"If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all. "
— Oscar Wilde
Collected Works & Sets
The Lives of the most Eminent English Poets with Critical Observations on their Worls. With Notes Corrective and Explanatory, by Peter Cunningham.
London: John Murray, 1854. First Cunningham Edition. 3 volumes; 8vo. Later light brown morocco with gilt titles and extra gilt to spines, marbled boards, end papers and edges. A little foxing to first and last blanks. Bookplates. A fine set. Shows extremely well. More
The Works of S. Johnson.
Oxford: Printed for William Pickering, London, 1825. 9 volumes; 8vo. (H: 9 x L: 12 inches). Contemporary binding by Bayntun of Bath in half dark red morocco with raised bands, gilt titles and gilt tooling to darkened spines; marbled boards and end papers; top edges gilt. Portrait frontispiece to vol.I...... More
The Writings in Prose and Verse of Rudyard Kipling. [The works include: The Jungle Books, The Second Jungle Book, Kim, Wee Willie Winkie, Plain Tales from the Hills, Just So Stories, Captain Courageous, Rewards and Fairies, Stalky and Co., Puck of Pooks Hill, Rewards & Fairies, The Man Who Would be King, etc.]
New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1897-1937. COMPLETE SET, FIRST PRINTINGS, the Outward Bound Edition. In 36 volumes. Octavo (22 x 15cm). With a series of engraved frontispieces. Publisher's brown cloth with gilt titles and gilt to spines and an gilt ivory medallion to upper board of each volume. Top..... More
The Bombay Edition of the Works of Rudyard Kipling. [Set of writings / novels / poems including: The Jungle Book, Kim, Wee Willie Winkie, Just So Stories, Captain Courageous, Rewards and Fairies, Stalky and Co, Puck of Pook's Hill, Rewards and Fairies, etc.]
London: Macmillan and Company, 1913-1938. LIMITED EDITION, SIGNED by the author in volume I to half title. Complete in 31 volumes; large octavo (25 x 132cm). Finely bound in deep red half morocco, raised bands and gilt rules to spines, matching cloth sides, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Printed from..... More
Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
Edinburgh: Robert Cadell, 1837-1838. [Literary biography]. FINELY BOUND FIRST EDITIONS. Seven volumes, octavo (20 x 13 x 22cm). All volumes first editions, errata slips present in volumes I, II, and VI. Contemporary dark brown half calf over marbled boards, gilt to spines, gilt titles on red leather squares to spines..... More
The Complete Writings of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The Craigie Edition, with Portraits, Illustrations and Facsimiles.
Boston, MA: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1904. [American Literature]. FINELY BOUND COMPLETE WORKS. Eleven volumes. Octavo (20 x 14 x 36cm). With 76 engraved plates including a frontispiece to each volume. Contemporary green half morocco with raised bands, gilt titles and decoration to spines, and marbled boards and endpapers. Top..... More
Longfellow's Poetical Works. Author's Complete Copyright Edition.
London: George Routledge and Sons, 1883. [Poetry] FINELY BOUND. Octavo (20 x 15cm), pp.[2] viii; 680; [2]. With 14 engraved plates. Contemporary red full morocco with raised bands and gilt titles to spine. Elaborate gilt decoration to spine and boards. Gilt textured endpapers; all edges gilt. Spotting to preliminaries and..... More
The Poetical Works. With Notes of Various Authors.
London: C. and J. Rivington, J. Cuthell, J. Nunn, J. and W.T. Clarke, Longman and Co., T. Cadell, Jeffery and Son, J. Richardson, Carpenter and Son, J. Mawman, Baldwin and Co., J. Booker, J. Bohn, J. Duncan, Black and Co., G.B. Whittaker, J. Bain, W. [Poetry]. FINELY BOUND. Six volumes..... More
A History of British Birds.
London: George Bell and Sons, 1870. [Ornithology] HAND COLOURED PLATES. Second edition, six volumes, quarto (27 x 19 x 27cm). Illustrated with 365 fine hand coloured plates. Publisher's embossed green cloth with gilt pictorial titles to spines, gilt stamped birds to centre of upper, black coated endpapers. The preferred second..... More
The Rise of the Dutch Republic. A History.
