"Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new after all."
— Abraham Lincoln
Poetry & Drama
The Plays of William Shakespeare. Edited by Thomas Keightley.
London: J.S. Virtue and Co., Limited, no date [1892-1894]. [Plays] ILLUSTRATED AND FINELY BOUND. Four volumes bound as two, large octavo (28 x 21 x 9cm). Contemporary dark green half calf over green cloth boards, gilt titles to a red morocco label to spine, blue/green endpapers, edges speckled red. Text..... More
The Works of William Shakespeare. Knight's Cabinet Edition.
London: Charles Knight and Co., 1843-1847. [Drama] FINELY BOUND COMPLETE WORKS. Twelve volumes. Small octavo (14 x 9 x 28cm). Each volume with a wood engraved title page, and a wood engraved title page for each play. Ten volumes of plays, with two additional volumes containing poems, biography and criticism..... More
A Midsummer Night's Dream. With Illustrations by Arthur Rackham.
London: William Heinemann, 1908. [Fantasy drama] First Rackham Illustrated Edition. Quarto (25 x 19cm), pp.134. With 40 tipped-in colour plates, each with captioned tissue guards. Publisher's light brown cloth pictorially stamped in gilt, top edge tinted brown. Contents clean, some spotting to endpapers, neat contemporary inscription to flyleaf, binding a...... More
A Midsummer Night's Dream. With Illustrations by Arthur Rackham.
London: William Heinemann, 1908. [Fantasy drama] First Rackham Illustrated Edition. Quarto (25 x 19cm), pp.134. With forty tipped-in colour plates, each with captioned tissue guards. Bound in recent mid-brown half morocco with gilt-lettered title labels and tooling to spine over publisher's original gilt-pictorial boards. Contents clean, exterior as new. A...... More
The Works of Shakespeare;
London: Routledge, Warne and Routledge, 1862. [Complete Works] FINELY BOUND AND ILLUSTRATED. Three volumes. Quarto (26 x 19 x 17cm). Liberally illustrated with in-text engravings by the Dalziel brothers, after Gilbert. Contemporary red half morocco with raised bands, gilt titles and decoration to spines, and red leather-grain-effect cloth over boards..... More
The Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare From Text Of Johnson, Stevens, And Reed, With Glossarial Notes, Life, Etc. A New Edition By William Hazlitt, ESQ.
London: Routledge, Warne, and Routledge 1860. Octavo. Four volumes. Pp.xix; 526. Pp;528. Pp;560. Pp;553. Green half calf binding with green cloth boards, marbled endpapers. Gilt top edges and gilt lettering and centre tooling to spine with plain raised bands. Occassional pencil underlining and some very light spotting to the prelims..... More
The Works of William Shakespeare.
London: Archibald Constable, n.d [c.1910]. FINELY BOUND EDITION. 12 volumes. Crown octavo (19 x 14 x 40cm). Half scarlet calf by The Times Bindery, with green morocco title labels, gilt to spine, matching buckram sides, top edge gilt, marbled endpapers. Contents a little thumbed, bindings with the odd mark or..... More
The Plays. Accurately printed from the Text of the Corrected Copies left by the late George Steevens and Edmond Malone, with Mr. Malone's various Readings. A selection of Explanatory and Historical Notes, from the most eminent Commentators. A History of the Stage, and a Life of Shakespeare, by Alexander Chalmers. The works include: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth, King Lear, Antony & Cleopatra, The Merchant of Venice, etc.
London: Printed for Longman and Co., Rivington,... 1856. 8 volumes, 8vo. Contemporary full tan calf boards with gilt rule, later respined in light calf with twin, red and maroon title labels, and gilt tooling to spines; marbled end papers and edges. Portrait frontispiece of Shakespeare to volume I. Corners rubbed;..... More
Promotional photograph of Laurence Olivier as 'Othello', SIGNED by the actor.
no place, no date [1965]. [FILM MEMORABILIA] Black and white publicity shot. Postcard weight and format, size 5 x 3.5 inches, inscribed and signed by the subject in black ink to lower margin, below printed titles. Within archival window mount, professionally glazed and framed beneath 2mm float glass, backed with..... More
The Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley.
London: Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, 1909. [Letters] FINELY BOUND, First Thus. Two volumes. Octavo (21 x 14cm), pp.[4] lviii; 479; [5]; pp.[4]; xvi; 481-1020; [4]. With 44 photogravure and facsimile plates, including a frontispiece to each volume. Also with a gift-note from the notable Harvard Law Professor, Ezra Ripley..... More
The Sensitive Plant. Introduction by Edmund Gosse.
London: William Heinemann, n.d. [1911]. First Charles Robinson Illustrated Edition, DELUXE ISSUE. Quarto. Publisher's vellum binding heavily decorated in gilt to spine and upper board, black and white illustrated end papers, top edge gilt. Profusely decorated with line drawings throughout, coloured cartouches and 18 tipped-in coloured illustrations. In the present..... More
The Plays.
London: Macmillan and Co., 1901. PRIZE BINDING. Octavo, pp.viii; [2]; 455; [1]. Finely bound as a prize binding for Uppingham School by Cross and Beckwith of Leicester in full green calf. Gilt titles to spine on a red morocco square, gilt tooling to spine. gilt crest to upper board, marbled..... More
The Works of the late Right Honourable Sheridan. Including: The Rivals: A Comedy; St. Patrick's Day, or The Scheming Lieutenant: A Farce; The Duenna: A Comic Opera; and A Trip to Scarborough: A Comedy. With Preface by Thomas Moore.
