Recent Acquisitions

  1. [CHURCH OF ENGLAND.] 

    The new weeks preparation for a worthy receiving of the Lord’s Supper, as recommended and appointed by...

    London, printed from the edition of the late Edwd. Wickstead, for T. Wilson and R. Spence, York, [c. 1780-1800?]. 

    An attractive copy of two later editions of these collections of prayers, hymns, meditations, and self-examinations, with a focus on Holy Communion. 

    £250

  2. TYRE, William, Archbishop of, and Giuseppe OROLOGGI (translator).

    Historia della guerra sacra di Gierusalemme,...

    Venice, Vincenzo Valgrisi, 1562.

    First Italian edition of William of Tyre’s (1130–1186) important account of the first two crusades and of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, with the addition of a seventeenth-century manuscript detailing a uniquely Italian rendition of the tale of the Wandering Jew.

    £2800

  3. [MAGDALEN CHAPEL.]

    The Hymns Anthems and Tunes with the Ode used at the Magdalen Chapel set for the Organ Harpsichord, Voice German-Flute...

    London, Printed for Longman and Broderip … [1780?].

    Two rare later editions of the Magdalen Chapel hymnbook.

    £2000

  4. [‘FULIGNATI, Giuntino’ (pseud. Tommaso BUONI?)].

    Della famosissima compagnia della lesina.

    Dialogo, capitoli, e ragionamenti … Vicenza, Giorgio Greco, 1601.

    Scarce humorous dystopia of indigence, first edition thus: the first to include a section specifically directed at women.

    £650

  5. DOLCE, Lodovico.

    Somma della filosofia d’Aristotele, e prima della dialettica.

    Venice, Giovanni Battista, & Marchio Sessa, & fratelli, [1565].

    First edition of this exposition of Aristotle’s dialectics, moral, and natural philosophy by one of the most significant poligrafi and artistic theorists of the cinquecento, intended for a non-specialist readership.

    £2500

  6. [USTONSON, Onesimus.]

    The Anglers Assistant being an Epitomy of ye whole Art of Angling wherein is shewn at one View ye Harbours,...

    Ustonson [c. 1815?]

    A fine and very rare broadside angling guide, the text probably written by Onesimus Ustonson (b. 1736), fishing tackle manufacturer and inventor of the multiplying reel, who had supplied equipment to Joseph Banks for Cook’s second voyage in 1772.

    £1000

  7. [NAPOLEONIC ITALY.] 

    Alla società delle gentilissime signore di Moncalieri dilettanti del giuoco del tavolazzo. Sonetto bernesco-morale...

    Turin, Giacomo Fea, 1799.

    An unrecorded sonnet addressed to the to the female players of tavolazzo – a Piedmontese sport along the lines of target shooting – at the Society of the Gentlewomen of Moncalieri; the rules of the sport would be formally laid out in 1780.

    £375

  8. GRUBBE, Margaret Julia Maria.

    Archive of drawings, watercolours, and photographs.

    England and Scotland, c. 1900 – 1960s.

    A charming archive of the Suffolk artist Margaret Grubbe (1911–97), granddaughter of the painter John Seymour Lucas, comprising dozens of family photographs and over 150 of her drawings and watercolours, tracing her development as an artist from her childhood into middle age.

    £1500

  9. BACON, Francis.

    Opuscula varia posthuma, philosophica, civilia, et theologica, nunc primum edita. Cura & fide Guilielmi Rawley...

    London, R. Daniel, impensis Octaviani Pulleyn, 1658.

    First edition, second issue of this collection of the philosophical, political, and theological writings of Bacon, including numerous essays previously unpublished, and the first appearance in Latin of a biographical sketch of the philosopher by William Rawley (c. 1588–1667), Bacon’s literary...

    £1250

  10. PARKES, Fanny.

    Wanderings of a pilgrim, in search of the picturesque, during four-and-twenty years in the east; with revelations...

    London, Pelham Richardson, 1850.

    First edition, with many handsome tinted and coloured illustrations, of the lively journals of Fanny Parkes (1794–1875) documenting her time in India from 1822 to 1845, with an interval in England and Cape Town.

    £3750

  11. [ASSIGNAT DE CINQUANTE BAISERS.]

    Mémoire pour le Sieur Jean-Baptiste Cousot, imprimeur, demeurant à Chaumont, opposant; contre...

    Chaumont, Cousot, c. 1822.

    First edition of this apparently unrecorded pamphlet concerning a secret society of ‘gallant’ teenagers in Chaumont, Haut-Marne in eastern France, called ‘l’Ordre de l’amitié’. The youngest member, also one of the most influential, being only fourteen years old, and the majority still...

    £250

  12. PEETERS, Jacob.

    L’Atlas en abregé, ou nouvelle Description du monde, tirée du meilleurs auteurs de ce siècle …

    Antwerp, chez l’auteur, 1692.

    First edition of a charming atlas, the best-known production of Jacob Peeters (1637–1695), a Flemish engraver and publisher from an artistic family – his brothers Jan and Bonaventura were both artists. The map of the Americas shows California as an island; the allegorical engraved title features...

    £2500

  13. [NEW YORK.]

    Notarial instrument attesting to the residence of two French immigrants in New York.

    New York, 27 July 1797.

    An interesting document recording the immigration of two members of the French minor nobility into America during the French Revolution and Directory. The New York public notary Charles Bridgen here attests to the arrival of François Pierre Henri d’Héliand (b. 1768) and his wife Laurence Joséphine...

    £850

  14. SAINT AULAIRE, Achille.

    Voyage autour du monde par St. Aulaire.

    [Clichy, Maurice Loignon for] Paris, Arnauld de Vresse, [c. 1864].

    A hand-coloured copy of this scarce and charming juvenile guide to twenty-four countries across the globe. The plates are adapted from those first published in Paris by Aubert circa 1845 under the title Récréations instructives: voyage pittoresque à travers le monde (Gumuchian 5037).

    £1500

  15. SOWERBY, J[ohn] G[eorge], and Thomas CRANE, illustrators.  [Eliza KEARY.] 

    At Home. 

    London and Belfast, Marcus Ward & Co., [1881]. 

    Original maquette for this charming Victorian children’s book, illustrated by the stained-glass designer John George Sowerby and decorated by Thomas Crane, elder brother of the illustrator Walter Crane.  The verse, unacknowledged, is by Eliza Keary (1827–1918).  At Home and its sequels Abroad...

    £500

  16. [WINCHESTER COLLEGE.]

    Printed and manuscript election roll.

    [Winchester,] ‘1 November 1782’.

    A remarkable eighteenth-century part-printed election roll from Winchester College, with admissions, the names of scholars, prize-winners, and pupils elected to New College Oxford.

    £1250

  17. [WALL, Thomas].

    A Second Christian Warning-Piece; wherein is shewed the first and chief Cause of Englands present Misery … Humbly...

    London, 1681-2.

    First edition, very rare, of a vehement anti-Catholic tract published in the context of the Exclusion Crisis; bound with the principal astrological work of John Holwell (a slightly imperfect copy).

    £1750

  18. CARD, Henry.

    Literary Recreations …

    London, Printed by W. Wilson … for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme … 1809.

    First edition of a scarce collection of miscellaneous essays on such topics as ‘the Condition and Character of Women in different Countries and Ages’ (pp. 51–118), the ‘Rapid Growth of Methodism’ (pp. 131–187), and ‘Bastards’ (pp. 199–227).

    £650

  19. BURCKHARDT, Johann Ludwig (John Lewis). 

    Travels in Arabia, comprehending an account of those territories in Hedjaz which the...

    London, Henry Colburn, 1829. 

    First edition, in one volume, recounting Johann Ludwig Burckhardt’s journey to Mecca on behalf of the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior of Africa in 1814. 

    £3750

  20. [WILSON, James].

    Twenty-five Propositions, humbly presented and respectfully dedicated, and presented, to the Inhabitants of Saint...

    [Basseterre,] Printed at the Gazette Office, 1849.

    Very rare.  In his Propositions, Wilson bemoans ‘the lamentable aspect of this community, generally, in respect of morals and religion’, the populace divided into the ‘openly lawless and profane’ majority, the outwardly respectable (but with no thought to their everlasting fate),...

    £1850