It was signed and inscribed “Here’s How! Harry Craddock” by its author and given to a friend who worked as both bartender and dancer in London.
Illustrated by Gilbert Rumbold and with its Art Deco binding professionally rebacked, it was part of a sale held by TW Gaze (18% buyer’s premium) in Diss, where it was accompanied by Craddock’s swordstick.
That stick’s condition was poor but a note by a later owner of the book explains that it had been badly damaged when Craddock used it on a drunken man who had been pestering a party of ladies at the famous American Bar in London’s Savoy Hotel.
Background stories and broader information on lots, sometimes quite detailed, are characteristic of the catalogues produced by Robert Henshilwood for these Diss sales.
Signed and inscribed to one of his children, an 1888 first of Arthur Henry Patterson’s 'Notes on Pet Monkeys and How to Manage Them' made £340 at TW Gaze.
Bursting with birdlife
Bid to £1700 at the June 3 sale was a group of six limited-edition works on The Woodcock, The Snipe and other birds issued in the years 1988-90 with texts by Colin Laurie McKelvie and illustrations by Richard Robjent. Half morocco bound, each volume contained an original sepia drawing by Robjent.
A complete set of the 11 volumes (in 12) that make up the illustrated account of the Vertebrate Fauna of Scotland edited by John A Harvie-Brown and published in the years 1887-1935 sold at £800.
