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Dear Friend,
Britain's biggest book fair opens at midday on Friday and we're delighted to share a selection of books and manuscripts appearing at York's Knavesmire Suite. Among them are letters by Derek Jarman, a Mrs Gaskell presentation copy, an unrecorded manual for the Rolls Royce Merlin Engine (of Spitfire fame) and two annotated presentation copies given by Pete Seeger to the photographer Dan Budnik.
Best,
Christian
NOT FOUND IN UK LIBRARIES: The True Copy of a Letter Sent to Mr Caryl In Behalf of the Poor Prisoners, and Citizens of London — Joseph Caryl — 1659
Rare pamphlet petitioning a Whitehall preacher and former ally of Oliver Cromwell to show clemency to London’s ‘poor Prisoners, and Citizens’. We can locate two copies only of this pamphlet at Yale and Munich; Wing 2nd ed T2623 (Wing correctly records the publisher as ‘Tompson’ - not ‘Thompson’ as found in online catalogues.) Eight page pamphlet removed from a larger volume, numbered ‘12’ top right with stab sewing holes visible along gutter. Staining to title page; paper fault to foreedge of A2…… Read more
DAILY DEVOTIONS, OR THE MOST PROFITABLE MANNER OF HEARING MASS VERY NECESSARY FOR ALL CATHOLICKS — Unknown Author — 1722
Scarce devotional collection printed for English Roman Catholics in an attractive contemporary binding. A beautifully unsophisticated copy. Contemporary sheepskin binding with double blind rules to the boards; a little wear at the head and tail of the spine. Text collates [2] pp72 with an engraved title page and engravings to the verso of all 36 leaves opposite letter press text. A very good copy with a flyleaf preceding the text but not after it. Noted on collation: Closed tear along bottom 3cm…… Read more
MISS BLANDYS OWN ACCOUNT OF THE AFFAIR BETWEEN HER AND MR CRANSTOUN From the Commencement of their Acquaintance in the year 1746 to the death of her father in August 1751. WITH A Letter From a Clergyman to Miss Mary Blandy Now a Prisoner in Oxford Castle; With Her Answer thereto. As also Miss Blandy’s own Narrative Of the Crime for which She is Condemn’d to DIE — Mary Blandy — 1752
Published ‘at her dying Request’ in 1752, a pair of pamphlets telling the sensational personal account of Mary Blandy's love affair with Mr. Cranstoun, and the events that led up to her father's death from arsenic poisoning in 1751, resulting in her trial and execution before 5000 people on an April morning at Oxford - a case that continues to be debated to this day. Miss Blandy’s Own Account, 1752: very good condition, clean and unmarked throughout. Age toned. Sewing remains sound. Pasted to fr…… Read more
AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF THE WEALTH OF NATIONS — Adam Smith — 1802
Tenth edition of the foundational work of modern economics by Adam Smith, attractively bound in half black calf over marbled boards. A good looking set in a binding from a few decades after its publication. Octavo volumes (21x13cm) Vol III is the only one of the three with its spine label. Volumes I and III are bound without their half title; Vol II has a half title. All three volumes have the book label of ‘John S Palmer’ to the front paste-down. Browning to preliminaries but otherwise a clean…… Read more
AULD LANG SYNE & 36 Largely Scottish Musical Imprints bound together by ‘F Forbes’ — Nathaniel Gow; Henry Belville Harrington; J Mazzinghi; Daniel Ross; John Ross;D Steibelt; TH Butler;T Latour;L Von Esch;Felix Yaniewicz;J Jouve and John Monro — 1802
Collection of 37 musical imprints owned, inscribed and bound as one by ‘F Forbes’ whose name appears repeatedly through the imprints. Within the collection there are a couple of unrecorded items, one unlocated in this form and several signed. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION Folio volume half bound in worn contemporary sheep over paper covered boards. Contemporary red sheep label lettered in gilt to front board reads ‘F Forbes’. Red sheep label lettered in gilt reads ‘Miscellanirs’ to rear board. 5 panelled…… Read more
AN EGREGIOUS FORGERY PURPORTING TO BE GILBERT WHITE’S COPY: Dissertations, Essays and Parallels — John Robert Scott [Gilbert White] — 1804
A sustained and outrageous forgery purporting to be a collection of essays individually owned, inscribed and in places even annotated by the naturalist and writer Gilbert White. The fictitious chain of provenance has the book being owned by White’s successor at Selborne, the vicar Thomas Cobbold who has supposedly written on the flyleaf that ‘These papers were collected and bound because they once belonged to the late Gilbert White-’ Certainly there are 10 supposed ownership signatures belonging…… Read more
