ASH RARE BOOKS
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London : Methuen & Co., 1896. First edition. Baring-Gould’s dark and controversial novel, set in and around the Devil’s Punch Bowl at Hindhead, was initially serialised in “The Graphic” between 6th July and 28th December 1895. The highly-rated Frank Dadd (1851-1929) was commissioned to provide an illustration for each of the twenty-six instalments, but when the book itself appeared in March 1896, only twelve of these were included. The present copy is offered with fourteen of Dadd’s original dramatic ink-and-wash drawings – five of those included in the book and nine which only ever appeared in “The Graphic” . Lauded by modern publishers as “a narrative that unfolds within the picturesque yet harsh landscape of rural England. The novel masterfully explores themes of social class, the intricacies of human relationships, and the resilience of the human spirit ... a candid commentary on societal norms and personal aspirations, illuminated through the lens of provincial life ... a timeless addition to the canon of English literature” . It ran through multiple editions, but was perhaps not to everyone’s taste: “A more hateful story than ‘The Broom Squire’ was never written” (The Sketch, Wednesday 1st April 1896).
Crown 8vo (20cm). (viii),(384) + 40pp inserted advertisements dated March 1896. Twelve plates by Dadd. Original red cloth, ruled and lettered in gilt; some very minor wear; a few faint marks; a few edge spots, but a good copy. The original Dadd drawings are on boards, or mounted on boards, averaging approx. 15” x 12” (39 x 31cm), most with a paper guard bearing pencilled notes locating the illustration within the text. The blank margins of the boards show evidence of handling, masking and pinning in the course of being reproduced, but the images themselves are in very good order.

£1,250

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London : Chatto & Windus, 1933. First edition. “With ardent vehemence he makes war on war and all philistinism ... He stimulates, he provokes, he promotes argument ... and he can write (when he remembers not to fulminate) like an angel ... a love story of great tenderness and spiritual beauty ... a rich, full book, brimming with revolt against all forms of mean, material, cowardly living” (Country Life, 4th March 1933).
Demy 8vo (22cm). [viii],(496)pp. Original blue cloth, lettered in gilt; just a touch rubbed; mild tanning of endpapers; faint crease to front endpaper; some edge-spotting, but otherwise a very good, bright and sound copy in the dust-jacket – the jacket somewhat tanned and faded at spine (as ever), with some light wear and tear, and a couple of shallow chips, but complete and presentable still.

£100

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London : Chatto & Windus, 1952. First edition. “So powerful a novel that at one point it stopped me in full reading flight, back-hair bristling, ears cocked ... I felt a runnel of dread flicker down my spine ... I could not read on that night ... This is an unusual tribute to pay a book. It is wholly justified, for ‘The Tiger in the Smoke’ (which translated means Killer-at-Large in the Dowdier Parts of London) is indeed a tour-de-force. Miss Allingham’s writings over the years have established her among the élite of crime fiction writers. With this work ... she goes to the top of the class” (The Tatler, 9th July 1952). Filmed in 1956 with Donald Sinden, Muriel Pavlow, etc.
Post 8vo (21cm). (272)pp. Original red cloth, blocked and lettered in gilt; a couple of tiny marks; endpapers lightly tanned, but otherwise a very good, bright and sound copy in the vivid Youngman Carter dust-jacket – the jacket just faintly sunned, with some minor wear, very shallow chipping to extremities, a couple of very short tears, and a few slight marks to the rear panel, but still very good.

SOLD

London : Hodder & Stoughton, (1936). First edition. His uncommon first novel – gripping from the very first page (which concludes with a footnote invoking the Official Secrets Act). “A new writer of international spy stories has arrived ... The central character is Professor Henry Barstow, a highly strung savant ... Following a motoring accident, he takes on the identity of the colourful hero of the thriller he had previously picked up. Then, posing as his real self, he calmly accompanies the unscrupulous representative of a big armament firm to a Continental country, ostensibly with object of helping to acquire information about an atomic bomb ... an ingenious story, cleverly written, and cloaked with such verisimilitude that it does not appear to be far-fetched. More will be heard of Eric Ambler” (Mid Sussex Times, 17th November 1936).
Crown 8vo (182 x 115mm). 320pp. Bound in a smart recent half calf, lettered in gilt; raised bands; earlier cloth backstrip preserved at rear; slight tanning to the two outer leaves, but otherwise a very good copy of a scarce book.

£850

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London : Hodder & Stoughton, (1949). First edition. The second of the Jane and Dagobert series – offered a job in Detroit by an aunt, Dagobert decides to travel there from New York by way of New Mexico, intending to look up the peerless Miranda Ross, his pet subject of wartime reminiscence. She is murdered almost immediately and all the pair’s powers of detection are brought into play. “Another crime story with a difference ... There is neither a dull page nor a stodgy character” (Evening Herald, 2nd July 1949).
Crown 8vo (20cm). 253,[iii]pp. Original red cloth, ruled and lettered in black; mild tanning of endpapers, but otherwise a very good, bright, clean and sound copy in the Nicolson dust-jacket – the jacket with a few slight nicks and one neatly repaired and unobtrusive tear, but also clean and bright. Contemporary ownership inscription of N. Jeffs of Toronto on front pastedown, largely obscured by the flap of the jacket.

SOLD

London : Secker & Warburg, (1989). First edition. Inscribed and signed on the title-page by John Banville. The confession of a cultured murderer – “A remarkable blend of thriller, farce and dramatic tragedy that stands out, quite clearly, as a work of genius” (publisher’s blurb) – “An astonishing, disturbing little novel that might have been coughed up from hell” (New York Times Book Review).
Demy 8vo (23cm). [iv],(220)pp, Original brown boards, lettered in gilt; text a little tanned, as usual, with a sprinkling of spots, but otherwise a very good copy in the Peter Dyer dust-jacket – also very good.

£100

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London : White Owl Press, 1932. First edition : one of 100 copies (of 130) numbered and signed by H. E. Bates. Two short stories, the first set in a London restaurant. “It might be rather extravagant to say of a writer that anything published over his name was worth reading, but it would not be much of an exaggeration to say this of Mr. H. E. Bates ... These two short stories are excellent examples ... The Story Without an End is the longer of the two, and describes the sudden flowering of an inhibited soul ... In The Country Doctor we are given another fine psychological study ... in its own quiet way it approaches very closely to perfection” (The Scotsman, 16th January 1933).
Demy 8vo (23cm). [vi],(52),[vi]pp. Striking art deco frontispiece. Original ochre bevelled buckram, lettered in gilt; top edge gilt; merest hint of tanning to endleaves; light offsetting of frontispiece to title-page, but a very good copy indeed – bright and sound.

