"On Her Majesty's Secret Service, " First Trade Edition

Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1929. First trade edition, first issue. In the original first-state dust jacket and publisher’s black cloth boards. Presented in a new archival ¼ leather and cloth clamshell case, with raised bands, gilt tooling, and titles to the spine. Presented is a first trade edition, first issue of Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms. The book was published by Charles Scribner’s Sons in New York, in September of 1929. This first printing is presented with its original first issue dust jacket. The dust jacket, as designed by Cleonike Damianakes Wilkins, is considered by many to be one of the greatest of the 20th century and rivals even The Great Gatsby in its collectibility. Set during World War I, A Farewell to Arms tells the story of a young American Lieutenant serving as an ambulance driver in Italy struggling through love and war. The story is told through first person narration detailing many aspects of war that would have been very familiar to readers at the time, as the book was published only 11 years after the 1918 armistice. The simple, direct tone his character uses when giving his unromanticized account of the war later defined Hemingway’s writing style. A Farewell to Arms is loosely based on Hemingway’s own experiences. The author briefly served overseas as an ambulance driver in the Italian Army, sustained injuries, and met a nurse who he eventually proposed marriage to but was declined. The novel’s post-war disillusionist subject assigned Hemingway to the “Lost Generation” of Modernist artists. A Farewell to Arms was Hemingway’s most successful publishing venture to date. Charles Scribner's Sons issued seven impressions of the novel in the short time between September and December of 1929, with over 100,000 volumes sold. The novel secured Hemingway’s place as a popular American author and became his first bestselling book. Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) was an American author and journalist. His distinctive writing style, characterized by economy of words and dry understatement, strongly influenced 20th-century fiction, as did his life of adventure and his public image. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. Hemingway published seven novels, six short story collections, and two non-fiction works during his lifetime; a further three novels, four collections of short stories, and three non-fiction works were published posthumously. Many of his works are now considered classics of American literature. The book’s striking dust jacket design was illustrated by the artist Cleonike Damianakes Wilkins, who worked under the pen name of Cleon. Wilkins was known for her distinctive fusion of Art Deco and Hellenistic styles. She designed the dust jackets for Hemingway’s earlier The Sun Also Rises in 1926 and his later publication In Our Time in 1930, as well as Conrad Aiken’s Great Circle, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s All the Sad Young Men,and Zelda Fitzgerald’s Save Me the Waltz. Wilkins was chosen by Hemingway’s celebrated editor at Scribner’s, Maxwell Perkins. In order to differentiate Hemingway’s tale from other, competing WWI novels on the bookshop shelves, Perkins sought to widen its appeal through the dust jacket. The resulting design was Wilkins’ interpretation of Sandro Botticelli’s epic oil painting “Venus...

Steinbeck, John. East of Eden. New York: The Viking Press, 1952. Octavo. First trade edition, first printing. In original lime green cloth boards with green titles to the spine and o...

Fitzgerald, F. Scott, The Great Gatsby. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1925. First edition, first printing. Rebound in full blue morocco leather with gilt tooling, raised bands a...

Clinton, Bill. My Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004. First edition, first printing, 8ov. Signed by Bill Clinton on the title page. Presented in original blue boards and pictoria...

Byrd, Richard E. Skyward. New York: Blue Ribbon Books, 1931. Octavo. First edition, eleventh printing. In original hardcover boards and original pictorial dust jacket. Presented in a new archival slipcase. This is a 1931 first edition, eleventh printing of Richard Byrd’s Skyward. The book was published in New York by Blue Ribbon Books in 1931. This is the eleventh printing of Skyward, which was first published in 1928. The book is presented in its original hardcover boards and pictorial dust jacket, with a new archival slipcase. Rear admiral Richard E. Byrd (1888-1957) is celebrated as a pioneering American aviator, polar explorer...

