
BINDINGS BINDINGS BINDINGS
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Printed in England in 1665 & Bound in
AMERICA in 1829
(AN AMERICAN OFFERING). Bible. O.T. Greek. Septuagint. 1665. [four lines in Greek, then] Vetus testamentum graecum ex versione Septuaginta interpretum, juxta exemplar Vaticanum Romae editum. Cantabrigiae: Excusum per Joannem Field, 1665. 12mo (14 cm; 5.5"). [1] f., 19, [1], 755 [i.e. 767, 1], 516 pp. (without the initial blank).
$1800.00
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The second English edition of the Septuagint. There are different issues: This a copy of the one with the third word of the Greek title readiing “Diathēche” and not “Diathēke” and with the printer's device showing the man holding the sun in his left hand. Thus, this is Darlow and Moule issue “B.”
Thomas Jefferson owned a copy of one of the issues of this edition.
Provenance: Manuscript ownership inscription of John Ray dated 1716 (on retained fly-leaf); ownership signature of Robert L. Wilson, New York, 1818 (on title-page); gilt supra-libros of Barzillai Slosson, dated 1829. Later in the Howell Bible Collection, Pacific School of Religion (properly released).
Binding: American binding of dark blue goat, richly gilt, with wide floral border on covers and spine distinctively gilt using rules and floral roll. Board edges with a gilt roll; turn-ins gilt tooled. Marbled endpapers. All edges gilt. Gilt supra-libros of Barzillai Slosson as above. Unsigned.
Barzillai Slosson may have been related to the lawyer of the same name who was active in Kent, CT, at the end of the 18th century and into the fourth decade of the 19th, whose account books are in the Yale Law Library; perhaps, the Barzillai who graduated from Columbia College in 1818 and later moved to Geneva, NY, where he was active and successful in business and civic affairs.
Wing (rev. ed.) B2719. Darlow & Moule; 4702; ESTC R236848; Sowerby, Catalogue of the library of Thomas Jefferson, 1473. Binding as above, lightly rubbed. Pages closely cropped in the 19th-century rebinding and some initial or final letters touched or lost. Very good. (34786)

Sumptuously Bound by DAVID for
Cortlandt Bishop
(A FRENCH OFFERING). Uzanne, Octave. Son altesse la femme. Paris: A. Quantin, 1885. Small folio (27.5 cm; 11" ). [2] ff., [i]–xii, 312 pp., 21 illus. (part col.).
$1500.00
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Definitely this work was created by a bibliophile for fellow lovers of the book. When it appeared, Uzanne (1852–1931) was in full stride as a leader of the Paris circle of men and women interested in handsomely illustrated, printed, and bound works of literature. In 1880 he launched Miscellanées bibliographiques and, soon after Son altesse la femme appeared, he introduced the influential periodicals Le Livre, Le Livre moderne, and L'Art et l'Idée. In 1889, he took part in the creation of a publishing company, the “League of Contemporary Bibliophiles.” He counted among his friends the artists Jean Lorrain, Barbey d'Aurevilly, and Remy de Gourmont.
Son altesse la femme reviews most satirically the position of women in society from the medieval to the author's time. The chapters are Le vray mirouer de sorcellerie, La mie du poete, La précieuse, La caillette, La citoyenne française, Les galanteries du directoire, Sous la restauration, L'amour aux champs, La parisienne moderne, and Mulieriana.
The work was limited to 100 copies, all printed on Japan vellum. It has an engraved vignette on the black and red printed title, small illustrations or vignettes on 50 text pages, 11 vignette borders or headpieces (three of them in color, 10 of them in an
extra state), and 10 tipped-in color plates. The illustrations are by Henri Gervex, J.A. Gonzalès, L. Kratké, Albert Lynch, Adrien Moreau, and Félicien Rops.
Binding: Full red crushed morocco with five raised bands. Covers with a triple-rule gilt border; spine gilt extra with gilt beading on bands. Triple gilt fillet on board edges. Wide turn-ins richly tooled in gilt and with cream and blue leather inlays that are also gilt-tooled. Blue silk pastedowns and free endpapers. Marbled paper fly-leaves. All edges gilt.
Binding signed “David.”
Provenance: Red leather bookplate of Cortlandt Field Bishop, the famed collector of the early 20th century and, at one time, owner of the TWO most important auction galleries in NY/USA.
Original full-color wrappers bound in.
Vicaire, VII, 924. Uncut copy. Bound as above with original wrappers bound in; joints abraded and front one tender.
A luxurious production and very pleasing provenance. (26675)
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For Books with SPECIAL PROVENANCE, click here.
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By the MENTOR, about the MENTEE — Signed Binding by Hayday
(AN ENGLISH OFFERING). Evelyn, John. The life of Mrs. Godolphin. London: William Pickering, 1848. 16mo (17.5 cm, 6.875"). xviii, 291 pp.
[SOLD]
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Here in a delightful signed binding, this affectionate account of Mrs. Godolphin's life, by writer and diarist John Evelyn (1620–1706), was passed down through his family until 1847 when Edward Venables-Vernon-Harcourt allowed its publication with the assistance and editorship of Samuel Wilberforce. Margaret Godolphin (1652–78) was a British courtier married to one of the leading politicians of the time, Sidney Godolphin. She chose Evelyn as a mentor and paternal figure; they remained close until her early death due to complications from childbirth.
The volume, one of the third edition, is illustrated by a
pensive engraved frontispiece of Mrs. Goldophin,by William Humphreys, from an original painting by Matthew Dixon. The work also includes five genealogical tables.
Binding: Black morocco–covered boards with beveled edges, covers framed by two sets of blind double-rules and with an embossed center medallion; spine with raised bands, gilt lettering, blind-stamped devices in compartments, and blind rules extending from bands onto covers. Marbled endpapers, all edges gilt.
Signed by Hayday.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Kelly, Checklist of Books Published by William Pickering, 1847.5 (not noting the 1848 reprints); Keynes, William Pickering (rev. ed.), 65. Bound as above. Minor rubbing to spine-ends and joints, scuffs and faint scrapes to boards, corners bumped. Light stains to very edges of frontispiece, offsetting to title-page, and gutter crack to p. 290.
Lovely and sturdy overall. (37862)
For BIOGRAPHIES, mostly 20th-Century
“General Reading” & Inexpensive, click here.
For more of WOMEN's interest, click here.
For COLLECTED PRESSES
& TYPOGRAPHY, click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
MISCELLANY click here.
Our highlighted entries are repeated in the
expectable AUTHOR-ALPHABETICAL
places in their catalogues . . .


An Elegant Production!
Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres. Choix des mémoires de l’Academie Royale des inscriptions et belles-lettres. Londres: T. Becket & P. Elmsly, 1777. 4to (27 cm, 10.6"). 3 vols. I: [2], iii, [1], lx, 656 pp. (pagination skips 17–32, text uninterrupted). II: [2], iii, [1], ccviii, 495, [1 (blank)] pp. III: [2], iii, lxviii, [1], 696 pp.; 1 fold. plt., 2 plts.
$1250.00
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Sole edition thus: Three-volume set of selected pieces from the Histoire et mémoires de l’Académie, a massive collection of French-language commentary and criticism on Greek and Latin classics. The printing of the Histoire et mémoires commenced in 1717 and ran through 1809, with the total number of volumes coming to 51; the present compilation offers especially noteworthy treatises from the beginning of the series through 1763.
The third volume includes two plates and one oversized, folding plate reproducing two inscriptions and a frieze, engraved by E. Malpas.
Uncommon outside of Great Britain.
ESTC T113913; Brunet, I, 26; Lowndes, I, 5. Contemporary treed calf, spines gilt extra, with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels; leather worn at edges and moderately rubbed with joints cracking. Front pastedowns with private bookplates and signs that a plate was removed on front free endpaper (one vol. endpaper holed); impressions of old pencilled shelf numbers on title-pages (and one lightly inked old date). First two leaves of vol. III with upper margins stained and final leaf browned; some pages with a few spots of faint foxing, most clean and crisp. (13107)

