AUTOGRAPH

On one side of 31 x 21 cm. A frail survival, worn, aged and with closed tears, with the backing damaged and stained. Text clear and entire in Greek key border. Blind stamp of Cardinal Zurla at bottom left. Signed by 'J. Patr. Constantinop. Vicesgs.' and by the scribe who completed the printed document in manuscript. Somewhat crudely printed, with Zurla's arms at the head. Headed: 'D. PLACIDUS ORDINIS S. BENEDICTI / CONGREGATIONIS CAMALDULENSIS / TITULI S. CRUCIS IN JERUSALEM S. R. E.

Scott was the author of books on subjects as diverse as the bluestockings and metaphysical poets. He produced two works on Joan of Arc: first, in 1956, the Folio Society published his edition of ‘The trial of Joan of Arc, being the verbatim report of the proceedings from the Orleans Manuscript’; then, in 1974, appeared his biography ‘Jeanne d’Arc’, published by Harrap. With regard to the present material, Items One to Five are all typed, and Item Seven contains exclusively-autograph material.

An interesting document, neatly laid out in black with red underlining on both sides of 29 x 42 cm leaf. Painted in black lengthwise near one edge is ‘Winchelsea / 1805’, and 1805 would be a good year for the document’s composition, with Britain fighting the Napoleonic Wars and in the midst of invasion fears around the time of the Battle of Trafalgar. 2pp, large folio. On thick laid paper watermarked either ‘VI’ or ‘IV’ (depending on which side you look from). In fair condition, on aged and worn paper, with closed tears and one nick (not affecting text) along central horizontal fold.

Album page.. 22.5 x 18, sl. mottled, and Neilson's contribution sl. faded. Neilson writes in an expansive handwriting, And I am Nell - Nell of Old Drury | Julia Neilson. Ellen Terry writes below, And I am Nell! Nell of the old Lyceum! - and sister-in-law of Julia Neilson - the good & beautiful. | Ellen Terry [underlined] = Southport = 19-April - 1904 =. Note: Neilson starred in 'Sweet Nell of Old Drury' by Paul Kester but I have yet to find out which Nell Ellen Terry played unless, as seems likely, she's making a play on her own name. SEE IMAGE.

Two pages, 12mo, bifolium, good condition. Your letter has just been forwarded to me. I am afraid I cannot assist you in yur wish to be selected as the new Chief Officer of the Fire Brigade, as I have already promised to do all I can in the same direction for another naval officer. | I do hope a naval man will succeed in getting the appointment, and that he will do credit to it. Note: The Google list of Chief Officers comprises several naval appointments.

Three Pages, 12mo, bifolium, good condition. Dear Mr. a Beckett | I haved sent the circulars you forwarded to me to the under-mentioned Naval Officers, and hope some of them (they all reside in and about London) will respond[.] | Believe me | Yrs v. truly A| [squiggle] Markham. He begins his list of thirty (30) names of Admirals, Vice Admirals, Rear Admirals, Captains. creating separate lists of Active and Retired officers. SEE IMAGES of all three pages. Note: a.

Three pages, 12mo, bifolium, good condition. Docketed top left corner (see Image of first page). As the Artist & Printer are coming to see me here [underlined] on Monday forenoon next, with reference to tthe poster depicting a line of battle ships &c, will you kindly send me 'Nelson's' signal [England Expects] (which I sent to my Hartley) so as to be here at the same time? I received your letter last night, and at once wrote off to Admiral Fremantle, but he would only receive my letter this morning. I see his [underlined] is in today's Times.

Letter One: [No envelope; undated] One page, 8vo, good condition. Text: Forgive me for not having written before to thank you for your very kind letter, but I have had something like five hundred letters & telegrams of congratulation & they have been a job to deal with. It was very kind of you to write. I am just off to England to receive the insignia. [Maugham was made a Companion of Honour in 1954 if that indicates the date of the letter(?)]; Letter Two: Postmark 24 Oct. 1934 and dated Oct. 34 (though the '3' looks like a '2'), Two pages, 8vo, good condition.

Signature on paper, 13.5 x 7cm, good condition. See Scan.

Postcard, 13.5 x 8.5cm, good conditiuon. Text: You asked me to let you know when any English writers are here - Anthony Powell & his wife are at the Hotel d'Angleterre, [word not deciphered] Jacob. | I'm too busy with my party etc to organize anything at the moment, but I'm sure you would enjoy a chat with him & so would he. If not [word undeciphered] do ring him up [de ma part?]. See you I hope on Wednesday & Madame Antonini - it will be the world & his wife!

