Search Results: Titles starting with C from 19th Century Rare Book and Photograph Shop

Contemporary half brown embossed leather, some wear, original clasps. Approx. 60 CDV portraits, about half albumen prints and the remainder engravings, presented in diecut windows (a few tears), two per page.This important Civil War album includes carte-de-visite photographs signed by the following Union Army officers: Winfield Scott, Robert Anderson (commander at Fort Sumter), Joseph Hooker, George McClellan, Fitz John Porter, and the French royal brothers who volunteered for the cause, Louis Philippe, comte de Paris, Robert d'Orleans, Duke of Chartres.
The album includes an outstanding run of signed signed portraits of key members of Lincoln's cabinet: William Seward, Gideon Welles, Simon Cameron, and Montgomery Blair. The influential owner of the album, William Tilden Blodgett (see Provenance below), was well-positioned to obtain signed portraits from these leading men.
Unsigned CDVs include Ambrose Burnside, David Farragut, Salmon Chase,Edwin Stanton, and many others. The portraits in the album… Read More

This important survival of American photographic history is a very early calotype of a water tower in Philadelphia. Paper photography from this era is a rarity and the image was created by two of America's great photographic pioneers, the Langenheim brothers.
A calotype (or talbotype) is a negative-positive photographic process in which a paper negative is produced and then used to make a positive print using exposure to light. It was introduced by William Henry Fox Talbot, from whom the brothers had obtained the rights to the process, soon after Daguerre's advancement in France.
The Langenheim brothers were some of the first entrepreneurs to utilize the calotype process in America. They began creating their own photographic images and revolutionizing the field of American photography soon after the process's invention. "In 1842 they made the first advertising photograph in history, a picture of the restaurant in the Exchange Building in Philadelphia" (Pennsylvania Arts and Sciences Society, 1940) and… Read More

FIRST EDITION of the first true American atlas, the earliest atlas of the United States engraved and published in America. This important volume contains several important state maps including the first American map representing Virginia after statehood. In the preparation of this atlas, Carey drew primarily on existing sources including Guthrie's Geography. Many of the maps were drawn by Samuel Lewis.
Several of the maps of the Southern states are particularly noteworthy. The map of Georgia contains the location of several Creek and other Indian towns as well as old trading paths to the interior of the state. The map of Tennessee, here in its second state, is the first separate American map of Tennessee and contains valuable information about early settlements, towns, roads, and Indian boundaries.
Unrestored examples in period bindings are very scarce. Thomas Streeter's great Americana collection contained only the 1800 edition. The Siebert collection had two badly defective copies, the second of… Read More

This is a rare original script for Graham Greene's play Carving a Statue which opened on September 17, 1964 at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. The production, directed by Peter Wood and starring Ralph Richardson, closed after a month. Greene blamed Richardson's "humourless" interpretation of the main character for the play's failure.Green wrote, "Never before have I known a play like this one so tormenting to write or so fatiguing in production. I am grateful to the reviewers who may have a little accelerated the end. At the age of sixty there is no reason to work, except to earn a living or to have 'fun.' This play was never fun and I earn my living in another field."NOT IN WORLDCAT. Greene employed Dr. Jan Van Loewen, whose name is printed on the first leaf of this script, as his theatrical agent beginning in the 1950s.Provenance: Anthony Peek, manager for the original 1964 production at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.[65] pp., xerographic, rectos only, 1 carbon typescript revision page paper clipped to… Read More

36 salt paper prints (approx. 11.4 x 17.8 cm), mounted, one of which is hand colored. Original red cloth gilt. Frayed at spine ends, light foxing and soiling. Very good.
FIRST EDITION. This important volume is "the earliest photographically illustrated auction catalogue" (Gernsheim, Incunabula, 122). It contains 36 photographs on salted paper by Hermann Emden of Frankfurt.
"Christie's interest in adapting photography also encompassed the illustration of catalogues. In 1860 they sold the private collection of the Lowenstein brothers of Frankfort-am-Main which was known as 'the Vienna Museum.' This auction was accompanied by what is believed to be the first photographically illustrated auction catalogue and, most significantly, the text actually refers to the thirty-six photographic illustrations by Hermann Emden of Frankfort, one of which was hand colored. Illustrated catalogues were very uncommon before 1860 and to have a photographically illustrated catalogue with a text making prominent… Read More

Original printed wrappers bound in modern full red buckram. Very good.
FIRST EDITION. This is the catalogue of the pioneering Stainforth library of women's literature, the first major auction devoted to the literary works of women writing in English from the mid-16th century to the Victorian era.
Francis John Stainforth (1797-1866), an Anglican clergyman, spent decades assembling the largest private library of Anglophone women's writing built in the mid-nineteenth century. Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge conducted the sale over six days in 1867. The catalogue lists 7,122 titles in over 8,000 volumes written and edited by more than 2,800 authors, almost all women.
"When we think of 19th-century private libraries in Britain, we usually envision a gentleman's library like the one Jane Austen's brother Edward kept at Godmersham Park. Shelved in an English countryside estate, the library contained works mostly in English and Romance languages written by men in the genres of biography, history,… Read More

