Book Trade History

[P. S. King, London Parliamentary Bookseller.] 36 items from his papers, including correspondence from individuals including the Bishop of Chichester, Sir Charles Bowyer Adderley, Sir Edward Cholmley Dering, William Knight and other public figures.

Author: 
P. S. King [Philip Stephen King] (1819-1908), London Parliamentary Bookseller of 12 Bridge St, Westminster and other addresses[William Knight, Sir Charles Bowyer Adderley; Sir Edward Cholmley Dering]
Publication details: 
Mainly from London and Westminster. Dating from between 1855 and 1907.
£450.00

The notable London firm of P. S. King & Son, 'Publishers, Parliamentary and General Booksellers, Bookbinders and Printers', was in existence for more than a hundred years, having been established, according to its own account, in Parliament Street in 1819, and still active until 1941, when it became P. S. King and Staples, under which name it traded for around six years. (An advertisement for the Staples Press Limited in The Times, 14 February 1946, lists, among incorporated companies: 'P. S.

[Henri Cernuschi, Italo-French banker and collector.] Autograph Letter Signed to the London parliamentary bookseller Philip Stephen King, apologising for not being able to supply him with autographs, as his collection has been stolen 'toute entière'.

Author: 
Henri Cernuschi [Enrico Cernuschi] (1821-1896), Italo-French banker and collector, whose Paris mansion is now the Musée Cernuschi [Philip Stephen King (1819-1908), London parliamentary bookseller]
Publication details: 
On the letterhead of his Paris mansion at 7 Avenue Velasquez, Parc Monceau [now the Musée Cernuschi]. 29 April [c. 1889].
£120.00

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, on aged paper, with slight wear to one corner. Signed 'H. Cernuschi'. He begins by stating that from King's 'première lettre' he had recognised his handwriting. He apologises for not being able to comply with a request of King's: 'Je possédais une importante collection d'autographes - mais elle m'a été volee toute entière'. He concludes by instructing King to send to Westminster '600 copies de Bimetalism in England aand Abroad et 50 copies de mon Speech a Paris 1889'.

[Chatto & Windus, London publishers.] Manuscript letter, signed on behalf of 'Chatto & Windus', to fellow London bookseller Philip Stephen King, declining the offer of a translation of Portuguese novelist Alexandre Herculano's 'O Monge de Cister'.

Author: 
Chatto & Windus [P. S. King [Philip Stephen King] (1819-1908), London Parliamentary Bookseller of 12 Bridge St, Westminster and other addresses; Alexandre Herculano (1810-1877), Portuguese writer]
Publication details: 
On the firm's letterhead at the 'Office of Belgravia of the Gentleman's Magazine & of "Academy Notes", 74 & 75 Piccadilly, London. 4 January 1878.
£120.00

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Tasteful letterhead including the firm's device within an oval, printed in sepia. In good condition: on aged and lightly-worn paper. King was the leading London parliamentary bookseller, and it is interesting to see him apparently offering a work of his own to other publishers. The letter reads: 'Dear Sir | We beg to acknowledge with thanks your offer of a translation of Herculano's "O Monge de Cister," which we much regret our inability to accept - our hands being very full just now, & all our arrangements for some time to come made.

[Eric Gill, sculptor and typographer] Two Signed Letters (one 'Eric Gill' and the other 'Eric Gill osd') to Lawrence Hodson, both in the same secretarial hand, regarding a woodcut 'set of stations'.

Author: 
Eric Gill [Arthur Eric Rowton Gill] (1882-1940), British sculptor, artist and typographer [Lawrence William Hodson (1865-1934), art connoisseur; Father Bernard Delaney (1890-1959), OP]
Publication details: 
On letterheads of Ditchling Common, Sussex. 3 November 1920 and 10 March 1921.
£250.00

Both items in fair condition, on lightly aged and creased paper. The second letter addressed by the secretary on the reverse, with four torn stamps and postmarks, to 'Mr. Lawrence Hodson | Bradbourne Hall | Ashbourne | Derbyshire'. The 'set of stations' referred to in the first letter is likely to have been based on those executed by Gill in stone in Westminster Cathedral, and completed in 1918. Letter One (3 November 1920): 1p., 12mo.