Paper, 12 x 7cm, some faint staining, but writing clear. See Image.

One page, 12mo, fold mark, good condition. Text in Lowell's hand: 22 April, 1882 | Faithfully yours | J.R. Lowell. Docketed with pencilled note at base with biographical details. See Image.

See his entry in Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed. The four items are in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Each letter signed ‘Gotthard Lechler’. A total of 200 lines of closely-written text, on 11pp, 8vo, and on three bifoliums and a single leaf. ONE (20 May 1882): Addressed to ‘Lieber Freund!’ 3pp, 8vo. 44 lines. 3pp, 8vo. TWO (14 November 1882): Addressed to ‘Verehrter Freund!’ 2pp, 8vo. 42 lines. THREE (23 July 1883): Addressed to ‘Verehrter, geliebter Freund!’ 4pp, 8vo. 83 lines. FOUR (14 August 1883): ‘Lieber und verehter Freund!’ 2pp, 8vo. 31 lines. See scans of sample letter.

A good letter, not the least of whose interest lies in the fact that it provides first-hand information about the Duke of Wellington. See Martin’s entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Begins: ‘Dear Mrs. Thomas, / Your variant of the King Lear story will, I am sure, delight Mr. Furness. Unfortunately King Lear has already been dealt with by him. It forms one volume of his magnificent Edition. But he loves every thing that concerns old England.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Both items are in good condition, and each folded once. The second carries the merest trace of grey paper from a mount at one corner. ONE: To E. B. Nicholson, 3 November 1881. 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of bifolium. Nicholson’s letter has been forwarded to him ‘here in my country house, where I am for a few days’. It is out of his power ‘to promise any assistance to your proposed Magazine.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Both items are in good condition, and each folded once. The second carries the merest trace of grey paper from a mount at one corner. ONE: To E. B. Nicholson, 3 November 1881. 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of bifolium. Nicholson’s letter has been forwarded to him ‘here in my country house, where I am for a few days’. It is out of his power ‘to promise any assistance to your proposed Magazine.

Accomplished and attractive bookplates, in an impressive range of styles from modernist to traditional (several with mystical or masonic overtones), produced using various printing processes. The bookplates range in size from 6.5 x 7 cm (Herrmann’s own) to 11.5 x 17.5 cm. Each is dated with Herrmann’s tiny monogram design, adapted to suit its style of composition. The eighteen items are in very good condition, each laid down on a 16 x 25 cm piece of textured grey card.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, which states: ‘After the death of his first wife he married second, on 24 June 1933, Caroline Maud Abadie (1863–1948), the widow of General Sir Henry Richard Abadie; she was the daughter of Colonel Fanshawe Gostling, of the Royal Berkshire regiment.’ In addition to the two letters apiece from Sir Reginald and Lady Tupper, the material includes, as Item Five, a leaf carrying a 26-line postscript from Lady Tupper to a lost letter. All but Item Five below are on uniform 12mo leaves of grey paper.

A large, attractive printed certificate, somewhat in the style of an early Victorian public notice, with heavily leaded font. Printed in black on one side of a 32 x 41 cm piece of cream vellum paper. Discoloured and ruckled from having been rolled up, but in good overall condition, and highly suitable (once flattened out) for framing. At bottom left, signatures of six ‘Commissioners, and Members of the Board’, one above the other: ‘Adolphus Fieldmarshal / W. H. Clinton / Thomas Bradford A Gnl / J Gardiner DAG / G Scovell Govr. M. Genl. / T W Taylor Col: Lt Governor’.

Rare: The BL has a copy (not annotated) and there's a copy on JISC at Reading, with the entry stating that consists of 104pp, rather than the 231pp of the present copy. See Elton’s entry in the Oxford DNB. He first served as a Conservative MP for Somerset in 1884-5, and the present item was composed during his second term, 1886-92. No title-leaf: drop-head title. At foot of first page: ‘A 55729. 30.?1/89. Wt. 6590,’. Introductory section credited on p.30 to 'Charles Elton. / B. F. C. Costelloe, / Assistant Commissioner.' Folio, 231pp.

