THE

Twenty-eight Typed Letters Signed, seventeen Autograph Letters Signed, etc, to K. W. Luckhurst, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts, and others.

Author: 
John Alexander Milne [Henry Stone & Son; the Medici Society; Royal Society of Arts]
Publication details: 
1938-43; various letterheads, including 11, Old Cavendish St, W.1.; Greengates, Sunningdale, Berks; and 35 Grosvenor Square, W.1.
£200.00

British businessman (1872-1955), chairman of the Medici Society Ltd, chairman and managing director of Henry Stone & Son Ltd, printers. Very good. Mostly octavo, with a few quarto and 12mo. Some bearing the Society's stamp and others docketed. Occasional rust marks from paperclips. Mainly concerned with the day-to-day activities of the Royal Society of Arts, of which Milne was a prominent member, around the time of the Second World War. On 7 September 1939: 'I hardly anticipate that you are likely to have trouble in regard to occupation of the premises.

Apocalypse block-book; Caxton's Golden Legend.

Author: 
J. & J. Leighton, booksellers.
Publication details: 
1910; J. & J. Leighton, 40 Brewer St., Regent St., London W.
£125.00

Proof with manuscript changes in pencil and printed additions pasted onto p.viii. 14 pages, folio. Five plates and five illustrations in text. In original green printed wraps. In good condition: paper discoloured and with some creasing at head; wraps grubby, creased and worn, with small closed tear along top end of spine. An attractive production, 'reprinted from J. & J. Leighton's illustrated catalogue of early-printed books, manuscripts, &c. part xiv.' Describes the edition of the Golden Legend published by Caxton in 1483, and a block-book published in Germany around 1470.

Typed Letter Signed to Sir Francis Peek.

Author: 
Ralph David Blumenfeld
Publication details: 
8 July 1932; on letterhead of The Company of Newspaper Makers.
£36.00

American-born British journalist (1864-1948), editor of the Daily Express, 1904-32. One page, quarto. Good, but on slightly discoloured paper, with slight staining to the four corners from previous mounting. Reads 'As one printer to another I want to tell you what I think of your magazine "Change". It does you all great credit. It is exceedingly well produced, presented with remarkably good taste, and I am astonished at the knowledge and technique.

Autograph Letter Signed to William Symonds, R.N., with presentation copy of 'Some Remarks on the Rules to be observed in forming a Code of International Signals; with a comparative review of the systems proposed [...] by Captain Levin Joergen Rohde'.

Author: 
Henry Cranmer Phillipps [Henry Cranmer March Phillipps], R.N.; Captain Levin Joergen Rohde, of the Royal Danish Navy, Knight of the Dannebrog; Sir William Symonds
Publication details: 
LETTER: [Avebury, B[uckinghamshire]?], 3 November 1835; PAMPHLET: London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green & Longman, Paternoster-row. 1835. [Printed by Manning and Smithson, Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row.]
£120.00

Full subtitle: 'With a comparative review of the systems proposed by H. Cranmer Phillipps, R.N. and by Captain Levin Joergen Rohde, of the Royal Danish Navy, Knight of the Dannebrog, &c. &c.' The letter was previously attached by four small pieces of red sealing wax on the verso of its blank second leaf to the title-page of the pamphlet. Letter and pamphlet are now detached, with traces of wax adhering to both, but not affecting the text of either. LETTER: 12mo, one page. Good on aged paper.

Handbill headed 'STOLEN POSTAL ORDER FORMS | STOLEN POSTAGE STAMPS NEGOTIATED BY MEANS OF STAMP SAVINGS SLIPS'.

