The latest Jonkers Rare Books catalogue which covers over 400 years of literary works and manuscripts, including a number rarities from exceptional private collections.
L I T E R A T U R E 1 5 7 2 - 1 9 9 8
Literature 1 5 7 2 - 1 9 9 8
JONKERS RARE BOOKS
1
C A T A L O G U E 9 1
Offered for sale by
Jonkers Rare Books 27 Hart Street Henley on Thames RG9 2AR
01491 576427 (within the UK) +44 1491 576427 (from overseas)
orders@jonkers.co.uk
www.jonkers.co.uk
All items are unconditionally guaranteed to be authentic and as described. Any unsatisfactory item may be re- turned within ten days of receipt. Payment is accepted by bank transfer in either sterling or US dollars and all major credit cards. Institutions may request defered billing. All items in this catalogue may be ordered via our secure website. The website also lists some 3,000 books, manu- scripts and pieces of artwork from our stock, as well as a host of other information.
Front cover : From the title page of Of Ghosts and Spirites Walking by Nyght 1572 ( item 2). Rear endpaper: A section of the Tolkien - Donald Swann Archive ( item 97).
C A T A L O G U E 9 1
Literature 1 5 7 2 - 1 9 9 8
JONKERS RARE BOOKS
MMXXIV
J O N K E R S R A R E B O O K S
2
L I T E R A T U R E 1 5 7 2 - 1 9 9 8
1. The English Bible
containing the Old Testament & the New. Translated out of the original tongues by special com- mand of His Majesty King James the First and now reprinted with the text revised by a collation of its early and other principal editions and edited by the late Rev. F. H. Scrivener M.A. LL.D. for the Syndics of the University Press Cambridge. [DOVES PRESS] The Doves Press, 1903-05. First edition thus, one of 500 sets. Five volumes, large quarto. This set, one of a small number of copies specially bound by the Doves Bindery to a design by Cobden Sanderson of full red niger with raised bands to the spine and gilt interlaced strapwork lozenge design to sections. Large geometrical strapwork design to both covers with six semicircular indented curves, interlaced with two horizontal strapwork lozenges, with tudor rose motifs tooled to the corners of each element of the design, in turn interlaced with a large central double lined strapwork circle, itself tooled all round with tudor rose motif. All edges gilt with gauffered borders. Gilt ruled turn-ins with leaf design to the outer corners, signed “19 C-S 05” to rear turn-in. Doves type printed in black with red initial letters by Edward Johnston, on handmade paper. A near fine set with a little discreet, superficial furbishment to the joints at the spine ends. Internally fresh with some foxing to the prelims of vol I. Housed in quarter mo- rocco boxes by Brockman. [44939] £75,000 The masterpiece of the Doves Press, famous for its austerely dramatic incipit with Johnston’s sin- gle elongated initial “I”, epitomising the understated elegance and restrained style of the Press. Established in 1900 by T. J. Cobden-Sanderson, who left his career as a barrister to open the Doves Bindery in 1884, he became interested in all aspects of book design, writing in 1892 that “I must, before I die, create the type for today of ‘The Book Beautiful’, and actualize it – paper, ink, writing, printing, ornament and binding. I will learn to write, to print and to decorate”. Though an admirer of William Morris, he felt that the Gothic Kelmscott designs, with thickly foliated borders, orna- mental bindings, and woodcut illustrations, were excessive. Instead, he worked with the printer Emery Walker to develop a refined type based on those of 15th-century Italian masters Nicholas Jenson and Jacobus Rubeus. Their partnership was dissolved in 1908, and in 1916 Cobden-Sander- son threw the Doves typeface into the Thames, thus concluding the bitter dispute between him and his partner over the rights to the Doves Type. From about 1907, Cobden-Sanderson would encourage subscribers to the Doves Press to have their books bound, plainly or elaborately, in morocco by the Doves Bindery. A few copies of the Doves Bible are recorded similarly bound, either by forward thinking subscribers or by Cob- den-Sanderson for promotion or personal use. This design, one of several recorded by Tidcombe, would appear to be among the earliest, being the only one recorded as being dated 1905 with at least one copy also found dated 1906. There is a similar design, also dated 1906, but with plain covers. Four other designs, presumably commissioned after the fact and dated as late as 1921 are also recorded. The infrequent occurrence of these bindings on the Doves Bible in commerce, suggest that very few were produced. The last example to appear at auction (exactly matching this set in design) was the Garden copy in 1989 (which made $29,700). Tomkinson 6, Titcombe Doves Bindery 624 (dated 1906). PROVENANCE: John Gribbel (1858-1936, American industrialist and book collector, bookplate to pastdown of vol I); sold at his sale in 1940.
3
J O N K E R S R A R E B O O K S
4
L I T E R A T U R E 1 5 7 2 - 1 9 9 8
EARLY MODERN GHOSTS - A SOURCE FOR HAMLET
2. Of Ghostes And Spirites Walking By Nyght And of strange noyses, crackes, and sundry forewarnynges, which commonly happen before the death of menne, great slaughters, & alterations of kyngdomes. LAVATER, Ludwig Printed at London by Henry Benneyman for Richard Watkyns, 1572. First English edition. 4to (183 x 135mm). Bound in full green morocco by Stikeman. A near fine copy, gen- erally very fresh, with light marks to the title page and final leaf, but otherwise crisp. Corner chip to C 3 . [44163] £50,000 The first edition in English of one of the most significant and popular early modern works on demonology, credited as a source for Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Lavater was a Swiss protestant reformer, whose work was originally printed in the Netherlands in 1569. His work was the most significant contribution to the debate on ghosts and spirits in the Elizabethan era. Its significance has been lauded by a number of Shakespeare scholars over the course of the previous century. In 1906, F.W. Moorman described it as “the most elaborate treatment of [the] theological ghost question” in arguing for the direct bearing it had on Shakespeare when writing Hamlet. More recently Jonathan Bate has cited it as influencing Hamlet’s dilemma in comprehending the ghost of his father.
Rare. No other complete copy has been sold for over 70 years, and only one other undefective copy has been offered since 1921, when this very copy was sold at Herman Le Roy Edgar’s sale at the Anderson Galleries. The USTC locates fifteen copies in institutions, with three copies held by the Folger.
