Art Journal, Signed (4 results)

Printed in lilac on one side of a 12 x 8,5 cm piece of thin card, with serated edges and rounded corners, and with glue staining to one edge and on blank reverse. The card is embossed with tiny stars, with decorative edges and the text enclosed within an oval border, with the autograph signatures above one another in a rectangular box beneath it. The twelve-line poem (signed in type 'S. C. HALL.') might be viewed as an example of Victorian sentimentality, but one should bear in mind the childless couple and Mrs Hall's failed pregnancies, the fact that her mother lived with them throughout their marriage, and their great benevolence. The poem begins: 'Yes! we go gently down the hill of life, | And thank our God at every step we go: | The husband-lover and the sweetheart-wife. | Of creeping age what do we care or know?' Concludes: 'These fading faculties are sent to say | Heaven is more near to-day than yesterday.' The poem was published in 1878 in the Literary World.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. 401pp., 8.5 x 11.25", French text. Starting as a weekly-illustrated journal, L'Artiste waspublished in Paris from 18311904, supplying "the richest single source of contemporary commentary on artists, exhibitions and trends from the Romantic era to the end of the nineteenth century." Presumably, the most important and innovative French fine arts journalencompassing: literature, architecture, sculpture, painting, engraving and music. "TYPOGRAPHIE LACRAMPE ET COMP., RUE DAMIETTE, 2." Full page, decorative illustration preceding the Title page and signed in stone "Albert Durer". Richly decorated with 50 single-leaf engravings (vertical and horizontal, most protected by tissue) sometimescorresponding to the adjacent text. Good with the leather spine and marble covered boards rubbed, with corners and edges bumped. Some pages thumbed with moderate foxing and soiling throughout; wrinkled and lightly worn early and late pages. Rear hinge split. Engravings generally clean and bright when protected by tissue.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB (from which the scandalous Broadley is unaccountably absent). 2pp, 12mo. On bifolium of grey paper. Tears to the second leaf (not affecting signature) have been unobtrusively repaired with archival tape, and its blank reverse carries a thin remnant of the mount. One postage fold. Addressed to 'My Dear Broadley' and signed 'Ernest Hart'. Having talked over Broadley's 'brilliant sketch' (no doubt written for Edmund Yates's newspaper The World, of which he was de facto editor) with his wife, they have agreed to ask him to 'modify the impression that our society is exclusively medical or [?] by adding to the sentence wh. speaks of Clarke Wells Lister &c. meeting at W[impole] St. the leading provincial medicos', after words such as "these latter make the acquaintance perhaps of Tenniel . Du Maurier & Sambourne or of Leckie, Seeley & Ray Lankester," whom I grasp as representing the amusing & the serious sides of art & literature'. He concludes: 'As a matter of fact we rarely ever have more than 1/3. doctors, or of any one set at a dinner.' Broadley was a renowned autograph collector as well as " barrister, author, company promoter and social figure. He is best known for being the defence lawyer for Ahmed 'Urabi after the failure of the 'Urabi Revolt." [Wikipedia].

See both men's entries in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with slight spot from previous mount at one corner. Folded twice. Signed 'H. H. Armstead'. In reply to a letter of Dafforne, he reports that 'the Statues I have made for the "Colonial Office" Niches are not yet in situ - but are now being raised to the niches, and they will be in their places within the next few days.' He gives the names and positions of the statues, adding: 'The eight men are there as Secretaries of State for the Colonies'. He also indicates the work he has done for 'the central group representing the Queen &c &c': 'the two outside figures only they represent "Navigation" and "legislation", as well as 'the four flattish Reliefs under the central group [.] they are the Virtues "Truth," "Fortitude," "Temperance," and "Obedience." He continues: 'You are, of course, aware that the alto Relievos of the 5 divisions of the World & "Government" and "Education" are by me'. He concludes, with a hint of bitterness: 'I am glad you like the memorial work, it appears to give general pleasure - some satisfaction to the poor artists who were nearly made bankrupt by it.'.