| |
Dear Friend,
A recently-acquired collection put together by an expert on 19th century street literature explains some of the more lurid Victorian offerings here, but not poet Coventry Patmore's formal photographic portrait which he inscribed and then presented to his friend Charles Dodgson - Lewis Carroll. There is always something new to learn about Victorian masculinity!
If you happen to be a librarian awaiting the next financial year, we can offer deferred billing on anything here.
Enjoy your summer and the books.
Christian
Liyfr gvveddi gyffredin, a gwenidogaeth y scarmenatau, a chynneddfau a ceremoniau eraill yn Eglwys Loegr. WITH Llyfry Psalmau, Wedieve Cyfieithiv, A’i Cyfans Cyfansoddi Ar Fesur Cerdd, Yn Gymraeg — BIBLE IN WELSH William Salesbury John Davies — 1634
An adorable early 17th century Welsh book of Common Prayer and Psalms which has seen obsessive devotional use to the point where many leaves are rolled one onto the next. The book has pasteboard covers with the remnants of clasps, together with an improvised, vernacular sheepskin outer binding. The book bears early evidence of female ownership in the inscription of ‘Ann Williams’ to the verso of the Psalms’ title page. Salesbury and John Davies’ Welsh book of Common Prayer from 1634 is found her…… Read more
LYME PARK COPY, CHESHIRE: Missale Romanum Ex Decreto Sacro-Sancti — Clement VIII, Urban VIII — 1665
Handsome quarto sized Roman missal owned by the Legh family of Lyme Park in Cheshire and attractively bound in English crushed black morocco. With the bookplate of Thomas Legh, 2nd Baron Newton, by Badeley, 1904, and casemark label on the front pastedown and family crest at the tail of the spine. The black morocco binding has a Cambridge-style gilt panel to the boards, a little cracking along the outer hinges; all edges gilt. Marbled endpapers; title page printed in red and black; a calendar pre…… Read more
MANUSCRIPT & PRINT HISTORY OF COUNTY DURHAM COMPILED IN THE 1790s — Edward Lamplugh Irton of Irton Hall; John Speed, Robert Morden etc — 1790
A scholarly collection - almost a leaf book - put together at the end of the 18th century, drawn from printed and manuscript sources over the previous century, by Edmund Lamplugh Irton (1762-1820) of Irton Hall in Eskdale near the west Cumbria coast. In producing what is effectively a county history of nearby County Durham, Irton has harvested extracts from nearly a dozen 18th century books, including their maps, and added his own manuscript continuations, addenda and sketches. This was clearly…… Read more
SIX GOTHIC BLUEBOOKS OR ‘SHILLING SHOCKERS’: The Cavern of Horrors [&] The Midnight Assassin [&] Albani, or the Murderer [&] Lewis Tyrell or the Depraved Count [&] Lermos and Rosa [&] Blanche and Caros — Ann Radcliffe etc — 1802
Six Gothic bluebooks from 1802-1804 published by the leading publisher of these popular descendants of the chapbook trade, Thomas Tegg. Bound together in a contemporary binding, or half roan over formerly paper-covered pasteboards, the most desirable item in the collection is The Midnight Assassin which is an abbreviation of Ann Radcliffe’s novel The Italian. Books 2, 3 and 4 are complete; The Cavern of Horrors and Lermos and Rosa both lack a frontispiece; Blanche and Caros lacks the final leaf.…… Read more
‘READING A FEW EXTRACTS FROM MALTHUS ON POPULATION...’ The Diary of a Plymouth Gentleman — Plymouth Diarist — 1817
A substantial and deeply felt private journal, kept over ten months from autumn 1817, by a devout, somewhat censorious, Devon man, father of six, and would-be custodian of morals and mores in the Plymouth area and beyond. Current in his reading, as he was judgmental of his contemporaries, the diarist offers a serious contemporary response to Robert Malthus: ‘In reading a few extracts from Malthus on population I cannot but lament to see how early men of talent are led away by limited views & par…… Read more
32 Bound Issues of the BRITISH STAGE AND LITERARY CABINET — Thomas Kenrick - George Cruickshank — 1817, 1818, 1819
Scarce periodical 1817, 1818 and 1819 offering 20 full page hand-coloured plates by George Cruikshank plus 8 black and white full page plates. The British Stage and Literary Cabinet was a publication which ran from 1817 to 1822 focusing on theatre and literature, providing insights into British stage performances and literary works of the time. Many female actresses of the period are featured. The publication was issued monthly, with continuous numbering throughout its volumes. This bound volume…… Read more
