The deadSHORT LIST 58

Item 30

BLACKWELL’S RARE BOOKS48-51 Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3BQ, UK

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BLACKWELL’S RARE BOOKS

1 [Arnold-Forster (Mary)] The Right Honourable Hugh Oakeley Arnold-Forster. A Memoir, by his Wife. Edward Arnold, 1910, FIRST EDITION, frontispiece with tissue guard and 6 further plates mostly from photographs, occasional light foxing throughout, pp. xiv, 376, 20 [ads], 8vo, original blue cloth, lettered in gilt to upper board and backstrip some mottled rubbing, the edges and endpapers spotted, ads unopened, good £85

A family copy of this Memoir of the recently deceased Liberal politician, written by his wife and presented by her to her sister with an inscription on the flyleaf: ‘Margaret Story-Maskelyne, with much love from Mary, November 1910’. The two sisters were the daughters of mineralogist Nevil Story-Maskelyne

Inscribed by the author to Owen Barfield, with the beginnings of a letter in return

2 (Barfield.) ‘A’. Love-in-Memory. An Elegy. Fortune Press, 1948, FIRST EDITION, pp. 43, crown 8vo, original quarter dark green cloth with mid green boards, backstrip lettered in gilt now dulled, fading to edge of upper board, edges untrimmed and toned, a handful of foxspots to endpapers, good £300

From the library of Owen Barfield, with a sticker to that effect on the front pastedown. The book has been inscribed to him by the author (his uncle) to the flyleaf: ‘To Owen Barfield, from JAB, 25 Aug’48’. Loosely inserted is an incomplete draft of Barfield’s response, in blue ink on Barfield & Barfield Solicitors headed paper and dated two days after the inscription: ‘Dear Uncle Alfred, Very many thanks for sending me the revised version of Love in Memory’.A poem written in memory of the author’s daughter, who had died from meningitis aged 22.

3 (Betjeman.) Service of Thanksgiving for the Life and Work of JOHN BETJEMAN CBE, 1906-1984. Poet Laureate. St Peter’s Day, Friday 29 June 1984, 11.30 am. Westminster Abbey, 1984, SOLE EDITION, pp. 14, 8vo, original stapled self wrappers, fine (Peterson O82) £80

‘Departed this life…’

4 (Bible. English. Authorised.) The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testament; With notes explanatory, critical, and practical, selected from the works of several eminent divines. Printed and sold by I. Moore and Company, 1774, text in double columns, scattered foxing, and occasional minor damp-staining, tear in the middle of the second leaf (without loss), folio, contemporary calf, rather rubbed and worn, stoutly rebacked, spine gilt, red lettering piece (Darlow & Moule, 1244; ESTC T91945) £1,750

The type much resembles that used in Baskerville’s Bible of 1763. The editors ‘took great care thast their notes should be free from party reflections, and tenets hurtful to peace and benevolence’ (preface)

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With the Apocrypha, although it is not in the list of books: it has its own register, but no title or sectional tile.According to ESTC the N.T. titlepage is dated 1776: here it is dated 1777, and the imprint is Printed and Sold by J. Fry, who, like I. Moore are Letter-Founders and Printers, in Queen-Street, near Upper-Moorfields. According to Darlow amd Moule, Fry is simply a later style of Moore & Co. (and see Reed, A History of Old English Letter Foundries). Joseph Fry was grandfather of the Francis Fry whose collection of Bibles so greatly enriched the Bible House Library.ESTC records just 3 copies of this edition, BL, Cambridge, and John Rylands.Provenance: the front fly-leaf records, commemorates, the marriage of Thomas Cox and Susanna ?Frage at the Devonshire Meeting House in London on the 25th of the third month of 1777. The inscription recording this is followed by a rather melancholy list of 5 children, all but one of whom died in infancy: even the one that has no ‘departed this life ...’ after the date of birth, has had something erased after it. The lower half of the page is a lengthy description of some extraordinary events at a (Quaker) Meeting in Ramsey in 1783.

Sombre binding5 (Bible. OT Hebrew, NT Greek) Amsterdam: [OT:] Borstius and Halma, [NT:]

Westenius and Smith, 1701 and 1740, 2 vols. bound in 1, both with additional engraved title-pages, OT with Hebrew and Latin titles (text entirely in Hebrew), NT title printed in red and black, 2 folding engraved maps in NT, both vols. printed in double columns, maps a little browned and foxed, 12mo, contemporary black morocco, panelled in blind, centre filled with repeated lozenge tools, elaborate blind tooling in 2 of the 4 compartments on spine, the others lettered in gilt, gilt edges, joints repaired, good (Darlow & Moule 5139 and cf. 4718a) £500

A sombre binding. Both texts edited by Johann Leusden. Both editions, as recorded in Darlow and Moule, are found in corresponding conjunction. 19th-century English ownership inscriptions.

