South Kensington 10 June 2015

98 Pages·2015·10.44 MB·English

MODERN LITERATURE: THE PERSONAL
COLLECTION OF ANTHONY HOBSON
South Kensington
10 June 2015
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International Sales Calendar
27 APRIL 9 JUNE 12 JUNE 15 JULY
IMPORTANTS LIVRES FINE PRINTED BOOKS FINE PRINTED BOOKS VALUABLE BOOKS
D’ARTISTES AND MANUSCRIPTS AND MANUSCRIPTS AND MANUSCRIPTS,
ET MANUSCRITS SOUTH KENSINGTON NEW YORK INCLUDING
PARIS CARTOGRAPHY
10 JUNE 16 JUNE
KING STREET
27 MAY MODERN LITERATURE: A CHOICE SELECTION
THE JOEL SPITZ THE PERSONAL OF BOOKS FROM THE
COLLECTION OF COLLECTION OF LIBRARY OF JEAN
ENGLISH COLOUR-PLATE ANTHONY HOBSON BONNA
BOOKS SOUTH KENSINGTON KING STREET
KING STREET
30/07/14
2 Email. First initial followed by last [email protected] (e.g. Thomas Venning = [email protected])
Modern Literature:
The Personal Collection
of Anthony Hobson
AUCTION
Wednesday 10 June 2015
at 10.00 am Lots 1-143 and
at 2.00 pm Lots 144-250
85 Old Brompton Road
London SW7 3LD
AUCTION CODE AND NUMBER
Meg Ford Sven Becker
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enquiries, this sale should be referred
to as CYRIL-11606
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Sunday 7 June 11.00 am - 5.00 pm
Monday 8 June 9.00 am - 7.30 pm
Sophie Hopkins Lucy Cox
Tuesday 9 June 9.00 am - 5.00 pm
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2
ANTHONY HOBSON’S PERSONAL COLLECTION
“Oh, poor Anthony! Poor Anthony! Think of all those empty shelves!”. In 1996 Anthony Hobson resolutely confronted
an economic crisis by dismissing some seventeen authors from his collection of Twentieth Century literature in a 323-lot
auction. These were of necessity big names, including Auden, Eliot, Graves, Greene, Orwell, Waugh, Woolf and Yeats, all
held in significant depth. But there were no empty shelves. Like the prisoners in Fidelio many books came forward out of
the darkness of double-banking, while others clambered up from the cupboards below. These were the things that Anthony
could not let go. He was still working on Lorca and Radiguet; he had to keep the Firbank letters in readiness for his
Roxburghe Club publication; above all, closest to his heart were the works of friends.
Collecting was in Anthony’s blood, as were auctioneering and scholarship. He had already built energetically and astutely
in other fields before embarking in the late 1950s on his selected ‘moderns’ (few Americans, no Joyce or Lawrence). He
hardly needed his greatest mentor Cyril Connolly to advise: “Do not hesitate to ask authors you meet to sign their books
for you”. Anthony did not hesitate. If a few same-dated clusters betray the Approach Bagful, and Forster’s late signatures
were acquired through an intermediary, many sequences of inscriptions demonstrate friendships growing in warmth, trust
and intimacy. There were lunches and dinners and visits exchanged with Kingsley Amis and Elizabeth Jane Howard, Tony
and Violet Powell (it must have been a special day when in the sixth volume of A Dance the author wrote “to” rather than
“for”), Sachie and Georgia Sitwell, the Koestlers. There were holidays with Cyril and Deirdre Connolly, Tanya Hobson’s
step-sister; travels with Eric and Wanda Newby; skiing in Zermatt with Robin Fedden. The Naipauls’ visits always produced
an expectant atmosphere. A few slightly lesser lights were collected out of ancient loyalty: Capt. Hobson met the flamboyant
Capt. Buckle when they were liberating Italy in 1944, and Archibald Colquhoun in 1945. To Nancy Cunard he was first
professional adviser, then valued friend, finally executor.
In addition to the social elegances and fun, Anthony had in his wooer’s armoury the fact that he read his friends’ books
attentively (and not altogether uncritically). And admiration might lead to acquisition. He did not covet archives, but a
notebook or a working draft would be an adornment, and would bring him closer to its author. Thus proliferated the
polished black morocco spines.
Anthony died last year a little short of his 93rd birthday, having outlived all but one of the writers he collected. His cultural
curiosity was unflagging, and he was not ashamed to admit that he listened to Harry Potter tapes while driving across Europe
to the scholarly libraries that were almost his second homes. He did not want J.K. Rowling’s First Editions, preferring still
to build upon and to refine what he already had.
