ELKIN

One Autograph Letter Signed, Four Typed Letters Signed, and one Autograph Postcard Signed to Frank Marcham, Antiquarian Bookseller. With unsigned copy of one typed letter Marcham to Muir.

Author: 
Percy Muir, Bookman
Publication details: 
Taylors, Takeley, Essex (but on Elkin Mathews of 37a Duke Street or Grosvenor Street headed notepaper, with lines through the old addresses], 1939-1942, giving a picture of Britain and the Book Trade during the 2nd WW etc
£125.00

Total 5pp., 8vo, some chipping but texts clear and complete, signed variously, P, Percy Muir, Percy, PCM. (1939) Your letter cheered me up no end. It was just like being in the office & listening to you laying down the law in your usual style. | We hardly know there's a war on down here, except for black-outs & an unusual number of children in the village. We even manage to sell a few books from time to time - about one a week so far - made 3/- profit on a sale this morning. Well, I hope to live to see you commander in chief.

[Sir Rupert Hart-Davis, publisher.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Rupert') to antiquarian bookseller Percy Muir, praising his catalogues as his 'favourite reading', and ordering items while 'saving up' for his daughter's wedding.

Author: 
Rupert Hart-Davis [Sir Rupert Charles Hart-Davis] (1907-1999), publisher, editor and letter-writer [Percy Muir [Percy H. Muir] (1894-1979), leading bookseller with firm Elkin Mathews]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Bromsden Farm, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon. 20 April 1963.
£90.00

1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, with three punch holes to margin, and endorsement of number in a circle. The letter begins: 'My dear Percy | Your catalogues – especially the literary parts of them – are my favourite reading. You find such unusual books, and describe them with such care and skill.' He asks him to send him, 'to Soho Square', the two Rothenstein items nos 260 and 260 a'. He explains that while he longs 'for some of the Blunts', his daughter is getting married that June, and he is 'saving up for that'.

[ First edition inscribed by the author to Graham Pollard, with Pollard's label and the bookplate of Frank Spicer. ] Minding My Own Business. An Autobiography.

Author: 
Percy Muir [ Percy Horace Muir (1894-1979), antiquarian bookseller with firm Elkin Mathews Ltd and author; Graham Pollard (1903-1976), bookseller and bibliographer; Frank Spicer ]
Publication details: 
London: Chatto & Windus, 1956.
£100.00

[8] + 224pp., 8vo. Seven plates. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper, in blue cloth binding, in worn and nicked dustwrapper. Inscribed on front free endpaper: 'For Graham | part author of these pages | R. H. M. June '56.' Pollard's partner in the unmasking of the Wise forgeriers is the book's dedicatee, and the pair's efforts are described in Chapter 8, 'Sherry and Shibboleths'. Pollard's small label ('From the Library of | GRAHAM | POLLARD') is at the head of the front pastedown, which also carries Spicer's owl and moon bookplate.

[ Vernon Hill, sculptor and artist. ] Two Autograph Letters Signed to 'Mr Bleackley' [ the writer Horace Bleackley ], regarding a drawing of the recipient he has been asked to make by 'Mr Lane' [ the publisher John Lane ].

Author: 
Vernon Hill (1887-1972), sculptor, lithographer, illustrator [ Horace Bleackley (1868-1931), author; John Lane (1854-1925), London publisher who founded the Bodley Head with Charles Elkin Mathews ]
Publication details: 
30 St Luke's Road, W [ London ]. 1 July 1915 and 'Thursday' [ no date ].
£35.00

Both letters 1p., 4to. Both in fair condition, lightly aged and worn. The letters concern a drawing of Bleackley, made by Hill at the instigation of 'Mr Lane'. On 1 July 1915 Hill writes that he has 'placed it before such authorities as Mr Willette and Mrs Lane, persons all I think to whom the shock of an unlikeness would have evoked candid opinion in criticism. I found them agreed as to its likeness Mr Lane voicing the common opinion by declaring on the instant: "That's got him!"'

[ Roger Senhouse, member of the Bloomsbury Group. ] Autograph annotations on his (and Lytton Strachey's) Byron books, in 'Byron and Byroniana' catalogue, and on Rayner Heppenstall's BBC telepathy experiment, with copy of printed BBC 'Findings'.

Author: 
Roger Senhouse [Roger Henry Pocklington Senhouse] (1899-1970), English publisher, member of Bloomsbury Group [ Elkin Mathews Ltd; Rayner Heppenstall (1911-81); Giles Lytton Strachey; BBC ]
Publication details: 
Catalogue: Elkin Mathews Ltd, 33 Conduit St, London W1. January 1930. BBC 'Findings', stamped with date 3 December 1945.
£220.00

ONE: Elkin Mathews catalogue. xii + 125pp., 8vo. 776 items, with a number of facsimiles. In grey printed wraps. Internally in fair condition, on aged paper, cocked at foot, in heavily-worn wraps with repair to rear cover. Containing numerous annotations in Senhouse's close, neat hand, mostly in pencil, giving bibliographical information relating to various entries, with reference to his own collection. Next to the entry for a first edition of 'English Bards and Scotch Reviewers' Senhouse writes: 'my copy "H S" Sold to Quaritch'.

