Rare books from Hamish Riley-Smith Rare Books

Folio, 280 x 205 cm, late 18th or early 19th century morocco, stained, spine gilt, darkened, lettered gilt, contemporary marbled endpapers, 410 leaves, woodcut title page border entirely unshaved at the top and rarely found thus, Roman, italic and gothic types, table of contents in double columns, index in three columns, printed shoulder notes, large woodcut initials, some browning and old damp staining to upper margins throughout, insignificant wormhole to upper margin of last few leaves, engraved armorial bookplate of Johnstone to front pastedown, library stamp to lower blank margins of nine leaves, complete with colophon and final blank, an excellent large copy.
Printing & the Mind of Man 55. Adams, H567. Grolier, Medicine 1A. Wellcome 3177. NLM 2320.
Provenance
1. Johnstone, armorial bookplate, either Edward Johnstone [1757-1851], physician, first President of the provincial Medical & Surgical Association, one of the original physicians of the Birmingham General Hospital; or his brother John… Read More

Quarto, contemporary French mottled calf, a little worn, spine with five raised bands richly gilt in compartments and label lettered in gilt, head and tail of spine worn, covers with triple gilt fillets and an inner panel of triple gilt fillets embellished at the corners with fleurions in the contemporary 17th century syle à la Duseuil, title with engraved woodcut, pp,(10), 648, (4), with the errata leaf, dedication and privilege, woodcut initials, old faint water stain in the upper outer margin, an attractive copy.

RARE FIRST FRENCH TRANSLATION OF THE QUR’AN AND THE FIRST COMPLETE TRANSLATION TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE VERNACULAR by André du Ryer. It inspired the later translations into English of 1649, Dutch of 1658, German 1703 and Russian 1776. André Du Ryer was French vice-consul in Egypt from 1623 to 1626, and both adviser and interpreter to the French ambassador in Istanbul and ambassador extraordinary of the sultan to France in the early 1630s. He assembled a fine collection of Turkish,… Read More

3 volumes, octavo, contemporary half calf and marbled boards, contemporary red morocco labels lettered gilt with volume numbers in gilt, head and tails worn, leaf edges entirely uncut, pp.viii + 499 + (1) errata; vi + 518 + (5) appendix + (1) errata; v + (1) errata + 465 + (1) blank + (50) index, in vol.III title page and index leaves unopened, engraved armorial bookplate in all volumes of Talbot of Gonville's Hall in Wymondham Co.Norfolk MDLXXXIV, in volumes II and III in ink on initial blank B.C.Hingham June 87, contemporary binders note in ink on front blank endpaper of volume I 3 V. 0.18.0 in hf bind., and at the foot of the final blank leaf Joh.Slapp Cher., a charming copy.
PMM 221 (1st edition). Goldsmith 13148. Kress B1129. Vanderblue, p.3. See Mossner, Correspondence of Adam Smith, 1987, letter no.256 to Andrew Strahan
Fourth edition published on November 6th 1786. There are a few trifling alterations from the 3rd edition.. In the 'Advertisement' leaf in volume I to this edition Adam Smith… Read More

Three volumes, octavo, contemporary pale Irish calf, contemporary dark red labels lettered and numbered gilt, slight wear to head and tails of volume II, pp. (4) + (8) + iii-xii + (6) + 426 + (2)adverts; (32) + 424; (8) + 431 + folding table of coins + (20), a fine and attractive copy.
Kress 6760. Goldsmith 10611. Higgs 4854. Blaug, Great Economists before Keynes, pp.241-242. Schumpeter, History of Economic Analysis, p.176.

First Dublin edition. The first important English work on political economy. James Steuart (1712-1780) is represented as someone who produced a systematic treatment of economics, but in pre-Physiocratic form. Although his book was first published in 1767, the main elements of the argument were established in isolation in Germany in the late 1750’s. The Principles is dominated by a concern with a socio-economic system in a situation where different national economies have different growth rates. Both perspectives ensured that the book was largely concerned with matters of… Read More

Octavo, 23.0 x 15.0 cm, uncut in the original sheets, stab holes, pp.(2) +396 + (4), printing flaw on page 276 affecting part of the text on 11 lines, publishers adverts dated December 1806, advert leaves browned, an excellent copy, a remarkable survival in the original sheets, uncut and never bound, preserved in a green cloth box.
Printing & the Mind of Man, 232b. Sabin 103953.
FIRST EDITION of William Wilberforce's book of 80,000 words which he completed on the evening of 27th January 1807 and published four days later. It summed up his arguments against the slave trade which he had presented over the previous twenty years. Copies were rushed to the House of Lords as soon as it came off the presses to coincide with the debate and 2nd reading of the Abolition Act that was to take place in the first week of February 1807. The Lords carried the Abolition Bill by 100 votes to 34, and the triumph was repeated in the House of Commons on 23rd February – 283 votes to 16.

