Manuscripts
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# 44700
KEAN, Charles (1811-1868)
Charles Kean, Irish-born actor and theatre manager: autograph note, signed, to theatre designer Thomas Grieve. (Plus a clipped signature of his wife, actress Ellen Tree)
[London? no date – simply “Thursday night” – but probably circa 1850]. Manuscript in ink, 1 page, written on the first side of an octavo bifolium of expensive notepaper (190 x 150 mm); the note is addressed ‘My dear Grieve’ (i.e. Thomas Grieve, theatre designer and scene painter), and is signed ‘Yours sincerely C. Kean’; …
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# 44696
BULWER-LYTTON, Edward George Earle, 1st Baron Lytton (1803-1873)
Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, as Secretary of State for the Colonies : autograph note, signed. “Knebworth”, Stevenage, 23 September 1858.
Manuscript in ink, 1 page, quarto (230 x 180 mm); the note is addressed simply ‘Dear Sir’, and is signed ‘Yours truly, E. B. Lytton’, with Lytton’s private address and date below: ‘”Knebworth”, Stevenage, Sep. 23 [1858]’; the unidentified addressee is requested to visit Lytton at the Colonial Office on the following day at ‘1/4 …
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# 43629
SOUTH CANTERBURY COUNCIL; CONVENT OF THE SACRED HEART (TIMARU)
Unique album presented to the Duke and Duchess of York by the citizens of South Canterbury, New Zealand, during the royal visit in March 1927: with an illuminated address and original watercolours.
Large square quarto, 310 x 280 mm, purple suede over bevelled boards (virtually unrubbed), front board with gilt-tooled decoration and lettering ‘South Canterbury, New Zealand, 16th March 1927’, lower board also decorated in gilt; all edges gilt; silk endpapers; [14] leaves of white card, the first [6] containing an elaborate illuminated address headed ‘To Your …
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# 43944
WOOD, J. E.
[AFRICAN-AMERICANA] Letter by a 6th Ohio Cavalry veteran advocating black suffrage. La Grange, Iowa, June 1865.
Manuscript in ink, [3] pp. quarto (245 x 195 mm); headed ‘Lagrange, Lucas Co., Iowa, June 12th 1865’, the letter is addressed ‘Dear Miller’ and is signed at the foot ‘Your friend, J. E. Wood’; accompanied by the original postal envelope, addressed to ‘L. D. Miller Esq., Newton Falls, Trumbull Co., Ohio’, with pen-cancelled 3¢ …
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# 44186
[HARLAND FAMILY]
[BALLARAT] Wesleyan Sabbath School, Scotchman’s Lead : book prize awarded to George Harland, April 1870. (With associated ephemera)
PROSSER, Mrs. (Sophie Amelia). Quality Fogg’s old ledger. London : The Religious Tract Society, [1869]. Square octavo, gilt-decorated brown cloth over boards (rubbed and marked); front free-endpaper inscribed in ink: ‘Presented to George Harland by the Primitive Methodist Sabbath School, Scotchman’s Lead, April 5th 1870’; pp. 162, [6], woodcut illustrations; occasional staining, otherwise sound; [TOGETHER WITH] An …
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# 44066
DUKE, J. S.
[MELBOURNE] Manuscript notebooks (mostly devoted to literature and astronomy) compiled by J. S. Duke, of Elwood and Elsternwick, 1918-1927.
Melbourne : J. S. Duke, 1918-27 [unpublished]. Two small quarto-size notebooks, each 235 x 185 mm, original linen and black oilskin bindings, owner’s name and address to pastedown of one ‘J. S. Duke, Elwood’ with printed label beneath ‘456 New Street, Elsternwick’; in total both notebooks comprise approx. 250 pages filled with neat manuscript entries, …
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# 44426
ELLIOTT & FRY
Signed portrait photograph of English actress Madge Kendal, circa 1890.
Albumen print photograph, cabinet card format, 165 x 110 mm, with the full autograph signature of the actress as ‘Madge Kendal’ written in ink in the lower margin recto; verso with the imprint of Elliott & Fry, 55 Baker Street, London, and a neat inscription in pencil ‘Mrs Kendal’; in very good condition. English actress …
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# 41117
FOWELL, Newton Digby (1768-1790)
[FIRST FLEET] Midshipman Newton Fowell, on board HMS Sirius at sea, off Rio de Janeiro, 6 August 1787: autograph letter signed, addressed to his father, John Fowell.
