Hans Andersen Fairy Tales Arthur Rackham, Martin Amis Rachel Papers First Edition, Sadi Book Love, Comic English Grammar, Virginia Sterrett Arabian Nights.

A' Beckett Gilbert A. The Comic History of Rome.
Published: London. Bradbury, Agnew & Co., n.d. {c 1860}
Binding:blue cloth over marbled boards.
Price: U.S.$160

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Large 8vo., bound in quarter blue cloth over marbled boards, gilt lettered spine, corners and edges rubbed and a small tear to head of cloth spine, upper cover with gilt embossed center figure of mother and child, title in red and black, pp.xviii + 418, illustrated by John Leech with 10 hand-coloured steel engraved plates plus decorated initials and numerous text illustrations, some spotting to first and last few pages and covers slightly soiled, a good copy.

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A' Beckett Gilbert A. The Comic English Grammar; a new and facetious introduction to the English tongue. Embellished with upwards of fifty characteristic illustrations by J. Leech.
Published: London. Richard Bentley. 1840
Binding: Full polished tan calf
Price: U.S.$175

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8vo., First Edition, Bound by Riviere & Sons in full polished tan calf, double gilt ruled, spine elaborately gilt tooled in comartments, top edge gilt, dark blue endpapers, half title, pp. xii + 228, illustrated by John Leech with an engraved frontispiece plate & numerous illustrations in text, original binding bound in at rear, contents generally clean, a very good copy.

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Adams, William Henry Davenport. The Eastern Archipelago. A description of the scenery, animal and vegetable life, people, and physical wonders of the islands in the eastern seas.
Published: London: T. Nelson and Sons 1880
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Original green pictorial cloth
Price: U.S.$180

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8vo., First Edition, original green cloth ruled in black with gilt and black lettering, central gilt tooled figure, bevelled edges, spine gilt tooled and lettered, binding rubbed at corners and edges, pp. 576, dark brown endpapers, illustrated with 60 full page plates including a frontispiece plate, plus a map, very light random spotting, one gathering a trifle loose, a good + copy.

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Addison, Joseph, Sir Richard Steele & Eustace Budgell. Sir Roger de Coverly.
Published: London. 1967.
Binding: brown buckram backed marbled boards.
Price: U.S.$105

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Edited by John Hampden with wood engravings by Richard Shirley Smith. The Folio Society, London. 1967. 8vo., brown buckram backed marbled boards, gilt spine, top edge green. green endpapers, pp. 158, a mint copy in slipcase.

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Aesop's Fables. A New Translation by V. S. Vernon Jones with an introduction by C. K. Chesterton and illustrated by Arthur Rackham
Published: London: William Heinemann 1912
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Original black lettered green cloth with central mounted colour plate.
Price: U.S.$325 Sold

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Small 4to., First Edition, original black lettered green cloth with a central mounted colour plate, rubbed at corners & edges, fading to edges and spine, pp. xxix + 223, illustrated by Arthur Rackham with decorated endpapers, 13 tissue guarded full page colour plates, plus numerous black & white illustrations, mild foxing to endpapers and random light browning, previous owners name on front decorated endpapers, overall a good firm copy.

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Albee, Edward. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.
Published: London. Jonathan Cape. 1964.
Edition: First Edition.
Binding: Original pictorial yellow cloth.
Price: U.S.$160

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First Edition, 8vo., original yellow cloth, d/w with a small stain to tail of spine, top edge black, a very good copy.

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Allen, Clement Francis Romilly. The Book of Chinese Poetry being The Collection of Ballads, Sagas, Hyms, and other pieces known as The Shih Ching or Classic of Poetry.
Published: London Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd. 1891
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Original decorated blue cloth
Price: U.S.$195

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8vo., First Edition, original blue cloth lettered & decorated in red, gilt & red lettered spine, very minor wear to corners and edges, pp. xl + 528, fold crease to pp. xxxi, dark blue endpapers, previous owners bookplate on front paste-down, a very good copy with the binding clean and bright.

