Search Results: Titles starting with B from Michael Laird Rare Books LLC

London: Sotheby's, 1948. First Edition. Softcover. Very good. 8vo. 68 pp. 715 lots. 12 b/w reproductions. Original green wrappers, stapled as issued. With printed list of prices and buyers' names. Scarce Sotheby's sale catalogue in which is described "a selected portion of the valuable library at Patshull House, Woverhampton, the property of the Rt. Honble. the Earl of Dartmouth, G.C.V.O. including: an exceedingly important collection of sixteenth century maps of Ireland, important early manuscript maps of Bermuda, Dublin, England, the Phillipine Islands and Tangier. The Bermuda map, almost certainly created in 1609 by Sir George Somers, is justifiably considered to THE EARLIEST SURVIVING MAP OF BERMUDA (see below). The catalogue also describes important manuscripts relating to the American War of Independence; colour plate books, the property of the late Sir Mayson M. Beeton, K.B.E.; manuscript charts by Nicholas Comberford, the property of Mrs. M.E. Luard, Upper Court, Kermerton, near Tewkesbury;… Read More

Philadelphia: W.W. Harding, 1865. Album 5 x 6 x 2.5 in. Title-page (a little foxed, verso blank), Index to portraits (2 pp.), followed by 25 thick cards creating 50 slots; all are filled, with 47 cartes-de-visite, 2 views, and one chromolithograph (a little foxed). Bound in original blue-green roan over deeply embossed carved boards, covers and spine gilt, edges dazzlingly gilt and gauffered, each board with four porcelain beads, two working catches and clasps with luxuriously wrought mounts and two porcelain beads, moire pastedowns and endpapers. Minor scuffing to binding extremities. SUPERB CIVIL WAR ERA PHILADELPHIA BINDING, THE GILT AND GAUFFERED EDGES GLEAM AMAZINGLY. The assemblage of the present album may be localized to Minnesota or neighboring Wisconsin owing to the surprising inclusion of two small views by Benjamin Franklin Upton (1818-1910) of the St. Croix River, which demarks the two states. One of the images is entitled "Views of the Dells on the St. Croix River" (a stereoscopic… Read More

Hartford: Silas Andrus, 1824. Very good. 8vo. 234 pp. With 7 full-page plates by Richard Westall (1765-1836) engraved by Oliver Pelton (1798-1882). Contemporary polished calf, outer frame rolls in blind and gilt, in central panel a large rectangle, diamond, and "X" composed with black lines, at each conjunction a small or large gilt flower; four raised bands on spine profusely gilt, central compartment lettered direct; marbled pastedowns and endpapers, marbled edges. Text and plates foxed; minor wear to binding extremities, front blank leaf loosening. An attractive and unusual binding, suitable for exhibition. AN EARLY 19TH CENTURY AMERICAN BINDING OF A RARE TYPE, LIKELY BOUND IN NEW YORK CITY. The only other example known to us was published in Papantonio's Early American Bookbindings, no. 49 (unidentified binder, but localized to "New York"). The two bindings share very similar designs and techniques: in central panels the black lines bisect to form a diamond and rectangles, at their… Read More

Istanbul: Mekteb-i tibbiye-i Sahane, 1868. Very good. Small 8vo. 4 pp., [4 pp.], 137 pp., [2] pp. of lithographed text (some foxing or staining). Contemporary Turkish brown goatskin richly gilt (slight wear to binding extremities), original yellow endpapers with relief floral pattern (missing front endpaper). Occasional old annotations on the first pages. A FINE OTTOMAN BINDING ON AN UNLIKELY SUBJECT: POISONS. This scarce Ottoman book on poisons in animals, plants and minerals was published by the Imperial Medical School in Istanbul. The author, Mehmed Nuri (ca. 1844-1883), received a doctoral degree in 1858, and was a teacher of medicine, and later of civil medicine at the Ottoman Military Medical School. He authored several important medical books and articles and also translated foreign scientific literature. Mehmed Nuri was also one of the founders of Ottoman Society of Medicine. We could trace two institutional examples of this work in Worldcat: Orient-Institut in Istanbul and University of… Read More

