Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

ART REFERENCE. – Mary LUTYENS and Malcolm WARNER (editors). Rainy Days at Brig O’ Turk: The Highland Sketchbooks of John Everett Millais. Kent: Dalrymple Press, 1983. Limited edition, this being out-of-series, oblong 4to (203 x 246mm.) Illustrations. Original tartan cloth, paper labels mounted to upper cover and spine. – And a further sixty-five volumes of art reference (including ‘Lucian Freud, The Self-Portraits’, 2020, 4to, and Simon Martin’s ‘Glyn Philpot: Flesh and Spirit’, 2022, 4to, and Stephen Pollington’s ‘Wayland’s Work’, 2010, 4to) (66).

NEWMAN, John Henry. An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1885. Fifth edition, 8vo (187 x 123mm.) Half-title. (Toning, scattered spotting.) Original maroon cloth (spine ends bumped). Provenance: Pembroke College, Oxford (stamp to title). – And a further fifty miscellaneous volumes (including J.M. Keynes’ ‘A Treatise on Money’, 2 vols., 1950, 8vo, and George Matthews Bennett’s ‘The Art of the Bone-setter’, [1884], 8vo, and C.G. Jung’s ‘Psychological Types’, 1946, 8vo, and C.G. Jung’s ‘Letters’, vol. 1 [only, of 2], 1973, 8vo) (51).

LAWRENCE, T.E. Seven Pillars of Wisdom. New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1935. First U.S. edition, 4to (249 x 186mm.) Numerous illustrations. (Toning.) Original grey cloth (small marks to upper cover), dust-jacket (extremities chipped, price-clipped). – And a further fifty-three volumes, mainly literary (including Kathleen Raine’s ‘Defending Ancient Springs’, 1967, 8vo, and Margaret Thomas’ ‘Two Years in Palestine & Syria’, 1900, 8vo, and Rainer Maria Rilke’s ‘Duino Elegies’, 1948, 8vo) (54).

PHILOSOPHY. – Gilbert RYLE. The Concept of Mind. London: Hutchinson & Co. Ltd., 1975. Thirteenth impression, 8vo (234 x 153mm.) (Toning, pencil annotation and underlining.) Original red boards, dust-jacket (browned to spine, marginal creasing). Provenance: C.F. Blackburn (ink name to front pastedown); Peter S.M. Davie (ink name to front endpaper). – And a quantity of approximately sixty-five volumes related to philosophy (including Werner Heisenberg’s ‘The Physicist’s Conception of Nature’, 1962, 8vo, and William J. Richardson’s ‘Heidegger, Through Phenomenology to Thought’, 1962, 8vo, and Ludwig Wittgenstein’s ‘Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus’, 1966, 8vo, and Norman Kemp Smith’s ‘The Philosophy of David Hume’, 1964, 8vo) (a quantity).

PHILOSOPHY. – F.A. HAYEK. The Counter Revolution of Science. Illinois, Glencoe: The Free Press, 1952. First edition, first impression, 8vo (209 x 141mm.) (Toning, small pencil marks to margins.) Original brown cloth (spine ends bumped). – And a quantity of approximately ninety further volumes related to philosophy (including Jacques Maritain’s ‘An Introduction to Logic’, 1946, 8vo, and Michael Oakeshott’s ‘Rationalism in Politics & Other Essays’, 1962, 8vo, and Jacques Derrida’s ‘Speech and Phenomena and Other Essays on Husserl’s Theory of Signs’, 1973, 8vo, and Martin Heidegger’s ‘The Metaphysical Foundations of Logic’, 1984, 8vo) (a quantity).

PHILOSOPHY. – Ludwig WITTGENSTEIN. The Blue and Brown Books. Preliminary Studies for the ‘Philosophical Investigations’. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1960. Second edition, 8vo (218 x 139mm.) (A few pencil marks to margins, illegible ink name to front endpaper.) Original blue cloth, dust-jacket (browning, chipping to extremities, pencil marks to lower panel). Provenance: C.J. Blackburn (pencil name to front endpaper). – And a further fifty volumes related to philosophy (including J.N. Findlay’s ‘Meinong’s Theory of Objects’, 1933, 8vo, and Gilbert Ryle’s ‘Collected Papers’, vol. 1, 1971, 8vo) (51).

PHILOSOPHY. – Edmund HUSSERL. Logical Investigations. London & New jersey: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982. 2 vols., 8vo (218 x 132mm.) (Light spotting to fore-edges.) Original brown cloth, dust-jackets. Provenance: C.J. Blackburn (ink name to front endpapers). – And a quantity of approximately seventy-three volumes related to philosophy (including Henri Bergson’s ‘Time and Free Will’, fourth edition, 1921, 8vo, and Edmund Husserl’s ‘The Phenomenology of Internal Time Consciousness’, 1964, 8vo, and Raymond Williams’ ‘Keywords’, 1976, 8vo, and Anton Baumstark’s ‘Comparative Liturgy’, 1958, 8vo) (a quantity).

