Gift Ideas
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DIODATI, Giovanni.
Pious and learned Annotations upon the Holy Bible. Plainly expounding the most difficult Places thereof …...
London, Printed by Tho. Roycroft for Nicholas Fussell, 1664.
An intriguing late eighteenth-century amateur binding from the American Mid-West, possibly decorated with saddler’s tools, and with interesting early American provenance, on the fourth edition in English of the Swiss-Italian Calvinist theologian Giovanni Diodati’s Annotationes in Biblia...
£8500
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BISSON, Louis-Auguste.
‘Wildfire’.
Paris, c. 1844.
An extraordinary equine portrait, testimony to the improvements made in the daguerreotype process made by Louis-August Bisson which allowed greater spontaneity through shorter exposure times.
£14500
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CASSANDRE, A.M.
Dubonnet.
Copenhagen, Axel Andreasen & Sønner, c., 1956.
A fine example of Cassandre’s now iconic publicity image for the wine-based aperitif Dubonnet, originally invented in 1846 in response to a government competition for delivering a palatable anti-malarial dose of quinine to French foreign legionaries serving in North Africa.
£750
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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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[DRYDEN, John.]
The Medall. A Satyre against Sedition. By the Authour of Absalom and Achitophel …
London, Printed for Jacob Tonson … 1682.
First edition, second issue, adding two Latin lines at the end. The subject of Dryden’s satire was the medal struck to celebrate Shaftesbury’s acquittal from charges of high treason. According to Spence, Charles II gave Dryden ‘the hint for writing his poem’, and rewarded him for it. In...
£750
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[STANHOPE, Hester Lucy, Lady.] [MERYON, Charles Lewis, editor.]
Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope, as related by...
London, [Frederick Shoberl for] Henry Colburn … 1845.
First edition, the entertaining memoirs of the Middle East traveller Lady Hester Stanhope (1776–1839). Having looked after her uncle, William Pitt, during most of her youth and run his household while he was Prime Minister for the second time, Stanhope left for the Levant in 1810. She took with...
£650
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PEACOCK, Thomas Love.
Rhododaphne: or the Thessalian Spell. A Poem.
London, Printed for T. Hookham, Jun. … and Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy … 1818.
First edition. A mythological narrative set in ancient Thessaly, Rhododaphne tells the story of the shepherd boy Anthemion, in love with the mortal girl Calliroë, and of the nymph Rhododaphne, who carries him off to her enchanted palace. When Rhododaphne is destroyed by Heavenly or Uranian...
£1000
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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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LEIGH, Samuel Egerton, Sir.
Munster Abbey, a Romance; interspersed with Reflections on Virtue and Morality … in three...
Edinburgh, Printed by John Moir … for W. Creech, Cross, and S. Cheyne … [and] for Hookham & Carpentar … Vernor & Hood … London, 1797.
First edition. Despite its ‘gothic’ title this is a novel of contemporary high life in England and on the Grand Tour, avoiding ‘extravagant descriptions of supernatural scenes and events’. Munster Abbey in Devon is the seat of the hero, Mr. Belford, a bachelor ‘happily possessed of...
£1250
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[HERVEY, Elizabeth.]
The Mourtray Family. A Novel …
London: Printed by Millar Ritchie … for R. Faulder … 1800.
First edition of the penultimate novel by Elizabeth Hervey (c. 1748–1820), elder half-sister of the writer William Beckford – her father, Francis Marsh, had died and her mother Maria (née Hamilton) remarried another Jamaica plantation owner, William Beckford senior, who also died...
£2500
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[BYRON, Pseudo-.]
Don Leon, a Poem by Lord Byron … forming Part of the private Journal of his Lordship, supposed have...
London, The Fortune Press, [1934].
No. 3 of 1000 copies printed (many subsequently destroyed) of a famous Byron forgery. Don Leon, not by Byron, though written by someone familiar with his life and exploits, was an important early plea for the toleration of homosexuality.
£500
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[HAKEWILL, William].
The Manner of holding Parliaments in England, collected forth of our ancient Records … With the stately...
[London,] Printed in the Yeare, 1641.
First (and only lifetime) edition, signed on the title-page by the notorious forger of ‘Shakespeare’s Library’, William Henry Ireland (1775–1835).
£950
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[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
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SASSOON, Siegfried.
Nativity.
London, Faber & Gwyer, 1927.
First edition of this striking collaboration between Siegfried Sassoon and Paul Nash.
£175
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BURNE-JONES, Edward.
The Little Holland House Album … with an Introduction & Notes by John Christian.
The Roxburghe Club, 2024
The Little Holland House Album was compiled by Edward Burne-Jones in about 1858-9 for Sophia, Mrs Dalrymple, the youngest of the seven celebrated Pattle sisters who played such an important role in mid-Victorian cultural life. Their centre was Little Holland House in Kensington where another of the...
£75
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[ANTIPHONAL.]
Very large historiated initial ‘H’, probably for the antiphon Hodie nata est beata virgo Maria for the Nativity...
Italy (Siena), c. 1300.
A very fine large initial painted in a style associated with the Master of the Gradual of Cortona, an artist named for a Franciscan gradual produced c. 1290 for the church of San Francesco in Cortona (now Vatican City, BAV, MS Ross. 612).
£6750
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CAMPBELL, Duncan.
A Poem upon Tea. Wherein its Antiquity, its several Virtues and Influences are set forth; and the Wisdom...
London, Mrs. Dodd, J. Roberts, J. Wilcox et al., 1735.
First and only edition, very scarce, of a series of poetical sketches in praise of tea over alcohol, dedicated ‘To the Fair Sex’ and with an unusual double preface to the masculine and then the feminine reader. Tea had arrived in Britain in the 1650s, but its expense made it very exclusive;...
£2500
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BRADLEY Gertrude M., illustrator.
An archive of drawings for Just Forty Winks.
[c. 1897].
Fifty-eight delightful preliminary pencil sketches by the illustrator Gertrude M. Bradley for Just Forty Winks, Hendry’s tale for children, offered with a copy of the first and only edition, rare in the dustjacket.
£850
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NIEUHOF, Jean, and Jean LE CARPENTIER (translator).
L’ambassade de la compagnie orientale des provinces unies...
Leiden, Jacob de Meurs, 1665.
Lavishly illustrated first French edition of Nieuhof’s travels through China from 1655 to 1657.
£3500
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BROWN, Arthur Henry.
Autograph manuscript notebook mainly of Christmas carols.
[Brentwood?, 1864–87].
An autograph manuscript notebook composed primarily of Christmas carols, compiled carefully over some twenty-five years from various sources including manuscripts in the British Museum, early printed books, and contemporary books and periodicals.
£450