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128 STEVENSON, Robert Louis. Treasure Island. Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1884 RARE INSCRIBED COPY, WITH A SUPERB ASSOCIATION First continental edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author to the actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree,“I hope it will please you. Robert Louis Stevenson”, and signed by the recipient on the title page with exclamation marks around the imprint. Inscribed or signed copies of Stevenson’s works are rare: we have traced records of only one other example of Treasure Island . First published in book form in November 1883, Treasure Island was an immediate success. The then little-known writer was recommended to Tauchnitz and, in April 1884, Freiherr von Tauchnitz wrote offering £15 or £20 for the “small book”. The larger amount was accepted and a contract was signed on 12 May. Accordingly, Stevenson wrote to his continental publisher in June 1884 asking for “a single copy of your edition of Treasure Island . . . A few others which I should like to give as presents in England, I shall ask Mr Henley to procure along with his own. I am pleased to appear in your splendid collection and thus to rise a grade in the hierarchy of my art”. Through most of the 19th century and well into the 20th, Tauchnitz issued copyright editions of English and American works to be sold on the continent for travellers and resident English-speakers. It appears his edition of Treasure Island was not, at first, a success; two years after publication Tauchnitz noted that sales “did not as yet answer my expectations”. Herbert Beerbohm Tree (1852–1917) was considered by many to be the best character actor of his day. In February 1885 he visited Stevenson in Bournemouth to discuss the details of Macaire, a play they planned to produce in London. Tree later recalled “We started from Waterloo station on a bleak cold morning about 6 o’clock on Sunday. I was very tired, having had little sleep and two performances the previous day … Stevenson lived in a place called Bonelly Castle. I pictured it as a stately structure with a moat and drawbridge. It turned out to be a semi-detached stucco villa. When I arrived there I was wet through from the rain. I saw no knocker or bell.
Then I discovered a gelatinous string swollen by the rain. I pulled at it and a bell tinkled in a distant court-yard, waking a belated chanticleer. Then Mrs Stevenson opened the door to me, telling me Louis was not well and was resting, and that he would read the play to me later on. I was very worn out and listened to the play which turned out to be a rather turgid affair, and I remember that in order to keep myself awake I went to Mrs Stevenson’s dressing room and took her hat-pin with which I continually prodded my leg to prevent myself from falling asleep”. Later, in November 1890, Tree starred in and produced Stevenson and Henley’s play Beau Austin at the Haymarket Theatre (where Tree was actor-manager). A short note from Tree to a Mr Booth, dated 27 November 1907, has been tipped-in at the front. Although on “His Majesty’s Theatre” headed notepaper, the address of The Shakespeare Theatre in Liverpool is also provided. At the end of November 1907 Tree’s company was performing a variety
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of plays in Liverpool, including a dramatization of The Mystery of Edwin Drood. The Birkenhead News reported on 27 November 1907 that “a large and, as the night wore on, more and more appreciative audience welcomed Mr. H. Beerbohm Tree and his company at the Shakespeare Theatre”. The recipient of the letter, presumably a resident of Liverpool, is unidentified. It appears that Tree was keen to identify a passing allusion to Shakespeare in Treasure Island . On the final page of text the phrase “Oxen and wain-ropes” has been underlined and a note added identifying the source as Twelfth-Night . Current research suggests that this copy was last seen at auction in 1931 when it was bought and offered for sale by a member of the London book trade. Small octavo (152 × 108 mm). Early 20th-century blue cloth by P. Goy and C. Vilaine, lettering on spine in gilt, edges speckled red. Housed in a custom green morocco-backed solander box. Together with a typed letter signed from Herbert Beerbohm Tree to Mr Booth, 1 leaf (126 × 201 mm), headed notepaper (“His Majesty’s Theatre”). Lacking half-title, occasional light browning, occasional stains; a very good copy. Minor loss to edge of typed letter. ¶ Todd, “Tauchnitz international editions in English, 1841–1955: A Bibliographical History”, Bibliographical Society of America , 1988, no. 2255. £45,000 [151319] 129 TIMLIN, William M. The Ship that Sailed to Mars. London: George G. Harrap & Company Limited, [1923] Timlin’s combination of science fiction and fairyland
First edition, first impression, in the rare dust jacket, of the author’s only published book. The book is considered “the most original and beautiful children’s book of the 1920s . . . a magical combination of science fiction and fairyland” (Dalby, pp. 102–103). William M. Timlin (1892–1943), born in Northumberland, moved to South Africa in his twenties and remained there for the rest of his life working as an illustrator and architect. The Ship That Sailed to Mars is a fantastical illustrated gift book that rivalled those of Rackham, Dulac, Goble, and Nielsen. The book was published in Britain by George Harrap, who had earlier published Willy Pogany, and they followed a similar format here, reproducing Timlin’s original calligraphic text mounted, like the plates, on grey matte paper. Quarto. Original parchment-backed boards, spine lettered and decorated in gilt, front cover lettered in grey, grey paper-covered boards. With dust jacket. Title page and letterpress printed in blue and black, 48 mounted colour plates, 48 mounted pages of calligraphic letterpress, all on grey paper. Extremities bumped, corners and lower edge of rear board worn, browning and minor dampstaining to free endpapers, occasional closed tears to leaves, else a clean and very good copy with uncreased plates. In the rare dust jacket with restoration to spine ends and repairs to verso. ¶ Richard Dalby, The Golden Age of Children’s Book Illustration , 1991. £6,000 [148952]
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All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
CHILDREN’S BOOKS & ORIGINAL ARTWORK
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