The Bookshop on Royalty

Black & white photograph by Dorothy Wilding, signed and dated by the King and Queen, 1937, with Wilding's studio label on the reverse; image: 250 x 200 mm; mounted and framed: 430 x 370 mm

Autograph letter, signed to Evelyn Waugh; 8vo; Buckingham Palace, 27th October 1948, thanking him for his gift of his novel, The Loved One, 'having read it with enormous pleasure in Horizon, I am enchanted to have the book in such lovely guise, the thick smooth paper & beautiful print and the perfect illustrations are a joy. It is many years since I have enjoyed & admired a book as much as The Loved One, it is so brilliant, so funny & so horrifying, just what one needs in this rather grey self conscious world of today'; 3 pp. folds, envelope.

First edition, first impression; 8vo, (22.5 x 14.7 cm); 4 black-and-white illustrations (including frontispiece), half-title, scattered light foxing; publisher's green cloth, gilt lettering to spine, unclipped pictorial dustjacket designed by Jack Matthew, some wear and losses to dustjacket, overall a good copy; [vii], 202pp.

First edition, first impression, author's presentation copy to Francis Sitwell; 8vo, (22.5 x 15 cm); 16 black-and-white illustrations (including frontispiece), internally clean; publisher's burgundy cloth, gilt lettering to spine, unclipped pictorial dustjacket designed by Jack Matthew, dustjacket slightly worn and marked, corners slightly rubbed, overall a bright, clean copy; 542pp.

Reprint edition; 8vo, (22.3 x 14.3); 16 black-and-white illustrations, half-title, original typescript receipt loosely inserted; publisher's brown cloth, gilt lettering to spine, unclipped dustjacket, a bright, clean copy; [15], 390pp.

12mo., half-title, engraved frontispiece and title, 3 engraved plates, original printed boards with ornamental borders and royal coat-of-arms, lacking backstrip, gilt edges, with original printed slip-case replicating elements of the cover designs, some darkening and rubbing, but overall a very good example.

3 vols, 4to; numerous illustrations, many in colour; oriignal pictorial wrappers, slip-case.

First edition; folio (375 x 270 mm); engraved title with vignette of Windsor Castle by John Grieg after Frederick Nash, rare advertisement leaf with subscriber's list to verso, (which Abbey does not cite), 21 hand-finished stipple-engraved portraits by Mary Ann Bourlier, Thomas Cheesman and others after Sir William Beechey, Thomas Gainsborough and others, one plate (Prince Octavius) with reduced margins, not affecting image, possibly from another copy, age-toning, the occasional spot, mostly to tissue-guards, some light, finger-soiling to a few margins, otherwise very good; near contemporary half green morocco gilt, over buff boards, replaced endpapers, rubbed and soiled but sound and presentable.

8vo; signed presentation copy from Queen Victoria to the Rev. George Prothero, Vicar of Whippingham Church with her inscription on fly-leaf, frontispiece portrait of Prince Albert, natural toning throughout, very faint spotting to frontispiece and fly-leaves, else very good; publisher's cream pebble-grained cloth, gilt stamp crest on upper cover, top edge gilt, others uncut, slightly soiled, darkened, mostly to spine but wholly original and strong, overall very good.

8vo (165 x 250 mm); 3pp., on royal monogrammed paper, creased across centre resulting from previous fold, one spot to opening page, otherwise fine.