Binding:  Signed binding by Cedric Chivers: Brown morocco, covers with gilt-stamped Art Nouveau curved designs and inlaid flowers of red morocco; front cover with painted rendition of the author's “Beata Beatrix” in one of Chivers's famed Vellucent panels. Spine stamped in gilt with red inlaid flowers, turn-ins with gilt-stamped corner fleurons. Top edge gilt.

•  Binding as above, spine and board edges darkened, minor traces of wear to extremities, spine head with small chip. Offsetting to free endpapers from turn-ins. Front fly-leaf with inked gift inscription dated 1919. Pages clean.  (27380)

The present sonnet is printed on wove paper and its typography points to the ten-year period indicated. Above the drop-title isan excellent wood engraving of the Virgin of Guadalupe. The first line reads, “Y que solo el dolor y la tristura”.

Apparently not in WorldCat or NUC.

•  Not in Grajales & Burrus.   Faint age-toning; edges a little crumpled and with a few short tears. Lower outer corner torn just touching the type-ornament border. A nice surviving copy.  (30216)

Diego Bringas de Manzaneda y Encinas was a Franciscan and his epitome of Abad's work is written in “octava rima”: as such it holds an important place in Mexican colonial-era poetry, especially in the subgenre of Christian poetry.

The work's chief themes are the Immaculate Conception and the attributes of God, but it also delves into the relation of science and our understanding of the cosmos: Newton and Huygens are specifically mentioned in the section on knowledge.

•  Palau 258 & 35854; DeBacker-Sommervogel, I, 3; Medina, Mexico, 7400.   Contemporary vellum over light boards. All edges green. A very nice copy of a significant work of early Mexican poetry, religion, and, at points, science.  (29433)

Binding: Publisher's red cloth imitating pebbled morocco, covers blind-stamped, spine gilt-stamped; all edges gilt.

•  Cloth rubbed over corners and spine extremities, with spine slightly darkened. Front pastedown with old (Catholic) institutional bookplate. Pages age-toned.  (14203)

Binding:  Publisher's tan cloth, front cover stamped in black and orange, with affixed chromolithographic illustration of the sorcerer opening the hidden door for Aladdin, spine with black-stamped title.

•  Binding as above, shaken, with light dust-soiling and light rubbing to extremities, edges, and cover chromolithograph; spine with small bits of cloth lost at had and foot. Front free endpaper lacking, frontispiece recto with (childish?) ownership inscriptions and geometric doodles, title-page with same name and pencilled inscription reading “The meaning of Aladdin is the Glory of Religion.” Sewing loosening, with frontispiece and first few leaves separating along inner margin from foot. Scattered light smudges and spots. Clearly a touch over-loved by at least one youthful reader, but still delightful.  (29134)

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 396.   Binding as above, in original glassine dust wrapper and publisher's slipcase; volume clean and fresh, wrapper with small chips to spine extremities, slipcase gently sunned and with a little soiling, one corner bumped.  (30120)

•  Publisher's quarter cloth with paper-covered sides, corners the slightest bit rubbed; original slipcase, this sunned and abraded with “spine” broken. Danish copyright information lined through, volume otherwise clean and quite nice internally.  (24517)

Histoire de l'oeil was translated from the French as A tale of satisfied desire by “Audiart,” a pseudonym for Austryn Wainhouse (a.k.a. Pieralessandro Casavini), an American Harvard graduate employed by the Olympia Press in Paris who received the National Book Award in 1972 for his translation of Jacques Monod's Chance and Necessity. Adapted from Bataille's revised text, first printed in 1944 — the second version, and standard French edition — this translation appeared about the same time as the third French edition. Bataille worked on other projects with both Wainhouse and Maurice Girodias, founder of the Olympia Press, and probably knew of this translation.

The Olympia Press specialized in providing the types of books that would be automatically banned in Britain and the United States. The first to publish Nabokov's Lolita and Donleavy's Ginger Man, Olympia also printed numerous exuberantly pornographic works penned pseudonymously by members of the Paris expatriate community, as well as avant-garde and controversial works by prominent Beat writers including William S. Burroughs and Gregory Corso.

