Window Shopping in Fulham Road: Autumn Edition.

Sep 25, 2015 | Uncategorized

 

 

Those who pass by our Fulham Road shop on a regular enough basis will already be aware that our window display  changes frequently. Just in case you won’t have the chance to see it for yourself, we thought we’d keep you up-to-date on the books, prints and curiosities making an appearance each time a reshuffle takes place.

 

AutumnWindowDisplay4

 

Below you’ll find listings for each of the items featured; Should you wish to enquire further, you can simply email mail@peterharrington.co.uk

 

 

91077comp-335x352

 

AMBLER, Eric.

The Intercom Conspiracy.

New York: Atheneum, 1969

Octavo. Original orange and yellow cloth, titles to spine and front board in gilt and silver, top edge red, red endpapers. With the dust jacket.   Spine slightly cocked, spine ends lightly bumped. An excellent copy in a slightly rubbed jacket with lightly faded spine.

First US edition, first printing. Presentation copy inscribed by the author on the title page to his friend the historian Mortimer Chambers: “To Mort Chambers, historian and friend, gratefully Eric Ambler Los Angeles 1970.” With loosely inserted letter to the editor written by Ambler and dated 13 September 1973.

 

£125

 


97911-335x352

 

AYER, Frederick.

The Man in the Mirror.

London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1965

Octavo. Original red boards, titles to spine gilt. With the dust jacket.   Spine ends and corners slightly bumped. Otherwise a fine copy in a bright jacket with mildly toned rear panel.

First edition, first impression.

 

£85

 

89298comp-334x352

 

(BAKER, Josephine) ABTEY, Jacques.

La Guerre Secrete de Josephine Baker.Avec une Lettre Autographe du General De Gaulle.

Paris: Editions Siboney, 1948

Octavo. Original light card wraps. 2 plates and 2 facsimiles.  Wraps a little browned, some creasing, cracking and consequent light restoration to the spine, text browned as usual,unopened, overall very good.

First edition. Uncommon account of Baker’s wartime activities with the Resistance. With contemporary gift inscription from La Baker to the front free endpaper; “À Monsieur et Madame Willy avec mes Souvenirs les plus sympathiques, votre Josephine Baker”.

 

£500

 

 

88179-335x352

 

BALLARD, J. G.

The Drought.

London: Jonathan Cape, 1965

Octavo. Original brown cloth, titles to spine gilt, red top-stain. With the dust jacket.   Top stain and upper edges of boards a little faded, faint offsetting from spine panel of jacket to spine. An excellent copy in the dust jacket with a small ballpoint pen inscription to the top edge of the front panel.

First edition, first impression. The expanded and re-titled version of The Burning World, which was first published in 1964.

 

£150

 

72440-210x352

 

BASKIN, Leonard & Esther.

The Poppy & Other Deadly Plants.By Esther Baskin. Drawings by Leonard Baskin.

New York: Delacorte Press, 1967

Tall quarto. Original black cloth, titles to spine gilt, orange endpapers. With the dust jacket. 19 illustrations by Leonard Baskin.  Lightly rubbed at ends of spine, a few small spots to upper board. An excellent copy in the jacket that is faded at the spine panel and the edges, with a short closed tear at the head of the spine.

First edition, first impression. Signed by the author on the front blank and below that inscribed by the illustrator, “& Leonard Baskin for Marvin with love. Fort Hill, 1967”.

 

£125

 

104327-335x352

 

BEATON, Cecil.

An Indian Album.

London: B.T. Batsford Ltd, 1945-46

Octavo. Original orange cloth, titles to spine and front cover in blue. With the dust jacket. Frontispiece and monochrome photographic plates throughout.  Ownership signature to front free endpaper. Spine slightly rolled, edges lightly foxed. An excellent copy in the unclipped jacket.

First edition, first impression.

 

£100

 

ab

 

BUCHNER, Georg.

The Plays.Translated with an introduction by Geoffrey Dunlop.

The Viking Press, New York, 1928

Octavo. Original orange cloth-backed patterned boards, titles to spine in black, top edge stained orange. With the dust jacket. Frontis.  A fine copy in the dust jacket.

First US edition, first printing.

 

£300

 

104707-335x352

 

CAPOTE, Truman.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

New York: Random House, 1958

Octavo. Original yellow cloth, spine lettered in gilt on black, top edge blue. With the dust jacket.   Occasional spotting to pages mostly noted to endpapers, mild soiling to cloth boards, in the dust jacket with mild toning to rear panel and spine as usual. A very good copy.

