BEARDÉ DE L’ABBAYE.

Essays in agriculture: or, a variety of useful hints, for its improvement, with respect to air, water, earth,...

London, T. Carnan, 1776.

First and only edition in English. Little is known of Beardé; born at the beginning of the eighteenth century, he won the 1766 prize offered by the Agricultural Society of Saint Petersburg with his Essay in answer to the question ‘Est-il plus avantageux à un état que le paysan possède en propre...

£200

BLANQUI, Jérôme Adolphe, l’Ainé.

Histoire de l’économie politique en Europe, depuis les anciens jusqu’à nos jours, suivie...

Paris, Guillaumin, 1837.

First edition of ‘the first major history of political economy’ (The New Palgrave). Blanqui (1798–1854) taught at the Institution Massin, where he came into contact with J. B. Say, who was greatly impressed by him. In 1833, he succeeded Say as holder of the chair of political and industrial economy...

£125

CAGNAZZI, Luca de Samuele.

Analisi dell’ economia privata e pubblica degli antichi relativamente a quella de’ moderni …

Naples, Società filomatica, 1830.

First edition. Cagnazzi (1764–1852) was originally a teacher of mathematics by profession, receiving a professorship at Naples in 1806. ‘His life was full of trouble; having been concerned in political intrigues, he had to flee from Naples and, after wandering, nearly always on foot, through Italy...

£125

GEE, Joshua.

The trade and navigation of Great-Britain considered: shewing that the surest way for a nation to increase in riches,...

London, A. Bettesworth, C. Hitch … and S. Birt, 1738.

Fourth edition of Gee’s most important work, first published in 1729. Written at a time of declining exports, decaying agriculture and high unemployment Trade and navigation discusses foreign trade with strong protectionist tendencies. Gee is keen to improve trade with the North American colonies,...

£250

[ALEXANDRIA, Battle of, 1801.]

Plan of the action of the 21st of March fought near Alexandria by the French under Gn. Menou and...

A detailed plan accurately illustrating the movements of the British and French armies at the battle of Alexandria. In it, Sir Ralph Abercrombie was fatally wounded but the action was considered a British victory as the French were forced out of Egypt soon after. This plan is signed ‘J. W. Hamilton’.

£650

HOLLANDER, Jacob Harry.

Economic Liberalism.

New York and Cincinnati, The Abingdon Press, [1925].

First edition, dedicated ‘to the memory of Herbert B. Adams, who first taught me the meaning of liberalism’.

£50

ISHERWOOD, Christopher.

Berlin Stories.

New York: New Directions, [1945].

First American edition to combine the two Berlin novels, originally published by the Hogarth Press as Mr Norris Changes Trains and Goodbye to Berlin, in 1935 and 1939 respectively.

£150

JEFFERYS, Thomas.

The theatre of war in the Kingdom of Bohemia, drawn from the survey of J. C. Muller Captain Engineer to the Emperor:...

[London], Thomas Jefferys, 6 June 1757.

This map, issued at the beginning of the Seven Years’ War, illustrates the route taken by Frederick the Great’s Prussian forces against those of Saxony and Prussia, up to the opening of siege operations against Prague. On 18 June 1757, Count von Daun, in attempting to raise this siege, overpowered...

£500

KUNDERA, Milan.

Žert [The Joke].

Prague, Československý spisovatel, 1967.

First edition of Kundera’s first novel, The Joke, which gives a satirical account of the political atmosphere in Czechoslovakia in the 1950s.

£400

LAWRENCE, Thomas Edward.

Revolt in the Desert.

London: Jonathon Cape, 1927.

First edition of Lawrence’s popularly successful abridgement of Seven Pillars of Wisdom.

£275

[MILL, John Stuart, witness].

Report from the Select Committee on the Income and Property Tax; together with the Proceedings of...

[London], Ordered by the House of Commons, to be Printed, 1 August 1861.

First edition. This is the concluding report of the Commons Select Committee that had been responsible for investigating possible modifications to income tax policy. John Stuart Mill appeared before the Committee on the 18 June 1861, where he reiterated his central belief that the current system of income...

£175

[O’BRIEN.] NA GOPALEEN, Myles. [Pseud.] Brian O’Nolan.

The Hard Life … An Exegesis of Squalor.

London: MacGibbon & Kee, 1961.

First edition. A short comic novel described by O’Brien’s biographer Anthony Cronin as ‘a small masterpiece’, The Hard Life recounts the turn-of-the-century doings of a nameless narrator and the characters around him, with a remote, disdainful calmness and clarity. Set in the same turn-of-the-century...

£250

[O’BRIEN.] NA GOPALEEN, Myles. [Pseud.] Brian O’Nolan.

The Best of Myles.

New York: Walker & Company, 1968.

First US edition, preceded by the London, MacGibbon & Kee edition of the same year.

£150

PYNCHON, Thomas.

Gravity’s Rainbow.

New York: The Viking Press, [1973].

First edition. ‘Gravity’s Rainbow is literally indescribable, a tortured cadenza of lurid imaginings and total recall that goes on longer than you can quite believe’, wrote critic Michael Wood on first publication of this, Pynchon’s magnum opus:

£900

ROTH, Henry.

Call it Sleep.

London: Michael Joseph, 1963.

First English edition, first published in New York by Robert O. Ballou in 1934.

£250

SAY, Léon.

[cover title: ] La Société coopérative est la meilleure des caisses d’épargne.

Lille, L. Danel, [1866?].

First edition. Léon Say (1826–1896), grandson of Jean-Baptiste Say, ‘became one of the most prominent statesmen of the French Third Republic. He served as Finance Minister from 1872 to 1879, and again in 1882, overseeing the largest financial operation of the century – payment of war reparations...

£75

SCHREBER, Johann Christian.

Botanisch-Oeconomische Abhandlung vom Grasbaue. Preisschrift, welche die, in den öconomischen Nachrichten,...

Leipzig, Johann Wendler, 1763.

First separate edition of this prize-winning treatise on grass and hay, first published in the Ökonomische Nachrichten.

£75

[SINO-JAPANESE WAR, 1894–95.]

Terrible war of General Sakamoto, leader of the imperial warship Akagi.

Tokyo, Sekiguchi Masajiro, 1894.

A portrait of General Sakamoto at the battle of Yalu River (1894) executed by the Japanese artist, Toshikata Mizuno. General Sakamoto was killed in this battle.

£350

SMITH, William.

The Speeches of Mr. Smith, of South Carolina, delivered in the House of Representatives of the United States, in...

Philadelphia printed, London reprinted for John Stockdale, 1794.

First London edition, a rebuff to the punitive anti-British tariffs proposed by the future President James Madison, first printed in Philadelphia in the same year and also reprinted in Edinburgh.

£175

SQUIRES, Richard F.

Typescript letter to John Derek Smith, signed Rick,

dated Gladsaxe [Denmark], December 7, 1965.

Squires’ main research was into multiple forms of monoamine oxidases, and their inhibitors, which are nowadays used as antidepressants. Squires reports of problems not entirely unrelated with psycho-active substances:

£180