Latest additions

Author, Title, Summary Price
Sir Sidney Colvin (1845-1927), literary and art critic, Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, biographer of John Keats and friend of Robert Louis Stevenson

[Sir Sidney Colvin, British Museum curator, biographer of Keats and friend of R. L. Stevenson.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Mr Fagan’, declining any item from the ‘various volumes and packets of prints’ he has sent.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On a bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with strip of mount adhering to blank reverse of second leaf. Addressed to ‘Dear Mr Fagan’ and signed ‘Sidney Colvin’. He begins by informing him that of the ‘various volumes and packets of prints’ he has...

£50.00
Queen of Romania: Elisabeth of Wied [Pauline Elisabeth Ottilie Luise] (1843-1916), wife of King Carol I, prolific author under the pseudonym ‘Carmen Sylva’ [Louis Ulbach (1822-1889), French novelist]

[Queen of Romania: Elisabeth of Wied.] Long Autograph Letter Signed ('Elisabeth'), in French, to the novelist Louis Ulbach, lamenting the death of her cousin Marie of Waldeck and praising his work.

Not only an unusually intimate letter for a member of royalty to write, but also an interesting communication from a poet to her mentor. On Ulbach’s death the Pall Mall Gazette (20 April 1889) referred to Elisabeth as ‘the poet-Queen of Roumania’, stating that it was to Ulbach whom ‘she owed the...

£500.00 Elisabeth
Lord Bute, builder of Cardiff Docks: John Crichton-Stuart (1793-1848), 2nd Marquess of Bute [Lord Mount Stuart, 1794-1814], aristocratic landowner and industrialist, developed the Welsh coal industry

[Lord Bute, builder of Cardiff Docks: John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute.] Autograph Letter Signed to A[lexander]. Milne, regarding legal opinions he has received, and a ‘complete abstract of the title to all the family estates’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with slight damage to the blank reverse of the second leaf from mount. Folded three times, with a short closed tear at the edge of one crease. The recipient is named by Bute as ‘A. Milne Esq’ (the...

£56.00
Lord George Bentinck [William George Frederick Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck] (1802-1848), Conservative politician and racehorse owner, protectionist opponent of Sir Robert Peel's Corn Law policy

[Lord George Bentinck, racehorse owner and protectionist opponent of Sir Robert Peel’s Corn Law policy.] Autograph Signature franking letter to Lieut.-General Lord FitzRoy Somerset at Horse Guards.

See the entries of Bentinck and FitzRoy Somerset in the Oxford DNB. On approximate 11 x 6 cm rectangle cut from cover of letter. In good condition, lightly aged, with minor traces of grey paper mount adhering to blank reverse. Addressed by Bentinck in the customary staggered way: ‘Lieut: Genl...

£45.00 Bentinck
John Toler, 1st Earl of Norbury (1745-1831), Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas between 1800 and 1827, known as ‘the Hanging Judge’ [Nathaniel Alexander (1760-1840), Bishop of Meath]

[‘The Hanging Judge’: the Earl of Norbury, Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas.] Autograph Signed endorsement, with that of Nathaniel Alexander, Bishop of Meath, to manuscript recommendation of ‘Alexander Hawthorne of Sackville Street, Glover’.

Within a couple of years of his death Norbury’s nickname was given as ‘the hanging judge’ (see ‘The Georgian Era’, vol.2, 1833), and yet no mention is made of the fact in his entry in the Oxford DNB. The present document is 1p, 4to. On the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium. In fair condition...

£280.00 Norbury
Henry Williamson (1895-1977), English novelist, naturalist and ruralist, best-known for his book ‘Tarka the Otter’

[Henry Williamson, novelist and ruralist, author of ‘Tarka the Otter’.] Long typewritten description of his farm, Bank House, Botesdale, Suffolk, with autograph emendations, intended to aid its sale, but surprisingly readable.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. According to Anne Williamson’s 1995 biography, Williamson decided on the spot to purchase the farm at Bank House, Botesdale, Suffolk, when his car broke down across the road from it in July 1945. The purchase price was £1700. Five years later he decided that the...

£180.00 Williamson
J. R. Planché [James Robinson Planché], dramatist, antiquary and herald [Charles Dance (1794-1863), playwright]

[James Robinson Planché, dramatist, antiquary and herald.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Dear [Derrick?]’, regarding Charles Dance and a benefit.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. LETTER: 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, in remains of windowpane mount. Folded twice. Addressed to ‘Dear [Derrick?]’ and signed ‘J: R: Planché’. The year has been supplied in another hand in pencil. He informs him that ‘Charles Dance is out of town’,...

£56.00
Leonard Russell (1906-1974), literary editor of the Sunday Times and founder of the Saturday Review, husband of film critic Dilys Powell [J. G. Wilson [John Gideon Wilson] (1876-1963), bookseller]

[Leonard Russell, literary editor of the Sunday Times.] Typed Letter Signed to the bookseller J. G. Wilson of J. & E. Bumpus, regarding a book he lent him, and an piece he is writing.

See the two men's entries in the Oxford DNB. Russell's papers are in the Harry Ransom Center at Texas. 1p, 4to. Aged and worn, with creasing and closed tear along left edge. Folded one. Carrying a neat and controlled signature, ‘Leonard Russell.’ He has ‘just come across’ the books Wilson lent...

£45.00
Henry Hawkins (c.1796-c.1881), English landscape artist and portraitist [James Holmes (1777-1860), miniature and genre painter; William Loney, Macclesfield surgeon]

[Henry Hawkins, English artist.] Autograph Letter Signed to William Loney of Macclesfield, regarding a ‘successful’ portrait he is painting of ‘Mr Roe’, and upsetting a bottle of varnish over a letter.

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...

£75.00
[Anti-Vietnam War, UK.] Committee for Communist Unity; ‘Vanguard’ edited by Arthur Henry Evans (b. 1902), Anti-Revisionist Maoist Welsh communist and poet, proprietor of David-Goliath Publications

[Anti-Vietnam War movement, UK.] Mimeographed pamphlet issued by the ‘Committee for Communist Unity & Vanguard’, titled ‘Vietnam’.

The Committee for Communist Unity and Vanguard were both mouthpieces of the Maoist Welsh Communist A. H. Evans, who was born in the village of Aber Clydach, near Talybont on Usk, Breconshire. He gives biographical information in his ‘English Historians and Welsh History’ (1975). The only copy of...

£120.00
Syndicate content