Add to Want List
Rare and Antiquarian Books

Rare books from Quair Books

Results 1 - 15 of 42
Old Acquaintance

Old Acquaintance

by STACTON, David; JULLIAN, Philippe (dust jacket artist); [GREENE, Elaine (literary agent)]

  • Used
  • very good
  • Hardcover
  • first
Condition
Used - Very Good
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Leeds, West Yorkshire
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£125.00
£21.50 shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
London: Faber and Faber, 1962. Very Good. FIRST EDITION. 8vo. Orange cloth, yellow lettering to spine. Slight lean to spine, gentle pushing and rubbing to spine ends. Edges toned, literary agent's label pasted diagonally to ffep: "Offered by/ Elaine Greene Ltd./ 2 Caxton Street, London, S.W.1.," else, clean and tight. In Phillippe Jullian's fabulously fitting dust jacket: toned, extremities nicked, spine sunned and a little rubbed. Still, Jullian's cover art remains vibrant. A pleasing copy of an attractive edition and an apt queer pairing of author and illustrator. VG/VG The first novel in Stacton's triptych on the theme of 'The Sexes'. A year after its publication, the San Francisco-born author (1923-1968) was named one of Time's 10 best US novelists of the past decade. His British editions tended to precede the American first editions, as here. He also wrote pulp fiction under the pseudonyms Bud Clifton and Carse Boyd. The French illustrator, biographer, aesthete and dandy, Philippe Jullian… Read More
Item Price
£125.00
£21.50 shipping to USA
Mrs. Kimber: With eight drawings by Mary Kessell
More Photos

Mrs. Kimber: With eight drawings by Mary Kessell

by KESSELL, Mary (illustrator); SITWELL, Osbert

  • Used
  • good
  • Hardcover
  • Signed
  • first
Condition
Used - Good
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Leeds, West Yorkshire
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£125.00
£21.50 shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd, 1937. Good. LIMITED EDITION (unnumbered of 500), SIGNED BY AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR. Small 4to, pp. [24] + Kessell's frontis, 7 plates (mostly marine subjects), plus final tail-piece. Fawn paper boards, printed label to upper board. Wear and bumps to extremities, browned towards edges, a few marks. Sitwell's inscription in black pen to ffep: "Miss Eve Harrison/ from, spiritually,/ Osbert Sitwell/ December. 17. 1937." and below, in a slighter, less flamboyant hand: "Mary Kessell. December 21st 1937", endpapers toned, clipped newspaper portrait of Sitwell pasted to half-title, some spotting, heavier at front. Else, clean. A good+ copy of Sitwell's account in verse of the fisherman's wife and mother, rare with the pair of signatures. Mary M. Kessell (1914-1977) was a British artist who worked across a diverse range of media, including paint, charcoal and needlework. As a student she illustrated books, but later worked as a designer for Shell and for the Needlework… Read More
Item Price
£125.00
£21.50 shipping to USA
One page typed letter signed on 'Cadbury Bros Ltd'-headed paper
More Photos

One page typed letter signed on 'Cadbury Bros Ltd'-headed paper

by CADBURY, Laurence J.; HILL, Ernest H.

  • Used
Condition
Used
Seller
Leeds, West Yorkshire
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£100.00
£21.50 shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
1919. TLS dated 11 June 1919 on 'Cadbury Bros Ltd'-headed paper (25.3 x 20.3cm), comprising two paragraphs addressed to Mr E. F. Hill and closing with Laurence John Cadbury's distinctive signature in black pen: "L J Cadbury". Four folds, a trifle soiled, with pen-offsetting to reverse. Else, in excellent condition, probably due to being laid in to Hill's copy of the British Museum's Guide to the Exhibited Manuscripts Part III: Illuminated manuscripts and bindings of manuscripts exhibited in the Grenville Library (London: British Museum, 1923; very good). Polite and practical in tone, the letter mentions a cheque in payment for the illuminated pages to be signed by the King and Queen (who visited Bournville in 1919) and discusses Hill taking students to Selly Manor, about which Cadbury is encouraging. Laurence John Cadbury (1889-1982) was the eldest son of George and Elizabeth Cadbury. He joined the family firm in 1911, though worked and travelled abroad for much of these pre-war years. Cadbury… Read More
Item Price
£100.00
£21.50 shipping to USA
Plays of the Natural and the Supernatural
More Photos

