Actions are said to speak louder than words, but the right words published at the right time themselves inspire action. We celebrate the legacy of trailblazing writers, thinkers, activists, scientists, and travellers through exceptional first editions, special copies and objects, and significant archival material.
SUMMER 2022
Peter Harrington l o n d o n
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Front cover and opposite illustrations adapted from E. McKnight Kauffer’s designs, item 95.
Design: Nigel Bents & Abbie Ingleby. Photography: Ruth Segarra. Back cover photograph of Luke Basford, bookseller: Diandra Galia.
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Peter Harrington l o n d o n
SUMMER 2022
catalogue 184
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1 ACOSTA, Cristóbal. Tractado de las drogas y medicinas de las Indias Orientales con sus plantas debuxadas al biuo. Burgos: Martin de Victoria, 1578 A pioneering work on East and West Indian plants First edition of this groundbreaking work by the Portuguese pioneer in the study of pharmaceutical uses of oriental plants; scarce in commerce. Acosta’s work was part of “a new trend in books on the natural world, highly descriptive, specialized, and practical, coexisting with the works of a new generation of scientists trained in the reformed university milieu of the sixteenth century” (Ishikawa, p. 149). As such, it offers fascinating insights into Renaissance therapeutics. Acosta ( c .1525–1594) was a Portuguese physician, naturalist, and botanist. In the years before 1550 he served in the military in maritime Asia and it was during this tour that he met the Portuguese physician, Garcia da Orta (1501–1568) in Goa. Orta, himself an author, published Coloquios dos simples, a Drogas he cousas medicinais da India in 1563, describing in dialogue form several vegetable products of the East and their
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medical uses: in effect this was the first European account of Indian materia medica and tropical medicine. Acosta returned to India in 1568, just months after Orta’s death and, while there served as a physician at the royal hospital in Cochin and collected botanical specimens along India’s west coast. Upon his return from India, Acosta moved to Burgos, becoming a municipal physician. It was there that he wrote the present work, which, though an adaptation of Orta’s work, “rivalled Orta’s book in authority and influence” and differed “markedly in form, arrangement, and subject matter” (Lach, p. 437). Acosta adopted a “straightforward, concise, and systematic description of the plants, an approach
more acceptable to botanists”, moving away from Orta’s colloquial form (ibid.). His recension “clearly surpasses the earlier work in its systematic, first-hand observations of both East and West Indian plants and its illustrations after Acosta’s own accurate drawings” (Norman), adding 20 full-page woodcuts and 14 botanical species for medical use. Among the Asian plants described are ginger, cinnamon, tamarind, pepper, nutmeg, and cardamom. He classifies the plants in terms of their morphological features, such as leaf characteristics, fruit types, or flower structures, along with details on their local environments and uses. The splendid woodcuts accompanying the text are some of the first depictions of Indian flora printed
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in Europe. The last section is on opium, which is “one of the first descriptions of the opium habit . . . ‘I knew in Malabar . . . the secretary to a judge of the king, very discreet and lively and with great ability and astuteness . . . who ate every day the weight of five drachmas’” (Escohotado, p. 811). He also describes a number of American plants, such as pineapple, sugar cane, and the rubber tree. He concludes with a monograph on the Indian elephant, Tractado del Elephante y de sus calidades (“Treatise on the Elephant and its qualities”) which includes two splendid engravings, one of an elephant nonchalantly leaning against the trunk of a coconut palm, the other showing a war elephant. Provenance: The title page has a manuscript inscription, contemporary with the publication, running vertically at the gutter margin, which quotes from Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis historia : “non placent remediis tam longe nascentia” (“Ingredients that grow so far away are unsatisfactory for remedies”), speaking to the innovative nature of the work, and perhaps suggesting early ownership by a conservative
practitioner who looked with suspicion at new remedies from “far away”. There are subsequent 17th- century ownership signatures of one Luis Galindo on ¶4 and A1; possibly the Ocanian humanist, doctor of laws and lawyer of the Royal Councils (“abogado de los Reales Consejos” – Rodriguez), whose ten volume manuscript compilation Las Sentencias filosóficas y verdades morales que otros llaman proverbios y adagios castellanos (“The philosophical sentences and moral truths that others call Castilian proverbs and adages”) is in the Biblioteca Nacional. Of similar date to Galindo’s inscriptions, there is an intriguing note to the first binder’s blank reading: “Perternece al Maiorazgo de Casa Real” (“belongs to the Royal House”). The 17th/18th century rebinding process seems to have removed some evidence of a royal provenance acknowledged by this inscription. There are no other marks indicative of such origins. The book also has a faint, illegible, inscription on the verso of the title page and a loosely inserted roughly contemporary slip of paper with manuscript calculation of income and expenses. Octavo (182 × 126 mm). Late 17th- or early 18th-century cat’s paw sheep, flat spine richly gilt within double-fillet border, red morocco label, marbled endpapers, red edges. Woodcut architectural title page incorporating the king’s arms and those of the city of Burgos, woodcut portrait of Acosta, and 42 full-page woodcut illustrations of plants, 2 full-page woodcuts of elephants, 3 smaller illustrations of plants, historiated woodcut initials. A little rubbed, covers slightly bowed, spine with faint crease along centre and neat repair to front joint, small loss to spine label, title page with minor loss repaired with paper on verso, N4–5 becoming detached, some spotting and staining internally, a few leaves trimmed with minor loss of text, but remains a very good copy. ¶ Garrison-Morton 1819; Howgego A6; Norman 1; Sabin 113; Stafleu-Cowan 23. Antonio Escohotado, The General History of Drugs, vol. 2, 2021; Chiyo Ishikawa, ed., Spain in the Age of Exploration, 1492–1819 , 2004; Donald F. Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe , vol. 2, 2010; Pilar Vega Rodríguez, “El refranero de Luis Galindo y los Adagia de Erasmo”, in Epos: Revista De filología , 9, 1993. £9,500 [153571] 2 ARNOLD, Edwin; Bijay Chand Mahtab (compiler). Siddhartha. Calcutta & Simla: Thacker, Spink & Co., 1921 First and only edition, warmly inscribed on the front free endpaper: “Tina, From the Ocean of Love where pain & pleasure commingle into a song of eternity I offer from ‘Song of my life’ these clear drops from the Master’s feet, Votre Toujours, Bijay, London, Aug. 1927”.
