Gli Ugonotti - The Huguenots

Opera in 5 acts by Giacomo, Meyerbeer edited by Sullivan. Boosey Royal Edition. Beautiful edition with gilt-edge pages.

£15 at the RSPCA Bookshop, 188 Mill Road, Cambridge

Just one step...

Step through the door of 188 Mill Road and you might be on your way to bigger things; one possible example being the Cambridge University Library Rose Book-Collecting Prize for Cambridge University Students.

The Rose Book-Collecting Prize was endowed in 2006 and is believed to be the first of its kind offered by any European university. As well as the £500 prize money, the winner will be offered 10 years’ free membership of the Friends of Cambridge University Library.

 

The contest is open to all current undergraduate and graduate students of the University registered for a Cambridge degree. To enter, students should submit a list of their collection together with a short essay, explaining the theme and significance of the collection, by the first day of the Lent full term. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to talk about their collection to the judges.

The judges will make their decision based on the intelligence and originality of the collection, its coherence as a collection, as well as the thought, creativity and persistence demonstrated by the collector and the condition of the books. The value of the collections will not be a factor in determining the winning entry – a coherent collection of paperbacks is a perfectly valid entry. Previous shortlisted entries include ‘Collecting the Gothic’, ‘Missionary travels in the South Seas’, ‘The handwritten record: manuscripts and annotated books’, and ‘German and Austrian travel and first hand experience in Asiatic dominions of the Ottoman Empire, 1871–1918’. In 2010, the prize was won by Ian Heames (Gonville & Caius) for his collection ‘Small press poetry, mostly British’. 

The prize will be awarded in the Easter Term. It has been funded by Professor James Marrow and Dr Emily Rose in honour of Dr Rose’s parents, Daniel and Joanna Rose.

Professor Marrow said: “By establishing a prize through the UL, we want to stress and call attention to the importance of a great central library, which is the focus of the research activities of the university, and which serves a much wider range of purposes than the college libraries.

“Book collecting brings people together and we hope that a prize administered through the UL will help collectors from different colleges in Cambridge to meet one another and enjoy the company of an enlarged group of similarly-minded individuals.”

There's a bit more about book-collecting competitions at Fine Books & Collections and you can read about some of the previous Rose Prize winners 2008-9 and 2009-10. The aim is to encourage students to collect around a theme that will represent a real addition to their knowledge: examples of the fascinating possibilities available at our shop might be  science books from the early 20th century or forgotten women novelists.

Boys Own Paper!

Pat and I continued our foraging in the basement this Saturday and turned up a real gem: the 1884 Annual of the Boys Own Paper. Sadly the binding is in very poor condition - it looks as though at some point it was so damaged that someone completely rebound it. However the pages inside are clean and readable, making this a very interesting period piece.

£35 at the RSPCA bookshop 188 Mill Road, Cambridge.

Keep visiting the shop as we bring up lots more interesting things from the depths!

British Museum Catalogue of Printed Books

Another tremendous weight of words!

What we have is the Readex compact edition (extremely small print). "Compact" is not exactly the word which immediately springs to mind at the sight as this is 32 large and very heavy volumes. 

This is the catalogue to 1979, which was the second-to-last printed version before the British Museum put its catalogue online.

I would imagine this is something that might be of interest to scholars compiling bibliographies of particular authors (because the BM would be comprehensive and accurate).

It's not entirely true that online catalogues have made printed ones redundant; one of my work colleagues was startled to find his notes were the only record of some valuable books belonging to a library in France. This library had thrown away its card index but made errors in transcribing it to produce its online catalogue so that the books were there sitting on the shelves but impossible to locate.

For sale at 188 Mill Road for £100 for the set or £3.50 for a single volume.

Update: 30/10/2012
Now sold

In these very shops...

Will the prized treasures of to-day always be the cheap trifles of the day before?  Will rows of our willow-pattern dinner-plates be ranged above the chimneypieces of the great in the years 2000 and odd?  Will the white cups with the gold rim and the beautiful gold flower inside (species unknown), that our Sarah Janes now break in sheer light-heartedness of spirit, be carefully mended, and stood upon a bracket, and dusted only by the lady of the house?

