Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

RACKHAM, Arthur (illustrator). – Hans ANDERSEN. Fairy Tales. London: George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., 1932. First edition, 4to (237 x 177mm.) 12 colour plates, captioned tissue-guards. (Mild toning.) Near contemporary red full morocco by Zaehnsdorf, gilt lettering to upper cover and spine, gilt turn-ins, g.e. Provenance: E. Joseph (inscribed to in gilt on front turn-in).

RACKHAM, Arthur (illustrator). – J.M. BARRIE. Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1906. First edition, 4to (249 x 180mm.) Half title, 50 tipped-in colour plates, captioned tissue-guards, endpaper plan by Rackham bound-in, original cloth cover bound-in to rear. (Toning, moderate spotting to preliminaries.) Later red half morocco over marbled paper-covered boards (endpapers replaced).

POGANY, Willy (illustrator). – T.W. ROLLESTON. Parsifal, or the Legend of the Holy Grail retold from Ancient Sources with acknowledgement to the ‘Parsifal’ of Richard Wagner. London: Harrap & Co., 1912. 4to (274 x 190mm.) Printed in colours, illustrations, 16 tipped-in colour plates. (Mild toning, 2 plates with corner creasing.) Original limp calf, gilt to upper cover and gilt lettering to spine (extremities lightly rubbed, minor scuffing to lower cover).

MENPES, Mortimer. Whistler as I Knew Him. London: Adam and Charles Black, 1904. Limited de luxe edition, this number 243 of 500 copies signed by the author and with an original etching (‘The Menpes Children’) by Whistler, 4to (264 x 205mm.) Numerous coloured and uncoloured plates, captioned tissue-guards. (Toning, light spotting and browning to margins.) Original decorative cloth, t.e.g. (spine browned, lightly finger-marked).

RACKHAM, Arthur (illustrator). – J.M. BARRIE. Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1906. First edition, 4to (247 x 184mm.) Half-title, 50 tipped-in colour plates with captioned tissue-guards. (Faint spotting to title and half-title.) Original red cloth, pictorial gilt (repair to spine ends, fading to lower cover). – And a further four illustrated volumes (including Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, illustrated by Arthur Rackham, 1914, 4to, and Edward Fitzgerald’s translation of ‘Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam’, illustrated by Edmund Dulac, [1909], 4to, and Richard Wagner’s ‘The Ring of the Niblung’, illustrated by Arthur Rackham, 2 vols., 1910-1911, 4to) (5).

PYE, Thomas. Canadian Scenery: District of Gaspé. Montreal: John Lovell, 1866. 4to (331 x 252mm.) 19 tinted lithographic plates by Roberts and Reinhold after photographs by Thomas Pye, lithographed map, tissue-guards. Original green blind-stamped cloth, gilt lettering (spine ends slightly frayed). Note: an early view book of coastal Canada. Also a work published to encourage the economic development of the area. Includes a description of the oil wells in Gaspé -which began in 1865- and a plate illustrating one.

KÁLIDÁSA. – Horace Hayman WILSON (translator). The Mégha Dúta; or, Cloud Messenger: A Poem, in the Sanscrit Language. Calcutta: P. Pereira, at the Hindoostanee Press, 1813. First edition in English, 4to (297 x 232mm.) Half-title, text in English and Sanskrit, 2pp. ‘Errata’, 3pp. publisher’s ‘Advertisement’ to rear. (Spotting to endpapers.) Contemporary navy blue straight-grain morocco, Greek key gilt borders (extremities rubbed, some scuffing). Note: considered to be Kálidása’s greatest poem, it recounts how a yaksa (a nature spirit) is banished into exile for a year. The yaksa convinces a passing cloud to take a message to his wife. It began the tradition of the ‘messenger poem’.

RACKHAM, Arthur (illustrator). – Friedrich De La Motte FOUQUÉ. Undine… adapted from the German by W.L. Courtney. London: William Heinemann, 1909. Limited edition, this being number 2 of 1000 copies signed by Arthur Rackham, 4to (292 x 225mm.) 15 tipped-in colour plates by Rackham, captioned tissue-guards. (Marginal browning.) 21st century green half morocco over maroon cloth, two maroon morocco lettering pieces to the spine, t.e.g. – And a related volume (Sarah Briggs Latimore and Grace Clark Haskell’s ‘Arthur Rackham, A Bibliography’, 1970, 8vo) (2).

