Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
IMPORTANT!
The simplest way to order from this catalogue is to click on the green button beneath the book of your choice. This will create an e-mail containing all the information we need to process your order EXCEPT that we need also to know the address for delivery. (The reason for asking that at this time is that we will send you an e-invoice for the item inclusive of postage calculated according to the country to which the parcel is to be sent.) Books will be billed at the cheapest postal rate available, unless you ask us to do something else. If delivery is to be outside Europe, and you do not want the book sent by surface mail, you should specify air-mail.
Please note: Our larger files are presented in sections for ease of downloading. At the end of each section you are invited to browse the next. |
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
EGAN (Pierce [the elder]). The Pilgrims of the Thames, In search of the National! By Pierce Egan, Author of “Life in London,” “Dublin,” “Liverpool;” “Life of An Actor;” “Show-folkes;” etc. The illustrations, Designed, etched, and drawn on wood, by Pierce Egan, the Younger. Dedicated to Her Most Gracious Majesty, Queen Victoria. London: Printed for Thomas Tegg, 73, Cheapside; R. Griffin and Co., Glasgow; Tegg and Co., Dublin: [sic] J. and S.A. Tegg, Sydney, and Hobart Town, 1839. Demy 8vo in half-sheets; half-title not called for; etched frontispiece with thin paper guard, and twenty-three plates; two or three wood-engravings in text; pp.[4]+iv+375+[i (blank)]; half dark green crushed Levant morocco by Bayton, ruled gilt on sides, spine with five period-style wide raised bands, tooled gilt on bands, lettered and tooled gilt in compartments, marbled sides and end-papers; t.e.g., others lightly trimmed. Morocco of spine a little sunned; light marginal foxing or fingering to plates; otherwise a fine copy.
GB £210.00
US $344.40
Sadleir, 810, recording a copy in plum ribbed cloth; not in Wolff. Ref: CRT818777
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
EGAN (Pierce, the younger). The Old Oak Chest: Being A careful and choice selection Of Short poems, aphorisms, and opinions Of The best Authors, Ancient and modern Collected and arranged with the view of combining amusement with Instruction. By Pierce Egan the younger. London: William Barth, 4, Brydges Street, Covent Garden, N.D. [c.1848]. BOUND WITH: Quintin Matsys, The Blacksmith of Antwerp. An Historical Romance, By Pierce Egan the younger. Author of Robin Hood Wat Tyler Paul Jones Adam Bell Harry Racket Scapegrace, &c. &c. London: Published by William Barth, 4, Brydges Street, Covent Garden, N.D. [c.1848]. BOUND WITH: Harry Racket Scapegrace, The Spoiled Child. A Tale for the Wilful. By Pierce Egan the younger, Author of “Robin Hood,” “Wat Tyler,” “Paul Jones,” “Quintin Matsys,” &c. London: Published by William Barth, 4, Brydges Street, Covent Garden, N.D. [c.1848]. BOUND WITH: ANONYMOUS. The last of the Esmonde’s [sic], Or, The Egyptian’s Revenge, And other tales. London: Published by William Barth, 4, Brydges Street, Covent Garden, N.D. [c.1848]. Sm.4to, printed in double column throughout; forty-nine full-page wood-engraved illustrations to ‘Quintin Matsys’ by J. Andrew after Pierce Egan, integral but unbacked and not included in the pagination; numerous other illustrations in the text to all sections, some in each case signed ‘P.E.’; pp.[ii (title to ‘Old Oak Chest’)]+[ii (title to ‘Quintin Matsys’)]+298 (text of ‘Quintin Matsys’)+[ii (title to ‘Harry Racket Scapegrace’)]+102 (text of ‘Harry Racket Scapegrace’)+[ii (title to ‘The Last of the Esmonde’s’)]+57+11 (drop-head: ‘The Mysterious Pilgrim; Or, The Thirteen Rings’)+14 (drop-head: ‘Eyloff of Ems; Or, The Fatal Battle of Sempach’)+96pp. unpaginated (text of ‘The Old Oak Chest’); contemporary quarter dark-green sheep, ruled gilt on sides, spine with four raised bands, ruled, tooled, and lettered gilt in compartments, green oil-marbled sides and end-papers; a.e.green. Insignificant peeling of sheep on front board, and slight wear to head of spine; a little scattered marking and dusting in text; pp.43-4 of second work torn without loss, and piece chipped from lower-forecorner of pp.49-50 with loss of about a hundred words; in general, nonetheless, a nice copy of a very scarce collection.
GB £580.00
US $951.20
First edition in book form of ‘Harry Racket Scapegrace’ (Summers, ‘Gothic Bibliography’, pp.40 & 347) and, probably also of ‘The Last of the Esmonde’s’ etc. Reprint of the rest. ‘The Old Oak Chest’ was originally a periodical, numbers 51 to 73 of which (all we have been able definitely to trace) being issued between the week starting Sunday, February 11th and that Starting Sunday, July 14th 1844, this suggesting as a commencing date for publication the week beginning Sunday, 21st January 1843. Pierce Egan the Younger seems to have begun his writing career about 1839-40 with the firm of Hextall and Wall, for whom he produced four novels issued in weekly penny or twopenny numbers, ‘Robin Hood’ (completed 1840), ‘Wat Tyler’ (1841), ‘Adam Bell’ (1842), and ‘Paul Jones’ (1842). He then changed his publisher to Barth, who appears to have enticed him with the offer of a more settled employment as editor, as well as contributor to, the newly projected ‘Old Oak Chest’. How long he continued to edit this periodical or how long, for that matter, it continued to be published are both unknown, though the prolific Egan’s failure to produce a new long fiction between ‘Fair Rosamond’, published by Barth in 1844 and ‘The Black Prince’ published by Pattie, 110, Shoe Lane, in 1848-9 is perhaps suggestive. So is the fact that between 1848 and 1850 several new works of Egan’s and some reprinted ones appeared under the imprint of a number of different publishers, but not of Barth. Pattie issued ‘The Black Prince’ in 1848-9; Vickers ‘The Thirteenth’ in 1849; George Pierce ‘Maid Marian’ (first number 28th February 1849), and also re-issued ‘Robin Hood’ in 1849, and ‘Wat Tyler’ in 1850; Johnson began a series of re-prints of Egan’s works from his ‘Steam-Press’ in the early 1850s and also issued ‘The London Apprentice’, after which we find Egan publishing with ‘Reynold’s Miscellany’ and finally, from 1857, in ‘The London Journal’, with which he remained till his death in 1880. What emerges from this is that his connection with Barth seems to have ended some time in 1848, and that the present volume, utilising material published in ‘The Old Oak Chest’ during the whole of it’s preceding history, probably dates from 1848 or 1849, whilst the first (periodical) appearance of the short novel ‘Harry Racket Scapegrace’ was almost certainly 1848 or earlier. Summers, p.40, dates the whole contents of this volume on what evidence we know not 1850, but this seems improbable since Egan’s name is given on each of the title-pages as ‘the younger’, a style he dropped after the death of his father in 1849. We have therefore dated it speculatively 1848. Summers attributes all the fictional contents of the present volume to Egan’s pen: we believe this to be unlikely since Egan was normally scrupulous about signing his work (and stated that he always did so in his Preface to ‘Paul Jones’). A peculiarity of ‘The Old Oak Chest’ in its original incarnation, mirrored in the make-up of the present volume, was that the serials it contained were separately paginated, whilst the magazine section bore no page numbers. This enabled purchasers to gather together the several sections of each serial and bind them up into a volume, consecutively paged and also enabled the publisher to reprint them for separate issue without resetting. In the present copy, the title to the magazine section has been used as the general title, but the magazine content separated from it and bound in at the end. Egan’s long novel ‘Quintin Matsys’ included here seems to have been included originally in the first or second volume of ‘The Old Oak Chest’, for in the section “To Correspondents” at the end of the eighth number of volume three it is stated: “Our readers will perceive that in the present number we have commenced a series of short Romances, printed uniformly with ‘Lucretia Borgia,’ ‘Quintin Matsys,’ &c. and which will form when completed an elegant and entertaining volume.” We assume that the reprint of it in the present volume is an exact reproduction of that, from the same plates and this is given support by the fact that though the running titles read ‘Quintin Matsys.’ on the left-hand pages and ‘The Blacksmith of Antwerp.’ on the right-hand pages throughout, the plates are without running titles except those between pp.228 and 277, which read ‘The Old Oak Chest’. This printing is not the same, however, as the separate issue in thirty-one penny numbers made by Barth c.1843 44, which was in single column, had 498pp. and sixty-two inserted plates on plate-paper. There is no list of plates in the present volume, but they are printed to face pp.4, 12, 22, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48, 54, 60, 66, 72, 78, 84, 90, 96, 102, 108, 114, 120, 126, 132, 138, 144, 150, 156, 162, 168, 174, 180, 186, 192, 198, 204, 210, 216, 222, 228, 234, 240, 246, 252, 258, 264, 276, 282, 288, and 294. The following errata and typographical flaws have been noted (state or issue significance, if any, undetermined): p.194, column two, l.56, ‘wnich’ for ‘which’; p.195, first three lines lack three or four letters at the start; p.256, l.37, reads ‘hollw’ for ‘hollow’; p.20 is mis-paged 2, p.231 is mis-paged 23, p.271 is mis-paged 27, p.284 is mis-paged 28, and p.252 is mis-paged 246. Ref: CRT801159
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
EGERTON (George [i.e., Mrs. Chavelita Dunne Bright].). Keynotes. London: Elkin Mathews And John Lane, Vigo St. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1893. Post 8vo; illustrated title-page printed in red and black; publisher’s inserted 16pp. List at end, dated September 1893; mottled pale green linen blocked and dated on back cover, blocked, lettered, and dated on front cover, blocked on spine, all darker green, lettered and blocked gilt on spine; a.e. uncut. Minor restorations to cloth at extreme head and tail of spine, cloth of spine a little foxed and darkened, design on front cover a little rubbed; pencilled ownership inscription dated ‘Xmas 1893’ on front end-paper (v. note); internally a very nice copy.
GB £55.00
US $90.20
The first volume of the ‘Keynotes Series’, described by Sadleir as “the most elegant fiction series of the nineteenth century. The slim format, the excellent paper and typography, the blended colours chosen for cloth and blocking, and the binding designs by Beardsley and others, combine to produce volumes which are stylish but not affected, soignés yet strongly made and essentially readable.” Some confusion has been caused by Sadleir’s further statement that “The publisher’s original intention had been to issue the volumes in paper wrappers; and the first of all ‘Keynotes’ by George Egerton was actually so published, but almost immediately withdrawn and issued in cloth", which was interpreted by Wolff as involving an issue point. In fact the first printing comprised 1,100 copies the first 400 of which were made up in pink paper wrappers printed in black, the remaining 600 in cloth; and though the paper copies were certainly bound up first, the decision to switch to cloth must have been taken before the book was published, for the two styles were issued simultaneously as the inscription in the present copy, dating from the month of first publication of the title, may attest. The title-page and covers were designed by Aubrey Beardsley. The author’s first book. Sadleir, II, p.139; Wolff, 2049; Lasner 25. Ref: CRT818601
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ELIOT (George). Felix Holt The radical. In three volumes. William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London, 1866. 3 Vols.; 4pp. integral advertisements at end of volume three, followed by 20pp. inserted publisher’s catalogue, undated, but not listing this title either among Eliot’s works or under the heading ‘In the press’ on the final page;; pp.[iv]+303+[i (blank)]; [iv]+290; [iv]+283+[i (blank)]+4; bright brown sand-grain cloth, ruled blind on sides, ruled, blocked, and lettered, gilt on spine; uncut edges; blackish green coated end-papers. Very slight wear to extremities of spines, and faint signs of a label having been removed from each front cover; spine of volume one a trifle bubbled; slight scuffing to end-papers in volume one where label has been removed; otherwise a nice copy.
GB £225.00
US $369.00
Sadleir 814; Parrish, p.20; Carter’s binding variant C. Ref: CRT818698
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ELLIS (Annie Raine). Sylvestra, Studies of manners in England From 1770 to 1800 By Annie Raine Ellis, Author of “Marie,” “Mariette,” etc. Vol. I [II]. London: George Bell and Sons, York Street, Covent Garden, 1881. The Right of Translation is reserved. 2 Vols.; printer’s imprint leaf, blank on verso, follows text in volume one; publisher’s 24pp. Catalogue dated September, 1880 at end of each volume; pp.[xii]+238+[ii]; [viii]+285+[i (blank)]; bright reddish-brown sand-grain cloth, ruled and blocked blind on sides, ruled blind, lettered and with short rule, gilt, on spine; top- and lower-edges uncut, fore-edges mainly trimmed; end-papers coated pale yellow. Small repair to cloth of one back joint, and slight cracking to one front end-paper; pencil inscription at head of half-title, and on first leaf of text (v. note); otherwise a nice copy.
GB £120.00
US $196.80
The inscription on the half-title is that of W.V. Ellis, presumably a relation of the author’s; and that on the first leaf of text identifies the original of the ‘Molly Blaise’ to whom the ‘Valentine of thge year 1770’ with which the book opens is addressed as ‘Sally Hayes, Mrs. S. Viner’. According to the author’s dedication/Preface (addressed to Alfred William Hunt), much of the novel is founded upon traditions handed down to her by people she had known in childhood who had lived through the times described. ‘As those times were “not too importunate",’ she says, ‘I wished that my tale should resemble them in absence of press and hurry. I desired that the people in it should be in some wise typical of their period. . . . The golden threads of true tradition were to shine among the subdued colours of my fiction.’ In fact the story is told in such an oblique and allusive manner, with so much of historical and social circumstance admixed, that the book tends to dissolve into a series of essays defining a space around the characters rather than presenting the characters themselves an effect somewhat akin to that of a Jane Austen novel written, perhaps, by the Virginia Woolf of “Jacob’s Room"! The authoress was a native of Durham, and the bulk of the book is set there, with episodes in Oxford and Gloucester. Includes some small amount of dialect in the Durham and Gloucester portions. Not in Sadleir; Woolf records copies of the other two novels mentioned on the title-page both single-volume works, and both with the signature ‘Elizabeth Viner Ellis’ on the verso of the front free end-paper but not this title. Ref: CRT818479
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ELLIS (Edward S.). The Phantom of the river: A sequel to “Shod with Silence". With four illustrations [signed ‘White’]. Cassell and Company, Limited, N.D. [1896]. Frontispiece, and three plates; 8+8pp. publisher’s catalogues at end dated 5G. 8.96 and 5B. 8.96; grass green bevelled buckram pictorially blocked in black and brown on spine and front cover; lettered on front cover in black and black shadowed brown on gilt, on spine in brown on gilt and green on black. Covers a little dull and rubbed; a very little light dusting internally; otherwise a nice copy.
