A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare - 1914

New York: David McKay, 1919. A fine copy of the first edition in scarce dust wrapper with some soiling and wear. All of the first issue points except gilt titles on the cover. All other points match Nudelman A53. The pictorial pastedown on the front cover is most often found with scratches and other problems. This copy is exceptionally nice.

London : Hodder and Stoughton Limited edition signed by W Heath Robinson. Undated but 1909. Numbered 89 out of 500 in decorative vellum binding, with 30 tipped in colour plates as called for by Heath Robinson and numerous black and white illustrations. The binding is faded on the spine with some cracking at the top and base. It is slightly grubby on the boards with some fading. Ties are present but they could be replacement ones (golden yellow). Internally the text pages are untrimmed and unpaginated apart from the top edges which are gilt edged. Some of the black and white illustrations have offset slightly onto the preceding page and some of the pages have slight marking (sometimes it is not clear if this was part of the original paper). The tipped in plates are all paper guarded (each guard has the title of the plate and a little design) and are in excellent condition with beautiful colouring.

PARIS : A Quantin , 1882 A very good copy in contemporary half leather binding with raised bands to spine and marbled boards combining the first edition of L'Eventail published in 1882 with the first edition of L'Ombrelle, Le Gant, Le Manchon, published in 1883. With 4 beautiful colour printed full page illustrations. Illustrated throughout by Paul Avril with numerous illustrations in tints and decorative borders. High quality paper with gilt to top edges and remaining edges untrimmed. The binding has some scuffing to the spine bands edges and corners but is otherwise in very good condition. With matching marbled endpapers. Contents in excellent condition. Very occasional spotting and some offsetting but looks largely unread.

London and New York : William Heinemann and Doubleday, Page & Co, 1929 A good copy in the original blue decorative cloth binding with 40 tipped-in colour plates and black and white illustrations and designs by Arthur Rackham. First published with Rackham illustrations in 1908, the work proved extremely popular and there were numerous reprints. The binding has nice bright boards. There is a very small mark on the front board. The spine is a little faded and marked. There is a little pulling to the spine and slight bumping to board corners. There is part of a wrapper for Midsummer Night's Dream loose inside the book but it looks slightly too small to have been the original wrapper for this book. There is a small ink inscription - Christmas 1935. To Peter with much love from Lorna' at the bottom of the fep. The text pages have some brown spotting - this is largely in the margins and is common with this work. The tissue-guarded plates are in very good condition - 2 have small creases in the… Read More

Newcastle: Emerson Charnely, and Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1820 A good copy of the large paper 1st edition in contemporary half leather binding. This edition was printed on thicker high quality paper. With frontispiece portrait of Thomas Bewick, 4 portraits of Bewick by different engravers, and numerous engravings to illustrate the Fables. Contents: frontispiece; title page with small ink signature to top dated 1824; advertisement; Memoir; Catalogue; portraits; table of contents; select fables - pp1-332. The binding has gilt-lined raised bands to the spine and marbled boards. Page edges lightly marbled. The binding has wear to corners and the top and bottom of the spine but is in very good clean condition. There are some faded areas to the foredge marbling. The original endpapers are present. The preliminaries and the frontispiece are very spotty, and the frontispiece has a small repaired section in the gutter. The final page has some marking and the final blank and verso to rep are also very spotty.… Read More

John Major, London.,1824. SECOND MAJOR EDITION. Illustrated with 14 copper engraved plates and several woodcuts throughout the text. Two small patches of browning affecting the top outer corner of ten leaves, otherwise a very good copy in fine nineteenth century binding by Thomson of Exeter, with binders ticket on front paste down. Full tan calf, raised bands, compartments fully gilt. Red title label, gilt. Boards with double blind ruled and one gilt ruled borders. Marbled endpapers. School prize plate on front paste down shows that this copy was given as a prize in January 1842. Previous owners name(dated 1881) and ink name stamp on blank endpapers. Front hinge neatly repaired. Some minor rubbing to edges but generally a very good copy in an attractive nineteenth century binding.:

London : Hodder and Stoughton Limited edition signed by W Heath Robinson. Undated but 1909. Numbered 89 out of 500 in decorative vellum binding, with 30 tipped in colour plates as called for by Heath Robinson and numerous black and white illustrations. The binding is faded on the spine with some cracking at the top and base. It is slightly grubby on the boards with some fading. Ties are present but they could be replacement ones (golden yellow). Internally the text pages are untrimmed and unpaginated apart from the top edges which are gilt edged. Some of the black and white illustrations have offset slightly onto the preceding page and some of the pages have slight marking (sometimes it is not clear if this was part of the original paper). The tipped in plates are all paper guarded (each guard has the title of the plate and a little design) and are in excellent condition with beautiful colouring.

PARIS : A Quantin , 1882 A very good copy in contemporary half leather binding with raised bands to spine and marbled boards combining the first edition of L'Eventail published in 1882 with the first edition of L'Ombrelle, Le Gant, Le Manchon, published in 1883. With 4 beautiful colour printed full page illustrations. Illustrated throughout by Paul Avril with numerous illustrations in tints and decorative borders. High quality paper with gilt to top edges and remaining edges untrimmed. The binding has some scuffing to the spine bands edges and corners but is otherwise in very good condition. With matching marbled endpapers. Contents in excellent condition. Very occasional spotting and some offsetting but looks largely unread.

London and New York : William Heinemann and Doubleday, Page & Co, 1929 A good copy in the original blue decorative cloth binding with 40 tipped-in colour plates and black and white illustrations and designs by Arthur Rackham. First published with Rackham illustrations in 1908, the work proved extremely popular and there were numerous reprints. The binding has nice bright boards. There is a very small mark on the front board. The spine is a little faded and marked. There is a little pulling to the spine and slight bumping to board corners. There is part of a wrapper for Midsummer Night's Dream loose inside the book but it looks slightly too small to have been the original wrapper for this book. There is a small ink inscription - Christmas 1935. To Peter with much love from Lorna' at the bottom of the fep. The text pages have some brown spotting - this is largely in the margins and is common with this work. The tissue-guarded plates are in very good condition - 2 have small creases in the… Read More

Newcastle: Emerson Charnely, and Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1820 A good copy of the large paper 1st edition in contemporary half leather binding. This edition was printed on thicker high quality paper. With frontispiece portrait of Thomas Bewick, 4 portraits of Bewick by different engravers, and numerous engravings to illustrate the Fables. Contents: frontispiece; title page with small ink signature to top dated 1824; advertisement; Memoir; Catalogue; portraits; table of contents; select fables - pp1-332. The binding has gilt-lined raised bands to the spine and marbled boards. Page edges lightly marbled. The binding has wear to corners and the top and bottom of the spine but is in very good clean condition. There are some faded areas to the foredge marbling. The original endpapers are present. The preliminaries and the frontispiece are very spotty, and the frontispiece has a small repaired section in the gutter. The final page has some marking and the final blank and verso to rep are also very spotty.… Read More