His sheer longevity kept this remarkable material out of the marketplace and out of the limelight. Except for a private
exhibition at home for his beloved Soci’t’ des bibliophiles franbois, Anthony rarely shared his treasures. He was determined,
however, that they should have their day in the sale-room, that the world should see the extraordinary edifice he had built –
and then dismantle it in a last-chance cascade of unrepeatable opportunities.
Almost every volume of Anthony Hobson’s Modern Literature Collection bears a bookplate, designed for him by Humphrey
Stone.
John Byrne
3
1
ACTON, Harold. 21 autograph letters (26 pages, 4°, 45 pages, 8°), 3 autograph postcards signed to Thomas Balston [director of Duckworth
& Co], Oxford, Florence, Paris, 1922-1926, the last letter from Peiping, 1935, with an autograph manuscript poem, Blake, 27 lines on one
foolscap page. Discussing the publication of his frst two books of poems (for the cover of Aquarium “you could have chosen nothing more
exquisitely appropriate”); enthusiastic responses to Albert Rutherston’s work; news of The Oxford Broom; rapturous about Edith Sitwell’s The
Sleeping Beauty; Robert Byron’s ‘gating’; glimpses of Anthony Powell and charades at Garsington; meeting “the unique Jean Cocteau, and
Prima, whom I consider greater than Picasso”; “T.S. Eliot? I would travel continents to meet him”. When Balston rejects his third book, Acton
is sorely disappointed but gracious in defeat. His fnal letter thanks Balston for his book on John Martin and refects on changes in the London
publishing scene. Half black morocco box.
(24)
£500-800 $760-1,200
€700-1,100
q 2
ACTON, Harold. Aquarium. London: Duckworth & Co., [1923].
8°. Half title. Original paper-backed decorated boards (foot of spine
torn away), glassine wrapper (torn with slight loss). frst edition,
presentation copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper, “To
my very dear friend and credens-ne god-father – Roger Spence
from Harold Acton. April 1923.” With 6 other books by the same
author, namely An Indian Ass (London, [1925], presentation copy,
inscribed, “To Roger, one of the guardians of my soul. Query: does
he approve of it? With much love from Harold Acton, 1925”),
Five Saints and an Appendix (London, 1927, inscribed “To a unique
survivor of the Eighteenth Century; to Pino Orioli, cordially, from
Harold Acton, 1928”), Cornelian (London, [1928], coloured title by
McKnight Kauffer, one of 550 copies signed by the author, with
Lytton Strachey’s bookplate), Modern Chinese Poetry (London, [1936],
translator’s presentation copy, inscribed, “To Christopher
and Sylvia with love from Harold Acton, Peiping, 1936”), Famous
Chinese Plays (Peiping, 1937, translator’s presentation copy,
inscribed, “To Christopher and Sylvia with much affection from
Harold. The plays for you to read are ‘I P’eng Hsuch’ and ‘Ts’ui
P’ing Shaw’ (p.364)” and Peonies and Ponies. A Novel (London, 1941,
presentaton copy, inscribed, “To dear Podge [ie. Roger Spence]
with much affection from his old crony Harold, 1941”).
(7)
£400-600 $610-910
€560-840
q 3
ACTON, Harold. Humdrum. London: Chatto & Windus, 1928. 8°. Half title. Original orange cloth, spine lettered in gilt (spine a little
darkened, without the dust-jacket). frst edition, presentation copy to anthony hobson, inscribed on the front free endpaper, “A
book of which I am heartily ashamed and will only sign for my friend Anthony. Harold Acton.” With 6 other books by, or translated by,
the same author, namely The Last of the Medici done into English by Harold Acton (Florence, “Privately Printed for Subscribers by G. Orioli”,
1930, The Lungarno Series No. 2, printed on pink paper, number 2 of 365 copies, inscribed “Hoping that these pages will not demoralize
Anthony Hobson, very cordially, Harold Acton”), The Last Medici (London, [1932]), Memoirs of an Aesthete (London, [1948], inscribed, “For
Anthony Hobson with happy memories of amusing occasions and all best wishes from Harold Acton”), Prince Isidore. A Novel ([London, 1950],
inscribed, “For Anthony trusting that he will learn to avoid all evil eyes. Con tanti saluti, Harold Acton”), The Bourbons of Naples (London,
[1956]) and The Last Bourbons of Naples (London, [1961]), all frst editions, most in dust-jackets, presentation copies to anthony
hobson.
