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First edition, an attractive copy, of an important work of
the Scottish Enlightenment: an analysis of Aristotle’s
politics and ethics which contributed to the intellectual
origins of modern democracy and the Constitution of the
United States. Thomas Jefferson, Madison and John
Adams had either direct acquaintance with Gillies’
Aristotle, and cited it, or indirect knowledge of it which
gave ground for comments. As well as providing a view of
republicanism which helped shape eighteenth-century
political theories on both sides of the Atlantic, ‘Gillies
attacks Hume’s principle of association, and points out
how Aristotle’s notion of money differs from Hume’s’
(Fieser).
Fieser, p. 382.
1. ARISTOTLE (J. Gillies, editor).
Aristotle’s ethics and politics… London, Strahan, Cadell, 1797.
2 vols, folio; a very good copy in contemporary half calf, spines lettered, numbered and
stamped in gilt, marbled sides; ownership inscription of J. H. Smyth, 1801. £600
B E R N A R D Q U A R I T C H L T D
N E W A C Q U I S I T I O N S ● J A N 2 0 1 5
Item 14. [ENGLISH CHINA.]
2. AUDUBON, John James.
The Original Water-Colour Paintings by John James Audubon for The
Birds of America. Reproduced in Colour for the First Time from the
Collection at the New-York Historical Society. Introduction by
Marshall B. Davidson. [?London], The Lakeside Press, R.R. Donnelley &
Sons for Michael Joseph Ltd. and The Connoisseur, 1966.
2 volumes, 4to (335 x 270mm), pp. I: xxxi, [xxxii (blank)], [2 (section-
title, text on verso)]; II: [6 (half-title, verso blank, title, imprint on verso,
section-title, text on verso)], xxxiii-lv (‘Chronology’, ‘Appendix’ and
‘Index’), [1 (colophon)]; colour-printed portrait frontispiece after John
Syme and 431 colour-printed illustrations after Audubon printed by
Chanticleer Press on 362 ll. (20 folding) with text on versos, 54
illustrations double-page, colour-printed and monochrome illustrations
in the text, some full-page; a few ll. slightly creased on margins,
unobtrusive small marks on fore-edges; original full buckram by The
Lakeside Press, R.R. Donnelley & Sons, upper boards with brown
panels blocked in gilt with facsimile of Audubon’s monogram, spines
with brown panels lettered and ruled in gilt, Cockerell-marbled
endpapers, original Cockerell-marbled paper slipcase with ribbon and
applied paper lettering-panel titled in gilt; extremities of slipcase a little
rubbed and chipped with small losses, otherwise a very good set.
£200
First British edition, issued in the same year as the American edition.
This work contains the first publication of Audubon’s watercolour
paintings for his masterpiece, The Birds of America, which was
published in London in four double-elephant folio volumes illustrated
with 435 hand-coloured engraved plates between 1827 and 1838. The
original watercolours published here are held by the New York
Historical Society, which acquired them in 1863 from Audubon’s
widow, and with the publication of the collection of 431 watercolours,
‘virtually the entire series of paintings created by John James Audubon
for The Birds of America is reproduced for the first time in full color’ (p.
xi).
The work is prefaced by an
introduction describing the genesis
and execution of The Birds of
America and a note on the artist’s
techniques, and each plate is
accompanied by a descriptive text,
which often incorporates notes from
Audubon’s Ornithological Biography
(Edinburgh: 1831-1839) – the text
volumes which accompanied the
original engravings.
THE RARE FIRST BOOK BY THE EMINENT BRITISH GEOLOGIST
BECHE, FROM THE LIBRARY OF ANOTHER FELLOW OF THE
ROYAL SOCIETY
3. BECHE, Sir Henry Thomas De la, editor.
A Selection of the Geological Memoirs Contained in the Annales de
Mines, together with a Synoptical Table of Equivalent Formations, and
M. Brongniart’s Table of the Classification of Mixed Rocks. Translated,
with Notes, by H. T. De la Beche. London, William Phillips, 1824.
8vo (210 x 125 mm.), pp. xxii, [2 (contents)], 335, [1 (blank)], [2
(corrigenda and plates)]; 3 hand-coloured engraved folding maps and
plans by Pickett, 8 folding lithographic plates and plans by G. Scharf,
printed by C. Hullmandel, and one folding letterpress ‘Synoptical
Table’; occasional light spotting and offsetting, light marginal
browning, some light damp-marking in final quires, quire b misbound
after quire A; contemporary English half calf over marbled boards, the
spine gilt in compartments, gilt morocco lettering-piece in one, others
panelled in gilt with foliate cornerpieces, red-speckled edges;
extremities a little rubbed and bumped, skilfully rebacked, retaining the
original and darkened spine, hinges reinforced; provenance: Richard
Gregory, Coole Park and London (1761-1839, engraved armorial
bookplate on upper pastedown). £750
His greatest triumph came in 1851 when Prince Albert opened the
Museum of Practical Geology on Jermyn Street. This became one of the
wonders of imperial London, with a vast array of fossils, rocks, and
economically useful building stones. It also housed another of De la
Beche's great schemes, a government-funded School of Mines and of
Science applied to the Arts, modeled on the École des Mines in Paris
[...]. Later in the century the Royal School of Mines [...] emerge[d] as a
leading centre, especially in training geologists for work in the colonies.
In 1907 the school was separated from the survey and museum to
become part of Imperial College, where the student geology society
was subsequently called the De la Beche Club’ (op. cit.).
This copy is from the collection of the bibliophile Richard Gregory of
Coole Park, Ireland, and Berners Street London, who had inherited
Coole from his father Robert (the builder of the house) in 1810, and was
responsible for enlarging the house’s important library. Gregory was a
fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and – like De la Beche – was also a
fellow of the Royal Society; he was elected to the latter on 24 November
1803, as ‘a Gentleman well versed in various branches of natural
knowledge’, with the support of the Irish orientalist William Marsden,
the cartographer James Rennell, the hydrographer Alexander
Dalrymple, and other fellows.
BM(NH) I, p. 435; Lowndes p. 141; Ward and Carozzi 615.
First edition. De la Beche (1796-1855) attended the Royal Military
College at Marlow from 1809 to 1811, but was expelled for his political
opinions. He settled in Lyme Regis in 1812, where he pursued his
interests in geology and science, and searched for fossils with the
young Mary Anning (1799-1847), who would become one of the best-
known fossil collectors of the nineteenth century. Inherited wealth
enabled De la Beche to continue his researches into geology through a
tour of continental Europe, where he met Cuvier, Geoffroy Saint-
Hilaire, and other eminent naturalists, in 1819: ‘[t]he tour, and others
which followed, laid the foundations for De la Beche's lifelong
admiration for French scientific institutions and ideas’ (ODNB). De la
Beche was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1823, and the
following year issued his first substantial publication, A Selection of the
Geological Memoirs Contained in the Annales de Mines, which collected
pieces by distinguished geologists including Alexandre Brongniart and
Alexander von Humboldt, and was reissued in 1836. The work is rare
on the market in either edition, and we have not been able to trace any
copies of the 1824 edition in Anglo-American auction records since
1975 (and only one copy of the 1836 edition in the same period).
A series of further publications followed, and De la Beche became one
the foremost figures in British geological circles: ‘[he] was widely
honoured, being elected president of the Geological Society in 1847 and
awarded its Wollaston medal in 1855. He was knighted in 1842 and
made a companion of the Bath six years later.
4. BELLONI, Girolami, Marchese.
Del Commercio dissertazione. Rome, Niccolo and Marco
Pagliarini, 1757.
8vo, pp. xx, 154, [1] colophon, [1] blank; a clean, crisp
copy, uncut in contemporary marbled boards. £300
Second edition to be authorized by Belloni (first, 1750)
– the first edition to include the author’s
considerations on ‘imaginary money’ (pp. 135-154) –
of a work notable for its argument in favour of
restrictions on the export of money by the Vatican
banker Girolamo Belloni (1688-1760). The work
enjoyed great success: it received seventeen editions
between 1750 and 1788, was translated into several
languages (an English edition appeared in 1752) and
led to the ennoblement of Belloni by Benedict XIV.
See, for the first edition, Carpenter XIV (1); Einaudi 395;
Goldsmiths’ 8506; Kress Italian 266.
