![[Original Cloth] Letters from the Canary Islands](https://rarebookinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/31455643891-1-800x572.jpg)
BROWNE, D. J. [Daniel Jay, 1804-1867]
[Original Cloth] Letters from the Canary Islands
George W. Light, Lyceum Press, 3 Cornhill, Boston: 1834
- $965
Scarce First Edition (rare both in commerce and in institutional collections) of this account of the Canary Islands by the nineteenth-century Boston naturalist. Crown 8vo (186 x 111mm): 140pp, with tissue-guarded frontispiece ("Peak of Tenerife from Ycod del Alto"), full-page map of the Madeira and Canary islands, two woodcut vignettes, and several tables. Original floral-patterned forest-green cloth, red leather lettering piece gilt. Rear blanks largely torn away and now skillfully replaced with matching period end sheets, binding lightly rubbed, one page very skillfully mended (by careful sewing!), but a superb survival, with pages and plates virtually pristine. American Imprints 23586. Not in Smith (American Travelers Abroad). Browne, a polymath who wrote on a variety of scientific subjects, traveled to the Canary Islands 100 kilometers west of Morocco for several months in 1833 to explore the archipelago's geology and mineralogy, botany, zoology, mollusca and shells, meteorology, and social conditions, and report his findings to a group of Boston sponsors. His trip centered on Tenerife, the largest and most populous island, and included three ascents of Mount Teide, the highest peak in Spain and third tallest volcano in the world. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).
More from Fine Editions Ltd
The Great Crash 1929
GALBRAITH, John Kenneth (1908-2006) First British Edition of this classic account of the perhaps greatest speculative boom in history, setting the stage for the Great Depression. Demy 8vo (212 x 134mm): 186pp, with frontispiece reproduced from The New Yorker Magazine. Publisher's blue cloth, spine stamped in gilt. Neat manuscript ex-libris in red ink to fly leaf of Clive Gimson, house master of Bradfield College, dated November, 1955. An excellent example, tightly bound (top edge dust-soiled) and clean throughout. Yet another example of the value to be found in the graphically superior designs of most UK editions of American authors's works. Originally published the same year, in Boston. The 1929 stock market crash was precipitated by rampant speculation. This, one of Galbraith's first bestsellers, coincided with the 25th anniversary of the crash, when the crash and the Great Depression that followed were still raw memories, and stock prices were only then recovering to pre-crash levels. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $365
- $365
![Geography III [One Art]](https://rarebookinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/31464659815-600x863.jpg)
Geography III [One Art]
BISHOP, Elizabeth (1911-1979); Louis Untermeyer (his copy) First Printing of the final collection to be published in Bishop's lifetime, including the exquisite villanelle "One Art," with an important association. Louis Untermeyer's copy, his book plate to front paste-down. Slim demy 8vo (214 x 152mm): [12],50pp. Publisher's coarsely woven brown cloth, tan end papers, title-page vignette; tan illustrated dust jacket by Cynthia Krupat printed in black and priced $7.95. A superlative example with fine association, tightly bound and virtually pristine (glue stains to front end sheets where news clippings were removed). MacMahon A13. Untermeyer was one of Elizabeth Bishop's earliest champions, notably as a member of the 1956 Pulitzer Prize committee that awarded that year's award for poetry to Bishop's Poems: North & South: A Cold Spring, of which Untermeyer wrote: "Certainly no book of the last year has such finesse, fantasy, strong but not over-stressed personality and sympathetic responses. A whimsical craftsman who is, at the same time, a seriously accomplished creator, Elizabeth Bishop is well worthy to be chosen as this year's prize winning poet." N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $535
- $535
[Sette of Odd Volumes] A Riverside Walk : An Easy-Going Essay by a Peripatetic Philosopher [Unopened]
TODHUNTER, John (1839-1916) Limited Edition, no. 117 of 250 copies printed for private circulation only. Foolscap 8vo (145 x 116mm): 43,[1]pp, with frontispiece (Low Water in Mortlake Reach) and list of Sette club members. Publisher's blue-grey wrappers, uncut and entirely unopened. Faint creasing to rear wrapper, but a spectacular survival, securely bound and clean throughout. Read at a meeting of the Sette at Limmer's Hotel on Friday, January 14, 1898, and presented to the Sette by Todhunter, Irish poet and playwright. Ye Sette of Odd Volumes was a London bibliophilic club, founded in 1878 by bookseller Bernard Quaritch. Members included a wide-ranging cross-section of notable men, including literary figures, artists, scientists, politicians, businessmen, and eccentrics. The original Sette disbanded on the eve of the Second World War, in 1939, but rebanded in 1950 with a new group of members. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $115
- $115
Phantom Flowers. A Treatise on the Art of Producing Skeleton Leaves
