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Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1946. First edition. Essays on Asser, literacy in England in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, mediaeval education, etc.
Demy 8vo (23cm). [viii],(168)pp. Two plates. Original cloth; a very good, bright and sound copy in a lightly worn, slightly nicked and partly tanned dust-jacket. With the ownership inscription of the late B. C. Bloomfield.

£15

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[London] : Fontana/Collins (1976). First paperback edition. A richly illustrated study of the Home Front 1939-1945, an extraordinary told via posters, advertisements, cartoons, film-stills, propaganda photographs, ephemera and much else. With a foreword by Vera Lynn.
Crown 4to (25cm). 256pp. Illustrations throughout. Original pictorial wrappers; some minor creasing, a few spots, but a good copy.

£15

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Bath : Postal Museum at Bath, 1984. First edition. An illustrated study of John Palmer (1742-1818) and the development of the first modern postal delivery service.
Foolscap 4to (21cm). 24pp. Portraits. Illustrations. Facsimiles. Original stapled wrappers; just slightly bruised, but a very good copy.

£15

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Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1961. First edition. Ten essays in honour of the great economic historian’s eightieth birthday – by Robert Ashton, Maurice Beresford, D. C. Coleman, Jack Fisher himself, Christopher Hill, Lawrence Stone, Joan Thirsk and others.
Demy 8vo (23cm). [viii],(236)pp. Portrait frontispiece. Original cloth; top edge lightly spotted; endpapers slightly tanned, but a very good copy in a lightly worn dust-jacket – slightly tanned and a touch dusty.

£20

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London : Library Association, (1982). First edition : limited to 1,000 copies, signed by the author. An exhaustive bibliography, with much interesting commentary.
Crown 4to (27cm). [2],xxxiv,474,[ii]pp. Illustrations. Facsimiles. Original cloth; a few faint marks and spots, but a very good copy in a lightly sunned and very slightly creased dust-jacket.

£25

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London : J. M. Dent & Sons, (1933). First edition. Written to mark the centenary of Britain’s decision to abolish slavery – a history and an examination of systems of slavery and semi-slavery post 1833, focussing on the aftermath of slavery and the continued existence of over five million slaves at the time of writing. With much on Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Dr. Lushington, Lord John Russell and William Wilberforce, and on slavery in South Africa, China, the Congo, the French Colonies, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Mauritius, the Portuguese Colonies, Sierra Leone and Zanzibar. A copy with an interesting provenance, presented by the Secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society in 1956 to the late Barry Cambray Bloomfield (1931-2002) for his work in cataloguing the Society’s library.
Crown 8vo (19cm). xvi,(288)pp. Two portraits (Buxton and Wilberforce). Original green cloth, lettered in gilt; top edge green; a little sunned; a few slight spots, but a good and sound copy in the dust-jacket – the jacket a little tanned, a touch dusty, with a single small chip at head, but otherwise in good order.

£25

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New York : Pirate Editions, (1971). First edition : the regular paperback issue. Counter-culture reaches its peak with a book rejected by thirty publishers, never popular with the owners of bookshops for obvious reasons, and now uncommon — “A handbook of survival and warfare for the citizens of Woodstock Nation”, with sections on free food; free clothing and furniture; free transportation; free land; free housing, etc., as well as the underground press; guerrilla broadcasting; demonstrations; street fighting; stink bombs, smoke bombs and pipe bombs; hip-pocket law; shoplifting, other books worth stealing, etc. Pleasing to see cricket playing its part — “At both Van Cortland Park in the Bronx and Walker Park on Staten Island every Sunday afternoon there are free cricket matches ... free tea and crumpets are served during intermission. I say!” p.242.
Crown 8vo (18cm). xii,308pp. Original pictorial wrappers; covers lightly rubbed and a little marked; spine a little creased; faint spotting of edges and outer leaves; a good copy of a fragile and difficult title.

£200

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London : Geoffrey Bles, (1935). First edition. “A chapter in Social History, a queer, poignant, naked-nerved chapter, which even at the present day contains lessons that have never been properly learnt”.
Demy 8vo (23cm). (xii),(300)pp. Plates. Original blue cloth, blocked and lettered in red; a little dull; lettering faded; slight spotting of edges, but a good, sound and serviceable copy of a fascinating study.

