Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

ADAMS, William. The Modern Voyager and Traveller, Through Europe, Asia, Africa, & America. London: for Fisher, Son & Co., 1830-1831. 4 vols., small 8vo (169 x 99mm.) 4 additional hand-coloured vignettes to titles, 48 engraved plates including 43 hand-coloured, 3 folding maps. (Occasional browning, spotting to 3 plates in vol. 4 and 2 in vol. 1 and preliminaries of vol. 2, toning, pencil collation to pastedown of vol. 1.) Later cloth-backed original boards, paper labels to spines (rebacked, extremities rubbed, staining to spines of two volumes). – And a further ten volumes (including [Elizabeth Melville’s] ‘A Residence at Sierra Leone’, 1849, 8vo, and ‘The Last Journals of David Livingstone’, 2 vols., 1880, 8vo, and Henry M. Stanley’s ‘Through the Dark Continent’, 2 vols., 1878, 8vo) (14).

MANNING, Owen and William BRAY. The History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey; compiled From the Best and Most Authentic Historians, Valuable Records, and Manuscripts in the Public Offices and Libraries, and in Private Hands. London: for John White by John Nichols and Son, 1804-1814. 3 vols., folio (432 x 256mm.) 79 engraved plates (including 13 facsimile Domesday plates), 2 folding maps, 13 folding genealogical trees. (Occasional light spotting, blanks replaced to vol. 3, some creasing to maps.) Contemporary half calf, red morocco lettering pieces to the spines (lower cover detached from vol. 1, upper cover loosened, rebacked, extremities rubbed, endpapers replaced to vol. 3). – And a small quantity of miscellaneous manuscript material, and a further two volumes (John and Josiah Boydell’s ‘An History of the River Thames’, 2 vols., 1794-1796, [lacking plates], 4to) (small quantity).

ART REFERENCE. – H.C. MARILLIER. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, an Illustrated Memorial of His Art and Life. London: George Bell and Sons, 1899. Folio (331 x 224mm.) Numerous plates, illustrations in the text. (Stamps to margins, toning.) Later blue morocco-backed cloth (gilt reference to spine, endpapers replaced, sunning to spine). Provenance: Worthing Library (labels to pastedowns). – And a further six related volumes (including Malcolm Bell’s ‘Edward Burne-Jones, A Record and Review’, limited edition, being number 378 of 390 copies, 1892, folio, and Douglas Martin’s ‘Charles Keeping, an Illustrator’s Life’, 1993, 4to) (7).

MARKHAM, Gervase. The Inrichment of the Weald of Kent: or, a Direction to the Husband-man, for the true ordering, manuring, and inriching of all the Grounds within the Wealds of Kent and Sussex. London: Nicholas Okes for John Harison, 1631.  Small 4to (183 x 134mm.) Engraved printer’s device to title, engraved headpiece and initial. (Stamps to title and verso.) Early 20th century half calf, gilt lettering to spine (old paper label to spine, heavily rubbed extremities). – And a further seven related volumes (including Gideon Mantell’s ‘Thoughts on Animalcules’, 1846, 8vo, and W.H. Hudson’s ‘Birds and Man’, with a 4pp. tipped-in letter from the author, 1901, 8vo, and ‘Baxter’s Library of Practical Agriculture’, 2 vols., 1846, 8vo) (8).

RACKHAM, Arthur (illustrator). – Richard WAGNER. The Rhinegold & The Valkyrie. The Ring of the Niblung… translated into English by Margaret Armour. London: William Heinemann, 1920. New impression, 4to (247 x 177mm.) 34 tipped-in colour plates with captioned tissue-guards. (Toning, browned to margins.) Original brown cloth (lacking front-free endpaper). – And a further fifteen volumes, mostly illustrated (including E. OE Somerville’s ‘Slipper’s ABC of Fox Hunting’, 1903, folio) (16).

LAYE, Camara. The Dark Child… translated from the French by James Kirkup. London: Collins, 1955. First English edition, 8vo (218 x 132mm.) 2 newspaper articles about the book mounted to half-title and verso front-free endpaper. (Toning, rear endpaper with loss to upper edge.) Original red cloth. Note: the extent of Camara Laye’s authorship of the book has been contested. Provenance: C.R. and J.E. Ashbee (oval morocco bookplate to the front pastedown). – And a further twenty-one volumes all with ownership marks of the Ashbee family (including those with Ashbee bookplates: Esther S. Warner’s ‘The Silk-Cotton Tree’, 1958, 8vo, and Sewell Stokes ‘Court Circular’, 1950, 8vo, and Diana Marr-Johnson’s ‘Bella North’, 1954, 8vo, and John Brown’s ‘Rab and His Friends’, 1854, 4to, and Malcolm Elwin’s ‘The Strange Case of Robert Louis Stevenson’, 1950, 8vo, and ‘T.E. Lawrence by His Friends’, pencil inscribed by C.R. Ashbee, 1937, 8vo, and H. Labouchère-de Vries’ ‘August Rodin’, inscribed by Prunella Ashbee to ‘Horst’ [her husband, Walter Nessler], 1939, 4to, and ‘Aunt Louisa’s ‘Zoological Gardens’, inscribed to J.E. Ashbee, [circa 1874], 4to) (22).

PHOTOGRAPHY. – John MORRISON and Harold BURDEKIN. London Night. London: Collins, 1934. First edition, 4to (311 x 246mm.) Photographic illustrations by Burdekin, introduction by John Morrison. (Mild toning.) Original cloth (bumped, spotting to edges), dust-jacket (loss to edges and spine ends). Note: atmospheric photos of pre-war London at night.

