Exciting addition for a book collection – The Oracle of Rural Life

March 15th, 2012

THE ORACLE OF RURAL LIFE. An almanack for sportsmen, farmers, gardeners and country gentlemen.1839-43

This  book has many engraved plates, of which a large number are sporting; several being damp-marked. The pictorial half title of the first issue is quite badly chipped. Bound in later half calf, which is in excellent condition. This volume contains five issues of this exceedingly rare and small format (12mo) sporting journal. Schwerdt states in his monumental sporting bibliography that this small journal was published from 1839 to 1844; he claims the issues are very hard to find; thus making this small volume remarkably scarce, if not rare.

I am able to offer it for sale for  £380.00 (equal to approx. US$594.74* or €456.51* for 15 March 2012)

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Preview of rare and signed books I have recently acquired

January 17th, 2012

I have recently acquired a fine collection of limited edition and signed books.  The will be for sale on my website shortly but please get in touch if you are interested in them. 01931 716746
1     COLLINS N/N.    BERRY, R.J.    THE NATURAL HISTORY OF ISLANDS. 2009     £380.00
Many coloured illustrations throughout, maps etc.  Mint copy in full morocco, all edges gilt, and housed in a cloth slip-case.
LIMITED EDITION OF 150 COPIES ONLY.

2     COLLINS N/N.    CABOT, David    WILDFOWL. 2009     £430.00
Many coloured illustrations.  Full morocco binding, all edges gilt, and housed in a cloth slip-case. Mint copy.
LIMITED TO 150 COPIES ONLY, SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR.

3     COLLINS N/N.    MERCER, Ian.    DARTMOOR. 2009     £420.00
Many coloured illustrations.  Bound in brown morocco, all edges gilded, and housed in cloth slip-case.  A MINT copy.
LIMITED EDITION OF 100 SIGNED COPIES.

4     COLLINS N/N.    ALLOTT, Andrew.    THE MARCHES. [COLLINS NEW NATURALIST SERIES] 2011     £380.00
Illustrated throughout in colour.  Bound in full morocco, all edges gilt, dw. housed in cloth slip-case.  Mint copy
LIMITED TO 50 COPIES ONLY, SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR.

5     COLLINS N/N.   ALFORD, David V.    PLANT PESTS. [COLLINS NEW NATURALIST SERIES] 2011     £320.00
Coloured illustrations throughout.  Bound in full morocco, all edges gilded, with dust wrapper; and housed in a cloth slip-case. mMint copy.
LIMITED TO 50 SIGNED COPIES ONLY.

6     COLLINS N/N.   ROPER, Timothy J.    BADGER. 2010     £330.00
Many coloured illustrations throughout.  Bound in full morocco, all edges gilt, and housed in a slip-case – with coloured dw.   Mint.
LIMITED AND SIGNED EDITION OF 75 COPIES.

7     COLLINS N/N.   NEWTON, Ian.    BIRD MIGRATION. 2010     £350.00
Illustrated throughout in full colour.  Bound in full morocco, all edges gilt, with dw. and housed in cloth slip-case. MINT
LIMITED TO 75 COPIES, SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR.  An extensive and detailed treatise of over 600 pages.

8     COLLINS N/N.   REDFERN, Margaret.    PLANT GALLS. 2011     £230.00
Many colour illustrations, diagrams etc.  Full brown morocco, with dw. all edges gilded, and housed in matching slip-case.
LIMITED EDITION OF 50 SIGNED COPIES ONLY.

9     COLLINS N/N.    CORBETT & BROOKS.    DRAGONFLIES. [COLLINS NEW NATURALIST SERIES] 2008     £380.00
Profusely illustrated in colour.  Bound in full brown morocco, all edges gilt, and housed in cloth slip-case.  Mint copy.
LIMITED TO 250 COPIES ONLY, SIGNED BY STEPHEN BROOKS.

10     COLLINS N/N.  WATSON, A. & MOSS, R.    GROUSE. 2008     £480.00
Illustrated throughout in colour, with charts, diagrams etc.  Full brown morocco, all edges gilt, and housed in cloth slip-case. A mint copy.
LIMITED EDITION OF 250 COPIES, SIGNED BY THE AUTHORS.

11     COLLINS N/N.   FRIEND, Peter.    SOUTHERN ENGLAND. 2008     £440.00
Colour illustrations throughout.  Full morocco, all edges gilded, and housed in a cloth slip-case.  A MINT copy.
LIMITED TO 150 COPIES ONLY, SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR.

12     COLLINS N/N.    ALLEN, David E.    BOOKS AND NATURALISTS. 2010     £460.00
Illustrated in colour etc.  Bound in  full morocco, all edges gilt and housed in cloth slip-case. MINT copy
LIMITED TO 75 SIGNED COPIES ONLY.  APART FROM ESSENTIAL READING, A FINE INVESTMENT.

13     COLLINS N/N. – KINGTON, J.    CLIMATE AND WEATHER. 2010     £230.00
Many coloured illustrations.  Full morocco binding, all edges gilded; and housed in cloth slip-case. MINT COPY.
LIMITED EDITION OF 75 COPIES ONLY SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR.

