| |
Dear Friend,
At the Saatchi Gallery this week we will be showing manuscripts by Charles Darwin, Frida Kahlo and Talbot Rothwell, writer of the Carry On films. Across eight revelatory letter-books Charles Trollope recorded his suppression of 1840s Greek rebels on Kefalonia - they too will be at Stand F40. We will be offering books owned by David Garrick and the Library at Bletchley Park; on paper the sketchbooks of Alison Uttley, and the English neo-romantic artist John Piper, as well as William Emerson drawing on creamy vellum.
Best wishes,
Christian
QUEEN MARY I’S BOOK OF HOURS: The Primer in Latin and Englishe (after the use of Sarum) with many Godlye and Devoute Prayers — Liturgy, Mary I — 1555
The official Book of Hours of Queen Mary I’s reign, the so-called Wayland Primer which has been described by Eamon Duffy as ‘a laboratory for counter-reformation experimentation’, containing as it does traces of Henrician and Edwardian protestant reforms. John Wayland was a religiously conservative printer who received permission in 1553 to print this Marian primer. In this beautiful volume Wayland produced a self-consciously Catholic primer for the last time that this would be possible in Engla…… Read more
PROBABLY DAVID GARRICK’S COPY A Tale of A Tub Written for the Universal Improvement of Mankind... to which is Added An Account of the Battel between the Antient and Modern Books — Jonathan Swift — 1704
First edition, first printing of Swift’s first great satire which has the bookplate of the Shakespearean actor David Garrick and is housed in a beautifully made red morocco case and chemise. Although the book is a very good first edition of this important text, there are reasons to be mildly sceptical of the provenance: the edition does not match Garrick’s known ownership of the 1711 edition as recorded in his posthumous library auction catalogue. Additionally the book was rebacked around 1900 w…… Read more
AN UNKNOWN 18th CENTURY SCARBOROUGH ASTRONOMER: A Manuscript of ‘Careful Observations Made at Scarborough’ — Thomas Parkins — 1778
An ambitious astronomical manuscript made by a young man still under tuition - or even at school - in Scarborough in the late 1770s. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION Folio sized full vellum binding (32x21cm) with external spine straps; blind double roll to edge of boards; a small square of vellum missing from the head of the spine. The vellum is discoloured but sound. The bound manuscript is complete as originally conceived with the name of ‘Thomas Parkin’ written twice on the first, discoloured, flyleaf. L…… Read more
ONE KNOWN COPY: The Trials, at Large of W. Henry Turton, and Luke West, for the Murder of Charles Gutherson, in the Parish of Chatham; William Roalfe, for the Murder of Richard Barker, one of the Dragoons, at Whitstable; Thomas Blithe, for the Murder of Thomas Yilder, at Woolwich; and Robert Butler, for the murder of James Nelson, at Woolwich — William Blanchard, Luke West, W Henry Turton — 1780
Rare true crime account of the trials of Henry Turton and Luke West for a murder in Chatham of a Dragoon from Whitstable and two other men. Quarto format bound in half calf over marbled boards, scuffed to corners. Bookplates of J G Chaplin and William Frederick D'Arley to front pastedown and flyleaf; Edward Barrett Curteis to final pastedown - Whig MP for Rye in Sussex in the 1830s and probably responsible for the binding which has endpapers watermarked 1832. Collates complete, pp32; dustiness t…… Read more
ANNOTATED BY A GLASGOW CLOTHIER Glasgow Almanack, for the Year MDCCLXXXVI — John Mennons — 1785
Rare Glaswegian almanac produced by the founder of the Glasgow Herald, John Mennons. This copy has the advantage of 12 pages of expert notes made in the late 1780s by a Glasgow cloth maker about the weaving and pricing of socks, gloves and handkerchieves. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Contemporary calf binding, worn but sound, with a pocket within the lower board. Late 19th century inscription of ‘John Easton Black... Greenock’ to the second flyleaf. Browning and light soiling to early leaves but the al…… Read more
THE LAST MAN TO HANG FOR FORGERY Accurate Report of the Trial of H Fauntleroy, Esq for Forgery [&] 4 True Crime Imprints — Henry Fauntleroy; Thomas Cochrane, Earl Dundonald, Pierce Egan etc — 1824
