Bentley, Nicolas
Rare books and art by Nicholas Bentley, including first editions, signed copies, and original cartoons.
ELIOT, T. S. (BENTLEY, Nicolas.)
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. 1939
£1,250
First Illustrated Edition.
Octavo. Original cream boards, titles to spine in red, pictorial block of two dancing cats to front board. With the dust jacket. With numerous colour and monochrome... Read more
BENTLEY, Nicolas.
Keats. c. 1965
£475
The poet's large eyes are touched in green.
Sheet size: 157 × 177 mm. Pen and ink on wove paper. Stamped on verso for publication in the Sunday Telegraph. Read more
BENTLEY, Nicolas.
Martin Luther. c. 1960
£475
Sheet size: 137 × 151 mm. Pen and ink on wove paper. Stamped on verso for publication in the Sunday Telegraph.
Sheet size: 137 × 151 mm. Pen and ink on wove paper. Stamped on verso for publication in the Sunday Telegraph. Read more
BENTLEY, Nicolas.
Anthony Trollope. c. 1966
£475
Portrait of the author in old age, the eyes highlighted in blue.
Sheet size: 190 × 140 mm. Pen and ink and blue crayon on wove paper. Stamped on recto lower margin for publication in the Sunday Telegraph. Read more
BENTLEY, Nicolas.
"The Woman in White." c. 1968
£450
A white-coated "lollipop lady" sees two children safely across the road.
Sheet size: 138 × 185 mm. Pen and ink on wove paper. Stamped on verso for publication in the Sunday Telegraph. Read more
BENTLEY, Nicolas.
"Vienna Stake." 1961
£450
President John F. Kennedy looks balefully at a restaurant menu offering only one item. The summit conference held in Vienna on 4 June 1961 between John F. Kennedy and Soviet premier...
Sheet size: 189 × 139 mm. Pen and ink on wove paper. Stamped on verso for publication in the Daily Mail, 3 June 1961. Read more
BENTLEY, Nicolas.
"The Thirty-nine Steps." c. 1968
£450
A postman regards with trepidation a lengthy flight of steps.
Sheet size: 162 × 181 mm. Pen and ink and blue pencil crayon on wove paper. Stamped on verso for publication in the Sunday Telegraph. Read more
BENTLEY, Nicolas.
Gammon and Espionage. 1938
£450
First edition, first impression. Inscribed by the author on the verso of the half-title, "To W. G. Tucker, whose friendship & good advice has been helpful to me on so many occasions,...
Octavo. Original black and white cloth, titles to spine gilt on blue ground. With the dust jacket. Spine rolled and tanned, boards lightly rubbed and spotted, light... Read more
BENTLEY, Nicolas.
Albert Einstein, George Bernard Shaw, Josef Goebbels and Arturo Toscanini in a wooden crib. c. 1963
£450
An unlikely grouping – GBS in a shawl; Goebbels carrying a cosh – drawn to illustrate a portmanteau review. Biographies of Shaw, Einstein, and Toscanini, and an edition of...
Sheet size: 140 × 175 mm. Pen and ink on wove paper. Stamped on verso for publication in the Sunday Telegraph. Read more
BENTLEY, Nicolas.
"Gone With the Wind." c. 1961
£450
A man chases his hat and newspaper down the pavement amid the blown leaves and litter of a very windy day.
Sheet size: 177 × 182 mm. Pen and ink on wove paper. Stamped below the image for publication in the Sunday Telegraph. Read more
BENTLEY, Nicolas.
"Pity – I was just thinking of having a blue streak myself." 1960
£450
In April 1960 the British government abruptly cancelled the Blue Streak missile system.
Sheet size: 191 × 138 mm. Pen and blank ink on wove paper. Stamped on verso for publication in the Daily Mail, 14 April 1960. Read more
BENTLEY, Nicolas.
"Mark you, things would be very different if we'd had him in Downing Street and at the White House, the Service Ministries, Lambeth Palace, the B.B.C. and London Transport." 1958
£450
Two gentlemen observe Enoch Powell pass by, and comment upon his somewhat messianic contrarianism. Powell had recently returned to the back-benches after a period as financial...
Sheet size: 192 × 140 mm. Pen and black ink on wove paper. Stamped on verso for publication in the Daily Mail, 25 October 1958 and with pencil reproduction... Read more
BENTLEY, Nicolas.
