Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

SIGNED BOOK. – Melein COSMAN. Musical Sketchbook… edited by Hans Keller and Donald Mitchell. Oxford: Bruno Cassirer, 1957. Signed by the artist and with an original illustration mounted to half-title, 8vo (238 x 174mm.) Illustrations by Melein Cosman. (Toning, panel of dust-jacket mounted to pastedown.) Original vermilion cloth. Note: includes two Christmas cards with hand-written messages from Melein Cosman, a drawing with original hand-colouring mounted on the half-title and a signed illustration verso the half-title. Provenance: Philip Thompson (inscribed to from the artist).

OLYMPICS. The Official Report of the Xth Olympiad Los Angeles 1932… edited by Captain F.A.M. Webster. London: The British Olympic Association, 1932. 8vo (230 x 141mm.) Photographic illustrations. (Mild toning.) Original printed card covers (browned, small stain). – And a further eight books related to the Olympics (including the ‘Official Report of the XIth Olympiad 1936’, 1936, 8vo, and ‘Olympia 1936, Eine Nationale Aufgabe’, 1935, 8vo, and the souvenir ‘XV Olympiad Helsinki 1952’, oblong, 4to, and Harold Abrahams’ ‘Track & Field Olympic Records’, 1948, 8vo, and Ferenc Mezö’s ‘The Modern Olympic Games’, 1956, 8vo) (9).

CROWLEY, Aleister. Collected Works. [Illinois:] Yogi Publication Society, [1974.] 3 vols., 8vo (207 x 131mm.) Photographic frontispieces. (Mild toning.) Original red leatherette. – And a further ten volumes by Aleister Crowley, all reprints (including ‘Oeahma: The Holy Books of Thelema’, 1983, 8vo, and ‘Magick Without Tears’, 1983, 8vo, and ‘Energized Enthusiasm’, [1976], 8vo, and ‘The God-Eater: A Tragedy of Satire’, [1970], 8vo, and ‘The Dangers of Mysticism & Liber HHH’, [1970], 8vo, and ‘The Soldier and the Hunchback’, [1970], 8vo, and ‘Liber I vel Magi & Liber Israfel & Liber Stellae Rubae’, [1970], 8vo) (13).

STANLEY, Thomas. The History of Philosophy: Containing the Lives, Opinions, Actions and Discourses of the Philosophers of every Sect. London: for W. Battersby, Hugh Newman, Tho. Cockerill et al., 1701. Third edition, folio (363 x 220mm.) Engraved portrait frontispiece of author by Faithorne after P. Lilly, title in red and black, 26 engraved portrait illustrations of philosophers, includes Thomas Stanley’s ‘The History of the Chaldaick Philosophy’, 1p. publisher’s advertisement leaf to rear. (Browning throughout.) Late 18th century marbled boards, black morocco lettering piece to spine (rebacked, rubbed and scuffed).

Report from… the House of Commons on the Channel Tunnel. London: Henry Hansard and Son, 10th July 1883. Large 4to (327 x 203mm.) Folding plate of John Fowler’s Ferry Boats. (Toning, pencil annotation to margins, endpapers spotted.) Contemporary half sheep over pebbled green cloth (extremities rubbed). Provenance: W. T. Perkins (pencil name to front endpaper); Michael G. Max (sticker to front endpaper).

POMOLOGY. – Hugh RONALDS. Pyrus Malus Brenfordiensis: or, a Concise Description of Selected Apples… with a Figure of each Sort Drawn From Nature on Stone By His Daughter. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, et al., 1831. 4to (314 x 242mm.) Half-title, 42 uncoloured lithographs of apples, 2pp. ‘Index’ and 5pp. ‘List of the Best Sorts of Apples’ to rear. (Toning, spotting to blanks and one plate.) Contemporary half morocco (wear to spine ends, extremities rubbed).