[James Stevens Cox, antiquary and bookseller.] Two of his pamphlets, published by his Toucan Press: 'The Richard Curle Collection of the Works of Cicely Veronica Wedgwood' and 'Surrealism and the Coiffure'. With Richard Curle's monograph on Cox..

Author: 
[James Stevens Cox (1910-1997), antiquary, bookseller and proprietor of the Toucan Press; Richard Curle (1883-1968); surrealism; hairdressing]
Publication details: 
'The Richard Curle Collection': Published by J. Stevens Cox at the Toucan Press, Beaminster, Dorset, 1961. 'Surrealism and the Coiffure', 2nd edition, Toucan Press, Mount Durand, St Peter Port, Guernsey, C.I. 1977. Curle's monograph Stirling, 1962.
£220.00

The three items in good condition, with minor aging and the last two items lightly-creased. ONE: 'The Richard Curle Collection of the Works of Cicely Veronica Westwood'. Published by J. Stevens Cox at the Toucan Press, Beaminster, Dorset, 1961. 19pp., 16mo. In green printed wraps. Stapled. '65 copies printed'. Four-page introduction, in which Cox writes: 'I wish to emphasise, however, that, despite the amplitude of the muster, this is not a Bibliography.

Autograph Manuscript and two Typescripts of an article by the publisher F. J. H. Darton [Frederick Joseph Harvey Darton] entitled ''West One', on the foundation and history of Grafton Street in London.

Author: 
F. J. H. Darton [Frederick Joseph Harvey Darton] (1878-1936), English publisher and writer [Grafton Street, London; Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton (1683-1757)]
Publication details: 
[London; 1920s?]
£380.00

The three items are all in very good condition, on lightly-aged paper, with slight marking from rusty paperclips. Manuscript: 13pp., 4to. On 13 leaves, paginated 1-13. With a few emendations and corrections. The two typescripts, both well typed, have different layouts to one another. First (smaller) Typescript: 9pp., 4to. Second (larger) Typescript: Carbon copy. 9pp., 4to. The article begins: '"The iniquity of oblivion blindly scattereth her poppy . . .

Corrected Autograph Manuscript and Typescript of a chapter of a book by F. J. H. Darton [Frederick Joseph Harvey Darton] titled 'The Microcosm of England', on the London publisher Rudolph Ackermann, headed 'Aquatint collection draft'.

Author: 
F. J. H. Darton [Frederick Joseph Harvey Darton] (1878-1936), English publisher and writer [Rudolph Ackermann (1764-1834), London publisher, born in Saxony]
Publication details: 
[London, 1920s?]
£380.00

Both items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper, with slight rust spotting. Manuscript: 12pp, 4to. On twelve leaves, paginated 1-12. With emendations and corrections. Note at head of page: 'Dates & title meant to be typical only: subject to revision from collection catalogue etc & to fit later details of book.' Also at head of page, in red pencil: 'Aquatint collection draft first chapter'. Manuscript: 9pp., 4to. On nine leaves attached with stud (last leaf loose).

Printed label for 'T. Mudie's (late Dillon's) Circulating Library, 39, Cheyne Walk, near Chelsea Church.' Giving terms of subscription and advertising wares.

Author: 
Thomas Mudie of 39 Cheyne Walk, London bookseller of Scottish extraction, founder of a circulating library and father of the bookseller and circulating librarian Charles Edward Mudie (1818-1890)
Mudie
Publication details: 
T. Mudie's (late Dillon's) Circulating Library, 39, Cheyne Walk, near Chelsea Church. Undated [circa 1810].
£120.00
Mudie

On 11 x 6.5 cm rectangle of paper, laid down on the pastedown of a 12mo calf front board. Beneath the title: 'This Library is enriched with every work of merit, as soon as published; and comprises such a variety of Travels, Histories, Biography, Novels, Plays, and Literature in general, as cannot fail to graify every Class of Readers. | The Daily Papers taken in.' Following this are the yearly, half-yearly, quarterly and monthly terms for borrowing two and four books. Further text follows, beginning: 'Books read by Non-subscribers charged according to the Size.' and ending 'T. M.

