Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

IMPORTANT!

This is the ROBERT TEMPLE BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE. It contains descriptions and notes relating to almost 18,000 titles in the fields of British and American literature, being the bulk of the stock that has passed through our hands since 1984, with the addition of a few earlier items of especial interest. Books currently in stock are not included, and it is therefore necessary to supplement your search by looking at our Current Catalogues. For the most part full bibliographical descriptions are given, though for some earlier items, catalogued when computing space was more restricted the details given are quite brief. For an account of the conventions adopted, the abbreviations used, and reference sources consulted, please see our information pages.




Please note:
The arrangement here is the same as that adopted in our current catalogues, and as there 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 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WHITBY (Beatrice). In the suntime of her youth. In three volumes. Hurst and Blackett, Limited, 13, Great Marlborough Street, 1893. 3 Vols.; 16+8pp. publisher's catalogues at end of volume three, on text paper; green cloth lettered in black on front cover, and in gilt on spine; top- and fore- edges uncut; brown coated end-papers. Spines frayed a little at head and tail, back joint of volume one repaired, small library label on each front cover; end-papers cracked; fore-margin of front free end-paper and half-title page in each volume very slightly frayed; small tear in fore-margin of first four leaves in volume one, not affecting text; two or three leaves slightly foxed; otherwise a nice copy.

Not in Sadleir; Wolff, 7168.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WHITBY (Beatrice). A matter of skill And other stories. In one volume. Hurst and Blackett, Limited, 13, Great Marlborough Street, 1896 [i.e., September, 1895]. Blank before half-title; 12pp. publisher's integral advertisements at end; pp.[viii]+332+[12]; bevelled dark green crushed morocco cloth, blocked gilt on front cover, ruled black and gilt, lettered gilt, on spine; top- and fore- edges uncut; end-papers coated dark grey-green. Light foxing of edges, and some foxing of prelims.; ownership signature on front blank; otherwise a fine, bright, copy.

A scarce Beatrice Whitby title, not in Sadleir or Wolff. Social comedies, the whole very readable and sometimes clever, but the title-story, a short novel, stands out, apart from the unfortunate compulsion towards a happy ending, as an unusual conception, movingly achieved.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

[WHITE (Alfred).]. Kelvington. A Tale For the turf and the table. By "Whitebelt." With frontispiece. Wyman & Sons, 74-76, Great Queen Street, Lincoln's-inn-fields, 1883. Demy 8vo; lithographic frontispiece printed in black and ochre, with tissue guard; pp.xii+234; publisher's inserted 12pp. catalogue, undated, but including advertisements of yearbooks, etc. ‘for 1883' (i.e., probably Autumn season 1882); bevelled diagonally fine ribbed bright purple cloth, ruled and blocked blind on back cover, gilt on front cover and spine, lettered gilt on front cover and spine; end-papers coated yellow. Spine and top-edges of covers slightly dulled; otherwise fine.

Not in Sadleir or Wolff. We have not succeeded in identifying the author of this novel, which is dedicated to Lord Alington. According to the author's Preface, it is a "tale, founded on personal reminiscences". A handsome volume.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WHITE (Percy). A king's diary. Cassell and Company, Limited, 1895. Narrow f'cap 8vo; half-title not called for; 4pp. integral advertisements at end; light olive coarse linen blocked with art nouveau design on sides, lettered on front cover and spine, in reddish brown; uncut edges. Nice copy.

A volume in Cassell's Pocket Library. Sadleir 3741/1. Listed by Sadleir, but one of three titles not present in his collection. Includes an Editor's Foreword by Max Pemberton.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WHITE (Percy). The Heart of The Dancer. Hutchinson & Co., 1900. Final blank; dark red linen, blocked black, white, and flesh, ruled and lettered flesh, on front cover, blocked black, flesh, and white, lettered black on spine. Small ink-mark on fore-edges; otherwise a very nice copy.

Hubin, p.435. Not criminous.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

[WHITE (William Hale).]. Mark Rutherford's Deliverance: Being The Second Part of his Autobiography. Edited by his friend, Reuben Shapcott. Trubner & Co., Ludgate Hill, 1885. Final blank; erratum slip tipped on to first page of text; greenish blue boards, paper spine label printed in black; a.e. uncut; end-papers coated dark brown. Slight general wear to covers, and spine slightly darkened; prelims. and edges a trifle foxed; otherwise very nice.

The first binding. Sadleir 3016; Wolff, 7184, noting that in total only 250 copies were printed.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

[WHITE (William Hale).]. Miriam's schooling And other papers. By Mark Rutherford. Edited by his friend, Reuben Shapcott. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, & Co., Ltd., 1890. Line engraved frontispiece by A. Leverett after Walter Crane, with tissue guard; printer's imprint leaf at end; pp.[viii]+194+[ii]; greenish black buckram, ruled blind on sides, ruled and lettered gilt on spine; end-papers faced black. Three minute rub-holes in cloth over joints, but no weakness; gilt rather dull; tissue slightly foxed; otherwise a nice copy. Scarce.

Sadleir, 3017, describing the cloth colour as ‘blue-black', which it might also be; Wolff, 7185; Nowell-Smith, p.15.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WHITEING (Richard). Mr. Sprouts His opinions. John Camden Hotten, [74 & 75, Piccadilly,] 1867. Pp.[viii]+200; publisher's inserted 16pp. catalogue at end; bevelled purple patterned sand grain cloth, blocked blind on sides, ruled, blocked, and lettered gilt, lettered blue-through gilt, on spine; t.e. uncut, fore-edges rough trimmed; end-papers coated grey-chocolate. Corners worn, cloth at tail of spine slightly so; gilt blocking on spine lightly rubbed; ownership inscription on half-title page; pen trials on blank verso of Contents and facing page; otherwise a nice copy.

A comic ‘working class' (and mock-illiterate) antidote to James Greenwood, by whose 1866 account "A Night in a Workhouse" the first sketch, "A Night in Belgrave Square", was originally inspired. The design of the spine of this volume is unusual: two thirds of it being pressed out plain gilt, with, blue-through-gilt, a left and right eye off-centred to left and right partly beneath each other at top and bottom of the panel, and Sprouts's mock signature running diagonally between. Wolff, 7193, noting this as Whiteing's first book, and: "A great rarity".

