ILLUSTRATED BOOKS \ CUTS & ENGRAVINGS

French Novel in aJewel-Toned Binding

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•  Uncommon first edition of this romance featuring a young orphan and a “bonne abbesse,” illustrated wit16 aquatint plates.

Binding:  Publisher's brown cloth, covers and spine heavily gilt-stamped with arabesque designs featuring color-stamped portions in blue, red, yellow, green, and white. Bright yellow endpapers, all edges gilt.

•  Binding as above, extremities rubbed, spine sunned to a pleasant olive. Sewing starting to loosen in some spots. Back free endpaper recto (not the yellow side!) with inked numerals and small rubber-stamp; light staining intermittently, not affecting the plates (which are both lovely and in lovely condition).  (26982)

Liberal Arts Summarized forFrench Students

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•  Third, corrected and enlarged edition, following the first of 1799: Elementary overviews of mathematics, geography, music, painting, French history, chemistry, rhetoric, and an array of other topics.

The oversized, folding maps of France and the world featurehand-colored provincial and continental borders; two additional oversized, steel-engraved plates depict the gods atop Mt. Olympus and the seven wonders of the world.

Early editions of this work are uncommon.

•  Quérard, La France littéraire, 341.   Contemporary marbled paper–covered boards, spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels; bindings faded and with some soiling/rubbing (most notably to spines). rubbed. Half-title of vol. I, pp. vii/viii of preface, and printed volume labels all bound in at back of vol. II; some signatures of vol. I unopened. Title-pages with traces of mostly effaced inscriptions; first and last few leaves of both volumes very lightly waterstained. One plate with two short tears from lower edge, not touching image. Solid and interesting.  (27048)

Jerusalem Delivered & Illustrated

•   Fairfax’s English translation of the great Italian Renaissance epic, originally printed in 1600 and here edited by Robert Aris Willmott for the “Routledge’s British Poets” series. The volume is illustrated with a frontispiece and seven steel-engraved plates done from designs by Edward Henry Corbould, drawing and painting instructor to Queen Victoria’s children. Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Contemporary half calf over marbled paper–covered sides, gilt spine extra; sides and edges of paper showing light scuffing, spine leather a bit darkened; attractive. Marbled endpapers; all edges marbled to match endpapers and sides of covers. Front pastedown with small paper adhesions. One signature separated. An attractive edition, a pretty copy.

A Sweet Book

•  Early printing: Poems of country life, nature, and nostalgia. With a number of in-text and full-page engravings.


•  Very good; light wear to corners and spine extremities, spine gilt slightly dulled. Offsetting to pastedowns; back free endpaper torn. All edges gilt; pages clean. Inscription dated 1877 to front flyleaf. (1945)

Becky! Comes to America

•  First U.S. edition of Thackeray’s first great literary success. This classic Victorian novel, illustrated with the author’s own designs, had originally appeared in London in serialized form commencing the year before this publication.

•  NCBEL, III, 857. Contemporary half goat with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title label; binding worn and rubbed, but sturdy. Title-page with early inked ownership inscription. Front free endpaper excised, back free endpaper torn. Pages with scattered light pencil markings and some spots of mild foxing, with most of the plates browned.

A French ECONOMICSPY

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•  The economic importance of cochineal during the preindustrial era is difficult for the modern reader to comprehend, especially since so many of us have no idea what cochineal is. It is a tiny insect that lives on cacti, most particularly the nopal, and from it is extracted the red dye carmine. During Mexico's colonial period, when Mexico had a near monoply of the commodity, it was that country's second most important export, losing out to only silver.

Thiéry de Menonville was an economic spy and his visit to Mexico had one and only one purpose: To learn how to make cochinea. So he learned about the insect, its host plant (the nopal), and the care and nurturing of both; then he smuggled cuttings of the cactus with the insect in residence to Haiti.

His work details not only his trip to Oaxaca to find the plant and bug but also the proven methods of caring for the host and insect. Two handsome, hand-colored folding plates show the cactus in flower and several views of the color-producing creepy-crawly.

•  Wellcome, Medical Americana, H.56; Blake, 18th Century Printed Books in the National Library of Medicine, p. 449; Pritzel 9214; Leclerc 1413; Brunet 6048; Sabin 95349; Palau 331673.   Modern quarter claret-colored morocco, round spine with gilt beading on bands and gilt rules defining the bands; gilt center devices in spine compartments. Natural paper flaws to lower outer corners of five leaves; tear on pp. 113–14, repaired; pp. 241–301 with worm damage, now repaired, and with irregular inner margins with paper loss, repaired and leaves tipped in. Corners in some sections bumped/crumpled; some soiling/spotting (not to the plates); in fact, a decent copy of an increasingly difficult to find important economic treatise.  (26023)

Limited Edition — Tipped-In Illustrations

The Nonesuch Press

•  Limited to 1500 copies. Five full-color handcolored illustrations by Jacquier are tipped in, and the volume has an introduction by John Beresford.

