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LITERATURE
A-B
C-D E-H
I-L
M-Q R-T
U-Z
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Decadence in the “Yellow Nineties”
(A
FAMOUS 13-SOME).
Beardsley, Aubrey, & Henry Harland.
The
yellow book an illustrated quarterly. London: Elkin Mathews
& John Lane; Boston: Copeland & Day, 1894–97. 4to (21 cm, 8.25).
13 vols. I: 272 pp.; 14 plts. II: 360, [2] pp.; 22 plts. III: 279, [1] pp.; 15
plts. IV: 285, [1] pp.; 17 (1 double) plts. V: 317, [1] pp.; 14 plts. VI: 335,
[1] pp.; 16 plts. VII: 318, [2] pp.; 20 plts. VIII: 406 pp.; 26 plts. IX: 256
pp.; 17 plts. X: 344 pp.; 13 plts. XI: 342 pp.; 12 plts. XII: 344 pp.; 14 plts.
XIII: 316, [2] pp.; 17 plts.
$1500.00
Click the images for enlargements.

The (in)famous embodiment of fin-de-siècle aestheticism,
in a complete set of early issues,
without publisher's advertisements but also without later edition statements.
This is a largely uncut set of
all
13 volumes of the quarterly Yellow Book, featuring
Aubrey Beardsley as art director and illustrator of the first four volumes.
Present here are stories by Henry James, Ella D'Arcy, Kenneth Grahame, Henry
Harland, and Hubert Crackanthorpe; poetry by Richard Le Gallienne, Olive Custance,
and Leila Macdonald; articles by Max Beerbohm, Arthur Waugh, and James Ashcroft
Noble; art by Sir Frederic Leighton, Walter Sickert, Laurence Housman, and of
course Beardsley; with many other contributors represented.

Publisher's yellow cloth, covers and spines variously stamped
in black with those famous designs; bindings generally moderately worn (especially
to spine tips) and lightly dust-soiled, one volume with spine head (?)nibbled.
Many signatures unopened; with a little care and cleverness, reading quite
possible despite this.
Pages and plates clean. (26698)
“Caledonian”
Poesy —
ILLUSTRATED
(&
a Scots Survey). Ritson, Joseph, ed.
The Caledonian muse: A chronological selection of Scotish poetry from the earliest
times. London: Robert Triphook, 1821. 8vo. Frontis., iv, 232 pp.
$275.00
Click the images for enlargements.
During the heyday of attempts to find the origins of Great Britain's literature, Ritson collected and published anthologies of nursery rhymes, Robin Hoodiana, English songs and ballads, and English and Scottish poems. Shortly before the present work was supposed to be published in 1785, a fire destroyed part of the printer's warehouse and the manuscript of Ritson's introductory essay; the surviving sheets, printed in octavo with horizontal chain lines, make their first appearance here with a new introduction. The poems are illustrated with vignettes engraved by Heath after Stothard's designs, and with small woodcuts by Bewick. The frontispiece is an engraved silhouette
portrait of Ritson.
NSTC 2R11677; Lowndes 2099; Hugo, The Bewick Collector, 434. Contemporary half dark green morocco with red marbled paper sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; some rubbing and with a bit of green discoloration to paper of front cover. Minor offsetting to frontispiece and title-page; mild to moderate foxing in first third of volume and to last few pages. (21934)
This
entry is repeated in the
“RT” section of this
catalogue . . .


A Book, then a Movie A Woman Writer's
ROMANTIC Fairy Tale
Abbott, Eleanor Hallowell. Molly make-believe. New York: Press of the Woolly Whale, 1931. 8vo. [8], 154, [4] pp.
$45.00

First limited edition of the author's first novel (originally published
in 1910). This is a woman writer's romantic fairy tale and it recounts a woman
writer's romantic fairy tale.
This
is one of 250 copies printed for private distribution as the press's Christmas
book.
Publisher's half blue morocco over lighter blue cloth-covered
boards, top edge gilt. A fine copy. (24546)

Much Varia — An Ad for a
Papermaker!
Abell, Truman. New-England farmer's almanack, with an emphemeris, for the year ... 1828. ... Fitted to the latitude and longitude of the town of Windsor, Vt. but will serve, without sensible variation, for all the adjacent states. Alstead, N. H.: Newton & Tufts; Windsor, Vt.: Simeon Ide, [1827]. 12mo. [24] ff.
$30.00
Title-page with engraved vignette (in an octagon) of a deity holding
a sheaf of wheat with surrounding farm implements, animals, sailing ship, and
sun. Includes
poetry,
anecdotes, jokes, short essays, practical information relating to farming, information
on courts and local colleges, and a table of roads. Pages [47–48] contain
a papermaker's advertisement, an advertisement for medicines by the author,
and a publisher's advertisement by Simeon Ide.
Click
the image for an enlargement.
Drake 13641; Shoemaker 29925. Uncut copy; later stitching
and later oversewing; dog-earing and a bit tattered. Title-page and p. [48]
age-darkened. Occasional mild staining. (10027)
For
an illustrated selection of ALMANACS, click
here.
For
an unillustrated, PDF-format catalogue of
some 250+ Almanacs,
CLICK HERE.

Neat Pairing. Striking Illustrations.
Aeschylus & Percy Bysshe Shelley. Prometheus bound & Prometheus unbound. Haarlem: Pr. by Joh. Enschede en Zonen for the Limited Editions Club, 1965. 4to.
$100.00

Aeschylus's classic play and Shelley's poem, here with a preface by Rex Warner, who translated the Aeschylus into English, and tinted line-and-wash illustrations by John Farleigh. This is copy number 444 of 1500 printed; unusually for the Limited Editions Club, most copies are unsigned, as Farleigh passed away before receiving the colophon sheets.
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club 370. Publisher's gilt-stamped tan and light blue buckram, the colors “split” horizontally across the covers, in a slipcase lightly sunned and with an old waterspot to the label (but sturdy). In original glassine dustwrapper, with upper edges a bit chipped; book clean and fresh, (13313)
The
FIRST
Latin Gradus
Aler, Paul.
Gradus ad Parnassum, sive Novus synonymorum epithetorum, et
phrasium
poeticarum thesaurus... Lipsiae: Apud Michaelem Blochbergerum,
1738. 8vo (17.7 cm, 7"). [8], 48, 768 (i.e., 760) pp.
$250.00

Expanded 18th-century edition of this dictionary of Latin prosody, originally published in 1602 by Aler, a French Jesuit, schoolmaster, and poet. The title “Steps to Parnassus” (home of the Muses) was later applied to a variety of literary, artistic, and musical instruction manuals, with Gradus becoming a sort of shorthand signifier for any such dictionary-style guidebook; but Aler's work marked the first appearance of both this title and this style of Latin reference book.
DeBacker-Sommervogel, II, 1092–95 (for other eds.). Contemporary vellum, spine with inked title; lightly soiled, front cover with partially effaced early inked ownership inscription and back cover with faded early inked inscription. Front pastedown institutionally rubber-stamped, front free endpaper lacking, title-page with early inked ownership inscription partially effaced (resulting in small holes). Pages age-toned, with occasional foxing. (24349)
The
Most Famous
Fairy-Tale
Author of
All
Andersen,
Hans Christian. The fairy tale of my life. New York (pr. in
Denmark): British Book Centre Inc., (copyright 1954). Folio. 350 pp.; illus.
$100.00

