HISTORY

Poemata, quae de praemio Oxoniensibus posito Annis 1806, 1807, et 1808, infeliciter contenderunt; non in publicum edita, amicis tantum privatim deferenda.

Author: 
[Abraham John Valpy (1787-1854); Pembroke College, Oxford; Trafalgar]
Publication details: 
[London] Londini: In Aedibus Valpianis, Pridie Idus Octobres, 1809. [A. J. Valpy]
£120.00

Octavo: [ii] + [41] + [1] pp. A little dogeared, on lightly aged paper, and with slight damp staining to one corner at rear. In worn and stained original grey wraps, repaired with strip of brown paper at spine. Three Latin poems by Valpy: 'Trafalgar', 'Plata Fluvius' and 'Delphi'. COPAC lists only three copies: at the British Library, the Bodleian and Durham.

Autograph Letter Signed and two Typed Notes Signed to J.G. Wilson, Chairman of Bumpus's.

Author: 
Grant Richards.
Publication details: 
21 Soho Square, London, W1, 20 April 1929 (ALS), and The Cottage, Upper Culham, Near Henley-on-Thames, 6 Jan. and 14 May 1930 (TNSs).
£150.00

Publisher and author (1872-1948). All one page, 4to, fold marks, sl. grubby but text clear. (ALS) "Dear Wilson/ I have been meaning for several days to see whether you were not free to lunch, and now comes your note. Will you lunch on Tuesday? I hope you will./ Those advertisements? Why, I thought it was taken for granted that booksellers would supply the publications of any publisher - except those Heinemann people.

Typed Letter Signed to Grant Richards, publisher.

Author: 
Frank Schoonmaker.
Publication details: 
17 East 42nd Street, New York, NY, 8 Feb. 1936.
£60.00

Writer on Wine. One page, 4to, chipped, fold marks, yellowed but text clear. "Your inference with regard to that particular appendix is quite correct. The publishers did get cold feet and the appendix, to my considerable disgust, was omitted. / Apparently Messrs. Routledge felt that the British libel laws made publication of the facts with regard to dishonest shippers somewhat hazardous.

Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed male correspondent (John Tyndall?).

Author: 
Alexander Strahan
Publication details: 
21 January 1874; on letterhead '12, Paternoster Row, London'.
£65.00

Two pages, octavo. Good, apart from damage and loss to one edge caused by removal from mount. Would appear to relate to the controversy between the surgeon Sir Henry Thompson (1820-1904) and John Tyndall (1820-1893), held in the pages of Strahan's 'Contemporary Review'. Reads 'I herewith send you the proof of your reply to Sir Henry Thompson | Please revise and return it tomorrow.

Printed Receipt Signed, with Manuscript Additions in another hand, for money lent to Queen Anne.

Author: 
Sir David Colyear, 1st Earl of Portmore
Publication details: 
[London]; 19 May 1707.
£150.00

General (c.1656-1730) and Governor of Gibraltar, married to Catherine Sedley, mistress of James II (see item# ). One leaf, dimensions roughly seven inches by ten and a half. Printed text with manuscript additions on recto; docketed on verso. Good, but grubby, and with slight repair to head. Receipt 'of the Honourable [Lord ffitzharding]' (corrected from 'James Vernon Esq'); One of the Four Tellers of the Receipt of Her Majesty's Exchequer', of eighty pounds for twenty-four months interest on £500 lent by Portmore and 'My Ld Kent' on 14 August 1704. Signed 'Portmore'.

Two autograph Notes Signed to I. Kyrle Fletcher, bookseller specialising in the theatre, ballet, etc.

Author: 
Randolph Schwabe.
Publication details: 
43A Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, 5 Jan. 1927 and The Slade School of Fine Art (printed heading), 27 May 1942.
£125.00

Draughtsman and printmaker. One page each, 8vo, in his normal calligraphic hand, some peripheral damage but mainly good condition. (1927) He acknowledges receipt of a cheque and the return of a parcel of prints - thanks. (1942) He informs Fletcher that "The lithograph Enrico Cecchetti was published by C.W. Beaumont . . . He may have a copy left. I have only one, and that is stored away in Bushey, Herts. It might be unearthed, but not immediately." Two items.

Printed Receipt Signed, with Manuscript Additions in another hand, for money lent to Queen Anne.

