Gift Ideas
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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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FROST, Robert.
A collection of five Christmas Poems 1953, 1959, 1960, 1961 and 1963, all in the issues printed for distribution...
New York, Spiral Press, 1953 [– 1963].
‘Though I only met Frost on three occasions, I felt the warmest affection for him … The Christmas poems which he sent his friends each year were ever welcome reminders of Frost’s genial good nature. The last I received from arrived on the morning that I read of his death in the newspaper. Sad as...
£2000
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SOLDANI, Jacopo.
Lezione di Jacopo Soldani sopra il Brindisi recitata da lui nell’Accademia Fiorentina il dì 20 di gennaio...
Florence, Tipografia della pia casa di Patronato, 1886.
First and only edition of satirist Jacopo Soldani’s 1597 debut address to the Accademia Fiorentina on the art of making a toast.
£75
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ELIOT, T.S. (trans.); St-J. PERSE.
Anabasis: A Poem by St.-J. Perse, with a Translation by T.S. Eliot.
New York, Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1938.
First American edition of Eliot’s translated Anabase. One of the earliest works of the French poet and diplomat Alexis Leger (1887–1975), written under the nom de plume St-John Perse, Anabase was published in 1924 and translated by Eliot in 1930. It ‘is a series...
£85
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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
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[ALMANAC.]
The Bijou Almanack for 1845.
London. T. Goode … [1844].
An attractive miniature stereotyped almanac of the type popularized by Albert Schloss from 1836 (his productions often came in a special box with a magnifying glass). Thomas Goode was one of a number of publishers to produce cheap imitations. The contents here are largely financial, and include...
£100
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ELIOT, T.S.
A Song for Simeon … drawing by E. McKnight Kauffer.
London, Faber & Gwyer, 1928.
First edition, limited to five hundred copies on large paper, numbered 305 and signed by Eliot.
£500
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TENNYSON, Alfred Tennyson, Lord.
In Memoriam.
London: Edward Moxon … 1850.
First edition, first issue, with the misprints on page 2 (‘the sullen tree’ for ‘thee sullen tree’) and page 198 (‘baseness’ for ‘bareness’).
£950
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[JAMES II.]
His Majesties gracious Declaration to all his loving Subjects for Liberty of Conscience.
[Colophon:] London, Printed by Charles Bill, Henry Hills, and Thomas Newcomb, Printers to the Kings most excellent Majesty. 1687.
A major document in the history of free speech and the first step towards religious freedom in Britain, the 1687 Declaration of Indulgence granted liberty of conscience for all religions, and the freedom ‘to meet and serve God after their own way and manner, be it in private houses, or places...
£650
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VISSCHER, Nicolaes [I].
Avium vivae et artificiosissimae delineationes.
Amsterdam, Nicolaus [I] Visscher, 1659.
First and only edition of this rare set of ornithological prints by the famed cartographer Nicolaes Visscher I.
£3750
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ISIDORUS A CRUCE.
Devoti admodum et consolatione pleni confessionales Psalmi septem in quibus peccator divinam pro criminibus clementiam...
Dillingen, Johann Caspar Bencard, 1675.
Rare illustrated edition of this work devoted to confession and seeking forgiveness for sins by Isidorus a Cruce (d. 1681), abbot of St Charles the Great in Prague.
£450
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KELLER, Martialis.
Neueröffnete Himmels-Schule, in welcher aus zwölf, als so vielen Theilen vorgesetzten Lehrpunkten verschiedene...
Augsburg, Matthäus Riegers, 1793.
Rare later edition of this educational and devotional work by the Bavarian Benedictine Martialis Keller, containing prayers, exercises, and points of doctrine, and illustrated with attractive engravings, this copy in a contemporary local binding.
£500
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VINCENT FERRER, Saint.
‘Orazioni e prece che potranno recitarsi ogni giorno dalli divoti del santo’.
[Northern Italy, c. 1770.]
A charming pocket-sized manuscript containing prayers to the famous Dominican missionary St Vincent Ferrer (1350–1419), likely made by and for a woman, with a hand-coloured engraving of the Virgin Mary, and bound in attractive gilt brocade wrappers.
£950
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[PRAYERS.]
Récueil de plusieurs prieres.
Vienna, ‘chez Georg Müllner libraire et relieur des livres’, [c. 1810].
Very rare and charming early nineteenth-century prayer book in an attractive binding by the Viennese ‘libraire et relieur’ Georg Müllner.
£450
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SCHOENAU, Johann Heinrich von.
Betrachtungen uber die geheimbe Fürbilder, der Sechs Tage der Welt-Erschaffung, und des siebenden...
Zürich, Johann Wilhelm Simler, 1688.
Scarce first edition of this interesting work on the seven days of Creation, linked to the life of Christ and to the history of the Church, in an attractive eighteenth-century devotional binding.
£850
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[ALMANAC.]
Almanacco delle Dame.
Florence, F. Canale, [1883].
A lavishly decorated – and seemingly unrecorded – Florentine almanac for ladies, containing love poetry, notable dates, and illustrating the latest fashions of 1883.
£275
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SHAKESPEARE, [William].
The Works of Shakespeare, the text of the First Folio with Quarto variants and a selection of modern...
[Cambridge, University Press for] The Nonesuch Press, and New York, Random House, 1929 [– 1933].
First Nonesuch edition, number 220 of 1600 copies, not only handsomely printed and bound but also an important scholarly edition, collating the texts of the First Folio against variants in preceding quarto editions.
£1450
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[MIDDLE EAST and ASIA.]
Carte de l’Asie occidentale comprenant la Turquie d’Asie, la Perse, le Kaboul et l’Arabie.
Paris, J. Andriveau-Goujon, 1850.
A lovely hand-coloured folding map of the Middle East and part of Asia, comprising Arabia, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and the western borders of China and modern-day India, from the celebrated Parisian map-selling company of Andriveau-Goujon.
£350
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LAING, Alexander.
The True Hero and Other Poems …
Glasgow, Morison Brothers, 1893.
First edition, scarce, a presentation copy, inscribed in a shaky hand ‘To Wm J. Robertson / with author’s regards / Alex Laing / 8-4-19’.
£375
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LEWIS, Wyndham.
Tarr.
London, Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1951.
Third (second revised) edition, set up from a corrected version of the re-written text of 1928 – the details of the textual differences are outlined in ‘Tarr V’ by Bernard Lafourcade (Enemy News 15, Winter 1982). The dust-jacket features Lewis’s last drawing before his blindness (see Meyers).
£100