GALLIMAUFRY 2
A Curious Collection - Pierre Spake
INCLUDING
Chess; Bondage; the Moravian Trombone Quartet; Stephen Tennant; Black Panthers; Male mid-wives; Private Madhouses, early photo history and much more
Peruse at your leasure
All items with clickable website links for further info, contact details and click & buy option
Poor relief by Mr Provider
Single small sheet, with manuscript insertions “1s”, signed “Jn Taylor, Mayor” and numbered “56”.
Richard Watts, businessman and “Deputy Victualler of the Navy”, established by his will of 1579 a charity for providing shelter for six travellers. The Six Poor Travellers House was built to provide free lodgings for poor travellers each of whom would be given lodging and "entertainment" for one night before being sent on his way with fourpence. The original charity created the post of "Provider" who was appointed by, and reported annually to, the mayor. His role encompassed supervision of the house, collection of rents and provision of materials to the poor.
Mr. Provider, Please to relieve [these two weevers] poor Traveller[s] with Four-pence [two shillings and sixpence] Rochester, Kent 1st June 1773
Single small sheet, with manuscript insertions, signed “Jn Taylor, Mayor” and numbered “57”.
In this instance it is unclear why the recipients, apparently two weavers, should receive such a large amount. This may be a payment slip for other work carried out by them, or the provision of material or clothing.
Sculptors and Manufacturers in Italy 1780-1830
3. [Sculpture] Collection of six engraved trade cards for Italian sculptors and manufacturers. Florence, Venice, Rome 1780-1830
1. Christoforo Rizzi, Fabbricatore di Bisutterie in Oro, ed Argento...sotto le Procuratie Vecchie, Venezia. N 88; 2. Vincent Bonelli sculpteur in Marbre et Albatre...sur le quai de l’Arno, au grand Hotel de M. Shneiderff, pres le pont de la Carraja, a Florence; 3. Antoine Antoni agente dei Fratelli Inghirami..situato Lungo l’Arno No 1188 Firenze; 4. Giovanni
Mollica fabricante di vasi all’ imitazione degli antichi...strada S. Luca a Mare No 18; 5. Cherinto del Vecchio, Fabbrica privilegiata di Terraglie, Porcellane, oggetti Etrushi dipinti a fuoco imitanti gli antichi....Napoli, strada Marinella No 3,4,5.; 6. Pietro Pierantony, scultore, Via del Corso N 12; 7. Piggiani, sculpteur dans la rue Babuine vis a vis la fontaine N 155.
[12558]
£110
Pisani Brothers Sculptors, Florence
4. [Sculpture] Les Freres Pisani Sculpteurs font toutes sortes D'Ouvrages en marbre et en Albatre. Se Chargent des expeditions et Garantissent les Envois Pusqu’ au Lieu de leur
Destination pour ce qui se Casseroit en route / Les memes demeurent sul Prato al No 1 a Florence Florence 1788.
Engraved trade card, within rope twist border, dated 1788 in ink.
Arthur Young FRS notes in his ‘Travels during the years 1787, 1788 and 1789’: “December 1
[1789] - To the shop of brothers Pisani, where, for half an hour, I was foolish enough to wish myself rich, that I might have bought Niobe, the gladiator, Diana, Venus and some other casts from the antique statues. I threw away a few ‘pauls’, instead of three or four hundred ‘zechins’”.
[12557]
£110
5. Giradon, Francois receipt for work as sculptor in ordinary to Louis XIV 4 October 1679
Manuscript, signed receipt by Giradon [and others] for quarterly payment relating to works in Paris
[12476]
£240
Sculptor to Louis XIVChess classic
6. Bertin, Capt. Joseph The noble game of chess. Containing rules and instructions, for the use of those who have already a little knowledge of this game. London Woodfall, for the author 1735,
sm. octavo, title, [ii] blank, iii-iv preface, v-viii rules, [1]-78, full calf tooled, some light damp intermittently, lower hinge a little weak with short tight split to head some light damp intermittently, lower hinge a little weak with short tight split to head Captain Joseph Bertin (1690s - c1736) was one of the first authors to write about the game of chess. David Hooper and Kenneth Whyld in The Oxford Companion to Chess call his book The Noble Game of Chess "the first worthwhile chess book in the English language". B. Goulding Brown, writing in the December 1932 British Chess Magazine, called it the first original English chess book.
Bertin was a Huguenot born at Castelmoron-sur-Lot in the 1690s. He came to England during his youth, became a naturalized citizen in 1713, and married in 1719. In 1726, he joined a line regiment serving in the West Indies. He was later promoted to the rank of Captain, and ultimately was released from the Army as an invalid. In 1735 he published a small volume titled The Noble Game of Chess. In the same year, he was re-commissioned in a Regiment of Invalids and, according to Hooper and Whyld, "In all probability he died soon afterwards. "The Noble Game of Chess was sold only at Slaughter's Coffee House. It contained opening analysis and useful advice about the middle-game, and laid down 19 rules for chess play. Most of them are still useful today. Some examples:
Teaching women about the Female Body
7. Antonio Serantoni Anatomical Representation of a Female Figure, modelled from the Venus de Medicis, by Antonio Serantoni, of Florence. ** the model is shewn to Ladies in private, and explained by a Female. Seven allegorical paintings representing The Cardinal Sins, by the Celebrated Jacob Logozzi. Exhibiting at the COSORAMA, 209 Regent Street...We beg once more to say that arrangements are made to remove every objection that either timidity or delicacy could suggest London July 1834
Single leaf 8vo, printed recto and verso.
The Athenaeum of Feb 14th 1852, carried an announcement that Mr J. C. Stephens was to sell by auction a most valuable Anatomical, Pathological and Botanical museum of preparations in wax, including ‘a Full-length model of a female dissected, the chef-d’oeuvre of the celebrated Antonio Serantoni...’ presumably the same model exhibited in 1834.
The Henry Evans collection in the British Library has a variant pamphlet published two years later and seemingly without the reference to the seven Cardinal Sin Paintings by Ligozzi.
Satire on William Pitt
8. [William Pitt] WONDERFUL EXHIBITION !!! Signor Guilielmo Pittachio the SUBLIME
WONDER of the WORLD condescends to inform the Public at large, and his Friends in particular, that immediately after Christmas, he will open his grand Hall of Exhibitions at Westminster, with a grand display of his ASTONISHING AND MAGNIFICENT DECEPTIONS; Which have been approved by all the Crowned Heads in the Universe, and which are unparalleled in the History of Mankind. First - The Signor will bring forward A Magical ALARM BELL, At the ringing of which, all the Company shall become Mad or Foolish... London [1795]
Single sheet folio, letterpress with woodcut illustration of Gulielmo Pittachio [William Pitt] ringing a bell, laid down on old album sheet, some creasing.
1794 and 1795 saw a number of satirical publications, comparing Pitt to Guiseppe Pinetti a celebrated Italian illusionist.
9. [Michel Boai] The Musical Wonder. The celebrated chin performance of Michael Boai. MICHEL BOAI, respectfully announces that he proposes his wonderful talent, by performing some of the most favourite Airs,Waltzes... It will be varied & relieved by some popular German airs, which will be sung by MADAME BOAI, accompanied by herself and her husband on the guitar... Bennett’s Hill Barlow printer Oct 1830
Single sheet 4to annotated in ink “Birmingham institution rooms. October 11th 1830”.
The Tatler of April 11th 1831 writes:
We had been given to understand, that the sound which Michael produced resembled that of a musical-box. This is a libel on that fairy instrument; and we think there are few who have heard him but will agree with us in likening it to castanets; though we should say it beats them hollow. The power he possesses is absolutely extraordinary. The higher notes are, we think, the best; but he is never out of tune; and, when playing variations (as he did to “Nel corpiu non me sento”) though he flourishes about, at a most extraordinary height, he gradually descends, hitting the original note with wonderful accuracy. He was most applauded in the Overture to “Lodoiska, though that applause was not extravagant: not that his performance did not warrant it, but the fashionables seem to look upon gloves as so very expensive, that they are willing to get a reputation for economy by observing a judicious silence. Madame Boai, who really sings very prettily, got no applause to speak of: which, as Mr Pepys would say, “was displeasing to observe.” She and her husband seemed to entertain a mutual admiration of one another, which they occasionally testified by smiles, and other such evidences of a pleasing sympathy. Some of the songs which have his name to them in the bills are pretty, and he plays well on the guitar. Signor Engels, a sort of auxiliary to Boai, plays very creditably on the violin. The Trio, in their national dresses, cut a picturesque appearance, especially when contrasted with the antielegant habili ments and extraordinary head-dresses of their audience.”
[12821]
£130
Asylum for Jewish Children and Children of Criminals
10. [S.A.] Drawn on stone by S.A. from a sketch by E. Ford. Count Von der Recke's Asylum for Jewish Children and Children of Criminals. Dussethal, Germany C. Hullmandell 1825
Dusselthal, in Germany. Count Von der Recke’s Asylum for Jewish Children & the Children of Criminals. Taken on the spot, 1826. Sold for the Benefit of the Institution. Drawn on stone by S.A. from a sketch by E. Ford. A faint fold mark and slight marginal tear without loss.
Scarce. A copy is recorded in the Leo Baeck Institute in New York.
Adalbert von der ReckeVolmerstein, (1791-1878), first started caring for homeless orphans in 1816, when after the Napoleonic Wars the region had a large number of vagrant children. In 1819, with his brother, he set up a rescue centre, using a former independent school, which they quickly outgrew. He next purchased the former monastery at Düsselthal near Dusseldorf, which formed the origin of the later Graf-Recke Foundation.
Rare annotated broadside with performance notes on a Monologist and SMELL effects by Rimmell
11. Woodin, W S (quick change monologist) W. S. Woodin's Cabinet of Curiosities, an entirely new and original Musical, Mimetic, Pictorial, Graphical, Polygraphical & Anthropological Entertainment... Polygraphic Hall London March 26th 1860
Rare theatrical broadside of Woodin’s vocal entertainment. Extensive manuscript annotations in ink and pencil, fully describing that evening’s performance, with comments on the various scenes, costume changes, vocal performance, including “old - spectacled - small voice”,
“something like Albert Smith’s falsetto”, “small clear voice & dressed well as young lady of last century”, “dialect not distinct” etc. Neatly tipped on mount along all edges. This programme also contains a scarce mention of “smell” effects created for the theatre with the scene in the winter garden being “Accompanied by a perfume of the rarest flowers, produced by Mr Eugene Rimmell’s new patent process”. Woodin had acquired the theatre in 1855/6.
[12828] £680
Murderer’s suicide
Engraving, three neat vertical creases.
Depicting the transport of the body of John Williams, the principal suspect in the 'Ratcliff Highway Murders', a series of murders in East London in December 1811. Williams was arrested and imprisoned but before the case went to trial he used his scarf to hang himself in his cell at Coldbath Fields. The court declared Williams guilty of the crimes, taking his suicide as an admission of his guilt. Following this decision, Williams' corpse was paraded through the streets of East London, passsed the locations of the murders, in a procession supposedly seen by 180,000 people. Thomas De Quincey witnessed the event and wrote of it:
12. View of the Body of John Williams the supposed Murderer of the Families of Marr and Williamson, and Self-destroyer, approaching the hole dug to receive it, in the Cross Road, at Cannon Street Turnpike. London circa 1811
'When the cart came opposite the late Mr Marr's [one of the victims] house a halt was made for nearly a quarter of an hour.... The procession then advanced to St George's Turnpike, where the New Road [now Commercial Road] is intersected by Cannon Street Road. Those who accompanied the procession arrived at a grave already dug six feet down. The remains of John Williams were tumbled out of the cart and lowered into this hole, and then someone hammered a stake through his heart.'
The Newgate Calendar reporting the crime and trial writes, ‘When the gaoler went to the room in the house of correction in Coldbath-fields, where Williams was confined, in order to call him to his last examination before the Shadwell police magistrates, his body was found dead, hanging to a beam; thus adding to his supposed crime that of self-murder!
On the 31st December, his remains were privately removed, at eleven o'clock at night, from the cell in Coldbath-fields prison, where he committed suicide, and conveyed to St. George's watch-house, near the London Docks, preparatory to interment. Mr Capper, the magistrate, had an interview with the secretary for the home department, for the purpose of considering with what propriety the usual practice of burying suicides in the nearest cross-roads might be departed from in the present instance, and it was then determined that a public exhibition should be made of the body through the neighbourhood which had been the scene of the monster's crimes. In conformity with this decision, the following procession moved from the watch-house, about half past ten o'clock on Tuesday morning: Several hundred constables; with their staves, clearing the way; The newly-formed patrole, with drawn cutlasses; Another body of constables; Parish officers of St. George's, St. Paul's, and Shadwell, on horseback; Peace officers, on horseback; Constables; The high constable of the county of Middlesex on horseback.
THE BODY OF WILLIAMS: Extended at full length on an Inclined platform, erected on the cart, about four feet high at the head, and gradually sloping towards the horse, giving a full view of the body, which was dressed in blue trousers and a white and blue striped waistcoat, but without a coat, as when found in the cell. On the left side of the head the fatal mall, and on the right the ripping chisel, with which the murders were perpetrated, were exposed to view. The countenance of Williams was ghastly in the extreme, and the whole had an appearance too horrible for description. A strong body of constables brought up the rear. The procession advanced slowly up Ratcliffe-Highway, accompanied by an immense concourse of persons, eager to get a sight of the murderer's remains. When the cart came opposite to the late Mr Marr's house, a halt was made for near a quarter of an hour. The procession then moved down Old Gravel-lane, along Wapping, up New Crane-lane, and into New Gravel-lane. When the platform arrived at the late Mr Williamson's house, a second halt took place. It then proceeded up the hill, and again entered Ratcliffe Highway, down which it moved into Cannon-street, and advanced to St. George's turnpike, where the new road is intersected by Cannon-street. There a grave, about six feet deep, had been prepared, immediately over which the main water-pipe runs. Between twelve and one o'clock the body was taken from the platform, and lowered into the grave immediately after which a stake was driven through it; and the pit being covered, this solemn ceremony concluded. During the last half hour the crowd had increased immensely; they poured in from all parts, but their demeanour was perfectly quiet. All the shops in the neighbourhood were shut, and the windows and tops of the houses were crowded with spectators. On every side, mingled with execrations of the murderer, were heard fervent prayers for the speedy detection of his accomplice or accomplices.
[13097] £98
CHINA - To distant ages may this Treaty be beneficial
13. [Printed by] W C Johns after painting by [John Platt] [China, Treaty of Nanking, Key plate] Names of the Principal Officers and Official Gentlemen who are represented in the Engraving of the Signing and Sealing of the Treaty of Nanking in the State Cabin of H.M.S. Cornwallis, 29th August 1842. - The time chosen by the Artist was after the Treaty had been signed and sealed, and while the Admiral’s Band was playing the National Anthem on the Deck London W.C. Johns [1845]
Engraving on single sheet, showing all the European and Chinese dignatories present seated round a table and standing and seated around, below with list of all depicted, printed seal to right edge ‘to distant ages may this Treaty be beneficial.’ Laid down, occasional tear, a few small areas of loss not affecting image or text, short tear bottom left running through part text with no loss, professionally backed with Japanese tissue.
