7921. [Somerville & Ross] / Verling, John / [Edith Somerville & Violet Martin].

Somerville & Ross – Portfolio of ten (10) original, large Etchings by John Verling [signed].

Ballydehob / Schull, John Verling & Schull Books, 1984. Folio – Sheets (38.2 cm x 28.5 cm). Ten original etchings in bespoke Folder with original tissue-guards. Original Hardcover-Folder with one additional, signed inlay-etching to frontcover. The ten etchings and the folder with the original inlay-art, are all in mint condition. The etchings all protected by their original tissue guards. A stunning publication of a wonderful West Cork – Artist. A must-have for all collector’s of rare and signed Somerville & Ross collectables, this find is simply an unusual occurance because the artwork was originally designed to be framed. One usually never finds this edition with the artwork still in its original folder !

7922. Paine, Thomas.

Agrarian Justice, Opposed to Agrarian Law, and to Agrarian Monopoly ; Being a Plan for Meliorating the Condition of Man, by creating in every Nation a National Fund, to pay to every person, when arrived at the age of Twenty-One years, the sum of Fifteen Pounds Sterling, to enable him; or her to begin the world; And Also, Ten Pounds Sterling per annum during life to every person now living of the age of Fifty Years, and to all others when they shall arrive at that age, to enable them to live in old age without Wretchedness, and go decently out of the world. By Thomas Paine, author of Common sense, Rights of man, Age of reason, &c. &c.

First Irish Edition / First Cork Edition. Cork, Printed at the late Gazette-Office, no year [1797]. Octavo. 16 pages. Original half-leather. Binding in very poor condition but interior firm and clean besides the endpaper and first few pages of the Volume which is bound before the work by Thomas Paine. Rear endpaper missing. Very important publication, perfectly protected in the rear of this Volume. The Cork-Print of this important pamphlet is of utmost rarity.

7923. [Sackville-West / Jekyll, Gertrude / Bowles, E.A. / Beales, Peter and many others]

Collection of 80 books on Garden History & Garden Design, mainly from the collection of Ann Geneva. The collection includes not only classics from Vita Sackville-West or Gertrude Jekyll but also some fantastic publications on the Social History of Gardens, Design of Period Gardens, History of Ancient Roman Gardens etc. etc.

London and others, Michael Joseph / Longmans, Green and many others, c.1906 – 2004. Octavo. More than 5000 pages with numerous illustrations and plans. Original Hardcover and Softcover-Bindings, ften with their illustrated dustjackets in protective collector’s Mylar. Very good condition with only minor signs of external wear. [Please ask for a full list with details and photographs of the books included in this collection]. The price includes an upgrade to worldwide free shipping of the collection per UPS Express Courier.

7924. Le Brocquy, Louis.

Personal copies of an early set of 18 photographs [contacts] of works by Louis le Brocquy, mostly titled and annotated / explained by Louis le Brocquy himself verso. Some of the photographs refer to very early works of Louis le Brocquy. Some have no entries by le Brocquy verso, some have quite extensive manuscript-information in Louis le Brocquy’s hand like “Sold to:…..” etc. etc. / Also included is an original, very early exhibition catalogue (Louis le Brocquy’s personal copy of the catalogue) for an exhibition in Mayfair/″Gimpel Fils” – November 1959. The catalogue has several annotations and underlinings in Louis le Brocquy’s hand and included are most of the original photographs of works le Brocquy selected for the printing of the catalogue.

Loandon / Mayfair, Gimpel Fils, 1959. Octavo. 12 pages plus four photographs directly related to the exhibition catalogue / 18 photographs of earlier works. Original Softcover. Very good condition with only minor signs of external wear. A stunning, really original set of interesting ephemera from the artist’s personal collection, given to his friend John Montague. Provenance: From the private collection of John Montague’s papers in his recently sold West Cork Home.

7925. [John Montague Collection] – [Montague, John] Dorgan, Theo.

