Books to cheer up the New Year
1. DOYLE, Richard. In Fairyland. A Series of Pictures from the Elf-World London: Longmans, Green and Co. 1875
Second edition. Folio. 387x280mm. pp. [viii], 32. 16 chromolithographic plates with 36 illustrations by Doyle. The text is a poem by William Allingham. Original green cloth with gilt border and gilt lettering and decoration to upper cover and spine. Bumping to head and foot of spine and corners slightly worn. All edges gilt. Some slight foxing and the final plate has had some repair to the bottom edge but otherwise in very good condition. A charming and charmingly sentimental book.
[3832] £800
2. WHEWELL, William. On the Free Motion of Points, and on Universal Gravitation, Including The Principal Propositions of Books I. and III. of The Principia; The First Part of a New Edition of a Treatise on Dynamics. Cambridge: Printed by J. Smith for J. and J. J. Deighton and Whittaker Treacher & Arnot London 1832
A new edition. Whewell first published his 'Treatise on Dynamics ' in 1823, however much of the material collected in this volume is new. 8vo. pp. xxviii, 237, [i] blank, [i] errata. Four folding illustrations of geometrical figures at rear. Book-plate of Keele University Library, Turner Collection. Contemporary ownership inscription on front free-endpaper. Original blue spine and drab boards, paper label, chipped with some loss. Boards soiled with a few marks, worn at edges.
[1401] £150
3. [FLEMING, Francis]. The Life and Extraordinary Adventures, the Perils and Critical Escapes of Timothy Ginnadrake, that Child of checquer'd Fortune. In Three Volumes. The Third Volume of the Life and Adventures of Timothy Ginnadrake, containing a concise account of the City of Bath, From the Year 1670 to the Present Time. Bath: Printed by R. Cruttwell, for the author. n.d. but volume 3 is dated 1771.
First edition. Three volumes. 12mo in 6s (166x90mm). pp. [xvi], iii-xviii, 168; 204; xiv, 15-240, [12, list of subscribers]. Engraved frontispiece portraits to volumes one and two. List of subscribers at beginning of volume one and at the end of volume three. Armorial bookplate of William John Mercer to front pastedowns. Also, a contemporary ownership inscription of “W. Murray”. Contemporary red morocco with flower and leaf border in gilt. Spine compartments decorated with flower design. Labels lettered in gilt. Gilt gauffered edges. Bumping to feet of spines, with the foot of volume two repaired. Wear and bumping to corners. Lower cover of volume three has black ink stains. A very nice contemporary binding. Internally excellent. Apart from some staining to two leaves in volume one and one small hole affecting one word in the list of subscribers, this is a very good set. Scarce in commerce. ESTC locates twelve copies. Although published anonymously, it is clear that this little known picaresque novel of life set mainly in eighteenth century Bath could only have been written by an insider. Francis Fleming was the leader of the Pump Room orchestra and so witnessed the fashionable frolics and frivolities of his audience. The hero is a violinist in Bath, which suggests that the Adventures, Perils and Critical Escapes of Timothy Ginnadrake (which take place in England, Ireland and France) are also those of Fleming. He was originally from Ireland and his business partner was Anne Roland, a French dancing instructor with whom Fleming ran the chicest dancing school in Bath. They travelled to France together each year to learn the latest steps. A scathing contemporary review of Fleming’s novel suggested that he was a poor man’s Henry Fielding, “that consummate biographer in low life”. The reviewer claims that Fleming’s “chief design seems to have been that of making us laugh innocently, at least, if not profitably...if we at all indulge our risibility, it is more on account of the whimsical situations in which we sometimes find his hero than on any other”. (The Critical Review or Annals of Literature, volume 34, 1772). The third volume meets with more approval. This is a history of Bath from 1670, describing how the town was rescued from its position as one of the poorest in England by John Nash of whom Fleming says, “his polite behaviour and goodness of heart soon gained him the esteem of the gentry who resorted to Bath”. It is a slight mystery why Timothy Ginnadrake isn’t better known. Georgian Bath has been a constant source of interest and although one cannot pretend that Fleming is a writer of the first rank, he tells his stories, both factual and fictional, with verve and wit and with more than a nod to the ridiculousness and savagery of fashionable society. [3189] £2,250
4. FELLOWES, Daisy. Sunday or a Working Girl's Lament
Monaco: Imprimerie A Chène 1930
Limited edition, number 92 of 200 printed on velin supérieur signed by the author. 244x157mm. 74 leaves. Quarter green cloth, white paper covered boards, colour illustration to centre of upper cover. Some marking and soiling to covers and scuffing to corners and edges of boards. Some foxing but otherwise a very good copy. Text printed in black, blue, red and green on recto only (verso blank), four illustrations. Daisy Fellowes was an heiress to the Singer Sewing Machine. Rich, beautiful, funny and clever she was a fashion muse, the editor of Harper’s Bazaar and an inventive writer as is evident in this charming work with its witty and quasi-modernist wordplay. The only thing at which she appears to have failed was an attempt to seduce Winston Churchill.