£200

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London : Faber & Faber, (1964). First edition. Beckett’s one-act play, first performed in English at the Old Vic in April 1964, with Robert Stephens, Rosemary Harris and Billie Whitelaw. For Harold Hobson of the Sunday Times, it established Beckett as “a sombre and profound poet ... By associations, by ceremonies, by the stirring of beliefs he has abandoned but not forgotten, he suggests, he creates, he establishes, he fulfils” . Filmed in 2000 by Anthony Minghella, with Alan Rickman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Juliet Stevenson. The short pieces for radio are “Words and Music” , broadcast by the BBC in 1962 with Patrick Magee, and “Cascando” , broadcast on Radio 3 in 1964, again with Patrick Magee.
Post 8vo (21cm). 48pp. Original red canvas, ruled and lettered in gilt; a very good, bright and sound copy in the photographic dust-jacket – the jacket just lightly used, with a slight crease to the rear panel, but also very good. From the library of the poet Gavin Ewart (1916-1995), with his dated (March 1964) ownership inscription.

SOLD

London : John Miles, 1936. First edition. An extraordinary evocation of inter-war London – the buzzing street markets described and pictured with stunning photographs by László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946), the Hungarian master. Petticoat Lane, Leather Lane, Farringdon Street, Strutton Ground, Brixton, North End Road, Choumert Road, Berwick Market, New Cut, Lewisham, Lavender Hill, Rye Lane, Battersea, Hammersmith, Shepherd’s Bush, Club Row, Hildreth Street, East Street, Portobello, Hoxton Street, Chiswick, Ridley Road, Kingston-on-Thames, Caledonian Market, Warwick Street and more, with additional chapters on junk merchants, silver kings, and antique dealers, and photographs too of Billingsgate and Covent Garden.
Demy 8vo (23cm). (xii),(202),[ii]pp. Sixty-four photogravure plates. Original cream canvas, lettered in red; a few slight marks; a touch bruised; a little shaken, but a good copy. Small bookseller’s label of T. W. Griggs & Co. of Durban at rear.

£125

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London : Hamish Hamilton, (1982). First edition. His third novel – “It is far too hot for sustained fighting ... we will all melt like ice-cream in the sun” . Evelyn Waugh meets John Buchan as eccentric settlers take up arms in the East African Campaign of the First World War.
Demy 8vo (23cm). [xii],370,[ii]pp. Map. Original blue boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; a faint hint of bruising; a couple of edge spots, but overall a very good copy in the Paul Webb dust-jacket – also very good.

£100

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London : Thomas Nelson & Sons, (1910). First edition. Buchan in South Africa with a Haggardesque tale of uprising, myth, fabulous necklace, etc. “A very perfect gift for a youth of spirit – brimful of excitement and wonders, and with a hero who does everything that doth become a man!” (The Globe, 21st September 1910).
Crown 8vo (180 x 116mm). vi,(376),viii pp. Frontispiece map. Bound in an attractive recent half green morocco, banded and gilt; original cloth backstrip preserved at rear; a very good and clean copy. Attached to the verso of the front free endpaper is a contemporary prize label of the North Merchiston Continuation Classes – made out to James B. Campbell for general excellence. Blanchard A21.

£400

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London : William Heinemann, 1896. First British edition. His first book, “regarded as the first work of unalloyed naturalism in American fiction” (Milne Holton) and immediately inviting comparison in Europe with Hardy, Zola and Arthur Morrison’s “Tales of Mean Streets”. Originally published under a pseudonym at Crane’s own expense in 1893, and not issued under his own name until after the success of “The Red Badge of Courage” on both sides of the Atlantic. The British edition has a telling introduction by William Dean Howells (1837-1920) – “the girl herself, with her bewildered wish to be right and good, with her distorted perspective, her clinging and generous affections, her hopeless environments”.
Foolscap 8vo (17cm). (viii),(148),4pp. Original decorative navy buckram gilt; top edge gilt; endpapers a little tanned; a touch shaken; a few minor marks and spots, but overall a very good copy. With the dated (October 1896) ownership inscription and armorial bookplate of Walter Wren (1833-1898), briefly a radical Member of Parliament and later a member of the first London County Council.

£125

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London : Chapman & Hall, 1840-1841. First edition, in book form, bound from the original parts, of both “The Old Curiosity Shop” and “Barnaby Rudge” . The book was never reprinted in this form, and even unsold copies were cannibalised (within weeks of issue) to make separate books of the two titles we know today. “I am conscious that my pen winces a little even while I write these words. But it was done, and wisely done; and ‘Master Humphrey’s Clock’, as originally constructed, became one of the lost books of the earth, – which, we all know, are far more precious than any that can be read for love or money” (Charles Dickens, in 1848). A specimen wrapper from both the weekly and monthly issue of the parts is preserved at the rear of each volume.
Three volumes, bound in two. Royal 8vo (252 x 164mm). [2],iv,306; vi,306; vi,426pp. Frontispieces and illustrations by George Cattermole, Hablot Knight Browne (“Phiz”), etc. Bound in an elegant mid-Victorian half tan polished calf, banded and gilt; marbled sides and edges; very faintly rubbed; a few very minor signs of age and use; rear hinge of the thicker volume with neat internal reinforcement; a very good, crisp and handsome set.

£750

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London : For the Author, by Bradbury & Evans, 1846. First edition : in the variant binding of horizontal fine-ribbed dark blue cloth. Dickens in Genoa and elsewhere, with charming illustrations by Samuel Palmer (1805-1881). “Italy is not his ground; travels and grave essays on men and manners are not his vocation ... His extraordinary regard for capital letters at certain times and in certain places is unaccountable and foolish; his punctuation would disgrace a schoolboy ... Carry your undoubted genius to subjects that are worthy of it” (Monthly Times, 8th June 1846). The few minor differences between copies noted by Walter E. Smith do not constitute issue points.
Foolscap 8vo. [viii],(270),[ii]pp. Illustrations. Original blue cloth, ruled and blocked in blind on covers and spine, lettered across spine gilt; pale yellow endpapers; some minor signs of age and use – a touch of bruising; some slight wear; endpapers slightly cracked; a few faint marks and spots; a touch shaken – but a good copy.

