EARLY

[French science in the early nineteenth-century.] Substantial collection of manuscripts, in French, with illustrations, describing aspects of science: chemistry (from Fourcroy), botany, physics, hydrostatics, mechanics, pneumatics, optics.

Author: 
French science of the early nineteenth century [Antoine François de Fourcroy; Jean-Antoine Nollet; Pierre Bulliard; Jean-Paul Marat; Hyacinthe Bonnet]
French Sciences
French Sciences2
Publication details: 
Undated, but circa the 1820s. [Paris, France.]
£3,500.00
French Sciences
French Sciences2

The anonymous author of this material is evidently a well-educated individual, and well-versed in the sciences. He has taken great care over the material, and it can be presumed that his intention was either to try for publication, or use it while lecturing.

[Typography.] Handsomely-printed address titled ‘The Romance of Printing / Address by R. A. Austen-Leigh, M.A. / At Stationers’ Hall, London, E.C.4.’

Author: 
R. A. Austen-Leigh, M.A. [Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh (1872-1961), printer and scholar; typography; Monotype; London School of Printing and Kindred Trades]
Publication details: 
Slug: ‘Monotype set and printed by students of the London School of Printing and Kindred Trades, 61, Stamford Street, London, S.E. Session 1926-27’.
£120.00

Of the five copies on JISC only that at the BL is from one of the deposit libraries. 21pp, 4to. Collotype of engraving of Caxton as frontispiece. Sewn into grey card wraps with Yapp-style edges and title repeated on cover. In good condition, lightly aged.

[G. Lionel Wright of Bristol.] Printed educational work on 'How Children may Read at the Age of 6', titled 'The Vocal System based on The Fundamental Laws of Language'.

Author: 
G. Lionel Wright [Allen, Davies & Co., Bristol printers; Victorian education; language; linguistics; pronunciation]
Publication details: 
Bristol: Printed by Allen, Davies & Co., Nelson Street & Rupert Street. [1902]
£120.00

20pp., 4to. Stapled into card wraps printed in blue and red. In fair condition, aged and worn, with vertical crease and rusted staples. The front inside wrap carries an 'Introductory Note' (including the claim: 'Half-an-hour's daily practice will produce material results in a very short time.') Labels and stamp of the Board of Education Library. The cover is illustrated with an engraving of two hands emerging from mountains and icebergs and shaking across the waters, above which are the Union Flag and two ensigns (Australia and Canada?), captioned 'Semper Fidelis'.

[ Mountaineering ] Victorian album, containing 82 photographs, including several large-scale images of mountaineering in Switzerland, and of the 1900 Oberammergau Passion Play.

Author: 
[Victorian mountaineering in Switzerland; Oberammergau; Tonneson Sisters of Chicago]
Publication details: 
[American?] Circa 1900.
£180.00

Album, in maroon cloth and fake leather half-binding, containing 24 leaves of thick paper (dimensions 36 x 26.5 cm). Small stamp on front paste-down: 'D.A.I. LONDON | No. 20[2]' (last digit added in manuscript). The binding is heavily-worn, with spine lacking, and the pages are somewhat discoloured with age, but the 82 photographs are in good condition, with four creased before insertion into the album, and one with slight discoloration. One photograph has been removed. Can be dated from picture of the 'Kreuzigung.

[ Printed pamphlet inscribed by the author. ] Government Printing in Massachusetts-Bay, 1700-1750. By Rollo G. Silver.

Author: 
Rollo G. Silver (1909-1989), American book collector and historian of American printing [ The American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts ]
Publication details: 
The American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. 1958. Reprinted from the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society for April 1958.
£90.00

[1] + 28pp, 8vo. Paginated 135-162. Stapled pamphlet, in printed green wraps. In good conditon, lightly aged and worn. Inscribed at head of title-page: 'For Dr. S. H. Steinberg with all good wishes from Rollo G. Silver'. Contains an eleven and a half page appendix of 'Abstracts from Some Printers' Bills in the Masschusetts Archives'. The only copy on COPAC at Trinity College, Dublin.

