The Touchstone

Accompanied by engraved portraits of Charles Dibdin, with biographical notes, manuscript, in an unidentified hand; Anne Dibdin (1757-1835); and William Kitchiner, inscribed by Kitchiner to an unidentified recipient; and clippings of a portrait and caricature of E. Rimbault Dibdin.

Autograph manuscript song texts and other writings by Charles Dibdin, some with watermarks dated 1794-1814; an autograph letter, signed, from Dibdin's wife Anne Dibdin to William Kitchiner, 1824 February 28, referring to her husband's death and to a bust of him made by sculptor Robert William Sievier; 12 pencil and watercolor drawings, and 3 etching proofs, by Dibdin's daughter Anne Dibdin for illustrations in his Observations on a tour through almost the whole of England, and a considerable part of Scotland (London, 1801); and 11 autograph letters, signed, from E. Rimbault Dibdin to W. T. Freemantle, English bibliographer and book collector, 1904-1915, with a few draft responses from Freemantle, about Freemantle's collection of books and manuscripts by Charles Dibdin, and E. Rimbault Dibdin's writings about Charles Dibdin.

Autograph manuscript writings by Dibdin consist of song texts: The Cabin Boy (watermarked 1810), The Converted Rake: a Burlettina, The Cuckoo, The Flowing Bowl, The Voyage of Life (first line: "A voyage at sea and all its strife"); plays: The Land of Perfection, The Round Robin (watermarked 1810), Taffy and Whinefred, or, the Gentle Goatherd, The Touchstone, and Zeloida; a poem: Peter Nicked, or the Devil's Darling (watermarked 1794); table entertainments, consisting of narration and songs: The Quizzes (watermarked 1814), and The Whim of the Moment (watermarked 1805); and papers relating to his textbook The Musical Mentor, including drafts (some watermarked 1804-1805) for a prospectus, letters seeking subscribers, essays, and song texts, and a printed prospectus.