Les batimens et les desseins de André Palladio recueillis et illustrés par Octave Bertotti Scamozzi, ouvrage divisé en quatre volumes, avec des planches, qui répresentent les plans, les façades, et les coupes. [French eidtion of Le Fabbriche e i Desgni di Andrea Palladio...] by [Palladio, Andrea] Octave Bertotti Scamozzi - 1786

Venice: Sumptibus Caroboli, et Pompeati, 1768. Complete 17 volume set, bound in 16 leather folios. First editions. Published Venice: Sumptibus Caroboli, et Pompeati, 1768-1776. Folios, 8 3/4" x 12", full calf skin vellum with gilt embossed spine titles and marbled edges, 2-color title page in volume one with frontis portrait of pope Gregory, title page vignettes, tail pieces and historiated initials. Text in Latin, printed in 2 columns on heavy rag paper. Mild wear and soiling to the boards, name at bottom of title pages, paper label at foot of spines. An attractive, very good set. Text bright, unmarked, bindings tight. Scarce. . 1st. Full-Leather. Very Good. Folio.

Paris: Fabrique Générale d'Articles de Voyages, 1840. First Edition. Alexis Godillot (1816-1893) was a contemporary of Louis Vuitton (1821-1892) and first achieved renown in Paris for his beautiful hand-made luggage. With a workshop situated just a few blocks away from Vuitton's, this catalogue comes from this very early period of Godillot's life before he had revolutionised footwear by differentiating the moulding of the left shoe from the right and become the famous shoemaker who would go on to equip over one hundred thousand French soldiers for The Crimean War. 'Godillot' remains a slang French term for 'boot' to this day. The album features superb hand-coloured lithographs with an original sketch showcasing nearly one hundred accessories including bags, picnic baskets, apparel, wonderful old trunks, tents, and hammocks- true 'objets nomades' - many of which are in surprisingly bold and modern designs. A beautiful, rare, and precious catalogue of the articles a traveller might require for… Read More

Beautiful full morocco with gilt detailing and rule; 5 raised bands. Elaborately designed doublures with gilt dentelles. Silk fly sheets. "The Delphic Edition of The Breviary Treasures consists of 475 copies printed on French hand-made paper, of which this copy is Number 94." xii, 214 pp. 6 3/4 x 9 1/4 inches.

Album with 52 photographs – each ca 220 x 280 mm – on black cardboard mounts showing clocks, mantelpieces, wall appliques, lanterns, chandeliers, bronzes and candelstands cast by the atelier of Henri Vian in Paris. Each photograph with numbers and dimensions of objects in the negativ. A number of plates with pencilled annotations on back of mounts, with numbering and sometimes dimensions of objects. Cont. calf, with an all over decoration of floral elements. Spine on five raised bands. Covers framed by double gilt fillets. Foot of spine stamped H. Vian / Paris. Folio (460 x 370 mm). Slightly rubbed, extremeties worn. Henri Vian (1860-1905), a bronze-caster active in the second half of the 19th century, was specialized in the production of bronzes, light fittings, chandeliers, chimney mantelpieces, ormolu and patinated-mounted vases always of very fine quality. The business, located at 5 rue de Thorigny in Paris (the Salé Mansion, now the Picasso Museum), was continued by Madame Vian after her… Read More

A beautiful guide to the identification of woods by their grains and colours, a "Cabinet of Wood."With 66 fine hand-coloured engraved plates depicting over 550 types of European and exotic woods from India, China and America in cross section, each with a page of wood names in Dutch, German, French, English and Latin. The title page states that the book was meant "for natural history lovers and keepers of cabinets of natural curiosities." The book was issued in parts from 1773 and thus the number of plates varies from 24 (Royal Botanic Gardens Kew) to 66 (here). The final 1791 edition had a different title and 106 plates, including a 40-plate supplement. Jan Christiaan Sepp (1739-1811) was the son of the German instrument maker and cartographer Christiaan Sepp. J.C. Sepp established himself as a bookseller and publisher specializing in natural history.Martinus Houttuyn (1720-1798), born in Hoorn, studied medicine in Leiden and moved to Amsterdam in 1753. Houttuyn published his own natural history books… Read More