That china dog that ornaments the bedroom of my furnished lodgings.  It is a white dog.  Its eyes blue.  Its nose is a delicate red, with spots.  Its head is painfully erect, its expression is amiability carried to verge of imbecility.  I do not admire it myself.  Considered as a work of art, I may say it irritates me.  Thoughtless friends jeer at it, and even my landlady herself has no admiration for it, and excuses its presence by the circumstance that her aunt gave it to her.

But in 200 years’ time it is more than probable that that dog will be dug up from somewhere or other, minus its legs, and with its tail broken, and will be sold for old china, and put in a glass cabinet.  And people will pass it round, and admire it.  They will be struck by the wonderful depth of the colour on the nose, and speculate as to how beautiful the bit of the tail that is lost no doubt was.

We, in this age, do not see the beauty of that dog.  We are too familiar with it.  It is like the sunset and the stars: we are not awed by their loveliness because they are common to our eyes.  So it is with that china dog.  In 2288 people will gush over it.  The making of such dogs will have become a lost art.  Our descendants will wonder how we did it, and say how clever we were.  We shall be referred to lovingly as “those grand old artists that flourished in the nineteenth century, and produced those china dogs.”

The “sampler” that the eldest daughter did at school will be spoken of as “tapestry of the Victorian era,” and be almost priceless.  The blue-and-white mugs of the present-day roadside inn will be hunted up, all cracked and chipped, and sold for their weight in gold, and rich people will use them for claret cups; and travellers from Japan will buy up all the “Presents from Ramsgate,” and “Souvenirs of Margate,” that may have escaped destruction, and take them back to Jedo as ancient English curios.

           Three Men in a Boat, Jerome K. Jerome (Project Gutenberg)

I don't think we have any of the blue and white mugs (they're probably all in antique shops), but we can do you a very good line in china dogs and presents from Ramsgate; and, yes, Japanese tourists do buy them.

Lots of DVDs and books donated today

Many thanks for all the donations of DVDs and books at our Mill Road shop today. Most of the DVDs are now out on the shelves ready for customers on Monday.

Please keep donations coming; they are key to a successful shop.

De la littérature considérée dans ses rapports avec les institutions sociales

Portrait of Germaine de Stael by François Gérard (image out of copyright)

De la littérature considérée dans ses rapports avec les institutions sociales / par Mad. de Staël-Holstein. Avec un précis de la vie et des écrits de l'auteur.

Paris ; et à Londres [de l'impr. de J. Brettell] chez Colburn, 1812.
Description:2 v. ; 21cm.

Some damage to the binding, but otherwise in good condition.

£195 from the RSPCA bookshop 188 Mill Road, Cambridge 

The Wild Places: Robert MacFarlane 1st Edition

Signed first edition of The Wild Places by Robert MacFarlane. Dustjacket fine condition. £35 at RSPCA bookshop 188 Mill Road, Cambridge.

Britannica: 1926 set

Complete set with supplements. Good condition except that binding colour is not fast (one of our helpers has a pink-stained t-shirt to demonstrate this!)

Considerably less bulky than the later editions but you would still need a vehicle to transport it home.

Very interesting reference for history of the twenties and only £30 at our bookshop, 188 Mill Road, Cambridge.

Les Musiciens Célèbres

1868 edition by Félix Clément with gilt-edged pages. Some tearing of binding and a few of the plates coming loose, hence only £40 at the RSPCA bookshop, 188 Mill Road, Cambridge CB1 3LP.

The method ringer's companion

The Method Ringer's Companion, by Steve Coleman. £14.95 at our charity shop at 188 Mill Road in Cambridge.

(Just in case you were wondering what the heck this is about; it is a technical book on bell ringing!)

Facebook kitty

Source: icanhascheezburger.com via Rosemary on Pinterest

Student's dictionary of Anglo-Saxon

Very good condition hardback. £5.95 at 188 Mill Road

Bright's Old English Grammar and Reader

Third edition in good condition. £9.00 at 188 Mill Road.

Big thank-you to everyone who donated this weekend

Lots of excellent donations at our shops this weekend.

This is very much appreciated as our ability to raise funds depends totally on keeping up a flow of new stock to keep customers interested in coming back.

We're particularly thrilled that our bookshop at 188 Mill Road is now regularly able to put out over 200 fresh books each week, as well as DVDs, CDs, vinyl records and VHS video. As Mill road is very much a secondary shopping area we need to work hard to make it worthwhile for customers to make a special journey to see what we have to offer.

