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Fascinating bind-up of 29 plays, most dating from the 1860s, several bearing performance markings and ownership inscriptions. Acquired from a Lancashire farm house where the sammelband had spent 100-150 years, at the time entirely disbound. Now recased in tan coloured cloth over boards, preserving the original binder’s label for ‘Thorburn and Co, S… Read more…

Portfolio of signed comic and erotic sketches by a Nebraskan born artist, apparently compiled while in New York City. The sketches are housed in an ‘Anchor Clasp Envelope’ on which Anderson has written ‘Rough Sketches C.W. Anderson 41 Wash[ington’ Sq[uare] New York City.’ Old repairs to edges of the envelope. Anderson’s drawings are on thin paper (… Read more…

First edition in publisher’s red cloth, a little faded to spine. Internally very good, one small note at the foot of the first flyleaf ‘A2’, otherwise unmarked. A key work of mid-century fiction. Read more…

First edition, in publisher's light blue cloth. The binding is sound, a little spine lean and browning to the cloth; small white mark to lower board. No ownership inscriptions; trifling spotting to the text. The jacket is in two parts, torn along the lower hinge between the jacket’s spine and rear panel. There is childish writing to the upper panel… Read more…

Second impression of the first edition, in publisher's light blue cloth. The binding is sound but lacking the front flyleaf and with old tape marks to both pastedown and half title opposite and similar on the final leaves. A few marks to the text which is complete and beautifully illustrated by Pauline Baynes. The jacket is in good condition only,… Read more…

Inscribed to a legendary Shakespearian to mark the first Shakespearian performance in Russia by a leading British actor since the Bolshevik Revolution. Folio sized volume bound in cream buckram, browning along the top edge of the flyleaf, below which is written in Russian script by the book’s author Victor Komisarzhevsky: ‘To Paul Scofield - Hamlet… Read more…

Lovingly preserved letters sent by an adoring young Yorkshire Curate to his beloved fiance Elizabeth Musson in rural Lincolnshire. Between 1865 and the end of 1866 Joseph Foster sent his ‘Bet’ (presumably Betsy, or Elizabeth) 93 letters which she has gathered together and sewn into a borrowed vellum binding (and clasp) using pink legal ties. The bi… Read more…

Carved oak removed from Shakespeare’s birthplace during the restoration of 1858 which followed the building’s purchase for the nation - with a presentation inscription written by the Stratford carver John Marshall who worked on the renovation himself. The length of oak is 22x5cm. On the flat side is written in black ink: ‘Old Oak from Shakespeare’s… Read more…

An uncommon book by the great Shakespearian actress, apparently produced for presentation purposes only, and this example copy is in very nice condition. Two-tone blue and tan cloth with gilt and fleur de lys decoration over bevel edged boards. All edges gilt; brown marbled endpapers. Internally near fine. Collates: [44] and 15 half tone photograph… Read more…

Manuscript orderly book kept in Lisbon under the Command of General Cornelius Cuyler between 1st June 1799 - 9 April 1802. Octavo-sized manuscript notebook bound in reversed calf with blind embellishment; marbled endpapers. First few leaves severely affected by old dampstaining although the paper remains intact and the manuscript easily readable. T… Read more…

Hamlet post-production screenplay for the 1969 British film adaptation starring Nicol Williamson - seemingly not found in any institutional collection. Foolscap sized paper held together by corroded staples. Rust marks to front cover which is partially detached from the text block. Typescript of c100 pages, mimeograph-printed on the rectos only. Oc… Read more…

Inscribed copy of this second edition of Henry’s fingerprint system which became the 'sole official method employed in the identification of habitual criminals in this country.' Green cloth, near very good, inscribed on the first (browned) flyleaf ‘Major Arthur Griffiths from the writer. Feb.: 1905’. Errata slip bound in ahead of the title page and… Read more…

Rare manuscript survival from the Council of the North, written in York or Newcastle itself, in the final months of Elizabeth I’s reign. This volume from the library of Sir Thomas Phillipps presents Elizabeth I’s Great Charter of Newcastle from 1599 together with two further decrees relating to the city which have been signed off - or attested - by… Read more…