Author: 
Catherine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester
Publication details: 
[London]; 7 March 1706.
£200.00

Wit (1657-1717), mistress of James II. One leaf, dimensions roughly seven inches by ten and a half. Printed text with manuscript additions on recto with calculations in a contemporary hand on the reverse. Good, but grubby. Receipt 'of the Right Honourable James Vernon Esq; One of the Four Tellers of the Receipt of Her Majesty's Exchequer', of sixty pounds for three months interest on £4000 lent by the Duchess and Sir Henry Furnesse on 19 January 1706. Signed 'Dorchester'.

Printed Receipt Signed, with Manuscript Additions in another hand, for Royal Navy [annual?] budget.

Author: 
Pattee Byng, 2nd Viscount Torrington
Publication details: 
22 February 1728; [London].
£500.00

(1699-1747). One leaf, dimensions roughly eight inches by ten. Printed text with manuscript additions on recto; docketed on verso 'Right Hon Pattee Byng afterwards Earl of Torrington Treasurer of the Navy 1729- Brother of the unfortunate Admiral John Byng'. Good, but grubby, and with slight loss at head and in centre (affecting five words of text). 'Received then of [Lord Parker one of the Four Tellers of his Majesty's Exchequer] the Sum of [One hundred Twenty one thousand four hundred and sixteen pounds seven shillings and Eleven pence] in further Part of an Order, Dated the [10th.

Printed Exchequer Receipt, with Manuscript Additions, and Autograph Signature, for 'the Sum of Ten Pounds being 24 Months Interest of 100£'.

Author: 
Mary Russell, Countess of Orford
Countess of Orford
Publication details: 
24 July 1701; [London].
£105.00
Countess of Orford

One page, quarto. Aged, and trimmed along one margin, with minimal loss of text. Interest on moneys 'Lent unto Their Majesties upon the Credit of an Act of Parliament, (Intituled, An Act for Granting to His Majesty An Aid of 4 Shillings in the Pound for One Year'. Witnessed, with Autograph Signature, by George Cheret. Signed 'M Orford'.

Life of Jack Sheppard, The Notorious House and Gaol Breaker.

Author: 
Victorian Chapbook [Newcastle; Provincial Printing]
Publication details: 
Newcastle-on-Tyne: Bowman, Publisher, Nuns' Lane. Price One Penny. [Slug on verso of title: 'Bowman, Publisher, 12, Nuns' Lane, Newcastle.'] Undated [1850, or between 1865 and 1875?].
£66.00

12mo: 24 pp. Leaf dimensions: 15.5 x 9.5 cms. Unbound. Good, on aged paper with fraying to extremities and a little light staining to title. Decorative title-page with vignette. On verso of title: list of twenty-three 'Penny Histories' ('Crown 12mo. Three or upwards sent post free to any address, on receipt of stamps to the amount') and nineteen 'Penny Song Books'. Heavily worn type and loss to text at foot of three pages due to faulty imposition. According to BBTI Robert Benson Bowman was active in Newcastle from before 1826 to after 1859.

Thirteen Typed Letters Signed to G. K. Menzies, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts, with one Autograph Note Signed to Menzies, and a printed prospectus for Adams-Acton's 'Domestic Architecture and Old Furniture'.

Author: 
Murray Adams-Acton (1886-1971), English historian of art and architecture
Publication details: 
5 October 1927 to 14 August 1933; most on letterhead of Acton Surgey Ltd., 'London, Paris & Crews Hill'.
£180.00

Sizes range from quarto (nine items) to 12mo (two items). Very good. Subjects include a request for 'a photograph of the winning design for the petrol filling station', the award of a Hyde Travelling Scholarship ('Mr. Mitchell appears to have so greatly distinguished himself'), 'Mr. Bossom's suggestions for the wording and particulars for the Proscenium opening for Cinema', the drafting of a reply to Morley Horder's comments ('he errs when he declares the screen is not of the period as I think only a small section of it was added by Mr.

Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed male correspondent [William <Lecardale?>]

Author: 
John Carrick Moore [THE ROYAL GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY]
Publication details: 
2 November 1848; 4 Hyde Park Gate, Kensington.
£80.00

Scottish geologist (1805-98), Fellow of the Royal Society. Written in capacity as Secretary of the Geological Society. Four pages, 12mo. On grubby, stained paper discoloured with age. Second leaf of bifoliate attached to two fragments of draft replies in similar condition. 'Your very elaborate Paper on the L[ower]. Greensand Corals came before the Council yesterday for consideration: and the unanimous wish was to print it in the Journal with the fullest illustrations.

