Search Results: Manuscript from Christian White Rare Books Ltd.

Providence: Unpublished, 1890. Oblong sketchbook bound in black roan (26x17cm) with 'C H Springer' in gilt lettering to the upper cover; rubbing to extremities. All edges gilt; marbled endpapers. An unfinished pencil sketch precedes a sequence of 32 drawings, mostly in pen and ink wash, many with hand-drawn frames and clearly taken from a variety of sources, a few drawn from life. The finished ink drawings include Stratford-upon-Avon Church and Westminster Abbey in England, followed by 'Scene on the Delaware' set in an arched frame, Mount Vernon, 'A Sugar Plantation', 'Scene on the Hudson', three scenes from the Holy Land and 'Glen Mountain House', Lake Mohonk, Fingal's Cave, a silhouette of Robinson Crusoe with Man Friday's footprint and an escaping dog; 'Dr Franklin's Experiments with Electricity' and 'The Races of Men' - five interlocking roundels showing white Americans, black Africans, a Chinese scene, American Indians and a scene on a boat, possibly showing enslaved Africans - perhaps… Read More

London: Unpublished, 1772. A letter sent on behalf of Thomas Chippendale that fills in a gap in the known sequence of correspondence between the master cabinet maker and one of his most important clients, Sir Rowland Winn, of Nostell Priory. Bifolium on 'L V Gerrevink' watermarked paper. Conjugate address leaf 'To Sir Rowland Winn Bar[one]t at Nostell near Pontefract Yorkshire'; stamped '23 Dec[cembe]r'. Seal present. The letter written by Chippendale's London business partner, Henry Ferguson addresses Winn in a form recognisable to every business owner as the pre-Christmas reminder: 'Sir, Another Bill given by you to Thomas Chippendale for £200, being in my hands, I take the liberty of acquainting you that it falls due on the 4th January next' - Winn's normal method of payment was to forward promissory notes to Chippendale which could be presented to a bank. Ferguson continued in tetchy vein: 'in order that you may give timely directions for its being paid on the Day it becomes due - you will be… Read More

1823. Beautiful presentation volume by an infatuated Oxford undergraduate (shortly afterwards President of the Union) following his cousin's winter wedding at the British Ambassador's Residence in Paris. Small oblong volume with matching slipcase (13.5x11.5cm) The manuscript book has olive green printed paper overlay, the upper cover with a hand-coloured floral design; the backstrip is missing but the integrity of the binding unaffected. Internally, pink coated endpapers and 20 leaves, 18 of which have manuscript text and decorations to the rectos. On the first leaf the besotted Dallas explains his poem: 'The young Lady (Miss Huxley) to whom these Lines were addressed is of distinguished beauty and elegance of form. The young Author... was present at her Marriage at the British Ambassadors Chapel at Paris, on the 15th of January 1823, as also at a Dejeuner a la Fourchette given on the occasion, where under the inspiration of lively Music, and the gay Circle which graced it, the following Lines were… Read More

France: Unpublished, 1664. Rededicated - and perhaps presented - to King Charles II by the author's nephew, a manuscript meditation on Psalm 101, unpublished in this form and written as an antidote against the plague. Small quarto (horizontal chainlines & foolscap watermark) bound in contemporary calf with raised bands to the spine and gilt decoration. Three blank endpapers precede a manuscript title page, followed by the dedication to Charles II 'A Tres puissant et Serenissime Roy Charles deuxiesme Roy de la Grande Bretagne' [pp] 11 which is signed at the end 'J Rivet De Caussade en guerci le 23 Apuril 1664' followed by the text of 'Le savory du Ciel ou Meditation sur le pseaume cent un' [pp] 22. A major figure in European Calvinism, Andre Rivet (1572-1651) published his Meditation on Psalm 101 in 1638, having spent a period in Oxford in the 1620s and late settling in Breda. His nephew Jean Rivet was born in 1610, marrying Marthe Chadeau in 1632, and here taking his uncle's text at a time of plague… Read More

England?: N/A, 1800. Early manuscript copy - apparently English in origin - of a French novel of diabolic seduction that has inspired everyone from Jacques Lacan to Jonny Depp. Small quarto (16.5x20.5cm) bound in (likely) English full sheep, rubbed with some loss close to outer hinges but boards remain well attached. No decoration apart from a gilt roll to the edge of the boards. The paper stock has a Britannia watermark and horizontal chainlines; light green edges to the text block. The manuscript text appears to be copied from the anonymous Neapolitan edition of 1772, without Cazotte's name attached to the text, beginning with the editor's foreword, 'Avis de L'Editeur' [pp] 5 followed by 'Le Diable amoureux nouvelle espagnole, pp 1-90, including the characteristic song and musical notation which appear in this manuscript at pages 49-52. The text of the novel is written in an easily legible cursive hand, set out within a pencilled box and neatly paginated. The combination of an English sheep binding… Read More

