Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

GUTHRIE, James. The Elf, A Sequence of Seasons. London: W.H. Broome at the Old Bourne Press, Spring 1902-June 1903. 3 vols. [only, of 4.] Limited editions of 250 copies only, these out-of-series and two of them signed and inscribed by James Guthrie, small 4to (176 x 133mm.) Colour and monochrome plates, tissue-guards, coloured endpapers. (Mild toning.) Original cloth-backed pictorial boards (minor stain to upper cover of ‘Spring’, toned). Note: lacking the ‘Winter’ volume. ‘Spring’ is signed by Guthrie ‘To my friend ‘addy’… some things we have thought together are in this poor book of mine’. The ‘Autumn’ issue is also inscribed by Guthrie to ‘A.D.C.’ [‘Addy’]. Provenance: James Guthrie (ink inscribed to ‘Addy’ on the initial blanks); ‘Flossie’ (‘Spring’ ink inscribed from ‘Addy’; F.M.S. (‘Autumn’ ink inscribed from ‘Addy’). – And a related volume (P.J. Miller’s ‘The Wreath’, published by The Pear Tree Press, 1911, small 4to) (4).

BINDINGS. – Dante ALIGHIERI. [The Divine Comedy.] London: J.M. Dent, 1904. 3 vols., ‘The Temple Series’, 12mo in 8s (149 x 93mm.) Frontispieces. (Browning.) Contemporary vellum with spines and covers lettered in calligraphic manuscript in the Florentine style, upper covers with large initials illuminated in gold and black with acanthus leaves and petals in green, purple and blue (some rubbing to the paint, especially ‘Paradiso’) (3).

BORGES, Jorge Luis. El Aleph. Buenos Aires: Editorial Losada, S.A., 1952. Second edition, signed and inscribed by Jorge Luis Borges, 8vo (201 x 132mm.) Title in red and black. (Mild toning, some uncut leaves.) Original olive wrappers (slightly bumped extremities). Note: the inscription reads: ‘A la senora Leadbitter, con admiración y amistad, Jorge Luis Borges, Buenos Aires, 1955’. Anna-Lisa Leadbitter was the wife of the British consul to Argentina in the 1950’s, Jasper Leadbitter. ‘El Aleph’ was Borges’ second and widely acclaimed collection of stories. It has a postscript and four stories not included in the first edition of 1949. By 1952, despite the advances in ophthalmology, Borges had become totally blind. This shows in the hesitancy and scratchiness of the pen in his inscription. In 1955 he was appointed director of the Biblioteca Nacional in Buenos Aires and he accepted the appointment with marked stoicism: ‘I speak of God’s splendid irony in granting me at one time 800,000 books and darkness’.

THATCHER, Margaret. The Downing Street Years. London: Harpercollins, 1993. Deluxe issue, signed by Margaret Thatcher, 8vo (234 x 150mm.) Photographic illustrations. Original white and blue cloth, gilt lettering to spine (slight mark to lettering), blue cloth slipcase.

ECONOMICS. – John Maynard KEYNES. The General Theory of Employment Interest and Money. London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1936. First edition, 8vo (213 x 129mm.) Half-title. (Light browning to endpapers, minor spotting to initial blank.) Original steel-blue cloth (lightly bumped spine ends, minor mark to spine).

WAUGH, Evelyn. Wine in Peace and War. London: Saccone & Speed Limited, [1947.] Limited edition, this being number 38 of 100 copies signed by Evelyn Waugh, 8vo (221 x 143mm.) Half-title, 2 colour illustrations by Rex Whistler. (Toning, light spotting to endpapers.) Original claret sheep, gilt lettering and design by Whistler to upper cover (extremities lightly rubbed, slight loss at top of spine). Note: Waugh was commissioned to write this work by Prince Vsevolod Ivanovich of Russia, the dedicatee of the book, and director of the London vintners Saccone & Speed. At the time ‘Brideshead Revisited’ had just been voted America’s Book of the Month so Waugh, knowing that his payment for this new commissioned book would be taxed at 80 per cent, opted to be paid a dozen bottles of champagne for every 1000 words he wrote. At the time of publication, the book had earnt him 192 bottles. Provenance: T.G. Sutherland (ink stamp to front-free endpaper).

MITFORD, Nancy. The Pursuit of Love. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1945. First edition, first impression, 8vo (184 x 118mm.) Half-title, title in red and black. (Browned to margins, lacking front-free endpaper.) Original blue cloth (lightly bumped spine ends), dust-jacket designed by Roger Furze (chipped to extremities, lightly dust-soiled to lower panel). Note: scarce in the dust-jacket. The first novel in Mitford’s ‘Radlett Trilogy’.

MILNE, A.A. When We Were Very Young. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1924. First edition, second state (188 x 120mm.) Illustrations by E.H. Shepard. (Mild toning, endpapers partially browned.) Original blue cloth, pictorial gilt (lightly bumped spine ends), dust-jacket (spine ends and extremities with small losses, light spotting, some fading to spine lettering). Note: second state with ‘ix’ on the contents page.