£250

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London : R. & J. Dodsley, 1761. First edition. An encyclopaedic guide to London – the first to take in the whole of the Greater London area, with “numberless curiosities, not hitherto taken notice of by any other writers”. The entries, some running to multiple pages, are arranged alphabetically – from the Abbey Church of St. Peter’s Westminster, Abbots Langley, Abbs Court at Walton, and Abchurch Lane, to Young’s Almshouse, Young’s Court, Young’s Key, and Zoar Street. The text may well have been compiled by the publisher Robert Dodsley himself, having handed over the day-to-day running of the publishing business to his brother James in 1759. It includes unusual detail of the paintings and sculpture found in the many grand houses of the capital. The work is illustrated with seventy-six delightful plates, some bearing two images, almost all from original drawings commissioned from Samuel Wale (1721-1786), first Professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy, and “engraved by the best hands”. There are also two large folding maps and three plans – the maps offering a detailed plan of the built-up area of central London at six inches to the mile, and a very attractive hand-coloured depiction of “The Environs or Countries Twenty Miles Round London” by the well-known Thomas Kitchin (1719-1784). “The quality and number of the illustrations make this an unsurpassed guide to the appearance of mid-eighteenth century London” (Bernard Adams).
Six volumes. Post 8vo (200 x 120mm). [xii],344; [iv],352; [iv],328; [iv],(356); [iv],348; [iv],376pp. Engraved plates, maps and plans, some folding. Contemporary calf, now elegantly re-backed and re-labelled to style; some minor marks and light wear; some occasional internal spotting and offsetting; a few internal tears and small flaws, but a good set of a highly valuable contribution to London history.

£750

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London : Faber & Faber, 1960. First edition. The fourth and the final instalment of the Alexandria Quartet – Darley returns to an Alexandria at war. “The series ... can now be seen as a whole. And it can be seen to be an outstanding work of contemporary English fiction” (Nottingham Guardian, 11th February 1960).
Demy 8vo (21cm). (288)pp. Original tangerine cloth, blocked in green and lettered in gilt; edges spotted; mild spotting to front free endpaper, but otherwise a very good copy in the dust-jacket – the jacket just a touch sunned, and with a couple of minuscule nicks, but also very good.

£100

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London : Hutchinson, (1998). First edition. Signed by Sebastian Faulks on the title-page. “It would take a mile-long essay to do justice to the many virtues of Sebastian Faulks’ wonderful new novel. This riveting account of a young Scotswoman’s odyssey through wartime London, and on into a perilous secret mission in Vichy France, deserves the highest praise ... Proustian cogitations, masterful narrative, and zestful pen portraits. A beautiful, near-masterpiece” (Independent on Sunday). Filmed with Cate Blanchett, etc., in 2001.
Medium 8vo (25cm). [vi],393,[i]pp. Original blue boards, lettered in gilt; a very good copy in the David Oliver dust-jacket – the jacket also very good.

£100

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London : Williams & Norgate, 1927. First edition. “To obey God’s orders as delivered by conscience – that is duty; to obey man’s orders as issued by rightful authority – that is discipline. The foundation of both alike is denial of self for a higher good” . Inspirational examples of both addressed to “the youth of England” from the lesser-known annals of army history – St. Lucia 1778; Robert Rollo Gillespie; Sir Harry Burrard and Sir John Moore; Sir Harry Smith; the Burmese Expedition 1824-1826; Lord Raglan, and several more.
Crown 8vo (177 x 115mm). (xviii),284pp. Four portrait plates. Folding map. Bound for the Terra Nova School of Birkdale in a fine contemporary full tree calf prize binding, banded and richly gilt; red label; marbled endpapers and edges; a few trifling signs of age, but a very good copy. Presentation label dated July 1928 on front pastedown made out to J. V. Hansford – John Vernon Hansford (1915-1999).

£125

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London : The Bodley Head, (1988). First British edition. Signed by Alan Furst on the title-page. The first in his extraordinary sequence of espionage novels, here opening in Bulgaria in 1934 and set over the following decade across Europe and beyond – “It is not the plots of his novels that set Furst above the competitors in his genre; it is a combination of the beautifully oblique writing and way in which he can produced a charged atmosphere with just a few sentences ... How I envy anybody who has not yet discovered his writing” (Toby Clements, Daily Telegraph). First published in Boston earlier in 1988.
Medium 8vo (25cm). [vi],(438),[iv]pp. Original black boards, blocked and lettered in silver; just a hint of bruising; just a touch of tanning (as ever) to the text, but a very good copy in the Kurt Hoyt dust-jacket – the jacket also very good.

£200

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London : Victor Gollancz, (2000). First edition : precedes the Random House New York edition. Signed and inscribed with “best wishes” by Alan Furst on the title-page. “In my estimation Kingdom of Shadows is a masterpiece. Furst is here writing at the height of his powers, confident of his style, tone and content. And his evocation of that dark time of the soul, before and during the Second World War, reverberates in the mind just as that famous Beethoven symphony call-sign echoed in the airwaves over Europe all those years ago” (Vincent Banville, Irish Times).
Medium 8vo (25cm). [viii],274,[vi]pp. Double-page map. Original black boards, lettered in silver; a very good copy in the James Walker dust-jacket – also very good.

£125

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London : Macdonald & Co. (Publishers), (1952). First edition. A handsome presentation copy, inscribed “most gratefully” and signed by the author (under his real name) to John Foster White (1921-1997), the editor of the book. The printed acknowledgements expand further – “I must express my gratitude to Mr. John Foster White for the unflagging interest he has taken ... the helpful suggestions he has made and the tireless energy he has shown in collecting the photographs” . Our attribution of authorship to Goldring has been disputed, but White was in no doubt and nor is the catalogue of the Goldring archive at the University of Victoria. “A well-written non-technical survey by one who loves buildings and can express delight in them. It is illustrated with well chosen photographs of such places as Brighton, Bath, Bristol, Cheltenham, Newcastle, Blandford, Farnham, Ramsgate, and many towns with unsuspected Georgian beauty” (John Betjeman).
Demy 8vo (23cm). (244)pp. Over 100 photographs. Original cloth; a very good copy in the original Roy Sanford dust-jacket – the jacket lightly worn, a touch dulled and a little marked, but overall also very good.

£200

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London : William Heinemann, (1929). First edition. His first novel – a tale of smuggling and betrayal set on the south coast, with a trial at Lewes Assizes. “Mr. Greene’s exciting, considered and often beautiful story is a story of conscience. It is a most attractive mixture of modernity and of something ageless ... a most startling exposition of the truth that until men find their consciences and are cowards there is no opportunity for the exercise of true courage” (Daily News, 2nd July 1929).
Crown 8vo (20cm). [xii],354,[ii]pp. Original black cloth, ruled and lettered in gilt; blocked in blind on rear cover; a touch bruised; some faint marking to covers, with a slight cloth crease and a tiny split to the rear one; some spotting of edges, but a very good and presentable copy.

