Rare books from SOPHIE SCHNEIDEMAN RARE BOOKS

Oil on canvas. In the original frame with a nineteenth century label on the back inscribed 'E. Calvert Bought of the Artist 1872.8 3/8 x 15 5/8 inches (21.5 x 39.8 cms). c. 1872.||Provenance: Phillips Auction House 1999Fine Art Society, exhibited 2012|

London: Methuen, 1931. First Shepard edition. 111/200 COPIES printed on Large Paper and signed by the author and artist, line-drawings throughout, including a folding-map at the end by E.H. Shepard, Pp. [viii], 312, 4to., original quarter mid green buckram, printed label (a spare label tipped-in at the end), pale grey boards, bookplate, owner’s name on lower outer corner of the front pastedown, untrimmed, with the very bright original dustjacket, with a tiny closed and repaired tear to top of spine edge. Booklabel and ownership inscription (dated 21/6/1963 of Alex Bridge.||The book was originally published in 1908 but this was the first edition with illustrations that Kenneth Grahame approved and the only edition he signed. It is also the way most people remember the book.| One of 200 copies signed by the author and illustrator

Garden City: Doubleday, 1930. First Edition. Twenty-four volumes. Original publisher’s cloth and paper-covered boards with paper spine labels. One of 750 numbered copies, signed by Doyle. A near fine set in very good original dust jackets, some of which have a little staining, chipping and the usual signs of slight wear.||The complete works of Conan Doyle including the four novels and over 50 Sherlock Holmes short stories. It also includes all his other plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction and historical novels.| Signed by Conan Doyle in the last year of his life

London: printed by Henry Baldwin for Charles Dilly, 1791. First edition, first state, with ‘gve’ on p.135 of the first volume; Mm4 and Nn1 in Volume I and E3, Qq3, and Eee2 in Volume II are cancels. 4to (203 x 295 mm; untrimmed), engraved portrait of Johnson by James Heath after Sir Joshua Reynolds (browned), 2 engraved plates of facsimiles by H. Shepherd. An extraordinary copy in contemporary half calf and the original publisher’s boards and with the edges of the paper all uncut to the extent that it is an exceptional tall copy, almost a large paper copy, morocco spine labels. Hinges cracked, scattered foxing, a few trifling stains, boards somewhat worn and fragile, preserved in a brown cloth chemise and half morocco slipcase. Booklabels of W. Strong (1p. ALS from J. Parsons to him laid in) and ink signature of J. Robinson in Volume I. Accompanied by The London Chronicle, No. 5414, for May 5, 1791, which prints an advertisement for the book.||W. Strong is addressed in the letter as Rev.d… Read More

Oxford: Printed at the University Press, 1935. Two volumes. One of 200 sets on large paper, without the limitation leaf, as usual. With half-titles. Typography and design by Bruce Rogers. Printed double column in Rogers’s Centaur type by John Johnson at the University Press on linen rag handmade paper. Pp. xxii, 576; [iv], 577-1215. Folio, in the original blood red cloth, spines lettered in gilt. Housed in morocco backed, gilt titled slipcases and chemises. Slight rubbing to extremities and some mild marking to boards, internally a very good, fresh copy.||Bruce Rogers’s magnum opus. "The Oxford Lectern Bible represents the full flowering of Bruce Rogers's genius as a designer of books. In the grandeur of its conception, in its classic severity without ornamentation, in the smooth flow of words across the page, and in the mastery of the subtle depth of impression of type on paper, the Oxford Bible takes its place among the noblest works done since the invention of movable type." - Blumenthal -… Read More

London: printed by T. Bensley for J. Taylor at the Architectural Library, High Holborn, 1816. First edition, complete with half title and list of plates with errata. Plates from drawings by Humphry Repton. 24 hand-coloured aquatint plates, (3 double-page), of which 10 have overslips; 5 tinted aquatint plates, of which 1 has an overslip; 13 uncoloured aquatint plates, of which 3 have overslips; 9 uncoloured aquatint vignettes, of which 2 have overslips; wood-engraved vignettes and figures in text.Pp. xii, 238, [2] (list of plates). Large 4to., contemporary drab boards, a very good untrimmed copy. Rebacked with an early hand-written spine label laid down, boards a little worn but strengthened at very edges and hence a robust, handsome copy in original untrimmed condition with large margins. Housed in a green morocco backed solander box, spine gilt.||Repton’s final treatise on landscape gardening which brings together all of Repton’s work into a book which could be understood by anyone intersted.… Read More