The Treaty of Nanking or Nanjing ended the First Opium War (1839–42) between the United Kingdom and the Qing dynasty of China on 29 August 1842. It was the first of what the Chinese later called the unequal treaties on the ground that Britain had no obligations in return. With British warships poised to attack Nanking, representatives from the British and Qing Empires negotiated on board HMS Cornwallis anchored at the city. On 29 August 1842, British representative Sir Henry Pottinger and Qing representatives Qiying, Yilibu, and Niu Jian signed the treaty. It consisted of thirteen articles and was ratified by Queen Victoria and the Daoguang Emperor nine months later. A copy of the treaty is kept by the British government while another copy is kept by the Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the National Palace Museum in Taipei.
[12600]
£450
School of Architecture
14. Richardson, Charles James (1806-1871, architect) Printed prospectus for Richardson's Academy of Architecture, 24 Manchester Street, Manchester Square... for the education of young architects and students, and such of the Nobility, Gentry, or Officers in the Army who be desirous of forming a taste for Architecture with a knowledge of the principals and practice of construction, founded in 1832 by Chas Jas Richardson, Architect, pupil of Sir John Soane London, C J Richardson Invt & Delt, printed from Zinc, Day & Haghe. [1832?]
Single sheet, lithographed on zinc.
[12552]
£95
Trial of Queen Caroline of England
15. [Hayter, George - Painter] [Trial of Queen Caroline] A descriptive catalogue of the Great Historical Picture, painted by Mr. GEORGE HAYTER. Member of the Academy of St. Luke, &&& representing the Trial of Her Late Majesty QUEEN CAROLINE OF ENGLAND, with a faithful interior view of the House of Lords, and one hundred and eighty-nine portraits; amongst which are included those Princes of the Royal Family, with most of the Peers and Distinguished Personages...NOW
EXHIBITING AT Mr. CAUTY’S GREAT ROOMS, No 80 1/2 PALL MALL. On five engraved sheets. London W. Hersee, White Lion Court, Cornhill 1823
Booklet stitched, [i]-[viii], 9-16, accompanied by descriptive engravings on five large sheets.
[12599]
£480
London’s 18th century architecture
16. [Act of Parliament] Robert Adam An Act for enabling John, Robert, James, and William Adam, to dispose of several houses and buildings in the Parishes of Saint Martin in the Fields... and Saint Mary le Bon, in the County of Middlesex, and other their effects, by way of chance, in such manner as may be most for the benefit of themselves and creditors. London, Charles Eyre and William Strahan, printers to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, 1773 pp 1427-1442, folio, describes all the houses (built and planned), shares in the Carron Company, and art works (paintings, drawings, and sculpture), to be put up for disposal by lottery in 1774. The lottery was a success and cleared the Adam brothers’ debts
G. H. Gater and E. P. Wheeler (editors) Survey of London: volume 18: St Martin-in-theFields II: The Strand; At the time the Adelphi scheme was commenced Robert Adam was about 40 years of age and had already to his credit a number of fine houses and architectural designs. The Adelphi was an achievement of which, despite the sneers of Walpole and others, any architect might well be proud, for Adam transformed a sharply sloping, derelict site, subject to inundations from the river at high tide, into one of the most desirable residential quarters in London. Although the architectural design of the Adelphi was a bold one, the financial side of the scheme was daring even to rashness; no agreement was signed with the freeholder of the property, the Duke of St. Albans, until 1769, a year after work had been begun on the site; no authority was sought from Parliament for the reclamation of land from the river until 1771; the brothers reckoned on securing a return for their expenditure on the arches, the most costly part of the scheme, from the Government who they thought would rent the vaults for Ordnance stores, though they had no kind of guarantee that any such contract would be forthcoming; and finally the cost of the enterprise was greatly under-estimated and proved to be far beyond the resources of the promoters. [12553]
Surgeon and male midwife
17. Barber, M. (Surgeon, Apothecary and Accoucher) [Medical] M. Barber begs leave to announce to the inhabitants of Alnwick and its Neighbourhood that he has (independent of his Profession as a Surgeon, Apothecary and Accoucheur) formed an establishment for the sale GENUINE DRUGS and MEDICINES upon which the most perfect reliance may be placed. [Alnwick] Fenkle Street, J. Graham. Printer, Alnwick, circa 1820, Printed sheet, uncut edges. An Accoucheur was in effect a male midwife.
[12560] £110
University of Pennsylvania medical lectures
18. [Ewing, James Hunter] [Medical] attendance cards for lectures at the University of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvnia, 1818-1820
Eleven engraved cards for attendance at lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, printed with lecture title, lecturer (some added in manuscript), dated and with attendee’s name (James Hunter Ewing) in manuscript, comprising two for Surgery, two for Anatomy, two for the Principles and Practice of Midwifery and the diseases of women and children, two on Materia
Medica and Pharmacy, two on Chemistry and one on the Institutes & Practice of Medicine & Clinical Practice [WITH] two further engraved matriculation cards for 1818-1819 and 18191820. James Hunter Ewing was a physician. He received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1821.
[10425]
an Midwife
19. Hegney, Arthur [Medical] Arthur Hegney, Surgeon and man-midwife, (from Wooler), respectfully announces to the inhabitants of Alnwick and its vicinity, that he intends to commence business at Whitsuntide in the house occupied by the late Mr Robertson, in Bondgate street and he flatters himself, by his assiduity and attention, to merit a share of public patronage. Alnwick, Davison, printer, May 12th 1821
[12544] £120
Doctor working for free for the Poor
20. Horsley, Dr William (Apothecary and Surgeon) [Medical] Announcement of return to Alnwick and that he will advise the Poor for free DOCTOR WILLIAM HORSLEY - having returned to Alnwick...begs leave to observe - that, he has not resumed his residence, with the
smallest intention, whatever, of engaging in the... province of the APOTHECARY and SURGEON generally. The DOCTOR, therefore, wishes it to be most clearly, and unequivocally understood - that his Advice ‘only’ will be given; and, further, that the poor will continue to receive such Advice ‘gratis’ from 12 to 1 daily. Newcastle, Mitchell, printer, Newcastle, Alnwick, June 1st 1816,
Single sheet, folded, manuscript address panel ‘ Thorpe Esq, Bailiffgte, Alnwick, recto with manuscript date and ‘Dr Horsley’.
[12562] £120
[Foundling Hospital]
21. Hue (Clement, M.D) [Medical] admittance tickets for lectures [engraved ticket] St. Bartholomew’s Hospital lectures on the Practice of Medicine by Clement Hue, M.D, Physician to the Foundling Hospital [WITH] further engraved ticket for Lectures on Materia Medica by Clement Hue, M.D, Physician to the Foundling Hospital London, [circa 1820]
Two engraved tickets for ‘E C May’ each with Hue’s manuscript endorsement and inscribed ‘perpetual’ and signed by Hue with his initials.
Clement Hue, M.D., was born at St. Hilier’s, in Jersey. He was admitted a Fellow of the College of Physicians on the 30th September, 1808; was Censor in 1812; Registrar from 1815 to February 4th, 1824; Harveian orator 1829; Elect 13th April, 1835: Consiliarius 1836. Dr. Hue was for many years the lecturer on chemistry, materia medica, and the practice of medicine at St. Bartholomew’s hospital, and on the 23rd May, 1823, was elected physician to that institution, an office which he retained for more than forty years. He also held the appointment of physician to the Foundling hospital from 1815 to 1837, and in 1824 was appointed to succeed Dr. Hervey as registrar of the National Vaccine establishment, which office he retained till his death.
[12555] £68
Man-Midwife
Single sheet, central fold.
[12561] £120
Lunacy and Private Madhouses
James Wells to the Public... “Nunquam dormio, sed semper MENTIS miseriae vivo”, Letters or Communications addressed to me, (Post Paid) relating to Crimes and Cruelties practised in those English Bastiles and Earthly HELLS! called Private Madhouses, shall have my very best attention, and most serious consideration, with a view to strict LEGAL investigation. “Me, neque mors, neque paupertas, neque opprobrium, Nec vincula terrent”, James Wells, Liveryman of London, No 3 Walbrook, Near the
The interest of this document lies in the alleged lunacy of Wells himself. In 1829 there was an infamous case concerning Mr Freeman Anderson, an ‘eccentric’ who though having thousands of pounds, decided to live in the ‘obscure and disreputable part of Lambeth-Marsh’ There he kept himself to himself and collected paintings. As the case unfolded in The Times
22. Mr Dennis (Surgeon, Apothecary and Man-Midwife) [Medical] Announcement of change of address and seeking an apprentice MR. DENNIS, SURGEON, APOTHECARY, and MAN-MIDWIFE, begs to inform his Friends and the Public that he has removed from Narrowgate-Street, to a House at South End of Bondgate-Street. Mr D. wants an Apprentice. [Alnwick], J. Graham, Printer, Alnwick, October 9th 1817,
23. James Wells (Liveryman of London) PRIVATE MADHOUSES!
Mansion House London 1830s, Single sheet, printed one side.
and in judicial reports, it became apparent that his family fearing that their possible inheritance would be spent, employed a Mr Man Burrows to arrest Anderson and confine him to a private lunacy asylum. However friends and neighbours of Anderson intervened and the police were called, resulting in the freeing of Anderson as just an ‘eccentric’ and the fining of Burrows of £500.00. Interestingly a letter to the Times pointing out the injustice of the attempted incarceration of Anderson was written by James Wells. This prompted a response in the same paper by Burrows, trying to defend his actions who pointed out that Wells had been declared a lunatic by the commission some years prior. All the correspondence was published in the London Medical Gazette, vol. 5, Sept 1829 to March 1830 pp. 311 onwards, Imposing Restraint on Lunatics. The National Archives hold the original papers on the case regarding Wells ‘lunacy’: James Wells, now residing at Hoxton House, Hoxton, Middlesex: commission and inquisition of lunacy, into his state of mind and his property, December 18th 1824.
On the, 26 November 1829 Burrows defended himself in a letter to the Times, after the newspaper has published a letter from Wells. In it he writes: ‘But when I find so influential a journal as The Times, checked by no consideration, opens its columns to the rhapsodies of an obvious madman, and thus give them all the weight of sober truths, I am aware that no reputation, however fair, can resist the consequent unfavourable reputation […]’. ‘Surely there was, in the language of the letter which you inserted from Mr James Wells, of Sudbury, to Mr Peel, sufficient to create a suspicion of the soundness of the writer’s intellects. Had you made any inquiry before you published his letter, you would have learned that the said Mr James Wells was found a lunatic, under a commission issued a few years ago, and which not yet superseded.’ On 5 December 1829 The Times reprinted an article from the Medical Gazette about the Anderdon v Burrows case. It mentioned the exchange of letters in passing but doesn’t tell us anything more about Wells, who also appears to have written to the Lancet in 1828 but although they acknowledged receipt of his letter, they didn’t actually publish it. [12819]
Copper engraving.
Joseph Priestley 1733-1804 English theologian, dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and Liberal political theorist who published over 150 works. He is usually credited with the discovery of oxygen. After the Birmingham riots and the destruction of Priestley’s home at Fair Hill, near Birmingham, in 1791 which destroyed many of the books in his library and manuscript sources, Priestley moved to London where he taught history and science at New College, Hackney. He experienced a great deal of hostility in London for his political and religious beliefs and in 1794 he emigrated to America.
This so-called ‘Rushing Water’ bookplate with the engravers mark "Allen fc Birming,m" is very scarce. The bookplate was first described by Charles A. Browne in The Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, in 1920. According to Browne: The plate represents a stream of water gushing through a spout from under a massive rock into a smooth glassy pool. A stone curb, overgrown with grass and flowers, surrounds the spring, on one side of which lies a cup for the convenience of the thirsty wayfarer. For a chemist who worked so much upon the composition of water, the theme is most appropriate.
[12545] £98
SPIRITUALIST who spoke to Adam, Noah, Van Eyck and the Prince Consort
25. [Mrs Duke Saunders, Sibyle medium] [Spiritualism] The GREATEST DISCOVERY EVER MADE, Is the MEDIATION WRITING direct to and from, the Spirit World in One Minute! [Croydon], [1863?] 2pp, 4to,
The handbill ‘printed on the two inside pages, that it may be framed if desired’ lists the attributes of the Sibyle medium who ‘has the extraordinary gift of holding communions and conversation, for any length of time, and anywhere, with the departed in the Spirit World...’. She continues to outline her abilities and desire to teach others her skills, and goes on to list those with whom she has already made contact, including ‘Adam, God’s first man, who has given an account of the universal law, which God gave him’ and, amongst others, Noah, Moses, Pilate, Queen Elizabeth, ‘the great Sir Isaac Newton, who gives a philosophical explanation of this mediation writing;’...’Van Eyck... gives me the secret of oil painting...’ she also received ‘a great number from our lamented Prince Consort, who has come spontaneously ever since he left this earth, requesting me to write to his beloved Queen, which I did on the 16th November, 1862. And it is by his request I now make it public for the
consolation of the world.’ Mrs Saunders outlines her proposed publication of a book of her communications, and seeks a subscription, and further lists her charges teaching and seances ‘teaching to write...5.0.0.; Evening seance, not to exceed seven...1.0.0
[12565] £58
Preserved Monkey for Stonyhurst College
26. [Taxidermy] Trade card for G. Pickhardt, Preserver of Birds, Animals and Fishes &c... 45, Crogsland Road, Chalk Fram, London, N.W. Horns mounted, Skins dressed &c, Bird and Fur Skins, Eyes, Glass shades, &c. &c Chalk Farm, London, 1860s
Taxidermist’s trade card, engraved with various animals (after Barlow) and his details, verso with an albumen photograph showing a monkey skeleton, and the same animal with fur added and presented as a stuffed specimen, inscribed in ink ‘Now in Stonyhurst’.
The Jesuit College at Stonyhurst has a renowned Taxidermy collection in part donated by the eccentric old boy and naturalist Charles Waterton. "Squire Waterton was born at Walton Hall, Wakefield, Yorkshire to Thomas Waterton and Anne Bedingfield. He was educated at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire and he records in his autobiography that while he was at the school, "by a mutual understanding, I was considered rat-catcher to the establishment, and also fox-taker, foumart-killer, and cross-bow charger at the time when the young rooks were fledged.... I followed up my calling with great success. The vermin disappeared by the dozen; the books were moderately well-thumbed; and according to my notion of things, all went on perfectly right’.
