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The arrival of the trendy holiday curate as depicted by Graham Oakley in this witty, quintessentially English story. The original artwork was executed for the illustration found on p.2 of the published volume that accompanies it; the pen and water colour image is wonderfully evocative of the 1970s with its chaotic high energy and visual humour as t… Read more…

Full length autograph working manuscript spread over 22 exercise books, paginated by Hadfield to page 1162. Textually distinct from the published version, Hadfield writes with a blue fountain pen, double-spaced, correcting extensively as he worked with frequent swirling crossings-out. There are two quite distinct openings to the novel, the earlier… Read more…

Lightly illustrated, entertainingly written teenage diaries by the precociously accomplished future British landscape and portrait painter, and nephew of the renowned ‘Norwich School’ artist John Sell Cotman. The first and more extensive volume from 1867 (Cotman was then 17) covers his final months of intense study with William Thomson Griffiths, h… Read more…

Fine late 18th century English manuscript atlas beautifully drawn, almost certainly by a child, and offering 68 full-page maps, 32 in outline and a further 36 with keyed explanatory apparatus. The manuscript’s creator, probably in or around London, details a colonial-era map of North America (California as peninsular) entitled ‘Ten Northern America… Read more…

An Appointments diary-plus which covers Marianne Faithfull’s 2005 US tour journal in support of her album Before the Poison. The tour took her to The Town Hall, New York (March 12) and in the following days Park West, Chicago and the Henry Fonda Theater, Los Angeles. The diary charts Faithfull’s busy Parisian life during the early months of 2005 be… Read more…

Remarkable unpublished autobiography of a young French immigrant to the USA in the 1890s, who became a ranch-owner in Montana before turning to civil engineering and finally, after his return to France, publishing extensively on occultism and founding the Societe Unitive - a sort of psychic wellness group avant la lettre. Written in English and cle… Read more…

Officer’s log book of a merchant West Indiaman engaged in supplying horses and mules to the enslaved African and African-American servicemen of Britain’s West India Regiments - and on the homeward journey bringing back a cargo of sugar manufactured by their enslaved cousins in the plantations of the Caribbean. Both Atlantic crossings were fraught w… Read more…

Unpublished records of a secretive early 19th century precursor of the modern credit ratings industry. The Society of Mutual Communication for the Protection of Trade was founded in order to allow London business men to spot deadbeat clients, share information between businesses as well as managing debt recovery from failed transactions. This vellu… Read more…

Autograph manuscript bound up with a bespoke typed transcript of Arthur Symons’ essay on translation, cased by Sangorski and Sutcliffe. This manuscript essay does not appear to have been published, and previously formed part of the collection of the bibliophile and performer Barry Humphries who had a particular interest in the theory and practice o… Read more…

Lavishly illustrated tour of Scotland undertaken by two young men in 1892 including a long description of climbing Ben Nevis in the fog, arriving at the summit for a slap-up meal in the famous Observatory Hotel: ‘Plain teas 2/6, Ham and Eggs 4/” Two of the former were called, & the quality of two mountain appetites tested with very satisfactory res… Read more…

A remarkable multi-national vellum-bound autograph book and album that witnesses the moment when General Allenby captured Jerusalem in December 1917, ending 400 years of Ottoman rule and establishing British control over Palestine during World War I. Apparently compiled by a Jewish woman called Shulamith Shabtai whose name appears repeatedly as wel… Read more…

An archive of affectionate, funny and deeply personal hand-written postcards and letters spanning the years 1972 - 1984, sent from American singer, dancer and actress Eartha Kitt to close friends Stewart and Peter Harries. The Harries brothers were part of Kitt's inner circle who often hosted her and collaborated professionally on various projects.… Read more…

Diary of a young British officer with the China Squadron, based in Hong Kong and patrolling Chinese and Japanese waters between 1886-1889 to enforce the Pax Britannica. In the late 1880s the British navy’s China Squadron was the primary instrument of British imperial power in East Asia, protecting commercial interest and securing naval supremacy, e… Read more…

