Clearwater Books

CARRY AKROYD. Found in the Fields (and other places…). Mascot Media Ltd., Norfolk 2017. First edition – this copy signed by the artist at the base of the title page. Landscape 4to. 176pp. Pictorial boards with decorated endpapers. Lavishly illustrated throughout with hundreds of Akroyd’s striking paintings, lithographs, linocuts and papercuts, at the core of which is her lithograph series ‘Found in the Fields’, sixteen images incorporating words from the poet John Clare, who remains a constant presence in her work. In fine state. No dust wrapper called for. £50

EDWARD ARDIZZONE. Baggage to the Enemy. John Murray, London 1941. First edition. Small crown 8vo. 121pp. With a frontispiece, a title page decoration, sixteen captioned plates and ninety line drawings in the text. Top edge spotted and lightly dust soiled, and with a strip of very minor partial spotting to free endpapers and a small area of staining to five or six leaf margins. A very crisp and bright copy in price-clipped dust wrapper, lightly edge worn with several tiny slivers of loss from the spine ends, and with some fading to the publisher’s pink spine panel colouring, and some further uneven fading to the upper and left-hand margins of the front panel. Alderson 14 who notes: “the book marks a significant stage in E.A.’s transition from the heavy pen sketches of his earlier books to the lighter, often very delicate vignettes which characterise much of his later work.” A typically witty and elegant account of the Battle of France and the subsequent retreat of the British Expeditionary Force through France and Belgium, events Ardizzone witnessed whilst serving as Official War Artist. Uncommon. £150

MICHAEL AYRTON. A Distraction of Wits Nurtured in Elizabethan Cambridge. An anthology selected and introduced by George Rylands, and with drawings by Michael Ayrton. Cambridge University Press 1958. First edition, of which 500 copies were produced as Christmas gifts for friends of the printer. 8vo. Unpaginated. Decorated paper-covered boards. With a title page decoration and eleven superb two-colour drawings by Ayrton. Edges and endpapers very lightly spotted, and with just a hint of wear to extremities. A virtually fine copy, no dust wrapper called for. £50

EDWARD BAWDEN. Dell Leigh. East Coasting. With a magnificent colour title-page design by Edward Bawden, plus eight colour headpiece drawings, several colour headpiece decorations and numerous black and white decorations (headpieces and tailpieces) also by Bawden. London and North Eastern Railway [1930]. First edition. Printed at the Curwen Press. Slim 8vo. 63pp. Stapled card wrappers, a little marked, handled and with some light corner creasing. Staples rusted. A short crease impacts the tips of the upper right corner of about half the leaves and a small area of staining affects the base of a single text leaf. A nice bright copy of an extremely uncommon item - a collection of essays on various aspects of the East Coast, published to attract tourists to the area, and beautifully illustrated by Bawden. £350

EDWARD BAWDEN. Decimus Magnus Ausonius. Patchwork Quilt. Poems by Decimus Magnus Ausonius, done into English by Jack Lindsay with decorations by Edward Bawden. Fanfrolico, London [1930]. First edition, limited to 400 numbered copies [this being #36]. A presentation copy, inscribed thus: “With best wishes to Allen Freer, Edward Bawden”. Tall 8vo. Unpaginated. Blue buckram lettered in gold at the spine with embossed diamond patterning to the upper and lower boards. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Bawden contributes a title page decoration, one full-page drawing and nine header pieces and decorations in the text. The backstrip a little faded, the corner tips very gently chafed and one of them knocked. Free endpapers very lightly browned. Very good indeed. No dust wrapper, almost certainly as issued. £500

Allen Freer, the recipient of Bawden’s inscription, was a noted collector of British twentieth century art, and a long-time friend and supporter of Bawden (he organised his 1986 exhibition at Manchester Cathedral). Freer’s extensive art collection, amassed over a period of sixty years, was auctioned at Christie’s in January 2020.

EDWARD BAWDEN. Denis Saurat. Death and the Dreamer. With drawings by Edward Bawden. John Westhouse (Publishers) Ltd., London 1946. First edition. 8vo. 150pp. Bawden contributes a frontispiece and ten full-page drawings. Just a touch of tanning to the slightly lesser quality wartime economy paperstock. Times Book Club inkstamp to the base of the rear endpaper. A very good copy in price-clipped dust wrapper reproducing in red one of the Bawden drawings, the wrapper tanned at the spine panel, rubbed with several tiny fractions of loss from the spine panel ends, lightly marked at the rear panel and creased at the upper edge. £75

EDWARD BAWDEN. Douglas Percy Bliss. Edward Bawden. A monograph by Douglas Percy Bliss with a full bibliography by Barry McKay. The Pendomer Press, Godalming [1979]. The deluxe issue of the first edition, designed by John and Griselda Lewis, and printed and bound by the Scolar Press on Glastonbury Book Antique Laid paper in an edition of 200 numbered copies (this being #190). This copy inscribed by the author on the half-title. 4to. 200pp. Quarter leather with patterned paper sides. Top edge gilt. Illustrated with scores of reproductions, many full-page and some in colour. A fine copy. No dust wrapper called for, but housed in the original slipcase which also houses a four-colour Bawden lithograph in a separate folding portfolio, signed, titled and numbered by the artist, and printed in an edition of 200 copies by the Curwen Studio. Folding prepublication prospectus laid-in. A superb copy of a delightful production. £500

CECIL BEATON. Time Exposure. With commentary and captions by Peter Quennell. B.T.Batsford Ltd., London 1946. The revised second edition, enhanced with considerably more photographs. Small 4to. viii, 136pp. Illustrated with over three hundred photographs grouped by Personalities, Beauties, Backgrounds, Travel, Ballet & Theatre, and The Last Year. Top edge spotted. Very good in the handsome Beaton-designed dust wrapper, a little rubbed and tanned, and chipped with several small areas of loss from the spine ends and several corner tips, and one further small area of enclosed loss from the spine panel. £35