[REMI, Georges.] ‘Hergé’. Les Aventures de Tintin. Au Pays des Soviets. Belgium: Studios Hergé, December 1980. Limited edition of 1500 copies only, signed by Hergé, 16mo (96 x 69mm.) In French. Original colour boards (slight spine lean). Note: an abridged version of ‘Tintin in the land of the Soviets’ that was published on the 50th anniversary of its first publication. – And two related items (a signed picture of the author, and an 18-line typed letter, signed in ink by Hergé, on ‘Studios Hergé’ headed paper, dated September 1969. The letter reads: ‘Cher ami, Merci de votre gentille letter. Je réponds d’abord à vos questions faciles: - mon prochain livre n’est pas fini, et, officiellement, il n’a pas encore de titre définitif. Je ne puis malheureusement pas vous procurer Tintin au Congo et Tintin au pays des Soviets. Personne, à ma connaissance, ne se prepare à traduire Tintin en Russe. Puis vous le souhaitex, je vous envoie une photo dédicacée. Ais vous me demandez aussi des ‘informations’ concernant ‘mes autres livres’ ainsi que ‘mon studio’… C’est Presque tout un roman que je devrais écrire pour vous satisfaire- et je n’ai pas le temps d’ etre romancier. A tout hazard, so vous réussissiez à encore mettre la main sur un numéro du Times Literary Supplement du 5 December 1958, vous y trouveriez beaucoup de choses qui nourrirait votre curiosité ‘tintiniste’! Bien amicalement, Herge’ (3).

[REMI, Georges.] ‘Hergé.  [The Black Island- in Japanese]. Tokyo: Shufunotomo Co. Ltd., 1968. Oblong 8vo (148 x 210mm.) Colour illustrations. (Lacking coupon to rear.) Original card covers printed in red, dust-jacket (tear at top of spine panel, minor chipping). – And a related item (a photograph of Georges Remi, inscribed in blue ink ‘To Mark Holford, with best wishes Hergé’) (2).

[REMI, Georges.] ‘Hergé’. The Adventures of Tintin: The Castafiore Emerald. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1963. First U.K. edition, 4to (296 x 228mm.) Colour illustrations. (Toning.) Original red cloth-backed pictorial paper-covered boards (extremities rubbed, tape to corners). – And a further eleven volumes of ‘The Adventures of Tintin’ (‘The Black Island’, first U.K. edition, 1966, and ‘Flight 714’, first U.K. edition, 1968, and ‘The Crab with the Golden Claws’, 1964, ‘Explorers on the Moon’, 1965, ‘Destination Moon’, 1965, ‘The Red Sea Sharks’, 1965, ‘Red Rackham’s Treasure’, 1965, ‘The Secret of the Unicorn’, 1965, and ‘King Ottokar’s Sceptre’, 1964, ‘The Shooting Star’, 1965, and ‘Tintin in Tibet’, 1965, ‘The Seven Crystal Balls’, 1965, and ‘Prisoners of the Sun’, 1965) (12).

[REMI, Georges.] ‘Hergé. Les Aventures de Tintin. Le Lotus Bleu. [Belgium:] Casterman, [circa 1966]. Reprint, 4to (298 x 224mm.) Text in French, mounted ‘Methuen’ slip over the imprint. (Mild toning.) Original printed boards (some fading, tape to corners). – And a further thirty-eight volumes of the ‘Adventures of Tintin’, in French, Spanish, Dutch, German and Italian (including eighteen hardbacks, reprints, [mostly circa 1966-1975], and twenty softback reprints, [circa 1965-1970]) (39).

SIGNED. – [Georges REMI.] ‘Hergé’. [A folding calendar for the year 1983 signed in black ink by Hergé. N.p.: 1982.] Single sheet (70 x 21cm.) Signed to the lower section. (Slight crease to corner of ‘Janvier’.) In original envelope (torn).

