Grand Hotel de Russie, Geneve.
Original Hotel luggage label, c.1925. 100 x 155 mm. James Fazy a Swiss Politician and creator of modern Geneva had his residence built at the corner of Quai du Mont-Blanc, one of the most expensive plots of land in Geneva for the time. Eventually Fazy faced serious debts and had to dispose of his property. The building was transformed to a Hotel and the Hotel de Russie opened in 1869. The Hotel was demolished in 1968. Printers: Sonor SA Geneve. Lithograph printed in 2 colours by Sonor, a printer remowned for his high quality printing and binding. Rare.
More from Henry Sotheran Ltd
Ballet Shoes. A Story of Three Children on the Stage.
London; Dent, Pennant Books. 1968. 8vo.; publisher's forest-green and acid-yellow cloth, in pictorial dustwrapper; pp. [viii], ix-[x] + 231 + [i]; with line illustrations throughout by Ruth Gervis; a near fine copy, both inside and out, with a tiny dint to bottom edge of upper cover, in a near fine, price-clipped dustwrapper retaining the original bookseller's price sticker to upper flap (£1.10) and with slight fading to spine. Vintage edition with the original illustrations by Gervis, inscribed in ink by Noel Streatfeild to front blank, "For Davida Hodson, Noel Streatfeild". Signed copies of this title are rare in commerce. This is the first such copy handled by us in over thirty-five years and the only signed copy of the title located on the commercial market at the time of cataloguing. Handbook of Coastal China including Hainan and Formosa. Informational Bulletin No. 19.
[New York, Ardlee] for Headquarters, Army Air Forces, April, 1945 [cover title]. 12mo. Original wrappers, printed in yellow and black; pp. [2], 84, [2, for notes], sketch maps in the text, one folding map at the end; front cover with a little abrasion and number in ink; overall a good and clean copy. First edition, rare, of information for US soldiers on Eastern China and Taiwan. The booklet covers the topography, climate, natural history, soil conditions, a history of the peoples of the region, the 'social order', belief systems and customs, industry and commerce, transport and communications. Among the dos and don'ts for American soldiers about to liberate these parts of China from Japanese occupation is the advice 'Don't judge Chinese by their appearance (the Chinese have had hard times). Professors, students, government officals and professional men may look pretty seedy, but under the externals they are cultured persons' (p. 82). Hotel Nettuno, Pisa.
Original Hotel luggage label, c.1929. 150 x 90 mm. The Hotel opened in 1831 with 110 rooms. A brochure published at the end of the Nineteenth Century Said "No Hotel in Pisa surpassed the Nettuno for elegance and good taste." Notable guests have included Virginia Wolf and King George V. The Hotel remained in business until the second half of the Twentieth Century and is now home to the student house known as Residenzia Nettuno. Printers: Lischi-Pisa. Label is rare in this size. Don Quixote de la Mancha. Translated from the Spanish of Miguel Cervantes Saavedra. Embellished with Engravings from Pictures painted by Robert Smirke.
London, Cadell and Davies, 1818. Four volumes 8vo. Contemporary full calf, spines with raised bands, decorated and lettered in gilt, boards ruled in gilt, decorated in blind, edges of boards and inner dentelles gilt, all edges gilt; all half-titles present; steel-engraved plates and headpieces, front joints expertly fixed, occasional light spotting, overall a very attractive set from the the library of the British Prime Minister Anthony Eden with his engraved armorial bookplate inside front covers. First edition with these plates, and newly translated by the artist's daughter Mary Smirke, herself an artist, a well-regarded landscape painter. 'In May 1810, the artist Joseph Farington approached the publishers Thomas Cadell & William Davies with a suggestion from his friend Robert Smirke that a new translation of Miguel de Cervantes' novel Don Quixote be published with illustrations engraved from Smirke's paintings of significant moments in the story. Farington and Smirke had worked together on several of these paintings in the late 1790s and early 1800s, Smirke taking care of the figures, while Farington focused on the landscape, in particular trees, which were his speciality. The publishers approved of the idea and a translation was begun soon after. This was made by Robert Smirke's daughter, Mary Smirke, and Farington reported regularly in his diary on her progress. Smirke worked from previously published translations of the novel, in particular that of Charles Jervas (published 1742), to which she made corrections, often removing extra passages that were not present in Cervantesâs original ⦠Smirke was paid 200 guineas for the project and on 9 April 1818, Farington recorded in his diary that Cadell had approached her shortly before the book went to press to ask if she would approve of her name appearing on the title page. She refused the offer, with her father instead suggesting that it could follow a dedication, perhaps to the Prince Regent, the future George IV. This idea was seen as acceptable, but rather than dedicating the work to the prince, it was instead dedicated to William Lowther, Earl of Lonsdale' (Royal Collection Trust, online). - This cataloguer failed to establish a witticism connecting Anthony Eden and Don Quixote. Poachers versus Keepers. An amusing and instructive treatise concerning poachers and their artifices dealing with the many phases of poaching directed against game furred and feathered.
