ASH RARE BOOKS
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Edinburgh : Privately Printed at the Tragara Press, (1974). First edition : limited to 115 numbered copies, all hand-printed. “Certain Landfalls”, “Postmark”, “Picture of Geishas”, and “A Patch of Dust” – here in an outstanding designer binding by multiple prize-winning bookbinder, Dominic Riley.
Royal 8vo (240 x 141mm). [ii],[10],[ii],[2]pp. Bound, retaining the original paper wrappers, in a 2003 Dominic Riley binding of red morocco, with stripes of tans, blacks and greys, with black lettering; charcoal top edge, with flicks of gilt; an excellent copy, complete with its decorated clamshell cloth box.

£2,000

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London : Hamish Hamilton, (1983). First edition. “It was a Monday afternoon in November and already growing dark, not because of the lateness of the hour – it was barely three o’clock – but because of the fog, the thickest of London pea-soupers, which had hemmed us in on all sides since dawn – if indeed there had been a dawn” – Hill’s celebrated gothic horror, well-known in its adaptations for stage, screen and radio, and as a school set text for those not old enough to remember pea-soupers.
Medium 8vo (24cm). [x],160,[vi]pp. Illustrations by John Lawrence. Original olive boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; a touch of sunning, but a very good, clean and bright copy in the Lawrence dust-jacket – the jacket also with a hint of sunning, but also very good.

£250

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London : Richard Bentley & Son, 1884. First edition : just 625 sets were printed, of which only 425 were initially sent for binding. “Meadow and brook, wheat-fields and hills – a simple landscape, yet such as is not to be surpassed by any on earth. A common landscape – there are hundreds such in England – yet beyond compare. There are none like it elsewhere in the wide world” – Jefferies in his element in his native Wiltshire, with a novel characterised as “a sad little episode of cottage life, very tragic in its termination” (Reading Mercury, 20th September 1884). “Human nature, especially rustic human nature, has seldom if ever had a closer student or a more picturesque exponent” (The Graphic, 20th September 1884).
Two volumes. Crown 8vo (20cm). [ii],296; [ii],(328)pp. Decorative initials, head and tailpieces. Original green pebble-grain cloth, ruled and lettered in gilt; just a hint of rubbing and bruising; some spotting, mainly of edges and prelims, but a very good, bright and sound set.

£500

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London : Strahan & Co., 1872. A striking binding design, clearly stamped “second edition” diagonally across the spines, although the contents are equally clearly the first edition sheets – even the errata leaf is unchanged. The only alteration would appear to be that the final contents page in the first volume is now numbered “iii” (wrongly). Presumably the binding was doctored by the publishers to boost flagging sales after some fairly strenuous advance publicity, although I am unable to recall ever having seen a comparable example of this kind of reissue, with a fresh and false edition statement on the binding. Having been trailed in the press since October, the book was published 13th December 1871 (although dated for the following year). This “second edition” was announced as early as 16th January 1872 – just a day after the British Museum received its copyright copy in the unaltered binding. The anonymous author of this fascinating novel was himself to become a radical M.P. in 1874. The tale of a radicalised heir to an earldom, as well as London squares, Scottish moors, and Midland mines – “A very clever, and occasionally rather malicious, satire on the politics and the politicians of our time. Yet in the main the author’s arrows are launched fairly and hit the right mark” – Prigs and Whigs, Fogies and Tories, outspoken young women, the Radish Club, a “rank communist” , religion and radicalism – “many happy passages ... many brilliant epigrams ... It would not be difficult to find the originals of most of the characters in this tale” (Sun & Central Press, 27th December 1871).
Two volumes. Crown 8vo (20cm). iii [but viii],[2],(204); vi,230pp. Original pebble-grain tan cloth, lettered in gilt and ruled diagonally in black; some very minor wear; a few slight spots; just a touch shaken, but otherwise a very good set. Loosely inserted are some interesting biographical notes on the author, etc.

£200

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London : Weidenfeld & Nicolson, (2001). First edition. Signed by John Lawton on the title-page. London in the Spring of 1941 – German spy, American captain, Cockney policeman, his precocious daughter – and Sergeant Troy of the Yard. “Wonderfully captures the atmosphere of wartime London ... original and entertaining” (Robert Harris). “One of the most entertaining thrillers I have read in years” (Sunday Telegraph).
Medium 8vo (25cm). [x],322,[iv]pp. Original brown boards, lettered in gilt; a very good, bright, clean and sound copy in the dust-jacket – the jacket just a touch sunned, but otherwise also very good.

£100

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New York : Macmillan Co., 1942. First edition. A tour-de-force from the English artist in exile – “There is a universality about the people of the earth that is healing, and it matters little whether one be talking with a tobacco farmer in North Carolina or a plowman in Devonshire. So, I knew, my sole chance of adjustment over here, in the country of my adoption, and my best cure for the incomparable fret of nostalgia as well as my only hope of becoming one with my new land, would be to wander among the workers on this earth and learn their habits and their lore”. Cotton-picking, water-mills, corn-shucking, hog-killing, sorghum-boiling, tobacco-harvesting, and much else of the American South, described and depicted in her searingly dramatic illustrations.
Demy 4to (272 x 203mm). (viii),(158),[ii]pp. Numerous wood-engraved illustrations (some full-page), headpieces, tailpieces, etc., by the author. Bound in an exquisite full tan morocco executed in 2001 by Rona Smith (1934-2004), winner of the Designer Bookbinders Finishing Award the following year – the binding with a recessed panel enclosing a silhouette onlay of a detail from the book; black lettering; sprinkled top edge; a fine copy, housed in its clamshell cloth box.

