Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

CHILDREN’S BOOK. – [Matthew Gregory LEWIS.] True History of a Little Old Woman Who found a Silver Penny. London: Richard Phillips, [1812.] 16mo (123 x 94mm.) Title, 10 hand-coloured illustrations, and 1 section (only) of the panorama. (Lacking 2 illustrations and also text leaves pp.10-11, pp.16-17 and pp.19-20, lacking advertisements to rear, title with paper repairs and paper repairs to 3 text leaves, some marginal losses.) Contemporary cloth, mounted paper with manuscript lettering to upper cover (creasing, spine frayed). Note: scarce. Considered a ‘cumulative’ children’s folk tale with roots going back to the Chad Gadya Passover Song in the 16th Century, this variant has an old woman finding a silver penny, who buys a pig, who tries to get her pig over a stile by asking a dog to bite the pig, then asks a stick to hit the dog, then a fire to burn the stick etc. Eventually, the pig goes over the stile after a cascade of accumulative violence. The illustrations have the imprint ‘Tabart & Co. May 27th 1806’. Provenance: Anna Crawford (ink name inscribed to title, dated 1815).

CHILDREN’S BOOKS. – Mary ELLIOTT. Plain Things for Little Folks. London: William Darton, [circa 1823.] 12mo (177 x 112mm.) 12 engraved plates. (Toning, minor damp-staining, small hole to last plate.) Original printed wrappers (rebacked with old tape, browned). Provenance: E.L. (ink inscribed verso upper wrapper, dated 1830); Stephen Saxby (ink inscribed verso frontispiece). – And a further three volumes (‘Dame Wiggins of Lee, and Her Seven Wonderful Cats’, [lacking 1 plate], [circa 1840], 12mo, and the Kate Greenaway illustrated ‘Dame Wiggins of Lee, and Her Seven Wonderful Cats’, edited, with additional verses by John Ruskin, 1885, 12mo, and, in an oak wood binding, published by David Bryce & Son, ‘Shakespeare and Stratford Upon Avon’, [circa 1905], 32mo) (4).

POTTER, Beatrix. The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse. London: Frederick Warne and Co., 1910. First edition, first or second printing, 16mo (139 x 102mm.) Colour frontispiece, title vignette and 26 colour illustrations. (Mild toning.) Original blue boards with colour illustrations inset to upper cover, pictorial endpapers (toning, lightly rubbed, minor stain to lower cover). Note: dated on the title-page. Provenance: Lorna Joyce Ridgway (ink name inscribed verso front endpaper, dated 1910). [Linder, 429].

HARVEY & DARTON (publisher). A Little Girl to Her Flowers. In Verse. London: Harvey and Darton, 1828. First edition, 12mo (173 x 104mm.) 17 woodcut hand-coloured illustrations, each with a quatrain. (Title nearly detached.) Original green wrappers, gilt lettering to upper cover (chafing to extremities). Note: scarce. Provenance: Julia Martha Williams (ink inscribed to front endpaper, dated 1840).

JANSSON, Tove. Moominsummer Madness... translated by Thomas Warburton. London: Ernest Benn Limited, 1955. First English edition, 8vo (197 x 129mm.) Illustrations by the author. Original red cloth, gilt moomin to corner (sunning to spine). – And a further two Moomin books in the English first edition (‘The Exploits of Moominpappa’, 1952, 8vo, and ‘Finn Family Moomintroll’, 1950, 8vo) (3).

NESBIT, Edith. The Railway Children. London: Wells, Gardner, Darton & Co. Ltd., 1906. First edition, 8vo (203 x 141mm.) Half-title, frontispiece with tissue-guard and 19 further plates by C.E. Brock, 10pp. publisher’s ads to rear. (Mild toning, small marginal tears to two leaves.) Original maroon cloth, pictorial gilt to upper cover and spine, t.e.g. (slight sunning to spine, extremities bumped). Provenance: Arthur Holme (ink name inscribed to front-free endpaper).

LANG, Andrew (editor). The Grey Fairy Book. London: Longman’s, Green, and Co., 1900. First edition, 8vo (179 x 116mm.) Black and white illustrations by H.J. Ford. (Toning, spotting to preliminaries and last leaves.) Original grey cloth, pictorial gilt to upper cover and spine, g.e. (fading to gilt, tail of spine heavily bumped, finger-marked). Provenance: M. Goldring (ink name to front endpaper and half-title). – And a further two first editions edited by Andrew Lang (including ‘The Crimson Fairy Book’, 1903, 8vo, and ‘The Orange Fairy Book’, 1906, 8vo, and ‘The Violet Fairy Book’, new impression, 1913, 8vo) (4).

