Reading in part:" ... I am extremely sorry that these plates have been printed off so that alteration is impossible -- I thought I was to have hada proof of the illustrations. . . . I suppose it is rather difficult for anyone who does not know Mr. Stevens to quite realize how little accurate knowledge he has of the history of his rooms, of the the things he has sold . . . . It is very tiresome that, after taking so much care to have everything accurate, Mr Stevens should go round ... & muddle things -- I rather wonder, though, that Mr. Stock does not see for himself that Mr Stevens' memory is perfectly hopeless, & that any information ... received from him must be verified. . . . Mr Stevens gave him an old sale catalogue, the front cover of which was to be used in an illustration ... & I saw that it was not one of the Stevens Catalogues at all, but a Catalogue of Hutchins, another auctioneer in King St. It was just a piece of luck that I was able to stop that going into the book .... " With the purple ink stamped date of receipt and identification number in blue editor's pencil typical of material from Colles' files; some soiling and toning; pin hole from a fastener; minor edgewear; else good. Together with an autograph letter signed ("E.C. Allingham"), 2 1/2pp, 4to, same place (and in similar condition; with rusted fastener still present, though not holding leaves together), 16 February 1924. From the author's husband to Colles, urging the completion of the book, apparently in the midst of doubt concerning its potential sale: "The thing that strikes me is that for every one person who orders the book from the circular, and pays down money for it in advance, at least ten would buy it if they saw it in a bookseller's shop, or saw reviews of it in the paper. . . . If seventy people have paid their money in advance, its safe to say at least seven hundred would buy the book if it were published. Don't you think so? .... And could not such an estimate of the probable sales beput up to Stevens? For after all it is his proposition. The book was his idea: it was he who asked my wife, through you, to prepare it. And he has the greatest interest in seeing it appear. I quite realize that Mr. Stevens is not so richas many people imagine .... "