Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

POTTER, Beatrix. The Story of Miss Moppet. London & New York: Frederick Warne & Co., December 1906. First edition, second printing, concertina format (108 x 2492mm.) 14 colour illustrations facing text printed in green. (Occasional light crease to panels, one with a mark.) Folding within original grey cloth wallet-style with mounted oval paper illustration to upper cover (lacking tab, pen scribble verso upper cover, minor mark to lower cover). Note: with 'New York & London' to lower cover of wallet.

POTTER, Beatrix. The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin. London: Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd., [circa 1925.] Reprint, 16mo (138 x 100mm.) Colour plates. (Toning.) Original brown boards with pictorial onlay (minor stain to spine panel). - And a further twenty-three volumes by and about Beatrix Potter (24).

BOTANY. - William CURTIS. The Botanical Magazine; or, Flower-Garden Displayed. London: Fry and Couchman, 1787-1827. 54 vols. in 29. 8vo (228 x 134mm.) 2749 hand-coloured plates, including 218 folding, index leaves, engraved portrait frontispiece, title-pages, errata leaf bound-in, 'General Index' bound with vol. 42. (Browning, some offsetting, occasional spotting, small closed holes at plates 1611 and 1315, lacking 3 plates, numbers 69, 539 and 2466.) Contemporary half calf over marbled paper-covered boards, red and black morocco lettering pieces to the spines (rubbing to extremities, lacking red lettering piece to one volume, some scuffing and rubbing). Note: Curtis's Botanical Magazine is the greatest and longest-running series of botanical magazines. It was immediately successful, not only for its plates by distinguished artists of the time, but for the text descriptions themselves which take the reader on a journey in the history of botany. Provenance: Gordon Castle (name-plate to front pastedowns). [Nissen BB1 2350; Great Flower Books, p.156] (29).

NORWAY. - [William Christopher LENG.] The Land of the Midnight Sun. A Cruise in Norwegian Waters. Sheffield: W.C. Leng & Co., 1887. 4to (248 x 182mm.) 7 plates. (Toning, browning to preliminaries.) Original red half morocco, gilt lettering to upper cover, g.e. (damp-staining and scuffing to upper cover). Note: scarce.

MILITARY. Souvenir No. 3 British General Hospital, Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1919. Basrah: Sergt-Ins E. Boden R.A.M.C., [1919.] Photographic illustrations. (Toning, pp.23-30 detached.) Original card covers. Note: contains sketches, poems ('Christmas Day at 3 British General Hospital'), advertisements, cartoons, and occasional reflections ('Our Friend- The Turk'), and a double-paged photographic illustration of all the staff. The editorial remarks that the 'Souvenir' was made so they could 'carry away some memento of the hospital, where we had worked-and played' while admitting that the 'majority of the contributions represent maiden effort'.

LAXNESS, Halldór. - Magnus MAGNUSSON (translator). The Fish Can Sing. London: Methuen, 1966. First U.K. edition, 8vo (199 x 131mm.) (Toning.) Original green cloth, dust-jacket. Note: Laxness won the Nobel prize for Literature in 1955. He was recognised 'for his vivid epic power, which has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland'.

PICASSO, Pablo. - E. TÉRIADE (editor). Verve. Suite de 180 Dessins de Picasso. Paris/London: Verve and A. Zwemmer, 1954. Vol. VIII, No. 29-30. Folio (354 x 266mm.) Text in English, 16 lithographs in colour by Picasso and printed by Mourlot, 164 heliographic plates printed by Draeger. (Toning to margins, offsetting of old tape marks to endpapers.) Original pictorial boards from a design by Picasso (spine ends bumped, inner hinge weakened).

KIRBY, William F. European Butterflies and Moths. London: Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co., 1882. 4to (272 x 206mm.) 62 lithographed plates, all but 1 hand-coloured, tissue-guards. (Some spotting to several guards, occasionally to plate margins.) Near contemporary half calf, black morocco lettering piece to the spine (rubbing to extremities).