GB £12.00
US $19.68
No.2 in the Boone and Kenton Series. Pioneering story set in Kentucky. Juvenile. This title not in the Osborne Collection. Ref: CRT801182
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ERASMUS (Sarel [i.e., BLACKBURN (Douglas)].). Prinsloo of Prinsloodorp: A Tale of Transvaal Officialdom. Being incidents in the life of a Transvaal official, as told by His son-in-law, Sarel Erasmus, Late Public Prosecutor of Prinsloodorp, Market Master Of Kaalkop, Small-pox Tax Collector of Schoonspruit, Etc, etc. London and South Africa: Dunbar Bros., London: 27, Chancery Lane, W.C., N.D. [April, 1899]. Double cr.16mo; blank before half-title; pp.[2]+[X]+x+129+[i (blank)]; publisher’s slip printed in red tipped in before title-page; diagonally fine ribbed leaf-green cloth blocked and lettered gilt on front cover, lettered gilt on spine; fore-edges rough-trimmed, lower-edges uncut; end-papers coated blackish brown. A very little foxing, and small scuff affecting front end-paper; otherwise a fine copy. Scarce.
GB £65.00
US $106.60
A South African classic written by a London born journalist cum colonial civil servant who spent some years in Natal and the Transvaal, it captures with a great deal of sly humour the personality and situation of the Boer at the time. The publisher’s slip reads: “Copies of this and all other publications, issued by Messrs. Dunbar Bros., can only be obtained from H. MacLeay, London, Cape Town, and Johannesburg. London: 1, Arundel Street, Strand, W.C.” Printed in London. The book was re-issued in wrappers later the same year. Ref: CRT801186
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
EVERETT-GREEN (Evelyn). Old Miss Audrey: A Chronicle of a Quiet Village. London, The Religious Tract Society, 56 Paternoster Row, 65 St. Paul’s Churchyard, And 164 Piccadilly, 1892. Demy 8vo, wire-stitched; half-title not called for; integral frontispiece with tissue guard, and three full-page illustrations on text-paper, unbacked, but included in the pagination; head-pieces and decorative initial letters to the chapters throughout, and some tail-pieces; apple green buckram, blocked black on back cover, blocked pictorially black, gilt, brown, and darker green, lettered black-outlined gilt, on front cover, lettered black-outlined gilt, and gilt, on spine. Slight dulling of spine, and some staples rusting; otherwise a fine copy.
GB £33.00
US $54.12
A sumptuously produced book, well designed and well printed on thick, smooth, creamy paper, and with an attractive and substantial case, unfortunately spoiled by the cheap wire-stitching, which already at this date was known not to survive well and had been dropped by publishers like Chatto who had experimented with in in the 1880s. Ref: CRT801191
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
EWING (J.H.). We and the world: A Book for Boys. With Illustrations by W.L. Jones. London: George Bell and Sons, York Street, Covent Garden, 1881 [i.e., Winter 1880]. F’cap 8vo; binder’s blank before half-title; wood-engraved frontispiece and six plates, on toned paper, by Whymper after W.L. Jones; integral advertisement leaf followed at end by publisher’s inserted 24pp. Catalogue dated September 1880, advertising this item as ‘Immediately’; pp.[iv]+310+[ii]; diagonally very fine-ribbed fawn cloth, blocked black and gilt, lettered gilt, on front cover, blocked and lettered black and gilt on spine; end-papers coated cream. Nice copy.
GB £50.00
US $82.00
The binder’s blank appears to be of text-paper: but it is an extra leaf and we have therefore not reckoned it as integral. Their is no list of plates, but they are marked to face pp.26, 47, 105, 128, 153, and 209 and are here tipped in to face pp.25, 48, 104, 128, 152, and 208 respectively. Not in Sadleir; this title not in Wolff. Ref: CRT801197
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
FARJEON (B.L.). Life’s brightest star. The Sunday Magazine Christmas story. London, Isbister and Company, Limited, 56, Ludgate Hill, 1886. Super Roy.8vo, printed in double columns; half-title not called for; wood-engraved frontispiece and numerous illustrations in text after R. Barnes; pp.64. BOUND WITH: TEMPLE (George). [Drop head:] Britta. A Shetland Romance. Wood-engraved frontispiece and numerous illustrations in text after W.L. Bogle; pp.72. BOUND WITH: DOUDNEY (Sarah). [Drop head:] Where two ways meet. Wood-engraved frontispiece and other illustrations in text after R. Barnes; pp.60. BOUND WITH: [MARSH (Eleanor Mary).]. Edelweiss. Good Words Christmas story. By The author of “Marah". With illustrations by Harry Furniss. London, Isbister and Company, Limited, 56 Ludgate Hill [sic], 1886. Wood-engraved frontispiece and numerous illustrations in text; pp.64. Four works bound together, as issued: publisher’s khaki buckram over thin boards, lettered red-cased black, and black, blocked chromatically red, yellow, and green on front cover, up-lettered black on spine; end-papers faced yellow. Very slight rubbing and dusting to covers, but a nice copy. Scarce.
GB £85.00
US $139.40
The first combined edition of the Christmas numbers of ‘The Sunday Magazine’, 1886; ‘Good Cheer’, 1885; the “Sunday Magazine” (undated ?1885); and ‘Good Cheer’, 1886, all showing stab-holes and therefore bound up from unsold stripped copies of the periodical. Sadleir, 851, and Woolf, 2139 record the original issue of the Farjeon as in yellow wrappers printed in red and black, the back and inside wrappers bearing advertisements. Neither of them records any of the other titles in any form. Ref: CRT818531
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
FARRAR (Frederic W.). Gathering clouds: A tale of the days of St. Chrysostom. In two volumes. Longmans, Green, and Co., 1895. 2 Vols., demy 8vo; publisher’s inserted 24pp. Catalogue, dated July, 1895, at end of volume one; pp.xii+347+[i (blank)]; vi+364; navy blue buckram, blocked gilt, lettered navy blue outlined gilt through gilt on front cover and spine, ruled and lettered gilt on spine; t.e. uncut, fore-edges mainly trimmed; end-papers faced black. Fine copy.