The Silver Jubilee Book: 1910-1935

Some damage to its spine and marking of some pages, but a fascinating pictoral history of the reign of King George V, including one of Queen Mary looking rather stern at having to try out a ride on a miniature railway.
£4.50 at 188 Mill Road.

A Family History, by the author of The Queen's Pardon

A Family History, by Mary Eyre, volume III. Hard to find title. This is part of a multi-volume novel series, but can be read on its own.

1st edition, 1861, in good condition, but with some damage to the binding.

£15 at 188 Mill Road shop.

Twisted Wing, by Ruth Newman

"Cambridge is home to 18,000 students, 1,500 academics... and one serial killer.

For the students of  Ariel College, a siege mentality has developed following weeks of media interest in "the Cambridge Butcher". University life has become not about surviving their exams, but simply about surviving.

Forensic psychiatrist Matthew Denison is sure that his traumatised patient has the killer's identity locked in her memory. THat within the little clique she belonged to lurks someone with a grudge. Someone who thought: 'What's a little decapitation between friends? Someone who has yet to finish settling their score..."

First edition, 2008, signed by the author. Paperback in good condition.

£10 at 188 Mill Road.

Rights & Wrongs: a manual of household law

Rights & Wrongs: a manual of household law, by Albany Fonblanque, of the Middle Temple (London: Routledge, Warne & Routledge, 1860).

1st Edition, some wear to the bindings. A good, useable copy. £20 at 188 Mill Road.

Encyclopaedia Britannica

And Nicki and I can confirm that the full 30-volume set is an impressive weight of words! This is where HQ's safe manual handling instructions pay off.

Priced at £150 for the full set. This is the 1980 edition, very handsomely bound and in good condition.

Available at the bookshop, 188 Mill Road.

Buyer collects. We are not even going to consider trying to post it.

First anniversary of the Newmarket Shop

Our shop at 10A Market Street, Newmarket opened on 14th February a year ago, and the shop manager and volunteers will be holding a celebration on the anniversary next week. 

Our local Chief Inspector, Mark Thompson, cut the ribbon for us when the shop opened, and he will be there again to mark a year's successful fundraising.

Please go along if you can to support everyone who put so much effort into keeping the project running.

The official celebration will be at 10.30 (with cake!) but your presence (buying lots of things!) will be valued throughout the day.

MANY HAPPY RETURNS, NEWMARKET!

Not only vinyl, but bakelite too

We have a selection of VERY old bakelite 78s as well as a good stock of vinyl records at our 61 Burleigh Street shop.

New stock going out nearly every day, and some interesting pieces turning up, including a blue vinyl that's almost transparent.

Round-up on Exmoor

 Round-up on Exmoor by  Mary de la Mahotière. Collectible-quality pony book with bright, clean dust-jacket.

A.E. Housman First Edition

Not quite as exciting as it sounds because, although this is indeed an A.E. Housman first edition from 1905, it's his scholarly latin edition of Juvenal's Satires.

It's been through the mill and clearly used intensively for its original purpose of teaching, but still a fascinating bit of history.

£55 at our Mill Road bookshop.

Ship in a bottle

This is the Cutty Sark; we also have two bottles with the Golden Hind.

Ideal gifts for anyone interested in the history of seafaring.

Art and photography books

Check out this week's window display of art and photography books at 188 Mill Road. Very many thanks to the generous donor.

We also have a large number of fresh items in crime fiction and military history. We're continuing with one of our customers suggestion of a "new this week" section so that our regular visitors can easily locate what's changed since their last visit.

The shop's next open on Thursday.

The alabaster hand and other ghost stories

A.N.L. Munby was a fellow of King's College, Cambridge and wrote these ghost stories while a prisoner of war in Germany.

Considering the popularity of the slightly earlier ghost stories of M.R. James, it's surprising that these are not better known as any fan of James should love them: the volume might truthfully have been entitled, Ghost Stories of Another Antiquary, except that I imagine doing so would have infringed copyright.

A fairly rare book, not readily found and apparently not available as print on demand.

Cruden's Complete Concordance

Alexander Cruden was the first person to produce a complete concordance of the bible (basically a sorted list of all words with a line of context). Today this can be done by computer in a matter of moments, but in the eighteenth century the only way of achieving this was by laborious hand-sorting.

