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The Annals of the Town of Kingston upon Hull: AN UNRECORDED CENTURY MANUSCRIPT OF AN IMPORTANT 17th CENTURY HISTORY — Abraham de la Pryme — 1775
Manuscript copy of a major 17th century work of English history, and the foundational text in the history of Kingston upon Hull, written by the antiquary, Abraham de la Pryme and found here in an 18th century copy much-expanded from the three other known manuscripts in Hull and the British Library. Chronicling the history of Hull from the ancient world, through the medieval era and into the 16th and 17th centuries, Pryme also incorporates a wider narrative of the English Civil War and the period…… Read more
OWNED BY GEORGE WASHINGTON’S FELLOW COMMANDER: An Account of what Passed at the Execution of the Late Duke of Monmouth [&] The Proceedings Against Sir Thomas Armstrong [&] The Free and Voluntary Confession and Narrative of James Holloway [&] A True Account & Declaration of the Horrid Conspiracy against the late King [&] Copies of the Informations and Original Papers — Thomas Sprat, Earl of Monmouth, Thomas Armstrong [George Washington, Archibald Montgomerie] — 1685
A collection of English Rebellion narratives owned by one of George Washington’s fellow commanders in the French and Indian War, the Scots army officer and politician Archibald Montgomerie, who raised the 77th Foot Regiment of Highlanders and led them alongside Washington’s Virginia Regiment in the capture of Fort Duquesne in 1758. Going back another half century, this volume contains an uncommon printed account of the execution of the Duke of Monmouth on Tower-Hill in 1685 alongside four pamphl…… Read more
A Tour Through the Island of Great Britain. Divided into Circuits of Journies... The Eighth Edition with Great Additions and Improvements — Daniel Defoe — 1778
Four volume 18th century edition in attractive speckled calf whose first owner in the 1780s was Mary Tunstall, subsequently given to her cousin, Maria Salvin. Uniformly bound with gilt spine band and a red morocco spine label. A little tenderness to upper hinge of volume I but otherwise a very good set of bindings which are also very attractive. Inscription on first flyleaf of Vol I: ‘Maria Salvin from her Affec: Cousin M Tunstall’ and Salvin’s signature on the title page, opposite the fold-out…… Read more
THOMAS PAINE PAMPHLETS OWNED & ANNOTATED BY THE MAN WHO DUG UP HIS BODY: Two Volume Sammelband of Radical Imprints — Thomas Paine; William Cobbett, James Cobbett, William Hone etc — 1787
Two-volume sammelband of late-eighteenth - and early nineteenth-century radical pamphlets, owned by James Paul Cobbett, the radical campaigner who, with his father William Cobbett, disinterred the skeleton of Thomas Paine in New York state and shipped it back to England in 1819. Thirty-eight separately published pamphlets bound in two large octavo-size volumes. With J. P. Cobbett’s signature in ink to the title-page of four publications and numerous brief marginal annotations and underlining by…… Read more
Common Sense: addressed to the inhabitants of America [with:] Miscellaneous Articles [and] A Letter Addressed to the Abbe Raynal, on the Affairs of North-America [and] Paine's Four Letters [and] Rights of Man [and] Rights of Man; part the Second — Thomas Paine [Barber Beaumont] — 1792
A collection of six of the most influential works on democracy ever written, all published contemporaneously with Paine’s censure in England, formerly owned by a significant figure in London’s radical intellectual history. This volume includes a copy of Rights of Man, the Second Part (1792), printed in the same year as the first printing. (Howes places this London edition earlier than the first American, but does not delineate between the priority of the 1792 London printings.) In this second, m…… Read more
COLONIAL-ERA MANUSCRIPT MAP OF ‘TEN NORTH AMERICAN COLONIES’ in: A System of Geography Consisting of Thirty-Five Maps 1796 — M.L.S. [18th Century Child, contemporary of Jane Austen] — 1796
Fine late 18th century English manuscript atlas beautifully drawn, almost certainly by a child, and offering 68 full-page maps, 32 in outline and a further 36 with keyed explanatory apparatus. The manuscript’s creator, probably in or around London, details a colonial-era map of North America (California as peninsular) entitled ‘Ten Northern American Colonies’ (going no further south than Virginia) as well as providing maps of the ‘East Indies and China’ and a further ‘Epitome of the new World’ -…… Read more
