Printing History

Three items (a printed announcement, invoice and receipt) relating to Johnstone & Hunter's edition of Dr John Owen's 'Works'.

Author: 
John Johnstone & Robert Hunter [Johnstone & Hunter], printers, binders and publishers, 15 Princes Street and 104 High Street, Edinburgh [James Alsop of Leek, Stafford]
Publication details: 
June and July 1855;
£100.00

All three items in good condition, a little grubby and lightly creased. Three pieces of nineteenth-century Scottish book trade ephemera. Item One (12mo, 1 p, nine lines of text): printed announcement that the 'concluding Volumes of our Edition of OWEN'S WORKS [...] will not be sent to Subscribers in arrear'. On the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium, with the verso of the blank second leaf docketed by Alsop. Item Two (12mo, 1 p, on grey-paper printed form): invoice, 'To JOHNSTONE & HUNTER, 15 PRINCES STREET.', dated June 1855. The subscription of 'J. Allsop Esqr.

Four items: the three numbers of the 'Album of the Bannatyne Club', with the first number bound with 'A Catalogue of Works printed for The Bannatyne Club. No. I.'

Author: 
David Laing, Secretary, The Bannatyne Club, Edinburgh, Scotland [Sir Walter Scott; Scottish; antiquarian]
Publication details: 
[Edinburgh: 1825 ('Catalogue' and first number of 'Album'), 1831 and 1854]
£400.00

All four items tastefully and crisply printed. ITEMS ONE AND TWO ('Catalogue' and first number of 'Album'): Both 8vo, bound together in original dark-green wraps. 'Catalogue': 12 pp; 'Album': 22 + [i] pp. All edges gilt. Wraps creased and worn, with slight chipping at head of spine. Some creasing to prelims and last few leaves. Note to 'Catalogue' (by 'D. L. | S.') explains that the 'following List contains the titles of such Books as have been printed for the Bannatyne Club since its Institution in February 1823'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('David S. Meldrum') to unnamed female correspondent.

Author: 
David Storrar Meldrum (1864-1940), novelist and partner in the publishing house of Blackwood's
Publication details: 
4 September 1897; on company letterhead '37, Paternoster Row, London, E.C.'
£56.00

8vo: 3 pp. On grubby, lightly creased paper. The recipient has made Meldrum a 'pretty present' of her edition of Burns (COPAC provides no clue as to her identity). He finds the volumes 'very dainty', and will read her notes 'with interest'. He has already read her 'Introductions' with 'great pleasure'. He comments on her assessment of a couple of poems and finds her 'standpoint' on 'the man & the poet' 'capital'. 'But you must allow me one criticism: you read into the poems a political significance which I'm sure wasn't there.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Geo: D. Ballingall') from Ballingall to Shorter, as editor of 'The Sphere' newspaper, regarding a legal action involving Crooke, Scots Pictorial Publishing Co. Ltd. and Hodge & Co.

Author: 
William Crooke (c. 1849-1928), Scottish photographer [Scots Pictorial Publishing Co. Ltd., Edinburgh publishers; George D. Ballingall, solicitor; Hodge & Co., printers; Clement King Shorter, author]
Publication details: 
26 August 1905; on letterhead 'Edinburgh, 16 Castle Street.'
£23.00

Two pages, 12mo. Very good. In a case involving ['The Sphere'?] newspaper, Crooke has accepted the judgement in the case of the printers Hodge & Co., but he has appealed 'to the Inner House of the Court of Session' against the judgement in the case against the publishers. 'If the appeal is proceeded with it is not likely to be heard sooner than about December.'

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.

Secretarial Letter, Signed by Murray ('A. H. Hallam Murray'), to C. J. Holdsworth, responding to a criticism of an entry in one of 'Murray's Guides'.

Author: 
Alexander Henry Hallam Murray (1854-1934), son of the London publisher John Murray the third (1808-1892) [50 Albemarle Street; Murray's Guides]
Publication details: 
28 January 1898; on letterhead of 50 Albemarle Street.
£28.00

12mo, 2 pp. 12 lines of text. Very good on lightly-aged paper. He has received Holdsworth's letter, and is 'sorry to hear that you found our description of the Royal Hotel not justified'. Note will be taken of Holdsworth's 'experiences' and 'whatever alterations are necessary' will be made, 'when next we reprint the Index & Directory of the Handbook'. 'Notes such as [Holdsworth's] are most acceptable.'

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.

Original hand-coloured engraving by H. Adlard, from a drawing by W. H. Bartlett, captioned 'View from Gowanus Heights, Brooklyn. | Vue prise des hauteurs de Gowanus, Brooklyn | Prospect von der Gowanus Hohe, bei Brooklyn'.

