BOOKSELLERS

Folio: iv + 237 pp. In original grey and red printed wraps. Numerous plates and illustrations in text. Grubby and spotted, in heavily-worn wraps. One plate slit along fold and repaired with tape. Presentation copy, inscribed 'With Compliments from E U Maggs'. Covetable items, accurately described, from a complete set of Addison and Steele's 'Spectator' (£105) to the first edition of both volumes of Wordsworth's 'Lyrical Ballads' (£185). Contains 'twenty-four autograph letters signed [by Charles Dickens] on "The Village Coquettes" to John P. Hullah, the musical composer' (£650).

Quarto: 40 pp. In original printed wraps, decorated with various facsimiles. Facsimiles in text, and portrait of Beethoven on rear inner wrap. Good, on browned paper. Sections on painters, writers, poets, architects, sculptors, musicians. Nods towards the American market, with some entries in English and Dollar conversions. Together with Nebehay's attractive bifoliate trade card, carrying a photograph of his premises.

One page. Dimensions of paper roughly six and a half inches by eight wide. Spotted, aged and creased, and with some closed tears. Addressed to Wreden at 'Box 56, Palo Alto, Cal., U.S.A.' For '3 reg'd bookpost parcels', and headed 'Hodgson's Sale 25th Nov. 1954'. Lots 204 and 205 purchased for a total of £27 9s 9d, including an apparent commission of 15% on an item under ten pounds, and 10% on one over that sum. Items ('French Documents & Autograph Letters' and 'Autograph Letters from Lord Brougham and contemporaries') described in nine lines.

Quarto: 4 pp. Unbound bifolium. Grubby and creased, with a couple of pin holes and small closed tears, and a little ink staining to the margins (not affecting text). Five illustrations, including full page engraving of two cherubs, entitled 'L'Enfance de l'amour'. Claims that 'neither labour nor expense will be spared to achieve and maintain the highest standard of literary and artistic excellence', and that the magazine will be 'strictly non-political, in the sense that it will champion the views of no particular party'.

English philosopher (1820-71). 24 pages, 12mo. Very good, neatly bound in brown cloth binding. Bound in are the original grey printed wraps, affected with foxing, and with very slight damage from glue to front wrap. The rear wrap carries an advertisement of 'BOOKS LATELY PUBLISHED | BY J. VINCENT OXFORD.', including 'NINEVEH: the Best Newdigate for Years; therefore not recited in the Theatre, Oxford, July 3, 1851. 12mo. 1s.' A brilliant satire on academic reformers and German philosphers. Copac only lists copies of the third, fourth and fifth editions.

all octavo, in worn nineteenth-century binding, with front hinge loose, lacking spine. New endpapers. All items good, on aged paper with occasional foxing. An invaluable collection, providing a snapshot of secondhand bookselling in provincial Victorian England within an extremely short timescale. Several of the booksellers are not represented in the British Library collection, and others are only represented by catalogues of a later date. Of note are the two catalogues published by Sotheran's Manchester arm, the existence of which is not mentioned in Andrew Block's 'Short History' (1933).

Dimensions roughly nine inches by three and a half wide. Creased and somewhat aged, with traces of previous blue paper mount on reverse. The cartoon, which occupies just under the top half, shows three hillbillies watching a fourth chalk crosses onto a farmyard wall, with the caption 'Somebody told him 'bout a old age pension . . . he's practicin' to sign up fer it.' Beneath this 'ATTENTION! | C. A. STONEHILL, Inc. | Rare Books and Manuscripts | IS NOW LOCATED AT | 198 1/2 YORK ST. | SECOND FLOOR | NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT | Come In and Browse'.

Octavo, 216 pages. One of 'only fifty copies printed, on thick paper'. Title-page in red and black. Aged and a little stained, in recent half-leather rebinding. 9670 items listed, 'for the most part second-hand'.