SOLD

London : for the Proprietors, by William Clarke; J. Murray; S. Bagster [and others], 1815-1818. First edition. A charming compilation, originally published in monthly parts, bringing images and descriptions of out of the way architecture and antiquities throughout England, Wales and Scotland. The images, many of them the earliest known of the various towns, buildings and architectural features, were supplied by an array of local and travelling artists, including principally John Hassell, George Arnald, Frederick Wilton Litchfield Stockdale, Luke Clennell and William Deeble – the plates engraved by Greig himself, some from his own designs, as well as Thomas Higham, Edward John Roberts, William Wallis, John Charles Varrall, Deeble himself and numerous others. Although generally ascribed to Greig’s former partner, the artist and engraver James Sargant Storer, Storer was by now working with his son on other projects – his name appears nowhere in the credits and the work would appear undoubtedly to be Greig’s, he himself engraving around one third of the plates. The engraved plates are supplemented by hundreds of anonymous but exquisitely worked head and tailpieces giving further detail.
Seven volumes. Foolscap 8vo (157 x 99mm). 336 engraved plates. Head and tailpieces. Bound in a stylish nineteenth-century half tan calf, banded and richly gilt; burgundy labels; marbled sides; sprinkled edges; some minor rubbing; a few faint signs of age and use; some browning and spotting, but a very pretty set. Ownership inscription of J. Atkins in each volume.

SOLD

London : Modern Fiction (London), [ca.1951]. First edition. “Meet again that crashing, smashing heel Kinsey Target ... there’s plenty laughs, tho there’s plenty killings”. The sequel to “Brooklyn Moll Shoots a Bedmate”. Chapter titles include “Female Spideress has me Clutched”, “Some Fast Moll in Red”, and “Do I Stink like a Polecat?” The “Griff” house-name was used by at least half a dozen authors, including Frank Dubrez Fawcett, William Simpson Newton, Ernest Lionel McKeag, John Russell Fearn, etc. The further Modern Fiction titles listed on the rear wrapper can all be dated to 1949-1951. Printed by Craig Mitchell & Co. of 525 Liverpool Road, Holloway.
Crown 8vo (18cm). 128pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers – brunette, cigarette, glass and sparkle; some wear and tear; staples rusting; occasional mild spotting, but a good, solid copy of a particularly scarce title, not listed by Hubin. No copy located in any major library worldwide.

SOLD

London : Faber & Faber, (1969). First edition. His second full-length collection of poems – thirty-four poems, including “Night-Piece” , “The Outlaw” , “The Forge” , “Girls Bathing, Galway 1965” , “Whinlands” , and all seven poems of the “Lough Neagh Sequence” . “Mr. Heaney combines a vividness of sense impressions with brain-work” (Belfast News-Letter, 20th June 1969).
Demy 8vo (23cm). 56pp. Original black cloth, ruled and lettered in gilt; a few faint marks, but still a very good and bright copy in the dust-jacket – the jacket very slightly bruised at one corner, with a couple of minuscule nicks and some spotting to the flaps, but otherwise also very good.

£400

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London : W. Collins Sons & Co., (1917). First edition : one of just 2,000 copies. James mauling the plutocrats and laissez-faire capitalism – a novel unfinished at the time of his death, but here concluded with his extensive working notes, as well a perceptive preface by Percy Lubbock. “Nearer than anything else we possess to a living image of the creative process itself” (Manchester Guardian).
Post 8vo (21cm). (viii),(348)pp. Photogravure portrait frontispiece by Emil Otto Hoppé (1878-1972). Original blue cloth, lettered in gilt; spine a touch darkened; minor wear at tips; a few slight marks; mild tanning of endpapers; some spotting, mainly of edges, but still a good copy.

£100

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London : Strahan & Co., 1872. A striking binding design, clearly stamped “second edition” diagonally across the spines, although the contents are equally clearly the first edition sheets – even the errata leaf is unchanged. The only alteration would appear to be that the final contents page in the first volume is now numbered “iii” (wrongly). Presumably the binding was doctored by the publishers to boost flagging sales after some fairly strenuous advance publicity, although I am unable to recall ever having seen a comparable example of this kind of reissue, with a fresh and false edition statement on the binding. Having been trailed in the press since October, the book was published 13th December 1871 (although dated for the following year). This “second edition” was announced as early as 16th January 1872 – just a day after the British Museum received its copyright copy in the unaltered binding. The anonymous author of this fascinating novel was himself to become a radical M.P. in 1874. The tale of a radicalised heir to an earldom, as well as London squares, Scottish moors, and Midland mines – “A very clever, and occasionally rather malicious, satire on the politics and the politicians of our time. Yet in the main the author’s arrows are launched fairly and hit the right mark” – Prigs and Whigs, Fogies and Tories, outspoken young women, the Radish Club, a “rank communist” , religion and radicalism – “many happy passages ... many brilliant epigrams ... It would not be difficult to find the originals of most of the characters in this tale” (Sun & Central Press, 27th December 1871).
Two volumes. Crown 8vo (20cm). iii [but viii],[2],(204); vi,230pp. Original pebble-grain tan cloth, lettered in gilt and ruled diagonally in black; some very minor wear; a few slight spots; just a touch shaken, but otherwise a very good set. Loosely inserted are some interesting biographical notes on the author, etc.

£200

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London : for Thomas Tegg; W. Allason; J. Blacklock, etc., 1813. “A new edition, corrected and revised, with considerable additions” . An attractive and updated version of the abridged version of Johnson, first published in 1756. With a preliminary essay on “The Grammar of the English Tongue” . The classic dictionary, remarkable now for the number of useful words seemingly no longer in use. Futurely we need to fustigate the fustilarians.
Demy 8vo (216 x 127mm). (26),(910)pp. Portrait frontispiece of Johnson, engraved by Samuel Freeman after Francesco Bartolozzi. Preliminary leaves complete, but mis-bound out of order. Bound in a near contemporary stylish tree calf, now expertly re-backed, repaired and re-labelled; a few minor marks and small flaws, but still overall a very good copy.

£200

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New York : Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1951. First edition. His first and most famous novel, based on his own army experiences in the months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, which he witnessed. An immediate success, winner of the National Book Award, always included in lists of the major novels of the twentieth century, and the basis of the memorable and multiple Oscar-winning 1953 film, with Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Montgomery Clift, Frank Sinatra, etc.
Demy 8vo (207 x 136mm). [xii],(862)pp. Bound in an elegant recent half black morocco, by Bayntun-Riviere; top edge gilt; marbled sides and endleaves; very faint crease to the final leaves, but otherwise an excellent copy, clean and sound.

£500

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London : Oxford University Press, 1975. First edition of this authoritative Oxford Standard Authors text, edited and introduced by Professor Ian Donaldson. Includes the Epigrams, The Forest, The Underwood, Ungathered Verse, Songs and Poems from the Plays and Masques, Leges Convivales, Dubia, etc.
Post 8vo (198 x 129mm). xxii,410pp. Facsimiles. Bound in an elegant contemporary quarter brown morocco, banded and gilt; marbled sides; very good.

