Fiction

The Oxford Sausage – Anonymous but Thomas Warton – 1777

A Voyager favourite. Full title .. The Oxford Sausage: or, Selected Poetical Pieces, Written by the most Celebrated Wits of the University of Oxford. A New Edition … Adorned with Cuts, Engraved in a New taste, and Designed by the Best Masters.

Published in 1777 by G. Robinson, in Pater-noster-Row, and F. Newbery, the Corner of St Paul’s Church-Yard, London.; W Jackson and J Lister, in Oxford; and sold by the Booksellers of Oxford and Cambridge.

Small octavo, 223 pages, 22 nice woodcuts and other devices in the text and a frontispiece of Mrs Dorothy Spreadbury, inventress of the Oxford Sausage.

Bound in original full polished calf with ruled lines to board edges and gilt knurling all board edges. Re-backed some time ago, to a high standard, raised bands to spine with six compartments and original red leather title label. A very good copy if not better. Carries the heraldic bookplate of Murray A. W. Newman and a later manuscript name John Humphrey.

Dorothy Spreadbury is not the author/ compiler she was the supposed inventor of the edible Oxford Sausage a pork and veal combination with lots of spice and peculiar to Oxford.

The Preface includes a challenge … “as most unluckily the Author of those Pieces will never be known. Notwithstanding, whoever shall be so happy as to make this Discovery, and will, on unquestionable Proof, deliver in the Collector’s REAL name, to MR Jackson, Printer, in the High-street, Oxford, shall receive, as a Reward for unriddling this Mystery, and on Condition that the Secret go no further, Twelve Sausages, in Turkey, gilt and Lettered” … that is Books not sausages or turkeys .. we hope you get that!

There is a lot spice in the selection presented here, the true author / compiler John Warton (1705-1790) literary historian, critic poet alma mater Trinity College, Oxford. Later became Professor of Poetry at Oxford, was the Oxford Poet Laureate and the later The Poet Laureate (1785-1790). Friend of Samuel Johnson.

The poems and wit, numerous and educational, and a real hoot for the 18th Century.

Oxford’s spicy sausage from 1777

SO SORRY SAUSAGE SOLD

$180.00

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The Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith -1791

This is a single volume from Goldsmith’s Works published by Morison, Perth and Edinburgh.

What makes it interesting as a single volume is that it contains all of his Poetical works along with his narrative on Lord Bolingbroke and Dr Parnell.

Bound in full original calf with separate red leather title and a volume label. Small octavo, 209 pages, with two full page copper engraved plates. Page edges speckled the whole generally in very good antiquarian condition.

Some quite lengthy and beautiful poems such as … the Deserted Village, the Traveller, the Hermit … and some amusing ones … A Description of an Author’s Bed-Chamber, the haunch of Venison and we quote here partly due to brevity … Epitaph on Edward Purdon

Here lies poor Ned Purdon, from misery freed,
Who long was a bookseller’s hack;
He led such a damnable life in this world, -
I don’t think he’ll wish to come back.

Goldsmith explains … This gentleman was educated at Trinity College, Dublin; but having wasted his patrimony, he enlisted as a foot soldier. Growing tired of that employment, he obtained his discharge, and became a scribbler in the newspapers. He translated Voltaire’s Henriade.

Oliver Goldsmith interesting Poetry and funnier than you thought.

$60.00

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The Invisible Island – Alexander MacDonald – 1911

A Story of the Far North of Queensland … by Alexander McDonald and illustrated by Charles M Sheldon.

Published by Blackie & Sons, London, Glasgow, octavo 360 pages with pictorial image to front cover and spine. A little age otherwise a very good copy and especially clean internally.

The book opens on an island in the south west of the Gulf of Carpentaria … “Through the dank, shimmering heat haze the island loomed in ghostly outline”

Six full page illustrations including the frontispiece.

Adventure and gold in the Far North

$60.00

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The Quest of the Black Opals – Alexander McDonald – 1908

A Tale of Adventure in the Heart of Australia … by Alexander McDonald and illustrated by William Rainey R.I.

Published by Blackie & Sons, London, Glasgow and Bombay in 1908.

Octavo 352 pages with nice pictorial covers. Some age to page edges otherwise a very good copy.

The opening sentence sets the scene nicely … “In that desolate tract of country beyond the borders of Queensland through which the mystic Cooper flows, lies a wealth of fire-flashing opal awaiting only the advent of him who can take it away”.

Six full page illustrations including the frontispiece, plus a full page map near the front and a small map reference Burke and Wills.

Adventure stirred up by Opals in the Heart of Oz

$80.00

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The Abbe Prevost – A Play by Helen Waddell – First Limited Numbered Signed edition – 1933

Superior production Published by Constable, London in 1933. Signed by the author and numbered 267 of a limited issue of 750 copies. Printed at the “Raven Press” in Harrow with a frontispiece engraved by Horace Walter Bray. Printed on thick cream paper rough cut to fore-edge, gilt to top. Original quarter velum over beige cloth covered boards. Gilt titles to front and spine.

Very good condition … note on en paper inviting all communications to Miss Waddell’s agent at Lincoln’s Inn.

A Play by esteemed Irish Playwright Helen Waddell, in a Prologue and Three Acts, over 57 pages, with Dramatis Personae of eight. The Prologue is set twenty years after the main events in the Library of the Chateau of the Prince de Conti. Act I is set in Lenski’s lodgings at the Hague in 173 and II and II in Prevost’s garret in Drury Lane, London in 1733.

Abbe (Antoine Francois) Prevost (1697-1763) was a Benedictine Priest who fled France for London in 1728 after falling out with the Abbot. He became a teacher and writer and after a love affair with a pupil fled London for the Hague in 1730. There he met the beautiful Lenski (described by others as a lady of doubtful character) … got into trouble with creditors and fled back to London. It is these events which are the subject of this historical drama.

Back in London, Prevost was briefly imprisoned for forgery. By 1735 he was forgiven by the Catholic faith and returned to Paris in 1735. A prolific writer, whilst all this was going on he published Manon Lescaut in 1731… one of Voyager’s favourites.

A glimpse into the 18thC Life of Abbe Prevost

$80.00

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The Little Green Road to Fairyland – By Annie R Rentoul and Ida Rentoul Outhwaite – First Australian edition 1948

This is the first Australian printing of this beautifully illustrated, and written, children’s book by Australian Rentoul sisters Annie and Ida (Outhwaite by marriage).

First published in London in 1922 in a deluxe limited issue. This first Australian edition was issued in 1948 still under the original publishers name, Adam and Charles Black, Soho Square, London and printed by Speciality Press, Collins Street, Melbourne.

Quarto, 94 pages with sixteen plates, half in colour by Ida. Still has the hard to come by dust jacket albeit signs of tape repair (tape now removed) an a little pink crayon near the edge. Gift inscription inside otherwise internally very clean, with all the plates … sometimes pilfered.
Reference Muir 739.

Collectable first Australian printing – beautiful Ida Outhwaite plates delightful Annie Rentoul narrative.

$180.00

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The Oxford Sausage – Anonymous but Thomas Warton – 1777

The Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith -1791

The Invisible Island – Alexander MacDonald – 1911

The Quest of the Black Opals – Alexander McDonald – 1908

The Abbe Prevost – A Play by Helen Waddell – First Limited Numbered Signed edition – 1933

The Little Green Road to Fairyland – By Annie R Rentoul and Ida Rentoul Outhwaite – First Australian edition 1948

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