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901 |
Wharton, Edith Italian Villas and Their Gardens
New York: Century, 1907. Second edition (xi, 270, index). Illustrated with pictures by Maxfield Parrish-- 52 plates with tissue guards on stiff card, 26 of which are coloured drawings by Parrish. From the collection of E. Avery McCarthy, travel writer for Saturday Night, whose florid autograph (Christmas 1909) occupies nearly half an ffep, bookplate at rear. Small folio (28 cm x 18 cm) in decorative green cloth, gilt decoration and titles, t.e.g. Top and bottom of spine abraded, corners worn, binding a bit loose. Something of a villa tour, ranging from Florence down through Sienna and to Rome, thence into Genoa, Lombardy, and Venice, and in each place Parrish’s pictures elicit an order and balance suffused in a golden glow (The photos aren’t bad either). As Wharton says in the introduction, Italian gardens were meant more to be lived in than to be admired for their floricultural compositions (the gardens at Giverny)-- and, anyhow, once Spring had passed by, it became far too hot and dry to cultivate great drifts of flowers. So the garden-- its ponds, shady walks, cool marble structures, and evergreens-- is adapted ‘to the architectural lines of the house it adjoined’, to the needs ‘of the inmates of the house’, and to the demands of the immediate environs (often a hillside). The second of Wharton’s works on architectural design, the first being The Decoration of Houses (1897) which in rooting out the oppressive, draped, curtained, and over-stuffed interiors of late Victorian times did for the inside what Villas and Gardens set out to do for the outside.
Price:
765.00 USD
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902 |
Whately, Thomas Observations on Modern Gardening Illustrated by Descriptions.
London: T. Payne and Son, 1777. Fourth edition (257 pp.). Tall octavo, contemporary decorative calf with remnants of gilt decoration; marbled epps (remnant of bookplates); hinges starting but holding, corners worn. As examples, illustrations, Whately has chosen various garden features from Wotton, Blenheim, Tinturn Abbey, Painshill, Stowe, and Moore Park among others. These examples are produced in support of a largely analytic description of the elements of a garden (Trees are separated into different types by their different shapes, greens, and growths). ‘Gardens’ here are more properly pleasure gardens and the design principles bear on landscapes. An early, influential treatment of landscape design. A clean, attractive copy.
Price:
765.00 USD
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903 |
Wheeler, A. O. The Selkirk Range
Ottawa: Department of the Interior, 1905. First edition, in two volumes (pp. 459, Append., index). Quarto (24.5 cm), illustrated with 14 maps, diagrams, plates; in maroon cloth, gilt titles to front covers and spines complete with about ninety photographic illustrations and, comprising the second volume, a suite of fourteen maps, diagrams, etc., in a specially designed pull-out box as called for. A detailed topographical study of that portion of the Selkirks lying along the Canadian Pacific Railway right-of-way from Beavermouth in the east to Revelstoke in the west including Rogers Pass. Arthur O. Wheeler was not only a Canadian government cartographer assigned to the Interior Department but also an accomplished mountaineer and the founding president of the Alpine Club of Canada. In this latter role, he was influential in recognizing and describing the recreational opportunities offered in the mountains, especially those newly accessible by train. Some minor wear to extremities. A very good, complete set.
Price:
233.75 USD
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904 |
Wheeler, James The Botanist’s and Gardener’s New Dictionary; Containing the Names, Classes, Orders, Generic Characters, and Specific Distinctions of the Several Plants Cultivated in England, According to the System of Linnaeus; Directing the Culture of each Plant, describing its singular Virtues and Uses, and explaining the Terms peculiar to Botany and Gardening. In which is also comprised, A Gardener’s Calendar, Divided Alphabetically, according to the Names of the twelve Months of the Year, Directing the whole Practice of Gardening in the Flower-Garden, the Seminary, the Fruit-Garden, the Kitchen Garden, the Green-House and the Stove. And to which is prefixed, An Introduction to the Linnaean System of Botany, explaining The Theory of that System....
London: W. Strahan et al., 1763. First edition (xxxi, 480) with two engraved plates (System of Botany, Elevation of Greenhouse). Octavo, in modern brown three-quarter leather over marbled paper covered boards, five raised bands, gilt lettering and titles to spine, matching endpapers. The breathless title relieves me of the responsibility of summarizing the contents of this scarce book by a ‘Nusery-man of Glocester’; Fussell (More, 68) makes passing reference, noting the nursery, at least, did well enough and was still being carried on by a daughter into the 1820’s. A handsome modern binding and a clean text. A very nice copy indeed of a scarce work.
Price:
425.00 USD
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908 |
Whitelaw, Alexander (Ed.) The Popular Encyclopedia or, ‘Conversations Lexicon’: being a general Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature, Biography, History, Ethics, and Political Economy.
Glasgow: Blackie & Son, 1841. First complete English edition, in six volumes (lv, 840; lxvi, 863; 832; xxxviii, 818; 896; 836). Illustrative plates showing, among other things, locomotive engines, fishes, map of Europe, Greek vases, diving equipment, ocean dredges, comparative mountain ranges, printing presses. Large octavo (25 cm) in half black morocco over marbles paper, gilt titles and decoration, marbled edges. First appearing German, the Popular Encyclopedia was the Wikipedia of its day (or century): translated into many languages, its editors produced sort of a national edition by adding to or otherwise amending the received text. Bindings in need of repair, some covers separated. Still, generally clean and solid.
Price:
100.00 USD
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909 |
Whittier, John G. and Elbridge Kingsley. Whittier, Poems of Nature
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1885. First edition thus. Illustrations by Elbridge Kingsley. Thematic excerpts from Whittier’s verse accompany fifteen of Kingsley’s rather ghostly b&w illustrations. Handsomely produced in large, album format. Decorative cover featuring White Pine branch, cones in Japanese fashion, gilt lettering, a.e.g. Wear to spine edges, spine somewhat faded, uneven sunning, foxed fly leaves. Generally clean & attractive.
Price:
63.75 USD
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911 |
Wilkinson, J. D. Early New Zealand Steamers. Volume I: The Pioneering Years (1840-1861)
Wellington: Maritime Historical Productions, 1966. First edition (x, 230 pp., index). Illustrated by H.C. Berry with 32 pages of sketches and old photo’s. In sun-faded green cloth (faded to tan on the spine), black lettering. Card bearing compliments of the Northland Harbour Board tipped in to ffep, signatures of thirteen members of the Board on verso, previous owner’s signature on title page. A tight, clean copy of a scarce maritime item.
Price:
153.00 USD
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915 |
Willis, N. P. Canadian Scenery Illustrated. From drawings by W. H. Bartlett.