[Book; Limited Edition; Senhouse copy; HEAVILY ANNOTATED LIST] Bentley's Standard Novel Series

Author: 
Michael Sadleir
Michael Sadleir and Richard Bentley
Publication details: 
"Printed in Edinburgh, Scotland, for the Colophon, April 1932"
£500.00
Michael Sadleir and Richard Bentley

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).

Autograph Letter Signed from Godfrey Turner to [Edward] Walford, concerning the publication in the Daily Telegraph of an article on 'Our National Anthem'.

Author: 
Godfrey Turner [Godfrey Wordsworth Turner] (182-1891), journalist with the Daily Telegraph [Edward Walford (1823-1897); Sir Edwin Arnold (1832-1904), editor of the 'Daily Telegraph', 1873-1888]
Godfrey Turner
Publication details: 
24 June 1882.
£56.00
Godfrey Turner

12mo, 2 pp. 34 lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. He received Walford's manuscript and 'did free my spirit, as I promised I would, without loss of time'. The matter is now in the hands of the printer of the Daily Telegraph, who, 'at the time of going to press, is master of of the situation, and often delays, from night to night, giving a place to our best-loved paragraphs.' Turner marked his copy with 'a mem to the effect' that it should be shown to 'Mr. Arnold'.

Autograph Letter Signed by 'J. B. Eardley-Wilmot L.L.D.', ostensibly requesting a book for review, but in fact the work of a fraudster.

Author: 
J.B. Eardley-Wilmot
Autograph Letter Signed by 'J. B. Eardley-Wilmot L.L.D.'
Publication details: 
20 May 1850; 133 Upper Grove Street, Gloucester Gate.
£65.00
Autograph Letter Signed by 'J. B. Eardley-Wilmot L.L.D.'

12mo, 1 p. 15 lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. He requests 'the favour of a copy of Dr 's work "The Hoe & the Canoe," for review'. He claims to be 'a friend of Lord Elgin the Governor', and to have been 'a long resident in the Canadas' in his 'official capacity', ending: 'it will afford me the utmost pleasure to say all I can in behalf in [sic] the reviewing publication with which I have the honour of being connected, of Dr 's work'. The truth about 'J. B.

[Printed pamphlet.] Wood-Engraving.

Author: 
[Chambers's Miscellany of Useful and Entertaining Tracts, W. and R. Chambers, Edinburgh]
[Printed pamphlet.] Wood-Engraving.
Publication details: 
[Circa 1845.] [Chambers's Miscellany of Useful and Entertaining Tracts. No. 85.] Printed and Published by W. and R. Chambers, Edinburgh.
£125.00
[Printed pamphlet.] Wood-Engraving.

12mo, 16 pp. Unbound, unstitched and unopened. A half-sheet folded three times to make eight leaves. Reproduction of early engraving on first page, vignette of country scene on last page, three illustrations of tools and a further thirteen numbered figures in text. Text and images clear and complete. Publishing details, with price of '1/2d' printed upwards along inner margin of last page. On aged paper, with slight damage to the margin of the first leaf. This single issue scarce: no copy on COPAC. Chambers Miscellany was originally published between 1844 and 1847.

Original finished coloured comic drawing, showing a large penguin [Jan Tschichold?] dragging a bearded man [Montague Shaw?] who clutches a set of letters spelling 'Fabers', signifying the man's move from the publishers Faber & Faber to Penguin Books.

Author: 
[Montague Shaw, production manager, Faber & Faber Ltd; Jan Tschichold, typographer for Penguin Books]
Original finished coloured comic drawing
Publication details: 
[London.] 1966.
£200.00
Original finished coloured comic drawing

Dimensions 29 x 12 cm. Pasteboard mount, 31 x 14.5 cm. In blue, black and white. In good condition on lightly-aged paper. In front of a background of ricketty railings, a jolly bespectacled penguin [with Tschichold's sprightly eyes], with a Penguin book under his left arm, and preceded by a letter P and followed by an n, drags a bespectacled, bearded man (looking a little like a young Michael Bentine) towards the right of the drawing.

Corrected galley proof of nonsense poem by 'M. S.' [the Faber & Faber production manager Montague Shaw?] entitled 'Cowkeeper's Tune'.

