Search Results: Titles starting with W from Michael Laird Rare Books LLC

New York: Crandall's, 1889. Good. 12mo (5.75" x 3.75"). 8 pp., large illustration of Crandall's Sun Kite on p. [1] (text a little toned). Sewn in original printed wrappers (upper wrapper LACKING). Only a special few collectors will enjoy this little pamphlet as much as we do! Advertising booklet for Crandall's now-forgotten Sun Kite, with a strange and wonderful illustration of a grinning Sun (which we ADORE) emblazoned on the underside of a kite. The booklet includes directions for use, a warning: "Kite is liable to be dashed to the ground before it attains sufficient height to fly steadily" (p. 2), and descriptions of each part of the "water-proof" kite. There is also an illustration of Crandall's Kite Reel. We have been unable to locate any other information about Crandall's Sun Kite besides that which is conveyed herein. We want to have a real Sun Kite of our own!

London: Printed by R. Young for John Bartlet, at the signe of the gilt Cup in Cheape-side, 1629. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. 8vo. [8], 165 pp. including full-page woodcut plate bound as frontispiece (intended to be placed between pp. 50/51). COLLATION: A-Y4, without the final blank leaf, otherwise COMPLETE. Provenance: blindstamps of the Theological Institute Connecticut (now known as the Hartford Seminary) with ink-stamp. NB: in 1976 a collection of more than 200,000 books from the Hartford Seminary Library were sold to Emory University, including this one --> deaccessioned from Pitts Theology Library. Attractive recent half calf antique, marbled boards, five raised bands on spine, compartments gilt, red morocco label in the second. ¶ First Edition of this highly curious Elizabethan theological work, illustrated with a strange and wonderful woodcut of the "Vision of the Golden Candlestick" (Zech. 4). Rare on the market: this is the only copy known to us in private ownership; the last copy… Read More

Cincinnati: U.P. James, 1847. Later printing. Very good. 8vo. 144 pp. Title-page vignette, woodcut frontispiece, 3 full-page maps in text, 8 woodcut illustrations in text. Original wrappers (both front and back wrappers chipped with loss, some repairs). Some foxing throughout as is true in all copies. Uncut and largely unopened copy. "This expedition, which ended by land at Matamoros, is still considered one of the most brilliant long marches ever made; the force, with no quartermaster, paymaster, commissary, uniforms, tents, or even military discipline, covered 3,600 miles by land and 2,000 by water, all in the course of 12 months." (Fifty Texas Rarities, p. 32 note). Doniphan's march is considered to be one of the most famous in history; that the author was an actual participant lends the work credibility and a sense of immediacy. It remains "A classic work on the expedition along the Santa Fe Trail during the Mexican-American War." (Rittenhouse 311). With points: priced on front wrapper: "50… Read More

Chicago: M.A. Donahue & Company, 1914. Very good/Fair. 8vo. [2], 247 pp. Textblock weak and age-toned as is true of all copies on account of the cheap quality of the paper. Original publisher's green cloth, decoratively stamped in black and red (worn and somewhat soiled at head and tail, but generally in bright condition, the joints quite perfect), color-printed dust-jacket (worn and soiled, significant traces of damp on back cover and spine, inside with two tape repairs). With condition problems, and priced accordingly. This is probably the only surviving example of this particular dust-jacket. While the title-page is not dated, the dust-jacket is datable to 1914 because the publisher announces that Amy Brooks "Lady Linda's Gay Friends" is "now ready." While the illustrator of the dust-jacket is not named, it is sensitively rendered in thin line and pale colors. The driver of the car (a man) is obscured by the woman in the passenger seat. Her gaze is pensive and she does not smile, reflecting… Read More

London: B.R. Howlette / John Murray, 1813. Second edition. Good. 8vo. [2], 130 pp. Printed in Greek throughout on fine paper. Contemporary English red diced russia calf (rubbed and worn), tooled in blind, outer frame of gilt palmette rolls, all edges gilt, drab endpapers. Front endpaper waterstained; second blank leaf with paper flaw; outer margins of final pages darkened from turn-ins. With faults, and priced accordingly. THE ONLY KNOWN ILLUSTRATIONS BY MRS. LAVINIA FORSTER. Our copy bears learned MS annotations in Greek and Latin. Beautifully printed in a Greek font created especially for William Bulmer by William Martin. Dibdin described the 1802 first edition as an "elegant work [that] confers great credit on the printer." Our copy belongs to the second edition, which was printed in the same Greek font, and retains the 20 fine engraved head- and tailpiece vignettes designed by Lavinia Banks Forster (1774-1858), wife of the present editor Edward Foster. Two of the vignettes are signed (in… Read More

