BUONACCORSI, Biagio, and Niccolò VALORI. 

Diario de’ successi piu importanti seguiti in Italia, & particolarmente in...

Florence, Filippo & Jacopo Giunta, 1568. 

First edition of an insider account of Medici politics by Biagio Buonaccorsi (1472–1522), colleague and confidant of Machiavelli, bound with the first edition of Malespini’s history of Florence and owned by Claude-Enoch Virey, secretary to Henri II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé. 

£1000

[BUTLER, John].

Some Account of the Character of the late Right Honourable Henry Bilson Legge.

London: Printed for J. Almon … 1764.

First edition. Henry Bilson Legge (1708-1764), three times chancellor of the exchequer between 1754 and 1761, attracted both respect and censure. To Pitt, he was ‘the child, and deservedly the favourite child, of the Whigs’. Horace Walpole, on the other hand, thought him a man ‘of a creeping, underhand...

£200

CADOGAN, William Bromley.

The Felicity of God’s Children, considered in a Sermon, preached upon the Death of a Lady, in the parish...

Reading: Printed and Sold by Smart and Cowslade; and sold by J. Rusher, Reading; Messrs. Robinsons, V. Griffiths ... & J. Matthews ... London;...

First edition, a funeral sermon by the popular preacher William Bromley Cadogan, a friend of John Newton, for the local widow Maria Littlehales, printed at the request of her children.

£75

CAMPBELL, Thomas.

Autograph letter, signed, to the novelist and socialite Lady Morgan, explaining why he cannot join her party.

‘Wednesday Morning’, no date, but late 1840.

‘I have been dying also several times during the last six months – I hope however to survive a few weeks when I shall be nearer to you when, in my new house in Victoria Square, I shall hope to see you frequently.’ Campbell suffered increasing ill health towards the end of his life, but continued...

£175

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

[CARTOUCHE.]

The Life and Actions of Lewis Dominique Cartouche: who was broke alive upon the Wheel at Paris, Nov. 28. 1721. N.S....

London, Printed for J. Roberts … 1722.

First edition in English, published in the same year as the French original, of this life of the French highwayman Louis Dominique Bourguignon, alias ‘Cartouche’, broken on the wheel in 1721.

£1750

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

[CHAPBOOK.]

Narrow Escape from the Punishment of Death, or, The Case of John Taylor and John Burton, who were left for Execution...

Collins … and Evans and Sons … [c. 1820–1826].

An uncommon early chapbook from the press of Augustus Applegath (1788–1871), interpreting the real-life stay of execution for two sheep-stealers as an act of divine providence.

£225

CHESTERFIELD, Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of.

Lettres ecrites par le tres-honorable … Comte de Chesterfield, a son Fils, Philippe...

A Paris, chez Panckoucke [but probably printed in London]. 1775.

First edition in French of Chesterfield’s famous Letters to his Son (1774). Although not recognized as such by Gulick (and not listed in ESTC), this is almost certainly an English production; press figures appear throughout all five volumes, the typography and disposition is generally English...

£950

CHESTERFIELD, Philip Dormer Stanhope, fourth Earl of.

Letters written … to his Son, Philip Stanhope, Esq; late Envoy Extraordinary...

London: Printed for Dodsley … 1777.

Eighth edition, a very pretty set.

£250

CHURCHILL, Winston S.

A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Volume I: The Birth of Britain [– Volume II: The New World;...

London, Cassel & Company Ltd, [1956; – 1956; – 1957; – 1958].

First editions, with dust-jackets, of Churchill’s History of the English-Speaking Peoples, his last major historical work.

£200

CHURCHILL, Winston Spencer; F. RHODES, editor; Angus McNEILL, illustrator.

The River War: An Historical Account...

[London, Spottiswoode & Co. for] London, New York, & Bombay (Mumbai), Longmans, Green, & Co., 1899.

First edition of Churchill’s second book, a history of Lord Kitchener’s conquest of Sudan in 1896-99 informed by his own service as both a cavalry officer and a war correspondent on the campaign, profusely illustrated with drawings and maps.

£2500

CLARENDON, Edward Hyde, Earl of. 

The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, begun in the Year 1641.  With...

Oxford, Printed at the Theater, 1702[–4]. 

First edition of Clarendon’s monumental History of the Civil War, with a presentation inscription by his son Henry Hyde, the second Earl (1638–1709). 

£3250

COBDEN-SANDERSON, Annie; Marianne TIDCOMBE, editor.

The Prison Diary of Annie Cobden-Sanderson, with a Facsimile of the Original.

[Marlborough,] Libanus Press, 2017.

The imprisonment of Annie Cobden-Sanderson, daughter of the famous Victorian statesman Richard Cobden, prompted a wave of letters of protest to the newspapers, giving the women’s suffrage campaign the major boost she had hoped for. The ten women with whom Cobden-Sanderson was arrested (and of whom...

£25

[COCHRAN, Charles B.]

OSTROWSKA, Wanda and Viola G. GARVIN. London’s Glory.

London, George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1945.

First edition, a poignant collection of paintings of war-torn London by the Polish artist-in-exile Wanda Ostrowska, accompanied by extracts from her own writings and narrative by Viola Garvin.

£75

COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor.

Biographia Literaria; or biographical Sketches of my literary Life and Opinions … Vol I[-II].

London: Rest Fenner … 1817.

First edition. Coleridge’s estimates of contemporary German poets and philosophers are justly celebrated, and the long autobiographical passages and critical analyses of Wordsworth and of Lyrical Ballads are of primary interest. ‘Though maddeningly unsystematic in structure, the book is a touchstone...

£450

COLERIDGE, S[amuel] T[aylor].

The Statesman’s Manual; or the Bible the best guide to political Skill and Foresight: a Lay Sermon,...

London: Printed for Gale and Fenner … J. M. Richardson … and Hatchard … 1816.

First edition of the first of Coleridge’s ‘Lay Sermons’, written in Highgate at the house of James Gillman, to whom Coleridge had come as an in-patient for his opium addiction.

£200

CROMARTY, George Mackenzie, Earl of.

An historical Account of the Conspiracies by the Earls of Gowry, and Robert Logan of Restalrig,...

First edition, dedicated to Queen Anne, ‘and to all the Princes who share in her royal blood’. The Vindication of Robert III was first published in 1695.

£150

CUMMINGS, E. E.

i: six nonlectures.

Cambridge (Mass.), Harvard University Press, 1953.

First trade edition, inscribed to the BBC radio producer Douglas Geoffrey Bridson ‘Wishing Geoffrey Bridson good luck / E. E. Cummings’. There was also a signed limited edition of 350 copies.

£750

[CURLL, Edmund, editor.]

Impartial Memorials of the Life and Writings of Thomas Hearne, M.A. by several Hands.

London, Printed in the Year 1736.

First separate edition, amusing but in no way ‘impartial’, of this biography of the age’s leading antiquary, Thomas Hearne (1678–1735).

£450