Book Trade History

Keepsake poem entitled 'Lines written for the dinner of the Book Publishers' Representatives' Association. October 4th, 1929.'

Author: 
E. V. Lucas [The Book Publishers' Representatives' Association; Methuen & Co.]
Publication details: 
[1929.]
£35.00

12mo: 8 pp. Dimensions of leaf roughly 13.5 x 11 cm. Lightly-spotted and creased, in creased and worn original purple wraps with title printed on front, and stitched with matching purple thread. An uncommon piece of Lucas and book trade ephemera, nicely printed. Beneath the title: 'President. W. J. Crawley. Principal Guests of the Evening. Sir Godfrey Collins, M.P. Edgar Wallace. E. V. Lucas. H. E.

Typed Letter Signed ('Basil Blackwell') to Secker.

Author: 
Sir Basil Blackwell (1889-1984), Oxford bookseller [Martin Secker (1882-1978), publisher]
Publication details: 
17 December 1969, on illustrated Blackwell's letterhead.
£35.00

4to: 1 p. Ten lines of text. Heavily stained, but a neat link between two giants of the twentieth-century British book trade. 'I give myself the pleasure of saluting you, I really believe for the first time'. He is happy for the opportunity of telling Secker how much he admired his 'flair and enterprise in earlier years'. He hopes he 'may write as firmly and with as lively a mind as you in six years' time'. 'Alas that we must disappoint you': the books Secker has requested are all out of print. 'Just possibly one or more may come into our hands secondhand.

Receipt, signed 'B Nichols, 25 Parliament Street', for a guinea subscription to Forby's 'Vocabulary'. Countersigned by Fletcher.

Author: 
John Bowyer Nichols and Son, Printers and Booksellers; John Kitson; Simon Wilkin, Norwich bookseller; Josiah Fletcher, Norwich bookbinder [The Gentleman's Magazine]
Publication details: 
11 December 1829. On printed company letterhead.
£25.00

On one side of a piece of wove paper roughly 10.5 x 17.5 cm. Good. Printed in top left-hand corner: 'To J. B. Nichols and Son. Printers and Booksellers. 25, Parliament Street, Westminster. ***Office, 10, King Street, Westminster.' Asks that the 'Subscription to Forby's Vocabulary 1 1 0' be paid to him or to 'Mr Wilkin, Bookseller, herewith'. Countsigned crosswise 'Received for S. Wilkin | [signed] Josiah Fletcher | Jan 25/30'. Docketed on reverse. BBTI has Wilkin as a bookseller in Norwich from before 1821 to 1830; and Fletcher as a binder and printer there from around 1820 to 1835.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Dr. v Martius'), in English, to 'James Murray jun. Esq.', son of the London bookseller John Murray the second.

Author: 
Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius (1794-1868), German botanist and South American explorer [John Murray II (1778-1843); Rudolph Oldenbourg (1811-1903); Johann Georg Cotta, Baron von Cottendorf]
Publication details: 
Munich 21. April 1841.'
£350.00

4to (leaf dimensions roughly 27 x 21.5 cm): 1 p. Fifteen lines of text. On the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium, with the address on the reverse of the second leaf. Text complete and legible, on aged paper, grubby, worn and creased paper. An unusual and interesting letter of introduction, pointing out the international links in the European booktrade of the early nineteenth century.

Autograph Note in the third person to William Henry Kearsley Wright (1844-1915), Plymouth Borough Librarian, naval historian and antiquary.

Author: 
John George Edward Henry Douglas Sutherland Campbell, Marquis of Lorne [Marquess of Lorne] and Duke of Argyll (1845-1914), Governor-General of Canada
Publication details: 
21 October 1875. Kensington [i.e. Kensington Palace].
£25.00

12mo: 1 p. Very good on lightly-aged paper. Reads: 'The Marquis of Lorne presents his compliments to Mr Wright and thanks him for the copy he has sent him of "The Spanish Armada." Wright's 'The Spanish Armada: a descriptive historical poem' was published in Plymouth by G. P. Friend in 1874.

