affecting text) at foot of O2, colouring to woodcuts offset. A very good copy. ¶ ESTC S103621. £15,000 [154014] 16 BIRD, Isabella. Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan. London: John Murray, 1891 “travel was prescribed – and she became addicted” First edition of one of the most important English accounts of Persia in the 19th century by the most notable woman traveller of her time. A desirable set, rarely found in such collectible condition. After the death of her husband, the doctor John Bishop, Bird “planned to ride across little known parts of Turkey and Persia, to visit Christian outposts and the ancient communities of the Armenians and Nestorians in Kurdistan. She fell in with Major Herbert Sawyer of the Indian army. Her reputation as a traveller must have preceded her, for the tough officer of 38 agreed to set off with the widow of 60 (said to be in poor health)” ( ODNB ). The year after publication, Bird (1831- 1904) became among the first women elected to the Royal Geographical Society. Two volumes, octavo. Original light blue cloth, spines lettered in gilt, front covers decoratively stamped in blue with lettering and concentric frames gilt, patterned endpapers. Portrait frontispiece of the author in vol. I, 12 engraved plates including the frontispiece in vol. II, 22 illustrations in text, 2 folding coloured maps (“The Bakhtiari Country” at end of vol. I, general map at end of vol. II, both showing the author’s routes). With the publisher’s 2 pp. advertisements at end of vol. I. Occasional neat marginal annotations in blue pencil. Cloth lightly sunned with scattered faint browning, vol. II with small stain on rear cover and neat repairs to front inner hinge, touch of fraying at extremities, occasional foxing (mostly to endpapers), cover decoration bright and sharp. A very good set indeed. ¶ Robinson, pp. 82–3; Wilson, p. 23. £2,000 [160885]
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14 BELL, Gertrude Lowthian. Spelter bust, c.1926? a remarkable depiction of the extraordinary explorer
The work was expanded in 1496 with a chapter on fishing, and reprinted, in whole or in part, several times in the 16th century, all of which are rare. A further edition followed in 1596, and then, aside from an abridgement of 1600, no further edition was published until the 19th century. Gervase Markham (1568–1637) was a prolific author in a variety of subjects. He partly modernized the language for this edition, but did not revise the subject matter, and gave it the new title of The Gentlemans Academie . His edition was never reprinted. Small quarto (181 × 128 mm). Early 19th-century half russia, spine lettered in gilt with compartments blocked in blind. Housed in a custom brown quarter morocco solander box. With woodcut coats of arms in text, most with contemporary hand colouring. Catalogue clipping of the book (apparently this copy) on front free endpaper, from John and George Todd’s General Catalogue of an Extensive Collections of Books , 1817, number 9962; pencilled Quaritch collation note on rear pastedown; minor early annotations in margins. With the bookplate of Hercules George Robert Robinson, 1st Baron Rosmead (1824–1897), 5th Governor of Hong Kong, 14th Governor of New South Wales, first Governor of Fiji, and 8th Governor of New Zealand. Slight splits along joints and wear at extremities, holding firm, front free endpaper loosening a little, title leaf cut and laid down, bound without A1 (blank save for signature mark) and blanks Ll3–4 and Dd4, slight loss at head of M2 affecting headline, some very light staining and soiling to contents, a little closely cropped at head occasionally shaving pagination and headings, small chip repaired (not
to foot of plinth in typescript reading “Gertrude Bell (1868– 1926). Traveller, archaeologist, and government servant. Died Bagdad [ sic ] & buried there”. Signed by the artist at the back “E W Steele”; we have been unable to trace the identity of the sculptor. In fine condition. £3,000 [135639] 15 BERNERS, Juliana (attrib.) The Gentlemans Academie. Or, The Booke of S. Albans . London: Printed for Humfrey Lownes, and are to be sold at his shop, 1595 the earliest english printed book with a female author First edition under the editorship of Gervase Markham. The Book of Saint Albans marked numerous “firsts” upon its first publication in 1486: the first printed English armorial, the first printed book on field sports and heraldry, the first book with engravings printed in colours, the first printed book containing English popular rhymes, and, if the speculative but generally accepted attribution to Juliana Berners is correct, the earliest English printed book with a female author. Though much of Dame Juliana Berners’s life is a mystery, she is considered to be the Prioress of Sopwell Abbey in Hertfordshire, a cell of St Albans Abbey founded under the Benedictine Order in 1140.
A striking bust, depicting Bell as a mature and imposing woman dressed in a shawl suitable for life in the Middle East. This is an apparently unique depiction of Bell, as portraits rarely depict her in Arab dress or without her signature pearl necklace. “Bell’s adult life divided into three phases. In the first, during the 1890s, contemporaries saw her as ‘an accomplished young lady of good family and brilliant intellectual gifts.’ But dissatisfied with the conventional role of domesticity and philanthropy assigned to well-to-do, unmarried women, she turned to independent travel, first in the Alps, then in the Middle East, with the intellectual dimensions of archaeological discovery and political observation. The latter enabled her to assume a public role as the First World War and the end of Ottoman rule in Arab lands created an official outlet for her expertise. At her death she was commemorated as a brilliant public servant, who helped to shape the post-war settlement in the Middle East and in particular the creation of the kingdom of Iraq” ( ODNB ). Spelter bust on contemporary wooden plinth (290 × 176 mm at tallest and widest points; wooden plinth 138 mm in diameter, 98 mm in height). Label
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All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
LOUDER THAN WORDS
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