Gift Ideas
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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
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KOTZEBUE, August Friedrich Ferdinand von.
The Guardian Angel. From the German … A Story for Youth.
London, J. Wright for Vernor and Hood, and J. Harris, 1802.
First edition in English (and the first separate edition in any language?) of Kotzebue’s novella ‘Der Schutzgeist’, not his later play of that title, but a short story published in Gottlieb Wilhelm Becker’s Erholungen (Recreations) in 1797, where Kotzebue claimed it was a based...
£650
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KOTZEBUE, August Friedrich Ferdinand von.
The Constant Lover, or William and Jeanette: a Tale, from the German … To which is...
London, John Bell, 1799.
First edition in English, rare, of ‘Geprüfte Liebe’, a romance first published in Kotzebue’s Die jüngsten Kinder meiner Laune (1793–7), and then published separately in 1799, prefaced here by a summary translation of his literary autobiography.
£1600
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KOTZEBUE, August Friedrich Ferdinand von.
The most remarkable Year in the Life of Augustus von Kotzebue; containing an Account...
London, Richard Phillips, 1802.
First edition in English of Kotzebue’s Das merkwürdigste Jahr meines Lebens (1801), an account of his surprise arrest at the Russian border in 1800 on suspicions of being a Jacobin, and his transport to Tobolsk in Siberia. With some royal flattery, Kotzebue won his freedom back from...
£500
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IRWIN, Eyles.
The Triumph of Innocence; an Ode. Written on the Deliverance of Maria Theresa Charlotte, Princess Royal of France,...
London, W. Bulmer for G. Nicol, 1796.
First and only edition, very rare, of this anti-Jacobin poem celebrating the release of Marie Thérèse of France (1778–1851), eldest child of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, from the Temple prison, where she had been held since 1792 as the rest of her family were gradually removed and executed.
£800
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SOPHOCLES; Ezra POUND, translator.
Women of Trachis. A Version by Ezra Pound.
London, Neville Spearman, [1956].
First edition of Pound’s version of Sophocles’ Trachiniae, inscribed by the editor Denis Goacher to Geoffrey Bridson (1910–1980), who had co-produced the play for BBC radio in April 1954.
£1000
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KEATS, John.
Endymion. A poetic romance … with engravings by John Buckland-Wright.
[London,] The Golden Cockerel Press, [1947].
No. 200 of 500 copies of the Golden Cockerel Endymion (the first 100 specially bound in full vellum), also found in brown buckram rather than red as here; Buckland-Wright’s greatest work and one of the most important Golden Cockerel publications, begun in 1943 but not completed until...
£1750
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FERDOWSĪ.
Shāhnāmah.
Tehran, Amir Kabir, AH 1350 [AD 1971].
A lavishly produced edition of the Shāhnāmah (or Shahnameh), rare in the dustjacket, one of a thousand copies printed to mark the 2500th anniversary of the founding of the Persian Empire. Ferdowsi’s celebrated and vast epic poem provides a history of the kings of Persia from...
£4000
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BRIDGES, Robert.
Eros and Psyche, a Poem in XII Measures … with Wood-cuts from Designs by Edward Burne-Jones.
[Gregynog], The Gregynog Press, 1935.
One of 300 copies, one of the most beautiful works from the Gregynog Press, with illustrations after Burne-Jones, and a new typeface (used only in this volume) by Graily Hewitt.
£1500
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BARKER, Nicolas.
At First, All Went Well… & Other Brief Lives.
London, Bernard Quaritch Ltd, 2019.
This book brings together eighty obituaries written by Nicolas Barker. The first were published in 1966 and the last in 2018. Print links them all: they were printers, publishers, librarians, booksellers or book collectors, their lives joined by a common dedication to the printed word and all that goes...
£40
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[FRASER, William Augustus, Sir.]
Poems by the Knight of Morar.
London, Whittingham and Wilkins, 1867.
First edition, privately printed, a presentation copy inscribed on the title-page ‘From the Author. Paris. 1867.’
£350
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MAUGHAM, William Somerset; Graham SUTHERLAND, illustrator.
Cakes and Ale, or the Skeleton in the Cupboard. With an original...
London, [Windmill Press for] William Heinemann, [1954].
No. 132 of 1000 copies, signed by both author and artist. Cakes and Ale (1930) was Maugham’s favourite work; this limited edition was published in honour of his eightieth birthday.
£350
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[GREVENSTUK Brothers.]
Hand-coloured parchment key labels, with the original engraved copper plate.
Amsterdam, [c. 1875–1900].
A rare and curious survival: some seventy key labels, printed on fine vellum and hand-coloured by royal calligraphers for a fin-de-siècle Dutch gentleman, splendidly preserved with the engraved copper plate from which they were printed.
£1200
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ANDERSEN, Hans Christian; Mary HOWITT, translator.
The Improvisatore: or, Life in Italy. From the Danish … Translated by Mary...
London: Richard Bentley … 1845
First edition in English of Andersen’s autobiographical novel reflecting his travels in Italy. The poet and novelist Caroline Norton (1808-1877) obviously valued it highly, and there are pencilled marginal scorings and underlings throughout. She was a granddaughter of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and...
£550
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[BYRON, George Gordon, Lord.]
Edward FINDEN, illustrator. [Landscape and Portrait Illustrations of Byron.]
[London, John Murray, 1833–4.]
Finden’s attractive engraved illustrations to the works of Byron, taken after drawings and paintings by Turner, Stanfield, Weston, and others, and his portraits of the Romantics after paintings in the Murrays’ collection, here with an autograph letter from the engraver to the Edinburgh publishers...
£850
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[FIRST AID – RAILWAYS.]
Ministère des chemins de fer, postes et télégraphes. Administration des chemins de fer de l’état. Manuel...
Ghent, F.& R. Buyck, 1912.
First separate edition, seemingly unrecorded, of this guide to first aid in a railway context, published by the state railway administration of Belgium.
£195
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SAY, Jean-Baptiste.
Olbie, ou Essai sur les moyens de réformer les moeurs d’une nation.
Paris, Deterville and Treuttel & Wurtz, ‘an VIII de la République’ [1799–1800].
Rare first edition of Say’s utopia, our copy presented to a politician from Calvados, written in response to a competition organised by the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques on the question: ‘Which institutions are capable of establishing morality among a people?’. Say treats...
£2500
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[‘HYSON, Timothy’, pseud. Thomas LOWNDES].
A Letter to Mr. Richard Twining, Tea Dealer, and One of the Candidates for...
London, [C. Roworth] for the author, 1827.
Second edition of the Letter to Mr Richard Twining, a public denunciation of the candidacy of the tea merchant Richard Twining (1749-1824) for a directorship of the East India Company in 1810. Twining, who had already been instrumental in the development of tea prices and taxation for many...
£250
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[SAVOY-CARIGNAN, Maria Vittoria Francesca, Princess of.]
Recueil de prières et de pratiques très utils pour se conduire à Dieu...
[Paris, Imprimerie Royale], 1735.
First and only edition of this rare prayerbook, compiled by the notorious gambling house hostess and spy Maria Vittoria Francesca of Savoy-Carignan (1690–1766), elegantly printed in a very limited number at the royal press set up at the Louvre.
£2750
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MARLIANI, Bartolomeo.
Urbis Romae topographia.
Rome, Valerio & Luigi Dorico, September 1544.
First illustrated edition (third overall), considerably expanded, providing a comprehensive visual record of ancient structures and sculptures in Rome as known in the sixteenth century.
£5500