1. Aylmer, Captain James Evans Freke / Colonel F. A. Aylmer.

Pedigree of The Family of Aylmer of England and Ireland. Compiled by the Late Captain James Evans Freke Aylmer. With some additional Notes by Colonel F.A. Aylmer. [and with several manuscript annotations completing or correcting some of the Pedigrees (surely in the hand of Gerald Percy Vivian Aylmer)].

London, Mitchell Hughes and Clarke, 1909. Quarto. 26 pages. Softcover / Original printed wrappers. The binding a little frayed but overall still in good condition. From the library of Gerald Percy Vivian Aylmer (1856-1936) of Walworth Castle, with his signature to the front wrapper. Extremely Rare !

2. Barwise, Lucy Weston / [Lucy Chapman, George Chapman, Henry Chapman]

Manuscript Autobiography, Diary and vintage photo album of the Chapman – Barwise Family. A cultured London woman’s autobiography and diary including a first hand account of ‘Fiesche’s attempt to assassinate Louis Phillippe’ which she observed while at school in Paris as a child. The manuscript has a mournful postscript by the man she left behind, her husband: ‘Alas! that I George Chapman should have to finish the record of so dear a Life…’ by Lucy Weston Barwise (1822-1876) wrote in a lockable, lined octavo notebook, crushed morocco, marbled endpapers and edges. Her autobiography was begun in January 1872 at one end of the book (16 pages); her diary appears at the other end of the book from October 22 1871-April 1874 with her husband’s postscript dating from June 1880. There is a second volume of family accounts in a lockable octavo sized ledger and a folio sized volume of family photographs, most unlabelled. Barwise’s autobiography recounts her education in Paris in the Rue Taitbout where she witnessed ‘Fiesche’s attempt to assassinate Louis Phillippe’ while watching from her music master’s house opposite the Porte St Martin, noting ‘the Duc D’Orleans [who] looked very handsome’ but shortly afterwards ‘heard a loud report and then a shout… general commotion but the crowd was so thick and immoveable’ and then ‘the King and stiff rode slowly back along the line but looking very white.’ It was only later that she discovered the casualties of ‘Fieschi’s infernal machine… It was a row of gun barrels arranged along a window so as to be discharged all at once.’ Barwise also watched the subsequent funeral from her attic window, the ‘open hearse with its draperies of black and silver’. The highlight of Chapman’s diary is a detailed account of the deaths she witnessed during the ‘Thanksgiving Day for the recovery of the Prince of Wales’ on February 27th, 1872, as seen from her husband George Chapman’s ‘office windows in Cockspur St’ behind Trafalgar Square which overlooked the procession. There she witnessed the lack of barriers and observes with horror the police charging into the surging crowd ‘The big policemen threw themselves against the men; the horses even made to dance and back heel it was a fearful struggle’with a baby almost crushed to death in front of her. There is an interesting secondhand account of Paris under the Commune via one of her daughters and frequent visits to London art exhibitions as on July 8 1871 where she saw an ‘exhibition of old masters at the Royal Academy… Crome, Ruysdael, heads by Moroni, of Titian’s Schoolmaster, Burgomaster by Rembrandt… the two heads.. by Giorgine belonging to Lord Ashburton, such colour and such expression. There are trips to Ascot and the Boat Race, a curry with friends in Wandsworth and a recitation by ‘Mr Bradman [of] the Merchant of Venice for the benefit of the Workman’s Club. It was very clever… Shylock was good but my recollection of actors, Charles Kemble, C.Kean &c made this more familiar and perhaps a little more like ranting’.

[London], c. 1871 – 1872. Octavo. Diary I: 44 pages / Diary II: 24 pages / Photoalbum: 48 pages with 120 original cabinet photographs (including a photograph of a british Forest School). Hardcover / Original full leather. All three Volumes slightly rubbed but all in very good condition. The cabinet photographs all in excellent condition and from dozens of different victorian photographers in Bath (Friese Greene), Bonn (Emil Koch), Astley (Photograpic Landscape Artist in Astley, Essex), and many others. The one diary is really a cash ledger of George Chapman where he kept track for the Chapman family with listings of expenses for Hampstead House, Henry Chapman, Edward Chapman, Oswald D. Chapman, Mrs. Barrett Chapman, Edith Louisa Chapman.

3. [Boyle, Family] Budgell, Eustace / [Theobald, Lewis].