Scarce: WorldCat locates just two copies in the U.S.

•  D. Cullen, ed., “Bataille's Eye & ICI Field Notes 4,” The Institute of Cultural Inquiry (1997), p. 25. On this work as censored, see: L. Sigel, International exposure: perspectives on modern European pornography, 1800–2000, pp. 129–30.   Publisher's mustard-colored wrappers printed in black, with white stars and bars; extremities rubbed, wrappers a little scuffed, inside like new.  (30200)

The set is illustrated with a total oftwelve steel-engraved portraits and three oversized, folding facsimiles of prominent physicians' letters and signatures. The binder has disregarded the printer's directions for the arrangement of the plates, and grouped them all at the fronts of the volumes.

•  NSTC 2A12623.   Contemporary speckled calf, spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels; bindings mildly rubbed overall and moreso in spines' top compartments where old labels were removed(?), spines darkened and showing small cracks in leather with some joints just starting, small square of old tape at corner of back cover on vol. I. Ex–social club library: each volume with 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Vol. I with hinges (inside) starting. Occasional mild spotting or smudging, short edge tears (not extending into text) and occasional corners or lower margins partially torn away throughout. Vol. III: lower inner margins of frontispiece and engraved title-page reinforced with strip of cloth tape. An uncommon and fascinating set.  (29411)

Binding:  Publisher's textured cream paper–covered boards in very good imitation of morocco, front cover framed in green-stamped fillet, gilt-stamped title surrounded by gilt- and green-stamped floral sprays.

•  Binding as above, paper chipping at corners and spine, spots of light discoloration around edges. Front free endpaper with nicely inked Christmas gift inscription dated 1900. Some pages with mild foxing along inner margins, otherwise clean. A light and sweet production.  (28455)

The volume was published at the request of Cardinal Ascanius Columnas in an edition ofonly 750 copies, and was printed at Antwerp at the press of Moretus’ widow and sons with the famous Plantin device appearing in two versions (engraved, to the title, and woodcut, to the final recto).

A full-page engraved funeral portrait of Rubens engraved by Cornelius Galleafter Peter Paul Rubens signals the beginning of the third section, in which Jan Brant records the life of his son-in-law’s brother and transcribes his epitaph. Even Balthasar Moretus contributes an epigram in honor of the deceased.

In the fourth section, Rubens’ own orations and selected letters appear, i.a. his funeral oration to Philip II of Spain. Josse DeRycke contributed the final funerary tribute.

Done up in fully elegant Plantin–Moretus style, the volume has in addition to its careful typography and full-page plate and devices been lavished throughout with two-line block initials and four-line historiated woodcut initials; also, it offers several intricate woodcut tailpieces.

Searches of NUC Pre-1956 and WorldCat locate only eight copies in U.S. institutions, one of which has been deaccessioned; most arenot in obvious places.

•  Graesse, I, 241; Corpus Rubenianum, XXI (1977), 152.   Period-style full brown calf, covers framed in blind double fillets, spine with gilt-stamped red leather title-label, raised bands with blind tooling extending onto covers. With a few odd spots to the text only, this is aremarkably fine, crisp copy. All edges green.  (28878)

•  Wright, III, 168.   Publisher's cloth, spine gilt-stamped, front cover stamped in “silver” and gilt; cloth a touch rubbed over corners and spine extremities, otherwise clean and neat. Sewing breaking, not because this is a “bad” copy but because it's the nature of the thing.  (12987)

•  Publisher's brown cloth, spines with brown paper label; several labels with ssmall brown spots, cracks, and edge chips, not too conspicuous and not affecting printing. Two leaves (pp. 343–346 of vol. X) detached from binding; long tear down center of pp. 283/284 (vol. IV), without loss of text; except for two leaves with some offsetting from laid-in scrap of paper, interiors clean. Outer and lower edges deckle, with a few signatures opened unevenly and some unopened. A very good set.  (24537)

BAL notes that the book went through an unknown number of reprintings; the present example has the frontispiece in black and light brownish-grey, Craighead and Jenkins on the copyright page, “Dick and Fitzgerald's List of Publications” as the first ad with “Inquire Within for Anything you Want to Know” at the head, “Dick & Fitzgerald” as the spine imprint, the publisher's monogram blind-stamped on the back cover, and yellow endpapers.