5. BOISSY D’ANGLAS, François Antoine de.
Anecdotes, souvenirs et pensees. [N. p., France,] 1827.
Manuscript on paper, 8vo, pp. 206, [8, index]; written in brown ink, ca. 24 lines to a page, in
a very clear early nineteenth-century hand; occasional corrections; a very well-preserved
document bound in contemporary boards, gilt morocco label on the spine. £3000
Unpublished, fair and unique witness: a manuscript composed by the son of the French
statesman of the Revolution, First Republic and Empire F. A. de Boissy d’Anglas (1756-
1826) shortly after the death of his father, to assemble and record notes and thoughts left by
him.
A FRENCH STATESMAN CHAMPION OF FREE PRESS – UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT
Boissy d’Anglas was among those deputies who induced the Estates-General to call itself a
National Assembly on 17 June 1789. He publicly spoke in favour of the storming of the
Bastille and voted in the trial of Louis XVI for his detention and deportation. Though
initially a sympathizer of Robespierre, he distanced himself from him and joined the
Thermidorian Reaction. He was superintendent of the provisioning of Paris, and in 1795
played a major role in the establishment of the principle of freedom of religion. As a
member of the Council of Five Hundred, Boissy d’Anglas promoted measures in favour of
full liberty for the press, contrasted the outlawry of returned émigrés, and attacked the
Directory. Proscribed soon after the 18 Fructidor, he lived in Great Britain until the
establishment of the French Consulate. During the Napoleonic era his relationship with the
establishment remained uneasy, yet in the Chamber he still, persistently, fought for the
enshrining of liberty for the press.
In this manuscript witness of his thoughts (he published very little), anecdotes and
reflections on the Dauphin, Necker, Lafayette, Mme Dubarry, Mme de Stael, Talleyrand
and Mirabeau are included, along with thoughts on civil and political liberties, suicide,
public representation, tyranny, comparisons between Catholicism and Islam, notes on
despotism, and several remarks on the freedom of the press as the essence of French
Republican achievements.
INFINITY: ACTUAL AND THEORETICAL
6. CANTOR, Georg.
Über die verschidenen Ansichten in Bezug auf die
actualunendlichen Zahlen … Mitgetheilt den 9. Dezember 1885.
Stockholm, P. A. Norstedt and Sons, 1886.
8vo, pp. 10; a good copy in the original printed wrappers, a few
small chips to the front cover. £550
Rare original offprint of an article published in the Svenska
Vetenskaps-Akademiens Handlingar vol. 11, no. 19. It is is extracted
from a letter written in 1885 to the Swedish mathematician
Gustav Eneström. Here, Cantor emphasises the necessity of
differentiating between theoretical and actual infinities, thereby
placing himself in direct opposition to contemporary German
philosophers such as Johann Friedrich Herbart and Wilhelm
Wundt. It seems that the extract was delivered at a lecture on the
9th December 1885 by Eneström.
Dauben 368; see also p. 125 for a translated extract of the original
letter; KVK locates two copies (the British Library and the
National Library of Sweden).
7. CAZES, J. E.
Modèles pour le Luminaire, études & projets pour intérieurs modernes. Vincennes, c. 1918.
48 original designs, pen, pencil and watercolour, on tracing paper and card, various sizes, from 900 x 345 mm. to 170 x 117
mm., many folding, a few signed by the artist, one dated at foot; a little wear to some designs and some small losses to
some folds; generally very good, in an oblong portfolio 504 x 355 mm., half black cloth with green paper boards, black
cloth ties, large central art nouveau style title piece on shaped card, central ornate manuscript lettering within a decorative
watercolour border. £950
An attractive collection of manuscript designs by the French Art Nouveau designer Cazes, who was based in Vincennes,
near Paris. Drawn with precision and skill, the collection includes designs for 17 lights, 14 plates of architectural details, 10
pieces of furniture, 5 building facades, and 2 lavish interiors, to provide the perfect finishing touches for the contemporary
wealthy home.
ART NOUVEAU
Incorporating a range of materials, including glass and crystal, cord, chain and metalwork, with designs for lamps and
candles, the lighting studies are both elegant and sophisticated. The architectural details include schemes for elaborate
escutcheons, cornicing, corbels, cartouches, and ceiling roses, employing a variety of naturalistic floral and foliage
elements that were typical of the art nouveau era. Many of the furniture designs, though still highly ornamental, are
drawn in a more technical style, incorporating measurements into the drawings. The designs cover all the furniture
requisite for an elegant bedroom, chairs and cabinets, wardrobes, dressing tables, occasional tables, and a sizeable bed. A
variant of the complete artistic vision appears in the one of the interiors, with a bedroom designed for a Madame Auday.
Also featured is a study in a complimentary style, complete with opulent drapery, furniture and ornament. The facades
include two shop frontages, with the most lavish design of all being for a sizeable building in Casablanca, incorporating a
wealth of ornament in stone, wood and metalwork, with decorative balustrades and balconies, doors and domes.
Cazes remains an enigmatic figure. However, two of the designs are marked ‘Casablanca’, where the airport was named
in honour of pioneer aviator Lieutenant Cazes, who flew to his doom at the start of the twentieth century. As it is an
unusual name, it is possible that Les Cazes were related.
A handsome illustration of the path of French design in the interwar period.
8. CHOYSELAT, Prudent le.
Discours oeconomique, non moins utile que récréatif,
monstrant comme de cinq cens livres pour une foys
employées, l'on peult tirer par an quatre mil cinq cens livres
de proffict honneste, qui est le moyen de faire profiter son
argent. Rouen, Martin le Menestrier 1612 [but ca. 1745].
16mo, pp. [ii], 45, [3]; a very good, crisp copy in
contemporary calf-backed boards, spine stamped in gilt, gilt
morocco lettering-piece; a few surface scuffs. £550
Early edition of an interesting ‘way to wealth’, in fact a
guide to the management of poultry, first published 1569. An
English translation was published in 1580 under the title A
Discourse of housebandrie, described by Mary Aslin
(Rothansted) as ‘the first book on poultry’. Brunet, Quérard
and Musset suggest the present edition is an 18th-century
piracy; ‘L’édition dont je parle est, selon M. Debure, une
contrefaçon, ce qui n'empêche pas qu'elle ne soit fort belle...’
(Musset).
Brunet I, col. 1852; Kress 319; Musset 468; Quérard VII, pp.
362-3; Goldsmiths' 8141 lists this edition as a facsimile; see
Aslin, Catalogue of the printed books on agriculture published
between 1471 and 1840 [in the library of Rothamsted
Experimental Station], p. 27.
‘THE FIRST BOOK ON POULTRY’
9. CULVERWELL, Ezekiel.
A Ready Way to remember the Scriptures. Or a Table of the old and new Testament … London, Printed
for John Clark, and are to bee sold at his Shop … 1637. [Bound with three other similar works.]
8vo, pp. [4], 76, 79-94; upper corner of E3 torn away, touching pagination, else a very good copy, bound
with copies of Eusebius Pagit, Historie of the Bible (1627), The Way to true Happinesse (1640?), and John
Downame, Briefe Concordance (1642), in early nineteenth-century quarter sheep and marbled boards; gift
inscription to first title-page (Pagit) ‘For M[ist]ris[s] Elizabeth Pye 1643. Pret: 2s–6d.’ £650
FOR CHILDREN OF TEN AND UPWARD
First and only edition, very scarce, of a simple mnemonic guide to the contents of the Bible, originally
concieved for the use of ‘Divines and young Students’, but also now envisaged as ‘a good Exercise for the
trayning up of Children of tenne years old and upward’. Genesis 1 is summarised, for example, as:
‘Creation, 1. Gods Image, 26. Mans soveraignty, 26. All very good, 31’. While John 13 comes out as
‘Washed, 5. If ye know, 17. Receive me, 20. Betray, 21. Sop, 26. Love, 24. Glorified, 31. Cock crew, 38.’
Born into a Protestant merchant family, Culverwell (1553/4-1631) became household chaplain to Robert,
Lord Rich, from 1586/7, and was linked to the nonconformist ministers around Braintree and Felsted
School in Essex. As he result of this he fell under heavy scrutiny from Aylmer in 1589, though survived
until he was eventually deprived in 1609, moving to London for the rest of his career. His links to the
following generation of America-bound non-conformists were strong. He officiated at the marriage of
John Winthrop, later governor of Massachusetts, and ‘converted him to godliness’, he and left a bequest
and books to New England’s most celebrated schoolmaster, Ezekiel Cheever.
