Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

BERTELLI, Pietro. Diversarum Nationum Habitus Centum, et quattuor iconibus in aer incises diligenter expressi, item Ordines Duo Processionum. Unus Summi Pontificis alter Sereniss. Principis Venetiarum. Padua: Alciati and Pietro Bertelli, 1589. First edition, part 1 only, 8vo (164 x 116mm.) Engraved title with architectural border, leaf of engraved arms, 96 engraved plates of different nations, 3 with moveable over-slips, interleaved with blank leaves, numerous near contemporary ink quotations verso plates and on blanks. (Lacking 10 plates and dedication leaves, plates 49 and 50 with shorter lower margins, plate 79 with a 3-inch tear, marginal damp-staining, browning.) Contemporary blind-stamped vellum, gilt, blind-stamp of Fortuna to covers, g.e. (upper cover heavily rubbed, extremities rubbed with minor loss, lacking ties). Note: from plate 59 to the last leaf the book has been used by Ericus George Hédermann as an album amicorum, or book of commonplace jottings and quotations from acquaintances. These mostly date from 1620-1623. Provenance: Enrico George Hédermann (ink dedication to verso plate 69). [Colas 316].

AUCTION CATALOGUE. The Singularly Interesting Freehold Residential Property Known As Gadshill Place, the Home of Charles Dickens from 1857 to 1870. To Be Offered For Sale by Auction by Messrs. Knight, Frank & Rutley. London: for Messrs. Knight, Frank & Rutley, 1923. 4to (244 x 153mm.) 3 photographic plates, folding plan to rear. (Light spotting throughout.) Original card wrappers (minor finger-marking). – And a related volume (‘Sale of Charles Dickens’ Birthplace. Particulars & Conditions of Sale of the Freehold Residences 393 & 395 Commercial Road, Landport… Penny & Clark Are Instructed by the Trustees to Sell by Auction, at Their Auction Mart, King’s Road, Southsea, on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 1903’, 1903, folio) (2).

[LE FANU, Joseph Sheridan.] London Society. An Illustrated Magazine of Light and Amusing Literature for the Hours of Relaxation. London: 8, New Burlington Street, July-December 1871-1872. Vol. XX. 8vo (217 x 128mm.) Numerous plates and illustrations in the text, includes the ‘Christmas Number’ for 1872. (Mild toning.) Contemporary blue half morocco (heavily rubbed, joints splitting). Note: the ‘Christmas Number’ of 1872 contains the first printing of Le Fanu’s ‘Dickon the Devil’, pp.42-49. – And a further six volumes related to Le Fanu (including ‘The House of the Churchyard’, 1899, 8vo, and ‘The Cock and Anchor’, [1895], 8vo, and ‘Uncle Silas’, 1901, 8vo) (7).

LE FANU, Joseph Sheridan. The Fortunes of Colonel Torlogh O’Brien. London: Downey and Co., Ltd., 1896. 8vo (200 x 141mm.) Plates by ‘Phiz’ [Hablot Knight Browne]. (Toning.) Original blue cloth, gilt lettering to upper cover and spine (spine and covers darkened, slight warping to upper cover). – And a further four volumes by Le Fanu (including ‘The Wyvern Mystery’, 1889, 8vo, and ‘Wylder’s Hand’, 1899) (5).

BEATTIE, William. The Castles and Abbeys of England. London and New York: George Virtue, [circa 1850.] 2 vols., second series, 4to (277 x 183mm.) Titles in red and black with engraved vignettes, 38 steel-engraved plates. (Mild toning.) Near contemporary blue half morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, foliate gilt to four spine compartments, brown and red morocco lettering pieces to the rest, t.e.g. (lightly rubbed extremities). Provenance: L. Bartlett (bookplates to front pastedowns). – And a further six volumes (including ‘A General History of the County of Norfolk Intended to Convey all the Information of a Norfolk Tour’, 2 vols., 1829, 8vo, and Gilbert Abbott A’Beckett’s ‘The Comic History of England’, illustrated by John Leech, 2 vols., 1847-1848, 8vo) (8).

GILBERT, Stuart (editor). The Letters of James Joyce. London: Faber and Faber, 1957-1966. 3 vols., 8vo (232 x 144mm.) (Toning, gift inscriptions to front-free endpapers, light spotting to fore-edges.) Original grey cloth (lightly bumped), dust-jackets (toned). – And a further nine volumes (including James Joyce’s ‘Giacomo Joyce’, 1968, 8vo, and Anthony Burgess’ ‘Joysprick’, 1979, 8vo, and George Orwell’s ‘The English People’, 1947, 4to) (12).