Author: 
William Henry Bartlett (1809-1854), American artist; Henry Adlard, English engraver; George Virtue, London printseller [Brooklyn; New York; engravings; prints; maps; travel; topography]
Publication details: 
London. Published for the Proprietors by Geo: Virtue, 26, Ivy Lane, 1839.'
£56.00

Dimensions of print 12 x 18 cm. Dimensions of paper 19 x 24 cm. Good, clear image on aged and foxed paper. A pleasant rural view over the harbour, with a house nestling between trees and a couple walking among the hills. Tastefully coloured in light blue, green, red and pink.

Large advertising board, bearing a 'SPECIMEN PLATE' ('The Shadow of Death': 'Holman Hunt, Pinx. The Art Journal. Goupilgravure.'), for 'The Life and Work of W. Holman Hunt. By Archdeacon Farrar.'

Author: 
William Holman Hunt; Archdeacon Frederic William Farrar [Dean Farrar; Pre-Raphaelite; The Art Journal; Alice Meynell; J. S. Virtue & Co. Ltd.; Goupilgravure]
Publication details: 
[1893.] 'London: J. S. Virtue & Co. Ltd.' [The Art Journal.]
£85.00

Printed on one side of a piece of cream paper, roughly 33.5 x 25.5 cm. Laid down on card. Clear and complete, with a good impression of the plate (22.5 x 17.5 cm), on lightly-aged, grubby paper, with slight wear to extremities. Presumably produced for display in a shop window. The title ('THE LIFE AND WORK OF | W. HOLMAN HUNT. | BY ARCHDEACON FARRAR.') at head, and 'SPECIMEN PLATE.' at foot, in large orange letters; the rest printed in black. Beneath the plate: 'THE SHADOW OF DEATH. | BY PERMISSION OF MESSRS. T. AGNEW & SONS. | LONDON: J. S. VIRTUE & CO.

Typed Note Signed ('Phillips Oppenheim') to Lawrence Mack, editor of Everybody's Weekly.

Author: 
E. Phillips Oppenheim (1866-1946) [Lawrence Mack; Everybody's Weekly]
Publication details: 
26 April 1928; on letterhead of Villa Deveron, Cagnes, Alpes-Maritmes, France.
£56.00

8vo: 1 p. Good, on lightly-creased paper, with a faint 4cm pink stain in the right-hand margin. Reads 'Many thanks for the copy of your interesting paper, and the kindly reference to my novel.'

Double Crown Club Anecdote No. 1. Peter de Walpergen against the Executors of John Fell 1687-88.

Author: 
[Harry Carter; Double Crown Club; Corpus Christi College; John Fell types]
Publication details: 
[Privately printed.] Oxford: 1964. [Printed in the Fell types at the University Press, Oxford by Vivian Ridler, 'and given to the Double Crown Club at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, by Harry Carter 26 June 1964'.
£85.00

12mo (leaf dimensions): 20 [+ 1] pp. Stitched, and in original grey printed wraps. Internally tight and clean, in creased, worn and spotted wraps with chipping to extremities. Uncommon: the only copies on COPAC at the British Library, National Library of Scotland, Oxford, Cambridge and the V & A.

A Catalogue of New & Popular Works, And of Books for Children, Suitable for Presents, Sunday School Libraries, and Prizes.

Author: 
E. P. Dutton & Co., publishers, New York [book catalogue; children's books; juvenile]
Publication details: 
[October 1881] New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 713, Broadway. Griffith & Farran, St. Paul's Churchyard, London.
£30.00

12mo. 32 pages. Unbound. On browned high-acidity paper. Loss to margins of first and last leaves, but text clear and complete, save for the dating in bottom left-hand corner of the title: <...> 8. 81. Cancelling all previous Editions of this Catalogue.' Line in blue pen around the words 'for Children' in the title, and pencil markings (by a child) to p.30. Circular engraving beneath title captioned 'Goldsmith introduced to Newbery by Dr.

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.'

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.

The Gaberlunzie's Wallet. With numerous illustrations on steel and wood.

Author: 
Anon. [James Ballantine] [Sir James Ranken Fergusson (1835-1924)]
Publication details: 
Edinburgh: John Menzies, 61 Prince's Street; Tilt & Bogue; and R. Tyas, London. 1843. [Edinburgh: Printed by McPherson & Syme, 31 East Rose Lane.]
£75.00

INSCRIBED to 'James R. Fergusson Esq with the kind regards of James Ballantine | Edin[burg]h 16th May 1870'. With Fergusson's armorial bookplate on front pastedown. 8vo: 311 pp. Plates throughout (not listed) and numerous illustrations in text. In original printed grey boards with grotesque illustration on front and blue cloth spine (New Edition" - only on cover). Stabbed as issued (bound up by the publisher from parts?). Tight, but on aged paper with occasional light staining, and wear to extremities. Boards heavily worn, with 3 cm closed tear at head of rear.

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.

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.

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.

Printed publicity material relating to the insertion of an advertisement in 'The Manchester Weekly Times'.

