To coincide with Damien Hirst’s first retrospective to be held at the Tate Modern from 4^th  April to 9^th  September 2012, Peter Harrington is proud to present a selection of books, prints and drawings by Britain’s most famous and controversial artist.

Hirst became famous while still a student at Goldsmith’s, when he organised ‘Freeze’. This 1988 exhibition took place in an empty building owned by the London Port Authority in Surrey Docks and brought to the attention of the world a group that were to become known as the Young British Artists (YBA). The show attracted, amongst others, the attention of Charles Saatchi who became a prolific collector of Hirst. Pictures from the Saatchi Gallery, the catalogue of all of Hirst’s works owned by Saatchi in 2001, is on offer in our Fulham Road shop.

Pictures from the Saatchi Gallery. 28 Tablets. 2001.

Hirst has been nominated for the Turner Prize twice, once in 1992, and again in 1995, the year that he won. On the first occasion a Turner Prize booklet with a short resumé of each of the four finalists was published by Tate. Our copy has an inscription by Hirst on the front cover, “For Paul, we are the Leeds! Love Damien.” Although Hirst was born a Bristolian, he was brought up in Leeds and attended Allerton Grange High School and Leeds College of Art and Design – it seems the local football team also left an impression on him.

The Turner Prize 1992.

From the Cradle to the Grave, a self-publication by Hirst limited to 1,500 signed copies, showcases his draughtsmanship along with drawings and sketches.

From the Cradle to the Grave. Selected Drawings. 2004.

Also available is an original pen and ink drawing of a Skull and Crossbones, which comes with a Hirst reference number and has been entered into his archive.

Skull and Crossbones. 2004.

The Booth-Clibborn publication I want to Spend My Life… is by far the most ambitious of any Hirst book, a mighty 334 pages with photographs, graphic design, pop-ups, transparencies, moveable plates, fold-outs, inserts, die-cuts, stickers and posters. Many of these first editions were signed by Hirst, including our copy – unfortunately some second editions have turned up with a signature and we have been reliably informed by the publisher these were not signed by Hirst – be warned.

I Want to Spend the Rest of My Life Everywhere, with Everyone, One to One, Always, Forever, Now. 1997.

For the Love of God is probably one Hirst’s best known works. The sculpture, produced in 2007, consists of a platinum cast of a human skull encrusted with 8,601 flawless diamonds including a pear-shaped pink diamond in the forehead. It is valued at £50 million. In recognition for their help on this project, Hirst gave each of his staff an original print not intended for the commercial market. We have on offer two versions of the print framed together, Beyond Belief and For the Love of God, each from a limited edition of 300 and signed by the artist. We also have a couple of other rare signed prints which were gifted to employees and can be viewed in our shop.

Beyond Belief and For the Love of God. 2007.

The Spot Paintings are probably Hirst’s most widely recognised motif. Our print of Ninety Coloured Spots is one of only 500 signed and inscribed in pencil. This print was not issued commercially, but intended for presentation by the artist to friends.

Ninety coloured spots. c.1990.

This print of Stalin is based on an original painting once owned by A. A. Gill, to which Hirst added a signature red spot to enable it to be auctioned for the Comic Relief charity. The painting achieved a price of £140,000 at Sotheby’s in London in February 2007. Our print is from a limited edition of 500 and is signed by the artist.

Joseph Stalin. 2007.

The print below was issued as one of thirteen in Hirst’s The Last Supper portfolio. The thirteen screen prints in the portfolio are based on pharmaceutical packets chosen for their designs rather than for the specific properties of the drug. This image is from a pack marked Atropine Sulphate BP injection, for use during heart attacks. The packaging was current at the time the work was made in 1999.

Liver, Bacon, Onions. (The Last Supper.) 1999.

For more prints and original artwork visit the Modern & Contemporary Art section of our gallery website, or visit our shop at 100 Fulham Road, London Sw3 6HS.

What end can be more noble than the pursuit of virtue? what motive more alluring, than the practice of justice? or what instruction more beneficial, than an accurate elucidation of symbols which tend to improve and embellish the mind? Every thing that strikes the eye, more immediately engages the attention, and imprints on the memory serious and solemn truths. Masons have therefore universally adopted the plan of inculcating the tenets of their order by typical figures and allegorical emblems, to prevent their mysteries from descending within the familiar reach of inattentive and unprepared novices, from whom they might not receive due veneration. – Illustrations of Masonry by William Preston (12th edition, 1812).

A very attractive recent acquisition is this Masonic binding on a copy of the twelfth edition of Illustrations of Masonry by William Preston, a philosophical statement and handbook of the secret society. The binding was executed in 1812, most likely by John Lovejoy who was himself a Mason and one of seven English binders regularly producing this style during the late eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. He can be identified by the tools he used; a similar binding in red morocco can be seen on the Bodleian Library’s website, and one also appears in the Maggs Brothers catalogue Bookbinding in the British Isles (though it was not unusual for binders to share tools, so we can’t be absolutely sure that Lovejoy produced this binding).