[MARMONT DU HAUTCHAMP, Barthélémy]
Histoire des Finances Sous la Minorité de Louis XV. Pendant les années 1719 & 1720. Précedée D'un Abrégé de la Vie du Duc Regent, & du sur Sr.Law. Tome Premier – Tome Sixieme.
La Haye, chez Pierre du Hondt 1739
Twelvemo, 6 volumes bound in 3 volumes, 16.2 x 9.3cm, small octavo, very fine contemporary continental mottled calf, spines richly gilt with fleur-de-lys, red and blue morocco labels lettered gilt, marbled endpapers, leaf edges marbled, original silk page markers, pp. LIV-204 + (2) blank; (2) + 312 + (2) blank; (2) + 208 + (2) blank; (2) + 286 + (4) blank; (14) + 294 + (4) blank; (18) + 246 + (2) blank, complete with 2 folding tables in volume VI of Billets de Banque...faits en consequence des Arréts...1719-1720 printed on both sides, and the engraved plate Admiré la force in volume IV, titles printed in red and black with printers woodcut devices, woodcut decoration to chapter openings and endings, woodcut initials, insignificant scuffing to back… Read More

[WOOD,John Philip].
A Sketch of the Life and Projects of John Law of Lauriston,comptroller General of the finances in France. Edinburgh, Peter Hill and George Kearsley 1791
Quarto, 29.0 x 23.0 cm, t, pp.(4) + ii + 48, paper wrappers with short tear, original blue paper wrappers, uncut, an excellent copy, preserved in a marbled portfolio with ties.
ESTC T8458. Kress B2240. Goldsmith 14941.
RARE FIRST EDITION of the earliest published biography in English of the Scottish economist John Law. The dedication is to William Davidson of Muirhead.
The son of a prosperous banker John Law [1671-1729] devoted his entire life to making proposals for the establishment of banks, both in Scotland and on the Continent, convinced as he was that the key to economic prosperity lay in augmenting the base of metallic currencies with paper money, particularly paper money backed by land holdings. He was appointed Controller General of Finances in France by the regent Philippe dOrleans in 1716 and the became the architect… Read More

[MILL,John Stuart] Memorandum of the Improvements in the Administration of India during the last thirty years. London, 1858
Tall octavo, blue cloth on grey boards, spine lettered in gilt, pp.(4), 101, drop head title.
Very rare, 1 copy only in Copac at BL.
MacMinn, p.90
First separate edition. Of this Memorandum
Mill wrote in his manuscript of the bibliography of his writings of this I was partly the author and partly the editor, the facts being furnished by the departments of the India House.
It was published in Parliamentary Papers, 1857-58, XLIII, 1-38. (see above in folio). There was also a separate printing containing the correspondence between the directors of the East India Co and the government and their Petition to Parliament.
MacMnn: "A review of the improvements in legislation, education, religion, roads, and other matters achieved under the supervision of the East India Company".

together with five pamphlets in one volume
[MILL,.John Stuart] A Constitutional view of the India… Read More

[SMITH, Adam]. The Penny of Scotland. Boog junior des., P.Kempson fecit 1797
Penny Token, struck in bronze, 35mm in diameter,
with portrait of Adam Smith after Tassie on the obverse, a scene on the reverse entitled Wealth of Nations depicting various symbols of agriculture, commerce and trade including a plough, a spinning-wheel, a wool-pack and a cask on a quay-side with two three-masted ships in the back ground sailing out of the harbour.
J.M.Gray, 'The Portraits of Adam Smith' in J.Bonar 'Catalogue of the Library of Adam Smith' 1894. Illustrated in Scott, Adam Smith as Student and Professor, 1937. Dalton & Hamer, Fifeshire no.1. Not in Vanderblue.The only other recorded portraits of Adam Smith before our penny token which we have been able to trace are the Tassie medallion of 1787, two etched portraits by John Kay of 1787 and 1790 and a 'very poor unsigned transcript in line' (Gray) after Tassie in the Scots Magazine of 1796.
A very fine example of the one ounce Penny of… Read More

The price is £6000 [plus VAT at 20% if applicable]
ANNAN & Sons.
Clyde Navigation. Glasgow Harbour and Docks.
Glasgow, Annan & Sons, 1892-1898
8 platinum prints, 15.5 x 12.0 ins, mounted on original card 25 x 19 ins with printed titles on card, some foxing on images no.5 and 6, preserved in the original portfolio case with ties, rebacked in goatskin, internally lined with archival paper, upper cover lettered gilt Glasgow Harbour and Docks.
Historic archive of photographs in the maritime history of Glasgow – the development of the Clyde Navigation, Harbour and Docks recorded in eight original platinum prints by the famous Glasgow photographers Annan & Sons between 1892 and 1898 and preserved in their original portfolio case.
Glasgow was the second city of the Empire and by the end of the 19th century had become a major Atlantic seaport and the Clyde shipyards were building the most sophisticated and technologically innovative iron and steel ships in the world.
The photographer was John Annan… Read More

The School of Salamanca and the Quantity Theory of Money
THOMAS DE MERCADO, Fray. Summa de Tratos y Contratos...anadidas ala primera addition, muchas nueuas resoluciones. Y dos libros enteros, como parace en la pagina siguente. Seville, Hernando Diaz 1571
Thick quarto, 20.0 x 14.0cm, quarter vellum and cloth boards, five raised bands, spine lettered gilt, leaf edges gilt, some wormholes neatly restored in the blank margins, two parts in one volume, [12] leaves + 154 leaves [misnumbered]; 220 leaves [misnumbered] + [14 ] leaves tablo, title with engraved woodcut of a friar holding a model of the church in his left hand and a quill in his right hand, printers ornamental woodcut initials, printed marginalia.

