Shop — page 8 of 34

Early edition in pleasingly unsophisticated contemporary sheep binding, unadorned except with blind rules Small octavo in very good early 18th century full sheep, just starting at the tail of the hinge between front board and spine; no pastedowns; engraved title page on verso of A1, as if functioning as a frontispiece; fraying to foreedge of this l… 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…

A heavily corrected full-length typescript of George Steiner’s magnum opus on translation bearing around 500-700 autograph emendations and additions to the text. These range from single word corrections to full paragraphs in Steiner’s hand. The typescript comes from the estate of Elsa Southern, Steiner’s longterm secretary and assistant in Cambridg… Read more…

First edition of Smart’s signature novel - with its memorable title and equally striking dustjacket. Publisher’s red cloth binding, near fine; contents near fine - a little toning to paper stock. Bookseller’s label from Welwyn Garden City to front pastedown.The jacket has divided along the spine with substantial loss to the paper over the spine and… Read more…

The first volume of the first edition of Shakespeare’s works to appear after the four Folio Editions of the seventeenth century and the very first illustrated edition which has been described by a recent scholar as an 'inaugurating moment'. The publisher Jacob Tonson and the book’s editor Nicholas Rowe achieve their preeminence among Shakespeare pr… Read more…

Rare possibly unique survival of this miniature ready reckoner with a record of female ownership, probably to a London family of Covent Garden market traders. Miniature format bound in publisher’s cloth with gilt lettering, faded and marked but sound. All edges gilt. Pencilled ownership signature of ‘Isabelle Levy 1874’ to the yellow-coated flyleaf… Read more…

Appointments diary from their family home in Lord North Street, Westminster, of Mary Wilson, wife of the past and future Prime Minister Harold Wilson, during his phase as Leader of the Opposition to Edward Heath’s Tory government in 1973. From dinners with Lord Goodman to her packing list for the Labour Party Conference in Blackpool in October 1973… Read more…

1920s era ‘fifty-sixth’ edition of the earliest book by an English doctor to describe contraceptive methods, a publication that saw its author struck off from the medical register. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: The book is bound in printed wrappers, no date but OCLC suggests 1922. A little dog-earring to early leaves, otherwise unmarked. One terminal adver… Read more…

Written by the former Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson, this is the first section of a speech which he delivered - and then revised for subsequent reuse - around the time of the publication of his book-length account of ‘the creation of the State of Israel’. A lifelong and unwavering Zionist, Wilson wrote into his 1981 publication, Chariot of Is… Read more…

An inscribed copy of this rare book about the manners and customs on the Solway Firth. Small format bound in embossed blue-green cloth, neatly repaired, with yellow-coated endpapers and an albumen portrait of the author tipped in opposite the title page, inscribed below. Collates complete: pp208; a little paper decay at the foot of the title page a… Read more…

Privately printed family history with biographies and photographs of family members. Red crushed roan binding; heraldic bookplate; 48 pages of text interleaved with blanks for photographs and additional card blanks with further images to the rear. Inscribed on the front flyleaf: ‘J Lowther Bouch from E.J.L.’ A little grubby along the top of some pa… Read more…

Ninety two photographs documenting the experience of an ordinary German family that attended the Berlin Olympics of 1936 with American swimmers in the pool, athletics in the newly built stadium and adoring crowds giving Hitler the Nazi salute. The photographs feature the opening ceremony and athletics events such as the hurdles as well as dressage… Read more…

A signed first edition of Richard Hoggart's career-making study of ‘Aspects of Working Class Life with special reference to publications and entertainments.’ Orange-brown cloth, near fine; a little spotting to the text, inscribed in blue ink, warmly, on the title page. In a good jacket, complete but nicked and with short tears close to the edges; s… Read more…

First edition with the Book Society’s wraparound band still present. Very good plus book, spotting to the edges of the text block and first few pages; bright red boards otherwise internally fine; offsetting from an early newspaper review laid into the final in at the end. In a very good plus example of John Craxton’s magnificent dustjacket; tiny pu… Read more…

First edition signed for ‘Richard...’ by Greg Searle, and 4 other British Olympic Gold Medallists for rowing: Katherine Grainger (now Chancellor of the University of Glasgow), Alex Gregory, Pete Reed and Zac Purchase. A fine first in a fine jacket. A lovely association copy, presented in another Olympic year. Read more…

Inscribed first edition from the book’s editor and the author’s son: ‘To my Florentine friends with affectionate greetings from Geoffrey Bret Harte April 1926’, written on the front flyleaf. Publisher’s blue cloth; a crease to the upper cover where it has been bent. Spotting to early leaves but internally very good. Geoffrey Bret Harte himself publ… Read more…

In verse and pictures, the cycling adventures of Hiram Jones - sent as eight weekly cards by Brown Brothers of London - to advertise the new coasting brake manufactured by the New Departure Manufacturing Company of Connecticut. Eight stiff cards (18x14cm), printed on both sides in green and black. On the recto of each is the full title which explai… Read more…

Last Will and Testament of a Stratford woman who owned land next to New Place, Shakespeare’s grand home in the town - and took special care in this document over the disposal of her ‘Bed, Bedstead and the Appurtenances and entire Furniture of such Bed’. Single manuscript bifolium document measuring 33x21cm with legal text on two leaves and a docket… Read more…

Coal mining photo album which includes images of an underground explosion and ‘Strike Volunteers’ - strike breakers? - from the miner’s strike of 1921. Kodak “Eton” Album (17.5x14.5cm) containing 35 silver gelatin prints (c7-10cm) mounted on card leaves. Generally annotated in a contemporary hand these photographs show scenes from the Staffordshire… 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…

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…

Rare Colonial Intelligence Report compiled in Lagos some twenty years before Nigeria achieved independence. Homemade brownish paper wrappers with punched holes for tied binding; title and author in black ink on cover. Seemingly a ribbon copy, typed on rectos only, signed in type at the end: ‘H.L.M. Butcher D.O. 23rd MAy, 1939.’ A fine copy. ff71 OC… 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…