Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

MAPS. – Karel WEISS (publisher). Hong Kong Guide. Hong Kong: Graphic Press, 1932. Fourth edition, small 8vo (138 x 118mm.) 20 photographic plates, 42 maps, many folding, numerous advertisements, list of advertisers to rear pastedown. (Toning, occasional pencil annotation.) Original red cloth-backed boards (damp-stained, lower hinge weakened). Note: scarce. Aside from detailed and useful practical information, and some historical context (especially on the ‘Chronological History of Hong Kong’s Trade’), this is a guidebook for the tourist with money to spend. It includes a list of ballrooms, theatres, vegetable markets, cinemas, restaurants, hotels, nightspots, a few blanks leaves reserved for ‘Shopping Lists’, and also 2pp. to ‘Suggestions For Gifts’ for loved ones (‘Diamonds’). Provenance: P. Clift (pencil inscribed to front-free endpaper).

MOGG, Edward. Mogg’s Omnibus Guide, and Metropolitan Carriage Time Table. London: by the Proprietor, E. Mogg, 1844. First edition. 2 folding engraved maps, including ‘New Plan of London’ with outline hand-colouring. (Toning, title browned.) [Bound with:] Edward MOGG. Mogg’s New Hackney Coach and Cabriolet Fares. London: for the Proprietor, 1844. Thirteenth edition. (Corner loss to p.vii, toning.) [Bound with:] Edward MOGG. Appendix, Shewing The Fares From the Several Railway Stations, to All Parts of London and Its Immediate Environs. London: E. Mogg, 1841. 4pp. publisher’s advertisements to rear. (Toning.) Small 8vo (124 x 70mm.) Original cloth, pictorial gilt to upper cover (inner hinge weakened, small circular stamp to front pastedown). Note: scarce in the first edition.

AMIS, Kingsley. Lucky Jim. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1953. First edition, 8vo (182 x 116mm.) (Mild toning.) Original green cloth (some fading to top of spine), dust-jacket (spine panel restored and browned). Note: first printing of Amis’ first novel.

ASTRONOMY. – J.R. HIND. On the Expected Return of the Great Comet of 1264 and 1556. London: G. Hoby, 1848. First edition, 8vo (221 x 144mm.) Half-title, 2pp. advertisements to rear. (Title and ‘Preface’ with small corner creasing.) Original wrappers (slight dust-soiling, small tear at top of spine). Note: scarce. John Russell Hind was an Englisher astronomer noted for his discovery of several asteroids. In this work Hind posits, as others had, a connection between the comets of 1264 and 1556 and therefore predicted its return in 1848.

COOKERY. – [Emilie LEBOUR-FAWSSETT.] ‘Cordon Bleu’ and ‘Bacchus’. New Guide for the Hotel, Bar, Restaurant, Butler, and Chef. Being a Hand Book for the Management of Hotel and American Bars, and the Manufacture of the Principal New and Fashionable Drinks. London: William Nicholson and Sons, 1885. First edition, 8vo (184 x 117mm.) 2 Parts in 1, half-title. (Toning.) Original red cloth, black tooling and gilt lettering to upper cover and spine (extremities rubbed). Note: the first part (by ‘Bacchus’) concerns home-brewing while the second part (by ‘Cordon Blue’) is about cookery, confectionary, lunching and dining.

AUSTEN, Jane. The Novels of Jane Austen, the Text Based on Collation of the Early Editions by R.W. Chapman. Oxford: at the Clarendon Press, 1933-1940. 5 vols., third edition, 8vo (197 x 128mm.) (Toning.) Original green cloth (lightly bumped extremities), dust-jacket (extremities chipped, losses to spine panel ends, ‘Northanger Abbey’ dust-jacket in two parts, loss to half of spine panel). Note: ‘Pride and Prejudice’ is the second impression of 1940. Provenance: May B. Peel (ink name to front-free endpapers, dated 1941) (5).

GARRETT, John (publisher). A Direction For the English Traveller By which he shall be enabled to Coast about all England and Wales. [London:] Printed and are to be Sold by John Garrett at the South Entrance of ye Royall Exchange in Corn-hill, [1677.] 12mo (131 x 67mm.) Engraved double-paged title and 2 double-paged engraved leaves of ‘Use of all the ensueing Tables’, 40 double-paged engraved ‘Thumbnail’ maps with distances, including 3 folding. (Browning to margins, a few short minor tears, occasional creasing, lacking folding ‘Yorkshire’ map(?)) 20th century calf with original calf covers laid-down (endpapers replaced). Note: rare. Originally published by Matthew Simmons with maps engraved by Jacob van Langeren where the triangular ‘thumbnail map’ is incorporated into a distance table for the county- an innovation of John Norden’s in 1625.

