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First printed edition of a famous work on optics

BACON, Roger. Perspectiva. In qua, quae ab aliis fuse traduntur, succincte, nervose & ita pertractantur, ut omnium intellectui facile pateant. Nunc primum in lucem edita. Opera & studio Joannis Combachii.
Frankfurt, Wolffgang Richter for Antonius Hummius, 1614. 4to. With 8 full-page woodcuts printed on both sides of four leaves inserted as plates, and numerous woodcut figures and illustrations in text, several full-page. Modern plain paper boards. [8], 189[=205], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 9,500
Optics & Perspective
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Exceptionally rare illustrated treatise on medicinal oil distillation and early chemical apparatus

BESSON, Jacques. Art et moyen parfaict de tirer huyle et eaux, de tous medicaments simples & oleogineux.
Paris, pour Galiot du Pré, 1573. 8vo. With a woodcut vignette on the title page, 16 woodcut illustrations in the text, and several decorated woodcut initials and woodcut headpieces. Early to mid-19th-century half marbled calf. "31" [= 32] ll. Full description
€ 7,500
Early Printing - 16th century Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century) Physics & Chemistry
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The greatest map of Paris, 240 x 316 cm, here with the 20 sheets and key map bound as an atlas
in contemporary gold-tooled morocco with the Paris city arms

BRETEZ, Louis. Plan de Paris commencé l'année 1734. Dessiné et gravé, sous les ordres de Messire Michel Etienne Turgot, Marquis de Sousmons ... Achevé de graver en 1739.
[Paris, 1739]. Grand-Aigle folio (56 x 45.5 cm). An enormous engraved map of Paris in 20 numbered sheets plus a key map, at a scale of about 1:2000, each segment measuring 55 x 84 cm (plate size 51.5 x 80.5 cm; image 48 x 79 cm) which would give an assembled map with image size about 240 x 316 cm! The key map is slightly larger than the segments and folds out at the head. Bound as an atlas (but with segments 18 and 19, containing the cartouche, assembled to make a long fold-out) in contemporary gold-tooled red morocco, each board with as centrepiece the Paris coat of arms (a ship with chief a field of fleurs-de-lis). Full description
€ 15,000
Bindings Charts & Maps France
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A pedagogical guide to Europe’s most celebrated Neo-Latin psalter

BUCHANAN, George and Alexander JULIUS (editor & commentator). Ecphrasis paraphraseos Georgii Buchanani in psalmos Davidis ... in adolescentiae studiosae gratiam elaborata.
London, George Eld, 1620. 8vo. With a woodcut device on the title page, a few woodcut initials and headpieces. Contemporary blind-tooled calf, retaining one clasp and the remnants of a second, with catches intact, sewn on 3 supports with the corresponding raised bands on the spine, red edges. [16], 364, [6 blank] pp. Full description
€ 750
Education & Pedagogy Humanism & Reformation Philosophy & Humanism Religion (17th Century)
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Rare, finely hand-coloured set of Buffon’s Histoire naturelle in its rarest and most luxurious form

BUFFON, Georges-Louis Leclerc de. Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du cabinet du roi. Nouvelle édition.
Dordrecht, Abraham Blussé, 1766-1799. 38 parts in 21 volumes. Large 4to. With more than 1100 hand-coloured engraved plates, 10 maps, 1 folding engraved table, and an engraved portrait of Buffon (by Houbraken, with an extra-added uncoloured portrait pasted on the verso). Contemporary, uniform half tanned sheepskin. Full description
€ 125,000
Amphibians & Reptiles Birds - Ornithology Earth Sciences Fishes Prints & Print Series
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Fossils from the Brussels region, with 32 coloured plates

BURTIN, François-Xavier. Oryctographie de Bruxelles ou description des fossiles tant naturels qu'accidentels découverts jusqu'à ce jour dans les environs de cette ville.
[Brussels], Le Maire, 1784. Folio (46 x 28 cm). With an engraved title page by Pris after M.J. Speeckaert, and 32 engraved plates printed in brown and coloured by a contemporary hand. 19th-century half sheepskin (roan). [2], 152 pp. Full description
€ 6,000
Amphibians & Reptiles Earth Sciences Faunas & General Zoology Fishes Fossils / Palaeontology Geology Mineralogy & Gems Shells & other Invertebrates
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Very rare series of 32 erotic prints of the notorious case of father Girard and Mlle Cadière

[CADIÈRE, Catherine and Jean-Baptiste GIRARD (subject)]. Historische print- en dicht-tafereelen, van Jan Baptist Girard, en juffrou Maria Catharina Cadiere.
[The Netherlands?], 1735. Small 4to (24 x 18.5 cm). With 32 "scenes", each consisting of an engraved plate with a letterpress poem on the facing page. Gold-tooled red half goatskin morocco (2nd half of the 19th century), richly gold-tooled spine. 24, [128] pp. Full description
€ 6,500
Alchemy Dutch Literature Erotica French Literature Prints & Print Series
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Rare encyclopaedic work by one of the most prolific polymaths of the 17th century

CARAMUEL Y LOBKOWITZ, Juan. Caramuelis apparatus philosophicus quatuor libris distinctus, in primo de omnium scientiarum quae schlastice tractari possunt quidditate, dignitate, ordine, utilitate, de artibus vanis, superstitiosis, viribus naturae & daemonis conjurationibus, hominum pactis, divinationibus per Deum, astra, ignem, aquam, manum, terram, aerem, sacra, sortes, literas &c. ...
Cologne, Johann Arnold Cholinus, 1665. Folio. With a small woodcut ornament on the title page, and several woodcut decorated initials, head- and tailpieces. Further with some tables in the text. Stiff paper wrappers with (remnants of) a manuscript title label at the head of the spine. [1], [1 blank], 144, [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 18,000
Mathematics Philosophy & Humanism Spain
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Very rare large-paper copy in a spectacular Van Damme binding,
with 31 plates coloured by a contemporary hand and highlighted with gold

CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, Miguel de (Jacob Campo WEYERMAN translator; Antoine COYPEL illustrator). De voornaamste gevallen van den wonderlyken Don Quichot, door den beroemden Picart den Romein ... in XXXI kunstplaaten, na de uitmuntende schilderyen van Coypel in't koper gebragt ...
The Hague, Pieter de Hondt, 1746. Large folio (42 x 27 cm). Title in red and black with an engraved vignette (Quixote and the windmill), and 31 engraved illustration plates, all coloured by a contemporary hand, heightened with gold and set in in a gilt frame. Further with large woodcut initials and tailpieces, and each text page in an ornamental frame built up from typographic ornaments (the frames not in the 4to issue). Contemporary, richly gold-tooled dark red morocco by the so-called Van Damme bindery in Amsterdam, sewn on 7 supports, each board with Van Dammes typical hourglass- or vase- or flask-shaped central cartouche with a starry sky on a black ground, here showing a short-stemmed chalice or goblet with fire or flame-like leaves (like a snake plant, Dracaena trifasciata) in the cartouche and a basket of flowers topping the cartouche, the whole in an elaborate frame built up from hundreds of impressions of numerous small tools, the spine-title in gold on a black ground in the 2nd of 8 compartments, each of the other 7 with flowers, other decorations and a small flower in a pot, gilt edges. With a tissue guard-leaf before each plate. [2], XXVI, 420 pp. Full description
€ 40,000
Art & Art History Bindings Literature Prints & Print Series Spain
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Hitherto considered unobtainable: the spectacular series of more than 200 photographs
of the Middle East and Spain by Louis De Clercq, uniformly bound

