66 618 résultats
Oblong folio. Title, 2 pp. on folded sheet. 64 bars. "Allegro" for harpsichord by Giovanni Battista Martini (1706-84), from Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg's collection "Raccolta delle più nuove composizioni di clavicembalo di differenti maestri ed autori" (Leipzig, Breitkopf). Penned by Gerber during his years in Leipzig as a law student and cellist in the Leipzig orchestra. - Gerber, musical instructor of the children of the Prince of Sondershausen, succeeded his father as court organist and court secretary in 1775. - Some browning, with a large brownstain.
4to. 1¾ pp. Contract between Maxim Gorki and André Germain, who hereby agrees to represent and commercialize Gorki's copyright in France.
4to. ¾ page. In Russian. To Solomon Gitmanovich Kaplun: "I am sending a letter to V. F. Khodasevich which was requested to be published in Beseda. I am asking you to advance me money against the fee for my 'Book about Blok' and all five children's books. M. I. [i.e. Moura Budberg] said that I received not a single letter from you over the entire summer. You replied that letters had been sent to me and that you had copies of them. Since I am still awaiting the reply to questions I asked you, perhaps you will send me the copies of your letters. I will not discuss how surprised I am at your attitude towards me". - S. G. Kaplun (1891-1940) was a journalist and publisher, the owner of the Berlin publishing house "Epoch" and from 1922 to 1925 the publisher of Gorky's literary and scientific journal "Beseda". - Left margin with punched holes (not touching text). Provenance: Hermitage auction, Monaco, 25 April 2019, lot 306.
4to. ¾ page. In German. Addressed to the editor of a newspaper, Gorky's statement repudiates remarks that have been attributed to him in various newspapers: "From Maxim Gorki, who is staying in Berlin at present for a short time, we have received the following note: / Allow me, dear editor, the polite communication that the interviews with me which have appeared in various journals are to be considered as apocryphal, and that I can in no way assume responsibility for their content. My current state of health does not allow me to undertake conversations with gentlemen of the press; I will however not fail to accede to your wishes as soon as I have the strength to do so" (transl.). - Disenchanted with Lenin's regime and suffering from tuberculosis, Gorky had left Russia in September 1921, initially staying in Berlin; ultimately he was to settle in Sorrento, with an extended household which now included Moura Budberg, his secretary and lover. - Provenance: Sotheby's, 25 May 1983; Heritage, 6 April 2016, lot 49152.
1 S. auf Doppelblatt. 8vo. An einen Herrn, der ihm wohl ein Manuskript des Königsberger Literarhistorikers Alexander Jung übersandt hatte, welches Grimm ihm unbesehen zurücksendet, da er "so bedrängt mit arbeiten und geschäften" sei, "dass ich nicht die geringste zeit übrig habe es einzusehen; übrigens ist schon seit einigen tagen herr Jung in Königsberg von allem durch mich in kenntnis gesetzt worden, was ich für ihn thun kann. ich bedaure seine widrige lage aufrichtig und habe ihm den rath ertheilt, sich hier an die allgemeine deutsche verlagsanstalt zu wenden [...]". - Stellenweise unbedeutend fleckig.
