Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

CONAN-DOYLE, Arthur. The Lost World. London: Hodder and Stoughton, [1912.] First edition, 8vo (188 x 118mm.) 8 plates. (Light spotting to preliminaries and scattered thereafter, spotting to fore-edge.) Original blue cloth, gilt portrait of Professor Challenger to upper cover (small stains to spine). Note: the first Professor Challenger story and early science-fiction novel.

[BRONTË, Emily and Anne.] ‘Ellis and Acton Bell’. Wuthering Heights and Agnes Bell. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1858. New edition, 8vo (174 x 114mm.) 4pp. publisher’s advertisements to rear, printed endpapers. (Toning, some corner creasing, slight loosening to one or two quires.) Original orange printed cloth (small crease to spine, slight fading, inner hinge weakened). Note: first published in 1847, this is the overall third edition, following the second in 1850. It has a preface by Charlotte Brontë [‘Currer Bell’] and her biographical memoir of her sisters.

SIGNED BOOK. – A.A. MILNE. Winnie-the-Pooh. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1961. Reprint, signed by Christopher Robin Milne, 8vo (183 x 119mm.) Illustrations by E.H. Shepard. Original red cloth, dust-jacket. Note: inscribed by the author’s son ‘Christopher Robin Milne, Dartmouth, 5 August 1961’.

SIGNED BOOK. – A.A. MILNE. The House at Pooh Corner. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1960. Reprint, signed by Christopher Robin Milne, 8vo (184 x 120mm.) Illustrations by E.H. Shepard. Original green cloth, dust-jacket (small tear at top of spine). Note: inscribed by the author’s son ‘Christopher Robin Milne, Dartmouth, 5 August 1961’.

PROOF COPY. – Philip K. DICK. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. London: Jonathan Cape, March 1966. U.K. Proof Copy, 8vo (187 x 125mm.) (Mild toning.) Original card covers, paper label to upper cover (creases to spine, lightly rubbed). Note: the first paragraph of the promotional label reads: ‘Life on earth has its problems for the twenty-first-century-hero Barney Mayerson- the temperature so high that he cannot go out without his anti-thermal kit; the land from shore to shore solid with housing blocks; the comfort provided by Dr. Smile, the portable plug-in psychiatrist, dubious. But the problems of life on earth are still preferable to the annihilating boredom of the planets, peopled by unwilling drafted colonists who Barney is due to join’.

PROOF COPY. – Ian FLEMING. The Man With The Golden Gun. London: Jonathan Cape, 1965 [but late 1964]. Uncorrected Proof copy, 8vo (187 x 126mm.) (Mild toning, slight corner creasing.) Original yellow-green wrappers, lettered in black (creases to spine and edges). Note: only 596 copies were published. Provenance: Gillian Huddy (ink name to half-title). [Gilbert A13a].

JACKSON, Shirley. The Haunting of Hill House. London: Michael Joseph, 1960. First U.K. edition, 8vo (198 x 124mm.) (Light spotting to preliminaries and fore-edge.) Original black cloth, dust-jacket. Note: Jackson’s fifth and penultimate novel. Stephen King wrote that it was one of the most significant works of horror in the 20th century. It was recently adapted for Netflix.

FLEMING, Ian. For Your Eyes Only. London: Jonathan Cape, 1960. First edition, first impression, 8vo (187 x 118mm.) (Mild toning.) Original black cloth with white eye design to upper cover (spine ends bumped), dust-jacket (chipped at top of spine panel). Note: price of 15s to inner flap of dust-jacket.

FLEMING, Ian. Thunderball. London: Jonathan Cape, 1961. First edition, first impression, first issue, 8vo (187 x 120mm.) (Mild toning.) Original black cloth with skeletal hand blind-stamped to upper cover, gilt lettering to spine (spine ends bumped), dust-jacket designed by Richard Chopping (small tears at top of spine panel, lightly rubbed). Note: ‘Sidney’ for ‘Sydney’ on the rear inner flap. – And a further two first editions by Ian Fleming (‘The Spy Who Loved Me’, 1962, 8vo, and ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’, 1963, 8vo) (3).

HEMINGWAY, Ernest. A Movable Feast. London: Jonathan Cape, 1964. First edition, first impression, 8vo (193 x 122mm.) Original red cloth, dust-jacket (price-clipped). Note: Hemingway’s account of his years in Paris in the 1920’s.

HEMINGWAY, Ernest. Death in the Afternoon. London: Jonathan Cape, 1932. First U.K. edition, 8vo (222 x 124mm.) Colour frontispiece by Juan Gris, photographic illustrations. (Toning.) Original burnt orange cloth (spine browned, small mark to spine). Note: loosely inserted several tickets to bullfights in Seville in the 1950’s, and five typescript copies of reports from bullfights in 1949 and a typescript copy of Wolcott Gibb’s satirical article on Hemingway (‘Death in the Rumble Seat’) that was originally published in the New Yorker magazine in 1932.

CHARTERIS, Leslie. Meet the Tiger. London: Ward, Lock & Co., [circa 1929.] First edition, early printing, 8vo (186 x 116mm.) (Toning.) Original green cloth (creases to spine, abrasions to edge of upper cover), dust-jacket (price-clipped, chipping to extremities). Note: with ‘1928’ on the copyright page, and 5 listed titles verso the half-title. – And a further two volumes (Laurie Lee’s ‘Cider with Rosie’, 1959, first edition, first impression, 8vo, and Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘The Silverado Squatters’, 1883, 8vo) (3).

