ENGLISH

[Thomas Denman, 1st Baron Denman, English judge.] Autograph Note Signed ('Tho Denman') giving instructions to his wine merchants.

Author: 
Thomas Denman, 1st Baron Denman [Lord Denman] (1779-1854), English judge, Lord Chief Justice of England, 1832-1850
Publication details: 
50 Russell Square, London. 17 March 1831.
£35.00

1p., 12mo. Good, on aged paper, with traces of grey paper mount adhering to the reverse. Reads: 'Gentlemen | I shall be much obliged by your forwarding the wine to me immediately with an account of your expences - | Your obedt servt | Tho Denman | 50 Russell Square | March 17. 1831'.

[Mary Anne Stirling, actress.] Autograph Note in the third person, thanking the music publisher Christopher Lonsdale of Old Bond Street 'for his great kindness - not only now but always shewn to her by him'.

Author: 
Mary Anne [Fanny] Stirling [née Hehl] [Mrs Stirling] (1813-1895), English actress [Christopher Lonsdale, music publisher, Old Bond Street, London]
Publication details: 
Docketed with date 31 May 1869.
£30.00

2pp., 12mo. In envelope addressed by Stirling to 'C Lonsdale Esqre. | Bond Street'. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. 'Mrs. Stirling does not know how to thank Mr. Londsdale for his great kindness - not only now but always shewn to her by him. Mrs. Stirling remembers that she has the full store of the Midsummer Nights' [sic] Dream belonging to Mr. Lonsdale but she is warned by Mr. Lonsdale's Messenger that she must not now stop to thank Mr. Lonsdale fully, as she would wish.'

[R. Latta, philosopher] Autograph Note Signed "R. Latta", philosopher, to unnamed correspondent [Maurice Bonham-Carter, Liberal politician etc.]

Author: 
R. Latta, philosopher [Robert Latta] (1865-1932), philosopher
Publication details: 
[Stamp] The College, Glasgow, 30 Sept. 1904.
£56.00

One page, 12mo, bifolium, good condition. "Edinburgh University Free Trade Union | I am much obliged to you and your Committee for your kind invitation to the platform on the occasion of Lord Hugh Cecil's address. I greatly regret that I am unable to be present, as I have promised to address one of the Edinburgh University Societies on the evening of October 21st. | With best wishes for the success of the meeting [...]"

[Ernest Walker, musicologist and composer.] Autograph Letter Signed, written while assistant organist at Balliol College, Oxford, advising 'Miss White' [Maude Valérie White?] on her musical compositions.

Author: 
Ernest Walker (1870-1949), English musicologist and composer, born in India, Assistant Organist at Balliol College, Oxford, 1891-1901 [to 'Miss White' [Maude Valérie White (1855-1937), composer]
Publication details: 
15 Ship Street, Oxford. 18 November 1898.
£120.00

4pp., 12mo. 65 lines of text. Bifolium. In fair condition: on aged paper with one dogeared corner. He begins by apologising for not returning her manuscript sooner: 'what with my Doctorate exam: and other things, I have been specially busy'. Having been 'completely through the MSS' he lists those he likes best: 'the Rhapsodies (especially No. 1 - also No. 5 and No. 3 - especially the opening subject of No. 5).

[E. J. Sullivan, English book illustrator.] Page of pencil sketches of girls dancing, captioned 'The poppy', 'Sheperdess' and 'Mamma's [sic] little Alabama Coon'.

Author: 
E. J. Sullivan [Edmund Joseph Sullivan] (1869-1933), English book illustrator
Publication details: 
Without place or date. [Circa 1894?]
£160.00

1p., 4to (22.5 x 18cm). On laid paper. In fair condition, aged and with slight chipping. The sketches are crude but attractive, headed with a line of three girls in black stockings and petticoats shaking a leg, with the phrase 'The poppy' in the top left-hand corner, and a line of girls at the foot, with an oriental male figure with cane in the background, captioned 'Mamma's Alabama Coon'. Two sketches of the 'Shepherdess' at bottom right, with usual broad-brimmed hat and crook. Hattie Starr's 'Little Alabama Coon' took London by storm in 1894.