[] 'A Catalogue of valuable Ancient and Modern Books, comprising Specimens of Early Typography, Manuscripts on Vellum, with Miniatures, Early Printed Books with woodcuts [...]'.

Author: 
Antoine Bachelin-Deflorenne, bookseller of Paris and London
Publication details: 
Bachelin-Deflorenne, Bookseller, 25, Garrick Street, (Covent Garden), London. Catalogue No. 4. September 1869.
£80.00

66 + 2pp., 12mo. Stitched pamphlet. With printed front cover. In poor condition, aged and worn, with damage to top-edge. 774 lots with prices. Notes in English and French. Among the more expensive items is 228, a collection of material relating to the Chevalier d'Eon, for £12. In poor condition, but a scarce item.

[The Morgan Motor Company Limited, Malvern.] Double-column account book of 'The Morgan Motor Company, Limited, in account with Lloyds Bank Limited, Malvern', detailing disbursements to companies and individuals, mainly within the motor industry.

Author: 
The Morgan Motor Company Limited, Malvern, Worcestershire, established in 1910 [Henry Frederick Stanley Morgan (1881-1959), English sports car manufacturer]
Publication details: 
The Morgan Motor Company, Limited, Malvern, Worcestershire. From May 14 1927 to May 31 1929. [Printed by Lloyds Bank Limited, Malvern]
£850.00

[4] + 288pp., 8vo. In vellum-style cream cloth binding with flap and front pocket. Internally in good condition, lightly-aged, in somewhat grubby binding. In manuscript across front cover: 'May 1927 May 31 1929 | Morgan Motor Company Limited'. The volume gives a valuable sidelight into the finances of an iconic British firm, during a boom period in its history, and place the company squarely at the centre of a network of other firms within the motoring industry.

[Early Victorian railways.] Seven items on the topic, including six Autograph Letters Signed by William Green, John Gregson, Jonathan Binns, Oswald Gilkes, Augustus Maitland, William Shuttleworth, to John Diston Powles, Sir Joseph Fowler and others.

Author: 
Victorian railways: William Green, John Gregson, Jonathan Binns, Oswald Gilkes, Augustus Maitland, William Shuttleworth [Robert Stephenson; John Diston Powles, Sir Joseph Fowler]
Publication details: 
The six letters from London, Liverpool, Ulverston, Durham, Darlington, Edinburgh; written between 1824 and 1859; the transcription undated, but after 1821.
£750.00

Seven items, all in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Housed in an elegant and sturdy custom-built brown buckram folder, with thick boards, flaps and red leather label, with 'Letters on Railways' stamped in gilt on the spine. The first item is a transcription of a set of accounts by Edward Pease, and the other six items are letters, whose authors are: William Green, John Gregson, Jonathan Binns, Oswald Gilkes, Augustus Maitland, William Shuttleworth.

[Presentation copy of offprint from the Cambridge Antiquarian Society's Communications.] Biographical Notes on the University Printers from the Commencement of Printing in Cambridge to the Present Time. By Robert Bowes.

Author: 
Robert Bowes [Cambridge Antiquarian Society's Communications; early printing in England; English printers]
Publication details: 
'Reprinted for private circulation from the Cambridge Antiquarian Society's Communications, No. XXVI. (Vol. v. No. 4) 1886.'
£250.00

[3] + [80] + [1]pp. The eighty pages of the article paginated 283-362, and with the last twenty-four pages (339-362) containing the illustrations. In brown printed wraps. Very good, on lightly-aged paper, in worn and creased wraps. An attractive production, with presentation inscription ('no 94') to the publisher George Bentley, signed 'RB' and dated 7 June 1886. This offprint is uncommon: no copy at the British Library, and only six copies listed on OCLC WorldCat, only two of which in the United States.

[Catalogue by Messrs. Birrell & Garnett, Ltd. (J. E. Norton, Graham Pollard).] Early Newspapers.

