A Collection of 66 Catalogues Supplements Lists Plate Books from the Fine Bookselling Company of Elkin Mathews Ltd.

(Elkin Mathews Ltd.)

Price: 350.00 USD

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London: Elkin Mathews Ltd. 33 Conduit Street, A collection of 67 publications by this prestigious bookselling firm; not an unbroken run, but a good overview nevertheless; some are the "Advance Copy for Overseas" printings; the collection includes: No. 51 Rare Books in English Literature Feb. 1933, 111 pages, 754 items; No. 54 Rare Books in English Literature June 1933, with a one-page prefatory concerning Russian translations 128 pages, 807 items; List 56 'Early Children's Books in English French and German. Including a fine Series of Original Drawings of Dolls Dressed in the Costumes of the Provinces of France & a Number of Games and Toys' 38 pages, 103 items; No. 58, February 1934 First Editions in English Literature & Music, with a two-page prefatory concerning First Editions of Music, 100 pages, 637; No. 66 May 1935 Rare Books in English Literture and Addenda of Recent Purchases (at back is a short note stating "This Catalogue is composed on the new type known as "The Times New Roman") 23 pages, 667 items, 52 of which are of Occult interest; No. 70 March 1937 Love and Friendship Association Books including Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales, Jane Austen's novels presented to her sister Cassandra, Boswell's "Johnson" given to the Headmaster at Eton, A fine collection of Brownings, Coleridge's own copy of "Conciones", Dodgson's "Sylvie and Bruno" to the engraver of the plates Kenneth Grahame's "Golden Age", Kipling's "Seven Nights of Creation" of which only 3 copies are known; Rossetti's "Poems", 1870 presented to Seymour Kirkup, more & an interesting selection of presentation music, including Brahms, Gounod, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Strauss and Wagner and ephemera, including Mussolini's passport (illustrated) 76 pages, 314 items; No. 74 April 1938 Rare Books and Manuscripts in English Literature and Music Including Bach's St. Matthew Passion, Byron. Childe Harold and Don Juan, both uncut in original boards. Haydn's Creation. An original manuscript in the hand of Immanuel Kant, more, 35 pages, 200 items, laid-in folding black and white illustrated announcement for the magazine quarterly "Typography" and at back of the catalogue is an announcement for "A New Bibliographical Series Aspects of Book-Collecting (New Paths in Book Collecting) with details for subscription, authors, more, at this time, the Directors were I.L. Fleming, P.H. Muir, Greville Worthington; No. 75 October 1938, Catalogue of First Editions, 88 pages, 641 items, noting also new address for the firm, at 37A Duke Street St. James's London S.W. I; No. 76 Nov. 1938 Fifty Famous First Editions, each described on its own page; No. 79 1939 The Library of A Collector and Man of Letters issued by P.H. Muir for Elkin Mathews Ltd. from Taylors, Takeley, Bishops Stortford, 48 pages, 1369 items; No. 80 October 1939 Catalogue of First Editions A Selection from our Stock A-B 24 pages, 96 items; No. 81 1940 A Further Selection from Our Stock C-G, 36 pages, 243 items, with a convenient list of reference works cited in the catalogue on the back panel; No. 82 A Third Selection from Our Stock H-L 1940 24 pgs, 229 listings, additional references at back; No. 83, A Fourth Selection... M-Q Some 18th Century Music and a Section at 10/- and Under, 34 pages, 399 items; No. 84 A Fifth Selection...R-S 1940, 24 pgs, 242 items, advertisement at back for The Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature; No. 99 The Copy Book Collector's Vade Mecum, 21 pages, 91 listings, advertisement at back announcing the proposed December, 1944 publication of "An Iconography of the Engravings of Stephen Gooden" Compiled with Preface and Introduction by Campbell Dodgson, by E.K.; No. 106 June 1947 Rare Books 100 pages, 1204 items, advertising at front for the John Hawyard compilation of English Poetry, special illustrated edition and also noting on the back cover E.K.'s representation in Cambridge by John P. Gray & Son, Ltd. and in California by John McConnell; No. 112 A Selection from our Stock of Rare and Interesting Books (N to Z) 54 pgs, carrying items 722- 1329; No. 116 Being a Further Collection of Drawings made for Book Illustration including a remarkable collection of drawings and proofs by Cochin gathered by the Artist himself and with his own notes, 17 pages of catalogued items, numbering 250, with The Cochin Collection separate, 60 items and a couple of pages of black and white illustrations; No. 117 Rare and Interesting Books purchased privately including a selection from the fine modern library of the late H.M. Lingford, Esq. (first editions and press books), 40 pgs 488 items, P.H. Muir (for Elkin Mathews Ltd.), printed by Robert Stockwell Ltd., advertisement at front for Michael Sadleir's important ' XIX Century Fiction...'; No. 118 'Rare and Interesting Books privately purchased including a number formerly in the possession of David Garrick' with the comment below "The most casual reader of this catalogue can hardly fail to observe the distinguished provenance of many of the books and the close connection of some of them with David Garrick...", laid-in group of 8 pages of black and white illustrations for the items, 28 pgs, 425 described and advertising the Charles Ramsden reference, "French Bookbinders 1789-1848"; No. 122 A Catalogue of Rare and Interesting Books, mostly recently purchased..." 