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First edition. A rare local Somerset flora which exemplifies the essential botanical recording work done by women of the period, who, like Mrs Lainson, preferred to remain largely anonymous. Though wide-ranging, descriptive and precise, especially regarding habitat, she wrote in her preface: ‘It makes no pretension to be scientific; nor is it framed after any formal rule:—the idea has been to provide a little manual of what may be observed during a walk of not exceeding two or three hours. The compiler does not presume to call herself a Botanist...’ The common names of the plants, shrubs, trees and sedges given in the text are supplemented by a Latin glossary at the end. Cleveden is a seaside parish on the Severn Estuary, and the plants recorded include some interesting marsh and coastal species. Among rarer flowers is found the orchid known as Ladies Tresses (Spiranthes spiralis), referred to by Mrs Lainson as ‘Common Ladies Tresses’ but now scarce.
Mrs Lainson previously published some local plant lists in the Clevedon Mercury (April 29 and Dec. 21, 1876) under the pseudonym of ‘Lily Grey’ and her botanical collections were given to the University of Bristol and her mosses are in the museum at Weston-super-Mare. Green, Bibliotheca Somersetiensis, vol. 3, p. 1.

A dramatic lifetime portrait of Charles Simeon, figurehead of the Evangelical movement in the Church of England, preaching on 1 Corinthians 10:15, ‘I speak as to wise men; judge ye [what I say]’. Simeon had written extensive homiletical commentaries on 1 and 2 Corinthians as part of his massive 21-volume work, Horae Homileticae. He was born in 1759 in Reading and was educated at Eton and King’s College, Cambridge. Shortly after he was ordained deacon in 1782, he was assigned as the perpetual curate to the Church of the Holy Trinity in Cambridge. He remained the pastor of this parish for 54 years until his death at age 77 in 1836. Initially controversial, with many at the university opposing his evangelical style and convictions, he became one of the most celebrated preachers of his age, and his influence stretched far beyond Cambridge. He was among the founders of the Church Missionary Society in 1797 and actively supported the British and Foreign Bible Society, the Religious Tract Society, the Colonial and Continental Church Society, and the Church Mission to the Jews. His sermons and weekly discussion groups were eagerly attended, so that he was often obliged to charge admission, as witnessed by the two manuscript admission tickets pasted to the back of the original frame of this watercolour.

A ladder-shaped folding toy — a rare graphic satire on the separation of George IV and Queen Caroline published after the opening of the ‘trial’ of Queen Caroline on 17 August 1820. It was printed to be sold with a popular pamphlet of the same name, which ran to numerous editions that year, but the two are rarely found preserved together, and the toy/print is very rare (lacking in most library copies). This copy has never been folded into a ladder and is loose, as sold, in its original plain paper wrapper. The form of the print is based on another contemporary paper toy (The Matrimonial Ladder) on the ups and downs of marriage, which was also being offered by sellers of books, prints and novelties in 1820.
‘George IV’s determination, following his succession to the throne in 1820, to finally obtain a divorce from his estranged wife, Caroline of Brunswick, sparked an opposition campaign, both in Parliament and in the country, which threatened the survival of Lord Liverpool’s Tory administration. It also led to extensive proceedings in the House of Lords, which took on the appearance of a state trial. On 5 June 1820 Caroline, who had been living abroad for the past six years, arrived unexpectedly in England to claim her right to be crowned queen. The government, under intense pressure from the king, reluctantly agreed to introduce a bill of pains and penalties into the House of Lords, which would have annulled the royal marriage and deprived Caroline of her title. She thereupon became the unlikely beneficiary of a wave of indignant public sympathy, being perceived as a ‘wronged woman’ who was bravely struggling to uphold her rights against a callous political establishment’ (’The Queen Caroline Affair, 1820’ in The History of Parliament, online). BM Satires 13808

Five drawings from the early stages of the Second World War, presumably for commercial publication in France, of which four are on the theme of the song ‘We’re Going to Hang out the Washing on the Siegfried Line’ by Irish songwriter Jimmy Kennedy, written whilst he was a Captain in the British Expeditionary Force during the early stages of the Second World War. The defensive Siegfried Line was constructed by Germany in the 1930s, opposite the French Maginot Line but was widely ridiculed by the Allies in the opening year of the war who threatened to treat the defence as no more than a clothes line. The popular sentiment expressed in the song is extended in these French cartoon drawings in which the Amercian, British Union Jack and French Tricolor are pegged out on the line. One of the sketches shows a young soldier in uniform hugged by his wife and children in a typical enlistment scene.

