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  • Candeur et Bonté ou les quatre ages d’une femme. by LEGRAND, Augustin. LEGRAND, Augustin. ~ Candeur et Bonté ou les quatre ages d’une femme. Paris: chez Louis Janet … et Pelicier, 1819.
    First and only edition of this delightful illustrated gift book, describing the four ages of women and depicting them in a series of elegant hand-coloured… (more)

    First and only edition of this delightful illustrated gift book, describing the four ages of women and depicting them in a series of elegant hand-coloured plates. The dedication printed in civilité type is to the author’s wife (and mother of his children). The final 10 pages comprise a calendar for 1820 (in common with the V&A copy). Worldcat: V&A and Landesbibliothek Mecklenburg only.

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  • Flecht-Schule. by WINCKELMANN, Leonie. WINCKELMANN, Leonie. ~ Flecht-Schule. [Germany or Austria, 1912].
    A good example of ‘Flecht-schule’ exercises for young girls, in which dexterity, accuracy, patience and creativity were encouraged through intricate pattern weaving in paper. This… (more)

    A good example of ‘Flecht-schule’ exercises for young girls, in which dexterity, accuracy, patience and creativity were encouraged through intricate pattern weaving in paper. This could be applied to the practical arts of embroidery but had been encouraged as an independent exercise. In addition to the 25 abstract designs here, the final two panels give the maker’s initials ‘L.W.’ and the date ‘1912’.

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  • [GOVERNMENT OF INDIA and INDIAN INDEPENDENCE ACTS. by (INDIA). (INDIA). ~ [GOVERNMENT OF INDIA and INDIAN INDEPENDENCE ACTS. 1773, 1784, 1858 and 1947].
    ― An Act for establishing certain Regulations for the better Management of the Affairs of the East India Company, as well in India as in… (more)

    ― An Act for establishing certain Regulations for the better Management of the Affairs of the East India Company, as well in India as in Europe. London: Charles Eyre and William Strahan, 1773. Folio (318 × 195 mm), pp. [2]. 1299-1327, [1] including general title with woodcut royal arms.
    ― An Act for the better Regulation and Management of the Affairs of the East India Company, and of the British Possessions in India; and for establishing a Court of Judicature for the more speedy and effectual Trial of Persons accused of Offences committed in the East Indies. [London, 1784]. Folio (310 × 195 mm), pp. 351-395, [1]. Without general title.
    ― An Act for the better Government of India. [2nd August 1858.] [London: George Edward Eyre and William Spottiswoode, 1858]. Folio (301 × 186 mm), pp. [1], 854-874. Woodcut arms to head of first page.
    — Indian Independence Act 1947. 10 & 11 Geo. 6. Ch. 30. [London: Sir Norman Gibb Scorgie for HMSO, 1947]. 8vo (235 × 140 mm), pp. [ii], 18, [2]. Stamp ‘Supplied for the Public Service’ to first leaf.

    First editions of the three British Parliamentary Acts which shaped the colonial history of India and the Indian Independence Act — the foundation of modern India.

    The 1773 act entrusted government of India to the East India Company; the 1784 act established power-sharing between the Company and the British government; and 1857 established direct British rule and the Raj after the rebellion (the so-called ‘Indian Mutiny). ‘The act of 1773, also known as the Regulating Act, set up a governor-general of Fort William in Bengal with supervisory powers over Madras (now Chennai) and Bombay (now Mumbai). Pitt’s India Act (1784), named for the British prime minister William Pitt the Younger, established the dual system of control by the British government and the East India Company, by which the company retained control of commerce and day-to-day administration but important political matters were reserved to a secret committee of three directors in direct touch with the British government; this system lasted until 1858 … The act of 1858 transferred most of the company’s powers to the crown.’ (Britannica). 

    ‘The [1947 Independence] act created two new independent dominions; India and Pakistan. Pakistan was split into Pakistan and East Pakistan which is now Bangladesh. The Bengal and Punjab provinces were partitioned between the two new countries. These dominions separated the Muslim, Hindu and Sikh population and caused the biggest forced migration which has ever happened that was not the result of war or famine (Parliament UK website).