Author: 
Messrs. Birrell & Garnett, Ltd. (J. E. Norton, Graham Pollard)
Publication details: 
Catalogue 31. 1931. Offered for Sale by Messrs. Birell & Garnett, Ltd. (J. E. Norton, Graham Pollard). No. 30 Gerrard Street London W.1.
£80.00

24pp., 8vo. Stapled and unbound. On aged and worn paper, with rusting staples. Two indexes in small print on title-page: 'Titles' and 'Places of printing other than London'. 101 items, ranging from the 1645 Mercurius Academicus to the Fleuron, 1923-1930, the last entry ending 'We take this opportunity of expressing our appreciation of the generous review of our TYPE SPECIMEN CATALOGUE [copies of which are still available at 3/6] which occurs on pp. 211-2 of vol. VII.' Those interested in the forger Thomas J.

[The Holbein-Society's Fac-simile Reprints] Pronosticatio in Latino, by John Lichtenberger; A Reproduction of the First Edition (Printed at Strasburg, 1488). Edited by W. Harry Rylands, F.S.A. [with facsimiles of 56 woodcuts, eleven hand-coloured]

Author: 
John Lichtenberger [Johann Lichtenberger; W. Harry Rylands, FSA, editor; The Holbein-Society's Fac-simile Reprints; Manchester and London; astrology]
Publication details: 
Published for the Holbein Society by A. Brothers, 14, St. Ann's Square, Manchester, 1890.
£480.00

89pp, 4to; consisting of half-title, title, three-page introduction by Rylands, seventy-three page unpaginated facsimile of the main work on consecutive pages, and eleven pages (each with a blank reverse), each carrying a hand-coloured plate. On watermarked wove paper, with top edge gilt, and other edges deckled. Good, on aged paper (first and last pages dusty), in recent black-cloth quarter binding, with grey boards and white label on spine.

Autograph Letter Signed from the chemist Frederick Early Tozer ('Fred. E. Tozer') to his former employer Alfred Clay Abraham, of Clay and Abraham, Liverpool pharmacists, comparing New York and Ohio in 1889 with England.

Author: 
Frederick Early Tozer (d.1940) [Alfred Clay Abraham (1853-1942), Liverpool pharmacist]
Publication details: 
15 December 1889. 'c/o H. Waterman, Esq. Ravenna - Ohio'.
£225.00

140 lines of text, written out on both sides of a strip of ruled paper, with one side forming two outside 12mo pages (each 13 x 10 cm) by the folding the strip horizontally halfway down, and the reverse carrying one continuous column over a 13 x 20 cm single page. Text clear and complete. Good, on aged paper. Tozer had shone in his training as a pharmacist, with the British Medical Journal reporting his winning in 1881 of a medal in practical pharmacy and dispensing, and a certificate in botany. By 1889 he was working in Castle Street, Liverpool, for A. C. Abraham's firm of Clay & Abraham.

[Printed Prospectus] The Road Club of the British Isles

Author: 
[Lord Montagu of Beaulieu and others]
The Road Club of the British Isles
Publication details: 
[1908?]
£180.00
The Road Club of the British Isles

8pp., large 4to, printed paper wraps, one third of back wrap (originally blank?) torn away and lost, surviving portion with address of Richard Bentley, former publisher, and postmark, some spotting and some damage to spine and edge with no further loss.

When were our Gospels Written? An Argument by Constantine Tischendorf. With a Narrative of the Discovery of the Sinaitic Manuscript.

Author: 
Constantine Tischendorf
Publication details: 
Second Edition. London: The Religious Tract Society, 56, Paternoster Row, and 164, Piccadilly. 1867. [Benjamin Pardon, Printer, Paternoster-row.]
£45.00

8vo: 120 pp. Unbound. In original grey printed wraps. Lightly foxed, with wraps grubby and creased. Ownership inscription at head of front wrap. 'Published under arrangement with the Author', with a six-page preface by the translator, dated October 1866. The Codex Sinaiticus, now in the British Library, was found by Constantin von Tischendorf on his third visit to the Monastery of Saint Catherine, at the foot of Mount Sinai in Egypt, in 1859. 'I would rather', he writes here, 'have discovered this Sinaitic manuscript than the Koh-i-noor of the Queen off England.'

Autograph Note Signed ('Gilbert Parker.') to 'Mr Anderson'.