ANON. [TILTON, J. E., publisher] First Edition under this title (see below) of this early work on a fashionable Victorian pastime. 8vo (191 x 119mm): 96pp, with six tissue-guarded plates, head pieces, and historiated initials. Original dark green ribbed and beveled cloth, covers paneled in blind, gilt vignettes to spine and front cover, chocolate brown end papers, illustrated title page. Gift inscription to Mary D. Ballou (perhaps the Rhode Island suffrage pioneer), dated 1865 and her manuscript ex-libris in elegant script, with "Providence," to front fly leaf. Slight scuff to cover vignette,else tightly bound and virtually pristine (tissue guards lightly foxed but plates generally bright), with interesting provenance. First published in Philadelphia, in 1863, by Edward Parrish, under the title Phantom Bouquet : Skeletonizing Leaves and Seed Vessels. Producing skeleton leaves involved removing chlorophyll from leaves to create intricate designs in imitation of those left by insects and larvae. The designs were used as borders on photographic portraits and for other decorative purposes. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $335
- $335
The history of Selby, ancient and modern : containing the most remarkable transactions, ecclesiastical, civil, and military, from the earliest accounts to the present period : interspersed with portions of general history, connected with the subject
MOUNTAIN, James First (and only) Edition of this account of the market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, the only published work of James Mountain, of whom little is known. 12mo (186 x 107mm): [4],x,162; 40,[22]pp, with folding frontispiece plan of Selby and folding plate (North West View of the Church of St. Germains Selby). Uncut in original publisher's two-tone paper-covered boards, oval printed paper lettering-piece to upper board. Engraved armorial book plate with motto "Honori Justitiae Virtuti" to front paste-down. Spine and covers rubbed and marked, pages occasionally spotted (plates unaffected), but a superb wide-margined copy, securely bound in original boards and generally clean throughout. Uncommon in commerce and in institutions outside of the British Isles, with ESTC recording copies at only four locations in North America (Harvard, Huntington, Honnold, and NYPL). Upcott III XCLVIII (pp. 1406-07). ESTC T36452. In two parts: The history of Selby, ancient and modern, and The history of Cawood, its castle and church (with separate title page, pagination, and register, and including a list of the archbishops who have resided at Cawood). Also includes "The Selby Directory for the year 1800," "A list of the Principal Inhabitants residing at Cawood," and list of subscribers, and "A poem on the ruins of Pontefract Castle," a romantic memorial to the famed Royalist stronghold raised to the ground during the English Civil War; Richard II is thought to have died there. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $865
- $865
![[Original Cloth] The Poems. Edited by Derwent and Sara Coleridge](https://rarebookinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/31458384441.jpg)
[Original Cloth] The Poems. Edited by Derwent and Sara Coleridge
COLERIDGE, S. T. (Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834) A superb example of this new edition, the first edited by Coleridge's second son and daughter. Foolscap 8vo (172 x 104mm): [8],xxvii,[1],388pp, with engraved portrait frontispiece after W. Holl, half title, and preliminary advertisements dated January 1852. Original dark blue pebbled cloth (also issued in claret cloth), elaborately blocked in blind, spine lettered in gilt, pale yellow end papers. Tightly bound and virtually pristine (slight water stain to lower blank corner of frontispiece). Wise III: 6. Lowndes 1: 493. Collects all of Coleridge 's most significant works, including "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," "Cristabel," and the poems of youth. "The Day-Dream," "The Foster-Mother's Tale, "A Hymn," and other pieces were first included in this edition. Frequently reprinted until superseded by the edition of 1863. "This volume was prepared for the press by my lamented sister, Mrs. H. N. Coleridge, and will have an additional interest to many readers as the last monument of her highly-gifted mind. At her earnest request, my name appears with hers on the title-page, but the assistance rendered by me has been, in fact, little more than mechanical." (Derwent Coleridge). After the death of his sister in 1852, Derwent Coleridge carried on her editorship of their father's works. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $265
- $265
[African Americana] The Conjure Woman
CHESNUTT, Charles W. (Waddell, 1858-1932) First Printing of the author's first book, seven interrelated folk tales set in antebellum North Carolina and told "in Negro dialect" by an old gardener. Crown 8vo (175 x 110mm): [4],229,[3]pp. Publisher's finely woven brown pictorial cloth, front cover lettered in gilt, with trio of vignettes stamped in orange, black, and off-white; spine lettered in gilt, title-page vignette. Contemporary calligraphic gift inscription to front fly leaf. An excellent example, securely bound (spine darkened) and clean throughout (page margins lightly toned). Wright 1017. Powell 91 (One of the first books by a Negro author to receive critical approval."). Blockson (101 Influential Books) 49. First Printings of American Authors III, p. 47. Blockson (Damn Rare), p. 79 (calling The Conjure Woman "rare" and Chesnutt's "first great literary success"). Whiteman, p.14. A collection of short stories as told by Uncle Julius to his white employers, originally published in the Atlantic Monthly, beginning with "The Goophered Grapevine," in 1887, and preceded by a limited edition of 150 copies. In addition to "The Goophered Grapevine," the stories are: Po' Sandy, Mars Jeems's Nightmare, The Conjurer's Revenge, Sis' Becky's Pickaninny, The Gray Wolf's Ha'nt, and Hot-Foot Hannibal, most derived from African American folk tales and hoodoo conjuring traditions. According to Blockson, "The most striking feature of The Conjure Woman is Chesnutt's attempt to challenge the racial integrity of the ante-bellum writers of the plantation South such as Albion W. Touraee, Joel Chandler Harris, Thomas Nelson Page, Thomas Dixon, and other white writers." N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $1,365
