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Dear Friend,
Some beautiful things are headed to York this week, including a Rothschild family gift, wonderful 17th century engravings, and a book owned and inscribed by the naturalist Gilbert White (as well as his publisher nephew and copy-editor niece). There’s a bill from the cabinet-maker Thomas Chippendale, and a remarkable letter from Virginia Woolf’s father, Leslie Stephen, prefiguring everything that shaped his daughter’s life, not forgetting the Work Diary of the creator of the flower fairies, Cicely Mary Barker.
Best wishes,
Christian White (Stand 52)
14TH CENTURY ENGLISH MANUSCRIPT WASTE BOUND IN Unio Dissidentium Libellus Omnibus.. — Hermann Bode - Bodius; Martinus de Keyser — 1533
From the collection of the medieval manuscript expert Neil Ker and bound with 2 leaves of an English manuscript of Thomas Aquinas’s Commentaries on Aristotle. Contemporary blind-stamped pig skin; remains of clasp fixings; scuffing to extremities; 4cm tear to the pigskin rising along the outer hinge between spine and lower board not affecting integrity of binding. The manuscript leaves appear slightly differently - the first is tight against the upper wooden board making it almost impossible to s…… Read more
UNKNOWN TO SCHOLARSHIP, MANUSCRIPT HISTORY OF BRITISH CHRISTIANITY An Historicall Treatise of the Plantation of Idolatrous Religion, And also of the First Preaching of the Gospell in Brittaine now Called England. — Unknown Writer — 1625
Early seventeenth century manuscript offering a new backstory of British apostolic purity to the Elizabethan protestant settlement. With some ingenuity and access to a scholarly library the anonymous writer of this manuscript ransacks ancient and modern sources in an effort to vindicate the past glory of the early British church before it was perverted by the mission of Augustine of Canterbury. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION Small quarto (15x19cm) bound in limp vellum, overlapping foreedges, with external…… Read more
TUDOR & STUART HISTORY The Historie of the Reigne of King Henry the Seventh [with] The History of Great Britain [with] The Reign of King Charles — Francis Bacon; Arthur Wilson; Hamon L’Estrange — 1641
Three separately published English histories dating from the Civil War and Commonwealth period which offer contrasted interpretations of Tudor and Stuart history, and each bound without their engraved portraits. Small folio (26x18cm) in 19th century half calf with marbled endpapers and on the front pastedown the bookplate of Edward Fenwick Boyd de Moorhouse (1810-1889), Newcastle mining industrialist; all edges gilt. The three works appear as follows: 1. Francis Bacon, The Historie of the Reigne…… Read more
A GIFT BETWEEN TWO ROTHSCHILD WOMEN Compleat Ambassador: or Two Treatises of the Intended Marriage of Qu: Elizabeth.. — Sir Francis Walsingham, Lord Burleigh, Dudly Digges — 1655
First edition with most distinguished provenance, having been gifted by the first Lady Rothschild to her daughter in law, the formidable Roszika Rothschild. Folio bound in imitation of 17th century full calf, signed by ‘Hatchards, 197 Piccadilly’ with 5 raised spine bands, gilt to spine panels and date at the tail of the spine - no doubt executed for Lady Rothschild. Triple fillet to boards. Subsequent to this rebind the book has been repaired with the spine relaid, outer hinges renewed and pape…… Read more
DEDICATED TO CHARLES II Le Savory du Ciel ou Meditation sur le pseaume Cent un par Jean Rivet — Jean Rivet & Andrew Rivet [Charles II] — 1664