Manuscript Signed Indenture Mortgage and Surrender of Leasehold premises 'Between Louis Schnabel of No.79 North End Croydon [...] Watchmaker [...] and Alfred Marden Nicoll of No. 8 Surrey View Villas Ross Road Wallington [...] Painter and Decorator'

Author: 
Alfred Marden Nicoll; Louis Schabel [Croydon, Surrey], watchmaker.
Publication details: 
Mortgage dated 3 April 1891; Surrender dated 6 May 1898.
£56.00

Seven pages. On four skins of vellum, each roughly eleven inches by nine wide. Attached with green ribbon, and with various stamps and two wax seals. Good: lightly aged and creased. The premises are at 77 and 79 North End, Croydon.

Autograph Letter Signed ['J. Arthur Thomson'] to an unnamed firm of publishers.

Author: 
Sir John Arthur Thomson (1861-1933), Professor of Natural History at the University of Aberdeen, 1899-1930
Publication details: 
10 August 1914; his letterhead from the Natural History Department, Marischal College, The University, Aberdeen.
£45.00

One page, octavo. On aged paper, with slight chipping to corners, but text clear and entire. He is afraid that he 'did not answer your second letter in regard to a book on Sex.' 'After careful consideration', Thomas and 'Prof. Geddes' [Sir Patrick Geddes, 1854-1932] have come to the conclusion that 'if we wrote another book on that subject it should be published either by "Walter Scott" (who has 'The Evolution of Sex') or by Williams and Norgate (who have 'Sex')' [both books, 1889 and 1914 respectively, also by Geddes and Thomson].

Autograph Note Signed ('Tho. Graham') to 'Mr. Schultze | Poland Street', printer.

Author: 
Thomas Graham (1805-1869), Scottish chemist and Master of the Mint
Publication details: 
4 Gordon Square [London]; 9 June 1851.
£56.00

One page, octavo. Carefully laid down on neatly-docketed larger piece of paper, but with the glue employed badly aged and causing staining. Closed tear across letter caused by removal from spike. Signature clear and unmarked. Reads 'Dear Sir, | I believe it will be better to set up the enclosed proofs, in sheets in the usual manner. The remainder of the Report will be sent immediately.'

Financial Reform Tracts. No. 1.

Author: 
Liverpool Financial Reform Association [Free Trade; Richard Cobden; economic history]
Publication details: 
[Financial Reform Association, Hargreave's Buildings, Liverpool, September, 1848.] Sold by Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., London; and by the Printers, Smith, Rogerson, and Co., 44, Lord-street, Liverpool.
£56.00

12mo. 20 pages. Stitched and unbound. Creased, aged and somewhat dusty. Historic first publication of 'the most persistent and single-minded free trade lobby England has known' (W. N. Calkins, Economic History Review, 1960).

Printed Receipt with ms. adds ({J.M. Farquhar for Mr Bruce}).

Author: 
Archibald Constable & Co.
Publication details: 
Edinburgh, {4 April }18{15} (bracketed = ms.)
£75.00

One page, from larger sheet, c.8 x 6.5, fold marks, some marking mainly good. "Edinburgh {6 April} 18{15}/{J.M. Farquhar Esq/ for Mr Bruce}/ Bought of Archd. Constable & Co./ { Bewick Birds --£1.4.0/ <?> Saxon and Gaul 17 /6 April 1815'/ Recd / for A. Constable &Co/ }" Verso note: "6 April 1815/ account/ by/ A Constable & Co/ 7/."

Autograph Letter Signed ('J. Mitford') to his cousin Margaret.

Author: 
J. Mitford [Walter Horsley (b.1855), illustrator]
Publication details: 
2 June 1885; on embossed Post Office letterhead.
£50.00

Two pages, 12mo. Good. Horsley has 'promised to do the illustration as soon as he possibly can'. Mitford has 'told him the sort of thing which was needed, and he seemed to take it in quite clearly, and I also impressed upon him that the time is short for the completion of the book.' Hopes he will see her at 65 Prince's Square.

