Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

POETRY. – Ted HUGHES. Collected Animal Poems. London: Faber and Faber, 1995. 4 vols., first impression, signed by Ted Hughes, 8vo (199 x 123mm.) Illustrations by Chris Riddell. Original black cloth, dust-jackets, slipcase. Note: signed by the author on the half-title of volume 1, ‘The Iron Wolf’ (4).

BINDINGS. – [Miss HUDSON.] ‘Israfel’. Ivory Apes & Peacocks. London: at the Sign of the Unicorn, 1899. 4to (196 x 137mm.) (Mild toning.) Original decorative cloth in art nouveau style, t.e.g. Provenance: ‘Miss Beck’ (name-plate to the front pastedown). – And a further forty-four volumes (including Alice P. Moss’s ‘The Elf and the Orchard’, 1918, 8vo, and Lewis Carroll’s ‘A Tangled Tale’, 1886, 8vo, and Emilie Carlen’s ‘Ivar: or, The Skjuts-Boy’, 1852, 8vo) (45).

FOX, Shirley. An Art Student’s Reminiscences of Paris in the Eighties. London: Mills & Boon, 1909. First edition, 8vo (222 x 131mm.) 8 black and white plates by John Cameron, numerous illustrations in the text, 12pp. publisher’s advertisements to rear. (Toning, occasional light spotting.) Original brown and green blind-stamped cloth, gilt lettering to spine (lightly rubbed extremities). – And a further nine volumes by female authors (including, in a dust-jacket, Eliza Southgate Browne’s ‘A Girl’s Life Eighty Years Ago’, 1888, 8vo, and ‘By Daylight; or, Pictures From Real Life’ edited by Anne Pratt, 1865, 8vo) (10).

GRAHAM, Winston. [The Poldark Novels.] London: Ward, Lock and Co. and Collins and Macmillan and Chapmans, 1945-2002. 12 vols., first editions, 8vo (184 x 114mm to 233 x 148mm.) (Toning, spotting to preliminaries of ‘Jeremy Poldark’.) Original cloth (sunned to spines of ‘Ross Poldark’ and ‘Demelza’, spine ends bumped), dust-jackets (lacking dust-jackets to first three volumes, three are price-clipped [‘The Four Swans’, ‘The Miller’s Dance’ and ‘The Loving Cup’], chipping to extremities of ‘Warleggan’ and ‘The Black Moon’). Note: ‘The Black Moon’ is signed by Winston Graham. The last volume of the series, ‘Bella Poldark’, is a first edition, third impression. – And a further four volumes relating to Winston Graham (including ‘The Forgotten Story’, 1945, 8vo). Provenance: from the estate of Trevor Hives, thence by descent (16).

BINDINGS. – John KEATS. The Poetical Works… edited by Harry Buxton Forman. London: Reeves & Turner, 1884. 8vo (189 x 125mm.) Portrait frontispiece. (Toning, light scattered spotting.) Near contemporary full tree calf, green morocco lettering piece to the spine, t.e.g. (surface abrasion to front-free endpaper). Provenance: Jeanie Easton (gift inscribed to on the initial blank). – And a further thirty-six volumes (including H.G. Adams’s ‘Humming Birds, Described and Illustrated’, [1856], 8vo, and James Bell’s ‘A New and Comprehensive Gazetteer of England and Wales’, 4 vols., 1836-1837, 8vo, and Edward Gibbon’s ‘The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’, 3 vols., 1870, 8vo) (37).

SIGNED BOOKS. – Jonathan COE. The Rotters’ Club. London: Viking, 2001. First edition, first impression, signed by the author, 8vo (233 x 147mm.) (Mild toning.) Original blue cloth, dust-jacket. – And a quantity of approximately eighty further volumes of contemporary fiction, all signed (including Paul Beatty’s ‘The Sellout’, 2016, 8vo, and Maggie O’Farrell’s ‘Instructions for a Heatwave’, 2013, 8vo) (a quantity).

CHURCHILL, Winston S. The World Crisis. London: Thornton Butterworth Limited, 1923-1929. 5 vols. (only) of 6, first editions, 8vo (232 x 146mm.) Half-titles, numerous plates and maps, some folding, errata slips to vols. 1 and 4. (Toning, occasional light spotting to preliminaries, endpapers browned.) Original blue cloth, gilt lettering to spines (spine ends bumped, minor mark to upper cover of vol. 5, gilt lettering to spine of vol. 2 not aligned.) Provenance: James Herbert Sanders (bookplate to front pastedown of vol. 2); from the estate of Trevor Hives, thence by descent (5).

CHURCHILL, Winston S. Post-War Speeches. London: Cassell, 1948-1961. 5 vols., first editions, 8vo (215 x 136mm.) (Toning, pencil marks to list of titles in ‘The Unwritten Alliance’.) Original cloth (spine panels fading), dust-jackets (‘Stemming the Tide’ is price-clipped, pen mark to price of ‘The Unwritten Alliance’, minor chipping to spine ends, small tear to top of ‘An Unwritten Alliance’). Note: includes ‘The Sinews of Peace’, 1948, ‘Europe Unite’, 1950, ‘In the Balance’, 1951, ‘Stemming the Tide’, 1953, and ‘The Unwritten Alliance’, 1961. Provenance: from the estate of Trevor Hives, thence by descent (5).