PETER BLAKE. Paris Escapades. With an interview by Marco Livingstone and commentaries by the artist. Enitharmon Editions, London 2011. First edition – this copy signed by the artist on the title page. 4tp. 132pp.  With a frontispiece and twenty-eight collages. A fine copy in fine  dust wrapper. 1,500 copies were printed. £125

QUENTIN BLAKE. Words and Pictures. Chris Beetles Limited, London 2000. The special edition, printed for Chris Beetles Gallery and limited to 2000 numbered copies (this being #658) signed by the artist (on the title page) and the gallery owner (on the colophon leaf). 4to. 205pp. Lavishly illustrated throughout with colour and monochrome drawings. A fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper, lightly faded at the spine panel and with a little internal spotting. £125

FRANK BRANGWYN. William Edward Hayter Preston. Windmills. With text by Hayter Preston and illustrations by Frank Brangwyn. John Lane, The Bodley Head Ltd, London 1923. First edition. 4to. 126pp. Decorated cloth. With two-colour patterned endpapers, a title page decoration, fifteen splendid colour lithographic plates and thirty black and white drawings in the text. Backstrip ends lightly bruised and with just a touch of spotting to the free endpapers and to the half-title. Very good indeed in the uncommon dust wrapper, chipped at the upper edge with four or five quite small portions of loss (not impacting the lettering). Magnificent lithographs of windmills in Sweden, The Netherlands, Spain, Poland, Belgium, France, Cologne, Sussex, Kent, Barking, Ramsgate, Crowborough and Winchelsea. £125

FRANK BRANGWYN. The Book of Job. With illustrations by Frank Brangwyn. F.Lewis, Leigh-on-Sea 1948. First edition, limited to 110 copies printed on handmade paper. With thirty-three original etchings by Brangwyn, each of which is signed by the artist in pencil. Folio. Unpaginated. Three quarter vellum with paper-covered sides, gilt lettered at the spine and with the publisher’s motif gilt-stamped to the base of the upper board. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. A single tiny area of surface abrasion to the upper board and the tiniest trace of spotting to several preliminary and concluding leaves. A virtually fine copy. No dust wrapper called for, but housed in the original stiff card bevelled slipcase. Most uncommon. £1,000

HUGH CASSON AND JOHN BETJEMAN. Sketch Book. A Personal Choice of London Buildings, Drawn 1971-1974. With an introduction by John Betjeman. The Lion and Unicorn Press, London 1975. First edition, limited to just 100 numbered copies, signed by both Casson and Betjeman on the first leaf (this being #9). Designed by Nigel Paige and produced and printed at the Royal College of Art, London. 4to. Unpaginated. Card wrappers with a wire spiral binding at the upper edge (and thereby resembling an artist’s sketchbook). Twenty-five watercolour sketches, originally commissioned by The Illustrated London News, with drawing captions and both Betjeman’s two-page introduction and Casson’s brief preface reproduced in facsimile of the authors holograph. The lower edges lightly spotted, encroaching just a fraction to occasional leaf margins, and with just a hint of very faint soiling to the upper wrapper. Very good indeed. Gammond 75S12 / Peterson B137. £300

GRAHAM CLARKE. Graham Clarke’s Kent. Graham Clarke / Third Millennium Publishing, Surrey 2000. First edition – this copy inscribed by the author on the half-title and dated the year of publication. Landscape 4to. 127pp. Lavishly illustrated with nearly eighty delightful full-page watercolours in Clarke’s inimitable style, all created especially for this publication, plus numerous smaller reproductions. One corner of rear board bumped, else a fine copy in price-clipped dust wrapper, correspondingly rubbed at the tip of a single corner, else fine. £35

CECIL COLLINS. The Vision of the Fool. Anthony Kedros Ltd., Oxon 1981. The deluxe issue of this new edition, limited to 100 numbered copies, each signed by the artist (this being #7). 4to. 10pp + xxx plates (four of them in colour).  Red unlettered cloth. A fine copy in dust wrapper, very lightly chafed at extremities. Collins’ essay was originally published in 1947 and is accompanied here by a different selection of illustrations, a number of which are hitherto unprinted in bookform. £150

CECIL COLLINS. The Vision of the Fool and Other Writings. Edited with an introduction by Brian Keeble. Golgonooza Press, Ipswich 2002. The second, enlarged edition, expanded from the Golgonooza Press issue of 1994. A presentation copy, fondly inscribed by the editor: “To my friend Ken, lover and maker of good books – from Brian 11/10/2002”. Small 4to. 239pp. Illustrated with nearly fifty plates, half of them in colour, plus a number of reproductions and photographs in the text. A fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper. An extensive (apparently ‘definitive’) collection of Collins’ writings, accompanied by reproductions of his artworks. £50

MAX ERNST. A monograph issued upon the occasion of a 2006 exhibition of the artist’s work at The Helly Nahmad Gallery, London. First edition. 4to. 100pp. Decorated paper-covered boards. With thirty-eight colour reproductions of Ernst’s paintings and a brief memoir by his friend Werner Spies, all preceded by a selection of forty-eight culturally and historically relevant monochrome photographs and reproductions, some of the credited to Ernst. In fine state with the original unprinted acetate protector, partially defective. £35

ERTÉ. Eric Estorick. Erté. The Last Works. Graphics and Sculpture. With additional text by Ray Perman and David Rogath and photographs by Daniel Kramer. Dutton Studio Books, New York 1992. First edition. Folio. 207pp. Lavishly illustrated with 176 colour reproductions reproducing every print (71) and sculpture (105) created by Erté in his last few years of his life, nearly all hitherto unprinted. Felt-pen mark remainder mark to the bottom edge, else in fine state with dust wrapper, very lightly chafed and lifting at several extremities. Romain de Tirtoff, who worked under the pseudonym Erté (the French pronunciation of his initials), was a celebrated artist and designer who produced 250 covers for Harper’s Bazaar as well as fashion designs for some of the world’s most glamorous stars and costume & set designs for Hollywood and stage productions. £50

