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Dear Friend,
It's almost time for the New York Antiquarian Book Fair and we’re pleased to share highlights from our stand at the Park Avenue Armory, 3-6 April. These include an unrecorded 1571 imprint by John Day and a frankly astonishing manuscript autobiography of a late 17th century physician. We're offering the 1790s log book of a merchant ship transporting slave-plantation sugar and, written during the American Civil War, Charles Kingsley’s equivocal handwritten commentary on slavery. Alongside a presentation volume from Alma Mahler there are two books from Bletchley Park as well as Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, inscribing and doodling a young woman’s album at their Detroit leaving party, before heading for New York City. See you there.
Best wishes,
Christian
UNRECORDED EDITION - Sermons Preached by the Right Reverend Father in God, and constant Martyr of Jesus Christ M. Hugh Latimer, the xxviii. of Octob. An. 1552. Faithfully gathered to the profite of the Christian Reader by Augustine Bernher his servaunt, not heretofore published in printe. — Hugh Latimer; Augustine Bernher; George Livermore — 1571
An unrecorded John Day imprint drawing upon the text of Latimer’s Frutefull Sermons from the 1570s but released with a new title page that renders the collection as Sermons Preached by the Right Reverend Father in God. Though resembling a single copy of Latimer’s sermons held at Cornell University, this imprint is textually distinct from that one, adding to our knowledge of the output of one of the most influential of Elizabethan printers. Boosting the appeal of this volume is its provenance to…… Read more
PICARESQUE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN EARLY MODERN PHYSICIAN: Curriculum Vitae or The Birth, Education, Travels & Life of Henry Lamp MD Written by Himself — Henry Lampe — 1710
Picaresque 18th century life-writing in English by a medical doctor who trained at the Albertina in Konigsberg and at the University of Leiden before pursuing alchemical studies in London and Paris from where he had to flee French persecution of protestants in the late 1680s to settle in England. Moving first to London and then Norwich, Henry Lampe converted to Quakerism while running an apothecary’s shop in the cathedral city before ending ‘my various and numerous Exercises, troubles and tossin…… Read more
‘TO BE OR NOT TO BE’ COMMONPLACED & SANITISED FOR THE 18TH CENTURY: Observations on Reading Vol. 2d July 17, 1720 — 1710s Anonymous Writer — 1720
Strong early 18th century commonplace book compiled by an educated adult reader of contemporary and near-contemporary English language writers who include John Wilkins, Thomas Browne, John Locke, Pascal (a French exception), Dryden and Congreve, but most strikingly of all, Shakespeare. The manuscript writer quotes from Hamlet's greatest soliloquy, ‘To be or Not to Be...’ beginning at ‘Who would fardles bear’ continuing via ‘The undiscovered Country from whose bourn/ No traveler returns’ giving t…… Read more
A DIRECTORY FOR MIDWIVES: OR, A GUIDE FOR WOMEN IN THEIR CONCEPTION, BEARING AND SUCKLING THEIR CHILDREN [bound with] The English Physician... On the Disease of Women — Nicholas Culpeper — 1777
Two works devoted to women’s health by Nicolas Culpeper, both quite late though very uncommon editions which may have been issued together. The highlight of the volume is the elaborate woodcut delineating the differences between a foetus and a child together with a large woodcut depicting ‘The Form the Child lies in the womb’. Bound in contemporary half calf, wear to tail of spine; block-printed paper covered boards; worn corner tips. A little mottling and occasional stains to paper stock but bo…… Read more
BALLOONING SAMMELBAND: An Account of Five Aerial Voyages in Scotland [with] Late Disturbances at the Theatre Royal in Newcastle [with] Late Disturbances at the Theatre Royal in Edinburgh [&] Lecture on the Heads — VINCENT LUNARDI [Thomas Davidson, Mrs Elizabeth Kemble] — 1786
