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Rare Books Page 6

1. Daniel Maclise.
The Story of the Norman Conquest 186
Price : $100 Buy now

Art-Union. 1st. Edition. Hardcover. Original green buckram with gilt titles and gilt decorated illustration on the front  cover, with blind stamped decoration on both boards;- Oblong format-9.5x19.5. 42 sepia toned plates by author. Published on the 800th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings, this is a stunning illustrated history of the Norman Conquest with drawings by Daniel Maclise, a member of the Royal Academy. It brings the tragic sequence of events vividly to life. Fine condition & Highly Collectable.

2. John Thomas SMITH.
Price : $1,250 Buy now

ANTIQUITIES OF WESTMINSTER; the Old Palace; St. Stephen’s Chapel, (now the House of Commons) &c. &c. Containing two hundred and forty-six engravings of topographical objects, of which one hundred and twenty-two no longer remain . 

Published in London:  by T. Bensley  & J.T. Smith . and sold by R. Ryan . and J. Manson . June 9, 1807. London. The true 1st. Edition;- List of plates;  Many stunning Plates hand-coloured by hand to the back of the book  A magnificent work of Westminster history and topography by John Thomas Smith (1766-1833). Although this not an uncommon book, four hundred copies are known to have been destroyed in a fire at Bensley’s warehouse - The book thus made Smith’s reputation, but also almost destroyed him financially. This work is interesting from an art-historical point of view, as the plate at p. 48 is a ‘stone-plate’ (i.e. presumably an early lithograph), which is frequently missing because the stone broke before all the copies could be printed. A variation of the same view, printed from a steel plate, is at p. 45.The text is by John Sidney Hawkins, antiquarian son of Sir John Hawkins, the friend and first biographer of Samuel Johnson. However, Hawkins was a difficult collaborator and his name appears nowhere in the finished copies although it originally stood on the title page and at two other places. A List of Subscribers to the back pages . The book pages are uncut;- Original dark green leather binding with light green paper covers to the Folio;- with gilt lettering to the top of the spine;- Large White paper label with black print to the front cover.Smith delighted in technical innovation and variety and within the covers are to be found: etchings; skillfully executed hand-colouring (with the colours matched in situ); aquatints; woodcuts; line engravings; an engraving stated to be on iron; a mezzotint; and what is often regarded as the first lithograph to be used as a book illustration. The book arose from the chance discovery by workmen of a section of 14th century wall at Westminster, complete with its original wall paintings, sculpture and stained glass. Smith quickly secured permission to record what had been revealed before it was demolished and this became the basis of his superb work. "Moreover, it is our main source of information for the appearance of the Palace of Westminster, which fortunately it depicts in great detail, before the fire of 1834 and also of the Abbey precincts before the clearance of the winding alleys and sinister rookeries reflected in the names of Thieving Lane and Little Sanctuary." One of the most beautiful books I’ve seen. Scarce/ Rare 1st. Edition.

3. llustrations of the Architectural Antiquities 
of the City of Wells
by John Henry Parker
Price : $1,000 Buy now

Published by James Parker 1866;- in London. A series of photographs, prepared under his direction, in illustration of the ... 'The Architectural Antiquities of the City of Wells, Oxford,' 1866;- Folio of Early Photographs of the City of Wells. Rare/Scarce. None to be found world wide...Missing one plate only. 31 Plates out of a total of 32;- Plate 17 Titled “ South Doorway of Cloister”  is missing. All the Plates are loose in the Original Folder, with black printing title to the front cover, New dark red leather to the spine. This is a scarce/rare collection of very early photography of a major City of England..no other copies to be found world wide.