[10975]
Feeding London’s gentry
27. Farmingwoods Estate An account of the deer killed &c at Farmingwoods from 1782 to 1802 - 20 years ' Farmingwood, Northamptonshire 1782-1802
A manuscript hunting/gamekeeping account book 1782-1802 entitled 'The Account of the Deer Killed &c at Farmingwoods from 1782 to 1802 - 20 years', initial manuscript page titled 'Directions &c to London', listing 12 honourable gentleman and their respective addresses, including Marquis of Lansdown, Berkeley Square; Edward Moore Esq., Somerset House, etc etc, plus 43 pages of manuscript entries of Bucks and Does killed at Farmingwoods, individual dated entries detailing who each deer was given to plus overall tally on each page and some other details, top corner of 6 pages affected by offsetting from old newspaper cuttings left loosely inserted for many years, contemporary paper wraps, neatly rebacked, manuscript title on piece attached to top wrap. Some staining to a number of pages. Farmingwoods estate, Northamptonshire, was, during the latter part of the 18th Century, in the possession of the family of John Fitzpatrick, 2nd Earl of Upper Ossory (1745-1818), of Ampthill, Bedfordshire
[14152]
£135
28. [Anon] [Slavery] Accounts for the sale of Slaves and Goods [America - Southern States], [1864?]
Single sheet, Folio, manuscript accounts of sales to named recipients of slaves, livestock, farm produce and chattels, in an illiterate hand with many phonetic spellings.
One leaf (pages 3 and 4) of accounts possibly drawn up on the dispersal of a farm or plantation. Among the dispersals were five slaves, including to Helemes, John - ‘1 girele Awen aboute 9 yers $955.00 ; to Johnson, Henry - ‘1 boy Jeferson Aboute 39 ye $1141.00this negro was solde on the 19 of janary 1863 with intrs from dat’ ; amongst other items sold were- ‘1 Bay stalion hores $210.00, 1 Bead and Beding $18.00, 5 Hundard Bundeles of fede $125 per - $625. Families [spellings doubtful] include Babb, Sampson, Abner, Melmeth and J M; Stober Garlingto[n?]; Helemes, Hastin, Coalbine and Yanery. [12554]
Important 19th century Spiritualists diary
29. Sprague, Achsa [Spiritualist, advocator of women’s rights, slavery abolitionist, prison reformer] [Spiritualism] Manuscript diary for 1855 - 1856 1855/56
An absorbing and informative 179 page manuscript diary of Achsa Sprague, commencing Nov. 17th, 1855 in Hertford Connecticut and ending in June 22nd 1856 on a day she spoke to the male inmates at Providence prison, five page index at end with a list of her speaking engagements. A further ninety pages at the latter part of the book are filled with cash accounts in two different hands. The first twenty pages probably for L. N. Josselyn in the 1880s and the second set of seventy pages running from 1895 to 1908 and including further members of the Josselyn family as recipients of payments, all mainly for wood, feed and household goods and services.
Achsa W Sprague [1827-1862], of Vermont. The Sprague family shared a predisposition to ill health; of the six siblings, three were considered mentally imbalanced. At the age of twenty, Achsa developed a severe case of arthritis that left her bedridden for over seven years. She considered herself healed through angelic powers and by 1854 began a career as a traveling lecturer and spiritualist around New England. Though the illness was to re-occur at intervals, making her writing and touring difficult and contributing to her early death. There are passages in the diary dealing with women’s suffrage, the abolition of slavery and prison reform which were all subjects that women, within the context of Spiritualism were able to express views they were usually expected not to comment on. She wrote that a woman must be either a slave or a butterfly. In one entry she writes of the abolitionists I yesterday attended an Antislavery meeting of women, where I met Lucretia Mott. She is a very pleasant looking elderly lady & being of the Society of Friends, dresses in the plain style. Her conversation is
very agreeable, & her whole soul seems to be enlisted in the cause of humanity. Their meeting was held at the Antislavery Office, & they reported that for the last two weeks, the fugitive slaves that had come there for help to Canada had averaged two a day. The diary ends with Sprague having been allowed to go into the men’s prison...While passing through the men's department a few days ago we went to a part of the prison, that the officer told me was called Purgatory. And well was it worthy of its name, here were kept such as were brought in raving mad with liquor and those that were suffering from its effects.... Others half paralyzed and such gaunt, ghastly looking faces; Others were sitting up with such a vacant stare, bruised face. The reception for her lectures and her life ‘on the road’. She describes meeting the artist C. L. Fenton who painted the spirit child ‘Little Natty’ who came to him in visions and asked to paint her portrait. Yesterday I went in the morning to Mr. Fenton's rooms to see the picture of Little Natty which he has been painting by spirit direction. Though I do not profess to be able to look at it with an artist's eye, yet to me it was exceedingly beautiful, though not yet finished. It might strike one at first sight as not a very good representation of a spirit or spiritual things, & it is not like the pictures of Angels & Angelic things done true to the ideas that have been thought of Heaven, but look to me in perfect keeping with our ideas of the blending of Spiritual & material things. Natty stands among flowers & there seems to be cloud around & above his head upon which are reflected the rays of a light beyond yet invisible in the picture. She attends a seance where a table floats and is thrown across the room and the Medium, though holding their hands floats in the air above them. Again we all stood around in a circle in the room, joining hands, myself on one side holding one of the medium's hands, & a gentleman on the other, forming a complete circle. Soon the medium began to rise, until our arms (the room being dark) were drawn up by him as far as we could reach, & we could hear his voice speaking to us from near the ceiling & I & many others touched his feet up in the air. The only thing which he touched, except mid air was our two hands, but these SO far from supporting him, were by him drawn up until he reached his height. Many other things were done, which I have not time to mention. She mentions her photograph being taken on a number of occasions - A Deguarean (sic) Artist (a- Spiritualist) here wished to take my Deguereotype, so I have been sitting for it today. They were not very good ones owing to the day, but I took one of them for a friend in Vermont. She talks of how she spends her time when not lecturing or travelling: In the day time I paint, in the evenings I knit. I am learning Grecian and Oriental painting, also water colors & coloring lithographs. I intend also before I am ready to leave here to learn to cut paper flowers, to bronze statues.... She writes, for example: “The pages, both bright & dark, of my former life are left unwritten, save in the great Life Book of Eternity. I came to Hartford one week ago today to speak under Spirit Influence as I have been doing publicly for the last year & a half. Having been raised from a bed of sickness, where I suffered the most extreme pain by Spirit Agency, I have felt it my duty to do that which has been pointed out to me by my Spirit Guides, & the result is, that I have felt constrained to take the position which I now occupy, that of a Public Speaking Medium. And in the course of events I am now at Hartford, a place which I have once before visited in the same capacity. I spoke here last Sabbath, at Union Hall, afternoon & evening. Had a very good attendance, especially in the evening. Also spoke at Manchester some eight miles distant last Tuesday Evening. There are very few believers in Spiritualism at that place, but had a very good audience. I enjoyed it well. Tomorrow, (Sabbath) I speak here again at Union Hall. I do not know whether I shall return home to Plymouth, Vermont, then, my arrangements are not made.
I have spent a part of two days walking in the Cemeteries here. I have enjoyed it much. Yesterday, in company with a friend, I paid a visit to The Asylum for educating the Deaf & Dumb. We found a great many children there, from five or six years of age to eighteen or
twenty who could neither speak or hear, under process of training by signs to speak the English Language.
I should like to have seen Julia Bruce of whom I used to read when a child in Parley's Magazine and in her books for children, but she was not well, therefore we could not see her. I have been stopping while in Hartford with Mrs. Mettler and family. Mrs. M. is well known to that part of the world who are interested in Magnetism, Psychology, Spiritualism & other kindred sciences, as a Clairvoyant & Healing Medium. Her wonderful powers as such have in the last five years, won her a wide reputation & many friends.
Half past 2 o'clock P. M. A Circle of eighteen or twenty met to night. Among the numbered was the Editor of The Hartford Daily Times, Colonel Colt the man who built the dyke around the city, & who is known far & nearby for his Revolvers, which are called Colt's Revolvers“
Purchased in the 1930s by Leonard Twinem (Twynham) from a Rutland bookstore. The remaining Achsa Sprague papers were deposited with the Vermont Historical Society in 1976.
[11850]
£9,800
Arms & Armour
30. [Cavalier Callandra] Catalogue of a fine collection of Continental Arms formed during a period of twenty-five years by Cavalier Callandra, member of the Italian parliament &c &c, and only before exhibited at the Royal Palace of Prince Carignano, on the opening of the Mount Cenis Tunnel, and now for the First Time in England, for a few days only at messrs. Hepper & Sons’ gallery, 2, Ivygate, Bradford Bradford, England Wm Byles and son, Piccadilly, Bradford 1873
printed wrappers, 23 pages, 8vo, 492 items listed. The exhibition started on March 14th
[13615] £48
Bumps
Phrenological chart A. L. Vago, 17 Gray’s Inn Road, London, WC 1870s
Single sheet, centred with a woodcut of a phrenological head, hand coloured, introductory text around, with a numbered key of the “Arrangement, Numbering, and Definition of the Faculties”, various endorsements below and advertisements for Vigo’s model phrenological head and related items. Printer’s details: Cassell, Petter, & Galpin, Printers, Ludgate Hill, E.C. overall good, with central folds creases with wear, old (contemporary?) linen backing
[14155]
£380
China -
[13232] £45
31. Vago (Amrose Lewis)
Shanghai
32. Niemann, J.R.[ photographer Shanghai] Shanghai Shanghai, China J.R. Niemann 1850’s Lithographic panorama of Shanghai bund, with various merchant and native boats, printed by Carl Blunck, Kiel.
W C Fields, Will Rogers, Bert Williams, Fanny Brice
33. Florenz Ziegfeld Junior [1867-1932 American Broadway impresario, producer of the Ziegfeld Follies] THIRD ANNUAL FOLLIES BALL Florenz Ziegfeld, Junior offers a combined performance of the Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic and Ziegfeld Follies of 1916.
ZIEGFELD ROOF the meeting place of the World atop New Amsterdam Theatre, New York April 10, 1917
Printed on silk, narrow folio, headed with a drawing by Nell Brikley of the iconic Brinkley Girls, a stylish character who appeared in her comics and became a popular symbol in songs, films and theatre. A few slight partings of the silk weave barely visible.
The Follies Ball, an annual event was an amalgam of the famous Follies and of the Midnight Frolic, and this year included members of the cast of ‘Century Girl’.
Appearing at this Ball were a number of important artists of stage and screen in their earliest days:
W.C. Fields - though best known as a comedian and actor here he appears as a juggler, an act which he had perfected over many years, and was sometimes referred to as ‘the world’s greatest juggler’
Bert Williams - The best-selling black recording artist before 1920, Williams was Bahamian American entertainer described by his friend W. C. Fields as "the funniest man I ever saw
and the saddest man I ever knew."
Will Rogers - started with Ziegfeld in 1915 in the Midnight Frolic and by 1916 was a full time star in the Follies. He appeared on stage in his cowboy outfit, nonchalantly twirling his lasso, and said, "Well, what shall I talk about? I ain't got anything funny to say. All I know is what I read in the papers."
Ann Pennington - famous in later years for her version of the the dance’The black bottom’ Fanny Brice - American comedienne of the early 20th century whose fictionalised life was portrayed by Barbara Striesand in Funny Girl
In 1915, Florenz Ziegfeld introduced the Midnight Frolic on the roof of the New Amsterdam Theatre, the same building in which his famous Follies were staged below. It was a cabaret style revue, where guests ate, drank and smoked. There were intermissions for dancing. When it was time for the entertainment, the stage itself slid out over the dance floor. The Frolic [which the Ball incorporated] show itself was unlike any other production. There was a balcony level glass runway down which the acts made their entrances. The most in demand seats were those directly beneath the runway, prized for the views they afforded of the Ziegfeld girls as they made their multiple entrances during every performance. Each night, for one of their appearances, the Ziegfeld girls wore costumes adorned with balloons, which audience members were encouraged to pop with their lit cigars and cigarettes. Every table was provided with two small souvenir wooden mallet style hammers. Patrons were to express their appreciation for the entertainment by rapping on the tables with the little hammers.
[13314]
£480
Early presentation of the Cinema within 2 months of the first British showing
34. [Lumiere Brothers] [Cinema] Original programme for an early performance of the Cinema. Polytechnic [London] April 30th 1896 [dated in ink on the front cover]
Single sheet advertising broadside for the Lumiere cinematograph, listing the films shown
1. The Champs Elysees;
2. Ragged rocks;
3. The unfortunate photographer;
4. Babies playing;
5. Arrival of a train in a country station;
6. Practical joke on the gardener;
7. Crossing the bar;
8. Fall of a wall;
9. Trewey’s ‘ Under the Hat’;
10. Bathing in the Mediterranean;
The first public screening of the Cinématographe in Britain took place at the Malborough Hall of the Royal Polytechnic Institution in Regent Street, London on 21 February 1896. There had been a press show the previous day when, coincidentally, the British cinema pioneer Robert W. Paul had demonstrated his Theatrograph projector at Finsbury Technical College. In charge of the Polytechnic show was the Lumière brothers’ British agent, Felicien Trewey, a well-known showman and magician. The opening performance attracted only 54 customers but, as in Paris, the Cinématographe’s popularity soon increased. Cinema quickly became part of music hall programmes, and Trewey started Cinématographe shows at the Empire Theatre in Leicester Square, London on 7 March 1896. [12598]
Universal language
35. Esperanto Society Learn Esperanto & meet workers from forty countries at the S. A. T. Congress 3-7 Aug. 1930
Poster, with woodcut[?] illustration of a ‘worker’ weilding a large hammer and shouting, with details of the congress and further details: 3-7 Aug. 1930, Conway Hall, London, Secretary Joel Sulsky, 19 Leyton Rd, Harpenden, and signed in the image:
Edge fold, few edge nicks and very small hole to worker’s leg
[14517]
£475
Palestinian troubles 1930s
36. Inigo-Jones, Charles Meredith Twenty-six manuscript letters written in Palestine and commentating on the troubles Palestine 1936
Twenty-six manuscript letters of between 3 and 15 pages [with 40 pages of typed transcripts], between May and December 1936. The letters contain good descriptive accounts of the conflict, skirmishes and the people, including a few plans and diagrams. WITH
a group of un-transcribed letters by Inigo-Jones from Egypt written in the months before his move to Palestine.
WITH a group of Dufycolour photographs of Palestine WITH
a group of snap-shot photographs of Inigo-Jones and friends in the region
There are also some orphan pages not paired up with the correct letters [10583] £980
Hunting otters
37. Various authors.
Hon Geoffrey Hill and the Hawkstone otter hound pack.
1870s
Bound volume containing two albumen print photographs of the Hawkstone pack and its master the Honourable Geoffrey Hill, one image of Hill, huntsmen and the hounds, the other of a hunting party and the mobile dog transporter. The album also contains humourous sketches on otter hunting including one series comparing English and Irish women hunters. Various inserted prints, engravings, manuscript letters and poems and scraps including a poem by Augustus Tobin on Otter Hunting. It is recorded that the Hawkstone pack killed more than 700 otters over a period of 20 years
[14513] £550
Woodcut device
38. [Anon] [Ballad] The Willow Tree Manchester, Wheeler, Printer, Circa 1837
Charming naive woodcut of a sheep at the head. Left edge trimmed haphazardly
‘O take me in your arms my love, For keen the wind doth blow,
O take me in your arms my love, For bitter is my woe; She hears me not, she cares me not, Nor will she list to me, While here I lie alone to die, Beneath the willow tree.
