Rare books from FJ Manasek

This is an original linen-backed folding map game published in London in 1809 by William Darton.
Overall 25 1/2 x 21 inches. It is an early example of the "Cartographic Game" genre that became very popular in later Victorian England. The map folds and fits into the original slipcase with printed label. The rules are printed in columns at the sides. The object of the game is to move tokens, originally in the shape of pyramids, their landing place determined by use of a teetotum (called a totum at that time) and read about the region upon which one landed. It was both competitive and educational.
Early map games such as this have become very scarce. Most did not survive since they were children’s toys. This one is in remarkably good condition. There is a light stain in the lower left of the map part and general light age-toning but the colors are bright and crisp. The linen backing is sound and the folds are intact. The original slipcase has two printed paper labels.

Lucas, William.A Five Weeks Tour to Paris, Versailles, Marli, &c.London: Printed for T. Waller, 1750. Rare First Edition. Light staining and dust-soiling. Bound in paper binding. Appx 8 x 5 inches. Pp: (1)38. OCLC records only the 1752 and 1754 editions There were a total of four editions, culminating with the one of 1765.
A thorough and interesting guide, including currency exchange, tolls, wines. This is the rare first edition.

Adrian Wilson and Joyce Lancaster Wilson:
The Making of the Nuremberg Chronicle
A splendid book in its own right, the Wilsons' book on the Nuremberg Chronicle is a masterpiece. Quoting from the front fold:
This is the first work in English on the entire production of an early illustrated book. The survival of page by page layouts for a book of the incunabula period, as well as the original contracts for its illustration,for its printing and for the allotment of profits and unsold books is unique to the Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493...The Making of the Nuremberg Chronicle... is a landmark in the study of incunabula.
Lavishly illustrated in both color and black/white, this scholarly and very readable book explores the entire process of making one of the most famous early woodblock-illustrated books in the world. The Nuremberg Chronicle appeared in 1493, first as a Latin edition and then in German translation.
The late Adrian Wilson was an internationally prominent book designer working in San… Read More

Icones Farlowianae. Illustrations of the Larger Fungi of North America
By Farlow, William Gibson.
Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Farlow Library and Herbarium of Harvard University, 1929.First edition, one of 500 copies. Containing 103 colored full-page plates (one a fold-out). Complete. Illustrations by noted mushroom artists, Joseph Bridgham and Louis C.C. Krieger. The images were printed by the Boston Heliotype Printing Company to exacting standards and the text was printed at the Merrymount Press.
x, 120 pp. 1 vols. Folio (14.3 inches x 11.8 inches). Original green buckram binding with original glassine wrap.
NEW. This book was purchased directly form Harvard's Farlow Herbarium c1981, and had remained in its original wrapper until it was opened for current listing purposes. The original paper wrap, prior to its first opening, is illustrated. The original glassine wrap is present. The paper is brilliantly white and the images exeptionally bright and clean. There is, as usual, some very light… Read More

Hardcover. Condition: Overall Very Good. Slight damage to top of spine (illustrated) and some rubbing to corners. 3rd Edition. 4to (22.4 x 16.2 cm). Collation: xvi, 213 [1] pp. including half-title. With Woodburytype frontispiece, and 24 mounted Woodburytypes. (Each Woodburytype illustrating the plaster models is 9.5x13 cm. laid down on heavy stock). With one chromolithograph and many text line illustrations. Original blue cloth binding with silver embossed image of lunar craters on front board. New York: Scribner & Welford, 1885.
This smaller third edition was produced to make it less expensive than the larger first and second editions, but has the full number of Woodburytype plates. The Woodbury plates are tipped onto heavier paper and there is occasional weakening of the binding as illustrated. Remarkably free of the foxing that is frequently found in The Moon. Despite the obvious expense that went into producing The Moon the bindings of all three editions have not fared well and it is common to… Read More

Original Shakespeare leaf from FIRST FOLIO. Troylus and Cressida
This is an original leaf. It is NOT a reproduction, photocopy, poster or later impression. This leaf was salvaged from a woefully derelict copy of the First Folio, printed in London in 1623, and was part of a small collection of leaves formed in England in the early 20th century. I am offering it exactly as it was found in the collection.
This leaf was compared to the same leaf in the Brandeis copy to verify accuracy of description.
All the text is complete. There is some folding and marginal tearing as seen in the pictures but no loss of text. We have left it as found and have not unfolded or done any restoration. A bit of fingerstaining appears in the margin, especially in the corners where the actors turned the pages. Edges are frayed with some edge-browning as seen in the illustrations. This was a working volume! There is some mild soiling, mostly from ingrained dust. This leaf is entirely original as found in the collection and has… Read More

