4to, 18th century polished calf skillfully rebacked and recased, gilt rules and lettering. An account of the trial of Sir Walter Raleigh (1554-1618) in 1603 for fomenting a rebellion against King James, devising a plot to replace him with Lady Arabella Stuart, and encouraging a Spanish invasion. Raleigh defended himself eloquently against the suspect charges, including one of having a "Spanish heart," but he was found guilty by a jury, though not executed for 15 years. See the ODNB. Raleigh's trial was deeply flawed, but became a landmark in English constitutional history and jurisprudence because it was a catalyst for strengthening the rights of individuals against the state. The text of the trial is followed by three later documents: "The Proceedings against Sir Walter Rawleigh Knight, At the Kings Bench-Barre, the 28 of October, 1618." This was the judgment of the court in 1618 to carry out the 1603 sentence of death. This is followed by "Sir Walter Rawleigh's Letter to the King the night before his death," and "The copy of Sir Walter Rawleigh's Letter to his Wife, the night before his death." The attribution on the title-page to poet and courtier Thomas Overbury (1581-1613) is doubtful. Ink signature of W. Bayntun, Gray's Inn, on the title-page and his initials "WB" at the foot of the last page. Bayntun appears to have been a serious collector. There is a manuscript catalogue of his books, compiled circa 1770, in the Bodleian Library. Note in pencil on the rear paste-down by William Stirling Maxwell that he purchased this at Sotheby's, November 13, 1978. Some light wear to the edges of the binding; fine copy, with generous margins.
8vo, contemporary panelled sheep neatly rebacked with the original spine laid on, brown leather spine label, gilt decorations and lettering. Informed and lively observations on Spain at the end of the 17th century, the political intrigues of the monarchy, Spanish culture - including bull fighting and theater - and one allegorical tale entitled "The Story" about the "Monarchy of Philippia," all written in a series of letters to a Mr. Brunet from "His Devoted Friend R.--", who apparently visited Spain and northern Africa between 1694 and 1696. The ìEpistle Dedicatoryî signed ìE. L." in this variant is signed "E. Lewis" in the other, equally scarce, variant. See ESTC R13796. Edges neatly repaired; a little browning and slight smudges in the text; very good copy. ESTC R223814 records nine copies (Durham, Oxford Bodleian, National Trust, Folger, UCLA, Illinois, Kansas, Tennessee, Beinecke); Wing A226C First edition, one of two variants. In this one the dedication is signed "E. L.".
4 vols, 12mo, contemporary green straight-grain half morocco, marbled paper boards, attractively gilt-decorated spines, gilt lettering. Frontispieces and engraved title-pages in each volume and 36 plates. An entertaining series of biographical sketches, compiled (or probably written by) G. H. Wilson and first issued in parts by the printer and bookseller James Cundee. Included are the stories of more than 100 eccentric characters, including luminaries such as Thomas Day, Rev. George Harvest, ìBeauî Nash, strongman Thomas Topham, playwright Samuel Foote, William Hogarth, the obese Daniel Lambert, swindler Charles Price, a man who lived as a woman named Elizabeth Russell, various other cross-dressers, and an assortment of misers, impostors and individuals of remarkable age, height or otherwise unusual attributes. James Cundee issued bound sets of the parts over several years, resulting in mixed issues. The title-page on volume one of this copy is dated 1813, and the following three volumes are dated 1807. The frontispiece in volume one is dated 1809; other plates are dated 1806 and 1807, and a few are undated, etc. Contemporary ownership signature of John Hammond, West Dunton, who has neatly and usefully written out the contents of each volume on the front endpapers. Some foxing, but overall a fine, handsome set in contemporary state. Early edition in book form, preceded by a parts issue.
Small 4to, modern black quarter morocco, decorated paper boards, gilt lettering. Title within a typographical border, woodcut head-piece and initial, text in black letter, eight pages. An interesting document issued 18 November 1643, at the beginning of the English Civil War, that called for the protection and preservation of libraries and archives from sale or dispersal by the Committees for Sequestration, which were confiscating estates and assets of the Royalists. The ordinance denounces as "prejudiciall to the publique" any "dispersing by sale or otherwise" of books seized by the parliamentary Committees for Sequestration, whether "Manuscripts or written Bookes, proceedings of Courts, evidences of Lands ." or "whole Libraries, and choice Collections of printed Bookes." The ordinance declared that before any seized books could be sold, they must first be examined by a committee (among whose members were Gilbert Millington, John Selden, Francis Rous and Sir Simonds D'Ewes), and, if considered of importance, should be inventoried and deposited in a proper place for public use. Armorial bookplate on the front paste-down. Top margins trimmed closely, partially shaving the page numbers; edges of the final leaf a little toned and slightly chipped at the edges, and with a neat repair with two words in manuscript facsimile; very good copy.
