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Third edition. with new illustrations. Originally divided into six delineations (1805), two were added in the second edition (1806). Jackson attributes the present work to one William Mackenzie, though it was advertised in the Monthly Magazine as being by a J. Mackenzie in 1817. Reviews were generally lukewarm, the Critical Review dismissing it as a bit of female fluff: ‘Its title its passport, this poem will probably form part of the furniture of many a lady’s dressing-room. With that let the author be content.’ As if to further this point, the only positive review we were able to locate came from The Lady’s Monthly Museum, which stated that the little volume ‘exhibits great elegance of taste, and warmth of feeling … and has many pathetic and beautiful passages.’ Jackson, p. 345. COPAC lists 4 copies (Bodley, BL, Cambridge, NLS), to which WorldCat adds 3 (McMaster, NYPL, Toronto).

First edition of the ‘Ettrick Shepherd’s’ first major success, the work which placed him on a par with Scott and Byron as fashionable poets of the 1810s. In dialect throughout, the poem imagines a return to Scotland of Mary Queen of Scots, and a poetical contest (the ‘Wake’) held in her honour at Holyrood. Jackson, p. 371.

First edition, dedicated to Horace Walpole. The second work, on the Blue Stockings, ‘was never intended to appear in print... [but] was only written with a wish to amuse the amiable Lady to whom it is addressed [i.e. Elizabeth Vesey], and a few partial friends. But copies having been multiplied, far beyond the intention of the Author, she has been advised to publish it...’ (Advertisement). Jackson, p. 123; Jackson, Women, p. 234.

First edition. Hill’s numerous books were among the most popular cookery books of the nineteenth-century, though now less well known than Mrs Beeton. The Breakfast Book is a wonderfully comprehensive to the middle class English Victorian breakfast, eaten across the British Empire, often consisting of several courses and a stomach-groaning spread of meats, fish and pastries, enlivened with fruit. Includes bills of fare fir set breakfasts for eight to twelve people. ‘Brain cakes’, beefsteaks, caviar, prawns and oysters all feature.

She published at least 21 books, almost all anonymous, from The Gourmet's Guide to Rabbit Cooking (1859) to How to Cook Vegetables in One Hundred Different Ways (1868) and numerous articles. ‘Hill's titles reveal her particular approach, which was that of the specialist and expert, at a time when the fashion was more for the compendium style of recipe collection, most famously characterized by Beeton's Book of Household Management (1861). She drew extensively upon examples of different approaches to food and cooking elsewhere in Europe’ (Rich in Oxford DNB).

First edition, number 6 of 8 copies with the extra suite, signed by artist and author, a total edition of 48. Avati (1921-2009) was a modern master of mezzotint printmaking and illustrated several books. The dark, velvety texture of his prints is shown to particular effect in these delightful miniatures for Dassonville’s Christmas story. He was awarded the Prix de la Critique for drawing and printmaking in 1957, a Gold Medal at the First International Exhibition of Graphic Art in Florence, and the Grand Prix of Arts of the City of Paris in 1981. He was a member of the Society of French painters and engravers.

A complete set of the published figures for a toy theatre production of a popular melodrama (first produced at Drury Lane in 1814). Despite its horror, The Woodman’s Hut was particularly popular for paper toy theatres — though the final forest conflagration may have proved dangerously tempting for some young impressarios. Speaight lists no less than ten juvenile play editions, from nine different publishers.

‘[Publisher] Martin Skelt is said to have been a shoemaker in the Minories [close to the Tower of London], and he may have displayed Juvenile Drama sheets in his window, as an agent of the various publishers; some time early in the 1830s he began to buy up the stocks and copper plates of publishers who were closing down, substituting his own name, and reissuing them … Then he seems to have started publishing on his own account, and did a few plays of his own, at a penny a sheet, but he very soon turned to a cheaper type of halfpenny sheet [as here] and published a terrific run of about fifty plays in that style’ (George Speaight, The History of the English Toy Theatre, p. 46).

The Skelts also issued a book of the play, adapted for use with their plates (V&A only in COPAC).

One of 99 copies (this being one of 89 on vélin de Rives) signed by the artist. A superb illustrated Raven by an artist.

First edition, presentation copy, one of 500 copies of this striking modernist Stations of the Cross (and Seven Joys of the Virgin). Speybrouck (1891-1956) was steeped in the religious and artistic culture of the Low Counties and from 1923 to 1940 worked closely with the Benedictine Order at the Abbaye-de-St.-Andre near Bruges

First edition, one of 4 special copies with artist’s ‘interventions’ in the form of collage enhancements: false moustaches, a vintage cabinet card and other collage cuttings. This copy inscribed to fabled book scout and guitarist, Martin Stone. Total edition 500. Lou Dubois is a contemporary surrealist.

First edition, one of 100 copies on hollande, an illustrated travelogue of the author/ illustrator’s overland journey (1926-30) from Paris to Bombay, via Turkye, Syria, Iraq and Persia, in a purpose-built Renault truck. With four original signed etchings at rear.

A splendid piece of twentieth-century Medievalism, with miniaturist Lucy Boucher’s brilliant hand-finished colour plates inspired by tapestries and stained glass. Le Jeu de Robin et Marion is usually considered the earliest French secular play with music, written in around 1282 or 1283 — a dramatisation of a traditional genre of medieval French song, the pastourelle. The pastourelle typically tells of an encounter between a knight and a shepherdess, but Adam de la Halle’s version of the story places a greater emphasis on the activities of Marion, her lover Robin and their friends after she resists the knight’s advances.