Memoirs of The Lives And Characters of The Illustrious Family of The Boyle’s. Containing Many Curious Pieces of English History, not extant in anyother author. The Whole Extracted From Original Papers And Manuscripts. [Including an Epistle to the Right Hon. John Earle of Orrery, by Lewis Theobald]. Also an impartial Account of the Life, Character and parliamentary Conduct of the Right Honourable Henry Boyle, Esq.; Speaker of the Hon. House of Commons, one of his Majesty’s most honourable Privy Council, and twelve Times sworn one of the Justices of Ireland. Dedicated to his Grace the Duke of Dorset, &c.

Dublin, J.Esdall, 1754. 17,3 cm x 11 cm. VIII, pages XVII -XXIII, 268 pages. [Lacking the list of Subscribers (IX – XII) and Start of Content-pages (XIII-XVI)]. Later, 19th century Hardcover / Half – leather with gilt lettering and ornament to spine. Good condition with only minor signs of external wear. Spine slightly damaged and broken. Bookblock tight and clean besides a faded dampstain and some lesions to outer margiuns of several pages. Needs some attention from a bookbinder. Exlibris / Bookplate of Henry J.B.Clements on pastedown [Clements was landowner in County Mayo and County Galway (Rosshill House connection)].

4. [Carew, Sir Peter / George Oliver (Historian) / John Carew Esq.] MacLean, John.

The Life and Times of Sir Peter Carew, Kt. (From the Original Manuscript) – With a Historical Introduction and Elucidatory Notes, by John MacLean. [Personal copy of John Carew Esq., with two unpublished manuscript letters by historian George Oliver, Exeter (Devon), tipped-in to the rear of the Volume, one longer manuscript entry to the rear in which George Oliver mentions that he has consulted the Inventory of Ottery Mohan House and that he has “made a few pencil notes in the margin” of the book (Oliver must have been sent the book and then returned it or it was his own copy and he gifted it to John Carew)/ George Oliver helped John Carew, Esq., a descendant of Sir Peter Carew, to identify some information form the original manuscript of John Hoker, to which Oliver must have had access. The letters deal with details of John Hoker’s [Hooker’s] Manuscript on Sir Peter Carew and details in John MacLean’s Biography of Carew. George Oliver’s correspondence with John Carew, a descendant of Sir Peter, is very interesting indeed and Oliver seems to study the original manuscript by Hoker for John Carew and reports his insight in the original manuscript of Hoker’s Manuscript on History, mentioning for example Carew’s death-notice: “This year died the worthy and Honorable Knight Sir Peter Carew at Ross in Leinster, and buried in the City of Waterford in Munster in Ireland, in all such honourable order…” (see detailed images on our website)].

London, Bell & Daldy, 1857. Octavo. Frontispiece portrait of Sir Peter Carew (Steel Engraving by J.J.Chant, being Plate I.), CXVIII, 317 pages plus 6 pages “List of Subscribers”. With several Plates: Plate II: Musical Notes: “By a Bank as I lay” / Plate III: Monument to Sir Peter Carew in St.Peter’s Cathedral, Exeter (Steel Engraving) / Plate IV: Folded Map of Kylkenny (Kilkenny) / Plate V: Pedigree of the Family of Carew (Large Fold – out Plate). Hardcover / Original publisher’s cloth with gilt lettering on spine and armorial emblemata on front board. With the armorial supralibro of the Carew Family to the binding’s front board: Arms of Carew: Or, three lions passant in pale sable / Manuscript-entry of previous owner John Carew on endpaper. Boards fragile and spine loosened. In protective Collector’s Mylar to give the slightly broken binding stability. A very rare publication with the beautiful, signed manuscript-letters by George Oliver, signed in the years 1857 and 1858. The letters are also of interest regarding the history of John Hoker [John Hooker / John Vowell] because George Oliver mentions Hoker’s entry “into the New Office of Chamberlain of Exeter at Michaelmas 1555 – having the fee of £4 by the yere & his Lyveries – MS. Hist. p.351”.

5. [Carew, Sir Peter / MacCarthy Glas / MacCarthy Reagh] MacLean, John.

The Life and Times of Sir Peter Carew, Kt. (From the Original Manuscript) – With a Historical Introduction and Elucidatory Notes, by John MacLean.

