Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

MANUSCRIPT. Notes Collected while attending The Artillery Depot of Instruction at Kirkee…[by]…Director of the Depot. [N.p.:] 1860-1861. 272pp., manuscript, folio (332 x 198mm.) Comprising 149pp. of text in a single legible hand, 53 full-page technical drawings of artillery, shells, 1 folding plate for a manuscript design of ‘9Pr.L.F. Carriage, B.R.P’ bound-in, approximately 30 blank leaves. (Toning, occasional light spotting.) Contemporary half calf over marbled paper-covered boards (wear at top of spine, scuffed, heavily rubbed). Note: comprises detailed instructions for officers joining the depot, and considerable technical detail on military hardware to accompany the drawings, also ‘Instructions on Pyrotechny’, the ‘Cutting and Setting of [] Fuzes’, ‘Laying Ordinances’, ‘Inspection of Ammunition’ and ‘Windage, its effect on a ‘Shots’ flight’. The barracks building in Kirkee, near Bombay (now returned to its pre-colonial name ‘Khadki’) still stands.

WEEVER, John. Ancient Funeral Monuments within the United Monarchie of Great Britain, Ireland, and the Islands adjacent, with the dissolved Monasteries therein contained. London: Thomas Harper, 1631. First edition, small folio (284 x 189mm.) Eighteen woodcut illustrations to the text. (Lacking the frontispiece and additional engraved title, marginal damp-staining to several leaves, lacking index.) Contemporary calf, later black morocco lettering piece to spine (endpapers replaced, a few scuff marks, light rubbing). Note: John Weever was an English antiquary and poet and he took an interest in tomb inscriptions from his first publication in 1599. He then spent thirty years collecting tomb inscriptions across England, Scotland, Ireland, France and Italy.

BRITAIN. – Thomas REYNOLDS. Iter Britanniarum; or that Part of the Itinerary of Antoninus which Relates to Britain, with a New Comment. Cambridge: J. Burges, 1799. 4to (288 x 219mm.) 1 folding engraved map of Roman Britian with outline hand-colouring, engraved dedication, ‘Index’. (Toning, lacking 1 map, blanks replaced.) Later green morocco-backed boards, brown morocco lettering piece (rebacked, endpapers replaced, rubbed and slightly scuffed).

CHILDREN’S BOOKS. – Jean de BRUNOFF. The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1934. First U.K edition, folio (358 x 257mm.) Preface by A.A. Milne, colour illustrations. (Toning, marginal scribbling to two leaves.) Original blue cloth-backed pictorial boards (hinges weakened, extremities rubbed, scuffing). Provenance: Margaret Buckle (pencil name and address to title). – And a further volume (Jean de Brunhoff’s ‘Babar’s Travels’, second U.K edition, 1936, folio) (2).

GLAMOUR. Men Only. London: C. Arthur Pearson, August 1956. Vol. 62, no. 248. 8vo (190 x 127mm.) Photographic illustrations. Original colours wrappers with caricature of Marilyn Monroe to upper wrapper (toned). – And a small quantity of approximately thirty glamour related booklets, souvenirs, programmes, calendars and photographs (including ‘Playboy Playmate Calendars’ for the years, 1971, 1974, 1976 and 1981 (approx. 30).

JOHNSON, Samuel.  A Dictionary of the English Language. London: J. Johnson, C. Dilly, G.G. and J. Robinson et al., 1799. 2 vols., eighth edition, 4to (279 x 118mm.) Half-titles, engraved portrait frontispiece. (Browning, scattered spotting, and to titles.) Contemporary calf, morocco lettering pieces to spines (rebacked, heavily rubbed and scuffed). – And a further eleven volumes (including ‘The Imperial Dictionary, English Technological, and Scientific’, edited by John Ogilvie, 2 vols., 1850, 4to) (13).

MOTORING. Clement Bayard. Paris: Levallois, 1914. 4to (260 x 210mm.) Photographic illustrations, text in French. (Toning, spotting to endpapers.) Original stapled printed card covers, mounted illustration to upper cover. – And a further seven motoring catalogues, most in French (including ‘Ford, The Universal Car’, 1914, oblong 4to, and ‘Carrosserie de Luxe’, [circa 1914], oblong 4to, and ‘The Austin Motor Co. Limited’, [circa 1914], oblong 4to, and ‘Automobiles Clement Bayard’, 1914, 8vo, and parts guides for Austin cars, [1928], and 1961) (8).