Rare report on the trial of Henry Fauntleroy who was the last man to hang for forgery in 1824, in the process bankrupting the bank that he defrauded. Henry Fauntleroy (1784-1824), was an acting partner with Marsh, Stracey, Fauntleroy and Graham of Berners Street, London who embezzled money from trust funds by forging client signatures on stock sales. At his Old Bailey trial it was revealed that he had siphoned proceeds off into accounts in his own name, that of his wife Elizabeth and other close…… Read more
‘THE BOROUGH MONGER SYSTEM IS DEROGATORY AND CORRUPT’ Manuscript Polemic in Favour of Parliamentary Reform sent to a Whig Peer — Luke Batten; Thomas Brand, Lord Dacre. — 1830
A singular early nineteenth century letterbook that centres on a polemical essay sent to Thomas Brand, 20th Baron Dacre, on the state of the British nation and the need for multiple reforms, notably parliamentary reform which would be achieved in the Great Reform Act only two years later. To the rear of the volume Dacre’s thoughtful reponse to his former Hertfordshire neighbour and perhaps constituent has been tipped in. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION Quarto format, full fawn limp leather, ruled and roll-…… Read more
‘FLEET PRISON - FOR THE USE OF THE INMATES’ The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament — Isaac Watts — 1837
A remarkable survival being a copy of the Psalms from the notorious London prison set on the eastern bank of the River Fleet in modern day Farringdon Street in the City of London. Less than a decade after this improving volume was acquired ‘for the use of Inmates’, the Fleet Prison, founded in 1197 would be demolished. Destroyed once before during the Great Fire of 1666 and again during the Gordon Riots in the 1780s, the Fleet’s former inmates included John Donne, William Penn and the fictional…… Read more
‘NOTHING BUT TERROR HAS ANY INFLUENCE OVER THESE PEOPLE’ Archive of the British Colonial Commander Who Suppressed Greek Rebels on the Mediterranean Island of Kefalonia, 1848-1850 — Lieutenant Colonel Charles Trollope; Henry Ward, John Colborne — 1848
A powerful, well preserved collection, featuring both significant single documents, plus a wealth of contextualising information, which provides a rich account of Lieutenant Colonel Charles Trollope (as individual and commanding officer) and a thrilling, and at times barbarous, picture of mid-nineteenth century British colonial military life and rule in the Mediterranean. This unrivalled and weighty collection of manuscript documents (requisitions and police reports, returns of punishments and m…… Read more
LADY LONDESBOROUGH’S ALBUM with Entries by Dinosaur Hunters, Artists & Writers — Ursula Denison, nee Bridgeman & Albert Denison, Baron Londesborough [with] Gideon Algernon Mantell, Thomas Crofton Croker, Edward Belcher etc — 1849
An exceptionally high-powered album recording the activities of an intellectual country-house salon, compiled by Ursula Denison, nee Bridgeman (1823-1883) and offering stellar contributions by the intellectual friends that she shared with her archaeologist, politician and diplomat husband. Albert Denison, 1st Baron Londesborough (1805-1860) was the first President of the British Archaeological Association who became enormously wealthy around the time that this album was started. Often contributi…… Read more
WATERCOLOUR TOUR OF THE LOW COUNTRIES BY A FAVOURITE ARTIST OF QUEEN VICTORIA: ‘Pen and Pencil Scraps from Belgium by Robert Taylor Pritchett. 1850.’ — Robert Taylor Pritchett — 1850
31 pencil and watercolour sketches together with a journal of his tour of the Low Countries produced by one of Queen Victoria’s favourite artists. The Sketchbook and journal of the artist’s travels from Dover (strikingly depicted looking up from the port) via Calais and into the Low Countries contains the source images for paintings that he exhibited the following year at the Royal Academy. Pritchett would also go on to publish a collection of Brush Notes in Holland - in this earlier manuscript…… Read more
VINDICATING ADMIRAL GAMBIER - WITH A LETTER TO BULWER LYTTON Memorial, Personal and Historical or Admiral Lord Gambier.... Second Edition — Georgiana Dering, Lady Chatterton — 1861