GB £180.00
US $295.20
This title not in Sadleir; Wolff, 2158, records only a single-volume edition of the same date, which he mistakes for the first. Ref: CRT801204
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
FENN (Geo. Manville). The Grand Chaco: A Boy’s Adventures in an Unknown Land. London, S.W. Partridge and Co., 9, Paternoster Row, N.D. [October, 1892]. Sm.cr.8vo, wire-stitched; half-tone frontispiece and other illustrations on text-paper; vignette on title-page; pp.416 (including frontispiece); publisher’s inserted 16pp. Catalogue at end, undated, but including on the last page an advertisement for ‘The Mother’s Companion’ recording that the annual volumes from 1887 to 1891 may still be had, and thus itself dating from 1892; bevelled salmon pink buckram blocked with publisher’s monogram device black on back cover, blocked and lettered black, blocked cream, brown and grey, lettered gilt, and gilt and gilt-outlined brown, on front cover, blocked black, cream, brown, grey, and gilt, ruled gilt, embossed with lettering blind-through-gilt, on spine; a.e.g.; end-papers printed florally pale grey. Gilt and enamel a trifle rubbed on covers; one or two small marks in text; in general however a nice copy.
GB £28.00
US $45.92
According to the English Catalogue of Books published in October 1892. Ref: CRT801214
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
FENN (George Manville). Gil the gunner; Or, The youngest officer in the East. Illustrated by W.H. Overend. Published under the direction of the committee Of general literature and education appointed by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Northumberland Avenue, Charing Cross, W.C.; 43, Queen Victoria Street, E.C. Brighton: 135, North Street. New York: E. & J.B. Young and Co., N.D. [1892]. Sm.cr.8vo; half-title not called for; wood-engraved frontispiece with tissue guard, conjugate with title leaf, and four wood-engraved plates: all on art-paper; integral advertisement leaf, blank on verso, followed by publisher’s inserted catalogue, 8pp., at end; pp.[ii (excluding frontispiece)]+542+[ii]; mottled pale greenish fawn and white smooth cloth, blocked in blue-green, dark brown, pale brown, and gilt, lettered dark red, and black, on front cover, lettered dark red outlined gilt, and dark brown, blocked dark brown and pale brown, on spine; top-edges stained brown; end-papers printed with flower-and-leaf pattern in grey. Slight marking to covers, and spine just a little darkened; inscription more or less removed from back of frontispiece (v. note); insignificant splitting to back end-papers; otherwise a nice copy.
GB £30.00
US $49.20
First published according to ‘The English Catalogue of Books’ in October 1892 at 5/- net. The welcome (but unfortunately partly removed) inscription on the back of the frontispiece in this copy is barely visible, but does yield up the date ‘Christmas 1892’, and according to the terminal advertisements, it was priced at 5/-. It appears therefore to be the correct first printing. Ref: CRT818557
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
FENN (G. Manville). Uncle Bart: The tale of a tyrant. By G. Manville Fenn, Author of ‘Gil the Gunner,’ ‘Mas’ George,’ etc., etc. Illustrated by W.L. Stacey. Published under the direction of the general literature committee. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London: Northumberland Avenue, W.C.; 43, Queen Victoria Street, E.C. Brighton: 129, North Street. New York: E. & J.B. Young & Co., N.D. [1900]. Extra imp.16mo in half sheets; half-tone frontispiece and conjugate title-page on art paper; four inserted plates; five leaves integral advertisements at end, the verso of the first blank; pp.502 (excluding title leaf)+[x]; chocolate cloth, blocked chromatically in pink, red, and reddish brown, blocked black and gilt, lettered gilt, on front cover, lettered gilt, and black, ruled and blocked pink and reddish brown on spine; end-papers printed with blossom design in pale brown. Neat ownership rubber-stamp on front end-paper; light creasing of two or three corners turned at some point by a reader; very light embrowning of pages facing plates; otherwise an extremely fine, crisp, copy of a difficult title.
GB £120.00
US $196.80
Agrees with the British Library deposit copy. There is no list of plates, but they are marked to face pp.84, 124, 328, and 400, and are here so tipped-in. The pictorial design on the front cover shows perhaps some influence of the Celtic school. According to the English Catalogue of Books, published in September 1900. Ref: CRT801219
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
FIELD (Eugene). A Little Book Of Profitable tales. Chicago, [privately printed,] 1889. Tall cr.8vo; text-paper binder’s blank before half-title; title-page printed in black and red; colophon leaf at end, signed by the printer; pp.[viii]+286+[ii]; half horizontal dotted ribbed ivory cloth, ruled and blocked gilt on spine, black leather spine label, ruled, blocked and lettered gilt, grey board sides; t.e.g., others uncut; blue and yellow head-band, blue silk marker; text-paper end-papers. Slight general embrowning of covers, and some very slight wear to cloth of spine; a fine copy internally.
GB £180.00
US $295.20
Blanck, 5738: one of a total edition limited to only 250 numbered copies, printed for subscribers upon hand-made paper. Precedes the first trade edition by one year. Printed in Cambridge at the University Press. In addition to the colophon, signed ‘John Wilson & Son’, in ink, the limitation notice appears to be signed ‘F’ or ‘T’. ‘High Spots in American Literature’, pp.32-3. Ref: CRT801224
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
FINNY (Violet G[eraldine].). A daughter of Erin. With four illustrations by G. Demain Hammond. London, Blackie & Son, Limited, 50 Old Bailey, E.C., Glasgow and Dublin, 1897 [i.e., October 1897]. Half-title not called for; half-tone frontispiece and three plates; pp.224; publisher’s inserted 32pp. undated catalogue at end, not including this title; pale green buckram blocked leaf green, dull purple, and creamish white, lettered dull purple, on front cover, blocked leaf green, dull purple, and creamy white, lettered gilt, on spine; end-papers faced pale greeny grey. Small glue marks on front end-papers, tallow stain on back end-papers and last few leaves of catalogue, and two or three small marks in text; otherwise a nice copy.
GB £40.00
US $65.60
Ref: CRT801228
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
FITZGERALD (G. Beresford, F.S.A.). Beyond these Dreams. London, Digby Long & Co, 18 Bouverie Street, Fleet Street, E.C, 1899. Post 8vo; pp.[iv]+[315]+[i (advertisements)]; publisher’s inserted 16pp. catalogue at end, dated ‘October, 1899’; horizontally divided buckram, half grey-green, half black, ruled blind and black, blocked black, on sides and spine, lettered gilt and black on spine; t.e uncut, lower-edges mainly trimmed; end-papers printed with apple-blossom pattern in grey. Half-title, last leaf of advertisements, and free end-papers lacking; otherwise a nice copy.
GB £12.00
US $19.68
Not in Sadleir; this title not in Wolff. In this copy p.273, l.13 has the misprint ‘ife’ for ‘life’. Ref: CRT801231
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
[FORD, earlier] HUEFFER (Ford H. Madox). The Feather. With frontispiece by F. Madox Brown. London, T. Fisher Unwin, 1892. Pott 8vo; blank before half-title; half-title and title pages printed in red and black; frontispiece; 4pp. integral advertisements at end; pp.[viii]+212+[iv]; ivory buckram, elaborately blocked with repeating pattern in blue on sides and spine, blocked with publisher’s monogram device blue on back cover, ruled and lettered blue on front cover and spine; edges and end-papers printed with same repeating pattern in blue as covers. Slight embrowning of spine; design on sides and spine lightly rubbed, as almost always; otherwise a nice copy.
