The guinea pig, or domestic cavy for food, fur, and fancy. Illustrated. (With a gift inscription and pen sketches by H. G. Wells)

London : L. Upcott Gill, [1886]. First edition. Octavo (190 x 130 mm), publisher’s decorated green cloth over boards, the upper board with gilt lettering and guinea pig device (both boards rubbed and lightly marked, corners a little worn), spine with gilt lettering and device (very heavily faded and frayed at ends); front pastedown with a gift inscription in ink initialled by the writer H. G. Wells (1866-1946): ‘To Enid Steel [sic], Cavy Fancier, from H. G. W.’, embellished with two playful pen sketches by Wells, one a caricature of Miss Steel and the other a zoomorphic self-caricature; pp. [4], 100, [16 publisher’s advertisements]; illustrated with lithographed plates and text figures; front hinge split, the inscribed pastedown with several ink and handling marks, lacking the front free-endpaper, title-page with light foxing, pp. 63-4 with small loss to fore-edge margin, occasional minor staining and spotting.

Through her membership in the Fabian Society, Enid Frances Emma Steele (1885-1939), along with her future husband Cyril E. Kelsey, was associated with such important figures as H. G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw, Edith Nesbit and her husband Hubert Bland, and the Pankhursts. After their marriage in 1911, Enid and Cyril Kelseys’ residence was 17 Northway (and later, 12 Wordsworth Walk), Temple Fortune, London, NW11, close to Hampstead, an area well known for its concentration of middle-class intellectuals including Fabians and Socialists. Both Enid and Cyril were silversmiths, and as members of the Guild of Handicraft were prominent in the Arts & Crafts movement. Enid was also a keen amateur thespian, and she and her husband co-wrote a play in the 1930s entitled The Stars.

Provenance: Enid (Steele) Kelsey and Cyril E. Kelsey; thence by descent.