VICTORIAN

According to the prospectus (item three below), the Bank was 'Incorporated under the Companies' Acts, 1862, 1867, 1877 and 1879.' The three items were formerly pinned together. Item One (printed circular): 4to, 4 pp. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Headed 'TO SHAREHOLDERS ONLY. - PRIVATE.' Signed in type by seven 'Members of the Birmingham Committee of Shareholders'. The first paragraph reads 'The action of Mr.

4to, 2 pp. Good, on lightly-aged laid paper, with small area torn away from top corner (not affecting text). Docketed at head in an Edwardian hand: 'From Lieutt Genl. Sir William Knollys to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland on the occasion of the Prince of Wales' marriage | Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales [Edward VII]'.

12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium. Fair, on lightly-aged paper with thin horizontal strip of discoloration caused by glue from mount on blank reverse of second leaf.

12mo, 32 pp. Stapled. Text clear and complete. On aged and worn paper, with rusted staples causing the outer bifolium to detach. Items 2067 to 2786, with 'Supplément. Deutsche Werhe.' (Items from the firm's Leipzig branch.)

On a ruled leaf of laid paper detached from an account book. Dimensions 28.5 x 18.5 cm. Text clear and complete. On aged paper with chipping to extremities. One page, headed 'Xmas Toys 1879.' is filled with twenty-seven entries, beginning with '1 Gross 1/2 Flags 2 Gros 1/4 Candles [last word deleted] Flags' and ending with '1/2 Glass Toys. | 48 doz 1/2 Bird on Stand'. Other entries include 'Duck in Boats', 'Bird on Ball', 'Stag in Angle' and 'Glass Bird on Large Stand'. The reverse carries nine entries under the heading 'Moocrofts', the first being '504 6 Gross Shoe Plain 24/- 7..4..0'.

Letter: 12mo, 2 pp. Bifolium. Good, on aged paper, with small rust stain at head from paperclip. She is writing to Harmsworth ('President, Dr Johnson's House') to ask him to accept a copy of 'my Journal in which mention is made of my Portrait of Dr Samuel Johnson which hangs in the Garrett of Dr Samuel Johnson house this was presented by H. B. Wheatley whom I knew for many years.' On a visit to the curator of Johnson's house she was 'pleased to see the picture still hands in its original place'.

The four items are uniform, with leaf dimensions 21.5 x 14 cm. Three bifoliums and a 16-page pamphlet, totalling 27 pp of text. All unbound, and attached to one another by string in top inner corner. Text of all four items clear and complete. A little grubby, on aged and creased paper, with wear to extremities. Small blank scrap lacking from margin of first leaf of second item. Item One: 'Report of the Hawke's Bay Maori Mission. (Supplied to the Right Rev. the Bishop of Waiapu.)' by 'Arthur F. Williams, Missionary in Charge, Te Aute, Hawke's Bay'. 4 pp.

8vo: 66 pp. Stitched pamphlet. In original grey printed wraps. Text clear and complete. Tight copy on lightly-aged and foxed paper, with light staining at foot of wraps and first and last few leaves. List of 'Publications by the same Author' on the reverse. Worn inscription at head of title, to 'The Revd Vaughan Thomas | With the Authors best comptss & regards'. Scarce: no copy in the British Library, and the only copies on COPAC at Bristol, Lambeth Palace and Oxford.

12mo, 1 p. Ten lines of text. Good, on aged paper with slight wear to extremities. In a bifolium, with address and four circular postmarks (two in black and two in blue ink) on verso of second leaf. He is 'a la fin de l'impression d'un ouvrage qui doit être pret pour la rentrée et qui depuis longtemps absorbe tous mes instants'. It is impossible for him to write the requested articles. He is 'tellement fatigué' that he awaits with impatience the end of the printing, so that he can take 'un peu de repos'.

12mo: [vi] + iv + 80. In original grey printed wraps, on which the name of the London publishers Kent features before Penny's (the actual title page simply gives 'Frome: W. C. & J. Penny.') Text clear and complete. On aged and slightly grubby paper. Wraps worn and stained. Recently bound in grey boards, with red leather label gilt on front. Ownership inscription at head of front wrap, dated 25 May 1878. Fly leaf with contemporary quotation decrying the books publication, 'as it may deter some more capable writer with better sources of information at his command'.