MAPS. – Herman MOLL. Bowles’ Geographia Classica; or, the Geography of the Ancients… Exhibited in Thirty-Two Maps. London: Carrington Bowles, 1784. 4to (198 x 154mm.) Double-paged engraved title, 2 additional titles in Latin and English, preface, 32 double-paged engraved maps by Herman Moll. (Occasional light browning.) Near contemporary calf-backed marbled paper-covered boards, red morocco lettering piece to the spine (upper cover detached, extremities rubbed). Provenance: J.W. Rose, antique dealer (ink stamp to front pastedown).

HEYLYN, Peter. A Help to English History, Containing a Succession of all the Kings of England. London: for Thomas Basset, 1675. 12mo (143 x 77mm.) Woodcut coat-of-arms in text, some with later hand-colouring, separate sectional titles to parts dated 1674, advertisement leaf to rear. (Leaves O2-O11 loose, Z6 upper margin cut, burn mark to corner of text-block, lacking all before title.) Contemporary calf (upper cover nearly detached, worn). Provenance: R.J. Skelton (contemporary ink name to front pastedown); ‘Westerfordel’ (ink stamp to front pastedown and verso title). – And a further thirteen volumes (including Daniel Fenning’s ‘A New and Easy Guide to the Use of Globes’, 1804, 8vo) (14).

RAG-TIME. – George TOMPKINS (composer) and C.C.S. CUSHING. The Yellow Faun, a Musical Comedy in 3 Acts. Simsbury, Connecticut: The Westminster Dramatic Club, 1913. 8vo (241 x 130mm.) Photographic illustrations (Toning, uncut leaves.) Original pictorial wrappers (small tears and creasing to margins). Note: scarce. Early in his career Tompkins was musical director for the private Westminster School in Simsbury, Connecticut. He also composed the music for ‘The Elephant’s Remorse’ with C.C.S. Cushing writing the lyrics in 1914 and was the author of the 1918 foxtrot ‘Cassandra’.

SUFFRAGETTES. – Ethel SMYTH. Impressions that Remained. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1923. 2 vols., new edition, 8vo (194 x 127mm.) Publisher’s review slip loosely inserted. (Spotting to fore-edges and scattered within.) Original red cloth, paper labels to spines (lightly bumped spine ends), dust-jackets (some chipping to extremities, lightly dust-soiled). – And a further volume by Ethel Smyth (‘Streaks of Life’, 1924, 8vo) (3).

AMERICAN CIVIL WAR. – Rose GREENHOW. My Imprisonment and the First Year of Abolition Rule at Washington. London: Richard Bentley, 1863. First edition, 8vo (198 x 118mm.) Engraved portrait frontispiece, 2pp. publisher’s advertisements to rear. (Toning, illegible contemporary name verso front-free endpaper.) Original blue blind-stamped and pictorial gilt cloth (lightly bumped, discolouring to lower cover). Note: scarce. Rose did significant espionage work for the confederates, running a spy network in Washington. After she was imprisoned and then deported she continued to maintain her networks from Europe and the first printing of her memoirs was made in London. She drowned a year later, in 1864, aged fifty-one.

DYER, G. History of the University and Colleges of Cambridge; including Notices Relating to the Founders and Eminent Men. London: for Longman, Hurst, Rees et al., 1814. 2 vols., 8vo (213 x 128mm.) Engraved frontispieces, additional engraved title to vol. 1, engraved plates, 4pp. publisher’s advertisements. (Heavily browned and spotted preliminaries, thereafter scattered spotting.) Contemporary brown full calf, gilt borders, red and green morocco lettering pieces (minor staining, lightly rubbed). Provenance: John Thackeray (bookplate to front pastedowns); Christ’s Hospital (presentation plate to front pastedowns and bookplate to front-free endpapers). – And a further thirteen volumes (including Thomas Pennant’s ‘Some Account of London’, 1793, third edition, 4to, and C. Julius Caesar’s ‘Commentaries of His Wars in Gaul, and Civil War with Pompey’, translated by Martin Bladen, 1750, seventh edition, 8vo, and Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, ‘The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England’, 3 vols. in 6, 1807, 8vo) (15).

