Mark Sutcliffe
Rare Books
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Mark Sutcliffe |
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PAYMENT: known customers: payment on receipt. New customers: payment with order, please.
DESCRIPTIONS: every effort has been made to describe condition accurately and fully; price-clipping,
inscriptions, names etc. are always noted. Further details are available on request.
POSTAGE, INSURANCE & HANDLING: UK: small books £3.50; large £4.50; paperbacks £1.25. There will be a higher charge for sets and heavy annuals.
Valuable items will be sent 'Special Delivery', for which there will be an extra charge. REST OF WORLD: please enquire.
All items are guaranteed to be as described and may be returned within 5 days of receipt,
for any reason. Prior notice of returns is requested. The authenticity of special items, such as signed, inscribed
or association copies is guaranteed whilst ever the original purchaser owns the item. TRADE DISCOUNTS are available
to bona fide dealers on a reciprocal basis. We reserve the right to charge interest or cancel discount on overdue accounts.
Books and other items remain the property of Mark Sutcliffe, Ltd., until paid for in full.
Descriptions and images copyright © Mark Sutcliffe 2011.
Contact Details
email: msfe@btinternet.com
Telephone: 01943 830117
From the US: 011 44 1943 830117
Rest of world: +44 1943 830117
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Brahms, Caryl & Simon, J. ENVOY ON EXCURSION. London: Michael Joseph, 1940. First edition. Very good (small patches of fading to spine ends; previous owner's name to front free endpaper) in a good plus to near very good price-clipped dust-wrapper (overall dustiness; chips to spine ends and corners with no text loss; rubbing to folds; archival tissue tape to folds and closed tears on verso).
£195 |
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Buchan, John. MR. STANDFAST. Toronto: Hodder & Stoughton, 1919. First Canadian edition, primary binding of blue cloth. The front panel illustration and titling to spine are identical to those of the regular British edition. Very good plus (some fading to lower spine, mark to back board, cheap paper tanning) in a good dust-wrapper (archival tissue-tape reinforcement to folds and closed tears on verso, small chip to head of spine, lacks lower two inches of spine panel). Scarce in wrapper.
£195 |
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Cain, Paul (Peter Ruric). FAST ONE. London: Constable, 1936. First British edition. No d/w. Good plus (cloth somewhat rubbed; signs of bookplate removal to front free endpaper; occasional marking to pages). Hardboiled highlight, exceptionally scarce in the British first.
£65 |
      
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Carr, John Dickson. IT WALKS BY NIGHT. London: Harpers, 1930. First edition. A remarkable copy of the London first, complete not only with the rare dust-wrapper but also the original wrap-around band and the complete Harper's 'Sealed Mystery' tissue seal, here having been neatly loosened by a very careful previous owner. The only other copy in wrapper known to us was one we handled probably ten years ago, which had been restored to the upper third of the spine, and lacked the band and the tissue seal. The present example is bright and near fine with a previous owner's armorial bookplate to the front pastedown, a small paper tear midway on the inner front hinge, in a very good dust-wrapper with a shallow chip across the head of the spine shaving only the very tops of the letters, a thumbnail-sized chip at the lower left corner of the spine taking the 'HAR' of the publisher's imprint, and with some tanning and very light spotting to the white back panel and flaps. On the verso of the wrapper can be seen a few old ochre ghosts from long-gone tape repairs to the head and tail of the spine, also a few minuscule pieces of archival tissue tape to a few short closed tears. The wrap-around band shows fading to its spine panel and a couple of neatly repaired closed tears, while the Harpers tissue seal shows some inevitable creasing and a few archival tissue tape repairs to the verso. Completely original and unrestored. The wrapper, band and book have almost certainly always been together. Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone. The best Carr we have either handled or seen offered for sale.
£5,750 |
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Carr, John Dickson. CASTLE SKULL. New York: Harpers, 1931. First edition. No d/w. Near fine (minor marks to top edges of upper board; faint signs on pastedowns from possibly where the wrapper flaps were once partly affixed; contents very fresh). A clean, bright copy of this scarce title.
£135 |
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Chesterton, G.W. THE INNOCENCE OF FATHER BROWN. London: Cassell, 1911. First edition. No d/w. Near very good (spine faded and worn at corners, small dint to centre; previous owner’s pencil name to front free endpaper; rear internal hinge partially cracked but solid).
£85 |
 