[N.P.]: Peter Martin Press, 1967. Facsimile edition in two volumes (the original, Canadian Scenery Illustrated in a Series of Views having been published in London by James Virtue, n.d., but c. 1850) illustrated with a map of Canada and 117 engravings by W. H. Bartlett. A boxed set bound in blue and rust cloth, gilt lettering. Slipcase with considerable edge wear and a bumped corner, spines lightly sun -faded to blue gray. The slipcase has protected the contents at its own expense, and the books themselves seem unopened.
Price:
76.50 USD
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916 |
Willis, N. P. Canadian Scenery Illustrated. From drawings by W. H. Bartlett.
[N.P.]: Peter Martin Press, 1967. Facsimile edition in two volumes (the original, Canadian Scenery Illustrated in a Series of Views having been published in London by James Virtue, n.d., but c. 1850) illustrated with a map of Canada and 117 engravings by W. H. Bartlett. A boxed set bound in blue and rust cloth, gilt lettering. Slipcase with edge wear and a bumped corner, spines sun -faded to blue gray; the books themselves seem unopened.
Price:
90.00 USD
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920 |
Wilson, Alexander and Charles Lucien Bonaparte American Ornithology; or the Natural History of the Birds of the United States
Edinburgh: Constable, 1831. First edition, in four volumes(xcvi, 271; ix, 334; viii, 320; x, 362, appendix, adverts), edited by Robert Jameson. Duodecimo, in blue-green cloth, printed titles to spine; illustrated by a portrait of Wilson as frontispiece to Volume I and four title page illustrations to each of the volumes (Bald Eagle, Night Hawk, Scarlet Ibis, and Wild Turkey respectively). The first three volumes are ‘devoted to a reprint of Wilson’s work (1808- 14), re-arranged and with occasional editorial notes by Jameson.. A number of Ord’s notes and comments are printed with due credit. A sketch of the life of Wilson in given in Vol. I, written by W. M. Hetherington. Vol. IV (pp. 1- 217) contains a reprint of the first three volumes of Bonaparte’s American Ornithology, 1825- 33.. There is a catalogue of the species described and figured by Audubon in his Ornithological Biography, 1831- 39, and Birds of America, 1827- 38. The remainder of the volume consists of extracts..of Richardson and Swainson’s Fauna Boreali- Americana or Northern Zoology, 1832’ [then in press] (Zimmer). Alexander Wilson (1766- 1813) apprenticed as a weaver at age ten and later worked as a journeyman and ‘relied on this trade whenever he could not obtain better work.’ Wilson left Britain (where his prospects were limited) for the United States in 1794, locating near Philadelphia, where he became acquainted with the American naturalist William Bartram whose niece taught Wilson to draw birds and where he could observe the immense migratory flocks of water-fowl and other birds which traveled the Atlantic fly-way in Spring and Fall. In 1804, the year he became an American citizen, Wilson traveled to Niagara Falls and published a popular poem The Foresters celebrating that epic site. Wilson’s principal contribution to ornithology was his American Ornithology (1808- 14) which was planned as ten volumes with engravings by Lawson, nine of which he completed before his death in 1813. Collecting specimens and gathering subscriptions as he went, Wilson traveled down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans in his boat ‘Ornithologist’. In Louisville, quite by chance, he stopped in at a store run by a French immigrant named Audubon who, while unable to afford a subscription to Wilson’s project, nevertheless seemed favourably impressed by the enterprise and perhaps formed or was confirmed in a similar ambition of his own. ‘Despite having no formal education..no one had ever published so many studies on wild birds as he did.. He made substantial contributions to American ornithology and to the aesthetic appreciation of birds’ (Egerton, ODNB). In a note Zimmer quotes Coues, ‘Science would lose little, but, on the contrary, would gain much, if every scrap of pre-Wilsonian writing about United States birds could be annihilated.’ A tight, clean set-- the pages of three volumes have yet to be opened, for which the reader will need a paperknife.
Price:
510.00 USD
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921 |
Wilson, Alexander and Charles Lucien Bonaparte American Ornithology; or the Natural History of the Birds of the United States.
Edinburgh: Constable, 1831. First edition, in four volumes(xcvi, 271; ix, 334; viii, 320; x, 362, appendix, adverts), edited by Robert Jameson. Duodecimo, in blue-green cloth, printed titles to spine; illustrated by a portrait of Wilson as frontispiece to Volume I and four title page illustrations to each of the volumes (Bald Eagle, Night Hawk, Scarlet Ibis, and Wild Turkey respectively). The first three volumes are ‘devoted to a reprint of Wilson’s work (1808- 14), re-arranged and with occasional editorial notes by Jameson.. A number of Ord’s notes and comments are printed with due credit. A sketch of the life of Wilson in given in Vol. I, written by W. M. Hetherington. Vol. IV (pp. 1- 217) contains a reprint of the first three volumes of Bonaparte’s American Ornithology, 1825- 33.. There is a catalogue of the species described and figured by Audubon in his Ornithological Biography, 1831- 39, and Birds of America, 1827- 38. The remainder of the volume consists of extracts..of Richardson and Swainson’s Fauna Boreali- Americana or Northern Zoology, 1832’ [then in press] (Zimmer). Alexander Wilson (1766- 1813) apprenticed as a weaver at age ten and later worked as a journeyman and ‘relied on this trade whenever he could not obtain better work.’ Wilson left Britain (where his prospects were limited) for the United States in 1794, locating near Philadelphia, where he became acquainted with the American naturalist William Bartram whose niece taught Wilson to draw birds and where he could observe the immense migratory flocks of water-fowl and other birds which traveled the Atlantic fly-way in Spring and Fall. In 1804, the year he became an American citizen, Wilson traveled to Niagara Falls and published a popular poem The Foresters celebrating that epic site. Wilson’s principal contribution to ornithology was his American Ornithology (1808- 14) which was planned as ten volumes with engravings by Lawson, nine of which he completed before his death in 1813. Collecting specimens and gathering subscriptions as he went, Wilson traveled down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans in his boat ‘Ornithologist’. In Louisville, quite by chance, he stopped in at a store run by a French immigrant named Audubon who, while unable to afford a subscription to Wilson’s project, nevertheless seemed favourably impressed by the enterprise and perhaps formed or was confirmed in a similar ambition of his own. ‘Despite having no formal education..no one had ever published so many studies on wild birds as he did.. He made substantial contributions to American ornithology and to the aesthetic appreciation of birds’ (Egerton, ODNB). In a note Zimmer quotes Coues, ‘Science would lose little, but, on the contrary, would gain much, if every scrap of pre-Wilsonian writing about United States birds could be annihilated.’ A tight, clean set-- the pages of three volumes have yet to be opened, for which the reader will need a paperknife. $600
Price:
510.00 USD
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922 |
Wilson, James The Rod and the Gun, Being Two Treatises on Angling and Shooting
Edinburgh: A. & C. Black, 1844. New edition. Numerous engravings, full-page and cut into text. Brown cloth, impressed decoration. Professionally repaired binding with gilt lettering. Browning and toning. Westwood says, “Originally published in the eighth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, but, in the words of the author, he ‘has strengthened the mid-pieces, repaired the top, and given the whole a coat of varnish.’ A ‘List of books on angling,’ including about 100 volumes, is inserted between the treatises. The treatise on angling is much above the ordinary level as a manual” (242). A tight, clean copy.
