Verlag: On letterhead of 44 Bedford Square WC1 London 13 February, 1936
Anbieter: Richard M. Ford Ltd, London, Vereinigtes Königreich
Manuskript / Papierantiquität
1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Reads: 'Thank you very much for yr. letter & the book | Yrs | Margot Asquith | 13 Feb 36'.
Verlag: 12 March ; on letterhead of 44 Bedford Square W.C.1. London, 1932
Anbieter: Richard M. Ford Ltd, London, Vereinigtes Königreich
Manuskript / Papierantiquität
See her entry in the Oxford DNB. An interesting letter, whose circumstances are intriguing. 3pp, 12mo. On two leaves of letterheaded paper. In pencil. From the Asquith papers, and possibly a draft letter to her son Anthony ('Puffin'). In good condition, lightly creased. Folded once. The signature is a short squiggle. The handwriting is challenging, and the following interpretation is tentative. She begins: 'My Darling, I felt rather guilty after leaving you about abusing yr. love of blue in yr. pictures. - I can see that nothing I say can alter yr. love of this colour, & I hate hurting yr. feelings all the same I wish you wd try once to do an oil sketch of white on white like S[?] P[uff?]'s head where no one but S[?] wd. have put his thistle-down hair on a white background. I long for you to do a wild sketch of flowers quite unfinished, as you cd. do it on yr. head "Avoid l'illustration" as Image [the artist Selwyn Image (1849-1930)] said to me. It was lovely seeing thee so well & warm in yr. lovely shelter, my [back?] so nice on yr. little head. Do a few short paragraphs for me & send them to La Dame de Vie. I was 10 years out in Chardins birth! - [?] safe to try my head against yours in dates! - Just off to [?]' Postscript appears to read: 'Cssh me the xtra [sic] sending Times article here'.
Verlag: 22 June On letterhead of Stockton House Codford St. Mary Wilts, 1932
Anbieter: Richard M. Ford Ltd, London, Vereinigtes Königreich
Manuskript / Papierantiquität Signiert
An opponent of appeasement and Winston Churchill's closest female friend. See her entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, folded twice for postage. Addressed to 'Mr. Seyers' and signed 'Violet Bonham Carter'. She regrets that she is unable to accept his invitation to 'come to Monmouth in November - as my plans are very uncertain - it is just possible I might be abroad then. / It is so good of the Monmouth Town [bench?] to invite me'. She ends by asking him to thank them for 'their kind offers of hospitality'.
Verlag: Without date or place. Circa, 1935
Anbieter: Richard M. Ford Ltd, London, Vereinigtes Königreich
Manuskript / Papierantiquität
See her entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, long 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged. Headed 'TORRINGTON SQUARE. / To the EDITOR of The TIMES'. Whether the letter was published or not, and if so whether it appeared in its entirety, is unclear. Clearly a carbon, but with her characteristic signature at end in black ink 'Margot Oxford'. The forty-seven-line text has four autograph emendations. Begins: 'Sir, / It has been officially announced that the building of the School of Oriental Studies (London Institution) in Finsbury Circus is to be sold and that in due course the School "will be accommodated in its own new building on the Bloomsbury site"; and further that the Court of the University of London has presented a new site to Birkbeck College.' In the light of this, and as a Bloosmburyite (the Asquiths had lived at 44 Bedford Square since the early 1920s), she continues: 'May we see in these announcements, the gleam of a hope that the University proposes to preserve the garden of Torrington Square and to surround it with a group of beautiful buildings, generously spaced, and allowing glimpses of those wonderful trees?'She quotes a 'Resolution adopted by the Senate of the University in March 1928', suggesting that 'a group of beautiful buildings' would give 'greater scope to the genius of the Architect, Mr. Charles Holden, than a single patternised building'. In then emphasizing 'the strenght of public opinion in favour of the preservation of London squares, she quotes a statement by Lord Rothermere 'in handing over the Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park in Southwark'. The final paragraph outlines how '[t]he garden of Torrington Square could be made a thing of beauty, rivalling the garden of New Square in Lincoln's Inn', and could be used for purposes including 'garden parties, open air concerts and plays'. Construction delays and the war meant that what became SOAS did not move to its Bloomsbury site until 1941.