The earliest dustjackets

As my stock is generally 20th century; pony books not being a popular subject before the 1920s, I very rarely come across truly early examples of book development, which is why I found this article so fascinating, together with the example of the dustjacket for Friendship's Offering, published in 1830, and found in a collection of uncatalogued ephemera in the Bodleian.

Book of the Week

A Quaint Treatise On "Flees And The Art a Artyfichall Flee Making" by an old man well known on the Derbyshire Streams as a first-class fly-fisher a century ago by W. H. Aldam

Published: London, John B Day, 1876
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Green/gilt hardback cloth cover

pp91 : Two chromo-lithographic facsimiles from water drawings by James Poole on card. [Llugwy North Wales; Offerton Stepping Stones] :: 300mm x 230mm (12" x 9") :: Printed from an old ms. never before published the original spelling and language being retained, with editorial notes and patterns of flies and samples of the materials for making each fly. [A Quaint Treatise on Flies and [Artificial] Flymaking by an old Fisherman]. Lists 26 flies with 22 examples on hard card with the made up fly, and the materials used to create it: March Brown*, Dottril Dun*, Little Chap*, Watchett*, Oringe Brown*, Granum*, Black Gnat*, Tailey Tail*, Green Drake, Oringe Headed Dun*, Light Dun*, Bigg Dun*, Crossing Brown*, Spider Flee*, Black Ant, Large Red Ant, Small Common Ant*, Small Caterpillar*, Bank Flee, Little Sky Blue*, Stream Flee, Willow Flee*, White Mout, Brown Mout. Appendix: Indian Yellow*, Eden Fly*, Summer Dun*, March Brown*, Green Drake*, Grey Drake*. Bookplate of William Charles Everley Taylor of Scarborough. Inscribed in pen on fep, G : in good condition with brown card slipcase. Covers very rubbed and bumped. Top edge of spine slightly cracked and frayed. Bottom edge of spine with small splits. Pages slightly rubbed and browning throughout. Aeg. Tightly bound and intact. Slipcase case rubbed with tape repairs

Stock number: L0859.
£ 3200.00 ( approx. $US 5117.12 )

More books on fly fishing can be viewed here and more books on Derbyshire here.

Peakirk Books

Peakirk Books have closed their shop near Peterborough and relocated to North Norfolk.

Although we no longer have a shop we are still specialising in old children's books and John Clare (the poet).

We are still holding a general stock.

Our website (www.peakirkbooks.com) and e-mail address (peakirkbooks@btinternet.com) remain the same.

Our new telephone number is 01328 829944; 24 hour answerphone when not available.

Our new address is


Peakirk Books

Cherry Tree Lodge

Guist Bottom Road

Stibbard

Fakenham

Norfolk

NR21 0AQ

Georgette Heyer Conference

Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge have announced the first conference dedicated entirely to the life and works of prolific writer Georgette Heyer. The conference is being joint-hosted by the College and Anglia Ruskin University.

People from both institutions came up with the idea of the conference, 'Re-reading Georgette Heyer', after discovering a mutual love for the author and her work.

The conference is sponsored by the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance.

Those attending the conference will be welcomed at 10am for coffee before the first talk 'The Life of Georgette Heyer' which begins at 10:15am.

There will be nine speakers throughout the day discussing various topics from 'Class and Breeding' to 'The Thermodynamics of Georgette Heyer'.

The conference will finish with a structured discussion on gender, politics, class and race, topics which have generated some controversy amongst fans of Heyer who love her stories but may be less enthusiastic about some of her more conservative views.

You can read more about the conference here and here. You can view critiques of popular romance literary criticism here

Recipe Books of the Early 19th Century

The Dove Cottage Wordsworth Museum & Art Gallery in Grasmere have a talk by food historian Peter Brears. coming up.

Saturday 5 December 2009, 3pm. Foyle Room.

The Recipe Books of the Early 19th Century event is free but does require booking as places are limited.

To reserve a place on this food history event, please visit the Museum website, or telephone: 015394 35544.


The book shown is Cakes and Ale:The Golden Age of British Feasting by Judy Spours and is from the stock of Stella Books.

Book of the Week

Charles-Joseph De Ligne

Coup d'Oeil at Beloeil & a Great Number of European Gardens

Published: University of California Press, 1991
Binding: Hardback , with Dustjacket

4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. 295 pp., bibliography, index 158 fig. 10e. Book Condition: Near Fine. Jacket: Near Fine

Stock number: 22581. ISBN: 0520046684
£ 30.00 ( approx. $US 47.97 )

From the stock of Stephen Foster

For other books on European Gardens click here.

Book memories meme

The following meme comes from Kirsty at Other Stories

The book that’s been on your shelves the longest.

As with most people this will be a children's book probably one of my Dean Reward Classics like The Folk of the Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton.

A book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time).

Frederica by Georgette Heyer. When I was thirteen my mum passed me a copy and said, "I think you'll enjoy this." And I did! I have read and re-read all Heyer's works. They are great stress-busters. They are also a wonderful prelude to Jane Austen. I am sure I 'got' Austen more quickly in my teens because I had read so much Heyer. The moment when my mother passed me Frederica is also a reminder of how reading is a kind of club. When you share a literary habit with someone it is a real bond.

A book you acquired in some interesting way.

My habits of acquisition are very boring. I have not found books belonging to an author under the sofa like Kirsty did, though I have sold books back to their authors on more than one occasion, not unlike the old J R Hartley advert for Yellow Pages.

The book that’s been with you to the most places.

I was going to suggest another one of my childhood books but, thinking about it, my childhood books probably stayed in the family home when I was away at university, so the one that has been with me most is probably an early adult acquisition from my late teens, either Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen by Fay Weldon or the Gone to Earth by Mary Webb.

Your current read, your last read and the book you’ll read next.

My last read was Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie. I am re-reading a lot of Christie at the moment, in the order in which she wrote them. My current read is Arthur and George by Julian Barnes and my next read will probably be another Agatha Christie, The Man in the Brown Suit.

If you have a go at this meme on your own blog please leave me a message in the comments, or if you don't blog please feel free to do this meme yourself in the comments below.