FINE

Whimsical printed stock letter to 'Dear Friend', in the form of a facsimile of a typed letter, with facsimile of Hubbard's signature, conferring on the recipient Life Membership of the American Academy of Immortals.

Author: 
Elbert Hubbard [The Roycrofters]
Publication details: 
Dated 17 February 1904. Letterhead of The Roycrofters, East Aurora, Erie County, New York.
£56.00

12mo, 2 pp. In bifolium. On yellow paper. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with slight traces on the second leaf from the mounting of the letter. An amusing and characteristic piece of Roycroft ephemera. The letterhead describes 'The Roycrofters' as 'Makers of de luxe books, hand-made furniture and ornamental iron work. Printers and publishers of the Philistine and Little Journeys'.

A Broadside for February, 1914. [No. 9. Sixth Year] [Hyde's poem 'I shall not die for thee' and Guthrie's poem 'Paternoster Callaghan' with three illustrations by Yeats.]

Author: 
Jack B. Yeats; James Guthrie; Douglas Hyde; Cuala Press
Publication details: 
1914. By E.C. Yeats at the Cuala Press, Churchtown, Dundrum, County Dublin.
£200.00

4to bifolium (27.5 x 18.5 cm): 3 pp. 300 copies only. Good, on aged paper with a light vertical fold. Hand-coloured illustrations on first (7 x 10 cm) and second (8 x 7.5 cm) pages; black and white illustration ('Drowned Sailor', 12 x 10 cm) alone on third page. Final page blank. The first poem is not ascribed, but is known to be by Hyde.

Ecce Mundus. Industrial Ideals and the Book Beautiful.

Author: 
T. J. Cobden-Sanderson [Hammersmith Publishing Society]
Publication details: 
Hammersmith: Hammersmith Publishing Society, 7 The Terrace. 1902. ['Printed at the Chiswick Press: Charles Whittingham & Co., Tooks Court, Chancery Lane, London. And sold by the Hammersmith Publishing Society, 7 The Terrace, Hammersmith.']
£250.00

8vo: [38] pp (unpaginated). In original quarter binding, with buff boards and vellum spine on which is stamped in black 'ECCE MUNDUS'. Good copy: internally tight and clean, in slightly-grubby and worn binding bumped at foot of spine and at one corner. Presentation copy, with autograph inscription by Cobden-Sanderson on the front free endpaper: 'To Mr. Wheatley [the bibliographer Henry Benjamin Wheatley] with the compliments of the writer'. With green leather and gilt bookplate of Alfred Sutro on front pastedown.

Typed Letter Signed ('Holbrook Jackson') to G. S. Tomkinson of Whitville, Kidderminster.

Author: 
George Holbrook Jackson (1874-1948) [Sir Geoffrey Stewart Tomkinson (1881-1963); Lovat Fraser; Flying Fame; Fleuron; New Age Press; fine printing; bibliography]
Publication details: 
26 February 1925; Regent House, Kingsway, London, W.C.2.
£100.00

8vo: 2 pp. 32 lines of text. Good, on lightly-aged paper. He is willing to help Tomkinson with his book 'Modern Presses', but would not 'have time to be responsible for the writing of any chapters'. Offers to answer 'a questionnaire' regarding 'Flying Fame', and directs Jackson to his 'articles on the work of Lovat Fraser in the "Bookman", the "Fleuron", and "To-day".' Paragraph discusses the 'New Age Press', which 'was not a Press at all, but a publishing business'. In the last paragraph changes his mind, and offers to write a brief chapter.

A Broadside for July, 1911. [No. 2. Fourth Year] ['Blow, Bullies, Blow (Halliards Chanty)' with three illustrations by Jack B. Yeats.]

Author: 
Jack B. Yeats; Cuala Press
Publication details: 
1911. E.C. Yeats at the Cuala Press, Churchtown, Dundrum, County Dublin.
£100.00

4to bifolium (27.5 x 18.5 cm): 3 pp. 300 copies only. In fair condition: a little grubby, with a couple of light folds and slight wear to extremities. Hand-coloured illustrations on first (7.5 cm square) and second (7 x 10 cm) pages; full-page black and white illustration ('Derby Day') on third page. Final page blank.