MORRIS, James (later, Jan). Sultan in Oman. London: Faber and Faber, 1957. First edition, second impression, 8vo (217 x 136mm.) Photographic illustrations. (Spotting to first and last leaves.) Original red cloth, dust-jacket (loss to spine ends, closed tears, abrasions to lower panel). – And a further six volumes by the same author (including ‘Coast to Coast’, 1956, 8vo, and ‘The Market of Seleukia’, 1957, 8vo) (7).

WALLIS, Barnes Neville. – J.E. MORPURGO. Barnes Wallis, a Biography. London: Longman, 1972. Third impression, inscribed by Barnes Wallis, 8vo (213 x 136mm.) Photographic illustrations, loosely inserted funeral service programme, four hand-written letters, newspaper clipping. (Toning.) Original blue cloth, dust-jacket (fading, small tears to extremities). Note: the book is inscribed ‘To Doc, from Barnes Wallis’. The ‘Doc’ was Barnes Wallis’ doctor Neville Hiley. The letters are between Barnes Wallis and the doctor’s wife, Esmé Hiley. The 8-line hand-written letter by Barnes reads: ‘Dear Mrs Hiley, Thank you very much for the most enjoyable lunch that you gave us today. It was delightful to be with you both in your home. Only we missed seeing the dogs. And it was so very kind of Dr. Hiley to fetch us, and take us home. Many thanks to him too! Molly of course joins me! With kindest regards from us both, Yours very sincerely, Barnes Wallis’. There’s a simple ‘Happy Birthday’ note to Esmé signed by Wallis and Molly, and two letters from Barnes’ wife to Esmé reassuring her ‘that you mustn’t think Barnes isn’t enjoying himself because he isn’t very talkative’. The newspaper clipping is related to Barnes Wallis’ funeral and mentions the ‘bizarre example of his mathematical genius’ in predicting ten years in advance, the date of his own death. He was right within a month or so.

[ROHMER, Sax.] Little Tich. A Book of Travels (and wanderings). London: Greening and Co. Ltd., 1911. First edition, first impression, 8vo (184 x 122mm.) Half-title, photographic portrait frontispiece, 16 photographic illustrations on 8 plates, 2pp. advertisements to front and rear, advertisements verso covers. (Spotting to first and last leaves, thereafter scattered.) Original pictorial covers (creases to spine, small corner loss to upper cover, wear at head of spine). Note: scarce. ‘Little Tich’ [Harry Relph] was a hugely successful music-hall comedian known for his diminutive stature and for his ‘Big-Boot Dance’ for which he wore boots 71cm long. Provenance: J.W. Sewell (ink name to title, dated 1911). – And a further twenty-two volumes related to theatre (including Charles Henry Ross’ ‘Stage Whispers and Shouts Without’, [circa 1881], 8vo, and H.G. Pélissier’s ‘Potted Pélissier’, 1913, 8vo, and Harry Reynold’s ‘Minstrel Memories’, 1928, 8vo, and three copies of ‘The London Review, a Moral Pantomime’ by F.J. Harvey Darton and Albert Rutherston, 1923, 8vo) (23).

BELL, John (publisher). [Bell’s British Theatre.] London: for the Proprietors, under Direction of John Bell, British Library, Strand, 1791-1797. 30 vols. [only, of 46.] 12mo (139 x 84mm.) Engraved frontispieces and titles for each play. (Toning, occasional crease.) Contemporary black half morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, gilt sunbursts and lettering to spines (extremities rubbed). Note: a complete run of the series from volume 1 to 30 (30).

SHACKLETON, Ernest. – Samuel SMILES. Self-Help, with Illustrations of Conduct and Perseverance. London: John Murray, 1908. Inscribed by Ernest Shackleton to the initial blank, 8vo (184 x 121mm.) Photographic portrait of David Livingstone as frontispiece, portrait plates also of Horatio Nelson, Brunel, and others. (Toning, some spotting to preliminaries.) Contemporary blue full calf, red morocco lettering piece to spine, gilt insignia of Brockley Secondary School to upper cover (extremities rubbed). Note: when the Shackleton family moved from Ireland to South London in 1884, Ernest was ten years old. In 1885 he attended Fir Lodge Preparatory School in Sydenham, and then Dulwich College. The County Secondary School Brockley is not far from Fir Lodge, so it would likely have been a school known to the Shackleton family. Following the return of the British Antarctic Expedition in 1909 and the lecture tour that Shackleton undertook around the world, a visit to the local schools in South-East London might have felt like returning home.

BOTANY. – [Mary Matilda HOWARD.] Wild Flowers and Their Teachings. Bath: Binns and Goodwin, 1845. 8vo (197 x 123mm.) Half-title, 35 mounted plant and flower specimens with descriptive text, errata leaf, 4pp. publisher’s advertisements to rear. (Toning, lacking 1 specimen, some offsetting, illegible name to half-title.) Original red blind-stamped cloth, gilt decoration to covers and spine (small marks, lightly rubbed). Note: scarce.