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WHITELOCK (A.). The Chances of war. Dublin: M.H. Gill & Son, 50, Upper Sackville-street, 1877. Sm.demy 8vo; half-title not called for; pp.vi+212; scarlet bubble-grain cloth, ruled and blocked blind on sides, blocked blind, ruled and lettered gilt, on spine; end-papers coated yellow; binder's ticket of ‘Galwey & Co. / Bookbinders / 22 / Eustace St. Dublin' on back paste-down. Neat restorations to cloth at head and tail of spine; some staining of covers; otherwise a nice copy. Scarce.

Neither in Sadleir nor Wolff. A nationalist story, set in Ireland at the time of the English Civil War, and dealing largely with historical events and personages.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WHITNEY (Mrs. A.D.T.). Bonnyborough. In two volumes. Longmans, Green, and Co., 1885. 2 Vols.; blank before half-title in each volume; pp.[viii]+300; [viii]+292; pale marina green buckram, blocked and lettered brown on front cover, ruled and lettered brown on spine; t.e. uncut, others rough-trimmed; grey end-papers printed florally grey-green. Nice copy.

Apparently a review copy, bearing the publisher's Presentation stamp in blind on the prelims. of volume one. Not in Sadleir; this title not in Wolff. Precedes the American edition, which Wright, 5931, records as 1886.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WHYTE-MELVILLE (G.J.). Holmby House: A tale of old Northamptonshire. In two volumes. Originally published in ‘Fraser's Magazine'. John W. Parker and Son, West Strand, 1860. 2 Vols.; half-titles not called for; volume one with initial blank, tinted lithographic frontispiece by Hanhart, with tissue guard; 2pp. integral advertisements at end; 4pp. integral advertisements at end of volume two; fine dotted diaper grain brown cloth, blocked blind on sides, panelled blind, ruled and lettered gilt, on spine; top- and fore- edges uncut; chocolate coated end-papers. Cloth frayed at head and tail of spine in each volume, and cloth showing slight wear at joints; small piece chipped from one back end-paper; some scattered foxing and slight marking in text; otherwise a nice copy.

Sadleir, Excursions, pp.191-2.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WHYTE MELVILLE (G.J.). The gladiators: A tale of Rome and Judaea. In two volumes. Leipzig, Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1864. Two volumes bound in one, half green calf, cloth sides, spine tooled gilt, red label; half-titles not called for. Calf slightly rubbed, and cracking on front joint; label removed from front end-paper; otherwise a nice copy.

First published in three volumes in England in the same year, though the English edition was dated 1863.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WHYTE MELVILLE (G.J.). Cerise: A tale of the last century. In three volumes. Chapman and Hall, 1866. 3 Vols.; half-titles not called for; final blank in each volume; publisher's inserted 24pp. catalogue, at end of volume three, dated February 1, 1866; magenta fine morocco cloth, ruled and blocked blind on sides, ruled, blocked, and lettered gilt on spine; top- and fore- edges uncut, lower-edges rough trimmed; end-papers coated pale cream; binder's ticket of Bone & Son on back pastedown in volume one. Recased, preserving the original end-papers, and with neat restorations to cloth at extremities of spines; cloth of spines slightly faded, and gilt very dull; otherwise in general a nice copy.

Presentation copy, with the author's holograph inscription on the title-page to volume one. Sadleir, ‘Excursions', p.194. Sadleir is evidently mistaken in asserting that the first edition contained no catalogue. He may also be wrong in giving the month of publication as April: the catalogue in the present copy lists it for ‘February'; and this would also make less curious the fact he notes that some copies of the third edition have a catalogue dated ‘March'! Wolff, 7207, listing a copy with the same catalogue as ours. Wolff erroneously describes the cloth as ‘sand-grain': this is not a variant binding - our copy too might almost be sand-grain, and we were initially in doubt ourselves.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WHYTE MELVILLE (G.J.). The white rose. In three volumes. Chapman and Hall, 193, Piccadilly, 1868. 3 Vols.; final blank in volume one; purple sand grain cloth panelled blind on sides, blocked and lettered gilt on spine; top- and fore- edges uncut; lower-edges rough trimmed; pale yellow coated end-papers. In general a nice copy.

Sadleir, Excursions, pp.194-5.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WHYTE MELVILLE (G.J.). Sarchedon: A Legend of the Great Queen. In three volumes. Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly, 1871. 3 Vols.; 4pp. Smith's catalogue lightly tipped onto front free end-paper in volume one; bright blue patterned sand grain cloth, blocked black on sides and spine, lettered black and blue through black on front cover, in gilt on spine; t.e. uncut, fore-edges rough trimmed; pale chocolate coated end-papers. Head and tail of spines frayed, and spines a little darkened; gilt oxydised on spine of volume three, and cloth of covers slightly marked; a very little dusting and marking of some leaves; otherwise a very nice copy.

Sadleir, Excursions, p.196. Hugh Walpole's copy, with his early bookplate in each volume.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WHYTE-MELVILLE (G.J.). Uncle John. A Novel. In three volumes. Chapman and Hall, 193, Piccadilly, 1874. 3 Vols.; blank before half-title in each volume; final blank in volume three; fine dotted line ribbed green cloth, blocked blind on back covers, blocked and lettered black, and lettered green through black on front covers, spines blocked black and lettered gilt and green through gilt; t.e. uncut, others rough trimmed; pale yellow coated end-papers. Head and tail of spines worn; back joint neatly renewed in volume one, and end-paper strengthened; sellotape marks on front end-paper of volume two; a little light foxing; but over all a very nice copy.

Sadleir, Excursions, p.197.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WHYTE-MELVILLE (G.J.). Sister Louise Or The story of a woman's repentance. With illustrations by Miriam Kerns. Chapman and Hall, 193, Piccadilly, 1876. Frontispiece and seven lithographic plates printed in black and sepia; green patterned sand grain cloth blocked blind on back cover, black on front cover, blocked black and gilt, and lettered gilt, on spine; t.e. uncut; lemon coated end-papers. Very slight wear to edges of covers, and small damp stain on blank upper inner corner of plates; otherwise a very nice copy.