Autograph Letter Signed to Rupert Simms.

Author: 
John Kinsman (born 1826), bookseller of Penzance, Cornwall [Rupert Simms (1854-1937), Staffordshire bookseller and bibliographer]
Publication details: 
21 January 1884; Penzance.
£65.00

12mo (leaf dimensions 18 x 11 cm): 2 pp. Twenty-one lines of text, complete and legible. On aged paper with some wear at head. Casting interesting light on the workings of the provincial Victorian booktrade.

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.

Offprint of letter to the editor of The Times, headed 'MR. DICKENS AND MR. BENTLEY. | To the Editor of "The Times." '

Author: 
George Bentley (1828-1895), London bookseller; son of Richard Bentley (1794-1871) [Charles Dickens]
Publication details: 
GEORGE BENTLEY. | NEW BURLINGTON STREET, | Dec. 7, 1871.'
£100.00

8vo (21.5 x 14 cm), 4 pp. Unbound bifolium. Good, on lightly aged and foxed paper. The item is well-printed, paginated with two footnotes. The subject is laid out at the start: 'In the first volume of Mr. Dickens' Life, just published, I read an account of Mr. DICKENS' literary connexion with my father, which it is impossible for me to leave without remark. The biographer therein presents my father in a character which all who knew him would repudiate as belonging to him.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Philippe de Larenaudière'), in French, to unnamed male editor of a journal.

Author: 
Philippe de Larenaudière [Philippe François de La Renaudière], nineteenth-century French mining engineer, geographer and traveller in the Americas
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£65.00

4to, 1 p. Fourteen lines of text, on the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium. Text clear and complete, on lightly aged and creased paper. Slight staining at foot of text (affecting part of signature), and on the reverse of the second leaf of the bifolium, which is docketed 'la renaudié | A. S.' He is sending an article on 'la Bibliotheque des voyages'. Asks that the article on the work entitled 'Des Beaux arts en Angleterre', 'que Buisson vous adressa il ya prés de Deux mois', be inserted. 'Je vous prie en grace de laisser ma Signature en entier.

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'.

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 Signature.

Author: 
Joseph Gulston (1744/5-1786), British book collector and connoisseur
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£20.00

On a piece of paper cut from a letter, roughly 3.5 x 9.5 cm. On lightly aged and slightly grubby paper. Good firm signature, beneath which, in a contemporary hand, 'I knew his daughter Stepny'. Gulston's wife Bridgetta (1749/50–1780) was the second daughter of Sir Thomas Stepney.

Autograph (Facsimile?) Letter Signed ('Jas. R. Fairfax') to male correspondent.

Author: 
Sir James Reading Fairfax (1834-1919), Australian newspaper proprietor [The Sydney Morning Herald; The Sydney Mail]
Publication details: 
11 May 1884; on letterhead of the Sydney Morning Herald and Sydney Mail.
£56.00

12mo: 1 p. Ten lines of text. Bifolium. Grubby, and with the text of the letter faint. Letterhead printed in red with illustration of the firm's headquarters. Written in, or faded to, lilac, and could well be a carbon. Sending copies of the two newspapers as 'we think it probable you would like your newly published works noticed or reviewed' in them.

Signed Autograph Inscription to Edward Bawden.

Author: 
Lionel Ellis (b. 1903), English wood engraver, artist and book illustrator [Edward Bawden]
Publication details: 
Siena; May 1926.
£25.00

On a piece of paper, roughly 14 x 12 cm. Creased, and with a few pin holes (not affecting text). Edges untidily cut. Possibly the ffep of a presented book. Text in purple ink, with good firm signature (roughly 4.5 cm long). Reads 'To my very dear Friend | E. Bawden | [signed] Lionel Ellis | Siena May 1926'. The '6' in the date slightly cropped.

