ST.

Humphris wrote a number of books, including biographies of Fred Archer, Mathew Dawson, Adam Lindsay Gordon. See Power’s entry in the Oxford DNB. From Power’s library. The material is in good condition, lightly aged, in good tight green cloth binding made for Power, with ‘BOB POTT’ in gilt on spine. The printed article is 36pp, 4to, paginated 69-104, with two plates: black and white photographs of George Romney’s portraits of Pott and his wife Emily. A couple of minor manuscript emendations by the author at the start, and a few pencil annotations by Power.

See his entry in the Dictionary of National Biography. From the papers of Sylvia and Robert Lynd. Scarce: only three copies on JISC (Oxford, NLS and BL). 24pp, 12mo. Stapled. In blue printed wraps with flaps. Colophon on first page, with small indistinguishable device: ‘THE FIRST BOOKLET / set, printed and published by the / Janus Press at Bickley in Kent / 1933’. Title-page: ‘AN IRISH IDYLL / CHARLES DUFF / [crude vignette of shamrock] / Janus Press’. Information on reverse of title includes: ‘An Irish Idyll was first used by / The British Broadcasting Corporation / on the 12th.

St Aubyn’s entry in the Oxford DNB makes no mention of Plymouth or the Royal Navy. 9pp, foolscap 8vo, on nine leaves of laid paper with fleur-de-lys watermark. In poor condition: an attempt has been made to burn the document, and the left-hand side of each leaf has been badly damaged, with much of it crumbled away in burnt flakes, and the surviving text badly marked on that side. The description on the outside of the packet states that the draft is ‘For the perusal of Mr. Jones’ (presumably St Aubin’s lawyer).

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. On worn and aged paper, with L-shaped closed tear at left-hand edge. Folded for postage. Addressed to her at Bebington in the Wirral. Loose, smudged signature ‘St John Ervine’. He thanks her for her ‘letter and its enclosure, which I return. If I were to rebuke every cub reporter who wrote so stupidly as the young man to whom you refer, I should fill The Observer with my reproofs, apart altogether from the fact, that I should be giving the young man an exaggerated sense of his importance.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Stuart was at the time actor-manager of the Adelphi Theatre, London. Both items in good condition, lightly aged, and folded for postage. ONE: 3pp, 12mo (the third page carrying a postscript written lengthwise). Bifolium. Begins: ?Dear Sir / I have a new play which I should like to read to you if you would care to hear it.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper, with rusting from a paperclip to both leaves. Addressed to 'Mr Texeira [sic] de Mattos' and signed 'S John E. C. Hankin'. He thanks him for the cheque and is sorry to hear that the recipient's 'great project has come to nought - at least for the moment'. He expects that de Mattos saw 'the Bankruptcy of the New Saturday duly chronicled? You were a true prophet. I gather it will pay nothing in the ?'. The New Saturday was a short-lived newspaper, going to the wall after a few issues in 1897.

See her entry, and that of her husband, in the Oxford DNB. Black and white print postcard, on shiny paper stock. In good condition, lightly aged. Showing image of waterfall in thick foliage, with caption at foot ‘The Waterfall, Earby.’ Photographers’ details at bottom right.

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly aged and folded for postage. 2pp, 12mo. Signed ‘H H Milman’ and addressed to ‘G. C. Lewis Esq’. Written in a crabbed hand. Begins: ‘My dear Lewis / I think that I mentioned to you my great wish to build a Church for the [?] of St Margarets.

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly aged and folded for postage. 2pp, 16mo. Signed ‘H H Milman’ and addressed to ‘My dear Mr Lister’ (the item is from the papers of Lister’s wife Lady Theresa Lewis (1803-1865; ODNB). He begins by congratulating Lister on the birth of his daughter ‘and the safety of Lady Theresa’.

