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Books > Miscellany (77 items)
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(total 8 pages)
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 ALECHINSKY, Pierre (b.1927, artist). - Michel SICARD
Flore Danoise
Paris: Robert & Lydie Dutrou, 1991 . Folio (15 3/8 x 10 1/2 inches). Half-title and title in red, Text in French and Danish, printed in black with headings in red and black. 7 coloured plates by Alechinsky, each an "eau-forte originale sur facsimile de Flora Danica," each numbered and signed in pencil by Alechinsky. Unbound as issued in original limp paper wrappers, the upper cover with etched calligraphic decorated title printed in red and silver, plexiglass slipcase.
Fine copy: the edition limited to 165 copies signed by the author, this copy number 7 of the 125 copies for sale by the publishers.
An approximate translation of the colophon: "Flore Danoiose, a poem by Michel Sicard - dedicated to his daughter Flora - and the Danish translation by Uffee Harder are both set by hand in 20 point Garamond type. The seven original etchings by Pierre Alechinsky are printed on facsimiles of plates from the 18th-century botanical work: Flora Danica." The excellent images - reminiscent of the work of Max Ernst - provide a fresh view of some of the more esoteric images from Flora Danica. The literary/artistic equivalent of cloud-imagined figures and landscapes, Alechinsky offers a sophisticated view which complements Sicard's text/poems to his daughter.
#23692 $5,500.00  
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 ANGLO-INDIAN School, 19th-century
A wooden binding with inlaid carved wood panels and inlaid white metal bone and stained bone borders
[19th century]. Wooden binding (10 1/4 x 6 3/8 x 2 3/8 inches approx.), the spine with deep-relief carving on a single large panel of stylised flowers, fruit and foliage and two birds around a central lotus flower, with verical borders of black ebony, bone and micro-mosaic patterning of white metal (oxidised), bone, green-stained bone and ebony, the head and foot of the spine of bone, the two covers attached to the spine by pairs of metal hinges, the covers each with a deep-relief carving on a single large panel: one of stylised flowers, fruit and foliage and eight birds and a lion attacking a stag, the other of stylised flowers, fruit and foliage and six birds and a lion, each bordered with panels of black ebony, bone and micro-mosaic patterning of white metal (oxidised), bone, green-stained bone and ebony, the inner surface of each cover with an narrow onlaid border surrounding an onlaid purple velvet panel (some damage and losses to the onlays and to the carved lotus flower on the spine).
A spectacular piece of workmanship.
This binding was probably designed as an outer (unattached) covering to a small format photograph album, and sold in British India as an exotic momento of an exotic sub-continent. Although the workmanship is Indian, the design of the carved panels are reminiscent of the douanier Rousseau-esque rain forest teeming with life depicted in the pen and ink drawings produced on Bali (particularly in Ubud).
#13228$1,200.00
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 BELL, William
A Dissertation on the Following Subject: What Causes Principally Contribute to Render A Nation Populous? And What Effect Has The Populousness of a Nation on its Trade?
Cambridge: 1756. Quarto. [4],36pp. Minor foxing. Very good. Disbound.
A prize-winning essay written by William Bell, fellow at Magdalen College, Cambridge. Among other truths espoused herein, Bell claims that the poor - both countries and people - will decline to reproduce: "Very few of those, who find it a matter of the greatest difficulty to subsist themselves, will lay themselves under the additional obligation of providing for others." He praises agrarian nations as the most fruitful, in both population and contribution to commerce.
ESTC T101713; Kress 5493; Goldsmith 9105.
