antiquarian bookseller - Peter Harrington

Peter Harrington Antiquarian Bookseller
62. LAWRENCE, T. E.
Oriental Assembly. Edited by A. W,
Lawrence.
London, Williams and Norgate Ltd., 1939 [26594] £350
8vo. Original brown cloth, spine gilt. With the dustjacket.
Illustrated with diagrams, maps and photographs by the
author. Book and dustjacket both fine.
FIRST EDITION, First Impression.
O’Brien A221.
63. LAWRENCE, T. E.
The Home Letters of T. E. Lawrence
and his Brothers
Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1954 [32557] £250
8vo. Original blue cloth, titles to spine gilt. With the dustjacket.
With photographic illustrations by the author. A fine copy in
the very lightly tanned dustjacket.
FIRST EDITION, First Impression.
O’Brien A246.
64. LAWRENCE, T.E.
3
Seven Pillars of Wisdom. A
Triumph. The Complete 1922 Text.
Fordingbridge, Castle Hill Press, 1997 [39264] £950
3 volumes, 4to. The two text volumes in the original
quarter cloth on grey paper-covered boards, green leather
labels, Illustrations volume in matching rough cloth, title
gilt longitudinally to the spine, pale green top-stain, all in
dustjackets as issued in the plum cloth slip-case. Numerous
coloured and black and white illustrations. Near fine.
FIRST EDITION THUS. Edition limited to 752 copies, this
one of 650 in the standard binding. Handsomely printed
by the Cambridge University Press and stylishly and
simply bound by The Fine Bindery.
O’Brien A036c
65. (LAWRENCE, T. E.)
WILSON, Sir Arnold.
Mesopotamia 1917–1920. A clash of
Loyalties. A personal and historical
record.
Oxford University Press, London, 1931 [35294] £275
8vo. Original blue cloth, titles to spine gilt. With two folding
maps and other illustrations. Contents just a little browned
but an excellent copy.
FIRST EDITION, First Impression. With the author’s
presentation inscription to the front free endpaper, “Oliver
Baldwin Esq M.P. with the compliments and good wishes
of the writer July 1931”. Baldwin, the son of the Prime
Minister, had served in Mesopotamia in the aftermath of
the war.
66. (LAWRENCE, T. E.)
THOMAS, Bertram.
Arabia Felix: Across the “Empty
Quarter” of Arabia. With a foreword
by T. E. Lawrence (T.E.S.) and an
Appendix by Sir Arthur Keith.
New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1932 [35579] £385
8vo. Bound for the publishers by The Atelier Bindery in
contemporary half tan morocco, one pink and one powder
blue morocco label to spine, titles and elaborate decoration
to spine gilt, red endpapers, top edge gilt. Containing maps,
charts, diagrams and illustrations complementary to the text.
Light rubbing to corners and joints, a few scuffs to label. A
very good copy.
FIRST US EDITION, First Impression.
67. LAYARD, Sir Austen
Henry.
Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh
and Babylon; With Travels in
Armenia, Kurdistan and the Desert:
Being the Result of a Second
Expedition undertaken for the
British Museum.
London, John Murray, 1853 [39300] £450
8vo. Original terracotta cloth, recased and spine relined,
slightly rubbed, but the intricate blind stamping of the Great
Winged Bull still clear, new endpapers. Folding frontispiece,
one other folding plate and a single plate of inscriptions, 8
tinted lithographic plates, 3 folding plans and 2 large folding
plans. Some foxing, as usual, particularly to the frontispiece
and title page, but overall a very good copy, well restored
preserving the striking embossed cloth.
FIRST EDITION. Account of Layard’s important second
British Museum expedition, “Apart from the archæological
value of his work in identifying Kouyunjik as the site
of Nineveh, and in providing a great mass of materials
for scholars to work upon … Layard’s [accounts] are
among the best written books of travel in the language”
(Britannica).
Abbey Travel 364; Atabey 687; Blackmer 969.
68. LAYARD, Sir Austen
Henry.