Price:
255.00 USD
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923 |
Wm. H. Moon Co. Moon’s Trees 1906. Horticulture Art Book.
Morrisville, PA: Wm. H. Moon Co., 1906. Tall 8vo, in pale blue soft wraps, gilt decoration and titles, pamphlet bound, 80 pp. A handsomely produced tree and plant catalogue, well illustrated with many photographs supporting the extensive text. Excellent descriptions of heritage varieties. Order forms, etc., included (Perhaps it’s not too late to place an order). A few flakes lost at bottom of spine of an otherwise very nice copy.
Price:
127.50 USD
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925 |
Wright, Rev. T[homas] AND George Boswell An Account of the Advantages and the Method of Watering Meadows by Art as Practised in the County of Gloucester BOUND WITH A Treatise on the Watering of Meadows: Wherein Are Shewn Some of the Many Advantages Arising from that Mode of Practice, Particularly on Coarse, Boggy, or Barren Lands; and the Method of Performing the Work....
Two books bound as one: (1) Cirencester: S. Rudder, 1789. First edition (vii, 14). Tall 8vo in three-quarter calf over marbled boards, gilt decoration to spine, titles. Clean and tight. ‘Watering’ is a species of controlled flooding whereby water diverted from its natural course along a series of channels onto hay and pasture land, usually in early Spring, and then directed back to the water course from whence it came. This short treatise accounts for the benefits of watering (irrigating) meadows, together with a discussion of the general method, and furnishes a calendar of events so the work is performed at the right time of year. Wright claims great efficacy for this form of irrigation-- early pasturage and greater yields of hay crops especially. AND (2)London: J. Debrett, 1790. Second edition (xii, 122) including 5 folding plates illustrating equipment and plans to direct and control diverted water onto variously configured fields and pasturages. George Boswell, a landowner and farmer of Piddletown, Dorset, sets out details of a method for reclaiming ‘the very great quantities of unimproved, boggy, rushy, wet land that lie almost every where near the banks of rivers and lesser streams, that seem to have baffled the skill of the possessors.’ Boswell describes each part of the job, presented as six plans in five copperplate fold-outs for directing water on and off various sites by such means as wares (weirs), head mains, tail and catch drains. Boswell’s expert advice has an orderliness, precision, and evident respect for details characteristic of later, more obvious technical works on agricultural methods, and clearly his intention is to introduce a scientific solution to the problem of poorly drained lands which are ‘a reproach to the age, a disgrace to the country, and a nuisance to the occupiers.’ Contrast this approach to the circumspect, rather vague approach characteristic of Wright’s short treatise (some of the details of which Boswell takes pains to correct). Both Wright’s little treatise and Boswell’s more considered work are hard to find. Here, the two bound together, exemplars of the amateur and the expert, are scarcer still. A few spots on the prelims, slight off-setting of the plates, rubbed edges. An exceptionally clean, bright copy.
Price:
850.00 USD
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926 |
Wrong, George M. and H. H. Langton (Eds.). Chronicles of Canada
Toronto: Glasgow, Brook & Co., 1914- 16. 32 volumes complete, illustrated with nine fold-out maps. Small octavo (18cm) in uniform green publisher’s cloth, gilt titles and decorations. The complete 32-title series, “freshly written narratives for popular reading, designed to set forth in historic continuity the principal events and movements in Canada [up] to the outbreak of the [first] World War.” Each title written by a leading historian-- e.g., Stephen Leacock, William Wood, Arthur Doughty, Agnes Laut, Oscar Skelton. One of the best collection of writers on earlier Canadian history. A clean, tight, handsome set. The 32-volume set includes: (1) The Dawn of Canadian History by Stephen Leacock; (2) The Mariner of St. Malo by Stephen Leacock; (3) The Founder of New France by Charles W. Colby; (4) The Jesuit Missions by Thomas Guthrie Marquis; (5) The Seigneurs of Old Canada by William Bennett Munro; (6) The Great Intendant by Thomas Chapais; (7) The Fighting Governor by Charles W. Colby; (8) The Great Fortress by William Wood; (9) The Acadian Exiles by Arthur G. Doughty; (10) The Passing of New France by William Wood; (11) The Winning of Canada by William Wood; (12) The Father of British Canada by William Wood; (13) The United Empire Loyalists by W. Stewart Wallace; (14) The War with the United States by William Wood; (15) The War Chief of the Ottawas by Thomas Guthrie Marquis; (16) The War Chief of the Six Nations by Louis Aubrey Wood; (17) Tecumseh by Ethel T. Raymond; (18) The Adventurers of England on Hudson Bay by Agnes C. Laut; (19) Pathfinders of the Great Plains by Lawrence J. Burpee; (20) The Adventurers of the Far North by Stephen Leacock; (21) The Red River Colony by Louis Aubrey Wood; (22) Pioneers of the Pacific Coast by Agnes C. Laut; (23) The Cariboo Trail by Agnes C. Laut; (24) The Family Compact by W. Stewart Wallace; (25) The 'Patriotes' of '37 by Alfred D. Decelles ; (26) The Tribune of Nova Scotia by William Lawson Grant; (27) The Winning of Popular Government by Archibald MacMechan; (28) The Fathers of Confederation by A.H.U. Colquhoun; (29) The Day of Sir John MacDonald by Sir Joseph Pope (1915); (30) The Day of Sir Wilfred Laurier by Oscar D. Skelton; (31) All Afloat by William Wood; (32) The Railway Builders by Oscar D. Skelton. Near fine.
Price:
255.00 USD
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928 |
Xenophon [and] Sarah Fielding (Trans.) Xenophon’s Memoirs of Socrates. With the Defence of Socrates before His Judges
London: T. Cadell, 1788. Third edition (vi, 360). Octavo, in contemporary full leather, gilt decorations to spine. Sarah Fielding (1710- 1768) wrote for the best of reasons-- to make living, publishing among other books, the novel The Adventures of David Simple, a work for children, The Governess (the first such book exclusively concerned with girls), and a fictional autobiography of Anne Boleyn. At Bath, where she lived most of her life, Fielding had a wide circle of friends, and a ‘Bath sisterhood was established’ including Elizabeth Montagu, the novelist Sarah Scott, and the poet Esther Lewis. ‘Sarah Fielding’s work indicates wide reading in English literature, in the Latin classics, and in French, and her translation shows she was better in Greek than.. her brother’ Henry Fielding (to whose work she contributed). Her translation of Xenophon, her last work completed late in life, ‘was done out of intellectual ambition and pride in her own accomplishment’ and appeared in one edition or another into the twentieth century (ODNB). Neatly repaired contemporary calf binding, a clean, bright text. Entirely presentable.