PARKER, JOHN HENRY (1806–1884), writer on architecture, born on 1 March 1806, was the son of John Parker, a London merchant. He was educated at the Manor House school, Chiswick, and in 1821 went into the business of a bookseller. In 1832 he succeeded his uncle, Joseph Parker, as bookseller and publisher at Oxford. He published for Dr. Pusey and other participators in the ‘Oxford Movement,’ and brought out the libraries of the Fathers and of Anglo-catholic theology. The series of ‘Oxford Pocket Classics’ was also published by his house. Parker devoted his leisure to architectural studies, and published in 1836 a ‘Glossary of Terms’ used in architecture, which had a rapid sale. In 1848 he edited the fifth edition of Rickman's ‘Attempt to discriminate the Styles of Architecture in England,’ and in 1849 published his ‘Introduction to the Study of Gothic Architecture,’ a handbook which, like his ‘Glossary,’ has gone through many editions, and has had a large share in the instruction of English students of mediæval architecture. Parker's zeal for the ‘restoration’ of ancient buildings has had a decidedly less beneficial influence (cf. Athenæum, 9 Feb. 1884, p. 191). On 7 June 1849 he was elected F.S.A., and between 1851 and 1855 he contributed to the ‘Archæologia’ a series of papers on ‘Ancient Churches in the West of France.’ Among his other contributions to the ‘Archæologia’ he regarded as the most important ‘The English Origin of Gothic Architecture’ (xliii. 273) and ‘The Architectural History of St. Hugh's Chair in Lincoln Cathedral’ (xlvii. 41). In 1851 he began to edit and continue Hudson Turner's ‘Domestic Architecture of the Middle Ages.’ In 1863 he went to Windsor to make investigations for a history of the castle. While thus engaged he was attacked with rheumatic fever, and was ordered to Mentone, and thence to Rome. Being advised to spend his winters in Rome, he devoted himself with enthusiasm to the study of the ancient remains. The results of his researches were principally set forth in his work ‘The Archæology of Rome,’ published 1874–6. Dr. J. H. Middleton (The Remains of Ancient Rome, 1892) censures Parker's writings on Rome for their baseless theories and inaccuracy. In spite of his architectural knowledge and single-minded enthusiasm, Parker was undoubtedly impatient of controversy, uncritical in his handling of ancient authorities, and too much disposed to treat legend as history (cf. Pelham's review of Parker's ‘Via Sacra’ in the Academy for 23 Feb. 1884, p. 136). He rendered a humbler but valuable service to Roman archæology by publishing his numerous series of photographs, prepared under his direction, in illustration of the history of Rome and its remains (see Brit. Mus. Cat. and A Catalogue of 3,300 Historical Photographs of Antiquities in Rome and Italy, published 1879).

On 27 June 1867 Parker was created honorary M.A. of the university of Oxford. In 1869 he endowed the keepership of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, with a sum yielding 250l. a year, and under the new arrangement he was appointed the first keeper in 1870. He gave an inaugural lecture on the history of the museum on 2 Nov. 1870 (Notes and Queries, 4th ser. vi. 429). He remained keeper till his death, which took place at his house in Turl Street, Oxford, 31 Jan. 1884.

Parker was vice-president of the Oxford Architectural Society, and was from the first an active member. He was also vice-president of the British and American Archæological Society of Rome, and for many years took part in the annual congresses of the Archæological Institute. For his Roman researches Parker was decorated by the king of Italy, and was awarded a gold medal by Pope Pius IX. On 30 Oct. 1871 he was nominated a companion of the Bath (civil division), on the recommendation of Mr. Gladstone. Parker married Frances, daughter of the Rev. J. W. Hoskyns, D.D. His son James succeeded to the Oxford publishing business.

4. "Shakespeare"
The "Seventh" unauthorized volume of the Rowe Edition: 1710
Price : $7,500 Buy now

"Shakespeare"


The "Seventh" unauthorized volume of the Rowe edition: 1710


Published in London by  E. Curll at the Dial and Bible against St. Dunstan's Church, and E. Sanger at the Post-house at the Middle-Temple Gate, MDCCX [1710] Size 11 x 9ins.;- Volume the Seventh (1710), published under the imprint of Edmund Curll. ... verse in a format to match Rowe's six-volume edition of the plays;- Original brown cloth spine and brown paper covers,  A book-plate of Lord Bacon inside the front cover, the irony should not be lost on anyone, just in case, many academics believe, right or wrong that Lord Bacon wrote most of the plays and poems attributed to Shakespear;- Very Rare/Scarce Edition...