‘The Daredevil Aeronaut’, Vincent Lunardi’s account of his first balloon flights made in Scotland’s capital, Edinburgh in a collection of pamphlets which was owned by a leading Newcastle attorney and Clerk of the Peace, Thomas Davidson, who seems likely to have acquired this book in connection with Lunardi’s disastrous subsequent balloon ascent out of Newcastle that year. This flight caused the death of one of Lunardi’s assistants on September 9th when he plunged to his death after being dragged…… Read more
SLAVE PLANTATION SUGAR-CARRYING WEST INDIAN MERCHANT SHIP’S LOGBOOK: ‘Ship Mercury on her Passage to Tobago under Convoy of HMS Meleager Captain Ogle’ — Robert Rising — 1798
Officer’s log book of a merchant West Indiaman engaged in supplying horses and mules to the enslaved African and African-American servicemen of Britain’s West India Regiments - and on the homeward journey bringing back a cargo of sugar manufactured by their enslaved cousins in the plantations of the Caribbean. Both Atlantic crossings were fraught with difficulty: the log records the frequent alarms caused to Mercury’s convoy partners by enemy vessels during this early phase of the Napoleonic War…… Read more
CHAPBOOK-STYLE POEMS OF THE EARL OF ROCHESTER: The Works of the Earls of Rochester, Roscommon, and Dorset; the Dukes of Devonshire, Buckinghamshire, etc with Memoirs of their Lives — John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester; Wentworth Dillon; Charles Sackville; William Cavendish — 1800
Scarce cheap edition of Rochester’s poems with 9 crudely executed plates. Bound in contemporary sheepskin with wear to the head and tail of the spine; two volumes in one; two frontispieces and 7 further plates. Bottom 4cm of the first title page replaced with an old paper graft, losing the imprint which fortunately survives on the second title page. Though printed on soft paper the text is in very good condition; ownership signature to final flyleaf of: ‘Roland E Young 13 May 1948. Hans Mornay a…… Read more
NO KNOWN COPIES OF THIS GIRLS’ EDUCATIONAL TEXT Exercises in the First Four Rules of Arithmetic; Chiefly of a Domestic Kind: Designed Solely for the Use of his Own Scholars. A New Edition — William Butler — 1804
Seemingly unique surviving copy of this 1804 work intended to teach arithmetic to young women. The author William Butler was quite prolific but this 1804 imprint intended for ‘the use of his own Scholars’ does not appear to be held in any library; the 1809 edition is recorded but OCLC but records no library holdings. Presumably printed in small numbers for Butler’s personal use as a teacher in London and frequently discarded after use since there are 32 engraved pages of problems which will usua…… Read more
FOREEDGE PAINTING OF SHAKESPEARE’S BIRTHPLACE: The Wisdom and Genius of Shakespeare — William Shakespeare, Thomas Price (editor) [Richard Moon] — 1838
Collection of Shakespearian extracts in a beautiful little binding adorned with a foreedge painting of Shakespeare’s Birthplace in Stratford upon Avon. Small octavo bound in red roan, blind stamped to boards and gilt decoration to spine; all edges gilt with the foreedge painting visible when the book is splayed. The book was given as a present in 1840 by a Richard Moon - perhaps the LNER railway tycoon, 1814-1899 - to his niece Ellen Elizabeth Moon. Yellow-coated endpapers; a few brown spots to…… Read more
HUMOROUS MATHEMATICAL MANUSCRIPT THAT EVOLVED INTO ACKERMANN’S 1850 PUBLICATION: The New Picture-Alphabet or the Language of Mathematics — John Lewis Roget — 1844
Manuscript first draft from 1844 of the humorous book of illustrations that would become Roget’s 1850 publication with Ackermann that visualises mathematical terms or, as he describes it in the published title: Familiar Illustrations of the Language of Mathematics. Son of the philologist Peter Mark Roget, John Lewis would go on to edit his father’s thesaurus, write a history of the Water Colour Society but in his teens he created this volume of lively ink and watercolour designs which emerged in…… Read more