6 Blomfield (Reginald) [Original design for:] The Cross of Sacrifice. [With:] A blueprint for the cross and entrance as featured at Vlamertinghe Military Cemetery in Belgium, this credited to Blomfield’s assistant A.J.S. Hutton and drawn by F.W.T. Ray, with a few manuscript additions mostly referring to sizing. [1919,] printed design on large tattered sheet, but with the central image unaffected, various manuscript additions and colouring in pencil (largely to show setting and scale, and including the figure of a man in profile), signed by the architect at foot and dated to April 1919, pp. [1], 75 x 55 cm approx; [1], 100 x 67 cm approx (the blueprint), heavy fraying to edges with darkening to some border areas, the blueprint similarly tattered and stored folded with original pin to top corner, fair £1,750

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The original designs of architect Sir Reginald Blomfield for a memorial intended as a standard feature across war cemeteries of the Commonwealth. Blomfield, then in his early sixties, was appointed by the Imperial War Graves Commission to design cemeteries in France and Belgium - this, alongside his Menin gate at Ypres, is perhaps the most well-known monument of his work in this area and has been widely imitated. Though the basic outline here of an octagonal base, with a sword mounted on the cross is the same as the final monument, there are differences in the details - for example the lettering inscribed here, ‘To the Memory of Those Who Died. Their Name Liveth For Evermore’, was not kept.

A Quaker suicide in Philadelphia

7 (Crotch (William)) Contemporary Manuscript Narrative of his last days. Philadelphia: December 24th, 1806, manuscript in ink on paper, frayed at the edges, and a few tears repaired, pp. 17, 4to, stitched in paper wrappers (text extending onto inside lower wrapper), sound £1,200

Written just four days after Crotch’s untimely end by suicide. The writer does not identify himself, but he is writing from firsthand experience. He defends Crotch first against the charge that he was ‘addicted to the vice of intemperance’, and secondly by insisting that his suicide did not invalidate all his previous good works. Indeed it was the imputation of drunkenness which led to the severe depression which led to the fatal act. We learn at the beginning that when Crotch arrived in America in 1804 he ‘was in a low state of mind’ already. He improved when he got to Philadelphia, but seems to have upset some by his zeal, so that when he ventured forth again to New England, rumours began. The writer explains Crotch’s memory lapses as the result of overwork. Crotch was born in Needham, Suffolk, around 1770. He became attracted to Quakerism as a lad, and took up religious visiting, and developed a reputation as a ‘seer.’ We do not know what induced him to go to America.

‘a final exciting and mysterious adventure’

8 (de la Mare.) A group of material relating to the death of WALTER DE LA MARE, comprising: - The Order of Service for ‘The Burial of Walter de la Mare, O.M., C.H., 1873-1956’, Thursday 28 June 1956, 12 noon at St Paul’s Cathedral, pp. 8 [including covers], 4to, original self wrappers, folded horizontally with rusted paperclip mark, a letter laid in from one in attendance to her father, enclosing the booklet and describing the event- An ALs from Kynaston Reeves to R.N. Green-Armytage, June 28th 1956, blue ink on headed paper, pp. [2], original fold- The Times notice of the funeral in a cutting dated 29/6/56- An ALs from E.N. Saxton to R.N. Green-Armytage, June 30th 1956, blue ink, pp. [4], original fold and in original envelope- An ALs from Rowland L. Watson to R.N. Green-Armytage, July 1st1956, blue ink on headed paper, pp. [2], original fold and in original envelope- An ALs from Richard de la Mare to a Mr Rackham, blue ink on headed paper, pp. [2], original fold, a few spots to edges 1956, various sizes and formats (as described), very good condition overall £240

A poignant group, assembled from various sources, forming a diverse record of the passing of this major poet. The first from one intimate with the work, but not the man, describing the experience of attending his funeral, offers a public perspective of the impact of his death. The remainder of the manuscript material comes from those close to de la Mare, to varying degrees: The actor Kynaston Reeves encloses the order of service ‘with my sympathy for you in the loss of your old friend’ (though that present here is from another source) and pauses to mention having taken out and read some of the poet’s verse in the churchyard (’having your selection in my pocket’) before digressing to his own affairs; a long letter from the poet’s nurse and companion E.N. Saxton describes in detail

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his last moments (’W.J. rang his bell and said “I do feel ready N”, it gave me a fearful shock’), its impact on her (’I feel very desolate and lost, but also feel that his presence is here’) and conveys her sympathy for Green-Armytage and his wife (’I have been worrying about you both’); a further letter to the same from the editor Rowland L. Watson (’Watty’) states that ‘I cannot grieve for De La M.’, because the memory of him so recently alive ‘a few evenings before’ renders the ‘shock of his death [...] devastating’ - ‘if you could hear our laughter, our jokes, and our banter, you would... my dear old friends, I cannot find words to express what I want to say. I have never known such a contrast of the living and the dead’. Finally, a letter from later in the year of the poet’s death from his own son - Faber executive Richard de la Mare - thanks his correspondent for ‘your very kind and understanding letter’, going on to describe that ‘My father’s death was indeed a sore blow, & in many ways I feel the loss more and more as time goes on [...] we knew in our bones that he hadn’t very much longer to live, yet during his last years there came over him such an appearance of timelessness that we almost forgot he was mortal’ - the poet himself, however, ‘had no fear of it, but regarded it as a final exciting and mysterious adventure. The way of his going left no room for mourning - it is only that, entirely selfishly, we miss him terribly.’

