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

Mexico City: Tip. de la Secretaria de Fomento, 1890. First Edition. Good. Small 4to. 31 pp. + 1 full-page illustration. Original printed wrappers (detached, spine worn, paper stock a trifle browned and brittle). PRINTED ON PAPER MANUFACTURED FROM 25% "JOLOCIN" (MEXICAN TABASCO TREE) PAPER AND 75% RAGS. This is an early Mexican report on making paper using the cortex of the "Jolocin" Tabasco tree. It is divided into three parts: cultivating the plant, transforming the fibers into paper, and other considerations. The present report preceded by seven years the U.S. Government Office for Fiber Investigations, which identified Jolocin (Heliocarpus arborescens) as being a source of paper fibers, rating it "about 75 points out of 100, for strength, color, care in preparation, and utility. The uses of the fibers were not learned, though, doubtless, they are only valuable for rough native cordage and mats, and as PAPER STOCK" [emphasis ours]. (SOURCE: C.R. Dodge, "Descriptive Catalogue of Useful Fiber Plants… Read More

Lebanon, PA: Joseph Hartman, 1819. First American edition. Thick 8vo. Two parts in one volume, both with separate title-pages: [8], 458, [2], 426, [2] pp. Text foxed as is true in all copies, but COMPLETE and UNMARKED. Binding: original Pennsylvania binding by a workshop that was closely associated with Joseph Hartman: reverse beveled wooden boards covered with acid-treated sheep; the leather on the covers of the binding mottled whereas the turn-ins are striated; sprinkled edges, two original catches and clasps (catches on upper cover). Minor wear to binding extremities but an excellent copy. This binding is apparently AS ISSUED by the printer / publisher Joseph Hartman as is attested by the Library Company copy of this edition that is identically bound, but which -- unlike our copy -- is very worn (as is a copy known to us that is currently in a private collection USA). Affixed to the inside front cover of our binding is the booklabel of "Maria Fisher, No. 133," presumably indicating that there… Read More

London: Hamiltons Gallery, 2013. First Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine. Oblong folio. Altogether 69, [3] pp. including 27 superb photographic plates, each with captions on opposite page. The new catalogue raisonne of Penn's astonishing "Cranium" series of Animal skeletons, valuable for forensic research, to say nothing of the extraordinary photographic celebration of each specimen. The photographs were first exhibited in 1989 at Pace Gallery London, accompanied only by a flimsy 36 page catalogue. ¶ "Cranium Architecture" sees Irving Penn create a beautiful, absorbing study of animal skulls from the collection of the Narodni National Museum in Prague. From gorilla to giraffe, the photographer treats each subject with fastidious equality - zooming in or moving away to ensure that all the skulls are the same size and placing them in a simple white background. Abstracting the objects so is disorientating and challenges the viewer to look at them in a different way. As the series' title suggests we are… Read More

Paris: Chez la veuve Saugrain, et Pierre Prault, imprimeur des Fermes du roy, 1729. Unbound. Very good. 4to. 4 pp. (unbound, extracted from a binding, slight worming in blank gutter margin, not affecting text, top corner curled). At end: "Fait au Conseil d'Estat du roy, tenu a Versailles ... Signe, Coquille, avec paraphe." This is followed by King's commission to present the document to Rouelle, Versailles, June 14, 1689. At end: "Signe, par le roy en son Conseil. Coquille, avec paraphe." ¶ FASCINATING DOCUMENT, in which is reversed a decision by the Cour des aides, Rouen, in the matter of Francois Rouelle, falsely charged by agents of the "Fermier-générale des Cinq Grosses Fermes et du Tabac" with possessing contraband tobacco. Rouelle appealed on the grounds that the goods had been *planted* by the agents, and the court ruled in his favor. REFERENCES: Gondolff, E. Tabac sous l'ancienne monarchie, p. 560. Table chronologique des édits concernant la Ferme generale du tabac, p. 31. For a… Read More

London: Sotheby's, 1939. First Edition. Very good. Large 8vo. 21 pp., 82 lots. Illustrated issue, complete with 5 plates not found in ordinary issues. Original printed wrapper (to the upper cover is affixed Maggs Bros. label soliciting bids). Loosely inserted is a reproduction of the price-list and buyers' names. IMPORTANT BUT LITTLE-KNOWN SALE CATALOGUE OF PRE-RAPHAELITE PAINTINGS, DRAWINGS, AND MANUSCRIPTS BELONGING TO SWINBURNE AND TO ROSSETTI'S FRIEND AND FORMER ASSISTANT, WATTS-DUNTON. The full title of the catalogue shows that the sale contained "important drawings by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, a self- portrait by Ford Madox Ford, drawings of Rossetti and his house in Cheyne Walk by Henry Treffrey Dunn; an extensive and interesting autograph correspondence from Dante Gabriel Rossetti to his studio assistant, H. Treffry Dunn; H. Treffry Dunn's autograph ms. "Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his circle"; an unrecorded proof of a Byron engraving presented to Watts-Dunton by Swinburne;… Read More