PROVENANCE: Undated early inscription “SS” to title page; Herman Le Roy Edgar (1865-1938), bookplate to front pastedown, sold at his sale (Anderson Galleries, 24th January 1921, lot 389, “of excessive rarity”); Leo S. Bing (1874-1956), real estate mogul and collector, sold Christies New York (18th December 2003, lot 128).
5
J O N K E R S R A R E B O O K S
6
L I T E R A T U R E 1 5 7 2 - 1 9 9 8
3. The Faerie Queen Disposed into twelve books, fashioning XII. Morall Vertues. [with:] The Second Part of the Faerie Queene, containing the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Bookes SPENSER, Edmund John Wolf] for William Ponsonbie; [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, 1590, 1596. Two volumes, both first editions. Quarto. Early 20th-century crushed red morocco by Roger de Coverley & Sons with gilt-lettering on spine, board-edges gilt-ruled and turn-ins gilt, all edges gilt. Woodcut printer’s device on each title, full-page woodcut on M5v of Vol. I, typographical ornaments and initials. A very good set, with the title to the first part a little soiled with a minor repair to the lower corner, otherwise extremely fresh with just occasional discreet marginal repairs, with some catchwords restored; leaves Pp6-8 supplied from another copy (see notes) with minor repairs to those leaves and some numbers and letters restored in ink facsimile. The second part trimmed close at the top, affecting the headlines slightly on three leaves (Q5, Cc5-6); Hh2 and Ii6 have corner repairs. Occasional minor soiling or spots in both volumes. [45469] £85,000 The complete text of Spenser’s classic work, except for two cantos of Mutabilitie which did not appear until the folio edition of 1609. Written in praise of Elizabeth I and dedicated to her, Spens- er’s allegorical masterpiece follows the adventures of six medieval knights, drawing on Arthurian legend, Italian romance, classical epic, and Chaucer. John Dryden notes that “Spencer more than once insinuates, that the Soul of Chaucer was trans- fus’d into his Body; and that he was begotten by him Two hundred years after his Decease” (Dryden, f. A1). In its mingling of genres, the poem represented a new departure in English po- etry, for which Spenser invented a new stanza, “a hybrid form adopted from the Scots poetry of James I, ‘rhyme royal’, and Italian ‘ottava rima’” (ODNB). Spenser began composing the work in the 1570s, sharing “parcels” of it among friends. Though no rough drafts, autograph copies, or foul papers for the poem have survived, the poet alludes to a manuscript copy as early as 1580, when in a letter to Gabriel Harvey he asks for one to be returned to him: “I wil in hande forthwith with my Faery Queene, whyche I praye you hartily send me with al expedition: and your frendly Letters, and long expected Iudgement wythal” (Three Prop- er, and wittie familiar Letters). The poem, or some part of it, was almost certainly circulating in manuscript in London in 1588, when Abraham Fraunce quotes a stanza in his Arcadian Rhetorick, correctly citing its book and canto. The first part was finally printed in 1590, possibly intended to coincide with the publication of Philip Sidney’s Arcadia. In this copy, the first part (Vol. I) has the widely spaced date line on title and the “1” of “1590” under the “r” of “for” in the imprint, the printed dedication on verso of title-page, p.332 lines 4 and 5 without the Welsh words and spaces left for them. The terminal complimentary sonnets are present in both states with leaves Pp6-8 (the rejected version of the sonnets) supplied from another copy and the final signature Qq1-4 printing the revised version of the sonnets. The misnumbering of pages is as noted in Pforzheimer, except that on pp. 486-7, which are correctly numbered, and with the number “3” is present at p.403 (but printed backwards). The second part has the misnum- berings noted in Pforzheimer, with the addition of p.269 misnumbered 271. Grolier, Langland to Wither 231 & 233; Hayward 22; Pforzheimer 969 & 970; PROVENANCE: Sir Edmund William Gosse (bookplates); William Carman (his sale, Parke-Ber- net, 1965).
7
ONE OF ELEVEN COPIES ON VELLUM
4. The Works Of Edmund Spenser [SHAKESPEARE HEAD PRESS] SPENSER, Edmund
Shakespeare Head Press, 1930-1932. Eight volumes. Number 6 of 11 copies printed on vel- lum. Original publisher’s vellum over card with red silk ties, lettered in red and black to the spines. Each volume housed in publisher’s cloth box with red morocco spine. Ti- tle page in black and red with initials and section titles, designed by Joscelyne Gaskin, printed in blue and red. Marginal notes printed in red. 111 woodcut illustrations, head and tail pieces by Hilda Quick, all bar five hand coloured, many heightened with gold or silver. Frontispiece map of Ireland opposite engraved title page, both hand coloured with gold and silver highlights, in vol VIII. A fine set, exceptionally clean and crisp throughout with just the occasional browned spread in vol V. Original boxes with some joints worn. [44924] £60,000 The superb Shakespeare Head Spenser on vellum which stands with their Chaucer as the great achievements of the Press. “The eight volumes of Spenser are equally good [as the Shakespeare Head Chaucer] – different, as the character of the author is, but in merit nothing to chose between them... Perhaps the small devices below Spenser’s sonnets, printed in black and in the vellum copies beautifully laid with gold, are the most discreet and opulent form of decoration, fitting and in flawless taste. They recur too in the wedding poems. At the end one feels this to be, in his own words ‘a goodly ornament / And for a short time an endless monument’” (Franklin, The Private Presses p 150).
