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  1. SPENCE, James.

    The Light of Heaven, on the Path of Youth: A Sermon tot the Young, preached in Cannon Street Chapel, Preston, on...

    Preston, John Walker, and London, John Snow, [1849].

    First edition, apparently unrecorded, of this sermon on Psalm 119, ‘Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to Thy Word’.

    £175

  2. KAEMPFER, Engelbert, and Johann Gaspar SCHEUCHZER, translator.

    The History of Japan, giving an Account of the ancient...

    London, for the translator, 1727.

    First edition, first issue, of the German naturalist Engelbert Kaempfer’s monumental History of Japan, translated from an unpublished manuscript in Sir Hans Sloane’s library by his librarian, the Swiss naturalist Johann Caspar Scheuchzer, and illustrated with splendid plates from Kaempfer’s...

    £7500

  3. CHEESMAN, Thomas. 

    No. I. Six Heads Drawn and Engraved, by T. Cheesman.

    [London,] T. Cheesman, No. 40 Oxford Street; and to be had of J.F. Tomkins, New Bond Street, Published February 10, 1797.

    First and only edition, extremely rare, of this complete series of six heads of young women wearing head scarves by ‘one of Bartolozzi’s most outstanding pupils’.

    £850

  4. MANFREDI, Girolamo, and Pedro de RIBAS, translator

    Libro llamado El porque provechosissimo para la conservacion...

    Alcalá de Henares, Juan Iñiguez de Lequerica, 1587 [(colophon:) Hernan Ramirez, 1589]. 

    Extremely rare, early Alcalá-printed edition of Pedro de Ribas’s Spanish translation of Manfredi’s popular Liber de Homine, a regimen sanitatis in question-and-answer form, in part censored by the translator.  

    £1250

  5. [BECKFORD, William, and Samuel HENLEY, translator.]

    An Arabian Tale, from an unpublished Manuscript. With Notes critical...

    London, Printed for W. Clarke … 1809.

    Scarce second edition – in fact a reissue comprising the remainder sheets of the first edition of 1786 with a cancel title-page (printed by S. Gosnell) – of Henley’s English translation of Beckford’s Gothic masterpiece, first published against the author’s wishes and predating publication...

    £1500

  6. MILL, John Stuart, and Nakamura MASANAO, translator.

    自由之理. On Liberty.

    Suruga (i.e. Shizuoka), [Kihira Ken’ichiro,] 1871 [i.e. 1872].

    First Japanese translation of Mill’s On Liberty, published twelve years after the first English edition, and very popular in Japan as a result of this translation by the philosopher and educator Nakamura Masanao (1832–1891).

    £2500

  7. [BEER.]

    Jenaischer allgemeiner Bier-Comment nebst angehängtem Bier-Prozess.

    ‘Eschwig, Otter & Kunitz, 183*.’

    An apparently unrecorded humorous handbook of drinking rules for students at the university of Jena, famous both as a centre of German idealism and Romanticism, and for its professors, who included Schiller, Fichte, Hegel, and Schlegel.

    £375

  8. TO THE REVEREND

    and merry Answerer of Vox Cleri. To be left at Mr. Brabazon Aylmer’s at the Three Pigeons in Cornhill. With a Bundle.

    [London, s.n., 1690.]

    First and only edition. Attempts to revise the Book of Common Prayer in the wake of the 1689 Toleration Act found opposition in, among others, the Exeter clergyman Thomas Long. His Vox cleri, or, The Sense of the Clergy, concerning the making of Alterations in the established Liturgy (1690)...

    £150

  9. SANCROFT, William.

    Familiar Letters of Dr. William Sancroft, late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, to Mr. North, afterwards Sir Henry...

    London, Printed for M. Cooper … and sold by Mr. Chreigton [sic] at Ipswich. 1757.

    First edition: ‘pleasant, chatty, and jocose’ letters from 1652-93 (original DNB), and useful source material for the life of the nonjuring Archbishop of Canterbury.

    £350

  10. [BURROUGH, Edward].

    A Declaration of the present Sufferings of above 140. Persons of the People of God (who are now in Prison,)...

