Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

SIGNED BOOKS. – Adrian STEWART. They Flew Hurricanes. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Books, 2005. First edition, signed by 10 Battle of Britain pilots, 8vo (233 x 152mm.) Photographic illustrations. (Mild toning.) Original black cloth, dust-jacket. – And a further seventeen volumes, all multi-signed (including ‘Tommy Leader’ with Clive Williams, 2007, and Norman Franks’ ‘Frank ‘Chorta’ Carey’, 2006, and Hugh Dundas’ ‘Flying Start’, 1988, and Alfred Price’s ‘Battle of Britain: The Hardest Day’, 1979) (18).

SIGNED BOOKS. – P.R. REID. Colditz, The Full Story. London: Macmillan, 1984. First edition, with mounted signatures of Airey Neave and P.R. Reid, 8vo (215 x 131mm.) Photographic illustrations. Original red cloth, dust-jacket. Note: signed by Airey Neave and P.R. Reid on mounted R.A.F. commemorative covers. – And a further eight volumes related to Colditz, five of them multi-signed on mounted bookplates (including Eric Williams’ ‘The Wooden Horse’, signed by Williams and Oliver Philpot on a mounted RAF commemorative cover, 1950, 8vo). Provenance: from the estate of the late David Sadler (9).

WAR. – E.W.C. SANDES. In Kut and Captivity with the Sixth Indian Division. London: John Murray, 1919. First edition, 8vo (216 x 134mm.) Half-title, 15 photographic illustrations on 12 plates, including portrait frontispiece of Major General Townshend, 13 maps, 9 folding. (Browning to half-title, toning.) Original green cloth, gilt lettering to spine (upper joint splitting). – And a further fifteen volumes related to war and captivity (including C.L. Woolley’s ‘From Kastamuni to Kedos’, 1921, 4to, and E.W.C. Sandes’ ‘Tales of Turkey’, 1924, 8vo) (15).

MILITARY. – E.P. STEBBING. At the Serbian Front in Macedonia. London and New York: John Lane at the Bodley Head, 1917. First edition, 8vo (189 x 125mm.) Photographic plates, 1 folding map, 2pp. publisher’s advertisements to rear. (Toning, occasional marginal spotting.) Original blue cloth, dust-jacket (chipped to extremities, slightly dust-soiled). – And a further thirteen volumes related to war, escape and captivity (including Joseph Lee’s ‘A Captive at Carlsruhe, and Other German Prison Camps’, 1920, 8vo, and Antoinette Tierce’s ‘Between Two Fires’, 1931, 8vo, and E.O. Mousley’s ‘The Secrets of a Kuttite’, 1922, 8vo) (14).

MILITARY. – Ernst UDET. Ace of the Black Cross… translated from the German by Kenneth Kirkness. London: Newnes, [1937.] First U.K. edition, 8vo (182 x 119mm.) Photographic frontispiece. (Toning.) Original green cloth, gilt lettering to spine (slight staining to upper cover, wrinkling to lower cover). Note: the German fighter pilot with the most ‘victories’ to survive World War 1, Udet became a stunt pilot and light-aircraft manufacturer in the 1930’s, before joining the Nazi party. He was influential in the development of the Luftwaffe but killed himself in 1941. – And a further four related volumes (including Joseph Morris’ ‘The German Air Raids on Great Britain 1914-1918’, with 6 folding maps, [1925], 8vo, and ‘Vigilant’ [Claude W. Sykes]’s ‘German War Birds’, [1931], 8vo) (6).

GIBBS, Mary. Gum-Blossom Babies. Sydney: Angus & Robertson Ltd., [circa 1916.] 8vo (222 x 141mm.) Colour frontispiece, illustrations. (Toning, gift inscribed on presentation leaf.) Original printed wrappers with mounted colour onlay, sewn, original printed envelope (toned, in two pieces). – And a further twenty-two volumes of children’s literature, including a further three by Mary Gibbs (‘Gum-Nut Babies’, [circa 1917], and ‘Wattle Babies’, with original envelope, [circa 1919], and ‘Boronia Babies’, [circa 1919], and also A.A. Milne’s ‘Winnie-the-Pooh’, 1934, and ‘Now We Are Six’, 1938, and ‘The House at Pooh Corner’, 1934, and ‘When We Were Very Young’, 1936, and [Bettina Ehrlich] ‘Bettina’s’ ‘Carmello’, 1945 (23).