London: Printed by T. Bensley, for J. Taylor, at the Architectural Library, High Holborn, 1803. First edition. Stipple-engraved portrait frontispiece by W. Holl after a painting by Samuel Shelley. First edition. Stipple-engraved portrait frontispiece by W. Holl after a painting by Samuel Shelley. 13 original aquatint plates with overslips (9 hand-coloured, 1 folding), 4 hand-coloured aquatints and engravings, 22 uncoloured aquatints and engravings, other aquatints and engravings in text. Folio, contemporary drab boards, a very good untrimmed copy. Rebacked with an early hand-written spine label laid down, boards worn but strengthened at very edges and hence a robust, handsome copy in original untrimmed condition with large margins, a couple of leaves (K4 and N3) with very slight tears far from text and folding plate with very slight tears at folds not affecting image. Housed in a green morocco backed solander box, spine gilt.||Humphry Repton (1752-1818) was born in Suffolk and became head gardener… Read More

Ravenna: Pietro de Paoli e Gio. Battista Giovannelli, 1638. Second edition, being the first complete edition with both parts, the first part had been published on its own the year before. Woodcut arms of Cardinal Oorato Visconti, the dedicatee of the work on title page, 89 woodcut text diagrams and illustrations and woodcut historiated initials. [a1-6], A4 - V4{Q2 and Q3 have been bound in the wrong order}. 4to., bound in 19th century quarter leather with dark marbled boards and Gordon Craig’s monogrammed ownership label on the upper cover, and on the front pastedown, spine lettered in gilt with gilt rules. Spine rather rubbed, title page with a small paper restoration in blank margin and to woodcut, otherwise a good copy.||First complete edition of the first book exclusively devoted to stage design, stage architecture, machinery and special effects. The first part was first published the year before in 1637, the inaugural year of the Teatro di Sole in Pesaro, designed by Sabbattini. Sabbattini… Read More

[London: Privately Printed for the author by Manning Pike and H.J. Hodgson], 1926. Subscribers’ or ‘Cranwell’ edition being one of only 170 complete copies, inscribed ‘Complete copy 1.XII.26, TES’ by Lawrence in ink on p. xix, together with his ink correction of the artist for ‘The gad-fly’ plate from Roberts to ‘K’[ennington]. Frontispiece portrait of King Feysal, 66 plates (mostly colour) & text illustrations after Roberts, Eric Kennington, Paul Nash, Blair Hughes-Stanton, Nicholson and others, decorative initials by Edward Wadsworth, endpapers by Kennington, 4 linen backed folding maps. Here is included the ‘Prickly Pear’ plate not called for in the list of illustrations but, as usual, doesn’t have the Nash line drawings as called for in the list on pp.92 and 208. Printed in red and black. In this copy page xv is mispaginated as viii.4to., in a handsome contemporary full scarlet morocco binding with gilt fillets across each spine band reaching points on each side with… Read More

Adwick Hall, near Doncaster: printed for & sold by Miss Smith, [1817-1818].. Hand-coloured aquatint title page, 20 hand-coloured aquatint of flowers, each in two states - coloured and uncoloured for copying. Each image is preceded by a leaf of instructions to improve the Art of Colouring, 3pp. of subscribers at the rear. Folio, good ample margined copy in full contemporary straight grain rich purple/brown morocco, sides with blind-tooled roll borders, triple gilt fillets and a central lozenge stamped in blind with a floriate cornered gilt border, spine in compartments with raised bands, each panel elaborately blind tooled with gilt borders, titled in gilt in second panel, turn-ins with triple gilt fillets, all edges gilt. Joints and edges slightly rubbed, Dahlia plate with some staining which goes through to the very edges of the remaining two plates (not affecting images). Without the errata slip. Early 19th century bookseller’s label of Smith, Elder & Co and a later one of George Gregory of… Read More

