1.          Adlerfeld (Gustavus) The Military History of Charles XII. King of Sweden, Written by the express order of his Majesty.... To which is added, An exact Account of the Battle of Pultowa, with a Journal of the King’s Retreat to Bender. London: Printed for J. and P. Knapton..., 1740    

first edition in english, 3 Vols., 8vo., complete with portrait frontispiece and 6 fine folding battle plans; contemp. sprinkled calf, lacking label to vol.i and half of that to vol.iii, a little rubbing, and slight wear to spine ends, otherwise very good, internally fresh                                                                                                                                                                £225

Fine “Chippendale” armorial bookplates of Henry Emmett on front pastedowns.

Translated by Henry Fielding. “Adlerfeld, as royal historiographer, had accompanied Charles on several of his campaigns down to the disastrous battle of Poltava, where he was slain. A very full and complete diary of military events which he kept for the King, was translated...into French by his son...and published at Amsterdam, with some additions.... So intimate a biography as this of the man who had been the terror of Europe within the memory of men still living, called for immediate translation into English, and Fielding was selected to do the work.” (Cross)

 

2.          Advertising Poster. [Fine lithographed poster for Campbell & Co's Edinburgh Ales.] J.M. Johnson & Sons Printers, 56 Hatton Garden London [1896?]    

51x66 cm. (20 by 26 ins.), printed on coated paper in black and 4 colours (green, pink, red, royal blue), with handsome gilt finishing by hand around "Campbell & Co's/ Edinburgh/ Ales", gilt body to "Edinburgh", and gilt highlighting to the elaborate Royal Warrant (with lion and unicorn), excellent and most attractive                                            £180

A highly decorative Victorian brewer's advertisement. CAMPBELL & CO's // ALES is boldly lettered in red with striking gilt finishing. With the help of the Scottish Brewing Archive and Whitbread Archives we have been able to date the poster as not after 1896, when the company amalgamated with Hope & King of Glasgow. Campbell's are reputed to have started brewing at the Argyle Brewery, Chambers Street, Edinburgh, in 1710. It remained a family-run business until the merger with Hope & King, when a new limited liability company was formed; the company acquired South Western Brewery Co. Ltd. at Newton Stewart, together with six tied houses, in 1925; and was taken over by Whitbread's in 1967. The Argyle Brewery ceased operations three years later, and Whitbread's have never been forgiven by a generation of Edinburgh's beer drinkers.

 

3.          Aelianus. Varia Historia, cum notis integris Conradi Gesneri, Johannis Schefferi, Tanaquilli Fabri, Joachimi Kuhnii, Jacobi Perizonii, & Interpretatione Latina Justi Vulteji, innumeris in locis emendata. Curante Abrahamo Gronovio, qui & suas adnotationes adjecit. Lugd. Bat..., apud S. Luchtmans & J.A. Langerak..., 1731    

first gronovius edition, 2 Vols., 4to., vol.i with half-title and engraved title with allegorical central panel surrounded by medallion vignettes of scenes from the history, letterpress titles in black and red, Greek and Latin parallel texts, errata leaf in vol.ii; contemp. sprinkled calf, slight wear to head of spines and joints, lacking labels, otherwise very good                  £150

H.D. Forbes copy of an “admirable edition; embracing all the notes of the preceding editors, and accompanied by the learned remarks of Gronovius himself.” (Dibdin)

 

4.          Alexander (William, M.D.) The History of Women, from the Earliest Antiquity, to the Present Time; giving Some Account of almost every interesting Particular concerning that Sex, among all Nations, ancient and modern. The Third Edition, With many Alterations and Corrections. London: Printed for C. Dilly...; and R. Christopher, Stockton, 1782    

2 Vols., 8vo., without the half-titles but with the errata leaf in each vol., slight foxing; contemp. green goatskin, spines attractively gilt with floral ornaments, g.e., Dutch marbled endpapers, minor rubbing to extremities, a very pretty copy                    £950

“His best-known work, ...deserves to take a place among Enlightenment histories of civil society. Though Alexander clearly knew and was influenced by Montesquieu and the encyclopédistes, it was to contemporary Scottish historians such as John Millar, Lord Kames, and Gilbert Stuart that he owed his greatest debts. Like them, he attempted to place the history of women and gender roles firmly within the history of civil society, though he also perpetuated their disagreements and inconsistencies.” (Oxford DNB)

This edition was genuinely revised, and is here in a most attractive binding reminiscent of the work of Roger Payne.

