Man and Superman by Shaw, George Bernard - 1903

Venice: Sumptibus Caroboli, et Pompeati, 1768. Complete 17 volume set, bound in 16 leather folios. First editions. Published Venice: Sumptibus Caroboli, et Pompeati, 1768-1776. Folios, 8 3/4" x 12", full calf skin vellum with gilt embossed spine titles and marbled edges, 2-color title page in volume one with frontis portrait of pope Gregory, title page vignettes, tail pieces and historiated initials. Text in Latin, printed in 2 columns on heavy rag paper. Mild wear and soiling to the boards, name at bottom of title pages, paper label at foot of spines. An attractive, very good set. Text bright, unmarked, bindings tight. Scarce. . 1st. Full-Leather. Very Good. Folio.

Paris: Fabrique Générale d'Articles de Voyages, 1840. First Edition. Alexis Godillot (1816-1893) was a contemporary of Louis Vuitton (1821-1892) and first achieved renown in Paris for his beautiful hand-made luggage. With a workshop situated just a few blocks away from Vuitton's, this catalogue comes from this very early period of Godillot's life before he had revolutionised footwear by differentiating the moulding of the left shoe from the right and become the famous shoemaker who would go on to equip over one hundred thousand French soldiers for The Crimean War. 'Godillot' remains a slang French term for 'boot' to this day. The album features superb hand-coloured lithographs with an original sketch showcasing nearly one hundred accessories including bags, picnic baskets, apparel, wonderful old trunks, tents, and hammocks- true 'objets nomades' - many of which are in surprisingly bold and modern designs. A beautiful, rare, and precious catalogue of the articles a traveller might require for… Read More

Two volumes. Tall Quarto (9 by 11 inches), near-contemporary half-calf and marbled boards. pp. xiii, (21), (1) 2-378; (xxviii), (389) 380-895. With half-titles in each volume and errata leaf with directions to the binder. FIRST EDITION of Godwin' revolutionary masterwork "his passionate advocacy of individualism, his trust in the fundamental goodness of man, and his opposition to all restrictions on liberty have endured" (PMM) a profound influence on Thomas Jefferson, who had the first American edition in his library and is viewed as Godwin's "American born counterpart." Along with those of Burke and Paine, Godwin's Enquiry was one of the most influential English political books of the late eighteenth century. It was an equally important landmark in the development of Utilitarian thought, and on political thinking in general. Godwin-the husband of Mary Wollstonecraft-"saw no good in human institutions and sought to put an end to all organized politics, religion and society… The Enquiry was, and… Read More

A beautiful guide to the identification of woods by their grains and colours, a "Cabinet of Wood."With 66 fine hand-coloured engraved plates depicting over 550 types of European and exotic woods from India, China and America in cross section, each with a page of wood names in Dutch, German, French, English and Latin. The title page states that the book was meant "for natural history lovers and keepers of cabinets of natural curiosities." The book was issued in parts from 1773 and thus the number of plates varies from 24 (Royal Botanic Gardens Kew) to 66 (here). The final 1791 edition had a different title and 106 plates, including a 40-plate supplement. Jan Christiaan Sepp (1739-1811) was the son of the German instrument maker and cartographer Christiaan Sepp. J.C. Sepp established himself as a bookseller and publisher specializing in natural history.Martinus Houttuyn (1720-1798), born in Hoorn, studied medicine in Leiden and moved to Amsterdam in 1753. Houttuyn published his own natural history books… Read More

Beautiful copy of the rare first edition of this standard work on medieval European armour. With 80 fine illustrations drawn and engraved by Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick (some engraved by Richard Bridgens and William Maddocks). Complete with three frontispieces with calligraphic titles and engraved vignettes drawn by Richard Bridgens and engraved by Charles Heath, 70 hand-coloured aquatint plates drawn by Meyrick and engraved by himself or William Maddocks, 10 engraved plates drawn by Meyrick and etched by Richard Bridgens, and 27 illuminated chapter initials.Volume I: 22 hand-coloured plates (VIII to XXX) & 8 b/w etchings (I to VII, XXVI), pp. lxxvii, 206Volume II: 35 hand-coloured plates (XXXI to LVI), 1 b/w engraving (XLIV), pp. 297 Volume III: 13 hand-coloured plates (LVII to LXXIX) & 1 b/w (LXXX) , pp.147, unpaginated 132-page glossaryThe plates are essentially a catalogue of the collection of ancient armour collected by Samuel and his son Llewelyn, with a few items drawn from illuminated manuscripts… Read More

