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TEFAF Maastricht
As the first signs of spring emerge in the historic city of Maastricht, we’re delighted to return to this prestigious fair, looking forward to the renewal of moments with old friends and familiar faces, as well as the making of new acquaintances. Our display will showcase material from many eras and cultures, including Catesby’s Natural History of Carolina, four Picasso signed prints from linocuts, and a clutch of William Morris’s Kelmscott Press books presented by Morris to his friend and artistic collaborator, William Burne-Jones.
CONTARINI, Ambrogio. Viaggio ad Ussum Hassan re de Persia.Venice : 1487
First edition of one of the most important early published accounts of Persia, which also contains the first European account of Russia, one of a handful of secular incunable travelogues in a vernacular language and one of an even smaller number published so soon after the trip's completion.
Ambrogio Contarini (1429-1499) travelled between...Learn More
MANUSCRIPT DICTIONARY. Spanish-Italian manuscript dictionary.[Italy, possibly Naples, : c.1530-50]
A rare example of Renaissance popular lexicographical production, comprising two sequences of an alphabetical Spanish-Italian wordlist. Compiled by an early Italian owner for his own use, the book is in a charming tall and narrow wallet-style binding, no doubt intended for carrying in a pocket.
The vocabulary starts on leaf 6 and continues...Learn More
TRITHEMIUS, Johannes. Polygraphie, et universelle escriture cabalistique.Paris : 1561
First edition in French of the earliest printed Western work on ciphers, complete with all 13 volvelles. The translator Gabriel de Collange expanded the original text with an additional chapter demonstrating that Trithemius' tables may easily be converted into cipher wheels and explaining how to use them. A beautiful example of Renaissance book...Learn More
BRANT, Sebastian; BARCLAY, Alexander (trans.). Stultifera Navis. The Ship of Fooles.London : 1570
Second edition in English of Brant's satire mocking the vices of humanity, which also includes Locher's Latin version and reproductions of Brant's 1494 original woodcuts, many designed by Dürer. This edition brought the allegory of the "ship of fools" back into vogue in England.
The series of woodblocks was first used in Richard Pynson's...Learn More
ESQUEMELIN, Alexandre Olivier. De Americaensche Zee-Roovers.Amsterdam : 1678
Rare first edition of the original account of swashbuckling pirate exploits in the Caribbean. Known in English as the Buccaneers of America, the book has 12 engravings that bring the fearsome pirate captains to life, and unflinching descriptions of the violence and plunder that both horrified and fascinated readers.
Perhaps the most...Learn More
LOCKE, John. An Essay concerning Humane Understanding.London : 1690
First edition, first issue, with the Holt imprint. Locke worked for nearly two decades on his investigation of "the certainty and the adequacy of human knowledge" (PMM), and the resulting landmark work influenced many Enlightenment philosophers.
Locke argued that all our knowledge comes from experience and through our senses, rather than...Learn More
VICO, Giambattista. Principj di una scienza nuova intorno alla natura delle nazioni.Naples : 1725
Exceptionally rare first edition of Vico's New Science, an unusually fine copy, fresh and untrimmed in interim boards, and with manuscript corrections to the text made by Vico or on his instruction. A seminal historiographical work, the New Science was "the vehicle by which the concept of historical development at last entered the thought of...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
WALRAS, Auguste. De la nature de la richesse, et de l'origine de la valeur.Evreux : 1831
Very scarce first edition, the Evreux issue; it was also issued with a Paris imprint. This is the first and principal work of Auguste Walras (1801-1866) and proved a major influence on his son Léon's marginal utility theory. Included with this copy is the 12-page announcement of the work from the Revue normande.
The work is chiefly...Learn More
GOULD, John. The Birds of Europe.London : 1832-37
First edition of Gould's first multi-volume work and the first to feature contributions by Edward Lear, among the greatest of ornithological artists. Lear's work comprises the most eye-catching subjects in the book: the eagles, owls, cranes, pelicans, geese, swans, and flamingos.
