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An exceptionally high-powered album compiled by Ursula Bridgeman (1823-1883) which contains stellar contributions by the intellectual friends that she shared with her archaeologist, politician and diplomat husband. Albert Denison, 1st Baron Londesborough (1805-1860) was the first President of the British Archaeological Association who became enormo… Read more…

Vyvyan Holland’s memoir of ‘a unique life’s experience’, published in the year of his father, Oscar Wilde’s centenary and inscribed here to his personal physician in west London, Dr Wilfred Dykes-Bower. Orange cloth, worn and with stains, a closed tear along the hinge between upper board and spine, now protected by a very good plus supplied dustjac… Read more…

Rare volume from the library at Station X - Bletchley Park - where Alan Turing and a bevy of mathematicians and code-breakers worked in utmost secrecy during the Second World War. Written by the British maritime historian James Williamson, this seems an eminently suitable volume for the library of an organisation which devoted so much effort to bre… Read more…

A singular early nineteenth century letterbook that centres on a polemical essay sent to Thomas Brand, 20th Baron Dacre, on the state of the British nation and the need for multiple reforms, notably parliamentary reform which would be achieved in the Great Reform Act only two years later. To the rear of the volume Dacre’s thoughtful reponse to his… Read more…

Smart copy of the life of Nelson’s friend Admiral William Cornwallis written and inscribed by Winston Churchill’s step-father, a man just 16 days older than his distinguished stepson. The subject of the biography, Admiral Cornwallis, an ancestor of the author, was the brother of the defeated British general at Yorktown, Charles Cornwallis, and hims… Read more…

Official memento of the Darwin-Wallace Celebration which marked the 50th anniversary of ‘the greatest event’ in the Linnean Society’s history - held in London on 1st July, 1908. Recent black buckram binding which preserves the original printed card wrappers bearing the Darwin/ Wallace medal. Darwin frontispiece; small oval library stamp to verso fo… Read more…

A remarkable survival being a copy of the Psalms from the notorious London prison set on the eastern bank of the River Fleet in modern day Farringdon Street in the City of London. Less than a decade after this improving volume was acquired ‘for the use of Inmates’, the Fleet Prison, founded in 1197 would be demolished. Destroyed once before during… Read more…

The official Book of Hours of Queen Mary I’s reign, the so-called Wayland Primer which has been described by Eamon Duffy as ‘a laboratory for counter-reformation experimentation’, containing as it does traces of Henrician and Edwardian protestant reforms. John Wayland was a religiously conservative printer who received permission in 1553 to print t… Read more…

Rare, apparently unrecorded, English song-sheet edition of two of Thomas Rice’s black-face minstrel song as performed in the USA and exported to England by the ‘father of American minstrelsy’. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION An unrecorded ‘Second edition’ of this racist London imprint priced at ‘1/6’ with a lithographed caricature of Rice depicted as a dancin… Read more…

An extensive collection of materials on the history and development of computer programming. Computer code may be the single most important - and mostly widely used - language on the planet. This collection reveals how this versatile tool was forged, ranging across the decades from its earliest days to the most advanced developments. The collection… Read more…

Autograph musical manuscript (with editorial annotations) by Dylan Thomas’s great friend Daniel Jones which were reproduced in facsimile in the first edition of Under Milk Wood published by J M Dent from whose archive this manuscript comes. Dylan Thomas’s legendary radio play had its first reading in New York City at the Poetry Center on 14th May,… Read more…

A collection of documents relating to Captain Robert Nelson’s involvement with Henry Morton Stanley in the Emin Pasha relief expedition. Robert Henry Nelson was one of Stanley’s key officers during his Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, commanding his No. 3 Company of Zanzibaris. Nelson was one of 5 out of 52 men that survived after being left behind by… Read more…

A remarkable copy shared and annotated by two prominent royalist prisoners who were interned in Lambeth Palace during the power vacuum of autumn 1659 following the death of Oliver Cromwell and the resignation of his son, Richard, as Protector. The original owner of this book, arch royalist Charles Stanley, 8th Earl Derby, and the man he loaned it t… Read more…

Portfolio of signed comic and erotic sketches by the Nebraskan born artist Clarence Anderson, compiled while living in Washington Square in New York City. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 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 edg… Read more…

RESERVED 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 illustr… Read more…

A Pack Horse Library title - and a fascinating title to find bearing the stamp ‘W.P.A/ Pack Horse Library/ Cumberland County/ Burkesville, --KY’, revealing that this volume was part of Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration Project to send books to remote parts of the Appalachian Mountains between 1935 and 1943. The librarians were women who tra… Read more…

pp 48 + blanks. Water-stained Gallipoli naval diary culminating in the actions in the Dardanelles in February and March 1915: 'The Captain told us were were going to take part in the forcing of the Dardenelles... a real hot time shells dropping all round us and going "plonk" against the ships side...'. Red cloth-bound manuscript book, water-damaged… 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…

Rare Glaswegian almanac produced by the founder of the Glasgow Herald, John Mennons. This copy has the advantage of 12 pages of expert notes made in the late 1780s by a Glasgow cloth maker about the weaving and pricing of socks, gloves and handkerchieves. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Contemporary calf binding, worn but sound, with a pocket within the lowe… Read more…

Inscribed by the author in the January following publication, on the half title: ‘R Emmet Kennedy. Jan. 27-25.’ Mustard coloured publisher’s binding only a little faded; pictorial endpapers; a clean, square copy. A pencilled ownership inscription of ‘Miss Jem Smith 631 E Street, San Bernardino California’ to blank page 203. A mixture of stories, po… Read more…

First edition inscribed by three members of the Winslow famly on the half title. A presentation inscription ‘To Major J W Whitlock... 19 Dec 1957’ is followed by the signature of Terence H Winslow ‘direct descendant of “Pilgrim” Edward 1595-1655’; the author and John Winslow ‘Son of the Author and Crew-man in “Mayflower II”’. A near fine copy of th… Read more…

‘The demand for this book is the excuse for its appearance. Thousands have rushed off to the Klondike’, as the Preface put it in December 1897. Nicely bound in pictorial boards, a little faded; adverts to the pastedowns; the fold-out map present opposite to the title page. Printed on high quality paper and illustrated throughout. A very good copy. Read more…

Stamped ‘W.P.A/ Pack Horse Library/ Green County/ Greensburg, KY’, revealing that this volume was part of Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration Project to send books to remote parts of the Appalachian Mountains between 1935 and 1943. The librarians were women who travelled on horseback with packs that could hold up to 100 books. The Packhorse L… Read more…

First edition, published posthumously after the writer of these stories was shot dead by a New York Transit Police Officer six years earlier. Publisher’s grey-green boards and a black cloth spine, very clean. Internally fine. In a near fine jacket with the $5.95 original price present. A little toning and slight marking to the jacket which is very… Read more…

Substantial bound manuscript by the poet David Gascoyne (1916-2001) together with an archive of photographs, letters from Gascoyne and his wife Judy Gascoyne and from Alan Clodd of the Enitharmon Press and many others. This collection which dates from David Gascoyne’s later years was acquired by his friend the society photographer Pamela Chandler (… Read more…