Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

RACKHAM, Arthur (illustrator). – Kenneth GRAHAME. The Wind in the Willows. London: Methuen & Co., 1951. Limited 100th edition, this being number 366 of 500 copies only, 4to (297 x 221mm.) 12 tipped-in colour plates by Rackham, introduction by A.A. Milne. (Mild toning, a few uncut leaves.) Original cream sheep, gilt lettering to spine, t.e.g. (spine ends lightly bumped, slight scuffing to spine), slipcase with paper label (spine ends rubbed, minor staining).

RACKHAM, Arthur (illustrator). Aesop’s Fables. London: William Heinemann, 1912. Limited edition, this being number 913 of 1450 copies signed by Arthur Rackham, 4to (289 x 228mm.) 13 tipped-in colour plates with captioned tissue-guards, numerous black and white illustrations in the text. (Spotting to endpapers, toning.) Original white cloth, decorative gilt to upper cover and spine, t.e.g. (spine darkened, fingermarks to covers).

ROBINSON, William Heath (illustrator). – Hans Christian ANDERSEN. Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales. London: Constable & Co. Ltd., 1913. Limited edition, this being number 63 of 100 copies signed by William H. Robinson, 4to (290 x 227mm.) 16 tipped-in colour plates with captioned tissue-guards, numerous illustrations in the text. (Toning, mostly light scattered spotting.) Original cream parchment, pictorial gilt and lettering to upper cover and spine, t.e.g. (spine slightly browned, mottled to edges). Provenance: Mildred M. Meruse (gift inscribed to on the front-free endpaper).

TSE-TUNG, Mao (introduction). We Shall Win! British Imperialism in Hong Kong Will Be Defeated! Hong Kong: Ta Kung Pao, November 1967. 4to (233 x 254mm.) Introduction by Mao Tse-Tung, numerous photographic illustrations, text in English and Chinese. (Toning.) Original card covers (spine panel partially lacking, some corner creasing and spotting). Note: published by the pro-Beijing newspaper Ta Kung Pao following the Hong Kong riots that began as labour dispute in a plastic flower factory in May 1967 and which soon became a violent resistance to the colonial government. Fifty-one people died in the rioting. The British Hong Kong government made changes and social reforms after these events, but riots would occur again in 1981. In his introduction Mao Tse-Tung writes ‘When we say ‘imperialism is ferocious’, we mean that its nature will never change, that the imperialists will never lay down their butcher knives, that they will never become Buddhas, till their doom’.  Mounted inside the upper cover is a typed note: ‘Obtained by me during a demonstration in the Sham Shui Po area of Kowloon during the 1967 ‘disturbances’, M.G. Arnold Inspector of Police’. Provenance: M.G. Arnold, Inspector of Police (typed note signed in ink stapled verso upper cover).

CHINA. – A.H. GORDON. Streets of Shanghai, a History in Itself. [Shanghai: N.p.:] 1941. Small 8vo (155 x 113mm.) Large folding map in front pocket, photographic illustrations, advertisements. (Occasional minor spotting, small marginal tear to last leaf.) Original wrappers, black lettering. Note: rare.

HORSE-CARRIAGES. A Catalogue of the Valuable Stock and Property of Messrs. Hobson & Co. Coachmakers, Whose Partnership Has Become Dissolved by Effluxion of Time; Consisting of About One Hundred and Twenty Carriages… which Will be Sold by Auction, by Messrs. Foster and Sons on the Premises, Long Acre, on Wednesday 25th July, 1838. [London:] by J. Davy for Foster and Sons, 1838. 4to (243 x 215mm.) Title, list of lots interleaved with 20pp. of contemporary hand-written notes detailing the buyer’s name and prices paid for each lot, also contemporary notes of prices and buyer’s signatures to margins of text leaves. (Fingermarks, dust-soiling, corner creases.) Contemporary half calf (loss to spine ends, heavily rubbed). Note: Samuel Hobson was one of London’s most esteemed coachbuilders catering to a royal and aristocratic clientele. Having been an apprentice with Barker & Co. of Chandos Street, Hobson started his own business in Long Acre in 1815. Financial troubles forced the closure of his business in 1837.

