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Author, Title, Summary Price
Lady Maud Wilbraham [Lady Alice Maud Bootle-Wilbraham] (1861-1922), President of the Silver Thimble Fund [Mrs Evelyn Julia Allen of the Chelsea Red Cross; Mrs Hope Elizabeth Hope Clarke of Wimbledon]

[Lady Maud Wilbraham, President of the Silver Thimble Fund.] Autograph Card Signed to ‘Mrs Allan’ [Mrs Evelyn Julia Allan] of the Red Cross, thanking her for a contribution, and deploring the state of the times.

An evocative artefact of one of the most successful British charities of the Great War. The Silver Thimble Fund was founded by Hope Elizabeth Hope Clarke of Wimbledon in 1915, and run from her house. Damaged trinkets made of precious metals, including 60,000 silver thimbles, were collected and...

£35.00
Jean Louis Rieu (1872-1964), Commissioner in Sind between 1920 and 1925 [The Raj; British India; Bhojraj M. Bhambhani, son of Mansing Ramsing, and grandson of Diwan Ramsing]

[Jean Louis Rieu, Commissioner in Sind.] Autograph Letter Signed, providing a reference for ‘Mr. Bhojraj M. Bhambhani’, son of his acquaintance ‘Mr. Mansing Ramsing’, Honorary Magistrate and ‘most loyal subject’.

Rieu was the son of Charles Pierre Henri Rieu (1820-1902) of Geneva, Keeper of Oriental Manuscripts at the British Museum, and elder brother of Emile Victor Rieu (1887-1972), both of whom have DNB entries. In 1947 he had privately printed (as’J. L. R.’) a ‘Chronicle of the Rieu Family now...

£90.00
Julia Emilie Neilson (1868-1957), actress and theatre manager with her husband Fred Terry (1863-1933) [W. J. Macqueen-Pope [Walter James Macqueen-Pope], theatre historian]

[Julia Emilie Neilson, actress and theatre manager with her husband Fred Terry.] Two affectionate Typed Letters Signed to ‘Popie’ [the theatre historian W. J. Macqueen-Pope], discussing her poor health, contentment in old age, and birthday.

See her entry and that of Macqueen-Pope in the Oxford DNB. The two items are in fair condition, on aged and lightly-worn paper. Both with the valediction and signature in a large flowing hand, and the second letter also with an autograph postscript. Both are 1p, 4to, and folded three times. ONE...

£60.00
Hall Caine [Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine] (1853-1931), hugely-popular Victorian and Edwardian Isle of Man author [Douglas Sladen [Douglas Brooke Wheelton Sladen] (1856-1947), author and academic]

[‘Pray destroy this letter.’ Hall Caine, English novelist, regarding his war work for the B.ritish Government.] Long ‘Strictly Private’ Autograph Letter Signed to Douglas Sladen, also assessing the position of the man of letters in his England.

An excellent letter, in which Caine evaluates his wartime activities, criticises those of others, and gives his opinion of the the standing of the man of letters in the England of his time. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. On bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. A...

£220.00
E. A. Freeman [Edward Augustus Freeman] (1823-1892), Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford [Victorian church restoration; Welsh architecture; St Mary’s, Haverfordwest; Hodgeston, Pembrokeshire]

[Victorian church restoration: the scathing view of the Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford.] Autograph Letter Signed from E. A. Freeman [Edward Augustus Freeman], expressing concern for the ‘grand detail’ of St Mary’s Haverfordwest.

An interesting letter, in which a knowledgeable contemporary gives an extremely critical opinion of Victorian restoration as it pertains to churches in Wales. Freeman’s entry in the Oxford DNB describes how in his youth he had contemplated a career as an architect, and as a historian he showed ‘...

£56.00
Canon Barnett [Samuel Augustus Barnett] (1844-1913), Church of England cleric and social reformer who founded the East End university settlement Toynbee Hall [East London Shoeblack Brigade]

[Canon Barnett [Samuel Augustus Barnett], clergyman and social reformer who founded Toynbee Hall.] Autograph Letter Signed, asking ‘Maud’ to send violet leaves three times a week to William Tourell, who is dying of cancer.

Barnett’s entry in the Oxford DNB accepts his ‘greatness’ and discusses its nature. 1p, 16mo. On bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. The subject of this letter is William Tourell, Superintendent of the East London Shoeblack Brigade, a charity of which Barnett was treasurer....

£56.00
Benjamin Jowett (1817-1893), Master of Balliol College, Oxford, editor of Plato, theologian and reforming university administrator [Sir Charles Prestwood Lucas; Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford]

[Benjamin Jowett, Master of Balliol College, Oxford, and editor of Plato.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Lucas’ [the future Sir Charles Prestwood Lucas], regarding tutoring Lord Herbrand Russell [the future Duke of Bedford].

The 1880 'Balliol Masque' indicates Jowett's standing, and the pronunciation of his name: 'First come I. My name is Jowett. | There's no knowledge but I know it. | I am Master of this College, | What I don't know isn't knowledge.' See Jowett’s entry, and those of Lucas and Russell, in the Oxford...

£60.00
'Theresa Pulszky [Terézia Pulszky; née Walter] (1819-1866), Austro-Hungarian wife of the Hungarian nationalist Count Ferenc Pulszky (1814-1897) [Sabilla Novello; Clara Novello [Countess Gigliucci]

[Countess Theresa Pulszky, wife of Hungarian nationalist Count Ferenc Pulszky.] Autograph Letter Signed, in English, to Sabilla Novello, describing her ‘Dante festivals’ and artistic activities in Florence.

The Pulskys had fled Austria-Hungary during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, and while in London the Countess had published her well-received ‘Memoirs of a Hungarian Lady’. They would only be allowed back under an imperial amnesty in the year after this letter in 1866. The recipient, Sabilla...

£280.00
W. J. Macqueen-Pope [Walter James Macqueen-Pope], theatre historian and theatre manager, associated in particular with the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London [Mary Treadgold, BBC producer; British Broa

[W. J. Macqueen-Pope, theatre historian.] 27 items: fifteen Typed Scripts of BBC broadcasts, including eleven concerning different London theatres, five earlier drafts, three sets of music lists and two letters to MP from BBC producer Mary Treadgold.

The material collected here is perhaps unique: it is not clear whether any material relating to Macqueen-Pope’s BBC broadcasts has survived elsewhere. It is hard to overestimate the significance of ‘Popie’ to the history of the London stage. Other items from among his papers offered seperately...

£1,500.00
W. E. Gladstone [William Ewart Gladstone] as Secretary of State for the Colonies, 1846 [Colonial Office, Whitehall; nineteenth-century railways; Victorian locomotives]

[William Ewart Gladstone and colonial railways, 1846.] Printed Colonial Office circular dispatch, laying out ‘some general principles’ regarding ‘plans of Railway communication’ in the British colonies.

A scarce item, of which no other copy has been traced. 9pp, 8vo. Disbound from a volume, and paginated in manuscript 57-65. In good condition, lightly aged. Printed in lithograph in facsimile of a manuscript document. Begins by explaining the purpose of the dispatch in true Gladstonian style: ‘I...

£120.00
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