PRESS

[Sir Harold Harmsworth, editor of 'The Field', to journalist Collin Brooks.] Typed Letter Signed ('Harold Harmsworth.') to Brooks, regarding his 'accurate picture of Rothermere' and 'that photograph of Northcliffe with Cecil Rhodes'.

Author: 
Sir Harold Harmsworth (1897-1952), editor of the Field, member of a leading Fleet Street family including Viscount Rothermere
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 8 Stratton Street, W.1. [London] 8 April 1948.
£40.00

1p., 4to. In fair condition, lightly aged, with two punch-holes in margin. He has been reading Brooks's book ('Devil's Decade: Portraits of the Nineteen-Thirties') 'during a few days' holiday in Norfolk', and finds it 'excellent': Brooks has 'drawn a very accurate picture of Rothermere'. He proposes a time for them to 'meet again and have lunch'. He wonders whether Brooks 'ever came across that photograph of Northcliffe with Cecil Rhodes which I remember you mentioned you thought you had somewhere or other', asks for a sight of it.

[ London Press Club and James Nicol Dunn.] Presentation volume on Dunn's departure for South Africa during the Boer War, in luxury leather binding, with full-page calligraphic address by 'L.J.S.', signed by more than 150 Fleet Street figures.

Author: 
London Press Club [ James Nicol Dunn (1856-1919), editor of Morning Post; Harry Levy-Lawson, 1st Viscount Burnham (1862-1933), Fleet Street press baron; Harry Lawson, Lord Burnham; Hannen Swaffer ]
Publication details: 
[ The London Press Club. 1911. ]
£320.00

In a luxury binding: navy-blue straight-grain morocco covers, watered silk endpapers, internal gilt dentelles and leather hinges. Initial calligraphic address by 'L.J.S.' mounted in card frame, followed by 14pp.of signatures (numbering in excess of 150), on the rectos of 14 pieces of gilt-edged card. In good condition, with slight wear to corners and at head and tail of spine.

[ Lord Riddell and eugenics: 'Lunacy and mental deficiency must always be festering sores'. ] Printed pamphlet: 'Sterilisation of the Unfit. Paper read by Lord Riddell before the Medico-Legal Society, April 25th, 1929.'

Author: 
Lord Riddell [ George Allardice Riddell, 1st Baron Riddell ] (1865-1934), Fleet Street press baron, proprietor of the News of the World [ eugenics ]
Publication details: 
Printed for H. K. Lewis & Co. Ltd, by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ltd., London and Aylesbury. No date [ circa 1929 ].
£120.00

31 + [1]pp., 8vo. Stapled without wraps. Drophead title. (Offprint from Transactions of the Medico-Legal Society.) In fair condition, lightly aged, central vertical fold, rusted staples. 'No reasonable person', Riddell writes, 'suggests the wholesale sterilisation of masses of lunatics and defectives. Only very moderate measures are proposed.' Riddell's suggestion is that 'in suitable cases, subject to the consent of the Board of Control, or some similar body', and with the consent of the subject, lunatics and mental defectives be sterilised.

[ Leadenhall Press publication, with ownership inscriptions of Charles Sarolea and J. Laurie Coulson. ] The dear Neighbours! By the Author of "John Bull and his Island" &c., &c.

Author: 
'Max O'Rell' [ i.e. Leon Paul Blouet (1848-1903) ] [ The Leadenhall Press, London; Professor Charles Sarolea [ Charles Louis-Camille Sarolea ] (1870-1953); J. Laurie Coulson; Blackie and Son, binders]
Publication details: 
[ The Leadenhall Press. ] London: Field & Tuer; Simpkin, Marshall & Co.; Hamilton, Adams & Co. [ 1885 ]
£50.00

vi + 268pp., 12mo. In sturdy red morocco half-binding, with brownish-black boards in ribbed patterned cloth, and gilt tooling, marbled endpapers. Binders' ticket at rear: 'Bound by Blackie and Son'. On browned high-acidity paper, with slight damage to title-leaf. On the front free endpaper is the ownership inscription of 'Chas Sarolea', i.e. Professor Charles Sarolea [ Charles Louis-Camille Sarolea ] (1870-1953), noted Belgian philologist and author who settled in Scotland. Facing this, on a flyleaf, is the ownership inscription of 'J.