Enhanced by a Fan of St. John — In a Contemporary Binding & with
78 Woodcuts
Aemilius, Georg. Evangelia quae consueto more dominicis et aliis festis diebus in ecclesia leguntur. Coloniae Agrippinae: Ad intersignium Monocerotis [Walther Fabritius], 1566. 8vo (16 cm, 6.3"). [176] ff.; illus.
$2250.00
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Profusely illustrated juvenile lectionary edited by student of Melanchthon and Lutheran theologian Georg Aemilius (a.k.a. Aemylius or Emilius, 1517–69). Decorated with
78 in-text woodcuts, a scarce few repeated, the Latin text is printed in single columns using an italic font with the occasional shouldernote in Greek and four historiated initials. First published in 1549, this text was extremely popular in its day, with at least nine different editions by 1579, though all editions are now uncommon and this one quite scarce; searches of WorldCat and NUC reveal only one U.S. institution reporting ownership.
Binding: Contemporary goat over thin beechwood boards, inked paper label on spine, raised bands surrounded by triple fillets; covers elaborately stamped with a frame of fillets and a medallion-portrait roll around repeated rows of three floral sprays.
Evidence of Readership: An early reader has underlined and added some marks of emphasis and words in an early hand to seven leaves of text, all excerpts taken from the Gospel of John.
Provenance: Two ownership and one duplicate release rubber-stamps appear on the title-page verso, the first from the Universitätsbibliothek München dated between 1800 and 1826; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
VD16 E 4570. Not in Adams; not in Index Aurel. Bound as above, rubbed and cracked with losses of leather and board extremities; bands and sewing tabs visible. No pastedowns; front free endpaper creased, front fly-leaf with pencilled note. Light age-toning with marginal and gutter waterstaining of varying darkness throughout; a few chipped edges, creased corners, or uneven edges; one short marginal tear. Provenance and readership indicia as above, else clean.
Well used and in fact the more interesting for that. (38914)

Elegantly Bound Prayer Book
Albach, J. S. Heilige Anklänge. Gebete für katholische Christen. Pesth: Julius Müller, 1850. 16mo (16 cm; 6.25"). Engr. frontis., engr. t.-p., 474 pp., 4 plts.; illus.
$500.00
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A collection of Catholic prayers printed in Fraktur with
an engraved title-page and six religious steel engravings based on paintings by Italian painter Tintoretto (1518–94) and Austrian painter Johann Ender (1793–1854), among others. The compiler Albach was a Franciscan friar.
Binding: Dark blue-purple velvet with silver fittings including a clasp, four arabesque corner bosses surrounding a central decoration of Mary holding baby Jesus on front, and four neat pyramidal corner bosses on back; spine entirely plain. White moiré paper endpapers, all edges gilt.
Provenance: 20th-century signature of Franz Joseph Faveaux on front endpaper.
Bound as above, light rubbing to edges and more at corners; light age-toning and some very light foxing variably; some sections with other light to moderate spotting.
A “luxury” production as to both its binding and its handsome plates. (36125)

Forster's IMPROVED Anacreon
Anacreon; Edward Forster, ed.; Lavinia Banks Forster, illus. Anacreontis Odaria, ad textus Barnesiani fidem emendata. Accedunt variae lectiones cura Edvardi Forster ... Londini: Ex officina B.R. Howlett, veneunt apud J. Murray, 1813. 8vo (18.7 cm, 7.36"). [2], 130 pp.; illus.
$350.00
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Handsome example of the ever-popular songs of Anacreon, edited and prepared by Edward Forster (1769–1828) based largely on Barnes' influential text. Lavinia Banks Forster, the editor's wife, supplied the illustrations — the elegantly printed text is ornamented with
20 copper-engraved vignettes. This is the second, revised edition, following the first of 1802.
Binding: Contemporary black calf, covers framed and panelled in blind fillets with blind-tooled corner fleurons, gilt arabesque motifs in outer panel, rich blind roll in inner panel; spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped motifs echoing covers; board edges and turn-ins with gilt Greek key roll. All edges gilt.Provenance: Front fly-leaf with inked inscription of J.[F.?] Mackarness, dated 1839.
Dibdin, I, 266–67 (for first ed.); NSTC A1179; Schweiger, I, 26. Binding as above, joints and extremities with variable rubbing. Pages gently age-toned with occasional offsetting from engravings or faint spotting, otherwise clean.
A desirable copy of this extremely attractive production. (40741)

Whittingham Printing, Hayday Binding
[Anderdon, John Lavicount]. The life of Thomas Ken bishop of Bath and Wells. By a layman. London: William Pickering (pr. by C. Whittingham), 1851. 8vo (22.5 cm, 8.85"). Frontis., viii, 528 pp.
$500.00
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Uncommon first edition of this biography of the esteemed bishop, non-juror, and hymnodist (1637–1711), written by the author of The River Dove (although the work was anonymously published, this attribution was later confirmed by Plumptre). The frontispiece portrait of the subject was engraved by W. Humphreys “from a contemporary print by Loggan.” The volume overall is a
handsome example of Whittingham's printing, set in a large type with ornamental initials and tailpieces; at the back are three pages of sheet music for hymns written by Ken, and the errata slip is tipped in.
Binding: Contemporary full violet-brown morocco, framed and panelled in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons, done by James Hayday (with binder's stamp on front free endpaper). All edges gilt.Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Kelly, Checklist of Books Published by William Pickering, 1851.10; Keynes, William Pickering (rev. ed.), p. 75; NSTC 2A11311. Binding as above, recased, spine slightly darkened with mild cracking to leather, light wear to extremities, small scuffs to back cover, hinges expertly refurbished. Previous cataloguing slip laid in. Pages clean and crisp.
A lovely copy of the infrequently seen first edition. (40597)

It Looks Like
What an Incunable is SUPPOSED to Look Like
Antoninus, Saint, Archbishop of Florence. Summa theologica. [colophon: Argentina {i.e., [Strassburg}: Johannem {Reinhard} Grüninger, 1496]. Folio (32.5 cm; 12.5"). Vols. I & II (in one volume) of V. I: [173 of 174] ff. (lacking first leaf of vol. 1); [225 of 226] ff. (without the final blank].
$8000.00
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“The Summa Theologica (1477), more properly the Summa Moralis, is the work upon which [St. Antoninus's] theological fame chiefly rests . . . [it] is probably the first — certainly the most comprehensive — treatment from a practical point of view of Christian ethics, asceticism, and sociology in the Middle Ages” (NCE, I, 647).
After his ordination in 1413 (at Cortona, where he was sent for the Dominican novitiate along with artists Fra Angelico and Fra Bartolommeo!), Antoninus (1389–1459) swiftly attained prominence in the Church; returning to his native Florence, he consecrated the Convent of San Marco in 1443 and was appointed Archbishop of that city just a few years later. A great yet humble reformer whose writings were widely published even in the incunable period, Antoninus was
hailed as a Doctor of the Church in the bull for his canonization.
The Summa, completed shortly before his death, is divided into four parts: the first is concerned with the soul and its faculties, passions, sin, and law; the second addresses different types of sin and redress; the third considers various states and professions in life, with treatises on ecclesiastical offices and censures; and the fourth contemplates the cardinal virtues, religious morals, and gifts of the Holy Spirit. Although the text draws heavily on earlier theological works by St. Thomas Aquinas, among others, it is regarded as
“a new and very considerable development in moral theology” (NCE online), and it contains
a wealth of matter for the student of 15th-century history.
Printed in Gothic type, double-column format, with most capitals supplied in red or blue manuscript in plain style, the text here has red markings to aid in reading and navigation. Topics addressed in these volumes include sin, penance, canon law, will, original sin, privilege, lying, pride, avarice, anger, and infidelity, among several others.
Goff and ISTC find only one complete set of all volumes in American libraries — at the Countway in Boston. All other U.S. libraries, save the Newberry, report owning one or two of the volumes. The Newberry has volumes I–IV.
Provenance: Old illegible European library stamp in lower margin of first leaf of vol. I; in 20th and early 21st century in the library of the Pacific School of Religion (properly deaccessioned).
ISTC ia00878000; Goff A878; BMC, I, 109; GKW 2192. Contemporary calf over bevelled wood boards, recently rebacked and new endpapers supplied; lacks a blank and a title leaf. Leather of boards elaborately and richly tooled in blind using rolls, rules, and individual stamps of a rose, a fleur de lis, and a saint; small area of leather on front board missing and substitute leather inserted. Evidence of bass and leather clasps, remnants of vellum guide tabs. Text and boards of binding wormed, mostly with many pinhole wormholes, and text with some meandering; no great losses. Some small tears in a few margins and one lower margin with an old repair; stamp as above; browning to many margins. A good, solid volume, one with some condition issues but at the same time a good example of these productions and the era's printing. (33734)

