Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

AMERICA. - Jacob D. WHEELER. A Practical Treatise on the Law of Slavery. Being a Compilation of all the Decisions Made on that Subject, in the Several Courts of the United States, and State Courts. New York and New Orleans: Allan Pollock, Jr. and Benjamin Levy, 1837. First edition, 8vo (233 x 150mm.) Title, 1p. publisher's advertisement, 14pp. 'Table of Cases'. (Text-block cracked at p.128 and fragile, preliminaries and first leaves loose, toning, occasional creasing.) Contemporary sheep (worn). Note: scarce. One of the first digests of American law on slavery. It was initially used as a legal guide by slaveholders but came to be used by abolitionists for its descriptions of cruelty. Slavery was finally abolished in the U.S. by the 13th Amendment in 1865.

[SWIFT, Jonathan.] 'Lemuel GULLIVER'. Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. London: Macmillan and Co., 1894. 8vo (180 x 117mm.) Profusely illustrated by Charles E. Brock. (Occasional, minor spotting.) Original blue cloth, pictorial gilt to spine and upper cover, g.e. (slight spine lean). - And a further eleven illustrated volumes (including Jessie Pope's 'The Cat Scouts' illustrated by Louis Wain, [1912], 4to, and 'The Sleeping Beauty' told by C.S. Evans and illustrated by Arthur Rackham, 1920, 4to, and Walter Crane's 'Flora's Feast, a Masque of Flowers', 1889, 4to) (12).

[NEWBERY, John (publisher). A Little Pretty Pocket Book Intended for the Instruction and Amusement of Little Master Tommy and Pretty Miss Polly with two letters from Jack the Giant Killer… to which is added A Little Song-Book. London: John Newbery, circa 1770.] 32mo (98 x 62mm.) 54 woodcut illustrations in the text with later hand-colouring to accompany verses related to children's games and pastimes, with 'A Letter From Jack the Giant Killer to Pretty Miss Polly', with 'Fables' and 'A Poetical Description of the Four Seasons' to the rear. (Lacking title-page and all leaves before B1, and all after F1, browning, some corner loss to first leaves.) Later wrappers (endpapers replaced). Note: scarce. Contains the first mention of the sport 'base-ball'. The text begins on p.17 and runs to p.82, lacking at least eight leaves at the front and four leaves to the rear (if it is the 1770 edition), lacking six leaves to rear if it is the 1760 edition. The first edition was published in 1744 but no copies of any editions before 1760 have surfaced. It was John Newbery's first children's book and its special status is in its new approach of attempting to instruct and amuse children in a way that would lead to the 'invention' of childhood as an distinct phase of development in the 19th century. If children were no longer considered as having been born innately sinful, then moral behaviour had to be learnt. To this end, John Newbery published the book with a promotional tie-in. It was sold with the option of buying either a ball for a boy or a pin-cushion for a girl and - as a marker in the art of moral behaviour- the child would push a pin into the ball or cushion on having accomplished, or felt they had accomplished, a moral act.

RACKHAM, Arthur (illustrator). - Thomas MALORY. The Romance of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table, abridged… by Alfred W. Pollard. London: Macmillan and Co. Limited, 1917. First edition illustrated by Rackham, 4to (211 x 163mm.) 16 tipped-in colour plates with captioned tissue-guards. (Toning, upper hinge weakening.) Original blue cloth with pictorial gilt (extremities bumped and rubbed, marks to spine panel). - And a further volume (Arthur Conan Doyle's 'The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes', 1894, 8vo) (2).

BANTING, John. A Blue Book of Conversation. London: Editions Poetry, 1946. First edition, 8vo (242 x 183mm.) 25 cyanotype illustrations by John Banting. (Spotting to front-free endpaper, toning.) Original blue cloth (spine ends rubbed, minor soiling to lower cover).

