London: John Murray, 1876. Second Edition. Decorative Cloth. Second Thousand. 8vo; viii,208,32(publisher's catalogue)pp, with 13 text woodcuts. Original publisher's royal green pebbled cloth, covers paneled in blind (arches-style), spine lettered and decorated in gilt, chocolate-brown end papers, period owner's stamp top of half title. A superlative example, binding clean, tight..... more
London: John Murray, 1862. First Edition. Three-Quarter Calf. 8vo: vi,365,[1]pp, with one folding plate and 33 woodcuts in text. Rebound, without the advertisements, in three-quarter chocolate-brown calf over marbled boards, flat spine in five compartments divided by double gilt fillets, compartments two and four lettered in gilt, end papers renewed..... more
![Photobook]The expression of the emotions in man and animals. Charles DARWIN](/pictures/thumb/BB2542.jpeg?v=1612908502)
London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1873. First Edition. Decorative Cloth. Third Issue (tenth thousand) of this "important member of the evolutionary set" (Freeman) and one of the first mass-market books to contain photographs. Crown 8vo (118 x 189mm): vi,374,4(integral ads dated Nov. 1872),32(advertisement insert dated May, 1882)pp, with 7 heliotype..... more
![The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication [Survival of the Fittest]. Charles DARWIN](/pictures/thumb/BB2290.jpeg?v=1588781529)
London: John Murray, 1882. Original Cloth. Second Edition (Revised), Fifth Thousand, two volumes complete in fine original bindings, featuring first occurrence of the phrase "survival of the fittest." Crown 8vo (188 x 118): xiv,473,[1]; x,495,[1]pp, with 43 woodcut illustrations. Publisher's green cloth, covers paneled in blind (arches style), spine stamped..... more
London: John Murray, 1899. Second Edition. Original Cloth. A later but Very Fine printing (sixth Impression of the second edition) in the publisher's standard green binding. 8vo (190 x 122mm): xiv,300,[4]pp, with one folding plate and 38 woodcuts in the text. Publisher's green cloth, covers paneled in blind, spine stamped..... more
New York: D. Appleton, 1892. Early Reprint. Decorative Cloth. A virtually pristine example of one of Darwin's scarcer titles. 8vo: xvi,300,[8]pp, with 38 text woodcuts. Publisher's terra-cotta cloth, upper cover stamped in black and lower cover in blind with edge roll and trailing vine device, spine ruled and lettered in..... more
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1981. Reprint. Hardcover. First Edition, thus, of one of the great monuments of historical writing, first published in 1589. As New (unread). N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable polypropylene sleeves. All..... more
![Tempest-Tost [Salterton Trilogy]. Robertson DAVIES](/pictures/thumb/BB2056.jpg?v=1565285593)
New York: Rinehart, [1952]. First Printing. Hardcover. First American Edition (preceding the English edition) of the author's first novel, the opening installment of the Salterton Trilogy (followed by Leaven of Malice and A Mixture of Frailtie). 8vo (135 x 207mm): [6],307,[1]pp. Publisher's green cloth-effect paper-covered boards, spine stamped in red..... more
Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and T. Cadell, Strand, London, MDCCCXXXII [1832]. Original Boards. First Edition of de Quincey's only novel, a Gothic romance set in Swabia during the Thirty Years' War. 12mo (173 x 98mm): [4]305,[3]pp (half-titles both precede and follow title page). Original brown paper-covered boards, later..... more
![The Blue Lagoon [Michael Sadleir's copy]. Henry DE VERE STACPOOLE](/pictures/thumb/BB2182.jpg?v=1565288556)
London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1908. Hardcover. First Printing of the prolific Irish author's best known work, a romance novel filmed multiple times and the first installment of The Blue Lagoon Trilogy, with The Garden of God (1923) and The Gates of Morning (1925). Crown 8vo (184 x 118mm): [12],326;[12]pp. Publisher's..... more
![Circus] The memoirs of J. Decastro, comedian. In the course of them will be given anecdotes of ....](/pictures/thumb/BB1554.jpg?v=1503881038)
London: Sherwood, Jones, & co, 1824. First Edition. Quarter-Cloth. Edited by R. Humphreys. First Edition of this cornerstone of any circus collection (Toole-Stott lists it among his hundred best circus books). Small 8vo: [xx],279,[1]pp, with portrait frontispiece and 2 folding plates, including the certificate of birth, "often wanting." (Lowe). Publisher's..... more
London: printed for E. Curll: and sold by W. Mears and T. Jauncy without Temple Bar, W. Meadows in Cornhill, A. Bettesworth in Pater-Noster-Row, W. Lewis in Covent Garden, and W. Graves in St. James’s Street, M.DCC.XX [1720]. Paneled Calf. First Edition of this purported autobiography of the notorous London..... more
![A Horseman Riding By; [with] The Green Gauntlet. R. F. DELDERFIELD](/pictures/thumb/BB1751.jpg?v=1513261877)
London: Hodder and Stoughton [through 1968], 1966. First Edition. Hardcover. First Impressions of Delderfield's two-volume elegy for the traditional, pastoral society blown apart by the First World War. Thick 8vo: 1151; 475,[3]pp. Horseman: Publisher's forest green cloth, spine stamped in gold, map end papers; dust jacket with wraparound illustration by..... more
