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Rare and Antiquarian Books

British History

Biblio is proud to offer a wide collection of rare British history books. For those who love British history, there are many rare and antique British history books to choose from in our rare antiquarian book collection. British history is a popular subject, and there is a large variety or rare and antique books to choose from in the rare British history books section of the Biblio Rare Book Room. Browse our selection to find some truly wonderful examples of rare British history books.

Results 1 - 15 of 705
Of the Origin and Progress of Language. Second Edition [volumes 1 and 3].  With large Additions...

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Edinburgh: Printed for J. Balfour, Edinburgh [inter alia]; and T Cadell..., London, 1774 - 1792. FIRST EDITION of volumes 2, 4, 5, and 6. 6 volumes. 8vo, 217 x 136 mms., pp. x, xi [xii blank], 678; xi [xii blank], 588; xv [xvi blank], 466; xli [xlii Errata], 463 [464 blank]; xxxi [xxxii blank], 471 [472 blank, 473 Errata and notice to binder]; lii [liii Errata, liv blank], 473 [474 blank], with volumes 4, 5, and 6 printed in half-sheets, contemporary polished calf (probably Scottish), spines richly gilt, red and green morocco labels, bindings almost uniform except for the first three volumes lettered in Roman and the last three in Arabic numerals and minor variations in tools; spines slightly rubbed, heavier to volume 1 with lettering indistinct and a few chips, but a handsome set, with the early 19th century autograph of "Joseph [?W L] Shirreff" on the front paste-down end-paper and the small armorial bookplate, in the shape of a balloon with motto "Justitia" at the top,… Read More
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£8,250.00
£5.95 shipping to USA
The Historie of Great Britaine under the Conquests of ye Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. Their...
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The Historie of Great Britaine under the Conquests of ye Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. Their Originals, Manners, Habits, Warres, Coines, and Seales: with y Successions, Lives, Acts, and Issues of the English Monarchs from Julius Caesar to the most gracious Sovereign King James

by John Speed

  • Used
  • good
  • Hardcover
  • first
Condition
Used - Good
Edition
1st Edition
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Birsay, Orkney
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£5,000.00
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Popes-head alley, at y signe of y White Horse: Imprinted by William Hall and John Beale. Sold by John Sudbury and Georg Humble. , 1611 A good copy of the extremely rare 1st edition of Speed's comprehensive work. In full leather binding which has been rebacked retaining the original boards which have blind tooled decoration, and replacing the spine, which has raised bands and gilt title label. This work continued Speed's 'Theatre of Great Britaine' - and the page numbering is continuous with it - the text starting at p155 and finishing at p 894, although the book is complete on its own. With engraved decorative title page; 4 page preface and text completing at p 894; Summary conclusion of the whole - 4 pp; The Second Index - 46 pp; and a one page 'Faults etc Sped'. The work has numerous engravings of coins, seals and coats of arms; and is embellished throughout with decorative head and tailpieces and decorated initial capitals. The binding has been expertly repaired with some… Read More
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£5,000.00
£25.00 shipping to USA
SHAKESPEARE'S HOLINSHED:  The first and second volumes of Chronicles, comprising 1. The...
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London: London: printed [by Henry Denham] in Aldersgate street at the signe of the Starre, 1587. 2nd Edition . Hardcover. Very Good. Second edition; large folio; 3 volumes bound into 2 physical volumes. Vol. 1: [10], 250; [4], 202, [2]pp. Vol. 2: 61, [13], 183, [1]; 421, 424-430, 436-438, 431-433, 439-445, 450-464, [56]pp. Vol. 3: [8], 1080, 1080-1327, [2], 1332-1371, 1371-1421, 1490-1491, 1536-1555, 1574-1592, [62]pp. Mismatching set. Volumes 1-2 bound in 17th century reversed calf (somewhat worn with a few old repairs, hinges cracked, corners and spine ends worn with minor loss), blind rolls to margins of boards, spine with five raised bands, gilt-lettered red leather spine label to second compartment and additional hand-written leather spine label to third compartment, housed in attractive custom-made clam-shell box in red half leather over marbled boards with five raised spine bands and gilt lettering direct to spine in second compartment. Unobtrusive creasing and wear to opening and… Read More
Item Price
£14,895.00
£17.95 shipping to USA
Occupation of Mashonaland. Views by W. Ellerton Fry.
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Occupation of Mashonaland. Views by W. Ellerton Fry.