(7)
£300-500 $460-760
€420-700
4
6
5
q 4
ACTON, Harold. Old Lamps for New. London: Methuen & Co Ltd., [1965]. 8°. Half title. Original khaki cloth, spine lettered in gilt, dust-
jacket. frst edition, presentation copy, the front free endpaper inscribed, “For Anthony Hobson who should have collaborated with me
and who may point out my errors. Affectionately, Harold Acton.” With 8 other books by the same author, namely More Memoirs of an Aesthete
(London, [1970], inscribed, “For Anthony Hobson with the hope that I may eventually write something worthier of his fne taste, and all best
wishes, Harold Acton”), Tit for Tat (London, [1972]), Tuscan Villas (London, 1973, folio), Nancy Mitford (London, 1975), The Peach Blossom
Fan (London, 1976), The Pazzi Conspiracy (London, 1979), The Soul’s Gymnasium (London, 1982), Three Extraordinary Ambassadors (London,
[1983], inscribed, “For Anthony Hobson, most loyal of friends and readers, with all best wishes, Harold Acton, 1983”); and Neil Ritchie’s
Harold Acton. A Bibliography (Florence, 1984, one of 500 copies, inscribed by Harold Acton to Anthony Hobson), all frst editions in dust-
jackets, presentation copies to anthony hobson.
(10)
£300-500 $460-760
€420-700
q 5
ACTON, Harold (and others). The Eton Candle. Edited by Brian Howard. Volume One [all published]. Eton: The Savile Press, [1922]. 4to.
Plates, including one by William Acton (“Nature Morte”) and one by Anthony Powell (“Colonel Caesar Cannonbrains of the Black
Hussars”), advertisements at the front and back, a large number for motorbikes. Original pink boards lettered in gilt (lacks spine, edges rubbed,
some staining to lower board). Provenance: unsigned pencil drawing of a female nude on the front free endpaper. presentation copy, the
front pastedown inscribed, “To Anthony Hobson, a battered souvenir of Harold Acton in 1922, with warm regards in September, 1962.”
In addition to Harold and William Acton and Anthony Powell (the latter’s frst appearance in print), contributors included Brian Howard,
Sacheverell and Osbert Sitwell, Aldous Huxley and Maurice Baring. The work bears a printed dedication “to the illustrious memory
of Algernon Charles Swinburne.” With Glue and Lacquer. Four Cautionary Tales Translated from the Chinese by Harold Acton & Lee Yi-Hsieh
([London], The Golden Cockerel Press, [1941], engraved illustrations by Denis Tegetmeier after Eric Gill, translator’s presentation copy,
the front free endpaper inscribed, “For Anthony Hobson, a relic of World War 2, with warm regards, Harold Acton”, and a monochrome
photograph of Harold Acton inscribed by him to Nancy Cunard.
(3)
£300-500 $460-760
€420-700
q 6
ACTON, Harold. Autograph manuscript, heavily-worked frst draft of Glue & Lacquer: Four Cautionary Tales, translated from the Chinese by
Harold Acton & Lee Yi-Hsieh (published by the Golden Cockerel Press [1941]), drafted on the rectos of 166 pages in two folio notebooks,
nearly every facing verso bearing (mostly pencilled) further notes and alternative readings or versions. In half black morocco box.
£1,000-1,500 $1,600-2,300
€1,400-2,100
5
q 7
AMIS, Kingsley. Bright November. London:
The Fortune Press, [1947]. 8°. Original
black cloth, the spine lettered in gilt, dust-
jacket (price-clipped). frst edition of the
author’s scarce frst published work.
presentation copy, inscribed on the front
free endpaper, “Anthony from Kingsley,
these abnormally unpromising frst fruits.”
£600-800 $910-1,200
€840-1,100
7
q 8
AMIS, Kingsley. A Frame of Mind. Eighteen Poems. [Reading:]
“Printed in the School of Art, University of Reading,” 1953. 8°.
List of subscribers, publisher’s slip loosely-inserted. Original plain
parchment printed wrappers, modern box. frst edition, number
38 of 350 copies. presentation copy, inscribed on the front free
endpaper, “Anthony, love from Kingsley”, with the author’s name
scored through on the title and replaced in autograph. In addition,
there is an autograph transcription of Amis’s poem “Sonnet from
Orpheus” on the front free endpaper.
