Europe / United Kingdom & Ireland

BEDA VENERABILIS (The Venerable BEDE). Ecclesiasticae historiae gentis Anglorum libri quinque diligenti studio à mendis, quibus hactenus scatebant, vindicati.
Including: BEDA VENERABILIS. Epitome sive breviarium totius praecedentis historiae Anglorum ...
Antwerp, Joannes de Grave (Gravius), 1550. Folio. With De Grave's woodcut armorial device on title-page (repeated on the otherwise blank final leaf) and 30 woodcut decorated initials. Contemporary blind-tooled calf, each board with a double border made from a roll with 4 heads in profile, not labelled but showing Martin Luther, Philipp Melanchthon, Desiderius Erasmus and apparently the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V rather than the more common Jan Hus, each in an oval wreath and separated by foliage (bilaterally symmetrical both vertically and horizontally). [6], 263, [1 blank], [12] pp. Full description

BEN SADDI, Nathan (= Robert DODSLEY). Chronique des rois d'Angleterre, ecrite en Anglois selon le stile des anciens historiens Juifs.
London [= Hanover?], Thomas Cooper [= Johann Wilhelm Schmidt?], 1743. Title in red & black with engraved vignette (a seascape with a sea creature in the foreground), headpieces and tailpieces. 144; [4], XXIV, 191, [1 blank], [2], 192-228; 108; 16 pp. Full description

[BENTINCK, Volkier Rudolph]. [Wrapper-title:] Journael zedert 1771.
[Maastricht, Bois-le-Duc, Bergen op Zoom, Namur, etc., 7 July - 3 September 1771 & The Mediterranean and Portugal, 23 May - 18 August 1774]. 2 matching journals. Folio (32.5 x 20.5 cm). Two manuscript journals in French, written in brown ink on laid paper. Contemporary coarse brown paper wrappers, with the 1771 journal in loose bifolia (never sewn) inserted. [2], [2 blank], [11], [1 blank]; 18, [6 blank] pp. Full description

[BESNARD, Thomas Pope]. A voice from the bush in Australia: shewing its present state, advantages, and capabilities, in a series of letters from an Irish settler and others in New South Wales. With appendices ...
Dublin, William Curry junior & Co.; London, Smith, Elder & Co.; Edinburgh, John Johnstone, 1839. 12mo. With wood-engraved frontispiece, nearly full-page wood-engraved illustration on page 25 and a letterpress folding table. Modern marbled wrappers. 108 pp. Full description

BLAEU, Joan. Vyfde stuck der aerdrycksbeschryving, welck vervat Schotlandt en Yrlandt.
Amsterdam, Joan Blaeu, 1654. Atlas folio (57.5 x 39.5 cm). With engraved architectural title-page with the arms of Scotland filling the top half, elaborately crested, supported by unicorns with flags and still with the old Stuart royalist mottos, and 55 engraved maps (54 double-page and 1 of the Irish County Caterlogh, full-page), often richly adorned with additional cartouches with regional scenes, but most often with coats of arms from the region. Numerous woodcut tailpieces and decorated initial letters. The title-page and all maps, including the cartouches, scenes and coats of arms, beautifully coloured by hand and highlighted with gold. All maps in their first states, without added ships or compass roses. 17th-century Dutch gold-tooled vellum. [8], 189, [1 blank], 70, [1, 1 blank] pp. Full description

BOUGARD, René and John Thomas SERRES. The little sea torch: or, true guide for coasting pilots.
London, J. Debrett for the "author" [Serres], G. & W. Nicol, et al. [printed by T. Rickaby], 1801. Large folio (47 x 30 cm). With 20 numbered aquatint plates containing 137 coastal profiles, and 12 partly numbered engraved plates containing 24 maps of port cities, harbours, islands and the Strait of Gibraltar. All coastal profiles and maps beautifully and subtly coloured by a contemporary hand. Contemporary boards. VI, 144, [5] pp. Full description

[BRITISH ARMOUR - TOWER OF LONDON - DUTCH MANUSCRIPT]. Beschrijving van de paarden wapenzaal in de Tower te London.
[The Netherlands, second quarter of the 19th century]. Ca. 21.5 x 17 cm. With 12 large, colourful ink drawings of knights on horseback, depicting various British kings and nobles, and a smaller ink drawing of knights in battle on the title-page. Contemporary green paper, over brown cloth, with a calligraphed title on the front in a baroque style floral frame, and a drawing of a knight on horseback on the back board within the same floral frame, blue speckled edges. [1], [1 blank], 105 pp. Full description

BURNET, Gilbert. Nauwkeurige voyagie door Italiën, Switserland, &c. Behelsende veele aanmerkenswaardige, curieuse, en tot noch toe ongehoorde saken, welke in geen Reys-beschrijvingen aangetekend zijn.
Utrecht, Johannes Ribbius, 1687. 4to. With woodcut decoration on title-page and a woodcut tailpiece. Modern multi-coloured decorative boards. [1], [1 blank], 182, [13], [1 blank] pp. Full description

[CHINA - SECRET BRITISH MILITARY REPORT]. Reports on Kwangtung and Fukien Provinces.
Hong Kong, British War Office, 1926-1928. Folio (22.5 x 35 cm). Five secret military reconnaissance reports totalling 138 numbered leaves in typescript (some in carbon copies or duplicated) with insertions and manuscript additions, with 47 original photographs (3.5 x 6 to 8 x 13 cm) mounted on the leaves (3 of the 47 are longer panoramas, each built up from 2 to 3 photos) and a folding blueprint plan (26 x 48.5 cm). Contemporary brown half cloth. [II], 11; [II], 12-35; [I], 36-60; [I], 61-101; [I], 103-138 ll. Full description

CLEMENTS, Joseph and J. GOLDING. (title-page:) Heraldry.
[England (Kent?), ca. 1775-1795]. Large 4to (ca. 27 x 21 cm). Manuscript in English on paper, mostly containing coats of arms with captions and a hand-written index. Completely written in brown ink in a neat 18th-century hand. With a hand-drawn and contemporary hand-coloured title-page, 108 contemporary hand-coloured smaller coats of arms showing motives on the crest and 1050 contemporary hand-coloured larger coats of arms of English noble families. Contemporary sheepskin, blind-tooled boards and spine, marbled endpapers. [2], 183 ll. Full description