Rededicated - and perhaps presented - to King Charles II by the author’s nephew, a manuscript meditation on Psalm 101, unpublished in this form and written as an antidote against the plague. Small quarto (horizontal chainlines & foolscap watermark) bound in contemporary calf with raised bands to the spine and gilt decoration. Three blank endpapers precede a manuscript title page, followed by the dedication to Charles II ‘A Tres puissant et Serenissime Roy Charles deuxiesme Roy de la Grande Breta…… Read more
HALLEY’S COMET PROPHETICAL PAMPHLET The Mystery of Ambras Merlins, Standardbearer Wolf and last Boar of Cornwal — ‘Lover of his Country’s Peace’ — 1683
Rare prophetical pamphlet published after the appearance of Halley’s Comet a year before. 4 page folio text with caption title and imprint from colophon. Small woodcut on last page depicting a ‘Flagg figured with a White Wolf’. 4 pages. Toning to paper edges and a couple of brown spots, otherwise a very good copy bound in modern quarter calf over marbled boards with additional blanks to bulk out the volume. This is the dated version of the pamphlet - ESTC R10135 - (11 locations); the undated ver…… Read more
ENGRAVER TO THE SUN KING: A COLLECTION OF 17TH CENTURY ENGRAVINGS Oeuvre de Sebastien Le Clerc — Sebastien Le Clerc; Abercairny — 1690
500 engravings from the late 17th century made by Louis XIV’s chief engraver which include celebrated depictions of the fountains of ‘le labryrinthe de Versailles’, costume at the court of the Sun King and the Fauxbourgs of Paris. Three large quarto volumes (21x26cm) bound in worn calf; marbled endpapers with the bookplate of ‘Abercairny’ (Scottish ancestral seat of the Stirling Home Drummond Moray family) to each front pastedown, masking an earlier family bookplate that is present in Vol III. T…… Read more
NATURALIST GILBERT WHITE’S MULTI-GENERATIONAL FAMILY COPY OF THE APOCRYPHA — [Gilbert White] — 1700
An extraordinary family copy owned and inscribed by the author of the Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, Gilbert White, and subsequently by his favourite niece Mary White who copy-edited his book, and her husband - and cousin - Benjamin White who published their uncle’s masterpiece. This comprehensive web of ownership and association is revealed in a sequence of ownership inscriptions that appears on the front pastedown and flyleaf opposite. Earliest is ‘Thomas Holt’ (Gilbert White’s g…… Read more
‘I WOULD CONDOLE WITH YOU ON THE DECEASE OF [ISAAC] WATTS’ A letter to Philip Doddridge — [Philip Doddridge] John Barker — 1748
A reflective letter about the legacy of the theologian and logician Isaac Watts, exchanged between two of his friends, the nonconformist minister Philip Doddridge and his friend John Barker, both of whom attended Watts’ funeral at Bunhill Fields in London a few weeks earlier. 3 page letter on quarto-sized paper with horizontal chainlines, c500 words. Folds to paper with some old paper repairs along the folds; further paper reinforcement along the folds between the two leaves. The letter to ‘Dear…… Read more
‘BOOK OF HIMSELFE’ - a Country Clergyman’s Unpublished Autobiography of Hypochondria and Illness — Samuel Jackson — 1758
An 18th century country clergyman’s narrative of hypochondria, illness and death: Jackson’s life-writing being continued and completed decades after his death by his sons. Small quarto (17x20cm) bound in full contemporary sheepskin, rebacked; new endpapers and a few paper repairs. In addition to the manuscript book there are several inserts including draft family memorials etc. Paper stock has horizontal chainlines; ‘GR’ with armorial above for watermark. The manuscript is written from both ends…… Read more