#23485$850.00
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 [BIBLE IN ENGLISH]
The Holy Bible containing the Bookes of the Old and New Testament ... and Illustrated with Chorographical Sculps. by J. Ogilby
Cambridge: John Field, 1659-1660. 2 volumes, folio (17 1/8 x 11 1/8 inches). Vol. 1: Full page engraving of the Royal arms by Hollar, letterpress dedication to the King by Ogilby, section title to the Prayer Book with ornamental surround dated 1660, A2-4, B1-L2 (bound in twos) [Book of Common Prayer]; engraved general title, ¶1-¶¶4 (in fours) [Notes to the Reader and Table of Contents]; A1-3K6 (bound in sixes), 3L1-4 [Genesis through Job]. Vol. 2: Section title page, 3M1-4Y6 (bound in sixes), 4Z1-4Z8 [Psalms through Malachi]; a-x6 (in sixes), y1-4 [Aprocrypha]; letterpress NT title dated 1659, A2-2D6 (in sixes), 2E1-8 [New Testament]. 111 engraved plates by Visscher, Hollar, Lombart and others after Rubens, De Bruyn de Vos, Tintoret and others (vol 1: 50 double-page engraved plates, 1 engraved map by Hollar dated 1657; vol. 2: 59 engraved double-page plates, large folding engraved view of Jerusalem by Hollar). Ruled in red throughout. Contemporary English red morocco, covers elaborately panelled in gilt, expertly rebacked to style, spines in eight compartments with raised bands, morocco lettering pieces in the second compartment, the others with an alternating overall repeat decoration in gilt, gilt edges. Provenance: G. Dickens (bookplate).
A superb copy of Ogilby's illustrated issue of Field's folio Bible of 1659, here with a larger number of illustrations than usually found, bound in period red morocco and ruled in red throughout for presentation: "...an unrivalled specimen of the press of the time..." (Lowndes).
In 1659, John Field, the printer to the University of Cambridge, published a handsome, large folio King James version of the Bible. Seeing an opportunity for improvement, much of the edition was purchased by bookseller and publisher John Ogilby. Ogilby added to the Bible several engravings, including a number by Wenceslaus Hollar. In select copies, however, Ogilby further augmented the edition with sets of engravings purchased from Amsterdam publisher Nicolaes Visscher, including engravings after Rubens, de Vos, De Bruyn, Tintoretto and others. The most elaborate and most expensive of such copies, were then ruled in red and bound in red morocco, as here.
Darlow & Moule 525; Herbert 668; Lowndes 1367; Lowndes, The Bibliographer's Manual, p. 188; cf. Schuchard, A Descriptive Bibliography of the Works of John Ogilby (Frankfurt, 1975).
#25962$38,500.00
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 BLACKSTONE, William (1723-1780)
Commentaries on the Laws of England
Oxford: Printed at the Clarendon Press, 1770. 4 volumes, quarto (10 1/2 x 8 inches). Final blank in vol.I. 2 engraved plates (1 folding). (Light worming to fore-edge margin of the first half of vol.II, and the first and last few leaves of vol.III). Contemporary calf, covers simply tooled in blind, red morocco lettering-pieces to spines lettered in gilt. Provenance: Richard Cope Hopton (Canon Frome Court, Ledbury, Hereford, early armorial bookplate).
Fourth edition: a fine unsophisticated set of this early edition of the single most important work on English law. A work which had an undeniable influence on the course of jurisprudence in the United States.
"Blackstone's great work on the laws of England [first published in 1765-1769] is the extreme example of justification of an existing state of affairs by virtue of its history....Until the Commentaries, the ordinary Englishman had viewed the law as a vast, unintelligible and unfriendly machine; nothing but trouble, even danger, was to be expected from contact with it. Blackstone's great achievement was to popularize the law and the traditions which had influenced its formation....If the English constitution survived the troubles of the next century, it was because the law had gained a new popular respect, and this was due in part to the enormous success of Blackstone's work" (Printing and the Mind of Man). A measure of this success can be gained from the fact that the Commentaries were reprinted a dozen times in England over the ensuing two decades, and translated into French, German, Italian, and Russian. Robert Bell produced the first American edition in Philadelphia in 1771-1772.
Cf. Grolier Club English 52; cf. Printing and the Mind of Man 212; cf. Rothschild 407.
