GUILDFORD

[Thomas Thorp, bookseller of Guildford and London; Bookplates.] Printed item: ‘A Catalogue of Books and Bookplates’ [1943 items and a further fifty-one pages of bookplates.]

Author: 
Thomas Thorp, bookseller of Guildford and London, established in 1883, closed 2003 [bookplates]
Publication details: 
Catalogue Number 406 [1930s]. ‘On Sale by - / Thomas Thorp / Strathfieldsaye, Guildown Road / Guildford, England / (Also of 93 St. Martin’s Lane, London, W.C.2)’. Printed by Robert Stockwell, Baden Place, Borough, London, S.E.1.
£80.00

See Sheila Markham’s interview with Thorp’s grandson Jim in ‘The Bookdealer’, April 1995, and the report ‘Now it’s the end of the Thomas Thorp story’, Surrey Live, 17 January 2003. 132pp, 8vo. Stapled. Pagination includes grey printed wraps, with title and first and last entries. On cheap discoloured paper, with slight wear to bottom corner of first few leaves; spine worn and chipped, covers detached. Undated, but with no item found dated later than 1929. Fifty-one pages (33-83) of bookplates in small print.

[Spelling Bee competitions in Victorian Kennington and Guildford.] Eleven items, including an advertisement, a programme, tickets of entry and competitor's ticket, newspaper cuttings, compiled by T. W. Williams, manager of Kennington competitions.

Author: 
Spelling Bee competitions in Victorian Kennington and Guildford [T. W. Williams, manager; The Impartial Spelling Bee Association, Williams & Rhodes, Kennington; F. Ridgway; J. Irving Dixon]
Publication details: 
Competitions in Kennington and Guildford, 1876. Manager of Kennington competitions: 'Mr. T. W. Williams, 149, Lower Kennington Lane, S.E.'
£220.00

The eleven items are in fair condition, lightly aged and worn, laid down on two heavily-worn leaves removed from an album. An interesting slice of social history, relating to introduction into England of a phenomenon which began in the Unites States in the 1850s. Nine of the items relate to spelling bees in Kennington, managed by the compiler of the material T. W. Williams, and one to a 'Grand Spelling Bee' in Guildford.

Printed pamphlet: 'Diocesan Seminaries and the Education of Ecclesiastical Students.'

Author: 
Francis A. Bourne, Rector of St. John's Diocesan Seminary, Wonersh, Guildford
Publication details: 
London: Burns & Oates, Limited. New York, Cincinnati, Chicago: Benziger Brothers.[ 1893. ]
£50.00

66pp., 8vo. Stitched and disbound. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper, but with the cover and first 16pp. separated from the rest; in worn binding with damage to spine. Two page preface by 'F. A. B.' Divided into four sections: 'Some Remarks on the Proposed Establishment of a Central Seminary', 'An Alternative Policy and Its Feasibility', 'Our Resources and our Models' and 'On the Separate Education of Ecclesiastical Students'. Now scarce.

[ Printed book, said to be published 'for private circulation'. ] A Selection from the Poems, Translations, and Occasional Pieces of the Late Right Hon. Henry Cecil Raikes, Formerly Member for Cambridge University. Edited by Henry St. John Raikes.

Author: 
The Late Right Hon. Henry Cecil Raikes, Formerly Member for Cambridge University [ Henry St. John Raikes; Richard Bentley and Son, London publishers; Billing and Sons, Printers, Guildford ]
Publication details: 
London: Richard Bentley and Son, Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen, 1895. [ Billing and Sons, Printers, Guildford. ]
£200.00

viii + 132pp., 8vo. Unopened. In good condition, lightly aged, in lightly-worn cloth quarter-binding with cream spine and grey boards, gilt. Three-page preface by the editor, beginning with the self-contradictory assertion that 'it has been decided to publish [sic] the following collection of pieces for private circulation'. A parody of Scott's 'Bonny Dundee', pp.7-9, is said to have been first published (in Punch in 1862) at 'The time of the Anarchist scare', and is accompanied by a long note regarding 'the epidemic of garotting from which London suffered in 1862'. No other copy recorded!

[Goldwin Smith, historian.] Autograph Letter Signed to an unnamed individual, discussing the disappearance from most parts of England of 'the independent yeomanry'.

Author: 
Goldwin Smith (1823-1910), Anglo-Canadian historian, Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford, 1858-1866 [John Thomson Pagan of Oak Lodge, Guildford]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Mortimer House, Reading. 22 February 1867.
£56.00

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with light stain from mount at head of reverse of second leaf. He begins by thanking the unnamed recipient for his 'kind attention to my request' and giving his coming address at Guildford as 'J. Pagan's Esqre | Oak Lodge'.

[Inscribed first edition.] Poems by A. Romney Green.

