Book Trade History

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.

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.

Autograph Letter Signed "J Weiss" to "Morse"[Sidney H. Morse, editor of "The Radical"]

Author: 
John Weiss (1818-1879), Unitarian Minister, author, "second generation transcendentalist"
Publication details: 
Watertown, [MA], 26 December 1865.
£150.00

Four pages, 8vo, grubby and with fold marks but text clear and complete. Weiss is writing about an untimate contribution to "The Radical" and another article. "I don't know that it is a matter of much consequence, but I rather want to have my "Dangers" [Dangers of Our Political Machinery, published in "The Radical", No.III, Feb. 1866, p.208ff] in hand, that I may put it in print in some form - newspaper perhaps - beause it explains and fills out my sermon, especially on that delicate point of suffrage.

A collection of material relating to the early days of the Bibliographical Society, mainly printed,one ALS from Alfred W. Pollard

Author: 
[The Bibliographical Society; Alfred W. Pollard]
Publication details: 
1892-1903.
£400.00

An archive comprising the following: A. Leaflet, 4pp., 4to, small tears at folds, some staining, printed notice dated 30 July 1892 signed "Talbot B. Reed (Hon. Sec. (pro tem.)"[printed] outlining the "aims of the Society" (6 in total) as mooted during the Preliminary Meeting on 15th July, giving a list of Resolutions (including naming a committee which included Richard Garnett, W.A. Copinger, Talbot B. Reed, J.H. Slater, H.B. Wheately, etc.). On the second leaf an application form is printed, returnable to Reed. B.Autograph Letter Signed, Alfred W. Pollard, Hon.

Printer's trade catalogue, titled 'Cut Book. Showing a few of the many cuts carried in stock and for sale by The Enterprise Printing House, Corfu, N.Y.' Containing more than a hundred vignettes, with prices.

Author: 
The Enterprise Printing House, Corfu, New York [American trade catalogue]
Publication details: 
Undated [late Victorian or Edwardian]. Corfu, New York State.
£200.00

8vo (23 x 15 cm), 32 pp. Stapled. Outer pages in blue. In fair condition, with a little damp-staining at the head of the first leaf (with minimal effect on the text), and a tiny dab of the same staining continuing at the corner of each leaf (not affecting the text). Title-page on cover illustrated by C. H. Dennis, showing Uncle Sam sharpening a razor of 'GOOD CUTS'. Note on page 2 begins: 'THIS CUT BOOK contains a few of the many varieties and styles of cuts which we carry in stock and use on your printing free of charge. We have many more and are constantly adding new designs. [...]'.

Alphabetical and Descriptive Catalogues of the Publications of the Presbyterian Board of Publication.

Author: 
The Presbyterian Board of Publication, Philadelphia [Joseph P. Engles, Publishing Agent; trade catalogues]
Publication details: 
Undated [circa 1860]. Philadelphia: Joseph P. Engles, Publishing Agent, No. 821 Chestnut Street.
£200.00

12mo: xxvi + 64 + [i] pp. Unbound. Stitched as issued. Last leaf blank. Text clear and complete. On aged paper, with heavy wear to outer leaves, and staining to first and last half-dozen leaves. Ownership inscription of Charles Ira Gordon Skeen of Covington, Virginia, along outer margin of title. Two vignettes: the first on the title (three boys entering an library and being handed books by an adult) and the second at the head of the Descriptive Catalogue (family at the dining table). The main body of volume (pp.1-61) consists of the Descriptive Catalogue, in small type, of 553 items.

First issue of 'John Nichols's Metropolitan Advertiser'.

Author: 
John Nichols, printer, The Milton Press, Strand [The Metropolitan Advertiser]
Publication details: 
No. 1. 7 January 1836. 'Printed at the Milton Press, 9, Chandos Street, Strand, by John Nichols.'
£225.00

4to, 4 pp. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged and grubby paper. Engraving of beehive, with motto, beneath title. Given away 'GRATIS'. Begins with a prospectus for what is described as 'a new medium of communicating with the public', concluding, 'for the inconsiderable sum of 5s. an Advertiser may give publicity to his business in FIVE THOUSAND respectable channels inaccessible to every other advertising medium hitherto established'. The rest of the first page carries 'ADVICE TO A YOUNG TRADESMAN' by 'AN OLD TRADESMAN'.

Engraved armorial bookplate, designed by Charles Catton and engraved by Francis Chesham, for Lord Camelford.

