[CALLIGRAPHIC MANUSCRIPTS] DAILY READINGS. A****, Felix:

Two manuscripts. 17.5 x 13cm. Contemporary full vellum with hand-painted gilt titles to the upper board. The contents of each copy comprising 65pp. of calligraphic text in red and black ink executed on handmade paper, comprising 31 daily readings (i.e. one month), with a morning reading to the verso and an evening reading to the facing recto for each day. Page edges untrimmed. Each copy differing in its contents, albeit with some repetition, and inscribed by the calligrapher to its recipient in ink to the front free endpaper: "John Pidgley / a mark of appreciation / from Felix A**** / Dec. 4. 1910 / Brighton" and "Henry D. Roberts / in remembrance of many / kindnesses received / F.A. / June 21. 1910.". The bindings firm with minor chipping to the spine ends and a touch of cracking to the joints at the foot. The contents with foxing to the endpapers are otherwise in very good order, the text itself remaining clean throughout. An unusual pair of calligraphic manuscripts, apparently produced by their creator as gifts for friends, each forming a month's worth of morning and evening 'readings' of a religious or spiritual nature, including excerpts from Plato, Emerson, Swedenborg, Thomas Carlyle, George Eliot, John Ruskin, and others. The author's surname is frustratingly hard to discern, although we know that he was most likely based in Brighton.