Stead's Wonders of Science Series. The Story of Flying Machines. The Conquest of the Air. With eleven specially selected illustrations.

Author: 
T. W. Scott [William Thomas Stead's Publishing House; Wonders of Science Series; aircraft; aeroplanes; aeronautics; ballooning]
Publication details: 
London: Stead's Publishing House, Bank Buildings, Kingsway, W.C.2. Printed by W. & J. Mackay & Co., Ltd., Chatham.
£76.00

Octavo, 48 pages. Stapled. In faded original orange printed wraps. Nine pages of illustrations, including three on wraps. Good, on aged high-acidity paper. Wraps a little stained. Unobtrusive ownership inscription at head of front wrap. Illustrations include two full-page balloons and 'A modern sea-plane: the Burgess-Dunne type'. Twelfth illustration (diving English biplane) on front wrap. Scarce: no copy on Copac.

Autograph Note Signed ('T Redwood') to unnamed recipient.

Author: 
Theophilus Redwood (1806-1892), Welsh analytical chemist, Professor of Pharmacy at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
Theophilus Redwood
Publication details: 
19 Montague Street, Russell Square [London]; 26 March 1889.
£36.00
Theophilus Redwood

One page, 12mo. Blind stamped monogram at head. Text clear and entire, but on heavily damp-stained paper. Reads 'The enclosed is to be inserted in the Journal of the Chemical Society among the Proceedings.'

Four handbills relating to the election of the Society's council and officers for 1870, and a copy of 'Report of the Auditors of the Accounts of the Zoological Society of London, Appointed January 21, 1869.'

Author: 
Zoological Society of London [Philip Lutley Sclater; Edward Greenaway; Edward Johnstone; James Tennant; Alexander Nowell Sherson; H. E. Dresser; Robert Low; F. Du Cane Godman]
Publication details: 
Report dated from '11 Hanover Square, February 26, 1869'; handbills all dated 1869.
£86.00

All items are good, on lightly aged paper. The 'Report of the Auditors of the Accounts' is seven pages, octavo, stitched and unbound. It consists of five full-page tables: 'Receipts', 'Payments', 'Comparison of Receipts in 1867 and 1868', 'Comparison of Payments in 1867 and 1868' and one showing 'The Assets and Liabilities of the Society on the 31st of December 1868'. Comment by the seven auditors (all named) on final page, remarking on 'the unexampled state of prosperity of the Zoological Society at the close of the previous year'. The four handbills are each on one side of a 12mo leaf.

Typed Letter Signed to Eimar O'Duffy, Irish author.

Author: 
Ben Abramson, American bookseller and publisher (1898-1955).
Publication details: 
The Argus Book Shop Incorporated, 333 South Dearborn Street, Chicago,6 Dec. 1933.
£60.00

One page, 4to, good condition. He gives belated thanks for writing to them "and sending us your contribution for our catalogue." They delayed so that thanks would accompany a copy of the catalogue. They have sent the catalogue under separate cover and "hope you will find it enertaining. Too, we hope that you will find our comments on your work not unworthy of your talents." See Donald C. Dickinson, "Dictionary, for discussion of the "rambunctious" bookseller, including his interaction with major literary figures.

Two Autograph Notes Signed "P.J. Dobell" to C.J. Windle.

Author: 
Percy J. Dobell, bookseller.
Publication details: 
Dobell's Antiquarian Bookstore, 24 Mount Ephraim Road, Tunbridge Wells, 8 & 10 May 1939.
£50.00

4to, good condition. Dobell describes a defective "tract" ("A Precious Apple") and speculates on its authorship (Lady Eleanor Douglas). He will send it to be examined. Another hand (presumably Windle) has added pencil notes on the reference works which do not list the item and speculating "probably part of a larger work with different title."

Autograph Letter Signed "B. Dobell" to [Walter] Jerrold, man of letters.

Author: 
Bertram Dobell, bookseller and man of letters (DNB).
Publication details: 
[Headed] Bertram Dobell, Bookseller and Publisher, 77 Charing Cross Road, Londn, W.C., 23 March 1904.
£50.00

Two pages, 8vo, vestiges of an album page on reverse, good condition. He sent a presentation copy of his "Rosemary & Pansies", somne of which "appeared in the privately printed ed[ition]" he gave him. He also sends a booklet "by one 'Lucian Lambert' - a gentleman who seems to have a good deal of gall in his composition, however much he may be wanting in the other qualities of a satirist. He has a signed copy of one of Jerrold's grandfather's books (Douglas) and some letters which his correspondent can view at the shop.

