VICTORIAN

1p., 12mo. On aged paper, with spike hole and damage to one margin, affecting five words of text, but not the signature. He asks for the item he orders, 'Natural Hist of England', to be addressed on the parcel to 'Very Rev. Dr. Husenbeth | Care of Mr. Spratchett | St. John's | Madder Market | Norwich'.

1p., 12mo. A frail survival, creased and aged. Begins: 'The MANCHESTER TIMES has now been in the hands of the present Proprietor for twelve months, [Paulton had bought out Prentice in 1847] during which period its increase in circulation has been unprecedented. | At the commencement of the present year the Proprietor of the MANCHESTER TIMES announced that its circulation, during the previous half-year, had ranged from | 3,000 to 4,800. | He then expressed his strong conviction, that in SIX MONTHS from that time the maximum would become the average circulation.

ONE: Northcote's letter to Barnett. 7pp., 12mo. On two bifoliums, in a close hand. In good condition, in aged envelope, with red wax seal and two postmarks (one of Woodstock), addressed to 'Henry Barnett Esqre | Woodstock | Oxon.' At the time of writing Northcote was Gladstone's personal secretary at the Board of Trade. The letter begins: 'Coleridge has left town for Sessions, and will not I fear return for some time. This will account for your letter of the 1st. remaining so long unanswered. I am sure we are much indebted to you for your suggestions, by which I doubt not we shall profit.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, on aged paper, in aged franked envelope ('J. Cowell') addressed to 'The Right Reverend The Lord Bishop of St. Helena.' Reads: 'My Lord - | I am desired by His Royal Highness, Prince Alfred, to forward you the accompanying portrait of himself. | Believe me | My Lord | Yours faithfully. | J. C. Cowell'.

On 4 x 11.5 cm piece of paper cut from letter. In fair condition, lightly aged and a little creased. Reads: 'purposes. | Yours very truly | John Francis Maguire'. On reverse: '[...] printer can easily understand my marking. Buf if you have any difficulty [...]'

75pp., 12mo. Internally in good condition, on lightly aged paper with 1860 watermark, and some leaves torn out. In worn red leather half-binding, marbled boards, with damage and loss to spine and front free endpaper torn away. The illustrations cover 19pp in the middle of the volume. Those on 15pp are in black ink, with the rest in pencil, one of them coloured. The butt of many of the jokes is music teacher 'Mr [Jack] Hardie'.

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly-aged and spotted, with minor traces of glue from mount on reverse. Reads: 'With the Compliments of the Season to all | from | Thomas Faed | 25 Der. 1881'. For information on Faed, see his entry in the Oxford DNB.

1p., 12mo. Nicely printed on one side of a piece of laid watermarked paper. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, with slight loss to one corner caused by removal from an album. Sixteen-line poem in four four-line stanzas. Signed in type at foot 'TOM FAED.' The poem is a lament by the betrothed of a sailor drowned in the Firth of Forth. The first stanza reads: 'Oh wae is me!

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly-aged, and laid down on a piece of card. Reads: 'July 26 | My dear Faed, | Would you mind seconding me at the Athenaeum? I believe Tom Hughes has put down my name. | Yours faithfully | William Black.' According to Black's entry in the Oxford DNB, he 'studied landscape painting for a short time in the Glasgow School of Art, but, becoming connected with the Glasgow Citizen, gradually exchanged art for journalism'.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly-aged, with small piece of mount adhering at head. Accepting an invitation to dinner.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly-aged, with small part of paper mount adhering at head. Accepting a dinner invitation on 20 November.

Good firm signature, written diagonally across a 9 x 12 cm piece of grey card, the reverse of a printed advertisement for the American & Colonial Exchange, 8, The Haymarket, London, S.W. In good condition, lightly-aged, with minor traces of glue from mount on the printed side of the card.

2pp., 16mo. In fair condition, lightly-aged, with trimmed margins and slight damage at head from removal from album. He asks her to accept a 'Copy of Titian's "Ascension of the Virgin". You seemed to like it and it may fill a corner in your Boudoir.' He apologises if the frame is 'not as it should be but some might prefer he quaint old pattern to a more modern one.' From the papers of Faed's nephew John Francis Faed, son of the Royal Academician Thomas Faed (1826-1900), and so probably addressed to a family member.

3pp., 4to. Bifolium. In good condition, on aged and lightly-worn paper, with a few minor rust stains. Addressed on reverse of second leaf to the Secretary of the Commission of the Peace. In the hand of a secretary, and signed by Lansdowne. Addressed by Lansdowne on reverse of second leaf 'Sec[retar]y. of Commission'. Docketed: 'Decber. 20th 1861 | Wilts | Ld. Lansdowne recd several | <?> all but the 2 parsons'.

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly-aged. 'I shipped on yesterday to you through Mr J. D. Brink Jr Forwarding Merchant of this city a box containing 4 Oil Pictures which I wish you to expose for sale at your Exhibition Rooms. | The titles and prices of the same will be given you by my friend Mr G. du Mourier. Please let me know when they come to hand.' The Berner's Street Gallery's association with American artists would continue: in the following decade it would gain notoriety for exhibiting Whistler's 'Symphony in White, No. 1'.

The two items each 4pp., 4to, and bifoliums. Both on the same grey paper. ONE: 10 August 1854. Signed 'J G MacWalter' and addressed to 'My Lord Archbishop'. He hopes that the Archbishop's 'health is quite restored and that the petty war waged against you will have no ill effect upon it. I received a long abusive letter on the subject which I boldly refused to insert.