Author: 
E. H. Bourne, Director, Investigation Branch, Personnel Department [THE POST OFFICE; ROYAL MAIL; POSTAL HISTORY]
Publication details: 
[London,] 20 January 1939.
£56.00

Two pages. On both sides of a piece of paper roughly twelve and a quarter inches by eight inches wide. Illustrated on both sides. An unusual piece of Post Office ephemera, and something of a period piece, on aged paper, with fraying to extremities. Begins 'The object of these instructions is to secure the apprehension of men and women who are negotiating stolen postal order forms and stolen penny stamps, the proceeds of thefts from Post Office. [...]'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W. Rhys Roberts') to Sir Frederick George Kenyon (1863-1952), Director of the British Museum.

Author: 
William Rhys Roberts (1858-1929), Professor of Classics at Leeds University, and associate of J. R. R. Tolkien
Publication details: 
28 January 1918; on letterhead of the University, Leeds.
£35.00

Three pages, octavo. Very good on lightly aged paper. Kenyon's paper was 'much enjoyed' when read on Saturday, and there was 'a good attendance'. '[T]he pleasantries were not missed': '1. the confusion of the inexhaustible emender; 2. the thrift of the canny Odysseus in his role of wooer; 3. Burne Jones's Law.' 'At the end some interesting questiosn were asked', for example, 'why second-rate Greek annalists shd. seemingly have been preferred to Herodotus & Thucydides'.

Portrait photograph by Walter Baker of Birmingham and copy of his book 'Practical Conjuring.'

Author: 
James Carl (J. A. Wakefield, 1875-1955), 'the Derby Conjuror, Member of the Magic Circle, London', 'Society Magician'
Publication details: 
The book published in Derby by E. J. Furniss, 15, Exeter Street, in 1911.
£100.00

The studio photograph, with printed label of 'Walter Baker, 159, Mosely Road, Birmingham. Highgate Studios.' on reverse, and the manuscript number '24704 | 98'. is a good clear head and shoulders portrait (dimensions roughly three and a half inches by two and a quarter wide), in very good condition. Although untitled, it seems to be Carl, as represented on the title-page of his book, without the moustache and a little younger. The book is twenty-eight pages, octavo, in original coloured printed boards. Numerous line drawings.

The Eric Gill Workshops.

Author: 
Denis Tegetmeier; Laurence Cribb [Eric Gill]
Publication details: 
Pigotts, North Dean, High Wycombe'; 'December 5 | 1940'.
£45.00

Leaflet. Two pages, 12mo. Tasteful bifolium on cream wove paper. Unbound. Good, though a tad grubby. Gill woodcut (roughly two inches by one and a half) on front: two hands around the front of a large 'V' with rest of word 'Veritas' on stem and cross at head. Apparently numbered in pencil bottom-right of woodcut 579.

The Theory of Chances, or The Modern Development of the Rules of Probability; with some notes regarding 'probabilities' in the game of roulette at Monte Carlo.

Author: 
James McGowan, FIA, formerly Government Actuary to the South African Government [Gambling; Roulette; Monte Carlo; Theory of Probability]
Publication details: 
London: Lamley & Co. 1, 3, and 5 Exhibition Road, South Kensington. [Printed at the Oxford University Press by Frederick Hall.]
£120.00

Small octavo: 31 pages. Unbound and stapled. Very good, in grubby original pink printed wraps. According to one authority McGowan is the 'first fully qualified actuary in South Africa of whom there is record [becoming] Cape Government Actuary of the former Cape Colony in 1890'. COPAC (under mispelt name "MacGowan") only recordds the BL copy.

Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Rt Revd Edward Churton (1800-1874), Archdeacon of Cleveland [The Oxford Movement]
Publication details: 
1 May 1861; 'Crayke nr. Easingwold'.
£36.00

One page, 12mo. Good, on grey paper and with the merest trace of cream mount adhering to blank reverse. The previous month he received 'an engraved Circular' from his correspondent, from which he now quotes a passage stating that his subscription of a guinea [to the Church Institution] is due. 'I have no recollection of having ever promised a subscription to the Institution referred to.

Letter in secretarial hand signed by Webb ('Aston Webb') to Alice Bertha, Lady Gomme (1852-1938).

