Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

MAUGHAM, Somerset. The Painted Veil. London: William Heinemann, 1925. First edition, third issue, 8vo (186 x 118mm.) Half-title. (Toning, occasional light spotting.) Original blue cloth, gilt lettering (spine ends frayed, staining, hinges weakened). – And a further twenty-three volumes by or about Somerset Maugham (including ‘Liza of Lambeth’, 1897, first edition, 8vo, and ‘The Magician’, 1908, second impression, 8vo, and ‘The Trembling of a Leaf’, first edition, first issue, 1921, 8vo, and ‘Mrs. Craddock’, first edition, 1902, 8vo) (24).

SALINGER, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1951. First edition, third impression, 8vo (200 x 134mm.) (Toning, endpapers browned.) Original black cloth (extremities rubbed, hinges slightly weakened). – And a further twenty-one literary volumes (including Oscar Wilde’s ‘Lady Windermere’s Fan’, limited edition, being one of 250 copies [out-of-series], 1903, 4to, and ‘The Letters of Virginia Woolf’, 2 vols. [only], 1975-1978, 8vo) (22).

MCEWAN, Ian. The Cement Garden. London: Jonathan Cape, 1978. First edition, 8vo (198 x 120mm.) (Mild toning.) Original green cloth, dust-jacket (faint creasing to head of spine panel). – And a further fifteen novels by Ian McEwan, all first impressions, seven of them signed (including ‘The Innocent’, 1990, 8vo, and ‘Saturday’, 2005, 8vo, and ‘Solar’, 2010, 8vo, and ‘Nutshell’, 2016, 8vo, and ‘Machines Like Me’, 2019, 8vo, and ‘Lessons’, 2022, 8vo, and ‘What We Can Know’, 2025, 8vo) (16).

HARRIS, Robert. Fatherland. London: Hutchinson, 1992. First edition, first impression, 8vo (233 x 147mm.) (Mild toning.) Original black cloth (spine ends bumped), dust-jacket (toned, slight creasing to head of spine panel). – And a further twelve novels by Robert Harris, all first impressions, eight of them signed (including ‘Archangel’, 1998, 8vo, and ‘Pompeii’, 2003, 8vo, and ‘The Fear Index’, 2011, 8vo, and ‘Conclave’, 2016, 8vo, and ‘Munich’, 2017, 8vo, and ‘The Second Sleep’, 2019, 8vo, and ‘Act of Oblivion’, 2022, 8vo, and ‘Precipice’, 2024, 8vo) (13).

BEAN, C.E.W. (editor). The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918. Sydney: Angus & Robertson Ltd., 1921-1933. 9 vols. [only, of 12.] Mixed editions, 8vo (213 x 137mm.) Photographic illustrations, maps, errata slips. (Toning.) Original red cloth (some discolouring to most covers). Note: volume 12 is entirely made up of photographic illustrations (9).

SIGNED BOOK. – John BLAND-SUTTON. Man and Beast in Eastern Ethiopia. London: Macmillan and Co., 1911. First edition, signed by the author, 8vo (222 x 143mm.) Wood-engraved illustrations in the text. (Mild toning, stamp to front pastedown of ‘West Sussex Library Service’). Original red cloth, pictorial gilt to upper cover, t.e.g. (slight discolouring to spine). Provenance: C.R. Hemitt (ink inscribed to from the author on the title-page). – And a further sixteen volumes related to Africa (including Thomas Heazle Parke’s ‘My Personal Experiences in Equatorial Africa’, [includes map in rear pocket], 1891, 8vo, and M. French-Sheldon’s ‘Sultan to Sultan’, [with loosely inserted leaf signed by author], 1892, 8vo, and Samuel W. Baker’s ‘Wild Beasts and Their Ways’, 2 vols., 1890, 8vo, and Gaetano Casati’s ‘Ten Years in Equatoria and the Return with Emin Pasha’, [with map in rear pocket], 2 vols., 1891, 8vo, and Isabel Burton’s ‘The Life of Captain Sir Richard F. Burton’, 1898, 8vo, and Rudolph C. Slatin Pasha’s ‘Fire and Sword in the Sudan’, 1896, 8vo, and C.W. Hobley’s ‘Bantu Beliefs and Magic’, 1922, 8vo) (17).

