LONDON

Both items are 2pp, 12mo, and bifoliums. Both in good condition, lightly aged, and each folded once. The second has rust marks to margin from a paperclip. Given the sunbject-matter, the recipient may be a relation of the actress Mrs William Barry (1739-1771), whose maiden name was Osborne. ONE: 17 August 1769; on Park Road letterhead. Signed 'Ch. Fechter.' He begins by announcing: 'I have, by no means, altered my mind; but have been – and am still – strolling about the country'.

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with traces of mount, and red wax seal, adhering to the reverse of the second leaf, which is franked (the franker's name and signature illegible) to 'Sir John Phippart [sic] | &c &c | No 8 New Burlington St'. Slight loss to one corner of second leaf, from breaking open of seal, with damage to one word of text.

4pp, 8vo, paginated 401-404. Originally a bifolium, but with the leaves separated. In fair condition, lightly aged, with each leaf carrying in a margin a strip of paper from the mount. Several fold lines. Page one carries the half-penny tax stamp. In small print and double column. The entire number concerns the battle. Begins: 'Admiralty-Office, April 15, 1801.

The item would appear to relate to William Gaskill's 1984 Chichester Festival production of Congreve's 'Way of the World', in which Joan Plowright played Lady Wishford, and John Moffatt played Witwoud, although it is not clear why Fry should have been making directorial suggestions in this case. 2pp, 8vo. Written in pencil. In fair condition, aged and worn. Folded twice. From the Fry papers, and so possibly either a draft or not sent. The identity of the recipient is not clear.

Both items in good condition, but the postcard (of a Viennese street scene) with stamp torn off. ONE: ALS. Signed 'Walter (Rilla)'. Vienna; 7 November 1966. 1p, 8vo. Twenty-six lines of text, in a neat close hand.

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Each page numbered by Fry. An Unsigned document from the Christopher Fry archive. Warm personal recollections, entertaining and evocative. Unpublished.

An interesting document relative to London social history, and a nice piece of Dickensiana. George Johnson is said to have established his celebrated restaurant Johnson's Alamode Beef House at 21 Clare Court, Drury Lane, in the 1780s, although the present letter states that it was licensed around 1805 . In 1824 a twelve-year-old Charles Dickens – employed in a nearby blacking warehouse as a result of his father's imprisionment for debt – himself experienced an incident which he later made use of in 'David Copperfield'.

Printed in black on one side of a 51 x 39 cm piece of light-green paper. Heavily inked, in the variety of types and point sizes typical of the period. Printed on high-acidity paper, and perhaps a unique survival. Aged and worn, with chipping and short closed tears to extremities. Reads: 'Imperial College | Literary and Debating Society | [thick-thin rule] | A LECTURE | ON | “The Interaction of Life | and Matter” | BY | SIR OLIVER LODGE, | D.Sc., F.R.S.

2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, aged and spotted, with loss at foot of reverse of last leaf, the verso of which is addressed to 'Mr Palmer | Bookseller | 18 Paternoster Row'. The recipient is the theological bookseller Ebenezer Palmer the elder (c.1782-1866). Twenty-two lines of text in a difficult hand. The stridently pious tone perhaps hints at some degree of mental instability. The letter opens: 'My dear Sir & friend in the LORD | I greet you in Him'.

1p, 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged and creased. Folded once. 'I was hoping you would make a suggestion about price. I had at first thought of asking £5 for each copy, but if you would throw in that copy of my father's book (my own is in pieces) I suggest £12 for the three. Of course I want you to make your profit.' He ends by asking if Hancox would like the books signed.

See the entries for Sutton and Marcet in the Oxford DNB. A strained exchange as a result of a misunderstanding over the presentation by Marcet to the Medical and Chirurgical Society of a paper by Sutton. (The following year Sutton would publish his 'Tracts on Delirium Tremens, on Peritonitis, and on Some other Internal Inflammatory Affections, and on the Gout'.) The shift between persons in Sutton's three letters is indicative of a cooling of tone, and in the final item Marcet comes close to accusing Sutton of lying.

1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. As he is leaving town on the following Monday, he only has the following two days 'at my disposal here'. He suggests times on those days when he would be happy to see him. 'A visit here would be better than one at Westgate, because then you could see my Workshop'.

1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to reverse of second leaf of bifolium. Reads: 'My dear Sir, | I shall be happy to meet you at your friends Mr. Rackhams at ¼ before 5 o'clock tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon & trust our efforts may be attended with the same success as upon the former occasion.'

1p, 16mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to reverse of blank second leaf. Folded once. The recipient is not named. Reads: 'Dear Sir | It would have given me pleasure to have forwarded actively your wishes if I had power to do so – All I have been able to do is to give advice to the Childs father as to the course to pursue – and that I have done.'

