Rare books from Peter Harrington

Antwerp., 1598. This glorious map is embellished with an elegant border and a bold, imposing title cartouche in top right corner and a smaller oval cartouche in bottom left corner containing nine lines of Latin text. Natural topography is clearly delineated with the relief shown pictorially. Charming details include a couple of sailing ships, a large flying fish and two warriors in their tented camps. This beautiful and important map, still showing California as a peninsula, was much copied by other cartographers. Size: 470 x 350 mm. Copper engraving. Original colour. Fine condition. Moreland & Bannister, Antique Maps, p.269.

1969-76. From Margaret Thatcher's estate A collection of first day covers gathered by Margaret Thatcher, from Thatcher's personal belongings from her home in Chester Square. Thatcher dabbled in stamp collecting, and most of her collection was sold at Christie's in 2015. She had a personal interest in the aesthetics and production of stamps as Prime Minister, as can be seen in her correspondence with Sir Ronald Dearing, Chairman of the Post Office, in 1985. The first day covers were produced and dated by the Royal Mail at the start of the print run and sent to the House of Commons. One envelope addressed to her from Liberia is also included. 1. First day cover, stamped for the House of Commons 28 May 1969, with six stamps featuring British cathedrals. 2. First day cover, stamped for the House of Commons 1 July 1969, commemorating the investiture of the Prince of Wales. 3. First day cover, stamped for the House of Commons 13 August 1969, commemorating the centenary of Gandhi's birth. 4. First day… Read More

Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard,, 1836-37. Original boards First US editions, first states. Parts 1 to 4 (appearing between 5 November 1836 and 20 September 1837) precede the first book edition in London, which was published by Chapman and Hall on 17 November 1837. The fifth part of the American edition appeared on 29 December. Part I is particularly scarce in first state, being issued in only 1,500 copies as the author was entirely unknown, and reissued as sales increased of the later parts. The edition was a piracy, part of a number of publications by American firms of British authors, taking advantage of the lack of international copyright agreements. Henry Charles Carey did offer the author £25 for the parts of Pickwick which they had already printed in June 1837, but Dickens declined on principle, instead only requesting a copy of the edition. 5 volumes, duodecimo. Uncut in the original pink quarter cloth and boards, printed paper labels. Housed in custom red folding chemises within red… Read More

Munich: Braun und Schneider,, [1865]. The prototype of the comic strip Rare first edition, first impression, of the book widely regarded as the prototype of the children's comic. The first printing was 4,000 copies, but the nature of the book and the juvenile readership led to a very high attrition rate. This is a remarkably well-preserved copy. After Struwwelpeter, Max und Moritz is the best-known German children's book. Busch's style, his lively line drawings captioned with rhyming couplets, is generally recognized as the precursor of modern comic strips, particularly influential on German émigrés to America like Rudolph Dirks, whose Katzenjammer Kids is a close imitation of Max und Moritz. Busch pioneered several elements which have become staples of the medium, such as onomatopoeia and expressive movement lines. This copy has the key error "geschroben" for "geschroten" on leaf 52 and Vanselow's other points: leaf 17 with a full stop after the last word; line 1, leaf 31, slightly indented; leaf… Read More

New York: E.P. Dutton and Company, Inc.,, 1954. A fine presentation copy First US edition, first printing, presentation copy inscribed twice on the frontispiece recto "To Mr. Edwards with my very best wishes, from H. Harrer [two lines of Tibetan script] Washington, Oct. 1954" and "March 1955. In the meantime I have the pleasure and privilige [sic] to call above 'Mr.' my friend 'Toppy' Heinrich". This is a great association copy in the supplied Book Club dust jacket, issued in the same year. The recipient, Walter Meayers "Toppy" Edwards (1908-1994), was a British-born picture editor, photographer, and writer for the National Geographic Society, who won the National Press Photographers Picture of the Year Award in 1969 and 1972. Edwards was a member of the Explorer's Club in New York City. He was author and photographer for seven National Geographic magazine articles and was the photographer for 11 others, on subjects that included Micronesia, Canada, and a canoe trip down the Potomac River. During… Read More

