Rare books from Fine Editions Ltd

New York: Harper & Row, 1968. First Edition, as stated. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition (so stated) of the author's first book published in English translation, a novella and eight short stories. 8vo: [4],170pp. Publisher's quarter-bound brick-red cloth stamped in burgundy, mustard paper-covered boards, fore-edge untrimmed, boldly patterned end papers, illustrated dust jacket priced $5.95. Virtually pristine, an exemplary example, apparently unread, showing all first-issue points ('H-S' code on copyright page, without number line on terminal leaf), in a bright, nearly flawless first-issue jacket (Jerry Bauer credited for photograph of the author on the back panel, date code 0968 on front flap), with just mild toning to top of back panel and minute, nearly unnoticeable rub at the front spine-panel fold. Truly a collector's copy. Written between 1956 and 1957 and first published in 1961, the title novella (the book also includes a second, longer novella, Big Mama's Funeral) tells the story of an… Read More

Amsterdam: Chez Pierre Mortier, 1756. Full Calf. Fine. Later edition of the memoirs of one of the most illustrious French corsairs, including descriptions of his spectacular attacks on Rio de Janeiro. 12mo (166 x 92mm): xxxix,312pp, with engraved frontispiece and five (of six) folding plates (absent plate opposite p. 120, apparently never bound in). Full mottled calf, flat richly gilt spine divided into six compartments by triple rules, red morocco gilt label, all edges stained red, marbled end papers, book label of P. Gaingnot-P. au Mans. The highly accomplished engravings, by J. P. Le Bas and A. Coquart, include frontispiece portrait of the author, view of a French man-of-war with parts labeled, three (of four) folding views of naval engagements, and the magnificent folding plan of Rio de Janeiro. Also included are lists of ships and crews under Du Guay-Trouin's command in various campaigns. Lower joint skillfully repaired, else Fine, with pages and plates pristine. STCN 305337807. Keynes… Read More

London: Printed by H. Woodfall, 1756. Quarter-bound Leather. Near Fine+. First Edition, "printed for presentation only and not sold." (DNB). The more common second edition, published in octavo, appeared the following year. 4to: [6],201,[5],203-361,[1]pp, with engraved frontispiece and engraved plate opposite the divisional title to the Essay on Tea, both by Thomas Major after Samuel Wale. Modern quarter-calf over plain paper-covered boards, flat spine in six compartments between decorative gilt bands, red morocco lettering piece gilt; all edges stained red, end papers renewed. Title page and preliminaries lightly foxed, but contents otherwise clean and bright, the binding tight and firm. A splendid, wide-margined copy. ESTC Citation No. T127188. Gibson's Library, p. 144. Goldsmiths'-Kress 9083. Cox I, p. 19. Hanway was both a widely traveled merchant, with connections to the Russia Company, and a philanthropist whose causes included foundlings, prostitutes, and the climbing apprentices of chimney… Read More

London: Printed for, & sold by Tho: Bowles print & map seller next ye. Chapter House in St. Pauls Church-Yard & Em. Bowen next ye King of Spain in S: Katherines, 1720. First Edition. Full Calf. Fine. First edition, first or second issue, of this fully and finely engraved road atlas of England and Wales, a smaller-format popular version of Ogilby's famous road atlas, originally published in two versions (both 1675), in folio editions. Small 4to (204 x 120mm): [6],273,[1]pp, comprising 54 county maps and associated suites of strip road maps in three or four columns over 273 plates engraved front and back by Emanuel Bowen. Contemporary Cambridge-style paneled calf, sympathetically rebacked, spine with five raised bands ruled in gilt, recent red morocco lettering piece gilt, all edges speckled red, plain period end papers. An all-together elaborate production, in Fine, clean, bright condition, each map fully and elaborately engraved by Emanuel Bowen and enhanced with little-known historical facts… Read More

London: W. H. Allen, 1959. First Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine/Near Fine+. First Impression of the author's second book (following "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning"), a collection of nine stories. Crown 8vo: 176pp. Publisher's grey cloth-effect paper-covered boards, spine stamped in silver gilt; dust jacket illustrated by Mona Moore and priced 12s/6d. A Near Fine copy, lightly read, with dust-soiled top edge, offsetting to end papers (as often), owner's inscription to fly-leaf; Near Fine or better jacket, bright and unfaded, with lightly soiled back panel. Gerad A5. Awarded the Hawthornden Prize for 1959. "Despite their hasty assembly, the stories in Loneliness cohere remarkably well. They are all set in working-class milieux (sometimes shading into criminal ones); they all have working-class protagonists (apart from "Mr Raynor the Schoolteacher" and the narrator of "The Decline and Fall of Frankie Buller"); and they all deal with different kinds of isolation. . . . Loneliness suggested that… Read More