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8vo., First Edition of the authors first book, original gilt lettered black cloth in its un-clipped pictorial dust wrapper, some very minor chips to top edges of d/w, a few spots to edges otherwise a near fine copy.

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Amis, Martin. Success.
Published: Jonathan Cape London 1978.
Edition: First Edition.
Binding: Hardback with Dustjacket.
Price: U.S.$225

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8vo., First Edition, original black boards in a bright red price clipped pictorial dust wrapper, ownership inscription on front free endpaper, spine slightly dulled otherwise a fine copy.

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Andersen, Hans. Fairy Tales illustrated by Arthur Rackham
Published: London: George G. Harrap & Co., Ltd. 1932
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Original rare publisher's rich chocolate morocco binding.
Price: U.S.$1,350 Sold

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4to., First Edition, original rare publisher's rich chocolate morocco binding, double gilt ruled, tooled and lettered in gilt, spine gilt tooled & lettered, rubbed at corners and edges, top edge gilt, illustrated by Arthur Rackham with pictorial endpapers, illustrated half title & title, 12 full page colour plates with captioned tissue guards, other black & white full page plates, chapter vignette headpieces and numerous text illustrations, inscription dated 1940 on front blank endpaper, apart from slight rubbing to binding, A FINE COPY in the extremely rare publisher's morocco binding.

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Andersen, Johannes. The Lure of New Zealand Book Collecting.
Published: Whitcombe and Tombs Auckland 1936.
Edition: First Edition.
Binding: Original brown cloth.
Price: U.S.$95

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Arabian Nights. Arabian Nights edited by Hildegarde Hawthorne & illustrated by Virginia Sterrett
Published: The Penn Publishing Company Philadelphia. 1928
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Original gilt lettered black cloth with a large mounted colour plate.
Price: U.S.$475

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4to., First Edition, original gilt lettered black cloth with large mounted colour plate, binding rubbed and worn, with splits and fraying to joints, spine faded and discoloured, four inch tear to front decorated endpaper, re-enforced with tape, inscription dated 1929 on front blank endpaper, pp. 308, illustrated by Virginia Frances Sterrett with 16 full page colour plates each with a captioned tissue guard, 20 text illustrations plus chapter heading vignettes and border decorations, contents clean and very good.

Virginia Frances Sterrett
1900-1931

Virginia Frances Sterrett was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1900.  Her father died when she was very young and the family, consisting of her mother, herself, and a sister (Mary Sterrett), moved to Missouri to be closer to other relatives; later moving to Kansas.  Most of her childhood was spend in these two states.

She began to draw as soon as she could hold a pencil and, at the age of two (in 1902), she drew her first picture.  From this point on, most of her waking hours were spent either drawing or dreaming of far-away lands and tales.  Even when she entered grammar school at age of seven, she spent most of her time with pencils and crayons and cared very little for the companionship of other children.

Several years later, the family then traveled from Missouri to Topeka, Kansas, to visit her mother’s sister.  Virginia was encouraged by several friends to enter a few of her drawings in the Kansas State Fair Exhibition.  Even though she had never exhibited nor entered any of her artwork in a contest, she was awarded three first prizes and one second.  This was what she called “one of the encouraging events of my life.”

In the spring of 1915, the Sterrett family returned to Chicago where Virginia attended high school and intended to study art.  After high school, she did some work for the advertising department of a local department store and one of the store executives, impressed with her ability, introduced her at the Art Institute of Chicago.  The management of the school also was sufficiently impressed with her abilities that they admitted her as a student without charging tuition.  Unfortunately, her mother’s health began to fail a mere 14 months later, and Virginia was forced to leave the Institute in order to support the family.  Over the next three years she continued to work in various art advertising agencies in Chicago; but when her own health began to decline, she went to visit her mother’s sister, Mrs. James J. Harmon, in St. Louis in order to rest.  It was a fateful trip – while in St. Louis, she was diagnosed with tuberculosis.