•  McKitterick/Rendall/Dreyfus 47. Full marbled handmade cloth; leather label at head of spine with title in gilt, label missing one corner. All edges untrimmed. Bookplate on front pastedown of volume.

First Edition Inscribed bythe Author

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•  First edition of this “manual for manufacturers, art dealers, artists and collectors,” written by a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and past president of the Chemists' Club. The volume is illustrated with eight plates, including microscopic close-ups of paint samples and reproductions of paintings displaying aging issues.

Provenance: Presentation copy signed by the author: “To Mr. Breiser[?] with the regards of Maximilian Toch,” dated [19]17.

•  Publisher's olive cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title in decorative lettering embellished with an artist's palette, spine with decorative gilt-stamped title; cloth showing minor wrinkling and light discoloration over back cover and part of spine, corners and spine extremities slightly rubbed. Front free endpaper with inscription as above. Pages faintly age-toned, else clean.  (24491)

Homelessness Human & Canine . . .

•  Later edition of this sad tale of a homeless fiddler and his faithful dog, illustrated with plates and in-text engravings by Darley

•  Publisher's pebbled cloth, front cover black- and gilt-stamped with vignette and decorative title, spine with gilt-stamped title; binding showing minor wear over extremities. All page eges gilt. Front fly-leaf with gift inscription dated 1885; pages with light spots of foxing, otherwise clean. (5780)

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“Horse-Hoing” — 6NIFTY Fold-Out Plates

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•  Improvements in farming founded on a scientific basis made British agriculture one of the strongest in Europe in the 18th century. Though called to the bar, Jethro Tull (1674–1741) never practiced law, but devoted himself to farming on land that had belonged to his father. From the beginning he set about trying to discover ways of doing things better, including inventing a number of implements, as this work reveals both in text and in image. His work proved very successful—Tull’s “seed drills” revolutionized planting techniques—and it saw a number of editions; it was translated into French, whence it proved influential on the Continent. This volume’s six beautifully engraved, pleasantly intelligible plates (“W. Thorpe, sculp.) illustrate some of Tull’s inventions, including improved plows and drills for planting seeds.

First printed in London in 1731, Horse-hoing is here (likely) the fourth edition. Bound with it is the first edition of the interesting Supplement issued in 1736, directed largely to answering Tull’s detractors. The first title is fairly widely held, in libraries; the latter, much less so.

•  Goldsmiths’-Kress 7065; ESTC T81915 and N24607. Contemporary calf with remnants of gilt; dry, flaking, and partially gone to red, with some chips to edges, corners, and spine tips; old repairs to joints. Remnants of bookplate on front pastedown. Old water/mildew damage to lower margins, occasionally making its way a bit into text; several leaves repaired, long since. Plates generally quite clean and always pleasing, with faintest waterstaining to lower portion of plate 6 (only). All edges speckled red.

Turgenev — Love!

•  This Limited Editions Club edition of Turgenev's short story of romantic love is translated by Constance Garnett, carries an introduction by Alec Waugh, and is illustrated by Lajos Szalay with eight full-page illustrations in color and ten drawings in line within the text. This copy (number 1102 out of 2000 printed) is signed on the colophon by the illustrator. The newsletter and prospectus slip are included.

Binding:  Publisher's green calf, done by the Tapley-Rutter Company, with marbled paper–covered sides, spine gilt extra, in original slipcase.

•  Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 502.   Fine, in a near fine slipcase (paper cracked along a small portion of one edge, and carefully laid back down).   (21808)

La Crème de la Crème ofFrench Cookery in English

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•  Formal French cuisine laid out for an English audience by the celebrated Monsieur Ude, who cooked for Louis XVI, the Earl of Sefton, and the Duke of York. This classic cookbook, groundbreaking in its day, was first published in 1813 and is here in its tenth edition, with a frontispiece portrait of the author engraved by A. Deane after a Maclise drawing, and nine pages depicting bills of fare as they should be arranged at table. The work is peppered liberally with French terms (of which a vocabulary is provided) and with elaborate techniques that seem likely to have been in use in the most elegant kitchens (but not necessarily beyond the reach of less elite aspirants); Byron swiped the names of many of Ude's dishes for use in canto 15, stanzas 62–74 of “Don Juan,” and indeed two of Ude's suggested course progressions for stanza 63 (see p. 426).

