AUTOGRAPH

Ten Autograph Letters Signed and a Signed secretarial Letter (eight signed 'Victor Meunier' and three 'V Meunier'), all in French, to individuals including Charles Nodier, Pierre-Simon Ballanche and (with Autograph Signed reply) Jean-Augustin Barral.

Author: 
Victor Meunier (1817-1903), French author and journalist; editor of 'Cosmos', the 'Revue Synthétique', and 'L’Ami des Sciences' [Charles Nodier; Pierre-Simon Ballanche; Jean-Augustin Barral]
Publication details: 
Five undated, the others between 1856 and 1876; from a number of addresses including the offices of 'L'ami des sciences', 'Cosmos' and the 'Revue Synthétique', Paris.
£350.00

The collection is in good condition, on lightly aged and slightly creased paper. Text of all items clear and entire. Letter One: to Jean-Augustin Barral (12 June 1862, from 33 Rue de Vaugirard, 8vo, 2 pp, 30 lines). He has received 'les premières feuilles de votre notice', and has been prevented from coming to London by 'un rhumatisme articulaire'. On the recto of the second leaf of the bifolium is Barrel's nine-line autograph reply, signed 'J. A. Barrel' and dated 'Londres 16 juin 1862'.

Autograph Note Signed (illegibly as usual) to "Mr Tuckwell" (prob. Rev. Tuckwell, see new DNB).

Author: 
Wilfrid Scawen Blunt.
Publication details: 
[Place illegible]6 Jan.1888.
£120.00

Traveller, poet, diarist, etc. Two pages, 8vo, good condition. "I fear I cannot allow you to reprint the story of Mr Balfour's conversation on any authority of mine. I trust the [worst?] by coercion is pretty well over now in Ireland, and as all here are in excellent heatr I feel far more hopeful than I have been for some time."

Autograph Note Signed.

Author: 
Beryl Bainbridge (b.1932), English novelist
Beryl Bainbridge.
Publication details: 
After 1975.
£28.00
Beryl Bainbridge.

On one side of a piece of paper, dimensions 19.5 x 21 cm. Lightly creased. Presumably in response to a request for an autograph. Reads 'Is there a life before Death? | (slogan chalked on wall in Northern Ireland, 1975) | Yours sincerely | [signed] Beryl Bainbridge.' Firm sprawling signature.

Telegram [from Pollock in German to his newspaper in S. Rhodesia] reporting on the Munich Agreement between Chamberlain and Hitler at Berchtesgaden.

Author: 
James Pollock, war correspondent [Adolf Hitler; Second World War; Rhodesia; Sudetenland; Munich Agreement]
Publication details: 
Stamped 'SALISBURY . S. RHODESIA | 28 SEP 38' [1938].
£56.00

On one side of an 8vo leaf. Worn and creased, but with text clear and entire. Printed in red ink, and headed 'POST OFFICE TELEGRAMS, S. RHODESIA.' Four strips of text, reading 'CHAMBERLAIN POINTS AT BERCHTESGADEN HITLER SAID THE SUDETENS MUST HAVE SELF DETERMINATION AND RETURN TO THE REICH IF THEY DESIRED AND THAT RATHER THAN WAIT HE WAS PREPARED TO RISK A WORLD WAR = END MESSAGE'. From the archive of James Pollock, accredited Correspondent of Argus South African Newspapers Ltd.