Paris: 'Chez la veuve Etienne libraire Rue St. Tarquer, vis a vis la rue du Plastre' manuscript facsimile title page, 1747. Fair copy in French from the 1740s of much of Rollin's Histoire Ancienne together with an original continuation of the work up to the present day: 'De L'histoire depuis. J.[esus] C[hrist]' which deals with 'Le Royaume d'Angleterre' and the execution of Mary Stuart by Elizabeth I. Small quarto bound in parchment over pasteboard with traces of printed material visible within the binding; scuffing to extremities but overall a very good binding. Written in black ink on paper with horizontal chain lines, watermark incorporating a Fleur de Lis design - apparently a different paper stock later in the manuscript: [4] pp361; [4] [pp] 34 [6] [pp] 26. Calligraphic manuscript half title 'Histoire Ancienne' with a signature below, closed tear near gutter; full manuscript title page, partially calligraphic, again with a signature presumably of the copyist - perhaps 'M. Bayle' or 'M. Royle'?… Read More

Coventry: Unpublished, 1942. Second World War Midlands-based study of the history of gas in warfare and the best ways to counter and deal with its renewed use over Britain. Small notebook (10x16cm) bound in grey cloth covered card, contained within an anonymous black folder. Author's signature on the front pastedown: 'A F Wilson 8 Stychedale Ave, Coventry'. Opposite an Index of contents with 'folio' numbers: 56ff - 112 pages of manuscript text in a mixture of pencil and inks with red for highlighting and diagrams - Wilson writes across the whole. The text is begins with the History of Gas Warfare, persistence of gas on the battlefield, classification of gases and their effects on troops, conditions for using gas and the chilling 'Value of Gas in warfare'. There are notes on Gas duties, respirators and decontamination. Unusually Wilson writes across the whole opening of each double page. Wilson sets out the history of WW1 gas attacks with care: 'Oct 1914 - First used in Great War - 3000 sneezing… Read More

Wiltshire and London: Unpublished, 1822. No Binding. Near Fine. [4] 'Dutch turnip', 'Windsor Beans' and 'Negro dwarf kidney beans': a bill from a London nursery - 'Seedsman' - for supplying vegetable seeds to the lawyer John Thomas Batt to be planted at his country home, New Hall, near Salisbury in Wiltshire. Quarto sized bifolium with printed bill-head on the first recto, accomplished in manuscript with about 40 types of seed to be sent to 'J.T.Batt Esq, New Hall near Salisbury' at a total cost of '£6"0"9' with the company's docket title to the final blank and a note in Batt's hand. Batt was a successful London lawyer from the 1780s-1820s who was an executor of Sir Edward Gibbon and a political mover and shaker during the tumultuous years before William Pitt became Prime Minister. In addition to lodgings in Lincoln's Inn he had a country home near Salisbury. Near Fine Please contact Christian White Rare Books Ltd for more information or images of this item 1822

Cornwall, England: Unpublished, 1686. A remarkable manuscript (c200,000 words) that begins in London just before the 1688 Revolution and charts its author's return to his Cornish village where he pleads for the right to remain in communion with both 'Episcopal and Presbiterial' congregations. Over 300 pages the manuscript plots Rowse's efforts to assuage both conscience and Cornish neighbours. Shot through with powerfully expressed insights, the manuscript is a potent record of provincial intellectual life in a far corner of England. We can find no trace of published works in Bernard Rowse's hand nor much trace of him at all beyond legal documents of the period but this is a spiritual manuscript of considerable insight and depth. ($7,500) PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION Folio (37x23cm) recently rebound in period-style half calf over marbled boards with morocco spine label. New acid-free endpapers. Manuscript paginated from page 5-312 where it breaks off. A mixture of old pasted paper repairs to page edges,… Read More

London: Charles Wilson, 1839. Extensively illustrated Midshipman's log book of a return voyage from England to Madras with drawings of an albatross-shoot, whale-ships burning oil, a mirage at sea and a sequence of coastal views including St Helena and Tristan da Cunha. Folio-sized manuscript which has been copied by its author from the original document into a printed skeleton Log Book whilst incorporating his original drawings made on board the HMS Wellington. Rebound in recent quarter blue buckram over plain blue paper-covered boards. Borrer's original manuscript title 'Log Book' has been laid down on the upper cover. There are paper repairs to margins of the printed title page and the corners of a few early leaves. Borrer has added the details of his trip to the title page, laying in a sheet of signals and on the verso his manuscript list of 'Ships spoken with on the Wellingtons Voyage...' with 13 entries on the outward leg including for the 'Cachalot French South Sea Whaler', 'Newark American… Read More