GB £220.00
US $360.80
Issued as the tenth volume of ‘The Children’s Library’. Not in Sadleir or Wolff. Ref: CRT801242
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
FORDE (H.A.). Across Two Seas: A New Zealand Tale. By H.A. Forde, Author of ‘The Old Ship,’ ‘Black and White,’ Etc. Illustrated. Wells Gardner, Darton, & Co., 3 Paternoster Buildings, E.C., And 44 Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W., 1894. Imp.16mo in half sheets; half-title not called for; wood-engraved frontispiece with tissue guard, and ten illustrations signed with monogram CW, all unbacked, but on text-paper and included in the pagination; 4pp. integral advertisements at end; pp.[viii (including frontispiece)]+188+[iv]; scarlet buckram blocked with publisher’s monogram black on back cover, blocked in flesh, brown, black, yellow, and green, lettered black and black outlined brown on front cover, blocked flesh, brown, black, green, and gilt, ruled black and gilt, lettered black-shadowed scarlet through gilt and black outlined scarlet, on spine; end-papers coated yellow. A fine copy.
GB £75.00
US $123.00
Not in Sadleir; this title not in Wolff, who records one doubtful title, ‘Waiting for Tidings’, listed as by the author of ‘White and Black’. The volume is also seen in deep yellow-green buckram, similarly blocked, but in a different range of colours. Ref: CRT801246
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
[FORSYTH (Evelyn).]. Ye Gestes of ye Ladye Anne: A marvellous pleasaunt and comfortable Tayle. Edited [i.e., written] by Evelyn Forsyth. Illustrated by A. Hennen Broadwood. London: Field & Tuer, Ye Leadenhalle Presse, E.C., Simpkin, Marshall & Co.; Hamilton, Adams & Co. New York: Scribner & Welford, 743 & 745, Broadway, N.D. [1884]. F’cap 4to; half-title printed on verso only precedes integral wood-engraved frontispiece; numerous illustrations, and some music, in text; 3pp. integral advertisements at end; parchment self-wrappers, printed with woodcut illustration, title, and price, on front wrapper. Very sllight dusting of parchment, and barely noticeable damp-stain on back wrapper; otherwise, and in effect, a fine crisp copy of one of the scarcer publications of the Leadenhall Press.
GB £120.00
US $196.80
An original work, supposedly here edited from a 1512 edition adapted from a supposed mediæval manuscript found on the demolition of a chapel at Ludlow in Shropshire, and set in Wales. The design of the volume itself is a not unwitty parody of an early parchment-bound volume, complete with crude wood-cuts, and a sprinkling of verses in black-letter. Ref: CRT801253
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
FORTESCUE (The Hon. J.W.). The Drummer’s coat. With illustrations by H.M. Brock. London, Macmillan and Co., Limited; New York: The Macmillan Company, 1899. All rights reserved. Sq.8vo; wood-engraved frontispiece and three plates; pp.[viii]+184; mottled deep red fine rough buckram, blocked and lettered gilt on front cover, lettered gilt on spine; a.e. uncut. Slight general wear to cloth; light foxing of title-page; otherwise a nice copy. Scarce.
GB £14.00
US $22.96
Not in Sadleir or Wolff. Ref: CRT801254
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
One of only nine copies. [FOTHERGILL (Jessie).]. The first violin. A Novel. In three volumes. London: Richard Bentley and Son, Publishers in Ordinary to her Majesty the Queen, 1878. (All Rights Reserved.) Sm.cr.8vo; half-titles not called for; single inset title to volume one; cancel titles pasted onto stubs in all three volumes (v.note); last leaf of volume two a single inset (that, with the three leaves of prelims. to volume one and the two each to volumes two and three, completing an exact number of full sheets); pp.vi+288; iv+258; iv+271+[i (blank)]; diagonally fine-ribbed violet cloth, ruled and blocked blind on back cover, ruled, blocked, and lettered black on front cover, ruled and blocked black, lettered gilt on spine; end-papers faced yellow. Restorations to cloth of spines, and cloth faded; library label removed from each front cover; internally very nice.
GB £720.00
US $1,180.80
First edition, first printing, second (first published) state. Under 891, 891a, and Notes, Sadleir records that according to the Bentley Private Catalogue, a total of nine copies of the first printing (891) were bound up (five copies for copyright deposit, one which was kept by the publisher, and three others), and that the book, which had Jessie Fothergill’s name on the title-page and was dated 1877, was then suppressed without any copies being sold, this, according to a statement made to Sadleir by Bentley, at the insistence of her father who thought it should appear anonymously. (This would appear to imply that at least one of the remaining three copies was sent to the author, since had her father read the book in proof he would have objected before the first printing had been made). Sadleir further records that the ‘second (published) edition’ (891a) had a title-page reading as above, and was entirely reset. He notes a number of differences between the two printings in addition to the variant wording and setting of the titles, including that “(a) First Edition has no chapter titles in Contents List or at head of chapters. Second Edition has chapter titles in both places. (b) First Edition has large signature number on first leaf of each gathering. Second Edition has small number.” Except for the cancel titles, the present copy would appear to be identical with Sadleir’s first printing (the signature numbers on the first leaf of each gathering being in 12pt as against the 6pt of the numbers on the second leaf, and the chapter headings being omitted throughout). We have always been puzzled by Sadleir’s statement that the book was reprinted in its entirety merely because the title-page was altered particularly as it was in any case a single inset leaf in volume one and half of a conjugate pair in the other volumes. Normal (and sensible economic) practice would have been to provide the book with a cancel title leaf and to issue the sheets otherwise unchanged. The existence of the present copy suggests that this was indeed what Bentley’s did though the delay in publishing the volume perhaps resulted in a greater number of orders being received, so that the original print-run was inadequate, and the book was in fact reprinted for this reason (conceivably before publication), both the original sheets (provided with cancel titles) and the second printing sheets being issued more or less together, within a short period of time. The statement in the Bentley Private Catalogue that only nine copies of the original printing were bound up would thus appear to mean that only nine copies were bound up complete with the original title-pages. That the present copy had been bound up before the original title leaves were cancelled is proved by the fact that the single inset title leaf to volume one is here mounted on a stub, which, had it not been bound before the substitution was decided on, would have been unnecessary and it must therefore qualify as one of the nine, and be in fact one of only two or three copies in this later state (though the Sadleir copy had the title to volume three so cancelled, the substitute leaf being marked in pencil (‘proof title only before printing’). Neither printing is now common as is attested by the absence of this title from Wolff’s holdings. From the collection of Eric Quayle, with his brief holograph pencilled notes on the back of the front end-paper to volume one. Long noted as the ‘best’ and one might justifiably say ‘greatest’ musical novel: a book which does not deserve its present obscurity. Ref: CRT801257
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
FOWLER (Ellen Thorneycroft). Cupid’s Garden. By Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler, Author of “Verses Wise or Otherwise” And “Verses Grave and Gay". Cassell and Company. [sic] Limited, London, Paris, New York & Melbourne, 1898. All rights reserved. 8pp. integral advertisements, dated at end ‘8.98’, followed by publisher’s inserted catalogue, 16pp., at end, coded ‘6G 10.98’; pp.[viii (two pairs of conjugate leaves)]+296+8; pale green linen flecked with paler green, blocked with art nouveau designs blind on back cover, gilt on front cover and spine, lettered gilt on front cover and spine; end-papers printed with publisher’s initials device in grey. Insignificant foxing to edges and prelims., but virtually a fine copy. Scarce.