Autograph Letter Signed to Sylvia Lynd, poet and novelist.

Author: 
Jane Wells [born Amy Catherine Robbins] (1872-1927), wife of H. G. Wells.
Publication details: 
4 Whitehall Court, London; 'Tuesday' [1924].
£150.00

ALS, on letterhead of 4 Whitehall Court, London; 'Tuesday' [1924], in envelope, 2pp., 8vo. 'You know all sorts of useful things - can you tell me of any way of getting in touch with Mary Ansell - Mary Barrie - Mary Cannan - Mary? here my knowledge stops. [...] Are you "sitting under" Bernard Shaw evening after evening - as I believe is said of preachers? I am going to begin my course on Friday.'

Manuscript Interrogatories in a law suit over Colonel Nicholas Shuttleworth's alleged abuse of Richard Greene, with claims that he has beaten him, cheated his estate and taken his wife as mistress. With transcript and letter by William Beamont.

Author: 
William Beamont (c.1797-1889) of Orford Hall, antiquary and first Mayor of Warrington [Sir Nicholas Shuttleworth; Richard Greene [Grene]; Richard Green of St Martin's in the Fields]
Publication details: 
1653. Beamont's letter and transcript both 15 March 1878, the letter on letterhead of Orford Hall, Warrington.
£150.00

1p., 4to. On a piece of watermarked laid paper. Aged, and with chipping and loss along the fold lines, which have been repaired on the reverse with (nineteenth-century?) tape. The words 'Cromwells Protector' in a later hand at the head of the reverse, which is otherwise blank. Accompanied by a autograph transcript (3pp., foolscap 8vo) by Beamont, 'Copied from the original Mar. 15, 1878', and an Autograph Letter (2pp., 12mo) from him to 'Miss Blackburne', on letterhead of Orford Hall, Warrington, also dated 15 March 1878. Beamont begins his letter: 'I return your paper with a transcript.

Autograph Note Signed ('Charles Fox')[ from the civil engineer and designer of the Crystal Palace] Sir Charles Fox to Edward Walford, regarding the proof of his entry in biograpahical dictionary.

Author: 
Sir Charles Fox (1810-1874), English civil engineer on railways and London's Crystal Palace [Edward Walford (1823-1897), journalist and biographer]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 8 New Street, Spring Gardens, London. 15 May 1867.
£120.00

1p., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with minor traces of glue from mount on blank reverse. He informs Walford that he is returning 'the notes of my career having made some slight alterations'. He suggests that it would be 'well for me to compare the proof with the drafts'.

Holograph Poem by the Congregational minister Richard Winter Hamilton, beginning 'Dear Sister, Christian Heroine!'

Author: 
Richard Winter Hamilton (1794-1848), Congregational minister of Albion and Belgrave Chapels, Leeds
Publication details: 
Leeds. 20 November 1827.
£120.00

1p., 4to. In good condition, on a lightly aged and worn leaf removed from an album. The poem is twenty lines long, arranged in five four-line stanzas. The first stanza reads 'Dear Sister, Christian Heroine! | Stranger to me thy form & voice - | I venerate that zeal of thine, | And while I blush, for thee rejoice'. The second stanza is somewhat heretical: 'Nor Male nor Female is in Him | Who Born of Woman, both hath sav'd: | She conquers every terror grim, - | She thousand deaths for Him has brav'd!' The third stanza begins: '"A woman slew him:" Gideon'ss son'.

Autograph Letter Signed from the English poet Eliza Cook, sending what she describes as a 'specimen' of her 'pothooks' and hangers': a holograph poem titled 'Impromptu on being told the death of my Mother would leave a scar on my heart'.

Author: 
Eliza Cook (1818-1889), English poet and Chartist, close friend of the American actress Charlotte Cushman
Cook
Publication details: 
9 Gloucester Buildings, Old Kent Road [London]. 11 December 1845.
£100.00
Cook

2pp., 4to. Bifolium. In very good condition, on lightly-aged paper, with minor evidence of previous mounting. Apparently addressing an autograph hunter, she writes: 'I beg to forward you a specimen of my "pothooks and hangers" trusting you will "admire" if you honestly can. Believe I have pleasure in gratifying your request and am with truth my dear | Ever yours faithfully | Eliza Cook'. The poem, also signed 'Eliza Cook', is four lines long, beginning 'That stroke indeed would deeply gash'. There is no indication that the poem was published.