[12556]
NEWSPAPERS
£24
The year 1733 in the London Press
39. Various publishers A collection of 65 newspapers all published in 1732/1733 London An unusual collection of 65 British newspapers published in the main in 1733. An interesting chance to compare the way items were reported in papers from different political backgrounds or aimed at different audiences.
Fog’s Weekly Journal. 13 copies from Jan-June 1732. [C & K 928] London. Printed by J. Wilford. Published weekly. Numb. 1 September 28, 1728-October 29, 1737. (Crane and Kaye no. 928). Nathaniel Mist was an 18th century British printer, journalist, editor and author of ‘Mist’s Weekly Journal’ the content of which was in opposition to the Whig government led by Robert Walpole. Mist attacked the government openly, along with the Royal family, and was frequently tried for libel and imprisoned. He owned a printing press, and in 1716, published his own journal ‘The Citizen’. This lasted for nine issues only. He then took over ‘The Weekly Journal, or, Saturday’s Post’ in December 1716, changing the title to ‘Mist’s Weekly Journal’. Finally, in 1727 he was tried again for libel on but escaped to France where he continued to run his newspaper by a proxy. In September 1728 Mist attacked the Walpole government again. This proved too much for the government which had his printing press broken up. At this point, the newspaper was renamed ‘Fogs Weekly Journal’ and Charles Molloy was employed to print it.
The Daily Courant. The First British Daily Newspaper. 11 copies from Mar-Oct 1733. [C & K 164]
London, printed for T. Cooper, at The Globe. Originally published by Elizabeth Mallett, and founded 11th of March 1702, at Fleet Bridge, London, until 1735. The newspaper consisted of a single page, with advertisements on the reverse side. Mallet advertised that she intended to publish only foreign news and would not add any comments of her own, supposing her readers to have ‘sense enough to make reflections for themselves’. After only forty days Mallett sold the paper to Samuel Buckley, who later became the publisher of ‘The Spectator’. The Daily Courant lasted until 1735 when it was merged with The Daily Gazeteer.
The Country Journal, or The Craftsman. 11 copies from Jan-Mar 1731-2. 10 copies from Mar-Jun 1732. 5 copies from May-Aug 1733. [C & K 152]
London printed for R. Franklin. Published weekly. Established and financed by the first Lord Bolingbroke. It was known for publishing letters and essays placed by Lord Bolingbroke and for strong Whig sentiments. In December 1726 Nicholas Amherst published the first issue of The Craftsman under the pseudonym of Caleb D’Anvers. The paper is known to have had a huge circulation of more than 10,000 copies and was one of the most widely read newspapers of its time and authors such as Henry Fielding, John Gay, and Alexander Pope contributed to it.
The Universal Spectator and Weekly Journal. 5 copies from Apr-Jun 1732. 6 copies from Mar-Oct 1733. [C & K 908]
Printed for S. Neville, in the Old Bailey near Ludgate. Author was Henry Baker. The first issue had an introduction by the editors and a contribution from Baker's father-in-law Daniel Defoe. Baker was associated with Defoe in starting the newspaper, which was intended as an essay-sheet rather than a newspaper. Most issues contained European and colonial news, crime, death notices, stock prices etc.
The Flying Post, or The Post-Master. 6 copies from 1733. [C & K 242] London. Printed by R. Tookey in Saint Christopher's court, behind the Royal Exchange. Thrice weekly publication. Edited by George Ridpath, a Scottish journalist and Whig supporter. First edition in 1695. Ridpath was found guilty of libel and fled to Scotland. The newspaper was continued under the editorship of Stephen Whatley no doubt with Redpath's direction.
The Free Briton. 3 copies from 1733. [ C & K 245]
Printed for J. Peele 1733. Published between 1729-1735 London, by William Arnall, a political journalist, using the pseudonym, Francis Walsingham. A pro-government newspaper containing politics, satire, literature and advertisements. Arnall was in the pay of Prime Minister Robert Walpole and employed to counter ‘The Craftsman’ and attacks by £50,000 was paid to supporting journalists and writers, with over £10,000 given to Arnall and writers under his influence, for promoting the pro-government line in the press. Arnall had a pension of about £400 a year, making him the best paid government journalist in London.
The Daily Post. 3 copies from 1733. [C & K 167]
Printed by S Neville in the Old Bailey near Ludgate. A daily paper produced by printer Hugh Meres with contributions from writer Daniel Defoe. The Post consisted of articles on current affairs, events, important dates, inventions, advances in modern sciences etc.
The London Journal. 1 copy 1733. [C & K 396] London. John Trenchard, a Whig supporter, and others.
The Weekly Miscellany. 1 copy 1733. C & K 553]
ByRichard Hooker of the Temple, London. Printed for J. Roberts. Richard Hooker is the pseudonym for William Webster, a priest in the Church of England and a theological writer. The periodical was discontinued in 1741. From the number of religious essays it contained, it became known as ‘Old Mother Hooker’s Journal’. Rare.
The Weekly Register or Universal Journal. 1 copy 1733. 1730-34. London T.Warner. [C & K 945]
The Daily Post-Boy. 1 copy 1733. [C & K 741 [14092] £1,200
Libraries sold and Prostitutes
40. The Universal Spectator and Weekly Journal Sale of the libraries of Lewis Atterbury and Peter Wentworth at Thomas Osborne’s shop in Gray’s Inn. London S Nevill, in the Old Baily near Ludgate Jan 22nd 1732
4pp folio, disbound from a bound volume, with 2/3rds of pp 3 devoted to the listing of the books to be sold.
The front page has a curious first person story recounting in length how an apprentice took a prostitute back to his master’s shop (a clothes merchant) and though paid in full she refused to leave until he ‘stole’ some satin for her. He was ‘saved’ by a carrier who came by and together they bound the naked woman, put her in a sack and she was left on a cart full of peas at Stock’s Market. This account follows long references to the newly presented play (in 1731) ‘The History of George Barnwell’, which tells a similar tale of an apprentice’s downfall due to ‘lewd’ women.
Thomas Osborne 1704-1767. bookseller, publisher and friend of Samuel Johnson. Osborne was well known for buying large libraries and offering the books for sale at fixed prices listed in catalogues. Most famously, after Edward Harley's death in 1741, Osborne purchased for £13,000 the extensive collection that had been assembled by Harley and his father, Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford (Harley's collection of manuscripts was purchased by the British government and remains in the British Library as the Harleian Collection). Osborne hired
William Oldys, who had been Edward Harley's literary secretary, and Samuel Johnson to compile a catalogue of the collection, which eventually ran to five volumes. Assessments of his character have always been tainted by the descriptions given by other booksellers who were jealous of his power and influence.
Lewis Atterbury the younger LL.D., (1656–1731) was an English churchman, a royal chaplain to two monarchs, part of his collection, comprising two hundred volumes of pamphlets was left to Christ Church. Oxford.
[14514] £48
Cockfight and too fat to escape prison through a tunnel
41. The Daily Courant Cockfighting, two reports of a main of cocks between Earl of Exeter and George [or Thomas?] Heneage [Stamford, Lincolnshire] Printed for T. Cooper, at The Globe, the Corner of IvyLane.... April 10 and June 5 1733
Two issues of “The Daily Courant”, single sheets, with announcement of the match and result, the name of the opponent to the Earl of Exeter changing from Thomas to George Heneage between issues. Containing a further account of a prison escape via a tunnel, where one of the criminals “was to bulky and got stuck in the hole” and the others left “several pieces of flesh sticking to the stones”.
[14516] £65
18th century Provincial Staffordshire Newspaper
42. Drewry, Joshua [Publisher]
Staffordshire Advertiser and Political, Philanthropic, and Commercial Gazette
Scarce first year run of a provincial newspaper, reporting on international affairs, and local news some with direct reference to the pottery industry Joshua Drewry 1795
A run of the journal from No 1 Jan 3rd 1795 to No 52 Dec 26th 1795, each issue 4 pages, folio, bound in boards, upper cover lacking, in overall very good condition with the following faults: No 2, lacks pp 1-2; No 4, half column cut out from pp 4; No 6, 1.5 columns cut from back page; No 7, 0.25 column cut from back page; No 13, 3 col cut from back page; No 51, lacks pp 1-2 [14512] £480
EARLY BALLOONING
43. A collection of 26 18th and early 19th century newspapers covering ballon ascents With the Sotheby’s catalogue of the Col. R L Preston collection of Ballooning prints and drawings in which many of the descriptions contained within the newspapers are depicted 1780s1830s
The London Chronicle – June 7 1788
‘Colmar May 16. Mr. Blanchard made an aerostatic experiment at Mulhouse; not being able to ascend himself, he fastened a goat to his balloon. In 12 minutes, a balloon of 9500 cubic feet was filled with a gas two thirds lighter than the atmospherical air. This balloon, with a parachute and the goat, ascended very lightly. At the height of about 1000 fathoms, a piece of mechanism contrived by Mr Blanchard cut the cord which held the parachute, and the animal, loosed from the balloon, descended majestically into the garden at the same time that the balloon came down’.
Blanchard was a French inventor, best known as a pioneer in gas balloon flight and in 1785 achieved the first flight over the English Channel. The early balloon flights triggered a phase of public ‘’balloonomania’’ with all manner of objects decorated with images of balloons from ceramics to fans and hats. Clothing was produced with exaggerated puffed sleeves and rounded skirts, or with printed images of balloons. Hair was coiffed a la Montgolfier or a la Blanchard.
The London Chronicle – June 26 1802
A night balloon in Ranelagh Gardens. Attached to the balloon was an ‘expensive firework’ which wasn’t lit until the balloon was several hundred feet high. Another account was of M. Garnerin, the highly celebrated French balloonist and the inventor of the frameless parachute. He held the position of Official Aeronaut of France, and visited England in 1802 with his wife, and the couple completed a number of demonstration flights. In June he ascended successfully with Lieutenant Snowden of the Navy. The weather became very cloudy, and they were obscured from view. The Chronicle doesn’t know where they descended.
The London Chronicle – August 12 1802
Barrett’s Balloon A failed six-hour attempt in Greenwich to ascend a balloon. A child’s cradle was eventually put in place of the car, and it ascended, coming down fifteen minutes later and three miles away in a field.
The London Chronicle – October 22 1807
Ascension by night of M. Garnerin
The report is written by Garnerin himself. This was his second ‘aerial journey by night’, having already achieved forty ascensions. It was a stormy night and Garnerin chose to leave M. de Chassenton behind,the extra weight being too much for the car, and not wishing to repeat a near-disaster which Mr. Blanchard had apparently experienced in Holland. He ascended from Tivoli gardens, Paris at 10.30 at night on Sept 21. He nearly overbalanced several times, potentially falling out of the car, and could hardly see the moon through the clouds. There was thunder. He experienced violent feelings of seasickness. He landed on the side of a mountain, by Mont Tonnerre, and was helped by some locals. It was seven and a half hours after his departure, and 300 miles from Paris.
The London Chronicle September 27 1810
James Sadler was the first English Aeronaut, making his first ascent in October 1784. He was the second person to make a balloon ascent in England after the Tuscan Lunardi’s flight in September 1784. Mr. Sadler’s Balloon.
Article 1. His Balloon went from Cardiff to Swansea and was reported by a Mail Guard. Article 2. From Bristol, with the chemist William Clayfield, Sadler landed safely near Combe Martin in the Bristol Channel, one hundred miles in only three hours.
The London Chronicle August 13 1811
The Regency Balloon.
Mr. Sadler’s latest attempt was a from the Mermaid, Hackney. The balloon was painted with the prince’s crest. It was painted ‘sky blue, with acanthus leaves and stars of gold, lined with yellow’. To date, he had been on fifteen aerial adventures. The balloon contained nearly 100,000 gallons of gas. 3,000 spectators in the garden. The balloon finally landed at Tilbury.
The London Chronicle October 10 1811
Mr. Sadler’s Balloon, Birmingham. This was Sadler’s 22nd ascent from Vauxhall, near Birmingham. There were thousands of spectators from the surrounding area, especially Coventry, Lichfield and Dudley, including many miners. Traders shut their shops to see the
spectacle. It alleges that in 1785 150,000 people were present for Mr. Harper’s ascent. On this occasion it was estimated at 170,000. The balloon descended near Heckington, Lincolnshire, one hundred miles from the ascent location.
Bell’s Weekly Messenger July 17 1814
Mr. Sadler’s balloon. Mr. Sadler and his son ascended from Burlington House. ‘The balloon contained 3000 yards of the finest double wove silk and was 74 feet in height from the bottom of the car to the top of the balloon. It was varnished and most beautifully painted to represent a temple supported on the sides by 18th century Corinthian pillars, between each of which were full length statues’. These included Britannia, Liberty, Justice, and Wisdom. It travelled to Gravesend and landed successfully in Great Warley, Essex.
Bell’s Weekly Messenger July 24 1814
Mr. Sadler’s account of his aerial voyage.
Bell’s Weekly Messenger July 31 1814
Mr. Sadler’s balloon. The balloon departed from Burlington House again. The occupants were William Sadler and a Miss Thomson. The weather was intensely cold, causing ear pain. The descent was at Oakenden, Essex.
Bell’s Weekly Messenger August 7 1814
Queen Victoria and some of the princesses attended Mr. William Sadler’s balloon ascending from Buckingham House. The balloon landed successfully at Gravesend, Essex, forty minutes later. This was part of the Jubilee celebrations.
A second account is of a selection of balloons ascending. One of these had a kitten in a small basket.
The News May 30 1824
Fatal Aerostatic Excursion.
An account of the death of Thomas Harris. He was a pioneering English balloonist, who invented the gas discharge valve, a device to release all the gas to prevent the balloon from dragging after landing. Harris died while flying the balloon from Vauxhall, London on May 25 1824. His travelling companion, an eighteen-year-old woman named Sophia Stocks was badly injured.From Vauxhall, the wind had carried the balloon towards Croydon, where it crashed into an oak tree at Beddington Park, near Carshalton.
The News June 6 1824
Mr. and Mrs. Graham’s ascent. George Graham and his wife Margaret achieved a successful attempt from Conduit Gardens to Cuckfield, Sussex. The aerial journey lasted one hour twenty minutes. The House of Commons was suspended as the balloon drifted over Westminster. Margaret was to become a far more accomplished balloon pilot than her husband and billed as ‘The only English female aeronaut’. She flew many dangerous ascents.
The News June 20 1824
Mr. Graham’s balloon.
He was accompanied by Captain Beaufoy. This attempt was again from Conduit Gardens, arriving at Tandridge, Godstone, Surrey, after one hour three minutes in the air. The account is lengthy.