First English-language edition of H. Topsoe-Jensen's annotated edition of Andersen's
autobiography, here translated by W. Glyn Jones, with illustrations by Niels Larsen Stevns.
Publisher's quarter cloth with paper-covered sides, corners the
slightest bit rubbed; original slipcase, this sunned and abraded with “spine” broken. Danish copyright
information lined through, volume otherwise clean and quite nice internally.
(24517)
Inscribed
by
the Author
Angney, Lydia F. California and other poems. Gilroy, CA: Pr. for the author by A.C. Eaton, 1900. 8vo. 96 pp.
$50.00

Privately printed first edition of this
“Californianum”
this copy with a laid-in slip of paper reading, “Christmas Greeting
to Frank & Annie, from Aunt Lydia.”
Lydia Francis Witham Angney authored two volumes of poetry, both published
in Gilroy, the home of the annual Garlic Festival, and endured a long widowhood
following the death of er husband W. Z. Angney. W.Z. served in the Mexican War
and played a major role in the U.S. occupation of New Mexico and in the territorial
government, then moved on to California, settling in Gilroy to raise tree fruit
in his orchards, but being sent to the state senate and called on by the governor
for other civic duties. He died in January 1878.
Click
the interior image for an enlargement.
Publisher's green cloth, front cover and spine with gilt-stamped title; light shelf wear to corners and spine extremities. (22223)
Arabian Nights. The thousand and one nights, commonly called, in England, the Arabian nights’ entertainments. London: Charles Knight & Co., 1839–41. 8vo (25.3 cm, 10"). 3 vols. I: Add. engr. t.-p., xxiii, [3], [xxv]–xxxii, 618 pp.; illus. II: Add. engr. t.-p., xii, 643, [1] pp.; illus. III: Add. engr. t.-p., xii, 763, [1] pp.; illus.
$750.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
First edition of Edward William Lane’s English translation, illustrated with numerous in-text wood engravings from designs by William Harvey. Lane, an Egyptologist and noted scholar of Arabic language and literature, chose to bowdlerize portions of the tales he found “objectionable,” but added extensive anthropological and cultural annotations, as well as explanations of many of his choices in translation and transliteration.
NSTC 2L3671. Contemporary half red morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped title and gilt-framed compartments; sides and edges a bit rubbed, vol. I with small scuffed area from now-absent label on front cover. All edges marbled. Front pastedowns each with armorial bookplate and institutional rubber-stamp, title-page versos rubber-stamped, inked numeral in lower margin of dedication or contents page depending on volume.
A lavishly produced set, attractively illustrated and bound.
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For
ARABICA, click here.
For
more TRANSLATIONS, click here.

Jane Austen's Works — A Handsome,
Limited Edition
Illustrated by the Brock Brothers
Austen, Jane. The novels and letters of Jane Austen. New York & Philadelphia: Frank S. Holby, 1906. 8vo. 12 (of 12) vols. I: Frontis., [6], vii–lix, [6], 255 pp.; 5 plts. II: Frontis., [8], 302 pp.; 6 plts. III: Frontis., [4], v–vii, 3–283 pp.; 5 plts. IV: Frontis., [8], [3]–299 pp.; 5 plts. V: Frontis., [4], v–vii, [5], 338 pp.; 5 plts. VI: Frontis., [8], 347 pp.; 5 plts. VII: Frontis., [6], vii–viii, [4]–339 pp.; 5 plts. VIII: Frontis., [8], 359 pp.; 5 plts. IX: Frontis., [4], v–viii, [4]–338 pp.; 5 plts. X: Frontis., [4], vii–viii, [4]–362 pp.; 5 plts. XI: [10], 3–392 pp.; 3 plts. XII: Frontis., [8], 3–393 pp.; 3 plts. (1 fold.).
$3575.00
Click any interior image for enlargement.
PRB&M offers a small prize to anyone who can, without looking anything up,
identify all the scenes shown . . .
The complete set in 12 volumes of the Chawton edition, limited to 1,250 numbered and registered copies — this is copy no. 1,029. An elegant, limited reissue of the same publisher's 10-volume Old Manor House edition, published the same year, this like that was edited by R. Brimley Johnson and introduced by William Lyon Phelps, the Lampson Professor of English Literature at Yale and an early champion of Austen's works. The introduction is itself a good read and gives insight into the life and character of the author, as well as a critical appraisal of the “qualities that place the novels of Jane Austen so far above all her contemporaries except Scott.”
The first 10 volumes consist of the novels — Sense and Sensibility (vols. I & II), Pride and Prejudice (vols. III & IV), Mansfield Park (vols. V & VI), Emma (vols. VII & VIII), Northanger Abbey (vol. IX), Persuasion (vol. X). Volumes XI and XII contain the minor works and letters. A bibliography of Austen's writings is included in vol. I.
Illustrated with
69 plates, including a wonderful series of color drawings to accompany the text, done by the brothers Charles Edmond and Henry Matthew Brock, this is
additionally embellished with portraits of the author, pictures of her residences in Bath and Winchester, a view of her burial place inside Winchester Cathedral, a facsimile autograph letter, and a facsimile title-page of the first edition of Sense and Sensibility. Each plate is accompanied by a protective tissue guard, printed with a descriptive caption in red ink. Title-pages are printed in red and black, and each has its own unique engraved vignette.
The delights in this production abound. On the whole, very satisfying!
Publisher's brown cloth, spines with brown paper label; several labels with ssmall brown spots, cracks, and edge chips, not too conspicuous and not affecting printing. Two leaves (pp. 343–346 of vol. X) detached from binding; long tear down center of pp. 283/284 (vol. IV), without loss of text; except for two leaves with some offsetting from laid-in scrap of paper, interiors clean. Outer and lower edges deckle, with a few signatures opened unevenly and some unopened. A very good set. (24537)

Fanny & Friends for
AMERICANS
Austen, Jane. Mansfield Park: A novel. Philadelphia: Carey & Lea, 1832. 2 vols. I: 200 pp. (lacking 4 pp. of prelim. adv.). II: 204 pp.
$3000.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
First U.S. edition of Austen's third novel published, much praised by contemporary critics for its uncompromising morality and for the virtue of its heroine, Fanny Price. J.K. Rowling, in her Harry Potter series, named Filch's unpleasant cat Mrs. Norris after a meddling character in this novel.
Uncommon: Only 10 U.S. institutions report holding copies; one guesses that most have had them for quite some time.
Checklist American
Imprints 11021. Recent quarter red calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels. Four pages of preliminary advertising lacking (only). Moderate to heavy foxing without apparent weakening to paper or harm to reading; pages clean otherwise. (20926)