- $1,365
Killarney: A Poem; [bound with:] The Fleece, A Poem. In Four Books [Ravensdale Park]
LESLIE, John (1736-1778); DYER, John (1699-1757) First Editions of these two eighteenth-century poems in handsome contemporary binding with distinguished provenance. 4to (262 x 208mm): [8],50,2]; [4],156pp, with title page vignettes, list of subscribers, preliminary advertisement leaf, and final errata leaf; p. 49 misnumbered 94. Contemporary tree calf with large gilt armorial of T. G. Fortescue Esqr, Ravensdale Park to front and rear covers and engraved armorial book plate of Ella Park Lawrence and George Appleton Lawrence to front paste-down. A very handsome production in period boards, elegantly rebacked by Fitterer, securely bound and clean throughout. Rothschild 830 and Hayward 176 (for Dyer). Leslie's "wonder and delight" in the lakes, mountains, and woods of Killarney inspired his topographical poem (a second, octavo, edition appeared the same year, as did Phoenix Park, Leslie's only other published work). Two years earlier, William Gilpin had published his Observations on the River Wye, celebrating the picturesque in English landscape, and Killarney is one of the earliest Irish poems in that Romantic tradition. Dyer's pastoral on the woolen industry celebrates "Britain's commercial energies and depicts her social classes working harmoniously in a shared national purpose." (Cambridge Companion to Eighteenth-Century Poetry) Dyer claimed The Fleece was the favorite of his poems, even if Grongar Hill was the most admired. Like Philips's Cyder, The Fleece was modeled on Virgil's Georgics, running thousands of lines of blank verse. Dr. Johnson mocked it, though Wordsworth recognized its "living landscape," especially "those soft scenes thro' which [his] childhood strayed." (ODNB) Provenance: Descended from a distinguished Irish family from County Louth. Ravensdale Park was built in an austere Italiante style by the architect Thomas Duff of Newry for Thomas Fortescue, 1st Baron Clermont, an Irish Whig politician and historian of the ancient Fortescue family of twelfth-century Devonshire origins. Ella Park Lawrence (1857-1924) was regent of the Rebecca Park chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Eight of her ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War, and during the Civil War her father ran an abolitionist newspaper. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $1,365
- $1,365
The Town Garden : a Manual for the Management of City and Suburban Gardens
HIBBERD, Shirley (1825-1890) Scarce First Edition of Hibberd's first book, with extensive tables of annuals and perennials. Foolscap 8vo (142 x 91mm): 172,20pp. Publisher's olive-green pebbled grain cloth paneled in blind and lettered and decorated with vine motif in gilt. Handsome bookseller's and binder's tickets to front (Fry, Chelmsford) and rear (Bound by Westley's, London) paste-downs. An excellent example (spine lightened a degree or two), tightly bound in original cloth and virtually pristine throughout. James Shirley Hibberd was one of the most popular and successful gardening writers of the Victorian era; The Town Garden was his first book. "Sensing a market among the advice books and gardening manuals of the era, Hibberd followed up with the very successful Rustic Adornments (1856) and Garden Favourites (1858). In 1858 he became the first editor of the newly established magazine Floral World. . . . In Stoke Newington he created one garden for fruit, another for vegetables, another for roses, and so on. Eventually lack of space encouraged him to move to 74 The Hermitage, a private road in Muswell Hill." (ODNB) N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $465
- $465
The Enormous Room [First State]
CUMMINGS, E. E. [Edward Estlin, 1894-1962) First Printing, First State (with "Shit!" uncensored on final line of p. 219), of the poet's first novel, an account of his imprisonment in a French military detention center during the First World War. Crown 8vo (199 x 135mm): [2],viii,9-271,[1]pp. Publisher's coarse tan cloth, spine and front cover lettered in black, fore- and bottom edges rough-trimmed. Neat manuscript ex-libris and bookseller's ticket (Old Corner Book Store, Boston) to front fly leaf. Wanting the rare dust jacket. Faint foxing to upper edge of text block, slight discoloration to fore-edge of boards, but a superior example, tightly bound (lightly read, if at all) and clean throughout. Firmage A2a. On T. E. Lawrence's recommendation, the book was reprinted in 1927, and a London edition, with preface by Robert Graves, appeared in 1928. "Loosely modelled around John Bunyan's allegorical narrative The Pilgrim's Progress, Cummings' text presents the story of his arrest, imprisonment and release as a journey towards perception. Through a mixture of reportage, poetic prose, interjections in French and line drawings [in later editions], Cummings creates a series of studies of his captors and fellow inmates, revealing his contempt for cruelty and authority, and his irrepressible delight in the variety of human nature. . . . With its sharp assessment of national prejudices and social superficialities, it does not always make comfortable reading . . . That is why it is a classic." (Literary Encyclopedia) N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $565
