Shop — page 11 of 34

Balmoral Castle menu card for a dinner, written in French, perhaps for French-speaking guests visiting the Royal palace. Small cream card embossed with the rare personal cipher of George VI and Queen Elizabeth in gilt (reserved for private use); gold edges and the menu. The text has been printed by an unknown process. August 22 1938 was the 5th bir… Read more…

‘Admiralty Office’ document recording the break-up of Admiral Hosier’s fleet after the failed Blockade of Porto Bello in present day Panama during which Hosier died of disease alongside thousands of his sailors. Foolscap size bifolium with ‘Pro Patria’ watermark, docket title and old horizontal folds, some fingermarking. The list of vessels is divi… Read more…

A presentation copy given to the best student in French at the women-only Queen Margaret College, Glasgow University, 1899-1900 Two attractively bound volumes in quarter brown roan over marbled boards, rubbing to outer hinges; top edge gilt; marbled endpapers and a long presentation inscription on the second flyleaf. Written by Charles Martin of Gl… Read more…

Owned and inscribed by William Dunbar, Librarian of the Speculative Society in the year of this book’s publication. Quarter red roan over textured paper covered boards with dried white marks near the foreedge; rubbing to hinges; tenderness to outer hinges. Top edge gilt; untrimmed foreedge and lower edge. Ownership inscription of ‘Wm Dunbar March 1… Read more…

Balmoral Castle ‘Programme of Pipe Music’, signed by the Balmoral Piper, Henry Forsyth. Small cream card embossed with George VI’s cipher in gilt; gold edges and the programme of music for 8th August, 1938. The text has been printed in some way but Forsyth’s signature is in his hand. August 1938 was the first Royal family gathering after the Corona… Read more…

Attractively inscribed on the second flyleaf by William Hole ‘To the Rev. Charles J Jenkins with the Xmas greeting of his affectionate friend The Artist, Christmas 1906’. Light blue publisher’s cloth binding, torn at the base of the spine - this is a heavy volume. Browned endpapers and to the card leaves on which the plates are mounted; occasional… Read more…

Annotated editorial copy with a letter from the Scottish politician and author, in which the adventurer explains that he has sent proofs for his next book from London to Morocco so that he might correct them while in the field. Original publisher’s cloth, ragged at head of spine, black lettering - a good copy of this first cheap edition. With a let… Read more…

Large format signed albumen photograph of the Scottish congregationalist missionary Robert Moffat whose daughter Mary Moffat married David Livingstone. Photograph (19x15.5cm) mounted on card which has been trimmed to the edge of the albumen photograph except at the lower edge where the card mount has been signed: ‘Yours very truly Robert Moffat.’ T… Read more…

Oddly scarce Pentland Press imprint A fine copy in a fine jacket. Read more…

A work that brings together three distinguished Scottish polymaths: inscribed by the author on the first flyleaf: ‘To Alasdair Gray from Bob Grieve - you will find quotations from the main biographies in the Appendices. Blessings on the good work! March 1992.’ Near fine, just a little fading to the spine. A monograph by one distinguished Scotsman,… Read more…

Inscribed first edition of this uncommon verse collection on Scottish themes - just one institutional copy in Scotland at the NLS. Quarter dark green cloth over light green cloth, attractively combined; inscribed ‘7th Nov 1906 Yrs sincerely William Gow’. Lightly spotted paper stock, overall very good. In addition to the NLS copy OCLC locates Cambri… Read more…

Five rare Montrose chapbooks, all with their pictorial wrappers, bound together with a single Edinburgh and London imprint. Good quality recent half calf binding which incorporates the 19th century binder’s instructions for a client named ‘McGregor’ who had requested half calf with a ‘yellow top’ edge - just visible still. The binder’s stamp of J F… Read more…

A dozen 18th century imprints relating to Peerage Cases heard before the House of Lords concerning succession of the Scottish Earls of Sutherland and the Irish Earl of Anglesey. Items 1-8 relate to the counter claims of Robert Gordon, a descendant of the 1st Earl of Sutherland and Elizabeth Sutherland Leveson-Gower who won the case to become 19th C… Read more…