NAPOLEONIC HOME-GUARD FARCE: The C[oggesha]ll Volunteer Corps. A Farce. In Two Acts...the Fourth Edition — An Inhabitant of Great Coggeshall [T Harris] — 1804
Unusally complete, with the folding engraved frontispiece, a satirical spoof on small-town politics in the face of the threat of a French invasion of England at the time of the Napoleonic Wars. The play centres around the recruitment of local men to join a 'Home Guard'-type militia to fight the French, based in the Essex town of Coggeshall and printed in nearby Colchester. Pretty tree calf binding with gilt decoration to boards; some loss to leather at top and tail of spine. Marbled endpapers; o…… 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
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
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
BAWDY BALLADS & MEDICAL NOTES IN A RARE ANATOMY MANUAL The London Anatomist: Being a Description of The Origin and Insertion of the Muscles of the Body [with] Johnson’s Dictionary — [Dr Edwin Ellis] — 1837
Rare anatomy manual for London medical students which has been interleaved and annotated throughout during his studies by Edwin Ellis who practised medicine in Tulse Hill in south London. About half of Ellis’s notes relate to his study of the medical text; the other half are made up of an increasingly scurrilous set of what are at first Irish-themed poems which include an ode to wine, ‘St Patrick was a Gentleman’, a poem to a Shamrock and the London Ballad ‘There was a lass of Islington’ whose s…… 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
UNRECORDED CHAPBOOK EDITION: The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, Who was Born in Newgate... Was Twelve Years a Whore; Five Times a Wife (Whereof once to her own Brother) Twelve years a Thief, Eight years a Transported Felon to Virginia, at Last Grew Rich, Lived Honestly and Died a Penitent — Daniel Defoe — 1850
Otherwise unknown London chapbook edition of this outrageous and transgressive eighteenth century novel. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Small format bound in blue stamped cloth over bevel-edged boards. Title in faded gilt to the upper cover and spine with the (surely very high?) price of 7s 6d. Edges of text block stained red. Paper lining to inner hinges; original endpapers a little chipped to foreedge. The title page reproduces the original 1722 working via Charles Reynell’s 1840 reprint, copying Reyne…… 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
MANUSCRIPT pedigree and genealogy of the Ellis, Waltham & ELIOT families written by Charles Walton Ellis (b.1842) With links to Mirfield, Camberwell and Tulse Hill — Charles Walton Ellis — 1860
A wide ranging and very detailed handwritten account of the pedigree and genealogy of the Ellis and Waltham surnames and family trees written by Charles Walton Elllis (b.1842), the son of Edwin Ellis and Emma Waltham with links to Mirfield, Camberwell and Tulse Hill. Laid in throughout are various ephemera including funeral cards, letters, cuttings from newspapers, photographs, a clipping from Debrett’s Illustrated Peerage, illustrated coats of arms for the Dawson family and a touching hand draw…… 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 pre-eminent 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 15 Bucki…… Read more
PRESENTATION COPY WITH A LETTER FROM META GASKELL: Wives and Daughters. An Every-day Story by Mrs Gaskell. With Eighteen Illustrations by George du Maurier — Mrs Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell; Meta Gaskell — 1866
Rare presentation copy made by the author’s daughter on behalf of her mother who died suddenly while writing this novel: ‘If Mama had lived she would have sent you a copy of “Wives and Daughters”. Will you and dear Mrs Ericksen accept the volumes... as a memorial of her from my father and myself? Yours most truly, Meta Gaskell. Plymouth Grove. Sunday Feb 18. [1866]’ The recipients of the book were probably the Danish-born surgeon and his wife, John Eric and Mary Elizabeth Erichsen. Both volumes…… Read more
EXQUISITELY WORKED MANUSCRIPT BY A WELSH RAILWAYMAN - Presented to his Bride on their Marriage — James Tilley [Birket Foster] — 1872