- $565
[Juvenile] The Wonders of the Telescope. By the Author of “The Wonders of the Microscope”
[PHILLIPS, Sir Richard, 1767-1840] Scarce early edition of this beautifully illustrated children's book. 12mo (144 x 89 mm): iv,5-156pp, with folding engraved frontispiece of the solar system and 13 further plates, most folding and all but two dated 1823. Of special note is the plate of Herschel's 40-foot telescope, constructed between 1785 and 1789 and shortly to be dismantled, in 1839. Original red quarter skiver, spine lettered longitudinally in gilt, marbled paper-covered boards. Neat gift inscription (dated 1898) to front fly leaf; recent book label of Stanley Scott, Chard, Somerset, to rear paste-down. Professionally refurbished and now presenting attractively: two closed tears to frontispiece skillfully mended with Japanese tissue, else tightly bound, with pages and plates remarkably fresh and bright. Darton H1605(2). Paul, Children's Book Business: Lessons from the Long Eighteenth Century. Osborne, p. 216 (for first edition). First published in 1805 and again in 1809, here issued by Quaker publisher William Darton. Sir Richard Phillips, a friend of Priestley and a fascinating figure in the Regency world of letters, published the first edition, and he may have been the author: Phillips founded a philosophical society whose activates included astronomical observations. The Wonders of the Telescope was recommended by educator Eliza Fenwick in her Visits to the Juvenile Library (1805), where it is described, on a visit to Tabart's bookshop, as "two [the other was The Wonders of the Microscope] of the most popular books in the shop" (cited in Paul, p. 91). N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $665
- $665
[Original Cloth] Thesaurus of English words : so classified and arranged as to facilitate the expression of ideas and assist in literary composition. Revised and edited, with a list of foreign words, defined in English, and other additions by Barnas Sears
ROGET, Peter Mark (1779-1869) First expurgated American edition of this essential reference, revised more than 25 times during Roget's life and continually in print since 1852. Crown 8vo (192 x 110mm): 468,[12]pp. Original brown cloth elaborately stamped in blind, spine lettered in gilt, pale yellow end papers. Book label to front paste-down of Library of Rev. J. F. Jones. Light spotting to end sheets and first and final few pages, else an excellent example in original cloth, securely bound and unusually fresh and bright. Kennedy 9784. First published in London, in 1852 (Kennedy 9775), and scarce in all early editions. The first (unexpurgated) American edition (Kennedy 9780, citing it as second edition overall) was brought out by Little, Brown the previous year. While praising the original edition in his preface, Barnas Sears avers that the preponderance of low and vulgar words is not suitable for general use, and therefore all such words and terms have been dropped from this edition. "In 1840 Roget retired from medical practice, but he kept busy with his other interests. By 1846 he was working hard on a project he had devised more than forty years before, a work that would make him a household name a century and a half later, his Thesaurus of English words and phrases, classified and arranged so as to facilitate the expression of ideas, and assist in literary composition. Roget had the idea for the thesaurus, a treasury of words, early in his career. He set out for his own use a methodical system of verbal classification, in a manuscript notebook in 1805, and kept notes on words for the next four decades. . . . The Thesaurus was published by Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, who issued a run of 1000 copies on 17 January 1852, at a cost of 14s. per copy." (ODNB) N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $465
- $465
![[Juvenile] The Wonders of the Microscope; or](https://rarebookinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/31456612670-1-600x502.jpg)
[Juvenile] The Wonders of the Microscope; or, an Explanation of the Wisdom of the Creator, in Objects comparatively minute. Adopted to the Understanding of Young Persons
[HOOKE, Robert, 1635-1703] Scarce early edition of this beautifully illustrated children's book, featuring the startlingly magnified images of a flea, louse, blue bottle, and mites in cheese. Long 12mo (174 x 100mm): xii,118,[2]pp, with engraved folding frontispiece and four further plates (three folding). Original red quarter-skiver, spine lettered longitudinally in gilt, marbled paper-covered boards. Contemporary ownership inscription on front fly leaf: "Miss Martin, Harley Place"; recent book label of Stanley Scott, Chard, Somerset, to rear paste-down. Professionally refurbished and now presenting attractively: browned in places (particularly plates) but a well-preserved, largely unsophisticated copy of a scarce item. Keynes (Hooke) 12. Paul, Children's Book Business: Lessons from the Long Eighteenth Century. First issued by Benjamin Tabart in 1806; this is apparently the second edition. Four of the plates "were either copied from those in Hooke's Micrographia [1665] or were printed from the original plates after they had been clumsily worked over. . . . the text contains references to the work of Leeuwenhoek and Hooke, but there is no acknowledgment of the source of the plates" (Keynes). Recommended by the educator Eliza Fenwick in her Visits to the Juvenile Library, where it is described, on a visit to Tabart's bookshop, as "two [The Wonders of the Telescope is the second] of the most popular books in the shop." (cited in Paul, p. 91). N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $2,365
