GEORGE VI
(1895-1952, King of Great Britain)
Fine Autograph Letter Signed signed 'Albert' as Duke of York, to his Chaplain Revd Francis Stone
thanking him “very much for sending me a further selection of old photographs of this house. Does Green the late gardener live near here as I was wondering whether I could use him one day, & get him to tell me how the garden was laid out during his years here. I shall be here all this week excepting Thursday. The lights looked very well yesterday I thought...”, 2 sides 8vo., The Royal Lodge, Windsor headed paper with original autograph envelope signed with initials, 9th April
Item Date:
1934
Stock No:
43193
£475
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GIBBINGS
(Robert John, 1889-1958, Irish Artist and Author)
Fine Autograph Letter Signed to Robert Goodden
sending “a short line as the widows have been after me again and my post has piled up. I think the best way to make sure of those copies of the ‘Lee’ is to write either to The Hon Andrew Shirley who is managing director of the Times Book Club or J. G. Wilson who holds a similar post at Bumpus. Mention my name as saying you could be sure of getting them there or any other bit of Blarney you like. I can’t well handle these sort of things myself as it complicates accounts & the publishers don’t like it. But I’m sure either of those prins will respond. There may be a shortage before Christmas, due to difficulties of getting a big edition bound in time but even though some may not be ready before Jan they will all be the same ‘firsts’. Yes, widow No 2 since sent me her photo. Quite attractive though the chin just a little too dominant. With her seven children & my six we would have a nice nucleus to start a family. I gather that herJack was an athlete... She wondered if I would be able to stay the course. I doubt it, but I’m damn well not going to try. I think & hope that correspondence has now ceased...”, 3 sides oblong 8vo., The Orchard, Waltham-Saint-Lawrence headed paper, 13th October
Item Date:
1944
Stock No:
43191
£95
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“AFTER SHAKESPEARE’S WEALTH OF LANGUAGE IT IS STRANGE TO BE PLAYING SUCH VERY ECONOMICAL PROSE”
GIELGUD
(Sir John, 1904-2000, British Actor)
Early Autograph Letter Signed to G. E. Westbury
ttelling him that “the version we are playing is a translation of M. Komisarjevsky’s own - taken from the acting script of the Russian - he tells me the accepted version here is done from the published script, issued, as often happens abroad, on the morning of the first production. This one has various additions and alterations made by the author during rehearsals - including the passages you noticed in the last act, and with the asides and soliloquies rearranged, much I think to the play’s advantage. You may be right as to the reading of the passage in Actio being unnecessary - myself I think the jarring effect is partly because the other asides (‘he’s mine’, in Act III, for instance) are omitted - these were of course far more usual and accepted in 1900 than they are today - and plartly, as you say, because it serves to force the point. However I have now understressed the emphasis and I believe it is better. The other sections you noted in that act are exactly meant as you interpret them - and I am greatly relieved to hear thy carry with this meaning, as the producer directed us to give them with that suggestion, and I was doubtful whether I was able to give the impression he wanted with so few actual lines to speak. After Shakespeare’s wealth of language it is strange to be playing such very economical prose, (though non the less fascinating by contrast)...”, 2 sides 8vo., with original autograph envelope, 31 Avenue Close, NW8, postmarked 17th May
Item Date:
1936
Stock No:
43192
£225
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GILBERT
(Sir Alfred, 1854-1934, Sculptor of ‘Eros’ in Piccadilly Circus etc)
Long Letter Signed to Lord Percy,
thanking him for his “letter and for the kind words you utter about the Times article on my work at Windsor. I have for some time past doubted my chances of success as regards the appointment at South Kensington, but now with such an authoritative... as the one you give me I am quite prepared to renounce all hope, and all further striving. Why I wanted the post was, that I might, during my leisure, devote myself to the production of original work untrammelled by Commissions, and the dictates of others. The price may have been high to pay for such a desire... the official nature of the position which might be thought ill suited to my own, but I had hoped I might have exercised some good in the schools, and amongst the Art Masters who are under the official regime. Again, it was that ‘irksome uncertainly’ to which you allude, the enlarging parasite of my life - which led me to aspire to, and desire official employment... it has it’s sweet certainty. I am accustomed to disappointments, though I am credited with a rich account of Fortune’s smiles. I have only one hope, and that is, that I have not overdrawn my account in asking friends such as you are to ‘back’ my future demand, to no purpose...”, 4 sides oblong 4to., 18 Maida Vale, W., 8th August
Item Date:
1898
Stock No:
43195
£175
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GILBERT
(Sir John, 1817-1897, Historical Painter, Illustrator and Engraver, R. A.)
Autograph Letter Signed to “My dear Bicknell”
saying that it “is a fearfully long time since I last received a letter from you. I hope you are well... We have all passed through a severe and most protracted winter, I have felt it, its extreme cold, darkness and universal dullness has oppressed me. The whole of the month of Jany I kept at home - that is - I did not go to town... had to struggle with all the uncomfortableness of that condition of mind. Am now truly thankful that all that is over, and rejoice to hear the blackbirds singing from morn to eve, see something like a sky again, and feel all over a different creature. News of any kind I have not to send. What has occurred at the Academy I know little of for I have not been able to attend any of the meetings. I get a little secondhand information worth little. The work I have done while the days were cold and dark I now find had better have been left undone, for it must must be gone over again. Not that it signifies much for nobody buys pictures nowadays...” with a postscript that “The Frazers, having removed to a part of Blackheath somewhat remote from this, I see very little of, and that being the case I hear nothing of you...”, 4 sides 8vo., no place, 9th February
Item Date:
1879
Stock No:
43204
£125
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