Birds of Europe was originally issued in 22 parts. The exact...Learn More
ERZURUMİ, İbrahim Hakkı. Maʿrıfetname ("Book of Knowledge").Bulaq : 1251 H / 1835 CE
First edition of this Ottoman encyclopaedia of religious and natural sciences printed by the Bulaq Press. Rare in commerce, the edition is enhanced by superb engraved line drawings illustrating cosmographical and astronomical topics.
The author's remarkable cosmography attempts to retain orthodox Islamic beliefs while accommodating...Learn More
DARWIN, Charles; Robert FitzRoy; Phillip Parker King. Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle,London : 1839
First edition, a very well-preserved copy in the original cloth, of this outstanding account of natural history exploration. It includes the first issue of Darwin's first published book, the Journal and Remarks (now popularly known under its later title The Voyage of the Beagle), which describes the fieldwork that ultimately led to the publication...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
MARX, Karl. Congrès Ouvrier de l'Association Internationale des Travailleurs tenu à Genève du 3 au 8 septembre 1866.Geneva : 1866
First edition of this account of the 1866 Geneva Congress, the first congress of the First International. Copies are very rare, and only three are known in institutional collections: the Bibliothek der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (Karl-Marx-Haus) and Bundesarchiv Berlin-Lichterfelde in Germany, and the Bibliothèque de Genève in...Learn More
NIETZSCHE, Friedrich. Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen.Leipzig : 1873; 1874; 1874
First editions of the first three of Nietzsche's four individually published Untimely Meditations, bound together in a contemporary binding and unusual thus.
Nietzsche originally conceived a series of 13 essays on the condition of contemporary European culture and its leading figures, specifically German. The first published was an attack...Learn More
KELMSCOTT PRESS: VORAGINE, Jacobus de; William Caxton (trans.). The Golden Legend.Hammersmith : 1892
First Kelmscott edition, presentation copy, inscribed by Morris on the first blank one month before publication, "To Edward Burne-Jones from William Morris, Oct. 5th 1892". Burne-Jones's book label, printed in Morris's Golden type, is on the front pastedown. This is one of 500 sets printed on paper.
Burne-Jones designed books for the...Learn More
KELMSCOTT PRESS: LULL, Ramon. The Order of Chivalry.Hammersmith : 1893
First Kelmscott edition, presentation copy, inscribed by Morris on the second blank three days before publication, "To Edward Burne-Jones from William Morris, April 9th 1893". Burne-Jones's book label, printed in Morris's Golden type, is on the front pastedown. This is one of 225 copies printed on paper; there were also 10 on...Learn More
KELMSCOTT PRESS: CHAUCER, Geoffrey. The Works, now newly imprinted.Hammersmith : 1896
First Kelmscott edition, one of 425 copies on paper. A copy of William Morris's masterpiece in an attractive Renaissance-style binding by Rivière, unrecorded in the published census.
In their census, the Petersons locate three paper copies in Rivière bindings, none of them pigskin: "red crushed levant morocco" at New York Public Library,...Learn More
KELMSCOTT PRESS: COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor. Poems Chosen Out of the Works.Hammersmith : 1896
First Kelmscott edition, presentation copy, inscribed by Morris on the second blank seven days before publication, "To Edward Burne-Jones from William Morris, April 5th 1896". Burne-Jones's book label, printed in Morris's Golden type, is on the front pastedown. This is one of 300 copies printed on paper; there were also 8 on...Learn More
ROSTAND, Edmond. Cyrano de Bergerac.Paris : 1898
First edition, tirage de tête, number 48 of 50 deluxe copies printed on japon; a very rare survival in the original decorated wrappers, which are unique to the japon issue. It is the only such example we can trace in commerce.
Rostand's verse play has, since its debut performance on 27 December 1897 (at which the audience were still...Learn More
