bookselling

Typed Letter Signed to Eimar O'Duffy, Irish author.

Author: 
Ben Abramson, American bookseller and publisher (1898-1955).
Publication details: 
The Argus Book Shop Incorporated, 333 South Dearborn Street, Chicago,6 Dec. 1933.
£60.00

One page, 4to, good condition. He gives belated thanks for writing to them "and sending us your contribution for our catalogue." They delayed so that thanks would accompany a copy of the catalogue. They have sent the catalogue under separate cover and "hope you will find it enertaining. Too, we hope that you will find our comments on your work not unworthy of your talents." See Donald C. Dickinson, "Dictionary, for discussion of the "rambunctious" bookseller, including his interaction with major literary figures.

Eight items relating to royalties due from Richards for Lucas's 'The Open Road' following Richards' bankruptcy.

Author: 
Edward Verrall Lucas (1868-1938), English author; Grant Richards (1872-1948), English publisher
Publication details: 
London; 9 March to 7 April 1905.
£220.00

The collection as a whole is in good condition, although lightly creased in places and somewhat dusty and aged. All items have unobtrusive pinholes, and Item Seven has fraying and closed tears to extremities. An interesting correspondence casting light on publishing practices at the turn of the nineteenth century. ITEMS ONE TO FIVE: 12mo letters from Lucas's solicitors Field, Roscoe & Co., each on the firm's letterhead, to the 'Receiver and Manager appointed to carry on [Richards'] business', H. C. K. Stileman, dated 9, 11, 18 and 21 March, and 1 April 1905.

Invoice, printed heading, account of Sir Robert W. Vaughan.

Author: 
[Peter Brett, bookseller and stationer (1762-1792, BBTI)]
Publication details: 
201 Strand, London, 6 July (no year).
£25.00

One page, 8vo, good. He sends newspapers post free "to all parts of the Kingdom." He charges mainly for items of stationery but also an almanack.

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'.

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".

Autograph Note Signed to Saunders & Otley, publisher and bookseller (active 1826-1851; BBTI)

Author: 
[BOOKBINDING] A[rchibald] Leighton, bookbinder (prob. II, active 1801-1841; BBTI).
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£55.00

Piece of paper, bifoliate, c.5 x 4", good condition. "Gent. / These books belong to you - I will call & explain tomorrow / A. Leighton". Archibald Leighton II helped invent and develop 'book cloth binding' between 1820 and 1832. (BBTI).

Autograph Note Signed ('Geo Gregory') to 'Mr Hawley'.

Author: 
George Gregory, Bath bookseller
Publication details: 
4 June 1919; on firm's ornate letterhead.
£75.00

One page, on paper roughly seven inches by eight wide. Good, on lightly creased paper. Stamped with date. He thanks his correspondent for 'the typed list'. Headed 'Memorandum from | GEORGE GREGORY, Book Merchant, Library Buyer and Exporter, | The Imperial Book Store, | 5 and 5a ARGYLE STREET, BATH. | Out-of-Print and Rare, or Out-of-the-Way Books sought for and reported promptly, with option of purchase. Send me your List of Wants. | Licensed Valuer. Stock well classified in Thirty Rooms. Libraries Purchased. | Bankers: UNION OF LONDON & SMITHS BANK, LTD., BATH.

[The Cooperative Printing Company] Printed Letter Signed (printed signatures) by Thomas Hughes, author of "Tom Brown's Schooldays", and others

Author: 
[PRINTING HISTORY] Thomas Hughes and others.
Publication details: 
176 Fleet St, E.C. London, no date.
£300.00

Four pages, fol., tear on fold marks, other defects but text clear and complete. The ten signatories also include W. Morrison (presumably the philanthropist, Walter), T[homas]. Brassey, R.M. [Castor?], Auberon Herbert ("the originator of Voluntaryism" (Wikipedia - see alos DNB), Hodgson Pratt (Peace advocate (DNB), [P.H. Hillard?], Edw. Owen Greeening, Tito Pagliardini and another (undeciphered). A socialist project concerning which I have found little information.

