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A remarkably rich wartime sketch-book in which John Piper recorded his 1943 summer tour of Devon and Cornwall in the company of Geoffrey Grigson, sketched Welsh landscapes as well as the Victorian villas and churches of the English Midlands while he stayed at Renishaw Hall, home of his friends Edith and Osbert Sitwell. Piper’s sketches include chur… Read more…

A powerful, well preserved collection, featuring both significant single documents, plus a wealth of contextualising information, which provides a rich account of Lieutenant Colonel Charles Trollope (as individual and commanding officer) and a thrilling, and at times barbarous, picture of mid-nineteenth century British colonial military life and ru… Read more…

Private journal of an English aristocrat, recent Cambridge graduate, Mayfair-resident, avid ball and theatre-goer and, paradoxically, future husband of the socialist and suffragist Ruth St Maur with whom he parented the 8th and 9th Dukes of Portland. Known by his third given name, Frederick - William George Frederick Cavendish Bentinck (1856-1948)… Read more…

76 pages of a first draft autograph manuscript - with heavy correction - by Zane Grey of his bestselling novel which also happens to be the earliest of his manuscripts to have come to market. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Written on lined foolscap paper in pencil; the manuscript is paginated by Grey, pp68-144. There are deletions, sometimes lengthy, and re… Read more…

A remarkable memento of the creative presence of the artistic super-couple Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera - ‘equals and accomplices’ as they were described - in the mid-western city of Detroit, early in 1933. With these drawings into a young woman’s autograph album, made a few days before their departure for New York, Kahlo and Rivera marked the clos… Read more…

An extraordinary memento of the creative presence of the artistic super-couple Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera - ‘equals and accomplices’ as they were described - in the mid-western city of Detroit, early in 1933. With these drawings into a young woman’s autograph album, made a few days before their departure for New York, Kahlo and Rivera marked the… Read more…

Official memento of the Darwin-Wallace Celebration which marked the 50th anniversary of ‘the greatest event’ in the Linnean Society’s history - held in London on 1st July, 1908. Recent black buckram binding which preserves the original printed card wrappers bearing the Darwin/ Wallace medal. Darwin frontispiece; small oval library stamp to verso fo… Read more…

Vyvyan Holland’s memoir of ‘a unique life’s experience’, published in the year of his father, Oscar Wilde’s centenary and inscribed here to his personal physician in west London, Dr Wilfred Dykes-Bower. Orange cloth, worn and with stains, a closed tear along the hinge between upper board and spine, now protected by a very good-plus supplied dustjac… Read more…

An attractive autograph letter, with revealing anatomical and classificatory content, complete with Darwin’s original envelope retained by the recipient, the marine biologist Henry Lee. Writing in his scientific maturity just two days before Christmas, 1871, Darwin identifies two groups of barnacle specimens, telling Lee that both are Lepas antifer… Read more…

Excellent presentation copy given to her friend the novelist Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton by the author, Georgiana, Lady Chatterton, in an effort to vindicate the reputation of the subject of her book, her mother’s brother, Admiral Gambier. As well as being inscribed on the author’s behalf, a letter laid in from Georgiana Dering unpacks her reasons for… Read more…

A singular early nineteenth century letterbook that centres on a polemical essay sent to Thomas Brand, 20th Baron Dacre, on the state of the British nation and the need for multiple reforms, notably parliamentary reform which would be achieved in the Great Reform Act only two years later. To the rear of the volume Dacre’s thoughtful reponse to his… Read more…

No 6 of 10, ‘hors commerce’ - not intended for sale - of these Extracts from 'Suicide Bridge', originally published in 1976 by Zero's Fool Press, reprinted here on the occasion of the exhibition 'Histories & Hauntings: Correspondences from the Whitechapel Gallery (1974) to Swedenborg House. Through image and action.' (13 October to 21 December 2023… Read more…

