"Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it."
— P.J. O'Rourke
History & Biography
Views in Suffolk, Norfolk, and Northamptonshire; Illustrative of the Works of Rober Bloomfield; Accompanied with Descriptions: to which is Annexed, a Memoir of the Poet's Life.
London: Vernor, Hood, and Sharpe [etc.], n.d. [1806]. [Literary Topography]. FIRST EDITION. Large octavo (26 x 17cm), pp.[2] 56 [2]. With 14 copper engraved plates, including a frontispiece, and a decorated title page. Publisher's grey paper-covered boards with original cream paper title label to upper board, recently re-backed to-style with..... More
The History of Surrey, by Edward Wedlake Brayley. Assisted by John Britton and E.W. Brayley, Junior. The Geological Section by Gideon Mantell.
Dorking: Robert Best Ede, 1841-48. FIRST EDITIONS. 5 volumes as 10 parts. Octavo (26 x 17 x 28cm). Publisher's original embossed purple cloth with gilt titles to evenly faded spines, yellow endpapers, edges untrimmed. Illustrated with 127 full page steel engraved plates by Thomas Allom, Thompson and others (some folding)..... More
The Explorers of North America 1492-1806. The Pioneer Histories.
London: A. and C. Black, 1933. [American colonial history] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (23 x 15cm), pp.xvi; 502. With four folding maps. Publisher's blue cloth with gilt titles to spine, typographic dust-jacket, priced at 18s. Top edge dark blue. Large bookplate or similar removed from pastedown. Light occasional spotting; more so..... More
Indian Mission in Guiana.
London, George Bell, 1851. Small 8vo. Publisher's blue cloth, with gilt titles to spine. with engraved frontispiece, title vignette, engraved map and 9 engraved plates. Head and tail of spine bumped, extremities rubbed. Light browning to edges of plates, otherwise very good. FIRST EDITION. More
The Autogiro and How to Fly It.
London: Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, 1933. First Edition. Octavo, pp. xiii, 82, 24 of adverts. In publisher's blue cloth with gilt titles to spine and upper board. Numerous illustrations; both photographic and line drawings. With a foreword by Juan de la Cierva, the Spanish engineer who built autogiros in..... More
Descriptive Sketches of Tunbridge Wells and the Calverley Estate. With Brief Notices of the Picturesque Scenery, Seats, and Antiquities in the Vicinity, Embellished with Maps and Prints.
London: Published by the Author, 1832. [Town Guide] FIRST EDITION. Octavo, pp.xii; 148; [4 of adverts]. Illustrated with 3 folding maps and plans, 9 lithographic plates, and 2 in-text woodcuts. Bound in the original pink satin-effect cloth with paper title labels to spine and upper. All edges untrimmed. Light spotting..... More
Descriptive Sketches of Tunbridge Wells and the Calverley Estate. With Brief Notices of the Picturesque Scenery, Seats, and Antiquities in the Vicinity, Embellished with Maps and Prints.
London: Published by the Author, 1832. [Town Guide] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (21 x 13cm), pp.xii; 148 [4]. Illustrated with 3 folding maps and plans, 9 lithographic plates, and 2 in-text woodcuts. Twentieth-century brown full morocco with gilt titles to black label on spine. Spotting to plates. Quite heavily thumbed with..... More
Inside the Left: Thirty Years of Platform, Press, Prison and Parliament.
London: New Leader Ltd., George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1942. [Socialist Memoir] FIRST NEW LEADER EDITION. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.352. Publisher's green and brown paper-covered boards priced at 7/6 to spine. Some spotting to edge and endpapers. Light wear to boards; spine a little toned. Very good. A very..... More
A History of English Costume.
London: Methuen, 1937. [Historical Costume]. FIRST EDITION. Octavo (20 x 14cm), pp.xii; 227 [1]. With numerous in-text illustrations by the author. Publisher's red cloth with blue titles to spine. With the white illustrated dust-jacket. Light spotting throughout. Slight reading lean. Chipping to jacket edges; light toning to jacket spine. Very..... More
Beasts in Heraldry.
Brattleboro, VT: The Stephen Greene Press, 1974. [Heraldry] FIRST EDITION. Square octavo (22 x 22cm), pp.96. Containing twenty colour illustrations by Marie Angel (1923-2010). Publisher's cream vegetable parchment with gilt titles to spine, presented in the original blue paper-covered box, with a cream insert and a tri-fold flier for the..... More
The Story of Africa and its Explorers. With Two Hundred Original Illustrations.
London: Cassell and Company, no date [1892-95]. [Colonial Exploration] COMPLETE FIRST EDITIONS. Four volumes bound as two. Large octavo (27 x 20cm), pp.viii; 312; pp.viii; 312; pp.viii; 312; pp.viii; 312. With frequent half-tone vignette illustrations, as well as occasional maps and full-page illustrations. Contemporary red half morocco with raised bands..... More
Charterhouse Past and Present: A brief history of the Hospital founded in Charterhouse by Thomas Sutton, and more particularly of the school belonging thereto.