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Chesterton, G.K. THE POET AND THE LUNATICS. London: Cassell, 1929. First edition. Near fine in a very good plus dust-wrapper (apparently unread; foxing to page edges; wrapper with a few small chips, a couple of neatly repaired closed tears, and a small, circular sticker-removal ghost to the front panel). Loosely laid in is a clipped contemporaneous newspaper review.
£450 |
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(Churchill, Sir Winston) See our copies of Lloyd George's 'THE PEOPLE'S BUDGET'.
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Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. HIS LAST BOW. London: John Murray, 1917. First edition. No d/w. Near fine (slight fading to spine, gilt still bright and gleaming; light foxing to free endpapers; a few titles ticked on 'Other Works' list). Small ownership signature of Robert B. Frier to front pastedown. From the collection of noted Sherlockian, John Ruyle (but not marked as such). An excellent copy.
£525 |
   
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Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. THE CASE-BOOK OF SHERLOCK HOLMES. London: John Murray, 1927. First edition. No d/w. A brilliant copy, just about fine (minuscule nick to head of spine which shows only the minutest and barely discernable degree of fading; gilt still bright and gleaming except part of the title to the spine where it has started to dull; small bump to top of lower board with short nick along very top edge; offsetting to free endpapers). Despite the trivial flaws this is a superb, tight and unread example of a book which usually turns up worn and heavily faded. Supplied with a facsimile of the first-issue wrapper.
£750 |
  
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Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. THE CASE-BOOK OF SHERLOCK HOLMES. London: John Murray, 1927. First edition, Colonial issue. Very good plus to near fine (some surface wear to spine corresponding to loss on wrapper) in a repaired dust-wrapper (creasing and wear; front flap, lower two inches of spine and adjacent corner of back panel missing and replaced in facsimile). One of just 5,000 copies published simultaneously with the regular English (15,150 copies) and American editions. The wrapper is identical to the regular English edition in all respects save for the lack of a price to the spine which is replaced with 'Murray's Imperial Library'.
£1,750 |
  
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Fleming, Ian. CASINO ROYALE. London: Jonathan Cape, 1954. First edition, third printing. Near fine in dust-wrapper (a few small foxing spots to book; wrapper with tiny nicks to corners, a little rubbing to the head of the spine, and slight toning/dustiness to the back panel). The wrapper is as the first impression save for reviews on the front flap.
£2,250 |
 
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Freeman, R. Austin. THE RED THUMB MARK. London: no date [1907]. First edition. No d/w. The scarce cloth issue. Original black cloth lettered in white with red thumb mark (Freeman's own) to upper board. The English Catalogue mentions only the paperback issue, and it was these that were sent to the copyright libraries, none of which, to our knowledge, has a copy of the cloth issue. A very good, solid example, the white lettering flaked and faded, as usual, leaving just the impression of the embossed letters to the spine, a production defect which appears to have affected all copies. The corner points are just rubbed through and there are some small marks to a few pages and some marginal creasing to p. 225, but no signs of significant use. The hinges inside and out are firm. There is a name and a curious inscription re. 'Wills Reform' to the front free endpaper in small red letters at the top of the page and in larger pencil letters beneath. Overall, a solid, very good copy of a scarce and fragile book. Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone, introducing Dr. John Evelyn Thorndyke.
£850 |
 
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Freeman, R. Austin. JOHN THORNDYKE'S CASES. London: Chatto & Windus, 1909. First edition. No d/w. Original light brown cloth lettered in black, pink and gilt, with illustration by H.M. Brock to upper board. This copy was bound without the separate publisher's catalogue to the rear. Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone, Queen's Quorum. Inscribed by Freeman to the front free endpaper: "To R.C. Barrington Partridge / Best wishes from / R. Austin Freeman" Very good (neat repair to upper quarter of front hinge; internal front hinge cracked but solid; light foxing). Rare inscribed; aside from the copies Freeman presented to his two sons this is only the second inscribed example known to us.
£750 |
 
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Freeman, R. Austin. JOHN THORNDYKE'S CASES. London: Chatto & Windus, 1909. First edition. No d/w. With the catalogue at the rear dated '908' (September 1908). A superb, near-fine copy, the corner points and spine ends still sharp, the cloth clean and bright, the gilt fresh and gleaming. The only detractions are the usual pale foxing to the pages, and an expertly matched and replaced front free endpaper. Formerly the property of the noted Thorndykean, Michael Heenan, carrying his tiny address label to the upper left corner of the front pastedown. Mr. Heenan was instrumental in getting a memorial placed on Freeman's previously unmarked grave. Aside from the minor detraction of the replaced front free endpaper this is a brilliant example of Freeman's first Thorndyke story collection. Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone, Queen's Quorum.
£450 |
 