Original printed wrappers. Resewn, lightly worn. Fine. Red morocco pull-off case.
First edition. One of the most famous Hawthorne rarities, The Celestial Rail-Road was pirated from the May 1843 Democratic Review to Hawthorne's chagrin. This copy bears the James F. Fish imprint. Other copies bear the Wilder & Co. imprint, which Clark suggests appeared first. BAL does not assign priority. Wakeman catalogue notes that "both issues are excessively rare, and particularly so in immaculate condition, as are the present copies [Wakeman had an example of each imprint]." Carroll Wilson notes that "the Fish imprint is rare rarer."
Written in 1843 when the railroad linked the reflective solitude of Concord and the frenzied commerce of Boston, The Celestial Railroad examines the parallels between timesaving modern industry and the search for a time-saving route to salvation. This satirical allegory was inspired by Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. "The Celestial Railroad … is the finest tribute ever paid to Bunyan's… Read More

Albumen print from a collodion negative (11 1⁄4 x 9 1⁄2 in.), mounted on original gilt-ruled card (14 1⁄2 x 12 1⁄2 in.). Signed, dated, and inscribed by Cameron: "From life. Registered photograph. Copyright." and "Julia Margaret Cameron Freshwater 1868." Blindstamp of "Messrs Colnaghi, 14 Pall Mall, London" on separated card with printed facsimile signature and inscription: "I like this Photograph very much better than any other which has been taken of me. Ch. Darwin."

151 pp. Original half red leather, cloth boards. Very good.
FIRST EDITION of this standard work on the history of Chinese currency. Edkins was a British Sinologist and Protestant missionary who spent 57 years in China, 30 of them in Beijing. Edkins published a much shorter book, totaling 29 pages, under the same title in 1890.

Full calf gilt, ca. 1900, edges marbled. Upper joint slightly tender. A very handsome copy.
FIRST EDITION. This volume contains introductory "Observations on the Language and Literature of China" followed by "The Shadow in the Water," "The Twin Sisters," "The Three Dedicated Chambers," and a selection of Chinese proverbs.
In 1813, Davis was appointed writer at the East India Company's factory in Canton (now Guangzhou). His knowledge of the Chinese language, demonstrated with his translation of "The Three Dedicated Chambers" ("San-Yu-Low") led to his appointment to accompany Lord Amherst on his embassy to Peking in 1816. On the mission's return Davis returned to his duties at the Canton factory, and was promoted to president in 1832. Davis served as governor and commander-in-chief of Hong Kong from 1844 to 1848.
Provenance: Sir Edward Strachey, with bookplate.

204 pp. Original red cloth. Spine slightly faded, very light rubbing. Near fine.
FIRST EDITION. Sinologist Herbert A. Giles began his distinguished career was a British diplomat in China. There he wrote these literary and historical sketches to show that, contrary to prevailing Western views, "the Chinese are a hardworking, sober, and happy people, occupying an intermediate place between the wealth and culture, the vice and misery of the West." Giles later became professor of Chinese at Cambridge for thirty-five years.
Chapters include Position of Women, Etiquette, Literature, Education, Dentistry, Medical Science, Loan Societies, Guilds, Pawnbrokers, Postal Service, Slang, Fortune Telling, Games and Gambling, Jurisprudence, Buddhism, Superstition, Feng-Shui, Money, and more.
Provenance: East Asian Institute of Karl Marx University (now Leipzig University), withdrawn, with neat stamp on verso of title.

Original printed wrappers. Light spotting, small chips to backstrip ends. An excellent copy. Half morocco case.
First edition. A rare association copy of the pamphlet which began Lowell's career as an author. Lowell had been elected class poet and scheduled to read his composition on Harvard's Class Day in July 1838. However, he was suspended from the college due to his neglect of studies and general obstreperousness and was consequentially unable to perform this office. Instead, his classmates subscribed for the printing of the poem and it was ready by August of 1838, in time for commencement. The front wrapper is inscribed by one of Lowell's classmates. Within just a decade, he would be one of the most distinguished and influential men of letters of letters of his time.

6 pen and ink and gouache on heavy card. 9 x 12 ½ in. A note on the verso of one states, "I have left the extra 3 cm on the top of this picture, should you want to include it when it is finally framed." Very good condition.
These delightful views depict scenes at the Strand Theatre (now the Novello Theatre), then presenting Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, in London's West End. They range from views of the boxes and theater-goers to the box office to backstage scenes.
The box office advertises the original production of Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, which ran at the Strand from 1982 to 1985.
Provenance: Anthony Peek, longtime manager at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.

