This folio single sheet bears an advertisement for Richard Hornsby & Sons drills. The engine and machinery manufacturer from Lincolnshire was founded in 1828 and produced steam engines used to drive threshing machines and other equipment. This advertisement, dating to c.1875, is offered by Forest Books for £95 at the London Autumn Book Fair.
Held on September 18, it takes place at the Holiday Inn London in Bloomsbury.
Around 60 dealers are set to attend. Part of a large series of fairs that stretches across the UK, the PBFA’s London Autumn Book Fair might be at a lower price point than Firsts, but still features a wide range of material across subjects and genres.
Complimentary tickets and more information are available online.
London: A Pilgrimage was an account of the poverty and squalor of Victorian London produced by Gustave Doré and journalist Blanchard Jerrold. The project took four years to complete and comprised 180 engravings. Overcrowding, backbreaking work, filthy conditions and dismal backstreets are depicted in detail. At the time, Doré was criticised for mistakes in his scenes – he disliked sketching in public and drew heavily on memory – but over the years the details have gown less important than the distinctive mood of the scenes. Paul Foster Books offers a first edition copy for £1250.
Dubbed by one reviewer ‘a festival of bad taste’, My Uncle Oswald is one of Roald Dahl’s books for adults. In the story, Oswald concocts a plans to steal the semen of leading lights such as Claude Monet, Igor Stravinsky and Albert Einstein to sell to women who want children fathered by geniuses. First published in 1979, this softcover edition is from 1980 and is on offer in good condition from White Eagle Books. It is inscribed by the author ‘to Debbie’ on the free end paper and is priced at £150.
Offered for £75, this engraving of St Peter’s College Oxford from 1675 features on the stand of De Bry Engravings. It is the work of David Loggan, whose Oxonia illustrata was an important topographical work, offering bird’s-eye views of all the colleges in the university town.
