FIRST EDITIONS AND FINE BINDINGS AT
ASH RARE BOOKS
43 HURON ROAD
LONDON SW17 8RE
UNITED KINGDOM

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 1940. First edition. His second and most widely celebrated novel - a Haycraft-Queen cornerstone of the genre. Set in the then-new W.A.Dwiggins Caledonia type.
Crown 8vo. [viii],276,[iv]pp. Bound in an elegant recent half blue morocco, banded, and lettered in gilt; original cloth upper panel and backstrip preserved at rear; a handful of minor marks, but a very good and attractive copy. Bruccoli II-1a.

£750

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London : Methuen & Co., (1911). First edition : [one of 3,000 copies]. The advertisements dated September 1911.
Crown 8vo. [vi],(378) + (32)pp. Bound in a handsome recent full crimson morocco, banded and richly gilt; top edge gilt; marbled endpapers; original cloth spine preserved at rear; a few faint signs of age and use, but a very good, clean and sound copy in an elegant binding, preserved in a cloth slip-case. Wise 19.

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London : William Heinemann / Philadelphia : J. B. Lippincott Co., (1915). First Rackham illustrated edition. Dickens' great fable here furnished with wholly sympathetic colour plates and text illustrations by Arthur Rackham (1867-1939).
Foolscap 4to. (xii),(148)pp. Twelve tissue-guarded colour plates. Illustrations in text. Bound in a smart recent half green morocco, banded and gilt, retaining the original Rackham-designed cloth gilt (the green variant) upper cover; top edge gilt; one slight nick and a couple of minor creases, a few small spots, but overall a very good, smart and clean copy.

£500

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New York : McClure, Phillips & Co., 1905. First edition : published in February 1905 and preceding the London edition, which was published in March of the same year. A collection of thirteen Holmes stories, with some striking illustrations by Charles Raymond MacAuley (1871-1934).
Crown 8vo. [viii],(382),[ii]pp. Frontispiece and twelve plates. Bound in an elegant recent full blue morocco, banded and gilt; top edge gilt; marbled endpapers; original cloth backstrip and the splendid pictorial upper cover preserved at rear; a few minor marks; occasional mild tanning, but a very good copy. Green & Gibson A29.

£500

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London : Jonathan Cape, (1957). First edition. "Will he take the lure - the beautiful lure called Tania, first proffered to Bond wearing nothing but a black velvet ribbon round her throat?"
Crown 8vo. (254),[ii]pp. Bound in a stylish recent black half morocco, banded and gilt; the backstrip and upper panel of the original boards, blocked and lettered in silver and metallic red, preserved at rear; a very good, clean and crisp copy.

£350

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London : Macmillan & Co., 1906. First edition. Illustrations by Harold R. Millar.
Demy 8vo. (x),306,[iv]pp. Frontispiece and nineteen full-page illustrations. Bound in a smart recent half red morocco, banded and gilt, retaining the original cloth sides with Kipling's Ganesha device; top edge gilt; a very good, sound and clean copy. Stewart 306.

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London : William Heinemann, (1930). First edition : the state with the dropped "t", giving the incorrect reading "won'" rather than "won't" at the end of line 14 on p.147. This is usually said to be the earlier variant, although on what evidence is unclear. The Maugham novel on the nature of authorial reputation plausibly said (although strenuously denied) to be based on the life of Thomas Hardy.
Crown 8vo. [iv],270pp. Bound in a handsome recent half blue banded morocco, retaining the original cloth sides; occasional mild spotting, but a very good and attractive copy. Stott 26.

£250

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London : Longmans, Green & Co., (1960). First edition. "Nowhere in Scotland is more evocative of a specific book than Sandaig, near Glenelg, Inverness-shire, which Maxwell disguised as Camusfeàrna ..." (ODNB). Otters, nature and the basis of the 1968 film, with Bill Travers, Virginia McKenna, etc.
Demy 8vo. x,(212)pp. Photographs by the author. Illustrations in text by Michael Ayrton, Peter Scott and others. Bound in a smart recent half blue morocco, banded and gilt; original linson backstrip preserved at rear; faint crease to one leaf, but otherwise a very good and clean copy. Neat contemporary ownership inscription of V. Leigh.

