Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

BINDINGS. - Jules MICHELET. Histoire de la Révolution Française. Paris: Librairie Abel Pilon, [circa 1890.] 9 vols. in 5, nouvelle édition, 8vo (233 x 150mm.) (Toning, occasional spotting.) Later brown morocco-backed marbled paper-covered boards (light rubbing). - And a further twenty-seven volumes of history, mostly in French with some volumes in Latin (including 'Liturgia: seu Liber Precum Communium', 1744, 8vo, and 'Historiae Byzantinae Epitome', 1743, 8vo) (32).

BIBLE, In Ge'ez. [A hand-written Ethiopian Coptic Bible in the Ge'ez script. N.p.: circa early 19th century.] 200pp., manuscript, 8vo (183 x 162mm.) 20 quires of 100 vellum leaves with manuscript text in red and black. (Heavily browned, occasional moderate soiling, squiggles and drawings in a child's hand to first and last blank leaves.) Original wooden boards, string-bound (light rubbing).

BIBLE, In English. The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments: Newly Translated out of the Original Tongues: And with the former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised. Oxford: John Baskett, 1736. 8vo (240 x 179mm.) Title, separate title for NT dated 1735, including Apocrypha, index. (Occasional browning and spotting, minor corner creasing.) [Bound with:] 'The Book of Common Prayer'. Oxford: John Baskett, 1733. (Browning.) [Bound with:] 'The Whole Book of Psalms'. London: A. Wilde for the Company of Stationers, 1735. (Marginal damp-stain.) 8vo (240 x 179mm.) Contemporary calf, black morocco lettering piece to spine (upper hinge fragile, lower hinge loosening, rubbing). - And a further volume (the third edition of Edward Elton's 'An Exposition of the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Colossians', 1637, 8vo). Provenance: by descent, from the estate of Rendel Williams (2).

LAW. - Robert BROOKE. La Graund Abridgment. London: Richard Tottell, 1576. 4to (213 x 156mm.) Black letter, 2 parts in 1, title with historiated wood-cut border, colophon to rear. (Lacking title to first part, marginal damp-stain to first few leaves, ink annotation and underlining to numerous leaves.) 17th century calf (upper cover detached, worn). Note: Brooke abridged nearly 21,000 cases and filed them under 404 headings. An important legal summary of British Common Law. Provenance: by descent, from the estate of Rendel Williams.

PEPIE, Nicolas (publisher). Office de la Semaine Sainte Latin et François. Paris: Nicolas Pepie, 1716. 8vo (190 x 120mm.) 4 engraved plates, parallel text in French and Latin. (Toning.) Near contemporary red morocco, gilt borders and turn-ins, g.e. (light rubbing). - And a further twenty-three volumes of 18th century French literature, mainly religious (24).

WHITE, Gilbert. The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne… edited by James Edmund Harting. London: Bickers and Son, 1876. Second edition, 8vo (209 x 134mm.) Numerous wood-engraved illustrations by Thomas Bewick, folding facsimile from White's journal, 8pp. publisher's advertisements to rear. (Spotting to preliminaries, then occasionally, browning, hinges reinforced.) Original green cloth, pictorial gilt, g.e. (joints reinforced, rubbing). - And a further thirty-two miscellaneous volumes (including John Sherer's 'The Royal Drawing-Room Table Book', [circa 1871], 4to) (33).

MANUSCRIPT. [A hand-written 'Log of Proceedings' from six naval vessels written by William Chimmo R.N. during the Opium Wars. N.p.:] April 1841-November 1844. 74pp., manuscript, disbound (317 x 199mm.) 38 leaves of partly legible log-book entries relating to William Chimmo's service on H.M.S. Cornwallis, H.M.S. Rose, H.M.S. Modeste, H.M.S. Castor, and H.M.S. Agincourt during the years of the Opium Wars with China, including 14 ink drawings of vessels including Chinese Junks, 2 topographical views, 1 view of the 'Assault on the City of Chang Jiang', and 1 drawing of a crane ('Hoisting on board a mortar at Madras'), 1p. of coloured naval flags, and descriptions of weather, dates, duties and events on board. (Browning, some leaves damp-stained, chipping to margins.) Disbound. Note: Chimmo wrote these log entries as a teenage boy, aged 13-16. There are many entries relating his daily employment, the refitting of the steamers, the rigging, the gun carriages, lashes for desertion, references to Robert Peel. Chimmo served twice on H.M.S. Cornwallis but missed the signing of the Treaty of Nanking on that vessel, because he'd been put on a return journey to England on H.M.S. Modeste three days earlier. However, he gives an hourly account of the action at Chang Jiang: '4am: Daylight landed 4500 troops, by the steamers, from the troop ships. 7am: All troops landed and marched to the hill… 11.45am: Troops gained the rampart and gradually drove the enemy from their retreat. 12pm: Magazine blew up the city… 6pm: Departed this life- Major--- from a Coup au Soliel [sic]'.

MANUSCRIPT. [A hand-written rhyming sexain poem of 41 stanzas relating the death King William Rufus by William Tyrrel in the New Forest in the year 1100. N.p.: circa 1880.] 16pp., manuscript, disbound (233 x 189mm.) Titled 'The Red King', 246 hand-written lines of rhyming poetry in a legible hand on 'Bath' embossed paper relating the death of 'The Red King', 1 intricately hand-drawn headpiece. (Corner creasing, a tear to p.1, minor soiling.) Disbound. Note: very likely influenced by Charles Kingsley's poem on the same subject, this version has many motifs of the time: a raven, a dream of pre-cognition, a rural idyll of mist, mellowness, foreboding, and death.

