Sir Joshua Reynolds

London: Heinmann, 1900

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.

$250

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Abregé Chronologique ou Extraict de l'Histoire de France

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.

$450

The Paramount Book of Blues

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.

$500

Le antiche lucerne sepolcrali figurate

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.

$2,500

Rhetorica divina Guillermi Parisie[nsis]

THIRD EDITION of William of Auvergne's meditation on the subject of prayer. This work was first published in 1491 and again in 1492.Octavo. 152 printed leaves. Beautifully rebound in (early) printed leaf over boards with vellum manuscript leaves on paste-downs. Printers device on title and verso of final leaf; rubricated in red and blue. Small hole to margin of first few leaves; occasional light dampstaining to margins; a superb and quite desirable copy.

$3,750

Fotographie

FIRST EDITION. Small quarto. Original cloth, original dust jacket. A fine copy.

$750

Television (Seeing by Wire or Wireless)

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.

$1,700

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De Sesteritiis sev Subsecivorum Pecunia veteris Graecae & Romanae

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.

$500

Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums

FIRST EDITION. "With the publication of his masterpiece, the 'History of the Art of the Ancients', his fame had become widespread. This was indeed the first work in the German language to achieve universal acclaim. Winckelmann had drawn attention for the first time to the importance of Greek ideals for the modern world, and, with his unique acquaintance with the surviving examples of classical art, amplified by wide and specialized reading, his authority was unquestioned" (PMM). “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. Butler Quarto. Beautifully bound in recent full sprinkled calf, elaborate gilt tooling to boards, elaborately gilt spine in 6 compartments. Title skillfully mounted, occasional toning and scattered foxing throughout. [With:] Anmerkungen ber die Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums. Dresden: Waltherische Hof-Buchhandlung, 1764 and 1767. 2 works in 4 volumes bound in one. (The text of Anmerkungen ber die Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums is quite toned, much more so than the primary volume.)

$4,500

Osservazioni Istoriche Sopra Alcuni Medaglioni Antichi

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.

$1,200

Atget Photgraphe de Paris

“For many among us Atget’s Paris is now no more than a memory whose delicacy is already mysterious. It is worth all the books written on the subject, and without doubt will inspire others.” –Pierre Mac Orlan“Whether or not, as some commentators have asserted, Atget is being distorted here, and a journeyman documentary photographer has been miscast as a modernist, one thing is quite clear: the selection was made with the best of intentions, out of respect for the old man’s work, and it show precisely how it spoke to a younger generation of photographers. By that criterion it is an excellent selection, containing many wonderful pictures and giving exquisite visual pleasure – the most striking images from more than thirty years spent documenting the streets, buildings, parks and gardens of Old Paris” (The Photobook, I. 127). Roth, 60.Original red moire cloth, cover and spine lettered in gilt with rare cardboard slipcase and custom leather bound slipcase. A fine copy.

$4,750

Sleeping by the Mississippi

Pre-publication edition, SIGNED by Soth. Number 26 or 30 numbered copies. With original Inkjet prints bound into cloth covers. Gilt stamped brown cloth with an original photograph mounted on front cover. Fine copy.

$12,000

ARMSTRONG, WALTER