Rare books from Donald Heald Rare Books

Paris, Coblenz and London, 1841. Aquatint engraving by Hürlimann after Bodmer, state with date added to London imprint 'April 1th [sic.] 1841'. A fine full-length double portrait by Bodmer, composed from sketches made during the winter of 1833-1834 during the travelers sojourn at Fort Clark, on the banks of the upper Missouri River. On the left stands Sih-Chidä (`Yellow Feather') a young warrior who was fascinated by the work of the two foreigners. His portrait was carried out over three days in early December 1833. In it, he wears the beaded hair brows with long strings of dentalium shells and beads, a member of the Dog Society, the cluster of feathers at the back of his head may be an insignia of that group. Around his neck is draped a tippet of otter fur, the ends fringed with quill-wrapped leather. His heel-trailers are made of otter fur lined with red cloth and represent battle exploits. On the right is Mahchsi-Karehde (`Flying War Eagle'), who at just over six feet was the tallest of the… Read More

[Basel: Heinrich Petri in the 'Geographia Universalis', 1542. Woodcut map, in excellent condition. The first state of the earliest reasonably obtainable map to focus on the depiction of the entire continent of Africa, and a veritable masterpiece of Renaissance cartography. This highly important map represents the earliest reasonably obtainable map to depict the entire continent of Africa. Africa XVIII, Nova Tabula, is a fantastic visual synergy of archaic imagination and recent exploration. The overall shape of the continent is quite well defined, having been extensively explored by the Portuguese since the time of Prince Henry the Navigator in the mid-fifteenth-century, a point highlighted by the appearance of a caravel in the lower part of the map. Africa's various kingdoms are denoted by pictorial symbols of a crown and sceptre. Following Ptolemaic tradition, the Nile has its source in a series of lakes that lie at the foot of the mysterious Mountains of the Moon. The land around the Cape of Good… Read More

London: Reeve, Benham, & Reeve, 1851. Folio. (19 5/8 x 14 1/2 inches). Title with tinted lithographic vignette, 2 letterpress part titles, 1p. list of subscribers, 1p. preface to part II. Hand-coloured lithographic frontispiece and 29 fine plates, drawn on stone by John Nugent Fitch from drawings by J.D. Hooker, printed by Reeve, Benham & Reeve (12), Frederic Reeve (4) and Reeve & Nichols (14). Original oatmeal morocco-grained cloth, covers blocked with double fillet border, the flat spine lettered in gilt 'Rhododendrons of Sikkim-Himalaya', g.e., contained within a modern brown cloth box, titled in gilt on a black morocco lettering-piece A very fine copy of the rare second edition of this beautifully illustrated work on the Rhododendron family - "An important work for both the botanist and horticulturalist since it contains descriptions and plates of many of the best Rhododendron species...and an account of their discovery" (Great Flower Books). The Rhododendrons of the Himalayas amply demonstrate… Read More

Philadelphia: H.S. Tanner, 1823. Folio. (24 x 16 3/4 inches). Letterpress half-title, 1p. index and 18pp. text. Engraved title with vignette of the "First Landing of Columbus in the New World", 18 fine hand-coloured engraved maps (16 double-page, 2 folding). Expertly bound to style in half-calf over contemporary marbled paper-covered boards, the flat spine gilt and divided into seven compartments by fillets and roll tools, lettered in the second compartment, the others with repeat decoration in gilt, marbled endpapers A fine copy of the first collected edition of "the most distinguished atlas published in the United States during the engraving period" (Ristow). Tanner's New American Atlas contained the most accomplished series of maps of America that had yet appeared in an atlas. Of the greatest importance were the maps of American states. These maps were drawn up using a careful combination of original surveys and the best existing published sources. The evident high cost of production meant that… Read More

1535. Small quarto. [62] leaves. 19th-century pebbled pigskin, spine gilt. Boards and extremities lightly rubbed. Some minor soiling, a few leaves lightly toned. Two small tears, on titlepage and second leaf, neatly repaired. Men of Cajamarca: two eyewitness accounts of events. As one of the "Men of Cajamarca," Francisco de Xerez holds a very special place among writers on the earliest period of Spanish contact with the Inca of Peru: He was there from day one, a member of the very small band of men who left Panama with Pizarro and Almagro to seek fame and fortune in South America. At Cajamarca he participated in the taking of the Inca leader, Atahualpa, the slaughter of his army, and the sharing of the ransom demanded of the Inca nation for the return of their leader. By training a notary public and practiced writer, he was by choice Pizarro's secretary/confidant, the two having been close since at least 1524, when they met in Panama; and when in 1534 he returned to Spain, he took with him his share… Read More