Autograph Note Signed ('J M').

Author: 
John Mitford (1781-1851), clergyman, antiquary and editor of The Gentleman's Magazine [Sir Frederic Madden]
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£35.00

12mo: 1 p. Dimensions of leaf 11 x 9 cm. Twelve lines of text, headed 'P. 320'. In poor condition: grubby and aged. Laid down on piece of grey paper removed from autograph book. 2 cm closed tear in bottom left-hand corner affecting a couple of words of text. Difficult hand. Criticising a note, giving references to three works. Ends 'I don't see any use in printing this letter - but Sir F. Madden will tell you better. | JM -'.

Three (Secretarial) Notes Signed to J. Arthur Hutton, of the British Cotton Growing Association. And corrected draft giving conclusions of a meting.

Author: 
[A.J. Balfour] Arthur James Balfour, sometime Prime Minister
Publication details: 
[Addresses include 10 Downing Street (1905)], 1892-1906
£125.00

Six pages, 8vo, some edges dusty but mainly good condition. (1892) He can't leave the House of Commons at 5 o'clock. (March 1905) Thanks Hutton for a copy of the Proceedings at the Banquet of the British Cotton Growing Association, and for references in it to Balfour's contributions to the "movement". (Nov. 1905) Thanks for a copy of the Second Annual Report of the British Cotton Growing Association, and is pleased with the movement's progress. With: A memo (a pencilled note explains), on 13 Jan. 1903, "drawn up by McNiel & corrected by Mr Balfour".

Two invoices, a receipt, and cheque countersigned by Parker.

Author: 
John W. Parker, publisher and bookseller.
Publication details: 
London, 1833-1834.
£100.00

"John W. Parker, Publisher to The Committee of General Literature and Education appointed by the [SPCK]", invoices and receipt, Dec 1833 & 1834, April 1833 and 22 April 1834 respectively, total £8.17, for advertising "Publications of Society in Saturday Mag Pt 2 / Bible in Times, Courier, Herald, Albion, Standard, Times [sic] & Saturday Mag / 52 Exercises Geography for East India Mission". With a further invoice (1833, paid in 1835); and a cheque drawn by the Society on Gosling and Sharpe for £397.12.0 signed on the reverses by Parker.

Twelve receipts and invoices.

Author: 
[Stationers to the SPCK]
Publication details: 
1827-1836.
£165.00

12 items, receipts and invoices, some substantial, 1827-1836, listing items, quantities and prices. Stationers include: Christopher Magnay & Sons [BBTI to 1830, this 1831]; William Magnay [Add College Hill, Thames Street, and 1836 - BBTI has 1839 only]; George Prichard [SPCK symbol, add to BBTI that They were "Depository of the [SPCK]"; Roake & Varty [Add to BBTI bookbinders, engravers]; Venables & Wilson [partnership not in BBTI]; Venables, Wilson & Tyler; William Winbolt. The highest receipt was for £322.17.6 for paper for the SPCK Annual Report.

Manuscript accounts, SPCK with Rivingtons.

Author: 
[House of Rivington, publishers and booksellers]
Publication details: 
1829-1830
£250.00

12pp., 4to, April 1829-March 1830, giving a total (for example, April [1829] £4700.8.7- indicating the value to the bookseller of SPCK business), and giving details of discounts. WITH: "Miscellaneous Acc[oun]ts 1829-1830", 2pp., 4to; four cheques mostly for large sums, made out to "Selves", drawn on SPCK bankers, Gosling & Sharpe, signed by John Rivington (x 3) and [G. & F.?] Rivington; and a MS.

Four invoices and receipts.

