What's New
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JOYCE, James. Anna Livia Plurabelle.New York : 1928
First edition. One of a small number of special copies printed on green Alexandra Japan paper, not signed by Joyce (as the standard issue of 800 is). The number of copies printed on green paper is unspecified, but Crosby Gaige's papers at Princeton suggest fifty copies may have been printed. Slocum & Cahoon speculate that only six of which were sold... Learn More£3,500.00Stock Code: 138348
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FAIRBAIRN, William Ewart All-in Fighting.London : 1942
First edition. Genuinely uncommon - just six locations on Copac, BL, IWM, NLS, TCD, NLW, Oxford, OCLC adds the Australian War Memorial, Danish Royal Library, NLNZ, LoC, CIA, and University of Tulsa - and particularly so in the jacket. "The majority of the methods shown are drastic in the extreme. In contrast to judo, they recognise no accepted rules.... Learn More£525.00Stock Code: 137647
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GIBBON, Edward. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.London : 1776-88
First editions (volume 1 in the first state) of Gibbon's magisterial history, with the cancel leaves and uncorrected errata as called for by Norton. The first variant state of volume 1 numbered 500 copies, printed before Strahan's optimistic and ultimately prophetic decision to double the printing order to 1,000; the first edition sold out within a... Learn More£25,000.00Stock Code: 136933
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(WWII - POLITICAL WARFARE EXECUTIVE.) "German Propaganda and the German 5.7.43 - 20.10.43" - collection of weekly reports.1943
A remarkable survival: a half-yearly run of pioneering weekly propaganda intelligence reports produced by the German and Austrian Region - Intelligence Section of the Political Warfare Executive. These reports were to provide the basis for a new approach to intelligence work for the British which would be carried forward after the end of WWII. Documentary... Learn More£6,500.00Stock Code: 135819
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(BERLIN AIRLIFT) WILLIAMS, Thomas Melling, Air Marshal. A Report on Operation Plainfare (The Berlin Airlift), 25th June 1948 - 6th October 1949.Bielefeld, Germany : 1950
First and only edition, classified RESTRICTED. This definitive report on the British effort in the Berlin Airlift, the first major crisis of the Cold War, was compiled under Air Marshal Williams as C-i-C British Air Forces of Occupation (Germany), who was awarded the DSM (US) for his services during the airlift. Until relatively recently this remarkable... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 135790
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LE ROSSIGNOL, Ethel. A Goodly Company.[London : [1933]
First edition of this scarce, privately published work which beautifully presents the psychedelic spirit paintings of the Argentinian-born medium and automatist Constance "Ethel" Le Rossignol (1873-1970).
Le Rossignol ('The Nightingale') remains a mysterious figure, with very little known of her life. By 1891 she and her family had moved from Argentina... Learn More£1,750.00Stock Code: 135609
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FORBES, Bertie Charles. Forbes Epigrams.New York : 1922
First edition, first printing, of the maxims of the founder and first editor of Forbes magazine. Learn More£100.00Stock Code: 135384
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(SHIPBUILDING) Photos. Hull No. 2040. "World Hero" - official shipyard album documenting daily progress on the construction of an oil tanker.Yokohama, Japan : 1970
Remarkable "time-lapse" shipyard photo album documenting the construction of the oil tanker World Hero in 1970; from keel laying on May 7, 1970, to launch September 23, 1970, and finally delivery to Aquarius Shipping Co. on December 1, 1970. World Hero was constructed with a DWT - dead-weight tonnage - of 226,466 tons, and was one of the transitional... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 134938
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TOOKE, Thomas. Thoughts and Details on the High and Low Prices of the Last Thirty Years.London : 1823
First edition of Tooke's first book, occasioned by the price instability throughout the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and their aftermath. "The work of 1823, Thoughts and Details on the High and Low Prices of the Last Thirty Years, provided the basis for Tooke's monetary thought until and including the publication in 1838 of the first two volumes... Learn More£1,000.00Stock Code: 134907
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WILLIAMS, Gertrude. The Price of Social Security.New York : 1944
First edition, US issue with new title and preliminary pages, published by Kegan Paul in the UK the same year. Gertrude Williams (1897-1933), whose writings had an influence on the foundation of the welfare state in Britain, was then serving in the Ministry of Labour during the war. Her present book gives an analysis of labour control, both in Britain... Learn More£50.00Stock Code: 134869
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NICHOLSON, Joseph Shield. Bankers' Money.London : 1902
First edition, first impression, of Nicholson's supplement to his Treatise on Money, a significant defence of bimetallism. The book was based on his lectures delivered to Scottish societies of accountants and bankers, and Nicholson writes that he hopes the subject matter will be "introductory and suggestive and such as may help to stimulate those engaged... Learn More£75.00Stock Code: 134872
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CASSEL, Gustav. The World's Monetary Problems.London : 1921
First combined edition, and first publication of the second memoranda. Gustav Cassel (1866-1944), together with Knut Wicksell and David Davidson, was the founder of modern economics in Sweden. The two memoranda were written by Cassel at the request of the League of Nations, the first for the International Financial Conference in Brussels in 1920 (which... Learn More£100.00Stock Code: 134863
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(BEARDSLEY, Aubrey.) MALORY, Sir Thomas. The Birth, Life, and Acts of King Arthur,Westminster : 1893-4
First edition, deluxe issue, number 101 of 300 sets printed on large Dutch handmade paper. The classic combination of Aubrey Beardsley's distinctive drawings and the Arthurian legend, and one of the most iconic books of the fin de siècle.