Excellent presentation copy given to her friend the novelist Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton by the author, Georgiana, Lady Chatterton, in an effort to vindicate the reputation of the subject of her book, her mother’s brother, Admiral Gambier. As well as being inscribed on the author’s behalf, a letter laid in from Georgiana Dering unpacks her reasons for writing this study, explaining them as an attempt to recover Gambier’s posthumous reputation and to persuade Bulwer Lytton to write favourably of Gam…… Read more
THE VELLUM NOTEBOOK OF WILLIAM EMERSON: A Tribute to the High Victorian Dream of William Burges — William Emerson [William Burges] — 1865
A compelling meeting of visual cultures in which the English architect William Emerson has paid homage to the legendary vellum notebook (now in the V&A) of his architectural mentor and employer William Burges by creating a vellum notebook recording his impressions of India. Emerson’s master, Burges, created his manuscript in tribute to Wilars de Honecourt’s celebrated collection of drawings of medieval architecture and life. In Emerson’s reworking of Burges’ reworking he brings Burges/ De Honeco…… Read more
A BRIEF GENEALOGY of the Descendants of William Hutchinson and Thomas Oliver [with] A Genealogy of the Hutchinson Family of Yorkshire [with] Notes upon the Ancestry of William Hutchinson and Anne Marbury — W H Whitmore; Joseph Lemuel Chester — 1865
Three New England genealogical works relating to to the English Hutchinson family which settled in Salem. All three items were published in Boston, Massachusetts in the 1860s, two by Joseph Chester and one by Whitmore. Bound in half black roan over textured cloth boards; marbled endpapers and with the bookplate of the politician and antiquary Philip Shirley, with his case-number for the book written in pencil. The first imprint is bound with its original paper wrappers; the other two begin with…… Read more
BARNACLE LETTER: Autograph Letter on Barnacles and their Classification with Original Envelope — Charles Darwin — 1871
An attractive autograph letter, with revealing anatomical and classificatory content, complete with Darwin’s original envelope retained by the recipient, the marine biologist Henry Lee. Writing in his scientific maturity just two days before Christmas, 1871, Darwin identifies two groups of barnacle specimens, telling Lee that both are Lepas antifera (the pelagic/ smooth gooseneck barnacle). Darwin gives intricate details of the dissections he has conducted: ‘I have disarticulated the right-hand…… Read more
BIRTHPANGS OF THE INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY: Letters and Documents Collected by the Mancunian ‘Father of Chemical Engineering’ — George Edward Davis, Charles R A Wright, Edmund Neison etc — 1876
A significant document in 19th century scientific history recording the involvement of the Manchester scientist known as the ‘Father of Chemical Engineering’ George E Davis in setting up The Institute of Chemistry. Owned and compiled by Davis himself, this bound volume includes sensitive discussions about membership - ‘his chemical knowledge is not likely to reflect credit on the Institution’ - and how to avoid alienating the rival Chemical Society as well as the remit of the new group. George E…… Read more
‘GILDED AGE’ DIARY OF AN ENGLISH ARISTOCRAT: ‘F Cavendish Bentinck. Private’ — William George Frederick Cavendish Bentinck (1856-1948) — 1878
Private journal of an English aristocrat, recent Cambridge graduate, Mayfair-resident, avid ball and theatre-goer and, paradoxically, future husband of the socialist and suffragist Ruth St Maur with whom he parented the 8th and 9th Dukes of Portland. Known by his third given name, Frederick - William George Frederick Cavendish Bentinck (1856-1948) - was a member of the immensely wealthy family of the Dukes of Portland but was training as a lawyer at the time of this diary. His future wife, Ruth…… Read more
AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT OF ARTHUR SYMONS’ ELEGY FOR ROBERT BROWNING — Arthur Symons & Robert Browning — 1889
