VICTORIAN

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Autograph Letter Signed ('A H Calvert') from the actress Adelaide Helen Calvert to an unnamed theatre proprietor [E. D. Davies, Lessee, Theatre-Royal, Newcastle?], discussing a forthcoming bill.

Author: 
Adelaide Helen Calvert [nee Biddles] (1837-1921), English actress, wife of the actor-manager Charles Alexander Calvert (1828-1879) [Theatre-Royal, Newcastle]
Publication details: 
Undated [before 1879]; on part of playbill for 'Benefit of Mr. Chas. Calvert' at the Theatre-Royal, Newcastle. [M. Benson, Printer, Side, Newcastle.]
£75.00
Adelaide Helen Calvert to an unnamed theatre proprietor

12mo, 3 pp. On bifolium, with the printed playbill for the 'Benefit of Mr. Chas. Calvert' at the Theatre-Royal, Newcastle, on the recto of the first page (including a performance of Much Ado About Nothing, with Calvert as Benedick and Miss Fanny Alexander as Beatrice. The letter is 42 lines long. She feels that, 'with but one rehearsal', the 'Merchante's Storye will scarcely go', and suggests performing 'Nine Points, The Household Fairy, and Head of the Family' instead, considering it 'a good bill' and 'lighter works for all the company'.

Printed Victorian advertising handbill for 'Dispensing Chymist' Keith Longstaff of Fulham Road, London.

Author: 
Keith Longstaff, Dispensing Chymist [Chemist], Fulham, London [Victorian advertising]
Publication details: 
No date [1890s]. Keith Longstaff, Dispensing Chymist. Depot for New & Rare Drugs. 3, Hilton Terrace, Fulham Rd. [London.]
£95.00
Printed Victorian advertising handbill for 'Dispensing Chymist'

12mo, 2 pp. Aged, and with a small hole worn into the centre, without, however, any loss of text. With one side of the leaf printed in double column in the style of an eighteenth-century newspaper, and headed 'Quaint Newspaper Cuttings A.D. 1738. | Ye Fulhame Presse London. S.W.' The other side is laid out to be folded twice, making four small pages (one having 'Not to be cut.' at the foot). One of the four carries an advertisement for Longstaff, with an engraving of his sign, 'Ye stille'. Another puffs 'Keith Longstaff's Autumn Medicine'.

1873 satirical handbill, beginning 'Foxes. The Committee appointed to investigate into the melancholy circumstances attending the malicious poisoning of the foxes in the Parishes of Buckland Filleigh and Sheepwash, [...]'

Author: 
'Lord Aqueduct, Chairman. Peter Blunderhead Grubb, Secretary.' [Buckland, Filleigh and Sheepwash, in Devon; Fox hunting; Victorian field sports; poisoning]
Publication details: 
'Dated FEBRUARY 11th, 1873.'
£75.00
1873 satirical handbill

Printed, in a variety of types and point sizes, on one side of a piece of landscape 8vo paper. Text clear and complete. On aged and creased paper, which has been laid down on a backing of pink card. In full reads 'FOXES. THE COMMITTEE appointed to investigate into the melancholy circumstances attending the malicious POISONING of the FOXES IN THE PARISHES OF Buckland Filleigh and Sheepwash, Will sit daily, during Lent, (weather permitting) at the TOWN HALL, TORRINGTON. | LORD AQUEDUCT, Chairman. | PETER BLUNDERHEAD GRUBB, Secretary. | N.B.

[Printed pamphlet.] England's Bards, 1864; or, The Three Poems which were awarded the one hundred guineas offered as prizes in the advertisement "Ho! For a Shakespeare!" which appeared about the time of Shakespeare's Tercentenary Anniversary.

