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Hinton, L. Hawes and W. Clarke [and 21 others in London], 1774 Fourth edition of Postlethwayt’s famous dictionary on 18th-century trade and commerce. Postlethwayt was for many years “employed by the prime minister, Robert Walpole, as a writer and government publicist . . . In addition to his government work Postlethwayt devoted much of the 1740s and 1750s to the preparation of his major work, The Universal Dictionary , which appeared in instalments between 1751 and 1755 and subsequently as a two-volume work . . . It contained many practical articles on inventions and improvements, as well as on commercial practice such as banking, commercial bills, and customs house business, hence catering for the considerable interest in compendia of knowledge of the mid-eighteenth century” ( ODNB ). 2 volumes, folio (432 × 270 mm). Contemporary spinkled calf, early 20th-century reback, brown morocco labels. Engraved frontispiece and 24 maps (all double-page, some folding). With the late 18th-/early 19th-century bookplate of one “H. Lushington Esq”, and the later 19th-century bookplate of Stoneleigh Abbey. Some wear at extremities, frontispiece and maps offset, some light foxing but generally clean, 19 cm closed tear affecting text to vol. I leaf 6H2, minor printing flaw to leaf 8G1 of the same, 8 cm closed tear slight affecting text to vol. II leaf 11F1. A very good copy. ¶ ESTC T147505. £1,750 [158479]
was simultaneously occurring on both sides of the Atlantic and epitomised in the revival of the art of the book as a symbol of idealised craftsmanship” (O’Connell, p. 61) The British-born Patton was a naturalized Australian musician who introduced the Tonic Sol-fa sight-singing method into Japan and China through her successful singing conservatories. Described as one of the 19th century’s “outstanding figures in music education” (Stevens, p. 40), she was also an experienced author and traveller, journeying to remote areas of Japan and visiting several cities in China. Square octavo, pp. 36. Original illustrated chirimen (crepe paper) wrappers, silver silk thread musubi toji binding, tan silk backstrip, front cover lettered in purple and black. Woodblock colour illustrations throughout. Wrappers bright with light foxing and inevitable creasing, just a little spotting to text, more pronounced on pp. 33/34 but never detracting from the illustrations. A very good copy indeed. ¶ Rogala 894 (“one of Hasegawa’s best crepe paper productions”). Allison O’Connell, “Takejirō Hasegawa’s Fairy Tale Series: Japanese crepe paper books”, The La Trobe Journal , no. 105, September 2020, pp. 58–71. £1,750 [156262] 115 POSTLETHWAYT, Malachy. The Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce. London: printed for W. Strahan, J. and F. Rivington, J.
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114 PATTON, Emily Sophia. Japanese Topsyturvy- Dom. Tokyo: Takejiro Hasegawa, 1896 presentation copy of “one of hasegawa’s best crepe paper productions” First and only edition, presentation copy, inscribed on the first page to “Mr William Abbs, from Mrs Patton, 1909”. This is a beautiful example of the work of the publisher Takejiro Hasegawa, whose signature crepe paper books remain highly prized today. Institutional records note only one copy of Japanese Topsyturvy-Dom in the UK (University of Cambridge), with copies correspondingly scarce in commerce. Hasegawa (1853–1938) began his publishing business in 1884, specialising in attractive English- language books made using crepe paper. Their appeal to foreign audiences lay in Hasegawa’s ingenious combination of Western book culture – for example reading left to right – with seemingly exotic Japanese elements such as woodblock printing and fine paper. “The books can be seen in parallel with the international Arts and Crafts movement, which
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All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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