Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

CONJURING. – Harlan TARBELL. The Tarbell Course in Magic. New York: Louis Tannen, 1943-1948. 4 vols. [of 8]. Mixed editions, 8vo (222 x 142mm.) Photographic frontispieces, illustrations. (Toning.) Original cloths (lightly bumped spine ends). Provenance: Adrian Harris (ownership stamps verso frontispieces of volumes 3 and 4); L. Davenport & Co. (stamp to front-free endpaper of volume 5). – And a further two volumes (being duplicate copies of volumes 3 and 4) (6).

CONJURING. – Ellis STANYON (editor). Magic. London: Pollock & Co., February 1901-May 1920. Vol. 1 no. 5- Vol. 15 no. 8. 108 issues (only). 4to (277 x 215mm.) Numerous illustrations. (Toning.) Staple-bound. Note: Ellis Stanyon was a magician and the proprietor of ‘Stanyon & Co.’, a magic shop in Hampstead, London. The magazine was not published during the war (108).

AFRICA. – Edgar George Dion LARDNER. Soldiering and Sport in Uganda 1909-1910. London & Felling on Tyne: Walter Scott Publishing, 1912. First edition, 8vo (219 x 134mm.) Folding map to rear, numerous photographic plates. (Spotting to first leaves, marginal stain to one plate, toning.) Original blue cloth, pictorial gilt and to spine (extremities bumped, minor damp-spotting to lower cover). – And a further seventeen volumes related to Africa (including Wilhelm Junker’s ‘Travels in Africa During the Years 1882-1886’, 1892, 8vo, and Charles F. Harford-Battersby’s ‘Pilkington of Uganda’, [1898], 8vo, and Harry Johnston’s ‘The Uganda Protectorate’, 2 vols., 1902, 4to, and William Vincent’s ‘The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea’, 1800, 4to) (18).

AFRICA. – C.T. ATKINSON. The South Wales Borderers 24th Foot 1689-1937. Cambridge: for the Regimental History Committee at the University Press, 1937. Subscriber’s Edition, 4to (248 x 184mm.) 4 folding maps to rear, 52 plates, including 23 in colour, illustrations, mounted colour map. (Toning.) Original green full morocco, regimental gilt to upper cover and spine, t.e.g. (rubbing to spine, fading to lower cover, extremities rubbed). Note: includes 44 pages on the Kaffir and Zulu War.

SIGNED BOOK. – H.C. WYLLY (compiler). The 1st and 2nd Battalions The Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) In the Great War. London, Portsmouth and Aldershot: Gale & Polden, Ltd., [1926.] Signed by Gen. Horace Smith-Dorrien on the portrait frontispiece, 8vo (244 x 178mm.) 8 folding maps, including 4 in the rear pocket, numerous photographic plates. (Toning, occasional finger-mark, lacking 4 maps.) Original green and maroon cloth (some discolouring to cloth, hinges slightly weakened). Note: Horace Smith-Dorrien commanded II Corps at the Battle of Mons in the First World War. He also fought a successful defensive action at the Battle of Le Cateau, contrary to the orders of Commander-in-Chief John French. He played himself in the 1926 film ‘The Battle of Mons’.

SIGNED BOOK. – Henry F. NORBURY. The Naval Brigade in South Africa. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington. First edition, inscribed by the author to his wife verso the front-free endpaper, 8vo (189 x 128mm.) Half-title, wood-engraved frontispiece, notes in manuscript hand mounted to rear pastedown. (Text-block cracked at last leaf, toning.) Original blue cloth, gilt to upper cover (hinges weakened, joints splitting, extremities rubbed). Note: the inscription reads: ‘Mina Norbury, from her affectionate husband on her Birthday, December 1880’. The notes to the rear pastedown are in the hand of L. Norbury and relate to the Naval Brigade in the Zulu wars. Provenance: Mina Norbury (inscribed to from the author); L. Norbury (ink name to the half-title). – And a related volume (Stephen Kay’s ‘Travels and Researches in Caffraria’, 1834, 8vo) (2).