£100

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London : for J. Pemberton ... and sold by R. Tookey, 1716. First edition. An attractive, valuable and extensively illustrated guide to the topic, with a clear statement of the rules, “the full achievement of each degree from an Esquire to the King” , and some 1,200 examples of family coats of arms. In a particularly pleasing touch, the list of subscribers also includes the arms of all those who have submitted them.
Crown 8vo (180 x 106mm). [2],xliv,[180],[viii]pp. Woodcut illustrations throughout. Bound in a pleasant later half green roan, banded and gilt; red label; all edges red; marbled endpapers; some rubbing and wear; tiny splits at head; a little strained at hinges; cropped a little tight at head of text, with some mild damp-staining and some softening in that area, with minor wear and slight flaws, but a good and serviceable copy. A few neat manuscript corrections to the text, and the ownership inscription of A. J. Becke, with the bookplate of the architect Walter St. Leger Crowley (1879-1974) on each endpaper, and the earlier small bookseller’s label of George Dunningham Smith Kirshaw (1841-1893) of Worthing.

£200

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London : Weidenfeld & Nicolson, (1998). First edition. Signed by John Lawton on the title-page. The scarce third novel in the much-admired Frederick Troy series – it is 1963 – a defection, a ministerial resignation, an overdose and a suicide – all echoes of the very real events surrounding Kim Philby, the Profumo Affair and Stephen Ward – an “unputdownable narrative of spying, sexual intrigue, political scandal and murder ... a haunting novel, transcending the bounds of genre fiction” (A. N. Wilson in the Daily Telegraph).
Royal 8vo (25cm). [viii],440pp. Original black boards, lettered in silver; an excellent copy, bright, clean and sound, in an equally fine dust-jacket.

£100

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Boston : Little, Brown & Co., 1866. Limited to 100 numbered copies. The first nineteenth-century and only the third collected edition of Marvell, improving on the error-strewn editions of 1726 and 1776. Poems (some in Latin, one in Greek), satires, songs, etc. The introductory life of the poet (“the best in print”) is taken from an 1844 article in the “Edinburgh Review” attributed to Henry Rogers (1806-1877). First published in this form in Boston in 1857 and not published in London until 1870.
Post 8vo (194 x 122mm). (liv),(336)pp. Title-page in red and black. Engraved portrait frontispiece. Bound, without half-title, in a stylish contemporary half purple-black roan, banded and gilt; top edge gilt; marbled sides and endpapers; some light rubbing and minor wear; outer leaves lightly tanned; very faint spotting to fore-edge, but overall a very good copy. With the armorial bookplate of the American architect and designer Edward Francis Searles (1841-1920).

£250

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London : Michael Joseph, (1961). First edition. A review copy, with the publisher’s slip loosely inserted – and from the library of the crime writer, reviewer and broadcaster “Anthony Lejeune” (1928-2018). Dame Beatrice is called on by a school-mistress friend to extricate her from the possibility of an attempted murder charge – and then there’s a corpse – “a combination of murder, archaeology and games mistresses” (Illustrated London News, 2nd September 1961).
Crown 8vo (20cm). (240)pp. Original black boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; a few edge spots; endpapers slightly tanned, but a very good copy in the Kenneth Farnhill dust-jacket – the jacket just lightly used and a little tanned on rear panel, but also very good.

SOLD

London : Macmillan & Co., 1936. First edition : the limited issue of 210 signed copies, bound in full morocco. “The pilgrimage of a poet through the world, finely conceived and admirably written” (Time & Tide, 11th April 1936). “A new novel by Charles Morgan has become one of the major events in the immense world of fiction, and a heartening event it is, for, unlike so many novelists, he has always something to say that matters ... the carefully constructed theme must be carefully and slowly read, for every sentence means something, and the understanding reader finds as much joy in reading it, as Mr. Morgan has found in writing it ... as the ‘heroine’ said to Sparkenbroke: ‘It is you, telling it, I remember, not what you told’” (Newcastle Evening Chronicle, 6th April 1936).
Demy 8vo (23cm). [2],(x),(554)pp. Original full russet morocco, banded and gilt; all edges gilt; marbled endpapers; a few very faint marks and indications of age and use; some spotting to free endpapers, but a very good copy.

£200

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London : Jonathan Cape, (1932). First edition. “The thriller of the week – and probably the season – is Liam O’Flaherty’s The Puritan ... in which a man kills a woman in the cause of virtue ... A common plot? Yes, but you’ve never come across anything like Mr. O’Flaherty’s variation, outside the pages of Dostoievsky. It floods along to its terrible end like a dark swirl of water, and you race with it, helpless as a straw” (Daily Herald, 4th February 1932).
Post 8vo (21cm). 326,[ii],[2]pp. Original orange-red cloth, blocked and lettered in green; blocked in blind on rear cover; some faint spots, mainly to edges, but otherwise a very good copy in the striking dust-jacket by Theyre Lee-Elliott (1903-1988) – the jacket faintly tanned at spine, with a couple of faint marks and some mild wear at tips, but also very good.

£200

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London : Anthony Blond / Blond & Briggs, (1964-1976). A complete first edition set of all ten volumes of Raven’s celebrated Alms for Oblivion sequence – “a series of ten novels to cover the English upper middle class scene since the war ... If there is one theme which will dominate the series, it is that human effort and goodwill are persistently vulnerable to the malice of time, chance and the rest of the human race”. Comprises The Rich Pay Late (1964); Friends in Low Places (1965); The Sabre Squadron (1966); Fielding Gray (1967); The Judas Boy (1968); Places Where They Sing (1970); Sound the Retreat (1971); Come Like Shadows (1972); Bring Forth the Body (1974), and The Survivors (1976).
Ten volumes. Post 8vo (21cm). Original boards; the occasional slight mark or spot, but overall a very good set in the dust-jackets – the first seven in the delightful designs of Oliver Elmes (1934-2011), the final three – corresponding with the change of imprint to Blond & Briggs and presumably in a misguided attempt to refresh the brand and address flagging sales with a more consciously ‘modern’ design – a silver affair by Bob Smithers. The jackets, bar a touch of fading and some very minor evidence of age and use, with some inevitable light wear to the silver ones, are also very good, albeit the fourth is price-clipped; the eighth has a slight nick; the ninth some creasing to the inner flaps, and the last has been price-clipped by the publisher and with a revised price over-sticker.

SOLD

London : Blond & Briggs / Anthony Blond / Muller, Blond & White / Frederick Muller / Hutchinson, (1984-1992). A complete first edition set of all seven volumes – Morning Star (1984); The Face of the Waters (1985); Before the Cock Crow (1986); New Seed for Old (1988); Blood of My Bone (1989); In the Image of God (1990); and The Troubadour (1992). “Perhaps it’s time that Raven’s books got a Government health warning” (Daily Mail).
Seven volumes. Demy 8vo (23cm). Original boards; text slightly tanned, as usual, in the first and two final volumes, but otherwise a very good set in the original dust-jackets – the first three by Lawrence Toynbee (1922-2002) – the jackets a little sunned at spine, but unclipped and otherwise also very good. Neat ownership inscription of Martin Cohen in each volume.