    Though separately published with a general title for a complete sitting of Parliament, individual Acts of Parliament were paginated to be bound together in yearly volumes hence the paginations here. Of the two eighteenth-century acts, only the first retains its general title. All four acts preserved in recent wrappers to style’.

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  • Le Poupée bien élevée. IIe. édition. by [MALLÈS DE BEAULIEU, Jeanne Sophie, Madame]. [MALLÈS DE BEAULIEU, Jeanne Sophie, Madame]. ~ Le Poupée bien élevée. IIe. édition. Paris: [Casimir for] LeCerf and Blanchard, [n.d., c. 1820s].
    First published in 1819, Le Poupée bien élevée proved popular among children on both sides of the English Channel, with numerous editions in both French… (more)

    First published in 1819, Le Poupée bien élevée proved popular among children on both sides of the English Channel, with numerous editions in both French and English (the latter as The Well Bred Doll). Jeanne Sophie Mallès de Beaulieu (176-1825) was the author of numerous moral and entertaining stories for children including Le Robinson de douze ans (1820).

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  • The General History of Polybius in Five Books. Translated from the Greek by Mr Hampton. by POLYBIUS. POLYBIUS. ~ The General History of Polybius in Five Books. Translated from the Greek by Mr Hampton. London: J. Davis, Military Chronicle and Military Classics Office, 1811.
    A curious copy of this popular edition, removed from its original boards or wrappers at an early date and placed in a board chemise with… (more)

    A curious copy of this popular edition, removed from its original boards or wrappers at an early date and placed in a board chemise with ties and manuscript labels, perhaps for a personal or circulating library.

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  • EDUCATION ACT. ~ An Act to provide for public Elementary Education in England Wales. 9 August 1870. [London: George Edward Eyre and William Spottiswoode, 1870].
    First edition of the first British act of legislation to deal specifically with the provision of education in England and Wales. It instituted schooling for… (more)

    First edition of the first British act of legislation to deal specifically with the provision of education in England and Wales. It instituted schooling for children between the ages of five and twelve, established local education authorities with defined powers and authorized public money to improve existing schools. Most importantly, it demonstrated a commitment to compulsory provision on a national scale. Introduced by Liberal politician William Forster (and sometimes referred to as ‘Forster’s Act’) it also marks an important milestone in the history of literacy and literature, and has been seen as a primary stimulant of the growth in reading and of popular fiction for a mass market.

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  • With decoupage scrapwork and hair). by (MEMORIAL DIORAMA. (MEMORIAL DIORAMA. ~ With decoupage scrapwork and hair). [England, probably 1880s].
    A striking and moving memorial to a young boy, a vision of a child’s paradise with chromolithograph scrapbook cuttings of birds, horses, children, dancers, flowers… (more)

    A striking and moving memorial to a young boy, a vision of a child’s paradise with chromolithograph scrapbook cuttings of birds, horses, children, dancers, flowers and foliage, together with cuttings of hair (some woven). It combines two popular Victorian domestic crafts of hair art and scrapbooking, within an accomplished (but probably also domestic) wooden frame in the gothic style. With it supersized hair-carrying birds dwarfing diminutive dancers this is an inadvertently unsettling piece of Victorian naïve art.

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  • (TRANSPORTATION ACT). ~ An Act for the effectual Transportation of Felons and other Offenders; and to authorize the Removal of Prisoners in certain Cases; and for other Purposes therein mentioned. London: printed by Charles Eyre and William Strahan, 1784.
    First edition. To relieve prison overcrowding, Lord Sydney favoured finding an alternative place of transportation, rather than the penitentiaries advocated by the prominent social reformer,… (more)

    First edition. To relieve prison overcrowding, Lord Sydney favoured finding an alternative place of transportation, rather than the penitentiaries advocated by the prominent social reformer, Jeremy Bentham. In 1784, he sponsored the Transportation Act. Though New South Wales is not mentioned as a destination, it was favoured by Sydney after consulting the testimonies of both Joseph Banks and the mariner Joseph Matra. Initially ruled out on the grounds of its extreme remoteness, in 1786 the British cabinet came to accept Sydney’s recommendation that convicts be transported there. The Act has come to be regarded as the primary document for the British settlement of Australia.

