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Temple Rare Books

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Novels - Sense and Sensibility; Pride and Prejudice; Mansfield Park

Novels – Sense and Sensibility; Pride and Prejudice; Mansfield Park, Emma; Northanger Abbey and Persuasion

Austen, Jane Five volumes complete comprising - Sense and Sensibility, First Thus, 1833, 6pp, [2] ads, [7], vi-xv, [1], 2-331pp, [1] (Gilson D1); Pride and Prejudice, First Thus, 1833, [4], 340pp (Gilson D5) ; Mansfield Park, Second Thus, 1837, [4], 424pp, [4]p ads (Gilson D7); Emma, First Thus, 1833, [4], 435pp, [1] (Gilson D2); Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, First Thus, 1833, 24p ads, [2], 440pp (Gilson D4). Original cloth, with original black labels to spines. Spines faded, one or two of the labels chipped with small amounts of loss, but with no loss of sense. Spine ends chipped, corners bumped, rubbed to extremities. Internally some light foxing, mainly to margins, but generally fairly clean. Sense and Sensibility with small holes to bottom margin of a few pages, not affecting text; Pride and Prejudice with small book label to front pastedown; Mansfield Park with inner joints strengthened with Japanese tissue, slightly loose in binding but holding; Emma with a small library stamp to front pastedown, and with a stain to top corner from signatures D to H, and a small piece missing from bottom margin of Y4; Northanger Abbey with small book label of Sarah Johnson to front pastedown. All except Northanger Abbey have the book plate of Chris Viveash (the partner of the Austen bibliographer David Gilson), to front pastedown or ffep. All volumes have the additional engraved title and frontispiece (those to Mansfield Park browned and foxed, others with some light foxing, but generally quite bright and clean). Now housed in a leather entry slipcase made by Temple Bookbinders. Scarce in the original cloth Size: 12mo
  • $18,887
  • $18,887
The Sphinx

The Sphinx

Wilde, Oscar [36]p, original publishers decorative vellum with monograms of Charles Ricketts (CR - designer) and Henry Leighton (HL - binder). Limited edition, one of 25 deluxe large paper copies; printed in green, red and black, illustrations by Charles Ricketts, some minor spotting to extremities and frontispiece tissue-guard, otherwise very good original cloth ties (lightly spotted), uncut edges, covers a little bowed, spine a little darkened, otherwise, also very good; preserved in a custom-made cardboard slip case. From the library of Laurence W. Hodson, with his book label to front pastedown. Hodson inherited Compton House in Wolverhampton and an interest in the Springfield Brewery (Butlers), on the death of his father in 1890. Hodson junior was a patron of the arts and a famous collector of pre-Raphaelite paintings. He was an acquaintance of William Morris, from whom he commissioned the Compton pattern wallpaper, the last wallpaper designed by Morris. Presumably Hodson did this at the same time as he engaged William Morris and Company to redesign the interior of Compton House in 1895-6. These decorations are still largely in place. In 1902 Hodson served as Chairman of the Fine Art Committee for the Wolverhampton Art and Industrial Exhibition. ‘The most exquisite of all Wilde's first editions.so beautiful that, read in any other format, it seems to lose half of its power’ (Wright, Oscar’s Books, 2008). Overseen at Wilde’s request by his friend the artist, designer and typographer Charles Ricketts, The Sphinx is pre-eminent amongst the precursors to Ricketts and Shannon’s Vale Press, simultaneously a masterpiece of baroque poetry and of book-production. It perhaps best enshrines the spirit of the aesthetic movement, entirely artificial in conception, a work of beauty almost for beauty’s sake. Ricketts considered the designs for the illustrations and for the original vellum binding amongst his best work. The total print run comprised two hundred and twenty-five copies, this is good example of one of the rare twenty-five large paper copies, the other two hundred were on small paper, of which a considerable number were destroyed in a fire at the Ballantyne Press where the unsold copies were stored (Rickets, Recollections of Oscar Wilde, 1932) Size: 4to
  • $40,736
  • $40,736
A Voyage to New Guinea

A Voyage to New Guinea, and the Moluccas, from Balambangan: Including an Account of Magindano, Sooloo, and Other Islands Etc Etc.