Sadleir, Excursions, p.198, noting also copies with a 32pp. catalogue at end dated December, 1875, the actual month of issue, and with end-papers coated chocolate. The present variant is presumably secondary.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WICKENDEN (The Rev. W., ‘The Bard of the Forest'). The Hunchback's Chest. Dedicated, by Permission, To His Grace the Duke of Devonshire. Published for the author, by Arthur Hall, Virtue, and Co., Paternoster Row, 1852. F'cap 8vo; half-title not called for; pp.384; inserted leaf of tinted paper at end, advertising another book by the same author; sage green straight grain morocco cloth, blocked blind on sides and spine, blocked gilt on front cover, lettered and ruled gilt on spine; uncut edges; yellow coated end-papers. Slight wear to covers; otherwise a near fine copy.



Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WICKENDEN (The Rev. William, B.A., Best known in the East as "Gherei the Anglo-Circassian," and in The West as "The Bard of the Forest). Another Queer Book. Thomas H. Rees, Aldine Chambers, Paternoster Row, 1853. F'cap 8vo; inserted advertisement leaf at end; navy blue ripple grain cloth, ruled and blocked blind on sides and spine, blocked gilt on front cover, lettered and with short rule gilt on spine; a.e. uncut; end-papers coated yellow. Neat, almost invisible restorations to cloth of spine; slight wear to corners; back end-papers slightly cracking; short tear in fore-margin of title-page; otherwise nice.

A mixture of comic and humorous prose and verse. One of the stories ‘A Voyage to the North Pole' envisages the Pole as an enormous magnet, and would qualify as fantasy.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WICKS (Frederick). Golden lives: The story of A woman's courage. With one hundred and twenty illustrations By Jean de Paleologue. William Blackwood & Sons, 1891. Demy 8vo; numerous illustrations in text; author's Postscript leaf, followed by three leaves integral advertisements at end; white boards printed black on spine, in black and reddish brown on front cover. Covers a little dusty, and an eighth of an inch chipped from board at head of spine; otherwise a very nice copy.

First published in a de luxe ‘Library Edition' priced at £1. 1s. 0d. in November 1890 (and probably dated ahead), the present issue, priced at 2/6 was made in February 1891. The author's Postscript, replying to a technical criticism of the story made in a review, is apparently added in this issue, together with the three leaves of advertisements (advertising, among other things, the ‘Library Edition'!). The book was taken over by Eden, Remington & Co. the next year, and re-issued at 1s. under the revised title: ‘Woman's Courage: the Story of Some Golden Lives'.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WICKS (Frederick). The veiled hand, A novel Of The sixties, the seventies, and the eighties. With illustrations by Jean de Paleologue. Eden, Remington & Co., 1892. Half-title not called for; numerous illustrations in the text, and plates on text paper; 4pp. advertisements on text paper at end; bevelled plum buckram blocked with publisher's device blind on back cover, ruled and lettered gilt on spine and front cover; t.e. uncut; dark green coated end-papers. A near fine copy.

With the publisher's blind presentation stamp on the title page.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WILBERFORCE (Robert Isaac, M.A., Archdeacon of the East Riding, Canon of York, &c.). Rutilius and Lucius; Or, Stories of the Third Age. James Burns, 17 Portman Street, Portman Square, 1842. 12mo, printed in half-sheets; series title, and wood-engraved title printed in red and black precede letterpress title; half-title not called for; three line errata on verso of last Contents leaf; two or three small wood-engraved illustrations in text; 16pp. inserted James Burns catalogue at end, followed by 4pp. catalogue listing the publications of T.W. Green, Commercial Street, Leeds, both bound in; slate-purple fine-diaper cloth, ruled and blocked blind on sides, ruled blind, blocked and lettered gilt on spine; end-papers coated yellow; t.e. uncut, fore- and lower- edges rough-trimmed. A near fine copy.

Issued as volume XX. of The Englishman's Library. The publisher's catalogue at the end lists this as the latest volume published, lists seven further volumes as ‘in preparation', and also makes clear that the series was issued simultaneously in four bindings, as under, given in rising order of price: ‘Cloth lettered; Half-bound morocco, gilt edges; Full bound calf, neat; and Full bound morocco, neat'. Sadleir, 3744, declares that only twenty volumes were issued, seven of them in all being fiction. Of these he claimed to lack only one, but did not disclose which. We suspect that it may have been the present volume, since he gives the author's name in the form it takes in the publisher's advertisements, not as it appears on the title-page, and also the date of the volume as 1841, the same as Vol.XIX., not 1842, the date that it actually bears. 1842 is correct according to the British Library copy. In fact twenty-six volumes were eventually issued, forming the ‘First Series', and a further five volumes, numbered to 31, forming the ‘Second Series', the issue being completed in 1846. Of the final eleven volumes, not known to Sadleir, three only were fiction: 24. Church Clavering, or The Schoolmaster, by Rev. W. Gresley; 29. Deodatus, or The Martyr of Carthage, by Rev. E. Wilson; and 31. Coniston Hall, or the Jacobites, again by Gresley (q.v.).

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WILBRAHAM (Frances M.). For and against Or Queen Margaret's badge: A domestic chronicle of the fifteenth Century. In two volumes. John W. Parker and Son West Strand, 1858. F'cap 8vo; bound up without the half-titles; binder's blank at front and back; half natural calf, spine gilt extra, with five raised bands, and green and red labels, matching oil-marbled sides, edges, and end-papers; dark purple marker. Sides a little rubbed; very slight foxing of prelims.; four leaves at end of volume one slightly cockled and with very light damp staining in margins; otherwise a nice copy.

An author's binding, inscribed on verso of the front binder's blank: "Mary Beech / With the best wishes and thanks / of Mr. and Mrs. Frank / Wilbraham / 6th. Jany 1859" - presumably in the author's holograph. Not in Sadleir; Wolff, 7225, recording a copy in red bead-grain cloth, blocked blind on sides and spine, lettered gilt on spine, with terra-cotta end-papers, and 12pp. inserted publisher's advertisements at end of volume two.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WILCOX (Marrion). The Paradise in Hyde Park. Gilbert & Rivington, Limited, St. John's House, Clerkenwell Road, E.C., 1890. Imprint leaf at end; pp.130+[ii]; cerise buckram, blocked with publisher's monogram blind on back cover, lettered gilt on front cover and up spine; t.e.g., others uncut; end-papers printed florally in brown. Gilt darkened on spine, and covers generally a little dull; otherwise a nice copy.