More than 50 items. Good condition, organized in plastic sheets in an old red vinyl three-ring binder.
The 1968 Democratic National Convention of 1968, held in Chicago, was a landmark event in American political history. John M. Bailey of Connecticut, who had helped to orchestrate Johnson's landslide victory in 1964, oversaw the contentious presidential campaign of 1968, in which Robert Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy, and others sought the Democratic nomination. This collection of papers to and by longtime Democratic National Committee Chairman John M. Bailey includes:
• Eugene McCarthy, 3-page telegram requesting an opportunity appear before the Committee to present his argument that "the administration's course in Vietnam is dangerous and wrong."
• Various papers by the McCarthy campaign concerning its goals and requesting information concerning officers, seating, and other logistical matters at the convention. In the end the party was less than helpful to the… Read More

Three volumes. Folio. Generally in very good condition (details below).
Three rare Treasury reports as follows:
1. An Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of the United States, commencing with the establishment of the Treasury Department . . . ending on the thirty-first Day of December One Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety-one. Philadelphia: Childs and Swaine, 1793. Folio, 61 pp., folding table. Removed. Very good.
FIRST EDITION. This is a highly detailed report of the federal government's receipts and expenditures during the crucial first two years of the new government, 1790-91. Locations: AAS, Library Company, Brown, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Evans 26341.
2. The Treasurer of the United States' Accounts of Payments and Receipts of Public Monies from 1st October, 1790, to 30th June, 1791. [Philadelphia:] Childs and Swaine, [1791]. Folio. Original front wrapper. First few leaves stained. 52 pp.
FIRST EDITION. Samuel Meredith was first Treasurer of the United States. This is a… Read More

8 letters comprising 26 pages. Beautifully presented in a fine crimson straight-grained morocco album with an engraved portrait of Longfellow by Hollyer, each letter mounted on a separate leaf. A lovely presentation.
This is a fine series of letter from Longfellow, the most celebrated and popular poet in America, and Paul Hamilton Hayne, the most famous southern poet of his era. In the first letter Longfellow tells Haynes that the promised volume of poems has not reached him. He assures the South Carolina poet that "this is of no great consequence, as you know already my opinion of your writings."
The main sequence of letters is connected with Longfellow's Poems of Places anthology. Hayne offered contributions of his own poems and suggested works by other southerners. Longfellow warns that "I could hardly use Mr. Simms' war poems" and will limit them in number. He observes that he will use Timrod's "Charleston" and Brownell's "River Right" because of their poetic merit. In a postscript he notes that… Read More

Three albumen prints: two CDVs and one cabinet card.

A collection of three albumen print portraits of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

"Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

This is an excellent example of the Second Folio, the second edition of Shakespeare's collected plays. This is "incomparably the most important work in the English language" (Jackson, Pforzheimer Catalogue).
The First Folio, published in 1623, was such a success that just nine years later the collection was printed again. The Second Folio venture was undertaken by a group of booksellers and rights holders, some of whom had been members of the First Folio syndicate. The massive book includes 36 plays, half of which had not been printed prior to the First Folio, as well as commendatory verses and dedicatory epistles by contemporary admirers of Shakespeare. One of these, John Milton's "An Epitaph on the admirable Dramaticke Poet, W. Shakespeare," was Milton's first appearance in print.
For almost four centuries Shakespeare's transcendent genius has been recognized. In 1623 Ben Jonson wrote of Shakespeare, "He was not of an age, but for all time." In 1840 Thomas Carlyle called Shakespeare,… Read More

FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING sheets of Common Sense, here with the third edition title page and prefatory leaf. Richard Gimbel s definitive study identifies points in every gathering distinguishing the three editions that Bell printed in early 1776. This copy of Common Sense contains all of the points of the first printing, save the two-leaf gathering [A]2 (title and preface). Bound in at the end is Paine s Large Additions to Common Sense, which Bell pirated from a competitor and offered separately for one shilling to buyers of Common Sense. Paine s Common Sense, published anonymously in January 1776, was the first vigorous attack on King George … and the first public appeal for an American Republic. It is not too much to say that the Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776, was due more to Paine s Common Sense than to any other single piece of writing (Streeter). Born in England in 1737, Paine moved to London in 1774 where he met Benjamin Franklin, who encouraged him to emigrate to America.… Read More

FIRST EDITION of "the first official drill manual for either the American regular or militia artillery" (Graves). This manual constrains detailed instructions on procedures in firing and handling artillery and training soldiers in its use.
"In 1810 a Congressional committee looked into ways of improving the training of the militia. One of the results was the publication by the Senate in December 1810 of a small manual entitled Compendious Exercise for the Garrison and Field Ordnance, as Practised in the United States. This 30-page pamphlet [pp 31-48 comprise amendments to other military regularions] contained drills on the new seacoast carriage designed by the Marquis de Montalembert, which were just coming into service, and the exercise of 4 and 6-pdr. field pieces and additional comments on the use of the prolonge. The anonymous author or compiler seems to have used Tousard (or his French originals) for garrison and field artillery drill, and added excerpts from Jonathan Williams's… Read More