HELLER, Joseph. Catch-22. London: Jonathan Cape, 1962. First U.K. edition, 8vo (197 x 129mm.) (Mild toning.) Original pink cloth (some scratches to upper cover), dust-jacket (price-clipped, damp-stained to edges of upper panel and lower panel). – And a further eight volumes by Joseph Heller, mostly U.K. first editions (including ‘Now and Then, From Coney Island to Here, a Memoir’, signed by the author, 1998, 8vo, and ‘Something Happened’, 1974, 8vo) (9).

BOYD, William. A Good Man in Africa. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1981. First edition, first impression, 8vo (214 x 128mm.) (Mild toning.) Original brown cloth (lightly bumped extremities), dust-jacket (corner of upper panel rubbed, spine ends bumped). – And a further sixteen first edition volumes by William Boyd, including five signed (‘Transfigured Night’, 1995, and ‘Fascination’, 2004, and ‘Brazzaville Beach’, 1990, and ‘Sweet Caress’, 2015, and ‘The Blue Afternoon’, 1993) (17).

AMIS, Kingsley. That Uncertain Feeling. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1955. First edition, 8vo (183 x 118mm.) (Toning.) Original red cloth, dust-jacket (slightly chipped top of spine panel). – And a further forty-nine volumes by or about Kingsley Amis, three signed by Amis, all first editions (including [with Robert Conquest] ‘The Egyptologists’, 1965, 8vo, and ‘The James Bond Dossier’, 1965, 8vo, and [as ‘Robert Markham] ‘Colonel Sun’, 1968, 8vo, and [attrib. to Kingsley Amis: ‘William Tanner’s’ ‘The Book of Bond’, 1965, 8vo). Note: the two signed books  are ‘Difficulties With Girls’, 1988, and ‘Memoirs’, 1991 (50).

DICKENS, Charles. The Poor Traveller: Boots at the Holly-Tree Inn: Mrs. Gamp. London: Bradbury & Evans, 1858. ‘Reading Edition’, 8vo (163 x 103mm.) (Contemporary ink name inscribed to title, offsetting to title.) Original green wrappers (minor crease to upper cover). Note: the rarest of Dickens’ five ‘Reading Editions’, made to be sold at his public readings. – And a further forty-three volumes related to Charles Dickens (including a further three ‘Reading Editions’, being two copies of ‘The Story of Little Dombey’, 1858, 8vo, and ‘The Cricket on the Hearth’, 1858, 8vo) (44).

SIGNED BOOKS. – R.C. SHERRIFF. Journey’s End. London: Victor Gollancz, 1929. Seventeenth impression, signed by the author, 8vo (186 x 103mm.) (Mild toning.) Original black cloth. – And a further twenty-three literary volumes, all signed (including Walter de la Mare’s ‘The Traveller’, 1947, 8vo, and Michael Bond’s ‘Monsieur Pamplemousse and the Secret Mission’, 1984, 8vo, and Paul Gallico’s ‘Thomasina’, 1957, 8vo) (24).

LESSING, Doris. The Golden Notebook. London: Michael Joseph, 1962. First edition, second impression, 8vo (216 x 134mm.) (Mild toning.) Original black cloth, dust-jacket (slight chipping to extremities). – And a further twenty-seven literary volumes (including Virginia Woolf’s ‘Mrs Dalloway’, 1933, 8vo, and Kingsley Amis’ ‘The James Bond Dossier’, 1965, 8vo, and Jean Rhys’ ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’, second impression, 1966, 8vo, and Ernest Hemingway’s ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’, 1941, 8vo) (28).

SIGNED BOOKS. – Christine KEELER and Douglas THOMPSON. The Truth At Last. London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 2001. First edition, signed by Christine Keeler, 8vo (233 x 147mm.) Photographic illustrations. (Toning.) Original black cloth, dust-jacket (spine ends bumped). – And a further thirteen volumes, all signed (including William J. Mann’s ‘Kate, the Woman Who Was Katharine Hepburn’, with a photographic card mounted to front-free endpaper signed in ink by Katharine Hepburn, 2006, 8vo, and ‘The Richard Burton Diaries’ edited by Chris Williams’, with tipped-in signatures of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, 2012, 8vo, and Bernard Cornwell’s ‘Sharpe’s Tiger’, signed by the author to the title-page, 1997, 8vo). Provenance: from the estate of the late David Sadler (14).

LEE, Laurie. Cider With Rosie. London: The Hogarth Press, 1959. First edition, first impression, 8vo (196 x 125mm.) (Toning, light spotting to first and last leaves.) Original green cloth, dust-jacket (slight insect-damage to inner flap crease). Note: with the line ‘There was a fire at the piano-works’ on p.272. – And a further twenty-five volumes of 20th century literary fiction, all first editions (including Richard Hughes’ ‘A High Wind in Jamaica’, 1929, 8vo, and Somerset Maugham’s ‘Cakes and Ale’, 1930, 8vo, and Iris Murdoch’s ‘A Severed Head’, 1961, 8vo, and Murdoch’s ‘The Bell’, 1958, 8vo, and Anthony Burgess’ ‘Enderby Outside’, 1968, 8vo, and Graham Greene’s ‘Our Man in Havana’, 1958, 8vo) (26).