Author: 
Thomas Pitt, 1st Baron Camelford (1737-1793), politician and art collector [Charles Catton the elder (1728-1798), R.A., painter; Francis Chesham (1749–1806), engraver; bookplates; ex libris]
Publication details: 
Undated [1770s?].
£35.00

Steel-engraving, on a piece of thick laid paper, 12.5 x 17.5 cm. Fair, on lightly-aged and foxed paper. Never mounted, and so with no glue staining or other marking to blank reverse. Depicts Camelford's armorial crest, flanked by two birds, with motto 'PER . ARDUA . LIBERI .' At foot, in copperplate, 'Camelford.', with 'C. Catton R.A. del. F. Chesham Sculp.'

Autograph Letter Signed ('H. O. Coxe') to <Innes?>.

Author: 
Henry Octavious Coxe [H. O. Coxe] (1811-1881), Bodley's Librarian, 1860-1881 [The Bodleian Library, Oxford]
Publication details: 
16 January 1879; Bodleian Library.
£65.00

16mo, 3 pp. Bifolium. Thirteen lines of text. Clear and complete. On aged paper with heavy staining to outer pages. Clarifying the position regarding 'new editions with additions'. The Bodleian is entitled to copies of these, 'unless the additions are separate - then we can only claim the new matter'. Explains that the Library's 'agent in London', Eccles of Great Russell Street, 'receives for us, or collects, as it may be the of the Publishers'. Docketed in pencil in a contemporary hand on the blank reverse of the second leaf.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W. P. Greswell') to an unnamed bookseller [Thomas Thorpe?].

Author: 
William Parr Greswell (1765-1854), Anglican clergyman and bibliographer [Thomas Thorpe, London bookseller]
Publication details: 
4 October 1821; Denton near Manchester.
£75.00

4to, 2 pp. Thirty lines of text. Clear and complete. On aged and grubby paper. One closed tear and minor traces of mount to extremities. An interesting letter, casting light on the relationship between bookseller and knowledgeable client in Georgian England. He gives the conditions under which he would be interested in buying a few items from the booksellers monthly catalogue.

Autograph Letter Signed to [Richard] Welford [of the Newcastle Chronicle].

Author: 
George Troup (1811-1879), editor, Tait's Edinburgh Magazine [Richard Welford; Newcastle Chronicle]
Publication details: 
2 November 1859; Tait's Magazine Office, 34 Paternoster Row, London, E.C.
£75.00

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. 58 lines of text. Clear and complete. On aged paper, with the outer pages grubby and stained. The delay in replying to Welford's letter is due to the fact that it 'fell aside in Edinburgh and did not reach my hands until lately'. 'I was engaged in a veryy subordinate capacity on Taits Magazine when the shilling series commenced - and for some years - and again had it as my own property from 1846 to 1850 and have had it again for some years; yet I do not remember having ever seen a notice in the Newcastle Chronicle'.

Autograph Letter, third person, to "Mr Andrews" (no further information).

Author: 
[ Andrews, bookseller and bookbinder [?]] Lord M[oun]t Edgcumbe
Publication details: 
Twickenham, 27 Feb. (no year).
£75.00

Four pages, 8vo, vestiges of an album page on final page, text clear and complete. He is sending some MSS. to be bound up, giving detailed instructions. He reminds Andrews of previous work, and insists on secrecy. He asks him to post (and pay for) a "foreign letter", and asks "how the Opera succeeds & if the men singers are liked. In a postscript he asks for the third volume of "Johnson's Life" since he has nearly finished the second.

A collection of six autograph letters signed to Clement Shorter, man of letters, editor of "The Sphere".

Author: 
George Scott Robertson.
Publication details: 
1898-1914.
£150.00

Anglo-Indian Administrator (1852-1916). Total sixteen pages, 8vo, good condition. . Subjects include: anticipation of the publication of his book, "Chitral. The Story of a Minor Siege"; the Johnson Club, political activity (canvassing), Edward Clodd, a request to be the "accredited agent" of "The Sphere" at the Front (Great War). With; (printed) Order of his Memorial Service (1916). 7 items,

No. 20 of the 'Bibliotheca Entomologica'.

Author: 
Felix L. Dames, German natural history publisher and bookseller
Publication details: 
Berlin: Tasuben-Strasse 47. 1892.
£35.00

8vo, 90 pp. Stitched and unbound. 3328 priced items. Text clear and complete. On aged paper.