The young Beardsley was a regular at London's antiquarian book shops, where he forged a friendship with shop... Learn More£15,000.00Stock Code: 134558
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DAHL, Roald. The Roald Dahl Treasury.London : 1997
First edition, first impression, of this story collection, that includes eight previously unpublished works by Dahl ("Letter from America"; "Letter from Abroad"; "The Owl and the Pussy-cat"; "Hickety, Pickety"; "The Crocodile"; "A poem in reply to schoolchildren"; "Roald Dahl talking"; and "As I grow old"), together with extracts from Charlie and the... Learn More£75.00Stock Code: 134400
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ORWELL, George. Animal Farm.New York : 1946
Advance review copy of the American edition. The publisher's stamp on the front wrapper announces the publication date as August 26, 1946. Animal Farm was first published in the UK the previous year. It has never since been out of print, with Orwell's allegorical fable, written as a warning against totalitarianism in general and Stalinism in particular,... Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 133704
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(DEATH CERTIFICATION.) Certificate of Registry of Death.London : 1905-6
The certificates of registration are from a run of 15,000 copies, the eighteenth impression, made in May 1906, the Medical Certificates, 20,000 copies, sixteenth impression, November 1905; large enough numbers, however, for obvious reasons unused examples of these "volumes" would be extremely uncommon, genuinely rare survivals. Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 133382
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HANCOCK, Samuel Edward, Acting Carpenter. Ledger book containing 30 large ink and water-colour detail drafts of warship construction.Devonport : 1904-5
A wonderful insight into naval construction and shipyard practice at the outset of the Anglo-German naval arms race, "formally" initiated with the launch of HMS Dreadnought in 1906. The drawings constituted part of Hancock's training process, similar to the technical drawings, maps and drafts commonly found in a middy's journal book, but here the craft... Learn More£3,750.00Stock Code: 133180
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CHRISTIE, Dugald. Personal photograph album recording his work as a medical missionary in China, the establishment of the Mukden Medical College.1882-1911
Exceptional narrative album relating the career of Dugald Christie (1855-1936), Scots medical missionary and founder of the Mukden Medical College, "the first western medical school in Manchuria" (Crawford, p. 73), including a dozen impressive finely-detailed, full-plate images of sights in Mukden (modern Shenyang) and over 200 personal photographs... Learn More£9,500.00Stock Code: 133161
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COLLIER, William Bell & Page Blackwood. Unusual personal photograph album of ship- and boat-building projects.San Francisco, CA, Norfolk, VA & Portsmouth, NH : 1891-1924
Highly appealing album showing various craft designed and built by naval architect William B. Collier (1869-1951) working both privately with his brother Page (1871-1913), and for the U.S. Navy. The vessels range in scale from steam launches and motorboats built by the brothers and trialed on Clear Lake, California in the 1890s to the USS Olympia, Admiral... Learn More£3,750.00Stock Code: 133169
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CHANDLER, Raymond. The Lady in the Lake.New York : 1943
First edition, first printing, inscribed by the author to his sometime lover, Louise Loughner, on the front free endpaper, "For my sweet and lovely Louise who is not at all like any of the ladies in this book. Ray. La Jolla Sept. 30, 1956". Louise Loughner had read in her local newspaper about Chandler's suicide attempt on 22 February 1955 at his home... Learn More£22,500.00Stock Code: 131622
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CHURCHILL, Winston S. The People's Rights.London : [1909?]