Illuminated, with Full-Page Miniature, on Vellum, Great Binding
Archconfraternity of the Stigmata of St. Francis. Illuminated manuscript on vellum, in Latin. “Franciscus Tituli S. Petri & Marcellini S.R.E. Cardinalis Pignattellus ... Dilectis nobis in Christo Confratribus Confraternibus Sacror. Stigmatum & S. Antonii de Padua in Ecclia. Parrochili S. Conini Loci Cicognoli Cremonen. ... Rome: 1706. 8vo (22.7 cm, 9.5'), [10] ff.
$3500.00
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The parish church in the municipality of Cicognolo in the province of Cremona in the Italian region of Lombardy, located about 90 kilometres (56 mi.) southeast of Milan and about 14 kilometres (9 mi.) northeast of Cremona, has
petitioned to establish a chapter of the archconfraternity of the Stigmata of St. Francis.
Approval has been granted and this is the official document establishing the archconfraternity there. It is written in roman hand in brownish-black ink with
extensive variously sized headings indited in gold, and has a full-page portrait of St. Francis, a medallion vignette of his hands receiving the stigmata, and a large triple-bordered decorated initial “D,” all accomplished
in colors and gold and incorporating or surrounded by generous flourishes of flowers painted variously in shades of rose, yellow, and blue. All leaves have borders in black and gold (and sometimes green) except one initial blank.
On the verso of the last leaf are the signatures of “custodians” of the archconfraternity in Rome below which are two paper and wax seals (one lacking the paper) with the seals' owners' names below, attesting to the completion of the application process and the grant ing of the petition.
Binding: Contemporary crimson morocco, covers lavishly gilt-tooled. The center panel is richly filled with floral motifs and small stars surrounding a center emblem of the hands of St. Francis within a circular border of flames. Surrounding the center panel are four outer frames created by variety of large and small rolls. Marbled paper pastedowns in an unusual “patchwork” style.
Binding as above, manuscript recased, without the original ties. Some text rubbed and illegible, clean cracks in fourth leaf, crudely repaired hole in last leaf causing text loss. Curious green tarnishing of the gold. A most attractive binding, a beautifully painted manuscript, an interesting artifact of Catholic social history, and
a great tool for teaching about conservation concerns. (39295)

A “Gift Copy” — Textured Olive Green Calf by
Bayntun-Riviere
Arnold, Matthew. The poems of Matthew Arnold, 1840–1867. London: Oxford University Press, Humphrey Milford, 1937. 12mo (18.4 cm; 7.25"). xxvii, 460 pp.
$250.00
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A later printing from the Oxford University Press of a collection of poems by Matthew Arnold, the poet and cultural critic; A.T. Quiller-Couch, a novelist and literary critic who often published using the pseudonym “Q,” here provides an introduction.
A gift inscription tipped to the front fly-leaf reads, “From the Wardroom Officers of the Joint A/S [i.e., Anti-Submarine] School & Barracks, Londonderry — with their congratulations and best wishes for a long & happy married life,” signed E. Hart Dyke, Commander, and dated 31 August 1946.
Binding: Full olive green textured calf, spine gilt extra, boards with simple gilt double-rule borders and zig-zag gilt decoration along their edges; gilt floral roll to generous turn-ins and marbled paper pastedowns. All edges gilt. A tiny stamp on a front endpaper indicates this copy was bound by Bayntun-Riviere of Bath, England.
Bound as above, mild rubbing to rear board only and light soiling along edge of tipped-in inscription (perhaps from the glue). Binding and interior very clean.
A lovely copy with a pleasing provenance. (37324)

With the Spanish Royal Coat of Arms on BOTH Boards
Balbuena, Bernardo de. Siglo de oro en las selvas de Erífile. Madrid: Ibarra, 1821. 8vo (18.3 cm, 7.24"). [1] f., xvi, 240, 99, [1] pp.; 1 port.
$975.00
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This volume contains the third printing of the Siglo de oro and the second of the Grandeza mexicana. The author was born in Spain in 1568 and at two years of age moved with his family to Mexico, where he passed his youth, was educated, and held his earliest posts; in 1607 he returned to Spain for his doctoral studies. He held various ecclesiastical posts, and in 1622 was appointed the bishop of Puerto Rico.
The Grandeza was Balbuena's first published work, appearing from the Ocharte press in Mexico in 1604. A descriptive epic poem about Mexico City at the close of the 16th century, paying homage to its external material aspects and to its spiritual, political, and social ones as well, it is
a major work of Novohispanic literature. The Siglo de Oro was the author's second published work; it first appeared in Madrid in 1608 and is composed of a series of 12 eclogues.
Binding: Contemporary acid-stained sheep (Valencia style) in hues of green and brown, covers with a gilt roll border and a center device of the Spanish royal coat of arms, spine gilt extra.
Palau 22339; Simón Díaz 2286; Maggs, Spanish Books, 71a. On Balbuena, see: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal e Iberoamérica, fiche 90, frames 7–16. Bound as above, joints and extremities mildly rubbed. Title-page with spots of pinhole worming, front fly-leaf with one such. Pages clean, portrait handsome. (38393)
The Private Edition, One of 12 Copies Only
A Family Copy
[A Conundrum Here as to “Original” Bindings]
Barham, R. Harris. The Ingoldsby legends or mirth and marvels by Thomas Ingoldsby Esquire [with] The Ingoldsby legends ... Second series. London: Richard Bentley, 1840 & 1842. 8vo. 2 vols. I: [6], v, [3], 338, [2] pp. with inserted extra-engraved title (a proof before letters), numbered colophon leaf, engraved title, and six etched plates; II: vii, [3], 288 pp. with engraved title and seven etched plates.
$12,500.00
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The very rare private issue of the first two volumes of Barham's most successful work, specially printed on heavier cream-toned paper, with the special limitation leaf, numbered and signed by Richard Bentley in the first volume. Plates and illustrations are by Leech, Cruikshank, and Buss. This copy is denoted copy #1 in ink, but a trace of an erasure suggests it may have been denoted #12, and then corrected at some point. The ownership signature of the author's son, R.H.D. Barham, who edited the third volume in 1847, appears on the half-title of the second volume. No private issue of the third volume was prepared.
The rather complex bibliography of this private issue, as well as that of the public issue, is discussed at length by Sadleir in the context of his entries for the copies in his collection, pp. 27– 29. He owned copy #8 (the publisher's copy) of the private edition of the first volume, but lacked the second volume in this form. He had knowledge of only two other copies, Barham's own copy (later Owen Young's) at the NYPL, and a catalogue reference to a copy from the collection of D. Phoenix Ingraham, sold in “February 1836 [sic, i.e. 1936].” This copy of the first volume, like Sadleir's and the others, has on p. 236 the incomplete printing of “The Franklyn's Dogge.”
Sadleir's analysis suggested to him the following probable sequence: a) the private edition, b) copies of the public edition with p. 236 in the same form as it appears in the private edition, c) copies of the public edition with p. 236 blank; and d) copies of the public edition with the complete new version of the text on p. 236.
The set in hand raises a new question in regard to the form of the binding of the private edition in its original state. Sadleir's copy, like the copy he located at NYPL, was bound in “Full brown Russia,” with the title, imprint, and date on the spine, and the title on the upper board, and he describes that binding as “original.” The binding described by Carter in reference to the twelve private copies is also in accord with Sadleir's description.
However, the remnants of the binding preserved at the back of the present first volume — see note below and
image above — are red moiré silk (as opposed to the brown cloth of the public edition), with the side panels and spine ornately blocked with a gilt design and the title within the gilt frame (the spine is rather worn, but legible). This suggests that only some of the twelve private copies were bound in leather, and others, or at least one, bound in this special silk cloth, gilt extra.
Binding: Full claret crushed levant, gilt extra, all edges gilt, by Riviere, with the side panels and spine of the original binding of the first volume bound at the end.
Barham began writing the short pieces making up this series as contributions to his friend and classmate's Bentley's Miscellany. The subject matter was “at first derived from the legendary lore of the author's ancestral locality in Kent, but soon [was] enriched by satires on the topics of the day and subjects of pure invention, or borrowed from history or the ‘Acta Sanctorum’. . . . The success of the ‘Legends’ was pronounced from the first, and when published collectively in 1840 they at once took the high place in humorous literature which they have ever since retained” (DNB).
Provenance: With R.H.D. Barham’s signature as noted above, and with the armorial bookplate of Sir David Lionel Salomons (1851–1925) in each volume.
NCBEL, III, 365; Sadleir 156a; Tinker 216 (public edition); Carter, Binding Variants, p.92. Bindings a bit darkened and slightly discolored at extremities, light rubbing to joints, some foxing to the prelims of the first volume, with an old tide-mark in the lower gutter areas of the plates; a tipped-in bookseller's description in the first volume.
A very good, very interesting example of a very rare thing. (18236)
First Publicly Available, “Real” Editions,
in
Signed Bindings
[Barham, Richard Harris, a.k.a.] Ingoldsby, Thomas. The Ingoldsby legends or mirth and marvels. London: Richard Bentley (pr. by Samuel Bentley), 1840–47. 8vo (20.5 cm, 8.1"). 3 vols. I: Engr. t.-p., v, [3], 338, [2] pp.; 6 plts. II: Engr. t.-p., vii, [3], 288 pp.; 7 plts. III: Engr. t.-p., vi, [2], 364 pp.; 6 plts.
$950.00
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All three series of these entertaining tales, here in the first editions following the extremely scarce author’s edition of 12 copies. The Legends made their original appearances in Bentley’s Miscellany, as a favor to Bentley, a former schoolmate of Barham’s; Bentley here collects the pieces in book form with a life of the author (illustrated by an appealing engraved portrait done by R.J. Lane). The stories and poems are illustrated with
18 plates engraved by George Cruikshank, John Leech, and John Tenniel.
Bindings: Contemporary signed bindings by E.P. Dutton & Co., of red morocco with covers framed in gilt triple fillets; spines with raised bands, gilt-stamped titles, and compartments framed in gilt double fillets. Board edges gilt-ruled, gilt inner dentelles. Upper page edges gilt.
Original cloth covers and spines bound in at the back.
Sadleir 156b, e, & f; NCBEL, III, 365. Bindings as above, spines and upper board edges darkened with a bit of rubbing; free endpapers with offsetting from turn-ins. One volume with lower part of cover stained and the lower inner margin of the title-page and plates (not the text leaves!) waterstained. One plate evenly age-toned. (12844)