Not in Wolff. A delightful little tale, well-written, like all of Marrion Wilcox's books. Cast in an epistolary form.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WILDE (Oscar). The Happy Prince And Other Tales. Illustrated by Walter Crane and Jacomb Hood. David Nutt, 270 Strand, 1888. 4to; frontispiece with tissue guard and two plates by Crane, other illustrations on text-paper by Hood; imprint leaf followed by blank at end; very thin Japanese vellum covered boards, printed in red and black on front cover, in black on spine; a.e. uncut. An unusually nice copy of an exceptionally delicate book.

Mason 313. One of 1,000 copies. The cover design is by Jacomb Hood.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WILDE (Oscar). Lord Arthur Savile's Crime & other stories. James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., 45, Albemarle Street, 1891. F'cap 8vo; half-title not called for; fly-title to each story; pp.[iv]+168; thin, light salmon, boards printed very dark red on sides and spine; top- and fore- edges uncut, lower-edges mainly trimmed. Paper covering very slightly chipped over upper fore-corner of back board; light embrowning to first and last page, as usual, from contact with the end-papers; otherwise a nice copy of a very delicate book.

Hubin, p.437; Mason, 345. One of 1,500 copies. The cover design and lettering is by Charles Ricketts. Two novelettes, ‘Lord Arthur Savile's Crime', a spoof murder story, and ‘The Canterville Ghost', a burlesque ghost story (not rationalised), and two very short stories, ‘The Sphinx without a Secret', and ‘The Model Millionaire'.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WILDE (Oscar). A House of Pomegranites By Oscar Wilde. The design & decoration of this Book by C. Ricketts & C.H. Shannon. London, James R. Osgood McIlvaine & Co, 1891. F'cap 4to; leaf blank but for signature mark ‘A' on recto, and decorated leaf bearing dedication on verso precede illustrated title-leaf, and Contents leaf; inserted plate printed in pale purple and inserted leaf of text-paper bearing vignette on verso, not included in the pagination, precede each of the four tales; numerous decorations and illustrations in text; printer's imprint leaf at end; pp.[viii]+[ii]+26+[ii]+27-61+[i (blank)]+[ii]+63-128+[ii]+129-[158]+[ii]; quarter apple-green buckram, cream glazed cotton sides, blocked gilt, blocked and lettered light red, on front cover, blocked and lettered gilt on spine, with a design by Charles Ricketts; a.e. uncut; end-papers printed in light olive green with a design by Rickets. Tear in cloth at head of spine neatly repaired; gilt slightly rubbed; some silver-fish damage to cloth covering of sides, chiefly at fore-edge of back cover, and lower corner of front cover, and barely affecting the design; some marking and dusting of cream cloth, and design a little rubbed; internally a near fine copy.

Mason, 347, noting that the four plates, which are by C.H. Shannon, "were printed in Paris by some ‘improved' process. After the book was finished and bound it was noticed that a dusty deposit had formed on each plate, probably owing to some chemical impurity either in the printer's ink or in the chalky paper used. To take off this deposit each plate was rubbed with soft flannel, which removed the surface and left the reproductions faint". They are so here. The publishers in contemporary advertisements did their best for the maimed child, describing the binding, under the heading ‘Art Books & Editions de Luxe' rather than ‘Fiction', somewhat romantically, as "With the end-paper executed in pale olive, and the cover in moss-green, pale coral, and ivory white" and quoting a description from The Saturday Review regarding: "The thick, creamy, satin paper, the beautiful type meandering within a wide meadow of margin, the exquisite illustrations, the delicate diaphanous visions depicted on plates prefixed to each story". Not everybody liked the covers, however, or the eroded plates, and despite Wilde's rather foolish attempts to defend them both (detailed by Mason, pp.365-9), the public at large did not show themselves particularly eager to purchase for one guinea the same quantity of text offered for 2/- a few months earlier in ‘Lord Arthur Savile's Crime', however it might have been bulked out by thick paper, wide margins, and blank leaves: - with the not unpredictable result that, in about 1903 or 1904, the volume came to be remaindered for a few shillings. Mason (who had apparently seen the volume!) described the covers as "moss-green" and "cream" and the "pale coral" decoration as "light red". We would demur from the "moss-green", the cloth of the spine not having the intense depth of colour "moss-green" might suggest: so we have called it "apple".

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WILEY (C.H.). Adventures Of Old Dan Tucker, And His son Walter; A tale of North Carolina. With numerous illustrations, By Felix O.C. Darley. Willoughby & Co., 22, Warwick Lane, N.D. [c.1845]. Demy 8vo; engraved frontispiece and thirteen plates; head piece and decorative initials; 4pp. inserted publisher's advertisements at end; grass green morocco cloth blocked blind on sides, blocked and lettered gilt on spine; a.e.g.; lemon coated end-papers. Cloth somewhat used, and repaired at back joint; a few scattered fox-spots, but generally a nice copy internally.

First edition. The book issue of a work also put out by Willoughby's in twenty-eight penny numbers. In this copy the Contents leaf is tipped in. Not in the British Library Catalogue. Wright does not list this title. The National Union Catalogue lists only this edition and a later one also published in England, though both author and illustrator are American, and Willoughbys specialised in reprints.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WILKINS (Charles). Tales and sketches Of Wales: By Charles Wilkins, Member of the Camb. Arch. Association; Author of "Wales Past and Present," "History of Merthyr," etc., etc. All rights reserved. Cardiff: Daniel Owen and Company, 1879. Roy.8vo; half-title not called for; Dedication, Preface, Contents, and List of Subscribers leaves follow title-page; pp.xvi+[384]; diagonally very fine ribbed semi-moire scarlet cloth, ruled and blocked blind on sides, ruled blind, ruled, blocked, and lettered gilt, on spine; a.e.g.; end-papers coated pale yellow. Covers a little marked and showing slight general wear; gilt oxydised; end-papers a little cracked; early prelims. and last half-dozen leaves foxed, the outermost quite heavily; otherwise a nice copy. Scarce.