First editions of two influential early Hebrew grammars. William Robertson was one of the earliest writers to attempt to teach Hebrew through English to a broad readership, the title, remarkably for the period, stressing that Hebrew can be learned by ‘any ordinary capacity of either sexe’ or ‘any knowing Christian, Man or Woman. The first part, The First Gate, or the Outward Door to the Holy Tongue, Opened in English is a reissue with cancel title of A Gate or Door to the Holy Tongue (1653) intended as the first part of a projected course of Hebrew instruction and was issued here with its continuation, the first edition of The Second Gate, or the Inner Door to the Holy Tongue (1655). The first part combines a Hebrew grammar with explanations of the Hebrew text of Obadiah and of the the Decalogue (the Ten Commandments), while the much larger second part consists of a Hebrew lexicon or dictionary.
The book was published during the English Commonwealth, when interest in Hebrew studies was unusually intense among Protestant intellectuals. Many believed that recovering the original languages of Scripture was essential to religious reform, allowing ordinary people direct access to Hebrew scripture without clerical interpretation Some circles also connected Hebrew studies with hopes for the conversion of the Jews and millenarian expectations.
Robertson was born in Edinburgh and graduated MA there by 1651 before moving to London and establishing himself as a teacher of Hebrew. ‘Robertson found patrons in the puritan establishment: the member of parliament John Sadler... the lord chief baron of the exchequer, William Steele... and, most notably, his distinguished pupil and benefactor Lady Ranelagh, née Katharine Boyle, the beloved elder sister of Robert Boyle (Oxford DNB).
The first Gate has the original title page of the 1653 edition cancelled by a bifolium, as called for, with the second leaf of the bifolium bearing an endorsement of the work signed on verso by James Cranford and 21 others (all London pastors) together with the called-for additional bifolium (here bound before A2) bearing a dedication to the author's ‘respected friend’ (another reissue, Wing R1611, lacks this bifolium). cf. Wing R 1611 (alternative issue without additional bifolium) and R 1618.

Abridged from Bryan Edwards’s work of the same title (1793) and his Historical Survey of the French Colony in the Island of St Domingo (1797). Together, these works became the standard British histories of the region, with valuable accounts of the operation of the slave trade. In 1791, Edwards had been part of the British relief expedition to the French colony of Saint Domingue. Son of a Jamaica slave-owner, Edwards had been leading member of the colonial assembly of Jamaica, but in a few years returned to England trading as a West India merchant. He supported the Atlantic slave trade, but was open to the improvement of the conditions for enslaved people in the region. He was described by abolitionist William Wilberforce as a powerful opponent.

Apparently otherwise unrecorded, a souvenir print of the first parachute descent in England, made by the French aeronaut André-Jacques Garnerin, jumping from a hydrogen balloon. The ascent and descent attracted huge crowds, and was recorded in numerous contemporary prints, some satirical, some informational.
Garnerin had already gained global fame for executing the world’s first successful parachute descent in Paris in 1797. During the Peace of Amiens in 1802, he traveled to London with his wife, Jeanne-Geneviève (herself a pioneering female parachutist), to tour his aerial exhibitions. His first jump was over London, as recorded here, followed by others, including one at Sydney Gardens in Bath, an event probably witnessed by Jane Austen, then living at number 4 Sydney Place.
The full caption reads: ‘The Balloon & Parachute with which Monsr. Garnerin ascended from St, Georges Parade on Sept. 21st 1802. He descended by the latter in safety near St. Pancras Middx. The first experiment of this kind ever performed in England’.

A scarce regency juvenile title, aimed at young girls, with early female ownership inscriptions. The tale contrasts two distinct moral paths. Mary is clever but vain, whereas Sophia is diligent and kind. Following their father's death, Sophia's virtue is ultimately rewarded with a substantial inheritance. Opie A 1108. Worldcat: UCLA, Indiana and Toronto. Another issue of the same year gives and additional Sidmouth bookseller in the imprint.