Two pages, on leaf roughly eight and a half inches by five. Very good, with three stab holes along one margin. Headed 'NEW COLLECTION OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS, [...] This Day is published'.

Dimensions roughly six inches by three and a half. Wormed (but only affecting two letters of text) on aged paper. One page, blank reverse. Wood cut at head, roughly one and a quarter inches square, illustrating a leather-bound book with clasps. Thirty-three lines of text, beginning 'At the Bible in Newgate-street, over against the Blue-Coat Hospital Gate.

Beautifully printed bifolium on thick wove paper. Dimensions of leaf roughly thirteen inches by ten; dimensions of illustration roughly nine and a half inches by eight. Tissue guard. Recto of first leaf and verso of second blank. Letterpress on verso of first leaf reads 'Fernand De Nobele, libraire pres St-Germain-des-Pres, vous adresse ses meilleurs voeux pour l'annee 1969. | [L'abbaye en 1368]'. Illustration signed at foot 'Josephine Beaudouin', with the limitation '190/200'. For De Nobele - President of ILAB between 1965 and 1967 - see Anthony Rota's 'Books in the Blood' (2002).

Eighteen pages, octavo, with four plates on art paper. In original grey printed wraps. Some light staining, creasing and wear. One of 600 copies. Lists seventy-seven items, with addenda of a further eleven. This milestone catalogue was published, according to Sims (A Life in Catalogues, 1994), in May 1949. At foot of title-page: 'N.B. This collection, with the exception of the Addenda of Books, has been sold.'

Proof with manuscript changes in pencil and printed additions pasted onto p.viii. 14 pages, folio. Five plates and five illustrations in text. In original green printed wraps. In good condition: paper discoloured and with some creasing at head; wraps grubby, creased and worn, with small closed tear along top end of spine. An attractive production, 'reprinted from J. & J. Leighton's illustrated catalogue of early-printed books, manuscripts, &c. part xiv.' Describes the edition of the Golden Legend published by Caxton in 1483, and a block-book published in Germany around 1470.

All items octavo. All in good condition, on aged paper, bound together in heavily-worn contemporary half-calf. Ownership inscription of the art dealer Faris C. Pitt on front free endpaper. The various issues of the 'Catalogue of Books' vary in length from eight pages to twenty-eight.

Fifty-two long lines of text, on one side of a single piece of parchment, roughly inches by. '[...] Between John Guscotte of No. 19 Essex Street Strand [...] and Alexander Brown of No. 342 Strand in the County of Middlesex aforesaid Book Seller'. A ten-year lease for a consideration of sixty pounds and yearly rent of one hundred and four pounds. Includes conditions relating to the upkeep of the premises, whitewashing of the walls, display of advertisements, etc.

MacWilliam was the author of several books concerning the Black Watch, and a book-collector. On the front cover the label "H.D. MACWILL[IAM]" is laid down. 230pp., 4to, notebook, soft-covered, front detached, poor condition. In time-honoured fashion, the collector has extracted printed descriptions of books (and some manuscripts and letters) from their catalogues and laid them down (occasional manuscript descriptions), at times (but by no means consistently) naming the bookseller who originally catalogued them.

One page, A4. In poor condition: creased and dogeared with several closed tears and a staple in the top left-hand corner. With 'not valid' in ms in top right-hand corner. The contribution, to be delivered by 1 August 1965, was to have been five thousand words in length, 'at the rate of 10 guineas for each thousand words of the contribution'. In the event it was replaced by Maureen Duffy's piece on 'Lesbianism in London'. Signed by 'Cressida Lindsay' and by 'Desmond Brian' on behalf of Blond.

Notable Oxford bookseller (1889-1984). 1 page, 16mo. In good condition though dusty. He thanks Wilson for sending 'The Yellow Dwarf', 'which shall be duly submitted to the editor of 'The Merry-Go-Round'. Thank you for thinking of it.' Signed 'B Blackwell'.