UPTON, Nicholas.
First edition. Nicolas Upton's De Studio militari was first written in 1447 and circulated in manuscript. 'It is a treatise, in four parts, on heraldry and the arts of war, drawing heavily on a tradition of heraldic and legal writing, but also reflecting contemporary concerns. The first book elaborates a view of nobility and knighthood that recognizes the importance of virtue, but which also attaches importance (as Bartolo da Sassoferrato had done) to princely authority in the granting of arms. Upton voices the topos of the decline of chivalry, as well as contemporary aristocratic concern that too many low-born men were acquiring arms in wartime. The second book discusses various types and laws of war (using Giovanni da Legnano's Tractatus de bello), a theme carried over into the fourth book with treatment of Henry V's campaign statutes. For the third book, on the colours of heraldry, Upton relies, though not slavishly, on the treatise of Johannes de Bado Aureo (possibly Bishop John Trevor of St Asaph's). The fourth draws also on French treatises and especially on encyclopaedias (such as Bartholomaeus Anglicus's De proprietatibus rerum) for the meaning of heraldic signs (animals, birds, fish, flowers, and ordinaries); but the extended list, in 195 sections, also reflects a growing demand for (and disputes over) coats of arms' (Oxford DNB).It is followed in this first printed edition by jurist Henry Spelman's Aspilogia, a Latin treatise on coats of armour, which, although probably written before 1595 had not previously appeared in print. It opens with a fine portrait of Spelman by Faithorne.Magistri Johannis de Bado Aureo Tractatus de armis (Wing J744) and Henrici Spelmanni equitis Auati aspilogia (Wing S4919) each have separate dated title page, with imprint 'typis R. Norton', pagination and register.In Nicholaum Uptonum Notæ (caption title) has separate pagination but the register is continuous from Auati aspilogia. The illustrations are signed by W. Hollar and Ro. Vaughan. The two double page engraved plates by Lombart are on paper with clear and visible foolscap watermarks. Four parts in one vol., folio (310 × 175 mm), pp. [12], 259, [1]; [2], 45; [1], [8], 142; [2], 105, [1], including portrait of Spelman by Faithorne on 3[A]1v, engraved illustrations (some signed W. Hollar, Ro. Vaughan and PP. Lombart), numerous engraved arms, engraved headpieces and initials, woodcut ornaments. Plus two double page engraved plates by Lombart. General title slightly dusty, ownership inscription (probably eighteenth century) '?W. Gordon'. Eighteenth-century mottled calf, rubbedm, rebacked to style. A very good copy. [Wing (CD-Rom, 1996), U124Wing (CD-Rom, 1996), J744Wing (CD-Rom, 1996), S4919]
WILMOTT, Robert Aris.
8vo, pp. xix, [1], 387, [1], illustrations. Mauve cloth, stamped in gilt and blind, blue oval onlays, gilt, to both covers, binders' ticket (Leighton, Son & Hodge). Evenly faded. [KingVictorian Decorated Trade Bindings 36 ( variant of this binding by Robert Dudley).]
First edition of an ingenious perpetual calendar, serviceable to the year 2000. and including a folding engraved lunar chart. The preface suggests its utility to 'l'Homme d'État, le Magistrat, l'Homme de Lettres, le Particulier même'. Duplessis was a map publisher, who also issued a variety of calendars. The advert after the preface offers geographical and historical maps and charts, a large map of France on 175 sheets but also calendar mounted on card with elaborate engraved borders which could be supplied glazed in gilt frames. 4to (240 × 175 mm), pp. 86, plus folding engraved table. Occasional minor ink marks, some spotting, slightly heavier to the engraved plates, old waterstain to lower inner corners. Slightly later (c. 1800) quarter sheep, gilt spine. [No US or UK copies in Worldcat.]
A unique album written and illustrated by the artist and illustrator W. Graham Robertson for Marion ('Binkie'), daughter of artist Arthur Melville who had died in 1904. It is one of several (another is in the Ray collection in the Morgan Library, New York) devoted to the young girl who became Robertson's muse in the years following Melville's tragic death. It comprises 'Six Songs of the Day' and 'Six Songs of the Dusk', the typed poems accompanied by his illustrations, usually depicting himself 'Ba' and the infant Binkie, and bear titles such as 'Glad Day', 'Sea Pinks', 'Sand Castles', 'The Nowhere Place' and 'The Lady Dream Come True'. The larger watercolours are on Robertson's Rutland Gate stationery. Folio (290 × 240 mm) 16 unnumbered card leaves (plus numerous following blanks), onto which are pasted 13 typescript poems on verso plus 14 coloured ink and watercolour drawings pasted on facing recto leaves. Red half morocco, lettered 'Graham Robertson' in gilt on the spine. Some softening to the edges of some leaves (one with minor loss not affecting the pasted image, occasional light offsetting.
