Prestige Items

Allen & Hanburys Ltd – Abridged Catalogue of Surgical Instruments and Appliances – Aseptic Hospital Furniture and Electro-Medical Apparatus. – c1920

Possibly the most important reference of the period on the subject. Allen & Hanburys were at 48 Wigmore Street, London W1 with a factory at Bethnal Green and other facilities in Hertfordshire and Norway (Cod Liver Oil).

Abridged in their world means large octavo 739 pages. Original red cloth covered boards, titles etc blind stamped on spine, white to front. No date but references show circa 1920. Thousands of illustrations, frontispiece of the principal premises. Pasted onto inside front is a 28 page price list from April, 1925. All in very good condition.

By this time Allen & Hanburys were leading players with businesses in South Africa, China, Australia, India, South America, USA, Canada, Arabia, New Zealand, West Indies and throughout Europe.

Items covered include far too numerous to list even by category, they appear to cover every aspect. We have provided quite a few images to give some idea.

Special Medical instrument Reference from the distinguished Allen & Hanburys.

$120.00

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Garden District – Two Plays .. Something Unspoken and Suddenly Last Summer – Tennessee Williams – First Edition 1959

A first UK edition published by Secker and Warburg, London in 1959.

Octavo, 72 pages, very good condition.

Two plays … a short one Something Unspoken a type often referred to as a curtain-raiser; and the longer Suddenly Last Summer.

Both had just been performed in England at the London Arts Theatre to much acclaim

Entertaining and still challenging from T.W. …

$30.00

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The Collected Poems of Sidney Keyes – With Unpublished typescript Poem “Ode to Hitler”

Published posthumously by Routledge, London a fourth impression, 1951. Small octavo, xxiv, 123 pages, original binding, very good condition. The typescript poem “Ode to Hitler’ is dated June 1941 (whilst he was till at Oxford – see below). There is a manuscript note on the endpapers “including unpublished poem”; also a note from Anthony Smith, Headmaster of Dartford Grammar School, which Keyes attended “Dear Professor Porter, I am returning three items we borrowed from you …”. This is October, 1987 and there had been a special Keyes Conference held at the school that year … it is possible that the unique poem was one of the borrowed items, and that this book was Porter’s Professor Porter is likely the Theologian who was at Oriel college, Oxford for 13 years from 1949.

The typescript poem contains an overtyped correction “Lonely” in the third last line – shown in the image. The manuscript date “June 1941” is surely in Sidney Keyes’ hand, by comparison with the facsimile of a hand written poem included in “Collected Poems”

This is a special story. Sidney Keyes (1922-1943) was raised by his maternal grandparent, his mother died shortly after his birth. He began writing poetry at a very young age, influenced by Wordsworth, Rilke and Jung. He won a scholarship to Queen’s College, Oxford. At University he wrote two books “The Cruel Solstice” and “The Iron Laurel” for which he was later awarded the Hawthornden Prize. He was very active at Oxford editing the Cherwell Magazine and forming a dramatic society. Leaving Oxford in 1942 he joined the army and sadly died in active service in Tunisia in April 1943.

All up there are 110 poems of which half relate to the War. All of his poems written during active service were lost.

“Ode to Hitler” is a seven verse poem the first six comprising seven lines, the last six. It is a serious matter, whilst being clear in meaning. We do not want to publish all here … but here are the final lines.

“You tapeworm of the mind, you will forgive
My wanderings, stung by a sudden fury;
Not even speaking for my country, only
A mouthing sharp-tongued poet for the lonely
And awkward speaking. But you will never thrive
While we, the sour and cunning, stay alive.”

A special writer and poet who gave his life too young and, a potentially important unpublished work.

ENQUIRIES WELCOME

$120.00

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The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex – Charles Darwin – 1890

A very good second revised and augmented edition, published by John Murray, 50 Albermarle Street, London, 1890.

The desired original “Murray”’ green cloth binding as issued with blind stamped borders and gilt titles and banding to spine. Octavo, 693 pages with 78 illustrations. Very clean binding, tight and whilst a little age to page edges a very good copy of desirable edition.

