Jabberwocky - Vansittart Pamphlet

Twas Brillig indeed to be the successful bidder for this copy of Vansittart's fine translation of Lewis Carroll's famous poem, tipped onto the front endpaper of a 10th thousand of Looking Glass. The book also had the ownership signature of William Warner, a contemporary of Dodgson at Christ Church, in the college purple ink.

An Early Lewis Carroll Puzzle

In The Monthly Packet of 1881 appeared, in Charlotte Yong’s periodical, a new puzzle devised by Mr Lewis Carroll, called Mischmasch. On the last page of Vol.1 (third series) appeared the seven rules. I bought a bound volume in 2005 for £10 on Ebay. This would I suspect keep a lot of people perfectly happy. However in 2006, the late Peter Howard of Serendipity Books in Berkeley California had an original for sale, a snip really at $1500, which needed a little TLC along part of the hinge and was restored for me by an archivist in York. It was printed in 1882 by the Oxford University Press, and not reprinted in this form. The word game apparently kept lots of Victorian folk very happy in the days before the internet and i-pads and Big Brother.

A Dodgson Pamphlet on Voting

Lewis Carroll wrote many works under his real name and this is one of his pamphlets on voting. He applied his mathematical expertise to several other subjects, tennis and politics to name but two. This pamphlet is in very nice condition, with a deletion in Dodgson’s hand of a word in the last line of pg 5. The pamphlet is a first ( and only) edition printed in Oxford in 1874 by the University printers. It came in a group of Carroll pamphlets from the same source as the Objections/Quadrangle pamphlet shown earlier here. A thing a collector might see or be offered once in a lifetime.

Bedtime Reading for Queen Victoria

After Alice was published in 1865 Dodgson’s next work was a mathematical piece called “Condensation of Determinants” , a work important enough in scientific circles to be published in the Proceedings of The Royal Society in 1866. The piece shown here is an offprint from this journal in rare plain paper covers. The well known story that Queen Victoria, being impressed by Alice, requested that Dodgson sent her a copy of his next work, referred to the Determinants of 1867 but in fact this piece came out first. Imagine how thrilled she would have been with either!

Wonderland and Looking Glass Quadrilles 1872

These two rather beautiful items are, once again, very hard to find although, being essentially sheet music, one might think they would be found in the piles of music in secondhand shops. The Wonderland Quadrilles, published by Robert Cocks and Co in 1872, have five magnificent lithographs by Alfred Concanen ( after John Tenniel) on the front cover and I complete . The Looking Glass Quadrilles have nine; the cover only present. They came to me when I made a post-auction enquiry. I certainly didn’t want a collection of 400 plus sheet musical items but I knew that these two items were in the single lot. I made an offer for the two items to the successful bidder of the lot ( in Phillip’s of Oxford) which was from the library of Eric Quayle, who wasn’t, thankfully, an Alice collector. The colours of the artwork are exquisite, as if printed yesterday.

Dodgson’s Objections against proposed alterations in the Great Quadrangle of Christ Church, Oxford 1873

Dated 16 May 1873, Dodgson had copies of this pamphlet privately printed, his protest at the changes proposed to the narrowing and lowering of the terrace and the substitution of a grass slope for the existing stone wall. He had also objected to the new double entrance to the cathedral and to the new belfry in other now famous pamphlets. His protest against a grass slope may have helped as the low wall in the quadrangle is still there today.

The piece is large, printed over 4 pages, pgs 2-3 numbered, and described in WMGC 95. It came to me via a bookseller in Berkeley, California who had a number of rare Dodgson pamphlets for sale and he in turn had bought them from a New York collector of all sorts of books.

This pamphlet is ultra-rare because of the low original print number and the ephemeral nature .A few private collectors have a copy, as do some public collections. 

Bumblebee Bogo’s Budget Presentation Copy from Lewis Carroll

In 1886 Dodgson helped a friend, William Webb Follett Synge in publishing a volume of children’s verse illustrated by another recent acquaintance, the artists Alice Havers. 500 copies of the first edition, in red cloth with a bees and bramble decorative gilt cover design, were published in 1887. Follett Synge ordered 25 to be gilt edged, 20 for his use and 5 for Dodgson’s use for presentation.

In November 2006 I was informed by Ebay that a book entitled “ Bumblebee Bogo’s Budget” was newly listed in an auction. I had several titles on my wants list for notification in this way. The listing described an attractive illustrated book of verse obviously written for children, with gilt edges and a very neat presentation inscription on the half title. No further details of this inscription were given or illustrated. I added it to my watch list and refreshed my knowledge of the book. The red cloth with gilt edges and presentation inscription meant the book was either presented by Follett Synge, or ( I could barely contain myself)  Dodgson. Five days  later I was  ready to put in my last minute bid and was successful – at a hammer price of £4.99. The book duly came on a Saturday morning and I gave it to my son and said, “Open this, it may be signed by Lewis Carroll!” I had a 1 in 5 chance. He opened it and started to say the words “Dorothy Furnifs…” and I jabbered “What colour is the ink? “ and he said “ Purple”. And it was – a wonderful white stone moment for a Lewis Carroll collector.