2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to reverse of second leaf. The recipient is not identified. Begins: 'My Dear Sir, | I would have had much pleasure in accepting your invitation, & meeting Professor Liebig [Justus von Liebig (1803-1873), German chemist], but while you are enjoying yourselves, I expect to be a hundred miles at least on my way to Scotland in the Royal yacht.' He hopes to be able to make Liebig's acquaintance on his return.

1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to the blank reverse. Folded twice.Unsigned. Eighteen line typescript with a number of autograph emendations.He begins by thanking 'Dr Osler' for the letter he has sent containing a request made not only in his own name, but also in those of the American neurologists Silas Weir Mitchell (1829-1914) and James Jacksom Putnam (1846-1918), and which Jackson has 'carefully considered'. He continues: 'Many of my papers, all the old ones, are very old fashioned and are not worthy of reprint.

1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to blank reverse. Folded several times. Addressed at bottom left 'To the Curators of the library of the College of Surgeons'. Reads: 'Gentlemen, | Mr. Fergus, who is desirous of obtaining the advantage of reading in the library of the College of Surgeons, is known to me as a most respectable young man, and the permission to carry on his researches in your library will be bestowed on a very deserving person.'

1p, 4to. On grey paper. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to reverse. Folded three times. A typical prescription, in Latin, beneath the heading 'Miss Smedley. April [last word deleted] May 1 1845'. The prescription begins with the usual 'Rx'; the last of the fourteen lines that follow ending with Brodie's signature ('B C Brodie').

2pp, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to reverse. The recipient is not identified. Reads: 'My Dear Sir | I hope that I shall not put you to inconvenience by making my visit to your patient today as late as half past five o clock. A particular circumstance has occurred which will prevent my being in your part of the town at the time originally proposed.'

2pp, 4to. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper adhering to the reverse of the second leaf, which is addressed, with postmarks, 'To | Doctor Roget M.D. | Bernard Street | London -'. See the entries on Sutton, Roget and Marcet in the Oxford DNB. The letter concerns a misunderstanding between Sutton and Marcet. (Two of Sutton's letters to Marcet with a copy of a reply by Marcet are offered together separately elsewhere.) The present letter is 2pp, 4to. Bifolium.

See the entries on Harrison and Marcet in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, and folded twice, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to the reverse. Marcet is not identified as the recipient, but the item comes from his papers. It relates to an election to a post at Guy's Hospital, with reference to Peter Mark Roget (1779-1869), author of 'Roget's Thesaurus', whose father came from Geneva. The letter is written in a difficult hand, and the following transcriptions are tentative.

The subject of the letter is the surgeon Henry William Robert Davey (1798-1870), son of surgeon Henry Sallows Davey (1781-1855) of Beccles, who also studied under Sir Charles Bell at the Hunterian School of Medicine in Great Windmill Street, London. 1p, 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to edge on blank reverse. An attractive document, with 'MIDDLESEX HOSPITAL.' at the head, above an engraving of the frontage of the hospital.

2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to one edge. Begins: 'Samuel Tuke having been disappointed of an opportunity of sending by a private hand a parcel to his friend Dr Max. Jacobi will be much obliged to J. Churchill to send to him four copies of the translation of his work'.

See the entries on Harrison and Marcet in the Oxford DNB. Both items in good condition, lightly aged and worn, and each folded twice. Harrison's letter with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to the reverse. Marcet is only identified in pencil annotations to the letters, but the details given by the writer of his education accord with Marcet's.

The recipient of the present letter is not named, but it is the scientific bookseller and publisher John Nourse (1705-1780), who the following year would published the 'Lectures' referred to in the letter: 'An Introduction to Physiology, being A Course of Lectures upon The most important Parts of the Animal Oeconomy', 'Printed for J. Nourse at the Lamb opposite Katherine-Street in the Strand.

1p, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to the second leaf, which has been cut down the middle vertically, resulting in loss to one of the two postmarks, as well as to Gooch's addressing of the letter: '[...]ent Esqre | […] Webb Street | […] Borough –'.

For Davis see Munk's Roll, the Gentleman's Magazine for January 1825, and I. S. L. Loudon's paper 'John Bunnell Davis and the Universal Dispensary for Children' (BMJ, 5 May 1979). The Universal Dispensary for Children, founded by Davis in 1816 and open to the under-twelves, was as Loudon points out 'the first major institution in England devoted solely to the care of sick children, 35 years before the first children's hospital in Liverpool, and 36 before Great Ormond Street'.

For both Moore and Pierce see their entries in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to reverse of blank second leaf. The certificate is written by another party, with Moore signing and dating at the foot: 'Norman Moore | M.D. | Warden of the College | Oct. 5.

2pp, 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to edge on reverse, which is endorsed '14 Febr. 1811 | T Denman'. Folded several times. The recipient is not named, but was clearly an individual of some standing, as Denman appears keen to dine with him.

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, on browned paper, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to blank reverse of second leaf. He begins by explaining that the delay in replying is due to 'having been suddenly called into the country on Saturday and not returning until this morning'.