Author: 
[The Manufacturers of Thomson's Crinolines; 'William Fulford'; 'Peter Quince'; William Shakespeare; Day and Son, Lithographers to the Queen; the Shakespeare Tercentenary Anniversary Celebrations]
Publication details: 
London: Day and Son, Lithographers to the Queen, and to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, Gate Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, 1864.
£85.00
England's Bards, 1864; or, The Three Poems

8vo, 16 pp. Unbound. Evidence of previous stitching, but with no remains of thread,. Aged, worn, and with outer leaves somewhat dusty. Preface, dated 'London, June 1864', by 'THE MANUFACTURERS OF THOMSON'S CRINOLINES', states that the judges of the best of 'the immense number of manuscripts received' were 'B. Webster, Esq., J. Sterling Coyne, Esq., Andrew Halliday, Esq., George Rose, Esq., and Thos.

[Printed handbill.] New Version of the House that Jack Built. [Parallel texts, with the 'old version' in one column, and the 'new version', in circumfluous language, in another.]

Author: 
[Victorian parody of 'The House that Jack Built']
Publication details: 
[Without date or place.] [Late Victorian?]
£125.00
Victorian parody of 'The House that Jack Built']

8vo, 1 p. Text clear and complete. Fair, on thin aged paper, laid down on a sheet of backing. In small type, with the 'old version' of the nursery rhyme, in the left hand column, transformed into a 'new version' of 78 lines of prose in the right-hand column. The first line - 'This is the house that Jack built' - is changed into 'This is the domiciliary edifice erected by John.' The 'priest all shaven and shorn' becomes 'the ecclesiastical gentleman, the summit of whose pericranium was denuded of its natural covering'. Scarce: no copy in the British Library or on COPAC.

[Printed offprint of poem by J. H. Nightingale.] The "Four Liverpool Merchants" and their Letter to the Hempror Napoleon.

Author: 
J. H. Nightingale ['Joe Nightingale'] [Liverpool Daily Post, 1859]
Publication details: 
From the Liverpool Daily Post of Dec. 6, 1859.
£125.00
The "Four Liverpool Merchants" and their Letter to the Hempror Napoleon.

On one side of a piece of paper 27.5 x 11.5 cm. Text, in small type, clear and complete. Fair, on aged and lightly-creased paper.

Manuscript 'Memorandum' of 1883 by 'H. B.', headed 'Confidential', dealing with 'the reasons why the Officers of the Garrison Artillery should be separated from the Field Artillery, and why they should be more highly paid'. With 'Supplementary Memo:'

Author: 
[British Army; Royal Artillery; Garrison Artillery; Victorian military history; the War Office]
Publication details: 
Both items dated 19 August 1883, and both on official British government letterheads.
£180.00
British Army; Royal Artillery; Garrison Artillery; Victorian military history; t

Texts of both items clear and complete. Both on grey paper, each leaf headed with an embossed governmental crest. The 'Memorandum' proper is of ten numbered folio pages, on ten leaves held together with a brass stud. The first page headed 'Confidential' and the last dated 'H. B. | 19th. August 1883' Begins: 'The separation of the N. C.

Original sepia lithograph engraving, titled 'Newland Street, Witham', and showing the offices of the printing office and bookshop of the print's publisher R. S. Cheek.

Author: 
Richard Sutton Cheek, printer and bookseller, Witham, Essex
Publication details: 
[1850s.] 'Published by R. S. Cheek.' [Witham, Essex.]
£125.00
Original sepia lithograph engraving, titled 'Newland Street, Witham'

On piece of paper roughly 29.5 x 44 cm. The image itself is 30 cm wide, with an arched top 18 cm high at sides and 22 cm at the highest point. The image is clear and complete, on dusty spotted paper with fraying and loss to top edge especially. A charming image, showing Victorian middle-class townsfolk comporting in the town centre, with a wide main street with two carriages, and shop names including 'ELLIS' and 'WILSHER BUILDER'. Towards the centre is 'CHEEKS PRINTING OFFICE', 'BOOKSELLER STATIONER'.

[Printed pamphlet.] List of Books in Christ Church, Kilndown, Sunday School Lending Library.