CLERCQ, Louis De. Voyage en Orient - Voyage en Espagne, 1859-1860.
[Paris, France], J. Blondeau et Antonin, 1860. 6 volumes bound in 5 albums. Oblong 1mo (ca. 45 x 60 cm). With 218 (of 222) photographs, albumen prints from waxed paper negative, including 23 panoramas, all mounted on cardboard, each plate with a lithographed number and caption. Album I contains photos of cities, monuments, and other picturesque views of Syria (49 prints including 11 panoramas); II: castles from the time of the Crusaders in Syria (36 (of 37) prints including 5 panoramas); III: views of Jerusalem and holy places in Palestine (29 (of 30) prints including 1 panorama); IV (bound together with III): the stations of the cross along the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem (14 prints); V: monuments and picturesque sites in Egypt (40 (of 41) prints including 1 panorama); VI: cities, monuments, and other picturesque views in Spain (50 (of 51) prints including 5 panoramas). The sizes of the albumen prints vary from ca. 20 x 27 cm. to ca. 112 x 20 cm. Uniform, original red leather-grained cloth with the title and name of the author lettered in gold on the front board. Full description
€ 385,000
Egypt North Africa Photography Prints & Print Series Spain Travel & Voyages Europe Travel & Voyages Middle East West Asia
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Unrecorded work with finely hand-coloured plates of costumes at the French court

COLIN, Anaïs. La cour de France, suite de costumes historiques - The court of France. A set of historical costumes.
Paris, Gihaut frères, and London, Ch. Tilt, [ca. 1835]. Folio (ca. 47 x 30 cm). With a lithographed title with vignette, and 12 hand coloured full-page lithographed plates, highlighted with gum arabic and protected by tissue paper guards. Contemporary quarter gold-tooled red morocco. [13] ll. Full description
€ 8,500
Costumes, Fashion & Uniforms France Prints & Print Series
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Hand-coloured carnival costume plates

[COSTUMES - CARNIVAL]. Taschenbuch für das Carneval. Erstes Jahr. - Le carnaval ou representation d'une collection d'habits de masques. L'an premier.
Leipzig, Friedrich August Leo, 1804. 16mo? (14 x 10.5 cm). With 12 numbered engraved plates by Friedrich Wilhelm Nettling, all coloured by a contemporary hand. Original publisher's paperboards, printed from an engraved plate and hand-coloured. 31, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 4,500
Almanacs Caricature & Satire Costumes, Fashion & Uniforms
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Splendidly bound dedication copy of a wholly engraved music guide

[DUMAS, Antoine-Joseph]. L'art de la musique enseigné et pratiqué par la nouvelle methode du bureau typographique.
Paris, Sr. Auguste [for the author], [1753]. Large oblong 4to (26 x 33.5 cm). Wholly engraved, including an engraved title-page, two-page engraved dedication, a double-page folding engraved musical table ("Elémens de la musique. Plan général du bureau typographique musical") and 427 engraved text pages by Mademoiselle Vandôme. Contemporary gold-tooled dark green (goatskin) morocco, richly gold-tooled spine with red morocco title label, gold-tooled boards with the coat of arms of Louis-Philippe d'Orléans (1725-1785) on both sides, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, pink silk endleaves, gilt edges (attributed to Jean-Charles-Henri Lemonnier). [4], 12-427, [1 blank]; 11, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 37,000
Bindings Education & Pedagogy Music, Theatre & Dance
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A magnificent and extremely rare contemporary hand-coloured suite of 115 numbered plates of the protagonists of the Austrian Succession wars

ENGELBRECHT, Martin & C.P. MAJ. [115 contemporary hand-coloured engraved plates picturing 18th-century European military life].
Augsburg, Martin Engelbrecht, ca. 1742. Folio. 115 engraved and magnificent hand-coloured plates, highlighted with gold and silver, drawn by C.P. Maj and executed and printed by the Augsburg engraver and art publisher Martin Engelbrecht (1684-1756). With separately printed engraved captions consisting of a (sometimes 2-line) title and a poem of 4 or 5 lines in French below each plate (except plates 55-56 which have a German caption printed below and a French caption in the plate), pointing out the characteristics of the man depicted. Modern red morroco, marbled sides. 115 plates. Full description
€ 38,000
Central Europe Costumes, Fashion & Uniforms Germany Military History (18th Century) Prints & Print Series
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First complete edition of Erasmus' correspondence, beautifully illustrated by Urs Graf and Ambrosius Holbein

ERASMUS, Desiderius. Epistolae ad diversos, & aliquot aliorum ad illum, per amicos eruditos, Ex ingentibus fasciculis schedarum collectae.
Basel, Johann Froben, 31 Aug. 1521. Folio. With a decorative woodcut border on the title page by Urs Graf, 2 decorative woodcut borders in the text by Ambrosius Holbein, numerous decorated woodcut initials, and a woodcut printer's device at the end of the work. Modern blind-tooled red morocco. 12, "668" [=618], [6] pp Full description
€ 8,500
Early Printing - 16th century Erasmus Humanism & Reformation Philosophy & Humanism Religion (16th Century)
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One of the most influential works ever written, with commentary by the "Euclid of the 16th century"

EUCLID and Christopher CLAVIUS (editor). Elementorum Libri XV.
Including: Posteriores libri IX.
"Cologne" [= Venice], Giovanni Battista Ciotti, 1591. 2 parts in 1 volume. Folio. The title page of each part is set within an elaborate woodcut border, with woodcut decorated initials (at least 3 series), headpieces built up from typographical ornaments, numerous woodcut mathematical figures in the text, large woodcut ornamental tailpieces, and a woodcut printer's device on the otherwise blank verso of the last leaf of both parts. Later blind-tooled overlapping vellum. [15], [1 blank], 359, [1 blank]; 355, [1 blank], [40] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Early Printing - 16th century Greek & Roman Classics Mathematics School & Textbooks
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First edition of nearly all Euripides plays, in Aldus's best and last Greek, type:
Thomas More's fictional hero gave a copy to the Utopians in 1516!