The earliest autograph manuscript of Arthur Symons elegy for his friend and literary idol, Robert Browning. As Russell Goldfarb puts it in his study of the relationship between the two men: ‘Arthur Symons’s encounter with Browning and the Browningites, constituted in short his literary apprenticeship: by the nineties he was able to emerge with fully developed powers’. This manuscript marks the moment of that emergence when Symons’ early infatuation with the older poet matured into something grea…… Read more
THE DARWIN-WALLACE CELEBRATION held on Thursday, 1st July, 1908, by the Linnean Society of London — Charles Darwin & Alfred Wallace — 1908
Official memento of the Darwin-Wallace Celebration which marked the 50th anniversary of ‘the greatest event’ in the Linnean Society’s history - held in London on 1st July, 1908. Recent black buckram binding which preserves the original printed card wrappers bearing the Darwin/ Wallace medal. Darwin frontispiece; small oval library stamp to verso for University of Lancaster. Illustrated throughout with 10 plates and reproducing the joint paper of July 1858 ‘On the Tendency of Species to form Vari…… Read more
CORRECTED & REVISED WORKING MANUSCRIPT DRAFT The Heritage of the Desert — Zane Grey — 1910
76 pages of a first draft autograph manuscript - with heavy correction - by Zane Grey of his bestselling novel which also happens to be the earliest of his manuscripts to have come to market. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Written on lined foolscap paper in pencil; the manuscript is paginated by Grey, pp68-144. There are deletions, sometimes lengthy, and revisions to every page. This is very much a first draft manuscript which runs from the second half of Chapter 3 to Chapter 7 of this 21 chapter book. C…… Read more
HONEYMOON SKETCHBOOKS OF THE RENOWNED CHILDREN’S WRITER & HER HUSBAND — Alison Uttley; James Uttley — 1911
Two sketchbooks drawn and painted by the children’s author Alison Uttley and two by her husband James whose early death, she would later claim, inspired and necessitated Uttley’s prolific output. The first sketchbook records Alison Uttley’s honeymoon with James Uttley when they travelled along the south coast of England and matches the third item in this collection which is her husband’s sketch book from the same trip. Charmingly there are several images which simultaneously record the same scen…… Read more
THE BINNACLE SKETCH BOOK: Design Drawings & Specifications of Ships’ Navigational Equipment — F Whiggin - Heath and Co — 1913
Eighty full-page master-plan drawings and written ‘particulars’ for the main navigational device used on all modern ships - the Titanic had four of them - the binnacle. This manuscript was drawn and maintained, and returned under duress to the company for which it was made when the engineer retired. Whiggin was a life-long employee of Heath and Company, then leading manufacturers of navigational equipment in London. The binnacle is the housing for a ship’s compass, elaborately engineered to coun…… Read more
PRESENTATION COPY FROM ISAAC ROSENBERG’S SISTER: Poems by Isaac Rosenberg — Isaac Rosenberg — 1922
Inscribed first edition of Rosenberg’s collected poems, a volume which was published after the poet’s death on the western front in the last months of the First World War. As a posthumously published work, there can never be a copy inscribed in the author’s hand, adding to the allure of this volume. Rosenberg’s youngest sister Rachel Lyons, nee Rosenberg, has written on the front pastedown: ‘22/8/62 To Dr S Sacks with compliments from (Mrs) Ray Lyons (Sister) of the poet Isaac Rosenberg. Killed…… Read more
PRESENTATION COPY FROM WINSTON CHURCHILL’S STEP-FATHER The Life and Letters of Admiral Cornwallis — George Cornwallis West — 1927
Smart copy of the life of Nelson’s friend Admiral William Cornwallis written and inscribed by Winston Churchill’s step-father, a man just 16 days older than his distinguished stepson. The subject of the biography, Admiral Cornwallis, an ancestor of the author, was the brother of the defeated British general at Yorktown, Charles Cornwallis, and himself Commander in Chief of the Channel Fleet during the Napoleonic Wars. Bound in bright blue buckram, square and unmarked. Spotting to the foreedges a…… Read more
ALMANACK 1929 with Twelve Designs Engraved on Wood by Eric Ravilious — Eric Ravilious — 1929