BINDING. – A.A. MILNE. Now We Are Six. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1927. First edition, first impression, 8vo (183 x 118mm.) Illustrations by E.H. Shepard. (Mild toning.) Near contemporary red half morocco by Sangorski and Sutcliffe, gilt plate of bookseller ‘W. & G. Foyle Ltd’ to rear pastedown, gilt lettering to the second and third compartments of the spine, gilt figure of Winnie to the first, t.e.g.

MILNE, A.A. The House at Pooh Corner. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1928. First edition, deluxe issue, 8vo (184 x 114mm.) Illustrations by E.H. Shepard. (Mild toning, gift inscribed on the front-free endpaper, dated 1929.) Original blue limp calf, pictorial gilt, g.e. (slight fading to spine).

MILNE, A.A. Winnie-the-Pooh. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1926. First edition, first impression, 8vo (187 x 121mm.) Numerous illustrations by E.H. Shepard. (Toning, light finger-marking, occasional soiling, pen mark to p.2, ink gift inscription on initial blank, dated 1926.) Original green cloth, pictorial gilt to upper cover, t.e.g. (extremities rubbed and bumped). – And a further two volumes (the first and second impression of A.A. Milne’s ‘Now We Are Six’,1927, 8vo) (3).

MILNE, A.A. Winnie-the-Pooh. London: Methuen, 1926. First edition, first impression, 8vo (188 x 121mm.) Numerous illustrations by E.H. Shepard. (Toning, a few leaves with corner creasing, corner loss to p.158, two-inch tear to rear endpaper, pencil marking to rear pastedown.) Original green cloth, pictorial gilt to upper cover (some damp-spotting to covers, extremities bumped).

MILNE, A.A. Winnie-the-Pooh. London: Methuen, 1926. First edition, first impression, 8vo (188 x 122mm.) Numerous illustrations by E.H. Shepard. (Finger-marking to p.84 and creasing to pp.34-40, toning.) Original green cloth, pictorial gilt to upper cover, t.e.g. (crease to top of spine panel, extremities bumped).

MILNE, A.A. The House at Pooh Corner. London: Methuen, 1928. First edition, deluxe issue, 8vo (183 x 115mm.) Illustrations by E.H. Shepard. (Light browning to endpapers, slight corner creasing to last leaves, faint name to front-free endpaper.) Original red limp calf, pictorial gilt to upper cover and spine, g.e. (lightly rubbed spine panel), original presentation box with mounted label to upper and side panels (spotting to label, some wear to rear panel).

BINDING. – Dante Gabriel ROSSETTI. The Poems… edited by William M. Rossetti. London: Ellis, 1910. 12mo (143 x 99mm.) (Mild toning.) Bound by Ramage in full brown morocco with art nouveau design to covers and spine with green petal morocco onlays, g.e. (faint mark to upper cover).

BINDING. – Robert HICHENS. The Garden of Allah. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1914. Signed by the author, 8vo (187 x 118mm.) Half-title, photographic illustrations. (Toning, blanks replaced.) Near contemporary black full morocco, gilt dot corner-pieces with red onlays, gilt initials of ‘L.B.’ to upper cover, g.e. (extremities slightly rubbed, endpapers replaced). Note: inscribed by Robert Hichens: ‘To a Friend from a friend, Robert Hichens, Dec. 15, 1915’. Better known now for his satire ‘The Green Carnation’, Hichens first published ‘The Garden of Allah’ in 1904. It was an international success and was made into a film three times, including a version starring Marlene Dietrich.

FREUD, Lucian (dust-jacket design) and Franz WERFEL. Paul Among the Jews… translated by Paul Levertoff. London: The Grey Walls Press, 1943. First English edition, 8vo (184 x 116mm.) (Mild toning.) Original red cloth (fading to edges), dust-jacket designed by Lucian Freud (spotting to upper panel, less so to lower, small closed tears to upper edge). Note: scarce. This is the first appearance of Freud’s work as an illustrator. The artist was twenty-one when the founder of the Grey Walls Press- Charles Wrey Gardiner- commissioned Freud. However, Gardiner disliked the golem-like figure and regretted asking him. This was a year before Freud worked on the illustrations for ‘The Glass Tower’ by Nicholas Moore.

CARTER, Angela. The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories. London: Victor Gollancz, 1979. First edition, first impression, 8vo (196 x 124mm.) (Mild toning, initials inscribed to front pastedown, dated 1979.) Original black cloth, dust-jacket. Note: at first considered to be a collection of folk stories from a feminist perspective, Carter countered this by saying: ‘My intention was not to do ‘versions’… but to extract the latent content from the traditional stories and to use it as the beginning of new stories’.

MURAKAMI, Haruki. Kafka on the Shore… translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel. London: The Harvill Press, 2005. Limited edition, this being number 52 of 1000 copies signed by the author, 8vo (223 x 142mm.) Original white boards (discolouring to the spine), slipcase.