Author: 
[Catalogue of Christ Church, Kilndown, Sunday School Lending Library; R. Pelton, Machine Printer, Tunbridge Wells]
Publication details: 
Tunbridge Wells: R. Pelton, Machine Printer, The Broadway. 1889.
£95.00
List of Books in Christ Church, Kilndown, Sunday School Lending Library.

12mo, 12 pp. In original light-blue printed wraps. Stapled. Text clear and complete. On aged paper with slight damage from rusting of staple, and a little wear and loss to the corners of the wraps. 202 titles, nicely printed. Excessively scarce: no copy in the British Library or on COPAC.

Victorian silk devotional 'Stevengraph' bookmark, in colours, depicting Jesus and Jerusalem, with a scriptural passage, with printed backing label of 'Thomas Stevens, Coventry & London, Inventor and Manufacturer of Pure Silk Woven Book Markers'.

Author: 
Thomas Stevens, Coventry & London, Inventor and Manufacturer of Pure Silk Woven Book Markers [Stevengraph]
Publication details: 
Undated [1880s].
£75.00
Victorian silk devotional 'Stevengraph' bookmark,

In excellent condition. Pinned to grey printed backing label, headed with engravings of a row of 'the highest prize medals & diplomas' awarded to Stevens, and of the 'Stevengraph Works' in Coventry, and Stevens' trade mark. Folded horizontally three times. The bookmark is headed 'A BLESSING' and carries a picture of Jesus with arms outstretched, ascending over Holy Land rooftops. A scriptural passage follows (Matt. 28.5-6), with 'IHS' within a decorative pattern at the foot, which carries a yellow tassel. In rich colours: purple, lilac, green, blue and yellow.

Substantial Autograph Letter Signed from Herbert Palmer to Amy Cruse, discussing in detail the relative merits of his book 'Post-Victorian Poetry' and her 'After the Victorians', with unsigned autograph draft of Cruse's reply.

Author: 
Herbert Palmer [Herbert Edward Palmer] (1880-1961), English poet [Amy Cruse, English author]
Publication details: 
Both Palmer's letter and the copy of Cruse's reply undated [both circa 1938]. Palmer's letter from 22 Batchwood View, St Albans, Herts.
£285.00
Substantial Autograph Letter Signed from Herbert Palmer to Amy Cruse

Both items good, on lightly-aged paper. Palmer's letter: 4to, 6 pp. Text clear and complete. He begins by apologising if his letter to her 'sounded very ungracious': 'I was unaware at the time that you had made any acknowledgement to me, and as I have had my brains picked so frequently without acknowledgment (including, of course, plagiarisms from my poems) I was again feeling rather depressed & exasperated'. While describing her book as 'really [...] very good' and 'reliable', he suggests a number of changes, giving examples of 'where we clash'.

[Printed 'Resolutions' of the British Archaeological Association, written following 'dissensions' within the Association in 1845; with printed tickets of admission.

Author: 
[The British Archaeological Association; Thomas Crofton Croker; Charles Roach Smith; Thomas Joseph Pettigrew]
Publication details: 
Resolutions undated [1845]; printed in London by J. Wertheimer and Co., Printers, Finsbury Circus. Tickets from the 1840s.
£100.00
The British Archaeological Association

Both items fair, on aged and creased paper, with texts clear and complete. Resolutions: 4to, 2 pp. Headed 'British Archaeological Association.' A 'Requisition' having been signed by 'one hundred and sixty-two Members', the Association's treasurer Pettigrew is recorded as following a reading of this with 'a detailed account of the rise and progress of the Association, and of the nature of the dissensions which for months have diverted the attention of the Committee from the objects for which the Association was formed'. The resolutions are stated, and the proposers named as: Rev. R. H.

[Printed 1845 circular on behalf of the British Archaeological Association, by Honorary Secretaries Thomas Crofton Croker and Charles Roach Smith; with printed copy of 'Resolutions' following 'dissensions'; and printed tickets of admission.

