Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

RAVILIOUS, Eric (illustrator) and J.M. RICHARDS. High Street. London: the Curwen Press for Country Life Ltd., 1938. First edition, 8vo (229 x 146mm.) Wood-engraved vignette to the title-page, 24 lithograph plates by Eric Ravilious. (Mild toning.) Original pictorial boards (some wear to top of spine and spine seam, rubbing to extremities).

PLATH, Sylvia. Ariel. London: Faber and Faber, 1965. First edition, first impression, 8vo (217 x 133mm.) (Toning.) Original red cloth, gilt lettering to spine, dust-jacket (faint stain to upper panel, nicks to spine ends). Note: the unclipped dust-jacket with '12s 6d net'.

MINTON, John (illustrator) and H.E. BATES. The Country Heart. London: Michael Joseph, 1949. First edition, signed by John Minton and H.E. Bates on the half-title, 8vo (199 x 125mm.) (Mild toning.) Original beige cloth (lightly bumped spine ends).

TOOLE, John Kennedy. A Confederacy of Dunces. London: Allen Lane, 1981. First U.K. edition, 8vo (194 x 124mm.) (Mild toning.) Original cream cloth (browned to spine, extremities bumped), dust-jacket (minor marginal crease, small mark to upper panel, fading). Note: partly due to his lack of success in finding a publisher for his novel, John Kennedy Toole committed suicide in 1969, aged thirty-one. His mother sent the manuscript to novelist Walker Percy and the novel was eventually published to great acclaim, winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1981.

ORWELL, George. Animal Farm, a Fairy Story. London: Secker and Warburg, May 1945. First edition, first printing, 8vo (184 x 119mm.) (Faint spotting to endpapers, mild toning.) Original green cloth, white lettering to spine (fading to tail of spine panel), dust-jacket (small tear at base of spine panel, abrasions with small closed areas of minor loss to lower panel). Note: with the 'Searchlight Books' design verso the dust-jacket and the 6s price on the inner flap.

FLEMING, Ian. On Her Majesty's Secret Service. London: Jonathan Cape, 1963. First edition, first impression, 8vo (188 x 120mm.) (Toning.) Original black cloth with white ski-run design to upper cover, silver lettering to spine (spine ends bumped), dust-jacket designed by Richard Chopping (minor creasing to spine ends, spotting to lower panel). Note: with the 16s price on the inner flap.

FLEMING, Ian. From Russia, With Love. London: Jonathan Cape, 1957. First edition, first impression, signed by actor Martine Beswick, 8vo (188 x 122mm.) (Toning.) Original black cloth with gun and rose motif in silver and red to upper cover and silver and red lettering to spine (spine ends lightly bumped), dust-jacket designed by Richard Chopping (minor chipping to extremities, browning to lower panel, price-clipped). Note: Fleming's fifth novel with James Bond and the first to have the Richard Chopping-designed dust-jacket. Signed to the initial blank by Martine Beswick- who played 'Zora' in the film, released in 1963. She also played 'Paula Caplan' in the film of 'Thunderball'.

FLEMING, Ian. Goldfinger. London: Jonathan Cape, 1959. First edition, first impression, 8vo (189 x 122mm.) (Toning, faint spotting to rear endpaper.) Original black cloth with blind-stamped skull and gilt coins for eyes (extremities lightly bumped, a price in ink on rear pastedown), dust-jacket designed by Richard Chopping (minor chipping to spine ends, browning to lower panel margins). Note: a first issue binding, denoted by the 3mm indent on the skull of the upper cover, and with 15s price on the inner flap of the dust-jacket.

FLEMING, Ian. You Only Live Twice. London: Jonathan Cape, 1964. First edition, first impression, 8vo (189 x 122mm.) (Toning.) Original black cloth with gilt Japanese letters to upper cover, silver lettering to spine, dust-jacket designed by Richard Chopping (minor mark to lower panel). Note: with the 16s price to the inner flap of the dust-jacket and 'First Published 1964' on the copyright page, and with the bamboo-style endpapers.

FLEMING, Ian. Dr. No. London: Jonathan Cape, 1958. First edition, first impression, 8vo (189 x 124mm.) (Toning, small corner crease to p.83.) Original black cloth with the 'Honeychile' silhouette to upper cover (extremities lightly bumped), dust-jacket (chipping to extremities, some creasing to upper margin of lower panel, small tip-ex mark to inner flap). Note: a second state binding and first state dust-jacket with the intact price of 13s 6d.