THE KING’S AGENT MAKES A SUBMISSION TO THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT on West Indies Trade — Andrew Symmer — 1770
Two page letter arguing for the creation of a sort of freeport on Grand Turk in the West Indies order to permit trade in ‘Flour, Fish, Lumber, Provisions of all sorts and British Manufactured Goods’ even if carried by ‘French and Spanish Craft from their respective colonies.’ Double sided letter on a single sheet of paper with olds folds; horizontal chainlines; 48 lines in total, signed by ‘Andrew Symmer’. In his letter Symmons asks for the lifting of British navigation restrictions that were ha…… Read more
‘BILL GIVEN BY YOU TO THOMAS CHIPPENDALE FOR £200’ A Master Cabinet-Maker gets Tough with a Major Client — Thomas Chippendale; John Ferguson — 1772
A letter sent on behalf of Thomas Chippendale that fills in a gap in the known sequence of correspondence between the master cabinet maker and one of his most important clients, Sir Rowland Winn, of Nostell Priory. Bifolium on ‘L V Gerrevink’ watermarked paper. Conjugate address leaf ‘To Sir Rowland Winn Bar[one]t at Nostell near Pontefract Yorkshire’; stamped ‘23 Dec[cembe]r’. Seal present. The letter written by Chippendale’s London business partner, Henry Ferguson addresses Winn in a form reco…… Read more
RARE 1790S DUBLIN IMPRINTS: A Narrative of the Sufferings and Escape of Charles JAckson, Late Resident at Wexford in Ireland; The First Number of the Report of the Society for Promoting the Comforts of the Poor; The Natural Son, A Play; Know Your Own Mind, A Comedy; — Charles Jackson; Arthur Murphy; Augustus von Kotzebue; Society for Promoting the Comforts of the Poor — 1798
An unrecorded edition of Charles Edwards’ Narrative of his role in the Wexford Rebellion is the star item in this fascinating collection of Dublin imprints from the 1790s. Small octavo-sized volume bound in contemporary half calf over marbled boards with red morocco spine label: ‘Tracts’. Endpapers with 1794 dated watermark. The imprints appear as follows: A von Kotzebue [translated by] Anne Plumptre, The Natural Son, A Play,Dublin, H Fitzpatrick, 1798, xii, pp108, half title present; ESTC T5959…… Read more
UNRECORDED NEWMARKET HORSE RACECARD Newmarket Second October Meeting, 1807 — Newmarket Races —
Unrecorded racecard in a sumptuous crushed red morocco binding by Riviere commissioned by a bookish, horse-training Suffolk family. Folio-sized book with inner dentelles over marbled endpapers; book plate and case mark of the Suffolk collector, A T Copsey. Laid in the invoice from Riviers for the binding which dates from 1929 and was undertaken for A Dunn Gardner - Algernon Dunn-Gardner whose daughter was a race horse trainer at Newmarket. The binder has packed out the volume with blank; the rac…… Read more
UNRECORDED BROADSIDE From the Events which have Recently Taken Place Respecting Baptism — Mary Morris Knowles — 1809
Unrecorded broadside by the Quaker poet, abolitionist and defender of women’s liberties. Single sheet (32x16cm) printed on one side only, old folds and a few short tears and tiny chips to edges. The address to Lavinia and Lavinia’s answer are printed in two columns, preceded by an introduction which mostly misprepresents the genesis of the text: ‘From the events which have recently taken place respecting BAPTISM, the following Lines on the subject, written by a Clergyman to a Quaker young Lady (…… Read more
JUDGE’S NOTEBOOK CONTAINING TRIAL NOTES OF A LANCASHIRE WOMAN TRANSPORTED TO NEW SOUTH WALES — Edmund Henry Lushington — 1812
