Gift Ideas

  1. VERLAINE, Paul, and Léon LEBÈGUE (illustrator).

    Fêtes gallantes.

    Paris, F. Ferroud for the Librairie des Amateurs, 30 July 1913.

    Limited edition on vélin teinté d’Arches, numbered 430 of 500 copies, with etchings by Lebègue. First published in 1869, Verlaine’s Fêtes gallantes are here exquisitely printed and illustrated by Léon Lebègue (1863 – 1944) and finely bound by Flammarion.

    £750

  2. SCOTT, Sir Walter.

    The Lady of the Lake … with all his Introductions and Notes, various Readings, and the Editor’s Notes.

    Edinburgh, Robert Cadell, 1851.

    An attractive Scottish 'Mauchline ware' tartan binding. Mauchline ware bindings – the name comes from Smith’s boxware factory at Mauchline in Ayrshire – were made from thin wooden boards (often sycamore) decorated with tartan or pictorial designs, heavily varnished, and attached to the text...

    £750

  3. CARDONNEL, Adam de.

    Picturesque Antiquities of Scotland [I–II] …

    London: Printed for the Author, and sold by Edwards … also by Edwards’s, in Halifax. 1788.

    First edition, the very rare issue with the plates in sepia, printed directly onto thick wove paper.

    £975

  4. [BURNS, Robert.] BRIGHT, Henry A[rthur].

    Some Account of the Glenriddell MSS. of Burns’s Poems: with several Poems never before...

    Liverpool, Gilbert G. Walmsley …, 1874.

    First edition, scarce, a presentation copy: a privately-printed catalogue of the famous Glenriddell manuscripts; Burns’s preface and several poems are printed here for the first time.

    £100

  5. RAMSAY, Allan.

    The Gentle Shepherd, a Scotch Pastoral … attempted in English by Margaret Turner.

    London: Printed for the Author, by T. Bensley; and sold by G. Nicol … and by Mrs. Turner … 1790.

    First edition of this parallel-text translation of Ramsay’s Scots verse drama, a subscriber’s copy from the library of Mary, Lady Vincent, née Chiswell, wife of Sir Francis Vincent (1747–1793), resident consul at Venice.

    £600

  6. [FRASER, William Augustus, Sir.]

    Poems by the Knight of Morar.

    London, Whittingham and Wilkins, 1867.

    First edition, privately printed, a presentation copy inscribed on the title-page ‘From the Author . Paris. 1867.’

    £350

  7. FLORUS, Lucius. 

    Lucii Flori rerum ab urbe condita liber primus [– quartus]. 

    [Venice, in aedibus Aldi et Andreae Soceri, March 1521.] 

    Florus’s epitome of Roman history, extracted from the Aldine edition of March 1521 which comprised an epitome of Livy, Florus, and Niccolò Perotti’s translation of Polybius. 

    £750

  8. [SOUTH AMERICA.]

    Album of sketches made in Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela.

    1840s?

    An attractive album of sketches by an anonymous Francophone artist made during a trip to South America.

    £2750

  9. [CALLIGRAPHIC SCORES.]

    Two anonymous manuscript scores.

    London, 1820s.

    Two charming productions, sent as anonymous gifts, presumably to the wife or daughter(s) of Col. Thomas Nuttall (or Nuthall) (d. 1829) of the Madras Cavalry.

    £850

  10. ROBINSON, Mrs. Mary (Darby).

    Lyrical Tales …

    London, Printed for T. N. Longman and O. Rees … by Biggs and Co. Bristol, 1800.

    First edition, a revisionary response to Lyrical Ballads (1798) by the actress turned royal mistress turned author, Mary ‘Perdita’ Robinson, published only eight days before her death.

    £1250

  11. NEW RIDDLE BOOK (A)

    or a Whetstone for dull Wits … Printed at Derby, for the benefit of the travelling Stationers.

    [J. Drewry? 1790?]