See Bullock's entry in the Oxford DNB. From the archives of Philip Dosse, proprietor of Hansom Books, publisher of the ‘Seven Arts’ group of magazines, including ‘Books and Bookmen’ and ‘Plays and Players’. See ‘Death of a Bookman’ by the novelist Sally Emerson (editor of ‘Books and Bookmen’ at the time of Dosse’s suicide), in Standpoint magazine, October 2018. 1p, 8vo. In fair condition, lightly creased. Folded twice for postage.

HMS Beacon (launched in 1820 as HMS Meteor and renamed in 1832) was a survey ship (having been under her previous name a Hecla-class bomb vessel), sold in 1846. HMS Britannia, the third of the name, was launched in 1820. She took part in the Siege of Sebastopol, and later in 1854 was driven ashore on the Russian coast, thereafter serving as a training ship until being sold for breaking in 1869.

A good firm signature, and not a common one. While hugely popular (see his entry in the Oxford DNB), Sims was an intensely private man, who refused to give autographs. 1p, landscape 12mo. In fair condition lightly aged and with slight rust spotting from paperclip; folded for postage. Reads: ‘Dear Adza Vincent, / My wife and I both thank you for sending Christopher’s Bedford talk. I have taken the liberty of typing a copy for own archives, and can now return the one you sent. / With renewed thanks, / Yours sincerely, / Alastair Sim’.

Lonsdale’s entry in the Oxford DNB has the following to say: ‘In 1925 The Last of Mrs Cheyney was produced at the St James's Theatre, with the leading roles played by Gladys Cooper, Ellis Jeffreys, Ronald Squire, and Sir Gerald Du Maurier. This, Lonsdale's most famous play, ran for 514 performances [from 22 September 1925] in London, and enjoyed comparable popularity in New York, Berlin, and Paris.

The Gilbert Miller production of ‘Pride and Prejudice’, designed by Rex Whistler, and starring Celia Johnson as Elizabeth Bennet and Hugh Williams as Mr Darcy, was a great success. It opened at the St James's Theatre, London, on 27 February 1936, and closed on 21 November 1936; with a Christmas revival between 26 December 1936 and 16 January 1937. There was a royal performance before Queen Mary on 15 February 1937, and the production went on tour for the rest of the year.

From the papers of W. J. Macqueen-Pope (see his entry in the Oxford DNB). Addressed in autograph to MP care of the BBC, and then forwarded to his office, 359 Strand. Pencil annotation by MP. On one side of an unillustrated postmarked printed British ‘Indian Postage’ air mail card with Indian postage stamp. In good condition, aged and lightly-worn. Also in Singh’s autograph is the salutation to ‘Dear Pope’ and the valediction ‘Your sincere / St Nihal Singh ST NIHAL SINGH’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, and that of his brothers the architect Leonard Scott Stokes and the inventor of the ‘Stokes Gun’ Sir Wilfred Scott Stokes. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Signed ‘Adrian Stokes’. He has added the word ‘at’ above the letterhead, indicating that the residence is not his (it is in fact the house that his brother Leonard designed for himself).

The subject of the present letter is, as Marshall’s entry in the Oxford DNB explains, her ‘translation of a play by the first female dramatist, Hrotsvit. ‘Paphnutius’ was given a world première by Craig for the Pioneer Players in January 1914.’ The recipient, Henry Mackinnon Walbrook (1865-1941), was the drama critic of the Pall Mall Gazette. 2pp, 12mo. In fair condition, on dusty discoloured paper, with slight rust spotting from paperclip.

The tradition of this annual day of revels at Scotland's oldest university St Andrews is said to date back to the fifteenth century and is said to commemorate the visits of a lady Katharine Kennedy to her uncle, Bishop Kennedy of St Andrews, every Spring. 9 x 5 cm sepia photographic print of illustration, laid down on 10.5 x 6 cm piece of card, and clearly made in the nineteenth century. In fair condition, lightly aged. As part of the print, at bottom right: ‘Kate Kennedy pinxit / 1871’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. On bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. The recipient’s name is uncertain (‘Knight Sladen’?) He is sorry that he is prevented from ‘coming to the Mansion House on Wedy’ by ‘the demands of practice’. The subject has his sympathy, ‘and, else, 2 Guineas if there is a subscription list & if small amounts be accepted’. He wonders whether his ticket might be used ‘by a patriotic sister & a friend!’ He asks him to simply send a post card ‘to say I may substitute their names for mine’.