Collection of Acts of Parliament printed between 1767 and 1812 legislating on Britain’s relationship with its American colonies and subsequently the newly fledged United States. These Acts are disbound and altogether the 25 Acts run to 114 pages. Subjects under British law include the vexed problem of taxation on imports from North America (Rice,Sa… Read more…

Unrecorded perhaps unique surviving set of Cruikshank’s illustrations to Oliver Twist, issued by the book’s publisher as a loose, possibly promotional, set simultaneous with first publication. 20 plates (150x243mm) are loosely contained in a bifolium printed wrapper which has separated along the spine. This bears a modified version of the title pag… Read more…

A compelling collection chronicling the short-lived Antiquaries’ Presidency of Edward King, owned and annotated by a friend of King’s and including 5 unrecorded imprints. Large quarto (27x21.5cm), 18th-century full calf; narrow gilt border to the boards, spine prettily tooled in gilt, red morocco label, marbled endpapers, red sprinkled edges - bind… Read more…

Manuscript copy by the Pennsylvania Quaker Susan Lukens of the 1719 Book of Discipline ‘From our yearly meeting at Philadelphia, for Pennsylvania and the Jerseys...’ PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION Small notebook, green cloth spine over marbled boards, rubbed to edges, slight loss to cloth at tail of spine. A dedication in the hand of the manuscript’s author… Read more…

A remarkable manuscript (c200,000 words) that begins in London just before the 1688 Revolution and charts its author’s return to his Cornish village where he pleads for the right to remain in communion with both ‘Episcopal and Presbiterial’ congregations. Over 300 pages the manuscript plots Rowse’s efforts to assuage both conscience and Cornish nei… Read more…

Three manuscript Letter Books (1704-1708) kept by a Franco-British double agent in London which record his efforts to lead a British invasion and his charismatic hold over British and European monarchs and ministers - worthy of a full Hollywood treatment. Antoine de Guiscard’s meteoric rise was followed by an equally precipitous fall from grace whi… Read more…

Richly varied photo album depicting student life at Mills College in Oakland shortly after it was chartered as the first women’s college west of the Rockies. Large oblong album (15x11inches) ‘Photographs’ in gilt to upper, textured cloth covered board. Light wear to edges but the binding remains sound, though some weakening to the cloth covering ov… Read more…

Manuscript translation by an English lawyer determined to inject his enthusiasm for Lucretius into this work by a 17th century Swiss natural philosopher - completing his English makeover with marginal references to Milton’s Paradise Lost. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Quarto in modern half tan calf over marbled boards; an eighteenth century presentation in… Read more…

Late medieval Book of Hours written and illuminated for a woman patron who is depicted in a double-page of miniatures kneeling before the Virgin Mary to receive the gift of this manuscript. This Book of Hours was made in a northern French workshop of the second half of the fifteenth century, perhaps Rouen or Paris. It has attractive female provenan… Read more…

Early nineteenth century oil-painted copy of Fuseli’s lost 1789 painting which depicts the ghost of Hamlet's father beckoning away his son to hear the terrible story of his death. Oil on wooden panel, 44.5x57.5cm, label to verso from its appearance at the 1969 Zurich Fuseli exhibition, wood repair to verso reinforcing a vertical split in the wood w… Read more…

Grub-Street satirist and publican, Ned Ward’s set of military characters, including ‘A Spy’, bound together with an incomplete set of his more common naval characters - 1709 and 1708. Contemporary panelled calf with two spine labels and remains of an overlaid morocco label to the second compartment. Skilful repair to the head and tail of the spine… Read more…

Just as ChatGPT has pushed AI from a hot topic in the tech industry to a global news phenomenon, so AI has become the defining technology of our age. This collection forms a unique record of the creation of Artificial Intelligence during the early years of computing in the form of 59 unpublished typescripts, offprints, photographs, ephemera and ass… Read more…