London: Hogarth Press, 1935. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Impression ("First published 1935" on copyright page), one of only 1500 copies, of this odd and unexpected life of Charlotte Stuart, Duchess of Albany (1753-1789), illegitimate daughter of the Jacobite pretender Prince Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie"), his only child to survive infancy. Small, slim 8vo; [10],11-96pp, with portrait frontispiece and two full-page illustrations. Publisher's black cloth, spine gilt; blue dust jacket, designed by Vanessa Bell, printed in red and priced 4s/6d. An excellent copy, square, tight and bright (apparently unread); Fine jacket, spine just barely toned. Scarce in such superb condition. Woolmer 360. Charlotte Stuart's mother was Clementina Walkinshaw, mistress to the Prince from 1752 until 1760. After years of abuse, Clementina left Charles, taking Charlotte with her. Father and daughter were finally reconciled in 1784, when he legitimized her and created her Duchess of Albany.… Read More

London: printed for Bernard Lintott, between the Temple-Gates in Fleet-Street [through 1718], 1717. Full Calf. Near Fine+. Three volumes in one: Fifth Edition of the first, Second of the second, First of the third. 8vo: [2, the frontispiece and title page may be cancels],vi (dedication to Henry, Duke of Kent, from The fruit-garden kalendar transferred here, as usual, to The clergy-man's recreation [ESTC Citation No. T30847]),[8],84, with a copper-engraved frontispiece by Simon Gribelin and a letterpress illustration; [18],115,[1], with a frontispiece, four folding plates (including the plate showing a method of finding the meridian line, often missing) and a letterpress illustration (in this edition [ESTC Citation No. T142272], the last '7' of the date on the title page falls below the first 't' of 'Lintott', and on p.5 the "B" of the signature is below the "a" of "acquainted" in the final line); [4],v,[1],146 (wanting final 3pp of the appendix, but with 7 extra pages of Lintot's catalog), [10]pp,… Read More

T'Amsterdam / T'Utrecht: Daniel van den Dalen. François Halma. De wed. van A. van Someren / J. en Wilhelm vande Water. Boekverkopers, 1700. Early Reprint. Vellum. Fine. Profusely illustrated edition of Cats's complete collected works, first published in 1655. Two folio volumes bound in one, each separately paged and signed, and each with additional engraved title page bearing a portrait of the author, as well as sectional title pages with engraved vignettes. [28],666 [i.e. 662: 183-184 repeated and 343-348 omitted],[10]; [18],390,[6],393-608,61,[1] pp, with full-page portraits of the author and of Anna Maria Schurman, three double-page plates, and more than 400 superb copper-engraved half- and quarter-page plates (most from the original designs of Adrian van de Venne), numerous tailpieces of bouquets, and historiated initials. Recent period-style full vellum binding by Fitterer, mustard lettering piece decorated and lettered in gilt, end papers renewed. An exemplary example in a magnificent vellum… Read More

London: Sherwood, Jones and Co. [through 1826], 1825. First Edition. Supposed First Issue (with plate 28 , vol. I, misdated 1284 and p.222, vol. II, blank) of one of the finest English color plate books, complete in two volumes. (Abbey and Tooley disagree, with Abbey arguing that these points are without bibliographical value.) Royal 8vo: xiii,417; xv,[1],399,[1]pp, with 71 hand-colored aquatints by Robert Cruikshank, Rowlandson, and others; 1 uncolored woodcut plate and 74 wood engravings in text. Bound in full crimson levant morocco, covers framed with French fillets, elaborately gilt-tooled spines and dentelles, marbled end papers, all edges gilt. the binding exquisite. Light bumping and wear to several corners, mild offsetting from plates, very occasional foxing, still an excellent copy inside and out, the binding exquisite, the plates vividly colored. Abbey Life 325. Tooley 504. Prideaux, p. 310. Martin Hardie, pp. 191-92. Originally published in 24 monthly parts, The English Spy provides a… Read More

Amsterdam: Chez M. Magérus, Libraire, 1771. First Edition thus. Full Calf. Fine. Rare French Edition of the first compendium of fruit arboriculture with 39 folding copper-engraved plates in fine contemporary hand coloring. Two foolscap-folio volumes bound in one: [ii],160,[iv],161-205,[1], with 19 plates (quince, cherry, plum, fig, currant, almond, chestnut, apricot, and other fruits and nuts) and large woodcut tailpieces; [ii],339 [i.e. 139]pp, with 20 plates by Jacob Folkema and Jan Caspar Philips (showing 103 apple varieties and 82 varieties of pears, with such evocative name as red apple paradise, Queen of England, siren lemon, and Mrs. Thigh). Title and preface from the Leeuwarden edition of 1766 bound in between Rr2 and Ss. Elegantly bound in early mottled calf, spine richly gilt in seven compartments divided by raised bands, green morocco lettering piece gilt, edges stained red, plain period end papers. An excellent copy of a superb production, the only notable flaw being three plates and… Read More

