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have received your letter with very mixed feelings. Pleasure at the thought of your having some leisure after all your years of hard work, and very real sorrow and regret at the thought of not having you take care of my banking affairs any more.
“You have taken care of me so efficiently and charmingly for so many years and always made everything so easy and lucid. i never had to bother when things were in your capable hands. it has been such a comfort. thank you a thousand times for all you have done for me.
i recall with much pleasure some very happy luncheon parties with you and Mrs taylor - to whom my kindest regards. Yours very sincerely, W. somerset Maugham”.
204. maXWell, marius. stalking Big game with a camera in equatorial africa; With a Monograph on the african elephant. William Heinemann, 1925.
£700
royal 4to. original blue cloth, gilt lettering to spine, t.e.g.; xxiv + pp. 206, with a large folding sepia photographic plate of a herd of elephants, 2 plates of the photographic equipment itself, 110 black-and-white plates, several folding or multiple-image, and a folding lithographed map of Kenya colony, coloured in outline; slight rubbing to extremities, otherwise near fine.
First “royal 4to” edition (an “imperial 4to” edition, limited to 550 copies, was published in 1924, but without the monograph on the elephant, present here). introduction by the author: “the spreading of civilisation far into the interior of the once Dark continent of africa has progressed so much of late years that the ever-increasing occupation of large tracts of Velt by enterprising settlers threatens to imperil the very existence of the larger mammals of east equatorial africa. i venture to suggest that it now becomes advisable for the present day sportsman in search of adventure to preserve all possible records of the life of these beasts in their natural surroundings. What better instrument could be employed for compiling such a collection of records than the camera?” Preface by sidney harmer: “[Maxwell] has not merely produced a series of pictures of exceptional beauty but he has performed the great service of showing his animals in their natural setting.”
Russell E. Train Africana Library, p. 99. signeD BY Paul MccartneY
205. mcCartney, Paul (author). Geoff dUnBar and Philip ardaGH (illustrators). high in the clouds. London; Faber and Faber Limited. 2005.
£698
4to. original pictorial boards, pictorial endpapers, preserved in original dustwrapper; pp. [viii] + 85 + [iii]; illustrated throughout in colour; a fine copy preserved in a fine, and unclipped, dustwrapper; very scarce signed.
First edition. importantly this copy is triple signed to the half-title by Paul mcCartney, geoff Dunbar and Philip ardagh, whose signature appears within Faber’s publisher’s ink stamp which overlaps the Faber official bookplate on which Paul Mccartney has signed his name.
206
206.meinertZHaGen, Col. richard. Pirates and predators. the Piratical and Predatory habits of Birds. Oliver and Boyd. 1959. £250
4to. original red cloth with dustwrapper; pp. x + 230, 18 colour plates by lodge, Millais and others, 26 b&w plates including photographs; a little browning to rear of dustwrapper with chipping to extremities, price removed, very good.
First edition. Written in the author’s characteristically rambunctious style, this book divides predatory birds into ‘amateurs’ and ‘professionals’; the professionals are the hawks and owls, who occupy more than half of the work.
207.meinertZHaGen, dan and r.P. Hornby. Bird life in an arctic spring. R.H. Porter 1899.
£160
8vo. original green cloth, gilt lettering and vignette of an eagle’s head to front, gilt lettering to spine, t.e.g.; pp.150 + iii [ads.], 27 b&w plates by Meinertzhagen with illustrations throughout; marginal tears to pp. 70-73, binding a trifle rubbed, previous owner’s signature to ffep, otherwise very good.
First edition. the arctic diary of Dan, the elder brother of richard Meinertzhagen. this rare little volume was produced as a memorial to the young naturalist who died of peritonitis in 1898 at the age of 23.
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