Heller, Joseph. Catch-22. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1961. First edition, first printing. Octavo. In original blue cloth boards, stamped in white. In the original unclipped dust jacket. Presented with a new archival ¼ leather and cloth clamshell. Presented is the first edition, first printing of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. Catch-22 was published by Simon and Schuster, in October of 1961. This book is presented in the original publisher’s blue cloth boards, titled and embossed in white, and the original, unclipped dust-jacket. The Simon and Schuster “A Note to the Reader” postcard is laid in. The book comes with a new, archival ¼ leather and cloth clamshell. Catch-22 was Joseph Heller’s first novel and his most acclaimed work. Set during World War II, the novel uses a unique, non-chronological third-person narration, mainly focusing on the life of a B-25 bombardier in the U.S. Army, Captain John Yossarian, and his attempts to avoid bombing runs. Both the title and plot device, “Catch-22” refers to an Air Forces regulation which asserts that a man is considered insane if he willingly agrees to fly dangerous combat missions, but that if he makes the formal request to be relieved of such missions, the very act of making the request proves that he is sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved." By the end of the novel, the phrase is invoked as the explanation for many unreasonable restrictions. “Catch-22” has since entered the English lexicon. Heller spent eight years writing "Catch-22," and used his own war experiences as inspiration for the novel. From 1942 to 1945, Heller served as a combat bombardier in the Twelfth Air Force and was stationed on the Island of Corsica. Upon publication, the book was not an immediate bestseller, but did elicit glowing reviews from some. “Wildly original, brilliantly comic, brutally gruesome, it is a dazzling performance that will probably outrage nearly as many readers as it delights. In any case, it is one of the most startling first novels of the year and it may make its author famous” (Orville Prescott, New York Times). It became a publishing sensation thanks to the 1962 paperback edition, which set record sales and benefitted from the national debate surrounding the Vietnam War. In the decades since, it has inspired a feature film, a miniseries, a 50-character stage play, and sold more than 10 million...

This silver presentation vase is a small replica of the classical Roman ‘Warwick Vase’. The body is cast and chased with fruiting vines below the rim. The central field has a continuous band with bearded Bacchic heads floating above a lion’s mask and pelt. The applied handles comprise gnarled twisted vine stems. The spreading stem is set on a square foot which in turn sits on an ebonised wooden plinth base. The plinth is applied with two vacant laurel wreath cartouches and two rectangular plaques, one finely engraved with the Royal Coat of Arms and the other inscribed “Plymouth, Devonport and Cornwall Races 1845, the gift of her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, Augustus Coryton Esqr, W. R. Fortescue Esqr, Stewards” and “Her Majesty’s Vase, value 100gs., for three-year-old and upwards – Heats, about two miles, starting at the T.Y.C. Starting-post, once round, to the Grand Stand Winning-post.” Fully marked and stamped on the side of the foot ‘Hunt & Roskell Late Storr & Mortimer 2225’. English, assayed for London 1845. Provenance: Her Majesty Queen Victoria. Sir John Barker-Mill, Baronet of Mottisfont.Thence by descent. John Barker (1803-1860) was created 1st Baronet ‘of Mottisfont in the County of Southampton’ on 16 March 1836. A noted racehorse owner, Barker won numerous prestigious trophies with Giantess, Cymba, Miss Ellis and Pugilist. His most prestigious horse, Leviathan, sire of Giantess, won 16 of 21 starts and was sold to George IV for 2,000 guineas. Plymouth, Devonport and Cornwall Races were held from 1828 until 1930. The racecourse was a flat, oval course of 12 furlongs with a straight run-in of 2 ½ furlongs. ‘Royal Plates...

Two books on trade tokens. 1.) U.S. Merchant Tokens 1845-1860 by Russell Rulau. Iola: Krause Publications, Inc., 1985. Softcover. 192 pp. A catalogue of the unofficial coinage of Ame...

Sixty Years A Queen: The Story Of Her Majesty's Reign by Sir Herbert Maxwell. Published in London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1897. 1st Ed hardcover, wit...

Chinese Trade Porcelain, 1st Ed by Michel Beurdeley. Charles E. Turtle Company, Rutland, Vermont, 1962. Tipped-in color frontispiece and 24 tipped-in color plates, 100 monochrome text figures, 244 monochrome figures in the appendix. A through explanation of Chinese export porcelain and its debt to the west; historical surveys of the Far Eastern connections to al of the countries named...

Chinese Trade Porcelain, First edition by Michel Beurdeley. Charles E. Turtle Company, Rutland, Vermont, 1962. Tipped-in color frontispiece and 24 tipped-in color plates, 100 monochrome text figures, 244 monochrome figures in the appendix. A through explanation of Chinese export porcelain and its debt to the west; historical surveys of the Far Eastern connections to al of the countries named...

Act for Preventing Frauds and Abuses in His Majesty's Customs 1662. Publisher: London : Printed by John Bill and Christopher Barker, printers to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty. First edition: Very good condition for its age other than some wear to spine. Customs act 1662: Ten-line decorated initial on first page. Royal arms on cover title page: approximately 8 x 6.5 cm. Crawford arms 66. See Crawford, J.L.L. Bibliography of royal proclamations of the Tudor and Stuart sovereigns and of others published under authority, 1485-1714, II, page 511. Public General Acts. 1662. 14 Car.II.c.11. "Anno regni Caroli II. Regis Angliae, Scotiae, Franciae, & Hiberniae, decimo quarto. At the Parliament begun at Westminster, the eighth day...