Christmas Books [First Collected Edition] by Charles Dickens - 1852

Messner, New York
NF Boards, VG Dust jacket
Not price clipped. Price of $3.50
NF dark grayish green boards. No dings, no bumping, clean, no marks, no p o's, no book plates, no stickers. Tight bindings.
DJ is in very good condition. Shelf wear, tiny tears along all edges.
Great B&W photo of the author on back sitting at a table in jeans and tennies with her feet propped up. "Grace Metalious is the most surprising new novelist of the year. In Peyton Place this Pandora in blue jeans lifts the lid off a small New England village, in the most explosive novel since Kings Row.Made into a motion picture and became a cult classic t.v. series.

John Day, New York 1956 . No other dates. VG+/VG- Rare edition in Rare DJ. Collectible copy of hard to find book in early printing. Burnt orange hardcover in VG + condition . Slight bumping to spines. Light shelf wear to edges and corners. Tight, clean copy. A few tiny spots on first fly leaf, otherwise no marks , no book plate, no P O, no stickers, no foxing, no smells. DJ shows wear. Tears at top and bottom of spine as well corners and edges. Statement by Sterling North on the back of DJ, "In Defense of the Novel".Nobel Prize winner Pearl S. Buck recreates the life of one of the most intriquing rulers during a time of intense turbulence. Tzu Hsi - Empress of China, in youth a beautiful concubine, in middle life a brilliant strategist, in old age a goddess. Tzu Hsi was feared and hated by many in the court but adored by the people. The Empress's rise to power parallels the story of China's transition from the ancient to modern way.

New York: The Century Co, 1908. A finely produced publication dedicated to the magic of the pearl, rarely found in such lovely original condition. Published in New York in 1908, this work is a splendid example of fine book production. Amongst much of interest, there is a long chapter on the Australian pearling industry: "As regards areas of distribution the most extensive pearl-oyster grounds of the world are situated on the northern and western coasts of Australia" the nude divers in the Australian pearl fisheries are mostly Malays and Australian aborigines." (Chapter IX). Large octavo, colour frontispiece and numerous black & white and coloured plates throughout; a very good copy in the original gilt-decorated cloth.

Oblong-folio plate volume from Robert von Spalart's multi-volume series on the costumes of ancient civilizations to medieval and modern times.Title on spine reads Spalart Kostum, Foliotafeln 1-5, but collection contains all 112 folio plates to Antiquity parts 1-5, plus 43 plates illustrating the Middle Ages.With allegorical frontispiece, and 154 fine handcolored copperplate engravings A to SSSSS (ancient world from Egypt to Rome including Pompeii and Herculaneum) and I to XLIII (Anglo-Saxon and Norman). Plates engraved by K. Ponheimer, Paul Weindl, after illustrations by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Julien-David Le Roy, Johann Just Winckelmann, Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, Antonio Jolli, Friedrich Justin Bertuch, Sir William Hamilton, Carsten Niebuhr, Jean Chardin, Cornelis Le Bruyn, Juan Bautista Villalpando, Alessandro Galilei, Antoine Augustin Calmet,Karl Gottlieb Guischardt, Gabriel Daniel, Johann Georg Graevius, Ferdinando Galiani, Jean-Claude Richard Abbé de Saint-Non, etc.Robert von… Read More

Title page, 20 hand-coloured engraved plates with corresponding pages of explanatory text. Twenty fine hand-coloured engraved portraits by R. Cooper of famous contemporary actors and actresses after paintings by Harlow, Sharp, Clint, De Wilde, Waldeck, and others.Actors include Sarah Siddons as Lady Macbeth, Edmund Kean as Richard III, ballerinas Mlle. Lisa Noblet and Mlle. Felicite Hullin, ballet dancer Etienne Le Blond, opera singer Giuseppe de Begnis, Samuel Simmonds as Baron Munchausen, Henry Gattie and Mme. Maria Theresa Bland in the farce Monsieur Tonson, Sarah Booth, Frances Copeland, Charles Young, etc.Daniel Terry (1780-1829) was an English actor and friend of Sir Walter Scott, many of whose novels he adapted for the stage.Condition: Half honey-coloured leather binding with five raised bands, gilt leather title label, marbled boards. Interior clean and bright with fine hand-colouring, slight discoloration to title page.

