Clearwater Books

EDWARD ARDIZZONE. George Crabbe. The Library. A poem. With a title page decoration and eleven drawings in black and white by Ardizzone (credited as ‘E.J.I.Ardizzone’). The De La More Press, ‘The Saint George’ series, London 1930. The first edition with these Ardizzone illustrations – only the second book he illustrated. 8vo. 31pp. Card wrappers, lettered in black at the upper wrapper and reproducing one of the drawings. A hint of creasing to wrappers at yapped edges and a single tiny area of staining. Very good indeed, in fine state internally. £50

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

MICHAEL AYRTON. The Oresteia. Agamemnon, The Libation-Bearers and The Furies. Translated from the Greek by E.D.A.Morshead with an introduction by Rex Warner and illustrations by Michael Ayrton. The Limited Editions Club, New York 1961. The edition thus, limited to 1,500 numbered copies signed by Michael Ayrton. Folio. 177pp. Leather-backed cloth with a cloth spine label. Illustrated with twelve magnificent photogravure plates from Ayrton oils, reproduced in colour. Very good indeed in stiff card slipcase, a little marked and chafed. £75

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

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

TRACEY EMIN. Works 1963-2006. Edited by Honey Luard and Peter Miles. Rizzoli, New York 2006. First edition. Large 4to. 414pp. Paper-covered boards. A fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper. A short foreword by Jeanette Winterson precedes a lengthy interview with the artist, an essay, Tracey Emin: A Particular Honesty, by Rudi Fuchs and hundreds of reproductions of Emin’s paintings, drawings, sculptures, allliqués, embroideries, and neons and video stills, in colour where required. The definitive work on the celebrated and controversial Young British Artist. £35

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

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. £195

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

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

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. 

GLYNN BOYD HARTE. Temples of Power. Lithographs by Glynn Boyd Harte, with an introduction and architectural notes by Gavin Stamp and a one-page foreword by John Betjeman. The Cygnet Press, Oxfordshire 1979. First edition, limited to 250 numbered copies printed at The Curwen Press on all-rag mould-made paper and signed by Harte and Stamp. Landscape folio. Unpaginated. Quarter-bound paper-covered cloth with paper sides featuring a striking two-colour Battersea Power Station motif. Stamp’s twelve-page illustrated introduction precedes sixteen superb colour lithographs. A little light soiling to the cloth at rear board, and a tiny hint of chafing to the tip of a single corner. A touch of very light spotting to fore edge and several preliminary and title leaves, but all the plates spared and in pristine state. Very good indeed in dust wrapper, sadly a little chafed, spotted and soiled, and chipped at edges with several small portions of loss. An extremely handsome production. £450

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

BARBARA HEPWORTH. The Complete Sculpture of Barbara Hepworth 1960-69. Edited by Alan Bowness.  Lund Humphries, London 1971. First trade edition – this copy signed and dated by the editor on the half-title. 4to. 222pp. Pictorial cloth. With nearly 250 reproductions, plus sixteen colour plates. A hint of discolouration to extreme upper edges of boards, which are also fractionally marked in one or two places, else in virtually fine state with dust wrapper, lightly chafed at several extremities, lifting a little at the upper edge with one tiny tear and a little accompanying lifting of the publisher’s laminate. Several creases to wrapper flaps. A catalogue raisonné of Hepworth’s work in the sixties, which was preceded by a limited issue of 150 copies (75 each for the UK and US markets). Laid-in is Alan Bowness’ A Guide to the Barbara Hepworth Museum, folded once. £250

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

HAROLD JONES AND WALTER DE LA MARE. This Year: Next Year. Poems by Walter de la Mare delightfully illustrated in colour by Harold Jones. Faber, London 1937. First trade edition, following a limited issue of 100 signed copies. Pictorial paper-covered boards. Minor bump to the tip of two corners with just a hint of wear to head and base of spine. Very good indeed with tanned pictorial dust wrapper, nicked at edges with several internally repaired tears and a small area of loss from head and base of spine panel. Thirty-two poems, somewhat overshadowed by the magnificence of the accompanying Harold Jones decorations – surely his masterpiece. £125

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

PAUL KLEE. On Modern Art. Translated by Paul Findlay and with an introduction by Herbert Read. Faber, London 1948. First English-language edition of Klee’s noted essay, discovered amongst his papers after his death, and which formed the basis for his 1924 address at the Jena Museum. Small landscape 4to. 55pp. With a self-portrait and twenty-three Klee drawings. A nice crisp copy in dust wrapper, nicked, chipped and somewhat tender with an area of loss to spine panel. £35

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

EDWARD LEAR. Stefan Klima. The Owl and the Pussy-Cat. With six drawings by Stefan Klima. Arundel Press, Los Angeles 1988. First edition with these illustrations, published to mark the anniversary of Lear’s death and limited to just seventy-five copies, all signed by the artist (this one of 50 copies without the hand-coloured drawings). A presentation inscription from the artist to a blank flyleaf reads: “Los Angeles July 7 1794 [sic.]. To Thomas when he gets older. Stefan. A early work!” 8vo. Unpaginated. Printed on Rives BFK paper and sewn into cloth-covered boards, cloth lightly marked in places, yet in fine state internally. A very handsome production. £95

