BENTLEY

[2] + 11 + [1]pp., 12mo. Printed in black on cream paper, with the wraps printed in blue in 'Stop Press' style. In very good condition, with minor spotting from staples. Presumably printed up by Bentley himself, and taking the story of his claim to 29 March 1922, the Home Office response to his petition to the king. The text begins: 'When Earl Kitchener called in Captain Bentley, a pioneer of motor transport, to embody in actual design the famous car which became known in the war a a "Tank," he promised that his interests as an inventor would be safeguarded.

2 vols: xix + [1] + 288; ix + 263. With frontispieces to both volumes (both with tissue guards) and the eleven other plates called for. First edition, first issue, with the plate facing p.238 of vol.2 in its first state (without the 'grotesque' border), and the 36-page undated publisher's catalogue bound-in at the end of vol.2. In primary binding of pink cloth with floral pattern, and the gilt titles on the spine held up by an image of a clown.

xviii + 384 pp., 8vo, orig.[?]green cloth covered boards, slightly "bubbled", endpapers stained, corners bumped, hinge strain, fair condition. With frontispiece of Don Carlos and plate (facing p.229) of Zumalacarréguy. In contemporary green cloth library binding with title in gilt on spine. Bookplate laid down on front pastedown, listing 'Members of the Iron Acton Reading Society. | Books to be kept fourteen days.' Twenty-eight members are listed, from 'Rev. Dr.

Pamphlet/Offprint, paginated [175]-200, inc title. original green printed paper wraps, faded, corners sl. turned and chipped, good condition. Inscribed on title by author: "For Mrs Richard Bentley | Gordon N. Ray | New York City, 11 March 1953".Pencil note on front cover, "Please retrun boo or pamphlet. Lucy [=Mrs Richard Bentley].

Notebook, 9 x 7", black leather covers, worn, sl. hinge strain, some foxing, pages numbered 88-223, legible, scattering of pencil notes usually about placement of notes. It appears to be a fair copy, in R.H.D. Barham's hand, possibly a copy retained by the author or a family copy of the first Memoir of R.H. Barham which appeared in the first edition of the Third Series of the Ingoldsby Legends (1847). According to the Preface to "The LIfe and Letters of the Rev. Richard Harris Barham" (2 vols, 1870), written by R.H.D.

Cloth-backed boards, [16]pp. + frontis., 4to, edges and corners rubbed, sl hinge strain, Title on upper cover, frontis (illustration of Bentley bindings), pages within red borders. This is an offprint (no. 44 of 50 copies only) of Sadleir's essay in "The Colophon" in 1932, which later appeared in a slightly revised form in "Nineteenth-Century Fiction", vol.II, revisions of "style rather than content". This copy was apparently acquired by Roger Senhouse, co-owner of Secker & Warburg, in 1936 (according to a note by Alex Fothergill, bookseller, former owner).

Two pages, 12mo, bifolium, slightly grubby, but mainly good, legible and complete. " I send a first instalment. The one of Miss Mitford is very characteristic of her, since she wrote more of her letters on little scraps of paper. The other two are from Fanny Kemble and Anthony Trollope." These three had works published by Richard Bentley & Son, and the letters he was sending were presumably from the Publishing Archive, now housed in the BL, Bodleian, Berg Collection, UCLA, Illinois, and elsewhere.

Offprint "From the 'Pall Mall Gazette' of October 22, 1890." Four pages, 8vo, bifolium, unbound, slight staining not affecting text, mainly good condition. An evocative account of a visit to a Trade Dinner held by the House of Bentley. No copy listed on COPAC or WorldCat.

One page, 8vo, goods condition. No. 1 to be published on 22 May [1869], promising "Original Information", leading articles bearing on "social happiness and political freedom, non-partisan, opposed to "every dangerous measure introduced in the name of Liberalism". This was presumably "Bentley's London News of commerce, agriculture, manufactures, etc." of which a copy of vol.1, no.1 is listed in the BL Catalogue. No other copy listed on COPAC or WorldCat. This prospectus is listed on neither (nor In Lake).

Two pages, 12mo, bifolium, some marking but text clear and complete. The letter explains the plight of 81 year old, E. Rivenhall in retirement (investment of his pension went wrong), naming the Committee which has been formed for the purpose of raising money for him. The Committee includes representatives from major publishing houses and others (OUP, Longmans, Cassell, Chatto & Windus, Macmillans, etc, and Zaehnsdorff). The removeable donation slip is still present and blank, requiring the name and addres of the donor, and a date.

12mo, 2 pp. On disbound leaf. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. Drop-head title. First page with, and second page without, catchword. Ten learned works are listed, beginning with the ill-fated 'Suidae Lexicon, Graece & Latine' ('3 Vol. Folio, 1710'). The earliest dates from 1706 and the latest from 1716. According to the Victoria County History, it was under Richard Bentley that 'Crownfield ('a Dutchman . . .

Landscape card, 7.5 x 11.5 cm. Designed to show off the firm's capabilities, and printed on one side in purple, green, light brown and gold, with fancy lettering within florally-decorated body and border, around a small central illustration of three men working a press. Printers' details in small letters at foot, reading 'F. Bentley & Co. Lth' and 'Shoe Lane, London.' The almanac on the reverse is a more restrained affair, stylishly printed in purple and gold. Fair: lightly-aged, with small closed hole to one corner, and slight wear at foot of almanac.

pp.1-10 text, 15 detached plates with tissue-guards (as called for), text (concluding mid-sentence, bound in to grey-blue printed wraps, reinforced spine, 2 closed tear, chipped and sunned. Full quotation of title om front wrap: Specimen copy for the Plates only | The Marchioness of Brinvilliers | By | Albert Smith | Illustrated by John Leech | [Bentley insignia] | With fifteen spirited full-page Etchings on Steel, only once before printed from,* onthe first publication of the story, in its serial | form, about 1842. | *Besides twenty-seven impressions for the Leech Catalogue.

