Lovers of the performing arts will be particularly delighted by this sale. Gilbert and Sullivan programmes and early photographs (lot 190) will delight, as will the various lots of programmes and music covers. A private collection of 17 lots relating to ballet (lots 235-250) includes a rare collection of publications by the renowned theatrical bookseller, critic and close friend of Diaghilev and the Ballet Russes, and this group is estimated £1000-1500 (lot 235). Lot 239 is a signed first edition, number 241 of 250 of L’Oeuvre de Leon Bakst pour la Belle au Bois, signed by Bakst and the editor and publisher (1922), estimated £3000-4000. Theatre lovers will want to snap up the 9 vol Dramatic Works of Shakespeare (lot 572) once owned and annotated by the legendary actor Sir Henry Irving, which is expected to fetch £1000-1500.
In the Travel and Foreign Topography section is the 1879 first edition of Colonel CM Macgregor’s Journey Through Khorassan (lot 348) with 39 plates and is estimated £750-1000. Bloomsbury has carved a niche for itself in books on mountaineering and this sale has several examples including a first edition (1823) of The Peasants of Chamouni, Containing an Attempt to Reach the Summit of Mont Blanc (lot 352), the book that inspired Albert Smith to climb Mont Blanc (estimate £600-800).
Bloomsbury is well known for its Modern First Editions department and the Bibliophile sale has some choice examples. Lovers of crime fiction will have their hearts racing for a continuous run of first editions with original boards and dust-jackets of the novels by Dick Francis (lot 708), from Dead Cert of 1962 right up to Shattered of 2000 and a short story collection Field 13, signed by the author. This impressive group is estimated £2000-3000.
There are various Robert Louis Stevenson lots in this sale, but particularly noteworthy is lot 761 the first English edition (1886) of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, with advertisements and the original printed wrappers with ink alteration to the date (estimated £2500-3000).
Number 213 of 250 copies of Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows signed by both the author and the artist Ernest H Shepard (lot 852), carries an estimate of £750-1000.
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