Search Results: Titles starting with E from Bernard Quaritch Ltd

8vo, pp. [5], [3 (blank)]; a pristine copy sewn in the original black- and brown-printed wrappers; preliminary editorial note inscribed by Julian Arnold to A. Gay Beaman with the quote '"The sweet, soft woman, and the friendly men" (see verse 4)'; autograph note tipped in, by Julian Arnold, dated 9 March 1936, brown ink, 14 lines, well preserved.
First edition, one of only fifty copies hand-printed by T. Perry Sticker, presentation copy from the editor (the author's son) and accompanied by his autograph note regarding the printing and planned circulation of the poem.
Edwin Arnold (1832–1904) was an English poet and journalist. His lifelong endeavour as a poet consisted in the transposition into English verse of the culture and spirituality of the Orient, culminating in the publication of the long narrative poem The Light of Asia, or The Great Renunciation, which was among the first works to popularize the life and philosophy of Buddha in the West. A similarly epic treatment of Hinduism was… Read More

First Elzevir edition, handsomely bound for the Irish politician Thomas Wogan Browne. Thomas Wogan Browne (c. 1758–1812) served as a magistrate, and twice as high sheriff of Co. Kildare. Politically a Whig and denounced as a United Irishman, pre-emptive suspicions appear to have thwarted any intended involvement in the rebellion of 1798. Among others he entertained Wolfe Tone, with whom in 1792 he toasted 'the spirit of the French mob to the people of Ireland', and Thomas Russell, whom he impressed with his 'large and well chosen library' (DIB). Wogan Browne's library, advertised as containing six thousand volumes, included numerous Elzevirs and other examples of fine printing, several incunables and manuscripts, and an extensive collection of Boccaccio. He appears to have had several books similarly bound in red morocco, with his name gilt on the upper board. On his death in 1812, the library was auctioned by Thomas Jones of Dublin, although we have not been able to identify this volume in… Read More

4to, pp. vi, [2], 132, xxii (ix–xvi double-page), [1, privilège du Roi], [1, blank]; a very few marks; a fine copy in contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt in compartments and with gilt morocco lettering-piece, red edges, marbled endpapers; neatly rebacked preserving spine, corners repaired; from the library of Francois-Alexandre-Frédéric de La Rochefoucauld (1747-1827), with gilt arms (Olivier 710, fer 2) on covers and Bibliothèque de Liancourt bookplate on front pastedown; book label of Erwin Tomash. £5500

A large, crisp and illustrious copy of the first edition of a classic of statistical science: it is the first to define expectation of life – which Deparcieux calls 'la vie moyenne' – and the first to contain life tables for males and females. 'The first French work in the actuarial field ... After publication of this Essai, expectation of life came into general use as a descriptive statistic. Deparcieux scaled his mortality data to a radix of 1000 at age 3, calculated the… Read More