[BERKENHOUT, John].

Clavis anglica Linguæ botanicæ; or, a botanical Lexicon; in which the Terms of Botany, particularly those...

London: Printed for the Author. Sold by T. Becket, and A. de Hondt … and Mess. Hawes, Clarke, and Collins … 1764.

First edition, dedicated to John Hope of the University of Edinburgh, and written with the assistance of Arthur Lee of Virginia, winner of the Hope Medal in 1763.

£325

BLOUNT, Sir Thomas Pope.

Essays on several Subjects …

London, Printed for Richard Bently … 1692.

Second edition of seven essays of ‘considerable merit [that] display the easy scepticism and solid good sense and learning of the author to good advantage’ (Pforzheimer). They deal with self-interest; the mischief of learning; education; respect for antiquity; the virtues of modern men; passion;...

£500

[PRAYER-BOOK.]

The new and complete Family Prayer-Book, or Church of England Man’s Divine Library: being an universal Illustration,...

London: Printed for Alex. Hogg … [1784-5.]

First edition thus, rare, published in 36 weekly parts, each originally accompanied with an illustration, and now correctly bound according to the complicated ‘Directions to the Binder’ at the end. Wright’s exhaustive compilation, with notes and commentary on each page, assembled calendars,...

£950

BOLTON, Robert.

Letters and Tracts on the Choice of Company and other Subjects. The second Edition.

London: Printed for J. Whiston and B. White … and R. and J. Dodsley … 1762.

Second edition; a reissue of the sheets of the first edition with a cancel title-page and advertisement replacing the original title leaf A1. As well as the title tract, the volume includes essays ‘On Intemperance in Eating’, ‘On Intemperance in Drinking’, ‘On Pleasure’ and ‘On Public Worship’,...

£325

BROUGHAM, Henry Lord.

Albert Lunel. A Novel ... In three Volumes ...

London: Charles H. Clarke ... [1872].

First edition, Sadleir’s ‘really scarce’ fourth state, with (instead of the half-titles) the following notice: ‘“Albert Lunel” was written by the late Lord Brougham in the years Eighteen Hundred and Forty-four, but for private reasons of his Lordship’s, was not published. London, March...

£450

BROWNING, Elizabeth Barrett.

Poems before Congress …

London: Chapman and Hall … 1860.

First edition of a slender collection of seven poems on the cause of Italian independence, and one attacking slavery in the United States (‘A Curse for a Nation’). The Congress of the title had been planned for Paris in January 1860, but Austria withdrew on learning that Napoleon III meant to use...

£200

[BURY, Lady Charlotte].

The Exclusives. In three Volumes ...

London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley ... 1830.

First edition of a society novel written after the enormous success of Marianne Spencer Stanhope’s Almack’s (1826), a roman à clef centred on the fashionable assembly rooms in St. James’s. In The Exclusives Lady Tilney plans a new coterie as Almack’s is in decline (‘that...

£950

[BUTLER, John].

Some Account of the Character of the late Right Honourable Henry Bilson Legge.

London: Printed for J. Almon … 1764.

First edition. Henry Bilson Legge (1708-1764), three times chancellor of the exchequer between 1754 and 1761, attracted both respect and censure. To Pitt, he was ‘the child, and deservedly the favourite child, of the Whigs’. Horace Walpole, on the other hand, thought him a man ‘of a creeping, underhand...

£200

CADOGAN, William Bromley.

The Felicity of God’s Children, considered in a Sermon, preached upon the Death of a Lady, in the parish...

Reading: Printed and Sold by Smart and Cowslade; and sold by J. Rusher, Reading; Messrs. Robinsons, V. Griffiths ... & J. Matthews ... London;...

First edition, a funeral sermon by the popular preacher William Bromley Cadogan, a friend of John Newton, for the local widow Maria Littlehales, printed at the request of her children. A younger son of the third Earl of Cadogan, the well-connected churchman was vicar of St. Giles, Reading, and rector...