Plays of the Natural and the Supernatural

by DREISER, Theodore

  • Used
  • very good
  • Hardcover
Condition
Used - Very Good
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Leeds, West Yorkshire
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£95.00
£21.50 shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
London: Constable, 1930. Hardback. Very Good. Uniform English Edition". 8vo, pp. [vi], [390], [2]. Fawn cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Extremities bumped, bands of sunning to top and bottom edges. Bookseller's ticket to front pastedown, review clipping laid in. Else, clean and tight. In the original muted brown paper dust jacket: price-clipped, spine gently sunned and creased, head of spine frayed, wear to extremities. Still, a pleasing copy. Very good/ very good. Unusual in the trade. Originally published in 1916 by John Lane in New York and London, Constable's new edition featured an additional four plays, 'Phantasmagoria,' 'The Court of Progress,' 'The Dream' and 'The Hand of the Potter'. The laid in review draws attention to the cinematic facets of the playwright's work: "Mr. Theodore Dreiser's collection of plays is a reminder of the films' continuous and increasing influence upon the theatre. This influence is neither wholly good nor wholly bad; its effect depends upon the innate quality of… Read More
Item Price
£95.00
£21.50 shipping to USA
Adnam's Orchard: A prologue
More Photos

Adnam's Orchard: A prologue

by GRAND, Sarah (pseud. McFALL, Frances Elizabeth)

  • Used
  • very good
  • Hardcover
  • Signed
  • first
Condition
Used - Very Good
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Leeds, West Yorkshire
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£200.00
£21.50 shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
London: William Heinemann, 1912. Very Good. FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY AUTHOR. Substantial 8vo, pp. [viii], 640. Original green cloth, spine ruled and lettered in gilt, upper board decorated and lettered in black. Bottom edge untrimmed. Slight lean to spine, gentle pushing to spine ends, bottom corners bruised, rubbed. Signed and dated by Grand in faded sepia ink to front pastedown in the year of publication: "Sarah Grand/ 1912.", below 'Dunecht' book-label. Offsetting and foxing to feps, else, clean and tight. Very good. A pleasing copy of Grand's penultimate novel, unusual signed and tantalising in its connection with the Pearsons of Dunecht. Sarah Grand, the pen name of Frances Elizabeth Bellenden McFall (née Clarke, 1854-1943), was an Irish author and suffragist, who laid claim to coining the term 'the new woman'. Alongside her weighty 'problem' novels, in the early decades of the twentieth century, Grand lectured throughout England and the United States, promoting women's suffrage, rational dress,… Read More
Item Price
£200.00
£21.50 shipping to USA
The Forbidden Zone
More Photos

The Forbidden Zone

by BORDEN, Mary

  • Used
  • good
  • Hardcover
  • first
Condition
Used - Good
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Leeds, West Yorkshire
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£125.00
£21.50 shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
London: William Heinemann, LTD., 1929. Good. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. [x], [199], [1] + illustrated frontis reproducing Percy Smith's drypoint 'Solitude'. Original black cloth, spine lettered in gilt, gilt embossed design echoing the docked solitary tree of 'Solitude' to upper board. Spine baggy, spine ends frayed, extremities bruised and top corner bumped, slight warp and faint bloom to boards, wear to blind-stamped Heinemann device. Grey marbled endpapers tanned. Foxing to front and rear, musty. Else, clean. A robust copy of Borden's celebrated WWI collection. The Chicago-born socialite, suffragette and prolific author, Mary 'May' Borden (1886-1968) used her own private wealth to fund and staff a mobile hospital at the French front, for which she received the Croix de Guerre and was made a member of the Légion d'honneur. The Forbidden Zone is considered "her most enduring work," comprising five stories "written recently from memory" and poems and sketches penned during her four years in France, and… Read More
Item Price
£125.00
£21.50 shipping to USA
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
More Photos

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson

by MANTON, Jo; [GARRETT ANDERSON, Elizabeth]