8vo, modern red cloth, red morocco spine label, gilt lettering, untrimmed. Errata slip tipped in. An early work by Rev. Alexander Dyce (1798-1869), the prolific compiler, editor and scholar. See the ODNB. In the preface, Dyce states that the "object of the present volume is to exhibit the growth and progress of the genius of our country-women in the department of poetry." He acknowledges the one earlier anthology dedicated to women poets, George Colman's and Thornton Bonnel's Poems by Eminent Ladies (1755, reprinted in 1780), but points out its deficiency in containing "no extracts from rare books and . . . specimens of only eighteen poets." Dyce assembled almost two hundred poems by 79 women, regardless of class, social standing or education, beginning with Juliana Berners and including Anne Bradstreet, Margaret Cavendish, Anne Killegrew, Aphra Behn, Mary Pix, Lady Chudleigh, Anne Finch, Susanna Centlivre, DelaRivier Manley, Mary Leapor, Eliza Haywood, Mary Robinson, Anne Yearsley, Charlotte Smith, Mary Tighe, Ann Radcliffe, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Helen Maria Williams, Anne Grant, Mary Russell Mitford, and L. E. Landon. Each entry is has a brief few lines about the poet. From the library of the great scholar of English poetry, Roger Lonsdale, though without any physical evidence of ownership. Title-page a bit dusty and smudged, but overall a very good copy. NCBEL III, 1644; Lowndes, page 705 First edition, second issue; the first issue was dated 1825; this second issue has a cancel title with a slightly revised imprint dated 1827.
Oil on wood panels, in early or contemporary frames, approximately 39.5 x 37 cm each. Two oil paintings after caricatures by Thomas Rowlandson, depicting tailors comically struggling with their patrons. The caricatures were produced as a pair of aquatint prints, published by S. W. Flores, 3 Piccadilly, dated 18 May, 1791, and are described in Joseph Gregoís Rowlandson the Caricaturist (London: Chatto and Windus, 1880), volume I, pages 292-93; additionally two sets of the aquatint prints are recorded sold at auction (Anderson Galleries in 1920 and Dominic Winter in 2005). Provenance: a manuscript label on the verso of A Little Tighter states that the paintings are from the collection of Dickson Q. Brown. A printed description adjacent to that describes the paintings, but adds no further information about the provenance. Brown (1873-1939) was a noted collector of graphic arts, particularly of British caricaturists of the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1928 he donated the majority of his collection (over 2800 works) to his alma mater, Princeton University, though he apparently continued his collecting until his death several years later. These two paintings were recently sold by Potter and Potter Auctions, Chicago, who stated in their catalogue description that ìEach painting is titled in the artistís hand at the bottom of the image.î When asked for further details about the provenance, Potter and Potter stated that their consignor had purchased the paintings at Sothebyís in the 1970s, without additional verification. Rowlandson was not known to work in oil, though caricaturists of his era and later did on occasion render their works in oil as well as print form, examples of which are usually rare. These two oil paintings are undoubtedly after caricatures by Rowlandson, but the question is: can it be substantiated that they are the work of Rowlandson. One frame is chipped and in need of minor restoration; overall in very good condition. Cf. Joseph Gregoís Rowlandson the Caricaturist (London: Chatto and Windus, 1880), volume I, pages 292-93; additionally two sets of the aquatint prints of these images are recorded sold at auction (Anderson Galleries in 1920 and Dominic Winter in 2005)