Lowell, Percival. Annals of the Lowell Observatory Three volumes. Quarto. Appx 12x10 1/2 inches.
Provenance: This set was acquired by the present owner from the estate of Albert G. Ingalls, Cranford, NJ, ca 1960, and has remained in his possession since.
Volume I: Annals of the Lowell Observatory Volume I. Observations of the Planet Mars During the Opposition of 1894-5 Made at Flagstaff, Arizona. Cambridge: The Riverside Press, 1898. 391 p Color frontis.
Vol II: Annals of the Lowell Observatory Volume II. I. Observations of the Planet Jupiter and its Satellites 1894 and 1895 II. Observations of the Planet Mars 1896 and 1897 Made at Flagstaff, Arizona, And Tacubaya, Mexico. Cambridge: The University Press, 1900 523p +fold-out map of Mars. Color frontis.
Vol III: Annals of the Lowell Observatory Volume III Observations of the Planet Mars During the Oppositions of 1894, 1896, 1908, and 1903 Made at Flagstaff, Arizona. 293 pages with additional 60-page glossy supplement containing extensive… Read More

Urania's Mirror Or A View Of The Heavens
S. Leigh/S. Hall
London, ca 1825
Each card: 11.5x19 cm. Original hand color.
This is a complete set of 32 hand-colored constellation charts, each backed with tissue and with the major stars pricked so that by holding the card to the light the constellation's stars become apparent.
The cards were engraved by Sidney Hall, whose signature appears on several. The set was published by Samuel Leigh, the Strand. The set is sometimes accompanied by the booklet A Familiar Treatise On Astronomy… (1825) which is not included here
This set is in unusually very fine condition. Each card is crisp and bright, no foxing. The box is entirely original without restoration. This is a scarce set, even more so in this condition. The box is usually found as repaired or damaged, so I have included several illustrations showing its condition.Member: ABAA

A Photographic Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky WayBarnard, Edward; [Calvert, Mary R.]; [Frost, Edwin B.](Association copy: Albert G. Ingalls)
The Carnegie Institution of Washington, (University of Chicago Press), 1927
2 vols, 4to (Atlas 247 x 269 mm, Charts 269 x 269 mm), pp vi 32 [102]; [vi] [200, comprising 50 charts and 50 accompanying tables], with portrait frontispiece and a full-page halftone plate illustrating the Bruce photographic telescope. One of 700 copies.Complete with all 51 gelatin silver prints mounted on linen as issued; portrait frontispiece has original tissue guard but there is the usual offset onto title page. This copy is very good in original publisher's cloth with some shelf wear. It is illustrated with 51 original photographs, with accompanying charts corresponding to the photographs. Barnard (1857-1923) personally examined all 35,700 photographic prints that were produced for the 700 copies of the atlas that were published. Published posthumously.
This copy of… Read More

Original Shakespeare leaf from FIRST FOLIO. The third Part of King Henry the Sixt.
This is an original leaf. It is NOT a reproduction, photocopy, poster or later impression. This leaf was salvaged from a woefully derelict copy of the First Folio, printed in London in 1623, and was part of a small collection of leaves formed in England in the early 20th century. I am offering it exactly as it was found in the collection.
This leaf was compared to the same leaf in the Brandeis copy to verify accuracy of description.
All the text is complete. There is some corner folding and staining as seen in the pictures but no loss of text. We have left it as found and have not unfolded or done any restoration. A bit of fingerstaining appears in the margin, especially in the corners where the actors turned the pages. Edges are frayed with some edge-browning as seen in the illustrations. This was a working volume! There is some mild soiling, mostly from ingrained dust. This leaf is entirely original as found in the… Read More

English Mechanic. 62 Volumes in original embossed green bindings.
Beginning with Vol 1 No. 1 (1865) through Vol. LXVIII (1904) but lacking the following issues:
XVI, XXII, XXIX, XLVII, XLIX to LIX (1889-1895). Continues with LX-LXXVII (1904)
Vols 1-10 are small 4to (9x11 inches), from Vol XI (1870) they are uniform quarto (9x13 inches). Boards detached on Vol I, Vol X. A few volumes have the boards damp damaged but the contents remain intact. Several spines chipped and sun-faded. Examples of defects are illustrated.
Overall range from fair+ to VG. These issues were bound uniformly during the nadir of Victorian bookbinding and, despite that, have withstood usage well. The earlier ones are inscribed as the property of the "Ditchling Working Men's Club." This set of EM was the property of a working historian of science and there are numerous place-holding slips still inserted.
It is most unusual to find such a large assemblage of the EM with two near-complete runs.Members: ABAA
Additional shipping… Read More

Herschel's Fields
Two portfolios, each measuring about 12x14 ½ inches.
Provenance: Possibly library J.C.W. Herschel. Purchased from Francis Edwards, Ltd. Marlybone High Street, London, in April 1961. One subsequent owner.
1) Isaac Roberts' Atlas of 52 Regions. A Guide to Herschel's Fields (avec texte anglaise et texte français) Edition commemorating Isaac Roberts' Centenary (1839-1904) by Mrs Isaac Roberts née Dorothea Klumpke
Thomery, France : La maison de Rosa Bonheur (1927)
Complete with 60 loose sheets of star images in original folding binder. One sheet is mounted, the others are single printed sheets. There is an additional folding star chart. Complete with 43- page letterpress descriptive text (paperbound, approximately 10x12 inches).
INCLUDED is an original typescript letter signed by J.C.W. Herschel thanking the author for sending him a copy of the work. The rectory address is blindstamped onto the sheet, the verso shows the impression of the typewriter keys as well as the blindstamp.… Read More