EURIPIDES. [Title in Greek then Latin:] Tragoediae septendecim [recté octodecim], ex quib[us]. quaedam habent commentaria. & sunt hae. Hecuba[,] Orestes[,] Phoenissae[,] Medea[,] Hippolytus[,] Alcestis[,] Andromache[,] Supplices[,] Iphigenia in Aulide[,] Iphigenia in Tauris[,] Rhesus[,] Troades[,] Bacchae[,] Cyclops[,] Heraclide[,] Helena[,] Ion[, Hercules furens].
(Colophon to each volume: Venice, Aldus Manutius, February 1503). 2 volumes. 8vo. With Aldus's anchor device on the last page of each volume, printed in Aldus's beautiful Greek type.Matching limp vellum (made from 2 leaves from a ca. 1560/70? Spanish legal manuscript), constructed or reconstructed ca. 1900. [268]; [190] ll. Full description
€ 35,000
Aldine Press Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Book History, Printing & Typography Greek & Roman Classics Literature
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Collection of anti-British poetry written during a diplomatic crisis
between the Empire of Brazil and the British Empire

FAGUNDES VARELA, Luís Nicolau. O estandarte auri-verde cantos sobre a questao Anglo-Brazileira.
São Paulo, Typ. Imparcial, de J.R. de A. Marques, 1863. 8vo. Half dark green leather, marbled paper sides, with the title lettered in gold on the spine, marbled endpapers, and with the original blue printed wrappers bound in. [1], [1 blank], 24, [2] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Brazil Broadsides, Ephemera & Pamphlets Latin America Law & Politics Literature South America
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The first English edition of a famous biography of the fourth Portuguese viceroy of India

FREIRE DE ANDRADE, Jacinto and Peter WYCHE (translator). The life of Dom John de Castro, the fourth Vice-Roy of India. Wherein are seen the Portuguese's voyages to the East-Indies; their discoveries and conquests there; the form of government, commerce, and discipline of warr[!] in the East, and the topography of all India and China. Containing also a particular relation of the most famous siege of Dio, with a map to illustrate it.
London, Henry Herringman, 1664. Folio. With a full-page engraved portrait of D. João de Castro, the fourth viceroy of India as a frontispiece, signed "W. Faithorne sculp.", one full-page engraved illustration of the shrine of St. Thomas in Meliapor - including its inscriptions in Sanskrit - which already existed at the time of the Portuguese arrival in India, and one double page engraved map (view) of Diu and its fortress. Contemporary blind-tooled calf. [1], [1 blank], [18], 272, [19], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 16,500
Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Bibliography & Biography History / 17th Century India & Sri Lanka Portugal
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First edition of a rare manual on culinary carving, with 33 plates

[GASTRONOMY - CARVING]. De cierlycke voorsnydinge aller tafel-gerechten; onderwijsende hoe allerhande spijzen, zo wel op de vork als zonder dezelve, aardiglik konnen voorgesneden, en in bequame ordre omgedient worden. Alles met zinlicke konst-platen afgebeelt.
Amsterdam, Hieronymus Sweerts, 1664. Oblong 8vo. With an engraved frontispiece and 32 engraved plates (1 folding, 31 full-page). Contemporary vellum, sewn on 2 supports laced through the joints. 96 pp. Full description
€ 9,500
Education & Pedagogy Gastronomy
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First editions of John Gay's fables, with 67 engraved illustrations

GAY, John. Fables.
London, printed for J. Tonson and J. Watts, 1727 (volume 1); printed for J. and P. Knapton, and T. Cox, 1738 (volume 2). 2 volumes. 4to. Volume 1 with an engraved illustration on the title page, and 51 engraved illustrations (1 for each fable) engraved by Gerard Vandergucht, Paul Fourdrinier, Bernard Baron and Andrew Motte. Volume 2 with an engraved frontispiece, showing Gay's memorial monument, a small engraved author's portrait on title page, and 16 engraved plates (one for each fable), engraved by Gérard Scotin after drawings by Hubert-François Gravelot. Green morocco (ca. 1900), richly gold-tooled spine and turn-ins, gold fillets on boards and board-edges, marbled endpapers, gilt edges (Riviere & son). [14], 173, [1 blank]; [12], 155, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
English & American Literature Fable Books
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First edition of the only known contemporary source on the history of Britain directly after Roman departure

GILDAS and Polydore VERGIL (editor). Opus novum ... de calamitate excidio, et conquestu Britanniae, quam Angliam nunc vocant ...
[Antwerp, Christopher van Ruremund?, 1525]. Small 8vo. With 3 decorated criblé initials. Modern blind-tooled dark green calf by the Period Bookbinders in Bath. [44] ll. Full description
€ 4,500
Early Printing - 16th century History / 16th Century UK - United Kingdom
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Ancient Roman costume and society in 50 beautifully hand-coloured plates

GRASSET DE SAINT-SAUVEUR, Jacques. L'antique Rome ou description historique et pittoresque de tout ce qui concerne le peuple Romain, dans ses costumes civiles, militaires et religieux, dans ses moeurs publiques et privées, depuis Romulus jusqu'à Augustule.
Paris, chez Deroy, 1796. 4to. With 50 hand-coloured full-page engraved plates. Contemporary gold-tooled mottled calf, sewn on 5 supports with the corresponding raised bands on the spine, a black morocco title label on the spine lettered in gold, gold-tooled board edges, red sprinkled edges, marbled endpapers. [4], 221, [3] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Classical Antiquity Costumes, Fashion & Uniforms Prints & Print Series
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The world of monks and knights: hand-coloured encyclopaedia of sacred orders

HELYOT, Pierre. Histoire des ordres religieux et militaires, ainsi que des congrégations séculières de l'un et de l'autre sexe, qui ont été établies jusqu'à présent ...
Paris, Louis, 1792. 8 volumes. 4to. With 812 full-page hand-coloured engravings, along with woodcut devices on the title pages and some woodcut head- and tailpieces. Contemporary calf, gold-tooled spine, title lettered in gold, volume number set within black circular label, the initials "P.W.S." lettered in gold at the foot of the spine, marbled endpapers. Each volume around 400-500 pp. Full description
€ 12,000
Art & Art History Costumes, Fashion & Uniforms Military History (18th Century) Religion (18th Century)
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Scarlet caps and stinkhorns: a Victorian fungal album

HOUSTOUN (of Clerkington), Colonel Alexander. [Fungi painted by Colonel Houstoun of Clerkington].
[Inverness, 1862-1863]. 4to (25 x 18 cm). With 41 watercolours of fungi on paper or card, most approximately 20 x 12 cm (sheet size), and 1 watercolour of a butterfly. Contemporary brown morocco over boards, rebacked with "FUNGI" stamped in gold on the spine, gold-tooled turn-ins, marbled endpapers. [2], 41, [5 blank] ll. Full description
€ 3,850
Drawings & Watercolours Floras & General Botany Lower Plants (incl. Mushrooms)
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Timing the world, defining motion: Huygens’ great work on the pendulum

HUYGENS, Christiaan. Horologium oscillatorium, sive de motu pendulorum ad horologia aptato demonstrationes geometricae.
Paris, François Muguet, 1673. Folio. With a full-page woodcut of the pendulum on A2v, approximately 100 woodcut diagrams in the text, a woodcut coat of arms of Louis XIV on the title page, and several woodcut initials and headpieces. Contemporary mottled calf, with gold-tooled spine, gold-tooled board edges, red sprinkled edges. [14], 161, [1] pp. Full description
€ 68,000
Mathematics Science
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Whales, herring, and the Dutch Artic: illustrated maritime classic