SIGNED. – [Georges REMI.] ‘Hergé’. Archives Hergé. Tournai: Casterman, 1976. Fourth edition, 4to (296 x 216mm.) Illustrations, text in French. (Toning.) Original cloth, dust-jacket (minor creasing to extremities). – And a quantity of signed ephemera relating to Hergé (including the Hergé stamp sheet signed ‘Hergé and thousand thanks!’ with original envelope, and two Christmas cards signed ‘Hergé’, one with original envelope, a ‘1982’ birthday card signed ‘Hergé’, a Tintin illustrated postage stamp card from 1979 signed ‘Hergé’ and with original envelope, and a New Years Greeting card from 1976, with the tipped in ‘La Bataille de Zileheroum’ plate, signed twice by Hergé with original envelope, and a printed and framed Tintin illustration also with signature in ink, a Tintin jigsaw, postcard, two ‘Les Aventures de Tintin’ vinyl L.P.’s, a packet of ‘View-Master’ reels, and three further books) (quantity). Provenance: Mark Holford (name inscribed to ‘Archives’).

ALMANAC. Rider’s British Merlin: For the Year of Our Lord God 1786. Being the Second after Bissextile, or Leap Year. Adorned with many delightful and useful Verities fitting all Capacities in the Islands of Great Britain’s Monarchy. With Notes of Husbandry, Fairs, Marts, High Roads, and Tables for many necessary Uses. Compiled… by Cardanus Rider. London: for the Company of Stationers, 1786. 12mo (133 x 76mm.) Title in red and black with duty ink stamp, several blank leaves to front and rear. (Toning, pencil notes on initial blank leaves.) Original scarlet wallet-style morocco with Greek key gilt borders and gilt foliate tooling with stars, birds, volutes and sliver clasp (marbled endpapers replaced, lightly rubbed).

HARRIS, John (publisher). Marmaduke’s Multiply’s Merry Method of Making Minor Mathematicians; or, the Multiplication Table, Illustrated by Sixty-Nine Appropriate Engravings. London: J. Harris and Son, [circa 1826.] 12mo (133 x 113mm.) 69 hand-coloured stipple-engraved plates, rhyming couplet to each, on paper with 1825 water-mark. (Occasional spotting, finger-mark, text-block broken at plate 4.) Original roan-backed boards (spine broken, front endpaper replaced). Note: complete with all plates.

ALMANAC. – Cardanus RIDER. Rider’s British Merlin: For the Year of Our Lord God 1796. London: for the Company of Stationers, [1795.] Title and text in red and black, Duty Stamp to title. (Upper margin of title excised, toning.) [Bound with:] The Royal Kalendar… for the Year 1796. London: J. Debrett et al., [1795.] (Browning.) 8vo (151 x 79mm.) Contemporary red morocco, sawtooth gilt borders, g.e. (rubbing to extremities, inner hinge weakened).

CAREY, Edith F. – Henry. B. WIMBUSH (illustrator). The Channel Islands. London: Adam and Charles Black, 1904. Limited edition de-luxe, this being number 168 of 300 copies signed by Henry B. Wimbush, 4to (263 x 208mm.) 76 coloured plates, captioned tissue-guards. (Toning, spotting to tissue-guards.) Original decorative cloth (spine ends worn, finger-marked). – And a further twenty-one volumes relating to the Channel Islands (including Gustave Dupont’s ‘Histoire du Cotentin et de Ses Iles’, inscribed by the author, 4 vols., 1870-1885, and M. Pégot-Ogier’s ‘Histoire des Iles de la Manche’, 1881, 8vo, and Joan Stevens’ ‘Old Jersey Houses’, 2 vols., 1965-1977, large 8vo, and Pitre-Chevalier’s ‘La Bretagne Ancienne et Moderne’, [circa 1844], large 8vo, and Richard Warner’s ‘Collections for the History of Hampshire’, vols. 4-5 (only, of 6), 4to) (22).

LEWIS, Wyndham (editor). Blast. Review of the Great English Vortex. London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, July 1915. Vol. 2 [only, of 2]. 4to (298 x 243mm.) Numerous monochrome illustrations from linocuts and woodcuts including C.R.W. Nevinson’s ‘On the Way to the Trenches’ and a tipped-in plate after Gaudier-Brzeska, 6pp. publisher’s advertisements to rear. (Mild toning, occasional finger-mark.) Original printed  card covers (upper cover detached, tears to spine panel). Note: includes the first printing of T.S. Eliot’s ‘Rhapsody on a Windy Night’.