Author: 
Sir Gilbert Parker [Sir Horatio Gilbert George Parker] (1862-1932), Canadian novelist and British politician [early cinema]
Publication details: 
5 April 1922; on letterhead of 24 Portman Square, [London] W.1.
£28.00

4to, 1 p. On aged, worn paper with small area of loss at head (not affecting text). He will be 'pleased to act on the Committee to judge of the stories for filming', and is glad that 'the work will not be onerous'. In a postscript gives the version of his name he wishes given for announcing ('Right Hon. Sir Gilbert Parker Bt.'). According to his entry in the Oxford DNB, no fewer than sixteen of Parker's novels were filmed. As head of British propaganda in America, 1914-1916, Parker had a direct involvement with the medium.

Autograph Letter Signed to Wheatley.

Author: 
Edwin Norris (1795-1872), linguist and Assyriologist [Henry Benjamin Wheatley (1838-1917), bibliographer, editor and London topographer; Frederick James Furnivall]
Publication details: 
17 August 1865. Brompton.
£35.00

12mo, 2 pp. Thirteen lines of text. Good. The letter possibly relates to Furnivall's Early English Text Society, founded in 1865. He is enclosing a Post Office Order for a guinea, but, as he 'said to Mr Furnivall last year', he does not consider himself a subscriber, 'wishing to reserve the right of withdrawal in case of finding it inconvenient to pay, which will certainly be the case when I give up my official position'. Nevertheless asks Wheatley to remind him 'when the time comes for collection'.

Stead's Wonders of Science Series. The Story of Flying Machines. The Conquest of the Air. With eleven specially selected illustrations.

Author: 
T. W. Scott [William Thomas Stead's Publishing House; Wonders of Science Series; aircraft; aeroplanes; aeronautics; ballooning]
Publication details: 
London: Stead's Publishing House, Bank Buildings, Kingsway, W.C.2. Printed by W. & J. Mackay & Co., Ltd., Chatham.
£76.00

Octavo, 48 pages. Stapled. In faded original orange printed wraps. Nine pages of illustrations, including three on wraps. Good, on aged high-acidity paper. Wraps a little stained. Unobtrusive ownership inscription at head of front wrap. Illustrations include two full-page balloons and 'A modern sea-plane: the Burgess-Dunne type'. Twelfth illustration (diving English biplane) on front wrap. Scarce: no copy on Copac.

Engraved portrait of Gutenberg by Gaywood, mounted on piece of paper with painted decorations.

Author: 
Johannes Gutenberg, German printer; Peter Stent (fl.1643-67), London printseller; Richard Gaywood (fl.1644-68), English engraver
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£250.00

Good clean image of a seventeenth-century engraving, from an earlier idealised portrait of the putative 'father of printing'. It is of irregular shape, the background having been carefully cut away. Neatly mounted on piece of beige paper, illustrated with a brown pseudo-frame with decorative book devices in the four corners. Half-length portrait of a bearded Gutenberg in fur-lined hat and coat, with composing stick in left hand and stylus in right. Dimensions roughly eight and a quarter inches by seven wide. Engraved beneath is 'P Stent Excudit: R Gaywood fecit'.

John Lydgate's "Pylgremage of the Sowle" [...] Printed by William Caxton at Westminster, June 6th, 1483. A hitherto unknown copy. In the possession of William H. Robinson, Ltd. 16 and 17 Pall Mall, London, S.W.1.

Author: 
W. Loftus Hare [William Caxton; William H. Robinson Ltd, booksellers]
Publication details: 
Reprinted from 'Apollo', October 1931.' Printed by Eyre and Spottiswoode Limited, His Majesty's Printers, East Harding Street, London, E.C.4.
£45.00

Quarto, twelve pages. Unbound. In original grey printed wraps, with facsimile portrait of Caxton laid down on front cover as part of design. Stitched. Lightly aged and worn, and a little loose. A handsome production, with five full-page facsimiles of pages from the book, and three other illustrations (including duplicate of that on front wrap). Large plate of charcoal drawing, captioned 'A view of the facade of 16 & 17 Pall Mall as seen from the Athenaeum', laid down inside back wrap.