[JONG, Dirk de]. De walvischvangst, met veele byzonderheden daartoe betrekkelyk.
Including: Beschryving der haringvisschery.
Amsterdam, Petrus Conradi, and Harlingen, Volkert van der Plaats, 1784-1786. 4 parts bound as 1. 4to. With 6 folding engraved maps and 2 folding engraved plates by H. Kobell and M. Sallieth, 3 additional folding and 10 full-page engraved plates. Every title page features a small woodcut illustration, and several woodcut tailpieces throughout. Contemporary half marbled calf and marbled paper sides. VII, [1], 96; [4], 116; [4], 116; [4], 116 pp. Full description
€ 4,500
Arctic & Antarctic Fishery & Whaling Mammals
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"Whoever makes a design without the knowledge of perspective will be liable to such absurdities as are shewn in this frontispiece"

KIRBY, Joshua. Dr. Brook Taylor's method of perspective, made easy ...
Ipswich, W. Craighton for the author, 1755.
Including: [IDEM]. The practice of perspective: being the second book of Dr. Brook Taylor's method of perspective made easy, &c.
Ipswich, W. Craighton, 1755.
2 parts in 1 volume. Large 4to. With hundreds of perspectival figures, plans, and designs on 52 full-page engraved plates, including 2 intricate perspectival designs with movable parts, and several beautiful wholly finished perspectival designs. Further with the hilarious frontispiece by William Hogarth showing a lively river landscape with fishermen, boats, a cart riding over a bridge, a far away village church etc., drawn without any accurate use of perspective, which led to absurdities such as a woman leaning out of the upper window of a house in the foreground and offering a light to a man with a pipe on top of a hill in the background. Contemporary calf, spine ribbed and gilt. [1], [1 blank], [2], IV, XVI, 78; [1], [1 blank], 84, [15], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 6,500
Architecture Optics & Perspective
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Satirical work on the "delights" of marriage

[LA SALE, Antoine de (attributed)]. Les quinze joyes de mariage, extraicts d'un vieil exemplaire escrit à la main, passez sont quatre cens ans.
Rouen, Raphaël du petit Val, 1596. 12mo (ca. 14x8 cm). With a woodcut printer's device on the title page, a woodcut illustration, and several decorated woodcut initials, and woodcut head- and tailpieces. 19th-century gold tooled dark brown goatskin, with the title and publication details lettered in gold on the spine, a central ornament on both boards surrounded by two single fillet borders, gilt edges, marbled end papers, and "Bound by F. Bedford" stamped in gold on the front-turn in. 186, [5], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 7,500
Bindings Erotica France French Literature
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One of the most important sources of British law

[LAW - GREAT BRITAIN - John SELDEN (editor)]. Fleta, seu commentarius juris Anglicani sic nuncupatus, sub Edwardo Rege primo, seu circa annos abhinc CCCXL ab anonymo conscriptus, arque è codice veteri, autore ipso aliquantulum recentiori, nunc primum typis editus.
London, printed by S. R., for Henry Twyford, Thomas Bassett, John Place and Samuel Keble, 1685. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With a half-page engraved plate after a Medieval historiated initial on p. 462. 18th-century blind-tooled calf. [8], 452, [2 blank], 453-553 pp. Full description
€ 1,250
History / 17th Century Law & Politics UK - United Kingdom
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In an embossed binding designed by the author, turning the boards into sundials

LE ROYER, Jacques. Oeuvres ... [with a note above the title: "Dico opera mea Regi."].
Including: Traité des influences divisé en deux parties. Premiere ... Des influences des cieux, & des astres ... Deuxie'me ... Des influences, & vertus occultes des estres terrestres.
Paris, R.J.B. de la Caille (printed [by Nicolas Motays] in Avranches), 1678. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. With engraved device on the title page, a full-page engraved astrological sundial, 14 woodcuts in the text, depicting apparatus set up for laboratory experiments, astrological diagrams, etc., woodcut headpieces, tailpieces and decorated initials, and decorations built up from cast fleurons. Contemporary tanned sheepskin over boards, designed by the author, the front board of double thickness with a hole bored in its fore-edge to hold a metal rod or gnomon (lacking) that could be inserted in any of several holes on the front and back boards to make the book into a sundial (one hole in the back board also allowed it to be inserted for use with the sundial pasted over the back paste-down when the book is open), gilt edges. The front board, back board and spine have been embossed with three different engraved plates sundials, emblems and extensive lettering. In a modern red morocco box. 14, 111, [1 blank]; [6], 109-364 pp. Full description
€ 20,000
Astronomy & Cosmography Bindings Instruments & Microscopy Science Technology Water Management
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Beautiful collection of coloured plates depicting Napoleon Bonaparte's life

[MADOU, Jean-Baptiste (lithographer)]. [Vie de Napoleon rédigeé par une société de gens de lettres sur les nouveaux documens dictés et corrigés à Ste. Hélène par Napoleon même].
[Brussels, Lithographie royale de Jobard, 1827]. Oblong 4to (ca. 25.5 x 33 cm). With a hand-coloured lithographed double-page title, and 132 coloured full-page lithographed plates. Contemporary gold-tooled half red morocco, decorated ("pseudo marbled") paper sides, with the title lettered in gold on the spine, and a red morocco title label on the front, marbled endpapers. The work is housed in a later red and yellow marbled paper slipcase. [134] ll. Full description
€ 35,000
France Prints & Print Series
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Belgian and Dutch military uniforms, civil dress and clerical garb from antiquity to 1830,
in 124 hand-coloured plates

[MADOU, Jean Baptiste and Jean Louis van HEMELRYCK]. Costumes Belgiques anciens et modernes, militaires, civils et réligieux.
Brussels, Lithographie Royale de J.B.A.M. Jobard, 1830. Folio. With a hand-coloured lithographed title, and 124 hand-coloured full-page numbered lithographed plates, of which some heightened with gold, all protected by tissue paper guards. Contemporary gold-tooled quarter polished calf. II, 26, [27-198], IV pp. Full description
€ 1,750
Belgium Costumes, Fashion & Uniforms Military History (19th Century) Netherlands
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Series of 240 finely colour-printed views of British and Irish country estates

MORRIS, Francis Orpen. A series of picturesque views of seats of the noblemen and gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland.
London, William MacKenzie, [ca. 1880]. 6 volumes. 4to. With a chromolithographed title page in each volume, and 240 full-page chromolithographs, protected by a thin leaf. Original publisher's gold-and blind-stamped red morocco over thick, bevelled boards. Each vol. ca. 90 pp. + 40 plates. Full description
€ 1,500
Colour Printing / Chromolithography Ireland Prints & Print Series UK - United Kingdom
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Magnificent and very rare series of 24 aquatints, coloured by hand, of 24 country houses
and their gardens in the surroundings of Amsterdam, the Gooi, Haarlem and the Vecht River

NUMAN, Hermannus. Vierentwintig printtekeningen met couleuren, verbeeldende Hollandsche buitenplaatzen, met derzelver beschrijvingen. Na het leven getekent en in plaat gebracht .... Vingtquatre vues des maisons de campagne, situees en Hollande ...
Amsterdam, [H. Numan, J. Yver and J.W. Smit], 1797. Oblong 4to (ca. 23.5 x 27 cm). With 24 full-page hand-coloured aquatints of various country houses. Contemporary or slightly later quarter brown paper, sprinkled paper sides. 15 ll. + 24 plates. Full description
€ 18,000
Castles, Gardens & Mansions Netherlands Prints & Print Series
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Beautifully illustrated account of Japanese life and culture, deluxe issue with all the plates coloured by hand