- $2,365
An exposition of English insects including the several classes of Neuroptera, Hymenoptera, & Diptera, or bees, flies, & libelullæ Exhibiting on 51 copper plates near 500 figures, accurately drawn, & highly finished in colours from Nature
HARRIS, Moses (1730-c.1788) Tall uncut Second Edition (First Issue, with hand-colored allegorical frontispiece of sylvan scene with various insects and animals at foot of pedestal holding statue of Ceres and catchword on p. 40 corrected) of this classic of eighteenth-century entomology. Royal 4to (317 x 240mm): [2],viii,9-166,[4]pp, complete with 50 delicately hand-coloured plates, depicting more than 500 individual moths, dragonflies, damselflies, bees, wasps, and other insects drawn from life, engraved, and colored by Moses Harris; engraved calligraphic title page, and uncolored engraved plate with numbered parts of insects keyed to explanations in the Preface. Text in English and French in double columns. Contemporary quarter green calf, original flat spine (very skillfully relaid) in six compartment divided by gilt bands, title direct to second compartment in gilt, marbled boards. Previous owner 's name (Catherine Sharpe) to top of title page. Scattered spotting to pages and plates, lightly and evenly toned, p. 29 with neatly repaired tear, but an excellent unsophisticated copy, entirely uncut, in handsome period binding. Lisney 242. Nissen ZB1838. Agassiz III, p. 191. Freeman 1557. British Bee Books 129. First published in 1780 (but dated 1776), many copies of which include the color wheel plate. But according to Lisney, none "of the ideal copies which I have examined . . . contains the colour chart which, in my opinion, only occurs in made-up copies of this edition." Harris, a gifted, self-taught entomologist, was considered "the best painter and engraver of insects of his day." (Quaritch, 2557) His most famous work, The Aurelian, was published in 1766, followed by English Lepidoptera in 1775. An Exposition was the first book to provide scientific descriptions and accurate illustrations of several species of dragonfly and damselfly. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $2,665
- $2,665
The Wye Tour, or Gilpin on The Wye, with picturesque additions, from Wheatley, Price, &c. and archaeological illustrations
FOSBROKE, T. D. (Thomas Dudley, 1770-1842); [William Gilpin, 1724-1804] Beautifully bound Third Edition (first published 1818) of this popularization of Gilpin's first picturesque tour, introducing the picturesque to a whole new readership. Foolscap 8vo (170 x 99mm): vi,199,[1]pp, with engraved frontispiece (view of Symond's Yat, on the Wye). Contemporary green half calf over marbled paper-covered boards, spine in six compartments elaborately decorated in gilt, red morocco lettering piece gilt, marbled edges and end papers. Later book label of P. R. Glazebrook, presumably the author of Blackstone's Statutes On Criminal Law and other books. Dedicated to the engraver John Britton, who has "exhibited our richest remains of Antiquity in a superb style." An excellent example, tightly bound and clean throughout. In June of 1770, William Gilpin embarked on his first picturesque tour, creating an entirely new class of travel. "Sailing down the Wye proved a very different trip from [Gilpin's earlier] tame journey down the Thames: the ruined castles and mountains of Wales were indeed exciting after the flat countryside of eastern and south-eastern England. . . . here was landscape that called for description, that matched his conceptions of beauty and grandeur." (Barbier) Gilpin's Wye Tour disappeared from print after the fifth edition of 1800. It no longer met the needs of a new century, even after Gilpin experimented with an unillustrated pocket edition. Fosbroke abbreviated Gilpin's descriptions for a contemporary audience, and his book remained in print for twenty-three years. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $265
- $265
Ways of Seeing
BERGER, John (1926-1917) Scarce true First Edition ("First published 1972) of this provocative art history text, based on the BBC television series. The first hardcover edition, published in New York, appeared only the following year. Crown 8vo (195 x 129mm): 170pp, with numerous illustrations. Publisher's off-white stiff card wrappers printed in black and priced 60p. Tightly bound (lightly read, if at all) and clean throughout, a superior example of a fragile book. Ways of Seeing, Berger's influential art text, was initially conceived as a series of four television episodes "The series was ground-breaking in its use of the TV format to introduce aspects of a materialist analysis of art to a non-specialist audience. The book of the series was constructed in a similar spirit of popular pedagogy and subsequently became a key introductory text in art colleges in Britain and the USA. Among the topics discussed in the book are the relationship between oil painting and private property, the sexual politics of the nude, the rhetoric of advertising images, and the impact on art of mechanical reproduction. . . . The book's account of the nude has been particularly influential and the analysis of spectatorship and the male gaze on which it is based has since been developed and extended by feminist critics." (Literary Encyclopedia) N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $665
