746. The Provenance of Silverpoints, Copy No. 216 (2)

Copy no. 216 of Silverpoints from the collection of Barry Humphries had previously been sold by James Cummins in 1999 and owned by William E. Fredeman. Before them, the book had been offered for sale by Warrack & Perkins in 1989 and the Winter of 1990-1991. I have no other evidence of earlier collectors apart from the second bookplate that is pasted on the inside of the front cover. This one mentions the owner and a book number: Thomas Hutchinson and 'No. 2437'. 

Bookplate of Thomas Hutchison in John Gray, Silverpoints (1893): no. 216

Thomas Hutchinson (1856–1938) was an English writer and educator, teaching at Northumbria University and a school in Pegswood, a small mining town. He published a book of verse, Ballades and other Rhymes of a Country Bookworm (1888). He was also a collector of first editions and letters by notable writers, such as Walt Whitman, and his collection was donated by Hutchinson's descendants to Preston Park Museum and Grounds. A letter to Whitman is recorded in the Whitman Archive (see the Whitman Archive).

On two occasions, parts of his collection were sold off. The first time this happened was in 1905, when a large number of books went to the auction house of Sotheby's. The sale helped finance his son's tuition. (See 'Booklives'). Silverpoints was part of this sale, and was probably acquired by an American dealer of British descent, Walter Martin Hill (1868-1925) whose shop was located in Chicago, but who went on regular buying trips to Great Britain. (For Hill, see blog no. 742). Hill first offered this copy in December 1906 in his Catalogue of Choice and Rare Books…,  Number 19, p. 4, no. 18: 'First edition, narrow 8vo, fancy cloth gilt, uncut', 'With autograph inscription to Mr. Mathews respecting the book: inserted.'), $2.50. 

That this brief and somewhat cryptic description refers to copy no. 216 can be deduced from a later catalogue: Catalogue of Miscellaneous Books…, Number 31 (June 1910), p. 31: 'Limited to 250 copies, of which this is No. 216. Autograph of Gray is in half pp. to Pub., telling how pp. should be arranged'), $1.75. After four years, the price had been reduced. 

The question remains: when could Hutchinson have obtained this particular copy? There are a few indications. First, the book number is 2437. This is a significantly lower number than that in a purchase he made in July 1903: James Russell Lowes' My Study Window which had number 3976. Other books have clippings from bookseller's catalogues pasted in, indicating his interest in the value or rarity of his books.

His copy of Silverpoints has the bookplate in the middle of the inside of the front cover, and around it, carefully pasted in, are newspaper clippings and one clipping from a catalogue. Price of the book in that catalogue was 15s, while the book was published at 7s.6d. Because he was in the habit of doing this, and because all of the newspaper reviews are surrounding his bookplate, we may presume that Hutchinson pasted these in himself. 

Review by T.P. O'Connor on the inside of the front cover of
John Gray, Silverpoints (copy No. 216)

Counter evidence is that a name is written on two reviews and the handwriting differs greatly from his letter to Whitman – but the calligraphy on that admiring letter is deliberately decorative. 

The reviews are early, including one by T.P. O'Connor and one by Richard Le Gallienne, both undated and untraced. These were probably published anonymously, but someone wrote their names at the foot of the clippings, and because Hutchinson had his copy auctioned in 1905, we must assume that he pasted in these early reviews – they were no longer available later on. Two small clippings are quotes from The Athenaeum and The Daily Chronicle published in other newspapers or weekly magazines.

Review by Richard Le Gallienne on the inside of the back cover of
John Gray, Silverpoints (copy No. 216)

This may indicate that Hutchinson acquired his copy on publication in March 1893 or shortly afterwards. 

From this, we have to conclude that, subsequently, he approached the publisher, and got him to send the proof of the title-page with the letter by John Gray, which he decided to paste in as well. (The John Lane Company archive at the Harry Ransom Center does not contain any letters from Hutchinson, nor does the Charles Elkin Mathews Collection at the University of Reading.)

Despite the digitisation of many newspapers, I have been unable to find the two reviews. O'Conner may have written his review in The Daily Telegraph or The New York Herald, and Le Gallienne in The Star. If you can locate them, I would be very grateful to hear from you!

745. The Provenance of Silverpoints, Copy No. 216 (1)

Once a book has been published, most copies lead a hidden life. Every now and then, they resurface when a collector manages to acquire a better copy, or when the nature of the collection changes, or when family members auction off a copy after the buyer's death. In this way, each copy has its own rhythm of temporary publicity, like a mole occasionally emerging above ground out of necessity. 

A book from 1893 may well turn up ten times in a century in antiquarian catalogues, shop windows or at auctions, while in between it may sometimes be featured in an exhibition. When it is eventually purchased by a library or museum, its hidden life comes to an end, even though it may be taken off the shelf less often than when it was in private ownership.

Limitation statement in John Gray, Silverpoints (1893): no. 216.

