Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

BINDING. The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments. Cambridge: John W. Parker, 1842. 2 vols., 16mo (92 x 51mm.) Including ‘The Book of Common Prayer’. (Mild toning, first quire of ‘Common Prayer’ loose.) Near contemporary calf, black morocco lettering pieces to spines, gilt fleur-de-lis to covers, g.e. (some loss to top of spine of volume 1, creasing to spines) (2).

[BOREMAN, Thomas.] A Description of Three Hundred Animals… with a Particular Account of Whale-Fishery. Dublin: George Abraham Grierson, 1755. 8vo (168 x 96mm.) Engraved frontispiece, numerous wood-engraved illustrations. (Marginal tape repairs to preliminaries, browning and minor soiling throughout, several marginal tears, lacking rear blank and rear endpaper damp-stained.) Contemporary calf, later paper label mounted to spine (light rubbing). Provenance: Susanna Bewley (ink name inscribed to initial blank). – And a further eight volumes (including, with a detached upper cover, ‘The Surprising Travels and Adventures of Baron Munchausen’, 1819, 12mo) (9).

CHINA. – James ORANGE. The Chater Collection Pictures relating to China, Hong Kong, Macao, 1655-1860. London: Thornton Butterworth Limited, 1924. Limited edition, this being 357 of 750 copies, 4to (304 x 246mm.) Photogravure portrait frontispiece, tissue-guards, numerous colour and black and white plates and illustrations, some folding, tipped-in errata slip. (Mild toning.) Original green cloth, gilt lettering to spine and upper cover, t.e.g. (extremities rubbed, slight warp and marginal spotting to lower cover).

THEATRE. ‘The Spotlight’ Casting Directory For Stage and Screen. London: ‘The Spotlight’ Ltd., December 1936. No.38, 4to (281 x 196mm.) Numerous photographic portraits of actors and actresses of the day, sectional dividers, numerous advertisements. (Toning, occasional crease.) Original card covers (marginal tear and creasing, wear to spine ends).

GOODWIN, Albert. The Diary of Albert Goodwin, R.W.S. 1883-1927. [London:] for Private Circulation, 1934. 8vo (226 x 137mm.) Photographic portrait frontispiece, 2 plates. (Toning.) Original brown limp suede, gilt monogram to upper cover (some loss and a split to spine panel). Note: scarce. Albert Goodwin [1845-1932] was born in Maidstone, Kent, and was a prolific landscape artist influenced by Turner and was described by Ford Madox Brown as being ‘one of the greatest landscape painters of the day’.

DE LA MARE, Walter. Desert Islands and Robinson Crusoe. London: Faber and Faber, 1930. First edition, signed and inscribed by Walter de la Mare and 14 typed letters from the author to G.E. Manwaring tipped-in, 8vo (254 x 155mm.) Illustrations by Rex Whistler. (Scattered light spotting.) Original cloth (worn). Note: The letters span the years 1929-1936 and are all typed on ‘Hill House, Taplow’ headed writing-paper. G.E. Manwaring was a librarian at the London Library and the first letter is de la Mare reminding Manwaring of his offer to read the proofs of his book ‘Desert Islands’. Later, he mentions that his son [Richard] works at Faber and Faber and that his book ‘owes all it looks to him’. Walter also asks for recommendations as he is researching a book on juvenilia. In April 1932, Walter invites George to tea and gives convoluted instructions on how to get to his home. He would be ‘delighted’ to pick him up from the station but, alas, he ‘can’t drive’. Later, he critiques some poems that Manwaring has sent him saying, soothingly, that this is ‘only a personal criticism’. Provenance: G.E. Manwaring (bookplate to the front pastedown and ink inscription from the author on the half-title). – And a further volume by Walter de la Mare (‘Behold, This Dreamer!’, 1939, 8vo) (2).

UKERS, William H. All About Tea. New York: The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal Company, 1935. 2 vols., first edition, 4to (260 x 182mm.) Colour frontispiece, numerous black and white illustrations. (Toning.) Original green cloth, gilt to upper covers (spine ends bumped) (2).