8
9
J O N K E R S R A R E B O O K S
10
L I T E R A T U R E 1 5 7 2 - 1 9 9 8
THE RARE FIRST APPEARANCE OF MILTON’S LYCIDAS
5. Justa Edouardo King nuafrago, ab Amicis moerentibus MILTON, John
Printed by Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel, printers to the University, 1638. First edition. In two parts, the first in Greek and Latin, the second, titled “Obsequies to the memorie of Mr Edward King”, in English, containing “Lycidas”. Small quarto, pp [viii], 36, [2], 25, [1]. Finely bound in full crimson morocco, bordered in black and gilt with gilt floral devices to the corners and lettered in gilt. All edges gilt. A very good copy indeed, with restoration to the gutter of the title page and leaves A2-B2, but internally fresh and well preserved. [45463] £125,000 The first appearance of one of the most celebrated elegies in the English language, variously de- scribed as “probably the most perfect piece of pure literature in existence” (Arthur Machen), “the greatest short poem of any author in English” (Paul Elmer More) and “the high-water mark of English Poesy and of Milton’s own production” (Mark Pattison) Milton’s Lycidas, written in memory of Edward King, a friend of Milton’s at Christ’s College, Cambridge who drowned when his ship sank in the Irish Sea in August 1637, is his second pub- lished work, following the commendatory poem he contributed to the 1632 second folio edition of Shakespeare’s works. It is the final poem of this work and is signed with the poet’s initials. Milton reprinted the poem in the 1645 Poems. There are a few textual differences between the two versions: most notably, the “humming tide” of 1638 is replaced by the “whelming tide” of 1645 and all subsequent versions. Exceptionally rare: in 1968 W.R.Parker traced a mere 33 copies of Justa, all but two in institution- al libraries, for his biography of Milton. Those two copies were probably the copy belonging to Mrs Prescott, which featured in an exhibition of Milton’s work the following year and Hol- land-Houghton copy (later in the collection of The Garden Ltd and Robert Pirie). Subsequent to Parker’s survey, only the Hogan-Insley Blair, Richard Adams and the present copy have been seen in commerce, attesting to the long held view that it is virtually unknown in private hands. PROVENANCE: William Grant, Lord Prestongrange (1701-1764, Scottish politician) bookplate to front pastedown.
11
J O N K E R S R A R E B O O K S
6. Poems CAREW, Thomas
J[ohn]. D[awson]. for Thomas Walkley 1640. First edition, the earliest state of the text with the errata on A2 recto with six lines and leaf G7 uncancelled, with a G7 cancellans from another copy loosely inserted. 8vo. Contemporary brown mottled calf, lettered and decorated in gilt to the spine. A fine copy with a little wear to the spine ends and scuffing to the calf on the front board. Internally exceptionally fresh with bookplates to the front pastedown. A superb, crisp unsophisticated copy. [45454] £15,000 The exceptional Newton - Houghton copy of Carew’s important and influential collection of Cav- alier poetry collected with his most famous work, the masque, Coelum Brittanicum, which was first performed at the court of Charles I in 1633. It is one of only five known copies with leaf G7 uncancelled. “This attractive collection appears to be rarer than is generally supposed, certainly rarer than either Lucasta or Hesperides, both uncommon books” (Hayward). PROVENANCE: E. Marion Cox (described in The Library, 3rd series VII (1816), p. 158); A. Edward Newton (bookplate; sold his sale Parke-Bernet, 1941); Arthur A. Houghton (bookplate; his sale Christie’s, 1979, for £1500). Hayward 76.
12
L I T E R A T U R E 1 5 7 2 - 1 9 9 8
7. Hesperides or, The Works both Humane & Divine HERRICK, Robert
Printed for John Williams, and Francis Eglesfield, 1648. First edition, first state with the leaves C7, M8, and O8 all integral. Bound with the errata leaf and separate title page to His Noble Numbers dated 1647, both as called for but seldom present. Bound in eight- eenth century russia, lettered in gilt to the spine and decorated in blind to the boards. All edges gilt. Engraved frontispiece portrait by William Marshall, woodcut device of a crown on title. A very good copy with neat superficial repairs to the joints. Internally fresh with repair to the title page at the inner margin and a number of minor paper flaws: slight wear to the upper corner of leaves B6-C4, and small marginal chip to the corners of D5, D6 and E5, none affecting the text, and a small hole to E6. Repair to head of final leaf of text (2E8). Withal, a well preserved copy. [45460] £20,000 The Bliss-Terry-Bradley Martin copy of Herrick’s mangum opus, which established his reputation as a leading Cavalier poet. Having come down from Cambridge, Herrick established himself in London as a follower of Ben Johnson, contributing some anonymous verses to a 1640 edition of Shakespeare’s Poems. In the wake of the English Civil War and the ejection from his living as a clergyman, Herrick collected his verse for this publication. However, the printer’s errors were so numerous on three leaves they required cancels to be printed ready for publication. Herrick refers to this in the following quatrain on the errata leaf. “For these Transgressions which thou here dost see, / Condemne the Printer, Reader, and not me; / Who gave him forth good Grain though he mistook / The Seed; so sow’d these Tares throughout my Book.” Copies are now scarce in good condition, particularly in an early binding. This copy is one of very few known copies that contain the original uncorrected and uncancelled leaves.