£250

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London : Architectural Press, (1946). First edition. “Ewbank’d inside and Atco’d out, the English suburban residence and the garden which is an integral part of it stand trim and lovingly cared for in the mild sunshine” – Richards’ faultless homage to suburbia, written while he was serving overseas. If not regarded as a minor classic, then it should be. Illustrated with memorable two-colour lithographs by John Piper (1903-1992).
Demy 8vo (22cm). 86pp. Eight plates. Original brown cloth, lettered in gilt; some mild spotting to edges and endpapers, but otherwise a very good, bright, and sound copy in the Piper dust-jacket – the jacket a touch sunned, with some minor wear, a couple of tiny nicks and chips, a few spots and some mild discolouration to the back panel – but a complete and welcome survival.

£100

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[London] : Michael Joseph (Penguin Random House), (2017). First edition. Signed by Matthew Richardson on the title-page. “I know a secret. A secret that changes everything”. A sparkling debut from Richardson – “a bang-up-to-date thriller told with old-school panache” (Mick Herron); “I dare you to find a first novel as self-assured, impeccably researched and beautifully rendered ... a portrait of espionage that calls to mind early Le Carré” (Gregg Hurwitz).
Medium 8vo (25cm). [vi],(326),[ii]pp. Original black boards, lettered in gilt; a fine copy in the Silas Manhood dust-jacket.

£200

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London : Hamish Hamilton, (1964). First edition. “The greatest play of our generation ... I do not think the English stage has been so graced, nor English audiences so privileged, since Shaw was in his heyday half a century ago” (Bernard Levin). The first world premiere staged by the new National Theatre, originally produced at Chichester – with Colin Blakeley, Michael Gambon, Derek Jacobi, etc.
Crown 8vo (20cm). xii,84pp. Original brown boards, ruled, blocked and lettered in silver; top edge faintly spotted, but a very good copy in the original dust-jacket – a Brian Seed photograph of the original production, lettered in red, white and black – just lightly used, with a few faint marks, and a couple of spots to the rear flap, but also very good.

SOLD

London : Victor Gollancz, 1971. First British and first hardback edition. Inscribed and signed by Belfast-born Bob Shaw on the title-page. “A tale of intrigue and double dealings ... a new drug that produces immortality. There is already a drug, but it has the side effect that it makes men impotent: the new one does not ... when it is offered to the manufacturer’s cost accountant for trial, someone starts trying to kill him. This fast, hard-hitting story is the best so far from this author” (James Clayton in the Birmingham Daily Post, 12th June 1971). First published in paperback in New York the previous year.
Post 8vo (21cm). (160)pp. Original maroon boards, lettered in gilt; small mark on lower edge, but otherwise a very good copy indeed — clean, bright and sound in the dust-jacket — the jacket with two faint and tiny creases, and with a very small mark on the rear flap, but also very good, fresh, bright and unworn.

SOLD

London : William Heinemann, (1949). First British edition. “I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. That is, my feet are in it; the rest of me is on the draining-board” – the travails of Cassandra Mortmain. Her first novel – an eccentric classic brought to an even wider audience by the 2003 film with Bill Nighy, Romola Garai, Rose Byrne, etc.
Crown 8vo (185 x 122mm). [iv],338pp. Illustrations by Ruth Steed (from sketches by the author). Bound in a smart recent half blue morocco, banded and gilt; red label; marbled sides; top edge red; some spotting to edges, but otherwise a very good copy in an elegant binding.

£500

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London : John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1896 [i.e. 1895]. The first illustrated edition of a perennial favourite – the collection of sixty or more children’s poems by Stevenson first published ten years earlier – “The Land of Counterpane”, “The Land of Nod”, “My Bed is a Boat”, “The Land of Story-Books”, etc. Illustrated throughout by Charles Robinson (1870-1937) – “Just as ‘A Child’s Garden of Verses’ is the best of its kind – you are certain it will live as long ... as the presence of little ones brightens the earth – so Charles Robinson’s illustrations are the best of their kind ... John Lane’s exquisite volume is a treasure” (contemporary review in Black & White).
Post 8vo (21cm). xiv,(140),[iv],16pp – the advertisements dated 1895. Cover design and illustrations throughout by Robinson. Original pictorial cloth gilt; top edge gilt; a few slight marks; a couple of faint splashes to upper cover; a few spots, chiefly to the endpapers, but a very good, bright and sound copy. Dated (1900) gift inscription to Mary Robinson from her brother Cecil on front free endpaper.

£200

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London : Rupert Hart-Davis, 1961. First edition. “The tone, the subject, the attitude are unmistakeable ... they cannot be mistaken for the voice of any other poet – a rare quality at any period – is not the least of the reasons why Mr. Thomas is widely considered one of the finest poets writing in English at the moment ... its 36 granite-hard poems, their images shining like Penrhyn slate after rain, confirm Mr. Thomas as a minor poet of classic status” (Birmingham Daily Post, 19th September 1961).
Post 8vo (22cm). 48pp. Original boards; a very good copy in the matching dust-jacket – the jacket also very good, with the Poetry Book Society Choice wrap-around band.

£100

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London : Hurst & Blackett, 1865. First edition. “This book deals not so much with the London of the ghost-stories ... as with the London consecrated by manifold traditions – a city every street and alley of which teems with interesting associations, every paving-stone of which marks, as it were, the abiding-place of some ancient legend or biographical story; in short this London of the present haunted by the memories of the past”. With separate chapters on Charing Cross, Drury Lane, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, Long Acre, St. Giles, St. Martin’s Lane, the Savoy, Somerset House, the Strand, Temple Bar, etc., and a fund of out-of-the-way anecdote of Londoners past.
Demy 8vo (212 x 134mm). (xvi),(518),[ii]pp. Wood-engraved illustrations by Frederick William Fairholt, F.S.A. (1814-1866). Bound, without half-title, in smart recent half green morocco, banded and gilt; top edge gilt; marbled sides; some marking to title-page; a few spots and slight creases, but a handsome copy.

£200

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London : Richard Bentley, 1865. First edition. “From the building of the first bridge at London to the startling incident of a few days since” – the history of London in highly entertaining story and anecdote, with sections of Historic Sketches; Remarkable Duels; Notorious Highwaymen; Rogueries, Crimes and Punishments; Love and Marriage; Supernatural Stories; Sights and Shows, and Public Amusements; Strange Adventures and Catastrophes; Remarkable Persons; and Miscellaneous. “The indefatigable prince of compilers has once more plied his industrious scissors to good purpose” (Illustrated London News, 24th June 1865).
Three volumes. Crown 8vo (190 x 118mm). viii,324; viii,320; viii,(332)pp. Bound, without half-titles, in an attractive contemporary half tan calf, banded and gilt; contrasting red and green labels; marbled sides, edges and endpapers; lightly rubbed; a few very minor marks, small flaws and slight creases; slight spotting of prelims; text very slightly tanned, but still a nice set. Gift inscriptions dated 1886 in each volume and the more recent book-labels of Oliver Ray.