A Broadside for March, 1914. [No. 10. Sixth Year] [the poems 'Nora Creina' and 'The Tan-Yard Side' with three illustrations by Yeats.]

Author: 
Jack B. Yeats; Cuala Press
Publication details: 
1914. By E. C. Yeats at the Cuala Press, Churchtown, Dundrum, County Dublin.
£100.00

4to bifolium (27.5 x 18.5 cm): 3 pp. 300 copies only. Good, on aged paper with a light vertical fold. Hand-coloured illustrations on first (7.5 x 10 cm) and second (9.5 x 7.5 cm) pages; full-page black and white illustration ('The Metropolitan Regatta Dublin') on third page. Final page blank.

Le Bon Anglais Text de Roger Boutet de Monvel. Images de Guy Arnoux.

Author: 
Roger Boutet de Monvel; Guy Arnoux (1886-1951), French illustrator
Publication details: 
Chez Devambez 43 boulevard Malesherbes à Paris.
£165.00

Landscape 12mo (leaf dimensions 12 x 16 cm): 27 pp. Stitched with no jacket as issued. Covers a little grubby, but a good copy of a scarce item. Title page and twelve delightful full-page pochoir illustrations by Arnoux, all hand-coloured: 'En temps de Paix', 'Premier contact', 'Le sous-lieutenant', 'Les Indiens', 'Black-Watch', 'Le capitaine et l'infirmiere', 'Les Irlandais', 'Le Major', 'La Mascotte', 'Ship ahoy!!', 'Le bon Ecossais' and 'God save the King'.

Elizabeth: or, The Exiles of Siberia. Translated from the French of Madame Cottin.

Author: 
Madame Cottin [Whittingham Press, Chiswick]
Publication details: 
Chiswick: From the Press of C. Whittingham, College House. Sold by R. Jennings, Poultry; T. Tegg, Cheapside; A. K. Newman and Co. Leadenhall Street; London: J. Sutherland, Edinburgh; and Richard Griffin and Co. Glasgow. 1822.
£180.00

12mo: 123 + [iv] pp. Engraved title (dated 'Octr. 1823') featuring engraving Heath from design by Corbould. Four pages of publisher's advertisements at rear. In contemporary green leather binding with decorative gilt spine and pattern to edges of boards, marbled endpapers and marbling to edges. Contemporary ownership inscription of 'Miss L. Smith'. A tight, sound copy, on lightly-aged paper, with light staining to engraved title, and wear to binding. COPAC only lists copies of this edition at Durham, St Andrews, Oxford and the British Library.

Inadvertencies collected from the works of several eminent authors.

Author: 
E. G-H.' [i.e. Edward Gathorne-Hardy], editor [The Mill House Press]
Publication details: 
Stanford Dingley: The Mill House Press, 1963.
£105.00

Number 174 of 'Two hundred numbered copies [...] printed by hand on mould-made paper.' 8vo: [ii] + 9 pp. Stitched pamphlet of twelve leaves, with four vignettes giving it a distinct chap-book feel. COPAC only lists copies at the British Library and Oxford. Prefatory note by 'E. G-H.' [Eddie Gathorne-Hardy].

Two printed texts, each illuminated by hand in colours.

Author: 
Elbert Hubbard [Elbert Green Hubbard] (1856-1915), American writer, publisher, artist, associated with the Arts and Crafts movement [Roycroft Press]
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated. Each carrying the Roycroft Press device.
£450.00

Each item is on a sheet of laid paper, 39 x 29 cm, and each with the Roycroft watermark. Both items are grubby, with wear and creasing to extremities, but with the design and much of the margin entirely undamaged. Both have an identical block of printed text (roughly 13.5 x 9 cm) at the centre: 'THE truth is that in human service there is no low or high degree: the woman who scrubs is as WORTHY of RESPECT as the man who Preaches | ELBERT HUBBARD'.