by Fry, W. Ellerton

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  • Hardcover
  • Signed
  • first
Condition
Used
Edition
1st Edition
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Canton, Georgia
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£22,082.50
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London: Self-published, 1891., 1891. First printing. Very heavy folio. Unpaginated (41 stiff card leaves). Illustrated with 154 mounted photographs, all half-plate in size, with 5 panoramas consisting of two plates mounted side-by-side; all photographs have a brief printed caption beneath. Bound in 3/4 black leather with green cloth; gilt stamped. All edges gilt. Although the exact number of the printing is not known, it is generally believed that fewer than 20 copies were published. The photographs were taken by Lieutenant W. Ellerton Fry, who was the official photographer of the Pioneer Column which served as security for the occupation of Mashonaland (now part of Zimbabwe) in 1891 by the British South Africa Company (BSAC). The BSAC was formed by Cecil Rhodes for the purpose of exploiting the mineral wealth (primarily gold) of Mashonaland, and then its colonization. Although Fry considered himself to be an amateur photographer, he was recruited by the famous African big game hunter, F. C. Selous,… Read More
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£22,082.50
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The Woman In White
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The Woman In White

by Collins, Wilkie

  • Used
  • Hardcover
  • first
Condition
Used - Good-
Edition
First Edition
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Salem, Oregon
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£4,818.00
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The Woman In White (1860 Harper & Brothers 1st Edition) BY WILKIE COLLINS. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1860.[2], 260, [4, ads] pp. States 1860 on the title page. In-text illustrations by John McLenan. Publisher's dk. brown stamped heavy cardboard boards with elaborate blind-stamped Harper and Brothers cartouche on front and back boards. Ads state B. Miss Mulock spelled correctly. Ads list eleven titles, and verso advertising The Mill on the Floss [Gasson p. 160.]Used. Good- Condition: Our copy lacks its spine, otherwise in good condition and a good candidate for rebinding. Chocolate brown endpapers are in good shape. Please see our photos. Will ship from Oregon. We consider offers.
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£4,818.00
£5.00 shipping to USA
The First and second volumes of Chronicles ....[with] The Third volume of Chronicles, beginning...
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The First and second volumes of Chronicles ....[with] The Third volume of Chronicles, beginning at duke William the Norman, commonly called the Conqueror; and descending by degrees of yeeres to all the kings and queens of England in their orderlie successions: ...

by Raphael Holinshed, William Harrison, now augmented by John Hooker [alias Vowell Gent] and others...

  • Used
  • good
  • Hardcover
Condition
Used - Good
Edition
2nd Edition
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Birsay, Orkney
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£11,500.00
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At London printed in Aldergate Street at the signe of the Starre: John Harrison, George Bishop, Rafe Newberie, Henrie Denham and Thomas Woodcocke, 1587 A good copy of the 2nd edition of Holinshed's Chronicles. This edition lacks the extensive woodcuts found in the 1st edition but has beautiful initial capitals and head and tailpieces. Volumes I and II are bound together; Volume III is a single volume. All have been rebound in half calf with gilt lining and title label to spine and marbled boards. Bookplates from the Skipworth family of Newbold-Revel in Warwickshire dating from 1704 through to 1884, have been relaid on the front endpapers of both volumes. Vol I/II has worming. The animals in question have gone vertically through the text block and so little text has been lost, apart from a solitary sideways saunter in the Irish section from p 41 through to p 1 of the Irish History where there loss of some words. Vols I/II are complete apart from lacking the title page to the Description of Ireland and… Read More
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£11,500.00
£25.00 shipping to USA
The Lawes [Laws] Resolutions of Womens Rights... London, 1632. 1st ed
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The Lawes [Laws] Resolutions of Womens Rights... London, 1632. 1st ed