OVERMEER FISSCHER, Johannes Frederik van. Bijdrage tot de kennis van het Japansche Rijk.
Amsterdam, J. Müller & Comp., printed by C. A. Spin, 1833. 4to. With a hand-coloured lithographic frontispiece, and 14 hand-coloured full-page lithographic plates, all highlighted with gum arabic. Contemporary richly gold-and blind-tooled brown calf, with the author and title lettered in gold on the spine, blind-tooled boards edges and turn-ins, gilt edges. VII, [3], 320 pp. Full description
€ 4,500
Anthropology & Ethnography Art & Art History City Plans, Topography & Views Costumes, Fashion & Uniforms Geography Japan & Far East
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The first great Dutch fashion periodical: in 8 volumes (1791-1794)

[PERIODICAL - DUTCH - FASHION]. Kabinet van mode en smaak.
Haarlem, A. Loosjes Pz., [1791]-1794. 8 volumes. 8vo. With 95 (of 96) engravings, primarily depicting costumes, but also including 4 portraits, furniture, buildings, and sheet music, most of them hand-coloured, including one not mentioned in the binder instruction, each volume features a woodcut illustration on the title page, along with small woodcut headpieces and tailpieces throughout. Contemporary gold-tooled half beige calf, marbled paper sides, with title and volume labels lettered in gold on the spine. Full description
€ 9,500
Costumes, Fashion & Uniforms Netherlands
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Elegantia: fashion, taste and the female sphere in the early 19th century

[PERIODICAL - WOMEN]. Elegantia, of tydschrift van mode, luxe en smaak, voor dames. Eerste (- vierde) jaargang.
Amsterdam, E. Maaskamp, 1807-1810. 4 volumes. 8vo. With 137 engravings, mostly hand-coloured, the majority depicting fashion subjects such as costumes and embroidery patterns (several folding). Also including plates of furniture and a folding view of Constantinople, with three small uncoloured engravings on the separated title pages. Contemporary vellum. VIII, 392, [8]; VIII, 384, [2 blank]; VIII, 384, [2 blank]; 200, [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 6,850
Costumes, Fashion & Uniforms Women History
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The art of architecture made practical: Perrault’s five orders in England

PERRAULT, Claude. A treatise of the five orders in architecture. to which is annex'd, a discourse concerning pilasters: and of several abuses introduc'd into architecture ...
London, Printed for J. Senex and R. Gosling; W. Taylor, W. and J. Innys, and J. Osborn, 1722. Folio. With 6 full-page engravings of columns, 6 half-page engravings, 23 engraved initials, 23 engraved headpieces, 18 engraved tailpieces, as well as an engraved title page and an engraved dedication. Contemporary half sprinkled calf, marbled paper sides, red sprinkled edges. [6], XXI, [5], XII, 131, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 1,250
Architecture
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The exquisite miniatures of the Shah Jahan Album, beautifully reproduced in 50 high quality photographs

[PHOTOGRAPHY - SHAH JAHAN ALBUM]. [20th-century photographic reproduction of the Shah Jahan Album].
[20th century]. 2 volumes. Folio. With 50 photographic reproductions in black and white mounted onto thick passepartout leaves, separated by thinner leaves, onto which typed descriptions are mounted. Contemporary gold- and blind-tooled burgundy buckram, with the title and volume number lettered in gold on the front and spine, a double fillet border on both boards, blind-tooled turn-ins, gold and burgundy floral end papers, gilt edges. [1 blank], [26], [2 blank]; [2 blank], [25], [2 blank] ll. Full description
€ 25,000
Art & Art History India & Sri Lanka Photography Prints & Print Series
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Best edition of the first notable work on Egyptology

PIGNORIUS, Laurentius (Lorenzo PIGNORIO). Mensa Isiaca, qua sacrorum apud Aegyptios ratio & simulacra subjectis aeneis simul exhibentur & explicantur.
Including: IDEM. Magnae deum matris idaeae & attidis initia.
And: TOMASINUS, Jacobus Philippus. Manus aeneae, cecropii votum referentis, dilucidatio.
Amsterdam, Andreas Frisius, 1669. 2 works published and bound as 1, the second in 3 parts. 4to. With an engraved frontispiece (with Egyptian and other antiquities), a general title page with a small engraved scene, 3 divisional title pages, the first two with the same larger engraving (a small scene similar to that on the general title page, but flanked by figures of Minerva/Athena and Mercury/Hermes), the frontispiece, large engraving and probably the unsigned small engraving by A. Blotelingh. The first work with 11 folding engraved plates with hieroglyphics, 1 full-page engraved plate outside of collation, 5 full-page engraved plates in the text, and 16 smaller engravings in the text. The second work (in two parts) with 3 full-page engraved plates and several smaller engravings in the text. Further with woodcut decorated initials throughout and several woodcut head- and tailpieces. Contemporary vellum with the gold-stamped coat of arms of Arnhem on both boards, (faded) manuscript title on the spine, remnants of green ties. [1], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], [6], 96, [12]; [1], [1 blank], [6], 96 pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Archaeology Armorial Bindings Egypt North Africa
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Contemporary hand-coloured copy with the coat of arms of the dedicatee on both boards

PUGET DE LA SERRE, Jean. L'isthoire [!] et les portraits des imperatrices, des reynes, et des illustres princesses de l'auguste maison d'Austriche, qui ont porte le nom d'Anne.
Paris, Pierre de Bresche, 1648. Folio (44 x 30.5 cm). With 10 (of 14) hand-coloured full-page engraved plates, 14 contemporary hand-coloured engraved initials, 14 hand-coloured engraved headpieces, 8 engraved tailpieces, and a hand-coloured engraved vignette on the title page, all heightened with gold. The leaves have been outlined in red, and the title page has been outlined and decorated in red and gold, lacking the frontispiece. Contemporary gold-tooled red morocco, with the coat of arms of Anne of Austria onlaid in the centre of both boards, surrounded by two triple fillet frames, with ornaments in the corners of the inner frame, gold-tooled board edges, gilt edges, marbled pastedowns. [6], "51" [= 45], [1] pp. Full description
€ 25,000
Armorial Bindings France Prints & Print Series Women History
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Fourth editon of the first English Quran to be translated directly from the Arabic

[QURAN - ENGLISH]. SALE, George (translator). The Koran, commonly called the Alcoran of Mohammed. Translated from the original Arabic with explanatory notes, taken from the most approved commentators to which is preffixed a preliminary discourse. A new edition.
Bath, Printed by S. Hazard for J. Johnson, Vernor and Hood, Ogilvy and Speare, J. Sewell, H. Gardner and C. and G. Kearsley, 1795. 2 vols. 8vo. Engraved fold-out map of Arabia, 3 genealogical tables of which two folding, 1 plate illustrating the Temple of Mecca, all taken from the first editon of 1735. Old calf. Full description
€ 3,500
Islam & Qurans
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Beautiful views of castles, ruins, monasteries, villages and towns of the Dutch Republic