Author: 
[Montague Shaw, production manager, Faber & Faber Ltd]
Montague Shaw, production manager, Faber & Faber Ltd
Publication details: 
[Undated. London: Faber & Faber, 1950s?]
£50.00
Montague Shaw, production manager, Faber & Faber Ltd

The text area is about 13.5 x 30 cm, on the top half of a slip of paper around twice as long. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The lower half of the slip is blank apart from the pagination 196. Headed 'EPILOGUE | COWKEEPER'S TUNE', and beginning 'Unless your window is fitted with very strong iron bars and, just to make sure, your window locks, | Do not attempt to keep a Dexter cow in your window box.' Signed in type at end 'M.

[Printed handbill.] Books Printed for and Sold by Cornelius Crownfield at the University-press in Cambridge.

Author: 
Cornelius Crownfield (fl.1710-1740), Inspector of the Press, Cambridge University [Richard Bentley, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge; Cambridge University Press]
Books Printed for and Sold by Cornelius Crownfield at the University-press in Ca
Publication details: 
Cambridge. [Circa 1716.]
£380.00
Books Printed for and Sold by Cornelius Crownfield at the University-press in Ca

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 . . .

Autograph Note, Third Person, "Lord Dynevor", politician to "Mr Andrews", bookseller, about books on arctic exploration.

Author: 
George Rice Rice-Trevor, fourth Baron Dynevor (1795–1869), politician (DNB)..
George Rice Rice-Trevor, fourth Baron Dynevor
Publication details: 
Dynevor Castle, 20 Oct. 1833.
£95.00
George Rice Rice-Trevor, fourth Baron Dynevor

One page, 8vo, sunned and grubby, two small chips, small closed tear, spike-hole (loss of two letters), text legible and complete bar two lost letters. A large cross in the white space means perhaps that the bookseller has dealt with the enquiry. "Lord Dynevor begs Mr Andrews will send him the first Voyage of Discovery by Captain Parry in Quarto, (he has got the second - but has lost the first) & whenever any account comes out of Captain Ross's present Expedition to send him a Copy directed to Dynevor Castle, Lan[?] S Wales, by the Paul Pry Gloucester Coach-| Half Bound in Linnen."

Printed 'Proof of a Report - never issued' regarding 'the right of the Liverpool Library to the occupation of a certain part of the Lyceum', with a long manuscript memorandum and an Autograph Letter Signed from attorney John Robinson to John Abraham.

Author: 
John Abraham (1813-1881) of Clay & Abraham, pharmaceutical chemists [The Lyceum, Bold Street, Liverpool; Liverpool Library]
 Liverpool Library
Publication details: 
Robinson's letter: 20 February 1867; Coburg Terrace, West Derby Road, Liverpool. Other items undated [c. 1850?].
£750.00
 Liverpool Library

The subscription Liverpool Library within the Lyceum, founded in 1757, is believed to have been the first circulating or lending library in Europe, and the first two of these items provide a valuable insight into its status at the time when the advent of the public library system was undermining its position.

A quantity of books from Christ Church, Kilndown, Library, c.1875

Author: 
[Sunday School Library, Kent]
Publication details: 
[Kilndown, Kent, c.1875
£450.00

61 items, characterised by grey-brown amateur wrapper, usually grubby, with: A label on the front usually stating, 'CHRIST CHURCH, KILNDOWN | LIBRARY. | No. [...] | Please keep clean. | Can be exchanged on EVERY FRIDAY on application to Rev. H. HARRISON. | October, 1875', And a label on reverse of wrapper, 'CHRIST CHURCH, KILNDOWN | Lending Library | Rules. | . 1. The Library to be Free to Sunday Scholars and Members of the Choir; all other persons using the Books to pay a Subscription of a Half-penny a Month. | 2.

Autograph Letter Signed ('John Murray') from the London publisher John Murray IV to Colonel Spencer Childers, regarding his biography of his father the Liberal Chancellor Hugh Culling Eardley Childers.