£600-800 $910-1,200
€840-1,100
q 9
[AMIS, Kingsley]. Springtime. An Anthology of Young Poets and Writers. London: Peter Owen Limited, [1953]. 8°. Original burgundy cloth,
the spine lettered in gilt, dust-jacket. frst edition, presentation copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper, “My frst appearance – of any
respectability – in book form (I think). K.A.” On page 15, the author has scored through his printed name and replaced it in autograph. The
anthology includes two poems by Amis, “On Staying Still” and “A Dream of Fair Women.” With 3 other books by Kingsley Amis, namely
The Fantasy Poets. Number Twenty Two (1954, original wrappers, signed by the author), The Evans Country (Fantasy Press, [1962], original
wrappers, signed by the author and with a holograph transcription) and A Look Round the Estate. Poems 1957-67 ([1967], with a holograph
transcription of “An Attempt at Time-Travel”). (4)
(4)
£800-1,000 $1,300-1,500
€1,200-1,400
6
q 10
AMIS, Kingsley. Lucky Jim. London: Victor Gollancz, 1953. 8Z. Half title. Original green cloth, the spine lettered in gilt, yellow dust-
jacket lettered in pink and black with the price of 12/6 unclipped (the backstrip very slightly darkened, a tiny chip to lower edge at joint).
a fne copy of the frst edition of the author’s frst and most celebrated novel. presentation copy, inscribed on the front free
endpaper, “Anthony from Kingsley on a splendid day in March” and with the author’s printed name on the title scored through and replaced in
autograph.
é1,800-2,500 $2,800-3,800
€2,600-3,500
q 11
AMIS, Kingsley. That Uncertain Feeling. A Novel. London: Victor Gollancz, 1955. 8Z. Half title. Original red cloth, the spine lettered in gilt,
yellow dust-jacket lettered in pink and black, the price of 12/6 unclipped (the backstrip very slightly darkened, some very faint staining to
edges). frst edition, with the author’s printed name on the title scored through on the title and replaced in autograph. With 4 other books by
the same author, namely I Like It Here (1958), Take a Girl like You (1960), My Enemy’s Enemy (1962) and One Fat Englishman (1963), all frst
editions in dust-jackets, signed or inscribed by the author.
(5)
é400-600 $610-910
€560-840
7
q 12
AMIS, Kingsley. A Case of Samples. Poems 1946-1956. London: Victor
Gollancz Ltd., 1956. 8°. Original cloth lettered and ruled in gilt,
dust-jacket. frst edition, presentation copy, inscribed on the
front free endpaper, “Anthony in all affection, Kingsley”, with the
author’s printed name on the title scored through and replaced in
autograph. In addition, there is an autograph transcription of Amis’s
poem “The English Novel, 1740-1820” on the front free endpaper
with the following gloss: “(I would have given a lot to have been able
to bring out properly the pun in line 4 – based on one of the most
extraordinary textual coincidences in all our literature: but the task
proved too diffcult. K.A.)”
£600-800 $910-1,200
€840-1,100
12
q 13
AMIS, Kingsley. The Egyptologists. London: Jonathan Cape, [1965]. 8°. Half title. Original grey cloth, the spine lettered in gilt, dust-jacket
designed by Jan Pienkowski with price of 18s. unclipped. First edition, with the author’s printed name on the title scored through and replaced
in autograph. With 7 other books by the same author, namely The Anti-Death League (1966), I Want It Now (1968), The Green Man (1969),
Girl, 20 (1971), The Riverside Villas Murder (1973, which the author describes as “A strange tale of blood and sex”), Ending Up (1974) and The
Alteration (1976), all frst editions in dust-jackets, signed or inscribed by the author.
(8)
£400-600 $610-910
€560-840
q 14
AMIS, Kingsley. Jake’s Thing. London: Hutchinson, [1978]. 8°. Half title. Original dark blue cloth, the spine lettered in silver, dust-jacket
with illustration by Quentin Blake and with price unclipped. frst edition, presentation copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper,
“To Anthony. Terrifc distance between the something that suffers and the mind that creates (TSE), Kingsley.” With 8 other books by the
same author, namely Russian Hide-and-Seek (1980), Collected Short Stories (1980), the revised edition (1987), The Crime of the Century (1987,
paperback), Diffculties with Girls (1988), The Folks that Live on the Hill (1990), We Are All Guilty (1991) and The Russian Girl (1992), all frst
editions in dust-jackets (except where indicated) and inscribed by the author.
(9)
£400-600 $610-910
€560-840
8