" It is a man's duty to have books. A library is not a luxury, but one of the necessaries of life. "
— Henry Ward Beecher
History & Biography
Marlborough. His Life and Times.
London: George G. Harrap and Co., 1933 - 1938. [Biography/History] FIRST EDITIONS. Four volumes, octavo (24 x 17cm), pp.[4]; 612; pp.651; [1]; pp.[2]; 608; [2]; pp.671; [1]. With 325 illustrations, including a frontispiece to each volume, black and white plates, folding maps and battle plans, and facsimile documents. In publisher's..... More
The Second World War.
London: Cassell and Co. Ltd., 1948-1954. [Military history] FINELY BOUND FIRST EDITIONS. Complete in six volumes. Octavo (22 x 15 x 27cm), pp.xv; 640; pp.xvii; 684; pp.x; 818; pp.xviii; 917; pp.xviii; 673; pp.xviii; 716. With numerous maps and plans, some folding. Elegantly bound in navy blue half calf, with twin..... More
![The Great War [The World Crisis]. Winston Spencer CHURCHILL, Sir](/pictures/thumb/59146.jpg?v=1618069503)
The Great War [The World Crisis].
London: George Newnes, 1933-34. [Military History] FIRST ILLUSTRATED EDITION IN BOOK FORM, preceded by the 26 serial magazine parts, constituting the first illustrated edition of Churchill's The World Crisis, with a brand new foreword by the author. Complete in three volumes. Large octavo (25 x 18 x 14cm), pp.iv; 512;..... More
The Kinks All Day and All of the Night. Day-by-day concerts, recordings and broadcasts, 1961-1996.
San Francisco, CA: Backbeat Books, 2004. [Pop Music] SIGNED BY THE KINKS. Quarto (28 x 22cm), pp.352. Illustrated with occasional black and white photographs. SIGNED by Ray Davies, Mick Avory, Jim Rodford, and Ian Gibbons in black and blue marker to inside front and rear covers. Publisher's photographic soft covers..... More
Etruscan Bologna: A Study.
London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 1876. [Italian Travel and Archaeology] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 14cm), pp.xii, 275. Illustrated with folding frontispiece lithograph showing a Synoptical Table of the Paleo-Ethnological Remains of Central Italy. Also with occasional in-text wood engravings. Publisher's blue cloth with gilt titles to spine, decorative friezes..... More
The Makers of Modern Rome. In Four Books: I. Honourable Women not a few, II. The Popes who Made the Papacy, III. Lo Popolo: and the Tribune of the People, IV. The Popes who Made the City.
London: Macmillan and Co., 1895. [History and Architecture] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (23 x 16cm), pp.xx; 507 [1]. With 25 full page plates including a frontispiece, and numerous in-text engravings, by Riviere and Pennell. Publisher's green cloth with gilt titles to spine. Top edge gilt. Light to moderate spotting throughout, and..... More
Church-of-Englandism and its Catechism examined: Preceded by Strictures on the Exclusionary System, as pursued in the National Society's Schools: Interspersed with Parallel Views of the English and Scottish Established and Non-Established Churches: and Concluding with Remedies Proposed for Abuses Indicated: and an Examination of the Parliamentary System of Church Reform lately pursued, and still pursuing: including the Proposed New Churches.
London: Effingham Wilson, Printed, 1817: Published, 1818. [Religion and Education] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.lvi; ix-xliv; 248; 456. Recently re-backed in brown calf, with raised bands, gilt titles to red morocco label on spine, and original speckled calf boards. All edges speckled brown. Pencil notes to margin of..... More
Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War.
London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1902. [American Civil War] NEW EDITION. Complete in two volumes. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.xxviii; 447 [3]; pp.viii; 528 [2]. With 33 maps, including the large folding map of Virginia and Maryland at the rear of volume I, and two portraits of Stonewall Jackson, one..... More
Sea Power in its Relations to the War of 1812.