“Fundamentall to the Erecting & Building of
a True Philosophy”
Bacon in ENGLISH
— As He
So Often is NOT
Bacon, Francis. Sylva sylvarum or a naturall history in ten centuries. London: Pr. by J.H. for William Lee, 1627. 8vo (27.6 cm, 10.9"). Frontis., add. engr. t.-p., [10], 266, [16], 47, [3] pp. (lacking final blank f.).
$3000.00
Single-click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.
First edition, second issue of this compendium of scientific (and also quaintly “traditional”) knowledge, with the frontispiece dated 1626 and the engraved title-page 1627. The DNB notes that “Bacon’s miscellaneous collection of observations and experiments in natural history was published by Dr. Rawley in 1627, the year after Bacon’s death, but the preface was written by Rawley during his lifetime and the first issue has a letterpress title dated 1626 (the engraved title is 1627 in both issues).”
Added (as issued) to the Sylva sylvarum is Bacon's utopian
New Atlantis, an unfinished allegorical fantasy begun shortly after his political downfall and not long before his death. Together, the two works exemplify Bacon's scientific and literary accomplishments.
The added engraved title-page, bearing the motto “Et vidit Deus lucem quod esset bona,” was done by Thomas Cecill; the frontispiece portrait of Bacon is unsigned. There are some very handsome headpieces and initials.
Provenance: Riggs family: Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of philanthropist Elisha Francis Riggs, who funded the Riggs Library at Georgetown University; volume inherited by T. Lawrason Riggs, founding chaplain of St. Thomas More Chapel, Yale University; donated to St. Thomas More Chapel Library; deaccessioned 2008.
ESTC S106924; STC (2nd ed.), 1169; Gibson, Bacon, 171. On Bacon, see: Dictionary of National Biography. 18th-century calf framed in gilt single fillet, spine with recent gilt-stamped leather title and author labels, board edges with gilt roll; a little rubbed and covers with portions darkened. All edges stained yellow. Front pastedown with bookplate as above. Some pages gently age-toned, with occasional minor spotting. Small hole to added engraved title-page just beneath publication information, not affecting text. Final blank leaf (only) lacking. (24666)
Barham, R. Harris. The Ingoldsby legends or mirth and marvels by Thomas Ingoldsby Esquire [with] The Ingoldsby legends ... Second series. London: Richard Bentley, 1840 & 1842. 8vo. 2 vols. I: [6], v, [3], 338, [2] pp. with inserted extra-engraved title (a proof before letters), numbered colophon leaf, engraved title, and six etched plates; II: vii, [3], 288 pp. with engraved title and seven etched plates.
$12,500.00
Click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.
The very rare private issue of the first two volumes of Barham's most
successful work, specially printed on heavier cream-toned paper, with the special limitation leaf, numbered and signed by Richard Bentley in the first volume. Plates and illustrations are by Leech, Cruikshank, and Buss. This copy is denoted copy #1 in ink, but a trace of an erasure suggests it may have been denoted #12, and then corrected at some point. The ownership signature of the author's son, R.H.D. Barham, who edited the third volume in 1847, appears on the half-title of the second volume. No private issue of the third volume was prepared.

The rather complex bibliography of this private issue, as well as that of the public issue, is discussed at length by Sadleir in the context of his entries for the copies in his collection, pp. 27– 29. He owned copy #8 (the publisher's copy) of the private edition of the first volume, but lacked the second volume in this form. He had knowledge of only two other copies, Barham's own copy (later Owen Young's) at the NYPL, and a catalogue reference to a copy from the collection of D. Phoenix Ingraham, sold in “February 1836 [sic, i.e. 1936].” This copy of the first volume, like Sadleir's and the others, has on p. 236 the incomplete printing of “The Franklyn's Dogge.”
Sadleir's analysis suggested to him the following probable sequence: a) the private edition, b) copies of the public edition with p. 236 in the same form as it appears in the private edition, c) copies of the public edition with p. 236 blank; and d) copies of the public edition with the complete new version of the text on p. 236.


The set in hand raises a new question in regard to the form of the binding of the private edition in its original state. Sadleir's copy, like the copy he located at NYPL, was bound in “Full brown Russia,” with the title, imprint, and date on the spine, and the title on the upper board, and he describes that binding as “original.” The binding described by Carter in reference to the twelve private copies is also in accord with Sadleir's description.
However, the remnants of the binding preserved at the back of the present first volume — see note below and
top-right image above — are red moiré silk (as opposed to the brown cloth of the public edition), with the side panels and spine ornately blocked with a gilt design and the title within the gilt frame (the spine is rather worn, but legible). This suggests that only some of the twelve private copies were bound in leather, and others, or at least one, were bound in this special silk cloth, gilt extra.
Binding: Full claret crushed levant, gilt extra, all edges gilt, by Riviere, with the side panels and spine of the original binding of the first volume bound at the end.
Barham began writing the short pieces making up this series as contributions to his friend and classmate's Bentley's Miscellany. The subject matter was “at first derived from the legendary lore of the author's ancestral locality in Kent, but soon [was] enriched by satires on the topics of the day and subjects of pure invention, or borrowed from history or the ‘Acta Sanctorum’. . . . The success of the ‘Legends’ was pronounced from the first, and when published collectively in 1840 they at once took the high place in humorous literature which they have ever since retained” (DNB).
Provenance: With R.H.D. Barham’s signature as noted above, and with the armorial bookplate of Sir David Lionel Salomons (1851–1925) in each volume.
NCBEL, III, 365; Sadleir 156a; Tinker 216 (public edition); Carter, Binding Variants, p.92. Bindings a bit darkened and slightly discolored at extremities, light rubbing to joints, some foxing to the prelims of the first volume, with an old tide-mark in the lower gutter areas of the plates; a tipped-in bookseller's description in the first volume.
A very good, very interesting example of a very rare thing.
A
PRB&M “FEATURED BOOK”
for others, click here.
[Barham, Richard Harris, a.k.a.] Ingoldsby, Thomas. The Ingoldsby legends or mirth and marvels. London: Richard Bentley (pr. by Samuel Bentley), 1840–47. 8vo (20.5 cm, 8.1"). 3 vols. I: Engr. t.-p., v, [3], 338, [2] pp.; 6 plts. II: Engr. t.-p., vii, [3], 288 pp.; 7 plts. III: Engr. t.-p., vi, [2], 364 pp.; 6 plts.
$950.00

All three series of these entertaining tales, here in the first editions following the extremely scarce author’s edition of 12 copies. The Legends made their original appearances in Bentley’s Miscellany, as a favor to Bentley, a former schoolmate of Barham’s; Bentley here collects the pieces in book form with a life of the author (illustrated by an appealing engraved portrait done by R.J. Lane). The stories and poems are illustrated with
18 plates engraved by George Cruikshank, John Leech, and John Tenniel.
Bindings: Contemporary signed bindings by E.P. Dutton & Co., of red morocco with covers framed in gilt triple fillets; spines with raised bands, gilt-stamped titles, and compartments framed in gilt double fillets. Board edges gilt-ruled, gilt inner dentelles. Upper page edges gilt.
Original cloth covers and spines bound in at the back.
Sadleir 156b, e, & f; NCBEL, III, 365. Bindings as above, spines and upper board edges darkened with a bit of rubbing; free endpapers with offsetting from turn-ins. One volume with lower part of cover stained and the lower inner margin of the title-page and plates (not the text leaves!) waterstained. One plate evenly age-toned.
SIGNED
Binding by
Amy Richards
Barr, Amelia
E. A daughter of Fife. New York: Dodd, Mead, & Co., (© 1886,
but really ca. 1895–1905). 12mo. 335, [1] pp.
$30.00
Later edition (no date on title, unchanged copyright date, later
binding): Scottish romance from a
popular
novelist and women's rights activist..
Binding:
Publisher's green cloth, spine and front cover stamped in darker green and
silver in an art nouveau design of tall thistle-like flowers. Binding
signed “AR” — Amy Richards, fl. 1896–1918.
Click
the image for an enlargement.
Wright, III, 317 (for the first ed.). Binding slightly
cocked, very good condition. Front fly-leaf with pencilled gift inscription
dated 1899, front free endpaper with later pencilled inscription. Clean and
quite nice! (12905)
Baudius, Dominicus. Amores, edente Petro Scriverio, inscripti Th. Graswinckelio. Lugduni-Batavorum: Francisci Hegerus & Hackius, 1638. 12mo. [6] ff., 518 pp., [1] f.; illus.
$400.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Compilation of prose and poetry on the many facets of love: writings on the death of a wife, on the choice of a wife, on marriage, and on classical writers and their views of love. Writers include Pieter Schrijver (1576–1660), Lelio Capilupi (1497?–1560?), Jean Gaspard Gevaerts (1593–1666), Ausonius, Erasmus, Sir Thomas More, and Daniel Hiensius. The text is printed in roman and italic type and there is one full-page engraving — a portrait of Baudius.
This work is the first listed in all bibliographies under Louis Elzevir’s press at Amsterdam. In fact both the Elzevir edition of 1638 and this have the same colophon: “Lugduni-Batavorum: Typis Georgii Abrahami vander Marse, MDCXXXVIII.” And both collate the same, the only difference being the printer’s device and imprint information on the title-page.
Uncommon: Searches of OCLC, RLIN, & NUC locate fewer than ten copies in U.S. libraries.
Provenance: The Rev. Edward A. Dalrymple (Baltimore collector, mid–19th century); his collection given to the Maryland Diocesan Library; that library sold in 2006.
Rahir 1876; Willems 961 note. Contemporary vellum over light boards; spine delicately and lightly tooled in gilt. Ex–Maryland Episcopal Diocesan Library with stamp on front pastedown. One natural paper flaw; occasional early underlining.
For
more 17TH-CENTURY BOOKS, click here.