[Printed item.] A Catalogue of Books by or relating to Dr Johnson & Members of his Circle offered for Sale by Elkin Mathews, Ltd. With an Introduction by John Drinkwater.

Author: 
John Drinkwater; Elkin Mathews, Ltd., London booksellers [A. W. Evans; Edward Gathorne-Hardy (1901-1978); Dr Samuel Johnson; Johnsoniana]
Publication details: 
London: Elkin Mathews, Ltd. 4a Cork Street, W.1. 1925. [Cambridge: Printed in Great Britain by Walter Lewis at the University Press.]
£180.00

vi + 110 + [1]pp., 8vo. Frontispiece. In grey printed wraps. Nicely printed. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with minor damp staining to corners. The firm's fifth catalogue, compiled by partners Evans and Gathorne-Hardy.

[Catalogue by Elkin Mathews Limited.] List 71. A Small Collection of Children's Toys and Games.

Author: 
[Percy Muir [Percy H. Muir; Percy Horace Muir] (1894-1979), bookseller, proprietor of Elkin Mathews Limited, Takeley, Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire]
Publication details: 
Elkin Mathews Limited, Takeley, Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England. [1960s?]
£135.00

[2] + 8pp., 8vo., with an additional 6pp of illustrations. Aged and creased, with rusted staples. Typeset with something akin to an IBM golfball. Introductory note: 'This small collection of children's toys and games was formed in the early years of this century and had remained undisturbed in a packing case until purchased by us some months ago. Some of the toys show signs of use but in general the condition is very good. Adequate description is difficult and we have endeavoured to illustrate as many of the toys as possible.

[Charles Elkin Mathews, London publisher.] Autograph Letter Signed ('C. Elkin Mathews') to Lawrence W. Hodson, quoting an account by Richard Aldington of '10 years [...] of almost unrelieved opposition'. With a copy of Aldington's 'Images of Desire'.

Author: 
Charles Elkin Mathews (1851-1921), London publisher; Richard Aldington [Edward Godfree Aldington] (1892-1962), poet [Lawrence W. Hodson (1864-1933), Midlands brewer and Arts and Crafts patron]
Publication details: 
Letter: 4a Cork Street, Mayfair, W.C. [London] 26 March 1920. Book: London: Elkin Mathews, Cork Street. 1919.
£180.00

Letter: 2pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Closely-written with 40 lines of text. In very good condition, lightly-aged, and attached to the book by a thin strip of gummed paper. Mathews writes that it gave him great pleasure to receive Hodson's letter 'a month or two ago', and that he has only delayed replying because it has 'taken some time to get into touch with Rd. Aldington'. He gives a quotation of 24 lines from a letter he has received from Aldington after passing on Hodson's 'kind appreciation'.

Corrected Typed Biography of Irish author William Maginn by his nephew Rev. C. A. Maginn, with subscription list of a memorial he is raising to him. With two Autograph Letters Signed by the nephew, discussing a proposed edition of his uncle's works.

Author: 
Rev. Charles Arthur Maginn (b.1860), nephew of Irish author William Maginn (1794-1842) [Fraser's Magazine; Blackwood's Magazine; Messrs E. Whitby & Son, 8 Princes Street, Yeovil, booksellers]
Publication details: 
All three items from Caradoc View, Little Stretton, Church Stretton, Shropshire. The typescript undated, and the letters dated 5 August 1926 and 23 February 1929.
£280.00

The three items in good condition, on lightly-aged and worn paper. ONE: Typescript. 5pp., 4to. Paginated 1 to 5, with the first three pages and last two forming separate sections, the second section headed 'P.S.' C. A. Maginn's signature in type on pp.3 and 5, and his address given on p.3. The second page contains the subscription list to the proposed memorial, with eleven contributions listed in type (headed by three guineas from Messrs BLackwood & Sons, and including a guinea apiece from Professor Saintsbury, A. P.

A London Comedy and Other Vanities. With seven reproductions of pictures by Maurice Greiffenhagen.

Author: 
Egan Mew [Maurice Greiffenhagen; Elkin Mathews]
Publication details: 
London: George Redway. Printed by William Clowes and Sons, Limited, Stamford Street and Charing Cross. 1897.
£175.00

AUTHOR'S COPY, WITH HIS MANUSCRIPT REVISIONS FOR THE SECOND EDITION. Octavo: 96 pages. Seven plates (of eight). Original olive cloth gilt, with pierrot on front board. Numbered copy twelve in the edition. One leaf (pages 49-50) removed. Aged, and in heavily worn boards. Carrying manuscript changes on twenty-two pages, as well as on a plate and the front board. Cutting loosely inserted, regarding a couplet by 'E. V. L.' of Brighton (clearly E. V. Lucas) addressed to Mew regarding the word 'hyperbole'. Six of Greiffenhagen's seven illustrations are present.

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