Rare books from Nelson Rare Books, ABAA/ILAB

New York: Henry Holt & Company, 1923. First trade edition. Wear to the edges and dampstaining to the bottom portion of the spine and covers, with contemporary ownership inscription. Very Good, lacking the extremely scarce dustwrapper.. Signed and inscribed by Frost on the flyleaf. One of Frost's most notable books and winner of his first Pulitzer Prize.

London: Thos. Shrimpton and Son, 1878. Very good in original gray-green printed wrappers which are a bit browned at edges and with a few small chips. Now housed in a custom chemise and green morocco-backed slipcase.. First Edition. With crest on wrapper, title page, and with woodcut on the last page. Wilde's first book. Wilde's poem was the Newdigate Prize winner for 1878, presented at Oxford University for best poetry. "During a vacation ramble in 1877 [Wilde] started from Greece, [and] visiting Ravenna by chance on the way, he obtained material for a poem on that ancient city, and singularly enough, Ravenna was afterwards given out as the topic for the Newdigate competition." (Hamilton, The Aesthetic Movement in England, as quoted by Mason, pg. 243). 8vo. 16pp. Mason, pg. 241.

Oxford: Claredon Press, 1903. First Edition. Some pages unopened, pull out maps present. Another former owner's embossed stamp on the front free endpaper. Very Good in publisher's cloth.. Sir Winston Churchill's copy with his bookplate and the bookplate of his son, Randolph S. Churchill, both on the front pastedown. Letter of authenticity certifying the book as from the personal library of Winston Churchill, dated 1977, signed by Diana J. Rendell (of The Rendells, Inc., ILAB/ABA).

London: Smith, Elder & Co, 1912. Centenary Edition. Contemporary half red morocco gilt, top edge gilt with some wear to extremities and almost all boards detached. Given that this is a ten volume set, additional shipping will be quoted at cost.. Limited edition, being number 492/526 of the "Centenary Edition." An autograph letter signed by Browning is tipped in volume one. As other examine copies of the Centenary Edition include tipped in letters, it is certainly possible this was done by a publisher or early bookseller. 10 volumes. 8vo.

London: Charles Dolman, 1841. Second Edition. Very good in modern quarter leather over marbled boards with minor scattered foxing throughout, primarily to edges.. Second edition of Pugin's groundbreaking work which arguably defined the Gothic Revival in architecture. With a total of 20 plates, an addition of 5 plates (and omission of 1) from the first edition, this second edition adds the notable plates whereby Pugin shows contrasting views of English Catholic towns in 1440 versus 1880, and ancient homes for the poor versus the modern-Victorian panopticon workhouses, and in which he of course laments and "exposed the degrated [sic] state of architecture" after the Middle Ages. The "most important addition to Contrasts [second edition] was a pair of plates. . . These plates made an argument more powerful than Pugin would ever make in words." Hill, God's Architect (2007, pg. 248). 4to. v, 104pp. + 20 plates. Belcher A3.2. Scarce in commerce.

London: [Chiswick Press for] Ellis and White, 1881. First Edition. About very good in publisher's blue paper-backed boards, printed spine label, with splitting and wear along the spine, prior owner inscription to front free endpaper, in a custom clamshell box.. First edition, being one of only 25 large paper copies "for subscribers only." The second collection of poetry and the last published in Rossetti's lifetime, given his death the following year. Virtually unobtainable given the limitation. 8vo. xii, 335pp., [2]. W.M. Rossetti 35. Tinker 1819. Fredeman 23.12. Fennell 21.

London: Printed for the Author, 1836. First Edition. Very good in contemporary cloth, spine reinforced with later linen, with scattered foxing throughout, primarily to edges. Scarce in commerce.. First edition of Pugin's monumental work which arguably defined the Gothic Revival in architecture. Belcher declared it "Pugin's most original, characteristic and influential book." Ferrey's biography of Pugin noted that Pugin published the work himself as he could not "find a publisher who would incur the responsibility of giving to the world a work so strongly seasoned with personal abuse." "Only Pugin was prepared to project the romantic retrospective vision of the medieval world on the present and the future, to urge a complete revival of the Church and the arts of the Middle Ages . . . . Contrasts appeared on 4 August, a date that marked the beginning of Pugin's public career and the effective end of Georgian architecture." Hill, God's Architect (2007, pgs. 158-59). 4to. iv, 50pp. + 16 plates.… Read More

London: Reeves and Turner, 1889. First Edition. About very good in publisher's dark red cloth with bumping and wear to edges and spine, paper spine label present but with loss, spine lean, front hinge starting, but nevertheless a desirable copy with excellent association.. Inscribed presentation copy from Morris to Ford Madox Brown, dated December 1888. An exceptional Pre-Raphaelite association. Brown was a British painter closely aligned with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, an "old and intimate" friend of Morris, and a founding partner of Morris's design company, Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. This copy was also owned by, and has the bookplate and ownership inscription of, American painter and collector Hamilton Easter Field who appears to have acquired it in 1894, the year after Brown's death. 8vo. [8], 199pp., [1] + 32pp. publisher's catalogue dated November 1888. Buxton Forman 107 (ordinary copy). Scott, pg. 13.

