MANUSCRIPT

[Hugh Dalton, Clement Attlee’s Chancellor of the Exchequer: ‘This is a proud honour’.] Two Typed Letters Signed to educationalist T. Lloyd Humberstone, noting that he is the first University of London Chancellor, criticizing ‘Harrovian Chancellors’.

Author: 
Hugh Dalton (1887-1962), economist, Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1945-7, one of ‘big five’ in Clement Attlee Labour Party postwar government [T. Lloyd Humberstone, educationist; University of London]
Publication details: 
21 September 1945 and 11 March 1946. Both from Treasury Chambers, the first from Whitehall and the second from Great George Street.
£75.00

See entry in Oxford DNB on Edward Hugh John Neale Dalton, Baron Dalton (1887-1962). Thomas Lloyd Humberstone (1876-1957) was a prominent member of the Convocation of the University of London. Both signed ‘Hugh Dalton’. Both in good condition and lightly aged. ONE (21 September 1945): 1p, 4to. Folded twice. He has found Humberstone’s letter ‘most interesting’, and sends delayed thanks for his congratulations (on Dalton’s appointment as Chancellor). He will also be ‘requiring a cheque in due course’, and notes the ‘suggestion of a tax rebate’.

[F. Carruthers Gould [‘FCG’, Sir Francis Carruthers Gould], British caricaturist and cartoonist.] Autograph Letter Signed to Lady Maxwell Lyte, stating that he is ‘always conscious of failure’ when attempting to ‘put sentiment into a cartoon’.

Author: 
F. Carruthers Gould [Sir Francis Carruthers Gould; 'FCG'] (1844-1925), British caricaturist and political cartoonist [Lady Frances Lyte (d.1925), wife of Sir Henry Maxwell Lyte (1848-1940)]
Publication details: 
19 November 1916; Upway, Porlock [Somerset].
£35.00

See Gould’s entry in the Oxford DNB, with that of Lady Lyte’s husband. The Lytes were Somerset neighbours of Gould. 1p, 12mo. In good condition. He is glad to hear that ‘Mr Logsdail has done the drawing for you for he would be able to do far more justice to it than I could possibly have achieved’. On the occasions when he is called upon to ‘put sentiment into a cartoon’ he is ‘always conscious of failure and it is well to know one’s limitations’.

[F. Carruthers Gould [‘FCG’, Sir Francis Carruthers Gould], British caricaturist and cartoonist.] Autograph Letter Signed, telling Montague B. Ashford that the examination of his autograph collection has brought home to him mankind's good nature.

Author: 
F. Carruthers Gould [Sir Francis Carruthers Gould; 'FCG'] (1844-1925), British caricaturist and political cartoonist [Montague B. Ashford, autograph collector]
Publication details: 
21 June 1903; on letterhead of 3 Endsleigh Street, Tavistock Square, W. C. [London].
£35.00

See Gould's entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition. The two leaves of the bifolium on which the letter is written have been separated, and each bears minor evidence of mounting on the blank reverse. He thanks Ashford for allowing him to ‘look through your very interesting collection of autographs’, which ‘does equal credit to your energy and to the good nature of mankind in general’. He continues: ‘The pages of an autograph book always make me realise that people are not so crabbed and disagreeable to each other as pessimists imagine or profess to believe.

[Gertrude Ward, Matron at Eton College, who trained under Florence Nightingale.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Miss Wright’, discussing their forthcoming meeting at Eton.

Author: 
Gertrude Ward (c.1862-1950), Matron at Eton College, who trained under Florence Nightingale at St Thomas’s Hospital, London
Publication details: 
3 October 1903; on letterhead of ‘Eton College, Windsor.’
£75.00

Gertrude Ward trained under Florence Nightingale at St Thomas’s Hospital in London (see below), after which she became a district nurse, and then sister at the Medical Mission, Zanzibar. She was appointed to the position of Matron at Eton in 1901. 2pp, 12mo. Bifolium, folded twice. In good condition. Nineteen lines of text. Signed ‘Gertrude Ward.’ She confirms the day of an appointment, but wishes to change the hour, as ‘unfortunately another UMCA Candidate has arranged to come at 3.30 on that day’.