Author: 
[Newspaper suppliers to the SPCK]
Publication details: 
1829-1835
£95.00

Four items, invoices and receipts, relating to the acquisition of newspapers by the SPCK, suppliers including: F. Appleyard (Daily Newspaper and Standard) [not in BBTI, same address as Sarah]; Sarah Appleyard (Herald, Record, Times, Standard, Post); R[ichard] Barker (Cambridge Chronicle); Richard Barker (advertisements for the Anniversary Dinner, and two Special General Meetings, supplying Times, Post, Chronicle, Herald, Morning News, Standard, Courier, Globe, Albion, St James's Chronicle); Thomas Woodham (Times)

Invoices and receipts.

Author: 
[Bookbinders to the SPCK]
Publication details: 
1835-1836.
£100.00

Six items, invoices and receipts, 1835-1836, some revealing the spreading of the binding among different firms of "Military Prayers" [prob. John Parker Lawson, "The Military Pastor", a series of Practical Discourses addressed to soldiers, with prayers for the use of the sick published by J.W. Parker [pp. SPCK]]. Binders include: Camp [& Curtis][not in BBTI - William to 1831]; Eliza Camp [BBTI same address as William Camp for a time; BBTI]; Russell & Spencer; Joseph Smith [& Son] [not in BBTI]; F. Remnant.

[Printed Circular]

Author: 
Charles Frederic Cocks [Charles Frederick Cocks], bookseller and stationer.
Publication details: 
64 Paternoster Row, Cheapside, December, 1823.
£85.00

Two scraps of paper which combine to form a printed circular signed "Charles Frederic Cock" announcing his commencement in business as a bookseller and stationer. He has had eight years "practical Acquaintance with the Business". He is soliciting business. On the versos of this circular, there are notes which reveal Cock's role in the distribution of prayer books on behalf of the SPCK. With: invoice and receipt, the latter signed "Charles Frederick Cock", 4 Sept.

The Le Blond Book 1920

Author: 
C.T. Courtney Lewis
Publication details: 
London and Edinburgh, 1920
£100.00

From the Library of Percy Muir, bookseller and author. Red cloth, faded bumped and with some wear and tear, contents with foxing and marking. With occasional notes on the text and additions and corrections in Muir's hand. And with 2 ALSs, one by Edward D. Mason, 2pp., 8vo, 9 March 1922, discussing le Blond ovals he is sending, and asking for an offer. The other ALS, 2pp., 4to, is from a Percy Maylam to the book's author, Courtney Lewis, correcting details in the book and giving explanations.

An archive representing his bookselling activities (first year of business) in 1951.

Author: 
[MID-CENTURY BOOKSELLING] Lt-Col. W.N. Pettigrew, bookseller,
Publication details: 
193 Kimbolton Road, Bedford, 1951.
£450.00

The archive comprises c. 150 items, the vast majority letters but also postcards, and manuscript and typewritten lists, some substantial, usually of Kiplingiana. [One in Pettigrew's hand, returned by Rota, has individual suggestions of prices attached and the final price offered by Pettigrew.] The letters are either manuscript or typewritten, in various formats, and mainly 1 or 2 pages. The archive breaks down into three sections: letters from booksellers (two from auctioneers); letters from collectors/bookbuyers; and personal/business papers.

DICTIONARIES and GRAMMARS Catalogue 891 [500 Books on Linguistics and the Diversity of Tongues].

Author: 
[DICTIONARIES AND GRAMMARS, LEXICOGRAPHY] Maggs Brothers booksellers' catalogue
Publication details: 
April 1964; London: Maggs Bros. Ltd. 50 Berkeley Square, London, W.1.
£45.00

8vo. Pages: [2 +] 142. Frontispiece and fourteen full-page plates on art paper at rear. In good condition, in original green printed wraps, worn and torn and with closed tear at head of spine. A few marks in soft pencil. An invaluable scholarly production.

Catalogue of the well-known and very valuable library formed at the Durdans, Epsom, by the late Rt. Honble. the Earl of Rosebery, K.G., K.T. Sold by order of his daughter Lady Sybil Grant. The first and second portions.