In 1919 at the age of 19, she was given an opportunity to fulfill her lifelong dream.  She was commissioned by the Penn Publishing Company to illustrate Old French Fairy Tales by Comtesse de Segur.  She completed the pictures – pen and ink drawings and water colors – and received $500 for the work.  After receiving the illustrations, the publishers paid her another $250 for several line drawings for the inside of the front and back covers of the book.  Another illustration job followed in 1921 with Penn Publishing Company again commissioned her to illustrate an edition of Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne.  The favorite stories from Greek mythology gave Sterrett another opportunity to exercise her talent and love for the imagery of fantasy.  

In 1923, the family moved to southern California and settled in Altadena.  Soon afterward, Sterrett became active in the local art scene, but her physical condition had become so bad she had to enter a sanatorium.  She continued to work, but only for short periods at a time.  During this time, she was again commissioned by Penn Publishing Company to illustrate Arabian Nights.  Like the other two books she illustrated, Arabian Nights was a large book with large type, simple stories, and designed to be a gift book for children.  Sterrett provided 16 illustrations in color, 20 in black and white, a colored picture for the front cover and a drawing for the inside of the covers.  This masterpiece took her three years to complete due to her failing health and limited working hours.

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Arabian Nights. Stories from The Arabian Nights. Retold by Laurence Housman with drawings by Edmund Dulac
Published: Hodder and Stoughton Limited, for Boots Pure Drug Co., Ltd., Nottingham ( c. 1925 )
Edition: First "Boots" Edition
Binding: Original Gilt Tooled & Lettered Maroon Cloth.
Price: U.S.$345 Sold

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4to., First Boots Pure Drug Co. Edition, original gilt tooled & lettered maroon cloth, spine gilt, pp. 319, illustrated by Edmund Dulac with 20 full page colour plates plus chapter heading & tail pieces, light spotting to first and last few pages, contents clean, binding bright, a very good copy.

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Arnold, Sir Edwin. With Sa'di in The Garden, or The Book of Love. Being the " Ishk" or Third Chapter of the "Bostan" of the Persian Poet Sa'di. Embodied in a Dialogue held in the Garden of The Taj Mahal, at Agra.
Published: London: Trubner & Co. 1888
Edition: Second Edition
Binding: Pictorial Grey Cloth
Price: U.S.$145

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8vo., Second Edition, original silver and gilt decorated pictorial grey cloth, slightly rubbed, bevelled edges, gilt spine, faded in parts, patterned endpapers, pp. viii + 211 & 24pp. of Sir Edwin Arnold's works, name and address on half title, a few spots to fore-edge, a very good copy.

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Arnold, Edwin. Indian Poetry, containing a New Edition of " The Indian Song of Songs" from the Sanskrit of The Gota Govinda of Jayadeva; Two books from " The Iliad of India" (Mahabharata); " Proverbial Wisdom" from The Shlokas of The Hitopadesa, and Other Oriental Poems.
Published: London: Trubner & Co. 1881
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Gilt Tooled Tan Cloth
Price: U.S.$145

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8vo., First Edition, original gilt tooled tan cloth, slightly rubbed & marked, spine gilt and decorated, brown endpapers, pp. 16 publishers adverts, + viii + 270 & 4pp. of author's adverts, armorial bookplate on paste-down, a very good copy.

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Aung, Muang Htin. Burmese Monk's Tales
Published: Columbia University Press. New York and London. 1966
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Original pictorial brown cloth with dust jacket.
Price: U.S.$145

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8vo., original brown cloth pictorially decorated in green in its price-clipped pictorial dust jacket, pp. x + 181, vignette title page, minor wear to corners and edges of jacket, a very good copy.

A collection of fifty-nine tales by a famous and learned Burmese monk, the Thin-gaza Hsaya-daw (1815-86), and of twelve tales by other Burmese Monks, translated and introduced by Htin Aung. It combines exotic backgrounds and homely details thus offering the Western reader both a picture of Burma in the nineteenth century and an understanding of the basic good sense, gaiety, and gentleness of the Burmese people and the Buddhist clergy.

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