"Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it."
— P.J. O'Rourke
Illustrated & Plate Books
Shadows in the Picture.
The Starling Brotherhood, 2013. NO. 3 OF THIS PRIVATELY PRINTED LIMITED EDITION, of which there are 13 copies. Bound in yellow publisher's cloth with a white paper title label pasted to front board, in a sunny yellow dustjacket featuring an extremely intricate insect-and-flower design which extends onto the spine and..... More
![Item #49760 The Terror of Villadonga. [The Spanish Cave]. Geoffrey HOUSEHOLD, "CUNEO"](/pictures/thumb/49760.jpg?v=1510409674)
The Terror of Villadonga. [The Spanish Cave].
London: Hutchinson and Co., n.d. [1936]. [Nautical Thriller]. FIRST EDITION. Small quarto (23 x 18cm), pp.160. With six lithographic illustrations by "Cuneo", including a frontispiece. In publisher's blue cloth with darker blue titles to spine and upper board. Black ink ownership inscription to front free endpaper. Heavy external wear; titles..... More
The Blue Moon.
London: John Murray, 1904. [Children's fantasy tales] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (26 x 14cm), pp.210. Nine full-page plates. Publisher's blue cloth blocked in red and gilt, top edge gilt, illustrated dust-jacket. Some trivial dustiness, jacket very lightly worn. An unquestionably fine copy. Scarce thus. More
Living with Birds.
London: Collins, 1956. [Ornithology] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (21 x 15cm), pp.256. With 12 double-sided black and white photographic plates, as well as occasional in-text drawings and diagrams. Publisher's green cloth with gilt titles to spine. With the colour-illustrated dust-jacket, priced at 15s. Toning and spotting to edges. Some spotting to..... More
Fireside Fusilier.
Dublin: Clonmore and Reynolds, 1958. FIRST EDITION. Octavo, pp.xiv, 145. With 4 double-sided black and white photographic plates, including a frontispiece portrait of the author. Including an introduction by EVELYN WAUGH. In publisher's grey/green cloth with gilt titles to spine. With original pictorial dust jacket illustrated by Fergus Oryan. With..... More
How to Ride a Bike: from starting out to peak performance.
London: Hamlyn, 2018. [Cycling] SIGNED FIRST EDITION. Large octavo (25 x 20cm), pp.224. Heavily illustrated in colour throughout. SIGNED by Hoy in black marker to publisher's bookplate on flyleaf. Number 975 of an undisclosed number thus. Publisher's photographic paper-covered boards, priced at £20, with cyan endpapers. 'Signed by the Author'..... More
Heroes of The Argonne.
Kansas City: Franklin Hudson Publishing Company. 1919. First edition. 8vo. Publisher's olive green cloth titled and decorated in gilt to spine and front board. Minor rubbing and edgewear, a trifle shaken, gilt somewhat dulled, strong and clean, a very good copy. Internally clean. Dogearing to some early pages, illustrated throughout..... More
Our Little Manchurian Cousin.
Boston, MA: L.C. Page & Company, 1933. [Children's Illustrated] INSCRIBED FIRST EDITION. Octavo (20 x 14cm), pp.xvi; 106 [6]. With six half-tone illustrations, including a colour frontispiece. INSCRIBED by the author rather lavishly in green ink to fly-leaf: 'Miss Mabelle Aubrey | a very princessly [?] | lovely soul. |..... More
The Cinque Ports. A Historical and Descriptive Record.
William Blackwood and Sons, 1900. [Kent]. Quarto (30 x 23cm), pp.xiv; 403; [1]. Publisher's beige clath blocked in gilt, top edge gilt, red endpapers. Fourteen photogravure plates with tissue guards, nineteen in text and other illustrations. Small repaired marginal tear to page 43, discreet cancelled library stamp to flyleaf with..... More
Dixie O'Day, Up, Up and Away!
