Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

KINGSLEY, Charles. The Water-Babies: A Fairy Tale for Land-Baby. London & Cambridge: Macmillan, 1863. First edition, first issue, 8vo (190 x 134mm.) Half-title, 2 engraved plates by J. Noel Paton, with 'L'Envoi' leaf at B1. (Toning, finger-marks to half-title, 1 plate slightly trimmed with minor chipping, spotting to rear endpaper, lacking advertisement leaf.) 20th century red straight-grain half morocco (front-free endpaper replaced). Note: Kingsley suppressed the 'L'Envoi' leaf after the first 200 copies were printed. Provenance: Emily C. Beauchamp (name inscribed to initial blank).

VINE PRESS. - Victor NEUBURG. Songs of the Groves: Records of the Ancient World. Sussex, Steyning: Vine Press, 1921. Limited edition, being number 24 of 510 copies, signed by Victor Neuburg and with a signed postcard loosely inserted, 8vo (190 x 123mm.) Wood-cut illustration and head-pieces by Dennis West. (Browning to endpapers.) Original cloth-backed pictorial boards (spine ends bumped), dust-jacket (browned to spine, minor marginal damp-staining). Note: the book is signed and inscribed by Neuburg to Dennis West, the illustrator, and reads: 'To Dennis/ West/ Our best/ Comp./ The Pomp/ Of my pen is/ Devoted / Be it here noted/ The official words/ Of Vicky bird/ 11: 8: 21'. The post-card is also inscribed to Dennis West.

MITFORD, Nancy. The Pursuit of Love. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1945. First edition, first impression, 8vo (184 x 118mm.) (Spotting to pastedowns, browning.) Original blue cloth (lightly bumped spine ends), dust-jacket (two large tears with some loss to upper panel and tail of spine). Note: scarce in the dust-jacket. The first novel in Mitford's 'Radlett Trilogy'.

[ABBOTT, Edwin A.] 'A Square'. Flatland, A Romance of Many Dimensions. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1907. 8vo (173 x 112mm.) Half-title, illustrations by the author. (Detailed ink annotations to endpapers and half-title.) Original blue cloth (wear to spine ends, heavily rubbed extremities, minor stain to lower cover). Provenance: S.A. Courtis (name inscribed to front pastedown).

MILNE, A.A. Winnie-the-Pooh. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1926. First edition deluxe, first impression, 8vo (183 x 120mm.) Numerous illustrations by E.H. Shepard. (Mild toning.) Original blue limp calf, pictorial gilt, g.e. (spine ends rubbed, slight sunning to spine and lower cover).

MILNE, A.A. Winnie-the-Pooh. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1926. First edition, first impression, 8vo (189 x 119mm.) Numerous illustrations by E.H. Shepard. (Mild toning, offsetting to endpapers, light spotting to fore-edge.) Original green cloth, pictorial gilt to upper cover, t.e.g., dust-jacket (chipping to spine ends and browning to spine panel, small mark to upper panel). Note: the first issue dust-jacket with '117th thousand' to the rear inner flap.

MILNE, A.A. The House at Pooh Corner. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1928. First edition, deluxe issue, 8vo (183 x 115mm.) Illustrations by E.H. Shepard. (Mild toning, faint crease to front-free endpaper.) Original blue limp calf, pictorial gilt, g.e. (spine lightly rubbed, extremities bumped).

Robinson, Charles (illustrator). - Frances Hodgson BURNETT. The Secret Garden. London: William Heinemann, 1911. First edition, 8vo (204 x 147mm.) Half-title, 8 colour plates by Charles Robinson with captioned tissue-guards, 6pp. of publisher's advertisements to rear. (Lacking front-free endpaper, light spotting to numerous leaves.) Original green cloth, pictorial gilt (inner hinge weakened, upper joint split, rubbing to extremities).

[DODGSON, Charles Lutwidge.] 'Lewis Carroll'. Sylvie and Bruno Concluded. London: Macmillan and Co., 1893. First edition, signed and inscribed by Lewis Carroll to the half-title, 8vo (183 x 119mm.) Numerous illustrations by Harry Furniss, 'Advertisement Leaf' loosely inserted. (Toning, some spotting to preliminaries and rear endpaper.) Original red cloth, gilt roundels to covers, g.e. (slight fading to spine, minor staining spots to spine and lower cover). Note: the inscription reads: 'Lady Eustace Cecil, with the Author's sincere regards, Dec. 28th, 1893'. It's possible that Lady Eustace Cecil was the inspiration for 'Lady Muriel' in 'Sylvie and Bruno Concluded'. They met in 1875 at a party in Hatfield House at the invitation of Lord and Lady Salisbury. Provenance: Lady Eustace Cecil (inscribed to by the author on the half-title).