LUCIAN FREUD. On Paper. Jonathan Cape, London 2008. First edition. Large landscape 4to. 29pp + clxxxi plates. A fine copy in just fractionally soiled dust wrapper. A comprehensive  catalogue of Freud’s drawings and etchings, with an introduction by Sebastian Smee and an essay by Richard Calvocorssi focusing on Freud’s little-known book illustrations. £55

ROGER FRY. Transformations. Critical and Speculative Essays on Art. Chatto & Windus, London 1926. First edition. 230pp. Large 4to. Oatmeal cloth lettered in red at spine. Illustrated with thirty-six half-tone plates and several illustrations in the text. A near-invisible strip of partial browning to endpapers. A lovely bright copy in dust marked dust wrapper, with a little creasing to rear panel and several areas of loss. A series of essays focusing on the works of Van Gogh, Seurat, Frank Dobson, Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso, Bonnard, Duncan Grant, Gauguin, Rembrandt &c. £100

ROBERT GIBBINGS AND LLEWELYN POWYS. The Twelve Months. Designed and with wood engravings by Robert Gibbings. John Lane, The Bodley Head, London 1936. The deluxe issue of the first edition, limited to 100 numbered copies printed on handmade paper and signed by the author and artist (this being #42). Tall 8vo. 88pp. Green leather, gilt lettered at the spine and with gilt-stamped initials to the upper board. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Leather discoloured at the backstrip, as is invariably the case, and with some further discolouration to several margins of the upper and lower boards. Free endpapers and pastedowns lightly spotted. A very good copy, in excellent crisp state internally. No dust wrapper called-for, but lacking the slipcase. Twelve essays, one for each month of the year, all reproduced from the pages of the Daily Herald and beautifully enhanced with a frontispiece engraving, twelve delightful Gibbings chapter header engravings and twelve further tail pieces. £325

ERIC GILL. Douglas Pepler. The Devil’s Devices or Control Verses Service. With woodcuts by Eric Gill. The Hampshire House Workshops, London 1915. First edition of the second book illustrated by Gill. 8vo. 123pp + i publisher’s advertisement. Lettered canvas-backed paper-covered boards featuring a wood engraving by Gill. With a title page wood cut (Dumb Driven Cattle, reproduced on the upper board) and a further ten wood cut illustrations and devices. Tips of corners rubbed, boards lightly chafed and backstrip lightly tanned. Very good. 1,500 copies were printed. Evan Gill 259. £165

ERIC GILL. The Song of Songs. Called by Many the Canticle of Canticles. [Edited and with a preface by Father John O’Connor] and with wood-engravings by Eric Gill. Printed and published at The Golden Cockerel Press, Waltham St. Lawrence 1925. First edition, limited to 750 numbered copies printed on hand-made paper (this being #603). Small 4to. 42pp. Cream buckram lettered in gold at spine. Fore- and bottom edges untrimmed. With eighteen sensual wood engravings and vignettes by Eric Gill, his first major work for the Golden Cockerel Press, his earliest attempt to illustrate a biblical narrative. Cloth a little marked and soiled in places. Free endpapers browned, and with some occasional unsightly spotting to leaf margins, although no text or engravings are impacted. Quite a crisp and bright copy of this equally uncommon and handsome production. Lacking the fugitive dust wrapper. £750

GEORGE GROSZ. Pass Auf! Hier Kommt Grosz. Bilder, Rhythmen und Gasänge 1915-1918. [Be Careful! Here Comes Grosz. Pictures, Rhythms and Gas Lengths 1915-1918]. Edited by Wieland Herzfelde and Hans Marquardt, and with text by Else Lasker-Schüler, Wieland Herzfelde and Theodor Däubler. Philipp Reclam, Leipzig 1981. The deluxe issue of the first edition, limited to 250 numbered copies (this being #87) and supplied with a separate portfolio of letters, photographs and artwork, none of which was included with the trade issue. 8vo. 111pp. Black cloth lettered in gold at the spine and with a gilt-stamped decoration to the upper board. Title page printed in black, green and red. With thirty-one full-page reproductions, including four in colour. A fine copy. No dust wrapper called for, but housed in the original cloth-and-card slipcase within which is found a separate cloth portfolio containing reproductions of three illustrated holograph letters and two postcards from Grosz to Max Herrmann-Neisse (all hitherto unprinted), four photographs of George Grosz and Wieland Herzfelde, an original signed graphic by Arno Mohr and an original signed wood engraving by Werner Klemke. A super copy of this deluxe issue, published on the occasion of the eighty-fifth birthday of publisher, writer and avant-garde promoter Wieland Herzfelde. £125

JOAN HASSALL. Sir Thomas Mallory. Lancelot and Elaine. Being the Eighth to the Twentieth Chapters of the Eighteenth Book of Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur. With engravings by Joan Hassall. Printed by Rene Hague and Eric Gill, Pigotts, near High Wycombe, 1948. The first edition with these illustrations. Small 8vo. 68pp. Red leather with gilt lettering and a blind-stamped border to the upper board. With a title page decoration, printed in red, a half-title vignette and two full-page engravings (other copies appear to include a total of five engravings, but this one only includes four, although the two full-page plates are present, as required). The text printed in red and black, and following exactly that printed by William Caxton in 1845, with the misprints not corrected. A touch of wear to the extremities of the leather. Former owner name and date neatly inked in red to the front free endpaper. Very good indeed. Laid-in is an Eric Gill-designed bookplate, created in 1915 for Joseph Thorp’s Decoy Press. The colophon states that 200 copies were printed, but in fact the book was never published, Rene Hague being dissatisfied with the quality of the printing; however some sets of sheets were given away if they deemed satisfactory, in all perhaps twenty to twenty-five sets, none of which were bound at the press. £250