£2,000

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Boston : Atlantic Monthly Press, 1918. First edition. One of the classics of the field, a much-reprinted and thoroughly engaging account of Newton’s avid book-collecting career, his preference for inscribed copies, essays on some of his favourite authors – Charles Lamb; James Boswell; Hester Thrale (“it may at once be admitted that as a mother Mrs Thrale was not a conspicuous success”); William Godwin (A Ridiculous Philosopher); William Dodd, the Macaroni Parson; the then still unmentionable Oscar Wilde – Newton’s favourite booksellers and bookshops, his frequent visits to London, other collectors, etc.
Demy 8vo (211 x 140mm). (xxii),(356)pp. Colour frontispiece. Plates. Portraits. Facsimiles. Bound in a smart contemporary half russet morocco by Sangorski & Sutcliffe; banded and gilt; top edge gilt; marbled sides and endpapers; some minor rubbing and wear, with some skilful restoration to front joint, but still overall a very good copy. From the library of Sir Hugh Walpole (1884-1941), notable book-collector as well as novelist, with his distinctive Brackenburn book-label.

£200

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London : Smith, Elder & Co., 1855 [but 1854]. First edition. The last of Thackeray’s Christmas stories, a satirical fairy tale, wonderfully illustrated with Thackeray’s own numerous sketches. “But in the meanwhile, and for a brief holyday, let us laugh and be as pleasant as we can. And you elder folks – a little joking and dancing and fooling will do even you no harm. The author wishes you a merry Christmas, and welcomes you to the Fire-side Pantomime”.
Crown 8vo (177 x 129mm). iv,128pp. Eight plates. Numerous illustrations in text. Bound in a handsome early twentieth-century full tan calf, banded in gilt, by Riviere; red labels; all edges gilt; inner gilt dentelles; marbled endleaves; slight scratch to rear board; some internal marks and spots; one leaf with a short repaired tear, but still an attractive copy in a fine binding.

£250

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London : Tinsley Brothers, 1872. First edition : in the primary binding. “The wine here is altogether of the same vintage with which Mr. Trollope’s many readers have been familiar for some dozen years and more; the only novelty consists in the fashion of the cup ... It is thoroughly readable, very amusing, and shows all Mr. Trollope’s skilfulness of hand in manipulating nothings until they are made into some thing” (The Graphic, 29th June 1872).
Post 8vo (21cm). [iv],(354),[ii] + 16pp inserted advertisements dated May 1872. Original brown cloth, lettered in gilt and ruled and decorated in black; just a hint of bruising and the mildest signs of age and use; outer leaves lightly tanned, but still an exceptionally good, bright and fresh copy. With the armorial bookplate of William F. Gumbleton.

£750

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London : Chapman & Hall, 1881. First edition. Lucy and Ayala Dormer left destitute by the death of their gifted but improvident artist father. “Possibly the most unjustly neglected of all Trollope’s novels ... and yet it is one of the most charming ... the lightest and airiest of them all, it has a gaiety and happiness and playfulness that Trollope ... never exceeded ... what vigour of scene and creation, what vitality of action and dialogue it contains” (Hugh Walpole). “The author has not written a better or pleasanter novel for a good many years” (Pall Mall Gazette, 28th May 1881).
Three volumes. Crown 8vo (189 x 121mm). iv,280; iv,272; iv,(278)pp. Bound (without final blank, no half-titles or advertisements called for) in an elegant later (mid-twentieth-century) half red morocco by Sangorski & Sutcliffe; top edges gilt; one or two tiny marks and edge-spots, but a very good, clean and fresh set of an uncommon late title.

£850

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London : for J. Clark & R. Hett; E. Matthews, and R. Ford, 1726. First edition. A popular and much reprinted text, with very clear expositions and worked examples of the problems and principles, intended to lead on “to the higher speculations of the great Sir Isaac Newton and his followers”. Dedicated to John Eames (1686-1744), recently elected to the Royal Society on Newton’s recommendation and himself a serious scholar of physics. “The same perspicuity of thought and ease of expression which distinguish his other works running through the whole of this, I don’t question but the world will meet with equal pleasure and satisfaction in the perusal” (from Eames’ preface). Watts was perhaps better known as a hymn-writer, but was also the author of such works as “Logic, or The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry After Truth” (1724), which became the standard text on logic at Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and Yale.
Post 8vo (196mm x 16mm), [2](xiv),(220)[xii]pp. Title-page in red and black, six folding plates. Contemporary full calf, silk headbands; rebacked, labelled, banded and gilt to style; sprinkled edges; some light wear; neat repair to title-page, not affecting lettering; some occasional internal marking and spotting; small ink stain to fore-edge but a good, sound and attractive copy of an important and accomplished work, particularly good on the use of maps and globes.

£500

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