Gift Ideas
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GROVES, John.
Greek and English dictionary, comprising all the words in the writings of the most popular Greek authors; in the...
London, for Cowie, Jolland & Co., 1838.
Seventh edition of Groves’s popular Greek–English dictionary, with charming doodles and cheeky notes by William Salked Brook of Woodbridge, Suffolk, dating from his time at Magdalen College School and then Oriel College Oxford (BA 1880). Brook appears to have inherited the volume from his father...
£150
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FLORUS.
Lucii Flori rerum ab urbe condita liber primus [– quartus].
[Venice, in aedibus Aldi et Andreae Soceri, March 1521.]
Florus’s epitome of Roman history, extracted from the Aldine edition of March 1521 which comprised an epitome of Livy, Florus, and Niccolò Perotti’s translation of Polybius.
£750
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[ANON.]
The Mystic Cottager of Chamouny: a Novel …
London: Printed for William Lane, at the Minerva Press … 1794.
First edition, very rare, presumably a first novel by a young authoress – the ‘Address to the public’ calls it ‘the genuine dictates of a moment of imagination … traced by the pen of juvenility …. for the sole endeavour of raising a trivial sum for the benefit of a distressed Orphan,...
£3750
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GRANT, Anne.
Memoirs of an American Lady; with Sketches of Manners and Scenery in America, as they existed previous to the Revolution...
London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme … J. Hatchard … and Mrs. H. Cook … 1809.
Second edition of Memoirs, first published in 1808. The American lady is Catalina Schuyler, the widow of Col. Philip Schuyler, the author’s ‘earliest and most valuable friend’, who helped to guide her early education in America.
£200
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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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WREE, Olivier de.
Sigilla comitum Flandriae et inscriptiones diplomatum ab iis editorum, cum exposition historica.
Bruges, Jan-Baptiste van den Kerchove, 1639.
First edition of de Wree’s authoritative catalogue of Flemish seals, an attractive copy in contemporary vellum gilt. Exquisitely engraved by Samuel and Adriaen Lommelin and François Schelhaver the elder and younger, the illustrations offer an accurate and elegant record of the seals of the...
£750
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BLANCHARD, Edward Litt Leman.
A Pipe of Tobacco: with Whiffs and Clouds … With Illustrations.
London: H. Beal … [1840s?].
First edition, by the editor and play- and pantomime-writer E.L. Blanchard, comprising three ‘whiffs’ and two ‘clouds’ on the subject of tobacco, aimed ‘at a niche in the waistcoast pocket, rather than a more presuming station on the library shelf’. Blanchard knew Dickens and was in...
£125
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[PSALMS.]
The whole Booke of Psalmes, collected into English Meter by Tho. Strenhold, Jo. Hopkins, W. Whittingham, and others …...
London, Printed by T. C[otes] for the Company of Stationers, 1637.
A very attractive pocket psalm-book with tunes, ruled in red throughout and in a handsome binding. Such diminutive psalm books began to appear at the end of the sixteenth-century, printed for the Company of Stationers, who had the monopoly. The printer here was Thomas Cotes, most famous as printer...
£2750
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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 in...
£2500
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ORWELL, George.
Nineteen Eighty-Four. A Novel.
London, Secker & Warburg, 1949.
First edition of a byword-novel, Orwell’s nightmare vision of a totalitarian future. The dust-jacket was issued simultaneously in red and green versions.
£1750
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WHITMAN, Walt, and Antonio FRASCONI (illustrator).
A Whitman Portrait.
[New York, Spiral Press, 1960.]
First edition, comprising extracts from Leaves of Grass, facsimile letters and a selection of woodcut ‘portraits’ by Frasconi. Numbered 149 of 525 copies signed by Frasconi, printed on Japanese Goyu paper.
£250
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HUMPHREYS, H.
Noel. The Genera and Species of British Butterflies, described and arranged according to the System now adopted in...
London, [Bradbury & Evans for] Paul Jerrard & Son, [1859].
First edition of these handsome illustrations of butterflies, by the naturalist and artist Henry Noel Humphreys (1807–1879). Noted for its aesthetic appeal, British Butterflies is one of the most attractive of Humphreys’s works, which ‘addressed identification and habitat without...
£250
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DU TEMPLE, Louis.
Du Scaphandre, et de son emploi a bord des navires … accompagné de 2 planches.
Paris, widow Bouchard-Huzard for Arthus Bertrand, Librairie Maritime et Scientifique, [c. 1861].
First and only edition of this work on the diving-suit, with an attractive early depiction of its use. The text addresses the recently patented diving-suit of Joseph-Martin Cabirol, providing a detailed description of the suit and its constituent parts, advice to divers (including what to wear...
£750
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[HERALDRY.]
Album of embossed heraldic letterheads.
[Likely Cambridge, late nineteenth century?]
An intriguing collection of embossed emblems, used to create an album of elaborate designs. Several designs appear to be arranged by their source, including two pages of Cambridge colleges and others of military regiments (both of which feature heavily throughout the album), while others are likely...
£250
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POGÁNY, Willy (illustrator).
Forty-four Turkish Fairy Tales, collected and translated by Dr Ignácz Kúnos, with Illustrations...
London, [Ballantyne Press for] George D. Harrap & co., [1913].
First edition of this attractive collection of Turkish fairy tales, gathered by the Hungarian folklorist Ignác Kúnos and beautifully illustrated by Willy Pogány.
£450
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[JUVENILE.]
A Token of Remembrance from a Mother to her absent Children, comprising simple Tales, Dialogues, and easy Poetry, adapted...
London, William Darton, 58, Holborn Hill, 1822.
First edition of this collection of moral tales and poetry for children, compiled by a mother for her young daughter, from the lending library of the newly established Coast Guard.
£350
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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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[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