London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, 1905. [Naval History] FIRST UK EDITIONS. Complete in two volumes. Octavo (23 x 16cm), pp.xxiv; 423 [1]; pp.xx; 456. With 27 illustrated plates, including a frontispiece to each volume, and 25 maps and battle plans. Publisher's blue cloth with gilt titles to spines, and..... More
A Biographical History of England, from Egbert the Great to the Revolution: Consisting of Characters Disposed in Different Classes, and Adapted to a Methodical Catalogue of Engraved British Heads: Intended as an Essay towards Reducing our Biography to System, and a Help to the Knowledge of Portraits: Interspersed with a Variety of Anecdotes, and Memoirs of a Great Number of Persons, not to be found in any other Biographical Work. With a Preface, Shewing the Utility of a Collection of Engraved Portraits to Supply the Defect, and Answer the Various Purposes, of Medals.
London: Printed for William Baynes and Son, 1824. [English Biography] FINELY BOUND, the fifth edition. Complete in six volumes. Octavo (22 x 14 x 13cm), pp.[6] xxviii; 364 [2]; pp.[4] 387 [3]; pp.[4] 367 [3]; pp.[4] 231 [3]; pp.[4] 404 [2]; pp.[4] 281 [3]. Contemporary tan full calf, with slightly..... More
Literary and Characteristical Lives of John Gregory, M.D., Henry Home, Lord Kame, David Hume, Esq., and Adam Smith, L.L.D. To which are added a Dissertation on Public Spirit; and Three Essays.
Edinburgh: Printed and Sold by Alex. Smellie, [etc.] 1800. [Scottish Biography] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 14cm), pp.[2] x; 450 [2]. Contemporary tan half calf, with gilt titles to red label, gilt ruling, blind tooling to spine and corners, and grey-brown paper over boards. All edges speckled brown. Small yellow..... More
Albyn, or, Scotland and the Future.
London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1927. [Scottish Nationalism] FIRST EDITION. Small octavo (16 x 12cm), pp.95 [21]. Publisher's burgundy paper-covered boards, with printed paper title labels to spine and upper. Some toning to endpapers. Spine toned, with fairly heavy rubbing to joints and board edges. Very good. A...... More
The Missing Diplomats.
London: The Queen Anne Press, 1952. [Espionage] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 14cm), pp.50; [1], blank; [1], imprint. Bound in stiff white card covers with title label to upper, yellow dust-wrapper printed in red and black. Slightly dusty and toned jacket. Fine. Contemporary account of the 'Cambridge Spies', published by..... More
Travels of a Consular Officer in North-West China.
Cambridge: at the University Press, 1921. [Travel and Diplomacy] FIRST EDITION. Large octavo (25 x 18cm), pp.[2] xiv; 215 [6]. With 29 double-sided black and white photographic plates, as well as a frontispiece, and two maps bound in. Also with the two folding maps loose in pouch to rear. In..... More
![Chatham [and] Pitt. Twelve English Statesmen. Frederic HARRISON, Archibald Philip Primrose LORD...](/pictures/thumb/58789.jpg?v=1617209043)
Chatham [and] Pitt. Twelve English Statesmen.
London: Macmillan and Co., 1906 and 1907. [British Political Biography] FINE PRIZE BINDING, later impressions. Two volumes bound as one. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.[2] vi; 239 [1]; pp.viii; 301 [3]. Contemporary burgundy full calf for Berkhamsted School, with raised bands, gilt titles to orange label and further gilt decoration..... More
The French Revolution: A History.
London: Chapman & Hall, 1889. [History and Philosophy] FINE PRIZE BINDING, a later edition. Three volumes bound as one. Octavo (17 x 13cm), pp.iv, 252; pp.iv; 260; pp.iv; 300 [2]. Contemporary red full calf for Clapham Middle School, with raised bands, gilt titles to green label and further gilt decoration..... More
A Bibliographical Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany.