Beautifully executed manuscript collection of illustrated poems after the work of Birket Foster, created by James Tilley, a Welsh railwayman working on the Taff Vale Railway in south Wales, made as a gift for his soon-to-be wife Mary Morton, daughter of Robert Morton a ship owner from St Ives. Tilley has created fifteen exquisitely worked sketches as a love-gift centred on poems by Tennyson, Keats and Gray’s Elegy. The workmanship is so fine that it is hard to credit that these are indeed hand-d…… 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
FIRST WOMAN FELLOW OF THE ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY The Cobham Journals. Abstracts and Summaries of Meteorological and Phenological Observations made by Caroline Molesworth — Caroline Molesworth; Eleanor Ormerod — 1880
Presentation copy from Eleanor Ormerod, first woman Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society and the earliest woman to receive an honorary degree from Edinburgh University, inscribed in her hand on the front flyleaf to ‘The Royal Society of Edinburgh. With compliments from Miss E.A. Ormerod. Dunster Lodge, W. Isleworth. June 9th 1880.’ The book which contains four decades of Molesworth’s meterological observations is a fascinating example of a leading woman scientist of the late 19th century a…… Read more
THAMES ROWING CLUB - A HANDWRITTEN ROWING JOURNAL COVERING THE PERIOD 1889 -1896 — G G Taylor — 1889
A meticulously detailed hand written record kept by rower G G Taylor who documents his 8 seasons of rowing at Thames Rowing Club between 1889 and 1896. Club competition results for Scratch Eights, April Fours, Trial Eights, Senior Fours and more include the names of all competitors and outcomes. Race results and team names are documented for each year against crews from Trinity Hall and Balliol College and from local regattas including Henley Royal Regatta Grand and Challenge Cups, Walton on Tha…… 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
CONSTANCE FOULKES’ CORRECTED COPY Italian Painters: Critical Studies of their Works — Constance Jocelyn Foulkes - Giovanni Morelli - Ivan Lermolieff — 1893
Constance Jocelyn Foulkes’ heavily corrected pre-proof copy of her translation into English of Morelli’s ground-breaking work which introduced northern Europe to his technique of identifying and attributing artists’ work through the study of almost unconscious habits of portraying details like hands or ears. Half calf over red cloth covered boards (bound after the annotating process was completed with text-block trimmed, slightly affecting the edges of annotations); brown coated endpapers. The b…… Read more
BEDFORD ROW, 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
PRESENTED TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE GENERAL MEDICAL COUNCIL COPY Science and Immortality — William Osler [Donald McAlister] — 1904
Inscribed on behalf of the leading physician of his age, William Osler, probably by a publisher’s clerk, to Donald McAlister in the year that he became president of the General Medical Council, later Principal of Glasgow University. Small octavo bound in green cloth with gilt lettering and bevelled edges to the boards. Brown paper endpapers; cracking to the paper over the front inner hinge; inscribed on the front flyleaf. A single manuscript correction to Osler’s Latin is made at page 81 where t…… Read more
THE GROWTH OF OUR POLICE SYSTEM - a paper read before the English Congregational Church Literary Society in January 1913 — David Hames — 1913
A Jubilee exercise book containing a hand written paper written titled The Growth of our Police System, written in 1912/1913 to be delivered as a paper before the English Congregational Church Literary Society in January 1913. The unknown author, very much a fan of the contemporary early 20th century police system of which he writes leads all other police forces today aims through his writing to trace and describe the growth of policing from early Saxon times until the turn of the 19th century.…… Read more
STANLEY SPENCER SKETCHBOOK WITH STUDIES FOR THE COOKHAM RESURRECTION & CHATTO & WINDUS ALMANAC — Stanley Spencer — 1925
A sketchbook filled with 54 drawings by the English artist Stanley Spencer (1891-1959) dating from the mid 1920s when Spencer created his first mature masterpiece, The Resurrection in Cookham Churchyard (1926), and the sixteen wall panels memorialising his Great War experiences at the Sandham Memorial Chapel in Burghclere. The sketchbook includes Spencer’s notes for adjusting the dimensions of several of the Burghclere canvases - ‘Kit-bags. Take off right side & add little to bottom’ which must…… 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