‘A Sagamore or Petty King in Virginia’: Robert Southey quotes Thomas Fuller — Robert Southey — 1800
Manuscript leaf in the hand of the Romantic poet, friend of Wordsworth and Coleridge, Robert Southey who quotes from the fable written by the 17th century writer Thomas Fuller about ‘A Sagamore or petty king in Virginia, guessing the greatness of other kings by his own, sent a native hither, who understood English’. Southey continues with Fuller’s description of the man’s astonishment at the English population in ‘Plymouth, a populous place’, then Exeter (Fuller’s hometown in the early 1640s whe…… Read more
A LEEDS ‘DRUGGIST’’s COPY - The Housekeeper’s Butler’s and Innkeeper’s Guide for Making... British Wines [&] The School of Arts; or Fountain of Knowledge [&] The Whole Art of Confectionary, Sugar Boiling, Iceing, Candying [&] The Cattle-Keeper’s Assistant or Complete Directory — S Wilkinson, S Stavely, Josiah Ringsted — 1810
Four rare imprints containing receipts and recipes for wine, foodstuffs and medicines, owned and annotated by ‘Tho[ma]s Geldard... Neer Leeds Druggist Born in the year 182[?] In the month of July 4 Day’. As well as inscribing the book with his personal details Geldard, who places himself in the ‘Woodhouse’ area of Leeds (just by the present day university campus), has added in manuscript a few examples of his own medicines, notably a popular tincture of opium, paregoric: ‘For a Cough/ R. parigor…… Read more
ORIGINS OF THE CREDIT RATINGS INDUSTRY: Minute Book of The Society of Mutual Communication for the Protection of Trade — John Strongitharm etc — 1803
Unpublished records of a secretive early 19th century precursor of the modern credit ratings industry. The Society of Mutual Communication for the Protection of Trade was founded in order to allow London business men to spot deadbeat clients, share information between businesses as well as managing debt recovery from failed transactions. This vellum-bound set of Minutes of this trade protection society covers the years 1803-1816 when London was emerging as the world’s preeminent trading city; it…… Read more
The Falls of Clyde, or, The Fairies; A Scotish [sic] Dramatic Pastoral, in Five Acts With Three Preliminary Investigations — John Black — 1806
A fairy drama preceded by a long dissertation by the author ‘On Fairies’, the Scottish Langauge and Pastoral. Handsomely bound in half dark green morocco over marbled boards. Frontispiece of the Falls by R Scot; engraved title to the play drawn by J Burnet and engraved by R Scott: pp241. A lovely copy. In the early 19th century, fairies, or Sìthichean, held a deeply rooted place in Scottish culture, particularly in the Highlands and Islands. Far from the whimsical, small, winged creatures of Vic…… Read more
THE COMPLETE SYSTEM OF ENGLISH COUNTRY DANCING, Containing all the Figures ever used in English Country Dancing — Thomas Wilson — 1820
A beautifully unsophisticated example of this very scarce English dancing manual found here in the publisher’s original paper covered boards with printed spine label. Printed on high quality wove paper, the text and plates are in excellent condition, many leaves unopened. Publisher’s binding of brown paper over boards, chipping to the paper covering and cracking along paper covering outer hinges. Binding entirely sound. Collates in line with OCLC 35049803, date taken from frontispiece: [3] vi-xx…… Read more
AN INSCRIPTION FROM DR JOHNSON TO MRS THRALE - In Amelia Fox’s ‘Souvenir’ Album — Amelia Jane Fox [Samuel Johnson, Walter Scott, George I/II/III/IV/ Manock Chatterjee; Robert Moffat] — 1826
An exceptional woman’s album compiled 1820s-1880s containing an inscription by Samuel Johnson presenting a gift to his friend Hester Thrale. Johnson promises something ‘Brought from Scotland’ - a tantalising suggestion given the writer’s famous trip to Scotland and the Hebrides in 1773, immortalised in A Journey to the Western Islands. Johnson’s inscription is laid down in the middle of the book, in the context of other documents signed by George III, Walter Scott, the Parsi businesman Manockhee…… Read more
AMAZING GRACE-INSPIRED ANNOTATION: Memoirs of the Rev. John Newton; Anna Ross, A Story for Children; The Catechist; a fragment; The Nursery Plutarch — Rev Richard Cecil M.A.; Grace Kennedy; Margaret Grierson, Catherine Sinclair — 1825; 1833; 1827