Liverpool: Unpublished, 1867. Manuscript records from one of the world's oldest architectural societies containing hundreds of signatures of leading members including the architect of the Walker Art Gallery. Quarto manuscript book, half green morocco over marbled boards, stationer's ticket of 'Joseph A D Watts... Liverpool' on marbled front endpaper with details for reordering. Red morocco label to upper board: 'Architectural Society - Council Minute Book'. Manuscript title page on verso of first flyleaf followed by minutes in several hands, always signed off by a senior member of the society, including dozens of signatures from all of Francis Horner; Thomas Kilpin; Henry Hill Vale (responsible for Walker Art Gallery) Thomas D Barry; Joseph Boult; Henry Sumners (partner Culshaw and Sumners), Charles Aldridge etc. The Society was founded in 1847 so this is probably the second minute book to record the Society's meetings at the Liverpool Royal Institution (most of the rest of the Society's records… Read More

London: G Bell & Sons, 1971. Autograph manuscript, typescript, corrected proofs and supportive letters from Sir John Betjeman to the author of this memoir of Papa Stour who met her during a visit to the island and helped see the book through to publication. Stella Shepherd and her husband Dennis who illustrated her book moved to Papa Stour in the Shetlands in 1962, to become, respectively, the island's schoolteacher and a lay Missionary, leaving 'eight years later, when there were no longer any children of school age left for her to teach.' The finished memoir which depicts life on a small, depopulating Shetland isle in the 1960s takes the reader through an island year. Stella Shepherd, nee Jardine (1919-2017) originally lived in Yorkshire where she had worked as a teacher after graduating from Hull Municipal Training College. Like a Mantle the Sea was first published in 1971 and reissued in 1999 for the island's seven hundredth anniversary. Betjeman described it in one of his letters to Shepherd as… Read More

Kent: Unpublished Manuscript, 1829. Mock epic narrative poem describing an ill-fated journey by boat, stage-coach and on foot from Sheerness to a concert in Chatham and the 'inconsideration' that blighted their return journey. Thin, maroon-coloured roan covered wrappers, rubbing to spine and corners; white tape reinforcement along gutter to verso of wrapper. 18 pages of text, 21 lines per page, c2600 words. Text block sewing intact but detached from binding. Featherstone addressed the poem to his travelling companion Henry Senior (1794-1861, son of John Raven Senior of Compton Beauchamp, Berks and Mary, daughter of Henry Duke; Ensign to the 60th Regiment, Royal Americans, in 1813, and later served with several other regiments) recalling one year on: 'Dear Friend... in a poet's dress/ Our midnight ramble to Sheerness...' in the company also of William Wood. Featherstone writes in easily digestible free verse about the inspiration for the trip coming from yet a further friend, Wlliam Moore, whose… Read More

Mediterranean, 1814. Napoleonic War manuscript ship's log for a British warship in the Mediterranean that would be used shortly afterwards to transport convicts to New South Wales (1819) and Van Diemen's Land (1821) in Australia. The folio-sized ship's log comprises two disbound sections of a notebook of a junior British naval officer's training logbook from 1814. Manuscript title to front cover: 'Log &c of the Proceedings of HMSS The Malabar. Kept by W B Boddy.' A beautifully worked half page watercolour sketch of The Malabar under full sail appears on the following leaf as frontispiece. Hand-stitched, laid foolscap paper (water mark John Hayes 1809, vertical chain lines), externally heavily marked, including signs of burning to spine and bottom left of front cover; internally fairly clean, though yellowed, and most pages ink-stained. Remnants of cords binding the spines of each section; first section (8 leaves) bound, plus 7 separate leaves. 21 pages of handwritten log entries record two legs of a… Read More

Los Angeles & London: Unpublished, 1986. Remarkably extensive Eliott Kastner archive of the production of Pierce Brosnan's first leading role in which he played a French anthropologist in New York who discovers a group of urban nomads who are not who they seem. The pile of documents sits 10 inches thick and comprises, in brief: Production - Central Files Kastner: Chain of Title original and copy documents October 1983 to February 1986; Settlements of Agreement, Assignments of Rights, Registration of Copyright, Library of Congress Certificate of Recordation, Certificate of Authorship etc with loose copies and originals of similar c.100 pages; Collected Correspondence- 'All Past Correspondence Including Casting Notes for Nomads, MGM/UA Entertainment Co, Washington Boulevard, Culver City, CA - photocopies of letters 1981/1982, approx 100 pages, yellow card covers ref John McTiernan, Jane Fonda declining a role, and casting of Eileen Flax. 'Nomads' the new novel by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, paperback, Bantam… Read More

