"A book should serve as the axe for the frozen sea within us."
— Franz Kafka
Gift Books & Fine Bindings
Middlemarch. A Study of Provincial Life.
Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1871-1872. [English Literary Classic] FIRST EDITION. Four volumes, octavo (15 x 10 x 12cm). With half titles, but lacking errata slips. Contemporary black half calf with gilt decoration to spines, and recent replacement title labels in contrasting red and black morocco. Marbled paper over boards;..... More
The Mill On The Floss.
Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, no date [circa 1890s]. [Classic Literature] FINELY BOUND, a stereotyped edition. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.[2] x; 486. With six of the seven wood engraved plates by Allen, lacking the frontispiece. Contemporary green half calf with raised bands, gilt titles to red and brown labels..... More
Adam Bede. Novels of George Eliot vol. I.
Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, no date [circa 1900]. [Classic Literature] FINELY BOUND. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.[2] viii; 466 [2]. With seven wood engraved illustrations by Small, including a frontispiece with tissue guard. Contemporary light green half calf, with raised bands, gilt titles to orange label and further gilt..... More
Articulorum XXXIX Ecclesiae Anglicanae Defensio, una cum nova eorundem versione [In Defence of the Thirty Nine Articles of the Church of England]. His Accedunt Articuli Lambethani, una cum Rev. and Doct. virorum in eos Censura etc.
Cambridge: Johann Hayes, 1694. SECOND EDITION. Vigesimo-Quarto (very small). In two parts, pp. [2] 143; 75. Text in Latin. With occasional blank pages for notes. In nineteenth century half brown mottled calf with raised bands and gilt titles to red morocco label. Marbled boards. Chip from edge of title page..... More
The Early Days of Christianity.
London: Cassell and Company, 1909. [Church History] FINE PRIZE BINDING. Octavo (20 x 14cm), pp.[2] xvi, 664 [2]. With a frontispiece lithographic portrait of the author. In contemporary red full calf with raised bands, gilt titles and decoration to spine and armorial gilt device of the Mathematical School, Rochester, stamped..... More
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling.
Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1844. [Classic Literature] FINELY BOUND. In two volumes. Octavo (16 x 12cm), pp.[6]; 456; [2]; pp.[6]; 443; [3]. Contemporary tan quarter calf with raised bands, gilt titles to red spine labels, and marbled boards and endpapers. Browning and spotting throughout. Spines lightly toned with some marks and..... More
![The Novels of Henry Fielding]. The History of Tom Jones; Jonathan Wild; Amelia; Joseph Andrews....](/pictures/thumb/49107.jpg?v=1583755545)
[The Novels of Henry Fielding]. The History of Tom Jones; Jonathan Wild; Amelia; Joseph Andrews.
London: George Routledge and Sons, n.d. [c.1900]. FINE UNIFORM BINDINGS. Four separately published volumes. Octavo, pp.[2] xxx, 455 [1], xii, 442 [2]; pp.xii, 313 [3]; pp.[2] x, 535 [3]; pp.[2] xvi, 333 [3]. Volume I two volumes in one with illustrations. In contemporary red half calf with slightly raised bands..... More
The Works of Henry Fielding.
Westminster: Archibald Constable and Co., and New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1898. [Literature] FINELY BOUND. Twelve volumes, octavo (23 x 15 x 38cm). Beautifully bound by Sangorski and Sutcliffe for E.P. Dutton and Company in contemporary dark red half morocco over marbled boards, raised bands and gilt titles and..... More
A Winter Season: Being an Attempt to Draw from the Storms of Winter, some Observations, which may warm our Hearts amidst its Cold, with Divine Love and True Benevolence. To which is added, an Essay on the Good Things of this Life.
Edinburgh: John Moir [etc.], 1813. SECOND EDITION, Improved and Enlarged. Octavo, pp.viii, 207. With a frontispiece engraving of the author and an engraved vignette for each Part of the text. In recent quarter cream cloth with black titles to white paper label on spine. marbled boards. All edges untrimmed. Black..... More
The Vegetable, Or, From President to Postman.
New York, NY: Scribner's Sons, 1923. [Comedy Drama] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (20 x 14cm), pp.[8] 145 [7]. With the original green cloth cover and spine bound in at rear. Recent green full morocco with raised bands, gilt titles to spine, and a gilt autograph stamped to upper board. Marbled endpapers;..... More
The Vegetable. Or, From President to Postman.
New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1923. [Comedy Drama] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (20 x 14cm), pp.[8] 145 [7]. Publisher's green cloth with gilt titles to spine and blind to upper. Fore-edge untrimmed. Gently toned throughout, as usual. Neat ownership to flyleaf, bookseller's labels to rear endpapers. Gilt a little rubbed..... More
Lectures on Sculpture. Delivered before The Royal Academy.
London, 1892. Prize-binding by Riviere and Son in full tan calf, extra gilt, all edges gilt; school name and recipient gilt-tooled to front board (this copy awarded by The Royal Academy of Arts, 1906). With engraved portrait frontispiece, and fifty three plates. A fine copy. More
Dr No.
London: Jonathan Cape, 1957. FIRST EDITION. Octavo (20 x 14cm), pp.256. Publisher's black cloth, silver titles to spine, in pictorial dust-jacket designed by Pat Marriott. The first issue without the 'Dancing Lady' design on the upper board (present on the later issue). Book is clean and bright with some minor..... More
News From Tartary. A Journey from Peking to Kashmir.