MILITARY. Silhouettes of French Aircraft. [London:] Air Ministry, February 1937. 8vo (183 x 119mm.) Silhouette illustrations, card dividers with printed tabs. (Toning.) Original printed boards, string-bound (light dust-soiling). – And a further twenty related volumes (including ‘Royal Air Force War Manual’, Part II, August 1929, and another copy for June 1940, and C.H. Keith’s ‘Flying Years’, [1937], 8vo, and F.S. Brereton’s ‘The Great Aeroplane’, [circa 1940], 8vo) (21).

LARDNER, Dionysius (editor). The Museum of Science & Art. London: Walton and Maberly, 1854-1856. 10 vols. in 5, first edition, 8vo (181 x 109mm.) Numerous wood-engraved illustrations. (Toning, some offsetting.) Contemporary half calf over marbled paper-covered boards, two red morocco lettering pieces (extremities rubbed, scuffing, some discolouring, minor loss at top of spine of vol. 7-8). – And a further eighteen, mostly literary volumes (including ‘The Works of Lord Byron’, 4 vols., 1829, 12mo) (23).

COMICS. TV 21 Century. London: City Magazines, January 23 2065 [1965] – January 14 2067 [1967]. Universe Edition No. 1- Universe Edition No. 104. 104 issues, 4to (362 x 264mm.) Colour and black and white illustrations, advertisements. (Toning, minor shipping.) Paper wrappers (small marginal tear to issue 1). – And a further five issues (‘Thunderbirds Extra’, 1966, and ‘Summer Extra’, 1965, and duplicate issues of No. 32, 37, and 53). Note: issue no. 52 saw the first appearance of the ‘Thunderbirds’ comic strip but ‘Lady Penelope and Parker’ were in the comic from the first issue in January 1965 (109).

WODEHOUSE, P.G. The Code of the Woosters. London: Herbert Jenkins Limited, 1938. First edition, 8vo (183 x 119mm.) 8pp. publisher’s advertisements to rear. (Light spotting to preliminaries.) Original cloth (some discolouring to spine). – And a further thirty-three volumes by P.G. Wodehouse, mostly first editions (including ‘Carry on Jeeves’, [lacking initial blank], 1925, 8vo, and ‘The Inimitable Jeeves’, 1923, 8vo) (34).

BINDINGS. – James FERGUSSON. A History of Architecture in all Countries. London: John Murray, 1874. 2 vols. [only, of 4.] Second edition, 8vo (216 x 142mm.) Frontispieces, numerous illustrations. (Toning.) Mid-twentieth century brown full morocco by Zaehnsdorf, g.e. (lightly rubbed joints). Provenance: William R. M. Glasier (name-plate to front pastedowns). – And a further twenty-one volumes (including W.T. Haly’s ‘The Opinions of Sir Robert Peel, Expressed in Parliament and in Public’, 1843, 8vo, and Archibald Alison’s ‘History of Europe’, 12 vol., 1852-1855, 8vo) (23).

JAPAN. – R.A.B. PONSONBY-FANE. Kyoto, The Old Capital of Japan (794-1869). Japan, Kyoto: The Ponsonby Memorial Society, 1956. 8vo (210 x 146mm.) Photographic plates. (Mild toning.) Original red cloth (slight fading.) – And a further twenty-two volumes related to Japanese society and culture (including Hikoichi Aida’s ‘Kodokan Judo’, [1956], 8vo, and Mark R. Peattie’s ‘Ishiwara Kanji and Japan’s Confrontation with the West’, inscribed by the author, 1975, 8vo, and Michael Cooper, S.J.’s ‘Rodrigues The Interpreter’, 1974, 8vo, and Shusaku Endo’s ‘Silence’, 1972, 8vo) (22).

JAPAN. – Kenzaburo OE. The Silent Cry… translated by John Bester. Tokyo: Kodansha International Ltd., 1974. First edition, 8vo (213 x 143mm.) (Toning.) Original black cloth, silver lettering, dust-jacket (extremities rubbed). – And a further thirty-eight volumes related to Japanese literature (including Isshu Miura and Ruth Fuller Sasaki’s ‘The Zen Koan’, 1965, 8vo) (39).