London: W.W. Gibbings, 1892. 3 volumes; large 8vo. Contemporary binding by J. Low in full green morocco with gilt titles and extra gilt to spines, gilt rule to boards with the emblem of the Law Society stamped in gilt to centre of uppers, marbled end papers, all edges gilt. Prize..... More
Life and Writings of Thomas Paine. Containing a Biography by Thomas Clio Rickman and Appreciations by Leslie Stephen, Lord Erskine, Paul Desjardins, Robert G. Ingersoll, Elbert Hubbard and Marilla M. Ricker.
New York, NY: Vincent Parke and Company, 1908. [Political Philosophy] FINELY BOUND DE LUXE INDEPENDENCE EDITION. Complete in ten volumes. Octavo (23 x 16cm). Number 166 of just 500 hand-numbered sets signed by the editor Daniel Edwin Wheeler, published to celebrate the centenary of Paine's death. Each volume with three..... More
Headlong Hall; Nightmare Abbey; Maid Marian; Crotchet Castle. Standard Novels no. LVII.
London: Richard Bentley. 1837. First collected edition; first volume to contain a preface by the author. Octavo. pp. 402. Contemporary half brown calf leather binding with modern red title squares to spine with gilt lettering. Marbled boards and endpapers. All edges marbled. Engravings from 'Nightmare Abbey' and 'Maid Marian' to..... More
The Collected Works of Mervyn Peake.
London: Queen Anne Press, 2011. FINELY BOUND. Ten volumes bound by Shepherds, Sangorski and Sutcliffe in black full goatskin, gilt titles to spine and various onlays. Red endpapers and gilt top edges, each volume housed in a custom, lined slipcase with leather trim. The set housed in a black cloth..... More
The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe. The Virginia Edition.
New York, NY: Thomas Y. Cromwell, 1902. [Strange Tales and Mysteries]. FINELY BOUND COMPLETE WORKS. Seventeen volumes. Crown octavo (16 x 11 x 39cm). With frontispiece engravings. Contemporary tan half calf with raised bands, gilt titles to contrasting green and brown labels to spines, gilt decoration to spines and marbled..... More
Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe. The Raven Edition.
New York, NY: The Lamb Publishing Company, no date [circa 1902]. [Strange Tales] FINELY BOUND SET. 10 volumes. Octavo (21 x 15 x 35cm). With eight half-tone plates to each volume, including a frontispiece, as well as numerous vignette illustrations. An out-of-series copy from a limited edition of 1000 copies..... More
Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe.
New York, Fred de Fau and Company, [1902]. [Literature] COMPLETE WORKS. The Valdemar Edition. Ten volumes, octavo (20 x 14 x 31cm). Mixed numbers from a limited edition of one thousand sets. Publisher's brown cloth, gilt titles and ornamentation to spines, top edges gilt. Each volume illustrated with a frontispiece..... More
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Fordham Edition. With an Introduction and Memoir by Richard Henry Stoddard.
New York, NY: A.C. Armstrong and Son, 1900. [Strange Tales] FINELY BOUND COMPLETE WORKS. Six volumes, octavo (20 x 14 x 22cm). With facsimile documents (folding), illustrated headpiece decorations and frontispiece portrait. Elegantly bound in recent brown half morocco, gilt titles and decoration to spine, brown cloth over boards, and..... More
![The Works of Edgar Allan Poe. [including Tales of Mystery and Imagination]. Edgar Allan POE](/pictures/thumb/50154.jpg?v=1514900466)
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe. [including Tales of Mystery and Imagination].
London: Published by J. Shiells and Co., 1895. [Strange Tales]. FINELY BOUND. Eight volumes. Octavo (18 x 12cm). With 24 fine photogravure plates. Contemporary dark red half calf with two maroon title labels, gilt raised bands and gilt to spines. Marbled boards and end papers; top edges gilt, others untrimmed..... More
The Complete Works of William Hickling Prescott. Edited, with the Author's Latest Corrections, by John Foster Kirk.
