Shop — page 2 of 48

Fine fourth impression of the Bloomsbury true first edition of the first Harry Potter novel. Number line: ‘10 9 8 7 6 5 4’; no gap between ‘Thomas Taylor1997’ as called for; young Dumbledore and priced at £10.99: fine in fine dustjacket. The book hasn’t been read; there are no marks of ownership or blemishes of any kind and no fading to the spine c… Read more…

Smiles’ heavily corrected copy of his classic account of John Smeaton and John Rennie’s ‘Harbours, Lighthouse, Bridges’ which formed Volume II of his Lives of the Engineers. First published in 1862, this copy shows the numerous changes required for the expanded and revised edition of 1874. Sent to Smiles in parts and without the preliminary materia… Read more…

A book presented to Ely Cathedral Library by Bishop Symon Patrick (1626-1707) during the 1690s as part of his drive to revive the Cathedral where he rebuilt the Bishop’s Palace and strengthened the holdings in the Cathedral library as well as supporting the Cambridge University Press and founding the S.P.C.K. On the last page of text Patrick has wr… Read more…

True first edition, first impression of Hawking’s monograph on black holes that precedes the much more common reprint issued the following year alongside a paperback edition. Very smart publisher’s navy blue cloth with silver lettering; a fine book in a near fine jacket; a couple of tiny closed tears to the edges. The jacket has been clipped top an… Read more…

A remarkable multi-national vellum-bound autograph book and album that witnesses the moment when General Allenby captured Jerusalem in December 1917, ending 400 years of Ottoman rule and establishing British control over Palestine during World War I. Apparently compiled by a Jewish woman called Shulamith Shabtai whose name appears repeatedly as wel… Read more…

Four rare imprints containing receipts and recipes for wine, foodstuffs and medicines, owned and annotated by ‘Tho[ma]s Geldard... Neer Leeds Druggist Born in the year 182[?] In the month of July 4 Day’. As well as inscribing the book with his personal details Geldard, who places himself in the ‘Woodhouse’ area of Leeds (just by the present day uni… Read more…

Engineering map of the Buenos Aires district owned and inscribed by the Welsh railway engineer Arthur - Arturo - Coleman who moved to Argentina to become a central figure in the construction of Argentina’s Great Southern Railway or FC Sud in the 1890s. Coleman (1868-1952), who has inscribed the tail of the map, helped develop cities in the desert,… Read more…

Elaborately inscribed by Frost to an ‘old old friend’ from his time in England with the Dymock Poets in rural Gloucestershire just before the First World War. Writing on the first flyleaf Frost has inscribed the book ‘For Robin Haines of Gloucester from his old old friend Robert Frost once of not far from Gloucester, Amherst Mass, November 27 1937’… Read more…

Gifted by one American serviceman to another, a collection of risque Belle Epoque French postcards with provenance linking the collection to US combatants in Europe during the First World War. Just off the boat from convoy ‘Henry Mercier U.S.S. Albany’ has recorded his ownership first, before giving it to a member of the Marine Corps: ‘to James J B… Read more…

Artist Gordon King’s original artwork for this ‘colourful and stimulating introduction to Shakespeare’s England’ from the 1970s comprising 10 surprisingly powerful pieces in a mixture of watercolour, oil and acrylics which portray a performance at the Globe Theatre, figures from Elizabethan life and a large idealised depiction of a performance of A… Read more…

An archive of affectionate, funny and deeply personal hand-written postcards and letters spanning the years 1972 - 1984, sent from American singer, dancer and actress Eartha Kitt to close friends Stewart and Peter Harries. The Harries brothers were part of Kitt's inner circle who often hosted her and collaborated professionally on various projects.… Read more…

Edwardian parlour game manuscript containing 350 drawings of pigs which were made by friends and relatives while blindfolded. The creations of Ada Alice Shore who was born in 1890 and lived in West Kensington Park in London, she began inviting friends and relatives to contribute in January 1907 (a notable article from 1905 in the Strand Magazine fe… Read more…

