PRESS

Presentation copy of offprint of article: 'Divine Kingship in the Ancient Near East: A Review Article'.

Author: 
Theodor H. Gaster [Theodor Herzl Gaster (1906-1992)], Anglo-American anthropologist, an authority in the field of comparative religion [Sir James Frazer]
Publication details: 
Copyright 1945 by Columbia University Press | Reprinted from THE REVIEW OF RELIGION March, 1945'.
£56.00

8vo: 15 pp, paginated 267-281, In grey printed wraps. Inscribed by Gaster on front cover: 'With kindest regards | T. H. G.' Good, on lightly-aged paper, in grubby and lightly creased wraps.

Autograph Letter Signed to 'Mr Disspain'.

Author: 
Joan Hassall (1906-1988), English wood-engraver
Publication details: 
Undated. On letterhead of 88 Kensington Park Road, London W.11.
£56.00

12mo: 1 p. Eight lines of text. Good, though creased. Letterhead printed with the words 'Joan Hassall' and a 5 cm short rule decorated with a tiny dove. She apologises for the delay in sending 'this signature': 'I lost your nice little piece of paper, and then I broke my pen.' Disspain's 'letters of appreciation' give Hassall 'very real pleasure' and she is 'most grateful' for his 'good opinion'.

Two Christmas keepsakes: 'Literary Characters', with drawings by Edwin Baker; and 'Imaginary Conversations', with cover design by Hans Tisdall.

Author: 
Jonathan Cape Limited, London publishers [Edwin Baker; Hans Tisdall; Alden Press, Oxford]
Publication details: 
Literary Characters': 1954, 'Printed in the City of Oxford at the Alden Press on paper mould-made supplied by Spalding & Hodge Ltd.' 'Imaginary Conversations', 1956, 'Printed in Great Britain in the City of Oxford at the Alden Press'.
£50.00

Literary Characters'. 12mo (leaf dimensions roughly 18 x 12.5 cm): 32 pp. Stitched with brown thread. Fore-edge and top-edge rough. Unbound as issued. Very good. Cartoon in red ink of man seated at typewriter on front cover, and another, in black ink, of a hatted-figure skulking away with a walking stick held behind his back on back cover. Initial note, with publisher's colophon, on p.2: 'This series of Literary Characters appeared in Now & Then numbers 77-87 and is here reprinted by Jonathan Cape Limited for their friends | Christmas 1954'.

Typed Letter Signed ('G. N. S. Hunt') to Mrs Steward of Beckenham, Kent.

Author: 
G. N. S. Hunt [Geoffrey Hunt] [Oxford University Press; Geoffrey Cumberlege; Amen Corner; Christ Church, Newgate Street]
Publication details: 
2 December 1955; on Oxford University Press letterhead (Amen House, London).
£28.00

4to: 1 page. Twenty-one lines of text. Good, on creased and lightly-aged paper. An impressively-considered letter, declining Mrs Steward's manuscript 'I had rather be a Doorkeeper'. 'As you point out, Christ Church, Newgate Street, is a near neighbour of Amen House, and its ruins are a pathetic sight.

Memorial keepsake obituary of 'Jane Bissell Grabhorn 1911-1973' by David Magee.

Author: 
David Magee (1905-1977), San Francisco bookseller of English extraction [Jane Bissell Grabhorn; Grabhorn Press; Book Club of California; Andrew Hoyem; Frederic W. Goudy; Lawton & Alfred Kennedy]
Publication details: 
November 1973. [California.]
£38.00

8vo bifolium on good wove paper. Leaf dimensions roughly 22.5 x 14.5 cm. Good, on lightly creased paper. Illustration of horse, 7.5 x 9 cm, on recto of first leaf, with 'JANE BISSELL GRABHORN | 1911-1973'. Memorial, with same title, across inner pages, signed in type by Magee. The following on reverse of second leaf: 'This memorial is presented to the members of the Book Club of California by Andrew Hoyem, who composed the text in Friar, a type given to Jane by its designer, Frederic W. Goudy, and by Lawton & Alfred Kennedy, who did the press work, Nov. 1973.'