RADEMAKER, Abraham. Kabinet van Nederlandsche en Kleefsche outheden.
Amsterdam, Isaak Tirion, [between 1728 and 1766]. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With an engraved title page in each part, and 300 numbered engraved half-page views. Contemporary gold-tooled red morocco. [76]; [76] ll. Full description
€ 3,500
City Plans, Topography & Views Netherlands Prints & Print Series
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Dutch edition of the voyage of Walter Raleigh and Laurence Keymis to Guiana,
describing the city El Dorado

RALEIGH, Walter and Lawrence KEYMIS. Grondige ende waerachtige beschryvinge van het groot end gout-rijck koninckrijck van Guiana, geleghen in America, by- noorden de groote rivier Orelliana, vanden vyfden graet by Zuyden totten vyfden graet by- noorden de middel-linie; in welcke beschrijvinge de rechte gelegentheyt vande groote ende rijcke hooft-stadt Manca, Macureguarai ende andere steden derselvigen koninckrijcks ende van het groot Souten Meyr Parime (zynde omtrent 200 Spaensche mijlen lang) verclaert wort: insgelijcks wat voor rijcke waaren daer te lande ende daer omtrent vallen.
Mitsgaders vande omlegghende rijcke landschappen Emeria, Arromaja ende Topago: in welck laetste krijgs-vrouwen (Amzones genoemt) hare wooninge hebben: as oock van 53 groote rivieren onder welcken Oronoque de voornaemste is, welcke spruyt omtrent 500 Duystche mijlen landwaerts in, niet verre van Quitio een vermaerde hooft-stadt in Peru. Alles ontdeckt beschreven in de jaren 1595-1596.
[Amsterdam, Johannes Janssonius], 1644. Oblong 4to. With a vignette built up from typographical ornaments on the title page, and a decorated woodcut initial. Later half mottled calf. [49] ll. Full description
€ 7,500
Brazil Latin America South America Travel & Voyages South America
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Fine calligraphic manuscript teaching traditional science to the son of Comte de Choiseul-Gouffier,
French ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, finely bound in contemporary gold-tooled morocco

REMY, Claude. Traité des elemens présenté à M. Raoul de Choiseul-Gouffier.
Paris, 1786. Small 8vo. Calligraphic manuscript written in French in dark brown ink on paper, in a formal Latin script hand (a French-style "batard"), with an ornamental, calligraphic title page in reddish brown, green, dark brown and black ink, each page in a thick-thin-thin border with circular decorations in each corner and centred at the head, running heads in the border, the heading of the "Avertissement" in a decorative script, and calligraphic chapter headings in circular or rectangular decorations and sub-headings in decorated horizontal bands. Contemporary red, gold-tooled morocco, the smooth spine divided into 6 panels (separated by lines flanked by dotted lines), the 2nd with a dark green title-label, each of the others with an 8-petalled flower, 10 dots, a decoration in each corner and another at each side, and a decorated band at the foot; each board with a border of thin-thick-thin fillets with a decoration stamped on each corner and a 6-petalled flower inside each corner; gold-tooled turn-ins, gold fillets on the board edges (altogether about 130 impressions of 13 tools), gilt edges. [2], 186, [4] pp. Full description
€ 16,000
Bindings Calligraphy Education & Pedagogy France Malta Manuscripts & Documents
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Including the first edition of the life of Reynard's son Reynardine

[REYNARD THE FOX]. The most delectable history of Reynard the Fox. Newly corrected and purged...
London, Thomas Ilive for Edward Brewster, 1701.
With:
(2) [IDEM]. The most pleasant and delightful history of Reynard the Fox. The second part. ...
London, Anne Maxwell and Robert Roberts, for Edward Brewster, 1681.
(3) [IDEM, ADDITIONS]. The shifts of Reynardine the son of Reynard the Fox, ...
London, Thomas James for Edward Brewster and Thomas Passenger, 1684. 3 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With woodcut of King Lion's court on the title page, 61 woodcuts in text of part 1 (including 23 repeats) and 15 woodcuts in part 2, all repeated from part 1. Further with a large woodcut decorated initial in part 3 and decorations built up from cast fleurons in parts 1 and 2. Set in textura types with incidental roman and italic. Late-18th-century sprinkled calf, gold double fillets, blind-tooled board edges, red morocco spine label in 2nd of 6 compartments, red sprinkled edges. [160]; [112]; [4], 160 pp. Full description
€ 6,500
English & American Literature Fable Books
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Sail and steam: a magnificent lithographic survey of world shipping

ROELOFFS, Roeloff and Christian Ferdinand MÖLLER. Cyclus von schiffen aller seefahrenden nationen.
Hamburg, Charles Fuchs, 1839. 1 text volume and 56 loose lithographs in passepartouts. 4to oblong. With 56 lithographic plates (including 50 in colour), plates 47-50 contain several smaller illustrations. The numbering alternates between Roman and Arabic numerals, plates 1-46 are captioned above and below the illustrations in 6 languages. The 6 black-and-white terminal plates (numbered I-VI in Roman numerals) depict rigging and technical drawings. The work includes a lithographic title page and 3 illustrated title designs, one for the cover of the text volume, one serving as the title for the plates issued under passe-partout, and one mounted as the cover title for the accompanying original contemporary folder for the plates. Contemporary half beige cloth with the illustrated title on the front board, the text volume kept in a matching gold-stamped linen folder with the lithographed title mounted on the front board, lithographs in passepartouts. [2] ll., 112 cols. Full description
€ 8,500
Prints & Print Series Ships & Shipbuilding Technology
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Beautifully produced missal, printed and bound for the Iberian market

[ROMAN MISSAL]. Missale Romanum ex decreto sacrosancti concilii Tridentini restitutum ...
Antwerp, ex architypographia Plantiniana [= Joannes Jacobus Moretus], 1737.
With: (2) [SPANISH MISSAL]. Missae propriae sanctorum Hispanorum, qui generaliter in Hispania celebrantur. ex apostolica concessione, & auctoritate S. Pii V. Gregorii XIII. Sixti. V. Clementis VIII. & Urbani. VIII. aliorumque summorum pontificum.
Antwerp, ex architypographia Plantiniana [= Joannes Jacobus Moretus], 1737. 2 works in 1 volume. Folio. With 20 full-page engraved plates by Cornelius Galle, 10 engraved frames surrounding the text, and vocal music printed on pp. 153-155, 196-197, 199-207, 220-233, 235-237, 240-272, 286-288, 290-292, and xvii. The text is printed in red and black, with historiated initials hand-coloured in red, an engraved vignette on the title page of each work, and several woodcut tailpieces throughout, of which 3 printed in red. Contemporary elaborately gold-tooled red morocco with (remnants of) brass catch and anchorplates along the fore edge, gilt and gauffered edges with intricately made tabs along the fore edge, gold-tooled board edges, marbled endpapers. [64], 628, cxxviij, [4], [2], 30, [4], 24; 28, [12] pp. Full description
€ 4,000
Bindings Book of Hours, Missals & Prayerbooks Religion (18th Century)
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5 original glass lantern slides with the earliest photographs of Mecca and Medina

