General History

London. John Murray. 1903. Spectacularly bound by Broca in full gilt ruled royal blue polished calf. Gilt ruled spine compartments with elaborate gilt tooled motifs. Gilt tooled raised bands. Morocco labels. Intricate gilt tooled inner dentelles. Marbled edges and endsheets. a.e.g. 8vo. (5.5" x 8.5"). First Edition. Hugely illustrated throughout with portrait engravings and a profusion of extra illustrations. A most unique extra-illustrated set. Hinges lightly rubbed. One ore two scuffs to covers. A Fine elegant set.Featured Sets.

Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1881. Hardcover. Very Good. 4to, 9 x 11, xciv + 854 pages. Ancien eleve de l'Ecole des chartes, le historien Arthur-Andre-Gabriel Michel de Boislisle (1835-1908) entra au ministere des Finances et y devint sous-chef des archives. Membre du Comite des travaux historiques, membre et secretaire de la Societe des antiquaires, il fut elu membre libre de l'Academie des inscriptions et belles-lettres en 1884. Sous les auspices du ministere des Finances et d'apres les documents des Archives nationales, Arthur de Boislisle publia la Correspondance des controleurs generaux des finances avec les intendants des provinces (1874-1883), et pour la Collection des documents inedits de l'Histoire de France, Les memoires des intendants sur l'etat des generalites (1881). Arthur de Boislisle a egalement laisse une histoire de la Chambre des comptes de Paris (1873), ainsi qu'une monumentale edition des Memoires de Saint-Simon (1879-1908). Rebound in green buckram, paper label. Interior spotless.

Guatemala: Tip. de El Progreso / La Union, 1887. First editions. Vol. 1, quarter red morocco; vols. 2-7 original blank paper wrappers as issued. Volumes 2-7 unopened (uncut) and untrimmed as sold hence some edges worn and soiled, scattered foxing, blank wrappers quite worn, torn, and soiled, some toning to half titles or titles, otherwise trimmed size is internally near fine; volume 1 extremities worn, small chip at head of spine and joint split at top. Booksellers stamp to title page of one volume.. Illus. 8vo. This is the most famous 19th c. work on Central America and a very important regional history by an anti-clerical and liberal historian, Lorenzo Montufar y Rivera Maestre (1823-1898), who, as foreign minister of Costa Rica, helped organize the Central American defense against William Walker (to whom the final volume is devoted; and is perhaps the best treatment of the filibusters) and was frequently exiled for his opposition to the dictator Rafael Carrera. Bancroft and many other historians… Read More

[xxxvi]+167+[viii]+96 pages. Octavo (8 1/4" x 6 1/4") bound in full leather with decorative gilt and lettering to spine. From the library of George M Foster. First edition.Lorenzo Boturini Benaducci, born in Italy of noble parentage, studied in Milan and lived in Trieste and Vienna. He was a knight of the Holy Roman Empire. Forced to flee Austria because of the war with Spain, Boturini arrived in Spain via England and Portugal. In Madrid he met the Condesa de Santibáñez, oldest daughter of the Condesa de Moctezuma. The mother authorized him to collect a pension due her, as a descendant of the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II, from the royal treasury in New Spain. Boturini went to New Spain in 1736, where he remained eight years. During those years he assembled a vast collection of paintings, maps, manuscripts and native codices. He copied more than 500 pre-Columbian inscriptions and made his own drawings of monuments and sculptures, and he investigated the history of the apparition of the Virgin of… Read More

lii+315 pages. Octavo (8" x 5 3/4") bound in full leather with gilt lettering to spine. Translated with notes by Pedro Varela y Ulloa. (Palau 196692.) First Spanish edition.A text that engaged the well-studied debates about the natural history of the Americas and Spain's colonial history. In 1780, in Venice, Juan Nuix published Riflessioni imparziali supra l'umanita degli spagnuoli nell' Indie contro i pretersi filosofi e politici. Nuix, a Catalan living in Italy since the expulsion of the Jesuits, wrote the book to defend Spanish colonialism and historiography against the attacks of Robertson and Raynal. It sailed by the censors in the Council of the Indies, and two separate translations appeared in succession, one in 1782, edited by a member of the Royal Council, Pedro Varela y Ulloa, and another in 1783, by Joseph Nuix, Juan's brother. The Spanish edition sponsored by the crown opened with an essay by Varela y Ulloa, in which he first offered a searing Critique of traditional forms of colonialism,… Read More