Paris: Librarie Hachette, 1873. 4 volumes (text: 2 vols., large 4to [13 1/4 x 9 3/4 inches]; atlas: 2 volumes, folio [19 1/2 x 15 inches]). Text: titles in red and black, half-titles. Portrait frontispiece, 1 plate of medals, 12 maps and charts (4 coloured, 6 tinted), numerous illustrations (39 full-page); atlas: 12 maps, (2 double-page); 9 plans (2 double-page); 1 tinted lithographic aerial view; 48 plates on 40 sheets (6 double page, 2 engraved, 10 hand-coloured lithographs, 1 chromolithograph, 27 tinted lithographs). Text: contemporary French dark blue morocco-backed marbled paper-covered boards, spines gilt in six compartments with raised bands, lettered in the second, numbered in the third, previous owner's name 'Philastre' tooled in gilt at foot of each spine; atlas: original dark blue cloth-backed pale blue paper-covered boards, letterpress titling to upper covers, longitudinal gilt lettering to the flat spines Provenance: "Philastre" [?Paul-Louis-Felix Philastre (1837-1902)] (binding) Rare… Read More

London: S. & J. Fuller, 1834. Aquatints, printed in colours and finished by hand, by R.W. Smart and C. Hunt. A fine pair of images capturing the excitement of the start and final turn during the running of one of the five Classic English horse races This sequence of plates depicting two moments in the Derby Stakes could hardly be more exciting. In Now They're Off , anticipation is over, the fierce, thundering movement has begun. In Here They Come, the final stretch is ahead. The horses appear to be moving more quickly than at the beginning. The cheering crowd is jammed against the inner railing, and spectators are riding madly to witness the finish.In fact, a number have fallen off their horses and are sailing through the air. It all takes place on a beautiful afternoon, sky is blue, there are hills in the distance. But all attention is riveted to horses and riders as they go all out for victory. James Pollard was the youngest son of the London engraver and print-seller Robert Pollard. He began work… Read More

Frankfurt: Typis Johannis Wecheli, Sumtibus vero Johannis-Theodori de Bry, 1608. Folio. (13 1/4 x 9 inches). Collation: a4, b6, c4, d6, *2, A6, B-C8, D6, E8, F5. Title page to text with two pasted on paper panels bearing the title and publishing details in Latin, all within an engraved surround (as issued), letterpress title to plates, engraved arms on dedication leaf, blank D6. 1 double-page engraved map of Virginia [Burden 76, state 2], 1 engraved plate of Adam and Eve (first state with inscription "Iodocus a Winghe in / / Theodore de Bry fe", 27 engraved plates after John White (including 5 plates of Picts), with blank D6 but without the final blank F6 (as in Church), various small neat expert repairs, three leaves misbound. Expertly bound to style in 18th-century blue/green morocco, covers with gilt roll tool border, the flat spine divided into six compartments with gilt roll tools and fillets, lettered in the second compartment, the others tooled with alternating neo-classical tools,… Read More

Toronto: McClelland and Stuart, 1977. Oblong folio. (14 x 17 inches). Original two-colour lithographed portrait of Thomson by Town, signed and numbered in pencil by the artist, 185 mounted coloured illustrations after Thomson, 81 uncoloured illustrations, most after or of Thomson. Original brown reversed calf, the upper cover and spine blocked in gilt, light blue watered silk endpapers, glassine wrapper, publisher's hessian-covered slipcase The edition deluxe, number 78 of 135 numbered copies, signed by Town and Silcox, with an original lithograph "Portrait of Tom Thomson": "What finally matters most in painting, is looking and savouring" (preface). A fine record by artist Harold Town and noted art historian David Silcox of the life and work of the influential early 20th-century Canadian artist Tom Thomson. He died early, but his work proved to be a direct influence on the group of Canadian painters that would come to be known as the Group of Seven. His work continued to affect (less directly) the… Read More

Carshalton, Surrey: I. Griffin, 1823. Colour printed aquatint with additional hand colouring. State iii/iii. Printed on wove paper. In excellent condition. Image size: 18 7/8 x 23 7/8 inches. A fine impression of the third state of this excellent, lively image. The engraved names beneath the plate identify all the riders in Berenger's fine record of the dogs in the twelfth Earl of Derby's pack of Staghounds. On the left is Edward, Lord Stanley (the Earl's eldest son and heir), next to him is his son, the Honourable Edward Geoffrey Stanley. At the centre is the hunstman Jonathan Griffin of Carshalton and leading the hounds away on the right is the whip Jem Bullen. 'Horses and hounds were always perfectly turned out, and the equipage was run entirely at the expense of Lord Derby. Every summer the whole contingent, horses, hounds and deer, returned [from the Oaks in Surrey ] to Knowsley [the Earl's main residence]; [a distance of about one hundred miles and] no simple matter at that period -… Read More