SADIQ BEY, Muhammad, Christiaan SNOUCK HURGRONJE and Al-Sayyid ‘Abd al-GHAFFÂR. [5 photographic lantern slides of Mecca and Medina (silver gelatin glass positives), taken in the years 1880 to 1889].
Stuttgart, Lichtbilderverlag Theodor Benzinger, [ca. 1910]. 5 glass positive lantern slides (8.5 x 10 cm), each with a black paper mask, paper tape around the edges, a letterpress slip at the foot giving the publisher's name and city, and a slip at the head with the manuscript title. Kept in a contemporary purpose-made wooden box with brass fittings, with the word "Mekka" on the top of the hinged lid. Full description
€ 35,000
Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Islam & Qurans Islamic Art, Culture & Science Photography
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Classic history and description of Gelderland with maps in a contemporary hand-colouring,
bound by the Utrecht "Vase Block Bindery"

SLICHTENHORST, Arend van. XIV. Boeken van de Geldersse Geschiedenissen, van 't begin af vervolghd tot aen de afzweeringh des Konincx van Spanien; ...
Arnhem, Jacob van Biesen, 1654. 2 parts in 1 volume. Folio. With an engraved title page, a letterpress half-title, a large folding engraved map, 20 double-page plans and maps, 28 woodcut coats of arms in the text, as well as woodcut medals, and letterpress genealogical tables. With exception of some medals all plates and illustrations are coloured by a contemporary hand and partly highlighted with gold. Early 18th-century gold-tooled mottled calf by the so-called "Vase Block Bindery". [16], 116, [4]; 596, [24] pp. Full description
€ 25,000
Bindings Netherlands
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First account of the first official British diplomatic mission to China

STAUNTON, George Leonard. An authentic account of an embassy from the king of Great Britain to the emperor of China.
London, W. Bulmer and Co. for G. Nicol, 1798. 2 text volumes and 1 plate volume. 4to and folio plate volume. With 44 engraved plates in the atlas (1 folding map, 6 double-page plates and 37 full-page), 2 frontispieces in the text volumes (1 each), 1 full-page plate, and 25 vignettes in the text. Early 19th-century elaborately gold- and blind-tooled brown calf, with a red morocco title label and green morocco author and volume label on the spine, gold-tooled edges and turn-ins, marbled end papers. The atlas in gold-tooled half brown calf, with the same spine as the text volumes, marbled paper sides. [2], XXXIV, 518; [2], XX, 626 pp. + 44 plates. Full description
€ 18,000
China Law & Politics Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages East Asia UK - United Kingdom
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From Mississippi dreams to South Sea ruin: Europe’s first financial meltdown

[TAFEREEL DER DWAASHEID], LAW, John (subject). Het groot tafereel der dwaasheid ...
[Amsterdam], 1720. Folio. With the title page printed in red and black and 79 engraved plates, most double-page and several larger folding sheets, including several maps and the plate with the complete set of 52 playing cards. The copy contains the register listing 74 items and 4 plates not in Mullers principal list (Muller 3611(note), 3612, 3613, and 3615). Contemporary gold-tooled mottled calf, with the title and year lettered in gold on the spine, sewn on 7 supports with the corresponding raised bands on the spine, bound by the Double Drawer Handle Bindery in Amsterdam (Storm van Leeuwen). [1], [1 blank], 25, [1], 52, 31, [1 blank], 8, 9, [1 blank] pp. and 79 engraved plates (2 before the title page). Full description
€ 6,000
Bindings Caricature & Satire Economic History & Trade Law & Politics
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A year in Rome: life, spectacle, and the romantic eye

THOMAS, Antoine Jean Baptiste. Un an a Rome et dans ses environs. recueil de dessins lithographés, représentant les costumes, les usages et les cérémonies civiles et religieuses des états romains, et généralement tout ce qu'on y volt de remarquable pendant le cours d'une année; dessiné et publié ...
Paris, Firmin Didot, 1830. Folio. With a lithographed vignette on the title page and 72 hand-coloured tinted lithograph plates by Jean-François Villain. Contemporary half calf and marbled paper sides. [4], 44 pp. Full description
€ 3,750
Costumes, Fashion & Uniforms Italy Prints & Print Series
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The first manual of cryptography

TRITHEMIUS, Johannes and Gabriel de COLLANGE (translator). Polygraphie et universelle escriture cabalistique.
Including:
(2) TRITHEMIUS, Johannes and Gabriel de COLLANGE (translator). Clavicule, et interpretation sur le contenués cinq livres de Polygraphie, & universelle escriture Cabalistique.
(3) COLLANGE, Gabriel de. Tables et figures planispheriques, extensives & dilatatives des recte & averse, servants à l'universelle intelligence de toutes escritures tant methathesiques, transpositives, mythologiques, numerales, anomales, que orchemales.
Paris, Benoît Prévost for Jacques Kerver, 1561. 3 parts in 1 volume. 4to. Printed in red and black, the main title and the titles of parts 2 and 3 set within a woodcut decorated border, 3 woodcut portraits of the translator, 13 large volvelles in part 3, numerous woodcut headpieces, and numerous woodcut decorated initials. 18th-century gold-tooled reddish-brown morocco, with the title and author lettered in gold on the spine, marbled endpapers, gold-tooled board edges, red edges. [18], 300 ll. Full description
€ 12,500
Astrology & Occult Early Printing - 16th century Language & Linguistics
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Popular emblem and song book by a Dutch pharmacist and poet, charmingly
and decoratively bound for the Duke of Marlborough in 1818/19

VEEN, Jan van der. Zinne-beelden, oft Adams appel. ... Mitsgaders syne oude ende nieuwe ongemeene bruydt-lofs ende zege-zangen.
Amsterdam, Everhard Cloppenburgh, 1642. 4to. With large emblematic engraving on the title page and 50 engraved emblems in text (10 x 13.5 cm), all by Salomon Savry, woodcut head- and tailpieces, numerous woodcut decorated initials (several series) and decorations built up from typographic ornaments. Set in roman and italic types. Gold- and blind-tooled red, grained sheepskin (1817/18) for George Spencer-Churchill, 5th Duke of Marlborough, gold-tooled turn-ins and board edges, gilt and gauffered edges, grey-brown endpapers, red satin ribbon marker. [23], [1 blank], 523, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 1,950
Armorial Bindings Bindings Dutch Literature Emblems Songbooks UK - United Kingdom
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The first appearance in English of the Pied Piper

[VERSTEGAN, Richard (pseudonym of Richard ROWLANDS)]. A restitution of decayed intelligence: in antiquities. Concerning the most noble and renowmed English nation. By the studie and travaile of Ri. V[erstegan].
Antwerp, printed by Robert Bruney, sold at London by John Norton & John Bill, 1605. 4to. With the title printed in red and black, an engraved vignette of the Tower of Babel on the title page, 10 engraved illustrations in the text, and a full-page coat of arms of the author at the end. Contemporary or slightly later gold- and blind-tooled "Cambridge panel" binding in sprinkled brown calf. [24], 338, [13], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 1,950
Anthropology & Ethnography Fable Books History / 17th Century UK - United Kingdom
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The first "typographic facsimile" ever: the reproduction
of one of the three late antique manuscripts containing the main works of Virgil

