English Books

FIRST and ONLY EDITION Doni, Anton Francesco Disegno del Doni; Partito in più ragionamenti, ne quali si tratta della scoltura et pittura .... Venice: Gabriel Giolito Di Ferrari, 15...

FIRST EDITION / FIRST ISSUE An Edinburgh Eleven; Pencil Portraits from College — "British Weekly" Extras, No. III. London: British Weekly Office, 1889. 12mo, 7 x 4 1/2 inches (178...

Pompeiana The Topography, Edifices and Ornaments of Pompeii by Sir William Gell, complete in two 1/4 leather tall octavo volumes with marbleized boards. 82 full page engraved plates ...

Christies 2003, Library at Gaiter's Green, Fine English Furniture. 1st Ed softcover auction catalog 353 lots on 290 pages illustrated in color and fully described. NPT Books a divis...

Rare first issue of the first edition for Bernard Shaw’s first published novel. Shaw, George Bernard. An Unsocial Socialist. London: Swan Sonnenschein, Lowery & Co., 1887. First Edition, First Issue. Crown 8vo, 7 3/8 x 5 inches (188 x 126 mm); [4] 256 pp.; original red cloth, stamped in gilt on spine and covers, a little rubbed and soiled, spine slightly faded, hinges weak; dark brown endpapers; foxing on first 2 and last 2 sheets. First edition, first issue with "Author of The Confessions of Byron Cashel's Profession etc. etc." to title and no appendix. Ink inscription of Mrs Walter Crane on half title. [Broad, p. 87; Magill p. 965] This is Shaw's first published novel. It had been serialized in "To-Day, A Monthly Magazine of Scientific Socialism" between March and December of 1884. This printing was promptly canceled, and supposedly only samples for booksellers and travelers had been sent out with this title-page. Having attended a meeting by political economist Henry George in September 1882, Shaw became fascinated with Socialism, read Marx and became a member of the Fabian Society in September 1884, writing their first manifesto later that year. He believed in a more moderate, non-violent form of socialism and believed that socialist ideals could best be achieved by infiltration of people and ideas into existing political parties. In the early 1880s Shaw also began his literary career by writing music and art criticism and began writing novels, of which An Unsocial Socialist was the first published. But as his career as a playwright started taking off in the latter part of that decade, his political activities also decreased. Shaw later explained that he had intended An Unsocial Socialist as the first section of a monumental depiction of the downfall of capitalism. Gareth Griffith, in a study of Shaw's political thought, sees the novel as an interesting record of conditions, both in society at large and in the nascent socialist movement of the 1880s. [Griffith, Gareth. Socialism and Superior Brains: The Political Thought of George Bernard Shaw. London: Routledge, 1993]. The story centers on Sidney Trefusis, a millionaire socialist, who leaves his bride on their wedding day because he fears his passion for her will get in the way of his plans to overthrow the British government. Sidney vanished "underground"--Disguises himself as a common laborer called "Mengels"--and infiltrates Alton College, a girl's school where well-bred young women are "fitted and fatted to be put on the marriage market". His plan: take over the school and plant the seed of radical socialism into the fertile brains of the future consorts of cabinet ministers and kings. What he doesn't plan on is the presence of one Agatha Wylie, a sixth-form rabble-rouser, who falls hopelessly in love with both Sidney and his politics, and just happens to be his deserted wife's cousin. Love triangles, mistaken identities, Marx, Engels, pistols and the proletariat jostle for position. (via LibraryThing) An unusual ASSOCIATION COPY with ink inscription and address of "Mrs Walter Crane" [ie Mary Crane] on the half title. Walter Crane married Mary Andrews in 1871 and after a sojourn in Rome returned to London in 1873 living first in Wood End and then at Beaumont Lodge, Shepherd's Bush (the address she has written in this book). In 1914 Mary...

Mallett catalog from 1995. Hardcover catalog with dust jacket illustrated in color with all the objects fully described. Typical Mallett catalog showcasing important furniture, porce...

First Edition, Second Impression. of An address delivered before the Virgil Society on the 16th of October 1944. London: Faber and Faber, 1945. 8vo; 8 1/4 x 5 3/8 inches (218 x 13...

London: Harvill Press, 1996. First English Language Edition, Sonia Soto, translator. Octavo, 9.5 x 6.25 in (241 x 159 mm); 362 pp. Hardcover, dust jacket protected with mylar cover,...

Objects, Glass and Works of Art, by Mallett & Son Antiques. Mallett & Sons Antiques, 2007. First Edition softcover. 79pp. Illustrated with glass, objects and accessories all photogra...

