Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

BOTANY. – Miss [Sarah] SMITH. Studies of Flowers from Nature. Doncaster: Aldwick Hall for the author, [circa 1818.] First edition, folio (380 x 266mm.) Engraved title with hand-coloured vignette, 19 aquatint plates in two states, hand-coloured and uncoloured, letterpress text leaf to each, tissue-guards, 3pp. ‘Subscriber’s List’ and tipped-in errata slip to rear. (Lacking 1 plate, ‘Dahlias’, toning, spotting to tissue-guards only, occasional finger-mark.) Early 20th century half calf over marbled paper-covered boards, two green morocco labels to spine (minor abrasions to boards), near-matching slipcase (extremities rubbed). Note: rare. In his ‘Dictionary’ (vol. 1, p. 35), Burbidge lists a ‘Miss Smith’ who exhibited paintings of fruit at the Royal Academy. He also lists another Miss Smith with a Sheffield address who exhibited fruit pictures at the British Institution around 1842. The book is dedicated to Princess Elizabeth who was herself a keen amateur artist. Provenance: John Grant (pencil name to front pastedown).

LENORMANT, François. Chaldean Magic: Its Origin and Development. London: Samuel Bagster and Sons, [1877]. First edition, 8vo (213 x 132mm.) 2pp. publisher’s advertisements to rear, 18pp. index. (Toning, occasional minor spotting.) Original pictorial green cloth (minor stain to upper cover).

[WILDE, Oscar.] The Ballad of Reading Gaol... by C.3.3. London: Leonard Smithers, 1898. Fifth edition, 8vo (224 x 134mm.) (Toning, browning to pastedowns.) Original white cloth-backed boards (lightly bumped). Provenance: Maurice Jenks, Lord Mayor of London (ink name to front-free endpaper).

ACCOUNT BOOK. [A hand-written account book containing the personal expenses of an English gentleman. N.p.:] 1789-1831.8vo (183 x 115mm.) Approximately 78pp. of manuscript notes relating to personal expenditure under the headings of ‘Presents Made’, ‘Presents Received’, ‘Articles Purchased’ and ‘Clothes’, several blank leaves. (Marginal damp-stain to several leaves, toning.) Contemporary black full straight-grain morocco with brass hasp and lock, t.e.g. (light rubbing to extremities, lacking key). Note: clearly more giving than given to, the ‘Presents Made’ section is quite full and contains the price paid for items. We learn that the gentleman paid ‘£1, 1 shilling’ for Adam Smith’s ‘Wealth of Nations’ in 1796, a gift for Mr. Brown. A Miss Clarke is the recipient of many gowns, shawls and much jewellery, including a silver egg that cost 10 shilling, 6 pence. A Rev. J. Blakeway received a plate of Saxon coins that cost £9, 9 shillings.

[THOMS, William J.] ‘Ambrose Merton’. The Old Story Books of England, Illustrated with Twelve Pictures by Eminent Artists. City of Westminster: for Joseph Cundall, [1845.] 12 wood-engraved plates printed in colour. (Toning, light spotting to plate margins.) Original red blind-stamped cloth, gilt lettering to spine, g.e. (rebacked, extremities bumped). – And a further twenty-three volumes, mainly decorative cloth (including ‘The Coronation Prayer Book’ published by Oxford University Press, 1911, 8vo, and Dudley Costello’s ‘A Tour Through the Valley of the Meuse’, 1846, 8vo) (24).

CAMPBELL, Marie. Folks Do Get Born. New York and Toronto: Rinehart and Company Inc., 1946. First edition, 8vo (204 x 136mm.) Illustrations by Clare Leighton. (Mild toning.) Original grey cloth, dust-jacket (small closed tear to upper panel, minor chipping to extremities). Note: tales of mid-wifery from rural Georgia.

CHILDREN’S BOOKS. – Mabel DEARMER. The Cockyolly Bird. The Book of the Play. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1914. First edition, 4to (214 x 163mm.) 10 tipped-in colour plates. (Mild toning, minor staining to preliminaries and first leaves.) Original red pictorial cloth (inner hinge weakened). Provenance: Elizabeth Brown (pencil name to front-free endpaper). – And a further seven volumes (including Eleanor Vere Boyle’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’, [1875], 4to, and her ‘Child’s Play’, 1859, 4to, and ‘Moorland Mousie’, illustrated by Lionel Edwards, 1929, 4to, and Anna Sewell’s ‘Black Beauty’, 1936, 8vo) (8).

FLEMING, Ian. Thunderball. London: Jonathan Cape, 1961. First edition, first impression, 8vo (188 x 122mm.) (Toning, marginal spotting pp.96-106.) Original dark brown cloth with blind-stamped skeletal hand (spine ends bumped, minor mark to upper cover), dust-jacket (spine ends chipped, damp-staining verso with panels unaffected). Provenance: Fashaw (ink name inscribed to front-free endpaper). – And a further five volumes by Ian Fleming (‘Book Club’ editions of ‘Thunderball’, ‘From Russia With Love’, ‘For Your Eyes Only’, ‘Dr. No’ and ‘Goldfinger’) (6).

BOND, Michael. A Bear Called Paddington. London: Collins, 1959. First edition, second impression, 8vo (198 x 134mm.) Illustrations by Peggy Fortnum. (Toning, pencil name erased and light spotting to front-free endpaper.) Original red cloth (scuffing to upper cover, lightly bumped), dust-jacket (price-clipped, some loss to extremities, ‘Book 1’ in pencil on inner flap).