Author: 
[The British Archaeological Association; Thomas Crofton Croker; Charles Roach Smith; Thomas Joseph Pettigrew]
Publication details: 
Circular dated 7 March 1845. 'Resolutions' undated, and printed in London by J. Wertheimer and Co., Printers, Finsbury Circus.]
£180.00
[The British Archaeological Association

The three items are in fair condition, on aged and worn paper, with texts clear and complete. Circular by Crofton Croker and Roach Smith: 12mo, 1 p. On bifolium. Headed 'British Archaeological Association'. Enclosing the 'Resolutions', and drawing attention to the fourth of them, with a statement concerning subscriptions. 'Resolutions': 4to, 2 pp.

Autograph Letter Signed from the Victorian author Gertrude Mary Ireland Blackburne ('Gertrude M Ireland Blackburne'), to 'Mr. Parker', concerning autographs, including those of Charlotte Yonge and James Payne.

Author: 
Gertrude Mary Ireland Blackburne (b.1861), author, daughter of John Ireland Blackburne (1817-1893), M.P. for South-West Lancashire, 1875-1885 [James Payne; Charlotte Yonge; Richard Monckton Milnes]
Publication details: 
15 September 1886; on letterhead of Roodee Lodge, Chester, Lancashire.
£85.00
Letter Signed from the Victorian author Gertrude Mary Ireland Blackburne

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. 32 lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. In answer to a request for autographs, she has 'some duplicates somewhere, but tonight I send you only three cards', as she has 'no letters of Miss Yonge that I should like to part with'. She names the authors of the 'three signed postcards' (not present) as: James Payne ('Editor of Cornhill, author of many novels'), Charlotte Yonge and Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton.

[Printed pamphlet.] Catalogue of the Westbury Charities. 1896.

Author: 
[The Westbury Charities] [J. E. Severne, Chairman; R. D. Bromley, Vice-Chairman; W. R. Croft, Clerk; of the Parish Council of Westbury]
Publication details: 
Shrewsbury: W. G. Napier, Printer. 1896.
£75.00
Catalogue of the Westbury Charities

12mo, 8 pp. Stapled. In original grey printed wraps. Text clear and complete. On aged paper and in spotted wraps.

Long manuscript of an early Victorian poem entitled 'The last of the Hohen Stauffens', divided into three sections: 'Italy', 'The Morning of the Execution' and 'The Execution'. With a number of emendations and deletions.

Author: 
[Anonymous Victorian poem ('Written for Dublin about 1843') titled 'The Last of the Hohen Stauffens', on the execution of Conradine, 1268.]
Publication details: 
Undated, but on paper watermarked 1841, and docketed 'Written for Dublin about 1843'.
£125.00
 Victorian poem entitled 'The last of the Hohen Stauffens'

Folio, 11 pp. On the rectos of eleven leaves of Britannia paper watermarked 'W H FELLOWS | 1841'. Held together with string. Text clear and complete. In ink, with deletions and emendations in pencil. Good, on aged paper. Docketed on reverse of last leaf. The subject of the poem is the execution of Conradine in the market square in Naples, 29 October 1268. The first section (3 pp) begins 'Italia fair Italia unto thee, | Was beauty given twice with misery, | At once the loveliest and the loveliest clime, | Thou wert the seat of Empire, and of crime; [...]'.

[Privately printed volume.] Winchester, and a few other Compositions in Prose and Verse. [by Rev. Charles Townsend, Rector of Kingston-by-Sea, Sussex]

Author: 
[Charles Townsend, Rector of Kingston-by-Sea, Sussex]
Publication details: 
[Privately printed.] Winchester: James Robbins, College Street. 1835.
£350.00

Townsend was a member of the Holland House circle. Two of his poems were compared favourably with Wordsworth by J. G. Lockhart. 4to, 80 pp, followed by a manuscript leaf, paginated 81 and 82, with the poems 'Sonnet, On Viewing St Paul's from Blackfriar's Bridge' and 'Sonnet | Richmond late in the Evening'. In original brown cloth boards, worn, rebacked and repaired, with 'WINCHESTER.' in gilt on front. Internally sound and tight, on aged paper. Tipped on the recto of the front free endpaper is a presentation inscription: 'With the Authors | Kind regards:- | Jany: 30th: 1837'.