A BEVY OF BIBLES
 |
ORDERED BY DATE
|

FIRST 4TO “KING JAMES,” Book of Common Prayer, Genealogies,
& Booke of Psalms
ALL TOGETHER
Bible. English. 1612. Authorized (i.e., “King James Version”). The Holy Bible, conteyning the Old Testament and the New. Newly translated out of the originall tongues: & with the former translations diligently compared and revised by his Maiesties speciall comandment.... London: Robert Barker, 1612. 4to in 8s (23 cm, 9"). [652 of 656] ff. (lacks title-leaf and three text leaves [D1,8, Ii4, Mm7], all supplied in pre-WWII facsimile). [also bound in] Church of England. The book of common prayer. London: Robert Barker, 1613. 4to. [46] ff. [also bound in] Speed, John. The genealogies. [London: printed by John Beale, 1613 or 1614]. 4to. [1] f., 34 pp., [2] ff. [also bound in] Bible. O.T. Psalms. Sternold & Hopkins. The booke of psalmes, collected into English. London: Imprinted for the Companie of Stationers, 1614. 4to. [5] ff., [1], 115 pp., [5] ff. (last leaf in facsim.).
[SOLD]
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A very typical combination of religious texts in one thick, handsomely bound volume, but
of extra interest as the Bible is the presence of the first quarto printing of the “King James Version.” The Bible is printed in roman type, double-column format, with Ruth III, 15 reading “she went,” and the last register marks are in square brackets.
Binding: 17th-century dark red goat, covers with ornate corner and centerpiece design composed of gilt-stamped foliate motifs and drawer-handle decorations of inlaid black leather and gilt, framed in black inlaid band and gilt rolls, spine with similar motifs between raised bands. Marbled endpapers; turn-ins with gilt rolls.
Provenance and other markings: Main title-page with elements of its woodcut border highlighted in old red ink; front endpapers and blank opposite title-page both with extensive notes and doodles, some in early ink, some in pencil, some heavily inked over, and some strikingly calligraphic. Among these are a very large rendering of a
flying dragon, large swooshes of pen-testings (some in red ink), and the names of Thomas Cobb and Peter Whatly (twice).
Bible: ESTC S4001; STC (rev. ed.) 2220; Herbert 314; Darlow & Moule 242. PCB: ESTC S93848; STC (rev. ed.) 16338.3; Griffiths, Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, 1613, #4 Psalmes: ESTC S101975; STC (rev. ed.) 2548. Speed: STC S123482; STC (ref. ed.) 23039d.2. Binding as above, rubbed overall especially at edges and corners with joints (outside) refurbished and hinges (inside) reinforced some time ago with brown cloth tape; front cover with limited area of dark discoloration at bottom center, spine leather showing fine cracks. Pages age-toned with intermittent spotting and staining, some sections waterstained. First few leaves with edges tattered, one with outer corners torn away; one leaf torn across with old tissue repair affecting upper outer portion of text. Several leaves lacking and supplied in early facsimile.
A worn and imperfect copy priced accordingly — still worthwhile, as a binding still striking and encasing a landmark printing of the English Bible — with appealing handiwork applied to boot. (34712)

