Mr X (16 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Good. Engraved vignette and frontispece (both somewhat foxed); original green grained cloth, printed spine label badly worn. Contemporary book label of S. Knowles. A good copy. Not in COPAC.

Printed for W. Suttaby & C. Corrall, London, 1804, 1st edition. Full leather binding. Gilt title on red patch to spine. Gilt decoration to spine. 4.75ins x 2.75ins, xii, 130pp, 1pp book adverts plus frontis. The prelim pages contain a Sketch of the life of James Beattie. Book contains 17 items by 15 authors - 3 from Mr Ogilvie. Other contributors include Dr Blair, Dr Parnell, Dr Porteus, Burns, Cowper and Thomson. Top of spine worn with loss else VG.…

Printed for the King's College London, Engineers Association for private circulation, 1957, 1st edition. Blue cloth boards, gilt lettering to spine and front board, gilt crest to front board, no dustwrapper. 8.5ins x 5.5ins, 119pp plus 16pp plates. Preface is by W.A.S. Messer. Loosely inserted is an als from the author to Mr Messer thanking him for his help and enclosing a copy of the book. Also written to the top of the front free endpaper is "To the Senior King's Engineer, with the author's best wishes, November 1957". Endpapers browned. Occasional light foxing to text pages, overall a VG association copy.…

British Museum, 17 January [1851]. Sir Anthony Panizzi (1797-1879), Italian bibliographer, chief librarian of the British Museum from 1856.

London, 12 March 1867. John Curtis Cowper (1827-1885), actor.

Albury, 16 June 1865. Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810-89) achieved incredible success with his Proverbial Philosophy, which sold never less than 5000 copies per year in England for 25 years. This phenomenon gained him savage parodies in the literary world, such as by C.L.Dodgson in The New Belfry of Christ Church (1872).…

Dated May, 4/74. One sheet, 4 1/2 x 7 inches, imprinted at the top "Cumberland Terrace / Regent Park", two pages. Newman was a prolific miscellaneous writer, and moral philosopher; he wrote on many subjects, Historical, Social, Political, Mathematical, Religious, and Linguistic. He "saw no foothold for a doctrine of the future life apart from revelation." and would like to call on Allingham to offer an article to Fraser's Magazine; Allingham was sub-editor of Fraser's; Editor James Anthony Froude had recently given up the post when his father died. "I grieve over my friend Mr. Froude's calamity. A Parsee has pressed on me to write an article in Fraser (sic) on the Musselman riots against the Parsees. What he details is terrible.I feel the need of delicacy, as I do not hear the other side.". About twenty lines. Newman was the younger bother of Cardinal John Henry Newman. Their father, John Newman "had learned his morality from Shakespeare than from the Bible" (DNB Supplement, under F.W. Newman). A quarter size abrasion from something removed, some old folds, in Very Good condition.…

Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme, London, 1804, 1st edition (2nd issue with pages 215-220 suppressed). Later quarter green leather binding with green cloth boards. Gilt lettering and decoration to spine. 10.75ins x 8ins, xx, 432pp, [vi](technical terms, index, errata) plus sepia frontis portrait, six sepia plates, 2 plates depicting gun parts (one folding), a large folding plate detailing game laws and two folding charts at the rear being a Sportsmans weekly Journal and a Breeding Journal. Pages 215-220 were cancelled in later issues because " the author had been a little too outspoken over a controversy concerning the Manton Patent Breech, that arose between Mr Manton and the Duke of Richmond". Some occasional light foxing but overall a VG handsomely bound volume.…

Sold by T,Payne, London, D.Prince and J.Cooke, Oxford and Mr Lacy, Northampton, 1791, 1st editions. Later half leather binding with marbled boards. Five raised bands to spines. Gilt lettering direst to compartments two and three. Folio, 17ins x 11ins. Volume one: title page, vi, 610pp plus frontis portrait and 11pp plates. Volume two: title page, 672pp, 2pp list of subscibers plus 26 plates (two folding). All 38 plates present (2 listed on errata slip). Text in two column format. Minor crease to the Burleigh House plate. A Very Good, attractively bound set.…

Colebrook Dale, 27 February 1850. Francis Darby (1783-1850) was one of two sons from the marriage of Abraham Darby III and wife Rebecca Smith, who had a passion for music and fine arts. Francis Darby introduced ornamental castings such as vases, garden furniture, fountains and gates to Coalbrookdale in the mid-1830s. This was the first time Coalbrookdale began to break away from pure iron products to art items which are still celebrated at Coalport China Museum and Jackfield Tile Museum today.…