Catalogues 1, 2, 5 and 16 of the 'Bibliothèque Entomologique'.

Author: 
Ed. André [Édouard François André (1840-1911)], editor [entomology; book catalogues]
Publication details: 
February and September 1883, October 1884 and January 1888. 21, Boulevard Bretonnière, a Beaune (Cote-d'Or)'.
£125.00

All four catalogues are stitched and unbound. All four are 8vo, with nos. 1 and 5 of 32 pp, no. 2 of 64 pp, and no 16 of 40 pp. The last leaf of catalogue 2, carrying advertisements is torn with some loss, otherwise the texts are clear and complete, on aged and spotted paper. Providing valuable bibliographical information, in a specialised scientific field.

Steel-engraving by Finden, from a painting by Pickersgill, of 'Mr. Murray, Publisher of Lord Byron's Works.'

Author: 
John Murray (1778-1843), British publisher; Henry William Pickersgill (1782-1875), English portrait painter; Edward Francis Finden (1791-1857), English engraver; Charles Tilt, English publisher
Publication details: 
Painted by H. W. Pickersgill, R.A. Engraved by E. Finden. [...] London, Published 1833, by C. Tilt, 86, Fleet Street.'
£56.00

India paper engraving (dimensions c. 22 x 16 cms) neatly laid down on piece of wove paper c. 29 x 22 cms. Very good, with the slightest spotting, and with minor creasing and staining to the extremities of the mount. A pensive Murray sits in an armchair, reading a manuscript.

Autograph Letter Signed to Lord Harmsworth, presenting a copy of ' "Ye Pepys Journall" 1665-1954', containing a 'List of Portraits Commissioned and Painted', and biographical information, including an account of the her bookselling mother.

Author: 
Margaret Grose, artist [Samuel Pepys; Samuel Johnson; Cecil Harmsworth, 1st Baron Harmsworth; Francis Grose]
Publication details: 
Letter: 2 June 1955; addressed from ' "Ye Pepys Journall", 37. St Martin's Court, W.C.2.' Journal: 'C. E. Gray, Kennington, London'
£56.00

Letter: 12mo, 2 pp. Bifolium. Good, on aged paper, with small rust stain at head from paperclip. She is writing to Harmsworth ('President, Dr Johnson's House') to ask him to accept a copy of 'my Journal in which mention is made of my Portrait of Dr Samuel Johnson which hangs in the Garrett of Dr Samuel Johnson house this was presented by H. B. Wheatley whom I knew for many years.' On a visit to the curator of Johnson's house she was 'pleased to see the picture still hands in its original place'.

Trade catalogue, in French, of books in 'Anthropologie et Zoologie', sold by H. Welter, 'Export-Agent and Dealer in Second-Hand Books'.

Author: 
H. Welter, Paris and Leipzig bookseller ('Librarie universitaire française et étrangère, ancienne et moderne') [bookselling; trade catalogues; anthropology; zoology]
Publication details: 
Catalogue Mensuel No 61. - 1893'. Paris: H. Welter, 59, Rue Bonaparte, 59. ['Imp. Mazereau. - Tours. - E. Soudée, Successeur.']
£56.00

12mo, 32 pp. Stapled. Text clear and complete. On aged and worn paper, with rusted staples causing the outer bifolium to detach. Items 2067 to 2786, with 'Supplément. Deutsche Werhe.' (Items from the firm's Leipzig branch.)

A Catalogue of a Collection of Old and Modern Pictures and Drawings, Engravings, Prints and Books. [...] the late Sir Robert W. Dibdin, [...] the late James Duncan Campbell (Craignish) Esq.. C.M.G., [...] the late S. Morell, Esq. [...].

Author: 
Robinson, Fisher & Harding, London auctioneers [Sir Robert W. Dibdin; James Duncan Campbell; S. Morell]
Publication details: 
22 March 1934. Robinson, Fisher & Harding. L. C. Robinson, R. H. Hurlbatt. At their great galleries, Willis's Rooms, King Street, St. James's Square, S.W.1. [Barnard & Crannis, Ltd., Printers, 11, Baldwin's Place, Holborn, E.C.1.]
£75.00

8vo, 12 pp. Stapled pamphlet. Text clear and complete. On aged, worn and spotted paper. A total of 204 lots. Pencil notes to lots 4, 9 and 11, with slip indicating their purchase prices, totalling £10 12s 0d. Lot 179 ('Another Property') is given prominence: 'FRANCIS COTES, R.A. A PORTRAIT OF A LADY in White Dress with Green Sash and Pink Cloak, her hair dressed high and adorned with pearls, 3.4 length | 50in. x 40in. | Signed and dated 1788.' No copy in the British Library, on COPAC or WorldCat.