9 Donne (John) Biathanatos [first word in Greek]. A Declaration of that Paradoxe, or Thesis, that Self-homicide is not so Naturally Sinne, that it may Never be Otherwise. Printed by John Dawson, [c. 1647], FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, with the undated title-page, woocut initials, woodcut and typographic headpieces, with the initial blank, last 4 leaves with a few short marginal tears, light browning at edges of title-page (offset from binding turn-ins), pp. [xx], 218, 4to, contemporary blind ruled calf with corner ornaments, spine gilt, rebacked preserving original spine, lacking lettering piece, preserved in a full brown morocco pull-off case, early signature of Wm. Vernon at head of initial blank, engraved bookplate of Henry Greenhill dated 1911 inside front cover, bookplate of H. Bradley Martin inside rear cover, modern bookplate on recto of initial blank, very good (Grolier/Donne 11; Grolier/ Wither to Prior 294, Keynes 47; Pforzheimer 292; Wing D1858) £5,000

The first of Donne’s controversial works to be written, Biathanatos was published posthumously by his son, in violation of the author’s wishes. ‘A perfect example of his ambiguous relationship with humanism. It is a cousin to the more frivolous Paradoxes and Problems ... it is formidably researched, and its fashionably sceptical attitude can be more properly traced to a frame of mind inculcated by the study of cases of conscience that occupied Donne throughout his life’ (ODNB).The spine of the case gives the date as 1644, but the correct date is either 1646 (Pforzheimer) or 1647 (Keynes).

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10 (Drummond of Perth.) Sacred to the Memory of the Honourable Mr James Drummond of Perth, &c. who was born 16th October, 1791 - and died 11th August, 1799. Madderty (?i.e Perth or Edinburgh), 1799, Hebrew quotation beneath title printed in red and black, Arabic quotation printed in red above imprint, sometime folded in four and slightly dust soiled on verso, very light spotting, folio broadside (380 x 230 mm), good £400

The only copy of this elegiac broadside recorded in ESTC is at the NLS. The imprint likely relates to place of composition rather than place of publication. The Arabic and Hebrew printing is a most unusual and attractive feature.

11 (Eliot.) Order of Service in memory of THOMAS STEARNS ELIOT, born 26th September 1888, died 4th January 1965. Thursday, 4th February 1965, 12 noon. Westminster Abbey, 1965, SOLE EDITION, pp. 8, 8vo, original self wrappers, staples a little rusted internally, very good £85

12 Eliot (T.S.) Geoffrey Faber 1889-1961. Faber and Faber, [1961,] FIRST EDITION, 29/100 COPIES, printed on Japanese rice paper and French-Folded, pp. 19, crown 8vo, original brown boards, upper board and backstrip lettered in gilt, the latter cocked, edges untrimmed, glassine jacket with a couple of short splits and crease at head of rear panel, very good (Gallup A71) £700

13 (Felton.) CAMPBELL (Alex) Life. [Phoenix Broadsheet 60.] Leicester: Toni Savage, 1975, SMALL BROADSHEET, Rod Felton illustration printed in red with attractive hand-colouring, pp. [1], foolscap 8vo, fine condition £15

‘Womb/ Three score and ten/ then/ Tomb’ - a terse, encompassing verse.

14 (Fürsteneck, Haus zum.) KOCH (Paul) & Fritz Arnold (Printers). A small group of diverse material printed there [12 pieces.] - 4 song-sheets, printed in red and black, 3 with musical notation and the other with a hand-coloured illustration at head- 2 examples of patterned paper, one with a printed design washed in green, the other a paste-paper in brown & red- 1 certificate (headed ‘Urkunde’) with press device printed in red- 2 rubbings from Memorial stones, one the gravestone of Maier Lindheimer (1850-1922), the other a large commemoration of Sophie von La Roche’s residence in Offenbach am Main between 1786-1807 (the stone dated 6 December 1931, 200 years since her birth)- 3 booklets describing or demonstrating the activities of the Press, printed in red and black with musical notation and head-piece illustrations, one illustrated with photographs and with some tipped-in samples of patterned paper Frankfurt am Main,

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various dates, circa 1935, various sizes and formats, a few light spots and soiling to borders of a few pieces, the Sophie von La Roche rubbing on tissue paper that is slightly frayed at corners, a little creasing to corners of paste-paper, the booklets with original inserts printed in red and black, very good condition overall £300

A good cross-section of the work of this German printing house, founded by Koch - the son of typographer Rudolf - and Arnold in 1933, and active for just over a decade until destroyed in a bombing raid in the Second World War. Their work is highly distinctive and particularly strong in their printing of music, with the typefaces employed drawing predominantly on those of Koch’s father and Victor Hammer (under whom Paul Koch trained). As well as a record of personal ties, the group also conveys a strong sense of time and place: the journal ‘Graphische Jugend’ opens with a full-page portrait of the Führer captioned with the quotation, ‘Die Nation lebt nur durch die Arbeit aller’.

15 (Graham.) GAY (John) My Own Epitaph [Barwell Broadside 2.] Aylestone, Leicestershire: The Cog Press, 1975, SMALL BROADSHEET, Rigby Graham illustration at head, Cog Press device printed in red at foot, pp. [1], foolscap 8vo, fine condition (Van Eijk F4.18) £45

A scarce broadsheet, printed by Patricia Green and Rigby Graham at the Cog Press for distribution at Toni Savage’s Ampersand Folk Club. Gay’s Epitaph is followed by two more, for Martius of Biberach and Petrakis.