[ Ex-Officers Book Union, London. ] Printed book catalogue ('Part I'): 'A Collection of Choice & Charming Books of the 17th 18ty & 19th Centuries & a few Modern Authors offered for sale by the Ex-Officers Book Union'.

Author: 
[ Major George William Redway (1859-1934), soldier and military historian, trading as bookseller under the name ] 'Ex-Officers Book Union', Ealing, London
Publication details: 
London: 16 Rathgar Avenue, West Ealing. [ The Westminster Press, London W. ]
£45.00

The 'Ex-Officers' Book Union' (the apostrophe was omitted in later years) was an obscure business. The firm was certainly active between 1919 and 1936, mostly from 16 Rathgar Avenue, West Ealing. In the early 1930s its address was given as '87 Bishop's Mansions, S.W.6', which was also Redway's residence. It seems likely that the business was a joint-venture between Redway and at least one other former army officer. The present item is 40pp., small 4to. Stapled in brown printed wraps. In fair condition, lightly aged, on worn and creased wraps.

[ Chiswick Press book: presentation copy in original wraps. ] Day Dreams, To which are added some Translations from the Italian. By Sir John Kingston James, Baronet, M.A. Corresponding Member of the Royal Academy Della Crusca.

Author: 
Sir John Kingston James, Baronet, M.A. [ Charles Whittingham, Chiswick Press, London; Royal Academy Della Crusca ]
Publication details: 
'London: Printed for Private Circulation. 1879.' [ Printed in London: 'Chiswick Press: - C. Whittingham, Tooks Court, Chancery Lane.' ]
£150.00

xii + 187pp., 8vo. A handsome example of Whittingham's handiwork, printed on good thick laid paper, with title page in black and red. In original grey paper wraps. Small vignette of a tree within a decorative circular border printed in brown on the front cover and in black on title page. Uncut edges. Internally in good condition, loose in frayed and worn wraps. Author's presentation inscription on flyleaf: 'Sophia Cunliffe Rodger | Given at Nice | to her by | Sir John Kingston James'. Printed 8vo presentation leaf loosely inserted, reading: Château Denis, | Hyères, Var, | France.

[ Signed by Braithwaite and Keel. ] The Royal Hospital Chelsea | A paper read before The Sette of Odd Volumes At the [511]th meeting of the Sette held at the Savoy Hotel, London on February 23rd, 1937.

Author: 
Gen. Sir Walter Pipon Braithwaite, G.C.B. Governor of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea 'and Peltast to the Sette' [ The Sette of Odd Volumes, London; Shenval Press ] Frederick Keel (1871-1954), composer
Publication details: 
[ Copy 24 of 133. ] London | Imprynted by THE SHENVAL PRESS and sold to NO Bokesellers'. 1937.
£80.00

38pp., 16mo. Internally in very good condition, in red paper boards printed in gilt, with bubbling at front and back, and in chipped and aged glassine wrapper. The number of the meeting has been added to the title in manuscript ('511'), and the signatures of 'Frederick Keel | Singer' and 'Walter Braithwaite' are written in pencil beneath the limitation (no 24 of 133 copies). Scarce.

[ One of thirty numbered copies. ] A Fragment from Finnigans [sic] Wake | Anna Livia Plurabelle | To mark the Centenary of the Birth of James Joyce.

Author: 
James Joyce [ Michael Hutchins, The Chimæra Press [ The Chimaera Press ] [ Beckenham, Kent ]; Eric Gill ]
Publication details: 
[ Beckenham, Kent. ] The Chimæra Press. [ The Chimaera Press. ] 1982.
£450.00

Elegantly printed in black and grey-blue. [28] + [1]pp., 4to. On loose leaves, on eight bifoliums, arranged in four pairs. In very good condition, lightly aged, wrapped in brown paper.

[ Limited edition, inscribed by Elizabeth Craig. ] Janie Ellice's Recipes 1846-1859 | Edited by Josie A. Wentworth | Foreword by Elizabeth Craig.