Can
Teenage Girls Be Taught SELFLESSNESS?
Bell, Catherine D. Hope Campbell; or, know thyself. London: Frederick Warne & Co., [1884?]. 8vo. [8], 331, [13 (adv.)] pp.
$30.00

“New edition,” from the Warne's Star series, of this improving novel aimed at young ladies. Advertisements at front and back list evocatively other items in the Star series, and in other Warne series as well.
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
Binding: Publisher's dark green cloth, front cover and spine stamped in black and gilt with the cover incorporating an elegant emblematic device featuring Apollo/Hyperion and his horses, and the spine an angel holding a small child; the number 18 can be seen in the right raking light, stamped in blind, within the bottom element of the front cover.
Binding cocked,
corners and spine extremities a touch rubbed. Page edges age-spotted; pages faintly and evenly age-toned. In fact a bright, handsome copy. (23190)
Bello, Andrés. Broadside, begins: “Cancion Patriotica de Caracas.” [Caracas: Gallagher y Lamb, 1810]. Folio (31 cm; 12.25"). 1 p.
$27,500.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
In the days immediately following the coup that deposed the viceroy
and began the long process of independence, Andrés Bello, Venezuela’s
great poet, collaborated with Cayetano Carreño, “Maestro de Capilla”
of the main church of Caracas cathedral, in the composing of several “patriotic
songs.” One of those early efforts became the national anthem of Venezuela,
and
the
premiere of this one, as unknown as that one is famous, is stirring to visualize.
Beginning, “Caraqueños, otra época empieza: / De la gloria la senda se
abrio,” it was sung for the first time by Cayetano Carreño himself and six other
voices, the night of 23 April 1810, with the accompaniment of the military orchestra
of the “Batallon Veterano.” The performance took place below the balcony on
which were assembled the members of the Supreme Junta.
That Bello wrote this patriotic song is known, and even the first few lines
were recorded for history, but beyond that
the
text is not recorded and is not found in his Obras
completas or, apparently anywhere else.
In addition to the historic collaboration of Bello and Carreño, this
fabulous document has the distinction of having been printed by Venezuela’s
first press, that of Gallagher and Lamb, which only arrived in Caracas in
October of 1808, and was almost certainly printed on 24 April, the day after
the hymn was first sung!
Very
Rare.
This broadside was unknown to both Medina and Pedro Grases. Searches of NUC,
OCLC, and RLIN fail to find any copy at all, as is the case when searching
the OPACs of the national libraries of Venezuela, Colombia, Spain, France,
and England.
Not in Medina, Caracas; not in Grases, Historia de
la imprenta en Venezuela; not in Villasana. As issued. Worming in foremargin,
repaired. A very good copy.
For
SOUTH AMERICANA, click here.
Bethune, George W., ed. Pearls from the British female poets. New York: World Publishing House, 1876. 8vo (23.8 cm, 9.4"). Frontis., xv, [1], [13]–490 pp.
$250.00
Early edition, following the first of 1869. In addition to many familiar names, this volume collects poems by some now lesser-known authors (Mary Tighe, Amelia Opie, and others), with
brief biographies provided. The first edition was illustrated, as this one claims to be on the title-page; but only the engraved frontispiece portrait, present with its tissue guard, is actually called for.
Binding: Publisher’s full sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label.
Binding as above, joints starting, rubbed over edges and extremities, spine darkened and scraped, leather lost over head of spine. All edges marbled. Front free endpaper with early pencilled ownership inscription. Pages clean.
A Gathering
of BIBLES
Bible. English. 1846. Authorized (i.e., "King James Version"). The illuminated Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments...With marginal readings, references, and chronological dates. Also, the Apocrypha....Embellished with sixteen hundred historical engravings by J.A. Adams, more than fourteen hundred of which are from original designs by J.G. Chapman. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1846. Folio (34.6 cm, 13.75"). Frontis., add. engr. t.-p., [4], 844, [2], 128, [6], frontis., add. engr. t.-p., [2], 256, 3, [1], 8, 14, 34 pp.; illus.
$2850.00
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When the Harper firm published The Illuminated Bible near the midpoint of the 19th century, the company produced one of the most elaborate and costly American Bibles to that time. O’Callaghan says, “This work was originally announced in 1843, and was issued in 54 numbers at 25 each. J.A. Adams, the engraver, is credited with having taken the first electrotype in America from a woodcut. Many in this Bible are so done. Artists were engaged for more than six years in the preparation of the designs and engravings . . . at a cost of over $20,000.”
The title’s use of the word “illuminated” refers not (as usual) to decoration in gold, but both to the huge number of illustrations and to the fact that the half-titles, the title-leaves, and the presentation and birth, death, and marriage leaves are printed using colored inks. Concerning the illustrations, Frank Weitenkampf wrote in The Boston Public Library Quarterly (July, 1958, pp. 154–57): “The engravings after Chapman carefully reproduced the prim line-work method of the Englishman Bewick, introduced here by Alexander Anderson. . . . [T]his Harper publication was a remarkable production for its time and place, and retains its importance in the annals of American book-making. W.J. Linton, noted wood-engraver and author, knew ‘no other book like this, so good, so perfect in all it undertakes.’”
Binding: Publisher’s morocco, framed in gilt rolls, front cover with gilt-stamped owners’ names and with recessed panel gilt-stamped with a vignette of the Sermon on the Mount; back cover with similar panel and vignette of Rebecca at the well, spine gilt extra.

