The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-05-31

inlatd and extended to twelve volumes folio, and comprise one hundred and nineteen autograph letters of Dickens himself, and nearly four hundred others of contemporaries. There are four hun dred and fifty-four portraits of literary and other celebrities, two hundred views of places connected with Dickens or his works playbills, and thousand and one other Dickensiana.
 The copy of Hawkins Life of Kean' is extended from two octave to eight fo- lio volumes by the insertion of about three hundred and ninety letters, two hundred and twenty-five autograph let ters, two hundred rare playbills, carica- lures and so forth. Barry Cornwall's S Life of Kean' is also extensively extra illustrated. Davies Life of David Gar rick is similarly ra-illustrated, and contains three hundred and sixty rare portraits, one hundred and sixty auto graph letters, playbills, pamphlets and a great variety of other matter. The col- lections and illustrated books re- lating to the old pleasure gardens of London, theaters and eminent actors and actresses are too long to be specially mentioned, but all appear to have been done with thoroughness. The works il- lustrated by George Cruikshank extends from lot 71 to lit 2S2, and form series that has rarely been equalled. The Dickens lots are over two hundred and thirty in number, and include, besides Forsters Life already mentioned, the original autograph MS. of "The Battle of Life" one of the three MSS. of Dick ems now in private hands. There are about eighty lots of works illustrated by T. Rowlandson, and nearly that number of Thackeray entries, including "The Second Funeral of Napoleon" 1S41.
 But if MT Wright was successful as a book collector it is difficult to find an epithet which would fully describe him as a collector of autographs. These alone will occupy three days in selling, and extend from lot 1,064 to lot 1,525. The series of Garrick letters. sixty-four in all, and nearly every one of impor- tance, is probably the finest since that extraordinary series of forty-eight un- published letters of his came under the hammer at Puttick's on December 17, 1S49, nearly fifty years ago. MT Wright's series is to be offered at one lot u pounds-a little over six pounds per let ter-and If that sum be not reached they will then be offered separately. It would now be quite impossible to form another series of such great interest, and one cannot help expressing the hope that these letters may be secured en bloc for the club which bears Gafrick's name.
 The majority of the other letters are of actors and actresses of eminence in their day; but many are from literary celebri- ties. There are six from Boswell of which two were written to Garrick sev- eral are from Dickens, thirteen from Foote, mostly addressed to the Delavals; a number from Mrs David Garrick, thirteen are from Samuel Johnson, and nearly the same number (most of them from the Kean sale of last season) from Edmund Kean seventeen from Mrs. Siddons, and others are from George Stevens. Thackeray, Voltare and Hor- ace Walpole. to mention only very small number.
 It is impossible to do more than indi- cate the richness of this collection of au tograph letters, from nearly all of which the catalogue will give reasonably full extracts MT. Wright's aim has appa- rently been not merely to obtain signed document of this or that celebrity, but to secure a characteristic letter impor- tant from it's contents as we'll as inter esting on account of it's signature. In this respect he has undoubtedly been ex- traordinarily uccessful.-London Athe- | naeum.