Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

GARDENING. – John RUTTER and Daniel CARTER. Modern Eden: or, The Gardener’s Universal Guide: Containing Plain and Familiar Instructions, for Performing every Branch of Gardening. London: for J. Cooke, 1767. First edition, 8vo (199 x 115mm.) Title. (Occasional browning.) Contemporary calf, two black morocco lettering pieces (rebacked, tape to hinges, extremities bumped). Provenance: Thomas Croucher (ink name to front blank and rear pastedown, dated 1835). – And a further six related volumes (including William Rhind’s ‘A History of the Vegetable Kingdom’, 1865, large 8vo, and Charles McIntosh’s ‘The Practical Gardener and Modern Horticulturist’, 2 vols., 1828-1829, 8vo) (7).

OCCULT. – Arthur Edward WAITE. The Holy Grail, Its Legends and Symbolism. London: Rider and Co., 1933. First edition, 8vo (237 x 151mm.) (Toning, label remains to front pastedown.) Contemporary red half morocco (label remains to upper cover). Provenance: Manchester Public Library (stamps to text, label remains). – And a further nineteen volumes relating to the occult (including Kathleen Raine’s ‘Yeats, the Tarot and the Golden Dawn’, 1976, second edition, 8vo, and Janet and Stewart Farrar’s ‘The Witches’ Way’, 1984, 8vo, and A.E. Waite’s ‘The Book of Ceremonial Magic’, 1961, 8vo) (20).

HERSCHEL, John F.W. Outlines of Astronomy. Longmans, Green, and Co., 1875. New Edition, large 8vo (203 x 136mm.) Half-title, lithographed frontispiece showing the total eclipse of the sun in 1842, folded graph, 8 plates to rear. (Spotting to half-title and front blank.) Near contemporary brown full calf, green morocco lettering piece to the spine, gilt insignia of Great Yarmouth Grammar School to upper cover (faint scuffing). Provenance: Arthur G.W. Neale (prize plate to front pastedown). – And a further eight volumes related to astronomy (including Robert Ball’s ‘The Story of the Sun’, 1894, large 8vo, and George F. Chambers’ ‘A Handbook of Descriptive Astronomy’, third edition, 1878, large 8vo, and William Kitchiner’s ‘The Economy of the Eyes’, Part 2 [of 2], 1825, 8vo, and T.W. Webb’s ‘Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes’, fourth edition, 1881, 8vo) (9).

The Intellectual Observer: Review of Natural History, Microscopic Research, and Recreative Science. London: Groombridge and Sons, 1862. 12 vols., 8vo (213 x 133mm.) Numerous colour lithographed plates, tissue-guards, wood-engraved illustrations in the text. (Toning, occasional spotting.) Contemporary half calf, variant bindings for vols. 1-4 and 5-9, vol. 10 bound without lettering piece, vols. 11-12 in original purple cloth (extremities rubbed). Note: complete in 12 volumes. – And a further two volumes, being duplicates of vols. 1 and 4 (14).

CONJURING. – [Alexander STEWART]. ‘Alex De Vega’. Miscellaneous Manipulations & Effects. [P.p.: circa 1935.] Signed and inscribed by De Vega, 8vo (218 x 134mm.) (Light spotting.) Original wrappers, staple-bound (extremities chipped). Provenance: ‘Devante’ [Leslie George Cole], conjurer (ink inscribed to on upper wrapper). – And a further approximately sixty volumes of conjuring related books and booklets (including a signed copy of Alex de Vega’s ‘Selected Secrets’, [circa 1935], and Will Goldston’s  ‘Card System of Exclusive Magical Secrets’, [1922], 8vo, and Jean Hugard’s ‘Card Manipulations’, vols.1-5, 1930, 8vo, and George Schulte’s ‘Words for Wizards’, signed by the author, 1924, 8vo, and Will Goldston’s ‘Easy Road to Magic’, [circa 1920], 4to) (approx 60).

DODGSON, Campbell. A Complete Catalogue of the Etchings and Dry-Points of Edmund Blampied R.E. London: Halton & Truscott Smith, Ltd., 1926. Limited edition, this being number 319 of 350 copies, etched frontispiece signed by Edmund Blampied and also signed to the half-title, 4to (284 x 216mm.) 61 etched plates with captioned tissue-guards, 39 illustrations on 16 leaves. (Toning, spotting to blanks, marginal crease to frontispiece.) Original brown cloth, t.e.g. (lightly rubbed). – And a further six volumes, mostly related to Edmund Blampied (including J.B. Priestley’s ‘Albert Goes Through’, signed by Blampied to the title-page and with a 5-line letter from Blampied loosely-inserted, 1933, 8vo, and J.M. Barrie’s ‘Peter and Wendy’, 1939, 4to, and J.E. Corbiére’s ‘Mont Orgueil Castle’, [1890], 8vo) (7).