Entire letter, 1 page, quarto, manuscript in ink on the first side of a bifolium, laid paper watermarked with Britannia and GR surmounted by crown; dated 6 August 1787 and signed N. Fowell, addressed to John Fowell Esq., Black Hall, S. Brent, Devonshire, England, with DOVER/SHIP-LRE hand-stamp on the face and rated in ms. 1/7 (to be …
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# 44369
MARSHALL, John (1748-1819) (attributed)
[FIRST FLEET] Manuscript map showing the track of the ship “Scarborough” on its return voyage from Port Jackson in 1788.
Manuscript chart showing the track of a ship [the Scarborough] on a voyage from Port Jackson to Canton [in 1788], on verso of printed map A New Chart of the Southern Coast of Africa, From The Cape of Good Hope To Dalagoa Bay; with the Bank of Cape Agulhas … (1781); 627 x 848 mm …
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# 41664
HADFIELD, James (1771/2 - 1841)
Epitaph of my poor Jack, SQUIRREL. … Died Sunday Morning, July 23rd, 1826.
[Bethlem Hospital, London, before 1841]. Manuscript in brown ink with calligraphic title in blue and decoration in black, yellow and magenta inks, 230 x 185 mm (sheet); written entirely in the hand of criminally insane inmate James Hadfield, and signed by him in full at the foot, followed by ‘Bethlem Hospital’ in sanguine ink; mounted …
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# 41975
DARWIN, Horace (1851-1928)
[DARWIN] Horace Darwin to Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker : autograph letter signed, expressing his thanks to Hooker, as his “father’s best friend”, for congratulating him on being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Cambridge, 5 May 1903.
2 pp. manuscript in ink, written on the first two sides of an octavo-size bifolium of notepaper, 180 x 115 mm, with Horace Darwin’s letterhead ‘The Orchard, Huntingdon Road, Cambridge’; dated 5 May 1903, the letter is addressed ‘Dear Sir Joseph’ (i.e. Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker) and is signed in full at the foot of …
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# 43899
BONWICK, James (1817-1906)
James Bonwick, colonial historian and archivist : cut signature, with a brief inscription.
[undated, but after 1865]. Autograph signature in ink, on piece (42 x 180 mm): ‘Yours truly, James Bonwick’; cut from the foot of a letter, the last part of which reads: ‘… Secretary & Assistant Secretary for the honour conf[erred] ..’, and with a postscript which reads: ‘In my little leisure, I am working up …
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# 43897
LA TROBE, Charles Joseph; LONSDALE, William [HEPBURN, Robert]
[MELBOURNE] Town Lot purchase document for land in present-day Carlton, with signature and seal of Lieutenant-Governor Charles La Trobe, countersigned by William Lonsdale. 16 May, 1853.
[Melbourne : Government of the Colony of Victoria]. Pro forma document printed on vellum, 340 x 430 mm, with manuscript entries recording the purchase by Robert Hepburn for £270 of a Town Lot measuring one rood (1/4 acre) at the corner of Queensberry Street and Bouverie Street (now Carlton), in the County of Bourke, Parish of …
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# 41661
DEAN MAHOMED [DIN MAHOMED] (1759–1851)
Sake Dean Mahomed : surgeon, traveller, introducer of Indian cuisine and shampoo to Europe, and the first Indian to publish a book in English : cut signatures in Roman and Arabic script, dated at Horsham (West Sussex), 22 July 1841.
Manuscript in ink on paper, 50 x 118 mm; mounted on a section cut from a nineteenth-century album leaf, along with an accompanying cutting, in a different hand, recording the place and date the signatures were obtained: Horsham, July 22nd 1841 (Horsham is just 18 miles from Brighton, where Dean Mahomed lived from 1814 until …
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# 43902
Mass'oud Mirza Zell-e Soltan (1850-1918)
[PERSIA] Prince Mass’oud Mirza Zell-e Soltan, as Governor of Isfahan : autograph letter signed, to a British military officer. Isfahan, 18 January 1902.
Manuscript in violet ink, 2 pp., on bifolium of pink silk-stock notepaper with embossed letterhead in gold in the form of the Lion and Sun emblem of the Kingdom of Persia; the letter is written in English, headed ‘Esfahan, January 18th 1902’, and addressed simply ‘Excellence!’; it is signed at the foot ‘Your sincere friend, …
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# 43904
BELL, Henry Thomas Mackenzie (1856-1930)
Mackenzie Bell, poet : signed autograph manuscript of his poem “The Philosophy of Frequent Failure”.
Manuscript in ink on the recto of a quarto sheet (225 x 175 mm), written in the poet’s flamboyant, idiosyncratic hand, comprising the full text of his poem The Philosophy of Frequent Failure, signed at the foot Mackenzie Bell, and with the word ‘Poet’ written in the hand of Jane Emma Murphy (see below); laid …