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Hardcover volume, 24 x 15 cm, bound in quarter parchment over pale blue cloth, paper label to spine, pale blue dust jacket with a paper label, another label bound in at the end, printed on thick laid paper, untrimmed, uncut, pp. [4] blank, [2] blank/advert., [2] h.t./blank, t.p./imprint (riverside press Ltd.), [2] limitation/blank, [2] persons/blank, [1] 2-185 [3], photogravure portrait frontispiece by Emery Walker with captioned tissue guard. Title-page: The SECRET AGENT | A DRAMA IN THREE ACTS | by | JOSEPH CONRAD | LONDON | Privately Printed for Subscribers ONLY BY | T. WERNER LAURIE LTD. | 1923 || Edition: Limited edition of 1,000 copies sighed by the author; this is copy № 12. Catalogue Raisonné: Keating № 79 / p. 169. Seller’s Description: one of 1000 copies signed by the author, photogravure portrait frontispiece by Emery Walker, endpapers lightly browned, original parchment-backed boards, dust-jacket, spine lightly browned with 2 small staining spots, ends a little creased, uncut and unopened, overall an excellent copy, 8vo, 1923. Contributors: Joseph Conrad (Polish-British, 1857 – 1924) – author. Thomas Werner Laurie (British, 1866 – 1944) – publisher. Emery Walker (British, 1851 – 1933) – artist. The Riverside Press Limited (Edinburgh) – printer. First edition: [LIB-2762.2021] Joseph Conrad. The secret agent: a simple tale. — London: Methuen & Co., [1907] -
Cover: To beg | I am ashamed | by | Sheila Cousins | An autobiography | of a London prostitute | Only authorized edition | Complete and unexpurgated | PUBLISHED IN PARIS || Title page: SHEILA COUSINS | TO BEG | I AM ASHAMED || Pagination:[4] 1-252], total 256 pages. Binding: Original wrappers, black lettering to front, spine, and back: Price in France and Continent 75 Frs. | Price in America Two Dollars |—| OPERA PRESS || Size: 20.2 x 14.5 cm. Edition: Pirated edition. Contributors: Graham Greene (British, 1904 – 1991) – author. Ronald Matthews (British, 1903 – 1967) – author. Opera Press (Paris) – publisher. -
Title page: TO BEG | I AM ASHAMED | By | SHEILA COUSINS | KITABISTAN | ALLAHABAD || Pagination:[1-4] 5-285 [286] [2], total 288 pages. Collation: 8vo; [1]8 2-188; total 144 leaves. Binding: Publisher’s red cloth, black lettering to front cover and spine, price-clipped brown and grey dust jacket, lettered front: TO BEG | I AM ASHAMED | SHEILA | COUSINS |The authentic | autobiography | of a | LONDON | PROSTITUTE | KITABISTAN ||; annotation by Diana Frederics to the back. Size: 19 x 13 cm. Edition: 1st Indian edition. Contributors: Graham Greene (British, 1904 – 1991) – author. Ronald Matthews (British, 1903 – 1967) – author. Frances V. Rummell [pseudonym Diana Fredericks] (American, 1907 – 1969) – annotation author. Kitabistan (Allahabad, India) – publisher. J. K. Sharma at the Allahabad Law Journal Press – printer. -
Title page: Sheila Cousins | TO BEG | I AM ASHAMED | {publisher’s device} | THE OBELISK PRESS | 16, PLACE VENDOME | PARIS || Pagination: [2] – blanks (in wrapper), [4] – h.t. / blank, t.p. / publisher's note (to first impression) & copyright, [1] 2-270, [4] uncut (in wrapper) with imprint "Imprimerie Frère Tourcoing", total 280 pages. Collation: 8vo; [A]8 B-Q8 R4 S8; total 140 leaves. Binding: Publisher’s yellow wrappers, lettering to spine:| TO BEG | I AM | ASHAMED |—| SHEILA | COUSINS | 8th | IMPRESSION | {publisher’s device} | THE | OBELISK PRESS | PARIS ||; lettered front wrapper in red and black: To beg | I am ashamed |—| by | Sheila Cousins |—| The autobiography | of a London prostitute | Only authorized edition | Complete and unexpurgated | {publisher’s device} | THE OBELISK PRESS ||, publisher’s device in red to back wrapper; margins untrimmed; in an owner slipcase. Edition: 1st edition, 8th impression, France, (in or after August 1838). Size: 19 x 14.5 cm. Contributors: Graham Greene (British, 1904 – 1991) – author. Ronald Matthews (British, 1903 – 1967) – author. The Obelisk Press (Paris) – publisher. Imprimerie Frère Tourcoing – printer. Compare to the presumably 1st impression of the same edition [LIB-2806.2021]. -
