Collection of 45 Autograph Letters to Charles Manby (1804-1884), British Engineer, Manager of the Adelphi and Haymarket Theatres in London, and General Man About (Many) Towns

London, 1841-1887. Ephemera. Very Good+. Collection of 45 autograph letters to Charles Manby, from numerous correspondents, spanning 1841-1887, the majority dated in the 1860s and '70s, 2 after Manby's death. Condition varies from VG+ to fine, some just a little worn or fragile -- clean and legible overall. Charles Manby was one of the most prominent British engineers of the mid-19th century, serving as the Secretary to the Institution of Civil Engineers for nearly 50 years. He began his career in his father's Horseley Ironworks, devoted primarily to the (truncated) design and construction of steam-engines, and machinery -- he assisted his father in building and sailing the world's first seafaring iron steamboat (called the "Aaron Manby"), and he engineered the first pair of marine engines with oscillating cylinders. He worked extensively in France, where he helped establish the gasworks of Paris, constructed a number of marine engines at Charenton Foundry, reorganised the Creusot Ironworks, and constructed the State Tobacco Manufactories. He went from Beaufort Ironworks in South Wales, to Ebbw Vale Iron Company (where he introduced severl ingenious modifications in the rolling of rails), to Bristol Ironworks -- before finally settling in London in 1835 to specialize in the warming and ventilation of buildlings, known as Price and Manby's system. In "The Old World and the New," William Ballantine remarked, "I never knew exactly how it came to pass that Charles Manby, whose reputation depended upon his intimate knowledge of the most important and gravest paths of the scientific world, became associated with the inner circles of the most brilliant theatrical society." There are actually a few connections: He was Samuel Colt’s personal choice to oversee the American firearms establishment in London -- in which capacity, in 1854, he gave a personal tour of Colt’s gun-making factory to his “great friend” Charles Dickens. It's also possible that this had come about through his friendship with Frederick Henry Yates, the Shakespearean actor who owned the Adelphi Theater in London. When Yates died in 1842, Manby became the guardian of his young son, Edmund Hodson Yates (the future dramatist and novelist), and the executor of Yates’s estate -- which inadvertently made him business manager of the Adelphi at the time the theater was staging dramatic adaptations of many Dickens stories, including "A Christmas Carol." None of these letters seem to mention Dickens by name (though there are numerous references to Manby in Dickens own papers), but many concern Theater business -- from an 1843 letter by “Brown Stout Ale” proprietor Frederick Hodgson about the fate of the Adelphi, to an 1860 business note by actor Paul Bedford. Other names include Thomas Davies (likely the Haymarket actor, turned bookseller, friend of Boswell), Jacob Thompson (the painter, referencing "They Have Seen Better Days" and "Proserpine"), and Alfred Hage ("If I were 20 years younger I would see the thing done for my own account being convinced that I should acquire a splendid and most valuable estate for half its value. As it is I have bought latterly 3 estates in Sweden and on the [Straudver?]"). The letters run the gamut -- news of a funeral, request for cigars, refusal of tickets, committee gossip, confirmation of an ad from the Daily News Office, and more. Considering the scope of Manby's connections, these letters offer a glimpse into any number of social and professional circles. Worthy of further study. (Inventory #: D7065)