Occasionally we are fortunate enough to find and stock items which are truly special.

The following are a few of those from stock. We hope you enjoy perusing these extra-ordinary items!

Scarce Brother Sunshine

Brother Sunshine's Series, JACK AND THE BEAN-STALK, London, Dean and Son, n.d. [ca. 1855]. 8 leaves, printed on one side only. 7 large woodcut illustrations, and a small initial vignette, all hand-colored. Paper wrappers, included in the collation. Back wrapper lists Dean and Son's Sixpenny Toy Books; large closed tear in bottom margin with no loss of text. Nearly disbound, the fold and the spine separated and with remnants of sewing thread. Light soil and wear to edges. A scarce survival, protected in a custom folder of blue and red cloth, gilt title. Osborne lists two other titles in the Brother Sunshine series, but not this one.$350. Details

Gruner, Ludwig, DAS GRUNE GEWOLBE ZU DRESDEN The Green Vault of Dresden, Dresden, C. C. Meinhold und Sohne, 1862. Folio. (11 by 14-1.2 inches). Original full brown leather tooled in gilt on the upper board. Spine in 6 compartments, gilt. All edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. With 28 finely executed illustrations of the treasures of the Royal Secret Vault (commonly called the Grune Gewolbe, or Green Vault,) in Dresden: 24 are finely detailed and colored chromolithographs, the remaining four are uncolored. All are mounted. The frontispiece is a mounted plate, possibly an albumen photograph, of an engraving of Johann Melchior Dinglinger. The celebrated goldsmith is holding the Bath of Diana (reproduced in color as Plate XXVIII). A text description by Major Baron von Landsberg precedes each plate. The upper hinge has been repaired, the corners renewed and the top inch of the spine replaced with matching leather. The binding is still presentable and the contents are fine. Quite scarce; the OCLC located no copies of this German edition and only three copies of the English edition of the same year. With the bookplate of coal magnate Edward J Berwind and likely from his library at The Elms in Newport. $2500. Details

Kilmer, Joyce (Oscar Rasbach), TREES, Los Angeles, G. Schirmer, 1922. Sheet music. 9-1/4 by 12". Single sheet folded. The first edition of Rasbach's setting for the Kilmer poem, and later recorded by the Sons of the Pioneers. Also performed by Fred Waring in Disney%u2019s Melody Time. Presentation copy, inscribed by Rasbach on April 27, 1922: To Miss Frances Richardson, thanking her for her kind help in selecting a title page for this song. Oscar Rasbach. A few short, closed marginal tears archivally repaired else a very good copy. Details $200

Le Fanu, J. S., CHRONICLES OF GOLDEN FRIARS, London, Richard Bentley and Son, 1871. First edition. Three volumes. 12mo. Original sand-grain violet cloth, gilt titles. Line engraved title pages. Sheridan Le Fanu was unquestionably the Victorian master of ghost and supernatural stories. This collection of tales came to LeFanu at the inn in Golden Friars, Northumberland. The tales are: 'A Strange Adventure in the Life of Miss Laura Mildmay'; 'The Haunted Baronet'; and 'The Bird of Passage'. Spines and parts of the boards sunned, inner hinges of volume 3 neatly repaired, occasional light soil and staining. First editions of Le Fanu are excessively rare. See Wolff, 4009, who says this is "a book I have seen only once" but didn't own. He was referring to Sadlier's copy. Sadlier, 1372. Wolff, 4009. Housed in a quarter leather clamshell case with boards of victorian cloth similar to that used on the books. $15000. Details