First edition, first printing.

 

£950

 

ab

 

CHRISTIE, Agatha.

Five Little Pigs.

London: W. Collins Sons & Co Ltd., 1942

Octavo. Original orange cloth, titles to spine in orange.   Spine faded and marked, with a mark to lower board, top edge tanned. An excellent copy.

First edition, first impression. Inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “Carlo, from Agatha. Jan 1943”. From the library of Charlotte (“Carlo”) Fisher (1895–1976), Christie’s secretary and early amanuensis with whom Christie wrote several major early titles. The method was described by Christie in her autobiography: “Charlotte and I sat down opposite each other, she with her notebook and pencil. I stared unhappily at the mantelpiece, and began uttering a few tentative sentences. They sounded dreadful. I could not say more than a word without hesitating and stopping. Nothing I said sounded natural. We persisted for an hour. Long afterwards Carlo told me that she herself had been dreading the moment when literary work should begin.” By this process Christie – or “Missus” as she was known to Fisher – would find her authorial voice. During the difficult period of the breakdown of her first marriage, Fisher was Christie’s only friend and confidante. They remained close throughout their lives.

 

£4,750

 

104211-335x352

 

CHURCHILL, Winston S.

My African Journey.With Sixty-One Illustrations from Photographs by the Author and Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon Wilson, and Three Maps.

London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1908

Octavo. Original red cloth, spine lettered in gilt, titles and pictorial decoration to front board in black, blue, and grey. 16 pages of advertisements. Photographic frontispiece, 48 photographic plates, and 3 maps of which one is folding.  Bookseller’s ticket and bookplate to front pastedown. Spine faded and slightly rolled, contents foxed. A very good copy.

First edition. My African Journey was the first book to derive purely from Churchill’s journalism, as distinct from his work as a war correspondent. Before embarking he signed an extremely lucrative contract for the publication of a series of articles in The Strand, and for further publication in book form. What Churchill was offered is impressive testimony to his perceived drawing power, at £750 for five contributions he was receiving “more than Kipling, whom The Strand were paying £90 for his short stories; more than W. W. Jacobs, whose rate at the time was £110 for a story” (Pound, The Strand Magazine).

 

£875

 

Untitled

 

DAHL, Roald.

Danny the Champion of the World.

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1975

Octavo. Original brown cloth-backed orange boards, spine lettered in gilt, pheasant vignette blocked to the front board in blind, blue-green endpapers, top edge purple. With the dust jacket.  Illustrations by Jill Bennett throughout the text.  Spine gently rolled, internally fine. An excellent copy in the bright jacket that has a slightly faded spine.

First edition, first printing. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper: “Willa, love Roald Dahl.”

£3,500

 

Untitled

 

DAHL, Roald.

Matilda.Illustrations by Quentin Blake.

London: Jonathan Cape, 1988

Octavo. Original red boards, titles to spine gilt. With the dust jacket.   Spine rolled, edges of text block lightly foxed. An excellent copy in the jacket with lightly rubbed spine ends and some creasing to extremities.

First edition, first impression of the ever-popular Dahl story, the basis for both the film and popular musical.

£375

 

ab

 

(DETMOLD, Edward J.) AESOP.

The Fables of Aesop.

New York: Hodder and Stoughton,

Quarto. Original brown cloth, titles to spine and front board gilt, front board elaborately decorated gilt, buff illustrated endpapers.  Tipped-in colour frontispiece and 22 plates with captioned tissue guards.  A little wear to foot of spine; an excellent copy with bright plates.

First US Detmold edition, first printing.

 

£400

 

av

 

(DULAC, Edmund.) HOUSMAN, Laurence.

Stories from The Arabian Nights.With Drawings by Edmund Dulac.

London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1907

Quarto (240 × 181 mm). Recent orange morocco, titles to spine gilt with gilt raised bands, single rule to covers, marbled endpapers. 50 tipped-in plates with captioned tissue guards by Dulac.  Contents slightly foxed, small closed tears repaired to head of pp. 116-118; an excellent copy.

Second and best edition (the same year as the first), with the plates bound in to the context of the story. Amongst the popular stories included in this edition is Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.