Mr Justice Edmund Lushington’s court-room notes on the trial of a Manchester baker, Elizabeth Dewhurst, for passing forged banknotes - a crime that would result in her transportation to Botany Bay. Small notebook, attractively bound in roan (94x168mm), hinged along the short side. On the front pastedown is written: ‘E H Lushington March 23.d 1812’. On the foreedge 1/3 - this was presumably the first of three notebooks. The paper has vertical chainlines and a britannia watermark with a date begin…… Read more
CELEBRATING A WINTER WEDDING IN PARIS Lines Presented to Mrs Croft with a White Rose on her Wedding Day by her affectionate Cousin Robert Charles Dallas — Robert Charles Dallas — 1823
Beautiful presentation volume by an infatuated Oxford undergraduate (shortly afterwards President of the Union) following his cousin’s winter wedding at the British Ambassador’s Residence in Paris. Small oblong volume with matching slipcase (13.5x11.5cm) The manuscript book has olive green printed paper overlay, the upper cover with a hand-coloured floral design; the backstrip is missing but the integrity of the binding unaffected. Internally, pink coated endpapers and 20 leaves, 18 of which hav…… Read more
NELSON FAMILY PRESENTATION COPY The Life of Nelson — Robert Southey — 1824
Richly provenanced Nelson family association copy presented by Horatio Nelson’s niece Charlotte Nelson to the future Admiral Richard Crozier. Two handsome small octavo volumes bound in straight grain red morocco with gilt decoration; all edges gilt; grey coated endpapers. Armorial bookplate of Richard Crozier to both front paste-downs. Charlotte Hood - formerly Nelson - has inscribed the verso of the flyleaves of both volumes: ‘Richard Crozier R.N. H.M.S. Ariadne from The Hon.ble Mrs Hood. Feb.r…… Read more
UNRECORDED MEDICAL IMPRINT WITH RECIPES Margaret Makewell’s Best Friends; or Eighty Most Excellent Prescriptions and Recipes — Margaret Makewell [Pseudonym] — 1833
Unrecorded and otherwise apparently unknown collection of ‘Prescriptions and Recipes’ published by the Norwich printer, Jarrold. Bound upside down in the publisher’s decorative, ribbed cloth over boards with a printed paper label to the upper cover. Faded and scuffed but sound; sewing loose but holding. The book collates: vi, pp42. A little browning to pages but otherwise the text is unmarked. Opposite the final printed page an early owner has written their own recipe ‘For the Stopage Warts...’…… Read more
Alternate Circles and Their Connexion with the Ellipse — Edward St Maur, Duke of Somerset, 1775-1855. — 1850
Presentation binding by Hering on this work calculated by the mathematically gifted 11th Duke of Somerset, sometime President of the Linnean Society and Royal Institution. Signed green morocco binding, elaborate gilt border; rubbing along outer hinges but sound. Binder’s stamp: ‘Bound by Hering, 137 Regent Street’. Collates complete: [4] pp72, padded with blanks. These Hering bindings seem to have been commissioned by the Duke for presentation purposes; the bindery was about a mile from his town…… Read more
The Ball-Room Manual and Etiquette of Dancing — Mr J Seaton — 1851
Miniature guide to ballroom etiquette (10.5x6.7cm) bound in ribbed red cloth over limp boards; all edges gilt. A little fading to the boards. Yellow coated endpapers; frontispiece; pp82, minor soiling to final leaves. This guide first appeared in 1848, printed in Manchester; this is Milner and Sowerby’s first edition (one institutional copy at the Morgan Library, NYC) with reprints in 1853 and 1855, both very scarce institutionally.