Janus, Lake Sonnets, etc. and other Poems.

Author: 
David Holt [William Pickering, London bookseller; the Aldine Press; Charles Whittingham, printer; the Chiswick Press]
Publication details: 
London: William Pickering, Piccadilly. George Bell, Fleet Street. 1853. ['C. Whittingham, Tooks Court, Chancery Lane.']
£56.00

12mo: viii + 207 pp. Advertisement and printer's slug on reverse of last leaf. Additional sepia engraved title ('T. Letherbrow. Del. W. Morton. Sc. Manchr.') with illustration depicting a stern-looking woman (one of the fates?) holding a bobbin of thread. By her side a cherub with a lyre and a large, incongruous metal cog. In original blind-stamped green cloth binding. A tight copy, lightly foxed and aged, in faded binding with slight wear and a small stain to the front board. Ownership stamp of Florence Armaghdale on front free endpaper. Last two leaves opened clumsily. Scarce.

Prospectus for Keynes's 'William Pickering, Publisher. A Memoir & a Hand-list of his Editions.'

Author: 
Geoffrey Keynes; The Fleuron [William Pickering; The Chiswick Press]
Publication details: 
1924. 'London . MCMXXIV | At the office of THE FLEURON'. ['London: Chiswick Press.']
£18.00

Quarto (25.5 x 19 cm) bifolium. Attractively-printed on watermarked laid paper. Unbound. Foxed and lightly-creased. Two short 0.5 cm buff strips of cloth from mount neatly adhering to the margin of the reverse of the second leaf. 'PERENNIS ET FRAGRANS.' enclosed within engraved wreath on title. Eighteen-line prospectus for the work on reverse of first leaf, with the recto of the second carrying a full-page facsimile of the title of Pickering's 1844 edition of John Merbecke's 1550 'The Book of Common Prayer Noted', printed in red and black. Printer's slug on reverse of second leaf.

Autograph Letter Signed ('C Crapelet'), in French, to 'Monsieur Deterville'

Author: 
Charles Crapelet (1762-1809), French printer, based in Paris
Publication details: 
27 October 1807. [Paris.]
£75.00

12mo: 1 p. Eight lines of text. On a piece of grey laid watermarked paper. Complete and clear. Lightly aged and creased. Unusually frank business communication. He is angry at having to tell Deterville that he cannot have 'd'exemplaire des Rudimens'. He will do his best to let him have them soon. However weak the excuse, it is nevertheless true that the 'ouvriers ne m'ont pas tenu parole'.

Prospectus, with extensive list of subscribers annotated in manuscript, for the second part of Lipscomb's 'History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham'.

Author: 
George Lipscomb [John Bowyer Nichol; The Gentleman's Magazine]
Publication details: 
J. B. Nichols and Son, 25, Parliament-street.' [London.]
£65.00

Four paginated pages of small type in a quarto (25 x 20 cm) bifolium. Attractively printed on paper watermarked 'T EDMONDS | 1834'. Unbound. Good: lightly aged and creased. On the first page the author announces the publication of the second part, 'with great regret for the delay which has unavoidably intervened in the publication, from causes impossible for him to have forseen'. The succeeding three pages consist of the double-column list of subscribers, headed by 'Patron.

Super Detective Library No. 78. All in Pictures. Sherlock Holmes meets the Hound of the Baskervilles and the Missing Heiress [Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles]

Author: 
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; Sherlock Holmes; Super Detective Library [Sherlockiana; comic books, strips]
Publication details: 
No date [1950s]. London: The Amalgamated Press, Ltd., The Fleetway House, Farringdon Street, EC4.
£75.00

Dimensions: 17.5 x 13.5 cm. 64 pp. In original coloured paper covers. Priced at 10d, and thus the British edition and not one produced for the foreign market. Good and tight, on browned paper. Attractive image on front cover showing a bemused Holmes puffing on his pipe as he wanders down a country-house corridor whose walls are covered in paintings, while the spectral figure of the hound's head looms above him.Covers lightly worn and slightly damaged by the rusting of the staples. Both stories are told in comic strip form.