MANUSCRIPT REVIEW OF THE EARLIEST ENGLISH LANGUAGE PRODUCTION OF ROSSINI’S BARBER OF SEVILLE AND CHARLES KEAN PLAYING MACBETH — Unknown Theatregoer — 1818
A collection of five playbills from 1818 and 1819 which have been bound together by a contemporary playgoer who has reviewed the performances of two major productions on successive nights at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden and Drury Lane. The playgoer has written on the playbill versos two long (400 words each) accounts of the earliest English-language production of Rossini’s opera The Barber of Seville at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden followed by Charles Kean’s performance as Shakespeare’s…… Read more
ORIGINAL COMPOSITION BY JOSEPH HAYDN’S ILLEGITIMATE SON: Empfindungen eines process führenden Siebenburgers während seines in dieser Angelegenheit anno 1834 gehabten Anfens in Wien - — Antonio Polzelli [Joseph Haydn] — 1834
A short piano composition by Antonio Polzelli - the illegitimate son of Joseph Hadyn with Luigia Polzelli. Polzelli junor was conceived while his mother worked as a mezzo-soprano at the Esterhazy court and born in 1783. Until then childless, Haydn was fond of young Antonio and his older brother Pietro who was the biological son of Antonio Polzelli senior (a violinist at the Esterhazy court). Haydn gave composition lessons to young Antonio and in 1792 took him into his Vienna home to continue his…… Read more
41 GOTHIC WATERCOLOURS PAINTED ‘EN BRUNAILLE’ BY THREE WOMEN FROM TWO GENERATIONS OF THE SAME EXTENDED FAMILY — Frances Belgrave; Sophy Belgave; Mary Lucas — 1840
Highly original collection of Gothic watercolours executed ‘en brunaille’ - using a brown base which has been etched and scored and painted over. Created by three women from two generations of the same inter-married family: Frances Belgrave (b1819, Exton Devon) her mother Sophia Belgrave (b1785) and her future mother in law, Mary Lucas (b1778), mother of France’s husband to be, the Rev.d Charles Lucas of Fleggburgh near Great Yarmouth in Norfolk. The images are distinctive and striking in techni…… Read more
M.P and Canon. Conversations [on Church Legislation] 1858 and 1859: COPY BELONGING TO SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, JOHN EVELYN DENISON — William Selwyn [John Evelyn Denison] — 1858
Dialogues relating to 'A bill intituled An Act further to amend the Acts relating to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and the Act concerning the management of episcopal and capitular estates in England', which was debated in July 1858. John Evelyn Denison (1800-1873) was Speaker of the House of Commons from 1857-1872 and was created Viscount Ossington in 1872. This scarce copy comes from his family home, Ossington Hall, Nottinghamshire. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION In good condition. 7 serials bound as…… Read more
PENNY DREADFUL ‘ROBINSONADE’: Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins [bound with] Gulliver’s Travels in Lilliput and Brobdinag — [Robert Paltock] Jonathan Swift — 1860
‘Robinsonade’ utopian romance and imaginary voyage presented here in Penny Dreadful form with lively coloured illustrations by Edmund Evans, bound with a Penny Dreadful version of Gulliver’s Travels by the same illustrator and publisher. DESCRIPTION: Recently recased in quarter crushed brown morocco over green paper covered boards. Original flyleaf with expert bibliographical pencil jottings written by a previous owner, Charles Falkner of Holmes Chapel near Manchester (April, 1906). Old paper re…… Read more
AUTOGRAPH LETTER TO ‘MISS SEDDON’ Presenting a Book Co-written with George Gilbert Scott — William Burges - VICTORIAN DREAMER OF THE MIDDLE AGES — 1864
Rare autograph letter in which the architect presents the book that he co-wrote with his fellow medievalist George Gilbert Scott. Burges (1827-1881) has come to be seen as perhaps the preeeminent dreamer of the ‘Victorian dream of the Middle Ages’ as Betjeman put it. According to J Mordaunt Crook, author of William Burges and the High Victorian Dream, most of Burges’s letters have been destroyed, making this an appealing survival. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION Small bifolium (11x18cm) written on !5 Bucki…… Read more