London: Chapman and Hall,, 1865. An exceptionally fresh copy First edition, an exceptionally nice copy in the publisher's cloth, bound mostly from the original parts with the stab holes visible, with the bookplates of the prominent collector Viscount Esher, sold in his sale at Sotheby's in 1946 (lot 532). Dickens's last completed novel, "Our Mutual Friend had a mixed reception (the young Henry James's harshly dismissive review in The Nation is notorious) but its stock has risen dramatically in recent years and it is now generally regarded as one of his very greatest works" (ODNB). 2 volumes, octavo. Original purple cloth, Virtue binder's ticket to rear pastedown, spines lettered in gilt, covers panelled in blind, light yellow endpapers. Housed in custom brown cloth solander boxes by Riviere & Son. With 40 wood engravings including frontispieces; 4pp. publisher's catalogue at rear dated November 1865 in vol. II (not essential in either volume). With the slip preceding p. 1, as Eckel calls for,… Read More

New York: The Viking Press,, 1939. Presentation copy, connecting Steinbeck and Hemingway First edition, first impression, presentation copy, inscribed by the author "For Vincent Sheean, John Steinbeck" and additionally inscribed by the recipient, "Although it is signed to me, Mr Steinbeck intended this book to go for the Spanish intellectuals in exile - Vincent Sheean". Vincent Sheean (1899-1975), the American journalist and writer, published Personal History in 1935. A film adaptation, entitled Foreign Correspondent and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, was released in 1940. Working as a reporter for the New York Herald Tribune he covered the Spanish Civil War, hence his note about "Spanish intellectuals in exile". Sheean had been in Spain with Ernest Hemingway in 1938 and was responsible for the only known meeting between Steinbeck and Hemingway. Writing in John Steinbeck and his Contemporaries, Valerie Hemingway notes that Steinbeck had been "a thorn in Hemingway's side". Nevertheless, Hemingway… Read More

20 September 1864. Dickens as editor and literary critic Autograph letter signed from Dickens to one of his regular authors, accepting a story for publication in his periodical All the Year Round, and praising her literary skill. Dickens writes to Julia Cecilia Collinson Stretton (1812-1878) that "I am very happy to accept your story", discussing his preference to include it in the Christmas number, though he is not yet sure of its contents aside from that part of it written by himself. For its inclusion he will give it "a little condensation and slight touching". Dickens adds "a word of small praise" for the story and commends the skill of the author. The recipient published two stories in the Christmas number of All The Year Round, 'His Portmanteau' and 'Hat-Box', and published a number of triple-decker novels with Hurst and Blackett between 1855 and 1869. Other letters to the same recipient are known, discussing serializing her stories in the same journal. Bifolium (178 x 111 mm). Autograph… Read More

London: Printed for F[rancis] Smith,, [c.1679]. The only known copy The only known copy of this early Bunyan edition, not listed in Frank Mott Harrison's Bunyan's bibliography, by ESTC, in WorldCat, on LibraryHub, or commercially on Rare Book Hub and ABPC. It is almost without doubt a lifetime edition, preceding Bunyan's death in 1688. That this edition is preserved in this copy, collating complete, in its original sheep binding, without restoration, is extraordinarily desirable. John Bunyan's numerous works were a real popular phenomenon, his many titles undergoing many editions in the 17th century. Small and read to death, it is not uncommon for no copies to survive from some editions - there are clear gaps in the bibliographic record, probably in part due to publishers skipping editions rather than noting the correct sequence, but also due to the complete absence of any survivors from an edition. Various editions are represented in but one or two known surviving copies. Grace Abounding was first… Read More

London: Bradbury and Evans,, 1848. In the primary cloth First edition, bound from the original parts, in the publisher's primary cloth binding. The novel is "now recognized as one of the greatest of all his works... It is also the first one to have an explicitly contemporary setting" (ODNB). Following issue in parts from September 1846 to March 1848, Bradbury and Evans issued the novel in book form in the present cloth. In the 19th number of the part issue, a slip advertised the novel, ready for delivery on 12 April, at £1 1s. in cloth, or £1 4s. 6d in half morocco. The slip goes on to note "Subscribers desirous of having their copies bound in a similar style can have them done by Messrs. Chapman & Hall, 186, Strand, or through their Booksellers, at the following prices:– Whole bound, morocco gilt edges 6s. 6d. Half bound, marble leaves, 4[s.] 6[d]. In cloth, lettered 1[s.] 6[d]". This copy represents an owner of the parts making use of these binding services, with the characteristic stab-holes in… Read More