MANUSCRIPT. – Martin de GRUCHY. In this Book, No. 1, Are contained Copies of Petitions, Orders, Writs, memorials, mandates, &c. To or From any Court Or Persons in Relation to Causes Committed to my Care: Beginning From 25th September MDCCXII. [N.p.:] 1712-15 and 1717-1719. 2 vols., 415pp. and 298pp., manuscript, folio (314 x 201mm.) 415pp. and 298pp., in English, several mostly legible hands, manuscript copies of documents relating to Martin de Gruchy’s legal practice in Jersey, being petitions and writs and legal cases relating to the Channel Islands, signed by the solicitors, 21pp. tabulated index to rear of first volume and 12pp. to rear of second volume. (Browning.) Original full vellum (stained, slightly dust-soiled). Note: a compendium of the debts, grievances, and petty crimes that occurred in the Channel Islands during these years. Martin de Gruchy was the first notary in Jersey. He was a significant figure in the legal history of the Channel Islands, known for his disputes with the Jersey Royal Court over the recognition of English notarial authority. A few names referenced here, ones that recur several times, are Robert Hales, James Vernon, Daniel de Beauvoir, Eleazar le Marchant, James de Havillard and Edward Southwell (2).

MANUSCRIPT. – William JOURNEAUX. [The working journal of a young midshipman or ‘Master’s Mate’ from Jersey. N.p.:] 1820-1821. 187pp., manuscript, folio (321 x 201mm.) Comprising 187pp. in a single legible hand, the first 123pp. in English and the rest in French, including 27pp. on ‘A Journal of a Voyage from Jersey to New York in the Tough of Jersey’, being entirely navigational detail, including weather, wind and meridian lines, and a further 20pp. on ‘A Journal of a Voyage from London to Madeira and Tenerife in the Snug of Jersey’, includes 4 hand-drawn maps with outline hand-colouring, a hand-drawn globe with meridian lines, a ‘List of Men’, and many mathematical, geometric exercises relating to navigation, 6pp. blank to rear. (Toning, occasional spotting, finger-marks.) Contemporary boards (spine lacking, stained, rubbed). Note: the lessons in navigation are accompanied by many diagrams and calculations. They are titled ‘Geometrical Problems Useful in Navigation’ (4pp.), ‘Trigonometry’ (15pp.), ‘Plane Traverse Sailing’ (6pp.), ‘Middle latitude Sailing’ (1p.), ‘Mercator’s Trav. Sailing’ (4pp.), ‘Mercator’s Sailing’ (5pp.), ‘To Find a Leap Year’ (2pp.), ‘To Find the Latitude of a Place by an Observation of the Sun’ (8pp.), the four maps are of the West Indies, the French-English coastlines, the Canaries, and the French-Spanish coastlines, there are also calculations relating to the rising and setting of the sun, a compass and to the rear, in French, there are exercises on ‘Des Ligne Proportionnelles Consideres dans Les Cercle’, and ‘Definitions Astronomie’ (8pp.).

LAW. – Guillaume LEROUILLÉ. Le grand coustumier du pays & duche de Normandie. Rouen: Nicholasle Roux for Francois Regnault of Paris, Jehan Mallard of Rouen & Girard Anger of Caen, 1539. Folio (309 x 199mm.) In 2 parts, title in red and black with woodcut historiated borders, parallel columns, black letter, decorative woodcut initials, the Arbor Consanguinitatis in red and black and the Arbor Affinitatis in black, a few near contemporary ink annotations in margins. (Two leaves lacking, fo.39-40 in part 1, occasional damp-stain.) 17th century sheep (upper joint splitting, extremities rubbed, illegible name to upper cover). Provenance: D.D. Contaue(?).

NORFOLK. – Joseph WILKINSON. The Architectural Remains of the Ancient Town and Borough of Thetford. In the Counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. London: Rodmell & Martin, [1822.] 4to (275 x 213mm.) Engraved title, 24 engraved plates from drawings by J. Wilkinson and etched by H. Davy. (Marginal spotting to plates, insect-damage to front pastedown.) Contemporary half calf over marbled paper-covered boards (rubbing, scuffing, upper joint splitting). Note: scarce. Provenance: W.H. Booth, Ipswich (bookplate to front pastedown).

MANUSCRIPT. [A hand-written book of administration, being the tithes and revenues owed by land-owning families in Jersey, with genealogical history, containing all twelve parishes. N.p.: circa 1660.] 55pp., manuscript, folio (334 x 210mm.) 55pp. in a calligraphic hand, a legible but closely-written French, the tithes owed by land-owning families in Jersey under sections of each parish, several blank leaves to rear. Note: the tithes being owed in barley, wheat, oats, chickens. (First 15pp. with significant insect-damage, browning.) Original vellum with ties (stained, browned, slightly cracked).