- $665
The Stoneground Ghost Tales. Compiled from the Recollections of The Reverend Roland Batchel, Vicar of the Parish [Bone to His Bone]
SWAIN, E. G. (Edmund Gill, 1861-1938) Scarce First Edition ("extremely rare") of this classic collection of antiquarian ghost stories dedicated to M. R. James. (Tymn) Crown 8vo (182 x 119mm): [8],187,[1]pp. Original pictorial coarse sky-blue cloth, spine lettered in black, front cover stamped in black with scene of vicar Batchel in pursuit of a ghost, edges rough-trimmed. Neat name inked to front paste-down ("C. J. Stonebridge, May, 1912"). Two tiny scars to rear cover, else a bright, clean copy, securely bound and clean throughout. Tymn (Horror Literature) 3-238 ("delightful and extremely rare"). Ashley, p. 170 ("a very rare book"). Sullivan, p. 419. Wilson, p. 468. Barron 3-193. Bleiler (Guide to Supernatural Fiction) 1571. Reginald 13908. Collects "The Man with the Roller," "Bone to His Bone," "The Richpins," "The Eastern Window," "Lubrietta," "The Rockery," "The Indian Lamp Shade," "The Place of Safety," and "The Kirk Spook." Swain was a chaplain of King's College, Cambridge, a contemporary of M. R. James, and a regular member of the select group to which James delivered his famous annual Christmas Eve reading of a ghost story composed specially for the occasion. Swain left Cambridge in 1905, when he accepted the benefice of Stanground, near Peterborough. As Stoneground, Swain's own church of St. John the Baptist became the setting for this volume of ghostly stories. Mr. Batchel, rector of Stoneground (a fictionalized version of the author, whose adventures the tales relate) is "one of the most endearing creations of English ghost fiction." (Wilson) N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $965
- $965
The golden treasury of the best songs and lyrical poems in the English language. Selected and arranged with notes
PALGRAVE, Francis T. (1824-1897) Scarce First Impression of this spectacularly successful anthology, collecting the best-loved English poems from the sixteenth to the early nineteenth centuries (from Shakespeare to Shelley, with a heavy dose of the Romantics), establishing a canon of the "best" poems in English literature. Only 2,000 copies of the first impression were printed. Foolscap 8vo (158 x 102mm): [12],332pp, with tissue-guarded title-page vignette engraved by C. H. Jeens after the sculptor Thomas Woolner, who shared a house with Palgrave in the early 1860s (apparently a self-portrait of Woolner in the guise of Pan fluting beneath a sapling). Original green cloth, spine lettered in gilt, gilt seal within double-ruled gilt frame to front cover, rear cover framed in blind, coated chocolate-brown end papers, edges untrimmed. Contemporary binder's ticket to rear paste-down. Short tear neatly closed on p. 227, else a bright, fresh, fine copy, tightly bound and clean throughout. Foxon, "Bibliographical Notes and Queries", The Book Collector, Autumn 1955, pp. 252-53 and Spring 1956, p. 75. Spevack, "The Golden Treasury: 150 Years On," British Library Journal, 2012. Carter (Binding Variants), p. 113. J. W. Mackail, writing in the Dictionary of National Biography, called The Golden Treasury "one of those rare instances in which a critical work has substantive imaginative value, entitl[ing] its author to rank among creative artists." Arriving in England, in 1912, Robert Frost announced: I have "come to the land of The Golden Treasury. That is what I came for." Palgrave, advised by his friend Alfred Lord Tennyson (to whom The Golden Treasury is dedicated), omitted verse from this anthology by then-living writers, and his choices clearly reflect the preferences of his times. According to Foxon, the scarce first impression is distinguished by four hallmarks: half-title in Roman capitals (later changed to Gothic type), '4/6' price to foot of spine (later removed), second paragraph of Preface in three lines, four notes on p. 323) N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $965
- $965
The Minstrelsy of the Woods; or, Sketches and Songs connected with the Natural History of some of the most interesting British and Foreign Birds. By the Author of “The Wild Garland”
WARING, S. [Sarah] First Edition in original cloth of this popular paean to song birds with charming hand-colored lithographs. Crown 8vo (187 x 110mm): xi,[1],227pp, with tissue-guarded frontispiece and sixteen further full-page plates. Publisher's green moire-patterned cloth (also issued in blue and brown cloth), red leather lettering piece gilt, edges rough-trimmed. Manuscript ex libris of Edward Maunsell Williams, dated 1857, and book plate of E. M. Williams to front paste down, with further Williams family inscription to head of title page. An excellent example in original cloth, generally clean throughout with rich impressions of the delicately colored plates. Darton G1021. Wood, p.619 ("A popular but accurately written work with fairly good colored illustrations.") Freeman 3888. Sitwell, p.153. Four subsequent editions were published. The dedicatory poem, "To my brother's children," is dated: Wyards, November, 1831 (Wyard's farm is on the outskirts of Alton, in Hampshire.) Prose passages alternate with poems. According to Bonhams, the plates, by Wolf, are the earliest use of chromolithography to illustrate birds. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $635