CHURCHILL, Randolph S. and Martin GILBERT. The Official Biography: Winston S. Churchill. London: Heinemann, 1966-1988. 21 vols., first editions, 8vo (227 x 149mm.) Numerous plates, folding maps, photographic illustrations. (Mild toning.) Original cloth, dust-jackets (vol.1 torn with loss, ‘Companion’ volume 4, all parts with spine panels sunned, minor chipping). Note: the official biography. After the death of Winston’s son, Randolph S. Churchill, Martin Gilbert – who had formerly been Randolph’s assistant- took over the project of completing the biography. It comprises 8 volumes of biography with the Companion Volumes I-V in 13 volumes. – And a further twenty-four volumes relating to Winston Churchill. Provenance: from the estate of Trevor Hives, thence by descent (45).

BENSON, E.F. The Inheritor, a Story of Youth. London: Hutchinson & Co. Ltd., [1930.] First edition, 8vo (185 x 118mm.) 6pp. publisher’s advertisements to rear, dated ‘Summer 1930’. (Toning, light spotting to preliminaries.) Original salmon cloth (some fading), dust-jacket (browned to spine, minor loss to top of spine panel). – And a further nineteen literary volumes (including Kate O’Brien’s ‘Mary Lavelle’, 1936, 8vo, and Amanda M’Kittrick Ros’s ‘Irene Iddesleigh’, 1926, 8vo, and ‘R.W. Binns’s ‘Worcester China’, published by Bernard Quaritch’, 1897, 8vo) (20).

LARKIN, Philip. All What Jazz, A Record Diary 1961-1971. London: Faber and Faber, 1985. 8vo (197 x 125mm.) (Mild toning.) Original brown cloth, dust-jacket. – And a further fourteen volumes (including Patrick Leigh Fermor’s ‘The Traveller’s Tree’, 1951, 8vo) (15).

EAST ASIA. – R.L. JARMAN (editor). Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports. 1841-1941. [London:] Archive Editions, 1996. 6 vols., 8vo (246 x 151mm.) (Mild toning.) Original blue leatherette, silver lettering (6).

WISDEN, John (publisher). Cricketers’ Almanack. London: Sporting Handbooks Ltd., 1970-2017. 11 vols., 8vo (158 x 101mm.) Advertisements, numerous illustrations. (Mild toning.) Original brown cloth, dust-jackets (lacking dust-jackets for 1980-81). Note: comprises the almanacks for 1970-1974, 1978, 1980-1982, 2008, 2017. – And a related volume. Provenance: from the estate of Trevor Hives, thence by descent (12).

WISDEN, John (publisher). Cricketers’ Almanack. London: John Wisden and Co., 1922-1934. 4 vols., 8vo (158 x 93mm.) Advertisements, numerous illustrations, 4 photographic plates. (Toning, occasional spotting.) Original wrappers for 1922, rebound in green cloth for 1927  and 1934, original brown cloth for 1933 (some loss to spine panel of 1922, light rubbing to cloth extremities). Note: comprises almanacks for the years 1922, 1927, 1933 and 1934 (4).

WISDEN, John (publisher). Cricketers’ Almanack. London: John Wisden and Co. and Sporting Handbooks, 1945-2007. 41 vols., 8vo (158 x 93mm.) Advertisements, numerous illustrations. (Toning, occasional spotting and corner creasing.) Original card covers for 1945-47, 1949, 1951-52, 1956-59, 1963-66, others brown cloth (creasing to spines, many dust-soiled), dust-jackets (some tears, dust-soiled). Note: comprises the volumes for 1945-69, 1972-73, 1975-76, 1982, 1985-86, 1988-89, 1992-94, 1996, 1998 and 2007, including a duplicate for the year 1989 (41).

FOLIO SOCIETY (publisher). – Richard DAWKINS. The Selfish Gene. London: Folio Society, 2019. Third edition, 8vo (234 x 152mm.) Colour illustrations. (Mild toning.) Original decorative cloth, slipcase. – And a quantity of approximately seventy-five further volumes also published by The Folio Society (including a further volume by Richard Dawkins, ‘The Blind Watchmaker’, 2009, 8vo, and also ‘The Arabian Nights’ illustrated by E.J. Detmold, 2001, 8vo) (a quantity).

FOLIO SOCIETY (publisher). – Andrew WHEATCROFT. The Habsburgs. London: Folio Society, 2001. 8vo (222 x 165mm.) (Mild toning.) Original decorative cloth, slipcase. – And a quantity of approximately seventy further volumes also published by The Folio Society (including Alexander Thayer’s ‘Life of Beethoven’, 2004, 8vo) (a quantity).

FOLIO SOCIETY. – Anthony TROLLOPE. The Novels of Anthony Trollope. London: Folio Society, circa 1981-1999. 48 vols., 8vo (224 x 221mm.) Illustrations. (Mild toning.) Original cloth, slipcases. – And a further thirteen volumes published by The Folio Society (including Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’, 2004, 8vo) (61).

SIGNED BOOKS. – Clare and Michael MORPURGO. Where My Wellies Take Me… Surrey, Dorking: Templar Publishing, 2012. Limited edition, this being number 161 of 250 copies signed by Clare and Michael Morpurgo and Olivia Lomenech Gill, 4to (218 x 243mm.) Numerous colour illustrations, some folding, tipped-in overlays, 4 colour prints in a mounted envelope. (Mild toning.) Original cloth-backed pictorial boards (faint rub to spine), original blue cloth slipcase with an opening section, mounted paper illustrations to upper cover, tie. – And a further twenty-three volumes for children, all signed (including Axel Scheffler’s ‘How To Keep a Pet Squirrel’, 2010, 8vo) (24).