1860s SKETCHBOOK INCLUDING ‘CANNES FROM THE BEACH’ — Amelia Glanville Furness — 1860
Attractive woman’s sketchbook recording a trip made in the summer of 1860s from Cannes to the Channel Islands and on to England. Textured green cloth binding (23x13cm) Furness’s name on the front paste-down with another name added: ‘Mrs Ellis Lucerne Swiss’ - perhaps Amelia’s married name? The drawings and watercolours are on thick paper of several colours and include images of Hughenden (High Wycombe), a striking Riviera image of ‘Cannes from the Beach’ in August 1860 from where Furness continu…… Read more
VICTORIAN TRUE CRIME: Seven Rare Penny Imprints Describing Murder and Mayhem in the 1860s — Illustrated Police News — 1860
Seven luridly illustrated accounts of true crime which tap into the Victorian public appetite for sensation and transgression receiving its due punishment. Quarter textured green cloth over marbled boards; book label of ‘E Orme Ashby de la Zouch’ - probably Edward Orme. All but one of the imprints dates from the 1860s and all except the 1808 imprint are graphically illustrated with steel engravings. The Todmorden case is covered in two complementary imprints: the Life, Trial is preceded by the E…… Read more
AUTOGRAPH POSTCARD WRITTEN IN LONDON ARRANGING A PIANO LESSON — Clara Schumann — 1870s
Rare English-language note arranging a piano lesson written by one of the most important women in music history. Schumann writes on one side only of a round-cornered notecard (9x11.5cm) with gilt edges. The text appears as: London March 26th 42 Hyde Park Gate. Dear Madam I shall await your daughter on Thursday or Friday at 10½ o'clock. Yours very sincerely Clara Schumann. The verso is blank. The unpublished card has been authenticated by the editor of the Schumann letters - Edition der Briefe Ro…… Read more
VIRGINIA WOOLF’S FATHER RHAPSODISES THE CORNISH MILIEU THAT INSPIRED TO THE LIGHTHOUSE — Leslie Stephen [Virginia Woolf] — 1879
An extraordinary letter in which Leslie Stephen hymns the Cornish landscape and familial happiness, the memory of which would inspire the writing of his daughter’s greatest novel, To the Lighthouse Written on a small bifolium (10x15cm) on which Stephen wrote pages 1 and 4 before turning the paper through 90 degrees to write a third page vertically across the central opening of the bifolium, signing off at the foot of that page. Writing from ‘The Tower, New Quay, Cornwall’ on 19 August 1879 (mont…… Read more
ILLUSTRATED CLOTH BINDING Conjurer Dick; or The Adventures of a Young Wizard — Angelo J Lewis - Professor Hoffmann — 1886
Early edition in a splendid Victorian illustrated cloth binding. Green bevel-edged boards with four-colour depiction of the conjurer at work. Small puncture to spine; rubbing to extremities and light staining to upper cover. Floral endpapers with ‘Wilsden Board School’ prize bookplate dated to 1891; 8 pages of preliminaries, heavily foxed with frontispiece and title page vignette; text foxed to early gatherings; slightly musty smell; 8 pages of adverts at the end, soiling to these leaves. Despit…… Read more
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN; ‘SCENE ON THE HUDSON’ & ‘THE RACES OF MEN’ - A Rhode Island Sketchbook — Charles Henry Springer — 1890
Oblong sketchbook bound in black roan (26x17cm) with ‘C H Springer’ in gilt lettering to the upper cover; rubbing to extremities. All edges gilt; marbled endpapers. An unfinished pencil sketch precedes a sequence of 32 drawings, mostly in pen and ink wash, many with hand-drawn frames and clearly taken from a variety of sources, a few drawn from life. The finished ink drawings include Stratford-upon-Avon Church and Westminster Abbey in England, followed by ‘Scene on the Delaware’ set in an arched…… Read more
RIVIERE BINDING & EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED In Kedar’s Tents — Henry Seton Merriman — 1897
Beautifully Riviere-bound and extra-illustrated with 26 amateur photographs of turn-of-the-century Spain including 3 images of a bull fight. Crushed red morocco, all edges gilt; marbled endpapers with gilt turn-ins. The 26 additional silver gelatin photographs are mounted on inserted leaves and include images of Gibraltar, Toledo, Madrid and three bull-fighting photographs but do not appear to be professional images. Beyond the Riviere-signed binding there is no suggestion of who might have comm…… Read more