4to. 7 numbered pp. on two folded bifolia; 1 blank page at the end. Black ink on paper; several pencil revisions. Apparently penned in connection with Hasenöhrl's hydromechanics lecture (Mechanics II), which Hasenöhrl taught in the summer semesters of 1908, 1911, and 1914; possibly written for or during the concomitant seminar course. Pages 6 and 7 concern the theory of open and stopped pipes. - In his 1933 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Erwin Schrödinger looked back on the gift of his teacher Hasenöhrl to discuss a subject matter in the lecture hall both extensively and closely: "The lecture cycle, which spanned eight semesters of five periods per week, treated the advanced theories of mechanics as well as the eigenvalue problems of continuum physics with the degree of detail that I would later need dearly - I have never been able to study from books with any ease [... He died in the War], and a feeling tells me that, but for that, it would be he who would be receiving this honor in my place today." In his 1904 treatise "On the Theory of Radiation in Moving Bodies", Hasenöhrl had applied the concept of "electromagnetic mass" to a cavity filled with radiation, arguing that any kind of thermal radiation provides such a body with an apparent increase of mass. This achievement, which makes the connection of energy and mass and - in its most radically compressed form "m = E/c²" - seems to anticipate Einstein's special theory of relativity, won Hasenöhrl the 1905 Haitinger Prize (at Boltzmann's suggestion) and was the basis for his appointment to the Vienna Chair of Physics the following year. In 1905, Einstein generalised Hasenöhrl's equation (which the latter had applied only to cavity radiation) and managed to embed it within an encompassing theory, thus arriving at the iconic "E=mc²" equation (for Hasenöhrl's role in the development of the equation cf. Stephen Boughn's recent article, "Fritz Hasenöhrl and E=mc²", in: The European Physical Journal H 38/1 [Jan. 2013], p. 1-18). Incidentally, Hasenöhrl taught Einstein's theory of relativity in his lectures - a highly uncommon course topic for the time. In 1911, Hasenöhrl participated in the historic first "Conseil Solvay", the invitation-only Brussels conference that united the world's elite of experimental and theoretical physicists to discuss the fundamental problems of their field. Themed "La théorie du rayonnement et les quanta", that first conference tackled the various approaches of classical physics and the emerging quantum theory; among the other participants were Einstein, Marie Curie, Ernest Rutherford, H. A. Lorentz, Wilhelm Wien, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, and Henri Poincaré. Hasenöhrl also participated in the second Solvay Conference in 1913. - Edges slightly frayed and dusty, otherwise perfect. Of the utmost rarity: Hasenöhrl manuscripts are considered virtually unobtainable; auction records since 1975 list not a single leaf of writing in his hand (in contrast with more than 1000 records for Albert Einstein, more than 100 of which are manuscripts). The Göttingen State Library holds a 17-page transcript of Hasenöhrl's lecture on spherical functions (Cod. Ms. G. Herglotz E 15) in the hand of the student Gustav Herglotz (1881-1953), later professor of Mathematics at Leipzig and Göttingen. The Austrian Central Library of Physics keeps an archive of Hasenöhrl material: a single-box corpus containing mainly photographs, offprints, and photocopies of personal documents, but no manuscripts at all (with the exception of a single page of equations on the reverse of a letter from a bookseller). Several letters by Hasenöhrl are to be found in the personal archives of scholars (e. g., to Prof. Stefan Meyer, in the Archives of the Institute for Radium Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences). Cf. Stephen Boughn, "Fritz Hasenöhrl and E=mc²", in: The European Physical Journal H 38/1 [Jan. 2013], p. 1-18.
33427Complet en 625 pages in8 reliées en deux volumes - râtures et corrections - Reliure cartonnées plein papier - petit accroc - trés bon état - La date du 15 février 1924 est rayée -
92 SS. auf 23 losen Doppelbll. Kl.-4to. Vollständiges Manuskript der Novelle "Tantalus", 1901 bei Carl Krabbe in Stuttgart erschienen. Auf dem Titelblatt der Vermerk des Verlegers in roter Tinte: "Mspt an den Autor zurückgegeben". - Tinte auf festem Papier, zahlreiche Korrekturen und Streichungen im Text und auf den breiten linken Rändern; unbeschnitten; das Doppelblatt mit den Seiten 41 bis 44 durchtrennt.
210 x 207 mm (sheet dimensions). Includes attached original threads and label ("9074a"). Josef Hoffmann created a wide range of furniture and fashion fabric designs for the Wiener Werkstätte, for the Backhausen company, the Flöge sisters and many others (cf. Schweiger, WW, p. 220 ff.). Johannes Spalt (ed.), Josef Hoffmann. Porträts-Signets-Stempel, p. 103.
8vo. 1 p. Bifolium with integral address panel. To "Monsieur Tarride libraire" on the publication of his "Napoléon le Petit", which Hugo had written after leaving France and going into exile in Brussels. Afterwards moving to London, Hugo wrote the present letter to his publisher, who was up to release the book illegally on August 7: "[...] je m'empresse de vous informer que vous pouvez en toute sûreté mettre sur la couverture le nom de M. Jeffs comme éditeur".
8vo. 1 page. Probably to the writer Alexandre Dumas, with the recommendation of an actress seeking an engagement at a theatre, and mentioning his recent prosperity due to the success of "The Three Musketeers": "Voici, Monsieur, une personne qui me paraît digne de votre intérêt, c'est Mme Vendrezanne, artiste, elle est dans une situation qui lui fait vivement desirer un engagemen[t] ou un emploi quelquonque dans un théâtre ce qui la rend facile sur les conditions. Je sais que la prospérité est revenue chez vous avec le grand succès des Mousquetaires. S'il vous était possible d'utiliser [?] Mme Vendrezanne, vous ferez une bonne oeuvre et peut-être, je le crois, une bonne affaire [...]". - Apart from Alexandre Dumas, who owned the "Théâtre Historique", also the director of the "Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique", where the "Musketeers" premiered in 1845, could be considered as a possible recipient. - Slight marginal flaws, one touching the first letter of the signature.
