Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

COMICS. – Jeff ROVIN (editor). Devilina. New York: Seaboard Periodicals Inc., Jan-May 1975. Vol. 1, no. 1-2. 2 issues [all published.] 4to (275 x 206mm.) Numerous illustrations, advertisements. (Toning.) Original pictorial wrappers (slight fading, faint rubbing, old price sticker adhering to upper wrapper). Note: Devilina was Satan’s sister. – And a further two comics (‘Thrilling Adventure Stories’, no.1-2, February-August 1975) (4).

HUTTON, William. An History of Brimingham to the End of the Year 1780. Birmingham: for Pearson and Rollason, 1781. First edition, 8vo (218 x 133mm.) 8 engraved plates including 1 extra-illustration being a folding plate of St. Philip’s Church. (Lacking several plates including the folding map, marginal loss to title, minor soiling, browning and finger-marks to several leaves, contemporary marginal annotation, the folding plate hand-stitched in.) Contemporary calf, red morocco lettering piece (extremities rubbed). Provenance: Edward Walker, Birmingham (ink name inscribed to front pastedown, dated 1795). – And a further eleven volumes (including F.O. Morris’s ‘A Series of Picturesque Views of Seats of The Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland’, 6 vols., [1880], 4to, and Charles Knight’s [publisher] ‘The Land We Live In, A Pictorial and Literary Sketch-Book of the British Empire’, 4 vols., [1848-1850], 8vo, and another copy of William Hutton’s ‘An History of Birmingham’, 1795, 8vo) (12).

MORRIS, Francis Orpen. A Natural History of British Moths. London: George Bell & Sons, 1872. 4 vols., 8vo (252 x 156mm.) 132 hand-coloured lithographed plates. (Toning, occasional light spotting to preliminaries, some uncut leaves.) Original green blind-stamped cloth, gilt moths to upper covers (extremities lightly rubbed). Provenance: W.H. Smith (embossed stamp to front-free endpapers); C.G. Burton (ink name to initial blank of vol. 1). – And a related volume (Edward Newman’s ‘An Illustrated Natural History of British Butterflies’, 1874, 8vo) (5).

HUMPHREYS, Henry Noel and John Obadiah WESTWOOD. British Moths and Their Transformations. London: William S. Orr & Co., 1849. 2 vols., 4to (272 x 201mm.) 124 hand-coloured lithographed plates, tissue-guards. (Lacking half-titles, spotting to preliminaries, and to front-free endpaper of vol. 2, toning, hinge repair to title and pp.vi-vii of vol. 1.) Contemporary red half morocco over red buckram, gilt spines (slight fading, minor dust-soiling). Provenance: Leonard Hulls (ink name to front-free endpaper of vol. 1) (2).

MANUSCRIPT. – George Henry ROBERTSON. [A hand-written diary of a tour around Europe by Brigadier General George H. Robertson. N.p.: January-October 1845.] 33pp., manuscript, 32mo (73 x 44mm.) A single mostly legible hand with ink entries on 33pp., several blank leaves. (Toning.) (Lacking covers). Note: travelling by steamer and railway the jottings in the diary are mainly references to arrivals and departures. A lot of time is spent in Italy, the Vatican at Easter, but also ‘shopping and horsemanship’, Paris, Versailles, but also ‘visited the field at Waterloo’. Robertson had married Jane Necomen the year previously and, in his early thirties, already had a distinguished military record.  He would go on to serve and command in India between 1857-60 and, having learnt Hindu, held commandant posts in Indian cities in the early years of the British Raj. – And a small quantity of material related to George H. Robertson and his family (including Robertson’s own 11pp. hand-written record of his military service, mainly covering India, his passport, [circa 1845] and a photograph album [56 photos, mainly Bombay, circa 1890-1910] and related ephemera (small quantity).