Wolff, 7226, describing the cloth as ‘linen', probably from the slight roughness of its feel (the ribbing is exceptionally fine), and the blocking and lettering on the spine as black - which we can also well understand: it appears that the gilt on our copy is a fraction less perfectly oxydised! In all, 647 copies were subscribed for.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

[WILKINS (The Rev. George).]. The Two Rectors. London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, Paternoster-row, 1824. 12mo; half-title present; pp.[xviii]+458; eight line Errata slip tipped in at end; contemporary half black polished calf, ruled blind on sides, gilt on spine, elaborately tooled blind in compartments on spine, red lettering-piece lettered and with ornamental rules gilt, marbled sides, burnished sprinkled edges. Calf peeled a little on one corner and very slightly rubbed on spine; a little scattered foxing passim; in general a nice copy in a pleasant contemporary binding.

Not in Sadleir; Wolff, 7228; Block, p.253. The first independent fiction of this author, who was the Vicar of St. Mary's and of Lowdham, Nottingham.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WILKINS (Mary E. [i.e., Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman].). A humble romance And other stories. New York, Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square; London: 30 Fleet Street, 1887. F'cap 8vo; half-title not called for; binder's blank at front and back; 8pp. integral advertisements at end; pp.iv+436+[viii]; cherry red buckram, blocked scarlet and dark green, ruled dark green, blocked with author's signature gilt, on front cover, lettered with short rule gilt on spine; end-papers coated milk chocolate. Spine a little faded; scarlet and green enamel rubbed on front cover; otherwise a nice copy.

Wright, 2030; Blanck, 6317, describing the cloth colour as ‘maroon'. The author's first volume of adult fiction.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WILKINS (Mary E. [i.e., Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman].). Silence & Other stories. London and New York, Harper & Brothers, 45 Albemarle Street, W., 1898. Blank before half-title; 4pp. integral advertisements at end (on text-paper, and continuing the signatures); diagonally fine ribbed khaki cloth, lettered, ruled, and blocked silver on front cover and spine; a.e. uncut. Silver dulled on spine; first and last few leaves foxed; otherwise a nice copy.

The publisher's File Copy, with their label to this effect on the front paste-down. The first issue, later copies being in olive green rough buckram, similarly ruled, blocked, and lettered, but in black, and lacking the advertisements. A pleasant art-nouveau cover design. An entirely different setting of text from the American edition, which was also issued by Harper in the same year. V. Wright, 2039.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WILKINS (Mary E. [i.e., Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman].). Silence & Other stories. Harper & Brothers, 45 Albemarle Street, 1898. Blank before half-title; 4pp. integral advertisements at end (on text-paper, and continuing the signatures); diagonally fine ribbed khaki cloth, lettered, ruled, and blocked silver on front cover and spine; a.e. uncut. First and last few leaves lightly foxed; otherwise a nice copy.

The first issue, later copies being in olive green rough buckram, similarly ruled, blocked, and lettered, but in black, and lacking the advertisements. A pleasant art-nouveau cover design. An entirely different setting of text from the American edition, which was also issued by Harper in the same year. V. Wright, 2039.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WILKINS (Mary E. [i.e., Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman].). Pembroke: A Novel. Illustrated. New York, Harper & Brothers publishers, 1894. F'cap 8vo; half-title not called for; half-tone frontispiece and fourteen plates after C. Carleton; integral advertisement leaf at end; pp.[iv]+330+[ii]; straw coloured fine glazed linen blocked and lettered gilt on front cover and spine, and with vellum onlay lettered gilt on front cover; black and white head and tail bands; laid end-papers. Covers a trifle dull, and very slightly dusty; one plate re-inserted and a little dusty; otherwise a nice copy.

Wright, 2037; Blanck, 6337: the correct first state of text, with five titles listed on the first page of advertisements instead of the six in the later state.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WILKINS (Mary E. [i.e., Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman]). Jerome: A poor man. London and New York, Harper & Brothers, 45 Albemarle Street, W., 1898 [i.e., October, 1897]. Integral advertisement leaf at end; pp.[iv]+506+[ii]; diagonally fine ribbed khaki cloth, lettered, ruled, and blocked silver on front cover and spine with an art nouveau design of water-lillies; a.e. uncut. First and last few leaves and edges foxed; otherwise a nice copy.

The First English edition, following the American edition by some six weeks. The English edition was first announced for publication by Osgood, McIlvaine - but they were absorbed by Harper c.June 1897, with some consequent delay to the publication. Blanck, 6347, refers, but gives no details of the English edition.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WILKINS (Mary E. [i.e., Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman].). Silence & Other stories. Harper & Brothers, 45 Albemarle Street, 1898. Blank before half-title; pp.[viii]+336; olive green rough buckram, lettered, ruled, and blocked black on front cover and spine; a.e. trimmed. Prelims. lightly foxed; lengthy inscription in Welsh on front end-paper; otherwise a fine copy.

The second issue, earlier copies being in diagonally fine ribbed khaki cloth similarly ruled, blocked, and lettered in silver, and having 4pp. text-paper advertisements at end, continuing the signatures. A pleasant art-nouveau cover design. An entirely different setting of text from the American edition, which was also issued by Harper in the same year. V. Wright, 2039; Blanck, 6350, records only the American edition, though noting that the English edition may have appeared a day or two earlier..

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WILKINS (W.H.) and VIVIAN (Herbert). The Green Bay Tree: A tale of to-day By W.H. Wilkins (W.H. de Winton) Author of ‘St. Michael's Eve', ‘The Forbidden Sacrifice' &c. And Herbert Vivian Sometime editor of the ‘Whirlwind'. London 1894, Hutchinson & Co, 34 Paternoster Row. 3 Vols.; decorated caligraphic title-page signed monogram RD; integral advertisement leaf at end of volume one; blank before half-title in volumes two and three; pp.[viii]+298+[ii]; [viii]+284; [viii]+288; diagonally very fine ribbed bay-green cloth, ruled and blocked blind on sides, blocked and lettered gilt on spine. Very slight general wear to covers; light embrowning of text; nonetheless, a nice copy.