    London, Printed for Tho. Simmons …, 1659.

    First edition, one of the earliest comprehensive ‘books of sufferings’, cataloguing the persecution of the early Quakers. Quaker identity was heavily influenced by such collections of ‘sufferings’, the word acquiring a specific meaning for the Friends, of imprisonment for non-payment of...

    £400

  11. [WESTMINSTER ELECTION.]

    A True and impartial Collection of Pieces, in Prose and Verse, which have been written and published on...

    London: Printed for W. Owen … 1749.

    First edition of a compilation of open letters to the electorate of Westminster, written during the violent 1749 election campaign.

    £750

  12. MEAD, Richard.

    A Short Discourse concerning pestilential Contagion, and the Methods to be used to prevent it … The third Edition.

    London: Printed [by William Bowyer] for Sam. Buckley … and Ralph Smith … 1720.

    ‘Third edition’ of the most famous medical tract on the plague scare of 1720-1, written at the request of James Craggs, the secretary of State following the bubonic outbreak in Marseilles in late 1719. There were seven London editions within the year, those from the third on being re-impressions...

    £375

  13. [FOPPA, Giuseppe.] Francesco PANORMO, translator.

    Aci e Galatea, a pastoral Opera, as represented at the King’s Theatre...

    London: Printed by C. Clarke … 1795.

    First edition, very rare, of the dual-language libretto for Foppa’s Acis and Galatea (première Venice 1792) – in Italian verse and English prose. The translation was by Francesco Panormo, the eldest son of the instrument-maker Vincenzo Panormo.

    £650

  14. MACAULEY, Auley.

    A Sermon on the peculiar Advantages of Sunday Schools: preached in the Parish Church of St. Paul, Bedford, on...

    London, Printed for C. Dilly … and sold by the Booksellers of Bedford, Northampton, and Leicester, for the Benefit of the Institution. [1792].

    First edition of a rare sermon to promote Sunday Schools by the uncle of Thomas Babington Macaulay and brother of the abolitionist Zachary Macaulay.

    £250

  15. [SANDYS, John].

    The Salopian Zealot: or, the good Vicar in a bad Mood. By John the Dipper …

    Sold by G. Keith, and J. Buckland, in London;— T. Evans, Bristol; and by the Booksellers in Salop, Liverpool, &c. [1778].

    First edition of a lively verse contribution to an increasingly acrimonious pamphlet war between Baptists.

    £575

  16. 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.

    £75

  17. DE CASTRO, Alberto Osório.

    Flores de Coral. Ultimos Poemas.

    Dili, Ilha de Timor – Insulindia, Imprensa Nacional, 1908 [(colophon:) 31 December 1909; (wrapper:) 1910].

    First edition of the first book printed on the island of Timor, no. 2 of 31 copies on a combination of song-kió-zu and tço-tzu paper from Guangzhou, a presentation copy, with a long dedicatory inscription in French from de Castro to the Romanian-French poet Anna, Comtesse Mathieu de...

    £4750

  18. FALCONER, William.

    Remarks on the Influence of Climate, Situation, Nature of Country, Population, Nature of Food, and Way of Life,...

    London, C. Dilly, 1781.

    First edition of Falconer’s pioneering contribution to the late Enlightenment’s study of environmental forces on society.

    £1750

  19. ALEXANDER, William, attributed.

    The Costume of the Russian Empire, illustrated by a Series of seventy-three Engravings....

    London, ‘printed for William Miller … by Howlett and Brimmer … 1803’, [c. 1823].

    A later reprint of a handsome costume book devoted to the Russian empire, first printed by Samuel Gosnell for William Miller in 1803, illustrated with seventy-three coloured stipple engravings.

    £950

  20. [PLAYING CARDS.]

    Cartes Magiques Musicales. 1001 Danses pour Piano. / Magical Musical Cards or Thousand and one Dances for Piano.

    Paris, Bass, c. 1830.

    The complete Piquet deck of these rare and unusual musical playing cards including the English rules for the game, a delightful example of a nineteenth-century parlour game produced for the Anglo-French market.

    £3000