John Newton’s memoirs, fervently annotated by an early reader with lines from Psalm 139, ‘Whereas I was blind now I see’, the inspiration for Newton’s great anthem, Amazing Grace. The hymn was written in 1772 and published in 1779 by Newton, a slave trader turned abolitionist which has become perhaps the most sung and most recorded hymn in the world, especially popular in the United States. Newton’s memoir which recounts his dramatic conversion story is bound here with three Edinburgh imprints,…… Read more
FIRST PUBLICATION OF MARY ANNING’S FOSSILS - WITH SPECTACULAR PLATES: Some Account of the Fossil Remains of an Animal & An Account of the Fossil Skeleton of the Proteo-saurus — Mary Anning; Everard Home; James Basire; William Clift — 1814 & 1819
The first publication of any of Mary Anning's fossils, with spectacular plates showing two ichthyosaur specimens. These two papers, by the anatomist Everard Home, comprise the first scientific description of ichthyosaurs. In the first paper (1814, four plates; two folding) Home describes Mary Anning's landmark discovery, remaining unsure if it is a fish or some other kind of creature; in the second (1819, three plates; one folding - the huge Proteosaurus image) Home concludes that what he calls…… Read more
The Literary and Philosophical Magazine WITH AN ARTICLE ON THE MORALITY OF READING BY THE QUAKER MINISTER, ANNA BRAITHWAITE — Charles Lloyd L Braithwaite; Anna Braithwaite [William Ellis] — 1828
Manuscript literary magazine for coterie circulation by Charles Braithwaite with a powerful essay on the efficacy of reading by the prominent English Quaker minister (and mother of the editor) Anna Braithwaite. Written and edited by her son Charles Lloyd Braithwaite in his late teens in their native Kendal (modern-day Cumbria) his mother Anna’s essay develops a subtle argument about the moral power of well-chosen reading materials: ‘Reading, certainly gratifies in itself, but when at the same ti…… Read more
AUTOGRAPH MUSIC MANUSCRIPT ‘Song in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night’ — Sigismund von Neukomm [William Shakespeare] — 1832
Four page setting of Feste’s song ‘Come Away, Death’ from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Written over four oblong octavo pages (a bifolium extracted from a book of printed manuscript paper) with prettily embossed borders. Neukomm sets the music for a low voice over two verses and with a keyboard accompaniment that introduces and ends his setting. At the conclusion he has inscribed the manuscript ‘for Miss Giles. Ardwick Green 21/11 [18]32 Neukomm’. Sigismund von Keukomm (1778-1858) was a disciple…… Read more
Journal & Sketchbook of a Tour of Palestine Written by a Wealthy Roman Catholic Priest & friend of John Henry Newman — Anthony Hutchison — 1857
Journal of a tour of Palestine containing landscape and architectural sketches by the wealthy Catholic priest Anthony Hutchison as he visited the holy places in 1857, with an eye for the history and culture of the towns, villages, synagogues and mosques that he visited, and their inhabitants. A friend and London-based supporter of John Henry Newman’s mission (Hutchison was ordained at Brompton Oratory and helped to purchase its site) but still only in his 30s, Hutchison had by the mid 1850s spen…… Read more
TWO UNRECORDED ANTI-SLAVERY IMPRINTS: ‘Does the Bible Sanction American Slavery?’ ‘The Coolie Traffic and The Polynesian Slave-Trade’ & Other Anti-Slavery Pamphlets — Goldwin Smith, F Gilbert White, Robert Shaw, John Brown etc — 1863
Two unrecorded anti-slavery pamphlets addressing the forced migration of labourers from the Polynesian islands and of so-called ‘coolie emigration’ from ‘French West Indian and South American possessions’ to British India. These otherwise unknown texts have been bound alongside two classic British pamphleteering texts attacking American slavery, during the Civil War, five other imprints and a long autograph poem which was written in response to a challenge by ‘some malicious belles’. The two tex…… Read more
THE FIRST PUBLICATION OF ARCHAEOPTERYX, VITAL EVIDENCE FOR EVOLUTION: On the Archeopteryx of von Meyer — Richard Owen — 1863
The first published description of Archaeopteryx, one of the most significant fossils ever discovered. This is Richard Owen's classic Philosophical Transactions paper, illustrated with an exceptional lithographic folding plate showing a life-sized image of the type specimen. The first glimpse of Archaeopteryx occurred in 1861, when a single feather was illustrated in a German periodical. Soon an entire skeleton was found nearby, and this was purchased for the high price of £700 by the British Mu…… Read more
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. — Charles Darwin — 1869
