BOOKS

[Printed Prospectus for] A Catalogue of above 5000 Volumes of Books, (Chiefly Second Hand) ...[subjects] ... The whole of which are now on sale at very reduced prices, for Ready Money Only, by Robert Buchanan, 48 George Street, Edinburgh

Author: 
[Robert Buchanan, Edinburgh Bookseller]
obert Buchanan, Edinburgh Bookseller
Publication details: 
Colophon, 48 George Street, Edinburgh, June 1824.
£28.00
obert Buchanan, Edinburgh Bookseller

4pp., 8vo, disbound, edges sl. frayed, mainly good. It has a selective list from the Catalogue, commences by offering Price 1s. 6d. allowed on First Purchase, giving selling and discounted price (R.B.'s Price) for c.150 titles. COPAC records the NLS copy.

Two Autograph Notes Signed to T.S. Strong about infected books

Author: 
Rowland Hill, Librarian
Publication details: 
[Printed headed] Memorandum from the Public Library, Museum, Art Gallery, and School of Science and Art, Tullie House, Carlisle, 10 & 11 June 1901.
£65.00

Both one page, c.21 x 17cm, small closed tear, some dusting, mainly good, texts clear and complete: [10 June] "Re. Infected Books | A few days ago one of your Clerks saw me in reference to the above, and said that it was Miss Strong's intention not to replace the books as they and numerous dresses were taken away by Sanitary Authorities.

Autograph Letter Signed from 'E L'Estrange' to Charles Manby, proposing to present a copy of the [her?] three-decker novel 'Westminster Abbey' [by Emma Robinson].

Author: 
E. L'Estrange aka ?Emma Robinson (1814-1890), English novelist [Charles Manby]
E. L'Estrange aka ?Emma Robinson
Publication details: 
9 May 1854; no place.
£56.00
E. L'Estrange aka ?Emma Robinson

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. 51 lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on aged paper. Chatty and spirited letter. 'I propose myself the honour and pleasure (seldom indeed, save in common parlance!) of paying you a visit, - to present you with a copy of "Westminster Abbey"', which has 'emerged from the press in the orthodox three volumes'. Does not want to give him 'an excuse for not flashing your eye through it'.

[Printed item a black and white steel engraving by John Thompson, from a design by W. Harvey, described by Buday as a candidate for 'The First Christmas Card']

Author: 
John Thompson; W. Harvey; Allan Cunningham
Autograph Signature of George William Frederick Villiers
Publication details: 
London: John Sharpe, 1829.
£180.00
Autograph Signature of George William Frederick Villiers

8vo, 1 p. Image clear on aged paper, with the leaf loosely attached to the letterpress title of the work whence it comes (see below), that title being laid down in a folder with a window cut into the front for viewing the card through. The dimensions of the engraved illustration are roughly 12.5 x 8 cm, with the main feature of the elaborate design being contained in a circle 8 cm in diameter.

Typed Letter Signed by Nicolas Bentley to the actor C. Kenneth Benda, concerning the rights to his book 'Trent's Last Case', and a proposal by Benda for a stage adaptation.

Author: 
Nicolas Bentley [Nicolas Clerihew Bentley (1907-1978)], British author and illustrator [C. Kenneth Benda (1902-1978), British actor]
Typed Letter Signed by Nicolas Bentley
Publication details: 
10 June 1966; on Bentley's letterhead, 7 Hobury Street, Chelsea.
£75.00
Typed Letter Signed by Nicolas Bentley

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.

Five items relating to the Amalgamated Engineering Union, Birmingham Branch No. 304BE, including two minute books, 1943-1956 and 1957-1980; 'Proposition and Entrance Book', 1966-1976; and two unemployment benefit books, 1956-1978 and 1966-1979.