Price:
212.50 USD
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929 |
Young, A. H. The War Book of Upper Canada College Toronto.
Toronto: UCC, 1923. At once a memorial and an historical record of the service in World War I, 1914-1918, of the “boys” of this prestigious private school, including among its number Raymond Massey, later a well-known actor. Quarto, in dark blue cloth with silver gilt coat of arms and lettering, 322 pp., with many photographs of uniformed classmates, principal buildings, the UCC motorized ambulance. Tips worn, short splits at top of spine of an otherwise tight, clean copy.
Price:
170.00 USD
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930 |
Young, Arthur The Farmer’s Calendar: Containing the Business Necessary to Be Performed on Various Kinds of Farms during Every Month of the Year.
London: Richard Phillips, 1815. Tenth edition (xii, 658). Tall octavo in three-quarter leather over marbled paper (much rubbed, hinges skillfully repaired) with one folding plate illustrating methods of irrigating fields. From the library and with the bookplate of Lord Dinorbin (Welsh coal mine owner). Arthur Young (1741- 1820) was one of the most influential proponents of the value of accurately observing and recording what farmers, large and small, actually did. Fussell says, “The fortunate accident that turned Young into a farmer rather than a citizen of literary parts led to the first attempt to obtain not only statistics of production but also costs of production... by the lately recognized method, euphoniously entitled ‘field work’, instead of by the Buddhistic method of concentration practised by so many of his contemporaries” (More Old Farm Books, 70). Young believed if you wanted to know what the weather was like, you should open the door and go outside. The Farmer’s Calendar, accordingly, is full of closely observed details, as on the subject of feeding straw in January to over wintering cattle or the rate per acre to apply coal ashes in March. A clean, tight copy.
Price:
233.75 USD
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931 |
Young, Arthur A Six Weeks Tour through the Southern Counties of England and Wales.
London: Strahan, Nicoll, et al., 1769. Second edition, corrected and enlarged ( 377 pp., Index). Illustrated with copper plate engravings of “newly invented implements of husbandry” in fold-out. Octavo (20cm x 14cm) in modern three-quarter leather over complimentary marbled paper, new gilt titles, end papers. Young sets out, as he says, to describe “the present state of agriculture and manufactures, the different methods of cultivating the soil, ...experiments on various grasses, the prices of labour and provisions, [and] the state of the working poor.” He also gives an account of the “nobility and gentry and other objects worthy of notice” including the inns at which he stopped, finding the Duke’s Head at Lynn “exceeding civil and reasonable” but the Passage House at Newnham “very bad and dear”. Old wine in a new bottle and a handsome copy of an important work on agricultural reform.
Price:
850.00 USD
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932 |
Young, Arthur A Six Weeks Tour through the Southern Counties of England and Wales.
London: Strahan, Nicoll, et al., 1772. Third edition, corrected and enlarged ( 438 pp., Index). Illustrated with copper plate engravings of “newly invented implements of husbandry” and fold-out. Octavo (21cm x 14cm) in modern three-quarter leather over complimentary marbled paper, new gilt titles, end papers. Young sets out, as he says, to describe “the present state of agriculture and manufactures, the different methods of cultivating the soil, ...experiments on various grasses, the prices of labour and provisions, [and] the state of the working poor.” He also gives an account of the “nobility and gentry and other objects worthy of notice” including the inns at which he stopped, finding the Duke’s Head at Lynn “exceeding civil and reasonable” but the Passage House at Newnham “very bad and dear”. Old wine in a new bottle and a handsome copy of an important work on agricultural reform.
Price:
850.00 USD
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933 |
[ Jefferys, Thomas]. Map. Western Parts of the Colony of Virginia as Far as the Mississipi.
London, 1754. Sheet (30cm x 43cm), image (23.5cm x 35.5cm). Late in 1754, subsequent to his defeat at Fort Necessity in the Ohio country by a combined force of French and Canadians, George Washington published at Williamsburg The Journal of Major George Washington which gave an account of his venture into the western lands at the head of elements of the Virginia regiment and which, by implication, served as a defense of his conduct of the campaign (He was, after all, just twenty-one or so and had been captured together with his entire force). A short while later, the Journal was published at London, accompanied by this map by the well-known English cartographer Thomas Jefferys. According to one commentator the ‘map is apparently an enlarged version of an earlier map engraved by John Gibson with the same title... published in the London Magazine, June 1754’ (See ‘Maps Relating to Virginia in the Virginia State Library’ in Bulletin of the Virginia State Library 7, Nos. 2 and 3 (1914): 33-263 and mapsofpa.com/18thcentury.) The Jefferys map depicts colonial Virginia as though its north and south boundaries extend west to the Mississippi (and perhaps beyond), a not uncommon notion among the colonial gentry and their surveyors (Connecticut at one time drew similar fanciful and ambitious boundaries), and includes the southern portions of the Great Lakes, the Mississippi (with but one ‘p’), and the recently drawn Virginia-Carolina boundary to the south. Locations of French forts along various waterways are noted, and the various connecting tributaries of the Mississippi themselves are presented in some detail (although the eastern tributaries of Mishigan Lake are a bit too evenly spaced). This copy is hand-coloured, probably later-- the lakes are outlined and the mountain ranges high-lighted; what was to become Fort Duquesne and later Fort Pitt and later still Pittsburgh is picked out in red. A short closed tear (repaired) along one wire line is the only fault in an otherwise bright, clear copy of this historically significant map. Ex Ruddell collection (November 2008).
Price:
637.50 USD
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934 |
[ Scheurich, Paul] Die Konigliche Orgie, oder Die Osterreicherin bei Laune.
Ein Oper Von einem Leibgardisten veroffentlicht am Tage der Pressefreiheit. In Musik gesetzt von der Konigin (1789). The seventh volume of Der Venuswagen, a collection of privately printed erotica, with six original lithographs and several vignettes by Paul Scheurich. Issued in a limited edition of 700 copies of which this copy is number 38, Signed by Scheurich. Berlin: Fritz Gurlitt, 1919. With a commentary by Engelbert Nern. Tall quarto, 38 pp., in pink silk covered boards with bone clasps and vellum spine, t.e.g. Impressed gilt decoration and title on front cover, spine. One bone clasp and original pink silk cloth professionally replaced (but retained as backdrop for decorative title), vellum somewhat soiled. This volume came to us with the pink silk rotted and all but gone, except around the impressed gilt title and decoration on the front cover where it had somehow retained its integrity. We have preserved the original title and decoration (in fine impressed gilt) and given this fancy little book, as it were, a new pink silk dress.