JOAN HASSALL. Dearest Joana. A Selection of Joan Hassall’s Lifetime Letters and Art. Edited by Brian North Lee and with an introduction by John Dreyfus. The Fleece Press, Denby Dale 2000. First edition, complete in two volumes. One of 240 sets (out of a total edition of 300). Royal 8vo. 300pp (over both volumes). Quarter-cloth with paper spine labels and marbled paper sides (differently coloured for each volume). Illustrated throughout with numerous examples of the artists’ work, mostly printed from the original blocks, plus a number of colour plates, tipped-in colour reproductions and period photographs. Reproduction of a Hassall-designed bookplate to the front pastedown of the first volume. A fine set in fine cloth slipcase. £325

GERTRUDE HERMES. The Wood-Engravings of Gertrude Hermes. Edited with an introduction by Jonathan Russell and with essays by Simon Brett and Bryan Robertson. Scolar Press, Aldershot 1993. First edition. Tall 4to. 132pp. A fine copy in fractionally rubbed, marked and toned dust wrapper. A three-page introduction precedes the essays The Nature of Gertrude Hermes and Gertrude Hermes: The Wood Engravings, followed by over 150 reproductions, predominantly full-page, plus a chronology, a selection of photographs, a list of exhibitions and a bibliography. Uncommon. £250

JESSIE M.KING. John Milton. Comus. A Masque. With illustrations by Jessie M.King. George Routledge, ‘Photogravure and Colour’ series, London 1906. First edition with these illustrations, comprising eight tissue-guarded photogravure plates and three half-tone illustrations. 77pp. Pictorial red and green cloth. Top edge gilt, fore edge rough trimmed. A little wear to cloth at head and base of spine. Endpapers lightly browned and with a little spotting to one preliminary leaf and to tissue and (mostly margins) of plates. A lovely crisp copy. £200

FERNAND LÉGER. Fernand Léger. Paris-New York. A monograph published in conjunction with the 2008 Fondation Beyeler exhibition. Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2008. The English-language issue of the first trade and first casebound edition. 4to. 207pp. Illustrated with over two hundred reproductions, the vast majority of them in colour. A hint of unevenness to the base of the boards, probably a production fault, else a fine copy in dust wrapper, fractionally rubbed at the head of the spine panel and a small area of the upper edge. A series of six lavishly illustrated essays, exploring all aspects of Léger’s life and work, with special attention to the period 1940-1945 where he lived in exile in New York. £35

CLARE LEIGHTON. The Farmer’s Year. A Calendar of English Husbandry. The Sumach Press, London 1992. A reissue of the original 1933 edition, with a new afterword by Patricia Jaffe. Landscape 4to. 56pp. With patterned endpapers, a title page decoration, twelve magnificent full-page engravings and six more smaller engravings as tailpieces. A fine copy in dust wrapper with a touch of minor discolouration to two margins of the front panel and several short edge-tears. £95

WYNDHAM LEWIS. Paul Edwards. Wyndham Lewis. Painter and Writer. Yale University Press, New Haven and London 2000. First edition. 4to. 583pp. Lavishly illustrated with colour and monochrome reproductions. A touch of very minor soiling to the top edge, else a fine copy in fine dust wrapper. Former owner gift inscription inked to the head of the half-title. The first comprehensive study of Wyndham Lewis’ art and literature; a mammoth tome. £50

MODERNISM. Herbert Read. Unit One. The Modern Movement in English Architecture, Painting and Sculpture. Edited with an introduction by Herbert Read. Cassell & Co. Ltd., London 1934. First edition. 4to. 124pp. Cloth lightly toned in places and with a hint of wear to one or two extremities. Free endpapers lightly toned. A very good copy in dust wrapper, lightly toned and chafed with an inch of loss from the head of the spine panel, and a sliver more from the base and from several corner tips. Chapters on Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, John Armstrong, John Bigge, Edward Burra (this chapter contributed by Douglas Cooper), Tristram Hillier, Paul Nash, Ben Nicholson, Edward Wadsworth, Wells Coates and Colin Lucas, and with sixty-seven monochrome portraits and reproductions. A very good copy of the pivotal book on the Modernist movement, most uncommon and even more so with the dust wrapper. Unit One was formed in 1933 and announced in a letter to The Times (reproduced here) by Paul Nash. Laid-in are two newspaper clippings of subsequent Nash letters to The Times, replying to their art critic’s response to his original announcement letter. £750

DAVID NASH. An extensive printed archive of the noted wood sculptor. Various publishers, various places 1973-2009. An archive of over 100 items, from the collection of the late Julian Andrews, a long-term supporter and enthusiast of the artist, Head of the Fine Arts Department of the British Council and the author of the primary reference source The Sculpture of David Nash. The collection comprises over forty (primarily solo) exhibition catalogues from shows all round the UK, Europe, the US, Japan, Korea and Australia, and includes the catalogues for his first three solo shows, each written and designed by Nash; various studies and monographs; circa forty exhibition handbills and private viewing invitation cards; plus several books by Nash himself and various ephemeral bits and pieces. Seven of the items bear the artist’s signature or inscription. A signed copy of Julian Andrews’ exhaustive reference work is also included. A fascinating and wide-ranging archive which would now be virtually impossible to reproduce. A full catalogue of the archive is available upon request. £1,200

JOHN NASH. Edmund Spenser. The Shepheardes Calender. Conteyning Twelve Æglogues Proportionable to the Twelve Monethes. The Cresset Press, London 1930. The first edition with these delightful Nash stencil-coloured illustrations, limited to 350 numbered copies on Barcham Green handmade paper (this being #68) and printed at The Sign of the Dolphin. 4to. 133pp. Vellum-backed cream linen. With a full-colour title page decoration and twelve coloured header-piece illustrations. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Backstrip darkened and the base of the spine a little rubbed. A very good copy, lacking the dust wrapper and slipcase. £200