by Edgar, Thomas, Attributed; Dodderidge, John

  • Used
  • first
Condition
Used
Seller
Clark, New Jersey
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£20,075.00
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1632. One of 4 early books on the English Law of Women. One of 4 early books on the English Law of Women. The Earliest Work in English About Laws Relating to Women E[dgar], T[homas] (fl. 1615-1649), Attributed]. The Lawes Resolutions of Womens Rights: Or, The Lawes Provision for Woemen. A Methodicall Collection of Such Statutes and Customes, With the Cases, Opinions, Arguments and Points of Learning in the Law, As Doe Properly Concerne Women. Together with a Compendious Table, Whereby the Chiefe Matters in This Booke Contained, May Be the More Readily Found. London: Printed for the Assignes of John More Esq., 1632. [xiv], 404 pp. First leaf in collation, a blank, lacking. Quarto (7-1/2" x 5-1/2"). Contemporary speckled calf, rebacked in period style, gilt fillets and lettering piece to spine, gilt tooling to board edges, corners mended, endpapers renewed, speckled edges. Light rubbing to boards, tiny nick to lettering piece. Light toning to text, light foxing to a few leaves. Housed in a custom… Read More
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£20,075.00
£9.50 shipping to USA
Opticks
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Opticks: Or, a Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light.

by Isaac Newton

  • Used
Condition
Used
Edition
Second Edition
Seller
Great Barrington, Massachusetts
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£6,022.50
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Illustrated with 12 folding engraved plates of optical/geometrical diagrams and a few woodcut diagrams and tables in text; large woodcut decorative tail-pieces, head-pieces and initials. 8vo. Contemporary full speckled calf; boards with double-fillet gilt-ruled borders; spine with five raised bands and gilt-lettered (faded) morocco label; edges speckled red. London: Printed for W. and J. Innys, printers to the Royal Society, 1718. Second English Edition revised and enlarged by Newton. First Octavo Edition. Second issue, with the title-page dated 1718 (the very rare first issue is dated 1717). The first edition appeared in 1704 in quarto. For this second edition the plates were newly engraved to fit the new octavo format. The most important feature of this second edition is that the number of Queries at the end was increased from 16 to 31, including the celebrated Query 28 on the nature of light. The Queries in the initial set were rather brief, but the later ones became more substantial, written as… Read More
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£6,022.50
£20.00 shipping to USA
The People's Rights, the exceptionally rare Daily News binding variant of the first issue, first...
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The People's Rights, the exceptionally rare Daily News binding variant of the first issue, first state

by Winston S. Churchill

  • Used
  • Paperback
  • first
Condition
Used
Edition
First edition, first issue, first state, Daily News binding
Binding
Paperback
Seller
San Diego, California
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£6,022.50
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London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1910. First edition, first issue, first state, Daily News binding. Paperback. This is an exceptionally rare variant binding of the first edition, first issue, first state of this early collection of Churchill's speeches. The People's Rights was most commonly issued in an exceptionally perishable form, in vividly hued, thin, yellow-orange paper wraps (with a halftone photo of Churchill on the cover) and contents printed on cheap, pulp paper. Consequently, few copies survive, and significant wear, losses, and general deterioration are common to those copies that endure. Churchill’s bibliographer, Ronald Cohen, informs us that, in addition to the normal wraps copies, some were issued in partnership with various regional newspapers. “There are also no fewer than five local newspaper issues in paper wrappers (of the Daily News, Sheffield Independent, North Mail, Yorkshire Observer and Liverpool Daily Post & Liverpool Mercury).” (Cohen, Vol. I, p.176, A31) All five are… Read More
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£6,022.50
£10.56 shipping to USA
Discourses Concerning Government; Published from the Original Manuscript of the Author
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Discourses Concerning Government; Published from the Original Manuscript of the Author

by Sidney, Algernon

  • Used
  • Hardcover
  • first
Condition
Used - Folio (310 x 200 mm). Modern brown quarter calf, red morocco spine label and raised bands, with marbled boards, edges sprinkled
Edition
First edition
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Chicago, Illinois
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£5,219.50
£12.00 shipping to USA