London: John Murray, 1821. FINELY BOUND. Two volumes. Octavo. Contemporary straight grain brown morocco boards with elaborate gilt rule and corner pieces, later respine to style with gilt titles and tooling; marbled end papers and edges. Boards rubbed with some discolouring; corners worn; spine of vol.II slightly faded. Internally clean..... More
Astrophel & Stella.
London: The Nonesuch Press, 1931. [Elizabethan Poetry] LIMITED PRIVATE PRESS EDITION. Octavo (24 x 15cm), pp.xl; 193 [7]. Number 157 of just 725 English copies (485 copies sold by Random House in America), printed on Van Gelder paper. Publisher's decorative paper-covered boards with a green paper title label to upper..... More
Poems of Childhood.
London: Henry Frowde, Hodder and Stoughton, no date [1912]. [Children's Illustrated]. FIRST EDITION. Small quarto (24 x 19cm), pp.[8]; 46; [2]. With twelve chromolithographic plates including a frontispiece by Millicent Sowerby. In publisher's quarter cream cloth with textured cream red and green cloth over boards. Gilt titles to spine and..... More
The Faerie Queene: Disposed into Twelve Books, Fashioning XII Moral Virtues. To which is Added his Epithalamion.
London: George Routledge and Sons, 1866. [Classic Verse] FINELY BOUND AND ILLUSTRATED. Octavo (18 x 13cm), pp.xii; 820; [2]. With eight wood engraved plates, including a frontispiece, by Corbould. Contemporary full red morocco with raised bands, gilt titles and decoration to spine, and elaborate gilt panelled decoration to boards. All..... More
The Complete Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser. The Cambridge Edition.
Boston, MA, and New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1908. [Poetry] FINELY BOUND. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.xxiii; [1]; 852; [2]. Frontispiece portrait. Printed in double column. Contemporary red half morocco over lighter red cloth boards, raised bands and gilt to spine, top edge gilt. Textblock slightly toned, small closed..... More
The Works of Edmund Spenser.
London: Edward Moxon, 1845. [Poetry] FINELY BOUND. Octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.[1x]; 562; [ii], blank. Finely bound by HayDay in black full morocco, raised bands and gilt titles and tooling to spine, ornate gilt borders to boards, all edges gilt. Engraved frontispiece and half title page with engraved vignette. Internally..... More
The Blue Guitar. Etchings by David Hockney, who was Inspired by Wallace Stevens, who was Inspired by Pablo Picasso.
London: Petersburg Press, 1977. [Illustrated Poetry] FIRST THUS. Square octavo (22 x 22cm), pp.51; [1]. Twenty colour etchings by Hockney interleaved with Stevens' poetry. Publisher's grey paper-covered boards with paper title label to upper, brown endpapers, dust-jacket priced at £5.50. A little shaken; rubbing to board edges. Some wear and..... More
Instead of Tears.
London: De La More Press, no date [circa1947]. [Poetry] FIRST SEPARATE EDITION. Octavo (20 x 14cm), pp.[32] unpaginated. Publisher's purple lizard-skin-effect paper-covered board. with titles to paper labels on spine and upper board. Edges untrimmed. Spine sunned, some loss to spine label. Very good. A collection of poems in memory..... More
Selected Poems.
London: Jonathan Cape, 1927. LIMITED EDITION. Small octavo, pp.32. Number 206 of just 350 copies, hand-numbered in black ink. In publisher's quarter blue cloth with orange paper-covered boards and gilt titles to spine. With original cream dust-jacket. Also with a blue Jonathan Cape postcard and a loose advertisement for 'The..... More
A Song of Italy.
London: John Camden Hotten, 1867. [Poetry] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (17 x 12cm), pp.[10]; 66 [20]. First issue, complete with advertisements. Also with a related LETTER dated September 1919 from Thomas James Wise confirming that this copy is a first issue, one of 3000 copies, some of which were remaindered in..... More
Atalanta in Calydon. A Tragedy.
London: Edward Moxon and Co., 1865. [Drama]. FIRST EDITION. Small quarto (23 x 18cm), pp.[2] xii; 111 [1]. Publisher's cream cloth with gilt titles to spine and gilt devices stamped to upper board, designed by D. G. Rossetti (1828-1882). All edges untrimmed. Front free endpaper cancelled. Cloth browned and marked..... More
Ross.
New York, NY: Random House and the Fireside Theatre Book Club, no date [1962]. [T.E. Lawrence] FINELY BOUND. Octavo (21 x 15cm), pp.[12]; 180. Beautifully bound for Asprey by Sangorski and Sutcliffe in red half morocco over red cloth boards, raised bands and gilt to spine, all edges gilt, marbled..... More
Becket.
London: Macmillan and Co., 1884. [Medieval drama]. FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.[viii]; 213; [1], blank; [2], advertisements. In publisher's green cloth with gilt titles to spine, edges untrimmed. With accompanying printed note 'from the author' pinned to flyleaf and with an explanatory note about the recipient..... More