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’.

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!’

2pp, 18mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased. Folded once. Written in a close, elegant hand. Written on receipt of a presentation copy of MacQueen-Pope's latest book, the letter begins: 'My dear Popie, | Thank you so very much for St James's, Theatre of Distinction. I think I am enjoying it even more than I usually enjoy your individual-theatre books, because the St James's meant so much to me. It was the first London theatre I ever went to - long before I could read or went to a school.

Two items in the hand of George Whitley, surgeon, of Halton, Cheshire (not to be confused with his namesake the epidemiologist George Whitley (1816-1881), for whose career see Fraser Brockington, 'Public Health in the Nineteenth Century', 1965). The two items are accompanied by the front board of a volume, with the following ownership inscription and note on the pastedown: 'George Whitley, Surgeon, | St. Thomas' Hospital. | London. | Novr. 22. 1819. | NB. See in this Book a Copy of a Letter to Lady Cunliffe pr. Mr. [?] Surgeon, about an Ulcerated Leg of her House Keeper, Mrs.

This item appears to relate to the efforts of Sir William Parkhurst to raise money in order to pay fines and other demands made on him as a royalist by the Commonwealth. Parkhurst had served as Warden of the Royal Mint from 1623 until its seizure by Parliament in 1642, being deprived of his post the following year. By the time of the present letter his circumstances become so straitened that he was obliged to sell his family’s Kent estates, to which he had retired after the fall of Oxford in 1646.

Fifteen items of correspondence, including eleven autograph letters from Stonor himself, eight signed 'Edmund Stonor', the other three '+ Edmund Stonor | Abp of Trebizond'. The collection aged and worn, with fraying to edges. The items attached with a brass stud. Regarding the two recipients, prominent solicitors serving the Irish and Roman Catholic interests in London, Philip Witham (1843-1921) - whose firm was Roskell, Witham, Munster and Weld - appears to have succeed F. R. Ward at 1 Gray's Inn Square. The main topic of the correspondence is the drafting in 1888 of Stonor's will.

For information on Tait, see her entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. Aged, worn and lightly stained. The fact that Tait was able to produce a lithographed circular for such a minor purpose indicates her resources. The only words in the document in Tait's genuine autograph are the interpolated 'now & in Jan'. The circular reads: 'My dear Sir | I am very anxious to secure the election of Harriet Amelia Johnson to St Ann's School Brixton. Her father who was well known to us died this year leaving a widow and three children unprovided for.

On 6 x 11 cm piece of paper, laid down on slightly larger piece of grey paper cut from an album. In good condition, lightly aged. The only writing, in a large firm hand, is 'Autograph | Quo Tai-chi'. At the head of the mount, in a contemporary hand: 'Quo-Tai-Chi (Dr) Chinese Ambassador in London'.

See Parris's entry in the Oxford DNB. The subject of the letter is his work 'restoring' James Thornhill's paintings inside the dome of St Paul's Cathedral. Beginning in 1853 and ending three years later, Parris worked on scaffolding he had designed for the purpose thirty years before. His efforts were not well received: he was accused of completely repainting Thornhill's work, to its detriment. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and creased, with minor traces of mount adhering to the blank reverse. Folded twice.

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.

Two items, both in fair condition, lightly aged and worn, but carelessly extracted from the volume in which they were previously bound up, so that Lindley's letter has suffered slight damage at the edge of both leaves, resulting in repair to one of the leaves, and the loss of a tiny strip of paper from the other, with the loss of a few letters of text (all easily supplied). ONE: Autograph Letter Signed from 'John Lindley | Vice Secretary' to 'John Hearne Esq | St. Domingo'. The letter begins: 'I am directed to transmit to you the Copy of a letter [i.e.