Shop — page 1 of 3

Unpublished full length verse epic poem on the subject of the Duke of Wellington’s decisive defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo. Although Waterloo became the subject of short poems written in its aftermath by writers such as Walter Scott and Lord Byron, we can find no similar enterprise to George Allsop’s full length treatment of… Read more…

Scholarly transcript from the early 19th century of Sir Richard Lowther’s accounts during his imprisonment in the Tower of London for his involvement in the Duke of Norfolk’s plot to marry Mary Queen of Scots and supplant Elizabeth I. A landowner in Westmorland, Lowther was briefly custodian of Mary Queen of Scots after she landed in England in 157… 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A remarkable and mystical unpublished short story written in April 1898 by a young woman called ‘Ecila’ - presumably a reversal of her actual name, Alice - which presents as a sort of adolescent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…

Full length pre-publication typescript with extensive authorial corrections to this novel set on a remote Scottish Hebridean island off the coast of Wester Ross. The island - Eilian More - is the beautifully described backdrop to the machinations of its Chief, Evan Urquhart, whose castle is burned to the ground in the final chapter by his greatest… Read more…

A 10 page manuscript extract from Talbot Rothwell’s original screenplay for Carry on Cleo together with his hilarious typescript proposal/ synopsis of the movie and a full ‘First Draft’ typescript screenplay which contains perhaps the earliest appearance of the oft-voted funniest ever line, ‘Infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me.’ Talbot Rot… 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…

Beautifully executed manuscript collection of illustrated poems after the work of Birket Foster, created by James Tilley, a Welsh railwayman working on the Taff Vale Railway in south Wales, made as a gift for his soon-to-be wife Mary Morton, daughter of Robert Morton a ship owner from St Ives. Tilley has created fifteen exquisitely worked sketches… 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…

Publisher’s dummy for this award-winning if controversial children’s book in which Babette Cole ‘unleashes her endearingly loony sense of humor on the subject of the birds and the bees, and the result is, as expected, hilarious’ (Publisher’s Weekly). In the book a couple of parents attempt to explain the facts of life to their two children, who res… Read more…

Remarkable unpublished autobiography of a young French immigrant to the USA, 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 clearly intended… Read more…

A wide ranging and very detailed handwritten account of the pedigree and genealogy of the Ellis and Waltham surnames and family trees written by Charles Walton Elllis (b.1842), the son of Edwin Ellis and Emma Waltham with links to Mirfield, Camberwell and Tulse Hill. Laid in throughout are various ephemera including funeral cards, letters, cuttings… 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…

Rare autograph letter in which the architect presents the book that he co-wrote with his fellow medievalist George Gilbert Scott. Burges (1827-1881) has come to be seen as perhaps the pre-eminent dreamer of the ‘Victorian dream of the Middle Ages’ as Betjeman put it. According to J Mordaunt Crook, author of William Burges and the High Victorian Dre… Read more…

Elliott Kastner (1930-2010) was a larger-than-life American film producer, whose best-known credits include Where Eagles Dare and The Long Goodbye. This original 1969 typed screenplay script of William Goldman’s adaptation of his 1967 novel The Thing Of It Is comes from Kastner’s film production archive. Robert Redford had expressed an interest in… Read more…

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… Read more…

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 line… Read more…

A fascinating letter from the Oxford undergraduate poet Anthony Thwaite to his fellow ‘Yorkshireman’, recent Oxford graduate and poetry publisher, Ronnie Duncan. Having been asked for advice on potential contributors to the slightly older man’s poetry magazine, Chance, Thwaite rattles off a series of recommendations in a substantial two page typed… Read more…

Written by the novelist Penelope Mortimer to the Yorkshire art collector Ronnie Duncan, a letter and postcard from June and August 1979. The postcard (featuring a Duchamp image) looks ahead from June to ‘My spell at Hebden [Bridge]... It sees far in the future, but the distant Commitments have a habit of quite suddenly being tomorrow - which I find… Read more…

An anonymous hand manuscript prayer book reflecting the main religious trends and processes happening within Germany at the time of its writing. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION In very good condition. Bound in original roan, tooled ornamentally with a decorative edging and a diamond pattern to front and rear. Two original leather and brass hinge clasps fasten… Read more…

A collection of five playbills from 1818 and 1819 which have been bound together by a contemporary playgoer who has reviewed the performances of two major productions on successive nights at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden and Drury Lane. The playgoer has written on the playbill versos two long (400 words each) accounts of the earliest English-lan… Read more…

Behan’s finest play massively annotated here for an Oxford University student production which was directed by the English theatre director Braham Murray during his time as an undergraduate at University College and before he went onto a successful career in stage direction. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Red quarter cloth quarto over textured paper covered… Read more…

Twelve year diary (1907-1919) of a distinguished Scottish servant of the British Empire, who represented Scotland as an international footballer in the very earliest of all competitive matches with England in 1870 - and loathed his ministerial boss, the young Winston Churchill. Scion of the aristocratic Baillie-Hamilton family (Earls of Haddington)… Read more…

A minutely observed manuscript travel diary of a research and sightseeing trip to China and the Soviet Union, ending with a nostalgic visit to Vienna, that offers glimpses of a personal history shaped by the Holocaust. Succinctly, but with close detail, Billig documents cultural, industry-focused and academic visits to cities and provinces, includi… Read more…

Presentation volume inscribed by a distinguished roster of 1000 scientists and officials of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research as a retirement present for its founder. Expensively bound with Frank Heath’s initials on the upper cover, all edges gilt, manuscript title page and 50 card leaves. Vellum-bound list of signers in rear poc… Read more…

A bill of sale for ‘Three Slaves’ - in fact three enslaved children of 15, 14 and 13 - who were sold by Roswell Beebe, future benefactor of Little Rock in Arkansas, to John Gusman, owner of huge tracts of land on the west side of the Louisiana river Bayou Bonfouca. Prepared for and signed by the New Orleans notary William Boswell, the document reco… Read more…