Rare books, manuscripts, music, ephemera…
1st September 2017
I’ve written before about First World War material on this blog (such as here and here), but even though there is a lot on the market you still come across things you’ve never seen before. Published around 1914, these little Russian song-sheets were both edited/arranged by Aleksandr Chernyavsky (1871–1942), a pianist and composer, particularly of […]
Read more
21st April 2015
‘We’re only charging machines. And the machine triumphs into our flesh. And the machine drinks the blood from our veins, guzzling it by the bucketload.’ These lines come from the extraordinary novella Das Menschenschlachthaus by Wilhelm Lamszus (1881–1965), which I read recently. I’ll admit I’d never heard of it until I saw it among the items […]
Read more
1st April 2015
The German diplomat, Orientalist, and historian Max von Oppenheim (1860–1946) had published a memorandum as early as 1914 on ‘revolutionizing the Islamic territories of our enemies’ during the First World War, i.e. trying to persuade religious leaders in the Muslim world to call for a Holy War against colonial powers such as Britain and France. […]
Read more
14th May 2014
Next week sees the London International Antiquarian Book Fair at Olympia. It will be my first time as an exhibitor there. One thing I shall have on my stand is this, the first edition of an attractive illustrated appreciation of British troops in France during the First World War, with illustrations by Guy Arnoux, published […]
Read more
19th February 2014
This book came in recently, appealing to my interests in Russia, music, and (as you may have read before) the First World War. Dating from 1914, it’s a charitable publication: ‘20% from each copy sold will go towards helping the All-Russian Zemstvo Union for Aid to Sick and Wounded Troops’ (founded July 1914), it reads. […]
Read more
4th April 2013
Earlier in the year, I wrote about a couple of books relating to the First World War. Here’s another with a WWI connection: a miniature Qur’an produced by the Glasgow publishers David Bryce & Sons between about 1900 and 1910. (The coin, in case you’re wondering, is a nickel.) In general, I’m not that taken […]
Read more