14     COLLINS N/N.  MARREN & GILLMOR    ART OF THE NEW NATURALISTS. 2009             £430.00
Numerous coloured plates.  Full morocco, all edges gilt, and housed in cloth slip-case.  MINT copy; but lacks dw.  Folio in size.
LIMITED TO 50 COPIES ONLY, SIGNED BY THE AUTHORS.  [COLLINS NEW NATURALIST SERIES]

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Viscount Powerscourt – Ye Kynges of Cairnlochan – Forreste Offe Glenisla

December 11th, 2011

YE KYNGES OF CAIRNLOCHAN – FORRESTE OFFE GLENISLA; FROM SKETCHES BV VISCOUNT POWERSCOURT. ~Dublin University Press. M.H Gill., 1858

I have recently acquired a quite remarkable copy of this extraordinairy book, and am offering it for sale for £1730.00.  Please get in touch with me if you are interested and I will be delighted to answer any questions you may have.

Description: Engraved title page, presumably a view of Glenisla, and 46 engraved plates illustrating 108 heads, expertly drawn by Powerscourt. Some of the plates are foxed, others very clean. Bound in the original full morocco, broad gilt Grecian style borders, inner gilt dentelles and gilt board edges with gilded sub-title on upper cover. Very light scuffing to covers; generally a remarkable copy of this, the rarest, I believe, of all stalking books. Imperial 8vo. Each head has the place and year it was shot, and for about half of them – the person who shot them. This is a remarkable record of each (I think) stag shot, as both the good and the poor heads are recorded. The quality of the engravings is excellent, even more so when one considers that the artist – Mervyn Edward wingfield, Viscount Powerscourt(1836 – 1904), was an amateur. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first accurate record of stags shot, and is therefore of great importance.  RARE. There is a copy in the National Library of Ireland, Dublin, but not the British Library or the National Library of Scotland; there was, as far as I can remember, no copy in the whitehead collection. The only other stalking work which is possibly as rare as this is “Memoirs of william Collie” published in 1904. D.G.
Viscount Powerscourt also wrote “A Description & History of Powerscourt”.

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Antiquarian Bookselling Business For Sale….

July 11th, 2011

GRAYLING’S LAST CHAPTER

 The animal feed company – B.O.C.M. did it!  On 25th February 1971, David Grayling received a letter – “It is with great regret that, as a result of the Company re-organisation following the merger with  SLF Ltd., we should have to terminate your employment on 31st of May, 1971”.   Over the next two years, continuous hunts, many casts, searches and interviews  resulted in an empty “bag”.  David was getting £12.00 a week dole money, and  having been a book collector for many years, reckoned he could make more than that  buying and selling tatty old books.

 Advertising in the local paper, and hunting around the numerous junk shops of central Lancashire resulted in a varied stock of interesting titles. “In those days, I would buy any book on any subject, cautiously guessing what I should pay, and to who I would sell it.  Every small venture was a gamble!”.  A couple of struggling years later, he was forced to add his own collection of sporting books to the business.

 Thus was born “Grayling Books”, which, as the years strode on, evolved into David A H Grayling Fine Sporting Books. 

 Since those early days, sales have multiplied forty times and more, the name Grayling is now synonymous with fine sporting and natural history titles, and a personal service which is second to none. Catalogues, valuation and cataloguing of libraries, insurance advice, personal purchase of  sporting books and complete collections are all part and parcel of a well established and respected rural enterprise.

 Approaching 75, David says “Although I love my business, while I am thankfully still reasonably fit, I need more time to indulge myself  in the many rural activities I so much enjoy”.   Thus it is that David, wishing his business to continue over the years ahead, is searching for a buyer.  “I anticipate that he or she will have a rural and sporting background and  hopefully also be a book collector.  I expect that any potential buyer would need me to remain involved for at least a year after the purchase, possibly longer.  With forty years of  experience in my head, any purchaser will have a lot to learn!”.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT DAVID GRAYLING:

01931 716 746 (Office hours)

admin@davidgraylingbooks.com                           www.davidgraylingbooks.com

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Rare books, wonderful binding and a Bigland family connection

April 27th, 2011

RARE BOOKS:  NB I no longer have any of these books in stock – sorry.

I have recently been checking the condition and “completeness” of some books a client wishes to sell. One of the volumes is “Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America in the Years 1766, 1767 and 1768” by J. Carver, published in 1781. This copy is still in it’s original half calf binding, the odd small tear on one map, and everything appearing perfect. I checked in a bibliography and found that there should be a frontispiece, and there is also one plate missing. This was a big blow, as this title in this condition – and complete – is worth about £3000. A copy without these two imporatn items would be £2000 less ! It was evidently taken to the U.S.A. in the mid 19th Century by George Bigland, who was emigrating from Lancashire. I wonder if this book created the spark which resulted in his decision to go? I see there are still Biglands in the St. Louis area, where he settled.

