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Lot 42

COCKERELL (SYDNEY)

22 November 2011, 10:30 GMT
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £1,750 inc. premium

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COCKERELL (SYDNEY)

Series of about fifty letters and cards signed, nearly all autograph, except for the last few (their finely-penned texts in the hand of Nina Griggs), to his fellow penman Charles Bramley of Leicester, a sometimes dry but essentially affectionate, and generous, series to a young man espousing the same interests in art, design and good writing as the great museum director and friend of Ruskin and Morris himself, topics touched on including the art of handwriting ("...Your letter is beautifully written. I reproached myself after you had left for finding fault with your penmanship when you write so much better than I do. All the same I think you will forgive me for a note of warning as to your tendency to overdo the flourishes... I greatly prefer the austerity of my Bembo manuscript to the extravagancies encouraged by Arrighi, but this may be of course a personal idiosyncrasy. I do not claim to be an infallible arbiter..."), his future biographer, Wilfred Blunt ("...Yes, those two Blunts are brothers: I have the flower book and cannot think how it could be produced for a guinea. Professor Anthony Blunt is Director of the Courtauld Institute..."), Bramley's decision to take up painting ("...You are very courageous to start as a painter at your time of life. Winston Churchill's enthusiasm has taken him a good way..."), Alfred Fairbank's calligraphy ("...Thank you for sending me a set of Reginald Piggott's Writing and Lettering Sheets – How far less attractive than Fairbank's set, how far less alive!..."), Kelmscott and the joys of Betjeman ("...How very kind of you to send me a print of your typescript of Betjeman's Kelmscott broadcast! I listened to it with delight, although there were a few little inconsequencies – He is coming here next week, I think. – the nicest of men..."), the stained glass of Morris & Co ("...I had not heard of those early panels of the firm's glass – JR Holliday bequeathed to the V&A some studies by Morris of Tristan subjects – They may have been for these glass panels..."), etc.; plus an autograph leaf from a work on art history, approximately 50 pages, with calligrahic letters addressed to Cockerell, newsclippings and other material, mounted in black card folders by the recipient (some items extracted), 8vo, London, 1950-1958

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