[Harriet Parr, Victorian novelist encouraged by Charles Dickens.] Autograph Note Signed to ‘Miss Cameron’, regarding the return of ‘Fanny’ and the recipient’s forthcoming garden party, ‘one of my chief pleasures of the Season’.

Author: 
Harriet Parr [pseudonym, ‘Holme Lee’] (1828-1900), prolific British nineteenth-century author, admired and encouraged by Charles Dickens
Publication details: 
2 July [year not stated]; Whittle Mead [Shanklin, Isle of Wight].
£35.00

1p, 12mo. On laid paper, folded once. Informing her that ‘Fanny’ will be returning in a few days, and that ‘we shall be very happy to come to your Garden Party on Thursday 10th. which is one of my chief pleasures of the Season’.

[Henry Westmacott, sculptor, brother of Sir Richard Westmacott.] Signature to Autograph Receipt for payment for ‘Monument to the Memory of Col[one]l. Campbell - including cases - Inscriptions - &c’.

Author: 
Henry Westmacott (1784-1861), sculptor who worked on Nelson’s tomb in St Paul’s Cathedral, brother of Sir Richard Westmacott (1775-1856), and member of British sculpting dynasty
Publication details: 
Dated 18 February 1814. No place.
£35.00

On one side of slip of laid paper, with watermark date ‘1811’. Dimensions: 18.5 x 7.5 cm. In good condition, folded three times. Good firm signature. Reads: ‘Received Feby: 18th: 1814. of Mrs. Campbell One Hundred & fifty Pounds for a Monument to the Memory of Coll. Campbell - including cases - Inscriptions - &c | £150 | Henry Westmacott.’ For Westmacott's work on Nelson's tomb, see the Archaeological Journal, 1894, vol. 51 (2nd series no. 1), p.161..

[F. Carruthers Gould [‘FCG’, Sir Francis Carruthers Gould], British caricaturist and cartoonist.] Eleven Autograph Letters Signed, each to a different correspondent (Sir George Newnes; Macleod Yearsley; Charles Hobhouse and others).

Author: 
F. Carruthers Gould [Sir Francis Carruthers Gould; 'FCG'] (1844-1925), British caricaturist and cartoonist [Sir Charles Hobhouse; Sir George Newnes; Macleod Yearsley; Westminster Gazette]
Publication details: 
The eleven items dating between 1902 and 1910: seven of them on letterheads of 3 Endsleigh Street, Tavistock Square; the other four on letterheads of the Westminster Gazette, Tudor Street.
£220.00

See Gould's entry in the Oxford DNB, with those of Newnes and Hobhouse. All eleven items are 12mo and signed ‘F Carruthers Gould’. Some show evidence of previous mounting. The collection is in good overall condition. As assistant editor of the Westminster Gazette he thanks Mrs Elizabeth Lee for her ‘suggestion about an article on the German Theatre’; and Macleod Yearsley for his ‘sketch of Macrurus’ (‘I already had the creature in my mind as the likeness is certainly a striking one’).

[F. Carruthers Gould [‘FCG’, Sir Francis Carruthers Gould], British caricaturist and cartoonist.] Autograph Letter Signed to Lady Dorothy Nevill, praising her ‘delightful book’, with its ‘very kindly reference’ to him.

Author: 
F. Carruthers Gould [Sir Francis Carruthers Gould; 'FCG'] (1844-1925), British caricaturist and political cartoonist [Lady Dorothy Nevill (1826-1913), society hostess and writer of memoirs]
Publication details: 
3 November 1907; on letterhead of 3 Endsleigh Street, Tavistock Square, W. C. [London].
£35.00

See both their entries in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition. He has ‘just read with much grateful pleasure’ the ‘very kindly reference’ to him in her ‘delightful book’ (presumably her second volume of reminiscences, ‘Leaves from the Notebooks of Lady Dorothy Nevill’, 1907). He is ‘just in the middle of it and enjoying it keenly’. The only fault he can find is that he will soon come to the end of it. It deserves great success and he hopes she will ‘give us more reminiscences’.

[‘Lucas Malet’ (pseudonym of Mary St Leger Kingsley), Victorian novelist admired by her friend Henry James.] Autograph Letter Signed (“Mary St Leger Harrison | ‘Lucas Malet’ ”) to ‘Mr. Combe’, sending him her autograph in charming style.