Although entered in the Stationers’ register during Culverwell’s lifetime, in 1624, A Ready Way was only
published posthumously. Here it is bound with three similar works. Pagit’s Historie and The Way to true
Happinesse both taught the Bible using a catechistical structure; Downame’s famous Condordance was
essentially a dictionary of Biblical quotations.
ESTC shows five copies only: BL, Dr Williams’s Library, Bodley; Folger and Huntington.
STC 6111.
10. FALKENER, Edward, and Owen WILLIAMS,
photographer.
Games ancient and oriental and how to play them.
Being the games of the Ancient Egyptians, the Hiera
Gramme of the Greeks, the Ludus Latrunculorum of
the Roman and the oriental games of chess, draughts,
backgammon and magic squares. London; New York,
Longmans, Green and Co, 1892.
8vo, pp. [iv (blank)], [iv], 366, [2 (advertisement)]
with numerous illustrations to the text + 11 plates of
albumen print photographs and 7 plates (three
colour, one double-page) of illustration, with
advertisement leaf loosely inserted; a fine copy, clean
The photographic plates comprise: a portrait of the
author; Queen Hatasu; Chaturanga; Indian, Chinese,
Japanese, and Burmese chess-boards; Turkish chess-
cloth; Game of enclosing; Bead-work Pachisi-board; and a
reproduction of an artwork depicting a game of
Pachisi.
Reconstructions of four games described in the book
were manufactured and available for purchase at 7s
6d. The merchandise is publicised on the illustrated
advertising leaf loosely inserted, and in Appendix I,
pp. 358–361, which lists the rules for the available
games, which were: Ludus latrunculorum, the game of
Senat, the game of the Bowl, and the game of the
Sacred Way.
Beinlich-Seeber, Bibliographie Altägypten: 1822–1946,
7779; see the 1961 Annual Egyptological Bibliography,
61227 for the republished, unabridged edition printed
by Dover Publications in New York in that year.
See Gernsheim 132 for Falkener’s Daedalus, or, The
Causes and Principles of the Excellence of Greek
Sculpture [1860], illustrated with 8 albumen prints.
and crisp, with just little foxing to edges; bound in
publisher’s grey cloth with text and illustration of
Queen Hatasu in gilt to covers and spine.
£550
First edition of what is considered a pioneering
study of board games, by architect and classical
archaeologist Edward Falkener (1814–1896),
illustrated with original photographs.
BOARD GAMES OF ANCIENT EGYPT
11. FRANK, Louis.
Mémoire sur le commerce des Nègres au Kaire, et sur
les maladies auxquelles ils sont sujets en y arrivant.
Paris, Migneret and Mathe, an X 1802.
8vo, pp. [ii], 52; very light uniform browning, but a
very good copy, preserving its half-title, unbound,
with a contemporary paper spine. £1100
Goldsmiths’ 18565. Scarce. OCLC lists 3 copies in
the US (NLM, Oregon and Northwestern), 2 at the
BL, and no more than a handful in European
institutions.
First edition, very scarce, of an important study
documenting the condition of slaves in Cairo. Frank
was a medical officer of German extraction who
served in Egypt under Napoleon.
Though preponderantly medical, the pamphlet also
includes sociological observations on the causes and
circumstances which historically have fostered the
enslavement of African natives, with particular
regard to Egypt, and a ‘price list’. One of the cultural,
as well as medical issues, which Frank addresses
with remarkable openness is that of female genital
mutilation (pp. 26-31). The diseases most frequently
exhibited by slaves arriving at Cairo, Frank finds, are
respiratory complaints, eye diseases, smallpox, skin
illnesses, dysentery, plague, dracunculiasis and
venereal diseases, all of which Frank examines.
SLAVES IN CAIRO: A DOCTOR’S ACCOUNT
– INCLUDING A DISCUSSION ON FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION
12. GRAY, Thomas.
Poems and letters by Thomas Gray. London, Chiswick
Press, 1867.
4to, pp. xvi, 146 + albumen photograph frontispiece
portrait of the author after a painting + 3 albumen
print photographs, mounted one per leaf, minor
contemporary retouching of prints with ink; all edges
gilt; a little foxing (limited to title and leaves with, or
near, photographs), otherwise very clean and crisp;
bound in contemporary full tan calf, gilt double fillet
and floral border on covers, double fillet decorated
compartments with floral motifs in gilt on spine,
raised bands with chain decoration in gilt, title gilt
on red lettering piece, elaborate gilt dentelles,
marbled endpapers; a few small marks and rubs to
boards and edges, a little gilt lost. £225
Second edition (first 1863), with an introduction by
Horace Walpole. A photographically illustrated
collection of poems, extracts and letters, depicting
views to accompany the ‘Ode on a distant prospect
of Eton College’; ‘Elegy written in a country church-
yard’; and ‘A long story’.
This is not one of the special presentation copies
from Eton College to graduating students, which are
most commonly found.
The Hume copy of a pastoral
drama best-seller, ‘the most
popular work of secular
literature in Europe for almost
two hundred years…Too
richly ambivalent to be
dismissed as a mere example
of sensually idyllic escape
literature, [it] reveals an
epistemological crisis that
reflects the crisis of values
characteristic of the Counter-
Reformation age’ (N. J. Perella,
The Critical Fortune of Battista
Guarini’s ‘Il Pastor Fido’,
Florence, 1973, passim).
FROM THE DAVID HUME LIBRARY
13. GUARINI, Gian Battista. Il pastor fido. Paris, Praul, 1766.
Small 8vo, pp. 379, [1 blank]; with an engraved title-page and five engraved
vignettes to text; eighteenth-century ownership inscription ‘David Hume’ to
the front free end-paper, additional later inscription ‘baron Hume’, dated
1829, erased inscription to the head of the title; a very good copy in
contemporary calf, gilt triple fillet to sides, rebacked with the original spine
laid on, flat spine decorated in gilt with gilt morocco lettering-piece. £2500
This is the Hume family copy, almost certainly originating from the
library of David Hume the philosopher (1711-1776).
The earliest of the inscriptions found in the book is that which appears
almost completely erased at the head of the title: it is the ownership mark of
Joseph Hume (1752-1832), nephew of the philosopher. The ‘Baron Hume
1829’ inscription on the free end-paper belongs to David Hume, also nephew
of the philosopher, younger brother of Joseph, and Chancellor of the Scottish
Exchequer; the signature ‘David Hume’ does not belong to the philosopher
or to the Chancellor, as the hand is unmistakeably different from both, and
could be a secretarial record.
Although two copies of this edition of Il Pastor fido were listed in Norton’s
David Hume Library, one, that which was auctioned by Elliot in May 1801, is
very unlikely to have been from the philosopher’s library: the auctioneer’s
description notes the signature as ‘Home’, but there are no known instances
of David Hume using this form or spelling any time after 1734. The other
copy recorded in Norton, on the other hand, is described in the catalogue of
Baron Hume’s library edited by T. Stevenson in 1840, and in Stevenson’s sale
catalogue of 1851: its description corresponds beyond doubt to our copy.
It is possible that Joseph Hume, the elder brother of the later Baron, might
have inscribed the book on taking it along when he left for a Grand Tour, in
1788; at any rate, the history of the dispersal of David Hume’s library shows
that all his books were reunited in Baron Hume’s possession.
Norton & Norton, 559; Cohen-de Ricci col. 464.
14. [ENGLISH CHINA.] JARRETT, Ernest.
[Six original designs]. Coalbrookdale and Burslem, 1890-1900.
6 original individual designs, each measuring approx. 300 x
240mm; pencil underdrawing with watercolour, gilt
highlights; on paper backed with card; a few very small
marks, else fine; authorial monogram EJ at foot of all but
one design. £550
From the 1890s onwards, much of the firm’s
substantial output was geared at the ornamental
export market to the USA and Canada. The
present designs are strictly decorative rather than
practical, featuring the firm’s typical multi-
coloured three-dimensional flowers, indicating
that they may have been intended for this export
market.