PAUL NASH. Martin Armstrong. Saint Hercules and Other Stories. With drawings by Paul Nash. The Fleuron Ltd., London [1927]. First edition, limited to 310 numbered copies printed on Zanders’ hand-made paper at the Curwen Press (this being #243). 4to. 65pp. Patterned paper-covered buckram featuring a handsome Nash design, and illustrated with five drawings, hand-coloured through stencils by the artist (a process he later called a “triumph of the hand over machine”). Spine ends and corner tips rubbed and with a little wear to the upper and lower gutters, and also to the hinges, yet the binding still perfectly sound. A lovely crisp copy, lacking the unprinted tissue protector. Three stories. £275

PAUL NASH. Outline. An Autobiography and Other Writings. With a preface by Herbert Read. Faber, London 1949. First edition. A presentation copy, inscribed by Nash’s widow (the book’s dedicatee): “To Michael Wheeler Booth, from Margaret Nash, In friendship & with every good wish for New Year 1951, Oxon”. Wheeler-Booth’s handsome bookplate is pasted to the front pastedown. Tall 8vo. 271pp. Buckram. With a delightful colour frontispiece, one further colour and fifty-one monochrome plates. Edges spotted, with a touch more spotting to the free endpapers, and a sliver of discolouration to the buckram at the spine ends where the wrapper is defective. A very good copy in the John Nash-designed dust wrapper, a little tanned at the spine panel, with some light spotting to the front panel and a little more to the rear, and perhaps a centimetre of loss from the head of the spine and a touch more from the base. £195

PAUL NASH. The Wood-Engravings of Paul Nash. A catalogue of the wood engravings, pattern papers, etchings and an engraving on copper. Compiled by Jeremy Greenwood. The Wood Lea Press, Woodbridge 1997. First edition, one of 490 standard copies (from a total edition of 550). Large 4to. 141pp. Cloth-backed patterned paper-covered boards. An eleven-page introductory essay by Simon Brett precedes a brief biography followed by a lavishly illustrated 108-item catalogue, with an illustration accompanying each entry and including eleven tipped-in colour reproductions. A fine copy. No dust wrapper called for, but housed in the original cloth-covered slip case, also fine. Laid-in are two copies of the addendum sheet, issued three years later and detailing one further Nash engraving brought to the attention of the editor since the original publication (Bibliographical Notes on T.E.Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom and Revolt in the Desert by T.German-Reed with a title page decoration by Nash). Also laid-in are pre-publication prospectuses for three further Wood Lea Press titles: John Nash’s Cats, The Graphic Work of Edward Wadsworth and The Complete Wood-Engravings and Linocuts of Margaret Bruce Wells. A flawless example of a very handsome production. £250

JOHN O’CONNOR. Canals, Barges and People. With superb colour engravings by the author. Art & Technics Ltd., London 1950. First edition, of which 1,000 copies were printed. Tall 8vo. 95pp. Decorated paper-covered cloth. With a colour frontispiece, twenty-two captioned wood-engraved colour plates, one further coloured engraving and twenty-one wood engraved header and tail pieces and vignettes. A touch of light spotting to the endpapers, half-title and one or two preliminary and concluding leaves, and a small area of light miscellaneous staining to the corner of one text leaf. Very good indeed in handsome pictorial colour dust wrapper, a little dust marked and soiled with a touch of light edgewear, one short repaired tear and some internal reinforcement. Contemporary (1951) former owner name and date inked to the head of the front free endpaper. £125

EDUARDO PAOLOZZI. Sculptures from a Garden. The catalogue of a 1987 exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery. First edition – this copy signed by the artist beneath his photograph on the first leaf. 4to. 48pp. Card wrappers with French flaps. An introductory essay by Frank Whitford precedes over forty photographs of the artist and his sculptures. A touch of very light marking and dust soiling to wrappers. A very good copy. £50

MERVYN PEAKE. Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor. Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1945. The second edition of Peake’s first book (the vast bulk of the first edition, published by Country Life in 1939, was destroyed during the Blitz). 4to. Forty-seven unpaginated pages of text. Printed on alternating pink, blue, yellow and white sheets and copiously illustrated in colour by the author. A little damp marking to board edges and some resulting crinkling to head and base of preliminary and final leaves. Short tears to the base of five leaves. A very bright copy in very good internally reinforced pictorial dust wrapper, chafed with just a little loss to spine ends and with two or three minuscule edge tears. £125

JOHN PIPER. John Betjeman. English Scottish and Welsh Landscape 1700-c. 1860. Verse chosen by John Betjeman and Geoffrey Taylor and illustrated with twelve splendid full page colour lithographs by Piper, prepared especially for this publication, plus another reproduced double-spread on the covers and replicated on the dust wrapper. Frederick Muller, London 1944. First edition – this copy inscribed by John Piper on the front free endpaper: “For Auntie Lena, with much love from John & Myfanwy, August 1944”. Printed at the Curwen Press. 8vo. 121pp. Decorated cloth. Binding slightly cocked and with a moisture stain impacting the lower corner (only really noticeable on the endpapers and outer edges). A very bright copy in the handsome lithographic dust wrapper, lightly chafed at several natural folds and with a touch of wear to the spine ends and to the upper edge. A very respectable copy, handsomely enhanced by Piper’s contemporary familial inscription. £225

JOHN PIPER contributes a colour cover design and a monochrome title page vignette to Sir Thomas Browne’s The Last Chapter of Urne Buriall. Rampant Lions Press, Cambridge 1946. First edition thus. Limited to 175 copies (125 of which were for sale), edited by John Carter and printed on pale blue paper and bound by Will Carter. Sewn card wrappers with integral dust wrapper. Thirteen unpaginated pages of text. Wrappers just a little darkened and dust marked. Internally in fine state. Uncommon. £200

JOHN PIPER. Buildings and Prospects. The Architectural Press, London 1948. First edition. Small 4to. 146pp. With a magnificent double-spread title-page lithograph by Piper, and profusely illustrated with photographs, paintings and illustrations, many full page. Top edge and endpapers lightly spotted, and with one or two tiny blemishes to the cloth. A very good copy housed in the original double-spread dust wrapper reproducing the title page lithograph, nicked at the spine ends with just a little loss and with one short tear and an accompanying crease. A two-page foreword by the author precedes eleven essays (“intended to elucidate the pictures, not the other way about”), mostly revised from their original periodical appearances; two completely rewritten. £75

