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We're exhibiting at Firsts London once again with some of our best new arrivals, all on display at our stand in the beautiful Saatchi Gallery. This year, we explore the fair's theme, Books in Bloom, with an album of exquisite watercolours by the women of the Twopeny family and a manuscript draft of Vita Sackville-West's garden poem "Sissinghurst".
SCOT, Reginald. A perfite Platforme of a Hoppe Garden,London : 1578
Third edition, following the first of 1574, of this "entirely original work and the first to be written expressly on the culture of hops in England" (Henrey), here extensively annotated by an early reader. Scot's is "an eminently practical treatise, illustrating the various methods of setting the roots, making the hills and ramming the poles,...Learn More
HERESBACH, Conrad. Foure Bookes of Husbandrie,London : 1586
Third edition of Googe's English translation of Heresbach's Rei rusticae libri quatuor (1570), an extensive manual of husbandry. Googe's version, first printed in 1577, is among the most important contributions to early English farming literature and contributed to the advancement of farming technology in the country.
The work is composed...Learn More
HOBBES, Thomas - CLARENDON, Edward Hyde, Earl of. A Brief View and Survey of the Dangerous and pernicious Errors to Church and State, in Mr. Hobbes's Book, Entitled Leviathan.Oxford : 1676
First edition, large and thick paper copy, handsomely bound in contemporary English black morocco, and with the near-contemporary bookplate to the front pastedown of John Evans as Bishop of Bangor. Clarendon's fiercely critical Survey is the most significant and sustained early response to Hobbes's Leviathan.
Clarendon (1609-1674) was chief...Learn More
HAUTEFEUILLE, Jean de. Three pamphlet proposals for a paper currency.1694-1716
First editions of these scarce proposals on the monetary situation in late 17th-century France. Hautefeuille's 1694 tract advocates a paper currency, more than ten years before John Law first suggested the idea.
Following a series of wars, the French government was heavily in debt and running low on gold and silver currency. Jean de...Learn More
UMECHUKEN, Kazon. Manuscript guide to arranging plants and flowers.Japan : 1699
A rare manuscript, titled Kusaki yariyo ("A Guide to Arranging Plants"). According to the preface, it holds the knowledge of Ikenobo Senko (either the 1st or 2nd). These masters popularized the rikka (standing-flowers) style of ikebana, which uses various plants and branches in harmony to reflect nature. It contains 13 exemplar arrangements...Learn More
DEFOE, Daniel. The Villainy of Stock-Jobbers Detected,London : 1701
First edition of one of Defoe's early economic works, including his reflections on the reformation of the East India Company in 1697. Opposition to stock-jobbing informed much of Defoe's later writing, and his economic thought even influenced literary works like Moll Flanders. The text is scarce in commerce: we can trace just two others in auction...Learn More
KANT, Immanuel. Allgemeine Naturgeschichte und Theorie des Himmels,Königsberg : 1755
First edition of Kant's most influential scientific work, the source of the nebular theory of planetary formation, here in an unrestored contemporary binding. We trace only two previous auction records for this first edition, among his earliest and scarcest books.
Kant's earliest studies at the University of Königsberg were in mathematics...Learn More
NELSON, Horatio, Viscount Nelson (his copy) - HORATIUS FLACCUS, Quintus (Horace). A Poetical Translation of the Works of Horace,London : 1765
Nelson's set, with armorial bookplate in each volume, and his right-handed signature to the rear pastedown of volume IV; the bookplates are annotated "Horatio Nelson" in the hand of his brother, William, first Earl Nelson (1757-1835), the set having been gifted to William's son, also Horatio (1788-1808). When a boy, Nelson was known in family...Learn More
EDWARDS OF HALIFAX - BIBLE. The Holy Bible,Bath : 1785
An imposing Bible, bound by Edwards of Halifax in their celebrated "Etruscan" style. Each volume features a fore-edge painting, including a reproduction of the Last Supper after Raphael and two colour landscapes.
Edwards famously almost never signed their bindings, and their style was very frequently reproduced by others. This set is...Learn More
ANGELO, Domenico & Henry. The School of Fencing with a General Explanation of the Principal Attitudes and Positions peculiar to the Art.London : 1787
First octavo edition of Domenico Angelo's renowned guide to swordsmanship, first issued as a sumptuous folio in 1763, and undoubtedly one of the most important fencing works ever published. This edition was the first with the text in English only.