Title page: Sheila Cousins | TO BEG | I AM ASHAMED | {publisher’s device} | THE OBELISK PRESS | 16, PLACE VENDOME | PARIS || Pagination: [2] – blanks (in wrapper), [4] – h.t. / blank, t.p. / publisher's note & copyright, [1] 2-270, [4] uncut (in wrapper), total 280 pages. Collation: 8vo; [A]8 B-Q8 R4 S8; total 140 leaves. Binding: Publisher’s yellow wrappers, lettering to spine:| TO BEG | I AM | ASHAMED |—| SHEILA | COUSINS | {publisher’s device} | THE | OBELISK PRESS | PARIS ||; lettered front wrapper in red and black: To beg | I am ashamed |—| by | Sheila Cousins |—| The autobiography | of a London prostitute | Only authorized edition | Complete and unexpurgated | {publisher’s device} | THE OBELISK PRESS ||, publisher’s device in red to back wrapper; margins untrimmed; in an owner slipcase. Edition: 1st edition, France, May (i.e. June) 1838; presumably the first impression. Size: 19 x 14.5 cm. Contributors: Graham Greene (British, 1904 – 1991) – author. Ronald Matthews (British, 1903 – 1967) – author. The Obelisk Press – publisher. -
Title page: Sheila Cousins | TO BEG | I AM ASHAMED | THE VANGUARD PRESS • NEW YORK | 1938 || Pagination:[4] [1] 2-283 [284], total 288 pages. Collation: 8vo; [A]8 B-S8; total 144 leaves. Binding: Publisher’s blue buckram, black lettering to front cover and spine, price-clipped blue dust jacket, lettered front: To beg | I am ashamed |—| THE AUTHENTIC | AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A | LONDON | PROSTITUTE |—| by | Sheila Cousins ||; fore-edge untrimmed. Size: 19.5 x 13.5 cm. Edition: 1st American edition Contributors: Graham Greene (British, 1904 – 1991) – author. Ronald Matthews (British, 1903 – 1967) – author. The Vanguard Press, NY (1926 – 1988) – publisher. -
Title page: THE | SECRET AGENT | A SIMPLE TALE | BY | JOSEPH CONRAD | METHUEN & CO. | 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. | LONDON || Imprint on t.p. verso: First Published in 1907 Dedication: To H. G. Wells. Pagination: [2] – blank, [6] – h.t., t.p., dedication; 1-442, [2] colophon: THE RIVERSIDE PRESS LIMITED, EDINBURGH / blank; [1-2] 3-40 – Catalogue of books published by Methuen and company, September 1907; total 492 pages. Collation: 8vo; π4, A-Z8 2A-2D8, 2E6, + 20 leaves of advertisement: signed A2 on leaf 5 and A3 on leaf 9, other unsigned, 2E2 signed; total 246 leaves. Binding: Publisher’s burgundy cloth with gilt lettering and elements to spine, lower margin untrimmed, 19.5 x 13.5 cm. Edition: 1st edition, 1st printing ("be be" on the last line of page 117) of 2,500 copied printed. Contributors: Conrad, Joseph (Polish-British, 1857 – 1924) – author. Methuen & Co. (London) – publisher. The Riverside Press Limited (Edinburgh) – printer. Herbert George Wells (British, 1866 – 1946) – dedicatee. -