Pp.[81-112], 8vo, green paper wraps, sunned at edge, mainly good+. Offprint from the "Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society", vol.xxxii, no.138, April 1906. Presumably one of the author's copies. From the archives of Richard Bentley & Son (and the personal archive of Richard Bentley II. No copy listed on COPAC or WorldCat.

Pp.[81]-138, 8vo, green paper wraps, sunned at edge, wraps chipped, especially at spine. contents good. Offprint from the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, vol.xxxii, no.142, April 1907. No copy listed on COPAC or WorldCat.

Pp.[81]-138, 8vo, green paper wraps, sunned at edge, mainly good+. Offprint from the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, vol.xxxii, no.142, April 1907. Presumably one of the author's copies. From the archives of Richard Bentley & Son (and the personal archive of the auhtor, Richard Bentley II. No copy listed on COPAC or WorldCat.

One Hundred Copies only. [16]pp., cr.8vo, sewn as issued, unopened, tastefully printed in brown with decoration on hand-made paper, good condition. Sadleir, in XIX Century Fiction, describes this as A Prospectus of the Standard and Favourite Novels issued in January 1882. Given it's date, I would suggest it's a Commemorative Catalogue of a series which has great significance in publishing history. It gives the information present in Sadleir (II.100-4), but it calls the phantom Second Series (Sadleir) Bentley's Standard Novels. The Re-Issue. 1854-1859?.

4to, 1 p. 19 lines. Text clear and complete. On aged and lightly creased paper, with strip of sunning to left-hand margin. Neat signature: 'Nicolas Bentley'. The film and television rights to the book were all 'bought some years ago by Herbert Wilcox, who, as I understand it, still owns them'. Bentley has reports the opinion of 'Messrs A. P. Watt, my late father's agent', on the question of the radio rights. 'I control the stage rights', Bentley states, giving the conditions on which he would agree to a stage adaptation.

4to (leaf dimensions 20.5 x 16.5 cm): 63 pp. In original grey-green printed wraps. Tight and generally good, but with damp-staining to a few leaves, some wear to corners and creasing and grubbiness to the last three leaves. Wraps worn and grubby. Embossed bookseller's stamp to rear wrap: 'W. H. Smith & Son. 186 Strand, London.' Scarce: COPAC only lists copies at the Bodleian, the National Library of Scotland and the British Library (the last being attributed to 'MARSHALL, Charles, Traveller'). The beginning is reminiscent of Tolkien's 'Hobbit': 'POOR Glum-glum!

8vo (21.5 x 14 cm), 4 pp. Unbound bifolium. Good, on lightly aged and foxed paper. The item is well-printed, paginated with two footnotes. The subject is laid out at the start: 'In the first volume of Mr. Dickens' Life, just published, I read an account of Mr. DICKENS' literary connexion with my father, which it is impossible for me to leave without remark. The biographer therein presents my father in a character which all who knew him would repudiate as belonging to him.

12mo, 1 p, 17 lines. Very good. He has been 'from home visiting here & there', and has returned to 'a mass of correspondence which is perfectly appalling'. He is sorry she 'sent back the book', as he meant her 'to keep it in perpetuity'. 'The recent work which finds most favour with the public is Lord Cockburn's Memorials. It is entertaining but not in all respects accurate. It is however worth reading & will serve to beguile a winter's evening.

12mo: iv + 132 pp. Unbound. In original red printed wraps. Stapled. A poor copy of a scarce item (COPAC only lists copies at the British Library and National Library of Scotland). Dog-eared and grubby, with wraps faded and with loss to extremities and spine repaired with tape. Staples rusted and worn through prelims. Text complete and entirely legible. Five essays: 'Chatterton and the Rowley Poems', 'Macpherson's Poems of Ossian', 'The Shakspeare Forgery', 'Psalmanazar and the Formosa Imposture' and 'Bentley and the Epistles of Phalaris'.

On piece of paper four inches by three and a half, neatly mounted on slightly larger piece of blue paper, docketed 'FLOTSAM & JETSAM | 2 POPULAR ENTERTAINERS'. The crude caricatures (probably by Hilliam rather than McEachern) consist of a crude and highly-stylised image of the heads and shoulders of the two, looking to the left, in hat and cap and both smoking pipes. Beneath is 'Yours very sincerely | [signed] Flotsam and [signed] Jetsam'. Among the duo's recordings is a comic song entitled 'What was the matter with Rachmaninov?' (1927).

One page, very good. Postcard illustration of Marie Taglioni. In Bentley's distinctive neat hand. 'If & when Angus & Robertson's traveller shows you a book called Dead Funny, illus. by Bill Tidy, pubs. Ask & Grant, I hope you'll feel compelled to place a huge order: The Grant is Arabella's husband, just breaking into publishing (mad!) How are you & Billie? We should love to see you both, but I doubt that you ever come this way. If you do, you can count on a warm bed & reception. Try & make it sometimes.' Signed 'Nick'.