PROVENANCE: Philip Bliss (his ownership marks “P” added before printed signature letter “B” and Bb1); Colonel W. F. Prideaux; Wal- ter Thomas Wallace (bookplate, his sale, American Art Association 1920, sold for $510 to Rosenbach); The Rosenbach Company (pencil note on the front free endpaper signed “A.S.W.R.”, sold to:); Roderick Terry (bookplate; his sale, American Art Associa- tion 1935); H. Bradley Martin
(bookplate on chemise; his sale 1990); James O. Edwards (booklabel). Grolier, English 29; Hay- ward 95
13
J O N K E R S R A R E B O O K S
14
L I T E R A T U R E 1 5 7 2 - 1 9 9 8
AN EXCESSIVELY RARE COMPLETE COPY WITH ALL ENGRAVINGS IN CONTEMPORARY MOROCCO 8. Lucasta Posthume poems of Richard Lovelace Esq. WITH... Elegies Sacred To the Memory of the Author: By several of his Friends. 1660. LOVELACE, Richard Printed by William Godbid for Clement Darby, 1659 [1660]. First edition (not to be confused with a different work of 1649 by the same name). 8vo. Contemporary full black moroc- co with double ruled gilt borders to the boards and spine and fleurons in each of the corners. All edges gilt. Engraved frontispiece portrait of Lovelace by Hollar after Franc- es Lovelace dated 1660 (Pennington’s second state); engraved portrait of Lucasta by W. Faithorne after P. Lely; separate title-page to Elegies, additional engraved allegorical title-page to Elegies by Faithorne after Lilly, woodcut initial at beginning; also loosely inserted is a copy of the Lucasta portrait plate from the 1649 Lucasta. A fine copy with a little wear to the joint at the base of the spine, but the binding entirely unrepaired. Frontispiece neatly remargined, the upper corner restored in early pen. Internally ex- ceptionally fresh, with just occasional minor marginal loss or repair, with the corner of the rear blank torn away, and some marginal annotation. A superb copy. [45450] £45,000 Richard Lovelace was one of the most gifted and notable of the Cavalier poets, a political per- suasion which saw him imprisoned twice during his lifetime. His later work however, is darker and somewhat more introspective in the manner of the metaphysical school, meaning he had the unusual distinction of being associated with both main schools of seventeenth century poetry. This collection of poems, as with his 1649 collection, is titled in homage to his mistress and muse, Lady Lucy Scheverell, who married another suitor when Lovelace was incorrectly reported to have been killed in battle in France. However this volume is entirely different from the earlier collection, with completely different poems by Lovelace, and includes elegies by Charles Cotton, James Howell, Eldred Revett, Symon Ognell, Thomas Lovelace, and Dudley Posthumos-Lovelace. It has been questioned whether the plate of Lucasta seated originally formed part of this book on the basis that it is a tipped in plate rather than forming integral part of the sections as the other two engravings do. However, the copy in Hayward’s English Poetry (1950) contained the plate “seldom found in this very rare book” and so did the copies belonging to Robert Hoe (sold 1911) and James Bindley (sold 1818, later in the collection of George Smith, sold 1920), which suggests at least a reasonable likelihood that it was issued with the plate. In any state, this book is rare, much more so than the 1649 Lucasta, and copies with the Hollar frontispiece are excessively rare with no other complete copy being offered at auction since the H.T.Butler copy in 1934. Hayward 98; Grolier Wither to Prior 589 PROVENANCE: James Perry (purchase note on flyleaf: “Sold at Mr. Perry’s sale March 1822 £7/5/- with scarce print”); “Jenner” (signature on flyleaf); James Marshall (signature on flyleaf dated 1839); Edward Marshall Hecher (signature on flyleaf); Maggs Bros. Ltd., English Literature prior to 1800, Part 5, Catalogue 786 (1949), item 1799, sold for £150; H. Bradley Martin (his sale, Sotheby’s New York, 1 May 1990, lot 3015).
15
J O N K E R S R A R E B O O K S
9. Poems By the Incomparable, Mrs. K.P. PHILIPS, Katherine
J.G. for Rich. Marriott, 1664. First edition. Contemporary English sheep with later mo- rocco title label lettered in gilt to the spine. Bound with the Imprimatur leaf opposite the title page and the errata leaf and blanks bound integrally as called for. Woodcut device of a wreath on titlepage and one woodcut initial. A very good copy indeed, with a little general wear and a few abrasions to the surface of the binding with a small re- pair to the lower corner of the rear board. Front endpaper partly excised, but internally fresh. A superb copy in its original state. [45466] £20,000 The sole lifetime publication of the Anglo-Welsh royalist, known to her friends and admirers as the “Matchless Orinda” and the “English Sappho”, considered among the most respected and influential English woman writers of the seventeenth century. The work was controversially pub- lished without Philips’ authorisation in January 1664 and withdrawn by the publisher the same month. “Primarily a manuscript poet, Philips (1631/2-1664) had established an extensive coterie of readers and writers among her Welsh and London contacts during the 1650s [known as the Society of Friendship]. She became widely known for her innovative use of Donnean poetics to express passionate female friendship, her occasional verses on private friends and public figures, and her moral and political acuity” (Losocco). Her formal commentary on public affairs covered the execution of Charles I, the Restoration of Charles II, and profiles of numerous female mem- bers of the royal family. Although Philips never compared herself to Sappho, other writers often did, partly because of the intimate poems addressed from Orinda to Lucasia and Rosania, the pseudo-classical names of fellow Society of Friendship members Anne Owen and Mary Aubrey.
“This volume was published without the consent of the author, and caused her so much annoy- ance that Marriott, the publisher, expressed his regret, and promised in an advertise- ment in the London ‘Intelligencer’, Jan- uary 18, 1664, to stop the sale of the book” (Grolier). PROVENANCE: William Smith (early inscription struck
through); H. Butler of Balliol College, Oxford (early in- scription). Grolier, Wither to Prior 668
16
L I T E R A T U R E 1 5 7 2 - 1 9 9 8
10. The Book Of Common Prayer
And Administration Of The Sacraments And Other Rites And Ceremonies Of The Church According To The Use Of The Church Of England Together With The Psalter Or Psalms Of David Pointed As They Are To Be Sung Or Said In Churches. STURT, John Engraven and printed by the permission of Mr. John Baskett printer to the Kings Most Excel- lent Majesty Sold by John Sturt engraver in Golden-Lion-Court in Aldersgate-Street 1717. First edition of Sturt’s beautifully engraved Book Of Common Prayer. 8vo, XVIII, 166 pp. (bound without the list of subscribers and advertisement leaf). Contemporary red morocco, decorated gilt. Each page printed from an engraved plate, with decorative borders and illustrations in the text. The volvelle to p.5 is present in this copy, though is often missing. A near fine copy, with some light rubbing to spine but the binding otherwise attractive. Internally fresh. Eighteenth century gift inscription to first blank, bookplate of the Earl Of Normanton to front pastedown. [44348] £2,250 A very attractive copy of the luxurious Sturt edition of The Book Of Common Prayer, beautifully engraved and well-preserved. This edition of The Book of Common Prayer is Sturt’s masterpiece and took him 3 years to com- plete. The entire book was engraved by hand on 188 silver plates, which allowed the intricacy of his engraved illustrations to be printed in extreme detail. The frontispiece showing the bust of George I, contains The Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, the Commandments, the Prayers for the King and the Royal Family, and the Twenty-First Psalm, all engraved so minutely they can only be read with a magnifying glass. Rothschild 1987.
