Signed binding: Contemporary half tan morocco with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with raised bands each accented above and below with single gilt rule and single black rule; gilt-stamped title, spine compartments framed in gilt with gilt dots in each corner and each with gilt center device. Front free endpaper stamped “Bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe.” Top edge gilt; silk ribbon place marker.

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Binding as above, spine slightly sunned, corners and extremities showing minor rubbing. Front pastedown with private collector’s armorial bookplate. Pages clean.

The additional engraved title-page, done by P. Sluyter after a design by J. Groere, depicts the author at work on a moonlit night, and is decorated with medallions of Athena and her owl; the title-page is printed in red and black, with an engraved vignette of an Attic city.

Binding: Prize binding (without certificate) of contemporary vellum, covers framed and panelled in double blind fillets with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, gilt-stamped medallion on each cover showing a scimitar-wielding knight bearing two crossed keys on his shield, supported by monkeys and surmounted by lounging figures grasping snakes. Spine with gilt-ruled raised bands, gilt-stamped compartment decorations, and early inked title.

•  Brunet, II, 1524; Graesse, II, 46; Schweiger, II, 379.   Binding as above, small areas of discoloration, ties now lacking; front hinge (inside) very unobtrusively reinforced. Front pastedown with affixed slip of old cataloguing, partially obscuring an early inked annotation. Title-page with shadows of pencilled numeral and publication annotation. Some margins darkened or with mild spotting, pages otherwise clean, and all edges red.  (25963)

The work was additionally printed in Dublin and Basil in the same year. OCLC notes that a third volume was printed almost ten years later, by J. Murray; that supplementary volume is not present here.

Signed binding: Contemporary treed calf, covers framed in gilt rolls, beautifully rebacked with gilt-stamped spines preserving handsome original gilt-stamped, two-color leather title and volume labels, turn-ins with gilt rolls. Front pastedown of vol. I with binder's ticket: “Pigge Binders, Lynn.”

A charming silhouette of Gibbon serves as frontispiece to volume I.

•  ESTC T79696; Allibone 663; Brunet, II, 1586; Norton, Gibbon, 131.   Bindings as above with original leather showing some scuffs and abrasions; gilt on original spine labels a little (but a little only) dimmed. Hinges (inside) reinforced. Final page of each volume, back pastedown of vol. I, and title-page of vol. II institutionally rubber-stamped; no other such marks. Intermittent spots of light foxing. A lovely, wide-margined, archetypically “18th-century” quarto production for this quintessentially 18th-century writer.  (23770)

•  A copy in lovely condition, imperceptibly rebacked with the original spine retained. Original wrappers bound in. Protected in a crimson morocco-edged slipcase.

A PRB&M “FEATURED BOOK”  —
for others,  click here.

Binding: Tan calf, covers framed in gilt double fillets and gilt roll with gilt-stamped corner stars, central gilt-stamped coat of the Warre family arms; board edges with gilt roll, gilt inner dentelles, fine marbled endpapers. Spine with raised bands accented with gilt rolls and gilt-stamped floral decorations in compartments. All edges gilt. Signed by Spottiswoode & Co.

Provenance:  The preprinted presentation leaf, completed in manuscript, notes (in Latin) that the recipient was Crichton Jordan Milne and the donor headmaster was Edward Warre.

•  Binding damaged by old fire with spine label chipped nearly away, corners/edges abraded, and significant cracking/darkening of leather overall; still sound and indeed attractive. Interior very good, having been protected from that fire by the heavy gilt to the page edges which prevented smoke entry. Presentation leaf as above, with information dated 1905.  (12687)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

The volume is illustrated with five steel-engraved plates and an additional engraved title-page.

Binding:  Contemporary maroon morocco, covers framed in gilt single fillet and blind-stamped with arabesque designs, spine with gilt-stamped title and gilt-stamped raised bands, board edges gilt-tooled, all edges gilt.

Provenance:  Front cover with gilt supra-libros of A.M. Pratt.

•  BAL 6681; Sabin 28893; Library Company, Afro-Americana, 4386 (for a much later edition); Allibone p. 745; Poe, “The Female Poets of America,” Southern Literary Messenger, Feb. 1849; .   Bound as above, spine and edges gently sunned; edges lightly rubbed. Front cover gilt-stamped as above. Pages slightly age-toned, with offsetting around plates and scattered spotting; plates with spots of foxing. A very nice copy.  (25126)

Binding: Publisher's brown suede, front cover with embossed Celtic designs, signed by Galwey & Co. of Dublin (with their ticket on the front pastedown).

Click either image for an enlargement.

Binding:  Bound in black niger goat with a tobacco-colored niger inlay on front cover of a blind-tooled reproduction of the drawing of Bede presenting his work to Bishop Acca that appears in item 11 of this catalogue. That inset is surrounded by a second one of red niger, serving as a frame.

•  Binding as above. Original wrappers bound in. A treasurable copy.  (22442)

Binding: Contemporary calf over heavy boards, panelled and framed in blind with floral, geometric, and armorial blind-tooling within panels; a pencilled note on the front free endpaper says, “Richardson binding.” There once were clasps, now lost.

Provenance:  Title-page with small inked inscription, dated 1836, of Charles Nice Davies (1794–1842), a Welsh linguist, librarian at the Congregational Library, and divinity tutor at Brecon College.