CBEL, III, p.919 (listed under Wilkins); not in Sadleir; this title not in Wolff (who records one title by Vivian, and two by Wilkins). The style of title page is unusual for a three-decker, as is the fact that the title-page neither mentions the fact that this book is in three volumes, nor includes a volume number - the latter appearing only on half-titles and spines. Each volume, also, contains a page headed ‘Prefatory Note' which lists the contributions of each author to that volume by chapter and, where necessary, by paragraph! An entertaining and sometimes witty satirical novel, set partly in contemporary Cambridge, and including an account of the Chit-Chat Club and the Apostles.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WILLIAMS (Mrs). The Authentic Memoirs of Mrs Williams. A Domestic and pathetic Tale. Printed and Sold by Fisher & Williams, 151, St John Street, West Smithfield, 1823. Narrow f'cap 8vo; vertically cut half blank leaf conjugate with title page (this being a printer's economy, and correct as issued); frontispiece and two plates; woodcut vignette on title-page; original light drab boards printed with publisher's advertisements in black on front and back covers; a.e. uncut. Backstrip more or less rubbed away; sides a little rubbed, and slightly worn at corners; end-papers cracked a little and a trifle chipped; otherwise a very nice copy.

We can trace no record of this novel, which is presumably pseudonymous (although in this regard the imprint is perhaps puzzling; a ‘Williams' also drew one of the plates). Issued priced at 2s. 0d. as a volume in the series ‘Fisher's Editions', of which eight titles are advertised on the front board as "Already Published". They appear to be a mixture of original and reprinted tales, and vary in price between 9d and 7s 6d (this last for the four volumes of Radcliffe's ‘Udolpho', with fifteen engravings). According to the publisher's advertisement "None of the above Works are One-Third of the Price of the most common unembellished editions." It is announced that the series is "To be Continued" with works by a further list of seventy-five authors.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WILLIAMS (T. Marchant). "The truth against the world." The Land of my fathers. Longmans, Green, and Co., 1889. Pp.[viii]+227+[i (printer's imprint)]; publisher's inserted 16pp. catalogue at end, dated January 1889; bevelled scarlet buckram, lettered and with three short rules black on front cover, ruled and lettered gilt on spine; top- and fore- edges uncut, lower-edges rough trimmed; end-papers printed with ship and swan design in pale brown. Inscription on half-title; otherwise a nice copy.

Not in Sadleir or Wolff. The motto is repeated on the front cover, but in Welsh.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WILLIAMSON (Mrs. C.N.). The adventure Of Princess Sylvia. Methuen and Co., 36, Essex Street, W.C., 1900. Double med.16mo; series advertisement with competition coupon (present, but intended to be cut out and returned to the publisher) on verso; half-title not called for; Contents on verso of title-page; pp.128; white coarse buckram, ruled light blue, blocked light and dark blue, lettered white-through-dark blue, lettered gilt, on front cover, in series style, lettered gilt up spine; end-papers coated pale yellow. Covers damp-darkened at fore-edges, and design a little rubbed; spine a little darkened; a fine copy internally.

Issued as number IX. in ‘The Novelist' series, the first ten titles of which are listed on the advertisement (Hornung, Barr, Pett Ridge, and Baring-Gould being among the other authors). The publisher describes this as "an interesting experiment which constitutes a fresh departure in publishing . . . a Monthly Series of ABSOLUTELY NEW and Complete Works of Fiction by popular authors at the price of Sixpence. Each Book is as long as the average Six Shilling Novel." To readers of Sadleir's ‘XIX Century Fiction' this will look familiar - it is indeed very much in a tradition of similar price cutting experiments and advertisements of them running back into the 1830s at least - v. for example Sadleir 3760. Well produced, but unfortunately in an unwieldy format, the present series seems to have suffered the fate of most of its predecessors: as far as we can discover it did not run beyond the ten titles listed, and today, certainly, all are extremely scarce. Not in Sadleir or Wolff. The Competition invites the reader to guess the date on which the Boer War will end!

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WILLS (C.J.). His dead past. Chatto & Windus, 1897. Advertisement leaf before half-title; title-page printed in red and black; publisher's inserted 32pp. catalogue at end; light blue buckram, ruled, blocked with an art nouveau design, and lettered, blind on front cover, lettered gilt on spine; lower-edges uncut. Spine darkened; otherwise a nice copy.

Novel with a theatrical background; and involving private detectives, although not criminous.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WILLYAMS (Jane Louisa). Chillon; Or, Protestants of the sixteenth Century. An historical tale. In two volumes. J. Hatchard and Son, 187, Piccadilly, 1845. 2 vols., lge.12mo; half-title not called for in volume one, present in volume two; integral advertisement leaf, followed by publisher's inserted 36pp. catalogue dated 1868 at end of volume two; pp.xi+[i blank)]+359+[i (blank)]; vii+[i (blank)]+325+[i (blank)]+[2]; green sand-grain cloth, ruled and blocked blind on sides, ruled and blocked blind, lettered gilt, on spine; top- and fore- edges uncut, lower-edges rough trimmed; end-papers coated pale yellow. Slight mottled browning of title-page in volume one; gilt very slightly rubbed on spines; a very fine, crisp copy nonetheless.

Not in Sadleir. Wolff, 7241, recording a copy without the later catalogue, and in ripple-grain green cloth apparently blocked and lettered similarly, but bearing the date on the title-page as 1846. If the date as given by Woolf is not an error, his copy must be an early reprint, though the late date of the catalogue in our copy shows it to be of a later issue. Evidently some sets of unbound sheets of the first edition were discovered in Hatchards' warehouse in the sixties!

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

[WILSON (John, ‘Christopher North').]. Lights and shadows of Scottish life, A selection from The papers of the late Arthur Austin. William Blackwood, Edinburgh: And T. Cadell, London, 1822. Half-title and final blank; contemporary half calf, lettered and ruled gilt on spine; marbled boards and edges. Calf weak at joints, and a little rubbed; otherwise a fine copy.

Sadleir 3316; not in Wolff.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

[WILSON (John, ‘Christopher North').]. The Foresters. By the author of Lights and shadows of Scottish life; and The trials of Margaret Lyndsay. William Blackwood, Edinburgh: and T. Cadell, Strand, London. 1825. Pp.[iv]+413+[1 (blank)]+[ii (integral advertisements)]; quarter drab paper, saxe-blue boards, paper spine label; a.e. uncut. Spine crudely repaired, and inner joints cracked; otherwise fine.

Not in Wolff; this title not in Sadleir.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WINCHESTER (M.E. [Miss]). A double cherry. A story. London, Seeley and Co. Limited, Essex Street, Strand, 1895 [i.e., November 1894]. Extra cr.8vo; half-title not called for; half-tone frontispiece after T.H. Crawford, and three plates; integral advertisement leaf at end; pp.[iv]+442+[ii]; deep scarlet sand-grain cloth, ruled blind on sides and spine, blocked and lettered gilt on front cover and spine, and with blind-pressed panel on front cover; end-papers coated pale buff. Light damp-spotting of covers, affecting only the sheen of the cloth; neat name stamp of original owner on blank back of frontispiece; otherwise a very nice copy.