16 (Grapho Editions.) KERSHAW (Paul) Here Lyeth. A Selection of Letterforms. Ripon, 2015, 10/100 COPIES printed on JPP Archival Inlay paper, some fold-out pages, pp. [16], 12mo, original quarter mustard-yellow cloth with grey patterned paper sides to a design based on a decoration from a gravestone in St Mary’s Church at Abbey Dore, fine £25

A selection of letters and numerals taken from gravestones, tombs, and memorials copied by Kershaw at four sites ‘south of Hereford’.

17 [Gray (Thomas)] An Elegy wrote in a Country Church Yard.

Printed for R. Dodsley; And sold by M. Cooper, 1751, FIRST EDITION, small repair to inner margin of title and last leaf, short closed tear in for-margin of second leaf, pp. 11, 4to (240 x 185 mm), early twentieth-century full black crushed morocco by Riviere and Son, sides elaborately gilt to a varied floral design including inlays, spine gilt and lettered direct, gilt inner dentelles, dark blue silk doublures and endleaves, gilt edges, preserved in a very dark green straight grained morocco pull off box, bookplate of Roderick Terry on fly-leaf, modern bookplate opposite, very good (Northup 492; Hayward 173; Rothschild 1056; Grolier, Hundred 49) £20,000

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First edition of Gray’s much-loved masterpiece, containing some of the most famous (and most often parodied) lines in English literature, in a very handsome Riviere binding.

Dorothy Richardson’s copy

18 Green (Kensal [i.e., Colin Hurry]) Premature Epitaphs, Mostly Written in Malice. Cecil Palmer, 1927, FIRST EDITION, additions, corrections and alternate versions in pencil glossing the text with further epitaphs in ink at rear, all in author’s holograph, a few faint spots, pp. 63, [4, ads], crown 8vo, original pale green boards, lettered in dark green to upper board and backstrip, the latter with nick at head, one gathering slightly loose at head, faint spots to edges, dustjacket with darkened backstrip panel a little nicked and chipped, good £120

Inscribed on the flyleaf: ‘To Dorothy Richardson, from Kensal Green’ - the recipient a major modernist novelist, the precise manner of whose acquaintance with Colin Hurry (for it is he) is obscure. Hurry had earlier published a collection of verse with Constable that included some war poetry - a copy of which was also presented to Richardson and handled by us; the verse here takes the form, as the title indicates, of epitaphs for the yet-to-die - targets range from authors and aristocrats to scientists and statesmen, and the majority are successful in their efforts to amuse. Excepting a few additional epitaphs, the collection ends with that of Kensal Green [pseud.] himself.

19 [Hall (William Henry)] The Death of Cain, in Five Books; after the manner of The Death of Abel. By a Lady. The Second Edition. Printed for B. Crosby, 1797, with an engraved frontispiece, this foxed and a bit offset onto title, a few spots elsewhere, pp. xii, 147, [1, ads.], 12mo, contemporary half calf, slightly worn, good (ESTC T79546; Raven App. B11) £350

Clearly intended to cash in on the runaway success of Mary Collyer’s Death of Abel, attributed to her by Halkett & Laing, and claimed to be so by the several American editions published between the first edition, 1789 (BL only in ESTC) and the present (4 in the UK in ESTC - 3 in Scotland - and 2 in Australia). The collation above is as per ESTC, but clearly some advertisements are missing - 12 pp. according to the EUL catalogue (so no wonder they were discarded). Hall also published ‘The New Royal Encyclopædia’ 1788.

20 [Hall (William Henry)] The Death of Cain, in five books; after the manner of The Death of Abel. By a Lady. The Third Edition. Printed for B. Crosby, 1797, with an engraved frontispiece, some spotting and staining, frontispiece almost detached, pp. xii, 147, [20,

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ads], 12mo, contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt and with red lettering piece, traces of red wax seals inside covers, sound (This edition not in Raven) £750

An unrecorded edition. Of the first edition, 1789, ESTC records just the BL, and of the second - which has the same date as this ‘third’ - 6 copies. The fourth edition of 1800 is recorded in just the BL.

21 Heaney (Seamus) Robert Lowell. A memorial address and an elegy. London and Boston: Privately printed by Faber and Faber, 1978, FIRST EDITION, ONE OF 250 COPIES, pp. 13, crown 8vo, original printed grey sewn wrappers, fine (Brandes & Durkan A16) £200

The first appearance of Heaney’s ‘Elegy’, and the only appearance of this version.

‘Bury me not, for heaven’s sake!’

22 [Hibbert (Sylvanus)] A Brief Enquiry into the State after Death, as Touching the Certainty thereof; and Whether we shall Exist in a Material or Immaterial Substance; and whether The Scripture Doctrine of a future State Be supportable by the Light of Reason Manchester: Printed for the Author, 1771, FIRST EDITION, engraved portrait frontispiece (giving the author’s name, which is not on the title-page), a bit browned and soiled in places, some messy pen trials, a couple of paper repairs, price erased from title-page, pp. xi, [12-] 31, 8vo, late nineteenth century half brown calf, ex-Wigan Public Library with their blind stamp on first and last leaf, signature of John [ ] Kettel on title and of George Kellet on recto of frontispiece, sound. (ESTC T53007; 6 copies in the UK, including Chetham’s, Yale only in the USA) £750