Large 8vo. 2 pp. on bifolium. With autogr. address. To Louis Labarre, Brussels, praising him as a poet-prophet: "J'ai lu, mon cher frère, votre [illegible] et j'y ai retrouvé votre ami. Vous avez mis là toutes les hautes aspirations et votre espoir. […] Vos quatre beaux vers d'envoi m'ont vivement touché. Je Vous accorde [?] mon applaudissement ému, et ma cordialité profonde". - Louis Labarre (1810-92) was a Belgian author, journalist, editor of "La Nation", publishing French political dissenters. - Paper professionally repaired, a few words blurred by ink bleed.
1 S. Kl.-8vo. Widmungsgedicht in Pentametern für den aus Bunzlau gebürtigen Dichter und Orientalisten Andreas Tscherning (1611-59): "Cl. et eruditissimo viro Andreae Tscherningio poetae caes. laur. s. p. // Tscherningius ille, qui diu Parnassio / In monte vixit, musici mystes sacri / Frequens, amator pervigil mentis bonae [...]". Möglicherweise das Manuskript zu Huswedels Beitrag in der 1644 zu Tschernings Rostocker Promotion erschienenen Lobschrift "Acclamationes In Lauream Magistralem Viri Clarissimi Andreae Tscherningii" (VD 17, 125:018978A). Der hier verherrlichte Opitzianer Tscherning, der 1641 die erste deutsche Übersetzung einer arabischen Dichtung publiziert hatte, wurde anschließend in Rostock Professor der Dichtkunst. - Der aus Hamburg gebürtige und am Johanneum erzogene Huswedel wurde in Rostock Magister und studierte anschließend in Wittenberg und Leiden (wo er Joseph Justus Scaliger kennenlernte). Er wirkte in seiner Heimatstadt und in Rostock als Professor des Griechischen; wegen Konflikten mit den Hamburger Theologen blieb er ab 1628 vollends in Rostock. - Papierbedingt etwas gebräunt; kleine Bugfalteneinrisse. Selten.
3 SS. auf Doppelblatt. Kl.-8vo. An seinen Freund, den Philologen und Übersetzer J. H. Voss, der nach einem geplanten Besuch bei seinem Bruder Abraham, damals als Gymnasiallehrer in Rudolstadt tätig, eine gemeinsame Reise zu Jean Paul nach Bayreuth geplant hatte: "Dein Fruchtblatt, guter Heinrich, bekam ich gerade an meinem Geburtmorgen. Nur zog eine große finstere Wolke über den ganzen Tag, in welche Jacobis Leiche eingewickelt war, weil mir die Meinigen aus falscher Schonung dessen Tod durch Unterschlagen einiger Zeitungen zu verhehlen gewußt. Nur deinem Wunsche gemäß schreib' ich dir; denn sonst bei dieser Nähe mündlicher Worte wären schriftliche ein Telegraph in der Stube. Leider muß ich es mir meiner Verhältnisse wegen gefallen lassen, daß du nicht bei mir wohnst, da du deinen lieben Abraham mitbringst, was mich wieder auf die andere Art entschädigt. Steige ja in der Sonne ab, dem besten Gasthause, worin ich immer in meiner jüngern Zeit so wie Siebenkaes logierte. Den Tag deiner Ankunft schreibe mir so bestimmt wie möglich. Außer Gegend u. außer den Meinigen hab' ich Euch wenig anzubieten. Über Heidelberg u. meine Lebensbeschreibung hast Du mich misverstanden; nur aufgeschoben hab' ich das Genießen beider, nicht aufgegeben. Und nun reise so glücklich als du in Rudolstadt sein wirst! / Jean Paul". - Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, der Philosoph und Freund Goethes, war am 10. März gestorben. Mit "Siebenkäs" ist die Hauptfigur seines 1796/97 erschienenen Romans über das Eheleben des Armenadvokaten Siebenkäs gemeint. Abraham Voss gab 1833 den Briefwechsel zwischen seinem Bruder und Jean Paul heraus. - Mit kleinem Falzrest auf Bl. 2 verso.