Manuscript two-part petition, with signatures of numerous residents, addressed to Member of Parliament Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, in favour of the building of 'a Railway from the Town of Oswestry through Llansilin and Llanrhaiadr to Llangynog'.

Author: 
[Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 6th Baronet (1820-1885), Conservative M.P. for Denbighshire from 1841 to 1885; Cambrian Railways; Oswestry and Newtown Railway; Oswestry, Ellesmere and Whitchurch Railway]
Publication details: 
Undated (1850s?).
£300.00
Manuscript petition, with signatures of numerous residents (Welsh Railway)

In two parts, each with the first page carrying the identically-worded petition. Part One: folio, 10 pp. Part Two: folio, 8 pp. Both texts clear and complete. On heavily aged and worn paper, with part of the blank last leaf of the second part torn away.

Autograph Letter Signed from Sir George Birdwood ['George Birdwood'], a reference for William Martin Wood, editor of The Times of India, in his application to become Examiner in Political Economy at University College London.

Author: 
Sir George Birdwood [Sir George Christopher Molesworth Birdwood] (1832-1917), English administrator in India [William Martin Wood, editor of The Times of India; University College London]
Publication details: 
19 March 1887; No 7 Apsley Terrace, Acton.
£56.00

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. 47 lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. As 'an intimate personal friend from 1865', Birdwood endorses Wood's application, stating that he was 'a frequent Examiner in political economy for Bombay University' between 1874 and 1880. He explains that Bombay University took in 'the greatest interest' in the subject, and 'always endeavoured to secure the best qualified examiners, - having the whole Civil Service, beside the Educational Department to select from', and that they 'always preferred' Wood.

[Printed] Copy of a Letter addressed to Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Home Department by the General Board of Health, Dated 20th July 1854; with a Digest of the Information [...] with regard to [...] Inventions for the Consumption of Smoke

Author: 
General Board of Health, Whitehall [Tom Taylor, secretary; Inventions for the Consumption of Smoke; Victorian pollution]
Publication details: 
London: Printed by George Edward Eyre and William Spottiswoode, Printers to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty. For Her Majesty's Stationery Office. 1855.
£125.00
Inventions for the Consumption of Smoke

Folio, 29 + [i] pp. Disbound. Text complete and clear. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. Faint accession stamp at head of title. 'In accordance with the request of Viscount Palmerston, conveyed in Mr. Fitzroy's letter of the 31st day of October 1853, the Board have instituted very extensive inquiries among those acquainted with the means for the prevention of smoke, a great part of the evidence thus received being given in abstract in the Appendix to this Report.' The appendix runs from p. 11 to p. 29. Scarce: the only individual copy on COPAC at Southampton.

Signature (and subscription) only from letter, signed Lancelot Speed, book illustrator.

Author: 
Lancelot Speed (1860 – 1931), Victorian illustrator of books, usually of a fantastical or romantic nature
Publication details: 
No place or date surviving.
£23.00
Lancelot Speed

Part of letter, 11 x 5cm, good condition, saying, yours try | Lancelot Speed.

[1889 pamphlet.] Illustrated Catalogue and Programme of Music of the May Day Conversazione and Exhibition, in connection with the Richmond Athenaeum and the Selborne Society (Lower Thames Valley Branch,) held at the Star and Garter Hotel, Richmond.