•  Bitting 471; Cagle 1037 (for first ed.); Hazlitt 167; Oxford 142.   20th-century half scarlet morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and raised bands ruled in black and gilt; spine slightly sunned and minor shelf wear (only) to edges and corners. Top edge gilt. Frontispiece and first two leaves with old waterstaining to lower inner margins, and frontispiece browned; pages otherwise only very faintly age-toned, with scattered light spotting. A solid, generally clean, and definitely attractive copy.  (26609)

Delicate & Delightful

•  Second edition of this uncommon and beautiful work featuring 29 color wood block floral prints and a color map, hand-printed on hand-made papers. Text is in English. Illustrations are in color and are of chrysanthemums, persimmons, plum, peach, orchids, azaleas, peonies, camellia, morning-glories, cherry, magnolia, iris, hydrangea, lilies, lotus, conifers, bamboo, palms, wistaria, and considerably more.

A wonderful example of early 20th-century Japanese book printing.

•  Publisher’s paper over light boards; paper of spine flaked off with covers dusty and little discolored. A delicate book, priced according to its faults and still a nice object.

Rocky Mountain Locust — Presentation Copy

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•  Government response to the devastating impact of the last great swarms of the now-extinct Rocky Mountain locust, which took place from 1873 through 1877, just as numerous settlers were attempting to establish farms and homesteads on the Great Plains. The commission’s first analysis of potential defense mechanisms against the ravenous, “disastrous swarms” (p. xiii) was compiled by Charles Valentine Riley (one of the most prominent early American entomologists, and the first curator of insects at the Smithsonian Institute), Alpheus Spring Packard, and Cyrus Thomas.


In addition to the five plates (three lithographed by A. Hoen & Co. after drawings by J.H. Emerton, one by A. Gast & Co. after a drawing by Riley, and one by Sinclair & Son after a drawing by C.S. Minot), the report is illustrated with a number of in-text woodcuts of locusts and other insects, their anatomy, and their eggs and egg-masses, as well as machines and devices designed to eradicate them. Appendices include a detailed comparison of insectivorous birds and their potential benefits.

Provenance: With affixed note on Entomological Commission letterhead, addressed to the Rev. E.H. Dalrymple of Baltimore, MD, and signed by C.V. Riley; front free endpaper bearing the mailing label to Dalrymple.

•  Publisher’s quarter cloth and printed paper wrappers; wrappers darkened, with small edge nicks, cloth starting to split from top of front joint. Front wrapper and front inside cover institutionally rubber-stamped, front free endpaper with label as above. First map and title-page partially torn along inner margin; plates 2 through 5 with small nick in upper edge, not approaching image. Pages clean.

Sumptuously Bound by DAVID forCortland Bishop

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•  Definitely this work was created by a bibliophile for fellow lovers of the book. When this work appeared, Uzanne (1852–1931) was in full stride as a leader of the Paris circle of men and women interested in handsomely illustrated, printed, and bound works of literature. In 1880 he launched Miscellanées bibliographiques and, soon after Son altesse la femme appeared. he introduced the influential periodicals Le Livre, Le Livre moderne, and L'Art et l'Idée. In 1889, he took part in the creation of a publishing company, the “League of Contemporary Bibliophiles.” He counted among his friends the artists Jean Lorrain, Barbey d'Aurevilly, and Remy de Gourmont.

Son altesse la femme essays most satirically the position of women in society from the medieval to the author's time. The chapters are: Le vray mirouer de sorcellerie, La mie du poete, La précieuse, La caillette, La citoyenne française, Les galanteries du directoire, Sous la restauration, L'amour aux champs, La parisienne moderne, and Mulieriana.

The work was limited to 100 copies, all printed on Japan vellum. It has an engraved vignette on the black and red printed title, small illustrations or vignettes on 50 text pages, 11 vignette borders or headpieces (three of them in color, 10 of them in anextra state), and 10 tipped-in color plates. The illustrations are by Henri Gervex, J.A. Gonzalès, L. Kratké, Albert Lynch, Adrien Moreau, and Félicien Rops.

Binding:  Full red crushed morocco with five raised bands. Covers with a triple-rule gilt border; spine gilt extra with gilt beading on bands. Triple gilt fillet on board edges. Wide turn-ins richly tooled in gilt and with cream and blue leather inlays that are also gilt-tooled. Blue silk pastedowns and free endpapers. Marbled paper fly-leaves. All edges gilt. Binding signed “David.”

Provenance:  Red leather bookplate of Cortland Field Bishop, the famed collector of the early 20th century and, at one time, owner of the TWO most important auction galleries in NY/USA.

