Bloomsbury’s Continental and English Literature & History, Manuscripts & Autograph Letters, Modern First Editions and War Poetry on 15th October has a wide variety of very attractive pieces.
Items of Scottish interest abound amongst the books from the library of the late Patrick Francis Maitland, 17th Earl of Lauderdale. A very good first edition of De Origine, Moribus, et Rebus Gestis Scotorum by John Leslie, Bishop of Ross and leader of the Scottish Reformation, has eleven full page engraved genealogies of the kings of Scotland and carries an estimate of £700-900 (lot 1). Amongst the other noteworthy lot in this collection is A Song for the Twenty-ninth of May 1781 by a Member of the Royal Oak Society (lot 18). This fine collection of tracts relating to the 1745 Rebellion and its aftermath, is expected to fetch £1500-2000. Also of Scottish interest is the 2 volume The Clans of the Scottish Highlands of 1857 by James Logan and Robert Ronald McIan (estimate £1000-1500).
Another item illustrating the range of items encompassed in this sale, is a typed and signed letter to Lady Lloyd George from Chaim Weizman, the Zionist leader and President of Israel (lot 395). He writes that he was ‘deeply moved’ by the letter Lady Lloyd George wrote in The Daily Telegraph. ‘In these dark days, when we are assailed on all sides by difficulties – by enemies intent on killing our last hope – such evidences of continuing friendship and understanding are doubly precious to us…’ (£1000-1500).
Amongst the Modern First Editions is Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Links with an estimate of £2000-3000 (lot 572); The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is estimated £1000-1500 (lot 589) and a complete run of signed or inscribed novels by Dick Francis (lot 612) is expected to fetch £4000-6000. A signed and inscribed copy of The Honourable Schoolboy by John Le Carre, is a deaccessioned copy from the MI6 library with a cryptic inscription (lot 653 which is estimated £400-600).
Lot 691 is a very rare first edition of The Song of the Border Guard by Robert Duncan, featuring two of the earliest hand-printed lino cuts by Cy Twombly, estimated £1000-1500. Fans of Oscar Wilde, on the other hand, should look at lot 694, a presentation copy from Alfred Douglas of The Chameleon number 29 of 100 copies, in which he writes ‘Neither Oscar Wilde nor myself had any responsibility for this publication…'(£1000-1500).
www.bloomsburyauctions.com
