History

First edition, first state with "T.E.L." at p. 495 and "Baltic" at p. 182.  With 16 photographs and illustrations including 4 maps of which two are folding.Octavo. Original fawn polished buckram in publishers original dust jacket. A very good copy; dust jacket bright and well preserved with light soiling at spine folds. A very attractive copy. 

American Heritage Publishing Co., New York, 1966. First edition. Folio. Two volumes. With an introduction by Marshall B. Davidson. Reproduced in color for the first time from the collection at the New York Historical Society. Both volumes fine in publisher's slipcase.

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FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING. Octavo, original cloth, original dust jacket. A fine copy in a lightly soiled dustjacket.

FIRST EDITION, limited to 1110 copies. "Sir Walter Armstrong's large and richly illustrated work "Sir Joshua Reynolds (1900) treats the subject exhaustively, and contains a complete descriptive catalogue and directory of Reynolds's works – portraits and subject pictures – arranged in alphabetical order." – Estelle M. Hurll Folio. Cloth. Book. With 78 photogravures and 6 color lithographs. Original red cloth. Moderate soiling to cloth. Occasional minor foxing. A very appealing copy of this beautiful volume.

FIRST EDITION. "McKay's skills as a shipbuilder were only exceeded by his chutzpah. He was the Stradivarius of clipper ships. McKay started the race to build ever bigger clippers and gave his ships such chauvinistic names as Sovereign of the Seas and Great Republic. In the first four years of the California gold rush, McKay's yards turned out 160 examples of what became known as "extreme clippers". His ships quickly dominated the trade to Hawaii, China, Australia, and the East Indies." –Richard F. Selcer, Civil War America, 1850-1875 Octavo. Deluxe original half morocco over marbled boards, marbled endpapers. With 10 color plates and 48 additional illustrations. Minor rubbing at corners. Neat contemporary inscription (frontispiece verso).   Clean throughtout. An attractive volume.

“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake up in the day to find it was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.” –T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of WisdomFIRST TRADE EDITION, FIRST IMPRESSION. 54 illustrations and 4 fold-out maps. Near fine or better in brown buckram; original dust jacket with small tears and few small chips; spine lightly toned and with some soiling, light creasing to front panel. A very attractive copy of Lawrence's masterpiece. 

FIRST EDITION. Octavo. Original gilt decorated green cloth. Spine slightly toned with minor wear at ends, front hinge split (but holding), clean throughout, cosmetic wear at rear hinge. A solid copy in the attractive original binding.

First Edition. A history of France from 418 (king Faramond) to 1589 (Henry IV). Three volumes. Quarto. Superb full page engraved portrait of Louis XIV the Great at the beginning of Vol. I, engraved portraits of each monarch at the beginning of most chapters. BINDING? CONDITION? Original calf rubbed and scratched, especially at edges of boards and along backstrips; front covers of Vols. I and II very slightly detached; lower portion of backstrip on Vol. III missing. Paris, 1678.

FIRST EDITION. Octavo. Publisher's original cloth binding. Steel-engraved portrait frontispiece, plates and maps throughout, some of which are fold-out. A fine set.

FIRST AMERICAN TRADE EDITION. "Some Englishmen, of whom Kitchener was chief, believed that a rebellion of Arabs against Turks would enable England, while fighting Germany, simultaneously to defeat Turkey. Their knowledge of the nature and power and country of the Arabic-speaking peoples made them think that the issue of such a rebellion would be happy: and indicated its character and method. So they allowed it to begin..."— Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Introduction Octavo. Original cloth, original dust jacket. Dust jacket in first state with back blank. There was a 1926 printing of 22 copies to secure the U.S. copyright, followed by a 1935 limited edition of 750 copies, followed by this first American trade edition.

