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Dear Friend,
There's a distinctly northern flavour to this month's offerings - rather like today's supposed spring weather in Yorkshire. Our best manuscript comes from the collection of William Constable who filled Burton Constable Hall in the East Riding with his books and objects, including this seventeenth century herald-painter's workbook, bound with two other manuscripts. From nearby Hull comes a presentation copy of Philip Larkin's High Windows, lightly annotated by the dedicatee who was a fellow poet and academic.
A mid-century prison governor from Yorkshire's old West Riding provides a candid letter-sequence written to a close friend: 'you never see “successful” criminals in prison... we only get the failures.’ And a gentrified family near York in the 1890s furnishes a most unexpected provenance for a lovely set of the Boston editions of Emily Dickinson's Poems.
We can offer inscriptions galore from such as the Suffolk poet, George Crabbe, not to mention Patrick Leigh Femor, Roald Dahl and Christine Keeler as well as a handwritten note from Virginia Woolf to a novelist and French champion of Mrs Dalloway. Annotated books continue to compel our attention: we're delighted to offer American philosopher John Dewey's copy of a work on child development complete with his reading marks. Enjoy it all.
Best wishes,
Christian White
info@christianwhiterarebooks.com
00 44 (0) 7811 455398/ 00 44 (0) 1943 608596
287 Leeds Road, Ilkley, Leeds, LS29 8LL, UK
Coats of Arms Trick’t: A Herald Painter’s Workbooks [with] William of Orange’s Declaration of Reasons [&] Instructions for the Masters of Wards and Liveries — William of Orange, Constantijn Huygens; James Ley, Earl of Marlborough, [William Constable & Sir John Somers?] — 1650
Seventeenth century manuscript collection from the library of the Yorkshire antiquary William Constable which combines a key document of the Glorious Revolution, a herald painter’s workbook and an early copy of the most comprehensive study of a feudal court. Small folio bound in half calf over marbled boards, extensively rubbed, strengthening to upper hinge, repairs to top and tail of backstrip. Bookplate of Yorkshire antiquary and collector William Constable (1721-1791) of Burton Constable Hall…… Read more
Illustrations of the Linnaean Genera of Insects [GEORGE CRABBE PRESENTATION COPY] — William Wood [George Crabbe] — 1821
Presentation copy from the poet George Crabbe to the artist and scientific poet Sarah Hoare (1777-1856). Recent green pebbled morocco, top edge gilt and marbled endpapers, inscribed on the title page: ‘Mrs Hoare from her grateful and affectionate Friend Geo: Crabbe’. Collates complete with hand coloured plates as called for. Crabbe’s published correspondence includes numerous letters to Sarah Hoare, scientific daughter of the Quaker banker Samuel Hoare Jr. Crabbe was a poet, surgeon and clergyma…… Read more
Mental Development in the Child and the Race [JOHN DEWEY’S COPY] — James Mark Baldwin — 1895
Philosopher John Dewey’s annotated copy with his ownership signature at the top of the half-title.The book is in good condition only, the red cloth is faded, rubbed and worn but sound. Inside the book, from page 350, onwards there is evidence of long-since dried-out water damage leading to wrinkling to the surface of the pages, quite severe and with spotting to the final leaves. The rear inner hinge is cracked with the webbing exposed, again not affecting the binding. Dewey’s extensive marginali…… Read more
In Tearing Haste, Letters between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor [signed] — Patrick Leigh Fermor, Deborah Devonshire [edited by] Charlotte Mosley — 2008
Signed by all three contributors and with the original wrap-around band, probably from the signing at Harchards in London. These are the letters of the late, great Patrick Leigh Fermor and Deborah Devonshire, signed by Patrick Leigh Fermor, Deborah Devonshire and their editor Charlotte Mosley on the title page of this first edition. The book is near fine in a near fine dustjacket with just a suggestion of reading use to the jacket. As Craig Brown puts it in his newspaper review laid in, 'fruity,…… Read more
Letters about prison and prison-life by a Prison Governor and future Australian Criminologist — Gordon J Hawkins [F M Sewell Stokes] — 1956
