Rare books from Antiquariaat Schierenberg

Amsterdam, Elsevier Science Publishers, 1972-1998. 4to (26.0 x 18.8 cm). 6,662 pp.; numerous figures, mathematical formulae, photographs and an index in each book. Uniform gilt-lettered black cloth. = Niels Bohr is perhaps, together with Einstein, the most important physicist of the 20th century. His contributions to science remain of fundamental importance. His collected works consist of the following: Volume 1: Early work (1905-1911) by J.R. Nielsen; Vol. 2: Work on Atomic Physics (1912-1917) by U. Hoyer; Vol. 3: The Correspondence Principle by J.R. Nielsen; Vol 4: The Periodic System (1920-1923) by J.R. Nielsen; Vol. 5: The Emergence of Quantum Mechanics (Mainly 1924-1926) by K. Stolzenburg; Vol. 6: Foundation of Quantum Physics I (1926-1932); Vol. 7: Foundation of Quantum Physics II (1933-1958) by J. Kalckar; Vol. 8: The Penetration of Charged Particles Through Matter (1912-1954) by J. Thorsen; Vol. 9: Nuclear Physics (1929-1952) by R. Peierls; Vol. 10. (Complementarity Beyond Physics (1928-1962)… Read More

Baarn, The Escher Foundation, 2008. 16 prints, matching the original prints in shape, enlarged by 10%, all on separate sheets measuring 55.0 x 65.0 cm) and an introduction of 16 pp., and 4 pp. review (both 34.0 x 45.0 cm). In original full cloth dropbox (67.0 x 57.0 x 3.0 cm) with printed label on the front board and printed title on the spine. = This special collection consists of the highest quality "Museum quality" facsimile reprints of 16 of the most famous lithographs, woodcuts and drawings by the graphic artist M.C. Escher (1898-1972). Each copyright-protected image is printed in a limited edition of only 450, individually numbered and stamped with the authentication seal of the M. C. Escher Foundation. The following prints are included, with date and reference number: Castrovalva, 1930 (Bool 132); Hand with Reflecting Sphere, 1935 (Bool 268); Sky and Water I, 1938 (Bool 306); Reptiles, 1943 (Bool 327); Other World, 1947 (Bool 348); Up and Down, 1947 (Bool 352); Relativity, 1953 (Bool… Read More

Bikini, [not published], 1946. Two original photo prints. Each 25.4 x 20.6 cm. = Original photographs, made by a military observer from an aircraft and not by a monitoring camera, as most known photographs from these tests. These were the first open air atomic detonations on the Bikini Atoll. J. Robert Oppenheimer, the "father of the atomic bomb", declined an invitation to attend the test and wrote President Truman about his objections to it, arguing that any data obtained from the test could be obtained more accurately and cheaply in a laboratory. The photographs most probably come from the personal collection of John T. "Chick" Hayward (1908-1999), a decorated aviator who later became a Navy vice admiral and who participated in the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb. He was born in New York. As a youth, he was a batboy for the New York Yankees baseball team. When he was 16, he joined the Navy after being expelled from military school for disciplinary reasons and… Read More

Bruxelles, J. E. Goossens, 1933. Folio (35.6 x 27.1 cm). [26] pp.; ten full colour plates. Original embossed soft boards. = A sparkling, ephemeral work, published in only 350 copies, and nicely illustrated by the Belgian artist Armand Massonet (1892-1979). The single embossment has the shape of a champagne cork. A single, original watercolour drawing by Massonet, in the same style and size, has been added with a pencilled dedication, signed by the artist. "He studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts of Brussels and the Ecole National des Beaux-Arts in Paris (in the studio of Fernand Cormon), where he followed the steps of Van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec. During World War I, Massonet served as a stretcher-bearer for the Belgian Army while working for the art section of the Army, capturing scenes of war and devastation throughout Belgium. He published an art and literary paper called Le Claque à Fond while on the front line. After the war, he taught drawing in different schools… Read More

Milano, P. Hugues, 1822. Two volumes in one. Large folio (45.0 x 32.5 cm). First volume with engraved title page in sepia, engraved plate "Confronti di alcuni tratti di decrescente analogia nel profilo e nelle fisica constituzione del cranio dell' uomo e delle scimie", [vi, preface and systematics]; 73 (numbered III-V, and I-LXX) fine stipple engraved plates of apes and monkeys, each with descriptive captions in Italian. Several additional half-titles; the second volume on makis is titled "Dei lemuriani ossia maki propriamente detti", and has three introductory pages numbered ii-iv, a first half-title, ten plates, a second half-title (to the loris), a one-page introduction, and three plates, a third half title (to the makis), an unnumbered text leaf, and another two plates, a fourth half-title (to the genus Galago), another one-page introduction, and the final two plates, for a total of 15 plates, and an index page numbered xvi, and a grand total - for both volumes combined -… Read More