BAUDELAIRE, Charles. Les Pièces Condamnées, mises en anglaise par Ch. Claude. London: La Pye, 1936. Limited edition, this being number 2 of 12 copies only, 4to (344 x 258mm.) Blue and black text on Japanese vellum paper. (Small abrasions to front pastedown.) Original blue buckram, gilt lettering to spine, t.e.g. (toned to edges).

SASSOON, Siegfried. Vigils. [Bristol: Douglas Cleverdon], 1934. Limited edition, this being number 14 of 303 copies signed by Siegfried Sassoon and by engraver Charles Sigrist, 4to (228 x 159mm.) Engraved frontispiece by Stephen Gooden, engraved throughout by Charles Sigrist, signed to colophon at rear, printer’s slip loosely inserted. (Toned to margins.) Original niger morocco bound by John B. Gray & Son, Cambridge, t.e.g. (minor stain to upper cover, slight scuffing). Provenance: Robert Elwell (bookplate to front pastedown).

CORNWALL. – Charles SIMPSON (illustrator). A Pastorale… with a Foreword and Poem by Lady June Butler. St. Ives, Cornwall: Charles Simpson, 1922. 4to (258 x 189mm.) 16 woodcuts by Charles Simpson, 13 of them signed by him in pencil, 2 with his initials, tissue-guards. (Mild toning, blanks replaced.) Later green cloth, gilt lettering to spine (endpapers replaced). Note: together with his wife, Ruth Simpson (née Alison), Charles Simpson set up a painting school in St. Ives, ‘The Shore Studio’. An exhibition of his work was held at the Penlee House Gallery in 2005. Provenance: Worthing Public Library (labels to pastedowns and verso front-free endpaper).

BINDINGS. – Thomas Jefferson HOGG. The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley. London: Edward Moxon, 1858. 2 vols., 8vo (189 x 109mm.) Engraved portrait frontispiece. (Toning, spotting and browning to preliminaries of volume 1.) Early 20th century half calf over marbled paper-covered boards, teal and brown morocco lettering pieces to the spines, g.e. Provenance: Lord Battersea, M.P. (armorial bookplate to front pastedowns). – And a further six volumes (including ‘The Poems of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’, bound by Bumpus, 1907, 8vo, and ‘The Oxford Book of French Verse’, bound by Bumpus, 1907, 8vo, and [Charles Asselineau’s] ‘Le Livre des Sonnets’, bound by Bumpus, [1875], 8vo, and ‘The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott, Bart’, 1866, 8vo) (8).

WALLIS, John. The Natural History and Antiquities of Northumberland: And so much of the County of Durham As lies between the Rivers Tyne and Tweed, Commonly Called North Bishoprick. London: for the Author, by W. and W. Strahan, 1769. 2 vols., first edition, 4to (297 x 224mm.) 2 engraved folding maps with outline hand-colouring, 4pp. ‘List of Subscribers’ in vol. 1, 2 errata leaves, loosely inserted 3pp. hand-written letter by John Hodgson. (Several leaves with marginal damp-staining, light spotting to preliminaries of vol. 2, occasional finger-mark and marginal annotation.) Near contemporary calf with later beige and green morocco lettering pieces, blind-stamped and gilt borders (rebacked, extremities rubbed). Note: John Hodgson’s main work was ‘The History of Northumberland’, 1820-1858. His letter is addressed to William Darnell, academic and antiquarian. – And a further five volumes (including W. Hutchinson’s ‘A View of Northumberland’, 2 vols., 1778, 4to, and William Freke Williams’ and Henry Tyrrell’s ‘England’s Battles By Sea and Land’, 3 vols., [circa 1860], 4to) (7).

ARCADIA PRESS. – Samuel Taylor COLERIDGE. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. London: Arcadia Press, 1972. Limited edition, this being number 89 of 100 copies signed by the artist, calligrapher and paper-maker, folio (343 x 246mm.) 10 tipped-in colour plates by Errol Le Cain, calligraphic text by David Howells printed in green and black on ‘Seaweed’ paper made by Philip Rowson, loosely inserted publisher’s prospectus. Half-vellum over ‘Seaweed’ paper-covered boards by Zaehnsdorf, silver letting to spine, t.e.g., original slipcase (knock to inner edge).