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This fine production contains elements from Sir Edwin Arnold’s narrative poem, “The Light of Asia”, which presents Buddha’s life, character, and philosophy in a series of verses. It was compiled by Maharajadhiraja Bahadur Sir Bijay Chand Mahtab (1881–1941), the ruler of Burdwan Estate, Bengal in British India from 1887 to 1941. He states in the foreword that the artwork was “painted for my private use by my young friend, Srijut Lala Rameshwar Prasad Verma, who comes from a family of artists who can trace themselves back to the Moghul Court . . . No hotchpotch or kedgeree of art outside India taints them and I hope they will be appreciated by those interested in true Indian art”. It is scarce: WorldCat identifies just four locations, BL, Cornell, SOAS, and Wisconsin; Library Hub adds the Royal Asiatic society and Curzon’s copy with the National Trust at Kedleston. Octavo. Original japon, coloured illustration mounted on the front board within an elaborate gilt lotus flower panel incorporating the title, endpapers with similar colour border printed in grey-blue, green and gilt, the front pastedown incorporating the author’s arms and monogram as Maharajadhiraja Bahadur of Burdwan, yellow silk book markerer. With 14 full-page illustrations, decorations to the title page and text, all in sepia. Just a little rubbed and soiled, free endpapers lightly browned, marker slightly ragged at the end, but overall very good. £950 [154866]
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3 ARNOLD, John. A Handbook to Canton, Macao and the West River. Hong Kong: Hong Kong, Canton and Macao Steamboat Co, Ltd, and the China Navigation Co, Ltd, 1914 Revised and updated edition of this scarce guide to travelling by steamer around the bustling Canton River delta, including valuable information on sailings and trip itineraries, fleet specifications, and onboard amenities. Copies of all editions are now scarce; WorldCat records around a dozen locations including just one in the UK (British Library). During the Golden Age of tourism, Canton and Macao offered the chance to see a different side of China to that encountered in Hong Kong and Shanghai. “The traveller visiting this part of the world, and finding himself in this most interesting
corner of the Gorgeous East, should have one special and particular object strongly fixed upon his mind, and that is to devote as much time as possible to visiting the interesting city of Canton . . . For centuries the Commercial Capital of China, Canton presents at a glance the most extraordinary agglomeration of a primitive existence to be found anywhere in the universe . . . From morning till night, as you move slowly through the streets, a succession of pictures, each of intense interest and novelty, presents itself” (p. 23). The Hong Kong, Canton and Macao Steamboat Company (HMSBC) was founded in 1865 to strengthen communications in the delta region. From 1879 until the beginning of the Second World War, it shared commercial operations up the Zhujiang river and across the estuary with the China Navigation Company. Together, they offered visitors passage on
ships staffed with a full complement of deck lookouts and guards, as well as solely British officers. Small octavo. Original illustrated beige wrappers, stapled and bound with string as issued, front cover lettered in green. Map, illustrations and advertisements throughout. Contemporary ownership seal on p. 17; lines and “cancelled” ink stamp on p. 36 amending list of sailings. Binding firm, rear wrapper lightly mottled, slight worming at foot of front cover and first 3 leaves, first and last leaves with rust marks where paperclips sometime attached, text and illustrations fresh. A very good copy indeed, seldom found in this condition. £1,750 [157820]
4 ARONOWITZ,
Al. Blacklisted Masterpieces of Al Aronowitz. Bearsville, NY: Al Aronowitz, 1981 The
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GONZO MEMOIRS WITH AN EXCELLENT ROCK AND ROLL ASSOCIATION One of 150 copies offered at $100, numbered and signed; this is copy 34, with an exceptionally fitting association, inscribed in the year of publication to The Doors manager and biographer Danny Sugerman: “For Danny Sugerman, Grateful for a fan like you. Best, Al Aronowitz, 11/30/81”. Aronowitz was one of the first professional journalists to cover rock music, developing lasting friendships, and enmities, with many of his stellar subjects, writing “in a smooth yet informal voice and frequently including himself in the story, an early proponent of the participatory style later called New Journalism” ( New York Times obituary). Fired by The New York Post in 1972, he fell on hard times, struggling with drug addiction and ending up on the streets. The present work represented an attempt to raise some funds, settle some scores, and revivify some old projects. This is notionally the third edition, following two photocopied editions totalling 23 copies, unnumbered and unsigned, distributed “for purposes central to the publication, distribution and promotion of this book”. A Rutgers journalism graduate, Aronowitz, joined The New York Post in the mid-50s. Commissioned in 1959 to produce a hatchet job on the Beats, he was instead beguiled by their sincerity, becoming close friends with Ginsberg and Kerouac, and posting a 12-part series on the movement. Kerouac biographer Gerald Nicosia identified Aronowitz as “one of the first to treat these people as serious American writers”. In the early 60s he began contributing long pieces on the pop business to the Saturday Evening Post , later providing the influential Pop Scene column for The New York Post . His greatest claim to fame was that he introduced the Beatles to Bob Dylan in 1964; “Never modest about his connections and influence, Mr Aronowitz noted that the meeting was pivotal. ‘The Beatles’ magic was in their sound, Bob’s magic was in his words. After they met, the Beatles’ words got grittier, and Bob invented folk-rock’”. In the present gathering his account of his efforts to introduce Mick – Jagger – to Miles – Davis – is worth the price of admission alone, if just for Aronowitz’s rendering of Jagger’s accent. The recipient of this copy, Danny Sugerman, was taken on by The Doors at the age of 13 to open mail and compile a scrapbook for them, and eventually became their manager. Sugerman also managed Iggy Pop for a brief period, which ended with both of them
