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First edition in English of the Jesuit Crasset’s Histoire de l’Église du Japon (1689).

First edition. Edward Jacob, antiquary and naturalist was born at Canterbury and was four times mayor of Faversham. He lived in a fine house in Preston Street and later at Nutts Farm, Leysdown, on the Isle of Sheppey. He had published his History of Faversham in 1774. Plantae Favershamienses was the fruit of many years botanizing and is an alphabetical catalogue of locally-occurring plants, with occasional notes on habitat (‘in the Brent marshes’, ‘about the Abbey pond’, ‘by the Road Sides near Sittingbourn’ etc) and with cross-references to the national floras of John Ray (1724) and William Hudson (1762). Jacob includes several notable Kentish plants outside the immediate vicinity of Faversham from information supplied by friends. The plate illustrates the Green Winged Orchid, then common in meadows around Faversham.

First edition of this translation of La Vida de Santa Teresa de Jesus by English Catholic convert, courtier and exile, Tobie Matthew. It is dedicated to the Queen of England, Henrietta Maria, who in 1642 was in the Hague attempting to raise money against the royal jewels for Charles’s cause in the recently erupted Civil War. A previous translation by Michael Walpole (1570-1625) appeared as The lyf of the mother Teresa of Iesus. (Antwerp, 1611). Wing T753; Clancy, English Catholic Books 1641-1700, 941.

First edition (presumed first issue, being bound concertina style). A very rare and influential kimono design book by the Rinpa master, Kamisake Sekka. Koromogae (literally ‘change of clothes’) consists of 100 striking modernist fabric designs for kimonos, on double leaves. Sekka was an influential advocate for the wearing and design of the kimono among early twentieth-century Japanese women, encouraging the modernisation of its decoration and a closer liaison between producer and consumer.

Sekka is important for having fused traditional Japanese design with European modernism, the latter experience first hand in his visit to the Glasgow International Exhibition of 1901. At the age of 36, Sekka travelled to Europe on behalf of the Kyoto local government to attend the Glasgow Exhibition. He stayed in Europe about six months researching European craft and design before returning to Kyoto where he served as an instructor at the School of Art and Design. ‘Kamisaka Sekka (1866-1942) was one of Japan’s leading artists, designers and art instructors. His bold, visually dynamic designs and innovative approach to production made him one of the great visionaries of modern Japanese art and design’ (Kamisaka Sekka: Dawn of modern Japanese Design, 2012). Libraryhub (formerly COPAC) lists the BL copy only (and a copy of vol. 1 only at Manchester). Worldcat adds National Diet Libryyr (Tokyo) and University of Cincinnati only.

A rare caricature of domestic strife, Calcutta-printed by Scottish printmaker James Moffat (1775-1815), better known for his Indian topographical views popular among British colonial residents in India. A woman, dressed in a short shift, angrily pulls a bottle from the hand of a drunken man, who sits with his right fist raised and a cigar hanging from his mouth as smoke billows around his head. He holds onto a bottle with his left hand, a glass and pile of cigars at his elbow. The woman points with her left hand to a clock on the wall which shows the time as five past five. In the background on the left, a dark-faced, cloaked figure stands before the curtained doorway on the left.

‘Moffat was a Scotsman who arrived in India aged only 14, living in Calcutta from 1789 to 1815. He appears to have learnt his profession of drawing and engraving in India. According to Wynyard Wilkinson (‘The Makers of Indian Colonial Silver’, London, 1987, p. 137) he was apprenticed as an engraver to the silversmith John Ludvig Jacobi in 1789, and then worked from 1794-1804 for another silversmith John Mair and his successor firms, while engraving and publishing his own views. An advertisement in the ‘Calcutta Gazette’ in 1797 offering to produce ‘Picturesque copper-plate engravings’ led to a series of views of Calcutta and its environs.’ ?

Comprising excerpts (’secrets’) on the art of etching and engraving from Abraham Bosse’s Traité des manieres de graver en taille douce (first published in 1645), several other technical instructions, two medical recipes and a short account book of its owner, who evidently practised as an engraver, for the year 1693.

