VANITY

[Gisele Bündchen, Brazilian supermodel, and Michel Comte, Swiss fashion photographer.] Autograph Note Signed from Bündchen to Comte, accompanying sixty-three of his photographs of her, in groups of three or four similar images, from various shoots.

Author: 
Gisele Bündchen (b.1980), Brazilian supermodel, and Michel Comte (b.1954), Swiss fashion photographer, artist and filmaker
Supermodel
Supermodel2
Publication details: 
Note dated 16 May 1999. Some of the photographs taken in 'France, May [1999]' for Italian Vogue.
£800.00
Supermodel
Supermodel2

Bündchen’s career began in London in 1998. Since 2001, she has been one of the highest-paid fashion models in the world. In 2007, Forbes listed her as the sixteenth-richest woman in the entertainment industry. In 2019 Claudia Schiffer described her as the last of the supermodels. Comte’s fashion and portrait photography have appeared in a wide range of publications, primarily Italian Vogue. In 2000 he was named Photographer of the year by PHOTO magazine.

[Rita Spurr, poet.] Autograph Letter Signed to playwright Christopher Fry, with copy of her Guild Press poetry pamphlet 'Footprint in Snow', and New Year card with photographic print.

Author: 
Rita Spurr, Manchester poet and social worker [John Hoffman, proprietor of the Poetry Guild, Holymoorside, Chesterfield, whose imprint was The Guild Press; Christopher Fry (1907-2005), playwright]
Publication details: 
Letter: Flat 4, 7 Netherhall Gardens, Hampstead [London]; 31 December 1954. Pamphlet (in 'The Guild Poets' series): The Guild Press, Holymoorside, Chesterfield; August 1954. New Year card for 1954 / 1955.
£120.00

Three items (letter, photographic card, and pamphlet), all in good condition. ONE: ALS. 31 December 1954. 1p, 8vo. Signed '(Mrs.) Rita Spurr.' and addressed to 'Dear Mr. Christopher Fry'. She begins by thanking him 'for the very great pleasure & stimulus' which she derived 'during the year that is passed' from his play 'The Dark is Light Enough'.

[ William Powell Frith, English painter. ] Printed 'Vanity Fair' 'Spy' cartoon by Leslie Ward, of W. P. Firth ('No. 236. Men of the Day, No. 63. | "The Derby Day."'), with Autograph Note Signed by Firth ('W. P. Frith') to 'The Misses Savage'.

Author: 
William Powell Frith (1819-1909) [ Sir Leslie Ward [ Sir Leslie Matthew Ward ] (1851-1922), English cartoonist for 'Vanity Fair', under the name 'Spy'
Publication details: 
'Spy' cartoon from 'Vanity Fair' (London), 10 May 1873. Autograph Note Signed on letterhead of 114 Clifton Hill, [ London ] NW. 12 May 1887.
£90.00

ONE: Printed 'Spy' cartoon. 35.5 x 23 cm. Coloured. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. A placid Firth is shown before an easel, with brush in one hand and pallette in another. TWO: ANS. 2p., 12mo. With mourning border. 'Dear young ladies | I have pleasure in complying with your request for an autograph. | Faithfully yours | W. P. Firth. | To | The Misses Savage'.

Caricature by 'Ape' of 'Vanity Fair', titled 'Anecdotes', depicting the essayist and translator Abraham Hayward. With Autograph Note in the third person from Hayward to Viscountess Combermere.

Author: 
'Ape' [Carlo Pellegrini (1839-1889)], Vanity Fair caricaturist [Abraham Hayward (1801-1884), English essayist and translator; Mary Cotton [nee Mary Woolley Gibbings] (d.1889), Viscountess Combermere]
Publication details: 
The Vanity Fair caricature printed [London, 1875] by 'Vincent Brooks Day & Son, Lith.' Hayward's autograph note: '8 St. James St [London] | June 9 [no year]'.
£75.00

The 'Ape' cartoon: 21.5 x 32.5 cm. In good condition, on aged paper, with a neat horizontal fold 4 cm up from the bottom. Hayward's autograph note: 1p., 32mo. In good condition, on aged paper. It reads: 'Mr Heywood presents his compliments to Viscountess Combermere and has much pleasure in accepting her invitation to luncheon on Wednesday 21 June. | 8 St. James St | June 9'.

Three financial documents from 1880 on 'Vanity Fair': holograph 'Report' by the editor Thomas Gibson Bowles, accompanying 'Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss Account' and 'Comparative Statement of Income and Expenditure' by accountants Masson & Lewis.

Author: 
Thomas Gibson Bowles (1841-1922), editor of the London society magazine 'Vanity Fair', founded by him in 1868 [Masson & Lewis, Accountants, 27 Leadenhall Street, London]
Publication details: 
Bowles's report dated 10 November 1880. 'Balance Sheet' and 'Comparative Statement' both by Masson & Lewis, Accountants, 27 Leadenhall Street, London, and both for the half-year ending 30 September 1880.
£2,500.00

The three items, all in manuscript, are in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. All three are folded into the usual packets, with the two items by the accountants each titled in manuscript on the outside. Item One (Gibson's report): 'Report to accompany the Accounts of "Vanity Fair" for the six months ending 30th. Septr. 1880'. In Bowles's autograph, and signed by him at the foot, 'Thos. G. Bowles | 10 Novr 1880'. 1p., foolscap 8vo.