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London: Printed, and are to be sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster, 1698. First edition. Folio (310 x 200 mm). Modern brown quarter calf, red morocco spine label and raised bands, with marbled boards, edges sprinkled red. Comes in a blue, flat-back cloth box. Ownership signature of "Adam Brown, 1797," and shelf mark to title page, several annotations and ink marks to contents, including sig. 302 verso. Contents occasionally spotted with small nick to top edge of S4 and short closed tear to lower edge of 2V2, else a very bright and clean copy housed in a nice custom box.. First edition of this major work of republican theory by English politician and republican theorist Algernon Sidney (1623-1683). Sidney wrote his Discourses Concerning Government between 1681 and 1683, and it originally circulated in manuscript form as a polemical refutation of Sir Robert Filmer's Patriarcha (1680), which defended the divine right of kings under absolute monarchy. Sidney opposed absolute monarchy as a… Read More
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£5,219.50
£12.00 shipping to USA
Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London...
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Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. In a Letter Intended to Have Been Sent to a Gentleman in Paris. By the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

by Burke, Edmund

  • Used
  • Hardcover
  • first
Condition
Used - Octavo. Period-style half calf and marbled boards, red morocco spine label. Offsetting to endpapers from leather tips, title pag
Edition
First edition
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Chicago, Illinois
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£6,022.50
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London: Printed for J. Dodsley, in Pall-Mall, 1790. First edition. Octavo. Period-style half calf and marbled boards, red morocco spine label. Offsetting to endpapers from leather tips, title page browned and spotting to certain leaves. Todd identifies three editions with a 1790 title page, comprising ten impressions. Todd's setting a of [A]2 with the ornamental flower on p. [iv] pointing to the right and the "M" in the imprint immediately below the first "D" of "Dodsley" and setting x of 2A2 with no press figure on p. 354. SC/2/6.. First edition of Edmund Burke's (1729-1797) enduring polemic against the French Revolution and defense of conservative principles. The publication of Burke's pamphlet in 1790 would prove a watershed moment in the birth and development of modern conservatism, as Reflections has been credited as among the first-and finest-transformative statements of traditionalism into a fully conceived political philosophy. Burke was an Irish statesman who served in the House of Commons… Read More
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£6,022.50
£12.00 shipping to USA
Cato's Letters: Or, Essays on Liberty, Civil and Religious, and Other Important Subjects
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Cato's Letters: Or, Essays on Liberty, Civil and Religious, and Other Important Subjects

by Cato [Thomas Gordon and John Trenchard]

  • Used
  • Hardcover
Condition
Used - Small octavo. Four volumes. Bound in full contemporary brown calf with a single blind-stamped border on the covers and blind-sta
Edition
Fifth edition, corrected
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Chicago, Illinois
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Item Price
£10,037.50
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London: T. Woodward, J. Walthoe, J. Peele, T. Longman, T. Shewell, C. Hitch, A. Miller & J. Rivington, 1748. Fifth edition, corrected. Small octavo. Four volumes. Bound in full contemporary brown calf with a single blind-stamped border on the covers and blind-stamped tooling on board edges; spine with raised bands and a single gilt-lettered label; wood-engraved initials and headpieces. Large armorial bookplates of The Marquess of Sligo at Westport House, else fine.. A remarkably bright and well-preserved collection of the essays by Thomas Gordon (1691-1750) and John Trenchard (1662-1723) that, perhaps more than any other written work, influenced the minds of American colonists in the years leading up to the American Revolution. The 144 essays that are contained in the four volumes were originally published by Gordon and Trenchard in the London Journal between 1720 and 1723 under the pseudonym "Cato," the relentless opponent of Julius Caesar and committed champion of republican principles. This fifth… Read More
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£10,037.50
£12.00 shipping to USA
TO THE ELECTORS OF NORTH-WEST MANCHESTER: the extravagantly rare publication of Winston S....
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TO THE ELECTORS OF NORTH-WEST MANCHESTER: the extravagantly rare publication of Winston S. Churchill's campaign address from the first election he contested as a Liberal, including the only copy known to us of the accompanying perforated canvassing leaf soliciting supporters

by Winston S. Churchill

  • Used
  • first
Condition
Used
Edition
First edition, only printing
Seller
San Diego, California
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£6,825.50
£10.56 shipping to USA