Ravilious’s delicious and quite scarce 1929 Almanack illustrated with his 12 wood engravings, and type specimens from the Lanston Monotype Corporation Ltd. Buckram backed boards, a little loss to the paper covering; sound binding. Ownership stamp of ‘D K Gowland, Great Park Farm, Catsfield, Battle Sussex’ to the front pastedown - a Sussex neighbour of Ravilious perhaps? Pale spotting to the paper stock but a very good copy. This book contains some of Ravilious’s best loved images including the L…… Read more
FRIDA KAHLO & DIEGO RIVERA IN DETROIT Evelyn Cohen’s Notebook with Drawings by Kahlo and Rivera — Frida Kahlo - Carmen Rivera; Diego Rivera — 1933
An extraordinary memento of the creative presence of the artistic super-couple Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera - ‘equals and accomplices’ as they were described - in the mid-western city of Detroit, early in 1933. With these drawings into a young woman’s autograph album, made a few days before their departure for New York, Kahlo and Rivera marked the close of a period of great artistic achievement for them both. Three days before these drawings were created Rivera finished his industrial frescoes a…… Read more
FRIDA KAHLO & DIEGO RIVERA IN DETROIT: Lydia Cohen’s Album with Drawings by Kahlo and Rivera — Frida Kahlo - Carmen Rivera; Diego Rivera — 1933
A remarkable memento of the creative presence of the artistic super-couple Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera - ‘equals and accomplices’ as they were described - in the mid-western city of Detroit, early in 1933. With these drawings into a young woman’s autograph album, made a few days before their departure for New York, Kahlo and Rivera marked the close of a period of great artistic achievement for them both. For just three days before these drawings were created Rivera finished his industrial fresc…… Read more
UNPUBLISHED ARTS & CRAFTS MEMOIR William de Morgan The Potter as I Knew Him with an Appreciation by Halsey Ricardo — Emilie Russell Barrington & Halsey Ricardo — 1930
Unknown except for a single copy held by the De Morgan Foundation, this is a full length memoir written by the artist and writer Emilie Russell Barrington in which she recalls her decades-long friendship with the preeminent Arts and Crafts designer, potter and friend of William Morris, William de Morgan. In this memoir which she wrote in the final years of her life, Barrington combines personal reminiscence of conversations with De Morgan, visits to his various workshops which include magical me…… Read more
A DIARIST & PHOTOGRAPHER AT EL ALAMEIN: ‘Each time I heard a screaming bomb I imagined it to be coming straight for me’ — William Thomas Pritchard — 1939
Visually fascinating photographic diary written by an officer with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps who - against all rules - took a camera to the front which allowed him to record the Battle of El Alamein (1942) as well as the chaotic British evacuation from St Nazaire (1940) from where he offers an eye witness account of the sinking of HMS Lancastria with the loss of 3500 lives. Pritchard who lived in Blackpool, Lancashire, makes clear in his diary that contemporary press reports were wholly inac…… Read more
SHIPBOARD WORLD WAR II JOURNAL REPORTING A NAVAL BATTLE IN THE SOUTH ATLANTIC ‘Carnarvon Times’ — Captain Hardy and Crew — 1940
Two issues of an unrecorded shipboard magazine which was printed in the south Atlantic onboard HMS Carnarvon Castle, an ocean liner which was commissioned as an armed merchant cruiser in 1939. The second of the issues, Vol 3 No 13, December 14th, 1940, was produced in the aftermath of HMS Carnarvon’s five hour running battle with the German cruiser Thor in which she sustained 27 hits, 6 dead and, 7 with serious wounds (this magazine records a different total from Wikipedia) and another 30 ‘sligh…… Read more
BLETCHLEY PARK LIBRARY COPY The Ocean in English History Being the Ford Lectures — James A Williamson — 1941