Itemised manuscript account of 'Mr. Alexr. J. Murray's Charges in relation to the Sale to Mr. Hanbury of 1/18th. Share in "Vanity Fair"'.

Author: 
Alexander J. Murray, solicitor, 1 Clement's Inn, London [Hanbury; Thomas Gibson Bowles (1841-1922), editor of the London society magazine 'Vanity Fair', founded by him in 1868]
Publication details: 
Entries dating from 1 November 1881 to 1 July 1882. Document carrying tax stamp postmarked 14 March 1883.
£600.00

5pp., foolscap 8vo. Attached with green ribbon. The sale was a protracted affair, and the detailed nature of these accounts may be due to Murray's desire to justify his charges of £22 1s 6d. The first entry reads: '1881 | Novr. 1st. Attending Mr. Bowles on his calling and receiving his instructions to act for all parties in the Sale of 1/18th. Share in "Vanity Fair" and General Roberts Executors would call and hand me the necessary papers [6s 8d]'. Other entries include 'Novr. 28th [1881] Writing Mr. Bowles that the Deed would be ready for his signature tomorrow morning [5s]', 'Jany.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Oliver A. Fry') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Oliver Armstrong Fry (b.c.1855), editor of 'Vanity Fair' from 1889 to 1904
Publication details: 
20 April 1898; 141 Portsdown Road, W. [London], on 'Vanity Fair' letterhead.
£35.00

12mo, 1 p. On first leaf of a bifolium. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. In reply to the recipient's note, by which he is 'much worried', Fry does not know that he can offer him 'any more than the few short notes <?> for us in "Men & Women of the Times". Little is known about Fry, apart from the fact that he was born in Van Diemen's Land, the son of the Church of England clergyman Henry Phibbs Fry (c.1807-1874).

The Pilgrim Fathers (1620-1920).

Author: 
W. J. Douglas-Hamilton [Pilgrim Fathers Records Society]
Publication details: 
Published by Commonwealth Fine Art and General Publishers, Ltd., For the Pilgrim Fathers Records Society, 4, Vernon Place, London, W.C.1. 1920.
£120.00

8vo, [ii] + 8 pp. Unbound stitched pamphlet. Lightly aged, and with short closed tears at head and foot of outer leaves. Dogeared corner to rear leaf. A 116-line 29-stanza poem, beginning 'The Pilgrims loved Old England, | Their hearts fed on her sod, | Their souls clung close to England, | But closelier [sic] to God.' and ending 'And through those centuries strenuous | In services to Man, | If sometimes sadly tenuous, | We claimed, and kept the Van.' Scarce: no copy on COPAC, in the British Library or Library of Congress.

Autograph Letter in the third person to Messrs A. & C. Black, 4 Soho Square, London [publishers of 'Who's Who'].

Author: 
Freiherr Adolph von Deichmann (1831-1907) [Baron Deichmann], German banker and anglophile 'four-in-hand' coaching enthusiast
Publication details: 
8 October 1900; on letterhead of Schloss Bendeleben [Germany].
£38.00

8vo: 2 pp. Good, on lightly-aged laid paper with slight chipping and glue stain at head (not affecting text). A formal letter written in English in the third person. He asks them to send 'another form [for him to write his entry in 'Who's Who'] to be filled up [...] The first one sent was mislaid on leaving London'. Deichman was the subject of a 'Spy' cartoon ('Vanity Fair', 14 May 1903: 'He wears curious hats'), in which he is shown driving a coach.

Lithographic caricature of Panizzi by 'Ape' ['Men of the Day. No 77'], with letterpress.

Author: 
Ape' [Carlo Pellegrini (1838-89)], Victorian caricaturist; Sir Anthony Panizzi (1797-1879), Chief Librarian at the British Museum
Publication details: 
[London]: published in 'Vanity Fair', 17 January 1874.
£80.00

Paper dimensions roughly fifteen inches by ten and a half wide; print dimensions twelve inches by seven and a quarter wide. Good clear image with border a little dusty and aged. Full-length image of a dour Panizzi standing at a desk holding a book. Page of letterpress on separate leaf of same dimensions, containing spirited account ['he sought refuge in Switzerland, but he was expelled discreditably from that country, [...] Keeper of the Printed Books [...] the man in all Europe most competent to fill it.

Typed Letter Signed to Sir Henry T[rueman]. Wood[, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts].

Author: 
Oliver Armstrong Fry [VANITY FAIR]
Publication details: 
30 January 1915; on letterhead 'MELBOURNE LODGE, | EAST MOLESEY, | SURREY.'
£33.00

Journalist (1855-1931), editor of Vanity Fair, 1889-1904. One page, quarto. Very good, if a little dusty. Docketed and bearing R.S.A. stamp. There is 'no apparent chance' of F. V. Brookes delivering his 'promised lecture' at the R.S.A. 'Of course I would be willing if necessary to read this paper for my old friend; but [...] I would very strongly urge that it would be better in every way to postpone this lecture for some time. Its subject is one that is peculiarly Mr. Brooks's own, and I think no one else would deal with it so well.' Signed 'Oliver A. Fry'.

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