 

5.          Algarotti (Francesco, Count) Letters Military and Political. From the Italian.... London: Printed for T. Egerton..., 1782    

first edition, 8vo., pp.vii+[i]+319+[1 ads.], slight worming to blank tail margins.; contemp. sheep, blue morocco label, a little wear and rubbing, good                                                                                                                                £75

 

6.          Antiquaries of Scotland. Transactions of the Society of the Antiquaries of Scotland. Edinburgh: Printed by William and Alexander Smellie, Printers to the Society..., 1812    

first edition, second issue, 4to., pp.[viii]+xxxiii+[i]+570, complete with 7 engraved plates (one a double-page view of Haddington Church); untrimmed in orig. boards, sometime recased and the endpapers renewed, rubbed with slight loss at head and tail of spine, blue paper label still legible, good                                                                                              £300

Includes "On the Fashionable Amusements and Entertainments in Edinburgh in the [seventeenth] Century" (pp.499-504, golf being on pages 503 and 504), “Dissertation on the Scottish Music,” “Dissertation on the Marriage of Queen Mary with the Earl of Bothwell” and other pieces by William Tytler, William Smellie’s “Historical Account of the Society,” “An Inquiry into the Beverage of the Ancient Caledonians” and other contributions by Sir James Foulis, much about Haddington by the Rev. George Barclay, “An Account of some Remains of Antiquity in the Island of Lewis” by Colin McKenzie, “Observations and Facts concerning the Breed of Horses in Scotland in Ancient Times,” and several pieces on Scottish dialect by the Rev. Dr. Alexander Geddes.

The Transactions (originally issued in 1792, and then as here with cancel title) were subsequently continued in four more volumes between 1822 and 1890: because of the long period between each, the volumes are usually found separately. The Society continues to flourish, and its Proceedings are still being published.

 

7.          Apuleius. The Metamorphoses of Apuleius; a Romance of the Second Century. Translated from the Latin, by Sir George Head. London: Longman..., 1851    

first edition of this translation, lge.12mo., pp.xxiii+[i]+411+[1], half-title; orig. pink cloth, gilt, spine slightly sunned and with slight wear to head of spine and joints, otherwise very good                                                                £38

The only Latin novel that survives entire, and a delightful work: imaginative, humorous, and exciting. Many stories are embedded in the novel, the most famous being that of Cupid and Psyche.

 

8.          Aretino (Lionardo) La Prima Guerra de Carthaginesi con Romani.... Nuovamente Tradotta.... In Vinegia Appresso Gabriel Giolito de Ferrari, 1545    

Sm.8vo., ff.76+[4], slight nick to head of title leaf, italic types; old half vellum                               £250

Adams A1561; BM Italian p.128 (under “Bruni”). Bookplate of Louis Thompson Rowe; later W.W. Greg’s copy. Pencil note to front free endpaper: “This translation [which is by L. Domenici] seems to be the same as that printed in 1644 with a few verbal alterations - e.g. Carthaginesi for Punica.”

 

9.          Aristotle. Aristotle’s Treatise on Poetry, Translated: with Notes on the Translation, and on the Original; and Two Dissertations, on Poetical, and Musical, Imitation. By Thomas Twining, M.A. London Printed: And Sold by Payne and Son [and others], 1789    

first edition, 4to., pp.xix+[i]+565+[31], ink stain to extreme tail of first few prelims.; nineteenth century half green morocco, gilt                                                                                                                                                                         £450

A key text of literary and aesthetic neoclassicism, in “a remarkably assured rendering of the elliptical Greek, made all the more valuable by its fine interpretative essays.” (France) “The work was highly praised by Greek scholars such as C.G. Heine (1729-1812) and Samuel Parr, who believed it ‘not surpassed by any translation in the English language.’ The Dissertations, addressing the question of the nature of imitation and engaging on it the latest scholarship..., were hailed by contemporaries as a significant progress in Aristotelian studies and were translated into German by J.G. Buhle.” (Oxford DNB)

 

10.        Aristotle. The Politics of Aristotle with an introduction, two prefatory essays and notes critical and explanatory, by W.L. Newman.... Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1887-1902    

first edition, 4 Vols., 8vo., Greek text with extensive notes and commentary in English; contemp. red calf, gilt, green and red morocco labels (a couple slightly chipped), some rubbing and marking, but good and attractive     £300

In prize bindings from Merchant Taylors’ School, with large gilt arms dated 1902 on front covers and presentation label to D.K. Hopkyns for Greek Scholarship on volume i front pastedowns; there are scholarly notes in the margins of the Greek text, presumably the recipient’s.