Author: 
‘Lucas Malet’, pseudonym of Mary St Leger Kingsley (1852-1931), Victorian novelist admired by her friend Henry James, daughter of Charles Kingsley
Publication details: 
10 October 1892. On embossed letterhead of Clovelly Rectory, Bideford.
£35.00

2pp, 12mo. Bifolium with mourning border (her mother had died the previous December). In good condition, lightly aged, with traces of paper to which the item was glued still adhering to reverse of second leaf. Having been informed by her sister ‘Miss Kingsley’ (her elder sister Rose) that Combe is ‘kind enough to wish for my autograph’, she has ‘much pleasure in sending it you - but I wish my pen was a better one, more befitting this serious occasion!’

[‘Theatre Royal Darwar’, 1858: British amusements during the Indian Mutiny.] Seven items relating to the ‘Corps Dramatique’ of ‘Mrs. Comfit’: four handbills and three manuscript items, incl.2 poems and drawing of castigating Englishwoman. See Image.

Author: 
‘Theatre Royal Darwar’, ‘Opera Comique d’Arwar’, ‘Mrs. Comfit & Co’ [Dharwar, Bombay Presidency, India [now Dharwad, Karnataka]; Indian Mutiny; the Raj; East India Company; British India]
darwar
Publication details: 
Three of the eight items dated to 1858, and with the same date on one of the mounts; all from Dharwar, Bombay Presidency, India [now Dharwad, Karnataka].
£750.00
darwar

An interesting and evocative collection of ephemeral material, casting light on the social activities and entertainments of the British in India in the last months of the Indian Mutiny, also the year of the dissolution of the East India Company. No other record of this amateur ‘Corps Dramatique’, or of its conductor ‘Mrs. Comfit’, has been discovered.

[Aberdeen Shoemaker's Stock and Equipment, 1838] [MANUSCRIPT] Roup [Auction] Account of the Stock in Trade which belonged to Mr. Andrew Affleck Shoemaker sold in his Shop Union Street Aberdeen | 19th and 20th March 1838.

Author: 
[Aberdeen Shoemaker's Stock and Equipment, 1838]
Shoemaker
Shoemaker2
Publication details: 
[Aberdeen, 1838]
£250.00
Shoemaker
Shoemaker2

Eight Pages, sm. fol., two bifoliums, fold marks, good condition. Stock and Cobblers' Equipment listed with quantities and sums achieved. Headings: Pair Prunella Shoes; Prunella Boots, Cloth Boots [...] Leather Shoes, Boots, Gents Boots, Wellington Boots, Blucher Boots, Slippers [...], Grindstone (x 9), Cutting Board (x18), Logs, Lasts, Boothooks, etc. etc. See Images

Letterbook of Arthur Poyser, Master of the Lord Mayor's Players and Singers, founder of the Lord Mayor's Own 1st City of London B.P. Scouts, containing letters from a number of notable individuas, drawings, programmes, cuttings and other ephemera.

Author: 
Arthur Poyser, International Commissioner for Music, Master of the Lord Mayor's Players and Singers [the Boy Players], and founder in 1908 of the Lord Mayor's Own 1st City of London B.P. Scouts
Publication details: 
Dating from between 1904 and 1938.
£450.00

Poyser was the author of the first 'Official Song-book of the Scout Movement', 'The Scout Song Book' (1912). He published a history of the Tower of London in 1908, 'when I was Master of the Music of the Collegiate Church of Allhallows Barking-by-the-Tower, City of London'. For more information, see The Times, 3 August 1964 ('Roll of Honour for Scouts'). 125 items, including letters, programmes, drawings, postcards, invitations, newspaper and magazine cuttings, relating to the Boy Players and 1st City of London Scout Troop.

[François Guizot, Prime Minister of France, in exile in London following the Revolution of 1848.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Guizot'), in French, to Lady Cullum, explaining his reasons for declining an invitation to visit Hardwick House.