Dein Sternbild Leuchte Auch Uns. Fünf Gedichte an Nelly Sachs.' and 'Pablo Neruda Friede für die Dämmerungen'.

Author: 
Eva Mohr [Pablo Neruda]
Publication details: 
The first item dated 1960; the second undated. Printer and place not stated in either case.
£56.00

Item One: 'Dein Sternbild' (1960). 8vo: 7 pp. In original cream printed wraps. Stitched. Printed on the rectos of seven leaves. Good, in slightly grubby and worn wraps. German inscription to Nelly Weiss. German poem. Nicely printed on watermarked laid paper. Item Two: 'Pablo Neruda' (undated). 12mo: 3 pp. German translation by Mohr from the Spanish. Six-line note explains the context in which the poem was translated. With manuscript correction and signature of Mohr. No other copy traced.

Autograph Note Signed to Thomas Hood, journalist, editor and poet.

Author: 
Cyrus Redding, journalist and editor (DNB)
Publication details: 
3 Hill Road, [St John's Wood], "Monday morning", undated [1846 or before?].
£100.00

One page, 8vo, corners frayed, one spot, text clear and complete. "I feared the objection you mentioned in your note, but I was willing to try 'The Spanish Page' [Velasco [or memoirs of a page, 3 vols, 1846?], as has been sometimes done, piecemeal, for it will be a long time before I shall be able to complete the three volumes. / I send you a small light article purely my own.

Reminiscences of the Impressionist Painters (The Tower Press Booklets Number Three)

Author: 
George Moore
Publication details: 
Dublin: Maunsel & Co., MCMVI (1906).
£100.00

Pagination starts at p.9 (-48), preceded by endpaper, title, and 2pp. of text, [12mo], original illus. wraps, chipped, dulled, slightly marked, some wear to top and bottom of spine, contents good.

Three Autograph Letters Signed (two 'Eric Broad. | Frederic E Wright.' and one 'Frederic E Wright | Eric Broad.') to W. Kineton Parkes (1865-1938), assistant editor of the journal of the Ruskin Reading Guild, 'Igdrasil'

Author: 
Eric Broad' (Frederic E. Wright), English poet [W. Kineton Parkes; John Ruskin; William Marwick; the Ruskin Reading Guild]
Publication details: 
20 and 22 January and 3 March 1890; all from Scarsdale, Great Malvern.
£100.00

All three items in very good condition. Interesting series of letters by an obscure 1890s poet. Letter One (12mo, 7 pp): Although he realises that some are 'rather poor', he is sending, through his brother (possibly the artist Alan Wright, 1864-1959), 'all the lyrics I have by me': 'I have not had time to "weed" yet, being veryy busily engaged writing lyrics for a Comedy-Opera ['Ethelinda, or a Philanthropic Fad' (1890), on which he collaborated with Hamilton O. Wylde] - & a libretto for Operetta; also been trying my hand at very sensational prose'.

Some Reminiscences and Reflections on Collecting Autographs.

Author: 
Charles King Wadham [autograph collecting; Yale University Press]
Publication details: 
Dalton, Massachusetts: Maisonette. ['Privately printed, The Printing-Office of the Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, March 1931'.]
£45.00

Octavo: 32 pp. Stitched. In original printed wraps. Internally clean and tight, but wraps dogeared and grubby, with closed tear and pen mark. Tissue-guarded frontispiece of Wadham, with small dogear to top corner (not affecting image). Facsimile of Whittier's autograph. Read before the 'Saturday Evening Club of Dalton'. 'My collection today is so comprehensive [sic] that I have no hesitation in soliciting the most distinguished personages; in fact, I feel that I am conferring an honor rather than offering an insult in asking them.

