Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

BRONTE, Charlotte, Emily and Anne. – Edmund DULAC (illustrator). The Novels of the Sisters Bronte. London & New York: J.M. Dent & Company, 1905-1913. 10 vols., 8vo (168 x 112mm.) Colour plates by Dulac. (Spotting to margins and some preliminaries.) Contemporary half calf, floral gilt to spines, t.e.g. (fading to gilt, extremities rubbed, two inner hinges weakened) (10).

CONAN-DOYLE, Arthur. [The Works.] London: John Murray, 1903. 4 vols. [of 12] of the ‘Author’s Edition’, this being number 702 of 1000 copies with ‘The White Company’ signed by Conan-Doyle, 8vo (211 x 135mm.) Photogravure plates with captioned tissue-guards. (Mild toning.) Original red cloth (sunned to spines, joints splitting, extremities bumped). Note: comprising only ‘The White Company’, ‘A Study in Scarlet and the Sign of Four’ and ‘Micah Clarke’ and ‘The Refugees’, with ‘The White Company’ signed to the limitation leaf (4).

SOUTH AMERICA. – James W. WELLS. Exploring and Travelling Three Thousand Miles Through Brazil: from Rio De Janeiro to Maranhao. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1886. 2 vols., first edition, 8vo (213 x 128mm.) Half-title, frontispieces with tissue-guards, 4 maps, including 2 large folding maps in colour, numerous illustrations in the text. (Toning, minor scattered spotting and to maps, small tears to map creases.) Late 20th century dark green half calf over teal cloth, black morocco lettering pieces to the spines (endpapers replaced, minor nicks) (2).

RANSOME, Arthur. Swallows and Amazons. London: Jonathan Cape, 1930. First edition, first impression, 8vo (200 x 131mm.) Illustrations and map endpapers by Stephen Spurrier. (Toning, small stain to p.115, browning to endpapers.) Original cloth (discolouring, spine panel loosening with some loss). Provenance: Vivien Burkett (gift inscribed to on the half-title and a bookplate on the front endpaper).

TOLKIEN, J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1963-1965. 3 vols., mixed impressions, 8vo (224 x 141mm.) 3 folding maps. (Toning, occasional small corner crease, spotting to front blank of ‘The Fellowship’.) Original red cloth (slight damp-spotting, small mark to upper cover of ‘The Fellowship’), dust-jacket (tape repairs verso ‘The Fellowship’, chipping, tears to spine panel of ‘The Return of the King’, browning). Note: ‘The Fellowship’ is a fourteenth impression, ‘The Two Towers’ a 10th impression in an 11th impression dust-jacket, and ‘The Return of the King’ is a 10th impression in an 11th impression dust-jacket (3).

PRICHARD, Katharine Susannah. Haxby’s Circus. London: Jonathan Cape, 1930. First edition, 8vo (192 x 121mm.) (Toning, browned to front-free endpaper.) Original green cloth, dust-jacket (some loss to spine ends, browning.) Note: scarce. An autobiographical novel of circus life by the Australian author and co-founder of the Australian Communist Party. Provenance: The Book Society (bookplate to front-free endpaper).

BRIGGS, Raymond (illustrator) and Nicholas FISK. Richthofen the Red Baron. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1968. First edition, signed by Raymond Briggs and with a hand-written letter from Briggs loosely inserted, 4to (204 x 193mm.) Colour illustrations. (Mild toning.) Original pictorial boards, dust-jacket (extremities rubbed). Note: the letter reads ‘Dear Mr. Marshall, Thanks for your interesting letter. No one has ever asked for those old books before! I enclose 2 of them. I went over to somewhere in Kent (don’t ask me where) to draw the exact model of Alfa in the book. Someone was having it done up at a cost of untold thousands. Naturally sat in it! All Best, Raymond Briggs’. Provenance: Peter Marshall, Alfa Romeo specialist (gift inscribed to from the author). – And a further four first editions illustrated by Raymond Briggs, including another signed (‘Lindbergh the Lone Flier’, 1968, 4to, and two copies of ‘Nuvolari and the Alfa Romeo’, 1968, 4to, and ‘Jimmy Murphy and the White Duesenberg’, 1968, 4to) (5).

CHILDREN’S BOOKS. – Jill MURPHY. The Worst Witch Strikes Again. London: Allison & Busby, 1980. First edition, 8vo (204 x 176mm.) Illustrations by the author. (Toning.) Original pictorial boards (spine ends lightly bumped, nick to lower edge). Note: scarce. The second book in the series. – And a further first edition by Jill Murphy (‘A Bad Spell For the Worst Witch’, 1982, 8vo) (2).