54 autograph letters about prisons and prison-life written by the Assistant Governor of a British prison and future distinguished Australian criminologist. The letters are written in black ink on ‘Imperial Training School for Prison and Borstal Officers’ headed paper in black ink by Hawkins while he was Assistant Governor at Wakefield Prison, to the author and playwright Francis Sewell Stokes and vary in length from 2-5 sides, so around 200 pages in total. Stokes visited Wakefield prison in the…… Read more
Minutes of the Council Meetings of the Liverpool Architectural and Archaeological Society from October 16-1867 to July 4th 1887 — Francis Horner; Thomas Kilpin; Henry Hill Vale, Thomas D Barry; Joseph Boult; Henry Sumners, Charles Aldridge etc — 1867
Formal records of one the world’s oldest architectural societies containing hundreds of signatures of leading members of the association including the architect of the Walker Art Gallery. Quarto manuscript book, half green morocco over marbled boards, stationer’s ticket of ‘Joseph A D Watts... Liverpool’ on marbled front endpaper with details for reordering. Red morocco label to upper board: ‘Architectural Society - Council Minute Book’. Manuscript title page on verso of first flyleaf followed b…… Read more
The Link: A Souvenir Book Published by British Prisoners of War interned at Doeberitz, Germany, 1914-17 — A Elliot Barter; J Power; Cecil A Tooke; Joseph Heighton; J W Bygrave — 1917
Rare ‘Souvenir Book’ published, presumably as a German propaganda exercise, by British First Worlf War prisoners. Small folio format in card wrappers with punched spine holes and yellow tied binding. Cover design by Cecil Tooke with ‘Excuse my Back’ cartouche on lower cover and imprint details. Covers marked and rubbed. Half title precedes the title page and 66 numbered leaves, well illustrated throughout. Staining to many leaves; collates complete. OCLC locates 4 institutional copies: BL x2, NY…… Read more
The Night Side of Nature or, Ghosts & Ghost Seers.. — Mrs Catherine Crowe — 1854
Early reprint in splendid period publisher’s binding of illustrated red paper-covered boards, lightly bumped and scuffed but bright and intact. No date but an additional inserted advert for ‘Whitworth and Wallis’ Report... Industry of the United States’ suggests an issue from around 1854. Text preceded and followed by adverts, pencil ownership inscription to title page from 1931 with occasional pencilled annotation probably in same hand: pp502. A lovely book.
High Windows [INSCRIBED TO A POET] — Philip Larkin — 1974
Inscribed to fellow poet and literary critic Jo Rippier. Larkin has written on the flyleaf: ‘Kind regards to Jo Rippier remembering a “close reading” - Philip Larkin/’. A near fine copy of the second impression issued in the same year as the first in a very good jacket, with a few pencilled notes to the text by Rippier as testament to his skills in close reading. Joseph Storey Rippier was born in Plymouth in 1935, educated at Emmanuel College Cambridge and gained his Ph.D. in English Literature…… Read more
The Priest-Chiefs of Ogoja [Colonial Intelligence Report] — H L M Butcher — 1939
Rare Colonial Intelligence Report compiled in Lagos some twenty years before Nigeria achieved independence. Homemade brownish paper wrappers with punched holes for tied binding; title and author in black ink on cover. Seemingly a ribbon copy, typed on rectos only, signed in type at the end: ‘H.L.M. Butcher D.O. 23rd MAy, 1939.’ A fine copy. ff71 OCLC does not record this item in any library but its existence is cited in several published works of anthropology on the Oguja which refer to it as an…… Read more
Autograph Note to her French Translator and Champion, Andre Maurois — Virginia Woolf — 1932
Autograph note to novelist Andre Maurois who translated Mrs Dalloway into French and wrote an essay on Woolf that introduced her work to the Francophone world. Woolf writes on a small blue, oblong sheet of ‘Strathdon’ watermarked paper on 14th June 1932. She states that she has seen Cory Bell (older brother of her sister Vanessa Bell’s husband the art critic Clive Bell) and makes dinner arrangements, adding the slightly fey rider: ‘All this is very far off, but then so are you. [presumably Franc…… Read more
Poems of Emily Dickinson — Emily Dickinson [edited by] Mabel Loomis Todd, T W Higginson — 1896
All three volumes of Dickinson’s verse found together in publisher’s bindings. Vol I, Poems dated 1897, 16th edition; 2nd Series, 1896, 9th edition; 3rd Series, 1896, 2nd edition. All three in very good condition, bound in publisher’s olive green, bevel-edged boards with silk book marks. The bookplate of Herbert John Elmhirst (Elvington Grange, nr York) appears on the pastedown of all three volumes. Dickinson’s poems are rarely encountered together, still more so with an English provenance.