Elzevir's Received Text — From the Syston Park Collection
Bible. N.T. Greek. 1633. [in Greek, transliterated as] He Kaine Diatheke. [then in roman] Novum testamentum. Ex regiis aliisque optimis editionibus cum cura expressum. Lugduni Batavorum: Ex officina Elzeviriana, 1633. 12mo (13 cm, 5.125"). [16], 861, [35] pp.
[SOLD]
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Syston Park copy of the editio recepta of Beza's text, following the first Elzevir edition of 1624 and largely agreeing with the octavo edition of 1565. Greek New Testaments were a staple of the renowned Elzevir family of printers, and Willems declares that of the three printed by the Leyden Elzevirs, “celle-ci est la plus belle et la plus recherchée.”
It was in the preface to this edition that this text was first labelled “Textus Receptus.”
After the preface, the text is printed entirely in Greek, except for Latin chapter headings in the table of contents; verse numbers are given in the inner margin of each page. The title-page features the printer's woodcut device of a man picking grapes from a vine on a tree and the motto “Non solus.”Binding: 18th-century crimson straight-grain morocco, covers framed in dotted gilt rules, board edges and turn-ins with dotted gilt rule, spine similarly ruled and with gilt-stamped title. All edges gilt and a light blue silk ribbon placemarker still present. Almost certainly done by
Roger Payne, Syston Park's preferred binder.
Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplates of H. Walter Webb and Syston Park (i.e., the famous
Syston Park Library, collected at Lincolnshire by Sir John Hayford Thorold, Bart., and his predecessors); front free endpaper with bookplate of Leila Howard Codman; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.The Sotheby's catalogue of the Syston Park sale suggests that the present copy was Sir John's duplicate, this example having marbled endpapers rather than the “silk linings” described in another copy.
Darlow & Moule 4679; Willems 396. Bound as above, spine slightly dimmed. Bookplates as above; front free endpaper and fly-leaf with affixed slips of old cataloguing and pencilled annotations. Pages clean.
A nice copy with pleasing, in fact prestigious, provenance. (37819)
A LECTERN Bible
USED in a Lutheran Church?
Bible. German. 1710. Luther. Biblia, das ist: Die gantze heilige Schrift des Alten und Neuen Testaments. Wie solche von Herrn Doctor Martin Luther Seel. im Jahr Christi 1522. in unsere Teutsche Mutter-Sprach zu übersetzen angefangen.... Nürnberg: In Verlegung Johann Andreä Endters Seel, Sohn, und Erben, 1710. Folio (39 cm, 15.38"). Frontis., [32] ff., 1181, [1] pp., [11 (-1)] ff.; 1 plt., illus.
$1500.00
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Aside from its importance in the religious tradition, Luther's translation of the Bible is probably the most important single text for the formation of Modern German. Like other Luther Bibles, this one contains his prefaces to the books of the Bible, including his theologically significant Preface to the Epistle to the Romans. It is also supplemented by the Augsburg Confession, of which, sadly, the last leaf is absent here.
In this printing, a fine engraved title-page shows an angel delivering Luther's translation of the Old Testament to a Church still in bondage to the requirements of the old Law. A similar sectional title-page, depicting God the Father, Jesus Christ, and allegorical figures of the sacraments of Baptism and Communion, comes before the New Testament. Six special pairs of leaves, bound in at various places, each offer a first page containing an engraving of biblical figures and three following pages containing their biographies. A woodcut vignette of the unusual triple arms of the city of Nürnberg appears on the title-page; a number of chapters are adorned, at head, with one-third page woodcut illustrations set in neat borders; and the books typically open with typographically appealing two-column “headers.” The text is in a handsome and relatively legible fraktur. The size, decoration, and overall composition of the volume, along with its faults (especially the manner in which which pages are worn), suggest a history as a lectern Bible in a Lutheran Church.
Binding: This copy is bound in ornately blind-tooled and -stamped alum-tawed sheep over wooden boards, the front cover with three of its original etched corner bosses and with its two etched clasp-catches. (Bosses of back cover no longer present, remnants of clasps.) A martial portrait is centered on each cover; unfortunately these are now so worn that they are no longer identifiable. Perhaps they belong to the electors of Saxony who safeguarded the Lutheran faith in its infancy.
Binding as above. Covers abraded and worn, some scraping to back upper board, leather peeling back from fore-edge of front cover and opening at ends of joints, most notably at bottom of front one. Front free endpaper with inked inscription, in German, dated Philadelphia, 1852. Frontispiece with a fore-edge chip (not into image) and tears in from bottom margin and at gutter, with small loss to plate area at bottom inner corner. A number of pages with tears extending into text, a few places with chips to bottom outer corners with loss of words but not of sense. Scattered foxing, with occasional darker small stains. Last leaf (of Confession, NOT Bible), only, lacking. Despite faults, a grand volume both usable and inspiring. (2802)

The First English THUMB BIBLE in Prose
Beautifully Bound & with Sharp Lovely Plates
Bible. English. Selections. Biblia. Or a practical summary of ye Old and New Testaments. London: R. Wilkin, 1728 (i.e., 1727). 64mo (4 cm, 1.57"). [6], 154, [2], 155–278, [6] pp.; 16 plts.
$6500.00
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Delightful example of an illustrated thumb Bible, this being
the earliest known prose appearance of such according to Adomeit. Wilkin printed this tiny volume in 1727, and Adomeit notes that “copies are most commonly found with date altered in ink to 1728" — as is indeed the case here — “but there seems to be no difference between the copies outside of this change.” In addition to the two engraved title-pages, the text is illustrated with
16 minscule engraved plates.
Binding: Full black calf, gilt extra, board edges and turn-ins with gilt roll. All edges gilt; marbled endpapers.
Adomeit, Thumb Bibles, B16 (see also p. xvi); ESTC N64949; Opie L 25. Binding as above, slightly (expectably) sprung, spine gilt showing one crack. Dates inked in an early hand as above; frontispiece for New Testament affixed to final page of Old Testament. Pages and plates very clean.
A remarkable copy of a desirable item. (41004)
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Didot Printed — Petit Bound — BEAUTIFUL Biblical Antiquarianism
Bible. Latin (Old Latin). Vulgate. 1785. Bibliorum sacrorum vulgatae versionis editio. Parisiis: Excudabat Fr. Amb. Didot natut maj., 1785. 8vo in 4s (19 cm, 7.5"). 8 vols. I: xvi, 501, [1] pp. II: [2] ff., 450 pp. III: [2] ff., 393, [1] pp. IV: [2] ff., 428 pp. V: [2] ff., 400 pp. VI: [2] ff., 444 pp. VII: [2] ff., 407, [1] pp. VIII: [2] ff., 373, [1] pp.
$2500.00
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Produced here in fine French bibliophilic style is “the most extensive collection of
Old Latin versions, which exist only in fragments, compiled from manuscripts and the writings of the Fathers” by Pierre Sabbathier and continued after his death under the care of Vincent de La Rue (Darlow & Moule). This edition, following the first (Rheims, 1739–49) was issued In the Didot series Collection des auteurs classiques, françois et latins.
Binding: Full red crushed morocco, gilt spine and boards; gilt rule on board edges; gilt rolls on turn-ins; marbled endpapers. All edges gilt.
Bindings signed Petit Succs. de Simier.
Provenance: Bookplates of Casimir L. Stralem, Clarence E. Clark, and Brian Douglas Stilwell.
WorldCat locates only six U.S. libraries reporting ownership of
all eight volumes as present here (NYPL, Cornell, Seton Hall, Holy Cross College, New York Historical Society, UC-Berkeley Law) and two libraries reporting ownership of incomplete sets (Harvard Divinity [vols. 1, 2 only], University of Dayton [vol. 3 only]).
Darlow & Moule, III, 6263; Jammes, Les Didot, 25. Bound as above, some joints (outside) showing cracking but all intact. All volumes housed in light marbled-paper open-back cases, some with tape repairs.
Very good. (40318)
Bible. O.T. Psalms. English. Paraphrases. 1827. Watts. The Psalms, hymns, & spiritual songs ... to which are added, select hymns from other authors; and directions for musical expression. Boston: Samuel T. Armstrong and Crocker & Brewster,
[1827]. 12mo (15.6 cm, 6.2"). 496, [5]–156 pp.
$225.00
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“Stereotype edition, carefully revised, and improved with Copious Indexes.” The editor was Samuel Worcester, who also selected the added hymns at the back of this volume.
Binding: Contemporary red straight-grain morocco, covers framed in gilt rolls, spine gilt extra, front cover gilt-stamped “John Bradley.” All edges marbled.
Shoemaker 31685. Binding as above, sides darkened, corners and spine rubbed, joints cracked with sewing holding but quite fragile. Fly-leaves with early pencilled ownership inscriptions and annotations. Light to moderate foxing. Separate title-page for second section (only) lacking. (20597)