Hertford, Gilbertson & Page Ltd., [c.1902] Small 8vo. Original blue cloth covered boards, gilt lettered to upper cover; pp. vi, 89, [14, advertisements front and back]; gilt faded to upper cover and cloth in places, internally clean. Third Edition. Following on from the Pheasant Rearer's Manual produced at at earlier date by the same company, Poachers versus Keepers focuses on the eternal struggle between the vigilant keeper of game [limited mostly to pheasants, rabbits and partridges in this instance] and the wily poacher. Written with tongue in cheek, it is filled with anecdotes, advice and good-natured banter on the topic. Visas for America. A Story of an Escape.
Sydney, Villon Press, [1952]. 8vo. Original cloth with illustrated dust-wrappers; pp. [vi], 267, [3 publisher's advertisement for another work by the author]; near fine. Incredibly rare first edition in English, number 23 of 'fifty special copies ⦠numbered and signed by the Author' (however, this not signed). Translated by E. Baker, revised by E. Bell-Smith and with a foreword by Herbert V. Evatt, this is a novel about a Jewish refugee couple escaping last-minute from Nazi-occupied Germany, informed by so many similar real cases in the 1940s. 'Because human dignity suffered such damage, one must be eternally vigilant lest mankind is ever again enforced to endure such ultimate misery' (foreword). 'The author and poet Salamon Dembitzer was born in Cracow (Krakà w, Poland) in 1888. As a teenager he moved to Germany, first to Frankfurt and then to Kassel, where he worked as an editor for the Kasseler Volksblatt. At age 16, some of his poetry was already published. Until the 1930s, Dembitzer worked for several newspapers in Amsterdam, Berlin and Vienna, and continued publishing his poems and - starting in 1930 - his novels and dramas. In 1941, he moved to New York and later to Sydney, Australia. In 1958, Salamon Dembitzer moved to Lugano, Switzerland, where he died in 1964' (Leo Beack Institute, online, they are holding a second edition only). COPAC locates two copies, which might be the 2nd, trade edition, at Senate House and in the British Library. - We can not trace any other copy of this title on the market, past and present. Some Sussex Byways.
Medici Society. 1930. Square 8vo. Original beige cloth; pp. xiv + 17, 8 colour plates mounted at large with descriptive tissue guards after Garnet R. Wolseley; binding a little dulled, previous owner's label to flyleaf, very good First edition. A charming selection of essays on the hidden rural areas of Sussex. The Hunting of the Snark.
New York, Harper And Brothers Publishers. 1903. 8vo.; publisher's deep red cloth lettered gilt to spine and upper cover with a gilt-embossed vignette of the Bellman in gilt to upper board, top edges gilt, others uncut, in red cloth dustwrapper lettered in gilt at upper panel; pp. [xvi], 3-248; illustrated with 40 striking illustrations, printed in monochrome together with elaborate border designs to the text pages, printed in palest green, by Robert Murray Wright; a near fine copy in beautifully bright and crisp condition in a similarly fresh dustwrapper. First edition illustrated thus. A remarkable edition, and an inspired interpretation of the text.
Lawrence of Arabia. A Biographical Enquiry.