A lovely example of the second edition with dozens of pencilled annotations by an early owner that read like an inchoate wail of fury at Darwin’s whole project, labelling him as ‘dirty both in thought and conduct’ (a charge more usually made against the The Descent of Man) for his preoccupation with sex. His theses are labelled ‘beyond the pale of argument and proof’, his geology inept, and then there is the personal vituperation: ‘I know not how Mr D was produced whether by natural selection or…… Read more
Memoirs of the life of Fanny Hill, or, The career of a Woman of Pleasure: Illustrated with Colour Plates — John Cleland — 1870s
Rare, illustrated late Victorian chapbook-adjacent edition of one of the most prosecuted and banned books in history. Publisher’s black textured cloth with the title to the upper board. Backstrip appears to have been relaid. Coloured frontispiece opposite title page which has the bookseller’s stamp of ‘Dorsan and Co’ of West Norwood in south London. (The only reference we can find to this bookseller is in relation to publication of a contraceptive guide in the early 1900s.) The book is printed o…… Read more
AUTHOR’S CORRECTED COPY: Lives of the Engineers: Harbours, Lighthouses, Bridges: Smeaton and Rennie — Samuel Smiles — 1874
Smiles’ heavily corrected copy of his classic account of John Smeaton and John Rennie’s ‘Harbours, Lighthouse, Bridges’ which formed Volume II of his Lives of the Engineers. First published in 1862, this copy shows the numerous changes required for the expanded and revised edition of 1874. Sent to Smiles in parts and without the preliminary material, each section of this volume has the rubber-stamp of the printers: ‘William Clowes and Sons of Stamford Street’ to the head margin with the addition…… Read more
Democracy. An American Novel — [Henry Brooks Adams] — 1880
Seemingly unlocated in any institutional collection, an illustrated Australian edition of Brooks Adams’ satirical novel about the acquisition, use and abuse of political power, set in Washington D.C. Published anonymously in 1880 we date this edition to the 1880s, with its stylish illustrations by the French artist, Jules Despres. DESCRIPTION: Bright blue cloth with black and gilt decoration and bevel edges. All edges gilt. Frontispiece and 5 plates, pp272. Colophon note: ‘Printed by Walter Scot…… Read more
Fancy [Dress] Ball. January 11th 1882 — George Tuohy & Co — 1882
Lavishly produced record of a high society late Victorian Fancy Dress Ball photographed by the Richmond (west London) photographic company George Tuohy & Co. Fancy dress balls were one of the grandest and most fashionable ways for a wealthy family to make their mark, a display of wealth and status - and a lot of fun. At this event on January 11th 1882 the guests have sat for 135 professional photographs before attending the event, appearing as Cardinals of the Roman Catholic church, soldier boys…… Read more
CHINA SQUADRON DIARY PATROLLING CHINESE & JAPANESE WATERS: Diary of the 2nd Commission of HMS Linnet — W H Parker — 1886
Diary of a young British officer with the China Squadron, based in Hong Kong and patrolling Chinese and Japanese waters between 1886-1889 to enforce the Pax Britannica. In the late 1880s the British navy’s China Squadron was the primary instrument of British imperial power in East Asia, protecting commercial interest and securing naval supremacy, especially against Russian expansion which is a repeated concern in Parker’s diary entries. Arriving in the far East Parker’s tours of duty took HMS Li…… Read more
IONA PRESS IMPRINT - The Death of Fraoch - Bas Fhraoich — W C Ward; William Muir — 1888
Strikingly beautiful William Blake-inspired, fully lithographed edition printed at the Iona Press by the Gaelic scholar John McCormick and William Muir. The press which was founded in 1887 had a mission to preserve and promote Iona's history and Muir himself had recently spent time creating lithographed editions of Blake’s work in London and his influence is unmistakable in this work. DESCRIPTION Stiff brown paper printed wrappers with yapp edges; rubbed and a little faded; stab sewn with yellow…… Read more
INSCRIBED BY THE WELSH/ ARGENTINIAN RAILWAY ENGINEER ARTHUR COLEMAN Mapa de la Provincia Buenos Aires Recopilado por los Ingeniores — Ernst Nolte; Silveira & Jorge Doclout [Arthur Coleman] — 1890