8vo, 20th century black straight-grain half morocco, marbled paper boards, brown morocco spine label, gilt rules and lettering. Engraved title, color frontispiece and two color plates. Without the final leaf of advertisements. An anonymously compiled collection of 20 tales in verse which parody M. G. Lewis' popular Tales of Wonder (1801), and was often incorrectly attributed to him. In his Gothic Bibliography, Montagu Summers writes: "The book is gruesome and in its illustrations even disgusting and it seems impossible that Lewis could have had anything to do with it. Some of the ballads are too coarse and grotesque to stand comparison with any work by M. G. Lewis; and they read more like an attempt to ridicule the popularity of the gothic romances for which Lewis was so largely responsible." This poor pastiche of Lewis has one interesting facet: the fifteenth of the twenty tales is "The Black Canon of Elmham, or Saint Edmondís Eve, an Old English Ballad" which reappeared ten years later almost verbatim as "Saint Edmondís Eve" in Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire, the collaborative volume of verse by Percy Bysshe Shelley and his sister Elizabeth, published in 1810. Its publisher, J. J. Stockdale, discovered the plagiarism once the book had been issued and confronted Shelley, who pointed the finger at Elizabeth and insisted that all the remaining copies be destroyed. Percy was almost certainly the plagiarist, as he was responsible for the lion's share of the contents of the volume, but the whole truth is not known. Richard Garnett's writes at some length about the plagiarism in the introduction to his edition of Original Poetry. Binders' ticket of Abrams of Somerset on the rear paste-down. The destruction of the remaining copies of Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire, caused it to become a "black tulip" of the Shelley canon. Summers, Gothic Bibliography, pages 525-26; and see Richard Garnett, Original Poetry By Victor & Cazire (John Lane, 1898)
3 vols, 8vo, contemporary smooth brown calf, marbled endpapers, spines in six compartments with gilt decorations, brown and black morocco spine labels, gilt lettering. 22-page list of subscribers. An important work by Henry Fielding (1707-54), an assemblage of poems, essays, satires, dialogues, plays and prose fiction, several examples of which appear here for the first time, including his novel The Life of Mr. Jonathan Wild (one of the great works in the literature of roguery) and A Journey from This World to the Next. Fielding personally supervised the compiling of Miscellanies, and it was his only privately published ("Printed for the Author") work. Contemporary bookplate of George Garnier on the front paste-downs, below which is the modern book label of Louis and Anne Marie Davidson, designed in the style of Reynolds Stone (and perhaps by him). Edges a little rubbed; one label chipped; a few hinges starting, but sound; very good copy in contemporary state. ESTC N11032; Cross III, pages 308-09
8vo, brown morocco (Oasis goatskin), inlaid decorative letters, 3-D pop-up on the upper and lower board, colored edges. David Belch, proprietor of the Scarab Press and well-known biblio-bon vivant of the San Francisco Bay Area (circa 1960s-2010), commissioned several fine binders to design and produce bindings on Printing Poetry by Clifford Burke, that he had published to wide acclaim in 1980. Three of the binders were S n Evrard of La Celle Les Bordes, France; Louise Genest of Outremont, Quebec; and Eleanore E. Ramsey of San Francisco. Enclosed is Genest's statement about the design of the binding, signed and dated October 26, 2003, with the receipt for her fee: $3,500.00. Fine copy enclosed in a clamshell case. First edition in a fine designer binding by Louise Genest.
8vo, original green cloth spine, gray pictorial paper boards. Frontis portrait and ten illustrations. An uncommon memoir by Mary Polk Branch, about her life in Middle Tennessee (specifically Columbia and its environs) in the years leading up to the Civil War and immediately afterward. Her immediate family and inlaws were well connected, wealthy Southerners and had numerous properties (i.e., plantations) throughout the South. Among their family members were President James K. Polk, and Confederate Generals Lucius E. Polk, Leonidas Polk (the "Fighting Bishop") and Lawrence Branch. The memoir is followed by a genealogy of her family, with brief biographies. Presentation copy: Inscribed twice on the front free endpaper "To Captain P. W. Thompson with Compliments of Joseph Branch, Chicago, June 15/12" and below that "To [?] R. Branch Compliments of Capt. P. W. Thompson." Joseph Branch, a publisher in Chicago of electrical engineering texts, was Mary Polk Branch's son, and on two occasions published works that romanticized the old South and Southern ways, including slavery. First signature loosening; boards a little spotted and worn; very good copy.
