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Letters home from a second generation Glaswegian surgeon describing the ‘horrors of war’ he experienced in China as a Naval Surgeon during the Taiping Uprising of 1861-2. The Rebellion - actually a pan-Chinese civil war - was the most bloodthirsty conflict of the 19th century, estimated to have cost between 20 and 30 million lives and Grieve’s rema… Read more…

A remarkably rich wartime sketch-book in which John Piper recorded his 1943 summer tour of Devon and Cornwall in the company of Geoffrey Grigson, sketched Welsh landscapes as well as the Victorian villas and churches of the English Midlands while he stayed at Renishaw Hall, home of his friends Edith and Osbert Sitwell. Piper’s sketches include chur… Read more…

A collection of 32 interleaved playscripts and cookbooks, technical handbooks, pocket almanacs, botanicals and bibliography which contains hundreds, perhaps thousands, of hours of work freely given by the books’ owners as they added to the printed texts on subjects as diverse as gothic architecture, early music, surgery, roses, illicit marriages, a… Read more…

Twelve year diary (1907-1919) of a distinguished Scottish servant of the British Empire, who represented Scotland as an international footballer in the very earliest of all competitive matches with England in 1870 - and loathed his ministerial boss, the young Winston Churchill. Scion of the aristocratic Baillie-Hamilton family (Earls of Haddington)… Read more…

‘The Daredevil Aeronaut’, Vincent Lunardi’s account of his first balloon flights made in Scotland’s capital, Edinburgh in a collection of pamphlets which was owned by a leading Newcastle attorney and Clerk of the Peace, Thomas Davidson, who seems likely to have acquired this book in connection with Lunardi’s disastrous subsequent balloon ascent out… Read more…

A 10 page manuscript extract from Talbot Rothwell’s original screenplay for Carry on Cleo together with his hilarious typescript proposal/ synopsis of the movie and a full ‘First Draft’ typescript screenplay which contains perhaps the earliest appearance of the oft-voted funniest ever line, ‘Infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me.’ Talbot Rot… Read more…

Unknown except for a single copy held by the De Morgan Foundation, this is a full length memoir written by the artist and writer Emilie Russell Barrington in which she recalls her decades-long friendship with the preeminent Arts and Crafts designer, potter and friend of William Morris, William de Morgan. In this memoir which she wrote in the final… Read more…

A beautiful set of Davies’ 48 photogravure plates depicting the Norfolk Broads still in their original portfolios as first issued, with a distinguished Norfolk provenance. These beautiful and evocative photographs by ‘the man who found the Broads’, (Charles Carrodus) are the works of the first of the great Broads photographers and a landmark in Eng… Read more…

Two sketchbooks drawn and painted by the children’s author Alison Uttley and two by her husband James whose early death, she would later claim, inspired and necessitated Uttley’s prolific output. The first sketchbook records Alison Uttley’s honeymoon with James Uttley when they travelled along the south coast of England and matches the third item i… Read more…

20 letters and notes from the artist Eric Gill to his friend the publisher, book collector and artistic patron of his work, Desmond Flower. In these letters Gill writes about his work at the BBC and creating a sculpture on the Lancashire coast in Morecambe, makes corrections and emendations to his book Art Nonsense which was published by Flower’s f… Read more…

The first printing of one of the most important 19th century Acts of the British Parliament which ended the slave trade in 1807. The passing of this bill into law on 25 March 1807 marked a turning point in the campaign led by William Wilberforce against this cruellest of trades transporting human cargoes between Africa, the West Indies and the Amer… Read more…

Unusually lively Irish-flavoured pamphlet collection from the turn of the 18th century including the notorious sex scandal of Mervyn Touchet (second Earl of Castle Haven), two items attributed to Jonathan Swift and a scarce Dublin printing of An Inquiry into some of the Causes of the Ill Situation of the Affairs of Ireland. Full sheepskin binding,… Read more…