Author: 
The Manchester Weekly Times [Victorian newspapers; nineteenth-century provincial periodicals]
Publication details: 
Undated [late Victorian]. Place [Manchester] not stated.
£56.00

The main text is printed on one side of a piece of paper roughly 28 x 13.5 cm, headed 'Upwards of Thirty Thousand Copies Of the "Manchester Weekly Times," with Eight-page Literary Supplement, are Issued Every Saturday.' The main block of text, in a variety of types and point sizes, consists of 27 lines ending 'The Proprietors respectfully solicit instructionsn to insert your Advertisement.' Describes the newspaper's merits and boasts that it is 'one of the Largest and most complete Weekly Papers published'.

Ten printer's specimens, copies of curious alchemical woodblock engravings from the 'Hortus Sanitatis' and other early sources, with captioned title and price.

Author: 
[English woodblock engraving; woodcuts; Georgian fine printing]
Publication details: 
Undated: early nineteenth century.
£850.00

On one side each of two leaves of thin laid paper (quality of tissue). Both leaves are good: lightly creased and spotted on aged paper. The first leaf (roughly 19 x 18 cm) carries six illustrations, arranged 2 x 3, and with the captions reading: 'Price 2s/6d | a way of purifying sea water'; 'Price 1s/6d | preparation Acid Sulphuric'; 'Price of block | 1s/- | Physician Galenical School'; 'Price 1/- | cold still'; 'Price 1/- | Pelican'; '2s/6d | distillation'. Printers blue pencil around third woodcut.

Handbill printed notice of a "£1 REWARD" for the return of 'A Lady's Gold Wrist-Watch & Bracelet, Engraved on the back, P.E.B., Dec. 28, 1921.'

Author: 
[Hall the Printer Ltd, 3A Queen Street, Oxford; Witney Police Station]
Publication details: 
HALL THE PRINTER LTD., 3A QUEEN STREET, OXFORD. 1929.'
£65.00

On one side of a piece of wove paper roughly 220 x 280 mm. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper, with a few short closed tears to extremities. Cheaply but effectively printed in a variety of point sizes. Reads '£1 REWARD | LOST, on Monday Evening, December 16, either on the Motor-bus between Oxford and Witney, or in Witney, A Lady's Gold Wrist-Watch & Bracelet | Engraved on the back, P.E.B., Dec. 28, 1921. | A Reward of £1 will be paid to anyone bringing the same to the Police Station at Witney, or to the County Police Station, New Road, Oxford.'

[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.

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.

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.

Autograph Note Signed to Thomas Hood, journalist, editor and poet.

Author: 
Cyrus Redding, journalist and editor (DNB)
Publication details: 
3 Hill Road, [St John's Wood], "Monday morning", undated [1846 or before?].
£100.00

One page, 8vo, corners frayed, one spot, text clear and complete. "I feared the objection you mentioned in your note, but I was willing to try 'The Spanish Page' [Velasco [or memoirs of a page, 3 vols, 1846?], as has been sometimes done, piecemeal, for it will be a long time before I shall be able to complete the three volumes. / I send you a small light article purely my own.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Alaric Watts') [to Mr Limbird?].

Author: 
Alaric Watts [Alaric Alexander Watts] (1797-1864), English journalist and poet [keepsakes; The Literary Souvenir]
Publication details: 
28 November 1828; 58 Torrington Square, London.
£56.00

4to, 1 p. On aged, creased apper, but with text clear and entire. A small piece of paper from a bottom corner has been torn away in opening the letter, and is still present on the reverse, under a red wax seal bearing a clear impression of a lyre and the words 'Addolcire ed Maturare'. Brief communication apologising for the fact that the Literary Souvenir has not reached him sooner. 'The omission is the sin of my booksellers and not mine'. He is sending a copy with the letter, and asks him to accept his thanks, 'for your courtesy'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('B Wyon') to 'J. Salland Esq.'.

Author: 
Benjamin Wyon (1802-1858), English die-engraver [Salford; Manchester; Lancashire; numismatics; coins; medals]
Publication details: 
19 December 1844; 287 Regent Street, London.
£45.00

12mo, 1 p, 7 lines. Good, on light aged paper, with 1 cm closed tear to top corner (not affecting text, which is clear and entire). Reads 'I regret having to inform you that the Salford Mayoralty Seal has broken all to pieces in the process of hardening and that I am afraid that I am obliged to engrave another which I am proceeding with as expeditiously as possible'.

Castle Avon. By the author of "Emilia Wyndham," "Mordaunt Hall," etc. etc.

Author: 
Anon. [Anne Marsh (later Anne Marsh-Caldwell) (1791-1874)]
Publication details: 
London: Thomas Hodgson, 13, Paternoster-row. [Woodfall and Kinder, Printers, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London.] [1855]
£56.00

12mo, 352 pp. In contemporary brown calf half-binding, with marbled boards and grey endpapers. Loose and foxed in worn binding.

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