This is Gilpin's third in his series of works tracing picturesque beauty in British natural landscapes. In it he portrays the landscapes of Scottish Highlands, and describes them lyrically in his text. Prefacing the list of Prints at the end of the second volume, the author says "With regards to the prints, which adorn these volumes, I can only say..... that few of them pretend to be 'exact portraits.' They in general 'only characterize the countries,' through which the reader is carried." The illustrations, based on Gilpin's sketches, were etched by his nephew William Sawrey Gilpin using the newly invented aquatint process. This volume also includes a technical discourse about drawing and the mixing of colors, including a chart (vol. 1, p. 131-134) William Gilpin (1724 – 1804) was an English artist, Church of England cleric, schoolmaster and author. He is best known as a travel writer and as one of those who originated the idea of the picturesque. Gilpin's tour journals circulated in manuscript to friends such as the poet William Mason and a wider circle including Thomas Gray...

Waltham Saint Lawrence: Golden Cockerel Press, 1932. Limited Edition. Small folio, 13 1/4 x 9 1/4 in (330 x 235 mm); pp. v +76 + colophon. This in no. 94 of 275 copies printed on B...

A Connoisseur's Guide to Antique Pottery & Porcelain by Ronald Pearsall. London: Tiger Books International, 1997. 1st Ed hardcover with dust jacket. 128 pp. Illustrated guide detailing the vast and varied types of pottery and porcelain with information on their history. More than 100 color photos and essential information for beginners and expert collectors of antique pottery and porcelain...

Lord St. Helens & Sir William Fitzherbert. January 22, 2009. Christie's (London). 1st Ed softcover auction catalog. 682 lots in color and fully described and with results. NPT Books...

The Country House Remembered, Recollections of Life Between the Wars by Merlin Waterson. London: Rutledge & Kegan Paul. First edition hardcover with dust jacket, 1985. 256 pp. The bo...

THE EQUILIBRIAD by William Samsons with illustrations by Lucian Freud. London: Hogarth Press, 1948. Limited Edition. 8vo, 8 5/8 x 5 5/8 in (220 x 140...

Works of Art from the Bute Collection. Volumes one and two from the sales in London on July 3rd and July 8th 1996. Two softcover catalogs are presented in a green fabric covered slip...

David Hicks on bathrooms. Britwell Salome: Britwell Books Limited, 1970. First American edition hardcover with dust jacket. 151 pp. The third in a series of books on decorating by the famous English decorator David Hicks. He was known for his use of bold color, mixing antique and modern furnishings, and contemporary art for his famous clientele. He did projects for Vidal Sassoon...

Art at Auction: The Year at Sotheby's, 1985-86, Edit by Georgia Fogg. Printed by Sotheby's, London. 1st Ed hardcover with dust jacket. This annual reference work provides a view of t...

William Henry Pyne and His Microcosm by Harris Myers. Stroud: Sutton Publishing Limited, 1996. Pre-Publication review copy, 1st edition hardcover wi...

PETER PAN makes his first appearance in this 1902 novel by J. M. Barrie. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1902. FIRST EDITION / FIRST ISSUE Small 8vo., 7 3/8 x 5 inches (188 x 127 mm)...

The Estate of an Italian Connoisseur - The Late Giuseppe Rossi collection, 4 volumes complete (Sotheby's, London 10, 11, 12 March 1999): Louis XV Furniture / Italian Furniture / Loui...

Art at Auction: The Year at Sotheby's, 1985-1986, Edit by Georgia Fogg. Printed by Sotheby's, London. 1st Ed hardcover with dust jacket. This annual reference work provides a view of...

English Country Houses Caroline 1625-1685, by Oliver Hill and John Cornforth. London: Country Life Limited. First edition hardcover with dust jacket, 1966. 251 pp. An overview of the...

Christie's: Furniture, Pictures & Silver from Tythrop Park, April 27, 1995. 1st Ed Soft cover. A Christie's Auction catalogue for the Cotton family. Listings include works from Isaac Liger, James Shruder, Peter Archambo, and David Willaume...

Christie's: Godmersham Park Kent, Auction June 6th to 9th 1983, Volume 1. 1st Ed Hardcover with dust jacket. 1961 lots, mostly photoed in color. Godmersham Park is a Grade I listed h...

Henri Rousseau dit Le Douanier by Jean-Marie Lo Duca, Paris. Paris: Syndicat de la Propriété Artistique, 1951. 1 first edition softcover portfolio. Unpaginated. Portfolio of work by ...

Christie's: The Champalimaud Collection: London, 6 & 7 July 2005. First Edition softcovers with slip-case. Consists of 2 oversize catalogs from the auction. The 2 catalogs and their ...