Price:
425.00 USD
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935 |
[Bertuch, F. J.] "Eight Mice"
Hand-coloured engraving from F. J. Bertuch’s Bilderbuch Fur Kinder, Vol II. No. 96. Weimar: Bertuch, 1795. The book was a sort of child’s illustrated encyclopedia. Quadruped XLVIII, plate (25cm x 20cm), with narrow margins (as apparently usual). Eight varieties of small rodent-- ‘mause’ or ‘souris’-- are represented in finely detailed coloured engravings, including the handsome Norwegische Lemming and several rather specialized creatures, such as the ring-necked Souris d’Iris (Mus Lagurus. Pall.), a resident of eastern Siberia, which, as the French text has it, “... elle se nourrit principalement des oignons de l’iris sauvage.” Includes, separately, two pages of description, one in French and one in German.
Price:
68.00 USD
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936 |
[Blane, William] A Graduate of Medicine Arrian on Coursing. The Cynegeticus of the Younger Xenophon.
Translated from the Greek with Classical and Practical Annotations, and a Brief Sketch of the Life and Writings of the Author, to which Is Added an Appendix Containing some Account of the Canes Venatici of Classical Antiquity. London: Bohn, 1831. Limited edition of 250 copies. In contemporary leather, gilt decorations and title. Twenty-four lithographic plates and many vignettes by Day and Haghe. Corner wear, nicks, scratches and dings to binding; internally bright and clean. A hard to find book.
Price:
1020.00 USD
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938 |
[Boreman, Thomas.] A Description of More Than Three Hundred Animals, Including Quadrupeds, Birds, Fishes, Serpents, and Insects, Forming a Compendium of Natural History...
London: B and R. Crosby, 1812. Revised edition (xx, iv, 364, index). Octavo, in contemporary three quarter leather over marbled paper, gilt title and decoration to spine; hinges skilfully repaired. First published in the 1740’s at a time of rising interest in natural history, Three Hundred Animals was intended for children and for use in ‘seminaries and boarding schools’. It proved so popular many editions followed despite its indifferent copperplate illustrations (The wolf seems to have just swallowed something nasty and is regretting it), idiosyncratic arrangement (Serpents are in a category of their own; reptiles include snails and worms), and specious folklore dresssed as science (“Toads have been found alive in the centre of large blocks of stone”). It was this book which convinced Thomas Bewick a generation or two later he could do a great deal better, and in the wood engravings found in A General History of Quadrupeds and A History of British Birds he did just that. Generally clean and tight with occasional light spotting, light damp stain to bottom third of last 40 or so papges. Taken all around, a pleasing copy of an important and influential early natural history.
Price:
255.00 USD
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939 |
[Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer, Thomas Huxley, John Tyndall, Ernst Haeckel, Frederick Wright, Alleyne Nicholson, C. A. Young] International Science Library
New York: A. L. Fowle, n.d. [c. 1890]. Fifteen volumes, duodecimo (12cm), in green publisher’s cloth with gilt titles and decorations; glossaries and indexes. The authors and titles included in this complete set are: Charles Darwin. The Descent of Man, The Origin Of Species; Herbert Spencer. Education: Intellectual, Moral and Physical; First Principles; Thomas Huxley. Man`s Place in Nature; Science and Education; John Tyndall. The Forms of Water in Clouds and Rivers, Ice and Glaciers; Sound; Ernst Haeckel. The Evolution of Man; Frederick Wright. Man and the Glacial Period; Alleyne Nicholson. The Ancient Life-History of the Earth ; Tyndall, Huxley, Spencer, et al. The Culture Demanded by Modern Life; C. A. Young. The Sun. A fine and unusually complete collection of the works of some of the most influential writers on scientific matters of the nineteenth century-- the Darwin titles, in particular, are the sixth American edition and (presumably) the last completed in his lifetime.
Price:
340.00 USD
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940 |
[Conder, Josiah] The Modern Traveller, A Popular Description, Geographical, Historical, and Topographical, of the Various Countries of the Globe.
Volume I: Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia. London: Duncan, 1827. First (only) of two volumes. 12mo., folding map (frontis) and two views (with some stain). Rebound in half leather, marble boards, new end papers.
Price:
127.50 USD
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942 |
[Darwin, Charles]. Francis Darwin, Ed. The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Including an Autobiographical Chapter.
London: John Murray, 1887. First edition, in three volumes (ix, 395; 393; 418, appendices, index), illustrated with three frontispieces and several other engravings reproduced from the popular press. Tall octavo (22 cm.), in blue-green publisher’s cloth, gilt titles to spines. The first 160 pages or so of Volume I comprise a brief ancestral history, an autobiographical sketch (apparently much shortened) intended originally for Darwin’s wife and children, and a description of Darwin’s daily habits and practices by Sir Francis Darwin, his son and the editor of the collection. The first of these many letters, characteristically, begs the help of J. M. Herbert, a university friend, in collecting several varieties of beetles Darwin was eager to examine. A commentator in the TLS once mentioned Darwin wrote six million words (more or less, I imagine) in his long life; a great many of them are collected here, arranged topically and chronologically, portraying Darwin’s daily communications with others, suggesting his prodigeous capacity for work, and proving how much one might accomplish absent the convenience of telephones and the distractions of television. For the most part the text of the three volumes remains unopened (and unread) and will require the careful application of a paper-knife to access the text of the letters-- careful, because Murray’s paper is slowly becoming age-toned and a bit dry. One signature in the second volume is loosened but still attached, spine ends and corners are slightly worn, cloth spine of volume two a bit bubbled here and there. Save these quite minor faults, a very attractive copy of the first edition of Darwin’s collected letters (about ten years later an additional collection, also by Francis Darwin, was published).
Price:
680.00 USD
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944 |
[Epictetus, Arrian, and] Simplicius of Cilicia, Cl. Salmasii, and Johanne Elichmanno Commentarius In Enchiridion Epictetus, Ex Libris veteribus emandatus. Cum Versione Hieronymi Wolfii Animadversionibus, et Notis Quibus Philosophia Stoica passim explicatur, & illustratur [TOGETHER WITH] Notae et Animadversiones in Epictetum et Simplicium [TOGETHER WITH] Tabula Cebetis Graece, Arabice, Latine. Item Aurea Carmina Pythagorae, Cum paraphrasi Arabica.