Author: 
Sir Aston Webb (1849-1930), English architect, best-known for Admiralty Arch, the Victoria Memorial and his work on Buckingham Palace
Publication details: 
1 March 1912; on letterhead '19, QUEEN ANNE'S GATE | WESTMINSTER | LONDON, S.W.'
£38.00

One page, octavo. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper. 'Pray use me as you think fit on Monday March 4th. & I will do what I can | Perhaps you would not mind telling me if it is to be in reply to a toast & if so what & also whether decorations are worn. I imagine it is more or less of a private dinner & therefore they will not be'.

Autograph Card Signed from Sutro to Hicks.

Author: 
Alfred Sutro (1863-1933), British author and dramatist; Seymour Hicks (1871-1949)
Publication details: 
26 October [no year, but c.1910]; on letterhead 31 Chester Terrace, Regent's Park [London].
£35.00

One page, on piece of grey card roughly three and a half inches by four and a half wide. Very good. Twelve lines and one-line postscript in Sutro's tiny and difficult hand. Sends his 'sincerest congratulations on the best volume of memoirs I have read this many a day' (Hicks published his autobiography in 1910). 'There isn't a dull line in it from start to finish; I could dine out for a week on the stories'. Reference to Irving and other actors. Ends 'A damned good book, Seymour! Tous mes compliments!' Postscript reads 'This does NOT require an answer!'

On the Drawing Office. Received 13th March, 1895; Read 26th March, 1895.

Author: 
Sir Archibald Denny (1860-1936), Scottish shipbuilder who chaired a 1912 British committee to investigate the Titanic sinking [Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland (Incorporated)]
Publication details: 
Offprint 'Reprinted from the Transactions of the Institution.'; Glasgow: Wm. Asher, Central Printing Works, 80 Gordon St. 1895.
£85.00

Thirteen pages, octavo, and fold-out 'PLATE XXI' (eight and a half inches by twenty-two and a half wide), with nine illustrations, headed 'THE DRAWING OFFICE BY MR. ARCHIBALD DENNY.', by Robert Gardner & Co., Engineering Lithographers, Glasgow. Unbound and stapled. Good, on aged and lightly foxed paper. Original pink printed wraps detached, chipped and with minor loss. PRESENTATION COPY, with front wrap (which has minor offsetting in ink) headed in pencil 'With the Authors Compts'. Ownership inscription of 'H. J. Young | Nov: '95' at head of first page.

Autograph Letter Signed to 'Mrs Willows'.

Author: 
Clara Jecks (1857-1951), English actress and singer, briefly associated with the D'Oyly Carte Company, daughter of Harriet Coveney and actor-manager Charles Jecks
Publication details: 
31 May 1898; 20 Hart Street, Bloomsbury, WC [London].
£45.00

Three pages, 12mo. Good, on lightly spotted and aged paper. Traces of glue and previous mount adhering to blank verso of second leaf of bifolium. Concerns a 'concert on June 16yh in aid of the <?> L G[uild] at Mrs. Beudel's house'. 'It grieves me more than I can express to find that I shall be unable to attend, or give my services on that occasion, unfortunately my arrangements will not permit of my being in London then'.

Autograph Letter Signed to I[saac]. Wilkinson[, Manager and Secretary of the Brighton Aquarium].

Author: 
Dudley Smith (born c.1852), English and Foreign Musical and Dramatic Agent [The Brighton Aquarium; Victorian Circus]
Publication details: 
22 March 1883; on ornate letterhead in blue and gold carrying address at 449 Strand, London (as well as addresses in Paris and New York).
£56.00

One page, quarto. Very good, though slightly aged and creased, and with minor damp staining at foot, affecting bottom three lines including signature. Wilkinson has written to say that he 'has not the space' Smith has 'named'. '[Y]ou express an opinion that Circus business would pay, & I, from my personal knowledge of Brighton & experience therein, feel sure a really good Circus would prove an immense attraction & a paying one, & would stand some time by introducing fresh novelties'.

