The Pothunters
London, Adam and Charles Black, 1902 (first edition, third issue).
Octavo, 272, 8 (publisher's advertisements) pages plus 10 plates by R. Noel Pocock (the frontispiece with a tissue guard).
Colour-pictorial blue cloth, with the spine lettered in gilt and light blue; tiny nick to the front joint; a couple of unobtrusive light marks to the front cover; spine very lightly sunned; endpapers browned; an excellent copy (internally fine).
An uncommonly bright copy of Wodehouse's rare first book. The sheets of the 1902 first edition were twice reissued in this binding (McIlvaine A1a2 and A1a3) with the date generally accepted to have been 1915, based on the copyright page of the 1924 second edition, which notes that the work was 'Reprinted 1915'. However, that date in fact refers to an apparently unrecorded second impression of which we have handled a copy. That variant is substantially larger (200 × 145 mm as opposed to 191 × 130 mm in this edition), and is evidently a stereotype reprint with variant title page (dated 1915 and with the imprint changed to A. & C. Black). The present copy (from the second reissue, bound from the first edition sheets and differing only by the inclusion of the publisher's catalogue 'Beautiful Books for Young People' at the rear) must therefore be somewhat earlier, likely around 1910. McIlvaine A1a.3, noting that the advertisements refer to later titles including 'Mike', published in 1909.
Item #146593
Price (AUD):
$5,000.00