Autographh Letter Signed from the illustrator Will Owen, thanking T. Hellier Denselow for saying 'nice things' about his work, which he himself likes 'occasionally - not often'.

Author: 
Will Owen (1869-1957), English book illustrator and poster artist [T. Hellier Denselow]
Publication details: 
4 Richmond Avenue, Richmond, Surrey. 7 July 1901.
£38.00

1p., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The letter is addressed to 'T. Hellier Denselow Esq.', but the accompanying envelope (with stamp and postmark) is addressed by him to 'D. [sic] Hellier Denselow Esqre | 137 Hurlingham Road | London S.W.' Owen thanks Denselow 'for all the nice things in your letter', adding that he is 'glad you like the sketches. I do myself occasionally - not often.' Denselow would himself appear to have been a commercial artist, with a studio in Gunnersbury Lane in west London.

Autograph manuscript of the poem 'To Helena on her Birth day' by the English author Thomas Haynes Bayly, addressed to his wife, and apparently unpublished.

Author: 
Thomas Haynes Bayly (1797-1839), English poet, after Thomas Moore the most popular songwriter of his period in England
Publication details: 
Without place. [1830]
£120.00

1p., 4to. On laid paper watermarked 'G & R TURNER | 1829'. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. Docketed on the reverse 'Bayley [sic] | 1830' and 'By Thomas Haynes Bayly, Poet | Author of "I'd be a butterfly etc etc'. The poem is sixteen lines long, and begins: 'My own Love! my true Love! here's health & joy to you Love, | A happy year without a tear & sweet smiles not a few Love! | Of all my anniversaries, I prize your Birth day best.

Holograph Poem by the English poet Sir William Watson, titled 'To the Lady Katharine Manners | (with a volume of the author's poems)'.

Author: 
Sir William Watson (1858-1935), English poet
Publication details: 
Dated 'William Watson | Windermere | Aug 1897'.
£100.00

2pp., 8vo. Neatly written out on two leaves of laid paper with watermark of Caxton Superfine Vellum. In very good condition, on lightly-aged paper. The poem consists of twenty-eight lines arranged in seven four-line stanzas, the first reading: 'On lake and fell the loud rains beat, | And August closes rough and rude.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Arthur Helps') from the Dean of the Privy Council Sir Arthur Helps to Sir Theodore Martin, praising an article by him on Baron Stockmar.

Author: 
Sir Arthur Helps (1813-1875), English author and Dean of the Privy Council [Sir Theodore Martin (1816-1909), Scottish lawyer and author; Christian Friedrich (1787-1863), Baron Stockmar]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Privy Council Office. 19 September 1872.
£56.00

6pp., 12mo. In very good condition, adhering to leaves removed from an album. Helps begins: 'My dear Martin, | This is one of the things you excel in - the giving, in a comparatively short memoir, the real aim and end of a life: so that after reading your "In memoriam", one does not care to hear any more details.' Helps 'really cannot find any fault' in Martin's piece. 'H[er]. M[ajesty] [i.e. Queen Victoria] must, I think, be exceedingly pleased with the book - I mean your work.

Two Autograph Letters Signed (both 'Reg: F. Wells') from the English sculptor and potter Reginald F. Wells to 'Miss Bellis', regarding her purchase of two bronzes, and the art dealer E. J. Van Wisselingh.

Author: 
Reginald Fairfax Wells [Reginald F. Wells] (1877-1951), English sculptor and potter [Miss Bellis; Elbert Jan Van Wisselingh, Dutch art dealer with premises in London]
Publication details: 
Both from Trosley, West Malling, Kent. 22 and 25 December 1902.
£90.00

Both items in excellent condition, on lightly-aged paper. Letter One (22 December 1902): Addressed to 'Dear Sir'. He has asked Van Wisselingh 'to send the bronzes as I have none here', and he is waiting for a reply: 'if the bronzes have not arrived please wire and you shall have them before Xmas.' Letter Two (25 December 1902): He hopes that his mistake in addressing her as 'Sir' has 'amused and not annoyed you'. He has just had a reply from Van Wisselingh: 'as the notice was so short I could not get new bronzes cast by Xmas; so I sent your letter at once to Mr. V.