Four copies (on white, blue, pink and yellow paper) of a printed handbill titled 'Copy of a Letter from S. F. a Member of the Society of Friends, to a Young Woman, a Short Time before her Marriage.'

Author: 
S. F.' [Society of Friends; Quakers; Victorian women; nineteenth-century marriage]
Publication details: 
Undated [1840s?], and without publication details [English].
£225.00

Each copy is identically printed, on a piece of paper roughly 22.5 x 19.5 cm. Title and 56 lines of text (ending 'S. F.'), within a decorative border. Three of the four have a lightly-embossed stationery crown mark in a top corner. All four with text clear and complete, and in good condition, on lightly-aged and creased paper. Begins 'HAVING heard thou art shortly to enter a garden enclosed, and knowing thou art at present a stranger to this garden, permit an old friend to give thee an account of it.

Printed handbill on green paper titled 'Copy of a Letter from S. F. a Member of the Society of Friends, to a Young Woman, a Short Time before her Marriage.'

Author: 
S. F.' [Society of Friends; Quakers; Victorian women; nineteenth-century marriage]
Publication details: 
Undated [1840s?], and without publication details [English].
£56.00

On a piece of green paper roughly 22.5 x 19.5 cm. Title and 56 lines of text (ending 'S. F.'), within a decorative border. Lightly-embossed stationery crown mark in top left-hand corner. Text clear and complete. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper with creasing to bottom righ-hand margin. Begins 'HAVING heard thou art shortly to enter a garden enclosed, and knowing thou art at present a stranger to this garden, permit an old friend to give thee an account of it. I have travelled every path and part thereof, and know the productions of every kind, it can possibly yield.

Prospectus for 'The Gehenna Shakespeare'.

Author: 
The Gehenna Press [Leonard Baskin]
Publication details: 
[Northampton, Massachusetts, 1972 or 1973.]
£45.00

Folio bifolium (leaf dimensions approximately 50.5 x 34 cm). Unbound. Creased, with worn central horizontal fold, and somewhat dogeared at head and foot. Four pages, printed in black, with the first and fourth pages carrying a few words in red.

Excerpta Cantiana; Being the Prospectus of a History of Kent, Preparing for Publication by the Rev. Thomas Streatfeild, F.S.A.'; with two other prospectuses of the same; four prospectuses for Toovey's 'History of Kent'; Autograph Letters Signed.

Author: 
Thomas Streatfeild (1777-1848) [William Nicol, Shakspeare Press; James Toovey; F. C. Brooke; T. G. Godfrey Tempest]
Publication details: 
Excerpta Cantiana' (dated 'Chart's Edge, Westerham, 1 January, 1836'): London: William Nicol, Shakspeare Press, Pall Mall. [1836.] 'History of Kent': London, James Toovey, 177, Piccadilly. [1871].
£250.00

The collection in a contemporary green leather quarter-binding, with grey paper boards and title in gilt on spine. Good, in heavily worn binding splitting at rear hinge. The letters are expertly mounted on leaves in the volume. 'Excerpta Cantiana': folio: 23 pp of letterpress, with illustrations and with three full-page engravings by J. S. Agar and one fold-out pedigree. PRESENTATION COPY from Streatfeild to the antiquary and historian Charles James Palmer of Great Yarmouth.

The London Booksellers - Etymology of the Term Yankey. Being an Excerpt from The Yankee in London. First published in 1809.

Author: 
Royall Tyler [John Kristensen; Firefly Press; Kallistos Press]
Publication details: 
[Somerville, Massachusetts.] Kallistos Press. 1984. [Printed at Firefly Press in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by John Kristense.]
£150.00

Limited to 200 copies and signed by the printer John Kristense. 8vo: [13] + [1] pages. Stitched. In original blue printed wraps. Good, with minor wear at head. The colophon reads 'The London Booksellers - Etymology of the Term Yankey was hand set in English Monotype Baskerville and printed on Curtis Ragston paper in an edition of 200 copies at Firefly Press in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by [signed 'John Kristense'] who sends it as a 1983-84 holiday greeting to his friends. The Society of Printers in particular is thanked for honoring him in 1983 with membership.