BINDINGS. - Thomas WRIGHT. The History of Ireland; From the Earliest Period of the Irish Annals, to the Present Time. London and New York: John Tallis and Company, [circa 1854.] 3 vols., 4to (269 x 182mm.) Numerous steel-engraved plates. (Toning, occasional spotting, surface loss to front pastedowns.) Near contemporary red half calf, burgundy and brown morocco lettering pieces to the spines (rubbing to extremities, minor scuffing, some dust-soiling to covers). - And a further thirty-six volumes, mainly history and literature (including John Frost's 'Pictorial History of America', 2 vols., 1856, 8vo) (39).

BIBLE, In English. The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ According to the Present Authorized English Version. London: De La Rue, Cornish and Rock, [1831.] Large 4to (285 x 203mm.) Text printed throughout in gold, double-column on white enamelled paper. (Some dust-soiling to title and some margins, soiling verso the front-free endpaper, last text leaf 4T, loose.) Original burgundy full morocco with wide Greek-key border in blind around a central vignette of the Ascension in blind to both covers, spine in blind with an altar and Sacrament before a church window and the agony in the Garden above, red silk doublures, elaborate gilt turn-ins, g.e. (rubbing to extremities, wear at top of spine). Note: rare. Thomas De La Rue set up business in London in 1821 as a printer and stationer. In 1830, along with Samuel Cornish and William Rock he received a Royal Letters Patent for the printing of playing cards and the publication of this bible, and the presenting of it to King William IV, likely secured the patent. The De La Rue company progressed to printing postage stamps, and then bank notes. The company is still trading and describes itself as 'the world's largest commercial security printer and paper maker'.

BIBLE, In English. The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ According to the Present Authorized English Version. London: De La Rue, Cornish and Rock, [1831.] Large 4to (291 x 200mm.) Text printed throughout in gold, double-column on white enamelled paper. (Title nearly detached and soiling verso, occasional dust-soiling to margins.) Original burgundy full morocco with wide Greek-key border in blind around a central vignette of the Ascension in blind to both covers, spine in blind with an altar and Sacrament before a church window and the agony in the Garden above, green silk doublures, elaborate gilt turn-ins, g.e. (rubbing to extremities, especially at top of spine, front-free endpaper browned). Note: rare. Thomas De La Rue set up business in London in 1821 as a printer and stationer. In 1830, along with Samuel Cornish and William Rock he received a Royal Letters Patent for the printing of playing cards and the publication of this bible, and the presenting of it to King William IV, likely secured the patent. The De La Rue company progressed to printing postage stamps, and then bank notes. The company is still trading and describes itself as 'the world's largest commercial security printer and paper maker'. Provenance: J.H. Hoiser (gift inscribed to on paper name-plate mounted to front-free endpaper).

FISHING. - J. HICKS. Wanderings by the Lochs and Streams of Assynt; and the North Highlands of Scotland. London: James Blackwood, 1855. First edition, 8vo (159 x 97mm.) 8 engraved plates, including 2 of flies, errata verso p.vii, index. (Toning, pp.151-154 loosening.) Original yellow cloth, pictorial gilt to upper cover, t.e.g. (browned to spine, rubbing to spine ends, finger-marks to covers). - And a further thirty-three volumes related to fishing (including H. Cholmondeley-Pennell's 'Trolling for Pike, Salmon and Trout', [1876], 8vo, and Augustus Grimble's 'The Salmon Rivers of Scotland', 1913, 8vo, and W. Senior's ['Red Spinner'] 'Waterside Sketches', 1875, 8vo, and W.L. Calderwood's 'The Salmon Rivers and Lochs of Scotland', 1909, 4to) (34).