Original full-color wrappers bound in.

•  Vicaire, VII, 924.   Uncut copy. Bound as above with original wrappers bound in. Light refurbishment of front joint (outside). A fabulous copy.   (26675)

Art/Architecture — Folio Extra — Imposing!

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•  Italian-language work on the art and architecture of the Liberiana basilica in Rome, illustrated with more than 100 impressive full-page engravings (as well as one oversized, folding engraving) of the church’s art and sculpture, along with its architectural detail, plans, and design. Detailed explanations of the plates, which were engraved by Domenico Feltrini, are provided.

This handsomely printed and produced volume forms the second part of the author's “Quattro principali basiliche di Roma,” which also includes works (not present here) on the Vaticana and Lataranense.

•  Publisher's half vellum with marbled paper–covered sides, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather labels; boards a little abraded and showing wear. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate; front fly-leaf with bookseller’s pressure-stamp in upper corner. Occasional light foxing. A handsomely produced, still very impressive volume.

Illustrated Verne Classic

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•  Handsome edition from the Scribner Series of Illustrated Classics for Younger Readers, illustrated by W.J. Aylward with four color half-tone plates.

•  Publisher's black cloth, front cover with affixed color half-tone illustration, spine with gilt-stamped title, terrific endpapers (pictured above), dust jacket lacking; corners and spine extremities slightly rubbed. Last few signatures unopened; if this was read, the reader didn't learn how it came out! A clean copy of a striking edition.  (26069)

French Symbolism inOrnate Dress

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•  First edition of this collection of tales from an important French poet identified with the Symbolist movement and known for his fascination with the occult. The volume was edited and published posthumously by friends of the author; it is decorated with an elegant Art Nouveau title-page and head-and tailpieces, designed by Theo Van Rysselberghe and printed in sage and hunter green. Allegedly only 60 copies were printed, 50 on papier du Japon and 10 allegedly on Hollande Van Gelder paper; however, more institutional holdings than that are reported, and virtually all copies on the market and in institutional holdings lay claim to being one of the 10 Hollande printings. The present example is unnumbered, and printed on Japanese laid paper.

Binding:  Contemporary quarter garnet red morocco with fawn brocade–covered sides, spine gilt extra with title and arabesque motifs. Original green wrappers bound in.

•  Caillet, Manuel bibliographique des sciences psychiques ou occultes, 11198.   Binding as above, spine faintly sunned and with one small spot darkened; joints a bit rubbed and cloth corners/edges somewhat moreso, with instances of spotting/discoloration to cloth that should be mentioned but are not obtrusive. Front pastedown with attractive 20th-century bookplate. Some signatures unopened. A lovely book in quite a nice copy.  (26821)

Based onthe Didot Folio Edition 1798

Virgilius Maro, Publius (a.k.a.Virgil a.k.a. Vergilius Maro).

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•  Reprint of Didot's folio edition, Paris, 1798, with plates here engraved by Bartolozzi, Fittler, Sharp, and Neagle and copied from those of Gerard and Girodet in the Paris edition. The plates are distributed one to each book of the Aeneis, one to the Bucolica, and two to the Georgica.

The work was issued in quarto and octavo format, both handsomely printed by Bensley.

•  Brunet, V, 1294; Graesse, VII, 344–45; Schweiger, II, 1181.   Contemporary straight-grained morocco, neatly rebacked with good lettering; board edges with a gilt rule and somewhat rubbed. Lacking the single plate at the front of Book X of Aeneis. All edges gilt.  (26757)

Chancery Cursive Humanistic Cursive Etc.

•  Essentially Wardrop's lectures given at King's College, University of London, in 1952, with footnotes supplied and illustration (in black and white) added.

•  Publisher's red cloth; dust jacket. Top of dust-jacket is a little frayed with tiny tears with slight loss of paper; short tears to front crease of the dust jacket at base of spine. A very good copy.  (21998)

For CALLIGRAPHY / WRITING,  click here.

An Educational Fundraiser inWashington's Memory

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•  First illustrated edition, following the 1833 edition under the title Fac Simile of Washington's Accounts, both renditions having been published “for the benefit of Washington's Manual Labour School and Male Orphan Asylum.” Washington's manuscript expense accounts from 1775 through 1783 are reproduced here in facsimile, along with a life, texts of several speeches, and the “Eulogium on the character of Washington by Major William Jackson.”

In addition to the facsimile pages, there are four plates present, including a frontispiece portrait of Washington that was engraved by P. Haas after Rembrandt Peale; the other plates show Mount Vernon, Washington's tomb, and a sheet of colonial paper money.