SOWERBY, John Edward. English Botany; or, Coloured Figures of British Plants… edited by John T. Boswell Syme. London: Robert Hardwicke, 1863-1892. 13 vols., including the ‘Supplement’, third edition, 8vo (251 x 163mm.) 1936 hand-coloured lithographed plates, including 12 hand-coloured and 2 uncoloured lithographed plates in the ‘Supplement’. (Toning, earlier volumes with light to moderate spotting on numerous leaves.) Original green blind-stamped cloth, gilt design to upper covers, t.e.g. (rebacked with original spines laid-down, endpapers replaced, lightly rubbed), vol. 12 and ‘Supplement’ in contemporary brown half morocco (sunned to spines). Provenance: Emily Weston (ink name on initials blanks); William Henry Mason (armorial bookplates to front pastedowns of vol. 12 and ‘Supplement’) (13).

FISHING. – J. HICKS. Wanderings by the Lochs and Streams of Assynt; and the North Highlands of Scotland. London: James Blackwood, 1855. First edition, 8vo (159 x 97mm.) 8 engraved plates, including 2 of flies, errata verso p.vii, index. (Toning, pp.151-154 loosening.) Original yellow cloth, pictorial gilt to upper cover, t.e.g. (browned to spine, rubbing to spine ends, fingermarks to covers). – And a further thirty-three volumes related to fishing (including H. Cholmondeley-Pennell’s ‘Trolling for Pike, Salmon and Trout’, [1876], 8vo, and Augustus Grimble’s ‘The Salmon Rivers of Scotland’, 1913, 8vo, and W. Senior’s [‘Red Spinner’] ‘Waterside Sketches’, 1875, 8vo, and W.L. Calderwood’s ‘The Salmon Rivers and Lochs of Scotland’, 1909, 4to) (34).

BINDING. – H. CHOLMONDELEY-PENNELL. The Sporting Fish of Great Britain with Notes on Ichthyology. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1886. First edition, large 8vo (243 x 154mm.) 18 colour lithograph plates of fish. (Toning, light spotting to some plates, occasional browning.) Bound by Sotheran’s in green half morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, gilt lettering and fishing motifs in gilt to spine, t.e.g. (light rubbed extremities).

CONJURING. – [Angelo J. Lewis.] ‘Professor Hoffman’. More Magic. London: George Routledge and Sons, 1890. First edition, 8vo (190 x 128mm.) Illustrations in the text. (Mild toning, illegible ink name to front pastedown.) Original blue pictorial cloth, gilt lettering, g.e. (lightly bumped). – And a further five related volumes (including Professor Hoffman’s [Angelo J. Lewis] ‘Modern Magic’, 1898, 8vo, and also, by the same author, ‘Latest Magic’, 1918, 8vo) (6).

MACQUOID, Percy. – George ALEXANDER. The George Alexander Birthday Book. London: John Lane, 1903. Signed and inscribed by George Alexander to Percy Macquoid, 8vo (189 x 120mm.) Photogravure portrait frontispiece, several names signed under their birth-date with their own signatures, including that of George Alexander and Percy Macquoid. (Toning, browning to title-page.) Original cream cloth, pictorial gilt to upper cover (minor soiling to covers). Note: George Alexander was an actor and manager of the St. James Theatre. He produced two Oscar Wilde plays as well as Henry James’ less successful, Guy Domville. Provenance: Percy Macquoid, author and artist (name inscribed to on the front-free endpaper). – And a further six volumes owned by or related to Percy Macquoid (including Henri Dethauny’s [Repertoire de Couleurs pour aider a la determination des Couleurs des Fleurs, des Feuillages et des Fruits, 1905], 8vo, which has a mounted paper label on the upper cover and in manuscript hand the words: ‘Percy Macquoid, not to be taken under any circumstances’, and also Lewis Carroll’s ‘Sylvie and Bruno’, 1889, 8vo, inscribed to Percy Macquoid by his parents) (7).

CLARKE, Edward Daniel. Travels in Various Countries of Europe, Asia and Africa. London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1810-1823. 6 vols., first edition, 4to (274 x 210mm.) 185 engraved maps and plates, some folding, appendices. (Scattered spotting, offsetting, spotting to plate margins.) Contemporary full calf, later brown and black morocco lettering pieces to the spines (some scuffing, vols. 3 and 5 corners rubbed). Provenance: John Maxton (ink name inscribed to titles); A.J. Wilkie, Major (ink stamps to front pastedowns) (6).