JAPAN. – R.A.B. PONSONBY-FANE. The Vicissitudes of Shinto. Kyoto: The Ponsonby Memorial Society, 1963. First edition, 8vo (208 x 145mm.) (Mild toning.) Original red cloth (extremities bumped). – And a further forty-three volumes related to Japanese society and culture (including Lady Murasaki’s ‘The Tale of Genji’, 1965, 8vo, and Naoko Matsubara’s ‘Tutze-Chun’, 1965, 8vo, and Mock Joya’s ‘Things Japanese’, 1963, 8vo) (44).

HERBERT, A.P. The Secret Battle. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1919. First edition, 8vo (187 x 116mm.) Half-title, 32pp. publisher’s catalogue to rear. (Browning to half-title.) Original red cloth (slight sunning to spine, minor discolouring to lower cover). Note: scarce. Based on his experience in the First World War, Herbert’s first novel was one of the first descriptions of the Battle of Gallipoli. – And approximately seventy-three further volumes by or about A.P. Herbert, mostly first editions (including ‘The House by the River’, [first U.S edition], 1921, 8vo, and ‘Why Waterloo?’, signed by the author, 1952, 8vo, and ‘The Ayes Have It’, signed by the author, 1937, 8vo, and ‘Holy Deadlock’, signed by the author, 1934, 8vo, and ‘What a Word!’, signed by the author, 1935, 8vo, and ‘The Right to Marry’, 1954, 8vo, and ‘Full Enjoyment’, signed by the author, 1952, 8vo) (74).

POETRY. – Allen GINSBERG 1947-1980. London: Viking, 1985. First U.K. edition, 8vo (234 x 152mm.) (Spotting to fore-edge, toning.) Original black cloth, dust-jacket (creasing to extremities). – And a further twenty-four related volumes (including Seamus Heaney’s ‘The Spirit Level’, first impression, 1996, 8vo, and Ezra Pound’s ‘Guide to Kulchur’, 1978, 8vo, and Roger McGough’s ‘That Awkward Age’, signed by the author, 2009, 8vo) (25).

WISDEN, John (publisher). Cricketer’s Almanack. London: John Wisden and Co. and Sporting Handbooks, 1928-2022. 95 vols., 8vo (158 x 93mm.) Advertisements, numerous illustrations. (Toning, occasional browning and corner creasing, lacking pp.3-4 of ‘1945’, text-block of ‘1931’ cracked.) Original card covers for 1928, 1930-1952, brown cloth for 1929, 1953-2022 (lacking upper cover for ‘1930’, creasing to spines and some fraying to spine ends, fading), dust-jackets (tear to ’1974’, heavy spotting or staining to four spine panels, tearing to ‘1983’). Note: a complete run from 1928 to 2022. – And a softcover duplicate for the year 2022 (96).

FOLIO SOCIETY. – James JOYCE. Ulysses. London: The Folio Society, 1998. 8vo (232 x 161mm.) Preface by Stephen James Joyce, etchings by Mimmo Paladino, introduction by Jacques Aubert. Original blue cloth, gilt portrait to upper cover, slipcase. – And a further twenty-six volumes published by The Folio Society (including ‘John Keats: The Complete Poems’, 2001, 8vo, and James Morris’ ‘Pax Brittanica’, 3 vols., 1993, 8vo) (27).

AFRICA. – H.H. AUSTIN. Among Swamps and Giants in Equatorial Africa. London: C. Arthur Pearson, Limited, 1902. First edition, 8vo (215 x 137mm.) 2 large folding maps in colour, photographic plates. (Lacking initial blank and front-free endpaper.) Original blue cloth (discoloured and stained, extremities frayed). Note: scarce. – And a further thirty-six volumes related to Africa (including René Bazin’s ‘Charles de Foucauld, Hermit and Explorer’, 1923, 8vo, and H. Rider Haggard’s ‘Maiwa’s Revenge’, 1888, 8vo) (37).