- $635
Anna Karénina. In Eight Parts
TOLSTOI, Count Lyof N. (1829-1910) [Leo Tolstoy] First Printing (see discussion following) of the first English-language translation (preceding the British edition) of Tolstoy's masterwork (Thomas Mann called it "without equal in European literature"). Translated by Nathan Haskell Dole. Crown 8vo (190 x 120mm): [2],viii,5-773,[5]pp. Publisher's pebbled midnight blue cloth (also issued in green and brown cloth, with no known priority), spine and upper cover ruled and stamped in gilt with House of Romanov seal, green floral end papers, top edge stained navy blue, elaborate Crowell monogram to title page. Neat Christmas inscription, dated 1888, to first blank. A superb survival, tightly bound in original cloth (narrow streak of faded color on back board) and clean throughout (lower outer corner of title page improperly trimmed). Line 39. Originally serialized in Russian over a five-year period in Ruskii Vestnik, beginning in 1873, then published in three volumes, comprising eight parts, in 1875. Distinguishing among the various issues of the first printing of this first English-language edition is fraught: there is no definitive bibliography of Tolstoy's works in English translation nor of Thomas Y. Crowell publications from this period, and Line offers little assistance beyond noting the pagination. Some booksellers and auction houses claim copies with no list of Tolstoy's works opposite the title page and five pages of advertisements for Crowell's novels in translation with no Russian works listed are the earliest issue. Our copy exhibits many, but not all, of the generally accepted first issue points: "In Eight Parts translated by Nathan Haskell Dole" on title page, floral end pages, publisher's device on title page, glossary of Russian-to-English words at rear, Romanov eagle insignia on front cover, but with four (not five) pages of of advertisements for Crowell's novels in translation (including Tolstoy's) at rear and list of seventeen works by Tolstoy opposite the title page, five of which (Life, The Long Exile and Other Stories for Children, Sevastopol, Power and Liberty, and Napoleon's Russian Campaign) first appeared as late as 1888, seeming to confirm that date as the year our copy was issued. "Arriving midway between Flaubert's Madame Bovary (1857) and Fontane's Effi Briest (1895), [Anna Karénina] stands as perhaps the most prominent nineteenth-century European novel of adultery . . . just as War and Peace ranks as the supreme historical novel, Anna Karénina represents the aggrandisement of the society tale (common in mid-nineteenth-century Russian fiction) into the grand contemporary family chronicle." (Literary Encyclopedia) N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $2,365
- $2,365
![[Original Cloth] Anecdotes of Painting in England; With Some Account of the Principal Artists; and Incidental Notes on Other Arts.; Also](https://rarebookinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/31448190235-600x1091.jpg)
[Original Cloth] Anecdotes of Painting in England; With Some Account of the Principal Artists; and Incidental Notes on Other Arts.; Also, A Catalogue of Engravers Who Have Been Born or Resided in England. In Three Volumes
WALPOLE, Horace (1717-1797); Vertue, George (1684-1756); Dallaway, James (1763-1834); Wornum, Ralph N. (1812-1877) First Printing of the Dallaway and Wornum edition, a "New Edition, Revised, with Additional Notes," complete in three volume in original cloth. Demy 8vo (220 x 135mm): xxxii,351,[1]; [5],352-479,514-720; [4],721-1007,[2],[Appendix & Index]482-510,[36]pp, with three tissue-guarded frontispiece portraits and 77 further full-page plates, plus 89 wood engravings. Pagination irregular, but text continuous throughout. Original publisher's brown cloth, covers elaborately stamped in blind, spines lettered and numbered in gilt, pale yellow end papers. A few leaves roughly opened, but a truly spectacular set in publisher's original bindings with bright gilt; largely unopened, tightly bound, pages and plates virtually pristine. Hazen (Strawberry Hill), p. 66. Lowndes V, p. 2820. Originally published in 1762, this revised edition, based on an edition issued between 1826 and 1828 ("with considerable additions") edited by the antiquarian James Dallaway, is the first with notes by Ralph N. Wornum. Late in life, Walpole, 4th Earl of Oxford, described the Anecdotes as "the only thing I ever published of any use." It was mainly based on the archives (40 volumes of manuscripts relating to English painters, sculptors, engravers, and architects) that Walpole purchased in 1758 from the widow of engraver George Vertue, which Walpole later wrote contained "an infinite quantity of new and curious things." (ODNB) N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $665
- $665
The Flight from the Enchanter
