TYPOGRAPHER

[‘I can’t really afford even a guinea for a book’: Hugh Williamson, Oxford University Press book designer.] Autograph Letter Signed to London bookseller Andrew Block, describing his collecting interests and constraints, and giving a wants list .

Author: 
Hugh Williamson (1918-1992), book designer with Oxford University Press and author on printing [Andrew Block, London bookseller]
Publication details: 
Undated; on letterhead of the Oxford University Press Warehouse and Trade Department, London.
£60.00

See Nicolas Barker’s typically-elegant obituary of Williamson in the Independent. 2pp, 4to. The obituary of the recipient Andrew Block (1892-1987) in ‘The Private Library’ was subtitled ‘the doyen of booksellers’; his business was established in 1911. On aged and worn paper; folded three times. Signed ‘Hugh Williamson:’ and addressed to ‘Mr Block’. Thirty-one lines in a close, calligraphic hand.

[Robert Harling, typographer who may have served as model for James Bond.] Typed Letter Signed ('Luv Robert') to the bookseller Percy Muir, on his eightieth birthday, discussing their lives and criticising their old friend, Ian Fleming's wife Ann.

Author: 
Robert Harling [Robert Henry Harling] (1910-2008), typographer, designer, journalist and novelist, friend of Ian Fleming and possible model for James Bond [Percy Muir (1894-1979), bookseller]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of The Glebe House, Godstone, Surrey. 17 January 1975.
£450.00

See Harling's entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 4to. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded twice. The salutation ('My dear Percy'), valediction ('Luv Robert'), and one additional word in autograph; the rest typed. He begins by thanking Muir for a copy of 'PHM 80', the volume celebrating Muir's eightieth birthday.

[Engraving by John Pye, from drawing by Robert Balmanno, printed by John Johnson (of the Lee Priory Press).] Engraving of 'Cenotaph erected at Stoke Park, to the Memory of the Poet Gray.' With text including the 'Inscriptions on the Cenotaph'.

Author: 
John Johnson (1777-1848), typographer and printer (at the Lee Priory Press of Sir Egerton Brydges); Robert Balmanno (1780-1861), connoisseur; John Pye (1782-1874), engraver; Thomas Gray
Publication details: 
'Johnson, Typ.' 1818.
£200.00

On 34 x 27 cm unwatermarked laid paper. Dimensions of plate 34 x 23 cm. Dimensions of print 5.1 x 7.4 cm. Dimensions of print and text 15 x 7.4 cm. In fair condition, lightly aged, spotted and creased, with stub from album adhering to one margin. This is an early state of a print of which the British Library has a copy (acquired in 1867) of the undated third state, dated to 1820, carrying only four lines of text rather than the substantial amount present here. The present copy has, engraved in small letters immediately beneath the print: 'Robt. Balmanno delt. 1818. Jno.

[Pierre Daru [Pierre Antoine Noël Bruno, Comte Daru], French soldier and author.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Cte Daru') to printer Firmin Didot, concerning the printing of 'la Copie des vers que j'ai lus à l'institut', with reference to 'M Raynouard'.

Author: 
Pierre Daru [Pierre Antoine Noël Bruno, Comte Daru] (1767-1829), French soldier, statesman, historian, poet [Firmin Didot, printer; François Just Marie Raynouard (1761-1836), dramatist and linguist]
Publication details: 
26 April 1829. No place.
£350.00

1p, 4to. On recto of first leaf of bifolium, the verso of the last leaf of which is addressed by Daru 'à monsieur | F. Didot père & fils | rue jacob No 24 | Paris'. In good condition, lightly aged, with stub from mount adhering. Sixteen lines of text. The text is in French, and concerns 'la Copie des vers que j'ai lus à l'institut pour imprimés avec les autres pièces lues a cette place', which he discussed with 'M Raynouard' (François Just Marie Raynouard) the night before.

[Eric Gill, sculptor and typographer] Two Signed Letters (one 'Eric Gill' and the other 'Eric Gill osd') to Lawrence Hodson, both in the same secretarial hand, regarding a woodcut 'set of stations'.

Author: 
Eric Gill [Arthur Eric Rowton Gill] (1882-1940), British sculptor, artist and typographer [Lawrence William Hodson (1865-1934), art connoisseur; Father Bernard Delaney (1890-1959), OP]
Publication details: 
On letterheads of Ditchling Common, Sussex. 3 November 1920 and 10 March 1921.
£250.00

Both items in fair condition, on lightly aged and creased paper. The second letter addressed by the secretary on the reverse, with four torn stamps and postmarks, to 'Mr. Lawrence Hodson | Bradbourne Hall | Ashbourne | Derbyshire'. The 'set of stations' referred to in the first letter is likely to have been based on those executed by Gill in stone in Westminster Cathedral, and completed in 1918. Letter One (3 November 1920): 1p., 12mo.