 Another item – The Reverend Morris’s “County Seats of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain….” – four magnificent volumes in superb scarlet morocco leather, lavish and ornate gilt borders, heraldic gilt designs, and ornate gilt inner margins, all edges gilt; containing very fine coloured plates of famous country houses and mansions through the British Isles, all in very fine condition. BUT – only 4 volumes out of the 6 published. Where are the two missing volumes? How did they part company? To bind one of these volumes today would cost well over £1000, as there are only a handful of binders in the world that could undertake this superb craftsmanship.

 This is the hazardous life of the bookseller. Go to a house; they have 400 books to sell, you rattle through them, check the contents and condition of the more important ones, take them home and find the one you paid £200 for has a page missing – it’s quite a gamble! Hopefully you have only made one mistake, and manage to make a profit – eventually – on the rest. Various other Bigland books are in the collection, including an accounts ledger, providing a fascinating picture of the day-to-day living of the Bigland family in those adventurous days, and also a book of Lancashire family trees, which includes the Biglands’ ancestry right back to 1500.

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New catalogue of fine books being printed now…

April 26th, 2011

… if you would like a copy of my next catalogue of rare and fine sporting books please call or email me and I will put one in the post for you – +44 (0)1931 716746 admin@davidgraylingbooks.com

The Greyhound by Edward Ash

The Greyhound by Edward Ash

My next catalogue will have books from all sections of stock – including big game in India and Africa, deer stalking in Scotland, small game, firearms, natural history and ornithology, hunting with horses and hounds and angling.  Included will be some of my finest books as well as some less rare but equally fascinating and collectible.    Among many gems I have a wonderful signed copy of Edward Ash’s book of the Greyhound and many Rowland Ward publications.Please revisit my website soon – I shall make an electronic copy of the catalogue available here once it has been published.Just a couple of examples to whet your literary appetite: 

KLEIN, E. THE ETIOLOGY & PATHOLOGY OF GROUSE DISEASE. FOWL ENTERITIS.. And some other diseases affecting birds. 1892 £420.00

A series of micrological plates at the rear. Apart for two neat stamps of the Welcome Institue, an excellent copy of this rare title, the original cloth cover a bit marked on the lower cover; the contents are fine, being almost totally unopened.  I can’t remember ever having purchased this work before. I certainly remember seeing one – on the shelves of a Scottish estate office about ten years ago, as I tried to purchase it – without success.

 MILLAIS, J.G. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF BRITISH GAME BIRDS. 1909. £750.00

18 fine coloured plates and 17 plain plates by A. Thorburn and the author. One photographic plate. Recent fine half crushed morocco gilt; t.e.g. . Sporadic light foxing to a few coloured plates. Limited to 550 copies, of which this is number 125. An attractive copy of this important work in a fine binding.

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Lowther Game and Country Fair August 13th and 14th 2011

April 4th, 2011

I see that the the local, and famous, Lowther Game Fair, which ceased to operate about three years ago, is being resurrected. This was a fine event, ably and successfully directed by Robert Benson, former son-in-law of the late James, 7th Earl of Lonsdale. It is being revived by a company called “Countryman Fairs”. They have been involved in staging Kelmarsh, Highclere, Sussex and the Midland Game & Country fairs for some years. What I find very strange is that no-one in Cumberland and Westmorland appears to know anything about it. As a potential standholder at the fair, it is quite remarkable that at the very least, I and other local sporting businesses would have been sent details of stand hire and costs etc.etc. April 2nd. I have now spoken to them, and they are sending me details; the show is definitely going ahead, but it is evident that it will be considerably smaller than the old Lowther Game Fair and Driving Trials etc. 

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Crosby Ravensworth – We are buying our pub!

March 30th, 2011

WE ARE BUYING OUR PUB! I live in the valley of the Lyvennet, Lyvennet Beck being one of the tributaries of the famous river Eden. The pub has been closed in the Winter and semi-closed in the Summer, as the owners wanted to retire due to health problems. A small group of peoplle in the village set to, and have worked hard and long to organise a community purchase of the premises, upgrade the building inside and out, and then let it at a realistic and fair rent to an experienced tenant. We had a very successful, well-attended meeting yesterday: READ MORE about the future of the BUTCHER’S ARMS, in Crosby Ravensworth, Westmorland, at the new website – www.lyvennetcommunitypub.com. All the information is there, along with details of purchasing shares etc.etc.

 

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Ten year anniversary of Foot and Mouth Disease Outbreak

March 11th, 2011

FOOT & MOUTH, HEART AND SOUL is a collection of personal accounts of the foot and mouth outbreak in Cumbria 2001 and is available through my site for £6 plus P & P.  I will shortly be launching a scheme whereby I will send it free of charge in exchange for a donation to The Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution.  RABI is a charity providing support for members of the farming community who are in need, throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland.  If you would be interested, please get in touch – admin@davidgraylingbooks.com

Foot and Mouth, Heart and Soul

Foot and Mouth, Heart and Soul

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More on the otter and the salmon…

December 16th, 2010

Went to the river again a few days later, and yet another salmon, mostly of it eaten or possibly hidden away in the holt for future consumption, was lying on the bank with otter marks around it. This was about twice the size of the first one – about 10lbs, I would guess by the size of the head and tail, which was about all that was left! The local wildlife is certainly living well; I can’t afford fresh wild salmon every day!

Angling books and more…

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