Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

CLARENDON, Edward Hyde. The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England Begun in the Year 1641. Oxford: at the Theatre, 1707. 3 vols. in 6, first octavo edition, 8vo (220 x 132mm.) Half-titles to volumes 1, 3 and 5, 6 engraved portrait frontispieces, 75pp. ‘Index’ to rear of volume 3. (Toning, volume l, part 2 with marginal insect-damage to preliminaries and first twenty leaves, occasional browning.) Contemporary speckled panelled calf, red and green morocco lettering pieces to the spines (rubbing to spine ends). Provenance: Lydia Weston (ink name to front pastedown of volume I); Joseph Crosswaite (ink name to title-pages); Edward Herbert, Viscount Clive, M.P. (bookplates to front pastedowns) (6).

BEAUMONT, Francis and John FLETCHER. Comedies and Tragedies… Never Printed Before. London: for Humphrey Robinson and Humphrey Moseley, 1647. First collected edition, folio (316 x 202mm.) Woodcut initials and head and tail-pieces, text in double-column, 7 lists of ‘Speakers of this Play’ in manuscript verso last leaf of preceding play. (Lacking portrait frontispiece, insect-damage to margins and within some text, title and initial blank with paper-repairs and numerous leaves with marginal paper repairs, some leaves text-affected, Qqq2 with corner loss.) Contemporary boards (rebacked, endpapers replaced, extremities heavily rubbed). Note: involving the work of eight different printers, the publication of this work was the third great folio edition of Elizabethan drama, after Shakespeare in 1623 and Ben Jonson in 1616. It contains twenty-two leaves of poetry dedicated to the two dramatists, including first printings of work by Ben Jonson, Richard Lovelace, Milton, Herrick, Shirley, Waller, and Roger L’ Estrange. Provenance: Car. I. Taboris (ink stamp to initial blank).

HERBERT, Edward. The Life of Edward Lord Herbert of Cherbury. Written by Himself. London: J. Dodsley, 1770. Second edition. Engraved fold-out portrait frontispiece. (Browning, offsetting to title, toning.) [Bound with:] Edward HERBERT. A Dialogue Between A Tutor and His Pupil. London: W. Bathoe, 1768. (Title browned.) 4to (228 x 179mm.) Contemporary calf, red morocco lettering piece to the spine (heavily rubbed, some loss to upper cover). Note: Edward was the elder brother to the poet George. But unlike his brother, Edward was a noted deist, as can be seen by the louche pose he adopts in the frontispiece, lying beside a flowing stream and with the words ‘Magica Sympathia’ on his shield. Provenance: A.L.S. (bookplate to the front pastedown); E. Richmond Swales (ink inscribed verso the front-free endpaper). – And a further two volumes (Michael Bryan’s ‘A Biographical and Critical Dictionary of Painters and Engravers’, 2 vols., 1816, 4to) (3).

LOUDON, [Jane Webb.] The Ladies’ Flower-Garden of Ornamental Greenhouse Plants. London: William Smith, 1848. First edition, 4to (269 x 206mm.) 42 hand-coloured lithographic plates, some heightened with gum arabic, tissue-guards, 3pp. ‘Index’ to rear. (A few plates with light spotting, toning.) Near contemporary green half morocco, g.e. (extremities rubbed, some scuffing and fading, minor stain to upper cover). Provenance: ‘Napier’ (pencil name inscribed to initial blank). – And a related volume (‘The Florist’, Vol. 1- January-December, 1848, 8vo) (2).

WAIN, Louis (illustrator) and May BYRON. Cat’s Cradle, A Picture-Book for Little Folk. London et al.: Blackie and Sons Limited, [1908.] First edition, 4to (242 x 170mm.) Numerous colour illustrations, including 6 full-page. (Toning, occasional light spotting.) Original cloth-backed boards, pictorial paper illustrations mounted to upper cover (extremities rubbed, minor scuffing to illustration, slight dust-soiling). – And a further five volumes illustrated by Louis Wain (including Louis Wain’s ‘Summer Book for 1903’, [1903], 4to, and ‘In Nurseryland’, [circa 1900], 4to, and ‘Merry Times: stories in Prose & Verse’ by Dorothy Black, Grace C. Floyd, Norman Gale & Others, [1916], 4to) (6).

