Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

CHURCHILL, Winston S. My Early Life, A Roving Commission. London: Thornton Butterworth Limited, 1930. First edition, second issue (220 x 139mm.) 16 plates, including photographic frontispiece, 1 folding map to rear. (Toning, occasional browning, a 3-inch closed tear to p.163.) Original pink cloth, gilt lettering to upper cover and blind-stamped (fading to spine and wear to spine ends, extremities rubbed, minor stain to lower cover). Note: 12 lines of Churchill titles verso the half-title. An entertaining account of the author’s early life and his most widely read book. Provenance: D.I.C. Ashton-Cross (bookplate to front pastedown); from the estate of Trevor Hives, thence by descent.

CHURCHILL, Winston S. Liberalism and the Social Problem. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1909. First edition, 8vo (191 x 123mm.) (Some spotting to pastedowns and half-title.) Original red cloth, author’s signature in gilt to upper cover (slight fading to spine). Note: an early collection of Churchill’s speeches made when he was a member of the Liberal Party. Provenance: from the estate of Trevor Hives, thence by descent.

CHURCHILL, Winston S. My African Journey. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1908. First edition, 8vo (189 x 117mm.) 47 plates, 3 maps including 1 folding, 16pp. publisher’s advertisements to rear. (Occasional browning, light spotting to preliminaries.) Original pictorial cloth (some fading to spine, minor marks to spine panel and lower cover). Provenance: from the estate of Trevor Hives, thence by descent.

CHURCHILL, Winston S. Thoughts and Adventures. London: Thornton Butterworth Limited, 1932. First edition, first impression, 8vo (217 x 140mm.) Photographic portrait frontispiece. (Toning, minor spotting to preliminaries, occasional browning.) Original cloth, dust-jacket (browned, chipped at top of spine panel, split to spine panel). Note: the book of essays that covers, perhaps, the broadest range of Churchill’s interests. In a letter to his publisher Churchill wrote of the book that, ‘although there is no single theme, it has some of the best things in it I have ever written’. Provenance: from the estate of Trevor Hives, thence by descent.

CHURCHILL, Winston S. The River War, an Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Soudan. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1899. 2 vols., first edition, 8vo (224 x 141mm.) Half-titles, numerous illustrations, plates and maps, including 20 folding. (Toning, blanks replaced.) Mid-20th century green half morocco bound by Bayntun-Rivière, t.e.g. (sunning to spines, endpapers replaced). Note: Churchill’s second book as a young war correspondent. Provenance: from the estate of Trevor Hives, thence by descent (2).

CHURCHILL, Winston S. The War Speeches… compiled by Charles Eade. London: Cassell and Company Limited, 1951-52. 3 vols., 8vo (248 x 149mm.) (Mild toning.) Original blue cloth, dust-jackets (slight chipping to spine ends, small tear at base of volume 3). Provenance: from the estate of Trevor Hives, thence by descent (3).

CHESS. – William CAXTON. The Game of the Chesse. [London:] Vincent and James Figgins, 1855. Deluxe facsimile of Caxton’s Second edition, 8vo (272 x 199mm.) Title in red, 23 woodcut illustrations in the text. (Mild toning, vertical crease to initial blanks.) Original brown morocco with strapwork effect in relief, Caxton’s initials in blind to covers, metal clasps and bosses (some loss to spine panel, extremities rubbed). Provenance: J. Dawson-Brodie (bookplate to front pastedown); J. Johannis Whitefoord Mackenzie Armiger (bookplate to front pastedown).

NASH, Paul (illustrator). Genesis. Twelve Woodcuts by Paul Nash with the First Chapter of Genesis in the Authorised Version. [London:] by the Curwen Press for the Nonesuch Press, 1924. Limited edition, this being number 80 of 375 copies, 4to (266 x 187mm.) 12 woodcuts, text in Rudolf Koch’s Neuland type. (Mild toning, some uncut leaves.) Original black boards, gilt title to upper cover (slight rubbing to spine ends, minor abrasions). Provenance: Eva Le Gallienne, actress and director (bookplate to front pastedown).

PIPER, John. Brighton Aquatints…with…an Introduction by Lord Alfred Douglas. London: Curwen Press for Duckworth, 1939. Limited edition, being one of 200 copies only, oblong folio (253 x 389mm.) 12 black and white aquatints with tissue-guards, accompanying text on blue paper. (Some light spotting to first text leaves, some offsetting to one plate.) Original red cloth-backed boards, paper label mounted to upper cover (toning to extremities, slight dust-soiling to lower cover).

NASH, Paul (illustrator). – Martin ARMSTRONG. Saint Hercules and Other Stories. London: by the Curwen Press for The Fleuron, [1927.] Limited edition, this being number 26 of 310 copies on hand-made paper, 4to (283 x 191mm.) Frontispiece and 4 pochoir illustrations, 1 full-page. (Mild toning.) Original cloth-backed patterned boards, glassine dust-jacket (slightly browned). Provenance: Martin Armstrong (from the sale of Martin Donisthorpe Armstrong’s family library sale on 27th January 2009 at Toovey’s auction house, lot number 3095).