Pyne, William Henry, HISTORY OF THE ROYAL RESIDENCES, of Windsor Castle, St. James's Palace, Carlton House, Kensington Palace, Hampton Court, Buckingham House, and Frogmore. By. W. H. Pyne. Illustrated by one hundred highly finished and coloured engravings, fac-similes of original drawings by the most eminent artists. In three volumes. London, Printed for A. Dry, 1819. Eight parts in three large quarto volumes. Text watermarked 1811-1817. Contemporary binding of full English crimson straight-grained morocco. Spines in five compartments, intricately tooled in gilt; Boards similarly tooled as well as edges. In addition, Volume III has the arms of Trinity College, Dublin, blocked upon the boards in gilt and with a bookplate within inscribed to Thomas Barry dated 1820 and signed by Bas[il] Lloyd on behalf of the College and Senior Students. Marbled paper endpapers. With 100 fine handcolored aquatint plates by Sutherland, Bennett, Reeve, Baily and Havell after Samuel, Stephanoff, Cattermole, Wild and Westall. Aside from a few pin-sized, barely visible wormholes, this is an absolutely superb set. The contemporary binding is bright with only traces of rubbing at edges; the plates likewise fine and bright, with occasional light offsetting to facing text pages. It would be hard--perhaps impossible--to find a nicer set. Tooley 389. Abbery Scenery 396. Prideaux 348. British Coloured Books, 78. $15000. Details

(Reagan, Ronald), OFFICIAL PROGRAM AND STERLING BOOKMARK FROM THE GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY OF THE RONALD REAGAN PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY, 1988. Two items relating to the groundbreaking of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Center for Public Affairs in Simi Valley, California, on November 21, 1988. The items are: 1. Official progam for the ceremony of blue card cover, 4pp., and 2.Gorham Sterling bookmark given to the invited guests, in its box with a seal embossed with Mr. Reagan's signature. The groundbreaking was limited to 300 invitees. $2000. Details

Webb, Albert E., THE HISTORIC KING ARTHUR AND THE ARTHURIAN ROMANCES, Glastonbury, n.p., (1955). Unpublished manuscript. 200pp. written in ink on one side only, bound with cord into a light board cover. 7-1/2 x 9". The manuscript, entirely in Webb's legible hand, contains a preface "To the Critic"; a foreword by Albert C. R. Carter, King Arthur's Champion, Knights of the Round Table Club (est. 1720); the main textual sections divided into The Historic King Arthur and The Arthurian Romance; and four appendices: King Arthur's Grave at Glastonbury; Royal Pilgrimages to King Arthur's Tomb; Tintagel and Camelot; and King Arthur and Glastonbury. Laid in are three letters by Webb dated April, 1955, and addressed to Gerald Henderson, Deputy Knight Remembrancer of the Knights of the Round Table Club. In the letters, Webb transmits the manuscript, indicating that he has kept a copy and hoping that it might be published. Albert E. Webb was a printer and longtime resident of Glastonbury, whose published works include "Glastonbury in Ynyswytryn (Isle of Avalon)"; "Glastonbury Abbey"; and "Glastonbury: Legend, Tradition, History". $3500. Details

Wright, S. Fowler, THE SONG OF ARTHUR, n.p.: n.p., n.d.. Four volume typescript, approximately 8 inches by 10 inches. Individual original typewritten or carbon copy pages are bound with string into cloth and printed paper boards, with typewritten labels. Unpaginated; the four volumes are a little over 6 inches thick. Nearly every page has additions, corrections and strike-outs in either the author's hand, that of his daughter, or an unknown hand. Two copies of Fowler's 1919 forerunner work, 'Scenes from the Morte d'Arthur', written under his pseudonym Alan Seymour, have been cut up and incorporated into the typescript and also bear manuscript corrections. We understand that this set is one of a very small number--probably no more than five--of copies made up for submission to publishers, and may very well be one of only a couple of copies surviving. According to his biographer, Brian Stableford, 'The Song of Arthur' was his life's work. It was just finished when a bomb destroyed the manuscript in 1941. Wright spent much of the rest of his life recreating it. It was unpublished at his death in 1965. In 'The Song of Arthur', Wright intended to incorporate the whole body of Arthuriana into a single work of blank verse. Volume one commences with Book One, 'Merlin', and volume four concludes with Book XXIV, 'The Death of Arthur'. Some of the books are bound out of order, e.g., 'The Riding of Lancelot' (Book VIII) follows Book IX ('Tristam'). Light wear else in very good condition. Very good Typescript%uFFFD Details $7,500.00