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

EDWARD ARDIZZONE. Nicholas and the Fast Moving Diesel. Eyre & Spottiswoode, London [1948]. First edition. 4to. 35pp. Pictorial boards. Comprises a title-page and thirty-five pages of text and coloured drawings, the whole thing a reproduction of the author’s manuscript. Boards rubbed at tips of corners, lightly soiled, and chipped at spine ends with short tears to gutter extremities. Endpapers lightly browned else, save for a few light finger marks to the occasional leaf margin, a lovely bright copy internally and housed in the uncommon pictorial dust wrapper, price-clipped, somewhat soiled, dust marked and edge worn with several fairly small portions of loss. A scarce and typically delightful Ardizzone volume, published the same year that he joined the teaching staff of the Camberwell School of Art and Crafts and was elected Fellow of the Society of Industrial Artists. £250 

EDWARD ARDIZZONE. George Scurfield. A Stickful of Nonpareil. With illustrations by Edward Ardizzone. Privately printed at Cambridge University Press, 1956. First edition, limited to 500 copies “for presentation by the University Printer to his friends in printing and publishing, Christmas 1956”. 8vo. 57pp. Decorated endpapers and publisher’s dark green top edge stain. With a title page decoration and fifteen black and white Ardizzone line drawings. A fine copy, no dust wrapper called for. The story of the University Press at Cambridge, the Pitt Press, at the turn of the twentieth century. £75

EDWARD ARDIZZONE. Tim All Alone. Oxford University Press, London 1956. First edition. 4to. Unpaginated. Illustrated paper-covered boards, lightly chafed at extremities and rubbed at head and base of spine. Endpapers a little spotted else a lovely crisp copy internally. Illustrated throughout with many delightful Ardizzone drawings, often in colour. Winner of the first annual Kate Greenaway Medal (the prize was initiated in 1955 but no medal was awarded that year as none of the entries were deemed suitably impressive). Lacking the dust wrapper. £35

JOHN AUSTEN. Charles Dickens. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. With an introduction by G.K.Chesterton and illustrations by John Austen. Complete in two volumes. Printed by Oxford University Press for The Limited Editions Club [New York] 1933. The first edition with these superb Austen illustrations, limited to 1,500 numbered copies, signed by the artist (this being #34). 4to. 759pp. Full brown buckram lettered in gold at spine and upper board and with a small gilt vignette. Publisher’s blue stain to top edge, others tough-trimmed. Decorated endpapers. Austen contributes twenty-four delightful full-page colour plates, plus a number of monochrome vignettes and decorations. Three tiny tears to fore edges where the leaves have been inexpertly cut. A virtually fine set housed in the seemingly uncommon dust wrappers but lacking the slipcase. The dust wrappers – which replicate the patterned endpaper design and are further embellished with illustrated paper spine labels (just a little tanned and stained) - exhibit some light browning and staining to the spine panels and several internally repaired tears to spine ends. £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 [1931]. First edition. Printed at the Curwen Press. 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. £400

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

PETER BLAKE. Dylan Thomas. Under Milk Wood. With images by Peter Blake. Enitharmon Editions and The Queen Anne Press, London 2013.  The first edition with these Peter Blake illustrations – this copy signed by the artist on the title page. 4to. 173pp. Card wrappers with French flaps. A fine unopened copy. A three-page introduction by Blake precedes one-hundred and ten watercolours, pencil portraits and collages, presented alongside Thomas’ celebrated Play for Voices. 2,500 copies of this trade edition were printed (to mark the centenary of Dylan Thomas' birth). £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

BILL BRANDT. The English at Home. Sixty-three photographs. With an introduction by Raymond Mortimer. Charles Scribner, New York 1936. The US issue of the first edition of Brandt’s first book (from the UK sheets). 4to. 63pp. Photographic boards, somewhat dust marked and soiled. Spine darkened and chipped at base with a centimetre of loss, also rubbed at head of spine with a short tear and some chafing to gutters. A lovely crisp copy internally. Sixty-three full-page photographs (two of which, one a detail, are reproduced on the covers) with captions in French and English, plus two double-spread endpaper photographs. £200

HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON. Line by Line. The Drawings of Henri Cartier-Bresson. With a seven-page introduction by Jean Clair. Thames & Hudson, London 1989. First edition. 4to. 97pp. Illustrated with sixty-five reproductions, nine in colour. A fine copy in very good dust wrapper, very lightly dust marked and one or two places and with just a hint of chafing to spine ends. The first ever book of Cartier-Bresson’s drawings. £25