Amsterdam: Marcus Doornick, 1675. Early Reprint. Vellum. Sammelband of key gardening and husbandry texts, complete with all plates showcasing seventeenth-century garden design. Three titles in one quarto volume, including Den Nederlandtsen Hovenier, the most influential horticultural manual from the golden age of Dutch garden design with an impressive collection of woodcuts depicting hundreds of intricate garden layouts. Bound in contemporary vellum and printed in Roman and italic letter. I. Den Nederlandtsen Hovenier: [30],96,[2]pp (p. 96 misnumbered 69), with additional engraved title page, 15 full-page plates, 200 models of gardens (introduced by separate letterpress title page, p. 41), and woodcut illustrations in text. II. Nyland, Den Verstandigen Hovenier (Amsterdam: Marcus Doornick, 1672): 76,[4]pp, with large title-page vignette of country estate and gardens and 30 woodcut models of parterres. III. Nyland, De Medicyn-Winckel (Amsterdam: Marcus Doornick [n. d., but probably 1670]), to which is… Read More

London: Jonathan Cape, 1978. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Impression of McEwan's first novel (preceded by two short story collections: First Love, Last Rites and In Between the Sheets). 8vo: 138pp. Publisher's forest green cloth, spine lettered in gilt, grey end papers, illustrated dust jacket priced £3.50. Signed by the author without inscription on the title page. A superlative copy (apparently unread), virtually pristine. Filmed by Andrew Birkin in 1993, with Charlotte Gainsbourg and Andrew Robertson. The story "concerns a family of abandoned children coming to terms with life without their parents. It is about their simultaneous growth into adults and regression as children . . . [and] brings to mind many other novels concerned with children isolated from adults, most notably The Lord of the Flies. But where Golding's children run wild, and the reader is reminded of how the adult world provides checks on their natural aggression, McEwan's grow closer, and the reader is reminded of… Read More

London: Printed by Whittingham and Rowland, Goswell Street; For John Carr, 56, Paternoster-Row, 1814. First Edition. Full Calf. Fine. First Edition of this uncommon satirical depiction of various Regency-era character types and memes, in verse. Crown 8vo: viii,158,[2]pp, with eight delicately hand-colored aquatints, including the frontispiece. Complete with half-title and two pages of publisher's advertisements. (In every copy we've seen, plate no. 5, often described as bound out of sequence, is placed between plates nos. 7 and 8, and according to the text, that is where it belongs.) Later full tan calf, covers framed with French fillet and gilt sunburst ornament to corners, richly gilt spine in six compartments divided by raised bands, red morocco lettering piece gilt, gilt turn-ins, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. From the collection of bibliophile Brent Gration-Maxfield, with his characteristic manuscript ex-libris and tidy bibliographic notes ("collated perfect," "only blemish is a slight mark… Read More

London: Eyre & Spottiswoode [through 1959], 1946. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine-/Fine. A superb set of this fantasy series, rivaling in its compelling verbal creation of an imaginary world even Lord of the Rings. First Impressions in matching publisher's red cloth, spines stamped in gold, in the iconic dust jackets illustrated by Peake. Tall 8vo: 453; 454; 223,[1]pp, with title-page vignettes and head and tail pieces by the author. Titus Groan: edges and end papers lightly foxed, else Near Fine or better; Fine Second Impression jacket (as often), priced 15s. (Far too few jackets were printed for the first impression, so second-impression jackets, then in press, were also used.) Gormenghast: Virtually pristine (probably unread), small smudge to base of spine, Fine jacket, priced 18' with publisher's sticker. Titus Alone: Fine, in Fine jacket, priced 21s. In all, excellent examples. Cawthorn & Moorcock, p. 137. Currey, p. 400. Locke I, pp. 173-74. Gormenghast is a remote and reclusive earldom… Read More

London: Methuen [through 1912], 1909. Decorative Cloth. Fine-. A superb set of the First Foolscap Octavo Edition (Second Collected Edition) of Wilde's works, in 14 matching publisher's bindings, issued as separate volumes beginning in 1909 (twelve by Methuen, one by Charles Carrington of Paris, and one by John Lane). Publisher's bright green cloth, spines titled in gilt, upper covers with gilt lettering and Charles Rickett's star above the "Great Waters" vignette, top edges gilt, sides uncut, printed on thick wove paper. Contemporary ownership inscription of W. W. S. Escott of Magdalen College [Wilde's college], Oxford, to some volumes. Lord Arthur Savile's Crime (3rd edn., Mason 481`): [6],196pp. Duchess of Padua (2nd edn., Mason 485): vi,[6],183,[1]pp. Poems (10th edn., Mason 491): viii,320pp. Lady Windermere's Fan (3rd edn., Mason 494): [12],157,[1]pp. Woman of No Importance (3rd edn., Mason 497): [12],182,[2]pp. Ideal Husband (5th edn., Mason 503): [12],246pp. Importance of Being Earnest… Read More