London: Printed for the author, by W. Bulmer and W. Nicol, Shakspeare Press, and Sold by Payne and Foss, Longman, Hurst and Co., 1821. [Bibliographical Travel] FIRST EDITION. Complete in three volumes. Octavo (27 x 18cm), pp.[6] xxxii; 462; lxxx [2]; pp.[6] 555 [3]; pp.[6] 622; lxii [2].With a total..... More
The Court of Queen Elizabeth: Originally Written by Sir Robert Nauton, under the title "Fragmenta Regalia." With considerable Biographical Additions by James Caulfield.
London: Printed and Sold by G. Smeeton, and J. Caulfield, 1814. [Elizabethan Biographies] NEW REVISED EDITION. Quarto (29 x 20cm), pp.[4] 127 [1]. With 18 of the 21 engraved portraits, including a frontispiece of Elizabeth I, but lacking Sir Francis Walsingham, Sir Francis Knowles, and Lord Brooke. Publisher's blue /..... More
Life on Air: Memoirs of a Broadcaster.
London: BBC Books, 2002. [Television Broadcasting] INSCRIBED FIRST EDITION. Octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.384. With eight suites of four double-sided photographic plates. INSCRIBED by the author in black ink to title page: 'to Peter | Best wishes | David Attenborough.' Publisher's brown cloth with gilt titles to spine. With the..... More
![My Early Life [and] Thoughts and Adventures. Winston Spencer CHURCHILL, Sir](/pictures/thumb/58865.jpg?v=1616694424)
My Early Life [and] Thoughts and Adventures.
London: Thornton Butterworth, 1930 and 1932. [Political Autobiography] FINELY BOUND FIRST EDITIONS. Two volumes. Octavo (24 x 16 x 9cm), pp.[2] 392 [2]; pp.[2] 320 [2]. With a black and white photographic frontispiece to each volume, occasional in-text illustrations to 'Thoughts and Adventures,' and sixteen further photographic plates to 'My..... More
The History of America.
London and Edinburgh: W. Strahan, T. Cadell, and J. Balfour, 1777. [New World History] FIRST EDITIONS. Two volumes. Quarto (28 x 22cm), pp.xxiv; 488; pp.[4] 535 [21]. With the folding Aztec plate facing p.482 of volume II. With the original speckled calf boards, recently re-backed in matching brown calf, with..... More
Latin Poetry. Lectures Delivered in 1893 on the Percy Turnbull Memorial Foundation in the John Hopkins University.
London: Macmillan and Co., 1895. [Classical Lectures] FINE PRIZE BINDING. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.[4] xxiv; 323 [5]. Contemporary black full calf for Bedford School, with gilt titles to red label and further gilt decoration to spine, and the school crest stamped in gilt to upper. All edges and endpapers..... More
Great Contemporaries.
London: Thornton Butterworth, 1937. [Political biographies] FINELY BOUND FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.[2] 335 [3]. With twenty-one photographic portrait plates. Recent navy half morocco, with raised bands, gilt titles and rampant lion tooling to spine, and blue cloth over boards. Top edge gilt. A lightly trimmed volume, with..... More
The Triumphs of Steam. A New Edition, Revised and Partly Re-Written.
London: Griffith Farran Browne & Co., no date [circa 1900]. [Railways and Steam Engines] FINELY BOUND. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.[2] viii; 263 [3]. With 34 engraved plates, including a frontispiece, and occasional in-text illustrations. Contemporary green full calf, with raised bands, gilt titles to red label and further gilt..... More
Sir Martin Frobisher. The Golden Hind Series, Edited by Milton Waldman.
London: John Lane the Bodley Head, 1928. [Naval Biography] FINELY BOUND FIRST EDITION. Octavo (21 x 15cm), pp.[2] xvi; 288 [2]. With nine black and white half-tone plates, including a frontispiece, but not including the illustrated endpapers. Contemporary navy full calf, with gilt titles to red labels and further gilt..... More