Provenance: The marriage, birth, and death leaves present here have been used by the Kimball family and its offshoots, from 1827 through 1873 — the names of Thomas Kimball and Nancy Sexton Kimball are the first inscribed on the Marriages page, and have also been gilt-stamped on the front cover of this volume. Numerous records are provided in a very attractive, decorative hand, with one fascinating addition.
At the bottom of the reverse of the “Death” leaf are two names inscribed in a different but also carefully ornate hand, within a circular title reading “Colored servants.”
O’Callaghan 288–89; Hills 1161. Binding as above, carefully and reasonably rebacked, with portion of uppermost spine compartment left free of gilt; a few small scuffs, and some minor refurbishing over extremities. All edges gilt. First few leaves with outer edges ragged; pages very faintly age-toned, otherwise clean.
A gorgeous copy, with the interesting manuscript additions described above.
Bible. O.T. Psalms. English. 1805. Merrick. A version of the Psalms ... formed into stanzas, and divided into short portions, for the use of the Church ... the seventh edition. London: Pr. by C. Rickaby for Messrs. Rivingtons; Longman, Hurst, Rees, & Orme; Leigh & Sotheby; et al., 1805. 12mo (18.3 cm, 7.2"). [4], 389, [1 (blank)] pp.
$275.00
Seventh edition of the William Dechair Tattersall’s revision. Originally printed in 1765, James Merrick’s rhymed English translations were described by one contemporary review (quoted by Allibone) as “too poetical for ordinary public worship, but . . . highly gratifying for private use to persons of cultivated taste.” The popular work went through a number of editions and issues; in the present rendition, the paraphrases appear “formed into stanzas, and divided into short portions” by the Rev. Tattersall.
Binding: Contemporary red straight-grain morocco, covers framed in gilt single fillet, spine with gilt-stamped title. All edges gilt.
NSTC B2162; Lowndes, Bibliographer’s Manual, 2002 (for 1798 Tattersall ed.); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature, 1269 (likewise). Binding as above, spine and outer edge of front cover darkened, joints and edges with moderate shelf wear. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate and donor bookplate; front free endpaper reverse with inked ownership inscription and pencilled inscription dated 1814; title-page with small inked initials in upper outer corner. Light foxing. In fact quite nice.
Bible. O.T. Psalms. Scots. Waddell. 1871. The Psalms: Frae Hebrew intil Scottis. Edinburgh: J. Menzies & Co.; Glasgow: T. & J. Lochhead and Wm. Love, 1871. 4to (21.7 cm, 8.5"). [2], 2, 105, [1] pp.; illus.
$250.00
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First edition: The first translation of the Psalms into Scots dialect. This translation was done by Peter Hately Waddell, who in 1867 edited the Life and Works of Robert Burns. The work is illustrated with a map of the territories of the tribes of Israel, and with reproductions of an 18th-century depiction of David and of another Biblically themed woodcut.
A publisher’s advertisement for a later printing is laid in.
Publisher’s cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title;
cloth faded along edges and spine. Front hinge (inside) slightly tender. Pages
faintly age-toned; in fact, a very clean nice copy.
Useful Edition — Crozer's Deluxe Copy
Bible. English. 1866. Authorized (i.e., “King James Version”). The annotated paragraph Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments, according to the authorized version, arranged in paragraphs and parallelisms; with explanatory notes, prefaces to the several books, and an entirely new selection of references to parallel and illustrative passages. London: The Religious Tract Society (pr. by Knight), 1866. 8vo (24.2 cm, 9.5"). 2 vols. (lacking vol. 1 of O.T.). I: [2], 521–1050 pp. II: [4], 1051–1471, [1] pp.; 2 maps.
$450.00
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Presentation copy in deluxe binding of this well-received edition, of which the London Quarterly Review said, “We do not know that a more useful or more creditable publication of the kind has been issued, even by the Society whose name it bears” (vol. XIV, pp. 542–43). This Bible was much praised at the time of its publication both for its more logical, readable division of text into paragraphs rather than verses, and for its explanatory notes.

Present here in two volumes are Job through Malachi and the New Testament. The second volume is illustrated with two maps with hand-colored borders.
Provenance: Presentation copy, front covers gilt-stamped “Presented to Samuel A. Crozer, by the teachers of the Upland Baptist Sunday School”; front pastedowns with armorial bookplate of Samuel Aldrich Crozer. Crozer was the son of John P. and Abigail Crozer, who endowed the Crozer Theological Seminary (now part of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School); he served as president of the seminary's Board of Trustees and erected the chapel of the Upland Baptist church.
Binding: Signed binding by Lewis & Sons of London: Black morocco, covers framed and panelled in gilt fillets with gilt-tooled corner fleurons, spines gilt extra, front covers with gilt-stamped presentation as above; board edges gilt-dotted, turn-ins with gilt roll. All edges gilt.
This ed. not in Darlow & Moule (see 1193 for 1855 ed.). Binding as above, very minor wear to corners and spine, overall bright and beautiful. Two vols. only, lacking first vol. of O.T. Front pastedowns each with private bookplates as above; then ex-library with stamps/annotations variously placed and of various generations, back pastedowns and free endpapers with paper adhesions; properly deaccessioned. One frontis. map with tear along one fold, neatly repaired from rear. A very few scattered small spots of light foxing in one volume, pages otherwise clean. (26128)
Bible. English. Authorized (i.e., King James Version). 1680. [The Holy Bible containing the Old Testament and the New. Oxford: At the Theater for Moses Pitt, Peter Parker, Thomas Guy, and William Leak, all in London, 1680]. 8vo (17 cm, 6.75"). AZ8 AaZz8 AaaGgg8 Hhh2 IiiZzz8 Aaaa8 Bbbb4; [558] ff.; lacking engraved title (replaced with title and prelim. leaf from another edition).
$2500.00
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An uncommon type of book sophistication: Considerable trouble has been taken to make this 1680 Oxford octavo Bible (the first complete English octavo Bible printed in that city) look like an earlier 1637 London Bible. The title-leaf and subsequent leaf from that Bible have been bound in at the beginning (the latter replicating the content found on f. [1] of this Bible) and the date on the New Testament sectional title has been all but completely erased. The charming binding supports the hoax, bearing a gilt “1637” on its spine.
This edition is printed in two unruled columns with shouldernotes, sidenotes (including dates), and italic headers. Acts 6:3 wrongly reads “ye may” for “we may.” Tables of kindred and affinity, weights and measures, money, and time are found on the last two pages. The New Testament sectional title has a woodcut vignette showing the arms of the University.
Binding: 19th-century black calf, elaborately tooled in blind in imaginative evocation of an “over the top” 17th-century binding, being horizontally, vertically, and diagonally ruled, foliate and floral devices within. Spine compartments tooled within, with gilt title in second one and gilt “Barker 1637” gilt at base. Red marbled endpapers. All edges gilt.
Provenance: 20th-century bookplate of C. ( or J.?) F. Weidmann, D.D. on front pastedown.
Herbert 757; Darlow & Moule 595; Wing (rev.) 2315; Loftie, A
Century of Bibles,
354; ESTC R213033. (The title-page is from ESTC S90540 or S90541.) Binding
as above, a little rubbed, and refurbished. Occasional light browning, soiling,
and shallow bumping or chipping (not touching text).
Lacking engraved title (replaced with title and preliminary leaf from another
edition).
A
bibliophile’s delight, and warning.
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Blake,
Rosenwald,
& Keynes
— Trianon Press
A
Presentation Copy from
the Owner of the Original
Blake, William. The book of Ahania. [colophon: Boissia, Clairvaux: Published by the Trianon Press for the William Blake Trust, London; distributed by B. Quaritch, London, 1973]. 4to (28.8 cm; 11.5"). [11] ff., 7 of which are plates (6 color).
$475.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
A facsimile of the copy in the Rosenwald Collection, Library of Congress, the only copy known to survive with the text and title-page, and of the frontispiece, originally with this copy, in the library of Geoffrey Keynes. As per the limitation page, the edition was limited to “808 copies . . . 32 copies numbered I to XXXII . . . 750 copies numbered 1 to 750 . . . 26 copies numbered A to Z, reserved for the trustees of the William Blake Trust and the publishers.” This is copy no. 423.
“Commentary and bibliographical history” (p. [3–7]) signed in type by Geoffrey Keynes.
Bentley, Blake Books, A15. Publisher's quarter black morocco with marbled paper sides. In the publisher's marbled paper slipcase. Very good condition. (25900)