Chalfont St Peter: Unpublished, 1908. 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 binding (19x14cm) with floral decoration to the spine and both covers. Working silver lock (and two keys) which opens to reveal marbled endpapers and on the second flyleaf the inscription: 'To Miss Jessie Rose from Charles Sydney Buxton on her birthday Nov 18. 1908'. An excerpt from Chaucer's Romaunt of the Rose precedes Buxton's further verse dedication, dated Sep 27, 1907 and a sequence of sometimes ambitious of love poems written on rectos only [ff] 55 and a further 12 pages of copy verse from the 1950s in a later hand - perhaps one of Jessie' 3 children? An aspiring Liberal politician, Buxton was inspired to write his… Read More

Glasgow, Cambridge & London: Various, 1927. Alexander Todd's personal archive including school prizes from Glasgow schooldays, his Nobel Prize lecture and dozens of retained copies of his papers and speeches. Alexander R Todd (1907-1997) was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the synthesis of nucleotides - the groundwork for Watson and Crick's elucidation of DNA. Born in Cathcart, outer Glasgow, he went to Allen Glen's School, Glasgow University before taking Ph.D.s in Germany and at Cambridge University where he was Fellow then Master of Christ's College, Cambridge, Professor of Organic Chemistry and President of the Royal Society, 1975-1980. GLASGOW, [School Prize] W Watson, Intermediate Physics, 1923, Longmans. Prize bookplate on front pastedown, 'Allen Glen's School Session 1923-24', prize awarded to Alexander Todd, gilt stamp of school monogram to upper cover. [School Prize] J M Barrie, Courage, Rectorial Address at St Andrews, 1922, Hodder and Stoughton. Allan Glens… Read More

Wishaw, Scotland: Unpublished, 1925. No Binding. Very Good. Stirring 1925 manuscript speech to Scottish veterans made by Britain's commander on the western front in which he urged Scotland's soldiers to look after each other in peacetime - 'the hardest battle of their lives' - even as they readied themselves for the moment 'when storm and peril once more threaten our beloved country, men such as they, may one again be found to stand and fight for Scotland and true Liberty.' The speech was delivered on 7th November 1925 at the opening of a Scottish Ex-Servicemen's Institute at Wishaw in South Lanarkshire where it was framed and hung until the Institute was closed and demolished two years ago. Seven leaves of paper have been laid down on card for framing; the paper is speckled and browned with a couple of tears. Haig has corrected and emended his pencil-written speech throughout, with gaps left for ex tempore additions - he is known to have found speeches like this one a trial. Accompanying the… Read More

1960. Remarkable collection of Tibetan Sherpa art collected, and possibly commissioned, by a member of Sir Edward Hillary's 'Silver Hut' expedition to Mount Makulu in the Himalayas, including an image of the mountaineers scaling the peak. This collection is introduced by its owner, an unidentified member of Hillary's 1960 expedition (possibly George Lowe), in a two page pencilled text which he has written over the disbound opening pages of a large sketch pad (26x37cm). This seems to have been drafted after the expedition left Kathmandu and before their lengthy acclimatisation at altitude had begun. There are a couple of gaps in the text, possibly left to be filled in later with the relevant information. The mountaineer describes himself as 'a layman with this largely scientific expedition' who is admiring of the 'painstaking research our physiologists are even now preparing to undertake under never-before experienced conditions' - the expedition yielded now standard research findings into human… Read More

England, 1701. Manuscript translation by an English lawyer determined to inject his enthusiasm for Lucretius into this work by a 17th century Swiss natural philosopher - completing his English makeover with marginal references to Milton's Paradise Lost. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Quarto in modern half tan calf over marbled boards; an eighteenth century presentation inscription from the actor/ playwright George Alexander Stevens mounted on the first original endpaper: 'Presented to William Massey by his esteemed Friend Geo. Alex Stevens Esq.r 18 Jan.ry 1773'. Roberts begins with a manuscript title page, adding lines from Thomas Creech's translation of Lucretius which are not present in the original: 'But above all 'tis Pleasentest to gett/ The Top of High Philosophy...' (Lucretius's depiction of ataraxia at the beginning of Book II of De Rerum Natura) and dates the page to 29th September, 1701. Roberts's Lincoln's Inn bookplate engraved in 1703 is mounted on the following page with a neo-Latin epigram and… Read More