Ada Clarke was the younger sister of D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930), the Nottinghamshire writer who was also a student of the University College of Nottingham, the predecessor of the University of Nottingham. The collection was the last major cache of DH Lawrence papers still in private ownership. It comprises over 600 items and includes two of Lawrence’s University College of Nottingham notebooks; autographed manuscripts of poems, short stories and essays; corrected proofs of his writing; first editions of his works; personal correspondence from Lawrence; a diary entry; and artefacts such as his own paintings and artist's palette, sandals and a poncho. The importance of the Clarke Collection for DH Lawrence studies cannot be overstated. Ada Clarke was Lawrence's closest sibling, so a wide range of invaluable, unique and irreplaceable items were passed to her by Lawrence and other family members. Anybody studying DH Lawrence's early life and writing, and his links to the Nottinghamshire region, simply has to refer to these items.
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Dickson, Archer & Thorp, solicitors of Alnwick, Northumberland was established in the late 18th century and continued until the death of the last managing partner in 2005.
This extensive collection of family papers is comprised of a wide range of correspondence, photographs, drawings, prints and marriage documents, and is an important adjunct to the papers of Edith Somerville already held in the Special Collections Library at Queen’s. The Coghill Archive includes a substantial amount of family correspondence involving Somerville, particularly letters between her and her sister, Hildegarde. The family correspondence is all the more interesting as some of it crosses generations: siblings, parents, and children, as well as husbands and wives. The Coghill Archive provides insight into the life in of Irish landed family, and because of the unusual amount of material relating to children we gain deeper insight to other aspects of that family life. It also includes evidence of the different experiences of members of the family during World War I.
Pusey House is home to the principal Anglo-Catholic library and archive in the UK. The House was founded in 1884 as a monument to the life and work of Dr Edward Bouverie Pusey (1800-1882), Professor of Hebrew at Oxford University and Canon of Christ Church Cathedral. This is an important set of correspondence between Dr Pusey and Francis Richard Wegg-Prosser. Wegg-Prosser (1824-1911) had been MP for Herefordshire from 1847, but had to step down on his conversion to the Roman Catholic Church in 1852. He later helped to re-found the Benedictine Monastic Community in England and built the pro-Cathedral for the diocese of Newport and Menevia. Their letters were exchanged in 1851, shortly before Wegg-Prosser’s conversion to Rome, and shed light on Pusey’s theological understanding of the place of Anglicanism in the wider Catholic Church.
Peterhouse acquired two lots at auction that derive from the collection of literary manuscripts assembled by Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton (1809-1885), many of whose papers are now held by Trinity College, Cambridge. The manuscripts were written by the poet Thomas Gray (1716-1771), who studied at Peterhouse from 1734 and became a Fellow of the College. Each lot consists of original manuscript leaves which have been mounted for binding in a volume or scrapbook and subsequently disbound. Evidence from earlier foliation suggests that the two poems were originally bound sequentially early in one volume and the sets of reading notes were together as part of a second volume.
Before purchasing this book we had no books from the Library of George Folbury/Fowlbery (d. 1540), who was Master of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, 1537-1540. The book’s provenance comes from Folbury’s ink inscription on the title ‘Su[m] liber G. folberij’ and signature ‘G. folberi’ below the publisher’s device on the final page. The book itself is a worthwhile acquisition. It has a fine London contemporary binding with Tudor binding rolls, numerous contemporary annotations and its distinctive title page was designed by Holbein; but it is the provenance that means it will become part of Pembroke’s historic collection.
Thomas Bewick (1753-1828) is well known for his illustrated books British Birds and Quadrupeds, but in his work as a professional engraver over a 50-year period he produced a wide range of material – book illustrations, bookplates and newspaper advertisements, as well as engraved silver, clock-faces etc. Interest continued in Bewick’s work through the 19th century and up to the present day, his work being republished, sometimes pirated, collected and studied by bibliophiles. Thirty-four years after his death his daughter saw his autobiography (the Memoir) through the press. To cater for the ‘Bewick collectors’, Jane Bewick prepared ten copies of the Memoir that were interleaved with blank pages, on to which she pasted proof impressions taken in Bewick’s workshop, also copying out poems and accolades to her father.
Formerly displayed in the bar of a public house in the Cotswolds, this parchment pedigree of a prominent Welsh Elizabethan merchant was purchased privately by the National Library of Wales in March 2017, with the aid of a grant of £7,500 fro
John Napier, of Merchiston (1550-1617), A Plaine Discovery of the whole Revelation of Saint Iohn: set downe in two treatises. Edinburgh: printed by Robert Walde-grave, printer to the Kings Majestie. 1593; and James VI, King of Scotland, 15 in forme of ane sermone.
With the generous assistance of the Friends of the National Libraries, the National Gallery Research Centre has been able to acquire a small but significant collection of papers relating to the sale of the art collection of the Duc de Berry. The archive consists of a complete inventory of the 118 Berry paintings; a list of the costs of packing, shipping and insuring the collection; and a list of the 21 paintings which were sold, recording the buyers’ names.