Literature

London: John Thomas Smith. 1815.Second edition. Folio. Title page and forty etchings (of forty eight) sold as a collection of plates. Brown full morocco, raised bands with simple double fillet and fleur de lys design in blind, spine lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers with Van Gelder watermark. One very small mark on the upper cover and slight rubbing to corners and two small areas of rubbing to the front turn-ins but overall in excellent condition. Internally fine with the plates in superb condition and only slight foxing to the margins.

Clairvaux: The Trianon Press for The William Blake Trust. 1977. Quarto. Original brown quarter morocco, spine lettered gilt, grey cloth sides. With original grey cloth slipcase. Illustrated with 51 monochrome portraits of William and Catherine Blake. Very light sunning to spine, else a fine copy. First edition, number 119 of 500 copies thus bound, from a total edition of 562. Geoffrey Keynes (1887-1982) was an academic, biographer, and the younger brother of John Maynard Keynes.

Tokyo: Chikuma Shobo. 1971.First edition. Portfolio of ten gravure prints, eight in black and white and two in colour. 592x420mm. The prints are in a large white envelope together with a separate title page on the verso of which are notes and details about the photographs (text in Japanese). They are protected inside the envelope by a heavy sheet of cardboard. This is all placed in a black card folder with an illustrated label covering part of the upper cover, spine and lower cover.

shewing The Danger to those who carry them: together with an explanation of a newly invented Patent Gun-Lock, of which All the present Disadvantages are removed, and Simplicity, Security, and Durability substituted. London: Printed for the author by T. Egerton. 1795.First edition. 8vo in 4s. (208x130mm). pp. [2], xxv, 3-88. K4 blank. Loosely inserted is a letter of 1993 from the Bodleian Library confirming that K4 in their copy is blank and setting out the full collation, this copy conforming to that. Contemporary red full grain morocco in fine condition. Decorative gilt borders to the upper and lower covers.

London: Art Yard Limited. 2019.Signed limited, lettered Edition (one of twenty six copies) with a set of four giclée prints. 280x220mm. pp. 344. Illustrated throughout with 306 photographs. Printed on 150gsm Garda Matt Ultra FSC (Italian paper stock). Pale blue cloth hardback with metal foiling and laminate print to both covers, lettered in gilt to spine. Lower cover has a poem from Sun Ra printed in gilt. With publisher's belly band. Housed in a printed cardboard box. Unopened, new and in immaculate condition. The giclée prints, measuring 270x210mm are titled "A Certain Darkness Is Needed To See The Stars".

London: Henry Roberts. 1742.Engraved, hand-coloured portrait of Margaret Finch after a 1739 drawing by John Straeho. Print measures 270x215mm. Mounted and framed in a Victorian decorated frame (380x313mm). The portrait shows Margaret Finch sitting on the ground, her legs drawn up to her chest and her chin resting on her knees. She is accompanied by her dogs and is smoking two pipes. Beneath the image is printed a brief biography of "this remarkable person". Margaret Finch was born at Sutton, south London in about 1640 and spent a life “Traveling ye Kingdom, as Queen of ye Gypsie Tribe”.

London Francis Frith and Co.. 1897.Photograph of Queen Victoria in her carriage outside St Paul's Cathedral during the celebrations for her Diamond Jubilee. Photograph measures 560x450mm (to top edge, top corners are rounded) in a cream mount and contemporary carved wooden frame (835x715mm). The photographs of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee were printed and published by Francis Frith and Co, the firm founded by the great travel photographer in 1859 and which quickly became one of the largest photographic companies in the world employing numerous photographers. Frith himself died in 1898.

2012.Signed acrylic painting on paper of a silhouette figure of a naked man (290x225mm) in a white mount and framed in black (438x342 in the frame). The image is a simple one but typical of Gormley's exploration of and interest in the basic outline form of the human figure. It is painted in black with a lowering sky at the top of the paper so that the whole of the figure apart from the top of his head is set against a white background.