Lugduni: Sebastianum Gryphium, 1552. Limp Vellum. See Description. Folio. pp. [36], Cols. 1-1218, pp. [3]. With printer's device on title page. The colophon (verso of final leaf) reads "Sebastianus Gryphius excudebat Lugduni, anno M.D.LII." and contains a large woodcut griffin device. Dual column text with fine decorative initials. Several diagrams are included with the text illustrating… Bound in full period vellum (rubbed). Title and shelf number are written on the spine in an early hand. An old ownership or institutional stamp is present on the title page, the second leaf, leaf T5, and also on the colophon page. Interior pages contain mild to moderate age-toning and periodic scattered foxing and spotting. Some pages are more uniformly toned. Raffaelo Maffei (1451-1522) was an Italian humanist, historian and theologian. His "Commentariorum urbanorum" (first published in 1506) is an encyclopedia of all subjects known at the time. The work is particularly notable for the importance given to… Read More

Paris: Ex typographia Matthaei Davidis, 1556. First Edition. . Hardcover. See Description. First Edition. 4to. pp. [12], 250, 14. Title page with woodcut printer’s device. Text printed italic font with sectional decorative initials. Interior pages are generally clean. A miniscule marginal tear is neatly sealed on the title page. A small pair of initials are lightly written in an old hand on the verso of the title. Bound in modern full calf with panels in blind after an early period style. Jean Picard’s "De Prisca Celtopaedia" discusses the development of language, arts and science in ancient Gaul. The author uses place names, ancient sources and epigraphic evidence to argue that the Greek language had originated in Gaul and that the Gallic Druids and Bards were developing philosophy, science and poetry long before other cultures. Picard claims that the Greek language was first brought to Greece by the Gauls as they travelled through those lands on the way to found new settlements… Read More

Tempe, Arizona:: Cabbagehead Press,, 2011.. Edition of 30. 7.5 x 9.25" closed; 7.5 x 140" extended. Accordion book with leatherbound covers. Letterpress and relief on shaped, variable paper handmade from the clothing of landmine victims, minefield plant fibers, and currency of mine-producing nations. Printed two sides in ten sections. Paper title label on front cover. Signed and numbered by the artist. John Risseeuw: "The subject is landmines and landmine victims. From 2001-2007, The Paper Landmine Print Project involved making paper and printing landmine images, facts, and stories of victims on it. In hand papermaking, we make paper from cotton, linen, or silk clothing - rags - as well as plant fibers and other sources of cellulose. I collected articles of clothing from landmine victims (this means only a representative piece of clothing - something the person wore - not from the accident itself), fibrous plants from mine locations, and shredded paper currencies of nations that use or… Read More

Antverpiae: Ex officina Plantiniana apud viduam, & Ioannem Moretum, 1595. Hardcover. See Description. Second edition, corrected. Small 8vo. pp. 137, [7]. With 22 engravings accompanying the text. Title page contains the Plantin device. Bound in a fine unsigned modern full calf binding with blind stamped and gilt boards and an extra-gilt spine. Interior pages are clean and fresh with an occasional spot. Edges are trimmed a bit closely on some leaves. A very attractive copy. The engravings, which mostly depict different forms of crucifixion, are ascribed to the Dutch engraver Peter van der Borcht. Justus Lipsius (1547-1606) was a Belgian antiquarian who specialized in the study of ancient and classical history. His work "De cruce libri tres" (first printed in 1583) is an important scholarly study on crucifixion in antiquity. [Bibliographie Lipsienne I, pp. 189-190; Adams L-778].

