Recent Acquisitions
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HAMILTON, ‘Eliza’ [Elizabeth].
Translation of the Letters of a Hindoo Rajah; written previous to, and during the Period of...
London, J. Crowder for G. & J. Robinson, 1801.
Second edition of Hamilton’s first separately published work, a pseudo-Oriental satire on British society, in a very well-preserved gilt paper binding imitating calf.
£575
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FLORUS, L. Annaeus; Lucius AMPELIUS; Claude SAUMAISE, editor.
[Rerum romanarum libri IV and Epitome historiae...
Leiden, Elzevir, 1638.
The attractive Elzevir edition of Florus’ Roman history, containing the editio princeps of Ampelius’ history, in a handsome English Restoration binding with highly unusual edge decoration.
£650
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[EMBROIDERED BINDING.]
Etrennes mignonnes, pour l’an de grace de Notre Seigneur M. DCC. LIII. …
Liège, Everard Kints, [1753].
A charming almanack for 1753 printed in Liège by Everard Kints – bookseller, printer, and wine merchant – here in a delightful embroidered binding with raised work in silver thread surrounding a skilfully executed floral arrangement.
£400
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[ALMANACK.]
L’Esprit des chansonniers, extrain [sic?] des meilleurs poëtes.
Paris, Le Fuel, [1826?].
A very rare enamelled metal binding with an enchanting design of birds and squirrels, from the collection of the bookbinder, collector, and bibliographer Léon Gruel.
£2750
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[ALMANACK.]
Les etrennes a la rose, ou le rosier d’amour.
Paris, Janet, [1804?].
A charming literary almanack, or ‘rosebush of love’, collecting amatory poems using the motif of the rose, here bound in red silk strikingly embroidered in silver and dated with the French Revolutionary year ‘An XII’ (1804).
£2500
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THOMAS CANTIPRATENSIS.
Bonum universale de proprietatibus apum.
[Cologne, Johann Koelhoff, the Elder, c. 1478–1480.]
Second edition of this manual of moral theology structured around the behaviour of bees, composed in the 1260s. It was a popular work, surviving in over a hundred manuscripts.
£6000
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BURCKHARDT, Johann Ludwig (John Lewis).
Travels in Arabia, comprehending an account of those territories in Hedjaz which the Mohammedans...
London, Henry Colburn, 1829.
First edition, in one volume, recounting Johann Ludwig Burckhardt’s journey to Mecca on behalf of the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior of Africa in 1814.
£3750
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BACON, Francis.
Francisci Baconi, Baronis de Verulamio, Vice-Comitis Sancti Albani, operum moralium et civilium tomus … cura...
London, Edward Griffin [and John Haviland] for Richard Whitaker [and John Norton], 1638.
First edition, first issue, a copy from the celebrated Albani library: tangible witness to the early and fecund reception of Bacon’s thought in the circles of Galilean science in Italy.
£3500
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[NEW YORK.]
Notarial instrument attesting to the residence of two French immigrants in New York.
New York, 27 July 1797.
An interesting notarial document recording the immigration of two members of the French minor nobility to America during the French Revolution and Directory.
£850
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[STEREOGRAPH.]
‘Going Out’ [and] ‘Coming In’.
London, Gebhardt, Rottmann & Co., [late 1850s or 1860s].
An amusing pair of stereos depicting the ‘before’ and ‘after’ a gentleman’s night out.
£70
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[STEREOGRAPH.]
James ELLIOTT, photographer.
‘The first Love Letter’ [and] ‘Difference of Opinion’. London, 1860s.
Three hand-tinted albumen prints in stereo format featuring elaborate historical costumes, depicting the early stages of courtship and a lovers’ tiff.
£175
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[HAMBURG.]
A sammelband of material relating to the Great Fire of Hamburg.
[Germany, 1842.]
A fine and unusual volume of materials relating to the Great Fire of Hamburg of May 1842, comprising a long article by Joseph Mendelssohn published over five issues of Der Komet, special issues of several periodicals devoted to the disaster, a rare poem by Margarethe Hedwig Hülle, and...
£850
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GOLDONI, Carlo.
Scelta di alcune commedie. Per uso de’ dilettanti della lingua italiana. Prima edizione italiana.
Livorno, Assunto Barbani, 1816.
First edition printed in Italy of a collection of ten comedies by Goldoni, selected for their lack of complicated syntax and lack of Venetian dialect and idioms, published in Livorno for the benefit of the English community.
£175
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ERNST, Max.
Une semaine de bonté ou les sept éléments capitaux. Roman. Premier [– Dernier] cahier …
Paris, Éditions Jeanne Bucher, 1934.
First edition, no. 706 of 800 copies on papier Navarre from a total edition of 816, of the most famous of Max Ernst’s Surrealist ‘collage novels’, composed entirely of recomposed images drawn from illustrations to nineteenth-century novels, encyclopaedias, scientific journals, and engravings...
£4500
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[LORD LEYCESTER HOSPITAL, WARWICK.]
Account of the Charity of Leicester’s Hospital. Its Foundation & Endowment, Government, Former...
Warwick, mid-nineteenth century.
A manuscript copy of the sixteenth-century statues of the Lord Leycester Hospital, an almshouse founded by Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, for impoverished or ageing former soldiers wounded in service.
£350
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MILLER, Philip.
The Gardeners Kalendar, directing what works are necessary to be performed every month in the kitchen, fruit, and...
The Fourteenth Edition. London, John Rivington, H. Woodfall, A. Millar, J. Whiston and B. White, G. Hawkins, J. Hinton, R. Baldwin, L. Hawes...
A very attractive copy of the most popular work of Philip Miller (1691−1771), the foremost British gardener of the eighteenth century, with five folding plates of botanical illustrations.
£165
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[LILY, William.]
A short introduction of grammar compiled and set forth for the bringing up of all those that intend to attain...
London, S. Buckley and T. Longman, 1738.
Two beautifully printed eighteenth-century Latin grammars ascribed to the great grammarian and schoolmaster William Lily (1468?–1522/1523).
£550
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KECHT, Johann Sigismund.
Der verbesserte praktische Weinbau in Gärten und vorzüglich auf Weinbergen … dritte, vermehrte, und...
Berlin, [Trowitzsch and Son for] the author, 1823.
Third, expanded edition (first 1813) of J.S. Kecht’s influential treatise describing his innovative methods of pruning grapevines to maximise harvest, first developed in his garden in Berlin and later praised by Goethe.
£450
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GELLIUS, Aulus.
Auli Gellii luculentissimi scriptoris Noctes Atticae.
Lyon, Sebastian Gryphius, 1555.
Gryphius edition of Aulus Gellius’ famous Attic Nights, issued the year before Gryphius’ death.
£650
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BOYLE, Robert.
Tractatus … Ubi 1. Mira aëris … rarefactio detecta. 2. Observata nova circa durationem virtutis elasticae...
London, Henry Herringman, 1671 [but printed abroad?].
I. Second edition, very scarce. The first edition, published the year before, is known in less than half a dozen copies. An English translation also appeared in 1671.
£1750