Four works bound as one (Simplicius’ Commentary on Epictetus’ Enchiridion, or compilation of practical precepts; Claude Saumaise, Commentary on Epictetus and Simplicius; parallel Greek, Latin, and Arabic texts arranged by Johan Elichman of the Tabula of Cebes (Anon.) together with the Aurea Carmina of Pythagorus). Lugduni Batavorum [Leiden]: Johannis Maire, 1640 ([xviii], 332, index; 329, indices; [xxxii], 88; 15). Quarto (20 cm.) in modern calf, titles to spine, five raised bands; new endpapers, headbands. Epictetus (c. 55- 135) was a late Stoic philosopher and teacher concerned with questions of ethics (as in, how to live one’s life), and the Enchiridion, a collection of his teachings and sayings, was recorded and preserved by his student Arrian. Simplicius of Cilicia (c. 490- 560), said to be one of the last neo-Platonists, also wrote commentaries on Aristotle. Claude Saumaise (1588- 1653) was professor at Leiden and something of an academic controversialist for hire, as witness his duel with Milton over the rights of monarchs (and Charles II in particular). Evidently he never was at a loss for words (in any of several languages) and as another description, citing Brunet, notes much given to ‘commentaire prolixe’. An attractively copy bound in suitably plain seventeenth century fashion, a few period ms. notes in Greek.
Price:
637.50 USD
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945 |
[Farmer, L. J.] Berry Plants and Fruit Growers’ Supplies. L. J. Farmer’s Special Price List, 1918.
Pulaski, NY: L. J. Farmer, 1918. Forty-seven pages, illustrated with photographs of plants and accessories, detailed descriptions of (now) older or heritage varieties of strawberries, red and black raspberries, flowers, seed potatoes, etc. Soft wraps (15cm x 20cm), stapled booklet (minor dog ears to one corner). A very nice copy with useful heritage variety information.
Price:
76.50 USD
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946 |
[Ferriss, Edna W. (Ed.) and Thomas Bewick] 21 Engravings
St. Charles, IL: privately printed, 1951. Edition limited to 500 unnumbered copies, pulled from the original 42 blocks engraved by Bewick; in two unpaginated volumes of 21 wood engravings each (Perhaps a better title would have been 42 Engravings), the set housed in complimentary slipcase in decorative paper. 8vo (22cm x 15cm) in green morocco half leather over decorative paper featuring images of Bewick’s engravings, gilt decoration and titles to spines, silk place holders. In the early 1940’s Ferriss purchased a number of ‘little black blocks’ from a Chicago bookseller. Bewick’s work as a wood engraver was unknown to her at the time, but she took care to learn about her little blocks of ink-stained wood and produced this edition of nicely printed images from Bewick’s Quadrupeds and British Birds, which are presented here in company with selections from the original texts. Wear to the extremities of the slipcase, faded at the edges; spines uniformly sun-faded to a not unattractive brown, nothing untoward. A bright, clean set with sharp images from Bewick’s best work.
Price:
127.50 USD
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948 |
[Gray, James] “Quebec, from Point Levi”.
Colour print from a drawing by J[ames] Gray, aquatinted by F. Gleaclah (25cm x 40cm). Originally published in 1828. Modern reproduction by Adolph-Clark-Stone, Toronto. A clean, bright image with ample margins; simply mounted on white acid-free mat.
Price:
42.50 USD
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950 |
[Hale, Sara J.] A Lady Modern Household Cookery
London: Nelson, 1854. First edition (small 8vo., xv, 385 pp., index, adverts.) with eight pages of illustrations (including, for example, a cod’s head and shoulders-- the cod looks mildly surprised). Intended “as a new work for private families; containing a great variety of valuable receipts; with directions for the preparation of food for invalids and for children.” Ms. Hale’s philosophy of cookery observes that the enormous amounts of rice in the diets of “certain Hindoo tribes” render their men unfit for soldiering. Meat-eaters preferred. Neatly and professionally rebacked in worn brown cloth with faded impressed gilt lettering. A scarce book.
Price:
221.00 USD
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951 |
[Henry, David] A Practical Farmer The Complete English Farmer, or, A Practical System of Husbandry, Founded Upon Natural, certain, and obvious Principles: In which is comprised, A General View of the whole Art of Agriculture, Exhibiting the different Effects of cultivating Land, According to the Usage of the Old and New Husbandry.
London: F. Newberry, 1771. First edition (xxiv, 432). One engraved plate showing a variety of plows and cultivators, absent building plans as called for. Octavo, in contemporary calf, skilfully re-backed with gilt titles on red morocco and decoration to spine, five raised bands, remnants of gilt edges. David Henry (1709- 1792), although he signed himself ‘a practical farmer’, is perhaps better described as a ‘practical publisher and occasional farmer’. ‘Henry acquired [probably through marriage] a farm at Clayhill, Lewisham, Kent. [After the death of his business partner], Henry became sole publisher of the Gentleman's Magazine. In addition to numerous articles on antiquities, history, economics, and agriculture in [the magazine], Henry wrote popular guidebooks to the Tower of London, St Paul's Cathedral, and Westminster Abbey.’ He also edited the first two volumes of An Historical Account of All the Voyages around the World (4 vols., 1773–4) and accounts of Cook's second and third circumnavigations (ODNB). In the Preface, Henry (who styled himself ‘a friend of the late Mr. Jethro Tull’) sets out as the book’s objective to ‘rescue Book-Husbandry from the contempt into which it has fallen’ in the estimation of agricultural practisers’ and to rescue those same practisers from the prejudices of their ignorance. Mentioned in passing by Fussell. Even with the absent plate, a handsome and desirable copy of a scarce book.
Price:
382.50 USD
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952 |
[Khayyam, Omar] Dalziels’ Illustrated Arabian Nights’ Entertainments.
London: Ward, Lock, and Tyler. First edition (pp. xvi, 822). Quarto (26.5 cm) with ‘upwards of two hundred illustrations by eminent artists engraved by the brothers Dalziel’. Spine all but perished; boards in red morocco and matching marbled paper, edges and tips worn; a.e.g.; text and binding sound. A good candidate for rebacking.
Price:
20.00 USD
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953 |
[Kolb, Peter and Wandelaar, J.] “Leeuw, Leeuwin, Muishond, Rheebok, Jaraansch Varken”.
Fine copperplate engraving by J[an] Wandelaar (1690-1759) of lions with a supporting cast of other animals, from the Dutch edition of Description of the Present State of the Cape of Good Hope (1727). “Exact and detailed description of the Cape of Good Hope, containing a very circumstantial account of .. its settlements, harbour, fortress, form of government, extent, and the regions recently discovered in its vicinity; together with an erudite description of the climate and soil of the territory, of its animals, fishes, birds, plants and herbs” (Mendelssohn). Sheet (40 cm. x 25 cm.), plate (30 cm. x 18 cm.) on fine rag paper with good margins. A clean, bright image; simply mounted on white, acid-free mat.
Price:
212.50 USD
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954 |
[Kolb, Peter and Wandelaar, J.] “Een Vreemde Bok”.