Autograph Note Signed ('J. M. Weston') to James Rees, with the latter's docketing addressed to 'F Powell'.

Author: 
J. M. Weston, 'comedian', playwright and stage manager of the Charles Street Theatre, Baltimore [James Rees; F. Powell]
Publication details: 
[6 April 1847]; place not stated.
£23.00

One page. On piece of paper roughly seven inches by three and a half wide. Bottom part of letter cut away. Reads 'Dr Sir | In compiance with your wish | I subscribe myself | truly yours | [signed] J. M. Weston | To/ | Jas. Reese Esq'. Docketed by Rees 'The above autograph is that of my friend J M Weston, Stage Manager of the St Charles Theatre - he is the Author of Several popular pieces, among which is the beautiful drama of Lucretia Borgia'. Dated in another hand on reverse. Not much appears to be known about Weston, whose translation of Victor Hugo's play was first published in 1850.

Special Railway Supplement.

Author: 
The Financial Times [Railway; Railways]
Publication details: 
London; 1 January 1923.
£56.00

Thirty-six broadsheet pages. On aged paper, with chipping to extremities and first and last leaves detached, but with text clear and entire. Articles on 'The Four New Railways', with photographs, by Sir Herbert Walker, Felix J. C. Pole, Arthur Watson and R. L. Wedgwood. Other articles include 'Electrification - The Metropolitan's Experience' by R. H. Selbie, 'Railways - Their Position and Prospects' by Sir Sam Fry, 'Railway Rates under the New Regime' by Sir W. M. Acworth and 'Finance of British Railways' by W. J. Stevens.

Illustration entitled 'THE ROLL OF FAME. 1800-1900.', with key.

Author: 
Linley Sambourne [Punch, or the London Charivari; Caricature]
Publication details: 
Dated in facsimile October 1899.
£45.00

Sambourne (1844-1910) contributed illustrations to Punch for more than forty years. On good laid paper, dimensions roughly 22 inches by 17 1/2. With facsimile signature and date. Folded twice. Slightly discoloured and a little creased, but suitable for framing. Depicts Mr Punch, with his dog Toby, sitting atop a pile of the 'evolutions of the century' (including a bicycle and typewriter), and waving to 116 of the century's worthies, including Bismark, General Tom Thumb and the jockey Fred Archer, but without Karl Marx.

Autograph Letter Signed to <J. J. Dolone>, and Hand-coloured Engraved Portrait.

Author: 
Laura Honey [nee Young] ['Mrs Honey']
Publication details: 
The letter without date, but bearing postmark postmark dated 20 May 1838.
£156.00

Letter, docketed 'Mrs Honey', addressed to ' Esqre | York - Leeds - or Hull | Theatre Royal'. Three pages, quarto. Good, though aged and creased, and with small section cut away on breaking seal. Text clear and complete. Small strip of mount adhering to one edge. Interesting and intriguing letter addressed to 'Dearest Papa' and beginning 'Barnett has never been near me nor do I know where to find him - write by return and tell me where I commence and what you would like me to '. Ends by saying she is 'very busy indeed just now'. Signed 'Laura'.

Engraved portrait by Vertue captioned 'RICHARDUS GRAVES | de Michleton in Com[itatis] Gloucestriae Armiger | Obiit: 1731, A[nn]o. Aetat[is]: 51.'

Author: 
Richard Graves the elder ('the antiquary', 1677-1729), of Mickleton Manor, Gloucestershire [George Vertue]
Publication details: 
Extracted from Nash's 'History of Worcestershire' (London, 1781-2).
£55.00

On good-quality thick wove paper, roughly fifteen inches by eleven wide. Dimensions of plate roughly eleven inches by six and a half wide. Good, clean impression, with blank borders a tad grubby. Attractive portrait of a handsomely dressed Graves, a bookcase behind him, leaning between two tables, on one of which is a manuscript and on the other another manuscript, coins and books. Graves's dates are corrected in the Dictionary of National Biography.