There are 9 selections from the opening of Bosse’s treatise, all concerning the preparation of the varnishes, acids and their application to the plate, plus the preparation of tools and points for etching, including an échoppe (or etching-needle) and techniques for controlling them on the plate:

La manière de faire le vernis dur pour graver a leau forte sur le Cuivre;... de faire la mistion du suif et huille pour couvrir les planches...;... pour faire la ditte eau forte;... dapliquer le vernis sur la planche;... de faire saicher le vernis sur la planche avec le feu;... de faire les pointe[s] et les eschopes pour graver au verny mol et deur;... de gouverner les pointes sur la planche; de faire le verny mol ensemble le moyen de sen servir et autre particularitez;... dapliquer le verny sur la planche;... de faire le vernix dur & mol seront blanc...

Added to this are recipes for two further varnishes, preparations of gold, silver and bronze (’larain albon’) and a method for transferring prints to glass. The medical recipes are for urine retention and inflamed eyes (’mal des hieux’).

The book has been used, briefly, as an account book, with c. 3 pages of interesting entries for 1693, noting several agreements made for engraving or other aritistic work, apparently in the vicinity of Marseilles. The writer paid 2 livres 2 sous to a Mademoiselle de Sieubert for four pictures (including one of children at play and a Saint Jerome); several figures are noted for plates either made or bought. In another entry over 200 livres are paid for a picture of Christ in the Garden by Bedeau (probably Pierre Bedeau, peintre ordinaire du roi, who died at Marseille in 1707).

The owner/maker’s name has been rubbed away from the cover, though the arms on the lower cover may be helpful in indentifying him. A note to the front pastedown, probably in a different hand gives the name of a Monsieur de Magny, rue de la Bucherie, Paris.

First edition of a spectacular panorama made from drawings by a British serviceman on the long sea voyage home to England. It depicts members of the Bengal Native Infantry on the march with horses, camels and elephants and includes a Hindu priest, native officers, water-carriers, laundry-men, sepoys, a coffee party, a ‘cart in which Native Females ride and ‘Fakeers denouncing their flying Friends’. The Bengal Native Infantry, comprising mainly indigenous troops, originated with the East India Company's Bengal Army and was central to British power in India; it was only disbanded after the Indian Mutiny (1857). William Ludlow was one of their British officers, apparently with numerous postings over a relatively long period, notably in the suppression of ‘Thuggee’ violence against British interests in Bengal.

This is also a very early British example of ‘zincography’, perhaps one of the earliest substantial projects in this media. In 1834, the Frenchman Breugnot obtained a 15 year patent for a new lithographic process in which zinc plates replace the more traditional lithographic stones. The Literary Gazette of 1834 contains a brief notice of specimen by Day and Haghe of this new process, the publishers of Ludlow’s remarkable large scale prints the following year. Abbey, Life 530. Copies are also known as folding plates in a cloth binding, or as loose plates sometimes mounted in albums, the rolled version, especially with the original box, appear very rare. Of all versions Worldcat lists copies at Brown, University of Minnesota, Zurich, National Library of Australia. The BL and the Lewis Walpole Library have a copies, in 6 original plates (each with 3 scenes, the Walpole copy uncoloured).

First edition in French of The Banished Man (1794). Smith’s republican sympathies are well-known, but this novel marked a shift in her enthusiasm for the Revolution — it opens in 1792 with the impact of the Revolutionary wars and covers the execution of King Louis XVI in January 1793 as well as the radical period of the Terror. The introduction to Marquand’s translation serves as a retrospective review of Smith’s remarkable popularity in France. Worldcat lists the copy at Illinois as the only copy outside continental Europe. The UK’s Libraryhub (formerly COPAC) adds a copy at Birmingham.

First edition of this very scarce collection of French caricatures of English ‘types’, men and women, including: an Oxford student, an auctioneer, a bus driver, a barmaid, a dressmaker, a chamber maid, a beggar and an invalid. Libraryrhub lists Bodley as the only UK location.

Three superb preliminary drawings for lithograph caricatures on the Civil War: Saturn is pleased to see it is not just he who devours his own children, as the figure of America in feathered head-dress gobbles up one of her people; American game animals congratulate themselves on the chaos of the war, which leaves them safe and sound; while the figure of Europe falls asleep watching the spectacle of war, which has been going on the same for two years.