This curious tract is ‘written up’ on the Chetham’s Library website, from which we quote: ‘Sylvanus Hibbert’s snappily titled A Brief Inquiry into the State after Death [&c] is a pamphlet that deserves to be better known for three reasons. Firstly, it advocates cremation some years before this became popular ... Secondly, the pamphlet is quite rare. In a note in the Library’s copy of this book, James Crossley, Honorary Librarian of Chetham's and President of the Chetham Society, claimed that this was “perhaps the scarcest of Manchester tracts, certainly one of the most curious. Dr. Hibbert-Ware, Sylvanus’s nephew, cashed in and destroyed every copy he could find” ... Lastly, the book has an engraved frontispiece of the author, which shows that either he didn’t care about his physical appearance or that he was simply having a laugh ... if anyone knows of a less flattering caricature of a Manchester man then please let us know.’ And see The Life and Correspondence of Samuel Hibbert Wake, Chapter II.

23 (Hughes.) Service of Thanksgiving for the Life and Work of TED HUGHES, OM, OBE, 1930-1998. Poet Laureate. Thursday 13 May 1999, 11.00 am. Westminster Abbey, 1999, SOLE EDITION, printed in black and green, pp. 22, 8vo, original stapled wrappers, fine

£45

A.N.L. Munby to C.K. Ogden

24 (Keynes.) JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES, 1883-1946. Fellow and Bursar. A Memoir prepared by direction of the Council of King's College Cambridge Cambridge: The College, 1949, FIRST EDITION, frontispiece photograph, pp. 41, crown 8vo, original wrappers, covers lightly dustsoiled with a couple of faint marks, chipping to backstrip ends, good £165

Laid in at the front is a TLs on King’s College headed paper to the Cambridge philosopher and linguist C.K. Ogden (ex- of Magdalene College) from the author and College Librarian A.N.L. Munby: Munby thanks Ogden for his two recent letters and goes on to describe Keynes’s Bentham collection, which he has been cataloguing for the library - enclosing this ‘small College pamphlet on Keynes, which contains my account of him as a book collector’.

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He goes on to clarify Frank Ramsey’s dates of birth and of matriculation, before inviting Ogden to visit the Keynes Bentham collection when next in Cambridge. Ogden himself amassed a considerable collection of Bentham’s work and edited his Theory of Fictions in a 1932 edition. An excellent Cambridge association copy.

25 (Lawrence.) LAWRENCE OF ARABIA MEMORIAL. [The Committee,] 1935, SOLE EDITION, pp. [4], foolscap 8vo, single folded sheet, near fine condition (O’Brien E068)

£35A leaflet soliciting funds for the memorial unveiled the following year, undersigned (in type) by F.M. Allenby, Herbert Baker, Winston Churchill, Lionel Curtis, Augustus John, G. Bernard Shaw, and Evelyn Wrench.

26 (Lawrence.) Halifax (Viscount) LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. Being an address delivered [...] in St. Paul’s Cathedral on the occasion of the unveiling of a Memorial to the late T.E. Lawrence on 29 January 1936. Oxford: Printed at the University Press for distribution by Jonathan Cape, 1936, SOLE EDITION, a few spots throughout, pp. 7, crown 8vo, original stapled self wrappers, a little crease at head of textblock, browning and fine spotting to front, good (O’Brien E094 (Notes)) £50

A scarce offprint, also issued in a version published by OUP.[With:] (Lawrence.) LAWRENCE OF ARABIA MEMORIAL. [The Committee,] 1935, SOLE EDITION,pp. [4], foolscap 8vo, single folded sheet, very good condition (O’Brien E068)

27 (Lewis.) CLERK (N.W.) A Grief Observed. Faber and Faber, 1961, FIRST EDITION, pp. 60, crown 8vo, original mid grey cloth, backstrip gilt lettered, free endpapers partially browned with a few spots, dustjacket gently sunned to backstrip panel and borders, section missing around head with small drink-splash at head of rear panel, good £250

A poignant exploration of grief, prompted by the death of Lewis’s wife. Initially reluctant to publish, Lewis chose a pseudonym whose initials referred to the Anglo-Saxon phrase ‘nat whilk’ (’I know not whom’) allied with a surname conveying, in intentionally bland terms, his scholarly vocation.

28 Lissauer (Frank) Song: in memorie of Hylton Small of Leycestre. [Phoenix Broadsheet 37.] Leicester: Toni Savage, 1975, SMALL BROADSHEET, illustration at head printed in red and hand-coloured in green and yellow, pp. [1], foolscap 8vo, a couple of very faint spots at head, very good condition £15

29 Michell (Richard) An Elegy, to the memory of the most noble and valiant John Manners, late Marquis of Granby; a Lord of the Privy Council, and Captain General of all His Majesty’s Forces, &c. Printed for the author, and sold by Hawes, Clarke, and Collins, [1770,] with a half-title, dustsoiled, short tear in margin of two leaves, catchword ‘AN’ on last leaf (see below), pp. 24, 8vo, disbound (Not in ESTC or Worldcat) £300

A seemingly unrecorded printing of an elegy on the death of the Marquis of Granby, undated but almost certainly published in the year of his death. Although there is a catchword on the final leaf of this volume, we have found no record of any book that it might have once been part of: it was not the elegy included in Michell’s ‘Poems; on various subjects. Viz. Four pastorals, an elegy, an anacreontic ode, Aquafortis, a satire’ published in 1771 under a similar imprint (ESTC T125623, BL only). ESTC lists several other works by Michell ‘printed for the author’ between 1765 and 1772, none described as containing an elegy and only one recorded in more than 2 copies.

