Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

[BOWLES, Thomas Gibson.] Vanity Fair: A Weekly Show of Political, Social, & Literary Wares. London: ‘Vanity Fair’ Office, 1869-1887. 9 vols., folio (351 x 230mm.) Numerous colour lithographic plates, advertisements. (Toning, occasional spotting, some loose plates.) Original green cloth for five volumes, g.e., contemporary green half calf for four volumes (extremities rubbed, occasional scuffing). Note: for the years 1869, 1870, 1872, 1875, 1878, 1880, 1881, 1882 and 1887. The years 1881, 1882 and 1887 contain the January-June issues only. – And a further four volumes of ‘Vanity Fair’ (including the Proof Copy, number 6 of only 10 copies signed by the editor Jehu Junior, ‘The Vanity Fair Album’ for 1889, Vol.  XXXI, folio, and, with mounted captions, ‘The Vanity Fair Album’ for 1876, folio, and, with mounted captions, ‘Vanity Fair: A Weekly Show of Political, Social, & Literary Wares’, 1883, folio) (13).

GROSE, Francis. Military Antiquities Respecting a History of the English Army, from the Conquest to the Present Time. London: for S. Hooper, 1786- [1788]. 2 vols., 4to (273 x 210mm.) Numerous engraved plates, engraved vignette to title. (Title browned, lacking title to volume II, marginal loss to kkk4 of volume l.) Late 20th century green half morocco over green cloth (endpapers replaced, some sunning to spines and lower cover of volume I). Provenance: King Edward VI School, Southampton (bookplates to front pastedowns). – And a further volume (John Britton’s ‘Chronological History and Graphic Illustrations of Christian Architecture in England’, 1826, 8vo) (3).

LUTYENS, Edwin. Houses & Gardens. London: Country Life, 1925. Third impression, folio (389 x 271mm.) Half-title, numerous black and white photographic illustrations. (Mild toning.) Original red cloth, t.e.g. (some fading to spine, rubbing to spine ends). Provenance: Peter Herbert, late owner of Gravetye Manor (bookplate to front pastedown). – And a further seven volumes (including ‘Some English Gardens’ by Gertrude Jekyll and George S. Elgood, 1904, folio, and, limited to 1000 copies, Ida Southwell Perrin and George S. Boulger’s ‘British Flowering Plants’, 4 vols., 1914, 4to) (8).

HERBAL. – Nicholas CULPEPER. Complete Herbal, To Which Is Now Added Upwards Of One Hundred Additional Herbs… to which are now annexed his English Physician Enlarged. London: Thomas Kelly, 1824. 4to (262 x 198mm.) Engraved portrait frontispiece, 40 hand-coloured engraved plates, 4pp. ‘Index’ to rear. (Light browning throughout, occasional spotting, lacking blanks.) Contemporary full calf (rebacked, extremities rubbed). Provenance: Richard Godfrey Bosanquet (bookplate to front pastedown); Peter Herbert, late owner of Gravetye Manor (bookplate to front-free endpaper). – And a further six volumes (including William Robinson’s ‘The Wild Garden’, 1870, 8vo, and, with William Robinson’s ownership signature, W.J. Bean’s ‘Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles’, 2 vols., 1914, 8vo) (7).

FOURNEL, Victor. Paris et Ses Ruines en Mai 1871, Précédé D’ Un Coup-D’ Oeil Sur Paris, de 1860 a 1870. Paris: Henri Charpentier, folio (473 x 340mm.) 20 lithographed plates, including 11 coloured and 9 tinted, mainly disaster scenes, woodcut vignette to title. (Offsetting and spotting to the text, occasional spotting to plate margins.) Contemporary red blind-stamped cloth, red morocco spine (rebacked, abrasions, fading and light rubbing to extremities). – And a further four illustrated volumes (including three copies of James Henthorn Todd’s ‘Descriptive Remarks on Illuminations in Certain Ancient Irish Manuscripts’, 1869, [vol. VI], folio, and Jessie Macleod’s ‘Fifteen Designs Illustrating Tears’, 1851, folio) (5).

CAMDEN, William. Britannia: or, a Chrographical Description of the Flourishing Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the Islands Adjacent from the earliest antiquity… Enlarged by the Latest Discoveries of Richard Gough. London: John Stockdale, 1806. 4 vols., second Gough edition, folio (438 x 265mm.) Engraved portrait frontispiece, 52 engraved hand-coloured maps by J. Cary, all folding, 6 uncoloured maps, of which 4 folding, 95 engraved plates, of which 3 are of coins, and 7 of which are folding, 1 folding pedigree, titles and indices to each volume. (Offsetting throughout, forty of the coloured maps have moderate to heavy spotting and offsetting.) Contemporary diced morocco with foliate gilt borders, g.e. (three of the covers detached, all extremities rubbed). Provenance: Samuel George Smith (bookplates to the front pastedowns) (4).