  • Used
  • near fine
  • Hardcover
  • Signed
  • first
Condition
Used - Near Fine
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Leeds, West Yorkshire
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£100.00
£21.50 shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
London: Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1965. Near Fine. FIRST EDITION, GARRETT ANDERSON'S SIGNATURE LAID IN. 8vo, pp. 382 + colour frontis and b/w plates. Original blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt in black panel. Bruising to spine ends and corners, a few spots and occasional marginal staining, else, clean and tight. With Garrett Anderson's undated, clipped signature in blue-black ink laid in: "yours affly,. E G Anderson" (5 x 9.5 cm) pasted on cropped grey card (7.4 x 11.7 cm) attached with transparent corner mounts to white card (13 x 15cm), with information in two different hands, naming and describing "Mrs Garett [sic] Anderson (M.D.)". Glue residue to top edge of original signature background. In the pictorial dust jacket: creased at edges and extremities, a little soiled, tacky residue with attendant wear to front panel. Still, a smart copy of Manton's important biography, rare with Garrett Anderson's signature laid in. Near fine/ very good. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson's (1836-1917) life was one of firsts:… Read More
Item Price
£100.00
£21.50 shipping to USA
Mockery Gap
More Photos

Mockery Gap

by POWYS, T. F.; [HOPKINS, Kenneth]

  • Used
  • good
  • Hardcover
  • Signed
  • first
Condition
Used - Good
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Leeds, West Yorkshire
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£195.00
£21.50 shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
London: Chatto & Windus, 1925. Hardback. Good. FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY AUTHOR. 8vo, pp. [2], vi, 271, [1]. Original blue cloth, paper title-label to spine lettered in black. Top edge blue (faded), bottom edge untrimmed. Spare title-label tipped in at rear. Slight lean to spine, extremities bumped with light wear. Foxed throughout. Signed by author in black pen to ffep: "Theodore Francis Powys," with Kenneth Hopkins' ownership signature in pencil above, dated July 1937, bookseller note in pencil to front pastedown. Hopkins has made occasional brief marginal notes, in blue and red pen and pencil, and drafted, dated, located (with some specificity) and signed a poem ("Because there is no happiness � you say �") in pencil on recto of rear fep: "9.30 July 28 1937/ outside Trinity Church, Bournemouth." In the original dust jacket: spine toned and creased, soiled, a few spots and short closed tears, chipped and creased at extremities. Good+/ good+ An important association copy, which captures something of… Read More
Item Price
£195.00
£21.50 shipping to USA
A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu. Tome VI. La Prisonni�re (Sodome et Gomorrhe III) in two volumes
More Photos

A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu. Tome VI. La Prisonni�re (Sodome et Gomorrhe III) in two volumes

by PROUST, Marcel; [MITCHISON, Naomi]

  • Used
  • very good
  • Hardcover
Condition
Used - Very Good
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Leeds, West Yorkshire
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£150.00
£21.50 shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Paris: �ditions de la Nouvelle Revue Fran�aise/ Galllimard, 1925. Very Good. Eighteenth La Nouvelle Revue Fran�aise (NRF) edition. 8vos, pp. 280, [2]; 287, [3]. In French. Hand-bound gilt patterned paper boards, red morocco spine labels, gilt stamped lettering. Blue stain to top edges (faded), others untrimmed, a number crudely opened. Uneven sunning to spines and boards, gentle pushing to spine ends, toned. Mitchison's charming ex libris to front pastedown of vol. I, occasional ink offsetting to vol. II, else, clean and tidy. An attractive pair of hand-bound reprints of the sixth volume of Proust's masterpiece from the library of Naomi Mitchison. The "Haldane polymath", Lady (though she never used the title) Naomi Mitchison (1897-1999, CBE), was a prolific Scottish author and activist, with links to Fabian, Labour and Scottish Nationalist movements. Hailing from a family of privilege and pre-eminent scientists, she is best known for The Corn King and the Spring Queen (1931), celebrated both as a… Read More
Item Price
£150.00
£21.50 shipping to USA
The Painted King
More Photos