MURDOCH, Iris [Dame Jean], 1919-1999; Edward Bawden (Illustrates) First Impression of Murdoch's second novel, following Under the Net. Crown 8vo (197 x 128mm): 316,[2]pp. Publisher's cinnamon-colored paper-covered boards (grained to simulate cloth), spine lettered in gilt; dust jacket, priced 15s, illustrated by Edward Bawden. An excellent example (jacket edges very occasionally nicked), tightly bound and clean throughout. Fletcher & Bove A0186. Bliss, p. 191. Murdoch denied putting friends into her novels, but the model for the enchanter, Mischa Fox, was the Bulgarian-born, Nobel Prize-winning writer Elias Canetti, Murdoch's lover from January 1953 until late 1955. According to Murdoch's biographer, Peter Conradi, Canetti, the "god-monster of Hampstead . . . represented the artist-as-manipulative-and-sadistic-mythomaniac" in her imagination. He was a cruel and controlling lover who dominated a coterie of enthralled "disciples" and mistresses, a role he reenacts in several of Murdoch's early novels, particularly Flight from the Enchanter, which she dedicated to him. To illustrate the jacket, Bawden created a collage of linocut and ink-drawn passages, then directed the printer as color was added. The design depicts a passage from the novel: "'You get real fish here,' said Annette. 'Let's see the real fish.' She turned and suddenly made for the fish-bowl. Mischa followed her. Annette looked at him from the other side of the bowl." N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $565
- $565
First Editions of American Authors : A Manual for Book-Lovers [George Herbert Palmer’s copy]
STONE, Herbert Stuart (1871-1915); Eugene Field (1850-1895) First Trade Edition (a numbered edition of 50 large-paper copies signed by the publishers also was issued) of the first bibliography of American authors. Introduced by the poet Eugene Field. Foolscap 8vo (162 x 100mm): xxiv,223,[3]pp. Publisher's olive-green beveled cloth lettered in gilt to front cover and spine; top edge gilt, others uncut; title page in red and black; paper shelf label to spine. Engraved bookplate to front paste down of Harvard professor George Herbert Palmer (1842-1933). Laid in is a brief ALS from E. W. Rollins dated April 22, 1843, announcing a forthcoming class meeting at 18 Beacon Street. An excellent example in original cloth, tightly bound and clean throughout. Kramer 2. BAL 5756. The first bound volume issued by this publisher (called "Stone & Kimball's First Book"), providing bibliographic details of first editions of American authors listed alphabetically (from Henry Abbey to Samuel Woodworth, and including Harriet Beecher Stowe, Richard Harding Davis, Edgar Allan Poe, and Cotton Mather). Herbert Stuart Stone and Hannibal Ingalls Kimball were students at Harvard students when they founded Stone & Kimball and published a pamphlet in April 1893 called Chicago and the World's Fair [Kramer 1]. The guidebook turned a profit of $600 for the young publishers, who then issued this bibliography, edited by Stone. The firm continued until 1897, when Kimball left and it became known as Herbert S. Stone & Co. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $265
- $265
The military guide for young officers, containing a system of the art of war; Parade, Camp, Field Duty; Manoeuvres, Standing and General Orders; Warrants, Regulations, Returns; Tables, Forms, Extracts from Military Acts; Battles, Sieges, Forts, Ports, Military Dictionary, &c. with Twenty-Five Maps and Copper Plates [Easton Neston Library copy]
SIMES, Thomas (fl. 1757-1780) Third Edition (incorporating regulations of H. R. H. the late Duke of Cumberland) of this standard reference for junior officers in the British army (and for officers in the Continental Army). Crown 8vo (204 x 125mm): [4],363,[1,advertisement],[177,"military, historical, and explanatory dictionary" and Index],[2,advertisements]pp, with 19 full- and half-page battle plans, large folding battle plan, four folding maps (Europe, Asia, Africa, and North and South America), and numerous tables (a few folding). Early full brown calf, flat spine in six compartments between decorative gilt bands, black leather lettering piece gilt. Engraved armorial bookplate of Sir Thomas Hesketh Bart and shelf label of the library at Easton Neston to front paste down. Collated and complete (including blanks), a bright, well-cared for copy with important provenance, tightly bound and clean throughout. First published in 1772 for more than 330 subscribers. Simes's textbooks (he published at least six) were not innovative, describing what was common practice and borrowing freely from European military works, but he compiled and organized accepted principles, presenting extensive information on the history of warfare and the classical principles upon which contemporary military discipline was basedâ"in short, everything that a young officer needed to rise through the ranks. He even provided templates of forms for every imaginable eventuality, from granting furloughs to reporting illnesses. Sotheby's auctioned the entire contents of Easton Neston in 2005, including the fabulous library, which incorporated works from the library at Rufford Hall, home for more than 500 years to generations of Heskeths. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable polypropylene sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed.- $965
- $965
![[Original Cloth] Letters from the Canary Islands](https://rarebookinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/31455643891-1-1600x1144.jpg)
![[Original Cloth] Letters from the Canary Islands](https://rarebookinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/31455643891-1-400x286.jpg)