FLEMING, Ian. Diamonds are Forever. London: Jonathan Cape, 1956. First edition, first impression, 8vo (188 x 122mm.) (Toning.) Original black cloth with blind-stamped diamond motif (spine ends lightly bumped), dust-jacket (creasing to spine ends, corner loss to upper panel). Note: first issue with 'Boofy' for 'Dolly' on p.134. Provenance: Oswald Cowie (name-plate in manuscript hand mounted to initial blank).

FLEMING, Ian. Thunderball. London: Jonathan Cape, 1961. First edition, first impression, inscribed by actress Martine Beswick, 8vo (188 x 120mm.) (Mild toning, small mark to front-free endpaper.) Original black cloth with skeletal hand blind-stamped to upper cover, gilt lettering to spine (small mark to upper cover), dust-jacket (extremities bumped). Note: Martine Beswick played 'Paula Caplan' in the 1963 film of Thunderball. James Bond and Paula go undercover in search of two missing atomic bombs. Paula is captured but, rather than divulge information, she commits suicide by cyanide. Martine Beswick also played the gypsy girl 'Zora' in 'From Russia With Love'.

FLEMING, Ian. Moonraker. London: Jonathan Cape, 1955. First edition, first impression, 8vo (188 x 123mm.) (Toning, some spotting to text-block top edge.) Original black cloth, silver lettering to spine and upper cover (faint mark to upper cover), dust-jacket (browned, price-clipped). Provenance: 'Bernard' (gift inscribed to on the front pastedown).

FLEMING, Ian. Live and Let Die. London: Jonathan Cape, 1954. First edition, first impression, 8vo (189 x 124mm.) (Toning, occasional finger-mark.) Original black cloth, gilt coin motif to upper cover (slight fading to lettering, lower corners bumped), dust-jacket (browning to lower panel, creasing at top of spine). Note: a second-state dust-jacket with the credit to Kenneth Lewis mid-way between blurb and lower margin.

FLEMING, Ian. For Your Eyes Only. London: Jonathan Cape, 1960. First edition, first impression, 8vo (188 x 118mm.) (Toning, corner crease to p.11.) Original black cloth with white eye motif to upper cover, spine lettered in gilt (spine ends bumped), dust-jacket designed by Richard Chopping (some sunning to spine panel, light creasing to upper panel).

FLEMING, Ian. Casino Royale. London: Pan Books Ltd., 1964. Sixteenth printing, 8vo (178 x 118mm.) (Stamps to preliminaries and verso card covers, toning.) Original card covers (creasing to spine). - And a further four softbacks by Ian Fleming (5).

FLEMING, Ian. Octopussy and the Living Daylights. London: Jonathan Cape, 1966. First edition, first impression, 8vo (186 x 122mm.) (Toning, slight spotting to fore-edge.) Original black cloth, dust-jacket. - And a further five volumes related to James Bond (including Ian Fleming's 'The Man With The Golden Gun', 1965, 8vo, and John Gardner's 'Licence Renewed', 1981, 8vo) (6).

NEW NATURALIST. The New Naturalist Library. London: Collins, 1946-1967. 50 vols., including 45 first editions, 8vo (222 x 151mm.) Numerous illustrations. (Toning, occasional spotting, some names inscribed.) Original cloth (spine ends bumped), dust-jackets (occasional chipping, volumes 39, 42 and 43 are price-clipped, volume 19 spine panel split.) Note: an unbroken run from volume 1 to 50. Volumes 1,4,24,34 and 42 are reprints. Provenance: by descent, from the estate of Rendel Williams (50).

NEW NATURALIST. The New Naturalist Library. London: Collins and Harper Collins, 1945-2015. 124 vols., including 115 first editions and 2 volumes signed by the authors, 8vo (222 x 151mm.) Numerous illustrations. (Browning and occasional spotting.) Original cloth (extremities bumped to some early volumes), dust-jackets (24 volumes are price-clipped, chipping to some spine ends). Note: a run of one hundred and twenty-four volumes of the New Naturalist, comprising 1-115, 119-126, 128. Numbers 3, 4, 20, 22, 42, 43, 47, 65 and 82 are reprints. Volume 70 is a first edition, first state, signed by its author R.J. Berry, number 110 is signed by its author, David Cabot. - And a further eleven volumes related to the New Naturalist (including ten New Naturalist Monographs, and one reference work: Tim Bernhard and Timothy Loe's 'Collecting the New Naturalist', 2015, 4to) (135).