Search Results: Titles starting with S from Florilegius

Good copy of the first English octavo edition with plates by Thomas Rowlandson of this classic fencing manual.Complete with 47 engraved plates of classic fencing positions on 44 sheets. The original 1787 edition, the first to include plates redrawn and engraved by Thomas Rowlandson. All plates dated 1783.The first octavo edition of Domenico Angelo's renowned guide to swordsmanship, first published in folio with illustrations by James Gwin in 1763. Edited by Domenico's son and fencing master Henry Charles William Angelo who "endeavoured to render it of more general use, by reducing it both in size and price." The original plates and text were featured in the Escrime (Fencing) section of Denis Diderot's Encyclopédie and praised with "Had we known of any work more perfect in its kind, we should have made use of it."Angelo's school in Carlisle House, Soho, London was popular with English royalty and celebrities including Lord Byron, artists Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough and George Stubbs, actor… Read More

Very good collection of the portrait plates only from the last part of the multi-volume Museum Florentinum
With 218 (of 220) portrait plates of Renaissance and Baroque artists
Variant issue with extra plates of the artists' self-portraits published by Niccolo Pagni and Guiseppe Bardi, Florence (originally published with 220 plates by Francesco Moucke in 1752-62).
With engraved title page and 218 fine copperplates, most under tissue guards
The last part of the Museo Fiorentino, an ambitious catalogue of the Medici collection of artworks published by Antonio Francesco Gori (1691-1757) and Francesco Moucke between 1731 and 1766. The first six volumes published from 1731-42 covered gems I-II, statues III and coins IV-VI. The Serie di Ritratti was issued as volumes VII-X and included superb facsimile engravings of the famous self-portraits now in the Uffizi Gallery.
Plates numbered 1-220, missing 23 numbered plates, several bound out of order, plus 21 unnumbered plates bound in at the rear. Total of 218… Read More

Very good copy of the second edition of John Kay's idiosyncratic portraits of celebrities and eccentrics in Georgian Edinburgh.With 358 (of 360) engraved copperplates bound in four volumes. (Plates 84, Right Hon. Charles Hope, and 108, Robert Craig Esq., in Volume 2 apparently never bound in.)With many amusing caricatures of late eighteenth century Edinburgh society, including economist Adam Smith, aeronaut Vincent Lunardi, riding master Angelo Tremamundo, philosopher Thomas Paine, author William Smellie, engraver Andrew Bell, actress Sarah Siddons, golfer Alexander McKellar, apothecary Mortar Willie, anatomist John Barclay, idiots and aristocrats, giants and little people, volunteer soldiers, lawyers, judges, chimney sweeps, sedan-chairmen, and scenes of cockfighting, cudgelling, election violence, transvestitism and ballooning. The appendix has portraits of Toussaint Louverture, John Kay himself, William Wallace, John Knox, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, Napoleon, Mary Queen of Scots, George III,… Read More

Black Sicklebill, Epimachus fastuosus (formerly great sickle-billed bird of paradise, Epimachus speciosus).Original hand-coloured lithograph by William Matthew Hart for Richard Bowdler Sharpe's Monograph of the Paradiseidae, or Birds of Paradise, and Ptilonorhynchidae, or Bower-birds. London, 1891-1898.
One of the most beautiful bird illustrations ever produced from the last of the great ornithological books of the 19th century.
William Matthew Hart (1830-1908) was a bird illustrator and lithographer who worked for John Gould from 1851. He began by making the patterns for the lithographic plates for Gould's monograph on Hummingbirds, as well as working on The Birds of Great Britain with Henry Constantine Richter. By 1870 Hart had become Gould's chief artist and lithographer. After Gould's death in 1881, Hart was employed by Richard Bowdler-Sharpe of the British Museum to complete Gould's work on the Birds of New Guinea and to produce illustrations for Sharpe's great work Monograph on the Birds of… Read More

Very good copy of Sir Thomas Lawrence's collection of intimate family sketches12 charming portraits on steel, hand tinted to give the impression of pastel sketchesFrontispiece engraved bust, engraved title page and 12 hand-coloured engraved plates.A snapshot of the family and friends of the most popular portrait artist in Georgian EnglandThe subjects include:Lady Emma Hamilton, scandalous mistress of Lord Horatio Nelson, in see-through dress and turban, looking up most ravishingly.Self-portrait of Sir Thomas Lawrence, and portraits of his innkeeper father Thomas Lawrence and mother Lucy Read, depicted close to death. Cute portraits of his nephews Thomas Lawrence Bloxam, Rowland Bloxam and Henry Bloxam, all in dresses and ribbons.Two depictions of his niece Mary Isabella Bloxam, as a young girl and once again as a young woman.The Calmeady children in an embrace.Two unknown girls, one in a lace bonnet. His niece Lucy Meredith.Lady Augusta Lowther, Countess of Fane, wife of the 1st Earl of Lonsdale. Sir… Read More

Complete set of Bairei Kono's Soka Hyakushu or Kusabana Hyakushu (One Hundred Varieties of Flowers), Tokyo, Yamada Unsodo, 1901-1904.
231 color woodcut plates bound in 4 volumes, stored in a custom green-cloth slip-case. The woodblock plates printed with natural vegetable dyes for true-to-life colors.
Vol. 1: 58 plates, Vol. 2: 58 plates
Supplements: Vol. 3: 60 plates, Vol. 4: 55 plates.
Condition: pale-blue paper covers slightly worn and grubby, but interior fresh and vibrant. First page in each volume with a large red illegible stamp (two on text pages, two on flower plates). A few plates with white flowers oxidized.
Bairei Kono (1844-1895) was a Japanese painter, book illustrator and art teacher famous for his botanicals and kacho-e (flower and bird) paintings.