•  STC (2nd ed.) 14600.5; ESTC S112182.   Bound as above, rebacked preserving original spine; leather cracked, edges and extremities rubbed, clasps now lost, hinges (inside) reinforced some time ago. Institutionally rubber-stamped on lower closed page edges, front pastedown, and first contents page. Title-page provided in early pen and ink facsimile, with inscription as above; last text page with commentary on the book's age, dated 1724 and 1913. Early inked underlining and marks of emphasis throughout; occasional marginalia, two pages dealing with women and the Church having extensive annotations. Pp. 675/76 lacking. One leaf with tear from upper margin extending into three lines of text, without loss; one leaf with large chip from lower margin, not affecting text. Scattered spots of staining only — a clean, strong volume.  (24511)

Robert Keating O'Neill, in his English-Language Dictionaries,1604–1900, notes that 1,250 copies of this edition were printed and that it, “unlike its two predecessors, was much revised and is considered generally to be the best edition.”

BE SURE to click THIS image!

•  ESTC T117232; Brunet, III, 553; O’Neill J-52; Vancil 123; Printing and the Mind of Man 201 (for the first edition).   18th century treed calf, with minor surface cracks and chips and small areas rubbed; strongly and splendidly rebacked with speckled calf, spines gilt extra in bars and compartments; new leather spine labels bearing volume numbers and the emblazoned notes, “Johnson's Dictionary. A–K” and Johnson's Dictionary. L–Z.” Old gilt-tooling around covers and on turn-ins; nice old marbled endpapers. Title-pages printed in red and black. Occasional foxing; old waterstaining, generally quite light and inoffensive, in margins of early and later leaves. Paper flaw on B1 costing 4 letters of the footnotes; hole in blank area of outer margin of B1–B4. A few page edges chipped and ragged, with significant portion of paper lost from outer margins of two leaves, without costing any text; several leaves with a fold-in or dog-ear, paper quite strong at folds. Good text in a handsome and sturdy binding. (23890)

•  ESTC T83956; Brunet, III, 553; O’Neill J-65; Vancil 123; Printing and the Mind of Man 201 (for the first edition). Contemporary speckled calf, spines gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels; all joints strengthened and bindings otherwise showing only light wear overall. Front pastedowns with bookseller’s stamp; title-pages with upper margins excised. An attractively bound abridgment of Johnson’s magnum opus.

Provenance:  19th-century engraved bookplate of Joannes Thomae Aubry, “Doct. Theol. Soc. Sorb., Rector S. Ludovici in insula.”

Binding:  18th-century crushed red morocco, gilt spine extra; triple fillet gilt border on covers; single gilt rule on board edges; gilt dentelles on turn-ins; French combed pattern endpapers. All edges gilt. Green silk placemarker.

•  Not in Schweiger.   Binding as above. A very good copy.  (22246)

Binding: Publisher's red morocco, covers and spine gilt extra in foliate designs with cherubim at play. All edges gilt.

•  Faxon 457a.   Binding as above, front joint just starting at top and bottom, edges and extremities showing very slight wear, gilt slightest bit rubbed in spots; overall bright and handsome. Light age-toning and spotting throughout.In remarkably good condition, unusually bright.  (20886)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

The Abbé Ladvocat, librarian of the Sorbonne and a prominent Hebraist and Biblical exegete, also compiled the Dictionnaire géographique-portatif and a Grammaire Hébraïque à l’usage des Ecoles de la Sorbonne.

Binding:  Contemporary vellum, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels and gilt-stamped compartment decorations.

•  Quérard, La France littéraire, IV, 387.   Some volumes somewhat sprung and spines slightly darkened, one spine label chipped (refurbished) and one spine with small area of insect damage. Front free endpapers each with inked ownership inscription dated 1833, front pastedowns each with institutional rubber-stamp (no other markings). Occasional small early inked shouldernotes, scattered light to moderate foxing and spotting. Pp. 181–88 of vol. IV bound in upside down and in reverse order. One leaf with closed tear from upper margin, just extending into text. (20682)

•  Binding as above, minor traces of shelf wear, covers with unobtrusive small spots of discoloration, spine very slightly sunned. A few spots of light foxing. A lovely volume.  (25947)

Binding / Provenance: Contemporary calf, framed in gilt triple fillets and panelled in gilt quadruple fillets with gilt-stamped corner fleurons and gilt-stamped central coat of arms of the Wilder family, with the motto “Virtuti moenia cedant.”

•  Schweiger, II, 565; Dibdin, II, 186–87. Binding as above, rebacked making use of most of the original spine, spine with gilt-stamped compartments and gilt-stamped leather title-label; edges worn and rubbed, portions of original spine leather cracked and chipped. Front pastedown with small abraded area; front fly-leaf with inked inscriptions dated 1834 and 1938. Some leaves with faint waterstaining in upper margins and lower outer corners. Attractive.

Binding: Contemporary treed calf, spines gilt extra with red labels and covers gilt-framed; gilt edges and gilt inner dentelles. Marbled endpapers in a French shell pattern. All edges gilt.

Provenance: Small booklabel of William Salloch on rear pastedown.

•  Schweiger, Handbuch der classischen Bibliographie, II, 568. Cohen & DeRicci, Livres à gravure du XVIII siècle, 662. Not in Ray, The Art of the French Illustrated Book 1700–1914. Leather on spines and edges of covers dry and chipped; joints open, but sewing holding. Some closed tears to endpapers and front free endpaper of vol. I partially detached; paper generally clean with occasional spots of light browning or foxing. Bookplate on front pastedowns. Plates clean and charming.

For more SETS,  click here.
For more LUCANs, several of them
  interestingly bound,
    click here.

•  All documents on stamped paper. Excellent condition. Binding with light abrasion to edges; gilt on the silver closures partially perished. A handsome, significant production.