Author: 
Janie Ellice; Elizabeth Craig [ Elizabeth Josephine Craig ] (1883-1980), Scottish cookery writer; Josie A. Wentworth [ The Arcadia Press Limited, London ]
Publication details: 
[ London. ] The Arcadia Press Limited. 1974.
£95.00

124pp., 4to. Unbound (awaiting binding): with marbled endpapers and all edges gilt. Profusely illustrated with facsimile pages from the original. Edition limited to 265 copies. This copy out of series. In good condition, lightly-aged, on cream paper, with slight wear to endpapers. Craig's sprawling signature on title-page. Uncommon. Both OCLC WorldCat and COPAC conflate their entries for this edition with the trade edition published by Macdonald and Jane's in 1975. The only copy of the 1974 edition certainly thrown up by OCLC WorldCat at Oxford.

[ Periodical; political & literary ] Extracts from The Britannia [.] Conservative Weekly Newspaper

Author: 
[Newspaper]
Publication details: 
London: Printed at the Steam Press of Kelly & Co, [1840]
£320.00

16pp., 8vo, formerly sewn but stab marks only left, hence disbound, dulled but good condition. From the initial Address the newspaper has been in existence only 12 months, and this is the first digest, with stirring poems by Havali, a Sketches of Character exclusive to the paper, by Mrs S.C. Hall, lead article on England, France and Russia, a short piece on The Opium Question, etc. London University (Senate House) has the only recorded copy of this item, and I've found no Library holding runs of the actual newspaper.

London Cries: With Six Charming Children printed direct from stippled plates in the Bartolozzi style, and duplicated in red and brown, and about forty other illustrations [...].

Author: 
Andrew W. Tuer [ Field and Tuer, 'Ye Leadenhalle Presse' [ The Leadenhall Press, London ]
Publication details: 
London: Field & Tuer, ye Leadenhalle Press, E.C. [ 1885. ]
£100.00

The full title reads: 'London Cries: With Six Charming Children printed direct from stippled plates in the Bartolozzi style, and duplicated in red and brown, and about forty other illustrations including ten of Rowlandson's humorous subjects in facsimile, and tinted; examples by George Cruikshank, Joseph Crawhall, &c., &c. The text by Andrew W. Tuer, Author of "Bartolozzi and his Works," *&c.' [1] + 48pp., 4to. With six engraved plates of children and forty illustrations in text, those from Rowlandson hand-coloured. In brown cloth half-binding, with grey boards.

[ Charterhouse; book ] Carthusian Worthies.

Author: 
J. L. Smith-Dampier [ Shakespeare Head Press, Oxford; Charterhouse ]
Publication details: 
Oxford: Printed at the Shakespeare Head Press, St Aldates, and Sold by Basil Blackwell, Broad Street. 1940.
£200.00

xxiv + 366pp., 8vo. In rough red cloth with lettering in blue. A good copy, lightly aged and worn, in a chipped and worn dustwrapper with closed tears mended with archival tape. Tastefully printed in the firm's robust style. The blurb on the front of the dustwrapper states: 'The aim of the author, himself an Old Carthusian, is to introduce or recall some of the famous men who have successively peopled the Charterhouse, whether as monastery, mansion or school.

[ Susan Gilruth, crime writer. ] Personal album of material ("guard-book" relating to her seven crime novels, with numerous newspaper cuttings, dustwrappers, a press release, three items of fan mail.

Author: 
Susan Gilruth [ born Susannah Margaret Hornsby-Wright ], crime writer
Publication details: 
[ England. Between 1951 and 1963. ]
£320.00

Gilruth was the author of seven crime novels: 'Sweet Revenge' (1951), 'Death in Ambush' (1952), 'Postscript to Penelope' (1954), 'A Corpse for Charybdis' (1956), 'To this Favour' (1957), 'Drown Her Remembrance' (1961) and 'The Snake is Living Yet' (1963). The material in this collection is in good overall condition, lightly aged and worn. Most of the material is laid down on 41pp. of a 25 x 38 cm. album (ownership signature on front pastedown), with press cuttings of reviews grouped around the cut-down dustwrappers of the first six of Gilruth's books.

Printed pamphlet: 'Memoir of the Most Reverend Roger Bede Vaughan, O.S.B., Archbishop of Sydney. By the Right Reverend J. C. Hedley, D.D.