Trianon
Innocence
“Pre-”
(their) Experience
(A
Second Rosenwald
Copy)
Blake, William. The songs of innocence, [a facsimile of the illuminated book]. [colophon: Boissia, Clairvaux: Published by the Trianon Press for the William Blake Trust, 1954]. 8vo (22cm.; 8.625"). [60] ff. (54 facsims. of the original; 1 f. a facsim. of provenance information, 5 ff. of text.
$400.00
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Fine facsimile of a great rarity, reproduced from a copy in the Rosenwald Collection, Library of Congress. “The illuminated pages have been reproduced by Messrs, Beaufumé and Duval, master-printers in Paris, by collotype and stencil process”; the Trianon Press has printed Geoffrey Keynes's “Bibliographical Statement” and its other added matter in a handsome brown ink.
The edition was limited to 1626 copies, this being no. 840 of 1600 regular copies. The Trianon Innocence AND Experience (our emphasis) did not appear until the year after this did.
Provenance: Presentation copy from Lessing Rosenwald to his daughter Joan and her husband Isadore Scott: “For Scotty and Joannie / With love / Dad / 2/15/55" in Lessing's characteristic green ink.
Bentley & Nurmi 156; Bentley, Blake Books, 165. Publisher's quarter tan calf, abraded; usual discoloration at hinges (inside) from the binding glue. Top edge gilt. In the publisher's leather trimmed slipcase, leather here also abraded (leather too soft!!).
A clean, attractive copy with a provenance up there amongst the best imaginable. (25939)

A Man Scorned? Or One Satirizing a Genre?
Boccaccio, Giovanni. Laberinto d'amore. Con una epistola a messer Pino de Rossi confortatoria del medesimo autore e di nuovo corretto. [colophon: Vinegia: per Pietro di Nicolini da Sabio, 1536]. Small 8vo (15.5 cm; 6"). 72 ff.
$1600.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
A handsome copy of this well-printed Renaissance edition of Boccaccio's problematic work about a man jilted or scorned, written in the 1360s. As to the complicated nature of the content, its relation to Boccaccio's life, and its date of composition, we refer the reader to Brown University's “Decameron Web,” where Dr. Guyda Armstrong writes that in it “Boccaccio demonstrates his familiarity with the canon of classical and medieval antifeminist texts, and succeeds in creating what
is practically an encyclopaedia of the genre.”
The work is now generally better known under the title Il Corbaccio, although all editions use the title found here. As one would expect with a Venetian-printed Renaissance work of literature, the text is in italic type; and this was printed early enough in the 16th century that the title-page offers a charming four-element architectural woodcut border.
Binding: Finely bound in 19th-century English straight-grained red morocco, with ornamental gilt border to covers, gilt-extra panelled spine, and two black leather spine labels. Board edges with a gilt roll; complex gilt inner dentelles and marbled endpapers. All edges gilt.
Graesse, Trésor de Livres rares, I, 455; Brunet, I, 1016.; Index Aurel. 120.267. Not in Adams. Bound as above; spine lightly faded and front cover with two small spots. Some small, light stains in text (only); generally, a very good copy. (25054)
Boileau
Despréaux, Nicolas. Œuvres diverses du Sieur D*** avec le traité du sublime ou du merveilleux dans le discours, traduit du Grec de Longin. Paris: Claude Barbin (pr. by Denys Thierry), 1674. 4to (25.3 cm, 10"). π2A–R4S8T–Y4Z2π1*4a2-4b–o4; Frontis., [4], 178, [12], [3]–102, [10 (index & colophon)] pp., 1 plt.
$4000.00
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Early edition, following the first of 1670; this is the first edition to appear under the Œuvres title, and contains nine satires, the first four epistles, L’art poëtique, and a number of other shorter pieces, followed by the Traité du sublime ou du merveilleux dans le discours, translated from Longinus. The handsomely printed volume has much of its text set in italic type, decorated with woodcut tailpieces, typographic and woodcut headpieces, and ornamental capitals. Margins are generous, layout is attractive. P. Landry designed and engraved the classically themed frontispiece, with the plate preceding Le Lutrin having been done by F. Chausseau.
Binding: 19th-century signed binding by Léon Gruel: Oxblood morocco framed in gilt double fillets containing a background of gilt-stamped fleurs-de-lis around a central ornamented cartouche. Spine gilt extra, with elaborate gilt-stamped inner dentelles over silk endpapers. All edges gilt over marbling. Silk bookmarker woven with binder’s information!


Provenance: Front fly-leaf with armorial bookplate of New York attorney and book collector Frederic Robert Halsey, and with decorative medieval-inspired bookplate of “G.E.” Volume with laid-in handwritten note signed by Gruel, on Gruel-Engelmann letterhead, dated 1892. Later in the collection
of Mary MacMillan Norton . . . a woman who knew how to pick books!
Brunet, I, 1056; DeBacker, Auteurs du XVIIe siècle, 1020; Tchemerzine, II, 271. Binding as above, nearly perfect save for just a touch of rubbing to the spine extremities, in cloth-covered slipcase, worn, with cloth starting to split over edges. Frontispiece and title-page separating from binding; title with red-tinted signs, near edges, that the marbling process did not go entirely smoothly; upper margins of several other leaves with hints of very faint waterstaining. Otherwise, clean and quite lovely.
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BOOKS IN FRENCH, click here.
Maritime Derring-Do
Romance for Boys?
Brady, Cyrus Townsend. The Quiberon touch. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1901. 8vo. Frontis., viii, 410, [14 (adv.)] pp.
[SOLD]
“A romance of the days when 'The Great Lord Hawke' was King
of the Sea.” First edition.
Publisher's blue cloth, front cover and spine stamped in white,
green, and gilt; binding slightly cocked, with light rubbing to extremities.
Front pastedown with institutional bookplate ("Fifth Form English Library");
front free endpaper with small bookseller's ticket and pencilled owner's name.
A clean, handsome copy. (16721)
A
“Private” Edition
Brady, Nicholas. Virgil's
Æneis translated into blank verse. London: Pr. for the author, 1714. 8vo
(20 cm, 7.9"). [2 (lacking half-title)], 56 (i.e., 112), viii pp.
$275.00
Book I of the Æneid, here in the first, private edition of Brady's
English translation, sold by subscription and assessed by Johnson as being
quite scarce. The Latin and English verses are printed on opposing pages,
with an italic font used for the Latin. The Rev. Brady, chaplain to Queen
Anne, is best known for his work with Nahum Tate on the new metrical version
of the Psalms; he was also the author of a historical tragedy, as well as
several volumes' worth of sermons.
ESTC T50917; Foxon B375. On Brady, see: Dictionary of National Biography,
VI, 19293. Library cloth binding, faded and slightly cocked; library
bookplate and charge slip; title-page and one other very faintly stamped;
lacking half-title. Page edges browned and title-page with small ownership
inscription in upper margin; dedication with traces of paper adhesion. Occasional
inked corrections in an early hand.
Bremer, Fredrika. The homes of the New World; impressions of America. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1853. 12mo (20.2 cm, 7.9"). 2 vols. I: xii, 651, [1 (blank)] pp. II: 654,2 (adv.) pp.
$350.00