Ambitious occult typescript from the first years of the 20th century written by a retired naval officer and currently unidentified occult scholar living in Putney, west London where he had settled after 40 years naval service. Over the first two volumes ‘Potestas’, as he dubs himself, has transcribed Godfrey Higgins’ Anacalypsis about the idea of a… Read more…

Tenth edition of the foundational work of modern economics by Adam Smith, attractively bound in half black calf over marbled boards. A good looking set in a binding from a few decades after its publication. Octavo volumes (21x13cm) Vol III is the only one of the three with its spine label. Volumes I and III are bound without their half title; Vol I… Read more…

Diary of a young British officer with the China Squadron, based in Hong Kong and patrolling Chinese and Japanese waters between 1886-1889 to enforce the Pax Britannica. In the late 1880s the British navy’s China Squadron was the primary instrument of British imperial power in East Asia, protecting commercial interest and securing naval supremacy, e… Read more…

Lithographic railway map owned and annotated by the Welsh-Argentinean Railway Engineer Gustavus Wilmot Rufus (GWR!) Coleman, brother of the legendary railway builder in Argentina, Arthur Coleman. The Coleman brothers were central to the construction of Argentina’s Great Southern Railway or FC Sud in the 1890s, and Gustavus - or perhaps his brother… Read more…

First edition in its original Edinburgh publisher’s burgundy-grained cloth binding. A very good example in robust condition, with replacement endpapers,; though retaining the original binder’s ticket of Burn of Kirby Street. The folding plate is present, with tape reinforcement to lower part of hinge and the book collates correctly: xvi, pp420. The… Read more…

Strikingly beautiful William Blake-inspired, fully lithographed edition printed at the Iona Press by the Gaelic scholar John McCormick and William Muir. The press which was founded in 1887 had a mission to preserve and promote Iona's history and Muir himself had recently spent time creating lithographed editions of Blake’s work in London and his in… Read more…

Seemingly unlocated in any institutional collection, an illustrated Australian edition of Brooks Adams’ satirical novel about the acquisition, use and abuse of political power, set in Washington D.C. Published anonymously in 1880 we date this edition to the 1880s, with its stylish illustrations by the French artist, Jules Despres. DESCRIPTION: Brig… 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…

A signed, framed Certificate presented in 2014 to the singer-songwriter Marianne Faithfull by the artist and musician Yoko Ono, recognising that ‘You have been put through the thorns of scorn and misunderstanding... Your work as a creator of music, actor and performer has shown like a beacon in the world...’ - sentiments that might apply as much to… Read more…

Early edition with beautifully executed and seemingly contemporary hand colouring to initial letters, printer’s ornaments and armorials. This volume is bound in a 19th century half parchment over marbled boards with the spine hand titled in black ink. Pleasingly firm and square, a little rubbed to corners and age toned to spine. Endpapers clean, ag… Read more…

First edition of the 1954 security hearing held by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission that revoked the clearance of the ‘father of the atomic bomb’, Robert Oppenheimer. Over four weeks, it investigated his loyalty, past left-wing associations, and opposition to the hydrogen bomb, marking a peak of Cold War-era anti-communist McCarthyism. These proce… Read more…

Manuscript literary magazine for coterie circulation by Charles Braithwaite with a powerful essay on the efficacy of reading by the prominent English Quaker minister (and mother of the editor) Anna Braithwaite. Written and edited by her son Charles Lloyd Braithwaite in his late teens in their native Kendal (modern-day Cumbria) his mother Anna’s ess… Read more…

Pete Seeger in environmental mode, writing to his friend and long term artistic collaborator the photographer Dan Budnik, who took the portrait of Seeger that appears on the lower panel of the book’s dustjacket. Four letters to Budnik from Pete Seeger are laid into the book, two concerning Seeger’s advocacy for ‘some crucial river scenes which may… Read more…