Author: 
Right Reverend J. C. Hedley, D.D. [ Roger Bede Vaughan, O.S.B., Archbishop of Sydney; Charles Whittingham, Chiswick Press, London ]
Publication details: 
London: Printed at the Chiswick Press. 1884. [ Chiswick Press: - C. Whittingham and Co., Tooks Court, Chancery Lane. ]
£75.00

31pp., 8vo. Disbound without covers. In good condition, lightly aged, with stitching cut causing separation of the two signatures. A scarce Chiswick Press item: the only copy on COPAC at the British Library.

Printed pamphlet: 'Agriculture'.

Author: 
Peter Kropotkin [ James Tochatti, Liberty Press, Chiswick ]
Publication details: 
London: Printed and Published by James Tochatti, "Liberty" Press, Chiswick, W. 1896.
£65.00

18 + [2]pp., 8vo. Disbound. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Two pages of advertisements at rear: the first carrying a list of titles in the 'Liberty Bookshelf' series, the second listing 'Liberty Pamphlets'. Now uncommon.

[ William John Charles Pitcher Wilhelm, costume designer.] Illustrations of costumes for the Empire Theatre ballet 'The Press' (1898), each representing a Fleet Street newspaper.

Author: 
[ William John Charles Pitcher Wilhelm (1858-1925), costume and theatre designer; Empire Theatre, London; Leopold Wenzel; Katti Lanner; Dame Adeline Genée (1878-1970), ballet dancer; Fleet Street ]
Publication details: 
Without place or date. [ Ballet performed at the Empire Theatre, London in 1898.]
£50.00

In black and white on 34 x 23 cm shiny art paper. Possibly extracted from an unnamed periodical. Lightly aged and worn, and ruckled from being laid down on paper backing. Tiny chip lost at foot. Sixteen female figures are shown, in costumes representing newspapers from the 'Daily Mail' to 'The Sketch', and including 'Mdlle. Zangfretta as Fashion', around a central representation of a scene from the ballet, featuring Adeline Genée as the Liberty of the Press.

[ Phyllis Hartnoll, theatre historian and poet. ] Four Typed Letters Signed to the theatrical bookseller Barry Duncan, with other material relating to the purchase of items from him.

Author: 
Phyllis Hartnoll (1906-1997), theatre historian, musicoloist, poet and publisher [ Barry Duncan [ Horace Alexander Barry Duncan ] (1909-1985), London theatre historian ]
Publication details: 
Three of the letters on Oxford University Press letterheads. Other items addressed from her home, Hobbits, Nether Westcote, Kingham, Oxon. 1945 and 1946.
£180.00

Nine items. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. Heavily annotated by Duncan. The letters (each 1p. long, two in 4to and two in 8vo) concern her orders and wants'. On 23 April 1945 she writes: 'I find on looking through the Play Pictorial bound volumes that No. 28 His Highness My Husband is missing. It is not a very important one, in fact I don't remember hearing of the play before, but if you happen to have a copy among your single numbers, I should be glad to have it, in order to complete the volume.

[ Printed Victorian children's book with hand-coloured plates and two stories named on title-page. ] Prince Arthur; or, The Four Trials | A Fairy Tale. By Catherine Mary Stirling. Tales by the Flowers. By Caroline B. Templer.

Author: 
Catherine Mary Stirling; Caroline B. Templer [ James Hogg & Sons, London publisher; Camden Press, London printers ]
Publication details: 
London: James Hogg & Sons. [ Camden Press, London ] [ 1861. ]
£120.00

124 + [4] pp., 12mo. Four hand-coloured plates including frontispiece. A four-page publisher's advertisement at rear, for 'A New and Attractive Series of Juvenile Books'. In fair condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. In worn brown-cloth binding with decorative design featuring titles in gilt on cover; split hinge at rear. Stirling's story continues to p.50, and is followed by Templer's collection of 27 'improving' poems, from 'The Invitation' and 'The Holly Tree's Tale - Christmas' to 'Heartsease - Thoughts of Peace' and 'The Misseltoe - A Missionary Tale'.

[Private Press; Manuscript] Francis James Publishing Co. | Purchases Book, "Dissection Book", Sales Book, and a notebook with Purchases and Receipts..

