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Extraordinary 17th century manuscript diary and day-book written by the ‘Keeper of the Palace at Westminster’ which offers an insider’s perspective on the torrid months around the collapse of the Cromwellian regime and the Restoration of Charles II, culminating on: ‘Tuesday Aprill 23 1661 Coronation day at night left in my charge the Globe & 2 Scep… Read more…

An extensive collection of diaries, photographs, blueprints, letters and documents - and even a painted sample sheet of Longwood’s famous wallpaper from the 1920s - which together record the rescue and rebuilding of Napoleon Bonaparte’s dilapidated home on St Helena. Longwood housed Napoleon from December 1815 to his death in 1821, was bought by th… 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…

‘Reminiscences of HMS Gloucester. Commissioned at Plymouth 30th January 1913 - NOT FOR PUBLICATION’, a diary cum memoir seemingly intended as a rejoinder against those who criticised the inactivity of the British navy during the early years of the Great War. This small folio, 349pp, originally intended as a W/T Cabinet Log book is full of well pres… Read more…

Manuscript fair copy of the German classical scholar Johan Georg Graevius’s commentary on Suetonius Lives of the Caesars, possibly compiled by someone with connections to Graevius himself. No later than the mid 18th century this is an imposing manuscript with an end note that appears to read: ‘Datore officiore codillos’ - suggesting it might be the… Read more…

Minutes of an important but almost forgotten organisation, the ‘Medical Defence Association’, a collective, well-supported attempt made in Britain by members of the profession in the 1870s to target and outlaw malpractice and charlatanry by purported members of the medical profession. Predating the better known Medical Defence Union, the first minu… Read more…

A handwritten reversioning of George Lorimer’s text which adds 2 original documents including one in the hand of the covenanter - and later moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland - David Williamson (1694), minister at the church in the 17th century. Additionally there is a document in the hand of his succesor at the Kirk, Neil… Read more…

165 pieces of Conservative Party electoral ephemera gathered together by the victorious candidate in the General Election of 1922 in East Dorset. It is a collection of original letters (handwritten and typed), postcards, telegrams and cables sent to Gordon Ralph Hall Caine on his election victory for the East Dorset seat. The letters have been tipp… Read more…

Small octavo manuscript record book in original marbled wrappers dating from 1762, written for Thomas Townshend who was serving as one of the Commissioners for the City of Westminster. Ownership inscription in a contemporary (secretarial) hand to verso of upper cover reads ‘Mr Townshend’; an address of Cleveland Court is given for him within the mi… Read more…

Congratulatory letters to Sir Alfred Stanley Fordham K.B.E., C.M.G. (1907-81) who was educated at Eton and studied at Trinity College, Cambridge  before joining the Foreign Service and becoming a career diplomat. He was Vice-Consul in San Francisco in 1932. Other stations in his career included Lima (1933–1936), Guatemala (1936–1943), Los Angeles (… Read more…

One of the overlooked gems of Europe pictured in an artist’s tour journal of his exploration of Belgium and Holland in 1850. Robert Taylor Pritchett (1828-1907) would later become a favourite artist of Queen Victoria and illustrate Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle but in these images we accompany the young traveller from Dover (seen looking up from th… Read more…

Avowedly 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 from whose union sprang the 8th and 9th Dukes of Portland. Known by his third given name, Frederick - William George Frederick Cavendish Bentinck (… 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…

A document of the Irish diaspora: a physics manuscript, with strong Newtonian content, written by an Irishman obliged to attend university - the Irish College - in France in the 1770s. Bound in dyed Irish green vellum with the remnants of an inscription in black ink to the upper cover and an old spine label. Splitting along outer hinges does not af… 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…

A volume of love poetry written by a young Liberal politician who had fallen head over heels with the glamorous, newly single opera singer, renowned for her performances in Gilbert and Sullivan operas. A note laid into the volume reveals that it featured on BBC Antiques Road Show in February 2007. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Beautiful, bespoke vellum bin… Read more…

Order of Battle from 1792 of the Prince of Conde’s emigre army which was dedicated to over-throwing the French revolutionary government and restoring Louis XVI and the Bourbon monarchy. A single sheet of water-marked chain-lined paper (42x33 cm) bearing a diagrammatic hand-drawn, pen and ink outline of the disposition of the forces of the Prince of… Read more…

RESERVED 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… Read more…

A personal account book belonging to Henry Collingwood Selby (1748 -1839) of Swansfield House, Alnwick and Holy Island covering the period circa. 1777 -1797. Page after page records his observations and his financial dealings with the great, good and notable persons of the area. Names and places are peppered throughout. Money is lent to Dr Thomas P… Read more…

An interesting vellum bound handwritten early text in very good condition. Attractive limp vellum binding, sound if a little discoloured. Remnants of spine supports laced into velum cover remain visible as are remnants of previous ties close to foreedge. Spine hand titled in brown ink ‘Ronda in Logicum’ [Logical Cycle]. Front endpapers cracking ove… Read more…

Ernest Shackleton's Heart Of The Antarctic Nimrod Expedition frontispiece signed by 16 crew members including the expedition leader Shackleton himself, Adams, Mackintosh, etc. Other signers include, in alphabetical order: Jameson Adams; Bertram Armytage; Philip Brocklehurst; Bernard Day; Ernest Joyce; Alistair Mackay; Aeneas Mackintosh; Eric Marsha… 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…

Grand Tour sketchbook and diary written by the playboy Johnny Hungerford Arkwright, shortly to inherit 10,000 acres of prime Herefordshire farmland paid for by his grandfather, the industrial tycoon Richard Arkwright. Johnny Arkwright made this trip to southern France and Italy in December 1857, returning to England the following month for his sist… Read more…

Late Victorian album recording a walk undertaken by two friends from Land’s End to Weymouth. J H Evans and H Marchant set off on Monday July 1 st 1889 and arrived at their destination on Saturday July 13 th 1889, having departed Paddington at 1145 am on Saturday June 29 th arriving in Penzance and overnighting before heading to Land’s End. The albu… Read more…

Sketchbook and diary recording a round trip to Australia aboard Conrad’s last ship, written by Edward Cyril Bowden-Smith which formed the inspiration for his short book, Land Ho: the Last of her Kind which details the story of the Torrens and this trip. Edward, or Ned Bowden-Smith (1878-1973) was the nephew by a younger brother to the commander in… Read more…