WALLER-BRIDGE, Phoebe. Fleabag, The Scriptures. London: Sceptre, 2019. Limited edition, this being one of 5000 copies signed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, 8vo (216 x 150mm.) (Mild toning.) Original black cloth (lightly rubbed extremities), original pink wrap-around.

SIGNED BOOK. – Philip ROTH. Operation Shylock, A Confession. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993. First edition, first impression, signed and inscribed by Philip Roth, 8vo (233 x 155mm.) (Mild toning.) Original grey cloth-backed boards (lightly bumped spine ends), dust-jacket (small tears to top edge of upper panel). Note: the inscription reads: ‘On his 75th birthday to my dear old friend, Philip’ [two words illegible]. Also loosely inserted is a card in Roth’s hand to Julius Goldstein: ‘For a dear friend- on his most impressive birthday- love Claire and Philip’. Claire Bloom, actress, was married to Roth from 1990 to 1995. Julius Goldstein was a painter married to the writer, Joan Aiken. Julius and Philip met at the Yaddo artists’ colony in 1964. Provenance: Julius Goldstein (ink inscribed from the author, and ink name on the front-free endpaper).

KING, Stephen. Rose Madder. New York: Viking, 1995. First edition, first impression, signed by Stephen King, 8vo (233 x 150mm.) Mounted colour photograph of the author on the half-title signed in silver ink. (Mild toning.) Original black cloth-backed boards (spine ends lightly bumped), dust-jacket.

SIGNED BOOK. – [Mary Phelps JACOB.] ‘Caresse Crosby’. The Passionate Years. London: Alvin Redman Limited, 1955. First edition, signed by Caresse Crosby, 8vo (209 x 135mm.) Photographic illustrations, 2pp. publisher’s advert for the book loosely inserted. (Light spotting to the preliminaries.) Original black cloth (lightly bumped spine ends), dust-jacket (chipping to all edges, small closed tears). Note: signed ‘’Yes’, Caresse Crosby’. Aside from her sensationally wild and glamorous life in 1920’s and for patenting a successful bra, Crosby is known for publishing some of the biggest literary names in expatriate pre-war Paris. Together with her second husband Harry Crosby, their ‘Black Sun Press’ published Hemingway, Joyce, Henry Miller, Kay Boyle, Charles Bukowski and Hart Crane. Harry would commit suicide in 1929, but Caresse devoted herself to the press. It didn’t officially close until after her death in 1970.

MANUSCRIPT. [A journal of an English soldier, E.L. Cook, of the 9th Armoured Division, Royal Army Medical Corp of the British Army in India. Bombay, n.p.: 1942-1945.] 151pp., manuscript, 8vo (205 x 163mm.) 75 leaves of clearly legible hand-written journal entries describing the experiences of an English soldier as his regiment journey through India towards Burma, list of cities visited, and of those that died from disease to rear. (Some spotting, one loose leaf.) Original boards (spine lacking, worn). Note: the 9th Armoured Division (C.S.S.) arrived in India via Cape Town in June 1942. The 9th didn’t see military action and, indeed, the only reference to battle is a brief glimpse of Japanese aircraft overhead. For twenty minutes the sound of gunfire was ‘like music to my ears’. However, the journal has its own fascination. Lots of whiskey and gin is drunk, days of alcohol in Calcutta, seeing Lou Costello in ‘Rio Rita’, playing the gramophone with ‘Len and Busty’ at the military stop-point. They insist he stays over a few days (‘the best friends anyone can have’), cycling through the jungle and finding a waterfall (‘the fourth largest in the world’). But he is changing, ageing. He enjoys the hard graft of taking all the cargo downriver in a sampan. The Padre is asked to give a service. There’s a need for meaning when soldiers are ‘singing hymns with all their hearts and soul, men who had never seen inside a church’. The Padre, too, notices this need, and prolongs the service. Towards the end, he writes movingly, perhaps drunkenly, a section on ‘Fleeting Thoughts’. He wonders if his wife Mary will ‘notice the change in me’, but ends with valediction to the company: ‘all the fellows who I have lived daily with for three solid years here in India, worked with, sweated and toiled, and many a time been drunk with, we have cussed each other mercilessly, argued over trifles, had queer moods all of which has brought us closer together’.

WILLIAMS, James. The Footman’s Guide: Containing Plain Instructions to the Footman and Butler, for the Proper Arrangement and Regular Performance of Their Various Duties… Including the Manner of Setting-Out Tables, Sideboards, &c. London: Dean and Munday, [1835.] First edition, 8vo (168 x 98mm.) 2 folding engraved plates, 7 illustrations showing laid tables, 8pp. publisher’s advertisements to rear. (Browned, moderate spotting throughout, inner hinge weakened.) Original green cloth (minor staining to covers, residue of paper label to spine). Note: scarce.