A sometime artist for Doulton, here in his Coalbrookdale
phase, artist Ernest Jarrett produces six designs for delicate
bone china vases. The Coalport porcelain factory was
founded in Coalbrookdale in 1795, the first ceramics
manufacturer in the area, and went on to pioneer new
glazes and time-saving techniques that were soon adopted
industry-wide, including the application of transfer outlines
to speed up the hand painting process.
15. [IRELAND.] MARES, Frederick H., and John HUDSON,
photographers.
Gems of Irish Scenery with Descriptive Letterpress [cover title:
Photographic Gems of Irish Scenery]. Glasgow, Andrew Duthie;
London, Simpkin, Marshall & Co; Dublin, W. H. Smith & Son, [1868].
4to, pp. [ii (blank)], [54], [2 (advertisements)] + 12 albumen print
photographs, mounted one per leaf, each ranging between approx.
4¼ x 7 inches (10.8 x 17.7 cm.) and 4⅝ x 6½ inches (11.7 x 16.5 cm.),
four numbered and titled in the negative; all edges gilt;
contemporary presentation inscription in ink on front free
endpaper, very faint offsetting on versos facing photographs, three
prints are coming partly away from the pages, but are undamaged,
hinges a little weak; in original green cloth, gilt decoration and
lettering to upper cover, bevelled edges; a few minor marks to
extremities and boards. £950
First edition.
Frederick Holland Mares was one of the handful of Irish
professional photographers whose work was included in the
Dublin International Exhibition of 1865, alongside such
internationally-recognised names as Bedford, Cameron, Hawarden,
Mayall, Rejlander, Robinson and Silvy. He showed views of Irish
scenery including stereoscopic studies. John Hudson of Killarney
is best-known for his own series of 1860s Irish stereo views, having
agents distributing his work in several American cities. Mares
worked with the Glasgow publisher, Duthie, on a series of at least
five volumes, all published in 1867-8, focusing on Dublin,
Killarney, Wicklow and the Giant’s Causeway as well as this book
of scenic ‘gems’. His name is perhaps less known today than that
of William Lawrence who began working around five years later
and was to be Ireland’s most prolific view photographer of the 19th
century (see Chandler & Walsh, Through the brass lidded
eye/Photography in Ireland, 1839-1900, pp. 22 and 32-34). The volume
offered here indicates the high quality of these two early
photographers’ outputs, albeit in modest format, this quality
reflected also in Duthie’s elegant little publications.
The advertisements list the other photographically illustrated
books on both Scotland and Ireland published by Andrew Duthie,
including prices and reviews.
Not in Imagining Paradise: The Richard and Ronay Menschel Library at
George Eastman House, Rochester, p. 78, which features three works
by Mares: Photographs of Dublin; Photographs of Co. Wicklow; and
Photographs of the Giant’s Causway.
Gernsheim 375. The note ‘12 photos by F. H. Mares’ makes no
mention of Hudson. In the book offered here the twelve views are
listed, eight of which are recorded as being photographed by
Hudson.
COPAC lists 3 copies in UK.
16. [IRELAND.] MARES, Frederick H., photographer.
Photographs of Dublin with Descriptive Letterpress [cover title:
Photographs of Irish Scenery. Dublin]. Glasgow, Andrew Duthie;
London, Simpkin, Marshall & Co.; Dublin, W. H. Smith and Son, [1867].
8vo, pp. [ii (blank)], [60] [4 (advertisements)], [2 (blank)] + 12
albumen print photographs, mounted one per leaf, each approx.
3⅞ x 3¼ inches (9.8 x 8.3 cm.), two photographs coming loose at
foot, one with tear in sky (repaired); printed on rectos only;
A PHOTOGRAPHIC SOUVENIR OF FRANCO–IRISH RELATIONS IN 1870
all edges gilt; a few areas of light foxing, not affecting images,
otherwise clean; in the original green publisher’s cloth, with border
and lettering in gilt to upper cover, border in blind to lower cover,
bevelled boards; crease to back free endpaper, generally very clean;
yellow binder’s label of Hunter, Edinburgh to back pastedown;
provenance: presentation inscription in ink on first recto, ‘À
Monsieur Le Comte de Flavigny avec les compliments respectueux
de Auguste E. Lesage. Dublin 20 Août 1871’. £1250
First edition, inscribed from an Irish volunteer to the President of
the French Red Cross visiting Dublin to thank the Irish for their
help in the Franco-Prussian War.
The photographs include two views of Kingstown, where the
President arrived by boat on 15th December 1871. The views are
captioned: ‘Sackville Street’; ‘Trinity College’; ‘The Bank of Ireland’;
‘The Four Courts’; ‘The Custom House’; ‘St Patrick’s Cathedral
(exterior)’; ‘St. Patrick’s Cathedral (interior)’; ‘The Chapel Royal’; ‘The
Viceregal Lodge’; ‘The Winter Garden Palace’; ‘Kingstown’; and
‘Kingstown Harbour’. The advertisements list other
photographically illustrated books on both Scotland and Ireland
published by Andrew Duthie, including prices and physical
descriptions, with a note that the views can be purchased
separately.
The book was given by an Auguste E. Lesage, likely the A. E.
Lesage who was the Honourable Secretary of the Committee at the
time the Irish volunteers left Dublin. By 1879 a ‘Photographer,
Printseller, and Publisher’ of the same name is listed at 40 Sackville
Street, Dublin. He appears to have gone in to partnership in or
continued the printselling business that an Adolphe Lesage was
running at that address from approximately the late 1840s.
See Imagining Paradise: The Richard and Ronay Menschel Library at
George Eastman House, Rochester, p. 78. The 8vo binding offered
here differs from the 4to binding illustrated there – it features the
same bevelled edges, compartment and text on the upper cover,
back lacks the floral decoration of rose, thistle, and clover which
encircles the text. See Gernsheim 373 for Dublin and Kingstown, of
which we have not been able to trace a copy to compare contents
with the book offered.
For a note on Mares and his work, see item 15.
The Comte de Flavigny served as President of the Société de
Secours aux Blessés Militaires from 1870 to 1873. The Society (now
the Croix-Rouge française) sent a deputation to Ireland in response
to Irish support during the Franco-Prussian War the previous year.
As well as Dublin, they visited Cork, Bantry, Glengarriff and
Killarney.
Days after France had declared war on Prussia in July 1870, in
Dublin a subscription list was opened for the relief of the French
army. In September the ‘Committee for the Relief of the Sick and
Wounded of the French Army and Navy’ was formed and the
volunteers departed in early October. They comprised some 250
medics and ambulance drivers, who served alongside the French in
the Franco-Irish ambulance unit. For background on the Irish
volunteers, see Reminiscences of the Franco-Irish Ambulance 1870–
1871, by M. A. Leeson.
FOUR FOLIOS, AND FORGED FORGERIES
17. [IRELAND, William Henry.]
Catalogue of the miscellaneous and dramatic Library, engraved theatrical Portraits, dramatic and
literary autograph Letters, and Collection of theatrical Relics, the Property of the late Charles
Mathews … at the End of the autograph Letters are, with Permission, added the unpublished
Writings and literary Productions of the late Mr William Henry Ireland, Author of the Shaksperian
[sic] Forgeries, &c. which will be sold by Auction, by Mr Sotheby and Son … on Wednesday,
August 19th 1835, and three following Days … [London, Compton & Ritchie, Printers, 1835].
8vo, pp. 48; as issued in self-wrappers, spine perished, stitching wanting, edges of first few leaves
chipped; occasional sale prices in a contemporary hand. £750
First edition, the auction catalogue of the library of Charles Mathews (1776-1835), whose collection
of theatrical portraits forms the basis of the present Garrick Club collection.
As well as copies of all four Shakespeare folios, Mathews’s library included as lot 567 ‘Shakspeare
(The) Forgeries, by W. H. Ireland, the original documents, in 1 vol. russia, gilt leaves’, which are
claimed here as ‘the greater portion of the original documents forged by W. H. Ireland’, and were
apparently purchased by Mathews from Ireland ‘as early as 1812’, with a letter to that effect from
Ireland. Mathews knew Ireland through their mutual friend, Irish fellow-actor Montague Talbot,
who was complicit in the forgeries, allowing Ireland to name him as the source of the manuscripts.