London: Chapman and Hall, 1897. Frontispiece, 12 plates on glazed paper, one full-page illustration, historiated initials and tailpieces all by Herbert Granville Fell. Pp. 26, [1]. 22 x 25.8 cms, bound by Cedric Chivers of Bath (signed on lower turn-in) c.1898 to a design by Herbert Granville Fell, being transparent vellum over blue/grey painted paper boards, upper board with a pair of pink-winged angels clad in purple gowns with halos of mother of pearl and with a stippled corona, holding a banner with the book’s title, between and above the angels is a stylised rose tree with pink flowers, entwined stems and foliage, several small gilt tools, the lower board with a double heart-shaped lozenge round a pink rose and two sprays of lily of the valley, spine titled with green leaves and gilt dots, turn-ins ruled in gilt, marbled endpapers, yapp edges, top edge gilt. Housed in a blue cloth chemise and quarter blue morocco slipcase tieh raised bands and gilt titling. A superb binding.||Inscription on… Read More

Paris: Jeanne Bucher, 1934. Complete set of the first edition of all 5 cahiers, all with the original wrappers bound in and each no. 502 of 800 copies printed on Navarre. 128 fantastical collages by Max Ernst. 22 x 27 cms. superbly bound by Daniel-Henri Mercher (signed on the front turn-in) in quarter black morocco each side with a replication of one of Ernst’s collages with bands of purple, green, red, blue and yellow colour overlaid with cut out metallic marbled paper beneath clear Lucite, the cut outs reveal the stylised letters ‘DLMMJVS’ (in reverse on the lower cover) standing for the days of the week in French, spine delicately lettered in purple, green, red, blue and yellow, wood-veneer endpapers, tope edge black, others untrimmed; all the immaculate original wrappers bound in plus the woodcut printed on green paper which was originally issued on the outside of the publisher’s slipcase. Superb copy, housed in the black morocco and wood-veneer chemise and slipcase with the same colour… Read More

Waltham St Lawrence: Golden Cockerel Press, 1931. Illustrated with 65 wood engravings and initial letters by Eric Gill. Printed in Gill's Golden Cockerel type face. One of 482 copies on paper of a total edition of 500 (this no.405). Folio, original half white pigskin by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, maize buckram sides, top edge gilt, others uncut. The cloth sides have some spotting but are unusually clean and bright and all the pages and endpapers are crisp and fresh. Housed in the original card slipcase which has some browning and repair.||Lavishly illustrated throughout by Eric Gill and using his perfect typography, the Golden Cockerel Press Four Gospels is one of the triumphs of twentieth century book production and one of the greatest of Britain’s private press productions, alongside the Doves Bible, the Kelmscott Chaucer and the Ashendene Dante.|Chanticleer: Bibliography of the Golden Cockerel, 78 “A flower among the best products of English romantic genius” - a good, bright copy

Weimar: Printed at the Cranach Press by Henry Kessler., 1928-9. Wood engravings by Edward Gordon Craig, and wood-engraved lettering by Eric Gill, typeface designed by Edward Johnston, after that used by Fust & Schoeffer in their Mainz Psalter of 1457. The hemp and linen fibre paper was made by Maillol. No.115 of only 230 copies of the German edition. Folio, original vellum backed, salmon pink paper covered boards with lettering in red on spine and upper cover. Housed in the original card slipcase. A superb copy with only a little browning pp.14-18.||Intended by Count Kessler as the crowning glory of his private Cranach Press, Hamlet was 17 years in gestation from when he had seen Gordon Craig’s black figures for his Moscow Hamlet and decided that spectacular woodcuts could be printed from them. The result is one of the most important and spectacular works of the private press movement.|Brinks, The Book as a Work of Art, The Cranach Press, p.412. A superb copy of the German edition

[France], 1934. Oblong folio (380 × 575 mm), 53 leaves (which include a calligraphic title-page, 13 leaves of illustrations and 39 calligraphic text leaves), with a total of 20 original watercolour and gouache illustrations (6 full page, c. 230 × 400 mm and 14 smaller, c. 230 × 180 mm), 2 of the text leaves with calligraphic borders, various ornaments including illuminated initials and calligraphic tailpieces. Occasional browning/offsetting but generally very clean. All mounted on original guards in a contemporary full vellum binding. ||A spectacular and unique interpretation of Baudelaire by Neville Lytton including twenty original watercolours with illuminated borders.  Each of Lytton’s images is in the visionary tradition ― most have an otherworldly quality, and some border on Surrealism.The twenty poems comprise: Le Calumet de la Paix - Bohémiens en voyage - La Géante - Le Cygne - La Beauté - L’Idéal - La Vie antérieure - Sisina - Un Voyage à Cythère - XVIII - A une Passante… Read More