Rome: Rochus Bernabo at the expense of Laurentii & Thomae Pagliarini, 1728. Hardcover. Very Good. Copperplates (47 full-page numbered but with pl 35 & 37 replaced in good facsimile) + nice large plate of public dissection on TP + 50 large woodcut initials with country & hunting scenes etc.. Folio (378x251mm) newer calf with 5 raised bands, spine compartments gilt, gilt rules, black label with gilt titling. Titlepage in red & black XXVIII +79pp +[x] index & publisher's catalogue + 47 leaves of plates ex collation but numbered in the plate 1-47 (a4 mistakenly bound after b4). Bookplate of Dr.F.A. Sondervorst on marbled endpapers. A clean wide margined copy, no tears, very unobtrusive pale foxing to a few pages, some pages rehinged at gutter, a few with marginal dusting/damp marks but not affecting printed area except in index. Pl.20 minor offsetting from facing text page. As usual without the unnumbered page meant to be cut out and used to rule the scale. Fine thick quality paper, impressions clear &… Read More

Near Fine HC in Good+ slipcase. Signed binding (Tchekeroul). Text in French/Francaise. Swirl pattern oil marbled paper over boards half bound with black morocco leather; gilt stamped titles on spine; gilt top edge; two parts bound in retain original covers and spines. Bright, clean, square covers and spine; slight, thin scrapes on spine; very slight rubbing wear on rear cover paper, otherwise Fine covers and spine; tightly bound; small 'Tchekeroul' gilt stamped on tail edge of front pastedown; small black leather label on front free end paper is gilt stamped with star of David above tower over gilt banner with 'Turris Davidica' in relief; ink gift inscription on fly leaf dated 1953 in Brussels; original card covers are clean and complete with some age darkening; interior is light and clean; leaves remain supple. Slipcase is matching marbled paper over boards with matching morocco leather at spine end caps.12mo, 413 total pp (208, 205); illustrated

London: London: printed for J. Nourse, at the Lamb, opposite Katherine-Street, in the Strand, 1746. 1st Edition . Full leather. Very Good. First edition, octavo; xvi,232pp, with full complement of 34 engravings, 33 of which are folding. In contemporary unlettered full calf (a little worn with minor loss to board corners, sometime skilfully rebacked in matching leather), five raised spine bands, internally clean with only the lightest of occasional dust staining. Muller was deputy head of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, where he was instrumental to its transformation into a disciplined cadet academy. An attractive first edition example of his first work. Laurence Sterne possessed the text in second edition, with possible influence on Uncle Toby and Corporal Trim's obsessions with fortification in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy. ESTC T176381.

London: Mr. Bowyer, Historic Gallery, Letter-press by T. Bensley, from Figgins's types., 1794. Hardcover. Very Good. Copperplates (29 views of India) drawn by Robert Home engraved by Hawksworth, Skelton et al. + folding Plans (3 of 4, lacks Plan of Bangalore).. Royal quarto (33.5x28.5cm) speckled leather spine gilt ruled with orange gilt spine title label. Covers of wood-grain marbled paper (edges rubbed with vellum tips showing). First leaf of Urdu script (facing titlepage), vii (inc. titlepage, dedication & Preface) +[1]p blank) +[1] leaf of Inscriptions (on monuments shown in Plate 7) + 48pp of text, with 12 leaves of Urdu script keyed to first page number of each section (versos blank) and 29 plates as called for, + folding Plan of Ootradoog, folding Plan of the Carnatic and Mysore drawn by M. Armstrong June 1792, and finally larger folding Plan showing position of Confederate Armies under Earl Cornwallis before Seringapatam in February 1792. Small repair without loss to 1 inch of this final… Read More

Paris: J. Hetzel, 1866. First Edition. Cloth. Very good. In French. Large 8vo. Publisher's cloth with extensive gilt-tooled decorations on spine and cover. All edges gilt. 259 illustrations by Riou and de Montaut (though title page states 150 Riou illustrations). 467 pp. Minor scuffing to edges and sunning to spine. Corners bumped. Tears to cloth covering spine edges in the following places: 1.5" closed tear top right header, 2 closed 1/8" tears along right, 1/2" tear right footer, 2" tear left footer. Some small chips at spine footer and 1/8" strip lost from spine header. Some spots of discoloration to rear cover. Hinges are overopened but binding is quite sound. Minor foxing throughout, mostly marginal. Tight and clean. First double-volume edition, following only the magazine serials and the two-volume first printing, preceding all English editions. A beautiful copy of Verne's second novel in very good condition.