UNRECORDED PICTORIAL BICYCLING IMPRINT The New Departure “Hiram Jones Series,” 1-8 — New Departure Manufacturing Company; Brown Bros Ltd — 1902
In verse and pictures, the cycling adventures of Hiram Jones - sent as eight weekly cards by Brown Brothers of London - to advertise the new coasting brake manufactured by the New Departure Manufacturing Company of Connecticut. Eight stiff cards (18x14cm), printed on both sides in green and black. On the recto of each is the full title which explains that the series ‘Consists of eight differently illustrated verses, one of which you will receive every week for the next eight weeks. Keep them unt…… Read more
INSCRIBED TO A BRITISH WAR CORRESPONDENT The Soul of a Soldier — James Hodson — 1918
Scarce first edition of this Great War memoir inscribed to the First World War correspondent and British government spin-doctor, Basil Clarke. Red cloth; binding a little marked; fading to spine. Hodson has inscribed the front flyleaf: ‘To Basil Clarke who has been like a big brother to me James Hodson 2/xii/18’. Internally a little browning to the paper stock; a very good plus copy. Hodson’s war memoir is dedicated to his regiment, the 20th Royal Fusiliers and contains a couple of poems. He was…… Read more
IRISH ASSOCIATION COPY The Wasted Island — Eimar O’Duffy [Basil Clarke] — 1919
An excellent association copy of this novel set against the Easter Uprising, owned and inscribed by the British government’s propoganda chief in Dublin Castle in 1921. Green cloth binding, a little scuffed and worn. Clarke’s inscription on the front pastedown: ‘Basil Clarke Cork Oct/1921’. Otherwise unmarked, a near very good copy. This book was acquired from a descendant of the Easter Rising reporter Basil Clarke (1879-1947) who was born in Altrincham, worked on the Manchester Guardian under C…… Read more
1920S NEWNHAM COLLEGE PHOTO ALBUM including the Visit of Crown Prince Hirohito — Newnham College Undergraduate — 1920
Undergraduate photo album recording life at Newnham College from 1920-1923 with an emphasis on hockey and rowing as well as the visit of Crown Prince Hirohito to Cambridge in 1921. Oatmeal cloth binding (24x19.5cm); bookseller’s ticket to the front pastedown, ‘The Ancient House Bookshop and Library, Ipswich’; 38 greenish-grey card leaves with 288 photographs mounted recto and verso, 2 letters (one mimeographed note from Blanche Athena Clough about the arrival of ‘the Crown Prince of Japan’ in co…… Read more
WARTIME GIFT TO LADY GWENDOLINE SPENCER-CHURCHILL The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments — Lady Gwendoline Spencer-Churchill; Anne Spencer-Churchill, Eden, Countess of Avon — 1940
Exceptional provenance and a delicious binding on this aristocratic daughter-to-mother wartime gift to Winston Churchill’s sister in law, from Anne Clarissa Spencer-Churchill, the future wife of Antony Eden. Octavo (178 x 115mm) bound in full russet crushed morocco gilt by Bumpus, the upper cover with unusually extensive and handsomely executed quotations taken from the Wisdom of Solomon, Isaiah and William Blake; spine with 5 raised bands and all edges gilt. The first quotation is from the Wisd…… Read more
INSCRIBED TO HIS ENGLISH CHAMPION & WITH THE CONDUCTOR’S ANNOTATIONS Elektra Tragedy in one Act by Hugo Von Homannsthal — Richard Strauss [Thomas Beecham] — 1943
An extraordinary association copy inscribed by composer Richard Strauss to his ‘loyal friend and brilliant interpreter’ on the day that Sir Thomas Beecham conducted a broadcast performance of Elektra in Strauss’s presence, and bearing Beecham rehearsal annotations. Small folio (28x19.5cm) bound in half cream linen over red paper covered boards; a little browning to the linen. Strauss’s initials in gilt to the upper cover. Twice stamped on the endpapers ‘The Property of Sir Thomas Beecham’ and ag…… Read more
ARTISTIC JOURNAL BY THE CREATOR OF THE FLOWER FAIRIES & HER SISTER’S NATURE DIARY — Cicely Mary Barker & Dorothy Oswald Barker — 1946
