BOOKSELLER

Wytsman's catalogue no. 9, in French, titled 'Entomologie'.

Author: 
P. Wytsman, science bookseller, Brussels [entomology]
Publication details: 
P. Wytsman, Librarie Scientifique, 1, Rue de l'Arbre, Bruxelles.
£35.00

8vo, 8 pp. Unbound. An unopened leaf, folded twice to make four leaves. Text clear and complete. On aged and worn paper.

Trade catalogue, in French, of books in 'Anthropologie et Zoologie', sold by H. Welter, 'Export-Agent and Dealer in Second-Hand Books'.

Author: 
H. Welter, Paris and Leipzig bookseller ('Librarie universitaire française et étrangère, ancienne et moderne') [bookselling; trade catalogues; anthropology; zoology]
Publication details: 
Catalogue Mensuel No 61. - 1893'. Paris: H. Welter, 59, Rue Bonaparte, 59. ['Imp. Mazereau. - Tours. - E. Soudée, Successeur.']
£56.00

12mo, 32 pp. Stapled. Text clear and complete. On aged and worn paper, with rusted staples causing the outer bifolium to detach. Items 2067 to 2786, with 'Supplément. Deutsche Werhe.' (Items from the firm's Leipzig branch.)

Bohemia (New Series) The Official Organ of the Bread and Cheese Club, Melbourne.

Author: 
The Bread and Cheese Club, Melbourne, Australia [Joseph P. Quaine (d.1970), bookseller; Judge Alfred William Foster (1886-1962)]
Publication details: 
No. 5. Melbourne, 1st November, 1945. [Printed by J. Roy Stevens. Mebourne.]
£35.00

4to, 4 pp. Bifolium. Complete issue, paginated 17-20. Good, on aged paper. The first page announces J. D. Corbett ('Writer of "Canberra Commentary" in "The Argus") as guest speaker ('And he's sure to be good'). The first of two articles on the second page is the report of a speech by 'His Honor Judge Foster'. The second article, under the heading 'A Blood and Thunder Merchant', is an interview, with small photograph, with 'the Sanguinary-minded Fellow J. P.

Autograph Letter Signed to the naturalist Rev. Francis Orpen Morris (1810-1893).

Author: 
James Blackwood, Scottish publisher
Publication details: 
17 October 1857, on his business letterhead, 8 Lovell's Court, Paternoster Row.
£56.00

8vo: 2 pp. The 'idea is worth Consideration', but Blackwood 'can hardly see how any large sale cann be depended upon, so as to repay the expense of printing advertising &c.' Asks that Morris send him 'one sermon, to indicate style, length & to estimate cost'. Asks what size of paper should be used. Notices that Morris's works are 'principally on natural history'. Likes the idea of 'the <?> natural history', and 'will take an early opportunity of looking at it'. This notable London publisher is a surprising omission from BBTI.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J. Caird') to James MacLehose.

Author: 
John Caird (1820-1898), Church of Scotland minister, theologian and Principal of Glasgow University [James MacLehose (1811-1885), Glasgow publisher and bookseller; Rev. Dr James Paterson]
Publication details: 
July 6 [no year, but accompanied by an envelope postmarked 29 July 1881]; Venlaw Bank, Peebles, on cancelled letterhead of The University, Glasgow.
£56.00

12mo, 2 pp. Good, on lightly aged paper with slight creasing at head. He is enclosing a letter (not present) apologising 'for absence from Dr. Patersons funeral'. Asks if MacLehose can help him find the address of 'A. Craig Paterson'. 'I know that one of the sons is an English clergyman, but am not sure whether this is he.' The envelope, addressed by Caird to 'Jas. MacLehose Esq. | St. Vincent St. | Glasgow', bears a purple penny stamp, postmarked '159' beside a circular postmark in black ink, containing '4 H | GLASGOW | JU 29 | 81'

Original steel engraving, drawn by G. F. Sargent and engraved by G. Greatbach, captioned 'City of New York'.

Author: 
William Rae McPhun, Glasgow printseller and bookseller; G. F. Sargent; George Greatbach, London engraver [New York; prints; engravings; maps]
Publication details: 
[1850s?] 'W. R. McPhun & Son. Publishers, Glasgow.'
£56.00

Dimensions of print 12.5 x 19.5 cm. On paper 16 x 24.5 cm. Good clean impression, with six or seven spots of foxing in the margin and a little wear in the bottom left-hand copy. Striking detailed view of the city with sailboats and steamships in the harbour, and the major buildings and layout of the streets clearly portrayed, with the environs in the distance. Scarce: there is little information to be gleaned concerning this print.