Satire on the Scottish Presbyterian covenanters, ending with a Latin version of the final 36 English lines. Very pretty polished calf with case mark indicated by two circular morocco spine labels; minor loss of leather close to the upper joint between spine and front cover, adjacent to lowest label; speckled edges. Casemark repeated in ink on the f… Read more…

Violin catalogue issued by the longstanding Dundee music retailer, Larg and Sons. Brown wrappers with the label of ‘RGW Brown, Princes Street, Dundee’ to the upper cover; old fold to limp cover; stapled contents with annotations relating to violin makers. Pages a little grubby from use but extensively illustrated on good quality coated paper. No in… Read more…

Two early Dunn collections inscribed to the same person. Terry Street is near fine in a near very good jacket with extensive brown spotting along the top edge; inscribed on the flyleaf ‘To Dennis Saunders from Douglas Dunn with best wishes 21.iii.75’ with the Poetry Society Bulletin issue about this book from Autumn 1969 laid in. The Happier Life,… Read more…

A minutely observed manuscript travel diary of a research-cum-sightseeing trip to China and the USSR, ending with a nostalgic visit to Vienna, that offers glimpses of a personal history shaped by the Holocaust. Austrian-Jewish by background the electrical engineer Ernst Billig (1904-1970) was born in Vienna, was forced to flee to England where he b… Read more…

Presentation copy, one of a hundred subscription copies, inscribed by Klopsteg to the American champion archer, Robert P Elmer. Quarter red roan over cloth covered boards. Klopsteg has signed the title page, numbered the book overleaf ‘85’ and written below: ‘Dr Robert P Elmer. With the Author’s appreciation and compliments.’ Unfortunately the book… Read more…

Annotated presentation copy of the third edition with an affectionate note about the author’s life in Exeter, ‘now (1823) quite blind’ written by the book’s recipient, George Westlake. Half calf binding overlaid and strengthened with red cloth at some later stage - over marbled boards. Westlake’s bookplate appears on the front pastedown with offset… Read more…

A very nice set in decorative publisher’s cloth bindings; all edges marbled. Black coated endpapers and illustrated throughout both volumes by Angas, Dancy, Wolf, Zwecker and engraved by Dalziel brothers. A little textual browning, otherwise very good, perhaps even a little better. The two volumes were issued in 1874 and 1880. Read more…

Nicely bound English edition of Thompson’s Book of Sports which had appeared in the USA a year earlier and contains a baseball story by George Harvey. Attractive green publisher’s binding with gilt decoration; rubbed and a little worn at the head and tail of the spine. Spectacular art nouveau-style endpapers; a little browning to text which is illu… Read more…

A very smart copy with T S Eliot’s signature in blue ink on a small oblong of paper tipped onto the title page. A crisp copy of the 6th edition from 1950, near fine in a near fine jacket. Ownership signature from 1958 to the flyleaf over an erased earlier inscription. Eliot's signature is not difficult to find on limited editions but desirable on t… Read more…

Scarce if incomplete example of King’s Commonwealth era collection of views of churches and cathedrals with extensive provenance recorded on the book. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION:Small folio-size bound in late 17th century panelled calf, rebacked, probably in the 19th century with a gilt heraldic device to the spine. Front pastedown has a c1800 manuscript… Read more…

Pictou-imprint map of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island from the estate of the British Commander in Halifax, Nova Scotia in the late 1850s, General Sir Charles Trollope. A map produced by James Dawson as the third edition in 1854 and lithographed in Edinburgh. Cloth-backed coloured map, dated 1854 (73x56cm) folded to 14x18cm; a little spotting.… Read more…

Expensively produced 19th century history and guide to this area of north London in the augmented second edition. Decorative publisher’s cloth binding over bevel-edged boards, red edges to text block; faded to spine with scuffing at head and tail of spine. Black coated endpapers; cracking to inner hinge before the first fold-out map by Pickburn. Co… Read more…