£250

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London : Virtue & Co., [1876]. New edition, corrected and enlarged. An invaluable encyclopaedic dictionary of London – from the Adelphi to the Zoological Gardens, with articles on topics (alchemists, aldermen, almshouses, amusements, artesian wells, etc.) as well as places – mixing the “entertaining and anecdotic” with “social statistics and other Great Facts”. Originally published in small octavo in 1855, but here updated (to 1867), enlarged and expanded, “improved, it is hoped, in the value of its contents, as well as increased in bulk”. Compiled by John Timbs F.S.A., author, journalist and antiquary.
One volume, bound in two. Royal 8vo (250 x 166mm). (viii),434; 435-(872)pp. Frontispiece, extra engraved title, and five engraved plates. Bound in contemporary half black leather, banded and gilt; all edges gilt; a little rubbed and slightly worn; a touch shaken; very occasional internal spotting, chiefly to prelims, but a good and serviceable set.

£200

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London : J. Wallis, [ca.1814]. First edition : the second state, with the addition of plate numbers to Wallis’s delightfully engraved sequence of maps. A very pretty pocket atlas of the English counties, generally dated to 1810, although surely post-dating Wallis’s larger county atlas of that year and probably datable to about 1812, with the present issue (distinguished by the addition of plate numbers) probably dating from about 1814.
Pott 4to (146 x 109mm). Engraved title-page, contents page, general map of England and Wales, forty-two county maps (one – Yorkshire – double-page), two regional maps of North and South Wales, and a smaller map of the Isle of Wight – all with original hand colour. Original publisher’s half sheep, with the publisher’s leather label on upper board; some minor wear and marking, with slight splitting; a little shaken and slightly loose; short split to double-page map; one map (Wiltshire) deftly attached or re-attached by two old metal pins, and possibly supplied from another copy, but overall an attractive example of a charming pocket companion. Contemporary (1818) ownership inscription of the untraced Hannah Wessely or Wepely, with the additional message “Forget me Not”.

£500

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Strawberry Hill : by Thomas Kirgate, 1765-1771. Second edition. The complete four volume set, together with the supplementary volume, “A Catalogue of Engravers, who have been Born or Resided in England” (1765). Still a key early source, covering not just painters, but architects, sculptors, etc. Already richly illustrated with over 100 portraits, etc., by Alexander Bannerman, Thomas Chambars, Anthony Walker, etc., the number here has been more than doubled by the insertion of 130 additional plates – mainly portraits, but also including contemporary engravings of Strawberry Hill, etc., and in the supplementary volume a rich array of examples of work by the some of our earliest engravers, including plates engraved by Thomas Cecill, John Droeshout, Renold Elstrack, William Faithorne, Richard Gaywood, George Glover, Remy Hogenberg, David Loggan, Pierre Lombart, George Vertue himself, several by Robert White, and numerous others.
Five volumes. Crown 4to (225 x 172mm). (xiv),182,[xx]; [ii],182,[lviii]; [ii],167,[xi]; (xii),(152),[viii]; [iv],140,14,20,[viii]pp. Plates. Portraits. Bound (probably about 1830) in elaborate late eighteenth-century style – full red straight-grain morocco, lavishly gilt; all edges gilt; marbled endpapers; some light wear; joints reinforced in one or two places; a few slight marks and small flaws; some of the additional plates cropped, folded, or re-margined to size, but a very good, fascinating and valuable example of a grangerised (extra-illustrated) copy. With the armorial bookplate of Cyril Flower, Lord Battersea (1843-1907), Victorian aesthete and parliamentarian, in each volume.

£4,000

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London : Chapman & Hall, (1932). First edition. His third novel – a scathing satire on the modernisation of the Azanian empire. “The main theme is handled with all the savage serenity and cunning innocence at Mr. Waugh’s command. The side-shows in London are flicked off with all his deft and shocking originality. Oh – and please bear in mind throughout that it is meant to be funny. If you can ...” (Daily Herald, 6th October 1932).
Crown 8vo (20cm). (304)pp. Frontispiece map. Original lizard pattern red and black cloth, lettered in gilt; some light spotting, mainly to edges, but a very good and bright copy.

£200

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London : Chapman & Hall, 1957. First edition. Waugh starts hearing voices. “The devastating and racking funniness ... comes from Mr. Waugh’s genius for sheathing terror in mirth ... we are given pure entertainment, the better for getting the reader under the skin” (Elizabeth Bowen in The Tatler, 31st July 1957).
Crown 8vo (20cm). (viii),184pp. Original blue cloth, lettered in gilt; top edge blue; a very good, clean and sound copy in the Val Biro dust-jacket – a pictorial design in yellow, tan, black and white – the jacket with the merest hint of sunning and wear and also very good.

£100

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London : Longman, Brown & Co. / Devizes : Henry Bull, 1859. First edition. An extensive and rather lively account of Devizes – with much on the origins, Matilda and the wars, the Civil War, canal mania, local politics, etc. Authorship is variously ascribed to Henry Bull, the book’s publisher, and to James Waylen – although Waylen’s authorship of “Chronicles of the Devizes” (1839) and a history of Marlborough (1854) with an almost identical title to the present one, would seem conclusive. He was a portrait-painter by profession (born in Devizes) and at least one of the plates is from his own original study.
Demy 8vo (214 x 136mm). [iv],602pp. Engraved plates. Illustrations. Bound in a neat nineteenth-century half-calf , marbled sides, red edges; matching marbled endpapers; lightly rubbed and slightly scuffed; frontispiece cut round, mounted and laid-down; occasional spotting, but overall a very good copy. Ownership inscriptions of Hester Harding (1805?-1884), widow of a farmer of Steeple Ashton (1881), and W. J. Kyte of Cardiff.

£125

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London : for C. & J. Rivington; J. & A. Arch [and others], 1825. A most attractive edition of White’s 1789 classic. White was the first to take a census of birds, to study their territories and analyse their migration patterns, the first to understand the concept of a food chain. “The young Charles Darwin would grow up with White’s book at his side – [he] is the indispensable precursor to those great Victorians who would transform our ideas about life on earth ... Lyell, Spencer, Huxley and Darwin” (Robert McCrum).
Two volumes. Demy 8vo (216 x 132mm). viii,(352); [iv],364pp. Four engraved plates, one with full hand colour. Bound in full contemporary polished calf, banded and gilt; red labels; marbled edges and endleaves; lightly rubbed; a few slight marks; some spotting to prelims and plates, but still a very good set.

