Search Results: Authors starting with B from Phillip J. Pirages Fine Books and Medieval Manuscripts

Birmingham: Printed by John Baskerville for J. and R. Tonson in London, 1759. Second Baskerville Quarto Edition. 250 x 180 mm. (10 x 7 1/2"). Two volumes. From the Text of Thomas Newton, D.D., with his Life of Milton. Recent retrospective calf, covers panelled in blind, raised bands, spine panels with elaborate blind-stamped ornament, black morocco label in the second panel of each volume. Frontispiece portrait engraved by J. Miller. Verso of title pages with early ink signature of "Le[onard](?) Kennedy." Gaskell 6, 7; Coleridge 122, 202; Straus & Dent, p. 69; Wickenheiser 697, 698; Howe's, Cat. 240, #188, 189 (1989); ESTC T133905, T134634. ◆Occasional minor browning and foxing (a small handful of leaves more noticeably affected), but a clean and pleasant copy in an attractive new sympathetic binding. According to Howes, this is the "largest paper edition of Baskerville's Milton," and the best obtainable Baskerville edition. The text used here is that edited by English cleric Thomas Newton and… Read More

London: Chatto & Windus, 1899. A New Edition. 187 x 120 mm. (7 1/2 x 4 3/4"). ix, [1] (blank), 338, [2] pp. VERY PRETTY DARK BROWN MOROCCO, GILT IN AN ARTS & CRAFTS DESIGN, FOR BUMPUS (stamp-signed on front turn-in) BY RIVIERE & SON, front cover with frame of graceful long-stemmed tulips enclosing a field with 11 rows of five gilt dots, raised bands accented with five gilt dots, spine panels with spray of three tulips, anular dots between the blooms, gilt titling, turn-ins framed by multiple gilt rules, corners with three tulips and double rows of dots, all edges gilt, with delicate scalloped gauffering. In a later brown cloth slipcase. Front pastedown with bookplate of Gwendolen Bourke engraved by C. W. Sherborn. ◆Spine evenly sunned to hazel brown, one corner lightly bumped, occasional minor foxing, but A FINE COPY, clean, fresh, and bright, in a gleaming binding with few signs of wear. Handsomely bound in the innovative Art & Crafts style for Oxford Street booksellers John and Edward Bumpus,… Read More

London: J. M. Dent and Co, [1900]. 158 x 99 mm. (6 x 3 3/4"). xxxii, 264 pp.; xvii, 268 pp.; xii, 260 pp. Three volumes bound in one. Englished and Edited by F. S. Ellis. FINE CRIMSON CRUSHED MOROCCO, GILT, BY BUMPUS (stamp-signed on front turn-in), cover with gilt-rule border and stippled cornerpieces decorated with hearts and flowers, raised bands, spine compartments similarly framed, gilt lettering, turn-ins with floral spray cornerpieces, all edges gilt. Title pages with wood-engraved floral frames, each volume with a frontispiece featuring a character from the poem by Arthur Ellis, all with original tissue guards. Front pastedown with morocco bookplate of W. A. Foyle, Beeleigh Abbey. ◆A BEAUTIFUL COPY, with no signs of use inside or out. This is an updated translation of a Medieval classic from a writer and bookseller closely tied to the private press movement, offered in a charming binding and with distinguished provenance. In the 21,000 lines-long 13th century French allegorical dream… Read More

London: Chatto & Windus, 1904. Second Edition. 185 x 123mm. (7 1/4 x 5"). ix, [1], 213, [1] pp., [1] leaf. A VERY PLEASING VELLUCENT BINDING BY CEDRIC CHIVERS (signed on rear turn-in), front cover and smooth spine painted in an Art Nouveau style featuring twining vines, center panel of front cover with painted gilt-strung lyre at bottom and round mother-of-pearl inlay within a wreath at top, doublures of glazed vellum enclosed by a paper frame, all edges gilt. Printer's device on final leaf. ◆Binding with a touch of soil, spine just a shade darker than the covers, a few very minor spots internally, otherwise a fine, virtually unworn copy. This is a charming example of Chivers' "vellucent" bindings, a painting-under-vellum technique inspired by Cyril Davenport's lecture on the 18th century painted vellum bindings of Edwards of Halifax, given at the Paris Exhibition of 1878. On returning to England after his life-changing visit to the exposition, Chivers (1853-1929) established binding premises in… Read More

New York: The Grolier Club, 1885. No. 137 OF 150 COPIES. 235 x 155 mm. (9 1/4 x 6 1/8"). xx, [ii], 62 pp., [1] leaf.Edward FitzGerald. HANDSOME BLUE CRUSHED MOROCCO, GILT, BY BRADSTREET (stamp-signed in gilt on front turn-in), covers with the Grolier Club emblem surrounded by a wreath, gilt-ruled panel with foliate cornerpieces, French fillet border, raised bands, compartments each with a floral device flanked by two vines and surrounded by gilt dots, gilt lettering, gilt-ruled and rolled turn-ins with foliate decorations in each corner and along each edge, textured endleaves, top edge gilt (others plain). Original decorative paper wrappers bound in. With color emblem of Grolier Club on title, and three large color headpieces in the Moorish style after Owen Jones. Printed on Japon. Front pastedown with bookplate of Samuel F. Barger. Potter 211. ◆Small patch of loss to front textured endpaper (from bookplate removal?), otherwise a lovely book in exemplary condition. This is a handsomely bound copy… Read More

Boston: R. H. Hinckley Company, [ca. 1900]. Edmonton Edition. No. 56 OF 100 COPIES on Japanese vellum. 240 x 150 mm. (9 3/8 x 5 7/8"). 12 volumes.. HANDSOME DARK PURPLE CRUSHED MOROCCO, GILT, triple gilt-ruled border with sprays of flowers in each corner and along the sides, raised bands, compartments with gilt lettering and tooling, top edge gilt, RED MOROCCO DOUBLURES bordered in purple border, featuring several gilt rules and scrolling gilt tools in panel corners, red watered silk endpapers. With portrait frontispieces and numerous gravure plates. Limitation statement of first volume with the initials of the printer, D. B. Updike of the Merrymount Press; flyleaf of each volume with morocco ex-libris of Francis Kettaneh. ◆Extremities with the occasional tiny nick, spines slightly sunned, covers with a few negligible scratches, a few pages with light thumbing in the margins, but all of these blemishes trivial. A FINE SET INSIDE AND OUT. This finely bound, finely printed, and strictly limited set… Read More

London: Sidgwick & Jackson, Ltd, 1915. FIRST EDITION. One of 1,000 copies. 192 x 130 mm. (7 3/4 x 5 1/4"). 63, [1] pp. Publisher's black cloth, paper label on smooth spine. With frontispiece portrait of the poet. Front pastedown with ink owner's inscription of S. J. A. Evans, 1915. ◆Spine a little faded, paper label a bit rubbed and with a chipped corner, a couple of corners gently bumped, minor browning to endleaves (from pastedown glue), occasional mild foxing, but an excellent copy, the text clean and fresh, and the binding in appealing condition. The only significant poet of his generation to sustain an heroic and romantic notion of soldiering, Brooke (1887-1915) died of blood poisoning en route to the Dardanelles in 1915, too early to experience the wholesale slaughter of trench warfare, or the bloodbath awaiting his shipmates at Gallipolli. Published posthumously, this is Brooke's second and last book of poems, containing his epitaph for a generation decimated by the Great War: "If I should… Read More