OMAN, John Campbell. Cults, Customs and Superstitions of India. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1908. Second edition, 8vo (224 x 146mm.) Half-title, photographic plates, errata slip. (Marginal wormholes throughout a third of text-block to rear pastedown, remains of label to front pastedown.) Original maroon cloth, pictorial gilt (fading, heavily rubbed, stained).

BURTON, Richard F. The Book of the Sword. London: Chatto and Windus, 1884. First edition, 4to (268 x 186mm.) Half-title, black and white illustrations. (Mild toning, blanks spotted, small stamp to title.) Original pictorial cloth, spine gilt (spine ends rubbed, inner hinge weakened, small marks). Provenance: Charles A. Hamond (ink name to initial blank, dated 1893); Royal United Service Institution (presentation bookplate on the front pastedown). Note: originally intended as a 3-volume work, but due to poor sales only this volume on weaponry in the Middle East and Ancient Egypt was published.

PRESENTATION COPY. – [Fanny PARKES.] Wanderings of a Pilgrim, in Search of the Picturesque, During Four-and-Twenty Years in the East; with Revelations of Life in the Zenana. London: Pelham Richardson, 1850. 2 vols., inscribed by Fanny Parkes in ink verso the front-free endpaper, large 8vo (271 x 189mm.) 50 lithographed plates, including 20 hand-coloured and a few heightened with gum arabic, also includes the folding ‘Elevation of the Himalaya Mountains’ in rear pocket. (Both frontispieces and titles detached, dedication with ‘Fanny Parks’ in later blue ink, spotting to uncoloured plates, small crease tears to the folding panorama, contents leaf with marginal chipping, occasional minor soiling.) Original blue cloth, pictorial gilt (lower cover of volume 1 detached, upper cover and spine of volume 2 detached, worn). Note: inscribed by the author ‘Colm Clarke, with the Pilgrim’s kind regards’. Fanny Parkes lived in India with her husband, Charles Crawford- a civil servant in the East India Company- for twenty-four years and she travelled extensively. She taught herself Urdu, Persian and Hindustani and this is a record of her interactions, especially in the Zenana- the private area of a household where only women were permitted. Provenance: Colm Clarke (ink inscribed to by Fanny Parkes).

KAEMPFER, Engelbert. The History of Japan, Together with a Description of the Kingdom of Siam. Glasgow: James MacLehose and Sons, 1903. 3 vols., first edition, 8vo (223 x 137mm.) Half-titles, photogravure portrait, facsimiles, plates and maps, some folding, illustrations in the text. (Spotting to first and last leaves, scattered spotting thereafter, toning.) Original red cloth, spine gilt, t.e.g. (extremities rubbed, spines faded, stain to lower cover of vol. 1). – And a further ten related volumes (including Peter Pratt’s ‘History of Japan’, 2 vols. in 1, 1972, 8vo, and James Murdoch’s ‘A History of Japan’, vol. 1 [only], 1925, 8vo, and George Sansom’s ‘A History of Japan’, 3 vols., 1964, 8vo) (13).

BURNS, Robert. Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. Edinburgh: T. Cadell and William Creech, 1794. 2 vols., new edition, 12mo (185 x 109mm.) Engraved portrait frontispiece. (Spotting to title of vol. 1, light to moderate spotting thereafter, occasional crease, blanks replaced.) 20th century brown half morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, black morocco lettering pieces to spines (endpapers replaced). Provenance: George Giddins (ink name to titles). – And a further thirteen volumes (including ‘Reliques of Robert Burns’, 1808, 8vo, and James Boswell’s ‘The Life of Samuel Johnson’, 4 vols., 1807, 8vo) (15).