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

TRACEY EMIN. Borrowed Light. The catalogue of a 2007 exhibition at the Venice Biennale. British Council, London 2007. First edition – the casebound issue. 125pp. With a foreword and an interview by Andrea Rose and essays by Rudi Fuchs and Toby Forward, plus a biography, a bibliography and seventy-two reproductions, in colour where required. In fine state with lightly marked and stained dust wrapper with several fairly light indentations. £25

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 to lower 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. £75

JOHN FARLEIGH. Graven Image. An Autobiographical Textbook. Macmillan, London 1940. First edition. 8vo. 388pp. Paper-covered boards featuring a magnificent double-spread engraving by the author. Top edge lightly dust marked, and with just a touch of wear to one or two extremities. Former owner name neatly inked to the head of the front free endpaper. Very good indeed in very good pictorial dust wrapper, a little tanned at the spine panel with several short closed tears and two or three small portions of edge loss. A masterful textbook of engraving and book decoration, illustrated throughout with photographs, reproductions and progressive proofs of Farleigh’s most celebrated designs (including Shaw’s Black Girl and Scraps and Shavings, Butler’s Way of all Flesh and D.H.Lawrence’s The Man Who Dies). £50

CLAUD LOVAT FRASER. John Drinkwater and Albert Rutherston. Claud Lovat Fraser. A monograph. With representative examples of his work reproduced in collotype and line. William Heinemann, London 1923. First edition, limited to 450 numbered copies, each signed by Drinkwater and Rutherston (this being #381). 4to. Top edge gilt, other untrimmed. Silk marker ribbon. Captioned tissue-protected frontispiece. A sixteen-page introduction by Drinkwater, followed by an appendix of letters from Lovat Fraser, and a fifteen-page essay, The Art of Claud Lovat Fraser by Rutherston, precedes thirty-nine magnificent plates, twenty of which are in colour, each with a captioned tissue protector. The plates reproduce costume, set, poster and book designs, nudes, letter and envelope decorations, book plate designs, and various decorations for A Shropshire Lad. Cloth lightly marked, and rubbed with a little discolouration at some extremities. Free endpapers and frontis protector marred by just a little light spotting. A very good copy in the uncommon dust wrapper, spotted and somewhat soiled, with a small area of loss from the head of the front panel. And several further tiny slivers of loss from the corner tips. £300

LUCIAN FREUD. Lucian Freud. A monograph. Edited by Bruce Bernard and Derek Birdsall and with an introduction by Bruce Bernard. Random House, New York 1996. First edition. Large square 4to. 360pp. A seventeen-page introduction precedes just under 300 plates, all in colour where required and predominantly full-page with a number of double-spread presentations. The backstrip and upper board lettering very slightly defective in several small places, else in fine state with original cloth-covered slipcase with colour pictorial onlay. No dust wrapper required. A lavishly produced and extremely hefty tome. £95

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

HENRY FUSELI. Paul Ganz. The Drawings of Henry Fuseli. With a four-page foreword by John Piper. Max Parrish, London 1949. First edition. Large 4to. 79pp + cvi plates. With a colour portrait frontispiece, various reproduction in the text and over 100 monochrome plates. A very good copy in tanned, marked and edge worn dust wrapper. Former owner initials inked to front endpaper. £25

RENA GARDINER. Dorset: The East Winterbourne Valley [and] Dorset: The Isle of Purbeck [and] Dorset: Tarrant to Blandford. Gardiner’s magnificent trilogy a Dorset books, each illustrated in colour throughout from drawings made directly onto lithographic aluminium plates. Designed, drawn, printed and published by Rena Gardiner at The Workshop Press, Blandford Forum 1968-70. Individual volumes as follows: Dorset: The East Winterbourne Valley (1968). First edition. Tall 4to. 93pp. Stapled pictorial wrappers, with the cloth binding tape absent. Corner tips lightly rubbed, and with some light spotting to the rear wrapper, and a light superficial crease impacting the rear wrapper and a few adjacent leaves. Former owner initials and date neatly inked to the inner wrapper. A very good copy [of which 1,500 were printed]. Dorset: The Isle of Purbeck (1969). First edition. Tall 4to. 41pp. Stapled pictorial wrappers with a cloth tape binding, as issued. An ex-school library copy, with two inkstamps to that effect. Corner tips lightly rubbed. A very good copy [of which 1,500 copies were printed]. Dorset: Tarrant to Blandford (1970). First edition. Tall 4to. 45pp. Stapled pictorial wrappers with a cloth tape binding, as issued. An ex-school library copy, with two inkstamps to that effect. A sliver of spotting to the upper edge of the front wrapper, and just a trace of rubbing to the corner tips. A very good copy [of which 1,500 copies were printed]. A very nice set of this increasingly uncommon trilogy celebrating the artist’s home county. £200