GASKELL, Elizabeth. North and South. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1870. 8vo (168 x 112mm.) Frontispiece, tissue-guard. (Spotting to title.) Original green cloth. Provenance: Phoebe Barker (gift inscribed to on front endpaper, dated 1870). – And a further seven novels by Elizabeth Gaskell and Charlotte Brontë and George Eliot (including Gaskell’s ‘Mary Barton’, 1872, 8vo, and ‘Sylvia’s Lovers’, 1872, 8vo, and ‘Ruth’, 1872, 8vo, and George Eliot’s ‘Romola’, 1884, 8vo, and Charlotte Brontë’s ‘Shirley’, 1872, 8vo, and ‘Villette’, 1872, 8vo, and ‘The Professor’, 1870, 8vo) (8).

SIGNED BOOK. – Frances Hodgson BURNETT. A Lady of Quality. London: Frederick Warne & Co., 1896. Fourth edition, signed and inscribed by Frances Hodgson Burnett, 8vo (190 x 127mm.) Frontispiece, 4pp. publisher’s advertisements to rear. (Light spotting to preliminaries, marginal loss to last leaf of publisher’s advertisements.) Original green cloth, blind-stamped, gilt lettering to upper cover and spine (lightly bumped). Note: Burnett has hand-written a quote from chapter XXI of the novel. It reads: ‘‘It’s a bitter thing when the bird that flutters within has only little wings. All the more should those who are strong protect and comfort them’, Frances Hodgson Burnett, ‘98’.

MILNE, A.A. The House at Pooh Corner. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1928. First edition, first impression, 8vo (187 x 118mm.) Illustrations by E.H. Shepard. (Mild toning, endpapers browned.) Original pink cloth (spine slightly sunned, small mark to upper cover). – And a further volume (‘Winnie-the-Pooh’, sixth edition, 1928, 8vo) (2).

AUSTEN, Jane. [The Novels.] Cambridge: W. Heffer and Sons Limited, [circa 1930.] 7 vols., Adelphi edition, 8vo (173 x 118mm.) (Mild toning.) Original blue cloth (sunned to spine of ‘Sense and Sensibility’), dust-jackets (browned to spines, price-clipped, minor chipping, loss to spine panel of ‘Sense and Sensibility’, occasional creasing) (7).

LEWIS, C.S. The Last Battle. London: The Bodley Head, 1958. First edition, third impression, 8vo (196 x 132mm.) Illustrations by Pauline Baynes. (Mild toning.) Original blue cloth (fading to spine and covers), dust-jacket (price-clipped, tears and loss to spine panel, name inscribed to upper panel). – And a further nineteen, mostly illustrated volumes (including ‘Travellers’ Verse’, chosen by M.G. Lloyd Thomas, illustrated by Edward Bawden, 1946, 8vo, and Russell Hoban’s ‘The Mouse and His Child’, 1971, 8vo, and Siegfried Sassoon’s ‘Memoirs of an Infantry Officer’, 1931, 8vo, and Sassoon’s ‘Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man’, 1931, 8vo, and ‘Flower of Cities: A Book of London’, 1949, 8vo) (20).

COMICS. – Adam HUGHES. The Details are a Tad Sketchy. [New York:] Atom Hues Ent., 2008. First edition, signed by Adam Hughes, 8vo (216 x 139mm.) Illustrations by Adam Hughes. Illustrated card wrappers, signed to the upper wrapper. – And a further four comics by Adam Hughes, all signed (including ‘Oh, Wow!’, 2009, and ‘Faust Impressions’, 2011, and ‘Slayboy’, 2010, and ‘Thongs You Know by Heart’, 2007) (5).

FALLE, Philip. Caesarea: Or, an Account of Jersey, the greatest of the Islands remaining to the Crown of England of the ancient Dutchy of Normandy. London: T. Wotton, 1734. Second edition, 8vo (194 x 123mm.) Folding engraved map with outline hand-colouring, folding engraved view of Elizabeth Castle, errata verso last text leaf. (Occasional minor soiling.) Contemporary full calf (upper cover detached, rubbed). Provenance: Thomas Barrett-Lennard, Lord Dacre (armorial bookplate to front pastedown). – And a further thirteen volumes related to Jersey (including Edward Durell’s ‘An Account of the Island of Jersey, with an Appendix of Records, &c’, 1837, 8vo, and David Thomas Ansted’s ‘The Channel Islands’, [folding map], first edition, 1862, 8vo, and ‘Cesaree, ou L’ Histoire Générale et Description de L’ Ile de Jersey’, 1798, 8vo, and ‘La Liturgie, ou Formulaire des Prières Publiques’, 1785, 8vo, and ‘Coutumes du Pays et Duche de Normandie, Anciens Ressorts & Enclaves d’ iceluy’, 1711, 12mo, and another edition of Philip Falle’s ‘Caesarea: Or, an Account of Jersey… continued by Philip Morant’, 1797, 4to, and Augustin Thierry’s ‘Histoire de la Conquéte de l’ Angleterre’, 4 parts in 2 vols., 1866, 8vo) (14).