TYPESCRIPT. – P.G. WODEHOUSE and Owen B. HOWELL. Money in the Bank. A Comedy. [Typescript based on Wodehouse’s novel. New York and Middlesex, N.p.: 1955.] 121pp., with a covering typed letter signed in ink by P.G. Wodehouse, string-bound (255 x 216mm.) 121pp. typed and numbered recto only with stage directions underlined in red ink and numerous small emendations in blue and black ink, title leaf, ‘Characters’ leaf, and outline of ‘Acts/Scenes’. (Toning, occasional corner creases, small tear to Wodehouse letter.) Original card wrappers, typed label to upper cover, string-bound (short tears and creasing to edges). Note: the letter from Wodehouse reads: ‘Feb 27. 1955/ 1000 Park Avenue New York/ Dear Mr. Howell. Yes, certainly try the play with T.V./ But I do think it wants simplifying. There are so many threads in it at present. Still, you can attend to that/ Best wishes/ Yours sincerely/ P.G. Wodehouse’. Wodehouse’s novel was first published in America in 1942 and in the U.K. in 1946. Known for his complicated plots, there’s an irony in Wodehouse airily suggesting to his co-writer that this script needs simplifying. However, it does suggest that Owen Howell was the writer of this theatre version and there’s no record that it was ever produced. And yet, this story would have been on Wodehouse’s mind because in January 1957 he published ‘Something Fishy’ which also contains the character Lord Uffingham and his seat at Shipley Hall.

ROWLING, J.K. The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Translated From the Original Runes by Hermoine Granger. London: Children’s High Level Group, 2008. Collector’s Edition, first printing December 2008. 4to. Includes folder of prints. Original rexine, with metal embossing, g.e., in cloth bag and drop-back box, original publisher’s shrink-wrap.

TOULOUSE-LAUTREC, Henri de. Le Jeune Routy A Céleyran. Paris: Société des Amis du Musée D’ Albi, 1975. Limited edition, this being number 233 of 300 copies, folio (557 x 395mm.) 11 colour reproductions on various types of paper, and various sizes, re-creating Lautrec studies from 1882, introduction by Maurice Sérullaz. Original cloth portfolio with ties.

HOARE, Richard Colt. The Ancient History of South Wiltshire. London: William Miller, 1812. First edition, folio (462 x 325mm.) Engraved portrait frontispiece, 76 engraved plates and maps, including 1 double-paged and a folding map of Stonehenge. (Title with tears repaired and laid-down, marginal repairs to additional title, some marginal spotting.) Contemporary calf, gilt turn-ins, g.e. (rebacked, tips renewed, loss to extremities.) Provenance: Samuel T. Fisher (bookplate to front pastedown); G.H. Sprules (bookplate to front-free endpaper).

DANIELL, William (engraver). The Adventure of Hunch-Back, and the Stories Connected With It (From the Arabian Nights Entertainment). London: for William Daniell, 1814. First edition, large paper copy, folio (414 x 319mm.) 17 engraved aquatint plates on India paper after Robert Smirke. (First and last leaves with heavy spotting, then marginal spotting throughout.) Contemporary half calf over marbled paper-covered boards, g.e. (heavily rubbed extremities, endpapers replaced).

MILLAIS, John Guille. British Deer and Their Horns. London: Henry Sotheran, 1897. Limited edition being number 27 of 100 copies signed by the author, folio (388 x 303mm.) Half-title, 11 plates, including 3 chromolithographed. (Toning, moderate scattered spotting, sometimes heavy to plate margins.) Original half morocco over pictorial cloth, t.e.g. (extremities rubbed, spotting to upper cover). Provenance: John Hargreaves (armorial bookplate to front pastedown).

HOLLAR, Wenceslaus (engraver). – JUVENAL. Mores Hominum. The Manners of Men, Described in Sixteen Satyrs. London: R. Hodgkinson, 1660. Folio (408 x 258mm.) Additional engraved title, engraved portrait frontispiece of Robert Staplyton, the translator, 16 engraved plates, all except the portrait by Hollar, irregular pagination. (Some staining to frontispiece, toning, occasional browning, lacking last blank.) Late 18th century full calf, two morocco lettering pieces to the spine (inner hinge cracked, extremities rubbed). Note: the first complete English translation of Juvenal’s Satires- a harsh critique of Roman society of the early 2nd century. Provenance: Edward Hailstone, antiquary (armorial morocco book-plate to front pastedown); George Savile (armorial book-plate to the front pastedown).