Trade card.

Author: 
[John] Sudlow, engraver and printer (BBTI)
Publication details: 
Wrights Court, opposite new Cannon Street, Market Street, Manchesterno date [c.1824]
£28.00

c.3 x 4.5, creased and slightly soiled. Re. BBTI in Market Street in 1824 - further detail to add.

[Printed Circular with MS. additions from the "Trustees of the late Firm of White, Cochrane and Co. of Fleet Street, Booksellers" to the Rt Hon Lord Glenbervie.

Author: 
[White, Cochrane and Co. , booksellers [BBTI 1812; Maxted 1812-1816], publishers [see BLC]
Publication details: 
63 Fleet Street, 3 May 1815.
£120.00

One page, 4to, good condition. The printed circular is a request for the "early settlement" of an outstanding bill, adding that "A Catalogue of the whole of the extensive and valuable Stock of the late Partnership, is now published; and each article will be sold, for ready money, with a Discount of Ten per Cent. from the marked prices." The manuscript portion comprises the name of the debtor and a detailed receipt for payment for numbers of the "Edinburgh Review" (received in 1814 and 1815), signed "[W. Tripp?]".

Engraved portrait of Gutenberg by Gaywood, mounted on piece of paper with painted decorations.

Author: 
Johannes Gutenberg, German printer; Peter Stent (fl.1643-67), London printseller; Richard Gaywood (fl.1644-68), English engraver
Gutenberg
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£100.00
Gutenberg

Good clean image of a seventeenth-century engraving, from an earlier idealised portrait of the putative 'father of printing'. It is of irregular shape, the background having been carefully cut away. Neatly mounted on piece of beige paper, illustrated with a brown pseudo-frame with decorative book devices in the four corners. Half-length portrait of a bearded Gutenberg in fur-lined hat and coat, with composing stick in left hand and stylus in right. Dimensions roughly eight and a quarter inches by seven wide. Engraved beneath is 'P Stent Excudit: R Gaywood fecit'.

Invoice, printed heading, account of Sir Robert W. Vaughan.

Author: 
[Peter Brett, bookseller and stationer (1762-1792, BBTI)]
Publication details: 
201 Strand, London, 6 July (no year).
£25.00

One page, 8vo, good. He sends newspapers post free "to all parts of the Kingdom." He charges mainly for items of stationery but also an almanack.

Announcement by "Hardwicke C.", Lord Chancellor.

Author: 
[PRINTING HISTORY] [Samuel Billingsley, bookseller, printer [BBTI 1724-1760]]
Publication details: 
[1746]
£120.00

One page, c.6.5 x 4.5", verso blank, right edge irregular (extracted?), small tear, sl.ightly marked, good condition. "In pursuance of an Order of the House of Peers, of the Nineteenth Day of March 1746, I do appoint SAMUEL BILLINGSLEY to Print the whole Proceedings in the House of Peers, upon the Impeachment exhibited by the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses, in Parliament assembled, in the Names of Themselves, and of all the Commons of Great Britain, against Simon Lord Lovat, for High Treason; And do forbid any other Person to Print the same. / Hardwicke C."

Twelve Typed Letters and one Autograph Letter relating to the printing of the 'Society of Arts Journal', addressed to Sir Henry Trueman Wood and George Kenneth Menzies, Secretaries, Royal Society of Arts, together with one printed circular.

Author: 
[PRINTING: FIRST WORLD WAR]William Archibald Clowes (1866-1937), Chairman, William Clowes & Sons Ltd, English printers
Publication details: 
10 August 1915 to 23 November 1917.
£500.00

Clowes is an eminent firm of English printers, founded in London in 1803, and still thriving in Suffolk. The twelve typed letters are each one page, quarto, on the firm's Duke Street letterhead. The autograph letter is one page, 12mo, with mourning border. The collection in good condition overall, with a few items aged and lightly creased. Most items docketed and bearing the Society's stamp. All items except the circular signed by 'W A Clowes', who (he informs Wood in his first letter) has taken over from his cousin, Captain W. C.

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