Showing 12 results

Letter from Sir Edward Henry Busk of Heath End, Checkendon, Oxfordshire to R A Rye. Asking for the name and address of a photographer to reproduce his portrait painted by [John Singer] Sargent, 'as many friends are asking me for a reproduction'.

Autograph, with signature.

Portrait of Lilian de Lissa, first principal of Gipsy Hill Teacher Training College, by artist Gilbert Spencer. The painting was commissioned by the college as a present for Miss de Lissa and presented to her in a ceremony in October 1953. The portrait has been held by Gipsy Hill Teacher Training College prior to passing to Kingston Polytechnic and Kingston University.

Letter from William Ewart Gladstone of Hawarden, North Wales to Sir Joshua Walmsley, 29 Oct 1868. Replying to his request for a portrait of Gladstone. 'I am haunted by the belief that I am under a prior engagement'.

Autograph, with signature.

Transcript of the manuscript history of the Princes of Wales, from the time of Edward of Caernarvon to the present sovereign of England, by George Perfect Harding, F.S.A., also a description of a series of illustrations to the manuscript history, 1828, with engravings of tombs, portraits, original drawings, and manuscript letters, 1828-51, from royal and distinguished personages.

2 postcards from George Jacob Holyoake of Eastern Lodge, Brighton to Edwin Ashworth, Todmorden Hall, Yorkshire, West Riding. (1) On the subject of portraits, 1 Feb [1897]. (2) 'Thank you for your pleasant birthday note. I have pleasant memories of Todmorden', 16 Apr 1901.

Both letters are autograph, with signatures.

Letter from Peter Mackenzie of Glasgow to Joseph Hume, 8 Jan 1834. Returning the 'Major's portrait'. Sends Hume volumes [2 and 3] of the Reformers' Gazette.

Thirteen photographs of Iris Murdoch at various points of her life, dating from the 1930s until the 1970s. These photographs were collected by Peter Conradi while researching his biography Iris Murdoch: A Life (2001).

Collection of photographs previously owned by Iris Murdoch. Includes images of Iris Murdoch alone, Iris Murdoch pictured with others and portraits of individuals who Iris Murdoch knew. As well as Murdoch those depicted include John Bayley, Frank Thompson and Elias Cannetti.

Photograph of the Murdoch family in Ireland c 1890s. Those pictured include William Murdoch and Louise Murdoch with their children Sara, Ella and Hugh. Hugh Murdoch was Iris Murdoch's father, and William and Louise her grandparents. Photograph taken at the Abernethy Studios in Belfast.

Records of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, including minute books, agreements, rules, acceptances of membership, papers relating to annual dinners, press cuttings, and annual exhibiton catalogues. Please note that access to the collection is by written permission from the depositors only.

A sketchbook by Stanley Spencer, c 1919-1924 with one loose sketch of Gilbert Spencer by Stanley Spencer, c 1906-1908.

The Sketchbook contains 37 pages with sketches on front and back of pages, 4 loose sheets and 2 torn pages. Most sketches are made in pencil. However, 12 sketches are finished in pencil and wash, and 1 sketch in pencil and oil.

The sketchbook spans Spencer's time spent with the Slessers in Bourne End from late 1919-1920, with Muirhead Bone and his wife at Petersfield in 1921 and his stay with Henry Lamb in Poole, Dorset in April 1923 where he produced designs for what would later become the Sandham Memorial Chapel at Burghclere. The sketchbook is significant in that it includes initial ideas for a number of post-First World War religious works, including some Tate-owned paintings, notably 'Christ Carrying the Cross', 1920, 'The Robing of Christ and the Disrobing of Christ', 1922, and 'The Resurrection, Cookham', 1924-26. It also includes a number of designs (many in pencil and wash) for Sandham Memorial Chapel at Burghclare which are amongst some of the earliest sketches that Spencer created for this commission.

The loose sketch of Spencer's brother, Gilbert Spencer, is a pre-Slade School sketch of c 1906-1908 of his magnum opus.

Letter from Thomas Telford of Inverness to Rev John Warren, Dean of Bangor, [Caernarfonshire], 23 Sep 1811. Concerning a possible road to pass through Bangor, and giving instructions for the surveyor.

Autograph, with signature.

The following items are filed with the letter: (a) an engraving of Thomas Telford (1832); (b) engravings of Menai Bridge, the Vale of Llangollen and Conway, by W Radclyffe (undated); (c) a list of Telford's achievements, set out as if for a memorial plaque [produced after Telford's death in 1834].