JOHN PIPER. Adrian Stokes. Venice. Designed and with illustrations by John Piper. Lion and Unicorn Press, London 1965. First edition, one of a deluxe issue of 400 numbered copies (this being #183). 4to. 67pp. Black cloth with a Piper design embossed to upper board. Piper contributes a double-spread title-page design and twenty-four illustrations including a number of full-page and double-spread presentations, many presented in two colours. Cloth at backstrip fractionally faded, else a virtually fine copy. No dust wrapper required. Former owner bookplate to front pastedown. £250

JOHN PIPER. Catalogue to an Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings, Prints and Illustrated books by John Piper. With an introduction and notes by Rigby Graham. Gadsby Gallery, Leicester 1973. First edition (of which 450 copies were printed). Tall 4to. 130pp. Turquoise card wrappers with French flaps, lettered in gold at the spine and upper wrapper. Lavishly illustrated with reproductions throughout, including several in colour. Just a touch of light wear to the wrapper extremities in one or two places. A virtually fine copy of this handsomely produced exhibition catalogue. £75

JOHN PIPER. John Piper’s Stowe. With a foreword by the artist and commentary by Mark Girouard. Hurtwood Press in association with The Tate Gallery, London 1983. First edition, number 21 of 300 numbered copies, each signed by John Piper. Elephant folio (50” x 40”). 47pp. Original publisher’s marbled cloth. Printed on 100% rag Fourdrinier paper especially made for the edition at the Rives-Fure Mill of Arjomari-Prioux in France. With fifty colour and duotone plates showcasing Piper’s paintings of Stowe in Buckinghamshire, plus a ‘visual index’ of thumbnail reproductions. The merest hint of wear to the base of the backstrip, else in fine state. No dust wrapper, as issued, although this copy lacking the slipcase. The first fifty copies – of which this is one – were issued with two additional signed prints, but these, alas, are no longer in situ. A quite magnificent book, produced under Rowley Atterbury’s Hurtwood Press imprint (Atterbury studied under Berthold Wolpe at Faber and went on to become a pioneer of colour printing and computer typesetting. This is one of a number of his projects which is now deemed to have set new standards in the field). Most uncommon. £1,250

ERIC RAVILIOUS. Martin Armstrong.. Desert. A Legend. With woodcuts by Eric Ravilious (his first bookform illustrations). Jonathan Cape, London 1926. First edition. 8vo. 252pp. With a frontispiece and thirty-three woodcut illustrations, vignettes and decorations by Ravilious including two plates. Top edge lightly spotted, with a touch of fading to the backstrip cloth, a tiny nick to the head of the lower gutter and a short indeterminate white mark to the upper board. Free endpapers browned, and with some offset browning to two blank preliminary leaves, presumably from where a sheet of paper was once stored. A very good copy. Lacking the dust wrapper. £125

ERIC RAVILIOUS. For Shop Use Only. Eric Ravilious Curwen & Dent Stock Blocks and Devices.  With contributions by John Lewis, Enid Marx and Robert Harling. Garton & Co, Wiltshire 1993.  First edition, limited to 425 numbered copies (this being #61), published to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Ravilious’ death. 8vo. 47pp. Cloth-backed paper boards featuring a repeated Ravilious design and with a paper spine label. With an original tipped-in wood engraving, and thirty-one Ravilious’ device designs, reproduced in actual size, and six more printed in red as header piece and a title page decoration. A sliver of discoloration to upper edge of front board, and upper- and fore edge of rear board, else a fine copy of a handsome production. No dust wrapper required. £95

JOSHUA REYNOLDS. Joshua Reynolds. The Creation of Celebrity. Edited by Martin Postle. Tate Publishing, London 2005. First edition, published on the occasion a of a major exhibition. 4to. 295pp. Card wrappers (there was no casebound issue). Lavishly illustrated throughout predominantly with full-page colour reproductions. A fine copy. £35

CERI RICHARDS. The Magic Horse. From the Arabian Nights. Translated by Edward W.Lane and with magnificent colour illustrations by Ceri Richards. Victor Gollancz Ltd., London 1930.  First edition, limited to 495 copies, just over half of which were reserved for the US market. 4to. 27pp. Buckram. With a colour title page decoration, five full-page colour plates and a colour chapter header and chapter footer illustration. Buckram lightly marked in places and with just a hint of wear to one or two extremities. The free endpapers very lightly toned and with a touch of light very occasional spotting which impacts only one of the plates, and that only ever so slightly. Previous price, 1/6, in indelible blue pen to the tip of the front free endpaper. A very good copy of a most uncommon item, scarce as magic horse droppings. £225

CERI RICHARDS. The catalogue of a 1960 retrospective exhibition at the White Chapel Art Gallery. With a lengthy introduction by David Thompson. First edition. Stapled stiff card wrappers. 21pp. With a colour frontispiece, one full-page colour plate, and a further twenty-four full-page monochrome reproductions. Very good. £10

CERI RICHARDS. Drawings to Poems by Dylan Thomas. With a ten-page introduction by Richard Burns. The Enitharmon Press, London 1980. The deluxe issue of the first edition, limited to 180 copies printed in Glastonbury Antique laid paper and bound in buckram with decorated paper sides (this being #6). 8vo. A fine copy in just fractionally marked decorated slip case. No dust wrapper called for. The numbered colophon is a laid-in slip. A reproduction of seventy pages of Ceri Richard's copy of Dylan Thomas' Collected Poems (1952) which has been embellished with forty hitherto unprinted drawings, all completed in a period of twenty-four hours in August 1953 after Richards heard news of the death of Dylan Thomas. “It is my belief that it presents new material which is crucial for a full understanding and enjoyment of both the poet and the artist” - from Burns’ introduction. £200