17
J O N K E R S R A R E B O O K S
18
L I T E R A T U R E 1 5 7 2 - 1 9 9 8
11. A Dictionary of the English Language:
In Which the Words are Deduced from their Origin and Illustrated in their Different Signifi - cations by Examples from The Best Writers, to which are Prefixed A History of The Language, and An English Grammar. JOHNSON, Samuel W. Strahan for J. and P. Knapton; T. and T. Longman; C. Hitch and L. Hawes; A. Millar; and R. and J. Dodsley, 1755. First edition. Two volumes, folio. Near contemporary full brown calf with elaborate gilt decoration to spine and boards, lettered in gilt to green title labels and with volume numbers in gilt to red and black title labels. Signature 19D in Todd’s first state which he states “occurs very infrequently”. Titlepage printed in black and red. A fine, tall, unsophisticated copy, with a little superficial wear to the spine ends and joints. Internally, notably fresh with just the occasional marginal stain. An exceptional copy of this landmark of lexicography in a magnificent binding. [45449] £65,000 The magnificent Hersholt copy of the most influential dictionary in the English language. Johnson’s monumental literary achievement and “the most amazing, enduring and endearing one-man feat in the field of lexicography” (PMM). Assisted by a succession of amanuenses, John- son took just over eight years to list the 40,000 words found in the Dictionary. Born of a dissatis- faction with the variable standard of available dictionaries, the work was financed by a group of booksellers, whose names appear in the imprint, and were joint proprietors, having contracted the work from Johnson and paid him 1500 guineas in instalments for it. What distinguished his work from previous endeavours was the illustration of his definitions with over 114,000 citations drawn from English writing in every field of learning during the two centuries from the middle of the Elizabethan period down to his own time, even rewriting some to fit his purposes. He also introduced his own opinion into the definitions, often humorous or prejudiced. It was published on 15 April 1755 in an edition of 2,000 copies and its reception was almost uni- versally appreciative. As Boswell put it some 30 years later in his Life of Johnson, “the world contemplated with wonder so stupendous a work achieved by one man, while other countries had thought such undertakings fit only for whole academies”. It remained the standard English dictionary for some two centuries until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary. The national pride taken in the dictionary was expressed by the poet Christopher Smart when he wrote in the Universal Visitor: “I look upon [it] with equal amazement, as I do upon St. Paul’s Cathedral; each the work of one man, each the work of an Englishman” Due to its heft, copies of the first edition seldom survive in bindings of the time. Copies in early bindings without meaningful repair, particularly in such well preserved condition as this, are now very rare indeed. PMM 201; Rothschild 1237 PROVENANCE: Thomas Hutton, of Goldsborough in Yorkshire (1757-1845, book collector: armo- rial bookplate, and crest on spines); Jean Hersholt (bookplate; his sale Parke-Bernet, March 1954).
19
J O N K E R S R A R E B O O K S
20
L I T E R A T U R E 1 5 7 2 - 1 9 9 8
IN ORIGINAL BOARDS
12. The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
Comprehending an account of his studies and numerous works, in chronological order; a series of his epistolary correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons; and various original pieces of his composition never before published. The whole exhibiting a view of liter- ature and literary men in Great-Britain, for near half a century, during which he flourished. BOSWELL, James Printed by Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, in the Poultry, 1791. First edition. Two vol- umes, quarto (295mm x 225mm). Original publisher’s blue-grey paper boards, manu- script titles to spine. Uncut. First issue, with “gve” on page 135 of the first volume. All seven cancels present as usual, though lacking the preliminary blank in the second vol- ume. Engraved frontispiece of the subject to volume I, engraved ‘Round Robin’ plate and facsimile of Johnson’s handwriting to rear of volume II. A fine copy of a work rarely encountered in an original state. The boards are worn at the corners, with some soiling to the covers and minor repairs to the joints. Internally the pages are unpressed and uncut. There is a repaired closed tear to the margin of the frontispiece, very minor marginal worming from Mm-Ccc. Housed in custom made fleece-lined chemise and cloth slipcase. [37692] £35,000 The Life Of Johnson was published on 16th May 1791 priced at two guineas and issued in the blue- grey boards of the present copy. Though the first edition comprised 1,750 sets of sheets, copies in the original boards are uncommon and usually feature far more repair than in the present example.
The work was an immediate commercial success, and paved the way for modern biography. Even Thomas Macauley, who pub- lished a now infamous review of a new edition of Boswell’s Life Of Johnson in 1831 that did little for either Boswell’s or Johnson’s nineteenth century reputation, was forced to admit that “The Life of Johnson is assuredly a great, a very great work. Homer is not more decidedly the first of heroic poets, Shakspeare is not more decidedly the first of dramatists, Demosthenes is not more decid- edly the first of orators, than Boswell is the first of biographers. He has no second. He has distanced all his competitors so decid- edly that it is not worth while to place them.” Pottle 79, Rothschild 463, Grolier English Literature. PROVENANCE: Viscount Birkenhead (bookplate to front paste- down of each volume); Victor Rothschild (bookplate to front free endpaper of first volume).