Original steel engraving, drawn by G. F. Sargent and engraved by G. Greatbach, captioned 'City of New York'.

Author: 
William Rae McPhun, Glasgow printseller and bookseller; G. F. Sargent; George Greatbach, London engraver [New York; prints; engravings; maps]
Publication details: 
[1850s] 'W. R. McPhun & Son. Publishers, Glasgow.'
£56.00

Dimensions of print 12.5 x 19.5 cm. On paper 16 x 24.5 cm. Good clean impression, with six or seven spots of foxing in the margin and a little wear in the bottom left-hand copy. Striking detailed view of the city with sailboats and steamships in the harbour, and the major buildings and layout of the streets clearly portrayed, with the environs in the distance. Scarce: there is little information to be gleaned concerning this print.

Portrait (stipple engraving) of 'Thomas Miller, Bookseller, Bungay, Suffolk. Died June 24th. 1804 - Aged 73. | Engraved by E. Scriven from a Miniature by H. Edridge Esqr.'

Author: 
Thomas Miller (1731-1804), bookseller of Bungay, Suffolk [Edward Scriven; Henry Edridge]
Publication details: 
[London, circa 1805?]
£35.00

Paper dimensions 25.5 x 19 cm. Plate dimensions 22 x 16 cm. The head-and-shoulders portrait itself is oval, 7 cm high and 5.5 cm wide, contained in a square 11 x 9.5 cm, and with the caption beneath it. Printed on aged paper, with the image itself and the caption are clean and crisp, but the paper carries a crease to the margin, and there is light staining intruding into the surrounding square. Dibdin gives an account of Miller, whose son was the noted bookseller William Miller of Albemarle Street, in his 'Bibliomania' (1811 ed., pp.630-31).

Typed Letter Signed ('Basil Blackwell') to Secker.

Author: 
Sir Basil Blackwell (1889-1984), Oxford bookseller [Martin Secker (1882-1978), publisher]
Publication details: 
17 December 1969, on illustrated Blackwell's letterhead.
£35.00

4to: 1 p. Ten lines of text. Heavily stained, but a neat link between two giants of the twentieth-century British book trade. 'I give myself the pleasure of saluting you, I really believe for the first time'. He is happy for the opportunity of telling Secker how much he admired his 'flair and enterprise in earlier years'. He hopes he 'may write as firmly and with as lively a mind as you in six years' time'. 'Alas that we must disappoint you': the books Secker has requested are all out of print. 'Just possibly one or more may come into our hands secondhand.

Receipt, signed 'B Nichols, 25 Parliament Street', for a guinea subscription to Forby's 'Vocabulary'. Countersigned by Fletcher.

Author: 
John Bowyer Nichols and Son, Printers and Booksellers; John Kitson; Simon Wilkin, Norwich bookseller; Josiah Fletcher, Norwich bookbinder [The Gentleman's Magazine]
Publication details: 
11 December 1829. On printed company letterhead.
£25.00

On one side of a piece of wove paper roughly 10.5 x 17.5 cm. Good. Printed in top left-hand corner: 'To J. B. Nichols and Son. Printers and Booksellers. 25, Parliament Street, Westminster. ***Office, 10, King Street, Westminster.' Asks that the 'Subscription to Forby's Vocabulary 1 1 0' be paid to him or to 'Mr Wilkin, Bookseller, herewith'. Countsigned crosswise 'Received for S. Wilkin | [signed] Josiah Fletcher | Jan 25/30'. Docketed on reverse. BBTI has Wilkin as a bookseller in Norwich from before 1821 to 1830; and Fletcher as a binder and printer there from around 1820 to 1835.

Kisses, being an English translation in Verse of the Basia of Joannes Secundus Nicolaïus of the Hague, Accompanied with the original Latin Text; to which is added An Essay on the Life and Writings of Secundus.

Author: 
Joannes Secundus Nicolaius [John Lodge, engraver; Thomas Davies, Bookseller to the Royal Academy, Russell Street, Covent Garden]
Publication details: 
London: Printed for T. Davies, in Russel-Street, Covent-Garden, Bookseller to the Royal Academy; and sold by J. Bew, in Paternoster-Row. 1775.
£56.00

8vo: 224 pp. Errata on last page. Frontispiece and portrait of the author on p.65 by Lodge. In original brown calf binding, with red label with 'Kisses of Secundus' in gilt, on spine. A tight copy, with the flyleaves becoming detached, the frontispiece foxed and with a closed tear at the head of the hinge, and a 4mm ink stain spreading upwards along the leaves along the bottom edge. Elegantly printed, with a four-page preface by the unnamed translator, followed by a 32-page 'Essay on the Life and Writings of Secundus'.The poems are on the versos, with the translations on the facing rectos.