    Though separately published with a general title for a complete sitting of Parliament, individual Acts of Parliament were paginated to be bound together in yearly volumes hence the pagination 907-919 here. ESTC N58442 (Lincoln’s Inn and State Library of New South Wales only though copies are under-recorded since they are often catalogued within volumes and sets of the Acts of Parliament.); Ferguson, Bibliography of Australia 3.

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  • Journal de Christine. by [SCHALBACHER, Phillip Joseph]. [SCHALBACHER, Phillip Joseph]. ~ Journal de Christine. Paris: [Lachevardière fils for] Société reproductive des bons livres, [n.d. ?1837].
    A French edition, translated from the German original by Francois Jean Philibert Aubert de Vitry. A series of dialogues addressed to young children (a boy… (more)

    A French edition, translated from the German original by Francois Jean Philibert Aubert de Vitry. A series of dialogues addressed to young children (a boy and a girl) aged four and five, emphasising all the essential virtues of parenthood. The attractive aquatint plates were probably issued with the original edition and include several delightful family scenes. The first French edition appeared in 1825 and the date of 1837 for this reprint is taken from the Princeton Cotsen catalogue. cf. Barbier, II 1010; Querard VIII 508-10.

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  • Lettres, memoires & negociations particulières du chevalier d’Éon, Ministre Plénipotentiaire de France aupres du Roi de la Grande Bretagne; Avec M. M. les Ducs de Praslin, de Nivernois, de Sainte-Foy, & Regnier de Guerchy Ambassadeur Extraordinaire, &c. &c. &c. by EON DE BEAUMONT, [Charles Geneviève Louis Auguste André Timothée] chevalier d’. EON DE BEAUMONT, [Charles Geneviève Louis Auguste André Timothée] chevalier d’. ~ Lettres, memoires & negociations particulières du chevalier d’Éon, Ministre Plénipotentiaire de France aupres du Roi de la Grande Bretagne; Avec M. M. les Ducs de Praslin, de Nivernois, de Sainte-Foy, & Regnier de Guerchy Ambassadeur Extraordinaire, &c. &c. &c. ‘A la Haye imprime chez H. Scheurler, F.Z. aux Dépens du Corps Diplomatique & se vend a Francfort chez les Frères Van Dures, a Londres chez Jaques Dixwell, dans la Ruë St. Martin’, 1764.
    Two rare works, probably both London-printed, by the Chevalier D’Eon — the French diplomat recognised as one of the first openly transgender figures in European… (more)

    Two rare works, probably both London-printed, by the Chevalier D’Eon — the French diplomat recognised as one of the first openly transgender figures in European print. The Lettres appear here in their second edition, identical to (and swiftly following) the first, but with a new preface, while the Dernières Lettres is in its rare first edition (at least one more followed).
    Following a successful military career d’Eon served Louis XV in English diplomacy and espionage from 1762, gathering defence intelligence for a projected French invasion. Living lavishly in London he alarmed the French government, who stopped his pension and sought to recall him to France. He became embroiled in a bitter row with his compatriot Claude Louis François Régnier de Guerchy (1715–1767), who he saw as an interloper on his diplomatic patch. ‘From October 1763 the dispute took a spectacular turn as d’Eon published allegations that Guerchy had tried to poison him. In March 1764, he went further still and published a selection of his diplomatic papers, which heaped ridicule on Guerchy and his allies in France’ (the present Lettres discussed by Burrows, A King’s Ransom). The dispute was an embarrassment to the French, not least because d’Eon successfully brought the matter to the English courts and because it drew attention to the chevalier’s increasingly complex personal life. It was in the wake of this affair that the chevalier went into hiding in Byfleet (Surrey), spending a year disguised as a woman and going by the name of Madame Duval. This trans experiment initiated the period in which, D’Eon lived partly as a woman and became a celebrated figure in London society.

    The Dernière lettre is a superb piece of propaganda issued on d’Eon’s behalf appearing after the comte de Guerchy’s death in 1767 and reproducing the last letter sent to him by d’Eon recounting the facts of the poisoning case together with extensive translations from English legal records of the law case as it worked its way, very publicly, through the courts.