First edition, first (cased) issue, second state with p.71 correctly numbered. Rightly considered by Langworth to be the "third rarest Churchill book after Mr. Brodrick's Army and For Free Trade", Issued both case-bound and wrappered; "The publisher's records show that 100 sets of sheets were bound on 20 December 1909 two weeks before the publication... Learn More£6,250.00Stock Code: 129499
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(POGANY, Willy.) COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.London : [1910]
First Pogany edition, signed limited issue, number 7 of 25 copies signed by the artist and printed on japon (a further 500 signed copies were issued on paper, alongside a trade issue; this is thus the most desirable and scarcest issue). Featuring intricately decorated borders and text printed in manuscript style, this edition of Coleridge's masterpiece... Learn More£6,500.00Stock Code: 128465
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TROLLOPE, Anthony. The Last Chronicle of Barset.London : 1867
First edition, bound from the original parts; with the following issue points: publisher's rights printed on the verso of both title pages (omitted from verso of title page in vol. 2 for the book form edition), and all plates captions in the first state: no variants in vol. 1, as here; vol. 2 with the plate facing p. 120 captioned "Because of Papa's... Learn More£1,000.00Stock Code: 128402
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FLEMING, Ian. On Her Majesty's Secret Service.London : 1963
First edition, first impression, of the 11th book in the James Bond series, featuring a reappearance of Blofeld and SPECTRE, linking it to the plot of Thunderball (1961). It was adapted for film in 1969, featuring George Lazenby. Learn More£875.00Stock Code: 120581
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(WAUGH, Evelyn.) SPARE, Austin Osman, & Clifford Bax. The Golden Hind.London : 1923-4
Final four issues of the important literary magazine, with five illustrations by Evelyn Waugh; and 3 others, including 2 works containing Dudley Carew's bookplate designed by Waugh and Circular Saws with the Waugh-designed dust-jacket.
"At Oxford Evelyn had a greater reputation as a graphic artist than a writer, and as such was much in demand, designing... Learn More£600.00Stock Code: 112542
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RACKHAM, Arthur. Mother Goose. The Old Nursery Rhymes.London : 1913
Signed limited edition, number 15 of 1,130 copies signed by the artist. Learn More£2,000.00Stock Code: 110634
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RACKHAM, Arthur. Arthur Rackham's Book of Pictures.London : 1913
Signed limited edition. Number 884 of 1,030 copies signed by Rackham. Learn More£1,875.00Stock Code: 107235
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JOYCE, James. Dubliners.London : 1914
First edition, first impression, first issue, one of 746 sets of sheets bound by Grant Richards and issued in London on 15 June 1914. The remaining 504 sets of the 1,250 printed were shipped to Huebsch in New York, where they were not issued until much later, sometime between 15 December 1916 and 1 January 1917. Learn More£12,500.00Stock Code: 106591
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BEERBOHM, Max. Heroes and Heroines of Bitter Sweet.London : 1931
First edition, number 180 of 900 copies, of this portfolio of caricatures of the stars of Noel Coward's operetta Bitter Sweet. Includes five large colour plates depicting the characters, including Noel Coward, as well as a facsimile letter by Beerbohm. Learn More£175.00Stock Code: 103221
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SEATON, Sir Thomas. From Cadet to Colonel.London : 1866
First and sole edition of this lively military memoir of service in India. "Seaton commanded the 60th NI which mutinied at Umballah originally on May 10th he saw many years of action in India served at the Siege of Delhi and afterwards in the Doab and Rohilchund. Seaton was a good friend of Hodson. Approximately seven chapters on the Mutiny" (Sorsky).... Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 140701
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COOK, James. Complete set of the three voyages.London : 1773 - 85
First editions of the second and third voyages, preferred second edition of the first voyage (see below). An imposing set, with good, strong impressions of the plates; as is customary, the outsize plates from the third voyage are contained in an atlas folio volume ("Booksellers are cautioned not to have them bound up, with the rest of the Plates" vol.... Learn More£39,500.00Stock Code: 139237
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DICKENS, Charles. Sketches by Boz.London : 1864
An attractively bound copy of Dickens's classic, first published in book-form in 1839. Sketches by Boz was Dickens's first book, although this reprint follows the revised text of the new edition. Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 139194
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HORSBURGH, James. The India Directory, or, Directions for Sailing to and from the East Indies, China, Australia, and the Interjacent Ports of Africa and South America.London : 1841-3
Fifth edition of this important publication, much enlarged in successive editions from the first of 1809-11, which was to become the standard manual for the eastern navigation. The preface notes that "elaborate directions for the navigation of the Red Sea, by Captains Moresby and Elwon, of the Indian Navy, latterly published by the Honourable East India... Learn More£12,500.00Stock Code: 139134
