imperial & Royal Highness | The Duchess of Edinburgh'. Reads: 'Madam | At Windsor Your Imperial & Royal Highness was good enough to say I might send these specimens of labour performed in a field which is now not much frequented | Under cover of the permission thus accorded, I take the liberty allowed, and add my request that it may not entail the trouble of any acknowledgment | I have the honour to be | Your I. R. Highness's | most faithful humble servant | W E Gladstone'.

On 6 x 7.5 cm slip of paper, laid down on a piece of card. In good condition, lightly aged. A good firm and large signature, reading 'I. Maisky'.

2pp., 4to. Aged and worn, but legible. A splendid effervescent letter, highly characteristic, written in demotic English in a close unruly hand. Tchelitchew was a close friend (lover?) of Edith Sitwell, and in addition to her brother Osbert, the letter contains references to Lincoln Kirstein (1907-1996), influential figure in New York culture, founder with George Balanchine of the New York City Ballet and the School of American Ballet, and the book he was writing on Tchelitchew, as well as to Tchelitchew's partner the writer Charles Henry Ford (1908-2002).

Malecka was born in England, the daughter of a Polish father and English mother. In 1912 she was imprisoned in Warsaw by the Russians, 'on a charge of conspiring against the Russian Government'. The matter was raised in the British parliament, and reported widely, for example in the Spectator and Russian Review. On her release she published 'Saved from Siberia: The True Story of my Treatment at the Hands of the Russian Police' (London, 1913). 2pp., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. She would 'indeed very much like to pay [her] another weekend visit' on her return to England.

For an overview of the post of King's Messenger, see 'The Cambridge History of British Foreign Policy', ed. Ward and Gooch, vol.3 (1923), which states that during the two men's time in the post (i.e. in 1822) 'the number of the corps was raised to thirty-eight. Eighteen of these were placed under the immediate orders of the Foreign Office for foreign service only. They were required to be British subjects, not over thirty-five years of age, good linguists and good horsemen; and the choosing of them rested in turn with each of the three Secretaries of State'.

1p., 4to. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. He apologises for his 'long silence', having been 'troubled by several things not connected with literature'. He expresses a desire to call on her 'some time later'. He has not been successful with her articles with Lord Beaverbrook, and thinks 'the most effective step to take would be to publish your novel first'. (Her first novel 'Cold Surge' was published by Hutchinson & Co. in 1929.) He has signed her copy of his novel 'The Polyglots', which he is returning separately.

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged. Reads: 'My dear Sir, | I shall feel much pleasure in joining Your party tomorrow evening, with my nephew C. Cazalet, who conveyed to me the wish you had expressed to see us at your lodgings, before your not came. | I am Your's sincerely | de Bode'. See John H. Harland, 'Baron de Bode and his Capstan', in The Mariner's Mirror, vol.99, 2013.

The two parts, apparently from different letters, are both on bifoliums: the first, numbered '2', is 4pp., 12mo; the second, numbered '5', is 4pp., 16mo. In good condition, lightly aged. The second bifolium signed at end: 'Best Wishes to Mrs C. | Yrs | J B. Askew'. Written in a neat if somewhat eccentric hand. The first bifolium begins: '[…] is very sore. Nothing will be done at the Congress except Bebel [August Bebel (1840-1913), German socialist] will speak and move a resolution to the effect that the Party stands by its present program and tactics.

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. The letter begins: 'My dear Lord Stratford | The 5th November, the day of Inckerman, [sic] is passed – I had not the courage to write. There was such a weight of grief in my heart, it was very difficult to give any utterance to it. Yet I will not let this disastrous year come to its close, without sending you a few words of remembrance, of sincere friendship. Since I left you in London, how many are gone!

Three issues, printed paper wraps, 4to, some staining and rusted staples, mainly good+. "An interesting perspective on world affairs and Cold War issues". As far as I can trell from COPAC and WorldCat, no British or US library hold any issues.

1p., 4to. On bifolium with mourning border. Nineteen lines of closely-written text, with valediction: 'Votre affectionnée, | Marie, GD de Russie et de Saxe'. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased, with minor traces of grey paper from mount adhering to edge. She begins by stating that the 'charmant ouvrage' that she sent has given her real pleasure: 'il orne ma demeure champêtre'.