STEVENS

On a 16.5 x 20 cm piece of faded and lightly-worn light-green paper, with small diagonal cuts at corners where the item was mounted in an album. The players’ names are neatly presented in a column (there is no other text on either side): ‘OUCC | Greville Stevens | R. L. H. Holdsworth | J. D. Percival | V. R. Price | R C Robertson Glasgow | P E Lawrie | M Patten | R H Bettington | T B Raikes | L. P. Hedges | R R P Barbour’. This is the same eleven which won a match at Oxford against the Free Foresters on 20 May 1922.

An interesting item, casting light on Victorian London publishing of periodical literature. For Passmore Edwards, to whom London is indebted for innumerable public libraries (many now closed), see his entry in the Oxford DNB. ‘The Biographical Magazine’ was founded in 1852, and the first two volumes were published by ‘J. Passmore Edwards, 2, Horse-shoe Court, Ludgate Hill’.

Complete magazine: 16pp., folio. In good condition, on lightly-aged high-acidity paper. Three-quarters of the magazine is devoted to a catalogue by the publisher.

vi + 229 + [1]pp., 8vo. Frontispiece facsimile letter from Benjamin Franklin. In original printed wraps. In blue cloth binding with title in gilt on front cover and spine. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper, in worn binding. Full title: 'Stevens' Historical Collections.

18 + [1]pp., 8vo. In red cloth half-binding, with brown marbled boards. Stamp of the Royal Historical Society on endpaper, and pencil shelfmarks. In fair condition, aged and worn. A curious production. The intent of the author (certainly Stevens) is to facilitate 'definite and permanent organisation', by his 'preparation of an Index of all the documents of American concern in private or public Archives of Great Britain, Holland, France and Spain that accumulated between the years 1763 and 1783'.

TLS: 2pp., 12mo. In good condition. The letter begins: 'Dear Al: | Last Thursday morning, while sitting in a barbar chair, I asked myself a question which a number of people have been asking me recently, namely, What are you doing at Harvard? I couldn't come up with a very satisfactory answer, so I went to a friend's house on Cape Cod for the weekend. Monday I saw the head of the English Department at Harvard, H. C. Baker. He said, "Follow your star," which seemed to me a little romantic, but all the same good advice.

Printed on one side of a 9.5 x 15 cm piece of green paper. In good condition, lightly-aged and sunned, with one corner slightly-dogeared. The text reads: 'Marianne Craig Moore | Distinguished Alumna of Bryn Mawr College | will present | A Poetry Reading and Commentary | on Monday, January 20, 1958 | at 8:30 o'clock | at Cooper Union | 7th Street and 4th Avenue, New York | Admission free'.

Not paginated. [107]pp., 16mo. Internally good and tight, elegantly printed in red and black. In original heavily-worn green leather binding. Small leaf, printed on both sides, advertising the book, loosely inserted. In the twenty-two lines on the reverse Stevens states that 'The price of all these books in substantial andn ornamental bindings of great variety, with leather, calf, morocco or russia backs and corners, and muslin on paper sides, is Four Hundred Guineas (420l.) If with full leather backs and sides, very handsome, the price is Four Hundred and Fifty Guineas (472l. 10s.)'.

The three items in good condition, with minor aging and the last two items lightly-creased. ONE: 'The Richard Curle Collection of the Works of Cicely Veronica Westwood'. Published by J. Stevens Cox at the Toucan Press, Beaminster, Dorset, 1961. 19pp., 16mo. In green printed wraps. Stapled. '65 copies printed'. Four-page introduction, in which Cox writes: 'I wish to emphasise, however, that, despite the amplitude of the muster, this is not a Bibliography.

Mary Frances Stevens was the daughter of Silas O. Smith of Rochester, and the mother of the novelist Augusta de Grasse Stevens (1852-1894) and of Marie de Grasse, Lady Evans (d.1920), wife of the English Liberal politician Sir Francis Henry Evans (1840-1907). After her husband's death in 1854 she married John Fowler Butterworth. The seven letters in this collection are closely and neatly written; those to her father in brown ink and those to her mother in blue. All seven in good condition, on lightly-aged paper.

Stevens married Mary Frances Smith (d.1890; second husband John Fowler Butterworth), daughter of Silas O. Smith of Rochester, and two of their children were the novelist Augusta de Grasse Stevens (1852-1894), and Marie de Grasse, Lady Evans (d.1920), wife of the English Liberal politician Sir Francis Henry Evans (1840-1907). 2pp., 4to. 35 lines of text. In good condition on lightly-aged paper. Addressed on reverse of second leaf, with postmark, to 'Mr L Ward Smith | Rochester | N.Y-'. The letter begins: 'My dear Ward | How affectionate & familiar a man is, when he is about to ask a favor.