A rare imprint from Lumsden’s Toy Book Manufactory in Glasgow. Includes seven tales, each with an illustration: The story of Prince Lupin; Zalmandor and Amandina; Miranda and the Royal Ram; Story of Fortunio; Zamea and Almanzon; Zalmayda and Alinzor and The Princess Frutilla. Abridged from the original version originally published by F. Newbery circa. 1773; tales 1, 3, 4 and 7 are based on tales by Madame d’Aulnoy; while tales 2, 5 and 6 are based on Madame d’ Auneuil’s Les Chevaliers errans. Roscoe & Brimmell, Lumsden, 103; Worldcat: Morgan, UCLA (defective with 5 plates only) and McGill only, not found in JISC.

A Regency counter or ‘staking’ board with original printed green label ‘Dunkartons Repository – For Fancy Articles. – 452 Strand, Wholesale and Retail’. Pope Joan was a card game popular in both the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the name a corruption of the French Nain jaune, the original form of the game. This example would originally have been mounted on a wooden spindle and stand (not now present) to allow it to revolve freely.
This example was offered by Dunkarton’s Repository, a fashionable shop operated by Mary Dunkarton and her husband, the notable mezzotint engraver Robert Dunkarton, at 452 Strand. Mary Dunkarton was recorded at this address as a milliner and haberdasher between 1781 and 1809, and the address in appears in the imprint of Dunakerton’s prints around the year 1810.
Though widely played before 1800 its first published rules appeared in Hoyle’s Games (edition of 1814), with the ‘staking board’ having eight compartments labelled: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Game, Pope, Matrimony and Intrigue. Each player receives a number of counters, or chips, whose value is determined by the players involved in the game. The 8 of diamonds is then removed from the pack to form a ‘stop sequence’. The aim of the game is to run out of cards before anyone else. The game features in Humphreys’ famous satirical print of 1796, ‘Lady Godina’s Rout’ depicting the Lady Georgiana Gordon, Duchess of Bedford at play in a state of dishabillée, while Dickens later portrays it as an innocuous family parlour game in the Pickwick Papers.

Second (expanded) edition (first 1815) of this charming juvenile title: an imitation of The Butterfly's Ball in which an array of personified garden and wild plants gather in celebration. The attractive plates were formerly sometimes attributed to William Blake, and while one can see why, there is probably no connection (Bentley, Blake Collection, Sale Catalogues, 196). The preface indicates that the section of botanical explanations (quite copious) has been revised and enlarged for this second edition.

With an autograph poem, ‘Lost Days’ added by Spender. Third impression (First edition 1955), with Spender’s note to half-title: ‘With an additional poem / inscribed by Stephen Spender / June 1970’ and the complete poem ‘Lost Days’ in his hand to the verso of the final leaf. The poem, a delightful evocation of a child’s wonder in the natural world appeared in the collection Generous Days (Godine, 1969) and was dedicated to publisher and poet, John Lehmann.

An attractive group of mostly floral watercolours by two Kentish women or girls of the Best family of Boxley, near Maidstone, Kent. The floral arrangements include roses, poppy, anemone, love-in-the-mist, convolvulus and sweet-pea.

A rare miniature gospel book. Not found in the usual bibliographies or databases.

Presumed first or sole edition of this bilingual English-Japanese picture book showing the costumes of men and women of the various ranks of orders of Japanese society. It includes aristocratic and military subjects, as well as servants, scholars, labourers and craftspeople. The English preface states ‘These books are not only designed to please children, but to show the manners and customs of the ancient and modern people of Nippon. The fine illustrations afford an important aid in this respect. It is through the eye that understanding itself is most quickly reached’.
It was printed by the Poole Women’s College in Osaka. Arthur William Poole, after whom the Osaka Women’s School was renamed in 1890, was the first Anglican Bishop of Japan. The school had been founded as the Church Missionary Society school and its head teacher from 1890 to 1928 was the Durham-born missionary educator, Katherine Tristram, one of the early female graduates of the University of London. When she was appointed ‘there were at the school two other British women apart from Tristram, as well as eight Japanese teachers, including four women, and there were forty-nine pupils, of whom twenty-three were Christians’ (Oxford DNB).