Author: 
Amalgamated Engineering Union, Birmingham Branch No. 304BE [trades unions; welfare benefits; British labour relations]
Publication details: 
Birmingham. 1943 to 1980.
£400.00

This small archive casts invaluable light on British labour relations at a local level during a turbulent economic period in postwar British history, with specific day-to-day information about persons and events. The two minute books, 1943-1980, are both 4to, with the first of around 200 pp and the second of around 150 pp. Both texts clear and complete, and some matter loosely inserted (including a letter from an individual pursuing a complaint against the branch). In worn bindings, with the boards of the second volume detached.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Cavan') to Bowerbank.

Author: 
Frederick John William Lambart (1815-1887), 8th Earl of the County of Cavan [James Scott Bowerbank (1797-1877), geologist and zoologist]
Frederick John William Lambart, Earl of the County of Cavan, Letter
Publication details: 
20 May 1850; Barford House, Bridgewater.
£45.00
Frederick John William Lambart, Earl of the County of Cavan, Letter

12mo, 2 pp. Bifolium. Thirteen lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged and stained paper. With envelope, addressed in autograph. Addressed to Bowerbank in his capacity as Honorary Secretary of the Palaeontographical Society, London. Enquiring as to the publication date of four of the Society's books, 'to those members who have paid the whole of their subscriptions'.

Autograph Note Signed ('Grantley') to unnamed bookseller, requesting 'trout-fly books'.

Author: 
John Richard Brinsley Norton (1855-1943), 5th Baron Grantley [Lord Grantley], British peer and numismatist [trout fishing]
John Richard Brinsley Norton, Baron Grantley, Letter
Publication details: 
28 September 1886; on letterhead of Grantley Hall, Ripon, Yorkshire.
£65.00
John Richard Brinsley Norton, Baron Grantley, Letter

12mo, 1 p. Aged, grubby and creased, with slight loss to bottom left-hand corner, and closed tear to one margin. Requesting 'one or two choicest leather trout-fly books with plenty of pages, but not those with printed descriptions of flies'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Samuel Hey') to Twining, giving details of an arson attack [on his church?].

Author: 
Samuel Hey (1739-1828), eccentric bibliophile vicar of Steeple Ashton, Wiltshire, known as 'The Hermit' [Richard Twining (1749-1824), tea and coffee merchant]
Publication details: 
17 January 1822; 'Steeple-Ashton near Trowbridge | Wiltshire'.
£85.00

12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium. Forty-nine lines of text, clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. In a neat, childish hand. Begins by asking for ten pounds to be paid to the bearer, Thomas Fairfax Carlile, on Hey's account. A 'hand bill' has been 'published on the occasion - but without effect', and fifteen of his 'near neighbours' have - 'without consulting me' - subscribed ten pounds each. 'A man was apprehended - but for want of sufficient evidence he was liberated to appear before the magistrate when called for, upon penalty of 40£.

A Catalogue of a Library of Books, [...] Prints, Books of Prints, Paintings, [...] and miscellaneous Articles, the Property of a Gentleman, removed from Southampton. [priced by auctioneers for proprietor]

Author: 
J. C. & S. Stevens, auctioneers, 38 King Street, Covent Garden [Victorian book auction catalogue; Alexander Hoyes of Bittern Grove, near Southampton]
Publication details: 
Which will be sold by auction, by Messrs. J. C. & S. Stevens, at their Great Room, 38, King Street, Covent Garden, On Thursday, the 18th day of July, 1844. [Alfred Robins, Printer, 101, Long Acre.]
£125.00

8vo, 8 pp. Unbound. Text clear and complete. On aged paper with wear to extremities. According to the title-page the sale contains 'The Encyclopaedia Britannica, Johnson's Poets, Scott's Works, Swift's ditto, Annual Register, British Theatre, and other Works, in various branches of Literature; Prints, Books of Prints, Paintings, Mahogany Cabinets, Antiquities, Gold Repeater, Grand Piano-Forte, by Zeitter'.