PLEES, W. An Account of the Island of Jersey; Containing a Compendium of Its Ecclesiastical, Civil, and Military History. Southampton: T. Baker, 1817. 4to (227 x 149mm.) Half-title, engraved folding map, 4 steel-engraved plates with tissue-guards, errata leaf. (Small marginal tears, a 3-inch tear with repair verso.) Contemporary red half morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, green morocco lettering piece to the spine, spine gilt (extremities rubbed). Provenance: George C.D. Lewis (ink name to initial blank, dated 1833).

CHANNEL ISLANDS. – William Le MARCHANT. The Rights and Immunities of the Island of Guernsey… Shewing the Ruin and Distress the Subversion of their Privileges brings on that Island; the Prejudice it is of Great Britain; and the Advantages that result therefrom to France. London: 1805. 8vo (208 x 126mm.) (Damp-staining from title to D2, browning, blanks and endpapers replaced.) 21st century brown half russia over marbled paper-covered boards, gilt lettering to spine. Note: rare. ESTC records a copy published in 1771, but auction records show a publication in 1770. – And a further five related volumes (‘A Brief Description and Historical Notices of the Island of Jersey’, 1832, 12mo, and Abraham Jones le Cras’ ‘The Constitution of Jersey, Shewing Its Incorporation with the Kingdom of England, by Henry I’, 1857, 8vo, and ‘Doleance of Philip Marett, Esq., a Jurat, Against a Sentence of the Royal Court of Jersey’, 1816, 8vo, and ‘An Order of His Majesty’s Privy Council… Relative to the Refusal of the States of the Island of Jersey to approve of certain Expenses and Estimates for the Erection of the New Prison’, [1815], 8vo) (6).

SIGNED BOOK. – Richard WAGNER. Parsifal. Ein Bühnenweihfestspielott’s Söhne, [circa 1882.] 3 vols., signed in ink twice by the composer Edward Elgar, 8vo (186 x 125mm.) Musical score and with words in German, English and French, notes in pencil and ink to all preliminaries, and a few pencil notes to score. (Mild toning, blue ink note to front endpapers, abrasions to vol. 1 front endpaper.) Original red cloth, gilt lettering (lightly rubbed). Note: signed ‘Edward Elgar, Bayreuth’ in vol. 1 and ‘Edward Elgar’ in vol. 3. Elgar saw ‘Parsifal’ twice in 1892 at The Bayreuth Festival, and then three times at the same venue in 1902. It was a hugely significant inspiration for the English composer and, in particular, for the composition of his choral work ‘The Dream of Gerontius’ which he considered the ‘best of me’. Provenance: R.O.E. (ink initials verso front endpaper of vol. 1, dated 12.3.22) (3).

FIELD, Richard (publisher). – Mathew STONEHAM. Two Sermons of Direction for Judges and Magistrates. London: Richard Field, 1608. 8vo (141 x 86mm.) Printer’s device to title, dedication, 90pp. (Damp-stained, tear to last leaf, lacking pp. 51-52.) [Bound with:] Robert Wakeman. Jonahs Sermon and Niniveh’s repentance. Oxford: Joseph Barnes, 1606. Title, ‘To the Christian Reader’, 1p. ‘Analysis of the Text’, 102pp. (Several leaves damp-stained, heavy browning, contemporary ink underlining.) [Bound with:] Robert Wakeman. The Christian Practise. Oxford: Joseph Barnes, 1605. Title, inc. 92pp, blank leaf to rear, contemporary ink notes to blank. (Heavy browning.) [Bound with:] Robert Wakeman. Salomons Exaltation. A Sermon Preached Before the Kings Majestie at None-Such, April 30, 1605. Oxford: Joseph Barnes, 1605. Title, inc. 68pp., blank leaf to rear, contemporary ink annotation to last text leaf. (Heavy browning.) [Bound with:] [Robert Wakeman: The Poore-Man’s Preacher. Oxford: Joseph Barnes, 1607.] Black letter, 90pp. and 2pp. ‘The Author to the Reader’, blank leaf, contemporary ink annotation to last leaf. (Lacking title and A1-A2, browned.) [Bound with:] Robert Wakeman. The Judge’s Charge. London: George Norton, 1610. Title, 59pp., blank to rear. (Browning, some damp-staining.) 8vo (141 x 86mm.) Contemporary calf (spine worn, inner hinge weakened). Note: rare. Richard Field was a publisher, printer, and friend of William Shakespeare. Mathew Stoneham was a preacher in Norwich. Robert Wakeman was a preacher and scholar at Balliol College, Oxford. Provenance: John Chance (contemporary ink named inscribed on several leaves).

CONAN DOYLE, Arthur. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. London: George Newnes, Limited, 1894. First edition, 8vo (234 x 153mm.) Half-title, illustrations by Sidney Paget. (Minor spotting to title, finger-mark to half-title, offsetting to front-free endpaper.) Original blue pictorial cloth, gilt lettering to spine and upper cover, g.e. (spine ends and extremities lightly rubbed, slight crease to spine panel). Provenance: Alex Garrad (prize bookplate to the front pastedown).