Christie's London collection de Madame X. Furniture, works of art, pictures couture, 3/4/04. This auction catalog consists of 119 pages with 500 lots all illu...

Brockedon, William, William Finden, and George Gordon, Lord Byron Finden's Illustrations for the Life and Works of Lord Byron; With Original and Selected Information on the Subjects ...

The Golden Cockerel Press, 1937. Illustrations by Dorothea Braby. FIRST, LIMITED EDITION 8vo.; 8 1/2 x 6 1/4 in. (226 x 160 mm); 63 pp.; 14 pt. Perpetual type; four wood-engravings ...

Bloomsbury: The Nonesuch Press, 1927-1928 4 volumes, 4to; 10 1/8 x 7 1/2 inches (258 x 190 mm); pp. vol. 1, [4] xliv, 239 [1]; vol. 2, [10] 257 [5]; vol. 3, [10] 290 [4]; vol. 4, [4]...

Shelley, Percy Bysche Shelley at Oxford; The early correspondence of P.B. Shelley with his friend T.J. Hogg together with letters of Mary Shelley and T. L. Peacock and hitherto unpub...

Sotheby's: Treasures Aristocratic Heirlooms, London July 2010. Softcover catalogue with results. Twenty-one works of art in this sale would constitute a treasure Trove to any collect...

Christie's: Bernard Blondeel and Armand Deroyan Important Tapestries and Carpets London 4/2/03 Sale #6752. The catalog consists of 152 pages with 73 lots illustrated in color and des...

Art at Auction : The Year at Sotheby's 1981-1982. Published by Sotheby Parke Bernet, 1982. 1st Ed hardcover with dust jacket. This annual reference work provides a view of the year's...

Bonhams Sale, The Contents of Great Brampton House Sold by Order of Sir John and Lady Pidgeon. Wednesday 1 October 2008 Great Brampton House, Madley, Herefordshire. Over 700 lots of ...

FIRST EDITION Cruikshank, George & Robert B. Brough The Life of Sir John Falstaff; A biography of the knight from authentic sources A humorous pictorial recollection of the prominent events in the imaginary career of Shakespeare's most amusing character, seen through his genealogy and various episodes of his life, such as "How Mr. John Falstaff was Knighted by King Richard the Second...

RARE, LIMITED TO 5 COPIES, SIGNED BY ROGERS, EXTRAVAGANTLY EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED, FINELY-BOUND BY FAZAKERLEY. New Southgate: John Bale and Sons for H.A. Rogers, 1887. Extra Illustrated Limited Edition. 2 volumes, 8vo, 9 7/8 x 5 1/2 inches (225 x 140mm) Half-titles, titles printed in red and black. SIGNED by the AUTHOR on the limitation page "Five copies were (only) printed on this hand-made paper for sale. S. A. Rogers, 1887." EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED with 150 engraved, etched and lithographic 18th- and 19th-century portraits and views by various artists after Thomas Gainsborough, Thomas Lawrence, Joshua Reynolds, George Romney and others, 10-page MANUSCRIPT INDEX of illustrations bound in at the end of volume II. Where captions are not included in the plate, they are neatly hand-written on the page margin in ink. Contemporary straight-grained tan morocco gilt by Fazakerley of Liverpool, the covers with gilt floral designs, the stems and leaves outlined in gilt, the flowers depicted with dark brown morocco inlays, the border of 4 gilt fillets with stepped corners enclosed within an outer single gilt fillet, the spines gilt in 6 compartments divided by raised bands, titled in gilt in 2 and dated at the foot, the other compartments decorated with fleurons surrounded by foliate cornerpieces, turn-ins ruled in gilt, top edges gilt, others trimmed; extremities lightly rubbed, unobtrusive small marks on spines; occasional light foxing and offsetting. Provenance: F.E. Dinshaw (armorial bookplates and pressmark labels); William Robinson (bookplates bound in after front free endpapers), and W.A. Foyle Beeleigh Abbey library bookplate in red morocco pasted into front cover, in both volumes. AN EXTRAVAGANTLY EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED COPY OF TABLE-TALK, FINELY-BOUND BY FAZAKERLEY AND LIMITED TO FIVE COPIES, inscribed on the verso of volume I half-title: 'five copies were (only) printed on this hand-made paper for sale H.A. Rogers. 1887'. The 145 portraits depict a broad range of the poet Samuel Rogers' contemporaries, friends and literary influences, and include Lord Byron, Samuel Johnson, Alexander Pope, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Sydney Smith...

This lovely hand-bound album contains a collection of hand-written poems and quotes, ranging from Browing to Shelley, with many religious considerations and transcriptions, collected...