London, Collins, 1955. 8vo. Original black buckram, spine lettered in gilt, original dustwrapper preserved with flaws; pp. 448, numerous plates after photographs; apart from minimal offsetting from endpapers a very good copy; ownership inscription of Genevieve Rowan, dated Beirut, 1955 inside front cover. First edition. 'Aldingtonâs style as a biographer is often hard edged and, at times, unsympathetic, not least in his now infamous 1955, Lawrence of Arabia: A Biographical Enquiry, a book that caused a major literary, sexual, paternal and historical whirlwind' (Steve Newman's blogpost). Before Aldingto there wre only hagiographies about TEL. This book triggered almost (in modern termes) hate campaigns.
Hungary.
London; Adam and Charles Black, 1909. Large 8vo., original white cloth with an armorial design blocked in orange, green, and gilt to spine and upper board, top edges gilt; pp. xix + [i] + 320 + [4], publisher's advert.; with a total of 75 fine coloured plates after watercolours, guarded by captioned tissues, and a folding pull-out map at the rear; a near fine copy of this scarce and vulnerable book, preserved in uncommonly clean condition, both externally and internally, with just light rubbing and dusting to boards, with a previous owner's bookplate to inner upper cover, another ownership inscription to front free endpaper, and mild foxing to prelims. First edition of one of the scarcest titles in A. & C. Black's Twenty Shilling Series. Inman 37. The Odyssey of Homer.
Oxford University Press and Humphrey Milford in London, [1935]. 8vo. Original blue cloth, decorated and lettered in gilt; pp. [x], 327, circular vignette, printed in mustard yellow and black on title-page; cloth a little faded and darkened, toning to endpapers; a very good copy, ownership inscription to title. First UK trade edition. The publication of this prose translation is rather complex. A limited edition had been published in 1932, this was followed by a US trade edition in the same year. In 1935 OUP acquired the US sheets and issued the book. 'The many variant states of this 1935 English edition are difficult to unravel' (O'Brien). O'Brien A 144. Check Six: A Fighter Pilot Looks Back.
BLESSE, Major General F. C. "Boots". Mesa, Arizona, Champlin Fighter Museum Press, [1987]. 8vo. Original leather imitation with illustrated dust-wrappers; pp. [x], 178, illustrations after photographs; light marginal wear to wrappers. First edition, signed presentation copy. 'Frederick C. Blesse was one of the greatest aces of the Korean War era. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1945, flew two combat tours during the Korean War, completing 67 missions in F-51s, 35 missions in F-80s and 121 missions in F-86s. During his second tour in F-86s, he was officially credited with shooting down nine MiG-15s and one La-9. At the time of his return to the U.S. in October 1952, he was America's leading jet ace. Blesse remained with fighter aircraft for practically his entire military career. During the 1955 Air Force Worldwide Gunnery Championship, he won all six trophies offered for individual performance, a feat never equaled since. During the Vietnam War, he served two tours in Southeast Asia; while on his first tour in 1967-1968, he flew 156 combat missions (National Museum of the United States Airforce, online).- $147
- $147
A Voyage in the ‘Sunbeam’ our Home on the Ocean for Eleven Months .