KEARSLEY, George (publisher). The Copper Plate Magazine; or, Monthly Treasure, for the Admirers of the Imitative Arts. London: for George Kearsley, 1778. First edition, 4to (268 x 214mm.) Engraved title, 124 engraved plates after Sandby, Collier, Walker and Watts, letterpress text leaf with each, later printed notes about the book mounted to initial blank and rear pastedown. (One plate supplied in facsimile ‘The Story of Marsyas’, toning, occasional browning, tape repair to two text leaves.) 20th century half calf, purple morocco lettering piece to spine (endpapers replaced). Note: scarce. Originally issued in parts from 1774-1778. It comprises 42 portraits (Chaucer, Shakespeare etc.), 41 historical and mythological scenes and 42 views of landscapes and country houses after Paul Sandby. Provenance: Josceline Grove (bookplate verso front endpaper). – And a related volume (Henry Bromley’s ‘A Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits’, 1793, 4to) (2).

BLAKE, William. – W.B. YEATS and Edward John ELLIS (editors). The Works of William Blake, Poetic, Symbolic, and Critical. London: Bernard Quaritch, 1893. 3 vols., one of 150 large paper copies, 8vo (279 x 183). Frontispieces with tissue-guards, 2 folding charts, numerous illustrations and lithographed facsimiles, bound-in errata slip. (Toning, occasional light spotting, damp-stain to rear endpaper of vol. 1 and small damp-stain to front-free endpaper of vol. 2). Original half morocco, pictorial gilt to spines, t.e.g. (extremities rubbed, especially spine panel of vol. 1, some staining to covers). Note: an important work that elucidated Blake’s esoteric system. Provenance: T.M.S. [Teresa Mary Sillars] (colour bookplates to front-free endpapers) (3).

THOMSON, Hugh (illustrator). – J.M. BARRIE. Quality Street. A Comedy in Four Acts. [London:] Hodder & Stoughton, [circa 1913.] Limited edition, this being number 694 of 1000 copies signed by Hugh Thomson, 4to (308 x 247mm.) 22 tipped-in colour plates by Hugh Thomson, captioned tissue-guards. (Toning, corner crease to p.161, minor dust-soiling to endpapers.) Original full pictorial vellum gilt, t.e.g. (upper hinge slightly weakened, lacking ties).

BLAKE, William. – Laurence BINYON. Illustrations of the Book of Job. London: Methuen & Co., 1906. Vol. 1 [all published.] 4to (313 x 249mm.) 22 plates, tissue-guards, introduction by Laurence Binyon. (Toning, tissues with corner loss.) Original green cloth, gilt lettering (spine browned, pastedowns spotted, fading to cover edges). Provenance: F.A. Lyon (name inscribed to front-free endpaper).

THE STUDIO. – Charles HOLME and Geoffrey Charles HOLME (editors). The Studio, an Illustrated Magazine of Fine and Applied Art. London: Offices of the Studio, April 1893-May 1919. 32 vols., 4to (298 x 215mm.) Plates and illustrations, many coloured or tinted by numerous artists. (Toning, occasional spotting and creasing.) Original printed wrappers (chipping to all later volumes, several lacking spine panels). Note: an incomplete run that begins with the first issue, Vol.1, No. 1 of April 1893 which contains illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley (32).

SHAKESPEARE, William. The Works of Shakespear. In Six Volumes. Adorned With Sculptures. Oxford: at the Clarendon Press, 1771-1770. 6 vols., second edition, 4to (321 x 234mm.) Half-titles, engraved frontispiece of the Chandos portrait, 38 engraved plates by H. Gravelt after F. Hayman, engraved tail-pieces, prefaces of Thomas Hanmer and Pope, a biographical account by Rowe, and Ben Jonson’s poem to vol. 1. (Toning, occasional scatted spotting, browning to plates.) Near contemporary half calf over marbled paper-covered boards, gilt titling to spines (rebacked, light surface rubbing). Note: ‘This reprint of Hanmer on excellent paper [is] perhaps the best-produced Shakespeare edition of the 18th century’ [Franklin, ‘Shakespeare Domesticated’, p. 31] (6).

ALIGHIERI, Dante. La Vita Nuova. The New Life… translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Coventry: Cheylesmore Press, [1915.] 4to (237 x 179mm.) Mounted colour illustrations by Evelyn Paul, colour decorations, music by Alfred Mercer. (Mild toning.) Original publisher’s full medieval style calf with mounted bas-relief of Dante to upper cover (extremities rubbed, some wear to spine ends).