Indicaciones Sumarias para el Immigrante á Bolivia

Author: 
Luis S. Crespo, Sub-Director de Estadistica y Estudios Geográficos del Ministerio [Ministerio de Colonización y Agricultura, Sección de Immigración, Bolivia]
Publication details: 
[Ministerio de Colonización y Agricultura, Sección de Immigracion] La Paz: Taller Tipo - Litográfico - J. M. Gamarra. 1907.
£95.00

8vo, viii + 160 pp. Fold-out map at rear, and five maps (one of them fold-out) as five of the seven plates, with the other two plates photographic portraits of Doctor Ismael Montes and of Manuel V. Ballivián. In original printed wraps, with title on front. In poor condition, on brittle, aged high-acidity paper, with chipping and loss to margins, and the wraps discoloured and with loss at rear. Ownership inscription of Pedro Suarez of London.

Autograph Note Signed ('R. Garnett') to 'Poole'.

Author: 
Richard Garnett (1835-1906), Keeper of Printed Books at the British Museum, 1890-1899 [Stanley Lane-Poole (1854-1931), British orientalist and archaeologist]
Publication details: 
6 February [no year]. On embossed British Museum letterhead.
£28.00

12mo, 1 p. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper with remains of stub from mounting adhering to one edge. Reads 'We shall be very glad to accord Miss Rosamund hospitality on Saturday'. From a small archive of Lane-Poole material.

Ecce Mundus. Industrial Ideals and the Book Beautiful.

Author: 
T. J. Cobden-Sanderson [Hammersmith Publishing Society]
Publication details: 
Hammersmith: Hammersmith Publishing Society, 7 The Terrace. 1902. ['Printed at the Chiswick Press: Charles Whittingham & Co., Tooks Court, Chancery Lane, London. And sold by the Hammersmith Publishing Society, 7 The Terrace, Hammersmith.']
£250.00

8vo: [38] pp (unpaginated). In original quarter binding, with buff boards and vellum spine on which is stamped in black 'ECCE MUNDUS'. Good copy: internally tight and clean, in slightly-grubby and worn binding bumped at foot of spine and at one corner. Presentation copy, with autograph inscription by Cobden-Sanderson on the front free endpaper: 'To Mr. Wheatley [the bibliographer Henry Benjamin Wheatley] with the compliments of the writer'. With green leather and gilt bookplate of Alfred Sutro on front pastedown.

Glum-Glum. A Fairy Romance.

Author: 
[Charles Marshall, author?] [Richard Bentley (1794-1871), printer and publisher] [Victorian children's literature]
Publication details: 
London: Richard Bentley, Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty, 8 New Burlington Street. 1867. [London: Robson and Son, Great Northern Printing Works, Pancras Road, N.W.]
£200.00

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!

Inadvertencies collected from the works of several eminent authors.

Author: 
E. G-H.' [i.e. Edward Gathorne-Hardy], editor [The Mill House Press]
Publication details: 
Stanford Dingley: The Mill House Press, 1963.
£105.00

Number 174 of 'Two hundred numbered copies [...] printed by hand on mould-made paper.' 8vo: [ii] + 9 pp. Stitched pamphlet of twelve leaves, with four vignettes giving it a distinct chap-book feel. COPAC only lists copies at the British Library and Oxford. Prefatory note by 'E. G-H.' [Eddie Gathorne-Hardy].

Autograph Signature ('W Gordon-Stables | MD - RN').

Author: 
William Gordon Stables (1840-1910), Scottish Royal Navy physician and writer of adventure stories
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£20.00

On a piece of paper roughly 7 x 10 cm. Laid down on a piece of card. Fair, rucked and grubby, with traces of previous mount adhering to the reverse. Presmuably in response to a request for an autograph. Reads: 'I wish thee well | [signed] W Gordon-Stables | MD - RN'.

Two Autograph Letters Signed to 'Dear France'.