Dust jacket (black lettering, sanguine vignettes over light blue) : {vignette} | P. M. HANDOVER | PRINTING | IN LONDON | from Caxton to | Modern Times | {vignette} || Title page: PRINTING IN LONDON | FROM 1476 TO MODERN TIMES | COMPETITIVE PRACTICE AND | TECHNICAL INVENTION | IN THE TRADE OF | BOOK AND BIBLE PRINTING | PERIODICAL PRODUCTION | JOBBING &C |—| P. M. HANDOVER | M.A. F.R.HIST.S. | HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS | CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS | 1960 || Pagination: [1, 2] – h.t. / blank ; frontispiece; [3, 4] – t.p. / imprint; [5, 6] – dedication / blank; [7] 8-224, inset: 7 sheets of plates between pp. 112-113 extraneous to collation, other illustrations in text; insert: invitation card "Publication date JUL 11 1960 Handover". Collation: 8vo; [A]8 B-O8. Binding: publisher’s blue cloth, red label to spine, silver lettering, DJ. -
Title: Life in London ; | DAY AND NIGHT SCENES | OF | JERRY HAWTHORN, ESQ. | AND HIS ELEGANT FRIEND | CORINTHIAN TOM, | ACCOMPANIED BY | BOB LOGIC, THE OXONIAN, | IN THEIR |Rambles and Sprees through the Metropolis. | DEDICATED TO HIS MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY | KING GEORGE THE FOURTH. | BY PIERCE EGAN, | Author of Walks through Bath, Sporting Anecdotes, Picture of the Fancy, Boxiana, &c. | [Vignette] | EMBELLISHED WITH THIRTY-SIX SCENES FROM REAL LIFE, | DESIGNED AND ETCHED BY I. R. & G. CRUIKSHANK ; | And also enriched with numerous original Designs on Wood, by the same Artists, | London: | PRINTED FOR SHERWOOD, NEELY, AND JONES, | PATERNOSTER-ROW. | 1821. ||
Edition: 1st edition, 1st issue: the first sheet of music is not numbered, absence of any footnote at page 9 (as per Cohn).
Pagination: 3 binder's flyleaves with a specimen of George Cruikshank's signature of Nov. 5th, 1860 to the first one; hand-coloured aquatint frontispiece facing the title page with blank recto, [iii-iv] – t.p. with vignette/ blank, [v] vi-viii – dedication, ix-xii – contents, [xiii]-xvi – list of illustrations; [1] 2-376; 35 hand-coloured aquatints, 3 folding leaves of music; bound without half-title [missing pp. i, ii], advertisements or 'to the subscribers' leaf.
Collation: 8vo; [A]7 B-Z8 Aa8-Bb4.
Binding: Full polished calf gilt by Rivière & Son, covers with triple gilt border, spine in 6 compartments, brown morocco lettering pieces to second and third, others richly gilt, raised bands, all edges gilt; neatly re-backed preserving spine.
Catalogue raisonné: Albert M. Cohn, 1924: № 262 p. 90; Abbey, J. R. (Life in England), 281; Tooley (Some English Books with Coloured Plates) 196; Prideaux (Aquatint Engraving) pp. 307, 310; Hardie (English coloured books) 197.
Description of Shapero Rare Books, London: There was a translation into French. At least six plays were based on Egan's characters, contributing to yet more sales. One of these was exported to America, launching the Tom and Jerry craze there. The version created by William Thomas Moncrieff was praised as The Beggar's Opera of its day. Moncrieff's production of Tom and Jerry, or Life in London ran continuously at the Adelphi Theatre for two seasons and it was the dramatist's work as much as the author's that did so much to popularise the book's trademark use of fashionable slang. In 1821 Egan announced the publication of a regular journal: Life in London, appearing monthly at a shilling a time. It was to be illustrated by George Cruikshank (1792 – 1878), and was dedicated to the King, George IV, who at one time had received Egan at court. The first edition of Life in London appeared on 15 July 1821. Egan's creation was an instant success. Pirate versions appeared, featuring such figures as 'Bob Tallyho', 'Dick Wildfire' and the like. Printmakers speedily knocked off cuts featuring the various 'stars' and the real-life public flocked to the 'sporting' addresses that Egan had his heroes frequent.