FIRST EDITION. A key work on the monetary systems of ancient Greece and Rome. "Gronovius entered the University of Leiden in 1634 and completed his academic studies at Groningen. Upon matriculation he travelled throughout Italy, France, and England. During this period, he undertook extensive manuscript research which supplied him with abundant material for later editions of the Latin classics. While at Leiden he had studied with luminaries such as Daniel Heinsius, Vossius, and Grotius. Like many of his contemporaries, Gronovius had a preference for first-century Latin prose, and his editions of Livy, both Senecas, Tacitus, and Gellius met with much acclaim" (The Berlin Collection: Being a History and Exhibition of the Books and Manuscripts Purchased in Berlin in 1891 for the University of Chicago, 1979). 12mo. Bound in contemporary full polished calf, ruled in black on boards and spine, contemporary paper spine label. Title printed in red and black, woodcut printer's device on title; the text with some passages printed in Greek letter. A clean copy with only very minor occasional spotting and a few dampstains.

FIRST EDITION of Lawrence's account of his journey on foot through northern Syria. Illustrated with 129 photographs taken by the author.  Octavo. Original cloth, original brown paper dust jacket. First issue with page 16 mis-numbered. Fine in a superb dust jacket with only very minor occasional rubbing.

LIMITED EDITION, one of 750 copies. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times; color: #424242; -webkit-text-stroke: #424242} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} All I can say is that most modern books weary me, but Burton never does...His writing is like talk, learned but earthy, and once he starts, he is hard to stop...That he was a humorist in our sense of the word we need no biographical facts to attest: The Anatomy of Melancholy is, by a magnificent and somehow very English irony, one of the great comic works of the world.— Anthony Burgess   Two volumes. Quarto. Original vellum-backed decorative
boards. Printed on Dutch paper. An excellent set, clean throughout. 

First Edition. 16mo. Original Wrappers. 40p., 6.25x9.25 inches, 30 blues songs with musical transcriptions and lyrics, 6 photos of the artists with short biographical sketches. A fine copy in original stapled pictorial wraps.

FIRST AMERICAN TRADE EDITION. Octavo. Original pictorial cloth lettered in gilt. Introduction by Theodore Roosevelt, foreword by Gilbert H.Grosvenor. With 8 full page illustrations, 100 illustrations in black and white, and color map bound in at rear. An excellent copy.

FIRST EDITION. "It is ... arguable that [The White Goddess] marked the end of Modernism as the dominant mode in British and Irish poetry. Those stirred by its enchantments, from Hughes and Heaney to Simon Armitage, as well as those who turned away in distaste (Philip Larkin among them), have learned from Modernism but have no longer cared for its formal and emotional stringencies... The White Goddess has remained in tune with the times, reprinted time after time and quietly gathering new readers and enthusiasts iwth every generation." –Ian Firla and Grevel Lindop, Graves and the Goddess: Essays on Robert Graves's The White GoddessOctavo. Original cloth, original dust jacket.

"New Edition, Rewritten and Greatly Enlarged". Two volumes. Octavo. 23 chromolithographs, folding plan of the Cemmetary in pocket of rear board, numerous wood-cuts (1 folding); Woodburytype frontispice in volume II. Includes Northcote's EPITAPHS OF THE ROMAN CATACOMBS. A superb set: cloth clean, gilt bright, occasional trivial to extremities.

First Edition. This work is based on De Rossi's celebrated Roma Sotterranea (1864-77). Octavo. Original blind stamped purple cloth with gilt decoration to front board and spine. Spine quite faded with minor wear at head and heal; Bookplate to front pastedown. Text clean and complete with folding atlas inserted in pocket at rear; 20 chromolithographs and numerous woodcut text illustrations. An attractive, solid copy.

FIRST EDITION. “[Buonarroti’s] combination of genuine (or perhaps contrived) religious devotion and true sensitivity to beauty that led him to make his remarkably original appraisal of early Christian art. Stimulated perhaps by what he himself had written nearly years before about the greater veneration likely to have been felt for the crudely carved gods of ancient Egypt than for the much more refined representations which could certainly have been made by later artists, he now carried this line of thought much further... by claiming that the lack of grace and design led to a certain reverential fear and majesty which were well suited to religious art... Buonarroti’s claims for the edifying value of clumsy artefacts produced by unskilled amateurs (claims backed up – to his own satisfaction and to that of his contemporaries – by specific examples carefully reproduced) do open a new chapter in the historian’s understanding of art. From now on it became increasingly accepted that weakness itself could be the best guarantee of purity and devotion.” –Francis Haskell, History and its Images: Art and the Interpretation of the past. Folio. Contemporary vellum; 35 engraved plates, (3 folding, xxxi numbered and 1 unnumbered), woodcut text illustrations. Skillful repair at head of spine extending into front board; moderate wear to binding extremities. Occasional spotting, generally clean throughout. A very attractive copy.