Mathews’s Ireland forgeries were of course not the ‘original’ forgeries, but among a number of
refabrications produced by Ireland after his exposure. The ‘Complete Collection of Shakespearian
Papers’ was consigned after Samuel Ireland’s death to Sotheby’s and appeared in a sale of May
1801, where the iconic volumes of forgeries were bought in and later sold en bloc to the MP and
bibliophile John Dent. Meanwhile William Henry began forging the forgeries, selling a set first to
Albany Wallis.
‘These re-fabrications were the pattern for a long and fairly lucrative sideline in forged forgeries,
which stretched over four decades and hundreds of manufactured artefacts, often claimed by
Ireland to be the famous “originals” of 1794-96 – none of which, of course, existed outside of the
collection now owned by Dent … Dozens of such artful assemblies, executed between 1797 and the
mid-1830s, survive today …’ (Freeman). At Dent’s library sale in 1827 the ‘original’ forgeries were
purchased by Robert Tunno; they are now in the Hyde Collection at Harvard.
The volume of forged forgeries being sold in the Mathews collection included, as well as
Shakespeariana, a selection of portraits of and by Ireland, and two ‘original’(?) Queen Elizabeth
documents, claimed by Ireland as those from which he copied Elizabeth’s signature. Other Ireland-
related lots in Mathews’ library (lots 430-434) included Isaac Reed’s copies of Vortigern and Henry
the Second.
Ireland himself died in April 1835. Quick to capitalise, Sotheby’s inserted twenty-eight lots ‘with
permission’ at the end of the Mathews sale, comprising both original manuscripts and forgeries.
They include: 887, a volume of forged historical autographs; 888, ‘Part of the MSS of Lear, one of
the Shaksperian Fabrications’; lots 898 and 899, the manuscripts of Ireland’s ‘Chatterton, a
Tragedy’, and ‘Rizzio’ (‘finished by W. H. I. a few days only previous to his decease’ and not
published until 1849); and lot 890, ‘Ireland’s Confessions, with Col. George’s notes and some
Answers by W. H. I’ (see Freeman, Bibliotheca Fictiva 503:3).
OCLC records copies at Yale, Harvard, Bodley, State Library of Victoria, the BL (2), and Berlin State
Library. COPAC adds Manchester University.
Arnott and Robinson, 133. See Arthur Freeman; ‘William Henry Ireland’s “Authentic Original
Forgeries”: An Overdue Rediscovery’ (2012, online).
THE EDITION OWNED BY THOMAS JEFFERSON
18. [KAMES, Henry Home].
Elements of criticism. With additions and improvements.
Edinburgh, printed for A. Millar and A. Kincaid & J. Bell, 1765.
Two vols, 8vo, some scattered inoffensive foxing, but a very
good copy, uncut in the original boards; tears to paper
spines, the spine in vol. I partly detached from the text block,
but sound and stable. £750
Third edition, expanded and amended, of perhaps the most
notable and influential product of the Scottish aesthetic
movement. Thomas Jefferson had a copy of this edition in
his library.
First published in 1762, the book immediately established
itself as ‘a textbook in rhetoric and belles-lettres for a century,
not least in America’ (The Dictionary of Eighteenth-Century
Philosophers).
Jessop, p. 141; Sowerby 4699.
THE VALE PRESS KEATS
19. KEATS, John.
The Poems … [Colophon: Printed at the Ballantyne Press. Published by Messrs.
Hacon & Ricketts … London 1898.]
2 vols, 8vo, pp. 173, [3]; 173, [3], with woodcut decorations and initials by
Charles Ricketts; a fine copy, uncut, in contemporary dark blue morocco, spine
gilt, top edge gilt. £750
First edition thus, one of 210 copies on paper (8 were also printed on vellum).
A very handsome edition, edited by C. J. Holmes and printed for Charles
Ricketts’s Vale Press. The Vale Press employed founts, decoration, watermarks,
and wood engravings all by Ricketts, on a press set aside for his use at the
Ballantyne Press. ‘It is doubtful if, in the history of printing, books have been
made which reflect the invention and work of one man more explicitly than do
the Vale books.’ The initials here employed two alphabets, one cut specially for
this publication.
A Bibliography of the Books issued by Hacon and Ricketts (1904), pp. xxiv.
Tomkinson 20.
20. [MIDWIFERY.]
A series of seven notebooks titled ‘Cours d’Accouchement dirigé par Mr Grynfeltt [II:
... Mr Vallois] et Mlle J Bazin rédigé par Mlle Julia David élève sage-femme année 97-
98 [II: [s.a.]; III: ... Année 98-99] Montpellier’ (3 vols.) [and] ‘Cours d’Anatomie dirigé
par Mr Vallois [VI and VII: ... Mr Puech] et Mlle Jenny Bazin rédigé par Mlle Julia
David élève sage-femme [VI and VII: ... à la Maternité] Année 97-98 [VI and VII: ...
Année 1898-99] Montpellier’ (4 vols.). Montpellier, 1897-1899.
7 volumes, 4to (220 x 175mm), ff. I: 105; II: 99; III: 102; IV: 102; V: 112; VI: 120; VII: 106;
all in black and purple ink on ruled paper in a French hand of the late 19th century;
illustrated with 3 pencil-and-ink sketches of the gravid uterus (‘Varietés de Positions
de la Présentation du sommet’ (2 sketches) and ‘Présentation de l’epaule’) and 22
coloured pencil-and-ink drawings of the cardiovascular, pulmonary and gastro-
intestinal systems, abdominal region and pelvis, development of the zygote and
female reproductive system; offsetting affecting first and last ll. of each vol.,
occasional marginal creasing and short tears, c. 10 ll. removed without loss to text,
some ink- or glue-marking on a few ll.; all similarly bound in vari-coloured half cloth
over marbled boards, patterned endpapers, all edges red; extremities somewhat
rubbed and bumped, some ink marks, some hinges cracked, one reinforced with tape,
vol. IV damp-marked causing small surface losses; provenance: Librairie Jh. Calas,
Montpellier (bookseller’s ticket in 3 vols.) — Julia David (recorded on title pages) —
illegible pairs of stickers on most upper boards — ‘10’ (ink stamp on free endpapers).
£2700
A RARE SEVEN-VOLUME SERIES OF LECTURE NOTES FOR THE COURS D’ACCOUCHEMENTAT MONTPELLIER IN THE LATE 19TH CENTURY
These lecture notes, taken by student midwife Julia David in Montpellier during
the two-year qualification course of 1897 to 1899, cover full lectures on midwifery
and anatomy. They provide rare insights into the careful preparation of young French
midwives in both the theory and practice of assisting childbirth, and especially the
complications that they would doubtless face in the course of their careers. The course
was led by Jenny Bazin (b. 1868), one of Montpellier’s leading midwives, who was
appointed sage-femme en chef at the Maternité in 1888 and was named a chevalier of the
Légion d’Honneur in 1934. As the only lecturer teaching all parts of the course
recorded in the notebooks, Bazin worked closely with three professors at the medical
faculty of Montpellier: surgeon Joseph-Casimir Grynfeltt; (1840-1913), after whom the
lumbar ‘Grynfellt hernias’ were named; Léon Vallois (1856-1939), Professeur agrégé
d’accouchements (like Grynfeltt and several other famous physicians in Montpellier of
the period of Polish origin); and gynaecologist Paul Puech (b. 1863), who published
prolifically on, among other things, obstetrics and hysterectomy, and gastro-intestinal
and urological diseases.
Two illustrations accompanying the final parts of the script in volume II are finely-
drawn depictions of the foetus in utero. The twenty-two coloured illustrations
distributed throughout the anatomical notebooks range from small depictions of
organs to full-page diagrams of the inner workings of the human body.
This record of the Montpellier midwifery course is a rare document, because it
provides comprehensive details on midwives’ education at the end of the nineteenth
century (a period in which French midwifery courses had been revived and reformed
significantly, and during which no obstetrics textbooks for midwives were published).
Interestingly, its relevance extends into the early twentieth century, since the final
volume contains Julia David’s records of her patients and fees paid for the year 1910.
We have not been able to trace any similar manuscripts in libraries internationally.
First edition, one of 250 copies on papier de
hollande. The Greek classical scholar and poet
Mynas (1788 or 1790-1860) was born in
Macedonia, and studied under the
distinguished theologian and philosopher
Athanasios Parios, before teaching rhetoric and
philosophy in Serres and Thessalonika.