Two hundred books from the libraries of the world's greatest book collectors : Grolier (1479-1565) to Beckford (1759-1844)

Author: 
J. Pearson & Co. (Booksellers: London)
Publication details: 
London : J. Pearson & Co., [1910]
£100.00

vi, 126 p., 1 l : plates (partly fold.) facsim, covers worn and soiled, weat and tear to the deckle-edges, hinge strain, contents complete and clear. Printed by the Chiswick Press. From the Reference Library of (Albert) Winifred Myers, autograph-dealer, note by a company hand inserted with basic details of the catalogue and the price "15/-" crossed out. Note (introductory remarks): "...

Fabian Society. Syllabus of a Series of Lectures to be given at Essex Hall, Essex St., Strand, London, on alternate Fridays, January to April, 1926, at 8 p.m.

Author: 
[The Fabian Society; H. St. J. B. Philby; Arthur Greenwood; Sidney Webb]
Publication details: 
London: The Fabian Society, 25, Tothill Street, Westminster, S.W.1. [1925 or 1926.] [The Garden City Press Ltd., Letchworth.]
£45.00

4to: 4 pp. Unbound bifolium. On lightly discoloured and spotted paper, lightly worn at extremities. Central horizontal fold. Gives details of eight lectures, by, successively, H. Finer ('Impressions of America'), Montague Fordham ('The Rural Problem'), R. B. Forrester ('Co-operative Marketing'), Professor R. Peers ('Can we educate the Community?'), Arthur Greenwood, M.P. ('The Present Position and Future Policy in regard to Housing'), C. S. Orwin ('Land Tenure'), Rt. Hon. [sic] Sidney Webb, M.P. ('Poor-Law Reform'), and (with the 'syllabus' covering an entire page) H. St. J. B.

Ought France to Worship the Bonapartes?

Author: 
Ahriman I., pseud. [Napoleon Bonaparte]
Publication details: 
London: Robert Hardwicke, 192, Piccadilly. 1863. [W.H. Collingridge, City Press, 117 to 119, Aldersgate Street, E.C.]
£100.00

8vo: [iv] + 90 + [ii] pp. In original grey printed wraps. The answer to the question in the title is an emphatic 'No!', with the author's argument summed up in the conclusion: 'The publication of these remarks has been elicited by a feeling of indignation and surprise, on learning, that, in any part of the world, and especially of France, the man, whom a former generation cursed, should now be deemed worthy of being canonised.' The author puts his case forcefully and well, marshalling a number of quotations from classical and modern sources.

Six Typed Letters Signed to D. K. Craig of Arthurs Press Ltd.

Author: 
Hubert Foster [The P.E.N.; Poets, Essayists and Novelists]
Publication details: 
15 October 1945 to 10 December 1946; all six on letterhead of 'THE P.E.N. | A World Association of Writers | LONDON CENTRE'.
£80.00

Association founded in England in 1921 to promote the interests of writers worldwide. First item, two pages, 12mo; next four, one page, 12mo; last item, one page, octavo. All good, though lightly creased and on discoloured paper. All have two punch holes. Item one with staple marks in top left-hand corner. The collection consists of instructions to the printer of the association's journal 'P.E.N. News'.

Four Autograph Letters Signed ('W. Marshall') to Messrs Bradley & Son Ltd[, The Crown Press, Printers, Caxton Road, Reading], giving formula for 'Spacine' ('for the prevention of rising spaces in Monotype') and instructions for its application.