Despite his former military success in service in the American and French Revolutionary wars Custine was found guilty of treason by a majority vote of the Revolutionary Tribunal on 27 August, and guillotined the following day. ‘Custine (an ex-noble) was guillotined on 28 Aug. (in spite of his previous victories), accused of having treacherously caused the fall of Frankfort, Condé, Valenciennes, and Mayence. According to the English newspapers, he “kissed the crucifix, embraced his confessor... and at last was brought to the guillotine by force”’ (BM Satires).
‘Custine stands on the scaffold beside the guillotine (left). Four ragged ruffians are about to bind him to the plank on which he is to lie; one says, “By Gar so we will serve all de Generals who do not conquer de whole World, and give them de Libertè [sic]”. Custine says, “Pardon me Heaven for having been leagued with such a set of Blood hounds”. A stout soldier pushes a weeping priest, who says “Let us Pray”, down the steps (right) which lead up to the scaffold, saying, “Go to de diable & Your Prayers both”. Below (right) stand republican soldiers with fixed bayonets much caricatured. On the extreme left a man kneels at the guillotine holding his hat in place of the usual basket; he says, “Begar I will have a Drink of de blood.” BM Satires, 8340; De Vinck 6176; Krumbhaar 785.

Two near-miniature volumes of psalms in shorthand by Joseph Forfitt, a London apothecary and a religious dissenter who was to become the first secretary of the Society for Promoting Religious Knowledge among the Poor. An industrious copyist, he apparently produced a number of evangelical manuscripts, often digesting or transcribing theological or liturgical texts, which were referred to on his death as ‘The Curious Manuscripts of Joseph Forfitt’ and ‘a library in themselves’ (The London Chronicle, March 10-12, 1763, advert for sale). These two tiny volumes are early examples and present the psalms in the abbreviated versions by Bishop Patrick Simon and Isaac Watts. Transcribing the psalms manually into shorthand in this period (and other similar manuscripts are known) served a dual purpose of mastering shorthand with known and easily verifiable texts and as an act of devotion, internalising the text through transcription in an alternative language. The miniature format of shorthand psalms has a precedent in Jeremiah Rich’s Whole Book of Psalms in Meter According to the Art of Short-Writing printed in 1660, but Forfitt’s manuscript uses a more up-to-date shorthand system, currently unidentified among the many systems in the years around 1700 (when shorthand experienced something of an explosion in use and interest).
It was potentially also conceived by Forfitt as having an evangelical end, reducing texts in volume for transmission in portable form, though his evangelism was primarily conducted through the distribution of printed bibles among the poor. The Society for Promoting Religious Knowledge among the Poor was founded by a group of London based dissenters, led by Benjamin Forfitt, with Joseph as treasurer and later secretary. Early members included the Countess of Huntington, John Newton, the Thorntons of Clapham, Henry Venn, George Whitefield and William Wilberforce. It sent bibles to poor communities in both Britain and America, the latter including enslaved and indigenous people. A letter published in 1761, Extract of a letter from the Reverend Mr Wright, in Cumberland County, Virginia. To Mr Joseph Forfitt, July 1761, returned thanks for Forfitt’s ‘endeavours to promote the glory of God in Virginia by spreading good books amongst the most ignorant and poor’.
Surviving examples of Forfitt’s manuscripts include A Select Collection of Psalm-Tunes and Anthems set in three Parts for the Voice and Musical Instrument called the Psalterer, quarto, 1737 (Maggs, English Literature prior to 1800. Part 6, 1950, £5, now Beinecke Osborn Music MS 17); a three volume Bible and Book of Common Prayer (1729-40) also in shorthand (Sotheby’s, 5 May 1981, £75 to Maggs);
A new version of the Psalms of David; Book of Common Prayer; The Book of Psalms in Metre, 1740, Bridwell Library, Southern Methodist University).