Juvenile. Not in Wolff. There is no list of plates, but they are inserted to face pp.116, 286, and 362.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WINGFIELD (The Hon. Lewis). Barbara Philpot: A Study of Manners and Morals. (1727-1737.) In three volumes. Richard Bentley and Son, Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen, 1885. 3 Vols.; half-title present in volume one, not called for in other volumes; early half blue calf, gilt, spine with five raised bands, Japanese vellum sides; t.e.g. Spines slightly darkened, but a nice set.

Sadleir, 3319; Wolff, 7246.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WINGFIELD (The Honble. Lewis). The curse of Koshiu. A chronicle of old Japan. Ward & Downey, 12 York Street, Covent Garden, 1888. Half-title not called for; final blank; light olive brown buckram pictorially blocked on front cover in gold, vermilion, white, and black; spine blocked vermilion, ruled and lettered gilt; top- and fore- edges uncut; end-papers patterned florally in grey. Back cover stringmarked; cloth generally a little creased and bubbled; some wear to head and tail of spine; internally a nice copy.

Sadleir 3320, but a binding variant, his copy being without the heavy gold blocking on the front cover, but having a publisher's catalogue dated October 1888 at end. The present copy, in a more expensive binding, is presumably an earlier issue. An extremely striking example of pictorially enamelled cloth. The story is set in late fourteenth century Japan.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WINTER (John Strange [i.e., Mrs. Arthur Stannard].). Winter's annual 1885. In quarters: Chronicles of the 25th (The black horse) Dragoons. F.V. White & Co., 31, Southampton Street, Strand, N.D. [1885]. F'cap 8vo; pp.viii+197+[vi (advertisements of other works by Winter)]+[1 (printer's imprint)]; quarter dark brown binder's cloth, art marbled boards, drab faced end-papers. Some damp-mottling of cloth; ink name on upper margin of half-title; otherwise a very nice copy. Scarce.

Issued originally in wrappers, not here present. ‘In Quarters' forms the whole contents of the Annual. Not in Sadleir; nor in the extensive Wolff holdings of this author.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WINTER (John Strange [i.e., Mrs. Arthur Stannard].). On march: The Story of A Man of Honour. F.V. White & Co., 31 Southampton Street, Strand, 1886. F'cap 8vo; publisher's advertisements on verso of half-title; commercial advertisements on verso of dedication leaf; Note By The Author on verso of last leaf of text; pp.[viii]+149+[i]. BOUND WITH: WINTER (John Strange [i.e., Mrs. Arthur Stannard].). In quarters: Chronicles of the 25th (The black horse) Dragoons. Third edition. F.V. White & Co., 31, Southampton Street, Strand, N.D., [c.1885]. F'cap 8vo; half-title not present, possibly not called for; pp.[vi]+197+[i (advertisements of another work by Winter)]. Early pale blue-green art linen, leather spine label ruled and lettered gilt, floral patterned end-papers. Spine slightly faded, otherwise very nice.

The first title was published at 1/- in wrappers. So was the second, but the first edition appeared as ‘Winter's Annual 1885', of which it formed the whole contents. This ‘Third Edition' was originally issued stabbed. It may have been the first edition in book form. Not in Sadleir; neither title is in the extensive Wolff collection of this author.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WINTER (John Strange [i.e., Mrs. Arthur Stannard].). Garrison gossip Gathered in Blankhampton. A Novel. In one volume. F.V. White & Co., 31, Southampton Street, Strand, W.C., 1887. Lge.f'cap 8vo; advertisement leaf follows Contents; publisher's inserted 8pp. text-paper advertisements at end; diagonally very fine ribbed crimson cloth, blocked with publisher's monogram device black on back cover, ruled, blocked, and lettered black on front cover, ruled black, blocked and lettered gilt, on spine; t.e. uncut, fore-edges rough trimmed; end-papers printed with cherry-branch design in pale grey. End-papers foxed, with offseting onto facing pages; Contents / advertisement leaves opened somewhat roughly; otherwise a fine copy. Scarce, especially thus.

Not in Sadleir; nor in the extensive Wolff holdings of this author.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WINTER (John Strange [i.e., Mrs. Arthur Stannard].). [Cover title:] 97: A Story Of Yesterday And To-day. Price twopence. London: Oswald Fitch, 57, Moor Lane, E.C., N.D. [April, 1891]. One gathering, sm.double cr.16mo, wire-stitched into pale green paper wrappers, cut flush, printed on front wrapper in red; prelims. not called for; one full-page wood-engraving (signed ‘WGRB') in text; 4pp. integral author's and charity advertisements at end; pp.28+[iv]; issued without end-papers. Front wrapper lightly marked and foxed, with slight offsetting onto first leaf of text; short horizontal tear at middle of spine edge of back-wrapper, affecting also blank inner margin of last three or four leaves; otherwise a very nice copy. Rare.

According to a note printed at the extreme tail edge of the front wrapper, ‘Reprinted from the Christmas [1890] Number of "Belgravia."' This first separate edition was published in aid of the various charities run by St. Mary's Church, Plaistow, in aid of the East London poor. Not in Sadleir; this title not in BLC or Wolff.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WINTER (John Strange [i.e., Mrs. Arthur Stannard].). [Cover title:] The Major's Favourite. F.V. White & Co., N.D. [1895]. F'cap 8vo; prelims. not called for; leaf bearing commercial advertisements, followed by leaf bearing Preface on recto, commercial advertisements on verso, precedes start of text; integral advertisement leaf, followed by 7pp. publisher's and final page commercial advertisements, at end, the last leaf forming the back wrapper; cream spine and front wrapper (of thinner paper), cut flush, printed in red and dark blue on front, dark blue down spine, and with commercial advertisements in dark blue on inside wrapper. Paper of spine defective, front wrapper chipped at corners; some light marking, and marginal staining; as a reading copy.