Author: 
François Guizot [François Pierre Guillaume Guizot] (1787-1874), French historian and statesman, Prime Minister of France [Lady Ann Cullum (1807-1875) of Hardwick House]
Publication details: 
'Brompton [London] 14 Sepr 1848'.
£100.00

The recipient is Lady Ann Cullum (1807-1875), widow of Sir Thomas Gery Cullum (1777-1855) of Hardwick House, Bury St Edmunds. 1p, 12mo. On grey paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. The salutation of the letter ('My dear Lady Cullum') is in English, the rest in French. Written at a turbulent period in Guizot's life, following the Revolution in 1848, with the overthrow of the monarchy and its ministry of which he himself was head.

[George Hogarth, music journalist and father-in-law of Charles Dickens.] Manuscript volume, labelled 'No 1 DECEMBER 1837 1838', containing lists of music performed by a band (for Queen Victoria?) on 172 dates, some at Windsor Castle and London.

Author: 
[George Hogarth (1783-1870), Scottish music journalist, father-in-law of Charles Dickens; Queen Victoria; Windsor Castle]
Publication details: 
Windsor and London, 4 December 1837 to 5 October 1838. Binder's ticket of 'W. Creswick, Paper Maker, 5, John Street, Oxford Street' on front pastedown.
£550.00

172pp., 16mo (10 x 6.5 cm.). In original green leather quarter-binding, with marbled endpapers and label on front cover: 'No 1 | DECEMBER | 1837 | 1838'. Aged and worn, with the contents of the volume detached from the binding, and the signatures loose through breaking of the stitching. In pencil beneath the binder's ticket on the front pastedown: 'Hogarth | 10 Powis Place', with this address continuing at the foot of the first page: 'Gt Ormond St'.

[ Johann Gaspar Spurzheim, phrenologist. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('Spurzheim'), in English, to his landlord 'Mr Booth', regarding the possibility of his vacating his house early.

Author: 
Johann Gaspar Spurzheim (1776-1832), German phrenologist, developing the system of Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828), to whom he served as assistant
Publication details: 
'Friday Evening | 23. Foley Place. [ London ]'
£300.00

1p., small 4to. Bifolium. In good condition, with light signs of age. Addressed on reverse of second leaf, with remains of red wax seal, to 'Mr Booth | Duke street'. It is his intention 'to go abroad and not to keep the house longer than Ii am obliged', so he asks Booth if he will 'put up a bill that the house is to be let. it is understood that, if no one will take it before february, I must pay the rent.' He asks if Booth knows 'any poor family in whom you have confidence and who would be glad to live in it till it is let again', suggesting 'the same family who was in it before me'.

[Johann Gaspar Spurzheim, German physician and celebrated phrenologist.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Spurzheim.'), in English, to an unnamed woman, regarding his treatment, 'as friend and not a practioner', of 'our little patient'.

Author: 
Johann Gaspar Spurzheim (1776-1832), German physician, a leading proponent of phrenology
Publication details: 
No place or date. 'Sat. Mg.' [i.e. Saturday morning]
£350.00

1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to the blank reverse. Refusing payment for his services, Spurzheim writes: 'Sat. Mg. | Dear Madam | We had agreed that I would give You my opinion as medical Man with the greatest pleasure as friend and not a practioner. I therefore take the liberty of returning the encolsed. I shall pass by to see our little patient on my way to Woodcroft.

[ Claude J. Montefiore; Judaism ] Autograph Letter Signed Claude J Montefiore, to Field, mainly anticipating his wedding.

Author: 
Claude J. Montefiore [Claude Joseph Goldsmid Montefiore (1858–1938), intellectual founder of Anglo-Liberal Judaism, founding president of the World Union for Progressive Judaism ]
Publication details: 
Invergarry. NB | address 18 Portman Sq. W, 10 Aug. 188[6].
£250.00

Three pages, 12mo, fold marks, good condition. He begins, I write to tell you that your bestman will [now?] not be able to be best man to anybody else. Yes! I am going to do it myself, the 'it' at which I helped you. | It was only arranged a short few days before my mother & I left London. Her name is Therese Schorstein. She is 21 years old. She was a Girton[iau?]. That is the bare outline of the facts so to speak. But I hope you will ere very long get to know the individual yourself & that you will like her. Our marriage is to take place somewhere about the 12 or the 19th of October.