 

£475

 

88198

 

(DULAC, Edmund) OMAR KHAYYÁM; Edward Fitzgerald (trans.)

Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám.Rendered into English verse by Edward Fitzgerald.

London:  Hodder and Stoughton,

Quarto (280 x 220 mm). Recent burgundy morocco, titles and decoration to spine, raised bands, roll to boards, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. With 20 tipped in colour plates, tissue guards.  Some occasional light foxing, an excellent copy handsomely bound.

First Dulac edition. Handsomely bound.

£475

 

 

44009-403x324

 

FARJEON, Eleanor, & Herbert.

The Two Bouquets A Victorian Operetta   The Two Bouquets, A Novelette.

London, Samuel French Limited & London, Michael Joseph, 1938 & 1948

2 volumes, printed pamphlet and octavo. Original pink cloth, titles to spine in silver and pictorial decoration to front board in silver. With the price-clipped dust jacket.   A very good copy with a couple of minor nicks to the dust jacket.

First Editions, First Impressions.

 

£45

 

Untitled

 

FAULKNER, William.

New Orleans Sketches.With an introduction by Carvel Collins.

London: Sidgwick and Jackson Limited, 1959

Octavo. Original blue boards, titles to spine gilt. With the dust jacket.   Ownership stamp in blind to front free endpaper. Spine ends rubbed, faint foxing to edges. An excellent copy in the bright jacket with slightly rubbed extremities.

First UK edition, first impression of this collection of short stories, originally published in the US the preceding year.

 

£150

 

 

av

 

FAULKNER, William.

The Hamlet; The Town; The Mansion.

New York: Random House,  1940–57–59

3 volumes, octavo. Original black cloth, spine and front board lettered in yellow and red, top edge red; original red cloth, spine and front board lettered in gilt and blue, pale grey flecked endpapers, top edge grey; original blue cloth, spine and front board lettered in gilt and blue, pale blue endpapers, top edge yellow. With the pictorial dust jackets.   An exceptional set in the bright jackets that have lightly toned spines and some nicks to extremities.

First editions, first printings, trade issues.

 

£1,250

 

Untitled

 

GREENE, Graham.

Carving a Statue. A Play.

London:  The Bodley Head, 1964

Octavo. Original green cloth, titles to spine gilt, orange endpapers, red top-stain. With the dust jacket.   Bookstore label to front pastedown in the price clipped dust jacket. An excellent copy.

First edition, first impression.

£85

 

av

 

GREENE, Graham.

The Lawless Roads.A Mexican Journey.

London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1939

Octavo. Original red cloth, titles to spine gilt, top edge yellow, map endpapers. With the dust jacket. Frontispiece and 7 plates, two of which are double plates.  Ownership inscription to front free endpaper. A few dark stains to boards, light spotting to edges, top edge faded, slight foxing to prelims and endmatter. An excellent copy in a bright jacket with some minor toning along the slightly rubbed extremities, some minor chipping and a few short splits along spine ends and corners.

First edition, first impression.

 

£1,500

 

Untitled

 

HEANEY, Seamus.

Electric Light.

London: Faber and Faber, 2001

Octavo. Original black boards, titles to spine in white, yellow endpapers. With the dust jacket.   A fine copy in an excellent jacket with some tape residue to verso.

First edition, first impression. Inscribed by Heaney on the title page: “To Yvonne. Seamus Heaney 31.1.02”

£225

 

Untitled

 

JOYCE, James.

Two Tales of Shem and Shaun.Fragments from Work in Progress.

London: Faber and Faber, 1932

Octavo. Original pale green boards, titles to spine blue. In the dust jacket.   Light bumping to top of spine, stitching just a touch strained in places but nonetheless an excellent copy in the bright dust jacket with some minor rubbing to extremities.

First UK edition, first impression.

£275

 

104048-335x352

 

KHADDURI, Majid & Herbert J. Liebesny (eds.)

Law in the Middle East.Vol. I. Origin and Development of Islamic law.

Washington, DC: The Middle East Institute, 1955

Octavo. Original blue cloth, titles to spine gilt. With the dust jacket.   Extremities lightly rubbed. A very good copy in the dust jacked slightly sunned and chipped on the spine.

First edition, first printing of a work including articles by a number of leading scholars, among them Joseph Schacht, who contributes two chapters on the pre-Islamic origins of Islamic law and the emergence of the classical schools; this copy from the collection of noted American Islamicist Nicholas Heer, with his ownership inscription dated “Stanford 1961” to the front free endpaper.