London: John Murray, 1883. Early Reprint. Decorative Cloth. Third Edition, complete in two volumes. Tall, thick 8vo's: cxxviii,501,[3]; xv,[1],579, with two folding maps and numerous wood-engraved plates of antiquities and architectural remains and plans of the larger sites. Publisher's green cloth, covers paneled in blind and stamped in gilt, spines..... more
London: Andre Deutsch, 1956. First Edition. Hardcover. First Printing of this uncommon memoir of Eritrea, Somaliland, and the shores of Bab-El-Mandeb, admired by Isak Dinesen and Harold Nicholson and one of David Bowie's favorite books. Demy 8vo (209 x 134mm): 192pp, with eleven inserted leaves of plates after monochrome photographs..... more
A La Haye [The Hague]: chés Jean Martin Husson, 1739. Early Reprint. Full Calf. Third Edition of this important French treatise on garden design, "to this day the standard authority on the formal garden." (Henrey) 4to (257 x 193mm): [8],383 [13]pp, with 42 copper-engraved plates (some folding and double page)..... more
![Bleak House . . . With Illustrations by H. K. Browne [Original Cloth]. Charles DICKENS](/pictures/thumb/BB1961.jpeg?v=1605313448)
London: Chapman & Hall, 193, Piccadilly [from 1853], n. d. First Edition. Decorative Cloth. Early Issue (with Chapman & Hall imprint on both engraved and letterpress title pages and the firm's new (as of 1852) address, 193 Piccadilly) in the original cloth. Thick 8vo: xvi, 624pp, with frontispiece, title-page vignette..... more
![Dombey and Son [Original Cloth]. Charles DICKENS](/pictures/thumb/BB1513.jpg?v=1535594669)
London: Bradbury & Evans, 11 Bouverie Street, 1848. First Edition thus. Original Cloth. With the half-title. 8vo: (iii)-xvi,[2,errata],624pp, illustrated with 40 etched plates (with none of the inferior lithographed plates made as substitutes, after the etched plates were insufficient to meet demand) by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"), including a "dark..... more
![The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby . . . With Illustrations by 'Phiz' [Original Cloth]....](/pictures/thumb/BB1922.jpeg?v=1588909262)
London: Chapman & Hall, 193, Piccadilly [from 1839], n.d. [c. 1865]. First Edition. Decorative Cloth. Early Issue (1865 or earlier, based on printer's imprint, verso of title page, possibly as early as 1852, when Chapman & Hall moved from 186 Strand to 193 Piccadilly) of Dickens's first commercial triumph, the..... more
![Our Mutual Friend . . . With Illustrations By Marcus Stone [Original Cloth]. Charles DICKENS](/pictures/thumb/BB1984.jpeg?v=1605368703)
London: Chapman & Hall, 193 Piccadilly, 1865. First Edition. Decorative Cloth. First Issue (with all issue points per Smith, and November, not December, catalog at end of volume II). Demy 8vo (211 x 134mm): xii,320,3-36(first advertisement leaf not bound in); viii,312,4pp, with 20 full-page plates in each volume. Publisher's original..... more
![Pictures from Italy [Original Cloth]. Charles DICKENS](/pictures/thumb/BB1538.jpg?v=1551831230)
London: Published for the author, by Bradbury & Evans, Whitefriars, MDCCCXLVI [1846]. First Edition. Decorative Cloth. First Issue, with all correct points (see Eckel, Smith, and Podeschi, referenced below). Foolscap 8vo: [8],270,2]pp, with four woodcut vignettes by Samuel Palmer (showing Villa d'Este, Colosseum, Street of the Tombs at Pompeii, and..... more
![Sketches by Boz : illustrative of every-day life, and every-day people [Original Cloth]. Charles...](/pictures/thumb/BB1787.jpeg?v=1605146942)
London: Chapman & Hall [from 1837], 1863. First Edition thus. Decorative Cloth. Later printing, in original cloth, of the single-volume format (the first issue of series one and series two appeared in three volumes) of Dickens's first book, introducing a introducing a major literary talent to Victorian England. Demy 8vo..... more
London: John Macrone [from 1836], MDCCCXXXVII [1837]. First Edition. Decorative Cloth. "Second series" of this collection of short pieces of literary journalism that marked the launch of the young author’s meteoric career. Crown 8vo (194 x 120mm): [4],viii,377,[1],]pp, with 10 steel-engraved plates (including frontispiece and vignette title page dated 1836)..... more
New York: Random House, 1963. First Printing. Hardcover. First Printing, so stated. A Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket but for two flaws: previous owner's name in ink to the FFEP and two tears mended with archival tape to the front two blanks. Note: With few exceptions (always identified)..... more
![Cranford Series] The Story of Rosina and Other Verses. Austin DOBSON, Hugh Thomson, illustrates](/images/noimage.png)
London: Kegan Paul,Trench,Trubner, MDCCCXCV [1895]. First Edition thus. Decorative Cloth. Crown 8vo (179 x 115mm): xiii,[5],120pp, with 49 illustrations by Hugh Thomson. Publisher's forest green cloth and end papers, gilt lettering and vignettes to spine and upper cover, all edges gilt. Book label of Wiston Old Rectory (a Grade II..... more