The Painted King

by DAVIES, Rhys; [TAYLOR, Louise & Redvers]; SCHWARTZ, Daniel (DJ illustrator)

  • Used
  • very good
  • Hardcover
  • Signed
  • first
Condition
Used - Very Good
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Leeds, West Yorkshire
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£125.00
£21.50 shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
New York: Doubleday & Company Inc., 1954. Hardback. Very Good. FIRST US EDITION, INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR. 8vo, pp. 250, [2]. Original black cloth, spine lettered in green and orange. Top edge orange (? faded). Pushing and gentle wear to spine ends, corners bumped. edges toned. Inscribed in slightly fuzzy blue pen to ffep: "Red and Louise/ affectionately/ from Rhys/ June 11th 1955". In the wonderful wraparound, mirror-image dust jacket by Daniel Schwartz: spine sunned, creasing and chipping to spine ends, edgewear. An important presentation copy to two key figures in the mid-period of Davies' life, as well as a material trace of the dispersed web of twentieth century queer relations and wealth transmission, with Davies, ultimately, the unofficial heir (at one remove) of Toklas. Dubbed 'the Welsh Chekhov', Rhys Davies (1901-1978; OBE) was a prolific and prize-winning author, over whose long career chronicled working class life, especially of industrial Wales, as well as featuring lesbian relationships,… Read More
Item Price
£125.00
£21.50 shipping to USA
Elenchus Brown: The story of an Experimental Utopia compiled [or rather, written] by A Student of...

Elenchus Brown: The story of an Experimental Utopia compiled [or rather, written] by A Student of Battersea Polytechnic.

by BOWHAY, B. L. [Bertha Louisa]; LANGDON, Harvey (illustrator)

  • Used
  • good
  • Hardcover
  • first
Condition
Used - Good
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Leeds, West Yorkshire
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£125.00
£21.50 shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
London: H. R. Allenson, Limited, 1929. Hardback. Good. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. 368, incl. b/w frontis and full-page illustrations. Original red cloth, spine and upper board lettered and ruled in black, black-stamped Allenson's device to bottom board. Spine sunned, extremities gently bruised, faint spotting to edges. Endpapers toned, foxed, most heavily to front and rear, with a tide mark to gutter of title page. A robust copy of Bowhay's interwar (anti-)utopian novel. Unusual in the trade; Jisc LHD lists eight copies held by British & Irish research libraries (the legal deposit libraries, plus the London Library & UoStrathclyde). Good+ Bertha Louisa Bowhay (1873-1948) was a playwright and author, who wrote across genres: her historical novel Caspar: A Medieval Romance (1930) followed Elenchus and was itself followed by Guessing Deeper (1933). Elenchus has been compared to Winifred Hotly's The Astonishing Island (1933), another satirical novel on the traditional island utopia. Set on the fictional… Read More
Item Price
£125.00
£21.50 shipping to USA
Sybil Thorndike
More Photos

Sybil Thorndike

by THORNDIKE, Russell

  • Used
  • Hardcover
  • Signed
  • first
Condition
Used - Good+
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Leeds, West Yorkshire
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£125.00
£21.50 shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
London: Thornton Butterworth Limited, 1929. FIRST EDITION, DOUBLE SIGNED by both THORNDIKES. Large 8vo, pp. 320 + b/w frontis and plates. Original orange and yellow patterned cloth, spine and upper board lettered in black and blind ruled, Sybil Thorndike's facsimile signature black-stamped to upper board. Spine sunned, pushing and wear to spine ends and corners. Signed in black pen to tanned half-title by both subject and author, dated (in the latter's hand?) "June 6th 1929", ink offsetting from Russell's signature, page separating at heel, but holding firm. Blue Westminster Abbey service sheet (24,10.1982; incl. details about a short ceremony for the centenary of Sybil's birth) tipped in to rear fep gutter, newspaper clipping 'On This Day: March 27 1924' pasted to rear pastedown. Else, clean and tidy. A rare signed familial two-hander, marking the arrival of the doyenne of the twentieth century Shakespearean stage. Good+ The Thorndike siblings began their theatrical training and careers together,… Read More
Item Price
£125.00
£21.50 shipping to USA
Anna Comnena
More Photos