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
DESIGNS FOR THE CUNARD WHITE STAR LINE, THE BLUE FUNNEL LINE AND THE EMPIRE EXHIBITION GLASGOW BY LIVERPOOL ARTIST AND ILLUSTRATOR WALTER THOMAS — Cunard White Star Line; Walter Thomas — c.1930
Walter Thomas was born in Liverpool and attended its College of Art between 1912–13 followed by two years studying art in London. His focus on maritime subjects culminated in a commission from the Cunard White Star Line who appointed him to paint marine portraits of their great ocean liners which plied the North Atlantic route in the first half of the twentieth century. These paintings were used particularly to create spectacular posters. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Hard backed sturdy, well-worn album…… 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
‘THERE WILL NOT BE A JEW ALIVE’: Palestine Travel Journal of a Movie-Making Scottish Minister — ‘J.C.N’ and ‘E.N.’ Aberdonian Pastor & Wife — 1937
A rich and highly readable 40,000 word travel diary written within the context of the ‘Great Palestinian Revolt’ of 1936-1939. A Scottish couple J.C.N (a minister) and E (his wife) from Aberdeen departed on SS Strathmore in the Autumn of 1937 to Port Said where they disembarked and travelled north to Galilee, Jerusalem and on to Egypt. The ‘movie camera’ with which they recorded the trip features throughout the flowing narrative which teems with social and cultural observations while simultaneou…… 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
GIFTED BY DADIE RYLANDS TO RALPH RICHARDSON & BY MARGARET DRABBLE AND MICHAEL HOLROYD: The Ages of Man: Shakespeare’s Image of Man and Nature — William Shakespeare [Ralph Richardson; George ‘Dadie’ Rylands; Margaret Drabble; Michael Holroyd] — 1939
A much gifted book, presented in the first instance by its editor George ‘Dadie’ Rylands to the preeminent Shakespearean actor Ralph Richardson whose bookplate appears on the front pastedown and who has annotated chunks of the text and the endpapers, apparently for performance at an event celebrating Shakespeare’s 375th birthday. (In 1939 Richardson was playing Falstaff in Henry IV Part I and Caliban in The Four Feathers.) After Richardson’s death in 2006 the book came into the possession of the…… Read more
UNRECORDED EDITION - Rolls Royce Aero Engines: Merlin XX - Running And Maintenance Notes (Subject to Revision) — Rolls Royce — 1941
Unrecorded edition of the handbook for the The Rolls-Royce Merlin engine that was the heart of iconic Allied aircraft like the Spitfire and Hurricane, playing a crucial role in the Battle of Britain and securing victory in World War II This bound volume of Running and Maintenance Notes for the Merlin XX Engine is a work not held in any institutional collection, though earlier versions of the handbook survive in a single copy of four different editions; one copy only in the UK of the May 1938 edi…… Read more
ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT FOR THE FILM MORNING DEPARTURE, 1949 — Jay Lewis Productions; Kenneth Wollard — 1949
Cameraman’s shooting script of this classic British submarine movie, Morning Departure, produced by Jay Lewis Productions, directed by Roy Ward Baker and released on 21st Feb 1950. The film was based on a stage play by Kenneth Wollard which was based on the loss of HMS Thetis starring John Mills, Richard Attenborough, George Cole, Kenneth More, Nigel Patrick and Bernard Lee. This original 142 pp. marked up shooting script belonged to R Spencer Robinson who was employed as a cameraman on the film…… Read more
ILLUSTRATED BY DAVID HOCKNEY: The Bradfordian: The Magazine of the Bradford Grammar School — David Hockney — 1950
Six issues from David Hockney’s time at Bradford Grammar School, including two of the artist’s earliest self-portraits, created while he studied at the school and published here in the school magazine, The Bradfordian. Hockney’s cartoon-style self-portraits appear in the March 1953 issue (235), both signed in print ‘Okni’ and depict the young David protesting ‘about Compulsory Running’; in the second image opposite he is seen being pushed by another boy in a bath chair alongside a dry stone wall…… 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
