The Magic of a Name - Rolls-Royce Presentation Copy to Lord Portal, Bound by Sangorski

NOCKOLDS, Harold. The Magic of a Name. London: G. T. Foulis and Co., Ltd., 1950. First edition, first impression. Octavo. Presentation copy from Ernest Hives, later 1st Baron Hives, to Marshal of the Royal Air Force Charles Portal, 1st Viscount Portal of Hungerford. Finely bound by Sangorski and Sutcliffe in full red crushed morocco, spine gilt in compartments, raised bands, gilt ruled boards, gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. With the original slipcase. Inscribed on the presentation leaf: “This copy of The Magic of a Name is presented to Lord Portal with best wishes by E. W. Hives / 21/5/50.” A superb Rolls-Royce presentation copy, linking two of the central figures in Britain’s wartime air effort. Hives began at Rolls-Royce from the workshop floor and rose to become one of the company’s great engineering leaders. During the war he was closely associated with the development and production of the Merlin and later Rolls-Royce aero engines, the power behind some of the aircraft on which Britain’s air strategy depended. Portal, as Chief of the Air Staff from 1940, stood on the operational and strategic side of the same story. The relationship between the two men was therefore grounded in the practical realities of wartime air power: Portal required aircraft, range, reliability and output; Hives represented the industrial and engineering force that made those demands possible. This copy of The Magic of a Name, the Rolls-Royce story, presented by Hives to Portal in a special Sangorski and Sutcliffe binding, is a remarkable object at the meeting point of aviation, engineering, luxury motor history and Second World War command. The illustrations include Roy Nockolds’s striking Rolls-Royce Battle of Britain Memorial Window. Condition excellent, the red morocco bright and handsome, gilt clean, contents fresh, with only light natural handling. Slipcase present. A magnificent association copy, carrying the name, binding and provenance to lift it far beyond the ordinary Rolls-Royce history.…