One page, 12mo, fold marks, good condition. Dear Baroness | I will send the picture as you dsire & shall be ready to finish Miss de Rothschild when convenient to her to sit.Note: a. A particularly significant portrait was of the 23 year old Hannah de Rothschild painted in 1874, four years before her marriage to Lord Rosebery. The small portrait (it was only 10×12) gave Lord Rosebery such pleasure that, after Hannah’s early death in 1890, he told Watts that he carried it wherever he moved as he could not bear to be parted from it; b.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. ONE: Autograph draft of conclusion of description of his meeting with Mehmet Ali (‘Mehemet Ali’). The ODNB states that in July 1836 Cobden produced a pamphlet ‘which analysed the Russo-Turkish dispute [...] attempting to play down the Turcophilia that was rife in Britain in the 1830s.

An interesting and informative item in postal history, which in 1956 received the endorsement of being exhibited at the Pall Mall headquarters of the Society of Postal Historians (see below). Manuscript title-page reads: ‘The Posts in Norfolk. / Related under the headings of the respective Towns and Villages. / With various Post Town Lists, Introductory Notes, and Illustrated with Letters, Covers, Stamps, Postmarks, Cuttings, and other Postal Material. / Compiled and Arranged by / A. E. Strout / South Cave. E. Yks.’ 173pp, 4to.

Fowler’s entry in the DNB states that he resigned his tutorship in 1910, when he ‘retired to Kingham, where, since 1873, he had enjoyed a country home and entertained his pupils. From 1899 he lived there with his sister Alice’. On both sides of what was an 8vo leaf, the lower part of which has been torn away, leaving a piece roughly 20 cm square, with 26 typed lines and the autograph valediction, in a large bold hand, ‘Yours sincerely / W. Warde Fowler’. Aged and worn, but with the remaining text clear. A nice letter, combining Fowler’s main interests.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, together with A. N. L. Munby’s entertaining ‘The Cult of the Autograph Letter in England’ (1962). 1p, 4to. No fold. In good condition, on lightly aged paper extracted from a notebook. Signed at foot: ‘William Upcott / a collector and preserver of Autographs. / London Institution / Finsbury Circus. / January 17. 1834’. The four memoranda are neatly written out over fifteen lines in Upcott’s distinctive hand.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, together with A. N. L. Munby’s entertaining ‘The Cult of the Autograph Letter in England’ (1962). 1p, 4to. No fold. In good condition, on lightly aged paper extracted from a notebook. Signed at foot: ‘William Upcott / London Institution, / Finsbury Circus. Jan. 18. 1834.' Very neatly written out in Upcott’s best hand, which is more like type (including the signature) than the document offered separately, on the same watermarked paper.

Something akin to a CV in a neat contemporary hand (perhaps Ord’s own, in pursuit of preferment or a pension?). A useful summary of Ord’s career features in ‘Commissary Wilson’s Orderly Book. Expedition of the British and Provincial Army, under Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Amherst, against Ticonderoga and Crown Point. 1759.’ (New York, 1857): ‘THOMAS ORD was appointed Captain in the Royal Artillery on 1st March, 1746. He was an excellent Officer, and stood high in the Duke of Cumberland’s esteem, by whom he was selected to Command the Artillery in Braddock’s Expedition.

One of the great figures in British history. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Good neat signature 'W E Gladstone' on 7 x 2.5 cm slip of card. In good condition, lightly aged. See Image.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 4to. Bifolium. Fifty-eight lines of text. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded three times. Minor traces of grey-paper mount adhering to the blank reverse of the second leaf. Addressed to ‘George Anderson Esq / M.P. / House of Commons’, and signed ‘W. G. Dickson’. Two annotations in a contemporary hand, one beneath the signature. The first paragraph reads: ‘My dear Sir / I have to thank you for the copy of your bill “to extend the jurisdiction of Sheriff Courts in Scotland,” which I received this morning.

See Terry’s entry in the Oxford DNB. At the time of writing Dr. W. J. Phillips was the organist at St Barnabas, Pimlico; he was unsuccessful in the present application, but was subsequently organist of the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court. See his entry in Humphreys and Evans, ‘Dictionary of Composers for the Church in Great Britain and Ireland’ (1997). These two items are uniform on a total of three leaves of light paper. Both discoloured and worn, and folded three times. ONE: ALS from Terry to Phillips. 1p, 4to. He is ‘most pleased to have opportunity of supporting’ Phillips’s application.