in psychiatric hospitals as a result of their excesses, and was co-author of the Jim Morrison biography No One Gets Out Alive , also publishing his autobiography, the self-explanatorily titled Wonderland Avenue: Tales of Glamour and Excess . Folio (282 × 207 mm). Original black morocco-textured coated cloth-covered drop-back box, front panel lettered in gilt. Colour-printed portrait title page, signed by the photographer, the author’s son, in gold fibre-tipped pen, in acetate sleeve as issued; contains 23 separate Xeroxed “chapters” stapled at the top left-hand corner. Box a little rubbed and with minor fraying at head of front joint, contents show some handling, but overall very good. £1,250 [154529] 5 ASPREY. Collection of reference works bound for Asprey. Various publishers, [c.1900–08] A very handsome set, uniformly bound for the luxury purveyors Asprey, bringing together various reference works with an Asprey “Reference Library” title page in each. 7 works, duodecimo. Later 20th-century green straight- grain morocco for Asprey, spines lettered in gilt, gilt rules to covers and turn-ins, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. Bindings with minimal rubbing, lightly retouched, contents with light toning; an excellent set. £750 [153901]
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Rolling Stones through minor royalty and fashion- conscious aristocrats to film stars, couturiers, and gangsters; each portrait is accompanied with a note by Francis Wyndham, then-editor of Queen magazine. The mode of publication also hints at a new democratization. The printing is of lovely quality but photomechanical which meant the cost could be kept down to just three guineas. This is the sole printing: there was no American edition, largely due to the influence of Lord Snowdon, who objected to the inclusion of the portrait of the notorious Kray twins. Complete sets of the publication in the original box with both packing inserts are scarce. Original card clamshell box (38 × 33 cm), containing 36 loose prints; each a full-page half-tone photographic portrait with biographical details of the sitters on the verso. With loose sheet of brown paper and stamped cardboard insert, as issued. Housed in a custom black clamshell box. A few brown marks to lid of the box, edges lightly rubbed and corners split; still an extremely bright copy in original condition much better than usually encountered, all prints in excellent condition. £20,000 [155041] 7
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6 BAILEY, David. Box of Pin-Ups. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, [1965] The definitive images of key figures in London during the Sixties First edition of this seminal collection of portraits by Bailey – one of the great iconic representations of the Swinging Sixties in London. The subjects typify the new social elite, ranging from the Beatles and the
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BALLARD, J. G. Crash. London: Jonathan Cape, 1973 THE FIRST GREAT NOVEL OF THE UNIVERSE OF SIMULATION
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9 BIBLE; English; Authorized. The Holy Bible; [bound after] The Book of Common-Prayer; [and before] The Whole Book of Psalmes. London: Printed by Henry Hills; Printed by John Bill, and Christopher Barker; Printed by A.M. for the Companie of Stationers, 1660; 1662; 1658 A very attractive copy, uniting late Commonwealth and Restoration-era editions of the Common Prayer book, King James Bible (both Old and New Testaments), and Psalms, preserving its contemporary binding, and abundantly extra- illustrated with 146 copper plates by the Dutch engraver Jacob Floris van Langeren, the most-widely available biblical illustrations in England during the 1640s and 1650s. The practice of binding pictures with the English text of the Bible was theologically suspect in the eyes of many, attacked as popish and idolatrous at the trial of Archbishop Laud, and, again, by the bookseller Michael Sparke in the 1650s. It is fitting therefore that they should be bound here with the Bible printed in the Restoration year by Henry Hills, who many scorned as a turncoat, one who “ever made it his business to be of the rising side”. Despite having printed at least two editions of Eikon basilike , Hills thrived during the interregnum through a close personal relationship with Cromwell. In March 1656, with John Field, Hills secured a monopoly in printing English Bibles and psalms,
First edition, signed by the author on the title page. The novel followed Ballard’s controversial, and descriptively named, exhibition “Crashed Cars”, staged at the New Arts Laboratory in 1970. Octavo. Original blue boards, spine lettered in gilt. With dust jacket. Discreet ownership stamp to rear free endpaper. A fine copy in jacket that is not price-clipped, laminate lifting a little at head of spine and front panel joint, slight creasing to edges, still near-fine. ¶ Pringle A114. £3,750 [155082] 8 BECKETT, Samuel. Waiting for Godot. New York: Grove Press, 1954 NOTHING HAPPENS, NOBODY COMES, NOBODY GOES First edition in English of Beckett’s most famous work, originally published in France as En attendant Godot in 1952, with the full text translated into English by Beckett himself for this edition. Octavo. Original black cloth, spine lettered in silver and gilt, covers lettered in blind, red endpapers. With dust jacket. With 4 plates from photographs. Contents lightly toned, else a fine copy in very good jacket, a little toned with minor rubbing and chipping at extremities, price intact and without repair. ¶ Federman & Fletcher 373. £2,500 [155120]
privileges that formerly belonged to the king’s printers and the Stationers’ Company respectively. The two men continued to profit as printers to the government until the Restoration. Hills appears to have harboured Catholic sympathies from at least as far back as the 1660s; shortly after the accession of James II, he formally converted to Catholicism. 3 works bound in 1 volume, octavo (170 × 116 mm). Contemporary English morocco, gilt in compartments, gilt double-rule border to covers with floral cornerpieces, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. Old Testament extra-illustrated with 41 copper engravings, New Testament with 104 copper engravings, Common Prayer with 1 copper engraving; together comprising 146 (of 149) of the engravings of Jacob Floris van Langeren, produced for insertion into Bibles, and not integral to this or any edition. Bound into the Bible is an additional Apocrypha , not found in all copies and not called for by ESTC (though reported by Darlow and Moule); a contemporary addition to the contents page notes its presence. Initial endpapers with early transcripts of prayers, 17th-century ownership inscription, and note of price “February the 2nd 1663. Pr. 1l–10s–0d”; terminal blank of Bible with manuscript list of biblical figures and their dates, in a contemporary hand, with red ruling; Victorian prayer card, and 20th-century note, loosely inserted. Joints and extremities neatly restored, a few leaves expertly re-inserted at front. Front free endpaper and initial few gatherings a little nicked and frayed at extremities, Bible with loss to corner of one plate, Prayer Book with a few very minor peripheral short tears. Generally still in excellent condition. ¶ ESTC R28924 ( Bible ); ESTC R35356 ( Prayer Book ); this edition of Psalms not in ESTC (collates complete A–E8). £3,000 [153812]