Political upheavals around the time of the
outbreak of the Greek War of Independence
caused Mynas to leave Greece for France,
where he settled and published a number of
works on Greek philology and also a series of
patriotic works promoting the cause of Greek
independence.
MYNAS’ PINDARIC ODE TO CANARIS, A HERO OF THE GREEK WAR OF
INDEPENDENCE, ONE OF 250 COPIES
21. MYNAS, Constant Minoïde.
Canaris, chant pindarique. Paris, Imprimerie de Poussielgue-Rusand for Bobée et Hingray,
‘1830’ [but dated 1831 on upper wrapper].
12mo in 4s (186 x 108 mm.), pp. 71, [1 (blank)]; Greek and French types; woodcut
laurel-wreath vignette on titles; occasional light spotting; original printed yellow
wrappers with wood-engraved designs, uncut; wrappers a little marked, edges
slightly creased and chipped with small losses, nonetheless a very good copy of a rare
work. £950
Canaris falls into the latter category and is a Pindaric ode praising the exploits of the
Greek hero Constantine Kanaris (1793 or 1795-1877), who was famous at the time of
its publication for his audacious and successful attacks on the Turkish navy with fire-
ships; after the War of Independence, Canaris would follow a naval career before
becoming minister of the navy and then serving as premier from 1848 to 1849. In 1862
he led the bloodless revolution that overthrew King Otto and replaced him with
George I, and went on to serve as premier on two further occasions before his death.
The poem was dedicated to Jean Gabriel Eynard, the celebrated French philhellene
and supporter of Greek independence, and Mynas’ address to Eynard opens with the
words, ‘Si dans la Grèce ceux qui s’honorent du nom d’Hellènes avaient égalé la
valeur de Canaris, et si les riches de l’Europe s’étaient montré les imitateurs de votre
générosité, l’indépendance de la Grèce ne serait pas restée incomplète et le Mars des
Musulmans destructeurs eût été depuis long-temps repoussé vers l’Asie, non pas
pour regagner l’olympe, mais pour se voir clouer sur le Caucace’ (p. [7]).
The address to the dedicatee is printed in parallel Greek and French texts on facing
pages, and the poem is printed in Greek with a French prose translation on the facing
pages. The advertisement for the author’s works on p. [12], states that Canaris was
printed in an edition of 250 copies on papier de hollande and priced at 2fr. 50c. (this
example is on paper bearing the watermark of the Dutch papermaker D. & C. Blauw).
Due to the small limitation, the work is rare and COPAC only locates one copy in the
UK (British Library), to which WorldCat and KVK add copies in France and
Switzerland at the Bibliothèque national de France, the Bibliothèque nationale et
universitaire de Strasbourg, the Bibliothèque de la Sorbonne, and the Bibliothèque de
Genève.
K. Van Bragt, Bibliographie des traductions françaises (1810-1840) (Louvain, 1995), 6830;
Quérard VI, p. 376.
‘ALMURKA AND SNIVENUS, A STORY ROMANTICAL’
22. P[ASCOLI], L[ivio.]
Novella romantica col testo originale Inglese post in versi Italiani sopra traduzzione
letterale, e poesie diverse … Seconda edizione … Bologna. 1823 [altered from 1821].
Tipografia Marsigli. [Bound (issued?) with:]
P[ASCOLI], L[ivio.] Improvvisi con altre produzioni non estemporanee … Bologna.
1823 [also altered from 1821]. Tipografia Marsigli. [and with:]
[PASCOLI, Livio?]. Il Buon capo d’anno … Bologna. Tipografia Marsigli … 1822.
Three works in one, small 4to, pp. [32], with English and Italian on facing pages; pp.
[24]; and pp. [8]; in the second piece the divisional title-page Rime faacile-morali is
hand-stamped ‘Extamporanee’; very good copies, bound together in contemporary
blue paper boards, gilt, edges rubbed. £450
Second editions of the first two items, first edition of the third, probably issued
together.
Pascoli’s Novella romantica is an odd Ossianic confection, with a supposed prose
original in English, ‘Almurka and Snivenus’, printed alongside an Italian ‘translation’
in terza rima, ‘Alminda e Sniveno’. Despite the bizarre and vaguely oriental title, the
story is set in medieval Norway, where the titular couple reign as happy and
enlightened monarchs. Snivenus is sent for by the King of Britain, ‘who had prevailed
to every body in his strength, and had destroyed in his thought every principle of
reason’. The seas are dangerous, Almurka fears the worst, and indeed ‘the ship was
flinged up and down by the waves and beated at once by winds, hail and rain.’
Snivenus and many others drown; ‘the surpassing and raged waves fluttered around
the bodys of agonizing and dead men’; his spirit ‘assumes the form of the drowned
King’ and returns in a dream to Almurka; in grief she goes to the shore, where she
finds Snivenus’s corpse and then dies. The Italian poem clearly precedes the non-
native English; the context and indeed the motive for the production remain, sadly,
obscure.
Alminda e Sniveno was first published in Milan in 1818 (one copy recorded), and is
here reprinted with several pieces of Italian verse on historical themes. The title-page
can be dated 1821, 1822 or 1823 (as here), the additional Roman numerals added by
stamp. Improvvisi was first published in ‘1812’ (actually 1821), but with slightly
different contents. The last item is a New Year’s poem for 1823. It is not recorded as
by Pascoli, but its presence here, and the fact that he published at least one other such
poem, suggest his authorship.
COPAC and OCLC shows only two copies of Novella romantica (Bodley and
Bibliothèque nationale) and none of the other two items.
PHOTOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF THE MILKY WAY
THE ONLY WORK PUBLISHED BY THE FOUNDER OF PRAGMATISM DURING HIS LIFETIME
23. PEIRCE, Charles Sanders.
Photometric Researches. Made in the Years
1872-1875. Annals of the Astronomical
Observatory of Harvard College. Vol. IX. Leipzig,
Wilhelm Engelmann, 1878.
4to, pp. vi, 181, [1], erratum slip; with 5 plates; a
fine copy, in later red cloth gilt-stamped
‘McMath-Hulbert Observatory’, with the library
bookplate to the front pastedown; spine lightly
sunned. £13,000
PEIRCE, Charles Sanders.
Collected papers. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1931-35 and 1966.
8 vols in 7, large 8vo; with illustrations and diagrams throughout; a very good set in the
original publisher’s cloth; the last, supplementary volume preserving the dust jacket
(chipped); a very appealing complete set.
First edition of the original six volumes of Peirce’s collected works, with the
supplementary two volumes edited by Burks in second impression (first 1958).
‘The editorial task of organizing the Peirce papers did not continue smoothly after Royce’s
death, but eventually passed to a young C. I. Lewis, who had already shown some
appreciation of Peirce’s work in the development of logic in his 1918 publication A Survey
of Symbolic Logic. Although Lewis quickly found the task of editing Peirce’s manuscripts
not to his taste, his contact with them allowed him to develop answers to his own
philosophical problems and much of Peirce’s systematicity is reflected in Lewis’ work.
Instead, the Peirce papers that inspired both Royce and Lewis came to fruition under the
joint editorship of Charles Hartshorne and Paul Weiss. Their editorial work culminated in
six volumes of The Collected Papers of C.S. Peirce between 1931 and 1935, and for fifty years
this was the most important primary source in Peirce scholarship. Hartshorne and Weiss
remained interested in Peirce’s work throughout their working lives. Further, both men
supervised the young Richard Rorty, which may account for some of his early favorable
accounts of Peirce. Of course, Rorty later rejected the value and status of Peirce as a
pragmatist.
‘In the late 1950’s, The Collected Papers, begun by Hartshorne and Weiss, were completed
with two volumes, edited by Arthur Burks. Burks had, prior to his editorship of The
Collected Papers, worked on some Peirce inspired accounts of names and indexical
reference’ (IEP).
Very rare first edition of the only book which Peirce published in his lifetime. Unlike
his ground-breaking and enormously influential contributions to logic, philosophy of mind
and metaphysics, which – abundant as they were – remained scattered in the form of
journal articles, incomplete manuscript notes and reviews until the publication of the
colossal Collective papers after his death in the 1930s, Peirce’s account of his experimental
science work saw the light as early as 1878 as vol. IX of the prestigious Annals of the
Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College. At the time, Peirce worked as an Assistant in
the United States Coastal and Geodetic Survey. This publication includes his study of a
new ‘photometric’ technique (using light waves to measure distances) in what was the first
attempt to determine the shape of the Milky Way from the brightness of the stars.
