Children's Books
London, Sampson Low, 1953.
First edition. 8vo. Original pictorial boards and matching dust-jacket.
A good copy of this title from the 'Cherubs' series of books, uncommon in the dust-jacket. Hodgetts was most famous as the creator of the character Toby Twirl, a Rupert-the-bear-esque character based on a soft toy owned by the illustrator for the series, Edward Jeffrey.
Children's Books
Agg (Howard) and Cecile Adair. Meetoo and the Little Creatures.
The Story of an Adventure
London, Harrap, 1941.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 6/-.
Lovely illustrations and jacket artwork complement and enhance this cute book for children, about animals who save themselves from a flooding river by sailing off in a top hat.
Children's Books
London, Edmund Ward, 1964.
First edition. Oblong 12mo. Original dark blue pictorial boards. Dust-jacket, priced 5/6.
First edition of the nineteenth book in the Rev. Awdry's famous 'Railway Series'.
Children's Books
London, Edmund Ward, 1967.
First edition. Oblong 12mo. Original dark-blue pictorial boards. Dust-jacket, priced 6/-.
First edition of the twenty-second book in the Rev. Awdry's famous 'Railway Series'.
Children's Books
London, Edmund Ward, 1963.
First edition. Oblong 12mo. Original pictorial boards. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
First edition of the eighteenth book in the Rev. Awdry's famous 'Railway Series'.
Children's Books
London, Edmund Ward, 1959.
First edition. Oblong 12mo. Original pale yellow pictorial boards. Dust-jacket, priced 5/-.
First edition of the fourteenth book in the Rev. Awdry's famous 'Railway Series'.
Children's Books
Barrie (J.M.) and May Byron. Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens
London, Hodder & Stoughton, c.1929.
Small 4to. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 2/6.
Barrie's famous Peter Pan, in a rerendering by May Byron and featuring Rackham's splendid illustrations.
Children's Books
The original text of Peter & Wendy...newly illustrated by Edmund Blampied
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1939.
First Blampied edition. Small 4to. Illustrations and plates. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 10/6.
A wonderful illustrated edition of Barrie's classic for children.
Children's Books
London & New York, Ernest Nister, [c.1890].
Oblong 4to. Original cloth-backed pictorial boards.
Comical verses by Nister's popular lyricist Clifton Bingham, perfectly illustrated by C.H. Thompson. Vintage Victorian children's book.
Children's Books
First edition, Macmillan, 1913. Author’s presentation copy to Louis Parker. Louis Napoleon Parker was an English dramatist, composer and translator. Signed ‘from AB (author)’ on front end paper. Very rare survival in a jacket especially inscribed.
Children's Books
London, The National Magazine Co. Ltd, 1946.
True first edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
A scarce first edition of this collection of the quirky and imaginative short stories by the Famous Five and Noddy creator.
Children's Books
London, Methuen, 1945.
First edition. 8vo. Original yellow cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
A good first edition of the sixth book in Blyron's St Clare's series.
Children's Books
London, Methuen, 1935.
First edition. 8vo. Original green pictorial cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 5s.
An uncommon early work by Enid Blyton, which focuses on the sorts of real animals you may find on Britain's waysides across a collection of stories. Distinctly uncommon in the jacket.
Children's Books
Leicester, Brockhampton, [1948].
First edition. 4to. Original pictorial boards.
Uncommon 'forties Blyton title, charmingly illustrated by regular Blyton collaborator Eileen Alice Soper.
Children's Books
London, George Newnes, 1945.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
The third of the 'Naughtiest Girl' series by Enid Blyton, recounting the ongoing adventures & misadventures of Elizabeth Allen & chums at the progressive boarding school Whyteleafe. The series was rebooted in 1999 by British author Anne Digby. Due to the war-time production values the Blyton titles from the series are all tricky to find in good condition.
Children's Books
Edinburgh & London, W. & A.K. Johnston, 1934.
First edition. 8vo. Original sewn pictorial wrappers.
A scarce early Blyton work, featuring alongside the titular teapot a pixie called Dimble Dumble, Mr Tweaky and his Magic Pockets and the Chocolate Cock... the last two mentioned fortunately not connected...
Children's Books
London, Collins, 1958.
First edition. Signed & dated by the author in the month of publication. 8vo. Original pink cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 8s 6d.
"Things are always happening to me. I'm that sort of bear".
The book that started it all! When the Peruvian bear with a penchant for marmalade sandwiches tootled into everyone's lives in 1958, few could have predicted what a phenomenon Paddington Bear would become, subsequently starring in over twenty books by Michael Bond, as well as numerous TV series and film adaptations. The first book is a known rarity, but exceedingly uncommon signed and dated thus in the year of publication. A cornerstone of 20th century children's literature.
Children's Books
London & Edinburgh, Chambers, [1925].
First edition. 8vo. Original pictorial brown cloth.
The first book in Brent-Dyer's famous 'Chalet School' series, which would go on to span 45 years. Originally set in the Austrian Tyrol, the school relocated four times, first to the Channel Islands in 1939, then Herefordshire, Wales and Switzerland. A rare first edition.
Children's Books
London, Faber and Faber Limited, 1941.
First UK edition. Oblong 4to. Original pictorial boards. Dust-jacket, priced 6/-.
An appealing first UK edition of this enduring children's classic, in part the inspiration for Stephen King's Charlie the Choo-Choo: From the World of The Dark Tower (2016).
and Through the Looking-Glass and what Alice found there
London, Macmillan, 1911.
8vo. Original red cloth lettered and stamped in gilt.
A pleasing copy of Alice's adventures, including sixteen colour plates by Tenniel.