Author: 
Edward King, editor [The Richmond Athenaeum and the Selborne Society (Lower Thames Valley branch)]
Publication details: 
On Wednesday, May 1st, 1889. ['Richmond, Surrey: Edited and Printed by Edward King, "Times" Steam Printing Works.']
£95.00
The Richmond Athenaeum and the Selborne Society

4to, 68 + viii pp. Frontispiece and eight plates, as well as numerous illustrations in text. In original printed wraps, with advertisements. Eight pages of advertisements at end. Text and illustrations clear and complete. A scarce item (the only copy on COPAC at the V & A Libraries) on aged paper, in chipped and worn wraps, with title page creased, and some sections detached. Inscribed by the editor, at head of front wrap, 'From Edward King | to his Brother Savage W. Linnell | In Memory of a joyous afternoon in Venice. | Nov.

[Manuscript] The Household Expenses of the family Commander G.Y. Paterson, son of Admiral Paterson, sometime Governor of Portchester Castle (DNB)

Author: 
[Household Expenses, 1880s; Brockhurst House, Gosport, Hampshire]
Publication details: 
[Brockhurst], 10 Dec. 1882-11 Feb. 1889.
£380.00
Household Expenses, 1880s; Brockhurst House, Gosport, Hampshire

106pp., 4to, black limp cloth, worn, remnants of paper on which is written a biblical passage in Greek on back, hinge strain, but contents clear and complete, text in an extraordinarily small neat hand, sometimes (amazingly) hard to read. The author has used a double entry system, recording Income on one side and Expenditure on the other. The balance (income less expenditure) is brought forward. Expenditure is listed daily, usually all expenses appearing on one line, nature of expenditure and outlay, and a total for the day appearing in the final column.

Manuscript Letter, written for publication in a 'valuable periodical', signed by 'Uno dell'Antica Scuola', containing 'observations' for 'students of the Vocal Art'. ['The art of Vocalization', with especial reference to Italian opera.]

Author: 
'Uno dell'Antica Scuola' [Italian Opera; vocalisation]
Publication details: 
Undated. [England, 1880s?
£95.00
Observations' for 'students of the Vocal Art'

4to, 4 pp. Bifolium. 87 lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with wear to extremities and a spike hole to one corner. Written in ink in a Victorian hand, and with three changes in pencil. Docketed at head 'The art of Vocalization'. Towards beginning writes that the subject is one which he has 'studied many years in close connexion with the most eminent Masters of Italy, most of whom I may rank among my personal friends, and the pith of whose conversations, added to my own experience I propose embodying in a few short essays upon the Formation of the Voice'.

Original Typescript of an anonymous poem entitled 'The Ludlow Hunt Alphabet. An Adaptation.' ['The Ludlow Alphabet. An Adaptation.']

Author: 
[The Ludlow Hunt; fox-hunting; field sports; Sir William Michael Curtis (1859-1916)]
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated. [Before 1906.]
£165.00
The Ludlow Hunt Alphabet. An Adaptation

4to, 6 pp, with a seventh leaf carrying the title 'The Ludlow Hunt Alphabet. An Adaptation.' (The title at the head of the poem itself is 'The Ludlow Alphabet. An Adaptation.') A genuine typescript, and not a reproduction. A poem of 128 lines, divided into 32 4-line stanzas. Fair, on aged paper, with the last leaf laid down on a leaf of an autograph album, with traces of a newspaper cutting on the reverse. Consisting of playful references to members of the Hunt, arranged alphabetically. First stanza: 'A's for Allcroft, on chestnut | With frontlet of blue.

Signed Autograph Document, by R. F. Palmer, Sheriff, Calcutta, dated from Agra in 1855, concerning his charges in an action at law between Doorga Churn Carr and Ob<?> Mullick <?>.

Author: 
R. F. Palmer, Sheriff, Calcutta [Doorga Churn Curr; Agra, 1855]
Publication details: 
Dated 'Agra 19th October 1855'.
£56.00
Signed Autograph Document, by R. F. Palmer, Sheriff, Calcutta

Folio, 2 pp. 38 lines of text. Clear and complete. Fair, on browned high-acidity paper, with slight chipping to extremities and slight internal wear.To be folded into packet. Docketed 'Recd 22d. October 1855 | [initialed signature] | Doorga Churm Curr - | - v - | Ob Mullick | Letter from Mr Fisher -'. Difficult hand. He acknowledges to various documents relating to the case, as well as 'two Bank of Bengal notes', in a writ of Fieri Facias. Explains his requirements ('I must have one man with me to Gard [sic] my property').

