Octavo. Publisher’s red pebbled cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Spine ends and corners lightly rubbed, small indentation to spine, boards splash marked in places. Endpapers a little browned, as usual, short tear to foot of front free endpaper in the gutter; a very good copy with an excellent association. ¶ Batson, p. 27; Sraffa 3064. £17,500 [154776] 106 KNIGHT, Laura. A Proper Circus Omie. London: Peter Davies, 1962 THE LIFE OF A CIRCUS INSCRIBED BY LAURA KNIGHT TO PAUL GALLICO First edition, inscribed by the artist on the title page: “A humble offering to Paul Gallico, from Laura Knight”, together with a full-length self-portrait of herself as a clown. Knight has added names and notes beneath 22 of the illustrations in the book. Dame Laura Knight ( née Johnson; 1877–1970) lived and travelled with Carmo’s Road Show for two years, documenting life on the road; the book is based on the reminiscences of an acrobat and trapeze artist from Belfast, Joe Bert. Knight primarily worked as a painter and was the first woman to become a full member of the Royal Academy. “In 1946, at the age of sixty-eight, Laura Knight went to Nuremberg to paint what was to be a pictorial record of the war criminals’ trial; she was rated officially as a war correspondent” ( ODNB ). Octavo. Original yellow cloth, spine lettered in silver. With dust jacket. Illustrated throughout with 42 monochrome drawings by Knight. A few minor marks to boards and couple of spots of foxing to preliminary pages. Oversized dust jacket browned to front panel and nicked to edges and corners. ¶ Alison Flood, “James Bond books dedicated to Paul Gallico”, The Guardian , 26 Jan. 2022, available online. £1,500 [154710]
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“To my Chief, Dr. C. A. Phillips, With sincere regards. Frank H. Knight.” The recipient was the first dean of the College of Commerce at Iowa State University, where Knight taught between 1919 and 1927. Originally written in 1916 as a Cornell doctoral dissertation under the title “A Theory of Business Profit”, the work was published in book form with significant revisions, by which time Knight was associate professor of economics in the State University of Iowa. Published as volume XXXI of the series of Hart, Schaffner & Marx prize essays, the book is scarce, especially inscribed. It is “the first work of any importance, and in any field of study, that deals explicitly with decision- making under conditions of uncertainty” (Bernstein, p. 219). It is in the present work that “the famous Knightian curves of diminishing returns . . . made their first appearance, and the essence of the theory of the dominant firm was now mentioned” (Stigler). Knight “attempts to analyse ‘the problem of the contrast between perfect competition and actual competition’ and finds it necessary in the pursuit of this aim to cover a far wider field than is suggested by the title or preface. It would, in fact, be difficult to discover a better short statement of pure economic theory” (Batson).
all of Egon Schiele’s original lithographic prints and etching plates in the same year and sold them as a collected portfolio. It is accompanied by a booklet edited by Gustav Glück, director of the Gemäldegalerie, Vienna, 1916- 31, who went so far as to say that the Austrian artist’s work could only be understood through his drawings. Quarto. 8 pp booklet and 10 loose plates. 10 collotypes of portraits and nudes after drawings by Klimt on white wove paper (approx. 23 × 14.9 cm.), tipped onto grey paper (27 × 20 cm.) as issued. Without the original envelope. Edges and corners of grey mount paper chipped, not affecting the images otherwise all in very good condition. £3,750 [153802] 105 KNIGHT, Frank H. Risk, Uncertainty and Profit. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1921 THE FIRST important WORK ON DECISION- MAKING UNDER CONDITIONS OF UNCERTAINTY First edition of Knight’s first major work, presentation copy, boldly inscribed in ink on the front free endpaper:
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All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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