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A charming and somewhat comedic account of a trip taken by two young women to the Lake District in their Morris Minor in August 1935. Recorded by our travellers Jan Foster and Theo Bottomley, the diary is rich in anecdote and ephemera. Typed entries log every detail of the four night trip from the departure time (’3pm. Prompt. Brighouse’, Yorkshire… Read more…

Formal manuscript valuation of the literary properties of the late Hungarian-British novelist known as Baroness Orczy, creator of the Scarlet Pimpernel. This reveals a thriving set of sales in the British market, the interest in Orczy seemingly waning in the USA but vigourous activity in the European market, especially Germany. The manuscript comes… Read more…

A beautifully executed autograph and friendship album compiled by - or perhaps on behalf of the VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) Nurse Bielby who looked after wounded officers at Harewood House during 1918/1919. During these years at the end of the First World War, the stately home was loaned by Lord Harewood as a convalescent hospital for recovering… Read more…

Edward Witts’s cash and memorandum books dated 1791 - 1816, originating in his solicitor’s practice in Tenterden in Kent. Each volume is titled and dated to the front cover, bursting with dated business transactions, clients, monies in and out, notes (Fuller v Brown, Chambers Stamp Bill 24 -6 -7, Taylor Salary 2 weeks, Justice Papers 19 -9, Goldsmi… Read more…

Unpublished manuscript identifying and classifying the song lyrics written by the English dramatist, composer and theatre manager Charles Dibdin Junior (1768-1833), researched and written by his descendant. Edward Rimbault Dibdin has adapted a tabbed notebook to contain around 800 single line song entries noting titles, first lines, plays and books… Read more…

Fiercely anti clerical typed manuscript which captures a society beginning to transition away from unquestioning religious observance. The author ‘J.H. Walters’, explicitly states their mission to expose ‘the grosser faults and fallacies’ of contemporary Christianity, the ‘insincerity of its priesthood’ and the ‘baneful effects’ of religion on nati… Read more…

Unpublished late eighteenth century authorial working manuscript of an ambitious philosophical tract written by the controversialist, London poet, publisher and Quaker preacher Thomas Letchworth. Already a published writer on Liberty and Necessity in a slightly earlier controversial exchange with Augustus Toplady (1776), in this tract Letchworth de… Read more…

A remarkable educationala experiment and book-making in the form of a collection of lino-cut prints, lithographs, watercolours, woodblock prints and accompanying text which was created by the ground breaking educationalist Eva Margaret Gilpin and her school’s gifted art teacher, Miss E Cassels Gillespy. Under the sponsorship and protection of Sir M… Read more…

A late 18th century manuscript assessment of the income of the Churches of England and Wales deriving from its cathedrals, deaneries and parishes. Written more than 200 years after the pioneering valuation, Valor Ecclesiasticus, this manuscript seems likely to have played a role in the attempt to resolve with certainty the church’s actual income du… 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…

RESERVED - A remarkable collection of letters from two natural writers with, most unusually, both sides of the correspondence reunited after their deaths by their families. These hand-written, frequently illustrated letters (in all c60,000 words) were penned during the 1980s and bring together the celebrated engraver and pioneering arts educational… Read more…

Hand drawn original sketches, cartoons, water colours, signatures and inscriptions fill this attractive French friendship album, addressed to the album’s owner Denise. The 28 full page works within, from very artistically inclined friends include landscapes, still lives, birds, comic characters, pastoral scenes and portraits in a variety of mediums… Read more…

Typed manuscript running to 147 pages of 6 stories authored by 19 year old Aubrey Feist of Norwich who grew up to become a well-known British novelist and playwright. Red cloth boards titled in gilt to spine; endpapers clean, just beginning to crack over gutters; hand stitched text block very sound; hand drawn title page stamped 22 Nov 1923 to tail… Read more…

A handwritten minute book from the inter-war period which reveals a woman, Ellen Maud Godfrey in the position of President of New Buckenham Men’s Social Club in rural south Norfolk. The volume documents the very era when women of high social standing first broke into local government and judicial roles, (research reveals Miss Godfrey listed as a lo… Read more…

An A-Z indexed notebook once belonging to Corporal Horth who notes his British army number, rank, posting and marriage details to the front free endpaper ‘4013132 Cpl Horth. Egypt 1948 -50 and Mr Mrs Horth 1958’. The contents are eclectic beginning with a hand written Arabic language phonetic alphabet and the words ‘Attestations 5th November 1946’… Read more…

Minutely detailed manuscript record of American cotton imports arriving in Liverpool, written by the Rochdale-born banker and trader James Howarth Midgley. The manuscript contains weekly statements of the sales, imports and stocks of cotton from 1849-1854, breaking down these figures into three categories of cotton, coming from New Orleans, the Por… Read more…

An eventful ‘Walk in the Dales’ recorded by artist John Gilbey Bowles on 32 leaves of a hard backed black cloth A4 sketch book. Accompanied by friends Richard Fozard and his wife Daphne the captioned illustrations record the outing, each depicting all three figures ‘stop for a pint’, ‘to[o] drunk for walking’, mid day hangover’, ‘panic’, ‘Daphne fo… Read more…

Three year diary written by a marine on board HMS Amphitrite which includes an account of meeting the Sultan of Muscat during a visit in June 1902 when the vessel became the largest warship ever to visit the Gulf. Arriving on the China Station the vessel took a ‘long trip across the Pacific Ocean’ via Yokohama to Honolulu in Hawaii where the diaris… Read more…

In very good condition, the ‘First Comprehensive Tool Catalogue’ issued by this Leeds company. A vintage 1954 tool catalogue produced by J.H. Smith in Leeds, the very first British publication which markets the famous Emco Unimat Universal Miniature Machine Tool, priced within at £27 17s 6. J. H. Smith Ltd were the original sole UK concessionaires… Read more…

Unpublished manuscript identifying and classifying the song lyrics written by the English dramatist, composer and theatre manager Charles Dibdin Junior (1768-1833), researched and written by his descendant. Edward Rimbault Dibdin has adapted a tabbed notebook to contain around 800 single line song entries noting titles, first lines, plays and books… Read more…

Affectionate and remarkably comprehensive, a friendship album compiled at ‘Yale College’ by Elizur T Washburn on what his friend A D Parker describes as ‘your hasty & unexpected departure from College’. Compiled in July 1826 Washburn persuaded 99 members of the 108 members of his graduating class to contribute to the book, and many have contributed… Read more…

The manuscript of a Christian Hebraist, a Wiltshire vicar in the last quarter of the 18th century, with a fascination for languages. Rev Edward Spencer has transcribed John Parkhurst’s Hebrew Grammar and followed it with an abbreviated version of Byrom’s Universal Shorthand, completing his study with several test transcriptions that he set himself:… 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…

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…