[3818] £200
5. ANONYMOUS [JHL] Four cartoons
n.p. [Ireland] n.p 19th century
Four cartoons showing the life of the poor in Ireland. The only real clue that they are Irish is that one of them shows two old women begging under a banner advertising a sermon from the Protestant Orphan Society. Two other cartoons comment on the divide between rich and poor while the fourth simply shows an old woman knitting outside what looks like a workhouse. The pictures are signed “JHL”. Prints measure 180x115mm and are mounted on cream paper and framed in a wooden frame. Three of them have dialogue or a title written on the mount. Some soiling and there is a small tear to the edge of the mount of one of the cartoons but it does not affect the image or text. An interesting set.
[3811] £375
6.
COOLIDGE, Calvin The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge
New York: Cosmopolitan Book Corporation 1929
Inscribed by Coolidge. First trade edition. 218x145mm. [8], 247, [1bl]. Original green cloth, lettered in gilt. The upper cover and rear flap of the original dust jacket (itself rare) have been tipped in and the spine loosely inserted. Illustrated endpapers. Corners rubbed and a tiny nick at foot of spine. Internally very good. Although there was a signed limited edition of Coolidge’s Autobiography, 1000 copies were issued and it is quite common. This first trade edition is less often found and was signed by Coolidge only by special request as is the case here where, beneath his portrait on the frontispiece, he has inscribed “To Henry P. de Forest, with regards, Calvin Coolidge”. The front pastedown has the bookplate of de Forest and a label from Cornell University stating “This book is the gift of Henry Pelouze de Forest Class of 1884”. The half-title has the gift inscription “Merry Christmas to Harry with my love Evelyn 1929”. A further de Forest bookplate is pasted on the verso of the half-title. On the rear pastedown is the bookplate of Calvin Coolidge himself. A tippedin typed note by de Forest explains that the bookplate was made by a friend, Timothy Cole and copies sold (with Coolidge’s permission) for charity and de Forest placed his copy in this book. de Forest has extensively graingerised this book with illustrations, newspaper cuttings (some relating to Coolidge’s death and funeral), and correspondence including a copy of letter from him to Coolidge and the reply (on Coolidge’s embossed notepaper) from the Coolidge’s secretary. There is a letter from Coolidge’s booksellers Bridgman & Lyman concerning the inscription.
Henry Pelouze de Forest is an interesting man. A bibliophile, he was librarian of the Cornell Club of New York and designed bookplates including one for the Fulton Public Library pasted into this book. His “day job” was as a doctor in New York City where he seems to have had a distinguished career including a spell as a surgeon with the New York Police Department. While there, he worked on the science of finger prints and invented the dactyloscope which records finger prints. He wrote a short work on the subject entitled “The Evolution of Dactyloscopy in the United States”, a copy of which, we learn from his letter to Coolidge, he sent to the former President. A rare book with interesting additions and a fascinating provenance.
[3833]
£850
LA
ROCHEFOUCAULD, Duc de. Maximes et Reflexions Morales
Paris: Chez J-J Blaise, Chez Pichard 1813
8vo. pp. 203, [1bl]. Engraved frontispiece portrait of La Rochefoucauld by Pierre-Philippe Choffard after Jean Petitot. Folding facsimile letter by La Rochefoucauld. Beautifully bound in contemporary green straightgrained Morocco, elaborately decorated in gilt and blind. Upper and lower covers with a triple fillet border framing an acanthas leaf motif inside which is a panel in blind with a leaf motif in gilt in the corners of the inner panel. Spine with four double raised bands, compartments elaborately decorated in gilt, second compartment lettered in gilt. Inner dentelles gilt, red silk doublures and decorated with the acanthas motif in blind. Armorial bookplate of Henry Porcher (a director of the Bank of England) and modern label of Tamara Lo on verso of front free endpaper. Internally foxed and stained but this is a nice copy in a very handsome binding. [3837] £300
8.