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1851. 12mo. (7 3/8 x 4 7/8 inches). xxiii, [1], 635, [1], [6]pp. Publisher's ads in the rear. Foxing. Publisher's red cloth, cover bordered in blind and with central Harper & Brother's circular stamp in blind, spine lettered in gilt, rebacked retaining the original spine, original brown/orange coated endpapers. Housed in a cloth box. Rare first American edition of arguably the greatest work in American literature. The first American edition followed the three-volume English edition by a month and contained some thirty-five passages which had been edited out of the English edition. "[Melville's] great book, Moby Dick, was a complete practical failure, misunderstood by the critics and ignored by the public; and in 1853 the Harpers' fire destroyed the plates of all of his books and most of the copies remaining in stock [only about sixty copies survived the fire] ... Melville's permanent fame must always rest on the great prose epic of Moby Dick, a book that has no equal in… Read More

New York: Random House, 1944. 8vo. 60 colored woodcut illustrations designed by Rogers. Printed in Frederic Goudy's Deepdene Italic type. Publisher's cloth, covers lettered and stamped in silver. Without the slipcase. One of five hundred copies of Rogers's Euclid printed for Random House at the Press of A. Colish. Bruce Rogers was an American typographer, type designer, and book designer. He preferred working with serif typefaces, including Bell and Montaigne (which he invented), and his greatest achievement in typography was the serif typeface Centaur. At the age of 74, Rogers created this limited edition of 500 copies of Euclid's Book I with sixty beautiful, colorful woodcut diagrams. The preface contains an excerpt from an essay by writer Paul Valéry which discusses the contributions of the ancient Greeks to geometry. Sidney J. Kolpas, "Mathematical Treasure: Bruce Rogers's Euclid," Convergence (February 2019).

Lowville, N.Y.: published and sections prepared by the author, 1898. Volume I-IV (of 14). (9 x 6 inches). Illustrations. 312 samples of wood, each wafer-thin transverse, radial and tangential sections illustrating 104 species, window-mounted in 104 card mounts. (Occasional natural cracking and warping to a few samples, perforation stamps to titles of text sections and to first leaf of text in each part). Text in original glazed paper wrappers, samples in card mounts unbound as issued, each text volume and accompanying samples within original green cloth cover in matching original cloth slipcase, with metal catch and bosses to covers Mixed edition. A representative sample of a rare and remarkable work on the woods of America. Volumes I-IV cover all the trees of New York and adjacent states. A contemporary reviewer called it "one of the most marvelous and instructive books ever made" (Art Education). This remarkable work was the lifetime achievement of Romeyn B. Hough, who devoted himself to the… Read More

Hartford, Connecticut: Printed and Sold by Hudson & Goodwin, 1809. 12mo. (6 7/16 x 4 1/8 inches). [810]pp. Original sheep binding, spine flat. Slight wear. A fine copy of the first edition of the first Bible printed in the state of Connecticut, complete with the separate title page for the New Testament. On October 18, 1809, an announcement in the "Connecticut Courant" (now known as the Hartford Courant) read: "Hudson and Goodwin have the satisfaction to announce to the public that they have this day completed their first edition of the School Bible. The type is entirely new, imported at heavy expense...and the paper is so good a quality that it is asserted with confidence to be the best of the kind offered for sale in this country." Henry Hudson, a partner in the Hudson and Goodwin publishing firm, which was also the publisher of the Connecticut Courant, was the secretary of the newly-formed Connecticut Bible Society at the time. At the encouragement of the society, Hudson and Goodwin published… Read More

London: Taylor & Francis for the Author, 1854. Folio. (21 5/8 x 14 3/4 inches). 51 hand-coloured lithographic plates by Gould and Henry Constantine Richter, one uncolored lithographic plate by G. Scharf, all printed by Hullmandel & Walton. Publisher's full dark green morocco, covers elaborately tooled in blind and gilt. A very fine copy of the second, revised and expanded, edition of Gould's first great ornithological monograph in the publisher's deluxe binding. The chief glories of this work are the wonderful plates worked up by Richter from Gould's masterful sketches. The resulting images ably capture the vibrant colours and ready intelligence that many of these birds exhibit. The first edition of this work, published in 1834-1835, marked the first attempt to picture and describe the whole Toucan family. The range of these extraordinary birds is limited to Mexico, Central and South America and some of the West Indies. The first time a Toucan was described in print was by Gonzalo Fernandez de… Read More