Invoice/Receipt signed indecipherably on behalf of Th. Barrois to Lord Glenbervie

Author: 
Theophile Barrois fils, Libraire, French bookseller and publisher.
Publication details: 
[Headed] No. 11 Quai Voltaire, a Paris, 1817[-1818]
£65.00

One page, 4to, good condition. Books include English grammars in French, Pope's Works, Guarini's "Pastor Fido". Broiefly docketed presumably by Glenbervie.

Sixteen Receipted Invoices. printed heading, signed "W. Gotelee", "G. Gotelee" and W.J. Gotelee", accounts of the "Surveyors of Binfield", the "Overseers of Binfield Parish", the "Churchwardens of Binfield"

Author: 
[PROVINCIAL]W. Gotelee, bookseller, printer and stationer.
Publication details: 
Wokingham and Market Place, Wokingham, Berks,1850[-1866].
£200.00

Sixteen invoices, all 8vo, good condition. They bought account books and stationery relevant to their function. The overseers, for example, bought a "Poor Rates Book", had "Rate Receipt books" and "Poor Rate Notices" printed by Gotelee. The surveyors' invoices listed "Printing 200 Highway Rate Receipts". The churchwardens had a "Book of Common Prayer" bound.

Prospectus for 'MARIA EDGEWORTH | 1767-1849 | A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL TRIBUTE | BY | BERTHA COOLIDGE | SLADE | Demy 8vo. 42s. net.'

Author: 
Bertha Coolidge Slade [Maria Edgeworth; Constable and Company; Richard Clay and Sons]
Publication details: 
LONDON: | PRINTED IN AN EDITION OF TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY | COPIES BY RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED, | BUNGAY, SUFFOLK, FOR CONSTABLE AND COMPANY | LIMITED ORANGE STREET, LONDON, W.C.2. | 1937.'
£30.00

Stapled and unbound. Octavo: four leaves (eight unpaginated pages). On aged and lightly spotted paper. Vignette on title page. Includes list of plates and 'Specimen Entry' of pages 51-3. Verso of last leaf headed 'from CONSTABLE'S BIBLIOGRAPHICAL LIST', comprising 'THE CARTER-POLLARD DISCLOSURES', 'BIBLIOGRAPHIA SERIES' and 'DORMY HOUSE CATALOGUES'.

Invoice, headed, part manuscript, and manuscript stamped receipt. for "Mr Cruso".

Author: 
[CAMBRIDGE] [Hodson & Brown, printers (add to BBTI on James Hodson 1830 and previous Hodsons).]
Publication details: 
Cambridge, 1834 and 20 Sept. 1834.
£45.00

Invoice, trimmed, 7.5 x 3.5, printed heading "Messrs. Hodson & Brown, Printers of the Cambridge Chronicle." It is for "Printing 400 Catalogues of Henley's Guns, Shells &c" and advertising. Receipt is conventional size.

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.

Manuscript Invoice, account of "Messrs Shairp & Archer".

Author: 
[R.W. Lane, printer, bookseller, stationer, bookbinder
Publication details: 
Stow and Moreton Printing Office, 1830[-1832]
£45.00

One page, fol, chipped and stained with minimal textual loss. A lengthy list of various kinds of paper. Add to BBTI Bookbinder, medicine vendor and perfumer, seller of paper-hangings.

Manuscript Invoice, account of "The Executors of late H.H. Henley", prob. in Garland's hand, and ms. stamped receipt signed "Thos Garland".

Author: 
Thomas Garland, bookseller, bookbinder, stationer (BBTI).
Publication details: 
[King's] Lynn, 29 Sept. 1834.
£100.00

Invoice: one page, fol. good condition. Charges for advertising notices in various newspapers, printing posters of Sale Particulars, printing catalogues (full detail), and related printing and actions.

Autograph Letter Signed "B. Dobell" to [Walter] Jerrold, man of letters.