Ornee de Fleures, et Gravée en maniere de deux Crayons, par                    Inventée, et Dessinée par Jean Pillement. Premiere Peintre du Roy de Pologne Paris: Chez Leviez. 1770.Complete set of six crayon manner engravings made from designs from Jean Pillement and engraved by Louis Gautier-Dagoty (two signed plates) and Arnaud-Eloi Gautier-Dagoty (four unsigned plates). Printed in black and red with an additional suite in the variant state printed in black, the set comprises a total of twelve plates including the two title pages (250x180mm).

Paris: Bernard Grasset. 1936-1939.First editions. Four volumes. 8vo, 182x115mm. Les Jeunes Filles : pp, 297, [3]; Pitié pour les femmes. pp. 286, [2]; Le Démon du Bien: pp. 281, [3]; Les Lèpreuses: pp. 332, [2]. Original wrappers bound into near contemporary red half morocco, marble covered boards. Four raised bands, spine lettered in gilt, top edges gilt, marbled endpapers. Some very minor rubbing to spine but otherwise a near fine set. Internally fine. Les Jeunes Filles and Pitié pour les femmes are exemplaires de presse (review copies).

London: C and J Ollier. 1821.Second edition. pp. xvii (but xv), 104. Lacking half title. The original book has been disbound and the pages cut, very neatly and expertly and then carefully pasted at the hinge edge on a leaf of plain white paper so that the leaves of text are interleaved with the plain leaves. This is one way in which prompt books were made, allowing for notes and directions to be written on the plain leaves without disturbing the text. The leaves of text are cut to measure 151x95mm and the plain paper is 235x190mm.

[Dresden] . Various.An extensive collection of work by the Dresden artist M.E.Philipp who signed himself MEPH. 174 small prints mostly signed with varying small limitations. There is one engraved self portrait and one original sketch. The main collection of small prints falls into two broad categories. First is a set of 96 mounted bookplates made for various clients. 13 of these are in duplicate (or in a slightly different state) so there are 83 separate images. There are 4 unmounted duplicates.

London: Printed for R. Baldwin, at the Rose in Pater-Noster-Row. 1753.First edition. 8vo, 170x105mm. pp. xiv, [2], 88. Quarter calf, original paper covered boards, rubbing and wear to edges and corners with much of the paper covering worn. Rebacked, red morocco label, lettered in gilt. Foxing and browning and some ink marks, small tear to corner of E4 with no loss of text. Front pastedown has the ownership inscription of "Mrs Anne Cave, Barking Alley, 1761" and, opposite, on the recto of the front endpaper is inscribed "Elisbeath (sic) Castell, I.D". William Kenrick was a literary chancer.

Libri quinq; in varios tractatus distincti, ad diversorum et vetustissimorum codicum collationem, ingenti cura, nunc primu typis vulgati: quorum quid cuiq; infit, proxima pagina demonstabit.  London: Richard Tottell. (apud Richardum Tottellum).. 1569.First edition. 4to. 290x195mm. [16], 172, 175-444 leaves. (leaf 439, misnumbered 437). Pagination is as called for by ESTC, collates complete. Imprimatur at foot of title page, "Cum privilegio". Early 17th century full legal calf, blind ruled to covers. Raised bands to spine, author's name in manuscript on second compartment. Foot of the spine has some worm holes and wear with loss. Some rubbing and scuffing to covers.

Paris: Librairie Archeologique de Victor Didron.. 1857.First edition. 4to. 272x225mm. pp. 58 [2, advertisements]. Three leaves of engraved plates and a plan of the layout of the capitals of the Doge's Palace. Original brown paper wrappers, worn and chipped at extremities, tears to spine with some loss, staining to covers. Internally, there is foxing and spotting but overall it is in very good condition. Some pages unopened. This is the first published book by William Burges, one of the most inventive architects and designers of the nineteenth century.