21
J O N K E R S R A R E B O O K S
22
L I T E R A T U R E 1 5 7 2 - 1 9 9 8
IN THE ORIGINAL BINDING
13. The Vicar Of Wakefield A Tale. Supposed to be written by Himself. [GOLDSMITH, Oliver]
F. Newbery, 1766. First edition, a textual variant unrecorded by Temple Scott, conform- ing to his variant A, but with the correct catchword on p.39 of vol. II. Two volumes. 12mo. Original quarter brown calf over marbled paper boards, volume numbers in gilt to the spine. Uncut and unpressed. An exceptional copy in unsophisticated, original condition. Some wear to the spine ends and corners and general surface wear to the boards with a little loss of paper to volume II. Wanting the front free endpaper and final blank to vol. I. Internally, generally fresh with marginal chips to the corners of C2, E2, F3 and G1 of vol I, none of them affecting the text, and the occasional stain to vol II. [45448] £22,500 The exceptional Stockhausen copy of Goldsmith’s masterpiece and one of the most popular and widely read novels of the eighteenth century, at its height on a par with Gulliver’s Travels. Written in 1761-2, Goldsmith had famously sold it to Francis Newbury, with the help of his friend Samuel Johnson, a couple of years later, who in turn “kept it by him for nearly two years unpublished” (Irving Washington). Although its success was not immediate, its popularity grew to the extent that by 1886 there had been some 96 editions printed and numerous translations. Structured and written in the manner of the sentimental novel, a genre popular at the time for seeking to capture the emotion of the characters and induce the same in their readers, it is also seen as an early attempt at a satire on the sentimental novel in the scarcely credulous way Goldsmith allows his unworldly Vicar to be fleeced and befall misfortunes. It is possible that Jane Austen had this gentle poking of fun in mind when taking similarly ironic approach in Sense and Sensibility. We know that Aus- ten had read The Vicar of Wakefield because she mentions it in Emma. Evidence of how widespread its influence was throughout the nineteenth century can be seen by the novels which mention it in their text, forming a roll call of the great wroks of Victori- an literature including Frankenstein, Middlemarch, Villette, The Professor, David Copperfield, The Tale of Two Cities and Little Women. Rothschild 1028 PROVENANCE: William E. Stockhausen (his sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, Novem- ber 1974);
23
J O N K E R S R A R E B O O K S
24
L I T E R A T U R E 1 5 7 2 - 1 9 9 8
IN FINE ORIGINAL BOARDS
14. Poems Chiefly In The Scottish Dialect BURNS, Robert
Printed for the Author, 1787. First Edinburgh edition. First state, with “skinking” correct- ly set on line 13 of page 263. Original publisher’s blue-grey boards, with cream paper spine and paper title label. Engraved frontispiece of Burns on thicker paper. A superb, fine copy, with just superficial splits to the base of the front joint and the head of the rear joint and a small stain to the base of the spine. Internally fresh, with the occasional page carelessly opened. An exceptional copy. [45446] £17,500 The magnificent Greenhill-Bradley Martin copy of Burns’ Poems in original boards. The Edin- burgh edition is a comprehensive collection of Burns’ verse, with over 22 poems appearing not included in the smaller Kilmarnock edition, printed a year earlier in very small numbers. It also marks the announcement of Burns as an important literary figure, both as a representative of the Scottish working class (and soon to be regarded as the Scottish national poet) but also for his im- pact on the burgeoning romantic movement. The spontaneity, and emotion as well as sensitivity to nature, born of Burns’ humble, rural background, was to influence Wordsworth, Coleridge and Shelley in particular. It is believed that between 1500 and 2000 copies of the Edinburgh edition were originally printed, but such was the number of advance subscribers that further copies, containing a number of print- ing variations were hastily printed bringing the total number of copies to about 3000 at the time of publication. This copy, with the correct setting of “skinking” (incorrectly changed to “stinking” in the second state) is from the primary state of the text. “Copies of either... edition in original boards are very rare.” - Egerer (A Bibliography of Robert Burns, 1964) Egerer 2. PROVENANCE: Robert Cunningham, Dublin (1741-1813, early gift inscription to him on flyleaf and on title); Harold Greenhill (bookplate); H. Bradley Martin (bookplate; his sale, 30 April 1990, lot 2681); Private collection.
25
J O N K E R S R A R E B O O K S
26
L I T E R A T U R E 1 5 7 2 - 1 9 9 8
A FINE ‘UNMUTILATED’ COPY IN THE ORIGINAL BOARDS
15. Queen Mab A Philosophical Poem: With Notes. SHELLEY, Percy Bysshe
Printed by [i.e. for] P.B. Shelley, 1813. First edition, in the ‘unmutilated’ state, with the title and final leaf intact. Publisher’s original drab paper covered boards. A near fine copy, with the joints cracked but holding and wear to the spine, but an extraordinarily well preserved copy. Internally perfect. [41783] £60,000 An exceptional copy of Shelley’s key radical text of the early nineteenth century, described in DNB as a “freethinking and socialistic gospel... couched in a rhetoric so exalted as to pass easily for poetry” (DNB). Shelley arranged for a mere 250 copies to be printed for private distribution. Given the contents, Shelley’s printer, Thomas Hookham, refused to put his name to the work, so it is Shelley’s name and address which are listed on the title page. In order to avoid the possibility of prosecution, Shelley ‘mutilated’ copies as he distributed them by removing the title page and final leaf bearing his name. Furthermore, as his marriage to Harriet broke down with his elopement with Mary Godwin in 1814, he took to removing the dedication leaf to his estranged wife.
Copies which have survived unmutilated offer one of the most inflam- matory title pages of the era. Knowing few would see it, Shelley felt able to give vent to his revolutionary fervour. It carries a quote in Latin from Lucretius and Archimedes’ aphorism in Greek, “Only give me a place on which to stand, and I shall move the whole world.” Bolder still is the statement from Correspondance de Voltaire, “Ecrasez l’Infame!”, a phrase which had been adopted by the Illuminati as their motto to refer specifically to Christ. As Harriet Shelley wrote to a friend, about Queen Mab, “Do you [know] any one that would wish for so dangerous a gift?”. This unmutilated state has long been highly sought by collectors and considered much more valuable than mutilated copies. Further, whilst unmutilated copies are rare, copies in boards are even more so and the combination of the two is almost unknown: we can discover only one other such copy offered for sale at auction since 1902. PROVENANCE: A.S.W. Rosenbach (Noted bookseller and collector, pen- cil note declaring it to be from his personal collection); Louis H. Silver (morocco bookplate, purchased by John F. Fleming at the sale of New- berry Library duplicates from the Silver accession, Sotheby’s, London, 9 November 1965, lot 301) – Abel E. Berland (Christie’s, New York, 8 Oc- tober 2001, lot 105). Ashley V, p.57; Granniss/Grolier Shelley 15; Hayward 225; Tinker 1886; Wise Shelley, pp.39-40
27
J O N K E R S R A R E B O O K S
28
L I T E R A T U R E 1 5 7 2 - 1 9 9 8
KEATS’ FIRST BOOK OF POEMS IN ORIGINAL BOARDS
16. Poems KEATS, John
C. & J. Ollier, [1817]. First edition. Original publisher’s plain grey boards with original title label. Wood engraving of Edmund Spencer to the title page. A very good copy with repairs to the front joint and base of the spine. Rear joint with split at the base and spine darkened, but boards clean and well preserved. Internally, front hinge cracked, but notably clean and fresh. A well preserved example of Keats’s first work, seldom encountered in an original state. [36224] £45,000 Keats’s first book, published on 3 March 1817 by Charles and James Ollier, who were already publishing Shelley. The first of a mere three lifetime publications, it is a work of mainly youthful promise – Keats had appeared for the first time in print less than a year earlier, with a poem in the radical weekly The Examiner on 5 May 1816. The 1817 Poems attracted a few good reviews, but these were followed by the first of several harsh attacks by the influential Blackwood’s Magazine, mainly by critics who resented Keats’s avowed kinship with the despised Leigh Hunt. The best- known poem in the book is the sonnet “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer”, “by common consent one of its masterpieces in this form, having a close unsurpassed for the combined qualities of serenity and concentration” (Colvin), and described by ODNB as “an astonishing achievement, with a confident formal assurance and metaphoric complexity which make it one of the finest Eng- lish sonnets. As Hunt generously acknowledged, it ‘completely announced the new poet taking possession’ (Hunt, Lord Byron, 249)” (ODNB).
