Manuscript from Christian White Rare Books Ltd.

Florence: Unpublished, 1863. A comprehensive manuscript journal of an independent and adventurous English woman's Continental tour, including lengthy stays in Florence and Rome before continuing to Slovenia, Vienna and Prague. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Quarto format, full black roan, single blind ruling to boards. Boards with gentle edgewear. All edges marbled; cream endpapers, darkened by binder's glue, front inner hinge starting,… Read more about this item

Hampshire: Unpublished, 1850. Manuscript catalogue of a mid-nineteenth century private Hampshire library, featuring Cambridge University titles, Shakespeare in different editions and William Wilberforce. Octavo format, quarter bound calf over brown-marbled boards. Boards rubbed, losses to paper and calf, corners worn and rounded. Single gilt ruling and lettering to spine, spine sunned, 'Hants' struck through in black; all edges… Read more about this item

UK: Unpublished, 1940s onwards. A substantial archive - c600 items - of Henry Williamson's incoming letters and his replies in the form of notes, typescripts and annotated letters relating to his creative work in the 1950s and 1960s, in particular his extended sequence of novels about his experience in the First World War. Among the collection is a fan… Read more about this item

Tathwell, Lincolnshire: Unpublished, 1793. Most attractive and engaging Day Book kept between 1793 and 1817 by Christopher Byron of the village of Tathwell near Louth in Lincolnshire. Original vellum binding with title in ink to the upper cover; Britannia watermark to paper stock and the author's inscription to first leaf: 'Christ'r Byron Tathwell 1793' Every one of the… Read more about this item

London: Charles Wilson, 1839. Extensively illustrated Midshipman's log book of a return voyage from England to Madras with drawings of an albatross-shoot, whale-ships burning oil, a mirage at sea and a sequence of coastal views including St Helena and Tristan da Cunha. Folio-sized manuscript which has been copied by its author from the original document into a printed skeleton… Read more about this item

Mediterranean, 1814. Napoleonic War manuscript ship's log for a British warship in the Mediterranean that would be used shortly afterwards to transport convicts to New South Wales (1819) and Van Diemen's Land (1821) in Australia. The folio-sized ship's log comprises two disbound sections of a notebook of a junior British naval officer's training logbook from 1814. Manuscript title… Read more about this item

England?: N/A, 1800. Early manuscript copy - apparently English in origin - of a French novel of diabolic seduction that has inspired everyone from Jacques Lacan to Jonny Depp. Small quarto (16.5x20.5cm) bound in (likely) English full sheep, rubbed with some loss close to outer hinges but boards remain well attached. No decoration apart from a gilt roll to… Read more about this item

1823. Beautiful presentation volume by an infatuated Oxford undergraduate (shortly afterwards President of the Union) following his cousin's winter wedding at the British Ambassador's Residence in Paris. Small oblong volume with matching slipcase (13.5x11.5cm) The manuscript book has olive green printed paper overlay, the upper cover with a hand-coloured floral design; the backstrip is missing but the integrity of… Read more about this item

Glasgow, Cambridge & London: Various, 1927. Alexander Todd's personal archive including school prizes from Glasgow schooldays, his Nobel Prize lecture and dozens of retained copies of his papers and speeches. Alexander R Todd (1907-1997) was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the synthesis of nucleotides - the groundwork for Watson and Crick's elucidation of… Read more about this item

Chalfont St Peter: Unpublished, 1908. A volume of love poetry written by a young Liberal politician who had fallen head over heels with the glamorous, newly single opera singer, renowned for her performances in Gilbert and Sullivan operas. A note laid into the volume reveals that it featured on BBC Antiques Road Show in February 2007. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Beautiful,… Read more about this item

Cornwall, England: Unpublished, 1686. A remarkable manuscript (c200,000 words) that begins in London just before the 1688 Revolution and charts its author's return to his Cornish village where he pleads for the right to remain in communion with both 'Episcopal and Presbiterial' congregations. Over 300 pages the manuscript plots Rowse's efforts to assuage both conscience and Cornish neighbours. Shot… Read more about this item

France: Unpublished, 1664. Rededicated - and perhaps presented - to King Charles II by the author's nephew, a manuscript meditation on Psalm 101, unpublished in this form and written as an antidote against the plague. Small quarto (horizontal chainlines & foolscap watermark) bound in contemporary calf with raised bands to the spine and gilt decoration. Three blank endpapers precede… Read more about this item

Coventry: Unpublished, 1942. Second World War Midlands-based study of the history of gas in warfare and the best ways to counter and deal with its renewed use over Britain. Small notebook (10x16cm) bound in grey cloth covered card, contained within an anonymous black folder. Author's signature on the front pastedown: 'A F Wilson 8 Stychedale Ave, Coventry'. Opposite an… Read more about this item

England, 1701. Manuscript translation by an English lawyer determined to inject his enthusiasm for Lucretius into this work by a 17th century Swiss natural philosopher - completing his English makeover with marginal references to Milton's Paradise Lost. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Quarto in modern half tan calf over marbled boards; an eighteenth century presentation inscription from the actor/ playwright George… Read more about this item

Kent: Unpublished Manuscript, 1829. Mock epic narrative poem describing an ill-fated journey by boat, stage-coach and on foot from Sheerness to a concert in Chatham and the 'inconsideration' that blighted their return journey. Thin, maroon-coloured roan covered wrappers, rubbing to spine and corners; white tape reinforcement along gutter to verso of wrapper. 18 pages of text, 21 lines per… Read more about this item

London: G Bell & Sons, 1971. Autograph manuscript, typescript, corrected proofs and supportive letters from Sir John Betjeman to the author of this memoir of Papa Stour who met her during a visit to the island and helped see the book through to publication. Stella Shepherd and her husband Dennis who illustrated her book moved to Papa Stour in… Read more about this item

England: Unpublished, 1980. Substantial bound manuscript by the poet David Gascoyne (1916-2001) together with an archive of photographs, letters from Gascoyne and his wife Judy Gascoyne and from Alan Clodd of the Enitharmon Press and many others. This collection which dates from David Gascoyne's later years was acquired by his friend the society photographer Pamela Chandler (1928-1993) who seems… Read more about this item

1960. Remarkable collection of Tibetan Sherpa art collected, and possibly commissioned, by a member of Sir Edward Hillary's 'Silver Hut' expedition to Mount Makulu in the Himalayas, including an image of the mountaineers scaling the peak. This collection is introduced by its owner, an unidentified member of Hillary's 1960 expedition (possibly George Lowe), in a two page pencilled text… Read more about this item

Los Angeles & London: Unpublished, 1986. Remarkably extensive Eliott Kastner archive of the production of Pierce Brosnan's first leading role in which he played a French anthropologist in New York who discovers a group of urban nomads who are not who they seem. The pile of documents sits 10 inches thick and comprises, in brief: Production - Central Files… Read more about this item

France [country of origin] Ireland: Unpublished, 1772. A document of the Irish diaspora: a physics manuscript, with strong Newtonian content, written by an Irishman obliged to attend university - the Irish College - in France in the 1770s. Bound in dyed Irish green vellum with the remnants of an inscription in black ink to the upper cover and an… Read more about this item