RICHARD JEFFERIES. The Scarlet Shawl. A novel. Tinsley Brothers, London 1874. First edition of Jefferies first novel, this copy being Miller & Matthews third variant, with the uncorrected dedication leaf and without advertisements. 8vo. 309pp. Professionally re-cased retaining the original decorated cloth but with new endpapers. Just a touch of very minor soiling to several leaf margins. A very good copy. Former owner bookplate to front pastedown. Miller & Matthews (B4.3) estimate a print run of 500 copies, issued in three batches in July 1874, spring 1875 and this third one sometime afterwards but before August 1877. £500
RICHARD JEFFERIES. The Gamekeeper at Home. Sketches of Natural History and Rural Life. With illustrations by Charles Whymper. Smith, Elder & Co., London 1892. The second impression of the fourth edition. 221pp + vi publisher’s catalogue at rear. Green diagonal ribbed cloth with a double blind border to upper and lower boards. With a tissue-guarded frontispiece and forty-one captioned wood engraved illustrations by Charles Whymper (the frontispiece is a duplicate). Minor slant to binding, tips of corners bumped and cloth lightly chafed at spine extremities. A tiny blemish of spotting to half-title. A very nice, bright copy. 2000 copies were printed. Miller & Matthews B8.15. £20
RICHARD JEFFERIES. C.F.Tunnicliffe. Wild Life in a Southern County. With an introduction and notes by Samuel J.Looker, and wood engravings by C.F.Tunnicliffe. Lutterworth Press, London & Redhill 1949. The first edition with these Tunnicliffe wood engravings, which comprise a frontispiece, six full-page plates and thirteen engravings in the text. 8vo. 388pp. Top edge and free endpapers lightly spotted. A very good copy in somewhat chafed and nicked price-clipped dust wrapper, with half a dozen areas of edge loss and some accompanying creasing. Former owner details neatly inked to the head of the front free endpaper. Miller & Matthews B9.28. £10
RICHARD JEFFERIES. Hodge and his Masters. Edited, with revisions and a six-page foreword by Henry Williamson. Methuen, London 1937. A new edition, extensively re-written by Henry Williamson. 8vo. 369pp. With eight half-tone plates. Title page lightly spotted and the faint shadow of a former owner pencilled markings to front endpaper. A very good, bright copy in attractive pictorial dust wrapper, rubbed at some extremities and with a fraction of loss to head of spine panel. Matthews & Miller B12.3. £25
RICHARD JEFFERIES.Wood Magic. A Fable. Complete in two volumes. Cassell, London 1881. First edition (Miller & Matthews printing and make-up variant b.). 8vo. 235pp + viii and 263pp + viii. Dark green diagonal ribbed pictorial cloth gilt lettered and ruled at spines. Original brown endpapers. Spine ends a little worn with two small areas of miscellaneous marking to the upper board of the first volume. A single tiny hole to the upper gutter of the second volume, the binding of which exhibits a minor slant. A lovely crisp set, of which 500 copies were reputedly published. A novel for children, with a printed dedication to the author's son Harold (i.e. Richard Harold Jefferies). This publication marks the first appearance of Jefferies' character 'Bevis' who would appear again the following year in the eponymous three-decker. Miller & Matthews, B14.1 (one of the copies with the fourth page of the first volume advertisements un-numbered). £150
RICHARD JEFFERIES. Bevis. The Story of a Boy. With an introduction by E.V.Lucas. Duckworth, London 1904. Third edition, a new printing of the full text “seen through the press by the author’s only son, Mr. Harold Jeffries” - introduction. 8vo. xiv + 464pp. Blue fine weave pictorial cloth. With a frontispiece map signed ‘DG. FECIT’ (i.e. David Garnett, aged 12 – his first published work). Endpapers browned with some spotting to preliminary and final leaves and to occasional margins. Front hinge splitting and just a little tender. A very good copy of one of the more handsome productions of Jefferies’ classic. Former owner gift inscription neatly inked to a blank preliminary. Miller & Matthews B15.6. £100
RICHARD JEFFERIES. Bevis. With a short introduction by Herbert Strang. Oxford University Press, ‘Herbert Strang’s Library’ series, Oxford 1939. A separate impression of the abridged seventh edition, probably issued as a school edition. 256pp. With a colour frontispiece. Cloth a little spotted and discoloured at rear board. A somewhat handled copy, with some light spotting to preliminary leaves, alongside the occasional pencilled numeral and more bold use of the pencil to the blank rear of the frontispiece. Oxford University Press ink stamp to front endpaper. An unrecorded variant, identical to Miller & Matthews B15.25 but with frontispiece caption in black instead of blue. £25
RICHARD JEFFERIES. Red Deer. With illustrations by Neil McReddie. The Signet Press, Wiltshire 1989. The first edition with these handsome McReddie illustrations which comprise a frontispiece, sixteen plates and several vignettes and illustrations in the text. Small 4to. 146pp. In fine state. No dust wrapper, probably as issued. £15
RICHARD JEFFERIES. The Life of the Fields. Chatto & Windus, London 1908. The fine paper fifth impression of the second edition. The scarce full red leather issue, lettered, ruled and decorated in gold at spine, blind-ruled at upper and lower boards and with a gold vignette to upper board. All edges gilt. Decorated endpapers. Neat pencilled former owner name to flyleaf and title page. A very good copy. Matthew & Miller B20.18(b). £15