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.

Offprint of letter to the editor of The Times, headed 'MR. DICKENS AND MR. BENTLEY. | To the Editor of "The Times." '

Author: 
George Bentley (1828-1895), London bookseller; son of Richard Bentley (1794-1871) [Charles Dickens]
Publication details: 
GEORGE BENTLEY. | NEW BURLINGTON STREET, | Dec. 7, 1871.'
£100.00

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.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Ch Le Blanc'), in French, to the Leipzig bookseller Theodor Oswald Weigel.

Author: 
Charles Le Blanc (1817-1865), French art critic and authority on engraving [Theodor Oswald Weigel (1812-1881), Leipzig bookseller]
Publication details: 
24/01/51
£56.00

12mo, 1 p, 12 lines of text. Good, on lightly aged paper. The second leaf of the bifolium is docketed in a contemporary hand. Le Blanc has received Weigel's twenty-second catalogue, and it has given him pleasure. Like the others it is full of curious details, and is extremely useful to Le Blanc, being full of curious details. He orders several items (crossed through by the firm), the last of which he desires 'vivement' to own.

Autograph Letter Signed to the autograph collector Thomas Thompson of Church Street, Liverpool.

Author: 
John Russell Smith (1810-94), English bookseller [Dawson Turner]
Publication details: 
13 June 1840; 'No. 4. Old Compton Street, Soho, London'.
£200.00

Two pages, quarto. Very good. With traces of blue paper mount adhering to addressed verso of second leaf of bifolium. Dawson Turner having declined to buy a collection on the grounds that it is 'wholly out of his line of collecting', Russell now offers it to Thompson. They are 'not so interesting' as he anticipated when he 'bought them at an auction without looking at them till they were on the table'. Gives details of the purchase and describes the volumes, estimating their cost in binding.

Autograph Letter Signed ('R Seeley') to [John Lucas] Tupper.

Author: 
Robert Benton Seeley (1798-1886; DNB), English publisher and author
Publication details: 
3 July 1871; 54 Fleet Street [London].
£56.00

12mo: 2 pp. Very good. Relates to the photographic series 'English Artists of the present day', published by Seeley with accompanying essays 'by J. B. Atkinson, S. Colvin, F. G. Stephens, T. Taylor, and J. L. Tupper'. He is sending 'a copy of No. 3. The other we count as a presentation copy.' 'The Woolner photo. will I hope not be thought so bad by those who have not seen Elliott & Fry's. I was glad to find this morning that it had not struck Mr.

Autograph Letter Signed ('F. d'Olincourt.') to 'Monsieur Bance, aine, Editeur & Proprietaire, rue Saint-Denis, No. 271, a Paris.' In French.

Author: 
F. Gigault d'Olincourt, Ingenieur Civil [Lithographie, Imprimerie et Librairie]
Publication details: 
23 Janvier 1839; Bar-le-Duc. On elaborately printed letterhead.
£100.00

4to: 2 pp. Eleven lines. Good, on lightly creased and discoloured paper. Column of printed advertisements in left-hand margin of first page, which is headed by a printed description of d'Olincourt's qualifications, enclosed in an engraving of a jumble of disparate items including a book-press, beehive, scientific instruments, laurel wreath and sailing mast. He has begun to publish an 'immense ouvrage d'architecture', and he hopes Bance will subscribe for a number of copies which he will be able to sell 'chez vos clients'.

Printed Advertisement Leaf.

Author: 
Robert Akenhead, bookseller, 'at the Bible and Crown upon the Bridge, Newcastle' [provincial printing]
Publication details: 
Undated [circa 1723 re. pencilled note on reverse; Akenhead in businessc.1716-1768 re. BBTI]
£200.00

Dimensions roughly three and a half inches by three. One page, blank reverse. On aged paper, with some staining along one edge and crude ink marking, including 'Bookes bound', in a contemporary hand. Twenty-seven lines, beginning 'ROBERT AKENHEAD [...] sells the Goods followsng, [sic] viz. | BIBLES, Common-Prayers, and all other Sorts of Books of Divinity, History, Physick, Mathematicks.