Engineering map of the Buenos Aires district owned and inscribed by the Welsh railway engineer Arthur - Arturo - Coleman who moved to Argentina to become a central figure in the construction of Argentina’s Great Southern Railway or FC Sud in the 1890s. Coleman (1868-1952), who has inscribed the tail of the map, helped develop cities in the desert, built bridges and tunnels, and went on to rub shoulders with Eva Peron. Later, Coleman wrote several books in Spanish on the railroads in Argentina an…… Read more
‘“BEASTLY WET”, “HORRIBLY DAMP”, “ABOMINABLE”’ Our Visit to Scotland 1892 - Three Large Manuscript Volumes — ‘W.I.’ and Hannah M Young - G W Wilson, Photographer — 1892
Lavishly illustrated tour of Scotland undertaken by two young men in 1892 including a long description of climbing Ben Nevis in the fog, arriving at the summit for a slap-up meal in the famous Observatory Hotel: ‘Plain teas 2/6, Ham and Eggs 4/” Two of the former were called, & the quality of two mountain appetites tested with very satisfactory results... No view was to be obtained, the mist only moving off to make room for more...’ Bad weather dogged the pair throughout the trip which ranges ac…… Read more
A Lively-Letter to a Lonely Lover - ONLY SURVIVING COPY? — Madge Buford (pseudonym) — 1892
Unique copy of a pornographic novel written in letter form by Louisiana-born ‘Madge Buford’ and addressed as a stimulant to her ‘lonely lover’, Captain Jack Gardner ‘way out in camp there in the Rocky Mountains’. Divided into 26 short chapters of non-stop debauchery, the heroine’s erotic adventures begin when she is rescued at 16 from the Convent of the Sacred-Heart in New York and taken to live on her uncle’s Louisiana plantation ‘among the palms, pelicans and bayous, where the half tropical su…… Read more
‘THE GREATEST FEATURE OF THIS WONDERFUL CITY IS THE SKYSCRAPER: A Four Week Ocean-Going Trip to Visit New York City in the Summer of 1903 — Edward F Ventris [T J Buck] — 1903
‘A Trip to America’, recorded by a young, bumptious traveller from a successful English military family (his father was Commander of British Forces in China at the time), determined not to be overawed by New York City, and then completely overawed by people, elevated railways and high-rise architecture: ‘The structures at first sight, strike one as ridiculous. Why go up to such outrageous heights? Well it is necessary for New York cannot expand... It is surrounded by water and must therefore go…… Read more
OWNED BY THE MAN BLAMED FOR THE SINKING OF THE TITANIC: The She-Wolves of Machecoul to which is Added, the Corsican Brothers — Alexander Dumas [Joseph Bruce Ismay] — 1894
Two fine volumes owned by the infamous chairman and director of the White Star Line, Joseph Bruce Ismay who failed to provide sufficient lifeboats for the Titanic but managed to survive the 1912 sinking of the company’s flagship when he boarded one of the last to be launched from the doomed liner. Appropriately enough for copies owned by a trans-Atlantic shipping magnate this edition is a joint publication between J M Dent in London and Little Brown in New York. Bound in fine green cloth with gi…… Read more
PIG DRAWINGS MADE WITH A BLINDFOLD! ‘Pigs of My Friends’ Manuscript — Violet Ada Shore — 1907
Edwardian parlour game manuscript containing 350 drawings of pigs which were made by friends and relatives while blindfolded. The creations of Ada Alice Shore who was born in 1890 and lived in West Kensington Park in London, she began inviting friends and relatives to contribute in January 1907 (a notable article from 1905 in the Strand Magazine featured various celebrities attempting to draw blindfold pigs) and the last of Shore’s pigs was drawn more than fifty years later. Shore abides by a se…… Read more
BOUND IN JESSIE M KING’S BATIK SILK: Pet Marjorie: A Story of Child Life Fifty Years Ago — John Brown [Jessie M King] — 1907
Rare book binding displaying Jessie M King’s blue and green paisley pattern batik silk. One of the most influential artists of her time, King (1875-1949) introduced the wax-dye technique of batik into Scotland, and though she has become most celebrated for her illustration work King also created jewellery, ceramics and, as here, fabric. King’s wraparound batik has been overprinted with the book’s title in a gilt panel to the upper board with an outer panel in dark blue around the edge of the boa…… Read more
ANNOTATED BY WELSH-ARGENTINE RAILWAY ENGINEER GUSTAVUS COLEMAN Republica Argentina, Mapa General de los Ferrocarilles — William Field [Gustavus Coleman] — 1911