Typescript Draft MS for a book of poetry by Theo Dorgan. With occasional manuscript corrections / suggestions / annotations by Dorgan’s early mentor John Montague, the Typescript MS was held among the private papers of John Montague in his West Cork Home. The typescript includes poems like “Closed Circuit”, “The Promised Garden”. Montague is approving several of the poems by simply applying a tick. John Montague made suggestions in pencil on the structure of “Elegy for a Schoolfriend” and more in depth-suggestions on “Nasty Archer”, “Her Body”,″The Width of a Room Between Us”, “Return”, “Reconciliation”, “Sunday Afternoon”. When asked about helping to date this early draft of his poetry, Theo Dorgan immediately gets back to us and he places it from memory into the early 1980’s. Theo Dorgan was surprised and seemingly chuffed that John Montague held on to this Manuscript and he recalls: “These poems, some in revised versions, make up the backbone of my first published collection, ‘The Ordinary House of Love’.” Dorgan continues: “I’m happy to say that most of them survived Montague’s eagle eye, which was of course a great comfort to me at the time. Still is!” Some of these poems selected had previously been published as broadsheets etc. but the skeleton of the Draft hints already at readying it for publication. Theo Dorgan graciously gives us even more information: “Some of the poems in the eventual book go back to when I was a student, others were definitely written in the second half of the 80s. The bulk of it, however, is in this MS. I base my estimation in part on the fact that what you have is a typescript produced, it appears, on the IBM golfball machine that was the pride and joy of Triskel Arts Centre. That machine was bought in 1980 or 1981, I’m fairly sure of that. I was Literature Officer there, then.” Theo Dorgan was part of John Montague’s circle of mentored poets, even though in an email-exchange with him about this typescript he mentions that “John Montague worked far more with Thomas McCarthy, Maurice Riordan and Gregory O’Donoghue than he did with me, and in many ways Gregory O’Donoghue was at that stage the most accomplished of us all – the only one included in JM’s Faber Book.” What followed then in our conversation with Theo Dorgan is a great example why manuscripts, letters, autographs, typescripts and the connections we often make with documents from the past have such meaning in explaining our emotional ties with people who matter to us on our way of forming personality. They are memories transforming into images, floods of empathy and nostalgia for personal moments lost but treasured because they helped us form our values. Presented with the old typescript, Theo Dorgan’s emotionality is tangible and he confesses more in an internal dialogue with himself and John Montague than with us: “I’m sorry to say that the reason John Montague worked with those others more than he did with me is because, in my shameful, youthful arrogance, I much preferred to trust my own judgement, and also, I suspect, because I was closest to John in temperament and feared coming unduly under his influence. That said, there was no-one whose good opinion of a poem I valued more, and we were close all our lives after. Very likely it was a case of old stag/young stag ! Montague taught us by indirection, he made his extensive library of modern and contemporary poetry available to us without stint, would wait for us to find an affinity (as, e.g. mine with Robert Graves and Galway Kinnell) and would then, in a long, ongoing conversation, help us to understand what it might mean for our own poems that we felt such affinities. A guided companionship in reading and making, if you will.″

Ireland, c.1981-1982. A4. 43 pages typescripts. Paperclipped. Very good condition with only minor signs of external wear. Some fingerstaining and residue of rust from the paperclip. Wonderful and extremely valuable document of not only a collaboration between two of Ireland’s landmark writers but moreover witness to the becoming, the birth of a true poet. Also included (from a different source) is a second printing of the first edition of the subsequent publication “The Ordinary House of Love” – signed by Theo Dorgan. Right at the beginning of the printed version, instead of a dedication to John Montague, Theo Dorgan placed a quote from Montague’s poem “Wine Dark Sea”: ‘For there is no sea / it is all a dream there is no sea / except in the tangle / of our minds; / the wine dark / sea of history on which we all turn / turn and thresh / and disappear.’ (Collected Poems, page 255). Provenance of the annotated typescript: From the private collection of John Montague’s papers in his recently sold West Cork Home.

7926. [Lee, Spike / Puttnam, David / Columbia Pictures].

Spike Lee’s Gotta Have it : Inside Guerilla Filmmaking [Inscribed and signed by Spike Lee to british producer Davis Puttnam (then Columbia CEO / Chairman of Columbia Pictures) who was instrumental in green-lighting Spike Lee’s ‘first major studio film’ (see Patrick Goldstein’s article in the LA Times in Feb.,1988) “School Daze”. The inscription reads: “To David Puttnam / Thanks for Everything / I appreciate it / Fuck Columbia !!! / love, Spike Lee” and is reflective of Spike Lee’s and David Puttnam’s experiences at Columbia (according to the Patrick Goldstein – article, Lee later complained that he constantly fought with Columbia, accusing them of trrying to ‘ghettoize’ his film.

First Edition. New York, Simon and Schuster, 1987. Octavo. 366 pages, illustrated throughout. Illustrated softcover in Collector’s Mylar and bespoke made Solanderbox. Excellent condition with only minor signs of wear. Extremely rare, stunning association-copy between two icons of film-making.

7927. [Cullen, Stephen] Anonymus.

The Haunted Priory: or, The Fortunes of The House of Rayo. A Romance founded partly on historical Facts.

The Second Edition / [Original Edition – This is NOT a reprint]. London, Printed for J. Bell, 1794. Small Octavo. 256 pages. Hardcover / Modern half-leather with gilt lettering on spine and paper-covered boards. In bespoke made clamshell-box / solander-box. Beautifully restored and bound by a master bookbinder. Including the original endpapers and the original half-title. Front free endpaper and halftitle with dampstain to lower corner only. Dampstain in lower corner of the titlepage only faintly present. One of the rarest titles of Irish Literature and one of the rarest, early gothic-novels / horror-novels. Extremely, sbsolutely scarce publication and in excellent condition after the beautiful restoration.

7928. Foster, Vere [Henry Louis / Lewis] / [Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire / Elizabeth, Duchess of Devonshire] / [Publisher Blackie & Son – Publishing House in Glasgow].