Author: 
F. J. Newbery [Francis James Newbery (b.1881)], sometime with the Golden Cockerel Press and director and manager of the Chiswick Press, here Publisher as "Francis James Publishoing Co.
Publication details: 
[Purchases Book] 1944-1948; [Dissection Book] Dec. 31, 1943- Dec. 1947; Sales Book AND Notebook Feb.1944-Dec.1948;
£650.00

All in Francis James Newbery's hand. Four volumes, sm. folio (3), 8vo (Notebook), good condition. [Purchases Book] c.32pp. used; [Dissection Book] c.14pp. used; Sales Book. 18pp. used; Notebook, 16pp total - Payments 10pp, Receipts, 6pp.A. PURCHASES BOOK: Sources of various items (usually multiple) with costs include: George Bell & Sons (permit to use illustration); Craske, Vaus & Crampton (Fine line blocks); Chiswick Press (colour printing etc; many references); National News Letter (cartridge paper); Novello & Co. (Binding - 3017 copies of 'Easter Eggs'); H.H.

A Catalogue of an Unique Collection of Ancient English Broadside Ballads printed entirely in the Black Letter.

Author: 
'Black-letter Ballads' [ John Russell Smith, London bookseller; Charles Whittingham, Chiswick Press ]
Publication details: 
On Sale by John Russell Smith, No. 36, Soho Square, London. 1856. [ Chiswick Press: - C. Whittingham, Tooks Court, Chancery Lane. ]
£100.00

vii + 141 + [1]pp., 8vo. Final leaf with Chiswick Press device of dolphin and anchor and lion. In sturdy nineteenth-century black leather half-binding, with marbled boards and 'Russell's Catalogue 1856' in gilt on spine. Ownership stamp of 'Alfred H Maurais' on fly-leaf. A characteristically-elegant Chiswick Press item, with 408 items listed, the titles in black letter. Three-page anonymous preface, dated 'May, 1856.' Tight copy, but aged and lightly damp-stained, in worn binding.

[ Presentation copy from Robert Elwell of the Grolier Club. ] The Plantin Press, Los Angeles | Check List of an Exhibition | Books, Catalogues, &c., printed by Saul and Lillian Marks.

Author: 
Robert Elwell of The Grolier Club, New York; Saul and Lillian Marks, The Plantin Press, Los Angeles; Jake Zeitlin
Publication details: 
The Grolier Club, New York. 13 September through December 1971. [ Printed by Saul and Lillian Marks, The Plantin Press, Los Angeles. ]
£50.00

16pp., 12mo. Stitched into cream wraps with title printed in red on cover. In good condition, with slight wear to overlapping edges of wraps. Inscription in pencil at head of first page: 'ABR from Bob, 1972 | - see colophon' ('ABR' is the London antiquarian bookseller Anthony Bertram Rota). The 'Acknowledgments' (rather than a colophon) on the last page begin: 'Saul and Lillian Marks wish to thank Mr. Robert Elwell for inviting the Plantin Press to show its work at the Grolier Club, [...]'.

Aspidistras and parlers.

Author: 
H. D. C. Pepler [Eric Gill, S. Dominic's Press]
Publication details: 
'PRINTED AT S. DOMINIC'S PRESS, DITCHLING, SUSSEX' at foot of verso of last leaf; no date.
£70.00

Four leaves. Eight unpaginated pages. 16mo. Nine and a half centimeters by twelve and a half centimeters. Stitching thread untied. Evan Gill 392 describes a copy dated 1927, but makes no mention of an undated issue. Engraving of aspidistra in vase on table before curtains on cover-title. Engravings by Gill: initial G, verso of first leaf; Christ on cross, verso of second leaf; glue pot, recto of third leaf; domestic interior, verso of third leaf; printer's device, verso of last leaf. No copy currently on AddAll.

[ Macleod Yearsley and the Thinker's Library. ] Copy of Yearsley's book 'The Folklore of Fairy-Tale' with extensive autograph emendations (two notes initialled 'M. Y.') and two proof specimens for intended republication in the Thinker's Library.