BOND, Michael. More About Paddington. London: Collins, 1959. First edition, 8vo (198 x 130mm.) Illustrations by Peggy Fortnum. (Light spotting to front-free endpaper.) Original green cloth (lightly bumped), dust-jacket (price-clipped, fading and some loss to extremities, ‘Book 2’ in pencil on inner flap). – And a further first edition by Michael Bond (‘Paddington Helps Out’, 1960, 8vo) (2).

TROLLOPE, Anthony. Mr. Scarborough’s Family. London: Chatto & Windus, 1883. First edition in book form, 8vo (185 x 122mm.) Half-titles, 32pp. of publisher’s advertisements dated March 1883 to rear of vol. 1. (Spotting to endpapers, rear leaves loosening in vol. 2, toning, occasional minor soiling.) Original blue cloth decorated in brown (all inner hinges weakened, outer hinge of vol. 3 cracked, covers of vols. 2 and 3 with heavy spotting). Provenance: F. Astle (ink name inscribed to front pastedown of vol. 3 and initial blank of vol. 2) [Sadlier, 66.] (3).

TOLSTOY, Leo. War and Peace… A New and Complete Translation From the Russian by Constance Garnett. London: William Heinemann, 1904. 3 vols., ‘Library Edition’, 8vo (190 x 132mm.) (Light browning to pastedowns). Red cloth, black lettering to spines. Provenance: from the estate of Trevor Hives, thence by descent (3).

WOOLF, Leonard. Quack, Quack! London: Hogarth Press, 1937. Cheap edition, 8vo (180 x 113mm.) (Mild toning.) Original grey cloth, dust-jacket designed by E. McKnight Kauffer (light rubbing to top of upper panel). – And a further twenty-one volumes (including a first impression of Gerald Durrell’s ‘My Family and Other Animals’, 1956, 8vo, and the first U.K. edition of Horace McCoy’s ‘They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?’, 1935, 8vo, and a signed copy of Feliks Topolski’s ‘The London Spectacle 1935’, 1935, 4to) (22).

FASHION. – Jean LABUSQUIÈRE (editor). Gazette du Bon Ton: Art, Modes et Chronique. Paris: Lucien Vogel, March 1924. No. 7 (only), 4to (249 x 203mm.) 8 pochoir colour plates by George Barbier, Georges Lepape, Charles Martin and others. (Toning to plates, spotting to text leaves.) Original card wrappers, black lettering (light spotting). – And a further eleven illustrated volumes (including David Hockney’s ‘Six Fairy Tales’, 1970, 16mo, and Eleanor March’s ‘Little White Barbara’, 1902, 16mo, and Nora Case’s ‘Ten Little Nigger Boys’, 1952, 12mo) (12).

POPE, Alexander (translator). The Odyssey of Homer. London: Bernard Lintot, 1725-1726. 5 vols., 12mo (163 x 92mm.) Half-titles, engraved head and tailpieces, 22 engraved plates, publisher’s advertisements to rear in all volumes except vol. 5. (Lacking 3 plates including the portrait frontispiece, occasional spotting and browning, marginal damp-staining to vol. 1.) Contemporary calf (upper cover of vol. 2 detached, worn). – And a further volume (Matthew Prior’s ‘Poems on Several Occasions’, vol. 3 (only, of 3), 1733, 12mo) (6).

QUARLES, Francis. Divine Poems, Containing the History of Jonah, Ester, Job, Sampson, Together with Sions Sonnets, Elegies… newly augmented. London: E.M. for Samuel Lownes, 1664. 8vo (146 x 94mm.) Title, additional engraved title, separate title-pages for sections, continuous pagination, wood-engraved vignette for title to ‘Pentelogia’. (Title with upper margin cut, long contemporary ownership inscription to front pastedown, lacking blanks, browning, occasional minor soiling, last leaf creased and minor text loss.) Contemporary calf (old tape to hinges, worn). Note: Quarles is better known for his book ‘Emblems’. Provenance: Miles Terry (ownership inscription to pastedowns and ‘M.T.’ blind-stamped to covers); Joseph Highmore (ink name inscribed verso additional title).

[DU PIN, Louis Ellies and Jean de VAYRAC.] ‘Abbot Vertot’. The History of the Revolutions in Spain… made English from the Paris Edition by Mr. Morgan. London: W. Mears and T. Edlin, 1724. 5 vols., 8vo (189 x 116mm.) Titles in red and black, 1p. publisher’s advertisement at front of vol. 1, woodcut initials and decorations, indices to rear. (Toning.) Contemporary calf, red morocco lettering pieces to spines (light rubbing). Provenance: Earl of Portsmouth (armorial bookplates to front pastedowns) (5).

DAILLE, John. – Thomas SMITH (translator). A Treatise Concerning the Right Use of the Fathers, in the Decision of the Controversies that are at this day in Religion. London: John Martin, 1651. Small 4to (179 x 126mm.) Title in red and black, woodcut initials and headpieces, in 2 parts with separate pagination, 1p. errata to rear. (Title browned, marginal damp-staining to first and last leaves.) Contemporary calf, morocco lettering piece to the spine (rebacked, endpapers replaced, extremities rubbed).

DURHAM, James. Clavis Cantici: Or, an Exposition of the Song of Soloman. London: J.W., 1669. Small 4to (173 x 128mm.) Title, woodcut initials and headpieces. (Browning, occasional spotting and finger-marking, some leaves trimmed, minor loss to B1-B2 text slightly affected, marginal insect-damage to Ccc-Ggg2.) 18th century half calf (endpapers replaced, minor loss to upper cover, extremities rubbed). Provenance: John Clare (ink name inscribed to first text leaf).