ACKERMANN Rudolph GERNING Baron Johann Isaac von SAUVAN Jean-Baptiste-Balthazar
(ACKERMANN, Rudolph) GERNING, Baron Johann Isaac von. A Picturesque Tour Along the Rhine, from Mentz to Cologne. BOUND WITH: SAUVAN, [Jean-Baptiste-Balthazar]. Picturesque Tour of the Seine, from Paris to the Sea. London: R. Ackermann, 1820, 1821. Thick folio (11-1/2 by 13-1/2 inches), period-style full tan polished calf gilt, raised bands, marbled endpapers and edges. $19,500.First edition, first issue, of Ackermann's wonderful picturesque tour along the Rhine, beautifully illustrated with 24 hand-colored folio aquatints by Daniel Havell and Thomas Sutherland after paintings by Christian Georg Schutz (and large folding map), bound together with his equally beautiful illustrated tour along the Seine, with hand-colored vignette title page and 24 beautiful folio aquatint views of the river and surrounding countryside after drawings by Augustus Charles Pugin and John Gendall, for a total of 48 very finely and vividly hand-colored aquatint folio views. A lovely copy.In the history of book production "there is no more attractive figure than that of Rudolph Ackermann, through whose extraordinary enterprise and spirit of adventure, aquatint was successfully applied to the illustration of books" (Prideaux, 120-23). One of Ackermann's most lucrative projects was his remarkable Picturesque Tours, a series of seven books produced between 1820-28. The present volume brings together two such tours: first, his Tour Along the Rhine, with 24 beautifully hand-colored aquatints by Daniel Havell and Thomas Sutherland after paintings by Christian Georg Schutz, depicting views of Mentz, the Castle of Furstenberg, the Church of Johannes, Pfalz Castle and the town of Kaub, the salmon fishery at Lurley, Coblentz, Bornhofen, Cologne and other sites along the river, with accompanying text by Baron von Gerning describing the history and culture of the area (first published in German in 1819, without illustrations). The folding map shows the course of the Rhine from Mentz to Cologne.The second is Ackermann's Picturesque Tour of the Seine, first issued in six monthly parts, with 24 beautifully hand-colored aquatints after paintings and drawings by renowned landscape artists Augustus Charles Pugin and John Gendall, with accompanying text by Jean-Baptiste-Balthazar Sauvan. All 48 plates were pulled and hand-colored in the Ackermann studio, whose reputation for producing splendid illustrated publications and disseminating fine aquatint prints spanned over two centuries. Rhine first issue, without plate numbers in the top right corners. Tooley notes that plates 2 and 3 have variants dated either September or October; Abbey argues persuasively that to call either state an issue "must remain doubtful," particularly given that large-paper copies have also been seen with the two plates dated October. At any rate, the quality of plates in either state are the same high standard; Abbey notes that "there are definitely some later issues of the book, and these can be recognized by having plate numbers at the top right-hand corner. The impressions in these plates are poor and the coloring less good" (Abbey 217). This copy has plates 2 and 3 dated October, but most importantly none of the plates bear numbers in the upper right. Text watermarked 1817 and 1818; plates watermarked 1818 and 1819. Seine issued simultaneously with a very scarce large-paper issue of only 50 copies. With hand-colored map and hand-colored vignette on final leaf of text. Abbey, Travel 217 (Rhine); 90 (Seine). Prideaux, 337 (Rhine); 351, 375 (Seine). Tooley 234 (Rhine); 445 (Seine). Old dealer description tipped to rear flyleaf.Faint vertical crease to Rhine title page; small marginal stain to first plate in Rhine, not touching image. A lovely, fine copy, an impressive volume.
BIBLE
(BIBLE). The Holy Bible. Boston: R.H. Hinkley (Merrymount Press), [1904]. Fourteen volumes. Octavo, original full black morocco, raised bands, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt, uncut and largely unopened. $4000.Fine 14-volume illustrated edition of the Authorized (King James) Version of 1611, containing both Testaments and the Apocrypha, with 56 engravings and photogravures after paintings by notable artists, handsomely bound.Unquestionably the most influential of English Bible translations, the Authorized Version's impact on piety, language and literature is incalculable. This edition presents the canonical and apocryphal books without verse numbers and with chapter numbers in the running heads only, allowing readers to experience undistracted the text that, "if everything else in our language should perish, would alone suffice to show the whole extent of its beauty and power" (PMM 114). To enhance the classic text, each volume contains an engraved frontispiece and three more engraved plates after classic works by such prominent artists as Bida, Doré, Las Casas, Picart, Raphael, Rubens, Sargeant, Martin and Veronese. A lovely illustrated Bible in excellent condition.