England, 1874. Fair. 8vo. Bound notebook, with writing on 98 pp., the remaining leaves blank (first leaf torn out). Original blue roan (worn and shaken, boards almost detached, spine defective, depredation to bottom edge of front cover), marbled endpapers and edges, double gilt lines to boards and spine. Text block clean with only slight stains to a few pages. Preserved in a 4-flap lig-free chemise housed in a protective cloth case. "I too, have laid my lily down..." SORROWFUL REFLECTIONS WRITTEN BY A GOVERNESS ON THE DEATH A CHILD IN HER CHARGE: ASTONISHINGLY POIGNANT AND ELOQUENT MANUSCRIPT COMMONPLACE BOOK. The manuscript contains writings by three three different women. The first (and most extensive) is by the Governess of a dead child: "In Memory of dear little Harry who was taken to Heaven 5th of 4th mo'th 1856." Her spidery Victorian handwriting is even and accomplished. The format of the above date, and her use of "thee" and "thou" throughout may suggest that she was a Quaker. For 30 pages… Read More

New York: Cassel, 1885. First Edition. Very good. 16mo. [2], 190 pp. Original publisher's brown gilt- and silver embossed decorated cloth, a.e.g. A bright copy in excellent condition, almost flawless. When does a ranching story have nothing to do with ranching? This book "is without either story or ranch; it is about some dilettantish people who go out to a Kansas sheep farm, talk Chopin, and wash their fingers in finger-bowls" (Dobie, p. 116). Also discussed are various types of silver spoons, cameras, violins, portieres, billiards, Oriental carpets, and so forth. While unnamed, herein is described the author's own family of "tenderfeet," i.e. Easterners who decide to experience sheep ranching in Kansas on a ten-thousand acre, ten-thousand sheep ranch, "not only twelve miles from a lemon, but a thousand miles from a strawberry" (Wright 4668). A contemporary reviewer describes the narrative as "a true story, the outcome of the author's own experience on a Kansas sheep ranch, and it is as fresh and… Read More

London: Laurie and Whittle. No. 53, Fleet Street, 1794. Very good. Original copper-engraved map with contemporary hand-colored outline and rather hastily-applied wash which in some instances extends into the outer margins. Professionally matted (visible size: 420 x 320 mm; 16.5" x 12.5"), very handsome 20th-century wood frame. Original engraving, NOT a reproduction! Fine 18th-century map of the world, showing the exploration routes and circumnavigations of Bouvet (1733 and 1739), Bougainville (1768), Byron (1765) and Cook (1773-1779), with other explorers' landfalls shown in the Pacific and Southern Oceans. Australia is shown as New Holland; New Zealand appears twice (sic!); and there is no indication of Antarctica. The map shows late eighteenth-century coastal cities and some geography of North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Oceania. Extracted from Samuel Dunn's "A New atlas of the mundane system; or, of geography and cosmography: describing the heavens and the earth, the… Read More

New York: Burt Franklin, 1968. Very good. 8o. 195 pp. With a frontispiece portrait of William Caxton, and Original buckram. NOT ex-library! Groundbreaking approach to a biography of England's first printer, based on the evidence, and not mythology. First published in 1925, this is the facsimile reprint on "long-life paper." Plomer (1856-1928) writes with authority, having been Assistant Keeper at the British Museum (Library) and one of the foremost bibliographers in Britain at that time.

Paris: J.J. Blaise, 1818. Very good. 8vo. 20 ff. + 20 full-page engravings. Contemporary French emerald-green glazed boards, red morocco spine label (trifle rubbed). PRINTED BY PIERRE DIDOT L'AINE (1761-1853). "Pierre published acclaimed editions of Virgil, Horace, La Fontaine, and Racine. Firmin designed the Didot typeface. He also invented stereotypes (plates cast from printing surfaces) and was thus able to publish low-priced editions of French, Italian, and English books. Napoleon appointed him director of the imperial foundry, a position he held until his death." (E-B). Multiple artists were entrusted to create the twenty extremely delicate engravings; some were executed by Claude Marie Francois Dien (1787-1865); others are signed "S.D. fecit," "C.A." and other engravers who have not yet been identified. There are portraits by Marie Therese of Austria, Marie de Savoie, Louis "Dauphin," the Duc de Montmorency, Comte de Grignan, and other notables of the day. Each portrait is accompanied by a… Read More

New York: Doubleday, 1996. Hardcover. Very Good/Very good. Octavo, 470 pages, original cloth with dustjacket. Illustrated throughout in black and white and color. ¶ The flowering of civilization, the rebirth of classical scholarship, and the emergence of some of the greatest artists and thinkers the world has known: this is the traditional view of the Renaissance. In this lively, provocative, and wholly absorbing new book, Lisa Jardine offers a radical new interpretation, arguing that the creation of culture during the Renaissance was inextricably tied to the creation of wealth.