“[Gardiner] replaced her old Rotaprint with a Gestelith 201 press which was able to print a larger paper size and this paved the way for her next ambitious project – the first of three larger format books about Dorset….In these magnificent volumes Rena perhaps reached a peak in her art; she had mastered her technique, and the generous format allowed her to indulge in a richness of colour, texture and line. These books were not commissions but an expression of her personal feelings about the history and beauty of her surroundings” – Martin Andrews, Rena Gardiner. Artist and Printmaker.

PAUL GAUGUIN. Noa Noa. Voyage à Tahiti.  Jan Förlag, Stockholm 1947. First edition thus. 4to. 204pp. Cloth-backed boards lettered in brown at spine and upper board. A facsimile of Gauguin’s original handwritten manuscript detailing his first visit to Tahiti (1891-1893), reproduced in offset on pure rag paper, and printed and pound by Victor Pettersons. Illustrated throughout with colour and monochrome drawings by the artist. Tip of one corner bumped, else in virtually fine state with the handsome decorated dust wrapper, a little tanned and chafed at spine panel, and nicked and a little chipped at the upper edge with several small portions of loss. £165

GILBERT & GEORGE. Wolf Jahn. The Art of Gilbert & George, or An Aesthetic of Existence. Thames & Hudson, London 1989. First edition – this copy signed by Gilbert & George on the front endpaper. 4to. 524pp.  Lavishly illustrated throughout with over four hundred reproductions, including nearly three hundred in colour. Four tiny miscellaneous blotches to front endpaper, else a fine copy in very good dust wrapper, with just a trace of chafing to top edge and several short superficial scores to rear panel. The first full-length critical study of the art of Gilbert Prousch and George Passmore. £50

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. £950

FAY GODWIN. The Edge of the Land. [Photographs of Britain’s coastline]. Jonathan Cape, London 1995. First edition – this copy inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper and dated the year of publication. Small 4to. 160pp.  Illustrated with one hundred and twenty-two of the author’s splendid monochrome photographs. The merest hint of spotting to the top edge, else in fine state with just fractionally rubbed and marked dust wrapper. £50

DUNCAN GRANT. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. With drawings by Duncan Grant. Privately printed for Allen & Richard Lane [London] 1945. The first edition with these Duncan Grant illustrations, limited to 700 copies printed on handmade paper and bound in blue niger morocco, gilt lettered at spine and with a small gilt decoration to upper board. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. With a colour frontispiece and four colour plates by Duncan Grant. Backstrip and board extremities a little darkened, and with several fairly minor instances of chafing to the leather. A juvenile hand has boldly inked a single name, upside-down, to the rear free endpaper, yet this remains a very good copy. Lacking the unprinted glassine wrapper. £250

GEORGE GROSZ. Ecce Homo. Eighty-four drawings and sixteen watercolours. With an introduction by Henry Miller. Methuen, London 1967. The first UK edition (originally published in Berlin in 1923). 4to. Pictorial canvas boards, somewhat marked and soiled. Binding sprung and just a little tender, margins of front endpaper darkened but the plates themselves is super state. No dust wrapper. £30

“Once you have glimpsed these corrosive portraits, these streets and bedroom scenes, you will never forget them. Do you want a look at dementia, a taste of sadism, a fillip of unadulterated sex, a sample of transmogrification, a reminder of the price of war, just riffle these pages” – from Miller’s introduction. 