A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF AN EAST-LINCOLNSHIRE SHOPKEEPER – Daily entries made throughout the year fill this Chemist and Druggists’ Diary of 1877 from the Alford, Lincolnshire area. — John Ward, near Alford — 1877
January starts bitterly cold with the biggest tide since 1854 recorded by this diary keeper who is full of cold and aches. John Ward is his name, his wife is Hannah and their children Tom, Dan and Nellie. Each day John Ward writes recording the weather, the seasons, his working days and the produce procured for the family shop which is situated near Alford in Lincolnshire. Sides of bacon and ham and blocks of butter are bought weekly from Mr Shaw, local cheeses are procured, Rimmington’s tea bil…… Read more
Batswing, the Outlaw of the Forest or the Maid of Epping By the author of The Black Privateer — Author Unknown — 1870
Rare illustrated novelette probably c1870 with lurid, sometimes fantastical, illustrations to the story of the titular Maid and Sir Arthur Bowring. We can locate one copy only of this title in the Bodleian. DESCRIPTION: Recently recased in green cloth preserving the original illustrated printed paper wrapper which has been laid down on card. Title page and Contents leaves a little browned followed by 204 pages of text, printed in double columns and illustrated throughout with lively steel engrav…… Read more
AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT MANIFESTO OF THE SOCIALIST ‘FELLOWSHIP OF THE NEW LIFE’: The New Fellowship. Statement of Principles & Objects, 1889 — [Edward Carpenter, Havelock and Edith Ellis, Olive Schreiner, Ramsay MacDonald, Maurice Adams] — 1889
Autograph manuscript - and the printer’s copy - of the first formal printed manifesto of the Fellowship of the New Life, a pioneering Anglo-American socialist organisation founded in 1882 by the Scottish intellectual Thomas Davidson and whose membership included Edward Carpenter, Havelock and Edith Ellis, Olive Schreiner and the future Labour Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald. A major document in the history of the Fellowship, this is the manuscript of the first publication of the Constitution an…… Read more
GRANGERISED COPY WITH c100 HAMPSTEAD LETTERS, MAPS, ENGRAVINGS & DOCUMENTS: Records of the Manor, Parish, and Borough of Hampstead, in the County of London to December 31st, 1889 — Frederick Ebenezer Baines; Ernest E Newton — 1890
Extra illustrated by the Hampstead antiquarian and author Ernest E Newton with around 100 additional maps, illustrations, letters, trade cards and Hampstead ephemera. In very good, robust condition bursting with additional material. Handsomely half bound in brown and blue contrasting cloth, old library stamp to verso of title page. With numerous additional blank leaves and a back pouch which together contain a further array of laid in and pasted in contemporary ephemera compiled by Ernest E. New…… Read more
LARGE MOUNTED PHOTOGRAPH INSCRIBED FOR LEWIS CARROLL - ‘Rev.d C. L. Dodgson’ - BY COVENTRY PATMORE — Coventry Patmore [Revd Charles Dodgson] — 1891
An extraordinary combination of two major Victorian figures: a photograph signed by the poet Coventry Patmore for the children’s writer, fabulist and creator of Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll, in his own name as Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. The two men has become acquainted when Dodgson took his regular summer holidays at Eastbourne and was able to visit Patmore who lived in Hastings on the south coast. Dodgson admired Patmore’s verse and in return Patmore paid him the compliment of calling him…… Read more
BLOOMSBURY LOSES A CHARISMATIC INTELLECTUAL: Letters from London’s elite following the Enforced Retirement of Stopford A Brooke — [Stopford A Brooke] Katherine M Lyell; Constance Bache; Emmeline Fawcett Cazalet; James Martineau, General Edward Brooke etc — 1894
A collection of letters written by London’s elite in the 1890s which marks the end of the ministry of the charismatic Irish preacher Stopford Augustus Brooke. Written between 1894 and 1896 these bound letters were sent to the minister himself, his brother, General Edward Brooke, and his daughters, notably the future social reformer Honor Brooke following her father’s enforced retirement from the Bedford Chapel in Bloomsbury and the consequent closure of the building. A brilliant lecturer and ser…… Read more