First edition in English published in the same year as the first edition in France. 221x141mm. 8vo. pp. xxxix, (i bl), 448. Original blue paper covered boards, spine covered with beige linen. Pasted onto the upper cover is the label (160x100mm) of “Bigg’s New Westminster Subscription Library”. Corners bumped and edges worn with a small tear (5mm) to front edge of upper cover, joint with upper cover split and a short split at top of the joint with lower cover, small tear (10mm) to linen towards foot of spine. Top right corner of library label is torn with some loss. Internally very good and a nice clean copy.
Philippe-Paul de Segur was from a distinguished military and literary family; his father served in the American War of Independence and wrote plays for Catherine the Great. Philippe-Paul was a close supporter of Napoleon and so was forced to retire from public life on the latter’s expulsion to St Helena. De Segur turned his hand to history, writing a History of Napoleon’s campaigns of 1812 (his criticism of the Napoloen led to a duel in which de Segur was wounded) and this history of Russia and Peter the Great.
The label on the front cover is a rarity. James Bigg was a bookseller in Westminster from 1816 until his death in 1848
7
DE SEGUR, General Count Philip. History of Russia and of Peter the Great London: Treuttel and Wurtz, Treutell, Jun. and Richter 1829
9.
when his son (also James) took over the business. It seems that he also ran a subscription library although this must have been a small affair as no record of it exists beyond this label. The address and the fact that his son edited Statutes indicates a trade in political works and so a first English edition of de Segur’s work on Peter the Great would have been an ideal addition to their list.
[3835] £175
DRESSER, Christopher. Japan. Its architecture, art, and art manufactures.
London: Longmans, Green, and Co 1882
Large 8vo. pp. xi, [i bl], 467, 1bl. Original illustrated grey cloth, some slight marking to covers, fading and bumping to head and foot of spine and two tiny nicks. Internally very good with all the illustrations in excellent condition. A nice copy of an important book which was the fruit of Dresser’s long interest in Japanese visual culture and which was written following his visit to Japan in 1876 where he was the first European designer to travel extensively. The first part is in the way of a travelogue while the second contains detailed observation and analysis on Japanese design. “Dresser probably did more for the heralding of Japonism and the dissemination of Japanese art proper in England than any other individual”. (Widar Halen)
[3836] £180
VICHNAR, Jindra typoreklama
Praha (Prague): Nakladatelstvi Typografie 1934
First edition. 8vo (210x148mm). pp. 154, [2]. Original brown card covers and brown paper dustjacket with the title printed vertically in red on a grey strip to the upper cover of the jacket and the title and author printed in red on the spine. Some shelfwear to the dustjacket at the foot of the spine but this is a near fine copy protected in a plastic wrapper. Internally, it is a very clean, fresh copy, extensively illustrated in colour and black and white. Text in Czech. This is a rare book, Worldcat locating five copies, two in the USA, two in Germany and one in the National Library of the Czech Republic in Prague.
Graphic design was one of the major Czech contributions to twentieth century visual culture and this book brings together examples of avant-garde design used in advertising, publicity and marketing. Vichnar himself was a typographer and designer and this is a detailed, technical account of the design of advertisements, leaflets, brochures, letters, posters, photo montage and stamps. It is a prescient work as few took marketing and publicity seriously in the 1930s. Now we are obsessed with them. [2914] £350
11. MICHAELIS Johan Heinrich Biblia Hebraica ex aliquot manuscriptis ET COMPLURIBUS IMPRESSIS CODICIBUS, ITEM MASORA TAM EDITA, QUAM MANUSCRIPTA, ALIISQUE HEBRAEORUM CRITICIS DILIGENTER RECENSITA...Singulis denique columnis selectae variantes lectiones subiiciuntur cura ac studio Io. Heinr. Michaelis Halae Magdeburgicae: typis & sumtibus Orphanotrophei 1720
First edition thus. 8vo. 222x140mm. pp [6], 32; ff. 842. Preface, mendae typographicae and extensive editorial notes in Latin with Biblical text in Hebrew. Engraved frontispiece. Contemporary German pigskin, boards lavishly decorated in blind, somewhat soiled, edges and corners rubbed and worn in places. Slight waterstaining to first six leaves and some leaves browned but overall a nice copy of perhaps the most important edition of the Hebrew Bible by one of the finest German Biblical and philological scholars. Michaelis’s text is based on Jablonski’s 1699 edition but he drew on nineteen further printed editions and five manuscripts. First printed in 1720 in folio, quarto and octavo, Michaelis’s work of staggering scholarship was reissued throughout the 18th century.