Palau, IX p.91 165052. Colmeiro, 279. Smith, Rara Arithmetica p.335. Schumpeter, pp.95, 101. Kress 105. Goldsmith 155. Not in Einaudi or Sraffa.
See Marjorie Grice-Hutchinson, The School of Salamanca. Readings in Spanish Monetary Theory 1544-1605.Oxford 1952 pp.2-18; 40-51, 96-102.
Second edition,… Read More

Quarto, 25.0 x 19.8 cm, 2 pages in ink, with some deletions and insertions in the text, integral leaf removed leaving a somewhat irregular margin, docketed at head of first page,.£6,000 [plus VAT at 20% if applicable]An important unpublished letter about the abuse of power by government, that such power is destructive and that when it happens it should be taken away. It was the duty of every man to expose abuses or otherwise they would be deprived of their liberty.Written to Josiah Conder [1789-1855], bookseller and author, proprietor and editor of the Eclectic Review between 1814-1837, during which he supported the dissenting interest. Mill is said to have written in the British and Monthly reviews and especially the Eclectic. Details of the present controversy may be found in the Eclectic Review 1816The letter was written from Ford Abbey. "Jeremy Bentham, having rented Ford Abbey, invited Mill and his family to take up their abode with him. The party must have gone there in July...It is not… Read More

Octavo, 10.7 x 17.0 cm, 4 pages in ink, checks and encilled x's next to some names and docketed on top of fourth page J.S. Mill Sept.13/65.£4,000 [plus VAT at 20% if applicable]Newly discovered letter by John Stuart Mill from Berlin to his publisher John Nicolaus Trübner, publisher of Auguste Comte and Positivism 1865, giving instructions to send presentation copies on publication to 23 people and 1 institute providing names and addresses:George Grote [1794-1871] banker and historian of Greece and lifelong associate of Mill. Alexander Bain [1818-1903] philosopher, first biographer of Mill. W.J.Thornton [1813-1880] author, employee of East India Co. Friend and adherent of Mill's. Theodor Gomperz [1832-1912] Austrian philosopher & philologist, supervised translation of Mill's works into German. Max Kyllmann [1832-1867] native of Germany, founder of Union & Emancipation Society. Richard Congreve [1819-1899] founded a Positivist community in London. J.E.Cairnes [1823-1875] economist, Whately Professor… Read More

Octavo, 13.5 x 21.0 cm, 4 pages in ink, embossed JSM initials on writing paper, lightly dust-soiled, slight creasing and chipping at fore-edge, repaired without loss.£3,500 [plus VAT at 20% if applicable]A very fine political letter to Edmond Beales, relating to one of the most notable episodes in Mill's later political career. In it, Mill outlines his reasons for favouring the reformer Edwin Chadwick over the trade unionist Alexander McDonald as the Liberal candidate for Kilmarnock.Chadwick was a founder member of Mill's London Debating Society and had been acquainted with Mill since 1824.Edward Pleydell-Bouverie, who had been the Liberal member for Kilmarnock for twenty-five years, protested at Mill's action in recommending Chadwick and publication of Mill's reply to Bouverie was considered by many to have cost Mill his seat at Westminster.Edmond Beales was closely connected with radical groups active in the campaign for American and European democracy. He stood unsuccessfully as Liberal candidate… Read More

[MILL,John Stuart] East India (Improvements in Administration). Copy "of a Memorandum (prepared at the India House) of the Improvements in the Administration of India during the last Thirty Years". London 1858Folio, disbound, pp.1-38 +(2).MacMinn, p.90FIRST EDITION, from Parliamentary Papers, 1857-1858, XLIII. Of this Memorandum Mill wrote in his manuscript of the bibliography of his writings of this I was partly the author and partly the editor, the facts being furnished by the departments of the India House.MacMnn: "A review of the improvements in legislation, education, religion, roads, and other matters achieved under the supervision of the East India Company".withSix pamphlets in two volumes[MILL,John Stuart] Memorandum of the Improvements in the Administration of India during the last thirty years. London, 1858Tall octavo, blue cloth on grey boards, spine lettered in gilt, pp.(4), 101, drop head title.Very rare, 1 copy only in Copac at BL. MacMinn, p.90First separate edition. Of this Memorandum… Read More