ORIGINAL ARTWORK TO ILLUSTRATE: One Day in Shakespeare’s England — Gordon King; Avis Murton Carter — 1973
Artist Gordon King’s original artwork for this ‘colourful and stimulating introduction to Shakespeare’s England’ from the 1970s comprising 10 surprisingly powerful pieces in a mixture of watercolour, oil and acrylics which portray a performance at the Globe Theatre, figures from Elizabethan life and a large idealised depiction of a performance of A Midsummer Nights Dream in an English village. The artwork is executed on Colyer and Southey CS10 line board, protected by cover sheets, marked up and…… Read more
‘IS THIS LITTLE PIECE OF AMERICA WORTH SAVING?’ Henscratches and Flyspecks: How to Read Melodies from Songbooks — Pete Seeger [Dan Budnik] — 1973
Presentation copy with letters from the musician and social activist Pete Seeger to his friend and long term artistic collaborator, the photographer Dan Budnik, who took the portrait of Seeger that appears on the lower panel of the book’s dustjacket. There are four letters to Budnik from Pete Seeger laid into the book, two concerning Seeger’s advocacy for ‘some crucial river scenes which may become parks if we push for ‘em - but which may become industrial sites or developments, if we don’t watc…… 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
‘4 DAYS FILMING IN A FREEZING WAREHOUSE WHICH WAS MEANT TO TRANSFORM INTO A TROPICAL RAIN FOREST’ 7 Letters, 2 Cards and an Improvised Letter/ Artwork from Derek Jarman — Derek Jarman — 1984
A group of ebullient letters from the artist and film-maker Derek Jarman discussing with a writer friend the challenges of making his films The Angelic Conversation, Caravaggio and The Last of England (1984-1986) as well as his paintings and an unrealised project around the poems of Cavafy. Written at the height of his creative powers, these letters to the Scottish journalist and writer Iain Finlayson show Jarman exulting in his ability to make and fund the counter-cultural projects that he love…… Read more
CIVIL RIGHTS PHOTOGRAPHER DAN BUDNIK’S CORRECTED COPY: Everybody says Freedom: A History of the Civil Rights Movement in Songs and Pictures — Pete Seeger & Bob Reiser — 1989
Presentation copy from Pete Seeger to one of the book’s photographers with Dan Budnik’s handwritten corrections to the North Carolina and Alabama locations of several of his best-known images of the civil rights era, as well as a letter from Pete Seeger’s wife presenting this copy of the book. First edition, a fine copy in a very good jacket with fading to the spine. Inscribed by Seeger on the front flyleaf: ‘for Dan and Kirsten! thanks for great photographs Stay well, both of you Pete [banjo dr…… Read more
SPIRAL BOUND PROOF Girl with Curious Hair — David Foster Wallace — 1989
Spiral-bound pre-publication proof copy of Foster Wallace’s first collection of stories. Black spiral binding with acetate upper cover and card lower cover. Paper label to upper cover giving details of publication planned for 6th November 1989 and a publicity contact. Text reproduced in landscape format, two pages to a leaf; rectos only. Near fine condition, a little marking to the foreedge.
FINE 4th IMPRESSION Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone & FINE 7th IMPRESSION of Chamber of Secrets — J K Rowling — 1997
Absolutely fine fourth impression of the Bloomsbury first edition of the first Harry Potter novel. Number line: ‘10 9 8 7 6 5 4’; no gap between ‘Thomas Taylor1997’ as called for; young Dumbledore and priced at £10.99: fine in fine dustjacket. This book is housed along with a similarly fine example of the 7th impression of Chamber of Secrets in a Harry Potter Gift set box which has protected both from experiencing any kind of wear. Neither book has been read; there are no marks of ownership or b…… Read more
The Oxford Companion to the Book Volume 1 & 2 — Michael F Suarez; H R Woodhuysen — 2010
First Edition. Both volumes housed in red and white decorative publisher’s slipcase in excellent condition. Quarter bound in red cloth over red roan to spines. Titled in gilt to spine. Red page ribbons. All in excellent and pristine condition. Text block pristine incorporating b/w photos. Volumes contain 48 essays. Volume 1 Essays A - C, pp. 1 - pp. 653. Volume 2 Essays D - Z, pp. 654 - 1327 A superb reference work.
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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