BEATON, Cecil. The Book of Beauty. London: Duckworth, 1930. First edition, 4to (278 x 216mm.) Colour frontispiece, 27 black and white photographic plates. (Mild toning.) Original pink cloth-backed boards (some soiling to extremities). Note: Beaton’s first book. – And a further twenty-six volumes (including Herbert Read’s ‘The Green Child’, 1945, 8vo, and Herbert Corey’s ‘Farewell, Mr. Gangster!’, 1936, 8vo) (27).

CROSS, Thomas. The Autobiography of a Coachman. London: Kegan Paul, Trench et al., 1904. 2 vols., limited edition of 500 copies only, large 8vo (263 x 171mm.) 40 hand-coloured engraved plates with tissue-guards. (Lacking 2 plates, toning, light spotting to half titles.) Original green cloth, pictorial gilt to upper covers (fading to spine gilt) (2).

RACKHAM, Arthur (illustrator). – Christina ROSSETTI. Goblin Market. London: George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., 1923. 4to (218 x 140mm.) 4 colour plates. (Toning, occasional minor spotting.) Original card wrappers (browned, lightly rubbed). – And a small quantity of children’s books (including R.M. Ballantyne’s ‘Mee-A-Ow! Or, Good Advice to Cats and Kittens’, 1859, 4to, and ‘Vieilles Chansons Pour Les Petits Enfants’ illustrated by M.B. de Monvel, [1927], oblong 4to) (small quantity).

TOMLINSON, H.M. – Clare LEIGHTON (illustrator). The Sea & The Jungle. London: Duckworth, 1930. Limited edition, this being number 25 of 515 copies signed by H.M. Tomlinson and a loosely inserted slip with Clare Leighton’s ink signature, 8vo (228 x 137mm.) 7 woodcut plates by Leighton and numerous decorations, a 7-line hand-written card by Leighton tipped-in. (Mild toning.) Original green cloth, dust-jacket (minor loss and tear at base of spine, creasing to upper panel), slipcase (sunned to margins). Note: the card reads: ‘Dear Dan Banner, Here is the Sea and Jungle signature- I’m glad you have this book. Forgive a scribble- some weeks ago I stupidly had an accident and broke my hip. I am recovering well, but it is a horrid nuisance and interruption. Cordially, Clare Leighton’. – And a further eight volumes related to Clare Leighton (including a copy of Bertha Damon’s ‘Sense of Humus’, signed by the author and a mounted signature by Clare Leighton, 1943, 8vo, and Elinor Parker’s ‘I was Just Thinking- A Book of Essays’ with a  mounted signature by Clare Leighton, 1959, 8vo, and ‘Imagination’s Other Place’ edited Helen Plotz, signed by Clare Leighton, 1955, 8vo, and Thomas Hardy’s ‘Under a Greenwood Tree’, 1940, 8vo, and Clare Leighton’s ‘The Wood that Came Back’, 1935, oblong 4to) (9).

HARDY, Thomas. – Clare LEIGHTON (illustrator). Return of the Native. New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1929. Limited edition, this being number 1250 of 1500 copies signed by Clare Leighton, 4to (237 x 156mm.) Tipped-in plates and illustrations by Leighton. (Toning.) Original cream cloth-backed boards, paper label mounted to spine, dust-jacket (toned, slightly chipped extremities).

BRONTE, Emily. – Clare LEIGHTON (illustrator). Wuthering Heights. London: Duckworth, 1931. Inscribed by Clare Leighton, 4to (271 x 204mm.) 12 wood-engraved plates. (Mild toning.) Original red cloth. Note: the inscriptions reads: ‘To Agnes Mure Mackenzie, from Clare Leighton. A fulfilment of a years’ old suggestion and a token of thanks to her for discovering to me Ponden Hall. Hampstead November 11th 1931’. Provenance: Agnes Mure Mackenzie, Scottish writer (inscribed to by Clare Leighton on the front-free endpaper).

LEIGHTON, Clare. Woodcuts, Examples of the Work… with an Introduction by Hilaire Belloc. London, New York etc., 1930. Limited edition, this being number 425 of 450 copies signed by Leighton, 4to (315 x 250mm.) 38 mounted wood-engraved illustrations on 37 leaves, occasional decorations. (Toning.) Original brown cloth, mounted paper illustration to upper cover (lightly rubbed, top of spine slightly frayed). Provenance: Worthing Public Library (ink stamp to recto and verso of title-page, bookplate and ink number to spine). – And a further twelve volumes related to Clare Leighton (including Pat Jaffe’s ‘The Wood Engravings of Clare Leighton’, 1992, 4to, and, Leighton’s ‘Growing New Roots’, signed by the author, 1976, 8vo and, edited by Leighton, ‘Wood Engraving of the 1930’s, 1936, 4to, and, in a dust-jacket, ‘The Legion Book’, 1929, 4to, edited by H. Cotton Minchin, and, ‘Clare Leighton, the Growth and Shaping of an Artist-Writer’, signed by David Leighton [Clare’s nephew], 2009, 4to) (13).