Embossed Architectural Binding — EXCELLENT Condition
Bible. English. Authorized (i.e., “King James Version”). 1831. The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments: Translated out of the original tongues: and with the former translations diligently compared and revised, by His Majesty's special command. Oxford: Pr. at the University Press by Samuel Collingwood & Co., 1831. 24mo. [528] ff.
$1150.00
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A lovely gift Bible, presented in the 19th century to one James Henry Newman by five members of his immediate family.
Binding: Contemporary embossed rich cordovan-colored morocco cathedral binding featuring inter alii the Holy Ghost (in Pentacostal dove–form), the Agnus Dei, and stained/leaded glass “windows” both pointed and rosette. Spine additionally with gilt-stamped title; turn-ins with blind-roll design. All edges brightly gilt.
Not in Herbert. Binding as above, in beautiful condition. First front fly-leaf with early inked familial gift inscription (including an explanation of one brother's having opted out of the group present!); second front fly-leaf with inked dedicatory poem. (22266)
Bible. English. 1831. Authorized (i.e., “King James Version”). The Holy Bible.... In two volumes. Boston: [Pr. by Stephen Forster at the Boston Press, Francis Jenks, proprietor, for] Gray & Bowen, 1831. 4to (27.7 cm, 10.875"). In 2 vols. I: lacking frontis., [2] ff., 915, [1 (blank)] pp. II: lacking frontis.?, [2] ff., 804, [1 (blank)] pp., [1 (blank)] f.
$675.00
Handsomely and plainly printed in two columns of large type, without notes, this two-volume Bible is as remarkable for the becoming simplicity of its layout as it is for its handsome binding of red leather gilt.
Binding: Straight-grained red morocco amply gilt in the Regency style: Front corners with a wide gilt-stamped foliate frame enclosing a narrow blind-ruled frame. Spine with raised bands, a broad foliate gilt roll on each band, second and fourth compartments gilt-lettered within, rest with gilt frames. Gilt inner dentelles and board edges. Red and white silk head bands. Marbled endpapers in a stone pattern. All edges gilt.
Provenance: Presentation inscription on front fly-leaves: Preston(?) S. and Francis M. Lincoln, to their grandmother, Hannah Shepard, 1835. Small booklabel of Michael Zinman on front pastedown.
Hills 733; O’Callaghan 208. Binding as above, edges and joints with minor rubbing, front joint of vol. II opening from foot, bindings showing a few light or small abrasions. Lacking frontispiece for vol. I and possibly a frontispiece for vol. II: O’Callaghan gives this edition as having a frontispiece for each volume, while Hills cites two copies, one this size with a frontispiece for vol. I only, and a large paper copy with a frontispiece for each volume. A few closed tears into text without loss; some pages, especially towards the end of vol. I, shallowly chipped without loss of impression; light foxing throughout with occasional darker browning or staining. Inked ownership inscription on the recto of the first fly-leaf of each volume. (8254)

In a
GOOD AMERICAN Binding — Sarah Leverett's French Bible
Bible. French. 1839–40. Martin. La Sainte Bible...revue...par David Martin.... New York: Stéréotypé par Henry W. Rees, pour la Société Biblique Americaine, D. Fanshaw, Imprimeur, 1839–40. 8vo. 819 [1 (blank)] pp., 261, [1 (blank)] pp.
$525.00
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Only the second edition in the U.S. of the Martin edition of the French Bible. (Prior to 1835, the American Bible Society favored using the text of the 1805 French Bible.)Binding: This copy is exquisitely bound in full black leather in good imitation of morocco, elaborately stamped in gold on the covers forming a five-element frame or border, with gilt tooling on the board edges and with gilt inner dentelles. The spine has slightly raised bands and elaborate gold stamping in its compartments.
This is the second copy of this Bible that we have had and we are convinced that this is a publisher's deluxe leather binding. A choice of colors was apparently available, for the other copy we had was of an olive-green color.
Provenance: The name “Sarah B. Leverett” is lettered in gilt on the front cover, and the same name is given in precise gothic calligraphy on the front free endpaper.
Not in O'Callaghan; not in Darlow & Moule. Bound as above, corners a little bumped with a bit of long ago refurbishing thereto, dulling outermost elements of gilt border (only) on front cover, just at those corners. Evidence to endpapers of the volume's once having been sewn into a chemise or wrapper; old notes just discernible (not really readable) in a minute hand on front free endpaper (i.e., “behind” Sarah's name); see our image. Faint waterstaining in lower inside area for the first few pages (only).
The whole very attractive and well preserved. (2666)

Hannah's Legacy — Illustrated N.T. Sentimental Womanly Provenance
Bible. N.T. English. Authorized. 1841. The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; with the marginal readings; and illustrated by marginal references, both parallel and explanatory, and a copious selection, carefully chosen, and newly arranged. New York: John C. Riker, 1841. 16mo (11 cm, 4.4"). Frontis., add. engr. t.-p., [2], 350 pp.; 4 plts.
$200.00
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A small, hand-size English New Testament based on that of the Polyglott Bible. Riker printed several variations on this edition from 1831 onwards; in this case, the added engraved title-page still gives the publication date as 1831, but the main title shows 1841. The text is printed in double columns with a central column of references, and
illustrated with a frontispiece, an additional engraved title-page, wood-engraved headpieces, and four steel-engraved plates, the latter done by Illman and Pilbrow after various artists.
Provenance: Tipped-in leaf with inked inscription: “Hannah M. Williams / Presented by directive from her grandmother Williams when on her death bed with this injunction to be read with careful attention”; in pencil below is “A precious legacy.” Williams (or a contemporary) apparently took the directive seriously; there are several instances of pencilled bracketing, marks of emphasis, and marginalia in the “precious legacy” hand.
Binding: Contemporary diced-grain red sheep, covers framed in gilt roll surrounding gilt-stamped acanthus and acorn design, spine with gilt-stamped title (“Polyglott Testament”) and decorative motifs, board edges with gilt roll. All edges gilt.
See Hills, English Bible in America, 768 for 1831 ed.; 1841 not listed. Bound as above, rubbed at joints and extremities with front hinge (inside) cracked yet sound. Front pastedown and free endpaper with pencilled inscriptions dated 1853; inscription leaf as above; one front fly-leaf with pencilled annotations (and with hole in lower center). Additional annotations as above; one plate with “My Saviour” pencilled in lower margin. Intermittent mild foxing and a bit of other staining; a few corners bumped. Worn, yes — still luminous in its own way, and an interesting example of two early 19th-century women's engagement with the Bible. (35204)
Harper’s
ILLUMINATED
“1600 Historical Engravings” & Handsomely Bound
Bible. English. 1846. Authorized (i.e., “King James Version”). The illuminated Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments...With marginal readings, references, and chronological dates. Also, the Apocrypha....Embellished with sixteen hundred historical engravings by J.A. Adams, more than fourteen hundred of which are from original designs by J.G. Chapman. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1846. Folio (34 cm, 13.4"). Frontis., add. engr. t.-p., [6], 844, [2], 128, [6], frontis., add. engr. t.-p., [2], 256, 3, [1], 8, 14, 34 pp.; illus.
[SOLD]
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When the Harper firm published The Illuminated Bible near the midpoint of the 19th century, the company produced one of the most elaborate and costly American Bibles to that time. O'Callaghan says, “This work was originally announced in 1843, and was issued in 54 numbers at 25 cents each. J.A. Adams, the engraver, is credited with having taken the first electrotype in America from a woodcut. Many in this Bible are so done. Artists were engaged for more than six years in the preparation of the designs and engravings . . . at a cost of over $20,000.”
The title's use of the word “illuminated” refers not (as usual) to decoration in gold, but both to the huge number of illustrations and to the fact that the half-titles, the title-leaves, and the presentation and birth, death, and marriage leaves are printed using colored inks. Concerning the illustrations, Frank Weitenkampf wrote in The Boston Public Library Quarterly (July, 1958, pp. 154–57): “The engravings after Chapman carefully reproduced the prim line-work method of the Englishman Bewick, introduced here by Alexander Anderson. . . . [T]his Harper publication was a remarkable production for its time and place, and retains its importance in the annals of American book-making. W.J. Linton, noted wood-engraver and author, knew ‘no other book like this, so good, so perfect in all it undertakes.'”
Binding, signed: Contemporary red morocco, cover panels deeply beveled, inside bevel framed in wide gilt roll with gilt-stamped corner decorations, spine gilt extra, turn-ins w ith beautiful, bright gilt rolls. Signed by Cook & Somerville of New York.