London: The Bodley Head, 2015. [Children's Illustrated] SIGNED FIRST EDITION. Small octavo (19 x 14cm), pp.[12] 124. With dichromatic illustrations by Vulliamy throughout. SIGNED by the illustrator in black ink to verso of flyleaf. Publisher's illustrated paper-covered boards, and red patterned endpapers. With the dust-jacket also illustrated by Vulliamy, priced..... More
Bye, Bye Birdie.
London: Jonathan Cape, 2009. [Children's Illustrated] SIGNED FIRST EDITION. Quarto (31 x 22cm), pp.[4] 25 [3]. SIGNED by the author in black ink to half-title. Illustrated with line-drawings by the author throughout. Blue endpapers. Publisher's paper-covered boards, priced at £12.99. A few minor marks to boards and rear endpapers. Near..... More
The Iron Woman.
London: Faber and Faber, 1993. [Children's fiction] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (24 x 17cm), pp.87. Publisher's black cloth in black pictorial dust-jacket priced £9.99. Internally clean and free from spotting; spine-ends a touch bumped. Dust-wrapper is rubbed with minor chips and tears at spine ends. Very Good. Ted Hughes' classic of..... More
The Public and Private Life of His late Excellent and most Gracious Majesty, George the Third, embracing its most memorable incidents, as they were displayed in the important Relation of Son, Husband, Father, Friend, and Sovereign. With a variety of Secret Anecdotes of His Majesty, the Royal Family, and other Distinguished Characters, connected with the British Court; The whole collected from the most Authentic Sources, and tending to illustrate the Causes, Progress, and Effects, of the principal Political Events of his Glorious Reign. Comprising also, a most Valuable and Interesting Historical Memoir of the House of Brunswick, from its early Foundation to the Present Period, translated expressly for this History, from the Celebrated Latin Work, entitled Origines Guelphicae. With Portraits and other Illustrations.
London: Printed for Thomas Kelly, 1821. [Royal Biography] FIRST EDITION. Quarto (27 x 22cm), pp.[2] viii; 724 [2]. Complete with 18 copper-engraved plates, including a portrait frontispiece and a decorated title page. A touch of colour carefully applied to final plate. Contemporary marbled calf boards with gilt rule, re-backed to-style..... More
The Coinage of the British Empire: An Outline of the Progress of the Coinage in Great Britain and Her Dependencies, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time.
London: David Bogue, 1855. [Numismatics] PAPIER MACHÉ BINDING, the second edition. Large octavo (26 x 18cm), pp.160. With 12 plates done in gold, silver and copper, including a frontispiece, and 11 supplemental plates at rear. Recently rebound in tough black buckram with gilt titles to spine, and the original black..... More
The Origin and Progress of the Art of Writing: A Connected Narrative of the Development of the Art, its Primeval Phases in Egypt, China, Mexico, etc., its Middle State in the Cuneatic Systems of Nineveh and Persepolis, to its Introduction to Europe through the Medium of the Hebrew, Phoenician, and Greek Systems, and its Subsequent Progress to the Present Day. Illustrated by a Number of Specimens of the Writing of All Ages, and a Series of Facsimiles from Autograph Letters from the Fifteenth to the Nineteenth Century.
London: Ingram, Cooke, and Co., 1853. [Writing, Calligraphy and Illumination] INSCRIBED FIRST EDITION, in a PAPIER MACHÉ BINDING. Quarto (27 x 19cm), pp.[2] viii; 176 [2]. INSCRIBED in black ink to verso of fly-leaf 'with the author's | kind regards.' With 28 lithographic plates, several done in gilt and colour..... More
The Old Court Suburb: or, Memorials of Kensington Regal, Critical, & Anecdotal by the late J.H. Leigh Hunt Esq., edited by Austin Dobson Esq., & newly embellished by Herbert Railton, Claude Shepperson, & Edmund J. Sullivan Esq.