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due to the same with slight loss to lettering, general light browning and foxing in places, a few other shadows of pressed leaves and flowers, worming in gutter in vol. I leaves Y4–2D. A good set. ¶ Eller, The William Blackstone Collection in the Yale Law Library , pp. 1–2; ESTC T57753; Printing and the Mind of Man 212; Rothschild 407. £12,500 [154859] 11 BLAVATSKY, Helena Petrovna. Isis dévoilée. Paris: Les Éditions Théosophiques, 1913–21 “AN EPOCH IN OCCULTISM” – ONE OF 25 COPIES First authorized edition in French of the author’s first major publication, each volume 9 of 25 numbered copies on japon; a beautiful set, with all but one volume preserved “en carré”. It is genuinely rare, especially in this format; we can trace no copies in commerce, and only nine complete sets in institutions worldwide. Isis dévoilée was first published in English as the two-volume Isis Unveiled: A Master-Key to the Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and Theology (1877). The first volume, “Science”, opens with a discussion of Darwin’s Origin of Species and Huxley’s Physical Basis of Matter – Blavatsky’s attack on materialist science – and is followed by chapters on spiritualism, Mesmerism, the Kabbalah, and the advanced knowledge and achievements of ancient societies. The second volume, “Theology”, includes her views on secret societies such as the Jesuits and Freemasons, and a comparison of Christianity with Hinduism and Buddhism. Isis Unveiled totalled 1,300 pages and had an initial print run of 1,000 copies, all of which sold out within ten days. It is “a remarkable effort from one who had begun writing in English only three years before its debut, and who, by her own admission, had never been to any college or studied any branch of science. In spite of this, reviews at the time of its publication indicate that the book was regarded as one of great erudition and not just a literary curiosity” (Gomes). The 1913–21 French translation was made by R. Jacquemot and seen through the press by Gaston Revel (1880–1939), director of Éditions Théosophiques and founder of a number of Theosophical journals, including the newspaper Le Théosophe . Due to the absence of a Russian translation, Russian Theosophists initially read both Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine – Blavatsky’s second work – in French, often in partial, unauthorized manuscript
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10 BLACKSTONE, William. Commentaries on the Laws of England. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1765–69 THE KEY WORK IN ENGLISH LEGAL LITERATURE First editions of all four volumes of the supreme work on English law, Blackstone’s magnum opus, a major influence on the Founding Fathers and the foundation of all legal analysis for the next two centuries. “Blackstone’s great work on the laws of England is the extreme example of justification of an existing state of affairs by virtue of its history . . . Until the Commentaries , the ordinary Englishman had viewed the law as a vast, unintelligible and unfriendly machine . . . Blackstone’s great achievement was to popularize the law and the traditions which had influenced its formation . . . He takes a delight in describing and defending as the essence of the
constitution the often anomalous complexities which had grown into the laws of England over the centuries. But he achieves the astonishing feat of communicating this delight, and this is due to a style which is itself always lucid and graceful” ( PMM ). This copy has the ownership signature to vol. IV of “H. Hawkins Tremayne”, likely the Reverend Henry Hawkins Tremayne (1741–1829), owner of the Heligan estate in Cornwall, curate at Lostwithiel in the same county, and with significant interests in the Cornish tin mining industry. The gardens he created around Heligan House – the so-called Lost Gardens of Heligan – remain a popular Cornish attraction. 4 volumes, quarto (258 × 205 mm). Early red morocco boards rebacked to style (probable remboîtage), dark green morocco labels, spine compartments gilt, marbled endpapers, yellow edges. Housed in a custom red cloth slipcase. With 2 engraved tables (1 folding) in vol. II. Vol. I with running stain from degradation of formerly inserted botanical specimens, leaves 2A1–2 and 3E4–3F1 with professional consolidation
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12 BORGES, Jorge Luis. El Aleph. Buenos Aires: Editorial Losada, 1949 WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT, ARIADNE? THE MINOTAUR SCARCELY DEFENDED HIMSELF First edition of this key collection of Borges’s short stories, including the title story “The Aleph”, “The House of Asterion” (set in the labyrinth at Knossos), and “The Writing and the God”. Octavo. Original brown wrappers, spine and front cover lettered in black and red, fore edge untrimmed. Spine somewhat tanned, superficial split to wrappers along rear joint fold, light rubbing along other edges, a few marks to wrappers, leaves toned within as usual but otherwise clean, text block discreetly reattached to wrappers. £1,750 [153810] 13 BOSWELL, James. An Account of Corsica. Glasgow: by Robert and Andrew Foulis for Edward and Charles Dilly in the Poultry, London, 1768
established Boswell’s reputation, and did much to promote the Corsican cause both in Britain and across Europe. “With its reports of the gallant islanders and a Plutarchan depiction of Paoli paralleled with several classical heroes, it was an immediate success. The work was widely read and translated, stimulated great interest in Paoli and the Corsican cause, brought its author wide fame in Britain and Europe, and found an interested readership among the Americans . . . though Boswell’s ambition for British intervention was not to be fulfilled, he probably influenced Britain’s decision to send secret supplies of arms to the Corsicans” ( ODNB ). Octavo (205 × 129 mm). Early 20th-century calf to style, red morocco labels, gilt in compartments, plain endpapers. Large engraved folding map of Corsica (second state, with imprint); engraved rococo title vignette incorporating the Moor’s Head arms of Corsica. Bound without terminal blank. Ownership signature to title page dated 1771, early 20th-century bookplate to front pastedown of T. H. Parnell, Mounton. Binding fine, light toning to endpapers, head of central leaves, half-title, and terminal leaf, short closed tear to folding map in gutter, scattered light foxing. A very good copy. ¶ ESTC T26157; Gaskell, Foulis , 473; Pottle 24; Rothschild 442. £2,000 [154271]