RACKHAM, Arthur (illustrator). – Richard WAGNER. [The Ring of the Niblung.] London: William Heinemann, 1910-1911. 2 vols., 4to (248 x 179mm.) 64 tipped-in colour plates with captioned tissue-guards. (Toning, occasional browning, small illegible gift inscription to ‘Siegfried…’) Original brown variant cloths, pictorial gilt (lightly rubbed, lower joint splitting to ‘The Rhinegold…’). Provenance: Emily Cullis (ink name to title and gift inscribed to on front-free endpaper of ‘Rhinegold…’). – And a further three volumes illustrated by Arthur Rackham (including J.M. Barrie’s ‘Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens’, fourth edition, 1907, 4to, and ‘Shakespeare’s Comedy of the Tempest’, illustrated by Edmund Dulac, [1908], 4to, and ‘The Ingoldsby Legends’, 1907, 4to) (5).

DONALDSON, Julia. The Gruffalo. London: Macmillan’s Children’s Books, 2007. First Gift Edition, first impression, 4to (265 x 213mm.) Illustrations by Axel Scheffler. Original green cloth, mounted illustration and gilt to upper cover, slipcase. – And a further ten volumes by Julia Donaldson, all first edition, first impressions (including ‘The Gruffalo’s Child’, 2004, 4to, and ‘The Gruffalo’s Child’, Gift Edition, 2008, 4to, and ‘Stick Man’, 2008, 4to, and ‘Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book’, 2005, 4to, and ‘Tabby McTat’, 2009, 4to, and  ‘Cave Baby’, 2010, 4to, and ‘The Gruffalo Pop-Up Theatre Book’, 2008, 4to, and ‘The Troll’, 2009, 4to, and ‘The Scarecrow’s Wedding’, 2014, 4to, and ‘The Girl and the Bear and the Magic Shoes’, 2018, 4to, and a further three volumes signed by Julia Donaldson, ‘Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book’, 2nd impression, 4to, and ‘The Scarecrow’s Wedding’, 4th impression, 4to, and ‘The Smartest Giant in Town’, 3rd impression, 4to) (14).

ASHBEE, C.R. The Conradin: A Philosophical Ballad. Gloucestershire, Broad Campden: Essex House Press, 1908. Limited edition, this being ‘out-of-series’, one of 250 copies only, 4to (253 x 194mm.) 6 full-page illustrations by P.A. Mairet. (Light marginal spotting to first leaves, spotting to rear three leaves, some marginal staining.) Contemporary brown morocco with floral green and black morocco onlays to upper cover (lightly sunned to spine, minor marks). Provenance: by descent from the family of C.R. Ashbee.

ASHBEE, C.R. ‘Grannie’, a Victorian Cameo. Oxford: at the University Press, 1939. Limited edition, being number 1 of 100 copies only, 8vo (244 x 163mm.) 3 photogravures, tissue-guards. (Mild toning.) Original vellum-backed paper-covered boards (lightly rubbed). Provenance: C.R. and J.E. Ashbee (oval red morocco name-plate to front pastedown).

ASHBEE, C.R. Craftsmanship in Competitive Industry. [London: Essex House Press, 1908.] First edition, 8vo (243 x 148mm.) Photographic illustrations. (Toning.) Original cloth-backed boards, paper label to spine (browned). – And a further four volumes related to C.R. Ashbee (including ‘Kingfisher out of Egypt’, 1934, 8vo, and ‘The Kings of Min Zaman’, 1938, 8vo, and ‘On the Need for the Establishment of Country Schools of Arts & Crafts’, 1906, 8vo, and eighteen leaves from ‘The Essex House Song Book’, [1905], disbound) (5).

NASH, Paul (illustrator). Genesis. Twelve Woodcuts by Paul Nash with the First Chapter of Genesis in the Authorised Version. [London:] by the Curwen Press for the Nonesuch Press, 1924. Limited edition, this being number 332 of 375 copies, 4to (268 x 186mm.) 12 woodcuts, text in Rudolf Koch’s Neuland type. (Mild toning, uncut leaves, occasional mild spotting to margins.) Original black boards, gilt title to upper cover (extremities lightly bumped), dust-jacket (lacking spine panel and marginal losses, heavily sunned and discoloured). Provenance: T.M.S. [Teresa Mary Sillars] (colour bookplate to front-free endpaper).