Newman’s principal monument. “The whole work belonged to the grand, leisurely type of scholarship, in which even notes have a literary quality. ...for soundness of interpretation, copiousness of illustration, and mature wisdom its value is permanent.” (Oxford DNB)

 

11.        Aristotle. [Opera,] græce [et latine, interpretibus variis,] ex recensione Immanuelis Bekkeri. Edidit Academia Regia Borussica. Berolini, Apud Georgium Reimerum, 1831-70    

first bekker edition, 5 Vols., lge.4to., Greek and Latin texts in double column, slight foxing and browning, old Royal Institution stamps to titles; contemp. vellum, red morocco labels, the vellum discoloured, vol.v darker than i-iv, but a good and sound set#                                                                                                                                                                         £375

Brunet i/460. The Greek text occupies volumes i & ii, the Latin version volume iii, and the scholia (by Brandis, in Greek) volume iv of 1836. Volume v, which appeared after a gap of 34 years, contains the Fragmenta, edited by Valentinium Rose, the supplement to the scholia, and the Index Aristotelicus.  Bekker was a most industrious and illustrious German philologist, critic, and philosopher, and the Aristotle is one of his best-known works.

 

12.        Armstrong (John, M.D.) The Art of Preserving Health. To which is prefixed a Critical Essay on the Poem, by J. Aikin, M.D. London: Printed for T. Cadell, Jun. and W. Davies..., 1795    

first aikin edition, sm.8vo., pp.[iv]+150+[2], half-title (pulled at head of gutter), 4 engraved plates after Stothard; fresh in contemp. marbled calf, gilt, blue morocco label, slightly rubbed                                                         £65

The first edition with Aikin’s essay and occasional notes to the text. The volume concludes with a page of advertisements for six works uniform with Aikin’s edition and similarly illustrated.

 

13.        Arnot (Hugo) A Collection and Abridgement of Celebrated Criminal Trials in Scotland, from A.D. 1536, to 1784. Edinburgh: Printed for the Author; by William Smellie, 1785    

first edition, 4to., pp.xxiii+[i]+400, list of subscribers present (minor hole in blank tail margin of a few leaves); contemp. sprinkled calf, neatly rebacked, orig. red morocco label preserved                                                 £300

Culture of the Book in the Scottish Enlightenment 39: “William Smellie met Arnot through Gilbert Stuart, and the three men wrote a number of political pamphlets attacking local authorities. Smellie issued the first edition of Celebrated Criminal Trials under his own imprint, and it inspired him to write his own work on the responsibilities of juries in Scotland. Both Arnot and Smellie were critical of the role of judges in Scottish trials, despite their close friendship with Lords Kames and Hailes.”

With thirteen pages of eminent subscribers, including Adam Smith (Mizuta 90), Lord Monboddo and Dugald Stewart.

 

14.        Arrian. [Greek title, then:] Arriani Nicomediensis Expeditionis Alexandri libri septem et Historia Indica. Ex Bonav. Vulcanii Interpretatione Latina..., opera Jacobi Gronovii. Lugduni Batavorum, Excudit Petrus Vander Aa, 1704    

first gronovius edition, folio, pp.[x]+376+[6], title-page in black and red with vignette, engraved portrait, Greek and Latin parallel texts, slight browning; contemp. calf, rubbed and lacking label, joints cracked but strong  £225

“An excellent edition; and preferable to all that preceded it.” (Dibdin)

India to the East of the Indus was first made known in Europe by the historians and men of science who accompanied Alexander the Great in his expedition of 327 B.C., and their narratives, now otherwise lost, are condensed in the works of Strabo, Pliny and Arrian. Arrian’s work includes a full abstract of the voyage of Nearchus, admiral of the fleet which surveyed the Indus and the Persian Gulf, whose detailed narrative of his voyages is one of the most interesting geographical treatises of antiquity.

 

15.        Ashe (Thomas) Travels in America, performed in 1806, for the Purpose of exploring the Rivers Alleghany, Monongahela, Ohio, and Mississippi, and ascertaining the Produce and Condition of their Banks and Vicinity. London: Printed for Richard Phillips..., 1808    

first edition, 3 Vols., 12mo., short tear without loss to head of vol.i B11; contemp. calf, neatly rebacked                      £285

Howes A-352; Sabin 2180. A work still maligned by American booksellers, who repeat the contemporary view that Ashe’s opinions were hostile; in fact it is a very interesting, well-balanced narrative, strong on natural history (he is for example appalled by the destruction of the bison and their habitat) and social observations, particularly of the female sex. “In America his adventures included editing the National Intelligencer for a time, arguing with Thomas Jefferson, and sending the first mammoth bones back to Britain.” (Oxford DNB)

 

16.        Atlas. Dower (John) A New General Atlas of the World, Compiled from the latest authorities both English & Foreign.... London, Published by Henry Teesdale & Co..., March, 1840    

Folio (372x255mm.), engraved title with fine vignette, 44 double-page maps, extra-folding map of India (short tear neatly repaired), and double-page comparative view of the principal rivers and mountains, all with full orig. hand-colouring, a few odd spots but contents generally good and fresh; orig. qtr. green morocco, somewhat rubbed but sound     £1,500

 