Author: 
Archibald Philip Primrose (1847-1929) , 5th Earl of Rosebery, British Prime Minister [Lady Sybil Grant; the Durdans, Epsom; Sotheby & Co.]
Publication details: 
Sotheby & Co., 34 & 35, New Bond Street, W.(1). On Monday, the 26th day of June, 1933, and four following days.
£100.00

TWO COPIES, both octavo: iv + 158 pages. Several collotype plates, several in red and gold. In original green printed Sotheby wraps. Both items sound internally, with some wear to the wraps. One item has extensive pencil annotations to the front wraps, and the other has a few ink marks to the reverse, with minor wear to the last couple of leaves. Both catalogues partially priced with some names by the London booksellers Myers & Co. of New Bond Street, one on the second day of the sale and the other on the fifth.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Cte Jaubert'), in French, to 'Messieurs Pichon & Didier, Libraires Commissionaires, quai des Augustins No. 47. Paris.'

Author: 
Comte François Jaubert (1758-1822), Conseiller d'Etat à Vie; Gouverneur de la Banque de France under the First Empire [Pichon et Didier, Paris printers]
jaubert
Publication details: 
Givry, près Fourchambault, par Nevers (Nièvre) 3 Juin 1827'.
£56.00
jaubert

12mo, 1 p. Eighteen lines of text. Good, on aged paper. Address, with broken wafer and two circular postmarks (one in red ink and the other in black) on verso of second leaf of bifolium. Making an order for a periodical publication, and giving instructions for delivery and payment.

Five Autograph Letters Signed (all 'E. Contambert'), in French: three to Ange de Saint-Priest and one to 'Monsieur le Caissier' of 'L'Encyclopédie'.

Author: 
Pierre-François Eugène Cortambert (1805-1881), geographer, Conservator of the Geographic Section of the Bibliothèque Nationale [Ange de Saint-Priest, editor of 'L'Encyclopédie du Dix-Neuvième Siècle']
Publication details: 
1852, 1874 and two undated.
£125.00

All items in good condition, on lightly aged paper, with text clear and entire. Letter Two with a little light spotting to the recto of the first leaf. Written in a crabbed hand. Concerning contributions by Cortambert to 'L'Encyclopédie'. Letter One (12mo, 3 pp): To 'Monsieur et honorable directeur', 9 July 1852. Letter Two (12mo, 3 pp): To 'Monsieur et honorable directeur', 7 June 1874. Letter Three (12mo, 1 p): To 'Mr de St Priest', undated. Letter Four (8vo, 1 p): To 'Monsieur le Caissier de Encyclopédie du 19e Siècle', Paris, Rue de Saintonge, 64.

Souvenir of the Visit of the King of Spain to England', printed as napkin or handkerchief on tissue paper, illustrated, and with coloured border.

Author: 
Burgess, William & Co., London printers [King Alfonso XIII of Spain; King Edward VII of the United Kingdom; typography; typographical]
Publication details: 
[1905] 'Burgess William & Co., Printers, 12, Mansell Street, Aldgate, London City.'
£200.00

An unusual, scarce and frail survival. Printed on one side of a piece of tissue paper, roughly 35 cm square. Surprisingly well preserved: heavily creased, with some wear to extremities, one small hole (not affecting text or image) and one closed tear of approximately 4 cm to coloured border.

Three Autograph Letters Signed (all three 'W. Elwin') to historian Alexander William Kinglake (1809-1891).

Author: 
Whitwell Elwin (1816-1900), English journalist, editor of the 'Quarterly Review'
Publication details: 
1875, 1883, 1887; all three from Booton Rectory, Norwich.
£250.00

All three letters 12mo, and closely written. All three with rusted pinholes at head. A valuable correspondence, in which one of Victorian England's leading critics describes his response to the work of one of the age's foremost historians. LETTER ONE (1 page, 26 lines, good): He thanks Kinglake for sending his 'new volume' [of 'The Invasion of the Crimea']. 'I am reading it with great delight. The work to me is unique both in military & literary history.

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