Two press photograph of racing driver Mike Hawthorn, one showing him cutting a ribbon, and the other posing indoors astride a motorcycle, as delighted spectators including five schoolboys, look on.

Author: 
Mike Hawthorn [John Michael Hawthorn] (1929-1959), English racing driver with the Ferrari Team, friend of Peter Collins and rival of Luigi Musso [Le Mans 24 Hour Race]
Publication details: 
Both stamped on the reverse: '"CHESTER CHRONICLE" | COPYRIGHT | PHOTOGRAPH'. [1950s.]
£80.00

Both photographs in black and white, and both 25.5 x 20.5 cm. One landscape and the other portrait. The two in good condition, showing light signs of age and wear. Both clearly taken at the same event, as in both Hawthorn wears the same suit. Both taken indoors. In the first (portrait) he is seen cutting a ribbon, while a group of smartly-dressed men and women look on approvingly behind him. Signs for 'Silver Exide' and 'Mobilgas Special' are mounted on a wall.

Autograph Memorandum by the artist John Piper, describing how Vollard's biography of Cézanne inspired him when he read it as a teenager.

Author: 
John Piper (1903-1992), English painter [Ambroise Vollard (1866-1939), art dealer and connoisseur; Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)]
Piper
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Fawley Bottom Farmhouse near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. Undated.
£100.00
Piper

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, on aged and lightly-creased paper. Clearly responding to an enquiry regarding what books had had a formative influence on his life, Piper writes: 'Vollard's Life of Cézanne, because it showed me, in my teens, that an artist can be dedicated, unbohemian, unworldly, against the tide and absolutely true to his instincts, which happened to be right. The book - by a dealer, too!

Autograph Note Signed ('Eldon') from the Lord Chancellor John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon, to John Cross of Lincolns Inn, undertaking to take 'the pleasure of the Prince Regent' on a certain subject. With signed envelope carrying Eldon's seal.

Author: 
John Scott (1751-1838), 1st Earl of Eldon, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain, 1801-1806 and 1807-1827
Publication details: 
No place. 'Friday Morning'. [1819.]
£45.00

Both items in very good condition, on aged paper, and both with minor traces of mount. The letter is 1p., 12mo, on a bifolium. The envelope is a leaf of paper, also 1p., 12mo. It is addressed by Eldon to 'John Cross Esq | 19 Lincolns Inn', franked in the bottom left-hand corner 'Eldon', and is without postmarks. It carries the seal in black wax, with the barest of impressions. Docketed in pencil in a contemporary hand '1819'.

[Printed poster headed 'To the Gentlemen, Clergy, and Freeholders of the County Palatine of Lancaster', announcing that after forty-five years as Member of Parliament for the borough, John Blackburne will not be standing again as a candidate.

Author: 
John Blackburne (1754-1833), of Hale Hall, near Liverpool, and Orford Hall, near Warrington, Lancashire
Publication details: 
Signed and dated in type at foot: 'JOHN BLACKBURNE. | HALE, | November 12th, 1829.' [Hale Hall, near Liverpool, Lancashire. 1829.]
£90.00

The poster, in the mixture of typeface and font size characteristic of the period, is 31 x 25 cm, and headed: 'TO THE | Gentlemen, | CLERGY, | AND | FREEHOLDERS | OF THE | County Palatine of Lancaster.' Signed and dated in type at foot: 'JOHN BLACKBURNE. | HALE, | November 12th, 1829. Printed on one side of a piece of wove paper, and with one central horizontal fold.

[Printed pamphlet.] An Account of Warrington Siege, A.D. 1643; and of some manuscripts of that period recently discovered at Houghton Green, near Warrington.