Born to a Greek Orthodox family in Mosul, Iraq, Majid Khadduri emigrated after the Second World War and became “One of the pioneers of Middle East and Islamic studies in the United States … a number of contributions to the study of the Arab world, particularly Islamic law and jurisprudence, the politics and history of Iraq, and the role of personalities in the Middle East” (obituary, Washington Post, 3 February 2007). It was “hoped and planned, that circumstances permitting, a second volume on the modern legal systems of the Middle East” would follow, but it never did and the present volume therefore stands alone (p. xiii).

 

£95

 

102037

 

LANG, Andrew (ed.)

The Brown Fairy Book.

London: Longmans, Green, and Co, 1904

Octavo. Original brown cloth, titles to spine gilt, elaborate pictorial decorations to spine and front board gilt, all edges gilt, pictorial endpapers. Colour frontispiece, 7 similar plates, 22 black and white plates, and numerous illustrations in the text. With the spine and front panel of the pictorial dust jacket tipped in at the front.  With a small catalogue description tipped in. Spine ends and corners very lightly rubbed and bumped, mild foxing to prelims and endmatter. An excellent copy.

First edition, first impression, of the ninth instalment in Lang’s Fairy Books series, gathering exotic tales from North America, Brazil, Australia, Africa, Persia, India, Lappland and the Pacific Islands.

£800

 

102035

 

LANG, Andrew (ed.)

The Green Fairy Book.

London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1892

Octavo. Original green cloth, titles to spine gilt, elaborate pictorial decorations to spine and front board gilt, all edges gilt, black endpapers. Frontispiece and numerous illustrations by H. J. Ford in text. With front and spine panels of the dust jacket tipped in at the start.   Spine ends gently bumped, minor mottling to rear board, light foxing throughout. An excellent copy.

First edition. Andrew Lang (1844–1912), Scottish poet, scholar and journalist, devoted most of his life to folklore and the compilation of traditional fairy stories from around the world. Begun in 1889, “his ‘coloured’ fairy books have been popular with boys and girls since their first appearance.” (Osborne Collection I, pp. 34-36, and II, p. 604).

£825

 

89411

 

LAVER, James (intro.)

Art for All: London Transport Posters 1908–1949.

London: Art and Technics Ltd, 1949

Octavo. Original beige cloth, titles to spine and front board gilt, map endpapers, device to title page in pink. With the dust jacket. 68 colour and black and white plates, and black and white illustrations in the text.  Light offsetting from jacket to front board, one hinge starting. An excellent copy in the rubbed, toned and lightly chipped jacket with a closed tear to the front panel.

First edition, first impression, featuring some of the classics from the 1920s and 30s, the golden age of London Transport poster design.

This item is now sold.

 

 

100471-335x352

 

(LAWRENCE, T. E.) THOMAS, Lowell.

With Lawrence in Arabia.

London: Hutchinson & Co,

Octavo. Original red cloth, title to spine gilt, top edge grey. Frontispiece and 64 plates.  Spine slightly rolled, boards a little stained, edges lightly foxed, tips slightly rubbed. A very good copy.

First UK edition, first impression, originally published in the US the previous year.

£450

 

45112-193x352

 

LEDER, Jan. 

Women in Jazz. A Discography of Instrumentalists, 1913-1968.

Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood Press,  1985

Octavo, original red cloth, title gilt to spine and upper board. Issued without dust jacket.    Very good.

First edition. Indispensable reference, by highly-rated jazz flautist and composer. This copy inscribed on the front free endpaper to jazz collector and researcher Arthur Newman;  “To Arthur, Best wishes and good luck, Jan Leder.”

 

£185

 

91622-335x352

 

LESSING, Doris.

The Golden Notebook.

London: Michael Joseph, 1962

Octavo. Original black boards, titles to spine gilt. With the dust jacket.   Free endpapers partially tanned, top edge a little spotted, one faint finger mark to front pastedown, contents just a little toned as always. An excellent copy in a slightly chipped and toned jacket with a few short closed tears.

First edition, first impression, of the Nobel laureate’s masterpiece.

 

£875

 

80360

 

MCKAY, Claude.

Banjo.A Story Without a Plot.