Good copy of the rather scarce revised edition of Thomas Pennant's eccentric history of London with 54 pages of revisions and corrections.Complete with 15 copperplates by Pennant's protege Moses Griffiths, engraved by James Basire and Peter Mazell. The plates include a portrait of Queen Elizabeth I's champion Sir Henry Lee and his dog (frontispiece), vignette of crown, sceptre and sword (title page), Robert Earl of Leicester in suit of armour (98), the Palace of Whitehall (100), Old Horse Guards (103), Savoy Hospital (136), remains of Clerkenwell Church (191), St John's Gate (193), King Charles !'s porter and dwarf (218), sculpture in Pannier Alley (219), fold-out view of a crenellated wall and gate (Aldergate?) (221), Queen Elizabeth I's spy Sir Richard Clough (389), fold--out View of Part of London as it appeared in the Great Fire of 1666 (479), portrait of King Charles I (second frontis), and fold-out Map of London and Westminster in the reign of Queen Elizabeth AD 1563 (479).Pagination: frontis,… Read More

Lovely copy of Rebecca Hey's charming Victorian book of botanical plates and poetry
With all 26 superb botanical illustrations drawn by the author and engraved on steel by William Clark
The botanical illustrations finished to a very high standard with deep, rich handcolour
A companion to Moral of Flowers, this book covers woodland trees and includes plates of mostly European trees such as the oak, elm, ash, beech, lime, birch, holly, willow, yew, hazel, cherry, cedar, etc. The botanical illustrations include fruit, berries, blossom, leaves, catkins, etc. (A few exotic trees like the fig, banyan, palm and sandal tree are described in the text.)
"A source of great additional interest has been the presentation of the drawings for the illustration of the work, which the author herself has ventured to execute from nature, and which she trusts will be found botanically correct." (from the Preface)
Rebecca Hey (1797-1859) was an English poet and botanical artist. She was born Rebecca Roberts in Leeds,… Read More

Very good copy of Strutt's classic study of medieval English games, sports, festival recreations and performances. With 140 hand-coloured engravings in the text.First published in quarto in 1801, this is the third edition and first in octavo, with index and notes by William Hone, published in 1830.Profusely illustrated with examples from illuminated manuscripts in the British Museum, the Bodleian, Harleian and Royal libraries, etc.Contains all forms of intellectual and physical games, from archery to bell-ringing, football to apple-bobbing, chess to bear-baiting, acrobatics to golf, jousting to gambling, opera to maypole dancing.Joseph Strutt (1749-1802) was an English engraver, artist, antiquary and writer famous for his work on the history of English costume and sports.Red library cloth binding with gilt title on spine, ink stamp on rear of title page, solid text block, interior fresh with delicate hand-colour on the engravings.

Very good + copy of Strutt's classic study of medieval English games, sports, festival recreations and performances. First published in 1801 and reprinted many times in both quarto and octavo editions. First quarto edition with hand-coloured lithographs of the annotated edition by William Hone of 1830.Profusely illustrated with charming figures excerpted from illuminated manuscripts in the British Museum, the Bodleian, Harleian and Royal libraries, etc.Joseph Strutt (1749-1802) was an English engraver, artist, antiquary and writer famous for his work on the history of English costume and sports.William Hone (1780-1842), was an English writer, satirist and bookseller.Contains all forms of mental and physical recreation, from archery to bell-ringing, football to apple-bobbing, chess to bear-baiting, acrobatics to golf, jousting to gambling, opera to maypole dancing.With 140 b/w engravings in the text, and the same 140 illustrations reproduced on 40 finely hand-coloured, lithographed plates (frontispiece… Read More

Very good copy of Henry Rene d'Allemagne's classic history of sports and games of skill.With 100 lithographic and heliogravure plates (30 hand-coloured, many tinted) and 328 illustrations in the text. Games described include hoops, kite-flying, stilt-walking, spinning tops, hide-and-seek, darts, archery, carousels, bilboquet (cup and ball), the diabolo (Chinese yo-yo), tennis, golf, billiards, boules or petanque, wrestling, dancing, gymnastics, acrobatics, etc. The illustrations are facsimile heliogravures of ancient illuminated manuscripts, engravings, woodcuts and prints from the medieval era to the 19th century.Text in French.Henry-Rene d'Allemagne (1863-1950), was librarian at the Bibliotheque de l'Arsenal in Paris, an archivist, historian and specialist in decorative arts. He published books on many unusual subjects such as games, ancient locksmithing, illumination, playing cards, etc.Some browning to the decorative colour pictorial boards, t.e.g., marble endpapers, interior clean and bright with… Read More

Colour woodblock triptych of two of the most famous sumo wrestlers of the Meiji Era.
Depicts a sumo wrestling training bout between Hitachiyama Taniemon (left) and Umenotani Otomatsu, later Umegatani Totaro II (right).
Hitachiyama (1874-1922) and Umegatani (1878-1927) were the two wrestlers most associated with the "golden age" of Meiji-era sumo wrestling.
With tate-gyoji or referee Kimura Shounosuke XVI holding a gunbai at left, and Ikazuchi stable master and yokuzuna Omegatani Totaro I (1854-1928) seated with fan at right.
Gyokuha (also known Tamanami) was a Japanese print maker who flourished in the Meiji and Taisho eras, circa 1900-1920. He was probably a studio artist for the publisher, Matsuki Heikichi, and best known for his sumo wrestler portraits.
Published January 5, Meiji 33 (1900) by Matsuki Heikichi of Yoshikawacho, Nihonbashi, Tokyo.
Beautifully preserved and in very good condition, bold colour and sharp impression, no foxing.