Coimbra; Lisbon: Real Imprensa da Universidade; Impressao Regia, 1805. Very Good. 4to. 210 x 145 mm. 3 parts in 1 vol. + additional work. Parts 1-2: [3], xiv, 202 pp. Part 3: [4], xvi, 202. Observacoes: [10], 91 pp. Engraved portrait frontispiece of the dedicatee, Joao VI. Bound in contemporary red morocco with the arms of Joao VI of Portugal in gilt in the center of both covers, covers double-bordered in gilt roll of flowers and vines with smaller outer border of a rhombus and star patterned roll, the same rhombus and star patterned roll along either side of spine, gilt urn ornaments at corners, gilt "sun" roll along edges of covers, gilt floral roll of similar design divides each spinal compartment with single thin gilt roll above and below, flat spine with morocco lettering piece in second compartment, gilt urn ornament with garland in each compartment, with highly unusual gilt edges; cream colored endpapers with offsetting of the leather turns-ins below. Corners slightly bumped, binding… Read More

London: B. T. Batsford, Ltd, 1989. Hardcover. Very good/Good. xiv, 228 pp. 40 illustrations. Reprint edition; first published 1950. Original cloth, dust-jacket (price clipped, a little worn). Ownership inscription on first blank leaf. Indispensable, still unsurpassed. A work of an almost heroic nature that describes approximately 2,000 French bookbinders and binderies, arranged alphabetically, all with locations and dates of operation, most entries containing valuable biographical information, some of which is available nowhere else.

London: Saunders and Otley, 1835. First Edition. 8vo. In three volumes. [5], xiii, [1], 302; [2], 364; [2], 356pp. With tipped-in errata slips but without half-titles. BOUND BY JOHN TATE OF BELFAST in contemporary half-calf, marbled boards, tooled in gilt and blind, marbled edges (trifle rubbed, some gatherings inexplicably proud), with Tate's tickets and recent bookplates of Robert J. Hayhurst to all FEPs, scattered foxing. First edition of this fantastical historical novel which "turns on the moral distinction between socially induced criminality and socially induced vice." Our copy is very handsomely bound in the Romantique style by John Tate (1802-1841), a little-known BELFAST binder and stationer. Tate was clearly talented, especially for a young nineteenth-century provincial artisan; nonetheless, we can find zero information beyond a brief entry in Ramsden's "Bookbinders of the United Kingdom (Outside London) 1780-1840" (p. 247) which references only the Belfast directories of 1831, 1835, and… Read More

London: Bernard Quaritch, 1889. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. Folio. 222 pp., 1512 items described. Modern neat brown cloth (NOT ex-library). Still valuable for tracing the provenance of 1,500 notable bindings, this is the enlarged edition of Quaritch's famous Catalogue 93 (first issued in November 1888), here containing the addition of three indispensable indexes extending 22 pages printed in very small type, plus a valuable introduction on the history of bookbinding written by Bernard Quaritch himself, who was that time was considered the leading authority on the subject. The indexes: Authors and Titles; Works in Modern Languages (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish); Special Subjects including Americana, Liturgica, Manuscripts, Music, Romances of Chivalry, Unique Books, and Books Printed on Vellum; Owners, Book-Collectors, and Libraries; and finally an Index of Binders and Binding. ¶ Breslauer, Uses of Bookbinding Literature, p. 24.

Omiya Kyusuke, 1867. Very good. Broadsheet (354 x 235 mm) with contemporary hand-coloring (several wormholes in the face of the robber and one above his head; portion of the paper on upper right defective, just touching text), affixed at upper corners to a sheet of modern paper. DRAMATIC ILLUSTRATION OF THE STRANGE TALE OF YABUHARA KENGYO, a villainous blind masseur / accupuncturist who was the subject of many Japanese folktales of the 19th-20th century. It is thought that he is based on some historical personage, but this has never been verified. The story goes that he killed his teacher and devoted himself to a life of crime. Here the evil Yabuhara, with an acupuncture needle in his mouth, having untied the victim's belt, rustles through the poor peddler's clothes seeking valuables. THE LEGEND: This fiendish blind masseur was originally named Sugi no Ichi. He kills a peddler in the mountains of Hakone and steals his money. The murderer also kills his teacher (Yabuhara Kengyo I) and then succeeds… Read More