[3834] £600
10
The natural Order of things is all reversed
12 [LAMBERT DE SAUMERY, Pierre] The Devil turn'd Hermit: or the Adventures of Astaroth Banish'd from Hell. A Satirical Romance. Exposing. With great Variety of Humour, in a Series of Conversations between that Demon and the Author, The scandalous Frauds, lewd Amours, and devout Mockery of the Monks and Nuns; the Intrigues of Courts; the Ambition, Avarice, and Cruelty of Ministers; the Insincerity, Luxury, Prostitution, and Ingratitude of many private Characters; with other Capital Vices of the present Age. Founded chiefly on real Facts, and interspersed with the Portraits and secret History of most of the considerable Persons that have lived in Europe within these thirty Years past. Translated from the Original French of Mr de M***
London: Printed and sold by J. Hodges, J. Robinson, J. Wilcox and J. Brindsley (Vol. II printed for T. Waller) 1741 and 1742
First edition in English. In two volumes (the second without the attribution to M de M***). 12mo (Vol I, 12mo in 6s). 164x91mm. pp. xii, iv, 276; x, 254. Engraved frontispiece. Contemporary calf, double fillet in gilt to covers, rebacked with most original spines laid down., compartments decorated with double fillet in gilt, red morocco labels, lettered in gilt. Corners bumped and rubbed. Internally very good with a little marking in places and a small hole to the title page of volume two, not affecting legibility. Edges sprinkled red. Of the four variants described by ESTC, this is the first, containing the misnumbered preliminary pages, vii and xii instead of viii and xi respectively. Front pastedowns have armorial bookplate of Henry Corbet A.M. and the label of Richard Corbet, Adderley. Sir Henry was the Rector of Adderley and the last of the Corbet Baronets of Adderley and Stoke dying in 1750 without issue. Richard Corbet lived at Adderley Hall. He died in 1872. Rare in commerce and institutionally. ESTC locates five copies of the first volume in the UK and ten in the US and only two copies worldwide for the second volume. A very good copy of this vicious but amusing attack on loose French morals.
Pierre Lambert de Saumery’s scabrous satire on the French Catholic Church was first published, in two volumes, in Amsterdam in 1741 as Le diable hermite. It was clearly an immediate success being translated into English that same year, with the second English volume appearing the following year. de Saumery seems to have been an extraordinary figure. He was born in France to Calvinist parents who moved to England when Pierre was a child. He was brought up and educated in England and, at 29, became a Calvinist minister. He then travelled around the continent as a preacher ending up in Liège where he converted to Roman Catholicism. It has been suggested that his conversion was inspired less by theological conviction than by the hope of gaining access to the courts of ecclesiastical grandees. If that was so, then he was clearly successful as after a few years he published this “Satirical Romance” of life at the court of a Prince-Bishop. The conceit is that Astaroth has left hell to wander Europe where, despite having “seen in hell a great many devilish tricks” he discovers, among the French aristocracy (both secular and ecclesiastical) a venality, immorality and
corruption that shock even him. “The natural order of things is all reversed in this region. They sleep in the day, riot in the night, and shorten life by unheard-of excesses. The soul is a stranger to all sincerity, and all compassion. Double-dealing, imposture, scandal, and ostentation are the only virtues known to courtiers”. Shortly after publication of Le Diable Hermite, de Saumery escaped to the Netherlands, reconverted to Calvinism and died in Utrecht in 1767.
[3230] £800