Autograph Letter Signed ('C. N. Allou') to unnamed male correspondent [perhaps the Abbe Moigno of "Cosmos")

Author: 
Charles-Nicolas Allou (1787-1843), engineer and author ['Ingénieur au Corps royal des mines (en 1821); inspecteur en chef des travaux souterrains du département de la Seine']
Publication details: 
30 August 1829; Paris.
£35.00

12mo, 1 p, 16 lines. In French. Very good. Cancelling an appointment, and sending 'l'article que vous m'avez demandé pour la Revue': 'vous êtes parfaitement libre de tailler, couper, et rogner'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('T. N. Talfourd.') to an unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd (1795-1854), English writer, judge and politician
Publication details: 
19 May 1834; 2 Elm Court, Temple.
£56.00

12mo, 2 pp. Good, on lightly aged paper, with traces of a paper stub neatly adhering to the blank bottom right-hand corner of the verso. Apologising for his 'long neglect of the subject of your last notice - the Mill Hill Medal. The truth is I am scarcely able to find strength and spirits for the work I have to do, and so am constantly involved in difficulties as to time like those to which extravagant people fall into as to money'. He hopes 'to be able to enjoy the pleasures of our anniversary dinner', although he does not feel he deserves them.

Autograph Letter, in the third person, to 'Mr Sharpe' [Richard 'Conversation' Sharp?].

Author: 
William Windham (1750-1810), English Whig politician [Richard 'Conversation' Sharp (1759-1835)]
Publication details: 
15 February 1804; Pall Mall.
£38.00

12mo, 2 pp. Good, on aged paper. A formal letter in the third person. Windham 'is almost ashamed' of sending Sharpe 'anything so trifling as what accompanies this note'. His justification for doing so is the 'wish of having his opinions stated with tolerable correctness on a subject to which Mr Sharpe, as a matter of some interest at the moment, may happen in some degree to have turned his thoughts.' Sharp's name was often misspelt by contemporaries, and he is listed in the index to the online Oxford DNB as 'also known as Sharpe, Richard'.

Autograph Signature.

Author: 
Olinthus Gilbert Gregory (1774–1841), English mathematician
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£23.00

Good firm signature on slip of paper roughly 2.5 x 10 cm. Laid down on slightly larger rectangle of grey paper cut down from leaf of autograph album. A little ruckled, otherwise very good.

ALS to S.(?) Jennings

Author: 
G.H. Laporte, painter
Publication details: 
01/05/65
£45.00

5pp., 8vo. He discusses some proofs of engravings he has sent, for which his correspondent has shown insufficient enthusiasm. He would like them back. He says he is prepared to "make Pictures of Animals from Photographs, in fact he has done so. He discusses colouring, oil or water colour. His main line is portrait-painting, he says, either in London or at "Gentlemen's seats", giving his rates.

Autograph Signatures.

Author: 
Walter Landauer (1910-1983), Austrian pianist; Maryan Rawicz (1898-1970), Polish pianist; a notable twentieth-century piano duo
Publication details: 
Time and place not stated.
£56.00

On a leaf from an autograph album, 11 x 17 cm. Good, on lightly aged paper. First line by Landauer. Reads 'With best wishes | [signed] Walter Landauer | [signed] Maryan Rawicz'.

Circular letter, printed in facsimile of Wellington's handwriting; dated, addressed, and with the gaps filled in in Wellington's hand to Robert Aberdein.

Author: 
Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852), 1st Duke of Wellington, Anglo-Irish soldier and politician, the vanquisher of Napoleon Bonaparte [Robert Henry Aberdein (died 1860), Coroner for East Devon]
Publication details: 
31 July 1851; London.
£80.00

12mo, 3 pp. Good. Folded twice and with the blank verso of the second leaf of the bifolium a little grubby. A formal letter in the third person, declining to present a petition to the House of Lords, on the grounds that 'The Duke has no relation whatever with [Honiton]'. The date, and the words 'Mr Aberdein', 'Honiton', ', which he retains' and 'Robert Aberdein Esq' are in Wellington's hand.

Autograph Letter Signed ('A R'), with red wax seal, to her servant 'Mrs. <Ballmigue?>'.

Author: 
Queen Adelaide [Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen] (1792-1849), queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, consort of King William IV (1765-1837)
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£125.00

12mo, 1 p. Slight damage and loss at head, affecting one line of text. The seal, with a clear impression of a crown above the letters 'A R'., in a rectangle roughly 1 x 1.5 cm, adheres to the reverse of the second leaf of the bifolium, which also carries the name of the recipient, and has been repaired with tape along one edge of the recto. The letter is of 15 lines, and consists of directions as to where to place guests. For example 'Miss Murden Maid of honours room. her maid next to her. Miss Mitchell Bedroom up Stairs, her maid in the Closet within her room.'