John Gray's book of poetry Silverpoints (1893) was officially printed in 25 deluxe copies, bound in vellum, and 250 copies bound in green cloth, after a design by Charles Ricketts. In reality, at least three additional unnumbered deluxe copies are known to exist, while there are more than twenty unnumbered copies in green cloth on a variety of paper.

Copy 216 last surfaced in March of this year, in one of the auctions of the collection of Barry Humphries (aka Dame Edna) (1934-2023), see The Library of Barry Humphries. London: Forum Auction, 26 March 2025, p. 35, lot 64. It was acquired for a private library and may reappear again in twenty years' time. [See blog no 709 about the Humphries sale.] Humphries bookplate is based on a drawing by Harry Clarke.

Bookplate of Barry Humphries in John Gray, Silverpoints (1893), no. 216

Before Barry Humphries acquired this copy, it was offered for sale in 1999 by James Cummins Booksellers in New York. The description on Bibliocity, the internet site for 'Rare and Collectible Books Etc. from Leading International Antiquarian Booksellers' was seen by me on 18 February 1999 (and again on 17 November 1999): 'Number 216 of 250 copies', 'Some minor shelf wear, extremities slightly rubbed, spine darkened, with catalogue and newspaper clippings mounted on endpapers. Former owners tickets.' The price was: $4,500. Between the 1999 catalogue entry by Cummins and Humphries' purchase, it may of course have been offered for sale in other places and bought by other collectors, but I have found no evidence of this.

In 1989, the same copy had been catalogued by Claire Warrack and Geoffrey Perkins, who had a London office, but asked orders and correspondence to be send to their French address in Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives. The volume was listed in their catalogue The Turn of a Century, 1885-1910 of March/April 1989, and priced at £3,000. The catalogue did not mention that this copy was number 216, but it can be identified by a second pasted-in title page (or a proof of it) with a handwritten letter from John Gray to one of the two publishers, Elkin Mathews: 

Tipped in a the front of this copy is a proof of the title-page with a holograph inscription, "Dear Mr. Matthews (sic). This is the way these pages should be arranged - as I have numbered them, according to Mr. Ricketts. So now Mr. Leighton can proceed with the binding. Yours most sincerely, John Gray".

The copy did not sell immediately and was described again in their catalogue New Series No. 5, which was issued for the Winter of 1990-1991 ('Tipped in a the front of this copy is a proof of the title-page with a holograph inscription').

Leather bookplate of William Evan Fredeman
in John Gray, Silverpoints (1893), no. 216

Nor Warrack & Perkins, nor James Cummins, mentioned the names of previous owners, although they observed the presence of a bookplate (Warrack & Perkins) or two bookplates (Cummins). However, in the Barry Humphries sale the names were disclosed, one of them being that of William Evan (Dick) Fredeman (1928-1999). Fredeman was Emeritus Professor of English at the University of British Columbia and was seen as the most-eminent Pre-Raphaelite scholar of his time. His bookplate includes his initials and the name of the collection: 'Pre-Raphaelite Collection'.

After he had died, a large part of his collection was handled by the Seattle-based antiquarian firm of Nudelman Rare Books, sending many works off to major auction houses. However, Copy 216 of Silverpoints was not among the books. Fredeman had passed away on 15 July 1999, months after James Cummins had offered it for sale, and we may assume that the collector himself decided to part with it.

Perhaps, Fredeman had acquired this copy from Warrack & Perkins in or around 1991.

I have no other evidence of earlier collectors apart from the second bookplate that is pasted on the inside of the front cover. This one mentions the owner and a book number: Thomas Hutchison and 'No. 2437'. 

[To be continued...]

(Thanks are due to Martin Steenson, Marja Smolenaars and Ed Nudelman.)

744. Dedicated to Charles Ricketts

In her dissertation, Mariko Hirabayashi shed light on the friendship between Noguchi Yonejiro and Charles Ricketts - see also her Ricketts blog 706. Hokusai in the Ricketts and Shannon Collection. In English editions of his work, he was known as Yone Noguchi, see for example, his book about the Japanese artist Korin that was published by Elkin Mathews in 1922.

Yone Noguchi, Korin (London: Elkin Mathews, 1922)
[Copy from the collection of the KB, national library, The Hague]

The book is bound in Japanese style, containing several illustrations and twelve plates, and a short text about the work and life of Ogata Kōrin (1658-1716). Noguchi Yonejiro quoted Ricketts's review of an exhibition of Japanese painting and sculpture at Shepherd's Bush in 1910, which was published in The Morning Post and reprinted in Pages on Art (1913). Ricketts was a great admirer of this artist, especially as a landscape painter, calling one of his works 'brilliant and almost gay'. However, Ricketts asserted, 'his gaiety is that of buds upon huge trees'.

Ogata Kōrin, 'Red and White Plum Blossoms' [MOA Museum of Art, Atami, Japan]

The author of Korin dedicated his book to Charles Ricketts.

Dedication in Yone Noguchi, Korin (London: Elkin Mathews, 1922)