Author: 
Sir John Murray IV (1851-1928), London publisher [Colonel Edmund Spencer Eardley Childers (1854-1919), son of Hugh Culling Eardley Childers (1827-96)]
Sir John Murray IV (1851-1928), London publisher
Publication details: 
April 1901; on letterhead of 50 Albemarle Street.
£56.00
Sir John Murray IV (1851-1928), London publisher

12mo, 4 pp. 40 lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Addressed to 'My dear Spencer'. He is sorry to have missed Childers: 'I came back early on Sat: morning fairly driven home by the weather.' Reports that 'Better reviews of the book are now appearing Athenaeum - evidently by Dilke: Tablet: Pall Mall &c.' Thinks 'Clarke will use his influence with the Times', the idea that 'King' has done so being 'entirely out of the question'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Fred Norgate') from the London publisher Frederick Norgate (of the firm Williams & Norgate) to [John] Lawler, concerning the printer William Caxton and bookseller Bernard Quaritch.

Author: 
Frederick Norgate (1817-1908), British publisher, of the firm Williams & Norgate [Bernard Quaritrch; William Caxton; John Lawler]
Frederick Norgate (1817-1908), British publisher,
Publication details: 
29 July 1902; 7 Edith Road, London.
£56.00
Frederick Norgate (1817-1908), British publisher,

12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium. 47 lines. Text clear and complete. On aged paper, wear and fraying to extremities. The cutting which Lawler leant him 'has helped me to trace one stage further in the wanderings of more than one vagabond Caxton'. Refers to John Winter Jones's discovery of a copy in the British Museum of the 'Quatre Derrenieres Choses', 'now more than 50 years ago [...] it has remained absolutely unique until our old friend at 15 Piccadilly [Bernard Quaritch] came upon a 2nd copy'.

Extensive manuscript catalogue of 'Leicestershire Biography & Bibliography', compiled in 1935 by R. B. Halliday of Great Glen [i.e. the Leicester bookseller Bernard Halliday].

Author: 
R. B. Halliday [the Leicester bookseller Bernard Halliday] of Great Glen, Leicestershire [William Barton (c.1598-1678), Vicar of St Martins; Leicestershire stationers and printers]
Publication details: 
Dated 'R B Halliday | Great Glenn [i.e. Great Glen, Leicestershire] | 1935'.
£420.00

4to, [ii] + 71 pp, with numerous leaves of additional manuscript and typescript material loosely inserted, as well as laid down. A few cuttings and extracts from printed works, as well as a Typed Letter Signed (17 March 1937) to Halliday from Ralph M. Williams of Yale, describing himself as 'interested in securing books, manuscripts, or other documents by or about the eighteenth century poet John Dyer'. Neatly written out in pencil and pen, on watermarked wove paper, in sturdy buckram binding. Internally in excellent condition, tight and clean, in worn binding with staining to front board.

Trade card for 'Frederick Bentley & Co. (Late Thomas Harrild.) Printers, Engravers, Designers and Lithographers, Shoe Lane, Fleet Street, London', with engraved illustration of works on one side and 'Almanack for 1870' on the other.

Author: 
Frederick Bentley & Co. (Late Thomas Harrild.) Printers, Engravers, Designers and Lithographers, Shoe Lane, Fleet Street, London [trade cards; printing]
Frederick Bentley & Co. (Late Thomas Harrild.) Printers
Publication details: 
Frederick Bentley & Co., Shoe Lane, Fleet Street, London. [1869.]
£56.00
Frederick Bentley & Co. (Late Thomas Harrild.) Printers

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.

[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.

[Specimen copy for the Plates only] The Marchioness of Brinvilliers

Author: 
Albert Smith, illustrator John Leech
[Specimen copy for the Plates only] The Marchioness of Brinvilliers
Publication details: 
London: Richard Bentley & Son, 1886
£280.00
[Specimen copy for the Plates only] The Marchioness of Brinvilliers

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.

Keepsake, designed by Bram de Does and with text by John Dreyfus, presented to the members of The Wynken de Worde Society, and featuring a facsimile of a 1947 letter in English by Jan van Krimpen.