Messina, 1834. Very good with wear to edges and spine, and a tear to one leaf not affecting contents. A lovely manuscript in an equally lovely binding.. An unpublished manuscript English translation of Sicilian poet Giovanni Meli's La Fata Galanti (The Courteous Fairy, 1762). Meli (1740-1815) was a physician and poet who wrote in his native dialect of Palermo and promoted and collected Sicilian literature. The Courteous Fairy, a satirical poem in eight cantos, is one of his earliest works, written at the age of 22, four years before his first published collection. Although much of Meli's work has been translated into English and published, La Fata Galanti has only been translated in print in English recently. This particular translation remains unpublished. The second title mentioned, The World, is not actually included in the bound manuscript. The poem itself tells of a would-be poet who rescues a toad from a peasant. The toad is actually the Courteous Fairy in disguise. She offers him any wish,… Read More

Birmingham: John Baskerville, 1771. The first Baskerville Bible to be printed in Birmingham and one of only two Bibles published by Baskerville. A sumptuous printing in folio with 10 engraved plates. Folio. A-13K2. Gaskell 35 (first state with 1769 title page). ESTC T93103. Herbert 1210. Pardoe, John Baskerville, pgs. 98-118 (noting publication in 150 weekly parts). Very good in modern speckled full calf, with contents generally clean with light scattered foxing, one leaf with closed tear.

Bordeaux: Librairie de Hippolyte Duthu, 1883. Near fine, laid in vellum chemise, all in publisher's vellum pull-off case with some wear, soiling, and tear to interior lid.. #3 of an unstated number of copies beautifully printed in brown and red on vellum. Commemorating the passing of the Archbishop of Perga / Coadjutor Bishop of Bordeaux, by Mermillod, the Cardinal Bishop of Lausanne and Geneva. Rare. 8vo. Unbound sheets. 93pp., [1] + tissued-guarded engraved frontispiece. OCLC reflects one physical copy in the United States, and none appear to be the instant vellum issue.

[n.p.], 1914. The watercolors are in very good or better condition with some foxing to versos, the majority mounted (some no longer mounted after loss of adhesive), most with the location identified on their mount, or with place, date, and artist identified on the verso of the watercolor, the album itself is good with tears to the album leaves, in original half cloth scrapbook over textured paper-covered boards that are rubbed and worn.. A splendid album containing over 100 mounted original watercolor views of various landscapes and buildings in Britain and Europe, featuring locations, among others, of the Lake District, Kent, Scotland (including the Highlands and Warwick Castle), Lyme Regis, Cornwall, Switzerland, Italy (including Florence), and others. Also includes a few watercolors of flora. The album contains the works of at least three members of the Copleston family of England, Jane Ellen Copleston, Eliza Ann Copleston, and Miss May G. Copleston, as well as an M.R. Hart [or Harte]. Folio.… Read More

New York: George H. Doran Company, 1925. Good plus with toned vellum-like paper spine with leather spine label over paper covered boards, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed, stain to fore edge, pages browned from age and paper quality, professional repairs to spine and hinges. Nevertheless, a respectable copy of a noted rarity.. Limited edition #79 of 105 copies, signed by the author (who is most famous for the children's classic, The Velveteen Rabbit). Notable as a Rackham limited edition which he didn't sign. This work is frequently cited as the "rarest Rackham" limited edition and was never issued in England as a limited edition. With 7 tissue-guarded tipped-in plates by Rackham. 4to. xiv, 15-175pp., [1]. Latimore & Haskell, pgs. 59-60.

London: William Heinemann Ltd.; New York: Doubleday, Page & Co, 1925. Very good in publisher's black cloth over blue-green marbled paper-covered boards, mounted paper label; top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed; illustrated endpapers, offsetting to front ones, in fair scarce publisher's paper-covered slip case with matching limitation number which is worn with loss to top and tears to bottom.. Limited American edition, #74 of 100 hand-numbered copies, signed by both Rackham and Morley. Illustrated with color frontispiece, 3 color plates, and numerous in-text black and white illustrations. The scarce matching slipcase is present. 4to. xii, 227pp. Latimore & Haskell, pgs. 60-61.

London: William Pickering, 1833. First Edition. Very good in later half morocco over boards, rebacked with more recent leather, old morocco spine label, later endpapers and flyleaves, boards worn at edges, occasional light foxing within, prior owner bookplate and small private library stamp.. First edition of Shaw's beautifully illustrated work on the art of illumination and depicting ornamentation from the sixth through the seventeenth centuries. A splendid work featuring an illuminated extra title page and 59 hand-colored lithographs. Ruari McLean in Victorian Book Design & Colour Printing called Shaw's publications "among the finest achievements of Victorian book design and illustration." 4to. [2], 18pp. + 59 unnumbered leaves of plates plus illuminated title, bound with addendum description to Specimen VIII. Abbey, England in Aquatint 234.