translations, though very little is known of their dating and subsequent appearance in print. WorldCat and Library Hub find complete sets at nine institutions worldwide (four in France, and one apiece in Italy, Belgium, Bulgaria, South Africa, and Canada). The Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève holds an incomplete set, lacking volume 2, which they specifically catalogue as in square wrappers. The University of Leeds and Zentralbibliothek Zürich have volumes 1 and 2 only, and copies of volume 3 are at the National Libraries of Israel and Poland. The University of Windsor Leddy Library in Canada catalogues a “two-volume work in three” under this title, dated 1920. 4 volumes, octavo, the first 3 “en carré”. Uncut in the original buff printed wrappers. Diagrams in text. Spines of first 3 vols slanted and creased, wrappers remarkably well preserved, browned and with a few chips, light creases, and short closed tears at extremities, contents in fine condition. ¶ Caillet 1212 (US and UK editions; “This work made an epoch in Occultism”). Maria Carlson, No Religion Higher Than Truth: A History of the Theosophical Movement in Russia, 1875–1922 , 1993; John Golding, Visions of the Modern , 1994; Michael Gomes, foreword to the abridged edition, 1972; Vsevolod Solovyov, A Modern Priestess of Isis , 1895. £3,750 [153829]
ESTABLISHING BOSWELL’S FAME AND ADVANCING THE CORSICAN CAUSE
First edition of Boswell’s first important publication, an account of his travels to Corsica in 1765, where he took up the cause of Corsican independence and befriended the leader Paoli. The publication
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15 BRITISH PRIME MINISTERS. Print of the Houses of Parliament signed by Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair, and others. [c.2003] A superb artefact linking the major figures of British parliamentary life over the last four decades: a print of the Houses of Parliament, signed on the mount by Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher, John Major, and Tony Blair; by four Speakers of the House of Commons, John Bercow, Betty Boothroyd, Bernard Weatherill, and Michael Martin; by two Lord Chancellors, Lord Irvine of Lairg, and Lord Falconer of Thoroton; and by Black Rod Michael Willcocks. Colour print (10 × 15 cm) reproducing Henry Bibby’s “The New Houses of Parliament”, c .1850, in white mount (25 × 30 cm). In black frame with archival acrylic glazing (framed size: 29 × 34.5 cm). Slight tape abrasion on rear of mount, front of mount and image in fine condition. £750 [153460]
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14 BOWIE, David, & Mick Rock. Moonage Daydream. The Life and Times of Ziggy Stardust. Guildford: Genesis Publications Limited, 2002 SIGNED BY DAVID BOWIE AND MICK ROCK First edition, signed limited issue, number 807 of 2,500 copies signed by David Bowie and Mick Rock. “Published to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Ziggy Stardust LP’s original release, Moonage Daydream: The Life and Times of Ziggy Stardust is a collaboration between David Bowie and photographer Mick Rock, and the first and ultimate authorized piece of Ziggy Stardust legend. David Bowie’s sharp, often humorous text discusses the origins of this fascinating stage persona, comments on Mick Rock’s photographs, and overall gives unprecedented insight into Ziggy’s stratospheric two-year career” (publisher’s online prospectus). Folio. Original quarter blue morocco-grain roan, titles in silver and gilt to spine, silver and gilt lightning motifs to pictorial boards, photographic green and orange endpapers, edges silver. With the original packing box. Illustrated with photographs throughout. A fine copy. £3,000 [154718]
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16 BRONTË, Anne, as Acton Bell. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. London: T. C. Newby, 1848 HER FINAL NOVEL First edition, first issue, of Anne Brontë’s last and only separately published novel, which, according to May Sinclair, “reverberated throughout Victorian England” with its realistic and disturbing portrayal of alcoholism and debauchery (Leonardi, p. 314). Thomas Cautley Newby was a notoriously shifty publisher who had taken a deposit for the earlier publication of Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey but failed to publish until the reviews of Jane Eyre proved favourable, then printed fewer than the agreed number, leaving most errors uncorrected. His behaviour on this occasion was little better: he offered it to Harper Brothers of New York for publication in America, implying it was by Currer Bell; printed reviews of Jane Eyre on the half-title verso with the same intent to mislead; and published only about 250 or 300 copies, instead of the agreed 500, leaving the remainder to be sold, with a cancel title and preface, as the second edition. As a result, copies of the first issue are scarce. Michael Sadleir, whose collection of 19th-century literature remains unparalleled among private collections, considered it the scarcest of the Brontë sisters’ works and never found an adequate copy for his collection. This copy includes a few curious early pencil annotations, including a summary on the title page of the third volume as “first rate” and “love truly depicted”. The reader has pencilled out the sentence “it is enough to make one jealous of one’s Maker” (II p. 72), presumably seeing it as blasphemous. 3 volumes, octavo (180 × 112 mm). Early 20th-century green half morocco, spines lettered in gilt, marbled sides and endpapers, top edges gilt. Housed in a custom red cloth slipcase. Bound without half-title and terminal advertisement leaves in vol. I (none issued in other volumes). Old bookseller’s description taped in to front free endpaper of vol. II. Slight rubbing at extremities, bindings firm, generally a little toned and soiled with some light spotting, vol. III pp. 169–82 stained from insertion of botanical specimen. A few scattered repairs: vol. I: pp. 179/80 with repaired short split at head not affecting text, pp. 311/2 with 5 cm repaired tear at head affecting text without loss, pp. 323/4 with 4 cm repaired tear affecting text without loss; vol. II: pp. 27/8 restoration to bottom fore corner not affecting text, slight staining to pp. 85–96; vol. III: repaired short nick to pp. 1/2, unrepaired small nicks at foot of pp. 19–26. A very good copy. ¶ Smith, Brontë 4. Barbara Leonardi, ed., Intersections of Gender, Class, and Race in the Long Nineteenth Century and Beyond , 2018. £25,000 [155156]
