MANUSCRIPT

2pp., 8vo. Single-spaced. In fair condition, on two leaves of lightly-aged air mail paper, with punch holes to left-hand margins and at head. Made out to be signed by 'Keitel | Generalfeldmarschall | (Field Marshal)'. The five questions are: 'What was your estimate in 1939 of the speed and capabilities of the U.S. to build up a war machine? Did the U.S. exceed your expectations in producing war material and training an army?' (26 line response), 'On what basis did you estimate that Germany could complete its campaign in Europe before the U.S.

An uncommon signature of a neglected artist. Hawkins was a founding member of the Society of British Artists, exhibiting there prolifically from 1824 to 1881. He also showed at the Royal Academy eight times between 1822 and 1849. (See Holmes's entry in the Oxford DNB.) On 14 cm square piece of watermarked wove paper, cut from a frank. The letter is written on the reverse of the cover, which is laid out in the customary way: ‘London third July 1838 / Wm. Loney Esq / Macclesfield.’ With red dated postmark, and signed in the customary way at bottom left: ‘John [Baron?]’.

On one side of 21 x 33 cm piece of wove paper. Somewhat creased, with one dogeared corner and a closed tear neatly repaired on reverse with archival tape, but in good overall condition. A typical piece of late-Victorian corporate typography. Headed (all in capitals): ‘County Borough of Blackburn. / Danger of handling / Carcases of Animals infected / with Anthrax.

See the entries in the Oxford DNB on Browning and firm’s founder Adam Black (1784-1874). 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased. Folded three times. Addressed to ‘Oscar Browning Esq’ and signed ‘A. &. C. Black’. The firm is replying to a note of Browning’s of 7 July 1891, ‘desiring our assent to the separate publication in book form of your Articles, from the Ency[lopaedi]a Brit[annic]a. on Dante & Goethe’. They ‘have pleasure in complying therewith, on the usual understanding that the sources of the articles is duly acknowledged & a copy of the book sent to us when published’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The postcards are bromide prints, and 9 x 14 cm. The two identical images of Scott, dressed for the theatre, with curled moustache and flower in his buttonhole, are both inscribed. In the bottom margin of one he has written ‘late of the D. T.’; in the same position on the other, and rather poignantly considering his later history, ‘Remember me / Clement Scott / 1902’. The former card is addressed by Scott on the reverse, with Ingatestone postmark dated 27 February 1904, to ‘Mr S. Le Sage / Maisonette / Ingatestone / Essex’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. In fair condition, lightly aged and with slight wear at base. Typed address to ‘Mr. J. A. Neuhuys, / 37, Dean Road, / Willesden Green, / N. W. 2’. Reads: ‘Will you please send me on approval No. 582a, from your catalogue No. 29. / R. W.’ Recipt marked with red date stamp of 1 January 1924, and message lightly crossed out in pencil.

1p, 4to. Rather aged, with some wear and discoloration at head and foot, and minor traces of mount on reverse. Four folds. Signed ‘Walter H. Page’ and addressed to ‘C. Reginald Grundy, Esq., / 1, Duke Street, / S. W. 1.’ The note reads: ‘Dear Sir: / I wish it had been possible for me to attend the meeting at the Mansion House to-day to further the establishment of local war museums, but I regret to say that it was impossible. / Yours very truly, / Walter H. Page’.

41 items from the papers of the railway economist C. E. R. Sherrington [Charles Ely Rose Sherrington] (1897-1973). Sherrington was the son of the Nobel-prize winning physiologist Sir Charles Scott Sherrington (1857-1952). Having served in France with the Oxfordshire Light Infantry and the Railway Transport Establishment of the British Expeditionary Force, Sherrington was lecturer in Economics and Transportation at Cornell University from 1922 to 1924. Returning to Britain, he was Secretary of the Railway Research Service from 1924 to 1962.