Publisher’s original “Private Library” – Correction-Copy of “The Two Duchesses”, for the “Second Edition”, with necessary alterations and wishes for changes marked by the corrector / publisher in pencil. Comparisons between pages allow to see the changes in effect if one compares the first and second edition. [A sensational find] / Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire / Elizabeth, Duchess of Devonshire – Family Correspondence of and Relating to Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire / Elizabeth, Duchess of Devonshire, Earl of Bristol (Bishop of Derby), The Countess of Bristol, Lord and Lady Byron, The Earl of Aberdeen, Sir Augustus Foster Bart, and Others, 1777-1859. First Edition. With 17 illustrations.

London / Glasgow and Dublin, Blackie & Son Limited, 1898. Octavo (16 cm x 22,5 cm). XII, 497 pages with 16 full-page-illustrations and one small vignette, showing the Two Duchesses in cordial embrace. Hardcover / Original, green publisher’s cloth with gilt lettering and ornament to spine and armorial supralibro to cover with the Motto of the “British chivalric Order of the Garter”: “Honi soit qui mal y pense” [″shame on anyone who thinks evil of it”]. Excellent, very clean binding. Very good condition with some minor signs of wear only. “Publisher’s Copy” with the publisher’s library sticker and bookplate to pastedown: “Blackie & Son Limited – Private Library – Case Kd – Shelf 5” – Exlibris of Blackie & Son below the library-sticker.

7929. [Irish Traditional Boat Building / Manuscript Day-book Passage West] Roberts, Capt. R.E.

Manuscript Folio Day-book of Passage West (County Cork) Boat-builder, Captain R.E. Roberts [direct relation of relative of Capt. R.R. Roberts of ‘The Sirius’]. With original correspondence, manuscript and typed letters to Roberts, Drafts of his replies and notes on wishes of clients regarding the building of Boats, delivery of Oars, detailed wishes of clients for the building of boats. Orders which reached Roberts range from Yachts and their accoutrements to Punts and Dinghies. Clients included C.W. Read, solicitor (insurance claim for gangway accident on the S.S. Amarglin), Miss Hill (‘daughter of H. Hill, Architect, regarding the Yacht “Yodash”), A.J. Wolfe (Yacht “Marion”), J.F. Quain of Ardmore etc. (see further details below).

Passage West (County Cork), 1939-1940. Folio (21.5 cm wide x 31.5 cm high). 242 pages of an alphabetized Ledger of which 48 pages are full of manuscript-entries and numerous other pages have been used to tip-in letters which Roberts received from clients. With numerous further letters, postcards loosely inserted. Original Hardcover. Binding in rough but still firm condition with stronger signs of external wear. Fantastic example of a Day-to-Day Order-Book of an irish Traditional Boat Builder, active in the war-years of 1939 and 1940. Captain R.E. Roberts Boat-building Business, being a direct relative of R.R.Roberts (″The Sirius”), is a great example of traditional succession in irish craftsmanship. The Day-book gives us insight into the wishes of clients, pricing, quotes and reason of orders and how on the one hand irish Traditional Boat-Building was revered abroad and also greatly supported and sought after by the local irish population. Roberts’ Boat-Building-company also had contracts from overseas and the correspondence reflects the hard times and imminent outbreak of war, which plays a role in the worries of Robert’s clients and must have had an enormous impact on his company. Client W.R.ffrench Mullen speaks in a letter from April 15th, 1939 of the fear of not being able to come and meet his boatbuilder: “I am (unless Europe boils up before in the next forty-eight hours) coming over on about a fortnights leave, leaving London Saturday next.” In another letter from May 2nd, 1939, ffrench Mullen hopes “the boat is progressing well” and that the company of D.O’Brien Corkery & Co. can deliver it in their lorry to Kenmare. Roberts notes about this client in his day-book an important message to one of his builders: “My client says he knows nothing about sailing – would you suggest that the area of Sails be in the Small Side for Safety – the boat is for use on the Kenmare River”. Roberts notes about another client, Mrs. Howell of Fountaintown, who ordered a 11ft boat for children on Sunday 4-9-38 for Easter 1939 – Quoted 22 per ft = £12 / Roberts notes about “Miss Hill from Monkstown (daughter of Lt.Hill Architect) ordered 7-1-39 Centre Board Boat, Spirit Sail (brown), oars, rudder, Name on transome “YOLDASH”, varnished top sides painted underneath – agreed price £16 – To be ready for Easter Holidays – Took Boat away 7-4-39 – pleased”. / More details on other orders below.

7930. [Disraeli, Benjamin] Blake, Baron Robert Norman William.

Disraeli by Robert Blake [SIGNED First Edition].

First Edition. London, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1966. Large Octavo. Frontispiece-Portrait of Disraeli, XXIV, [1], 819 pages with 16 illustrations and two maps within the text. Hardcover / Original publisher’s cloth without the dustjacket [Price includes the preparation of a custom-made clamshell-box for the buyer of this extremely rare book]. Private giftinscription on endpaper. Binding a bit fragile and rear gutter starting. Boards slightly stained and a bit grubby. Still in very good condition. Interior very clean. This is one of the rare opportunities to buy this Magnus Opus in a signed version, which is nearly impossible to find ! Signed and dated by Baron Blake on the titlepage: “Robert Blake – March 31st 1970”.