The Lion Brewing and Malting Company in North Adelaide was founded in 1884, and floated in 1888 (the same year as the South Australian Brewing Company Limited) 'in order to secure the brewing, hotel and property assets of Beaglehole and Johnston ... The company owned many hotels in South Australia'..... More

Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1979. More

As Baron Sydney he 'was British Home Secretary in the Pitt Government, given responsibility for devising a plan to settle convicts at Botany Bay. He chose Arthur Phillip as governor; on 26 January 1788, Phillip named Sydney Cove in honour of Sydney and the settlement became known as Sydney Town..... More

Sir Laurence Olivier (1907-1989) and Vivien Leigh (1913-1967) were married, and touring Australia and New Zealand with the Old Vic Theatre Company, in 1948 when these autographs were collected. The tour was a great success, but stressful and exhausting, and it put the marriage under considerable pressure. Extra-marital affairs, and..... More

The contract reads 'Bloemfontein | 13 Apl 1900 | I.O.U. Ten Pounds [with Ten crossed out in pencil, £15 written above it in ink, and 'Fifteen' in pencil, with both initialled in pencil by F.W. Belt] | F.W. Belt | Payable to H.C. Hawker or order'; H.C. Hawker has signed..... More

From the spring of 1931 until the end of his enlistment in February 1935, T.E. Lawrence 'was part of a small team that developed and perfected the new types of RAF boat. He worked on seaplane tenders and armoured target boats, general-purpose workboats, refuelling dinghies, bomb-loading dinghies and experimental craft'..... More

Not having time to offer a full critique of a manuscript Vogel has sent him, Gorki writes that he will limit himself to a brief sketch of his own conception of religion, which is entirely contrary to Vogel's. 'La religion surgit de la sensation de la liaison entre l'homme et..... More

After his conquest of Italy, Napoleon appointed his sister Elisa as ruler of a client state in the north-western part of the peninsula. In this official letter, stamped 'Secret' and written soon after the departure of Napoleon on his ill-fated Russian campaign, Elisa informs the French Minister of War of..... More

In 1934, during a period of political unrest, Pétain reluctantly allowed himself to be appointed minister of war, becoming secretary of state in 1935, petitioning the government for more funding for the army, and to increase the period of compulsory conscription from two to three years. After the Nazi invasion..... More

The decree confirms the appointment of Georges Frédéric Fallot as Lutheran pastor in the parish of Dampierre-les-Bois near Audincourt, Doubs. It is countersigned by Hippolyte Fortoul, Ministre de l'Instruction publique et des Cultes. The decree was apparently cancelled soon after it was issued; it is crossed out, with the word..... More

The letter is brief enough to quote in full: 'Dear Lady Glenconner, I am deeply distressed not only for myself but also for all of you. Of course one cannot but be very sorry for both of them. I have spoken to L. fully, and he takes a really serious..... More

It is offered together with another eleven letters and an aerogram (seven in German, five in English, dated between 1974 to 1980), all written and signed by Olda Kokoschka to the Roths. The content tends to be routine and repetitive, but it is not without appeal. For example, in November..... More