    This copy is from the library of politician John Baker Holroyd, 1st Baron Sheffield (1735-1821, friend of Edward Gibbon). ESTC lists only the BL and UL copies of the ‘La Haye’ second edition of Lettres (and notes a separate large paper issue in a handful of copies) and the BL, Harvard and Czartoryski Library (Cracow) copies of Dernière Lettre only.

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  • où est enseigné la Méthode et l’adresse pour bien entretenir une maîtresse, ensemble, comme il faut inviter aux noces les parens et amis. by Le Jardin d’amour, Le Jardin d’amour, ~ où est enseigné la Méthode et l’adresse pour bien entretenir une maîtresse, ensemble, comme il faut inviter aux noces les parens et amis. ‘A Lélis’ [?Sillé-le-Guillaume]: chez Goderfe, rue Nemenya’ [?Desforge] [? c. 1815].
    A popular guide to attracting a [female] lover, providing advice on preparation, likely meeting places and the initial interactions. There are sample dialogues between the… (more)

    A popular guide to attracting a [female] lover, providing advice on preparation, likely meeting places and the initial interactions. There are sample dialogues between the two parties, leading to the proffering (and acceptance) of an engagement ring, followed by a formulary of advice for inviting family and friends to a wedding. Success is apparently the only outcome.
    It is not certain where or by who this was printed. Hélot, La Bibliothèque bleue en Normandie, 1928, N°137 suggests the imprint is an ‘Adresse fantaisiste énigmatique, employée par P. Chalopin, le bois de la page 3 est bein celui ayant appartenu à cet imprimeur, avec brisure de 4 mm à gauche dans le filet de l'encadrement’. Another account decodes the anagrams ‘‎Lelis, Goderfe, rue de Nemenya’ to reveal Sillé [le-Guillaume, near Le Mans] and the printer Déforge in the rue de Mayenne (J.-P. Epinal, ‘Une famille de libraires à Sillé-le-Guillaume: les Déforge (1771-1846)’, La Province du Maine, 1976/1, p. 44-68).

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  • Theodore Sedgwick. by [SAINT-MÉMIN, Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de. [SAINT-MÉMIN, Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de. ~ Theodore Sedgwick. 1801.
    A RARE ‘PHYSIONOTRACE’ PORTRAIT OF THEODORE SEDGWICK (1746–1813), the American attorney, politician, and jurist who served in elected state government and as a delegate to… (more)

    A RARE ‘PHYSIONOTRACE’ PORTRAIT OF THEODORE SEDGWICK (1746–1813), the American attorney, politician, and jurist who served in elected state government and as a delegate to the Continental Congress, a U.S. representative, and a senator from Massachusetts. He served as President pro tempore of the United States Senate from June to December 1798. He also served as the fourth speaker of the United States House of Representatives. He was appointed to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in 1802 and served there for the rest of his life. He died at Boston and he is buried at Stockbridge. A portrait by Gilbert Stuart of c. 1808 is at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

    Sedgwick studied theology and law at Yale College and though he did not graduate, he continued in his study under attorney Mark Hopkins of Great Barrington. He played a significant role in the abolitionist movement. As a relatively young lawyer, Sedgwick and Tapping Reeve had pleaded the case of Brom and Bett vs. Ashley (1781), an early ‘freedom suit’, in county court for the slaves Elizabeth Freeman (known as Bett) and Brom. Bett (also known as MumBet) was a black slave who had fled from her master, Colonel John Ashley of Sheffield, Massachusetts, because of cruel treatment by his wife. Brom joined her in suing for freedom from the Ashleys. The attorneys challenged their enslavement under the new state constitution of 1780, which held that ‘all men are born free and equal.’ The jury agreed and ruled that Bett and Brom were free. The decision was upheld on appeal by the state Supreme Court. She was the first enslaved African American to file and win a freedom suit in Massachusetts. She marked her freedom by taking the name of Elizabeth Freeman, and chose to work for wages at the Sedgwick household, where she helped raise their several children. She worked there for much of the rest of her life, buying a separate house for her and her daughter after the Sedgwick children were grown. On her death the Sedgwicks buried her at Stockbridge Cemetery in the family plot.