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BURNEY, James. A Chronological History of the Discoveries in the South Sea or Pacific Ocean.London : 1803-17
First edition of "the most important general history of early South Seas discoveries, containing practically everything of importance on the subject; collected from all sources, with the most important remarks concerning them... Many of the early voyages to California would be inaccessible were they not collected herein" (Hill). James Burney (1750-1821)... Learn More£12,500.00Stock Code: 133007
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VICO, Giambattista. Cinque libri de' principj d'una scienza nuova d'intorno alla comune natura delle nazioni.Naples : 1730
A remarkable copy of the radically altered second edition of Vico's masterpiece, annotated by the author on more than 100 pages, many of the corrections and addenda being later included in the final, posthumous third edition of 1744. Vico's work had originally been conceived as a monumental work in two quarto volumes, to be printed in Florence at Cardinal... Learn More£18,500.00Stock Code: 123497
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DALRYMPLE, [Alexander.] Oriental Repertory.London : 1791-[7]
First edition, first issue, large paper copy, from the stated print-run of 250 copies only, of this valuable compilation of researches into the history, culture, topography, commerce and natural history of India, Burma, Cochinchina, and China, consisting mostly of reports, charts and translation produced by agents of the East India Company, including... Learn More£19,500.00Stock Code: 115902
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GLINKA, Grigoriy Vyacheslavovich. Aziatskaya Rossiya Atlas.St Petersburg : 1914
First edition of this atlas considered "one of the finest achievements of pre-revolutionary Russian cartography" (National Library of Russia, Cartography Department on-line catalogue). Covering present day Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Siberia, it was designed to accompany Glinka's three-volume work of the same title,... Learn More£10,000.00Stock Code: 114845
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LELAND, Charles Godfrey Aradia or the Gospel of the Witches.London : 1899
First edition. The work of a Philadelphia-born journalist and folklorist, Aradia, a study of the persistence of "la vecchia religione" in Italy, it was claimed by its author to have been based on a manuscript account obtained from "Maddalena", a Florentine fortune-teller and witch. Although the subject of continuing controversy, the text undeniably... Learn More£1,750.00Stock Code: 114436
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HILBESEIMER, L. Mies van der Rohe.Chicago : 1956
First edition, first printing, inscribed by the author and signed by Mies van der Rohe on the title page, dated September 1960, and signed by over 80 other architects on the front free endpaper who were associated with Mies, either working for him, taught by him, or were associated with him in a professional capacity. Though the exact date of the ceremonial... Learn More£7,500.00Stock Code: 110932
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POTTER, Beatrix. The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes.London : 1911
First edition, rare with the glassine jacket. Intended to please her American readers, the main animal characters in the book are indigenous to North America: grey squirrels, chipmunks, and a "large bear". The inclusion of yellowhammers (Emberiza citrinella, the birds which sing "Little bita bread and-nocheese!") was a mistake, as their range includes... Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 109478
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THESIGER, Wilfred. Arabian Sands.London : 1959
First edition, first impression. This was Thesiger's first book and "and, in his opinion, his finest" (ODNB). "During the years that I was in Arabia I never thought that I would write a book about my travels... Seven years after leaving Arabia I showed some photographs I had taken to Graham Watson and he strongly urged me to write a book about the desert.... Learn More£200.00Stock Code: 140951
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CHURCHILL, Winston S. A History of the English-Speaking Peoples.London : 1956-8
First editions, first impressions. Churchill began his history of the British Empire and the United States during his period in the political wilderness in the early 1930s, but did not complete it until after his retirement in the late 1950s. The events of the Second World War, the major interruption in the writing process, had reconfirmed his belief... Learn More£450.00Stock Code: 140946
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CHURCHILL, Winston S. The Second World War.London : [1955]
First edition of the Chartwell Edition, the first illustrated edition of Churchill's masterly account of the Second World War. The Chartwell Edition, incorporating Churchill's final revisions and adding illustrations, was produced upon the completion of the Second World War series, which Churchill had published in six volumes between 1948 and 1954.... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 140950
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BROWNING, Robert. Poems.London : 1912
A handsomely bound copy of the Oxford Edition, first published in 1905. Learn More£95.00Stock Code: 140676
