Sackville-West (Vita) Nursery Rhymes, first trade edition, one of 550 copies, ownership signature of "Alvilde Chaplin", light browning strips to endpapers, original cloth, light spotting, small bump to upper cover head, dust-jacket, loss to foot of spine, corners slightly chipped, short closed tears to lower panel head and foot, a few marks, light spotting to verso, 8vo, 1947.
⁂ An excellent association copy that belonged to Alvilde Lees-Milne, with her ownership signature under the name of her first husband, Anthony Chaplin.
Alvilde Lees-Milne (1909-94) was was a British expert in gardening and landscape design. She was married to Anthony Chaplin, hereditary peer and amateur zoologist, from 1933-1950 and then to the writer James Lees-Milne from 1951 until her death in 1994. During the 1930s James Lees-Milne had been the lover of Harold Nicolson. Both Harold and his wife Vita Sackville-West acted as witnesses at the Lees-Milnes' wedding. In the 1950s Sackville-West and Alvilde Lees-Milne had an affair and Alvilde worked on Vita's famous garden at Sissinghurst. Alvilde moved in literary circles and was good friends with many writers such as Nancy Mitford and Somerset Maugham. James Lees-Milne and Nancy's brother, Tom Mitford, were lovers while at Eton College.
Provenance: by descent through the family.
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