CERI RICHARDS. Mel Gooding. Ceri Richards. A monograph. Cameron & Hollis, Moffat 2002. First edition. 4to. 192pp. With photographic endpapers and over one hundred and sixty colour reproductions, many of them full-page. Just a touch of light spotting to the top edge. Very good indeed in dust wrapper, with just a single tiny closed edge-tear. The first major study of the life and work of Ceri Richards. £35

HEATH ROBINSON. Monarchs of Merrie England. Verse by Roland Carse with pictures, vignettes and eight splendid full-page colour plates by W.Heath Robinson. Complete in four volumes. Alf Cooke Ltd., Leeds and London [1908]. First editions. 4to. Stapled stiff card pictorial wrappers. Staples rusting and wrappers chafed at edges and occasionally lightly creased. Some age-toning to paperstock and the occasional finger mark and miscellaneous blemish to leaf margins. Fox spotting to the head of four or five text leaves of the final volume. A nice bright set. £125

EDWARD SEAGO. Edward Seago. Painter in the English Tradition. A monograph. With an introductory essay by Horace Shipp. Collins, London 1952. The deluxe issue of the first edition, limited to eighty-five numbered copies signed by the artist (this being #54). 4to. 46pp + lxxxviii plates. Quarter morocco with cloth covered sides. Top edge gilt. With a silk place-marker ribbon, a colour frontispiece reproduction, sixteen colour plates and seventy-two monochrome plates. A little spotting to the endpapers and pastedowns, and some further spotting to a dozen or so preliminary leaves. The final plate has at some point become partially adhered to the adjacent blank verso and careless separation has resulted in some surface abrasion to that plate. Nevertheless this remains a very good copy in the original unprinted acetate protector and stiff card slipcase, the latter somewhat spotted, and a little rubbed at the extremities with several small areas of surface abrasion. £300

RONALD SEARLE. Ronald Searle in Perspective. New English Library, Sevenoaks 1984. First trade edition. 4to. 224pp. Lavishly illustrated throughout with several hundred reproductions selected by the artist, presented in colour and monochrome. In fine state with virtually fine dust wrapper, marred only by a tiny hint of rubbing to the tip of one corner. £50

RONALD SEARLE. What! Already? Searle at 90. A Celebration with Comments by the Artist and an Introduction by Quentin Blake. The Pensionable Parrot Press, Oxford 2010. The deluxe issue of the first edition, limited to 96 numbered copies signed by the artist [this being #LXVIII], and issued with an accompanying book Kiss Kiss. More News from Provence, a short story rejected by The New Yorker in 1993 and similarly numbered. 4to. Both volumes unpaginated and illustrated in colour throughout. Blue-grey cloth with pictorial paper panels pasted to the upper and lower boards and to the backstrip. Both volumes in fine state in the original cloth-and-decorated-paper covered slipcase. £300

STANLEY SPENCER. Elizabeth Rothenstein. Stanley Spencer. A monograph. Phaidon Press, ‘British Artists’ series, Oxford & London 1945. First edition. 4to. 25pp + plates. A fifteen-page essay by Rothenstein plus five tipped in colour plates and a further ninety monochrome reproductions. Top edge lightly dust marked. A virtually fine copy in dust wrapper, a little dust soiled and chafed, and with some light tanning to the spine panel. Contemporary former owner gift inscription neatly inked to the front free endpaper. £20

REYNOLDS STONE. Ralph Hodgson. The Skylark and other poems. Edited by Colin Fenton and with wood engravings by Reynolds Stone. Printed for the editor at The Curwen Press, London 1958. The first edition of this selection, and the first with these magnificent Reynolds Stone engravings. 4to. 94pp. One of 300 copies (out of a total edition of 350) designed by Will Carter, printed on Basingwerk parchment, bound in buckram and signed by Reynolds Stone. Stone contributes a title page decoration, five wood engraved plates and a small closing vignette; plus a small gilt decoration to upper board. Buckram just fractionally marked in one or two places, else a fine copy. Twenty-three poems (including the eleven-parter Flying Scrolls), six of which are hitherto unprinted with several others making their first bookform appearance. £125

C.F.TUNNICLIFFE. R.T.Gould. Communications Old and New. With wood-engravings by C.F.Tunnicliffe. R.A.Publishing, London for Cable and Wireless Ltd. [1945]. First edition. 8vo. 54pp. Stiff card boards featuring a Tunnicliffe design. With a title page engraving and twenty-eight illustrations by Tunnicliffe. Boards just a little soiled with some fairly light uneven tanning, a little minor chafing to the edges and a bump to the tip of one corner. A small area of  surface abrasion to the upper board where, probably, a sticker has been removed. Internally a lovely crisp copy of an uncommon item. £100

C.F.TUNNICLIFFE. Shorelands Summer Diary. With illustrations by the author. Collins, London 1952. First edition – this copy signed by the author on the front free endpaper and dated August 1959. 4to. 160pp. Pink cloth with somewhat darkened gilt lettering to the backstrip, and with a small gilt-stamped vignette to the upper board. Illustrated with a frontispiece, a title page decoration, sixteen splendid colour plates and one-hundred and eighty-five drawings in the text. Some light spotting to the fore edge and to the cloth extremities. The backstrip and board margins faded, and the spine ends lightly rubbed and bruised. A small biro mark to the upper board. Just a trace of spotting to the front free endpaper and pastedown, a little more so to the rear examples, and a single tiny crease to the lower tip of one text leaf. A good copy, particularly crisp internally, housed in a sometime supplied dust wrapper, lightly spotted at the flaps and the predominantly white rear panel, and with several short tears and five or six small areas of edge-loss. A respectable example of the first natural history book Tunnicliffe both wrote and illustrated, recounting the first six-months (April-September 1947) he spent living in ‘Shorelands’, his house at Malltraeth on Anglesey, and here very handsomely enhanced with his elegant signature. £250