‘By 1875, the greater part of the photometric researches was completed, but he wanted still
to make a more thorough study of earlier star catalogues. During his second Coast Survey
assignment in Europe (1875-76), he examined medieval and renaissance manuscripts of
Ptolemy's star catalogue in several libraries. He also made inquiries as to the methods
used in the preparation of the most recent star catalogue, the Durchmusterung of
Argelander and Schönfeld at the Bonn Observatory. Peirce’s book, Photometric Researches
(1878), included his own edition of Ptolemy’s catalogue, as well as a long letter from
Schönfeld concerning the methods of the Durchmusterung’ (Peirce Edition Project:
Introduction to Volume 3 of The Writings of Charles S. Peirce).
[offered with:]
24. ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF LONDON.
Pharmacopoeia Collegii Regalis Medicorum Londinensis. London, T. Longman, T.
Shewell & J. Nourse, 1746.
4to (260 x 198mm), pp. xvi, 174, [2 (final blank)]; engraved frontispiece of the Royal
College of Physicians by J. Mynde, title with woodcut vignette; occasional light
spotting, a few light marginal marks, one possibly traces of a dried plant;
contemporary English full black goatskin gilt, boards with outer borders of gilt rules
and dog-tooth rolls, enclosing two mitred panels, the outer of gilt rules and dog-
tooth rolls with crown-and-sceptre corner-pieces, the inner formed of multiple rules
and dog-tooth and foliate rolls, spine gilt in compartments, gilt morocco lettering-
piece in one, others decorated with floral and foliate tools, board-edges and turn-ins
roll-tooled in gilt, comb-marbled endpapers, all edges gilt, green silk marker (end
torn with small loss); extremities a little rubbed with small losses at corners, skilfully
rebacked retaining original spine, possibly missing front flyleaf, but otherwise a very
good, crisp copy, retaining the final blank Y4; provenance: Thomas Corbyn (1711-
1791, clerical inscription on front free endpaper, presenting the book to:) — ‘E.
Laurence’ (possibly the American apothecary Effingham Lawrence, vide infra). £1250
Fifth, revised edition, large-paper issue. The London Pharmacopeia, the first
standard list of medicines and their ingredients to be published in England, was first
issued by the Royal College of Physicians in 1618, and governed the composition of
medicines until 1864.
The successive editions of the Pharmacopoeia document the development of pharmacy
and the R.C.P.’s regulation of the medical marketplace, and this fifth edition, revised
under the leadership of the R.C.P.’s president Dr. Henry Plumptre, represents the
most significant contribution to the development of pharmaceutical standards in
London in the eighteenth century. During ‘the whole of the period that Dr. Plumptre
was president [1740-1745] the fifth Pharmacopoeia Londinensis was in course of
revision and re-construction’ (W. Munk, Roll of the Royal College of Physicians of London
(London: 1878), II, p. 24), and this edition addressed discrepancies between
preparations traditionally included in earlier editions and current medical
knowledge, and also marked the introduction of further mineral and chemical cures.
Above and beyond this, however, it is the ‘simplification in the formulae that
distinguished [the fifth edition] from all its predecessors’ (loc. cit). Its critics (among
them Nicholas Culpeper) mostly took issue with the Pharmacopoeia’s bias towards
items they perceived to be highly priced. Generally, however, this fifth edition was
considered to be a handbook of the safest and most effective medication of the time:
drugs officially approved to be prepared and dispensed by doctors and apothecaries
to patients within the London area and, it was hoped, the whole of England.
AN IMPORTANT PHARMACOPOEIA FINELY-BOUND FOR PRESENTATION BY
THE EMINENT QUAKER APOTHECARY THOMAS CORBYN
This large-paper copy was in a handsome, contemporary English goatskin binding,
which was presumably commissioned by Thomas Corbyn, for presentation on his
behalf. Corbyn was a Quaker apothecary known for his scrupulous production of
high-quality drugs to the standard of the London Pharmacopoeia. By the time the 1746
Pharmacopoeia Londinensis was published, Corbyn had received his freedom from the
Society of Apothecaries and established an international trade that extended as far as
the American colonies, and by the early 1750s his business was growing rapidly, in
spite of his comparatively high production costs. In a letter of 1750 to American
clients, he wrote: ‘Perhaps some will say ye compositions are too dear, thou must
insist on their goodness. I know there are a great many very bad and adulterated
medicines sent to America, which are sold cheap but have much larger profit than
those who are conscientious in preparing them true according to ye London
dispensatory’ (R. and D. Porter, ‘The Rise of the English Drugs Industry: The Role of
Thomas Corbyn’, inMedical History, 33 (1989), pp. 277-295, at pp. 287-288).
Corbyn presumably considered this finely-bound, large-paper copy of the fifth
edition of the Pharmacopoeia a particularly suitable work to present to an important
client – an expensive gift and a valuable scientific text, which associated his business
with high professional standards in medical matters, and identified him as successful
merchant and an apothecary committed to modern science. It is most probable that
the recipient of this copy would have been a professional Quaker contact, since
‘almost all’ of Corbyn’s business associates were Quakers (op. cit, p. 291), due to ‘the
moral and business codes of the Quaker International which made long-distance,
indeed trans-Atlantic, trade in drugs a viable enterprise’ (op. cit., p. 293). On this basis,
it is possible that the recipient of this copy was the American Quaker apothecary
Effingham Lawrence (or Laurence, 1760-1800) of New York, who established his
business in 1781 and would become apothecary to the New York Medical Society.
Effingham’s brother John B. Lawrence was also an apothecary, and in 1794 he entered
into partnership with Jacob Schieffelin, who had married their sister Hannah
Lawrence in 1794 and would give his name to one of the major American drugs
businesses. Although Effingham Lawrence established his business some thirty-five
years after this edition was published, Corbyn may have hoarded quarto copies of the
fifth edition for presentation, since all five London reprints of the fifth edition were in
duodecimo format, and therefore unsuitable for presentation (the next quarto edition
was the sixth of 1788).
Blake p. 349; ESTC T94945; Norman 1692 (lacking Y4); Wellcome IV, p. 363.
WOMEN’S WORKING LIVES IN WW1 – DOCUMENTED IN PHOTOGRAPHS
25. REAVIL, Arthur L. P.
‘Some photographs of Women’s Work in Wartime, taken during The Great War 1914–
1919’, 1919.
164 gelatin silver print photographs, the majority matt-surfaced and toned a rich reddish-
brown, approximately 3⅞ x 2⅞ inches (9.7 x 7.3 cm.) or the reverse; in an album of thirty
leaves of grey-green card, four leaves of typescript index tipped in on front free endpaper,
each photograph numbered on typescript label below (numbers cross-referenced in index),
typescript dedication note to front paste-down, signed A.L.P.R. and dated 1919; bound in
burgundy cloth, gilt lettering to upper cover (rubbed area of staining and a few little marks
to upper cover, a crack to joint of spine affecting cloth only, rubbing to foot of spine, still
holding firm), oblong 4to, 10⅞ x 14 inches (27.7 x 35.5 cm.). £6500
A significant and remarkably coherent photographic account of women’s working lives
during the First World War, with well-considered photographs meticulously printed and
laid down in sequences describing the women’s occupations in some depth. Reavil, more
used to photographing trains, has carefully posed his sitters and managed the light in
many interior shots to provide an unusually detailed account of real women doing real
work in wartime.
Rail workers comprise approximately one third of the album and a multitude of jobs is
represented, including ticket collector, travelling library attendant, and porters. The index
specifies the railway company employers: London, North Western, Metropolitan, Great
Central, Great Western, Great Eastern, Midland, South Eastern and Chatham, District, and
the London Underground, the photographs having some emphasis on Birmingham and
Staffordshire as well as Gloucester and London.
