Fine Bindings
CHURCHILL, Winston S. - MOORE, George. The Pastoral Loves of Daphnis and Chloe.London : 1924
First edition, signed limited issue, presentation copy from Winston Churchill to Mary, Duchess of Marlborough, inscribed by him on the initial binder's blank, "To Mary from Winston Christmas 1934".
Mary (1900-1961) was wife of the 10th Duke of Marlborough. Churchill, grandson of the 7th Duke, was for several years next in line to the...Learn More
WOOLF, Virginia. Jacob's Room.London : 1922
First edition, first impression. Jacob's Room, Woolf's third novel, was the first full-length book to be published by the Hogarth Press and marked the point from which the Woolfs decided to run the press as a genuine business concern.Learn More
BARRIE, J. M. Peter and Wendy.London : [1911]
First edition in colour, with the charming colour frontispiece depicting Peter and Wendy "spring cleaning". The classic children's novel was adapted from Barrie's 1904 play, Peter Pan.
This is the sixth impression of the first edition.Learn More
SEYMOUR, Edward Adolphus. Alternate Circles and their Connection with the Ellipse.London : 1850
First edition of this mathematical treatise on the relative properties of circular shapes, finely bound for presentation. It expands on Seymour's earlier Treatise in which the Elementary Properties of the Ellipse are Deduced from the Properties of the Circle (1842).
Seymour, 11th Duke of Somerset (1775-1855), was a gentleman scientist and...Learn More
CARROLL, Lewis. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; [together with] -- Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There.London : 1928 & 1927
A finely bound uniform set of Carroll's classics, originally published in 1866 and 1871.Learn More
MURASAKI, Lady; WALEY, Arthur (trans.). The Tale of Genji: A Novel in Six Parts.London : 1935
First combined edition. The influence of Waley's Genji extends beyond Japanology: reviewing the first instalment for Vogue, Virginia Woolf praised him for helping her recognize that "the differences between Japanese and Anglo cultures did not make the Anglo superior" (Henig, p. 76). She acknowledged this literary debt in the preface to Orlando...Learn More
NONESUCH PRESS: WALTON, Izaak. The Compleat Walton:Bloomsbury : 1929
First Nonesuch edition, number 373 of 1600 copies, representing the first time all Walton's writings were published together. The limitation was split between 1,100 copies for the British market and 500 copies for the American market, sold by Random House.
The Compleat Angler was first published in 1653 and went to a fifth and final edition...Learn More
FEMALE PROVENANCE. The Book of Common Prayer [and] The Whole Book of Psalms.Cambridge : 1762
A richly bound personal prayer book, together with the Psalms, with a stencilled ink ownership inscription to front free endpaper: "Hannah Hill, her Book, January 6 1775". The use of stencils to indicate ownership began to occur in Europe from the late eighteenth century.Learn More
AUSTEN, Jane. Sense and Sensibility: A Novel.London : 1813
Second edition, revised and corrected by the author and published two years after the first, bound in handsome crushed morocco by Francis Bedford, preserving the half-titles.
The first edition of Sense and Sensibility was published in October 1811 and sold out by July 1813. This second edition appeared that October, and Austen received her...Learn More
DU TERTRE, Jean-Baptiste. L'Histoire générale des Antilles habitées par les François.Paris : 1667-71
First edition of this important narrative, among the "most valuable works we possess on the West Indies" (Sabin), based on Du Tertre's (1610-1687) 18 years of experience in the Antilles as a Dominican missionary. This is a superior copy: the fine plates and maps in excellent strong impressions, and handsomely bound by the Parisian binder...Learn More
SHAKESPEARE, William, and others. Beaux Arts Classics.Paris : [c.1910]
Édition de Deux Mondes, letter R from a total of 20 sets printed on Japan vellum paper. This collection of Shakespearean drama, Classical prose, and short French fiction, all published in English, is abundantly illustrated and elaborately bound.
The loosely inserted catalogue notes that this set originally belonged to Ellen S. L'Amoreaux...Learn More
HAGGARD, H. Rider. King Solomon's Mines.London : 1885
First edition of the author's best-known book, attractively bound. King Solomon's Mines was an instant success and was inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island (1883).
Haggard's adventure novel directly influenced several works, including Rudyard Kipling's "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888), Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World...Learn More
SCOTT, Sir Walter. Waverley; or, 'Tis Sixty Years Since.Edinburgh : 1814
First edition of Scott's first novel, bound by a royally appointed Edinburgh bindery with an autograph letter signed by Scott and related ephemera. The volumes bear the bookplates of the Glaswegian collector of Scottish literature Andrew J. Kirkpatrick (1839–1900).
The tersely penned letter, mounted on a blank in the first volume, reads...Learn More
ROSSETTI, Dante Gabriel; SANGORSKI, Alberto (illum.). The Blessed Damozel.[London : c.1910-29]
A unique illuminated manuscript on vellum adorned with a miniature after Rossetti's Blessed Damozel painting, in an appropriately voluptuous binding. This masterpiece of book production represents the collaboration of two leading purveyors of luxury volumes and is the product of hours of highly skilled labour, using sumptuous materials....Learn More
SANGORSKI, Alberto (illum.); TENNYSON, Alfred, Lord. Morte d'Arthur.[London : 1914-29]
A lengthy illuminated manuscript on vellum splendidly presented in an elaborate onlaid binding, with large areas covered in painstaking gilt studwork detail. This masterpiece of book production represents the collaboration of two leading purveyors of luxury volumes and is the product of hours of highly skilled labour, using sumptuous materials....Learn More
CROYDON, Edward (publ.) A Guide to the Watering Places, on the coast, between the Exe and the Dart;Teignmouth : 1817
First edition, a superior copy in red morocco, with the bookplate of John Fisher, Bishop of Salisbury.
Fisher was "a highly cultured prelate, a generous patron of both authors and artists, and a capable sketcher; he was chaplain to the Royal Academy in 1807 and helped to set up the British Institution the previous year. For the last...Learn More
KENNEDY, John F. Why England Slept.New York : 1940
First edition of the future US president's first book, which sharply criticized Britain's appeasement policy, handsomely bound.
The book was based on his Harvard thesis and much shaped by his position as the son of Joseph P. Kennedy, the American ambassador to Britain. It exposed Britain's lack of preparedness for the war, warned Americans...Learn More
PALGRAVE, Francis Turner, & Laurence Binyon (eds). The Golden Treasury.London : 1933
A lovely copy of Palgrave's incredibly successful anthology, bound by the noted binder Frank Garrett. Garrett, who studied under Douglas Cockerell, was closely associated with the Birmingham School of Art and regularly exhibited at arts and crafts exhibitions of the period.
The Golden Treasury (1861 and 1897) was "remains one of those rare...Learn More
RICCARDI PRESS: BROOKE, Rupert. The Collected Poems.London : 1919
First Riccardi Press edition, number 157 of 1,000 copies on handmade Riccardi Paper. Philip Lee Warner's Riccardi Press was well known for fine editions of Chaucer, Malory, Shakespeare, Tennyson, and Browning. Brooke's addition to this company reflects just how rapidly the deceased soldier-poet was canonized.
The edition also included 13...Learn More
MOORE, Thomas. Lalla Rookh, an Oriental Romance.London : 1851
A beautifully embroidered Victorian binding; the sparse and stark use of colour and needlework contrasts with the customary maximalism of embroidered designs. The morocco doublures suggest a skill with traditional leatherwork and it is strange for such an immaculately executed binding to be unsigned. However, the 19th-century revival of embroidery...Learn More