[John Randall, coachmaker] Two Autograph Letter Signed ('John Randall') from the London coachmaker John Randall to 'monsieur le Doctor Brown' [i.e. Sir Charles Brown], physician to the Queen of Prussia, one giving an Estimate for work.

Author: 
John Randall, 80 Long Acre, London, coachmaker and freemason [Sir Charles Brown (c.1747-1827) of Potsdam, 'First Physician to the King of Prussia, his Court and Army']
Coaching
Publication details: 
London, Long Acre 1788 AND London; 30 June 1789.
£150.00
Coaching

(1788) Letter, bifolium, , cr. 8vo, good condition, one page giving assurances as to quality, etc., with list (essentially a quote) of prices/features of A new Fashionable Chariot with a [?] light coloured cloth, Painted a Green [?] Patent yellow, made of the best materials & season'd timber, followed by a price list of various features (blinds, plated head plates, steps, strong plated harness, packing etc etc). See image. (1799) 1p., 4to, bifolium, very good, on lightly-aged paper.

[John Timbs] Autograph Letter Signed from the antiquary John Timbs to an unnamed correspondent, regarding a portrait in the Illustrated London News.

Author: 
John Timbs (1801-1875), antiquary and journalist, editor of The Literary World and sub-editor of the Illustrated London News
Publication details: 
66 Pentonville Road, London. 29 November 1864.
£40.00

1p., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with small scrap from white label adhering to a margin. He explains that the reason that a letter has not been forwarded to him is that he has not, 'for years, had to do with the management of the Illustrated London News', although he does contribute to it. Nevertheless he will try to get the recipient 'a proof of the Port[rai]t. - with great pleasure'. He adds, in a postscript at the head of the page: 'I think the Memoir was cut out from the Times'.

[Florian [Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian], French poet and writer of romances and fables.] Autograph Letter in the third person to his printer Firmin Didot, regarding the latter's request for information regarding 'le véritable homo'.

Author: 
Florian [Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian] (1755-1794), French poet and writer of romances, author of fables and pastoral novels [Firmin Didot (1764-1836), Paris printer]
Publication details: 
22 July 1787. No place ['la Campagne'].
£350.00

1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with stub from mount adhering along one edge. From the celebrated manuscript collection of Richard Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton). In 1787 Didot published Florian's 'Mélanges de poésie et de littérature'. A courtly and characteristic response to a request for information, reading: 'Mr. de florian a l'honneur de souhaiter le bon jour a monsieur Firmin. [a contemporary hand glosses this as 'Didot'] il arrive de la Campagne, et ne peut lui donner aucun détail sur cequ'il [sic] demande. demain il s'en informera, ou priera qu'on s'en informe.

[Jules Massenet, French composer.] Autograph Letter Signed ('M. Massenet') [to husband of Swedish soprano Sigrid Arnoldson-Fischhof?], written on a trip with his wife, regarding a portrait of 'votre “merveille” de femme', and 'notre grand ami Hengel'

Author: 
Jules Massenet [Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet] (1842-1912), French composer [Sigrid Arnoldson-Fischhof (1861-1943), Swedish soprano]
Publication details: 
8 February [no year]. No place.
£200.00

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. On aged paper, with punch hole through both leaves at head, small closed cut along bottom edge of first leaf, and with paper and part of another letter (from an album) glued onto the reverse of the second leaf. Folded once. The signature 'M. Massenet' is explained in Massenet's obituary in the Musical Times, 1 September 1912, which speaks of 'the composer's known antipathy to the name Jules […] He preferred to be called “M. Massenet” simply'. The recipient of this enthusiastic letter is not named.

[Pierre Hyacinthe Azaïs, French philosopher.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Azaïs.'), in French, to 'Monsieur le Ministre' [François Guizot], discussing his work and health, and the 'Peuple Francais', and asking to be nominated to the Academy of Sciences

Author: 
Pierre Hyacinthe Azaïs (1766-1845), French philosopher promoted by Napoleon Bonaparte [François Guizot [François Pierre Guillaume Guizot], French historian and statesman, Prime Minister of France]
Publication details: 
14 November 1843. Paris.
£350.00

7pp, 4to. On two bifoliums. In good condition, lightly aged, with the two bifoliums attached to one another and to a stub from mount. From the celebrated manuscript collection of Richard Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton). The government minister addressed in the letter is not named, but is clearly the historian François Guizot, who was Prime Minister of France, 1847-1848. A carefully composed and neatly and closely written letter.

