Signed Association Copies

Just occasionally copies of books that are quite common bear important inscriptions. Always read the small print !  Here are three books written by Lewis Carroll’s nephew, Stuart Dodgson Collingwood ( son of Mary Dodgson) written at the time of Carroll’s death in 1898. One has a presentation inscription by Wilfred ( Carroll’s brother), the second bears M. Dodgson’s inscription ( either Mary or Margaret)  and the Lewis Carroll Picture Book is inscribed by the author to a Mrs Fuller, from the family home The Chestnuts in Guildford, with an autograph letter on the rear endpaper. The photograph shows four books ; the fourth contains an autograph third person letter by Dodgson himself dated 8 June 1884 in purple ink. This item I was very pleased to have because I already had a letter also by Dodgson dated 4 days earlier to the same bookseller Meehan of  Bath

Lewis Carroll's Library - 4

This is Lewis Carroll’s personal copy of the famous autobiographical work Apologia by John Henry Newman. Published in 1865 – the same year as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Newman defends his views on Catholicism against the attack by Charles Kingsley. The provenance is detailed. It was sold in the 1898 sale of Dodgson’s library and emerged in a Hodgson’s auction 17 December 1936. Lot 21, acquired by the founder of the Osborn Collection at Yale, James Osborn. Osborn died in 1976 and this book passed to a friend of his, an Anglican priest named  Brainerd ( his bookplate is on the front pastedown) and into my collection in 2005.How interesting to see that Dodgson has started an annotation in his purple ink but spelt the word pamphlets incorrectly and had to start again on the title page.  [ Ref Lovett 1431 ]

Some Scarce Music, Plays and Calendars

In 2005 I found a number of scarce ephemeral things. One was The Songs from Through the Looking Glass with music written by William Boyd, complete (as in WMGC 690), stitched white wrapper, lithographed and printed in gold. First edition, 1872, London Weekes and Co. This was a bargain that I “won” for £38 on EBay. There’s a copy of the equivalent Wonderland Songs for sale today on ABE for over £800!

In catalogue from Aleph-Bet books I found and bought Alice in Wonderland a Dream Play for Children, 1886 second edition. Any copies of this are scarce and collectible. I was happy to pay £260 for this lovely item. A later edition 1888 followed later in 2012 from Dominic Winter, in very good condition with no chips or loss to the wrapper.

Shown here also are two scarce calendars, the 1933 Delgado compiled by Langford Reed and the 1901 Looking Glass Simpkin and Marshall, the latter also from Dominic Winter in Dec 2005