£20

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London : C. Arthur Pearson, 1899. First edition. The tongue-in-cheek thesis is that nothing about the home could not be better managed by men, from purchasing household requisites to the rearing of children. The second half of the book is made up of a selection of letters – from earnest agreement to howls of outrage – received by the author after parts of the book had appeared in magazines. The author was the truculent Irish journalist, playwright, bohemian, and man-about-town, Augustus Moore, brother of the novelist George Moore.
Crown 8vo (20cm). viii,(290),[ii]pp. Illustrations by Yorick. Original pictorial cloth; some minor rubbing and wear; endpapers a little spotted; edges lightly tanned; a touch shaken, but a good copy.

£100

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London : Jonathan Cape, (1971). First edition. “To be intimate means to be close, and I must make it clear at the outset that I am treating this literally” — the zoologist examines the whole range of human intimacy from social to sexual, and the overwhelming and increasingly forgotten importance to the human animal of touching and physical contact — from eye contact, a handshake, or a pat on the back, to the hug, the caress, and the kiss and beyond. “The female navel, at any rate, will never be the same again” wrote Mordecai Richler in the New York Times, 5th March 1972.
Demy 8vo (23cm). (254),[ii]pp. Original fawn cloth; brown label; ruled, blocked and lettered in gilt; top edge pink; a few edge-spots, but a very good copy in the M. Mohan dust-jacket — the jacket just a touch sunned, with some very minor edge-wear, but also very good.

£25

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London : Robert Hale, (1971). First edition. An intriguing examination from this prolific American author of the whole field of ghosts, hauntings, apparitions, manifestations, poltergeists, spirit voices, etc., with chapters on individual cases — “Borley Rectory”, “The Dark Lady of Bognor Regis”, “The Affair at Tedworth”, etc. With a bibliography, index, etc. There would appear to be no equivalent American edition.
Demy 8vo (23cm). (192)pp. Original violet boards, lettered in silver; top edge purple; very slightly bruised at foot, but otherwise a very good copy in the stylish C. R. Evans dust-jacket — price-clipped and just a touch sunned, but with only a hint of wear and also very good.

£50

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[London] : Blond & Briggs, (1971). First edition. “It is this case, and cases such as these, which stand at the cross-roads of our liberty ... Members of the Jury, this is a case about dissent ... we are all of us, totally entitled to disagree with their views; but this is a case about whether or not they are also entitled to disagree with us” (John Mortimer Q.C. in his opening address). Richard Neville, Felix Dennis and Jim Anderson on trial over the notorious “Schoolkids” issue of the magazine “Oz” — an account rushed out by film director Tony Palmer in August 1971 in the wake of the longest obscenity trial in British history, which had taken place over six weeks in June and July. Among the defence witnesses were George Melly, Caroline Coon, Edward de Bono, Hans Eysenck, John Peel, Marty Feldman, Ronald Dworkin, and Feliks Topolski, who provided the illustrations.
Crown 8vo (19cm). (276)pp. Illustrations by Topolski. Original pictorial wrappers; spine faded, slightly spotted, and a little rubbed and creased; mild spotting of edges and outer leaves; a good copy of a fragile production.

£40

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London : Chatto & Windus / Exeter : James G. Commin, 1904. A “new and complete” library edition : limited to 600 numbered sets. “The most curious papers of the sort I ever saw” – the extraordinary treasure trove of the letters and papers of several generations of the Paston family of Norfolk and London, chronicling their lives, tribulations, successes and failures, as they rose from humble beginnings to high society – “They are the richest source there is for every aspect of the lives of gentlemen and gentlewomen of the English middle ages ... The history of the family in the fifteenth century is theirs alone” (ODNB). Although collections of the letters had appeared from 1787 onwards, this edition, with nearly 1,100 letters and papers, edited by James Gairdner (1828-1912) of the Public Record Office, was much the most comprehensive to appear until modern times.
Six volumes. Demy 8vo (218 x 157mm). Bound in a smart mid-twentieth-century half blue crushed morocco, banded and gilt; top edges gilt; spines just a touch darkened, but a very good set – clean and sound. With the nautical bookplate of the notable collector George G. Stevenson in each volume.

