BRITWELL COURT COPY, LATER OWNED BY LYTTON STRACHEY: The History of That Most Eminent Statesman Sir John Perrott

Large octavo bound in contemporary speckled calf with a gilt double fillet and shell motifs to the corners of the boards in gilt; remnants of a spine label; red speckled edges to the text block. Some cracking to the leather over the outer higes. Dora Carrington’s bookplate for Lytton Strachey appears on the front pastedown; in pencil above is written, probably by a bookseller: ‘Large paper copy: The Christie-Miller Copy’. A Britwell case mark appears in pencil at the head of the page: ‘Lib. N.1.’ and in a later hand at the tail of the page a bibliographical reference: ‘B6 Perrott 121’. The book collates complete [6] pp320 with no annotation. Notably wide margins and clear, crisp paper stock.

Lytton Strachey’s bookplate was designed by his friend Dora Carrington who had a premonition while affixing them to his books in 1931:’As I stuck the book plates in with Lytton I suddenly thought of Sothebys and the book plates in some books I had looked at, when Lytton was bidding for a book and I thought: These books will one day be looked at by those gloomy faced booksellers and buyers. And suddenly a premonition of a day when these labels will no longer (be) in this library came over me. I longed to ask Lytton not to stick in any more.’ A few months later he was dead. Strachey may have bought this book at one of the Britwell sales or from the bookseller who made the note of its provenance. The double ownership is rather thrilling.