BINDINGS. - Gilbert WHITE. The Natural History of Selborne. London: White, Cochrane, and Co., et al., 1813. 2 vols., 8vo (213 x 121mm.) Half-titles, 2 engraved frontispieces, 2 engraved plates, including 1 hand-coloured of 'A Hybrid Bird', 17pp. 'Index' to rear of volume two. (Offsetting of plates, toning, blanks replaced, 1 plate heavily spotted.) Near contemporary calf, two morocco lettering pieces to the spines (rebacked, endpapers replaced). - And a further thirty-one volumes of mainly 19th century literature (33).

MILITARY. - George TANCRED. Historical Record of Medals and Honorary Distinctions Conferred on the British Navy, Army & Auxiliary Forces. London: Spink & Son., 1891. 3 vols., 4to (237 x 181mm.) Chromolithographed plates, and profusely interleaved with manuscript notes, names of medal recipients and mounted paper illustrations. (Toning, a quire loosening in volume 1.) Original red half calf (joints rubbed) (3).

COOKERY. A Collection of Ordinances and Regulations for the Government of the Royal Household, Made in Divers Reigns, from King Edward III to King William and Queen Mary. Also Receipts in Ancient Cookery. London: for Society of Antiquaries by John Nichols, 1790. 4to (262 x 210mm.) Engraved title device. (Spotting to preliminaries.) Contemporary brown calf, gilt ruled, brown morocco lettering piece to spine (inner hinge weakening, lightly rubbed). Note: includes details of royal household banquets and the recipes to the rear are from a 15th century manuscript. Provenance: Samuel Boddington, M.P. (armorial bookplate verso the title-page).

The Illustrated London Almanack. London: at the Office of the London Illustrated News, 1863-1874. 12 issues, 4to (269 x 190mm.) 70 chromolithographed plates of fish, ferns, funghi, butterflies and birds, including decorative chromolithographed covers bound-in, tinted astronomical plates, numerous wood-engraved illustrations. (Toning, marginal chipping to 1863 issue, preliminaries and 1863 title detached, lacking the covers for 1863 and 1865 issues.) Contemporary red full morocco, gilt lettering to spine (extremities rubbed, inner hinge weakened).

FISHING. - Alfred RONALDS. The Fly-Fishers Entomology. Liverpool: Henry Young & Sons, 1913. 2 vols. Limited edition, this being number 229 of 250 copies of the Edition de Luxe, signed by the publisher, 4to (247 x 184mm.) In volume 2, 47 specimen artificial flies on hooks within sunken linen-backed mounts on 9 thick cards, with printed names below each fly, titles in red and black, 6 black and white mounted photographic views of rivers, 2 portrait plates, 13 hand-coloured engraved plates, all with captioned tissue-guards. (Lacking 1 fly, offsetting to endpapers, mild spotting verso the specimen cards.) Original morocco-backed green cloth with spines emblematically tooled, t.e.g. (spines rubbed). Provenance: George W. Maunsell (armorial bookplates to front pastedowns and name inscribed to front-free endpapers) (2).

BOTANY. - John MILNE & SONS. The British Farmer's Plant Portfolio. Specimens of the Principal British Grasses, Forage Plants, and Weeds With Full Descriptions. Montrose: Robert R. Balfour, 1890. Second edition, folio (411 x 272mm.) Title, 7pp. 'Preface', 56 dried plant specimens mounted on card with printed captions, 1p. 'Index'. (Toning, offsetting of plants, minor soiling.) Original roan-backed red cloth, gilt lettering to upper cover (tape repair to spine, some scuffing). Note: scarce.

GARDENS. - William ROBINSON. Gravetye Manor, or Twenty Years' Work round an Old Manor House. London: John Murray, 1911. Folio (390 x 277mm.) Etched frontispiece by Philip Pimlott with captioned tissue-guard, 36 illustrations, including 4 plates, 'Le Jour Viendra' armorial bookplate to front-free endpaper. (Toning, spotting to endpapers). Original full limp vellum, gilt lettering to spine and upper cover (lacking ties, soiling mainly to upper cover, spotting to lower cover). Provenance: Peter Herbert, late owner of Gravetye Manor (bookplate verso front-free endpaper).