SCOTLAND. Views of Kelso Abbey, with Ground Plan, and History of the Town and Abbey, and Description of the Ruins. Edinburgh: W.H. Lizars, 1844. 4to (346 x 260mm.) Four plates drawn and engraved by W.H. Lizard, 4pp. descriptive text. (Disbound, large marginal damp-staining, spotting to plates.) Original printed wrappers (splitting at spine, chipping to extremities, spotting). Note: scarce. - And a related volume, also engraved by W.H. Lizars ('Views of Melros Abbey', 1832, 4to) (2).

MILITARY. - Julius M. MAYER. The 'Lusitania'. Opinion of the Court. New York: United States District Court, Southern District of New York, 1918. 4to (278 x 177mm.) (Central crease and minor corner creasing, toning.) Original printed wrappers (central crease, minor soiling). Note: was later printed in an edition of 'International Conciliation', November 1918. This was the ruling of Judge Julius M. Mayer regarding the Cunard Steamship Company's petition to limit their liability in relation to the deaths of 1198 people on board the 'Lusitania' when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat in May,1915. The judge concluded that Cunard were operating the liner as a public service, and not for profit, and that the whole blame- both moral and legal- lay with the German government and that, curiously, 'the unexpected character of the act was best evidenced by the horror which it excited in the minds and hearts of the American people'.

BROADSIDE. - James CATNACH. Children in the Wood. London: J. Catnach, [circa 1830.] Loose-leaf (477 x 371mm.) A 1p. broadside ballad, 8 wood-engraved illustrations. (Several creases, backed onto card). - And a related item (a bound collection of 13 ballads mounted on seven leaves published by the Catnach Press and comprising 'Lyre of Zion', 'A sermon Malt', 'The New Jerusalem', 'The Rose of Sharon', 'The Lives of the Holy Apostles', 'God Rest You Merry Gentlemen', 'Christmas Carols', 'The Wandering Jew' , 'The Young Man's Dream', 'Plants of Paradise', 'The Dying Pilgrim', 'An Elegy on the Death of the Pious and Charitable James Thompson, Esq.', and 'The Black Decree') (2).

ROSSETTI, Christina. - Florence HARRISON (illustrator). Poems. London: Blackie and Son, [1910.] 4to (257 x 196mm.) Introduction by Alice Meynell, 36 tipped-in colour plates on grey card, numerous black and white illustrations, captioned tissue-guards. (Moderate spotting to preliminaries, toning, initial blank loosening.) Original cream buckram, pre-Raphaelite gilt to upper cover, t.e.g. (minor soiling to lower cover). Provenance: 'Marjore' (gift inscribed to on the initial blank).

RACKHAM, Arthur (illustrator). - C.S. EVANS (editor). Cinderella. London: William Heinemann, 1919. First edition, 4to (253 x 185mm.) 1 tipped-in plate, numerous silhouette illustrations. (Occasional light spotting, lacking initial blank.) Original pictorial boards (rubbed).

BRIGGS, Raymond. When the Wind Blows. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1982. First edition reprinted before publication, signed and inscribed by the author, 4to (299 x 224mm.) Numerous illustrations in colour. Original pictorial boards (slight fading). Provenance: 'The Williamses' (ink inscribed by the author verso the front-free endpaper).

CHILDREN'S LITERATURE. - Cyril HARE. That Yew Tree's Shade. London: Faber and Faber, 1954. First edition, first issue, 8vo (183 x 117mm.) (Toning.) Original brown cloth (discolouring to spine, surface wear to lower cover), dust-jacket (tears to upper and lower panel). - And a further eight volumes for children (including Erik Hesselberg's 'Kon-Tiki and I', [1950], 4to). Provenance: by descent, from the estate of Rendel Williams (9).

TRAVEL & EXPLORATION. - Austin Henry LAYARD. Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon; with Travels in Armenia, Kurdistan and the Desert. London: John Murray, 1853. First edition, 8vo (219 x 138mm.) 16 plates, including 2 folding maps at rear, numerous illustrations in the text. (Spotting to preliminary and rear leaves and occasionally within, repair to one plate.) Original brown blind-stamped cloth (spine ends repaired, endpapers replaced, some fading, minor stain to lower cover). - And a further fourteen related volumes (including the second edition of Austin Henry Layard's 'Nineveh and Its Remains', 2 vols., 1849, 8vo, and John Barrow's 'Nouveau Voyage dans la Partie Méridionale de L'Afrique, 2 vols., 1806, 8vo) (15).

BINDINGS. - Henry HALLAM. Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries. London: John Murray, 1847. 3 vols., third edition, 8vo (218 x 132mm.) (Toning to margins.) Early 20th century tan straight grain morocco, green and burgundy morocco lettering pieces to the spines (occasional scuffing). Provenance: John F. Matthews (bookplates to the front pastedowns). - And a further eight bound volumes (including Henry Hallam's 'View of the State of Europe During the Middle Ages', 2 vols., 1846, 8vo) (11).

RICHARDSON, Samuel. Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded. London: J. Johnson, et al., 1801. 4 vols., new edition, 12mo (171 x 99mm.) (Browning, occasional spotting, lacking half-titles.) Contemporary mottled calf (some wear to spines, two covers loosening). Provenance: Mirehouse (bookplates to the front pastedowns). - And a further thirty-two literary volumes, mainly 18th century (36).

BALZAC, Honoré de. La Peau de Chagrin. Études Sociales. Paris: H. Delloye and Victor Lecu, 1838. First illustrated edition, 8vo (242 x 150mm.) Numerous wood-engraved illustrations in the text. (Spotting to title and occasionally within, marginal damp-staining throughout.) Contemporary green half morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, black morocco lettering piece (rubbing to extremities). Provenance: Charles White (name inscribed to title). - And a further thirty volumes of French literature (31).