    Before the advent of photography the physionotrace was ‘the first system invented to produce multiple copies of a portrait, invented in 1786 by Gilles-Louis Chrétien (1774–1811). In his apparatus a profile cast by a lamp onto a glass plate was traced by an operator using a pointer connected, by a system of levers like a pantograph, to an engraving tool moving over a copper plate. The aquatint and roulette finished engraved intaglio plate, usually circular and small (50 mm), with details of features and costume, could be inked and printed many times’ (Photoconservation.com, sub Printing Processes). The process was introduced to America by Charles Saint-Mémin.

    The miniaturist Saint-Mémin (1770-1852) had emigrated from France in 1793 to Switzerland, where he practised as an engraver. Crossing the Atlantic to Canada and then the United States, he established a portrait business in New York with his compatriot Thomas Bluget de Valdenuit (who initially produced the drawings for Saint-Mémin to engrave). When Valdenuit returned to Paris, Saint-Mémin adopted an itinerant practice all over the East Coast states, working variously at Philadelphia, Richmond, Charleston and Burlington. He too returned to France in 1814, having destroyed his drawing apparatus in a symbolic end to a prolific artistic enterprise which produced more than a thousand different portraits of significant figures in American society, including Washington, Revere and Jefferson.

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  • ou le Carquois epistolaire de l’amour... by LE PORTEFEUILLE DES AMANS, LE PORTEFEUILLE DES AMANS, ~ ou le Carquois epistolaire de l’amour... Paris: [Limoges: L. Bargeas fils for] Masson et Yonet, 1831.
    A popular guide to writing love letters, intended for the use of young men and women. Presented in pairs, there are numerous letter samples, usually… (more)

    A popular guide to writing love letters, intended for the use of young men and women. Presented in pairs, there are numerous letter samples, usually from the the man to the woman, with her response. There is a useful synoptic table of the several types of love, together with a description of several invisible inks or ‘encres sympathiques’. Cf. Gay, III, 821 (editions of 1825 and 1842, attributed to Cuisin). The Bibliothèque nationale catalogue lists editions of 1825 and 1837 (but not our edition). All editions appear very rare.

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  • Razsuzhdenīe o prestuplenīi︠a︡kh i nakazanīi︠a︡kh... [Dei Delittie e delle Pene / On Crimes and Punishments in Russian]. by BECCARIA, Cesare, marchese di. Dmitri YAZYKOV, translator. BECCARIA, Cesare, marchese di. Dmitri YAZYKOV, translator. ~ Razsuzhdenīe o prestuplenīi︠a︡kh i nakazanīi︠a︡kh... [Dei Delittie e delle Pene / On Crimes and Punishments in Russian]. St. Petersburg: Gubernskom Pravlenīi, 1803.
    First edition in Russian of Beccaria’s Dei Delittie e delle Pene (1764) translated from the French version of Morellot. In his fundamental Enlightenment legal treatise… (more)

    First edition in Russian of Beccaria’s Dei Delittie e delle Pene (1764) translated from the French version of Morellot. In his fundamental Enlightenment legal treatise Beccaria opposed the death penalty and ‘maintained that the gravity of the crime should be measured by its injury to society and that the penalty should be related to this’ (Printing and the Mind of Man). It was enthusiastically read (in French) by Catherine the Great while codifying her own celebrated legal manifesto, Nakaz, in which almost a third of the text came directly from Beccaria, alongside major borrowings from Montesquieu’s L’Ésprit des lois. Given Catherine’s intellectual omnipotence it is perhaps unsurprising that no Russian edition of Dei Delittie e delle Pene itself appeared during her reign, even though its spirit imbued her widely disseminated Nakaz — required reading for anyone involved in Russian law and government. Thus Beccaria’s principles came to serve as ideals for future legislators in Russia and were fully incorporated into Russian criminal law by the end of the nineteenth century. The title of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment (Prestupléniye i nakazániye, 1866) is only the most prominent emblem of Beccaria’s influence in Russia.

    ‘The first [Russian] translation of Beccaria came out in 1803. It was done by the poet D. Yazykov from the French translation by Morellet, edited by Roederer in 1797... the translation is one of the best in Russian. It manages to convey not only the ideas of the treatise but also the spirit, the language of Beccaria and his contemporaries. It is dedicated to Alexander I...’ (Cizova).