Provenance: Front cover gilt-stamped “Mary Van Horne Clarkson”; inscriptions of several members of the Van Horne Clarkson family, mostly in New York.
O'Callaghan 288–89; Hills 1161. Binding as above, joints and extremities rubbed, covers with scrapes and discolorations but gilt still bright; repair to foot of front cover joint (hinged in place with appropriate papers; exterior secured with toned tissue), abraded leather consolidated. As might well be expected of such a massive volume, hinges and joints are tender. Occasional very faint spotting, pages generally clean, with family register leaves unused. Last (index) leaf with tear from inner margin extending into text, repaired with long-fiber tissue and wheat starch paste.
In its signed binding, this is an interesting example of a very impressive production. (28808)
Bible. N.T. English. Authorized. 1864. The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. With engravings on wood from designs of Fra Angelico, Pietro Perugino, Francesco Francia.... London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green, 1864. 4to (29.5 cm, 11.75"). Frontis., [iii]–xvi, 540 pp.; illus.
$1200.00
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First edition, and one of 250 large paper copies printed of this lavishly illustrated, quintessentially Victorian Bible. The decorations and initials were drawn and engraved by Henry Shaw, who also supervised the engravings of the illustrations after Leonardo da Vinci, Titian, Raphael, and other Italian masters; engravers involved with the project included F. Anderson, James Cooper, Messrs. Dalziel, W.T. Green, William Linton, and many others, all of whom labored mightily in this attempt to reproduce the feel of a 16th-century production.
Binding: Signed reddish-brown morocco binding by Root & Son, with covers and spine gilt extra; extremely wide and handsome turn-ins elaborately gilt tooled these last are illustrated in our last image here.
Provenance: Front fly-leaf with attractively inked gift inscription to the Rev. John Francis O’Hern, the third Bishop of Rochester, NY, dated 1929.
Not in Darlow & Moule. Leather with light restoration; front pastedown with traces of a now-absent bookplate. Small area of front joint (outside) expertly resealed/repaired; the weight of this substantial volume dictates storage on the volume's back, not its lower edge.
A lavishly produced Victorian New Testament, in an impressive binding. (13347)



Birch's Fables with a
CRUIKSHANK SKETCH as BONUS
Birch, John; Robert Cruikshank, illus. Fifty-one fables, with moral and ethical index. London: Hamilton, Adams & Co. (pr. by S. Bagster, Jr.), 1833. 8vo (21.6 cm, 8.5"). [4], 251, [1] pp.; 52 plts., illus.
[SOLD]
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First edition and with a Cruikshank autograph note including a small sketch mounted to front fly-leaf. “Will you please to send more fables?” Cruikshank provided designs for
85 wood engravings, executed by Slader, D. Dodd, S. Williams, Bonner, and others. Each fable opens with one plate and many close with a vignette, the in-text vignettes offering more updated, contemporary representations of the classical morals — such as the well-dressed
“arrogant Pharisee” assaulting a beggar directly underneath a sign reading “Next Sunday a charity sermon.”
The fables are followed by a newly revised translation of Plutarch's “Banquet of the Seven Sages.”
Binding: 19th-century calf framed in triple gilt fillets with gilt-tooled corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped compartment decorations, board edges with gilt dot roll, turn-ins with gilt floral and foliate roll. All edges gilt.
Signed by S. Kaufmann. Provenance: Front pastedown with the charming “Ex libris fabulae” bookplate of Gordon Thaxter Banks, an eminent book dealer, appraiser, and member of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
Rebacked preserving original spine; joints rubbed and both covers scratched (notably at tops); volume solid. Frontispiece and title-page each with small edge chip; pages gently age-toned, with occasional small spots of mild foxing.
A book worth having, with that note and sketch and interesting provenance to boot. (40841)

The State of
Early 19th-Century Austrian Medical Knowledge
Bischoff, Ignaz Rudolph Edler von Altenstern. Grundzüge der allgemeinen Naturlehre des Menschen ... Mit vorzüglicher Hinsicht auf die praktische Medicin. Wien: A. Strauss's sel. Witwe, 1838–39. 8vo (21 cm, 8.3"). 2 vols. I: Frontis., [22], 352, [2] pp. II: xvi, 492 pp.
$950.00
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Bischoff's comprehensive overview of human physiology and medical practice, in
somewhat surprisingly festive — considering the topic — signed contemporary bindings. This is the first edition to encompass all four parts: Grundzüge der allgemeinen Naturlehre des Menschen (books one through three) and Grundzüge der speciellen Naturlehre des Menschen (book four), here in two volumes. The author (1784–1850) was a professor at the Josephinum Academy of Vienna, a charter member of the Gesellschaft der Ärzte (the medical society of Vienna), and chief physician to the Austrian Army. His portrait, engraved by Andreas Staub after Friedrich von Amerling (of whom he was an early patron) and printed by Johann Höfelich, opens vol. I, and a bibliography of his works, including foreign-language editions, with documentation of their appearances in various journals and other publications, closes vol. II.
Bindings: 19th-century bright red embossed cloth sides with gilt frame and panel rolls stamped over embossing; darker red leather shelfbacks, spines with gilt-stamped decorations and titles. All edges gilt. Bindings done by
Anton Lehenbauer, with his bookbinder's ticket on each back pastedown.
Provenance: From the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).
Searches of NUC and WorldCat find no U.S. library reporting ownership and precious few in Europe.
Bindings as above, joints and edges rubbed, gilt dimmed or darkened in spots. Occasional light to mild foxing, pages otherwise clean.
An attractive and interesting production. (39910)

Reproducing the Process — One of Just 50 Copies
Blake, William. There is no natural religion. [colophon: Boissia, Clairvaux: Published by the Trianon Press for the William Blake Trust, 1971]. 12mo (18.7 cm, 7.375") & 4to (30.8 cm, 12.125"). 12mo: [42] ff.; illus., facsims. 4to: [53] ff.; illus., facsims.
$975.00
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A stunning Blake facsimile. Printed on Arches pure rag paper “to match the paper used by Blake,” these two differently proportioned volumes showcase two sets of relief etchings first printed ca. 1794 — each set having the same title, and now known as Series a and Series b. While Blake experimented with these plates ca. 1788, no printed copies from that time are known to have survived. The etchings are here reproduced from plates in various collections, including six from the Rosenwald Collection at the Library of Congress and ten from the Pierpont Morgan Library. The quarto volume also supplies extensive bibliographical and literary notes by Sir Geoffrey Keynes, signed in type by him, and
elegantly printed in green ink.
This offering comes from the
limited edition of 50 copies numbered in roman numerals, “each containing a set of plates shewing the progressive stages of the collotype and hand-stencil process and a guide-sheet and stencil,” of which this is
number XIV, with this copy's guide-sheet and stencil coming from Plate I of Series a. The total edition consisted of 616 copies on Arches pure rag paper: 50 copies numbered I to L, each containing an additional set of plates, 540 copies numbered 1 to 540, and 26 copies numbered A to Z for the collaborators. Mr. Arnold Fawcus supervised the publication, and Bernard Quaritch Ltd. oversaw distribution.
Binding: Both volumes neatly bound in full tobacco morocco with gilt lettering on spine, done by Duval of Paris, and housed in a Gloster marbled paper–covered slipcase done by Adine of Paris.
Bentley, Blake Books, 202; Keynes, Bibliography of William Blake, 218. Bound and housed as above; binding with a few small spots or specks and very light pencilling on endpapers, housing rubbed along edges. A handful of very small marginal spots; expectable paint and rust on guide sheet and stencil from use.
A beautiful and scholarly reference tool. (38346)

