Shop — page 2 of 28

Superb set owned by Louis XV’s influential mistress, the enlightenment intellectual Madame de Pompadour, with full provenance and de Pompadour’s coat of arms stamped in gilt 84 times. 41 volumes bound in 42 (volume 10 is bound separately in 2 parts), 12mo, Paris, 17x10cm; published 1727-1740. As usual found without the final two posthumously publis… Read more…

A climate change duo: Eunice Foote’s pioneering 1856 paper on the absorption of thermal radiation by carbon dioxide and water vapour together with an autograph letter from John Tyndall, discoverer of the absorption of radiant heat by gases some 3 years later. Foote’s paper appears in The American Journal of Science and Arts. Second Series. Vol. XXI… Read more…

Rare book of specimen type borders and ornaments offered for sale by the most famous of all British letter founders. Large octavo bound in speckled paper covered boards with new acid-free endpapers. Title page with decorative border (with spotting) followed by Caslon’s 1838 ‘Prices of Printing Types’ with tissue guard. A single leaf of letterpress… Read more…

Autograph note to novelist Andre Maurois who translated Mrs Dalloway into French and wrote an essay on Woolf that introduced her work to the Francophone world. Woolf writes on a small blue, oblong sheet of ‘Strathdon’ watermarked paper on 14th June 1932. She states that she has seen Cory Bell (older brother of her sister Vanessa Bell’s husband the… Read more…

Signed first edition of Evelyn Waugh’s only historical novel, based on the eponymous heroine’s search for relics of the true cross. Blue publisher’s cloth, small dent at the top of the front board; uniformly deep blue cloth, sharp corners. In a near very good jacket, lightly nicked at head of the spine and at the top of the front hinge with the fro… Read more…

Inscribed with ‘Prayers’ from a saint - John Henry Newman’s Letter to Pusey inscribed in his hand on the verso of the title page: ‘with the kindest wishes & prayers of the Author Decr 10. 1872’. Collection of 9 Anglo-Catholic church pamphlets bound in contemporary half calf with marbled boards, spine label lettered in gilt on maroon leather, some r… Read more…

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…

Corrected and emended copy, apparently with a view to reprinting in an improved version. Green wrappers marked and stained; later ex libris of David W H Walton to the flyleaf. The corrections begin on the verso of the title page and continue throughout the 24 page printed text. A heavy ink stain at the tail of the page runs right through. The corre… Read more…

Collection of comic skits inscribed by the author ‘Gracie Critchley from RCM January 1902" with a short poem written below. Very good in green cloth with gilt titles, all edges gilt, brown coated end papers. The boards are rubbed to the edges and spine. The text is crisp and fresh. Copies at Dundee and NLS only. Read more…

First edition of David M Crook's autobiographical account of his role as a Spitfire pilot in the Battle of Britain, signed during the brief interval between the book’s publication in 1942 and his death, when his spitfire plunged into the sea off Aberdeen in December 1944. Near fine book in near very good jacket, signed beneath the portrait frontisp… Read more…

Alexander Todd’s personal archive including school prizes from Glasgow schooldays, his Nobel Prize lecture and dozens of retained copies of his papers and speeches. Alexander R Todd (1907-1997) was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the synthesis of nucleotides - the groundwork for Watson and Crick’s elucidation of DNA. Born… Read more…

[RESERVED] Pre-printed diary used interestingly by a member of Earl Haig’s family as a commonplace/ day book. Chunky small quarto bound in full calf, splitting slighly at outer hinges but very robust still. Laid in is a selection of quotations from Carlyle written on ‘Ramornie Ladybank’ headed paper. Marbled endpapers. Preceding the diary pages are… Read more…

A Nobel prize-winning physicist and Edinburgh University Professor presents his latest English translation to a fellow physicist. Born’s typed letter was sent from Bad Pyrmont in west Germany where he had retired after leaving his Edinburgh professorship in 1953. Writing to Professor Edward Neville da Costa Andrade in London, he says that ‘I have a… Read more…

18th century manuscript record of land rentals on the Dunlop family estates in East Ayrshire. Slim vellum-bound notebook with wallet-style binding and external straps. Later gilt lettering on spine suggesting a strong motivation to preserve the manuscript. Laid paper with horizontal chainlines; 20 pages of manuscript headed pages, beginning ‘Rental… Read more…

Pew pass bought by a wealthy Scottish family living in London in the 1840s - adorned on the verso with the seal of a 17th century Scottish Bishop and Principal of Edinburgh University. Toned card (9x6cm) printed and then accomplished and signed in manuscript by a church official, Adam Scott, for ‘Mrs Sangsters Servant’ for 6 months tenure of No 10,… 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…

Five Volumes of the diaries of Thomas Henry Montgomery of Stobo in the Scottish Borders, including a Middle Eastern tour. The future Captain Thomas Henry Montgomery of Stobo’s used 5 bound volumes of Punch’s Pocket Book to keep his diary over 15 years: 1848-49-50; 1851-52-53; 1854-55-56; 1857-58-59; 1860-61-62. All volumes are fat little octavos; 1… Read more…

Owned and elaborately annotated by a mid 19th century Knaresborough local - ’R Lofthouse’ - with corrections and enlargements to the printed text. Small octavo bound in publisher’s brown cloth, marked and stained; outer hinge splitting between upper board and backstrip; binding remains robust. The book is complete as issued but extensively improved… Read more…

Inscribed by the President’s former Special Assistant - and with an excellent letter written from the White House in September 1962 thanking friends in Houston where Kennedy had just given his speech declaring ‘we choose to go to the moon’. 6th printing of this memoir of the Kennedy years, warmly inscribed by Powers on the half title ‘To Claud and… Read more…

A contributor’s copy of a rare pre-war Cambridge periodical published by Selwyn College students though not found in any Cambridge collection. Octavo volume bound in quarter vellum over green cloth; Bill Pickard bookplate to first pastedown; overleaf a photograph of the ‘Elysium Publishing Association’ with names laid down opposite a manuscript ‘Br… Read more…

First edition of Virginia Woolf’s first major achievement as a novelist. Bound in mustard yellow cloth; good colour to the boards, a little fading to the spine; one tiny chip at the top of the spine label; rubbing to extremities; slight spine lean. Internally no ownership inscriptions; occasional spotting but a very good copy: pp290; 14 pages of ad… Read more…

Sir Hans Sloane’s great-nephew’s fourth edition, complete with his bookplate to the front pastedown of each volume and annotation regarding slavery in the ancient world. Attractive contemporary full calf, red speckled edges in very good condition. Pencil casemark above each bookplate and an earlier casemark in red ink crossed through in pencil. Vol… Read more…

Attractively inscribed copy of the 3rd impression ‘For Mr Leslie Bridgewater. Thanking him for one kindness after another - from Ethel Smyth 1939’ on the half title. A near fine copy, just a little spotting, in a very good jacket. The book’s printed dedication is to Smythe’s longterm friend Virginia Woolf. Bridgewater was a successful composer of l… Read more…

Complete set of Mackay's history of popular delusions such as Tulipomania and The South-Sea Bubble when "whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object, and go mad in its pursuit". The second edition; both volumes bound in publisher’s embossed brown cloth; rubbing to edges and particularly to lower corners. Top edge gilt and pleasingly… Read more…

24 separately published sermons bound into a single sammelband volume with the ownership inscription of an 18th century Lincolnshire woman. Small octavo sized volume, modern brown buckram and new endpapers (see 20th century pencil note to final pastedown ‘Bound Mr Liddon 16.XI.61.’) and a pencilled list of the imprints on the first flyleaf. Precedi… Read more…