£75

CAMPBELL, Thomas.

Autograph letter, signed, to the novelist and socialite Lady Morgan, explaining why he cannot join her party.

‘Wednesday Morning’, no date, but late 1840.

‘I have been dying also several times during the last six months – I hope however to survive a few weeks when I shall be nearer to you when, in my new house in Victoria Square, I shall hope to see you frequently.’ Campbell suffered increasing ill health towards the end of his life, but continued...

£175

CAREY, Henry.

The Dramatick Works …

London: Printed by S. Gilbert, 1743.

First collected edition, published in the year of Carey’s death, with his final revisions, ‘not only free from the errors of false and spurious editions, published without my knowledge and consent, but (upon this occasion) revised and improv’d, even from my own original copies’.

£650

CARR, Lisle.

Judith Gwynne …

Henry S. King & Co. … London, 1873

First edition, a scarce romance-cum-society novel.

£200

[CHINESE HELL.]

YU LI BAO CHAO [The Jade Guidebook].

c. 1859.

An attractive edition of the Jade Guidebook or Jade Alamanac, a guide to the ten kingdoms of hell with origins in folk Confucianism and Buddhism of the 10th-11th centuries.

£1250

COWLEY, John.

The Candidates Guide: or the Electors Rights decided. Shewing the Resolutions of the Honble the Commons of Great...

London: Printed for J. Brindley ... and sold by Mrs. Dodd ... and by the Booksellers of London and Westminster: likewise in most great Towns...

First edition of a guide to electoral rights ‘from the controverted Election for New-Castle-Under-Line, in April 1624, to that of Weymouth in May 1730’.

£450

CROMARTY, George Mackenzie, Earl of.

An historical Account of the Conspiracies by the Earls of Gowry, and Robert Logan of Restalrig,...

First edition, dedicated to Queen Anne, ‘and to all the Princes who share in her royal blood’. The Vindication of Robert III was first published in 1695.

£150

[CURLL, Edmund, editor].

Impartial Memorials of the Life and Writings of Thomas Hearne, M.A. by several Hands.

London: Printed in the Year 1736.

First separate edition (based on John Bilstone’s hostile preface to Hearne’s Vindication of those who take the Oath of Allegiance, 1731, and first printed in this form as part of volume III of Curll’s edition of Mr. Pope’s Literary Correspondence, 1735).

£450

[CURLL, Edmund, and others].

An impartial History of the Life, Character, Amours, Travels, and Transactions of Mr. John Barber,...

London: Printed for E. Curll … 1741

First edition. A fine specimen of the sort of obituary pamphlet issued by Edmund Curll almost immediately after the death of notable public figures.

£650

D’ISRAELI, Isaac.

Romances …

London: Printed for Cadell and Davies … Murray and Highley … J. Harding … and J. Wright. 1799.

First edition, a collection of three prose tales by the father of the novelist and Prime Minister, with an introductory ‘Poetical Essay on Romance and Romancers’. The longest piece is ‘Mejnoun and Leila, the Arabian Petrarch and Laura’, which has echoes of Beckford and draws on the learned orientalism...

£950

D’URFEY, Thomas.

The Progress of Honesty: or, a View of a Court and City. A Pindarique Poem …

London: Printed for Joseph Hindmarsh … 1681.

First edition of an allegorical poem inspired, like Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel, by the Exclusion Crisis of 1681. ‘Honesty’ describes to ‘Error’, ‘Faction’ and ‘Beauty’ the court of Charles II (‘Titus the Second … the joy of human kind’), and the malign effects of Treason...

£300

[JUVENILE.] DAY, Thomas.

The History of Sandford and Merton, abridged from the Original. Embellished with elegant Plates … Third...

London:

Third edition of Richard Johnson’s abridgement of Day’s most famous and most enduring children’s book (1783, with sequels in 1786 and 1789), first published in this form in 1790. ESTC shows three copies of the first edition; five of the second; and BL and UCLA only of this third; Roscoe adds a...

£200