WAIN, Louis. Louis Wain’s Cats and Dogs. London: Raphael Tuck & Sons, Ltd., [1902]. Linen edition, folio (339 x 247mm.) 22 colour plates, including 2 double-paged, 4 black and white illustrations. (Text-block detached, some loose plates, browning, corner losses, minor soiling.) Original cloth-backed pictorial boards (rubbing to extremities, spine ends worn, scratches to covers, lacking front-free endpaper). – And a further volume illustrated by Louis Wain, with 11 chromolithographed illustrations, ‘Big Dogs, Little Dogs, Cats and Kittens’, [1902], folio) (2).

WAIN, Louis. Animal Gambols. London: James Clarke & Co., [circa 1905.] 4to (236 x 188mm.) Colour frontispiece by Wain, black and white illustrations throughout by Wain, Harry B. Neilson, J.A. Shepherd and others. (Mild toning, inner hinge weakened). Original pictorial boards (some loss to spine panel, extremities rubbed). – And a further five volumes illustrated by Louis Wain (including Clifton Bingham’s ‘Full of Fun’, [1908], 4to, and, illustrated by Wain and Harry Rowntree, ‘Cats and Dogs’, [circa 1908], 4to, and ‘Merry Times’, [1916], 4to) (6).

WAIN, Louis (illustrator) and Norman GALE and Grace C. FLOYD and others. Such Fun With Louis Wain. London: Raphael Tuck & Sons Ltd., [1910.] Father Tuck’s ‘Children’s Own Library’, 4to (257 x 195mm.) 2 full-page colour plates, numerous duotone illustrations in the text. (Hinges with tape repair and also to text-block, toning.) Original pictorial boards (rebacked with tape and with original spine laid-down). – And a further twelve volumes illustrated by Louis Wain (including, with Jessie Pope, ‘The Cat Scouts’, [1912], 4to, and ‘In Nurseryland’, [circa 1900], 4to, and, with Clifton Bingham, ‘All Sorts of Comical Cats’, [1902], 4to, and ‘Fun For Everyone’, [circa 1895], 4to) (13).

WAIN, Louis. Somebody’s Pussies. London, et al.: Raphael Tuck & Sons, Ltd., [1925.] 4to (246 x 187mm.) 13 full-page colour illustrations on stiff boards. (Toning, minor soiling to title.) Original cloth-backed pictorial boards (extremities rubbed). Note: published around the time that Wain’s sisters had him certified insane and admitted to Springfield Mental Hospital in Tooting, South London. Provenance: Barbara Maud Clark (ink name to front pastedown).

CHILDREN’S BOOKS. – [Barbara Mary CAMPBELL]. ‘Cam’. Barbara Lamb. London: John Lane at the Bodley Head, 1945. Reprint, 4to (242 x 178mm.) Numerous colour illustrations by the author. (Mild toning, gift inscribed to front-free endpaper.) Original pictorial covers, dust-jacket (chipping and small tears to lower edges). Provenance: Norman Whitehurst (name inscribed to front-free endpaper). – And a further two volumes for children (Alison Uttley and Margaret Tempest’s, with all 8 plates uncoloured, ‘My Little Grey Rabbit Painting Book’, [circa 1940], 4to, and Anne Rochester’s ‘Nursery Rhymes’, [circa 1940], oblong 4to) (3).

WAIN, Louis (illustrator). Cinderella and Other Fairy Tales. London: Gale & Polden Ltd., [1917.] First edition, 4to (277 x 213mm.) 6 full-page colour illustrations and 5 full-page black and white illustrations. (Browned to margins of text leaves, scattered spotting, later hand-colouring to three of the uncoloured illustrations.) Original cloth-backed pictorial boards (extremities rubbed, minor stain and finger-marking to lower cover). Note: scarce. Provenance: ‘Wylles’ (gift inscribed to on the front pastedown).

WAIN, Louis. The Louis Wain Nursery Book. London: James Clarke, [1902.] First edition, 4to (234 x 191mm.) Numerous black and white illustrations by Louis Wain. (Name erased in blue ink from the pastedown, mild toning.) Original cream pictorial boards (lightly rubbed extremities). – And a further three volumes illustrated by Louis Wain (including ‘Louis Wain’s Baby’s Picture Book’, 1903, 4to, and two volumes from ‘Father Tuck’s Little Pet Series’, ‘Three Little Kittens’, [circa 1900], 4to, and ‘More About The Three Little Kittens’, [circa 1900], 4to) (4).