See Beckett’s entry in the History of Parliament, according to which he held the position of Under-Secretary of State for Home Affairs from 1806 to 1817. 1p, foolscap 8vo. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased at the foot, with strip of discoloration at the head. Folded twice into a packet. Addressed to ‘Colonel Torrens’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged, with several creases on folding into packet, one of which has a short closed tear to the edge. Minor traces of mount on reverse. Reads: ‘Lord Henry Petty will be obliged to Mr Gray, if he can make it convenient to call in Downing Street to-morrow at 2 oClock. / September 29th. 1806.’ Minuted by recipient on reverse: ‘29. Sept. 1806 / Lord Hy. Petty. / To be with His Ldp tomorrow. / 30th. went & recd. Instructions to work out the appointmt. of One Messenger to attend the Chancellor, whose allowce is to be 4s. P diem.’

Scarce: no copy on ViaLibri, OCLC WorldCat and JISC LHD. Stapled pamphlet. 7pp, 12mo. Unpaginated. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with light spotting and slightly rusted staples. Inscribed at head of cover: ‘With the author’s compliments / O. A. LeBeau’. Drophead title on third page: ‘HALLEY’S COMET. / BY O. A. LE BEAU, B.Sc. / [Mr. Le Beau is an O. B. of the Grammar School, whose Astronomical Notes in our columns some years ago many of our readers will no doubt remember. - ED.]’

Despite the fact that Reynolds and Crookes’s X-ray apparatus is now in the Science Museum at South Kensington, Reynolds has no entry in the Oxford DNB, although Crookes’s entry can be consulted. The two items are in good condition, lightly aged and worn. Both folded several times. Both 1p, 4to, and both signed ‘Russell J. Reynolds’. ONE: Addressed to G. K. Menzies of the Royal Society of Arts. With recipient's red pencil tick.

See image. It is hard to see how this collection could be bettered, the range of signatures from sanity to madness being of particular interest. All seven examples laid down on a folio leaf extracted from an album. The leaf is in poor condition, creased and with closed tears, but the parchment and paper bearing the signatures themselves in good condition, the six parchment items having the usual discoloration, but the example on paper in excellent condition.

See image. A nice item, linking two important figures in French history. 1p, foolscap 8vo, on the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium of unwatermarked gilt-edged wove paper. Aged and lightly creased, with short closed tears and wear at the head. The ten lines of neatly written text are neatly and clearly signed ‘Louis’, and there is a wavy and almost vertical line from the king’s signature to that of ‘Chateaubriand’ at bottom right of the page.

See his entries in the Oxford DNB (where his edition of Pepys is described as ‘an amateurish travesty’ of the transcript) and the History of Parliament. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and folded twice. Good neat signature: ‘Braybrooke’. The recipient is not named, but the name of the editor of the work mentioned by Braybrooke is given as 'C.

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Addressed to ‘Dear Mr Paxton’ and signed ‘Morpeth’. Much of the letter comprises a twenty-three line quotation from a letter Morpeth has received ‘from a great friend of mine in Dublin, Mr Hamilton’ (After the transcription of Hamilton’s letter Morpeth gives his name as ‘William Tighe Hamilton Esqre [1807-1886] / Donnybrook / Dublin’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, which states that he has ‘strong claims to be regarded as the greatest sporting all-rounder of his or any era since’. (Neville Cardus counted him ‘among the most fully developed and representative Englishmen of his period’.) It also seems that in 1920 he was offered the chance of becoming king of Albania. His grave at Repton is inscribed: ‘Cricketer, scholar, athlete, Author – The Ultimate All-rounder’.

2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly worn. Folded once. Addressed to ‘Dear Mr. Cochrane’ and signed ‘Edwd. Stanton’. He thanks him for ‘sending me the Nile map, which is certainly more complete than any I had, though it does not give us much more information as to the rivers South of [Faolooda?], than is to be found in The Times atlas’. He hopes that when his son ‘returns from his explorations of the Bahr-el-zara’, he ‘will be able to extend our knowledge of that part of the Nile Valley’.

Asee image of[339]See Williamson’s entry by his daughter-in-law Anne Williamson in the Oxford DNB, together with her 1995 biography of him. The present tranche of material gives a marvellous insight into the working processes of a fine - perhaps even a great - English writer, in addition to showing the gestation of one of the finest novels of the First World War.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, in which ‘deep professional commitment and mental toughness’ are said to be qualities whose possession he demonstrated ‘heroically’. Beatty’s aggressive tactics at the Battle of Jutland are often contrasted with Jellicoe’s more cautious approach. After the explosion of the Indefatigable and the Queen Mary, with the loss of 1283 officers and men, he came out with the celebrated understatement, ‘There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today’.