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‘a volume of noble grandeur’

30 (Nash (Paul)) BROWNE (Sir Thomas) Urne Buriall and The Garden of Cyrus. Edited with an Introduction by John Carter. (Publisher's Note by Desmond Flower). Cassell, 1932, 199/215 COPIES printed on Barcham Green handmade paper, 32 colour-stencilled collotypes by Paul Nash with 14 of these full-page, pp. xx, 146, [4], royal 4to, original cream vellum by Sangorski and Sutcliffe, backstrip gilt lettered, large dark brown crushed morocco front cover inlay incorporating a design by Paul Nash comprising two cream vellum inlays and an interrelated gilt urn and lattice-work design, the rear cover repeating the gilt front cover urn and lattice-work design and incorporates two dark brown crushed morocco inlays, a.e.g., original[?] protective dustjacket, brown buckram slipcase, fine (Keynes 126d) £6,250

With the original 4-page prospectus. Printed at the Curwen Press, and considered its crowning achievement. The artist had been given free choice by the publisher as to which text he could illustrate, and he responded by producing some of his finest work. As the prospectus records, ‘No pains have been spared by [...] anyone connected with this book to make it [...] one of the pinnacles of book production of our age’ - and the quality of the text, the illustrations, and the binding, are all testament to the supreme vision and immaculate execution of those involved.Though the plain green wrapper is not otherwise known, the possibility of it being original is supported by the offsetting from the morocco.

31 (Newgate.) GUTHRIE (James) The Ordinary of Newgate, His Account of the Behaviour,

Confessions, and Dying Words, of the Malefactors who were Executed at Tyburn On Monday the 5th of this Instant June, 1732 ... Printed and Sold by John Applebee, 1732, browned and a bit spotted, pp. 20, 4to,[together with] Another, for 4th of June, 1735, similar condition, pp. 24, both disbound

£1,200Neither of these is recorded in ESTC, but the 1732 one is in The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913, from whose website we quote: ‘A sister publication of the Old Bailey Proceedings, the Ordinary’s Accounts, containing biographies of the prisoners executed at Tyburn, were regularly published during the century following the inception of the Old Bailey Proceedings. They are a valuable source of information about both elite attitudes towards criminality and the lives, attitudes, and dying behaviour of executed convicts ... The Ordinary of Newgate was the chaplain of Newgate prison, and it was his duty to provide spiritual care to prisoners who were condemned to death. One of the perquisites of the Ordinary's position was the right to publish an account of the prisoners’ last dying speeches and behaviour on the scaffold, together with stories of their lives and crimes. Sold at the affordable price of three or six pence, print runs ran into the thousands. As a result, this was a profitable sideline for the Ordinary, earning him up to £200 a year in the early eighteenth century.’Both of these issues carry advertisements at the end, the later one announcing the publication of ‘Select Trials’ (ESTC T82604, total of 8 copies, 4 on either side of the Atlantic). The earlier one advertises ‘The Best Water in the World ... [for the ] ITCH, and a Panacea, while the penultimate page advertises the fifteenth edition on Onania.

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BLACKWELL’S RARE BOOKS

Katherine Anne Porter’s copy

32 (Officina Bodoni.) VALÉRY (Paul) Le Cimetière Marin / The Graveyard by the Sea. [Translated by C. Day Lewis.] (Printed at the Officina Bodoni for) Martin Secker & Warburg, 1946, FIRST EDITION, 465/500 COPIES signed by the translator, printed on Magnani paper, title-pages printed in black and red, parallel texts of English and French, two lines of English translation in pencil to French text at head of p. 15, pp. 21, 8vo, original green, grey and red marbled paper over stiff card, printed front cover label, a short split at foot of upper joint and a touch of chipping at top corner of front panel, edges untrimmed, original card chemise a little frayed with title information and copy number printed to front, good (Mardersteig 74; Handley-Taylor & d’Arch Smith B15)

£300From the library of author Katherine Anne Porter, with her ownership inscription on the flyleaf: ‘Katherine Anne Porter, at George [Platt Lynne]’s, Hollywood, 2 January 1948’. The 2-line translation at the head of p. 15 is Porter’s own and has been transcribed and annotated by Monroe Wheeler (to whom the copy subsequently belonged) on a slip loosely inserted at front.Wheeler had published Porter’s translations of some French songs at his Harrison of Paris imprint and they were part of the same cultural circles throughout their lives.