‘PRETTY PURGATORY’: 1783-1820 Manuscript Autobiography of an Aspiring Woman Writer & Near Contemporary of Jane Austen — Elizabeth Ham — 1849
Full length, c140,000 word, manuscript autobiography of a young woman writer and near-contemporary of Jane Austen whose early life was spent criss-crossing Austen’s own terrain. Looking back on the closing years of the 18th century, this is a work of social commentary, a chronicle of an aspiring intellectual young woman’s usually thwarted attempts to acquire an education and to write, a bildungsroman, and as she finds herself ‘fast approaching womanhood…’ an uncannily Austen-like narrative of he…… Read more
YOUNG ARTIST’S TOUR JOURNAL OF NORTHERN EUROPE IN 1850: ‘Pen and Pencil Scraps from Belgium by Robert Taylor Pritchett’ — Robert Taylor Pritchett — 1850
One of the overlooked gems of Europe pictured in an artist’s tour journal of his exploration of Belgium and Holland in 1850. Robert Taylor Pritchett (1828-1907) would later become a favourite artist of Queen Victoria and illustrate Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle but in these images we accompany the young traveller from Dover (seen looking up from the port) via Calais and into the Low Countries which formed the source of paintings that he would exhibit the following year at the Royal Academy. Much…… Read more
TRAVELS WITH ‘A VERY LARGE CHEQUE BOOK’ Grand Tour Journal of a Victorian Playboy and Grandson of the industrialist Richard Arkwright — John Hungerford Arkwright of Herefordshire — 1857
Grand Tour sketchbook and diary written by the playboy Johnny Hungerford Arkwright, shortly to inherit 10,000 acres of prime Herefordshire farmland paid for by his grandfather, the industrial tycoon Richard Arkwright. Johnny Arkwright made this trip to southern France and Italy in December 1857, returning to England the following month for his sister’s wedding, only for his father to die exactly a month later, forcing the young man into a position of immediate responsibility. Described by the fa…… Read more
NOVELIST CHARLES KINGSLEY EQUIVOCATES OVER SLAVERY: The Law of Territories — Sidney George Fisher [Charles Kingsley] — 1859
British novelist Charles Kingsley’s annotated copy of Fisher’s essays about the political consequences for slavery of the admission to the Union of Kansas and Nebraska as potentially free - that is non-slaveholding - states. Broadly in favour of abolition but attached to the Southern cause by ties of family and birth - Kingsley’s grandparents were themselves slave-owners in the Caribbean - Charles Kingsley’s annotations to this book, made during the second year of the American Civil War, see him…… Read more
‘BALL AT DORCHESTER HOUSE RATHER DISAPPOINTING’: Aristocratic Diary by the Future Father of two Dukes of Portland — William George Frederick Cavendish Bentinck (1856-1948) — 1878
Avowedly private journal of an English aristocrat, recent Cambridge graduate, Mayfair-resident, avid ball and theatre-goer and, paradoxically, future husband of the socialist and suffragist Ruth St Maur from whose union sprang the 8th and 9th Dukes of Portland. Known by his third given name, Frederick - William George Frederick Cavendish Bentinck (1856-1948) - was a member of the immensely wealthy family of the Dukes of Portland but was training as a lawyer at the time of this diary. His future…… Read more
INSCRIBED FIRST EDITION Select Conversations with an Uncle — H G Wells — 1895
Inscribed first edition of Well’s first non-scientific book which relates twelve topical conversations with an imaginary uncle. The subjects covered by the authorial stand-in called George and his uncle include fashion, the resemblance of ideals to interior decoration, the art of being photographed, the agony of having to listen to a near neighbour playing the piano, social novels, and the effects of marriage. A sort of state-of-the-nation kind of dialogue. DESCRIPTION: Bound in silver-pink wate…… Read more