1804 edition of Hamilton's celebrated Outlines from the Figures and Compositions upon the Greek, Roman and Etruscan Vases, illustrated with 62 engraved plates.  Quarto. Half-title, 62 engraved plates by Kirk (uncoloured). Handsomely bound in quarter calf over vellum boards. Text and plates clean, small split at half-title (holding). Nice copy. 

First expanded edition. The one volume edition of 1817-19 was written by John P. Gandy and illustrated by Gell. Excavations continued throughout the 1820s. The 1832 edition was written by Gell himself and covers the recent excavations. “Pompeiana, published in 1817-19 brought the first comprehensive account of the excavations to English-speaking readers... Numerous editions issued over the next six decades influenced popular culture through a skillful illumination of fact with lively pictorial images. The first edition is a topographical tour covering major public and domestic structures... while the revised sequel of 1832.. presents the results of recent exploration, in the course of which a number of spectacular residences and baths were uncovered. Bringing to light noteworthy examples of mythological paintings, excavations carried out during the 1820s opened a window into the living quarters of Romans whose libraries and walls were replete with the texts and images of classical mythology.” –Claire L. Lyons and Marica Reed, Antiquity Recovered: The Legacy of Pompeii and Herculaneum Imperial octavo. Two volumes. (17x26.5cm) Contemporary silken green cloth with gilt labels to spine. Complete with 87 full page plates. With an additional 30 vignettes tipped on india. Untrimmed. Minor foxing to preliminaries; an excellent set in an attractive early binding.

FIRST EDITION. "Seventeenth-century readers approached Thomas Browne as an encyclopedic polymath with wide-ranging opinions of general interest in science and religion." –Claire Preston Reid Barbour, Sir Thomas Browne: The World Proposed Folio. Bound in full early calf, skillfully rebacked. Small repair at top margin of title, generally a sound, attractive copy.

THE ESTIENNE EDITION of the letters of Pliny the Younger (A.D. 61-113). Pliny is one of the three earliest non-Christian writers to mention Christ and the Christians. Quarto (240 x 170mm). Woodcut Estienne printer's device on title-page. Woodcut ornamental initials and headpieces. 19th-century tan calf, decorated in blind; joints split near top but holding. Hinges reinforced; occasional unobtrusive early underlining, scholarly notations and marginalia. This edition was printed by Paul Estienne (Paulus Stephanus), a member of the eminent Estienne (Stephanus) dynasty of French scholar-printers, and the son and successor of the great Henri Estienne.

FIRST EDITION IN FRENCH of this most important work in art history and criticism.“Winckelmann’s History had a remarkable impact for a scholarly antiquarian publication. It presented a comprehensive synthesis of available knowledge about the visual artefacts of the ancient world... Four main sculptural traditions were discussed in detail – the ancient Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek and Roman. What particularly caught the imagination of Winckelmann’s contemporaries, however, and still assures the book a place among the classics of art history, is what Winckelmann himself envisaged as its core, the eloquent and hugely ambitious attempt to redefine the history and aesthetics of the ancient Greek tradition.” –Alex Potts, Flesh and the Ideal: Winckelmann and the Origins of the History“[Winckelmann’s] magnum opus is in a class apart, for it completely revolutionized the study of art by treating it organically (Winckelmann was the first to do so) as part of the growth of the human race” –E.M. ButlerOctavo.Two volumes bound as one. Recent crushed morocco, rebacked with the original spine laid down, marbled endpaper.  Illustrated throughout. A handsome copy.

SECOND EDITION. "The best and last of the general rare book bibliographies... Brunet's annotations about the scholarly and commercial value of the books he listed are often still unsurpassed. There is hardly any other bibliography in which the wide range of its author's knowledge is more favorably displayed."–Grolier Club Octavo. Contemporary full-calf bindings in very good condition, spines with five raised bands and elaborate blind stamping, all edges marbled.