1p., 4to. Bifolium. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Addressed on reverse of second leaf to 'Mr Silas O Smith | Rochester'. The letter begins: 'Dear Sir | During my short sojourn at your city last October, I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of your daughter. Since my return a correspondence has taken place between us in which she has given me permission to visit her & to entertain the hope that she may be persuaded to exchange the protection of the best of Parents for that of a husband.

Both items in very good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Item One (galley proofs): On piece of 13 x 49 cm. paper. In manuscript at head: '7 Harley Gardens SW | Monday | Dear Mrs Butterworth | The Printer will send you a proper proof tomorrow | Yours in haste | E Lowe'. The first part only, in small type, with one minor correction. The article is attributed to Augusta de Grasse Stevens in Helen O. Black's 'Notable Women Authors of the Day' (1893). Item Two (manuscript biography): 4pp., 4to. With a few minor emendations.

3 pp, 4to. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with minor traces of stub adhering to the blank reverse of second leaf. The year 1832 has been added in pencil in a contemporary hand. The letter is on paper watermarked 1831. Docketed at head 'Braybrooke Ld.' He begins by informing Henslow that Lord Grenville has lent him 'the Book in which his Notes upon the growth of Trees, during many years, had been made. He assures me that nothing worth your notice will be found among the MS remarks, but I am not of that opinion.

2 pp, folio. Bifolium. A frail survival, on brittle, aged paper: a horizontal closed tear across the head and other damage has been obtrusively repaired with archival tape.

8vo, 8 pp. Unbound. Text clear and complete. On aged paper with wear to extremities. According to the title-page the sale contains 'The Encyclopaedia Britannica, Johnson's Poets, Scott's Works, Swift's ditto, Annual Register, British Theatre, and other Works, in various branches of Literature; Prints, Books of Prints, Paintings, Mahogany Cabinets, Antiquities, Gold Repeater, Grand Piano-Forte, by Zeitter'.

4to, 4 pp. Bifolium. Complete issue, paginated 17-20. Good, on aged paper. The first page announces J. D. Corbett ('Writer of "Canberra Commentary" in "The Argus") as guest speaker ('And he's sure to be good'). The first of two articles on the second page is the report of a speech by 'His Honor Judge Foster'. The second article, under the heading 'A Blood and Thunder Merchant', is an interview, with small photograph, with 'the Sanguinary-minded Fellow J. P.

Printed on pink [faded from red?] unwatermarked paper, with cream backing. Dimensions of paper roughly fourteen centimeters by thirty-three centimeters. A frail ephemeral item. Lightly creased, and with further creasing and closed tears at head and foot, and minor loss at head. Faded, and with further fading at head. Headed 'At the Sign of Flying Fame.' Illustration by Lovat Fraser of mounted seventeenth-century man blowing bugle over cityscape. 'LIST OF PUBLICATIONS' includes details of six broadsides and four chap-books.

On light-yellow page (roughly 11 x 14 cm) removed from autograph album. Four glue stains showing through from the reverse (not affecting the signatures), otherwise good. Reads 'Dora Stevens | Ethel Hobday | Marjorie Hayward | Cedric Sharpe'. Lightly docketed in pencil.

Eight pages, 12mo. Unbound and unstitched. Unfolds into a single leaf. Paper watermarked 'OAKWOOD | FINE VELLUM'. Five different illustrations (one of which is duplicated). Grubby, spotted and with small closed tears and fraying along one edge (not affecting text or illustrations). 'PRICE FOURPENCE PLAIN; SIXPENCE COLOURED.' This copy is uncoloured.

Eight pages, 12mo. Unbound and unstitched. Unfolds into a single leaf. Paper watermarked 'OAKWOOD | FINE VELLUM'. Three illustrations. Good, but paper slightly discoloured and with some spotting. 'PRICE 2 PENCE PLAIN, 4 PENCE COLOURED.' This copy is uncoloured.

Printed on unwatermarked tissue paper. Dimensions of paper roughly seven and a half centimeters by eleven and a half. A very good copy of a frail and ephemeral item. An attractive illustration by Fraser of an ivy-clad wall memorial topped by a cherub encloses the following 'There are Published | I. Farewell to the Faeries, by Richard Corbett. | II. Three Poems, by Kenneth Hare. | Decorated and Published by C. Lovat Fraser, and can be obtained from Everard Meynell, 46 Museum Street, W.C. | [short rule] | Price SIXPENCE each, net.'