Gift Ideas

  1. MYERS, Robin, Andrew BURNETT, and Renae SATTERLEY.

    ‘I do not eat the bread of idleness’: Dr Andrew Coltée Ducarel 1713–1785,...

    The Garendon Press, 2023.

    This volume brings together revised versions of four of Robin Myers’s papers on aspects of Ducarel’s life and work published between 1994 and 2002, and ‘The Life and Times of the Ducarel Brothers’, her recent introductory essay to Two Huguenot Brothers: Letters of Andrew and James Coltée...

    £45

  2. WAPPEROM, Jacobus Joannes. 

    Gezangen door J.J. Wapperom. 

    The Hague, 1805. 

    Very rare collection of songs by the Dutch notary and poet Wapperom (1763–1822), one of only a small number of copies produced, decorated by the author himself and distributed among his friends and family. 

    £675

  3. [WESLEY, John (editor).]

    Excerpta ex Ovidio, Virgilio, Horatio, Juvenali, Persio, et Martiali: in usum juventutis Christianae....

    Bristol, typis F. Farley, 1749.

    First edition of one of the textbooks that Wesley compiled for the school that he founded at Kingswood, Bristol, in 1748. Finding contemporary textbooks inadequate, he published an astonishing number of works for his pupils – grammars, editions of classics, and other introductions to learning....

    £1100

  4. FARINGTON, Susan Maria (illustrator).

    The 104th Psalm. Illustrated by Susan Maria Ffarington. Worden.

    Lithographed by Vincent Brooks Day & Son, London W.C. [c. 1867].

    The Faringtons or Ffaringtons were an ancient family of Worden Hall, Leyland, Lancashire, with a substantial family archive. Susan Maria (1808–1894) edited The Farington Papers for the Chetham Society in 1856, and made other contributions to local history, but this unusual panorama seems to...

    £975

  5. ALLOM, Thomas and George Newenham WRIGHT.

    China in a series of views, displaying the scenery, architecture, and social habits,...

    London, Peter Jackson, late Fisher, Son, & Co., [1848-56?].

    Later edition of this handsome work on China, first published by Fisher, Son, & Co. in London and Paris in 1843, illustrated with 124 steel-engraved plates and vignettes to each of the four engraved titles.

    £1250

  6. DENNYS, Nicholas Belfield (editor).

    The Treaty Ports of China and Japan. A complete guide to the open ports of those countries,...

    Shortrede and Co., 1867.

    First edition, complete with all twenty-nine maps and plans, of this remarkable guide to the open ports of China and Japan in the late 1860s, aimed at ‘travellers, merchants, and residents’, compiled by Nicholas Dennys (1839–1900), a noted scholar of Chinese folklore, with the sinologist...

    £5750

  7. [ENGELBRECHT, Martin.]

    Eine Englische Bäurin. Une paisane Angloise. Ein Englischer Baur. Un paisan Anglois.

    Augsburg, Martin Engelbrecht, [c. 1740?].

    A wonderful engraving by the Augsburg engraver Martin Engelbrecht (1684–1756) depicting a finely-dressed Englishwoman and Englishman – each somewhat incongruously captioned ‘an English peasant’ – placed within a formal garden setting.

    £3500

  8. REFELL, A. 

    Trugbilder: Eine Anleitung Erscheinungen, auf optischer Täuschung beruhend, nach Belieben hervorzuheben und wissenschaftliche...

    Stuttgart, Rieger, 1865. 

    First German edition, rare, of this fascinating study of mirages and optical illusions, in particular ghostly apparitions, in which the author attempts to demonstrate using the principles of optics how they might appear, with the aim of proving the absurdity of the superstitions to which they...

    £1250

  9. [HOLBEIN, Hans, the Younger.] Christian von MECHEL (engraver).

    Le Triomphe de la Mort, gravé d’après les dessins...

    Paris, Simon Raçon, ‘1780’ [i.e. 1854].

    Rare nineteenth-century reprint of Mechel’s engravings after the magnificent set of woodcuts by Hans Holbein (1497–1543), in which the grinning figure of Death surreptitiously claims a host of victims ranging from popes to paupers.

    £850

  10. [GREENE, Asa.]

    The perils of Pearl Street, including a taste of the dangers of Wall Street, by a late merchant.

    New York, Betts & Anstice and Peter Hill, 1834.