Photographic portrait by '<Vican?>', inscribed 'Al Carissimo Generale Carlo De Ambrosis, per ricordo grato ed affettuoso'.

Author: 
Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945), Italian composer
Publication details: 
Torino, 8 October 1938. XXI.' Signed in top left-hand corner '<Vican?> | XVIIe'.
£250.00

Printed on piece of thick paper 31.5 x 22.5 cm. Dimensions of image 24 x 18 cm. Removed from mount, and with glue adhering to reverse and in thin strip at head (not affecting image). Small closed tear in border at foot, just beneath Mascagni's dating of his note. Soft-focus black and white head and shoulders shot, showing a firm-jawed jowlly bow-tied Mascagni staring abstractedly to his right, with a medal in his buttonhole.

Autograph Letter Signed by Talbot ('C <?> Talbot') to Hawtrey on Gladstone's behalf.

Author: 
C. Talbot, senior clerk [William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898), Liberal Prime Minister; Edward Craven Hawtrey (1789-1862), Provost of Eton College]
Publication details: 
30 May 1854; Great George Street [Westminster].
£38.00

12mo, 2 pp, 20 lines. Bifolium with mourning border. Text clear and entire, on lightly aged paper with a few stains. He is enclosing 'Mr. Gladstone's answer on the subject of the inscriptions [not present]' which he asks to be returned to him. 'I had no opportunity of submitting it to him till Sunday last, and as you see I lose no time in passing on his answer to you [...] I drew his attention specially to the question of the two languages as you desired me to do'. Asks to be remembered to 'Miss Hawtrey'.

Photographic portrait by Letzer of Vienna, with Autograph Signature ('Raoul M. Aslan:') and quotation.

Author: 
Raoul Aslan [Raoul Maria Aslan-Zumpart] (1886-1958), Austro-German actor of Turkish extraction
Raoul
Publication details: 
Wien, Oktober 1923. -' [Photograph stamped at foot: 'Letzer | WIEN | VII. HOFSTALLSTR. 5.']
£120.00
Raoul

The sepia photograph, 10 x 7 cm, is a head and shoulders shot of Aslan staring at the viewer in the character of Hamlet holding Yorick's skull. It is neatly mounted on a leaf of cream paper (24 x 20 cm) removed from an album. The whole attractive and in good condition. In a firm, bold hand Aslan has written, across the page beneath the photograph: '"Zu was für schnöden Bestimmungen | wir doch kommen, Horatio"! - | (Hamlet) | Ein Erinnerung | [signed] Raoul M. Aslan: | Wien, Oktober 1923. -'

Autograph Letter Signed to Daniel George (Bunting), publisher's reader, editor and author, co-discoverer of Ian Fleming.

Author: 
Monk Gibbon.
Publication details: 
24 Sandycove Road, Sandycove, Co. Dublin, 26 May 1954.
£100.00

Poet. Two pages, 8vo, good condition. He gotr the impression from a letter George sent that he and another approved of Monk Gibbon's book. He quotes Flaubert on the idea that an author works hard but cannot expect profit "but to fail to see it even in print would stick in my gizzard." He asks for advice - does he know anybody at Heinemann (he knows someone). "Has Verschoyle money behind him?". He is finding delay and "subsequent disappointments too wearing. And with each one the typescript gets a little more woebegone".

Printed postcard, signed.

Author: 
Alfred Perceval Graves
Publication details: 
c.1901
£45.00

Irish Author (1846-1931). The postcard indicates his willingness to act as a steward at the Annual Dinner of the Incorporated Society of Authors, with his name in full , address, and a note questioning whetehr he can make it, all in Graves's hand. Small hole marginally affects handwritten text.