FABIAN SOCIETY. – G.B. SHAW and William MORRIS and Oliver LODGE and Sidney WEBB, et al. Fabian Tracts. London: The Fabian Office, 1891-1909. 75 tracts (approx.), mixed editions, 8vo (210 x 133mm.) One original wrapper bound-in. Contemporary cloth (lightly rubbed). Note: approx. 75 tracts from nos. 1-147, including William Morris’ ‘Communism’, 1907, and four by G.B. Shaw, plus a reprint of no. 1. ‘Why Are the Many Poor?’, originally written by a house painter called W.L. Phillips but subsequently revised by Shaw.

PAINE, Thomas. The Rights of Man; Being an Answer to Mr. Burke’s Attack on the French Revolution. London: W.T. Sherwin, 1817. In 2 Parts, separate title for ‘Part the Second’, ink annotation verso last leaf. (A few ink marks to margins, toning, occasional ink annotation.) [Bound with:] Thomas PAINE. Common Sense, addressed to the Inhabitants of America. London: W.T. Sherwin, 1817. (Spotting to title.) [Bound with:] Thomas PAINE. The American Crisis. London: R. Carlile, 1819. (Light spotting to title.) 8vo (216 x 128mm.) Contemporary brown calf, red morocco lettering piece to the spine (lightly rubbed, newspaper cutting mounted front endpaper). Provenance: Captain Duberly (name-plate to front pastedown); A.I. Tulloch, Shetland (bookplate verso front endpaper).  - And a further two volumes (William Roscoe’s ‘Considerations on the Causes, Objects and Consequences of the Present War, and on the Expediency, or the Danger of Peace with France’, second edition, 1808, 8vo, and M.J. Miot’s ‘Narrative of the French Expedition to Egypt, and the Operations in Syria’, 1816, 8vo) (3).

HULME, Edward F. Familiar Wild Flowers. London: Cassell, Petter & Galpin, [n.d.: circa 1880.] 5 series in 5 vols., 8vo (198 x 133mm.) Numerous colour plates, tissue-guards. (Toning.) Contemporary half calf, red morocco lettering pieces to the spines (spines sunned). Provenance: Jessie Fotheringham (gift inscribed to in ink on initial blanks). – And another edition (F. Edward Hulme’s ‘Familiar Wild Flowers’, 6 Parts in 3 vols., [1900], 8vo, and Shirley Hibberd and F. Edward Hulme’s ‘Familiar Garden Flowers’, 5 Parts in 3 vols., [1900], 8vo) (11).

PRATT, Anne. The Flowering Plants, Grasses, Sedges, and Ferns of Great Britain. London: Frederick Warne and Co., [circa 1870.] 6 vols., 4to (228 x 153mm.) Numerous colour lithographed plates, 1 uncoloured plate. (Toning, light scattered spotting.) Original green cloth, gilt decorated, g.e. (wear to spine ends, extremities rubbed). Provenance: L.C. (name-plate to front pastedowns). – And a further four related volumes (John E. Sowerby’s ‘The Grasses of Great Britain’, [1861], 4to, and also Sowerby’s ‘The Ferns of Great Britain’, 1855, 4to, and Gertrude Jekyll’s ‘Old West Surrey’, 1904, 4to, and ‘Bingley’s Practical Introduction to Botany’, 1827, 12mo) (10).

OLDHAM, John. The Works of John Oldham, Together with His Remains. London: Jo. Hindmarsh, 1692. Mixed editions, 8vo (179 x 116mm.) Title, ‘Contents’ leaf, ‘Satyrs Upon the Jesuits’, with separate title dated 1685, ‘The Passion of Bybles’ with title dated 1685, ‘Poems and Translations’, dated 1684 with 6pp. ‘Advertisement’, ‘Poems and Translations’ title dated 1683, ‘Remains of John Oldham in Verse and Prose’ with separate title dated 1693. (Browning, lacking blanks.) Early 20th century brown morocco, gilt to spine (lightly rubbed). – And a further twelve miscellaneous volumes (including Henry Holden’s ‘The Analysis of Divine Faith’, [disbound], 1658, 4to, and ‘Étude Critique des Campagnes de 1800 en Italie, 1815 en Belgique, 1854-56 en Crimée, 1866 en Italie et en Allemagne et de 1870-71 en France’, 1878, 8vo, and William Maxwell’s ‘Stories of Waterloo’, 1838, 8vo, and Robert Parson’s ‘A Christian Directory, Guiding Men to Their Eternal Salvation’, 1739, 8vo, and Dr. Howell’s ‘Medulla Historiae Anglicanae. The Ancient and Present State of England. Being a Compendious History of all Its Monarchs, from the Time of Julius Caesar’, 1750, 8vo) (13).

WITTGENSTEIN, Ludwig. Philosophical Investigations. Oxford: Basil Blackwell & Mott Ltd., 1958. Second edition, 8vo (217 x 142mm.) Parallel German and English texts, translated by G.E.M. Anscombe. (Toning, a few pencil notes to rear endpaper, several pencil marks to margins, illegible name to front endpaper.) Original black cloth (extremities bumped), dust-jacket (browned to spine, chipping to spine panel). Note: the first edition was published in 1953.