CRESSWELL, [Thomas Estcourt].

A Narrative of the Affair between Mr. Creswell, and Miss Sc–pe, address’d to G–v–e Sc–e,...

London, Charles Green, and sold at the Pamphlet Shops … [1747.]

First editions, presenting both sides in a notorious bigamy scandal that inspired at least two fictionalisations – Love and Avarice (1749), and Eliza Haywood’s Dalinda; or, the double Marriage (1749); popular interest in the case assisted the government in passing the Marriage Act in...

£350

[FABLES.]

Petit fabuliste.

Paris, [(colophon:) Firmin-Didot], [c. 1840].

A charming miniature collection of illustrated fables published in nineteenth-century Paris.

£200

CAREL DE SAINTE-GARDE, Jacques.

Les Sarrazins chassez de France. Poëme heroïque. Premiere partie.

Paris, Claude Barbin, 1667.

First edition, very rare, of this poetic account of the expulsion of the Saracens from France by Childebrand I and Charles Martel, written by Jacques Carel de Sainte Garde, almoner and counsellor to Louis XIV.

£850

[RARITIES AND PROVERBS.]

Lyste van Rariteiten, die verkocht zullen werden op den 32 van Bokkem-maand, in den Jaren dat tweemaal...

‘Gedrukt in Arabien, midden op de Zand-Zee, in’t vervalle Kasteel van den razenden Roeland’ [i.e. Amsterdam?, 1706?].

A bizarre series of fictitious auction catalogues of books and objects, the auctions taking place on impossible dates (‘the 32^nd of smoked herring month’), followed by collections of proverbs; an extra-illustrated copy from the library of Sir William Stirling Maxwell.

£5500

PÉREZ DE HERRERA, Cristóbal.

Proverbios morales, y consejos christianos … Y enigmas philosoficas, naturales, y morales, con...

Adornadas con trece emblemas … Madrid, heirs of Francisco del Hierro, [1733].

Second edition, the Stirling Maxwell copy, of these 759 proverbs and 311 enigmas by Cristóbal Pérez de Herrera, social reformer, senior physician to Philip II of Spain, and ‘the prince of riddles’.

£1450

ARMINESI, Rocco degli.

Attila flagelum Dei, tradotto dalla vera cronica per Rocco degli Arminesi padovano. Ove si narra come detto...

Venice, Omobon Bettanino, [mid-eighteenth century].

Very rare eighteenth-century edition of a popular and best-selling poem on Attila the Hun.

£600

AMADUZZI, Giovanni Cristoforo.

Epistola ad Johannem Baptistam Bodonium qua emendatur et suppletur commentarium de Anacreontis genere...

[(Colophon:) Parma, Bodoni, 1791.]

First edition of Amaduzzi’s philological and bibliographical commentary on Anacreon, addressed to Bodoni, ‘artis typographicae restitutor’ (p. 3).

£275

[POETRY.]

The Muse in a moral Humour: being, a Collection of agreeable and Instructive Tales, Fables, Pastorals, &c. by several...

London, Francis Noble, and John Noble, 1757–8.

First edition, scarce, complete in two volumes though according to a note at the end of volume II the first volume could also be bought separately (which implies a smaller print-run for the sequel).

£350

COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor.

The Poems … edited by Derwent and Sara Coleridge. A new Edition.

London, Edward Moxon, 1854.

Second edition thus, first published 1852 – from the library of the poet, editor, and critic William Michael Rossetti. Though perhaps not as important to him as Shelley, Coleridge did exert a long shadow – William Michael Rossetti edited a critical edition of Coleridge’s Poems in 1880. For...

£350

[ROSSETTIS.] [PERIODICAL EXTRACTS.]

A collection of thirty items, mostly articles from periodicals including Revue des deux mondes,...

1860s to 1880s.

A characteristic tract volume assembled by William Michael Rossetti, with articles or offprints of interest to him or relating to the Rossettis and their circle, including pieces given to him by Shelley’s friend Edward Trelawny, and his sister’s suitor C. B. Cayley.

£1800

WOODCROFT, Bennet, editor; [J. G. GREENWOOD, translator].

The Pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria. From the original Greek.

London, Charles Whittingham, 1851.

First edition of this English translation of the Pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria, this copy signed by the editor, the engineer, inventor, and pioneering patent administrator Bennet Woodcroft.

£300

[POOR CLARES.]

A Pious Collection of severall profitable Directions fitted for the English Poor Clares in Graveling in order to...

Douai, M. Mairesse, [1684.]

First edition, rare, of A Pious Collection – a devotional guide for English nuns in exile in the Low Countries – bound with an apparently unrecorded edition of thirty-three prayers for ‘souls departed’’.

£5000

[TEA AND COFFEE.]

Tea & Coffee Directory of India and the World.

Baroda (Vadodara), Shri Laxmi Printing Press, for Bombay (Mumbai) and Calcutta (Kolkata), Indian Export Trade Journal, 1956.

An apparently unrecorded Gujarat-printed directory for 1956 of the global tea and coffee trades.

£750

[SERGEANT, John.]

Transnatural Philosophy, treating of the Essences and Operations of all Beings whatever. Particularly of the...

London, for the Author, and to be sold by S. Keble, D. Browne, A, Roper, and G. Strahan, 1706.

An unusual tract volume of publishing curiosities and rarities.

£1250

[LEE-WARNER, Henry James.]

Reasons for being a Conservative, and for opposing the present Liberal-Whig Ministers. By a Conservative....

Mitchell & Co., [1863–4].

First and only edition, very rare, a presentation copy to the officer and MP Frederick Walpole.

£500

[SALMON DU CHÂTELIER, Charles-Louis, attributed.]

Essai sur le principe de la souveraineté. Par un grand vicaire.

London, Cox, Son, and Baylis for A. Dulau et al., 1804.

First edition, rare, of this anonymous attack on the idea of popular sovereignty and the newly crowned Napoleon published at the outset of the First French Empire.

£250

RIDINGER, Johann Elias.

[A Book of Stags.] Six engravings of deer by Henry Roberts after Ridinger.

[London,] Robert Sayer, [1770s?].

A rare and attractive drawing-book, likely the ‘Book of Stags, after Ridinger, and engraved by Roberts’ listed among the one-shilling quarto ‘Drawing Books’ in Sayer and Bennet’s Enlarged Catalogue of 1775. They were first issued by Roberts as A New Book of Stags (one copy recorded...

£600

REYRAC, [François-Philippe de Laurens,] Abbé de.

Hymne au soleil, suivi de plusieurs morceaux du même genre … nouvelle...

‘Amsterdam’ [Paris], ‘aux dépens de la Compagnie’ [Cazin], 1781.

Sixth edition, published under a false Amsterdam imprint, of the Hymne au soleil by the French royal censor François-Philippe de Laurens de Reyrac.

£95

MONCHABLON, Étienne Jean.

Dizionario compendioso d’antichità per l’intelligenza dell’istoria antica, sì sacra che profana,...

Venice, Sebastiano Coleti, 1795.

Very rare edition of this Italian translation of Monchablon’s popular dictionary for the understanding of the ancient world, from the Egyptians to the Romans via the Israelites and the Greeks, including an extensive bibliography at the end of the preliminary essay.

£200

KÖSTER, Christian.

Zerstreute Gedanken-Blätter über Kunst. Eine Zugabe zu den Heftchen über Restauration alter Oelgemälde...

Heidelberg, Christian Friedrich Winter, 1833 [– 1834].

First editions, very rare, of Köster’s first two addenda to his early and influential work on the restoration of paintings.

£175