Autograph Letter Signed from Rosa Baughan, graphologist and writer on fortune-telling, to 'Dear Miss James'.

Author: 
Rosa Baughan (fl. 1880), graphologist and writer on palmistry, physiognomy and astrology
Publication details: 
28 November [no year]. 44 Queens Road, Bayswater.
£56.00
Autograph Letter Signed from Rosa Baughan, graphologist

Landscape 12mo. 17 lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged and lightly-creased paper. For a graphologist Miss Baughan's handwriting is curiously angular and crabbed. Explaining that 'these together with some 2 dozen others were overlooked in the July packet - at least this was how it was - each week a packet is sent & I do the packets in rotation of their dates'. She is 'really now doing the September studies'. Continues in same vein. Baughan published a number of works on what would now be called 'new age' subjects in the 1880s.

[Printed Victorian botanical handbill advertisement.] American Blackberry Rooted Cuttings, Kittatinny Variety. Imported by D. C. Lowber, 35, Chapel Walks, Liverpool. [Including text on 'THE AMERICAN BLACKBERRY.']

Author: 
D. C. Lowber [originally of New Orleans], Liverpool Merchant [American Blackberries, Kittatinny Variety; botanical ephemera]
Publication details: 
[Circa 1875.] D. C. Lowber, 35, Chapel Walks, Liverpool.
£28.00
American Blackberry Rooted Cuttings

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Attractive engraving of a blackberry cutting. The second page is headed 'THE AMERICAN BLACKBERRY', and begins 'There is scarcely a more wholesome fruit than this, and one that has been more improved by judicious cultivation on the American side of the water.' The text, which continues to the last page and is signed in type by Lowber, contains two quotations from 'Rev. E. P. Roe, one of the most celebrated small fruit culturists on the banks of the Hudson'. In manuscript at foot of third page: '15/- per doz.

Autograph Letter Signed from 'E L'Estrange' to Charles Manby, proposing to present a copy of the [her?] three-decker novel 'Westminster Abbey' [by Emma Robinson].

Author: 
E. L'Estrange aka ?Emma Robinson (1814-1890), English novelist [Charles Manby]
Publication details: 
9 May 1854; no place.
£56.00
E. L'Estrange aka ?Emma Robinson

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. 51 lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on aged paper. Chatty and spirited letter. 'I propose myself the honour and pleasure (seldom indeed, save in common parlance!) of paying you a visit, - to present you with a copy of "Westminster Abbey"', which has 'emerged from the press in the orthodox three volumes'. Does not want to give him 'an excuse for not flashing your eye through it'.

Six Autograph Letter Signed from 'W. B. Ferguson' (William Bates Ferguson) to Sir Henry Truman Wood, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
William Bates Ferguson (1853-1937), author, lawyer and chemist, with an interest in photography [Royal Photographic Society; Sir Henry Truman Wood; Ferdinand Hurter; Vero Charles Driffield]
Publication details: 
18 November to 19 December 1916; all on letterhead of 48 Compayne Gardens, South Hampstead, London N.W.
£150.00
William Bates Ferguson (1853-1937), author, lawyer and chemist

All in good condition on lightly-aged paper, and all but one (Letter Five) bearing the Society's stamp. Letters One, Two and Six docketed. Letter One (18 November): 12mo, 2 pp. Hoping that Wood, 'as an Ex President of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain', will 'help the Hurter and Driffield Memorial Fund [of which he is Honorary Treasurer] which is being got up [by the Royal Photographic Society] [...] to do honour to the memory of those famous workers in the Chemistry & Physics of Photography'. Letter Two (26 November): 4to, 2 pp.

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