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

DAVID HOCKNEY. Paintings, Prints and Drawings 1960-1970. The catalogue of a 1970 Whitechapel Art Gallery exhibition, the artists’ first major retrospective., First edition. Card wrappers with integral dust wrapper, the edges of which was water-marked and a little chafed, yet a lovely bright copy internally. Small former owner book ticket to inner front wrapper. An eight-page interview with the artist precedes many reproductions of his paintings, prints and drawings, a few in colour but most reproduced as thumb-nails.  £25

E.MCKNIGHT KAUFFER. Robert Burton (under the name ‘Democritus Junior’). The Anatomy of Melancholy. What is it, with all the kinds, causes, symptoms, prognostickes, & several cures of it. In Three Partitions Philosophically, Philosophically, Medicinally, Historically, opened and cut up. The Nonesuch Press, London 1925. The first edition with these splendid McKnight Kauffer illustrations, complete in two volumes. 4to. Parchment-backed patterned paper boards. One of 750 copies, this one with a blind stamp to the half-title, noting it as an out-of-series copy, for review. With typography by Francis Meynell and a frontispiece, title page and numerous black and white drawings by McKnight Kauffer. A hint of very minor bruising to spine ends and some uneven fading to the upper board of volume two. Neatly inked former owner presentation inscription (dated 1927) to a blank preliminary. No dust wrappers, as issued. A superb set of a very handsome edition (the text taken from the sixth edition, which was corrected and augmented by the author). £300

E.MCKNIGHT KAUFFER. Arnold Bennett. Venus Rising from the Sea. With twelve colour drawings by E.McKnight Kauffer. Cassell, London 1931. First edition – ‘La Belle Sauvage Editions’: one of 350 numbered copies signed by the artist (this being #92). 4to. 110pp. Printed at the Curwen Press. Fore- and bottom edges untrimmed. Three or four tiny insignificant blemishes to cloth at rear board and head of backstrip, else a fine copy with original unprinted tissue protector (browned and defective at spine) and housed in the stiff card slipcase with the printed paper title label, the slipcase a little rubbed, marked and defective. Former owner name neatly inked to the head of the front free endpaper. £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

D.H.LAWRENCE. The Paintings of D.H.Lawrence. The Mandrake Press, London [1929]. First edition, one of 500 numbered copies (out of a total edition of 510) printed on Arches mouldmade paper for subscribers only. 4to. A thirty-one page introduction by Lawrence precedes colour reproductions of fifteen oil paintings and eleven watercolours, each with a caption leaf. Half-bound morocco with cloth sides, with a gilt-stamped phoenix to upper and lower boards. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Leather just a little chafed at backstrip and the tips of several corners. Finger marks and several small isolated instances of spotting to several leaf margins (no text or reproduction impacted). An extremely good copy of a very handsome production, the typography and reproduction arranged by P.R.Stephenson, and letterpress and colour-work under the supervision of William Dieper. No slipcase. The first exhibition of Lawrence's paintings premiered in 1929 at London's Warren Gallery, but the exhibition was interrupted when thirteen of the works were confiscated by the police and only returned on the understanding that they would never be shown again. There was no subsequent viewing, with many of the works now lost or in overseas private collections. £350

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

ANNIE LEIBOVITZ. At Work. Jonathan Cape, London 2008. First UK edition. Small 4to. 237pp. Illustrated throughout with photograph reproductions, in colour where required. The upper board lettering fractionally defective and an area of damp staining to the head of the rear board (only) which has partially obliterated the author’s name lettering. Internally in fine state, the cloth lettering issue the only defect. No dust wrapper called for, but complete with the original wrap-around band. £35

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

WYNDHAM LEWIS. Paul Edwards. Wyndham Lewis Portraits. National Portrait Gallery, London 2008. First edition, published to accompany a 2008 exhibition. 4to. 112pp. Card wrappers (there was no casebound issue). Illustrated with over fifty reproductions, in colour where required and with many full-page. In fine state. £25

ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE. Altars. Edited and designed by Mark Holborn and Dimitri Levas and with an essay by Edmund White. Random House, New York 1995. First edition. 139pp. Large square 4to. Illustrated with 127 superb reproductions in colour and monochrome. In fine state with dust wrapper and original cloth-bound pictorial slipcase, just a fraction marked at rear. £35

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

JOHN NASH. English Garden Flowers. Duckworth, London 1948. First edition. 30pp. Pictorial paper-covered cloth. Illustrated with twelve delightful colour lithographic plates by Nash, who also supplies a foreword and brief textual notes. A hint of dust marking to boards, else an extremely crisp and bright copy in dust wrapper, a little tanned and dust marked and with a single short closed tear. £50