Author: 
Jan van Krimpen; John Dreyfus; Bram de Does; Offsetdrukkerij Jan de Jong, Amsterdam; The Wynkyn de Worde Society
Keepsake, designed by Bram de Does and with text by John Dreyfus
Publication details: 
One of 250 copies 'printed by Offsetdrukkerij Jan de Jong, Amsterdam. | Presented to the members of The Wynknyn de Worde Society on the occasion of the International Luncheon Meeting 21 September 1995.'
£56.00
Keepsake, designed by Bram de Does and with text by John Dreyfus

8vo, 3 pp. Bifolium on laid paper. Fair, aged and lightly-creased. 'Composed in Lexicon, designed by Bram de Does in 1992. 250 copies printed by Offsetdrukkerij Jan de Jong, Amsterdam. | Presented to the members of The Wynknyn de Worde Society on the occasion of the International Luncheon Meeting 21 September 1995.' The facsimile of the letter, by 'Jan', dated 'Heemstede 12 March 1947', is on both sides of the first leaf. Biograpical printed text by Dreyfus on recto of second leaf, the verso of which is blank.

[Printed item.] Catalogue of an Exhibition illustrative of a Centenary of Artistic Lithography 1796-1896. [With introduction by Louis Prang.]

Author: 
Louis Prang [The Grolier Club, Artistic Lithography Exhibition, 1896; The De Vinne Press]
 Catalogue of an Exhibition illustrative of a Centenary of Artistic Lithography
Publication details: 
[The De Vinne Press.] At the Grolier Club, 29 East 32nd Street, New York, 6 to 28 March 1896.
£75.00
 Catalogue of an Exhibition illustrative of a Centenary of Artistic Lithography

12mo, 73 pp. Introduction followed by bibliography (pp.11-19). In original red and black printed wraps. Good tight copy, in lightly-worn and chipped wraps. Unlimited edition, without illustrations. The only copies of this edition at the British Library and University of London.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J. C. Ewing.') from James Cameron Ewing, Librarian, Baillie's Institution, Glasgow, to the London auctioneers Sotheby, Wilkinson, and Hodge, discussing an edition of Burns's poems.

Author: 
James Cameron Ewing (b. 1871), Librarian, Baillie's Institution, Glasgow [Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge; Robert Burns]
Publication details: 
13 July 1910; on letterhead of Baillie's Institution.
£85.00

12mo, 3 pp. 28 lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on aged paper. He does not understand how they can have 'a record of a second edition [of Burns's poems] dated 1786, for the book was not published until April 1787'. He describes the two issues of the second edition ('a stinking or a skinking issue') and concludes that he will be glad to hear from them, should they 'meet with a 1786 second edition, or with a copy having the addenda incorporated in the list of subscribers, or one having Roxburgh spelled correctly'.

[printed pamphlet] The Edinburgh Annual Register from 1808 to 1823

Author: 
[Sir Walter Scott; Archibald Constable; Hurst, Robinson; The Edinburgh Annual Register]
Publication details: 
Edinburgh, [1823]
£75.00

12mo, 14pp, disbound, first leaf detached, good condition. Text clear and complete. In which the publishers outline their (historical) policy and ambitions for the various aspects of the periodical, and provide an Index by volume and subject. Sir Walter Scott took an almost proprietorial interest in this periodical. Scarce: COPAC lists NLS copy only (16pp).

[Prospectus or Commemorative Catalogue of] Bentley's Standard Novels & Romances |Bentley's Favourite Novels

Author: 
[Richard Bentley & Son, publishers].
Bentley's Standard Novels & Romances
Publication details: 
[New Burlington Street, London], Printed January 1882.
£125.00
Bentley's Standard Novels & Romances

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?.

[Pamphlet printed at Canterbury College of Art.] The Garden of Pleasure. Translated from "La Maison Rustique" by Charles Estienne, 1572. With linocuts by Jessie Kennett.

Author: 
Charles Estienne [Jessie Kennett, illustrator; Canterbury College of Art]
Charles Estienne [Jessie Kennett, illustrator; Canterbury College of Art]
Publication details: 
Canterbury College of Art, 1949.
£75.00
Charles Estienne [Jessie Kennett, illustrator; Canterbury College of Art]

Small 4to, 4 pp. Stitched. In original brown and black decorative wraps. Good, on lightly-aged paper. A pretty piece of printing, with the title-page printed in light blue and black, and the vignette on illustration on the reverse of the title leaf in the same light blue. The text covers two pages. Scarce: no copy on COPAC.

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