Typewritten 'List of chief and under gravers to the Mint', signed in autograph.

Author: 
Charles Anthony, Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh [THE ROYAL MINT; NUMISMATICS]
Publication details: 
04/06/37
£67.00

Four pages, on four A4 leaves. Entirely legible, though dogeared and with some wear to extremities. Rust staining from paperclip. Complete from 1066 to 1937, beginning with the Cuneators and giving dates of Chief and Under Gravers together with Remarks on each individual. Dated and signed by Anthony.

Printed Memorandum of Agreement with Anthony Blond Ltd, signed 'Ellen Wright', for the English publication rights of her husband's 'Lawd Today'; with a typed agreement between Blond and Hamilton & Co. for the English paperback rights.

Author: 
Ellen Wright (nee Poplar) (1912-2004), second wife and widow of the American author Richard Wright (1908-60)
Publication details: 
Memorandum, London, 29 June 1964; paperback rights, London, 15 May 1964.
£56.00

The Memorandum is a four-page folio (leaf size roughly fourteen inches by nine and a half) bifolium. In very good condition, lightly creased and folded. It details Mrs Wright's royalties (as 'proprietor'), advance and percentages. The paperback rights agreement consists of four typewritten pages, on four leaves, each roughly thirteen inches by eight, stapled together at the head beneath green tape. Very good, though lightly creased and with some fraying to tape. It is signed by the Hamilton & Co. chairman Joseph and witnessed by his secretary E. M. Holloway.

Unsigned Typed Letter; with two-page Typed Letter from 'The Advertisers'; both to Morley Stuart, Croydon House, Pelham Road, Seaford, Sussex.

Author: 
George Thompson Brown Davis [John Wilbur Chapman; Charles McCallon Alexander]
Publication details: 
Letter from 'The Advertisers': 20 July 1908, Birmingham [England]; letter from Davis: 27 November 1908, 158 Fifth Avenue, New York City.
£50.00

American evangelist (1873-1967), founder of the Pocket Testament League and the Million Testaments Campaign. One page damp-affected but text clear, some creasing. The letter from Davis is mounted on a leaf from an autograph album, and the two leaves of the other item are both glued along one edge to the same leaf. Letter from the Advertisers, two pages (on two leaves of different size), quarto. Some words of text on second leaf obscured through first leaf being glued over left-hand margin of leaf, but legible through paper of first leaf.

Portrait entitled 'Thomas Hearne.', engraved by William Daniell after a drawing by George Dance.

Author: 
George Dance the Younger (1741-1825), English architect and surveyor [William Daniel (1769-1837), English artist and engraver; Thomas Hearne (1744-1817), English watercolour artist]
Publication details: 
Geo. Dance delt. Jany. 11. 1795. Published by Willm. Daniell, No. 9 Cleveland Street Fitzroy Square London, Decr. 15. 1809. Wm. Daniell Fecit.'
£76.00

Dimensions of paper roughly eleven and a half inches by eight wide. A good clean impression on grubby and lightly foxed paper. A meticulous head and shoulders view of a seated Hearne, in profile, facing to his left. One of the 72 engravings from chalk portraits by Dance of his friends which were published between 1808 and 1814.

The first five issues of 'The Saturday Magazine'.

Author: 
The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
Publication details: 
7 to 28 July 1832. 'LONDON: JOHN WILLIAM PARKER, 445, (WEST) STRAND.' 'C. RICHARDS, Printer, 100, St. Martin's Lane, Charing Cross.'
£165.00

The five issues are each eight pages long and octavo. All five issues unbound, and stabbed. All good, though lightly aged and with some wear to extremities. An improving publication, produced 'Under the direction of the Committee of General Literature and Education, appointed by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('T. D.') to 'E. W.'