The 1710-1714 Texts of Shakespeare Poems;-


         18th. century Editions of the Poems of William Shakespeare, begins with two which appear in 1710, one published by Lintott, the other by Curll. The Text of the former is based on the various originals including the Sonnets Quarto of 1609 and The Passionate Pilgrim; the Text of the latter is from the garbled collection made by Benson in 1640. But Curll’s issue, though less fortunate in its sources is the more important for history of the Text, as it was followed by the later editors, like Sewell and Ewing, until Malone led the way back to the more authoritative early editions. A revised edition appeared in 1714. 
    The Curll volume of 1710 bears the following title; “ Works of Mr. William Shakespere. Volume the Seventh;- Containing Venus & Adonis, Tarquin & Lucrece and His Miscellany Poems. With Critical Remarks on his Plays, &c. to which is Prefix’d an Essay on the Art, Rise and Progress of the Stage in Greece, Rome and England. The significance of the “Volume the Seventh”, as has been generally understood, is in the fact that the book was intended as a supplementary volume to be sold to purchasers of the set of Rowe’s Works of Shakespeare. 
    There has been considerable uncertainty as to the Editor of the volume, some authorities referring it to Charles Gildon, known to be the author of the essays it contains, others to a mysterious “S. N.” ( Sine Nomine)( Without a name)  because in some copies those initials are attached to the dedication. In the Cambridge Shakespere, and certain other editions based on it, the readings of the Curll text of 1710 are referred to Gildon, and Sir Sidney Lee calls him “ the Editor of the supplementary volume of 1710. 


The Curll volume of 1710 Works of Mr. William Shakespare;- Volume the Seventh, Size 11 x 9ins.  A highly important Edition of Shakespeare's works. Through the editorship of Nicholas Rowe, himself a renowned dramatist, a long list of “firsts” is attributable to this Edition.


1. No Title Page- an engraved image to the top of the opening page, then An Essay on the Art, Rise, and Progress of the Stage in Greece, Rome, and England. At the end of the page on the left side is VIII. which only runs to 17 pages after that, Than the rest is Vol.VII to the end of the book. 


2.   Then odd numbers, page 321 starts—- Remarks on the Plays of Shakespear  and finished on page 454. Vol. VII bottom left side of the title page. 


3.  Followed by——An Explanation of the Old Words us’d by Shakespear  in his Works… 5 pages of The Glossary Vol. VII bottom left side of the last page  of The Glossary and in centre is the letter H…and then VENUS. 


4.  Separate Title Page —- Venus and Adonis—- Villa miretur vulgar, mihi flavus, Apollo Pocula Castalia plena ministret aqua. Ovid. Amor. I.1. EI. 15. Followed by the next page, an engraved plate to the top of the page and—- To the right Honourable Henry Wriothefly, Early of Southhamton, and Baron     of Tichfield.— Letter back and front with Will. Shakespear to the end of the page. —-Venus and Adonis—— starts on page 5. Followed by another engraved plate to the top of page 5  and Venus and Adonis. Finishes on page 44. End of the page 44 to the right TARQUIN. 


5. Separate Title-Page —- Tarquin and Lucrece—— Following next page, an engraved plate to the top of the page and—- To the right Honourable Henry     Wriothefly, Early of Southhamton, and Baron of Tichfield.—- Letter back         and front with Will. Shakespear to the end of the page. After that an  engraved plate to the top of page 7;- and then —Tarquin and Lucrece——        and runs to 66 pages, at the end of page 66 on the bottom right of the page  is POEMS.