GRANT, Duncan (illustrator). – S.T. COLERIDGE. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. [N.p. but London: privately printed for Richard and Allen Lane,] 1945. Limited edition, being one of 700 copies, this one signed by publisher Allen Lane, 8vo (225 x 143mm.) Text in red and black, 5 colour plates by Duncan Grant. (Light marginal browning to first and last leaves.) Original blue niger morocco, gilt medallion to upper cover, t.e.g. (spine slightly faded).

RICKETTS, Charles (illustrator) and [Katherine BRADLEY and Edith COOPER.] ‘Michael Field’. Julia Domna. [London:] printed at the Ballantyne Press, 1903. Limited edition, this being one of 240 copies, 8vo (233 x 142mm.) Wood-engraved border in red and black to first leaf of text and decorations by Charles Ricketts. (Occasional light spotting, uncut leaves.) Original paper-covered boards, paper label to spine. Provenance: Lord Battersea, M.P. (armorial bookplate to front pastedown).

RICKETTS, Charles (illustrator) and [Katherine BRADLEY and Edith COOPER.] ‘Michael Field’. The Race of Leaves. [London:] printed at the Ballantyne Press, 1901. Limited edition, this being one of 280 copies, 8vo (232 x 140mm.) Wood-engraved border in red and black to first leaf of text and decorations by Charles Ricketts. (Some offsetting to front and rear leaves, toning.) Original paper-covered boards, paper label to spine. Provenance: Lord Battersea, M.P. (armorial bookplate to front pastedown).

BINDING. – F.W.H. MYERS. Wordsworth. London: Macmillan & Co. Limited., 1899. 8vo (184 x 113mm.) (Mild toning, spotting to front and rear leaves.) Bound by Zaehnsdorf in full green morocco, gilt ruled, gilt turn-ins, g.e. (some fading to spine). Provenance: Evelyn Myers (gift inscribed from in ink on the title-page); Lord Battersea, M.P. (armorial bookplate to front pastedown, and gift inscribed to in ink on the title-page from Evelyn Myers).

DONOVAN, Edward. The Natural History of British Insects. London: for the Author and for F. C. Rivington, 1792-1813. 16 vols. in 8, first edition, 8vo (236 X 136mm.) 8 half-titles present, 576 hand-coloured engraved plates, including 9 uncoloured plates, extra-illustrated with 60 further engraved plates hand-coloured and signed by Anne Eliza Rudge and a few signed by A.E. Pole [Charles Pole], all of them bound-in according to Stephens’ classification [James Francis Stephens], the corresponding text leaves also have insect name and plate number in manuscript, 28pp. of handwritten indices to rear of vol. 8 bound-in before printed indices, also in the same hand. (Plates not bound in Donovan’s numerical order, toning, occasional spotting and browning, lacking errata leaves.) Near contemporary brown full morocco, gilt ruled, gilt lettering to spines (extremities rubbed, upper joint of volume 8 splitting). Note: the hand-written index has two columns and it cross-references the classification of Donovan’s taxonomy with Stephens’. Anne Eliza Rudge was the daughter of Anne Rudge, wife of the botanist Edward Rudge, and herself a botanical illustrator. Anne Eliza Rudge married Charles Pole in 1824 and a few of the plates are signed A.E. Pole. All but two of Anne Eliza Rudge’s plates are copies of parts of the original figures but made necessary by arranging according to Stephen’s classifications. The two new figures are both of larvae and they are plate 200 and 439 (8).

ROWLANDSON, Thomas (illustrator). – [after William COMBE.] The Adventures of Doctor Comicus or the Frolicks of Fortune, A Comic Satirical Poem for the Squeamish & the Queer. London: B. Blake, [1815.] First edition, 4to (219 x 131mm.) 15 hand-coloured aquatint plates, including the frontispiece and additional title, original paper wrappers bound-in. (Browning and occasional light spotting.) Early 20th century brown full calf, brown morocco lettering piece to spine, t.e.g. (lightly rubbed, occasional scuffing to covers). Provenance: Sybil and Wallace Warner (bookplate to front pastedown). [Tooley, 431].

BINDINGS. – Edmund SPENSER. The Poetical Works of… edited by J.C. Smith. Oxford: at the Clarendon Press, 1909-1910. 3 vols., 8vo (221 x 140mm.) (Toning, light spotting to one initial blank.) Near contemporary brown half morocco bound by Bumpus, t.e.g. (slight sunning to spines). Provenance: Douglas Ever(?) (name inscribed to paper label mounted to front pastedown of vol. 1) (3).

BINDINGS. – John KEATS. The Poetical Works… London: Macmillan and Co., 1905. Golden Treasury Series, 8vo (154 x 94mm.) (Toning, offsetting to endpapers.) Near contemporary green full calf bound by Bumpus, foliate gilt corner-pieces to covers, g.e. (slightly rubbed extremities). – And a further nine volumes (including, bound by Bayntun, Bath, ‘The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam’, 1905, 8vo, and John Milton’s ‘Poetical Works’, 1841, 8vo) (10).

BROWNE, Thomas. Sir Thomas Browne’s Works Including His Life and Correspondence… edited by Simon Wilkin. London: William Pickering, 1835-1836. 4 vols., 8vo (217 x 133mm.) Engraved portrait frontispiece, 2 folding charts, 1 folding facsimile. (Toning, occasional light spotting.) Near contemporary brown full calf, black and brown morocco lettering pieces to the spines (wear to top of spine panel of vol. 1) (4).