Author: 
Bertram Dobell, bookseller and man of letters (DNB).
Publication details: 
[Headed] Bertram Dobell, Bookseller and Publisher, 77 Charing Cross Road, Londn, W.C., 23 March 1904.
£50.00

Two pages, 8vo, vestiges of an album page on reverse, good condition. He sent a presentation copy of his "Rosemary & Pansies", somne of which "appeared in the privately printed ed[ition]" he gave him. He also sends a booklet "by one 'Lucian Lambert' - a gentleman who seems to have a good deal of gall in his composition, however much he may be wanting in the other qualities of a satirist. He has a signed copy of one of Jerrold's grandfather's books (Douglas) and some letters which his correspondent can view at the shop.

Invoice for Lord Glenbervie.

Author: 
[E. Budd, bookseller (BBTI as "publisher?" c.1813.
Publication details: 
100 Pall Mall, 1812.
£45.00

One page, c.6 x 7", good condition. He is billed for "State Trials" and the "Political Register".

Autograph Letter Signed to Roake & Varty, booksellers, printers, stationers (BBTI), York House, Strand, London.

Author: 
[Roake & Varty] A.B. Lechmere, Gent.
Publication details: 
The Rhyd, Worcester, 24 May 1832.
£75.00

ADD "York House" to BBTI. And "Publisher. And Worcester bookseller. Four pages, minor defects, text complete and clear. He requests his account for "Stationery & Consitutional Tracts" and asks how much "it would cost to purchase the whole of the Tracts published by you from the commencement of the Debates of the momentous Reform Question to the present hour, to place in one's Library for the inspection of posterity." He rails agaoinst the "wicked and unprincipled Ministry and the King who is "regardless of the complicate interests of this once great Empire-".

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.

Printed Advertisement Leaf, with illustration.

Author: 
William and Joseph Marshall, Bookseller and Stationer, 'At the Bible in Newgate-street, over against the Blue-Coat Hospital Gate'
Publication details: 
Undated [circa 1720].
£250.00

Dimensions roughly six inches by three and a half. Wormed (but only affecting two letters of text) on aged paper. One page, blank reverse. Wood cut at head, roughly one and a quarter inches square, illustrating a leather-bound book with clasps. Thirty-three lines of text, beginning 'At the Bible in Newgate-street, over against the Blue-Coat Hospital Gate.

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).

Autograph Letter Signed to the Rev. Henry Blunt, Pau, Pyrenees (DNB)

Author: 
Thomas Hatchard, bookseller, publisher (BBTI - 1856 ADD 1842), son of John Hatchard.
Publication details: 
London, 15 March 1842.
£200.00

Two pages, fol., fragile, sl. chipped, inch round hole in second page with some loss of text. Hatchard reports on the distribution of copies of his book ["A Family Exposition of the Pentateuch: Genesis" (J. Hatchard, 1841)] as "From the Author", giving a substantial list occupying the second page (c.80 names consisting of the great and the good, with excisions, corrections and additions, with six names ticked and three show multiple copies). He tells him how many copies have been printed of the first and second editions, the issuing of the second he expects to give the first "a lift".

Invoice, printed heading, account of Lord Glenbervie.

Author: 
Budd & Calkin, booksellers, stationers (add bookbinding and "To their Royal Highnesses The Prince Regent & Duke of Kent"
Publication details: 
"At the Crown & Mitre, No. 100, Pall Mall", March-Sept. 1813.
£30.00

One page, 8vo, defects but text clear and complete. "State Trials" and "Cobbett's Register".

Manuscript invoice/receipt Signed to Lord Glenbervie.

Author: 
[George Wickins for George & William Nicol, publishers and booksellers (BBTI)
Publication details: 
58 Pall Mall, 1814[-1815].
£45.00

One page, c.8 x 6", minor defects, mainly good condition. 17s 6d received in payment of an invoice for "Philosophical Transactions" for 1814.

A file of material including a Catalogue issued by Thomas Arthur, bookseller,and correspondence

Author: 
Gillyatt Sumner, antiquary and collector, Beverley, Yorks.
Publication details: 
1860
£320.00

File of papers giving insight inot the buying and record-making procedures of an antiquary and collector.They are crudely sewn together, with some damage and staining, texts clear and complete except railway receipt (trimmed), collection comprising: a. Catalogue ("Part Fifty-Three", Feb. 1860, from Thomas Arthur, 45 Booksellers' Row, Strand, London, W.C. ( some items ticked by Sumner, including item 454 Ratsall's History of . . . .Southwell" which is also marked "Ordered"). b. Invoice from Thomas Arthur, 13 Feb.