GB £85.00
US $139.40
Presentation copy with author’s signed eight-word holograph inscription, dated ‘Xmas, 1920’, on the half-title. The author’s first volume of stories, and fourth book. (Besides the two volumes of verse mentioned on the title-page, she had published a novel with Hodder & Stoughton some five months previously). Includes fourteen stories: An Old Wife’s Tale; Scattered Leaves; The Hand of Priscilla Hawthorne; Miss Belinda’s Love-Letters; A Lost Pleiad; A Little Learning; The Scales of Injustice; The Man that Married Mary; A Merry Heart; The Success of Failure; A Wrong Altar; My Matrimonial Agency; Wanted, a Wife; and A Poet at Play. The inserted catalogue at the end, which precedes publication by about a month, describes this title as ‘Cheap Edition, 3s. 6d.’, but this is correct: according to the English Catalogue of Books it was originally issued at that price. Not in Sadleir; this title not in Wolff. Ref: CRT801259
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
FOWLER (Ellen Thorneycroft). A double thread. London, Hutchinson & Co, 34, Paternoster Row, 1899. Pp.viii+376; diagonally very fine ribbed pale tangerine cloth, blocked and lettered gilt on front cover and spine; a.e. uncut; poor quality laid end-papers. End-papers lightly embrowned; very light foxing of uncut edges; otherwise a fine copy. Not in Sadleir; this title not in Wolff.
GB £30.00
US $49.20
Ref: CRT818207
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
FOX (John, Jr.). A mountain Europa. New York and London, Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1899. Blank, and sepiatone portrait frontispiece with tissue guard, precede title-page; blue-green fine rough buckram, blocked and lettered light blue-green on front cover, blocked and lettered gilt on spine; t.e yellow-green, others uncut. Very slight wear to head and tail of spine; otherwise a near fine copy.
GB £40.00
US $65.60
Blanck, 6246, suggesting that copies with t.e. green were intended for issue in England: the normal form of a Harper title-page in England, however, would have read ‘London and New York’. Loosely laid into this copy is a bibliographically interesting typed postcard from A.J.A. Symons bearing the heading of The First Edition Club, in which he asks the recipient to insert the number 68 at the end of his copy of ‘Life and Dreams’, the publishers having evidently forgotten to number the issue themselves. Accidents like these cast doubts on the hypotheses of bibliographers concerning printers’ over-runs! Ref: CRT801261
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
FRANCES (Harold). Squire of Calder. London: The London Literary Society, 376 Strand, W.C., 1887. Globe 8vo; pp.360; horizontally divided scarlet and blue-black buckram ruled and lettered gilt on front cover and spine; thin cream end-papers. Poor quality end-papers a little chipped and fragile, and neatly strengthened at gutters; a little scattered foxing; otherwise a nice copy.
GB £65.00
US $106.60
Includes a description of a tennis party in one of the matches of which both players are determined to cheat in any possible way! A scarce novel, not in Sadleir or Wolff. Ref: CRT801264
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
FRAPAN (Ilse). Heavy Laden And Old-Fashioned Folk. Translated by Helen A. Macdonnell. London, T. Fisher Unwin, Paternoster Square, 1892. Narrow f’cap 8vo; 4pp. integral advertisements at end; pp.216+[iv]; yellow self-wrappers French folded over white paper sides, printed outside in black, the back wrapper bearing the publisher’s device; a.e. uncut. Slight fading to paper of spine and wrappers just a trifle dusty; name of original owner neatly written in ink on upper margin of front wrapper; otherwise a fine copy.
GB £75.00
US $123.00
The probable first state of the wrappers in which the spine lettering has been set for a wider volume, so that it runs by up to three letters onto the back wrapper. Issued as volume 14 in ‘The Pseudonym Library’ in cloth, at 2/-, or in paper wrappers, as here, at 1/6. The advertisements on the verso of the half-title list the series to this volume. Includes a Preface by the translator. The first edition in English. Ref: CRT818719
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
FREDERIC (Harold). The return of The O’Mahony: A romantic fantasy. By Harold Frederic, Author of ‘In the Valley,’ ‘The New Exodus,’ etc. With illustrations. London, William Heinemann, 1893. (All rights reserved). Half-tone frontispiece and four inserted plates, with tissue guards; pp.[viii]+279+[i (blank)]; publisher’s inserted Catalogue, 16pp., at end, dated October 1892; light scarlet bubble-grain cloth, ruled blind, blocked with publisher’s monogram within ruled circle, black, on back cover, ruled blind, lettered gilt, on front cover, ruled black, lettered and with short rule gilt, on spine; a.e. uncut. Very slight marking to covers, but a nice copy.
GB £30.00
US $49.20
First English edition, published about six months after the New York edition. Blanck, 6274 refers. Ref: CRT818795
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
G. (C.J.). In palace and Faubourg. London, Edinburgh And New York, Thomas Nelson And Sons, [on copyright leaf:] 1888. Imp.16mo in half sheets; blank, half-title, and leaf bearing copyright notice on verso, blank on recto, precede half-tone frontispiece after Alec C. Ball; tipped-in title leaf printed in red and black on thin card, and integral Contents leaf, complete the prelims.; seven half-tone plates after Ball; final blank; pp.462 (not including title-leaf)+[ii]; vertically-ribbed pink cloth, ruled and elaborately blocked blind, lettered gilt, on front cover, lettered, ruled, and elaborately blocked, gilt on flat spine. Slight patchy fading of cloth, and gilt on spine just a trifle rubbed; end-papers and early prelims. lightly foxed; otherwise a nice copy.
GB £33.00
US $54.12
An adult historical novel set during the French Revolution, and an oddly designed book, that has the air of having been published on commission. The name of the Copyright Holder is given as Gavin Houston, who may well be the author. There is no list of plates, but they are marked to face pp.55, 112, 183, 256, 314, 353, and 416, that to p.55 facing p.56, that to p.183 facing p.184, that to p.314 facing p.312, that to p.353 facing p.352, and the rest appearing as marked. Not in Sadleir or Wolff. Ref: CRT801283
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
[GALT (John).]. The Ayrshire legatees; Or, The Pringle family. By the author of “Annals of the Parish,” &c. Edinburgh: Printed for William Blackwood, Edinburgh; And T. Cadell, Strand, London, 1821. 12mo; bound up without half-title; contemporary half-calf, marbled boards. Backstrip badly chipped; slight foxing of end-papers and first few leaves; otherwise a very nice copy.
GB £130.00
US $213.20
Not in Sadleir. Ref: CRT801287
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
GARVICE (Charles). The outcast of The family. By Charles Garvice, Author of “A Coronet of Shame,” “Nance,” “Her Heart’s Desire,” etc., etc. London, Sands & Co., 12 Burleigh Street, Strand, 1900. Blank before half-title; integral advertisement leaf at end; dark blue crushed morocco cloth, ruled and embossed with art-nouveau design blind, lettered and blocked with art-nouveau design gilt, on front cover and spine. Front free end-paper lacking (a fact which is not obvious because of the similar front blank); otherwise a nice copy of a difficult title.