French Manuscript & Continuation of Rollin’s Histoire Ancienne — [Charles Rollin] — 1747
Fair copy in French from the 1740s of much of Rollin’s Histoire Ancienne together with an original continuation of the work up to the present day: ‘De L’histoire depuis. J.[esus] C[hrist]’ which deals with ‘Le Royaume d’Angleterre’ and the execution of Mary Stuart by Elizabeth I. Small quarto bound in parchment over pasteboard with traces of printed material visible within the binding; scuffing to extremities but overall a very good binding. Written in black ink on paper with horizontal chain li…… Read more
Thesaurus Precum Ac Variarum.. — Johann Frith; Friedryk Bartsch — 1616
Early seventeenth century Jesuit thesaurus with working clasps. Attractive seventeenth century calf over bevel edged boards with the ‘IHS’ Jesus monogram in gilt to both covers, gilt lines and raised bands over a rounded spine. Working brass clasps and all edges gilt. A little rubbing to leather but a very good copy. Old ownership signature ‘Metlingham’[?] to title page and others to front pastedown. Small paper repair at head of title page otherwise very good. Pencil notes in Latin to rear endp…… Read more
Meditationes Sacrae Editio Postrema, Prioribus Emendatior — Johann Gerhard - Joh: Gerhardi [Phillip Melanchthon] — 1633
First edition printed in England of the Meditationes with a leaf from Phillip Melancthon’s guide to the use of logic in reading Scripture bound in. Contemporary full calf binding with triple blind fillet to boards and three raised spine bands; diagonal lines on the edges of the boards which may suggest an Oxford binding. Small loss of leather to the outer tail of both boards. Greenish hue with speckling to the edges of the text block. First flyleaf partly torn away, early annotation remaining on…… Read more
The Wild Swans at Coole — William Butler Yeats — 1919
First trade edition of Yeats’ late, great collection which includes in its title poem, one of the best loved verses in the language. Deep blue cloth with gilt decoration by Sturge Moore, pleasingly bright to the upper board, a little faded to the spine. A near fine copy with a gift inscription dating from the year of publication to the first flyleaf: ‘Mynkie with love from G. Xmas 1919.’ The title page is unopened, otherwise the pages are opened and near fine internally: pp[2] x, pp114 [2]. The…… Read more
Half a Man: The Status of the Negro in New York [DU BOIS’S REVIEW COPY ] — Mary White Ovington; W E D Bu Bois; Mary Dunlop Maclean — 1911
Remarkable association copy inscribed by a co-founder and Managing Editor of The Crisis, Mary Dunlop Maclean, to the journal’s Editor, William Du Bois for review in in October 1911 in the oldest Black-oriented magazine in the world. First edition inscribed on the front flyleaf by Maclean in pencil to W.E.B. Bois ‘for review in The Crisis in October, with Du Bois' usual signature stamp indicating ownership below. As instructed Du Bois wrote a (glowing) review of Ovington's book that was published…… Read more
Photos Taken During a Walking Tour round Norfolk and Suffolk [and South Africa] — Arthur David John Pitts — 1911
High quality photo-album by an Anglo-Canadian artist who became a leading figure in the depiction of indigenous peoples in British Columbia and Alaska. The collection is housed in a commercially produced photo album bound in red buckram, slightly stained and scuffed, ‘Reminiscences’ in gilt on the upper cover; 12 card leaves with 8 window-mounted sepia photographs per leaf, so 96 images in all, 10.5x7.5 cm each. Inside the front cover in white ink, Pitts records that the album is ‘Containing pri…… Read more
Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon Applies to the Court of Wards & Liveries — [Sir Francis Cottington, Edward Hyde, Early of Clarendon] — 1635
Vellum legal document (45x70cm) relating to a dispute between the future Lord Chancellor Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, his named Wiltshire tenants (the plaintiffs) and two young orphaned aristocratic heirs, Anthony Ashley Cooper (1st Earl Shaftesbury) whose parents had died in 1629 and George Brydges (6th Baron Chandos) whose parents died when he was only 1 in 1621 (defendants). The document was submitted for judgement to the feudal Master of the Court of Wards and Liveries and Chancellor…… Read more
The John Rylands Library Manchester Catalogue of an Exhibition of the Works of Shakespeare — Henry Guppy - William Shakespeare — 1916
Inscribed by the Rylands’ librarian Henry Guppy, three days after the exact date of Shakespeare’s Tercentenary: ‘With the compliments of H. Guppy Apl 26/ 16’ on the half title. Original blue wrappers with yapp edges, a near fine copy of this well illustrated exhibition catalogue highlighting the library’s fine Shakespeare collection in the tercentenary year.
Tales of the Unexpected [SIGNED] — Roald Dahl — 1979
Inscribed by Roald Dahl on the inside of the front cover to an Anglia TV producer who was involved in the filming of these stories for British TV. The book is bound in the publisher’s printed card wrappers, very slightly rubbed. Dahl’s inscription is written in blue ink: ‘To Ron Love Roald Dahl’ - the usual form of inscription used by the author for friends and people he knew well. The book is otherwise unmarked and near fine. The book was acquired in Norwich from a collection that belonged to a…… Read more
Ruth on the Phone — Nigel Shafran — 2012
Photo-book bound in dove grey buckram with gold lettering, a fine copy in very nearly fine dustjacket. This is Shafran’s successor to his Ruth Book which was highly praised by Badger and Parr in their guide to the photo-book. Copac locates only one institutional holding of this scarce volume.
The Truth at Last: My Story [SIGNED] — Christine Keeler — 2001
Uncommon signed copy, with Christine Keeler’s signature in blue biro on the title page. A fine copy in a fine jacket of the third impression of Keeler’s autobiography. The Profumo affair in which Keeler was embroiled was a major scandal in twentieth-century British politics. After lying about his affair with Keeler in Parliament, Profumo resigned, contributing to the demise of Harold Macmillan’s Conservative government. Separately, Keeler herself became synonymous with the changing values of Bri…… Read more
The Priest to the Altar — [Simon Bailey’s copy] — 1879
Simon Bailey’s copy - an Anglican priest who was among the earliest to develop AIDS and stay in parish ministry. Black roan, a large octavo binding, faded and rubbed to edges. Bailey’s bookplate appears on the first black flyleaf: ‘Simon Bailey Westcott Hl[ou]se Eastertide 1981.’ A well-used copy, particularly around the printed order for Holy Communion with text corrected for use during the reign of George VI in the 1940s and some pages with loss from repeated turning during services. A few not…… Read more
Dr. Christian White
Christian White Rare Books
287 Leeds Road, Ilkley, LS29 8LL
07811 455398
info@christianwhiterarebooks.com
www.christianwhiterarebooks.com
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