AFRICA. – David RATTRAY. A Soldier-Artist in Zululand. William Whitelocke Lloyd and the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. South Africa, Natal: Fugitives’ Drift Lodge, 2007. First edition, 4to (299 x 293mm.) Numerous colour illustrations. Original tan cloth, dust-jacket. Note: in 2000 David Rattray discovered the watercolours of Whitelock Loyd and recognised the accuracy of the scenes the soldier-artist encountered in the Zulu wars. The book is an attempt to ‘identify each and every scene Lloyd painted, to photograph accurately what he depicted’. – And a further three related volumes (including Adrian Greaves’ ‘Maps of the Anglo-Zulu War’, 2016, limited edition being no. 1 of 20 hand-coloured copies, oblong 4to, and R.A. Brown’s ‘The Road to Ulundi, the Water-colour Drawings of John North Crealock’, 1969, 4to, and Gail van Lingen’s ‘Battlefields of South Africa’, 1991, oblong 4to) (4).

ALFA ROMEO. – Salvetti STEFANO. Curiosalfa. Milan: Fucina, 2010. First edition, oblong 4to (240 x 278mm.) Photographic illustrations. Original cream cloth, dust-jacket. – And a quantity of approximately fifty-five volumes, many about Alfa Romeo cars (including Gipp Salvetti’s ‘Alfavelate’, 2011, oblong 4to, and Davide de Bertolis’ ‘Alfa Romeo… dei nostril sogni’, 2001, 4to, and Massimo Condolo’s ‘Alfa-Romeo’, 2001, 4to, and Peter Vann and J. Lewandowski’s ‘Alfa Romeo Cars’, 1991, 4to) (a quantity).

GOGH, Vincent Van. The Letters, the Complete Illustrated and Annotated Edition… edited by Leo Jansen, Hans Luijten and Nienke Bakker. London: Thames and Hudson, 2010. 6 vols., large 8vo (299 x 248mm.) Colour illustrations, CD in rear pocket of volume six. Original pictorial boards, dust-jackets, slipcase (tears along top edges) (6).

CONJURING. – Lewis GANSON. Routined Manipulation. London: H. Clarke & Co., [1950.] Part 1, signed by Lewis Ganson to the front-free endpaper, 8vo (219 x 138mm.) Photographic illustrations. (Toning.) Original black cloth (extremities bumped). – And a quantity of approximately one hundred further volumes relating to magic (including ‘The Magic of Louis S. Histed’, 1947, 8vo, and ‘Ken Brooke’s Magic: The Unique Years’, 1980, 4to, and Bruce Cervon’s ‘The Black and White Trick’, 1989, 8vo) (a quantity).

VALÉRY, Paul. – Thomas MCGREEVY (translator). Introduction to the Method of Leonardo da Vinci. London: John Rodker, 1929. Limited edition, this being number 351 of 875 copies only, 4to (284 x 187mm.) Tipped-in frontispiece on blue paper. (Toning.) Original black cloth-backed paper-covered boards (spine ends and extremities rubbed, toned). Provenance: C.R. and J.E. Ashbee (oval red morocco bookplate to the front pastedown). – And a further twenty-eight volumes of art reference (including C.R. Ashbee’s ‘Modern English Silverwork’, 1974, 4to, and ‘Augustus John Drawings’, edited by Lillian Browse’, 1941, 4to) (29).

ART REFERENCE. – Gilles DELEUZE. Francis Bacon Logique de la Sensation. [Paris:] Editions de la Différence, 1981. 2 vols., first edition, 8vo (271 x 198mm.) Photographic illustrations. (Toning.) Original card covers (toned). Note: Deleuze’s analyses Bacon’s art in terms of the idea of ‘becoming’ that he had formulated in his book with Félix Guattari ‘A Thousand Platteaus’, published the year previously. – And a further thirty-six volumes of art reference (including Horst Antes’ [Blow Book] ‘FlickBuch and Fresh Breath on the Blow Book’, 2 vols., 2000, 4to, and Maurice Sérullaz’s ‘Eugène Delacroix’, [1990], 4to, and Eberhard Havekost’s ‘Background’, 2007, 4to) (38).

[BIRD, Cyril Kenneth.] ‘Fougasse’. Running Commentary. London: Methuen and Company, 1941. First edition, oblong 8vo (120 x 179mm.) Illustrations. Original green cloth (hinges slightly weakened), dust-jacket (price-clipped, minor loss at top of spine, tear to rear panel). – And a further fifteen volumes by ‘Fougasse’ (including ‘Fun Fair’, 1934, 4to, and ‘Us’, 1951, 8vo, and ‘Sorry No Rubber’, 1942, 8vo). Provenance: by descent, from the family of C.R. Ashbee (16).

POTTER, Beatrix. The Sly Old Cat. London: Frederick Warne, 1971. First edition, 16mo (161 x 120mm.) Illustrations by Beatrix Potter. Original pictorial cloth, dust-jacket. – And a further eighteen volumes by or about Beatrix Potter (including ‘The Tale of the Faithful Dove’, 1971, 16mo, and Leslie Linder’s ‘A History of the Writings of Beatrix Potter’, 1979, 8vo) (19).

FOLIO SOCIETY. – Jane AUSTEN. [The Novels.] London: The Folio Society, 1987. 7 vols., 8vo (220 x 138m.) Illustrations by Joan Hassall. Original cloth-backed paper-covered boards, slipcase. – And a further forty volumes published by The Folio Society (including E.M. Forster’s [The Novels], 6 vols., 1996, 8vo, and James Boswell’s ‘The Life of Samuel Johnson’, 2 vols., 1993, 8vo) (47).