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

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 PETTS. Alison Smith. John Petts and the Caseg Press. Ashgate, Aldershot and Vermont 2000. First edition. 4to. 127pp. Illustrated with eight-five reproductions of Petts’ wood engravings, stained glass, linocuts, watercolours and pen & ink drawings, plus several photographs of the artist and reproductions of all eight of the Caseg Broadsheets (only six of which were finally published). A trace of near-invisible spotting to top edge, else in fine state with very good dust wrapper, marred by just a touch of rubbing to spine ends and corner tips, and the upper edge lifting a fraction. The first full-length study of Petts and his work for the Caseg and Golden Cockerel Presses. £50

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. 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. £1,500

ERIC RAVILIOUS. Sir John Suckling. A Ballad Upon a Wedding. With engravings by Eric Ravilious. The Golden Cockerel Press, Waltham Saint Lawrence 1927. The first edition with these Ravilious illustrations, printed by Robert Gibbings and limited to 375 numbered copies (this being #205). Slim 8vo. Buckram-backed batik paper-covered boards. With a title page decoration and seven splendid Ravilious engravings. Handsome former owner bookplate to the front pastedown. A fine copy in very lightly tanned and soiled dust wrapper. Together with a copy of the 1925 High House Press edition of the same poem, limited to 162 copies of which this is #21. Wrappers, a little nicked and creased at the yapped upper edge, with a paper title label. Some quite light spotting throughout. £350

ERIC RAVILIOUS. The Wood Engravings of Eric Ravilious. With an introduction by J.M.Richards. The Lion and Unicorn Press, 1972. First edition, second issue, number II 133 of an unspecified limited edition (but almost certainly 500 copies), printed at the Curwen Press on Grosvenor Chater’s Basingwerk Parchment. Elephant folio. Grey-green wove cloth, lettered in gold at spine and with a Ravilious decoration to the upper board. Decorated endpapers. 113 pages detailing over 400 wood engravings printed on rectos only and including several fold-out sheets. A single tiny area of blemishing to the cloth at the base of the upper board, and some minor chafing to the spine ends and corner tips. A super copy of an exceptionally produced volume, probably the finest achievement by the celebrated Royal College of Art Press. No dust wrapper, as issued but lacking the slipcase. Uncommon. £600

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

PAULA REGO. Paula Rego. The catalogue of a 1988 exhibition at London's Serpentine Gallery. First edition. 4to. 64pp. Glossy pictorial card wrappers. Illustrated with nearly fifty colour reproductions, many full-page, and with essays by Victor Willing and Ruth Rosengarten plus an interview, biography, bibliography and list of works. Rear unprinted wrapper lightly sunned with a small crease to the tip of one corner. Very good indeed. £20

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 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

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

HEATH ROBINSON. Behind the Scenes at Moss Bros with Heath Robinson. Moss Bros [1936?]. [16pp]. Landscape 8vo. Colour pictorial card wrappers. Some spotting and darkening to the covers but a lovely bright copy internally, save for a strip of light browning to the first leaf and adjacent inner wrapper. Fourteen superb full-page captioned drawings imagining life at the gentleman’s outfitters, commissioned by them. Laid-in is a letter from the director of Moss Bros dated April 1936 (“Heath Robinson has got quite beyond our control! It is amazing to see how he has contrived to distort the sober efforts of a firm that is striving to give customers the best possible, into weird contraptions which we don’t know whether to describe as absurdly plausible or plausibly absurd. Nevertheless he has weaved his whimsical web from a pattern of fact, and in one instance especially has departed hardly at all from the literal truth….”) £75

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

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. Wood Engravings of Thomas Bewick. Selected, with a biographical introduction by Reynolds Stone. Rupert Hart-Davis, London 1953. First edition, limited to 1,000 numbered copies, each signed by the author (this being #927). 4to. 53pp + plates. Maroon buckram. Reynolds Stone provides a forty-seven page introduction, five pages of notes on the plates and an engraved title page portrait of Bewick. Reproductions of over three hundred of Bewick’s engravings, together with some drawings plus fifteen works by John Bewick and the Pupils. A touch of fading to the publisher’s maroon top edge stain and some offsetting from the dust wrapper lettering to the upper board. A little spotting to endpapers. A very good copy – internally in virtually fine state – with dust wrapper, price-clipped, a little dust soiled and with some fading to the spine and front panels and a touch of wear to spine ends. £100

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

GRAHAM SUTHERLAND. The catalogue of a 1953 exhibition of paintings and drawings. With an introduction by Kenneth Clark and another by Herbert Read. Arts Council at the Tate Gallery, London 1953. 4to. Card wrappers, tanned, lightly marked and a little dusty. Illustrated with twenty plates including four in colour. £10