£200

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London : Faber & Faber, (1935). First edition. The perilous journey home through Devon rivers of a twenty-pound salmon – “a rare and beautiful book that should take its place as a classic among the few that are written at once with a poet’s insight and a naturalist’s knowledge” (New York Times).
Crown 8vo (184 x 119mm). (320)pp. Title-page and colophon decorations by C. F. Tunnicliffe. Bound in an attractive later half russet morocco, banded and gilt with salmon, by Bayntun; top edge gilt; a few slight spots; very mild tanning of endpapers, but a very good copy.

£250

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London : Herbert Jenkins, (1953). First edition. The sixth Jeeves novel – damp ancestral home, impoverished earl, possible American buyer, suspicious fiancée – but fortunately Jeeves is on hand. Published the following year in the USA in an extensively revised version as “The Return of Jeeves”.
Crown 8vo (20cm). (222),[ii]pp. Original red boards, blocked and lettered in black; boards a little marked, with a faint pencilled message to the rear cover, saying ominously, “Don’t fence me in”, but the text clean and sound and otherwise a very good copy in the Sax dust-jacket – the jacket price-clipped by the publisher with a revised price over-stamp, but just lightly sunned, with minimal wear, and overall still very good. With the small ownership stamp of John J. Looijestijn.

SOLD

London : Herbert Jenkins, (1957). First edition. In the words of David A. Jasen, Wodehouse’s bibliographer – his “finest non-series novel”. Retired butler in a South London suburb decides to cash in on a secret – American billionaire, repulsive son, dotty lord, a brace of nieces, unpopular curator, unpleasant sculptor, and a bulldog. “The master in fine fettle” (Coventry Evening Telegraph, 24th January 1957). Later published in the USA as “The Butler Did It”.
Crown 8vo (20cm). (200)pp. Original red boards, lettered in black; a very good, bright and sound copy in the original pictorial Sax dust-jacket – the jacket with some minor rubbing and wear, with a few slight nicks and a short tear, but complete and otherwise very good.

SOLD

London : Herbert Jenkins, (1958). First edition : the variant in the surely earlier (McIlvaine notwithstanding) blue boards, lettered in gilt. Uncle Fred knocks Sir Raymond Bastables hat off with a brazil nut fired by catapult from the Drones Club. The third Uncle Fred novel – meddling, blackmail, scandal, and a pseudonymous and much-disowned novel called “Cocktail Time” – with Pongo Twistleton, Beefy Bastable, publishers, agents, etc.
Crown 8vo (20cm). 222,[ii]pp. Original blue boards, lettered in gilt; a few very faint edge-spots, but overall a very good, clean and sound copy in the Hall dust-jacket – the jacket with some minimal rubbing and wear, but also very good.

£150

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London : Jonathan Cape, (1966). First British edition. Wolfe’s first collection – twenty-two essays and half a dozen caricatures. An entirely new voice in journalism skyrockets metaphors, neologisms, hip-talk and learned reference into the pursuit of the form and style of the new. Includes “The Fifth Beatle”, “The First Tycoon of Teen”, “The Last American Hero”, “The Girl of the Year”, “The Nanny Mafia”, “A Sunday Kind of Love”, “The Woman Who Has Everything”, “Why Doormen Hate Volkswagens”, etc. First published in New York the previous year, but here in the period-defining dust-jacket by Jonathan Miller.
Post 8vo (21cm). (xviii),(340),[iv]pp. Original pink boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; mild tanning of edges, but a very good copy in the dust-jacket – a touch sunned, with some very minor edge-wear and a single short tear, but also very good.

£100

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New York : Farrar, Straus, Giroux, (1981). First edition. Wolfe on modern architecture – smart, well-researched, and devastating – “Every child goes to school in a building that looks like a duplicating-machine replacement parts wholesale distribution warehouse ... Every new $900,000 summer house ... has so many pipe railings, ramps, hob-tread metal spiral stairways, sheets of industrial plate glass, banks of tungsten-halogen lamps, and white cylindrical shapes, it looks like an insecticide refinery”, etc.
Post 8vo (21cm). [x],(144),[vi]pp. Illustrations. Original cloth; a very good copy indeed in the Kiyoshi Kanai dust-jacket – also very good indeed.

£100

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London : Rare Book Society, 2011. First edition. An illustrated dictionary of well over 1,500 members of the map-trade in the British Isles from the beginnings until the mid nineteenth century, including all the known engravers and lithographers, all the known globemakers and retailers, the principal mapsellers and publishers, the key cartographers, the makers of map-based games and puzzles, and others. Each entry includes a list of published work, the known biographical facts (in most cases based on fresh and original research), addresses and dates, details of apprentices, etc. Twenty-five years in the making, the book contains previously unpublished material on almost every page.
Royal 8vo (25cm). xxxii,744pp. Over 600 illustrations; apprentice charts, etc. Original buckram; very good in the dust-jacket. Please note an additional UK 10 for postage overseas.

£125

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London : Hodder & Stoughton, 1900. First edition. “I walked among the seven woods of Coole ... The sleep that is in the pools Among great trees, and in the wings of owls, And under lovers’ eyelids ... The harp-strings have begun to cry out to the eagles” . Yeats at his lyrical best in this “beautiful phantasmagoria” (Pall Mall Gazette, 8th December 1900). “Mr. Yeats in these later days has strange views as to the scope and mission of poetry. It is as guarded and peculiar and personal to himself as with other men are their last wills and testaments” (Morning Leader, 22nd January 1901).
Crown 4to (25cm). (58),[ii]pp. Original dark blue decorative cloth gilt over bevelled boards; top edge gilt; some mild wear to tips; endpapers lightly spotted; a few faint marks, but otherwise a very good copy of a handsome production. Neat “Aunt Nina” inscription to half-title.

£350

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London : Macmillan & Co., 1940. First edition : one of 2,000 copies. Fifty-seven poems 1936-1939, including “The Gyres” , “The Wild Old Wicked Man” , “Long-Legged Fly” , “Why should not Old Men be Mad” , “Crazy Jane on the Mountain” , etc., and two short plays. “No short review can comprehend these poems. It is enough to say here that they are very often Yeats at his best, and to say that, of such a poet and at the close of a full life’s work, is certificate enough of greatness” (Western Daily Press, 24th February 1940).
Demy 8vo (23cm). (viii),126,[ii]pp. Original green cloth, ruled, blocked and lettered in gilt on spine; blocked in blind in a design by Thomas Sturge Moore (1870-1944) on front cover; slightly bumped at one corner and a little bruised, with some slight adhesion marks to covers; tiny mark to top edge; endpapers lightly spotted; first and last leaves somewhat tanned, but otherwise a good, sound and still bright copy in the Sturge Moore dust-jacket, replicating the cover design in pale green and purple – the jacket price-clipped, chipped and faded, with a few marks and short tears, but substantially complete and presentable still. Contemporary gift inscription dated Christmas 1940.

£200

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