#24061$3,000.00
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 [BOOK OF KELLS]
Evangeliorum Quattuor Codex Cenannensis
Berne: Urs Graf-Verlag, 1950-1951. 3 volumes, folio (15 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches). 48 mounted colour plates and numerous full-page monochrome illustrations reproducing the original Book of Kells. Original prospectus and other advertising material laid in. Publisher's vellum gilt [vols. 1 and 2], publisher's vellum-backed boards [vol. 3]. Vol. 3 with publisher's plain dust wrapper. Publisher's board slipcases.
A fine facsimile of the Book of Kells: one of 400 numbered copies, this copy number 149.
The first two volumes, which constitute the facsimile, were strictly limited to 400 copies, according to the prospectus laid in; the third text volume was limited to 500 copies. The prospectus reads: "A reproduction of the entire manuscript in facsimile -- a task never before attempted -- is now in hand and is here offered for subscription ... The Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript on vellum, containing the four Gospels in Latin. Its date has yet to be precisely determined; some writers have placed it as early as the sixth century, others as late as the end of the ninth century. The Book of Kells has been in the possession of Trinity College, Dublin, since the year 1661. Its text has been classed as Vulgate by some experts, but it differs so widely from the accepted Vulgate that perhaps it should be viewed rather as an Irish variant of the 'mixed' or 'old Latin' text. Some of the variant readings are of peculiar interest. The glory of the Book of Kells is the amazing beauty and infinite variety of its illumination and ornament. For grandeur of conception and delicacy of execution several of its illuminated pages merit the term sublime. Taken as a whole the Book of Kells is a supremely beautiful document, surpassing all other works of the kind, and by far the finest example of early Christian art in Ireland ... The glory of the Book of Kells is its illuminations, which are here made generally accessible for the first time in all their enigmatic splendour..."
The introductory text volume includes an introduction by Dr E.H. Alton, 'Notes on the Art and Ornament' by Dr P. Meyer and a 'Collation of the Text with the Vulgate' by Dr G.O. Simms.
#26294$3,500.00
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 BRISCOE, Arthur (1873-1943) - James LAVER (1899-1975)
A Complete Catalogue of the Etchings and Dry-Points of Arthur Briscoe
London: Halton & Truscott Smith, 1930. 4to (11 x 8 3/8 inches). Numerous plates including an original signed etching by Briscoe titled The Anchor. Publisher's blue cloth, upper cover lettered in gilt.
One of 250 numbered copies with an original signed etching by Briscoe.
Hurst 268.ii
#26452$800.00
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[BRITISH NAVY]
Majesty's Order, to Monsieur Michell, the King of Prussia's Secretary of the Embassy, in answer to the Memorial, and other papers, Deliver'd, by Monsieur Michell, to the Duke of Newcastle, on the 23d of November, and 13th of December last
London: Edward Owen, 1753. Quarto. 46pp. plus two folding tables. Light staining to last leaf. Slight worming in outer margin of last few leaves, not affecting text. Very good. Disbound.
Pamphlet dealing with international law and the British seizure of Prussian ships. The second table is entitled, "List of all the Prussian ships taken by British armaments at sea, during the last war, as well those detained for examination only, as those judicially proceeded upon, together with the judgments given in the Admiralty Courts of Great-Britain thereupon."
ESTC T4125.
#23480$500.00
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 BROWN, Solyman (1790-1865, poet and dentist), and Eleazar PARMLY (1797-1874, dentist [and poet])
Dentologia: a poem on the diseases of the teeth, and their proper remedies. By Solyman Brown ... With notes, practical, historical, illustrative, and explanatory, by Eleazar Parmly
New York: 1840. Octavo signed in fours (8 1/2 x 5 1/4 inches). Contemporary red half morocco over red cloth-covered boards, the upper cover lettered in gilt with the title, the flat spine divided into five compartments by double gilt fillets, lettered in the second compartment. Provenance: Samuel Mallet (New Haven, early inscription).