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with pencilled ownership inscription of P.P. French, dated 1859 with note, “R.R. car” (back free endpaper with pencilled anecdote about this copy's purchase aboard a train); front pastedown with simple rubber-stamp of Amos T. French (a trustee of the Tuxedo Park Library and son of one of the main proponents of the fraudulent Wyoming Pacific Improvement Co.); bookplate of Francis Massey O'Brien (bibliophile and bookseller in Portland, Maine).

Evidence of Readership: In addition to the above, other pencillings to fly-leaves/endpapers and four illustrations with pencilled captions, Carroll's story with pencilled annotation at head.

•  BAL 7094; Wright, II, 163.   Publisher's olive green pebbled cloth, covers with decorative blind-stamped frames; front cover with gilt-stamped comic vignette of a bearded gentleman hauling a harp on his back while Lilliputian types swing from his beard and dance on his harp. Spine gilt with title, publisher, and a different harper-and-harp device, sunned; binding overall slightly shaken, minimal wear to extremities. One leaf with short tear from lower margin, not touching text. Some pages lightly age-toned, annotations as above, pages otherwise clean. A classic of 19th-century light-hearted literature and comic illustration.  (30074)

Binding:  Publisher's gray-green textured cloth, spine gilt extra, front and back cover each blind-stamped with ornate cartouche-like panel composed of arabesque and strapwork designs; all edges gilt.

•  Bound as above, spine gilt attractively oxidized, corners lightly rubbed; front hinge (inside) starting from foot and front free endpaper with very faintly pencilled ownership inscription dated 1880. One leaf torn across, with 19th-century stitched repair. Light foxing.  (30213)

Provenance:  Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of Alexander Oswald Brodie (not, please note, the American officer and governor of Arizona Territory); title-page with Brodie's inked inscription, dated 1839, Dresden.

•  Brunet, I, 604; Gibson, Bacon, 185b; Willems 1058. On Bacon, see: Dictionary of National Biography.   Contemporary vellum with yapp edges, spine with early inked title; spine lettering rubbed, back cover darkened. Both pastedowns lifted, front pastedown with bookplate beneath; free endpapers lacking. Title-page with inscription as above; pages with a very few small scattered spots, almost entirely clean. A handsome copy.  (30360)

•  Publisher's quarter cream textured cloth with light blue fleur-de-lis printed paper sides, spine with printed paper label; lacking the blue dust-wrapper, small spot of staining at head of spine, otherwise a very nice example.  (28209)

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Brunet, I, 652; Willems 452.   Late 18th-century plain morocco, turn-ins with gilt roll, rebacked some time ago with lighter morocco; old leather rubbed and variably discolored, front cover with old patch repair. Front free endpaper with pencilled annotations and affixed cataloguing slip. A few pages with faint staining, most clean. One leaf with small paper flaw affecting about six letters. All edges gilt.  (27391)

Sadleir's analysis suggested to him the following probable sequence: a) the private edition, b) copies of the public edition with p. 236 in the same form as it appears in the private edition, c) copies of the public edition with p. 236 blank; and d) copies of the public edition with the complete new version of the text on p. 236.

However, the remnants of the binding preserved at the back of the present first volume — see note below andtop-right image above — are red moiré silk (as opposed to the brown cloth of the public edition), with the side panels and spine ornately blocked with a gilt design and the title within the gilt frame (the spine is rather worn, but legible). This suggests that only some of the twelve private copies were bound in leather, and others, or at least one, were bound in this special silk cloth, gilt extra.