Anna Comnena

by MITCHISON, Naomi; BIRRELL, Francis (series editor); GOWER PARKS, J. (frontis artist)

  • Used
  • Hardcover
Condition
Used
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Leeds, West Yorkshire
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£125.00
£21.50 shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
FIRST EDITION, INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR. Slim 8vo, pp. 96, incl. frontispiece portrait. Original black cloth, spine lettered in gilt, blind-stamped series' device ("Representative Women" arching over a decorative hand mirror) to upper board. Leading edge untrimmed. Gentle bruising and wear to extremities, bump to tail, with echo in text block. Inscribed by Mitchison in black ink to ffep: "F. Stroud Read/ from Naomi Mitchison/ With much gratitude!" with the inscribee's name in sepia ink below with date and place: "Tirana, Albania/ 12.12.1928". Gently toned. Else, clean and tight. A pleasing association copy of Mitchinson's contribution to the Representative Women series. Mitchison closes her Bibliography with an acknowledgement to her inscribee: "I should particularly like to thank Mr Stroud Read for standing up for the Byzantines, lending me books, answering questions, and for the doubtful service of encouraging me to write this". Frederick Stroud Read (1892-1941) was a linguist and historian, who lived… Read More
Item Price
£125.00
£21.50 shipping to USA
Drama
More Photos

Drama

by MacCARTHY, Desmond; [LESLIE, Henrietta pseud. of Henrietta SCH�TZE]

  • Used
  • very good
  • Hardcover
  • Signed
  • first
Condition
Used - Very Good
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Leeds, West Yorkshire
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£125.00
£21.50 shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
London & New York: Putnam, 1940. Very Good. FIRST UK EDITION, INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR. Large 8vo, pp. ix, (i), 376, (3). Brown cloth, spine lettered and ruled in gilt. Slight lean to spine, gilt faded, extremities bruised and bumped, splits to head of spine, faint blotching to upper board, scoring to bottom board. Inscribed in blue pen on ffep: "Henrietta Leslie/ from/ Desmond MacCarthy/ June 1945.", toned and occasionally foxed. Else, internally clean, tight and tidy. Good+ Sir Desmond MacCarthy (1877-1952) was a literary reviewer, drama critic and magazine editor, and member of the Bloomsbury group (his wife, Molly, is thought to have coined the term). From 1928, when MacCarthy succeeded Edmund Gosse as the principal reviewer for the Sunday Times and began the literary monthly, Life and Letters, he was arguably the most influential literary journalist of the period (ODNB). (Gladys) Henrietta Sch�tze, who wrote as Henrietta Leslie (1884-1946), was, like Constance Smedley (see QB item ref: 2388), a… Read More
Item Price
£125.00
£21.50 shipping to USA
Guest and Memories: Annals of a seaside villa
More Photos

Guest and Memories: Annals of a seaside villa

by 'Mrs Cameron' [CAMERON, Julia Margaret] (photographic plates); TAYLOR, Una [Ashworth]; WALKER, Emery (plate printer)

  • Used
  • Hardcover
Condition
Used
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Leeds, West Yorkshire
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£150.00
£21.50 shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. vii, [1], [2], 430, [2] + seven b/w plates, comprising four "taken from a photograph by Mrs Cameron", incl. the photogravure frontispiece portrait (with tissue guard), produced by Emery Walker (as is the final plate, 'Theodosia Alice Taylor', "from a painting by G.F. Watts, R.A."), plus a facsimile letter from Robert Louis Stevenson. Edges untrimmed. Original blue buckram, cream spine label to spine (faded and chipped). Board edges and extremities bumped, band of fading to front board. PO inscription, below glue residue to front pastedown, very occasional grubby fingerprint or ink stain to text block, spine cracked at pp.416-7, but binding firm. Else, internally clean and tidy. A robust copy of an unusual biography, twinning two pioneering Victorians of visual media. Uncommon in the trade, but fairly well represented in British and Irish research libraries. Good+ An account of the later life of playwright, Byronic poet and Victorian man of letters, Sir Henry Taylor… Read More
Item Price
£150.00
£21.50 shipping to USA