ORIGINAL ART-WORK. – Walter H. NESSLER. [A manuscript book with original ink drawings and three calligraphically hand-written poems. N.p.: 1937.] 19pp., manuscript, oblong 4to (251 x 300mm.) Dedication leaf, 3 manuscript poems over 10 leaves recto only, 6 large ink drawings, 2 ink decorations. (Mild toning.) Contemporary half calf (scuffed, rubbed and fading). Note: the book is dedicated by Walter Nessler (known by his middle name ‘Horst’) to his mother-in-law Janet Ashbee, wife of Charles Ashbee. It’s dated Christmas Eve 1937 so this was a present by the artist who had recently arrived in England from Nazi Germany where he had met and courted an English ballet dancer, Prudence Ashbee, Janet and Charles’s daughter. Walter and Prudence left Germany a few months before this present was made. The female figure in the drawings has the mournful eyes noted in other portraits by Walter of Prudence from this time.  In 1940 Walter was interned in the Huyton Camp for foreign nationals. Provenance: by descent, from the family of C.R. Ashbee.

BINDING. – Edward Hyde CLARENDON. The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England to which is Added an Historical View of the Affairs of Ireland. Oxford: at the Clarendon Press, 1826. 8 vols., new edition, 8vo (219 x 130mm.) Half-titles. (Moderate spotting to preliminaries and rear leaves.) Near contemporary tree calf, red and black morocco lettering pieces to the spines with red morocco onlay to the black, gilt (rebacked with original spines laid-down, excepting vol. 3, repair to black lettering piece of vol. 6) (8).

AFRICA. Narrative of the Field Operations Connected with the Zulu War of 1879. London: H.M.S.O., 1907. 2nd impression, 8vo (237 x 146mm.) 10 sketch maps and charts, most folding and 7 folding maps to rear pocket. (Title browned, toning.) Original red blind-stamped cloth (slight fading to spine). Note: one of 1500 copies. It includes the unlisted map of the ‘Lines of Communication’ which was not issued in the very scarce first edition.

LANG, Andrew. The Violet Fairy Book. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1901. First edition, 8vo (182 x 116mm.) 8 colour plates, including frontispiece with tissue-guard, numerous black and white illustrations. (Mild toning, occasional spotting.) Original purple cloth with pictorial gilt to upper cover and spine, g.e. (minor marks to lower cover, lightly rubbed extremities). – And a further two first editions edited by Andrew Lang (‘The Grey Fairy Book’, 1900, 8vo, and ‘The Pink Fairy Book’, 1897, 8vo, and ‘The Green Fairy Book’, third edition, 1893, 8vo) (4).

CHINA. – W.H. Medhurst (compiler). Chinese and English Dictionary; Containing all the Words in the Chinese Imperial Dictionary, Arranged According to the Radicals. Batavia [Jakarta]: at Parapattan, 1842-1843. 2 vols. in 1, 8vo (204 x 123mm.) (Toning, contemporary ink inscription to title.) Contemporary black half morocco, gilt lettering to spine (extremities, rubbed, discolouring to lower cover, fading). Note: [(2), xxiv, 648, 29; (1), 649-1486, 29, (2)]. Provenance: Moira B. Duncan (ink name inscribed to initial blank, dated 1888).

RACKHAM, Arthur (illustrator). – Christina ROSSETTI. Goblin Market. London: George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., 1933. Limited edition, this being number 72 of 400 copies signed by Arthur Rackham, large 8vo (230 x 149mm.) 4 colour plates, illustrations, decorative endpapers. Original vellum, gilt lettering to upper cover, original slipcase (toning, extremities rubbed, slight dust-soiling).

DONALDSON, Julia. The Gruffalo. London: Macmillan’s Children’s Books, 1999. First edition, first impression, 4to (269 x 213mm.) Illustrations by Axel Scheffler. Original pictorial boards (minor rub to corner, slight impress to edges of upper and lower covers). Note: rare.

DONALDSON, Julia. Room on the Broom. London: Macmillan’s Children’s Books, 2001. First edition, first impression, 4to (252 x 276mm.) Illustrations by Axel Scheffler. Original pictorial boards, dust-jacket (slight rub at top of spine).

DONALDSON, Julia. The Snail and the Whale. London: Macmillan’s Children’s Books, 2003. First edition, first impression, 4to (249 x 269mm.) Illustrations by Axel Scheffler. (Mild toning, very small corner creases.) Original pictorial boards, dust-jacket (sticker to upper wrapper, small tear to top of spine panel, upper edge rubbed). – And a further first edition, first impression by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler (‘Tiddler’, 2007, 4to) (2).

WOOD-BLOCK. – Tsukioka YOSHITOSHI. [Moral Lessons Through Pictures of Good and Evil. Tokyo: Tsunashima Kamekichi, 1880.] Concertina-style panels (2357 x 173mm.) Title, 20 ukiyo-e wood-block panels showing 10 caricatured scenarios of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ in folding, concertina style, original card covers (toning). Note: each of the panels has within it little figures portraying ‘good’ souls (zendama) and ‘evil’ souls (akudama). – And a further Japanese wood-block book, [circa 1880, 9 complete panels only].

WOOLF, Virginia. Orlando, a Biography. London: Hogarth Press, 1928. First edition, second impression, 8vo (215 x 136mm.) A tipped-in newspaper obituary of Virginia Woolf on the initial blank, a mounted upper cover of the dust-jacket on the front-free endpaper. (Spotting to preliminaries, toning to margins.) Original orange cloth (discoloured, spine browned and stained). Provenance: C.R. and J.E. Ashbee (oval morocco bookplate to front pastedown).