WILLIAMS, W. Mattieu. Through Norway With a Knapsack. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1859. First edition, 8vo (190 x 118mm.) 6 chromolithographed plates, 1 folding map, 4pp. ‘Appendix’ to rear. (Toning, occasional light spotting, marginal paper repair to title.) Near contemporary half calf (lacking lettering piece, light rubbing). Provenance: B. Wilson (ink name inscribed to initial blank).

MOUNTAINEERING. – Douglas W. FRESHFIELD. Travels in the Central Caucasus and Bashan: Including Visits to Ararat and Tabreez and Ascents of Kazbek and Elbruz. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1869. First edition, 8vo (209 x 138mm.) Half-title, chromolithographed frontispiece, 3 folding lithographed maps with outline hand-colouring, 4 plates, 2pp. publisher’s advertisements to rear. (Toning, light spotting to preliminaries and occasionally within, corner creasing to pp.4-8.) Original green cloth, pictorial gilt of Cossack to upper cover (hinges weakened, light rubbing, minor staining to covers). Provenance: David Forbes (bookplate to front pastedown and ink name to half-title); W.O. Pasture (ink name to half-title).

WHALES & WHALING. – Erich DAUTERT. Big Game in Antarctica. [Bristol:] Arrowsmith, 1937. First English translation, 8vo (214 x 132mm.) Photographic illustrations. (Toning, occasional light spotting.) Original blue cloth, dust-jacket (chipping to extremities, tape repairs verso, fingermarks to lower panel). Note: a description, in great detail, of ‘a two-man biological expedition’ to the island of Saint Georgia, the base for whaling and sealing in the Antarctic.

LOFTUS, William Kennett. Travels and Researches in Chaldaea and Susiana; with an Account of Excavations at Warka, the ‘Erech’ of Nimrod, and Shúsh, ‘Shushan The Palace’ of Esther, in 1849-52. London: James Nesbit, 1857. First edition, 8vo (227 x 133mm.) 3 folding lithographed maps, 4 plates, numerous illustrations in the text. (Toning, occasional fingermark, blanks replaced.) 21st century brown half calf over marbled paper-covered boards, two red morocco lettering pieces to the spine (endpapers replaced).

KELLY, Christopher. History of the French Revolution, and of The Wars Produced by that Memorable Event; From the Commencement of Hostilities in 1792, to the Second Restoration of Louis XVIII. London: Thomas Kelly, 1817. 2 vols., first edition, 4to (262 x 209mm.) 53 engraved plates, 7 hand-coloured engraved maps and 1 plan. (Toning and offsetting, some creasing and marginal loss to preliminaries.) Near contemporary half calf (extremities rubbed, minor scuffing). Provenance: Mary Ann Alner-Bowring (ink name inscribed initial blanks). – And a further three related volumes (James Moore’s ‘A Narrative of the Campaign of the British Army in Spain’, 1809, 4to, and Barry E. O’Meara’s ‘Napoleon in Exile; or, a Voice From St. Helena’, 2 vols., 1827-1831, 8vo) (5).

BACON, Nathaniel and John SELDEN (attrib.) An Historicall Discourse of the Uniformity of the Government of England, the First Part. From the first Times till the Reigne of Edward the third. London: for Matthew Walbancke, 1647-1651 [but 1672.] 4to (183 x 128mm.) In 2 parts, title to each part with a woodcut border, ‘Tables’ to rear of both parts. (Browning throughout, upper margin to several leaves trimmed, minor marginal insect damage D1-E4 of second part, some damp-staining O1-P2 of first part.) Near contemporary panelled calf (rebacked, endpapers replaced, extremities rubbed). Note: Nathaniel Bacon was the half-brother of Francis Bacon and a Republican sympathiser. This reprint was secretly issued in 1672, after the restoration of Charles II, and is identifiable by the alteration of the printer’s name on the second title page. A hugely influential and persuasive work that was continually reprinted but suppressed by the Royalists.

DEFOE, Daniel. A True Collection of the Writings of the Author of the True Born English-man. London: [John How], 1703. 8vo (196 x 114mm.) Engraved portrait frontispiece. (Fore-edge margin of frontispiece trimmed, minor corner loss to H1, scattered browning, occasional corner creasing.) Contemporary calf (rebacked, extremities rubbed). Note: the unauthorized edition, printed before the authorized version of the same year. Provenance: J. Cresswell (bookplate to the front pastedown).