Catalogue of Engravings, Etchings by the Best Masters, Including Mezzotint and Other Portraits [...] Views of Oxford by Loggan, Vertue, Burke and Turner.

Author: 
John Chaundy, printseller and picture dealer [Ye Olde Picture Shoppe, 49 Broad Street, Oxford]
Publication details: 
[1860s?] On sale At Ye Olde Picture Shoppe (Opposite the Sheldonian Theatre), 49, Broad Street, Oxford, by John Chaundy, Carver, Gilder, Picture Framer and Herald Painter. [Dryden Press: J. Davy & Sons, 137, Long Acre, London, W.C.]
£300.00

12mo, 61 pp. In original brown printed wraps. Engraving of Sheldonian Theatre on front, otherwise the item is not illustrated. 2864 items, ranging from '1 AARON, Rev. born 1695, engraved by Vertue. 5s 6d' to '2864 Zonelli (Anton. Maria) after Joan. Anton. Faldoni, Man blowing Horn, with hounds. 5s'. Fair, on aged paper, with a few leaves dogeared, in worn wraps chipped at extremities, and with 4.5 cm closed tear at foot of spine. Presentation inscription at head of front wrap: 'R. G. Bartelot. from Fredk. Bennett'.

Letter, headed 'Copy', in contemporary hand, from 'X.' to 'Mr. Editor' [of Punch].

Author: 
Punch, or The London Charivari' [Mark Lemon (1809-1870), editor; John Leech; Charles Kean; William Williams (1788-1865), Radical M.P. for Lambeth]
Publication details: 
01/05/59
£56.00

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. Watermarked 'TOWGOOD'S | SUPER FINE | 1859'. Eighty-seven lines of text. Text clear and complete on aged and grubby paper. With little hope of influencing the editor of Punch, the author feels compelled to 'write and tell you what I and many others think about your Publication and the malignant spite you display towards individuals who happen to incur your wrath'. This 'malignity', he feels, 'must be derived from that murderous old ruffian from whom your publication takes its name, and which alone prevents it being an influential publication.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Oliver A. Fry') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Oliver Armstrong Fry (b.c.1855), editor of 'Vanity Fair' from 1889 to 1904
Publication details: 
20 April 1898; 141 Portsdown Road, W. [London], on 'Vanity Fair' letterhead.
£35.00

12mo, 1 p. On first leaf of a bifolium. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. In reply to the recipient's note, by which he is 'much worried', Fry does not know that he can offer him 'any more than the few short notes <?> for us in "Men & Women of the Times". Little is known about Fry, apart from the fact that he was born in Van Diemen's Land, the son of the Church of England clergyman Henry Phibbs Fry (c.1807-1874).

Autograph letter signed to Daniel George, author and editor

Author: 
Catherine Carswell
Publication details: 
7 Sept. 1944
£250.00

Novelist. Two pages, 4to, chatting about personal matters and a MS. by a Mr Bligh which Rosamund Lehmann and C. Day Lewis wish to recommend for publication. [A note added to the letter in Goerge's [?] hand says that the book was published by Secker & Warburg.] She looks forward to the end of the War, concluding with impromtu verse: "I want to climb a steeple/ I want to ring the bell,/So I can tell the people/I love them all so well".

Autograph Letter Signed to [L. Williams](an artist).

Author: 
Barbara Hofland.
Publication details: 
Holborn, Postmark [1833?]
£100.00

Novelist (1770-1844)(DNB). One page, 4to, bifoliate (blank except for Williams' name and address), some marking but text clear and complete. "I am much pleased with the design inclosed but have to observe that I think the tall boy a little too tall and that his trousers have more the look of a young sailor than those of e gentleman - the farmer boy is excellent - the lake scene very prettty and the whole satisfactory. I had great pleasure in naming you as an artist of great promise to Mr Newman who does a great deal of business & is a very worthy man and good judge of art . . . N.B.

Printed Receipt, completed in manuscript and signed, for five works by Williamson legally deposited in the Library of the British Museum.

