Gift Ideas
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[DENS, Pierre, editor.]
Tractatus selecti de sponsalibus et matrimonio. Duae partes.
Louvain, Louis Joseph Urban, 1775.
Uncommon first edition of this interesting work on the legal aspects of betrothal and marriage, in a handsome contemporary binding.
£800
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NERVAL, Gérard de.
Lorely, souvenirs d’Allemagne. Paris, [Gustave Gratiot for] D.
Giraud et J. Dagneau, 1852.
First edition, second issue, of a collection of Nerval’s writings on Germany.
£800
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ANACREON.
Ανακρεοντος τηιου μελη praefixo commentario quo poëtae genus traditur et bibliotheca Anacreonteia...
Parma, [Bodoni] ‘in aedibus Palatinis’, 1791.
Thick paper copy, apparently one of 12 copies from an edition of 212. This attractive edition of Anacreon’s Odaria was edited by G.C. Amaduzzi and printed by Bodoni. ‘The editions of 1785 and 1791 are printed in capital letters, and more elegant and exquisitely finished productions...
£650
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TENNYSON, Alfred, Lord.
Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington…
London: Edward Moxon … 1852.
First edition of Tennyson’s ode to the Duke of Wellington; one of his earliest Laureate poems, it was, of course, a patriotic piece, but also, as a Horatian ode in English, a notable technical achievement.
£100
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CHALKHILL, John.
Thealma and Clearchus. A pastoral History in smooth and easie Verse. Written long since by John Chalkhill, Esq;...
London, Printed for Benj. Tooke … 1683.
First edition of Chalkhill’s unfinished pastoral poem, with the corrected state of the title, designating the author as ‘an acquaintant and friend of Edmund [originally ‘Edward’] Spencer’.
£1850
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ROTH, Henry.
Call it Sleep.
London, Michael Joseph, 1963.
First UK edition of Roth’s precocious masterpiece, generally regarded as the finest novel of Jewish immigration to America before and after the turn of the century.
£250
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[BECKFORD, William.]
Vathek, conte arabe.
Paris, Poinçot; Chatellerault, P. J. B Guimbert, 1787.
Extremely rare, the only traced copy, of a reissue of the sheets of the first Paris edition with a provincially-printed cancel title adding to the imprint the imprimeur-libraire Pierre Jean Baptiste Guimbert, of Châtellerault. This is the rarest piece of Beckfordiana we have ever encountered,...
£3750
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VARILLAS, [Antoine].
La pratique de l’education des princes, contenant l’histoire de Guillaume de Croy, surnommé Le Sage,...
Amsterdam, H. Wetstein & H. Desbordes, 1686.
A highly unusual pyrographic binding, likely an amateur imitation of then-fashionable tooling.
£750
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[DELAMARCHE, Alexandre, cartographer; Bernard COUDERT, lithographer.]
‘Atlas’.
Paris, Legay, [c. 1889].
An attractive set of large educational jigsaw maps showing the world, Europe, and France, preserved in its original allegorical box.
£875
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MATURIN, Charles.
Melmoth the Wanderer: a Tale … Edinburgh, Archibald Constable and Company
London, Hurst, Robinson, and Co., 1820.
First edition, with excellent provenance, of what is often considered alongside Frankenstein as the supreme masterpiece of the Gothic genre.
£7500
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[WYNNE, John Huddlestone.]
The Child of Chance; or, the Adventures of Harry Hazard.
London, T. Hookham, ‘1796’ [recte 1786].
First edition of a very rare picaresque novel in the manner of Tom Jones. Though largely London-based, there are interludes in India (where Wynne had served two years) and the West Indies. Many of the tropes of Wynne’s earlier novel The Man of Honour are present – orphans, female duplicity,...
£3500
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WIELAND, Christoph Martin; William SOTHEBY, translator.
Oberon, a Poem …
London, Cadell and Davies, Edwards, Faulder, and Hatchard, 1798.
First octavo edition of Sotheby’s celebrated translation of Wieland’s epic, Oberon, in part based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream; there was also a large paper quarto edition for presentation.
£500
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[TOMKIS, Thomas.]
Lingua: or, the Combat of the Tongue, and the five Senses for Superiority. A pleasant Comoedie.
London, Nicholas Okes for Simon Waterson, 1617.
Third edition, rare, of this allegorical Cambridge play, perhaps the earliest academic drama to achieve popular success.
£3000
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ROHAN, Henri, Duke of; [Henry HUNT, translator].
A Treatise of the Interest of the Princes and States of Christendome....
London, Richard Hodgkinson, 1641.
First edition in England (and second in English) of this groundbreaking work on political interest and the balance of power by the leader of the Huguenots, this copy with hitherto unnoticed printing variants.
£1800
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[CHARLES II.]
RIVET, Jean. ‘Le favory du Ciel ou Meditation sur le pseaume cent un par Jean Rivet laisné Sainctongeois’.
[Caussade en Quercy, 1664.]
A fascinating manuscript meditation on Psalm 101, a text traditionally used as an exposition on princely authority in Protestant theology, with a long dedication ‘A Tres Puissant et Serenissime Roy Charle deuxiesme Roy de la grande Bretagne’.
£1850
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PRIOR, Matthew.
The Poetical Works … now first collected, with explanatory Notes, and memoirs of the Author, in two Volumes …...
Rivington and Sons, J. Dodsley [and five others], 1779.
A handsome copy of this collected edition of Prior, edited by Thomas Evans, inscribed on a front endpaper: ‘George Augusta Hill given him by Ladies Anne and Gertrude Fitz-Patrick, out of the Library of the late Earl of Upper Ossory Ampthill Park who died Feb 1st 1818’.
£500
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PORTER, [Jane].
Thaddeus of Warsaw. In four Volumes … by Miss Porter. The fifth Edition.
London, Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1809.
Fifth edition of Jane Porter’s famous first book. The book, which led to a friendship between Porter and General Kościuszko, quickly became a best-seller (a new edition every year to 1806, eleven by 1826). The ‘Advertisement to the Second Edition’, commented at her pleasure at ‘totally...
£500
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PORTER, [Jane].
Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney; with Remarks, by Miss Porter …
London, Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1807.
First edition, uncommon, of a collection of aphorisms and observations drawn from Sidney’s prose works, edited and with additional commentary by the novelist Jane Porter (1775–1850).
£600
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[PRAYERS.]
The New-Years-Gift, complete: in six Parts. Composed of Meditations and Prayers for every Day in the Week: with Devotions...
London, Henry Mortlock, 1700.
Unrecorded edition of a very popular collection of prayers and meditations, complete in six parts, bound for the pocket.
£1200
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KOTZEBUE, August Friedrich Ferdinand von.
Travels from Berlin, through Switzerland, to Paris, in the Year 1804 … Translated from...
London, Richard Phillips, 1804.
First edition in English, quickly translated from Kotzebue’s Erinnerungen aus Paris (September 1804). As the German title suggests, the Travels is in fact largely devoted to Paris, with lively observations on Napoleon, Madame Recamier, the Musée des monuments français and Musée...
£500