RICHARD JEFFERIES. After London; or Wild England. In Two Parts – Part 1. – The Relapse into Barbarism. Part 2. – Wild England. Cassell & Company, London 1885. First edition (Miller & Matthews printing variant a. and binding variant b.). Large crown 8vo. 442pp +[x] publisher’s advertisements. Brown cloth with bevelled edges, lettered in gold at spine and in black at upper board. With new endpapers, laid-over the original floral patterned endpapers. Spine ends and several corner tips rubbed and worn, with a little lifting to the backstrip cloth. A minor slant to the binding. Endpapers spotted with a little further light spotting to a dozen or so preliminary and concluding leaves. Really quite a crisp and bright copy of Jefferies’ quasi-dystopian / utopian novel, set in England following an unspecified calamity that destroys the great cities and allows nature to re-take cultivated land. Circa 1,000 copies were printed, some eventually destined for the US market. Uncommon. Miller & Matthews B22.1. £200
Posthumous Publications
RICHARD JEFFERIES. The Toilers of the Field. Longmans, London 1892. The deluxe issue of the first edition, limited to 105 numbered copies (this being #10) printed on handmade paper. Super royal 8vo. 327pp. Half-bound parchment with pale blue paper sides. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Boards very lightly marked and discoloured, tips of corners a little knocked and with just a little partial darkening to the free endpapers. Portrait frontispiece. Handsome former owner bookplate to the front pastedown. A very good copy. No dust wrapper called for. Twelve essays preceded by a brief preface by the editor, J.C.Longman: the first posthumous collection of Jefferies’ writings. Miller & Matthews B27.3. £150
RICHARD JEFFERIES. Toilers of the Field. Longmans, Green & Co., London 1894. Third impression of the first edition, second issue. 327pp + xxiv publisher’s catalogue. Dark red fine weave cloth, blind bordered at upper and lower boards and lettered in silver at spine. With a two-page preface by the publisher C.J.Longman (who also edited the collection) and a tissue-protected portrait frontispiece. A hint of wear to cloth at head and base of spine, else an extremely crisp and bright copy. 826 copies were printed. Miller & Matthews B27.5b. £25
Contributions to Periodicals
RICHARD JEFFERIES contributes the first printing of his celebrated essay Wild Flowers to the July 1885 issue of the periodical Longman’s Magazine. Vol. VI, No. XXXIII. With original decorated wrappers, a little chafed in places and chipped at spine extremities, yet a nice tight copy. Most uncommon. Miller & Matthews A20.6. £50
RICHARD JEFFERIES contributes his essay "The Makers of Summer" to the 28 May 1887 issue of the periodical Chambers' Journal. London. Bound volume for 1887. 4to. 848pp. Original embossed cloth, gilt. Covers a little marked here and there. Endpaper hinges just tender. One non-Jefferies text leaf detached but present. £20
RICHARD JEFFERIES contributes his illustrated essay Field Sports in Art. 1. – The Mammoth Hunter to the annual bound volume (containing all twelve issues) of the monthly periodical The Art Journal. Edited by Marcus Bourne Huish. J.S.Virtue & Co. Ltd., London 1895. 4to. vi + 384pp. Original gilt-lettered cloth, somewhat faded at the backstrip, a little marked in places and with some rubbing to the spine ends. All edges gilt. A very good copy. Jefferies’ article appeared in the April issue; the subtitle suggests that subsequent parts were intended, but none are known and this is his sole contribution to this publication. The piece was reproduced, without the illustrations, in the posthumous collection Field and Hedgerow (1889). Miller & Matthews A2.1. £50
Miscellaneous Publications and Writings about Jefferies
RICHARD JEFFERIES. By the Brook. Edited and with an introduction by George Miller. Eric & Joan Stevens, London 1981. First edition, limited to 170 numbered copies (this being #92). Slim 8vo. 14pp. Marbled paper-covered cloth with paper spine label. With a tipped-in etched frontispiece by Arthur Neal which the artist has signed, protected by a loose sheet of tissue. A little wear to corner tips. A very good copy. This is the first printing of this fairly early Jefferies essay, transcribed from the original undated manuscript written in the early 1870s. £50
RICHARD JEFFERIES. The Birth of a Naturalist. Edited and introduced by George Miller and with engravings by Nicholas Parry. The Tern Press, Market Drayton 1985. First edition, one of 280 numbered copies signed by the illustrator / publisher (out of a total edition of 300 copies). This copy (#42) additionally inscribed by the editor. Small square Royal 12mo. Unpaginated. Decorated paper-covered boards. In fine state. No dust wrapper called for. A previously unpublished chapter from Round About a Great Estate (possibly an alternate conclusion), with a thirteen-page introduction by Jeffries scholar George Miller. Miller & Matthews B41.1 £65
RICHARD JEFFERIES. Thoughts on the Migration of Birds. With illustrations by Nicholas Parry. Tern Press, Market Drayton 1999. The first edition with these illustrations, limited to 95 numbered copies printed on handmade Arches paper and signed by the artist / publisher. 4to. Unpaginated. Decorated paper-covered buckram with a paper title label. With a frontispiece and sixteen delightful full-page lithographs. Small bump to base of spine. A virtually fine copy. £150
RICHARD JEFFERIES. Richard Jefferies. An Anthology. Edited and with an introduction by Hugoe Matthews and Rebecca Welshman. The Richard Jefferies Society / Petton Books, Oxon 2010. First edition. 8vo. 266pp. Pictorial boards. In fine state. No dust wrapper, as issued. An exhaustive anthology of Jefferies' writings, mostly quite short quotations with some longer pieces, divided into sections and for the most part presented chronologically. With a brief chronology and a collector's list of primary works. Co-edited by the late Hugoe Matthews, co-author of the masterful Bibliographical Study of Jefferies, and with a short hand-written note from Hugoe laid-in. £30
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