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Le Morte d’Arthur – Sir Thomas Malory – Shakespeare Head Private Press Limited Edition 1933

Full title … The Noble & Joyous Boke Entitled Le Morte d’Arthur Nothwythstondying it Treateth of the Byrth Lyf and Actes of the sayd Kynge Arthur; of his Noble Knightes of the Rounde Table. Theye Merveylous Enquestes and Adventures. Thachyevynge of the Sanc.Greall and the Ende the Delourous Deth: and Departynge out of this Worlde of Them al. Wyche Boke was Reduced in to Englysshe by the Well Dysposyd Knyghte Syr Thomas Malory.

Two volumes, quarto, number xxx of 350 copies for sale (a further 20 copies were not for sale) with 22 woodcut illustrations. Original binding in terra cotta half Morocco over ivory buckram, flat spines with gilt titling, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt. Other edges untrimmed.

The revered Shakespeare Head, Saint Aldates Oxford, edition of the most famous of the Arthurian tales, reprinted from and resembling in layout and typeface the 1498 edition of Wynkyn de Worde kept in the John Rylands Library, Manchester.

Volume I comprises 4 initial blanks; half title; title with limitation on verso; prologus i-iv; table v-xxviii; Fyrste Boke to IX Boke 1-316 with woodcut in each; 3 final blanks. VolI comprises 4 initial blanks; half title; title with note to verso; Boke X – Boke XXI 1-373 with woodcuts to each and a further one in Boke XXI; notes 3; 3 final blanks. All as should be.

Written in the 15th century by Thomas Malory the sweeping Mort d’Arthur includes the youth of Arthur, the romance of Guinevere and Lancelot, the Quest for the Grail, the tragedy of Tristan and Iseult etc.

This superb work directly tied to the early days of printing in England, with broad margins, quality handmade paper and the impeccably reproduced typeface … all hallmarks of the Shakespeare Head Press.

The Shakespeare Head Press was started in 1904 at Stratford Upon Avon by Arthur Bullen after he had had a dream about finely printing all of Shakespeare’s works at his birthplace, something that had not been done before. Much of his equipment and initial typeface came second had from William Morris’s Kelmscott Press. After Bullen’s death in 1927 the business was moved to Oxford under its new owners Basil Blackwell and Bernard Newdigate who was the typographer. They continued in the Morris tradition. The building in which they operated was commandeered by the American allies in 1942.

King Arthur and his Legends and Death – Shakespeare Head Private Press edition.

$670.00

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Lightship – Archie Binns – 1934 First Edition

First Edition published by Reynal and Hitchcock (part of the Burt publishing empire), New York in 1934. A super example. Large octavo, 345 pages, blue cloth covered boards, top edge stained blue as required. Striking art deco style dust jacket in really good condition. Very clean inside … would make a great gift.

A very unusual novel centred on the lives of nine men who are the crew of a lightship. The crest and troughs of emotion are mimicked by the Ocean which provides a dramatic ending

One of a kind novel from the 1930’s

$60.00

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Ocean Passages For The World – 1973

A fine copy of the third edition prepared by Commander H.L. Jenkins of the Royal Navy and published by The Hydrographic Department, Taunton, England. A Preface by Rear Admiral Hall.

This essential reference was first published in 1895, then 1923, 1950 and then this edition 1973. Revised and modernised each time.

Slipcase with folio volume plus wallet containing the numerous large folding charts. Folio volume bound in blue cloth covered boards, gilt titles 258 pages with 25 charts and diagrams some coloured and folding. The work is divided into two principal sections … Part I – Power Vessel Routes; Part II – Sailing Vessel Routes. Also, the 1977 Supplement of 11 pages, with additions, corrections and other changes. Very good if not fine condition.

The wallet contains seven large (a metre or so wide) charts and a viz .. World Climatic Charts (January and July); World Main Ocean Routes for Power Vessels; World Sailing Ships Routes; Tracks Followed by Sailing and Auxiliary Powered Vessels and World Surface Currents .. and D6083 Loan Line Rules etc. Also a ready reckoner … Logarithmic speed, time and distance scale.

$80.00

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The Honorary Consul – Graham Greene – First Australian edition 1973.

Published by The Bodley Head in Australia, Sydney in 1973. A first Australian edition.

Octavo, 335 pages one of Greene’s more substantial novels. A couple of scuffs to dust jacket now protected like all our books in removable Brodart, name on end paper, really a very good copy.

Provincial Argentina, revolution in Paraguay and more than the usual array of unusual characters that inhabit a Greene novel.

Exciting Greene in South America

$40.00

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Floating Peril – E. Phillips Oppenheim – 1936 First edition.

First edition published by Blue Ribbon Books (Part of Burt) New York, 1926. The novel had been serialised in the New York Post the year before.

Octavo, 309 pages, dust jacket designed by Bip Pares shows a little edge ware but still shows this deco mystery magnificently. Under the jacket is a similarly embossed design on bright orange cloth covered boards. Super presentation.

A yachting mystery commencing in the Bay of Antibes. An international thriller with moral conflict

First edition Exotic thriller

$50.00

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Vanished Fleets [Tasmania] – Alan Villiers

Published by the Cat & Fiddle Press, Hobart a new edition 1974 … first published 1931.

A special maritime history of Van Diemen’s Land by the knowledgeable Alan Villiers. Superbly illustrated.

Villiers himself crewed with the whale-ship Sir James Clark Ross into the Ross Sea in 1923-24.

Covers Captain Kelly (see Voyager book on Kelly); The voyage of the “Woodman”; the loss of the “George III”; the adventure of the whaler “Essex” and Captain Tregurtha’s Log; Hobart Clippers and “Graveyard Island”.

The illustrations include – The “Royal William”; the “James Craig”; the “Hobart Regatta”; the “Fram” (Amundsen) in the Derwent; the “velocity” and the “Tasmanian Cape Horn Trader in Hard Weather”.

A smorgasbord of Tasmanian Sail

$50.00

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All products

Le Morte d’Arthur – Sir Thomas Malory – Shakespeare Head Private Press Limited Edition 1933

Lightship – Archie Binns – 1934 First Edition

Ocean Passages For The World – 1973

The Honorary Consul – Graham Greene – First Australian edition 1973.

Floating Peril – E. Phillips Oppenheim – 1936 First edition.

Vanished Fleets [Tasmania] – Alan Villiers

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