BIBLE, In German. [Biblia Das ist: Die gantze Heilige Schrifft. Frankfurt:] 1691. Signed in 6s (359 x 228mm.) Black letter, double-column, numerous woodcut illustrations in the text, separate titles with woodcut borders and vignettes for NT and Apocrypha, dated 1691. (Title bound-in dated 1662 and first leaves from this earlier date, OT and NT and Apocrypha from 1691, numerous paper repairs, title and last text leaf laid-down, marginal damp-staining throughout, browning.) 19th century half calf (heavily rubbed).

CRESSET PRESS. – Francis BACON. The Essayes or Counsels Civill and Morall of Francis Lord Verulam Viscount St Alban. London: by the Shakespeare Head Press for the Cresset Press, 1928. Limited edition, this being number 29 of 250 copies only, folio (381 x 256mm.) Half-title, title and text printed in red and black on Batchelor’s Kelmscott paper, initials by Joscelyne Gaskin. (Light spotting to first and last leaves.) Original vellum bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, t.e.g. (slightly finger-marked). Provenance: D.D.E. Bennays, Christ’s Hospital (bookplate to front pastedown).

AFRICA. – David CLAMMER. The Last Zulu Warrior. Cape Town, London & New York: Purnell & Sons Ltd., 1977. Limited edition, this being number 970 of 1000 copies signed by David Clammer, 4to (318 x 277mm.) Numerous colour illustrations. Original faux morocco, dust-jacket, slipcase. – And a further two volumes (Ian Knight’s ‘Zulu Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift 22nd- 23rd January 1879’, limited edition being number 137 of 250 signed copies, 4to, and David Owen’s ‘Gallant and Distinguished Service, The Royal Corps of Transport Medal Collection 1794-1993’, signed by the author, 2006, 4to) (3).

MOTOR-RACING. – Stirling MOSS and Philip PORTER. Stirling Moss Scrapbook 1955. Tenbury Wells: Porter Press International, 2005. First edition, signed by Stirling Moss, oblong 4to (299 x 345mm.) Colour illustrations. Original green cloth, dust-jacket, original box. – And a further two Stirling Moss Scrapbooks, both signed (‘Scrapbook 1929-1954’, 2007, oblong 4to, and ‘Scrapbook 1956-1960’, 2009, oblong 4to) (3).

AFRICA. – John LABAND and Ian KNIGHT (editors). Archives of The Anglo-Zulu War. London: Archival Publications Ltd., 1999. 4 vols., limited edition this being number 13 of 200 projected copies, 8vo (246 x 156mm.) Illustrations, numerous facsimiles of documents. Original maroon faux leather, slipcase. Note: scarce. Only 13 sets of this edition were published. This set of four volumes was the trial edition preceding the edition published in 2000. It was published to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II meeting the Commonwealth Heads of Government in Durban, November 1999. The editor’s note describes the work as ‘a resource for researchers and those with a specialist interest in the Anglo-Zulu War. The official sources have been supplemented by contemporary official and unofficial publications that are rare and difficult to come by, thus adding to the usefulness of the Archives’. Provenance: David Payne (presentation slip loosely inserted) (4).

AFRICA. – John LABAND and Ian KNIGHT (editors). Archives of Zulu-Land. London: Archival Publications Ltd., 2000. 6 vols., 8vo (246 x 155mm.) Illustrations, numerous facsimiles of documents. Original green faux leather, slipcase (split to lower panel). Note: scarce. Contains additional material to the set published a year earlier in four volumes. The editor’s introduction describes the work as ‘a resource for researchers and those with a specialist interest in the Anglo-Zulu War. The official sources have been supplemented by contemporary official and unofficial publications that are rare and difficult to come by, thus adding to the usefulness of the Archives’ (6).

DEARMER, Mabel. The Cockyolly Bird. The Book of the Play. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1914. First edition, 4to (214 x 163mm.) 10 tipped-in colour plates. (Mild toning, minor staining to preliminaries and first leaves.) Original red pictorial cloth (inner hinge weakened). Provenance: Elizabeth Brown (pencil name to front-free endpaper). – And a further sixteen volumes (including Thomas Cross’ ‘The Autobiography of a Stage Coachman’, 2 vols., 1904, large 8vo, and Arthur Hill’s ‘The Microscopic Anatomy of the Human Body’, 2 vols. in 1, first edition, 8vo) (17).