GB £32.00
US $52.48
The author’s second, third, fourth, or fifth, book (all of the titles mentioned on the title page having been published in the same month as this, and by the same publisher!) Garvice was to be hailed in contemporary reviews as the successor to Mrs. Henry Wood. Ref: CRT817725
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
[GASCOIGNE (Mrs. M.A. [neé Caroline Leigh-Smith]).]. Evelyn Harcourt. A novel. By The author of “Temptation, or, a Wife’s Perils,” “The School for Wives,” etc. In three volumes. Henry Colburn, Publisher, Great Marlborough Street, 1847. Lge.12mo; half-titles not present, probably not called for; pp.[iv]+338; [ii]+299+[i (printer’s imprint)]; [ii]+292. BOUND WITH: [GASCOIGNE (Mrs. M.A. [neé Caroline Leigh-Smith]]).]. Belgravia. A Poem. Charles Westerton, 20, St. George’s Place, Hyde Park Corner, 1851. Post 8vo; half-title not called for; pp.79+[i (blank)]. 2 works bound in 3 vols., contemporary quarter black roan, ruled and lettered gilt on spine, cerise cloth corners, blind-stamped marbled sides. Backstrips lacking, sides a little rubbed; contemporary signature on upper margin of each title-page in first work; otherwise nice.
GB £260.00
US $426.40
First work: not in Sadleir or Summers; this title not in Wolff, or the British or London Library Catalogues; NUC records Library of Congress and Illinois (Urbana) copies only; Block, p.82, records this title only from an advertisement and a review. Second work: recorded by Wolff only from Allibone Supplement; London Library Catalogue, 1913, I, p.912, giving the correct date, but an incorrect pagination; correctly recorded in BLC and NUC. Ref: CRT801298
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
GATTY (Mrs. Alfred). The fairy godmothers And other tales. London: George Bell, 186, Fleet Street, 1851. F’cap 8vo; steel-engraved frontispiece by G. Simms after Lucette E. Barker, printed in sepia; wood-cut initial letters, head- and tail- pieces; large woodcut printer’s device on colophon; pp.[vi]+153+[i]; vertically fine-ribbed grey-caramel cloth, blocked blind on sides, ruled and blocked blind, lettered and blocked gilt, on spine; end-papers coated pale yellow. Very slight wear to cloth at head of spine, and neat restoration to cloth at tail; ink-marks on imprint page and facing surface of end-paper; scattered fingering and light tallow-stains; a good copy only.
GB £18.00
US $29.52
The author’s scarce first book. Printed at the Chiswick Press. Not in Sadleir; this title not in Wolff, who records nothing before 1860; NCBEL, 3: 930. Includes ‘The Fairy Godmothers’, ‘Joachim the Mimic’, ‘Darkness and Light’, and ‘The Love of God’. Ref: CRT818696
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
GATTY (Mrs. Alfred). Aunt Judy’s Letters. Illustrated by Clara S. Lane. London: Bell and Daldy, 186, Fleet Street, 1862. The Right of Translation is reserved. F’cap 8vo; wood-engraved frontispiece with loose tissue guard, and five inserted plates; pp.[viii (not paginated)]+183+[i (blank)]; publisher’s inserted catalogue, 32pp. on toned paper, dated May, 1862, and not mentioning this volume, bound in at end; vertical wavy-grain crimson cloth, ruled and elaborately blocked blind on sides, ruled and blocked blind, lettered, blocked, and with short rule, gilt, on spine; a.e. uncut; end-papers coated milk chocolate. Barely perceptible fading to cloth of spine, and some very light foxing to catalogue; neat ownership inscription and contemporary bookseller’s blind-stamp on half-title; nonetheless a near-fine copy.
GB £55.00
US $90.20
The first issue: in crimson wavy-grain cloth and with the inserted catalogue dated May 1862. Copies are more frequently seen in a dull green horizontal straight-morocco grain cloth, with a catalogue dated December 1862. Juvenile. A sequel to ‘Aunt Judy’s Tales’. There is no list of illustrations, but they are bound in to face pp.29, 73, 104, 139, and 163. Beautifully printed by Whittingham and Wilkins at the Chiswick Press. Not in Sadleir; this title not in Wolff; NCBEL, 3: 930. Ref: CRT818204
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
GATTY (Mrs. Alfred). Domestic Pictures And tales. By Mrs. Alfred Gatty, Author of “Parables from Nature,” etc. London: Bell and Daldy, 186, Fleet Street, 1866. (The Right of Translation is Reserved.) F’cap 8vo; blank before half-title; wood-engraved frontispiece and five plates by ‘M.S.G.’ [i.e. the author, Margaret Scott Gatty], all printed in sepia; pp.[viii]+176; publisher’s 40pp. catalogue at end, on antique-toned paper, dated January, 1866; Royal blue morocco-grain cloth, ruled and elaborately blocked blind on sides, ruled and blocked blind, blocked, lettered, and with short rule, gilt, on spine; a.e. uncut; end-papers coated caramel. Contemporary ownership inscription on front blank; last two leaves of catalogue foxed; otherwise a very nice copy.
GB £24.00
US $39.36
There is no list of illustrations, but they are inserted to face pp. 38, 62, 73, 117, and 142. Includes: “Only Grandmama"; Robin the Conjurer; the Sisters; The Game without an End; A Funeral Card; The Bachelor Uncle; The Ayah; and Family Friends. Not in Sadleir; this title not in Wolff; NCBEL: 3: 930. Ref: CRT818851
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
GERARD (Morice [i.e., John Jessop Teague]). Prince Karl: A Story of the Black Forest. Thomas Nelson and Sons, London, Edinburgh, and New York, 1900 [i.e., December 1899]. Globe 8vo; half-tone frontispiece with tissue guard, and conjugate vignette title-page, precede letterpress title-page; 4pp. integral advertisements at end; pp.172+[iv]; olive green buckram blocked with publisher’s monogram device blind on back cover, blocked black and gilt, lettered black, on front cover, blocked black, lettered black, and gilt, on spine; end-papers printed florally pale green. Spine slightly faded, but a nice copy.
GB £14.00
US $22.96
Not in Sadleir; Wolff records no Morice Gerard title earlier than 1901. Ref: CRT801314
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
[GIBBONS (Miss M.S.). Was it wise? A novel By Volo non valeo, Author of “Two Christmas Days,” “The Blarney Stone,” &c. Exeter: Mayne & Co., Bedford Street. London: Whittaker & Co., Ave Maria Lane, 1872. Short post 8vo; half-title not called for; fly-title precedes first page of text; wood-engraved frontispiece and three plates by Millais; pp.[viii]+324; cerise bubble-grain cloth ruled and blocked blind on sides (after the manner of a prayerbook), ruled, blocked, and ornamentally lettered gilt on spine with title only (as though on a lettering-piece); end-papers faced yellow, the front paste-down printed with advertisements in cerise for the author’s other works. Very nice copy. Rare.