The News July 4 1824
Mr. Rossiter’s aerial excursion.
A month after Thomas Harris's death, Mr Rossiter an uncle of Mrs Harris, announced that on the 1st of July at the Bedford Arms hotel, Camden Town, he would make a new ascent in Harris’s balloon to raise funds for the dead man's widow and children. There were 2,000 spectators. The flight was successful, and he landed in Havering Park, Romford, Essex.
The News October 3 1824
Death of Mr. Sadler, the aeronaut.
This was James Sadler’s son William Windham Sadler, who was named after the statesman of this name, who was a friend and ballooning companion to James. In 1824, William made several ascents over the northwest. On this occasion, he ascended in his balloon from Bolton, Lancashire with a man servant. He travelled over Blackburn. On the descent he threw out a grappling iron, which caught a tree, throwing him out of the car. He died of a fractured skull. The balloon continued for three more miles with the man servant, who finally leapt out and broke his arm.
The News October 10 1824
Another fatal balloon accident.
A balloon with a man’s body with a fractured skull was found in a field at Milton, Banbury, Oxfordshire.
Pierce Egan’s Life in London November 14 1824
Mr. Graham’s ascent from Canterbury. The journey was a success and he travelled sixteen miles.
A further account of Mr Green’s ascent where the writer comments that the crowd paying to see the flight were few as people were too mean to enter the enclosure and pay. He suggests next time they stay at home and not show their meanness. Also contains two boxing deaths.
The Age August 28 1825
Mr. Thomas R. Joliffe, from Somerset, accompanied by M. de Cornillot, ascended from Sevenoaks. They remained in flight for 30 minutes
Also the arrest of men attending a male brothel at Barley Mow pub Exeter exchange London
– infamous case
The Age November 20 1825
Plymouth. Mr. and Mrs. Graham, successfully ascended with over 18,000 spectators. After about fifteen minutes in the air, they dropped into the sea. “The balloon was bounding with great velocity up on the surface of the water, appearing from a distance like a large ship, but no car was visible for two or three minutes. In the midst of dire consternation by a sudden elevation of the ballon, the car which had been thus dragged through the water for nearly 20 minutes was luckily discovered: the ropes were instantly seized; And the vehicle, containing Mr and Mrs Graham clasped in each others arms in a very exhausted state, was drawn into the boat and they were thus happily relieved from their perilous situation.”
Pierce Egan’s Life in London June 5 1825
The ascent was from Montpelier Gardens, Walworth. Mr Graham and Captain Capes successfully launched the balloon and were in the air for half an hour. Among the spectators was Mr. Sadler.
Pierce Egan’s Life in London June 19 1825
Mr. Graham took his 24th aerial trip, accompanied by his wife and a Mrs. Forbes. They launched from the gardens of the Bedford Arms Tavern, Camden Town. The journey lasted one and a half hours landing safely at Feltham, near Hounslow.
Pierce Egan’s Life in London July 30 182
Mr. Green’s night ascension from Vauxhall. He successfully ascended at 10.17 at night from Vauxhall Gardens. He crossed the Thames three times and had an easy landing in Richmond.
Pierce Egan’s Life in London August 13 1826
The first page contains a full program of events at Vauxhall Gardens including Mr Green’s final ascent of the night in his balloon.
The paper also covers Mr. Green’s account of his ascent from Louth, finally landing in Spilsby, about 20 miles away.
Trewman’s Exeter Flying Post or Plymouth and Cornish Advertiser August 10 1837
Following from the recent successful ascent by Mr. and Mrs. Graham, this is a criticism of supporting ballooning and its obvious dangers. “Money, money is the inspiring demon in all these cases, and a morbid curiosity on the part of the public; A curiosity which can find amusement in the risk, we had almost said in the sacrifice of human life is a spirit by which these awful experiments are kept in action.”
Trewman’s Exeter Flying Post or Plymouth and Cornish Advertiser October 4 1837
Ascent of Mrs. Graham at Cheltenham.
This took place from Montpelier Gardens. She bought a model with her of the parachute where ‘Mr. Cocking had lost his life’ and explained the cause of the failure. When successfully in the air, she let down a parachute with a monkey in it successfully. “the monkey again descended without injury, near the Lansdowne Turnpike gate….and we understand that the monkey appeared by no means displeased with his aerial trip and he looked remarkably good humoured on his again reaching Terra Firma.” Mrs Graham continued her journey to Hartpury, about 15 miles
44. The London Chronicle, or Universal Evening Post Bound volume for the half year Jan-July 1758 London
Bound volume of the paper from issue Vol III No 158, Dec 31st 1757 to Vol III No 235, July 1st 1758, 624 pages, each issue covering three days with the last day of one issue overlapping with the first day of the following issue. Loosely inserted are six pages [3-8] of the last issue for 1757, and a single issue [one leaf, verso blank] of the London Gazette extraordinary June 9th 1758, quarter leather with marbled boards. pp 139-142 with some staining, marking or edge fraying just affecting a little text on a few leaves, overall sound and clean.
[14157]
£1,350
Copperplate illustration of St Helena recorded in newspaper bibliograpy
45. The Observer A descriptive sketch of the island of St. Helena London At the office of the Observer....by T M Vize October 29th 1815
folio, 4pp, with large copper illustration of the island of St Helena, after a drawing by George Hutchins Bellasis (1778-1822), at the head of pp 2
On 15 October 1815, exiled from mainland Europe following a failed comeback, former emperor of France Napoleon Bonaparte reached St Helena, a remote British outpost in the south Atlantic. Two weeks later the Observer, then only running to four sides, published a lengthy sketch on the political history of the island prominently on the front page. Included was a half page illustration.
Mason Jackson specifically refers to this issue in his in depth publication ‘The Pictorial Press’, London, 1885. “I have mentioned that the Observer was the first newspaper that availed itself of the revived art of wood-engraving; but it had previously essayed the then difficult task of illustrating the news of the day by the more costly means of engraving on copper. The island of St. Helena having been selected as the place of residence of Napoleon Bonaparte, the Observer of Oct. 29th, 1815, published a large copperplate view of the island, with a descriptive account. The plate is printed on the same page with the letterpress, so that there must have been two printings to produce this specimen of illustrated news.”
[13722] £175
Murder most Foul
46. The Universal Spectator and Weekly Journal The trial of Dorothy Longley for poisoning her husband London S Nevill, in the Old Baily near Ludgate April 8th & 15th, 1732. Two issues, 4pp folio, with two pages per issue devoted to the case and trial. A long and detailed account which ends with her being found Not Guilty [14515] £58
47. The Sun Bound volume of the newspaper, 1795 London The Sun January 1st to June 30th 1795
Folio, issue 706 (Jan 1st 1795) to issue 860 (June 30th 1795), lacking issues 710, 723, 733, 810, half calf with marbled boards [14020]
£800
Spoof attack on the Press and the Times newspaper
48. [Hayes, Sir George (1805-1869), Judge and Justice of the Queen's Bench] [Attack on the Press] A Bill for the More effectual Prosecution of the War with Russia, and for securing the Liberty of the Press, and for other Purposes. London, William Stevens, Printer, 37, Bell Yard, Temple Bar, February 1855
6pp, folio, blue paper in the manner of a Parliamentary Bill. Few folds, edge nicks and minor staining.
Hayes’s real target in this spoof bill can be seen from the headings to the various sections ‘Conduct of the war confided to “The Times newspaper’; Officers to hold commissions at the pleasure of “The Times’;...’”The Times” enpowered to take Sebastopol’; ‘”The Times” empowered to displace Ministers and appoint Cabinet Commissioners. Cabinet Councils to be held in Printing-house Square’; ‘All Courts to give judgements according to the opinion of “The Times”’; etc... see [Edmund Macrory], Hayesiana, privately printed 1892 for an extended account of Hayes life and a reprinting of some of his private publications.
Regarding the "Bill for the more effectual Prosecution of the War with Russia" reprinted in this volume Macrory notes [it] ‘was printed on blue foolscap paper, in the form of a Bill introduced into the House of Lords, and was printed (as the date on it proves) in February 1855, just at the time when the War in the Crimea was progressing not entirely in a
satisfactory manner, and shortly after a second false report of the fall of Sebastopol had found its way into some of the daily newspapers, including The Times.
Hayes, second son of Sheedy Hayes, a West Indian proprietor, and Catherine, daughter of John Westgate, was born in Judd Place, Somers Town, London and educated at Highgate School and at St. Edmund's Roman Catholic college, near Ware. In 1830 he was called to the bar, in 1862 he was appointed Recorder of Leicester, and in 1868 he was named a justice of the court of queen's bench and knighted by the queen at Windsor Castle on 9 Dec.
[12771]
£175
1969
Folio newspaper, 20pp, double page spread on attack on LA chapter headquarters; Huey’s appeal part 14; William Patterson on the “Black athlete”; articles on Fred Hampton murder; full page spread on Emory greetings cards and adverts for records by Elaibne Brown and Eldridge Cleaver; good Emory bac cover.
[13881]
£125
49. Black Panther Party Black Panther Party Newspaper December 13th 1969 San Francisco Black Panther Party, Ministry of Information December 13thFred Hampton murdered
50. Black Panther Party Black Panther Party Newspaper December 20th 1967 San Francisco Black Panther Party, Ministry of Information December 20th 1967
Folio newspaper, 20pp, important back cover artwork by Emory “What is a Pig”; LAPD raid and assault on BP party headquarters; Huey’s appeal part 15; double page photo spread of all party members in jail after the LA headquarters shoot out; further accounts of the raid and photos of wreckage inside; illus. advert for Emory Revolutionary Season’s greetings cards.
[13880]
£150
Rare collection of Scottish views after Calotypes
52. Rodger, Thomas Jr [1833-1883, Photographer, Scotland] The Kingdom of Fife, calotyped by Thomas Rodger, St Andrews... The work will be completed in Twenty Parts, at 5s each. Each part will contain Three Views, literal transcripts from Calotypes by Mr Rodger, and Twelve Pages of descriptive Letterpress Cupar-Fife & Edinburgh John Cunningham Orr, [parts 1-4] WITH Hutchison & Co [parts 5-8] 1861, 360by280mm(14¼by11inches) sheetsize,imagesize170x220mmaverage
Eight parts only [all published?], 21 plates [of 24], 84pp of text, original wrappers, lacking upper cover to issue 1
Collation of this series is complicated, with some plates not in the same volume as the text, the text pages are un-numbered, and the substitution of some plates for that called for. Though the text refers to 20 parts as the proposed set, it is quite likely that the actual number issued was only eight, as this copy on offer and the St. Andrews set are both of only 8 parts.
University Library of St Andrews special collections has two copies, Copy 1. Complete in 8 parts, 24 plates; Copy 2. lacks part 3, 21 plates
The British Library has only two parts.
The National Library of Scotland has only three parts
Part I:
Plate 1 Dysart - The Beach
Plate 2 The Ivy Bridge - Leslie House
Plate 3 Ecclesiastical Ruins of St Andrews [lacking]
12pp text
Part II:
Plate 1 Palace Ruins – Dunfermline
Plate 2 Wemyss Castle
Plate 3 Cupar
12pp text
Part III
Plate 1 The Bishop’s Castle - St Andrews [lacking]
Plate 2 Burntisland - The Harbour
Plate 3 Monastry of Inchcolm [not as called for, extra plate]
12pp text
Part IV
Plate 1 Crail
Plate 2 St Andrews - from the Maiden Rock [lacking]
Plate 3 East Wemyss
6pp text
Part V
Plate 1 Earlshall
Plate 2 McDuff’s Castle
Plate 3 Lochleven and Castle
12pp text
Part VI
Plate 1 Ravenscraig Castle
Plate 2 Kennoway Den
Plate 3 Leven
10pp text
Part VII
Plate 1 Largo
Plate 2 St Monance
Plate 3 Pittenweem
12pp text
Part VIII
Plate 1 Balcomie Castle
Plate 2 Anstruther
Plate 3 Markinch
12pp text
Thomas Rodger Jr, was apprenticed to a chemist at fourteen and then assistant to John Adamson who taught him Calotypy. Having given up photography for a short while, Adamson persuaded him to take it up again and by 16 he had his own studio.
[11076]
Photographs of the eclipse of the sun in 1858
53. Bagster family photograph album 1850s
£4,750
Album containing around 80 photographs, the majority albumen prints, but including lightly albumenised prints, and salted paper prints. Where dated, the images run from 1852 to 1858 and comprise family and friends and some locations, particularly Chard in Somerset, and a series on the 1858 solar eclipse
The album was compiled most probably by Nancy Horsey Bagster as it comprises mainly her children and her place of birth, Chard. One image is inscribed ‘Mamma’ and shows a woman seated with Nancy’s children.
It also seems likely that many the photographs in the album are by Jonathan Bagster, the son of publisher Samuel Bagster (1772-1851). Jonathan Bagster appears in the [Henry Fox]
Talbot correspondence of Dec 4th 1852, in a letter written from Paternoster Row, the home of the Bagster publishing house:
“Sir, [Henry Fox Talbot]
I shall be happy to forward your acknowledgement to Mr Pretsch. I have just received from Mr Pretsch another photograph for your self a very highly magnified representation of a newly hatched larva of the Bambyx pini – will you do me the favour to let me know how I should send it to you. If it would not be trespassing upon your courtesy it would afford me considerable pleasure to possess some trifling picture of your own execution it would so much enhance the interest of my little collection.
I am Sir Your faithful Servant
J. Bagster”The nature of this correspondence would tie in with the correspondent being be the photographer of the depiction of the solar eclipse of 1858, pasted into this album and signed with initials which though difficult to read appear to be JB. Also there is the mention of Jonathan Bagster in the diaries of Thomas Gun (in the Missouri records office) who meets up with him in regard to photography in 1855.
There are two striking portraits in the album of Nancy’s obviously somewhat dilettante brother-in-law Cornelius Birch Bagster. Cornelius was married to Susanna Maria Aitken on 22nd November 1843 on Prince Edward Island (now a Canadian province). C B Bagster seems to have travelled on a few occasions between England or Prince Edward Island. Notably in 1838 he was one of only seven passengers on the maiden transatlantic voyage of Brunel’s great ships the “Great Western” [1]. This would appear to be at least his second visit as the ‘Publishers Circular’ of 1837 carries an advert from Bagster and Marshall of London and Philadelphia, literary agents that Cornelius B Bagster is going out there and will represent any clients that so wish.
Though married on Prince Edward Island, his first child was born in 1845 in England. He had two further daughters in 1845 and 1847 who were born in Canada. Then in 1849 and 1852 two further births of daughters are recorded in England, and in 1848 he is recorded as having emigrated to Canada. By the 1880’s and 90’s he appears on censors in New Jersey and New Orleans and died at Vineland New Jersey, where one obituary read “Mr Bagster was a highly educated man with considerable literary attainments, but was of very eccentric character”. The diaries of Thomas Gun as well as recording meeting with Jonathan record a number of encounters with Cornelius through 1855-1862. One rather uncomplimentary entry refers to dining somewhere
and that “(Cornelius Bagster) pigs in the same place with his huge wife and children, and the same dreadful stink...”