Elmira, NY or Auburn NY, 1900. Wooden blook (4.75 x 6.25"). A hand-made wooden box in the shape of a 12mo book with a compartment carved from the interior and lined with blue velvet. In very good condition with a 1" x 3" section of varnish removed on the front board; scattered scratches to the surface that seem to be heavier on the rear board where the box was laid; wear and oxidation to the metallic gold used on the fore edges. AN EXCELLENT WOODEN BOOK WITH A SECRET COMPARTMENT, the gift of one male prison guard to another, featuring many qualities of American Folk Art. The term "Blook" was coined by Mindell Dubansky of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; it is the contraction of the words "Book Look," and refers to an everyday object that looks like a book. Our blook is decorated with Tole paintings in green, white, gold, orange and burgundy. The front of the blook has a decorative shield with "To | Walter Long | 1900" in script within a central cross; the shield is surrounded by wreath of flowers… Read More

Parma: Bodoni, 1786. Very good. 4to (300 x 218 mm). Engraved title-vignette and head-piece, [8], lxxiii, [3], 164 pp. Preliminary leaves: title-page with engraved vignette, verso blank + dedication leaf to Jose Nicolas de Nibiano, verso blank + 2 unnumbered leaves dedication to Anton Raphael Mengs with half-page engraving signed "Lucatelli inv. et delin., Cagnoni sc." ADDED: "Valorissimo signor Marchese" (4 ff. - see below). Contemporary Viennese tree calf by Georg Friedrich Krauss with his gilt binder's stamp impressed in gold at the top of the front pastedown ("Krauss Buchbinder in Wien"), smooth spine richly gilt with green gilt morocco label, foot of spine with narrow rectangular red morocco onlay with black initial "T" (for Teschen?), both covers framed by gilt multiple rules and ornamental borders, doublures gilt. Endpapers of light blue colored paper. Later engraved armorial bookplate to front pastedown (see below) with residue opposite. Dedication leaf with erased manuscript ownership… Read More

Paris: Ch. Bosse, 1927. FIRST EDITION. Softcover. Very good. Small 4to. xvi, 235, [3] pp. Bound in original wrappers, as issued. Preserved in a protective cloth case. The essential resource for the study of provenance of medical books, still unsurpassed. Ours is one of only 50 on fine Velin paper, rare thus in private ownership. In fact, we have located only two other copies on Velin in commerce in the last 90 years: Maggs' 1983 Catalogue 1037, and (more "recently") at Swann Galleries 19 Oct. 2000. ¶ This formidable work is profusely illustrated, with 212 reproductions of bookplates and "super ex-libros" stamps that appear on the covers of bookbindings. There are 688 authoritative bio-bibliographical notices of French book collectors of the 18th- and 19th-century, all of whom (of course) were medical doctors and pharmacists. Olivier and Vailet even include coverage of early hospital libraries. The names of the owners are usefully arranged in alphabetical order. Contains an interesting preface by… Read More

New York: The Grolier Club, 2013. Softcover. Very Good. Octavo, 176 numbered pages, illustrations in both black and white and color. ¶ Biographical and bibliographic account of Count Libri, known for his activity as a book collector and book thief.

Boston: D. Hooton, 1834. Good. Broadside, printed one-side on rag paper. Floral woodcut boarder. Tear along top margin, affecting woodcut border, repaired on verso with tape, small spots along left edge. Preserved in mylar L-sleeve backed with lig-free board. Scarce promotional broadside issued by Thomas Hollis, of Boston, a mid-19th century Phamacist whose establishment was located at 30 Union Street from 1826 onward. While our broadside advertises Vegetable Asthmatic remedies, Hollis also manufactured and sold writing ink and ink powder, often to local schools and academies. The broadside informs us that Hollis's Vegetable Asthmatic Pills help to cure coughs, colds, whooping cough, etc. We date our broadside to "1834" owing to the fact that the Boston Directory lists the printer, Hooton, at the 13 Merchant's Hall address only for this one year.