    An attractive illustrated riddle chapbook. The solutions include ‘a pipping pounded into Cyder’, a man fleeing his scolding wife, a hog fattened with acorns, a young virgin, a mermaid, and a paper kite, though how one would ever guess ‘a Taylor at Dinner with a Dish of Cucumbers, served up with...

    £750

  12. RENOWNED HISTORY (The)

    of Primrose Prettyface, who by her Sweetness of Temper, & Love of Learning, was raised from being the Daughter...

    London, Printed & sold by J. Marshall & Co. … (Price 6d in Gilt Paper – 9d bound in Red.) [1788?]

    One of three undated editions, probably the last (adding Marshall’s Cheapside premises at 17 Queen St to the imprint), but the only one with an engraved title-page and frontispiece.

    £1000

  13. DONNE, John.

    Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, and severall Steps in my Sicknes ...

    London, Printed for Thomas Jones … 1627.

    Third (and last lifetime) edition of Donne’s most familiar prose work, composed during his convalescence in 1623–4 from the ‘spotted Feaver’ which nearly killed him. It consists of twenty-three ‘Stationes, sive Periodi in Morbo’, each comprising a meditation, expostulation, and prayer.

    £13500

  14. ECKARTSHAUSEN, Karl von. 

    Dieu est l’amour le plus pur, ma prière et ma contemplation.  Par Eckartshausen.  Paris, chez L. 

    Duprat-Duverger, rue des Grands-Augustins, no. 21, [1805-1813]. 

    Scarce edition of a French translation of Gott ist die reinste Liebe by the German Catholic mystic Karl von Eckartshausen (1752–1803), this copy formerly in the possession of the long-term lover of Queen Victoria’s father. 

    £475

  15. WILSON, David (editor).

    A Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes, &c. in three Parts … 

    [Edinburgh:] Sold by the Editor at his House … and by J. Hamilton, Music Seller … [c.1800?].

    Second(?), expanded edition of this collection of (mostly) hymn tunes scored for treble, tenor, and bass. Though for most hymns the tunes only are printed, there are words for Cowper’s ‘Hark, my Soul!’ and one other, and at the end are the words and tunes for seven secular catches (in three...

    £500

  16. [CONGREGATION OF THE ORATORY OF ST PHILIP NERI.]

    A collection of seven componimenti sacri per musica for the Oratory of St Philip...

    Venice, 1746–1787.

    A collection of seven libretti for sacred oratorios, to be performed in the Oratory of St Philip Neri in Venice.

    £375

  17. MAJER, Andrea.

    Discorso sulla origine, progressi, e stato attuale della musica italiana …

    Padua, ‘dalla Tipografia e Fonderia della Minerva’, 1821.

    First edition of Majer’s treatise on Italian music, ‘a conservative defence of tradition as part of a backlash against the popularity of Rossini’s reforms’ (Baragwanath, p. 29).

    £450

  18. ARNIGIO, Bartolomeo. 

    Rime dell’Arnigio per la ill[ustre] signora Claudia Martinenga. 

    Brescia, Giovanni Battista Bozzola, 1566. 

    First edition of Bartolomeo Arnigio’s collection of poems addressed to Claudia Martinengo, wife to Ludovico Martinengo della Pallata, an important association copy presented by the author to fellow poet Antonio Beffa Negrini. 

    £1750

  19. COLONNA, Fabio. 

    Φυτοβασανος, sive Plantarum aliquot historia … 

    Naples, Orazio Salviani, 1592. 

    First edition, a landmark in botanical illustration, ‘the first strictly botanical book with intaglio prints’ (Blunt). 

    £4000

  20. SHEPHERD, Richard Herne.

    Forgotten Books worth remembering … No. I. Studies of Sensation and Event by Ebenezer Jones …

    London, Pickering & Co … 1878.

    An interesting collection of ‘rare tracts’, from the library of the Scottish lawyer and journalist John Skelton, who wrote for Blackwood’s under the pseudonym ‘Shirley’.

    £950