Cécile Vogt [Cécile Vogt-Mugnier], French neurologist, wife/colleague of German neurologist Oskar Vogt.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Cécile Vogt.'), in French, to an unnamed colleague, discussing the examination of a human brain.

Author: 
Cécile Vogt [Cécile Vogt-Mugnier] (1875-1962), French neurologist, wife of German neurologist Oskar Vogt, the couple making groundbreaking discoveries in neuroanatomy and neuropathology.
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the 'Neuro-biolog. Institut', Berlin; 21 September 1911.
£450.00

The Vogts made a series of discoveries over six decades. It was to Oskar Vogt that the Soviets entrusted Lenin's brain. 2pp, 8vo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, somewhat grubby on blank reverse of second leaf. Folded once. The recipient ('Monsieur') is not named. She begins by commenting on the enclosed photographs of a brain: 'Comme vous le voyez, le foyer n'a pas touché la 3e frontale, il s'étend à la partie inférieure de la frontale ascendante'. She asks him to send his observations, 'si vous avez pu prendre suffisament de notes sur le cas'.

[Charles Nodier, French Romantic supernatural author.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Charles Nodier'), in French, explaining to an unnamed count that his friend and protégé 'M. Leharivel' is not eligible for membership of the Academie Française.

Author: 
Charles Nodier [Jean Charles Emmanuel Nodier] (1780-1844), French Romantic author of fantastic and supernatural tales, Librarian of Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Member of the Académie Française
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£250.00

1p, 12mo. Seventeen lines of closely written text. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, laid down on a leaf from an album. The recipient is not named, but is addressed as 'Monsieur le Comte'. The letter concerns the count's 'ami et protégé' 'M. Leharivel' [author of 'Grammaire Francaise Pasigraphique, Simplifiee Et Regularisee, Pour Servir de Base Fondamentale; Et Anecdotes, Et Contes Historiques (1839) ].

[Mary L. Armitt, polymath] MANUSCRIPT: Draft of the Index (ONLY) to her book, The Church of Grasmere: a history, published posthumously..

Author: 
Mary L. Armitt [Mary Louisa Armitt (1851 -1911), polymath, teacher, writer, ornithologist and philanthropist, and founder of the Armitt Library, Ambleside.]
Grasmere
Publication details: 
Book published in Kendal, 1912. See scan of sample page.
£380.00
Grasmere

Sixteen pages (two are half pages), fol., some foxing, but text clear. The text is in a large hand, with additions and occasional corrections for example, the word out is written beside 'Eighteen, the see Sidesmen', itself crossed out.

[Malcolm Elwin, biographer. critic; Detective Fiction; bibliography] Holograph Manuscript entitled The Vogue of the Detective Story Signed T.M.E.11/11/26. WITH: holograph review of new edn ( Collins, c.1930?) of The Murders in the Rue Morgue.

Author: 
Malcolm Elwin [( 1903-1973), prolific biographer, literary critic and editor.
Publication details: 
[1926]. N.B. The Golden Age of the Detective Story usually spans the 20s and 30s, so Elwin is perhaps the first analyst of the genre..
£950.00

Pp.1, 2, 4 [missing 3] with additional unnumbered page entitled bibliography of [...] the Detective Story, folio, connected with stud creating hole which only marginally affects the text, good condition. Lightly corrected MS. An early, pioneering study of the genre as it developed, as a phenomenon similar to literary predecessors (Elizabethan drama). He associates the craze for the detective story with the (post) First World War, but (obviously) finds topoi in Sherlcok Holmes and Murders in the Rue Morgue, citing R.

[George Colwell Oke, legal author, Chief Clerk to the Lord Mayor of London.] Four Autograph Letters Signed to George Edward Frere, alleging editorial prejudice, and discussing statute on weights and measures, killing of horses.