Paris: Lefevre, 1836. Large 8vo. (243 x 155 mm). With 5 full-page steel-engraved plates printed on India paper and mounted on thick paper (tissue guards foxed as commonly, with offsetting on plates and text opposite). Contemporary French dark red polished calf, covers scuffed spine darkened and a little worn at head and tail, corners bumped, but an attractive binding, perfectly sound and completely unsophisticated. With faults, and priced correctly. Late Empire binding by Rene Simier (1772-1843) of restrained elegance, exhibiting his unsurpassed technical ability. In the nineteenth century, Simier "pere" - with Joseph Thouvenin - brought the art of French bookbinding to its apogee. In his long and distinguished career Simier was appointed binders to Empress Marie-Louise, Louis XVIII, Marie-Caroline de Bourbon-Sicily (subsequently Duchesse de Berry). According to Ramsden ("French Bookbinders 1789-1848") Simier's "variety and technique were superb; he had no superior and few rivals during his career."… Read More

Madrid: Antonio de Sancha, 1784. Near Fine. 2 vols., quarto (255 x 200 mm). L (i.e. 50) pp. + [8] pp. (Subscribers), 489 pp.; [4], viii, 460 pp. Illustrated with 2 engraved portraits (one of Cortes, the other of the author) + 24 full-page engraved plates after designs by Titian (sic), Josef Ximeno, Ildefonso Vergaz, and Juan Moreno Tejada y Arnal, many of which were engraved by Ferdin Selma. With 2 folding maps (one in each volume): "Mapa geográfico de una parte de Nueva España" and "Mapa de las lagunas, ríos y lugares que circundan a México." Fine engraved head- and tailpiece vignettes. Both half-titles present. Our copy is lacking the 3-page list of Subscribers in vol. II that was bound at the end of some, but certainly not all, copies. Near contemporary Madrid binding by Santiago Martin Sanz: smooth calf treated to resemble blue marbling, Neo-Classical palmette boarder gilt around sides, smooth spine decorated with multiple impressions of a single gilt roll, two red morocco labels on each… Read More

Berlin: Antiquariat Wolfgang Braecklein, 1986. First Edition. Softcover. Very Good. Octavo, 196 pages, catalogue 26. Illustrated in black and white. ¶ Catalogue for an auction in 562 lots. The title specifically relates the contents: alchemy, mining, emblemata, geography & Travel, history & politics, witches, literature, philosophy, mathematics, medicine, music, science & technology, chess and other games, drama, proverbs, and law. Scarce.

Berlin: Antiquariat Wolfgang Braecklein. First Edition. Softcover. Very good. Minor pencil notations. 196 pp including index. 562 items. Illustrated throughout. Original wrappers, no dust-jacket as issued. ¶ Scholarly, scarce German catalogue describing hundreds of rare Baroque books including works by Martin Opitz, Johann Rist, and many more. Wonderful black and white illustrations throughout.

Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Harvard Collection Library, 1988. First Edition. Softcover. Very Good. Quarto, 114 pages. Illustrated with 25 plates in black and white. ¶ Brilliantly describes the exhibition of 39 manuscripts dating all from the twelfth century held by The Harvard Collection Library. The paleography of the twelfth century is famously difficult to discern scripts, and even countries, of origin. Laura Light does an outstanding job of guiding us through the collection.

Philadelphia: Samuel F. Bradford. Vol 1 printed by H. Maxwell; vol 2 printed by Robert Carr, 1804. Very Good. 8vo in 4's. 2 vols. 219 x 143 mm. Pagination: I: vi pp., 1 f.. blank, 313, [7] pp. II: [4], 466, [3] pp. Collation: vol. I: [A]4, B-3G4 3H8 (-3H8, a blank). Vol 2: [A]2, B-3N4, 3O4 (-3O4, a blank). Both volumes lack frontispieces, clearly never bound in to this copy as there are no indications of extraction of any kind, and the bindings were clearly expensive to produce. Bound in early American tree calf, joints with unimportant wear, very slightly bumped, spine compartments bordered on top and bottom with three different ornamental rolls in gilt, spine titled in gilt on red morocco spine label in second compartment, fourth compartment has volume number titled in gilt, other compartments contain victory ornament in gilt with weapons and vines, ornamental roll in gilt along edges, "Stroud" printed paper label at foot of spine, marbled endleaves. Textblock edges painted yellow, top edge dusty,… Read More