    Dmitry Ivanovich Yazykov (1773-1845), writer, translator, academician and director of the Ministry of Public Education later published a translation of Montesquieu’s Esprit des Lois in 1809–14. Cf. Printing and the Mind of Man 209. Rare: Worldcat lists only the NYPL and Yale copies in anglophone countries. T. Cizova, ‘Beccaria in Russia.’ Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 40, No. 95 (Jun. 1962), pp. 384-408.

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  • La Constitution en vaudevilles suivie des Droits de l’homme, de la femme & de plusieurs autres vaudevilles constitutionnels. by MARCHANT, [François]. MARCHANT, [François]. ~ La Constitution en vaudevilles suivie des Droits de l’homme, de la femme & de plusieurs autres vaudevilles constitutionnels.
    Paris: Maradan, 1792.
    A satirical song collection, in the form of an almanac, lampooning the new Revolutionary institutions. The frontispiece (here in rare colour-printed state) is probably the… (more)

    A satirical song collection, in the form of an almanac, lampooning the new Revolutionary institutions. The frontispiece (here in rare colour-printed state) is probably the first book illustration to depict a yo-yo, a toy which became a craze in France in the 1790s under the name of the émigrette, reflecting its popularity among the French nobility at precisely the time they were forced to flee their country. A 1789 painting of the future King Louis XVII now in the Louvre shows him with a yo-yo, while in a revival of the Mariage de Figaro of 1792 Beaumarchais brings his hero on stage playing with his émigrette.

    Several issues are known from 1792. An issue with identical pagination and the same plate but with the imprint ‘chez les libraires royalistes’ is usually cited as the first. In this issue Maradan has put his own name on the title. cf. Martin & Walter, 22975; cf. Cohen-de Ricci, p. 677 (’Frontispice non signé, attribué par Mehl à Debaucourt. Ce frontispice existe en couleurs (avant la lettre) en bistre et à la sanguine’).

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  • The Creation of Man by the Triune God, and his Prerogatives defined. A Sermon preached at the New Jerusalem Temple, in Red-Cross-Street, near Cripplegate, London, October 12, 1794=38, on Genesis I. 26, 27. by SIBLY, Manoah. SIBLY, Manoah. ~ The Creation of Man by the Triune God, and his Prerogatives defined. A Sermon preached at the New Jerusalem Temple, in Red-Cross-Street, near Cripplegate, London, October 12, 1794=38, on Genesis I. 26, 27. London: by R. Hindmarsh... and Sold by the Author, ‘1796=40’ i.e. 1796.
    First editions of two very rare Swedenborgian sermons preached in the New Jerusalem Temple in Cripplegate. Separately issued, they were the first two in a… (more)

    First editions of two very rare Swedenborgian sermons preached in the New Jerusalem Temple in Cripplegate. Separately issued, they were the first two in a series of 12 published in the same year listed on the advert leaf with details of subscription. On completion, all twelve could also be bought bound up with a general title as Twelve Sermons (also 1796). They are rare both alone and collectively — ESTC lists copies of these first 2 sermons at BL only and copies of the collected Twelve Sermons at: BL, Glasgow, Rylands, Academy of the New Church and Louisiana State University. The printer, Robert Hindmarsh was one of the founders of the Swedenborgian movement and the Church of the New Jerusalem in England. The publication dates of both titles is given as 1796=40, reflecting the Swedenborgian belief that the Last Judgement had occurred in 1757, with 1796 representing the 40th year of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ through divine revelation.

    ‘Sibly... (1757–1840), Swedenborgian minister and banker, was born at Bristol on 20 August 1757. He was the brother of Ebenezer Sibly (1751–c. 1799), a notable publisher of esoteric lore, and was himself an autodidact and nonconformist, self-taught in the classical and biblical languages, part of the self-taught artisan culture. He specialized in alchemy and astrology, and became for a period a bookseller in Goswell Street, London, specializing in books on the occult, some of which his brother was then publishing. He himself translated two astrological works by Palcidus de Titis... He also served as a shorthand writer... (ODNB).