First American edition. Howitt, an English Quaker, published a number of volumes of poetry; here she translates novelist Bremer’s epistolary“impressions of America” — Die Heimath in der Neuen Welt, being a “detailed and amiable record of an extensive tour,” as Howes describes it — from the original Swedish into English. Names are named, places are limned, the wrongs of slavery are a recurring motif.
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for an enlargement.
The first London edition appeared in three volumes, but the present edition in two, as stated on the title-page.
Howes B-745. Publisher’s charcoal blind-stamped cloth, spines with gilt-stamped title; cloth showing mild wear overall, with spine gilt attractively oxidized. Front free endpapers with pencilled owner’s inscription dated 1869. Pages slightly age-toned, with scattered small spots of staining. Quite a nice set.
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A
Practical &
Poetic
GARDENING
Manual
Bridgeman, Thomas. The florist's guide: Containing practical directions for the cultivation of annual, biennial, and perennial flowering plants ... including the double dahlia ... second edition, improved. New York: Mitchell & Turner, 1836. 12mo (18 cm, 7.1"). 122 (i.e., 128) pp.
[SOLD]
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Uncommon revised edition, following the first of the preceding
year, of a gardening treatise “chiefly designed for the use of the softer
sex” (p. vi). In addition to the rules of floriculture, the volume includes
poetical excerpts,
articles on the beauties of April and May, an essay called “The Matrimonial
Garden,” etc. The nearly
10-page
list of dahlias provides descriptions of shapes and colors alongside
each name, with distinctions given where different growers made use of the same
name for different varieties.
This offers one rather sweet cut, above the first poem, of flowers in a basket.
American Imprints 36358. On the binding, see: Krupp,
Bookcloth in England & America, 1823–50, Fs1. Publisher's
quarter ribbon-embossed blue cloth of Krupp's style Fs1, with printed paper–covered
sides; paper darkened/spotted and chipped (so that construction is clear),
spine partially discolored. Ex–social club library: bookplate on front
pastedown, title-page pressure-stamped. No other markings. Two leaves separated
and soiled; all else firm and clean. One small pencilled correction. (26286)

Works of the
Brontë Sisters
Brontë,
Anne; Charlotte; & Emily. The Shakespeare
Head Brontë. Oxford: Basil Blackwell & Houghton Mifflin Co. (pr. at
the Shakespeare Head Press), 1931. 11 vols. 8vo (24 cm, 9.45"). I [Charlotte]:
Frontis., x, [2], 312 pp.; 2 plts. II: Frontis., [6], 284 pp.; 2 plts. III:
Frontis., [8], 351 pp.; 2 plts. IV: Frontis., [6], 362 pp.; 2 plts. V: Frontis.,
[8], 319, [1] pp.; 2 plts. VI: Frontis., [6], 313, [1] pp.; 2 plts. VII: Frontis.,
[10], 283, [1] pp.; 1 plt. I [Anne]: Frontis., [8], 220 pp.; 2 plts. II: Frontis.,
xi, [1], 282 pp.; 2 plts. III: Frontis., [6], 278 pp.; 1 plt. I [Emily]: Frontis.,
xii, 385, [1], 9, [1] pp.; 1 plt.
$1500.00
Click the interior images for enlargement.
Large-paper issue of this 11-volume set of the works of all three Brontë sisters, illustrated by Jack Hewer with a total of 30 architectural and landscape views. The novels are complete here, including Agnes Grey, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Shirley, Villette, and The Professor. (There were several additional volumes of miscellaneous writings, letters, and biography published in this “Shakespeare Head” series, which was not complete until 1938; they are not part of this set.)
The lovely illustrations are of real places fictionally transfigured in the novels . . .
Of the 1000 copies printed of this, 500 were printed on large paper and reserved for issue in America. The present example (numbered 452) is of the large paper size and in green cloth; it is not clear to us by what rule copies were bound in this green cloth and which in the orange reported elsewhere.
NCBEL, III, 865. Original green cloth, spines with printed paper labels, lacking the dust wrappers (which are scarce and almost never seen); labels darkened, a few starting to peel up at corners. Pages untrimmed, with some signatures unopened. A beautiful, clean example of this set. (24629)

Political /Jurisprudential / Theatrical SATIRE
[Broome, Ralph]. Letters from Simpkin the second to his dear brother in Wales, containing an humble description of the trial of William Hastings, Esq. with Simon's answer. Dublin: P. Byrne & J. Moore, 1788. 8vo (18.5 cm, 7.25"). 46 pp. (lacking half-title).
$325.00
First Irish printing, from the same year as the English first: Broome, adopting the persona of a Welsh country bumpkin, mocks Sheridan and other members of Parliament for their proceedings during the trial of William Hastings.
Click the images for enlargements.
ESTC N2497. Recent marbled-paper wrappers, front wrapper with paper title label. Lacking half-title. Title-page with lower corner neatly off, otherwise in excellent, clean condition. (3247)
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BROUGHAM on Literature & Science — with MS. Letter
Brougham, Henry Peter, Baron Brougham & Vaux. Addresses on popular literature, and on the monument to Sir Isaac Newton: Delivered at Liverpool and Grantham. London: Edward Law, 1858. 8vo. 63, [1] pp.
$150.00
Sole edition. The first address extolls the virtues of popular literature as a means of educating the masses, while the second sums up Newton's career and contributions. At the back of the volume is affixed a lengthy newspaper clipping of a letter from Brougham, celebrating the poems of Burns — an unsurprising subject of effusion for this Scottish-born lawyer, journalist, politician, and man of many interests generally. Famous for defending Princess Caroline against the Pains and Penalties Bill, he was also the fashionable eponym of the brougham carriage, a prominent abolitionist, an educational reformer, and the man who made Cannes a popular vacation destination among the English.
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Provenance: Ownership signature on front free endpaper, “Mr. Justice McDougall, Jamaica.”
Autograph manuscript addition: Tipped onto the title-page is a manuscript letter signed by Brougham, dated 1839. In this informal but warmly written letter apparently addressed to an uncle, he declines an invitation and briefly mentions “the children,” whom he thought were left safe from the measles at Paris; he had one living daughter at the time of this letter's composition, and may be referring to members of his extended family.
NSTC 2B51067. Publisher's limp red cloth in imitation of morocco, yapp edges, covers blind-stamped, spine with gilt-stamped title; extremities rubbed, spine slightly darkened with small paper label, sides with small areas of minor discoloration. All edges stained red. Front free endpaper with early inked inscription and small private pressure-stamp. Pages age-toned; one early inked correction. (26986)
Browne, Isaac Hawkins. Poems upon various subjects, Latin and English. London: J. Nourse, 1768. 8vo (24 cm, 9.4"). [10], 160 pp. (frontis. lacking).
$150.00