Mortgage Indenture (No. 13992), printed, manuscript, typewritten, and signed, between Smith, his wife Millicent Smith and the Burnley Building Society.

Author: 
William Russell Smith, Oldham 'Book Manufacturer and Auctioneer'
Publication details: 
9 October 1922. Printed by 'George Anderson (Burnley) Limited.'
£35.00

Eight pages, quarto. Unbound and stitched on six leaves. Good, with recto of first leaf and verso of last somewhat more aged. With company and tax stamps. 'Mortgage, [a leasehold plot of land and messuage Numbered 26 in Barker Street Oldham in the County of Lancaster to secure £450 and interest.' Typewritten acknowledgment of payment, 25 February 1929, signed by company secretary W. Harvey and director J. Brown.

Printed Advertisement Leaf containing list of books printed by him.

Author: 
R. Helder, Bookseller and Printer, 10, Duke Street, West Smithfield, London.
Publication details: 
R. HELDER, Printer, 10, Duke Street, Smithfield.' [circa 1820]
£450.00

Two pages, on a rough-edged leaf approximately seven inches by four. Good, though aged and a lightly stained. A highly interesting list of twenty-seven titles by a radical publisher. Several works relating to Robert Wedderburn and Thomas Davison. Also 'The Cast-Iron Parson', 'A Peep after Hell' and 'GREAT GORGY: giving a Humourous Description of his Journey to Westminster, on Giff, the Ch-lor's Grey Mare'. Ends 'The Trade Supplied with all the Popular Works of the Day. | Printing & Bookbinding | NEATLY AND EXPEDITIOUSLY EXECUTED. | NEWSPAPERS SERVED IN TOWN AND COUNTRY.

Part II. - MDCCCXXV. A Catalogue of an Extensive Collection of Books in every department of literature and in various languages, selling at the very low prices affixed, by William Strong, 3, Clare Street, Bristol. [with five other Strong catalogues]

Author: 
William Strong (died 1846), Bristol bookseller; John Chilcott (died 1851?), Bristol printer]
Publication details: 
Parts II and III for 1825; parts I to IV for 1826. All printed by J. Chilcott, Printer, 6, High Street, Bristol.
£220.00

All items octavo. Bound together in contemporary leather half-binding with red label. Good, on aged paper. Front board beginning to split. Label and stamps of Newport Reference Library. Each title-page initialed in contemporary hand 'G. S. W.' Part 2, 1825: pp.[ii] + [103]-348, items 1666 to 6197. Part 3, 1825 ('Including the libraries of the late Rev. Dr. Ryland; J. Nott, M.D. of Clifton, Deceased; And other Collections, recently Purchased'): pp.v + 349-606. With two-page 'Brief Memoir of the late John Nott, M.D. of the Hotwells, Bristol', 'Extracted from Felix Farley's Bristol Journal'.

Advertisement leaf containing list of architectural books.

Author: 
A. Webley, bookseller, at the Bible and Crown in Holborn, near Chancery-Lane
Publication details: 
Undated [circa 1765].
£200.00

Dimensions roughly eight inches by five and a half. Very good on aged paper. All but top edge rough. One page, blank reverse.

Engraved coloured lithographic portrait, 'Drawn from Nature by J. W. Childe' and engraved by Charles James Hullmandel (1789-1850).

Author: 
Richard Lemmon Gregory, 'The Respected Librarian at MR. LODER'S ESTABLISHMENT, North St. Brighton.' [Robert Loder; Circulating Libraries]
Publication details: 
Published by R. Loder, North Street, Sepr. 12th. 1828.'
£75.00

Dimensions of paper roughly eight and a half inches by six and a half wide. Illustration roughly five and a half inches by five wide. Good on slightly aged and creased paper. A grey-haired Gregory, fashionably dressed in striped waistcoat and cravat, and wearing a white apron, stares at the viewer while holding a book in his left hand and writing its details in a ledger with a quill in his right hand. BBTI gives Robert Loder's trading dates as 1822-39, and Gregory's as 1793-1851.

A Priced Catalogue of the whole stock of Theological Books, [...], of the late firm of Dickinson & Higham, together with the additions thereto made during the printing of the catalogue by the firm's junior partner and successor, Charles Higham.

Author: 
Charles Higham (1846-1920), London theological bookseller [Dickinson & Higham]
Publication details: 
London: Farringdon Street, E.C. 1878. [S. & J. Brawn, Printers, 13, Gate Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields.']
£450.00

Octavo, 216 pages. One of 'only fifty copies printed, on thick paper'. Title-page in red and black. Aged and a little stained, in recent half-leather rebinding. 9670 items listed, 'for the most part second-hand'.