First edition with the English text of the Preparatoirlyk plan, van een tractaat van commercie (Plan of a Treaty of Commerce) projected between Holland and the United States. Though never concluded it is important as one of the earliest treaty negotiations by the American nation after the Revolution. The plan had been secretly negotiated at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1778 between William Lee, American commissioner to Berlin and Jean de Neufville, an Amsterdam banker professing to act on behalf of the city and was to be concluded when England acknowledged America as a free nation. A detailed treaty it contains thirty four articles outlining terms of trade between the two nations, and the form of passports and certificates for ships. It is subscribed Jean de Neufville and Samuel W. Stockton, the American lawyer, diplomat and public servant who was later to serve as Secretary of State of New Jersey from 1794 to 1795. It is followed by transcriptions (also in Dutch and English) of the associated diplomatic correspondence. An edition of the Dutch text only appeared also in 1780 which Sabin (65110) refers to as the ‘Original edition’, though it is not clear on what basis.
The draft was inadvertently made public in 1780 when the vessel in which the bearer of it, Henry Laurens, South Carolina merchant, planter, and revolutionary leader who served as President of the Continental Congress from 1777 to 1778 was apprehended at sea by the English. The Plan was found among the effects he threw overboard on his capture and Laurens was imprisoned for treason. The treaty was not strictly illegal, but the British Government was able to construe it and other retrieved papers detailing Dutch financial aid to the rebellious American colonies as being equivalent to actual aggression. Although it was neither authorised nor sanctioned by the States-General nor by Congress, it served as a pretext for England’s declaration of war against the Netherlands.
It was handed to the Dutch Estates General by the British Ambassador, General Joseph Yorke, debated and published here as one of the Extracts of the resolutions of the Estates General of the Netherlands. Sabin 63286: ‘Official edition of the Preparatory Plan’ (projected 1778 at Aix-la-Chapelle), with the correspondence relating to it, as it was presented by the Chev. Yorke, as found with the papers of Mr. Laurens, to the Prince of Orange, and sent by the States General to the Provinces. The subscription of the Treaty is changed in all the reproductions — Müller’. Cf. Sabin 65110 for the original Dutch edition (two editions, also 1780).

By an otherwise unidentified female artist, this is a rare large-format album of lithographs of the famous catholic Bavarian passion play at Oberammergau. The artist’s name is given only as initials ‘M. C. S. D’ on the plates and wrapper, but this copy bears a contemporary manuscript addition to the initials, which thus reads ‘M. C. S. Dawkins done by Herself’. It is additionally inscribed ‘with love’ to Major M. G. Best.
Performed decennially since 1634, the Oberammergau plays told the story of Christ’s passion, with a large cast drawn from local villages forming immense tableaux vivants with spoken biblical texts in the vernacular. In the nineteenth century it became a major attraction for well-to-do Grand Tourists and drew significant numbers of English visitors (so much so that the pioneering travel agent Thomas Cook established an Oberammergau office in 1880). The passion play was widely reported in contemporary English-language journals, adding to its attraction among English visitors (mainly protestant) who were curious about this ancient catholic theatrical tradition. We have been unable to discover anything substantial about the artist, but its fair to assume she made the journey to Oberammergau herself. WorldCat lists the V&A copy only in the UK. In the US there are copies at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake (IL) and WRHS (OH).

A Caen counterfeit of a popular moral romance tale that had also appeared with an apparently genuine Paris imprint in the same year: it is a French translation of an English chapbook issued by Elizabeth Newbery, The Adventures of Master Headstrong, and Miss Patient, in their Journey towards the Land of Happiness (?1785, Roscoe J6 (4). The subtitle reads: ‘Un récit des différentes traverses qu’éprouva M. Tétu, en abandonnant Miss Patience pour écouter Miss Passion, et ne voulan pas permettre à Madame la Raison, qu’ils rencontrèrent sur leaur route, de les diriger dans leur voyage’. The much-degraded woodcut (evidently reused from stock) bears a rather garbled version of the English caption in the original: ‘The rage of Passion wille not staty [sic]; But Patience makes a wise delay’.
Thomas Frognall Dibdin was an early fan of French chapbook literature, namely the ephemeral books of the so-called Bibliothèque bleue (on account of their habitual drab blue wrappers) and he made a special study of their publishers during his bibliographical tour of Normandy. Long before chapbooks were discovered by the social historians of the twentieth century, Dibdin understood that they were the key the history and culture of the working and middling classes, shedding light on the tastes and education of boys and girls, men and women alike. Hélot, La Bibliothèque bleue en Normandie (1928) 18. Not in Rochedieu.