Essays from Rare Illustrated Books

London: Riccardi Press, 1920. First Edition. Beautiful collection of poems by the tender English scholar, Thomas Gray (1716 1771). Includes 'Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College', 'The Progress of Poesy. A Pindaric Ode', 'Elegy Written in a Country Courtyard', 'Hymn to Ignorance. A Fragment', and 'Ode on the Pleasure arising from Vicissitude', among others. Perhaps… Read more about this item

New Haven: S. Babcock, 1839. A rare and early whaling chapbook describing the techniques and tools of the hunt. Concludes with tales of shipwreck amid fields and mountains of ice. Duodecimo, original printed wrappers, frontispiece and illustrated title-page, vignettes throughout, 24 pages; rudimentary colouring of title vignette and frontispiece, a fair copy.

Edinburgh: Printed by the Ballantyne Press for George Allen, 1902. In this exquisitely well-printed book, Ruskin eloquently discusses the proper education of women, among other things. Drawing examples from literature and poetry, from the work of romantic poets like Dante Rosetti and great playwrights like William Shakespeare, Ruskin argues for the moral superiority of the fairer sex, and, at… Read more about this item

Sydney: Angus & Roberston Ltd, 1921. First Edition. Of interest: an elusive watercolour by Richard Parkes Bonnington in the Mitchell Library; report by Blamire Young with a tipped colour late of the painting; 'The Japanese Outlook on Western Art' by A.L. Sadler, six pages; tipped colour plates by Hans Heysen and Sir John Longstaff; four full-page caricatures by George… Read more about this item