Item 1980/1 - Four letters from Christopher Blunt to Ian Stewart and two letters from Ian Stewart to Christopher Blunt with one attachment

7 items, paper

Four letters from Christopher Blunt to Ian Stewart and two letters from Ian Stewart to Christopher Blunt with one attachment:
(a) letter from Ian Stewart to Christopher Blunt, manuscript, one folio (recto & verso), dated from Westminster Hospital on 6 March [1980], saying that he had been reading up on Brescia Mia to have something to think about while in hospital for his wisdom teeth. He encloses notes of "a few random thoughts" (see item (b) below) on which he asks CEB's comments.
(b) set of notes of Ian Stewart in two copies (one on yellow paper), manuscript (carbon-copies), on House of Commons letterhead, dated 6 March 1980, signed "IS" and entitled "Viking Notes", with eleven points or questions (attached to item (a) above) [about Brescia Mia?].
(c) letter from Christopher Blunt to Ian Stewart, manuscript, three pages on two folios, dated from Ramsbury on 7 Match 1980, thanking IS for sending his thoughts on "Brescia mia" and noting that it is time for him to rethink his own views on the subject. He says that "Elizabeth Pirie is being pressed to produce a piece on that curious lead object with the Edwig die impressions and is from happy about it". He discusses Pirie's views, the object and his own efforts to advise her at some length.
(d) letter from Ian Stewart to Christopher Blunt, manuscript, one folio (recto & verso), dated from the House of Commons on 17 March 1980, following up on his "Viking Notes" and saying that his ruminations arose from the observation that "the relatively common [...] standard type was not in Rome, but to many (much rarer) Viking coins [...] were", which led him to wonder the whether the standard type were a bit later, "or if Aura & Rathulf were at this stage striking farther south so that their coins, like Arnulf's and Nothe's, entered the Rome hoard before the standard type had penetrated Southumbrian currency.
(e) letter from Christopher Blunt to Ian Stewart, manuscript, three pages on two folios, dated from Ramsbury on 28 Match 1980, returning copies of a paper to IS with a few notes, reiterating his view that one of their main problems concerns the relationship between certain of the "irregular" coinages and "the regular coinage to which they are occasionally die-linked" and dismissing some of the possible explanations. He says that he has gone through his card index, distinguishing between "some thoroughly irregular" coins and others with only slight irregularities. He goes on to discuss coins recently found by metaldetector in Suffolk. He refers the new house with "the very aristocratic address of Baldwin Crescent" and mentions his wife Elizabeth's continued hospitalisation. He notes that Philip's project [i.e. MEC?] had "quite a good reception at the British Academy" but notes that one or two people worried that it may set a dangerous precedent for claims from other museums.
(f) letter from Christopher Blunt to Ian Stewart, manuscript, one folio (recto & verso), dated from Ramsbury on 31 Match 1980, noting that the following thoughts have arisen from "a lot more work on the early Vikings". He mentions the need for coordination between IS's chapter on the subject and his on Regnald, proposes to merge his own piece in with IS's chapter and discusses some of the adjustments needed.
(g) letter from Christopher Blunt to Ian Stewart, manuscript, one folio (recto & verso), dated from Ramsbury on 11 April 1980, writing to report that he has just "acquired the Edgar Heriger with retrograde legend on the name" and noting that "it proves to be the Lockett specimen, 3708a, which die-links with Lockett 3706d by A[smaued?].