    First edition of a very early Wall Street novella, the fictional tale of Billy Hazard, an innocent carpenter’s son from rural New York state determined to make it as a merchant in the city. Billy’s attempts to establish himself in the mercantile trade in New York City are ultimately unsuccessful...

    £2750

  11. [COOK, James, and Jean-François de Galaup, Comte de la PÉROUSE.]

    Tableau des decouvertes du Capne. Cook, & de la Pérouse....

    S. Sauveur, l’an 7 de la République Française [1798-1799].

    A splendid hand-coloured engraving depicting indigenous peoples of the Pacific and beyond, drawn from the voyages of James Cook (1728–1779) and La Pérouse (1741–1788), and published by the Canadian-born writer, artist and diplomat, Jacques Grasset de Saint-Saveur (1757–1810).

    £1500

  12. [CHIARI, Pietro (attributed)].

    L’Americana ramminga cioè Memorie di donna Jnnez di Quebrada scritte da lei stessa, ed ora pubblicate...

    Venice, Angelo Pasinelli, 1763.

    First edition, rare, of ‘the first Italian novel with a pan-American outlook’ (M. Catucci, trans.).

    £3750

  13. [BERINGTON, Simon, adapted by Jean-Baptiste DUPUY-DEMPORTES.] 

    Memoires de Gaudence de Luques, prisonnier de l’Inquisition...

    Amsterdam and Leipzig, Arkstée & Merkus, 1754. 

    Second edition of this much expanded and altered translation of Berington’s celebrated utopian novel, Memoirs of Sigr Gaudentio di Lucca (1737). 

    £500

  14. MARINIS, Dominico de. 

    Dissertatio philosophico-medica de re monstrosa à Capuccino Pisauri per urinam excreta.  Plura de sanguinis...

    Rome, typis Iacobi Mascardi ... sumptibus Ben Carrarae, 1678. 

    First edition of this scarce dissertation on worms focussing on the extraordinary case of a Capuchin preacher from Pesaro who in 1677 passed a ‘monster’ worm in his urine, which upon subsequent examination was declared to be a serpent. 

    £1850

  15. [LABOURS OF THE MONTHS &c.] 

    Januarius.  Februarius.  Merz.  April … 

    Nuremberg, Joh. Andreae Endterische Handlung, [second half of eighteenth century]. 

    A scarce popular print depicting the labours of the months and signs of the zodiac, four continents, the four classical elements, and the four seasons. 

    £475

  16. [JAMIESON, John.] 

    Congal and Fenella; A Tale in Two Parts. 

    London, C. Dilly, 1791. 

    First and only edition of Jamieson’s Scottish epic, bound with an early edition of Gray’s Poems

    £250

  17. ORIBASIUS. 

    Commentaria in Aphorismos Hippocratis … Ioannis Guinterij Andernaciis medici industria velut e profundissimis tenebris...

    Paris, Simon de Colines, 1533. 

    First edition of this commentary on Hippocrates, bound with a richly annotated copy of Galen’s works in the translation by Thomas Linacre. 

    £1750

  18. SHELDRAKE, Timothy.

    The Causes of Heat and Cold in the several Climates and Situations of this Globe, so far as they depend upon...

    London, printed for and sold by the author ... and by M. Cooper, 1756.

    First edition, rare on the market, of this work on climate by the botanist Timothy Sheldrake (c. 1691–c. 1759) evidencing his interest in tropical plants. ‘As we have no certain rule for determining the heat that exotic plants may require in summer, nor unless by dear-bought experience what...

    £1275

  19. TERENCE Afer, Publius. 

    Comoediae sex, tum ex Donati commentariis … diligentius quam unquam antehac emendatae; Aelii Donati...

    Paris, Robert Estienne, 1529. 

    First folio edition of Terence’s comedies by Robert Estienne.  The printer had already produced a small, octavo edition of Terence’s works in 1526.  Confident in its success, and through access to an excellent and ancient manuscript of the fourth-century commentary by Aelius Donatus, ‘in...

    £1500

  20. [MONTIGNY, Alfred de.] 

    Les stratagèmes des échecs, ou collection des coups d’échecs les plus brillans et les plus curieux,...

    [Strasbourg, Jean-André Fischer for] Paris, Amand König, An X [1801-2]. 

    First edition of this charming pocket-sized chess manual.  Montigny’s work is divided into six chapters, preceded by the introduction, a poem on chess by Joseph-Antoine-Joachim Cerutti (1738–1792), the plan of the work, and an explanation of the symbols used in the diagrams.  The first and...

    £950