Autograph Note to Messrs Hodder & Stoughton, publishers.

Author: 
Charles Higham (1846-1920), London theological bookseller [Hodder & Stoughton]
Publication details: 
Undated [1890s]; on Higham's letterhead, 'FROM | CHARLES HIGHAM, | Second-hand-Book-Seller, | 27a FARRINGDON STREET, LONDON, E.C.'
£35.00

One page. Dimensions of slip roughly four inches by five and a quarter wide. Somewhat aged, but entirely legible. Reads 'British Quarterly Review | Can you tell me what was the last part of this issued, if it is possible to get a title-page and index to vol 83. My last part is 166 April 1886'. Docketed note of reply states that no title was published to the volume containing April 1886.

Proof engraving, by T. Blood, from painting by Samuel Drummond, A.R.A., of Asperne as Freemason.

Author: 
James Asperne (1757-1820), bookseller of Cornhill, London, and proprietor of the 'European Magazine' [Freemasonry; Masonic]
Publication details: 
[London; 1814].
£125.00

Dimensions of paper roughly twelve inches by ten; dimensions of print roughly nine and a half inches by seven and a half. A good clear impression, on aged, creased paper, of a striking illustration showing a portly and sleek Asperne, beautifully turned out in Freemason's robes and paraphernalia, holding a leather-bound book, and seated in an ornately carved wooden chair with the Freemasons' eye in a triangle at its head. Captioned 'Mr James Asperne | BOOKSELLER, CORNHILL, | Past Master of the FOUNDATION LODGE NO. 96 And St. Peter's No.. 249 | P.S.D. of the LODGE of Antiquity No.

Receipt, printed heading, signed "E Harris".

Author: 
Eliz[abeth] Harris, bookseller, stationer, printer, bookbinder (adds to BBTI)
Publication details: 
96 High Street, Shadwell, LOndon, 31 Dec. 1833) - date extends BBTI
£75.00

One page, 6.5 x 5.5", good condition. Payment for one number of "Blackwood's Magazine". Note spelling "Recieved".

Keepsake, limited to two hundred copies, with signed illustration of 'L'abbaye en 1368' by Beaudouin.

Author: 
Fernand De Nobele, French bookseller; Josephine Beaudouin (c.1910-2005), French illustrator
Publication details: 
1969; Paris.
£120.00

Beautifully printed bifolium on thick wove paper. Dimensions of leaf roughly thirteen inches by ten; dimensions of illustration roughly nine and a half inches by eight. Tissue guard. Recto of first leaf and verso of second blank. Letterpress on verso of first leaf reads 'Fernand De Nobele, libraire pres St-Germain-des-Pres, vous adresse ses meilleurs voeux pour l'annee 1969. | [L'abbaye en 1368]'. Illustration signed at foot 'Josephine Beaudouin', with the limitation '190/200'. For De Nobele - President of ILAB between 1965 and 1967 - see Anthony Rota's 'Books in the Blood' (2002).

Engraved portrait by Augustus Fox [from painting by Nathaniel Drake].

Author: 
Thomas Gent (1693-1778), printer and topographer of York [Thomas Thorpe (1791-1851), London bookseller]
Publication details: 
Published by T. Thorpe, 38, Bedford Street, Covent Garden.' [1832]
£45.00

Dimensions of paper roughly eight inches by five; dimensions of print four and a quarter inches by three and a half. Good clean image, on paper aged and creased at extremities only. A wild-haired octogenarian Gent leans on a pile of books in a stone archway, holding open a copy of his History of Rippon (1733). Taken from Thorpe's edition of Gent's 'Life', published in 1832.

Poster for English publication of the score of Donizetti's opera 'La Favorite' ['The Favourite'].

Author: 
Gaetano Donizetti [Charles Jefferys and Co., 21 Soho Square]
Publication details: 
Undated, but circa 1843.
£60.00

Roughly twelve and half inches by nine and a quarter. Neatly mounted on piece of cream paper, with surrounding ink rules. Good, with some ruckling and wear to corners. Characteristically arresting arrangement of type. Reads: 'CAUTION. | THE ONLY CORRECT COPY | OF DONIZETTI'S OPERA | THE FAVOURITE | AS PERFORMED IN ENGLISH AT THE | THEATRE ROYAL DRURY LANE, | IS PUBLISHED BY | JEFFERYS AND CO.

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