The natural history section also saw a £600 collector’s bid on an 1870, second edition of F.O.Morris’ ...British Birds, the six vols. in the original pictorial cloth and with strong colouring to the 365 plates.
Sold at £2400 to a buyer from the Channel Islands was a volume bound in tan calf gilt to contain three works dealing with the construction of gates and railings – all published in 1765.
These were The Carpenter’s Companion for Chinese Railings and Gates by J.H. Morris & J. Crumden and The Carpenter’s Compleat Guide to the Whole System of Gothic Railing by Robert Manwaring – illustrated with 17 and 15 engraved plates respectively – and Pts II-III only of W. & J. Welldon’s The Smith’s Right Hand, or a Complete Guide to the Various Branches... of Ironwork, containing 39 plates.
De Miralilibus Pecci: Being the Wonders of the Peak District in Darby-Shire, commonly called the Devil’s Arse, a generally fine copy in modern tooled calf of one of the earlier works of the philosopher Thomas Hobbes – in this instance, a 1678 (fourth?) edition of a work first published in 1636 or thereabouts – made £320 (Brinded).
An original watercolour illustration by “Ionicus’ [J.C. Armitage] for a P.G. Wodehouse golf story, The Rough Stuff, was sold for £240.
Buyer’s premium: 10 per cent
Gates and railings, an 18th century do-it-yourself guide
ASSEMBLED by one of the authors and general editors of the series, a set of the first 178 New Naturalist titles of 1945-92, all of them firsts in dust jackets, brought a bid of £3400 in the Y Gelli sale of July 20.