Author: 
Macleod Yearsley [ Percival Macleod Yearsley ] (1867-1951), surgeon, author, folklorist and eugenicist [ The Thinker's Library, published by Watts & Co. for the Rationalist Press Association, London ]
Publication details: 
Book: London: Watts & Co., Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, E.C.4. 1924. Specimen proofs by Richard Clay & Sons, Bungay, Suffolk: June and July 1936.
£280.00

The item provides an interesting insight into the editing process of the Thinker's Library, 140 volumes of which Watts & Co. published for the Rationalist Association between 1929 and 1951. The book is xiii + 240pp., 8vo, in red cloth binding, gilt. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper, with slight wear to one corner. A couple of leaves have been neatly torn out, evidently in the process of revision. Stamp of the Rationalist Press Association Ltd on reverse of title.

[Chinese Miners] Testimonial, in English, in the form of a printed poster, presented to Robinson on the occasion of his retirement as Senior Inspector of Mines, F.M.S., with list of names.

Author: 
'The Chinese Miners of the F.M.S. [Federated Malay States]' [Charles Ingle Robinson, Senior Inspector of Mines, F.M.S.; Malaysia; Malaya]
Publication details: 
'IPOH 11th MAY, 1933.' ['Printed at the Kuang Ming Press, Ipoh. [Malaya]']
£85.00

Printed in blue on one side of a piece of white paper roughly 60 x 40 cm. Good: lightly-aged and creased. The text is enclosed within an ornate decorative border, and is headed 'Charles Ingle Robinson Esqr., | B. Sc. (Lond.), Associate R. S. M., | M. I. C. E., M. I. M. M., | Senior Inspector of Mines, F. M. S.' This is followed by nineteen lines, expressing 'deep regret and genuine sorrow' at his 'departure for Europe on retirement'.

[ Soviet Poland, printed periodicals. ] Three numbers of 'Polish Facts & Figures | Issued by the Press Office of the Polish Embassy in London'.

Author: 
[ Soviet Poland; the Polish Embassy in London; Jimmy Shields (1900-1949) ]
Publication details: 
[ The Press Office of the Polish Embassy in London. ] Three numbers: No. 5, 16 July 1946; No. 14, 19 September 1946; No. 51, 28 June 1947. [ Printed by St. Clements Press Ltd., Portugal Street, London, W.C.2.' ]
£90.00

The three items are each 4pp., 4to, in bifoliums, and uniform in design. Each carrying a number of articles in small print. Each on aged paper and with wear to margin along outer edge, but with text clear and undamaged. No. 5 includes articles titled: 'Referendum Results', 'Poland's National Day', 'Polish-British Relations', 'Poland's Independence and Freedom Secured | M. Bierut speaks to Democratic Party Congress', 'A Polish Economic System'. No. 14 has in it articles on 'Mr. Byrnes v.

[ Neville Rogers, editor of Shelley. ] Typed Letter Signed ('Neville') to 'Marjorie', gossippy and satirical, esp. about Nancy Cunard, with offprints of two of his articles ('Shelley and the West Wind' &'Lauro de Bosis'), inscribed to the recipient

Author: 
Neville Rogers (1909-1985), academic, editor of the works of Percy Bysshe Shelley [ Nancy Cunard (1896-1965), poet, patron and eccentric ]
Publication details: 
Letter dated from 5 Beaumont Street, Oxford; 11 February 1954. Inscription to 'Lauro de Bosis' (1963) dated from Waltham, Massachussetts, 10 March 1964. Inscription to 'Shelley and the West Wind' (1956) undated.
£220.00

The three items in good condition, with light signs of age and wear. LETTER: 2pp., 8vo. A splendidly waspish missive. Topics include: her 'letter to Mickie' ('masterly diplomacy'); 'dear Miss Massey, wounded on active service for the BIS' (with references to 'Mrs.

[ Eric Gill and the Spoil Bank Association Limited. ] Printed First and Second Mortgage Debentures, signed by Eric Gill, H. J. Cribb, Hilary Pepler, Charles L. Waters, Edgar Holloway, with printed transfer slips, all signed by Valentine KilBride.