Darwin’s classic work on comparative anatomy. By comparing the physiological and psychological aspects of man and ape, he fills in what had been merely suggested in the Origin: that man’s ancestor, if still alive today, would be classified among the primates and on a lower scale than the apes.

The last chapter is an added essay on sexual selection, the superior chances of mating that some individuals of one sex have over their rivals. The essay ends with the famous and often misquoted statement, “Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.”

It was in this book (page 2) that Darwin used the word “evolution” for the first time.

The Descent of Man Companion to The Origin of Species….

$480.00

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Petronius – The Satyricon – Private Press – Norman Lindsay Illustrated – 1910

A Revised Latin Text of the Satyricon with the Earliest English Translation (1694) Now First Reprinted with an Introduction together with One Hundred Illustrations by Norman Lindsay

Published privately by Ralph Straus, London 1910. Folio, (33cm by 26cm), 303 pages, 100 leaves of plates.

First English translation side by side with the Latin on alternating pages. The Satyricon, Satyricon liber (The Book of Satylike Adventures) a work of fiction by Gaius Petronius. It is and example of Menippean satire.

Gaius Petronius Arbiter (27AD-66AD) was born in Marseille. He became a Roman Courtier in the reign of Nero. He is well mentioned by Tacitus, Plutarch and Pliny the Elder who regarded him as a “judge of elegance”. Petronius became a member of the Senatorial Class who devoted their lives to pleasure … he was essentially a fashion advisor to Nero. Sleeping by day he devoted night time to amusement … he had a reputation of being very good at it!

In the Satyricon, Petronius uses a new style of writing in that each of the characters are well and openly described. Previously, such literature focused mainly on the plot. There is no holding back in terms of moral issues, and it is thought that the main character Trimalchio (who is on the naughty side) is a cameo of Nero.

Petronius fell out of favour and committed suicide in a rather strange manner.

Goings on in the Days of Nero – with numerous Norman Lindsay Illustrations.

$390.00

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From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt – Wallis Budge – First Edition 1934

First edition published by Oxford University Press in 1934. Large octavo, 545 pages with 240 illustrations. Decorated cloth covered boards and with most of the rare dust jacket, with repaired separation to rear corner and large chip to base of spine. The book rarely appears with its jacket. A very good copy. A substantial book.

A history of the progress of Egyptian religious beliefs and related mythology during ancient times.

Chapter subjects include … The Religions of Ancient Egypt; Predynastic Cults – Animism – Fetishism – Gods and Goddesses of Fetish Origin etc ; Magic the Foundation of Egyptian Religions; Magical Rituals and Spells; The Magician – His Powers and Works; The Family of Gebb and Nut; Hathor and the Hathor-Goddesses; Gods – Stellar, Borrowed and Foreign; Osiris the Rival of Ra; The Judgement of the Dead; Life Beyond the Grave etc etc

Wallis Budge (1857-1934) one of a group of top Egyptologists to be associated with the British Museum. Born into poor circumstances he made London and the British Museum as a young man. He was so well liked and he was sponsored through Cambridge by Gladstone and Smith (of W.H. Smith fame). He studied the work of Layard, knew Alfred Sayce well (see out original letter by Sayce), learned from Assyriologist George Smith (Voyager hero). It was not long until he was in charge of building the collection which he did in a grand scale. His most distinguished acquisition maybe the Papyrus of Ani “Book of the Dead”. He wrote many books on his subject. This his final and enduring work.

Budge – a lifetime devoted to Egyptology.

$160.00

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Allen & Hanburys Ltd – Abridged Catalogue of Surgical Instruments and Appliances – Aseptic Hospital Furniture and Electro-Medical Apparatus. – c1920

Garden District – Two Plays .. Something Unspoken and Suddenly Last Summer – Tennessee Williams – First Edition 1959

The Collected Poems of Sidney Keyes – With Unpublished typescript Poem “Ode to Hitler”

The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex – Charles Darwin – 1890

Petronius – The Satyricon – Private Press – Norman Lindsay Illustrated – 1910

From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt – Wallis Budge – First Edition 1934

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