FORE-EDGE PAINTING. - John REEVE and Lodowicke MUGGLETON. A Volume of Spiritual Epistles: Being the Copies of Several Letters written by the Last Two Prophets and Messengers of God… collected by the great pains of Alexander Delamaine, the Elder. [London:] W. Smith, 1820. 4to (201 x 154mm.) Engraved portrait frontispiece, 'An Acrostic' dedication and verso list of subscribers, 6pp. 'Index to Letters'. (Offsetting to title, lacking initial blank?) Near contemporary red straight-grain full morocco, gilt borders, g.e., fore-edge painting (light rubbing to spine). Note: the painting shows an elaborate town square scene with thirteen buildings and a church as a backdrop to approximately thirty human figures with horses, carts, ladders etc. The Muggletonians were a small nonconformist Protestant group. In E. Thompson's words, Muggletonianism was 'a highly intellectual anti-intellectualism and, as such, remarkably well adapted for survival among the semi-educated, self-taught, self-confident London artisans of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries'. The last Muggletonian, Philip Noakes, died in 1979.

DOUBLE FORE-EDGE PAINTING. - Robert POLLOCK. The Course of Time: A Poem, in Ten Books. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and T. Cadell, 1829. Eighth edition, 8vo (168 x 98mm.) 2pp. publisher's advertisements to rear. (Spotting to front and rear leaves.) Near contemporary red straight-grain morocco, blind-stamped and gilt ruled, g.e., double fore-edge painting (lightly rubbed spine). Note: the fore-edge painting shows a bear eating a hare while imminently the bear is to be hung by a rope held by three men, all the while two dogs watch in attendance. The reverse shows a cow being baited by two men with five other figures in attendance. Provenance: Mackie of Dreghorn (armorial bookplate to the front pastedown).

FORE-EDGE PAINTINGS. - Robert SOUTHEY. Joan of Arc. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1817. 2 vols., fifth edition, 8vo (164 x 96mm.) Engraved frontispiece of 'The Maid of Orleans'. (Toning, occasional light spotting.) Near contemporary green straight-grain full morocco, gilt borders, g.e., fore-edge painting (light rubbing to spine). Note: the two fore-edge paintings both show Joan of Arc. In vol. 1 with her looking mighty in a suit of armour and the lettering 'Maid of Orleans' underneath and vol. 2 shows her on the cross with the name 'Jeanne' on the cross and three figures below her. Provenance: G.B. Garrow (ink name to title of vol. 1) (2).

WILDE, Oscar. The Importance of Being Ernest. London: Leonard Smithers and Co., 1899. First edition, unnumbered copy from an edition of 1000 only, small 4to (206 x 147mm.) (Toning.) Original lilac cloth, decorative gilt designed by Charles Shannon (discolouring to spine, spine ends bumped).

DOYLE, Arthur Conan. The Hound of the Baskervilles. London: George Newnes, Limited, 1902. First edition, 8vo (183 x 114mm.) 4 plates. (Lacking 12 plates, soiling to half-title which is also partially loose, soiling to initial blank and margin of p.31, text-block cracked at pp.81-82.) Original red pictorial cloth (discolouring to upper cover, bumped and rubbed, spine panel heavily rubbed).

[BRONTE, Emily and Anne.] 'Ellis Bell' and 'Acton Bell'. Wuthering Heights… and Agnes Grey… with a Preface, and Memoir of Both Authors, by Currer Bell. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1860. New edition, 8vo (171 x 105mm.) 4pp. publisher's advertisements to rear. (Occasional browning and spotting, lacking initial blank.) Original blue stamped cloth, g.e. (wear to spine panel, extremities, some dust-soiling). Note: printer's error to p.35. Provenance: James Quinnell (name inscribed to front-free endpaper and to title-page).

DOSTOEVSKY, Fyodor. The House of the Dead… from the Russian by Constance Garnett. London: William Heinemann, 1915. First U.K. edition, 8vo (188 x 119mm.) 16pp. publisher's advertisements to rear. (Mild toning, blank ex-libris label mounted to front pastedown and stamp to rear pastedown, small closed hole to initial blank.) Original red cloth (hinges weakened, extremities bumped). Note: being vol. 5 of 'The Novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky'.

LUDECKE, Kurt G.W. I Knew Hitler, the Story of a Nazi Who Escaped the Blood Purge. London: Jarrolds, 1938. First U.K. edition, 8vo (212 x 129mm.) Portrait frontispiece, photographic illustrations. (Toning.) Original black cloth (lightly bumped spine ends), dust-jacket (chipping to top of spine, minor soiling to upper panel, slight fading to spine panel). Note: loosely inserted is a publisher's advertisement for the third impression of Gerhard Schacher's 'Germany Pushes South-East', [1938]. Aside from Goebbels's diaries, there are very few insider accounts of Hitler's rise to power. Ludecke had joined the Nazi party in 1922. His book has been described by 'Horizon Chasers' as a work that reaches 'high levels of sociological contemplation, and in its studious portraits of various Nazi leaders, of Tacitean éclat'.

BINDING. - Elizabeth DAVID. French Provincial Cooking. London: Michael Joseph, 1960. First edition, 8vo (226 x 145mm.) Illustrations by Juliet Renny. (Toning.) Full blue morocco, silver lettering to spine, g.e., in custom-made blue cloth-covered slipcase.

BINDING. - Ayn RAND. The Fountainhead. New York and Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1943. First edition, early printing, 8vo (200 x 134mm.) (Light toning.) Full black morocco bound by Asprey, two purple morocco lettering pieces to the spine, g.e. Note: Rand's first major novel. Her main character, Howard Roark, overcomes obstacles to demonstrate that 'man's ego is the fountainhead of human progress'. It became a best-seller and was also the first statement of Rand's ideas.