12mo. Together 2¼ pp. on bifolia. Both to Jules Verne's younger sister Anna. The earlier letter from 30 December 1901 contains New Year's wishes, news about Jules Verne's health, and an invitation to visit him and his wife Honorine in Amiens: "Nous te renvoyons nos vœux, pour cette nouvelle année 1902 dans laquelle je vais achever ma soixante-quatorzième ! Mes yeux sont toujours dans le même état et je ne me déciderai à subir l'opération que le jour où ce sera absolument nécessaire. Je sais que tous les enfants vont bien, et je te renouvelle ce que je te disais dans ma dernière lettre : si tu reviens dans le nord, tache de t'arrêter, soit pour quelques heures, ou bien quelques jours à Amiens, cela nous fera grand plaisir". - The second letter from August 1902 again concerns Jules Verne's eye cataract and his decision to delay surgery as long as possible: "Honorine et moi, nous t'envoyons nos meilleurs compléments, en te priant de les transmettre à ton fils ! Cependant, cette double bénédiction ne laisse pas d'être lourde, comme tu le dis. Mais il faut bien l'accepter. Honorine n'a pas trop à se plaindre de sa santé. Et toi ?... Pour moi, j'y vais mal. Je n'ai point encore été opéré de mon cataracte, et je me n'y déciderai que lorsqu'il ne sera plus possible de faire autrement. Tant que je pourrai lire et écrire, même difficilement, j'attendrai [...]". - The earlier letter without signature due to clipping. Well preserved.
4to. ½ p. To the Belgian art historian and editor of the periodical "Sélection" André de Ridder (1888-1961), concerning payments and photographs for a forthcoming issue devoted to Kandinsky: "Je vous enverrai les RM. 200 de suite après avoir reçu les corrections. Malheureusement ça m'est impossible d'acheter les clichés!". Kandinsky hints at his dire financial situation due to the forced closure of the Bauhaus by the Nazis since April 1933 which led to its ultimate dissolution on 19 July: "Les conditions pecuniaires sont difficiles et mon revenu personnel a subit un changement peu agréable - je suis forcé de faire des économies." He also mentions that his friend, the important art critic Will Grohmann, would finish the corrections for the issue within a day: "J'ai parlé à M. Grohmann en le priant de se bien dépecher avec les corrections. Il est de mon avis que c'est très important de se dépecher avec la parition du cahier. Quant à lui il ferra les corrections dans un seul jour." In closing, Kandinsky underlines that a two month delay caused by another publication was not his fault so he should not have to bear the consequences, and apologizes for the scant response: "Che M. de Ridder, ce n'est pas ma faute que le Cahier de M. W. [Edward Wadsworth] était en retard de deux mois! Ça ne saurrait pas consequent de me faire porter les resultats de ce retard. Excusezbien la breveté de ma reponse [...]". - The special issue entitled "Sélection Chronique de la Vie Artisque XIV Wassily Kandinsky - Éditions Sélection Anvers 1933" appeared in July when Kandinsky and his wife were about to move to Paris, fleeing the Nazi regime. - With an adhesive mark on the upper edge, folded, and slightly browned.
8vo. 45 ff. with a total of 49 entries (some mounted). Contemporary green calf binding. Two addenda. A pretty album begun by Kienzl in 1873, containing numerous prominent contributors. Foremost of all are Franz List, who signs the printed music to Kienzl's "Die Lotosblume" (pasted in) "in kind memory" on 12 July 1877, and Ernst Mach, who on 27 October 1875 entered a full-page poem (with brief musical quotation) which wittly relates the physics and philosophy of sound waves and music. Among the other contributors are Richard Sahla (violin virtuoso, conductor and composer, 1855-1931; with musical quotation), Adolf Jensen (composer, 1837-79), Ferdinand Thieriot (conductor and composer, 1838-1919; with musical quotation), Franz Stelzhamer (poet, 1802-74; pasted in), Anastasius Grün (i. e. Anton Graf Auersperg, writer and politician, 1806-76), Louise Codecasa (painter, 1856-1927/33), Richard Heuberger (composer and critic, 1850-1914), Peter Rosegger (writer, 1843-1918), August Wilhelm Ambros (musical scholar and composer, 1816-76), Josef Popper-Lynkeus (social reformer and inventor, 1938-1921), Sophie Menter (pianist, musical educator and composer, 1846-1918), Oskar Teuber (theatre historian, journalist and writer, 1852-1901), Robert Hamerling (writer, 1830-89), Anton Emanuel Schönbach (German scholar, 1848-1911), Alfred Woltmann (art historian, 1841-80; 29), Adolf Wallnöfer (composer and operatic tenor, 1854-1946; with musical quotation), Oscar Paul (musical scholar, 1836-98; with musical quotation), Jakob Eduard Schmölzer (composer, flautist and collector of folk songs, 1812-86), Hans Brandstetter (sculptor, 1854-1925; 44, with mounted pencil drawing), Emanuel Geibel (writer, 1815-84), and Aglaja Orgéni (singer and voice instructor, 1841-1926). - Well preserved.