New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1929

Octavo. Original dark blue and orange wave patterned boards, black cloth backstrip, titles to spine gilt, red top-stain. With the dust jacket.   Very lightly rubbed at extremities, else bright and fresh. A superb copy in the lightly rubbed jacket with some nicks and shot splits, and a closed tear along the fold of the toned spine panel.

First edition, first impression of this Harlem Renaissance novel exploring the lives of black jazz musicians in 1920s Paris. A beautiful copy.

 

£975

 

 

100421comp

 

MARINETTI, Filippo Tommaso.

Mafarka il futurista.Romanzo. Traduzione dal Francese di Decio Cinti.

Milan: Edizioni Futuriste di “Poesia”, 1910

Octavo. Original orange printed wrappers.    Spine lightly toned, slightly rolled and a little creased. An excellent copy of this fragile publication.

First Italian edition of Marinetti’s uncommon first novel, translated by his personal secretary. Presentation copy from the author, inscribed flamboyantly on the front free endpaper: “al caro e intelligentissimo amico dei futuristi, Koltonski” (”to the dear and intelligent friend of the Futurists, Koltonski”), and accompanied by a Futuristic lightning sketch of “Futuris Marinetti” pricking the sagging bubble of “Passatismo” (Traditionalism). A significant association: “Aleksander Koltonski , who was a resident in Italy and can be considered a protagonist in popularizing Futurism in Poland, issued a summary of the manifestos on Futurist music by Francesco Balilla Pratella and Luigi Russolo. Koltonski was clearly familiar with the collection I manifesti del futurismo. Prima serie (1914) and demonstrated his extensive knowledge in a groundbreaking article, entitled On Futurism as a Cultural and Artistic Movement, which also included an excerpt from Mariinetti’s Zang Tumb Tumb… Koltonski emphasized the importance of Futurism for the political-cultural development of Italy, the innovatory character of its aesthetics, and the movement’s fertilizing effect on life and art” (Przemyslaw Strozek, “Marinetti is foreign to us”: Polish Responses to Italian Futurism in International Yearbook of Futurism Studies, 2011, volume I p. 89).

Originally published in French (Paris: Sansot, 1909) as Mafarka le futuriste: roman africain. There would appear to be a number of issues of this first Italian edition: our copy (and others noted in OCLC) have “10o migliaio” (or “10th thousand”) printed on the front cover; Copac notes a copy (Leeds University) with “11th thousand” and we know of a copy calling itself “6th thousand”. These are all generally regarded as fictional. Mafarka, set in an imaginary African country, brought Marinetti to trial for obscenity. He was acquitted and the furore helped to put Futurism on the cultural map. Koltonski has made two neat inscriptions in Polish that appear to touch on the trial, saying that the book was “confiscated on moral grounds”

 

£1,500

 

104548

 

MILNE, A. A.

Winnie The Pooh.

London: Methuen Children’s Books, 1976

Octavo. Original red morocco, titles and decorations to spine gilt, pictorial design to front boards gilt, all edges gilt, pictorial endpapers. Housed red morocco slipcase.  Illustrated throughout the text by Ernest H. Shepard. 

The Golden Anniversary Edition, signed limited edition, this is number 111 of 300 copies signed by Christopher Milne.

£1,075

 

103400-335x352

 

NABOKOV, Vladimir.

A Russian Beauty and Other Stories.

London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1973

Octavo. Original red boards, titles to spine gilt, top edge pink. With the dust jacket.   An excellent copy in a lightly toned jacket with one tiny closed tear to tail of spine panel.

First UK edition, first impression. Originally published in the US in the same year.

 

£65

 

102673comp-335x352

 

NAIPAUL, V. S.

An Area of Darkness.

London: Andre Deutsch, 1964

Octavo. Original black boards, titles to spine gilt, top edge black. With the dust jacket.   Contemporary bookseller’s ticket to front flap of jacket. Top edge faded. An excellent copy in a slightly rubbed and toned jacket with one tiny closed tear and tape repair to the verso.

First edition, first impression. Signed by the author on the half-title. From the library of historian and book collector Anthony Hobson.

 

£750

 

100249-335x352

 

NEWBY, P. H.

Something to Answer For.

London: Faber and Faber, 1968

Octavo. Original orange boards, titles to spine dark blue. With the dust jacket.   Boards slightly bowed, tips rubbed. An excellent copy in the unclipped and slightly soiled jacket.