Author: 
W. Marshall, East Dulwich printer and inventor [Bradley & Son, Reading printers; Monotype; Spacine]
Publication details: 
30 Jan. [1929], 8 and 13 May 1929 and undated; the first three from 92 Upland Rd, East Dulwich, London, S.E.22.
£180.00

The four items, all on aged and lightly spotted paper, are attached by four rusty staples. One (five pages, octavo): In reply to the firm's inquiry regarding 'the prevention of rising spaces in Monotype', Marshall states that, instead of giving information, he 'would rather send you the method and you try it out and prove for yourself its value, then pay me afterwards'.

Catalogue of the Important Collections mainly of the Writings of Charles Dickens and of other XIX Century Authors forming part of the Library of Thomas Hatton . . .

Author: 
[ C.H. St John Hornby, printer (Ashendene Press, etc) and collector ] Sotheby & Co.
Publication details: 
30 Nov/ 1 Dec. 1931.
£250.00

Illustrated copy - Price Two Shillings. Green printed wraps, 40pp., 8vo, wear and tear, contents shaky (staples rusting), wraps worn and sl. soiled, contents partly stained but clear and complete. St J. Hornby's copy. INSCRIBED by St John Hornby "StJH" on front on which is stamped (some faded) "Please do not use in the press before 6 Nov. 1931" i.e advanced review copy for distinguished customer.

Two Autographs Letter Signed ('George Goold' and 'George') to Paul Quinton, Classical Department, Blackwell's of Oxford; with inscribed offprint of Goold's lecture 'Richard Bentley, a Tercentenary Commemoration'.

Author: 
[YALE UNIVERSITY] George Patrick Goold (1922-2002), William Lampson Professor of Latin Language and Literature, Yale University [Richard Bentley; Blackwell's of Oxford; Loeb Classical Library]
Publication details: 
LETTERS: 30 September 1977 and 3 July 1979, both on letterhead of Yale University Department of Classics; OFFPRINT (from 'Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'): Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1963.
£200.00

Both letters two pages, quarto. LETTER ONE (annotated in ink with some ink marks in the blank space beneath Goold's signature): Written at the point at which Goold was relinquishing the University College Latin Chair to return to Yale. 'I told you I should be visiting Yale this autumn; and now I have to tell you that I shall be going on to Stanford after Christmas till March. Still, if I shan't have the pleasure of coming in occassionally to the bookshop, it probably means that I shall be ordering more books from you!' Orders a couple of copies of Austin's 'Aeneid'.

Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed 'Friend'.

Author: 
Henry Stanley Newman [THE ORPHANS' PRINTING PRESS]
Publication details: 
5 September 1890; on letterhead 'BUCKFIELD, | LEOMINSTER.'
£85.00

Newman established the Orphans' Printing Press in 1873 to enable orphans to earn money and learn a trade. One page, 8vo. Folded twice. Good only: paper slightly discoloured with some closed tears and creasing. 'Dear Friend/ | We should be much pleased if you will come & lodge with us at our approaching Quarterly M[eetin]g. on the 16th & 17th Instant | I suppose E. L. Squire is off to America & will be unable to come | Your sincere Friend | Henry Stanley Newman'.

Typed Letter Signed to Sir Henry Truman Wood, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts, together with a cancelled printed application form for membership of the Society.

Author: 
Edward Unwin Junior [Unwin Brothers Ltd; The Gresham Press]
Publication details: 
23 January 1917; on ornate letterhead of Unwin Brothers Ltd, 27 Pilgrim St, Ludgate Hill.
£35.00

Chairman of Unwin Brothers (born 1870). One page, quarto. Good, but discoloured and lightly creased, and with staple stain at head. Docketed and bearing the Society's stamp. He is sorry not to have answered sooner, but 'some very important business has engaged my attention during the last few days with the result that I put your letter into my private drawer without acknowledging it.

The Eric Gill Workshops.