£500

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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 and defence of 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.
Demy 8vo (22cm). 86pp. Eight plates. Original brown cloth, lettered in gilt; a touch bruised; a few spots to edges and endleaves, but otherwise a very good copy in the original Piper dust-jacket – a pictorial design in pink, white, black and grey – lightly worn, slightly sunned, and a little spotted on rear panel and flaps, but complete and with just one short nick.

SOLD

London : Macmillan & Co., (1969). First edition. With much passing reference to Charles Baudelaire, Roger de Beauvoir, Jules Claretie, Theophile Gautier, Arsene Houssaye, Charles Monselet, Henry Murger, Gerard de Nerval, etc.
Demy 8vo (23cm). (202),[ii]pp. Plates. Portraits. Original boards; a few slight marks; a few leaves slightly creased, but otherwise a very good copy in a lightly marked dust-jacket.

£15

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London : Macmillan & Co., 1941. First edition. Wartime speech on the nature of Englishness – “mongrels who are proud to be mongrels and, partly because of the fact, are not a ‘volk’ but a nation”. Macmillan War Pamphlets No. 10.
Crown 8vo (19cm). (32)pp. Original stapled wrappers, a design in orange and blue; a few slight marks; some spotting; staples a touch rusted, but a good copy.

£20

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Kingham : Village Press, 1925. First edition. The earliest history of the W.I. – “the most important body formed during the century”.
Crown 8vo (19cm). (xvi),(290),[xvi]pp. Plates. Portraits. Original cloth; a few faint signs of age and use; a few spots, but a very good copy.

£20

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London : Oxford University Press, 1933. First edition. A distinguished, literate and well-illustrated survey of all aspects of eighteenth-century life, with authoritative essays by G. M. Trevelyan, Dorothy George, G. D. H. Cole, R. W. Chapman and others – the period; the church; the navy; army; exploration and discovery; travel and communications; London; town-life in the provinces; industry and trade; agriculture and rural life; poverty, crime and philanthropy; manners, meals and domestic pastimes; sports and games; costume; taste; painting and engraving; sculpture; architecture and the garden; interiors; drama and theatre; music; education; science; medicine; the law and lawyers; authors and booksellers; newspapers, etc.
Two volumes. Medium 8vo (24cm). (xxiv),(406),[ii]; (x),404pp. Numerous plates. Original cloth gilt; a very good and bright set in the dust-jackets – price-clipped but with only minimal wear.

£100

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London : Michael Joseph, (1971). First British edition. Wolfe coined the term “radical chic” in an essay for “New York” magazine in June 1970. It had already struck a chord before the essay (in augmented form) appeared in book form on either side of the Atlantic — “Political extremism is all the rage in these days of radical chic — just as it was when the bored children of the middle class, reacting against their background, helped the radical leftists Mussolini and Hitler into dictatorial power”, noted the Illustrated London News on 31st October 1970. Wolfe’s second essay illuminates in similar vein the San Francisco poverty programmes — “the smell of singed snobbery, roasted radicals and charred chic ascends with blissful delight” (Alexander Walker in the Birmingham Daily Post, 23rd October 1971).
Post 8vo (21cm). [vi],(154)pp. Original black boards, lettered in gilt; a couple of spots, but a very good copy in the Graham Rogers dust-jacket, also very good.

£75

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London : Oxford University Press, 1934. First edition. A magisterial and richly illustrated study of the background to mid nineteenth-century England, with chapters on Work and Wages (J. H. Clapham), Homes and Habits, Town Life and London (R. H. Mottram), Life in the New Towns, Country Life and Sport (Bernard Darwin), The Navy, The Army, The Mercantile Marine (Basil Lubbock), The Press, Art, Architecture (A. E. Richardson), Music, Drama (Allardyce Nicoll), Holidays and Travel, Charity, Expansion and Emigration, and the Portrait of an Age.
Two volumes. Medium 8vo (24cm). [ii],(xxvi),414,[ii]; viii,558,[ii]pp. Errata slip. Numerous plates drawn from contemporary sources. Facsimiles. Original cloth gilt; some spotting of edges, one endpaper lightly tanned, but a very good set in the original dust-jackets – lightly tanned, slightly worn and a little chipped.

£100

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