GRAHAM SUTHERLAND. The Work of Graham Sutherland. With text by Douglas Cooper. Lund Humphries, London 1962. Second edition, issued a year after the first. 4to. 97pp. Striking illustrated paper-covered boards. With a photographic frontispiece portrait of the artist and nearly 400 mostly monochrome reproductions. Boards a little bowed and with a smattering of foxing, mostly to the backstrip and to the margins of a few preliminary leaves. Endpapers lightly browned. Tiny dealer sticker to front pastedown. No dust wrapper, as issued, but missing the original unprinted acetate protector (but with a fresh sheet supplied). £40

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 upper board where, probably, a stick has been removed. Internally a lovely crisp copy of an uncommon item. £100

C.F.TUNNICLIFFE. A Sketchbook of Birds [and] Sketches of Bird Life. Gollancz, London 1979 & 1981. First editions of these two uniform volumes.  Individual volumes as follows: A Sketchbook of Birds (1979). With an introduction by Ian Niall. First edition. Landscape 4to. Unpaginated. With over 120 colour illustrations, mostly in colour and many full page, categorised by Seabirds, Waders, Geese, Ducks and Swans, Birds of Prey and Miscellaneous Birds. A virtually fine copy in dust wrapper, lightly sunned at spine panel and with a little internal spotting. Sketches of Bird Life (1981). With an introduction and commentary by Robert Gillmor. First edition. Landscape 4to. Unpaginated. With a chronology and over 100 colour illustrations, mostly full page, and numerous monochrome reproductions, categorised by Courtship and Display, The Young Bird, Feeding, Flying, Other behaviour and Picture Making. A fine copy in virtually fine, price-clipped dust wrapper, gently rubbed at head of spine panel. £25

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 

REX WHISTLER. Simon Harcourt-Smith. The Last of Uptake or The Estranged Sisters. With over twenty pen-and-wash drawings by Rex Whistler, some full-page and two in colour. B.T.Batsford, London 1942. The deluxe issue of the first edition, printed on handmade paper and limited to 100 copies signed by both the author and artist. 4to. Original quarter green morocco with cloth sides. Tips of corners just fractionally rubbed, spine ends a little chafed and with a single tiny tear to head. Backstrip faded. A lovely bright copy of a handsome and uncommon volume. No wrapper, as issued. A novella centred on the deteriorating relationship between two spinster sisters as Uptake, their ancestral home, falls about their ears. £250

REX WHISTLER. The Königsmark Drawings. Reproduced in facsimile in sepia and colour. With an introduction, and the story in brief, derived from A.E.W.Mason’s novel, by Laurence Whistler. The Richards Press, London 1952. First edition, of which 1,000 numbered copies were printed (this being #16). Royal 4to. 24pp + x tipped-in plates and captions to the adjacent versos. Buckram. Slight wave to the upper edge of the plate leaves, presumably a result of the paste used to secure the plates. Buckram quite faded at spine, yet still a very good copy. Lacking the dust wrapper, but housed in the original slipcase, bumped and a little chafed at corners. £100

KYFFIN WILLIAMS. Portraits. Gomer Press, Llandysul 1996. First edition – this copy inscribed by the artist on the front endpaper and dated five months after publication. 4to. 192pp. With a two-page foreword by the author and eighty-three plates of oil, watercolour and pencil portraits, plus a further eleven details, all in colour where required and each accompanied by a brief anecdote. One plate, the self-portrait, reproduced as the frontispiece. The merest hint of spotting to top edge, else a fine copy in fine dust wrapper. A selection of Williams’ portraiture work, inspired by a 1993 Llangefni exhibition arranged by Oriel Ynys Môn. £200

KYFFIN WILLIAMS. Nicholas Sinclair. Kyffin Williams. A monograph. With an essay, Welsh Paintings: The Art of Kyffin Williams, by Ian Jeffrey. Lund Humphries, Aldershot 2004. First edition – this copy signed by Kyffin Williams on the half-title. 4to. 127pp. Illustrated with eighty plates, in colour where required, plus a chronology, list of works and solo exhibitions and a section of ten North Wales sites which inspired Williams’ landscape paintings. The first monograph on Williams, “the defining artist of Wales during the 20th century”. A tiny hint of wear to spine ends, else a fine copy in fine pictorial dust wrapper. £250