TERENCE, Publius. Comoediae. Urbino: Hieronymi Mainardi, 1736. Folio (464 x 272mm.) Title in red and black with large engraved vignette, text in Latin and Italian, historiated initial to dedication, 224 engraved illustrations in the text and 6 full-page engraved plates, one preceding each play, 4pp. ‘Index’ to rear. (Toning, Cc3 and Qq4 with short marginal tears, text unaffected, occasional browning.) Original boards (lacking spine, worn). Provenance: Kelravock (ink name to initial blank).

POETRY. – Joseph SPENCE. Polymetis: or, An Enquiry concerning the Agreement Between the Works of the Roman Poets, and the Remains of the Antient Artists. London: for R. and J. Dodsley, 1755. Second edition, folio (423 x 253mm.) Engraved portrait frontispiece, 41 engraved plates, including 4 folding or double-paged, 14 engraved illustrations in the text, 9pp. ‘General Index’ to rear. (Offsetting to title, crease to initial blank.) Contemporary calf, later red morocco lettering piece to the spine (lightly rubbed). Provenance: Robert Grimston (armorial bookplate to front pastedown).

GUILLIM, John. A Display of Heraldry… to which is added, A Treatise of Honour Military and Civil. London: by T.W. for R. and J. Bonwicke and R. Wilken and J. Walthoe and Thomas Ward, 1724. Sixth edition, folio (398 x 242mm.) Title in red and black, 65 engraved plates, including 17 portraits and 47 heraldic plates, numerous woodcut illustrations in the text. (Z2 with minor soiling, and slight marginal spotting to pp1-pp3, crease to a2.) Contemporary calf, gilt lettering to spine (rebacked, tips repaired, minor scuffing and rubbing, endpapers replaced). Provenance: Ursula Ridley (bookplate to front pastedown).

LANCASHIRE. – Thomas Dunham WHITAKER. An History of the Original Parish of Whalley, and Honor of Clitheroe. To Which Is Subjoined An Account of the Parish of Cartmell. London and Manchester: George Routledge and Sons and L.C. Gent, 1872-1876. 2 vols., largest paper edition, being number 30 of only 40 copies signed by the publisher George Routledge, large 4to (380 x 282mm.) 37 engraved plates, including 1 folding plate of ‘The Hall of Little Mitton’, numerous folding genealogies. (Toning, spotting to plate margins, marginal tear to limitation page of volume I.) Original red morocco, gilt lettering to spines (extremities lightly rubbed). – And a further five related volumes (including Edward Baines’ ‘History of the County Palatine and Duchy of Lancaster’, 4 vols., 1836, 4to, and a third edition of Thomas Dunham Whitaker’s ‘An History of the Original Parish of Whalley, and Honor of Clitheroe’, 1818, 4to) (7). Provenance: the property of The Much Hon. The Baron of Stobo.

MANUSCRIPT. – Queen MARY. [An almost entirely blank common-place book owned and inscribed by Queen Mary. N.p.: 1926.] 212pp., manuscript, folio (533 x 390mm.) 106 leaves, all blank but for the first signed and dated by Queen Mary, and the third leaf with two names and some lines of verse hand-written. (Mild toning.) Contemporary cats-paw calf with the Royal Arms in gilt to covers, silk decorative endpapers, g.e. (inner hinge weakened, spine ends worn, scuffing and rubbing to extremities). Note: Queen Mary has signed ‘Mary, R’ and dated it ‘1926’. Two leaves later the Archbishop of Canterbury Randall Davidson has signed and dated his name, ‘1927’, and underneath that is his wife Edith Davidson has signed her name. Randall has also hand-written four lines of verse from Robert Browning’s poem ‘ Abt Volger’. The Archbishop had been very close to Mary’s mother, Queen Victoria, and her private chaplain from 1883 until 1891 and, like the narrator in Browning’s poem, may have been in a reflective mood. A year later, in 1928, he resigned as Archbishop, the first to ever resign the office, and died in 1930.