£250

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London : Hutchinson & Co., 1908. First edition. The third of the Sir Percy Blakeney adventures.
Crown 8vo. (352) + (32)pp advertisements dated Autumn 1908. Bound in a smart recent full blue morocco, banded and gilt; marbled endpapers; original cloth upper cover and backstrip preserved at rear; half-title lightly tanned; some occasional spotting, but a very good copy. Faint ownership blind-stamp of St. Malo, Pierremont Gardens, Darlington on half-title.

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London : Secker & Warburg, 1949. First edition.
Crown 8vo. 312pp. Bound in a handsome recent full grey morocco, banded and gilt: top edge pink; marbled endpapers; some slight discolouration to edges; one leaf slightly creased; a few slight marks, but still a most attractive copy.

SOLD

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London : Editions Poetry London, (1945). First edition. Smart's celebrated fictional account of her love affair with George Barker.
Demy 8vo. 54,[ii]pp. Bound in an elegant recent half red morocco, lettered down spine in gilt; top edge gilt; a most attractive copy of the first edition of this scarce modern classic.

£295

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Boston : Little, Brown & Co., 1948. First edition : precedes the 1949 London edition published by Heinemann.
Post 8vo. [vi],(344),[ii]pp. Illustrations by Ruth Steed, based on sketches by the author. Bound in a smart recent half blue morocco, banded and gilt, preserving the original pictorial cloth cover and spine at rear; top edge blue; a few slight edge spots, but a very good and handsome copy.

£400

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London : Chatto & Windus, 1887. First edition. A celebrated collection of fifty-four poems, thirty-eight in English and the remainder in Scots - the latter including the first appearance in book form of both "A Lowden Sabbath Morn" and "The Scotsman's Return from Abroad".
Foolscap 8vo. [ii],(xvi),[2],(138),[ii]pp. Bound, with the initial blank but without the inserted advertisements, in a delightful near contemporary half tan morocco, banded and gilt in a floral design; top edge gilt; marbled sides and endpapers; mild spotting of binder's blanks and edges, but a very good copy indeed. With the pictorial 1895 bookplate of Albert Harrison.

£250

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London : Cassell & Co., 1888. First British edition. Stevenson with a fine tale of the Wars of the Roses.
Crown 8vo. viii,324,4 + [xvi]pp inserted advertisements dated July 1888. Bound in a smart late twentieth-century full red morocco, banded and gilt, by Bayntun-Riviere, preserving the original pictorial upper cover at rear; all edges gilt; marbled endpapers; two tiny scuffs, a sprinkling of faint spots, but an excellent copy. Prideaux 26.

£350

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London : Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, 1847. First edition. Originally published in substantially different form in "Bell's Life in London" as "Sporting Sketches", between October 1846 and June 1847.
Demy 8vo. [viii],(330),[ii]pp + 32pp advertisements dated October 1847. Eight etched plates by "Phiz" (Hablot Knight Browne, 1815-1882). Bound, complete with half-title, in a later (mid twentieth-century) full crimson polished calf, banded and gilt with sporting motifs, by Birdsall; contrasting green and tan labels; top edge gilt; inner gilt dentelles; upper and lower panel of the original decorative cloth bound in at rear; a touch sunned; a few minor marks, slight scuffs and small flaws, but overall a very good copy in a handsome binding by the celebrated Northampton bookbinding firm, founded in the eighteenth century and which continued trading until 1961.

£250

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London : Effingham Wilson, 1830. First edition : with p.91 mis-numbered 19, and with the reading "carcanet" on p.72. His first solo collection of poems, including "Mariana", "The Burial of Love", "The Kraken", etc. Tipped in is Tennyson's autograph signature, and loosely inserted are two further fragments of his Farringford notepaper, apparently from the same note as the signature, the first with the embossed address and an autograph message in his hand - "Dear Lady Charlotte, Voilà" - and the second with the autograph date "March 12th 1883". The addressee was presumably Lady Charlotte Schreiber (formerly Guest), whose "Mabinogion" inspired parts of his "Idylls of the King", and who was a friend of many years standing.
Post 12mo. [iv],154,2pp. Bound, with the errata and advertisement leaves, in a lavish late nineteenth century full crimson morocco by Alfred Matthews of New York, richly gilt in an arabesque design; inner gilt dentelles; top edge gilt; marbled endpapers; a most attractive copy in a superb binding, protected by a marbled slip-case - this last a little rubbed. With the 1894 pictorial book-label of Charles B. Foote, whose collection was dispersed at auction in New York in 1894-1895, and the later 1923 book-plate of Beatrice Borland.