A signed, framed Certificate presented in 2014 to the singer-songwriter Marianne Faithfull by the artist and musician Yoko Ono, recognising that ‘You have been put through the thorns of scorn and misunderstanding... Your work as a creator of music, actor and performer has shown like a beacon in the world...’ - sentiments that might apply as much to… Read more…

Considered and reflective of a full artistic life, a potted manuscript autobiography, titled ‘Reflections’ written by the painter, engraver and printer Lucien Pissarro. Written across two sheets of paper, Pissarro praises his impressionist painter father as ‘a splendid teacher, never imposing his personality on his pupils’ who ‘made me work direct… Read more…

Four page setting of Feste’s song ‘Come Away, Death’ from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Written over four oblong octavo pages (a bifolium extracted from a book of printed manuscript paper) with prettily embossed borders. Neukomm sets the music for a low voice over two verses and with a keyboard accompaniment that introduces and ends his setting. At… Read more…

A remarkable and mystical unpublished short story written in April 1898 by a young woman called ‘Ecila’ - presumably a reversal of her actual name, Alice - which presents as a sort of adolescent fever dream in which the young woman is led through a mystical landscape, distracted by Sensuality and finally arrives at a vision of the Goddess Truth. Th… Read more…

Manuscript leaf in the hand of the Romantic poet, friend of Wordsworth and Coleridge, Robert Southey who quotes from the fable written by the 17th century writer Thomas Fuller about ‘A Sagamore or petty king in Virginia, guessing the greatness of other kings by his own, sent a native hither, who understood English’. Southey continues with Fuller’s… Read more…

Typed first draft manuscript of 465 pages offering several thousand manuscript corrections and alterations made during its composition by the author Maurice Baring. Alongside his novel ‘C’, Adeane was Baring’s most popular and influential novel, telling the story of a complex and unfaithful marriage between a London barrister and his wife, Fanny, w… Read more…

Illustrated manuscript booklet with original photographs of the modernist sculptures shown at the pioneering outdoor sculpture park assembled by Sir William ‘Tony’ Keswick. Begun in the 1950s, Henry Moore directly credited the park for informing his own lifelong preference for placing his works in the natural outdoor environment. ‘A F Gray’ has ass… Read more…

A collection of song lyrics, correspondence and set lists spanning nearly half a century of performing life of the singer and actor, Marianne Faithfull. This includes a song from 1964 that was intended to be Faithfull’s debut single - except that she found it ‘awful’ and refused to record it. Three of Faithfull’s albums are particularly well repres… Read more…

Inscribed with drawings and doodles by the artistic super-couple Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera at the unveiling of Rivera’s newly completed masterpiece, the Detroit Industry Murals at the city’s Institute of Art, early in 1933. With these drawings into a child’s autograph album, made a few days before their departure for New York City, Kahlo and Riv… Read more…

Altogether remarkable private and autobiographical manuscript record compiled by Richard Cardwell (1749-1811) a hugely successful Lancastrian cotton magnate from the first phase of the industrial revolution. In his two mini-memoirs that bookend this manuscript Cardwell attempts to make sense of the industrial transformation that he has witnessed in… Read more…

A 445 pp. primary source in the form of an accounts ledger bursting with detail which provides a window into the socio-economic life, craft techniques and community networks of of a wheelwright and carpenter working in mid-19th century Messingham, Lincolnshire. Beyond simple bookkeeping John Gowsell’s (1860 -1872) written ledger reveals how the agr… Read more…

Owned and extensively annotated by the influential Town Clerk of Aberdeen whose portrait was painted by Sir George Reid three years after he filled this Memorandum book with his notes and records. John Angus (1841-1913) held a key position at the heart of Aberdeen civic life during the city’s most wealthy period as an industrial and economic powerh… Read more…