CHANNEL ISLANDS. – Edmund BLAMPIED (illustrator) and Horace WYATT. Jersey in Jail 1940-45. [N.p. but Jersey: n.d. but 1945.] Limited edition of 750 copies, this number 618 signed by the author and artist, 4to (252 x 203mm.) Numerous illustrations by Blampied. (Mild toning.) Original pictorial boards (dust-soiled). – And a quantity of approximately one hundred and ten further volumes related to Jersey and the Channel Islands (including three copies of ‘A People of the Sea’, edited by A.G. Jamieson, 1986, large 8vo, and John McCormack’s ‘Channel Island Houses’, signed by the author, 2015, large 8vo, and Joan Stevens’ ‘Old Jersey Houses’, 2 vols., 1965-1977, 4to) (a quantity).

WISDEN, John (publisher). Cricketers’ Almanack. London: Sporting Handbooks Ltd. and John Wisden & Co., 1954-2019. 47 vols., 8vo (164 x 103mm.) Advertisements, numerous illustrations. (Toning, occasional browning.) Original card covers and brown cloth, dust-jackets. Note: comprises the volumes for 1954, 1956, 1961, 1974, 1976, and from 1978-2019. – And a further volume (‘Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack Australia’, 1998, 8vo) (48).

NICHOLSON, William (illustrator) and W.E. HENLEY. London Types. London: William Heinemann, 1898. First edition, 4to (331 x 228mm.) 12 lithographed plates after woodcuts by William Nicholson, advertisement leaf to rear. (Mild toning, some offsetting to text leaves, marginal loss to initial blank.) Original boards (lacking spine, covers detached).

WISDEN, John (publisher). Cricketers’ Almanack. London: Sporting Handbooks Ltd. and John Wisden and Co., 1949-2017. 69 vols., 8vo (158 x 93mm.) Advertisements, numerous illustrations. (Toning, occasional browning and corner creasing.) Original card covers for 1949-1952, brown cloth for 1953-2017 (some creasing, bumping to spines), dust-jackets  (tear to ‘1974’ and ‘1983’, spotting and staining to several spine panels). Note: a complete run from 1949 to 2017 (69).

ART REFERENCE. – Mary LUTYENS and Malcolm WARNER (editors). Rainy Days at Brig O’ Turk: The Highland Sketchbooks of John Everett Millais. Kent: Dalrymple Press, 1983. Limited edition, this being out-of-series, oblong 4to (203 x 246mm.) Illustrations. Original tartan cloth, paper labels mounted to upper cover and spine. – And a further sixty-five volumes of art reference (including ‘Lucian Freud, The Self-Portraits’, 2020, 4to, and Simon Martin’s ‘Glyn Philpot: Flesh and Spirit’, 2022, 4to, and Stephen Pollington’s ‘Wayland’s Work’, 2010, 4to) (66).

NEWMAN, John Henry. An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1885. Fifth edition, 8vo (187 x 123mm.) Half-title. (Toning, scattered spotting.) Original maroon cloth (spine ends bumped). Provenance: Pembroke College, Oxford (stamp to title). – And a further fifty miscellaneous volumes (including J.M. Keynes’ ‘A Treatise on Money’, 2 vols., 1950, 8vo, and George Matthews Bennett’s ‘The Art of the Bone-setter’, [1884], 8vo, and C.G. Jung’s ‘Psychological Types’, 1946, 8vo, and C.G. Jung’s ‘Letters’, vol. 1 [only, of 2], 1973, 8vo) (51).

LAWRENCE, T.E. Seven Pillars of Wisdom. New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1935. First U.S. edition, 4to (249 x 186mm.) Numerous illustrations. (Toning.) Original grey cloth (small marks to upper cover), dust-jacket (extremities chipped, price-clipped). – And a further fifty-three volumes, mainly literary (including Kathleen Raine’s ‘Defending Ancient Springs’, 1967, 8vo, and Margaret Thomas’ ‘Two Years in Palestine & Syria’, 1900, 8vo, and Rainer Maria Rilke’s ‘Duino Elegies’, 1948, 8vo) (54).