AUSTEN Jane
"AUSTEN, Jane. Emma. London: Richard Bentley, 1833. 12mo, period-style full tree calf, elaborately gilt-decorated spine and boards, red morocco spine labels, marbled endpapers. $6200.Second edition of the last novel Austen published in her lifetime, her exquisitely comedic and unerringly insightful social satire"artistry as elaborate as any novelist has ever achieved," the first edition to list Austen as the author by name and the first illustrated edition, with engraved frontispiece illustration and engraved vignette title page. Beautifully bound."Emma was the fourth and last novel which Jane Austen published in her lifetime. When it was written the author was at the height of her powers, and she wrote the book rapidly and surely, encouraged by the success of her previous novels to express herself with confidence in the way peculiarly her own" (Rosenbach 29:24). "Jane Austen's fourth novel has a profundity similar to that of Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility, only more elusive since Emma's character is far more subtle than Elizabeth or Marianne's Austen's self-knowledge, her love of detail [helped her] to create a proud, self-willed, self-guided, vexing and outrageous Emma and her greatest novel" (Honan, Jane Austen, 356-364). "No English reissue of Austen's novels is known after 1818 until in 1832 Richard Bentley decided to include them in his series of Standard Novels Bentley's reprinting of the novels, each complete in one volume, was presumably intended for the private buyer; there is evidence that some circulating libraries were still well supplied with copies of the original editions" (Gilson, 211). First published in 1816. Gilson D7. Scattered light foxing to text. A lovely copy."
NAPOLEON MUDFORD William
"(NAPOLEON) MUDFORD, William. An Historical Account of the Campaign in the Netherlands, in 1815, under His Grace the Duke of Wellington, and Marshal Prince Blucher, Comprising the Battles of Ligny, Quatre Bras, and Waterloo London: Henry Colburn, 1817. Folio (11 by 13 inches), contemporary full tan calf rebacked with original gilt-decorated spine neatly laid down, original marbled endpapers, marbled edges. $12,000.First edition of this beautifully illustrated history of the final battles against Napoleon's forces in the Netherlands, including his historic defeat at Waterloo. With double-page plate depicting the raging battle of Waterloo, engraved extra title page, a large folding map, a double-page map, and 26 full-page plates, all save the maps aquatint engravings with vivid hand-coloring. Handsomely bound in nicely restored contemporary calf-gilt.Mudford's work chronicles in detail and unabashedly celebrates the fall of Napoleon and the victory of the Allied forces. "In this volume [Mudford] received assistance from the Duke of Wellington, to whom it was dedicated" (DNB). The frontispiece, engraved title, double-page engraving of the battle, and the "Flight of Bonaparte" were all drawn by George Cruikshank. The remaining plates were made after paintings by James Rouse. This copy with the plate "Portraits of the General Officers" (bound as frontispiece in this copy) instead of the "Waterloo, in Memory of the Heroic Deeds of Shaw"; copies are found with either, but not both, with no priority determined. The supplemental double-page "View of the City of Brussels," present only in a very few copies (and not in this copy), is not mentioned in the plate list, nor in Tooley. Abbey's copy, however, contained this plate: "the book would appear to be complete without this view it may be a supplementary plate of which only a few copies survive" (Abbey). Tooley 336. Abbey, Life 372. Cohn, Cruikshank 580. Engraved armorial bookplate of Richard Cyril Lockett, eminent coin collector who assembled one of the finest numismatic collections in Great Britain, and author of several works on the subject.Text and plates generally quite clean and fine, coloring vivid. Expert repairs to joints, spine and extremities of handsome contemporarycalf binding."