31 pages, black and white illustrated, 345 items; No. 123 "Fifty of the Best" October 1951, with a fold-out black and white illustration of an oil painting the firm is offering, of Shakespeare by Van Soest as frontispiece, 27 pgs, 50 items; No. 124, offering Reginald L. Hine's books, among others, 31 pages, 382 items; No. 129 Stock selection, A to G, 24 pgs, 219 items, and the Supplement to the catalgue, continuing the numeration from 220 to 654, 25 pgs; A Supplement to Catalogue 130 "Consisting of Books price and 2 (pounds) and under...", numbered 274-631, 20 pgs; No. 131 "The Work of Eric Gill: A Stone-Carving, Original Wood-Blocks, Engravings and Autograph Letters from various sources, including the Collection formed by Mr. Douglas Cleverdon", illustrated in black and white, cover illustrated by a good Gill nude cut, blue on white, 17 pages, 434 items, and advertising the Bibliography of Eric Gill by Evan R. Gill; No. 133 May-June 1953 A Catalogue to Celebrate the Coronation of Her Gracious Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 56 pgs, 570 items, with a separate Plates catalogue with reproductions of 71 items in black and white, many 'Original Drawings Made for Book Illustration'; English& Continental books and some Original Drawings Autumn 1953, 38 pgs, 402 items, inner end pages are illustrated and this issue promotes The Book Collector, with contributions by Percy Muir concerning the history of E.K.; No. 135 Spring 1935, a miscellany "...with seventeen illustrations", 40 pgs, 391 items; No. 136 A "Variety" 38 pgs, 535 listed; No. 139 "A Selection..." Spring 1955, 26 pgs, 349 items; No. 141 Spring 1956 "English and Foreign Literature, including first editions...", 48 pgs, 496 items, illustrated in bw, with a laid-in printed note from the owners of the firm deploring the practice of "ringing" at auctions and disavowing any part in them; No. 142 Autumn 1956 Fine Books, 47 pages, 523 particulars, with a special section on original drawings by Stephen Gooden; No. 144 Books with Royal Associations and a Miscellany, 49 pgs, 398 items; No. 145 Typography, with Private Presses and Examples of Fine Printing, Stanley Morison, Bibliographies of Printing Specimen Books and Uses of Special Types Process, Including Early English Colour Printing, 22 pgs, 322 items; No. 147 Summer 1958 "A Selection...", 48 pgs, 545 listed; No. 149, Part I: "Rare and Interesting Books: English and Foreign Literature: Sixteenth to Twentieth Centuries...", 26 pgs, 364 items; No. 149 Part II: Subject Books: Including Extensive Sections on Arts, Crafts & Trades Bibliography...", 42 pgs, continuing numeration from 365 to 855, laid-in is a typed announcement (possibly a carbon, there are impressions of key-strokes visible) for the Second Antiquarian Book Fair at the National Book League, inviting all to attend; No. 150 "English & Irish Literature of Four Centuries...many from the library of Seamus O'Sullivan...", 44 pgs, 655 listings, advertisement for the Third fair of the N.B.L., 1960; No. 152 The Art of the Book Part I, 30 pgs, 319 items, with a useful index at back (Note: all of these Art of The Book catalogues are illustrated in black and white); Part II, 34 pgs, continuing numeration to 647; Part III, continuing to 1373, 70 pgs; Part IV, 33 pgs, carrying to 1725 the items (No. 1725 listing Printing and the Mind of Man in original wrappers at $ 1.50 U.S.); Part V to 46 pgs and listing to 2225, completing the catalogue; No. 153, A Selection, "...First and Interesting Editions..." 48 pgs, 585 titles, laid-in notice for a copy for Plutarch's Lives, editio princeps, uncut, offered at $ 420 U.S.; No. 156 Spring 1964, A Selection "...Books, Autograph Letters, Drawings and Prints on a Wide Variety of Subjects" 32 pgs, 352 items, and a small section at back devoted to Wilhelm Busch and issues of the Munchener Bilderbogen, illustrated in bw; No. 161 Books on the History of Printing and Allied Trades, 26 pgs, 258 items; No. 162: First Part "A Miscellany for collectors, librarians and students (or all three in one)...", 28 pgs, 265 items; No. 162 Part 3 "Concluding our Miscellany..." 36 pgs, ending at number 914 (lacks Part Second); No. 163 "A Collection of Books 'Printed for the Amusement of Little Masers and Misses...'", 46 pgs, 449 listings, black and white illustrations of children's books history, topics, more; No. 164 Type Specimen Books...Summer 1965, 25 pgs, 199 listings; No. 165 "Cross-Channel Again...A further Selection of Books from the Contenent of Europe..." 37 pgs, 305 noted; No. 167, "Gallimaufry - A Heterogeneous mixture...", 41 pgs, 445 listed; No. 168, Books on Art Illustrated Books Original Drawings, 41 pgs, 386 items; No. 169 "Tombola - a lottery with fancy articles for prizes (O.E.D.) - in which is set out a broad selection of books in several fields...between the letters A & G with a Supplement of Bibliography", 32 pages, 467 listings; No. 170 "Something for Everyone continuing the alphabetical selection begun in Tombola", 26 pgs, 316 listed; No. 172 Modern First Editions, 18 pgs, 485 items; No. 174 "A Further Selection of Modern First Editions" 18 pgs, 462 items; No. 175 "Modern First Editions...containing some fine W.B. Yeats items", 18 pgs, 485 listed; No. 180, "Authors H-Z...English and Continental Books mostly first editions", 28 pgs, 495 items; No. 182 "English and Continental Book Illustration of the 19th and 20th Centuries", 54 pages, bw illustrated, indexed, 445 items; No. 186 "Literature Mainly First Editions Mainly English", 34 pgs, 515 items; No. 189 "Fine Printing Printing History Bibliography Calligraphy & Lettering", 34 pgs, 416 items; bindings are all in paper wraps, of various sizes, some printed rather plainly, others with illustrated covers and with plates; each catalogue with its own clear mylar protective folder, which are not attached or taped to the catalogues; a collection of interest and as a valuabe reference; occasional wear and soiling to covers, occasional annotation, contents generally in very good condition. Very Good.

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