[London] Privately published by Reza Aramesh and Tina Spear. [2003].The first issue of Centrefold Scrapbook. Limited edition, 37 of 60. 365x275mm. Unpaginated, [pp.32]. Centrefold is a limited edition publication in scrapbook format. This first issue is a standard child's scrapbook with bright yellow card wrappers and coloured pages stapled at the spine. The front cover has the title stencilled in black. Below it is a five pointed star cut out from a pizza takeaway leaflet.

Exposing. With great Variety of Humour, in a Series of Conversations between that Demon and the Author, The scandalous Frauds, lewd Amours, and devout Mockery of the Monks and Nuns; the Intrigues of Courts; the Ambition, Avarice, and Cruelty of Ministers; the Insincerity, Luxury, Prostitution, and Ingratitude of many private Characters; with other Capital Vices of the present Age. Founded chiefly on real Facts, and interspersed with the Portraits and secret History of most of the considerable Persons that have lived in Europe within these thirty Years past.

1972.Photo silkscreen on graph paper (900x735mm). Inscribed in pencil in the bottom margin “For Francesco - [Signed] Robert Mapplethorpe ‘73”. An early work from an important stage in the development of Mapplethorpe’s career. When he graduated from the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn in 1969, Mapplethorpe was making mixed-media collages using images torn from magazines. In 1971, he befriended John McKendry, curator of photographs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. McKendry allowed Mapplethorpe access to the Museum’s photography archives and later that year gave him his first Polaroid camera.

New Hampshire: Addison House. 1977.First edition. 275x188mm. Unpaginated, illustrated throughout. Photographic card wrappers, protected by a transparent plastic cover. In excellent condition with only a little light shelfwear to the extremities Internally very good. Signed by Kroll on the frontispiece. A nice copy of an important sociological study. Offered with an original vintage print signed by Eric Kroll on the back and from his own collection. Part of the mount is cut out to show the signature. In very good condition.

Petit-Bourg Chez Paul de Cauville. 1888.12mo. (170x95mm). pp. [2], XII, 13-103, [3]. Reprint of the Edition de la Haye of 1743. Twentieth century quarter brown morocco, marbled paper covered boards, spine lavishly decorated in gilt. Marbled endpapers. Some shelfwear and rubbing to joints. Upper cover has the remains of an auction label reading Lot 386. Internally very good. Overall a nice copy. This sweet little book is a short version of the Regimen sanitatis Salernitanum written in the 12th or 13th century and generally attributed to John of Milan.

London: The Fleuron Ltd. 1929.Signed limited edition, 257 of 300. 248x184mm. pp, (8), 64. With drawings by Albert Rutherston. Printed and stencilled at the Curwen Press. Inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper "Juliette with love Aldous". Juliette was a Swiss-French sculptor and the wife of Julian, Aldous's brother. Original brown cloth, gilt design on upper cover and gilt lettering to spine. Some marking to covers and darkening to spine but overall in very good condition. Internally fine.

London: Printed for the Author; and sold by W.Owen et. al. 1764.Fourth Edition, Enlarged. Third edition of the Compleat Appraiser. Tall 12mo in 4s. (198x75mm). pp. xxv, [1], 170, [2], iv, 46, 46a-h, 47-74. Twentieth-century quarter brown morocco with small arts and crafts style decorative motifs on the joints, brown cloth covered boards. Slight rubbing to the joints and mild bumping to the corners. Overall in very good condition. Internally very good, some browning to edges of title page and final leaf. Gathering Gg has been repaired affecting the text but not legibility.

Paris: Aux Éditions Tiranty. 1945.265x189mm. pp. 40, [2]. XXXII black and white photographs. Card covers with illustrated paper wrappers. Foxing and marking to the covers but overall a very good copy and internally in excellent condition, especially the photographs which are by Laure Albin Guillot, Pierre Boucher, Man Ray and Roger Schall. The first half of the book is a brief history of the nude in art from antiquity to the 20th century and there isa chapter at the end on the technique of nude photography.