VIRGILIUS MARO, Publius. Codex antiquissimus a Rufio Turcio Aproniano V.C. distinctus et emendatus qui nunc Florentiae in Bibliotheca Mediceo-Laurentiana adservatur bono publico typis descriptus anno MDCCXLI.
Florence, Typis Mannianis (the printer Joseph and his son Domenico Maria Manni), [1741]. 4to (25.5 x 18 cm). With an engraved dedication by the editor Pietro Francesco Fogginio to the members of the prestigious Académie Royale des inscriptions et beaux-arts as a frontispiece, an engraved vignette on the title page (a portrait of Virgil holding a mask) engraved by "Sarder ex Mus. Medic.". An engraved illustration of Virgil as a headpiece at the start of the text, engraved after the portrait in one of the two other late antique Virgil manuscripts: the Virgilius Romanus in the Vatican library (Cod. Vat. 3867). Further with a beautiful engraved historiated initial on the same page; engraved specimen of three lines of the manuscript (13 x 3 cm) on p. XV; and two tailpieces (on pp. XVI and 459). The text is printed in red and black (the title page, the first lines and corrections in the text). Contemporary gold-tooled red morocco. [4], XXXVI, 459 pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Book History, Printing & Typography Classical Antiquity Greek & Roman Classics
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Quintessential eighteenth-century Virgil edition, bound in a magnificent binding

VIRGILIUS MARO, Publius. Opera. Vol. I.
London, John Pine, 1755 [= actually some years later]. 8vo. With 2 different vignettes on the otherwise identical engraved title pages, an engraved frontispiece with a figure of the muse Euterpe, 2 engraved dedication leaves with vignettes, 1 folding and 49 full-page engraved plates on 39 leaves (11 of the leaves with a plate on each side), 31 engraved half-page plates and historiated head- and tailpieces, engraved historiated and decorated initials. Some of the images are derived from the illustrations in the Codex Vaticanus, a 5th-century codex containing the works of Virgil. Late-19th-century gold-tooled crushed red morocco, bound by the famous partnership of René Chambolle (1834-1898) and Hippolyte Duru (1803-1898) (with their names gold-stamped in the bottom front turn-in). The boards show a double fillet frame with detailed, ornate flowers and vines along the inside of the frame, with the author, title, and imprint lettered in gold on the gold-tooled spine, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, gilt top edge, marbled endpapers. The binding can be dated between 1861 and ca. 1870, the heyday of the Chambolle-Duru partnership representing the high level of the Golden Age of French bibliophile binding. [8], XV, [2], 144, [6] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
Bindings Classical Antiquity Greek & Roman Classics
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Exotic animals from the menagerie of William V

VOSMAER, Arnout. [Natuurkundige beschryving eener uitmuntende verzameling van zeldsaame gedierten, bestaande in Oost- en Westindische viervoetige dieren, vogelen en slangen, weleer leevend voorhanden geweest zynde, buiten Den Haag, op het Kleine Loo van Z.D.H. den prins van Oranje-Nassau].
Amsterdam, P. Meijer (parts 1- 14 and 29-31) and heirs of P. Meijer and G. Warnars (parts 15-20), 1766-1787. 31 parts in 1 volume. 4to (26.5 x 20.5 cm). With 33 hand-coloured engraved plates and 1 uncoloured folding engraved plate. 19th-century black half morocco, gold-tooled spine. 15; 8; 8; 12; 22; 8; 9; 6; 7; 7; 7; 10; 8; 20; 12; 6; 6; 6; 10; 10; 6; 6; 8; 8; 23; 15; 12; 14; 14; 44; 12 pp. Full description
€ 7,500
Amphibians & Reptiles Birds - Ornithology Indonesia / Dutch East Indies Mammals Middle America Southern Africa West Africa West Indies
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Model for the new mirror of Youth or the French tyranny

[WICQUEFORT, Abraham de]. Advis fidelle aux veritables Hollandois. Touchant ce qui s'est passé dans les villages de Bodegrave & Swammerdam, & les cruautés inoüies, que les François y ont exercées. Avec un memoire de la derniere marche de l'armée du Roy de France en Brabant & en Flandre.
[The Hague, Jan and Daniel Steucker], 1673. 4to. With 10 scenes on the horrors of war on 8 folding engraved plates (ca. 31 x 20 cm) by Romeyn de Hooghe. Contemporary vellum, with the gold-stamped and crowned initials "E.F.V.D" on the front board. [1, 1 blank], 202 pp. Full description
€ 6,500
France Military History (17th Century) Netherlands
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Beautiful and imporant treatise on entomology, with 120 colour plates

WILKES, Benjamin. One hundred and twenty copper-plates of English moths and butterflies, representing their changes into the caterpillar, chrysalis, and fly-states, and the plants, flowers, and fruits, whereon they feed. Coloured with great exactness from the subjects themselves. With a natural history of the moths and butterflies, describing the method of managing, preserving, and feeding them.
London, R. N. Rose (printed by G. Verrall, Worthing), 1824. 4to. With 120 engraved plates (mainly 27.5 x 22.5 cm) hand-coloured for the author. Mid-19th-century half gold-tooled dark green morocco. VIII, [22], 63, [5] pp. Full description
€ 12,500
Butterflies / Lepidoptera Insects & Spiders UK - United Kingdom
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A nicely coloured history and description of Friesland: presentation copy by the author

WINSEMIUS, Pierius. Chronique ofte historische geschiedenisse van Vrieslant. Beginnende vanden jaere nae des Werelts scheppinghe 3635. ende loopende tot den jaere nae de gheboorte Christi.
Franeker, Jan Lamrinck, 1622. Folio. With an engraved allegorical title page, a large engraved coat of arms of the province of Friesland, a large folding engraved map of Friesland, 3 folding engraved plans. Further with (in the text) 49 half-page, full-length engraved portraits, 2 engraved costume plates, 2 plans of sieges, 1 view 6 seals and coats of arms of Friesland at the end. Also with many woodcut decorated initials and woodcut head- and tailpieces. All engraved and woodcut illustrations are beautifully coloured by a contemporary hand. Contemporary gold-tooled sprinkled calf. [10], 913, [61] pp. Full description
€ 32,500
Bindings Charts & Maps City Plans, Topography & Views Fortification & Military Architecture History / 17th Century Netherlands
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Precision among the circumpolar stars: Wollastons Fasciculus astronomicus,
from the library of Warren De La Rue

WOLLASTON, Francis. Fasciculus astronomicus, containing observations of the northern circumpolar region; together with some account of the instrument with which they were made: and a new set of tables, by which they were reduced to the mean position for the beginning of January 1800. To which are added a few other papers and precepts, which it was imagined might be acceptable to the practical astronomer.
London, printed by Luke Hansard, sold by G. Wilkie and D. Bremner, 1800. 4to (27 x ca. 21 cm). With a divisional title page for part 2. Contemporary gold-tooled marbled calf, re-backed with the original backstrip laid down. [3], [1 blank], 256; 87, [1] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
Astronomy & Cosmography
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