£200
14 vols., 16mo, each 160 pp. Original light blue wrappers, printed in black and blue. Housed in the original publisher’s blue marbled paper box. Spines a little wrinkled but the volumes very fresh and seemingly unread, the box a little rubbed with a touch of wear in places, silk pull defective.
An early run from Ernest Benn's 'New Ninepenny Novels' series, which published new titles by 'leaders of modern fiction' - not now rare as individual volumes, but here preserved as issued in the very unusual publisher's series box. The inside lid of the box is printed with the series name and the price, specifying that it contains fourteen volumes (priced 10/6, so no discount for buying the run). One wonders whether the first six were also sold in a smaller box.
The titles are, in order as numbered from 7 to 20: Stacpoole, H. De Vere: Love on the Adriatic. Horler, Sydney: Gentleman-in-Waiting. Perrin, Alice: Other Sheep. Ferguson, Rachel: The Stag at Bay. Williamson, Mrs C.N.: Last Year's Wife. Graham, Stephen: Everybody Pays. Preedy, George R.: The Devil Snar'd. Sackville, West, Vita: Noble Godavary. Graham, Winifred: Vacant Possession. Fletcher, J.S.: The Burma Ruby. Norris, Kathleen: Young Mother Hubbard. Vahey, John H.: The Wavering Balance. Glyn, Elinor: Glorious Flames. Armstrong, Anthony: The Poison Trail.