London: Freemantle & Co., 1902. [London Topography] ILLUSTRATED EDITION. Two volumes. Octavo (20 x 16cm), pp.[2] xviii; 211 [1]; pp.[2] x; 208. With 108 engraved illustrations, including numerous plates, and a frontispiece to each volume. Publisher's green cloth with gilt titles and decoration to spines and uppers. Top edges gilt;..... More
Pre-Rapaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
London: Macmillan and Co., 1905. [Art] FIRST EDITION. Two volumes, octavo (23 x 15cm), pp.[2] xxviii; 512; pp.[2]; xiv; 493; [3]. With forty photogravure plates including a frontispiece to each volume, and many more in-text illustrations. Publisher's green cloth, gilt titles to spines and gilt 'PRB' monogram to upper boards..... More
The Ascent of Everest.
London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1953. [Mountaineering] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (23 x 16cm), pp.xx; 300. With eight colour photographic plates, including a frontispiece, as well as 24 double-sided black and white plates arranged in suites through the text. Publisher's blue cloth with gilt titles to spine. With the blue dust-jacket illustrated..... More
A Treatise on the Venereal Disease
London; Sherwood, Neely and Jones. 1818. 'THE SECOND EDITION', with additions. Octavo, pp 569 + 5 (of 6) plates. Original half calf over marbled sides; some wear and rubbing to covers, discreetly rebacked, neat repair to lower portion of plate I (not affecting image). A serviceable copy of this landmark..... More
The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm. With 76 illustrations by W. Heath Robinson.
London: John Lane, The Bodley Head Ltd., 1933. FIRST EDITION. Large octavo. Publisher's orange cloth hardcover, blocked in black, illustrated endpapers, blue topstain, in original dust-wrapper. Coloured frontispiece and full page and in text line drawings throughout. Some edge-spotting to heavy paper, sunned to spine beneath wrapper, some chips/loss to..... More
Brave New World.
London: The Folio Society, 1971. [Dystopia] FIRST EDITION THUS. Octavo (24 x 17cm), pp.176. With nine illustrations by Rosoman, including a frontispiece. Publisher's silver paper-covered boards with blind titles to spine and white decoration to upper. Red endpapers. With the black paper-covered slipcase.v A lightly handled, fine copy of the..... More
The Rutland Dirty Weekend Book.
London: Eyre Methuen, 1976. [Comedy]. SIGNED COPY, the third impression, paperback. Quarto (31 x 24cm), unpaginated. SIGNED by Eric Idle and Neil Innes in blue and black ink to verso of front cover. Full of mad witty nonsense, as expected. Publisher's card covers with false title, 'The Wonderful World of..... More
The Ingoldsby Legends, or, Mirth and Marvels. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
London: J.M. Dent & Co., 1898. [Children's Illustrated] FIRST RACKHAM ILLUSTRATED EDITION. Octavo (20 x 15cm), pp.xxiv; 638. With 12 colour plates, including a frontispiece, by Rackham, as well as numerous in-text black illustrations. Publisher's green cloth with gilt titles and decoration to spine and upper. Top edge gilt, others..... More
The Ingoldsby Legends. Or, Mirth and Marvels. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
London: J.M. Dent and Co., 1907. [Children's Illustrated] FIRST THUS, second Rackham illustrated edition. Quarto (26 x 20cm), pp.xx; 549 [3]. With twenty-four mounted coloured plates, captioned tissue guards, twelve illustrations with tint, and sixty-six line drawings. Publisher's mid-green cloth pictorially stamped in gilt, with illustrated dark green endpapers, top..... More
The Ingoldsby Legends, or, Mirth and Marvels.
London: Richard Bentley, 1842-1847. [Strange Tales and Humour] FIRST AND EARLY EDITIONS, volume I a third edition, volumes II and III first editions. Complete in three volumes. Octavo (20 x 13cm), pp.xii; 339 [1]; pp.x; 288; pp.viii; 364. With a total of 18 engraved plates, including a frontispiece to volume..... More