17.        Aubrey (John) Miscellanies, viz. I. Day-Fatality. II. Local-Fatality. III. Ostenta. IV. Omens. V. Dreams. VI. Apparitions. VII. Voices. VIII. Impulses. IX. Knockings. X. Blows Invisible. XI. Prophesies. XII. Marvels. XIII. Magick. XIV. Transportation in the Air. XV. Visions in a Beril, or Glass. XVI. Converse with Angels and Spirits. XVII. Corps-Candles in Wales. XVIII. Oracles. XIX. Exstasis. XX. Glances of Love. Envy. XXI. Second-Sighted Persons. London: Printed for Edward Castle, next Scotland-Yard-Gate by Whitehall, 1696    

first edition, 8vo., pp.[viii]+179+[1], with blank before title; contemp. panelled sprinkled calf, skilfully rebacked, excellent                                                                                                                                                          £1,850

Wing A.4188. A fresh copy, with the contemporary inscription and shelf-mark of Daniel Fleming (1633-1701), Aubrey’s exact contemporary, a J.P., a fellow antiquary and correspondent of Dugdale, Ogilby and Blome. Recently in the library of the eminent physician, traveller and book collector Bent Juel-Jensen, with his ticket on the front pastedown.

This highly entertaining compilation of folk history, superstition and gossip was Aubrey’s only life-time publication.

 

18.        Baddeley. Steele (Mrs. Elizabeth) [i.e. Alexander Bicknell?] The Memoirs of Mrs. Sophia Baddeley, Late of Drury Lane Theatre.... [London,] Printed for the Author, at the Literary Press..., 1787    

first edition, 6 Vols. in 3, 12mo. in sixes, half-titles and vol.vi terminal ads. present; contemp. sprinkled calf, red morocco labels, small circular numbering-pieces missing, joints cracked but strong, very good                            £325

Arnott & Robinson 2396: scandalous memoirs of “A very beautiful woman with a very bad character.” Front pastedowns bearing contemporary armorial bookplates and the pencilled signatures of the late Frank Muir, raconteur and wit, at tail.

 

19.        Ballantyne's Novelist's Library. [Scott (Sir Walter), Editor] The Novels of Henry Fielding [Tobias Smollett {2 Vols.}; Le Sage, and Charles Johnstone; Sterne, Goldsmith, Dr Johnson, Mackenzie, Horace Walpole, and Clara Reeve; Samuel Richardson {3 Vols.}; Swift, Bage, and Cumberland; Mrs Ann Radcliffe]. London: Published by Hurst, Robinson.... Printed by James Ballantyne and Company, At the Border Press: For John Ballantyne, Edinburgh, 1821-24    

first edition, 10 Vols., roy.8vo., series titles present, biographies printed full-width, novels in double column; contemp. half red morocco, handsome                                                                                                                                     £950

Sadleir 3731; Todd & Bowden 148A. From the library of the agricultural and social reformer Christopher Turnor, with the Stoke Rochford Library bookplates.

Edited, with introductory memoirs of the authors, by Scott: although it did not bear his name, these introductions, signed from Abbotsford, clearly identified it as his work. But though his contribution was crucial to the work's chances of success, these ponderous volumes, with the novels printed in 8-point double column, were not popular: Scott himself described the collection to Lady Louisa Stuart as "a great illconditiond lubberly double-columnd book which they [the "Lives"] were as unfit to tug along as a set of fleas would be to draw a mail-coach."

"Ballantyne's Novelist's Library" is however an important precursor to such well-known later series as Bentley's Standard Novels, and constitutes a "fascinating strand in the web of interconnections linking Scott, Constable, Cadell and the Ballantynes to every aspect of popular publishing history at the end of the 1820s." (Millgate)

 

20.        [Barham (Richard Harris)] The Ingoldsby Legends or Mirth and Marvels. London: Richard Bentley, 1843-47    

3 Vols., lge.12mo., with half-titles, engraved titles, 16 etched plates by Cruikshank, Leech, "Buss" and others, and 2 portraits of the author, the plates slightly foxed as usual and those in vol.ii slightly dampstained at tail; later nineteenth century half green morocco, t.e.g., others untrimmed                                                                                                                £90

Among the greatest and most popular works of humorous literature. Second edition of volumes i & ii, first edition of volume iii.

 

21.        Barrington (Daines) Miscellanies. London, Printed by J. Nichols..., 1781    

first edition, 4to., pp.iv+viii+557+[1], no pp.541-46 but with insert pp.471*-478* as issued, complete with 2 engraved portraits (one of Mozart aged 7), 2 engraved maps (1 folding) and 5 tables (1 folding), slight stain to head/gutter of a few prelims., title with an old repair, contents leaf with narrow strip cut from head of fore-edge margin; contemp. qtr. calf, marbled boards with fore-edges vellum, neatly rebacked with orig. label preserved                                                                           £1,150

Hill pp.13-14; Lada-Mokarski 34. With a loosely-inserted ALs. from Barrington inserted. Dated from his home “Beckett July 29th 1774” it is a request to M. Garnier to provide General Melville with a letter of safe-conduct “to certify that he travels as an antiquarian, and not as a spy.” In fact, General Robert Melville (1723-1809: see DNB) did undertake his proposed antiquarian researches into ancient sites of military interest in France, but not until some years later.