1. Le vieux Saturne voyant avec plaisir qu’il n’ya pas que lui qui dévore ses enfants (168 × 212 mm).
2. Le Gibier américaine se felicitant de la Guerre civile qui lui laisse la paix et la tranquilité (170 × 212 mm).
3. Finissant par s’endormir à force de leur voir faire toujours la même chose depuis deux ans (182 × 230 mm).

These three images, by the pre-eminent French caricaturist of the day, were published as lithographs in the Paris journal, Charivari. Cham (1818-79), worked very much in the spirit of Daumier and contributed to the the Charivari for some thirty years; he had also created first French comic book (‘bande dessinée’), Histoire de Mr. Lajaunisse in 1839.

One of Heath’s famous satires on the theme of The March of Intellect, which expressed contemporary anxieties over progress and social change in England brought about by science, education, industrialisation and commercialisation. This one shows a London street corner at the edge of open country and the sea, with numerous figures, including a street-sweeper, horse-drawn carriage, two men playing chess, musicians and singers and street-sellers, with wealthy figures being sent down a mechanical lift beside giant shop window to left; a steam carriage is seen in background with balloons and a rocket-powered flying ship in the air beside bridge crossing the English Channel between 'Dover' and 'Calais’.

First edition in French of China Painting (also 1883) by Florence Lewis, one of the most successful and prolific artists working for the Lambeth Doulton potteries, who produced many thousands of designs for the pottery’s immense output exported throughout the British Empire and beyond. She was notably the decorator of what was (in 1893) the world’s largest vase, commissioned by the Indian Prince Gaekwar of Baroda from Doulton, exhibited at the Worlds Fair in Chicago.

Lewis ‘worked at the Minton Art Pottery Studio in London before joining Doulton’s new Art Pottery in Lambeth around 1874. Miss Lewis became supervisor of Doulton’s Faience department in 1880, training the younger woman artists, and in 1883 she wrote a book about china painting for amateur and professional students. Her work was admired by Queen Victoria, who bought a tea service decorated with primroses in 1887’ (Wiener Museum of Decorative Arts). Rare: Worldcat lists the Cambridge University copy only of the French translation.

A violent satire against William of Orange, who had become King of England in 1688. Branded ‘Jesuitical’ by its detractors, it was countered by a pamphlet by Jurieu which appeared in English as A Defence of Their Majesties King William and Queen Mary, Against an Infamous and Jesuitical Libel (1689). Several editions of Le véritable Portrait appeared in the same year, probably all surreptitiously, including one with a Brussels imprint; ours is generally considered French. All issues are rare.

Pierre Bayle wrote to Claude Nicaise in June 1689: ‘Je voudrois bien savoir (et personne ne peut mieux satisfaire à ma curiosité que vous Monsieur) qui est l’auteur de l’ecrit qu’on a envoié par la poste de vos quartiers intitulé Portrait veritable de Henry Guillaume de Nassau nouvel Absalon etc. je l’ai trouvé incomparable en son genre (mettant à part le fond de la chose) pour le tour, le stile, et le feu’. Brunet V, 1141, this edition, but mentioning others with differing paginations; Lowndes cites the 1689 ‘Bruxelles’ 12mo edition; cf Cioranescu I, 233, 8vo, pp. 96. Worldcat lists only a handful of copies of any issue. In the US, we find copies at Newberry and Michigan only (both of our issue). Libraryhub lists no UK copy.

First edition of the official visitor’s guide to the Louvre salon of 1804, sold to visitors on arrival. The 1804 salon was the first in the renamed ‘Musée Napoléon’ and was filled with Napoleonic propaganda pieces. It notably included the first exhibition (number 495 in the guide) of Vanderlyn’s new painting of the murder of Jane McCrea in 1777 by a Native American warrior in the service of the British Army, made by the artist for Joel Barlow, who recounted the episode in his Vision of Columbus. The painting is now in the Wadsworth Athanaeum, Hartford, CT.

Among other works listed are: (213) Girodet’s painting of Paul and Virginie crossing the river [used in the famous 1806 Didot edition of Paul et Virginie; (225) Gros’s portrait of Napoleon Visiting the Plague Victims of Jaffa and (298-300) Lejuene’s battle scenes of Lodi, Thabor and Aboukir.

