Category: Pindar

LISLE, Joe. Play Upon Words

London, Thomas McLean, 1828.

£1400

Oblong 4to. British humour of very low quality in an English classic of Georgian caricature. Generally in good condition internally, just some occasional yellowing or very light soiling, or negligible thumb marks, throughout. 40 hand coloured plates, including frontispiece. Plate 26 with tear at foot, not affecting the illustration. Three-Quarter sheep, dyed in dark green colour. Brown buckram over covers. Gilt title stamped to spine. A excellent copy. A.e.g.

Twelve Italian engravings of classical statues from Rossi, Raccolta di Statue Antiche e Moderne. Engravings by Dorigny, Aquila, De Poilly et al.

£3000

Rome, 1704
Silver wood frames
23 x 19 in. (58 x 48 cm.) overall

HEARN, Lafcadio (FRANZOS, Berta, Tr.). Kyūshū

Frankfurt am Main, Literarische Anstalt Rütten & Loening, 1922.

£20

8vo, pp. 298. Volume no. 5 of a set of 6. Pasteboard binding, black ink and gilt tooled borders and titles on front cover and spine. Spine damaged and worn, head torn. Charming illustrations, initials and vignettes, decorative title-pages, all by Emile Orlik, list of contents, [2] pp. of publisher’s list at end. The only authorised German edition translated by Berta Franzos.

SYMONDS, John. The Beast 666

London, The Pindar Press, 1997.

£250

8vo, pp. 608, and 6 plates of illustrations. Dark blue buckram over boards, gilt title to spine. Autograph of the author on the title-page, plus date, in blue ink. Original dust jacket in perfect condition. A fine copy.

NAUGHTON, William. One Small Boy

 London, MacGibbon and Kee, 1957.

£300

FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. 319. Black buckram, with original dust jacket split to spine, along left hinge and top inner corner of left cover. Inscribed by the author of Alfie, Bill Naughton, and dedicated to John Symonds: “To John from Bill (true good friend of the author – Bill Naughton, … 9th Oct 57)”. Author’s autograph on his printed name on the title-page. Good condition.

LEE, Mrs. R. (Mrs. T. E. Bowdich). Trees, Plants and Flowers: Their Beauties, Uses And Influences

London, Griffith and Farran, 1859.

£120

FIRST EDITION (Second Thousand), 8vo; pp. viii, 464. Bound in decorative publishers cloth with gilt-tooled floral motives, title on left cover and spine. A good copy in its original binding, front joint split. 8 beautiful hand-coloured plates from drawings by James Andrews. The Plates are bright and clean. A.e.g.

WILSON, Alexander. American Ornithology; or, The Natural History of the Birds of the United States. By Alexander Wilson; With A Continuation By Charles Lucien Bonaparte, Prince Of Musignano. The Illustrative Notes, And Life Of Wilson, By Sir William Jardine, Bart. F.R.S.E. F.L.S. 

London, Whittaker, Treacher, & Arnot; Edinburgh, Stirling & Kenney, 1832.

£2,000

8vo, 3 vols. Illustrated with an engraved portrait frontispiece of Wilson in his shooting costume and 97 fine hand-coloured plates. Bound in later half straight-grain green morocco with single gilt fillet along inner edges and marbled paper over boards. Fine binding by Stikeman for Charles Scribner. Spine with gilt titles and date to spine in six compartments with low-raised bands. Birds gilt-tooled. T.e.g. Wood (page 630) notes that the text is a reprint of Wilson’s original text including the later notes by Jardine as well as a reprint of the first three volumes (all then published) of Bonaparte’s American Ornithology. The original plates of both authors were re-engraved by Lizars on a smaller scale on glazed drawing paper. Wood also notes that the backgrounds of the plates were left uncoloured. Some restoration to the bindings, but a generally sound and clean set.

The first Jardine edition of a key work on the study of American birds. Alexander Wilson was the first ornithologist to undertake a systematic study of the birds of America. Wilson turned to the study of American ornithology in 1802 under the tutelage of William Bartram. At the time of the appearance of the first part of his grand work in 1807, no similar study in any branch of natural science had yet been undertaken in America, and only one colour-plate book of any scope had been published in the infant nation (Birch’s Views of Philadelphia). Between 1808 and 1813 Wilson managed, after overcoming innumerable difficulties, to travel over much of the United States collecting material whilst also managing his ambitious publication. He died in 1813, exhausted by his task, and the final parts of the first edition of his work were eventually seen through the press by his friend George Ord. After the defeat of Napoleon, various members of the Bonaparte family took refuge in America, including his nephew, Prince Charles Lucian Bonaparte. The young Bonaparte proved to be an ornithological prodigy, and undertook the writing of a supplement to Wilson, which was completed in 1833. The contemporary importance of Wilson’s work can be judged by the fact that the present edition – edited and with a biography of Wilson by famed ornithologist Sir William Jardine – was published the year before the appearance of the final volume of the Bonaparte supplement. This first Jardine edition contains all of Wilson’s work and the first three volumes of Bonaparte’s continuation, with all plates re-engraved to scale by Lizars. “This is by far the best edition of the American Ornithology, both on account of the beautiful plates and the most interesting notes of the editor” (Neville Wood, quoted in Allibone, A Critical Dictionary of English Literature).

Anker 534; Nissen IVB 996; Wood p.630; Zimmer 693; Frank L. Burns, “Alexander Wilson. [Part] VII: Biographies, Portraits, and a Bibliography of the Various Editions of his Works” in The Wilson Bulletin, Vol. XXI, No. 4 (December, 1909), p.181. 

AN EXCEEDINGLY RARE EDITION OF A FAMOUS LEGAL WORK

BARTOLUS DE SAXOFERRATO. (Jason Maynus, Ed.). Super prima codicis secundum primam et secundam lecturam cum apostillis antea positis [with] Super autenticis [with] Super tribus libris codicis cum nonnullis apostillis

Lyon, Jacques Sacon, 1516.

£4500

Large folio. Legal commentaries, 3 works in one volume (the first one in two parts), a-z⁸; 4a-4q⁸ 4r⁶ A-G⁸ a-e⁸. Title of part one in red and black, all four titles within an elaborate woodcut border and with large devices. (left and right endpapers missing, the second part of the first work lacks the last leaf, part III lacks title and last blank, part IV lacks all after e4, a few light stains and very occasional early marginalia and underlining). Gothic letter, floriated initials in three sizes, double column text with printed lateral glosses. Early ms. ink collection number on left pastedown and paper label with early library number to head, later larger paper slip glued beneath with title, bookseller’s label towards guts at foot (E. & C. Brown, Booksellers, 13, Bishop’s Road, Paddington, W. 20, Sheldon St. (Adjoining)). Bound in contemporary South German blind-stamped alum-tawed skin over wooden boards, sides divided into rectangular compartments and decorated with stamps of rosettes, animals, lilies and an arrow through a heart, the whole within a roll border of a larger arrow through heart stamp, spine decorated in compartments, divided by five raised bands covering double sewing supports, with a profusion of the same stamps, metal cornerpieces and original catch and clasps of copper alloy. Later chevron headband linings of blue, red and white cotton threads. (A few minor signs of wear). A monumental volume in very good condition despite a few missing leaves.

Not in Adams or BMC. None of the tools identified in Kyriss.