The volume includes Barrington’s valued works on travel such as “The Possibilty of reaching the North Pole Discussed” and the “Journal of a Spanish Voyage in 1775, to explore the Western Coast of N. America” (the only contemporary account of Don Francisco Antonio Maurelle’s voyage to Alaska), together with essays on natural history, the child prodigy Mozart, etc.

 

22.        Barry (Sir Edward, M.D., F.R.S.) Observations Historical, Critical, and Medical, on the Wines of the Ancients, and the Analogy between them and Modern Wines. With General Observations on the Principles and Qualities of Water, and in particular on those of Bath. London, Printed for T. Cadell..., 1775    

first edition, 4to., pp.xii+479+[1], engraved frontispiece and fine title vignette by Isaac Taylor, terminal ads. discarded; contemp. calf, red morocco label (ink stain just beneath label), rubbed and a little wear, but a very good copy                              £1,450

Vicaire p.67; Wellcome Library ii/p.105. Largely devoted to classical times, with an appendix on modern wines, André Simon called this the earliest work of any importance on wines in the English language.

 

23.        Bastille. Mémoires de Linguet sur la Bastille, et de Dusaulx, sur le 14 Juillet, avec des notices, des notes et des éclaircissemens historiques, par MM. Berville et Barrière. Paris, Baudouin Frères, 1821    

first edition, 8vo., pp.[iv]+xl+470, contemp. tree calf, gilt, red morocco label, excellent             £50

From the series Collection des Mémoires relatifs a la Révolution Française.

 

24.        Beattie (James) Dissertations Moral and Critical. On Memory and Imagination. On Dreaming. The Theory of Language. On Fable and Romance. On the Attachments of Kindred. Illustrations on Sublimity. By...Professor of Moral Philosophy and Logick in the Marischal College and University of Aberdeen.... London: Printed for W. Strahan; and T. Cadell...; and W. Creech at Edinburgh, 1783    

first edition, 4to., pp.x+[vi]+655+[1], half-title present, page of errata slightly soiled, small nick to head of first text leaf; contemp. sprinkled calf, spine with raised bands ruled in gilt, red morocco label, slight wear and rubbing, a very good copy                                                                                                                                                            £1,500

Alston iii/357; Chuo 28; Jessop p.98. wakefield in gilt to upper cover.

The poet, essayist and philosopher James Beattie was Professor or Moral Philosophy and Logick in the Marischal College and University of Aberdeen. Like Ferguson, he was a supporter of James Macpherson, defending the authenticity of the Ossian poems.

“This book met with the most enthusiastic praise from William Cowper...who declared...that Beattie was the only author he had seen ‘where critical and philosophical researches are diversified and embellished by a poetical imagination that makes even the driest subject and the leanest a feast for epicures’.” (Chuo)

 

25.        Belcher (Captain Sir Edward) Narrative of a Voyage Round the World, performed in Her Majesty’s Ship Sulphur, during the years 1836-1842, including details of the Naval Operations in China, from Dec. 1840, to Nov. 1841. Published under the Authority of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. London: Henry Colburn, 1843    

first edition, 2 Vols., 8vo., 19 engraved plates, all with tissue-guards, most with foxing to some extent, 3 folding maps in pocket at front of vol.i lightly foxed, text illustrations, 16pp. publisher’s catalogue (including this work) dated February 1843 at end of vol.i, text in very fresh state; untrimmed and partly unopened in orig. green blind-stamped cloth, gilt, by J. Rodwell with his ticket in vol.ii, minor cracking of front hinge vol.i and both back hinges, but all perfectly sound, really an excellent copy                                                                                                                                                            £2,450

Hill p.20; Howes B318; Sabin 4390. Belcher’s surveying of the western coast of America concluded, “The expedition crossed the Pacific via the Society Islands, the Marquesas, New Hebrides, New Guinea and Tonga, and reached Singapore in October 1839. In 1840 Belcher began the return home but was diverted to China. By January 1841 he was at Canton, where British shipe bombarded the upper fort at Chuenpi in the Boca Tigris (on the eastern side of the mouth of the Canton River), then in May 1841 attacked Canton itself.

