READERS and collectors of books about Dartmoor will find some interesting gems at the annual Dartmoor Book Fair taking place in Tavistock Town Hall, next month.
A copy of the first printed history of Tavistock will be brought to the fair by Tantalus Books of Branscombe.
The charming book written by Rachael Evans is called 'Home Scenes: or, Tavistock and its Vicinity' and was first published in 1846.
A popular and desirable but quite rare work on the paintings of F J Widgery by Jane Baker, titled 'A Vision of Dartmoor', will also be on the Tantalus Books stall.
High Street Books of Honiton, will have a selection of nineteenth-century vellum documents relating to the Tavistock area priced between £8-£12.
Roger Collicott from Honiton Old Bookshop will have among his specialist stock the Rev Richard Polwhele's immense History of Devonshire, published in three volumes in parts over a period of thirteen years from 1793-1806.
This copy is made even more rare as it is rebound complete with its suite of 24 copper engraved plates and fine folding map by John Cary.
John Smearton's marvellous large folio work titled 'A Narrative of the Building, and a description of the Construction of the Eddystone Lighthouse' will also be at the fair.
This is the 1793 second edition, containing the full compliment of engraved plates.
Children's illustrators Beatrice Potter, Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac and Mary Cecily Barker will be well represented at the fair. There will also be important works on subjects including the countryside, angling and mining.
The Dartmoor Book Fair organised by the Provincial Booksellers Fair Association, is now firmly established as one of the major literary fairs in the West Country, collecting together many antique books, prints and maps for sale to those searching out that elusive tome and bargain hunters alike.
The Dartmoor Book Fair takes place in the Tavistock Town Hall, on Sunday, September 8, from 10.30am-4pm.