London: George Routledge and Sons, Ltd., no date [circa 1890s]. [History] FINELY BOUND. Twelve volumes, octavo (23 x 16 x 45cm). Beautifully bound by Bayntun for Lauriat Booksellers in tan half calf over marbled boards, gilt titles on contrasting morocco squares and extra gilt to spines, top edges gilt, marbled..... More
![His Dark Materials; 1. Northern Lights [Golden Compass] 2. The Subtle Knife 3. The Amber...](/pictures/thumb/41780.jpg?v=1584802503)
His Dark Materials; 1. Northern Lights [Golden Compass] 2. The Subtle Knife 3. The Amber Spyglass.
London: Scholastic Press, 1995-2000. ALL FIRST EDITIONS. 3 volumes, octavos. Publisher's cloth in original pictorial dust-jackets. The set housed in a custom felt lined slipcase. A fine set. Lyra's quest weaves fantasy, horror and the play of ideas into a truly great contemporary children's book. 'Northern Lights' was listed in..... More
The Waverley Novels. The works include: Waverley, Rob Roy, Ivanhoe, etc.
Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1886-1887. [English Literature] The Centenary Edition, complete in 25 volumes; Octavo (18 x 12 x 64cm). Frontispiece illustration to each volume. Contemporary decorative binding by Blackwell in green half morocco with gilt titles and gilt tooling of leaves and thistles to spines, marbled boards and..... More
Waverley, or, 'Tis Sixty Years Since.
Edinburgh: James Ballantyne and Co., 1814. Second Edition, in ORIGINAL BOARDS. Three volumes. Octavo, with half-titles, edges untrimmed. Frontispiece illustration to each volume. A rare survival in the original grey-paper covered boards, with blue paper spine and printed title labels (lacking from vol. II). Some general wear to the fragile..... More
The Tragedies of Shakespeare.
London: Henry Frowde, Oxford University Press, 1912. [Shakespeare's plays] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (19 x 14cm), pp.[viii]; 1315; [1]. Oxford binding of quarter vellum over blue cloth boards, gilt decoration and titles to spine, top-edge gilt, housed in the original card slipcase. Frontispiece from a drawing by Sir George Scharf. Ownership..... More
The Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare, with notes, critical, historical, and explanatory, selected from the most eminent commentators: to which is prefixed a life of the author.
London: Saunders and Otley, 1825. Eight volumes. Octavo. Bound in contemporary brown calf, with gilt ruling and blind tooling to boards, rebacked to style, with original black labels, raised bands and gilt decoration; all edges marbled, original grey endpapers with bookplate. Bindings show well, boards show some rubbing, with occasional..... More
![Bell's Shakespeare]. [Romeo and Juliet; All's Well that Ends Well; The Winter's Tale; Love's...](/pictures/thumb/57101.jpg?v=1593449283)
[Bell's Shakespeare]. [Romeo and Juliet; All's Well that Ends Well; The Winter's Tale; Love's Labour's Lost; Tempest; Titus Andronicus; As You Like It; Measure for Measure; Antony and Cleopatra; Midsummer-Night's Dream; King Lear; Othello; Cymbeline; Much Ado about Nothing; Julius Caesar; Comedy of Errors; Timon of Athens; King John; Merry Wives of Windsor; Richard II; Richard III; King Henry VIII; Hamlet; Taming of the Shrew; Two Gentlemen of Verona; Twelfth-Night, or, What You Will; Troilus and Cressida; Macbeth; Coriolanus; Henry V; Henry IV, parts I and II; Henry VI, parts I, II and III; Names of the Original Actors in the Plays of Shakspeare, by Will. Shakspeare: Printed complete from the Text of Sam. Johnson and Geo. Steevens, and revised from the last Editions.
London: John Bell [and] John Cawthorn, 1784-1807. [Shakespeare] JOHN BELL EDITION, later printings, mixed issue. 36 of 38 volumes. Duodecimo in half-sheets (16 x 10cm). Most volumes dated 1788 or 1803, with just a few intersectional exceptions. All volumes with two engraved title pages of varying dates ranging from 1784..... More