[OXFORD UNIVERSITY.]

Pietas Universitatis Oxoniensis in obitum serenissimi Regis Georgii II. et gratulatio in augustissimi Regis...

Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1761.

First edition, one of fifty copies on large paper, an exceptional survival in the most luxurious (and fragile) of presentation bindings: full purple velvet with gold-fringed purple silk ties, typically reserved for a handful or fewer of royal copies.

£10000

HURTADO, Eugenio, scribe.

[Missal for feast days.]

Madrid, 1827.

An extraordinary and enormous liturgical manuscript with painted and stencilled decorations, in a remarkable binding on wheels for ease of movement

£9500

THEOCRITUS et al.

Theocriti aliorumque poetarum Idyllia. Eiusdem Epigrammata …

[Geneva], Henri Estienne, 1579.

An outstanding volume uniting the Estienne Greek bucolic poets (Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus) and the Estienne Greek Psalms in an Henri Estienne presentation binding.

£9000

MEFFRET, Johann.

Sermones Meffreth alias Ortulus regine de tempore. Pars hyemalis.

[Basel, Nicolaus Kesler, not after 1485.]

A volume of sermons with early English annotations, in a binding featuring tools attributed to an early Cambridge workshop known as the Unicorn Binder.

£6500

BIBLE.

Biblia cum concordantiis veteris et novi testamenti et sacrorum canonum: necnon & additionibus in marginibus varietatis...

[(Colophon:) Lyons, Jean Marion, for Anton II Koberger in Nuremberg, 19 August 1520.]

A handsomely printed Bible in a contemporary Silesian or Bohemian binding, richly annotated by a Protestant scholar and with numerous woodcuts in contemporary colouring.

£5500

[BIBLE.]

The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments … diligently compared and revised …

Oxford, T. Wright and W. Gill, 1769.

First quarto edition of the Oxford ‘standard’ Bible, as revised by Benjamin Blayney of Hertford College, Oxford (1728–1801), later Regius Professor of Hebrew. The quarto and folio editions of 1769, of which this was the first to be finished, were printed from the same setting of type differently...

£5250

[PRIMER.]

Preces privatae, in studiosorum gratia[m] collectae & Regia authoritate approbatae …

London, William Seres, 1568.

Second edition of this rare ‘private’ prayer book, first printed in 1564, with a calendar, a Latin catechism for children, selected psalms, and a Latin–English list of English islands, counties, cathedral cities, bishoprics, rivers, and ports.

£4250

[WALLPAPER BINDING.]

‘Chassereau des Biens et Rentes deves a joseph Paul Roegier et marie margu te [sic] Bourdeau son espouse,...

Hainaut, 1750–1773.

A manuscript account book compiled by Joseph Paul Roegier and his son, recording receipts over a quarter-century, in an attractive and unusual binding reusing a large fragment of gilt leather wallpaper.

£3500

[ALMANACK.]

L’Esprit des chansonniers, extrain [sic?] des meilleurs poëtes.

Paris, Le Fuel, [1826?].

A very rare enamelled metal binding with an enchanting design of birds and squirrels, from the collection of the bookbinder, collector, and bibliographer Léon Gruel.

£2750

[ALMANACK.]

Les etrennes a la rose, ou le rosier d’amour.

Paris, Janet, [1804?].

A charming literary almanack, or ‘rosebush of love’, collecting amatory poems using the motif of the rose, here bound in red silk strikingly embroidered in silver and dated with the French Revolutionary year ‘An XII’ (1804).

£2500

LUCAN.

Pharsalia cum annotationibus in margine adiectis, quae brevis commentarii vice esse possint.

Antwerp, Michael Hillenius, 1528.

An uncommon edition of Lucan’s poem on the Civil War between Caesar and Pompey, with extensive Breton provenance and contemporary annotations, in a contemporary binding.

£2500

[ALMANACK.]

Calendarium Tyrnaviense ad annum Jesu Chris[ti] M. DCC. XXXI[.] …

[Tyrnau (Trnava), 1731.]

A remarkable almanack binding of part-printed, part-manuscript vellum, prepared for presentation at the Habsburg court in Vienna to the Genoese diplomat Clemente Doria.

£1850

ZACHARIÄ, Just Friedrich Wilhelm.

Les quatre parties du jour, poëme traduit de l’allemand de M. Zacharie.

Paris, J. B. G. Musier fils, 1769.

First edition in French of this proto-Romantic poem on the times of day, splendidly bound with the arms of its dedicatee, the mentally ill Christian VII of Denmark and Norway.

£1500

PLINY the Elder.

Historiae mundi libri XXXVII, cum castigationibus et adnotationibus doctiss. & variis praeterea lectionibus ex...

Frankfurt, Claude de Marne and heirs of Jean Aubry, 1608.

First Frankfurt edition of Pliny’s Natural History, here bound as an enormous single volume with strikingly decorated edges featuring acorns and scrolls.

£1400

[BASKERVILLE PRESS.]

The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church,...

Third and final edition of Baskerville’s octavo prayer book. The prayers for the Royal Family on cancels B8, C6, and D3 include the name of Queen Charlotte, whom George III married in 1761. This copy also includes the ‘occasional prayers’ which were only printed for part of the edition and are...

£1200

[PSALMS.]

Psalmi Davidis regis et vatis inclyti, a M. Antonio Flaminio & P. Francisco Spinula pietis elegantissimis, Latinis...

Antwerp, [(colophon:) Jan Verwithagen for Joannes Steelsius], 1559.

A collection of verse paraphrases of the Psalms, by the poets and humanist scholars Marcantonio Flaminio (1498–1550) and Publio Francesco Spinola (c. 1520–1567), bound for Jacques-Auguste de Thou (1553–1617).

£975

[PSALMS.]

Les Pseaumes de David, mis en Vers François, revus et approuvez par le Synode Walon des Provinces-Unies. Nouvelle Edition.

Amsterdam, ‘aux dépens de l’Eglise Françoise de Londres’, 1729’.

New edition of the metrical Psalms of the Pléiade poet Clément Marot and the theologian Théodore de Bèze, extensively revised, with a new version of 149 Psalms, printed for the use of Huguenot émigrés.

£950

[WALLET.]

Wallet with manuscript and printed waste.

France, c. 1790.

An attractive late eighteenth-century wallet in the guise of a wallet-bound book, possibly re-using an earlier eighteenth-century binding, the interior compartments composed of manuscript and printed waste.

£950

CHALMERS, David.

Histoire abbregee de tous les roys de France, Angleterre et Escosse, mise en ordre par forme d’Harmonie: contenant...

Paris, Jean Fevrier, 1579.

First edition of Chalmer’s historical work focusing on Scotland’s relations with France and England, written at a time of marriage negotiations between England and France, seeking to dispel the idea that England had any overlordship over Scotland.

£950

NIXON, Howard M. 

Broxbourne Library: Styles and Designs of Bookbindings from the twelfth to the twentieth Century … with an...

London, Maggs Brothers for the Broxbourne Library, 1956. 

First edition, one of three hundred copies, of Howard Nixon’s richly illustrated catalogue of the bindings in the library of Albert Ehrman.

£875