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. An Exhibition: American Sheaves, English Seed Corn. The catalogue of circa-1977 exhibition at the Boston Public Library. Stapled card wrappers. 28pp. A five-page introduction precedes a catalogue of nearly 850 items, with nine reproductions and a photograph of the artist at work. A virtually fine copy.  £15

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

HENRI MATISSE. Etchings 1900-1937. The catalogue of a 1996 exhibition at the Alan Cristea Gallery. First edition. Card wrappers with integral dust wrapper. 48 unpaginated leaves. A three-page introduction by Richard Shone followed by forty-four reproductions. In fine state. Price list laid-in. £10

HENRY MOORE. Elephant Skull. The catalogue of a touring 1970-72 exhibition arranged to coincide with the publication of Moore's folio album Elephant Skull. Gérald Cramer, Geneva 1970. First edition, limited to 2,500 copies. Small 4to. Illustrated card wrappers. A five-page introduction by Alistair Grant precedes twenty-eight etchings, printed to rectos with short captions to adjacent versos and with two tipped-in colour photographs. Leaf tips lightly creased and front wrapper lifting a fraction. A very good copy in the original printed acetate protector with a single tiny tear to rear panel and an inch or so of loss. Prospectus for the folio album Elephant Skull laid-in, as issued. £25

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. 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

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 produced, printed by the Shenval Press. Tall 8vo. 95pp. Decorated paper-covered cloth lettered and ornately ruled in gold at spine. Publisher’s red stop edge stain. 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. Fore edge lightly spotted and a strip of off-set browning to the read free endpaper from a laid-in publisher’s promotional slip.  Very good indeed in handsome pictorial colour dust wrapper with some quite considerable spotting to the read panel, a little more to the front panel, several short closed edge tears and a single tiny sliver of loss from the upper edge. £100

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

MERVYN PEAKE. Burgess Drake. The Book of Lyonne. With line drawings and eight colour plates by Mervyn Peake. The Falcon Press, London 1952. First edition. 8vo. Top edge lightly dust marked and with faint indications of sticker removal from title page. A neat hand has unnecessarily altered the publication date from 1952 to 1953. A very good copy in tanned, spotted and nicked dust wrapper reproducing one of the Peake plates. Inked-out former owner name and date inked to endpaper. A book for children, dedicated to Peake’s sons. £100

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. 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. An area of quite light miscellaneous soiling to the fore edge of the front free endpaper, but thereafter a virtually fine copy in dust wrapper reproducing the lithographic title page decoration, just a little rubbed at spine ends and corner tips. Former owner bookplate to front pastedown. 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. £115

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. 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. £25

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

CLIFFORD SABER. Desert Rat Sketch Book. Written and illustrated, on-the-spot, in fill colour by Clifford Saber. With forewords by Tom Lea and Stephen Galatti. Sketchbook Press, New York 1959. First edition. Landscape 4to. 187pp. Buckram. Map-illustrated colour endpapers. Illustrated with forty-five magnificent full page colour drawings, plus dozens of other drawings in the text, many coloured. Six leaves creased, probably a production fault and some light miscellaneous staining to the fore edge margin of a preliminary leaf. Backstrip lightly tanned. A very good copy of a most delightful and elusive item, housed in original stiff card slipcase, a little chafed at some edges and with a short split to one natural fold. A pictorial record of the everyday life of a Desert Rat, created during the ten-month period the author served as a volunteer ambulance driver with the Eighth Army; and accompanied by edited extracts from his letters home. £150

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. Reprint (the year after first publication). 97pp. Striking illustrated paper-covered boards. With a photographic frontispiece of the artist and nearly 400 mostly monochrome reproductions. Boards a little bowed and with a smattering of foxing, mostly to spine and to 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. £40

GRAHAM SUTHERLAND. Sutherland and Wales. Paintings, Drawings and Prints. The catalogue of a 1989-90 exhibition at the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery. Stapled card wrappers, lightly dust marked and blemished. With an analysis by Ronald Alley, several photographs and 8 reproductions, several in colour, plus another to the front wrapper. £12

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

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. Fairy Tales and Legends by Hans Anderson. With over seventy illustrations, including ten full-page, by Rex Whistler. Cobden-Sanderson, London 1935. First edition – one of an unspecified number [i.e. 200] of deluxe issue copies signed by Rex Whistler. 8vo. 470pp. Full cream buckram with an elaborate Rococo gilt decoration. All edges gilt. Red endpapers replicating the cover design. Backstrip a little tanned and faded, and lightly chafed at head and base. Margins of upper board lightly discoloured. A tiny nick to the head of the front endpaper and to a single text leaf; and a trace of light spotting and browning to the head of four text leaves. Former owner bookplate to the front pastedown, and another to the adjacent free endpaper. A very good copy. No dust wrapper, probably as issued. £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

REX WHISTLER. Laurence Whistler and Ronald Fuller. The Work of Rex Whistler. Batsford, London 1960. First edition. 4to. Buckram. Decorated endpapers and publisher’s pink stain to top edge. Base of spine bumped. A very good copy in dust wrapper, faded at spine panel and at edges of front and rear panel, and with a touch of minor edge wear, two tiny jagged tears and a sliver of loss from the head of the spine panel. At 700 items, a virtually complete catalogue of Whistler’s work with 161 collotype reproductions, many full page and nine in colour, covering his output in various mediums including murals, easel paintings, portraits, book and book plate designs. A quite splendid production £300

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

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