The report is printed on three pages of a bifolium with leaf dimensions roughly 30 x 21 cm. In small print. Both text and plan clear and complete. Both plan and map carry the faint 1 cm accession stamp of the Webster Collection, numbered in manuscript 4899. A scarce piece of Australiana, on grubby and stained paper, archivally repaired and tipped-in to cream paper folder. Describes the situation of the townships and mines, whose yields, both on the surface and at depth, he gives.

A scarce piece of Liverpool printing ephemera. Dimensions approximately 63 x 51 cm. Both sides printed in light blue. Text and illustrations complete. In need of expert cleaning and repair: grubby and stained, with chipping to extremities and some closed tears. At the head of the one side is the masthead of 'The Employment Exchange | Edited by Charles H. Megson' ('The only recognized medium for speedy Employment. Absolutely without rival.') with illustrations of figures at work.

12mo, 22 pp. Stitched as issued, pamphlet. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The title continues, '[...] Nichol, Professor of Astonomy in the University of Glasgow, On the Existing Obstructions to the Institution of a National System of Education.' Offprint. The text is headed 'PUBLIC SCHOOL ASSOCIATION.' In small type. The final paragraph reads '[NOTE. - The foregoing Address was not prepared for publication. It is now reprinted from the report in the NORTH BRITISH DAILY MAIL, made up with the assistance of Professor Nichol's rough notes.

12mo, 2 pp. On his monogrammed letterhead (letter P with coronet). Very good, on lightly-aged paper. Addressed to 'My dear Lord Chancellor'. He cannot accept the 'kind invitation' as he has friends staying with him, 'whom I cannot well leave'.

On loose 8vo leaves, disbound from a volume. All articles clear and complete. The first three parts good, on aged paper; fourth part fair, on grubby paper with wear to extremities. The first four of a total of twenty articles. Part One (no.247, pp.177-179) is entitled 'Scenery of the Blue Mountains. - Govatt's Leap.' Signed in print 'W. R.

12mo, 4 pp. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Peel is visiting Yonge's neighbourhood and he begins by describing the planned lodging arrangements. 'Shawford sounds very tempting the only drawback being railway journesy backward & forward.' He thanks Yonge for the 'hospitable' offer regarding staying at Otterbourne: 'whoever be our party I think it would be best not to troube you - best to come over to Otterbourne for lunch or tea as may be agreeable to you'. He will write again once his daughters 'have made up their minds'.

12mo (15 x 9.5 cm), 1 p. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper with crease to bottom right-hand corner. Slight smudging to the address ('H. E. Hewitt Esq'). Arranging a meeting, with postscript: 'Sorry to hear of Mr Wards indisposition'.

Envelope (dimensions 6.5 x 12 cm) with mourning border. Lacking flap, but good. Penny red stamp with two circular postmarks in black ink. Docketed 'Dean Stanley' in neat contemporary hand above address, which reads 'George Moore Esq. | 15a. Court | Bayswater W.' Moore was a lace manufacturer and philanthropist.

12mo, 61 pp. In original brown printed wraps. Engraving of Sheldonian Theatre on front, otherwise the item is not illustrated. 2864 items, ranging from '1 AARON, Rev. born 1695, engraved by Vertue. 5s 6d' to '2864 Zonelli (Anton. Maria) after Joan. Anton. Faldoni, Man blowing Horn, with hounds. 5s'. Fair, on aged paper, with a few leaves dogeared, in worn wraps chipped at extremities, and with 4.5 cm closed tear at foot of spine. Presentation inscription at head of front wrap: 'R. G. Bartelot. from Fredk. Bennett'.

Landscape sketchbook of eighteen leaves. Leaf dimensions roughly 17.5 x 13 cm. One leaf loose. A further leaf has been removed. Drawings on twenty-five pages and the rear pastedown. Bound in rough grey cloth with printed design on front board. Printed stationer's ticket (label) on front pastedown. Grubby, and with the inevitable pencil offsetting, but good and tight on good paper, lightly-aged but unaffected by damp or stain. Contains some charming images, showing the promise that would win Wright a scholarship to the Royal College of Art three years later.

12mo, 1 p. Good, on lightly-aged and ruckled paper. He explains that the 'remaining dates of the 4tett Class had to be alterered', given the alternatives. 'I hope you will not be inconvenienced by that change and that you kindly will assent to it.' He gives the date of her next lesson, to which he looks forward.

