Early Printed Books, Manuscripts and Decorative Prints
HEBRON, Stephen. John Keats: A Poet and His Manuscripts
London, The British Library, 2009.
£40
Folio. 165 pp., illustrated, mostly in colour, with frontispiece plate. Coated cloth and gilt title to spine, original dust jacket. A fine copy.
MCLEAN, Ruari. Joseph Cundall, A Victorian Publisher
Edinburgh, Private Libraries Association, 1976.
£40
4to. 96 pp., copiously illustrated, with frontispiece. Red buckram, yellow pastedowns, gilt title to spine and original dust jacket. A near fine copy.
BARKER, Nicholas. Stanley Morison
London, Macmillan, 1972.
£50
8vo, pp. 566, with 8 plates. Publisher’s cloth and original dust jacket. Internally excellent. A fine copy.
CAMMELL, Charles Richard. Aleister Crowley. The Man : The Mage : The Poet
London, The Richards Press, 1951.
8vo. xiii, 229 (1) pp., with plates and frontispiece portrait. First edition, underlined, annotated and signed in red pen by John Symonds, biographer of Crowley. Red paper over boards, title stamped in black to spine. A little faded on cover margins and worn along edges. A very good copy.
CROSS, Wilbur L.. The Life and Times of Laurence Sterne
New Haven, Yale University Press, 1925.
8vo, 2 vols. xxii, 287 pp., with 8 illustrations, including frontispiece plate; xii, 333, with 8 illustrations, including frontispiece plate. Tissue-paper guards. Upper edges gilt, buckram and gilt lettering to spine. A very good copy.
COULSTON CILLISPIE, Charles. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1970.
Folio, 5 vols, double-column text. Publisher’s coated cloth, gilt lettering to spine and original dust jackets. A fine copy.
LEGER, Charles. Redouté et son temps
Editions de la Galerie Charpentier, 1945.
£250
LIMITED EDITION of 980 (this is copy 972). Folio, pp. 170, 12 final hand-coloured plates, with numerous coloured facsimile plates and illustrations throughout, both coloured and b/w. Half title with poem by Anacreon within coloured garland of flowers on verso and engraved frontispiece portrait on verso of title page. Bound in blue buckram, gilt spine. A few negligible signs of wear. A fine copy.
GJERTSEN, Derek. The Newton Handbook
London, Routledge & kegan Paul, 1986.
£28
8vo, pp. 14, 665. Publisher’s blue buckram and silver title stamped to spine. Original dust jacket. A fine copy.
PLUTARCH (NORTH, Thomas, Tr.). The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romaines
London, Printed by Richard Field, 1612[-1610].
£1500
Folio. A⁸ B-5O⁶ 5P⁸; pp. (14), 1244, plus 16 leaves of table of contents (lacking first blank). Woodcut printer’s device on title page, head- and tail-pieces, large historiated and floriated woodcut initials (of different sizes and sets), woodcut portraits within beautiful ornamental borders. Two parts in one: the second part is “The lives of Epaminondas, of Philip of Macedon, of Dionysius the elder, and of Octauius Cæsar Augustus”, with separate title dated 1610. It is a translation by North of a compilation by Simon Goulart of Senlis, partly from the “Vitae excellentium imperatorum” of Cornelius Nepos (“Æmylius Probus”). Pagination and register are continuous. The lives of Hannibal and Scipio Africanus are attributed to Donato Acciaiuoli. Early ownership inscription in ink on title half cropped. A fresh, clean and crisp copy, with some very occasional minor spotting. Light soiling and creasing to title page. Bound in modern quarter calf and marbled paper over boards, corners reinforced with vellum. Black morocco label with gilt title to spine. Bookplate with coat of arms and motto “mediocria firma” glued to front pastedown. This is the fourth edition. An excellent copy.
BMSTC 20069; ESTC S115994
BOSWELL, James. The Life of Samuel Johnson
London, Printed by Henry Balwin, 1791.
FIRST EDITION. Large 4to. 2 vols. Engraved frontispiece by J. Heath after Reynolds’ portrait of Johnson, pp. xii, (16), 516, 588, (2). A very fresh, clean and crisp copy with only some spotting and light browning to flyleaves and first and final leaves. Marginal dumpstaining mostly visible on the back of the frontispiece. Predictably, a light ink offsetting from frontispiece to title. Modern red morocco gilt, spine faded, marbled pastedowns. A fine copy.