Author: 
Department of Printed Books, British Museum, London [George Charles Williamson (1858-1942), writer on art and historian of Guildford; George Bell & Sons]
Publication details: 
6 October 1904; Department of Printed Books, British Museum, London.
£25.00

On one side of piece of paper 23.5 x 16 cm. With perforated edge. Good, on aged paper, with traces with strip of glue from previous mount on reverse. Printed in copperplate. The deposited works are 'Notes on the Maces, Insignia of Office, and Town Plate of the Town of Guildford', 'Progress of Catholic Work', 'Token Pamphlet', 'Guildford Shakespeare' and 'County Town'. Ostensibly signed by the 'Keeper', but the signature is not decipherable (''). In his obituary in The Times, 6 July 1942, Williamson was praised as 'a highly industrious and versatile writer on art'.

Autograph Letter Signed to the numismatist Ewald Junge, with papers relating to the artist and theatrical Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966).

Author: 
Sebastian Carter, printer and typographer (born 1941)
Publication details: 
Letter undated, on letterhead of Victoria House, 40 Oxford Road, Cambridge.
£60.00

LETTER: One page, quarto. Somewhat aged and creased. An attractive item in Carter's disciplined calligraphic hand. A damning assessment of Craig's son Edward Anthony Craig ('Edward Carrick', 1905-98). '[...] If you know him, you presumably also know what you are taking on! We had some dealings with Teddy over possibly printing old EGC's engravings of Robinson Crusoe, but Teddy sold them, [...] My impression is that the old rogue manufactured archives in order to sell them to someone - preferably twice.

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.

List of publications 'At the Sign of Flying Fame' in the form of a handbill.

Author: 
[CLAUD LOVAT FRASER; RALPH HODGSON; HOLBROOK JACKSON]
Publication details: 
PRINTED BY A. T. STEVENS, OF 55 ST. MARTIN'S LANE, IN THE CITY OF WESTMINSTER, FOR R.H., L.F., AND H.J., AT THEH SIGN OF FLYING FAME, 45 ROLAND GARDENS, | LONDON, S.W., WHERE COPIES MAY BE HAD. | 1913.'
£20.00

Printed on pink [faded from red?] unwatermarked paper, with cream backing. Dimensions of paper roughly fourteen centimeters by thirty-three centimeters. A frail ephemeral item. Lightly creased, and with further creasing and closed tears at head and foot, and minor loss at head. Faded, and with further fading at head. Headed 'At the Sign of Flying Fame.' Illustration by Lovat Fraser of mounted seventeenth-century man blowing bugle over cityscape. 'LIST OF PUBLICATIONS' includes details of six broadsides and four chap-books.

Two Autograph Letters Signed (both 'Alec Maclehose') from Alexander MacLehose; and one Autograph Letter Signed ('James MacLehose'); all three to John Gideon Wilson.

Author: 
Alexander MacLehose & Co.; James MacLehose; publishers [John Gideon Wilson (1876-1963), Scottish bookseller, proprietor of the London firm of Bumpus]
Publication details: 
Alexander MacLehose: 10 August 1931 and 23 June 1932; both on letterhead of Alexander MacLehose & Co., 58 Bloomsbury Street, London, W.C.1. James MacLehose: 20 November 1931; on letterhead of Saint Johns House, 30 Smith Square, Westminster, S.W.1.
£100.00

Alexander MacLehose: Letter One: 4to, 1 p. Good, on slightly aged and lightly creased paper. He is sending a copy of his catalogue, 'which has reached me from the printers to-day'. He has 'sent a copy also to the firm'. Would like Wilson's 'advice as to whether "Memories of the Months" should have a paper jacket. The binders have sent me a nice cellophane cover, which shows the rather handsome binding. Would there be any objection, from a selling point of view, to a cellophane cover in place of the ordinary paper jacket?' Letter Two: 12mo, 2 pp.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W Beattie. MD.') to the editor of the 'Naval and Military Gazette'.

Author: 
William Beattie (1793-1875), Scottish physician and poet
Publication details: 
13 August [1858]; St James's Street, London, on embossed letterhead of the Conservative Club.
£56.00

16mo (11 x 9 cm) bifolium, 3 pp, 16 lines of text. Mourning border. Good, with slight discoloration to the external pages. He is sending a manuscript 'At the suggestion of the Author, an officer residing in Paris'. If 'on examination' the recipient considers it 'unsuitable for the pages' of the Gazette, he asks for it to be returned to him at 13 Upper Berkeley Street 'when your messenger happens to pass that way'. The author 'is a man of high character and well acquainted with Paris & the Parisians'.

Syndicate content