First edition of these poems, published posthumously by the author’s
son; of two similar issues printed in the same year, this was the one meant
for the general public, with the other intended for private circulation only.
Browne was a notably witty and amiable conversationalist whose company (though
not his public speechmaking) was prized by Dr. Johnson; he is best remembered
today for his poems “A Pipe of Tobacco” (“Blest leaf! Whose
aromatic gales dispense / To templars modesty, to parsons sense”) and
“De Animi Immortalitate,” a meditation on the immortality of the
soul — both of which are included here, the latter with Soame Jenyns’s
English translation.
ESTC T116967. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spine
with printed paper label. Frontispiece lacking; title-page and a few others
stamped by a now-defunct institution. Inner margins of the first two leaves
and outer margin of the final leaf repaired.
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Complete
Barrett Browning
— Miller's
“Blue-&-Gold Edition”
Browning,
Elizabeth Barrett. Poems by Elizabeth
Barrett Browning from the last London edition, corrected by the author [with]
Essays on the Greek Christian poets and the English poets. New York: James Miller,
1866. 12mo (14.4 cm, 5.6"). 5 vols. I: Frontis., 384 pp. II: 408 pp. III: [8],
400 pp. IV: 242, [2 (adv.)] pp. V: 233, [3 (adv.)] pp.
$350.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Four volumes collecting Barrett Browning's verse, issued in uniform with an
additional volume containing her essays on the Greek Christian and the English poets. The first
volume opens with a steel-engraved portrait of the poet.
Binding: Publisher's bright
blue cloth (Krupp's style Wav3), covers blind-stamped, spines with gilt-stamped
title in decorative gilt frame. All edges gilt.
On binding cloth,
see: Krupp, Bookcloth, 43. Bindings as above, minor wear to extremities,
front cover of vol. V and spine of vol. I with small spots of discoloration. Each front free
endpaper with inked gift inscription (“Lizzie C. Alvord From Mother,” dated 1868). Pages
clean. A beautiful, very gift-worthy set. (26864)

A Young Man's Fancies
Bunce, Oliver Bell. The adventures of Timias Terrystone. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1885. 12mo. 305, [7 (adv.)] pp.
$30.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
First edition: An artist's romantic escapades with an overly bold young woman of respectable family, an innocent country Quaker, and an actress. This is the original first edition, not a modern reprint.
Binding: Publisher's olive-green cloth, front cover and spine stamped with title and floral decorations in maroon, dark blue, and gilt.
Wright, III, 773. Binding slightly cocked, extremities rubbed, back cover with small spots of discoloration, spine head lightly discolored. Ex–social club library: call number on endpaper, title-page rubber-stamped, no other markings. A few leaves with small spots of staining (tea drops?), otherwise clean. An entertaining read in a pretty, if not pristine, binding. (26886)

NOT the Progress — The Pharisee & Publican & the Dying Sayings
Bunyan, John. A discourse upon the Pharisee and Publican. Wherein several weighty things are handled ... the twelfth edition, corrected. To which is added his last sermon; as also his dying sayins [sic]. London: John Marshall, 1725. 12mo (14.7 cm, 5.75"). 166 pp. (lacking final blank f.).
$900.00

Uncommon early 18th-century edition of this important theological work, originally printed in 1685. All of Bunyan’s works, not just his Pilgrim’s Progress, were widely read and often reprinted in his day; this 1725 printing is described as the 12th edition, but ESTC locates only three editions (in 1704, 1705, and 1706) between the initial appearance and the present example. The 1704–25 editions are all scarce, surviving in only a few copies each.
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John Marshall also issued this work in the same year as the present example with a slightly different title-page, reading “Wherein several great and weighty things . . . ,” this being a copy of the issue with a cancel title-page.
The text is illustrated with one woodcut scene. A few copies are described as having a frontispiece, which would not be integral to the collation; presumably it was added later and so not original.
Provenance: John Kinsman, jun., 1760; Edwin P. Farnham, 1903.
ESTC T58485. Recent speckled paper wrappers. Free endpapers and first and last leaves with worm damage to edges; final blank leaf lacking. Front free endpaper and dedication page with rubber-stamped numerals (no other markings). Lower outer corners waterstained in first portion of volume; some darker stains from laid-in plant matter, with several leaves having words obscured or lost due to botanical adhesions — in the worst case, one leaf with hole affecting about 30 words from having adhered to plant matter, subsequent leaf with about 15 words obscured. Some headers just shaved but no catchwords touched. Title-page verso and back free endpaper with inked ownership inscriptions as above. (20618)
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Bunyan
Illustrated by
the
Brothers
Rhead — Large
Format
Bunyan,
John. The life and death of Mr. Badman
presented to the world in a familiar dialogue between Mr Wiseman and Mr Attentive.
New York: R.H. Russell [colophon: Edinburgh: T. & A. Constable], 1900. Folio
(33.5 cm, 13.25"). xix, [1], 143, [1] pp.; illus.
$125.00
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Bunyan's dialogue account of the path to perdition, with an introduction by J.A.
Froude, and illustrated “with twelve compositions by George Woolliscroft Rhead & Louis Rhead
designed to portray the deadly sins of the ungodly Mr Badman's journey from this world to Hell.”
Publisher's quarter lavender cloth over sage-green printed
paper–covered sides, light rubbing; spine sunned, front cover with old spot. A few smudges to
page margins, only; otherwise quite clean. (26920)
Butler, Samuel. Hudibras, in three parts: Written in the time of the late wars... First American edition. Troy (NY): Wright, Goodenow, & Stockwell, 1806. 12mo (17.7 cm, 7"). xi, [1], 286, [14 (index)] pp.
$100.00
First American edition of Butler's “pungent observations
and jingling satirical rhymes [strung] into a long heroi-comic poem” (Dictionary
of National Biography, VIII, 74–76). A brief biography of the author
precedes the poem.
Shaw & Shoemaker 1178. Contemporary speckled sheep, worn
and rubbed; joints cracked, spine with cracking gilt-stamped leather label
and chipped paper shelving label. Front pastedown with small institutional
bookplate.
One
“somewhat immodest” proverb carefully excised from footnotes,
with no other loss of text.
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here.
Buxtorf, Johann. Florilegium Hebraicum: Continens elegantes sententias, proverbia, apophthegmata, similitudines.... Basileae: Impensis Haered. Ludovici König, 1648. 8vo (16.7 cm, 6.55"). )(8A–Z8Aa–Bb8; [16], 390, [8 (index)] pp.
$600.00
Sole edition of this gathering of brief literary excerpts in Latin and Hebrew, alphabetically arranged by motif; the texts were collected and edited by Buxtorf the younger. The title-page bears a woodcut printer’s device.
VD17 12:128413B. Contemporary vellum with yapp edges, spine with early inked title; some light discoloration, with cut to vellum across spine. Pastedowns loose from inside covers, with bits of old manuscript used in the binding structure, showing; 19th-century bookplate attached to exposed paste board and endpapers creased. Shadow of old shelf number on verso of title-page. One leaf with small stain and hole affecting about four letters. Foxing ranging from mild to moderate.
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a bit more JUDAICA / HEBRAICA, click
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Cambridge/Riverside
Byron
Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron. Complete poetical works of Lord Byron. Boston & New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. (pr. by the Riverside Press, Cambridge), (copyright 1905). 8vo. Frontis., xxi, [1], 1055, [1] pp.
$90.00
“Cambridge Edition,” printed and bound at the Riverside Press. Binding: Publisher's half navy morocco with light blue cloth-covered sides, leather edges ruled in gilt, spine with gilt-stamped title, spine compartments ruled in triple gilt fillets with gilt-stamped dotted rules on raised bands. Top edge gilt. Silk ribbon placemarker.
Binding as above, very gently sunned, upper outer corners slightly bumped. Front pastedown with private collector's armorial bookplate. Pages clean. (19634)

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