    They are here bound together with three other East London non-conformist sermons:

    Joseph Priestley, The present State of Europe compared with antient Prophecies; a Sermon, preached at the Gravel Pit Meeting in Hackney, February 28, 1794, being the day appointed for a general fast. By Joseph Priestley, LL.D. F. R. S. &c. with a preface, containing the reasons for the author’s leaving England. London: for J. Johnson, pp. xx, 44, [8] (advert/catalogue for Priestley’s books). First edition.

    William Cooper. The Promised Seed. A Sermon, preached to God’s ancient Israel the Jews, at Sion-Chapel, Whitechapel, on Sunday afternoon, August 28, 1796. By William Cooper.... London: Printed for the author; and sold by T. Chapman and J. Matthews, [1796], pp. 38. One of several editions of 1796 and probably the first.

    William Cooper. Daniel’s Seventy Weeks. A Sermon, preached at Sion-Chapel, on Sunday Afternoon, September 18, 1796, to the Jews. By William Cooper. Being his second Address to that People. London: Printed and sold by T. Chapman, 1796, pp. 32. One of several editions of 1796 and probably the first.

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  • Effets merveilleux des lacets. by (FASHION). (FASHION). ~ Effets merveilleux des lacets. Paris: chez Basset, M[archan]d d’estampes et fabricant de papiers peints, [n.d., c. 1807-11].
    A French satire on the excesses of contemporary fashion for both women and men — a woman has her corset laces mechanically tightened by a… (more)

    A French satire on the excesses of contemporary fashion for both women and men — a woman has her corset laces mechanically tightened by a fop in a ridiculously exaggerated version of Napoleon’s headgear and a young woman in a scooped bonnet and corset (which leaves her breast almost entirely bare). The corset enjoyed a brief resurgence in popularity in the Empire era, before being swept away once more at the Restoration. It was a frequent subject of mirth in the popular press on both sides of the English Channel, and while there are several French and English prints on the same theme, this one is very rare.� Not in the British Museum catalogue; WorldCat lists a copy in the Spanish national library, and there is also a copy at the Musée Carnavalet in Paris.

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  • Encyclopédie comique ou Recueil anglois de gaietés, de plaisanteries, de traits d’esprit, de bons mots, d’anecdotes, de portraits, d’originalités, d’aventures, de naïvetés, de balourdises, de calembourgs et de pensées graves et sérieuses. Version libre de l’anglois. by BERTIN, Théodore-Pierre. BERTIN, Théodore-Pierre. ~ Encyclopédie comique ou Recueil anglois de gaietés, de plaisanteries, de traits d’esprit, de bons mots, d’anecdotes, de portraits, d’originalités, d’aventures, de naïvetés, de balourdises, de calembourgs et de pensées graves et sérieuses. Version libre de l’anglois. Paris: chez l’Editeur, [n.d., 1800].
    [uniform with:] Les Rieurs anglais, ou Supplément a l’Encyclopédie comique, traduction libre de l’anglais. Paris: Marchand, An X [1801/2]. 2 vols bound together, pp. [4],… (more)

    [uniform with:] Les Rieurs anglais, ou Supplément a l’Encyclopédie comique, traduction libre de l’anglais. Paris: Marchand, An X [1801/2]. 2 vols bound together, pp. [4], viii, [4], 132; [4], 156, [4],20, including half-titles, plus engraved frontispiece to each volume.

    4 vols bound in 2, 12mo (175 × 95 mm), partially uncut. Later red straight grain quarter morocco, spines elaborately gilt (by Champs-Stroobants Sr). Excellent copies.