Tipped in at the front here is asmall separate flyer that is both prospectus to the volume and an appeal to the public regarding the benefits of the proposed Manual Labour School and Male Orphan Asylum. This was written by Peter Wallace Gallaudet, who had served for a time as Washington's assistant and became the founder and moving spirit of the institution's society.

Binding:  Publisher's ribbon-embossed brown cloth of Krupp's style Ft9, both covers with decorative gilt-stamped title in a foliate medallion. Very representative of a type of binding now rapidly disappearing.

•  Sabin 101724; not in Amer. Imprints.   Binding as above, cloth with lighter/darker areas and splitting over joints; corners rubbed and one bumped/creased with damage to cloth; spine sunned and with remnants of an old label at head. Ex–social club library with 19th-century bookplate: Inked call number on pastedown, free endpaper, and small cover sticker; rubber-stamps on endpaper, fly-leaf, frontispiece, title-page, and plates. Last few leaves waterstained along upper inner portions. “Ex-library” for sure, but in fact a bit interesting for that — and not as distressed a thing in hand as full recital of its faults makes it sound.  (26328)

“Secrets Mushroomic” — Szathmary’s Copy
A Limited Edition & Lovely 

Wasson, Valentina Pavlovna, & R. Gordon Wasson.

•  Hefty monograph on the history, science, linguistics, folklore, art, and eroticism of mushrooms—and, not least, their gastronomical role; also present is an account of sacred mushroom consumption that brought a great deal of attention to psychoactive fungi and to the Wassons’ experiences therewith, strongly influencing the psychedelic movement.

Valentina Wasson’s upbringing in mushroom-loving Russia inspired this work, although directly Russian-related material is scant compared to the masses of international lore compiled here. Befitting a labor of love, the volume was handsomely printed by the prestigious Stamperia Valdonega (following Hans Mardersteig’s design) on heavy paper with deckle edges. Its pochoir plates reproduce beautiful life-sized watercolor paintings of mushrooms done by naturalist Jean-Henri Fabre, and other numerous plates depict other works of interest such as Gainsborough’s “Mushroom Girl.”

Provenance: From the library of chef and culinary collector Louis I. Szathmary, with the laid in, retained carbon of a letter from him to Ralph Geoffrey Newman (the late, noted, Chicago bookseller); this thanks Newman for “the interesting information on the Mushroom book.” A duplicate copy of Newman’s purchase invoice, with Szathmary’s cheque photocopied onto it, is also present.

This is copy number 412 of a limited edition of 512.

•  Green publisher’s cloth, spines with gilt-stamped labels, housed in the original neat buckram-covered slipcase. Corners and spine extremities show slight traces of wear with bindings otherwise crisp and clean; slipcase likewise shows only the faintest of wear. (In our rather bad photograph, the slipcase looks a tad bowed; in real life, it is NOT.) Glassine wrappers present (somewhat yellowed, a bit short as issued, and one with a bit missing at top of that spine). Top edges gilt. Pages and plates clean. A lovely association copy of this significant and uncommon mycological text.

Allay that Pheasant, Splat that Pyke, Border that Pasty!

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•  First edition: “With divers recipes for excellent Dishes of flesh, fish, fowl & baked meats collected from 17th century Masters at the Art of Cookery . . . In this Book will be found Instructions by means of which any ordinary Capacity may easily learn how to Cut up or Carve as well as to Cook all the most usual Dishes as well as Rarities to grace the Festive Table.” Mounted on the appropriate pages, along with directions on preparing and carving the dishes depicted, are53 (one-sided) facsimiles of the Moxons' original instructional playing cards plus their wrapper.

Signed copy: Signed by both authors on the dedication page. This edition was limited to 275 copies, of which this is no. 250.

•  Publisher's vellum over boards, spine with raised bands and faux hand-inked title, in original red cloth slipcase. A beautiful, clean, unworn copy in a perfect slipcase.  (26750)

Parson Weems's Powerful! Myths

•  Later edition of the much-reprinted hagiography that includes the famous cherry tree story. Illustrated with six wood-engraved plates, including a frontispiece portrait of Washington; publisher's advertisements in the back.