The Treaty of Chuenpi, signed on 20.1.41, ceded the island of Hong Kong to the British, and three days later Belcher was ordered to the colony to carry out a survey.... On the [28th January], after the arrival of the whole squadron under Sir J.J. Gordon Bremer, possession of the island was formally taken in the name of Queen Victoria....” (Howgego)

 

26.        Belle-Isle (Charles Louis Auguste Fouquet) Testament Politique du Maréchal Duc de Belle-Isle. A Paris, Aux dépens des Libraires associés, 1762    

Sm.8vo., pp.viii+184, contemp. sheep, red morocco label, some rubbing                                             £35

 

27.        Bell (John) Travels from St. Petersburg in Russia, to Diverse Parts of Asia. Glasgow: Printed for the Author by Robert and Andrew Foulis..., 1763    

first edition, 2 Vols., demy 4to., fine folding map of the route from Moscow to Peking, list of subscribers and ads. leaf in vol.i, errata leaf in vol.ii, contents fresh; well rebound in qtr. blue morocco, edges untrimmed           £950

Blackmer 111; Gaskell 415.

Described in the Quarterly Review as "the best model for travel-writing in the English language," it describes Bell's travels from St. Petersburg to Ispahan with an Embassy from Peter the Great (1715-18); to Peking with an Embassy to the Chinese Emperor (1719-21); to Derbent with the Russian Army in 1722; and to Constantinople (and back to St. Petersburg) on his last mission in the Russian diplomatic service, in 1737 and 1738; together with a translation of Laurence Delange's journal of his residence at the Court of Peking in 1721 and 1722.

 

28.        Bielfeld (Jacob Friedrich von) Institutions Politiques. A la Haye, Pierre Gosse, 1760    

first edition, 2 Vols. in 1, 4to., half-titles, portrait frontispiece (tiny hole), fine title vignettes, 4 large folding demographic tables; contemp. mottled sheep, rubbed, slight edge-wear, but good and sound                                         £100

Kress S.4180. As usual, without the posthumous third volume (1772).

The work is termed by Spengler (French Predecessors of Malthus) “a cameralistic guide for rulers.”

 

29.        Binding. Scottish. Skene (George) Disputatio Juridica, Ad tit. VII. Lib. XL. Digest. De Statu Liberis: quam, favente numine, ex auctoritate clarissimi ac consultissimi viri, D. Alex. Lockhart de Craighouse, Inclytæ Facultatis Juridicæ Decani; nec non ex ejusdem Facultatis Consensu et Decreto; Pro Advocatai Munere consequendo, Publicae Disquisitioni subjicit Georgius Skene, Auct. et Resp. Edinburgi: Apud Balfour et Smellie..., 1774    

only edition, 4to., pp.13+[3], contemp. Scottish binding of reddish-brown brown goatskin, covers lavishly tooled in gilt incorporating a large "wheel" design, g.e., “Dutch gilt” floral endpapers, a few spots of worming to covers, some rubbing at extremities and wear to head and tail of spine                                                                                      £500

A fine example of this striking style, albeit with some wear. The design is similar - though here more elaborate - to that illustrated in M.J. Sommerlad, Scottish "Wheel" and "Herring-bone" Bindings in the Bodleian Library (Oxford Bib.Soc. Occasional Publications no.1, 1967), no.1, also on a law thesis: the style of binding is usually found on academic dissertations or (more commonly) devotional works. This thesis is dedicated to Francis Garden, Lord Gardenstone - Skene was clearly another north-east man.

 

30.        Blackburn (Henry), Editor. Academy Notes 1875[-79]. With Illustrations of some of the Principal Pictures.... London: Chatto and Windus, 1875-79    

5 Parts in 1 Vol., 8vo., text illustrations throughout; contemp. blue calf, gilt, red morocco label, excellent                        £100

Third edition of the first year and first edition of all subsequent.years.

 

31.        Blackie (John Stuart) On Beauty: Three Discourses delivered in the University of Edinburgh. With an Exposition of the Doctrine of the Beautiful according to Plato. Edinburgh: Sutherland and Knox, 1858    

first edition, 8vo., pp.xii+[4]+270+[2], with final ads. leaf; orig. orange cloth, gilt, by John Gray of Edinburgh with his ticket, minor wear to front inner hinge and trivial rubbing, excellent                                                             £40

Uncommon work on aesthetics by the Scottish man-of-letters and Professor of Greek at Edinburgh.

 

32.        [Bolton (Edmund)] Nero Cæsar, or Monarchie Depraved. An Historicall Worke. Dedicated, with leaue, to the Duke of Buckingham, Lord Admirall. By the Translator of Lucius Florus. London: Printed by T[homas] S[nodham and Bernard Alsop], for Thomas Walkley, at Britaines Bursse, 1624    

first edition, folio, pp.[xviii]+288, fine engraved title by Francis Delaram (Johnson p.11) dated 1623, with occasional fine medallion engravings, sporadic light soiling, generally very fresh; contemp. blind-ruled calf, raised bands, tan morocco label, minor chip to headcap, some rubbing, excellent                                                                                   £950

STC 3221. A significant early seventeenth English book in attractive original condition.