    First edition. A rare collection of comic extracts translated or abridged from English authors including: Shakespeare, Gay, Johnson, Milton, Sheridan, Fielding, Goldsmith, Richardson, Young, Smollett, Sterne and Swift. Bertin (1751-1819) had worked in England as a tutor and translator and was the author of some 50 works on various subjects, including several translations. While in England he had studied Samuel Taylor’s system of shorthand and published, in 1791 a French edition of An Essay intended to establish a Standard for a universal System of Stenography, successfully introducing modern shorthand to the French public. Encyclopédie comique and Les Rieurs anglais are partly adverts for this system, with their shorthand plates and supplement entitled ‘Dissertation critique et curieuse sur l‘Okigraphie’. The second volume of Encyclopédie comique has a frontispiece depicting an English ‘Wife Sale’ (vente d’une femme Angloise à l’encan) which illustrates a short account of this peculiarly English custom or ritual observed in rural or working-class communities. ‘It can be seen as a bleak transaction, or as street-theatre, or as a shaming ritual’ (E. P. Thompson, ‘Sale of Wives’ in Customs in Common, 1993, p. 447).� Gay II, 98 (first work only); Rochedieu, Bibliography of French Translations of English Works, 1700-1800, Appendix III (Collections of works translated from the English), 30.

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  • Letters on the Improvement of the Mind. Addressed to a young Lady... in two volumes. by CHAPONE, Hester. CHAPONE, Hester. ~ Letters on the Improvement of the Mind. Addressed to a young Lady... in two volumes. Dublin: for J. Exshaw, H. Saunders, W. Sleater, J. Potts, D. Chamberlaine, J. Williams, and R. Moncrieffe, 1773.
    First Dublin edition, printed in the same year as the first (London) edition. The ten letters comprise: On the First Principles of Religion; On the… (more)

    First Dublin edition, printed in the same year as the first (London) edition. The ten letters comprise: On the First Principles of Religion; On the Study of the holy Scriptures (2); On the Regulation of the Heart and Affections (2); On the Government of the Temper; On Oeconomy; On Politeness and Accomplishments; On Geography and Chronology; On the Manner of Reading and Course of reading History. It is dedicated to Elizabeth Montagu. ‘Montagu encouraged Chapone, presumably in the summer of 1770, when the two friends were travelling in Scotland, to publish the letters on education she had been sending her niece since 1765. Chapone was grateful to Montagu for correcting the manuscript, and the text, Letters on the Improvement of the Mind (1773), was Chapone’s most celebrated work’ (Oxford DNB). It ran to many editions over several decades. ESTC: BL, Cambridge, NLI, Bodley and National Trust (Florence Court, Enniskillen, N.I.). No US copies of this edition.

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  • [Notes for a speech on the slave trade]. by (SLAVERY). [BARANTE, Amable-Guillaume-Prosper BRUGIÈRE, Baron de.] (SLAVERY). [BARANTE, Amable-Guillaume-Prosper BRUGIÈRE, Baron de.] ~ [Notes for a speech on the slave trade]. [France, c. 1826].
    Slavery in France was abolished during the Revolution, but was reintroduced by Napoleon in 1804 and not finally abolished until 1838. In April 1826 Charles… (more)

    Slavery in France was abolished during the Revolution, but was reintroduced by Napoleon in 1804 and not finally abolished until 1838. In April 1826 Charles X had signed a treaty formally recognising the independence of Saint-Domingue (Haiti) and it seems likely that these notes were written for a speech given shortly after that date. Barante notes that some viewed the treaty as an act of submission, but he states that the king and the negotiators who signed the treaty had ‘une horreur sincère pour cet infame trafic’ and that the loss of the colony was no threat to France. In the light of the treaty, Barante believes that this was a favourable moment to advance the cause of abolition. Towards the end he refers to the famous saying of Robespierre: ‘Périssent les colonies plutôt qu’un principe’ (though he simply writes ‘périsse les colonies...’ here) but he goes on ‘ces paroles sont atroces — le premier de tous les principes est l’horreur du crime... Cependant ce principe auquel on faisait des sacrifices humains était un principe et de cruauté’. For Barante therefore the fight against the injustice and cruelty of the slave trade is of the highest importance, and these eight pages clearly reveal his humanity and support for the cause of abolition.
    Prosper de Barante (1782-1866), a prominent liberal voice in nineteenth-century France was variously a diplomat, politician, statesman, historian and writer. From 1807-9 he was a ‘sous préfet’ in the department of Ardèche, and from 1813-15 prefect of Loire-Inférieure at Nantes. He made several diplomatic visits to Spain and Poland and was a close friend of liberal thinker Benjamin Constant. He was also a member of the Coppet group in the circle of Madame de Staël.

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