Author: 
Taffrail' (Commander Henry Taprell Dorling,1883-1968), British sailor and author
Publication details: 
18 December [no year], on letterhead 'FROM CAPTAIN TAPRELL DORLING, D.S.O., R.N. | MARLINGS, | WOKING. | TEL: 981.'
£35.00

Two pages, 12mo. Very good on lightly-foxed blue paper. He has sent his correspondent's letter to the naval correspondent of The Times, and hopes 'that some good may come of it.' Would like to receive 'any more snippets you have from time to time. I didn't know, for instance, that the racing whaler had Sussex until the other day, otherwise I should have tried to make a song about it!' Sends seasons greetings, and wishes him the 'Best of luck'.

Autograph Signatures together with Autograph self-caricatures.

Author: 
Flotsam and Jetsam [Bentley Collingwood Hilliam (1890-1965), tenor, and Malcolm McEachern (1883-1945), bass], British Music Hall entertainers of the 1920s, 30s and 40s
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£45.00

On piece of paper four inches by three and a half, neatly mounted on slightly larger piece of blue paper, docketed 'FLOTSAM & JETSAM | 2 POPULAR ENTERTAINERS'. The crude caricatures (probably by Hilliam rather than McEachern) consist of a crude and highly-stylised image of the heads and shoulders of the two, looking to the left, in hat and cap and both smoking pipes. Beneath is 'Yours very sincerely | [signed] Flotsam and [signed] Jetsam'. Among the duo's recordings is a comic song entitled 'What was the matter with Rachmaninov?' (1927).

Coloured lithographic portrait engraving of 'THE RIGHT HONBLE. WILLIAM PIT. | From an original drawing by the late Mr. Sayers in the possession of Francis Turner Esqr. | Drawn on Stone by R. J. L. [i.e. Richard James Lane]'.

Author: 
William Pitt the younger [James Sayers (1748-1823), artist; Richard James Lane (1800-72), line engraver and lithographer; Graf & Soret]
Pitt
Publication details: 
(not Published) | Printed by Graf & Soret.'
£150.00
Pitt

EXCESSIVELY RARE. Apparently not present in the National Portrait Gallery collection. The portrait is on a piece of India paper roughly four and a half inches by three and a half wide, mounted on a piece of thick wove paper roughly eleven inches by eight and a half wide. The mount bears the text. Good, though somewhat grubby, and with the mount lightly creased and foxed. While Sayers is best-known as a Pittite caricaturist this image is certainly not a caricature.

[Printed] Postcard with bifoliate information card, addressed to "The Librarian, The Times Book Club, 93 New Bond Street, London, W."

Author: 
[The Times Book Club]
Publication details: 
No date
£20.00

The item was obviously inserted in a book borrowed from the Times Book Club. The postcard leaf is detachable from the information leaf, the first page of which is headed "The Times Book Club" adding "If you wish to keep this volume, the attached post card should be filled in and posted." The second page says "The published price of this book is [7/6 - entered by hand].The first page of the postcard gives categories to be filled in by the customer (title, author) and the printed statement !I am keeping the copy of this book which I now have.

Document headed “Subscriptions to the Society for bettering the condition of the Poor"

Author: 
Mathew Carey
Publication details: 
Philadelphia, 1829
£250.00

And others. Philad[elphia] manuscript 1829. Single leaf 7.75 x 6.25 inches, variously signed, recto only, in ink and pencil. Folded twice, edgeworn with tears that long ago were reinforced verso with several strange tape-products, none of which have bled through. The designated recipients of any donations include: Stephen H. Tyng [pencil], G.C. Potts, Robt. Ralston, Jackson Kemper , G. T. Bedell [pencil, with flourish],Matthew S. Bevan, James San-- [?], Matthew Carey, Ezra Stiles Ely, G. W.Ridgely, E.

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