8vo. 1 page on bifolium. With autograph envelope. To Marie von Sinner, reminding her that his exhibition closes on 1 October, and hoping that the free admission might encourage her daughter, the artist and dollmaker Sasha Morgenthaler (1893-1975), to visit it again: "Ich habe heut vergessen Ihnen mitzuteilen dass m. Ausstellung bis 1. Oktober dauert und dass der Eintritt jetzt frei ist. Letzteres wird vielleicht Sasha bewegen noch einmal hinzugehen [...]". - Klee supervised Morgenthaler's artistic education and introduced her to members of the artists' association "Der Blaue Reiter", including Wassily Kandinsky. He also orchestrated her admission to the Geneva School of Fine Arts.
Large 4to and 8vo. Correspondence with art publishers Gerlach & Schenk, Vienna, about the sale of several drawings and balancing accounts, preparing artwork for publication, the progress of his work, and about sending new prints.
1 p. (42 lines). 8vo. Mounted on cardboard. A working manuscript, comprising three 14-line stanzas, written in dark brown ink, with autograph title ("Die Bürger, die Künstler und der Narr"), containing a number of deletions, corrections and revisions. "Unter einem Künstler verstehen sie einen, / der sich nicht abgibt mit solchen Schweinen / und nichts zu tun hat mit allen den Dingen, / die ihnen im Handumdrehn gelingen, / um sich dafür mit Schaffen und Schreiben / und hauptsächlich ihnen die Zeit zu vertreiben; / und da er doch von Beruf ein Träumer / und deshalb auch Schuldterminversäumer, / der das tut, wozu er nicht ist verpflichtet, / und das andere lieber läßt unverrichtet, / so kann er zwar leichter als sie sich entflammen, / sonst aber geht es ihm gar nicht zusammen. / Und teilten die Bürger nicht besser sichs ein, / ja dann könnten sie auch solche Künstler sein! [...]". - First published in 1922 in "Worte in Versen" vol. VI. - Slightly spotty.
Large 4to and 8vo. Altogether 6 pp. on 6 ff. Together with 2 typed letters by Labisse (carbon copies) and 2 letters of response. To the Belgian author, filmmaker and documentarist Henri Storck. The first letter dates from the beginning of their friendship; here, Labisse argues vehemently against becoming involved in politics: "Occupons nous essentiellement d'art et de littérature. Bougre de nom de Dieu!, nous ne sommes bon qu'à cela. C'est déjà quelque chose, il y a tant qui y sont étrangers. Je ne condescendrai jamais à jeter le plus infime regard sur les [illegible] de la société, laissons les laver leur linge sale en famille ; que m'importe les régiments, ils se valent tous, ils sont tous aussi mauvais. Henri, nous ne pouvons nous occuper de tout. Laissons les politiciens s'arracher les yeux pour avoir le pouvoir [...]" (17 May 1930). - In another letter, Labisse asks his friend to take pictures of the paintings in his possession for an illustrated catalogue of his work: "j'aimerais que tu me fasse parvenir 2 photographies de chaque tableau de moi que tu possèdes. 'Le baptême de l'air'. 'Le démythifieur'. Et si possible celles du portrait que j'ai fait de ta sœur Janot [...]" (18 Oct. 1976). - One month later, he has obviously received some of the pictures as well as other documents, which remind him of their youth: "Merci pour les documents, souvenir de notre puberté. Tu dois en avoir une ou deux avec James Ensor sur la plage - pendant le tournage d'un de tes films - mais je ne me souviens plus […] du film. Au sujet des négatifs noirs et blancs, les tableaux photographiés pour [illegible], je te remercie, cela sera très utile. Voilà ceux qui me manquent : Document I: Bonjour Marie; […] L'infallibilité; […] Découverte de l'amérique […]; Document II: Le combat singulier; […]. Fais les moi parvenir quand tu pourras […]" (22 Nov. 1976). - In 1977, on the occasion of Stock's 70th birthday, Labisse honours his friend with a long letter (or was it a speech?) about the latter's accomplishments: "Nous nous sommes connus en 1926. Tu étais alors un garçon un peu austère