HORSE HAIR ALBUM COMPILED BY A YOUNG WOMAN RIDING ENTHUSIAST IN EAST ANGLIA — Adeline Blyth — c. 1900
100 specimens of horse hair taken from manes and tails of horses alongside portraits of the ponies with annotations giving details of each horse and their stables together iwth drawings, paintings,prints and photographs of individual animals. The collection has been compiled through the English counties of Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and Berkshire. DESCRIPTION: Album bound in half pebbled brown cloth boards with purple roan to spine and corners. Spine in 4 compartment…… Read more
HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC: FRONTISPIECE SIGNED BY 14 MEMBERS INCLUDING SHACKLETON — Ernest Shackleton, Douglas Mawson etc — 1907
Ernest Shackleton's Heart Of The Antarctic Nimrod Expedition frontispiece signed by 16 crew members including the expedition leader Shackleton himself, Adams, Mackintosh, etc. Other signers include, in alphabetical order: Jameson Adams; Bertram Armytage; Philip Brocklehurst; Bernard Day; Ernest Joyce; Alistair Mackay; Aeneas Mackintosh; Eric Marshall; George Marston; James Murray; William Roberts; Frank Wild; and Ray Wriestley. Very good with folds. 8.5" x 10.75." These autographed page were exc…… Read more
PRESENTED BY ALMA MAHLER & ANNOTATED BY HER VIENNESE MUSICOLOGIST RECIPIENT: Gustav Mahler Briefe — Gustav & Alma Mahler [Ludwig Karpath] — 1924
A remarkable copy of Mahler’s letters inscribed by his widow Alma Mahler to a close friend of the couple, the bass-baritone (under Gustav’s baton in Budapest in the 1880s) turned Viennese musicologist Ludwig Karpath who has gone on to annotate the book, drawing upon his personal knowledge of the composer. 17 of Gustav Mahler’s letters to Ludwig Karpath written between 1897-1905 are printed in this edition and this presentation copy was given in recognition of Karpath’s contribution to the book.…… Read more
CELEBRATING THEIR DEPARTURE FOR NEW YORK CITY - FRIDA KAHLO & DIEGO RIVERA INSCRIBE A CHILD’S ALBUM — Frida Kahlo - Carmen Rivera; Diego Rivera — 1933
Inscribed with drawings and doodles by the artistic super-couple Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera at the unveiling of Rivera’s newly completed masterpiece, the Detroit Industry Murals at the city’s Institute of Art, early in 1933. With these drawings into a child’s autograph album, made a few days before their departure for New York City, Kahlo and Rivera marked the close of a period of great artistic achievement for them both. Just three days before these drawings were created Rivera finished his i…… Read more
ANNOTATED IN BLETCHLEY PARK HUT 7 BY A CODE-BREAKER: New Japanese-English Dictionary — Takenobu Yoshitaro [Hubert Trevor Forrester] — 1942
Annotated Japanese-English dictionary from Hut 7 by a Bletchley Park code breaker - a colleague of Alan Turing’s - who used this book to assist him in working on intercepted Japanese naval ciphers. 5 inches thick across the spine, this brick of a dictionary takes us straight into the heart of Bletchley Park in the winter of 1944/5 where its owner Hubert Trevor Forrester was seconded from Cambridge University first to the Admiralty - ‘we were taken down into the bowels of the building, lectured o…… Read more
‘FROM ALL AT BLETCHLEY’ - A WARTIME GIFT TO A CODE-BREAKER AT STATION X: Jack and Jill — Louisa M Alcott — 1942
A gift given in the midst of Bletchley Park’s war-winning code-breaking work to a young woman working on the site, inscribed anonymously ‘from all at Bletchley Feb. 1942’. Given the date of February 1942 this seems likely to be either a birthday present or, perhaps, taking into account the phrase ‘all at Bletchley’, possibly a leaving gift for someone who had worked there for a while. Even in such an affectionately inscribed presentation volume the conditions of extreme secrecy surrounding Bletc…… Read more
LIMITED EDITION PRESENTED TO SOPRANO WHO CREATED ROLE OF ELLEN ORFORD: Peter Grimes: An Opera in three Acts and a Prologue derived from the poem of George Crabbe. — Benjamin Britten, Montagu Slater, Erwin Stein — 1945