An superbly executed manuscript miscellany of short works by the eccentric antiquary and bibliophile Laurent de Crozet (1809-1872). The volume was edited posthumously by his son Amédée de Crozet (1847-1896) and is in the hand of a master scribe, Alphonse Pelletier of Marseille. The choice of contrasting quires of coloured papers aptly reflects some of the author's curious bibliophilic practices. A prolific author of pamphlets and articles, it was said that he preferred to have each work printed in small editions by different printers, sometimes even ordering different gatherings from different printers. His aim was to make collecting his works as challenging as possible, so that only he and one other ever achieved a complete collection. Notably modest, de Crozet also published anonymously and adopted pseudonyms (such as the 'Chevalier Apicius à Vindemiis'), a characteristic alluded to in the the author's portrait ('Auctoris vera effigies' which mentions a limitation of 50 copies) depicting a man sitting on an immense barrel, his pockets stuffed with pipes and bottles and his head in a book, so that his face is entirely obscured). De Crozet was a major collector of earlier French books (Perrier, Bibliophiles et les collectionneurs provencaux, 1897).The contents comprise: Volume I: Du Coeur de l'homme selon la Philosophie ancienne; Reflexions; Notes de voyage (Hôtels, Registres des Etrangers; Enseignes; Voyageurs en Suisse, L'Amateur); Sur Cicéron; Lucrèce Borgia; Les Fiancés par Manzoni; Messe en Fa de Chérubin; Cicéron et Lord Byron; De la Décentralisation littéraire; Pensées; Histoire de l'Angleterre par Hume; Considérations sure les premiers siècle de notre histoire; Sur la foi. Volume II: De la Recherche des plaisirs' De la Connaissance de Dieu; De l'Esclavage en Turquie; Memoires d'un Président de Conférences; Réponse de Mr. Casimir Bousquet; Notes sur Haitze' Rapport; Notes bibliographiqes. Manuscript, 2 vols, 8vo (158 × 118 mm), pp. [26], 356, [22]; [26], 230, [18], plus lithograph portrait on stiff yellow paper. Written in an exceptionally neat hand with calligraphic headings, titles and ornaments, all on quires of alternating coloured paper (deep and pale blue, yellow, green, orange, grey and pink). Contemporary crushed morocco gilt by Chambolle Duru, all edges gilt. Circular bookplate of Amédée de Crozet.
First Rackham edition. Number 65 of 500 copies. 4to, pp. [iv], 78, [2]. Plates and illustrations. Signed by both Rackham and Philpotts. Top edge gilt, decorated endpapers by Rackham. Ivory linen with title, spine lettered ibn gilt, cover illustration, by Rackham, of woman in orchard with dish of apples on head. Loosely tipped in is a 4-page booklet, advertising the sale of by Maggs Bros advertising the sale of 'Six Beautiful Water-colour drawings by Rackham of Costume through the Ages 'never published'.' A fine, bright copy. [Gettings, Arthur Rackham, p. 139; Hudson, Arthur Rackham, pp. 118-119.]
First edition. Number 43 of an edition of 50 copies. The poet Gordon Bottomley, an invalid since his childhood, lived away from the stress of cities in Carnforth, Lancashire. He donated his extensive collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings to the Tullie House Museum in Carlisle. 'Gordon Bottomley has never enjoyed robust health ? He can only work very very slowly and must husband his physical strength with the utmost care. ? his work, appearing at rare intervals, is of great perfection. ? He stands among the greatest' (Old Vic Magazine, November 1922). Graham Robertson, who described Bottomley as a 'dear friend' wrote of the plays: 'They have real stuff in them I think, especially King Lear's Wife and his new one Gruach, just published, being an incident in the early life of Lady Macbeth; (Letters, p. 76). 'Bottomley, who had a luxuriant beard and hair well into later life, was liked and admired. He maintained the standards and culture which he knew historically and aesthetically with a generous courtesy. He believed in rural tradition, community, and craftsmanship. His influence on the minority who are sensitive to the power of poetry, and especially of poetry heard communally, was due to his gift of friendship and direct encouragement as well as his writings' (Oxford DNB). 8vo (220 × 165 mm), pp. viii, 221, [3]. Half-title. Some spotting/foxing. Fore and lower edge untrimmed, white cloth with gilt design on cover and spine by Charles Ricketts.Endpapers browned.
