
GENERAL MISCELLANY
Aa-Al
Am-Az
Ba-Bos
Bibles1
Bibles2
Bibles3
Bot-Bz
Ca-Cd Ce-Cl
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D E
F Ga-Gl
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Overview of
CA Printing History, in Miniature — Satisfying CA Provenance
Fahey, Herbert. Early printing in California. San Francisco: San Francisco Club of Printing House Craftsmen, 1949. 48mo (9.8 cm, 3.875"). 63, [1] pp.
$175.00
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Dedicated to the Thirtieth Annual Convention of the International Association of Printing House Craftsmen, this small-size keepsake was the first appearance of a work that would later be expanded and become Fahey's authoritative Early Printing in California: From Its Beginning in the Mexican Territory to Statehood. Fahey, a bookbinder and teacher of fine binding as well as a scholar of typography, helped set the text (Linotype Janson) alongside Ralph Scott, while Haywood Hunt designed the title-page and John C. Larsen did the presswork.
Provenance: Front pastedown with small bookplate of Albert Sperisen (1909–99), librarian of the Book Club of California.
Publisher's red cloth, spine with black-stamped title. Offsetting to endpapers. Clean. (35691)
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Disaster at Sea— Illustrated by Richard Westall — A Great Binding
Falconer, William. The shipwreck. London: Pr. for John Sharpe by C. Whittingham, 1819. 12mo (16.4 cm, 6.4"). Add. engr. t.-p., [3]–58, [61]–167, [1] pp.; 5 plts.
$475.00
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First published in 1762, this poem was based on the author's own experience as second mate aboard the merchant ship Britannia, which was wrecked on a voyage from Alexandria to Venice with only three of the crew surviving. Oft reprinted, The Shipwreck enjoyed massive popularity in its day and is universally held to have accurately recorded and described the everyday workings of a mid–18th century merchant vessel. Falconer, a native of Edinburgh, was also the author of the well-regarded 1769 Universal Dictionary of the Marine.
The present handsome edition is illustrated with
an engraved title-page and five other steel-engraved plates by Edward Portbury, William Finden, F. Engleheart, and others after designs by Richard Westall; it is the first Whittingham printing, the first to include this life of Falconer, and the second with Westall's illustrations, all of which are labelled 1819 despite the main title-page giving 1818.
Binding: Contemporary crimson straight-grained morocco, covers framed in blind acanthus-leaf and fillet rolls surrounding central blind-tooled foliate medallions, spine with blind-tooled designs and gilt-stamped publication information, board edges with gilt roll. Morocco doublures (i.e., “pastedowns”) of same leather as covers (but now much brighter!) with light blue moiré silk inlays as center panels; matching silk mounted on free endpapers. Morocco with very large and wide, very bright gilt-rolled borders surrounding the inlays, and both inlays and endpapers with blind-rolled and -stamped decorations. All edges gilt.
Provenance: Front pastedown with booklabel and bookplate of Charles T. Tallent-Bateman (a lawyer and antiquary who served as president of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society), one reading “No. 15 of my R. Westall library or collection. C.T. T.-B., Manchester.” Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
NSTC 2F1364. Bound as above; joints (outside) and edges rubbed, spine and edges slightly darkened. Ownership indicia as above. As usual, some offsetting from plates, occasional instances of mild foxing.
An elegantly distinctive volume on shelf or table and a frankly “showy” one when opened. (37632)
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A Thank-You / An Announcement
Family of Juan José Neira. Broadside, begins: Un año hace que ha dejado de existir el general Neira. Bogotá: [Family of Juan José Neira], 1842. Small 4to (25 x 21 cm; 9.75" x 8" ). [1] p.
$350.00
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The family of Gen. Neira, a military leader during the Wars of Independence and a politician and military man during the republic, died in 1841 of injuries he suffered at the battle of Buenavista in 1840. The family thanks his friends and the public in general for their support during the year of mourning and announces a special mass on 14 January.
Printed on thin paper with a black border, the text contained in a square within
a catafalque featuring weeping figures, skulls and cross bones, and eagles.
As issued, never bound. Margins irregular. “Señor José M. Resptrepo” in lower margins. (38182)
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In Need of Assistance from the CONVENTION — FAMINE in
Yonne
Fauchet, Claude. Rapport des commissaires envoyés
dans le département de l'Yonne, fait dans la séance du 6 Novembre 1792, l'an 1er. de la
République. [Paris]: De l'Imprimerie Nationale, 1792. 8vo (21.5 cm, 8.5"). 11, [1] pp.
$100.00
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First edition, with “Convention Nationale” at the head: a report from the Bishop of
Calvados about famine-related issues in Yonne. This is an uncut, unbound copy, with the
outermost two leaves printed on blue paper.
Martin & Walter, II, 13122.
Folded as issued. Title-page with paper shelving label in lower inner corner,
touching three letters without obscuring sense, and with pencilled monogram in upper outer
corner. Page edges uncut, slightly ragged. (30835)
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NOT a “Collector's Copy” But
FUN to Have
in This
Early Form
Faulkner, William. Requiem for a nun. New York: Random House, [copyright 1951]. 8vo. [6], 286 pp.
$40.00
First edition, second printing; top page edges stained gray as issued, M. McKnight Kauffer listed on front dust jacket flap.
Cloth with a few light spots, spine extremities faintly worn, dust jacket with slightly ragged edges and some spine fading. (2113)
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Marriage Advice Framed within a
Scholarly Work
Fausto, Sebastiano. Delle nozze: trattato del Fausto da Longiano, in cui si leggono i riti, i costumi, gl'instituti, le cerimonie, et le solennità di diversi antichi popoli, ende si sono tratti molti problemi; & aggiuntiui, i precetti matrimoniali di Plutarco. In Venetia: Per Plinio Pietrasanta, 1554. 4to (21.5 cm; 8.5"). 45, [3] pp.
$1500.00
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First of two editions (second was 1569) of Fausto's study of marriage, divorce, and the status of women in the Classic era in Rome, India, Arabia, Persia, Macedonia, Greece, and Germany. Topics discussed include dowries, privileges of married women, customs in selecting wives, marriage rites and institutions, methods of solemnizing marriage, duties of wives, and adultery.
Fausto, by turns a soldier, lawyer, traveller, friend of Andrea Palladio, and member of the Academia dei Constanti, augments his text with abstracted portions of Plutarch's Conjugalia praecepta. The work was written in commemoration of the marriage of Virginia Fieschi (daughter of Ettore Fieschi, Count of Lavagna and Savignone) to Jacopo VI Appiani d’Aragona (Prince of Piombino).
The printer, Pietrasanta, begins the volume with a handsome title-page defined by a large woodcut architectural border, then prints the text in italic with a scattering of 8- and 10-line historiated woodcut initials that
bear looking at.
Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate only three copies in U.S. libraries.
Adams F182; Index Aurel. 168.890; Fairfax Murray, Catalogo dei libri italiani, 1179; Cicognara 1646; EDIT16 CNCE18633. 18th-century half vellum over boards, “wallpaper'”sides; back cover sometime cracked across top corner and front one creased across, repaired (at the time?) and now strong. Front pastedown with evidence of a bookplate's removal and with an old pressmark (“26.1.88") in upper left corner. Minor worming in inner margins, well removed from text; gathering “C” browned with some migration to leaves opposite C1 and C4.
A very acceptable copy. (35558)
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Learn to Speak
ARAUCANIAN
Febres, Andrés. Arte de lengua general del reyno de Chile ... y ... un vocabulario hispano-chileno, y un calepino chileno-hispano mas copioso. Lima: en la calle de la Encarnaçion, 1765. Small 8vo (14 cm; 5.5"). [15] ff., 682 pp., [1] ff.
$4500.00
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First edition of this important book for the study of the Araucanian language (i.e., Mapuche or Mapudungun) of Chile. The contents are a grammar, a dialogue in Araucanian, a short Spanish-to-Araucanian dictionary, the Araucanian alphabet and dipthongs, and Catholic prayers, doctrine, and a brief catechism in Araucanian, plus extended Spanish–Araucanian and Araucanian–Spanish dictionaries. Febres, a Jesuit, was a native of Cataluña who arrived in Chile at a young age. His work among the Araucanian Indians led to his acquiring a great command of their language, and this work still stands as a monument to his erudition. Medina's researches discovered that when the Spanish authorities made their inventory of the Jesuits' library in Chile in 1767, only 255 copies of this book were found, leading him to suppose that the total press run was only 500 copies.
The title-page and the rest of the initial half-signature of the copy in hand are
printed in red and black, but according to Harper (American Iberica, item 476A) some copies do exist printed in black and gold (!), while Medina (Bibliotheca hispano-chilena) says he has seen copies printed in black and green, or perhaps just green. The final leaf here displays a typographic sampling of the press's fonts. There are a few tailpieces — one unusual and a charmer.
Medina, Lima, 1228; Medina, BHC, 461; Viñaza 345; Palau 87065; Sabin 23968; Vargas Ugarte 1923; DeBacker-Sommervogel, III, 576. On Febres, see: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal e Iberoamérica, fiche 309, frames 216–49. Contemporary stiff vellum, lacking ties; a bit warped. Title-page expertly restored along outer margin and several letters of the title now present in good facsimile, with the leaf backed. Front hinge (inside) starting but strong. Interior generally clean with the odd spot or old stain only. (37564)
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A De-Catholicized Archbishop?
[Fénelon, François de Salignac de la Mothe]. Selections from the writings of Fenelon. With a memoir of his life. By a lady. Boston: Hilliard, Gray, and Wilkins, 1831. 8vo (18.4 cm; 7.25"). 304 pp.
$100.00
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Fénelon (1651–1715), a French theologian and archbishop, had a tense and complex relationship with the Church hierarchy because of his writings. His office in Cambray was one of the richest benefices in France, and upon his banishment from the court of Louis XIV for the publication of his Maxims of the Saints, he dedicated himself fully to his position, making himself “in all that he did the perfect churchman” (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 253).
The “lady” was Eliza L. Cabot Follen (1787–1860), the Boston-born author, translator, and abolitionist. She used her own translation — “a free one; but sedulous care has been taken never to depart from the spirit of the author” (v) — and one of her concerns in selection is to de-Catholicize the archbishop, allowing his more universal appreciation — for, as she says, his “writings necessarily contain many things that could not be acceptable to Christians of all denominations [and have therefore] been uniformly omitted” (v).
Fénelon's appearance in Follen's selective epitome would surely have amused him, and it pleased the book-buying public: This is the work’s third edition.
Provenance: A note states that “this book belonged to Grandmother Dyer[:] Ann Eliza Morse”; Charles Dyer Norton has also signed an endpaper in ink.
American Imprints 7028. On Fénelon, see: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed., X, 252–54. Mid-19th-century plain black calf with gilt spine compartments tooled in an interesting pattern, single gilt rule around covers, a little gilt on board edges, marbled endpapers and edges; some wear and abrasions but spine gilt still bright. Provenance markings as above, some leaves creased across and a little interior staining and spotting especially at rear.
A nice old book. (36673)
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Fergusson's First Novel of the Southwest
Fergusson, Harvey. The blood of the conquerors. New York: Modern Age Books, Inc., 1937. 8vo. [4], 146, [4 (adv.)] pp.
$45.00
Early paperback edition of this “romantic tale of the Southwest,” originally published in 1926: the first novel from a New Mexico–born journalist, screenwriter, and novelist. About a young Mexican lawyer, his affair with a beautiful blonde society girl, and his issues with finances, race, and class, this 25-cent production was designed to be eye-catchingly attractive; in the series of “Red Seal Books,” its covers and dust jacket both bear a design of red pinnipeds rampant, repeated in six rows.
Publisher's black and red printed paper wrappers, in original similar dust wrapper; dust wrapper with chips and short tears to margins (longer closed tear from upper front edge), spine slightly sunned. Front free endpaper with contemporary inked ownership inscription. Two leaves with short tear from lower margin, touching text without loss. Pages age-toned, embrittled as expectable; in fact, a nice copy, and with a “Three Seal Book Mark” laid in. (28422)
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17th-Century Instruments of
Mass Destruction & MAYHEM
Fernández de Medrano, Sebastián. El perfecto artificial, bombardero y artillero, que contiene los artificios de fuegos marciales, nuevo uzo de bombas, granadas, y practica de la artilleria, y mosquete, &c. Brusselas: En casa de Lamberto Marchant, 1699. Small 8vo (15.5 cm; 6.125"). [8] ff., 66 [i.e., 196] pp., [2] ff. (index), 9 fold. plates.
[SOLD]
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Fernández de Medrano (1646–1705) was the “director de la Academia Real y Militar de el Exercito de los Payses Bajos.” The first edition of this work on bombs, muskets, grenades, fireworks, artillery, etc., appeared from the Foppens press in 1691; this second edition is revised and augmented. Its planned publication was interrupted by the “disturbing” news of Louis Hennepin's discoveries in the New World and Fernández de Medrano's decision to first publish an abridged Spanish-language edition of Hennepin's Nouveau Voyage. Our author's worry about foreign incursion into Spain's New World hegemony was then further exasperated, as he explains in his preface here, by news of the Scots attempt to establish a colony at Darien. For Fernández de Medrano these events made the need for an improved edition of this martial manual all the more obvious.
The text is printed in a utilitarian roman, with only one woodcut initial and no woodcut ornaments. The
nine folding plates were engraved by Jacobus Harrewijn, after designs by the author's students.
Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate only three U.S. libraries reporting ownership of this edition.
Philip, Bibliography of Firework Books, F050.1; Palau 89222, Peeters-Fontainas, Bibliographie des impressions espagnoles des pays-bas méridionaux, 449. On the author, see: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal, e Iberoamérica, fiche 323, frames 120–28. Contemporary Spanish sheep in the Valenciana style; plain boards, modest gilt tooling on spine, partially surviving leather spine label. Overall age-toning; modest worm trail in some foremargins, not costing words; one plate separated and another with repaired partial fold tear.
A rather nice copy. (36367)
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An Early Victory for
Equal Protection & Civil Rights:
Rejecting Anti-Chinese Legislation
Field, Stephen J. The invalidity of the “Queue Ordinance” of the city and county of San Francisco. Opinion of the Circuit Court of the United States, for the district of California, in Ho Ah Kow vs. Matthew Nunan, delivered July 7th, 1879. San Francisco: J.L. Rice & Co., 1879. 8vo (23.3 cm, 9.2"). 43, [1] pp.
$2800.00
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First edition: The case in which U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Johnson Field (acting as an individual jurist in district court) found that shaving male prisoners' heads, a punitive practice used particularly to discourage queue-wearing Chinese immigrants from serving jail time rather than paying fines for violating the 1870 Sanitary Ordinance, was
unconstitutional.
Following the opinion is an appendix providing “history of the legislation of the Supervisors of the city and county of San Francisco against the Chinese . . . compiled by one of the counsel in the above case [i.e., B.S. Brooks] from the records of the Supervisors and the newspapers of the city.” The text was printed from a revised copy, according to the title-page.
Publisher's printed paper wrappers; corners and edges chipped, paper lost over spine, front wrapper with short tear from outer edge (not touching text), back wrapper with outer edge shortened. The whole now housed in a quarter navy morocco clamshell case with deep blue cloth–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. Pages slightly age-toned.
A landmark document of American Constitutional law. (34196)
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You know you'll turn first to that third one . . .
Five popular songs. The Angel's whisper. Helen the fair. The Wind blew the bonny lassie's plaidy awa. Mistress Johnston. Do you ever think on me, Peg? Glasgow [Scotland]: Printed for the Booksellers, [18--]. 12mo. 8 pp.
$65.00
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Title woodcut vignette of a young man dancing with one arm raised. “[No.] 59 “ printed at the foot of the title.
Not located in RLIN.
Original self wrappers (unbound; removed). The front edge of the title page is darkened, else very good. (17422)
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First English Translation — Deluxe Binding
Flaubert, Gustave. November. [London: John Lane the Bodley Head Ltd., 1934]. 8vo (23.3 cm, 9.24"). 215, [3] pp.; illus.
$325.00
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First edition in English of Flaubert's first finished literary work: a melancholy tale of erotic longing followed by ennui and decline. The novella appears here translated by Frank Jellinek, with an introduction by John Cowper Powys and both full-page and in-text illustrations by Hortense Ansorge.
This is
numbered copy 71 of 1250 for sale in England.
Binding: Special signed binding of brown morocco, covers with leather bird inlays and gilt-stamped line of falling leaves, spine with blind-stamped leather title and author labels between raised bands. The back pastedown bears a blind-stamped omega, dated 1955.
Binding as above, corners and joints lightly rubbed. Inside, fresh and clean. An elegant volume. (33519)
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A Book of Daring Exploration — Discovery & Rescue in the South Pacific
Flinders, Matthew. Matthew Flinders' narrative of his voyage in the schooner Francis: 1798. London: Golden Cockerel Press, 1946. Folio (31.7 cm, 12.5"). Frontis., 100, [2] pp.; illus.
$700.00
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First Golden Cockerel edition of a dramatic New South Wales travelogue, part of that press's “Sea Series.” Captain Matthew Flinders, who led the first expedition to circumnavigate Australia, here describes a rescue mission to Preservation Island and the wreck of the Sidney Cove. The account is enhanced by Geoffrey Rawson's notes on Flinders, Bass, the Sidney Cove, etc.
Christopher Sandford designed, produced, and published this handsome volume, with the composition and presswork supervised by F.J. Newbery at the Chiswick Press.
The text is illustrated with nine wood engravings done by John Buckland Wright and printed in dark green on pale green paper, as well as with a full-page map. This is numbered copy 414 of only
750 printed.
Cockalorum 170. Publisher's green cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped ship vignette, spine with gilt-stamped title; minimal wear to extremities, faintest light spotting to spine and small area of back cover, otherwise
a clean and beautiful copy of this exciting adventure tale, in elegant dress. (36890)
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SIGNED by the Author — Gerald Ford
Ford, Gerald. A time to heal: the autobiography of Gerald R. Ford. Norwalk, Conn.: Easton Press, ©1987. 8vo. [8], 454 pp.
$495.00
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This copy is SIGNED by President Gerald Ford. From Easton Press's “Library of the Presidents” series, this offering includes the introductory pamphlet by Henry Kissinger.
Stepping into the presidency amidst scandal, war, and a poor economy, Gerald Ford was presented with some very difficult leadership challenges. On the one hand, he was the right man at the right time: His honesty and reassurance restored the confidence in the presidency that been lost during the Watergate scandal, and his negotiation of the Helsinki Agreement contributed to the end of the Cold War. However, Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon eroded much of the trust he had built early in his term. This fateful decision, together with the fall of Saigon and his inability to “whip inflation,” were the main factors that cost him reelection. This memoir speaks to his role in navigating the challenges of his time with the same honesty and straightforwardness that characterized his tenure as president.
Full red leather, covers lavishly gilt-stamped with a pattern of elephants, spine with raised bands, gilt title, author's name, and gilt elephants within “compartments.” Endpapers bear a version of the image of the obverse side of the Great Seal of the United States. Silk ribbon placemarker. All edges gilt. Fine condition. (23605)
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“All Men in Adam Die, in Christ Revive . . . ”
Forster, John. Evening reflections in a country church-yard. London: John Bohn & Edw. Jeffery and Sons (pr. by C. Richards), 1827. 8vo (16.2 cm, 6.4"). 27, [1] pp.
$300.00
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First, and apparently the sole separate edition, of this extremely uncommon poem on the emptiness of worldly pursuits as compared to heavenly bliss; later, in 1832, it was to appear with other “Fosteriana” in a “Printed for the Author” volume called “Rhyme & Reason.”
Searches of WorldCat, COPAC, and NSTC show no holdings at all, while NUC Pre-1956 finds one copy in the U.S. at the New York Public.
Not in NSTC. Recent wrappers. Title-page and a few others stamped by a now-defunct institution. Portion torn away from upper margin of front fly-leaf, perhaps to remove an inscription. (9422)

“May Not a POET Now & Then / Reveal These Lives of Average Men?”
Foss, Sam Walter. Whiffs from wild meadows. Boston: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., copyright 1895. 8vo (19.4 cm, 7.7"). Frontis., [2], ix, [1], 272 pp.; illus.
$50.00
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First edition: Humorous verse, often in assorted American dialects, with small in-text illustrations by various hands.
Binding: Publisher's green cloth, front cover and spine stamped in black, gilt, and yellow, with a frame of apples and greenery surrounding a decorative title and small gilt motifs.
Binding as above, corners and spine extremities very slightly rubbed, dust jacket lacking. Endpapers and a few pages sprinkled with spots of faint staining, pages generally clean
A popular and entertaining author, in an attractive and well-preserved binding. (35257)
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Case Reports & Legal Discourses — Pr. for Sarah Cotter
Foster, Michael, Sir. A report of some proceedings on the commission of oyer and terminer and gaol delivery for the trial of the rebels in the year 1746 in the county of Surry [sic], and of other Crown cases. To which are added discourses upon a few branches of the Crown law. Dublin: Printed for Sarah Cotter, 1763. 8vo (20.3 cm, 8"). xii, 412, [16] pp.
$1875.00
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First Irish edition, following the Oxford first of the preceding year: one of the most authoritative and scholarly of such reports of the time, accompanied by examinations of treason, homicide, accessories, the writings of Lord Hale, etc. Cotter's printing seems to have appeared in two variants, as per ESTC; in the present example, the catchword on p. 406 is “to.”
Cotter was the daughter of Joseph Cotter and successor to his printing business. She was active from 1757 to 1767 and published/printed law, technical and religious books, belle lettres, and a wide variety of other productions.
The trial mentioned in the title refers to that of those
arrested for participation in the Jacobite rising of 1745, an attempt by “Bonnie Prince Charlie” (i.e., Charles Edward Stuart) to regain the British throne. (He had timed his effort for a moment when much of the British military was occupied on the continent by the War of the Austrian Succession.)
ESTC T181470 (see also T147759); Sweet & Maxwell 367. Contemporary speckled calf, rebacked, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and blind-tooled tulip decorations between raised bands; hinges (inside) reinforced. Front pastedown and free endpaper each with one small early inked annotation (shelf and price?); first and last few leaves with offsetting to margins; pages generally mildly age-toned with a very few scattered light spots. (34791)
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Case Reports — Sarah Cotter Printing — ENVELOPE BINDING
Foster, Michael, Sir. A report of some proceedings on the commission of oyer and terminer and gaol delivery for the trial of the rebels in the year 1746 in the county of Surry [sic], and of other Crown cases. To which are added discourses upon a few branches of the Crown law. Dublin: Printed for Sarah Cotter, 1767. 8vo (19.5 cm, 7.6"). x, 412 pp., [10] ff.
$900.00
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Second Irish printing, following the Oxford first of 1762 and the Dublin first of 1763: one of the most authoritative and scholarly of such reports of the time, accompanied by examinations of treason, homicide, accessories, the writings of Lord Hale, etc. The trial mentioned in the title refers to that of those arrested for participation in the Jacobite rising of 1745, an attempt by “Bonnie Prince Charlie” (i.e., Charles Edward Stuart) to regain the British throne. (He had timed his effort for a moment when much of the British military was occupied on the continent by the War of the Austrian Succession.)
Cotter was the daughter of Joseph Cotterand successor to his printing business. She was active from 1757 to 1767 and published/printed law, technical, and religious books, belles lettres, and a wide variety of other productions. Her press produced two variants of this edition; in the present example, the colon after “Dublin” in the imprint is above the n of “in,” and the catchword on p. 406 is “manner.”
Binding: Contemporary limp suede with envelope flap, portion of original tie still present.
Provenance: Front pastedown and free endpaper with early inked ownership inscriptions of Gryff[yth?] Price.
ESTC T145812; Sweet & Maxwell 367. Binding as above, rebacked with mottled sheep with gilt-stamped leather title-label; edges rubbed, flap leather cracking and refurbished with same leather used on spine as well as internally reinforced with marbled paper. Endpapers with offsetting to margins, inscriptions as above. Pages with a very few instances of faint foxing.
A nice copy, easily imaginable as an Irish lawyer's portable reading and reference. (34809)
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Memoirs of
the Minister of Police
Fouché, Joseph. The memoirs of Joseph Fouché, Duke of Otranto, minister of the general police of France. London: Charles Knight (William Clowes, pr.), 1825. 8vo. Frontis. port., viii, 357, [3], 329, [1] pp.
$235.00
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First English edition of the memoirs of France's notorious chief police officer during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Era. As Minister of Police under the Directory, Joseph Fouché (1759 or 1763–1820) was instrumental in reorganizing and centralizing the police system in France and was kept on by Napoleon until he fell out of favor in 1802. However, his network of intelligence gathering proved invaluable to Napoleon, who reinstated him in 1804 (until 1810) and again during the Hundred Days. The authenticity of these memoirs is no longer in doubt and they provide some insight into the political intrigues of the period. It's also an extremely self-serving work — he writes on p. 2 that he never wielded his “mysterious and terrible power” except to “calm the passions, disunite factions, and prevent conspiracies.” Illustrated with a frontispiece portrait of the author. Two volumes bound in one.
NSTC 2F12262, 2J13268, & 2B13609. Green cloth over boards, gilt rules and lettering to spine; cloth worn away at spine extremities and corners and splitting over front joint; preliminary pages (including frontispiece) and pp. 1–2 separated from binding. Private ownership signature at top edge of title-pages; a (different) private owner's pressure- and rubber-stamps; institutional bookplate. Off-setting to six pages from old newspaper articles or leaves laid in; old newspaper article (a review of a much later biography of Fouché) still inserted; Inner margin of pp. 327–8 repaired, not affecting text. Spotting and staining of various sorts and a few dog-ears; not a swell copy but a perfectly serviceable one. (14222)
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Methodism & Society & Quite a Lot of
Marriage Advice
Fowler, Ellen Thorneycroft [Mrs. Alfred Laurence Felkin]. Place and power. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1903. 8vo (19.4 cm, 7.6"). viii, [2], 381, [9 (8 adv.)] pp.; 8 plts.
[SOLD]
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First American edition. Written by a popular author known for her winning, sprightly style, this novel intertwines romance and Christian faith with greed and the convolutions of English politics — two of the four having predictably detrimental effects. The secondary moral of the story is “Marry an intelligent person or be prepared to suffer the consequences.”
The story is illustrated with
eight black and white plates reproducing paintings by Nell Marion Tenison Cuneo (1867–1953).
Binding: Signed binding, marked “DD” for Decorative Designers: navy cloth, front cover and spine stamped with Art Nouveau–inspired pomegranate and leaf motif in green and with title in gilt.
Binding as above; extremities very lightly rubbed with all gilt and stamping bright. Front free endpaper with early inked ownership inscription. Pages very faintly age-toned with a few scattered spots, generally clean. A decidedly pretty copy of an interesting look at early 20th-century social mores regarding love, religion, and ambition. (35619)
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Gruesome Deaths, Horrible Tortures, Painful Fascination
Foxe, John, & Samuel Foxe. Acts and monuments of matters most special and memorable, happening in the church, with a universal historie of the same. Wherein is set forth at large, the whole race and course of the church, from the primitive age to these later times of ours, with the bloody times, horrible troubles, and great persecutions against the true martyrs of Christ, fought and wrought as well by heathen emperors, as now lately practiced by Romish prelates, especially in this realme of England and Scotland. Now again, as it was recognised, perused, and recommended to the studious reader. London: Printed for the Company of Stationers, 1641. Large folio. 3 vols. I: Engr. frontis. port., [74] ff., 1033 [i.e. 1023], [1] p., [2] ff. of plates (one large, engr. folding). II: [19] ff., 788 [i.e., 786] pp., [1] f. (fold. plate). III: [2] ff., 1030 [i.e., 1020] pp., [7] ff., 106 [i.e., 108] pp., [48] ff., [2] ff. of plates. (Without the half-titles).
$7500.00
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English printing of the 1640s was very much at a nadir as to quality of illustration and presentation of text on the page: Remarkably, this multi-volume, large-format edition of Foxe's “Book of Martyrs” (as it is generally known) offers very good levels of illustration, composition, and imposition of type. It is printed in double-column format on high quality paper, in mostly gothic type (i.e., “black letter”) with some roman and italic. The woodcut illustrations are at once charmingly naive and arresting in both their simplicity and their ability to convey the artists' intentions, with a few of the
142 in-text woodcuts or initials looking
quite remarkably modern. There are 37 in-text woodcuts, one very large
historiated woodcut initial showing Elizabeth splendidly enthroned, one woodcut plate, and one
huge engraved folding plate showing a grand variety of martyrdoms in vol. I; 29 in-text woodcuts and two woodcut plates (one folding) in vol. II; and 76 in-text woodcuts and two woodcut plates in vol. III. The engraved plate in vol. I is by George Glover and he has signed one of the large woodcuts as well; at least one other woodcut is signed by another artist, John Droeshout.
This was clearly a luxury production.
It was on 20 March 1563 that the first edition of Actes and Monuments appeared, and it was an immediate success. A second, corrected, edition appeared in 1570; many subsequent editions were issued; and the text is still being published in the 21st century. It is without a doubt
the best-known English work of martyrology.
This edition contains
the first printing of Simeon Foxe's biography of his father, the author; it was written in 1611 but not published for thirty years.
Provenance: Round ownership stamp of “Iltyd Nicholl” on the fly-leaves. Later in the collections of the Pacific School of Religion (properly released), though without its usual markings; small bookseller's label of “John Howell Importer” on rear pastedowns.
Wing (rev. ed.) F2035; ESTC R29862; Graesse, II, 623. Late 18th-century acid-mottled calf, Cambridge-style binding, rebacked with original gilt-extra spine reattached. Covers tooled in blind to form concentric panels, one panel with corner devices; edges of covers tooled in gilt with a roll, board-edges tooled in gilt with a different roll, and turn-ins tooled in blind with yet another roll. Marbled endpapers of a combed pattern. All edges carmine. As usual, without the half-titles; each volume with a stamped number on verso of title-page; ownership indications as above. Vol. I with title-leaf subtly reinforced at fore-edge (with a limited number of other such subtle repairs to be found scattered in the set), slim wormtracks to a few lower margins, last leaf backed, and large folding plate backed with top line of text a little faded/abraded; vol. II with a natural paper flaw or two and folding plate backed; vol. III with very faint signs of old dampstaining to some top margins; otherwise, only the most occasional spot or smear to suggest age and use.
Clean and crisp. (34242)
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The Ill-Fated Scots Colony at
Darien
Foyer, Archibald, supposed author. A defence of the Scots settlement at Darien. With an answer to the Spanish memorial against it. And arguments to prove that it is the interest of England to join with the Scots, and protect it. To which is added, a description of the country, and a particular account of the Scots colony. No place [Edinburgh?]: No publisher/printer, 1699. Small 4to (20 cm; 8"). [2] ff., 60 pp.
$1250.00
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As the 1690s wound down the lords and and burghers of Scotland dreamed of an overseas empire such as Spain, England, Portugal, and the Dutch had, and to this end came into existence the Company of Scotland for Trading to Africa and the Indies. Chartered in 1695 and with a coffer of some £400,000, it established a colony (“Darien”) on
the Caribbean coast of what is now Panama, a worse location being hard to conceive. Even today that site is virtually uninhabited.
Trouble plagued the enterprise from the arrival of the first Scots in 1698 and it fairly shortly collapsed for lack of supplies, malaria, other diseases, internal dissension, a nonexistent trading base, and the might of the Spanish military in the region. The wreck of the scheme led to an economic crisis at home which in turn helped enable the 1707 Act of Unification.
The vast bulk of this work attempts to convince the English to support the Scots' enterprise and cites political, religious, social, and economic reasons for doing so; clearly, the Scots knew that English naval might in particular would be essential for the success of the scheme. Beyond this, however, a section (pp. 42 to 51) addresses the natural history, native population, agricultural commodities, and indigenous industry of the region; and the work ends with an account of the Scots' settlement, the buildings erected there, and its intercourse with the indigenous people.
Authorship of this work is problematic: It is signed “Philo-Caledon” at the end of the dedication and three other names have have been proposed as possible authors in addition to Foyer's — George Ridpath, Andrew Fletcher, and John Hamilton (2nd Baron Belhaven). Added to the conundrum of authorship, the work was produced in four editions in the same year, each having different numbers of pages, each with a different signature scheme, none with a publisher, and this one without even a place of publication!
Wing (rev. ed.) F2047; Sabin 78211; Alden & Landis 699/9; ESTC R18505 ; and Halkett & Laing II:32. 20th-century half dark brown crushed morocco with brown linen sides. This copy has all the hallmarks of having once been through a British bookseller's “hospital”: all leaves are dust-soiled or age-toned; all leaves are uncut but some have been extended and others not, and some leaves with torn margins (but not all) have had lost paper restored; all such repairs and extensions are within the first six leaves, meaning these were probably supplied from another copy. Top of title-leaf trimmed with loss of “A” of the title; another leaf with a tear to the top margin with loss costing tops of several letters of words on one page, and two leaves with the running head guillotined by a binder; some stray stains.
An interesting copy for its probable if problematic history and condition. (34130)
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“Ils Sont Morts Civilement”
France. Convention nationale. [drop-title] Loi contre les émigrés. Du 28 mars 1793, l'an deuxième de la république française. [Paris]: De l'Imprimerie Nationale, 1793. 8vo (19.3 cm, 7.6"). 35, [1] pp.
$125.00
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First edition: The penalties to be levied on refugees, along with possible exemptions and other actions to be taken, followed by an example of the certificate of residence. Note that this is not identical to the item of a similar title by Charles-Nicolas Osselin (Martin & Walter 26104), which has a different page count and subtitle.
At the top of the first page: “Convention Nationale.”
WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 locate only four U.S. institutional holdings.
Removed from a nonce volume, first page with paper shelving label and pencilled initials in upper corners. Resewn. Scattered light spotting. (35411)
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Watercolors Abound
France, Anatole. At the sign of the Queen Pédauque. Chicago: Printed for the members of The Limited Editions Club by The Lakeside Press, 1933. Tall 4to. Frontis., [5], v–xii, 174, [2] pp., [3 (blank)] ff.; 19 plts.
$95.00
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This is number 1469 of 1500 in the Limited Editions Club edition of Anatole France's conte philosophique. Signed by the illustrator, Sylvain Sauvage, who created the book's 20 full-page and two smaller-sized water-colors, the work is here
translated from the French by "Mrs. Wilfrid Jackson," and carries both an introduction by Ernest Boyd and a prefatory note by the author. Designer William A. Kittredge chose a monotype centaur font printed in red and black inks, and embellished the title-page with red, blue, yellow, and black inks.
The binding is full blue linen stamped in gold on the spine and front cover, with additional ornamentation to both covers in deep pink. Top edges are gilt, others deckle; one leaf is left unopened.
Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 49. Binding as above; spine sunned and with thumbnail sized dark patch at head and foot. Some cracking along the top edges and spine of the slipcase, which is still sturdy; spine of case sunned, paper label a little soiled. Pages clean; no ownership markings or labels. A very good, clean copy. (22313)
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Limited Edition — Mucha Illustrations
France, Anatole. Clio. Paris: Calman Lévy (pr. by Chamerot & Renouard), 1900. 8vo (20.4 cm, 8"). [4], 188, [4] pp.; col. illus.
$650.00
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First edition and the sole edition illustrated by Alphonse Mucha. The text is five historically inspired tales, decorated with 12 beautiful hand-colored wood-engraved Art Nouveau illustrations (some plates, some in text) by Mucha. There were 100 copies printed on Japan paper, and another 50 on China paper; the present example is one of the former, with the title-page vignette appearing in black and white rather than color.
Near-contemporary quarter red morocco with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; edges and extremities rubbed, front cover and joint with small scuffs. Original wrappers not present here. Pages very slightly age-toned, otherwise clean. (33470)
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The TROJAN WAR, Italian Renaissance–Style — Illustrated, Uncommon
[Franci, Angelo Giovanni?]. Libro chiamato el Troiano in rima historiato, elqual tratta la destruttion de Troia fatta per li Greci, & come per tal destruttion su edificata Roma, Padua, e Verona, & molte altre cittade in Italia ... Novamente corretto. [Colophon: Vinegia: Bartholomio detto l’Imperadore & Francesco suo genero, 1556]. 8vo (15.8 cm, 6.25"). [223] ff. (O1 & O8 lacking); illus.
[SOLD]
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Scarce 16th-century printing of this 15th-century verse account of the Trojan War. The work is sometimes attributed to Angelo Giovanni Franci or alternately to Jacopo di Carlo, the latter citation probably erroneously based on di Carlo’s having printed an early edition — while the former has in its favor the acrostic formed by the last four stanzas of the final canto: “Angilus[c] Iohannes Franci ad Andream f.”
The title-page is printed in black and red and features a large woodcut (rather striking in that the armored man stabbing another man in the face, the man being stabbed, their two horses, and the man on whom the horses are trampling all have notably neutral-to-nonchalant expressions), while the first canto is decorated with a double-column woodcut flanked with sidepieces, and 18 of the subsequent cantos open each with a small woodcut, most depicting martial scenes. Unlike most other editions of this popular history, the present example is an octavo rather than quarto printing, and is not described by most of the standard reference works.
WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 find
no institutional holdings of this edition and find only one U.S. library (Princeton) reporting ownership of any 16th-century edition of the work in Italian!
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
EDIT16 CNCE 78256. This ed. not in Adams, Brunet, or Mortimer; see Brunet and Essling for other eds. Later limp vellum, spine with hand-inked title; spine vellum creased. Corners and inner margin of title-page refurbished (touching two letters of title); one other page corner repaired. One text leaf (O1, without illustration) excised and one final blank (O8) lacking. A few signatures slightly more noticeably age-toned than others; occasional small ink spots, touching but not obscuring text or images; some pages with pencilled foliation.
A pleasing copy of a very uncommon edition. (37929)
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The Way of Devotion —The King's Own Edition
Francis, de Sales, Saint. An introduction to a devout life. London: Henry Hills, 1686. 12mo (13.2 cm, 5.25"). Frontis., [34], 675 (i.e., 685), [25] pp.
$525.00
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A classic of Catholic contemplative reading, here in
an edition specially commissioned by King James II for the use of his household. Based on a series of letters de Sales sent to his cousin Marie de Charmoisy, the Introduction was first published in 1609; its printing in England, first in 1617 and in subsequent years, was predictably complicated depending on the tenor of the times. In fact in 1637 an act was passed calling in all copies so they could be
publicly burnt!
This edition opens with an engraved frontispiece of the saint in his role as humble priest, includes a summary of his life and a collection of his “choicest Maxims,” and closes with “The Communication of Doctor Thaulerus with a Poor Beggar.”
Uncommon: WorldCat and ESTC locate only nine U.S. institutional holdings of this royal edition.
Clancy, English Catholic Books 1641–1700, 391; ESTC R177248; Wing (rev. ed.) F2071. Contemporary mottled calf framed in double gilt fillets, rebacked with similar calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-ruled raised bands; original leather scuffed, edges rubbed. Light pencilled marks of emphasis throughout and a very few inked marks; back free endpaper once with decorative pencilled title, now largely erased. Frontispiece neatly mounted (caption excised), darkened and cockled but still quite attractive; title-page with small “loop: of old ink, pages with occasional smudges.
A solid and pleasantly serviceable copy of a desirable printing. (36977)
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ALL the ACTUAL PRINTER'S BLOCKS for the *47* Illustrations
of Zoeth Skinner Eldredge's
The Beginnings of San Francisco
Francis, Walter, illus., et al. For Eldredge's The beginnings of San Francisco, the 47 California-themed printing blocks used to produce the volume’s illustrations. San Francisco: Pr. John C. Rankin Company (New York), 1912. 37 half-tone plates (on copper), 10 zinc cuts, all on their wood blocks; plus 3 additional plates on copper and another zinc cut, similarly mounted.
$4350.00
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A FULL SET of the printer's blocks prepared of the illustrations for Zoeth Skinner Eldredge's The Beginnings of San Francisco (1912), being 37 photographic half-tones on copper and 10 zinc cuts, all on wood blocks, ranging generally in size from approximately 2.5" square to 14" square, with oblong maps measuring up to 20" across. A number of the half-tones were done after drawings by Walter Francis, a California artist and illustrator who worked for the San Francisco Chronicle; a few blocks offer images of photographs, some identified as taken by W.C. Mendenhall of the U.S. Geological Survey or Captain D.D. Gaillard of the Boundary Commission; other images are said to be from paintings and a daguerrotype held privately, with another being the facsimile of a document in the John Carter Brown Library; and, indeed, some are simply “after” images in other books (e.g., The Annals of San Francisco and “Bartlett's Narrative”). The images include a dozen California maps and plans; photographic views of the Colorado Desert and an artistic sketch of “the Trail on the Gila”; portraits of prominent early Californians; several “military moments” and a plan of the Presidio in 1820; plus, notably, scenic and historic “views” including renderings of “the Palo Alto,” the ports of Monterey and San Diego, Yerba Buena, and a number of street and bay scenes depicting San Francisco proper.
Eldredge was a New York–born banker and amateur historian of California whose Beginnings of San Francisco, though possibly self-published, is listed in Cowan & Cowan and described there as “of great historical value.”
In addition to the 47 images/blocks from that work present here, we offer four others that seem to be “related” but which we have not identified beyond establishing that they do not seem to be from the same author's History of California (1915). We must wonder, were they images prepared for the Beginnings and not used? The additional zinc-cut image of a document signed by Gaspar de Portola and two of the three additional half-tones on copper (Portola sighting San Francisco bay and the Spaniards marching to Monterey) were found as online images without clear attribution as to their physical sources; and the last, a western scene not identified, has not yet been “matched” at all.
Most blocks from the Beginnings are still in or with
wrappers showing the images printed from them, as would have been convenient for the printers — these marked (as the backs of the blocks themselves sometimes are) identifying the images and/or showing that the work was completed. (The additional blocks are unwrapped and unmarked.)
In sum, this
complete array of the blocks used for printing a substantial and well-regarded Titanic-era book looks like something that was put on a printing house shelf one afternoon in 1912 at the end of an ordinary project for the pressmen and simply stayed there.
Seeing it on its present PRB&M shelf, coherent and unmessed-with more than 100 years later, is like walking up to that shelf through one of time's “wrinkles.”
On the Beginnings, see: Cowan & Cowan, Bibliography of the History of California, 193. For a list of all its images and notes on their origins, see: http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sf/history/hbbegidx.htm. The paper wrappers present are variously just fine or age-toned or browned, chipped, torn along folds.
ALL the blocks are in good condition; this is not a sort of thing easily damaged! (29741)
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A Pretty Little Book — A Litmus Test for
“Your” Variety of Catholicism
Francis of Assisi, St. Fioretti ... testo di lingua secondo la lezione adottata dal P.A. Cesari e con brevi note filologiche di P. Fraticelli. Firenze: Pietro Fraticelli, 1845. Sm 8vo (14.8 cm; 5.75"). 330 pp.
$400.00
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Handsome little edition of these classic Franciscan writings. Oddly, while the New Catholic Encyclopedia of 1967 rather sternly decries the Fioretti as overly legendary and romantic, the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913 praises the work as a beautiful expression of medieval religious life, saying “Nowhere can there be found a more childlike faith, a livelier sense of the supernatural, or a simpler literalness in the following Christ than in the pages of the Fioretti.” The text of the present edition follows that adopted by Antonio Cesari, the “standard” Italian version.
Searches of WorldCat and the NUC suggest that two U.S. libraries report ownership, but there is really
only one and it is now at Georgetown.
Binding: Contemporary cream speckled paper over boards in imitation of vellum, covers bordered in gilt single and red double fillets; red leather title label to spine divided into compartments by gilt-stamping in broad bands, with a gilt device in each compartment. Ornate gilt inner dentelles, and stiff marbled endpapers typical of the era. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed.
Bound as above, front cover very slightly sprung; corners bumped with some accompanying discoloration, not severe. Two front fly-leaves with pencilled notes, some faint spots of foxing.
Overall a clean, lovely little book; quite pleasing. (36682)
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Surprising Content — Capuchins in Tibet
Surprising Frontispiece — Uncalled for, Signed, & Au Sanguine
Francisco, de Ajofrín, fray. Carta familiar de un sacerdote, respuesta a un colegial amigo suyo, en que le dà cuenta de la admirable conquista espiritual del vasto imperio del gran Thibèt, y la mission que los padres Capuchinos tienen alli, con sus singulares progressos hasta el present. Dase tambien una noticia succinta de la fundacion de esta penitente seraphica familia; de los santos que la ilustran, cardenales, arzobispos; de su observancia, y austeridad, missiones que tiene en todo orbe, provincias, conventos, y religiosos en que se halla propagada, con orras noticias historico-eclesiasticas. Mexico: En la imprenta de la Bibliotheca Mexicana, 1765. Small 4to. Frontis., [2] ff., 48 pp.
$10,500.00
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A remarkable book, demonstrating how small the world had already become in the 18th century. Mexico in 1765 seems an unlikely place for a discussion of Tibetan missions, but here is an elaborate report on the Capuchin missions in Tibet, published half way around the world in Mexico. It is possible that these reports came across the Pacific, or equally, that they came via Europe. In any case, a most exotic combination of topic and imprint.
A special issue copy: Present here is an uncalled-for frontispiece. It is of four Capuchin martyrs,
is
signed by the artist Navarro, is engraved on copper, and is printed au sanguine the color reserved for
only the most special copies s of 18th-century books. This frontispiece is not called for by Medina
and is not present in any of the copies reported as held in the U.S.
Medina, Mexico, 4991; Palau 45600; Sabin 11098; Maggs, Bibliotheca Asiatica, 611. Full antique calf, spine gilt, leather label; a little light scuffing, in fact to rather attractive effect. Careful repairs, using archival tape, accomplished to old worming to most leaves; wormwork sometimes minimal and sometimes more extensive but never preventing reading. Quite a good copy. (12725)
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A Popular Edition from a
Surreptitious Manuscript Copy
Franklin, Benjamin. The works of the late Dr. Benjamin Franklin; consisting of his Life, written by himself. Together with essays, humorous, moral, and literary, chiefly in the manner of the Spectator. Philadelphia: Wm. W. Woodward, 1801. 12mo (16.7 cm, 6.6"). Frontis., 321, [11] pp.
$700.00
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Early American edition of the “unofficial” but extremely popular Life, re-translated into English from the French publication and released despite William Temple Franklin's attempts to suppress any version other than his own. This example comprises two volumes in one, opening with an engraved portrait of Franklin signed by Tanner and
featuring an addition “not in any other Edition,” according to the title-page: “An Examination, before the British House of Lords, respecting the Stamp-Act.” At the back are a six-page list of subscribers and four pages of advertisements for Woodward publications.
Sabin 25602; Shaw & Shoemaker 515. On Temple Franklin and early editions, see: Green & Stallybrass, Franklin,151–60. Contemporary treed sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; spine extremities a little chipped, front cover a little sprung, hinges (inside) reinforced. Frontispiece and title-page tattered and now mounted, with outer margin of first preface page repaired; a number of corners bumped or dog-eared, with a few in one section at some point delicately rodent(?)-nibbled. Subscribers' list trimmed closely, affecting two names only; pages age-toned with intermittent foxing. In fact, though certainly not “excellent” quite “satisfactory.” (25357)
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13,600 Volumes, 631 Lots, & 80 English Antiquarian Book Dealers
Freeman, Arthur, & Janet Ing Freeman. Anatomy of an auction: rare books at Ruxley Lodge, 1919. London: The Book Collector, 1990. 8vo (22.1 cm; 8.75"). viii, 169 pp.
$60.00
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With the help of a sale catalogue annotated by an active bidder and a “complementary set of manuscript accounts of the insiders' settlements” following the sale, Arthur and Janet Ing Freeman analyze the library sold at Ruxley Lodge in 1919. The auction was notable for the quality of the books and yet the meager prices for which they were sold — all due to the work of a ring of booksellers. The effectiveness of the ring prior to its abolition in England is also generally examined.
From The Book Collector: Occasional Series, vol. 1.
Publisher's paperback (not issued in cloth); lightest edgewear, spine faded. Several tiny spots of foxing on page edges (not into margins).
Near fine. (37781)
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From Ancient Greece to the “Baltic Lands”
Freeman, Edward Augustus. The historical geography of Europe. London: Longmans, Green, & Co.; New York: Scribner & Welford, 1881. 8vo (22.5 cm, 8.9"). 2 vols. I: xlix, [1], 604 pp. II: viii pp.; 29 double-page maps.
$200.00
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First edition: An illustrated study of the development of the European nations, written by a prominent English historian who became Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford three years after this publication. The first volume of detailed, geographically arranged history is accompanied by a second volume of maps with colored borders; of the 29 double-page spreads of plates, the last 12 are divided into four images apiece, resulting in
a grand total of 65 maps.
NSTC 0262094. Publisher's textured brown cloth, covers framed in blind double fillets, spines with gilt-stamped title; vol. 1 with small areas of light discoloration, both volumes with mild edgewear. Pages very slightly age-toned, otherwise clean. A nice set. (32641)
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Fremont's Third Expedition
Frémont, John Charles. Geographical memoir upon upper
California, in illustration of his map of Oregon and California. Washington: Printed by Tippin & Streeper, 1849. 8vo (23.5 cm; 9.25"). 40 pp.
$165.00
Click the image to the right for an enlargement.
John Charles Frémont (1813–90) was born in Savanannah, Georgia, a strong and activist opponent of slavery, a born explorer, and strong-headed and -willed. His service in California during the Mexican War, for the Union during the Civil War, etc., in many ways shows why he was tapped to be a presidential candidate; but it was certainly his role as an explorer that captured the imagination and the hearts of many Americans.
Here Frémont presents to the U.S. Senate his formal report on his third expedition to the West. The map referred to in the title was
issued separately under title “Map of Oregon and Upper California. . . 1848" and is not present; hence the affordable price here.
The original edition, not a reprint. A government publication: [U.S.] 30th Cong., 2d sess. House. Misc. [doc.] 5.
Sabin 25837; Howes F366; Wagner-Camp-Becker, Plains and Rockies, 150:2. Recent marbled paper–covered boards with leather label on front cover. Occasional light foxing. (24883)
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French N.T. with Marlorat Notes & an
ILLUSTRATED CALENDAR
(French Calendar). Calendrier Historial, & Lunaire. La Lune est nouuelle à l'endroit du Nombre d'or: & nous aluons 9. ceste annee 1566. Lyon: Pour Antoine Vincent, 1566. 8vo (12.1 cm; 4.75"). [16] ff.; illus. [bound with] Bible. N.T. French. [1564]. Geneva. [Le nouveau Testament, c'est à dire, la nouvelle Alliance de nostre Seigneur Jesus Christ. Reueu & corrigé de nouveau sur le Grec par l'aduis des Ministres de Geneve. Auec annotations reueuës et augmentées par M. Augustin Marlorat]. [Par Antoine Vincent, 1564; colophon: A Lyon: Par Symphorien Barbier]. 12mo. [30], 824, [24] pp. Lacks t.-p.
$3250.00
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Paired in this pocket-sized volume are an elegant 16th-century calendar and a French, Geneva N.T. The calendar — printed for use in 1566 — contains
twelve attractive and well-impressed one-third page size woodcuts depicting the various chores required in each month, such as shearing sheep in June or crushing grapes in September, and it ends with French fair dates generally as well as dates for fairs in Lyon, Frankfurt, and Anvers specifically.
The French N.T. contains revisions and numerous marginal notes from Marlorat (1506–62), a French reformer and popular preacher, and was published only two years after he was
martyred at Rouen in 1562 under charges of treason. While this N.T. lacks its title-page, its contents match those of Van Eys N.T. 118.
Binding: Late 19th- or early 20th-century tan calf, spine gilt extra with two gilt leather labels; covers framed in gilt and triple-ruled in blind, with marbled endpapers, gilt board edges and turn-ins. All edges gilt.
Searches of NUC, WorldCat, COPAC, and KVK find only one copy of the almanac and one of the New Testament, bound together. They are in the Württembergische Landesbibliothek. However Chambers lists five copies in addition to that one, including one at the National Library of Scotland that is not findable via COPAC.
Provenance: The Howell Bible Collection, Pacific School of Religion (properly released).
Van Eys, Bibles French, pt. II, 118; Chambers, French Bibles, 340; not in Darlow & Moule. Bound as above, rebacked, with gentle rubbing. Light general age-toning with this greater at edges, Bible title-page lacking; two early leaves darkened and one repaired, some leaves closely trimmed touching captions or with loss of a letter or two from marginal notes, two leaves with short tears and three each with a small spot. Ex-library as above: pencilling on endpapers, five-digit acquisition stamp and call number on title-page verso, booklabel at back.
A compact and dare it be said “darling” book. (36407)
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Plenty of Stories in
Plenty of Places
Frewen, Moreton. Melton Mowbray and other memories. London: Herbert Jenkins Limited, 1924. 8vo (21.6 cm; 8.5"). viii, [4], 311 pp., [16] plts.
$240.00
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A very opinionated autobiography recounting Frewen's numerous adventures throughout England, the United States, Egypt, the Balkans, and India, from his childhood as part of the English gentry to tales of bison used as snow plows in the Wyoming Territory.
Howes notes ten chapters are dedicated to Frewen's “disastrous cattle enterprise on Powder river.”While suffering from financial difficulties throughout his life, Frewen continually worked with influential people, many of whom are here discussed in detail, including his wife Clara Jerome, aunt of Winston Churchill.
One way and another there is plenty of huntin', shootin', and fishin'; and there are plenty of politics.
Provenance: A tantalizing “Wealdside 1924” in ink on the front pastedown. The Weald is of course of huge extent, and there are therefore potentially a number of possible “Wealdsides”; but it is notable that the Frewen family dates back to Elizabethan times in East Sussex — and, perhaps, that Moreton Frewen died in 1924.
Howes F380; Graff 1442. Light green publisher's cloth, cover ruled and lettered in black, spine and back also stamped in black; gently rubbed and text slightly cocked, with a thumbnail-sized pink stain along the edge of the back cover and speckling the bottom edge. Light age-toning with offsetting to fly-leaves; inscription as noted.
A good read in a good solid copy. (37037)
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Six Items Together — A French Lady's Anti-Jesuit Sammelband
[Frey de Neuville, Pierre-Claude]. Observations sur l'Institut de la Société des Jésuites. Avignon: Alexandre Giroud, 1761. 8vo (16.6 cm; 6.5"). [1] f., 108 pp. [bound with] [Anonymous]. Les Jesuites convaincus par leurs propres ouvrages d'être toujous les mêmes. Rome, 1761. 8vo. 32 pp. [also bound in] [Routh, Bernard], supposed author. Mémoire pour les jésuites de Franche-Comté. Besançon, 1762. 8vo. [1] f., 109, [1 (blank)] pp. [also bound in] [Cabut, Pierre]. Mes doutes sur la mort des jesuites. [France, ca. 1762]. 8vo. [1] f., 37, [1 (blank)] pp. [also bound in] [Anonymous]. **** Lettre sur le procés-verbal de vérification des textes des assertions cités dans l'instruction pastorale de M. l'archevéque de Paris, du 28 Octobre 1763.... [Place not determined], 1764. “Seconde édition.” 8vo. 143, [1 (blank)] pp. [also bound in] [Anonymous]. **** Tout n'est pas fait dans l'affaire des Jésuites, ou lettre d'un de leurs creanciers a M *** avocat au parlement. Lyon, 1765. 8vo. 52 pp.
$1500.00
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The short pieces in this mélange relate to the Society of Jesus in France just prior to and during their expulsion from that country in 1764. All were issued anonymously, many are scarce, and all now command the interest of various types of scholars and collectors. The first item is sometimes attributed to Charles de Neuville; the second, according to Carayon, is a “réimpression de la Tres humble remonstrance des PP. Jésuites à la France” that according to WorldCat and NUC is held by only one U.S. library, the University of Minnesota; the third is held by only two U.S. libraries; the fourth is held only in another edition of 45 pages; finally, the sixth item is reportedly held by only one U.S. library.
Provenance: Elegant contemporary bookplate of Mademoiselle de Valanglart.
Contemporary mottled calf, round spine without raised bands, gilt spine extra, marbled endpapers, all edges red; some leather abraded from covers and a very little from the spine's base, lacking spine label once reading “MELANGE” (and this now blind-embossed in that compartment). Light age-toning; bookplate as above. (36671)
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EYEWITNESS TO HISTORY
in
Late 14th-Century France, Spain, Portugal, & England
Froissart, Jean. Le premier [second, tiers, qvart] volvme de l'histoire et croniqve de Messire Iehan Froissart. Lyon: Par Ian de Tovrnes, imprimevr dv roy, 1559–61. Folio extra (35 cm; 13.75") 4 vols. in 1. I: [10] ff, 462 pp., [17] ff. II: [6] ff, 314 pp., [3] ff. III: [6] ff., 363, [1] pp., [2] ff. IV: [6] ff., 350 pp., [3] ff.
$1200.00
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Froissart (1338?–1410?) was a poet and court historian and is best remembered for his famous late medieval chronicle of the house of Valois in France in the 14th century and British history of the same era. The work circulated in manuscript for decades and was first printed in 1499; this mid-16th-century edition is “reveu & corrigeé sus diuers exemplaires, & suyuant les bons auteurs, par Denis Sauuage de Fontenailles en Brie, historiographe du trescrestien roy Henry IIe de ce nom.”
These large and lengthy volumes present Froissart's mostly firsthand narrative of weddings, funerals, and notable events including battles from shortly before his birth to 1400. Information for the period before his birth and reaching maturity is based on Flemish writer Jean le Bel's Vrayes Chroniques. Vol. II chronicles events in Flanders down to the Peace of Tournai in 1385. Vol. III moves us from France and Flanders to address events in Spain and Portugal, while IV deals with events leading up to the Battle of Poitiers and Froissart's visit to England.
Each volume has its own title-page with the printer's device and its text is preceded by a “table des chapitres” (and errata in vols. I and II), ending with several pages of notes. The text is printed in roman with handsome
historiated, exquisitely executed woodcut initials. The printed marginal notes are in italic. The head- and tailpieces exhibit the same high quality of cutting as the initials.
Provenance: The Pacific School of Religion (properly released).
Adams F1066; Grässe, II, 638; Brunet, II, 1405. 18th-century calf with modest gilt triple rule border on boards, rebacked and forecorners of the boards restored; new endpapers. Oval library stamp (as above) on title-page and in the margins of a few text pages only; stamping is minimal. Fore- and bottom margins with old, light dampstaining; upper margins of a few leaves with a small semicircular brown stain; otherwise, an occasional spot or smudge only. Overall, a rather good copy of a standard and still important work
handsomely printed by the royal printer. (36777)
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“The Indians Now Seemed to
Redouble Their Frenzy”
Fuller, Emeline L. [cover title] Left by the Indians. Story of my life. [copyright page: Mt. Vernon, IA: Hawk-eye Steam Print, 1892]. Square 24mo (13 cm; 5"). Front wrapper, [2] ff., 40 pp., port. leaf, blank leaf.
$7750.00
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Howes tells us that “This is the only account by a survivor of the extreme hardships suffered by the [1860] Utter-Myers Overland Train,” and Smith adds that “Among overland disasters, [this tragedy was] equaled in horror only by that of the Donner party; cannibalism was resorted to in both cases.”
Fuller's account of the party of 44 that left Wisconsin in May 1860 heading for Oregon’s Willamette Valley is unstinting in its telling of attacks by a large party of Shoshone and Bannock along the Snake River, the rapine of the wolves afterwards, and the failure of those yet living to find food except the bodies of dead members of the party. Only 16 survived.
“It is at the request of many friends I consent to publish the story of my life. They have heard enough of what I have suffered by the Indians, to make them anxious to hear or rest the rest. To repeat the whole story to every individual that wants to hear it is an impossibility — hence I write that they may read for themselves” (preface). Yes, her autobiography does continue her life and travels after the massacre, but only to 1879. She died in either 1923 or 1924.
There are two pages of portraits of Fuller's family as they looked in 1860: her mother, father, a baby, a brother and sister, and herself at 14 years. There is an additional full-page portrait of Fuller as she looked in 1892.
Life-time published accounts by pioneer women in the Pacific Northwest are uncommon. Those detailing massacres and cannibalism even fewer.
Graff Collection 1460; Howes, U.S.iana (2nd ed.), F407; Smith 3386; Streeter Sale 3197. Publisher's green wrapper, wire stitched, as issued; lightly soiled. Small brown stain in foremargin of three final leaves.
A rather nice copy of a delicate publication. (35588)
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HOW the Christians
“Lost All in Palestine”
Fuller, Thomas. The historie of the holy warre ... the second edition. Cambridge: Pr. by R. Daniel for Thomas Buck, 1640. Folio (27.7 cm, 10.9"). Add. engr. t.-p., [16], 286, [30] pp.; 1 fold. map.
$1275.00
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Second edition, following the first of the previous year: A very popular anti-Catholic (and anti-Jewish as well) account of the crusades, citing the cruel and impious behavior of popes and participants alike as reason for the failure of the conquest of the Holy Land. Fuller, chaplain extraordinary to Charles II, was one of the earliest English historians thus to analyze the crusades as a historical event.
The volume opens with an added engraved title-page and also features an oversized,
folding map of the region, both signed by William Marshall. The preliminary
“Declaration of the Frontispice [sic],” an explanation in
verse of the title-page's symbolism, is signed by J.C., i.e., John Cleveland.
ESTC S121254; STC (2nd ed.) 11465; Allibone 643; Wither
to Prior 387 (for the first edition, 1639). Period-style dark calf,
covers framed and panelled in gilt and blind rolls with gilt-stamped corner
fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-ruled raised bands,
and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. Title inked on outer (closed) edges
in an early hand. “Declaration of the Frontispiece” mounted; added
engraved title-page with upper margin repaired, lower area trimmed into the
imprint line (taking most) and with one pinhole. Otherwise browning, mild
spotting and light waterstaining variously, last leaves dust-soiled; light
cockling and volume a tad sprung; a few leaves with short edge tears, not
extending into text; map with ragged portion of lower inner edge, tear along one fold neatly repaired from rear, and small hole at intersection of two folds. One blank page with
early pencilled doodles. (27562)
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“Petites Histoires” with SPIRIT
Furetière, Antoine. Furetieriana ou les bons mots, et les remarques d'histoire, de morale, de critique, de plaisanterie, & d'erudition, de Mr. Furetiere. Brusselle: François Foppens, 1696. 12mo (14.2 cm, 5.55"). Frontis., [6], 267, [13 (index)] pp.
$450.00
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Witty words from the Abbé of Chalivoy, a lawyer, scholar, and one-time member of the Académie française who was expelled from that organization for daring to compile his own dictionary of the French language at a time when the Academy was claiming exclusive rights to produce such a work. While Furetière's Dictionnaire universel remains his best-known literary accomplishment, he also produced an eclectic range of entertaining literature, highlighted in the present Belgian printing of a collection of epigrams, maxims, poems, anecdotes, satirical remarks, and other bons mots edited by Guy Marais. Foppens's edition was printed in the same year as the Parisian first, following Furetière's death in 1688.
The volume opens with a
copper-engraved frontispiece done by Harrewyn, featuring a satyr and a jester in addition to muses crowning Furetière with a laurel wreath; the title-page is printed in red and black, and the text is ornamented with two woodcut headpieces, two tailpieces, and two decorative capitals. This nicely printed edition is not widely held in the United States; WorldCat locates
only four American institutional holdings and these perhaps unexpected ones, with no holdings added by NUC Pre-1956.
This edition not in Brunet. Contemporary speckled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped floral decorations in compartments, board edges with gilt roll; worn and rubbed, leather lost at extremities, front joint cracked and back joint starting (sewing holding). All edges speckled red and brown. Front pastedown and free endpaper with modern collector's inscriptions, front pastedown with early inked numerals and later pencilled annotations; one obscured name in text annotated in pencil in the margin. Pages gently age-toned with occasional tiny spots of foxing.
Externally worn, interior beautifully preserving the author's irrepressible, biting wit. (36242)
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