•  Publisher's brown cloth, covers blind-embossed, and spine with gilt decoration, lettering, and cameo portrait; portions of binding discolored, gilt-lettered author's name on spine rubbed, spine slightly cocked, corners bumped. Pages with light age-toning and offsetting; intermittent staining/spotting, and a few old ink stains. Small chip at bottom margin of pp. 155/156. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, pressure-stamp on title-page, ink numeral in lower margin of p. [5], charge pocket on rear free endpaper, no other markings. Small booksellers' label of “Leary & Getz” inside front cover.  (26332)

A Remarkable Array ofCOLLOTYPES

•  Copy 277 of 1025. Illustrations very nicely reproduced using collotype plates. Contains a dizzying panolopy of artists, media, and periods: Callot, Dürer, Goya, Meryon, Zorn, Turner, Blake, Cranach, Lucas van Leyden, Daumier, Holbein, and Whistler; lithographs, wood engravings, etchings, mezzotints, aquatints, stipple engravings, and woodcuts.

•  Front hinge starting (inside, only); gluestains on front pastedown; priced accordingly. Top edge gilt.

TheLatest Agricultural Innovations, with COLOR-PRINTED Plates

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•  First edition: “Agricultural mechanics, agricultural chemistry, agricultural and horticultural botany, agricultural and economic geology, agricultural zoology, meteorology, &c.” The volume opens with a portrait and biography ofAndrew J. Downing, “the most eminent of American horticulturists and professors of Rural Architecture” (p. 5). Much interesting material is present here on the cultivation of various fruits and vegetables, the introduction of exotic domesticated animals (Chinese yaks, cashmere goats, camels) into the United States and Europe, statistics of American production, and various mechanical and technical innovations.

Illustrated with four color plates done by Max and Louis N. Rosenthal of the famed Philadelphia firm Rosenthal's,  producers of some of the earliest chromolithographs in the U.S.  The frontispiece here, after a drawing by B.L.C. Wailes, depicts a blossoming cotton plant, while the three other chromolithographed plates show a more mature example, the cotton caterpillar, and rot in cotton. The volume is additionally illustrated with a number of in-text steel and wood engravings.

•  Allibone 2641. Not in Reese, Stamped with a National Character.   Publisher's blind-stamped green cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; spine sunned, chipped at head, and with small darkened area. Ex–social club library: Call number on front pastedown, front free endpaper lacking, title-page and several others (not plates) with old, round, light rubber-stamp. Pages age-toned, otherwise clean.  (26420)

Preparing for the End Times

•  Best-selling evangelical exhortation to prepare for the return of Christ, written by one of the founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and originally published in 1858. Focused partly on the history of Christianity (especially the Reformation) and partly on the coming earthly war between Christ and Satan, this work is strongly anti-Catholic and anti-Spiritualism. There were several editions, with the present example being the final major revision of the work; this edition is illustrated with a frontispiece and 40 plates depicting biblical and historical scenes as well as notable churches and holy sites. Each chapter also has a headpiece involving an interesting frame/border, and there are a few tailpieces.

This is an original edition, not a facsimile reprint.

Binding:  Publisher's light blue cloth, front cover pictorially stamped in black and gilt with scene of an angel holding a chain and the key to the bottomless pit (Revelation 20:1), spine decoratively stamped in black and gilt.

•  Binding as above, cocked, spine slightly sunned, corners and spine extremities with minor rubbing; small smudge to outer upper edge of front cover. Front pastedown with inked inscription dated 1916. A few corners dog-eared; four pages with offsetting from now-absent laid-in items, pages otherwise clean. All edges marbled.  (25796)

Lovely Little Production — Illustrations byJohn De Pol

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•  Typhophile Monographs XXXVI. 350 copies, out of a total press run of 1200, were designated for the typophiles. This is #9. Illustrated with engravings by John De Pol. This is copy no. 9 of 1200.

•  Fine, in original wrappers.  (10226)

Revelation Scholarship

Willoughby, Harold Rideout; & Ernest Cadman Colwell, eds.

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•  First edition: Reproduction, with scholarly commentary and annotations, of a ca. 1600 translation of the Apocalypse of St. John into Greek, illustrated with two color frontispieces and 77 black and white plates. Vol. I is subtitled “A Greek corpus of Revelation iconography” and vol. II “History and text.”

•  Publisher's blue cloth, spines with gilt-stamped titles; lacking dust jackets and front free endpaper of vol. I with affixed publisher's blurb clipped from same; spines with inked call numbers. Neat institutional rubber-stamps on front pastedowns, first text pages, and lower and outer page edges of closed books (not title-pages). Pages clean. (20791)

Deluxe Comedic Production, Deluxe Binding

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•  First U.S. edition: “Illustrated withone hundred engravings from drawings by Charles Bennett and George H. Thomas.” The work was edited by a friend and collaborator of Charles Dickens; from Chaucer to Swift to “Saint Anthony's Sermon to the Fishes,” Wills's comic selections are delightfully entertaining, and their wood-engraved illustrations equally amusing.