An important contemporary engraving, apparently unrecorded, with no record of the engraver S. Pearse, or of the Comus Press (probably connected with 'The Comus', a periodical launched in Bengal in 1857). On one side of a piece of wove paper, roughly 22.5 x 28 cm. On lightly-spotted and aged paper. Discreet repair to tear which had split the item in two. A crude but accurate representation of the well and environs, with the following text beneath: 'THE WELL AT CAWNPORE. S. Pearse.| Into which the bodies of the Women and Children were thrown after the Massacre.

Nachez's letter: 12mo, 3 pp. Good, on aged and lightly-ruckled paper. He is keeping his promise and sending the 'autograph of Lord Randolph Churchill, which I found in Norway during my last journey to the midnight sun'. He explains that 'Lord Randolph must have signed his name by his own hand into the Strangers list', because of the 'different handwriting of his private secretary Mr. Wm. Trafford'. 'The slip of paper is out of a book at the Hotel in Trondjhem.' The slip from the hotel register is roughly 8 x 27 cm, with six signatures on each side, including those of 'Dow.

On piece of watermarked laid paper(12.5 x 20.5 cm). Printed letterhead reminiscent of telegram: headed 'Memorandum' and with 'PARCELS OR GOODS, WOODSTOCK RD. G.W.R.' at foot. In fair condition: lightly ruckled and with the purple ink of the typewritten part bleeding slightly. Five lines of text. He thanks her for her letter. 'Do not on any account come to the Inn at Woodstock to stay the night.

12mo, 8 pp. On two bifoliums, both with red oval British governmental letterhead of the 'CHIEF OF THE STAFF'. Text clear and complete. Good on lightly-aged paper. Blau reports that he is now 'fortunately well and returned to my right mind' after 'pretty bad times last autumn and winter - especially when on board ship'. He has 'mended steadily since rejoining in December' and has 'been in Simla since May doing Russian again, and am my own man once more'.

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. Watermarked 'TOWGOOD'S | SUPER FINE | 1859'. Eighty-seven lines of text. Text clear and complete on aged and grubby paper. With little hope of influencing the editor of Punch, the author feels compelled to 'write and tell you what I and many others think about your Publication and the malignant spite you display towards individuals who happen to incur your wrath'. This 'malignity', he feels, 'must be derived from that murderous old ruffian from whom your publication takes its name, and which alone prevents it being an influential publication.

4to, 1 p. On aged, worn paper with small area of loss at head (not affecting text). He will be 'pleased to act on the Committee to judge of the stories for filming', and is glad that 'the work will not be onerous'. In a postscript gives the version of his name he wishes given for announcing ('Right Hon. Sir Gilbert Parker Bt.'). According to his entry in the Oxford DNB, no fewer than sixteen of Parker's novels were filmed. As head of British propaganda in America, 1914-1916, Parker had a direct involvement with the medium.

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. Good, on aged paper. He has been 'hunting among papers, & found a great quantity of notable letters from notable people but they are mostly confidential - or dealing with some private matters'. He would have liked to gratify her wishes 'in a more liberal fashion, 'but I hope the enclosed may serve'. He wonders whether she is 'packing up for India - - perhaps for Worthing'. The valediction on the final page ('Believe me | sincerely') is followed by a large bold signature which with its underlinings covers an area 11 cm square.

Both items good, on lightly-aged paper. Letter One (15 May, to Lady Ashbourne): 16mo, 2 pp. Nine lines. Accepting an invitation to a garden-party. 'I have two Cricket Matches [...] I have promised to go for an hour to the Unionists Cricket Match, but could come on to you after that, if that day suited you.' Letter Two (11 August, to Lord Ashbourne): 12mo, 2 pp. Fourteen lines. He thanks him for the 'Letters & enclosed Draft'. 'I had to send my Letter off before it arrived, as the takes place to-day, but fortunately it was drawn on almost identical lines as yours, so it is all right.

12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium. Spike hole through both leaves, not affecting text. Fair, on aged paper. She states that 'The story would be ready to commence the 2nd. week in March.' She then gives a list of her five 'other works besides Comin' thro the Rye'. The first two in the list are said to have passed through '3 editions', and of the second in the list 'a further is in preparation'.