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17 BROOMHEAD, Frank. The Zaehnsdorfs (1842–1947). Ravelston: Private Libraries Association / Zaehnsdorf Limited, 1986 First edition, number 4 of 100 copies signed by the author and specially bound by Zaehnsdorf, of this definitive history of the celebrated bookbinders. Octavo (246 × 149 mm). Original brown morocco, spine lettered in gilt, compartments and covers richly gilt, gilt “Z” label at foot of spine and front pastedown, green morocco pastedowns blocked in gilt, brown morocco free endpapers, gilt edges. Housed in a brown cloth slipcase. With colour and black and white illustrations; this signed edition with 2 extra plates in colour. A fine copy. £875 [154131] 18 BROWNE, Thomas Alexander, as “Rolf Boldrewood”. The Miner’s Right [together with proof copy of the same]. London: Macmillan and Co., 1890 RARE 19TH-CENTURY PROOF COPY First edition, paired with an original proof copy, the latter a notably rare survival. The proof copy is printed on thinner paper (bulking 20 mm compared to 25 mm). There are some minor textual variations between the proof and the finished novel (omission of page or chapter numbers,
19 BUSBY, Thomas Lord. Costume of the Lower Orders of the Metropolis. [London: 1822?] First edition of this attractive series of plates depicting the costumes worn by itinerant vendors
spelling and punctuation corrections), noted in pencil on the rear pastedowns. The printing is of a noticeably poorer quality, as is occasionally the case with proof copies. The Miner’s Right was the author’s second major work, following Robbery Under Arms . It was based on Browne’s first-hand experiences at Gulgon, a gold- mining town in New South Wales, where he served as a magistrate and gold fields commissioner. Browne’s novels “exactly suited the prevailing British taste for exotic adventure stories. In Australia, Browne’s exaggerated respect for rank and his predilection for gentlemanly English heroes were mocked by his younger, more nationalistic contemporaries, but for all their romantic absurdities his best novels were deservedly praised for the authenticity of their scenes of life in the bush, their convincing rendition of Australian speech and character, and their lively evocation of recent historical events” ( ODNB ). Together 6 volumes, octavo. Published novel: 3 volumes, original red cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt, front covers with publisher’s device in gilt, black endpapers, trimmed edges. Proof novel: original boards, spines lettered by hand with volume numbers, plain endpapers, trimmed edges. Published novel: spines lightly sunned with minor lean, some soiling to covers, printed label reading “Fasque” to front covers over publisher’s device. Proof: some wear at extremities, rubbed and a little soiled, joints neatly repaired, inked mark to front pastedown of vol. I. Both very good copies. ¶ Wolff 580. £3,750 [154222]
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and labourers during the early part of the 19th century. According to Beall, the plates were issued to illustrate Samuel Leigh’s New Picture of London , though also available separately. Duodecimo (137 × 85 mm). Early 20th-century blue calf by Rivière & Son, spine richly gilt in compartments and with red morocco label, twin gilt rules to covers, gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. With 24 hand-coloured etched plates, including title; one watermarked “1817”, the rest undated. Slight application of colour at spine ends, spine sunned, binding firm, contents with slight toning and spotting with contemporary notation on recto of one plate; a very good copy. ¶ Beall E43. Not in Abbey (this a different edition with different plates to Busby’s “Costumes of the Lower Orders of London”). £950 [154452] 20 CANTILLON, Richard. Essai sur la nature du commerce général. London: Fletcher Gyles [but Paris: Guillyn,] 1755 “THE CRADLE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY” (JEVONS) First edition of a founding text in economics, of which William Stanley Jevons declared: “Cantillon’s essay is, more emphatically than any other single work, ‘the Cradle of Political Economy’” (Jevons, p. 68). Richard Cantillon ( c .1680–1734) was an Irish- born banker and economist, forced to emigrate to continental Europe by the Williamite confiscations. He honed his financial skills working for the British army’s paymaster-general during the latter stages of the War of the Spanish Succession. He next proved his understanding of the market by making fortunes speculating against John Law’s Mississippi Company and by purchasing put options (the right to sell at a predetermined price) during the height of the South Sea Bubble. His successful speculations reinforced his view that the monetary system must be based on intrinsically valuable metals. The Essai , Cantillon’s only published economic work, carries the imprint of Fletcher Gyles, a leading London bookseller who had died some 14 years earlier: actually, the book was published clandestinely but with a “permission tacite” by Guillyn in Paris. The “Traduit de l’Anglois” notice on the title is false. “Cantillon’s Essai is notable for its model building, its analysis of market forces and the role of the entrepreneur, its outline of the circular flow of income, and its monetary theory. Cantillon was the
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first real model builder in economics. His method was to conceptualize the essentials of the economic world and represent them in a simplified model which became more and more complex through the provision of further interlocking elements. To achieve this, in Cartesian style, he stripped the economy down to its bare essentials to determine the fundamental forces at work. He started with a landlord-dominated, barter, command economy which was closed off from the rest of the world. In this primitive structure three socio-economic classes, the landlord, overseers, and workers, interacted. By degrees he transformed this structure from a command economy to a market economy, from a barter system to a monetary system, and from a closed economy to an open economy” ( ODNB ). The Essai had a significant influence in developing Quesnay’s circular flow of income and on Adam Smith’s theory of resource allocation in the Wealth of Nations (1776). In distinguishing between market price and intrinsic value and showing how resources moved into those sectors where the market price was above intrinsic value and away from those sectors where market price was below intrinsic value, Cantillon influenced Smith’s famous distinction between market price and natural price. He also pre-empted later studies of human population, with a brief but almost complete anticipation of the principles of Malthus.
