Personal Memoirs of P.H. Sheridan

[Opera, in Greek]

Folio (320 x 205mm). Bound in modern calf, with elaborate armorial device of Nicolas Chevalier (1532-1630) inlaid on sides (preserved from the original binding).  Greek type, Estienne’s device on title. A clean, wide-margined copy; the first few leaves skillfully reinforced at inner margins.

$3,500

Seven Pillars of Wisdom

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.

$450

HERODIANI HISTOR[IARUM] LIB[RI] VIII

ESTIENNE'S SUPERB 1581 EDITION OF HERODIAN. The second part comprises the editio princeps of the Roman history by Zosimus, an early sixth century historian who wrote in Greek and is a key source for the period 395-410. Zosimus’ original Greek text is accompanied by Estienne’s own Latin version of Zosimus’ text. ‘For this edition of Herodian … Estienne has thoroughly revised, and made additions to, the popular Latin translation of Angelo Poliziano; he prints his corrections, additions, and textual comments in the margins.’ (Schreiber). Quarto. Elegant 18th-century smooth calf, triple gilt fillet, spine gilt, two red morocco spine lables lettered in gilt, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers. Printer’s device on title. Clean throughout, a superb copy.

$3,900

Monumenti Antichi Inediti Spiegati ed Illustrata

FIRST EDITION, illustrated with 208 beautiful copper-plate engravings and numerous in-text illustrations and vignettes.Winckelmann is best known for his monumental Geschichte der Kunst des Altertums (History of the Art of Antiquity, 1764), which enjoyed tremendous popular success and permanently reshaped aesthetic criticism. The Monuments, his last published work, stands by itself as "a masterpiece of interpretation and explanation" and "a pioneering work in the field of archaeological methodology" (Catholic Encyclopedia; Lappmann).  Significantly, it is also the only one of Winckelmann's works published in his lifetime to be extensively illustrated.  Folio, contemporary vellum with original red leather label, decorated endpapers. Two volumes in one. Text in Italian. Bookplates. Light wear to binding, very small library number on dedication leaf, small tear to endpaper. Occasional light foxing. Plates very clean. A superb, wide-margined copy in contemporary vellum of the beautifully-illustrated first edition.

$7,000

The Original Water-Color Paintings by John James Audubon for The Birds of America

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.

Tableaux, statues, bas-reliefs et carnees de la Galerie de Florence et du Palais Pitti

FIRST EDITION. With 200 engraved plates reproducing the superb statuary, painting, bas-reliefs, cameos and gems of Florence. Four volumes. Royal folio. Contemporary morocco over cloth boards.

$15,000

History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

FIRST EDITION of Vols II-VI, THIRD EDITION of vol I. This is the first issue of Volume I to set Gibbon's footnotes at page-bottom instead of an the end of the volume, a major iomprovement in readability. "To [his] task Gibbon brought a width of vision and a critical mastery of the available sources which have not been equalled to this day; and the result was clothed in an inimitable prose" (PMM). Six volumes. Quarto. Rebound in period style quarter calf over marbled boards, the spines gilt with red morocco title and volume labels. An attractive and desirable set. Clean throughout.

$7,500

Romanarum historiarum [Greek]

EDITIO PRINCEPS of Appian's histories of the various Roman wars from the earliest times to the campaigns of Trajan. Folio. 18th-century calf recently rebacked. Title leaf laid down and repaired; lower blank corners of last four leaves repaired (not affecting text). Greek type; Estienne's basilisk device as Royal Greek Printer on title; foliated and grotesque Greek initials with matching headpieces. An attractive copy.

$4,500

Complete Body of Architecture Adorned with Plans and Elevations, from Original Designs

FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, with plate numbers within the plate lines and the plate at 70-71 uncorrected and reading“Warwick Shire”.“We hope to lay down in one body the whole science of architecture, from its first rudiments to its utmost perfection; and that in a manner which shall render every part of it intelligible to every reader; to acquaint the gentleman with what, on every possible occasion, he should design in his edifice; and to instruct the practical builder in not only what he ought to do, but how he should execute it, to his own credit, and to the advantage of the owner.” –Isaac Ware, Complete Body of Architecture“The modern concept of architecture as a profession was formed after about 1750 ... [the] two major books of English professional architectur- al instruction of the eighteenth century [were] Ware’ Complete Body of Architecture and Sir William Chambers’s Treatise on Civil Architecture” (Studies in Eighteenth-Century British Art and Aesthetics).Folio, full contemporary calf, elaborately gilt spine in seven pan- els. Engraved frontispiece, title in red and black with engraved vignette, engraved head-piece and 114 plates (many of them fold- ing). Boards lightly rubbed, skillful repairs at hinges and spine ends, clean throughout. An excellent copy.

$8,000

Letters of T.E. Lawrence of Arabia

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. 

Osservazioni sopra alcuni frammenti di vasi antichi di vetro ornati di figure trovati ne' cimiteri di Roma

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.

$950

An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China

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. 

$2,500