FITZGERALD F. Scott
FITZGERALD, F. Scott. Autograph letter signed. St. Paul, Minnesota, circa May 9, 1922. Two sheets of unlined wove paper, measuring 8-1/2 by 11 inches, penned on the rectos for two pages. $22,000.Exceptional signed two-page autograph letter with excellent literary content, written entirely in F. Scott Fitzgerald's hand, to Harford Powell, an editor at Collier's, concerning mystery stories and publishing "Benjamin Button," along with other novelettes and his earlier collection Flappers and Philosophers. Accompanied by Powell's typed one-page letter in response.The letter, written entirely in F. Scott Fitzgerald's hand, reads: "Your letter was very interesting. The trouble is this: all the obvious stuff of romance & mystery while it is at the same time the best stuff has in the last twenty five years been pretty well pawed over by newspaper feature writers and detective story Shakespeares not to mention people like Doyle, Haggard, Wilkie Collins and Bulwer Lytton and the haute dime novelists. They've done their pawing with such clumsy hands that they've taken the color pretty much off the near east and the far east and the whole criminal worldand so to the sophisticated mind, as you know yourself, the appearance of Paw-paw, the three eyed with his relentless secret including Constantinople and Patterson New Jersey, bound in boards at $1.75, is apt to be the signal for hilarious mirth. The jewel business has fascinated me too and in fact I have done a satirical story on almost the materials you suggest. It appears as a novelette in the next Smart Set & wish that you'd read it. It's the second of a series of such stories of which the first was The Russet Witch in the Metropolitan & the third was Benjamin Button. "Did you ever read my story The Cut Glass Bowl, just published in the Metropolitan and later in Flappers & Philosophers? That works out the curse idea. I will certainly keep in mind what you say and if some plan occurs to me to give an entirely new & un-shop-worn twist I'll write it up and send it to you. Sincerely, F. Scott Fitzgerald." Powell's response concedes, in the first line, "On second thoughts, I imagine you are right. All the same, we don't usually shy at an idea because of Wilkie Collins, Bulwer Lytton, etc. I suppose in the long and serried list of their works, pretty nearly all stories are toldwith the remarkable exception of 'Benjamin Button.'" "Fitzgerald wrote only one story in the first half of 1922, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,' which traces the life of a man who is born old and grows up into infancy. The story was hard to place, but Collier's took it for $1000" (Bruccoli, Some Sort of Epic Grandeur, 197). Powell's typed letter has a flattened mail fold and some light edge-wear, mild toning. Fitzgerald's letter with evidence of a removed paper clip along with several pinholes from removed staples, small hole to page one, signature bold and clear.
WILLYAMS Cooper
"WILLYAMS, Cooper. A Selection of Views in Egypt, Palestine, Rhodes, Italy, Minorca and Gibraltar. London: John Hearne, 1822. Folio (13 by 16 inches), modern three-quarter brown speckled calf, raised bands, red morocco spine label, elaborately gilt-decorated spine, $5500.First edition, with 36 vividly hand-colored aquatint views depicting land- and cityscapes throughout the Mediterranean, including Cairo, Alexandria, Caiffe, Rhodes, Mount Carmel, Syracuse, Lago, Minorca, Gibraltar, Mount Pelegrino, and the Rock of Scylla. "In early life Willyams had imbibed a love of the sea, and in 1793 he started as chaplain of the Boyne to the West Indies, in the expedition under the command of Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Grey and Vice-Admiral Sir John Jervis He published in 1796, with illustrations, An Account of the Campaign in the West Indies In 1798 he served as chaplain of the Swiftsure (Captain Hallowell), a vessel in the squadron under the command of Nelson. He was present in this vessel at the battle of the Nile, and his narrative, which was full of engravings from his own drawings, A Voyage up the Mediterranean in the Swiftsure (1802) contained 'the first, the most particular, and the most authentic account of the battle'" (DNB). Issued posthumously 20 years later, this selection contains 32 of the 43 plates from the Voyage, some slightly reworked, and an additional four plates published here for the first time. It contains views of Egypt, Palestine, Rhodes, Italy, Minorca, and Gibraltar, with accompanying descriptions in English and French. Second issue, with title page dated 1822; the first issue, dated 1821 on the title page, is significantly scarcer than the 1822 edition, which is commonly found in the bibliographies. Abbey Travel 198 (1822 second issue). Blackmer 1814. Tooley 511. Weber 1114. Hilmy II, 335. Bookplate.Fine condition, with vividly hand-colored plates."
SPILSBURY Francis B.