One of 380 copies, this one of 246 ‘regular’ copies after copies with original drawings etc. Worldcat lists a single copy (University of Antwerp).

Presentation copy, signed by Crawford and inscribed from the translator, Marcel Schwob to the manager of the Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt, Maurice Bernhardt (Sarah’s son). The play was first performed there in 1902, with Sarah Bernhardt in the title role. Though published in English in 10 copies only to secure copyright, the English edition was not published for circulation until 1980.

Best known for his supernatural and fantastic fiction, Italian-born American Crawford had studied successively at St Paul’s School, Concord, New Hampshire, Cambridge University the Universities of Heidelberg and Rome. Francesca da Rimini was his only play, commissioned by his friend Sarah Bernhardt. Then 58, she played the 32-year old Francesca to only modest acclaim through 25 performances. The critics were unkind — one writing later: ‘it seems Sarah Bernhardt is incontrovertibly dead. Last year in ‘L'Aiglon’ and this year in ‘Francesca da Rimini,’ she offered convincing proof of her decease’. After its Paris premier, it transferred to the Garrick Theatre in London, for just 8 performances.

This is a large paper copy one of 20 on japon.

First edition with the Baudier illustrations, number 2 of 15 copies only with the wood engravings on chine, numbered and signed by the artist.

Fayard’s Livres de demain brought examples of the current revival in woodcut and wood engraving to a wide audience at a reasonable price. Accordingly, the illustrations of the regular volumes were printed in large numbers from phototype metal blocks made from the prints, with just 15 copies of each (as here) presented with an additional suite of the original woodcuts specially printed on fine paper.

First edition with the Pottier illustrations, number 2 of 15 copies only with the woodcuts on chine, numbered and initialled by the artist.

Fayard’s Livres de demain brought examples of the current revival in woodcut and wood engraving to a wide audience at a reasonable price. Accordingly, the illustrations of the regular volumes were printed in large numbers from phototype metal blocks made from the prints, with just 15 copies of each (as here) presented with an additional suite of the original woodcuts specially printed on fine paper.

First edition with Jeanniot’s illustrations, number 2 of 15 copies with the suite of original woodcuts on chine.

Fayard’s Livres de demain brought examples of the current revival in woodcut and wood engraving to a wide audience at a reasonable price. Accordingly, the illustrations of the regular volumes were printed in large numbers from phototype metal blocks made from the prints, with just 15 copies of each (as here) presented with an additional suite of the original woodcuts specially printed on fine paper.

First edition, one of 15 copies with 9 original woodcuts on chine signed by the engraver. A collection of brilliant memoirs by the celebrated illustrator of Jazz Age Paris. They include ‘Ronde de Nuit’, ‘Les Possèdes’ and ‘L’Age de la Danse’, essays on the world of the clandestine dance clubs of the post Great War era, with illustrated descriptions of tango and the African-American dance craze. The collection is dedicated to Colette and also includes an essay on the early years of aviation and of the coronation of George V.

Fayard’s Livres de demain brought examples of the current revival in woodcut and wood engraving to a wide audience at a reasonable price. Accordingly, the illustrations of the regular volumes were printed in large numbers from phototype metal blocks made from the prints, with just 15 copies of each (as here) presented with an additional suite of the original woodcuts specially printed on fine paper.

First edition with the Renefer’s illustrations, number 2 of 15 special copies with the suite of 38 original woodcuts numbered and signed or initialled by the artist. Renefer had made his name as a war artist during the Great War.

Fayard’s Livres de demain brought examples of the current revival in woodcut and wood engraving to a wide audience at a reasonable price. Accordingly, the illustrations of the regular volumes were printed in large numbers from phototype metal blocks made from the prints, with just 15 copies of each (as here) presented with an additional suite of the original woodcuts specially printed on fine paper.

First edition, number 2 of 15 copies with the original wood engravings on chine. Hermann-Paul, with his sparse and economical style, was one of the most successful and effective of the French wood engravers of the twenties. He was already very well established by the time of the Great War, and turned to working on wood by necessity as metal for print making became scarce.

Fayard’s enterprise was one of democratisation — aiming to bring high-quality illustration, examples of the current revival in woodcut and wood engraving, to a wide audience at a reasonable price. Accordingly, the illustrations of the regular volumes were printed in large numbers from phototype metal blocks made from the woodblocks, with just 15 copies of each (as here) presented with an additional suite specially printed on fine paper from the original blocks.

First edition with the Baudier wood engravings, number 2 of 15 special copies with the suite of original woodcuts on chine. Fayard’s Livres de demain brought examples of the current revival in woodcut and wood engraving to a wide audience at a reasonable price. Accordingly, the illustrations of the regular volumes were printed in large numbers from phototype metal blocks made from the prints, with just 15 copies of each (as here) presented with an additional suite of the original woodcuts specially printed on fine paper.

First edition of these three novellas, number 2 of 15 copies with the suite of original woodcuts, initialled by Dollian.

Fayard’s Livres de demain brought examples of the current revival in woodcut and wood engraving to a wide audience at a reasonable price. Accordingly, the illustrations of the regular volumes were printed in large numbers from phototype metal blocks made from the prints, with just 15 copies of each (as here) presented with an additional suite of the original woodcuts specially printed on fine paper.