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Freeman, R. Austin. THE SINGING BONE. London: Hodder & Stoughton, no date [1912]. First edition. No d/w. Original red cloth lettered gilt to spine and black to upper board. Inscribed by Freeman to the front free endpaper: "Best wishes to R.C. Barrington-Partridge / from R. Austin Freeman". Very good (slight spine fade and bumping; front hinge partially cracked but solid). Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone, Queen's Quorum. Freeman's milestone collection of inverted mystery stories.
£450 |
  
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Freeman, R. Austin. DR. THORNDYKE: HIS FAMOUS CASES AS DESCRIBED BY R. AUSTIN FREEMAN. London: Hodder & Stoughton, no date [1929]. First edition, the correct first printing in pale blue cloth lettered in dark blue and red. Very good (top edge and cloth slightly dusty; upper front corners bumped) in dust-wrapper (small corner chips, a few closed tears, one piece of old tape to head of spine on verso). Collects all stories from The Singing Bone, Dr. Thorndyke's Case-book, The Puzzle Lock, and The Magic Casket, plus all but three from John Thorndyke's Cases (omits 'The Man with the Nailed Shoes', 'The Mandarin's Pearl' and 'A Message from the Deep Sea') and also includes the two Thorndyke stories from The Great Portrait Mystery ('The Missing Mortgagee' and 'Percival Bland's Proxy'). Extremely scarce in dust-wrapper, this being only the second example we have seen.
£250 |
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(Freeman, R. Austin) Donaldson, Norman. IN SEARCH OF DR. THORNDYKE. Bowling Green: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1971. First edition. Sturdy pictorial boards without dust-wrapper, as issued. Ilustrated. Bibliography at rear. Very good plus (bump to upper front corner and a tiny amount of wear to the spine ends, but with virtually no rubbing to the blue cloth which, in our experience, is unusual). An illuminating biography of Freeman and his creation. Quite scarce.
£25 |
  
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Hare, Cyril. DEATH IS NO SPORTSMAN. London: Faber, 1938. First edition. Very good in dust-wrapper (spine a little tanned and foxed, page edges and endpapers foxed, one corner bumped, previous owner’s name to corner of front free endpaper; wrapper with fading and light marking to spine, some edge-wear, chipping, and a few closed tears). The lower three-quarters of the flap folds have been mysteriously chipped away, leaving only the upper quarters remaining; both have been strengthened on the verso with strips of sympathetically selected vintage paper. Hare’s second mystery. A very difficult title, rare in the Barbosa dust-wrapper. We have not handled a copy previously ourselves, and the only one we have seen listed was in the Goldstone auction catalogue, thirty years ago.
£895 |
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(Hodder & Stoughton) CHRISTMAS 1924 CATALOGUE. 14 loose, unnumbered pages, 13" x 9", with no covers, possibly extracted from the back of a magazine. Edge-wear and tear, with some tape repair to the verso of one. Many illustrations of scarce wrappers, including titles by Bramah, Buchan, Fletcher, Freeman, Grierson, Le Queux, Oppenheim, Sapper and Wallace.
£12 |
  
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Lloyd George, David. THE PEOPLE'S BUDGET. London: Hodder & Stoughton, no date [1909]. First edition. Issued in cloth and wrappers, this being the wrappers issue. Original yellow wrappers with a photographic portrait of the author to the upper, the same image which is used as a frontispiece in the cloth issue (replaced here by a cartoon). One of a trilogy designed to promote the Liberal Party's ideology, the others being Lloyd George's 'The People's Insurance' and Winston Churchill's 'The People's Rights'. Scarce. Most copies exhibit signs of heavy use, such as badly chipped spines and defective or absent covers, whereas the present example is at least very good plus (only very minor chipping to cover extremities, cheap paper tanned, lower corners chipped from final two leaves without text loss).
£100 |
 
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Lloyd George, David. THE PEOPLE'S BUDGET. London: Hodder & Stoughton, [1909]. First edition. Issued in cloth and wrappers, this being the cloth issue. Original finely woven red cloth, gilt, with a photographic frontispiece of the author (the same image which is used on the upper cover of the wrappers issue). No d/w. Very good plus to near fine (cheap paper tanned, as usual; hint of fading to red spine). A superior copy of a scarce book, all corners sharp, the gilt lettering to the front bright and gleaming, the spine gilt only slightly dulled.
£175 |
  