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2, Swan Court, Market Street, Manchester: William Hough & Sons, 1 January 1906. First edition, only printing. Leaflet. This extravagantly rare leaflet publication potentially unique thus is the first edition, only printing, of Winston S. Churchills Address to the Electors of North-West Manchester, published on 1 January 1906 in the run up to the first election he contested as a Liberal. Of the three copies known to us, this is the only privately-held copy and the sole example to retain the canvassing leaf insertion inviting the undersigned to declare intention to support the candidature of Mr. WINSTON S. CHURCHILL at the forthcoming General Election. The leaflet consists of a single 16.5 x 10.625 inch (41.91 cm x 26.99 cm) sheet folded once vertically to form four 8.25 x 10.625 inch (20.96 x 26.9 cm) panels. The upper left of the front panel features the same iconic image of a stern and earnest young Churchill later featured on the dust jacket for Liberalism and the Social Problem (1909) and the… Read More
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£6,825.50
£10.56 shipping to USA
An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China....
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An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China. Including Cursory Observations made, and Information obtained, in travelling through that Ancient Empire, and a small part of Chinese Tartary.: Taken chiefly from the papers of His Excellency the Earl of Macartney.

by STAUNTON. Sir GEORGE

  • Used
  • Hardcover
  • first
Condition
Used
Edition
First edition.
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
London, Greater London
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Item Price
£8,750.00
£18.00 shipping to USA

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Printed by W. Bulmer & Co. for G. Nicol. London. 1797. FIRST EDITION. Three volumes. Complete. - Two quarto text volumes (12 x 9.4 inches), and a folio atlas of plates (16.6 x 12.3 inches). ---- Both text volumes in contemporary full brown calf boards with decorative gilt borders. Re-spined in recent brown calf with raised bands, the compartments ruled in blind, two red morocco labels, lined and lettered in gilt. Gilt inner dentelles. Marbled endpapers. All edges marbled. The atlas volume bound in recent half brown calf. Spine with raised bands, each decorated in gilt. Compartments ruled in gilt. Red title label, gilt. Marbled paper on boards. Text volumes with engraved portrait frontispiece to each, 1 plate and 26 vignettes after William Alexander et al. in all, atlas with 44 engraved views, plans, plates and maps and charts, including large folding world map, 3 natural history subjects and 25 views. Some foxing and sporadic spotting to both text and atlas, a couple of the maps have professional… Read More
Item Price
£8,750.00
£18.00 shipping to USA
Magna Charta [Carta], Cum Statutis, Tum Antiquis, Tum Recentibus..
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Magna Charta [Carta], Cum Statutis, Tum Antiquis, Tum Recentibus..

by Magna Carta; Tottell, Richard

  • Used
Condition
Used
Seller
Clark, New Jersey
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£6,022.50
£9.50 shipping to USA

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1576. contemporary female ownership: Jane Saunderson. contemporary female ownership: Jane Saunderson. Handsome Copy of the 1576 Tottel Edition of Magna Carta Owned by a Woman [Magna Carta]. Magna Charta, Cum Statutis, Tum Antiquis, Tum Recentibus, Maximopere, Animo Tenendis Nunc Demum ad Unum, Tipis Aedita, Per Richardum Tottell. Anno Domini 1576. [Imprinted at London in Fleetestrete Within Temple Barre at the Signe of the Hand and Starre, By Richard Tottell, The 8. Day of Marche, 1576]. [viii], 247 ff. Octavo (4-1/2" x 2-3/4"). Period-style calf, raised bands and gilt title and ornaments to spine, endpapers renewed. Some toning to text, margins trimmed close with loss of a few letters on outer margin of leaf A1 (fol. 1), minor dampstaining in a few places. Contemporary ownership signatures of Jane Saunderson to title page and rear endleaf, brief annotations in a tiny hand to a few pages. An appealing copy. $7,500. * Text in Latin, English and Law-French. With two tables of statutes, one… Read More
Item Price
£6,022.50
£9.50 shipping to USA