GB £240.00
US $393.60
Almost certainly printed and bound in Exeter. All of the plates are signed with Millais well-known monogram and that to p.26 also in full, although an attempt appears to have been made to cancel this. The improbability of Millais having illustrated a provincially published novel suggests the possibility that it made its first appearance in a magazine conceivably ‘The Monthly Packet’ for which the advertisements claim the author as a contributor. Three other works by the same author are mentioned in the advertisements: “Two Christmas Days", a twopenny brochure issued by Barnes of Budleigh Salterton; “Church or Chapel, One or Both” issued by “John Hodges, Bedford Street, Covent Garden, London; And Church Street, Frome Selwood” as the 6th number of ‘Penny Manuals for the People’; and ‘"The Blarney Stone,” An Idyl’ after the manner of Tennyson, issued, price Three Pence, by the same publisher as the present volume. Not in Sadleir, Wolff, or the British Library Catalogue, though the London Library has a copy, listed under Gibbons. Ref: CRT801316
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
GIBBS (Henry). A long probation. London: Burns & Oates, Limited[;] New York, Cincinnati, Chicago: Benziger Brothers, N.D. [June, 1897]. Half-title not called for; pp.736; pale lime-green and white fine mixed-weave cloth blocked with an art nouveau design of watercress dark green on back cover and spine, dark green and gilt on front cover, lettered gilt on front cover and spine; a.e. uncut. Edges and paste-downs foxed; otherwise a fine, crisp, copy. Scarce.
GB £80.00
US $131.20
Presentation copy inscribed in pencil on the front end-paper ‘from Henry Gibbs’, presumably in the author’s hand, the name of the recipient being added, also in pencil, in a different hand, together with a subsequent presentation inscription. A longer novel even than is suggested by the pagination, the print size being rather small, but readable enough. Set variously in France and England, in part amongst the artists communities. Dedicated to Cardinal Vaughan. Not in Sadleir or Wolff. Apparently the author’s only novel. Ref: CRT817951
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
[GIBSON (Charles Bernard).]. The Last Earl of Desmond: A Historical Romance Of 1599-1603. In two volumes. Dublin: Hodges and Smith, 104, Grafton Street, 1854. 2 Vols., lge.12mo; half-titles not called for; pp.xxxvi+311+[i (blank)]; [ii]+372; royal blue vertical straight grain morocco cloth, ruled and blocked blind on sides, ruled blind, lettered and with short rule gilt, on spine; t.e uncut, fore-edges rough-trimmed; end-papers coated yellow. Neat, barely detectable, restoration to cloth over one back joint; slight marking of end-papers, and one back end-paper lacking; otherwise a fine copy. Rare.
GB £200.00
US $328.00
Presentation copy, inscribed “From the Author” on the front end-paper of volume one, and with the small rubber stamp of the ‘Christian Brothers Library Wexford’, who were presumably the recipients. An unusual example of a multi-volume novel first published in Ireland, and a scarce imprint. Not in Sadleir or Wolff. Ref: CRT801317
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
GILLIAT (Rev. E., M.A.). John Standish, Or, The harrowing of London. With Illustrations. London, Seeley & Co., [46, 47 & 48,] Essex Street, Strand, 1889. Extra cr.8vo; wood-engraved frontispiece with tissue guard and seven plates, all printed in pastel shades of colour; pp.[viii]+380; publisher’s inserted 16pp. catalogue at end; slate green buckram ruled dark red on sides and spine, blocked gilt, lettered gilt and gilt-outlined dark red on front cover, blocked dark red and gilt, lettered gilt, on spine; end-papers coated pale yellow. Backs of end-papers foxed, with offsetting; inscription (dated ‘New year’s day, 1891’) on upper margin of half-title; otherwise a virtually fine copy of rather a beautiful book.
GB £50.00
US $82.00
Not in Sadleir; Wolff, 2514, describing an otherwise similar copy in dark blue cloth, with an inscription dated 1892. Ref: CRT801324
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
GISSING (George). The emancipated: A Novel By George Gissing Author of “The Nether World,” “Thyrza,” etc. In three volumes. London: Richard Bentley and Son, Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen, 1890. (All rights reserved.) 3 Vols., sm.cr.8vo; half-titles not called for; final blank in volume two; pp.[iv]+308; [iv]+306+[ii]; [iv]+308; quarter olive brown smooth cloth lettered and with short rule, gilt, on spine, pale brown unglazed paper sides blocked (not printed) with over-all pattern in dark brown; white end-papers printed with repeating pattern of broken diamond-shaped spaces containing alternately the publisher’s monogram, and the publisher’s emblem and motto. Slight general wear to covers; some darkening of boards, with lighter patches where library labels have been removed; slight spine roll; otherwise a nice copy.
GB £370.00
US $606.80
From the library of Pierre Coustillas, but without sign of provenance. Coustillas’ Check-list, 106, describing a copy (this) as in “brown boards with light and dark brown design"; Jarndyce, Catalogue LXXXV, describing the boards as “blocked in grey and brown"; Collie, VIII a, describing the boards as “covered with light brown patterned paper” and the end-papers as “cream” with “a diagonal green pattern of crosses creating diamond-shaped spaces” etc. There may have been more than one binding-batch, but we doubt that there are as many variants as these descriptions seem to suggest. Certainly if the end-papers in the present copy are regarded as “cream", so is the text-paper, and we suspect that if the latter darkened the printed design might well start to look “green". Sadleir, 966, describes a fine copy, possibly from the Bentley file, which agrees with ours except that it is without the final blank in volume two, the first leaf of the final gathering in his copy being a singleton, which was apparently the case also with the copy listed by Wolff under 2546. “‘The Emancipated’ marked the end of Gissing’s deliberate Naturalist period and the beginning of a series of psychological novels, which were less concerned with the effects of environment and more concerned with the emotional and intellectual conflicts experienced by socially alienated characters.” Collie. It thus came at a pivotal moment of his development. Gissing’s contract with Bentley provided that he should be paid an advance of £150, with an additional payment of £50 when 850 copies had been sold, and a further £50 when a thousand had been sold. In the event, Bentley reported receips of only £392. Making full allowance for library discounts, it does not seem probable that this could represent a sale of more than 350 to 400 copies, and it is perhaps unlikely that many more than that number will have been bound up. The thousand copies apparently envisaged in the contract may indeed have been reckoned as calling for more than one printing order. Gissings earlier books published by Smith, Elder were printed in editions of 500. Ref: CRT801331
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS CATALOGUE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
GLASS (Andrew). Adventures And Traditions By Andrew Glass, Author of “The Countess of Carrick,” “The Seven Sisters,” “The Fatal Feud,” &c. Glasgow: Printed and published by William Rankin, 146 Renfield Street, 1884. Sm.cr.8vo; blank before half-title, two at end; pp.[4]+viii+188+[4]; bevelled diagonally fine ribbed bright green cloth, ruled and blocked blind on back cover, black on front cover, blocked and lettered gilt on front cover and spine, ruled gilt on spine; end-papers printed with sea-wrack design in bright blue. Insignificant mark on back cover; free end-papers badly faded, as usual with this volume; first and last blank page embrowned by contact with end-papers; a few leaves with fox-spots or light marks; in general a nice copy nonetheless. Scarce.
GB £45.00
US $73.80
A picaresque novel drawing on Scottish traditionary lore, and intended to convey to the reader “some phases of men and manners as seen in Scotland fifty years ago.” Not in the London Library Catalogue, Sadleir or Wolff. Ref: CRT801337
Click here for list of references, abbreviations, and conventions used
Click here to return to "Rare Books" Homepage |