London: Thomas Creede, 1598. First English language edition. . Hardcover. See Description. Small folio. Lacking preliminary blank leaf, thus pp. [10], 310, 292, [4]. Page numbering is erratic. Leaf Ee3 is mis-signed as F3, but all leaves are present and in order. The title page contains a woodcut vignette/device. Each chapter begins with a woodcut decorative head piece and an initial. Bound in full dark brown modern calf with blind tooled borders and stamps after an early period style. The upper part of the title page is age-toned / tanned; a professionally sealed 7 cm. tear runs from the gutter part way across the upper portion of the title and is difficult to detect on first sight; a couple of tiny chips on the top edge are restored. Interior pages are generally attractive but with occasional mild age-toning and periodic faint marginal damp staining. A small repair patch is present on the inner margins of leaves A6 and V6. A tear on leaf V6 (also carefully sealed) extends vertically about 8.5 cm… Read More

London: John Murray, 1813. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/No Jacket. 4to. Full calf binding with blind palm leaf tooling, framed in gilt. Title on new green leather spine label. Blind scrollwork tooling on spine. Marbled edges. Marbled endpapers. [14], 358, [1]. With ten coloured engravings incl. frontis, from drawings by a native artist. Wear to boards, edges and corners, light scratches to boards, chip on headcap. Hinges starting to crack. Bookplate and faded label on front pastedown. Light offsetting from bookplate on free endpaper. Light foxing to some pages, light offsetting throughout. Light staining to edges on pp 31-36 and pp 54-55 staining to leaves in margins, text not affected. Slightly roughly cut edges to margins. The purpose of this book is to provide an accurate description of the 'character, manners, domestic habits and religious ceremonies of the Mahrattas.' Broughton (1778-1835), an army officer in the East India Company, first arrived in India while serving as a cadet in the… Read More

London: Cassell, 1948. First. Very Good+/Very Good-. A complete set of first editions of all of Churchill's speeches after WWII These volumes are scarcer than his War Speeches, since they were published in smaller quantities These are all the "true first" British editions US editions were published for the first four, but there was no US edition of the last, The Unwritten Alliance All DJ's are in protective mylar covers The Set includes: 1 The Sinews of Peace - 1948, 256 pp Book is fine in orange cloth, with no marks or damage at all Unclipped DJ is near fine, with just slight edge wear at spine ends [Woods A124] 2 Europe Unite - 1950, 506 pp Book is near fine in green cloth, with just very slight bumping at spine ends and extremely slight fading at top spine end Unclipped DJ is very good, with slight chipping at spine ends, and slight darkening on rear [Woods A128] 3 In the Balance, 1951, 406 pp Book is near fine in blue cloth, with just slight bumping on spine ends Cipped DJ is very good, with… Read More

Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1909. First American Edition, 1st Printing. Very Good. In two volumes, 8vo [10.25x7.75in]; Vol. I - [2], liii, [1], 366 pp. [2], 78 plate leaves of illustrations and images, with frontispiece and 6 in color with printed tissue guards, black/white and diagrams, numerous illustrations in text; Vol. II -xvi, 451 pp., [1], 69 plate leaves, with frontispiece and 6 in color with printed tissue guards, black/white, numerous illustrations in text, in rear pocket a black and white landscape panorama, with 3 colored folding maps of routes; Dark blue cloth with silver lettering on front and spine, ruled borders and silver illustration of three explorers and flag on front (from image at the magnetic South Pole) and silver illustration on spine of single explorer, top edge gilt and other edges untrimmed; Minor shelf wear to covers with rubbing to corners, edges and top/bottom of spine on both volumes, illustration on Vol. II front has rubbed spot, age toning to text edges… Read More

Cassell and Company, Ltd.. A beautiful crisp four volume hardcover set in very good condition, red morrocan half leather bindings and marbled paper, raised bands and gilt lettering. First printings of all four books with "First Published" stated on reverse of title page. Light foxing to textblock and endpaper, Volume 1 has a faint stain to the leather. . Very Good. Hardcover. 1st Edition. 1956.

Half bound in brown grained leather with brown cloth boards. Spine has raised banding with gilt squared banding and lettering and griffin emblem (same as on the name plate on the end paper), suggesting specially bound by Hatchards of Piccadilly for his library. Dimensions are for the largest volume.
The Second Boer War , 11 October 1899 – 31 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South African Republic and the Orange Free State) over the Empire's influence in Southern Africa from 1899 to 1902. Triggered by the discovery of diamond and gold deposits in the Boer republics, the Boers launched successful attacks against British outposts in the opening stages of the war before being pushed back by imperial reinforcements. Though the British swiftly occupied the Boer republics, numerous Boers refused to accept defeat and engaged in guerrilla warfare. Eventually, British scorched… Read More