London, Bell & Daldy, 1857. Octavo. Frontispiece portrait of Sir Peter Carew (Steel Engraving by J.J.Chant, being Plate I.), CXVIII, 317 pages plus 6 pages “List of Subscribers”. With several Plates: Plate II: Musical Notes: “By a Bank as I lay” / Plate III: Monument to Sir Peter Carew in St.Peter’s Cathedral, Exeter (Steel Engraving) / Plate IV: Folded Map of Kylkenny (Kilkenny) / Plate V: Pedigree of the Family of Carew (Large Fold – out Plate). Hardcover / Original publisher’s cloth with gilt lettering on spine and armorial emblemata on front board. Professionally repaired and now in excellent and firm condition in protective Collector’s Mylar. With the armorial supralibro of the Carew Family to the binding’s front board: Arms of Carew: Or, three lions passant in pale sable / Exlibris-Bookplate of the Mac Carthy Glas family on the pastedown with their family motto: “Lam Laidir Aboo” [The Mac Carthy Glas family descended from the princes of Carbery and the Mac Carthy Reagh family].

6. Cresswell, Julia.

Bloomsbury Dictionary of First Names.

London, Bloomsbury, 1990. 16 cm x 24 cm. 248 pages. Original Hardcover with illustrated dustjacket in protective collector’s Mylar. Very good+ condition with only minor signs of external wear. Spine sunned.

7. [Cumberbatch, Benedict] Cumberbatch, Henry Arnold / Rees, Helen / Basil Benwell Rees / William Benwell Rees / Etheldreda Blanche Barker / [Sir Winston Churchill / Sir Anthony Arthur Duncan Montague Browne [Private Secretary to Sir Winston Churchill]].

Large Family Archive of the Benwell Rees – Family, including William Benwell Rees (brother to actor Benedict Cumberbatch’s grandmother Helen Rees, by marriage to British Diplomat Henry Arnold Cumberbatch, who was Consul in Romania, Turkey and Lebanon ). The archive includes at least one manuscript letter by Henry Arnold Cumberbatch and around one thousand documents chronicling the lives of the ex-patriate Benwell Rees family from 1890-1970 in Alexandria and Monaco, including William Benwell Rees, whose marriage to Etheldreda Blanche Barker cemented the family’s role in the highest circles of Alexandria life. The archive also charts their son Basil Rees’ decade in Monaco under Princess Grace and Prince Rainer III where he served as President of the British Association in the 1950’s-‘60s and solicited a letter written by Sir Anthony Arthur Duncan Montague Browne, on Winston Churchill’s behalf on Chartwell headed paper in which the former Prime Minister declined to attend an event in Monaco [signed by Montague Browne]. The archive is held in five heavy volumes, bursting with a plethora of amazing and wonderful historical letters, ephemera, emotional messages and telegrams, old images, theatre-programmes, and especially also includes programmes of plays in which ancestors of Benedict played (J.M.Barrie, Shakespeare etc.). The original letters and documents paint an interesting picture of Benedict Cumberbatch’s grandmother’s side of the family history in the Levant, their service in the Middle East and their social lives. The five volumes are bound in bespoke red morocco over textured paper-covered-boards and they contain at least one reference to Helen Rees next to a newspaper-clipping and dozens of wonderful handwritten letters and cards. Each volume about four inches across spine with title in gilt to upper cover and around 100 leaves in each with documents mounted recto and verso throughout, with photographs, invitations, business materials and clippings that chart the family’s life in their service for the British Colonial Office. The five Volumes include for example: Volume 1: The Benwell Rees’: begins with Egyptian Gazette, 1890 and a programme for a performance c1900 at the Port Theatre, Marina, Alexandria of Rumpelstilkskin; visiting cards and contemporary reports of the marriage of W B Rees and Etheldreda Blanche Barker in Alexandria, February 1901; Windsor Hotels prospectus and flyer (a WBR enterprise); 1913 Casino de Monte Carlo ticket for Ethel Rees; Kings School Canterbury ephemera and St Johns’ College, Cambridge for Basil Rees from 1920’s, graduated June 1924. Volume 2: The Benwell Rees’ Vol II, 1920’s-1990’s: includes J M Barrie, Quality Street programme for English Girls’ School, Alexandria, 1941; invitations from Princess Grace of Monaco etc Volume 3: Basil Rees Vol III, cover nearly detached, 1953- Basil Rees living at 2 Rue Origene, Alexandria, and covering period of move to Palais Majestic, Monaco after which he served as President of the British Association and his sudden death in 1967. Invitations to dinner and place settings with the Prince and Princess of Monaco. Birthday greetings; international stamp collecting societies. Photographic ‘Permis de Sejour’ for William Benwell Rees in Monaco, October 1918. Volume 4: Basil Rees Vol. IV Begins with telegram from Rees to the Queen; mostly very extensive formal correspondence concerned with Rees’ Presidency of he British Association in Monaco; invitations, notes, printed volume of Statutes of association from 1950, royal correspondence with Monaco and Britain. Volume 5: Basil Rees 4-5 1902 Vol II; William Basil Benwell Rees; Royal Navy ID card, British Forces, September 1943 – other material relating to Rees’ work as Duty Defence Officer at the Royal Navy Defence Base in Alexandria, HMS Nice. Volume begins in 1902 and includes Alexandria Dog Show, W B B Rees at Jesus College, Cambridge; Egypt NAAFI permits; lock of Basil Rees’ hair, aged 2 etc.