Ribbon–Embossed Binding / Historical Architecture
Bloxam, Matthew Holbeche. A glimpse at the monumental architecture and sculpture of Great Britain, from the earliest period to the eighteenth century. London: W. Pickering [Leicester: Printed by Thomas Combe, Junior], 1834. 8vo (20 cm, 7.8"). xv, [1], 291, [1] pp.; 2 plts.
$125.00
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First edition of an architectural history book from an author known for writings that are “eminently readable, factual, informative, well structured, and certainly less opinionated than those of many of his contemporaries” (ODNB). The work progresses chronologically, starting with the Celtic and Belgic Britons, in its descriptions of monuments throughout British history to the end of the 17th century, and is illustrated with
two double-sided full-page plates of priestly garments and 55 in-text illustrations — mostly from original drawings. Also included are a wood-engraved title-page vignette and, at end, a grinning-skull memento mori (with French motto) and the printer's device, the two latter executed by Jewitt and the last designed by “T. Williment” [i.e., Willement].
Binding: Dark brownish purple ribbon–embossed cloth, printed paper spine label. Bookcloth is Krupp style Ft19.
Provenance: Small bookplate of T. Davison of Scarborough at front; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
NSTC 2B38425. Not in Kelly, Checklist of Books Published by William Pickering, nor Keynes, William Pickering (rev. ed.). On binding cloth, see: Krupp, Bookcloth in England and America, 1823–50, p. 72. On Bloxam, see: DNB (online), source of the quotation above. Binding as above, a little cocked with spine and edges of covers sunned; extremities, rear joint, and corners chipped with spine label quite so. Bookplates as above. Pages very slightly cockled, with light age-toning and the occasional speck; faint foxing around the plates. One pencilled correction in text.
Interesting reading! (39455)
Lovely French Printing — GORGEOUS! French Binding
Boileau Despréaux, Nicolas. Œuvres diverses du Sieur D*** avec le traité du sublime ou du merveilleux dans le discours, traduit du Grec de Longin. Paris: Claude Barbin (pr. by Denys Thierry), 1674. 4to (25.3 cm, 10"). π2A–R4S8T–Y4Z2π1*4a2-4b–o4; Frontis., [4], 178, [12], [3]–102, [10 (index & colophon)] pp., 1 plt.
$4000.00
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Early edition, following the first of 1670; this is the first edition to appear under the Œuvres title, and contains nine satires, the first four epistles, L’art poëtique, and a number of other shorter pieces, followed by the Traité du sublime ou du merveilleux dans le discours, translated from Longinus. The handsomely printed volume has much of its text set in italic type, decorated with woodcut tailpieces, typographic and woodcut headpieces, and ornamental capitals. Margins are generous, layout is attractive. P. Landry designed and engraved the classically themed frontispiece, with the plate preceding Le Lutrin having been done by F. Chausseau.
Binding: 19th-century signed binding by Léon Gruel: Oxblood morocco framed in gilt double fillets containing a background of gilt-stamped fleurs-de-lis around a central ornamented cartouche. Spine gilt extra, with elaborate gilt-stamped inner dentelles over silk endpapers. All edges gilt over marbling. Silk bookmarker woven with binder’s information!
Provenance: Front fly-leaf with armorial bookplate of New York attorney and book collector Frederic Robert Halsey, and with decorative medieval-inspired bookplate of “G.E.” Volume with laid-in handwritten note signed by Gruel, on Gruel-Engelmann letterhead, dated 1892. Later in the collection of Mary MacMillan Norton (sans indicia) . . . a woman who knew how to pick books!
Brunet, I, 1056; DeBacker, Auteurs du XVIIe siècle, 1020; Tchemerzine, II, 271. Binding as above, nearly perfect save for just a touch of rubbing to the spine extremities, in cloth-covered slipcase, worn, with cloth starting to split over edges. Frontispiece and title-page separating from binding; title with red-tinted signs, near edges, that the marbling process did not go entirely smoothly; upper margins of several other leaves with hints of very faint waterstaining. Otherwise, clean and quite lovely. (13767)

Deluxe Signed Limited Edition PUBLISHER'S COPY: Life of a Science Fiction Pioneer
(Bradbury, Ray). Weist, Jerry.
BRADBURY: An illustrated life. A journey to far metaphor. Hampton Falls, NH: Donald M. Grant, 2004. Folio (29.2 cm, 11.5"). [36], xxvi, 195, [1] pp.; illus.
$1150.00
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First, limited edition thus of a visual record of the great Ray Bradbury's career in comics, movies, television, theatre, and literature. This profusely illustrated limited edition includes
32 pages of material not present in the trade edition (incorporated here after the William Morrow title-page dated 2002, marked first edition): the volume opens with the previously unpublished “The Ghosts of Forever: A Film Fantasy,” illustrated by Joseph A. Mugnaini, and “Switch on the Night,” a reproduction of portions of Bradbury's original manuscript bearing his own illustrations. The foreword is by Donn Albright, and the introduction by Bradbury.
Binding: Crimson “snakeskin” leatherette, front cover and spine with decorative gilt-stamped title and creature vignette, housed in matching clamshell case with front cover and spine similarly gilt-stamped.A total of 26 lettered copies were issued in the binding described above. In addition to being
signed by Bradbury and Weist on the title-page, the present example is an
out-of-series copy marked (in red ink, on the title-page) as the publisher's copy.
Binding as above. A beautiful and unique copy of a striking tribute. (33416)
“Large Scale” in Several Respects . . .
62 Engravings & Bedford Bound WESTMINSTER ABBEY
A Classic of English Antiquarianism, Illustration,
& Book-Making
Brayley, Edward Wedlake. The history and antiquities of the abbey church of St. Peter, Westminster: Including notices and biographical memoirs of the abbots and deans of that foundation. London: J.P. Neale for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown, 1818–23. Folio (37.9 cm, 14.9"). 2 vols. I: [18], 227, [19], 72, [10] pp.; 13 plts. II: [2], 304, [40] pp.; 49 plts.
$2250.00
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mouse-over, for an enlargement.
First edition, illustrated with a total of 62 engraved plates. Allibone describes Brayley “a laborious and accurate topographer”; he compiled and edited a wide range of works with titles featuring assorted Beauties, Picturesques, Histories, Antiquities, etc. The present work provides a history of Westminster Abbey and some of its associated luminaries, along with extensive descriptions of its architecture, sculptures, and paintings. The illustrator who portrayed many of the above, John Preston Neale, was an architectural draftsman and landscape painter “best remembered for his views of the nation's country houses, churches, and public buildings,” according to the Oxford DNB.
Binding: By Francis Bedford, signed, in dark brown morocco done between 1851 and 1880, covers framed and panelled in ornate gilt rolls with gilt-stamped corner fleurons and midpoint decoration. Spines gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels. Board edges gilt-tooled with triple fillets, turn-ins with gilt-tooled rolls and corner fleurons. All edges gilt. Stamped “F. Bedford” on lower front turn-in.
Provenance: Each front pastedown with armorial bookplate of William Arthur, sixth Duke of Portland.
NSTC 2B46491; Allibone 240; Brunet, II, 1215. Binding as above, minor shelf wear to lower edges and corners, vol. I with front board expertly reattached and with small dent to outer edge of front cover. Joints delicate, due to size and weight of volumes, but holding. A few pages and plates with faint foxing, otherwise clean. (24100)

Buffon's Natural History in the “Short” Version: Four Volumes
“Upwards of Four Hundred Engravings on Wood”
Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de; John Wright, ed. Buffon's natural history of the globe and of man; beasts, birds, fishes, reptiles, and insects. London: Printed for T.T. & J. Tegg (by C. Whittingham at the Chiswick Press), 1833. 12mo (16.8 cm, 6.6"). 4 vols. I: vi, 463, [1] pp.; illus. II: [2], 492 pp.; illus. III: [2], 476 pp.; illus. IV: [2], 470 pp.; illus.
[SOLD]
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Buffon was widely admired by the public for his numerous scientific publications, although his disagreement with the church's position on the age of the earth and his musings on the connections between men and apes did not earn him much support from contemporary scholars. His Histoire Naturelle, originally published in 15 volumes, is given here in an abridged rendition more suitable for “the rising generation” (p. vi), with additional material adapted “from the writings of . . . Cuvier, Lacépède and other eminent naturalists,” and also with “Elements of Botany.” Wright first published his version in 1831; this second Chiswick Press printing features
over 400 wood-engraved illustrations of birds, animals, and denizens of various lands, along with the title-page vignettes done by John Thompson after William Harvey.
Binding: Contemporary dark red textured roan, covers with gilt-stamped foliate cartouches; spines with gilt-stamped title, band decorations, and volume number; spines gently sunned and scuffed, board edges and extremities rubbed. All edges gilt.
Provenance: Inked ownership inscriptions of Clara Gibbons, one dated 1850; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabels (“AHA”) at rear.
NSTC 2L8393. This ed. not in Osborne. Vols. I and II with Gibbons inscription on front pastedown, vol. III on title-page, vol. IV without inscription; front hinge (inside) of vol. III starting from head, with text block pulling. Gentle age-toning, occasional light spotting; title-pages mildly foxed; a few leaves in vol. II affected by small spot of staining in upper margins, two of those leaves with resulting adhesion and loss of perhaps ten words (total). Pages overall clean.
A very nice set on shelf and in hand. (41038)
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