Binding:  Publisher's deluxe black calf, covers and spine elaborately embossed and stamped in blind and gilt with central vignette of a cherub dressed as a jester and playing a lyre. All edges gilt. The embossing plaque is signed with the designer's initials: “R.D.”

This work is rarely found in the deluxe binding: The handsomely gilt-stamped publisher's cloth is the norm.

•  NSTC 2W24418; Allibone 2762.   Binding as above, showing minor wear to extremities and front cover vignette, original silk bookmark detached and laid in. Volume slightly shaken with text block starting to pull away from spine; this is the kind of volume that wants to do that, and the reader will want to “cradle” it in hand — that done, no worries. Front fly-leaf with early pencilled gift inscription and with a Maine druggist's small ticket. Mild to moderate foxing. Both funny and decorative, in an American publisher's binding that may fairly be called “DAZZLING.”  (26748)

“Arguably theGolden Age of ENGLISH ART”

•  First American edition of this excellent overview of the glories of Anglo-Saxon art (including the Sutton Hoo ship-burial, the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Stockholm Codex Aureaus, the Ruthwell Cross, etc.), with numerous illustrations. Given the nature of the subject matter, the volume offers both archaeological content and travelogue.

•  Publisher's brown cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title, in original dust jacket; dust jacket with corner clipped but price remaining, front upper outer corner very slightly crumpled. A clean, beautiful copy.  (24834)

Polynesia & Tahiti — 7 Maps & 6 Plates — Absorbing Narratives

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition. This account of a mission to Polynesia and Tahiti (funded by the London Missionary Society) supplies, it must be said, much more by way of the missionary travellers' interested observations of lands and people's exotic to them than it does reports of the proselytizations they pursued; it was compiled by chief mate William Wilson from his own journals and those of Captain James Wilson. Dr. Thomas Haweis, co-founder of the London Missionary Society, edited the work and the Rev. Samuel Greatheed provided (anonymously) the “Preliminary discourse; containing a geographical and historical account of the islands where missionaries have settled, and of others with which they are connected.” The Hill catalogue says, “The narrative is fresh, although sometimes naive, and provides a glimpse of everyday life on the islands that the mariner or naturalist didn't consider worth reporting.” There is a most interesting Appendix, also, canvassing everything from native dress to houses to dances to cookery to canoes to marriage and the place of women to funeral customs — not forgetting human sacrifice and sports.

The volume is illustrated with six plates and seven oversized, folding maps, and includes an extensive list of subscribers. An inferior, less expensive edition appeared in the same year, printed by Gillet; the present example is sometimes identified as the Gosnell edition to distinguish it from the Gillet production.

•  ESTC T87461; Hill, Pacific Voyages, 1894; Sabin 49480.   Contemporary reverse sheep, framed and panelled in blind, spine with leather title-label; leather peeling at extremities, front joint repaired and back one starting from head, spine with label rubbed and two compartments discolored. Hinges (inside) reinforced with cloth tape; front free endpaper lacking. Front pastedown with institutional bookplates; dedication leaf with pressure-stamp in upper margin and rubber-stamped numeral in lower margin. Title-page and dedication with offsetting to margins; title-page with small hole not touching text. First map foxed, with tears along two folds; sixth map with jagged tear along one inner corner; other maps lightly foxed. Occasional stray small spots of staining and some offsetting from plates onto opposing pages; a few page edges slightly ragged. In sum, in fact, a sound, clean, and pleasant volume.  (19603)

Bulls Bow Down & Fiends Are POWERLESS

Click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.

•  From humble carter to revered and beatified lay Franciscan is not an easy course to pursue in life, but Sebastián de Aparicio (1502-1600) accomplished it in Mexico. Although he was married multiple times, he is said to have remained chaste, deciding in 1574 to abandon his secular lifestyle for that of a lay Franciscan. He is said to have had great ability to manage and calm animals, including near-wild bulls. His life was filled with teaching, begging, and accomplishing near-impossible things. Offered here is the first edition of Ximénez's biography and the fine album of plates illustrating events in Aparicio's life (see our caption, above).

Finding the "life" and the volume of plates together is uncommon. Only by happenstance did the two volumes come to us within months of one another, from two different continents, allowing us to marry them for this offering. For example, in the U.S., only the Lilly and Bancroft Libraries report owning both works. There is some question as to the number of plates in a complete copy of the Colección: Some sources call for an engraved title-page and 128 plates, while others call for 129 plates. There seems not to have been an edition of the Vita in Spanish.