Mimeographed Typescript of 'Stanley Morison: 1889-1967. A Radio Portrait. Compiled by Nicholas [sic] Barker and Douglas Cleverdon.' Transmitted on the BBC Third Programme.

Author: 
Nicolas Barker and Douglas Cleverdon [Stanley Morison; Tom Burns, John Carter, Arthur Crook, Brooke Crutchley, Sir Francis Meynell, Graham Pollard, Janet & Reynolds Stone, Beatrice Warde]
Publication details: 
[BBC Third Programme, London.] Recorded on 24 January 1969. Transmitted on 2 February and 6 March 1969.
£280.00

[1] + 23pp., foolscap 8vo. On 24 leaves attached in one corner by a metal stud. The title page carries the reference TM144D, and states that the producer was Cleverdon, and gives times of transmission, rehearsal and recording, with 'R.P. REF. NO.' and the details of the secretary who typed out the document. The piece was narrated by Barker, with the 'Speakers' are named as Burns, Carter, Crook, Crutchley, Meynell, Pollard, the Stones and Warde.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Vera Meynell') from Lady Vera Meynell, wife of the typographer Sir Francis Meynell, to 'Dear Jack' [the anthropologist J. H. Driberg], asking him to 'let bygones be bygones' and visit her at Toppesfield, 'Hitler permitting'.

Author: 
Lady Vera Meynell [née Vera Rosalind Wynn Mendel] (1895-1947), wife of Sir Francis Meynell (1891-1975), publisher and typographer, founder of the Nonesuch Press [Jack Herbert Driberg (1888-1946)]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 39 Woburn Square, WC1 [London]. 5 July [no year, but during the Second World War].
£65.00

1p., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. The letter begins: 'Dear Jack | It is a long time since we met - but perhaps that is my fault. If so, will you let bygones be bygones - and come over to Toppesfield some time?' She suggests a date, 'Or any Sunday lunch in the immediate future', stating that 'after July, all plans are "Hitler permitting"!' Driberg has noted his acceptance of the invitation up one margin. [Driberg was a Lecturer in Anthropology at Cambridge University from 1934 to 1942. His brother was the colourful Labour MP Tom Driberg.

Collection of papers relating to the editing and design by Montague Shaw of Michael Simonow's two books on the Polish artist Zdzislaw Ruszkowski ('Unofficial War Artist' and catalogue raisonné), with correspondence by the artist and photographs.

Publication details: 
1984 to 1987. Both books were published in London by Mechanick Exercises: 'Unofficial War Artist' in 1985 and the catalogue catalogue raisonné in 1987.
£500.00

The collection is in very good condition, containing four items of autograph correspondence from Ruszkowski to Shaw, all signed 'Zdzis'. One: Autograph Letter Signed. Undated. 8vo, 3 pp. Expressing his extreme disappointment with 'the proposed arrangement of the double-page and the suggested treatment of the illustrations. 'Nearly one third of the drawing [sic] is left out and alters the sense of the theme. Each illustration is composed to stress the situation and can't be mutilated at the will to suit the arrangement at the page.

Original finished coloured comic drawing, showing a large penguin [Jan Tschichold?] dragging a bearded man [Montague Shaw?] who clutches a set of letters spelling 'Fabers', signifying the man's move from the publishers Faber & Faber to Penguin Books.

Author: 
[Montague Shaw, production manager, Faber & Faber Ltd; Jan Tschichold, typographer for Penguin Books]
Original finished coloured comic drawing
Publication details: 
[London.] 1966.
£200.00
Original finished coloured comic drawing

Dimensions 29 x 12 cm. Pasteboard mount, 31 x 14.5 cm. In blue, black and white. In good condition on lightly-aged paper. In front of a background of ricketty railings, a jolly bespectacled penguin [with Tschichold's sprightly eyes], with a Penguin book under his left arm, and preceded by a letter P and followed by an n, drags a bespectacled, bearded man (looking a little like a young Michael Bentine) towards the right of the drawing.

Corrected galley proof of nonsense poem by 'M. S.' [the Faber & Faber production manager Montague Shaw?] entitled 'Cowkeeper's Tune'.

Author: 
[Montague Shaw, production manager, Faber & Faber Ltd]
Montague Shaw, production manager, Faber & Faber Ltd
Publication details: 
[Undated. London: Faber & Faber, 1950s?]
£50.00
Montague Shaw, production manager, Faber & Faber Ltd

The text area is about 13.5 x 30 cm, on the top half of a slip of paper around twice as long. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The lower half of the slip is blank apart from the pagination 196. Headed 'EPILOGUE | COWKEEPER'S TUNE', and beginning 'Unless your window is fitted with very strong iron bars and, just to make sure, your window locks, | Do not attempt to keep a Dexter cow in your window box.' Signed in type at end 'M.

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