SPILSBURY, Francis B. Picturesque Scenery in the Holy Land and Syria, Delineated during the Campaigns of 1799 and 1800. London: S. Tregear, 1823. Quarto, 19th-century full olive morocco, raised bands, elaborately gilt-decorated spine, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. $4200.Third edition, the first quarto edition of English naval surgeon Francis Spilsbury's account of his travels in the Holy Land and Syria during the Napoleonic campaigns there, with 19 finely hand-colored aquatint views.Spilsbury was surgeon on board HMS Tigre during the campaigns of 1799 and 1800. The Tigre brought Sir William Sidney Smith to defend Acre against Napoleon's siege, and led a naval force in support of Turkish armies which finally relieved Acre, and his text gives some account of the military campaigns and the Turkish dignitaries. In his reminiscences Napoleon accused Smith of making him miss his destiny, as Smith's timely appearance thwarted Napoleon's drive to invade Syria and forced him to retreat to Egypt. The magnificent views are mostly connected with the coastal towns of modern Lebanon and Israel, though several are from Spilsbury's travels inland to meet the Grand Vizier in charge of the Turkish army, Jezzar Pacha, and other dignitaries. First published in folio in 1803 and again in 1819. See Abbey, Travel 381. Colas 2788. Blackmer 1585. Plates and text fine, light rubbing to spine extremities, spine mellowed to brown. A near-fine copy with vividly hand-colored plates.
GALILEI Galileo
"GALILEI, Galileo. Dialogo di Galileo Galilei sopra i due massimi Sistemi del mondo tolemaico, e copernicano. Florence: Batista Landini, 1632. Large octavo, later full vellum, morocco spine label. Housed in a custom chemise and clamshell box. $125,000.First edition of the work that led to Galileo's persecution by the Inquisition, his famous and celebrated defense of the Copernican system, with 31 in-text woodcut illustrations and diagrams. An excellent copy in attractive vellum binding."Eight years after Pope Paul V had forbidden him to teach Copernican theory, Galileo received permission from a new Pope, Urban VIII, to discuss Copernican astronomy in a book, so long as the book provided equal and impartial discussions of the Church-approved Ptolemaic system. Galileo's Dialogue concerning the two chief world systems held to the letter of this command: the device of the dialogue, between a spokesman for Copernicus, one for Ptolemy and Aristotle, and an educated layman, allowed Galileo to remain technically uncommitted. After the book's publication, however, Urban took offense at what he felt to be its jibes against himself and ordered Galileo to be brought before the Inquisition in Rome" (Norman 858). The Dialogo was suppressed by the Church five months after its publication and formally condemned in June 1633. Galileo's defense of "the Copernican heresy" resulted in his permanent house arrest. Soon thereafter he was forced publicly to recant his defense of Copernicus.The book "remained on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum until 1823. It is an eternal reminder of human endeavour and human fallibility. As everyone knows, it was a historical accident, the invention of the telescope, that converted Galileo [into] the celebrated international crusader for the Copernican hypothesis Galileo's first publications had little circulation. Then in 1615 he was officially silenced as regards the truth of astronomy. The Dialogo was designed both as an appeal to the great public and as an escape from silence. In the form of an open discussion between three friendsintellectually speaking, a radical, a conservative, and an agnosticit is a masterly polemic for the new science. It displays all the great discoveries in the heavens which the ancients had ignored; it inveighs against the sterility, willfulness, and ignorance of those who defend their systems; it revels in the simplicity of Copernican thought and, above all, it teaches that the movement of the earth makes sense in philosophy, that is, in physics. Astronomy and the science of motion, rightly understood, says Galileo, are hand in glove. There is no need to fear that the earth's rotation will cause it to fly to pieces. So Galileo picked up one thread that led straight to Newton. The Dialogo, far more than any other work, made the heliocentric system a commonplace. Every fear of Galileo's enemies was justified; only their attempts to stifle thought were vain" (PMM 128). An engraved frontispiece by Stefano della Bella is found in some copies, though not in the present copy. The modern discovery and examination of a number of uncut and unopened copies in original publisher's boards or contemporary vellum bindings showed that this frontispiece, printed on different paper from the text and existing in four different states, was bound into some, but evidently not all, copies, according to some current theories. With the errata leaf at Ff6 and with the printed correction slip pasted in margin of F6v (p. 92), not present in all copies. Without the final blank, often not present; text complete. Horblit 18c. Dibner 8. PMM 128. Norman 858. Occasional mild embrowning, small wormhole affecting first five leaves only, affecting woodcut printer's device on title page, with faint dampstain affecting imprint. Vellum binding attractive. A handsome copy of this extraordinary scientific landmark."