Author: 
Denis Tegetmeier; Laurence Cribb [Eric Gill]
Publication details: 
Pigotts, North Dean, High Wycombe'; 'December 5 | 1940'.
£45.00

Leaflet. Two pages, 12mo. Tasteful bifolium on cream wove paper. Unbound. Good, though a tad grubby. Gill woodcut (roughly two inches by one and a half) on front: two hands around the front of a large 'V' with rest of word 'Veritas' on stem and cross at head. Apparently numbered in pencil bottom-right of woodcut 579.

Prospectus for an edition of Johnson's 'THE VANITY OF HUMAN WISHES', with sample illustration by Tegetmeier.

Author: 
Rampant Lions Press [Denis Tegetmeier; Samuel Johnson]
Publication details: 
To be published this summer 1984 by the | RAMPANT LIONS PRESS | 12 Chesterton Road, Cambridge, England'.
£23.00

Unbound. Large Octavo bifolium on grey wove paper. Good only, with creasing to corners (that would carefully iron out), and some marking to front cover. Title in large gold letters on front, details of edition on versos of both leaves, and specimen page on recto of second leaf. Illustration ('The author | A reproduction of Tegetmeier's frontispiece') on Arches paper (twelve and a half inches by nine wide) loosely inserted, together with printed 'Book order' leaf.

Manuscript document signed "William ffindall" with crude seal, "Printer in the University of Oxford.

Author: 
William Findall.
Publication details: 
[Oxford], 19 May 1685.
£450.00

Manuscript document, c. 9 x 8", chip from one corner not affecting text, discreet repair to long tear through signature, some soiling and fold marks, text clear as follows: "Bee it knowne unto all men by these presente that William Fyndall Printer in the University of Oxford, in consideration of the summe of five and thirty shillings of lawfull moneys of England to him in hand paid by Wright Croke of the Inner Temple London Esqre.

The Leadenhall Press Sixteenpenny Series. Illustrated Gleanings from the Classics. Numbers 1 to 4.

Author: 
The Leadenhall Press - Field and Tuer
Publication details: 
London: no date[, but 1886-8].
£200.00

4 volumes, 4to, each with a preface by John Oldcastle. Number one: Sir Charles Grandison, 36 pages, 6 illustrations; number two: Solomon Gessner ("The Swiss Theocritus"), 28 pages, 6 illustrations and extra portrait; number three: Thomson's Seasons, 32 pages, 4 illustrations and extra portrait; number four: Tristram Shandy, 28 pages, 6 illustrations. All four numbers replete with attractive vignettes. Only these four numbers were published (vide number four, page 4). Each of the four numbers has an eight-page publishers' catalogue at the end.

Typed Letter Signed to Mrs Kyrle Fletcher, bookseller

Author: 
Brocard Sewell
Publication details: 
The Aylesford Review, 13 Dec. 1960
£200.00

Private pressman and monk. 2pp., 4to. She is still in time to get a copy of his and Cecil Woolf's "Corvo", he thinks, but will check with Woolf. They have been awaiitng an introduction from Pamela Hansford Johnson. Their press cannot help her with her bit of printing ("our press here is closing this week and the staff --one laybrother and one employee transferring to our'commercial' press at Faversham"). He discusses a portrasit of George Anne Bellamy and the "Memoir of Montague Summers ("going round the publishers"), anticipating criticism and a later limited edition.

Autograph Letter Signed to [Arthur Hall, Virtue & Co, publishers].

Author: 
James Grant
Publication details: 
20 December 1850; on letterhead of the 'Morning Advertiser Office, 127, Fleet Street, London.'
£28.00

Journalist (1802-79). Three pages, 12mo. Good, but on slightly discoloured grey paper, with some staining from previous mounting to one edge. 'Dear Sirs, | You will see some of your publications noticed in the Morning Advertiser of to-day. As we mean to make literary notices a feature in our paper, any publications you may send us will meet with every attention. Mrs Hall's "Pilgrimages" [published by Arthur Hall, Virtue & Co] has not reached me, otherwise, being a Christmas book it would have met with an immediate notice.' Asks to be sent 'all the advertisements you can.

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