FIRST EDITION. Two volumes. [A third volume was published in 1815]. Quarto. Silhouette portrait frontispiece; errata leaf in volume II. An attractive, sound copy in contemporary half calf over marbled boards, original flat spines lettered in gold and with blind stamping and gold embellishments. Some minor rubbing to spine, abrasion to front board of vol. II; text clean.

FIRST EDITION.“Buonarroti, the great-nephew of Michaelangelo the Younger who was himself the great-nephew of the artist, was born in 1661 and at the age of twenty left his native Florence to go to Rome, where he spent the next eighteen years or so devoting himself largely to antiquarian studies. He filled notebook after notebook with sketches, some rapid and some very careful, of coins, medals and other small objects, and he quickly earned the reputation of being one of the greatest antiquarians of his day... Through his membership of Queen Christina’s circle and later of the Arcadian Academy, he met many of the leading figures of the intellectual community and became closely involved in some of the most important scholarly enterprises of the time... In 1698 Buonarroti published his first book, which was devoted to medals belong to Cardinal Capegna, his principal patron... As might be expected from an author coming from such a cultivated background... he shows a greater feeling for quality than was usual among numismatists.” —Francis Haskell, History and its images: Art and the Interpretation of the past. Quarto. Early vellum. Engraved title vignette and additional title, 33 engraved plates, 3 folding, numerous engravings in text, wood-engraved initials. Wear with loss at spine head; generally clean throughout. A very attractive volume.

Folio. Full blind-paneled reversed calf, 6 raised bands on spine, hinges weak, engraved frontispiece, 81 fine engraved plates, subscriber's list, double-column text, clean and tight.

"The grandfather of pictorial histories, this mammoth work is a necessary part of any Civil War library. The work contains 3,389 images that constitute an important source on the war's appearance—its battlefields, common soldiers, officers, forts, diseases, camp scenes, army movements, and materiel." Eicher, The Civil War in Books 771."The greatest single collection of Brady illustrations" (Allan Nevins). The Mathew Brady photographs represent the first instance of a comprehensive photo-documentation of a war. New York: The Review of Reviews, 1911. Quarto, original blue cloth gilt. Ten volumes. An exceptional set, gilt uncommonly bright. Only occasional trivial wear to bindings. Very rare in this condition.

"Bayle's Dictionary is a very useful work for those to consult who love the biographical part of literature, which is what I love most" – Samuel Johnson "He sets forth things with such an odious accuraqcy, and puts the arguments for both sides before us with such shocking impartiality and is so intolerably intelligible that he puts even thoise of the most meagre understanding in a position to judge and even to doubt what is told them." –Voltaire The second Edition. 10 volumes. Folio. Later 1/4 morocco over cloth. Bookplates. Library blind stamps to titles.

FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH. Small octavo (12.5x18cm) Recent antique-style full marbled calf, blind tooled boards, 5 raised bands and 2 blind rules to spine, red Morocco label, modern endpapers. Significant repair to upper blank margin of title page, text generally clean with occasional spotting.

Dinsdale's Seeing by Wire or Wireless was the first book entirely devoted to subject of television.  Dinsdale gives and account of the demonstration of John Baird's successful television system in January 1926, details similar previous experiments, and describes the mechanics of television.  Overall, the history of television is well-documented in Dinsdale's work, and Baird's system paved the way for future developments in television, leading to the first high-definition broadcasting system in 1936. First edition.  Original wraps, no dust cover; in clamshell box.

SIGNED BY ULYSSES S. GRANT AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.Partly-printed vellum document signed, “U.S. Grant,” as president. Military commission appointing H. Schuyler Ross a First Assistant Engineer in the Navy. Countersigned by George M. Robeson as Secretary of the Navy. Washington, 1873. Approximately 19 1/2x16 inches; slightly faded signature, usual folds, minor soiling, seal intact.