Autograph Note Signed to "Monsieur le Directeur du Journal Le Siecle" WITH printed letter to Durnoz from "Un habitant du Creuzot"

Author: 
J. Durnof.
Publication details: 
(Durnof) Paris le 21 Octobre 1874 (le Creuzot) 20 Octobre 1874.
£425.00

Pioneer airman / aeronaut. Form googled site: "Mr. Durnof, aeronaut, founder with Nadar and Camille Dartois of the Company of the military francs balloon pilots, and Mrs. Durnof". (Durnof) One page, 4to, referring to a medal he has received and the printed letter whivch accompanies this note, Durnof asks for a few words in "votre estimabe journal".

Four Typed Notes Signed to the Secretary, Royal Society of Arts and the editor of the R.S.A. Journal.

Author: 
Sir Francis Philip Armstrong, 3rd Bt [ROYAL AUTOMOBILE CLUB]
Publication details: 
21 October, 21 November and 9 December 1927; 1 May 1929; all on Royal Automobile Club letterhead.
£76.00

General manager of the Royal Automobile Club (1871-1944). All four items one page, quarto. All four in good condition and signed 'F. P. Armstrong'. All four docketed and two bearing R.S.A. stamp. Note one asks for '100 stamped envelopes' for sending to 'Members of the Committee and others who would be interested in the papers that are to be read before the Royal Society'. Note two thanks the editor of the R.S.A. Journal for the 'copies of Mr. O'Gorman's paper'.

Typed Letter Signed to G. K. Menzies, [Secretary,] Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Olaf Frederick Bloch [INFRARED PHOTOGRAPHY; ILFORD LIMITED]
Publication details: 
30 June 1933; on letterhead of 'ILFORD LIMITED | Manufacturers of Sensitised | Photographic Materials'.
£75.00

Anglo-Danish research chemist (died 1944), a pioneer of infrared photography. One page, quarto. Very good, though a bit grubby and with a few small staple holes. 'Will you kindly thank the Council of the Royal Society of Arts for the honour conferred upon me in awarding to me a silver medal for my paper on Infra-Red Photography.' He will be present at the 'opening meeting of the next session'. Signed 'Olaf Bloch'.

On the earliest specimens of mezzotinto engraving. In a letter to Sir Henry Ellis, K.H., F.R.S., &c.

Author: 
Hugh W[elch]. Diamond, F.S.A.
Publication details: 
London: 1838 ['J. B. Nichols and son, 25, Parliament-street.'].
£125.00

PRESENTATION COPY of offprint 'FROM THE | ARCHAEOLOGIA, | VOL. XXVII. p. 405-409.' Four leaves, 8 pages, 4to. In good condition, although grubby and worn and with creasing to inner edge. Presentation inscription to top right-hand corner of title. Disbound: paginated in manuscript and with slight offsetting to verso of last leaf. No copy of this offprint in the British Library. The author Dr Hugh Welch Diamond (1809-86) was editor of the photographic journal, and a pioneer of psychiatric photography.

"Sale of the Effects of Mrs Headon / Wansworth / Decembr 11th 1801(manuscript).

Author: 
Auction 1801.
Publication details: 
11 Dec, 1801.
£250.00

Auctioneer's Record of "Mrs Headon's Sale / December 11th 1801". 15pp., 8vo, in primitive wraps (sewn) created from a sheet of paper on which survives a proof (apparently) of a decorative advertisement (the size of a business card) for "James Graves / Tea Dealer & Grocer, / Putney / Surry / NB Dealer in British Wines". This proof straddles the spine and shows signs of wear and tear (e.g. fading), and the covers are slightly soiled.

Autograph Letter Signed to J.H. Burn, bookseller and ephemerist.

Author: 
John Thomas Hope.
Publication details: 
37 Upper Seymour Street, 25 June 1829.
£150.00

"Mr Burne/ 20 King Street/ Covent Garden".Two pages, c.10 x 7", chipped, part torn off, small hole, text clear.

Syndicate content