Cruikshank, George (illus.), Apel (auth.) Der Freischütz Travestie. By Septimus Globus.; With twelve etchings by George Cruikshank, from drawings by an amateur; and the original tale...

Memoir of the Abbé Lacordaire by The Count de Montalembert, One of The Forty of The French Academy. London: Richard Bentley, 1863. Morocco and cloth bound first edition hardcover. 31...

The Loom of Art by Germain Bazin. Published by Simon & Schuster, New York, 1962. 1st Ed hardcover with dust jacket. In ten chapters of text and plates, Bazin,...

Sotheby's auction catalog of the exceptional Benzian Collection of Ancient Roman and Islamic Glass. An invaluable reference for the collector, scholar or anyone interested in the most delicate and beautiful of antiquities, ancient glass...

London: John Murray, 1915. 2 volumes, 8vo; 7 1/2 x 5 1/8 inches (190 x130 mm). Vol. 1: xvi, 748 pp.; Vol. 2: vii, 786 pp. Engraved frontispiece portrait of the author in 1835 in Vol....

Allan Quatermain; Being an Account of His Further Adventures and Discoveries, etc. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1887. 8vo. 7 1/4 x 4 3/4 (184 x 120 mm); viii, 280; 20 wood engr...

Andoversford: Whittington Press, 1985. First Edition. Imperial Octavo, 10 3/8 x 7 3/8 inches (265 x 190 mm); xvi + 44 + 4; Limited edition of 335, of which 35 bound in leather; this copy is Number XXVIII and SIGNED BY THE ARTIST below the colophon. Quarter-bound by Smith Settle in tan goatskin, gilt spine titling, dark and light brown and orange on mid-brown Whittington marbled paper-covered boards by Colleen Gryspeerdt. Headbands, top edge brown, rest uncut; Colorplan Bagdad Brown endpapers. Printed in black, the title-page in black and red, and the captions in grey, hand-set in 12-point Bell; Zerkall smooth white wove and Zerkall Silurian papers; 52 wood-engravings and a line-block reproduction of an engraving by Gwenda Morgan...

London / Edinburgh: George Allen / Ballantyne Press, 1902 8vo, 8 x 5 3/4 inches (203 x 145 mm), (4), 68, (1) pp. Printed on handmade Arnold paper with a flower and vine border on eac...

7 Volumes. M.A. Thiers. History Of The Consulate and The Empire Of France Under Napoleon. Bound in full tan calf, marbled edges and endpapers, raised bands, ornate gilt on spines, il...

First Edition. In two Quarto volumes, with copious color illustrations. London: R. Ackermann, printed by L. Harrison & J. C. Leigh, 1814. 13 x 10.63...

Haute Epoque-Important Early Furniture, Works of Art & Tapestries Including Property From a Cabinet De Curiosité, Sotheby's London-31 October 2007. 417 lo...

Sotheby's London; The Price Collection. London: Sotheby's, 2000. Soft cover. 260 pp. An auction catalogue of the property of the late Sir Henry Price that wa...

Objects, glass and works of art, by Mallett & Son Antiques. Mallett & Sons Antiques, 2004. First edition softcover. 79pp. Illustrated with glass, objects and accessories all photogra...

Mallett catalog from 1997. Softcover catalog photographed in color with all the objects fully described. Typical Mallett catalog of important furniture, porcelain etc. Always a great...

RARE: John Evelyn the Younger's first book, rare first issue with title date 1672. Rapin, René (1621-1687) and Evelyn, John (the Younger 1655 -1699), translator Of Gardens; Four Boo...

Wallace Collection Catalogues. Furniture. Text with Historical Notes and Illustrations by F.J.B. Watson. 1s Ed hardcover Published by William Clowes for the Trustees Wallace Collecti...

Title: HIDCOTE THE GARDEN AND LAWRENCE JOHNSTON. Published by The National Trust, 2007. Hardcover with jacket. Often described as “the most beautiful garden in England,” Hidcote is...

Art At Auction: The Year At Sotheby Parke Bernet 1977-1978. Sotheby Park Bernet Publication, London, 1977. 1st Ed hardcover with dust jacket. This annua...

Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca). Thomas Twyne, translator. Phisicke against Fortune, as well prosperous, as adverse, contained in two Bookes [History of Gain and Fortune] London: Ric...

Pair of Encyclopedias: Tables by Simon Yates and Sofas by Constance King. The Wellfleet Press, London, 1989. First edition hardcovers with dust jackets. A pair of great historical re...

Lawernce, Simon WHITTINGTON PRESS 45 wood-engravers (Forty-five Wood-engravers); With an Introduction by John Lawrence. Yorkshire, UK: Simon Lawrence printed by The Whittington Pre...