Rare books from Thorn Books

New York: The Macmillan Company, 1918. First US edition. Hardcover. Fine. 8vo. 98pp plus 6pp of ads. Green morocco spine, gilt titles, vellum tips. Cockerell green marbed paper sides, endpapers of Griffin handmade paper embedded with shamrocks. A fine copy. With the bookplate of Mathilde Nathan. Wade 121.

Londres: Guillaume Pickering, 1835. First edition. Hardcover. Very good. 2 volumes. 12mo. Illustrated with lithographs of the manuscripts, some with initials colored by hand in red and blue. Title page in Volume 1 in both English and French.. Publisher's original cloth in a small sand grain design. This is clearly Winterbottom's Type 'M' (Tomlinson). Krupp (p.30) notes this as San1, but without a Winterbottom cross-reference. She ascribes an appearance date of 1850 for this early design; to find it on books published in 1835 is a treat. That it would appear on a Pickering work should be no surprise. Pickering started experimenting with bookcloth as early as 1823 through his binder, Archibald Leighton, who was responsible for many innovations in the design and use of early bookcloth. The text constitutes mainly the remains of Thomas of Britain's Tristan Romance, composed in the 12th and 13th centuries in Norman French and Greek, here edited and rendered in the originals by Fr. MIchel. This is a… Read More

St. Petersburg: Dmitry Sayenko; Nikodim, 2018. Limited edition. Hardcover. Fine. Two volumes, folio. Slipcased. One of 20 copies signed by Owens and Sayenko in the colophon. Prospectus laid in. The volumes are in fine, as new condition; the slipcase has a tiny bump on one corner else is fine. The main volume, 56pp, hardcover is in full grey linen with a linocut paste-on and brass corners. Tan endpapers. All pages of handmade paper and uncut, replete with linocuts taken directly from the blocks and in multiple colors, with the text letterpress, deeply printed on dampened paper with Baskerville type. Volume 2 is also folio, and in handmade paper wraps, the upper wrap with a linocut of Gawain and Ragnell taken from the block, and title by letterpress in red. (28)pp. The text is printed offset on ivory machine-made paper and contains the complete Romance as transcribed from the sole manuscript by Frederick Madden and rendered into modern English by James J. Owens, keeping the original cadence and… Read More

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1910. First editions, first printings. Hardcover. Near fine. Four 4to volumes, all in original mustard-color cloth with spines and upper boards blocked in black, red and gilt., With black and white illustrations by Howard Pyle. This is essentially a near fine set. These titles have traditionally suffered cracked inner hinges because the textblock was too heavy for the binding structure. Here, the first, second, and fourth volumes have perfect inner hinges. The remaining volume, 'Launcelot', has a minor and nearly invisible repair to the front inner hinge. Overall this is a near fine set. Pyle's quintessential treatment of King Arthur. "The books are lavishly decorated with Beardsleyesque headpieces, tail pieces, and full-page pen-and-ink drawings featuring enigmatic ladies, neo-Gothic furnishings and complexly patterned dress and armor."--so does Muriel Whitaker describe this set in the Arthurian Encyclopedia. Gaines C-17, 19, 21 & 27. .

London: R. Wilks, 1816. Hardcover. Good. 12mo. 3 volumes. xxiv [25]-326; xvi [17]-381; xvi [17]377pp. Engraved title pages in each volume. Engraved frontispiece of the Death of Sir Launcelot present in Volume 1, of the Parting of Tristan and Isolde in Volume 2, and of Prince Arthur Obtaining the Sword in Volume 3. The folding plate of the Round Table is also present in Volume 1. Bound in full vellum, gilt titles, marbled endpapers, and the bindings signed by Roger De Coverly. Top edges gilt. Light aging of the textblocks and soil to the vellum, boards yawning a bit from the pull of the vellum, gilt rubbed in places, else this is a very good set. The Morte d'Arthur was first printed by Caxton in 1485 and was followed by editions in 1498, 1529, 1557 and 1634. Owing to the rise of the Commonwealth, stories of kings were generally suppressed; no further editions of the Morte d'Arthur were printed until 1816, which saw two editions of which this is one. Important edition, marking the start of modern… Read More

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1906. First US edition. Hardcover. Fine. With Drawings by Arthur Rackham, A. R. W. S.. 4to. Superb binding of half green morocco, spine in six compartments, gilt, green cloth sides, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt. The binding is unsigned but is reminiscent of Bayntum-Riviere or Sangorski & Sutcliffe. All plates are present with their tissue guards, and all but the frontispiece are bound after the text. A fine copy with only traces of age and rubbing. Latimore & Haskell, p. 27. .

n.p.: Headquarters, First United States Army, 1944. First edition. Wraps. Very good plus. 12mo/ x, 234pp/ Stiff textured printed wraps, bound with string. Each device is given a detailed explanation accompanied by a photograph and diagram. Light wear else a very good plus copy. Mines, Igniters, Mine-Laying Tactics, Fuses, Detonators. Comprehensive Table of Contents. Scarce Survival. OCLC records one copy of this 1944 edition, and a total of 8 copies in all editions. .

