English Literature and History. [ Sotheby's, auction catalogue, sale date: 11 December, 1997 ]

Sotheby's, London, auction catalogue for the sale held at the Aeolian Hall on 11th December, 1997. Laminated illustrated wrappers, 4to, 27 cm,. 183 pp, plates, ills. 404 lots. Among the highlights noted were the following: the Warwick Shakespeare Deed; and other important items relating to Shakespeare from the Warwick collections; The Nugent manuscript of Irish bardic poetry from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries; the first edition of the first English translation of Homer, 1581; Francis Bacon's copy of a tract against 'prophesies' by the Earl of Northampton, 1620; a 'Harmony' of the Gospels produced by Nicholas Ferrar's community at Little Gidding, 1635; a fourth folio of Shakespeare, 1685; the working papers for the unratified Anglo-American Treaty of 1806, the failure of which led to the war of 1812; Mrs. Beeton's own family copy of her Household management; Oscar Wilde's annotated copy of Matthew Arnold's Poems; Henry James's 'French library'; a first edition of James Joyce's Ulysses; intimate and forthright letters by D. H. Lawrence discussing Lady Chatterley's lover; annotated proof pages of Churchill's abridged The Second World War; rare first editions and manuscripts by Graham Greene; a collection of books by Agatha Christie; James Bond books inscribed by Ian Fleming; notable letters by David Hume, Frances Burney, Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton, Sir Walter Scott, Charlotte Bronte, S. T. Coleridge, Charles Dickens, W. M. Thackeray, J. E. Millais, Aubrey Beardsley, G. B. Shaw, T. E. Lawrence, Malcolm Lowry, and others. Lot 85 of the sale, The Warwick Shakespeare Deed, was the subject of a separate catalogue entirely devoted to it; accordingly here it is given only a one-page description and one illustration. Indexed. Numerous scribbled notes to contents, otherwise Good.