6.  Starts on page 77 with an engraved plate to the top of page —-Poems on Several Occasions—The Glory of Beauty—1st. poem. VII end of the page, left side.  Finishes on 324 with The Poem Threnes—then a small woodcut to the bottom of the page 324;- 


7. An engraved banner followed by—- The Table—-front and back of last page, ending in —FINIS—- 106 Poems in Total;-  Shakespear  wrote 37 plays,  154 sonnets, and 5 long narrative poems, including "Venus and Adonis",  "The Rape of Lucrece", "The Passionate Pilgrim", "The Phoenix and the Turtle", and "A Lover's Complaint"

There was a seventh unauthorized volume added to the Rowe edition in 1710, published by the unscrupulous printer-publisher Edmund Curll.  Because Rowe's edition did not include the poetry, Curll seized upon the opportunity to issue a volume with the same appearance of the original Tonson volumes.  He employed Charles Gildon to "edit" the volume, with long-lasting consequences for subsequent editions of the Sonnets.  The "rapacious" Gildon was the quintessential eighteenth century hack.  He worked quickly, with liberal invention and little regard for factuality.  To pad the volume, Gildon added his own "An Essay on the Art, Rise and Progress of the Stage in Greece, Rome and England;" and "Remarks on the Plays of Shakespeare."  "Charles Gildon thus became the first critic to write an extended critical commentary on all the works of Shakespeare..." 


For reasons known only to Gildon, and perhaps not to him, he used the 1640 Benson text for the Sonnets, rather than the 1609 Thorpe text  [i.e., POEMS:
VVRITTEN BY WIL. SHAKESSPEARE. Gent. Printed at London by Tho. Cotes, and are to be sold by John Benson dwelling in St. Dunstans Church-yard. 1640;  The Benson text "...combined most of Shakespeare's sonnets (numbers 18, 19, 43, 56, 75, and 76 are omitted), mingled with poems from The Passionate Pilgrim (the corrupt 1612 edition), plus A Lover's Complaint, The Phoenix and the Turtle, Milton's poem to Shakespeare from the Second Folio, poems by Ben Jonson, Francis Beaumont, Robert Herrick and others, and miscellaneous pieces"  Benson also rearranged some of the sonnets and gave them fanciful titles: 


"Why Benson omitted eight sonnets remains a mystery, but perhaps they were simply lost in the shuffle: Benson did not print them in the familiar numerical sequence (still used today) of the 1609 edition, but regrouped them under new titles. Benson does, however, include many poems not written by Shakespeare at all, but by his contemporaries ChristopherMarlowe (“Come live with me and be my love”), Ben Jonson, Thomas Heywood, John Fletcher, Sir Walter Raleigh, and several latter-day authors of light, witty, amorous verse, known as the “Cavalier” poets" Because Curll's venture succeeded, this became the standard arrangement of the Sonnets until the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century:


"Until 1780 no edition of the collected poems printed in England...contained the genuine Sonnets in their original form.  During most of the 18th century, therefore, the only form in which a person could buy the Sonnets was in the deformed Benson version, which would have died quietly in 1640 if Curll had not dug it up and given it a new life" 


For the 1714 "second edition" of Rowe's Shakespeare (known as "Rowe 3") Tonson brought Curll into the venture, making it nine volumes rather than eight, "and including Curll's name on the imprint" 


Gildon's unscrupulous activities, numerous works, and incessant conflicts with eighteenth century literati make a fascinating story, but go well beyond the scope of Shakespeare studies.  More to the point, a very entertaining review of  Gildon’s Shakesperean ‘edition’ of the poetry can be found in Samuel Butler's Shakespeare’s Sonnets.

5. William Shakespeare;- 
The Works
Price : sold SOLD

Publisher Allied Newspapers Ltd, 1930 No date but about 1930. All 40 volumes bound in a black leather look rexine flexible cover. Decoration and titling to each spine. Each measures about 1.4 x 2 inches. Top edges yellowed otherwise condition is very good. Contained in an original 3 tier tiny bookcase. Decorated endpapers. Each with an engraved frontispiece. Very clear print. each with approx 300 - 400 pages. (William Shakespeare Miniature Books Works Allied Newspapers). This is Rare and looks stunning. I offer the miniature library of 40 books for the above price. Beautiful condition.