London: John Russell Smith, 1865. First edition. Hardcover. Very good. Three volumes. 12mo. Half dark red cloth. Introduction and notes by Thomas Wright, The Introduction is of bibliographical importance as it sketches the history of the early editions of Malory: Caxton (one complete copy; one incomplete); de Worde (two editions, one copy of each known); Copland; East; and finally the edition of 1634. Each volume with the engraved circular bookplate of Emily Morris Gallatin on the front pastedowns. The simple signature of Arthur Lewis, 1949, on each of the front free endpapers. And on the front free endpaper of volume 1 a nearly full page inscription dated 2018. Only volume 1 has been fully opened; the remaining volumes are partially unopened. Aside from the inscription and signatures, these volumes are in very good condition showing only traces of wear at the corners, edges and spine tips. This is a curious edition. We have marked it a first edition, but not without hesitation. The first printing… Read More

Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, 1997. Hardcover. Thin 4to. Maroon cloth, silver titles on the spine and upper board. A fine copy. First published in 1986, this edition brings the narrative to 1996. Signed on the front endpapers by 22 chess masters, players and interested people, of which we have deciphered 18: Larry Cristiansen, Robert B Farmer (?), Jennie Franklakh, Esther Epstein, Vladimir (?) Samarov, Sharon Ellen Furtman, Alex Shabalov, Alrick Man, Irina Krush, (Boris) Gulka, Walter Browne, Joel Benjamin, John Fedorowicz, Gabriel Schwartzman, Dimitry Gurevich, Yasser Seirawan, Gregory Kaidonov and Carol Jarecki, .

London: Dean & Son, 1858. First edition. Hardcover. Very good. 4to. Cloth-backed pictorial boards; printed endpapers. Eight leaves of text each with a three-part pop-up operated by green ribbons. The corners and edges are worn, and the textblock has light soil in places. Six of the green ribbons have been expertly replaced, leaving two original ribbons, though they are fragile. The textbloxk is loose in the bonding, having pulled away from the thin threads that bound it. All in all a very good copy of a scarce survival. Montanaro, p. 50, suggests that the publication date is 1865-1873. This copy bears an inscription dated 1868. In another entry (Aladdin) she notes that Dean & Son in 1855 was at 31 and 11 Ludgate Hill, but ten years later (i.e., 1865) moved to 65 Ludgate Hill, the date on this copy. This is one of the earliest popup books available. It is shown as number 3 of the Scenic series. .

n.p.: The Smith-Brooks Printing Company, 1898. Hardcover. Very good. 12mo. 150pp. Black cloth; gilt title on upper board. Lacking the front free endpaper else this is a very good copy. A surprising number of firms advertising have telephones. Scarce. No copy of this edition found in OCLC. .

Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1925. First edition. Hardcover. Near fine. 8vo. xxvii, (1), 211,(1)pp. Green cloth, gilt spine title and gilt rule and device on the upper board. Glossary, Index. Aside form some foxing on the top edge and fore-edge, a fine bright copy, without any underlining or notes so often seen. Seldom found in such nice shape. .

London: Jonathan Cape, 1965. First edition, first printing. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. Textured paper over boards, gilt spine title A fine copy. The dustwrapper is clipped. It has a little wear along the edges, a short closed marginal tear along the top rear, and a trace of foxing on the rear panel, else it is in near fine condition. The first title in The Dark is Rising Series and the only title in the series where the English edition is the true first. (The US edition was printed in 1966.) A truly rare book. .

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1910. First editions, first printings. Hardcover. Very good. Four 4to volumes, all in original mustard-color cloth with spines and upper boards blocked in black, red and gilt., With black and white illustrations by Howard Pyle. These titles have traditionally suffered cracked inner hinges because the textblock was too heavy for the binding structure. Here, the second and third volumes have perfect inner hinges. The remaining two have had minor and nearly invisible repairs to the inner hinges. Aside from this, there is minor wear at edges and spine tips, else this is a very good set. Pyle's quintessential treatment of King Arthur. "The books are lavishly decorated with Beardsleyesque headpieces, tail pieces, and full-page pen-and-ink drawings featuring enigmatic ladies, neo-Gothic furnishings and complexly patterned dress and armor."--so does Muriel Whitaker describe this set in the Arthurian Encyclopedia. Gaines C-17, 19, 21 & 27. .

London: John Murray, 1832. First edition. Hardcover. Near fine. 2 volumes 8vo. Illustrated. Engraved frontispieces, the frontispiece of volume two hand-colored. Half leather, spines in six compartments with raised bands, gilt. The frontispiece of volume one is foxed else this is a near fine set. In spite of the note on volume one that this is in two volumes, a third volume was later issued in 1833, not here present. .