OCCULT TYPESCRIPTS FROM WEST LONDON: Hades from Anacalypsis [with] Phallism in Ancient Worship [and] Worship of Priapus [and] The Towers and Temples of Ireland — [Godfrey Higgins] ‘Potestas’ of Putney — 1903
Ambitious occult typescript from the first years of the 20th century written by a retired naval officer and currently unidentified occult scholar living in Putney, west London where he had settled after 40 years naval service. Over the first two volumes ‘Potestas’, as he dubs himself, has transcribed Godfrey Higgins’ Anacalypsis about the idea of a universal religion - Pandeism - which morphed into the Abrahamic faiths, Hinduism and Buddishm. In the third volume ‘Potestas’ of Putney contributes…… Read more
Passio Domini Nostri Jesu Christi Being the 26th and 27th Chapter of Saint Matthew’s Gospel from the Latin Text — LATIN BIBLE Eric Gill — 1926
Limited edition, number 180 of 250 copies of a beautifully achieved piece of Biblical private press printing from the 1920s illustrated by Eric Gill. Cream buckram, clean and fresh; pages unopened along top fold; gutter visible between pages 8 and 9; limitation statement numbered in black ink with cockerel emblem. A very good copy. Gill contributes two full page and four vignette illustrations. Initial letters printed in red. The jacket is chipped and worn, fair only but has done an excellent jo…… Read more
SEAWEED ALBUM FROM NORFOLK/SUFFOLK BEACHES — Myra Twiddly — 1920
An album of well-preserved seaweed contains the collection assembled by teacher Myra Twiddly who gathered her samples predominantly from the beaches of Norfolk and Suffolk post World War 1. Laid in is an interesting hand written letter sent from Myra’s step daughter describing Myra’s collection and her life as a retired teacher and talented photographer. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION Red card folder in good condition incorporating blue ribbon ties which hold the leaves within. Contains over 40 specimens…… Read more
REX WHISTLER’S DELICIOUSLY INSCRIBED COPY: The House of Memories — Barbara Wilson; Rex Whistler — 1929
A richly provenanced copy of this memoir of an Englishwoman in Paris, first acquired by the artist Rex Whistler, probably around the time of the book’s publication and his own first visit to the French capital in 1931. Subsequently the book was owned by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin’s second son, Arthur Baldwin whose ownership inscription on the front flyleaf dates to 1970 - it was Stanley Baldwin who had unveiled Rex Whistler’s Tate Gallery murals in February 1930, thereby creating an intrigui…… Read more
FIRST EDITION: WORSHIP - With provenance to the poet Anne Ridler and the library of her daughter Alison Kate. — Evelyn Underhill [Anne Ridler] — 1936
First Edition from the Library of Constructive Theology series of books published by Nisbet in 1936. Evelyn Underhill’s timeless study on the nature and principles of worship, and the main forms in which they are expressed in Christianity. The poet Anne Ridler’s pencilled notes are to be found on the rear pastedown of this copy which has provenance to the library of her daughter, Alison Kate. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION Blue cloth covered boards in good condition, a little bumped to corners, a little a…… Read more
THE AUTHOR’S HEAVILY ANNOTATED COPY: Sir John Vanbrugh: Architect & Dramatist 1664-1726 — Laurence Whistler — 1938
The first full-length biography of John Vanbrugh in the author’s own copy with his extensive and elaborate annotation, correction, emendation and insertion preparatory to a proposed revised edition which never came. Whistler’s manuscript additions to the text include an instruction to himself to add images by his more famous brother, Rex, as well as responses to criticism levelled at the text in printed reviews, corrections to matters of fact, and frequent changes and additions to the text made…… Read more
No 33/ 300 copies: The Constant Mistress by Enid Clay with Engravings by Eric Gill — Eric Gill; Enid Clay — 1934