Early Adventures in Persia, Susiana,
and Babylonia including a Residence
among the Bakhtiyari and other
Wild Tribes before the Discovery of
Nineveh.
London, John Murray, 1887 [39301] £850
2 volumes, 8vo. Original sage green cloth with darker green
and vermilion decoration to upper board and spine, titles
gilt to spine. Chromolithographic frontispiece – Layard in
Bakhtiyari costume – to vol. I, together with an engraved
plate and two folding maps at the rear, vol. I with engraved
frontispiece, one further plate and folding map at the rear.
Light browning, hinges very slightly cracked, otherwise a very
nice set, light shelf wear to the cloth.
FIRST EDITION. Layard who “grew up a Romantic,
desperate for fame and exotic experiences, and
contemptuous of English professional mores”, turned his
back on steady employ in his uncle’s solicitor’s office and
set out overland to join another uncle in Ceylon. Sidetracked
by adventure he set aside his original itinerary and
lived for some time in the Bakhtiari Mountains with a tribe
resisting the Shah’s rule. Whilst returning to Baghdad via
Mosul he became convinced that he had discovered the
location of Nineveh, persuading Sir Stafford Canning
to support his excavations at Nimrud. It was only after
his return to England, exhausted and malarial, and the
publication of his first book that he realised that Kuyunjik
was in fact the correct location, returning there, funded by
the British Museum, in 1849.
69. LESLIE, David.
Catalogue 57: Travel Section 2: Africa and the Middle East to Persia
Among the Zulus and Amatongas:
With Sketches of the Natives, their
Language and Customs; and the
Country, Products, Climate, Wild
Animals, &c. Being Principally
Contributions to Magazines and
Newspapers; By the Late … Edited
by The Hon. W.H. Drummond.
Glasgow, Printed for Private Circulation, 1875 [39727] £650
8vo. Original green cloth, gilt, gilt edges Oval mounted
Woodburytype portrait frontispiece. Very lightly browned,
cloth rubbed, a very good copy.
FIRST EDITION. Leslie went to Natal in 1850 when
eleven years old. He became proficient in the Zulu
language and was appointed as an interpreter to the
Courts of Natal. Subsequently he became a trader and
hunter “in the interior parts of South Africa and in the
course of these pursuits he became acquainted with
Professor Drummond who speaks in the highest terms
of his character and abilities. “ Leslie died of fever in
Scotland aged 35. “The work contains a number of articles
written by the author on South African subjects … The
information afforded respecting Natal and Zululand is of
a valuable and reliable nature, disclosing much practical
knowledge on the part of the writer…” [Mendelssohn].
This privately issued edition is uncommon, just five copies
on COPAC, eleven on OCLC. “In Memoriam” presentation
slip mounted on the front pastedown, “Mrs. Leslie requests
your acceptance of the accompanying volume…”
Mendelssohn I, p. 887.
SIGNED COPY
70. LETTOW-VORBECK,
[Paul] von.
Heia Safari! Deutschlands Kampf
in Ostafrika. Der Deutsche
Jugend Unter Mitwerkung Seines
Mitkampfers Hauptmann Von
Ruckteschell.
R.F. Koelher, Berlin and Leipzig, 1920 [25457] £450
8vo. Original cloth-backed, pictorial yellow paper boards, titles
to spine in brown. Illustrated with photographic reproductions
throughout. Neat ownership signature to first blank page,
spine very slightly cocked, corners very lightly rubbed. An
extremely bright and fresh copy of a most attractive edition.
FIRST EDITION, 71st–80th thousand. With the author’s
signed inscription in Swahili to the front free endpaper,
“Nimefurahi kukuona! / V. Lettow” [Pleased to meet you!
/ V. Lettow]. The story of Lettow-Vorbeck’s war in German
East Africa is one of near mythic status. Trapped there at
the start of the Great War with tiny numbers of support
troops and minimal supplies he evaded capture for the
entire period of hostilities, tying down whole divisions at
a time. At the end of the war the British navy formed a
guard of honour at his departure home. Books signed by
this great man are uncommon.
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