BRASSEY, Anna ['Annie'], Lady BRASSEY. London, Spottiswoode and Co. for Longmans, Green, and Co., 1886. 8vo. Original red pictorial cloth, all edges gilt; pp. xix, 492; wood-engraved frontispiece, title-vignette, illustrations in the text by G. Pearson after A.Y. Bingham, large folding colour-printed lithographic map by Edward Weller (re-attached); extremities with a little wear, hinges strengthened ownership inscription on verso of frontispiece resulting in a little ofsetting on recto, otherwise an attractive copy. New edition. Encouraged by the success of her travel books The Flight of the "Meteor" ([s.l.: 1866) and A Cruise in "Eothen" (London: 1873), Baroness Brassey (1839-1887) and her husband Thomas, Baron Brassey (1836-1918), decided to undertake a circumnavigation in the Sunbeam, their 531-ton, three-masted, topsail schooner, with a 350-horsepower steam engine, which had been launched in 1874. The Sunbeam embarked on 1 July 1876 with a complement of forty-four comprising the Brasseys and their children, a small party of friends, a professional crew, and a complete domestic staff. Their voyage took them 'across the south Atlantic, through the Strait of Magellan into the Pacific Ocean, continuing by way of Tahiti, Hawaii, and Japan to Penang and thence to Ceylon, Aden, and the Red Sea. While the Sunbeam passed through the Suez Canal, Annie Brassey and the children went overland to Cairo to visit the pyramids, rejoining the party at Alexandria. Their arrival at Hastings on 27 May 1877 completed the eleven-month voyage. It had been a complete success, uneventful except for a dangerous flooding of the decks in a high sea off Ushant and their rescue of the crew of a ship on fire near Rio. The monotony of the days at sea was varied by excursions ashore, planned and led by Annie Brassey to the colourful street markets of Rio, ValparaÃso, and Singapore, and to scenes of natural beauty in Tahiti, Ceylon, and Hawaii with its thrilling volcanoes. The voyage was to make Annie Brassey a celebrity not because she had been round the world in a luxury yacht, but because she struck exactly the right note in her book about the adventure, using the entries in her journal to describe rambles ashore and daily life afloat: this was lively enough with five children under fourteen, a dog, three birds, and a kitten aboard. A Voyage in the "Sunbeam" (1878) was a solid work of 508 pages with maps and wood-engravings. It was a best-seller overnight, reached its nineteenth edition in 1896, and was translated into French, German, Italian, Swedish, and Hungarian [.] The cruises of the Sunbeam may have resembled family picnics rather than voyages of discovery, but Annie Brassey, who inspired and organized them, is not to be denied the status of a true traveller. A poor sailor, never really well at sea, she dared all it could do to her, in order that she might visit the farthest corners of the earth. As her husband wrote, "the voyage would not have been undertaken and assuredly it would never have been completed without the impulse derived from her perseverance and determination"' (ODNB). The 'Preface to the New Edition' states that 'the letterpress has only been slightly curtailed and a copious selection has been made from the original series of illustrations' (p. vii), and the Appendix on pp. [481]-492 contains a summary of the entire voyage, compiled from the log-book. Cf. Theakstone p. 32 (1st ed.).- $230
- $230
The Rugged Flanks of the Caucasus.
BADDELEY, J.F. Oxford University Press, 1940. Royal 8vo. 2 vols. Original buckram gilt ; pp. xv, 272; ix, 318; 37 fine photogravure plates including frontispiece to each volume, 9 maps, mostly folding; a particularly crisp set, from Nottingham Reference Library with their pictorial bookplates inside front covers and inobtrusive blind-stamps to margins of maps and plates. First edition. Baddeley (1854-1940) first visited Russia in 1879. He eventually became the correspondent for the London Standard in St. Petersburg and travelled extensively in Russia. He made his name with two books - The Russian Conquest of the Caucasus (1908) and Russia, Mongolia, and China (1919) - and died shortly before the publication of the present work. The Rugged Flanks of the Caucasus, an account of his travels in 1898-1902 to Sanibá, Daghestan, Ossetia and elsewhere, offers insights into all aspects of the peoples of this region, as well as observations on the geography and natural history. Beautifully produced according to the then high standard of the Oxford University Press, these sumptuous volumes provide a rich testimony to an author whose work remains as relevant today as ever.- $1,124
- $1,124
Annals of Sandhurst. A Chronical of the Royal Millitary College from Its Foundation to the Present Day. With Saketch of the History of the Staff College.
MOCKLER-FERRYMAN, A.F. London, Heinemann, 1900. 8vo. Original tw-tone cloth, lettered in gilt; pp. vi, [2], 318, [2], 32 (publisher's advertisements), plates after photographs; cloth a little faded and marked, very light offsetting from endpapers; prvious bbokdealer's annotations inside covers; a very good copy of an uncommon work. First edition.- $225
- $225
Colour-lithographic Map.
BASRAH. No place or printer, c. 1925. Linen-backed and folding, measuring 47 by 61 cm; explanation in French and Eglish pasted onto verso; very well preserved. This rare map has the Imperial Airways route to Basrah drawn and lettered by hand in lilac ink. In 1927 Imperial Airways took over the RAF Baghdad - Cairo service and extended it to Basra.- $463
- $463