New York: E.P. Dutton, 1871. First Edition. Very good. 8vo. 296 pp. + 4 pp. ads at end ("New Books to be Published in the Fall of 1871" which also includes the present title). Original publisher's green cloth, blocked and gilt, abrasions on front fore-corner and upper joint, affecting cloth, other binding extremities worn, spine slightly leaning. Internally very good. PRESENTATION COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION, inscribed in the year of publication: "To Mrs. Ruggles, with regards of the Author. Hudson, N.Y., Nov. 1871. Fascinating and well written travel account by a single woman traveling alone in Cuba (at the time she was 38 years old). The author (1833-1909) published a number of books under the pseudonym W.M.L. Jay (see below). Richard E. Morris observes: "W.M.L. Jay submitted that the 'civil law of Cuba is kinder to the slave than ever our own was.' She went on to ask, however, 'How is a plantation negro, working all day long under the eye and whip of a driver, and locked into quarters at night,… Read More

Chicago: M.A. Donohue & Co, 1915. Fair. Square 4to., stapled as issued. COMPLETE: 6 leaves (12 pp.) including front cover and back cover, all printed on soft linen. Front and back cover plus 4 other pages printed in color, the rest monochrome (printed in blue/green) allowing for hand-coloring. Very worn and partially defective, priced accordingly. Not in OCLC. ¶ We love antique children's books that are festooned with cats, so what's not to like about this vintage coloring book? Several well-known illustrators contributed to it, including Florence Notter, Lillian A. Govey, G.F. Christie, Rosa C. Petherick (1871-1931), Stuart Barker, and Mabel Lucie Attwell (1879-1964). ¶ The present edition appears earlier than Donohue's (likewise undated) "Pussy Picture Book" which depicts four cats circling a Jack-In-The-Box on the front cover. ¶ Provenance: "Ann McIntyre, Xmas 1926" / "Mary Ann McIntyre.

Paris: Chez la vefve Claude de Monstr'oeil, 1616. First Edition. Softcover. Very good. 8vo. 1 f., [6], 96 pp. Collation: A4 A-M8, COMPLETE. Title-page cropped on upper margin affecting the first and largest word "Plaidoyer." Recent sympathetic wrappers in the antique style. The "Affaire Baron," brilliantly argued by Julien Peleus, one of the most esteemed lawyers of his day, in which the eldest son and heir (Pierre, a priest) decides to sue his younger brother (Antoine) to recover the inheritance the former had renounced years earlier. This important trial brings to light the very problematic issue of inheritance when the eldest male son takes his vows, and thereby renounces his birthright and associated lands and properties. The trial took place on April 14, 1616, and was cited in in Article 13 of the Coûtume de Paris; the eldest son Pierre was relieved from the renunciation, and all properties which had subsequently passed to his younger brother and his wife were reverted by the Court. Further… Read More

New York: The Grolier Club, 2007. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. Large 8vo. 23.5 x 15.5 cm. 62 pp. with b/w and color illustrations throughout. Original blue cloth, gilt with the arms of Jean Grolier (Grolier Club). From the frontspiece: "Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Grolier Club, March 21 - May 25 2007; Curated by Michael Alexander Kahn and Jenny E. Robb". Kahn's collection is undoubtedly the largest and finest in private ownership.

Hartford: D.F. Robinson and H.F. Sumner; stereotyped by James Connor and William R. Cooke, 1834. Good. 2 vols. Vol 1: [2], 3-736, [2] = 738 pp., with frontispiece and 7 plates. Vol 2: [2], 737-995, [9], 1003-1440, [3] = 711 pp., with engraved frontispiece and 5 plates. Bound in speckled calf, spines lettered in gilt. Covered with provincial American dust jacket of cloth, with holes cut out to show title and volume number on spine (cloth covers with minor wear along spines, slightly soiled, corners bumped). Marbled textblock edges, age-toned, foxing throughout. Tissue guards heavily foxed as commonly. In both volumes the ownership inscription of Mr. Isaac Humeston dated March 8, 1835. A striking example of a home-made American cloth "dust jacket," the likes of which we have not encountered. The jackets cover two publisher's leather bindings on the 1834 Hartford Cottage Bible which -- on account of the ingenious construction of their coverings -- have never seen any sunlight. We have noted identical… Read More

London: Miles Flesher and Robert Young, assignes of John More, 1639. Good. 32mo in 8's. [24], 168 ff. = 192 ff., COMPLETE. Title-page and table of contents in English, Preface in Latin, text in Norman French. Contemporary calf in typical law trade binding fashion, joints cracked, later spine label, gilt floral roll along board edges. Leather stains on endleaves, first two leaves browned and worn, large ink stain on title bleeding through to verso, foliated initial on f. 1. Wildy and Sons bookseller label on bottom of front pastedown. An early edition of a popular English legal treatise, with the text - as prescribed by the English court - in NORMAN FRENCH. First published in 1528, "Perkin's Profitable Booke" was a popular legal textbook during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, held in high regard by Coke and others. Devoted mostly to the land law, it is divided into the following sections: grants, deeds, feoffments, exchanges, dower, curtesy, wills, devises, surrenders, reservations,… Read More