Gift Ideas
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CARDONNEL, Adam de.
Picturesque Antiquities of Scotland [I–II] …
London: Printed for the Author, and sold by Edwards … also by Edwards’s, in Halifax. 1788.
First edition, the very rare issue with the plates in sepia, printed directly onto thick wove paper.
£975
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ANSELMI, Giorgio, the younger.
Georgii Anselmi nepotis Epigrammaton libri septem. Sosthyrides. Peplum Palladis. Aeglogae...
Venice, Maffeo Pasini, September 1528.
The definitive edition of the epigrams of Giorgio Anselmi, grandson of the astrologer and music theorist of the same name, with several epigrams on his grandfather’s lost works on magic and the occult.
£875
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KOLLÁR, Jan.
Díla básnická … we dwau djljch [‘A Collection of Poems … in two parts’].
Buda, no publisher, but ‘with the types Gyuriána a Bagó’, 1845.
First collected edition of Jan Kollár’s works, inscribed to fellow poet and ‘brother Slav’ Ognjeslav Utješenowić-Ostrožinski, with an additional autograph sonnet written in his honour.
£1750
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SCOTT, Sir Walter.
The Lady of the Lake … with all his Introductions and Notes, various Readings, and the Editor’s Notes.
Edinburgh, Robert Cadell, 1851.
An attractive Scottish 'Mauchline ware' tartan binding. Mauchline ware bindings – the name comes from Smith’s boxware factory at Mauchline in Ayrshire – were made from thin wooden boards (often sycamore) decorated with tartan or pictorial designs, heavily varnished, and attached to the text...
£750
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[FRASER, William Augustus, Sir.]
Poems by the Knight of Morar.
London, Whittingham and Wilkins, 1867.
First edition, privately printed, a presentation copy inscribed on the title-page ‘From the Author . Paris. 1867.’
£350
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FLORUS, Lucius.
Lucii Flori rerum ab urbe condita liber primus [– quartus].
[Venice, in aedibus Aldi et Andreae Soceri, March 1521.]
Florus’s epitome of Roman history, extracted from the Aldine edition of March 1521 which comprised an epitome of Livy, Florus, and Niccolò Perotti’s translation of Polybius.
£750
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[CALLIGRAPHIC SCORES.]
Two anonymous manuscript scores.
London, 1820s.
Two charming productions, sent as anonymous gifts, presumably to the wife or daughter(s) of Col. Thomas Nuttall (or Nuthall) (d. 1829) of the Madras Cavalry.
£850
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NEW RIDDLE BOOK (A)
or a Whetstone for dull Wits … Printed at Derby, for the benefit of the travelling Stationers.
[J. Drewry? 1790?]
An attractive illustrated riddle chapbook. The solutions include ‘a pipping pounded into Cyder’, a man fleeing his scolding wife, a hog fattened with acorns, a young virgin, a mermaid, and a paper kite, though how one would ever guess ‘a Taylor at Dinner with a Dish of Cucumbers, served up with...
£750
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RENOWNED HISTORY (The)
of Primrose Prettyface, who by her Sweetness of Temper, & Love of Learning, was raised from being the Daughter...
London, Printed & sold by J. Marshall & Co. … (Price 6d in Gilt Paper – 9d bound in Red.) [1788?]
One of three undated editions, probably the last (adding Marshall’s Cheapside premises at 17 Queen St to the imprint), but the only one with an engraved title-page and frontispiece.
£1000
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WILSON, David (editor).
A Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes, &c. in three Parts …
[Edinburgh:] Sold by the Editor at his House … and by J. Hamilton, Music Seller … [c.1800?].
Second(?), expanded edition of this collection of (mostly) hymn tunes scored for treble, tenor, and bass. Though for most hymns the tunes only are printed, there are words for Cowper’s ‘Hark, my Soul!’ and one other, and at the end are the words and tunes for seven secular catches (in three...
£500
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MAJER, Andrea.