Forrest, Captain Thomas [5], vi-xxiii, [2], 2-388pp, [1], 2-13pp, [3]. Contemporary tree calf, recently rebacked with original label, smooth spine in seven panels divided by a gilt roll, gilt roll to borders of covers. Slightly rubbed, corners worn with slight loss to calf. Internally very lightly browned, some off setting from plates, light stain to margin of I2, but generally clean. Several small nicks and tears to top margin of several signatures, with occasional small amounts of loss (never affecting text). Folding plates have been guarded, occasional creasing to edges from folding. Armorial bookplate of Arthur W. de Capell Brooke to front pastedown. With an engraved portrait frontispiece engraved by Sharp after Sherwin, large folding map (with small hole to joint) drawn by Forrest and engraved by Fran.[cis] Vivares, with another thirty-one views, maps and charts by various hands but mainly engraved by Vivares after Forrest. For Vivares see Worms and Baynton-Williams, 'British Map Engravers', page 687. Brunet II:1345; Cox II:301; Lowndes 819, noting that it is "full on the physical and moral character of the inhabitants, and on their language, mode of life and trade" and Hill 623, noting that Captain Forrest "sailed in the 'Tartar', a native boat of about ten tons burden, with two English officers and a crew of eighteen Malays. He pushed the expedition as far as Geelvink Bay in New Guinea. The voyage was one of examination and enquiry rather than of exploration, and the additions made to geographical knowledge were corrections of detail rather than startling discoveries, but the tact with which he conducted his intercourse with the natives, and the amount of work done in a small boat, deservedly won him credit as a navigator" Size: 4to
  • $2,507
  • $2,507
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Gibbon, Edward Six volumes complete, 1781-1788 - Volume One, pub. 1782 - [3], iv-vii, [13], 704pp; Volume Two, pub. 1781 - [10], 640pp, [2]; Volume Three, pub. 1781 - [10], 640pp; Volume Four, pub. 1788 - [2], [i]-viii, [8], [1]-620pp; Volume Five, pub. 1788 - [10], [1]-684pp and Volume Six, pub. 1788 - [12], [1]-646pp, [52]. Contemporary full tree calf, later rebacked with original backstrips laid on, smooth backs with spines in seven panels, title label to second panel, volume label to fourth, panels one five and seven with central lozenge shaped tool and roundel corner pieces in gilt, panels three and six with fleoron roll in gilt, Greek key roll to board edges of covers, rope roll to board edges. Spine labels chipped, partially obscuring one or two, corners bumped and worn, a few minor bumps and scrapes to covers. Internally generally lightly browned, some light foxing and some staining to margins, light damp stain to fore edges of text block. The folding map and the first two signatures of volume two are foxed, closed tear to foot of N2 catching text but with no loss and signatures 3H and 3I are lightly foxed; in volume three there is a small nick with loss to top margin of a4 and a stain to Nn1 catching text but with no loss of sense; and volume four with light water staining to signature O, catching text but with no loss of sense. Lacking half-titles. Portrait frontispiece, engraved by Hall after Reynolds, and folding map to volume one and two folding maps to volume two. See Norton 26, with the misprint on page 624, which Norton notes probably means that this edition was set up from a copy of the fourth, and that volumes two and three (called the second edition), are really a reissue of the first with cancel titles and half titles (Norton, page 53) Size: 4to
  • $4,387
  • $4,387
Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile

Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, in the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773

Bruce, James Five volumes complete - Volume One - [16], [i]-lxxxiii, [1], [1]-535pp, [1], eight plates and a folding map; Volume Two - [4], [i]-viii, [1]-718pp; Volume Three - [4], [i]-viii, [1]-759pp, [1], two folding maps and four plates; Volume Four - [4], [i]-viii, [1]-695pp, [1], three plates and three explanatory leaves and Volume Five - [4], [i]-vi, ix-xiv, [1]-230pp, [10], forty-three plates. Original marbled paper over boards, later rebacked in half calf, smooth back with spines in six panels, title label to second panel, volume number in gilt to third. Spines slightly rubbed and faded, paper covering boards rubbed and chipped with some loss, corners bumped and worn. Volume one with a small hole to A4 catching a couple of letters but with no loss of sense, plate of 'Arab Shekh' lacks top right hand corner, but outside of plate mark and not affecting image; volume two with some light foxing, a small piece is missing from the top margin of Aa1, bottom corner of 4A4 missing not affecting text, a small tear to 4H3 and a piece missing from the bottom margin of 4Q2; volume four has small tears to bottom margin of 4O2-4P3 and in volume five U1and FF2 both lack bottom corner though not affecting text. Inner joints strengthened with Japanese tissue paper. Volume five also lacks the list of plates to rear (as often). Armorial bookplate of W. Scafe to front pastedowns. With all maps and plans called for (two of the folding maps reattached), a total of fifty-eight plates and three folding maps. Bound at the start of the first volume is the rare separately published 'Ode to James Bruce Esq. by an Unknown Hand' and a small portrait of Bruce on a separate leaf. The 'Ode' is believed to be by Fanny Burney (see Rothschild 553 - smaller than the one mentioned, so presumably this one cropped to fit in the binding). James Bruce (1730-1794), African traveller, the DNB notes that these volumes are "most fascinating . [including] a full narrative of his travels from the beginning; a valuable history of Abyssinia . and disquisitions on the history and religion of Egypt, Indian trade, the invention of the alphabet, and other subjects, evincing that the great traveller was not a great scholar or a judicious critic . [however] few books of equal compass are equally entertaining; and few such monuments exist of the energy and enterprise of a single traveller . he will always remain the poet, and his work the epic, of African travel" (DNB) Much of Bruce's book was thought to be fanciful, he was satirised by Peter Pindar in the 'Complimentary Epistle to James Bruce Esq.', with Pindar noting similarities between Bruce and Boswell. Despite this, the publication of Mansfield Parkyns's 'Life in Abyssinia' in 1853 was "more sensationally, a vindication of the observations of James Bruce's travels in the region, the Scot having earlier been defamed for what were thought to be fantastical claims about the people and their culture" (Keighren, Withers and Bell, 'Travels Into Print - Exploration, Writing, and Publishing with John Murray, 1773-1859', page 153. The 'Ode to James Bruce' is found at only Trinity Cambridge in JISC. Cox I:388-389 and Ibrahim-Hilmy I:91 Size: 4to
  • $8,147
  • $8,147