Reavil’s customary photographic subject of choice was
locomotives. He gave a lecture to the Royal
Photographic Society on November 2nd, 1926, titled
‘The photography of locomotives and trains in
motion’, earning thanks from the President for ‘a
romantic and interesting account of what had
promised to be a somewhat boring subject’ (The
Photographic Journal, Jan. 1927, pp. 2–6). Reavil, of 19
Dawson Place, London, was a member of the Royal
Photographic Society from 1920 to 1944 (the Society
does not hold membership information for 1945 or
1946, so it seems likely that Reavil died during this
period, as his name is not listed in the 1947
membership list). The National Railway Museum
holds a collection of 120 of Reavil’s negatives,
featuring French, German, Belgian, Dutch and Swiss
locomotives in the 1920s, as well as other photographs
(in the ‘Clapham’ collection).
This album was loaned to the Imperial War Museum
and a small number of copy prints were made, now
listed on their website (see catalogue numbers 8503–
18). We have found no other record of any prints of
these images, vintage or modern.
Provenance: presented by the photographer to Mr. &
Mrs. S. W. Burleigh, henceforth by descent.
Women are shown fulfilling roles traditionally
considered men’s: the ‘Signal Lamp Cleaner, Annesley’
is balanced precariously half-way up the signal pole;
Gloucester ‘Carriage Cleaners’, ‘Locomotive Cleaners’,
and ‘Wagon Painter’ are kitted out to get dirty;
Willenhall women are road sweepers; Westminster
ladies are ‘loading wood blocks’; and the Army
Remount Depot representatives are picking horses’
hooves. The outfits and uniforms recorded are various:
surprisingly a London Bridge porter is smartly dressed
in a feminine uniform resembling that of a housemaid,
still donning a pair of small heels despite the nature of
the job.
Eight photographs describe the contribution of female
munitions workers in North Cheshire, at Halesowen in
the West Midlands and in Coventry. Other in-depth
sequences relate to women land workers (some on the
Marquis of Downshire’s estate), others feeding calves
and milking near Kelmscott, baling hay, hop-picking,
gardening and working as foresters. One group of
photographs shows women delivering cakes, driving
and maintaining the fleet for the J. Lyons catering
company. The range of other jobs extends to post office
staff, brewery workers, police women, oxy-acetylene
welders, motor cycle and other drivers, bus mechanics,
a butcher, a draughtswoman and members of the
Womens’ Royal Naval Service.
26. RUSSELL, Bertrand.
In praise of idleness and other essays. London, George Allen & Unwin, [1935].
8vo, pp. 231, [1] imprint; light spotting to first and final few leaves and edges; original
publisher’s cloth, spine lettered gilt; with Russell’s signature on the front free endpaper. £280
First edition of this collection of essays on sociology, economics and politics, a copy signed by
the author. It was in the eponymous essay contained here that Russell argued the social
benefits of a four-hour working day.
‘This book contains essays on such aspects of social questions as tend to be ignored in the clash
of politics. It emphasizes the dangers of too much organization in the realm of thought and too
much strenuousness in action. It explains why I cannot agree with either Communism or
Fascism, and wherein I dissent from what both have in common. It maintains that the
importance of knowledge consists not only in its direct practical utility but also in the fact that
it promotes a widely contemplative habit of mind; on this ground, utility is to be found in much
of the knowledge that is nowadays labelled “useless”. There is a discussion of the connection
of architecture with various social questions, more particularly the welfare of young children
and the position of women’ (the author’s preface).
Blackwell & Ruja A66.1a.
27. STIRLING, James Hutchison, Sir.
The secret of Hegel. London, Longman, Green…, 1865.
Two vols, 8vo, pp. lxxiv, 465, [1], [28 publisher’s catalogue]; viii, 624; a
very good copy in the original publisher’s orange cloth, sides blind-
stamped, the front sides with the added prize gilt stamps of
Edinburgh University; spine ends a little bumped, some fading to
spines; prize labels to front paste-down. £180
First edition of the Scottish philosopher’s first book, which
‘revealed for the first time to the English public the significance and
import of Hegel’s idealistic philosophy…’ (DNB). The book had a
notable impact in America too.
‘On Stirling’s interpretation Hegel was seen to be reintroducing an
element of the ‘spiritual’ back into history. Stirling was also interested
in the linkage between Kant’s epistemological categories in particular
his notion of ‘pure reason’ and Hegel’s dialectic philosophy. Stirling
argued Kant and Hegel go hand-in-hand Hegel being nothing but the
realization in history of Kant’s notion of ‘universal’ truth. By referring
to the ‘secret’ of Hegel Stirling was alluding to these Kantian
underpinnings in Hegel’s writing’ (Gifford Lectures, biographical
introduction, www.giffordlectures.org).
CBEL III, 1593.
A SCARCE POEM ON THE 1824 ST PETERSBURG FLOOD
28. ST-THOMAS, Auguste de.
L’inondation de Saint-Pétersbourg. Le 7 Novembre 1824. St Petersburg, de l’imprimerie du
Département de l’Instruction Publique (to front cover: chez MM. de St-Florent et Hauer), 1824.
8vo, pp. 8; a fine copy in the original publisher’s printed wrappers; with mss. authorial
correction and addition on page 7. £850
First edition, and the only copy recorded, of a scarce eyewitness account in verse of the
flooding which hit St Petersburg on 7th of November 1824, and peaked on the 19th, when
the Neva breached its embankments and destroyed large parts of St. Petersburg, killing
several hundred people.
The original wrapper bears the dedication, dated 10 November 1824, to Alexander von
Benckendorff, Adjutant General of Tsar Alexander I, who was involved in the rescue
operation and evacuation of flood victims.
Auguste de St-Thomas’ pamphlet was not the only verse written about the inundation:
the 1824 flood, the largest in St Petersburg’s history, served as inspiration for Alexander
Pushkin’s The Bronze Horseman.
No copies found in Worldcat, OCLC, COPAC, KVK or the Bibliothèque Nationale.
First edition, no. 105 of 225 copies. This volume collects twenty-five
letters from Wilde to Lord Alfred Douglas (which had been formerly
been in the celebrated Wilde collection of John B. Stetson, jr prior to
their acquisition by the Californian bibliophile William Andrews
Clark), and reproduces them in finely-executed facsimiles, together
with one from Douglas to Wilde. The text comprises a preface by
Andrews on the history of the letters, an ‘Essay’ by Rosenbach, and
letterpress transcriptions of the letters and notes upon them.
29. WILDE, Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills.
Some Letters from Oscar Wilde to Alfred Douglas 1892-1897
[Heretofore Unpublished]. With Illustrative Notes by Arthur C.
Dennison, Jr., & Harrison Post and an Essay by A.S.W. Rosenbach. San
Francisco, John Henry Nash for William Andrews Clark, Jr, 1924.
Folio (316 x 242 mm.), pp. [8 (blank ll.)], xli, [1 (blank)], [2 (section-title,
text on verso)], [2 (section-title, verso blank)], [2 (colophon, verso
blank)], [6 (blank ll.)]; title printed in red and black, mounted portrait
frontispiece, and 26 facsimile letters on octavo bifolia or quarto
broadsheets mounted on blank ll. with captions printed on the versos;
light offsetting from frontispiece onto title; original vellum-backed
boards, spine lettered and decorated in gilt, top edges cut, others
retaining deckles, original slipcase; extremities slightly rubbed and
bumped, slipcase faded and chipped at extremities, otherwise a very
good example; provenance: William Andrews Clark, jr, Christmas 1924
(letterpress presentation slip tipped onto front free endpaper,
presumably a gift to:) – Elmer Belt (1893-1980, his ‘House of Belt’
bookplate on upper pastedown) – Bromer Booksellers, Boston, MA
(catalogue 32, item 225, loosely-inserted invoice dated 10 November
1984, addressed to:) – Quentin George Keynes (1921-2003).
£350
A PRESENTATION COPY FROM WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK
The edition was privately printed for
Clark, and this copy was presumably
given by Clark to the Los Angeles
urologist and bibliophile Elmer Belt,
who had studied with the physician
and bibliophile Harvey Cushing in
Boston, MA and then established a
urological practice in Los Angeles in the
1920s. Belt’s Florence Nightingale
Collection was gifted to UCLA’s Louis
M. Darling Biomedical Library in 1958,
and his library of works on Leonardo
da Vinci was donated to UCLA in 1961.
Klinefelter, Bibliographical Check-List of Christmas Books, p. 19; Mikhail,
Oscar Wilde, p. 25.
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