Semi-sombre binding

33 Owen (John) Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ, in his Person, Office, and Grace: with The Differences between Faith and Sight. Applied unto the Use of them that Believe. Printed by A.M. and R.R. for Benjamin Alsop, 1684, FIRST EDITION, with a fine engraved portrait frontispiece, slightly offset onto title, pp. [xxxii], 247, contemporary semi-sombre black morocco, panelled in gilt, spine gilt in compartments, lettered in gilt, gilt edges, minor wear to extremities, Sir John Hartopp’s copy with his signature on a fly-leaf, some corrections in text (either by Hartopp, or conceivable Owen),19th-century armorial bookplate of John Poynder (ESTC R32196) £500

A fine association copy of a scarce book. ‘In September 1673 the churchwardens of Stoke Newington presented Hartopp and Charles Fleetwood “for not coming to their said parish church nor receiving the sacrament at Easter last past nor since to this day”. Hartopp worshipped at the Leadenhall Street congregation of the Independent minister Dr John Owen; after the death of Joseph Caryl in 1672, his followers and those of Owen joined forces to form ‘one of the most aristocratic of the London Nonconformist congregations’, meeting at Bury Street in the parish of St Mary Axe (Whiting, 78). Hartopp made shorthand notes of Owen's sermons and as a result thirteen were published for the first time in 1756’ (ODNB). John Poynder was a lawyer and evangelical activist. ‘The extent of Poynder's eclectic literary tastes was revealed in January 1850 when Sothebys took three days to sell his remarkable library. The collection included first editions of Shakespeare and many volumes with autograph letters and memoranda, including an edition of the Phaenomena et diosemeia of Aratus Solensis, autographed and annotated by Milton’ (op. cit.). Poynder has written a note about the provenance.

34 (Pear Tree Press.) AN ELEGY ON THE DEATH AND BURIAL OF COCK ROBIN. Chichester, 1932, frontispiece, title-page decoration, ‘Fancy Portrait of the Author’, and 15 further wood engravings by Stuart or Robin Guthrie, pp. [viii], 27, crown 8vo, original quarter parchment with blue boards, printed label to front, a little browning to backstrip

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and edges with very faint browning to free endpapers also, edges roughtrimmed, very good £100

Printed and illustrated by Stuart Guthrie of the Pear Tree Press, which had published an edition with the same illustrations nine years earlier - the ‘Fancy Portrait’ and some of the decorations here differ, as does the setting of the poem, but the majority of the illustrations are the same. The limitation is not stated, but is likely to have been small, and this is a very scarce Guthrie title.

35 [Pearse (Edward)] Mr. Pearse’s Last Legacy. Two Discourses, (viz.) I. A beam of divine glory: Or, The Unchangeableness of God Opened, Vindicated, and Improved. II. The Soul’s Rest in God. Very useful to quiet the Minds of Christians, when discomposed on the Account of Man’s Mortality, and the Mutability of Humane Affairs. The Third Edition. Printed for J. Robinson and B. Aylmer, 1704, with an engraved portrait frontispiece by R. White, browned, front inner hinge strained and frontispiece attached only to fly-leaf, pp. 168 (including frontispiece), 12mo, original calf, worn at extremities, small patches of surface loss on lower cover where the leather has been torn, sound (ESTC T95894 ) £600

These two discourses were first published, without the combined title, in 1674, following the author’s death at about the age of 40. ESTC has two entries for a 1687 edition, one specifically Second Edition (Inverpeffray only; the other St. John’s College, Oxford only - Pearce’s college), but they appear to be the same: no 1687 edition is in Wing. Of the present edition ESTC records 3 copies in the UK and 1 in the US (Folger). Pearse was an ejected minister.A rather charming contemporary inscription is on the flyleaf: ‘Favour is deceitful and Buty [sic] is vain but a Woman that feareth the Lord she shall be praised. Prov. 31.330.’

36 Poilroux (Jacques Barthélémy) Traité de médecine légale criminelle. Paris: Levrault, 1834, FIRST EDITION, last leaf slightly stained, small circular library stamp on verso of title, pp. [iv], XXIX, 464, [3], 8vo, uncut in original yellow paper wrappers, paper label on spine lettered in ink, small label inside front cover partly excised, minor defects to spine, very good £600

A thorough-going treatise by a practitioner from the Basses-Alpes, with copious interesting case-histories both from the author’s own experience and the literature. The first part considers sudden death, suicide, autopsies, &c., wounds, strangulation, drowning, &c, and infanticide. The second part has three chapters: on poison and poisoning; on wounds; and on rape and other sexual crimes. The author is conscious both of the life and death value of forensic evidence, and the general ignorance of the subject, and writes the present work in the hope of sparing innocent lives, as well as helping to bring about just and conclusive convictions. A second edition appeared in 1837 with the extended subtitle: ‘manuel à l'usage des médecins de toutes les classes, des étudians en médecine et des magistrats chargés de poursuivre ou d'instruire les procédures criminelles.’Rare: WorldCat records 2 copies in France, and 2 in North America, Montreal and Virginia. Not in Wellcome, not in COPAC.

37 (Ridler.) VIVIAN HUGHES RIDLER, C.B.E., M.A., 1913-2009. A Service of Memorial and Thanksgiving. Oxford: The University Church of St Mary the Virgin, Saturday 21 March 2009, SOLE EDITION, printed in black and brown in a revival of Eric Gill’s Golden Cockerel Press types, pp. [8, including covers], 8vo, original stapled self wrappers, fine £8

An attractively designed tribute to the eminent printer.