Rare volume from the library at Station X - Bletchley Park - where Alan Turing and a bevy of mathematicians and code-breakers worked in utmost secrecy during the Second World War. Written by the British maritime historian James Williamson, this seems an eminently suitable volume for the library of an organisation which devoted so much effort to breaking maritime and submarine codes. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION Bound in faded green cloth, the Dewey number ‘942’ in white ink to the spine denoting English…… Read more
NEO-ROMANTIC LANDSCAPES, ENGLISH CHURCHES & ARCHITECTURE IN A WARTIME SKETCHBOOK — John Piper — 1943
A remarkably rich wartime sketch-book in which John Piper recorded his 1943 summer tour of Devon and Cornwall in the company of Geoffrey Grigson, sketched Welsh landscapes as well as the Victorian villas and churches of the English Midlands while he stayed at Renishaw Hall, home of his friends Edith and Osbert Sitwell. Piper’s sketches include churches in Exeter and West Ogwell in Devon, Lackington (later worked-up into an illustration to Betjeman’s Guide to English Parish Churches) and Hemingto…… Read more
CHANGI & ZENTSUJI POW CAMPS: The Sketchbook of a British Prisoner of War Interned by the Japanese 1942-1945 — Lieutenant Arkles Lockey — 1942
A visual diary kept by a British prisoner of war who was captured during the fall of Singapore and interned until the end of the war in the brutal Japanese Prisoner of War system. The sketchbook contains 38 pages of coloured drawings which depict POW life in the Changi Prison Camp (where the artist Ronald Searle was interned at the same time), Heito in Taiwan and on the Japanese mainland at Tokyo Branch 2 Camp and Zentsuji POW camp with Lockey’s plans for drawings of Mitsushima Camp left incompl…… Read more
PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS - Philosophische Untersuchungen. Translated by G.E.M. Anscombe. — Ludwig Wittgenstein; G E M Anscombe [translator] — 1953
First edition of a key philosophical work of the twentieth century by Ludwig Wittgenstein. Philosophical Investigations was published posthumously and is regarded as one of the most influential twentieth century English (and German) language works of philosophy. In its pages Wittgenstein altered many of the positions set out a generation earlier in his Tractatus and reshaped philosophy for good. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION Deep blue buckram publisher’s binding, gold spine lettering, near fine binding.…… Read more
INSCRIBED TO HIS DOCTOR - Son of Oscar Wilde — Vyvyan Holland - Oscar Wilde — 1954
Vyvyan Holland’s memoir of ‘a unique life’s experience’, published in the year of his father, Oscar Wilde’s centenary and inscribed here to his personal physician in west London, Dr Wilfred Dykes-Bower. Orange cloth, worn and with stains, a closed tear along the hinge between upper board and spine, now protected by a very good-plus supplied dustjacket - this is the second impression. An attractive inscription on the front flyleaf: ‘For W Dykes-Bower (”Dr Dykes”) whose long-suffering with our pet…… Read more
CARRY ON CLEO - The Production Archive & Screenplay Belonging to the Film’s Scriptwriter — Talbot Rothwell - Dennis Norden, Frank Muir — 1963
A 10 page manuscript extract from Talbot Rothwell’s original screenplay for Carry on Cleo together with his hilarious typescript proposal/ synopsis of the movie and a full ‘First Draft’ typescript screenplay which contains perhaps the earliest appearance in this context of the oft-voted funniest ever line, ‘Infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me.’ Talbot Rothwell, the in-house screenwriter of the Carry On movies, has long been known to have drawn on scripts given to him by Frank Muir and D…… Read more
No6/10 COPIES - HORS COMMERCE Bladud of Bath — Iain Sinclair — 2023
No 6 of 10, ‘hors commerce’ - not intended for sale - of these Extracts from 'Suicide Bridge', originally published in 1976 by Zero's Fool Press, reprinted here on the occasion of the exhibition 'Histories & Hauntings: Correspondences from the Whitechapel Gallery (1974) to Swedenborg House. Through image and action.' (13 October to 21 December 2023). Bifolium single sheet, folded once into 4pp., 8vo. This is one of 10 hors commerce copies numbered, signed, and hand-coloured by Sinclair with a si…… Read more
Dr. Christian White
Christian White Rare Books
287 Leeds Road, Ilkley, LS29 8LL
07811 455398
info@christianwhiterarebooks.com
www.christianwhiterarebooks.com
|
|