BEWICK, Thomas. History of British Birds. Newcastle: by Sol Hodgson, for Beilby and Bewick, 1797-1804. 2 vols., first editions. Numerous wood-engraved illustrations and vignettes, advertisement for the fourth edition of 'A General History of Quadrupeds' verso last leaf volume 1. (Toning, occasional faint spotting.) [Bound with:] 'A Supplement to the History of British Birds'. Parts 1 and 2. Newcastle: Edward Walker, 1821. (Toning.) 8vo (234 x 143mm.) Late 19th century half calf over marbled paper-covered boards, t.e.g. (sunning to spines, endpapers replaced, some rubbing and scuffing to extremities). Note: the vignette of the pigsty on p.285 is partially inked out.

BINDINGS. - W. Cooke TAYLOR. Life and Times of Sir Robert Peel. London: Peter Jackson, Late Fisher, Son, & Co., [1846-1851.] 4 vols., 8vo (209 x 131mm.) Engraved vignette to title-page of volume 1, 84 engraved plates with tissue-guards. (Toning, occasional minor spotting.) Early 20th century brown full morocco, two burgundy morocco lettering pieces to spines (faint rubbing) (4).

MINIATURE BOOK. The Bible in Miniature, or a Concise History of the Old and New Testaments. London: E. Newbery, 1780. 64mo (41 x 24mm.) 2 engraved titles, 14 engraved plates. (Some corner and marginal creasing, occasional spotting, lacking initial blank.) Contemporary calf (rubbing to extremities).

HODGSON & CO. (publisher). The New House that Jack Built. London: Hodgson & Co., Dec 26th 1822, 12mo (175 x 108mm.) Wood-engraved title with hand-colouring, 12 wood-engraved hand-coloured illustrations with text on 12 leaves. (Toning.) Original wrappers. - And a further five comical volumes (including the fourth edition of F.W.N. Bayley's 'The New Tale of a Tub, an Adventure in Verse', 1850, 12mo, and four volumes of Thomas Hood's 'The Comic Annual', 1834-1838, 12mo) (6).

WISDEN, John (publisher). Cricketers' Almanack 1944. London: Sporting Handbooks Ltd., 1944. 8vo (163 x 104mm.) Advertisements, photographic illustrations. (Toning.) Original cloth covers (crease to lower cover).

HARDY, Thomas. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - a Pure Woman, Faithfully Presented. London: James R. Osgood, 1891. 3 vols., first edition, first issue, 8vo (189 x 120mm.) Half-titles. (Browning and spotting to pastedowns and fore-edges, lacking initial blanks in vols. 1 and 2 and rear blank in vol. 1.) Original tan cloth with the double vertical honeysuckle design by Charles Ricketts on the upper covers, spines lettered in gilt (some damp-staining and soiling to boards, sunning to spines). Note: as required volume 2 has chapter XXXV misnumbered as XXV on p.199. Provenance: Robert Milnes-Crewe (bookplates to the front pastedowns). [Purdy, p.67] (3).

HARDY, Thomas. The Woodlanders. London: Macmillan and Co., 1887. 3 vols., first edition, 8vo (191 x 123mm.) Half-titles, 2pp. advertisement leaf to rear of volume 1. (Toning.) Original pebbled-green cloth, blocked in black to upper covers, blind-stamped to lower covers, gilt lettering to spines (some chipping to spine ends, fading to gilt of volume 2, endpapers replaced). Note: one of 1000 copies that were originally printed, with only 860 being bound for the first state. The novel that Hardy occasionally singled out as being his personal favourite. Provenance: F. Swinton Isaac (name inscribed to half-titles). [Purdy, 54-57] (3).

BURTON, Richard F. The Gold-Mines of Midian and The Ruined Midianite Cities. A Fortnight's Tour in North-Western Arabia. London: C. Kegan Paul & Co., 1878. Second edition, 8vo (218 x 133mm.) Folding lithographed map of North-Western Arabia to rear, 1p. and 32pp. of publisher's advertisements to rear. (Toning, spotting to front and rear leaves.) Original red cloth blocked in black and gilt (extremities rubbed, small marks to lower cover). Provenance: Gregg Wilson (prize bookplate to front pastedown). - And two further volumes by Richard F. Burton ('Unexplored Syria', 2 vols., 1872, 8vo, lacking plates) (3).