Two printed (italic) invoices with receipts, part manuscript part printed, for Alfred Simpson.

Author: 
[Samuel Lewis & Co., publishers [BBTI}.
Publication details: 
London, 13 Finsbury Place, 1845 and 13 Finsbury Place South, 1847, one receipt (1845) headed 16 New Broad Street [add to BBTI]
£35.00

Invoices, one page each, 4to, good condition. Receipts of conventional size, both signed "R. Toley" [not in BBTI]. The subjects are subscruiption editions of Lewis's Topographical Dictionaries of England and Wales (1845), Scotland and Ireland (1847), with prices, including "colouring Atlas[es]".

Autograph Letter Signed "A.S. Valpy", to an unnamed correspondent.

Author: 
Abraham John Valpy, Printer, editor, classicist, and publisher,
Publication details: 
Re Lion Court ("RLC"), 3 April 1833.
£85.00

Printer, editor, classicist, and publisher. Three pages, 8vo, minor damage but text clear and complete. "The Virgil [pubd. 1819 re.BLC] was I assure you sent thro Baldwins at the time it was published but the first 10 Nos are not mine & therefore I have no choice in giving away a copy - I forward you a copy of early Poems [?Sanderson, "Poems chiefly sacred original and translated"] - they are mine, & not my Fathers. I know nothing of the prose trans[latio]n of Faust.

Autograph Letter Signed to "Monsieur Anselin, Rue Dauphine No.9, Paris", also bookseller. In French.

Author: 
L. Michelsen, Bookseller
Publication details: 
Leipzig, le 6 Octobre 1832.
£650.00

One page, 4to, chipped with small loss of text, paper fragile. Text as follows: Monsieur Anselin, Paris, Je vous prie de m'expedier aussitot [underlined] par l'entremise de Mr Ren[loss of text] les livres suivants, je vous recommande surtout les petits brochures vieux dont je suis tres presse." There follows a list of 22 titles, all military (e.g "Dictionnaire d'artillerie", "Manoeuvres de chevres & de forces 1821", etc.). Usually one copy required, but he requires 3 of one book (the Dictionnaire) and 2 of its supplement.

Apocalypse block-book; Caxton's Golden Legend.

Author: 
J. & J. Leighton, booksellers.
Publication details: 
1910; J. & J. Leighton, 40 Brewer St., Regent St., London W.
£125.00

Proof with manuscript changes in pencil and printed additions pasted onto p.viii. 14 pages, folio. Five plates and five illustrations in text. In original green printed wraps. In good condition: paper discoloured and with some creasing at head; wraps grubby, creased and worn, with small closed tear along top end of spine. An attractive production, 'reprinted from J. & J. Leighton's illustrated catalogue of early-printed books, manuscripts, &c. part xiv.' Describes the edition of the Golden Legend published by Caxton in 1483, and a block-book published in Germany around 1470.

Autograph [letter] list signed, half only to Baynes, Bookseller, No. 54 Paternoster Row, London.

Author: 
Author illegible [B. Thickins?]
Publication details: 
Ross, 25 Aug. 1800.
£80.00

Autograph letter/order/list, top half lost, leaving frayed edge and some loss of text, generally poor condition but most of text clear.. Remainder a list as follows: "1 Epistle to Peter Pindar 2n[d] [Edi]tion - 2/ [shillings] Wright/ 1 Thett on the Prophesies[sic] - Rivingtons/ [tickedby bookseller] 1 Walpoliana 2 vols - Phillips/ 1 Sotheby's Wieland's Oberon 2 vols Cadell [another tick] / 1 Reports for bettering the condition of the poor vol 2 pt 2/ 1 Bishop of Londons[sic] Summary &c Cadell/ 1 Castle Rackrent. A Tale - Johnson/ 1 Hinderwell's Antiquities &c of Scarborough 4to.

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