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Two fine volumes owned by the infamous chairman and director of the White Star Line, Joseph Bruce Ismay who failed to provide sufficient lifeboats for the Titanic but managed to survive the 1912 sinking of the company’s flagship when he boarded one of the last to be launched from the doomed liner. Appropriately enough for copies owned by a transatl… Read more…

Remarkable unpublished autobiography of a young French immigrant to the USA in the 1890s, who became a ranch-owner in Montana before turning to civil engineering and finally, after his return to France, publishing extensively on occultism and founding the Societe Unitive - a sort of psychic wellness group avant la lettre. Written in English and cle… Read more…

Lavishly produced record of a high society late Victorian Fancy Dress Ball photographed by the Richmond (west London) photographic company George Tuohy & Co. Fancy dress balls were one of the grandest and most fashionable ways for a wealthy family to make their mark, a display of wealth and status - and a lot of fun. At this event on January 11th 1… Read more…

Typed first draft manuscript of 465 pages offering several thousand manuscript corrections and alterations made during its composition by the author Maurice Baring. Alongside his novel ‘C’, Adeane was Baring’s most popular and influential novel, telling the story of a complex and unfaithful marriage between a London barrister and his wife, Fanny, w… Read more…

Officer’s log book of a merchant West Indiaman engaged in supplying horses and mules to the enslaved African and African-American servicemen of Britain’s West India Regiments - and on the homeward journey bringing back a cargo of sugar manufactured by their enslaved cousins in the plantations of the Caribbean. Both Atlantic crossings were fraught w… Read more…

Unpublished records of a secretive early 19th century precursor of the modern credit ratings industry. The Society of Mutual Communication for the Protection of Trade was founded in order to allow London business men to spot deadbeat clients, share information between businesses as well as managing debt recovery from failed transactions. This vellu… Read more…

An Appointments diary-plus which covers Marianne Faithfull’s 2005 US tour journal in support of her album Before the Poison. The tour took her to The Town Hall, New York (March 12) and in the following days Park West, Chicago and the Henry Fonda Theater, Los Angeles. The diary charts Faithfull’s busy Parisian life during the early months of 2005 be… Read more…

A beautifully unsophisticated example of this very scarce English dancing manual found here in the publisher’s original paper covered boards with printed spine label. Printed on high quality wove paper, the text and plates are in excellent condition, many leaves unopened. Publisher’s binding of brown paper over boards, chipping to the paper coverin… 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…

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…

Lavishly illustrated tour of Scotland undertaken by two young men in 1892 including a long description of climbing Ben Nevis in the fog, arriving at the summit for a slap-up meal in the famous Observatory Hotel: ‘Plain teas 2/6, Ham and Eggs 4/” Two of the former were called, & the quality of two mountain appetites tested with very satisfactory res… 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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Three works that form part of the outpouring of commentary and mourning that followed the execution of Charles I in January 1649. The most famous of these works, Eikon Basilike appears first but lacks its portrait. The third text in the work, the Apophthegms, may be the version that appeared alongside this edition of the Eikon. Between the two impr… Read more…

Two unrecorded anti-slavery pamphlets addressing the forced migration of labourers from the Polynesian islands and of so-called ‘coolie emigration’ from ‘French West Indian and South American possessions’ to British India. These otherwise unknown texts have been bound alongside two classic British pamphleteering texts attacking American slavery, du… Read more…

Richly provenanced Nelson family association copy presented by Horatio Nelson’s niece Charlotte Nelson to the future Admiral Richard Crozier. Two handsome small octavo volumes bound in straight grain red morocco with gilt decoration; all edges gilt; grey coated endpapers. Armorial bookplate of Richard Crozier to both front paste-downs. Charlotte Ho… Read more…

Three seemingly unrecorded New-Year’s messages written by John Ruskin and other grandees for students in Aberdeen. Dated respectively 1873, 1874 & 1878, within each issue Ruskin has offered his new year message in letter form. The volume is housed within a hinged clam shell box containing the bookplate of ‘JM’ - John Morgan of Rubislaw House, a mas… Read more…

Otherwise unknown London chapbook edition of this outrageous and transgressive eighteenth century novel. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Small format bound in blue stamped cloth over bevel-edged boards. Title in faded gilt to the upper cover and spine with the (surely very high?) price of 7s 6d. Edges of text block stained red. Paper lining to inner hinges;… Read more…