[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

[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 étrennes à 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

[ALMANACK.]

Étrennes mignones [sic], curieuses et utiles, avec plusieurs augmentations & corrections, pour l’année mil sept...

Paris, Claude-Jacques-Charles [Durand] and Pierre-François Durand, 1775.

A very rare Parisian almanack for 1775, our copy in a handsome binding embroidered in gold and silver threads and with emblematic mottoes and charming illustrations depicting putti fanning smoke from a burning candle and holding a flaming heart.

£1500

[ALMANACK.]

London Almanack for the Year of Christ 1785.

[London,] Printed for the Company of Stationers, [1785].

A very attractive miniature London Almanack in its elaborate original binding of gilt white calf and matching étui, with an engraving of the soon-to-be-finished Somerset House.

£950

[ALMANACK.]

étrennes mignones [sic], curieuses et utiles, pour l’année mil sept cent quatre-vingt-dix.

Paris, [Jean-François-Hubert] Guillot, 1790.

Very rare almanack for 1790, in a handsome contemporary binding of silk and sequins featuring lyres surmounted by hearts and torches, issued on the eve of the French Revolution with much material on the storming of the Bastille and revolts throughout France.

£1950

[ALMANACK.]

Les perfidies supposées ou les médisances pardonables. Almanach orné des jolies gravures.

Paris, Janet, ‘Successeur du Sr Jubert’, 1800.

A seemingly unrecorded almanack for 1800, issued by the prolific publisher of almanacks Pierre-étienne Janet (1746–1830), with suggestive engravings accompanied by explanatory poems, songs, and music, our copy in a handsome binding of contemporary painted white sheep with designs of hearts, garlands,...

£1450

[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

[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

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

[CRIMEAN WAR.]

Les militaires chrétiens a la guerre d’orient. Récompenses annuelles.

Versailles, Beau jeune, [1856].

First and only edition, rare, of this unusual cartonnage giftbook history of the Crimean War.

£375

DIONYSIUS of Halicarnassus.

Antiquitatum Rom. libri XI. Ab Aemylio Porto recens & post aliorum interpretationes Latine redditi.

Geneva, Jacob Stoer, 1614.

A rare pocket-sized edition of Dionysius of Halicarnassus on the early history of Rome, in an armorial binding for Adrien Poërier.

£450

[EMBROIDERED BINDING.]

Etrennes mignonnes, pour l’an de grace de Notre Seigneur M. DCC. LIII. …

Liège, Everard Kints, [1753].

A charming almanack for 1753 printed in Liège by Everard Kints – bookseller, printer, and wine merchant – here in a delightful embroidered binding with raised work in silver thread surrounding a skilfully executed floral arrangement.

£400

HAMILTON, ‘Eliza’ [Elizabeth].

Translation of the Letters of a Hindoo Rajah; written previous to, and during the Period of...

London, J. Crowder for G. & J. Robinson, 1801.

Second edition of Hamilton’s first separately published work, a pseudo-Oriental satire on British society, in a very well-preserved gilt paper binding imitating calf.

£575

HOSSCHIUS, Sidronius.

Sidronii Hosschii e Societate Iesu elegiarum libri sex. Praemittuntur illustrissimorum virorum poemata in...

Antwerp, Balthasar Moretus ‘ex officina Plantiniana’, 1656.

First collected edition of the neo-Latin verse of the Flemish Jesuit and poet Sidronius Hosschius (Sidron de Hossche, 1596–1653), edited after his death by his fellow poet Jacques van de Walle (1599–1690), and prefaced with poems on Hosschius’ death commissioned by the future Pope Alexander...

£600

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

LEVEY, Michael.

The later Italian Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen … second edition.

Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Revised second edition of Levey’s catalogue of the later Italian paintings in the Royal Collection, from Carracci to Zuccarelli and including the largest group of Canalettos in the world, a specially bound duplicate of Elizabeth II’s presentation copy.

£475

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

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

MYERS, Robin, Michael HARRIS, and Giles MANDELBROTE (eds).

Lives in Book History: Changing Contours of Research over...

Leicester, Garendon Press, 2022.

‘This volume has grown out of one event in a long series of annual conferences on book-trade history – held to mark the fortieth conference in 2018. For this we had asked nine well-known book historians to give a retrospective review of their field, be it manuscripts, incunabula, book binding, and...

£35