A private artistic diary or ‘Work List’ used by the prolific creator of the Flower Fairies to record her varied artistic practice from 1946 to 1967, including painting, illustration and sculpture, found here with the childhood nature diary of her sister and collaborator, Dorothy Barker. Grey exercise book (16x20cm). Title written by Cicely M Barker on the upper wrapper, decorated with a cut-out from one of her published illustrations which balances the list of dates. Tear along lower 4 cm of spi…… Read more
GIFTS OF A POET: Poetry inscribed to a Collaborator and Sometime Partner — Jon Silkin [Catherine Lamb] — 1950
8 collections of poetry inscribed to a sometime girlfriend and co-editor of the journal, Stand. The earliest of these volumes is Silkin’s 1950 collection The Portrait, inscribed more than a decade after its publication in 1964, together with 3 issues of Stand Magazine, including one that Lamb co-edited in 1963 and was inscribed by the Russian poet Andrei Voznesensky whose work appeared in that issue along with other Russian writers. Subsequent volumes by Silkin are inscribed to ‘Kate and Igor’ a…… Read more
INSCRIBED BY E M FORSTER The Longest Journey — E M Forster — 1955
Forster’s second - and favourite - novel, signed and initialled by the writer, probably in Cambridge. A near fine book, green publisher’s cloth, in a good jacket with a little wear to the head and tail of the spine and a closed tear up the hinge between the front jacket panel and the front flap. Not price-clipped. Bookseller’s label of ‘Bowes and Bowes.. Trinity Street, Cambridge’ where this 1955 edition was originally sold - a site that is visible from Forster’s rooms just across the road at Ki…… Read more
NOISILY INSCRIBED My Brother Aquarius: Poems by Stephen Tennant — Stephen Tennant — 1961
Eccentrically inscribed by its eccentric, nay decadent, author. Quarto sized book bound in blue cloth with gilt lettering, a little rubbed. Tennant has decorated the front flyleaf with his effusive inscription ‘for Rupert Lord’ adding verses from the Persian and ‘A very ancient saying Oriental I think. I love it.’ The book is otherwise unmarked apart from a few brown spots. Tennant also contributes multi-hued frontispiece. Altogether a delightful object.… Read more
NUMBER 4 OF 26 SIGNED COPIES Newcastle is Peru — Tony Harrison — 1969
True first edition of this early poem, inscribed to a close friend on the northern poetry scene numbered 4 out of 26 signed copies. Printed brown paper wrappers which are browned and faded and separated along the spine. Harrison has inscribed the poem above the title with a double-edged quotation: ‘Nor need we to the distant Indies rome; The curst Originals are nearer home. from the Preface to Tate’s Fracastorius. for Kate & Igor Tony Harrison iv/69.’ (Nahum Tate translated Fracastoro’s Syphilis…… Read more
Children of Dune FIRST EDITION — Frank Herbert — 1976
First British edition of the final novel in the Dune trilogy, thought to bex a copy retained by the publisher. Near fine book, with a pencilled note on the front flyleaf: ‘Arr[ived]]. Aug. 20 Pub[lished]. Sep. 23’ presumably recorded by a Gollancz employee. Beautifully clean text printed on the high quality paper used by Gollancz at the time. Very good plus jacket; not price-clipped; fading to spine. An excellent copy.
SIGNED A FEW DAYS AFTER WINNING THE BOOKER PRIZE - Wolf Hall — Hilary Mantel — 2009
First edition, fifth impression of this landmark novel, signed on the title page by Mantel a few days after she won the Booker Prize in October 2009 at her appearance at the Ilkley Literature Festival. A very sharp copy, fine in a fine jacket, unread and inscribed to two of the volunteer helpers at the Festival in Mantel’s characteristic italic hand of this period. She told the recipients of this inscription that the Booker Prize money would allow her to pay off her mortgage! More than just debt…… Read more
Dr. Christian White
Christian White Rare Books
287 Leeds Road, Ilkley, LS29 8LL
07811 455398
info@christianwhiterarebooks.com
www.christianwhiterarebooks.com
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