Bolton first appears as a public figure near the end of Elizabeth I’s reign, when he joined Sir Walter Ralegh and other poets in contributing to the anthology Englands’s Helicon (1600)....

Bolton’s true vocation, however, lay not in verse but in history...and in antiquarian and philological erudition....

Bolton made a special study of the sources for the reign of Nero Caesar, and this became the subject of a full-length history.... Bolton’s purpose...was not to apologise for Nero’s reign but to compare its severity with the benefits of Stuart government, and to argue that even the most despotic rule must not be resisted by rebellion; the consequences of Nero’s deposition, monster though he may have been, were endless successive rebellions and depositions throughout the remainder of Roman imperial history. The language of the preface suggests that the work may have been encouraged by James I himself...and Bolton may have intended it as a working out of some of the king’s own ideas on monarchy. The real originality of Nero Caesar, however, lies in its use of sources. Unlike many contemporaries, Bolton adduced non-literary evidence such as coins and inscriptions...in proof of his assertions and as a corrective to the accounts of the ancients themselves. It is therefore one of the earliest attempts to synthesize humanist narrative history with advanced philological and antiquarian scholarship.” (Oxford DNB)

 

33.        Boswell (James) Boswell in Search of a Wife. 1766-1769. Edited by Frank Brady...and Frederick A. Pottle. London, William Heinemann, 1957    

first edition, 288/400 deluxe copies, roy.8vo., plates; orig. qtr. vellum                                            £90

 

34.        Bouillé (François Claude Amour) Mémoires du Marquis de Bouillé.... Avec une notice sur sa vie, des notes et des éclaircissemens historiques, par MM. Berville et Barrière. Paris, Baudouin Frères, 1821    

first edition thus, 8vo., pp.[iv]+xx+440, contemp. tree calf, gilt, red morocco label, minor edge-wear, good and attractive                                                                                                                                                                  £50

Bouillé served in the Seven Years’ War, and as governor in the Antilles conducted operations against the British in the American War of Independence; the present volume however concerns the French Revolution, to which he was hostile.

 

35.        Bowles (Carington) Bowles’s Post-Chaise Companion; or, Travellers Directory through England and Wales.... The Second Edition, Corrected, and greatly Improved; with Additions. London: Printed for the Proprietor Carington Bowles, at his Map and Print Warehouse, 1782    

2 Vols., 8vo. (158x100mm.), double-page general map and100 fine double-page road-maps, narrow strip torn from margin of one leaf at plate-mark (shown on illustration); orig. green sheep, spines banded in gilt with double red morocco labels, joints sympathetically repaired, a very good and attractive copy                                                                £875

 

36.        Brassey (Annie) The Last Voyage, to India and Australia, in the ‘Sunbeam.’ By the late Lady Brassey. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1889    

first edition, stout 8vo., pp.xxiv+490, half-title, tinted pictorial title, 20 litho. plates, 2 folding maps and numerous text illustrations; orig. blue cloth, gilt, slight rubbing to spine ends, but a very good and bright copy     £200

Ferguson 7361. The publication of Lady Brassey’s journal of her last voyage, to India, Ceylon, Borneo, Celebes and Australia; finished by her husband and published posthumously. Lady Brassey’s lightness of touch and narrative detail provide entertaining reading, as for example in her description of her party’s excursion to the bird-nesting Madai Caves of Borneo.

 

37.        Bree (Charles Robert) A History of the Birds of Europe, Not Observed in the British Isles. London: Groombridge and Sons, 1866-67    

first edition, second issue, 4 Vols., imp.8vo., complete with 238 hand-coloured litho. plates (180 of birds, 58 of eggs), a few with very light spotting, the text sporadically a little more foxed, but generally in very clean state; contemp. half green morocco, gilt with bird ornaments within raised bands, slight rubbing and a faint stain to head of vol.i spine, very good                     £850

Nissen 136.

 

38.        Broadside. [Auction advertisement.] For Sale, By the Candle, at Garraway’s Coffee-House in Exchange-alley, Cornhill, On Friday the 7th of October, 1785, at Five o’Clock in the Afternoon, The following Goods.... [London,] Paulhan, Blache & Kemble, Brokers [1785]    

only edition, tall narrow folio (415x170mm. or 16½ by 6¾ ins.), slight creasing, soiling and wear    £350

An auction of West-India goods, including “196 bags of West India Cotton Wool” and “103 bags of Barbadoes Cotton, in 22 Lots...,” to be viewed at six different locations. Garraway’s was one of the great coffee-houses, equally famous for Thomas Garroway’s first retailing of tea in England in the 1670s and for its use as an auction room: Hudson Bay Company fur sales were probably held from its commencement. Here 43 lots of cottons are being auctioned “by the candle,” a process involving the lighting of a fresh short candle for each lot; a time-honoured but often disputatious custom where the winning bid being was the last before the candle went out. (Pepys mentions a seasoned buyer who claimed his success came from observing the behaviour of the smoke as the flame was about to expire. Garroway’s survived to feature in the novels of Dickens, only expiring itself in 1872.) Rare, with the B.L. copy only located in ESTC.