Great Britain, [John Cooper and Sons?], ca. 1900. Taxidermy bow-fronted cased (41 x 39 x 20 cm) in naturalistic winter setting. Case with three glass panels (bow front and two side panels) and hanger. = An excellent Victorian taxidermy case - if not a small diorama - of a female common kestrel, Falco tinnunculus Linnaeus. (German: Turmfalke; French: faucon crécerelles; Dutch: torenvalk) catching a siskin, Spinus spinus (Linnaeus) (German: Erlenzeisig; French: tarin des aulnes; Dutch: sijs). Two fine, wonderfully preserved taxidermy cased specimens. This falcon is one of the most successful birds-of-prey in the temperate regions of the Old World, occurring in a wide variety of landscapes. It preys on mice and other small animals. "The kestrel was once used to drive and keep away pigeons" (Wikipedia). The siskin is a common European bird, more often seen during winter times. The case differs from most such cases because oif its more detailed and naturalistic setting. Case paint cover… Read More

Paris, Louis Janet, ca. 1825. Oblong 8vo (19.0 x 12.3 cm). iv, 146, [i] pp.; title page with large, engraved and finely hand-coloured vignette, 12 finely engraved, tissue-guarded plates with contemporary hand-colouring. Contemporary quarter polished calf over marbled boards. Spine with gilt bands and title, and blind tooled vignettes. = A wonderfully preserved copy of a very rare, delightfully illustrated satire on human behaviour, humorously compared with the behaviour of monkeys. The author is unknown, and, given the satire hidden behind the jolly illustrations, perhaps wisely remained anonymous. However, it seems reasonable to assume that the publisher, [Pierre Claude] Louis Janet (1788-1840) was the author, as he was known as a writer, in particular of works published by himself. Former owner's name pencilled in an old hand on the front free endpaper recto. Some (mostly light) rubbing to the boards, occasional light, marginal thumbing, a few small smudges, but generally very clean. The… Read More

London, Nathaniell Butter, 1640. 4to (18.7 x 14.4 cm). Original second blank; title page, half title, half-title (placed after 12th text page) [xii, xxi] pp., Mid-19th century brown crushed morocco. Spine with five raised, gilt-stippled bands; compartments rich gilt with floral patterns and gilt title; boards with triple gilt borders and rosettes; gilt-lined edges and elaborate gilt inner dentelles. = Very rare first edition of the first of two accounts of Madagascar by a ship's surgeon in the service of the East India Company, Walter Hamond (d. 1648). The first work was written as an encouragement to colonise Madagascar, something that was scheduled for 1639. That plan never came to fruition. After Hamond published a second, similar work, the Englishman John Bond led an expedition to the island and established a colony - with about 300 settlers - in 1645. It proved to be not the Utopia promoted by Hamond, and was abandoned the next year after a huge death toll. A fabulous and clean copy, with… Read More

Leiden, S. Luchtmans and J. Luchtmans, 1839-1844. Three volumes in five, including a matching drop box. Folio (42.6 x 29.1 cm). 1379 pp.; 258 plates on 257 sheets (and one double, not counted), of which all but 81 finely hand-coloured, and four maps, of which one double-sized, and all but one partly hand-coloured. Uniform contemporary dark green half morocco over grained boards. Spines with five raised bands; gilt ornaments at head and foot, and gilt title. Speckled edges. = An unusually well-preserved set - without the usual brittleness, toning and foxing. Carefully bound in five, contemporary, equal-sized volumes; the zoology in two parts, and the ethnography plates as issued, in a drop box. This is by far the most extensive and detailed work on the rich and diverse fauna, flora, and ethnology of the former Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Edited by the Dutch ornithologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck (1778-1858), this is largely the work of the German - later Dutch - zoologist Salomon Müller… Read More

Amsterdam, Weduwe Gijsbert De Groot, [1696-]1711-1721. Three parts in one. 4to (20.1 x 15.3 cm cm). Engraved title (or frontispiece, with "consent en privilegie" printed on verso), dated 1696; letterpress title page with wood-engraved vignette (dated 1721); [xxvii], 103, [iii] pp., including 69 full-page engraved plates (mainly garden designs, pergolas, etc.), and a few text engravings [AND] Engraved frontispiece, letterpress title page with engraved vignette (dated 1711), [v], 84, [iv] pp., including one engraved plate. [AND] Title page with large copper engraving (dated 1711), pp. [2]-38; half-title Den naerstigen byen-houder, with large copper engraving (verso blank), pp. 41-53, [54-56]; half-title De verstandige kok (dated 1711) with large copper engraving and "Privilegie" on verso, pp. [59-60], 61-88. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards. Spine with five raised bands, and morocco label with gilt ornamental borders and title. = A rare complete edition, with all the… Read More