[1] The First Atlantic Liner: Brunel’s Great Western Steamship, By Helen Doe, Amberley Publishing 2017
[10822] £2,250
Rare watercolours by Scottish photographer Robert MacPherson
54. MacPherson, Robert Turnbull [1814-1872, Scottish, artist and photographer] Two watercolour paintings of the tomb of Devereux Plantagenet Cockburn in the Protestant Cemetery, Rome Rome, Italy 1852
Circular watercolour of the tomb of Devereux Plantagenet Cockburn [died 1850] in the foreground and the Pyramid in the distance, laid down on trimmed mount and signed on the mount ‘Robt MacPherson, Rome 1852’ WITH a further view looking past Cockburn’s tomb to the City of Rome in the distance, on trimmed mount, both with some minor water damage. The tomb of Devereux Plantagenet Cockburn bears the inscription “late of the Royal Scots Greys, 2nd Dragoons, and first born son of Sir W.S.R. Cockburn Bart. N.S. of far off Britain of deep and unpretending piety, of rare mental and corporeal endowments, he was beloved by all who knew him, and most precious to his parents and family, who had sought his health in many foreign climes, he departed this life in Rome, on the 3rd of May 1850, Aged 21 years.” Given the complication of the sculpture it can be assumed that Macpherson’s pictures of 1852 would have been not long after the tomb was completed. Seemingly only two other works by MacPherson are known, “The Templar Knight at Roslin
Chapel” 1836 and “Roman Campagna” painted in Rome, after his arrival in 1842 now in The Stirling Smith Art Gallery & Museum These images were produced just at the time (1851/2) that it is known that he began to abandon painting for photography.
Macpherson, Robert (1814–1872), photographer and painter, was born in Forfarshire, Scotland, and spent most of his professional life in Rome. The generally accepted view of his early life is that he studied medicine at Edinburgh University (1831–5) and later possibly about 1838 attended classes at the Royal Scottish Academy of Art. Towards the end of the 1830s he settled in Rome, abandoning his career in medicine to become a painter. Only moderately successful as an artist, Macpherson found it necessary to undertake freelance work as a journalist, producing articles for The Times, the Daily News, and The Athenaeum. He also practised as a dealer in antiquities and was responsible for the discovery of Michelangelo's Entombment of Christ. Gregarious and outgoing, he became a central figure in the community of expatriate artists and intellectuals who congregated in Rome. He was the quintessential Scotsman abroad, with flaming red hair, large flowing beard, and full highland costume.
In 1851 Macpherson began experimenting in photography, and quickly established himself as one of the leading interpreters of Roman topography, producing nearly 300 views of the city's architectural treasures, as well as numerous reproductions of paintings and sculptures from the papal collections in the Vatican. His earlier experience as a painter proved invaluable in the choice of effective viewpoints, and his interpretations of classical architecture were unsurpassed in their aesthetic power and sophistication. The fullest account of Macpherson in Rome appears in the memoirs of the American artist James Freeman. A close friend of both Macpherson and his wife, Freeman met him almost at once “Returning to Rome in 1841, I found, among other students of painting who had arrived during my absence, a young Scotchman, Robert MacPherson by name, with whom I afterwards became intimately acquainted...” Freeman writes on MacPherson taking up photography “Macpherson was quick to see in the new invention a chance of bettering his fortunes, and at once set to work to investigate its mysteries. He threw aside his pencils, which seemed to promise nothing but poverty and disappointment, and gave himself up wholly to photography”. Cowie claims that “Robert Turnbull McPherson is known to have painted in Scotland between the years 1835-1839. Little is known about his life and indeed the whereabouts of most of his works also remains something of a mystery,” and postulates that “The fact that he exhibited work at the Royal Scottish Academy tells us that MacPherson was an artist of merit in his day.” The RSA displayed 15 of his works between 1835 and 1839. [111] £3,250
Orchids
55. Unknown photographer Album of 96 photographs of orchids and other flowers in floral displays England early 20th century
A good collection of ninety-six gelatine silver print photographs of orchids, chrysanthemums, and other flowers mainly displayed in vases, all window mounted in a small album, with a worn label “flowers” to the spine
The collection would seem to have been compiled for the artistic display of the plants, highlighting their aesthetic look when displayed in vases or photographed close up, the majority are shown against plain backgrounds, though two are set against a japanese inspired wallpaper and one shows some of the plants being raised in a green-house.
[14405]
£750
Weeds in photography
56. Unknown photographer Collection of 'artists' studies of plants and foliage England 1860s Collection of thirty-one albumen print photographs of vegetation and foliage mounted on pages numbered in ink sequentially, some lacking, quarter leather with marbled boards, upper cover with label inscribed in ink wash “Half plate 128 to Weeds &...”, some pages loose and disbound, boards off. [14404] £3,250
Crime
57. Unknown photographer Criminal mug shots - collection of 90 photographs,1870s.
A bound collection of ninety ‘mug shots’ of male and female criminals, posed in a head on view, each annotated below in ink with a number [presumably the arrest reference number] and various dates in the early to mid 1870s. Originally bound in marbled wrapps., one lacking and now all disbound.
Whilst there are no obvious indications as to the exact nature of this compilation, there is a surviving printed piece of text as an outer leaf which refers to British stocks and market prices, also the date format [d/m/y] is in the usual layout for the UK one can assume that it is a British record book.
There are twenty three female and sixty-seven male portraits
[14510] £1,800
Victorian criminal portraits
58. unknown photographer Group of ten cdv format studies of labourers and servants or criminals England 1870s
A collection of ten albumen print photographs
Fine portrait studies with a wealth of detail of the clothing of the poor in the later 19th century [10820]
Rare house sale particulars with stereo and hand-coloured photographs
£280
59. Elsden, A [Photographer] Particulars of the house and homestead of Bredgar parsonage farm, and of the house and homestead of Swanton Court Farm, both in the county of Kent, and the property of Thomas Wedgwood, Esq., of Bengeo Lodge, Bengeo, near Hertford, Herts
Hertford, England Printed by John Rose, Fore Street, Hertford 1860
[1] Title page, [2] index, 3-15 [all versos blank], six hand coloured mounted albumen photographs [three stereo images and three single] mounted one per leaf, original full leather binding, head of spine torn and lacking, binding loose.
Tissue guard for the images to each leaf, though when the photographs were mounted they were attached each to the wrong side of the leaf, Rare item, only one defective copy recorded [Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center (HRC), University of Texas at Austin], which lacks two of the illustrations. See World Cat.
[14287]
£580
Bethlehem Moravian Church trombone quartet, vacant chair for deceased member
60. H. P. Osborne, photographer, Bethlehem, P.A. Three surviving trombonists in quartet celebrate 50 years of playing for the local church Bethlehem, USA 1867
Albumen print photograph, mounted as a carte de visite, verso with photographer’s details and extensive manuscript annotations, the players are named, with their ages ‘Berkel, 66, Weiss 71, Till 68’ and “Three of a quartet of Trombonists who celebrated the 50th anniversary their service as such in the Bethem (?) Church at Bethlehem - on Easter 1867. The vacant chair represents the fourth of the quartet - a brother of Mr Weiss accidentally killed some years ago”
The Bethlehem trombone choir debuted Aug. 31, 1754, playing on instruments imported from Europe. Moravians trombonists have played their brass instruments through the early hours of Easter for centuries for one very simple reason, said Kremmerer, the choir's director. "Because it's not Easter unless we play,". The tradition goes back 250 years when the all-male choir played along the Bethlehem's single main street to rouse the worshippers for the sunrise service.
[10505] £175
Whale beached at Pevensey in 1865, now in Cambridge Museum
61. Unknown photographer Two photographs of the whale washed ashore Pevensey beach, 1865, body and skeleton Pevensey 1865
albumen print photographs [carte de visite size] laid down on old album leaf, ink annotations. When a giant whale was washed up on Pevensey beach in Sussex in 1865, 40,000 people travelled by train to take a look. Believed to be the biggest Finback whale skeleton on display it was bought in 1866 by John Willis Clark, the Cambridge Zoological museum's superintendent The skeleton was sold to Cambridge University in 1897 for £80 but it was many years before it was next seen in public. Ms Biram said: "It took a very small team 30 years of engineering and lab work to clean it, conserve it and create the structure to mount it."
Most renowned Coursing champion
62. Hills & Saunders [photographers] Master M’Grath, greyhound winner of the Waterloo Cup in 1868, 1869 and 1871 London circa 1870
albumen carte de visite photograph, with photographer’s details verso
Tall ships
63. Earp, Henry E. [mariner] Album of photographs of tall ships involved in global trading voyages, including UK, North and South America, Australia, New Zealand etc 1880s-1910
Oblong folio photograph album of 60 pages with circa 150 original silver print photographs of mainly ‘tall ships’ that he presumably sailed on, encountered on his voyages or had a close interest in, including twenty full page photographs and the remainder either two or four to a page, final leaf with manuscript index of many of the vessels, leather binding, The first illustrations in the album are of Richard Woodget the first commander of the Cutty Sark.
Earp was living it Stafford Street Hull in 1929 and in that year wrote a letter to the sailing boat historian, Basil Lubbock [Seaman and author of several histories of sailing ships, including “The China Clippers” (1914), “The Colonial Clippers” (1921) and “The last of the Windjammers” (1927-28)]. c.f. Collection of the National Maritime Museum collection for Earp/Lubbock letter / images also available at https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj836336990/findingaid.
It is likely that the ship Forfarshire was boat Earp sailed mainly as there are a number of photographs of it in the album and it was the name his house in Truro. The Forfarshire sailed under Shaw-Savile flag at the end of the 19th century
signed on the front end paper ‘Henry E Earp’ and the foot of the index leaf inscribed ‘This album is the property of Henry E. Earp, 20 Stafford Street, Burnley Road [?], Hull (crossed out), 124 Harley Street, Hull (crossed out), “Forfarshire”, Carnon Downs, Truro, Cornwall’.
[14288]
£2,400
vintage silver print photograph, with pencil annotations to back “CV 299 sheet 6-18”.
Gifted by Norman Parkinson
Tom Lehrer and Skeleton
64. Parkinson, Norman, CBE (1913-1990) portrait and fashion photographer Tom Lehrer London 1960s
[12242] £1,250
4to.,
[14401]
The largest photograph in the world, taken during a recent tank advance on the Western Front
66. Brighton Art Galleries Catalogue of British Official War photographs in colour. Brighton Ministry of Information 1918. 8vo., wrapps, 24pp.
Catalogue for an exhibition that ran July 29th to August 17th., 144 exhibits, the majority available in various sizes, framed, unframed or coloured. Item 22 is catalogues as the “largest photograph in the world”. It shows a tank advance and if one stands back, ‘every detail will stand out in a stereoscopic relief.” It measured 23’ 6” x 17’
[14398]
65. Brandt, Bill Camera in London London Focal Press 1948 cream boards gilt lettering, 89 pp., including numerous full plate photographs, folding table of exposures, spine sunnedSuicide or Murder - Prison inmate commits suicide[?]
67. Police photographer Franke Rande hangs himself [apparantly] from prison cell bars inscribed verso by Robert McClaughry, prison ‘reformer’ Joliet, Iowa, USA 1884
albumen print photograph mounted on card, lable to verso with manuscript ink inscription “I enclose photo of Rande [?] as we found him in his cell last Friday morning. The marks on his side and face are where he was wounded in the affray. He had the consent of every body here to take himself out of of the world in which he had never been any thing but a curse and a nuissence. Your Truly R W McClaughry” There are elements of the inscription that do leave it open as to what extent the death was self inflicted.
The Rock Island Republican newspaper 6 March 1884 published the following: “Rande’s Last and Best // The ruffian hangs himself // The Illinois penitentiary rid of its most disgraceful Occupant, by his own hand. Joliet March 7, Chas Scott alias Franke Rande, the most cowardly ruffian that ever disgraced the annals of the West, hung himself in the Penitentiary this morning; thus avenging by his own hand to some slight degree, the list of bloody crimes of which he was the perpetrator, and ridding the Penitentiary of his odious presence, which was not only a standing menace to those in charge but a continual annoyance to other criminals there confined.”
Robert McClaughry was a type of prison reformer, see :Frank Morn - Forgotten Reformer: Robert McClaughry and Criminal Justice Reform in Nineteenth-Century America, 2010
68. Unknown photographer [Southington] An American Town and its way of LIfe Southington, CT Prepared by the Ministry of Information in co-operation with the U. S. office of War 1940s
Twenty-five loose sheets of photographs, including title sheet [and 24 numbered leaves], Photographer Charles Fenno Jacobs took a series of photographs of Southington, Connecticut from May 23-30, 1942. It is possible that this published loose-leaf book used these photographs. Though unable to compare like for like with those available on-line, the style is very similar. With the U.S. in the midst of WWII Jacobs was on assignment with the United States Office of War Information, an agency that created and distributed propaganda at home and abroad.
[11500]
£280
The American Dream69. Worthington, A. M. A study of splashes with 197 illustrations from instantaneous photographs London Longmans, Green and Co. 1908
4to., pp., xii, 129, numerous text illustrations, original cloth with gilt illustration of ‘splash’ on upper board, spine and edges of boards with discolouration, top right corner of pages a little bumped
The beginnings of BBC set design
70. Levin, Richard [Designer and head of BBC television design 1953-1971] Archive relating to Levin’s design career 1930s-1970s 1930-1970s
A large, mainly vintage photographic archive of the design projects of Levin, from innovative work for Castrol and others in the 1930s, through to his design and production work for the BBC, with some manuscript material
The collection could be divided into a number of groups as follows:
• Richard Levin’s first design/exhibition - Vintage photograph of the stand with accompanying hand written note to an unnamed correspondent explaining that he started work at the same time as Misha
Black at Arundell Clarke Ltd and this design for the British Industries Fair 1930 was a revolutionary piece of design in the field. It was one of his first jobs, and this was his earliest photograph.
• Collection of approx. 50 vintage photographs of designs by Levin including an early adaptation of Surreal imagery for a Regent Street window display, most images were used in articles in the press at the time [see item 5].
• Levin’s designs for the new offices of Castrol/Wakefield and for their stand at the Motor show, with a few press cuttings commenting on the displays - A collection of 35 vintage photographs
• 1930’s scrap book of exhibition design work and other images including work for Bakelite and Castrol and Viyella, cuttings and original vintage photographs, some loosely inserted.