et un tantinet dogmatique. Malgré nos caractères assez différents il s'établit très vite entre nous une amitié complice, et, avec l'impétuosité de la jeunesse nous fonçâmes allégrement dans le ventre mou des Arts. Ostende, à cette époque, était une ville extraordinaire […] En 1927, aventure mirobolante … Tu inventes le CLUB DU CINÉMA d'OSTENDE, un des premiers du genre. J'en suis nommé pompeusement le Secrétaire Général. […] Et puis, en 1929, ce fut LA MORT DE VENUS, ton premier court métrage de fiction, tourné sur la plage avec une ravissante autrichienne, un colonel en retraite et moi-même. Hélas, il ne reste que quelques rarissimes photographies de cette œuvre historique malheureusement perdue. Je cesserai maintenant d'égrener ces quelques souvenirs très anciens. Les nombreux films que tu as réalisés depuis sont tous ici 'en chair et en os' illustrant magnifiquement ton soixante dixième anniversaire et tes cinquante ans de cinéma [...]" (7 May 1977). - James Ensor (1860-1949) was a Belgian painter and printmaker.
Mostly small 4to. Altogether 34½ pp. on 22 ff. With 8 envelopes. Together with a portrait postcard with 2 autograph but unsigned lines. Mostly dictated. To the prominent Swedish baritone and opera administrator John Forsell, mentioning her novel "Gösta Berling's Saga", which was set to music by Riccardo Zandonai (under the title "I cavalieri di Ekebù") and was staged at the Stockholm Opera in 1928 in connection with her 70th birthday. Moreover, on some economic problems with a Mr. Falke, who wrote a dramatization of "Gösta Berling", and "who has never paid me a Pfening, but has repeatedly sought to capitalize his being in contact with me" (transl. from the Swedish original). - From the estate of John Forsell (1868-1941).
2 SS. auf Doppelblatt. Folio. Mit einer Beilage (s. u.). Verlagsvertrag mit F. A. Brockhaus über sein rechtsphilosophisches Werk "Die Theorie der erworbenen Rechte und die Collision der Gesetze", das den ersten Teil des 1861 bei Brockhaus erschienenen "Systems der erworbenen Rechte. Eine Versöhnung des positiven Rechts mit der Rechtsphilosophie" bildete. - Mit zwei Siegeln "FL" und "AB"; einige Falteinrisse und Randläsuren. - Beiliegend eine zeitgenöss. "Abschrift des Originaltestamentes von Ferdinand Lassalle d. d. 27. August 1864" (3 SS. auf Doppelblatt. Folio).
Folio. 12 pp. Together with a French manuscript of planned troop movements (2 pp.). Very extensive letter by the later Minister of War, then colonel in the 12th Infantry Regiment and assigned to the general staff of field marshal Prince Karl Philipp Schwarzenberg. Latour gives a detailed report of a secret audience with the Emperor, during which they discussed the military situation. Merely three weeks later, on 12 August, Austria was to declare war on France; mid-October was to see the decisive Battle of Leipzig, in which Schwarzenberg led the coalition armies against Napoleon.
4to. 1½ pp. To the politician Ernest Thurtle, acknowledging his success in abolishing the British Army's death penalty to punish crimes such as desertion or cowardice: "Then the Lords gave me a fright. Lord Allenby too, whom I like and admire. Surely if I had been in London, able to see him, he would at least have kept silence - if not supported you. Yet doesn't it make you surer you were right, to see all the General Staff opposing you? In the end you downed the Lords, as you had downed the Government. I feel it is a blessed victory. The old state of law hurt me. It was such a damnable judgement upon our own flesh & blood [...] I haven't really said thank you for all you did: because I feel that it was only your duty really. People who care anything at all about their countries don't like to see them fouling themselves [...]". - After over 300 British soldiers had been executed by firing squad following brief trials during World War I, Thurtle had first introduced his measure for the law's abolition in 1924. - A few small marginal tears to the folds.