"Miniature? Well, we call 'er that 'cause one minute yer on, an' the next minute yer off again." c. 1950
£450
Sheet size: 212 × 252 mm. Pen and ink on wove paper. Jan 8th Issue Bystander in blue pencil on verso, and Bystander no 1673 in pencil.
Sheet size: 212 × 252 mm. Pen and ink on wove paper. Jan 8th Issue Bystander in blue pencil on verso, and Bystander no 1673 in pencil. Read more
BENTLEY, Nicolas.
"Now, Howard, no fooling with the toys." c. 1935
£450
A lady shopper in a fur coat striding into a toy shop smirks over her shoulder at her husband, who is collapsing beneath the weight of her Christmas shopping.
Sheet size: 240 × 267 mm. Pen and ink on wove paper. Artists' agency ticket of R. P. Gossop Limited on verso. Read more
BENTLEY, Nicolas.
Edward Lear, Oscar Wilde, and A. C. Swinburne. c. 1968
£425
Caricature portraits of the three artists, drawn as if portraits hanging in a hallway. The likeliest date is 1968, when Angus Davidson's 1938 biography of Edward Lear was reissued....
Sheet size: 152 × 176 mm. Presented in a black wooden frame with UV glass. Pen and ink on wove paper. Stamped on verso for publication in the Sunday Telegraph. Read more
BENTLEY, Nicolas.
Thomas Hardy. c. 1965
£425
Sheet size: 191 × 140 mm. Pen and ink on wove paper, unusually signed by Bentley's initials only. Pencil title on verso.
Sheet size: 191 × 140 mm. Pen and ink on wove paper, unusually signed by Bentley's initials only. Pencil title on verso. Read more
BENTLEY, Nicolas.
"You ought to be used to walking home by now." 1958
£425
The London bus strike continued for five weeks.
Sheet size: 190 ×139 mm. Pen and ink and blue pencil crayon on wove paper. Stamped on verso for publication in the Daily Mail, 5 June 1958. Read more
BENTLEY, Nicolas.
"What's the water like? Looks pretty cold!" c. 1950
£425
Sheet size: 255 × 327 mm. Pen and ink on wove paper.
Sheet size: 255 × 327 mm. Pen and ink on wove paper. Read more
BENTLEY, Nicolas.
"Fortunately he's a great lover of cats." 1945
£425
The chairman murmurs sympathetically to another man on the platform, as the prospective Conservative candidate hurls a dead cat back into the riotous crowd. The General Election of...
Sheet size: 177 × 197 mm. Pen and ink on wove paper. The cat thrower with an overslip. Signed Nicolas Bentley and dated "45". Read more
BENTLEY, Nicolas.
"OK, fine. So we get the manuscript around 1984." c1961
£400
A cigar-smoking publisher watches as an elder lady signs a publishing contract. The caption has been erased.
Sheet size: 172 × 190 mm. Pen and ink on wove paper. Stamped on verso for publication in the Sunday Telegraph. Read more
BENTLEY, Nicolas.
"Really, Cathcart, your record of breakages exceeds the Comet's." 1958
£400
The latest version of the notoriously accident-prone de Haviland Comet, the world's first jet airliner, was delivered to BOAC in September 1958.
Sheet size: 190 × 140 mm. Pen and ink and blue pencil crayon on wove paper. Stamped on verso for publication in the Daily Mail, 18 Sep 1958. Read more
BENTLEY, Nicolas.
"Look Uncle Max - a flower for your button-hole!" c. 1935
£400
A small boy confuses his uncle's navel with a button hole.
Sheet size: 194 × 195 mm. Pen and ink on wove paper. Read more
BENTLEY, Nicolas.
"But I don't want to go to Brightlingsea. I want to go to Mars." c. 1955
£400
Sheet size: 235 × 233 mm. Pen and ink on wove paper. Pencilled at head as done for the News Chronicle, wanted 8.55 [August 1955].
Sheet size: 235 × 233 mm. Pen and ink on wove paper. Pencilled at head as done for the News Chronicle, wanted 8.55 [August 1955]. Read more
BENTLEY, Nicolas.
" 'stonishing the difference this new fuel makes!" c. 1955
£400
Sheet size: 187 × 240 mm. Pen and ink on wove paper.
Sheet size: 187 × 240 mm. Pen and ink on wove paper. Read more
BENTLEY, Nicolas.
"I say, this isn't going to be three-dimensional, is it?" c. 1955
£400
Sheet size: 210 × 250 mm. Pen and ink on wove paper.
Sheet size: 210 × 250 mm. Pen and ink on wove paper. Read more