A deluxe copy from the first 50 issued in a black morocco binding and with a suite of additional engravings, lacking one image. Full black morocco binding, top edge gilt; a little scuffed to edges; offsetting from glue used to secure the front pastedown. Vignette title and five engravings in the text with tissue guards printed on untrimmed leaves. Signed by Enid Clay and ‘Eric G’ and numbered on the limitation leaf to the rear. On the final leaf is a pocket for the additional images which has be…… Read more
‘THE TRUE TAXIDERMIST MUST BE AN ARTIST’: Manuscript Lessons on the Art of Taxidermy, c1940 — Harry Wilson — 1940
Harry Wilson’s handwritten and heavily illustrated notebook on taxidermy that begins ‘You are beginning to learn the art that is second only to painting and sculpturing. The true taxidermist must be an artist’. Illustrated with around 50 drawings this appears to be an unrecorded text written as if addressed to students. Harry’s skill and enthusiasm spill over into his handwritten notebook which runs to 172 pages of text on a subject rarely encountered in print let alone manuscript form. PHYSICAL…… Read more
1939 BBC BEETHOVEN CONCERTS PROGRAMME SIGNED BY ARTURO TOSCANINI AND ISOBEL BAILLIE — BBC, Arturo Toscanini, Isobel Baillie — 1939
BBC Beethoven Concerts in conjunction with The London Music Festival Council Programme dated Monday 22nd May 1939. Conductor: Arturo Toscanini. Cream illustrated card wrappers to front and rear. A little age spotting to front but otherwise in very good condition throughout. 44 pp. clean and unmarked. Front wrapper is signed to top left in pencil by the leading British soprano ‘Isobel Baillie’. b/w photograph of the acclaimed Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini on pp.4 signed in his distinctive ha…… Read more
INDIAN TEXTILES OF MEXICO AND GUATEMALA – A CIRCA 1950 MINI DISSERTATION WHICH REVEALS THE ETHNOGRAPHIC SHIFT IN THE STUDY OF PEOPLES AND CULTURES — Unknown — circa. 1950
A typed and bound ‘mini’ dissertation titled ‘Indian Textiles of Mexico and Guatemala’. Ethnocentric undertones revealed within the text through the frequent reference to terms such as ‘primitive culture’s’ and ‘primitive peoples’ highlight the academic and ethnographic shift in the study of other societies over recent decades and date this work to most probably pre 1960s. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION Green cloth covered boards in very good condition contain a mini dissertation style text of circa 2500…… Read more
WITH STEPHEN SONDHEIM LYRICS: The Thing of It Is — Elliott Kastner, William Goldman, Stephen Sondheim — 1969
Rare unproduced screenplay which was constructed around the lyrics of a leitmotif song provided by Stephen Sondheim which structures the entire narrative. Screenplay script dated September 1969 to title sheet, ‘Screenplay by William Goldman from his novel. Songs and other musical moments by Stephen Sondheim’. Bound to spine using 2 metal brads. 172 pp. a few manuscript corrections in an unknown hand with some additions to the text. Title on the rear edge of the script. In good condition. Sondhei…… Read more
Letter & Postcard Written while Promoting: About Time: An Aspect of Autobiography — Penelope Mortimer — 1979
Written by the novelist Penelope Mortimer to the Yorkshire art collector Ronnie Duncan, a letter and postcard from June and August 1979. The postcard (featuring a Duchamp image) looks ahead from June to ‘My spell at Hebden [Bridge]... It sees far in the future, but the distant Commitments have a habit of quite suddenly being tomorrow - which I find very unnerving...’ The letter which was written from Gloucestershire cancels her planned visit to Duncan and his wife as ‘I have to go to New York...…… Read more
WITH LETTERS FROM ISAIAH BERLIN: Personal Impressions — Isaiah Berlin — 1980
A Fine copy of the First Edition in original dust jacket with two typed and signed letters from Isaiah Berlin to the original owner, the French scholar and Cambridge professor Malcolm Bowie laid in. The letters are dated 20 November 1980 and 24 January 1981. Typed on his Headington House paper, with tippexed corrections, Berlin discusses his lectures on the Savoyard philosopher Joseph de Maistre, downplaying the quality of the lectures he gave in ‘the late 40s... I have always wanted to publishe…… Read more
Dr. Christian White
Christian White Rare Books
287 Leeds Road, Ilkley, LS29 8LL
07811 455398
info@christianwhiterarebooks.com
www.christianwhiterarebooks.com
|
|