Click to enlarge:

Masonic binding by John Lovejoy.

The design on the upper board matches an engraving used in the book, on which Lovejoy must have based his tools:

What’s nice about these bindings is their lack of sophistication. There’s a charming naivety about the tools, as they reflect the styles of a previous era that had by this time filtered down to the middle classes (who were, of course, the primary followers of masonry). I’m particularly fond of the cherub that appears on the lower board:

And these hands holding stonemasons’ tools:

The 52nd Annual New York Antiquarian Book Fair is rapidly approaching, and it’s been a busy week as we prepare our most beautiful and significant stock for display at the Armory. The show, which is open to the public, runs from the 12th to the 15th of April and is one of the highlights of the book fair season. Tickets can be purchased direct from the fair website listed above.

We’ll have around 140 items on our stand, including  a number of significant pieces from the Pat McInally Winnie-the-Pooh collection. Below, a small selection:

Original artwork for the cover of the first edition of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

WRIGHT, Cliff. Hogwarts School.  The original artwork for the rear cover of J. K. Rowling’s ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’  1997.   [74284]

Signature of Henry David Thoreau.

(THOREAU, Henry David). A new English-German and German-English Dictionary. Philadelphia: published by George W. Mentz and Son, 1834   [70021]

Thoreau’s copy of a standard contemporary German-English dictionary, signed by him “Henry D. Thoreau” on the first binder’s blank after the front free endpaper. His ownership likely dates to his college years, which straddled the publication date, when he purchased several dictionaries and grammars of foreign languages. Contemporary American trade binding of streaked sheep.

Inscribed presentation copy of Playback by Raymond Chandler.

Raymond Chandler's presentation inscription in the first edition of Playback.

CHANDLER, Raymond. Playback. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company; Cambridge, The Riverside Press, 1958   [72595]

First US edition. The dedication copy inscribed to Chandler’s lover and personal secretary Jean Fracasse, who is one of the two dedicatees of the book along with Chandler’s literary agent (and lover) Helga Greene. Original tan cloth, titles and concentric circle design to spine and upper board in dark brown. With the dust jacket.

First edition of the Federalist Papers in the original boards.

[HAMILTON, Alexander; James Madison; John Jay.] The Federalist: A Collection of Essays. New York: J. and A. McLean, 1788   [74647]

First edition of the most famous and influential American political work and one of the new nation’s most important contributions to the theory of government. Uncut in the original publisher’s boards, volume numbers stamped to spines.

First edition of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, the bibliographer's copy.

DARWIN, Charles. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. London: John Murray, 1859   [74652]

First edition. The bibliographer R. B. Freeman’s own copy, with his pencilled ownership inscription to the front free endpaper verso, and a note of acquisition dated 10 June 1976 for £1,500. Original green diagonal-wave-grain cloth, covers blocked in blind, spine lettered and decorated in gilt.

Four original drawings of Eeyore by Ernest H. Shepard for Winnie-the-Pooh.

SHEPARD, Ernest H. Suite of four original drawings “The Tail is Lost”. Complete suite of four illustrations for Winnie-the-Pooh.  [1926]   [69933]

A set of four original drawings illustrating Eeyore’s search for his missing tail on page 44 of Winnie-the-Pooh, one of which is initialed by the artist. From the collection of Pat McInally.

The contest is now closed – congratulations to Sergio for his winning entry!

The £50 shop voucher for identifying all the authors depicted on the cover of our latest catalogue, Literature to 1900, has still not been claimed, so we’re offering an additional clue. There is one author who has stumped most of our entrants, so below is his biography:

The mystery author was the third of three sons, born in Nottinghamshire. He lived on his father’s estate until he was sent to Emmanuel College in Cambridge at the age of 14. His time there was truncated for want of funds, and he was afterwards apprenticed to an eminent surgeon in London. He remained there for four years, using his spare time to learn navigation and other areas of mathematics, skills which were to prove useful in later life. His father having raised the necessary funds, he was then educated at Leyden before taking up a medical career.

Contest rules: The first person to correctly identify all twelve authors featured on the cover and explain the odd one out will win a £50 shop credit. To enter, send your answers in an email with the subject line “Contest 83″ to our staff  member Adam Douglas: adouglas@peterharrington.co.uk. (Contest not open to members of the book trade, and one entry per person, but those who entered before the clue was announced are welcome to re-enter.)

All the authors pictured are represented in the catalogue, which you can view online or download as a .pdf. For physical copies or to register for our mailing list please contact us.

Title page of the third edition of the first book printed in English, The recuile of the Histories of Troie (1553).

Today’s post was written by Peter Harrington partner Adam Douglas, who specialises in pre-20th century literature, history, and economics.

We recently acquired a rare and splendid sixteenth-century book, The recuile of the Histories of Troie, published by William Copland in London in 1553. The first edition of this text, published in Bruges in 1473 or 74 by William Caxton, was the very first book printed in the English language. Caxton himself is famous as the first printer in England. But why was his first English book printed in Bruges?