29
J O N K E R S R A R E B O O K S
30
L I T E R A T U R E 1 5 7 2 - 1 9 9 8
AUTHOR’S PRESENTATION COPY WITH LEAF OF ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT 17. The French Revolution a History. CARLYLE, Thomas James Fraser, 1837. First edition. Three volumes. Presentation binding of full maroon morocco, lettered and decorated in gilt to the spine and in blind to the boards. All edges gilt. Author’s presentation copy to his mother-in-law, inscribed: “To Mrs. John Welsh. Liverpool. / T.C. / London, June / 1837.” With a leaf of the original manuscript, dense- ly written on two sides and trimmed to fit, bound in opposite the title page of Vol. I. A fine set with just some trivial wear to the joints and spine ends. [45447] £45,000 An exceptional set of Carlyle’s magnum opus, which remains one of the most authoritative ac- counts of the early course of the French Revolution and has never been out of print since publica- tion. It established Carlyle’s reputation as an important nineteenth century intellectual and was an influence on a number of his contemporaries, including Charles Dickens. Carlyle had met Jane Baillie Welsh in 1821, and after much prevarication she agreed to marry him in October 1826. Shortly after their marriage, the Carlyles moved into a modest home on Comely Bank in Edinburgh, leased for them by Jane’s mother, Grace Welsh. She had not approved of Car- lyle as a son-in-law. Having been left £200 a year by her husband, widow and daughter became popular members of Haddington society and Mrs Welsh had hoped to attract a richer and more successful suitor for her only daughter. However, The French Revolution was the turning point of Carlyle’s literary career and this copy, extra embellished with a leaf of the manuscript and extrav- agantly bound, was perhaps symbolic of its author changing fortunes. Presentation copies of Carlyle’s greatest work are very scarce: besides this copy only two inscribed copies have been offered at auction in the last 100 years. The addition of the leaf of manuscript, unique to this copy, is also significant. The leaf contains the text for pp.58-62 from volume three. When Carlyle had completed the manuscript for the first volume of the work he lent it to John Stuart Mill for comment. When Mill appeared at his house to return the manuscript he was, Car-
lyle later wrote, “the very picture of despera- tion”. Mill had left the manuscript at the house of a friend, whose servant had mistaken it for wastepaper and used it to light a fire and all that remained were a few, somewhat charred leaves. Carlyle was famously philosophical about this loss and completed the work rewriting the first part from memory. Following publication, the manuscript was largely destroyed with only frag- ments remaining. PMM 304 PROVENANCE: Mrs. John Welsh (presentation inscription); Miss Mary R. Chrystal, grand-daugh- ter of Dr. John Welsh, of Liverpool, uncle of Jane Welsh Carlyle, (sold Sotheby’s, April 1938 ); Of- fered by Scribners, NY in 1942 for $1,000; sold Sotheby’s, June 1976 to Drew; sold Sotheby’s, De- cember 1983, to John Howell; Private collection.