HERALDRY. – John BURKE and John Bernard BURKE. A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England. London: Scott Webster and Greary, 1844. Second edition, 8vo (228 x 142mm.) Portrait frontispiece, tissue-guard, chromo-illuminated title, crest illustrations to text. (Toning, pencil marks to margins.) Contemporary red half morocco (some fading). Provenance: Theobold Blake Butler (armorial bookplate to front pastedown); Vincent Powell-Smith (armorial bookplate to front-free endpaper); Barry Maclean-Eltham (armorial bookplate verso front-free endpaper). – And a further eleven volumes related to heraldry (including J.R. Planché ‘The Pursuivant of Arms’, [1887], 8vo, and Arthur Charles Fox-Davies’ ‘Armorial Families, a Directory of Gentlemen of Coat-Armour’, 2 vols., 1929-1930, 4to) (12).

CANALS. – J. PHILLIPS. A General History of Inland Navigation, Foreign and Domestic: Containing a Complete Account of the Canals Already Executed in England, with Considerations on Those Projected. London: I. and J. Taylor, 1793. New edition, 4to (268 x 209mm.) Large engraved folding ‘Map of England Shewing the Lines of all the Navigable Canals’ with outline hand-colouring, 4 engraved plates. (Title and first quire loose, heavy spotting to plates, small crease tears to the folding map, toning.) Contemporary calf (covers detached, loss to spine panel, worn).

HUTCHINSON, William. An Excursion to the Lakes in Westmoreland and Cumberland; with a Tour Through Part of the Northern Counties, in the Years 1773 and 1774. London: J. Wilkie, 1776. First edition, 8vo (214 x 133mm.) 19 folding engraved plates, 2pp. ‘Itinerary’ to rear. (Title to B2 with marginal loss, B1 torn with repair and paper repairs to two plates, marginal tear to S3, toning.) Near contemporary marbled calf (rebacked, extremities lightly rubbed). – And a further seven volumes (‘The Speeches of the Right Honourable Richard Brinsley Sheridan. With a Sketch of His Life’, 3 vols., 1842, 8vo, and William Napier’s ‘The Life and Opinions of General Sir Charles James Napier’, 4 vols., 1857, 8vo) (8).

POETRY. – James HURDIS. Lectures Shewing the Several Sources of that Pleasure which the Human Mind Receives from Poetry. Sussex, Bishopstone: at the Author’s Own Press, 1797. First edition, 4to (258 x 208mm.) (Browning, scattered spotting.) Contemporary calf (rebacked, tips repaired, tape residue to base of spine). Note: Hurdis was Oxford Professor of Poetry from 1793 to 1801. Provenance: Worthing Public Library (bookplates to pastedowns). – And a further seven related volumes (including William Hayley’s ‘The Triumphs of Temper’, 1781, first edition, 4to, and James Hurdis’ ‘The Favourite Village’, 1800, 4to, and Thomas Wright’s ‘The Life of William Blake’, 2 vols., 1929, 4to) (8).

[DODGSON, Charles Lutwidge.] Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Oxford, Hanborough: Artists’ Choice Editions, 2009. Limited edition, this being number 131 of 348 copies signed by the artist John Vernon Lord, 4to (309 x 191mm.) Numerous colour illustrations by John Vernon Lord. (Mild toning, slight spotting to half-title.) Original blue cloth-backed pictorial boards (lightly rubbed). Provenance: from the estate of the late Raymond Briggs.

FOLIO SOCIETY (publisher). – Kazuo ISHIGURO. The Remains of the Day. London: The Folio Society, 2009. 8vo (222 x 152mm.) Illustrations by Finn Campbell-Notman. Original pictorial cloth, slipcase. – And a further two volumes published by The Folio Society (Truman Capote’s ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’, 2013, 8vo, and Joe Simpson’s ‘Touching the Void’, 2008, 8vo) (3).

DICKENS, Charles. A Christmas Carol, in Prose. London: J.M. Dent, 1905. 8vo (178 x 113mm.) Colour frontispiece, 7 colour plates. (Lacking 1 plate, browning.) Original vellum, gilt decoration, t.e.g. (dust-soiling to lower cover). Provenance: J. Coulsborough [?] (ink name to initial blank, dated 1905); Basil Readman (bookplate to front pastedown); Graham Lay (bookplate to front-free endpaper). – And a further fourteen literary or illustrated volumes (including Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’, illustrated by Lynd Ward, 1934, 8vo, and J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’, 1970, 8vo, and Herbert A. Giles’ ‘Quips from a Chinese Jest Book’, 1925, 8vo, and Charles Kingsley’s ‘The Water-Babies’, 1910, 8vo) (15).