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BLACKWELL’S RARE BOOKS

38 (Stoney Road Press.) JOYCE (James) The Dead. Illustrated by Robert Berry with John Dallaire. With an Introduction by Senator David Norris. Dublin, 2014, 59/150 COPIES (from an edition of 175 copies) signed by the artist and by David Norris at the foot of his introduction, printed on Arches Blanc paper, 14 full-page drawings by Robert Berry, title-page printed in lilac, pp. [58], 4to, original grey boards illustrated in black, white and blue with publisher’s device blind-stamped at head of upper board, backstrip of black cloth lettered in black, edges black, illustrated endpapers, cloth slipcase stamped in white, fine £1,250

A lavish new edition of the last and longest story in Joyce’s Dubliners, one of his defining works and a modern classic of the form.

39 [Washington (George)] [CALDWELL (Charles)] [drop head title] An Elegiac Poem on

the Death of General George Washington, Commander in Chief of the Armies of the United States. Dedicated to the Patrons of The True American. At the Commencement of the Year 1800. [Philadelphia: Samuel F. Bradford], 1800, broadside, verse of 252 lines, printed on cream-coloured silk, text in three columns, surrounded by an ornamental border and with a cartouche at the head featuring 2 putti and emblems of war, split horizontally at the centre with the loss of a couple of letters, mild staining at top and bottom, small hole between 2 lines of the title, neatly attached to an acid free card and enclosed in a custom card folder with cloth joints, (cf Stillwell, M.C. Washington eulogies, 310; cf. Evans, 37079; cf. ESTC W015116) £7,500

An extremely rare (and delicate) instant memorial to Washington, who had died on December 14th. In the Advertisement to the pamphlet edition of the poem (expanded to 332 lines) ‘Printed at the Office of “The True American”’, 1800, the author speaks of part of the poem having been printed as a hand-bill and circulated among the Patrons of The True American. We imagine that the version distributed with the newspaper was on paper, and that only a very small number were printed on silk for special presentation. ‘The commencement of the year’ seems to refer to New Year’s Day, so technically the date should be [1799].A variant, also on silk, with a longer title but with no mention of The True American, printed by Robert Aitken, is found in the Huntington, Boston Public, and Library Company. ESTC lists two versions printed by Bradford, neither corresponding exactly to the present version, and neither on silk.

40 Webster (John) A Monumental Columne, Erected to the liuing Memory of the euer-glorious Henry, late Prince of Wales. Printed by N. O[kes] for William Welby, 1613, FIRST EDITION, woodcut ornaments on title, woodcut headpieces, 3 pages (of 5) printed entirely in black, lacking the final 2 leaves (printed entirely in black, without text), last leaf with a hole with the loss of 3 letters from the motto at the end of the text on the recto, slight loss to lower fore-corner of this leaf and extreme corresponding corner of preceeding leaf (no loss of text), A4 (the first black leaf) very slightly defective at top outer

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corner, title slightly browned, pp. [22, of 24], 4to, late 19th-century green crushed morocco by Matthews, quadruple gilt fillets on sides with corner ornaments, spine lettered longitudinally in gilt, gilt edges, extra blank leaves bound in at beginning and end, the last at the front inscribed ‘Richard Grant White Esq. with the best wishes of R.H. Stoddard’, good (ESTC S101831; STC (2nd ed.) 25174; Wither to Prior 888, for the Three Elegies) £15,000

There was widespread grief, both at home and abroad, at the sudden death of the promising Henry, Prince of Wales, on 6th November 1612, at the age of only 16. It evoked a number of elegies. Webster’s Monumental Columne is not perhaps his masterpiece, though he interrupted the composition of that (that is, The Duchess of Malfi) to write it, and there are echoes of the elegy in the play. Indeed, David Gunby has said (Introduction to the poem in his edition of Webster's works) that the elegy provides ‘a vision of human existence which in certain respects comes remarkably close to providing a gloss on crucial aspects of The Duchess of Malfi.’ ‘Webster probably began work on his second tragedy, The Duchess of Malfi, soon after the completion of The White Devil, but in November 1612 set the new play aside to compose A Monumental Columne, commemorating the death ... of Henry, prince of Wales. Webster's elegy, published with those of Heywood and Cyril Tourneur, was entered in the Stationers' register on Christmas day 1612, and in it the poet excuses his “worthlesse lines” on the grounds that “I hasted, till I had this tribute paid / Unto his grave” (lines 310–11). Haste may also explain Webster's extensive reuse of material in his half-finished tragedy, but parallels - as between the experiences of Bosola and Webster's account, in the elegy of:Sorrow that long had liv'd in banishment,Tug'd at the oare in Gallies (lines 162–3)- suggest that A Monumental Columne embodies views important to Webster and given utterance also in The Duchess of Malfi. Webster evidently felt deeply the death of a prince of whom much was hoped’ (ODNB).It is more correct to say (pace ODNB) that the poem was also re-issued as part Three Elegies on the most lamented Death of Prince Henrie, the first written by Cyril Tourneur. The second Iohn Webster. The third Tho: Heywood, 1613. Neither printing is at all common: both are recorded by ESTC at the BL and York Minster only in the UK; the Three at Folger, Harvard and Huntington (bis) in the US (STC adding Eton in the UK), and our Monumental Columne at Folger (lacking last 2 leaves), Harvard, NYPL, Illinois and Texas. COPAC adds the V&A for the Momunmental Columne, and shows that the York copy also lacks the last 2 leaves.Provenance: the presentation by one American critic, Richard Henry Stoddard, to another, Richard Grant White (the latter also a leading Shakespearean), gives this copy an appealing aura.

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