Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

SUPERNATURAL. – Harry PRICE. Stella C. An Account of Some Original Experiments in Psychical Research. London: Hurst & Blackett Ltd., 1925. First edition, 8vo (183 x 116mm.) 16 black and white plates. (Toning, occasional light spotting.) Original blue cloth, dust-jacket (minor loss to extremities and top edge of upper panel). – And a further seven volumes by or about Harry Price and Borley Rectory (including Harry Price’s ‘Search for Truth’, 1942, 8vo, and ‘The End of Borley Rectory’, 1947, 8vo, and Harry Price and R.S. Lambert’s ‘The Haunting of Cashen’s Gap’, 1936, 8vo, and Harry Price’s ’50 Years of Psychical Research’, 1939, 8vo) (8).

ZOLA, Émile. Piping Hot! (Pot-Bouille) … translated from the 63rd French edition. London: Vizetelly & Co., 1885. First English edition, 8vo (189 x 121mm.) Engraved plates, 2pp. publisher’s advertisement at front and 17pp. publisher advertisements at rear. (Browning and light scattered spotting, tape repair to hinges.) Original blue cloth with pictorial gilt, red and black (fading to spine and upper cover gilt, slight warping to covers and crease to lower cover, rubbed). – And a further twelve volumes by or about Émile Zola (including ‘His Masterpiece? (L’Oeuvre.) Or, Claude Lantier’s Struggle For Fame’, 1886, 8vo, and ‘How Jolly Life Is!’, 1886, 8vo) (13).

GUILDFORD. – [Charles Austen JACQUES.] Sylvae; Or, a Collection of Poems on Several Occasions by a Young Gentleman of Chichester. Guildford: for the Author, 1776. First edition, small 4to (197 x 122mm.) Title, 2pp. ‘Preface’, 8pp. ‘List of Subscribers’. (Light browning.) Later green morocco-backed cloth (paper label to spine). Note: usually attributed to Charles Austen Jacques, but also previously attributed to a T. Farley, Thomas Bradford (author of a collection of poems ‘Poetical Pieces’ published posthumously in 1808) and Henry W. Batty. However, in the ‘List of Subscribers’ a ‘C. Jacques, Bookseller’ has ordered four copies of this book and it’s possible that he was the proud father of the author, his son, Charles Austen Jacques. Provenance: West Sussex County Council (bookplates to pastedowns).

SUSSEX. – William HAYLEY. The Triumphs of Temper, a Poem: In Six Cantos. Chichester: by William Mason for T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1817. New edition, small 8vo (159 x 90mm.) Copper-engraved frontispiece in colours by T.B. Brown after George Romney. (Toning, offsetting to title, lacking rear blank?) Near contemporary brown full diced morocco (rebacked, paper label to spine, endpapers replaced). Note: Hayley’s influential poem that was reprinted many times after the first edition of 1781. Provenance: Sussex County Council (stamps verso the title). – And a further ten volumes of poetry, mostly Sussex related (including Charles Croker’s ‘The Vale Of Obscurity’, 1830, 4to, and Thomas Bradford’s ‘Poetical Pieces… to which are Added A Sonnet on His Death, and Epitaph, written by William Hayley, Esq.’, 1808, 4to, and Charlotte Smith’s ‘Elegiac Sonnets’, fifth edition, 1789, 8vo, and ‘Song Favours’ by C.W. Dalmon, limited edition, being one of 450 copies, 1895, 8vo, and Stuart Guthrie’s ‘The Death and Burial of Cock Robin, an Elegy’, 1932, 8vo) (11).

SMITH, William. The History of the Holy Jesus. Containing a Brief Account of the Birth and Life, the Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Our Blessed Saviour. London: Eben Tracy, 1717. 12mo (138 x 87mm.) 11 woodcut illustrations in the text. (Last leaf G10, lacking last twelve leaves, G5-G6 loose, damp-stained A2-F.) Contemporary calf (partially lacking spine, heavily rubbed, lower cover loosened). – And a further seven volumes (including John Dryden’s ‘Original Poems’, 2 vols., 1756, 8vo, and, published by John Baskett, ‘The Book of Common Prayer’, [lacking covers], 1717, 8vo, and a manuscript ‘Confessions’ book, [circa 1882]) (8).

CULPEPER, Nicholas. Culpeper’s Complete Herbal, to which Is Now Added, Upwards of One Hundred Additional Herbs, With a Display of Their Medicinal and Occult Qualities. London: Thomas Kelly, 1819. 4to (261 x 200mm.) Engraved portrait frontispiece, 40 hand-coloured plates, 4pp. ‘General Index’. (Creasing to initial blank, illegible gift inscription verso frontispiece, front-free endpaper loosened and margins chipped, plate 37 with partial excision, occasional browning.) Contemporary calf (joints splitting, extremities rubbed).