4pp., 12mo. On aged and lightly-creased paper. Originally a bifolium, but with the two leaves separated, and evidence of previous stitching into a binding. Regarding his new book 'Cruel London', he asks him if he can send six copies of what is not only 'a kindly notice, but excellently well written. All the more gratifying. The Spectator is always my enemy just as the Saturday was Thackerays, to compare a big man with a small one.' He refers to a notice in the Sunday Times by Joseph Knight, who 'also sent me a charming letter of congratulation'.

A short-lived periodical, of interest as a forerunner of the ISBN system: the Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature states that it ran from September 1895 to August 1898, and gives Armistead Cay as joint-editor. The eight numbers are as follows: Vol. 1 No. 2 (March 1896); Vol. 1 No. 7 (August 1896); Vol. 1 No. 8 (September 1896); Vol. 1 No. 9 (October 1896); Vol. 1 No. 11 (December 1896); Vol.1 No. 12 (January 1897); Vol. 2 No. 4 (May 1897); Vol. 2 No. 9 (October 1897). The eight 8vo pamphlets are stapled into printed wraps, and are uniform in design.

Printed in a single column on one side of a piece of 64 x 15 cm piece of paper. Aged and worn, with a couple of holes at head causing loss to eight lines of text. Full heading in manuscript: 'On occasion of the reading of a paper on "the Imperial Institute & its advantages to India" by General Sir Orfeur Cavenagh K.C.S.I. before the East India Association. Sir Richard Temple in the chair'.

On 5.5 x 18.5 cm strip of paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Good firm signature. Reads: 'Yrs: very faithfully | R. Jenkyns. | Balliol College | Jan: 28. 1835.' Annotated at foot in a nineteenth-century hand: 'Master | and also 1845 Dean of Wells'. Reverse reads: '[...] & hasten to inform you thhat although the Term began on Saturday last the 24th: Inst:, yet if the state of your Son's health should render it desirable for him to remain [...]'.

2pp., 12mo. On leaf with mourning border. He thanks him for his letters, and expresses disappointment that he 'could not come to the Cricket Match', which was 'not finished, but decided in favour of Knebworth according to the score of the first Innings'. He asks him to obtain 'estimates for lightening [sic] conductors to each of the 8 turrets at Knebworth'. He fears that 'these copper domes are themselves lightening conductors which are now cut offf from all communcation with the earth'.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly-aged. He writes that he has had 'a very fine p' sent to him, and asks if Pearson might accept it. 'If you dont care about it yourself you may have friends here to whom you might like to give it. Only, unluckily, I must have back the top'. He ends with a complaint regarding a 'Bronchial cough'.

Printed in two columns on one side of a 45 x 28 cm piece of wove paper. Text complete, on aged and creased paper with wear to extremities. Docketed on reverse in a contemporary hand, and with four minor manuscript emendations. The heading reads: 'PLYMOUTH | TOWN COUNCIL. | The following spirited and luminous Lettere on the management of the Municipal Affairs of this Town having appeared in the Conservative Paper of Wednesday last, several of the Burgesses have it re-printed for the general information of the Rate-Payers: -'.

49pp. In 4to notebook with red cloth spine and black cloth boards. Internally in good condition, lightly aged, in aged and worn covers. An alphabetical list, with entries covering two facing pages, divided into three columns: 'Name of Book', 'Description' and 'How disposed of'. Almost all the entries in the last column are 'H[enr]y Hall', but one item is recorded as being 'Sent to Julia Hall'. The serious library of an educated Englishman, with almost no fiction present. Nearly all the books date from the period 1770-1900, although 'Gloucestershire Visitation of 1623' is also present.

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium, addressed, with postmarks, on reverse of second leaf, to 'Messrs. Wilson | Linen Drapers | New Bond Street', and also docketed '1838 | Dealtry Miss A'. In frail condition, with the two leaves separated and closed tears and wear. Sewn with white thread onto the second leaf of the letter is a swatch of cloth - dark blue with white and red stripes - in a loop of circa 20 x 1.5 cm. The text reads: 'Miss A Dealtry wishes Mr.

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In acceptable condition, aged and somewhat grubby. He thanks him for sending his article in the 'Musical Gazette', and comments that it is 'certainly curious about the Purcell Catch & the coincidence of the four notes, but it is difficult to say whether it was done purposely or by accident'.

On one side of 7 x 11 cm piece of paper, cut from the end of a letter. In good condition, lightly aged. Reads: 'It would be very good of you to append this short notice of a deserving measure. | Please forgive me trespassing on yr. time & good nature and believe me | Faithfully your's | Walter S Sichel'. For more information about Sichel, see his entry in Who Was Who.

A good, firm signature on the reverse of an 8vo endpaper removed from a book. In good condition, lightly-aged. Reads simply: 'Marie Corelli'.

6pp., 12mo. Bifolium and single leaf. On aged and worn paper, with 4 cm closed tear to all three leaves. A highly interesting letter, illuminating Victorian Fleet Street and City of London practices. The author's signature is frustratingly illegible, but may well be that of sports journalist Charles William Alcock (1842-1907). The recipient is possibly James Clarke (d.1888), editor of The Christian World. The author opens the letter with the 'conclusions' he has arrived at regarding the 'various schemes' which he 'maturely reflected upon' in a discussion with Clarke the previous week.

6 + [1] pp., folio. On two bifoliums stitched together with black thread. Laid out in the customary legal style, with embossed tax stamp. Unsigned. The agreement is 'Between The Reverend Henry Highton of the Cedars, Putney, in the County of Surrey, Clerk, (hereinafter referred to as 'the Patentee') of the one part and William Henry Allcard of New Burlington Street in the County of Middlesex, Esquire, and George Frederick Smith of Golden Square in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, of the other part'.