Fine copperplate engraving by J[an] Wandelaar (1690-1759) of a large antelope, from the Dutch edition of Description of the Present State of the Cape of Good Hope (1727). “Exact and detailed description of the Cape of Good Hope, containing a very circumstantial account of .. its settlements, harbour, fortress, form of government, extent, and the regions recently discovered in its vicinity; together with an erudite description of the climate and soil of the territory, of its animals, fishes, birds, plants and herbs” (Mendelssohn). Sheet (40 cm. x 25 cm.), plate (30 cm. x 18 cm.) on fine rag paper with good margins. A clean, bright image; simply mounted on white, acid-free mat.
Price:
212.50 USD
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955 |
[Kolb, Peter and Wandelaar, J.] “Zee-Koe, Steekel-varken, Schaap, Tyger, Schilpad, Bisam-Kat”.
Fine copperplate engraving by J[an] Wandelaar (1690-1759) of a hippopotamus attended by a porcupine-like ant-eater, a tiger, a turtle or tortoise, and a small wild cat, from the Dutch edition of Description of the Present State of the Cape of Good Hope (1727). “Exact and detailed description of the Cape of Good Hope, containing a very circumstantial account of .. its settlements, harbour, fortress, form of government, extent, and the regions recently discovered in its vicinity; together with an erudite description of the climate and soil of the territory, of its animals, fishes, birds, plants and herbs” (Mendelssohn). Sheet (40 cm. x 25 cm.), plate (30 cm. x 18 cm.) on fine rag paper with good margins. A clean, bright image; simply mounted on white, acid-free mat.
Price:
212.50 USD
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956 |
[Kolb, Peter and Wandelaar, J.]. “Olyfant”.
Fine copperplate engraving by J[an] Wandelaar (1690-1759) of an elephant, from the Dutch edition of Description of the Present State of the Cape of Good Hope (1727). “Exact and detailed description of the Cape of Good Hope, containing a very circumstantial account of ... its settlements, harbour, fortress, form of government, extent, and the regions recently discovered in its vicinity; together with an erudite description of the climate and soil of the territory, of its animals, fishes, birds, plants and herbs” (Mendelssohn). Sheet (40 cm. x 25 cm.), plate (30 cm. x 18 cm.) on fine rag paper with good margins. A clean, bright image; simply mounted on white, acid-free mat.
Price:
212.50 USD
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957 |
[Lynch, Kenneth] Garden Ornaments. General Wholesale Catalog for the Trade Number 2061.
Library Edition,1961. Tall folio, 134 pp., with hundreds of illustrations in text. A premier designer and manufacturer of garden ornament and statuary (no garden gnomes need apply), this is their first revised catalogue produced after the company’s restart after WW II-- from a 6” water pipe fixture cast as a snail to the monumental figure of Mercury produced for the New York World’s Fair. Archival tape repair, absent pp. 3- 4, pp. 9- 10 bound out of sequence. Includes complete price list (separately) for July 1961. Still a very good copy.
Price:
59.50 USD
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958 |
[Overall, Bishop John] Bishop Overall’s Convocation- Book, MDCVI. Concerning the Government of God’s Catholick Church, and the Kingdoms of the Whole World.
London: Printed for Walter Kettilby, at the Bishop’s Head in St. Paul’s Church-Yard, 1690. First edition (pp. [vi], 338). Quarto (24 cm) in contemporary plain full calf, five raised bands (corners worn); skilfull repairs to spine. Ms note on ffep dated 1690, “Read over on board ye Sterling Castle in his majesties fleet.” Partial signature (“Charles A...”) in similar hand on pastedown. “R West” on title page. This is the first appearance of Overall’s work. John Overall (1561- 1619), Bishop of Norwich, was one of a team of biblical translators who worked with Lancelot Andrewes to produce the King James Bible. The original of the Convocation Book (1606) ran afoul of James I’s reading of certain points respecting support the hand of the Almighty might lend to the absolute monarch who crossed belligerently into the territories of another absolute monarch (Can God serve two masters?) and was only preserved in manuscript by a succession of bishops until published with an introduction and edited by William Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury. Text printed in black letter (gothic) and common type, wide margins. Absent any portrait; clean, bright, and sound.
Price:
250.00 USD
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959 |
[Pluche, Noel Antoine]. Le Spectacle de la Nature, ou Entretiens sur les Particulartes de L’Histoire Naturelle, qui ont paru les plus propres a vendre les Jeunes- Gens Curieux, & a leur former l-esprit.
Seconde Partie, contenant ce qui regarde les dehors & l’interieur de la Terre. Tome second. Paris: Chez la Veuve Estienne & Fils, 1744. First edition (pp. xxiv, 468). Small octavo (17 cm) polished calf, five raised bands, titles and decorations to spine (worn). Complete with frontis and thirty-six folding copperplate engravings, decorative head and tailpieces; rubricated edges. Bottom edge of spine lightly worn, last plate misfolded. Quite an attractive copy.
Price:
400.00 USD
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960 |
[R. E.] The Life of a Bird; an Account of the Progress of Birds from the Nest to their Perfect Condition
London: SPCK, 1851. First edition. With a number of full-page b&w engravings and some others cut into text. A small volume (11 cm x 14 cm) but with more than 400 pages giving accounts of things avian-- nest building, eggs and egg-painting, habitat, exotic and domestic birds. In brown cloth with impressed decoration and gilt title on spine. Tips are worn through, fraying and wear along the spine (faded but with the title clearly legible), a few spots and marks. Back hinge is weakening and a few of the early pages are stained and smudged, but the book is otherwise tight and clean, none of the engravings is affected. On the front free endpaper, “Presented to Isabella Miller by S.S. No. 7 as a Prize for Bible History July 18[63?].”
Price:
51.00 USD
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962 |
[Root, A. I.] Honey Label Catalogue
Medina, Ohio: A. I. Root Co., 1922. Octavo, in soft brown wraps with black decoration and titles on front cover. Fifteen pages, comprising price list and sample labels in coloured engravings and chromolithographs. A few light pencil marks on one label, probably to suggest design change. A very good, pleasing copy.
Price:
51.00 USD
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963 |
[Root, A. I.] Shop Talk
Medina, Ohio: A. I. Root. Eight annual issues of Shop Talk to include 1963- 66, 1969, and 1971- 73. Shop Talk was typically a ten-page booklet with articles of interest to those in the business of keeping bees and selling honey. Clean, bright copies. As a lot.
