?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
WELLS, H.G. The Wonderful Visit * Tono-Bungay. Together, 2 volumes. 8vo, publisher's cloth, spine damaged on first title with splits, faded on second, first title cocked with scattered stains; Eugene Plunkett bookplate and Henry Sotheran booklabel to each. London, 1895; 1909
first editions, first title inscribed by wells: "With the authors kindest regards." Both copies with autograph and other material relating to Plunkett's acquisition of the group of presentation copies from Wells to W.E. Henley subsequent to the latter's death in 1903. Tipped to the front flyleaf of the first title is an unattributed one-page typed "Explanation of Inserted Postal Card from H.G. Wells" relating the circumstances through which Plunkett obtained this material from Henry Sotheran & Company. The postcard referenced (inserted to verso of same leaf, few smudges, dated 13 November 1906) is addressed to Plunkett ("Admirable Patron of letters") and Signed by Wells, and makes mention of Plunkett's purchase ("Really you've got some unique & appreciating property amazingly cheap."). The second title includes a loosely inserted 4-page letter (sheet, folded, dated 12 December 1905) to a different recipient that refers to Plunkett in the course of describing certain plot elements ("escapes from England in a navigable balloon") of his as-yet-unpublished novel War in the Air.
