The Wipers Times & Russian Views

A near complete run of ‘The Wipers Times’, the newspaper written and printed by soldiers during the First World War, is one of the star lots in the 21^st of August Books, Maps and Manuscripts Sale at Tennants Auctioneers and is expected to sell for £2,000-3,000 (all figures exclude buyer’s premium). In early 1916, the 12^th Sherwood Foresters found an abandoned printing press in the town of Ypres. A sergeant who had been a printer in peacetime, brought the press to life and The Wipers Times was born. Edited by Captain Roberts, the paper provided a satirical view of life in the trenches, and the title of the publication changed each time the battalion moved location. In total, twenty-three issues were printed, and the present collection offers twenty-two of them. The name ‘Wipers’ came from the Tommy slang pronunciation of Ypres, and its story was turned into a television programme in 2013 by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman.

Amongst an interesting and varied sale, further highlights include an excellent record of early 19^th century St Petersburg in the form of an 1815 first edition of A Picture of St. Petersburgh, Represented in a Collection of Twenty Interesting Views of the City, the Sledges and the People… illustrated by Mornay (estimate: £3,000-4,000). The first twelve hand-coloured aquatint plates represent the months of the year through views of the city, and the other eight plates illustrate sledges, carriages and character studies. 

A late 18^th century Collection of Charts and Memoirs privately published by Alexander Dalrymple, a publisher of nautical charts, ‘examiner of ships’ journals’ for the East India Company and Hydrographer to the Admiralty will be offered with an estimate of £3,000-5,000. During the 1760s he undertook voyages around South East Asia and the Far East, and the lot includes charts of the Southern Ocean, the Coast of China and the Bay of Bengal. Also with Naval interest is a Manuscript Logbook/Journal written between 1747-1750 by a J.S. Lowell documenting the proceedings of the naval ship Chester, which was under the command of Captain Richard Spry (estimate: £500-700). The journal charts the activities of the ship as it sailed from the Solent down the west coast of Africa, round the Cape and on to the east coast of India where it took part in the Siege of Pondicherry in 1748 against a French East India Company garrison. The journal describes movements, supplies, collection of ‘treasure’ and transportation of prisoners of war.

Finally, a copy of George Orwell’s Nineteen-Eighty Four is on offer with an estimate of £1,000-1,500. Published in London in 1949 by Secker and Warburg, it is the first edition, first impression of the dystopian novel.  

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