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This copy has the contemporary book label to the front pastedown of “Du cabinet De M. Sermet, Directeur des Fermes du Roi”. The Fermes du Roi was part of the Ferme générale, the extremely unpopular system of tax farming which supported, and ultimately undermined, the ancien régime. The physiocrats, of which Cantillon was a founding member, opposed the Ferme générale and proposed reform to make taxation directly administered by the state, but the vast organization acted as a block to change in the run up to the Revolution, whereupon the institution was ended. Duodecimo (163 × 100 mm). Contemporary mottled calf, red morocco label, gilt in compartments, marbled endpapers and edges. Woodcut title page device, head- and tailpieces. A very small number of copies contain at the end a copy of Barrois’s catalogue of publications for sale, which lists Cantillon’s work with his initial, here not present. Joints and extremities neatly restored, small wormhole at foot of rear joint, contents clean and crisp. ¶ Books That Made Europe , p. 140; Cossa 243.1; Einaudi 846; En français dans le texte 159; Goldsmiths’ 8989; Higgs 938; INED 933; Kress 5423; Mattioli 552; McCulloch 52; Sraffa 682. William Stanley Jevons, “Richard Cantillon and the Nationality of Political Economy”, in The Contemporary Review , vol. 39, 1881. £47,500 [154671]
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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21 CHAGALL, Marc. The Jerusalem Windows. New York: George Brazillier Inc. in association with Horizon Magazine, 1962 WITH TWO ORIGINAL LITHOGRAPHS First edition in English, a superb presentation of Chagall’s magnificent stained-glass windows, 12 designs depicting the ancient tribes of Israel, which met with worldwide praise and were soon recognized as among the finest specimens of modern religious art. The volume includes, bound in as issued, two original Chagall lithographs. The windows were first exhibited in Paris in June 1961 and later at the Museum of Modern Art in New York before installation in February 1962 in their permanent home of the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Centre in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Windows , published the same year as the French edition, Vitraux pour Jerusalem , remains the definitive work on the windows, and is renowned for the richness of its illustrations. Chagall produced the two original lithographs especially for the book, and directed the printing of a further 36 lithographs of preparatory colour designs.
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First edition in English of the author’s final play, considered by many as his masterpiece. The Cherry Orchard premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre on 17 January 1904 under the direction of Constantin Stanislavski, who famously decided to direct the play as a tragedy when Chekhov had intended it as a comedy. Charles W. Meister notes in a paper on the reception of Chekhov in England and America that “in 1908 Professor Max S. Mandell of Yale translated the first full-length Chekhov play to appear in English [and] Mandell printed with the play a letter by Alla Nazimova”. The title page for this edition notes that publication was “under the supervision of the Dramatic Department of the Yale Courant ”. The bookplate appears to be that of Grant E. Hamilton (1862–1926), an American political cartoonist and Yale alumnus. Octavo. Original black cloth, front cover lettered in gilt. Housed in a custom black cloth folding box. Folding plate of a letter in facsimile from Alla Nazimova praising the
Tall quarto. Original red cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt, pictorial endpapers. With dust jacket. Housed in the publisher’s card slipcase, printed paper label to front panel. Illustrated throughout with 2 original lithographs and 36 colour preparatory lithographic designs, some of which are in 20 colours, all printed by Mourlot Fréres, black and white photographs and illustrations. A fine copy in near- fine jacket, with a hint of rubbing and very minor nicks at extremities, and very good box, with light peripheral wear and split along top joints but holding, and a handwritten ink note on the rear panel “For Perkal – do no sell [ sic ]” (perhaps the US bookseller Joan Perkal). £1,250 [155110] 22 CHEKHOV, Anton. The Cherry Garden (The Cherry Orchard). New Haven: The Yale Courant, 1908 THE FIRST FULL-LENGTH CHEKHOV PLAY TO APPEAR IN ENGLISH
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The China Press (Chinese: “Dalu bao”) was founded in 1911 by the American journalist Thomas Franklin Fairfax Millard (1868–1942), known to contemporaries as the “dean of American newspapermen in the Orient” (Weinberg, p. 119). “Millard had started the China Press partly with the vision that the paper should promote contact between the foreign community and the Chinese. He went so far as to install several prominent Chinese on the paper’s board of directors and actively sought to promote China stories to the front pages using the adage that news about China should be treated in the same way as the big New York papers covered US news” (French, p. 22). The China Press broke the news of the fall of the Qing dynasty and the ascendancy of Sun Yat-sen, outmanoeuvring more established rivals such as the North China Daily News . Slim quarto. Original card wrappers, stapled as issued, front cover lettered in red and black with vignette and Chinese inscription on red ground. Folding map of Shanghai, folding plate after photographs by the Ah Fong studio, illustrations in text by Leslie Shaw. Inkstamped on the front wrapper, “China Club of Seattle”: it was founded in 1916 to promote American investment in China, and its activities were regularly featured in other publications in Millard’s Chinese media empire. Wrappers bright, small faint tidemark at upper left corner of front cover, lower tip of covers and book block lightly bumped, a little even toning internally, illustrations clean. A very good copy indeed. ¶ Paul French, Carl Crow, A Tough Old China Hand: The Life, Times and Adventures of an American in Shanghai , 2007; Steve Weinberg, A Journalism of Humanity: A Candid History of the World’s First Journalism School , 2008. £950 [155033]
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translation. Spine tips slightly worn, spine slightly sunned, abrasions to front cover, light browning to endpapers; a very good and internally clean copy. ¶ Meister 173; Charles W. Meister, “Chekhov’s Reception in England and America”, The American Slavic and East European Review , February 1953, pp.