SITWELL, Sacheverell and James RUSSELL. Old Garden Roses. London: George Rainbird Ltd., 1955. Part 1 (only). Limited edition, being number 54 of 160 copies signed by Sacheverell Sitwell and James Russell, folio (427 x 304mm.) 8 colour lithographed plates after Charles Raymond, foreword by Graham Thomas. (Mild toning.) Original half vellum, t.e.g., green cloth slipcase with mounted paper label (some staining). – And three related volumes (including Gregory Grigson and Handasyde Buchanan’s ‘Thornton’s Temple of Flora’, 1951, folio, and Beryl Leslie Urquhart’s ‘The Camellia’, 1956, folio, and a signed limited edition of David Croal Thomson’s ‘The Life and Works of Thomas Bewick’, 1882, 4to) (4).

SHAKESPEARE, William. The Works… Edited by Charles Knight. London: J.S. Virtue & Co. Ltd., [1880.] Imperial Edition, folio (368 x 269mm.) Engraved frontispiece portrait, additional engraved title, steel-engraved plates. (Mild toning.) Contemporary brown full morocco, g.e. (lightly rubbed extremities) (2).

SHAKESPEARE, William. The Works… with Notes by Charles Knight. London: J.S. Virtue & Co., [1880.] Imperial Edition, folio (362 x 266mm.) Portrait frontispiece of Shakespeare, additional title, steel-engraved plates. (Toning, marginal spotting to frontispiece, light scattered spotting.) Contemporary green half morocco, gilt lettering to upper covers and spines, g.e. (extremities rubbed, minor staining and marks) (2).

ART REFERENCE. – [Charles HOLME and Geoffrey Charles HOLME (editors). The Studio, an Illustrated Magazine of Fine and Applied Art.] London: Offices of the Studio, July 1899-November 1901. 8 vols., 4to (279 x 195mm.) Plates and illustrations, many coloured or tinted by numerous artists. (Toning, occasional creasing.) Near contemporary vellum-backed green cloth (some spotting to the vellum). Note: an incomplete run. – And a further twenty-two volumes, mainly art reference (including Charles Capper’s ‘The Port and Trade of London’, 1862, 8vo) (30).

LOWE, E.J. Our Native Ferns. London: Groombridge and Sons, 1865-1867. 2 vols., 4to (243 x 150mm.) 79 chromolithographed plates. (Toning, occasional offsetting.) Near contemporary green half morocco, red and black morocco lettering pieces to the spines (extremities rubbed, minor scuffing). – And a further eight miscellaneous volumes (including Fridtjof Nansen’s ‘Farthest North’, 2 vols., 1898, 8vo, and Bury Palliser’s ‘Historic Devices, Badges and War-Cries’, 1870, 8vo) (10).

ART REFERENCE. – John C. FERGUSON. Survey of Chinese Art. Shanghai: Commercial Press, Limited, 1939. First edition, 4to (265 x 186mm.) Numerous photographic illustrations. (Mild toning.) Original red cloth, decorative gilt to upper cover (some wear to spine ends, inner hinge weakened). Note: scarce. Originally sold in parts, this is the first edition in book form. – And a further thirty-three volumes of art reference (including ‘Flemish Art, From the Beginning Till Now’, 1985, 4to, and Serge Poliakoff ‘Cahier’, 1973, 4to) (34).

HULTON, Edward (founder). Picture Post. London: Fleet Street, October 1938-June 1957. Vol. 1-75 in 33 vols., 4to (340 x 253mm.) Numerous photographic illustrations, advertisements, original wrappers bound-in. (Toning.) Contemporary blue cloth to volumes 1-4, contemporary salmon cloth the rest (spine ends frayed to early volumes, sunning to salmon cloth spines, rubbing to extremities, ink reference to base of spines). Note: lacking volumes 5-6 and volumes 55-56, otherwise a complete run of this magazine. In its photo-led journalism and its aspirational tone, the ‘Picture Post’ was an immediate success, selling a million copies a week after just a few months. Provenance: Brighton Reference Library (bookplates to front pastedowns) (33).

BEARDSLEY, Aubrey. – Arthur SYMONS (editor). The Savoy, an Illustrated Quarterly. London: Leonard Smithers, 1896. 8 vols. [all published.] 4to (258 x 193mm.) Numerous plates, decorations and illustrations in the text by Beardsley and others, advertisements to rear. (Toning, occasional spotting.) Original publisher’s pictorial pink boards for volumes 1 and 2 (some loss to spine panel of volume 1, spine ends worn, toned), volumes 3-8 in later yellow cloth (finger-marked, reference labels to spines), with original blue wrappers bound-in (ink reference numbers to upper wrappers). Note: a complete set. The journal was named after the hotel that Oscar Wilde used for his trysts. It was a deliberate response to the prosecution of Wilde and included contributions from many significant writers of the time. Provenance: Hove Public Library (labels to pastedowns) (8).