Undated [watermark 1848]. Uncommon. Henty Wyndham Phillips (1820-1868), portrait painter. His commissions included the portraits of actor Charles Kean (as Louis XI) for the Garrick Club, Dr William Prout for the Royal College of Physicians, and Robert Stephenson for the Institution of Civil Engineers. Some of his works, including his portrait of the famous archaeologist, Austen Layard, were popular engravings. Phillips was a close friend of George Frederic Watts, with whom he was a founding member of London's Cosmopolitan Club.…

One 8 1/2 x 11 sheet, letterhead "Walter Van Tilburg Clark / Virginia City, Nevada", one page, 21 lines close written. To "Mr. Sherill, Thanks much for the invitation to write for "Esquire", but.". He has nothing ready, "nothing short in mind.", illness has slowed him down, he has spent "a couple of years" on "a six year editing job for the U. of Nevada press - a set of journals - daily entries 1849 through 1903 - gold rush & silver rush" (The Journals of Alfred Doten) - and another lengthy ed. job for 'American West', besides my Teaching, which goes on as usual. Add what I hope to get at when the journals are done is a far too long deferred novel of my own.You say you have something in mind, however, I'd be glad to hear the suggestion. It might find a crack among all the longer 'musts' (Clark, 1909-1971, did not write fiction for the last 20 years of his life). Sincerely Yours, Walter Clark. P.S. My flamboyant letter head is a product of the job shop of the famous old 'Territorial Enterprise.'" Folded for mailing, a bit of handling wear at the upper corners, in Very Good condition.…

Edmund Hall, Oxford, 24 march 1732. Rare. Thomas Hearne (1678 1735), English diarist and prolific antiquary, particularly remembered for his published editions of many medieval English chronicles and other important historical texts. "The Money was punctually paid me this day by Godfrey the Waggoner and I acknowledge it to be in full for the said four Copies." Hearne's edition of the work of Thomas Otterbourne and John Whethamstede was published as Duo rerum Anglicarum scriptores veteres (1732)We can find only one example of Hearne's letters being offered for sale at auction. An autograph letter from Hearne to Mrs Catherine Warren (3 pages, 1719) sold at the Enys Collection sale at Bonhams, London, in 2004 for £1900 plus premium.…

Whitehall, 29 July 1707. The Board of Trade and Plantations regulated foreign commerce, enforced trade and navigation acts, supervised colonial administration and negotiated commercial treaties. In 1706 the colonial assembly of Barbados, a British colony, enacted legislation that led to one of the more unusual monetary experiments in history, creating a fiat domestic currency that was virtually legal tender. The legislation sparked a strong protest from merchants, slave traders, and other English traders, the creditors in the economy of Barbados. The British Board of Trade acted to force the redemption of the paper money, but the episode reveals the secret war between debtors and creditors that often surfaces when monetary institutions are evolving. This handsome letter is signed by William Lord Dartmouth, Henry Lord Herbert, John Pulteney and Sir Philip Meadows. Sir Philip Meadows (1626-1718) had a distinguished career as a diplomat, representing Cromwell in international treaty negotiations. Meadows was the author of several works, including Observations concerning the Dominion and Sovereignty of the Seas (1689).…

No date. One sheet, two pages, 25 lines. "Dear Mr. Le Keux, The plate will do very nicely now with the last bit more trouble. You must lighten the capital a little and darken background so as to bring it all out in light.the background should imitate the stippled touch.". He draws a small picture (1 x 1 1/2 inch) to demonstrate his wish. He will not require another inspection of the plate and asks that it be sent "to Messrs S & E (? Smith and Elder? Ruskin's writing rather sloppy). John Henry Le Keux (1812-1896) was a draughtsman, illustrator, engraver and print-maker (the U.K. Royal Academy). Yale University has 42 letters from Ruskin to Le Keux, mostly undated, probably from about 1854 to 1860, primarily pertaining to illustrations for Ruskin's five volume "Modern Painters", 1843-1860. Le Keux is credited with at least 15 plates in volumes three through five. A horizontal fold in the middle, a small hole and a 1 1/2 inch tear on the right edge near the top, bot effecting text, with an old archival repair; lightly toned and somewhat soiled. In Good condition.…