SCHÜBLER, Johann Jacob, et al.

Designs for furniture, funerary monuments, garden buildings.

Augsburg, [c. 1710s–20s].

An interesting sammelband containing over fifty handsome engraved plates with late Baroque designs for furniture, monuments, and summerhouses, published at Augsburg by Jeremias Wolff (1663–1724) and his heirs, and by Joseph Friedrich Leopold (1668–1727).

£3750

CASAL, Ugo Alfonso.

A small archive of letters, photographs, and typescript material on his collection of Japanese lacquers.

[Japan and California, 1930–1955.]

A fascinating archive relating to the extensive Japanese lacquer collection of the Swiss–Japanese banker Ugo Alfonso Casal, including photographs, a 5370-item inventory of his collection, and several lectures on the history and production techniques of Japanese lacquerware.

£975

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Architectural Antiquities from the Sussex Coast.

[Sussex], July 21st – 10th August 1837.

An interesting and charming antiquarian manuscript illustrating medieval fonts, gothic windows, brasses, architectural details, and funerary sculptures found in churches along the Sussex coast. The anonymous author/draughtsman gives provenances and historical detail to the drawings, which capture the...

£950

MIDDLETON, Charles.

Designs for Gates and Rails suitable to Parks, Pleasure Grounds, Balconys &c, also some Design for Trellis...

London, Published by J. Taylor, at the Architectural Library …, [c. 1805].

First edition of this charming pattern book of garden designs by Charles Middleton which concentrates on gates, rustic fences and trelliswork. Middleton was a pupil of William Paine, and rather than finding success as a building architect he produced a number of fine architectural pattern books.

£675

[OPTICAL PRINT.] 

‘No. 5.  Morgan’s improved protean scenery: Mount Vesuvius, as represented at the Surrey Zoological Gardens...

London, Published by W. Morgan, [c. 1837]. 

A remarkable metamorphic or ‘protean’ print depicting a dormant Vesuvius by day but, when held up to the light, showing a dramatic eruption in the night sky. 

£675

TOMS, William. 

Thirty-six new original and practical designs for chairs, adapted for the Drawing and Dining Room, Parlour and...

Bath, W. Evans, [c. 1830]. 

A fine and rare furniture pattern book by William Toms, ‘carver in general’ at Bath. 

£650

SOWERBY, J[ohn] G[eorge], and Thomas CRANE, illustrators.  [Eliza KEARY.] 

At Home. 

London and Belfast, Marcus Ward & Co., [1881]. 

Original maquette for this charming Victorian children’s book, illustrated by the stained-glass designer John George Sowerby and decorated by Thomas Crane, elder brother of the illustrator Walter Crane.  The verse, unacknowledged, is by Eliza Keary (1827–1918).  At Home and its sequels Abroad...

£500

[LABOURS OF THE MONTHS &c.] 

Januarius.  Februarius.  Merz.  April … 

Nuremberg, Joh. Andreae Endterische Handlung, [second half of eighteenth century]. 

A scarce popular print depicting the labours of the months and signs of the zodiac, four continents, the four classical elements, and the four seasons. 

£475

[DRESS HABITS.]

Considerazioni d’una dama ad una sua amica intorno al vestiario odierno.

[S.l.,] Impresso dal Curti del fu Giacomo, 1810.

Extremely rare set of six pious reflections on modern dress habits, ostensibly written by an anonymous lady to her friend.

£350

SHENSTONE, William.

The Works, in Verse and Prose… in three Volumes … Fifth Edition …

London: Printed for J. Dodsley … 1777.

Fifth edition of the Works (1764), the first edition of which was planned by Shenstone but published after his death, with Robert Dodsley’s description of Shenstone’s important garden at The Leasowes, one of the first natural landscape gardens in England and one of the most influential,...

£325

PAPINI, Roberto.

Le Arti d’Oggi: Architettura e Arti Decorative in Europa.

Milan and Rome, Bestetti and Tumminelli, 1930.

First edition of a thorough and extensively illustrated survey of architectural and artistic styles and artworks from across Europe at the beginning of the twentieth century, compiled by the Italian art historian Roberto Papini (1883–1957), director of the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan and later...

£300

BOLZANI, A. M.

Wegweiser zum Seidenbau für Nord-Deutschland und insbesondere für Preussen.

Berlin, Vereinsbuchhandlung, 1831.

First edition. Bolzani, originally from Como in Italy, was a picture- and print-dealer in Berlin who also ran a successful silkworm cultivation enterprise. His book deals with all aspects of sericulture. Bolzani was especially keen to have Prussian state funding for silkworm cultivation and corresponded...

£275

GARGIULO, Raffaele.

Cenni sulla maniera di rinvenire i vasi fittili Italo-Greci. Sulla loro costruzione, sulle loro fabbriche più...

Naples, Tipografia Virgilio, 1843.

Second, revised and enlarged edition (first 1831), illustrated with sixteen handsome engraved plates.

£275

[COLOGNE.]

Hotel de Belle Vue à Deutz vis-à-vis de Cologne tenu pour J.A. Kimmel. [

Cologne, c. 1850

A ambitious lithograph advertisement for the Hotel de Belle Vue in Deutz, facing Cologne over the Rhine. The finely engraved view of the hotel shows it with its surrounding park lying on the Rhine which is bustling with barges, there is a bridge crossing the river full of promenading people. The litho...

£250

‘MAWE, Thomas’ [but John ABERCROMBIE]. 

Every Man his own Gardener.  Being a new, and much more complete Gardener’s...

London: Printed for W. Griffith … 1767. 

Second edition, published in the same year as the first, of an immensely popular work, which went through at least twenty-five editions.  ‘Abercrombie was the son of a market gardener near Edinburgh who went on to be a gardener at Kew and Leicester House, as well as for a number of noblemen...

£225

[STRASBOURG.]

Souscription patriotique de la part du beau-sexe de Strasbourg.

[S.l., s.n., 1789?.]

Rare first edition of this entertaining satirical piece on women's clothing, published in the aftermath of the French Revolution. After complaining that the recent craze for ‘gauze, muslin, linen and feathers’ had brought the country to its knees, the text describes how the patriotic women...

£165

DREYFUS, John. 

Aspects of French Eighteenth Century Typography.  A study of type specimens in the Broxbourne Collection at Cambridge...

Cambridge, The Roxburghe Club, 1982.

A history of French type design in the eighteenth century based on the author’s detailed examinations of French type ornaments and typefounding methods. 

£120

DOLLMAN, Francis C.

Examples of antient pulpits existing in England, selected and drawn from sketches and measurements taken on...

First edition of this scholarly study of gothic pulpits by a student of the elder Pugin.

£85

FOUNTAINE, Andrew.

Catalogue of the celebrated Fountaine collection of Majolica, Henri II Ware, Palissy Ware, Nevers Ware, Limoges...

[London], 1884

First day only of the Majolica sale of the Fountaine collection. Andrew Fountain (1676-1753) was ‘the predecessor of Horace Walpole as an arbiter of taste and virtu’ (ODNB). His engravings and drawings were sold in July 1884, pictures in 1894 and porcelain in 1904.

£25