"Everything in the world exists in order to end up as a book"
— Stephan Mallarme
History & Biography
Dulwich: A Place in History.
London: William Darby, 1967. [Topography] INSCRIBED FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.102 [2]. INSCRIBED by the author in blue ink to front free endpaper: 'To | the Estates Office Staff | with the author's compliments | William Darby | August 1967'. Illustrated with occasional black and white plates. Publisher's..... More
Terence Rattigan: The Man and His Work.
London: Quartet Books, 2010. [Literary Biography] INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR, revised third edition. Octavo (24 x 15cm), pp.[2] 534. INSCRIBED by the author in black ink to title page: 'For Edward | with best wishes | Michael Darlow | 1st August 2011. Publisher's soft covers priced at £22.50. Light wear..... More
British Clubs.
London: William Collins, 1943. [Social history] FIRST EDITION. Slim octavo (23 x 17cm), pp.48. Publisher's blue and white paper covered boards with matching dust-jacket. With eight plates in colour and twenty illustrations in black and white. Ownership to flyleaf, some light spotting throughout. Binding lightly handled. Wrapper a little toned..... More
A Memoir of the Life of Peter the Great.
London: John Murray, 1839. [Historical Biography] FINELY BOUND, the third edition. Small octavo (15 x 11cm), pp.xvi; 366. With a frontispiece etching of Peter the Great. Contemporary black half calf with gilt titles and decoration to spine. Marbled paper over boards; all edges and endpapers marbled. Lightly browned throughout. Moderate..... More
Solution Du Probleme De La Navigation Dans L'Air. Par La Direction Des Aerostats. Expose D'un Nouveau Systeme De Direction.
Librairie De Frederic Henry, Paris, 1864. 6mo., pp. 83 + 5 wood engraved plates. Publisher's paper covers, uncut. Extremities lightly frayed; general age toning. An early study on "... not only the possibility, but also the ease in piloting a balloon in flight." More
A Memoir of the York Press, with notices of Authors, Printers, and Stationers, in the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth Centuries.
London: Nichols and Sons, 1868. [Printing History] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (23 x 16cm), pp.[2] vi; 397; [3]. Publisher's blind stamped maroon cloth, with gilt titles to spine. Armorial bookplate of Henry Peckitt to front pastedown. A few splits to weak binding; some gatherings starting to come loose. Head and tail..... More
How I Play Snooker.
London: Country Life, 1949. [Snooker] FIRST EDITION, SIGNED and inscribed by the author. Octavo (24 x 17cm), pp.176; [2]. Publisher's green cloth titled in white to spine and upper board, blind stamped design of a snooker table to upper board, photographic dust-jacket. Inscribed by the author to the flyleaf: "To..... More
"Castelli Romani", an account of certain towns and villages in Latium, with an appendix containing short notices of Tivoli, Anzio, and Nettuno, illustrated with original sketches by Roman artists.
Florence: Alinari Brothers, 1904. FIRST EDITION. Small quarto, pp.158 [2]. With many monochrome reproductions of paintings by various artists. In publisher's cream cloth with red titles to upper board and significantly raised relief-decoration. Top edge green, others untrimmed. Some marks to boards and bumped corners, otherwise very good... More
Tales of the Castle. Or a Course of Morality for the Improvement of the Youthful Mind.
London: James Cundee, 1806. UNCOMMON EDITION. Four volumes, 6mo, pp.xlviii; 232; [11 of notes, 1 of adverts]; pp.221; [25 of notes, 6 of adverts]; pp.217; [35 of notes]; pp. 198; [46 of notes, 4 of adverts]. Frontispiece engraving to each volume. Bound in contemporary dark brown mottled calf, gilt titles..... More
The Age of Churchill. Heritage and Adventure 1874-1911.
London: Thames and Hudson, 1961. [Politics]. FIRST EDITION. Octavo (25 x 18cm), pp.[10];627; [1]. Publisher's blue cloth, gilt titles to spine, blue top edge, photographic dust-jacket. Some marks to the top centimetre or so of the cloth, a couple of patches of tape burn to free endpapers, very slight bowing..... More
History of Russia and of Peter the Great.
London: Treuttel and Wurtz, Treuttel, Jun and Richter, 1829. FIRST EDITION. Octavo, pp.xl; 447; [1]. In publisher's original quarter green cloth with grey paper-covered boards and titles to cream paper label on spine. Reading lean; head-cap pulled and lower joint starting. Heavy wear to fore-edges; spine label heavily browned. Fair..... More
The Revolutions of Portugal, Written in French by the Abbot De Vertot, of the Royal Academy of Inscriptions. Done into English from the last French Edition.
London: Printed for W. Taylor and C. Rivington, 1724. EARLY EDITION. Octavo (20 x 13cm), pp.viii; iv; 138; [10]. With a copper engraved frontispiece. In contemporary tan calf boards with blind decoration. Recently re-backed to style with raised bands and gilt titles to a red label on spine. Faint ink..... More
An Historical Topographical and Descriptive Account of the Weald of Kent, With Eight Engravings and a Map.