Discorso sulla origine, progressi, e stato attuale della musica italiana …
Padua, ‘dalla Tipografia e Fonderia della Minerva’, 1821.
First edition of Majer’s treatise on Italian music, ‘a conservative defence of tradition as part of a backlash against the popularity of Rossini’s reforms’ (Baragwanath, p. 29).
£450
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ARNIGIO, Bartolomeo.
Rime dell’Arnigio per la ill[ustre] signora Claudia Martinenga.
Brescia, Giovanni Battista Bozzola, 1566.
First edition of Bartolomeo Arnigio’s collection of poems addressed to Claudia Martinengo, wife to Ludovico Martinengo della Pallata, an important association copy presented by the author to fellow poet Antonio Beffa Negrini.
£1750
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SHEPHERD, Richard Herne.
Forgotten Books worth remembering … No. I. Studies of Sensation and Event by Ebenezer Jones …
London, Pickering & Co … 1878.
An interesting collection of ‘rare tracts’, from the library of the Scottish lawyer and journalist John Skelton, who wrote for Blackwood’s under the pseudonym ‘Shirley’.
£950
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KEATS, John.
Endymion. A Poetic Romance … with Engravings by John Buckland-Wright.
[London,] The Golden Cockerel Press, [1947].
No. 200 of 500 copies (the first 100 specially bound in full vellum); also found in brown buckram rather than red as here. Buckland-Wright’s greatest work and one of the most important Golden Cockerel publications, it was begun in 1943 but not completed until late 1947.
£1750
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[SACROBOSCO, Johannes de.]
CLAVIUS, Christophorus. In sphaeram Ioannis de Sacro Bosco commentarius, nunc iterum ab ipso Auctore...
Rome, Francesco Zanetti for Domenico Basa, 1581.
Third edition, the first to contain Clavius’s condemnation of Copernicus, with ten highly detailed woodcut diagrams of solar and lunar eclipses not included in the first edition.
£2500
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FARINGTON, Susan Maria (illustrator).
The 104th Psalm. Illustrated by Susan Maria Ffarington. Worden.
London, Vincent Brooks Day & Son, [c. 1867].
The Faringtons or Ffaringtons were an ancient family of Worden Hall, Leyland, Lancashire, with a substantial family archive. Susan Maria (1808–1894) edited The Farington Papers for the Chetham Society in 1856, and made other contributions to local history, but this unusual panorama seems to have...
£650
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MAGNON, Jean.
Les heures du Chrestien, divisées en trois journées; qui sont la journée de la penitence, la journée de la...
Paris, se vendent chez l’autheur … et chez Sebastien Martin, 1654.
First edition of this handsomely illustrated collection of prayers and devotions in verse and prose by the French playwright and poet Jean Magnon (1620–1662). The number of plates in individual copies varies, this copy containing at least two more than those described on OCLC.
£650
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BUONACCORSI, Biagio, and Niccolò VALORI.
Diario de’ successi piu importanti seguiti in Italia, & particolarmente in...
Florence, Filippo & Jacopo Giunta, 1568.
First edition of an insider account of Medici politics by Biagio Buonaccorsi (1472–1522), colleague and confidant of Machiavelli, bound with the first edition of Malespini’s history of Florence and owned by Claude-Enoch Virey, secretary to Henri II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé.
£1000
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ROBINSON, Alan James (artist), and Laurie BLOCK.
An Odd Bestiary, or, a Compendium of instructive and entertaining Descriptions...
[Easthampton (MA),] Cheloniidae Press, 1982.
First edition, numbered 69 of 200 copies from a limited edition of 300 and signed by the artist.
£500
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BRIDGES, Robert.
Eros and Psyche, a Poem in XII Measures … with Wood-cuts from Designs by Edward Burne-Jones.
[Gregynog], The Gregynog Press, 1935.
One of 300 copies, one of the most beautiful works from this press, with three-colour initials and a new typeface (used only in this volume) by Graily Hewitt.
£1500