Oval, 20.5 x 15 inches, signed and dated on the edge ìJ. Carew SC, 1857.î A fine bas-relief portrait in marble of Ralph Waldo Emerson, sculpted the year he voiced his support for the abolitionist cause. Joseph Carew was active between 1840-1870 and worked in partnership with his brother Thomas Carew in the firm Carew & Brothers, Sculptors, at 143 Harrison Avenue, Boston, near the Common. His sculptures were exhibited at the Boston Athenaeum on at least three occasions: 1853, 1859 and 1860. There is no evidence to link Emerson with Joseph Carew, and Emerson scholars Joel Myerson and Leslie Perrin Wilson in their monograph Picturing Emerson: An Iconography (Houghton Library, 2016), record this portrait under Appendix A, Apocryphal Images of Emerson, with the following note: ìJoseph Carew was a Boston sculptor and monument maker who frequently exhibited at the Boston Athenaeum and executed commissions at Mount Auburn Cemetery. . . . There are no references to Carew in Emersonís letters and journals. Carew may have made this idealistic classical image of Emerson from sketches done when seeing him in downtown Boston or lecturing, or he may have worked from a contemporary engraving.î Because of the lack of documentation connecting Emerson and Carew, Myerson and Wilson are understandably doubtful that this image was sculpted during a studio sitting by Emerson (i.e., from life) ñ a prerequisite for inclusion in the primary catalog of their work. But they do not question that it is a portrait of Emerson or that it was made during his lifetime. The date of 1857 clearly attests to that and distinguishes this image from many other portraits of Emerson by the fact that it is dated. They state: ìVery few images of Emerson are dated on photographs or their card mounts, on sketches or paintings or on plaster or marble busts.î They also note that though Emerson was a meticulous diarist, he rarely described sitting for a portrait of any kind. Additionally, Joel Myerson saw this bas-relief many times on his visits to the Brick Row Book Shop, during which he never cast doubts about its authenticity or that it was an image of Emerson. In fact, he expressed great admiration for it as a work of art and an unusual portrait of one of the great men of 19th century American literature and Transcendentalism. A few minor restorations of the edges and brown spots; a skillfully executed replacement marble base; in very good condition. Myerson and Wilson, Picturing Emerson: An Iconography, Appendix A.
Single sheet folded to make four 21 x 13 cm pages, text on page one only; pages 2-4 are blank. A rare early work by Constance Fenimore Woolson (1840-1894) - quite possibly her first separate appearance in print - a poem in three 12-line stanzas written to her niece, Claire Rathborn Benedict (1868-1961), a.k.a. "Plum." Claire's father and Woolsonís brother-in-law, George Stone Benedict, had tragically died in a train accident in early 1871. A service was held at which an elaborate 82-page memorial volume was distributed that included obsequies by his friends and fellow employees at the Cleveland Herald, an account of the accident, and an elegy to him entitled ìIn Memoriam G.S.B. February 6, 1871î by Constance Fenimore Woolson. See BAL 23444. At about that same time Woolson wrote this poem, "Plum's Picture," which was printed in this attractive format. It celebrates the charming presence of Benedictís young daughter amidst the sorrow over the death of her father: "O, darling Plum, your three short years / Have held a charm to dry the tears / of many mourning hearts, - / When dark the life, and deep the grief, / No words, no help, bring the relief / That baby-love imparts," and it ends with "We love you best because you were / His darling little Plum." This poem was collected in The Benedicts Abroad, edited by Claire Benedict (London, 1931, see BAL 23480), but this original publication is not recorded. Woolson wrote and published several poems in periodicals prior to her first work of fiction, but she resisted efforts to collect for she did not think of herself as a poet. Creased from folding, short tear in the lower margin; in fine condition. Not found in BAL or OCLC; no copy found in trade or at auction
8vo, recent quarter calf period style, marbled paper boards, gilt decorations and lettering. With half-title. A satire in the form of a dialogue, in which Henry Fielding sheds positive light on the policies of the government against Republican sentiments. An alderman and a gentleman debate the candidates and the electoral process, corruption, liberty, divine right of kings, discontent of the electorate, etc., and conclude that when reform does come "let it be soberly and temperately done; not according to the impracticable schemes of school-boy politicians or the furious passions of party zealots." According to Martin Battestin in his biography Henry Fielding, A Life (1989), this dialogue is "the most skillful of all Fielding's political writings." ESTC T89864; Cross III, 315; NCBEL II, 930 Second edition, issued the same year as the first.