Lithographic railway map owned and annotated by the Welsh-Argentinian Railway Engineer Gustavus Wilmot Rufus (GWR!) Coleman, brother of the legendary railway builder in Argentina, Arthur Coleman. The Coleman brothers were central to the construction of Argentina’s Great Southern Railway or FC Sud in the 1890s, and Gustavus - or perhaps his brother - has annotated the unfinished southern lines on this map with ‘finished’ to mark their completion after the map’s surveying was completed in 1910. Th…… Read more
The Uttermost Farthing: A Savant’s Vendetta WITH A SHRUNKEN HEAD DRAWING — R Austin Freeman [Alfred De Sauty] — 1914
First US Edition inscribed to the bookbinder Alfred de Sauty, then working in Chicago, and bearing De Sauty’s drawing ‘Sketched at Field Museums (Chicago) from S American specimens of human head reduced by special treatment’ - the type of exhibit found in the collection belonging to the novel’s protagonist, the criminal anthropologist, Humphrey Challoner. The red cloth binding also incorporates gilt and black stamped faces designed by Edwin J Prittle. De Sauty was a distinguished English bookbin…… Read more
GAUCHO BINDING Faust Adapted from the Spanish and Rendered into English Verse by Walter Owen with Drawings by Enqique Rapela — Walter Owen — 1943
‘Gaucho’ binding bound in cow or buffalo skin with a burnt or branded design to the front cover and toggles to close. A near fine binding, inscribed at length to a ‘Mr Grenville Greenall’ in May 1948 as a ‘souvenir of your visit to my country Argentina “Faust” jocular work representing the simple gaucho spirit’. Bookshops label of Mitchell’s Book Store to the front pastedown. Cowhide book mark with an Argentinian ribbon attached. A little spotting to the text and slight loss along the gutter to…… Read more
Unpublished Autobiography of a French Immigrant turned Montana Ranch-Owner & Businessman in Key West, Florida and New York City — Albert L Caillet — 1916
Remarkable unpublished autobiography of a young French immigrant to the USA in the 1890s, who became a ranch-owner in Montana before turning to civil engineering and finally, after his return to France, publishing extensively on occultism and founding the Societe Unitive - a sort of psychic wellness group avant la lettre. Written in English and clearly intended for publication this is the story of Albert Caillet’s American years, presenting himself as a prosperous and adventurous young man who m…… Read more
‘A Passover spent in a way many a Jew from England may well envy - in the holy city of Jerusalem’: WORLD WAR I JERUSALEM ALBUM — Shulamith Shabtai, Georg Fernbach, Dina C Mayer, Antonio de la Cierva Y Lewita —
A remarkable multi-national vellum-bound autograph book and album that witnesses the moment when General Allenby captured Jerusalem in December 1917, ending 400 years of Ottoman rule and establishing British control over Palestine. during World War I. Apparently compiled by a Jewish woman called Shulamith Shabtai whose name appears repeatedly as well as that of her father father, Yitzhak, the album brings together a cast of characters who sum up Jerusalem’s pan-national importance. From before A…… Read more
AUTHOR’S TYPED MANUSCRIPT: Daphne Adeane — Maurice Baring — 1926
Typed first draft manuscript of 465 pages offering several thousand manuscript corrections and alterations made during its composition by the author Maurice Baring. Alongside his novel ‘C’, Adeane was Baring’s most popular and influential novel, telling the story of a complex and unfaithful marriage between a London barrister and his wife, Fanny, who resembles the mysterious Daphne Adeane of the title. She is a Catholic Creole woman whose story is revealed in fits and starts and even in ghostly…… Read more
DAVID HOCKNEY’S EARLIEST SELF-PORTRAITS? The Bradfordian: The Magazine of the Bradford Grammar School — David Hockney — 1953
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. Very good condition, bound in printed green card wrappers; one torn corne…… Read more
In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer: Transcript of Hearing before Personnel Security Board — J Robert Oppenheimer — 1954
First edition of the 1954 security hearing held by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission that revoked the clearance of the ‘father of the atomic bomb’, Robert Oppenheimer. Over four weeks, it investigated his loyalty, past left-wing associations, and opposition to the hydrogen bomb, marking a peak of Cold War-era anti-communist McCarthyism. These proceedings form the basis for the climax of Christopher Nolan’s 2023 biographical portrayal of Oppenheimer’s life, starring Cillian Murphy. This first edi…… Read more
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King — J R R Tolkien — 1960
