Gift Ideas
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SPENDER, Stephen.
The Edge of Being.
London, Faber & Faber, 1949.
First edition, inscribed to Laurie Lee ‘with best love and best wishes for Christmas 1949’.
£120
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[BURNEY, Frances, Madame d’Arblay.]
Camilla: or, A Picture of Youth. By the Author of Evelina and Cecilia. In five Volumes ...
London: Printed for T. Payne ... and T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies ... 1796.
First edition. The subscribers’ list is of particular interest, including Jane Austen: indeed, this is the only subscription that can be identified firmly as hers (‘Miss J. Austen, Steventon’), other Miss Austens meaning possibly Cassandra. Other subscribers were Edmund Burke, Mrs Piozzi,...
£1600
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[JUVENILE.]
[Library for Youth, or Book-Case of Knowledge, 10 vols.]
London: Printed for John Wallis … by T. Gillet or J. Cundee … 1800.
A fine complete set of Wallis’s ‘Library for Youth’ also known as the ‘Book-Case of Knowledge’, with all ten volumes in the first editions, dated 1800, and with two original designs (in reverse) for the frontispieces.
£4750
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SUETONIUS, and Isaac CASAUBON (editor).
C. Suetoni Tranquilli De XII. Caesaribus libri VIII.
Geneva, Etienne Gamonet, 1605.
Second edition of Casaubon’s Suetonius. Isaac Casaubon’s impressive edition, the first to contain a full commentary, was first published at the Estiennes’ Geneva press in 1595 for Jacques Chouët. In some copies of the present edition the place of printing is omitted from the title.
£375
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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
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DREVES, [Johann Friedrich Peter,] and [Friedrich Gottlob] HAYNE [and Johann Stephan CAPIEUX (engraver)].
Choix...
Leipzig, Voss et compagnie, 1802.
First edition in French, the Plesch set, with 125 handsomely hand-coloured botanical plates, adapted from the German edition finished the previous year. Issued under the title Botanisches Bilderbuch für die Jugend und Freunde der Pflanzenkunde, the work had first appeared in twenty-eight...
£3500
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[NOBBES, Robert.]
The compleat Troller, or, the Art of Trolling, with a Description of all the Utensils, Instruments, Tackling,...
London, T. James for Thomas Helder, 1682.
First edition of ‘the earliest major work devoted to pike fishing’ (ODNB). Nobbes’s anonymous Compleat Troller is the first English book substantially on ‘trolling’, or angling for deep-freshwater fish, especially pike, with live bait or artificial lures. Though ‘trolling’...
£1450
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[JOHNSTONE, Charles.]
Chrysal, or the Adventures of a Guinea, wherein are exhibited Views of several striking Scenes, with curious...
London, T. Becket, 1760.
First edition. Chrysal’s enormous popularity derived from its thinly-veiled chronicle of contemporary scandals in political high life: ‘An excoriating satire that won Johnstone respect as a wit but few friends, the novel is set roughly during the period of the Seven Years’ War (1757-63)...
£600
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WOOLRYCH, Humphry W.
Memoirs of the Life of Judge Jeffreys, sometime Lord High Chancellor of England.
London, A.J. Valpy for Henry Colburn, 1827.
First edition of a favourable biography of Judge Jeffreys. A jurist, Humphry William Woolrych (1795–1871) published a life of Edward Coke in 1826 and of Jeffreys the following year, as well as legal texts, a few works of poetry, and a novel. The unrepentant style of this near-hagiography causes...
£145
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FUHRMANN, Ernst.
China. Erster Teil: Das Land der Mitte.
Hagen, Folkwang-Verlag, 1921.
First edition of two of the most celebrated works on Chinese religious architecture, published as volumes IV and V of Geist, Kunst und Leben Asiens, with hundreds of pictures of temples and Buddhist sculptures, some of which are now lost. The second volume deals in particular with the Lingyan...
£175
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REID, Thomas.
Essays on the powers of the human mind; to which are prefixed, an Essay on quantity, and an Analysis of Aristotle’s...
[Edinburgh, W. Aitchison for] London, Ogle, Duncan & Co., and Edinburgh, J. Dick & Co. and W. Hunter, and Glasgow, M. Ogle, 1822.
A beautiful set of this small format edition of the principal philosophical works of the Scottish enlightenment philosopher Thomas Reid (1710–1796). The collection, which first appeared in this form in 1812, includes, besides Reid’s first major work, his works on the faculties of the mind,...
£750
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MORRIS, William.
Gothic Architecture: A Lecture for the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society.
(Colophon:) London, Kelmscott Press at the New Gallery, sold by William Morris, 1893.
A splendid copy of the first edition of Morris’s lecture on Gothic architecture, an experimental project in printing for a public audience at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition.
£1000
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ARNOLD, Edwin.
Enfin: A Poem, hitherto unpublished, by Sir Edwin Arnold.
New York, printed by Thomas Perry Stricker for Julian Buddolph Arnold, 1936.
First edition, one of only fifty copies hand-printed by T. Perry Sticker, presentation copy from the editor (the author’s son) and accompanied by his autograph note regarding the printing and planned circulation of the poem.
£350
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LAFFREY.
‘Abregé de l’histoire ancienne avec des reflexions philosophiques & politiques par Mr. Laffrey.’
C. 1760s.
A charming manuscript summary of ancient history, compiled for a young female member of the Bellew family, and once in the library of the eminent Scottish Jacobite Andrew Lumisden (1720–1801).
£750
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[TREASON.]
A Collection of the several Statutes and Parts of Statutes now in Force relating to High Treason and Misprision of High...
London, Charles Bill and the executrix of Thomas Newcomb, 1709.
First edition, published shortly after the Treason Act 1708, in its contemporary binding. Issued following the revision of laws relating to high treason following the Union of 1707, the texts were printed by the printers to Queen Anne and are often found in black morocco bindings to this design,...
£650
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[THE BOOK COLLECTOR.]
A special Number to commemorate the 150th Anniversary of Bernard Quaritch Ltd.
The Book Collector, 1997.
A collection of essays together recounting the history of Bernard Quaritch Ltd, published by The Book Collector to commemorate the firm’s sesquicentenary in 1997.
£25
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FREEMAN, Arthur.
Catullus Carmen 17.6 and Other Mysteries. A Study in Editorial Conflict, Eccentricity, Forgery, and Restitution....
London, The Author, 2020.
This partly historical, partly philological essay offers a general account of the early preservation, post-medieval recovery, and Renaissance evolution of the text of Catullus, with specific reference to one speculative reading in Carmen 17 (‘De Colonia’), and certain humanist twists and forgeries...
£15
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MILBANK, Augustus Sussex.
A Treatise upon the political & social Condition of Europe, from the Fall of the Roman Empire, down to...
[Richmond, M. Bell for] London, Messrs Hatchard & Son, and Richmond, M. Bell, 1847.
First and only edition of a rare Yorkshire-printed treatise of social history by an amateur historian and educational enthusiast, inscribed by the author to the Countess of Sandwich.
£125
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[SCOTLAND.]
Seventeen pamphlets relating mostly to legal cases in Scotland.
Aberdeen and Edinburgh, 1772-1788.
An interesting sammelband relating largely to Scottish legal cases, containing 12 items unrecorded on ESTC, COPAC and OCLC. The cases include those of a Kilbagie distiller convicted of bribery; of Sir William Erskine of Torrie against a London banking house; of a St Andrews minister convicted of perjury;...
£750
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HORACE.
Quinti Horatii Flacci Opera cum novo commentario ad modum Joannis Bond.
Paris, Didot, 1855.
The deluxe issue of Didot’s Horace, a fine early photographically-illustrated work, complete with all the photographic plates, headpieces and maps, and printed on fine paper.
£900