The artist William Hatherell’s collection of letters and documents relating to his work as an illustrator in the 1890s-1920s. Among c70 items is Hatherell’s retained copy of a famous letter to him by Thomas Hardy praising his 1895 illustrations for Jude the Obscure, which the novelist wrote ‘to express my sincere admiration for the illustrations of… Read more…

True first edition, first issue of E M Forster's family saga with the motto 'Only Connect', considered by many to be his masterpiece. This edition has absolute primacy with four pages only of advertisements following the printed text - in the second issue from later in 1910 the advertisements extend to eight pages and include a notice of this novel… Read more…

A selection of 37 window-mounted, hand coloured views around Regent’s Park in a super-luxurious bespoke Sotheran’s binding. Chunky square format (25x25cm) bound in crushed red morocco with gilt lettering, raised spine bands - a little fading to the spine. Marbled endpapers with red morocco turn-ins and slight off-setting to the marbling. Card leave… Read more…

Seven lively and affectionate letters from a pioneer in British 20th century art written to a lifelong friend, accompanied by a small portrait watercolour depicting Pauline Konody in their art school days in Nottingham. Knight writes warmly and sympathetically to Konody, sharing her excitement at big commissions including her work on a big portrait… Read more…

Rare collection of psalms and hymns printed for the Chapel of the Magdalen Hospital in Southwark in London ‘for the Reception of Penitent Prostitutes’. One of the reformed prostitutes is depicted in the frontispiece - the young women who sung these hymns were shielded from view in the octagonal chapel from behind a curtain. The Magdalen Chapel beca… Read more…

Three newspapers published on Saturday April 20, 1912, 5 days after the sinking of the RMS Titanic in the North Atlantic. The Daily Graphic, pp20 is the most ambitious of the three; about very good condition. The Daily Mirror, pp16 reproduces the whole of Nearer my God to thee on the front page; also very good. The Daily Sketch, pp16, is split alon… Read more…

Annotated Cambridge edition of Julius Caesar owned by the life long Shakespearian George ‘Dadie’ Rylands who began directing Shakespeare at school, oversaw professional recordings of the plays at Cambridge and schooled in Shakespeare some of the leading actors of the twentieth century. In association with the Marlowe Society and a group of professi… Read more…

The first two parts of the Journal of the earliest British club specifically constituted to explore caves. This is one of twelve copies made using carbon paper and containing original silver gelatin photographs as illustrations, painstakingly tipped into each of the copies. There were the only two issues of this journal published but we cannot loca… Read more…

William Parson’s 1826 Leeds Directory, owned and inscribed by a Leeds butcher and a female family member also from a butchering family - both of whom are referenced in the printed text. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTIONl: Small octavo bound in half black roan; fold out map of Leeds is present but detached. Signatures of ‘John Cockshott Farsley 1826’ and ‘Mary A… Read more…

From the library of a distinguished British scholar of Ezra Pound, this collection of essays has been inscribed by its editor the poet Peter Russell: ‘For mother with love from Peter [Russell] October 30th, 1950 - the date of publication, being the sixty fifth birthday of Ezra Pound’ with Russell’s ownership stamp and ‘Please return to’ above - no… Read more…

Early edition in pleasingly unsophisticated contemporary sheep binding, unadorned except with blind rules Small octavo in very good early 18th century full sheep, just starting at the tail of the hinge between front board and spine; no pastedowns; engraved title page on verso of A1, as if functioning as a frontispiece; fraying to foreedge of this l… Read more…

Rare elegy on the death of William Cavendish (1640-1707) who was one of the ‘immortal seven’ who invited William of Orange to depose James II and thereby won his Dukedom. A very worn little pamphlet (11x17.5cm), pp8, of which the outer bifolium has separated along the spine fold into its two component leaves; browned to edges; close trimmed along t… Read more…

First English edition in black buckram publisher’s binding with gilt lettering to spine in near fine condition with very slight bumping to top and bottom of spine. Dust jacket in very good condition with small tear to top of spine and wrinkling to spine and front cover. A translation of the 1961 Russian first edition containing additional amendment… Read more…