MR. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S
COMEDIES, HISTORIES, AND TRAGEDIES
Faithfully Reproduced in Facsimile from the Edition of 1623.
Price : $850 Buy now

Published by Methuen & Co, Ltd. : London 1910.. Illustration  of Shakespeare, a s frontispiece 14.5 x 9.5, light blue boards, cream linen spine cover, printed paper spine label, various pagination. title-page ;- Shakespeare's portrait is toned;- The Folio is in very fine condition and is highly collected.

7. George Walker.
Chess Made Easy; Being a New Introduction to the Rudiments of That Scientific and Popular Game 1836
Price : $350 Buy now

 Published by Sherwood, Gilbert, & Piper;- London 1836;- 1st. Edition. With an detailed engraved frontispiece of a chess playing couple;- and  A Catalogue of Practical and Useful Books by the Publishers they run to 30 pages of Ads to the back pages;- Original red leather spine with gilt lettering to spine & yellow illustrate chess boards, paper covers to both front and back covers.. the book is fine condition and this 1st. Edition is scarce/and rare only other edition can be found.

8. SUECIA Antiqua & Hodierna
Opus celeberrimum, dirigente HANS HILDEBRAND, Antiquario Regni
Price : SOLD

Published by Wahlström & Widstrand, Holmiae, 1900? Large Folio;- In three quarter tan leather with marbled paper covers. It weights 10kg, so is very heavy;- hundreds of engravings throughout...many fold out. In very fine condition 

Sweden's view of the most famous works, printed at the request of the Swedish King. Includes views of Cities, Harbours, Castles, remarkable buildings, Portraits, coat of arms and Maps.

The Publishers entrusted with the publication of architect and military engineer by  Ev Dahlberg dedicated to this work, the famous engraver from Europe and so was ".. an art historical source of invaluable  and outstanding artistic achievement"  This work  was commissioned by the Swedish King;- The finish book was presented in the folio edition exclusively by the Royal Family on special occasions. It scarce and Rarity  in this stunning condition, All Plates& Maps intact. Almost as new...Beautiful work. Scarce/Rare

9. John LEECH.
Pictures of Life & Character
Price : $1,500 Buy now

1840;- LEECH, John. Pictures of Life & Character… from the Collection of Mr. Punch. 1st./ Second / Third/ & Fourth Series. 4 Volumes; 

 Published in London:  by Bradbury, Agnew, [1840]. Slim, oblong Folios, in Original black full leather bindings, Gilt lettering to each of the spines.  First Edition of the all 4 series in Leech's five series of caricatures of British life, with over 400 line cuts on 94 pages in each volume—all taken from the issues of Punch—"the main monument of his genius." Twenty-year mainstay artist at Punch and illustrator of Dickens' Christmas Carol (1843), caricaturist John Leech had studied with George Cruikshank and eventually developed "a convention of social humor that was to last until the 1920s" "He comes, for practical purposes, between Cruikshank and Du Maurier, and in that order plays an indispensable part in the progressive transformation of humorous art from the broad brutalities of the earlier men to the gentler and more subdued satire now in vogue…" His Pictures of Life & Character, published in five series from 1854 to 1869, "constitute the main monument of his genius".  Rare in such fine condition.

10. The Story of the Sherbourne Pageant
Price : $100 Buy now

Published by F Bennett, Sherborne Dorset, 1905. Gold Embossed Full Vellum Binding;-  First Edition. 15 x 10 Inches. Story of the Sherborne Pageant in Dorset held in the castle ruins in June 1905. Large volume 31 pages of text plus 50 full page photographs. Gilt lettering and embossing to front cover & gilt lettering along the spine;-A fine copy of a highly collectable book. Early photographs .

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