First edition. The verso of the front free endpaper has an early manuscript note: 'Taken out of the Empress Josephine's Library at Malmaison, when the Allied armies entered Paris in 1815'. The half-title bears another early inscription in pencil: 'Dear Edward, you will find me at No. 2 Rue Trudon near Rue Camartin, if you arrive early come and see me, if I am not on duty, I shall call here about three o'clock. Yours Wyndham'. Whether the book was ever in the library at Malmaison is debateable: the arms are of Louis Jean-Pierre, marquis de Fontanes (1757-1821) as a comte senateur de l'empire. Man of letters Fontanes had fled France at the Revolution (as a supporter of a reformed monarchy) and was associated with Chateaubriand. He was an enthusiastic supporter of Napoleon, who commissioned him to write an éloge on George Washington in 1800. He became professeur de belles-lettres at the Collège des Quatre-Nations, and a member of the Institut de France. Thereafter he gathered honours and became a major part of the Imperial educational reforms. He was named comte de l'Empire in 1808. After Napoleon's fall he resumed his Royalist stance and was names Louis XVIII's ministre de l'instruction publique. He is buried in Père Lachaise. 12mo (165 × 90 mm), pp. [4], xxiv, 458, [2], with half-title and errata leaf. Contemporary red straight-grain morocco gilt, both covers with armorial paper onlays, gilt edges, green silk endpapers. Slightly rubbed, corners with a little wear, upper cover with some staining. Early inscriptions (see note).
First edition, deluxe issue, inscribed to 'To my dear Graham [Robertson] Sep 1908 ET Nelleanora' on half-title, with a small collection of associated and autograph material. The book was limited to 1000 copies for sale of which the first 250 copies are signed copies this being 122. With the book is an envelope containing a small collection marked 'Items linked to Ellen Terry's Story of my Life', which includes four Terry autograph fragments (two on an envelope, one on a photo postcard with a family group), several photographs (early copies) of Terry, items concerning the G.F. Watts portrait, newspaper cuttings, an autograph letter from Sir John Gielgud, letters from Terry's daughter Edith Craig ('Edy', to whom Terry dedicates the book) and her grandson, Edward Craig.Ellen Terry was pre-eminent among the figures who defined the artist and illustrator W. Garham Robertson's early life, dubbed by him 'Our Lady of the Lyceum' (Time Was) and his reminiscences of his time with her are among the most satisfying of his memoirs. He drew her several times, and The Story of my Life contains one of his portraits. Large 8vo (222 × 155 mm), pp. 381, [1], plates and illustrations. Cream buckram gilt. Slightly soiled, but a very good copy.
Fatrasie is a twenty-first century visual interpretation of a rare and highly distinctive medieval poetic form of satirical nonsense verse. In the Fatrasie form, early French rhymers subjugated meaning to the rhythm of repeated sounds and syllables and yet were able to hide piquant criticisms of prevailing power structures within their verses. It is a particularly apt title among Diane de Bournazel's unique artist's books, which frequently conceal their narratives and meanings within the artist's dense iconography.Diane de Bournazel (b. 1956) creates books as 'poems without words' in her unique pen, ink and gouache style, filling each page with mazes of vegetation, mysterious borders, structures and figures, opening windows within pages allowing us to see behind and beyond them, suggesting a series of alternative worlds and narratives. Drawing on the universals of the cosmos, the natural world, of childhood and human relationships each of her books invite careful 'reading' and multiple interpretations. Collectors have found the books to speak for themselves, and the artist writes of her work simply as:'Poésie sans paroles.Il s'agit bien de ça.Mettre en images le monde et l'arrière monde,Comme un poète mais sans mot dire'.De Bournazel has recently been the subject of an essay by French medievalist and cultural historian, Michel Pastoureau, entitled 'Fenêtres sur le rêve' (2024) written to introduce the artist's first major Paris exhibition. Following a deep consideration of the artist's visual world he concludes: 'The reading of Diane de Bournazel's work takes a deliberately plural path, as in a fairy tale or a dream. It is obviously this way that she wants to lead us. And herein lies the magic of her art, an art that is both bewitching and bewitched, absolutely original, impossible to photograph and still less describe or explain. Her creations appeal not only to our imagination but to all our senses at once. You have to look at them, listen to them, feel them, breathe them and, ultimately, savour them'. (262 × 165 mm), pp. [14], each leaf fully illuminated by hand, mixed media with ink, watercolour and collage. Bound by Armelle Guégant in decorative marbled boards (paper by Marianne Peter), manuscript labels, matching slipcase.
First edition of Leonor Fini's playing cards, reissued several times, but rare in this first edition by Acanthe. The set was issued in both single deck Jeu de Cartes and as here, Jeux de Cartes, a double deck format. The single decks were issued with just one joker and one blank card. Here each set is accompanied by two jokers. A very nice set of this early work by Fini, re-issued a number of times, complete sets of the original edition are now quite difficult to find. 2 sets of 54 playing cards (89 × 63 mm), together in the original parchment covered slipcase (140 × 90 mm) with printed label. Light browning, and the box slightly rubbed/chipped but a very good set, as issued. [cf. Hoffman, Französische Spielkarten des XX jahrhunderts 79-103; Cinque Siècles de cartes a jouer, Bibliothèque Nationale, 1963 n° 267; Bielefeld, Deutsches Spiekarten Museum, Inv 663]