Number Four in the series of Christmas cards printed by the Favil Press for the Poetry bookshop, containing the poem 'The Curate's Christmas Eve' by Monro, and two coloured engravings by Stewart, one entitled 'Decorations'.

Author: 
Harold Monro (1879-1932); Alistair Stewart; The Favil Press; The Poetry Bookshop
Publication details: 
No date [circa 1928]. Printed 'by The Favil Press, 152 Church Street, Kensington, W.8 and published, in collaboration with the printers, by The Poetry Bookshop, 38 Great Russell Street, London, W.C.1.'
£45.00

Printed on one side of a piece of paper roughly 46 x 32 cm, folded twice to make a 23 x 16 cm card. Good, on lightly aged and spotted paper. On the front is a small illustration in green and black, roughly 7.5 x 6 cm, showing a picture of a domestic Christmas interior in an ivy-topped frame. Inside the card, on the left-hand page, is Monro's poem, of 18 lines arranged in three stanzas, beginning, 'The Curate and the Spinster sit.

A folio leaf containing seven 'Specimen Pages from Books made at the Walpole Printing Office in New Rochelle, N.Y, including the title-page and frontispiece of the limited edition of T. S. Eliot's 'John Dryden'.

Author: 
The Walpole Printing Office, in New Rochelle, N.Y. [Peter Beilenson; Edmund B. Thompson; Peter Pauper Press; Herb Roth; American fine printing; typography; T. S. Eliot]
Publication details: 
1929-1932. The Walpole Printing Office in New Rochelle, N.Y.
£120.00

Printed in black and sepia on both sides of a leaf of watermarked wove paper, 45 x 30 cm. On lightly-aged paper with one vertical and two horizontal fold lines. The seven sample pages feature a total of six illustrations, in a variety of styles, two by Herb Roth. The arrangement is as follows. Recto: Title ('Specimen Pages from Books made at the Walpole Printing Office in New Rochelle, N.Y. 1929-1932') with vignette of Walpole. Specimen One, titled 'Piratical Barbarity, &c.', with illustration of pirate ship by Roth. Specimen Two, title-page of T. S. Eliot's 'John Dryden. The Poet.

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'.

Four pieces of printed ephemera relating to the Lord Mayor's Banquet at the Guildhall, including two prose descriptions of the design of the ticket.

Author: 
Blades, East & Blades, London printers [the Corporation of the City of London; Guildhall; Lord Mayor's Banquet; Hansard Publishing Union (Limited)]
Publication details: 
Two of the four items (from 1875 and 1877) printed by Blades, East & Blades, 11 Abchurch Lane, City. One of the others printed in 1889 by The Hansard Publishing Union (Limited), London, W.C.
£95.00

Item One: Handbill headed, beneath the City of London shield, 'Description of the Design for the Ticket of Admission to the Banquet at Guildhall, on Tuesday, 9th November, 1875.' Printed in purple on one side of a piece of lilac paper, roughly 20.5 x 13 cm. Text clear and complete, on creased and aged paper, with 1cm closed tear to one corner. At foot of page: 'BLADES, EAST & BLADES, | 11, ABCHURCH LANE, CITY. | Established 1832.' The description runs to thirteen lines.

Engraving ('ACTS XXVII XXXV') by Eric Gill from a drawing by David Jones; with long typewritten transcript from a letter from Jones to Evan Gill.

Author: 
David Jones; Eric Gill; Evan Gill
Publication details: 
The engraving dated by Jones (in the letter) to around 1935. The letter dated 22 November 1957.
£400.00

The engraving illustrates the biblical passage describing an incident during the wreck off Crete of a ship carrying Saint Paul. Acts 27:35: 'And when he had thus spoken, he took bread, and gave thanks to God in presence of them all: and when he had broken it, he began to eat.' Printed on one side of a piece of paper, 28 x 19 cm, with one rough edge. A striking image, irregularly shaped, with white lines against a black background, showing centurions and others on the deck of a ship on a stormy sea, with land in the distance.

Menu for a dinner of the Worshipful Company of Stationers at Brusnwick Hotel, Blackwall. With ornate doily cut border.