A very smart set of early editions of J R R Tolkien's Lord of the Rings with jackets in bright, very good plus condition. All dating from 1960 these are the eighth, seventh and sixth impression of the first edition of the three novels, acquired together and with one careful owner since they were first bought - her signature appears on each of the three flyleaves. Internally all three novels are fine with the maps present at the rear of the all three volumes. The gilt spine lettering to the three…… Read more
In the Cool of the Day AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT OF A NEW YORK CITY NOVEL — Susan Ertz — 1961
First Edition in very good condition in very good dust jacket with the author’s original 138 pp. autograph manuscript of the first 5 chapters of the novel which was made into a movie in 1963 by Metro Goldwyn starring Jane Fonda, Peter Finch, and Angela Lansbury. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Blue cloth boards, endpapers and text block in very good condition. ‘Claire Brown’ neatly written to top of front free flyleaf. Unclipped dust jacket in very good condition, very modestly age toned to inside top. Ac…… Read more
‘WOULD YOU MIND IF I RECORDED THE “SOUR CREAM” SONG? Henscratches and Flyspecks: How to Read Melodies from Songbooks — Pete Seeger [Dan Budnik] — 1973
Pete Seeger in environmental mode, writing 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. Four letters to Budnik from Pete Seeger are 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 watch out. Would you have time this spring to pho…… Read more
Central American Sketch Book by Ivy Theresa Attwell — Ivy Theresa Attwell — c 1965
Sketch book crammed with full page, double page and smaller vignettes of daily life captured throughout the artist’s travels in Central America, the locations sketched and painted include: Main Street, St Thomas in the Virgin Islands, Puerto Cabello in Venezuela, Puntarenas in Costa Rica (5 pp. coastal scenes), Acajutla in El Salvador, Mazatlan, Le Union in El Salvador, Guaymas in Mexico (a cotton yard. the wharf), Volcanoes in San Jose, Guatetmala, Corinto in Nicaragua (beach scenes), siesta ti…… Read more
Archive of Letters and Postcards from Singer and Actress Eartha Kitt — Eartha Kitt — 1972 -1984
An archive of affectionate, funny and deeply personal hand-written postcards and letters spanning the years 1972 - 1984, sent from American singer, dancer and actress Eartha Kitt to close friends Stewart and Peter Harries. The Harries brothers were part of Kitt's inner circle who often hosted her and collaborated professionally on various projects. This affectionate and lively correspondence contains updates on family and professional life evoking Eartha Kitt’s legendarily sassy and outspoken na…… Read more
US TOUR DIARY: Ritz Paris Diary 2005: Journal & Appointments Diary — Marianne Faithfull — 2005
An Appointments diary-plus which covers Marianne Faithfull’s 2005 US tour journal in support of her album Before the Poison. The tour took her to The Town Hall, New York (March 12) and in the following days Park West, Chicago and the Henry Fonda Theater, Los Angeles. The diary charts Faithfull’s busy Parisian life during the early months of 2005 before chronicling the American tour with a performance at the Henry Fonda theatre which would be released as Marianne Faithfull Live in Hollywood. Writ…… Read more
Sketch Book of Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and Malaysia — Ivy Theresa Attwell — c 1975
Far eastern sketch book recording the artist’s response to the urban and rural landscapes of Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan and Singapore. Attwell paints Penang alongside vignettes of a Sikh driver and orchids, monkeys in Singapore, a Shengshui New Territories street scene, house and shrine in Moji, Old Street in Kyoto, Shrine in Nagoya (words for railway station, hotels etc written in Chinese script), sunset in Nara, ordering kimonos in Kishuru, Crane Park in Akan, Silang on the Tagatay Ridge, River S…… Read more
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone — J K Rowling — 1997
Fine fourth impression of the Bloomsbury true 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. The book hasn’t been read; there are no marks of ownership or blemishes of any kind. and no fading to the spine colour. A few yellow spots to the edges of the text block. The set comes from an employee of the books’ printer, Richard Clay.
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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