London: Jonathan Cape, 1936. [Travel Literature] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (21 x 15cm), pp.384. With 32 photographic plates including a frontispiece, and a fold-out map. Recent burgundy half calf with raised bands, gilt titles to black morocco label on spine, and original publisher's burgundy cloth over boards, with "Fu Lei-Ming" in..... More
The Book of Martyrs, or the Acts and Monuments of the Christian Church, Being a complete History of Martyrdom, from the Commencement of Christianity to the present Time. Revised and Improved.
London: Printed for Thomas Kelly, 1811. ILLUSTRATED EDITION. Folio, pp.cviii, 692 [4]. With 62 copper engravings on 31 plates, being two more than called for in the binder's instructions. Also with copper engraved frontispiece and title page. In recent mottled full calf with raised bands, gilt titles to red label..... More
Journal of the Franklin Institute, of the State of Pennsylvania, for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts. Devoted to Mechanical and Physical Science, Civil Engineering, the Arts and Manufactures, and the Recording of American and other Patented Inventions. Third Series. Vol. XXI, Whole No. Vol. LI [and] LII.
Philadelphia, PA: Published by the Franklin Institute, 1851. [Engineering Papers] ORIGINAL SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS, FINELY BOUND. Two volumes bound as one. Octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.[8]; 444; pp.[2]; 444; [4]. With numerous folding charts and diagrams. Later straight grained tan morocco, with raised bands and gilt titles to spine, as well..... More
The Plays of John Galsworthy.
London: Duckworth, 1929. [Drama] FINE PRIZE BINDING, second printing. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.[10] 1149 [5]. Printed on india paper. Contemporary tree calf by BICKERS & SON of London for Sherborne School, with raised bands, gilt titles to maroon label, and further gilt decoration to spine. Gilt school medal and..... More
Elementary Treatise on Physics, Experimental and Applied. For the Use of Colleges and Schools.
London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1893. FINE PRIZE BINDING, fourteenth edition. Octavo, pp.[2]; xii; 1115; [3]. With 9 colour plates including a frontispiece, and numerous futher in-text engraved illustrations. In contemporary aubergine full morocco with gilt titles and decoration to spine, and large gilt crest of King's College London to..... More
Cromwell's Place in History. Founded on Six Lectures Delivered in the University of Oxford.
London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1897. FINELY BOUND, FIRST EDITION. Crown Octavo, pp.[10], 120 [2]. With a wood engraving of Oliver Cromwell loose to prelims. In contemporary brown half calf with raised bands, gilt titles to spine and marbled boards. All edges and endpapers marbled. Bookplate of Rangemore Hall, Staffordshire..... More
The Thirty Years' War 1618-1648.
London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1874. [European History] PRIZE BINDING, Second Edition. Small octavo (15 x 11cm), pp.[2] xxvi; 233 [3]. With a coloured folding map of Germany as a frontispiece. Contemporary prize binding for the St. Clere Collegiate School, near Sevenoaks. Red full calf with gilt titles to black..... More
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. With Notes by Dean Milman and M. Guizot. A New Edition, with Additional Notes, by William Smith.
London: John Murray, 1862. [Late Antiquity] FINE PRIZE BINDING, a new edition. Eight volumes. Octavo (22 x 15 x 28cm). With a frontispiece etching of the author to volume I, and one or two folding maps to each volume. Slightly later black full morocco with gilt titles to spines and..... More
The World's Foundations, or, Geology for Beginners.
London: Seeley and Co., 1892. Octavo; fine prize binding for Aske's Hatcham School for Girls, 1894; full red calf-leather with gilt lettering / tooling and green title background; all edges marbled; inner dentelle and marbled endpapers; prize bookplate on front free endpaper; 16 illustrations; pp. xiv, 315; some slight wear..... More
![Dead Souls] Chichikov's Journeys; or, Home Life in Old Russia. Nikolai GOGOL, Bernard Guilbert...](/pictures/thumb/51054.jpg?v=1583755548)
[Dead Souls] Chichikov's Journeys; or, Home Life in Old Russia.
New York, NY: The Limited Editions Club, 1944. [Russian Literature] LIMITED EDITION, SIGNED BY THE ILLUSTRATOR. In two volumes. Octavo (23 x 15cm), pp.xx; 308; pp.[8] 309-484 [6]. With occasional in-text chromolithographic illustrations by Lucille Corcos. Number 648 of 1200 copies SIGNED by the artist in red ink to the..... More
![The Works of Nikolay Gogol. Translated from the Russian by Constance Garnett. [Including] Dead...](/pictures/thumb/55132.jpg?v=1584533268)
The Works of Nikolay Gogol. Translated from the Russian by Constance Garnett. [Including] Dead Souls; The Overcoat and Other Stories; Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka; Mirgorod; and The Government Inspector and Other Plays.
London: Chatto and Windus, 1922-28. [Literature] FIRST EDITIONS OF THE GARNETT TRANSLATION. Six volumes. Octavo (19 x 14 x 21cm). Elegantly hand-bound in blue half morocco over matching cloth sides, with raised bands and gilt titles to red labels on spines, top edges gilt. Occasional light marginal marks to 'The..... More
Select Works of Oliver Goldsmith. Comprising The Vicar of Wakefield; Plays and Poems.
London: Macmillan and Co., 1901. [Anthology] FINELY BOUND. Octavo (23 x 15cm), pp.[2] xii; 434 [2]. Contemporary tan full polished calf for Henry Sotheran, with raised bands, gilt titles to burgundy label, and further gilt decoration to spine. Top edge gilt; marbled endpapers. Very light spotting to preliminaries. Lightly toned..... More