DALYELL, John Graham. A Brief Analysis of the Chartularies. Edinburgh: William Aitken, 1828. 4to (229 x 131mm.) Half-title, frontispiece of the chartulary of Cambuskenneth, heightened with gold, tissue-guard. (Toning, pencil annotation to p.25.) Original boards, paper label to spine (extremities rubbed, minor scuffing). Note: scarce.

DISRAELI, Benjamin. Sybil; or, the Two Nations. London: Henry Colburn, 1845. 3 vols., second edition, 8vo (190 x 113mm.) Half-titles to vols. 1 and 2. (Toning.) Contemporary brown half calf over marbled paper-covered boards, two maroon lettering pieces to the spines (lightly rubbed extremities). Provenance: J.W. Trudow (ink name inscribed to preliminaries). – And a further six literary volumes (including Voltaire’s ‘The Age of Lewis XIV’, 2 vols., second edition, 1752, 8vo, and [Samuel Johnson’s] ‘The Idler’, 1816, 8vo) (9).

CHEMISTRY. – George H.F. NUTTALL. On the Role of Insects, Arachnids and Myriapods, As Carriers in the Spread of Bacterial and Parasitic Diseases of Man and Animals. A Critical and Historical Study. [Baltimore:] John Hopkins Hospital Reports, [circa 1899]. Vol. VIII. 8vo (254 x 179mm.) 3 plates, errata leaf. (Toning, slight crease to text-block, preliminaries browned.) Contemporary black half morocco, red morocco lettering piece to the spine (minor scuffing). Provenance: Robert Edward Dillon, Lord Clonbrock (bookplate to front-free endpaper); Edward Braxton Reynolds (bookplate to front pastedown). – And a further eleven volumes mostly related to chemistry and biology (including James F.W. Johnston’s ‘The Chemistry of Common Life’, 2 vols., 1856, 8vo, and Colin MacKenzie’s ‘Five Thousand Receipts in all the Useful and Domestic Arts’, fifth edition, 1825, 12mo) (12).

ASTROLOGY. – Marie-Anne Adelaide Le NORMAND. La Sibylle au Congrès D’Aix-la-Chapelle suivi d’un Coup-d’ Oeil sur Celui de Carlsbad. Paris: L’ Auteur, 1819. First edition, 8vo (198 x 117mm.) Half-title, engraved frontispiece, 6 engraved folding plates. (Toning, four of the plates with marginal creasing and chipping.) Contemporary calf, red morocco lettering piece to the spine (extremities rubbed, minor loss at base of spine). Note: Le Normand was an astrologer, bookseller and tarot practitioner and the spiritual advisor to numerous powerful people in revolutionary France, including Marat, Robespierre, Empress Josephine as well as Tsar Alexander I. Provenance: Erika Cheetham (ink name verso front blank).

MANUSCRIPT. [A hand-written compendium of random excerpts from contemporary journals, newspapers, gazettes. N.p.: 1823-1824.] 311pp., manuscript, 8vo (198 x 159mm.) 155 leaves of densely written excerpts in a single legible hand, including 26pp. to rear of genealogical information relating to the Le Geyt and Delafaye families, a mounted contemporary article relating Brunel’s plans for the ‘Thames Tunnel’ in 1823. (Toning, occasional browning.) Contemporary vellum, manuscript lettering to upper cover and spine (stained and discoloured). Note: contains a profusion of subjects, many of international interest, including reports on the death of a 1000 ‘Witches in Central India’ over the last thirty years, ‘The Condition of Women in Turkey’ (where its noted that most of them spend a good portion of every day in the public baths), the building of a 23-mile long canal in China, ‘Italian Manners’, as well as literary, political and articles about English and world  history, there’s medical matters like ‘The Durability of Human Teeth’, or utterly random like ‘Shop Signs’, ‘Beards’ and ‘Water Pipes’, all of these taken from a variety of contemporary sources. Provenance: Le Geyt family (ink ownership to upper cover).

SCHWARTZ, Arthur. – Robinson JEFFERS. Give Your Heart to the Hawks. New York: Random House, 1933. First edition, inscribed by the composer Arthur Schwartz and includes 2 letters and a telegram from the composer, 8vo (207 x 134mm.) (Mild toning.) Original brown cloth (gilt fading to spine). Note: the 74-line typed letter from American composer and producer Arthur Schwartz is addressed to an actress, Monica Menkin, that he had been working with in London in the early 1930’s. Schwartz writes with passionate feeling and fervour of their liaison and hopes that it will continue in the future, ‘Goodbye? Nonsense, Monica. Surely we’ll meet again. Surely the split-second of loveliness given to us must be matched by another and another’. He mentions his professional work at length, with reference to his long-term collaborator Howard Dietz and a song recently released: ‘She loves me not’. Provenance: Monica Menkin, actress (gift inscribed to on the front-free endpaper).