Author: 
James Kendrick, M.D. [the Siege of Warrington, 1643; Houghton Green; English Civil War]
Publication details: 
'Read before a Meeting of the Lancashire and Cheshire Historic Society, on the Evening of Thursday, December 11th, 1852 [corrected to '1851'].' Liverpool: T. Brakell, Printer, Cook Street, 1852.
£75.00

15pp., 12mo, with six plates on art paper. In grey printed wraps with title on front cover. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. The plates include engravings by H. C. Pigeon of illustrations by S. Holden and a plan by T. B. Ryder.

Autograph Letter Signed from John Coates to Miss Hood, explaining why he could not sing the song 'Nancy's Hair' at Preston.

Author: 
John Coates (1865-1941), leading English tenor
Publication details: 
On letterhead of [11] Beaufort House, Chelsea, SW3 [London]. 26 January 1925.
£65.00

2pp., 4to. In good condition, on lightly aged and creased paper. He writes that he is sorry that he could not sing the song 'Nancy's Hair' at Preston. He had not brought it: '(I only got your letter on arrival at the concert hall.) Funnily enough I picked it up before leaving home to put in my case as a possible encore & then put it back.' He is 'delighted to know that your mother liked my singing of it, I most certainly enjoy singing it & I hope to be able to help it along'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('David Pollock') from the future Sir David Pollock, Chief Justice of Bombay, to John Silk Buckingham, regarding the British and Foreign Institute, and a controversy in The Times.

Author: 
Sir David Pollock (1780-1847), Chief Justice of Bombay [James Silk Buckingham (1786-1855), author and traveller; the British and Foreign Institute, Hanover Square, London; The Times]
Publication details: 
Monmouth. 30 Ocotber 1843.
£80.00

2pp., 12mo. 29 lines of neatly-written text. In very good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Addressing his letter to 'J: S: Buckingham Esqre.', Pollock writes that Buckingham's letter, 'enclosing the Rules &c. of the British and Foreign Institute', has been forwarded to him in Monmouth, where he is 'engaged on a long Circuit professionally, which comprehends all South Wales, and the West and South of England'. He is 'on the move continually', without 'time or opportunity to give sufficient consideration to the subject'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Mackenzie Bell') from the poet Henry Thomas Mackenzie Bell to 'Prof. Candy', regarding 'the most pressing difficulty we have'

Author: 
Mackenzie Bell [Henry Thomas Mackenzie Bell] (1856-1930), English poet, writer and literary critic
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 11 Buckingham Gate, S.W. [London]. 23 May 1911.
£45.00

2pp., 12mo. In good condition, on aged and worn paper. The letter reads: 'Dear Prof. Candy, | I think you would wish to see enclosed which please return after perusal. | If you hear of anything kindly let me know. It is the most pressing difficulty we have and we see no present way of surmounting it. | With renewed thanks, | always sincerely yours, | Mackenzie Bell'.

Signature on card ('Alicia Markova') of the prima ballerina Dame Alicia Markova.

Author: 
Dame Alicia Markova [Lilian Alicia Marks] (1910-2004), Britain's first prima ballerina and in the 1940s the world's highest-paid dancer, discovered by Serge Diaghilev, and partnered by Anton Dolin
Publication details: 
Dated by Markova to 1933.
£25.00

In black ink on 5 x 8 cm card, with rounded edges. In very good condition, lightly aged, with evidence of previous mounting on the marbled reverse. Reads 'Alicia Markova | 1933.'

Memorandum, signed twice by Rudyard Kipling, of a deposit made by him at the London City and Midland Bank Limited's Newgate branch, with corresponding receipt signed for the branch manager by J. H. Coulson.

Author: 
Rudyard Kipling [Joseph Rudyard Kipling] (1865-1936), English writer and poet; J. H. Coulson, Manager, London City and Midland Bank Limited, Newgate Street, London
Publication details: 
The London City and Midland Bank Limited, Newgate Branch [London]. Both documents dated 7 December 1910.
£250.00

The two documents were originally attached along a perforated line, and both bear the serial number 115476. Having been detached, they have been reattached by a strip of light brown paper. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Both are forms, printed in red and black, and both are filled in by Coulson, regarding a deposit by Kipling of '£500 (Five hundred pounds) Grand Trunk Pacific Branch Lines Co. First Mortgage Sterling Bonds' and '$2500 (Two thousand five hundred dollars) Northern New Brunswick & Seaboard Rly Co. 4% Gold Bonds'.