£1,500

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London : Bradbury & Evans, 1848. First edition, bound from the original monthly parts published between January 1847 and July 1848. The parts all in first state, with the "rustic" heading to the first chapter and the notorious "Marquis of Steyne" wood-engraving (p.336). This illustration is said to have been suppressed, under threat of court action, for its allegedly libellous resemblance to the Third Marquis of Hertford. This has been disputed, but the portrait certainly only appears in the earliest copies of the book - and disappeared very early in the book's life cycle.
Demy 8vo. xvi,624pp. Etched plates and highly entertaining text illustrations by Thackeray himself. Bound, without half-title, in a contemporary half green calf, banded and gilt in a floral design, by [Wareing Hargreave] Webb of Liverpool (1804-1856), with his blind-stamp; marbled sides; binding a little rubbed, lightly worn and slightly scuffed at corners; plates spotted in varying degrees, but the text clean; a good copy in a pleasant contemporary binding.

£400

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London : J. M. Dent & Sons, (1954). First edition. With the original preface and musical setting by Daniel Jones.
Crown 8vo. (x),(102)pp. Bound in a smart recent half black morocco, banded and gilt; top edge gilt; original cloth spine and upper cover preserved at rear; a few faint and minor internal marks, but an excellent copy. Rolph B21.

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London : Jonathan Cape, (1944). The first edition of this enduringly popular anthology - the best of English poetry all of which, it is said, Wavell knew by heart.
Crown 8vo. 432pp. Bound in a smart recent half burgundy morocco, banded and gilt; original cloth backstrip preserved at rear; a very faint fringe of marking to outer edges of first and last leaves, but otherwise a very good copy in a handsome binding.

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London : Macmillan & Co., 1906. First edition : the uncommon variant state, with the cancel title-leaf but with the regular first issue advertisements dated August 1906. The British Library copy (with advertisements dated May) is a proof copy - the book was not in fact published until September (Locke, Science Fiction First Editions, pp.94-96).
Post 8vo. viii,(306),[vi],[8]pp. Bound in a smart recent half green morocco, preserving the original cloth upper panel and spine at rear; top edge gilt; a very good copy in an attractive binding.

£185

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London : Collins, 1938. First edition. His memorable treatment of Merlin and the Arthurian legend, with his own illustrations.
Post 8vo. (340)pp. Illustrations. Bound in a handsome recent half black morocco, banded and gilt; original cloth backstrip preserved at rear; very faint and minor spotting of outer leaves, but a fine, bright and elegantly bound copy.

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London : James R. Osgood, McIlvaine & Co., 1891. First edition : [one of 1,500 copies with the London imprint]. Four stories - "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime : A Study of Duty", "The Sphinx Without a Secret : An Etching", "The Canterville Ghost : A Hylo-Idealistic Romance", and "The Model Millionaire : A Note of Admiration".
Crown 8vo. [iv],168pp. Bound in a smart recent full brown morocco, banded, lettered in gilt, and ruled and blocked in black; top edge gilt; with the upper panel of the fragile original binding (with its design by Charles Ricketts) preserved at the rear; a few minor marks, spots and faint creases, but a very good copy. Mason 345.

£750

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London : Leonard Smithers & Co., 1899. First edition : limited to 1,000 copies - this copy not numbered and out of series. Wilde's most famous and most enduring play, published quasi-anonymously after his fall from grace, just eighteen months before he died.
Foolscap 4to. [xvi],(152)pp. Bound in a smart recent full green morocco, banded and gilt; a few minor marks, tiny spots and faint creases, but a very good copy, handsomely bound. Mason 381.

£2,000

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London : Faber & Faber, (1935). First edition.
Crown 8vo. (320)pp. Title-page and colophon decorations by C.F. Tunnicliffe. Bound in a very attractive later half russet morocco, banded and gilt with salmon, by Bayntun; top edge gilt; a few slight spots; very mild tanning of endpapers, but a very good copy.

£250

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London : Herbert Jenkins, 1930. First British edition : with the humourous preface not included in the American edition which appeared two weeks earlier. "Jeeves and the Impending Doom", "Jeeves and the Song of Songs" and nine further famous tales - the third Jeeves & Wooster short story collection.
Crown 8vo (178 x 119mm). 312,[viii]pp. Bound in a smart recent full red morocco, banded and gilt; top edge gilt; a few tiny edge-spots, but a very good copy. Faint blind-stamp of Claremont, Ramsey, Huntingdon at head of preface. Connolly 48.(i). Jasen 43a. McIlvaine A42b.

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