Barham began writing the short pieces making up this series as contributions to his friend and classmate's Bentley's Miscellany. The subject matter was “at first derived from the legendary lore of the author's ancestral locality in Kent, but soon [was] enriched by satires on the topics of the day and subjects of pure invention, or borrowed from history or the ‘Acta Sanctorum’. . . . The success of the ‘Legends’ was pronounced from the first, and when published collectively in 1840 they at once took the high place in humorous literature which they have ever since retained” (DNB).

Provenance: With R.H.D. Barham’s signature as noted above, and with the armorial bookplate of Sir David Lionel Salomons (1851–1925) in each volume.

•  NCBEL, III, 365; Sadleir 156a; Tinker 216 (public edition); Carter, Binding Variants, p.92. Bindings a bit darkened and slightly discolored at extremities, light rubbing to joints, some foxing to the prelims of the first volume, with an old tide-mark in the lower gutter areas of the plates; a tipped-in bookseller's description in the first volume. A very good, very interesting example of a very rare thing.

Bindings: Contemporary signed bindings by E.P. Dutton & Co., of red morocco with covers framed in gilt triple fillets; spines with raised bands, gilt-stamped titles, and compartments framed in gilt double fillets. Board edges gilt-ruled, gilt inner dentelles. Upper page edges gilt. Original cloth covers and spines bound in at the back.

•  Sadleir 156b, e, & f; NCBEL, III, 365. Bindings as above, spines and upper board edges darkened with a bit of rubbing; free endpapers with offsetting from turn-ins. One volume with lower part of cover stained and the lower inner margin of the title-page and plates (not the text leaves!) waterstained. One plate evenly age-toned.

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Binding:  Publisher's green cloth, spine and front cover stamped in darker green and “silver” in an art nouveau design of tall thistle-like flowers. Binding signed “AR” — Amy Richards, fl. 1896–1918.

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Wright, III, 317 (for the first ed.).   Binding slightly cocked, very good condition. Front fly-leaf with pencilled gift inscription dated 1899, front free endpaper with later pencilled inscription. Clean and quite nice!  (12905)

This is a later (second?) printing in the series “Le Coffret du Bibliophile.” The work has eleven subtly, elegantly tinted plates by Pierre Gandon. It may be observed that these nuns have really great shoes, for nuns!

•  Publisher's printed wrappers. Uncut copy but totally opened; very clean and nice.  (30096)

This work is the first listed in all bibliographies under Louis Elzevir’s press at Amsterdam. In fact both the Elzevir edition of 1638 and this have the same colophon: “Lugduni-Batavorum: Typis Georgii Abrahami vander Marse, MDCXXXVIII.” And both collate the same, the only difference being the printer’s device and imprint information on the title-page.

Uncommon: Searches of OCLC, RLIN, & NUC locate fewer than ten copies in U.S. libraries.

Provenance: The Rev. Edward A. Dalrymple (Baltimore collector, mid–19th century); his collection given to the Maryland Diocesan Library; that library sold in 2006.

•  Rahir 1876; Willems 961 note. Contemporary vellum over light boards; spine delicately and lightly tooled in gilt. Ex–Maryland Episcopal Diocesan Library with stamp on front pastedown. One natural paper flaw; occasional early underlining.

Binding:  20th-century hand-painted vellum, front cover with sailing ship between decorative bands accomplished in a style reminiscent of the Bayeux Tapestry, spine with title and decorations, back cover with castle tower and distant ship motif. Publisher's original tan paper wrappers with Celtic motifs bound in.

•  Binding as above, vellum slightly darkened, clean and tight. Front pastedown with small rubber-stamped monogram “MG.” Pages gently age-toned, else clean. One of the great medieval romances, and a truly lovely object.  (30283)

the premiere of this one, as unknown as that one is famous, is stirring to visualize.