•  Vita: Palau 377047; Sabin 105727A. Colección: Palau 377048; Sabin 105728. Vita: Contemporary Italian binding of quarter leather with "wallpaper" covered boards; edges of boards seriously rubbed and exposing underlying paste boards. Internally very good. Colección: 20th-century Spanish quarter leather, with paper in imitation of treed calf on the covers. Private ownership stamps on title-page. Missing 29 plates; the other hundred in very good! condition.

The SCIENCE thatMakes a Good Cook
     (or a Good Air-Flow through the Bedroom)

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition; illustrated with in-text wood engravings. Home heating, lighting, cleaning, and more, with considerable discussion of the culinary science and its relation to health: sugars, starches, the effect of heat on meat and other foods, influences of protein, etc.

•  Whaton & Kelly 6655; Cagle & Stafford, American Books on Food and Drink, 840.   Publisher's ribbed brown cloth, covers elaborately embossed in blind. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, lacking the front free endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. A rather handsome book, and one in nice condition.  (26509)

Peruvian ConquestIllustrated

Click the interior images for enlargements.

•  Early French printing of this very successful Peruvian history, which went through numerous editions in languages including Spanish, Italian, Dutch, German, and English. Zárate arrived in Peru as part of the retinue of the first viceroy, and served there from 1543 until 1548. His work was first printed in its original Spanish in 1555, but did not appear in French until 1700; the present translation was done by S. de Broë, Seigneur de Citry et de la Guette. The first volume is illustrated with an oversized folding map and fourteen engraved plates, including the well known depiction of a nattily dressed European gentleman, reclining on a raft-like cushion, borne across a stream by two Indians.

Married set: The two contemporary bindings are similar but not identical; both are of mottled leather, one more coarsely grained (and acid-etched) than the other, while one has floral and the other pomegranate motifs gilt-stamped in spine compartments. The match was made by a previous, Spanish-speaking collector, who has left pencilled notes in Spanish in both volumes.

•  Sabin 106261; Palau 379641. Contemporary mottled sheep and calf as above, corners and edges worn, all joints cracking, both volumes with minor worming to front covers and pinholes to spines; vol. I with loss of leather over spine head (half of top compartment). Pencilled check marks scattered throughout; front free endpaper and recto of last text page of vol. II with annotations.

In Paper Wrappers, 1774

Zárate, Agustin de.

•  Classic and standard work on the discovery, conquest, and subsequent civil war periods.  Sent to Peru to examine the financial status of the viceroyalty, the Spanish treasury official Zárate made use of his visit to compile a history of the conquest of the Incas and the early portion of the subsequent civil wars among the Spanish conquerors. The work was originally published in 1555 and in 1700 was translated into French by S. de Broë, seigneur de Citry et de La Guette; this Paris printing of de Broë’s translation is illustrated with numerous maps and engravings of scenes including a ritual sacrifice.

•  Sabin 106266; Palau 379645. Volumes bound in paper wrappers, back wrapper lacking in both cases; front wrappers reinforced with printed papers taken from other items. Reverse of frontispiece in vol. I and front pastedown in vol. II with small bookplates of private collector. Edges untrimmed. Scattered spots; pages and plates generally in good clean condition.

The Immaculate Conception — Emblem’ized

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•  First edition of Zoller’s unusual emblem book, a treatise on the art and symbolism of the Immaculate Conception. Zoller, a Benedictine monk who had previously published another Marian emblematical work (Mariae Hochst-Wunderbarliche und Ohne alle Suenden-Mackl Gnaden-reich beschehene Empfaengnuss), created a curious textual construct to accompany the numerous emblems here: In addition to some anagrammatical sections, the letters representing Roman numerals are capitalized in a fashion that presumably provides another level of cryptographic or numerological interpretation, although the work seems not to have been thoroughly analyzed to date.

The engraved frontispiece was done by Philipp Jacob Leidenhoffer after a design by Johann Asem; one of the engraved in-text emblems attributes its design to “I.C. Banaivir,” about whom no information could be found, while the others are unsigned.

The title-page bears an inked inscription reading “SanCto MarCo / In aVgIa DIVIte,” dated 1714; a few small scraps of paper with notes in an early inked hand are laid in.

•  Landwehr, German, 660; Praz 543. Contemporary mottled sheep, covers framed in blind triple fillets, spine thickly blind-stamped with arabesque motifs; binding rubbed and abraded with leather cracked over joints and spine, spine stamping dimmed, and shelving number inked on spine. A few spots of pinhole worming to front cover, front free endpaper, and first few leaves; front pastedown with old bookseller’s ticket. Some pages with light foxing; one leaf with an old repair to the upper corner and one with a short tear from the lower margin. An interesting rarity, and one worthy of study.

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