Philip the Good, Valois duke of Burgundy. Portrait after Roger van der Weyden c.1450

In the mid fifteenth century Bruges was the capital of high style. Ruled over by Philip the Good, Valois duke of Burgundy, whose court was the most splendid and fashionable in all of Europe, it was the centre of trade in haberdashery, cloth, and luxury wares like silks. Illuminated manuscripts with miniatures by fashionable Flemish artists were a particularly valued Burgundian export, regularly shipped in large numbers from Flanders to London.

An example of Burgundian illumination by the master Simon Marmion, whose main patron was Philip the Good.

To a prescient few, Gutenberg had sounded the death knell for the trade in illuminated manuscripts. William Caxton was a shrewd Kentish mercer, long settled in Bruges. By 1465 he had established himself as the leading English merchant there. He realised that his English customers would soon demand printed books in their own language. And so he began his English translation of a hugely popular Burgundian work, a retelling of the legend of Troy by Philip the Good’s chaplain, Raoul le Fevre.

Turbulent political times interrupted his plans. England and Burgundy plunged into a trade dispute, forcing the English merchants to leave Bruges. Caxton set aside his translation to seek an end to the trade war. Tensions eased around the time of Philip the Good’s death in 1467, and Anglo-Burgundian relations were further improved the following year when his successor, Charles the Bold, married Margaret of York, sister of Edward IV. The English king soon had reason to be grateful for the new alliance. He was deposed in 1470 and fled to Flanders under the protection of his new brother-in-law. Edward used his time there to patch up his European trade relationships, before sailing back to England in April 1471 to regain his throne.

Three months after Edward’s restoration, Caxton went to Cologne to learn the craft of printing, which had reached the city in 1464. Cologne was the Hanseatic town with the closest links to England and it had helped to settle Edward IV’s trade disputes. Here Caxton acquired a printing press, the expertise to run his own publishing business, and a German assistant, Wynken de Worde. By his own account it was during his stay in Cologne that he completed his translation of Le Fevre’s History of Troy.

The earliest known image of a printing press, published in a Danse Macabre of 1499. Caxton would have used similar equipment in his printing business.

At the end of 1472 Caxton returned to Bruges with his new printing press ready to produce his long-gestated first work. It was a large book and took about a year to complete, being finished in late 1473 or early 1474. It was dedicated to Margaret of Burgundy, sister of the restored English king. The finished books were shipped to England for sale.

Caxton immediately printed a second English book, the Game of Chess, but his next four books were all in French. Caxton struggled to sell English books from his Bruges base.

Illustration from the second edition of Caxton's The Game and Playe of the Chesse, 1483.

Probably in 1476 but possibly as early as 1475, Caxton took his printing press to England, renting premises in Westminster Abbey, at the centre of court life. From now on he would print only in English and occasionally in Latin. He never printed in French again, though almost all his translations were of works written or recently printed in France or Flanders which could be marketed as new and fashionable to his English buyers.

Caxton's device, or logo, from a book he published in London in 1489.

When Caxton died in 1492, de Worde took over his print shop and set about training a new generation of English printers. Among them was Robert Copland, who had translated French books for de Worde before turning printer himself. When Robert Copland died in 1547, a kinsman of his, William, most likely his son, took over the business. William Copland therefore represents the fourth in a direct line of succession from England’s first printer. With reprints such as this third edition of The recuile of the Histories of Troie, he provided a connection between popular reading taste of the late fifteenth century and that of the seventeenth. The eleventh edition of Caxton’s translation appeared as late as 1684, a remarkable span from Edward IV to the final year of Charles II.

Below, the sumptuous late eighteenth-century morocco binding on our 1553 copy of The recuile of the Histories of Troie:

Late eighteenth-century binding on a third edition of The recuile of the Histories of Troie printed in 1553.

Photographic portrait of Albert Einstein by Walter Benington (1921).

Happy Birthday to Albert Einstein! The image above is a large silver gelatin print taken in June of 1921. Einstein had just made an official visit to the United States, where he lectured at Princeton and Columbia and visited the White House. Returning to Europe he stopped first in London as the guest of the politician and philosopher Viscount Haldane, and delivered an important lecture on relativity at King’s College London. Haldane also arranged a session with the prominent portraitist Walter Benington, who was known for his portraits of intellectuals and artists, and was then working for the firm Elliott & Fry as a freelancer. “Einstein’s visit captured the public imagination and The Sphere (18 June 1921) reproduced Benington’s informal double portrait of Einstein and Haldane as its front cover with an inset of Einstein taken at the same sitting” (NPG website). A copy of this important image is now held at the National Portrait Gallery. Our print of this photograph was taken from the original negative, and was likely intended for exhibition. It measures nearly a foot in height, and original prints of Einstein in this size are rare.

Click here to see our other Einstein-related stock.