LEWIS Sinclair
"LEWIS, Sinclair. Arrowsmith. New York: Harcourt, Brace, (1925). Octavo, original buckram spine, blue paper boards, original printed paper label, top edge gilt, uncut. $14,000.Signed limited first edition of what many consider Lewis' greatest novel, number 1 of only 500 large-paper copies signed by him. An excellent association copy, owned by Ellen Knowles Eayrs-Harcourt, wife of Lewis' publisher Alfred Harcourt, who in a page and a half inscription describes advancing Lewis and his friend, science writer Paul de Kruif, $1000 from her personal account for de Kruif to get married before the two men set out for a year-long trip to research the book that would become Arrowsmith, with the check she made out to de Kruif endorsed on the verso by both Lewis and de Kruif tipped to the front pastedown."Using for his theme the losing fight made by two men with whom scientific truth is religion, Mr. Lewis draws a picture for us that is disquieting in its disillusionment Arrowsmith is a pagan novel for a pagan world an authentic step forward" (Books of the Century, 63-64). Although Arrowsmith was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, Lewis declined the honor, purportedly because Main Street (1921) had not been so honored. His rejection, however, also secured front-page status for this satire of the medical profession in the nation's newspapers. While Lewis is credited as the sole author, he was greatly assisted in its preparation by science writer Paul de Kruif, who received 25% of the royalties on sales. Adapted to the screen in 1931 by director John Ford.This is the copy of Ellen Knowles Eayrs, wife of Lewis' publisher Alfred Harcourt. In 1922, when the events Eayrs recounts in her inscription occurred, she was Harcourt's secretary; she and Harcourt did not marry until 1924, the year prior to this novel's publication, after Harcourt's first wife committed suicide in 1923. In this copy, Eayrs has penciled a lengthy inscription on the front free endpaper recto and verso: "When Red Lewis planned to write a novel about a scientist he persuaded Paul de Kruif, who was just leaving the Rockefeller Institute, to spend a year with him roaming around the West Indies, South America & Europe so that the book should have genuine scientific material and point of view. Paul at the time was engaged to Rhea Barbarin who was living in Michigan and was anxious to marry her before he left but he hadn't a cent to his name. Three days before Red & Paul were to sail, they blew into the Harcourt Brace office to see if they could get an advance immediately so that he could take a 2:30 train to Michigan. No officer of the firm was in so I gave them my personal check which both of them endorsed and Paul got the cash from the Fifth Ave. Bank in New York City. He & Rhea were married on my $1000 and have certainly lived happily ever afterward. EKE-EKH." ("EKH" indicating that she wrote this inscription at some point after marrying Harcourt.) With the original check for $1000, endorsed on the verso by both Lewis and de Kruif, tipped to the front pastedown. Issued on the same day as the stated second (first trade) edition. Without scarce glassine and slipcase. With spare paper spine label tipped to rear flyleaf. Pastore 9. Bruccoli & Clark III:213. With Eayrs' penciled signature on the front flyleaf.Front inner paper hinge expertly reinforced, text clean, light rubbing to board edges, slight toning to spine. An extremely good copy, with an appealing association."
DICKENS Charles
"DICKENS, Charles. A Child's History of England. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1852-54. Three volumes. Small octavo, late 19th-century full navy morocco gilt, raised bands, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, marbled endpapers; housed in a custom chemise and slipcase. $4500.First edition, first state, of Dickens's history of England for children, with frontispieces by F.W. Topham, beautifully bound by Alfred Matthews."Very sharp and very opinionated the book bears a strong resemblance to his two historical novels, Barnaby Rudge and A Tale of Two Cities; it is essentially history as theatre, with crowds, confrontations, clashes, battles, death scenes and sundry noises off. But it is also energetically written; Dickens's imagination simply pours into everything he writes or speaks, and so there are moments of great power" (Ackroyd, Dickens, 584). First state, with first state ads in Volumes I and III and with no page number on p. xi in Volume I. Eckel 128-129. Smith II:10. Expert repairs to joints and extremities. A beautifully bound copy."
"DICKENS, Charles. A Child's History of England. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1852-54. Three volumes. Small octavo, late 19th-century full navy morocco gilt, raised bands, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, marbled endpapers; housed in a custom chemise and slipcase. $4500.First edition, first state, of Dickens's history of England for children, with frontispieces by F.W. Topham, beautifully bound by Alfred Matthews."Very sharp and very opinionated the book bears a strong resemblance to his two historical novels, Barnaby Rudge and A Tale of Two Cities; it is essentially history as theatre, with crowds, confrontations, clashes, battles, death scenes and sundry noises off. But it is also energetically written; Dickens's imagination simply pours into everything he writes or speaks, and so there are moments of great power" (Ackroyd, Dickens, 584). First state, with first state ads in Volumes I and III and with no page number on p. xi in Volume I. Eckel 128-129. Smith II:10. Expert repairs to joints and extremities. A beautifully bound copy."