Venice, Bernhard Maler (Pictor), Erhard Ratdolt and Peter Loslein, 1477. Two parts in one. Folio (27.3 x 20.4 cm). 343 [211, 132] leaves. Early 17th-century full vellum. Spine with three raised bands and script title in an old hand. Edges speckled red. = Famous incunabulum, one of the first books that appeared with woodcut ornaments: the borders for both the Historia Romana and De Bellis Civilibus are an intricate pattern of vines and acanthus leaves, the first here printed in red, a rare process seen only in a very few copies. Usually, these ornaments are simply printed in black. Also, this is the first book with ornaments on a black background, including the large initial on the first page. Contents-wise, this is the first complete edition of the surviving portions of Appian’s Roman History, written in Greek and translated into Latin by Petrus Candidas Decembrius. “Appian of Alexandria (ca. 95-ca. 165) was a Greek historian with Roman citizenship who flourished during the reigns of… Read More

London, William Day, Lithographer to the Queen, and Queen Dowager, 1838. Tall folio (40.7 x 25.9 cm). Half-title, title page, [vii]-xii, 106, [i] pp.; nine double-sized, partially hand-coloured tables; a few hand-coloured text figures; mounted tabs. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards. Spine with triple gilt bands; front board with rectangular ruled morocco label with gilt ornamental borders and title. Edges speckled red. = An important work by the British mathematician Oliver Byrne (1810-1880). He "... was a civil engineer and prolific author of works on subjects including mathematics, geometry, and engineering. He is best known for his 'coloured' book of Euclid's Elements." (Wikipedia). The latter work (first published in 1847), renowned for its brightly coloured Mondrian-like illustrations, finds a predecessor in this work, which, although on an altogether very different, practical mathematical subject, already contains tables with typical hand-coloured squares.… Read More

Prague, Musée Bohême, 1881. Four parts in four. Large 4to. xxiv, 342 pp.; 361 lithographed plates with explanatory text leaves. Original uniform blind-tooled black cloth with gilt title on the spines. = Part of an enormous series on all aspects of Bohemian Silurian fossils, complete for the group covered. It was privately printed in only 250 copies. See Zittel, and DSB: "From 1840 to his death Barrande collected, described and drew the fossils of the central Bohemian Basin - this area has been called the Barrandian ever since. The strata of this basin are Proterozoic - early Paleozoic in age. At that time 'Silurian' might be applied to strata that today are in the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian or Devonian system. The results formed the outstanding monograph 'Système silurien du centre de la Bohème', which appeared in eight parts forming 28 quarto volumes". Because this work is so comprehensive, its drawings so accurate and its descriptions so… Read More

Lugduni (Lyon), Delamollière, 1789-1796. In ten volumes. 8vo (21.0 x 13.1 cm). 6,309 pp. [xii, 4120; 1661; xl, 476]; Three large, folded, engraved plates. Uniform contemporary quarter calf over marbled boards. Spines with gilt bands and title. = The much expanded thirteenth edition of the Systema naturae, written by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin (1748-1804). Beginning ten years after Linnaeus's death, Gmelin was the first to greatly augment the number of new species, especially in Aves, Insecta and Mollusca. There were two reasons for this: new voyages brought back many new species (e.g. the Cook voyages); and Gmelin could make use of many new non-binominal works (e.g., Martini-Chemnitz's work on shells). Seven volumes deal with zoology, two with botany, and one with mineralogy. There are two editions of this work, viz., one published in Leipzig (Soulsby 117), the other (this one) in Lyon. The zoology parts were published near-simultaneously; the botany and minerals a… Read More

Oxford, Oxford University Press; London: Humphrey Milford, 1932. Large 8vo (24.7 x 15.5 cm). Two frontispiece photos; xvi, 331 pp.; 70 plates. Original green cloth with gilt title on front board and spine. = A unique dedication copy - with additional letter - of a rare work on the marine molluscs found in the immediate vicinity of the South African town of Port Alfred, and Port Alfred itself. The author, Lieutenant-Colonel William Harry Turton (1856-1938], a great-nephew of the British malacologist William Turton, had sent shells to E. A. Smith of the British Museum and, later, to Paul Bartsch of the United States National Museum (Smithsonian) but was quite dissatisfied with both men's treatment of his material. Finally he decided to publish a great number of new species himself. Turton was convinced that many species were endemic to the area covered. The total print run of this work must have been low as the work is quite rare. This copy is very well preserved, with hardly any shelf wear, except… Read More