Author: 
Edgar Jepson [Edgar Alfred Jepson] (1863-1938), English writer of detective fiction, sometimes under the name 'R. Edison Page'
Publication details: 
Letter One: 17 May 1907; Hillfarance, Elm Road, Wembley. Letter Two: 29 June 1907; 23 Bath Road, Bedford Park. London W.
£95.00

Both items in fair condition, on lightly-aged and foxed paper. Letter One: 12mo (15 x 10 cm), 1 p. He thanks him 'for the Tickets': 'we are looking forward to seeing you act. I shall be very pleased to come to smoke a cigarette after the first act off the Duel.' ('The Duel' was produced at the Garrick Theatre, London, in 1907.) Letter Two: 12mo, 2 pp. He thanks him 'for the excellent evening you gave me at The Coronet the other night. | The Incubus is an admirable play, and admirably acted.' He hopes France 'had a good week of it': 'I told innumerable people not to miss it.'

Printed Receipt, completed in manuscript and signed, for five works by Williamson legally deposited in the Library of the British Museum.

Author: 
Department of Printed Books, British Museum, London [George Charles Williamson (1858-1942), writer on art and historian of Guildford; George Bell & Sons]
Publication details: 
6 October 1904; Department of Printed Books, British Museum, London.
£25.00

On one side of piece of paper 23.5 x 16 cm. With perforated edge. Good, on aged paper, with traces with strip of glue from previous mount on reverse. Printed in copperplate. The deposited works are 'Notes on the Maces, Insignia of Office, and Town Plate of the Town of Guildford', 'Progress of Catholic Work', 'Token Pamphlet', 'Guildford Shakespeare' and 'County Town'. Ostensibly signed by the 'Keeper', but the signature is not decipherable (''). In his obituary in The Times, 6 July 1942, Williamson was praised as 'a highly industrious and versatile writer on art'.

Illustrated Catalogue of Acts and Laws of the Colony and State of New York [...] constituting the collection made by Hon. Russell Benedict, Justice of the Supreme Court of New York.

Author: 
Hon. Russell Benedict, Justice of the Supreme Court of New York [The American Art Association]
Publication details: 
To be sold [...] on Monday, February 27th, 1922 [...] The sale to be conducted by Mr. Thomas E. Kirby and his assistants, of The American Art Association, Managers, New York City.
£60.00

Octavo: 261 unpaginated pages. In original printed wraps. Internally sound and clean, in stained and creased wraps. Unobtrusive ownership mark of Myers & Co. of London on front wrap. Fifty full-page facsimiles of title-pages, etc. Foreword by Benedict, followed by Resume, beginning, 'The Collection of Laws belonging to Judge Russell Benedict, [...] is the Most Important Collection of its kind that has ever been brought together by a private party.

Les vacances de Lumineux petit cheval de cirque.

Author: 
Cécile Aubry
Publication details: 
Paris: Éditions Émile-Paul Frères, 14 Rue de L'Abbaye, VI. 1955.
£60.00

PRESENTATION COPY: inscribed on half-title 'Pour Louise | avec mon bien amical souvenir - | Cécile Aubry'. 32 pages, quarto. In printed coloured boards, with decorated endpapers. llustrated by Aubry in colour (one double-page and nine full page) and black and white (five vignettes) and red (final page and endpapers). On the poor side of good, with minor staining, spotting and wear; negligible damp damage to boards.

The Abbotsford Subscription.

Author: 
R. A. Dundas, Secretary, Royal Society of Literature [Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), Scottish novelist and poet]
Publication details: 
St. Martin's Place, Dec. 7, 1832.'
£80.00

Disbound. Octavo: four pages. Good: slightly aged and with some creasing to extremities. Thirty-one lines of text, followed by a double-column list of subscribers, and amounts subscribed.

[Pickering's Diamond Classics.] Quintus Horatius Flaccus.