PHILOSOPHY. – Gilbert RYLE. The Concept of Mind. London: Hutchinson & Co. Ltd., 1975. Thirteenth impression, 8vo (234 x 153mm.) (Toning, pencil annotation and underlining.) Original red boards, dust-jacket (browned to spine, marginal creasing). Provenance: C.F. Blackburn (ink name to front pastedown); Peter S.M. Davie (ink name to front endpaper). – And a quantity of approximately sixty-five volumes related to philosophy (including Werner Heisenberg’s ‘The Physicist’s Conception of Nature’, 1962, 8vo, and William J. Richardson’s ‘Heidegger, Through Phenomenology to Thought’, 1962, 8vo, and Ludwig Wittgenstein’s ‘Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus’, 1966, 8vo, and Norman Kemp Smith’s ‘The Philosophy of David Hume’, 1964, 8vo) (a quantity).

PHILOSOPHY. – F.A. HAYEK. The Counter Revolution of Science. Illinois, Glencoe: The Free Press, 1952. First edition, first impression, 8vo (209 x 141mm.) (Toning, small pencil marks to margins.) Original brown cloth (spine ends bumped). – And a quantity of approximately ninety further volumes related to philosophy (including Jacques Maritain’s ‘An Introduction to Logic’, 1946, 8vo, and Michael Oakeshott’s ‘Rationalism in Politics & Other Essays’, 1962, 8vo, and Jacques Derrida’s ‘Speech and Phenomena and Other Essays on Husserl’s Theory of Signs’, 1973, 8vo, and Martin Heidegger’s ‘The Metaphysical Foundations of Logic’, 1984, 8vo) (a quantity).

PHILOSOPHY. – Ludwig WITTGENSTEIN. The Blue and Brown Books. Preliminary Studies for the ‘Philosophical Investigations’. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1960. Second edition, 8vo (218 x 139mm.) (A few pencil marks to margins, illegible ink name to front endpaper.) Original blue cloth, dust-jacket (browning, chipping to extremities, pencil marks to lower panel). Provenance: C.J. Blackburn (pencil name to front endpaper). – And a further fifty volumes related to philosophy (including J.N. Findlay’s ‘Meinong’s Theory of Objects’, 1933, 8vo, and Gilbert Ryle’s ‘Collected Papers’, vol. 1, 1971, 8vo) (51).

PHILOSOPHY. – Edmund HUSSERL. Logical Investigations. London & New jersey: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982. 2 vols., 8vo (218 x 132mm.) (Light spotting to fore-edges.) Original brown cloth, dust-jackets. Provenance: C.J. Blackburn (ink name to front endpapers). – And a quantity of approximately seventy-three volumes related to philosophy (including Henri Bergson’s ‘Time and Free Will’, fourth edition, 1921, 8vo, and Edmund Husserl’s ‘The Phenomenology of Internal Time Consciousness’, 1964, 8vo, and Raymond Williams’ ‘Keywords’, 1976, 8vo, and Anton Baumstark’s ‘Comparative Liturgy’, 1958, 8vo) (a quantity).

MORRIS, James (later, Jan). Sultan in Oman. London: Faber and Faber, 1957. First edition, second impression, 8vo (217 x 136mm.) Photographic illustrations. (Spotting to first and last leaves.) Original red cloth, dust-jacket (loss to spine ends, closed tears, abrasions to lower panel). – And a further six volumes by the same author (including ‘Coast to Coast’, 1956, 8vo, and ‘The Market of Seleukia’, 1957, 8vo) (7).

WALLIS, Barnes Neville. – J.E. MORPURGO. Barnes Wallis, a Biography. London: Longman, 1972. Third impression, inscribed by Barnes Wallis, 8vo (213 x 136mm.) Photographic illustrations, loosely inserted funeral service programme, four hand-written letters, newspaper clipping. (Toning.) Original blue cloth, dust-jacket (fading, small tears to extremities). Note: the book is inscribed ‘To Doc, from Barnes Wallis’. The ‘Doc’ was Barnes Wallis’ doctor Neville Hiley. The letters are between Barnes Wallis and the doctor’s wife, Esmé Hiley. The 8-line hand-written letter by Barnes reads: ‘Dear Mrs Hiley, Thank you very much for the most enjoyable lunch that you gave us today. It was delightful to be with you both in your home. Only we missed seeing the dogs. And it was so very kind of Dr. Hiley to fetch us, and take us home. Many thanks to him too! Molly of course joins me! With kindest regards from us both, Yours very sincerely, Barnes Wallis’. There’s a simple ‘Happy Birthday’ note to Esmé signed by Wallis and Molly, and two letters from Barnes’ wife to Esmé reassuring her ‘that you mustn’t think Barnes isn’t enjoying himself because he isn’t very talkative’. The newspaper clipping is related to Barnes Wallis’ funeral and mentions the ‘bizarre example of his mathematical genius’ in predicting ten years in advance, the date of his own death. He was right within a month or so.