Author: 
A. Romney Green [Arthur Romney Green (d.1945); C. Curtis; The Astolat Press Guildford; R. Brimley Johnson [Reginald Brimley Johnson] (1867-1932), journalist and editor]
Publication details: 
A. C. Curtis | The Astolat Press Guildford | Brimley Johnson | London Office | MDCCCCI' [1901].
£150.00

vii + 96pp., 8vo. In grey cloth binding, with title printed on cover and spine. Internally good, on lightly-aged paper (with minor discoloration in three openings from pressed flowers), in worn and discoloured binding. Title-leaf printed in red and black (including publisher's device on title-page). On reverse of title: 'Seven copies of this edition on Japanese vellum and 500 on handmade only for sale printed by hand at the Astolat Press Guildford and there published November nineteen hundred & one.' Inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper: 'E. M. H. | from A. R. G. | 14 Dec.

[Printed pamphlet.] Beauty and the Beast. A Children's Operetta. Words by Constance E. Few. Music by Amy P. Woolley (Revised by B. Hale Wortham.)

Author: 
Constance E. Few [of Shalford, Guildford]; Amy P. Woolley; B. Hale Wortham [The National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children]
Publication details: 
London: The National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children, 7, Harpur Street, W.C. [Wilson's Music and General Printing Co., Ltd., 67b, Turnmill St., London.] No date.
£120.00

23pp., 12mo. Stitched pamphlet. In fair condition, on aged and chipped high-acidity paper with floral watermark. Elegantly letterpress printing. Priced at 6d on front cover. The third page carries an 'Index to Music', at the end of which the address in the following - 'Copies of the Music may be obtained at 7, Harpur Street, London, W.C., Price 2s.' - has been altered in manuscript to 'from Miss C. E. Few | Shalford | Guildford'. Excessively scarce: no copies on COPAC or OCLC WorldCat.

Autograph Note, in the third person, from [Algernon George Percy, 6th] Duke of Northumberland, agreeing to 'take a copy of the History of Newcastle, as requested by Mr Robinson'.

Author: 
Algernon George Percy (1810-1899), 6th Duke of Northumberland, British peer and Conservative politician
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Albury Park, Guildford. 20 April 1885.
£80.00

1p., 16mo. Letterhead printed in green on green paper. In fair condition, on aged and dusty paper, with traces of pervious mount along one margin. The note reads: 'The Duke of Northumberland will take a copy of the History of Newcastle, as requested by Mr Robinson in his letter of the 17th., to be sent to Alnwick Castle - | April 20. 85.' The reference is presumably to Richard Welford's 'History of Newcastle and Gateshead', published in London by Walter Scott between 1884 and 1887.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Martin Armstrong') to Thorpe.

Author: 
Martin Armstrong [Martin Donisthorpe Armstrong] (1882-1974), English novelist and poet [Thomas Thorp, Guildford bookseller]
Publication details: 
15 January 1933; Sutton, Pulborough, Sussex, on cancelled letterhead of 37 Great Ormond Street, London.
£45.00

12mo, 2 pp. Good, on lightly-aged and creased paper. Giving the details of three titles from Thorp's 'large catalogue' which he hopes are still available (one is ticked in pencil and the other two marked as sold). 'Also can you let me have a cheap copy of John Masefield's "Sea Life in The Time of Nelson" and J. R. Hutchinson's "The Press Gang Afloat & Ashore." Publishers and prices of both items are noted in pencil, with 'Cheque Noted' in margin.

The Art of Fiction. A Lecture delivered at the Royal Institution on Friday evening, April 25, 1884 (With Notes and Additions).

Author: 
Walter Besant
Publication details: 
London: Chatto & Windus, Piccadilly. 1884. [Billing and Sons, Printers, Guildford.]
£28.00

Octavo: 39 pp. Stitched. In original orange wraps, with grey printed paper boards. On spotted, aged paper, with insect holes to a couple of leaves. Wraps stained and worn. First English printing of an essay noted for its coupling with Henry James's piece of the same name (not present here) in an American edition of 1885.

Five Autograph Letters Signed and one Typed Letter Signed to G. K. Menzies, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Sir Charles Herbert Armstrong
Publication details: 
1927-30; Elmhyrst, Guildford.
£120.00

British railway magnate and industrialist in India (1862-1949). The collection is very good. The five autograph letters are 12mo, and printed on letterheads. All items signed 'C H Armstrong'. Several items docketed and bearing the Society's stamp. Mainly concerned with Society committee matters, but two letters of interest. The first (autograph, 15 February 1928, 2 pages, 12mo): 'You will no doubt have seen the remarks of the Lord Chief Justice in the Mitchell Hedges case - Times of 14 inst page 5 column 2 - on "learned societies . . . .

Disclaimers at the heralds' visitations. A list of persons who were disclaimed as gentlemen of coat-armour by the heralds at the visitations of the various counties of England; with an introduction.

Author: 
John Paul Rylands, F.S.A.
Publication details: 
Guildford: Printed by Billing and Sons. 1888.
£125.00

8vo. Pages: xi + 87. One of only a hundred copies, according to the British Library catalogue. In original red cloth binding with short title in gilt on front board (somewhat grubby and stained with stained manuscript title on spine). Tight copy but with front hinge cracked. Bookplate of Howard H. Cotterell of Walsall, and with his ownership inscription on title-page, which is neatly blindstamped with his address in top right-hand corner.

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