Author: 
George Colwell Oke (1821-1874), Chief Clerk to the Lord Mayor of London, author of legal works including ‘Oke’s Magisterial Formulist’ [George Edward Frere (1807--1887) of Roydon Hall, Norfolk]
Publication details: 
All four from 1861: 26 and 31 January; and 17 and 20 June. All four letters on letterhead of Mansion House Justice Room, London, EC.
£160.00

All signed ‘George C: Oke’. At the time of writing Oke was Assistant Clerk to the Lord Mayor, a position he had held since 1855; in 1864 he would assume the Chief Clerkship. For details of the recipient, barrister and F.R.S, elder brother of Sir Bartle Frere and nephew of Canning’s friend the satirist John Hookham Frere, see the Law Times, 31 December 1887. The four letters total 10pp, 12mo, all on letterheads with engraved arms of the City of London. All in good condition; very lightly aged; with folds. Closely and neatly written.

[Surgeon who treated Napoleon’s hemorrhoids: Guillaume Dupuytren, French anatomist.] Autograph Signature (‘B Gull Dupuytren’), as ‘premier Chirurgien du Roi’, to deposition on behalf of his pupil William Edmund Image; attested by Barthélémy Guiton.

Author: 
Guillaume Dupuytren (1777-1835), anatomist, ‘premier Chirurgien du Roi’ who treated Napoleon Bonaparte's hemorrhoids; Barthélémy Guiton (1764-1833) [William Edmund Image (1807-1903), philatelist]
Publication details: 
4 July 1829; Paris.
£220.00

1p, 4o. On watermarked laid paper. In fair condition, with slight wear and chipping; folded twice. Two manuscript endorsements on reverse, which also carries minor traces of previous mounting. In fairness to Dupuytren, his finest achievement is not operating on Napoleon’s hemorrhoids, but the description and first successful operation on what is now known as Dupuytren's contracture. Image lived with Dupuytren while studying medicine in Paris. Signed in untidy medical hand: ‘Paris le 4 juil: 1829 | B Gull Dupuytren’.

[Auguste-Henri Forel, Swiss entomologist and neurologist, authority on ants, pioneer of neuron theory.] Autograph Letter Signed (‘Aug. Forel’), in French, on overwork (‘Ma position ici me tue’), work (‘mes fourmis de Colombie’) and future plans..

Author: 
Auguste-Henri Forel (1848-1931), distinguished Swiss entomologist, neurologist, Director of Burghölzli psychiatric hospital, Zürich, and eugenicist, authority on ants and co-founder of neuron theory
Publication details: 
Burghölzli psychiatric hospital, Zürich. 23 December 1896.
£250.00

Forel’s work on ants was praised by Charles Darwin. Such is his standing that his image appeared on the 1000 Swiss franc banknote between 1878 and 2000. 4pp, 12mo; bifolium. Lightly aged, worn at foot (with slight affect on signature); folded twice. 73 lines of text, in an untidy hand. Entirely in French, apart from the following towards the end, suggesting an English-speaking recipient: ‘Merry Christmas and New Year!’ Excellent content. The recipient appears to be a British naturalist to whom he promised a magazine piece on a recent visit.

[E. V. Knox, editor of Punch, his wife Mary Shepard (illustrator of ‘Mary Poppins’).] Miscellaneous manuscript material, correspondence and ephemera inserted in manuscript appointments diary for 1954, including first page of typed memoir of Knox .

Author: 
E. V. Knox [Edmund George Valpy Knox] (1881-1971, ‘Evoe’), editor of ‘Punch’ 1932-1948, humorist, essayist and poet [his wife Mary Shepard (1909-2000), illustrator of ‘Mary Poppins’]
Publication details: 
Hampstead, London. ‘Boots’ Scribbling Diary’ covers year 1954. Inserted material dated between 1954 and 1976.
£1,500.00

The diary is a 4to, with around 100pp. (a week’s entries on each leaf). In worn and marked printed olive boards with cloth spine; internally good and sound on lightly-aged paper. No ownership inscription, but from the E. V. Knox papers, and with entries in Knox’s hand and that of his wife Mary, illustrator of Mary Poppins, and daughter of ‘Winnie the Pooh’ illustrator Ernest Shepard. The eighteen inserted items, in good overall condition, are described here before the contents of the diary.

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