Godalming: H. Stedman, 1879. [Public School History] INSCRIBED FIRST EDITION. Octavo (20 x 13cm), pp.xvi; 239 [3]. With 20 illustrations, including a frontispiece and plans of the school. INSCRIBED by the author in black ink to first blank: 'Cecil James Gladdish Hulkes | from Dr. Haig Brown | for History..... More
Chaucer's England.
London: Hurst and Blackett, 1869. [Literature / History] FIRST EDITION. Two volumes, octavo (20 x 14cm). Illustrated. Elegantly bound in full tan polished calf by Riviere and Son, with twin red and green title labels, full gilt backs, top edge gilt, swirled marble endpapers, inner gilt dentelles, publisher's cloth bound..... More
The African Colony. Studies in the Reconstruction.
Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1903. [History] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (24 x 17cm), pp.xviii; 404. Publisher's blue cloth, gilt titles to spine, edges untrimmed, two folding maps printed in colour, blue coated endpapers. Reading lean, textblock generally bright and clean with just the occasional mark, some tearing and..... More
Augustus.
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1937. [Ancient History] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (23 x 17cm), pp.356. With four photogravure plates including a frontispiece, and and folding map and genealogical table. Publisher's green cloth with gilt titles to spine and gilt device to upper board. Top edge gilt. Light spotting to edges. Slightly..... More
The History of the South African Forces in France.
London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, Ltd., no date [1920]. [First World War] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.404. Publisher's blue cloth, titles in gilt to spine, gilt motif to upper board, light brown endpapers, fore and tail edges untrimmed. Illustrated with a colour frontispiece, seventeen further plates, and twenty..... More
The King's Grace. 1910-1935.
London: Hodder and Stoughton Limited, 1935. [Royalty] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (26 x 18cm), pp.285; [1] blank; [48] plates. Publisher's cream cloth, gilt titles to spine and upper, dust-jacket with printed price of 15/- net. With a colour frontispiece of King George V and 24 double sided black and white photographic..... More
A Lodge in the Wilderness.
Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1906. FIRST EDITION, Presentation Copy. Octavo, pp.[8], 378 [32]. With a printed label to front pastedown stating 'Sent by desire of the Author'. In publisher's aquamarine cloth with gilt titles to spine and upper board. Re-cased with neat repairs to hinges. Brown endpapers..... More
The Buchanan Book: The Life of Alexander Buchanan, Q.C., of Montreal, followed by an account of the Family of Buchanan.
Montreal: Printed for Private Circulation, 1911. [Canadian Legal History and Genealogy] SIGNED LIMITED EDITION. Octavo (25 x 17cm), pp.[6] xiv; 475 [3] 5 [1] viii [4]. With 13 illustrated plates, including a frontispiece portrait of the subject, each with a tissue guard. Number 126 of just 300 copies SIGNED by..... More
Simla: Past and Present.
Calcutta: Thacker, Spink, 1904. RARE FIRST EDITION. Large Octavo, pp.xiv, 270 [2]. With 51 b/w illustrated plates including frontispiece (actually facing p.1), and a folding map to prelims. In publisher's brown cloth (formerly green) with b/w stamped illustrations to upper board. Vestiges of stamping to spine. Decorative textured end-papers. Cloth..... More
Lydden: A Parish History.
Dover: Thomas Beckett Books, 1967. [Topography] FIRST EDITION and SUBSCRIBERS' EDITION with order form. Octavo (25 x 16cm), pp.98. With a folding map at centre, folding family tree at rear, and four black and white photographic illustrations. Publisher's glossy card covers, both copies with the matching dust-jacket. Order form consists..... More
British Museum. A Guide to the Third and Fourth Egyptian Rooms. Predynastic Antiquities, Mummied Birds and Animals, Portrait Statues, Figures of Gods, Tools, Implements and Weapons, Scarabs, Amulets, Jewellery, and other Objects connected with the Funeral Rites of the Ancient Egyptians.
London: Printed by Order of the Trustees, 1904. [Antiquities] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.xii; 304; [2] advertisements; [2] blank. Recent grey quarter cloth over blue paper covered boards, printed paper title label to spine. With eight plates and one hundred and thirty one illustrations in the text. Internally..... More
The Mummy. Chapters on Egyptian Funereal Archaeology.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1893. Inscribed First Edition. Octavo, pp.xvi, 404. Bound in the publisher's red cloth, with gilt stamp of Mestha (otherwise known as Imseti) to front board, double-ruled blind panneling to boards, gilt titles and publisher's imprint to spine; deckled edges, newspaper insert pasted in to front flyleaf..... More
The Treaty of Waitangi. Or how New Zealand became a British Colony.
Wellington: S. and W. Mackay, 1914. [History] INSCRIBED FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 16cm), pp.xv; [1]; 346; [2]. Publisher's blue cloth, gilt titles to spine and upper. Illustrated with two maps and fifteen plates. Inscribed by the author to the verso of the half title page: "To | J.R. Raw..... More
Spy Ring: The Full Story of the Naval Secrets Case.
London: Secker and Warburg, 1961. [Espionage] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (21 x 14cm), pp.224. With four double-sided black and white photographic plates. Publisher's red cloth with silver titles to spine. With the orange dust-jacket, priced at 15s. Library stamps to title page and copyright page. Library shelf mark to base of..... More