Author: 
Eric Gill; The Spoil Bank Association Limited; Ditchling; H. J. Cribb [ Herbert Joseph Cribb ]; Hilary Pepler; Charles L. Waters; Valentine KilBride [ John Valentine Denis KilBride ]; Edgar Holloway
Publication details: 
Both items: The Spoil Bank Association Limited, 'Registered Office S. Dominic's Press, Ditchling Common, Hassocks, Sussex.' Both dated 23 February 1922, the first printed and second in manuscript.
£450.00

The Spoil Bank Association was the limited company which acted on behalf of the Guild of St. Joseph and St. Dominic, the group of Roman Catholic craftworkers centred on Gill and based on Ditchling Common in Sussex. Each of the present two items in good condition, with light signs of age and wear. Both bifoliums on good deckled-edge paper, and both 3pp., folio, with the customary covering information on the reverse of the second leaf. Attractive typographic productions, printed in black and red on deckled-edge watermarked laid paper. Both with tax stamps and the Association's seal.

[ Printed item. ] Circular for the First Edition Club, London, by 'A. J. A. Symons, Secretary', inviting publishers to submit books to be included in 'the Fifty Books of the Year', and giving the criteria.

Author: 
The First Edition Club, London, founded by A. J. A. Symons [ Alphonse James Albert Symons ] (1900-1941) [ Curwen Press? ] [ William Foyle ]
Publication details: 
The First Edition Club, 6 Little Russell Street, London. [ Printed by the Curwen Press? ] [ Between 1922 and 1931. ]
£28.00

1p., 4to. Nicely printed (by the Curwen Press?) on watermarked laid paper. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. A nice piece of First Edition Club ephemera. The year to which the circular relates is meant to be added in manuscript, but has not been. Begins: 'The Committee appointed to choose the Fifty Books of the Year for [blank] will be grateful if, at your early convenience, you will submit such of your publications as seem to you most likely to be selected. I may perhaps remind you that the criteria by which judgment is made are | 1. TYPOGRAPHICAL DESIGN | 2. PAPER | 3. BINDING | 4.

[ The Soakers' Club, a 'convivial club' in Covent Garden. ] Club rules and 'Promoter's Address' by Julian Sharman, printed by the Chiswick Press.

Author: 
Julian Sharman, 'Promoter' of the Soakers' Club, Covent Garden, London [ The Chiswick Press, London ]
Publication details: 
'Printed at the Chiswick Press' [ Chiswick Press: - Printed by Whittingham and Wilkins, Tooks Court, Chancery Lane ]. 1874. [ Sharman's address dated from 'Covent Garden, | May, 1874.'
£50.00

[1] + 13pp., 12mo. Stitched. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. A tasteful production in grey printed wraps. Elaborate pseudo-seventeenth-century design to title-page replicated on front cover. Five-page 'Promoter's Address'' to 'My Friend and Pitcher', signed in type by Sharman, followed by a page listing the five members of the 'Committee, 1874-5' (Julian Sharman; Henry S. Leigh; Bourchier F. Hawksley; Jas. J. Railston; F. W. Robinson), and five pages carrying the club's fourteen rules.

[ James Sheridan Knowles, Irish dramatist. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('J. Sheridan Knowles') to the Birmingham printing ink manufacturers Beilby & Co, regarding a debt (incurred through his association with the Glasgow newspaper 'The Free Press').

Author: 
James Sheridan Knowles (1784-1862), Irish dramatist and actor [ Beilby & Knotts, Birmingham; William Spencer Northhouse, editor, 'The Free Press', Glasgow newspaper ]
Publication details: 
'July 1828 | Port Bannatyne | near Rothsay | Island of Bute | N[orth]. B[ritain].' [ Scotland. ]
£180.00

3pp., 4to. Bifolium. On aged and worn paper, with some repair, and traces of stub from mount still adhering. Addressed on reverse of second leaf, with postmarks, to 'Messrs Beilby & Co | Printing Ink Manufacturers | Birmingham'. On the same page, in another hand: 'Mr Reuben Sparks.' Knowles's entry in the Oxford DNB gives the context. In 1816 he 'moved to Glasgow, where he established and ran a school for nearly twelve years [...] In 1823 and 1824 he added to his income by conducting the literary department of the Free Press, a Glasgow paper which advocated liberal and social reform.

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