Domenico Angelo won the patronage of the Earl of Pembroke and introduced swordplay to George...Learn More
NELSON, Horatio, Viscount Nelson (his copy) - SCHOMBERG, Isaac. Naval Chronology; or, An Historical Summary of Naval & Maritime Events,London : 1802
Inscribed by Nelson ("Nelson & Bronte") on the front free endpaper of each volume. This authoritative source for naval history naturally includes Nelson's meteoric rise. Early in his career, while serving in the West Indies, Nelson had arrested Schomberg (1753-1813), then lieutenant of the Pegasus, after the latter requested a court martial over...Learn More
NELSON, Horatio, Viscount Nelson. Autograph weather log kept by Nelson on the Victory, 24 October 1803 to 31 August 1804.HMS Victory off Toulon : 1803-04
Meticulously kept during the blockade of the French fleet at Toulon, this is arguably the most substantial Nelson manuscript remaining in private hands. As Lambert notes, Nelson's weather logs were no mere curiosity: "The ability to read the weather and to anticipate changes was vital for a sea officer… this was the building block of his system"...Learn More
NELSON, Horatio, Viscount Nelson. Autograph letter signed to Admiral Skeffington Lutwidge and his wife, announcing his return to sea before Trafalgar.Merton : 1805
Nelson dashes off a farewell to his old commanding officer the day after news broke that the French fleet was on the move. The following day, 4 September, it was proposed that Nelson, as commander-in-chief, Mediterranean, should go out in the Victory. Within seven weeks the Franco-Spanish fleet was engaged at Trafalgar.
Before departing,...Learn More
LYNN, Thomas. Nautical and Astronomical Tables,London : 1825
Scarce first edition, a subscriber's copy in a smart presentation binding, inscribed on the first blank: "Sir Chas. Forbes Bart. MP, With the Author's respectful compliments". We have traced a single copy only at auction: at Sotheby's (1968), part of an "important collection of books on navigation and astronomy". This is a significant work with an...Learn More
VICTORIA, Queen. The Ceremonies to be Observed at the Royal Coronation of Her Most Sacred Majesty Queen Victoria in the Abbey Church of Westminster, on Thursday the twenty-eighth day of June, MDCCCXXXVIII.London : [1838]
First edition, printed on silk. A remarkable, unique piece of Victoriana: the copy read by Queen Victoria's mother during her coronation, presented to a guest by the Earl Marshall's gold staff officer, and with the invitees engraved invitation loosely inserted. Throughout history, printing on silk represents a rare and highly expensive novelty,...Learn More
YOUQUA. Portfolio of 10 original gouache paintings.[Canton : c.1840-70]
A nice example of the Chinese export album industry: this set of vivid still lifes retains its original binding and bears the ticket of the illustrious painter Youqua on the verso of the front free endpaper. Intended for a Western market, such portfolios were a popular ware for either merchants or travellers to buy in port cities.
The...Learn More
HERSCHEL, Sir John Frederick William. Results of Astronomical Observations Made During the Years 1834, 5, 6, 7, 8, at the Cape of Good Hope;London : 1847
First and only edition, one of 350 presentation copies, of the first great star atlas of the southern hemisphere, "a splendidly printed volume funded by the duke of Northumberland... Honours and praise were showered on the volume" (ODNB). This copy is lavishly bound by James Hayday and was gifted to King Leopold I of Belgium.
At the time of...Learn More
DARWIN, Charles. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection,London : 1859
First edition, presentation copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper in a secretarial hand, "Dr Weddell, Bagnères de Bigorre, from the author". This is a premier copy: Weddell is one of the earliest named recipients on Darwin's list of presentation copies. Darwin and Weddell, who had comparable experience as scientists aboard major expeditions...Learn More
COSWAY BINDING - BURNS, Robert. Poems & Songs.London : 1860
An original double Cosway binding, executed by Rivière after designs by John Harrison Stonehouse, with two large portrait miniatures by Caroline Billin Currie, depicting the poet on the front cover (after his iconic 1787 portrait by Alexander Nasmyth) and his nurse, Jessie Lewars, on the rear cover.
Stonehouse (1864-1937), the managing...Learn More
DARWIN, Charles. The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Species.London : 1877
First edition, presentation copy, inscribed on the title page, "With the compliments of the author". The inscription is in Darwin's own hand rather than one of Murray's clerks.
Different Forms of Flowers was published in a first edition of 1,250 copies on 9 July 1877. There was only a single issue, with the publisher's catalogue dated...Learn More