WAIN, Louis (illustrator). – Edric VREDENBURG. Tinker, Tailor. London, et al.: Raphael Tuck, [1914.] First edition, 4to (242 x 173mm.) 12 colour plates, 8pp. publisher’s advertisements to rear. (Mild toning.) Original brown cloth-backed pictorial boards. Provenance: Pearce family (memorial bookmark loosely inserted); Maurice Williams (gift inscribed to and a stamp on the front-free endpaper).

WAIN, Louis. Cats of Many Lands. London: Raphael Tuck, [1912.] Father Tuck’s ‘Wonderland’ Series, folio (328 x 234mm.) 8 full-page colour illustrations, verses by Norman Gale. (Browned.) Original pictorial boards (minor loss to spine ends, corner crease to covers). Note: scarce.

WAIN, Louis. Louis Wain’s Animal Show, with Stories in Prose and Verse. London: James Clarke & Co., 1905. First edition, 4to (238 x 191mm.) Numerous black and white illustrations by Louis Wain. (Toning, marginal damp-staining to preliminaries.) Original pictorial boards (extremities rubbed, spine ends worn). Provenance: ‘Dorothy’ (gift inscribed to front pastedown). – And another volume S.C. Woodhouse and Louis Wain’s ‘Cats at School’, [circa 1911], 4to) (2).

WAIN, Louis. Pa Cats, Ma Cats and Their Kittens. London: Raphael Tuck & Sons Ltd., [1902]. Folio (342 x 250mm.) 11 chromolithographed plates, including 1 double-paged, black and white illustrations. (Toning, hinges cracked, some leaves loosening, occasional light spotting.) Original cloth-backed pictorial boards (some discolouring to spine, light rubbing to extremities).

WAIN, Louis. Days in Catland with Louis Wain. London: Raphael Tuck & Sons, Ltd., [1903.] Father Tuck’s Panorama, first edition, oblong 4to (273 x 300mm.) 4 colour chromolithographed plate sections, 14 numbered slot-in cat figures, integral envelope to rear. (Some creasing to the slot-in figures, 1 with tape repair, some short tears to the slots.) Original chromolithographed linen-backed covers (later linen, browning and repair to edge of lower cover). Provenance: ‘Roy’ (gift inscribed to on the lower cover).

BINDINGS. – J.M.W. TURNER. Liber Fluviorum; or, River Scenery of France… with Descriptive Letter-Press by Leitch Ritchie; and a Biographical Sketch by Alaric A. Watts. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1857. Large 8vo (268 x 175mm.) Additional engraved title, 61 engraved plates. (Toning, light spotting to preliminaries.) Near contemporary maroon full morocco by Webb and Hunt, triple gilt ruled with corner-pieces, g.e. (extremities bumped). Provenance: John P. Robinson (morocco gift-plate to front pastedown); Eleanor Gream Antrobus (name-plate to initial blank); Michael Emerson MacRoberts (bookplate to the front pastedown). – And a further ten volumes (including T.H. Lister’s ‘Life and Administration of Edward, First Earl of Clarendon’, 3 vols., 1837-1838, 8vo, and ‘The Letters and Dispatches of John Churchill, First Duke of Marlborough, from 1702 to 1712’, 4 vols. [of 5], 1845, 8vo) (11).

[VOLTAIRE.] – Jean-Michel MOREAU and Augustin de SAINT-AUBIN. [A collection of unbound engravings for the ‘Oeuvres de Voltaire’ and 46 engraved portrait plates, mostly by Saint-Aubin. Paris: A.A. Renouard, 1819-1825.] 8vo (219 x 160mm.) 162 engraved plates with tissue-guards, 116 being scenes by Jean-Michel Moreau and 46 engraved portraits, of which 41 are after Augustin de Saint-Aubin. (2 plates with spotting.) Contained within a pink card slip-case with blue morocco-backed cloth boards (edges rubbed, minor dust-soiling and scratches) contained by a book-form diced morocco-covered box, gilt borders and corner-pieces, gilt lettering to the spine (minor repairs to joints, light rubbing). Note: one of the Moreau engravings is dated 1804.