London: Chapman and Hall,, 1837. In a particularly attractive binding First edition, bound from the parts, in a particularly attractive contemporary binding, extra-illustrated with four of Onwhyn's plates, a choice example of a contemporary reader investing in the finest dress for their copy of Dickens's extraordinarily successful debut novel. Pickwick Papers transformed Dickens from an obscure journalist into England's most famous writer in a matter of months. To capitalize on the novel's success, Thomas Onwhyn published a suite of plates in the same year, allowing enthusiasts to extra-illustrate their copies, as here. The plates are signed under the pseudonym "Sam Weller", after the popular Pickwickian. Octavo (207 x 128 mm). Contemporary purple pebble-grain morocco, skilfully rebacked with original spine laid down, spine lettered in gilt within ornamental floral cartouche, covers with elaborate gilt centrepieces, within triple blind rules, blind serrated cover edges, yellow endpapers, gilt edges.… Read More

Boston: Little, Brown and Company,, 1951. The reclusive author makes a rare presentation to the teenage son of his childhood friend First edition, first printing, extremely rare presentation copy, inscribed by the author to the teenage son of his childhood friend Ada on the front free endpaper: "To Charles Kirtz with every good wish from J. D. Salinger (extra greetings to Ada and Victor from Sonny Salinger) New York 10/18/56". This is an exceptional rarity: signed or inscribed copies by the reclusive author are legendarily rare. The informal sign-off, "Sonny", was the nickname given to Salinger by his parents when he was born. Salinger, who grew up alongside Ada and her brother Victor in the same New York apartment house, presented Ada's sons, Charles (then around the same age as Holden Caulfield) and William, each with an inscribed first edition. He passed on the copies to the boys via Ada's mother, Ann, whose bookplate is on the front pastedown. An inscribed copy of Catcher in the Rye is perhaps… Read More

London: Chapman and Hall,, 1861. Original cloth, with all the points of first issue First edition, first impression, published on 6 July 1861; both the rarest and most valuable of Dickens's works, and, arguably, his greatest. Copies in the original cloth are particularly desirable. Five impressions of the first edition were printed, each of the latter four with a new edition statement on the title page. The modern bibliographical authority is the table given in Appendix D to the Clarendon edition, 1993, in which Margaret Cardwell agrees with the traditional conclusion that the same setting of type was used for all five impressions: "there is no warrant for treating the five impressions as distinct editions" (p. 491). However, she deduces the impressions were sequential and that minor corrections and gradual deterioration of type can be shown across the five impressions, allowing the first impression to be identified even when the title page is tampered with or absent. Patten states that 1,000 copies… Read More

Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black,, 1852-60. Nine-tenths of its contents may be said to be absolutely new A handsomely bound set of the scarce eighth edition, containing revisions that were "more thorough than had ever been attempted in any previous edition... It has received so great an accession of original contributions, that nine-tenths of its contents may be said to be absolutely new" (vol. I, pp. xviii-xix). The first edition was published in 1768. 22 volumes, quarto (279 x 216 mm). Contemporary green morocco, spines lettered and richly floral-tooled in gilt, twin gilt fillets and floral roll bordering covers, board edges ruled in gilt, turn-ins richly gilt, marbled endpapers and edges. With 405 engraved plates, of which numerous double-paged and a few folding, and prolific woodcuts in the text. Bound with half-titles. Vol. XXI lacking pp. 89-96. Ownership signature of one Elizabeth Foster Staniforth on first blank of vol. I. Couple of volumes with marks to covers, light rubbing and wear to… Read More

London: The Nonesuch Press,, 1937-39. With an original plate First Nonesuch edition, number 37 of 877 sets with an original plate, a desirable set with the variously coloured cloth bindings in uniformly fresh condition. The peculiar limitation is due to the inclusion, enclosed in the 24th volume of each set, of one of the original plates used by Chapman and Hall, Dickens's original publishers, in their first printings of each title. Since they held in their archive 877 such plates - the majority steel but with a number of wood blocks - the limitation was set at this number. The present set includes the steel plate entitled "Free and Easy" by George Cruikshank, which originally appeared in Sketches by Boz. Also included is a proof pull and a letter of authentication from Chapman and Hall signed by Deputy Chairman Arthur Waugh, and numbered 37. Even aside from the inclusion of this Dickensian relic, the edition has always been highly sought after by collectors, the largest project of the Nonesuch Press… Read More