Children's Books
London, Macmillan, 1893.
Third edition, the suppressed 'sixtieth thousand' issue. 8vo. [xii]+224pp+[ii]. adverts. Original secondary binding red cloth, blind-stamped 'Presented for the use of Mechanics Reading Rooms etc.' to upper cover.
Very rare. This suppressed issue was, according to Carroll, riddled with printing production faults. The illustrations were over-printed, the pages badly folded and it led to him threatening to terminate his contract with publishers Macmillan:
'the book is worthless... much as I should regret the having to sever a connection now lasted nearly 30 years, I shall feel myself absolutely compelled to do so, unless I can have some assurance that better care shall be taken, in future, to ensure that my books shall be of the best artistic quality attainable for the money' (Letters p.995).
Only sixty copies had gone out when Carroll intervened. He asked Macmillan to destroy the remainder of the edition, which led to Through the Looking Glass being out of print until 1897. As mentioned in an 'Advertisement' inserted into the coeval edition of Sylvie and Bruno Concluded, Carroll later changed his mind about destroying the remaining copies of this edition, and instead favoured rebinding it and distributing it to charitable institutions, which had been done with the very first suppressed Alice, and as is the case with this copy.
Prior to this copy, there were sixteen known copies of the 60th thousand issue which went to Mechanics Institutes, according to the census compiled by Dr Selwn Goodacre a few years ago. Compared to other copies recorded, this particular copy does seem to be in superior condition.
Children's Books
London, Juvenile Productions, [1937].
Merlin Series' edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
Lewis Carroll's classic for children, here illustrated by D.R. Sexton and issued for the Merlin Series.
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1932.
4to. Original decorative cloth. Dust-jacket.
A very good example of this uncommon H&S edition of Alice.
Children's Books
London, Hodder & Stoughton, [c.1925].
First UK Wyeth edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth blocked in black & gilt. Dust-jacket, with stockist's price-sticker of 4/6.
A very good example of Wyeth's illustrated edition of Fenimore Cooper's classic tale, uncommon in the original dust-jacket.
[London], Collins, [1938].
First edition. 4to. Original tan cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
One of the more sought-after Disney books from its Golden Era, with no coeval American edition.
London, Hodder & Stoughton, [c.1920].
Large 8vo. 14 plates with captioned paper guards. Original blind-tooled blue cloth, gilt lettering to spine. Dust-jacket, priced 10/6.
A wonderful copy of Dulac's illustrated stories of Hans Christian Andersen, originally published in a different format in 1911. Rare in the original dust-jacket, especially in such condition.
Children's Books
London, Faber & Faber, 1939.
First edition, first impression. Large 8vo. Original yellow pictorial boards. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 3/6.
The first edition of Eliot's famous whimsical poems featuring feline protagonists - famously of course the inspiration and source for Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, Cats. Eliot wrote the poems in the 1930s, and included them, under his assumed name "Old Possum", in letters to his godchildren. The illustrations in this edition were by the author himself, with subsequent editions illustrated by such luminaries as Nicolas Bentley, Edward Gorey and, most recently, Axel Scheffler of Gruffalo fame.
Children's Books
his travels and perils
London, S.O. Beeton, n.d. [1865/66].
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth, gilt tooled spine.
The rare true first edition in book form of this adventure tale, serialised previously in Boys Own in 1865. Ward Lock took over Beeton in 1866 and republished the title that year under their own imprint.
London, Becks, 1950.
Sole edition. Signed by the author. 4to. Original cloth-backed boards.
Historian Fea's homage to Lewis Carroll's classics for children, replacing Alice with 'Little Lu'. An attractive copy.
Children's Books
London, Blackie, 1886. First edition. 8vo. Original pictorial cloth. Henty's tale of the Luddite Riots.
Children's Books
Inchfawn (Philip & Fay, pseud. Atkinson & Elizabeth Ward) Father Neptune’s Treasure:
The adventures of three children and a golliwog under the sea
London, S.W. Partridge, 1919.
First edition. 8vo. Original pictorial cloth. Dust-jacket.
An early dust-jacket, splendidly preserving the book beneath. Rare.
Children's Books
The Story of a Boy...with an introduction by E.V. Lucas
London, Jonathan Cape, 1932.
First illustrated edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
Jefferies' famous "story of a boy", illustrated for the first time by Pooh illustrator E.H. Shepard; uncommon in the original dust-jacket. Accompanied by original printed prospectus.
Children's Books
A "Biggles Squadron" Story of the Second Great War
London, OUP, 1943.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Frontispiece, illustrations. Original cloth with illustration stamped in black to upper cover. Dust-jacket priced at 5/-.
A rare Biggles first edition, with no jacketed copies in commerce that we could find at time of cataloguing. Biggles and his ominously named 666 squadron set up camp in the mountains of Borneo and embark on a campaign of terror strikes on the Japanese forces.
Children's Books
London, Cassell, 1941.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original brown cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 8/6.
The original Lassie novel, which led to numerous films and TV series, first published in Chicago in 1940. Uncommon in such nice condition.
Children's Books
Loughborough, Wills & Hepworth, 1948.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue pictorial boards. Dust-jacket, priced 2/6.
Charming first edition of the first of six books recounting the adventures of Wonk the koala, illustrated by the artist & writer Joan Kiddell-Wonk.
Children's Books
New York, Random House, 1942.
First edition. Large 8vo. Original pictorial red cloth. Dust-jacket.
The Adventures of Superman, illustrated by Joe Shuster, co-creator of the original character with Jerry Siegel. The jacket has some uniform sunning which has most notably desaturated the red.