Alexandria / Monaco / etc., c. 1902 – 1967. Octavo. Half Morocco. Bindings stronger rubbed and slightly damaged.

8. Eichhorn, Johann Gottfried.

Geschichte des ostindischen Handels vor Mohámmed [Teil einer kleinen Sammlung mit zwei weiteren Schriften Eichhorn’s zur “Urgeschichte des erlauchten Hauses der Welfen” (Hannover, 1816 / Ehemaliges Exemplar der “Liverpool Free Public Library” in einem sagenhaften Bibliothekseinband des 18.Jahrhunderts (rotes Maroquin mit blingeprägtem Einbanddeckel “Liverpool free public library” und lackierten Vorsatzblaettern) sowie Halb-Band 1 und 2 der “Allgemeinen Geschichte der Cultur und Litteratur des neueren Europa” (Goettingen, 1796) – siehe Photos].

Gotha, Carl Wilhelm Ettinger, 1775. Klein-Oktav. V, 82 Seiten. Hardcover / Originales Ganzleder des 18.Jahrhunderts mit reicher Rückenvergoldung. Unteres und oberes Kapital mit kleineren Fehlstellen. Die seltene Originalbindung bis auf kleinere Schaeden in sehr guter Erhaltung. Der originale Buchblock von den schoenen, originalen Vorsatzpapieren flankiert und tadellos erhalten. Sehr selten !

9. [English History Collection] – Whitaker, J.

Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage.

London, J. Whitaker and Sons Ltd., 1936. 21.7 cm x 14 cm. X, 747 pages, XXXI. Original Hardcover. In protective mylar. Very good condition with only minor signs of external wear. Blue cloth boards, gilt lettering and decoration on front and spine.

10. [Family History of Sir Harry Luke / Zamarski] – [Luke, Harry / Lukach, Harry / Joseph Harry Lukach (from Detroit, Michigan) / Eugenie Zamarski / Ludwig Johann Carl Zamarski (Publisher and Engraver from Vienna)].

Scrapbook with Genealogy / Family History / Large amount of Newspaper – Cuttings from the early days of J.H.Lukach’s marriage to Eugenie Zamarski in Vienna to the time of the move to New York. Including several pages of articles Harry Lukach wrote for a New York Newspaper and a wonderful postcard of the “S.S.Celtic” on which Luke travelled to his first job in New York in 1903. He writes that the Celtic is approaching Queenstown (Cobh) / Including Newspaper cuttings of Harry Luke’s father’s business with the London branch Hanover Fire Insurance Company of New York / Ephemera of The Lawrence Gas Company of Lancashire and Cheshire, Limited / Imuris Mines, Limited – Silver, Copper, Gold / Mining World / Interesting Ephemera like Calling cards and Invitation cards of New York Society extended to the Lukach family (for example calling cards of “The Metropolitan Museum of Art”, “The Manhattan Club” etc.) / Invitation by J.H.Lukach and his wife to the wedding of their daughter Lily Boys / etc. etc.

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. Wien / London / New York , c.1880 – 1930. Octavo. 100 pages. Hardcover. From the private collection of Eugenie Zamarski and Joseph Harry Lukach and subsequently their son: colonial official, governor, Lieutenant-Governor of Malta, diplomat and historian, Sir Harry Luke.