First edition, first impression of the winner of the inaugural Booker Prize in 1968.

 

£475

 

104067-335x352

 

(NONESUCH PRESS.) DANTE ALIGHIERI.

La Divina Commedia.Or, The Divine Vision. In Italian and English. The Italian text edited by Mario Casella of the University of Florence with the English version of H. F. Cary and 42 illustrations after the drawings by Sandro Botticelli.

London: The Nonesuch Press, 1928

Folio. Original orange vellum, titles to spine, roundels and ruling to boards gilt, top edge gilt, others untrimmed, partially unopened. Housed in a modern brown cloth slipcase (with a few light scratches). 34 double and 8 single-page plates after Botticelli.  Spine lightly faded, extremities faintly rubbed, free endpapers a touch tanned. An exceptionally bright copy in excellent condition.

First Nonesuch edition. Number 1,423 from a limited edition of 1,475 copies on Dutch paper. A beautifully presented and bound edition of Dante’s Divine Comedy, with Dante’s Italian printed in parallel with Rev. Henry F. Cary’s English translation (1814, the first complete English translation, much loved by Coleridge), and with Sandro Botticelli’s illustrations, reproduced from the first Florentine edition of the Divine Comedy (1481).

£1,250

 

73574-220x352

 

PYNCHON, Thomas.

Gravity’s Rainbow.

New York: The Viking Press, 1973

Octavo. Original orange boards, titles to spine in red, orange top-stain. With the dust jacket.   Small note in ink to free free endpaper. Top stain a little faded, edges slightly rubbed and dulled. An excellent copy in the rubbed and creased jacket with a darkened area to the corner of the upper panel and a small spot to the lower panel.

First edition, first printing.

 

£975

 

 

99541-335x352

 

READ, Forrest. 

Pound / Joyce. The Letters of Ezra Pound to James Joyce, with Pound’s Critical Essays and Articles About Joyce.

New York: New Directions,  1967

Octavo. Original orange cloth boards, titles to spine gilt. With the dust jacket.    Ends of spine lightly bumped, in the dust jacket with spine toned, mild soiling to panels. A very good copy.

First edition, first printing.

 

£125

 

 

79408comp-335x352

 

ROWLING, J. K.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

London: Bloomsbury, 1999

Octavo. Original green cloth, titles to spine and upper board and all edges gilt, green endpapers, colour illustration pasted to upper board.   Spine bumped and slightly rubbed.

First Deluxe edition, first impression. Inscribed on the dedication page by the author “To Mark, Happy 8th Birthday! With love from, Jo, (J. K. Rowling) (but really from Thomas, Daragh, Catriona, Deidre & Gerry!)”. This was the first of the deluxe editions to be published was issued at the same time as the first trade edition of Azkaban.

 

£4,500

 

av

 

SALTEN, Felix.

Bambi.A Life in the Woods. Translated from the German by Whittaker Chambers. With a Foreword by John Galsworthy.

London: Jonathan Cape, 1928

Octavo (187 × 125 mm). Finely bound in recent green morocco by the Cottage Bindery, titles to spine gilt with gilt decoration and raised bands, boards ruled gilt, gilt vignette to front board, illustrated endpapers, top edge gilt. With a green cloth slipcase.   Spine a little sunned; an excellent copy, attractively bound.

First UK edition, first impression. It was first published in the US earlier the same year, and was originally published in Germany in 1923.

 

£475

 

av

 

SEARLE, Ronald, & Alex Atkinson.

Escape from the Amazon!

London: Perpetua Books, 1964

Quarto. Original black cloth, gilt lettered spine. With the dust jacket.  Illustrated throughout.  Spine lightly toned. An excellent copy.

First edition, first impression. Presentation copy from Ronald Searle, inscribed in his distinctive hand on the front free endpaper: “For Wendy with love from Ronnie, Christmas 1964”; also tipped-in is an inscribed Christmas card (1965) from Searle (with integral envelope addressed in his hand). “Wendy” is the actress, dancer, and theatre and film director, Wendy Toye (1917-2010) who had collaborated with Searle on a number of theatre projects.

 

£375

 

101665-335x352

SEUSS, Dr.

The Shape of Me and Other Stuff.

