C A L I F O R N I A A N T I Q U A R I A N B O O K F A I R 2 0 2 6
wear to boards but generally bright and clean. Internally fresh with hinges intact with just minor repairs and a couple of small marginal tears in vol II. Overall an attractive and well preserved set. $9,250 The author’s third novel, a semi-autobiographical account of her time spent at finishing school in Brussels.
reprinted three times, selling 3500 copies within a year, a most unusual occurrence for contemporary poetry. Despite this early success, Clare died in debt in a lunatic asylum in 1864. His legacy as poet of rural England has few rivals. Hayward 236, Tinker 636
FIRST EDITION IN FINE BAYNTUN BINDING
COLLINS, Wilkie THE MOONSTONE A Romance London, Tinsley Brothers, 1868 [44927] First edition. Three volumes. 8vo. Fine - ly bound by Bayntun in full purple polished calf with double gilt rules to the boards, spine with raised bands, red leather title labels, gilt lettering and decorative gilt vignettes. Gilt dentelles with floral design. All page edges gilt. A handsome set. $13,500 First editions of The Moonstone, often con - sidered to be the godfather of the classic English detective story, are rare. T.S. Eliot, claiming that the genre of Detective Fiction was invented by Collins, declared this to be “the first, the longest and the best of modern English detective novels”. Dorothy L Sayers echoed Eliot pronouncing it “probably the finest detective story ever written”.
IN ORIGINAL BOARDS CLARE, John POEMS DESCRIP - TIVE OF RURAL LIFE AND SCENERY Taylor and Hessey, 1820 [46507]
First edition. 12mo. Original pub- lisher’s blue boards and with grey paper spine with title label to spine. Uncut and unpressed. 4pp of preliminary adverts, with half title, but wanting front blank as always, 10pp of terminal adverts on leaves L4-L8. A very good copy indeed with shallow chipping to the exposed part of the spine ends and joints starting, but sound. First gathering loosening but in tact. A very well preserved and entirely unsophisticated copy of Clare’s rare first book. $5,500 An exceptional copy of John Clare’s scarce first book, in original publish - er’s boards. Born in 1793, the son of humble and almost illiterate parents, Clare grew up in the Northamptonshire village of Helpston. His formal education, such as it was, ended when he was eleven years old, but Clare began writing poetry when he was thirteen and was astonishingly prolific. Like Robert Burns, with whom he has been compared, Clare was profoundly influenced by his surroundings, and his poetry is enriched by the use of his native Northamptonshire vernacular. Clare’s poery might never have remained in obscurity had not a local sec - ond hand bookseller, Edward Drury, found one of his poems on a “half sheet of dirty foolscap paper on which was penned ‘The Setting Sun’”. Drury introduced Clare to his cousin, John Taylor, who published this volume in an edition of 1000 copies. It was an immediate success and was
DICKENS, Charles A CHRISTMAS CAROL Chapman & Hall, 1843 [45757] 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. Four hand coloured plates by John Leech, with four wood - cuts in the text. A very good copy indeed, with the cloth and gilt notably bright and entirely unrepaired, just a little wear to a cou- ple of corners and a couple of tiny hairline splits to the rear joint. The spine is a little cocked and there is a bookplate to the front pastedown and neat ownership initials to the front endpaper.
7
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker