(Alexander). Gautier de Chatillon, Philippe. Alexandreidos Galteri poetae clarissimi, libri decem. [colophon: Ingoldstadtii: in officina sua Alexander Weissenhorn], 1541. 8vo (15.8 cm, 6.2"). [8], CXVI, [4 (1 blank)] ff. [SOLD]
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Beautiful printing of this 12th-century epic Latin poem on the life of Alexander the Great, edited by Oswald von Eck and with prefatory and supplementary matter by him, Sebastian Linck, and Hieronymus Ziegler. Sometimes known as Walter of Châtillon, Gualterus de Castellione, Philip Gaultier, or variants thereof, the author became with this widely read work the definitive source of the Latin hexameter, “Incidit in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdim” (He falls in Scylla's jaws who would escape Charybdis), although he was not, of course, the originator of the proverb.
This is one of only three editions published in the 16th century, none of which are now common. The title-page here bears alarge woodcut vignette of Alexander on his horse, followed by an elaborately rendered, full-page coat of arms with crests; the main text is printed in italics, with shouldernotes in roman, and each book opens with a decorative capital.
Binding: 19th-century dark blue morocco, covers framed in double gilt fillets with gilt-stamped corner fleurons surrounding a medallion composed of gilt-tooled floral and foliate filigree elements, spine with gilt-stamped title and compartments gilt extra, board edges and turn-ins with gilt rolls. Endpapers of a French combed pattern. All edges gilt.
Evidence of Readership: Occasional small corrections (some based on the printed errata) in an early inked hand, including to the foliation where mismarked.
Provenance: From the collection of Albert A. Howard (sans indicia).
Adams G1356; Brunet, II, 1470; VD16 G 3849. Binding as above, joints and extremities rubbed. Early inked corrections as above. Pages slightly age-toned; a few leaves with limited instances of old staining, otherwise clean. An attractive copy of an important and influential work. (37752)
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Elzevir's Received Text — From the Syston Park Collection
Bible. N.T. Greek. 1633. [in Greek, transliterated as] He Kaine Diatheke. [then in roman] Novum testamentum. Ex regiis aliisque optimis editionibus cum cura expressum. Lugduni Batavorum: Ex officina Elzeviriana, 1633. 12mo (13 cm, 5.125"). [16], 861, [35] pp. [SOLD]
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Syston Park copy of the editio recepta of Beza's text, following the first Elzevir edition of 1624 and largely agreeing with the octavo edition of 1565. Greek New Testaments were a staple of the renowned Elzevir family of printers, and Willems declares that of the three printed by the Leyden Elzevirs, “celle-ci est la plus belle et la plus recherchée.” It was in the preface to this edition that this text was first labelled “Textus Receptus.”
After the preface, the text is printed entirely in Greek, except for Latin chapter headings in the table of contents; verse numbers are given in the inner margin of each page. The title-page features the printer's woodcut device of a man picking grapes from a vine on a tree and the motto “Non solus.”
Binding: 18th-century crimson straight-grain morocco, covers framed in dotted gilt rules, board edges and turn-ins with dotted gilt rule, spine similarly ruled and with gilt-stamped title. All edges gilt and a light blue silk ribbon placemarker still present. Almost certainly done byRoger Payne,Syston Park's preferred binder.
Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplates of H. Walter Webb and Syston Park (i.e., the famousSyston Park Library, collected at Lincolnshire by Sir John Hayford Thorold, Bart., and his predecessors); front free endpaper with bookplate of Leila Howard Codman; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard (sans indicia). The Sotheby's catalogue of the Syston Park sale suggests that the present copy was Sir John's duplicate, this example having marbled endpapers rather than the “silk linings” described in another copy.
Darlow & Moule 4679; Willems 396. Bound as above, spine slightly dimmed. Bookplates as above; front free endpaper and fly-leaf with affixed slips of old cataloguing and pencilled annotations. Pages clean. A nice copy with pleasing, in fact prestigious, provenance. (37819)
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Russian Poets for Boston's Pleasure — One Reader
Was Sometimes Pleased & Sometimes Horrified
Bowring, John, trans. Specimens of the Russian poets; with preliminary remarks and biographical notices. Boston: Cummings & Hilliard (Hilliard & Metcalf, printers), 1822. 12mo. xxxii, 240 pp. $150.00
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Russian poetry, translated into English by John Bowring; first edition published in London, in 1821. Bearing the half-title “Russian Anthology” and including the poems of Derzhavin, Batiushov, Lomonosov, Zhukovsky, Karamsin, Dmitriev, Krilov, Khemnitzer, Bobrov, Bogdanovich, Davidov, Kostrov, Neledinsky Meletzky, this also offers some national songs and the poem “Death of Ossian.” A second volume was published in 1823.
Evidence of readership: Pencillings in French and English record pronunciation of a name, offer judgments such as “a beautiful poem — with a loathsome subject,” identify one figure in a poem by Derzhavin as “the pampered paramour of Catherine the great” and object on the same page to “the murder” of “helpless Turks”; brief quotations from a history of Russia (which, not clear) are supplied; and the writer wonders, “What must be the Russian heart when her poets can thus sing of deeds like this!”
Library cloth,
pressure-stamped on front and back covers by a now-defunct library; title-page and several others
rubber-stamped; bookplate, charge pocket, a bit of pencilling. Top margin of title-leaf torn away
(no print lost, but an inscription taken); age-toned, light waterstaining in margins toward rear,
one signature loosening, good +. Marginalia as noted. (9221)
“Large Scale” in Several Respects . . .
62 Engravings & Bedford Bound WESTMINSTER ABBEY A Classic of English Antiquarianism, Illustration,
& Book-Making
Brayley,
Edward Wedlake. The history and antiquities
of the abbey church of St. Peter, Westminster: Including notices and biographical
memoirs of the abbots and deans of that foundation. London: J.P. Neale for Longman,
Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown, 1818–23. Folio (37.9 cm, 14.9"). 2 vols.
I: [18], 227, [19], 72, [10] pp.; 13 plts. II: [2], 304, [40] pp.; 49 plts. $2250.00
Click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.
First edition, illustrated with a total of 62 engraved plates. Allibone describes Brayley “a laborious and accurate topographer”; he compiled and edited a wide range of works with titles featuring assorted Beauties, Picturesques, Histories, Antiquities, etc. The present work provides a history of Westminster Abbey and some of its associated luminaries, along with extensive descriptions of its architecture, sculptures, and paintings. The illustrator who portrayed many of the above, John Preston Neale, was an architectural draftsman and landscape painter “best remembered for his views of the nation's country houses, churches, and public buildings,” according to the Oxford DNB.
Binding: By Francis Bedford, signed, in dark brown morocco done between 1851 and 1880, covers framed and panelled in ornate gilt rolls with gilt-stamped corner fleurons and midpoint decoration. Spines gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels. Board edges gilt-tooled with triple fillets, turn-ins with gilt-tooled rolls and corner fleurons. All edges gilt. Stamped “F. Bedford” on lower front turn-in.
Provenance: Each front pastedown with armorial bookplate of William Arthur, sixth Duke of Portland.
NSTC 2B46491; Allibone 240; Brunet, II, 1215. Binding as above, minor shelf wear to lower edges and corners, vol. I with front board expertly reattached and with small dent to outer edge of front cover. Joints delicate, due to size and weight of volumes, but holding. A few pages and plates with faint foxing, otherwise clean. (24100)
English Tree-Tending Formal, Mathematical Planting
(Printed for a Woman Publisher)
Cook, Moses. The manner of raising, ordering, and improving forest-trees: With directions how to plant, make, and keep woods, walks, avenues, lawns, hedges, &c. London: Pr. for Eliz. Bell, John Darby, Arthur Bettesworth, et al., 1724. 8vo (19.8 cm, 7.75"). Frontis. (incl. in pagination), xx, 273, [3] pp.; 4 fold. plts. [SOLD]
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Acclaimed and influential treatise by Cook, head gardener to the Earl of Essex and a professional nurseryman. This is the stated third edition, corrected, following the first of 1676, produced for a woman publisher, Elizabeth Bell, among others; it includes “Rules and Tables shewing how the Ingenious Planter may measure Superficial Figures, divide Woods or Land, and measure Timber and other solid Bodies, either by Arithmetick or Geometry: With the Uses of that excellent Line, the Line of Numbers, by several new Examples; and many other Rules, useful for most Men.”
The volume is illustrated with alovely copper-engraved frontispiece depicting tree-fellers at work and with four folding plans showing how to calculate the scale and design of landscape features. At the back of the work is a brief overview of the rules for making cider, and an additional recipe for birch beer (alcoholic) is given in the chapter on birches.
ESTC T131054; Goldsmiths’-Kress no. 6265. 18th-century calf, covers framed in double blind fillets with blind roll along joint, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and date labels and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; joints and portions of spine leather unobtrusively repaired, edges and extremities rubbed, sides with a bit of light scuffing, gilt mildly rubbed. Scattered faint foxing, most pages clean. (30312)
Dietrich, Marlene. Marlene Dietrich’s ABC. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., (1984). 8vo (21.6 cm, 8.5"). vii, 183 pp.; illus. [SOLD]
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One of 250 copies and signed by Marlene Dietrich: The famous German actress, singer and humanitarianpresents the alphabet in her own unique and witty way. Each letter gets its own following list of her favorite words, names, and things beginning with it, with her own definition/impression of each one; at times her observations cover several pages, other times her aphorisms are a single line. For “glamour,” she writes, “The which I would like to know the meaning of”; for “camera”: “A friend of mine. We understood each other.” This is the revised edition, with additions to the text and photographs.
Dietrich (1901–92) was an active performer for much of the 20th century; she reinvented her image many times — going from film actor to humanitarian during World War II to cabaret artist — and maintained her popularity and glamorous image throughout the years. In 1947, she received the Medal of Freedom for her work supporting Allied troops.
The volume includes a section of black-and-white photographs of Dietrich in various roles and with co-stars and friends.
Signed by Dietrich on the front free endpaper, where the book is also numbered (94).
Publisher's white cloth with gilt lettering to spine; original pink pictorial dust jacket present with faded spine, light wear to corners, minor creasing and rubbing to front panel with short tears to upper edge, and small piercing at front joint. Volume under jacket, pristine. (37966)
Dostoevsky, Fyodor; Fritz Eichenberg, illus. The brothers Karamazov. New York: Limited Editions Club, 1949. 4to (28.3 cm, 11.25"). I: xxii, 248 pp.; 17 plts. II: vi, [4], 251–604, [2] pp.; 31 plts. [SOLD]
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Dostoevsky's last and greatest work was completed a mere two months before his death in 1881 and is offered here in the translation of Constance Garnett, revised by Avrahm Yarmonlinsky who has also written the introduction. Fritz Eichenberg illustrated the book with 48 full-page etchings on stone, pulled by George C. Miller; Eichenberg has also signed the colophon. George Macy designed both volumes using a linotype Original Old Style font for the text, and printed a series of embellishments in green ink for the part-opening and chapter-opening pages, and also for the title-page.
This is numbered copy 1157 of 1500 printed of this two-volume edition. The monthly newsletter is laid in.
Binding: Half red buckram stamped with a design by Eichenberg in aluminium leaf, and red linen sides; page tops are stained green.
Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 197. Binding as above; spines slightly darkened, small scuffs to boards and bottom edges. Slipcase lacking. A great set with captivating illustrations. (38940)
Dutton, Matthew. An exact abridgment of all the publick printed Irish statutes of Queen Anne and King George, in force and use, to the end of the first session of this present parliament. Anno Dom. 1716. Dublin: James Carson, 1717. 4to (20.7 cm, 8.2"). [4], 263, [1], xv, [25] pp. $1250.00
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Uncommon first edition: the “Scope and Intendment of every Paragraph” of the Irish statutes, designed to be of use both “those that have not, as those that have these Statutes at large” (p. [iii]). The author published several other studies of Irish law, including The Office and Authority of a Justice of Peace for Ireland, The Laws of Masters and Servants in Ireland (one of the earliest English-language works to focus on the field of labor law), and The Office and Authority of Sheriffs, Under-Sheriffs, Deputies, County-Clerks, and Coroners, in Ireland.
ESTC. COPAC, and WorldCat locateonly four U.S. institutional holdings, one in Ireland, and one in Britain, but we know of a copy at the Irish National Library that is not found in those databases.
Provenance: Title-page with inked inscription of Redmond Pursell (possibly Purcell), dated 1717; verso inscribed “Patt. Weldon his hand, dated May the 4th 1777,” with “Patr. Weldon, His Book” on the first preface page and another Pursell/Purcell inscription on the first text page.
ESTC N31275. Modern leather old style with most of original covers laid down on the modern boards, spine with blind-tooled raised bands and gilt-stamped leather label; original leather worn and cracked. First few leaves with edges darkened/chipped and those fly-leaves with edge tears; title-page and preface margins repaired. Inked inscriptions as above, title-page additionally with later inked institutional shelf number and “withdrawn” note; fly-leaves with early inked calculations and budget notes; three instances of early inked marginalia and two printed shouldernotes with marks of emphasis. Pages age-toned with scattered small spots (a few signatures darkened or with more notable spotting), some corners bumped, smudges to last few leaves; one leaf with small hole with loss of seven letters. Solid, usable, and attractive on the shelf. (34133)
(Ecuador & More). A small collection of 13 items. Guayaquil, Quito, San José, & Lima, 1834–57. [SOLD]
The history of Ecuador during the first generation after achieving independence from Spain was noteworthy for its ever-changing nature: politically part of New Granada, then a separate country; yearnings to be part of Peru; wars against Colombia for ownership of the Cauca region, and war against the Galapagos Islands for ownership of the giant tortoises; the trading off of the presidency between Flores and Rocafuerte; wild swings between rampant anti-clericalism and amicable church-state relations; promulgation of several radically different constitutions; and, finally, the institutionalization of political anarchy beginning in 1845 following the forced exile of President Flores.
This offering contains original documents touching on many of these and other matters. (2074)
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The Archbishop of Cambrai onHow to Teach Girls
Fénelon [François de Salignac de La Mothe-Fénelon]. De l'éducation des filles. Paris: Ant. Aug. Renouard, 1807. 12mo (14 cm, 5.5"). viii, 204, [4], 6 (adv.) pp. $275.00
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Uncommon early 19th-century edition of a widely read treatise on the education of girls, written by a Roman Catholic archbishop (1651–1715) now largely remembered for his best-selling Aventures de Télémaque. In 1679, Fénelon became the director of the Nouvelles-Catholiques, a community ofHuguenot girls undergoing conversion to Catholicism, and published the present work after several years of experience there.
WorldCat reportsonly four U.S. institutional holdings of this attractive Antoine-Augustin Renouard printing. While this copy does include the half-title, the engraved portrait cited by OCLC as appearing in some copies is not present here (with the volume showing no signs of its ever having been present).
Binding: Contemporary mottled calf, covers framed in gilt roll, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label; board edges with single gilt fillet, turn-ins with gilt roll resembling but not identical to cover roll. All edges gilt.
Binding as above, showing rubbing to spine, joints, and extremities. Portrait reported in some copies not present here; pages with scattered instances of mild spotting. An elegant little testament to the enduring influence of this work, progressive for its day. (38421)
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CORNERSTONE for an AMERICAN SPORTING LIBRARY
“Gentleman of Philadelphia County, A” [i.e., Jesse Y. Kester]. The American shooter's manual, comprising such plain and simple rules, as are necessary to introduce the inexperienced into a full knowledge of all that relates to the dog, and the correct use of a gun; also a description of the game of this country. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey, 1827. 12mo (18.5 cm; 7.125"). [2] ff., pp. [ix]–249, [1] p., [1 (errata)] f., [3 (ads)] ff.; frontis., 2 plts. $1800.00
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The first American illustrated sporting book and the first American sporting book written by an American. Only one sporting book published in America preceded it: The Sportsman's Companion (NY,1783; later editions Burlington [NJ], 1791, and Philadelphia, 1793), “by a gentleman, who has made shooting his favorite amusement upwards of twenty-six years, in Great-Britain, Ireland, and North-America.”
Kester deals almost exclusively with game birds and waterfowl native to the Delaware Valley that surrounds Philadelphia: wild turkeys, partridge, snipe, quail, grouse, and ducks. With regard to rifles and guns he addresses cleaning, powder, wadding, etc. And when writing about dogs, in addition to notes on training and conditioning them, he offers recipes for common ailments and gun-shot wounds.
The plates are signed “F. Kearny,” an artist born in Perth Amboy, NJ, who studied drawing with Archibald and Alexander Robertson and engraving with Peter Maverick. From 1810 to his death in 1833 he practiced engraving in Philadelphia.
There are two states of gathering “U”: this copy has the typographical error “tibbon” with the stop-press correction to “ribbon” on p. 235.
The volume ends with advertisements for several sporting and fishing goods suppliers.
Shoemaker 27838; Howes K108; Henderson, American Sporting Books, 6; Phillips, Sporting Books, 21; Streeter Sale 4084; Bennett, Practical Guide, 60–61. On Stauffer, American Engravers, I, 148–49. Publisher's sprinkled sheep with simple rope roll in blind on board edges, some abrasion to leather; round spine with gilt double rules forming “spine compartments,” black leather title label. The usual light and scattered foxing noted in all copies, nothing more. A very nice copy. (28553)
An Anti-Vaxxer in 1757: Three Treatises from a Leader of theVienna School of Medicine
Haen, Anton de. Quaestiones saepius motae super methodo inoculandi variolas, ad quas directa eruditorum responsa hucusque desiderantur; indirecta minus satisfacere videntur: Orbi medico denuo praepositae... Vindobonae: Joan. Thomae Trattner, 1757. 8vo (20.7 cm, 8.125"). 80 pp. [with the same author's] Theses sistentes febrium divisiones, natamque ea de causa de miliaribus, ac petechiis, caeterisque febrilibus exanthematibus. Dissertationem: Ordine defendendae et oppugnandae . . . in Palatio Universitatis. . . edition altera. Vindobonae: Joan. Thomae Trattner, 1760. 8vo. [12], 142, [2 (blank)] pp.[and] Theses pathologicae de haemorrhoidibus, a medicinae studiosis ordine defendendae, et oppugnandae. . . Viennae: Joannis Thomae Trattner, 1759. 8vo. [12], 89, [1] pp. $500.00
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First editions of three works by de Haen, the first being an early work on smallpox vaccination. De Haen (1704–76) was — as well as a distinguished physician and pioneer of clinical medical teaching in Vienna — a famously quarrelsome conservative thinker and author who maintained a steadfast opposition to inoculation. In considering the titular questions, he concludes that vaccinating defies God's will; he also discusses more pragmatic concerns regarding subsequent susceptibility to the disease, reduction of the mortality rate, etc. Following the first treatise are theses on fevers and on hemorrhoids. All three works are nicely printed, ornamented with headpieces and decorative capitals.
Provenance: From the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).
Quaestiones: Blake, NLM 18th Century, p. 192. Theses sistentes: VD18 1056568X; Blake, NLM 18th Century, p. 192. Theses pathologicae: VD18 11684461; Blake, NLM 18th Century, p. 192. Contemporary half sheep with speckled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; binding worn and rubbed overall with leather lost at corners and rubbed at joints. All edges stained red. Front endpapers with pencilled annotations. Mild to moderate age-toning and foxing; pages overall clean. (40114)
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Not Perfect butEvocative on Many Fronts
Hazlemore, Maximilian. Domestic economy: Or, a complete system of English housekeeping ... also, the complete brewer ... likewise the family physician. London: J. Creswick & Co., 1794. 8vo. xxxii, 392 pp. (lacking pp. 331/32, 341–44, 357–62, & 365–84 ). $350.00
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Sole edition thus: Recipes, brewing instructions, menus suitable for a year of housekeeping, and a collection of home remedies “which will be found applicable to the relief of all common complaints incident to families, and which will be particularly useful in the country, where frequent opportunities offer of relieving the Distressed, whose situation in life will not enable them to call in Medical Aid” (p. 4).
Many of the recipes in the first portion of this book are attributed to such well-known names as Glasse, Raffald, and Mason. Oxford points out that both the extended subtitle and the overall contents of the work as a whole are strikingly similar to Mary Cole's Lady's Complete Guide of 1791, commenting “One wonders who was the real author.” Whatever its origins, the present volume as attributed to Hazlemore is now uncommon: WorldCat, ESTC, and Cagle cite only seven U.S. institutional holdings.
Provenance: Front free endpaper with ownership inscription and title-page with pressure-stamp of prominent cookbook collector Eloise Schofield; title-page also with early inked inscription of Charlotte Booty; front pastedown with early ticket of J. Rackham, a late 18th-/early 19th-century printer and bookseller in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk.
ESTC T93869; Cagle, Matter of Taste, 734; Oxford, English Cookery, 122. Not in Bitting. Incomplete copy. Contemporary treed sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, scuffed; spine label and extremities chipped, joints open and volume tender, front cover with spots of insect damage extending through to upper inner margins of first few leaves, touching two letters of title but no other text. Pp. 331/32, 341–44, 357–62, and 365–84 excised with great neatness (and no, we cannot work out any theory of “why”). Scattered instances of early pencilled or inked marginal annotations, including alternate instructions in two cases anda full recipe for dressed spinach inked at the end of the vegetables section, intended to replace the crossed-out printed recipe provided. Pages age-toned, otherwise clean. An incomplete copy, priced accordingly, of a still interesting work. (29554)
[Lee, Arthur]. [drop-title] Extract from an address in the Virginia Gazette, of March 19, 1767. [Philadelphia?: Pr. by Joseph Crukshank?, 1780?]. Small 12mo. 4 pp. $875.00
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"That slavery then is a violation of justice, will plainly appear. . . . Now, as freedom is unquestionably the birth-right of all mankind, Africans as well as Europeans, to keep the former in a state of slavery is a constant violation of that right and therefore of justice." This strong anti-slavery sentiment, addressed to the Virginia Assembly, was first printed outside of the Virginia Gazette in 1767 as an addition to Anthony Benezet's A caution and warning to Great-Britain, and her colonies. Whether it was also issued separately in 1767 is unclear. There were several editions and variants of editions of this work attributed to Arthur Lee on the basis of statements in G.S. Brooke's Friend Anthony Benezet (pp. 301, 332, and 422), and we refer the interested reader to the records of the North American Imprint Project for the decipherment of them.
Evans 16773; Hildeburn, The Issues of the Press in Pennsylvania, 1685–1784, 4006. Five-digit number stamped above the title; pp. 1 and 2 separated from 3 and 4, and gutter margin repaired, reattaching the halves. Semicircular tear in lower, inside area of all pages, costing a total of 9 or 10 words. (3144)
Muggleton,
Lodowick. A true interpretation of the
eleventh chapter of the Revelation of St. John, and other texts in that book;
as also many other places of Scripture. London: Pr. for the author, 1662. 4to
(18.9 cm, 7.4"). [16], 172, [2 (blank)] pp. $2400.00
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First edition: Explication of Revelation, “proving” that Muggleton and John Reeve were God's “Last Messengers, and the Witnesses of the Spirit” (p. 165) as mentioned in Rev. 11:3 ff., with a divine commission to declare “the doctrine of the true God, and the right devil” (p. 161). Reeve and Muggleton were the prophets and leaders of the Muggletonians, a small Christian sect that denied the doctrine of the Trinity, believed that God would no longer interfere in human affairs after the revelation of their founders, and condemned prayer and preaching. In this, his first independent work following Reeve's death in 1658, Muggleton examines Revelation from a quirky, materialist, anti-Reason perspective, argues that God has a manlike,
corporeal face and body, and discusses the failings of the “seven Churches . . . having no Commission from God” (p. 52): Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Presbytery, Independent, Baptist,
Ranter, and Quaker.
Provenance: Final blank leaf with inked inscriptions reading “Tho.s. Scupholme His Book 1740" and “Henery Collier His Book 1759.”
ESTC R267; Wing (rev. ed.) M3050; Smith, Anti-Quakeriana, 305. Period-style calf, covers framed in blind double fillets, spine with gilt-ruled raised bands and gilt-stamped leather title-label. Pages age-toned and spotted; one leaf with tear from lower margin into text, sewn by hand some time ago. (26004)
Paine, Thomas. The decline & fall of the English system of finance. New York: Printed by William A. Davis, for J. Fellows, 1796. 12mo (18.5 cm; 7.25"). 58 pp., [1 (ads)] f., without the half-title. [SOLD]
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Self-proclaimed “second American edition” printed “from a London copy of the Paris edition” — and, uncommon. Paine on his favorite subject of criticism — the English. Here he points out that the English financial system is on the brink of bankruptcy, and identifies acts of banking folly to be held responsible for getting it into that state. Written at a time when Paine was in France and still deeply involved in the revolutionary cause, the essay caused no small amount of controversy when it first appeared in Paris and then subsequently in London in April of 1796.
With the leaf of advertisements for “new publications for sale by John Fellows.”
Provenance: Signature of “Geo. Wilson jr,” dated 1880, inked to title-page.
Evans 30944; ESTC W20110 & T5824. Uncut copy, without the half-title, stitched in modern plain wrappers; dust-soiled and age-toned with old dampstains. Ownership signature as above on title; pencilled note on verso (not in the same hand), “bad effect on bank of connection with gov't.” A good copy. (29899)
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SomeoneHAD to Be . . .
. . . NORTH CAROLINA's First . . .
Thomas, Joseph. A poetical descant on the primeval and present state of mankind; or, the pilgrim’s
muse. Winchester, Va.: A. Foster, pr., 1816. 12mo (13 cm; 5.25"). 219, [1 (errata)] pp. $850.00
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Somebody had to be North Carolina’s first native born poet and the task/honor was Joseph Thomas’s, and he did it with A Poetical Descant! It is scarce, having been printed in small format in a small town by a very small-time printer for a rather small audience. Thomas’s other publications include a hymnal and short works of theology (totally fitting given that he was an itinerant preacher), and an autobiography.
Wegelin, American Poetry, 1168; Shaw & Shoemaker 39076. Recent quarter cloth with blue-green paper sides, in the style of early 19th-centry American books. Ex–mercantile library with a few stamps, including on title-page. Two letters of title abraded and mostly invisible, yet, still, a clean copy. (10217)
Village Press. The Village Press a retrospective exhibition 1903–1933. New York: The American Institute of Graphic Arts, 1933. 8vo. 32 pp.; illus. $50.00
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Nice look at the Goudys' body of work at the Village Press, with an introduction by Will Ransom and a tipped-in photographic illustration of Frederic and Bertha Goudy at the press.
Sewn in publisher's printed paper wrappers; wrappers slightly age-toned, otherwise a clean, handsome copy. (14424)
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TICE IllustratesVOLTAIRE
Voltaire. Candide, or All for the best. New York: Bennett Libraries, 1927. 8vo (23 cm; 9.25"). 2 vols. in 1. 182 pp., [4] ff., color plates. $725.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Sole edition illustrated by Clara Tice, the illustrations numbering ten, printed in color, and definitely of an erotic nature. This copy (no. 130) is one of 250 copies “on special deckle-edge Pannekoek paper.” The title-page, printed in black and red, announces this is an “Exact reprint of the earliest English text” and tells us that it was “printed in Holland by Joh. Enschede en Zonen for the Bennett Libraries, Inc.”
In the early decades of the 20th century, Tice was a sensation because of her provocative art and as the embodiment of bohemian Greenwich Village — gaining, indeed, the sobriquet “The Queen of Greenwich Village.”
Binding: Publisher's black goat, round spine with raised bands lettered in gilt and with a gilt-stamped female nude figure in center area of spine; front cover with two gilt-stamped reclining female nude figures reminiscent of those on big-rig mud guards! Elegant gilt turn-ins, top edge gilt and other edges deckle. Housed in a brown paper–covered open-back case.
Case rubbed but sound; binding as above with spine a little pulled, corners a little bumped, and front joint (outside) a little abraded. First leaves separated and tipped in; possibly, cancels? All illustrations eye-popping in several senses; all tissue guards present. (33447)
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