New York:  Random House, 1973

Octavo. Original laminated pictorial boards, titles to spine and front board in white and yellow, illustrated endpapers. With the pictorial dust jacket. Illustrated throughout by Dr. Seuss.  Extremities a little rubbed, short closed tear to top edge of front free endpaper. A bright copy in a slightly rubbed jacket with one tiny closed tear to rear panel. Very good.

First edition, first printing, with $2.50 price to front flap of dust jacket and correct list of titles to rear panel.

 

£500

 

82267comp-335x352

 

SMITH, Edward E.

The Vortex Blaster.

Hicksville, NY: Gnome Press, Inc., 1960

Octavo. Original blue boards, titles to spine in yellow. With the dust jacket.   Very lightly rubbed at extremities, contents tanned as often. An excellent copy in the bright and fresh jacket.

First edition, first printing. Presentation copy inscribed by the author to the publisher on the front free endpaper, “To my friend Marty Greenberg – with the hope that this new relationship of publisher and writer will make even deeper the friendship that has lasted so long, Edward E. Smith, PhD”. Smith originally worked as a food scientist, and became a science fiction author in 1915 when friends recommended that he novelize his ideas about space travel. His first work was the Skylark of Space trilogy, which was rejected by a number of publishers before being sold to Amazing Stories in 1927. Smith continued writing, producing the popular Lensman series, of which this volume is a continuation, and is today revered as the “father of the space opera”. The recipient, Marty Greenberg, founded the Gnome press with author David Kyle in 1948. They became one of the most important science fiction presses of the 20th century, publishing Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy and other classics for the first time.

 

£875

 

99087-335x352

 

(SMITH, Jessie Willcox.) CHAPIN, Anna Alice.  

The Now-A-Day Fairy Book.

New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1911

Quarto. Original red cloth, titles to spine in white, illustration to front board pasted down.  6 colour plates by Jessie Willcox Smith  Lettering to spine lightly rubbed, chip to front board at top edge resulting in loss of the corner, light wear to corners and ends of spine, inscription to front free endpaper. A very good copy.

First edition, first printing. A beautifully illustrated fairy tale collection which includes, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Three Little Bear, Sleeping Beauty and many others.

 

£500

 

 

1030181-335x352

 

STEIN, Sir (Marc) Aurel.

Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan. Personal Narrative of a Journey of Archaeological and Geographical Exploration in Chinese Turkestan.

London: Fisher Unwin, 1904

Octavo. Original ochre cloth, title gilt to the spine, and to the front board in yellow with pictorial design in black and yellow. Photogravure frontispiece and numerous illustrations to the text, folding coloured map at the rear.  A little rubbed and slightly spotted, free endpapers lightly browned, light foxing to the fore-edge and to first few leaves, but overall very good.

“Cheaper Edition”, one year after the first, and comprising first edition sheets with a cancel title. “A general narrative of his first exploration to Central Asia of 1900-1901.Crossing the Karakoram and the Pamirs he entered Chinese Turkestan, and explored archaeologically the sand-buried ruins of Khotan and its neighbourings ” (Yakushi)

 

£1,250

 

Untitled

 

TWAIN, Mark.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade.)Scene: The Mississippi Valley Time: Forty to Fifty Years Ago. With 174 illustrations.

London: Chatto & Windus, 1884

Octavo. Original red cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt, designs blocked in black to both covers and spine, ochre leaf-pattern endpapers; publisher’s catalogue dated October 1884 at end. Frontispiece with tissue guard, illustrations throughout by F. W. Kemble.  Spine rolled and faded, cloth a little dulled with a few faint spots.

First edition, preceding both the American and Canadian editions.

£1,500

Share this article



Our Latest Catalogue

This spring we bring you a seasonal selection of items fresh to our shelves including spectacular scientific and archaeological discoveries, colourful modern art, political posters, rousing war speeches, and much more.

Recent Articles

Collecting Editioned Prints: Gustav Klimt

Collecting Editioned Prints: Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt, one of the most recognizable artists of the 20th century, scandalized the Viennese establishment and awed his contemporaries with his opulent and erotic nudes. He rose to fame as a leading member of the Vienna Secession, a movement closely related to Art...

Drawn Together – The Synergy Between Writer and Artist

Drawn Together – The Synergy Between Writer and Artist

​Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland opens with an arresting illustration of the White Rabbit and the first thought from Alice is “what is the use of a book… without pictures or conversations?” It’s a great joke as Lewis Carroll shows us his book will have both pictures...