Published at 1/-in wrappers, as here, and at 1/6d. in cloth. An oddly made up book: we would have suspected the loss of a back wrapper were it not for the fact that the last page bears an advertisement for Pears Soap - an advertiser who normally liked a back cover position. In this copy the signature mark ‘3' is lacking. Not in Wolff.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WINTER (John Strange [i.e., Mrs. Arthur Stannard].). Private Tinker And Other Stories. Profusely illustrated by Fred Pegram, W.D. Almond, Warwick Goble, W.G.R. Browne, A Twidle. In one volume. F.V. White & Co., 14 Bedford Street, Strand, W.C., 1895. F'cap 8vo; half-title not present, almost certainly not called for (the prelims. consisting of three leaves, but the final leaf of text being a singleton, signed ‘L', which was presumably printed conjugate with them); commercial advertisements on verso of title and leaf bearing List of Illustrations; publisher's advertisements on verso of last leaf of text; numerous half-tone illustrations in text (some excellent). BOUND WITH: WINTER (John Strange [i.e., Mrs. Arthur Stannard].). A little fool: A Novel. Eighth edition. F.V. White & Co., 31, Southampton Street, Strand, W.C., 1890. F'cap 8vo; half-title not called for; title and Contents leaves printed on thicker paper, each bearing commercial advertisements on verso; pp.[iv]+110. Early pale blue-green art linen, leather spine label ruled and lettered gilt, floral patterned end-papers. Spine slightly faded, otherwise very nice.

The first title was published at 1/- in wrappers (this being presumably the wrappered issue), and at 1/6d. in cloth. Not in Sadleir; neither title is in the extensive Wolff collection of this author.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WINTER (John Strange [i.e., Mrs. Arthur Stannard].). Princess Sarah And other stories. London, Ward, Lock & Co Limited, Warwick House Salisbury Square E.C., 1897. Half-tone frontispiece with tissue guard, and seven plates; numerous line engravings in text; 16pp. integral advertisements at end (p.9 signed ‘X'); vertically fine ribbed cerise cloth, blocked and lettered gilt, blocked gilt on pressed out blind panel, on front cover, blocked blind and gilt, ruled and lettered gilt, on spine; end-papers coated dark green. Unobtrusive inscription on back of frontispiece; very slight scattered foxing, but to all intents and purposes a fine copy.

Not in Sadleir; nor in the extensive Wolff collection of Winter. The book is also seen in an otherwise similar binding of scarlet cloth. The design of the covers, and especially the spine, is extremely interesting. It is unfortunately unsigned. There is no list of plates, but they are marked to face pp.28, 67, 141, 194, 229, 250, and 292, and are here so bound in.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WINTER (John Strange [i.e., Mrs. Arthur Stannard].). Princess Sarah And other stories. London, Ward, Lock & Co Limited, Warwick House Salisbury Square E.C., 1897. Half-tone frontispiece with tissue guard, and seven plates; numerous line engravings in text; 16pp. integral advertisements at end (p.9 signed ‘X'); pp.[viii]+295+[i (blank)]+16; vertically fine ribbed scarlet cloth, blocked and lettered gilt, blocked gilt on pressed out blind panel, on front cover, blocked blind and gilt, ruled and lettered gilt, on spine; end-papers coated dark green. Slight foxing of edges; otherwise a virtually fine copy.

Not in Sadleir; this title not in the extensive Wolff collection of Winter. The book is also seen in an otherwise similar binding of cerise cloth. The design of the covers, and especially the spine, is extremely interesting. It is unfortunately unsigned. There is no list of plates, but they are marked to face pp.28, 67, 141, 194, 229, 250, and 292, and are here so bound in.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

WISE (Lieut. H.A., U.S.N. (Harry Gringo).). Captain Brand, Of the "Centipede;" A pirate of eminence in the West Indies: His Loves and Exploits, Together with some account of the singular manner By which he departed this life. (English Copyright Edition.) Trubner & Co., 60, Paternoster Row, 1860. Half-title (with advertisement for ‘Sir Rohan's Ghost' on verso); pp.[iv]+304; contemporary black half-calf, spine blind and gilt, contrasting label, purple cloth sides. End-papers damaged; some fingering and a little dusting in text, mostly marginal; prelims. and last leaves foxed; a very good copy, nonetheless.

According to Wright (2775) not published in America until 1864.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

[WOOD (Mrs. Henry).]. Trevlyn hold; Or, Squire Trevlyn's heir. By the Author of "East Lynne," "Danebury House," &c. Tinsley Brothers, 18, Catherine St., Strand, 1864. 3 Vols.; half-title present in each volume, but lacking the integral advertisement leaf at end of volume one; contemporary half green roan, marbled sides, sprinkled edges. Spines faded, and cracked a little at head of one back joint; silver fish damage to marbled paper, and leather on back board of volume three; neat early signature on upper margin of each title-page; scattered slight dusting and foxing; a very good copy, nonetheless, of a scarce title.

Sadleir, 3363. Number three on Sadleir's scedule of Comparative Scarcities. An early issue, all three volumes being of the first impression.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage


ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

[WOOD (Mrs. Henry).]. Trevlyn hold; Or, Squire Trevlyn's heir. By the Author of "East Lynne," "Danebury House," &c. Tinsley Brothers, 18, Catherine St., Strand, 1864. 3 Vols.; integral advertisement leaf at end of volume one; green moroco cloth, ruled blind on sides, ruled, blocked, and lettered gilt on spine; top- and fore- edges uncut, lower-edges rough trimmed. Slight wear to cloth at head and tail of spines, and gilt a little rubbed on volume one; some end-papers cracked and reglued, in one case a little inexpertly; a little scattered light dusting and foxing; a near nice copy, nonetheless, of a scarce title.

Sadleir, 3363b note records an apparently identical mixed set. Number three on Sadleir's list of comparative scarcities. Later issue, in green cloth, rather than maroon, and with the title-page to volume three, which appears to have been printed short, bearing the words ‘Second edition'. Though Sadleir does not note the fact, the Contents leaf to this volume has been reset, giving the wrong page number (‘77' instead of ‘76') for the start of Chapter VI, an error which is not present in the first printing. Sales of the book appear to have been such that by the time copies came to be bound up for the author's use in a special presentation binding, all three volumes were in the second edition (v. Sadleir, 356a).

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available



Click here to return to Homepage

[ CLICK HERE TO LOAD NEXT SECTION OF FILE ]