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Marsh, Ngaio. DEATH AT THE BAR. London: Collins Crime Club, 1940. First edition. Very good (cloth faded and a little dusty, tiny nick at spine head, light foxing) in dust-wrapper (spine ends chipped taking a small bite from the first word in the title; a few closed tears with old tape repairs to verso, the longest of which runs from above the author’s name on the front panel across into the spine panel, with no loss or damage to lettering or design).
£650 |
   
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Martyn, Wynham. THE BATHURST COMPLEX. London: Herbert Jenkins, 1924. First edition. Very good plus to near fine (page edges dusty and spotted; previous owner's name dated 1928 to front free endpaper) in very good Philip Simmonds dust-wrapper (a little dusty, a few short closed tears, lightly chipped to top of spine, three-quarter-inch-deep chip to foot). British mystery wrappers from the 1920s are extremely uncommon; this from 1924 is one of the earliest we can recall handling.
£250 |
 
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Maugham, W. Somerset. THE RAZOR’S EDGE. London: Heinemann, 1941. First edition. Near fine (lower corners bumped; small name and date of 1944 to front free endpaper; a few faint foxing spots to fore-edge) in a very good plus to near fine dust-wrapper (creasing; a few small marks; virtually no fading to the pale green spine; a few tiny closed tears to the head of the spine, held on the verso with a small, barely visible piece of clear archival tissue tape). A clean, bright example.
£125 |
   
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Milne, A.A. WHEN WE WERE VERY YOUNG. London: Methuen, 1924. First edition. Very good in dust-wrapper. Remarkably clean pages, virtually blemish free, with no names, inscriptions, stamps, scribbles or other defacements, which for this, one of the greatest children’s first editions of all time, is most uncommon. Cloth slightly dusty, the spine showing a small mark a third of the way up; the spines of both book and wrapper somewhat darkened and with wear to the ends, the book showing a tiny tear to the foot, the wrapper lightly chipped without affecting the lettering. One of only 4,500 copies printed. The first and scarcest of the four 'Pooh' books.
£2,100 |
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Rhode, John. ROBBERY WITH VIOLENCE. London: Geoffrey Bles, 1957. First edition. Very good plus in a lightly rubbed dust-wrapper (corners nicked; old price of '50c' to upper left corner of front panel).
£85 |
  
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Sayers, Dorothy L. THE UNPLEASANTNESS AT THE BELLONA CLUB. London: Ernest Benn, 1928. First edition. Not only inscribed by the author to her mother five days before publication: "To Mother / With best love from /Dorothy / 1.7.28" but also in the rare dust-wrapper. One of only 1,000 copies printed, a tiny run by any standard, one fifth, in fact, of the print run for the next Peter Wimsey title, 'Lord Peter Views the Body'. Near fine (small bump to one corner, a few foxing spots to fore-edge, small pale mark to foot of rear pastedown) in a very good dust-wrapper (small chips to corners, faint and inoffensive stain to spine, a few small closed tears held on the verso with tiny slivers of archival tissue tape). A fabulous association copy in the rare wrapper of the fourth Lord Peter Wimsey mystery.
£5,750 |
 
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Tolkien, J.R.R. THE LORD OF THE RINGS, comprising THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, THE TWO TOWERS and THE RETURN OF THE KING. London: George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1965. First edition, fourteenth impression of 'Fellowship', eleventh impressions of 'Towers' and 'Return'. A very good set. Cloth bright and clean, no names or inscriptions, small foxing spots chiefly to page edges, some marking to top-stains; wrappers correct for each book and not clipped, light wear, the usual tanning and marking to the spine panels, a few other small marks. Maps at back of each book in clean, tidy condition.
£195 |
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Van Dine, S.S. THE WINTER MURDER CASE. London: Cassell, 1939. First British edition. Very good in dust-wrapper (a few marks to cloth, crease to lower board; wrapper with light fading to red spine, some wear to lower flap folds, a couple of repaired closed tears, and some old and apparently unnecessary paper tape repairs to verso). Author’s last novel. The wrapper is unpriced and instead carries the words 'Colonial Edition' to the lower edge of the front flap. Scarce in wrapper.
£175 |
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R. Austin Freeman Wanted Quotes or referrals most appreciated Buy, swap or trade
First editions in dust-wrappers.
Later editions, printings or issues in dust-wrappers.
Paperbacks
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