Autograph note signed to unknown correspondent (name inked out!).

Author: 
Aubrey de Vere.
Publication details: 
Athenaeum Club, 13 June (no year).
£45.00

Irish poet (1788-1846). Two pages, 12mo, good except for inked out correspondent. "I have only this moment received your note. I am so very sorry, but most unluckily I have a dinner engagment for Wednesday the 17. . . .[signature, etc.][PS] Meeting the Gladstones at your house would have been very like the old times. I am quite put out at the accident that prevents it."

Autograph Signature ('London=Derry:') on fragment of document.

Author: 
Robert Ridgeway, 4th Earl of Londonderry (d.1714), Irish aristocrat
Publication details: 
Docketed '1711' on reverse.
£56.00

On piece of paper roughly 1.5 x 7.5 cm. Closely cropped underlined signature 'London=Derry:'.

DRAFT Autograph letter, third person ("The Att[orney]. Gen[eral]. for Ireland")

Author: 
[ Hugh Law ]
Publication details: 
[House of Commons stamp], [June 1881?]
£105.00

See DNB. Two pages, 8vo, sl. stained and with remains of glue for laying down, text clear and complete as follows: "The Att. Gen. of Ireland desires to correct a passage in his answer to Mr J. McCarthys question No. 8[.] Omit 'some time after the Eviction Lord Annaly directed the dwelling h[ou]s[e] to be pulled down & the roof was after[war]ds burned off'- and insert instead - 'Lord Annalys agent states t[ha]t he hasno knowledge of Mrs [M Dermots?] home being [?] burned - and does not believe it was'- Note: The date "June 1881" has been aded in another hand and in pencil.

Autograph Letter Signed to "S. Scott".

Author: 
William B. MacCabe.
Publication details: 
29 Upper Belgrave Place, 28 Dec. 1846.
£45.00

Irish author and historian (1801-1891). 2pp., 8vo, good. He intended to deliver his book personally as an expression of his feelings of friendship and admiration for his correspondent. He recollects Scott’s “kindness to the family of poor Lemaitre . . .” and to himself. He asks Scott to accept the book which he has obviously sent instead.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Frank O. Salisbury') to 'Our most dear friends' [Mr and Mrs Holiday, perhaps Henry George Alexander Holiday?].

Author: 
Frank Salisbury [Frank Owen Salisbury; Frank O. Salisbury; Francis Owen Salisbury] (1874-1962), English artist [Henry George Alexander Holiday (1839-1927), painter and stained-glass artist?; cenotaph]
Publication details: 
1 December 1920; on letterhead of 62 Avenue Road, Regent's Park, London N.W.
£85.00

4to, 2 pp. Text clear and entire on lightly aged and creased paper. Explaining how disappointed he and his wife Maude were 'not to be able to get up to see the Windsor week end'. Salisbury was 'kept at home by people who wanted to see the Victoria Frescoes before they go to India'. He has been 'working on them night & day' as he received 'a cable message requesting four to be up in their positions for the Duke of Connaught's visit in January to the Memorial.

Part of an Autograph Letter Signed "Pelham F. Warner" to an unknown correspondent.

Author: 
Pelham Warner, cricketer and writer on cricket.
Publication details: 
No date or place.
£28.00

Piece cut from letter, c.3.5 x 2",, good condition. Surviving text as follows: "into something entirely to what he had lead [sic] me to expect, to take up which I would certainly not have left my land .......[excised] ....[overleaf] worrying you./ I am/ yrs tly/ Pelham F. Warner."

Four lines in autograph on his calling card as 'Depute, Sous-Secretaire d'Etat à la Justice'.