GOLDSMITH, Oliver. A History of the Earth and Animated Nature. Edinburgh and London: A. Fullarton and Co., [1853.] 2 vols., 8vo (254 x 160mm.) 72 hand-coloured plates, including 2 hand-coloured vignettes on additional titles. (Toning, occasional light spotting.) Contemporary full calf, red morocco lettering pieces to the spines, blind-stamped and pictorial gilt to upper covers (lightly rubbed). Provenance: Mary Elizabeth Bland (ink name inscribed to both initial blanks) (2).

CHEMISTRY. – [Joseph ROBERTSON.] An Essay on Culinary Poisons. Containing Cautions Relative to the Use of Laurel-Leaves, Hemlock, Mushrooms, Copper-Vessels, Earthen Jars, &c. With Observations on the Adulteration of Bread and Flour. London: G. Kearsley, 1781. First edition, 4to (204 x 126mm.) (Marginal damp-stain to title, browning, last leaf F3 with outer margin cut, blanks replaced). Late 20th century brown calf-backed marbled paper-covered boards (endpapers replaced). Provenance: Edward Braxton Reynolds (bookplate to front pastedown). – And a further fifteen volumes, mainly relating to chemistry (including Sheridan Muspratt’s ‘Chemistry, Theoretical, Practical, and Analytical. As Applied and Relating to the Arts and Manufactures’, 2 vols., [1860], 4to) (16).

SOWERBY, James. British Mineralogy: or Coloured Figures Intended to Elucidate the Mineralogy of Great Britain. London: R. Taylor & Co., 1804-1811. 4 vols. (only, of 5). 8vo (228 x 137mm.) 400 hand-coloured engraved plates, some heightened with gum arabic, tissue-guards, titles, indices to rear of each volume. (Toning, occasional light browning, first leaves up to C1 of volume IV loose.) Contemporary half calf to volumes ll-lV (spine lacking and boards detached to volume IV, upper cover of volume lll detached, worn), 20th century cloth-backed boards to volume l, paper label mounted to spine (endpapers replaced, finger-marks to spine). Note: a very influential source of information in the early study of geology. Sowerby drew all the plates from specimens in his collection and they were beautifully hand-coloured by himself and others (4).

DEVON. – Thomas SHAPTER. The Climate of the South of Devon and Its Influence Upon Health. London: John Churchill, 1862. Second edition, signed by the author on the half-title, 8vo (224 x 135mm.) Engraved hand-coloured map frontispiece, 32pp. publisher’s advertisements to rear. (Toning, marginal damp-stain to first leaves.) 20th century blue morocco-backed marbled paper-covered boards, gilt lettering (endpapers replaced). – And a further eight volumes (including J.G. Bartholomew’s ‘Handy Reference Atlas of the World’, 1912, 8vo, and Tristram Risdon’s ‘The Chorographical Description or Survey of the County of Devon’, 1811, 8vo) (9).

ENTOMOLOGY. – W.E. SHUCKARD (editor). The British Coleoptera Delineated, Consisting of Figures of all the Genera of British Beetles. London: W. Crofts, 1840. First edition, 8vo (213 x 134mm.) 94 engraved plates. (First two and last plates heavily spotted, thereafter light to moderate spotting to all plates.) Contemporary half calf, red morocco lettering piece to the spine (extremities rubbed). – And a further seven related volumes (including F.O. Morris’ ‘A Natural History of British Moths’, 4 vols., 1872, 8vo) (8).

RUPERT THE BEAR ANNUALS. – [Alfred BESTALL et al.] Rupert the Bear. London: Daily Express Publications, 1944-1953. 7 vols., 4to (243 x 175mm.) Numerous illustrations. (Names inscribed in 1905 and 1953, toning, occasional corner crease.) Original pictorial card covers (wear to spine of 1944, and to the spine ends of 1945, lacking spine to 1952, extremities rubbed) (7).

FISHERIES EXHIBITION. The Fisheries Exhibition Literature. London: William Clowes, 1883. 12 vols. (only, of 14). 8vo (216 x 128mm.) Folding plates, including one for ‘A Scheme For a Central Fish Market in London’ and a U.K. map of the fishing population, illustrations in the text, indices and advertisements. (Small tears to the map, toning, scattered light spotting.) Original pictorial vari-cloth (extremities rubbed, paper reference labels to base of spines). Note: lacking volumes 13 and 14 which are the ‘Official Report’ and the ‘General Index’ (12).