• 1936/37 Paris Exhibition - 12 photographs of the location, stand and exhibition
• Trianon bar on the Pullman coach of the Golden Arrow train, 1930/40. - 3 vintage photographs
• Exhibition of 1944 held in the bombed - out site of John Lewis in Oxford Street and designed by Levin for the Ministry of Information - 28 vintage photographs
• Prague Radio Exhibition, 1947 - 4 photographs of the exhibition stand
• The Festival of Britain, 1951, including fashion, with a printed sheet re. the travelling exhibition crediting Levin as the chief designer - 18 photographs
• Exhibitions relating to the BBC 1930s - 1950s - 30 various vintage photographs
• BBC stands at Radio-Olympia 1933-1951, including a rare group from the 1939 show which was only open for 1 hour due to the outbreak of war - 31 vintage photographs
• Levin’s 1953 design for the current affairs programme Joan Gilbert’s Diary, one vintage photograph with his manuscript note attached stating that it was the first ‘contemporary’ design for a current affairs programme on British Television
• Large scrap book of press cuttings, vintage photographs and printed artwork 1953-1962, chronicling Levin’s work in design at the BBC, including photographs of various parties and receptions, cuttings about his design ethos and the BBC design team in general WITH a further album mainly of cuttings relating to material 1963-1968.
• 2 vintage colour photographs of HRH the Queen, taken at Buckingham Palace in 1967 at the launch of the first colour television broadcast, with 10 other related images of Levin accompanying the Queen and a colour contact sheet of HRH, of 20 images taken at the Palace during the first colour broadcast, and 2 images of Levin with the Queen Mother and one of him with Armstrong-Jones.
• Approx. 20 sheets of vintage colour contact prints including Miss World 1970s, Eurovision Song contest and other events.
• Fourteen large production sheets of vintage photographs, including camera and sound equipment.
• Small group of papers related to Levin’s letter to Philips electrical asking about the possibility of making a larger - wide screen television as opposed to the standard 4:3 aspect screen
• Large group of vintage colour negatives some captured from TV screens, some on location, including Miss World 1970-1974, Eurovision Song Contest, Ivor Novello awards, SFTA [Society of Film and Television - BAFTA].
• Large group of colour and black and white 35 mm contact sheets, including stage performances, Lulu and other, family and friends.
• Forty large sheets of vintage photographs along with extra images of set designs, used for the production of Richard Levin’s book ‘Television by Design’. There are excellent images of many sets including Quatermass and the Pit, historical sets, contemporary chat show sets etc. WITH Levin’s copy of the book.
• Levin at work and around the BBC - A group 19 photographs, one very large
• Collection of material relating to Levin, including pamphlets, photographs, and original copy of his BBC logo as a ‘stick on’ label.
• An extensive scrap book of approx. 46 letters received by Levin on his retirement from the BBC, from TV and film studios around the world. The letters all express a huge debt of gratitude that the TV stations and designers around the world owed to Levin and his pioneering work. The front cover with a group photograph up a spiral staircase of delegates to a TV design conference, many of whose letters are within. Correspondents include Australia, CBS, Thames, ATV, Denmark, Poland, Switzerland, Japan, etc.
• Five albums of negatives of family and friends.
Richard Levin, was head of design for BBC Television from 1953 to 1971, and thus the individual who set the visual stamp on the service throughout its great period of expansion and innovation, including the switch from black-and-white to colour in 1967-69. Television "design" in those days meant everything from the scenery for a grand opera to the seating plan for a panel game or the graphics illustrating a plain man's guide to the economy. It could be sinister Martian creatures in a Quatermass serial or a new set for the teenage pop show, Six-
Five Special, to help young viewers feel a part of the proceedings rather than merely spectators.
From the age of seven, when he was given a box camera, the young Levin was devoted to photography. He left Clayesmore public school at 17 to become a trainee with GaumontBritish Films. There he was attracted to the design side, rose to be an assistant art director and, after studying at the Slade and in Paris, entered the world of industrial and exhibition design, including, prophetically, a stint with the pre-war television service at Alexandra Palace. During the war, he worked for the Air Ministry as a camouflage officer and for the Ministry of Information as an exhibition designer. For the 1951 Festival of Britain he designed the travelling exhibition The Land, which earned him an OBE. Two years later, just as television was taking off, he got the opportunity to rejoin the BBC at the top. Though "design" embraced every aspect of television output, it was in drama, variety and big spectacles that it was most noticed. Levin found that painted scenery flats were still the norm. In the cramped little studios of Alexandra Palace, there had been no alternative, but now Lime Grove and Riverside were available there was no need for such two-dimensional illusion. He set about giving plays, especially, three- dimensional sets, in which the camera could move about as a privileged observer. In 1960, he published a book, Television By Design, in which he pointed out that the designer's talents existed to serve the needs of the writer and director. For the majority of these clients, and certainly most viewers, that meant absolute realism.
He set up specialist photographic and graphics units, personally designed the BBC logo and conducted experiments with a widescreen format. Michael Barry, then head of drama, was enthusiastic but, with colour on the horizon, there was no money to pursue the project. Another of Levin's sidelines, rather unusual in a BBC department head, was to always carry his camera with him and take portraits of all the great and famous who came to the studios. When he finally retired from broadcasting, he turned this lifelong hobby into his profession, specialising in portraiture. He was elected a Royal Designer for Industry (RDI) in 1971, and awarded the Royal Television Society's Silver Medal the following year.
A collection of 56 amusing photographs, mounted on postcards, half the surface with descriptive text in ink, ink wash borders, all loosely corner mounted in an oblong 4to album, titled in ink on cover The Ghost Train (very freely adapted), 1927. An entertaining album presumably compiled by a group of boys each talking on different roles in the story, with costume changes and interspersed with images of trains and railway settings. This album is a reworking of the story of the Ghost train, which started life as a play in 1925 with a successful run and by 1927 was an Anglo-German film of 1927. The premise is that a criminal gang is faking various supernatural events at a minor railway station in order to keep the public away and thus cover up the criminal acts. Arthur Ridley actor and playwright was inspired to write the play after becoming stranded overnight at Mangotsfield, a now lost station, during a rail journey through the Gloucestershire countryside. The deserted station's atmosphere, combined with hearing the non-stop Bath to Gloucester express using an adjacent curved diversionary main line to by-pass Mangotsfield, which created the illusion of a train approaching, passing through and departing, but not being seen, impressed itself upon Ridley's senses. The play took him only a week to write. After a première in Brighton,[2] it transferred to London's St Martin's Theatre, where – despite unenthusiastic reviews from the theatre press critics – it played to sell-out audiences from November 1925 to March 1927.
[14435] £260
Notorius Homosexual
72. Matthew Darly [Samuel Drybutter] Ganymede London According to Act of Parl.t by M. Darly 39 Strand. March 1st 1771
A portrait of Samuel Drybutter, a ‘toyman’ (a seller of luxury goods such as jewellery, watches and trinkets) and bookseller in Westminster Hall, wearing a looped hat and ruffled shirt, a cane in his right hand, his left inside his waistcoat. Samuel Drybutter was a notorious homosexual, considered to be the leader of the Macaroni Club in the 1770s. He was arrested several times for attempted sodomy, once offering money to a horse grenadier patrolling at the Horse Guards, although the case was dropped when he counter-charged the grenadier with an attempt to extort money. In October 1777, he was proposed as Petty Constable for the parish of St. Margaret, Westminster, as a joke. he asked to be excused, telling the Court of Burgesses that ‘’ I am not a fit person to be put in this office....The world calls me a Sodomite; I am one’’ ( London Evening News, 10 Oct. 1771), a very rare defiant assertion of a homosexual identity for the time. In 1777 Drybutter tried to pick up a man in St James’s Park and got arrested again; released to a mob, he was pelted with mud and severely beaten. he reached home, which several hundred people then attacked, breaking all the windows and smashing up his shop. His injuries were severe and it was reported that he had died; however it is now known that Drybutter had fled to France, where he died c. 1787.
From ‘24 Caricatures by several ladies, gentlemen, artists, etc. BM Satires: 4915; Rictor Norton: Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England. [Ref. 55583]
18th century Female etcher
73. Elizabeth Bridgetta Gulston (1749-1779) "A Character", 1772 titled “A Character”, a poem below, and signed in the plate Eliz. B. fec. Depicting a man standing in profile to right, apparently caricatured for his old-fashioned dress and straight lank figure. His left hand is outstretched, his right holds a sword of which only the hilt is visible. He wears a wide flat hat and bag-wig. His long narrow coat hangs well below his knees. beneath the title are ten etched lines of verse mocking this ‘Queer Old Beau’. By Elizabeth Bridgetta Gulston (1749-1779, amateur etcher, wife of Joseph Gulston).
"An Ugly Face & Staring Hat, A Carcase which has lost its Fat.
An ill shap'd Coat, too bad for shew
Yet Hides the Aukward Legs below.
The Sword a Thing not meant for Harm And Therefore Hug'd betwixt the Arm.
Whene'er at Court he shews his Face
The Breeding Ladies Quit the Place
BM Satires: 5009 [Ref: 55581]
[14131]
£210
Boulton and Park infamous Victorian gay cross-dressers
74. Two carte de visite photographs and a collection of lengthy newspaper articles over thirty-six pages on the arrest and trial of Boulton and Park London 1870s
Bound volume of 169 numbered pages, containing lengthy newspaper cuttings reporting on a number of criminal cases, including the notorious case of Boulton and Park, with full coverage of the trial, letters and photographs obtained during the investigation and the contentious evidence of the police surgeon who examined the defendants, also included are accounts of the Eltham murder case, Margaret Waters and the Brixton baby farming case and other high profile cases,
The Boulton Park case is significant in forcing the introduction of the 1885 Labouchere Amendment law which brought in a two year prison sentence for crimes of ‘gross indecency’. Boulton & Park were arrested in 1870 whilst leaving a London theatre dressed in women’s clothing. They were charged with committing indecent acts and inciting others. They were remanded for two months during which time they were subject to physical examinations later condemned as highly invasive on their personal liberty and which were recorded in explicit detail in some newspapers. A co-defendant Lord Arthur Clinton committed suicide before the case came to court though more recent research has speculated that his death and burial were faked and in fact he probably escaped from England and went to live in the USA or Australia. Boulton and Park were acquitted after the judge, Sir Alexander Cockburn, the Lord Chief
Take him in short from Top to Toe And set him down the Queer Old Beau."
Justice, was highly critical of the police investigation and the treatment of the men by the police surgeon.
At the first court hearing it was noted that “Boulton wore a cherry-coloured evening silk dress trimmed with white lace; his arms were bare, and he had on bracelets. He wore a wig and plaited chignon. Park’s costume consisted of a dark green satin dress, low necked and trimmed with black lace, of which material he also had a shawl around his shoulders. His hair was flaxen and in curls. He had on a pair of white kid gloves”
[13353]
£880
Bondage and Domination
75. Group of eight fetish and bondage water-colours of women driving or drawing carriages
France & UK 1920s
watercolour and pencil on paper, most titled in French, in ink below the image, the backs with traces of previous mounting, one faintly inscribed in pencil on the image “ ‘Flick’, as Jack’s pony”.
[14413] £3,200
Bondage and Domination
76. Group of six fetish and bondage watercolour drawings, of women in a riding stables titled “La Belle Moniture” France 1920s
Group of six watercolours titled “La Belle Moniture” [numbered I-VI]
I. Stallee; depicting an armless woman tied to a stable stall
II. Sellee; the same woman being brushed down
III. Montee, the woman with saddle and bit being mounted
IV. Flattee, the woman being ridden at speed
V. Frappee, the woman being whipped
VI. Recompensee, the woman being rewarded with a morsel of food
[14415] £2,400
Bondage and Domination
77. Group of four fetish and bondage water-colours of women as horses in a stable with their mistresses France & UK 1920s
watercolour and pencil on paper, titled in French, in ink below the image, the backs with traces of previous mounting,
[14414] £1,600
The Mackintosh Club and other fetishes
78. Two albums of Bondage, Fetish, Mackintosh and rubber ware England 1950s
Two albums containing around three hundred vintage laid down photographs mainly of scenes of domination and bondage though also containing publicity and amateur photographs relating to Mackintosh ware. The images covering innocent depictions of modelling rain-ware in indoor and outdoor settings through to scenes of full bondage in leather ware.
[14411] £5500
Boots & Bondage
79. Stanton, Eric [fetish artist] Girl's Figure Training Academy & “Boots and Bondage” USA Irving Klaw 1953-1956
A complete vintage set of twenty-two photographs of fetish drawings by Eric Stanton, for “Girl’s figure training academy”, published in June 1955, neatly laid down in album, and a further set of fifteen original photographs after fetish drawings by Jay for Boots and Bondage.
Both sets laid down in an album, one illustration per page, the red rexine bound album with applied gilt high heeled kinky boot, and ‘photographs’ in gilt.
These two sets are the scarce original photographic series published by Irving Klaw in the 1950s.
[14408]
£850
Illustrated Lesbian Bondage novellas
80. Stanton, Eric [fetish artist] Pleasure bound! USA 1954
Pleasure Bound, illustrated by Eric Stanton, 30 original photographic illustrations (chapters) after drawings and manuscript text, all marked “(c)Irving Klaw all rights reserved”, some signed Stanton in the negative, contained within a loose bound oblong folio album with gilt high heeled foot to upper cover and ‘photographs’
WITH
Invitation to Dance illustrated by (Alan) MacClyde, 6 of 7 original photographic illustrations after drawings(chapters) 1-5,7, numbered ID 1-5 in the negative.
WITH
Rebellious Wasps by Eva, a photographic erotic lesbian bondage novel, 4 original photographic illustrations after drawings, (chapters) 1-4, signed and numbered in the negative. WITH
two leather and bondage photographic illustrations after drawings, of women with whips by Gregor, signed in the negative and both numbered W-124.
All laid down on pages in an album
Pleasure Bound:
“Little did I realise until too late what I would let myself in for when I answered an ad appearing in an issue of pleasure bound, a magazine devoted to correspondence and articles for enthusiasts of high heels, tight lacing, figure training, kid gloves, bondage and other equally strange, but to me fascinating and interesting subjects. Being a young girl of 24 with too much money and soured on the male sex, I longed for excitement of a different kind...”
To set the scene for Invitation to the dance bye MacLeod:
“In her suite at swanky fairlawn finishing School for Girls, exotic Fleur Flagella was chastening her maid Mimi while her friend Madam Henriette Blanc watched amusedly through the slits of her domino mask. By day, Madam Flagella taught French to the lovely pupils of rich homes... but in reality she was one of the heads of a dope peddling syndicate, with Madame Blanc a contact for the smugglers.”
[14407] £880
Whiplashes highlighted in RED
81. Willie, John [fetish artist] Gwendoline and the Missing Princess USA 1950s
The complete set of 45 original vintage photographic illustrations for the S & M and Bondage novella “Gwendoline and the missing Princess”, by John Willie, as originally issued, some signed with initials in the negative, the images printed on heavyweight matt paper, and with occasional original highlighting in red pencil of some whip marks, bound in a green rexine album, the upper cover with a gilt high heeled boot applied and marked in gilt ‘photographs’, with string ties.
The story opens.....
The scene is set: In the little rose covered cottage the phone rings - then “Hi there! The aunt wants us to stay a couple of weeks - yes - her country place - you be ready in an hour!”