That Bello wrote this patriotic song is known, and even the first few lines were recorded for history, but beyond that the text is not recorded and is not found in his Obras completas or, apparently anywhere else.

In addition to the historic collaboration of Bello and Carreño, this fabulous document has the distinction of having been printed by Venezuela’s first press, that of Gallagher and Lamb, which only arrived in Caracas in October of 1808, and was almost certainly printed on 24 April, the day after the hymn was first sung!

This broadside seems to be completely unrecorded.  It was unknown to both Medina and Pedro Grases. Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and COPAC fail to find any copy at all, as is the case when searching the OPACs of the national libraries of Venezuela, Colombia, Spain, France, and England.

•  Not in Medina, Caracas; not in Grases, Historia de la imprenta en Venezuela; not in Villasana. As issued. Worming in foremargin, repaired. A very good copy.

Binding: Publisher’s full sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label.

•  Binding as above, joints starting, rubbed over edges and extremities, spine darkened and scraped, leather lost over head of spine. All edges marbled. Front free endpaper with early pencilled ownership inscription. Pages clean.

The O.T. is in five parts here, the first and last having their own registers and pagination; each testament's title-page bears a large, nicely executed version of the printer's device (stolen from the Estienne family). The text is dotted with woodcut initials and accented with head- and tailpieces; the main body of the text is printed in double-column format surrounded by notes.

•  Darlow & Moule 6192 (note).   19th-century acid-stained calf, raised bands, each volume with one red and one dark blue spine label, Apocrypha bound in after N.T. at end of vol. II; some scuffing or light abrasions. Extensive 19th-century commentary in ink on pastedowns and some fly-leaves; one manuscript note (and a pasted-in old bookseller’s description) on cut down and mounted title-page of vol. I; a very few other notes (“not in Syriac”). Ex-library with bookplates but no stamps; first volume's first foliation with slender worming into text from lower margin on ff. 16–29; age-toning, foxing, and some medium-sized brown stainings generally. A solid and acceptable copy of a less than common edition of this important translation that was Milton's favorite Latin version of the Bible.  (30347)

Binding:  Contemporary black morocco, heavily blind-stamped and covers further graced by central gilt-stamped cartouches touched with red and green enameled highlights. Spine with similar blind- and gilt-stamping, highlighted in red and green. All edges gilt.

•  Not in Herbert.   Binding as above, minimal rubbing to edges and extremities, gilt lightly rubbed in a few areas, corners bumped. Front free endpaper with pencilled ownership inscription dated 1846. Back free endpaper with spot of dampstaining partially adhered to back pastedown and offset onto last leaf of text. Pages gently age-toned, otherwise clean. A little knockout.  (21996)

Binding:  Publisher's boards of papier maché and plaster, formed using a metal mold and colored black, creating a gothic “carved wood binding.” Title blind-embossed on black roan spine. All edges gilt.

McLean states of the English edition of this work that “It was . . . the first of the so-called 'papier maché' bindings, contrived to look like carved ebony.” This first American edition bears the first “papier maché” binding accomplished in the U.S.

•  Ray, The Illustrator and the Book in England, 231; McLean, Victorian Book Design (second edition), pp. 99, 210; Maggs Bros., Bookbinding in the British Isles, part 2, 245; Abbey, Life, 222.   Very nicely preserved copy with just a few small cracks in the binding, leaves expertly reattached/recased; spine intact with surface of front cover a little rubbed in one small portion. Unlike the broken, chipped, and damaged copies we have seen, this is a treasurable exemplar. Housed in a quarter red cloth clamshell case with tan cloth sides and black leather gilt spine label.  (30100)

This is copy XIII of 36 numbered De Luxe special copies

•  Publisher's quarter red calf and black moiré silk, front cover with gilt-stamped red leather label, spine with gilt-stamped title, top edges gilt; portfolio in red calf with gilt-stamped title. Both items in publisher's double slipcase covered in black moiré silk; the whole in beautiful condition. An attractive and critically significant production.  (29931)