Hardcover. Fine. 4to. Bound in 20th-century 1/4-vellum over marbled boards. Strasbourg: Matthias Schürer, July 1510. Second Strasbourg edition of Erasmus heavily annotated collection of Greek and Latin proverbs. Printed in Roman and Greek types. This is the original version, containing 818 adages, which is considerably shorter than the later expanded versions published under the title Adagiorum chiliades. (Adams E-420; Bezzel, Erasmusdrucke, 50; Van der Haeghen, Bibliotheca Erasmiana, p.25-6; Bibl. Belgica II, 276: no. E.61; Muller, Strasbourg II, p. 179, no. 45.) The Adagia could only have been possible in the new world of European education, in which careful attention to a broader range of classical texts produced a much fuller picture of the literature of antiquity. Its impact has been long lasting. Such popular expressions such as one step at a time, between a rock and a hard place, break the ice, an iron in the fire, looking a gift horse in the mouth, and many other sayings can trace their… Read More

1791. 1st Edition, Limited Edition . Hardcover. Very Good. Complete in 2 volumes. Illustrated with frontispiece portrait of Johnson by J. Heath after Sir Joshua Reynolds, and 2 additional engraved plates. All 3 plates with imprints dated April 10, 1791. Frontispiece with the original tissue-guard intact. 4to. Bound in contemporary (circa 1800) speckled calf with gilt armorial supralibros on all 4 covers, spines with raised bands; red morocco gilt-lettered labels; small black morocco circular volume-number labels. Printed by Henry Baldwin for Charles Dilly, London, 1791. First Edition. Limited to 1750 copies. Printed on light blue paper. Vol. I has the correct give reading on page 135, line 10, generally considered the second state (although, as Pottle notes, booksellers have given this rather uninteresting point more attention than it deserves.) The copies printed on light blue paper were presumably reserved for members of the nobility: When Boswell published his The Life of Samuel Johnson, the King… Read More

Hardcover. Fine. Folio. Bound in original boards. Parma 1791. First Edition. One of 25 copies on papier verge of an edition of 128. Paper worn on spine; interior clean and bright. A Fine Copy. Scarce.

Illustrated with 12 folding engraved plates of optical/geometrical diagrams and a few woodcut diagrams and tables in text; large woodcut decorative tail-pieces, head-pieces and initials. 8vo. Contemporary full speckled calf; boards with double-fillet gilt-ruled borders; spine with five raised bands and gilt-lettered (faded) morocco label; edges speckled red. London: Printed for W. and J. Innys, printers to the Royal Society, 1718. Second English Edition revised and enlarged by Newton. First Octavo Edition. Second issue, with the title-page dated 1718 (the very rare first issue is dated 1717). The first edition appeared in 1704 in quarto. For this second edition the plates were newly engraved to fit the new octavo format. The most important feature of this second edition is that the number of Queries at the end was increased from 16 to 31, including the celebrated Query 28 on the nature of light. The Queries in the initial set were rather brief, but the later ones became more substantial, written as… Read More

One of the finest works of illustration ever published, marking the transition from Rococo to the Neo-Classical Era of European art.Illustrated with 139 full-page plates by Boucher, Eisen, Gravelot, Monnet, Moreau, and others. Plus engraved title, 3 pages of dedications, 4 fleurons on title pages, 30 engraved vignettes and 1 full-page cul-de-lampe by Choffard and Monnet closing Volume 4. Engraved by Le Mire and Basan. Large 4to. Full 18th century French marbled calf; spine with 5 raised bands; red and green morocco labels; gilt spines, gilt borders and edges; original hand-marbled endpapers. A Paris, Chez Leclerc. 1767 to 1771. 4 volumes. Ovid's Metamorphoses are of course, are some of the most famous stories to survive from antiquity; they tell, essentially, a history of the world in dactylic hexameter, the meter of the epics. Ovid's stories are as foundational to Western literature as any other book written; they include the story of Io and Jupiter, the stories of Cadmus, Pyramus and Thisbe (of… Read More