 

39.        Brougham (Henry, Baron Brougham and Vaux) An Inquiry into the Colonial Policy of the European Powers. Edinburgh: Printed by D. Willison, Craig’s Close, for E. Balfour, Manners & Miller, and Archibald Constable..., and T.N. Longman & O. Rees, London, 1803    

first edition, 2 Vols., roy.8vo., contemp. half russia, spines attractively gilt, excellent            £625

Kress B.4634; Goldsmiths’ Library 18666.

“Brougham...touched nearly all subjects and adorned some by his eloquence and dialectical skill. The contact seems least superficial, the ornament particularly solid, in the case of political economy. Brougham’s first considerable work was [the above].... Criticising Adam Smith, he maintains that the monopoly of the colonial trade did not produce all the detrimental effects ascribed to it. Referring to the slave colonies, Brougham not only denounces the slave trade as iniquitous - ‘not a trade, but a crime’ - but also argues that it is unprofitable.... Slavery, as well as slave trade, was assailed by Brougham’s oratory....” (Palgrave)

 

40.        Broadside. An E[pito]me of Great Yarmouth. London, Printed for, and Sold by, H. Swinden, Land Surveyor, &c. and Author of the large Map of Great Yarmouth [1762]    

first edition?, broadside, 55x44 cm. (21¾ by 17¾ ins.), printed in red and black within ornamental border (in red), laid down, with defects (some loss of text) in several places, still attractive and appealing                            £140

A flawed copy of a rare and interesting document. Below the heading (as above) is a brief history of Great Yarmouth in thirty-four lines, surmounting five columns of text providing a verse “Summary,” lists of mayors, Justices, council members, church officials, constables, excise officers, customs clerks, overseers of the poor, the “Surgeon and Agent for sick and wounded Seamen, and Prisoners at War,” “Collectors of Fishing-Doles,” “Tellers of Herrings,” “London Traders to Yarmouth,” “Pack Ships to Rotterdam,” etc., plus information about the sea-baths, the fishermens hospital, charity-school, and so on. No copy in ESTC, which records an edition of 1781 at Norwich Central Library and the B.L.

 

41.        Buc’hoz (Pierre Joseph) Manuel Médical et Usuel des Plantes.... A Paris, Humblot..., 1770    

first edition, 2 Vols., 8vo., contemp. French mottled calf, gilt, red morocco labels, slight rubbing and wear, mainly to numbering-pieces and head of vol.ii spine, but a good copy                                                                                   £200

 

42.        Buffon (Georges Louis le Clerc), adapted by Pierre Blanchard. Le Buffon de la Jeunesse, ou Abrégé d’Histoire Naturelle; Ouvrage Élémentaire, a l’usage des Jeunes Gens et des Personnes qui veulent prendre des notions d’Histoire naturelle.... Rédigé par Pierre Blanchard. Quatrième Édition, corrigée et augmentée. A Paris, Chez Le Prieur..., 1809    

5 Vols., lge.12mo., 57 engraved plates as called-for, a few tears without loss to final leaf of vol.iii; contemp. marbled calf, gilt, free endpapers removed, ducal bookplate on front pastedowns, somewhat rubbed but sound           £150

 

43.        Burnaby (Captain Fred) A Ride to Khiva: Travels and Adventures in Central Asia. With Maps and an Appendix, containing, amongst other information, a series of march-routes, translated from several Russian works. Ninth Edition. Cassell Petter & Galpin, 1877    

8vo., pp.xviii+487+[1], folding frontispiece map “shewing the Advances of Russia in Central Asia,” folding map in front pocket “of the Imperial Border of Russia with China and the routes from it into the Interior of the Chinese Empire,” and large folding map in rear pocket of “Turkistan and Adjacent Territory”; orig. red cloth, pictorially gilt, slightly rubbed, slight staining to covers, but a very good and sound copy                                                                                                                         £125

A classic of “The Great Game,” described succinctly in Peter Hopkirk’s well-known work of that name at pages 365-79.

 

44.        Burnet (Thomas) Archæologiæ Philosophicæ: sive Doctrina antiqua de Rerum Originibus. Libri duo. Editio Secunda. Accedunt Ejusdem Epistolæ duæ de Archæologii Philosophicis. Londini: Impensis A. Bettesworth & C. Hitch, ad Insigne Leonis Rubri..., 1733    

8vo., pp.xvi+543+[1], slight dampstaining in head-margins (mainly to title) and tail of first text leaf; contemp. sprinkled calf, red morocco label, slight wear to joints and extremities, a good copy                                                       £65