HIGHSMITH, Patricia. Strangers on a Train. London: The Cresset Press, 1950. First U.K. edition, 8vo (184 x 118mm.) (Mild toning, corner crease to p.65.) Original blue cloth (spine ends bumped), dust-jacket (chipping to extremities, small tears to spine panel ends). Note: Raymond Chandler wrote the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock’s film of the book which was released in 1951.

GEOLOGY. – Catherine Mary WEBBER. Geology Familiarly Illustrated. [London: J.B. Goodinge], 1859. Folding panorama, (3382 x 133mm. and covers 143 x 200mm.) Title and 31 hand-coloured lithographed caricatured scenes above a geological section, linen -backed, numbered and captioned, in folding panorama. (Title and scene 1 replaced in facsimile, archival tape to folds, toning.) Later cloth-backed boards, gilt lettering to spine (browned to edges). Note: Catherine Mary Webber published two other comical works: ‘The Experience of an Amateur Artist’, 1858, and ‘Miss Scratchley, an Amateur in Art and Crinoline’, 1863. This work pokes fun at the popularity of geology in mid-Victorian England.

FLEMING, Ian. Live and Let Die. London: Jonathan Cape, 1963. Reprint, 8vo (188 x 121mm.) Original black cloth (lightly bumped), dust-jacket (price-clipped). – And a further thirteen works by Ian Fleming, mixed editions (‘Moonraker’, published by Jonathan Cape, reprint, 1964; ‘Casino Royale’, published by Macmillan, reprint, [circa 1965]; ‘Diamonds are Forever’, published by The Thriller Book Club, [circa 1957]; ‘From Russia With Love’, published by Jonathan Cape, reprint, 1957; ‘Dr. No’, published by The Book Club, [circa 1958]; ‘Goldfinger’, published by Jonathan Cape, reprint, 1978; ‘For Your Eyes Only’, published by The Book Club, 1960; ‘Thunderball’, published by The Book Club, 1961; ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’, published by Jonathan Cape, fifth impression, 1963; ‘On Her Majesty’s Service’, published by Jonathan Cape, sixth impression, 1964; ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’, published by Jonathan Cape, second impression, 1965; ‘You Only Live Twice’, published by Jonathan Cape, second impression, 1964; ‘Octopussy and the Living Daylights’, published by Jonathan Cape’, first edition, first impression, 1966) (14).

LEWIS, C.S. Mere Christianity. London: Geoffrey Bles, 1952. 8vo (197 x 132mm.) (Half-title browned.) Original blue cloth (spine sunned, mark to lower cover). Note: based on a series of Radio talks that Lewis gave between 1941 and 1944 which were originally published in three separate parts. Provenance: C.P.B. Normand (name inscribed to front pastedown).

GEOLOGY. – James REYNOLDS (publisher). Reynolds’s Geological Atlas of Great Britain, Comprising a Series of Maps in which The Roads, Railways, and Geological Features of England and Wales are Clearly Shown. London: James Reynolds, [1860.] 8vo (118 x 131mm.) Title, 33 double-paged lithographed maps with hand-colouring, 16pp. text. (Maps with contemporary manuscript annotation to margins, captioned and numbered in manuscript verso, toning.) Near contemporary black cloth, gilt lettering to upper cover (extremities rubbed, loss to spine panel). Provenance: J. Scott (ink name inscribed to front endpaper, dated 1861).

THEOLOGY. – John CALVIN. Thirteene Sermons of Maister John Caluine, Entreating of the Free Election of God in Jacob, and of reprobation in Esau... Translated into Englishe by J. Fielde. London: [Thomas Dawson] for Thomas Man and Tobie Cooke, 1579. 4to (193 x 142mm.) Title within woodcut border, woodcut initials. (Title browned with marginal creasing and chipping, marginal damp-staining, text-block partially cracked in several places, leaves iii-iv of ‘Dedication’ misbound after viii, insect damage to gutter P3-V4, small closed hole to iii-vi.) Contemporary vellum (some loss to spine, dried, browned, lacking ties). Note: first English edition. ([viii],176). [ESTC: S107264.]

TRYON, Thomas. A New Art of Brewing Beer, Ale, and Other Sorts of Liquors; So as to render them more Healthful to the Body, and Agreeable to Nature. London: for Thos. Salusbury, at the Sign of the Temple near Temple-Bar in Fleet Street, 1691. Third edition, 12mo (138 x 74mm.) Title, 2pp. publisher’s advertisements, 2pp. ‘Contents’ leaf. (Title stained, spotting, last four leaves with marginal tear, blanks replaced.) Early 19th century half calf (extremities rubbed, lacking lettering piece, endpapers replaced). Note: Tryon was a hat merchant and writer who argued that boiled water should be used for the brewing of beer to make it cleaner and healthier and ‘agreeable to nature’. He was also vegetarian. His ideas were influenced by Hindu belief and he was one of the first to argue for the rights of animals. Provenance: William Fuller Maitland, M.P. (armorial bookplate to front pastedown).