Part only of Autograph Letter Signed "Georgiana Fullerton".

Author: 
Georgiana Fullerton, novelist
Publication details: 
No place or date survives.
£25.00

Part of page, c.11 x 7.5, staining but surviviing text clear and complete as follows: "thy own, I remain Reverend Sir | Yours sincerely, | Georgiana Fullerton".

Two Autograph Letters Signed (both 'F. Eber') from Ferdinand Eber ('General Eber'), Hungarian-born 'condottiere-journalist', to fellow Times correspondent Henry Wreford, the second letter discussing Garibaldi, Victor Emmanuel and the Risorgimento.

Author: 
Ferdinand Eber (d.1885), Hungarian-born correspondent of The Times of London, and 'condottiere-journalist' in support of Garibaldi as 'General Eber' [Henry Wreford, Times correspondent in Naples]
Publication details: 
Letter One: 33 St James's Square, London; 16 January [no year]. Letter Two: Palermo, Italy, 20 June [no year].
£280.00

On 28 February 1885 The Times announced the death of Eber, 'for many years our valued correspondent at Vienna'; and a hundred years later (24 September 1985) the same paper described Eber as 'the condottiere-journalist, General Ferdinand Eber, whose habit of engaging in wars as well as reporting them earned him the displeasure of his masters in Printing House Square'. Both items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper, with slight damage from previous mounting. Both addressed to 'My dear Wreford', and both written in a difficult hand. Letter One: 3pp., 12mo.

Substantial Autograph Letter Signed ('Frederick Niven') from the Canadian novelist Frederick John Niven to the Irish journalist and essayist Robert Lynd, explaining his ill health and praising Lynd's writing.

Author: 
Frederick Niven [Frederick John Niven] (1878-1944), novelist from British Columbia, Canada, born in Chile of Scottish parents [Robert Lynd (1879-1949), Irish journalist and essayist]
Publication details: 
Lorenza, Combe Martin, North Devon. 26 December 1916.
£160.00

4pp., 4to. Fair, on lightly aged and creased paper, with a few closed tears. The letter begins: 'Dear Lynd: I have been very ill and after two months in bed and an introduction to what Marley called "the thick, sweet smell of chloroform" I have been sent down here to get better - with the word of specialist and doctor that when I am well again I shall be better than I have been for a long time. This I write because I have often thought of writing to tell you how much I relish your papers.

Part of Autograph Letter Signed by the novelist Charles Reade [to Manton Marble, proprietor of the New York World?], asking that a 'gentleman' should not be 'my public critic in the World', and that the recipient should himself review his play.

Author: 
Charles Reade (1814-1884), English novelist and playwright [Manton Marble (1834-1917), editor and proprietor of the New York World]
Publication details: 
Without place or date. [Post 1860.]
£56.00

2pp., on both sides of the lower half of a 4to leaf. The recto is numbered by Reade '2', indicating that the two pages constitute the second leaf of a letter. The text reads: '[...] therefore you will consent to do me a bare act of justice viz not to let that gentleman be my public critic in "the World." Of course I should be still more pleased if you would do me the honor to see the play yourself and pronounce upon it. However half a loaf is better than no bread.

Autograph Letter Signed from the journalist and author Peter Bayne to an unnamed recipient, stating that he cannot try his hand 'on Byron or Browning [...] without more chance of continuous work'.

Author: 
Peter Bayne [pseud. Ellis Brandt] (1830-1896), English journalist and author
Publication details: 
33 St. Julian's Road, Kilburn, London N.W. 30 November 1881.
£45.00

1p., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The letter reads: 'My Dear Sir, | I ought to have thanked you sooner for your kind note of the 21st., but I have been much occupied. It would be pleasant for me to try my hand on Byron or Browining, but I could not dare do so without more chance of continuous work than I can hope for at present.'

Syndicate content