English & Continental Literature, Manuscripts
One of our most popular sales of the year with 850 lots this sale contains some fantastic rarities. We are pleased to offer a 1684 copy of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. A Tragedy. This first quarto edition is the first separate printing of Julius Caesar and expected to realise £10,000-15,000.
Amongst the religious texts is a first French edition of La Cronique Martiniane de tous les papes...., by Martinus Strepus, Archbishop of Gnesen from 1503 estimated at £10,000-15,000.
A first edition of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol would make the ultimate Christmas gift for any recipient. The first issue copy in this sale from 1843 is expected to reach £6000-8000.
Early manuscripts are particularly well represented. A Description and Platte of the Towne of Shot[ti]sham in the Countye of Suffolk by William Hayward is a large hand-coloured map on vellum from 1631 concerning the village of Shottisham four miles south east of Woodbridge in Suffolk (£4000-5000). The sale also includes a collection of sketches, ephemera and other items relating to the novelist and illustrator William Thackeray and items relating to the Newcomb/Newcome family. It includes an album of original unpublished sketches by Thackeray and is estimated at £4000-6000.
Modern First Editions include James Joyce Ulysses (1922) estimated at £4000-6000 and When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne (1924) estimated at £5000-7000.
Large numbers of works by T.S. Eliot include signed presentation copies to a colleague at Faber and Faber, Ian Fleming, Graham Greene, Rudyard Kipling, C.S.Lewis, Philip Pullman, JK Rowling together with a very comprehensive collection of Seamus Heaney.