MOTOR-RACING. – Murray WALKER. My Autobiography, Unless I’m Very Much Mistaken. London: CollinsWillow, 2002. Limited edition, this being number 22 of 600 copies signed by Murray Walker and Lord March, 8vo (234 x 148mm.) (Toning.) Black cloth with ‘GRRC’ crest in gilt to upper cover, g.e. (minor marks to upper cover). – And a further eleven volumes related to motor-racing, all with signatures (including Alan Henry’s ‘Ronnie Peterson, Grand Prix Racing Driver’, signed by Ronnie Peterson, 1975, 8vo, and Roy Salvadori and Anthony Pritchard’s ‘Roy Salvadori, Racing Driver’, with a mounted signature of Salvadori, 1985, 8vo, and Juan Manuel Fangio and Robert Carozzo’s ‘Fangio, My Racing Life’, with a loosely inserted signed photograph of Fangio, 1990, 8vo, and Robert Edwards’ ‘Archie and the Listers’, with a mounted signature of Archie Scott Brown and signature of the author, 1995, 8vo). Provenance: from the estate of the late David Sadler (12).

SIGNED BOOKS. – Howard Jacobson. Coming From Behind. London: Hogarth Press and Chatto & Windus, 1983. ‘Proof copy’, signed by the author, 8vo (215 x 127mm.) (Mild toning.) Original card covers (fading to spine). – And a further twenty-six volumes, all signed (including Hilary Mantel’s ‘A Change of Climate’, 1994, 8vo, and William Trevor’s ‘Family Sins, & Other Stories’, 1990, 8vo, and John Fowles’ ‘Mantissa’, 1982, and Philip Roth’s ‘The Dying Animal’, 2001, 8vo, and Laurie Lee’s ‘As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning’, 1969, 8vo) (27).

NEW NATURALIST. The New Naturalist Library. London: Collins and Harper Collins, 1945-2021. 144 vols., including 121 first editions and 1 volume with a signed publisher’s slip, 8vo (223 x 151mm.) Numerous illustrations. (Toning, occasional spotting to early volumes, some volumes name or gift inscribed.) Original cloth (extremities bumped to early volumes), dust-jackets (37 volumes are price-clipped, minor chipping to spine ends of early volumes), numbers 97-144 still in the publisher’s shrink-wrap. Note: a run of one hundred and forty-four volumes of the New Naturalist. Numbers 1, 2, 5, 20, 22, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 33, 35, 36, 37, 40, 42, 44, 45, 47, 49, 50, 54, and 58 are reprints. Number 70 is a first edition, first state. Number 143 has a loose publisher’s slip signed by author David M. Wilkinson. – And a further ten volumes (‘New Naturalist Monographs’, numbers 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 9, 11, 18, 19, 21) (155).

THEATRE. The London Stage; a Collection of the Most Reputed Tragedies, Comedies, Operas, Melo-Dramas, Farces, and Interludes. London: Sherwood, Jones, and Co., [1825-1827.] 4 vols., 8vo (215 x 126mm.) Titles in blue borders, engraved portrait frontispieces. (Toning, occasional light scattered spotting.) Contemporary black half calf (extremities rubbed and vol. 1 joints splitting). – And a further forty volumes related to the theatre (including ‘The Heart of Ellen Terry’, 1928, 4to, and ‘Reminiscences of Michael Kelly, of the King’s Theatre and Theatre Royal Drury Lane’, 2 vols., 1826, 8vo, and R. Planché ‘The Extravaganzas’, 5 vols., 1879, 8vo) (44).

CRICHTON, Michael. Jurassic Park. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990. First edition, 8vo (233 x 152mm.) Original blue cloth-backed boards, dust-jacket (slight chafing to top of spine). – And a quantity of approximately fifty volumes of contemporary literature, mostly first editions (including Patrick Süskind’s ‘Perfume’, 1986, 8vo, Alasdair Gray’s ‘Poor Things’, [third impression], 8vo, and John Gardner’s ‘Spin the Bottle’, 1964, 8vo, and Bruce Chatwin’s ‘Viceroy of Quidah’, 1980, 8vo, and Chatwin’s ‘On the Black Hill’, 1982, 8vo, and Ian McEwan’s ‘The Comfort of Strangers’, 1981, 8vo) (a quantity).