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A reissue with cancel title page of the edition that has ‘Thomas Boomer’ in the imprint. Additionally this version contains William Hopkins lengthy dissertation on Bertram. Eighteenth century calf, rebacked during the nineteenth century, speckled edges. Collates complete as per ESTC 14122, but lacking the final blank [8], CXXV, [3]; 137, [5]. Some… Read more…

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…

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…

Unsophisticated and attractive example of this satire on Richard Cobden complete with uncoloured illustrations and found here in the publisher’s binding with the binder’s ticket of ‘Remnant and Edmonds’ still present on the lower pastedown. Straight grain red cloth with gilt decoration, slightly discoloured, a bump two thirds of the way up the spin… Read more…

Very uncommon in trade, the 1635 edition of this work on Athenian politics with the ownership signature of a member of the Order of the Golden Dawn. Contemporary vellum with yapp edges and external bands along the hinges of the book. Ownership signature on the first flyleaf of ‘Wm Alex. Aytoun 1872’. On the verso of the title page an earlier owners… Read more…

Inscribed to the Belgian surrealist and one-time Dadaist René Magritte, with a few pencilled annotations to the lower cover which might be in the painter's hand. Arnaud has written on the first leaf 'a René Magritte Amicalement N.A.' picking out the letters 'DADA' vertically in his inscription. Arnaud's brief history of Dadaism is browned, with fol… Read more…

Very scarce large format catalogue of Stoddard’s ground-breaking Houghton Library 'exhibition devoted to those mysterious traces left in books by printers, binders, booksellers’. Near fine copy full of astonishing illustrations. A splendid counterpart to our collection of annotated books. Read more…

Original artwork, photographs and an inscribed book by Tony Hart, inscribed to his agent and friend Roc Renals. The artwork 36x29cm show a dozen original ink and gouache cutouts by Hart from his Artbox programme of 1995-6 which have been mounted on a sheet of blue card with a window and additional decoration giving the illusion that the crayons and… Read more…

Oxford presentation copy to the former Warden of Keble College, inscribed on the first blank: 'Walter Lock From E. B. Poulton, in memory of much kindness & much fresh stimulus received from him while a colleague in work at Keble, and in years of friendship since then. Oxford. March 1924.' Bound in publisher's blue buckram, slight fading to the spin… Read more…

Two volumes of a set of four in an attractive 19th century binding of green half leather over marbled boards, marbled edges, gilt spine decoration and raised bands, marbled end papers. Bookbinder's ticket of J Winstanley, Manchester, dating the binding to only a few years after publication of the book. Directions for boarding and binding present at… Read more…

Computer Manual bound by burgundy card with pages secured by four brads. Gilt lettering to front board along with a cut out in the shape of an oval narrowing to a rounded point which exposes the title on the first page. Binding in very good condition with slight wrinkling to top and bottom of spine and board edges. Them manual runs over 8 chapters… Read more…

[ff] 4 ff 139. Full length authorial typescript of Tranter's country notebook with a manuscript title page. Typed by Tranter on the rectos of 143 leaves with a title page in which the author has misspelt his own title: 'Footbridge to Enchatment - by Nigel Tranter or Nigel's Bridge to Enchantment' - a sub-title which did not appear on the finished w… Read more…

pp 96 Ronald Searle's collection of anarchic St Trinian's cartoons with an introduction from D B Wyndham Lewis. Inscribed by the author 'for Patricia Wood with best wishes from Ronald Searle Christmas 1948' on the first free endpaper. Wood's bookplate is affixed opposite. The second impression from November 1948, bound in cream with some soiling an… Read more…

Inscribed by the artist with a simple drawing on the first blank 'To Frank and Edith with warm Regards from the Groppens.' Near fine book, a couple of small marks to the endpapers in a jacket which has split down the spine, being supported by a stiff, removable mylar wrapper. Gropper cartooned for Smart Set and Vanity Fair in the '20 and '30s, evol… Read more…

Inscribed second impression of a novel almost never found signed because it was repudiated on political grounds by its Nobel Prize winning author. In dark ink on the first free endpaper is written: 'X/ To the Youth/ Doris Lessing'. Who is the youth and what was his relationship with Lessing? Answers came there none. The book is near fine in black c… Read more…

[4] xii, [contents, plate], pp328. Richard Russel's medical treatise on the benefits of sea water therapy, translated from the Latin, together with a translation of Dr Speed's Commentary on Sea Water and also An Account of the Nature, Properties and Uses of all the remarkable Mineral Waters of Great Britain. Very good, bound in its original boards… Read more…

Jeweller and Metalworker's almanac bound in black cloth with gilt lettering to upper cover. Yellow coated endpapers and twenty pages of advertisements - a mixture of steel engravings and half-tone photographs precede 100 pages of Classified Directory (more adverts) and the Diary proper, interspersed with pink blotting paper. The original owner has… Read more…

Sketchbook and diary recording a round trip to Australia aboard Conrad’s last ship, written by the wife of the Commander in Chief of the Australia Station and including a drawing of a kangaroo hunt. Quarto hessian-covered sketchbook with tie; worn and marked, possibly a pencilled sketch on the upper cover which is inscribed with the artist’s initia… Read more…

35 volume sequence covering 38 years of the Norwegian Tourist Association’s Yearbook between 1894-1981. All volumes bound in original blue publisher’s cloth but for one volume, 1963 in red. The following years are present: 1894-5; 1896-7; 1898-9 (two volumes bound in one, with advertisements) followed by individual year volumes for: 1930-1939; 1960… Read more…

A remarkable collection of mounted signatures of Members of the House of Commons and Peers covering the Liberal governments of Lord Palmerston, Gladstone and Disraeli, the death of Prince Albert, the 1867 Reform Act and W E Forster’s introduction of school boards. Small quarto red roan bound book with paper label to upper cover and in manuscript: ‘… Read more…

From the governor's residence in Gibraltar, a manuscript record of British colonial officials, staff, naval and army officers in the Crown Colony which was used by the Governor's household as a social register for entertaining Gibraltar's elite and prestigious visitors, including the second in line to the British throne, Prince Albert Victor. An ad… Read more…

Diary of a young British officer serving with the China Squadron, based in Hong Kong and patrolling Chinese and Japanese waters between 1886-1889. Parker writes in a small octavo which is bound in black textured cloth over thin boards, chipping to spine covering; decorative printed endpapers. Ruled leaves with most stapled gatherings now loose from… Read more…

Complete set (eight volumes) of Theobald’s Works of Shakespeare bound in speckled calf with gilt double fillet to boards and faded gilt lettering and volume number to spine. Raised bands, red morocco label and black morocco label to spines. Binding in good condition with cracking to spines, markings to boards, and rubbing and bumping to edges. Dust… Read more…

Autograph novel manuscript bound in two volumes by Neil Bell, AKA Stephen Southwold, together with the dedication copy of the printed work, inscribed on the dedication page with Bell’s nickname ‘Bunty’. Large quarto format in a custom binding with gilt labelling to the upper boards and spine. Bell has recorded the manuscript’s provenance on the 2nd… Read more…

Twenty six books and magazines containing criticism or works by Sylvia Plath, owned by the poet’s sister in law, Olwyn Hughes, at least one of which bears her critical annotation relating to Plath. Olwyn Hughes only met Plath half a dozen times and their relationship wasn’t easy. After the American poet’s early death Ted Hughes’ sister became one o… Read more…