BURTON, Richard F. (translator). - Giambattista BASILE. 'Gian Alesio Abbattutis'. Il Pentamerone; or, The Tale of Tales. London: Henry and Co., 1893. 2 vols. Limited edition, this being number 94 of 165 large paper copies, large 8vo (255 x 156mm.) (Toning, spotting to endpapers). Original brown cloth (extremities bumped, some rubbing to spine ends). Note: 'Gian Alesio Abbattutis' was an anagrammatic pseudonym for 'Giambattista Basile'. Originally published in Naples in 1634, the 'Il Pentamerone' contains the earliest variants of many fairy tales (2).

BURTON, Richard F. (translator). The Lands of Cazembe. Lacerda's Journey to Cazembe in 1798. London: John Murray, 1873. First edition, 8vo (213 x 125mm.) Folding lithographed map, hand-coloured in outline, index to rear. (Toning, blanks replaced.) Late 20th century black half morocco over grey cloth-covered boards, gilt lettering to spine (endpapers replaced). - And a further volume of the same work, bound in the same style, but over tan cloth-covered boards (2).

BURTON, Richard F. Ultima Thule; or, A Summer in Iceland. London: William P. Nimmo, 1875. 2 vols., first edition, 8vo (217 x 135mm.) Half-titles, 6 tinted lithographs, including frontispieces and the plan, 2 folding colour maps, woodcut illustrations in the text and some full-page, 16pp. publisher's advertisements to rear. (Browned to margins, 1 plate damp-stained.) Late-20th Century burgundy half morocco over marbled paper-covered boards (endpapers replaced). Provenance: York Subscription Library (neat stamp to preliminaries) (2).

BURTON, Richard F. Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1855-1856. 3 vols., first edition, 8vo (213 x 133mm.) 14 plates, including 8 tinted lithographs, 5 chromo-lithographed and 1 wood-engraved plate, 3 folding maps and plans, errata leaf in vol. 1. (Toning, 1 quire loosening in vol. 1, 1 plate mounted later, lacking advertisements, lacking half title to vol. 3.) Bound to style in 21st century blue cloth, gilt lettering to spines (endpapers replaced). Note: only vol. 3 calls for a half title. Burton was the first English Christian to enter Mecca and the first European to travel between the holy cities of Islam by the Eastern route. It was on this pilgrimage that he dressed in disguise as an Indian Muslim and where - performing the rituals of the hajj and witnessing the sermon at the end of the pilgrimage- he came to understand Islam as being equally profound as Christianity and Judaism. Provenance: Thomas Dewhirst (stamp to titles and name inscribed to half-titles); Manchester Grammar School (embossed stamp to titles). [Penzer, pp. 49-50] (3).

BURTON, Richard F. The Memorial Edition of the Works of Captain Sir Richard F. Burton. London: Tylston and Edwards, 1893-1894. 7 vols., 8vo (211 x 131mm.) 2 frontispieces, a folding map, 13 plates and 3 folding plans in 'A Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah', 2 frontispieces to 'A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome', 1 frontispiece to 'Vikran and the Vampire, or, Tales of Hindu Devilry', 2 frontispieces, 2 plates and 2 maps to 'First Footsteps in East Africa', 2 publisher's promotional slips. (Toning, corner crease to frontispiece of vol. 1 of 'A Mission to Gelele', occasional minor spotting to front and rear leaves.) Original black cloth, pictorial gilt to covers (minor rubbing, occasional scuffing or nicks to covers) (7).

BURTON, Richard F. - W.H. WILKINS. The Romance of Isabel Lady Burton. London: Hutchinson & Co., 1897. 2 vols., first edition, 8vo (216 x 139mm.) 2 engraved portrait frontispieces, photographic plates. (Toning.) Original mustard cloth, t.e.g. (some fading and discolour to spines). Provenance: Society of Writers to Her Majesty's Signet (bookplates to the front pastedowns). - And a further six volumes related to Richard F. Burton (including, with a tipped in a.l.s., N.M. Penzer's 'Annotated Bibliography of Sir Richard Francis Burton', 1923, 4to) (8).