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book (2)

Pastorale. Wood-engravings by Lucien Pissarro, with a Note on the Kelmscott Paper by John Bidwell. (and a Further Note by Miriam Macgregor).

(Whittington Press.) (ERAGNY PRESS.) VI/100 COPIES (of an edition of 300 copies) printed on Flower paper originally produced for the Kelmscott Press, 24 of Lucien Pissarro's wood-engravings printed from the original woodblocks held in the possession of The Ashmolean Museum, produced for 'The Queen of the Fishes', 'Daphnis & Chloe', 'Un Coeur simple' and other works, also for Christmas cards and an unpublished Eragny Press book; the frontispiece (used in 'The Queen of the Fishes') printed in four colours, each engraving printed on the recto of a leaf with the plate number beneath blocked in blind, title printed in black and light blue, these copies with a portfolio of the 24 engravings, each on a separate leaf, and a further large colour printed engraving (25.5 x 18.5cms.) in its own paper folder, all inserted in a folder of cloth and boards, pp. [vi], 12, (23 Plates), royal 8vo, original quarter pale blue morocco, the title blocked in blind on morocco to upper board, pale blue Fabriano Ingres paper boards, Pissarro's device for the Eragny Press to upper board, hint of sunning to backstrip, faint handling mark to upper board, untrimmed, Press subscription form and note regarding the paper laid in, the book and additional folder of engravings together in slipcase of cloth and boards (striped with blue and matching portfolio), slipcase with a couple of very faint marks, near fine. John Randle writes of this book that, having declined an invitation by the Ashmolean to print the catalogue for their exhibition of Pissarro's work, 'I suggested that we might be able to do something with Pissarro's original blocks which I knew they had, and this is what happened. I made an arbitrary choice of the blocks I particularly liked, and the title suggested itself when they turned out to be mostly of French peasant life as Pissarro remembered it. We found with the blocks Pissarro's proof book which was a help particularly with the colour blocks, and Miriam Macgregor, who herself had engraved colour wood-engravings, helped us with the critical mixing of the colours. Pissarro had been advised by his friend Ricketts to use Batchelor's paper (made originally for William Morris) for his Eragny Press books but had preferred to use the French Rives. I think our edition proved how right Ricketts was, we achieved a sharper result on the more glazed surface of the Batchelors, perhaps one of the nicest papers we have ever had to print on. Fortunately we had some packets of Batchelors, and even more fortunately the Morgan Library allowed to have another 2000 sheets from their precious stock, left over from an abandoned project a century earlier. This made the whole project viable, and the result was one of the prettiest books to come from the Press. The design of the three bindings echoed the Eragny style, and John Bidwell's foreword explained the provenance of the three different Batchelor papers, one used for each edition.'
  • $1,021
  • $1,021
book (2)

[Crimean war]. Echoes of the War Echoes of the War: And Other Poems [.]

Stokes (Henry Sewell) a little toned, with some very light spotting to the prelims and endleaves, but a very good copy; pp. [6], 99, [3], 12mo; full contemporary coarse-grained green morocco, neatly rebacked, upper cover lettered in gilt within an attractive cartouche, boards ruled gilt with a blind floral roll, gold edges; book label of of Lord Raglan and (facing) of Cefn Tilla Court (see below). First edition of this collection of poems by the Gibralterian-Cornish poet Henry Sewell Stokes (1808-1895). Stokes was born in Gibraltar but educated in England, where he was a school fellow of Dickens. He followed his father into the law, settling and establishing a successful legal practice in Truro. His published poems were mainly on Cornish topics - he was sometimes known as 'The Cornish Laureate' - from which the present volume represents a divergence. It contains fifteen Crimean poems: The Alliance, The Parting, The Expedition, The Battle of Alma, The Marshall's Death, After the Battle, The Dirge, The Siege, Balaklava, The Nurses, Who are the Brave, Inkerman, Widows and Orphans, A Lament for Eliot, and Christmas Night. 'A critic in the Westminster Review described the volume in July 1855 as 'the sincere response of a warm British heart to the tales of noble deeds, and nobly endured suffering, which have come to us from the Crimea'. Stokes's poem 'Inkerman' was especially singled out for praise as 'an easy, spirited ballad of the kind we wish our war-poets had hit on more frequently, instead of the high-flown metaphysical strain' (See ODNB). Crimea was rich fodder for those with poetical ambitions; Stokes was also a literary friend of Alfred Lord Tennyson, whose own narrative poem on the Charge of the Light Brigade had been published the previous year. This copy from the library of Fitzroy Somerset, Lord Raglan (1788-1855), one of the leaders of Britain's forces in the Crimea, who issued the order for Lord Lucan to carry out what would prove to be the disastrous 'charge of the light brigade' during the Battle of Balaclava, in October 1854. Although this led to some 278 British casualties and an indecisive result in the battle as a whole, the British and French allied army gained a victory at the Battle of Inkerman in November 1854 and Raglan was promoted to the rank of field marshal. The bookplate here belongs to Cefn Tilla Court, which was purchased in 1858 by a group of the late Lord Raglan's admirers, and presented to his son Richard and his heirs in perpetuity. See: W.P. Courtney and Jane Potter, 'Stokes, Henry Sewell (1808–1895), poet' ODNB (2004).
  • $798
book (2)

Testacea Britannica or Natural History of British Shells, Marine, Land, and Fresh-Water, including the most minute: systematically arranged and embellished with figures. [ 3 vols, including Supplement].

Montagu (George) FIRST EDITION, parts (vols) 1 and 2 with engraved titles with hand-coloured engraved vignettes, supplement with engraved title, 30 hand-coloured plates drawn and engraved by Elizabeth Dorville, the majority with tissue-guards, a few early gatherings in vol 1 with scattered spotting, several pencil annotations in near contemporary hand, pp. [iv], xxxvii, [iii], 291, [i]; [iv], 293-606; [iv], 16 plates; [iv], 183. [I], 17-30 plates, large 4to, modern half calf, gilt-lettered spines with blind-stamped motifs between raised bands, very good. Though George Montague, British Army officer and amateur naturalist, is most well-known for his contribution to the study of British birds, notably his Ornithological Dictionary of 1802, this work, published only a year later, marks a significant advance in the field of British shells, describing 470 species of molluscs, 100 of which were new to the British record. Montagu's sea snail was named in his honour, and his shell collection is housed in Exeter's Royal Albert Museum and the Natural History Museum in London. Montague left his first wife, the daughter of the Earl of Bute, for Elizabeth Dorville, illustrator and engraver, with whom he had four children. The pencil annotations generally describe observations eg. 'The animals of P. Dactylus, Candidus and Parvus are luminous in the dark when living' (vol 1, p.20), one notably recounting an episode where '.an elegant shell supposed to be a nautulus was found in the [rubbed away] Island sand by by C.P. and given to G. Montagu, miniscule. it is transparent and strongly ribbed.' (vol 1, p.199). [with:] small sheet (loose) written on both sides in contemporary hand, (verso written in two directions), listing, in Latin, predominantly marine species - sea worms, sea snails, bivavles etc. - land snails and one bird, Hoopoe Prima Musicale. Two names are bracketed together with the words 'in Box no 13', which suggests that this is a list of specimens, and further, given the pencil annotation in volume one referring to an encounter with the author and the nature of the specimens listed, that this may be a contemporary record of part of the collection of Montagu himself.
  • $1,245
  • $1,245