EDWARD WADSWORTH. Sailing-Ships and Barges of the Western Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas. Illustrated with twenty-three superb copper engravings, nineteen hand-coloured and nineteen full-page. Frederick Etchells & Hugh MacDonald, ‘The Haslewood Books’ series, London 1926. First edition, of which 450 numbered copies were produced (this being #263). 4to. 79pp. Gilt lettered and decorated cloth. Printed at the Curwen Press on J.W.Zanders hand-made paper with the copper plates subsequently destroyed. With a four-page introduction by Bernard Windeler, who also provides a short introduction to each plate and hand-coloured most of the engravings. Fore- and bottom edges untrimmed. Some fading to the publisher’s orange cloth at the upper and lower boards and with a short crease to the head of the backstrip. A tiny touch of non-invasive spotting to pastedowns and to occasional leaves. A very good copy of a superb production. No dust wrapper, as issued, but lacking the slipcase. £500 

ALFRED WALLIS. Sven Berlin. Alfred Wallis: Primitive. Poetry London / Nicholson & Watson, London 1949. First edition. 4to. 122pp. With fifty-six photographs and reproductions on glossy paperstock, twelve of them in colour. Includes W.S.Graham’s poem The Voyages of Alfred Wallis, reproduced from the pages of the periodical Life and Letters. A touch of light marking to the cloth. Very good indeed in somewhat chafed and chipped price-clipped dust wrapper, with two noticeable area of triangular loss from the upper edge of the rear panel, and several further much small areas of edge-loss. Berlin’s celebrated study of the naïve Cornish painter; completed shortly after Wallis’ death in 1942, publication was delayed by the Second World War, the book finally appearing nearly five years after it was originally typeset. £125

REX WHISTLER. The New Forget-Me-Not. An anthology. With four colour plates and various handsome decorations by Rex Whistler. Cobden-Sanderson, London 1929. The deluxe issue of the first edition, limited to 360 numbered copies, signed by Rex Whistler (this being #142). 8vo. 143pp. Half-vellum with decorated paper sides. The vellum somewhat faded as is invariable the case, and with a little darkening and light spotting to the sides. The merest hint of darkening to the free endpapers, else in fine state internally. Tipped-in errata slip. No dust wrapper. Contributors include Siegfried Sassoon, Max Beerbohm, Ronald Knox, Hilaire Belloc, Rose Macaulay, Dorothy Wellesley, Clive Bell, Harold Nicholson, Cyril Connolly, Edmund Blunden, H.M.Tomlinson, Christopher Sykes, Lord Berners, Raymond Mortimer and others. £225

REX WHISTLER. Walter de la Mare. Desert Islands and Robinson Crusoe. With decorations by Rex Whistler. Faber, London and The Fountain Press, New York 1930. First edition, limited to 650 numbered copies printed at The Westminster Press and signed by the author (this being #576 and so presumably one of the 400 copies issued to the US market). Tall 8vo. 286pp. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. With a splendid Whistler frontispiece with loose tissue protector, and four further decorations, each with loose tissue protectors, as called for. Just a touch of occasional marking to the boards, and some light partial browning to the free endpapers. A shade of off-setting from the frontispiece to the title leaf. Very good indeed, but lacking the glassine-and-paper-flapped dust wrapper and slipcase (but with a fresh sheet of protective acetate supplied). £95

REX WHISTLER. Elizabeth Godley. Green Outside. With decorations by Rex Whistler. Chatto & Windus, London [1931]. First edition. 8vo. 56pp. With a colour frontispiece and various Whistler drawings throughout. The tip of one corner gently knocked. Handsome former owner bookplate to the front pastedown. A very crisp copy in the uncommon Whistler dust wrapper, quite considerably darkened at the spine panel, dust soiled, and with about a centimetre of loss from the head of the spine panel, a short jagged tear with some accompanying creasing and two areas of internal taped reinforcement. An uncommon collection of whimsical rhymes and verses for children, nicely enhanced by Whistler’s typically delightful drawings. £150

REX WHISTLER. Hans Andersen. Fairy Tales and Legends. With drawings by Rex Whistler. R.Cobden-Sanderson Ltd., London 1935. The first edition with these illustrations. 8vo. vii, 470pp. Decorated green cloth, lettered in gold at the spine and upper board and with Whistler’s cloth decorations replicated on the endpapers, here in pink. With a title page design, ten splendid full page Whistler illustrations and over seventy-five delightful head and tail illustrations. Front hinge cracked and just a little tender and just a hint of bruising to the backstrip ends. A small area of spotting to the head of the half-title. A very crisp and bright copy, lacking the dust wrapper. Forty-eight Has Christian Andersen stories, delightfully enhanced by these Whistler illustrations. £90

WOOD ENGRAVINGS. The Apocrypha. According to the Authorised Version. With fourteen wood engravings by Blair Hughes-Stanton, Gertrude Hermes, Leon Underwood, Stephen Gooden, René Ben Sussan, M.E.Groom, Eric Jones, Wladislaw Skoczylas, Hester Sainsbury, Frank Medworth, Eric Kennington, Eric Ravilious, John Nash and D.Galans. The Cresset Press, London 1929. First edition, printed at the Curwen Press and limited to 450 numbered copies on mould-made paper, plus a further thirty deluxe copies (this one of the 450 examples, but un-numbered). Large 4to. 406pp. Bound in full brown buckram with two red leather spine labels, lettered and bordered in gold (this binding unusual as the ‘correct’ binding should be white vellum; the fact that this example is un-numbered may suggest that it was intended as a trial or proof copy, or perhaps a file copy). Fore- and bottom edges untrimmed. A touch of very light spotting to the edges and endpapers, and to very occasional leaf margins.  Backstrip ends very gently rubbed. A very good copy of an uncommon and quite delightful production: a tour-de-force collaboration featuring some of the finest wood engravers of the post-Great War period, each one tackling one of the fourteen books classified as apocryphal by the King James Bible. £950