PAYNE, J. Bertrand. An Armorial of Jersey, Being an Account, Heraldic and Antiquarian, of Its Chief Native Families, with Pedigrees, Biographical Notices, and Illustrative Data. [Jersey:] 1859-1865. 4to (304 x 236mm.) Title mounted with border in manuscript red ink, numerous engraved plates of arms and genealogical tables, 4pp. ‘Index’ in manuscript to front, tissue-guards. (Toning, spotting mostly verso plates.) Contemporary full calf, blind-stamped and gilt, morocco lettering piece to the spine, g.e. (scuffed, abrasions to lettering piece). Note: this work was published in parts. – And a further five volumes related to Jersey (‘Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Inquire into the Civil, Municipal, and Ecclesiastical Laws of the Island of Jersey’, 1861, tall 4to, and Charles and Joan Stevens and Jean Arthur’s ‘Jersey Place Names’, 2 vols., 1986-1988, folio) (6).

COLONIAL PRISONS. – H.M.S.O. (publisher). Digest and Summary of Information Respecting Prisons in the Colonies. London: H.M.S.O., 1867. Folio (316 x 188mm.) (Toning.) Later black cloth, paper label mounted to upper cover. – And a further three related volumes (‘Correspondence on the Subject of the Punishment of Flogging for Offences Against Discipline in the Prisons of Mauritius’, 1884, folio, and ‘Annual Reports on the Convict Establishments at Western Australia and Tasmania’, 1868, folio, and ‘Further Correspondence Respecting the Discipline and Management of Prisons in Her Majesty’s Colonial Possessions’, 1868, folio) (4).

PROCTOR, Richard A. Old and New astronomy. London: Longman, Green, and Co., 1892. First edition, 4to (286 x 197mm.) 31 plates, 4 folding and 5 in colour. (Light spotting to title, scattered spotting, and to plates.) Original pictorial gilt (hinges weakened, spine frayed). – And a further thirteen volumes related to astronomy (including Richard A. Proctor’s ‘The Sun: Ruler. Fire, Light and Life of the Planetary System’, [10 plates, complete], 1871, 8vo, and Robert S. Ball’s ‘The Story of the Sun’, [11 plates, complete], 1910, 8vo, and Agnes M. Clerke’s ‘The System of the Stars’, [6 plates, complete], 1890, 8vo, and Edmund Ledger’s ‘The Sun: Its Planets and Their Satellites’, [9 plates, complete], 1882, 8vo, and Mrs. Ward’s ‘The Telescope’, [circa 1870], 8vo, and Denison Olmsted’s ‘The Mechanism of the Heavens’, 1860, 8vo) (14).

RAILWAYS. Official Railway Junction Diagrams. London: The Railway Clearing House, 1928. 2 vols. in 1. 115 coloured railway maps depicting junctions. (Lacking plate 15, toning, corner crease to title.) [Bound with:] Supplement to the Book of Railway Junction Diagrams. [London:] Railway Clearing House, November 1939. 10 coloured railway maps. Oblong folio (171 x 266mm.) Original green cloth (spine ends bumped). Note: the supplement contains the missing plate, no. 15.

DECORATIVE CLOTH. – Fanny BURNEY. Evelina. London: Macmillan & Co. Limited, 1903. 8vo (183 x 118mm.) Illustrations by Hugh Thomson. (Occasional light spotting.) Original blue pictorial gilt to upper cover and spine, g.e. (mark to upper cover). – And a further forty-five volumes in pictorial and decorative cloth (46).

DECORATIVE CLOTH. – Robert Louis STEVENSON. Kidnapped. London: Cassell and Company, Ltd., [circa 1920.] 8vo (200 x 144mm.) Folding map, 3 colour plates. (Mild toning.) Original pictorial cloth. – And a further forty-three volumes in pictorial and decorative cloth (44).

DECORATIVE CLOTH. – Jules VERNE. The Survivors of the Chancellor… translated from the French by Ellen Frewer. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, 1891. 8vo (183 x 134mm.) Illustrations. (Toning, p.124 torn, some marginal losses.) Original pictorial green cloth, gilt. – And a further thirty-seven volumes in pictorial and decorative cloth (38).

DECORATIVE CLOTH. – Jane AUSTEN. Pride and Prejudice. London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1899. 8vo (181 x 115mm.) Illustrations by Charles E. Brock. (Toning, damp-stain to lower fore-edge.) Original decorative cloth, g.e. (slight damp-staining to lower edges). – And a further forty-three volumes in decorative cloth (44).