Author: 
Félix Jules Méline [Felix Jules Meline] (1838-1925), French Prime Minister, 1896-1898
Publication details: 
Undated.
£56.00

Card dimensions 6 x 10.5 cm. Good: lightly aged and with crease to top left-hand corner. Printed text reads 'Jules Méline, Deputé, Sous-Secrétaire d'Etat a la Justice. 84, Boulevard St. Garmain'. The autograph note, in French, is addressed to 'Mon cher ami', whom he addresses as 'tu'. He apologises for having neglected his correspondent's letter among his correspondence. 'Viens me voir à la chancellerie un matin; tu es sûre de me trouver mardi.' Thanks him for his 'bonnes félicitations'.

Autograph Letter Signed to an unnamed correspondent.

Author: 
Walter de la Mare, writer
Publication details: 
The old Park, Penn, Bucks, 15 Jan. 1941.
£100.00

Two pages, c. 7 x 5", good condition. He discusses his correspondent's request (via his publishers, Constable) to include five of his poems in an anthology. "One of these, 'Tartary', is taken from a collection entitled 'Songs of Childhood, which is published by Messrs Longman Green & Co." He asks him to write to them directly, and for the name of the publishers of the anthology. His fee is usually £3 gns. "Perhaps you will let me know what the published price of your anthology will be".

Document, in French, in a secretarial hand, signed by Méline ('J. Méline'), as Minister of Agriculture, to 'Monsieur Bailly, A.N. Président de la Société des Artistes Français | au Palais des Champs Elysées (porte 4).'

Author: 
Félix Jules Méline [Felix Jules Meline] (1838-1925), French Prime Minister, 1896-1898 [Antoine-Nicolas Louis Bailly (1810-1892), French architect]
Publication details: 
26 April 1884; Paris, on letterhead of the Ministry of Agriculture.
£75.00

8vo, 1 p. On aged paper, with wear and closed tears to extremities. Good, clear signature. Thanking Bailly for the 'cartes' and the 'lettres d'invitation' to the 'Salon de 1884'.

Letter in a secretarial hand, Signed by Méline ('J. Méline') as 'Président du Conseil' and 'Ministre de l'Agriculture', to 'Monsieur le Général Tournier | Secrétaire Général de la Présidence de la République'.

Author: 
Félix Jules Méline [Felix Jules Meline] (1838-1925), French Prime Minister, 1896-1898 [Tournier]
Publication details: 
13 February 1897; Paris, on letterhead of 'République Française | Présidence du Conseil | Cabinet du Président'.
£120.00

8vo, 1 p, 13 lines. Very good on lightly aged and creased paper. Docketed in red pencil in another hand. Lists the names of three couples, 'appartenant au cercle de mes relations', who would dearly like to receive 'invitations pour les fétes données au Palais de l'Elysee'. Méline would be 'vivement heureux' if Tournier could give 'satisfaction' to this desire. A good firm signature on a document written during Méline's term as French President.

Typed Note Signed to "E. Thomson".

Author: 
John Drinkwater, writer
Publication details: 
[Printed headed notepaper] 4 Ashburn Gardens, London, SW7, 26 Aug. 1922.
£35.00

One page, c.7 x 5", good condition. "Thank you for your letter. As to trhe hymn, I daresay it may have been a chance shot of mine although I have a notion that I did confirm it at the time. Herrick I assumed to have his poems circulating in manuscript for some time before the publication of 'Hesperides'."

Autograph Postcard Signed "Cecil" to Kenneth Bredon, Brighton bookseller.

Author: 
Cecil Day-Lewis, writer
Publication details: 
[Mrs C. Day-Lewis's headed card - "Mrs" excised]
£35.00

Good condition. "Dear Kenneth / Many thanks for your congratulations - greatly appreciated. I hope all goes well with you & send best wishes for 1968." Day-Lewis had recently been appointed Poet Laureate.

Typed Note Signed "C Day -Lewis" to John Crosby, R.D.I., Waipukurai, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand..

Author: 
Cecil Day-Lewis, writer
Publication details: 
[Chatto and Windus Ltd, publishers, headed notepaper], London, 8 Feb. 1968.
£30.00

One page, 8vo, good condition. "I have pleasure in sending you my autograph."

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