‘Contemporary reports indicate that these volumes were eagerly perused before any glimse of the art was ventured, and that they were subsequently clutched and consulted throughout the visit’ (Jackall, ‘The Livrets of the Salon’ in Documenting the Salon, NGA, 2016, p. 26). Documenting the Salon, p. 113.

An eighteenth-century pocket Constitution (first published in 1791) preserved in its early blue silk bag. It includes the facsimile signatures of the signers of the revisions up to 7 Frimaire An IV (28 November 1795). Martin & Walter, IV, 2, 4136; Monglond, III, 318 (Worldcat locates copies of this edition at GWU, Indiana and Harvard Law).

A series of anonymous watercolours, with numerous floral borders and vignettes, but also including 20 lovely compositions with books, journals, bundles of letters, music, a writing desk, a watercolour stand, inkwells and pocket books. The style is very much in the Empire taste, and the flower painting is exquisite. The volume appears to have been bound from loose sheets, many of which may have been destined as title pages for some uncompleted album project: a few have tiny marginal notes in ink giving a volume number and several are ruled in pencil for the addition of text.

Many bear the monogram ‘AD’ and some the name Délie, together with dedications ‘À toi’ or ‘À elle’, as though all were in some way dedications to a sweetheart or perhaps a child. There is a slightly morbid air to some, towards the end, which depict tombs, memorials and a deathbed scene. Among other subjects are a billiard room, a pet dog in a basket and two most inviting beds.

A modern manuscript note loosely inserted connects the album to Jules Lardin (1787-71), poet, musician and dilettante. Lardin is known to have created designs for tickets and publicity for concerts and to have made several albums, so this attribution is quite possible. The identity of ‘Délie’ is another question.

A very rare Swiss almanac, including four superb woodcuts and news reports from all over Europe. The Postillion was issued simultaneously in French and German issues: Der Kriegs- und Friedens-Postillion, but both are very rare, recorded in only a handful of copies each of any yearly issue. The woodcut on the first leaf depicts the postillion riding through an emblematic landscape, the three others are: a spectacular sea battle between a French and English ship; the deathbed of Elisabeth II or Russia (folding, c. 185 × 320 mm); and two murders (one from a tragic account from Ireland), each with accompanying descriptions in the text. The news reports have been gleaned from a wide variety of sources. Added them are the familiar elements of an amanac: calendars, astronomical, astrological and meteorological data, with typically charming woodcut vignettes.

First edition of a popular Royalist history of France, issued against the background of the first Restoration of the French monarchy — Louis XVIII (dubbed Louis ‘Le desiré’ by his followers) had taken the throne in May 1814. Several editions followed, but the first is notably rare. The frontispiece depicts Louis receiving the Order of the Garter from British Prince Regent as he prepared to return to France from his exile in England. The text includes supplementary accounts of literature and the arts.

A classic pre-Prohibition American cocktail book. Jacob ‘Jack’ Grohusko was the head bartender at Baracca’s restaurant in New York, having been born in England to a Russian Jewish family and brought to New York as an infant. Jack’s Manual has 17 pages on the different types of wine (particularly champagne, sauternes and burgundies) and liquor, and 61 pages of recipes for cocktails.

This 1910 edition was preceded by a very rare 1908 edition (NLM and LC only in Worldcat). Jack’s was the first cocktail book to include the Brooklyn, perhaps his own creation, and several others which would be immortalised in the much later Savoy Cocktail Book (1930).

Pilinski’s remarkable facsimile of the the ‘Columbus Letter’ (the Latin version printed at Basel in 1493, the first illustrated edition). This is the first issue of the facsimile, made by Pilinksi from the imperfect copy in the Royal Library, Munich (which wants the first and last leaves bearing 4 additional woodcuts). A second issue of 10 leaves added facsimiles of the woodcuts from the copy in the Lenox Library. It is considered that there were only 20 copies of each issue.

Polish born Pilinski (1810-87) was the pre-eminent facsimilist in France, later creating the series Monuments de la Xylographie Française du XV siècle (1882-3) (McKitterick, Old Books, New Technologies, p. 108). He pioneered combined techniques of photography and lithography to create facsimiles of unrivalled quality.