The book we have is the 1909 edition, with a small amount of damage to the binding, but still a handsome book and with a brief life of Cruden at the front. The print is extremely small, although clear and readable with a magnifying glass.

Cruden's concordance was the standard tool for theology students until very recently and this book forms an interesting link with past generations in Cambridge.

The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton

The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton, by Kathryn Hughes. Biography of Mrs Beeton (of Household Management fame). Available now in the Biography section at our charity bookshop, 188 Mill Road, Cambridge.

Dining table

£60 at our charity shop at 61 Burleigh Street, Cambridge. Compatible chairs also available.

Moondrop to Gascony: Anne-Marie Walters

Moondrop to Gascony, Anne-Marie Walters. The WW2 memoirs of a young SOE agent in occupied France. Hardback copy of the 2nd printing with dust jacket (dust jacket in poor condition). On sale at the RSPCA bookshop, 188 Mill Road, Cambridge.

Frances Faviell: A Chelsea Concerto

A Chelsea Concerto, by Frances Faviell (pseudonym of Olivia Parker). Rare copy of the reminiscences of a voluntary Air Raid Precautions warden during the Blitz. Very good condition, with original dust jacket (jacket slightly worn). £45 at the RSPCA Bookshop, 188 Mill Road, Cambridge.

Fénélon, François de Salignac de la Mothe

Lettres sur divers sujets concernant la religion et la métaphysique, François de Salignac de la Mothe Fénélon. 1718 edition with interesting bookplate of Viscount Montague. £55 at our charity bookshop, 188 Mill Road, Cambridge.

Bookplate

Title page

Lettres sur divers sujets concernant la religion et la métaphysique / par François de Salignac de la Motte Fenelon.

Bibliographic Record

• Main author: Fénelon, François de Salignac de La Mothe-, 1651-1715.
  
• Title: Lettres sur divers sujets concernant la religion et la métaphysique / par François de Salignac de la Motte Fenelon.
  
• Published: A Paris : Chez Jacques Estienne, 1718.
  
• Description: [24], 278 p. ; 18 cm. (12mo)
  

John Cowper Powys: The Brazen Head

The Brazen Head, by John Cowper Powys. Available at our bookshop, 188 Mill Road. Good reading quality hardback.

Work off that Xmas flab!

Nearly new rowing machine donated to our charity shop at 61 Burleigh Street, Cambridge.

Ursula Le Guin: Four Ways to Forgiveness

Ursula Le Guin: Four Ways to Forgiveness, hardback with dust jacket in good reading condition. Available now at our bookshop, 188 Mill Road, Cambridge

Brian Stableford: The Empire of Fear

First edition hardback, signed by author. Very good condition with dust jacket intact.

Now at our bookshop at 188 Mill Road, Cambridge.

The British Character

The British Character - Studied and Revealed by Pont of Punch, introduction by E. M. Delafield (author of the Provincial Lady series. Available at 188 Mill Road, Cambridge. We also have its sequel; The British Carry On

Observers Book of Dogs

Observers Book of Dogs: Clifford L B Hubbard

Good reading copy of the 1960s edition. Interesting photographs which illustrate how much some breeds have changed over a half-century. Available at 188 Mill Road bookshop.

Birds in Medieval Manuscripts

Birds in Medieval Manuscripts by Brunsdon Yapp. Fantastic colour and black and white reproductions of bird pictures. £10 at 188 Mill Road, Cambridge.

Beyond Foundationalism: Shaping Theology in a Postmodern Context

Beyond Foundationalism: Shaping Theology in a Postmodern Context, Stanley J. Grenz and John Franke. Available at our 188 Mill Road bookshop.

Sir Arthur Eddington: Fundamental Theory

First edition of Eddington's last work on the theory of physics.

This is the same Eddington after whom our animal clinic is named. We think he must have left some money which was used to fund the building of the (then) new clinic on Great Eastern Street which opened in 1950, four years after Eddington's death.

Available at 188 Mill Road, priced at £20.00

Summer of the great secret

Summer of the great secret, by Monica Edwards. Ist edition, Collins Hardback, no dust jacket, but excellent reading copy. £5 at our shop at 188 Mill Road, Cambridge.