Rare Books, Maps & Manuscripts (417) Wed, 10th Sep 2014, Edinburgh Lot 92

Estimate: £400 - £600 + Fees Holme, Vera - Johnstone, Dorothy - Finlay, Anne - Walton, Cecile - King, J.M. The story of a fairy family, 1918. 8vo, bound manuscript, 29 manuscript pages in red and black calligraphic writing, with 2 illustrations, one by Cecile Walton, contemporary brown suede gilt with initials of Vera Holme, Vera Holme's bookplate designed by Jessie M. King to paste-down endpaper Provenance: Vera Holme Note: Vera Holme, 1881-1969, was a talented violinist and singer, and member of the Actresses' Franchise League, a group open to all theatre professionals with the aim to promote women's through the medium. Holme was also a member of the Women's Social and Political Union and, in 1909, was appointed as 's chauffeur, despite Sylvia Pankhurst having described Holme as, "... a noisy, explosive young person, frequently rebuked by her elders for lack of dignity."

Holme is also believed to have been in a long-standing relationship with , daughter of Lord Arbinger and Commandant in Chief of the Women's Reserve Ambulance Corps during the first World War. Through this link Holme was dispatched to and appointed to manage horses and trucks in the Scottish Women's Hospital Units. Sadly, Haverfield died in 1920. Holme outlived her partner by 49 years and died in Glasgow in 1969.

This manuscript demonstrates a partnership between Holme and the Scottish artist Cecile Walton, along with Walton's partner and fellow member of the 'Edinburgh Group' of artists, Dorothy Johnstone (although Cecile Walton was married to Edward Walton at the time). Anne Finlay was another artist friend of Johnstone, the pair having met whist studying in Edinburgh.