The first dental poem in English by "the Poet Laureate of dentistry," composed in five cantos, the whole containing 846 iambic pentameters, and all extensively annotated by Parmly, a towering figure in the history of early American dentistry.
First published in 1833 in New York, the present edition seems to have been the second. Solyman Brown, was that rare combination: an ordained Congregational minister, practising dentist, poet and Swedenborgian. "One of the most important figures in the development of the dental profession was Solyman Brown, in whose home the leading dentists of his day met and organized the first national dental organization in the world as well as the first dental journal in the world. He was named the first secretary of the organization and served, for two years, as the first editor of the journal. A true Renaissance man, Brown was also a consummate, and widely published, poet, and his epic poem, Dentologia, was hailed by the critics of his day as a literary masterpiece, earning him the sobriquet, Poet Laureate of Dentistry" (abstract from Malvin E. Ring's article in the Journal of the history of dentistry).
Cf. Asbell 35; cf. Campbell 436; cf. M.E. Ring. "The hidden poetry of Solyman Brown, the Poet Laureate of dentistry" in theJournal of the History of Dentistry (2002), vol. 50, no2, pp. 77-82.
#23850$750.00
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 BRUNELLESCHI, Umberto (1879-1949), George BARBIER, and others.
La Guirlande album mensuel d'art et littérature Sous la direction littéraire de ... Jean Hermanovits. Sous la direction artistique de ... Brunelleschi. Imprimé par M. François Bernouard. Enluminé par M. Jean Saudé
Paris: October 1919-1920. Parts 1-11 (all published), quarto (10 1/4 x 7 1/2 inches). Titles and occasional text leaves with letterpress printed in two colours. 61 plates (1 lithograph printed in brown, 1 lithograph printed in colours by Abel Faivre, 1 mounted 4-colour printed portrait, 58 with pochoir colouring by Jean Saudé, after George Barbier, Emmanuel Blanche, Leon Bonnotte, Brunelleschi, J.G. Domergue, Maurice Taquoy, A. Vallée, Gerda Wegener, Alexander Zinoview and others), numerous pochoir coloured head and tailpieces and illustrations, after Barbier, Brunelleschi and others. (Plate count includes a duplicate of A. Vallée's 'L'Heure du Bain. à la Piscine du "Claridge"'). Unbound as issued in original paper wrappers, the upper covers printed with a decorative pochoir-coloured design by Brunelleschi, overall on part 1 and reduced and centrally-placed on parts 2-11, yapp foredges (chips and tear to spines of wrappers). Housed within a modern dark green cloth chemise and dark green morocco backed box.
A rare complete set of one of the most beautiful of all Art Deco magazines, limited to 800 sets.
In addition to the magnificent full-page plates, almost every page of text is enhanced with one or more smaller coloured illustrations. The list of artists who worked on this magazine reads like a roll-call of the best Art Deco talent of the period. However, the two most important contributors to the artistic side of the publication are probably the artistic director Umberto Brunelleschi, and George Barbier. Both were well-established when the present work was published: the former had been working in Paris since 1900 on illustration and stage design (most notable with Puccini on his 'Turandot'), the latter found fame slightly later with an exhibition in 1911, and also worked in various fields: the theatre, jewellery, glass and wallpaper design, as well as writing essays and articles for the prestigious Gazette du Bon Ton. An examination of their work in La Guirlande shows that both artists were at their artistic peak during the lamentably short period when this quintessential Art Deco magazine was being published. From the literary point of view, two contributions stand out: the first is the complete serialization of Abel Hermant's Phili ou Par delà le bien et le mal, conte moral , illustrated by Brunelleschi, which was subsequently published in Paris in 1921. The second is René Boylesve's La Carrosse aux Deux Lézards Verts which was also serialized, with illustrations by George Barbier, and was also issued as a stand-alone work.
This set numbered 675 (parts 2-7, 10 and 11) and 680 (parts 1, 8 and 9).
#25160$13,500.00
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Copyright © 2002-2011 Donald A. Heald
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