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MILTON, John. The Poetical Works.Oxford : 1900
A handsomely bound copy of Milton's poetry. Learn More£95.00Stock Code: 140677
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TENNYSON, Alfred, Lord. The Works.London : 1907
A handsomely bound copy of Tennyson's poetical works. This is a reprint of the Complete Edition first published in 1894. Learn More£95.00Stock Code: 140678
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(CRUIKSHANK, George.) The History of Napoleon Buonaparte.London : [1870s]
Attractively bound copy of this biography of Napoelon. Learn More£125.00Stock Code: 140641
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HEDIN, Sven. From Pole to Pole.London : 1912
First edition in English, first impression, in a handsome calf binding. Originally published in Swedish in 1911. Learn More£175.00Stock Code: 140643
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TURNER, Charles C. Aerial Navigation of To-Day.London : 1910
Second edition of this work on air navigation, originally published in 1909. This copy in an attractive tree calf binding. Learn More£150.00Stock Code: 140644
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JAMESON, Anna. Shakspeare's Heroines.London : 1891
Large paper edition, one of 175 numbered copies of which this is number 127. Jameson's work was originally published in 1832 under the title Characteristics of Women, Moral, Poetical and Historical. Learn More£225.00Stock Code: 140646
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QUILLER-COUCH, Arthur. The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900.Oxford : 1912
A handsomely bound edition of Quiller-Couch's collection of English poetry, first published in 1900. "This volume soon became the standard anthology of English verse and sold nearly a million volumes during Quiller-Couch's lifetime" (ODNB). Learn More£75.00Stock Code: 140674
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(BAUMANN, Gustave, illust.) BANNING, Kendall. Pirates! or, The Cruise of the Black Revenge.Chicago : 1918
First trade edition, first printing, of this collection of 13 poems and accompanying woodcuts, following the limited edition of 525 copies in a larger format on handmade paper published by the Brothers of the Book in 1916. The publisher, Laurence Woodworth was the scrivener for the Brothers of the Book, a small private press "made up of those who like... Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 140322
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GLEIG, G. R. The Life of Arthur Duke of Wellington.London : 1889
A handsomely bound copy of Gleig's biography of the Duke of Wellington. Learn More£125.00Stock Code: 140639
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(JEDDAH WATER SUPPLY.) BALFOUR, David Ross. City of Jeddah Water Supply.Westminster [Jeddah] : 1947-8
Rare no other copies located or references found. These highly detailed planning documents would have been produced in extremely limited numbers for a small group of stakeholders. This copy with gilt presentation supralibros; "To A.A. / From D.R.B.": D.R.B. was David Ross Balfour, who led the project as a partner in his father's Westminster and Newcastle... Learn More£17,500.00Stock Code: 138324
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FLEMING, Ian. On Her Majesty's Secret Service.London : 1963
First edition, signed limited issue. One of 35 unnumbered "presentation" copies signed by the author; a further 250 numbered copies were also released. This was Fleming's only signed limited edition; it was published simultaneously with the first trade edition on 1 April 1963. Over time, the vellum has shown a tendency to yellow, and copies in such... Learn More£13,500.00Stock Code: 131688
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HAMMOND, Richard. Carnations Cultivated by Richard Hammond of Coddenham in the County of Suffolk.[Ipswich : 1733
A remarkable manuscript volume proudly detailing 84 varieties of carefully curated carnations accompanied by a number of reflective religious discourses. The work, which has been provided with a locally printed title page, contains 18 meticulously if naively hand-drawn and captioned illustrations depicting carnations, a campanula pyramidalis, and a... Learn More£17,500.00Stock Code: 138840
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DICKENS, Charles. The Works.London : 1874-6
A most handsome set of Dickens's works in 30 volumes, uniformly bound with a further two volumes of John Forster's biography of Dickens. Learn More£9,750.00Stock Code: 139247
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(BRITISH POETS.) Aldine Edition of the British Poets.London : 1831-1852
A very pretty set of Pickering's Aldine Edition of the British poets, celebrated both for the elegance of the typography and the diligence of its editors. The two-decade long publishing project brings together a vast selection of the works of British writers, including Chaucer, Shakespeare, Spencer, Milton, Dryden, Pope, Swift and Gray. Learn More£6,500.00Stock Code: 139248
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DICKENS, Charles. The Nonesuch Dickens.London : 1938-9
The Nonesuch edition, one of 877 sets, this set unnumbered. This peculiar limitation is due to the inclusion with each set of one of the original plates used in Chapman and Hall's first printings of each title. Since they held in their archive 877 such plates - the majority steel but with a number of wood blocks, as here - the limitation was enforced.... Learn More£8,500.00Stock Code: 139227