An exceptionally high-powered album recording the activities of an intellectual country-house salon, compiled by Ursula Denison, nee Bridgeman (1823-1883) and offering stellar contributions by the intellectual friends that she shared with her archaeologist, politician and diplomat husband. Albert Denison, 1st Baron Londesborough (1805-1860) was the… Read more…

A 10 page manuscript extract from Talbot Rothwell’s original screenplay for Carry on Cleo together with his hilarious typescript proposal/ synopsis of the movie and a full ‘First Draft’ typescript screenplay which contains perhaps the earliest appearance in this context of the oft-voted funniest ever line, ‘Infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for… Read more…

Visually fascinating photographic diary written by an officer with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps who - against all rules - took a camera to the front which allowed him to record the Battle of El Alamein (1942) as well as the chaotic British evacuation from St Nazaire (1940) from where he offers an eye witness account of the sinking of HMS Lancastri… Read more…

An extraordinary survival in the form of the original battlefield order issued to Brigadier Charles Trollope on behalf of Lord Raglan on June 7, 1855, ordering the attack on the Mamelon and the Quarry Pits in front of the Sebastopol Bastion. This successful Anglo-French action proved to be the defining event in Trollope’s military career for which… Read more…

Unknown except for a single copy held by the De Morgan Foundation, this is a full length memoir written by the artist and writer Emilie Russell Barrington in which she recalls her decades-long friendship with the preeminent Arts and Crafts designer, potter and friend of William Morris, William de Morgan. In this memoir which she wrote in the final… Read more…

Two sketchbooks drawn and painted by the children’s author Alison Uttley and two by her husband James whose early death, she would later claim, inspired and necessitated Uttley’s prolific output. The first sketchbook records Alison Uttley’s honeymoon with James Uttley when they travelled along the south coast of England and matches the third item i… Read more…

The earliest autograph manuscript of Arthur Symons elegy for his friend and literary idol, Robert Browning. As Russell Goldfarb puts it in his study of the relationship between the two men: ‘Arthur Symons’s encounter with Browning and the Browningites, constituted in short his literary apprenticeship: by the nineties he was able to emerge with full… Read more…

RESERVED A compelling meeting of visual cultures in which the English architect William Emerson has paid homage to the legendary vellum notebook (now in the V&A) of his architectural mentor and employer William Burges by creating a vellum notebook recording his impressions of India. Emerson’s master, Burges, created his manuscript in tribute to Wil… Read more…

Beautifully executed collection of First World War drawings of aircraft put together by a trainee carpenter with the Royal Flying Corps around 1916. Quick’s work has been marked by an examiner at 97/100 which feels fair for such an appealing manuscript that combines high calibre visual work with careful notes about plane maintenance and repair. As… Read more…

Eighty full-page master-plan drawings and written ‘particulars’ for the main navigational device used on all modern ships - the Titanic had four of them - the binnacle. This manuscript was drawn and maintained, and returned under duress to the company for which it was made when the engineer retired. Whiggin was a life-long employee of Heath and Com… Read more…

Rare report on the trial of Henry Fauntleroy who was the last man to hang for forgery in 1824, in the process bankrupting the bank that he defrauded. Henry Fauntleroy (1784-1824), was an acting partner with Marsh, Stracey, Fauntleroy and Graham of Berners Street, London who embezzled money from trust funds by forging client signatures on stock sale… Read more…

Rare true crime account of the trials of Henry Turton and Luke West for a murder in Chatham of a Dragoon from Whitstable and two other men. Quarto format bound in half calf over marbled boards, scuffed to corners. Bookplates of J G Chaplin and William Frederick D'Arley to front pastedown and flyleaf; Edward Barrett Curteis to final pastedown - Whig… Read more…

Inscribed first edition of Rosenberg’s collected poems, a volume which was published after the poet’s death on the western front in the last months of the First World War. As a posthumously published work, there can never be a copy inscribed in the author’s hand, adding to the allure of this volume. Rosenberg’s youngest sister Rachel Lyons, nee Ros… Read more…