SECOND EDITION, very significantly enlarged and expanded. The first edition appeared in 1661 and was shorter than just the first volume of this four volume second edition. "History-writing itself was changing. Renaissance philologists had pioneered the recovery, editing and scholarly study of documents, while in the seventeenth century headway had been made in the use of inscriptions, coins and archaeological evidence. These traditions continued, but the preoccupations of such mere 'antiquarians' were challenged in the Enlightenment by a new breed of philosophic historians... Innovative features distinguished the outlooks of this new history. Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the World (1614), Wiliam Howell's History of the World (1680-85)... and other standard texts, were 'God's eye' narratives, beginning at Creation and tracing the providential handing down of civilization by God to His chosen people."–Roy Porter, Creation of the Modern World: The Untold Story of the British Enlightenment Four volumes bound in five. Large folio, handsomely rebound in half calf over marbled boards. Lacking preliminary blanks to vol. I, title and A2 to volume I mounted. Generally a sound set; some mildew stains at rear of Vol. III, occasional light dampstaining at margins. An attractive set.

FIRST EDITION of Gibbon’s first published work (preceding the English edition by 3 years).“I was delighted by the copious extracts, the warm commendations, and the flattering predictions of the Journals of France and Holland: and the next year (1762) a new edition (I believe at Geneva) extended the fame, or at least the circulation, of the work. In England it was received with cold indifference, little read, and speedily forgotten...” –The Autobiography and Correspondence of Edward Gibbon Small octavo (11x17cm). Full contemporary calf skillfully rebacked. Some minor rubbing to extremities, front hinge repaired. Occasional foxing; a clean and very attractive copy of this scarce title.

The sixth edition and first (authorized) quarto edition. The text is based on Johnson's revised fourth edition of 1773. “The [1785] quarto is set in three columns, with rather heavy column rules. The original folio design is followed, except that all the illustrative quotations are set in small type, and the differentiation of verse from prose quotations by the use of a deeper indent is not observed... the 1785 design combines clarity with relative compactness.” –Paul Luna, Anniversary Essays on Johnson’s Dictionary Two volumes. Quarto, contemporary tree calf expertly rebacked preserving the original spine; spine elaborately gilt (in six compartments with red and black leather labels), marbled endpapers. Some foxing to portrait and title of volume I, some occasional spotting, generally clean.

FIRST EDITION (Atlas volume lacking)."During the eighteenth century, the English were busy defining themselves in opposition to Catholic Europe, manoeuvring for their destined place in history. Late starters in the race for overseas trade, they were improving their odds at teh very time that the Jesuits' fortunes were on the wane. With them, there arose a new sinology... But before the sinological works came the travellers' tales, beginning with Anson's Voyage, continuing half a century later with [Staunton's] "Authentic Account" of the Macartney embassy, and then proliferating in extraordinary number through the nineteenth century." –Antonia Finnane, Changing Clothes in China.Two volumes (lacking the Atlas). Quarto. Quarter leather over cloth boards (library binding from Westminster Libraries, London). With a portrait frontispiece to each volume and 26 additional engravings. A fresh and clean copy. Small library stamps on frontispiece, title page and occasionally elsewhere. 

FIRST EDITION of this beautifully illustrated work on clay oil lamps discovered in ancient Roman catacombs. Folio, contemporary blind-panelled vellum, early ink title on spine. Three parts in one. Half-title, 116 fine copper engraved plates and 3 engraved sectional titles. Bowing to boards; upper joint split but holding.

FIRST EDITION. With 'Advertisement' after the title page. BOUND WITH: Davis, Henry Edwards.  A Reply to Mr. Gibbon's Vindication of Some Passages in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Chapters of "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." London: J.Dodsley, 1779. First edition. Octavo, bound in recent 3/4 calf over marbled boards preserving early spine. Internally clean and sound throughout; a very attractive volume of this rare edition. In 1778 three people, including Henry Edwards Davis, a tutor of Balliol College, Oxford, wrote treatises publicly attacking Gibbon in hysterical terms for the anti-Christian remarks in the fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of his 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire', which contain remarks condemning the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire. The philosopher David Hume had warned Gibbon that this might happen. It gave Gibbon the opportunity to overmatch Davis with a public reply (here included) which was quite devastating in its superior learning, and its contrasting coolness. Gibbon had it printed in octavo so that it could not be bound with his (quarto) 'History'. Davis' further reply is also included here.