“Oo! - how lovely - I'll pack, but I can't get dressed - I can't get those chains off - yes I know you put ‘em on two days ago but I still don't know how to get free - what? Oh no! - you mean thing.”
While in a far away land...
[14409] £1,750
82. Francis Renault 1893-1955.
Amateur Boxer turned female impersonator, the “original Slave of Fashion”. and ‘patron’ of Archie Leach the future Cary Grant.
Frances Renault was one of the most celebrated female impersonators of the 1920s and 1930s. His career lasted until just a few years before his death in 1955. Born Antonio Auriemma in
Francis Renault. Amateur Boxer turned female impersonator and ‘close friend’ of Archie Leach the future Cary Grant
Naples, his family emigrated to Providence, Rhode Island. In the early days of his career, he worked in Vaudeville as Frances Renault. He got his break replacing the stage and film actor and female impersonator, Julian Eltinge in a touring version of his Broadway show. In 1913 Renault performed in Atlanta and contested the local judicial ordinance banning crossdressing, to the consternation of the local police. He made his reputation impersonating the famous actress Lillian Russell, and like her he wore expensive gowns. Renault’s show became famous for his costumes, and each Friday afternoon they would be displayed for visitors to come and see. He was also well known for his great falsetto voice. Around 1923 Renault was living in New York and it was at this time he formed a friendship with the young man, Archie Leach later to be better known as Cary Grant. Darwin Porter writes in his biography of Howard Hughes the film director about the time Hughes and Grant spent on a boat journey from San Francisco. It was reported to him by Jacobsen, who was one of the all-male crew “it appeared that at the time Howard and Cary were on their honeymoon”. Porter continues “by the end of the voyage both men discovered they had a fascination for attending clubs where transvestites performed. Cary may even have told Howard of his days as Archie Leach, and his first full blown sexual experience. Cary was 16 at the time, and his partner was Francis Renault a muscular female impersonator in Manhattan.” Porter goes on to relate observations made by Mitchell Foster, an interior decorator who had lived with Cary Grant and Randolph Scott. “Cary spoke of his hard beginnings in New York where he'd had a job carrying an advertising billboard and walking on stilts. To make ends meet, he'd lived as a kept boy of Francis Renault, a muscular drag queen who billed himself as the last of the Red Hot Papas... When Renault’s demands grew impossible, Cary moved in with a chorus boy, an Australian, George Orry-Kelly.”
In 1924 after a European Tour, Renault opened his own club in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He could be seen wearing his female costumes in the street in towns where he was touring. Although this created publicity for the show, it was risky, and he was arrested several times. In Dallas a policeman who had seen the show and recognised him, arrested him while he was on his way to Weil’s department store to exhibit his $5000 wardrobe. Out of costume he was a strong and masculine man, with many male admirers.
He seems to have started a boxing career with two photographs in the collection showing him in the ring. In his last years, Francis sang at Carnegie Hall, though in 1945 he was crippled with polio and was paralysed for two years. He overcame this and returned to performing at Carnegie Hall.
The collection comprises:
a. Group of family photographs including one with a dedication to his sister and others of friends from childhood through to adulthood.
b. A passport signed Antonio Auriemma issued by the USA passport department of State Dec. 1923, with photograph of Auriemma and signed.
c. The USA Certificate of Naturalization signed Antonio Auriemma 1921. Rhode Island and a War Camp Community Service 1919 awarded to Francis Renault.
d. Coloured pencil drawing of Renault.
e. Two postcards of Renault as a boxer. One is Renault leaning on the ropes. The other of Renault facing Harvey Bright with a referee. Born in Brooklyn as Harvey Breitman, he became a successful featherweight boxer and fought under the name of Harvey Bright. He
gave up boxing in deference to his fiancee and founded the Bright Chair Company in Manhattan.
f. Postcards and advertising items for Renault’s female impersonations.
g. Silver print photograph of Renault in Spanish Headress.
h. Colour postcard signed on the front, of Francis Renault. ‘Renault is a phenomenon of present day show business. N.Y. Variety. Verso reads “Monday April 21st Club Sixty-Six proudly presents Mr Francis Renault direct from Carnegie Hall, N.Y. featuring his twenty thousand dollar wardrobe...Gowns by Baron Max Von Waldeck…P.S. Francis Renault’s last concert of the Season at Carnegie Hall May 12th. “
i. Coloured front cover of programme advertising Mr Francis Renault. ‘Renault is a phenomenon of present day Show Business’. N.Y. Variety. To verso, ‘After fourteen record breaking concerts at Carnegie Hall Francis Renault America's foremost impersonator and Satirist comes to Philadelphia in an Impromptu Pot-pourri of Mirth Music and Stars! The critics acclaim Mr Renault the greatest living impersonator… ‘You could have stunned me with a soap bubble when the crush caught me at Carnegie Hall the other P.M. when I went to see Frances Renault’s concert and what a wow of a show he put on’.
j. Various photographs of Renault in his impressions of Salome, Madame du Barry, Carmen, Cleopatra, Anna Held, Lillian Russell, Eva Tangway, Nita Naldi, Gibson Girl, Chiquitta Banana, Madam Butterfly, Catherine of Russia and in the ‘Affairs of the Night’ including a Gala Presentation Party of Broadway and Hollywood stars. Herbert Kingsley at The Steinway, various sizes up to 280 x 180mm.
k. Programme with silver print photograph of Renault in fashionable dress with a vase of roses. Titled ‘The Fashion Plate’, 230 x 100mm.
l. Promotional card of Renault posing, with decorative border. Verso written in pencil ‘Mr. Silverman of Variety’ 46th St.’ Sime Silverman was the founder of the weekly newspaper ‘Variety’ in New York City in 1905. 190 x 130mm.
m. Eighteen silver print photographs of Renault in stage performances including Carmen. One with ink stamp ‘Francis Renault Slave of Fashion’ and further images from Louisville, Chicago and Broadway, New York City. Some signed on the front image. Eg. ‘For Anna and Jim. Always Francis 1937-8’. One photograph has a description ‘The whole gown he wore in the passing show. This gown was shown at Providence’s Majestic Theatre’. Another image has verso ‘Another Impersonation C.H.’ Another image verso ‘When RKO took over Francis renewed his gowns’. A further image signed on the front ‘To my brother Frank (?)Madam du Barry Carnegie Hall 1947’. Another signed image ‘For Wally July 1941. Another related image presumably of Joe Frasseto inscribed ‘To Ernest, The man that started me in this business Joe Frasetto’.
[12071] £1,650
Naked women in cabaret in Wartime Paris
82. German soldier, WWII Candid photographs of scenes from topless cabarets, Paris, WWII Paris 1940s
A collection of 46 candid snap shots from a number of topless burlesque revues, Paris, silver print photographs with deckled edges showing various parts of the show. The images, taken from different vantage points indicate that a number of shows were recorded, or at least that they were taken over a number of evenings. Mainly topless female dancers in a number of scenarios, including risque bedroom scenes with men, somewhat explicit acrobatic manouveres, topless dancing in lines etc, fan or similar dancing and a number of other excuses to display naked women!
[11738]
£780
Parisian Lesbian fancy-dress Ball
83. L. Corneau [Photographer] Album of photographs of guests at a lesbian [?] fancy dress ball Paris, France L. Corneau, photographer, 40, Boulevard Bonne Nouvelle, Paris 10 early 20th century
Nine albumen [?] print photographs of attendees at the ball and a further image of a chorus line of girls being ‘controlled’ by a woman with a whip and wearing trousers and a tie, card wrapps with embossed design and cord ties, photographer’s ink stamp on inside rear cover
[14286]
£1,450
84.
Transvestite - Sicily
Four silver print photographs laid onto one mount, verso with photographer’s wet stamp and title in felt pen
TRANSVESTITES-MONKS-ROCKERS
1970 – 1971
[13210] £280
Gelpke, Andre [1947-, photographer, Germany] Transvestit Germany 1970s A photograph from the series, the portraits of the monks were photographed in the Maria Laach Monastery. The “rockers“ in Hamburg and the transvestites were photographed on Sicily.Life & Times
85. Orton, Ed[ward], stills cameraman for film productions collection of scrap books relating to his life, early years, wartime, work and holidays 1912-1970s
Four albums relating to Ed’s life and career and travels.
1. 80 photographs loosely inserted under clear flaps, mostly with captions on paper slips. Recording aspects of his early years, “Paddling at LLandudno 1912”, “Hamming it up on location on my first film as a stillsman”,”at Rudolf Valentino’s casket”, “with Errol Flynn’smother-in law and lawyer”, “with Richard Attenborough”
2. Album of 120 photographs, some cut out, mostly all captioned of his time in Malta and Egypt as a photographer for the Navy, the majority taken around the sites and with friends off duty.
3. Album of around 40 photographs laid down in an album, mainly of scenery in Colorado, Arizona, the Grand Canyon and Utah
4. A further album of his trip round the West Coast in 1953, with views of Monterey, San Francisco, Sant Barbara, Los Angeles, Hollywood and Yosemite.
A family member noted that on his death, “Ted had trunk loads of photos, as he developed & printed his own work. As a stills photographer on film sets he had photographed all the screen greats of his day and had many personal signed gifts from them. Many of his photos were used on bill boards and outside cinemas to promote films. In the later years of the second world war he was stationed in Egypt and Malta with the navy taking photographic records.”
He belonged to the Hastings Photography Society in his retirement, and the local Hastings paper ran a story on his photo collection and he had entries in Stage & Screen. He remained unmarried. [13366]
Harley-Davidsons & cops in leather
86. Orton, Ed[ward], stills cameraman for film productions An album of around 80 large format photographs of motorcycle policemen and others mainly in uniforms and with leather boots California, UK, Europe 1953
An album containing around 80 photographs of police, military and horse men, usually in uniform, and many alongside motorbikes. A good proportion are motorcycle cops from the Los Angeles area.
[12449] £1,450
Early Flying show
87. Orton, Ed[ward], stills cameraman for film productions Hendon Air Show, and other events 1931 England and France 1931
A well composed album with ink inscriptions, including images of Hendon Air show, the International Colonial exhibition, Paris, and others.
Ed Norton was a films still photographer in the middle of the century. A family member noted that on his death, “Ted had trunk loads of photos, as he developed & printed his own work. As a stills photographer on film sets he had photographed all the screen greats of his day and had many personal signed gifts from them. Many of his photos were used on bill boards and outside cinemas to promote films. In the later years of the second world war he was stationed in Egypt and Malta with the navy taking photographic records.”
He remained unmarried.
[14406]
£450
88. Crisp, Quentin [writer performer 1908-1999] Chatty letter to Angus McBean discussing aspects of his life especially in America 46 East 3rd Street, New York, 10003 18th December 1985
Single sheet, Typed letter, signed ‘Quentin’ in biro, commentating on fashion photography, being in Sting’s film The Bride, how ‘the people [here] are so kind compared with the English, on ‘eat[ing] ‘other people’s food and wear[ing] other people’s clothes.etc..
[13016] £180
Chosen path
89. Wainwright, Albert [1898-1943] His sweetheart when a boy 1930s
Pen and ink on paper, images recto and verso
A depiction of Wainwright’s preference for a gay relationship, with a boy pushing a girl on a swing only to end up walking dejectedly along side her later whilst the same boy is shown happily walking arm in arm with another boy. The page has a further image of a boy at a grocery stall with a basket of eggs, surely implying ‘don’t put all your eggs in one basket, verso of sheet with a group of soldiers
[13994] £500
Cupid’s whispers
90. Wainwright, Albert [1898-1943] “Is love a boy”, Studies of winged cupids and male dancers
1930s
Pen and ink on paper, images recto and verso
Front of the sheet with mainly male dancers but also a female dancer, verso figures of cupid one holding a banner “Cupid’s whispers”, and a lounging figure titled “this is the life”. [13992] £350
As I was telling you about Leda
91. Wainwright, Albert [1898-1943] Nude girl reclining on an lecherous man's lap and various gay couples Germany 1930’s
Pen and ink on paper, images recto and verso
A lecherous monacled man has naked woman in stocking lying across his lap with a number of gay couples depicted on the same sheet, verso with two swans talking “..as I was telling you about Leda...” and ink and coloured wash drawings for Christmas and April [13996] £450
Musings
92. Tennant, Stephen James Napier [21 April 1906 – 28 February 1987] Joy and more Joy Wilsford Manor 1964
Single sheet of paper written recto and verso on Wilsford Manor headed paper, in purple and blue inks, and dated 1964
Two drafts of a poem commencing “Tiptoe upon a Butterfly...”, with a further poem “Ozone! the word is a clarion call, Back to the seaside one and all!...”
[11055]
£250
Musings
93. Tennant, Stephen James Napier [21 April 1906 – 28 February 1987] Cloud - forgiveness Wilsford Manor nd
pen and blue ink, single sheet of headed Wilsford Manor note paper Poem “Cloud-forgiveness”
“Do not the skies forgive man all? An ultimate, ethereal pardon. ?...”
[20 lines]
SOLD
94. Tennant, Stephen James Napier [21 April 1906 – 28 February 1987] The Kestral and Visionary Protest, two poems Wilsford Manor nd Manuscript in black ink, some splashes of other colours, some edge fraying and dust staining Two poems on a single sheet
The Kestrel:“The secret brown of Kestrel wings, suits my hidden passion Insistantly, one memory returns, like a neat svelte brown falcon”
[22 lines] and Visionary protest.
“We, who has remembered the solace of the fairy tale, stand aside. We, who disgorge reality, to find the substance was not edible...”
[19 lines]
[11202] £280
Tennant, Stephen James Napier [21 April 1906 – 28 February 1987] Orion above an old thorn tree Wilsford Manor nd Black ink with red highlight and two drawings of stars, some creasing and edge tears
Poem of approx. forty lines
“The ill night wind will find you out, fingering lightly Beneath your coat, the old rascally wind...”
[11058] £250
95.Tennant, Stephen James Napier [21 April 1906 – 28 February 1987] The Teaze” and “Shudder Wilsford Manor 1950s
manuscript in green, black and brown ink, two sides of a sheet of note-paper “Shudder There is a shudder in the wind, when falling sleet, Hardens to arctic snow, - freezes to ice; And in my heart there is a shudder when you go...”
twenty-nine lines
“The teaze
While the fountain is being completed, I wander about distractedly, listening to the sighand whisper of the flower’s insects....”
thirty-six lines [11207] £250
96.97. Tennant, Stephen James Napier [21 April 1906 – 28 February 1987] The White Camellia” and “certain days smell of someone else’s seaside Wilsford Manor 1950s manuscript in brown ink and pencil, on both sides of a single sheet of notepaper
“The White Camellia
By a narrow dark gateway among shrubs it stood; apart, In its own light.
The sturdy Camellia tree. Porcelain pink, like flushed white marble,...”
poem of forty-two lines
“[Poem]
certain days smell of someone else’s seaside, Not your own.”
poem of thirty lines
[11204] sold