LEIGHTON, Clare. The Philosophy of Gardening. An Address Given at a Horticultural Meeting St. Paul, Minnesota, June 1947. [Berkshire: Croft Publications], 1991. Re-issue, 4to (297 x 210mm.) (Mild toning.) Original pictorial wrappers.

BRITAIN. – Aylett SAMMES. Britannia Antiqua Illustrata: or, the Antiquities of Ancient Britain, Derived from the Phoenicians. London: by Thomas Roycroft, for the Author, 1676. Vol. 1 [all published.] Folio (359 x 231mm.) Title in red and black, 24 engraved illustrations in the text, engraved map of Europe. (Map lacking half, only single-paged, title and all leaves before B1 detached, last leaves detached and 1 quire loosening, corner loss to M2, browning.) 18th century half calf (worn). – And a further two volumes (including John Hicklin’s ‘The ‘Ladies of Llangollen’, as Sketched By Many Hands’, 1847, folio, and Hieronymus Zanchii’s ‘Operum Theologicorum’, vol. 2 (only, of 2), [1619], folio) (3).

BIBLE, In English. The Holy Bible Containing the Old Testament and the New, Newly translated out of the original Tongues, And with the former Translations diligently Compared and revised. Cambridge: John Hayes, 1670. 4to (224 x 165mm.) Engraved architectural title by John Chantry, separate letterpress title for NT, includes Apocrypha and ‘Book of Common Prayer’, ‘Whole of the Psalms’ with separate title to rear. (GT loosening, lacking title and leaves before C1 of ‘Book of Common Prayer’, lacking several leaves to rear of ‘Whole Book of the Psalms’ and A6, soiling to Yy3 of GT and E1 of NT, title of NT torn, several leaves with corner loss and text affected including Nn6 of GT and T1 and A3 of NT, some leaves with contemporary scribbles including title of ‘Whole Book of the Psalms’, browning throughout, occasional damp-staining.) Contemporary calf (upper cover detached, lower joint split, minor loss to spine panel). Provenance: Catherine Young (ink name inscribed verso NT); John Young (ink name inscribed verso lower cover); Betty Goddard (ink name inscribed verso upper cover) [Herbert 702]. – And another Bible (‘The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments…Illustrated’, [circa 1860], 4to) (2).

HEATH-ROBINSON, William (illustrator). – Charles KINGSLEY. The Water-Babies. A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby. London: Constable, 1915. 4to (216 x 164mm.) 8 colour plates, numerous illustrations in the text. (Toning, occasional finger-mark.) Original green cloth, pictorial gilt (fading to spine, hinges slightly weakened). – And a further twelve miscellaneous volumes (including [T.W. Wood’s] ‘Curiosities of Entomology’, 1871, 8vo, and Jules Michelet’s ‘The Bird’, 1870, 8vo, and W.H. Davenport Adam’s ‘The Bird World’, 1880, 8vo) (13).

[REMI, Georges.] HERGÉ. The Adventures of Tintin: Destination Moon. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1959. First English edition, 4to (295 x 226mm.) (Toning to margins.) Original pictorial paper-covered boards (minor wear to spine ends, extremities rubbed, sunning to spine panel). – And a further eight volumes of the first edition in English of ‘The Adventures of Tintin’ (including ‘King Ottakar’s Sceptre’, 1958, 4to; ‘The Crab With the Golden Claws’, 1958, 4to; ‘The Secret of the Unicorn’, 1959, 4to; ‘Red Rackham’s Treasure’, 1959, 4to; ‘Explorers on the Moon’, 1959, 4to; ‘The Calculus Affair’, 1960, 4to; ‘The Red Sea Sharks’, 1960, 4to, and ‘The Shooting Star’, 1961, 4to) (9).