Author: 
The Worshipful Company of Stationers [Stationers' Company; paper doily]
Publication details: 
London: 18 July 1855.
£65.00

On one side of a piece of wove paper roughly 23.5 x 19 cm. A delicate and scarce piece of ephemera, in a remarkably good state of repair. Possibly a proof, as a thin blank strip along one of the vertical edges, intended to be detached and discarded, still adheres. The menu itself is crisply printed in the centre, covering a space roughly 17 x 13.5 cm.

I Want! I Want! Printed, not Published, for the Friends of A. Edward Newton.

Author: 
A. Edward Newton, American book collector of 'Oak Knoll', Daylesford, Pennsylvania
Publication details: 
Christmas, 1932.
£45.00

12mo: [ii] + 14 pp. Unpaginated. Frontispiece of Blake's celebrated print. Internally tight on lightly-aged and grubby paper, and with the reverse of the frontispiece slightly discoloured. Staples a little rusty. In grubby white wraps. A signed presentation copy. Boldly written on the front wrap: 'Lawrence Binyon C.H. with the compliments of [signed] H. Edward Newton'. A characteristic production by the boisterous author of 'The Amenities of Book-Collecting'. At end: 'A. EDWARD NEWTON | "Oak Knoll" | Daylesford, Berwyn P.O., | Pennsylvania'.

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.'

Easter-Tide. Poems by E. Nesbit and Caris Brooke.

Author: 
E. Nesbit [Edith Nesbit; Edith Bland] and 'Caris Brooke' [Saretta Nesbit]
Publication details: 
Undated [dated to 1888 by the Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature]. 'London Henry J. Drane & Co. Lovells Court Paternoster Row E.C. (Produced in Germany.)'
£150.00

8vo (dimensions roughly 21 x 16.5 cm): 24 pp. In original coloured illustrated card wraps. The whole bound with black thread. All edges silvered. Aged, worn and lightly spotted, but tight and in reasonable condition overall. Two small wormholes in back wrap, affecting the verso of the last leaf. Fifteen poems, seven of them by Nesbit: 'Song', 'Possibilities', 'Vie Manquees', To a Picture by Giovanni Bellini', 'The Better Part', 'Rondeau' and 'Lovers'. Every page of the volume carries illustrations of nature in black and light green. Similar designs in colour on the covers.

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.

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.

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'.

Handbill poem entitled 'After Fifty Years! | September 20, 1874.' With Hall's autograph signature ('S. C. Hall').

Author: 
Samuel Carter Hall [S. C. Hall] (1800-1889), journalist, editor and author
Publication details: 
Date not stated [1874?]. At foot: 'M. W. & CO., ENT. STA. HALL.'
£56.00

Attractively produced on a piece of thin card, dimensions 17 x 11 cm. The recto of the card has a shiny, light-blue coating, on which the text and design is printed in gold and bronze. The verso is blank and white. Very good, with minor damage to the blank reverse caused by removal from mount. The poem, of thirty-one lines, is enclosed within a grecian-style border. A tender poem addressed to his wife, and reviewing their years together, beginning 'YES!

Two issues of 'The Literary Fly'.

Author: 
[Sir Herbert Croft (1751-1815), editor] 'The Literary Fly' [Christopher Etherington, bookseller, printer and typefounder, No. 25, St. Paul's Church-Yard]
Publication details: 
Number 13: 10 April 1779. Number 14: 17 April 1779. 'Printed and Published by Etherington, at No 25, opposite the South Door of St. Paul's'.
£100.00

Both issues 8vo (roughly 30.5 x 19.5 cm), 6 pp (each a loose leaf in a bifolium). Both printed on brittle watermarked laid paper. Both unbound, and stabbed as issued, and both on aged and chipped paper, but with the text clear and entire. Each issue with the title in an expansive calligraphic design. The full slug, at the bottom of the last page of both issues, reads: 'Printed and Published by ETHERINGTON, at No 25, opposite the South Door of St. Paul's (where Letters, post-paid, to the LITERARY FLY will be received).

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