COLOUR PRINTING. – [Henry Noel HUMPHREYS.] The Illuminated Calendar and Home Diary for 1845. London: Longman & Co., [1844.] Chromolithographed title, 4pp. text printed in red and black, 36 chromolithographed plates in colours and gold on thick card, being three for each month, including 12 scenes from the ‘Hours’ of Anne of Brittany. (Numerous contemporary entries in ink in the ‘Diary’, small marginal tears to initial blank, lacking publisher’s catalogue to rear.) Original gilt decorated cloth (spine worn, extremities and covers rubbed). – And a further sixteen related volumes, mainly mid-19th century illustrated volumes (including, lacking three plates, ‘The Night-Flyers, a Series of Moth Pictures’, published by Paul Jerrard & Son, [circa 1863], large 8vo) (17).

HUMPHREYS, Henry Noel. The Origin and Progress of the Art of Writing. London: Ingram, Cooke, and Co., 1853. First edition, 4to (257 x 168mm.) 28 plates, several chromolithographed. (Browning, preliminaries heavily browned, occasional damp-staining, 1 loose plate.) Original black calf spine, papier-mâché pierced covers designed by Humphreys, g.e. (loss to corners and to top edge of lower cover, light cracks to lower cover). Note: one of only three Victorian papier-mâché bindings to be reprinted.

BINDING. – Henry Noel HUMPHREYS. Sentiments and Similes of William Shakespeare. London: Longman, Brown, Green et al., 1857. Second edition, 8vo (193 x 146mm.) Chromolithographed first page, initials in black and gold, ruling in gold. (Text-block cracking at ‘Contents’ leaf, spotting to preliminaries and rear blank.) Original cloth-backed black papier-mâché binding with oval relief portrait of Shakespeare to centre and author’s initials to lower cover, g.e. (corner losses to upper cover of binding, two cracks to lower cover, extremities rubbed). – And a further ten illustrated volumes (including ‘The Prism of Imagination’ by The Baroness de Calabrella and with illustrations heightened by Owen Jones, [lacking several leaves], 1844, 8vo, and G. Baxter’s ‘The Pictorial Album; or, Cabinet of Paintings’, [1837], [with 8 of 11 plates], 4to, and ‘Passages From Modern English Poets. Illustrated by the Junior Etching Club’ [disbound, lacking 4 leaves], [1865], 4to) (11).

MUSIC. – Rod ALLEN. The Isle of Wight 1970. The Last Great Festival. London: Clipper Press, September 1970. 4to (272 x 208mm.) Photographic illustrations and text by Rod Allen. (Mild toning.) Original wrappers (light creasing to upper cover, minor abrasion to lower cover). Note: featuring The Doors, The Who, Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, The Moody Blues and it was also one of the last concerts played by Jimi Hendrix who died just before publication of this souvenir.

JAZZ. – Hugues PANASSIÉ. Louis Armstrong. Paris: Éditions du Belvédère, 1947. First edition, signed in green ink by Louis Armstrong and by the author, 8vo (218 x 154mm.) Photographic illustrations. (Mild toning.) Original card wrappers, glassine dust-jacket (browned). Note: Hugues Panassié was a French critic, writer and producer and the founding president of the ‘Hot Club de France’. Throughout his life he promoted ‘Dixieland’ jazz rooted in the swing and blues tradition of African-American music. – And a small quantity of jazz magazines (including ‘Bulletin du Hot Club de France’, 4 issues [No. 1,2,76,91], Oct-1950-Oct-1959, 8vo) (small quantity).

ART DECO. – [Edward Louis Warschawsky LEON.] ‘Edy-LEGRAND’. Macao et Cosmage ou L’ Experience du Bonheur. Paris: Editions de la Nouvelle Revue Francaise, 1919. Square folio (342 x 333mm.) Numerous pochoir illustrations by Legrand, including on endpapers, text in French. (Toning, occasional finger-mark.) Original illustrated paper-covered boards (small corner crease to upper cover, extremities chipped, lightly dust-soiled to lower cover). Note: an early art-deco styled story for children that is considered a milestone in the history of children’s book illustration.

CONDER, Josiah. The Flowers of Japan and the Art of Floral Arrangement. Tokyo & London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, Limited, 1892. Folio (357 x 250mm.) 14 colour woodblock plates, uncoloured illustrations. (Some damp-staining, occasionally heavy.) Original card covers, tie-bound (worn, spine lacking, one tie replaced).