Author: 
The Pickering Horace' [Quintus Horatius Flaccus; William Pickering, London publisher; Charles Corrall, printer; Pickering's Diamond Classics; miniature books]
Publication details: 
Londini: Typis C. Corrall; Impensis Gul. Pickering, 31, Lincoln's Inn Fields. MDCCCXX.' [London: William Pickering, 1820. Printed by Charles Corrall.]
£450.00

A bibliographical landmark: the first issue of the first volume in Pickering's series of 'Diamond Classics' 32mo: [ii] + 185 + [i] + [i]. Engraved frontispiece portrait of 'Horace' by R. Grave, facing engraved titlepage, which precedes the letterpress titlepage. On the reverse of the leaf with p.185 on its recto is a portrait of Sir Francis Bacon, captioned 'Advancement of Learning.' On the page facing this are the 'Corrigenda.' Tight copy, on aged paper, with a few dogeared pages, in contemporary black russia binding with boards and spine ornamented in gilt and title 'HORATIUS'.

Victorian type-facsimile [by John Camden Hotten or H. J. Bellars?] of 'Joe Miller's Jests Or, The Wits Vade-Mecum. [...] now set forth and published by his lamentable Friend and former Companion, Elijah Jenkins, Esq. [i.e. John Mottley]

Author: 
Joe Miller's Jests; 'Elijah Jenkins' [John Mottley] [H. J. Bellars; John Camden Hotten]
Publication details: 
Title-page reads 'London: Printed and Sold by T. READ, in Dogwell-Court, White-Fryars, Fleet-Street, MDCCXXXIX. [1739]', but in fact a type facsimile [by John Camden Hotten or H. J. Bellars?], circa 1861].
£45.00

8vo: [ii] + 70 pp. Internally sound and tight, on lightly-aged paper. In worn contemporary burgundy quarter-binding with heavily-worn spine, recased with repair to rear endpapers. COPAC lists an entry for a copy in Cambridge University Library described as 'Probably the Lithographic facsimile by H.J. Bellars. London, reprinted 1861'.

A Catalogue of New & Popular Works, And of Books for Children, Suitable for Presents, Sunday School Libraries, and Prizes.

Author: 
E. P. Dutton & Co., publishers, New York [book catalogue; children's books; juvenile]
Publication details: 
[October 1881] New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 713, Broadway. Griffith & Farran, St. Paul's Churchyard, London.
£30.00

12mo. 32 pages. Unbound. On browned high-acidity paper. Loss to margins of first and last leaves, but text clear and complete, save for the dating in bottom left-hand corner of the title: <...> 8. 81. Cancelling all previous Editions of this Catalogue.' Line in blue pen around the words 'for Children' in the title, and pencil markings (by a child) to p.30. Circular engraving beneath title captioned 'Goldsmith introduced to Newbery by Dr.

A Brief History of Boys' Journals. With interesting Facts about the Writers of Boys' Stories. With handbill advertisement for 'The "Old Boys' Book Club'.

Author: 
Ralph Rollington, pseud. [Herbert John Allingham, father of Margery Allingham; boys' stories; The Old Boys' Book Club, Seaforth, Liverpool; George Emmett; E. J. Brett]
Publication details: 
Leicester: H. Simpson, Grove Road. [Appendix dated 'Leicester, July, 1913.']
£75.00

8vo: 111 pp. Frontispiece portrait of author, and eight plates (including portraits of George Emmett and E. J. Brett). In original grey printed wraps (title incorrectly given on front as 'The Old Boy's Books'). Tight, on lightly-aged and foxed paper. Grubby frontispiece and worn and lightly-stained wraps. Uncommon. COPAC lists copies at the British Library, the National Libraries of Scotland and Wales, Oxford, Aberdeen and the University of London. The British Library entry ascribes the book to Allington. Pasted to the inner back wrap is an advertisement headed 'JOIN! JOIN! JOIN!

Easter-Tide. Poems by E. Nesbit and Caris Brooke.