Limited edition of Britten’s acknowledged masterpiece, presented by the composer to the soprano Joan Cross who created the leading female role in the opera of Grimes’s defender and ally, Ellen Orford. From an unknown very small limited edition created for presentation only (seemingly no copy in the Britten Pears Library) this is ‘copy No 3.. presented to Joan Cross [by] Benjamin Britten’. Laid in is the original programme for the premier which was staged on June 7th, 1945, barely a month after V…… Read more
‘TURING MACHINE’ PERFECTED: Alan Turing’s 1936 Breakthrough Updated - ‘The Word problem in Semi-groups with Cancellation’ — Alan Turing — 1950
A ‘late’ Turing paper in which the scientist refines the conceptual framework around his ground-breaking and eponymous creation, the ‘Turing Machine’ It was in 1936 that Alan Turing famously proposed an imaginary device which would manipulate symbols on an infinite strip of tape. With the simple set of rules by which this device operated, Turing was able not only to show that the ‘entscheidungsproblem’ (decision problem) set by David Hilbert was unsolvable, but also to give a formal definition o…… Read more
ORIGINAL BROADWAY PRODUCTION SCRIPTS FROM A RENOWNED NEW YORK THEATRE PRODUCER: Company, A Little Night Music, Fiddler On The Roof, Evita, Funny Girl, Pacific Overtures. — Stephen Sondheim [Harold Prince] — 1964
‘Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good’ - a small archive of original run production scripts from some of Broadway’s most acclaimed productions. All six scripts come from the estate of Harold - Hal - Prince, who produced and or directed such landmark musicals as Fiddler On The Roof, Cabaret, West Side Story, Company, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, Evita, Phantom Of the Opera, and many more. He garnered 21 Tony Awards during his illus…… Read more
LUCIAN FREUD WRITES TO THE YORKSHIRE ART COLLECTOR RONNIE DUNCAN — Lucian Freud (Ronnie Duncan) — 1974
Laid into a 1974 exhibition catalogue, a letter from Lucian Freud to the visionary Yorkshire art collector Ronnie Duncan (1928-) whose step-son was married to one of Freud’s daughters. In the letter, written in pencil in Freud’s characteristic almost-childlike handwriting, the artist thanks Duncan ‘(in advance) for the Grouse’ but apologetically bows out of a dinner invitation: ‘I will not be able to come tonight as I am working.’ (One wonders whether the Grouse was intended for eating or painti…… Read more
HAND-DRAWN MOCK-UP BY THE ARTIST & WRITER OF Mummy Laid an Egg — Babette Cole — 1990
Publisher’s dummy for this award-winning if controversial children’s book in which Babette Cole ‘unleashes her endearingly loony sense of humor on the subject of the birds and the bees, and the result is, as expected, hilarious’ (Publisher’s Weekly). In the book a couple of parents attempt to explain the facts of life to their two children, who respond to their apparently ignorant parents by explaining matters to them - with stick-figure illustrations. This is a full length ‘dummy’ of the book p…… Read more
‘I CRIED - I CRIED MAINLY FOR MYSELF’ : Autograph Manuscript on Poetry and his Troubled Life written in New York City — Gregory Corso — 1990
Unpublished Gregory Corso manuscript containing extended musings on his reputation as a poet, the example set to him by his fellow Beats, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsburg (offering ribald advice on dealing with fan letters) and on the elusive nature of the creative process: ‘As a young poet/ I ventured poems on God & Death… It was a wise fellow/ who told me “I paint what I don’t know…’ At the heart of the manuscript is a long unpublished poem about Corso’s understanding of poetic inspiration, pra…… Read more
Dr. Christian White
Christian White Rare Books
287 Leeds Road, Ilkley, LS29 8LL
07811 455398
info@christianwhiterarebooks.com
www.christianwhiterarebooks.com
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