Octavo. Original black cloth, spine lettered in white, and front boat with boat design blocked in white. Folding map frontispiece. 4 pp. publisher’s advertisements at the rear. Small ink ownership inscription to front pastedown. A near- fine copy with the cloth unusually fresh and the cover design still bright, lettering flaked in some places to spine but much better preserved than usual, minimal rubbing to tips only, minor small abrasion to rear cover, spotting to edges and occasionally within but generally a smart clean copy, sound and unrepaired. £8,000 [154929] 24 THE CHINA PRESS. Shanghai: the Gateway of China. Shanghai: The China Press, 1922 Sole edition of this genuinely scarce introduction to Shanghai, also serving as a promotional brochure for the China Press , a major English-language newspaper in coastal cities. We have traced only one institutional copy, at the University of Oregon.
109–121. £6,500
[154457]
23 CHILDERS, Erskine. The Riddle of the Sands. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1903 THE FIRST MODERN SPY NOVEL First edition of Childers’s only novel, and the first modern spy novel. Childers wrote this tale of coastal espionage as a call to the British government to look to its North Sea defences. Copies of this Haycraft- Queen cornerstone surviving in collector’s condition, fresh and untouched by repair, are rare.
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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place in the social hierarchy both as a commodity object and as information” (Stolarski, p. 4). Cabinet card (164 × 108 mm), mounted gelatine photograph (140 × 103 mm) with glossy finish, card lettered in red in Russian and Chinese. Small scuff to upper right corner of photograph, image substantially unaffected, couple of faint stains to card, verso skinned where sometime mounted. A very good example. ¶ Christopher Stolarski, “The Rise of Photojournalism in Russia and the Soviet Union, 1900– 1931”, PhD Diss., 2013. £600 [154515] 26 CHINESE TEA CULTURE. Photographs of the famous Willow Pattern Tea House, Shanghai. United States: various publishers, [1900–36] SCARCE VIEWS OF A CULTURAL LANDMARK A collection of scarce photographs of Shanghai’s renowned Willow Pattern Tea House in the late Qing and early republican eras. These images capture the bustling atmosphere o photo@peterharrington.co.uk sent you 154867_4_Chapman.eps via WeTransfer f sociability, consumption, and conversation in this quintessential Chinese urban institution, and show how tea houses acted as barometers of socio-cultural change during China’s transition to modernity. The Willow Pattern Tea House (Chinese: Huxinting or Woo Sing Ding), thought to be one of the oldest tea houses in China, is named after its similarity to the design of blue and white willow pattern crockery. Built in the 16th century near the Yu Gardens as a scholar’s retre photo@peterharrington. co.uk sent you 154867_4_Chapman.eps via WeTransfer at, it was restored and converted into a tea house in 1855. Among its most distinctive features is the zigzagging Nine Curve Bridge used to cross the surrounding lake. A draw for many dignitaries, Willow Pattern was visited by Elizabeth II in 1986 and by Bill Clinton in 1998. In addition to the early 1930s panorama, this collection includes four stereograph cards: a) “Where Shanghai’s Wealthy Natives Pass the Time – Chinese Tea House, China”. Underwood & Underwood. Albumen print, photograph taken c .1900 by the traveller James Ricalton (1844–1929). We have traced copies in the Library of Congress, Museum of New Zealand, and UC Riverside. b) “A Pretty Little Tea House Known as the Willow Pattern, Shanghai, China” (two copies). H. C. White
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25 CHINESE IN RUSSIA. Cabinet card showing two Chinese women. Vladivostok: Livay Studio, No. 11 Svetlanskaya Street, [c.1890] A scarce late 19th-century record of styles of clothing and foot-binding followed by well-to-do Chinese women in the Russian border city of Vladivostok. The Livay photographic studio catered specifically to Chinese residents and visitors; we have not been able to trace any other surviving examples of its work. Following China’s transfer of the Haishenwei region to the tsar in 1860, Vladivostok became a thriving centre of economic activity and cultural interchange. This photograph is a pleasing corrective to the many surviving photographs of late-imperial Chinese women, often produced in cities such as Shanghai, which adopt an orientalizing gaze. Photography remained the preserve of the very wealthy in Russia until the 1860s, when technological changes fuelled an explosion in the number of photographic studios in major cities. “In the hands of commercial studio photographers, the medium retained its original social function, namely ‘to solemnize and to immortalize’ the portrayed subject. The studio photograph was an index and a means of communicating one’s status; it indicated the sitter’s
Co. Silver gelatine print, photograph taken in 1901, card issued in 1903 or later. Series number 22, negative 3729. No institutional copies traced. c) “Where a Famous Oriental Love Story was Born”. Keystone View Company. Silver gelatine print, series number 981, negative 23979, issued in Keystone’s 1,200-card “Tour of the World” series (1935/6). We have traced examples at William & Mary and Marist; full sets appear occasionally in commerce. The earliest photograph, “Where Shanghai’s Wealthy Natives Pass the Time”, shows men of a range of ages in the tea house’s refined surroundings, all with prescribed queues and mostly looking out the window, likely toward some form of entertainment or performance typically laid on for patrons at the best tea venues. “A Pretty Little Tea House” shows the exterior as seen looking over the Nine Curve Bridge;
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