Whitby: Printed by T. Webster, Sold by the Author; and W. Tesseyman, Bookseller, York. 1794. First edition, large folio (520 x 355 mm), [32]pp., with a list of subscribers, and an initial leaf stating "Entered at stationers' Hall", 11 engraved plates (some lightly offset), each with explanatory leaf, with an original watercolour sketch for a heating device loosely inserted, occasional lightly foxing, orig. quarter calf, marbled boards, a very nice copy in original condition. Little is known of James Shaw, other than he was head gardener at Mulgrave Caslte, North Yorkshire, and this appears to be his only published work. He dedicates the book to his Patron and employee the Right Honourable Henry, Lord Mulgrave and states in his advertisement "Gardening at this period, is an object of general pursuit, from its useful and admirable effects. The most elegant and superior branch of it, is that of forcing fruit, which are natives of warmer climates; and the perfection of them, in some… Read More

Calligraphed title, verso with manuscript inked faked printer's sign "the Shingle-syde Press" within double rules, 16 architectural plates (15 on thick drawing paper, one on tracing paper) with pencil and watercolour drawings of elevations, plans and sections of his house. Loosely contained in later cloth portfolio, with gilt morocco label to front cover. Folio (700 x 470 mm). A charming set of large hand-drawn and delicately coloured architectural delineations for the home and studio of Connecticut illustrator, poet, and architect, William Walworth Stilson, (1874-1962), a Connecticut artist born in New Milford and a resident of Bridgeport and Shelton. He illustrated several books, including Willard Nelson Clute, Our Ferns in Their Haunts (1901); William Cullen Bryant, Thanatopsis (1909); and Hamilton Wright Mabie, The Writers of Knickerbocker New York (1912). The house was completed in 1902. His papers are housed at the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript… Read More

Rare complete copy of Keika Hasegawa's Keika Hyakugiku (100 chrysanthemums by Keika)(The British Museum only has Volumes 1 and 2, the Smithsonian only 2 and 3.)75 colour woodblock prints (all published), including eight double-page, from this seminal book on the cultivation of chrysanthemums. Volumes 1 and 2 published in July 1893 and Volume 3 published in December 1903. Chrysanthemum cultivation came to Japan from China in the 8th century and the flower was later adopted as the Emperor's crest. Over the centuries, extraordinary hybrids of elegant shapes and vibrant colours were produced, many of which are recorded in this book.Little is known about the artist Keika Hasegawa. (The name Keika is usually a woman's name.) Active in the final years of the 19th century, he also produced books of patterns for kimono and washi paper such as Biko Zukan (Art Book) 1894, and Kyoka Zuan (Patterns of Kyoto), 1897. Original wraps are grubby and worn, interior slightly browned and edges worn. A few prints with… Read More

Engraved front. with letterpress Latin title in red and black within an engraved figural frame, 5 unnumb. leaves including title with woodcut vignette framed by ornamental typographical border, 132 engraved plates showing members of the congregation in emblematic images relating to important events in their life; accompanied by 132 unnumb. leaves with letterpress Latin and Italian text on recto, framed by varying typographical borders, closing with an engraved extra-plate, a half-length portrait within an architectural frame of Innocent-Raphael Savonarola (1680-1748) signed Joseph Oraly Romanus sculp. facing last text-leaf with Italian and Latin letterpress protestatio - protesta. Cont. richly gilt Italian red morocco on five raised bands with red morocco gilt lettering label in second compartment and green morocco label with intertwined gilt initials OL in third compartment. All others with richly gilt ornamentation. Endpapers lined with block printed paper with a repetitive pattern of flowering… Read More

Edinburgh: Waugh and Innes, 1834. First edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 8vo, green cloth boards with gilt tiles on spine. Library rebound with name in gilt on front cover. Scarce first edition of this treatise on superstitions, their origins and the customs associated with them. Contents include chapters on Evil Eye, Invocations, and Maledictions; Occult Infection and Cure of Maladies; Miscellaneous Remedies, or Antidotes to Disease; Amulets; Analogies to Propitiatory Sacrifice; Propitiatory Charms; Faculties Ascribed to Sorcerers; Superstitions Relative to Marriage; Doctrine of Sympathy; Ingredients and Instruments Superstition and Sorcery; Mystical Plants; Mystical Animals; Mystical Mankind; Prognostication, Divination; Imaginary Beings; Spectral Illusions; The Tongues; Tests, Trial, Conviction and Punishment of Sorcery. With errata, Addenda and index. A fascinating book. Ex reference library with minimal markings, pictorial bookplate on front pastedown, handwritten library number to reserve of… Read More