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140 SMITH, Ali. Seasonal Quartet. Autumn; Winter; Spring; Summer. London: Hamish Hamilton, 2016–17–19–20 “a book should be an axe to break the frozen sea inside you” First editions of the complete Seasonal Quartet, each volume signed by the author on the title page. Summer won the Orwell Prize for political fiction in 2021. The judges named Smith “the great chronicler of our age” and the Quartet “a time-capsule which will prove to be essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the mood of Britain during this turbulent time”. The series was written in real-time, with Smith responding to the events that would define the decade. The publication schedule was breakneck, with just six weeks from manuscript submission to publication. The wraparound bands are reproductions of David Hockney’s 2006 “Tunnel” series, each depicting a tree-lined country road in the Yorkshire Wolds. 4 works, octavo. Autumn : original brown cloth, spine and front cover lettered in black and bronze, blue endpapers. Winter : original grey cloth, spine and front cover lettered in black and silver, purple endpapers. Spring : original blue cloth, spine lettered in black and silver, yellow endpapers. Summer : original yellow cloth, spine and front cover lettered in black and gilt, blue endpapers. With David Hockney designed wraparound bands, “signed copy” sticker to Winter . Illustrations on rear endpapers. A fine set. ¶ Alex Preston,
published in 1595, Spenser wrote this ode for his bride on their wedding day. It is printed here as the fifth work in the Essex House Press Great Poems Series. Florence Kingsford Cockerell (1871–1949), one of the leading book illuminators of the English arts and crafts movement, provided the illuminated letters for this work. Duodecimo, pp. 22. Original stiff vellum, spine lettered in gilt, “Soul is Form” rose motif stamped in blind to front cover, edges untrimmed. Hand-coloured frontispiece woodcut by Reginald Savage, illuminated letters in gilt, red, blue, and green by Florence Kingsford Cockerell, with tissue guards. Faint marking to vellum as usual, browning and creasing to tissue guards, else a beautiful copy in excellent condition. ¶ Essex Press 23; Franklin, p. 243; Ransom, p. 266. Alan Crawford, C.R. Ashbee: Architect, Designer & Romantic Socialist , 2005; John Mansfield Thomson, Farewell Colonialism: The New Zealand International Exhibition, Christchurch, 1906–07 , 1998. £1,750 [157262] 142 STEIN, Sir Marc Aurel. On Ancient Central- Asian Tracks. London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1933 a pioneer in a vast new field of researcH First edition of this comprehensive summary of the results of the author’s first three Central Asian expeditions. The book originated as lectures given at Harvard University in December 1929. “The First Expedition
“ Summer by Ali Smith review”, The Guardian , 2 August 2020, available online. £1,000 [158451] 141 SPENSER, Edmund. Epithalamion. London: Essex House Press, 1901 First Essex House edition, number 109 of 150 copies printed on vellum and hand illuminated. First
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CHRISTMAS 2022
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