Price:
17.00 USD
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968 |
[Stickley, Gustav] The Craftsman
Volume One (October 1901- March 1902) and Volume Two (April 1902- September 1902). Eastwood, NY: United Crafts, 1901- 1902. Premier issues of the principal U. S. publication of the Arts & Crafts movement in two large 8vo volumes (18cm x 26cm); full leather, gilt titles to spines, mildly rubbed; internally fine. Articles on William Morris (generally considered the chief exponent of the movement), John Ruskin, English hand-crafts, Robert Owen, Gothic revival, beautiful books, clocks, Rhenish cathedrals, etc. The Movement sought to sweep away the ornate, stylistic extravaganzas produced by the degraded labour of the industrialized late nineteenth century and to develop a culture which valued hand-crafted objects no less than the skills of their makers. Rejecting the overwrought machine-made, decorative excesses of the time, Arts & Crafts style featured natural, locally sourced building materials; plain, rather rectilinear lines in buildings and furniture; open-plan houses with large areas of glass to admit natural light; built-in cupboards and bookcases in place of specialized furniture; and often relied on the rich tones of natural woods in sparcely decorated furniture (Oak was a favourite, especially in the U. S.). Among the American architects and designers who contributed to issues of The Craftsman were David Owen Dryden, Frank Lloyd Wright, Harvey Ellis, Langford Warren, and of course Gustav Stickley himself who, beginning as a skilled furniture maker and designer, sought to extend the principles of Arts & Crafts design into areas of ordinary affairs-- he was known to assert, after Morris, that no one should own anything which was not at once beautiful and useful (One is asked, for example, to consider a hammer). Judith Miller’s Decorative Arts (2006) includes a handsomely illustrated discussion of these matters. These first two volumes of the 31 published between 1901 and 1916 are exceptionally attractive and inviting-- a good start for a collection of all 31.
Price:
510.00 USD
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969 |
[Tennyson, Hallam] His Son Alfred Lord Tennyson, A Memoir
New York: MacMillan, 1897. First edition, in two volumes (pp. xxii, 516; vii, 549, append., index). Large octavo (23 cm) with engraved frontispieces, in navy publisher’s cloth, gilt titles to spine. Hinges starting, repair to spine. Acceptable copies.
Price:
25.00 USD
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970 |
[Thomas W. Lee Co.] The Peerless Way. A Book of Instruction on Practical Poultry-Raising and Marketing by Methods that Have Proven Successful.
Pembroke: Thomas W. Lee, 1910. First edition (222 pp.), octavo, in olive publisher’s cloth, gilt titles and decoration. Four folding plans showing details of chicken house design and construction, runs, feeders, etc. Illustrated throughout with engravings. Cover lightly spotted, stained and rubbed; bottom right corner of text block lightly damp-stained. From its roost in the upper Ottawa Valley, the Thomas Lee Company looked down on the state of the poultry world and saw no chicken-raising ‘textbooks which could be adopted as practical’. Indeed, as the company notes, those guides to poultry-raising which were on offer issued from ‘a vivid imagination, combined with the ability to write’ and gave rise to mere theories ‘which are exploded before the book is actually dry from the press’ (printing such speculative works must have caused some unusual excitement). So this is a practical book, if not all that well-written: it explains, for example, the value of a concrete floor in the poultry house and, for the non-squeamish poultry raiser, how best to kill a chicken. Makes you want to go right out to the Co-op, buy a dozen chicks, and start a poultry empire. Other than the damp stain, quite a decent copy.
Price:
21.25 USD
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972 |
[Virgil] Martin, John The Georgics of Virgil with an English Translation and Notes by John Martyn.
London: T. Osborn, 1746. Second edition (xvi, adverts., 487,4, index). Tall octavo in full leather (professionally refurbished original calf) with nine engraved copperplate illustrations, two folding, by Cole including that of a plough, the world (as known in the mid- eighteenth century), the constellations, plane and olive trees, and hyacinthus poeticus (which resembles the turk’s head lily). With the bookplate of [Canon] A. F. Smethurst. The greater part of each page in Martyn’s translation is devoted to a commentary on perhaps a half-dozen lines of Virgil’s text, and much of that commentary comprises comparisons between and among translations as, for example, between those of Dryden and Trapp. John Martin (1699- 1768), professor of Botany at Cambridge, wrote towards the end of a time when the study of natural history in all its branches was pre-occupied with the translation and exegesis of the works of natural history originating in classical antiquity, among which Virgil’s were paramount. Martyn also translated Virgil’s Bucolics and Tournefort’s Histoire des Plantes and was a founder of the Botanical Society of London. Bright, clean illustrations, tailpieces, and text.
Price:
255.00 USD
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973 |
[Virgil] Martyn, Thomas. The Bucolicks of Virgil with an English Translation and Notes
London: T. Osborne, 1749. Second edition (xcix, 390, 7 pp., index). Folding frontis, 2 folding maps, two folding copperplate engravings (Pan, lilies); full decorative leather, five raised bands, gilt lettering and decoration to spine. Martyn’s translation of Publii Virgilii Maronis Bucolicorum Eclogae Decem. Repaired joints, minor repairs to folds of two plates. A handsome copy of this important work by the Cambridge Professor of Botany.
Price:
425.00 USD
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974 |
[Webster, Noah] The Grammatical Institute of the English Language. [Part Three: the Reader.]
N.P.: n.p., c. 1800. Early edition (pp. 261, table of contents). Duodecimo (17 cm) in quarter leather over plain paper. Missing epps., prelims, title page, perhaps a page from the table at rear; binding badly worn, pages stained and chipped; Ann Strachan’s name and ink ‘decorations’ to both pastedowns. A schoolgirl’s well-used copy. Date approximate: later than 1787 (Barlowe’s oration on 4 July 1787 is included as a lesson in speaking) but probably before 1810 (The long ‘s’ used here was discontinued in the U. S. by that time). Surprisingly scarce, even in this decrepit state.
Price:
40.00 USD
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975 |
[Weil Bros.] The Trappers Friend and Guide
Fort Wayne: Weil Bros. & Co., n.d. (but c. 1910). First edition (119, adverts) with pen and ink sketches. Small booklet in pale blue wraps. Promotional how-to booklet distributed to trappers and would-be trappers. Weil Bros. sold traps and bait and then bought the pelts from trappers, presumably at favourable prices. Luther Stockberger of Waterman, Illinois, who won the company’s First Prize for Trapping the Skunk, explains how four or five drops of Mohican Skunk Bait sprinkled a short distance from the trap is a sure fire set for skunk ‘and only about one-third of them throw their scent.’ A bit spotted and creased; top of spine starting. Quite a good copy of an interesting bit of lore. The brothers’ operation was not up to Hudson Bay standards, but the booklet is remarkably scent-free.
Price:
29.75 USD
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976 |
[Whitten, C. E.] Strawberry Plants that Grow. Whitten’s Catalogue of Small Fruit Plants, 1904.
Bridgmen, Michigan: C. E. Whitten’s Nurseries, 1904. Forty pages, illustrated with engravings and photographs of plants and accessories, detailed descriptions of (now) older or heritage varieties of strawberries, red and black raspberries, grapes, asparagus, and seed potatoes. In gray soft wraps (10cm x 22cm), stapled booklet (with minor rust). A very nice copy with useful heritage variety information.
Price:
63.75 USD
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