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Portraits in childhood of the Edinburgh-born women’s rights campaigner and future author of British Freewomen: Their Historical Privilege, Charlotte Carmichael, by her father, the landscape artist James Ferrier Carmichael and by herself. Charlotte Carmichael (1840-1929) was part of the first university level classes for women in Edinburgh under Pro… Read more…

Paolozzi's visiting card from the 1950s, annotated and presented by the artist: 'For David, Dec 1991' with 'Ex Libris' written by the artist above his printed name. The card which is 65x90mm has been mounted on a sheet of paper on which was written 'To John from Malcolm May 1950', still visible on the verso. The card is slightly soiled and has been… Read more…

Exceptionally scarce offprint of which there are apparently no other copies recorded - neither in Scotland or at the Maxwell Archives in Cambridge. Maxwell's text which appeared in the 9th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 7, pp. 214-221, is printed alone but with column placement intact, creating a striking visual effect; large quarto,… Read more…

A contributor’s copy of this rare periodical published by Glasgow School of Art at the peak of its influence and success, which contains analysis of its iconic home designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Olive cloth binding with gilt spine lettering and speckled red edges. Title page with finely executed vignette by Thomas Callendar Campbell-Mackie… Read more…

Scarce Order of Proceeding with remnants of the black silk stab sewing. Eighteen printed pages in large folio setting out the order of proceeding from the night before the funeral with the processional details for the day of the funeral surrounding ‘The Body covered with a rich black velvet pall...’ A little browning and stainng to text which colla… 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…

Fine first edition with the uncommon advertising belly band wrapped around the jacket. Near fine book in a near fine jacket - a very nice copy. Read more…

95 engraved portraits originally issued in fascicules by Edmund Lodge, found here bound in Victorian half cloth over marbled boards. The original title of the magazine has been laid down on the upper board, there is rubbing to edges of binding; a clipping has been removed from the first free endpaper. The engravings are by Goldar, Woodman and Mutlo… 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…

Extra-illustrated edition with five full-page original pen and ink drawings by the New Zealand artist, Richard de Bohun Lovell Smith interpreting Huxley’s Leda poem. Expensively bound in half crushed dark green morocco over light green buckram by the London bindery, Sangorski and Sutcliffe. A little rubbing only to outer hinges; a very attractive b… Read more…

Remarkable archival collection of 99 drawings made on location by the Australian artist George Crossley during the filming of Tony Richardson's Ned Kelly feature film which starred Mick Jagger. The drawings vary in size from the largest at 37x50 cm (14.5x19.75 inches) to the smallest at 24x31 cm (9.5x12 inches). Most are executed in black pen on pa… Read more…

SUPERB ASSOCIATION COPY inscribed on the title page 'My Christmas present to Jock Dec 22nd 1926 Theodore Dreiser To John Cowper Powys.' On the half title Powys has inscribed the work a second time to pass the book on some thirty years later: 'For Malcolm [Elwin] from John 5th of November 1954 [cuneiform inscription] see Page 291. Would I could writ… 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…

Homemade doe-skin binding on this chapbook publication by the English printer and bookseller variously known as Nathaniel Crouch, Robert or Richad Burton. The doe-skin binding which seems likely to be contemporary with the book has been wrapped tightly around the boards and sewn down the spine with the result that that the book opens comfortably to… Read more…

(255x195mm) Friendship album compiled by the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens' grandmother in the 1820s, mostly collected in Germany or featuring German ex-patriates in London. Handsome Parisian oblong quarto bound in straight grain red morocco wth gilt decorative border to boards and five gilt compartments to rounded spine. Rubbed to edges and extremit… Read more…

Mid-eighteenth century bound collection of 'Graveyard' poems including elegies and meditations such as the earliest publication by John Scott of Amwell (the first notable Quaker poet) and works by Thomas Gray, Edward Young, John Delap and Reginald Heber. Small quarto bound in eighteenth century speckled calf, the boards decorated with a border of c… 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…

Beautifully bound commonplace book and verse miscellany of ‘Stephen Bassett’. Medium quarto in straight-grained red morocco with gilt decoration to boards and spine, slight marking to boards, light rubbing to ends of spine; marbled end-papers; all edges gilt. 150 leaves (300pp) watermarked 1826 with 208pp blank and 92pp of handwritten entries inclu… 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…

First edition printed in England of the Meditationes with a leaf from Phillip Melancthon’s guide to the use of logic in reading Scripture bound in. Contemporary full calf binding with triple blind fillet to boards and three raised spine bands; diagonal lines on the edges of the boards which may suggest an Oxford binding. Small loss of leather to th… Read more…

A copy interleaved by a polyglot nineteenth century amateur scholar of cuneiform, Frederick Wood, who has included his own versions of Sanskrit and other alphabets. Large octavo, half calf over textured green cloth; spine relaid using almost all of the original backstrip and achieving an attractive effect. Marbled endpapers and bookplate showing th… 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…

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…

pp 438 Olwyn Hughes' bound galley proof of the first publication of her sister in law Sylvia Plath's letters, annotated by Sylvia Plath's daughter, Frieda Hughes. In addition to Frieda Hughes' annotations this early version of the galley proof contains at least three preliminary drafts of Aurelia's editorial commentary to be subsequently removed or… Read more…

A Yorkshire bookbinder's personal copy of the whole of this important journal devoted to the craft and history of binding, published in the 1880s and 1890s. Edited by Joseph Zaehnsdorf for the first three years, the journal metamorphosed into The British Bookmaker from 1891-1893 and published 7 volumes before being absorbed into the The British Pri… Read more…