Author: 
E. Nesbit [Edith Nesbit; Edith Bland] and 'Caris Brooke' [Saretta Nesbit]
Publication details: 
Undated [dated to 1888 by the Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature]. 'London Henry J. Drane & Co. Lovells Court Paternoster Row E.C. (Produced in Germany.)'
£150.00

8vo (dimensions roughly 21 x 16.5 cm): 24 pp. In original coloured illustrated card wraps. The whole bound with black thread. All edges silvered. Aged, worn and lightly spotted, but tight and in reasonable condition overall. Two small wormholes in back wrap, affecting the verso of the last leaf. Fifteen poems, seven of them by Nesbit: 'Song', 'Possibilities', 'Vie Manquees', To a Picture by Giovanni Bellini', 'The Better Part', 'Rondeau' and 'Lovers'. Every page of the volume carries illustrations of nature in black and light green. Similar designs in colour on the covers.

Autograph Letter Signed to Rupert Simms.

Author: 
John Kinsman (born 1826), bookseller of Penzance, Cornwall [Rupert Simms (1854-1937), Staffordshire bookseller and bibliographer]
Publication details: 
21 January 1884; Penzance.
£65.00

12mo (leaf dimensions 18 x 11 cm): 2 pp. Twenty-one lines of text, complete and legible. On aged paper with some wear at head. Casting interesting light on the workings of the provincial Victorian booktrade.

Super Detective Library No. 78. All in Pictures. Sherlock Holmes meets the Hound of the Baskervilles and the Missing Heiress [Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles]

Author: 
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; Sherlock Holmes; Super Detective Library [Sherlockiana; comic books, strips]
Publication details: 
No date [1950s]. London: The Amalgamated Press, Ltd., The Fleetway House, Farringdon Street, EC4.
£75.00

Dimensions: 17.5 x 13.5 cm. 64 pp. In original coloured paper covers. Priced at 10d, and thus the British edition and not one produced for the foreign market. Good and tight, on browned paper. Attractive image on front cover showing a bemused Holmes puffing on his pipe as he wanders down a country-house corridor whose walls are covered in paintings, while the spectral figure of the hound's head looms above him.Covers lightly worn and slightly damaged by the rusting of the staples. Both stories are told in comic strip form.

Dorothy Canfield. A Biographical Note'.

Author: 
Dorothy Canfield Fisher (1879-1958), American novelist, educational reformer and social activist [Vrest Orton]
Publication details: 
Undated [1930s?]. 'Typography by VREST ORTON'.
£225.00

Stapled pamphlet of thirteen pages (dimensions of leaf 15 x 8 cm), in original grey printed wraps. Attractively produced in relatively small print. Small stain to rear wrap, and some spotting to p.12. Inscribed beneath frontispiece photograph of a pensive Canfield at her writing desk, 'With best greetings to Harry from [signed] Dorothy Canfield Fisher'. The final page consists of a list of 'Books By Dorothy Canfield', several of which are scored through in pencil, with the titles of four others added. No copy listed on COPAC, and none listed in the Yale and Harvard catalogues.

Almanach Dramatischer Spiele zur geselligen Unterhaltung auf dem Lande von A. von Kotzebue. Zweiter Jahrgang. [with 6 hand-coloured plates]

Author: 
August von Kotzebue [G. M. Kraus, artist]
Publication details: 
1804. Berlin bei F. T. de La Garde.
£200.00

12mo (leaf and plate dimensions 115 x 80 mm): [ii] + 247 pp + 6 hand-coloured engravings. Good, on lightly aged and spotted paper, in heavily worn original boards, with ink stain on back board. The plays included are: [1] Das Urtheil des Paris; [2] Die Tochter Pharaonis; [3] Ruebezahl; [4] Incognito; [5] Die Uhr und die Mandeltorte; [6] Sultan Bimbambum. Engraved title and six whimsical hand-coloured engravings by Mueller from the designs of the Frankfurt artist G. M.

Syndicate content