An interesting item, casting light on Victorian London publishing of periodical literature. For Passmore Edwards, to whom London is indebted for innumerable public libraries (many now closed), see his entry in the Oxford DNB. ‘The Biographical Magazine’ was founded in 1852, and the first two volumes were published by ‘J. Passmore Edwards, 2, Horse-shoe Court, Ludgate Hill’.

Stockdale’s entry in the Oxford DNB provides an excellent commentary on the present four items: ‘An assumption that colonial economies should continue to be dominated by the export of cash crops, and a faith in Western scientific agriculture led in 1929 to the establishment of the colonial agricultural service with a colonial advisory council of agriculture and animal health, and a full-time agricultural adviser, a position to which Stockdale was appointed.

Stockdale was for decades the leading figure in his field within the British Empire and later the Commonwealth, and his work undoubtedly saved countless lives, and increased the welfare of many thousands. See his appreciative entry in the Oxford DNB, in which he is described as 'in many respects ahead of his time'. The present collection comprises a family photograph album with 86 photographs inserted and loose, with a copy of his funeral service, and few other items. All the material is in good condition, with only light signs of age and wear.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, on an 11 x 14 cm piece of paper cut down from 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, with minor traces of glue from mount adhering to the blank reverse. The letter reads: ‘My dear Barker / I shall be most happy to join your agreeable party - Croker to whom I was engaged for Monday goes on from Apethorpe to Belvoir instead of coming home[,] so I am at liberty - Milne is I believe on a visit to the Marquess of Bute at Luton. / Yrs most truly / Theodore S Hook’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded twice for postage. Begins: ‘Mr. Westall presents his compliments to Miss Macirone & begs to assure her how very much obliged to her he feels for the honor she has done him in sending him two tickets for her morning concert’. He will have ‘the greatest pleasure in attending’ the concert, and is ‘quite sure he shall be very much delighted’.

The circumstances surrounding this extraordinary original composition in Latin verse are obscure. See Phillips’s entry in the Oxford DNB, which notes that there was ‘an air of Proust’ about him, and quotes Oliver Brown’s description of him as ‘a stout man, immaculately dressed and heavily scented, who talked continuously while he looked at the pictures'. It may be that Phillips and the author of the poem had been educated together, or that they were members of the same club (the Athenaeum for example).

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. Each item 1p, 12mo, on a bifolium. Both in fair condition, lightly aged, and both folded twice for postage. Both addressed to ‘My dear Crofton’. LETTER: Signed ‘S C H’. Presumably while working on ‘A Week at Killarney’, the book he and his wife published in London in 1843, Hall asks for ‘one or two morsels about the Palatines’ (see ‘Killarney’, pp. 78-79, a peculiar race of strangers): ‘Why were they planted in Ireland? - when precisely? by whom precisely’. NOTE. Signed ‘S. C. Hall’. ‘Godwin tells me the certificate is not “up” at the Antiquaries.

Sitter, artist and engraver all have entries in the Oxford DNB. No copy in the National Portrait Gallery. In good condition, lightly aged, on good paper with small embossment of castle. Dimensions of paper, 14.25 x 22.5cm. Dimensions of print, 12.5 x 17.75cm. Oval portrait, 10 cm wide and 13 cm high. Without date or place, but produced as the frontispiece to Stockdale’s 1809 memoirs. A half-length portrait of Stockdale, his face turned to the left, with white cravat and powdered hair, loosely wrapped in a coat.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB and the History of Parliament (‘the foremost diplomat of his age’). It was Malmesbury who went to Brunswick to fetch the Prince Regent’s betrothed Princess Caroline, and whom he asked to get him a brandy on his first encounter with her three years before the present letter was written. A legible script was clearly not a prerequisite for a successful diplomat, as the handwriting of this missive is scandalously bad: practically on a level with that of Dr Parr. 1p, 4to.

An interesting letter, revealing the nuanced position of a liberal cleric on a difficult question. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. On bifolium. Signed ‘J. F. Oxon:’. Text clear and entire, on creased and worn paper, with two short closed tears at edges. Folded twice for postage. Minuted (by the recipient) at top of first page: ‘I read this at the Cler[ical]. meeting - (part of it)’.