31
J O N K E R S R A R E B O O K S
32
L I T E R A T U R E 1 5 7 2 - 1 9 9 8
EARLIEST KNOWN AUTHOR’S PRESENTATION COPY
18. A Christmas Carol DICKENS, Charles
Chapman & Hall, 1843. First edition, first issue with ‘STAVE I’ on page [1]. Original red- brown cloth with gilt vignettes on upper cover and spine and blind stamped border (Todd’s first issue binding). Yellow coated endpapers and a blue and red title page dated 1843. All edges gilt. Author’s pre publication presentation copy, inscribed by Dickens to his close friend and godfather to his son, Walter Savage Landor, “Walter Savage Landor From his affectionate friend, Charles Dickens Seventeenth December 1843.” Four hand coloured plates by John Leech, with four woodcuts in the text. A superb, fine copy, with just a few trivial spots to the upper cover. Internally perfect, a superb copy. Housed in a green, full morocco, lift-off slipcase. [45505] £375,000 An exceptional association copy, inscribed by Dickens to one of his closest friends and one of a very small number of author’s copies, inscribed by Dickens prior to publication. Walter Savage Landor was a poet, historical novelist, and political activist whose series, Imagi- nary Conversations (1824-1829) proved popular with readers, though he was perhaps just as well known for his lively personality as he was for his prose. Landor greatly influenced the following generation of writers and social reformers and soon formed an affection for and close attachment to the young Charles Dickens, who in turn was happy to absorb this doyen of literary London into his circle. Landor became godfather to Dickens’ second son, who he had named after Landor. As Dickens’ fame grew, Landor remained a constant presence in his life, inspiring the character of Lawrence Boythorn in Bleak House (1852-53). In a letter to John Forster, Landor asked him to pass along a message to Dickens: “Tell him he has drawn from me more tears and more smiles than are remaining to me for all the rest of the world, real or ideal” (Forster, Landor, I: 409). This one of a handful of copies, given to Dickens by his publishers prior to publication for pres- entation. Eight copies are known with the earliest presentation inscriptions dated 17 December 1843, all to Dickens’ closest friends: Landor (the present copy), Mrs. Eliza Touchet, Baroness Bur- dett-Coutts, Albany Fonblanque, Samuel Rogers, Rev. Edward Tagart, Thomas Noon Talfourd, William Makepeace Thackeray. A further two copies, to Thomas Carlyle and John Forster, are dated the following day. Dickens completed writing A Christmas Carol in November 1843 and determined to present it as a beautiful gift book. It was an instant success, reportedly selling all 6000 copies of the first edi- tion on the first day of publication, almost single-handedly spawning a new genre of “Christmas literature”. Buoyed by his success, Dickens wrote a further four Christmas stories each seeking to strike a blow for the poor, uneducated and repressed, but imbuing his message with characteristic humour and good cheer. “it is rather as if Dickens had rewritten a religious tract and filled it both with his own memories and with all the concerns of the period. He had, in other words, created a modern fairy story. And so it has remained.” - Peter Ackroyd (Dickens). PROVENANCE: Walter Savage Landor (presentation inscription from the author); John Gribbel (noted book collector, bookplate to front paste down; his sale, Parke-Bernet, 1940); also sold at auction in 1947 (Parke-Bernet) and 1996 (Sotheby’s NY). Smith II 4
33
J O N K E R S R A R E B O O K S
PUBLISHER’S PRESENTATION BINDINGS
19. Barnaby Rudge And The Old Curiosity Shop DICKENS, Charles Chapman & Hall, 1841. Two volumes, both first editions. Both volumes in publisher’s presentation bindings of full tan calf with raised bands and morocco title labels to the spine decorated and titled in gilt. Double ruled gilt border to covers. Marbled endpa- pers and all edges gilt. With the publisher’s binding stamp to the verso of the front endpaper and the Hayday stamp to the verso of the rear endpaper. Both volumes il- lustrated in the text throughout with steel engravings after George Cattermole and Halbot Browne. Both volumes in very good condition indeed, with just trivial wear to the bindings’ edges and a little marking to the boards. Internally very fresh. [45203] £6,000 These two works were originally issued serially and collected together in six monthly volumes under the running title, Master Humphrey’s Clock. The two titles were issued individually in December 1841, to coincide with the issue of the final volume of Master Humphrey’s Clock. Dickens chose to use the individual issue for presentation and Hayday was Chapman and Hall’s binder of choice for presentation bindings of Dickens’ work. For the most part copies in these bindings were sent to Dickens for presentation: copies inscribed to Thomas Noon Talford, Walter Savage Landor and Mrs Burnett (Barnaby Rudge) and Macready and Fanny McIan (Old Curious- ity Shop) were all bound in identical or very similar bindings by Hayday. Uninscribed copies in this binding are seldom seen, but it is probable that Chapman & Hall sold small numbers of copies in Hayday bindings as well as cloth. An advert in the Chuzzlewitt Advertiser of March 1843, offers (presumably later editions of) both books “price 13s. cloth, or elegantly bound by Hayday in calf with gilt leaves, price 18s.” PROVENANCE: Josiah Wilkinson (1812-1903, Highgate barrister, bookplates to both pastedowns).
34
L I T E R A T U R E 1 5 7 2 - 1 9 9 8
20. The Personal History Of David Copperfield DICKENS, Charles
Bradbury & Evans, 1850. First edition. First state of vignette title page (dated). Publish- er’s primary binding of sage green cloth stamped in blind with ruled border and central arabesque to covers and lettered in gilt on the spine. Thirty nine full page steel engrav- ings by H. K. Browne. A very good copy indeed with the spine slightly faded and dusty and a few trivial marks, but the cloth entirely without repair. Internally, generally very fresh with minor, superficial repair to the hinges, pronounced foxing to the frontispiece and engraved title, but the remainder of the plates, for the most part, notably clean. An exceptionally well preserved copy. [40855] £15,000 David Copperfield, described by Dickens as “my favourite child”, marks a step change in the author’s career, a transition from composer of popular, picaresque, comedies to great novelist. It now ranks as one of the great novels of the nineteenth century. Sadleir listed it at the top of his list of comparative scarcities for Dickens in fine condition we have found it consistently the most difficult of Dickens’ major works to find in good unrepaired cloth. This is due in part to its shape and size. Like all of Dickens’s octavo novels, the contents were sim- ply too bulky for the flimsy binding. With Copperfield this issue was probably exacerbated by its popularity: the serialisation was an instant hit with the public and so when the completed novel was available it was read heavily or rebound for posterity. Smith 9
21. Bleak House DICKENS, Charles
Bradbury & Evans, 1853. First edition. Original publisher’s primary binding of olive green fine diaper cloth blocked in blind with border and central arabesque to covers and titles blocked in gilt to the spine. Engraved title and 39 full page steel engraved plates by H.K. Browne. A near fine copy, with almost inevitable toning to the spine but otherwise very bright and crisp and free from any repair. Internally, unusually clean, with no mentionable foxing only the most minor browning to the edges of the plates. Hinges tight, but starting. An exceptionally well preserved copy. [41758] £12,500 Critically regarded as one of Dickens’s most accomplished novels, Bleak House is notable for its complex plot structure and for the large and diverse range of characters it introduces. It also contains elements of crime fiction and is the first significant novel in which a detective plays an important role. Its satire of the Chancery court system remains one of the greatest passages on the English legal system in literary history. “Bleak House is not certainly Dickens’s best book; but perhaps it is his best novel” - G.K. Ches- terton Dickens’s octavo novels have rarely survived in good unprepared cloth, however, possibly as a consequence of its immediate popularity, copies of Bleak House seem particularly uncommon. Smith I 10
35
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108 Page 109 Page 110 Page 111 Page 112 Page 113 Page 114 Page 115 Page 116 Page 117 Page 118 Page 119 Page 120 Page 121 Page 122 Page 123 Page 124Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker