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A note on OCLC
As is now the norm, OCLC counts are tentative, at best, as we recognize that searches using different qualifiers will often turn up different results. Searches are now further complicated by the vast numbers of digital, microfilm, and even print-on-demand copies, which have polluted the database considerably, making it difficult, without numerous phone calls or emails, to determine the actual number of tangible copies. Hence, even though the counts herein have been recently checked, most all should be taken as a measure of approximation.
1. Lectures on natural and experimental philosophy, considered in its present state of improvement. Describing in a familiar and easy manner the principal phenomena of nature … this American edition printed from the last London edition, edited by William Jones, mathematical instrument maker, is carefully revised and corrected by Robert Patterson … University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: W.W. Woodward, also by W. P. Farrand, 1806.
$1,500
First American edition, 4 volumes, 8vo, 43 engraved folding plates, largely of globes and scientific and mathematical instruments; contemporary full calf, red and black morocco labels on spine; some cracking of the joints on volume I, else generally a very good, sound, clean, and handsome set.
George Adams, Jr. (1750-1795) together with his father, were instrument makers to King George III and together they produced several hundred items including drawing instruments, military instruments, instruments for navigation, astronomical instruments, meteorological instruments, and many others.
Shaw & Shoemaker 9799.
2. The pavilion; or, a month in Brighton. A satirical novel. By Humphrey Hedgehog, Esq. Author of “A Month in Town,” General Post Bag,” Rejected Odes,” &c. London: J. Johnston, 98, Cheapside, and 335, Oxford Street, and Sold by all Booksellers., 1817.
$4,500
First edition, 12mo, pp. [4], 239, [1]; [4], 158 [i.e., 244]; [4], 224; near fine copy in original drab paper-covered boards, brown paper shelfback, printed paper labels on spine. Bookplate of John Sparrow in volumes II and III.
A rare novel satirizing George IV. "Son of John and Ann Agg, he was born in Evesham. He began a colourful career as a writer, printer, bookseller, and publisher in Evesham and Bristol. The Dawn of Liberty (Bristol, 1808) seems to have been his first publication; he subsequently turned his hand to many kinds of hack writing, including fiction. Shoberl (1816) describes him as having been recently imprisoned in London for a libel.
In 1818 he emigrated to the US, living first in Philadelphia, where he published The Ocean Harp, and then in Washington DC. He married Elizabeth Blackford (1800-54) in 1820. As an official parliamentary reporter from 1825 to 1837 he recorded the debates in Congress. He died in Washington and is buried there in Rock Creek Cemetery. A collection devoted to him and his works from 1813 onwards was acquired by Duke University in 2017. The attribution of all of the pseudonymous works to Agg is still largely speculative" ("Guide to the Harold Moser Collection," David M. Rubinstein Rare Books & Manuscript Library, Duke University; Shoberl).
Not in Sadleir or Wolff. OCLC locates only 4 copies worldwide: Harvard, NY Public, Huntington, and the BL.
3. [Alexander the Great.] De rebus Alexandri Magni, cum commentario perpetuo & indice absolutissimo Samuelis Pitisci.... Ultrajecti: Franciscum Halma, 1685.
$450
Thick 8vo, pp. [36], 1-847, [256]; engraved title page, folding engraved map and 10 engraved plates (6 folding) by Jan van den Aveelen; a nice copy in old paste-paper boards, neatly rebacked in brown calf gilt, red morocco label.
Alexander (356-323 B.C.) devoted himself early to invading the Persian Empire and other parts of Asia which had been a part of his inheritance, liberated the Greek cities there, occupied Phoenicia, Palestine and Egypt, and in his greatest military achievement, captured the city of Tyre, from which time Persia ceased to be a military power. This edition contains a chronological synopsis, Alexander's genealogy, and interesting illustrations of ancient monuments.
4. Bound volume of seventeen 18th- and 19th-century American sermons.. New England: various publishers, 1791-1806.
$500
8vo, contemporary full sheep, rubbed, but good and sound.
- [Robbins, Ephraim.] A friendly letter to the Rev. Mr. Cumings, containing several queries upon certain observations in his sermon on natural religion. Newburyport, 1796.
- Dow, Daniel. Familiar letters, to the Rev. John Sherman, once pastor of a church in Mansfield, in particular reference to his late anti-Trinitarian treatise. Second edition. Worcester, 1806.
- Trustees of the Missionary Society of Connecticut. A summary of Christian doctrine and practice: designed especially for the use of people in the new settlements of the United States of America. Hartford, 1804.
- Alexander, Caleb. An essay on the real deity of Jesus Christ… Boston, 1791.
- M'Farland, Asa. A sermon delivered at Hanover, before the Franklin Lodge of free and accepted masons… Hanover, 1797.
- Harris, Walter. A sermon delivered at Hopkinton, on the festival of St. John, the Baptist, A.L. 5803. Before the officers and brethren of Blazing-Star Lodge. Concord, 1803.
- Cleveland, John. A sermon delivered at the dedication of the North-Meeting House in Wrentham. Wrentham, 1802.
- Chapin, Stephen. The first discourse delivered at Hillsborough, N.H. June 30, A.D. 1805, after his ordination. Amherst, 1806.
- Wilder, John. The importance of being prepared for the coming of the Lord to judgment, illustrated in a discourse… Providence, [1805].
- Goffe, Joseph. Spirits in prison: a discourse delivered at Upton… Worcester, 1803.
- Crane, John. Impenitent sinners have natural power … two sermons delivered at Oxford. Worcester, 1804.
- Barton, Titus Theodore. A farewell sermon delivered at Tewksbury. Salem, 1803.
- Worcester, Samuel. The importance of a faithful declaration of divine truth illustrated and improved: a valedictory sermon, delivered at Fitchburg. Salem, 1803.
- Emmons, Nathaniel. A discourse … at a public meeting of a number of singers who were improving themselves in church musick. Providence, 1806.
- Emmons, Nathaniel. A discourse … in commemoration of American independence. Wrentham, 1802.
- Emmons, Nathaniel. The dander of embracing that notion of moral virtue … a discourse, delivered on the annual Thanksgiving in Massachusetts, November 29, 1804. Providence, [?1805].
- Emmons, Nathaniel. A sermon … at the funeral of Mrs. Lydia Fisk, late consort of the Rev. Elisha Fisk. Dedham, 1805.
5. [Allibone, S. Austin.] In memory of S. Austin Allibone.. [Philadelphia: Siddall Bros., 1891.]
$500
Slim 8vo, 2 p.l., 23 folios (printed on rectos only); mounted photographic frontispiece; front free endpaper detached (but present), some wear at extremities, but generally very good in original olive green cloth, gilt-lettered on upper cover. Bookplate of M[oses] Finzi-Lobo.
This copy inscribed "Miss Sergeant with the kind regards of M. H. Allibone," and with 3 autograph letters (totaling 4pp.) signed from S. Austin Allibone to M. Finzi-Lobo tipped in, all concerning mistakes and omissions in Allibone's great Dictionary of Authors; also tipped in is a printed broadsheet of a letter to the N.Y. Tribune, signed (with initials) by S. A. Allibone. "A paper read before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, December 8th, 1890, by S.D. McConnell, D.D."
6. The English works of Roger Ascham, preceptor to Queen Elizabeth ... with notes and observations, and the author's life. By James Bennet. London: printed for T. Davis and J. Dodsley, n.d., [1767].
$2,500
First edition, second issue, 4to, pp. [2], 4, [4], xvi, 395; recent brown calf-backed marbled boards; very good and sound.
John Ryland's copy, with his dated (1768) signature on the title page, and with a one-and-a-quarter-page quarto manuscript account by Ryland of James Bennet tipped in (33 lines, approx. 350 words), beginning "The venerable editor of this work devoted a long life, very affectionately and successfully, to the education of youth in Hertfordshire ... Dr. Johnson furnished the Life of his Author..."
Ryland (1717?-1798) married the sister of John Hawkesworth. "Ryland was acquainted with Dr. Johnson for many years, and was the last surviving friend of his early life. He belonged to the old club that met weekly in 1749 at the King's Head in Ivy Lane and was broken up about 1753, and he was one of the four surviving members that dined together in 1783. He also belonged to the Essex Head Club, which Johnson formed at the close of his life. He constantly visited the doctor in his last illness, he supplied Nichols with several of the particulars which are inserted in the article in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1784 (p. 957), and attended the funeral. Several of Dr. Johnson's letters to him are included in the correspondence edited by Dr. G. B. Hill, but he is seldom mentioned by Boswell, possibly because these letters were withheld from publication in Boswell's Life" (DNB).
The dedication "To Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftsbury," and the "Life of Roger Ascham" were written by Samuel Johnson. "Tom Davis stated that Johnson was "in reality" the editor, and that he (Johnson) gave the work to Bennet for his advantage" (Courtney).
With the 4-page list of subscribers, to whom the book was originally issued in January, 1762. "This issue is distinguished by the new half-title and undated title, and by the absence of the single leaf of 'Additional Subscribers'; in all other respects it comprises the sheets from the first issue of 1761" (Fleeman).
Chapman & Hazen, 144; Courtney & Smith, 100; Fleeman 61.8BA/1b.
7. [Australian Post Office.] History of the post office together with an historical account of the issue of postage stamps in New South Wales. Compiled chiefly from the records.. Sydney: Charles Potter, Government printer and inspector of stamps, 1890.
$650
First edition, 4to, pp. v, [9], 110; 15 photogravure plates (1 folding); original albumen photograph of a stamp affixed at the top of the title page; margins ruled in red throughout; generally a fine copy; original gilt-stamped upper cover neatly inlayed into later matching cloth, and backed in black morocco with gilt lettering direct on spine.
Ferguson 10573: "Dr. Houison was specially commissioned by the Government of New South Wales to produce this excellent work, but it was soon after withdrawn from circulation owing to forgeries of stamps being made from plates in the book. The edition was limited to a small number of copies. These are now rare and valuable." A facsimile reprint was done in 1983.
8. [Autism.] Memoir of Richard Robert Jones, of Aberdaron, in the county of Carnarvon, in North Wales; exhibiting a remarkable instance of a partial power and cultivation of intellect. [By William Roscoe.]. London: printed for T. Cadell and J. & A. Arch, 1822.
$450
First edition, slim 8vo, pp. [4], 50; original paper-backed marbled boards, paper label on spine; some cracking to the spine, else very good.
Mr. Jones was likely autistic, with Savant Syndrome, whose genius was the acquisition of language. He was able to read the Bible in his native Welsh at nine, and in Latin at fifteen. By nineteen he had mastered Hebrew and shortly thereafter French and Italian. English, however, to him a foreign language, was not acquired without considerable difficulty. Ultimately, he became fluent in fifteen languages, and was the subject of several books and pamphlets.
9. The works of Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Albans, and Lord High Chancellor of England. London: W. Baynes & Son, 1824.
$2,500
10 volumes, 8vo, later half red morocco gilt, t.e.g., fore- and bottom edges uncut; fine, bright set. With an engraved portrait of Bacon in volume I. The texts variously in English and/or Latin.
10. [Balzac, Honoré de.] L'art de mettre sa cravate de toutes les manières connues et usitèes. Paris: La Librairie Universelle de H. Balzac, 1827.
$750
First edition, 16mo, pp. 122; full page portrait of the author and 4 folding plates showing 31 figures; contemporary calf backed marbled boards, gilt-ruled spine, gilt title, boards lightly worn, plates a bit foxed.
For a time, the celebrated French novelist Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) set up a printing establishment in Paris. Among the works that issued from his press - the whole number likely not more than three dozen before bankruptcy set in – is the present title on the history of cravats, the different methods of use around the world, their proper knots and the tying thereof. Included in both the text and the illustrations is the method of tying the Byron, named for the British poet, Lord Byron. Also, L'Amércaine.
"According to Asselineau, le Bon. Emile de l'Empese is Lefebvre-Durufle; according to Queard, Emile Marco de Saint-Hilaire. The work is also attributed to Balzac, and by Werdet to Horace Raisson" (Books by Balzac).
Books by Balzac, p. 3.
11. An essay on the nature and immutability of truth, in opposition to sophistry and scepticism. The fourth edition. London: Edward and Charles Dilly; Edinburgh: A. Kincaid and W. Creech, 1773.
$300
8vo, pp. vi, [9]-518; contemporary full calf, gilt-decorated spine, red morocco label; very good copy.
Beattie (1735-1803), the Scots moral philosopher and poet, was acquainted with Monboddo, Pope, Johnson, and many other notables of the day, and was the professor of moral philosophy and logic in the Marischal College and University of Aberdeen. His essay on truth was first published in 1770 and went though five editions. Johnson met Beattie through the introductions of Boswell. Boswell, in thanking Johnson for his courtesies in this regard recounts Johnson's rely in the Life: "Sir (said he), I should thank you. We all love Beattie. Mrs. Thrale says, if ever she has another husband, she'll have Beattie."
12. Joannis Bissilii ... Argonauticon Americanorum, sive historiae periculorum Petri De Vitoria... . Monachii [i.e., Munich]: Lucae Straubii, 1647.
$750
First edition, small 12mo, 13 p.l., pp. 480, [12]; including an engraved title page (signed "Wolfg. Kilian. 1647 fecit."), printed title with a woodcut vignette, and a full-page engraved map of the western hemisphere; full contemporary vellum recased and rebacked; a good, sound copy.
JCB II, p. 360; not in JFB Catalogue; Sabin 99443; European Americana 647/28: "Though conventionally described as a Latin version of the Ingolstadt, 1622, German translation of Pedro Gobeo de Victoria's Naufragio y peregrinatio, 1st publ., Seville, 1610, Harold Janz points out that this is in fact a novel for which Gobeo's account was 'merely ... raw material'."
13. Censura celebriorum authorum: sive, Tractatus in quo varia virorum doctorum de clarissimis cujusque seculi scriptoribus judicia traduntur. Unde facillimo negotio lector dignoscere queat quid in singulis quibusque istorum authorum maximè memorabile sit, & quonam in pretio apud eruditos semper habiti fuerint. Londini: Richard Chiswel, 1690.
$750
First edition, folio, pp. [8], 746, [6]; title page printed in red and black; a nice copy in full contemporary speckled calf, neatly rebacked in the early 19th century, gilt decorated spine in 7 compartments, maroon morocco labels in 2; very good and sound.
A critique on the most celebrated authors, concerning whom the various opinions of the most learned scholars are given. Nearly 600 authors are listed. "An erudite work, much esteemed by the curious..." (Lowndes).
Wing B-3346
14. The beauties of England and Wales: or original delineations, topographical, historical, and descriptive, of each county. Embellished with engravings. London: Vernor, Hood, & Sharpe; Longman, Hurst, Rees, & Orme; Cuthell & Martin; W. J. & J. Richardson; J. & J. Arch; J. Harris; and B. Crosby, 1801-15.
$12,500
Titles and imprints with slight variation. 18 volumes in 25, thick 8vos, 728 engraved plates (including 2 duplicates) of a total 733 as listed in the various plate lists (see below); (note that a copy offered on-line contains only 627 plates; another offering provides no count of the plates at all); original rose paper-covered boards, cream paper shelfback, blue printed labels on spines; volume XIII, part 1 with a tear at the top of the spine with loss to the shelfback and part of the blue paper label; volume VIII with joints cracked and the boards holding by cords; a number of other minor cracks, chips, stains, etc., but on the whole a very good set, entirely bound in the original boards, of a most complicated publication. Full details for each volume are available on request, and much of the following from copious notes by a previous owner.
The work evolved through four different iterations. First, it would have been printed in unfolded, unsewn sheets. Second, it appeared in parts, in printed wrappers. Third it, appeared in boards. Fourthly, and finally, it would have been fully collated and bound for permanent use. It is in this last form that the book is best known, and it is not uncommon as such.
This work, which appeared in 15 volumes expanded into 25, was published between 1801 and 1815. It offered an illustrated, county-by-county narrative based on dense and compendious research—historical, antiquarian, topographical, genealogical, and architectural. It was financed by subscribers, although no subscribers list was ever included in the publication. Many of these subscribers doubtless had the satisfaction of seeing their names, houses and estate mentioned in the work. Some received flattering dedications, others acknowledgment and thanks in the introductory materials included in successive volumes.
The previous owner has noted that "the present copy, to be complete, should offer all of the illustrations. It does, and it does not. The first indication of the number of illustrations being offered with the text comes on the labelling of volumes. The printed (blue) labels on Volumes I-XI and volumes XII-XVIII differ in size and textual information. The labels on the first 11 (actually 15 volumes, since volume X expands into 5 separate volumes) are twice the size of those on the remaining volumes. They record the work’s title, the volume number, the counties covered, the number of engravings in the volume, and the volume's price. The smaller labels give only the title of the work. In 7 volumes the number of the illustrations designated on the label is the same as that found in the book itself. In 8 volumes it is not. In 5 of those 8 there is a deficit of eleven plates; in the remaining three there is a surplus of six. In neither case do we know, by title, which the plates are.
Figures alone can suggest the labor behind the work. It required 10 different author/editors (other than Brayley and Britton already mentioned these included: Joseph Nightingale; J. N. Brewer; J. Evans; John Hodgson; Francis Charles Laird; Frederic Shoberl; John Bigland; and Thomas Rees). They were supplied with information by many dozens, even hundreds, of contributors and correspondents, drawn from every county covered. Sixteen publishers, whether individually or in partnerships, were engaged. For the illustrations, over 130 artists and over 50 engravers were employed—and these are minimum figures: they take no account of the numerous variants (or errors) in the spelling and initialing of names, which once sorted out could point to a higher count.
The work began to swell and expand as it progressed, most notably in the section on London and Middlesex: this started in 1807 as a single volume, and by 1816 had reached its conclusion in four volumes (X; X Part II; X Part III; X Part III Continuation; and X Part IV). Beneath the broad tranquil surface of its production, there often swirled the currents of sharp editorial and production disputes, which doubtless delayed the work’s progress. To our knowledge there is no extant copy of the work, in whole or in part, in sheets. and it is hardly to be expected that it would have been retained in that form. It is almost as rare in its wrappered periodical form. The Literary Hub mentions only one library with (odd) parts in printed, stitched, blue wrappers—the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. Parts of that same copy are bound in boards. Whether the present copy, fully in boards, is unique, requires further research.
The interest of the present copy is the window it offers into the long birthing of the work. Like many works bound in boards it offers material that was almost always discarded when a work was finally bound in some permanent covering. In the present case, as they received the part in wrappers, subscribers were “recommended to have the Work done up in Boards only, as at the conclusion it will be necessary to unsew it, to arrange the Prints” (I, Advertisement). No evidence remains to indicate who put this boarded set together, or when. Was it assembled from individual wrappered parts? Did the publishers put it together over time as the materials accumulated volume by volume? Was it assembled and offered whole when the publication had actually concluded?
One can add an even more detailed question: at what point were the printed blue labels that are on each volume produced—in the course of the work’s production, or only at its conclusion? One of the main challenges for those producing the work was to retain subscriber and purchaser loyalty over the fifteen years of the work’s growth. Whether in the form of prefatory Advertisement, Address, or Remarks, intended for subscribers and the public, the writers and publishers did all they could to keep readers informed of, and loyal to, the work’s progress. We can infer from the present copy that the work’s periodical issue was irregular and unpredictable. The strain of preparing copy by announced dates, and the risk of disappointing subscribers and other buyers if they were not met, were clearly great.
We can follow in this boarded copy the appearance of each issue by the dates, when they occur, that are given at the foot of the page to the various lead signatures to each part. This first of these occurs in Volume VI, where signatures A3-C, are dated Nov 1805; D-F Dec. 1805; G-K Feb. 1806; L-P March 1806; Q-T April 1806; and its two concluding signatures U and X, June 1806. The pattern we can see here—the irregular time-table of the issues’ appearances, and the variation, sometimes considerable, of the length of those issues—is characteristic whenever the dates of the issues are recorded. In Volume X, Parts II, and only in this segment, is there a further refinement: the days of the month are included. For the most part, however, the only indicator of the start of a new periodical issue is the number of the volume in which it is appearing.
In the last two volumes, XVII and XVIII, even these volume number markers are dropped. The part issues in wrappers were, perhaps, no more regular in appearance: while clearly marked with volume and number, some carry no date of issue. The variations in these practices reflect the vagaries of sustaining the publication's schedule, meeting announced deadlines, and satisfying subscribers’ expectations. If the appearance of the works text sometimes seems halting, the order in which the prints were issued with the growing text was almost random.
The parts in wrappers (to judge from University of Wales examples) carried 3 prints each. The volumes of the present boarded set carry between 16 (Volume I) and 39 (Volume VII) prints each, the usual number hovering between the mid-twenties and low thirties. The order in which these prints first appeared suggests a calculated retailing ploy. In any given boarded volume the narrative remains focused on the one or more counties it covers. This is quite otherwise with the illustrations. Some do relate to the text at hand, but most were intended for quite different county volumes. For example, the text of the present boarded Volume X covers three counties—Monmouthshire, Norfolk, and Northamptonshire. There are thirty plates. Of these, ten relate to Norfolk, but there are a further eleven needed to complete Norfolk’s full complement of twenty-one illustrations. There is also one plate related to Monmouthshire, leaving ten to go, and one to Northamptonshire, leaving six yet to be supplied. The remaining eighteen plates relate to a further fourteen different counties.
The same lack of congruence is found in the wrapper issues: the three plates each part carried are not necessarily connected to segments of text with which they appear. There is a double retail advantage to this apparent lack of synchronization. In the first place, it lowered the risk of losing customers who, having acquired both the full text and complete illustrations for the county or counties in which they were interested, might simply have dropped their subscription for the remainder of the set. Secondly, illustrations alone offered their own allure, a view of places yet to come and to be explained with descriptive narrative. From their initially random appearance, prints, and customers, had to wait until the end of the part issue appearance for the prints to be distributed appropriately in, and coordinated with, the text.
Possibly the greatest challenge to anyone involved in the publication was that faced by the binders of a completed set. The Directions given to them combine the precise and the optional. For example, at one point we are told that any plate might be chosen out of those accompanying a volume and used as a frontispiece. On the other hand, we are told that the engraved title-page vignettes (which are included in the count of plates, and which are in all, save one, of the boarded volumes) can be discarded, as superfluous, if the binder so chooses. If these were discarded, then the count of plates in such a set would be less than the total of 733. The numerous instructions to binders, all of which would be discarded once the set was fully and finally bound, give us a vivid and working insight into the construction of the final product. They also suggest, perhaps, that no two copies of the work will be exactly the same. Even when the final volumes had appeared, it was not fully formed. Three years after its completion, a further volume appeared, Introduction to the . . . Beauties of England and Wales (1818), by J. Norris Brewer, in which he added new material, corrected the old, and published a series of maps, that had been promised, to accompany the earlier text.
15. Present-day conditions in China. Notes designed to show the moral and spiritual claims of the Chinese Empire . New York, Chicago, Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Company. Philadelphia, Toronto: China Inland Mission, 1908.
$250
First edition, 8vo, pp. vii, [1], 58, [2] ads; map endpapers, 3 maps (2 folding), another map in the text, 1 facsimile and 1 table; original pictorial tan cloth stamped in black; a near fine, sound, and clean copy.
"Broomhall (1866-1937) was a British Protestant Christian missionary to China with the China Inland Mission who wrote extensively on the subject of Chinese missionary work.
16. [Burne-Jones, Edward.] The fairy family: a series of ballads & metrical tales illustrating the fairy mythology of Europe.. London: Longmans, Brown [et al.], 1857.
$750
First edition, 8vo, pp. xv, [1], 283, [1], 4 (ads); engraved frontispiece and title page, wood-engraved tailpiece, all by Edward Burne-Jones; a little wear and cracking at spine ends, but generally a good, sound copy or better in original green cloth, pictorial gilt-decorated spine, spine a little sunned. Burne-Jones's first book appearance.
17. Archive of Burrough's first agent, William Garrard Chapman. Chicago: 1913-.
$50,000
Letters between Burroughs and his first agent, President of the International Press Bureau, 1913-1926, regarding the origin, serialization, distribution, publication, dramatization, and filming of Tarzan of the Apes, and other early Burroughs literary properties; the relationship concluding in a lawsuit between the two, Chapman the plaintiff seeking $5000 in damages, the two settling in Chapman's favor for $1000. With related correspondence, in nine binders.
From Burroughs: 51 letters, 1 telegram, and one sheet with exchanges between the two on the same page. From Chapman: 218 retained carbons, 1 telegram, and the lawsuit documents. From McClurg, the Chicago publisher of Tarzan of the Apes and other early Burroughs titles: 27 letters, the pre-publication typed synopsis of Tarzan, and a typed statement of the sales of Tarzan. Additional related pieces included (complete list available upon request).
The extraordinary and apparently complete (extant) revelation, from his agent's point of view, of the commencement of the publishing career of Edgar Rice Burroughs, from the very beginning, May 28, 1913, more than a year before the book publication by McClurg of Tarzan of the Apes, on June 17, 1914, to the end of the relationship between ERB and his agent. Between these dates, in more than 200 letters to Burroughs; syndicates which distribute for serial publication; publishers; stage play producers; and film companies, William Chapman performs the agent's duties with responsible and growing optimism, exhibited through understanding of the publishing practices of the time; while all along the way, "Burroughs," as he usually signed himself, is consistently terse, impatient, ever watchful, tight-fisted, and extremely productive. It would all fall apart when Burroughs challenged his agent's oversight of reprint rights and royalties, chiefly those monies derived from Tarzan of the Apes. A complete detailed description of the archive's contents available upon request.
18. Specification of Captain Richard Burton. Fire-arms and projectiles [wrapper title]. London: printed by George E. Eyre ... at the Great Seal Patent Office, 1876.
$7,500
Folio, a single sheet folded to make 4 pages, last 2 pages blank; sewn into original blue printed wrappers, with price and "A.D. 1875, 1st September. no. 3069" at head of cover title, and "Price 4d." Stamp over the price reads: Price 8d.; previous folds, a few short marginal tears and creases; very good.
The date of Burton's patent (no. 3069) for a carbine pistol was September 1, 1875. "The principle of the weapon is to avoid the use of the shoulder on horseback. The weapon can be used either as a carbine with both hands, the left arm extended as in archery: in this case the cartridge contains 84 grains of gunpowder. Used with one hand the charge must be reduced to 45 grains" (see Burton, Isabel, Life, I, pp. 455-57 for a good account).
Rare. Huntington only in OCLC; Casada 327; Penzer, p. 229.
19. [Checkers.] The Checkergram. Vol. I, no. 1 to Vol. 2 no. 9 [all published]. Ashland, Illinois: Willie Ryan December 1929 through December, 1931.
$500
21 issues in all, the first 5 in 8vo, the balance in small folio, all bound together in a contemporary gray cloth folio binding, gilt lettering on spine; all original printed wrappers present; 2 pages becoming loose, but present. Illustrated throughout.
National Union Catalogue of Serials locates three sets only, New York Public, Cleveland Public, and Free Library of Philadelphia; OCLC omits the Free Library. Superseded by The New Checkergram, 1933-35.
20. Opera quae supersunt omnia. Ad fidem optimarum editionum diligentr expressa. Voluminibus XX. Glasguae: In aedibus academicis, excudebant Rob. et And. Foulis, 1748-49.
$2,500
20 volumes, foolscap 12mo, contemporary full speckled calf, red morocco labels on gilt-decorated spines, gilt lettering direct showing individual titles (sometime rubbed with minor loss); joints barely starting; very good and sound.
Edited by J. Oliveti. The set was also issued in pot 12mo. A handsome and complete set in a nice contemporary binding.
Gaskell, Foulis, 101.
21. Dictionary of love. In which is contained, the explanation of most of the terms used in that language.. Dublin: printed in the year, 1754.
$4,000
First Dublin edition, and second edition overall; 16mo, pp. xii, [204]; contemporary and likely original calf-backed boards, red morocco label; joints cracked, cords holding.
First published in London the previous year of which ESTC locates 10 copies - 6 in the U.S.). This Dublin edition, likely a piracy, is known by two copies only: Cambridge University and University of Chicago.
Translated by the author of Fanny Hill, and based on a French text by J. F. Dreux de Rodier which was first published in 1741. As such, it is the first dictionary of its kind in English.
Dr. Roger Lonsdale, of Balliol College, Oxford, was able to attribute this work to Cleland from an examination of the Bodleian copy of the Monthly Review in which Griffiths (the publisher of the London edition) annotated the reviews, sometimes with the names of otherwise anonymous authors. In November, 1753 Ralph Griffiths, himself a publisher of editions of Fanny Hill, published The Dictionary of Love. He reviewed it in the Monthly Review in December, 1753 where he annotated the opening sentence of the review changing "ingenious author" to "Mr. Cleland." Lonsdale notes that the 10-page preface is by Cleland and that about a quarter of the definitions are also his, the rest being translations from the French.
Unknown to Alston, who lists the first edition as well as the later London editions (1776; 1777; 1787; 1795). It was still in print as late as 1824, and there was a Philadelphia edition of 1798.
Not in Alston, but see Alston IX, 317 for the first edition. See Lonsdale, Roger, "New Attributions to John Cleland" in The Review of English Studies, New Series, Vol. XXX, no. 119, August 1979, pp. 285-87.
22. [Publisher's canvassing book for:] The writings of Mark Twain.. New York & London: Harper & Bros., n.d., [ca. 1905-06].
$950
8vo, very good copy in original unlettered black cloth, with 3 sample spines mounted on pastedowns, the endpapers of two different paper stocks, and consisting of a gravure portrait frontispiece of Clemens, 2 sample title pages, 2-page spread advertising this Hillcrest Edition (see BAL 3670) printed in orange and black, Twain's printed holograph statement ("This is the authorized uniform edition of all my books. Mark Twain"), 26 sample plates, and 20 sample pages of text from various volumes and with various paginations.
No tangible copy found in OCLC.
23. A treatise on the police of the metropolis, explaining the various crimes and misdemeanors which at present are felt as a pressure upon the community; and suggesting remedies for their prevention. By a magistrate. London: printed by H. Fry, for C. Dilly, in the Poultry, 1796.
$7,500
First edition, 8vo, pp. xii, [2], 6-369, [3]; folding table; title page a little browned at the edges, some minor creasing and spotting, pin hole through the upper blank margin of the first quarter of the book (possibly where the ALs (see below) was pinned to the book for presentation), otherwise an uncut copy in original pink paper-backed marbled boards, printed paper label on spine (dusty, a little creased and slightly chipped).
The first edition of Colquhoun's influential treatise on crime and policing in London, including a full discussion of the system of hulks, and transportation to New South Wales. A second and third edition were printed in the same year, and six editions in all were printed in his lifetime.
This is an important presentation copy to the Lord Chief Justice, Lloyd Kenyon, with an autograph letter signed from the Colquhoun to Kenyon requesting support for Colquhoun's proposed policing reforms based on his own practical experience as a magistrate in London. Colquhoun outlines the state of crime in London, the prison system and proposes the use of an organized police force and the active prevention of crime.
Inscribed on the flyleaf "To The Right Honourable / Lord Kenyon from His Lordship's Obedient / humble Servant / The Author." Additionally inscribed by Kenyon at the top of the title page: "Kenyon - 21 Feb 1796 from the author" and with "Colquhoun Esq." next to "By a Magistrate."
The letter is pasted to one corner of the front flyleaf and is dated 15 February 1796, (the same date as Colquhoun's printed advertisement at the beginning of the book) from Colquhoun's home at Charles Square, Hoxton (London), and begins:
I take the earliest opportunity of requesting leave to present to your Lordship a Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis and on the Prevention of Crimes which I trust will be found to contain many prominent features of abuses as well as many suggestions for remedying such abuses consonant to those excellent maxims of virtues and morality which your Lordship so ably and so usefully inculcates in the high official situation which you fill with so much honour..."
Colquhoun continues: "Presiding at the highest Criminal Tribunal in the Country it becomes my peculiar duty to convey to your Lordships one of the first copies of this work which has come from the press."
24. Essai synthétique sur l'origine et la formation des langues.. Paris: Ruault, 1774.
$375
First edition, 8vo, pp. xv, [1], 464, [4]; original red paper-covered boards, spine rubbed and with old manuscript label; small tide mark enters at the top margin for the last 50pp., but in all a good, sound copy.
The British Museum catalogue identifies this as an examination of the first part of the grammar of M.Beauzee, although the advertisement suggests it was an essay submitted for a contest at the Berlin Academy that deals with hypothetical philogical principles and the formation of language. The advertisement is correct: An essay submitted for a competition established by the French Academy on the question of the origin of language, an award won by Herder's Abhandlung über den Ursprungder Sprache (1772). Copineau, who was one of thirty other contestants was one of only four to have their essays published in the wake of the competition.
OCLC locates two dozen copies but only the American Philosophical Society in the U.S.
25. Pearl. A fourteenth-century poem rendered into modern English by G.G. Coulton, M. A. London: David Nutt, 1906.
$350
First edition, square 16mo, pp. viii, 51, [1]; original cream wrappers, the title "Pearl" printed on upper cover and spine.
Inscribed "Sarah Coulton from G. G. C. May 1906. The first completed copy."
Apparently, this is the only copy in wrappers; the rest of the edition is case-bound. Coulton (1858-1947) was an English historian who devoted his studies to medieval life and thought, and to ecclesiastical history. Sarah Coulton was his mother.
26. Memoirs of the kings of Spain of the House of Bourbon, from the ascession of Philip the Fifth to the death of Charles the Third: 1700- to 1788. Drawn from original and unpublished documents. London: [T.C. Hansard] for Longman, Hurst [et al]., 1813.
$1,800
First edition, 3 volumes, large 4to, contemporary full calf, triple gilt ruled borders on covers, gilt-lettered direct on gilt-decorated spines, a.e.g.; expert restoration of the joints, now with very minor cracking, but all in all, a fine and most impressive copy of a classic history, of "great value for the history of the eighteenth century" (DNB) and "in many places entertaining, and, on the whole, a valuable accession to our historical information" (Allibone).
This is likely a copy printed on large paper (page height: 33 cm); most other copies are 5-6 cm shorter.
27. Histoire universelle…comprise en trois tomes. Amsterdam [i.e.Geneva]: Heritiers de Hier. Comelin [i.e. Pierre Aubert], 1626.
$2,000
Second edition, revised and augmented; folio, pp. 20, 1189 columns, 744 columns (so paged), pp. [40]; top of spine chipped, 3 small worm holes through the upper cover and into the first few leaves; occasional light foxing, but generally a clean, sound copy in full contemporary calf, gilt.
D'Aubigne (1552-1630) was the son of a zealous Huguenot who instilled in him an abiding protestant sympathy and an almost reckless disregard for personal safety in the Protestant struggle. He was present at the siege of Orleans where his father was killed. He soon after went to Geneva to study under Beza. From there he attached himself to the Huguenot army under the command of the Prince of Conde. Eventually he joined the retinue of Henry of Navarre, and proved himself of great service to the future king, both as a soldier and a counselor. After Henry's elevation to the throne, the king found d'Aubigne's rough manner and caustic criticisms tiresome (in his literary works he freely exercised his gift of sarcasm with regard to the king and his family) and the rift between the two widened when the king converted to Catholicism. By the time he published the third volume of the present work, it was ordered to be burned by the common hangman, so free and unguarded was its satire. He fled to Geneva in 1620 where he lived the rest of his life.
The Histoire Universelle is the work for which d'Aubigne is best remembered, "a lively chronicle of the incidents of camp and court life, [forming] a very valuable source for the history of France during the period it embraces" (EB-11). This copy has the place of printing (Amsterdam) neatly excised and patched, and "a Geneve" printed by hand above and below the printer's imprint on the title page, presumably indicating an issue from the author's city of refuge.
This copy from the library of John Evelyn, with the latter-day Evelyn bookplate, Evelyn's accession number of the front flyleaf (which itself is partially loose), and the ownership signature on the title page of [Sir] Robert Offley, whose daughter married Evelyn's brother, George.
Brunet I, 545.
28. Aedes Althorpianae; or an account of the mansion, books, and pictures, at Althorp; the residence of George John Earl Spencer, K.G. to which is added a supplement to the Bibliotheca Spenceriana.. London: printed by W. Nicol, successor to W. Bulmer and Co., Shakespeare Press, 1822.
$6,500
First edition, this one of 55 large paper copies; 2 volumes, large 4to, pp. viii, [1], lxii, 279, [1]; [6], 322; volume II occasionally printed in red and with liberal use of gothic letter; engraved frontispieces in each volume, double-page plan, and 30 engraved plates on 29 sheets, plus 6 other engravings and 71 facsimiles in the text; beautiful copy in full brown morocco gilt extra by Bedford, a.e.g., gilt decorated spines, red morocco labels; fine and impressive.
"The work is intended as a supplement to the Bibliotheca Spenceriana, forming vols. 5 and 6. It contains an account of the ancestors of Earl Spencer, a history of the mansion, with an account of the pictures, and 32 engravings of the most important in the gallery, a systematic catalogue of editions of the Scriptures, an account of the Aldine editions, not contained in the former volumes [and] a supplement to the works printed in the fifteenth century. An additional plate of Lady Camden was afterwards published" (Lowndes).
Jackson 37.
29. Household words. A weekly journal. New York: G. P. Putnam [and others, see below], 1850-59.
$3,200
First American edition, 19 volumes, 8vo, text in double column within ruled borders; a fine set in contemporary half blue polished calf over marbled boards, red morocco labels on gilt-decorated spines.
Household Words was considerably more popular in England than America and its publishing history in America is "almost absolutely dark, as is the whole subject of periodical printing and 'arrangements' ... The 1850's were years of copyright agitation in America, and certainly no legally protective arrangements were possible to the English publishers before the journal was discontinued in 1859. And it is not surprising that the course of Household Words was not so brilliant in America as was that of its successor All the Year Round...It was partially a local work and not quite so interesting to an America as to an English reader; it had changed publishers too often; there was no legitimate arrangement between the English proprietors and the American publishers; it was sold at too high a price; it had been published by inexperienced people and therefore had not received proper publicity and promotion; and its lack of pictorial illustration made it unpopular with the masses" (Buckler, William E., "'Household Words' in America," in Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, vol. 45, pp. 160-66.)
While the first volume was published by Putnam, volumes 2 and 3 were printed from English plates and have a London imprint; those publishing the remaining volumes included, in order, McElrath & Lord; Angell, Engel & Hewitt, McElrath & Barker; T. C. McElrath & Co.; J. A. Dix; Dix & Edwards; Dix, Edwards & Co.; Miller & Curtis; James Miller; Jansen & Co.; and, Frederick A. Brady.
Complete sets of this American piracy, in a matching contemporary binding, are uncommon.
30. Thesaurus linguae Latinae. Editio nova prioribus multo auctio et emandatior. Londini: Typis & Impensis Sam. Harding, 1734-35.
$2,500
4 volumes, large folio, contemporary paneled calf neatly rebacked, red morocco labels; generally, a very good, sound set.
A handsome, useable edition of a landmark dictionary, originally published in 1531. The work was a major influence on the early English lexicographers, such as Cooper and Holyoke, among others.
"Though the Thesaurus is now superseded, its merits must not be forgotten. It was vastly superior to anything of the kind that had appeared before; it formed the basis of future labors, and even as late as 1734 was considered worthy of being re-edited" (A.A. Tilley).
The editors of this edition were four Cambridge scholars: Edmund Law, John Taylor, Thomas Johnson, and Sandys Hutchinson, who dedicated the work to their King, George II. They also provide a complete list of the books published by Estienne's publishing house, filling four folio pages in small type and in double column.
31. Memoirs, illustrative of the life and writings of John Evelyn ... Comprising his diary, from the year 1641 to 1705-6, and a selection of his familiar letters ... The whole now first published, from the original MSS. In two volumes. Edited by William Bray, Esq. Fellow and Treasurer off the Society of Antiquities of London. Second edition. London: printed for Henry Colburn, and sold by John and Arthur Arch, 1819.
$4,500
Second and best edition, 2 volumes, 4to, pp. xxviii, 671, [1]; v, [3], 342, [2]; 336; 10 engraved portraits and plates (1 folding), folding plan and folding pedigree; front hinge starting on vol. I, upper joint with 5" crack starting on vol. II, otherwise a remarkably well-preserved copy in original pink paper-covered boards, printed paper labels on spine; largely unopened.
This is the Arthur A. Houghton copy, with his book label on the front pastedown of both volumes.
John Evelyn (1620-1706) the author of Sylva and other miscellaneous writings, is best remembered today for his famous Diary which was not published for over a hundred years after his death. It covers most of the major events of his life, describing his travels abroad, his contemporaries, and his public and domestic concerns, and is an invaluable source for the study of the 17th century. Evelyn's Diary is often compared with that of his contemporary, Samuel Pepys (1633-1703), whose Diary also appeared more than 100 years after his death, in 1825.
Keynes 132; Sterling 354.
32. Fifteen-page early draft of his essay, "Hardy and the Hag". [Lyme Regis?]: ca. 1976-7.
$19,500
The manuscript comprises 15 quarto pages of typescript, and 3 pages of typed notes, all so thoroughly reworked (in both pen and pencil) in Fowles' hand that the original kernel of thought is transformed into a full-blown essay right before our eyes. Fowles inserts, deletes, adds paragraphs in the margins, and in three cases turns the sheet over and to write extensively on the versos. Even in this form the manuscript differs substantially from the published version which was published in Thomas Hardy: After Fifty Years (Macmillan, 1977, edited by Lance St. John Butler).
A most interesting example of the novelist at work. Fowles manuscripts are very rare on the market, with most all his papers and journals having gone to Exeter in 1992 and the Harry Ransom Center in 1968-1993, and 1999. Fowles's major works include The Collector (1963), The Aristos (1964), The Magus (1965), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1969), Poems (1973), The Ebony Tower (1974), Daniel Martin (1977), Mantissa (1982), and A Maggot (1985). That he and Hardy both resided in Dorset near Dorchester should not be lost on the student of either writer.
33. [Frere, John Hookham.] A metrical version of The Acharnians, The Knights and The Birds. In the last of which a vein of peculiar humor and character is for the first time detected and developed. [Translated by John Hookham Frere.]. London: William Pickering, 1840.
$750
First Pickering edition, 3 parts in 1, as issued, small 4to, pp. [2], 70; vi, 7-89, [1]; iv, 5-103, [1] errata for the first 3 parts; three-quarter blue morocco by Lloyd; upper joint rubbed and with small crack starting at bottom, but still very good and sound. With the addition of the rare part 4, The Frogs, 79pp., not called for on the title, but here bound in. Parts 1-3 bear the imprint "Malta: printed at the Government Press, 1839." The last part is "Printed by W. Nicol."
In a prefatory statement to The Frogs it is noted that "the greater part of this play had been printed upwards of twenty years ago, having been intended for private distribution; an intention to which the writer adheres, being unwilling to cancel what had already printed and in part distributed…he ventures to present it to his friends and his friends only, satisfied with having secured the existence of the text, upon which much time and attention has been bestowed, but without venturing to obtrude upon the public a work, (in its present form and appearance at least) avowedly defective."
The translator is John Hookham Frere, the diplomatist and miscellaneous author. "His translations of Aristophanes cannot fail to be the most lasting memorial of his genius, and the manner in which he has successfully caught the spirit of the original comedies places him in an almost unique place as a translator" (DNB).
Not in Keynes; Kelly 1840.1 noting that only about 160 copies were printed with the Pickering title page at the expense of the translator.
34. An account of the expedition to the West Indies, against Martinico, with the reduction of Guadelupe, and other the [sic] Leeward Islands; subject to the French King, 1759 ... The third edition. Birmingham: printed by John Baskerville, for G Steidel, 1762.
$4,500
4to, pp. [6], 91, [1]; 4 engraved copperplates (2 folding);
bound with, as often: the French version of the same: Relation de la Expedition... Birmingham, 1762, pp. [6], 91, [1]; together in contemporary quarter calf over marbled boards, red morocco labels on spine, edges stained yellow; very good, sound copy.
An uncommon Baskerville production, first published in London in 1759. The last copy at auction was that from the Library of the Earls of Macclesfield which brought nearly $5500 hammer in 2008.
Gaskell 24 and 25 respectively. Sabin 26628: "A beautiful specimen of typography." Not found in Howgego.
35. The empty bed. [London: ca.1934].
$1,250
Wood engraving, being number 2 of 20 proofs, numbered and signed "Eric G" in pencil along lower edge of image; single off-white sheet measuring 9.1 x 5.5 inches, printed in black and showing an unmade bed, bookcase, window, small table, and rug from a variety of perspectives, making for an Escher-esque viewing experience; a few small brown spots in the generous lower margin, not affecting image, otherwise very good.
"The Empty Bed" appears on page 39 of The Constant Mistress (Golden Cockerel Press, 1934) by Gill's sister, Enid Clay, illustrating the poem, "The Young Girl's Room." Gill Bibliography 293.
36. A new general collection of voyages and travels, consisting of the most esteemed relations, which have hitherto been published in any language: comprehending everything remarkable in its kind, in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America ... also the manners and customs of the several inhabitants. London: Thomas Astley, 1745-46.
$6,000
First edition 4 volumes, 4to, 4 engraved frontispieces and 227 engraved plates, charts, maps, etc., some folding, some showing two or more images; contemporary full calf, gilt decorated spines, red and black morocco labels; joints cracked, extremities rubbed and worn, but still a good, sound, handsome set, unrestored.
Vol.1. First voyages of the Portuguese to the East Indies, 1418-1546; First voyage of the English to Guinea, and the East Indies, 1522-1598; First voyages of the English to the East Indies, set forth by the Company of Merchants, 1600-1620; Voyages to Africa and the islands adjacent, 1455-1721.
Vol.2. Voyages and travels along the western coast of Africa, 1637-1735; Voyages and travels to Guinea and Benin, 1666-1726; Description of Guinea.
Vol.3. Voyages and travels to Guinea, Benin, Kongo and Angola; Description of Loango, Kongo, Angola, Benguela, and adjacent countries; Description of the countries along the eastern coast of Africa, from Cape of Good Hope to Cape Guarda Fuy; Voyages and travels in China, 1655-1722.
Vol. 4. Description of China, of Korea, Eastern Tartary and Tibet; Travels through Tartary, Tibet, and Bukharia, to and from China, 1246-1698.
Hill 210; European Americana 745/153; Sabin 28539; Cordier, Japonica 232, 277, 279, 322, 405, 406; Cordier, Sinica, 1947.
37. Histoire de la création des ètres organisés d'apres les lois naturelles … Trosieme edition.. Paris: C. Reinwald, 1884.
$500
8vo, pp. xii, 600, 20 (C. Reinwald & Cie. catalogue); lithograph frontispiece, 15 lithograph plates (several printed in blue, 3 double-page), folding stencil-colored world map, tables in the text; quite a delightful copy, uncut, unopened, in original burgundy cloth decorated and lettered in gilt.
Of the "Conférences scientifiques sur la doctrine de l'évolution en général et celle de Darwin, Goethe et Lamarck en particulier, traduites de l'Allemand par le docteur Ch. Letourneau" (from the title-p.). First published in French in 1874. Haeckel's books are famously illustrated, and while not one of the stunning quartos, the illustrations are compelling and the book is in fine condition.
38. [Hammer, Victor.] Francisca and other stories from the German of ... Translated by Clavia Goodman and Bayard Quincy Morgan, with an appreciation by Emil Strauss. Lexington: 1957.
$375
First edition in English limited to 175 copies (this is copy no. 7) on Japanese Hosho paper, small square 12mo, pp. [2], 106, [2]; printed in red and black; original paper-covered boards, original printed dust jacket with a hand-colored woodcut by Victor Hammer (apparently, only the early copies were hand-colored); generally a fine copy.
This copy with the printed slip laid in (as issued) reading "Only a very sharp knife will cut there pages neatly." The second book of the Anvil Press, designed by Victor Hammer and printed by Jacob Hammer.
Holbrook, p. 182.
39. The adventurer. London: J. Payne, 1752-54.
$1,250
2 volumes, folio, consisting of 140 twice-weekly numbers published between November 1752 and March 1754; pp. [6] 420; [6], 420; early 19th-century quarter straight-grain black morocco over marbled boards, gilt lettering direct on spines; boards rubbed, but generally very good and sound.
Edited by John Hawkesworth. "Unlike The Rambler, The Adventurer was, from the outset, planned as (probably two) volumes. From the beginning it is consecutively signed (a signature to each number of 3 leaves folio) as well as consecutively paginated; and at the end of No. 70 is printed 'The end of the First Volume' ... Title-pages, Contents, and Mottoes (all present here) were issued in 1753 and 1754" (Chapman & Hazen).
Johnson contributed 29 of the 140 papers; other contributors included Joseph Warton, Bonnell Thornton, and Hawkesworth, among others.
Chapman & Hazen, p. 136; Courtney & Smith, p. 39; Fleeman 52.11Ad/1.
40. Border lines of knowledge in some provinces of medical science. An introductory lecture.... Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1862.
$1,250
First edition, 8vo, pp. [9], 6-80; original brown cloth, BAL's binding 1; some cracking at the top of the spine, else a near fine copy, inscribed on the flyleaf by John Greenleaf Whittier: "Dr. T. Sparhawk from his fd [friend?] John G. Whittier, 24th 1st mo. 1862." The book was published just 2 days earlier, on January 22.
Dr. Sparhawk, from Whittier's home town of Amesbury, Mass., was an early and intimate friend of Whittier's, and the father of the author Frances Campbell Sparhawk.
BAL 8814
41. [Horatius Flaccus, Quintus.] The epodes, satires, and epistles of Horace. Translated by the late Sir Francis Howes, M.A. Minor Canon of Norwich Cathedral. London: William Pickering, 1845.
$950
Small 8vo, pp. xiv, 288; Pickering device on title page; original brown cloth, printed paper label on spine, the label slightly rubbed and chipped (no loss of letters); generally very good, sound, and clean.
First edition of this translation. This copy with the small leather bookplate of Robert Hoe, and an inscription on the front free endpaper: "With loving thoughts, Emily G. J. Folger, H. G. Folger, Jr., April 25, 1912." And with the memorial bookplate of Caroline Furness Jayne beneath that of Hoe on the front pastedown.
Mills College Check List 1294; not in Riedel-Horatiana; not noticed in Keynes; Kelly 1845-8.
42. Stories from the Italian poets: with lives of the writers.. London: Chapman & Hall, 1846.
$350
First edition, 2 volumes, large 12mo, pp. xviii, 417, [1] + 16pp. publisher's catalogue dated December, 1845; [6], 515, [1]; very good, bright set in original blue cloth, gilt-lettered spine. With all points conforming to Brewer's first issue.
Brewer, p. 217-19: "The contents of the first volume include critical notices of the lives and geniuses of Dante and Pulci with quotations from their works, and an appendix which gives the story of Paulo and Francesca, the story of Ugolino, and comments. Included in the second volume are Boiardo, Ariosto, Tasso, and an appendix giving the Italian text of some of the translations."
43. [Ice Cream & Desserts.] Le mémorial des glaces et entremets de cusine et patisserie faisant suite au mémorial de patisserie renfermant 3,000 recettes, glaces, boissons ... 3e. edition ... revue et augmentée par P. Seurre.... Paris: chez l'auteur, [1911].
$325
Thick 8vo, pp. xix, [3], 911; signed by the author on the verso of the title page, frontispiece portrait, 6 portraits in the text, 1 full-page illustration, a number of wood-engraved illustrations throughout; pages a little browned, spine with vertical crack, else a very good to near fine copy in original printed wrappers. The book was published at 12 francs (revised price in ink on spine) in wrappers, or in a publisher's binding (price for which is inked out on spine, apparently because this copy was sold in wrappers). A fifth edition appeared in 1922.
44. The Illinois Central Railroad Company offers for sale over 1,500,000 acres selected farming and wood lands in tracts of forty acres and upwards, to suit purchasers on long credits and at low rates of interest: situated on each side of their railroad, extending all the way from the extreme north to the south of the state of Illinois. Chicago: Illinois Central Rail Road Office, 1858.
$750
8vo, 5 p.l., pp. 5-80; full-page map of Illinois, double-page map of the guide to the Illinois Central Railroad Lands, wood-engraved frontispiece, 6 wood-engraved illustrations in the text; slight nibble out of the fore-margin of the first 3 leaves, else a near fine copy in original yellow pictorial wrappers.
Another edition, with same text, has the imprint: Boston, G.C. Rand & Avery, printers, 1857.
Byrd 2683; Ante-Fire Imprints, 263.
45. Nouveau dictionnaire de médecine et de chirurgie pratiques illustré de figures intercalées dans le texte. Rédigé par Benj. Anger, E. Bailly, [et al.] … Directeur de la rédaction, le docteur Jaccoud. Paris: J. B. Baillière et fils, 1864-86.
$1,250
40 volumes, 8vo, a number of wood-engraved illustrations in the text; contemporary and probably original quarter black morocco, gilt-lettered direct on paneled spines; some mild rubbing and scuffing, but generally a very good, clean, and sound set.
Extensive encyclopedia of medical science edited by the Swiss physician Sigismond Jaccoud.
46. Prophetia et threni Jeremiae, cum commentario Johannis Coccei. Amstelodami: ex officina Joannes à Someren, 1669.
$750
Folio, pp. [6], 319, [7]; bound with: Prophetia Ezechielis, cum commentario Johannis Coccei... Amsterdam, 1669; engraved title page, pp. [8], 415, [9]; woodcut vignette on both titles, titles printed in red and black, 19 copper-engraved architectural plates on 16 folding or double-page sheets; old leather encrustations on covers, otherwise a good, sound copy in full contemporary vellum.
With an inscription on the flyleaf: "Library of Kenyon College, Ohio. Presented by Rev. E. B. Pusey - Regis Professor of Hebrew, Oxford 1835." Edward Bouverie Pusey (1800-1882) was a canon of Christ Church, an esteemed orientalist, and champion of orthodoxy. He counted among his intimate friends Cardinal Newman and Gladstone. See DNB for a nine-page account of his life.
47. The history of Japan together with a description of the kingdom of Siam 1690-92.. Glasgow: James Maclehose and Sons, 1906.
$500
3 volumes, 8vo, pp. lxxxix, [3], 336, [3]; ix, [1], 396, [2]; viii, [2], 385, [2]; 162 illus. and maps throughout, including 16 folding maps and facsimiles; very good, sound set in original red cloth gilt.
Standard history of Japan first published in 2 folio volumes, 1727, and not reprinted in full until the present edition. "Its chief interest lies in its account of an abortive attempt to revive the English trade with Japan which had ceased since 1623-24" (publisher's note). Includes a life of the author and a long historical introduction.
48. [Kemble, John Mitchell.] The philological museum. Cambridge: printed by J. Smith ... for Deightons, Cambridge; Rivingtons, London; and Parker, Oxford, 1832-3.
$950
First edition, volumes I and II (all published); pp. [2], iv, [iii]-iv, 706; iv, 706; light spotting, else a fine set in original green cloth (and unusual thus), gilt-lettered spine; engraved bookplates of Alexander Thomson of Banchory (1798-1868), the 19th-century Scottish advocate, agriculturalist, antiquary, author, philanthropist and traveler.
"Most members of the Etymological Society wrote for the Philological Museum, and in our effort to get at the community of background, outlook, and philological interest shared by the influential Cambridge scholars, we may briefly consider that publication. Hare, who shared the editorship with Thirwell, explained in the Preface to the first of the only two volumes that were published, that English scholars in the 1820's had contributed little more than a 'mite' to the knowledge of classical antiquity ... it became the purpose of the Museum to foster the 'spirit of philological criticism' ... Actually, the majority of the articles were on classical subjects, with Thirwell the most prolific contributor. But the Museum also contained several articles on English and the new philology, of which Kemble's 'On English Praeterites and Genitives' was the most important, being the first exposition in English of Grimm's analysis of the forms of the verb in Germanic" (Aarsleff, The Study of Language in England 1780-1860, pp. 219-20).
Also with articles on "On English Orthography," and "On English Diminutives."
49. Contes et nouvelles en vers. Amsterdam [i.e. Paris, Barbou]: 1762.
$7,500
First edition (the so-called Fermiers-Generaux edition), 2 volumes, 8vo, pp. xiv, [2], 268, [2], 8; [2], viii, [2], 306, [4], [9]-16; complete with the half-titles, 2 engraved frontispiece portraits and 80 plates after Eisen by Aliamet, Delafosse, Longueil, Le Mire, etc.; 2 title-page vignettes, 2 headpieces, and 51 tailpieces by Choffard; full contemporary mottled calf, gilt decorated spines, covers with triple gilt borders, maroon morocco labels on spines, a.e.g.; lightly rubbed, but no cracks in the joints; mild dampstaining at the back of vol. II; but in all, a very good, sound, and unrestored copy in what is likely the original binding, with strong impressions of the plates and generally clean internally.
Ray, Art of the French Illustrated Book, 26: "The Fermiers Generaux, an association of the members of which had charge of gathering certain kinds of taxes, formed 'the first financial company in the kingdom.' Seeking to affirm their position, they commissioned this edition of La Fontaine's broad and spirited tales, a suitable choice for men of affairs who had recently risen to prominence and did not pretend to refined and delicate taste. They were determined that the book should be the best of its kind ... 'one of the handsomest disbursements of witty and sensual money of Louis XV's reign' ... Eisen's eighty designs for La Fontaine are the liveliest and most adroit that he ever drew. Thoroughly at home with the varied action of these lusty stories - their love passages, their intrigues, their practical jokes - he is also expert in choosing the moment in each that will best serve his purpose as an illustrator ... Choffard's fifty-three tailpieces and four vignette fleurons form a perfect compliment to Eisen's plates."
50. Prairies artificielles, ou Lettre a Monsieur de *** sur les moyens de fertiliser les terreins secs & steriles dans la Champagne & dans les autres provinces du Royaume. Paris: [publisher not identified], 1756.
$650
First edition, 12mo, pp. [4], 124; lacking the errata leaf; head- and tail-pieces throughout; contemporary mottled calf, the spine gilt in six compartments (red morocco label in 1), and all edges red; light wear to extremities, small worm trail on back cover affecting leather only, and a small (1-inch diameter) illegible stamp in red on title page; overall a very attractive, clean copy.
An important treatise on crop rotation. La Salle de l'Etang (d. 1765) provides one of the earliest systematic plans for rotating food crops with "artificial" pastures, allowing tilled lands to rebuild nutrient reserves. In addition, the author advocates raising livestock for manure to fertilize dry and sterile lands. In order to facilitate his plan, he calls for the establishment of a national bureau of agriculture that would be responsible for record-keeping, distributing produce throughout the country in times of famine and regional crises, regulating foreign trade in agricultural products, and maintaining fair prices. A second edition of La Salle de l'Etang's treatise appeared in 1758 and a third, expanded version of 330 pages in 1762 (both with a Brussels imprint).
Six copies in US libraries: Harvard, Yale, Delaware, UC-Davis, and 2 others.
51. Memoirs of the first forty-five years of the life of James Lackington, the present bookseller on Chiswell-street, Moorfields…. London: printed and sold by the author, [1791].
$650
First edition, 8vo, pp. xxxii, 344; engraved portrait (slightly offset onto title-p.), woodcut of the branch on p. 285; uncut; contemporary calf-backed marbled boards, spine a little perished and with an early leather repair to the joints; a good, sound copy, with the bookplate of Lee Edmonds Grove.
Laid in is a letter addressed to Lackington dated Salisbury, Nov. 16, 1804 from John Malham (1747-1821, miscellaneous writer of arithmetics, navigational texts, and religious stories, among others) who was apparently in arrears with Lackington: "The misfortunes into which I have sometimes fallen in the past have been productive of the most serious evils…at present every resource is totally drained, that I have much difficulty from my own bad health and a young sickly family, to subsist from week to week." He tries to persuade Lackington into accepting "at a fair price…any of my publications, as the Arithmetic or the Sermons. I should wish to balance the account in that way to your satisfaction, - being the only means in my power." Malham goes on optimistically: "I should wish to see your catalogue, to look forward to better days, which yet I hope for."
52. Officium Eucharisticum: a preparatory service to a devout and worthy reception of the Lord's Supper…The thirtieth edition. London: R. Ware, W. & D. Baker [et al.], 1753.
$1,250
12mo, pp. [8], 9-168; bound with a 23-p. Order for the Administration of the Lord's Supper [drop title], a single gathering of 12 leaves (the first trimmed at the bottom without loss) and likely separately printed; engraved frontispiece portrait by Van der Gucht; original full black goatskin, gilt roll-tooled border enclosing an elaborate central panel with double gilt roll-tooled floral border, floral motifs in the corners, gilt-decorated spine in 6 compartments, marbled endpapers, a.e.g., blue silk bookmark; spine very slightly discolored, else near fine throughout.
ESTC records only the Univ. of Leeds, National Trust, Lambeth Palace, and the British Library copies, none of which with the Order for the Administration. OCLC adds the National Library of Scotland, Emory, Auburn, LSU, Brown, and Boston Public.
53. Histoire naturelle des animaux sans vertèbres, présentant les caractères généraux et particuliers de ces animaux, leur distribution, leurs classes, leurs familles, leurs genres, et la citation des principales espèces qui s'y rapportent; précédée d'une introduction … Deuxième edition, revue et augmentée de notes présentant les faits nouveaux dont la science s'est enrichie jusqu'à ce jour; par MM. G. P. Deshayes et H. Milne Edwards. Paris: J.B. Baillière, 1835-45.
$2,500
11 volumes, 8vo, original pink printed wrappers; generally fine. First published in seven volumes 1815-22. Volume I: Introduction et Infusoires; II: Histoire des polypes; III: Radiaires, vers, insectes; IV: Histoire des insects; V: Arachnides, crustacés, annelides, cirrhipèdes; VI-X: Histoire des mollusques; XI: Histoire des mollusques et Table générale.
A classic in invertebrate zoology, and Lamarck’s most famous work in which he “developed a system for the natural classification of invertebrates based on the anatomical findings of Cuvier” (DSB).
54. [Landscape Architecture.] Architectural gardens of Italy. A series of photogravure plates from photographs made for and selected by A. Holland Forbes. New York: Forbes & Co., Ltd. [and] sold exclusively in the United States by Jas. E. O'Neill, 1902.
$1,250
Edition limited to 750 sets (this being set no. 62), 3 pictorial green cloth portfolios (approx 17½" x 13½") containing a total of 196 gravure plates; 1 portfolio rebacked, the other 2 with short tears at spine ends; plates are generally fine throughout.
Forbes (1863-1927) was a wealthy balloonist who organized the Aero Club of Connecticut and wrote the basic draft for the first aeronautical law in the United States, passed by the Connecticut Legislature and signed into law by Governor Simeon Baldwin on June 8, 1911, and was appointed Connecticut's first Commissioner of Aeronautics.
55. Select views on the river Clyde. Engraved by Joseph Swan, from drawings by J. Fleming. With historical and descriptive illustrations. Glasgow: Joseph Swan; London: Moon, Boys and Graves, 1830.
$850
First edition, 4to, pp. [4], iv, 168, [4] index, [4] subscribers; engraved vignette title page and 42 engraved plates; contemporary (Scottish?) straight-grain maroon morocco elaborately decorated in gilt and blind, gilt-lettering direct on gilt-decorated spine incorporating thistles; joints tender, the whole moderately foxed, but still a worthy copy, in a binding seemingly meant for presentation, attested to by a very neat, calligraphic gift inscription on the blank flyleaf reading Mrs. T. Galloway / Sandhurst // with best wishes and love from her brother Alex Galloway / 1831."
56. One-page autograph letter signed to Prof. Alexander Dallas Bache. Flag Ship Osliabia, Road of Alexandria in the Potomac: December 5, 1863.
$750
4to, 16 lines, approx. 90 words; integral leaf attached; generally very good.
A rare letter from the Russian Rear-Admiral while on a diplomatic mission to the U.S. 1863-64. This expedition became a military demonstration by Russia during the Civil War. England and France advocated for the southern rebels. Russia held a friendly position in respect to the federal government in the North. It increased hostility toward Russia on the part of England and France, which strove for loosening Russia's international influence. The Russian government decided to send two ship squadrons to the US to demonstrate support for the northerners, as well as to create a potential threat to marine communications of England and France in order to make them refuse assistance to the South States.
The Osliabia (built 1860) was a screw frigate and was decommissioned in 1874. Bache writes in part: "In reply to your interesting note, I beg to inform you that the following officers of the Squadron have been with me on the Diana during the memorable earthquake..." The Admiral goes on to list the details of two captains and their commands. Bache, grandson of Benjamin Franklin, at the time was head of the U. S. Coast Survey.
57. A brief outline of the history of libraries ... Translated from the second edition ... by John Cotton Dana. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1907.
$350
Edition limited to 275 copies, printed at the Merrymount Press, 12mo, pp. 121, [3]; additional decorative series title page printed in brown and black; a very good copy in original linen-backed mottled green cloth-covered boards, red morocco label on spine; light wear to extremities and edges of spine label, spine slightly browned. Issued as volume V in the publisher's series, Literature of Libraries in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.
This copy the "Printer's copy - not in edition" as noted and initialed by "DBU" just above the Merrymount Press bookplate on front pastedown.
Smith 293.
58. Man, the social creator. [Edited by Jane Addams and Anne Withington]. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1906.
$425
First edition, 8vo, pp. [8], 279; frontispiece portrait; elongated 3" hole in half-title, spine darkened, edges rubbed, else a reasonably good copy in original green buckram, gilt-lettered spine.
This copy with the signature at the end of the Editors' Note, "Jane Addams, Hull House, Chicago." And with another signature in pencil on the front free endpaper of Kate W. Withington, undoubtedly a relative of Anne.
Jane Addams, co-founder of both Hull House and the American Civil Liberties Union, was one of the most prominent reformers and social activists of the Progressive Era, and is recognized as the founder of the social work profession in the United States. In 1931, she was the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
59. An essay concerning human understanding ... to which is prefixed the life of the author. Brattleboro, VT: printed by William Fessenden, for Thomas and Andrews, 1806.
$750
Second American edition, 3 volumes, 12mo, full contemporary calf, red morocco labels and numbering pieces; slight cracking and rubbing along the joints, otherwise very good and sound.
Volume 2 bears imprint Boston: printed by J. T. Buckingham, for Thomas and Andrews. Odd mix of Shaw & Shoemaker 10742a and 10743, in a uniform contemporary binding.
60. The book of Jack London. New York: The Century Co., 1921.
$850
First edition, 2 volumes, 8vo, pp. xvi, 422, [3]; viii, 414; 43 illustrations on 32 plates, 2 other full-p. illustrations in the text; original green cloth, spines faded, front hinge of volume II cracked; a good set.
Charmian's own copy, with her bookplate in each volume, and with a 1932 inscription from her in each volume to B. J. Hart "with best wishes from the author, Charmian London." Also, with her tipped in signature on the front free flyleaf, a long autograph postcard from her mounted to the front pastedown regarding "this frightful disaster that has overtaken the South," etc., 2 printed poems of Jack London's pasted in on preliminaries, and a typed note signed by Charmian pasted to the rear pastedown in volume II to Woodruff Book Store in Los Angeles asking for a 10% discount on London's The Valley of the Moon, together with typed envelope,
61. Seeteufel. Abenteuer aus meinem Leben . Berlin & Leipzig: K.F. Koehler, 1926.
$1,250
Later printing (the book was first published in 1921); 8vo, pp. [6], 318, [2] ads; folding map showing the course of the German raider Seeadler to the the point of its demise in the Pacific in 1917; double-page sail-plan, and approximately 135 illustrations throughout, largely from photographs taken during the cruise; original pictorial cloth, spine a bit soiled, else generally very good.
This copy enhanced by a 13-line inscription in German by the ship's navigator (and famed whaler and Arctic explorer) Carl Kircheiss, to Carl G. Orgell, dated Philadelphia, 17 October, 1927, mentioning the Seeadler, and also with a 7-line inscribed photograph of the navigator laid in.
From January to July 1917, the Seeadler sank fourteen allied ships, eleven in the Atlantic and three in the Pacific. In August, however, the Seeadler was lost altogether: she was wrecked on an atoll in French Polynesia. Mystery still surrounds her loss. Von Luckner attested to the German Admiralty that an underwater earthquake caused a tsunami that dashed the ship on the reef, a story that is reaffirmed here in this book, and by several subsequent historians of the Germany Navy. And so has that story been perpetuated through the ensuing decades.
Two contemporary investigations, as well as several recent ones, dispute this version of events, and instead blame Von Luckner for being oblivious to the change in the wind direction which blew the Seeadler onto the reef. Ignored by the supporters of Von Luckner was a 1929 book by the navigator of the Seeadler Carl Kircheiss in which he offers a vastly different version of how the shipwreck occurred, and one, ultimately, much closer to the truth. For a full account see the article by James N. Bade, University of Aukland, at http://www.europe.canterbury.ac.nz/conferences/euro2003/paper1.pdf
62. Atlantic and transatlantic sketches, afloat and ashore. London: Colburn & Co., 1852.
$750
First edition, 2 volumes, 8vo, pp. x, x*-xi*, 288, 16 (ads); ix, [1], 292, 24, [2] ads; original brown blindstamped cloth, gilt lettering on spine; spines slightly faded, boards slightly scuffed, else very good, clean, and sound.
British naval captain's observations on America (he traveled extensively along the east coast, and west through upstate New York, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin) and containing remarks on the Mormons and Mormon poetry; other sections on The Falkland Islands, a hurricane in Antigua, and the pirate, Captain Kidd.
Buck 475; Flake 5214; Sabin 43461.
63. The golden bowl. N.p. [Minneapolis]: n.d. [ca. 1943-44].
$6,500
Original corrected 229-page typescript of Manfred's first novel, likely used as the setting copy by the publishers, Webb Publishing Company of Saint Paul, with numerous typographical notes as to typesize, fonts, picas, etc. and also containing many of what we assume to be last minute corrections to the text proper by Manfred himself - a couple of hundred instances where the typescript differs from the work as published.
Also, a 6-page corrected typescript of the copy used for the dust jacket, also a setting copy, but with no corrections by Manfred.
Also, page proofs for the same, tall 8vo, 129 leaves printed on rectos only, with extensive annotations throughout by the editior and printer, including the amending of a number of words and phrases in the text.
Also, a first edition of the book, 8vo, pp. [8], 226; fine copy in a near fine dust jacket. This copy inscribed "For Paul C. Hillestad 'our' first book together. Frederick Feikema Manfred." Hillestad was Manfred's editor at Webb.
64. [Marijuana.] Typescript manuscript of the short story "All the weed in the world," lightly corrected and signed. [ca. 1960].
$1,750
9 typescript leaves (11" x 8½"); uniformly toned, very occasional ink annotations in the author's hand, author signature below drop title; very good and sound.
Originally published in Playboy Magazine in 1961, "All the Weed in the World," is a rather disturbing short story on mental illness and drug addiction, with the cathartic ending of an arsonist setting fire to a deceased doctor's enormous pilfered stash of marijuana and flammable opiates: "[S]imply imagine that all the weed in the world has been harvested and dried and variously processed and [then] gather-in [sic] one spot close by you--all the hemp, all the hashish, all the bhang, kif, takrouri, dagga, charas, manzoul, maconha, djamba, esrar, tea, pot, and yummy...and that someone has set fire to this re[s]inous and ecstasy-loaded haystack and that you are sitting at a comfortable distance from it, inhaling the beautific smoke."
65. Les reveries ou memoires sur l'art de la guerre de Maurice Comte de Saxe, Duc de Courlande et de Semigalle, Maréchal-Général des Arme'es de S.M.T.C. &c. &c. &c. dediés a messieurs les officiers generaux … Edition aussi complette que la nouvelle edition de Paris en deux volumes in quarto, de 1757. La Haye: Pierre Gosse Junior, 1758.
$1,500
Folio, pp. xii, 228, [2] errata and binder's directions, [2]; 40 engraved plates (16 double page and 4 folding), and 41 engraved vignettes;
bound with: Bonneville, Supplement aux Reveries ou Mémoires sur l'art de la guerre de Maurice Comte de Saxe. La Haye, Chez Pierre Gosse, 1758, pp. 15, [1]; 21 engraved plates (4 double page and one folding); contemporary red morocco-backed boards, spine in 7 compartments, black morocco label in 1, gilt ornaments in the rest; the boards with an overlay of 20th century pastepaper, endpapers renewed.
A standard work on warfare by Maurice, Comte de Saxe, (1696-1750), marshal of France, son of the king of Poland, conqueror of the English, pretender to the dukedom of Kurland, and universal lover, here printed under the editorship of Zacharie de Pazzi de Bonneville. It is a remarkable work on the art of war. Though described by Carlyle as "a strange military farrago, dictated, as I should think, under opium,'"it is, in fact, a classic. It was published posthumously in 1757. This is the only folio edition.
66. [Midnight Paper Sales.] Lac des Pleurs. Report from Lake Pepin. [Stockholm, WI]: Midnight Paper Sales, 2015.
$8,000
Edition limited to 119 copies, this being one of 100 bound in quarter leather over marbled paper-covered boards (19 copies remain in sheets); folio (approx. 15½" x 10¼"), pp. [6], 9-11, [1], 15-25, [1], 29-31, [1], 35-37, [1], 41-43, [1], 47-66, [5]; large folding wood-engraved map and 8 multi-color wood engravings on 7 sheets (5 folding, depicting pelicans, fish, and river scenes) inserted; 31 other zinc engravings of fish in the text; introduction by Patrick Coleman; title page and box label printed from specially made wood type based on tracings by Russell Maret from Aldus Manutius's Hypnerotomachia Poliphili; the binding is by Craig Jensen, Book Lab II, using hand-made marbled paper by Jemma Lewis based on photographs of wet stones along the shores of Lake Pepin. As new, at the published price, in the original leather-backed clamshell box with pelican label on the spine.
Seven years in the making, this homage to Schanilec's second home, Lake Pepin - that great widening of the Mississippi River between St. Paul, Minnesota and La Crosse, Wisconsin - was his most ambitious project to date. The book is now out-of-print.
67. Errotika biblion. Rome [i.e., Paris or Neuchatel]: de l'imprimerie du Vatican, 1783.
$750
First edition, 8vo, pp. iv, 192; title-page vignette (2 cupids); bound in modern dark brown morocco gilt, a.e.g., by Wood; light wear, a few contemporary manuscript notes, fine.
A compendium of curiosities culled from ancient writings in an effort to present indelicate subjects such as onanism, tribalism, etc. in a manner acceptable to the general public. Written while Mirabeau was imprisoned in the castle of Vincennes, the book was, according to Kearney, pursued with such vigor by the authorities that only fourteen copies of the first edition have survived - a number almost assuredly inaccurate. Following a second edition of 1792, Errotika was included in the Papal Index of prohibited books.
"A further edition was ordered to be destroyed in 1826 by the Royal Court of Paris, and for 'outrages against public morality and good manners' there were two other prosecutions, in 1856 and 1868," (Kearney). The book was published in several subsequent editions and was included by Apollinaire, along with some of Mirabeau's other prison writings, in his scholarly edition of 1910, issued in the Bibliotheque des Curieux series.
Barbier II, 172. Graesse IV, 535. Kearney, Private Case 1190. Kearney, Erotic Literature, p. 80. Not in Brunet.
68. The earthly paradise, a poem. London: F. S. Ellis, 1868-1871.
$2,500
First editions throughout; 4 vols. in 3, as issued; 8vo, woodcut device designed by Morris on title page; original green cloth with paper labels on spines, light to moderate wear at extremities, a few small breaks at spine ends, small bubbles in cloth on covers, labels soiled and somewhat worn, generally good and sound, or better.
Volumes I and 2 (in 1), 1868, first edition, first issue, with misprint "my" for "thy" on p. 75; this copy inscribed by Morris on front flyleaf: "With the authors compliments," and with the misprint at p. 75 corrected in his hand; Forman 17. (Also included is another copy of volume I, first edition, first issue with misprint on p. 75, but with the original title page and spine label removed and replaced with a title dated 1870 stating "Parts I. & II," as also the replacement label; Forman p. 66 notes that this title page and label were inserted into volume IV for the use of owners of the 1868 edition, and furthermore, that he has "never seen a copy of the 1868 volume with new title inserted and the new label affixed.")
Volume III, 1870, first edition, with the 2pp. publisher's ads inserted at front, as called for by Forman 23; this copy with front hinge cracked.
Volume IV, 1870, first edition, with the title page and label for the 1868 version of Volume I inserted at back; Forman 30, noting that "I have met with very few copies of Part IV containing the extra title and label." Also included is another copy of Vol. IV, 1871, second edition, without the extra title and label at the back; Forman 31.
One of Morris's most endearing works, later published by the Kelmscott Press.
69. The American universal geography; or, a view of the present state of all the kingdoms, states, and colonies in the known world, and of the United States of America in particular. Boston: printed by J. T. Buckingham, for Thomas & Andrews, 1805.
$600
Fifth edition of volume I, fourth edition of volume II, 2 volumes, thick 8vo, pp. 6, [2], [17]-864; [4], [9]-664; 6 folding maps; some foxing, particularly on the maps, but generally a very good, sound set in contemporary full mottled calf, red morocco labels on spines.
The first volume deals with the Western Hemisphere, and the second the Eastern Hemisphere and Australasia. The title page states that the book is "accompanied by a General Atlas of the World, containing sixty-three maps by Arrowsmith and Lewis," but there is no atlas present, and Sabin makes no note of such an atlas.
Sabin 50926.
70. An harmony of the Gospels: in which the original text is disposed after Le Clerc's general manner; with such various readings at the foot of the page as have Wetstein's sanction in his folio edition of the Greek Testament. Observations are subjoined tending to settle the time and place of every transaction, to establish the series of facts, and to reconcile seeming inconsistencies. Dublin: printed by Robert Marchbank, for William Hallhead, 1778.
$1,250
First edition, tall folio (18½ inches), pp. [4], x, 279, [1], 72 (Notes on the Harmony of the Gospels, Appendixes, Notes), [4] (tables); engraved map of the Holy Land with an inset of Jerusalem; text largely in 6 columns; text in Greek and Roman character, occasional pertinent inserts pasted in the margins (largely Greek); contemporary full speckled calf, neatly rebacked, old red morocco label preserved; edges a bit rubbed, but the binding is sound, the text clean, and on the whole, a very good copy.
With occasional ink and pencil annotations in the margins and early ownership inscriptions of Wm. Leversage, Brasenose College, Oxon; and a slightly later one of Thomas Vowler Short, Christ Church, Oxon, July 17, 1813 (1790-1872, Bishop of Sodor and Man, and of St. Asaph).
The six columns of text have 4 larger ones in the center of the page (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), and two smaller ones on the sides of time and place which Newcome strives to "harmonize," meaning to place in chronological order. The annotations are likely in Short's hand.
71. Leaves. [By] J. N. Edinburgh: printed for private circulation, 1854.
$450
First edition of the author's first book, 8vo, pp. viii, 163, [1]; contemporary quarter maroon morocco over boards; small ink stain at top of upper board, some minor wear at edges, but generally a very good, sound copy.
Inscribed on the flyleaf "To the Rev. Dr. King, with the very sincere regards of John Nichol." Also with a small ms. correction by Nichol in the Preface.
John Nichol (1833-1894) was the only son of the famous astronomer, John Pringle Nichol, and was a professor of English literature at Glasgow, a poet, a popular lecturer, and a writer of numerous miscellaneous literary works. See the DNB Supplement for a long account of his storied life.
72. [Palmistry.] La science curieuse, ou traite de la chyromance, recueilly des plus graves autheurs qui ont traite de cette matiere, & plus exactement recherche qu'il n'a este cy-devant par aucun autre.. Paris: Francois Clousier, 1667.
$850
Second edition (first edition was 1665), sm. 4to, pp. [8], 212 plus 90 copper-engraved plates of palms; old limp vellum; good and sound.
Jean Taisnier (1508-1562) was a musician, mathematician and astrologer. His greatest work was his Opus Mathematicum octo libros complectens (1562), an astrological work, much of which is devoted to the interpretation of the lines and aspects of the palm for divination and prognostications, and much collected from various sources. As published by Clousier a century later, this became known as one of the best treatises on palmistry of the 17th century.
73. The Jesuits in North America in the seventeenth century. Part second. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1867.
$2,000
First edition, 8vo, pp. lxxxix, [3], 463; 20th century three-quarter blue levant over marbled boards, gilt lettering direct on gilt-paneled spine; upper joint a little rubbed, else near fine.
This copy inscribed "Compliments of F. Parkman." A penciled note on the flyleaf notes that presentation copies of Parkman are rare. Likely so. This is the first we've had in 50 years in the trade. The "part second" on the title page refers to the on-going series by Parkman, France and England in North America, concluded with the publication of A Half-Century of Conflict, part six [of seven], in 1892.
BAL 15455.
74. A series of dissertations on some elegant and very valuable Anglo-Saxon remains. I. A gold coin … II. A silver coin … IV. A jewel in the Bodleyan Library. V. Second thoughts on Ld. Pembroke's coin … with a preface, wherein the question, whether the Saxons coined any gold or not, is candidly debated with Mr. North. London: J. Whiston and B. White, 1756.
$750
First edition, 4to, pp. [2], xi, [1], [13]-42; engraved frontispiece;
bound with: Pettingal, John. A dissertation upon the tascia, or legend on the British coins of Cunobelin and others. London, 1763, pp. [2], 9; engraved plate;
bound with: [Webb, Philip Carteret.] A short account of some particulars concerning Domes-Day Book, with a view to promote its being published. By a member of the Society of Antiquaries… London, 1756, pp. [2], 21;
bound with: [Webb, P.C.] A short account of Danegeld: with some further particulars relating to Will. the Conqueror's survey… London, 1756, pp. [2], 38 (leaf F1 missigned and out of order);
bound with: Pettingal, John. The Latin inscription on the copper table discovered in the year 1732, near Heraclea, in the Bay of Tarentum, in Magna Graecia… London, 1760, pp. 9; folding engraved frontispiece;
bound with: Webb, P.C. An account of a copper table containing two inscriptions, in the Greek and Latin tongues… London, 1760, pp. 10; 3 engraved plates (1 folding, 1 double-p., one a repeat of that in the previous);
bound with: Reponse de Monsieur Needham de la Société Royale des Sciences … aux deux lettres de Monsieur Bartoli, antiquaire de S. M. le Roi de Sardaigne [drop title], Turin: de l'Imprimerie Royale, 1762, pp. [2], 18; 2 tables and 1 folding engraved plate.
Together, seven titles, all in a speckled calf binding, neatly rebacked. With the exception of the first and last, all ordered to be printed by the Society of Antiquaries of London. Webb's Short Account of …the Domes-Day Book is of some interest as he took a leading role in getting the manuscript published, even though it wasn't until 1783 that the edition finally appeared.
75. The elements of the English language [Les elemens de la langue Angloise...], explained in a new, easy, and concise manner, by way of dialogues; in which the pronunciation is taught by an union of letters that produces similar sounds in French ... With familiar phrases, dialogues, and a vocabulary, very useful for those who desire to speak English correctly.... [Brussells printed:] London: and to be had also in Brussells, at M. Lamaire, 1796.
$500
"New edition enlarged ... and enriched with many new rules and remarks, very proper to remove those difficulties that still retard the progress of foreigners." 12mo, pp. [2] ads, x, [9]-486; parallel titles in French and English; contemporary full sheep worn and with crack starting at top of front joint; some chipping at top of spine; sound.
This edition not in ESTC and only one copy in Belgium in OCLC.
76. [Photography.] 写真鏡図説 [Shashin Kyozusetsu] [= Illustrated photography manual]. Tokyo: Chugai-do, 1867-68.
$3,750
First edition, 2 volumes, pp. [56]; [68]; a number of woodcut illustrations of photographic equipment and techniques for development; original blue wrappers, title labels, printed paper labels on upper covers; good and sound, or better.
Yanagawa was a student of Rangaku, or Dutch studies. He headed an early attempt at establishing a westernized educational department, which dissolved when the Shogunate fell to the Meiji restoration, and he wrote a number of texts on western technology and culture.The text of this book is derived from the work of Rene Dagron, the French photographer and inventor. It is one of the first textbooks on photography published in Japan.
Not found in OCLC.
77. [Precious Metals.] An historical inquiry into the production and consumption of the precious metals.. London: John Murray, 1831.
$450
First edition, 2 volumes, 8vo, pp. xvi, 380; xi, [1], 415, [1]; later full speckled calf by Riviere, red and green morocco labels on gilt-decorated spines, marbled edges and endpapers; 19th-century bookplate; slightest rubbing, else near fine.
William Jacob (1762?-1851) was appointed to the comptrollership of corn returns in 1822. "On the suggestion of Huskisson, Jacob undertook an inquiry into the production and consumption of the precious metals. This work shows great research, but is defective, which may be attributed partly, for the more recent periods, to the insufficient historical information available then" (Palgrave II, 471).
Goldsmiths' 26788; Kress C.2842.
78. Purchas his pilgrimage. Or relations of the world and the religions observed in all ages and places… a theologicall and geographicall historie of Asia, Africa, and America, with the lands adjacent ... The fourth edition, much enlarged with additions, and illustrated with mappes though the whole worke, and three whole treatises annexed, one of Russia and other northeasterne regions . London: printed by William Stansby for Henry Fetherstone, 1626.
$15,000
Folio, pp. [42], 1047 (i.e. 1051), [1], [35]; 23 engraved maps in the text; one inserted double-p. map of China; one other engraving in the text; sectional title pages for Two Relations, one of the northeasterne parts, extracted out of Sir Ierome Horsey (p. 969); and, The Saracentical historie ... written in Arabike by George Elmacin ... and translated into Latine by Thomas Erpenius (p. 1009); title within ruled margin, headlines within double rule, side notes in outer margins; line count in inner margins, woodcut head- and tail-pieces, woodcut initials; last leaf torn in the fore-margin with large piece missing but not touching any letterpress; joints cracked, cords holding; old calf-backed boards, rubbed, worn, and peeling, but sound. Enclosed in a new clamshell box.
Several early ownership signatures on title-page, and the signature on 4T8 of Charles Cotton (1630-1687), English poet, translator of Montaigne, author of The Compleat Gamester and collaborator with Isaac Walton on The Compleat Angler.
The second issue of the fourth edition, and the first illustrated edition, termed "the best edition" by Church, was the last printed in Purchas' lifetime. It was published at the suggestion of King James I and the request of King Charles I to accompany the first edition of the author's Pilgrimes published in 1625. Most of the maps here in the fourth edition are taken from Hondius; the folded map of China may have been engraved by Elstracke. All were repeated in Pilgrimes. Books 8 and 9 relate to America (pp. 791-967).
Sabin 66678; STC 20505; Church, 401A; Lowndes, IV, 2011.
79. [Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino.] Istoria della vita e delle opere di Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino ... voltata in Italiano, corretta, illustrata ed ampliata per cura di Francesco Longhena. Milano: Francesco Sonzogno, 1829.
$850
First edition of Francesco Longhena's Italian translation of Quatremère de Quincy's Histoire de la vie et des ouvrages de Raphaël, first published in Paris in 1824; 8vo, pp. [18], xii, 847, [1]; engraved title and 22 engraved plates (several folding), plus a folding facsimile letter; fine copy in original blue printed paper-covered boards, green silk bookmark.
The illustrations in this edition are all new and reproduce paintings in a dozen named Italian collections, including scenes from Raphaël's life and his portrait.
80. The farmer's promotion book, a new scientific manuring system for the cultivation and increase of all kinds of grains, grasses and fodder and pasture, upon all kinds of soil, proved by actual experiments and based on evident truths. Designed to improve agriculture in all its branches. Represented by upward of one hundred and fifty engravings, of the most valuable grasses and plants connected with the system.. Pittsburgh: W.S. Haven, 1856.
$450
First edition, slim 4to, pp. xii, 13-127, [1]; 3 folding lithograph botanical plates by Wm. Schuchman & Bro.; generally, a fine copy in original green cloth, gilt-lettered on upper cover; spine slightly sunned.
The plates are clean and crisp and represent Schuchman's finest work.
81. [Repoussé Binding.] The cottage homes of England. Drawn by Helen Allingham and described by Stewart Dick. With sixty-four full-page coloured plates from pictures never before reproduced. London: Edward Arnold, 1909.
$750
First edition, 8vo, pp. [2], xvi, 287, [1]; prelims and terminals spotted, otherwise near fine in contemporary three-quarter green morocco, the gilt-lettered spine repoussé (three-dimentional, raised design) with tan calf panel and raised illustration in blind of a cottage garden in the style of the illustrator, a.e.g.
Though not signed, the binding is certainly by Bayntun.
82. Brothers of no kin and other stories.. New York: Hinds, Hayden & Eldredge, [1924].
$850
First edition of the author's first book, 8vo, pp. viii, 340; original maroon cloth lettered in gilt, very good in the first issue dust jacket with slightly darkened spine, short tear to spine and a few chips at edges.
Signed by Richter on front free endpaper. Laid in is a typed letter signed by Harvena Richter, the author's daughter, informing a fan that Brothers of No Kin was Richter's "first book and no volume of his fiction was published between that and Early Americana."
83. [Riverside Press.] Dies irae. Cambridge: privately printed [at the Riverside Press], 1863.
$1,500
Small 8vo, pp. 15; English and Latin on opposite pages; with the second reading in the first line: "Day of vengeance" instead of the original, "Day of weeping."
Bound with: Jacobus de Benedictis, Stabat Mater. Cambridge: privately printed [at the Riverside Press], pp. 11; English and Latin on opposite pages.
Presentation copy to "Miss Folsom, with the kind regards of John A. Dix, Paris, 8 Jan. 1869."
The first title is extra-illustrated with 3 albumen prints of Christian art, and the second title extra-illustrated with 7 albumen prints of the same; on a separate leaf bound in at the end is a manuscript index to the photographs in the hand of Dix, listing the title of the photograph and the page number where inserted; bound in full crushed brown morocco by L. Curmer, red silk moiré endpapers, inner dentelles, a.e.g., etc. and with a blindstamped crucifix on the covers; red moiré-lined chemise, recent brown cloth slipcase with morocco label.
John Adams Dix (1798-1879) was Secretary-of-State of New York, served as a U.S. Senator from New York, and as Secretary of Treasury under Lincoln, who commissioned him a Major-General in the U.S. Army; he served also as Minister to France from 1866-69, and in 1872 was elected Governor of New York.
The book is apparently unique. The photographs are almost certainly by Dix himself, a known photographer. The Miss Folsom in the presentation is possibly Helen S. Folsom, the sister [?] of George Folsom, a New York author and antiquarian who served in local politics.
84. [Sanskrit Literature.] Kavya-prakasa. [A treatise on poetry and rhetoric.]. Calcutta (?): n.d., [ca. late 19th century].
$1,250
Oblong folio, printed in Nagari (Devanagari) characters throughout; pp. [392]; 4 woodcut diagrams in the text; bound in western style quarter green calf as a tall, narrow folio, with a citron morocco label on spine; rebacked, old spine neatly laid down.
This edition not noted in the Catalogue of the India Office Library, Vol. II, Part 1: Sanskrit Books, 1959 where 18 editions are listed from 1829 up to 1921.
A disciple of Abbinavagupta, the famous poet, critic, philosopher and saint of Kashmir, Mammatacarya, the famous author of Kavya-rakasa … "was not only a profound philosopher, but also an acute critic and successful poet. He lived in the later part of the 10th century A.D. He wrote more than forty works … [His] Kavya- prakash still remains the most authentic and authoritative work on poetics in the whole gamut of Sanskrit literature" (http://[dot]koausa[dot]org/Vitasta/12a.html).
85. Lexico Graeco-Latinum, e probatis auctoribus locupletatum cum indicibus... Accedunt lexicon etymologicum... et Ioan. Meursii glossarium contractum... Editio nova accurata.. Amsterdam: Joannes Blaeu & Ludovicum Elzevirium, 1652.
$1,250
Folio, 4 preliminary leaves, lexicon in 1790 columns and thus paged, 119 leaves of indices, 1 blank leaf, plus 366 columns; printed in Greek and Roman letter; title printed in red and black, woodcut initials and ornaments; full crimson 18th century straight-grain morocco, gilt floral border on covers, gilt-decorated spine in 7 compartments, gilt-lettered direct in 1minor rubbing, corners bumped, bottom third of the front coverdarkened (from smoke?); otherwise a very good, sound, and handsome copy.
"John Scapula was on the staff of the author and printer, Henri Estienne, whose great Greek Thesaurus was published at Geneva in 1572. Estienne had spent twelve years of his life in research on this work and in consequence it had to be very costly. Scapula decided to leave the firm and on doing so 'lifted' much of Estienne's material, which he incorporated into his own great lexicon, first published at Basel in 1580, at a cheap price. Scapula's work went through edition after edition, whereas the real author's work 'hung fire' and he was practically ruined" (Maggs Catalogue 891, item 382). "The two editions of 1652 are the most esteemed, and sell at a very high price - from their extraordinary rarity" (Dibdin).
86. Surgundo. [The valiant christian]. Edinburgh: Thomas G. Stevenson, 1837.
$325
First and only edition, 50 copies only printed, 4to, pp. [4], ix, [1], 69; engraved frontispiece of Lord and Lady Huntly executed by Sharpe from the originals by Jameson at Gordon Castle; engraved vignette title page by Strothard; typographical ornaments; contemporary quarter brown morocco lettered in gilt on spine, extremities rubbed, else very good.
A metrical history of the feuds and conflicts of George, Lord Gordon, and the Gordon family, with notes. The leaf before the half-title, printed in red and black, announces that "Since these sheets were printed off, on inspecting the original manuscript, that the proper title of this poem is 'The Valiant Christian' which was omitted through the stupidity of the transcriber."
87. Diccionario nuevo de las lenguas española y francesa... [Dictionnaire Nouveau des Langues Françoise et Espagnole...] con las phrases y modos de hablar particuláres, facadas de diferentes autores españoles, principalemente de Covarrubias, Saavedra, Quevedo, Gracian, Solis, y del diccionario de la Academie Real Española. Brusselas: Enrique-Alberto Gosse y Soc. Mercad. de Libros, 1744.
$1,250
"Quarta edicion, considerablemente augmentada, y nuevamente corregida," 2 volumes, 4to; engraved frontispiece, vignette title pages printed in red and black, text in triple column; contemporary full sheep recently rebacked in tan calf, black morocco spine labels, all edges red; boards rubbed and worn along edges; discrete blindstamps accomplished in pencil of the British and Foreign Bible Society, else mostly very good and sound.
With an early owner's sophistication of neatly attached hand-lettered parchment thumb tabs at fore-edges, approximately 46 in all (none appear to be missing), each hand-lettered with a letter of the alphabet;
This edition not in Vancil or Zaunmüller.
88. English literature and society in the eighteenth century. Ford lectures, 1903. London: Duckworth, 1904.
$900
First edition, 8vo, pp. [8], 224; fine copy in original brown cloth, gilt-lettered spine, and original printed dust jacket; spine of jacket darkened and a little chipped, and with a small stain or two, but the jacket is generally very good.
The author's last book, published on the very day of his death. Four pages of closely-written contemporary mss. notes laid in, apparently made in connection with a review.
Leslie Stephen, of course, was the father of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell.
89. An account of the proceedings at the dinner given by Mr. George Peabody to the Americans connected with the Great Exhibition at the London Coffee House, Ludgate Hill on the 27th October 1851. London: William Pickering [printed for private distribution], 1851.
$375
First edition, tall 8vo, pp. 114, [1]; title printed in red and black; handsomely printed by Charles Whittingham; top of spine chipped, bottom of spine and extremities rubbed, else a good, sound copy in original blue blindstamped cloth, gilt lettering on spine and upper cover, a.e.g.
Presentation copy to George B. Blake from George Peabody on the front free endpaper.
Among the 140 or so attendees were John Carter Brown, Samuel Colt, George Sumner, and Henry Stevens of Vermont who has written the introductory note and who probably edited the text. "The dinner reported in the following pages was given by Mr. Peabody with the double purpose of manifesting his respect for the gentlemen who were his guests, and of fostering brotherly love, and cementing yet closer the reunion, between England and America" (Stevens' introductory note).
90. [Stradivarius, Antonio.] How many Strads? Our heritage from the master. A tribute to the memory of a great genius compiled in the year marking the tercentenary of his birth. Being a tabulation of works believed to survive produced in Cremona by Antonio Stradivari between 1666 and 1737…. Chicago: William Lewis and Son, 1945.
$350
First edition ltd. to 1400 numbered copies, 4to, pp. 379, [1]; errata slip tipped to flyleaf; numerous illustrations throughout; full brown morocco, gilt rules on covers, gilt-paneled spine, t.e.g.; fine. From the library of Lee Shelby, with his signature in gilt in the lower left corner of the upper cover.
91. [Supreme Court.] Installation of Warren E. Burger, Chief Justice of the United States [cover title]. Washington, D.C.: 1969.
$750
8vo, 10-p. program, string bound inside larger illustrated wrappers, inscribed on the front "To Harvey T. Reid, for a most valued friend, counselor. and companion of riding trails and good dining - and for Agnes - with greetings & best wishes, Warren E. Burger, Washington August 21, 1969."
92. [Theatre.] A small archive containing photographs, announcements, and correspondence pertaining to W. H. Crane. V.p.: [1867-1931].
$4,500
William H. Crane (b. 1845-1928) was a prominent American actor who worked in opera, comedy, farce, and vaudeville. Crane's first appearance was in Donizetti’s The Daughter of the Regiment in 1863 in Utica, NY with the Holman Opera Company with whom he toured for eight years. Perhaps best-known for his comedic dramas and Shakespearian plays, such as The Comedy of Errors, accompanied by Stuart Robson, with whom he acted and produced for twelve years. He also starred in such plays as The Senator and David Harum. In 1904, he played Isidore Izard in Business is Business, from an adaptation of Mirbeau’s Les Affaires sont les Affaires. Later in his career, he appeared in many silent drama films, most notably (the reprise of his Broadway role) in David Harum (1915), and Three Wise Fools (1923).
Not only was Crane a favorite of the American stage, he was well-established in New York and Hollywood theater circles, and his colorful stories of this era are captured in his book, Footprints and Echoes. Crane married Ella Chloe Myers in 1870 who played a major role in his various theatre companies and was known by the profession as 'Aunt Ella'
The collection includes:
Photographs (approx. 190 in all). Many of the larger photographs are chipped and/or creased in the margins; overall the condition is less than fine, but the collection is solid and many of the photographs quite compelling:
small envelope containing 11 small black & white photographs of Crane from 1873-1917 (press shots);
envelope containing 17 black & white photos of Crane in character/costume in various roles;
envelope with 9 black & white photos of Crane in character;
envelope with 13 black & white photos of Crane in character;
envelope with 7 portraits of Crane;
envelope with 5 portraits of an older Crane;
envelope with 2 portraits (one of Crane’s sister and one of his mother);
13 larger black & white photos of Crane;
12 large portraits of Crane (they were used as the cover of a program for a dinner honoring Crane at the Waldorf–Astoria (1916);
2 programs from the ‘dinner’ previously mentioned (1916);
10 large photographs of Crane at various ages (some pictured with others);
an assortment of 20 photos of actors/actresses such as Sallie Holman, Charles Warner, Edythe Chapman, James Neill, Joe Brooks, Ann O’Neil, W.H. Turner, Alice Harrison, and Lizzie Hudson Collier;
folder of photographs of Ella Chloe Myers (Mrs. Crane) at various ages, and a clipping of her when she played “Ella” in the Belle of Utica;
photograph of Ella's room at the Hollywood Hotel (1931);
3 portraits of Crane in character, one of which is inscribed to Mabelle Duffy (1924);
4 large photographs of Crane with other characters during a performance (n.d.);
15 large portraits (mounted on heavier stock, with some having gilt edges) of Crane in various characters/performances;
8 medium-sized portraits of Crane in character (mounted on heavier stock);
27 folio-sized photographs of Crane w/other actors taken during various performances, with an additional 17 labeled from various scenes in manuscript;
large portrait of Crane inscribed to “Jim and the Boss” (1909);
2 medium-sized portraits in character of Crane & Emily Melville from “The Rivals”;
envelope with 5 black & white photos (Crane with Jim Woods)
Journals: (June/July 1898) manuscript on rectos of 40 pages. Crane documents a solo trip to Europe, apparently for health reasons. He arrives at The Grandhotel Pupp, Carlsbad, Czech Republic (famous spa resort in the 19th century) and meets Dr. J. Krause Sr. to begin a strict daily regimen of exercise, rest, baths, drinking the ‘Felsenquelle’ spring water, and diet (no sweets, dairy, raw fruits or vegetables, beer, or soup). Daily excerpts describe hiking, meeting new people, the weather and his environs. “Saw Prince Eugene of Austria at the Springs – Brother to the Queen of Spain…” . By June 30th he still experiences headaches and nervousness, and his doctor prescribes Citrate of Lithia twice a day as part of his regimen. In mid-July, he arrives in Belgium and writes about how lovely the weather and the sea are, he sees many old friends, describes how a Banjo musician knew his name because he had seen him in a recent play. While still in Belgium, on July 15th he reflects on his stay in Carlsbad, “…very lonesome here, and I have an awful headache, shall take Calomel tonight – my liver doesn’t act right and I can’t understand it – Carlsbad is a wonderful place but doesn’t seem to me now as though it has helped my liver as I thought – the regular hours, the peculiar way of eating, drinking the water in the morning—with the great amount of walking through the pine woods, up/down hills – ought to have a stronger effect on me than thought…”. Crane’s observations reveal a unique perspective into his personal life, as well as the time period.
Magazines/playbills:
‘The Players Ninth Annual Revival – Milestones” (1930);
3 programs Sheridan’s The Rivals featuring Crane (1896);
11 pages (disbound) of Le Theatre (1903);
monthly magazine Dino de Laurentiis Productions (from Rome, n.d.);
“The players’ eighth annual revival featuring Becky Sharp by Langdon Mitchell and inscribed on upper cover to Mrs. Crane by the actor Roy Day (1929);
large souvenir – “The Henrietta” a comedy by Bronson Howard, produced by the comedians Robson & Crane, Union Square Theatre, New York (100th performance) 1887 (quarto, pp. 10, illustrated, ribbon-tied).
Announcements/programs:
small envelope containing 11 newsprint play/theatre programs that Crane acted in (or attended) (1867, 1874, 1884-…) [some are dated, in fragile condition with small tears at folds];
wedding anniversary announcement, and “from Eugene Field’s Famous Column – Sharps and Flats (Daily News, June 1891 – dedicated to Mrs. Wm. H. Crane”, and a ribbon souvenir of Shakespeare’s As You Like It performance (1887) featuring W. H. Crane.
Correspondence:
letter from Ella Crane to Miss Charlotte Witts (1919);
2 letters from Crane to Mrs. James Duffy (1919) speaking of a performance in L.A. and the other w/the playbill from the Community Theatre heavily annotated by Crane;
receipt from the Museum of the City of New York of 93 photographs, clippings, etc. from the Estate of William Crane for the Theatre Collection (1941) addressed envelope to Mr. James Duffy esq. (Executor);
3 letters to Mr. Duffy (Jim) from Crane (1920-21);
Annual Report from the Museum of the City of New York (1941);
envelope with the will and court papers of Ella Crane (1931);
2 newspaper obit clips from The Wasp (1928).
Footprints and Echoes by William H. Crane, New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1927, first edition, 8vo, pp. ix, [3], 232; illus., index; stamps of The Actor's Equity Association on front free endpaper, review copy request slip paper clipped to front free endpaper, blue cloth stamped in gilt, light wear to extremities. Together with 10 prospectuses for the book.
Crane’s inlaid walking stick (curly maple & ash) with an engraved presentation silver top reading: “To William H. Crane with whom I have spent many happy hours, Dr. Hugh K. McClelland.”
93. On the study of words: lectures addressed (originally) to the pupils at the Diocesan Training School, Winchester. London: John W. Parker and Son, 1853.
$375
Fourth edition, revised; small 8vo, pp. vii, [1], 216, 8 (ads); original brown embossed cloth with gilt lettering on spine; very good, sound copy. Engraved armorial bookplate of Henry Drummond (1786-1860) the Christian writer, banker, and politician.
Laid in an autograph sentiment reading: "Yours truly, Trench, 26 October, 1882" on embossed stationery.
Trench is an unrecognized hero in English lexicography. Not only did he popularize "a rational and scientific study of language," but he suggested and laid out the overall plan for the Oxford English Dictionary in 1857-58. He published two small books The Study of Words (1851), and English Past and Present (1855), and a seminal paper "On Some Deficiencies in Our English Dictionaries" (1857), the last of which is honored as "a statement of what an English dictionary ought to be. No one who reads it can fail to see how clearly he anticipated the lines on which the [Philological] Society's dictionary was ultimately compiled--all of them, indeed, a necessary result from the historical principle which he laid down as the only sound basis for the work" (from the Historical Introduction to the O.E.D., by Craige and Onions, 1933).
94. El-khuds, the holy; or, glimpses in the orient. Philadelphia: James Challen & Son, 1861.
$300
First edition, 8vo, pp. 475, [1], [4] ads; 10 tinted lithograph plates, including those of Jaffa, Jerusalem, and Malta; some rubbing of extremities, and spine a little dull, but generally a very good copy in publisher's full black morocco, ornately gilt-stamped on covers and spine, a.e.g.
The author was from Petersburg, Virginia. He and two companions, having finished studying in Paris, headed east via Naples and Malta for the Holy Land. "Within ... will be found all that is necessary for the tourist of pleasure, the pilgrim to the shrines, and the curious traveller."
Not in American Travellers Abroad.
95. [Vietnam.] Mission de Survol des Postes du centre at sud-Annam et liaisons avec troupes des subdivisions de Vinh-Hue, Quang-Ngai, [et] Ban-Me-Thuot. Bach-Mai Airfield, Hanoi: 1935.
$3,500
41-page quarto typescript variously paginated, full-page hand-colored map of Vietnam, and 67 mounted photographs (approx. 6" x 8½") showing aerial views of the various villages, hamlets, and French outposts in central and south Vietnam, each with a tissue guard; later brown cloth-backed marbled boards, leather label on spine; very good and sound.
The text consists of a 2-page "Ordres de Mission," as issued by Le Captaine Buchette-Puyperoux, commandant at Bach-Mai, with his signature in purple ink, and with his "Formations Aeriennes Indochine" stamp; an 11-page "Journal des Marches," March 2-27, 1935 describing in journal form the aerial undertaking, including flight durations and unusual incidents; a 17-page "Compte-Rendus de Mission," by "L'Observateur Adjudant Lombard, signed 5 times in purple ink by Buchette-Puyperoux, each with his "Formations Aeriennes Indochine" stamp; a 5-page "Enregistrement des Vols," noting the various sorties, pilots, passengers, flight times, and locations of the photographs, etc.; a 3-p. account of the "Photographies," essentially captions to the 67 photographs, signed by Buchette-Puyperoux, and with his "Formations Aeriennes Indochine stamp; and a 2-page "Mise en Pages des Photographies."
Clearly an official dossier of sorts, covering postal flights in central and southern Annam, and links with troops in the subdivisions. Not found bibliographically, and certainly one of a very small number assembled, and possibly unique. The last page notes that this is the first such undertaking by the French in Vietnam.
96. Music and the Anglo-Saxons: being some account of the Anglo-Saxon orchestra, with remarks on the church music of the nineteenth century.. London: William Pickering, 1837.
$425
First edition, thin 8vo, pp. [2], viii, 46; 2 engraved plates; half green morocco gilt over marbled boards by Riviere for Basil Montague Pickering, t.e.g.; fine copy. Not in Keynes.
97. [Water Cures.] The home doctor: a guide to health. San Francisco: San Francisco News Co. [E. Bosqui & Co., printers and bookbinders], 1878.
$450
12mo, pp. xx, 505, [1]; wood-engraved frontispiece portrait and a number of small wood engravings in the text; fine and bright in original brown pebble-grain cloth, gilt lettering and decoration on spine, marbled page edges.
Dr. Bourne's water cure was available in San Francisco during the Gold Rush from late 1850 to 1869 with one establishment being at 629 Market St. which had 29 electri-chemical baths in 1862. Bourne sold the business in 1869 and moved to Lake Tahoe to open a new facility at Cornelian Bay which promoted rarified, pure mountain air, and hot and cold mineral springs as an answer to healthful living. (Dr. Bourne actually tried to change the name of Lake Tahoe to Lake Sanitoria.) By 1876 the Cornelian Bay Hotel was a regular stop for the steamer Governor Stanford, and excursionists combed the shoreline for carnelian stones and many opted to take Dr. Bourne's water cure, many different treatments of which are discussed in this book.
Not in Cordasco.
98. [West Indies.] The history civil and commercial, of the British colonies in the West Indies. Third edition, with considerable additions. London: John Stockdale, 1801.
$2,500
3 volumes, 8vo, pp. xxiv, xxiii, [1], 576; viii, 617, [1]; [4], xxxii, 477, [1], blank leaf, [6] ads; engraved frontispiece portrait and 21 maps and plates, all folding (that of St. Domingo as large as 26" x 38") plus a number of printed tables throughout; interesting, venerable set in original blue paper-covered boards, cream paper shelf-backs, printed paper labels on volumes 2 and 3, early mss. label on volume 1; the boards dirty, the spines chipped, with modest loss at tops and bottoms; internally clean; a compelling set.
The best edition of Edwards's famous work, the last edition revised by the author before his death, including for the first time a note on his death by Sir William Young (who also contributes "A Tour through the Several Islands of Barbados, St. Vincent, Antigua, Tobago and Grenada, in the years 1791 and 1792" in volume 3); a life of the author written by himself a short time before his death; and prefaces to the first and second editions. This edition also incorporates for the first time, accrding to Sabin, Edwards' "Historical Survey of the French Colony in the Island of St. Domingo, Comprehending an Account of the Revolt of the Negroes…"
James Ford Bell E55 citing the second edition (2 vols. 4to) of 1794: "An excellent and full general survey of the peoples, products, government, and history of the islands in the West Indies under British control." Sabin 21901.
99. A journal of the Swedish Embassy in the years 1653 and 1654 ... First published from the original manuscript by Dr. Charles Morton. A new edition, revised by Henry Reeve, Esq.. London: Longman, Brown [et al.], 1855.
$450
2 vols., 8vo, pp. [iii]-xlvii, [1], 451; [4], 468; slightly later polished blue calf, double gilt rules on covers, elaborately gilt-decorated spines in 6 compartments, red morocco labels in 2; minor rubbing; very good, sound, and handsome.
"Whitelocke's "instructions authorized him not only to make a general treaty of amity, but to come to an agreement with Sweden for securing the freedom of the Sound against Denmark and the united provinces ... The treaty which he negotiated, which was long delayed by the desire of the Swedes to await the upshot of the peace negotiations between England and Holland, and by the difficulties which the impending resignation of Queen Christiana threw in its way ... was little more than a general expression of friendship between the two states ... [Nonetheless, it is] an authority of permanent value."
100. A collection of 28 her works -- all family copies, all inscribed. Boston & New York: 1857-1904.
$3,000
Adeline Dutton Train Whitney (1824-1906) was an American poet and writer who published more than 25 books for girls; her books were popular throughout her life but have now passed on into obscurity. She was born in Boston and educated in Boston schools, among her teachers were George B. Emerson and Lyman Beecher. At the age of 19 she married Seth Dunbar Whitney, a wealthy merchant twenty years her senior. Once her children were attending school she began writing in earnest. "Whitney wrote mainly for young girls and supported conservative values, notably the belief that a woman's happiest place is in the home" (Wikipedia).
Condition overall is generally very good or better. Many of the books have the pencil annotation "4-4".
Present in this collection are most all of her published works, including her uncommon first book, Footsteps on the seas: a poem. Boston, 1857. First and only edition, original blue cloth; ownership signature of W. L. W. Field (i.e., William Lusk Webster Field (1876-1963) her grandson, and later headmaster of Milton Academy 1917-1942). Also:
The Gayworthys: a story of threads and thrums. London: Sampson, Low, Son, & Marston, 1865. First British edition, 2 volumes, original green cloth, gilt-stamped spines; with a new preface addressed to the British market; spines skewed, rear joint on volume II cracked through;
Holy Tides. Seven songs of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Whitsun, Trinity. Boston & New York, 1886. First edition, printed in four colors; original limp japon vellum covers, and preserving the remains of a plain paper dust jacket;
Daffodils. Boston & New York, 1887. First edition, original gilt-decorated cream and yellow cloth, t.e.g. Inscribed to her grandchildren Will and Rebecca [Field], "from Grannie, October, 1902," followed by eight lines of verse; enclosed is a two-page A.L.s from Roderick Stebbins (1859-1928, Unitarian minister) to Will Field, enclosing a bifolium containing four verses by his grandmother A.D.T. Whitney, which were "written at the time of the death of Miss Elizabeth Swift ... [and which] were read at Miss Swift's funeral";
Selections from the writings of Mrs. A.D.T. Whitney. Boston & New York, 1887. First edition, original card wrappers, with dust jacket printed in red and black; inscribed by A.D.T. Whitney to her daughter, "Caroline Leslie Field with her mother's love ... Not transferable!"
Pansies. Boston & New York, 1893. Eleventh edition, original gilt-decorated cream and blue cloth, t.e.g. Inscribed to her grandchildren Will and Rebecca [Field], "from Grannie, October, 1902," followed by six lines of verse;
White memories. Boston & New York, 1894. First edition, original gilt-decorated cream cloth, t.e.g. Inscribed to her grandchildren Will and Rebecca [Field], "from Grannie, October, 1902," followed by eight lines of verse, Poems memorializing Phillips Brooks, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Lucy Larcom;
Bird talk. Boston & New York, 1899. Original pictorial blue cloth. Inscribed to her grandchildren Will and Rebecca [Field], "from Grannie, October, 1902," followed by six lines of verse;
The open mystery: a reading of the mosaic story. Boston & New York, 1897. First edition, original red cloth, gilt-stamped spine, t.e.g. Inscribed to her grandchildren Will and Rebecca [Field], "from Grannie, October, 1902," followed by eight lines of prose;
The integrity of Christian Science. Boston & New York, 1900. First edition, original red cloth, gilt-stamped spine, t.e.g.; front hinge cracked. Inscribed to her grandchildren Will and Rebecca [Field], "from Grannie, October, 1902," followed by three lines of verse;
Biddy's episodes. Boston & New York, 1904. First edition, original blue pictorial cloth stamped in white; with a calling card tipped in reading: "Maddie, with much love from Adeline D. T. Whitney, Oct. 1904";
Faith Gartney's girlhood. Boston & New York, 1893. Inscribed to her grandchildren Will and Rebecca [Field], "from Grannie, October, 1902," followed by six lines of verse; this edition (and those listed below) from the "Novels & Stories" series of A.D.T. Whitney, issued by Houghton Mifflin, all uniformly bound in (mostly) matching original decorative green cloth, with floral motif on upper covers and spines;
Hitherto: a story of yesterdays. Boston & New York, 1897. Inscribed to her grandchildren Will and Rebecca [Field], "from Grannie, October, 1902," followed by six lines of verse; this edition from the "Novels & Stories" series of A.D.T. Whitney, issued by Houghton Mifflin;
Patience Strong's outings. Boston & New York, 1896. Inscribed to her grandchildren Will and Rebecca [Field], "from Grannie, October, 1902," followed by six lines of verse; this edition from the "Novels & Stories" series of A.D.T. Whitney, issued by Houghton Mifflin;
The Gayworthys. Boston & New York, 1896. Inscribed to her grandchildren Will and Rebecca [Field], "from Grannie, October, 1902," followed by two lines of verse; this edition from the "Novels & Stories" series of A.D.T. Whitney, issued by Houghton Mifflin;
Leslie Goldthwaite. Boston & New York, 1896. Inscribed to her grandchildren Will and Rebecca [Field], "from Grannie, October, 1902," followed by three lines of verse; this edition from the "Novels & Stories" series of A.D.T. Whitney, issued by Houghton Mifflin;
We girls. Boston & New York, 1898. Inscribed to her grandchildren Will and Rebecca [Field], "from Grannie, October, 1902," followed by three lines of verse; this edition from the "Novels & Stories" series of A.D.T. Whitney, issued by Houghton Mifflin;
Real folks. Boston & New York, 1899. Inscribed to her grandchildren Will and Rebecca [Field], "from Grannie, October, 1902," followed by four lines of verse; this edition from the "Novels & Stories" series of A.D.T. Whitney, issued by Houghton Mifflin;
The other girls. Boston & New York, 1899. Inscribed to her grandchildren Will and Rebecca [Field], "from Grannie, October, 1902," followed by six lines of verse; this edition from the "Novels & Stories" series of A.D.T. Whitney, issued by Houghton Mifflin;
Sights and insights. Patience Strong's story of over the way. Boston & New York, 1876. In 2 volumes, both inscribed to her grandchildren Will and Rebecca [Field], "from Grannie, October, 1902," followed by two (in volume I) and six (in volume II) lines of verse; this edition from the "Novels & Stories" series of A.D.T. Whitney, issued by Houghton Mifflin;
Odd or even? Boston & New York, 1880. Inscribed to her grandchildren Will and Rebecca [Field], "from Grannie, October, 1902," followed by five lines of verse; this edition from the "Novels & Stories" series of A.D.T. Whitney, issued by Houghton Mifflin;
Bonnyborough. Boston & New York, 1880. Inscribed to her grandchildren Will and Rebecca [Field], "from Grannie, October, 1902," followed by five lines of verse; this edition from the "Novels & Stories" series of A.D.T. Whitney, issued by Houghton Mifflin;
Boys at Chequasset. Boston & New York, 1890. Inscribed to her grandchildren Will and Rebecca [Field], "from Grannie, October, 1902," followed by three lines of verse; this edition from the "Novels & Stories" series of A.D.T. Whitney, issued by Houghton Mifflin;
Mother Goose for grown folks. Boston & New York, 1900. Inscribed to her grandchildren Will and Rebecca [Field], "from Grannie, October, 1902," followed by four lines of verse; this edition from the "Novels & Stories" series of A.D.T. Whitney, issued by Houghton Mifflin; illustrated by Augustus Hoppin;
Homespun yarns. Boston & New York, 1899. Inscribed to her grandchildren Will and Rebecca [Field], "from Grannie, October, 1902," followed by two lines of verse; this edition from the "Novels & Stories" series of A.D.T. Whitney, issued by Houghton Mifflin;
Ascutney Street. Boston & New York, 1890. Inscribed to her grandchildren Will and Rebecca [Field], "from Grannie, October, 1902," followed by five lines of verse; this edition from the "Novels & Stories" series of A.D.T. Whitney, issued by Houghton Mifflin;
A golden gossip. Boston & New York, 1892. Inscribed to her grandchildren Will and Rebecca [Field], "from Grannie, October, 1902," followed by four lines of verse; this edition from the "Novels & Stories" series of A.D.T. Whitney, issued by Houghton Mifflin;
Square pegs. Boston & New York, 1901. Inscribed to her grandchildren Will and Rebecca [Field], "from Grannie, October, 1902," followed by five lines of verse; this edition from the "Novels & Stories" series of A.D.T. Whitney, issued by Houghton Mifflin.