Cranbrook: Printed for and sold by S. Reader, 1814. Octavo, pp.lvi,277, [1] blank; [5] index; [1] advertisements. Hand coloured map of the Weald, eight hand coloured aquatint views. Together with a loosely inserted aquatint addition copy of one of the prints in the book, printed on letter paper, presumably for..... More
Nyasaland: The Land of the Lake. The Corona Library.
London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1955. [Colonial History] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.xii; 239 [1]. With a colour photographic frontispiece and 19 further double-sided black and white photographic plates, as well as numerous drawings, maps and diagrams. Illustrated endpapers. Publisher's red cloth with gilt titles to spine. With..... More
Airshipwreck.
London: Jonathan Cape, 1978. [Airships] FIRST EDITION. Oblong octavo (22 x 27cm), pp.72. Heavily illustrated with black and white illustrations. Also with the accompanying photographic postcard. Publisher's black cloth with silver titles to spine and upper, schematic endpapers. With the photographic dust-jacket, priced at £4.95. A fine copy. A profile..... More
Bomber.
London: Jonathan Cape, 1970. [Wartime Adventure] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 14cm), pp.494; [2], blank. Publisher's blue cloth hardcovers lettered to the spine in silver, plain black endpapers, top edge red. Textured dust-wrapper priced at 35s / £1.75, designed by Raymond Hawkey, based on a painting by J.M.W.Turner. Discreet ink..... More
The Egypt Flight L.Z. 127 - Graf Zeppelin. A Philatelic Handbook No. 8.
[Maryland, MD]: Germany Philatelic Society, Inc., 1981. [German Stamps] FIRST EDITION. Octavo pamphlet (23 x 15cm), pp.xii; 80 [2]. With black and white illustrations throughout, and four in colour. Publisher's blue card covers, with darker blue titles to spine and front cover. Light rubbing and toning to spine. Near fine..... More
Les Peuples De L'Orient Mediterraneen.
Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1948, 1952. Third Edition. Two vols. Octavo. Bound by Bayntun in recent green half morocco over green cloth boards, with raised bands and gilt titles to spine; top edge gilt, marbled endpapers. French language. With Avant-Propos by S. Charlety. Binding shows well, with only minor..... More
My Arctic Journal: A Year Among Ice-Fields and Eskimos, with an Account of the Great White Journey Across Greenland by Robert E. Peary.
New York, NY: The Contemporary Publishing Company, 1894. [Arctic Exploration] EARLY EDITION. Octavo (21 x 16cm), pp.[4] 240. With a map at rear and many black and white photographic plates and in-text illustrations. Publisher's green cloth with gilt titles to spine and red titles to upper. Black ink gift inscription..... More
The Battle of the Atlantic. How the Allies Won the War.
London: Viking an imprint of Penguin Books, 2015. [Military history] SIGNED FIRST EDITION. Octavo (25 x 17cm), pp.xxx; 530. Publisher's black cloth, gilt titles to spine, dust-jacket with printed price of £25. Illustrated with five maps and three photographic suites. Signed by the author to a tipped in 'Exclusive Signed..... More
The Last Governor: Chris Patten and the Handover of Hong Kong.
London: Little, Brown, and Company, 1997. [Politics] SIGNED FIRST EDITION, Ex Libris Lord Moynihan. Octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.xvi; 461; [3]. With three suites of four double-sided photographic plates. Publisher's red cloth lettered in gilt to spine. With the photographic dust-jacket priced at £22.50. Bookplate detailing provenance to flyleaf. Jacket..... More
A View of Ancient Laws Against Immorality and Profaneness; Under the following Heads; Lewdness; Profane Swearing, Cursing, and Blasphemy; Perjury; Prophanation of Days devoted to Religion; Contempt or Neglect of Divine Service; Drunkenness; Gaming; Idleness; Vagrancy, and Begging; Stage-Plays and Players; and Duelling. Collected from the Jewish, Roman, Greek, Gothic, Lombard, and other Laws, down to the middle of the Eleventh Century.
Cambridge: Printed for Corn. Crownfield, 1729. [Law] FIRST EDITION. Folio (39 x 28cm), pp.[34] 351 [3]. Printed with very generous margins, and the original Latin or Greek of the Laws discussed on the right-hand side of the commentary. Recently re-bound in brown speckled half calf, with raised bands, gilt titles..... More
The Letters of Dostoyevsky to his Wife.
London: Constable and Co., 1930. [Literary Correspondence] FINELY BOUND FIRST EDITION THUS. Octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.xiv; 392. With a frontispiece portrait of the author, a plate of his wife, and a sample plate of his handwritting. Recent green half morocco with raised bands, gilt titles to spine, matching cloth..... More
Travels In North-Western Arabia and Nejd.
Published for the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society by Edward Stanford, 1884. [Arabia] FIRST PUBLISHED APPEARANCE of Doughty's own account of his travels in Arabia, read at the evening meeting of the RGS, November 26th 1883. Pp.381-408, Extracted from the above Proceedings, with large fold-out map printed in colour..... More
North from Malaya: Adventure on Five Fronts.
New York, NY: Double and Company, 1953. [South-East Asian geopolitics] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.352. With eight double-sided black and white plates.Maps to endpaper. Publisher's turquoise cloth with blue and white titles to spine. With the dust-jacket illustrated by Rafael Palacios, priced at $3.95. Booksellers ticket to pastedown..... More